Bit By Grates

A week after the event i've finally gotten around to posting my photos from Bit By Bats and The Grates at Spectrum last Friday. It was an awesome gig. Bit By Bats are one of my new fave bands. They sound like a mix of punk era U2 and your Interpol/Joy Division type sound. Listen to All Night (mp3, 1.5Mb) from their new EP. Nice lads too.

The Grates were also lovely. Their singer Patience must be one of the best frontwomen in Australia. Joyfully dancing and strutting all over the stage.

That pic at the top of the post might be appearing in Rolling Stone's Random Notes section next month. Fingers crossed. And some photos might be appearing in the next issue of Cat magazine too. I only had a couple of minutes to photograph them by the side of the stage, so they're not the best shots in the world.

Anti VSU Protest Rally

Anti VSU Protest Rally
Originally uploaded by dreadfuldan.

I'm testing out the "Blog This" feature in Flickr...

Music makes the people...

I've uploaded over 150 photos from the Come Together Festival into the gallery on my site. I just noticed there's over 4000 photos in my Boudist gallery now. Jeepers.

There's a more manageable 22 photos from Come Together in my Flickr photo set.

The stuff movies are made of

One of my best pals Darren (my sister's husband's brother, who lives in London) just wrote a post on his blog explaining part of the complicated love story between him and his now wife.

Since he's written about it there, i figure it's okay to share it with you over here.

13 years ago Darren, a non-religious white fella met Sara. But there was one seemingly small problem, in his words,

"You see this girl I was seeing happened to be an Indian. And a muslim one at that. I never really paid much thought to that side of the relationship. It didn't matter anyhow.

My girlfriend was juggling a secret life from her parent's because they wouldn't allow any kind of relationship or interaction with boys, let alone a white non-muslim one. "

For over 10 years Darren and Sara saw each other without her parents knowing he existed. The fact that he was a non muslim would have been so unacceptable to Sara's parents that it would have fractured her family. Darren explains her position,

"She had to choose the life her parents wanted for her, one based on tradition, religion and their values against the one she had grown up with, a way of life she wanted.

It didn't fit, the two Worlds were mutually exclusive and no matter what way you try to align them, they wouldn’t go. She would either have to tell them about me and they would disown her or we would have to carry on forever in secret."

The burden of secrecy became too much so they planned a way to hopefully compromise and make their relationship work. Darren, despite being "a strong non-believer in organised religion" converted to Muslim.

To cut a long story short, 3 (or 4?) weddings later, Darren and Sara now seem to have found peace between their families and themselves.

They've just recently had their Muslim wedding, which must've been quite an experience. I was fortunate enough to be at their first wedding last year. Appropriately odd, it was a Buddhist wedding on a beach in Thailand.

Anyway, congrats to the both of them. Their love conquers all story and ultimate happiness makes me so damn happy.

Coming Together

The Come Together Festival on Saturday was a top day out. As you can see from the photo above the weather and scenery were unbeatable. The bands weren't half bad either. I took a bunch of pictures, but for now here's a few kids in the crowd.

Photo taking shiznit

Any Sydney siders attending the rather excellent looking Come Together festival on Saturday ought to keep an eye out for me. I'll be in paparazzi mode looking for interesting people to snap for the social pages in Cat magazine.

It should be good fun, heaps of my fave Aussie acts are playing. I'm expecting one of the highlights to be The Flairz, a three piece from Perth who are all about 11 years old. Rock!

I've also got an assignment to photograph Bit By Bats tonight. I bought myself a new piece of kit especially. Hope it works out.

Sorry to get all serious on you but..

When i heard the story on the radio this morning about a woman blithely flying a Nazi flag in her yard and then watched this distressing BBC slideshow with audio from 1945 of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp it made me sick.

Wednesday Weekend Wrapup

Here is a version of my weekend told in pictures taken along the way.

First up on Friday night was seeing Cut Copy at the Metro. These guys rule. Their record is so groovy it will make you feel hip and happy get your toes tapping.

As you can see the crowd was rather into the music. As the kids say, they were "going off". Man.

Then, surprise surprise, we ended up at the Gaslight and the Judge. I don't know this girl, she just wandered by and caught my eye.

The next night my new best friend was up for a music video award at a ceremony at Fox Studios. Tammin Sursok was there. I don't know who she is either.

After that i ended up at a bar, with a beret on, pretending to be French, charming the ladies.

The next day i went to an oval in St Peters to watch some bands play including one of my favourites The Cops.

I then went visit my very bestest friend elmo in hospital. Thankfully she was in good spirits and seems to finally be on the mend after an unbelievable run of bad health luck.

At some point i was also at a vineyard.

And took a photo of some serious looking dickhead.

The End.

Stuff that's caught my eye

Adobe buys Macromedia - my first reaction is this sucks, less competition means poorer, more expensive products. Some reaction from John Allsopp, Todd Dominey and 37 Signals.

Remix Nine Inch Nails latest single - Trent Reznor is offering a download of the "The Hand That Feeds" in Garageband 2 format. It's the multi-track audio direct from the original Pro Tools mix so you can remix and mess around with the different elements of the song to your hearts content. You will need a Mac with Garageband 2.0 though.

