I was watching one of those new bizarre gameshows on telly just before and this was an actual question...
Which of these is a children's television show:
a) pears in flares
b) bananas in pyjamas
c) peaches in breeches
Hilarious! Their question writer must be really bored with their job. But then I thought, bananas in pyjamas is actually a pretty crazy idea anyway.
x
Monday, March 19, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
feradelaide and the chef
Last weekend I volunteered as an artist minder at Womadelaide.
Artist minding basically means being the first point of contact for artists for just about anything whilst in Adelaide for their gig – you pick them up from the airport, check them into the hotel, orientate them to Adelaide a bit if necessary, get them to the venue on time, get them into their dressing-room, introduce them to the stage manager, accompany them to publicity calls, etc etc etc and just generally be around to assist if they need it. I was assigned 3 separate groups of performers, Asha Bhosle, an incredibly famous Bollywood playback recording star (statistically the most famous person in the world), who was performing with the Kronos Quartet (also pretty damn famous), an 18 piece gamelan orchestra from West Java called SambaSunda and an 8 piece group from New Caledonia called Celenod. As you can probably tell, I had a busy weekend. And it was 37 degrees on Saturday.
I saw countless tie-dye wearing hackysack players. I saw some pretty damn impressive hippie dancing. I even saw some guy stop mid-dance, turn around and ask the general crowd "does anyone know where my wife is?". I saw an 11 year old boy wandering through the crowd wistfully singing Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind. Someone else told me they saw an even younger kid singing “We are the World”. Hmmm, next generation of emo maybe? I also ate a handmade byron bay organic jamfilled doughnut. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I think the doughnut summed up Womad - decadent, expensive, very messy, and pretending to be good for you.
I won’t bore you with the story of how hard I worked, or how hot and bloody dusty it was, because a much more exciting thing happened.
On Sunday afternoon I was standing out front of the Hilton, where all Womad artists stay, waiting for somebody or something - I can’t remember what now. Anyway, there were a few people milling around too, I didn’t take much notice of them. Then suddenly my gaze locked onto a man standing on the Hilton front steps. It was the Chef from The Cook and the Chef! (Shame on you if you don’t know what I’m talking about, and I’m not going to explain, but go here to have a look.) (Those of you overseas are excused from this shame.)
I gasped! It was really him! He was in full cheffy outfit, arms folded, chatting to some minions and surveying his kingdom (ie Victoria Square and assorted drunkards). I immediately rang Bridget to share my excitement. I then tried to nonchalantly walk close enough behind him to hear his voice, whilst still on the phone to Bridget so she could hear it too (if you’ve seen the show you’ll know what I mean). Bridget demanded that I get his autograph for her, so I went to the concierge to get a piece of paper as I had nothing - I know, so ridiculously unprepared. When I returned he had gone!! No!!! We were most upset. I won’t admit to this but I may have lurked around the Hilton foyer until I found where he was, which may have been in the Brasserie, and I may have then sat in the middle bar area so I could see him through the palm fronds as he had a very serious conversation with someone about the glasswasher (I think). I may have then rang Bridget to update her as to his location. We may be now trying to invent a reason for an expensive dinner at the restaurant, so that we can spy on him further.
x
Artist minding basically means being the first point of contact for artists for just about anything whilst in Adelaide for their gig – you pick them up from the airport, check them into the hotel, orientate them to Adelaide a bit if necessary, get them to the venue on time, get them into their dressing-room, introduce them to the stage manager, accompany them to publicity calls, etc etc etc and just generally be around to assist if they need it. I was assigned 3 separate groups of performers, Asha Bhosle, an incredibly famous Bollywood playback recording star (statistically the most famous person in the world), who was performing with the Kronos Quartet (also pretty damn famous), an 18 piece gamelan orchestra from West Java called SambaSunda and an 8 piece group from New Caledonia called Celenod. As you can probably tell, I had a busy weekend. And it was 37 degrees on Saturday.
I saw countless tie-dye wearing hackysack players. I saw some pretty damn impressive hippie dancing. I even saw some guy stop mid-dance, turn around and ask the general crowd "does anyone know where my wife is?". I saw an 11 year old boy wandering through the crowd wistfully singing Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind. Someone else told me they saw an even younger kid singing “We are the World”. Hmmm, next generation of emo maybe? I also ate a handmade byron bay organic jamfilled doughnut. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I think the doughnut summed up Womad - decadent, expensive, very messy, and pretending to be good for you.
I won’t bore you with the story of how hard I worked, or how hot and bloody dusty it was, because a much more exciting thing happened.
