shadowadrik

Carl

2011-08-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone should have a listen.

Sydney - Manila

2010-05-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Internet,

About a month ago, I moved from Sydney, Australia, to Manila, Philippines. Having already lived abroad in Nagoya, Japan and had an incredible time, I am excited about the prospects of this new, vastly different country and the adventures I will have here, however the question I have been asking myself is, 'should I blog about it?'.

When I was young, I blogged about my life in Sydney, my feelings and friends and the things I was doing. It was therapeutic in some ways, but telling you all my secrets made me feel very vulnerable in a lot of others. Reading back on them, they are painfully angsty. Like reading a teenage girl's diary. Honestly, Internet, I don't know how you put up with me.

So I deleted and grew up a little and moved to Japan. Where I blogged only the most most fantastic, super-fun, narcissistic posts I could possibly come up with (barring the occasional emo moment) which wasn't difficult considering I was in Japan, or 'hometown' as it came to be known to me.

After a move back to Sydney, an attempt and failure to keep the same spirit from Japan alive in my life and blog meant that it was left to fester for months on end, occasionally coming back to life as I wrote shitty reviews, listened in on other people's conversations and decided to once again, but in a slightly different manner, bare all my secrets to anyone who cared to pay attention.

And now I'm in Manila, pondering the worth of putting it all down. I write, I mean, I'm a writer, so of course I write, but for now, I have no intention of putting any thoughts bigger than a tweet or a gauntlet into you. I hope you understand, I still want to be friends, but I'm no longer comfortable with the level of intimacy we've had in the past.

Thanks for everything,

Adrik

Overheard Eighteen

2010-03-04T17:54:00.001-08:00

At Work

Manager - We'll take hers. Oh no, she's got a special chair. I don't know why she has a special chair. We'd better take another one.

At Town Hall Station

Mother [in front of ticket machine] - Can we buy the tickets off a person rather than a machine?

On Escalator

Office Worker 1 - I want that chocolate...

Office Worker 2 - Oh, the snap, crackle, pop?

Office Worker 3 - That was weird! [laughs] I thought my teeth were cracking.

秒速５センチメートルアチェインオブショートストリーズアバウトゼアディスタンス - 5 Centimeters Per Second

2010-03-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Byousoku 5 Centimetre sat in the back of my mind as something to watch for the better part of a year until finally watching it with my partner a few days ago. There are a couple of spoilers in this one.

The first thing I noticed about it was the realism. The incredible, intricate detail of Japanese life. It reminded me of an opinion I had held before spending time in Japan that the Japanese were influenced by anime, but in fact (clearly) it is the other way around. This anime is perfect, from the odd safety and politeness to the gleaming trains and platforms, to the towering cities and empty countryside. All of these aspects are so real that it actually hurts a little, and of course, the whole thing is an exercise in nostalgia, in painful remembrance, so it's fitting that the visuals would be breathtaking.

Like this one. To start the middle chapter, Cosmonaut. Set on an island, in a community style the likes of which I never experienced, this was an interesting foray into island life, surfing and a different kind of Japanese. The introduction of a mobile phone seemed perfect, and made it seem, in fact, as if the two lovers of the first chapter would be together forever.

Which of course made the actual ending utterly gut-poundingly sad. I have never in my whole life wanted two people to recognise each other more than I have in this one moment on the train tracks.

涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

2010-02-28T20:05:00.001-08:00

Just to refresh your memories, my plans with these 'reviews' is here. So, on to the behemoth of Haruhi!

Cosplay. I fucking love cosplay as I'm sure toon-fetishists the world over do, and in this sub-genre of Japanese culture, I particularly love the Haruhi cosplay. Not because of any particular love of Haruhi, though I do LOVE Haruhi, but because when I was there (I know, always harping on about the good ol' days) every second cosplayer was a Haruhi. So of course it has a special place in my heart. Add to this the school-girl fetishism and the oddly militant armband and Haruhi is a perfect cosplay wet dream.

The interesting thing about this is that it has very little (read: none bar the character's faces) relevance to the series. The series is set in high school, the characters are younger than they appear here and they're only involved in a band in one or two episodes and even then, it probably has more to do with Yuki's skills than anything else. But the point is that this well could be part of the series. This is a series in which, for the first eight episodes of the second season, viewers were forced to watch the same story eight times with only minor alterations (known as Endless Eight, this did nothing to harm the show's popularity as far as I can tell, a movie just opened in Japan after all). We've also been to space, back in time and in alternate dimensions, so this picture is a possibility, as is any picture, which is what makes this series so entertaining.

Hare Hare Yukai. Oh my God. This titles sequence was, for me, groundbreaking and means I will never, EVER abandon the fan-ranks of this show. EVER. I may have even practised this dance in the privacy of my own home in my own company. May definitely have. And it was awesome.

Dark X Men Slash

2010-01-25T03:22:00.003-08:00

Matt, this is all for your benefit. I was reading Dark X-Men and all I could think about, literally ALL I could think about was slash.

I mean, this one may be a stretch and I know that two naked/semi-naked ripped men don't necessarily a gay pair make, but look at them. The reddish one (Venom)'s pose, like he's just been used and discarded by the leather-bound chesty Nate Grey..

And as for this one. God of War? Prancing in bondage gear? I'd say daddy bear but this is screaming cub to me.

Overheard Seventeen

2010-01-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

On The Bus

British Woman - You're on my rucksack. You're on my rucksack!

At Coles

Mother - We don't need to go down this aisle.

Daughter - Yes we do!

Mother [resigned] - I'm not buying chocolate...

At Bondi Junction

Businessman [gives his tie to his girlfriend] - Can you put this in your bag?

ハチミツとクローバー - Honey & Clover

2010-01-04T19:47:00.001-08:00

I've been a little lax on the anime reviewing, but I am really enjoying myself, reliving some of the more poignant moments and sharing them with no-one/the Internet is actually quite satisfying.

Here goes the heartbreaking melancholy of Honey & Clover. This was recommended to me by Susu when we were both living in Japan (much like the amazing Twelve Kingdoms) but it took me a really long time to actually take her up on her advice. I am damn glad I did. Well, I'm torn actually. As you can see from the first image of wind-swept longing, this is a drama, it's one of the most effective and realistic dramas I have seen both in anime and in 'real' television/movies, revolving around a loose group of art school students and teachers over the course of about 4 or 5 years. The ups and downs and the odd static nature of their lives and emotions are so evocative that I found myself bawling multiple times over the course of the two series. Not least of which at the end, which,(without giving too much away) after much clover referencing, finally brings the honey portion of the title into clarity.

At the time I found the constant circular symbolism of ferris wheels and bicycles fascinating, and while in hindsight it could be seen as a little heavy-handed, it was still done with a great deal of poise. Most significantly were the awkward conversations centred around watching ferris wheels or being trapped with someone inside the capsule of one. Watching something endlessly turn while you stagnate in your own life is a little painful, and Honey & Clover encapsulated this.

A moment in the final arc of the second series after Takemoto and Hagu have been reunited. The unreciprocated love that Takemoto feels for Hagu is mirrored in that of Ayumi for Mayama and to a lesser extent in Hagu for Shinobu. This is after an almost unbelievable bicycle journey taken by Takemoto and just prior to the accident that befalls Hagu, and is a perfect axis for the series to turn on.

Overheard Sixteen

2009-12-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

At Taylor Square

Busker Band [sings] - Everybody oughtta know, everybody oughtta know, everybody oughtta know, everybody oughtta know, who Jesus is....

On The Bus

Teenage Girls [sing] - This is how we do it! It's Friday night...

Overheard Fifteen

2009-12-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

At Xmas Party

Man - Dude, no one thinks I'm in costume. Everyone just thinks I'm a douche.

On Darlinghurst Rd

Teenager 1 - Guys, I'm fucked aye. It's heaps deep, you can see inside...

Teenager 2 - Yeah, it's a pretty fucked up cut...

On Oxford St

Hare Krishna - That's why good things happen to bad people, it's karma from previous lives.

Overheard Fourteen

2009-12-06T00:44:00.000-08:00

Town Hall Station
50s Female Canvasser - What's wrong? We're not telemarketers. We're not telemarketers! It's free!

In Hospital Waiting Room
Wife [touches husband's arm while waiting to go into surgery] - Look at you, my big, strong, dependable man.
Husband [smiles]

On Darlinghurst Rd
Policeman - We're gonna place you under arrest orright?!

最終兵器彼女 - She; The Ultimate Weapon

2009-11-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

The most involving thing about this anime, which I think the creators knew when they made it, is the setting and characters. It was my first glimpse into regional Japan and one I didn't fully understand, but which still colours my opinion of anime. I don't really know much about Hokkaido apart from that it's cold and you eat seafood there, and this insular story, while expanding across the world with Chise's (the ultimate weapon of the title) continued battles, shows a region similar to the rest of Japan, but isolated, somewhat how I imagine Okinawa to be.

Similarly, it is in the tiny moments of pain that the supporting cast feel that the beauty of the story can really be seen. I recall one episode in which an army attacks the town Chise is from and as she defends against it in the sky, destruction rains down on the city, resulting in the death of one of her friends, Atsushi, and the devastation of her other friend who was in love with him. This humanity offset against Chise's doggedness to destroy the enemy illustrate the horror of her situation more than any rendering of her mechanical insides could ever do.

Chise's weaponry is possibly the most jarring aspect of the piece. It's hard to reconcile its destructive power and size with Chise's tiny frame and seeming consideration of herself as insignificant. In the live-action film, her weaponry is much more realized than in the anime, which grounds it a little more, however, in terms of the anime, it actually is more effective that it is this oddly ephemeral presence in their lives.

Heartbreaking. The subtitle to the series being 'the last love song on this little planet' sets it up for angst, but it delivers so much more than that, with a poignant, quietly horrific end that, upon reflection is utterly unavoidable.

Hair Britney

2009-11-24T00:09:00.001-08:00

Hair Britney, originally uploaded by shadowadrik.

ちょびっツ - Chobits

2009-11-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

So my dogma failed for the first time today, when every photo was basically the same photo for Chobits. I have decided to expand it to include any variations on the name of the anime, as long as the images are on the first page still.

Underpants. Underpants. Underpants. When I first watched Chobits, I had painstakingly downloaded each episode individually over Limewire and subsequently watched some episodes in Japanese and some in *shudder* English. One of those was a marvelous one in which Chi goes out to buy underpants and learns the word underpants, and ONLY the word underpants. I suspect this, coupled with the fact that her 'on' button was her vag-wah-wah, was my first glimpse into the somewhat seamier side of Japanese animation (something recently hammered home in Kiddy girl-and with an adult male character named 'Peddy' interested in a six year old girl). I can still hear Chi's dubbed voice singing out 'underpants, underpants' and 'take care of yourself' and other misguided translations of distinctly Japanese things.

First of all, I have no idea who Ivan is, or when his birthday is, but I loved this about Chobits. The ancient televisions and computer systems that they used were completely at odds with the sophisticated cyborgs that everyone seemed to have. I was disappointed with the 'dead-eye' animation, particularly when they log on or recharge, but in hindsight, it was somewhat comforting. I found the whole series quite homely and safe, even with the introduction of spies and evil 'dark' versions of Chi, it retained a very innocent core which I suppose was the point of the whole thing, it could be seen from an individual basis regarding Chi, or as an allegory for Japan or even (far-fetched) the world.