Listen to the new White Stripes single "Blue Orchid"

Download the latest mix from Pop 77

Get well soon Elmo

I've been lazy with the blog, but i have been updating my Flickr photos

Andy Budd discusses the difficulty of job titles and roles in the web industry

My buddies in Acrobat are playing a gig with Phonograph at the Roxbury on Thursday night

A look back at 10 years of the Sydney Morning Herald online

My london based brother in arms is finally blogging

Play

I saw two plays this week. The first was at The Old Fitzroy and was written by and starring Sydney's favourite barfly and sometime actor/writer Toby Schmitz. It was the tale of a washed up teen idol. I liked it. (how good are my reviews!).

I also saw a preview of Democracy at the new Sydney Theatre. It's about the rise and fall of the German chancellor Willy Brandt. It's as moving as it sounds. That is, not very much. I mean it's well acted and the staging is effective but it's altogether unfulfilling. It's 9 men in suits talking politics. It's an interesting historical anecdote but i felt it was drawn out somewhat.

It seemed like i was one of the youngest people at Democracy. Every time i go to a Sydney Theatre Company play the audience seems to be made up of baby boomers and senior citizens. It might explain why the play didn't appeal so much, i guess they choose material that appeals more to the older, monied theatre going audience.

PS. I think all bloggers have those days (or weeks and months) where the inspiration runs dry and you're left without any desire to blog. The uninspired blogger then writes an apologetic post about not blogging. I shan't do that, i'll just plug away.

Teeth trouble

In an apparant act of sympathy for elmo's decrepit teeth my pearly whites have decided to rebel and give me all sorts of grief. On Monday the gum round one of my wisdom teeth swelled up, hurt like buggery and stopped me from being able to chew properly. In my usual manner i expected it to just go away so ignored it. Many painkillers and soft mushy meals later i figured i ought to get it checked out.

So today i went to a dentist, something i haven't done for almost 10 years (the horror!) and it reminded me why i've avoided it all these years. They're always telling you bad news and invariably want to jab or drill things into you or rip things from your delicate flesh.

So now i'm popping 3 pills every meal, two antibiotics and a painkiller. Plus i can't drink alcohol for the next week and bit which puts paid to plans for boozy homecoming celebrations.

I have another appointment on Monday. I just know they're going to tell me i have to have my wisdom teeth pulled. I can't handle the thought. It's barbaric wrenching teeth from gums. I'm such a wimp when it comes to these things.

Rocktographer*

Found out today that SPIN magazine will be using a couple of my SXSW photos in their June issue. Stoked.

I finally uploaded all my SXSW music pics in the gig gallery.

*The rocktographer label was bestowed upon me by old man Kranki who i photographed mercilessly in LA. All hail at the Kranki altar. He rocks more than i photograph.

Things to get you out of the house in Sydney

• 7 & 14 April - Tony Mott talks @ The State Library
• 12 April - The Interpreter + Q&A with Sydney Pollack @ The Valhalla
• 13 April - Carla Werner @ The Basement
• 15th April - Cut Copy @ The Metro
• 22 April - The Grates + Bit By Bats + wolf&cub @ Spectrum
• 22 April - End of Fashion + Faker @ The Annandale
• 23rd April - Come Together Festival @ Luna Park
• 7 May - Wolfmother @ The Gaelic Club
• 17th May - Henry Rollins (Spoken Word) @ York Theatre
• 27 May - Idlewind @ The Metro

If you've got any other ideas leave a comment.

Torn from the USA

The trip is over, i'm back at work. I had such a blast. I met so many wonderful people who opened their doors and arms to me. America gets such a bad wrap from the world, and rightly so, their government is despicable. But all the people i met were warm, generous, fun loving, hospitable, open minded and clever. Perhaps i was lucky but my 3 weeks in Austin, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles left a great impression on me.

In the 6 different places i stayed in America i only had to pay for accommodation in Las Vegas. Everywhere else i was welcomed into the homes of kindly souls. In all but one instance i had never met the people who offered their homes to me. It's bloody marvellous. In two of the places i stayed at the people didn't even lock their doors, i could just wander in and out without a key. All the fear that had been instilled in me about crime in America didn't gel with my experience. The only time i felt afraid was riding a bus late at night through some rather rough neighbourhoods of Chicago. But that was more about my own fears and prejudices than a genuine danger i think.

I'm jetlagged and trying not to let go of the post holiday euphoria. Just wanted to note and thank the lovely people i met along my travels.

I've got hundreds of photos to post, they'll slowly be appearing in the USA 2005 gallery and on my Flickr photostream.

A brief dispatch

Tonight is my last night in the US of A before i hitch a ride with Qantas back to Sydney. I don't have time to blog much right now but i've done Vegas, went to a white wedding, went on a school excursion to the Museum of Contemporary Art, rode a helicopter, a small plane, a limo, a taxi, a bus, a boat and a monorail all in the space of 24 hours, lost some bucks at the Blackjack table, bought 3 new jackets on Melrose Avenue, hung out with LA rockers, laughed my tits off with Kranki and probably lots more that escapes me now.

I've taken a buttload of pictures but internet troubles will keep me from uploading them till i get home.