On Sunday afternoon I was standing out front of the Hilton, where all Womad artists stay, waiting for somebody or something - I can’t remember what now. Anyway, there were a few people milling around too, I didn’t take much notice of them. Then suddenly my gaze locked onto a man standing on the Hilton front steps. It was the Chef from The Cook and the Chef! (Shame on you if you don’t know what I’m talking about, and I’m not going to explain, but go here to have a look.) (Those of you overseas are excused from this shame.)
I gasped! It was really him! He was in full cheffy outfit, arms folded, chatting to some minions and surveying his kingdom (ie Victoria Square and assorted drunkards). I immediately rang Bridget to share my excitement. I then tried to nonchalantly walk close enough behind him to hear his voice, whilst still on the phone to Bridget so she could hear it too (if you’ve seen the show you’ll know what I mean). Bridget demanded that I get his autograph for her, so I went to the concierge to get a piece of paper as I had nothing - I know, so ridiculously unprepared. When I returned he had gone!! No!!! We were most upset. I won’t admit to this but I may have lurked around the Hilton foyer until I found where he was, which may have been in the Brasserie, and I may have then sat in the middle bar area so I could see him through the palm fronds as he had a very serious conversation with someone about the glasswasher (I think). I may have then rang Bridget to update her as to his location. We may be now trying to invent a reason for an expensive dinner at the restaurant, so that we can spy on him further.
x
Monday, March 05, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Saturday, February 03, 2007
shuffle (always thought you were a disco chick)
ok my turn to press shuffle on the ipod and see what musical secrets it reveals...
sorry mark for ripping you off, but then i know you ripped it off someone else anyway...
here goes...
1. know your product - the saints (woohoo great start... rock on!)
2. sunrays – yesterday’s new quintet, from fila brazillia another late night mix (a gorgeous warm and enveloping, perfect for sunday afternoon with a few beers)
3. stylophone pet – moloko (used to love them more, still a fan, roisin murphy totally rocks)
4. influx - dj shadow, from mo’wax royalties overdue (beautiful tripped out smooth sound)
5. la femme d’argent – air (when brett and I went to italy, qantas were playing this as everyone went on and off the planes. so now I associate it with travel, new places, nervous excitement, freedom... sends shivers down my spine)
6. galang – M.I.A. (always makes me wish I could dance like beyonce or missy elliot)
7. heroes – david bowie (love david bowie, though I like a lot of his other songs better than this one. he's one sexy man tho)
8. a song for you – whiskeytown country slow rock (I have absolutely no idea whatsoever how this got on my ipod, must have been from honor, she’s the country-lover!!)
9. only you – portishead (reminds me of art school (same as you mark) but god but I love it)
10. modern romance – yeah yeah yeahs (beautiful fragile new york sound)
11. the groove ep – astrojazz, from a night at the playboy mansion mix (absolute classic disco! love it! i really am a disco chick. i think i rediscovered it due to this album by dimitri from paris. I saw him when he came to adelaide a few years ago but it was really disappointing coz they could have just played his cds ad you wouldn't have known the difference)
12. dauphine – mu-ziq (ok now its getting really interesting. absolutely brilliant old school electronica, never ever ever get sick of it, ever)
13. pearl in – tosca (as in the electronica tosca, not the classic one. a must - check them out)
14. monkey bars – jurassic 5 (unstoppable)
15. je n’ai pas le choix – the mighty bop (one of the first electronic cds I got addicted to, these guys are the best classy french smooth hip hop. perfect seduction music)
16. two darn hot – retroactive (got this track from cds I used to collect from acid jazz magazine back in the mid 90s, still has not aged one iota)
17. underwater love – smoke city (got this from a rebirth of cool cd, kinda nice little song, but gimmicky, boring after a while)
18. gold digger – kanye west (see comment for track 6) (this one's for you david roberts)
19. bigmouth strikes again – the smiths (ahh, the memories)
20. i'm losing my edge – LCD soundsystem from swayzak fabric 11 mix ("I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties." read the full lyrics here, they are too good
21. ukelele - birth glow (my favourite adelaide band, except for women moving furniture of course...)
22. howl - the grates (saturday music)
23. seven army nation - the white stripes (marry me jack)
24. the man from sinaloenese - kronos quartet (manic mexican string quartet, makes me want to jump about an bash a pinata with a stick)
25. the message - cymande from dj andy smith presents the document (got this from mr akira, a brilliant addition to my colection, thanks!)