I finally purchased the damn thing on pirated DVDs from Chinatown or eBay, I can't recall which, when Limewire crashed completely. And this was the cover. All frills and hair (which was never as beautiful in the actual anime) and sitting on a telegraph pole. When I look out my window now, all I can see are the tops of trees and rooftops, but in Japan, there are telegraph poles and more wires than you can imagine, so retrospectively, as I watched this prior to moving to Japan, this reminds me very strongly of Japan.

十二国記 - Twelve Kingdoms

2009-11-18T02:08:00.000-08:00

I wanted to use this picture because I crushed heavily on En-Ou but I thought it might be inappropriate and all I can really say about that picture is that while I appreciate (very much) the sentiment, it really looks nothing like Shouryuu.

So here goes.

Suzu was the character I related to the most. Obviously, not the 100 years worth of servitude to an evil immortal woman (the immortal, Sen-nin factor bothered me a little, I mean, there were so many useless Sen-nin, perhaps that was one of the points it was trying to make), but in her struggle to mature into a person who doesn't live their life feeling sorry for herself, and stops putting herself in situations where she can be pitied and seen as the victim. Of course, Shoukei and Youko are pivotal (to a point) in proving this to her, but it is her own strength of will that inspires her to live her life instead of wallowing in the pain of the past.

Every Japanese schoolgirl's dream is to become a great warrior. At least, if anime is to be believed, and I think it is. Conveniently being transported to a different world where your body changes to mimic the popular styles of Japan at the time, Youko embodies a lot of what people hate about themselves. Initially, she's pathetic, running and giving up at every turn, but over (a long) time, she sees the worst of the world, she's forced to become, no, to embrace being a monster in a lot of ways, but comes out as a ruler among rulers, and someone worthy of having watched the series for. She resonates strength and gives hope to her people, and the people who see their worst in her, that there is a future for them similarly worth fighting for.

The biggest problem with Juuni Kokuki is that it remains unfinished. And that, due to being a relatively old series, seems set to stay that way. Taiki's arc is testament to that. While it does conclude, there is a great deal of scope, and indeed set-up for continuation. It merges the stories of Yuka and Taiki and past and present, yet doesn't pay off to a satisfying degree. So much rides on the back of the black Kirin, legends of good fortune, the Kingdom of Tai which is falling into ruins in his absence and the missing King, however all we are given is a vague idea that something happened to put things this way.

As a side note, his nyokai, Sanshi is a monster. She is terrifying and nurturing and one of the most alien aspects of the new world. She encapsulates the complete foreign-ness of it and accentuates the feeling of the Kaikyaku in a land in which they do not belong and cannot escape from. The Kaikyaku remind me of being a gaijin in Japan. You can't speak the language, people look down on you and sometimes treat you as less than a human being and generally, life is relatively harder than for a Japanese person. I imagine this is the same anywhere you move where the circumstances are similar, however I found it intriguing that this sort of story came from a monoculture such as Japan.

新世紀エヴァンゲリオン - Neon Genesis Evangelion

2009-11-15T07:16:00.000-08:00

I'm nervous writing this.

I want to write about Neon Genesis Evangelion. I want to talk educatedly about how it began and offer some sort of insight into its ongoing popularity all over the world. I want to break down each character and explain why I personally respond to each and every one of them. But I already know all that. And if you care, you can check out the wiki, cause all the boring stuff is already done.

Instead, I'm going to go to Google to type in the anime of choice, then I'm going to select three pictures, post them here and explain what they mean to me and the anime*.

The cast, in cosplay. Rei in centre stage, as the constantly cloned, constantly replaced figurehead of the Evangelion project, she is profoundly damaged and for some reason the poster-girl for the series. Is being a clone really as bad as complete abandonment by your family, suicidal tendencies, depression, conscription, becoming a public figure of hate as a teenager? Are the trials gone through by Asuka and Shinji lesser than Rei's because she's not treated as a human being? Or am I more sympathetic because I can't relate to being a clone, but I can relate to Shinji riding the train in a loop, incapable of moving from where he's fallen? Or Asuka starving and abandoned, without reason to go on? Or the fact that they both fight so hard for what they want, for what they feel is noble, and both get shot down again and again and keep getting back up? Or is it that ultimately, some of us are destined to fail, no matter how hard we try, but Rei gets to try again and again and again?

Robot/Angel battles. Epic.

Asuka. Fan art is so naked. Asuka unravelling into curls and butterflies? Yes, she falls apart. Yes, it's touching, it's painful, it's you fucking better hope you never go through anything like it, but it is not curls and butterflies. And she is worth more than this casual rendering of her pain.

*Dogma

Overheard Thirteen

2009-11-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

At St Andrews Cathedral Square

40ish Businessman On Phone* - I was like, fine, sell it, give her half and she can fuckin' put it in trust. See what the fuckin' little bitch has to fuckin' say about that.

40ish Businessman On Phone* - I'm fuckin' strong man, like 80 kay gees, or 120 kay gees. Man, that guy can deadlift 190 kay gees, bends the bar. He's built like me but I reckon he's on the juice.

40ish Businessman On Phone* - She's 20 man, she's madly in love with me, I mean, she wants to have kids you know. She's been like 'cum in me, cum in me' all the time.

*same man, same conversation

Watermelon Jack-O-Lantern

2009-10-31T15:50:00.001-07:00

Watermelon Jack-O-Lantern, originally uploaded by shadowadrik.

New Directions

2009-10-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

I ‘publish’ work in various places on this Internet. I have my secrets, which arguably are no longer secrets. I have a shared blog with the lovely Kyrani in which we voice our frustration at the world. I have also split this blog into a number of sub-blogs if you will, about my life and how ‘fantastic’ it is, about eavesdropping on my fellow human beings, and about travel.

It’s confusing and messy, but with a vague order that I, at least, understand. And I’ve decided to add another facet to it. You see, I watch anime. A lot of anime. And no-one else I know watches the same amount as me, nor is as passionate (read:otaku) about it as me. Therefore I will be reviewing it retrospectively at first, and then as I watch, in order that my views will be somewhere (though arguably the Internet is ‘nowhere’) and anyone who feels the same burning desperation to discuss them can do so with me.

And yes, that's a Glee reference.

Overheard Twelve

2009-09-29T02:29:00.000-07:00

On Elizabeth St
Drunk Man 1 - I wanna urinate! I wanna urinate!
Drunk Man 2 - Urinate on me dickhead!
Both [laugh]

On The Bus
American Girl 1 - I didn't gain any weight in freshman year.
American Girl 2 - I haven't gained any weight either.
American Girl 1 - I think it's all the grad parties.

Outside The Beauchamp
Girl - That's hectic. [pause] That's heaps hectic.

Sydney - Gauntlets Wagaya Ikea Singstar & Midnight

2009-09-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

So apparently Ikea is for couples, young families and 'the gays'. So a few of us gays went on down to Rhodes and the only Ikea in Sydney to buy some difficult to assemble, cheaply disguised pine-board furniture and bright, tacky accessories. Along the way, we saw the below bumper sticker and felt thus; upon reading the first line, thought, 'awww, an education sticker, how nice', upon reading the second, thought, 'wtf? racist shitheads' and proceeded to drive around them to see the fat, white, old couple of bogans sitting proudly in their car of racist poop. I've left the number-plate for identification purposes.

Did get a gorgeous new outdoor setting though.

One night recently (they all blend together thanks to the demon alcohol), my friend moved in up the road from me, and we celebrated by getting wasted, eating at Wagaya and dancing at the shift. While here, there was an unfortunate misunderstanding over the hickie-mauling shoulder of a man and I abandoned a friend to the clutches of a very... passionate stranger. I, however, remained unscathed.

My dear friend and co-blogger on gauntlets, Kyrani is leaving our fair country girt by sea for another country girt by sea, but much smaller and colder (and I'm told, dirtier), England. This is very sad as she will now miss out on everyday things here like Wagaya, Singstar and Boogie, however, stagnation is never fun, so I'm very happy/sad for her move away...

On her final Singstar, we brought out the 'Vampire's Kiss', a drink Rob and I concocted in possibly our finest hour, and drank ourselves stupid, while singing ourselves equally stupid. Singstar will not be the same without you Ky.

Kyrani and I like to take pictures of gauntlets around with us and take photos holding them. I was asked by my boyfriend why exactly we did this, as it doesn't appear to make any logical sense. Well, we have a blog, well, it's more of a revolution, wherein we throw said gauntlets at the things that we despise the most. It's all outlined in the first post but basically we (pretend to) send letters to said despised things and post them on gauntlets. And in the meantime, look like crazies with our gauntlets/fisting cards.

Yet another (afore mentioned) thing that Kyrani will miss out on is Wagaya. We love Wagaya for many reasons, not least of which being the renkon chips. Closely followed by newly discovered, hot, tattooed chef who bats for Kyrani's team. Miss you already Ky.

Sydney - Overheard Eleven

2009-08-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

On The Bus
British Wife - She'd done the most beautiful drawing of a wisteria. A wisteria.
British Husband - Hm.
British Wife - I love wisteria.

Outside St Vincents Hospital
Ocker Man - They get you when you got three months to go. Mate, I got charged for AVO, for breakin' a AVO! This- [grabs sitting female friend by shoulder and shakes her] -is assault!? I'm gonna get locked up soon...

Three Quarters Into 'Drag Me To Hell' At The Cinema
Young Man - It's the wrong envelope!

Sydney - ZebrA Productions Canberra & The Apocalypse

2009-08-17T01:28:00.000-07:00

So I've been making a short film with a friend of mine that has resulted in, among other things, my being awake for days on end in a housing complex in Redfern aka 'Suicide Towers', attempting to deal with a screaming baby for much of that time and wishing to fuck that the sun would just not set! I also met a lot of incredibly talented, driven, inspiring people who helped out with the (some say insane) project. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's going to get done and when it's finished, there'll be a fabulous screening and no doubt, extreme international coverage. So watch out for it from ZebrA Productions. This whole experience deserves some dedicated blog-time, but for now, just bask in the glow of our glee.

I visited Canberra to see one of the sisters and, I suppose you would call it her 'brood'. Three kids, four dogs, a fiance. Basically a lot of small creatures. Interesting. It's nice to see family regardless of three hour drives to and from our nation's capital.

Finally, the Apocalypse hit a local park in St Peters on Sunday and Lisa, Tori and I were there to witness it, travel back in time to the 90s and narrate the sad story of Australia's destruction in 1945.

We also spent some time working on a play idea that you'll be seeing in the very near future my friends! Keep your ears... um... peeled?

Sydney - Old Friends New Goals & Politics

2009-08-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

Katie and I were reunited after almost 2 years without seeing each other. I made me so incredibly nostalgic for the time in which we first met. I can’t speak for her, but I know that life was so much easier then, living it up in Japan… Anyway, it’s great to have her (and the unstoppable Gloomy) back in my circle!

After an extremely fun night of Bonnie Tyler literal karaoke, microbe plush posing and stumbling around in a club at all hours of the morning, I have decided that I have a problem with binge drinking. Yes, it’s fun, yes, I have fun at the time, but I have zero ability to limit myself and I just can’t stop once I start. I loathe my hangovers and would like to get it under control.

Same Sex Marriage Rally 2009 Sydney! Not many people came which was a little sad. I found the speeches moving and the plight of ‘my people’ while being nothing compared to many other discriminated against groups, is still unjust. It is still illogical discrimination and it needs to stop.

The very idea that ‘next we’ll be marrying animals’ is not even worth arguing against. The concept that ‘gays are incapable of committing’ is even more ludicrous. Basically, the arguments against us are insane and anyone who believes in them even remotely is similarly insane.

And as a side note, yes, when you use the word ‘gay’ in place of ‘lame’, ‘bad’, ‘stupid’ and so on to describe something you dislike, it IS offensive and inappropriate and discriminatory and you should stop.

Sydney - Overheard Ten

2009-07-24T00:33:00.000-07:00

In Woolworths

Swaying Man - This is fucken ridiculous!

Checkout Assistant - What?

Swaying Man - One fucking counter for all us smokers!

Checkout Assistant - It's not our law...

At the airport

Ground Staff Manager [smiling] - You just got your appendix out yesterday? You shouldn't be flying.

Man Holding Side in Pain [mumbles]

Ground Staff Manager [smiling] - OK. We'll need you to sign a waiver in case you... Aren't good when you get there.

At the airport

Adolescent Boy [loud] - I'm sitting-

Mother - SHHH!

Adolescent Boy [louder] - I can't even talk? What's your problem? You suck!

In Hyde Park

Man - My mum had a dingo!

Philippines 2 - Last Half

2009-07-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

It was explained to me that in the Philippines, police in different cities have different colored shirts. For example, Manila is blue and white and wherever we were at this time was green. And in Quezon City (where I have not been) they wear pink. I must visit this city. Must. I imagine it will be something like this...

We went off to Ocean Park. It was very hot here and not well air conditioned, but inside it was pretty cool. Kind of like Osaka Aquarium on a smaller scale. I thought that the ‘Filipino Crocodiles’ were very cute and tried to Dundee my way toward touching them, later realising that though they are ‘cute’ they are probably also still quite deadly.

I love karaoke. I cannot sing for crap. I think going with a singer is wonderful because they sound amazing and they have the ability to make you sound amazing too (if you’re tone deaf like me). We initially had a giant ‘rock n roll’ decorated room (which I quite liked) and then were downgraded to a smaller ‘flower’ decorated room, which I think I liked a little bit more. As for whose wings were better...

We sang a lot and drank guyabano juice (the fruit of which is green and testicular).

This is how I see you Carlos, you're amazing and I love you.

Philippines 2 - First Half

2009-07-19T23:50:00.000-07:00

I'd tell you all the innermost thoughts that I had, all the wonderful moments I shared while I was in the Philippines this time, but then they wouldn't be mine any more. They would be just another post on just another blog. So I will talk about the Phils, but the things I care most about, the memories that I will hold with me forever, I'll keep them to myself. :)

In the Philippines, I awake to the sounds of roosters and construction. Contrary to popular belief, roosters do not only crow at sunrise. They crow from about 4am-11am.

I'm sure I've ranted before about the incredible-ness of the jeepney. The cool chrome exteriors, the hardcore drivers, the sweatiness and speed at which they get you from one place to another. I love them more than anything and spend a lot of time trying to convince Carl to start driving one, but so far, I've been unsuccessful.

While here, I like to eat a lot, so one day, after a buffet breakfast at the hotel by a giant tacky gold statue of ‘Caesar’ with what looked like a lobster on his crotch, Carl and I had lunch at Gerry’s Grill. We ate these leafy things which were quite good, with batter slightly thicker than tempura.

We also had glass noodles with beef and chicken. Then some banana rolls with ice cream.
After this, I started feeling a little like I had eaten knives and thus declined the opportunity to try balot. Which means I will simply have to return and try it next time.

At some point I wrapped Carl in toilet paper and made him wander around for a while, but his sheer strength meant that the toilet paper couldn't hold him for long.

At SM Mall of Asian, spent some time alternating between shopping and perving on the hot, hot men in the billboards at Folded & Hung. A lot of time actually, in other places too, as his fine self was on billboards all over Manila.

Sydney - Gauntlets Singstar & Independence Day

2009-07-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

Gauntlets is here!! The amazing Kyrani and I will hereby unleash ourselves upon the world. Look out crap things! We're going to JUDGE YOU!!

In other news, singstar was once again held at the usual digs, sadly missing a few familiar faces, but the America-Day.. um.. Independence Day festivities had to be had! So, armed with marshmallows, a vague idea about smores with no clue as to what they actually were, microwave cheeseburgers, beer and Oreos, we descended upon the house to dress as the traditional American Mexican wrestler and Princess Cowboy and sing long into the night. Tiny 'wiener-dogs' made a welcome appearance after paella and ribs!! No wonder those people are so hideously fat..

Sydney - Overheard Nine

2009-07-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

On The Bus
Girl Dressed In Hot Pink & Black With Matching Hot Pink Hair – I liked it when she didn’t give a shit. What people thought of her and shit. Like snortin’ and shit. Yeah. And now yeah…
Emo Male Friend – Yeah.
Later
Same Girl Dressed In Hot Pink & Black With Matching Hot Pink Hair – Yeah, they’ve got the same producer as Tool. I hardly listen to it, but like, when I do I like, open my third eye and shit.

Walking on Oxford St
Girl At Restaurant – You put it on Facebook and tag it I’ll kill you!

At Hoyts Broadway
Wigga One – Oi oi, we ‘ave ta go see dis boys! [points at poster of Bruno]
Other Wiggas – Yeah

Japan Reminiscences - OVA

2009-07-01T02:28:00.000-07:00

My year in Japan ended on 20/6/08. A long time ago. It started on 26/5/07, which means it was not exactly one year, but who's counting? At any rate, I wanted to commemorate the one year passing since my return to 'fair' Australia by talking about how much I missed everything and everyone from my time there, and then I thought, 'that is going to depress me more than words could even say', so I decided instead to choose random photos and stream of consciousness my way through four blog posts.

In the process of doing this, I realised that it hurt just as much as talking about missing everything. The story of me+Japan is a massive cliche of 'finding myself', overcoming obstacles, discovering the world, finding true love, experiencing perfect heartbreak and so on. But I now know (and I did know then too) that the good times had to stop rolling for me to actually consolidate all my cliched experiences into myself and grow and mature and become a person I could be proud to be. Japan is not the only factor to my growth as a person, and the growth itself is not at all complete. I still make massive mistakes, suffer from mood-swings, make questionable choices, piss people off, procrastinate, spend too much money, validate myself with facebook and cry myself to sleep sometimes, but my year of total separation, independence and freedom from myself has given me the ability to see these things and haltingly attempt to either accept them and love them as a part of me or actively change them so I can live longer with myself.

All the places I went, all the things I did, the food I ate, the people I met and loved, these memories are more more important to me than almost anything else, and I will treasure them, in every sense of the word, with no ironic use and no shame at the cliche (cause I'm all about cliches) because it's true.

When I look back on the year in Japan, I can see a lot of bad times, questionable times, terrible times, enough to almost overshadow the good it feels sometimes, but in the year since, it has been the same, and if I cast my geriatric mind back to before Japan, things were the same then. I am constant, the world changes around me and all I can do, all I have been given the power to do, is ride it out as best I can and in the process, make sure I don't lose the things I care about the most.

I know I should thank everyone for being a part of my life, whether they brought me love and happiness or pain and torment, but I can only thank the people who I love and who have loved me, I'm not a big enough person to be thankful to have grown from terrible experiences, I would do anything to not have had anything bad ever happen to me and I will never be thankful for them. But that's what I have now, the strength to realise this, to live with this, and to move forward without the weight of the world dragging me down.

So thank you everyone, for teaching me how to live in this world, for being my rock when I needed it most, for being honest with me and showing me integrity and trust, for worrying for me when I couldn't worry for myself, for letting me talk to you even though it was so hard, for sharing amazing, incredible times all over the world, for drinking and smoking and joking and laughing with me until we pass out or dawn comes, for dancing the nights away, for everything you have ever done, whether or not it involved me, it made you into the people that I care about and I am so, so thankful to have you in my life now, then and in the future.

/text block

Japan Reminiscences - Four of Four - The People

2009-06-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Yumi-kun, pumpkin, Ghibli, Tokyo, inappropriate shoes, Kyoto style parfait, endless questions about personal things, being rude, refusing to help one another (mostly Yumi refusing to help me), talking about boys, taking photos, Hiroshima, being taught a lot about life.

Alyssa, crazy Canadian, Kyoto runs, lost in Tokyo, constantly drinking chu-hi (and loving it), horror stories in the Kyoto forests, bodies in bags, toffee strawberry overload, purikura, shopping, drinking, karaoke goodness.

Lou & Jen, my distant training buddies, Monkey Park, Tokyo, Nagoya fun, first earthquakes with Jen, complaining about air con with Lou, first lessons with each other, exploring the new country together.

Michelle, another fellow Aussie, not knowing who the Prime Minister was, eating tacos and laughing at boobs, Tottori, karaoke, almost being neighbours, giving Aussies a bad name at Aeon.

Takka, Yuko-chan, Miyuki, my fellow teachers, getting me discount tickets, naming me 'love-chicken-forever' and 'love-dirt-ground', fighting in meetings, hiding in our classrooms, drinking, izakayas, bounenkais, farewells and good times.

Katie-chan, nanna hair, best friend, stairwell, 'down the street', making fun of everyone else, holding each other when we cried, sharing internet, feast, karaoke, street beer, Osu, smoking, drinking, barely sleeping.

Hisae-chan, my second fellow Aussie at Meieki, staying at your place near the station after I got denied exit from the country, izakaya hopping all the time after work, gossiping about students, going to Tokyo Disney, being overwhelmingly happy when you got along well with Carl, laughing at work, eating, eating, eating.

Susannah, butt of my finest photo-editing joke, Sango, Seto, traveling a lot, crazy decisions made for penises, mushrooms, roomies briefly, karaoke all night, gaijin bars, boobs, anime discussions and Kyoto sakura strawberry maccha.

Genmasa, Hiroshima, talking about life, the universe and everything, eating okonomiyaki, feeling so cared for and well looked after, Miyajima, train trips, smoking, sitting, relaxing, drinking.

Ari & Kiyo, the power couple, kind, sweet, caring, mature, never awkward, welcoming, fond goodbyes after not enough time spent together, Ari & I being Fort St alumni, amazing fashion, admirable for so many reasons.

Eric, training buddy, similar mindset, having a beer, dragging him to places he clearly wasn't impressed by, seeing the difference study can make, comparing each others' love lives, gaijin bars, heaps of shared friends, discussing student/teacher ethics.

Mark, karaoke, Joy Joy, my first takoyaki in Japan, always hanging in Osu, gambling, sleeping in net cafes, bike riding, snacking on QQ food, being my guide, getting my ketai with me, Sakae.

'Hinano', inviting me to the maid cafe you worked at, not recognising us when we sat down and I used your real name, squealing and forcing every maid and otaku in the place to squeal and/or stare jealously at us, making beautiful art on our ome-raisu.

Takeshi, never spoke English to me, chef at Nanpu, could never establish if he understood that I was not joking about being gay, laughing constantly (usually at me, unbeknownst to me), free food, good food, fresh sashimi, goya, goya, goya, sake, bad awamori, Okinawa.

Matt, introduction to purikura, Nara, deer, wondering why our friendship circles (his being Jenny, mine being Katie) hadn't crossed more often, constant chats, anime freaks, Osu, Mandrake, trying to understand the Sailor Moon obsession...