26. substitute - madonna (confession time: huge madonna fan. one of the first albums i ever bought was like a prayer with the picture of her navel on the over. the middle insert was scented with patchouli)
27. alone together - the strokes (music to turn up loud and thrash about the loungeroom with)
28. horses in my dreams - pj harvey (cheer up pj, its not all that bad)
29. unhooked generation - freda payne from good times 3 with joey and norman jay (disco-funk, a-la jackson 5. so good. if you havent check out the good times compliations, they're a must - norman jay plays the notting hill carnival in london every year, i missed it by only a few weeks last night booooo)
30. ottos journey - mylo (the soundtrack for my travels last year, especially driving around the isle of skye on a macbackpackers mini bus with bri and jamie the tourguide yeahhh!)
ok thats probably enough. think i wrote too much. if you made it this far, congrats and apologies.
x
sorry mark for ripping you off, but then i know you ripped it off someone else anyway...
here goes...
1. know your product - the saints (woohoo great start... rock on!)
2. sunrays – yesterday’s new quintet, from fila brazillia another late night mix (a gorgeous warm and enveloping, perfect for sunday afternoon with a few beers)
3. stylophone pet – moloko (used to love them more, still a fan, roisin murphy totally rocks)
4. influx - dj shadow, from mo’wax royalties overdue (beautiful tripped out smooth sound)
5. la femme d’argent – air (when brett and I went to italy, qantas were playing this as everyone went on and off the planes. so now I associate it with travel, new places, nervous excitement, freedom... sends shivers down my spine)
6. galang – M.I.A. (always makes me wish I could dance like beyonce or missy elliot)
7. heroes – david bowie (love david bowie, though I like a lot of his other songs better than this one. he's one sexy man tho)
8. a song for you – whiskeytown country slow rock (I have absolutely no idea whatsoever how this got on my ipod, must have been from honor, she’s the country-lover!!)
9. only you – portishead (reminds me of art school (same as you mark) but god but I love it)
10. modern romance – yeah yeah yeahs (beautiful fragile new york sound)
11. the groove ep – astrojazz, from a night at the playboy mansion mix (absolute classic disco! love it! i really am a disco chick. i think i rediscovered it due to this album by dimitri from paris. I saw him when he came to adelaide a few years ago but it was really disappointing coz they could have just played his cds ad you wouldn't have known the difference)
12. dauphine – mu-ziq (ok now its getting really interesting. absolutely brilliant old school electronica, never ever ever get sick of it, ever)
13. pearl in – tosca (as in the electronica tosca, not the classic one. a must - check them out)
14. monkey bars – jurassic 5 (unstoppable)
15. je n’ai pas le choix – the mighty bop (one of the first electronic cds I got addicted to, these guys are the best classy french smooth hip hop. perfect seduction music)
16. two darn hot – retroactive (got this track from cds I used to collect from acid jazz magazine back in the mid 90s, still has not aged one iota)
17. underwater love – smoke city (got this from a rebirth of cool cd, kinda nice little song, but gimmicky, boring after a while)
18. gold digger – kanye west (see comment for track 6) (this one's for you david roberts)
19. bigmouth strikes again – the smiths (ahh, the memories)
20. i'm losing my edge – LCD soundsystem from swayzak fabric 11 mix ("I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties." read the full lyrics here, they are too good
21. ukelele - birth glow (my favourite adelaide band, except for women moving furniture of course...)
22. howl - the grates (saturday music)
23. seven army nation - the white stripes (marry me jack)
24. the man from sinaloenese - kronos quartet (manic mexican string quartet, makes me want to jump about an bash a pinata with a stick)
25. the message - cymande from dj andy smith presents the document (got this from mr akira, a brilliant addition to my colection, thanks!)
26. substitute - madonna (confession time: huge madonna fan. one of the first albums i ever bought was like a prayer with the picture of her navel on the over. the middle insert was scented with patchouli)
27. alone together - the strokes (music to turn up loud and thrash about the loungeroom with)
28. horses in my dreams - pj harvey (cheer up pj, its not all that bad)
29. unhooked generation - freda payne from good times 3 with joey and norman jay (disco-funk, a-la jackson 5. so good. if you havent check out the good times compliations, they're a must - norman jay plays the notting hill carnival in london every year, i missed it by only a few weeks last night booooo)
30. ottos journey - mylo (the soundtrack for my travels last year, especially driving around the isle of skye on a macbackpackers mini bus with bri and jamie the tourguide yeahhh!)
ok thats probably enough. think i wrote too much. if you made it this far, congrats and apologies.
x
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