Katie-chan, seriously the greatest person ever, soulmate, dildo-mate, club-mate, Harajuku, Akiba, Tokyo, singing and breaking down in tears, never coming to my place, Seiyu late at night, video store, downloading, eating, drinking, going to karaoke.

Homodachi, Seth, Joa, Jason, Brian, gay boy band, internet notoriety, civilized brunches, Yokohama, ni-chome, Advocates, karaoke, drunken times, Shinjuku, maid cafes, Dragon, sad goodbyes.

Carl, incredible, amazing, magical, dream come true.

Galih-kun, so many matsuris, so many late night chats, so much food, learning about life, the universe and everything, dragging him to Osu over and over again, him dragging me to Zara over and over again, settling on UniQlo, glasses, drinking, mutual friends.

Carlos, cool, smart, funny, easy to fall for, girls love him, sings at a whim, forcing him to sing for students, friends, everyone, going up against him in karaoke and failing miserably, drinking, eating, purikura, Tsurumai, Disney, Universal, sleeping, snoring, dancing, singing, eating, walking, laughing, swimming, wading, sunbaking.

Japan Reminiscences - Three of Four - The Stuff

2009-06-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Hi no Matsuri, one of many, freezing, drunk men jumping in water, fire by the beach, fire by the temple, matsuri food, interviewed by Japanese children's TV show, eating okonomiyaki, going to roadside cafe, snowball fight, laughing.

Natsu matsuri, summer, chicken in a cup, yukata, teenagers everywhere, festivals in the palace, down the street, in every park, parades, humidity, fans, air conditioning, sweat, gay-pride, trad.

Gloomy Bear, running around Nagoya and Kyoto taking pics with a toy Gloomy, time of my life, Sonny & Cher, Gokiso, subway, being ignored by everyone when we sat him down next to an old man on the train, eating in Tsurumai, on the shinkansen.

Dress-up, cake dresses, Osu Kannon, endless fun, laughing until it hurt, Yumi-kun, being stared at in a yukata shop, buying toys down the street, eating chicken, drinking bubble tea in the park, buying clothes.

Cos-play, finding a convention late in the year, being the only foreigners there, amazing costumes, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Haruhi Suzumiya, Death Note, L L L L L, eating on the floor, asking to take photos, pretending to be involved, wishing there was more.

Karaoke, everywhere, Sakae, Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ni-chome, Gokiso, Nagoya, Osaka, Tsurumai, on the train, in the street, in remote places, singing everything, I Got U Babe, all night long, Bon Jovi, loving every single second.

Japan Reminiscences - Two of Four - The Food

2009-06-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

Ome Rice, inside a maid cafe, singing while decorating in AnPanMan, Doraemon and hearts, egg filled with tomato rice, tiny salad, ice-cream scoop of potato salad, failing to make it at home, but trying endlessly.

Yaki-soba roll, buying them from convenience stores, eating them in Tokyo for breakfast, lunch and dinner when alone, hating the idea, but loving them in practice, wishing I could eat them still, but refusing to make them without super-sweet bread.

Toffee strawberry, better than anything ever, so sweet, so small, so worth going back and buying 12 for the shinkansen home, feeling sick, red lips, red tongue, sugary buzz.

Real takoyaki, rolling it with two pins, filling it with octopus, mix, other things, burning my mouth constantly, having them with egg, with different sauces, with mayonnaise, eating them in a shop above Osu shopping village, going on dates to eat them, eating them at matsuris and izakayas and in Osaka.

Sashimi, kill that fish for us, OK, eating it while its body flapped on the stick, it being warm, imagining it was still pumping blood through the muscle, eating the deep fried remains afterwards, trying all kinds of sashimi, horse, beef, chicken, all fish, never regretting anything.

Okonomiyaki on a stick, on chopsticks, only at matsuris, eating them even when sick from eating, tasting kind of plastic, so much mayonnaise, eating it in Mikawa Toba, licking it off the wooden chopsticks, not sharing it.

Instant noodles, Pokemon brand, seafood extender pokemon inside, free chopsticks with some meals, eating it with cooking chopsticks, putting an egg in it, comfort food, happy food, love.

Goodbye banana, from Takeshi at Nanpu, Okinawa style grilled banana, chocolate, good friends, hilarious times, too much alcohol, going there almost every week, umi-budou, okonomiyaki, goya, goya, goya!

Nagoya food, tebasaki, miso katsu, miso ramen, ebi fry, so much miso on everything, in everything, fatty food, not like what I had thought of Japan. Tebasaki from Yataiya down the road from my place, okonomiyaki with noodles from the same place. Lots of beer.

Japan Reminiscences - One of Four - The Country

2009-06-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

My home, fourth floor, no elevator, scary metal (and apparently normal) door, little alcove for shoes, tiny kitchen, airplane bathroom, tatami room, sleeping on the floor,
making all food in a toaster oven, separating trash into six different bags/piles, having air conditioning running all the time, my hideous light fixture with a plastic-wood bonsai tree on it.

Winter, snow, utterly freezing and girls wearing boots and short-shorts. Watching melting snow fall off the lights outside my classroom, walking around in it before class, looking at the snowmen that survived for days after, seeing the cabbages bloom, going to a billion bonfire-lit matsuris.

Spring, seeming like every tree was in actual fact a sakura tree, streets lined with fluffy pink flowers, segmented petal rain falling constantly, mochi, pink, so much pink everywhere, hayfever from the 'yellow sands of China', all foods coming out with a sakura-flavored line, including kit-kat and nothing actually tasting like flowers.

Tokyo Pokemon Center, tears on arrival, greeted by enthusiastic staff, 'happy birthday' for a tiny kid who hid in his mother's skirt, looking at Pikachu branded seaweed and trying not to cry some more, buying a metallic badge to commemorate the occasion, secretly feeling like I was on a journey with Ash.

Tsurumai Joy Joy, place of my first kiss in Japan, karaoke all night long, bowling, game center, discovering pink stitch, drinking nomi-hodai cocktails, purikura, catching cabs from out the front, walking in Tsurumai park in every season, winning Gloomy Bears, eating vending food.

Sakae, ferris wheel on a building, meeting place for everyone, Hosts milling around endlessly above and below ground, hot, sticky subway station, waiting in the park, eating, drinking, gaijin bars, first meeting the one I love.

Sakae TV Tower, the only thing to look at in Nagoya (and the castle), drinking underneath it, looking at it from my balcony, being told endlessly how wonderful is is and not believing but being entranced by it's yellow brilliance.

QQ, my local store, everything being 99yen, all grocery shopping being done here, buying umbrellas every time it rained, buying gyoza by the dozen, frozen pizza and candy, super-sweet bread and melon pan every other day.

Nagoya Pokemon Center, my local Mecca, too crowded to enter a lot of the time, pokemon hanging from the ceiling, staff registers being inside giant poke-balls, crappy anime shops on either side, capsule machines, sneaking away from work to go there.

McDonalds, amazing service, good food, crazy deals, lots of egg, spinning signs that say 'hamburger mcdonald', walking through the drive-thru, hiding in the Harajuku branch, smoking inside.

Akihabara (Akiba), capsule machines, maid cafes, anime, hobby stores, otaku, electronics, clean, bubble-gum fun covering seamy porny anime, multi-level stores of toys, DVDs, back lane maid vending machines, maccha, magic, heaven, home.

Sydney - Back 2 tha 90s

2009-06-21T21:42:00.001-07:00

The 90s is comin' back baby! Which means mega-raves, livin' large, kickin it to the maxxxxxxx and it AAAAAAAll bein' good! If you gots the flava flava to match my mad skillz then you had better show me the money brother! If you don't wanna roll with this homie, then whatEVER, just go take a chill pill.

Anyway, Ky and I were driving around sans camera. We had at first planned to go back to mine and retrieve it, thus being able to document the night’s feasting, however we decided instead to go back to the 90s and purchase a disposable camera!

So we took ourselves off to a tiny convenience store and pulled the camera down from the dusty top rack next to the pregnancy tests, excited and a little bit ‘high on life’ for the coming fun.

And fun it was.

First, we had an amazing meal at Wagaya, so much sashimi and takoyaki. Renkon.. mmmm and snapped away like it was going out of fashion!

We took ourselves to the ferris wheel in Darling Harbour, both agreeing that it was a pathetic representation of one and comparing the experience to Osaka’s Hep 5 Building, Yokohama’s Wheel and the London Eye.

On the way back, some guys and their hoochies were posing around hotted up cars. We wanted to take closer photos but on fear for our lives, decided instead to move on. These photos sadly, didn't make it past the negative stage.

Sydney - Gauntlets

2009-06-21T18:58:00.001-07:00

After driving for what seemed like hours through the wastelands to the west of Sydney, we arrived at Casula Powerhouse for a production being put on to raise awareness for Liverpool refugee week. After watching a few videos, and hearing many more monologues from people recounting their very real, very raw journeys just to get to Australia, my idea of it having been a trial to get to the western suburbs of Sydney suddenly seemed overwhelmingly petty. I was utterly taken with the stories put forward by the people involved, both the lighter and the more harrowing. I would recommend attending something like this to everyone that I know.

Kyrani and I, in anticipation of an exciting new project, took 2 The Streetz to take some photos of ourselves and our lovingly created gauntlets. As you can see, we are both classy AND funny.

About a day later, we found ourselves in Waverley Cemetery, stranded and alone, scared, but with gauntlet. We were eventually rained out, which I considered pretty unreasonable of God. Nevertheless, we took shelter and ate us a feast of picnic overlooking the water, which was lovely.

Gauntlets is coming!

Sydney - Overheard Eight

2009-06-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

At Taylor Square Crossing
Girl - He was not waiting for the lights, he was checking out the Asian bitches.

Waiting at Darlinghurst Medical Centre
Receptionist [shouting to manager in 'back room'] - I'm sorry, but I'm going! I'm not leaving here at 10 at night and finding my way home with all those junkies out there!

At Elizabeth St Bus Stop
Girl [on mobile] - She's a dickhead! Yeah.

Sydney - Gypsy Singstar Deep Fried Mars & Battle of the Four Cheeses

2009-06-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Let's start this bitch with some amazing deep fried goodness c/o our fat chav brit friends. Bondi Beach holds one of the only Mars affiliated vendors of deep fried fatty goodness. So we trundled down there on Sunday morning to gorge ourselves on the most hideous yet delicious food in existence.

Gypsy Singstar is a reaction to draconian legislation placed upon our usual place of karaoke residence. With very little effort we were able to convince them to bring the PS3 to another venue for frivolity and awful singing. While I feel it became a little too serious at times, towards the end I was able to belt some out, somewhat hiding my complete lack of talent again.

Finally, the Battle of the Four Cheeses, aka 'Battaglia di Quattro Formaggio' which occurred simultaneously to a Boogie Superstar tournament, was a raging success. Who knew that four little cheeses could be SO amazing? The soft ricotta, the crisp parmesan, the gooey mozzarella and the tart blue all complemented each other beautifully. And since we also made the dough and sauce, we were pretty chuffed with our work!

Sydney - Adrik Enters Jetstar Photo Comp

2009-05-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a friend, I decided to enter some pictures in this here Jetstar Comp!

Vote for Shinjuku and Tokyo Disney AND Ginza!!! Vote for all of them! GWORN!!!

Sydney - Pizza Bejewelled™ & Singstar

2009-05-17T18:13:00.001-07:00

Boogie just wouldn’t be the same without incredible food. So we decided to make a pizza from scratch. Dough and all. Now, I had done this (about 15 years) before with great success, so I assumed it would be fine, and it was. I tried to figure out the costs, and I think it was relatively cheaper and more enjoyable than ordering in. Also, we got to cover that puppy in anchovies. And the addition of the ‘sophisticated’ Agrum was noice too.

Bejewelled™ will be the next big thing. Watch out for it. From humble alternative roots, great Pop will come!

Epic Singstar. Mistakes made include;

♫ Only eating 3 Jatz and a handful of nachos
♫ Deciding to ‘get the party started’ at the club when no-one was dancing by ‘dancing up a storm’ alone
♫ Exposing nipples in various photos and encouraging others to do the same
♫ Continuing to drink even though blind
♫ Walking home
♫ Not vomiting the night before
♫ Sleeping on my laptop

Fabulous night however, am excited for Gypsy Singstar.

Sydney - Free Comic Book Day Ocarina Style & Birthdays

2009-05-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

Free Comic Book Day started with fish in the fish markets. Well, to be precise it started with me at a dead end street in Ultimo wondering why there was no way down what can only be described as a 'bluff' to the fish markets and then wandering around in a big circle to get there.

Then on to only the nerdiest of stores, Kings Comics (where 'pirate' seemed to be a theme), Kinokuniya (home of some successful and mostly appallingly unsuccessful cosplay - leave it to the Japanese, please.), Comic Kingdom (which smelled of urine, not that we weren't warned..) to collect free comics.

THEN on to the Courthouse in Newtown for the lovely Beth's birthday! Of course, Rob and I were about 2 hours early, so we got to drinking and devised a plan to have a fake bitch fight on Facebook (a social networking site, thanks Lise) some of which is below.

Following this was a lot more drinking, dancing and generally disgracing ourselves between Newtown and home.

Fish Markets Sydney. A recurring theme this month it seems. Huge platters of food? Check. Ocarina? Check. Perfect moment complete? Check.

And finally, the little sister's birthday! Cheese pizza!! Happy birthday sis!

Sydney - Heroes 20 Cold Snap

2009-05-04T01:33:00.000-07:00

I know, Heroes blogging is not my domain, I prefer to leave it up to those better suited, even if they do give up on it.. (^_-)-☆

However, I had to say something about Ali Larter. She was Nikki/Jessica. Possibly the greatest character in the whole damn series, certainly the one who most illustrated the ill-conceived and poorly executed 'villians' arc, pity she was dead for it. She was also Tracey Strauss, a manipulative politician. Tracey could freeze things (like Sub-Zero and Frost of Mortal Kombat) and in her final moment, provided a reason to keep watching the series.

I think I'll let the images speak for themselves.

I'd also like to point out the lack of transgendered-teenage-angst aka Clare Bennett in this episode, always a good thing. I'd also like to say that if that tear and blinking ice eye at the end means she's not really dead, I'm gonna shoot myself as good as Dualla.

Update.

FFS heroes..

I mean, what did I say? Now I have to go out and buy a replica Battlestar weapon and shoot myself.

Sydney - Yayoi Kusama Bananas & Singstar

2009-04-23T19:04:00.001-07:00

Sydney has its moments, and after seeing Sydney plastered with posters of an intriguing woman in a pink wig called Yayoi Kusama, I finally went to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see what this strange old lady was all about. And apparently she’s about AMAZING. Every room was a whole new world, like walking from dream to dream. Favorites included the ‘Garden of Narcissus’ and the ‘Cloud’ room. However, it was in the mirrored rooms that she truly shone. Apparently obsessed with infinity, we were enclosed in a small dark room, on a platform in a pool of water. This, combined with the fairy lights took you into the most incredible new world. I have never been so breath-taken in my life.

Walking the streets of Sydney later, we saw a couple of banana peels had attempted to break into and subsequently quite badly vandalised an abandoned shop near the QVB. Sydney truly is a magic wonderland.

Singstar was hampered this week by the loss of the red microphone.

It had served us well over the months before finally succumbing to the intensity of our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and the attempts of some (*cough* Roz *cough*) to fix it. However we did not let this hold us down. We are Boogie Superstars and nothing can hold us down! So, in a brilliant combination of the Boogie Superstar moves, some creative Pass-the-Mic-ing and a lot of alcohol, we scored us a combined SINGSTAR!

Bring on the wireless mics and Singstar Pop, I say. BRING. IT. AWWWN!

Sydney - Boogie Superstars Mean Girls Wedding Dingleberries & Easter

2009-04-21T16:34:00.001-07:00

This post is really about photographic essays. The following is a comparative essay on the lives of the Mean Girls (made famous by the film, ‘Mean Girls’) and my own clique of mean girls. The similarities are striking and thought-provoking. What is Cady/Adrik crying about? What is Gretchen/Kyrani looking at? And why are Regina/Rob’s breasts so pert? All the answers are there, you just have to look deep enough.

Playboy bunnies aint got nuffin on us. ‘Easter Singstar Boogie Superstar Nacho Mexican Day’ came and went in a torrential downpour of bunny ears, wigs and Mean Girls quotes. The whole gang was there, re-located, playing a different game but still insane, something like the 5 year jump Desperate Housewives failed to pull off, but without the Fail.

What IS the solution to going to a house party where you only know the host? Go with two or three friends, completely alienate yourselves on a couch in the living room (in the process being so repulsive that everyone else leaves the room bar the people playing pool). After this is achieved, decide to make use of the chalk cube hanging from the pool table as a ‘dingleberry’ prop in a photographic scat essay.

Giggle incessantly and shake the pool table as you do this. It makes more friends.

I look dapper in a suit. It's amazing how much we can hide from the world. End of essays.

Sydney - Boogie Superstar Wii & Mean Girls

2009-03-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

So every now and then, a few cool people get together and boogie on down at mine.

In our fantasy lives, we are all high-powered secretarys with no clue as to the difference between a phone and a Wii controller, but glasses that make us look smart. In actual fact, we're failing almost everything!

Boogie-ing is a serious and deadly affair, as can be seen by Rob's heavy flow from his wide-set vagina that went all over the 'couch'. For shame.

I tried to tell Ky that I was always on her left, but she said that right then, I was getting on her last nerve, and that I had to switch sides. I refused and then she refused to acknowledge my dancing prowess.

The cat's paw is so fetch. It is the most fetch of all the moves on boogie superstar. And we look awesome doing it.

We were trying to take a nice photo of ourselves, just relaxing on the bed, pretending we don't know that Ky's hair is full of secrets and that Rob is basically evil in a human form when we realised..

..we needed to change. I mean, you may think you like something, but, you can be wrong.. So we got into our best clothes and BAM!

Mean Girls! We weren't pretending anymore. We were Plastic! Cold, shiny, hard Plastic! And next, we're gonna be jailbait!

Sydney - Baconnaise® Friday the 13th & Baconnaise

2009-03-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

Baconnaise is possibly the greatest invention since sliced bread. Described as 'what God's semen must taste like' (by myself) and 'a meat party in my mouth' (by Dawn on Buffy, which, while not technically about Baconnaise, is extremely relevant), it graced our lips after a brief, heartrending stay in Australian quarantine.

We sampled devilled eggs, wedges and baked potatoes with the heavenly fluid, proclaiming each to be utter perfection. Oddly enough, there was no aftermath, no explosive diarrhea, no vomiting, no nauseousness. Incredible. What a perfect complement to any meal. It was also sampled with a strawberry paddlepop and a lemon skittle to lesser but still acceptably delicious extent.

Some days and probably a few blog posts later, I watched the new 'Friday the 13th' which is a mash-up of the first four movies. It was good, and a good idea to combine some movies, cause while I love this series, it really is a predictable, slow-moving affair movie to movie.

I was struck by how the 'teenagers', while looking like adults, spoke like 'the real deal'. Upon researching (wikipedia, the most unquotable source), I found it was the writers' choice after the 'disaster' of 'Freddy Vs Jason', a movie I frankly adore. Which got me thinking on the greatest film in the Friday the 13th franchise, 'Jason X'.

Jason X combines two wonderful genres, horror and science fiction (and to a lesser extent, romantic comedy), evolutionarizing Jason into a truly awesome being. By combining him with nano-technology, we have the joy of a robot stand off as well as clever (OK maybe not clever, but fun) space deaths, like being sucked out a tiny hole and face first in liquid nitrogen (more of an X-Files death but who cares!)!

And then, days later again, more Baconnaise, some crabs and a scary octopus-spider-flower.

Sydney - Art & Karaoke Singstar Style

2009-03-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

I went to the Art Gallery of NSW to have a squiz at the ‘brilliance’ of Artexpress. I remember the desperate days of Year 12, making art with found objects, based entirely on (and practically a copy of) someone else’s work. Or just making hundreds of the same tiny, extremely significant object from my culturally different background. Or possibly taking a photo of an old family member. And then the application of profound meaning (and about seven large words) before submitting it for marking.

Anyway, this was as expected, a good laugh. We then explored the ‘Asian’ section of the gallery as a study in exhibition design (don’t ask me) and I found this! I say that like it was an amazing archeological discovery and not encased in glass and spotlighted with a little white placard describing it to me. Anyway, I think it’s incredible.

Singstar was a bit of a milestone this time. It had been a long time (far too long) and the enthusiasm was high. So high that Roz and I decided to sing John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ on each difficulty setting. On easy we were, respectively, Singstar and Superstar. Obviously this lowered as the difficulty increased, but not drastically. We believe ourselves to be the unofficial children of Johnny.

Sydney - Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 2009

2009-03-08T21:27:00.001-07:00

What a heady time of the year this has been. I've been in the throes of painful, amazing, long distance love, which I wouldn't give up for anything but of course, him being physically close to me, so the thrill of the pre-Mardi Gras atmospheric build-up was largely lost on me.

Nevertheless, I planned to represent the association I do volunteer work for, Ankali, by marching down Oxford St screaming with complete abandon in front of thousands of strangers.

The preparation was a little like regressing to 1998. At mine, we had torn up our Ankali shirts to give them ‘individuality’ and downed a bottle of champagne in about ten minutes before filling Sprite bottles with equal parts Sprite and vodka. Buzzing along to the city, we were marshalled into something resembling a pig-pen that was away from the main area. Fuck this, we thought and wandered into the wonderland of the next pig-pen over.

Here, I met Mr Leather Australia and New Zealand, which was quite a coup in my opinion. Apparently (being according to the all-knowing ‘facebook photo comment’), there’s a potential future here for me in some respect..

Matthew Mitcham. This meeting was relatively simple, and all for Matt in America cause I know he’ll be すごくや気もち~

Of course, as this continued and we met more and more people and peed against portable urinals in full view of passers-by, the feeling started to bleed into me. The giddy excitement, the pride, the commuiniinunininuiity. It was all a big mess of clichéd wonder and I loved it!

We screamed our way up the street like B-Grade celebrities, passing out kisses and handshakes to the bemused lucky few and vamping them like they knew who the fuck we were.

Then, we had pizza.

Sydney - Overheard Seven

2009-02-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

Getting Off The Bus
Skanky Hen's Night Goer 1 [ocker] - Aw cigarette man! [scrabbles in bag for lighter]
Skanky Hen's Night Goer 2 [ocker] - Where's Janelle?
Fat Hen's Night Goer [ocker] - Dunno...

On The Bus
Teenage Girl 1 - SUCH a lie!
Teenage Girl 2 - I know, she's always with Marcus. I bet that's where she is now!
Teenage Girl 3 - Really-
Teenage Girl 2 - Yeah! Her parents let her go out every Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday DAY and they see each other like four afternoons a week!
Teenage Girl 1 - Really?
Teenage Girl 2 - Yeah, she's with Marcus now...

Street In Newtown

Shirtless Man On Mobile [ocker] - Yeah, we got heapsa sossos and stuff, we'll just divvy it up. What's easy for you?

Philippines - Day 6 of 6

2009-02-21T04:40:00.000-08:00

Spicy Fingers again, to watch In Heat perform again, this time in pink. I also had to say my final goodbyes to all the lovely people I'd met there, which was sad, but hopefully I'll see them all again in Singapore.

Philippines - Day 5 of 6

2009-02-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

Cebu.
After disembarking, I noticed that the air smells like tropical fruit. And that by the airport, there are in fact fruit trees. I think it was jackfruit but I’m not certain. Anyway, it was a far cry from Manila, which, while I love it, smells like garbage a lot of the time.

Down a side lane next to the giant pink monstrosity that is the Hilton hotel, we got on a boat similar to the one at Taal and were on our way to snorkelling with about six crew and just us.
We had some bread and fed the fish, they came right up to your hand and you could feel them nipping at your skin. It was weird. They were like birds. The cliff at the edge of the reef was interesting and terrifying. Thinking about what could be down there was bad, but then I thought about what might happen if I suddenly didn’t float anymore and just sank. Scary, so I swam away from the school of tuna and back to the safety of the parrotfish and angelfish.

A jeepney got us about a minute up the road to the lovely Shangri-la hotel. Where we lingered in the grounds for a long time without being 'paying' guests so to speak. We slept on their private beach and I found a friend in a tiny crab. It was awesome. Except for the monstrous British tourist family that was also on the beach.. They were awesome in different, bad ways.

At dinner, there were 5 buffets.
A Korean one, which wasn’t that great actually, only so much kimchi I can stomach. A western/Asian noodle/Filipino one which was awesome with heaps of meat. A Chinese one that I only really glanced at because of the all you can eat sashimi at the Japanese one! All you can eat! Sashimi!
I was in heaven.
And desserts. Which comprised of lots of taro/ube/binimo (which I can now say in 3 languages, go me) and yellow watermelon, which was pretty awesome. I tried all the Filipino desserts, they were all pretty good, especially the little coconut cake things. And the ube of course.

Philippines - Day 4 of 6

2009-02-21T04:10:00.001-08:00

Today, we booked a driver and a van to drive us around from 2pm to midnight for 2000PhP plus food and petrol.

We went first to look at a volcano, Ta-al in Tgaytay (which is pronounced ta-guy-tie). It was pretty amazing. So was the 'panwich' and four tacos I had at the Pancake House overlooking it. While having lunch, I decided I wanted to go to the volcano itself, so we asked the driver if it was possible. Being the moron that I am, I thought we were going to drive there.. To an island..

Instead, and far more sensibly, in my opinion, we drove to the bottom of the mountain and hired a boat to take us out. Well, technically, Carl organised a boat and I stood by..
The wind was strong, but it was exhilarating and a little religious. The sun was branching down through the clouds over the mountains and water and we were on an ‘ark’ of sorts.. We couldn't get to the actual island with the volcano on it because of the fish farms surrounding it, but it was an epically beautiful trip nonetheless.

After this, we had him drive us to Batangas, where we went to the beach. I think I attracted a fair amount of attention from the kids wandering around and we couldn't actually see the beach, but apparently, it is black-sanded with very clear water. The photo doesn't really do it justice I guess.. While here though, I played chess with a 4 year old who kicked my arse. It was a combination of me being really shit and him being really good..

Finally, to Leslie's, overlooking a similarly black volcano, for dinner. There was a souvenir shop here that had Filipino coins on a wooden thing that cost more than the value of the coins. Carl said something about it to the shopkeeper, but I don't think it went over too well. It was funny all the same.

Philippines - Day 3 of 6

2009-02-21T01:03:00.001-08:00

Went to SM Mall of Asia, the biggest shopping mall in Asia. It was by the coast, which smelled a little, but still had hundreds of people sitting on the rock edge of the bay, eating lunch, and in the park beside, playing on the exercise equipment and jumping castle. We ventured outside only the once as it was far too humid, then ran in to watch ‘Push’.

Push is like a good ‘Heroes’. In that it seemed more like a pilot of a television show and that the story and characters were convincing, engaging and a little tele-drama. Of course, Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning can do no wrong in my book, so it was captivating all the same. One of the highlights was that the ‘stitch’ or healer, was in fact, a bad guy, and she was scary. I’m so sick of healers being heavenly, angelic people, it’s about time one went bad.

After, we ate at Congo something, Filipino cuisine. Had some chicken in pandan leaves and a soupy stew which tasted like lemon but was actually pretty good and bottomless iced tea, which is a common thing that I love and think should be everywhere.

This night was different to the others. On Saturdays, the band, In Heat, perform at Bedrock, which is located in Malate, the late night clubbing district. Apparently, Malate is a very dangerous and gangsta part of town. In fact, when we were walking, some kids ran past that apparently ‘smelled like rugby’. I had no clue what this meant, but ‘rugby’ is a drug that kids use in the Philippines. It’s like a paste. So yeah, gangsta.

After the first set, I went to Chow King, a Chinese fast food restaurant. I had wonton and pork buns and tea. I felt sick afterwards and sat upstairs for the rest of the night, worried my arse might diahrrea-ly explode as I sat there, but I listened to them sing again (the explosion, thankfully, never happened).

Philippines - Day 2 of 6

2009-02-20T14:55:00.000-08:00

Had lunch across the road from the hotel at a Chinese place where all the waitresses had pink hearts on their cheeks. I couldn't figure out why until Carl told me it was because of Valentines Day.. I really am dim sometimes..

We went to UST (University of Santo Tomas) today from 3pm to 1am because the In Heat was booked for a 1985 Reunion.

Before going to the Philippines, I had only had Japan, basically a mono-culture to consider against an international background. I hadn’t considered that another country, like Australia, could have multiculturality (which is idiotic in the extreme, I know). But while there is a dominant ethnicity, the Philippines is packed with different cultures. It's stupid to say because it's just like Australia, but I think it's better integrated. And the names are cooler. Much cooler.

The Philippines is like a real life cyberpunk novel (maybe with a little steampunk).

Meanwhile, there were fireworks.

And hot opportunities to get paparazzi photos of In Heat, and get a few fan photos for myself.

Philippines - Day 1 of 6

2009-02-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

The Philippines. Arriving at 5.40am. Not pretty.

While being processed at Immigration, I was told that my address was near ‘lots of girls’. Later, I was informed that my hotel was in the red light district. Mystery solved. So my reply to the immigration man of 'great, that's why I came' was a little dirtier than I'd thought.

It’s amazing. There are people everywhere at all times of the day, not in a superficial ‘city that never sleeps’ way, but in a familial, slightly dangerous, ‘city that never sleeps’ way. There is a constant honking of horns from drivers of tricycles, jeepneys and taxis all vying for a space to get where they're going as fast as possible, just warning people that they’re approaching and not to swerve out, or wander onto the road, or start the jeepney up. And people wandering around on the road with flowers and sunglasses and newspapers, trying to sell them to people in cars..

Rode a ‘jeepney’. It’s the most awesome public transport ever. Like a cross between a ute and a jeep, with seats in the back, they’re all modded out by the owners in chrome and paint and stickers and religious paraphernalia. They’re amazing. I love them.

Went to Jollibee. It’s like Filipino Maccas, with a giant anthropomorphic bee as the mascot instead of a paedophilic clown. I ate chicken tocino, after ordering in Tagalog at Carl’s insistence, even though everyone speaks English, ‘Isan chicken tocino, isan Sprite… Salamat.’

In the night, I was off to Spicy Fingers to watch In Heat perform.
Spicy Fingers was freezing. In fact, everywhere with air conditioning was freezing, especially compared with the 30ish temperatures outside.

During the second performance by In Heat, I was forced to dance. I towered over Khristine (one of the singers) which was surprising for some reason, but I didn't let it stop me 'letting go' as I was told later. Hmmmm..

Sydney - Overheard Six

2009-02-03T17:24:00.000-08:00

Taylor Square
Homeless Man – I’m fucken thirty fucken seven and I’m fucken healthy! I drink like a fucken cunt [breaks down in laughter]

Neighbour's Shower
Lesbian 1 [laughs]
Lesbian 2 – Oh it’s cold!
Lesbian 1 – Careful!
Lesbian 2 – Don’t- [laughs]
Both [laugh]

On The Bus
Deaf Person 1 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 2 [replying incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands while not having really looked at Deaf Person 1's hands initially]
Deaf Person 1 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 2 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 1 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 2 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 1 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 2 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 1 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 2 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 1 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]
Deaf Person 2 [incomprehensible (to me) fluttering of the hands]...

Sydney - Singstar 4 Ever

2009-01-26T18:23:00.000-08:00

Da oRIginaL crew yo!

Rockin' da beatz since OH 8!

Neva gonna dIE!

XXX

Sydney - Singstar

2009-01-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

Why do I love Singstar?

Because we drink a lot and overheat in a tiny room we're not allowed to open the windows of. Typically the room smells pretty terrible in spite of the fan after about ten minutes of intense Singstar action.

The power ballads, the emotions, the competition!

The model-shots and seedy 70s style photos that are only revealed to everyone else via the world wide interweb days later. Usually to their utter joy.

And of course the company, the laughs and the cheese. Can't forget the cheese.

Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne - Kids NYE Octopus Wars & Mario Party

2009-01-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

Off to visit one of the many branches of my family in Canberra on the second last day of 2008. A whole day with three kids? I didn’t think I could do it either, but somehow, I managed to entertain myself watching the twins skateboard and bmx, then watch ‘The Fifth Element’ (cleverly skipping over the sex scenes), then play a Ben10 game. I’m now VERY down with Ben10. Then ‘memory’ with spidey cards in which one of the ‘rules’ was to say ‘sexy’ before picking up the second one. I was baffled as to the magical properties of this word, but the twins assured me that they existed.

Melbourne was amazing. NYE was amazing. I got absolutely blind at Liz’s, then somehow got into the city to watch the fireworks, then blacked out for about an hour.. I remember wandering outside to our friends and asking when the fireworks would start and being informed it was in fact 12:30 and that I’d missed them completely.

We went to an appalling gay bar with an appalling drag queen too. She performed ‘Womanizer’ woefully, so Liz and I decided to ignore her and just dance to the song.

My dear, dear, dear friend Alex went back to America this week, but she did have a farewell of variously clashing patterns and a lot of wine. I was at her house for about 12 hours, alternating between conversations with people and facebooking. XXX I love you Al! See ya soon!

The Octopus Wars.
Speak for themselves. It’s the epic tale of a lime-hat and a jealous thief, murder, mayhem and girls!

And lastly, a Mario Party. It’s been so long, but I did it. Apparently, I lost, but I know I couldn’t possibly have, as I am the king of Mario Party. I am not, however, the king of drinking, because after 2 bottles of vodka (between 2), the next day, I was late for work, I vomited in the toilets (and on my pants) at about 9am, I swore at everyone, I failed to eat anything until 3pm and got caught sneaking out for food by the CEO. Yay.

Sydney - Alcohol Oxford St Xmas Chanukah Picnics & Wagaya

2008-12-28T15:16:00.001-08:00

I like drinking. So I do it a lot and don’t really remember the things I’ve said and done when I’ve been out doing it. Which I suppose is good? But recently I’ve been thinking that maybe I need to stop drinking to get blind so often. It’s just about finding the balance really. I had a wonderful time rockin out on Oxford St with the singstar crew and at Xmas bbq with them again, eating too many prawns, making people play ‘have you ever’..

As always, a family affair. Once again, I was wasted by the time lunch came around (this is turning into ‘Confessions of an Alcoholic’) but I think that was for the best. I ate a lot, the most hilarious thing that happened was when I received a giant tree ornament from some people. I thought to myself, ‘wtf is this?’ then I realised it was full of chocolate, so I opened it. And a moth flew out. From inside the ball. Where I imagine it had spent its whole life. Needless to say, re-gifting FAIL but hilarious.

Upon getting home, I dragged Jason to the beach. Amazing. So hot, the water was beautiful and we wore santa hats. Go Aussie Xmas!

-ghanouj, in which one must scrape out the insides of a baked eggplant. It’s a strange sensation, all the seeds are together and the flesh slips away from the skin so perfectly. It reminded me of how I imagine an autopsy would work. Very orderly.

I also made challah, which I’m pretty good at and which tastes amazing. I made some random pastry things and fried fish in matzo meal. All of which was delicious, but of course, the most important part of Chanukah is the latkes, so I made lots. And some zucchini ones for difference.

Every year, there’s a picnic by the horses in the Botanic Gardens. This year, it rained. It was fun, more drinking of course, which was nice, and leftovers from Chanukah, which was also nice. And seeing people I haven’t seen for a very long time, particularly Laura, who’s been jet-setting (that is, one country, like me) and so it’s been years.

After this, Alex and I went to Wagaya, the most authentic Japanese restaurant in Sydney in my opinion. And if you want flashy, Tokyo-style izakaya, then it will be for you too. We had some of my faves from Japan, Hokke, Takoyaki and lotus chips. Oh and lots of cocktails and sake.

Sydney - Overheard Five

2008-12-17T20:57:00.001-08:00

House Party in Newtown
Angry Sunburnt Female Bogan #1 [shrieks] - How have I got nuthin?!
Angry Sunburnt Female Bogan #2 [shrieks] - Look at my straps!
Angry Sunburnt Female Bogan #1 [shrieks] - Nah, look at my face!
Angry Sunburnt Female Bogan #2 [shrieks] - I’m goin’! [storms off]

Sydney Night Noodle Markets
Old European Woman – He’ll be a burden to them! He’ll be a burden to your children and you know it!
Bemused Young Man - [silent]

University of Sydney Toilets

Sydney - Birthday Ankali Redfern & Singstar

2008-12-15T15:49:00.001-08:00

For my birthday, I had a wonderful dinner of pizza (my all time favourite food) with the fam. It was great, until dessert arrived. I ordered apple crumble. I got a caffeine addict’s vomit on a plate. Since when does crumble come covered in thick, pooey, coffee sauce? Since when, I ask you!

The Ankali Xmas Party was held on a pisser of a day, but I took the opportunity to get shitfaced nonetheless. I spoke to one woman at length about how, without being conceited, everyone else that we have met through the program is lovely because they’re so accepting. Not necessarily (I’m looking mainly at myself here) nice people, but amazing all the same.

Amazing club, Gilligans, under Oxford St. It was dead, but I don't know why, with the flashing walls and vibrating dance-floor, it was awesome!

Location scouting for a film project I’m working on with a friend from uni. It’s set in Redfern, so we went walking/riding/dinking around the area on Sunday morning. It was hot, dry and interesting. I felt at some points as if I was one of those wankers, ‘slumming it’ and had to remember that I used to live in housing commission myself, but this was a different experience to my own.. It’s a very intense area. We got a good feel for the area for the film too.

Every fortnight, a VERY select group of people congregate at a certain place to drink, eat and play singstar. Much to the irritation of the neighbours I’m sure. While we were two people down this week, it was a fabulous night, filled with black cocks, karaoke and vodka. The pictures, as usual, speak for themselves..

Sydney - Jason Adrik's Birthday Drama & Drunkenness

2008-12-10T14:43:00.000-08:00

The wonderful Jason arrived from Japan to live in my studio with me here in Oz! I have been so pumped about his arrival, I can’t even say! So the first night, as a way of initiating ourselves into sharing not only a room, bathroom and kitchen, but also a bed (non-sexually of course), we decided to get in our underwear and roll around with thousands of dollars. As usually tends to happen with too much red wine and money, this devolved rapidly into rolling around naked, but those photos will never see the light of the internet. Well, not til I’m famous at least.

We’ve been pumping the love and Britney dance moves on Oxford St like you wouldn’t believe. Her new clip for circus is amazing and she pumps some ~~lame~~ awesome moves!

My birthday in Oz! Picnic in the park and then to the Courty in Newtown for rampant drunkenness (on my part) and drama (on Jason’s part). Apparently, I verbally attacked a woman for questioning a friend’s dog-parenting skills, as well as a number of staff (I’m shocked I wasn’t removed from the premises). I had an awesome time with wonderful people, the only shame would be that people from Japan, America and everywhere else in the world weren’t there.. But apart from that, a fabulously messy day/night.

Sydney - Australian Idol Farewell & Visitors

2008-11-27T03:49:00.000-08:00

Randomly, before I get a roomie, my fair nation was visited by the lovely Leo, my new roomie’s bestie. She hails from the UK and now lives in Japan (lucky bitch). We had a very civilized dinner where we discussed boys. Then we went out and met Lexi, a lovely girl who got us kicked out of a number of places and who I rather love to bits.

My friend Alisha is going away tomorrow. To England/Europe for a year. We used to be attached at the hip, but now don’t see each other as much. I think she’s wonderful and will have an incredible time and I’ll miss her, but I know she won’t miss Oz! Besides, she, Britney and I will be spit-sisters 4EvA!

I love the concept of Idol, I just wish our contestants had talent. That, or were willing to be complete pop-whores in every episode, but they try to be ‘original’ and ‘compelling’ and fail miserably. So I didn’t watch the latest series. However, when I got free tickets to the Live Final at the Opera House Forecourt, I was stoked and immediately decided to go. It was amazing! The live-ness, the spirit, the desperate hope of the losers to become ‘someone’. It was fun. I think Wes deserved to win, and I also love Jessica Mauboy, she’s wonderful, finally someone with a world-class voice from Oz, not some stupid bitch like Delta Goodfuck.

Sydney - Overheard Four

2008-11-27T01:48:00.000-08:00

Australian Idol Live Finale
Commercial Break MC/Producer [into mike] - Where are you from?
Jersey Girl [into mike] - Jersey
Commercial Break MC/Producer - Oh, you gotta new boss, see how things go now!
Jersey Girl [Commercial Break MC/Producer takes mike away] - ...
Commercial Break MC/Producer [turns away but still speaks into the mike] - May he rest in peace.

On the bus
Trampy 16 Year Old Daughter - Na is sodium Mum, God! [hits mother]
Mother [cowers] - Don't hit me!
Trampy 16 Year Old Daughter [hits mother one more time]

At Paragon
Girl 1 [smoking] - I'd rather kill my health than get fat.
Girl 2 [also smoking] - Yeah.

Byron Bay - Love Superheroes & Food

2008-11-19T17:43:00.001-08:00

Byron Bay. Amazing. My first time there was in 2000 for ‘schoolies’, a truly wonderful experience. Then the following year, for a uni holiday, then 2 years later for NYE, then last year with my wonderful friend before we both went overseas to ‘find ourselves’, me to Japan and her to America. And finally again, last week, all of us now far more worldly, but exactly the same as we have always been.

Byron is a magical land of constant sun (except when ‘tornados’ attack Brisbane), relaxed attitudes (except when driving) sand and surf.

I learned many things this year in Byron. I dress clashingly inappropriately for most events.

I love eating.

I am a superhero.

I love the beach.

Bluebottles are beautiful.

Sydney - Food & Fun

2008-11-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

Sydney may be in throes of global warming style spring, but it’s still a lovely place to be. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be back in Japan more than anything (well, not anything, but that’s for my other blog) but I’m finally starting to like it here again. Dinners and lunches with wonderful people I met through Ankali and friends from school who I truly believe I am bonded to for life make this city awesome.

Sydney - Overheard Three

2008-11-09T03:55:00.001-08:00

At Usyd Toilets

At The Clare

Sydney - Long Lost Friends Singstar & Spiegeltent

2008-11-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

It’s devastating when your friends leave you to move to fabulous overseas places like New York and London, mainly because you have to stay in a place like Australia… Even if you get out for a year or so to the most amazing country in the world, you never really recover from it not being you who gets to leave. But when they come back, it’s exactly the same, cause these people are my family and I love them more than anything. From drunken gallery openings to Balkan restaurants with cabbage salad to boxing practice in a pub to the next morning’s excruciating hangover.

Singstar. Is it better than karaoke? In many ways it is, because it improves you, it shows you your mistakes and it lets the singer sing along with you. If you’re like me, and you prefer the self-delusion of tangible singing ability, a dark little room with all you can drink cocktails and a TV with all the pop you can handle is amazing. That said, Singstar is amazing and continues to be, on a fortnightly basis!

Alex is old. She’s also, somehow, become a lawyer which is scary for a number of very cute reasons. I have missed hanging out in Glebe with her and will relish these few months. The food was amazing, my decision to wear singlet (Australia flag themed), shorts and thongs was not.

At the Opera House in Sydney, they have this thing called a ‘Spiegeltent’ which was all the rage in the 1920s. It’s velvet and stained glass and alcohol and very bloody hot, especially when you’re standing at the back of the tent selling CDs for The Jim Conway Band with Alisha, which was amazing. I looked ridiculous on this day, Everlast singlet (my new brand) and Stitch cap on, I did NOT fit in with the beatnik crowd, nevertheless it was fun.

The Courty’s poor neighbour put her knickers on the line. I took a spy photo. We also took hundreds of ‘ugly’ photos, which are so much more interesting than ‘pout’ photos in my opinion. After, we went to a random house party for ages, I went on a side trip from Redfern to Glebe and back for… ‘Mary’ and met Deborah Mailman.

Sydney - Overheard Two

2008-10-19T03:38:00.000-07:00

At The Zoo
Kind Of Gangsta Westie Bloke [excited] - Look at that, must be feeding time or something!
*points at pacing tiger behind the glass*
Fat Westie Chick With Hard-Ass Face [bored] - Record it.
*looks away*

On The Bus
Fat Bearded Ocker [enthusiastic] - I was up the bloody darley river mate, back when I was livin in Broken Hill and we were fishin and campin out and we saw a UFO.
Wiry Old Ocker [enthusiastic]
*grunts*
Fat Bearded Ocker [enthusiastic] - Yeah, it came over the horizon, musta been about 2am in the morning, it was magnificent, this luminous disc of light. Me mate's Dad reckoned it was a helicopter, but no fucken helicopter's out that late. It was so bright and moving in a different way to a helicopter searchlight.
Wiry Old Ocker [in awe] - What'd it look like.
Fat Bearded Ocker [serious] - Like lookin at milk mate, like lookin at milk.

Somewhere
Gay Guy [hyperactive] - Don’t talk to me about Xanex.
Straight Guy [busy] - Why?
Gay Guy [hyperactive] - I want one, I need to go to sleep.
Straight Guy [busy] - It makes you depressed.
Gay Guy [hyperactive/sarcastic] - I’m always depressed I’m a faggot.
Straight Guy [busy/nervous] - Why?
*laughs*
Gay Guy [sarcastic/explanatory] - Do you know what it’s like to be gay? Nothing ever goes right.
*laughs*
Straight Guy [busy] - So don't be gay.
Gay Guy [silent]

Sydney - Birthday Brideshead Wall-E Taronga & Golden Century

2008-10-16T04:07:00.000-07:00

Nick's Bday. How wonderful to dance and drink and get in a 'fight' with someone cause they spilled bourbon down my shoe..

Wall-E
Amazing. I had my doubts about this, as I thought the robot 'voices' would grate after a while, but they humanized them just enough that they didn't. I do have two gripes with it. One was with the fat people on the cruiser. At first, it seems to be a comment on humanity and the way we're going, which is great, but then the computer states that everyone, due to microgravity, will have experienced bone loss, which accounts for the fatness. This lets humanity off the hook and frankly gave me the shits. Also, if they had never stood before or had experienced bone loss, how did they become mobile so quickly.
Second gripe was the plant. At the end, there was a mountain of them, was that planted by Wall-E before or a jump in time? And how did they escape (a) Eva finding them if they were planted by Wall-E and (b) the terrible dust storms that wipe over the city quite regularly?

That said, it gave me hope and child-like wonder, so I was more than impressed.

Brideshead Revisited on the other hand, was not so lucky. Having not seen the original but being informed by a friend that at the time, it became insanely popular to be wealthy, British, gay and to carry around a teddy bear. The teddy bear was in the background this time, which I was kind of pleased about, and the first half of the film, ensconced in almost incestuous love triangular politics was amazing. Up until Emma Thompson's character died it was amazing. Then it meandered and characters made idiot choices and it was shit.

There was a golden line uttered in true British emotionless style "I hope your heart breaks." It was amazing.

Now for Taronga Zoo with two of my sisters and my father. It was the Zoo. It was oddly informative and seems to be becoming quite a good venue, but is still in the midst of its transformation from 1920s animal show to a zoological Disneyland. I was though, upset at the captivity. I can only hope that my sighting of Penguin Christ can lead them to freedom..

My fair city, Sydney.

After the Zoo, it was time to see Liz again, up from Melbourne (where she should never return to) and drink until we ended up in Chinatown at the Golden Century, stuffing our faces with wonderful food.

Sydney - Superhero Cosplay

2008-10-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

It was a fine night for a friend's themed birthday, so I went over to change in Balmain, not realizing that I would be forced to walk the streets in this threesome, wait in line outside a busy pub for a cab and then travel ridiculously far to do so. Not that I didn't love every moment! The effort, the wonderful costumes, the sausage rolls!

At the glorious party, I impregnated Juno with a little half breed Stitch, which I imagine would look a little like me.

Met Wonder Woman, who was lovely enough..

..to bake. Throwing her kind back into the dark ages as she did.

Got shot in the mouth (make of it what you will, filthy whores) by a Ghostbuster.

And showed a little nip towards the end.

Sydney - Singstar Pizza & Cosplay

2008-09-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

Singstar is awesome! Drinking red wine, gin and beer (thankfully not together) is also awesome. But the most awesome thing is that it will be a regular event!

They..

..were lovely enough to 'invite' us..

..over for riotous good times and party hats.

We had complete control of the scoreboard until a disgruntled fan wiped it all off...

Team Gay Rocks.

Sydney - Overheard One

2008-09-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

Driver [sarcastic] - Pushbikers can run all the red lights...
Passenger [child-like] - It's not fair is it?

Wife [bored] - That gay guy at work, Matthew, you might have met him?
Husband [bored] - Maybe.
Wife [bored] - His partner came back from [...] and they bought another beagle.
Husband [bored] - They better have a backyard the size of a football field...
Wife [slightly more agitated] - I know.

17 year old girl 1 [bubbly] - Is he 17?
17 year old girl 2 [bubbly] - No, his driving test is in May, so he's older than me. You should see his tattoos though.
17 year old girl 1 [on phone] - Hi, can I book two spray tans for next Saturday? Yeah. Pardon? Oh OK.
17 year old girl 2 [vague] - Yeah, he has that scary thing on his thigh, with the clowns, but it looks cool. And he has some family thing, and his initials. And he's getting something that means something really deep. I can't remember what it was but I was like, wow. It was really deep.

Sydney - Drag Gay Empire Japanese Emoticons & Birthdays

2008-09-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

The lovely Claz-man had her birthday at the Courty. I went after work and uni, so was exhausted, but loved seeing everyone!!

Random Alien themed graffiti on the side of Istanbul in Newtown. I love it heaps. Sydney is soooo as cool as Melbourne. And we know it.

Sascha's 'Empire' themed party for which I was appalled with myself for not having organised a costume. o(＞＜)o Luckily my lovely friend had plenty to spare and the forceful nature to convince me into a dress.. So here it is, my first documented (^_-) foray into drag.. I think I look quite something.

Robert's birthday started off quite civilized at the Colombian, then, as we all relaxed a bit (got wasted) moved on down to Stonewall... Which is somewhere I would normally avoid going, but it was hilarious! o(^-^o)(o^-^)o Stupid dancing, random photos and meetings and then suddenly, at home. Interesting night. (^_-)-☆

Hellboy II The Golden Army

2008-08-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

While the first film was a little lacking, a little too pandering to the fans, a little boring and long, I still loved it. The incredibly hot Hellboy, the incredibly hot Abe Sapien and the amazingly monotonous (thanks Selma Blair, I can't believe you're playing Kim, it's ridiculous), but hot Liz Shermann. The love, the monster (cause for some reason there was only one and a big tentacle in this one) and the bad guy kept me going.

So it was I for some reason (probably related to a sick eroticism of the weird) eagerly anticipated the second installment. And it was amazing. After wondering for some time why the director, Guillermo Del Toro wasn't credited with the first, but was being lauded as the director of 'Pan's Labyrinth' and coming to the conclusion it was for the monsters, I went.

It was amazing. The creatures, the journey, the love, the hot alien-type people. But perhaps the most incredible scene was one in which Abe and Hellboy got drunk. The camaraderie, the song, the fact that the most normal thing in the world was happening to Blue and Red respectively. It was incredible.

But at one point in the film, I thought ahead, possibly for the first time ever and predicted a vital plot point involving the twins. The fact that I thought it saddened me, because it's another way learning about films and writing has ruined watching them for me, and when it happened, it was even sadder because I've held out for so long.

It still made the moment amazing. It was truly a beautiful film and one the likes of which I aspire to make.

Sydney - Ankali Party Hikaru & Japanese Google Map

2008-08-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

I love all the beautiful people I’ve met through Ankali!

And I love Hikaru, even though it makes me sad about not being in Japan anymore, it was wonderful nonetheless. Except the yakisoba, which was shit. The nabe was the best thing, which is weird cause in Japan, it was one of my least favorite..

And I have really gay new curtains! AND I found my old apartment in Nagoya on Google Maps, it was difficult and I had to follow the subway line, but I found it from space! It's to the right of the petrol station near the middle of the map!

Sydney - University & Soggy Sao

2008-08-13T05:23:00.000-07:00

OK I have to share a rant about university. I have recently started continuing my Masters in creative writing. Needless to say, literary theory comes along with this, which I loathe with a passion because;

- I don't have ANY general knowledge about it
- it's all, in my opinion, ancient history we need to get over
- of the following.

I was writing up my notes in class and I couldn't help but draw this analogy;

And as I wrote it, I knew I was right on the mark. A bunch of academics [frat boys] get together and decide to force their opinions on some text or style of writing on each other [circle jerk around a sao/biscuit] and when one academic is finished, the other academics interpret and analyze what s/he said about whatever they were talking about [and come in turns over the increasingly more soggy sao/biscuit] until finally, in my opinion at least, we come to the theory to end all theories, aka Post Modernism, which everyone has to just deal with being a part of [until the last frat boy has to eat it all].

We are the last frat boy.

Sydney - Ankali Life Japanese & Birthdays

2008-08-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

OK so it's been a while and I've been trying to find my place in this blog now that my life is so much less exciting than in Japan.

Reviews are all good, but at the end of the day, while I already have a raw secret blog I need to be more 'real' [rill] here.

So here goes. I've been in training for the last two weeks for the 'Ankali Project' which was an incredible experience. It's a volunteer/health service based group who give emotional support to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The training was very draining, in a good way, lots of new information, lots of eye opening and fear alleviation and lots of introspection. I am pleased to have become an ongoing member of this team, and while I grappled with my reasons for doing volunteer work, I am confident that for at least the most part, I have honorable, selfless intentions (for no human can claim utter selflessness).

I'm loving living in Sydney cause it's packed with gay people and I feel comfortable here, but at the end of the day, I was so much more comfortable in Japan. Which is why I seek it out here, and am always bitterly disappointed by it. And I'm taking Japanese classes for the first time in a pathetically long time and I love it!

Finally, the lovely Magda's birthday for which we went to HAHA and paid a ridiculous amount of money for 'Foodcube' vending fries which weren't that bad and talked about ramekins for way longer than a normal human should, but it was wonderful. Especially Mags gyrating her eggs all over my leg.

Japan - Purikura プリクラ

2008-07-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

I miss this and everyone in these photos so much it hurts sometimes.

Batman - The Dark Knight

2008-07-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

I am not a Batman fan. I like it, but he's not as flashy as the others. He's self made (kind of) which is nice, but yeah. This movie changed all that. Batman is hot.

I cried like a baby at the end when he became what the city needed... I'm getting shivers just thinking about it (though I did find the 'live long enough to see yourself become a villian crap' a bit forced and crap).

But at the end of the day it was all about Heath. The hype and insanity is true. He was amazing. In every sense of every word. The Joker is terrifying. Mysterious, insane and terrifying.

Hancock

2008-07-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hancock. A new superhero, not based on Marvel/DC/some other clone publisher creations. Therefore with no history, no fandoms, nothing to live up to. I was interested. And Will Smith is hot, so I went along.

I was a little unsure about how he always seemed to be about to spit a big wad of chewing tobacco at the screen, but he was in fine form by the end of the film.

As you can see. Fine form. I particularly enjoyed Charlize's role in this as his other half. I was unsure if it was her for a good chunk of the movie, but when she needlessly and inexplicably upon being revealed as a fellow superhero changed into black leather and panda eye make up I was sure it was Aeon, my honey!

I thought their origin story was amazing and beautiful, and I even enjoyed the ending, crying more than a stable person probably should.

Sydney - Karaage Ramen

2008-07-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

So.. while in Japan, I often told the wonderful tale of how we baka Australians had created, in our infinite wisdom of all things Japanese, 'Karaage Ramen', which is chicken fried Japanese style (like KFC) actually IN ramen noodle soup.

I also explained (to limited understanding I'm sure) that I loved it! And I do. But recently, in a Chinatown food court in Sydney, I ate it and was appalled.

First of all, I thought it would be good cause it's from a shop where I KNOW they're Japanese and where I've had other things that have been quite good (we won't talk about takoyaki with BBQ sauce though). But look at it!!

It has CARROT in it. And huge scallions! And this is the miso variety and it tasted like Continental Spring Vegetable Cup-a-Soup with KFC dipped in it.

Even after removing the offensive carrot (I personally loathe carrot, which adds to the injustice), it was appalling.