events here and there

So it's been a pretty busy week here in Forest Hill land.

My parents moved house on Monday. They moved to a little place north of Mansfield called Lima East. The house is pretty cool - 6 acres worth - and doesn't need much maintenance. They have been back and forth between the house since then, and are here for the weekend. But by the weekend of Australia Day they should be up in the country for good. Which means Leigh and I scored big time!

Anyway, I will update this blog a little further with details and photos of the move, the day I found gold (and a few other things) behind my bed in the clean up process, as well as our day of trawling the eastern suburbs op shops in hope of a decent lounge suite and some furniture. We did find something actually - $130 for a half decent lounge suite and some couches...Croydon Salvos all the way. Many photos and stories to come...

But in the meantime, Liverpool look like they will unfortunately be going without Lucas Neill now after West Ham offered him a $125,000 AU a week deal with an "escape" clause where he is free to leave should they be relegated. It's an enticing offer, and makes the situation more intriguing.

Given Neill is under contract, Rovers still hold all the cards and are free to deal with anyone.

This West Ham offer appears to be Neill's number 1 preference, however Blackburn look like they will push for a replacement defender to cover Neill. And this is where West Ham may fail, and where Liverpool hold their chance to sign him - The Reds have already have offered bench defender Stephen Warnock for Neill, and if West Ham can't produce a player for the Rovers, the deal will fall through and he'll end up at Anfield.

For my team's sake (and Australian football in general), I'd love to see him at Liverpool. However the Reds have played hard ball with Blackburn and their offer is realistically a joke. For Blackburn's sake I hope West Ham come up with a decent offer.

In other football news, one of my favourite EPL players Lee McCulloch has asked to move on from Wigan. It's a similar situation to Neill in that the player wants out and the deals coming forward are ridiculous and insulting. It is good to see a club like Wigan and a young manager like Paul Jewell standing up to powers like Rangers. £700,000 is way too small a price for a man who is regularly on the scoresheet and a Wigan stalwart since they promoted two seasons ago.

Liverpool v Chelsea tonight...looking like it'll be a cracker!

...!

Jose tipped to leave Blues
From Russie with love

Reports that current Chelsea coach, Jose "blank expression" Mourinho will be leaving the club, and his replacement could potentially be Guus Hiddink. Would be a massive blow to any other club around the world, not the least Australia and Russia.

Here's hoping Guus doesn't move to Chelsea. If anyone could put Guus' grand plans into action, it's the technically sound Chelsea, but the rest of the world need his help to break even.

recycled water?

"With technology advancing, the recycling of water should be always on the agenda as a realistic water supply option for communities." - Ken Matthews, chairman of the National Water Commission.

I got into a comparably serious discussion, compared to subjects we usually talk about, with some pals last night about our water crisis and recycled water. And then this appeared in today's Age.

I honestly have no problem at all with drinking recycled water. Obviously it is ideal if we can manage our dwindling supplies well enough so that we don't have to use it at all, but even a blind man could tell that really isn't a plausible option. The stark reality is that by this time next year there will be some major changes in place regarding where our water comes from.

My logic, however basic it may be, is that in a city of just under four million people, recycled water would not be made available if it hadn't been treated, tested and the process repeated several times before it came through our taps, and then filtered again by paranoid home owners who spend their hard earned on installing home filters just to be sure. If such a large scale project was going to go ahead, it wouldn't be implemented unless it was 100% safe.

I wonder what kind of approval rating it would have had there not been a media campaign to label it as "effluent" and "sewage". I mean, somewhere along the line people have gotten the idea that it contains human waste, how on earth could that have happened...

Surely the first logical step also is to use recycled water in industry initially (industry uses one-third of our drinking water supplies), and if our catchments and dams still can't handle the urban, household population then consider further recycling for domestic use.

If the pro-recycling water information was as easy to comprehend as the anti-recycling propaganda is to distribute, maybe approval levels would be higher. Does anyone actually realise how dire the situation is?

where would we be without him?

Momofuku Ando, dubbed as the "Ramen King" has died at age 96. His fame: he is the man that apparently invented instant noodles.

Imagine taking credit for something like that? A simple food like that. I wonder if he had never thought of instant noodles, would we be eating them today?

Even if it's Mi Goreng, Maggi or Home Brand, think of Momofuku when you eat your noodles next. Truly a man among men.

there was feasting and dancing in Richmond last night

I'll get my resentment out of the way first: they didn't play Dilaudid, Lion's Teeth, Up The Wolves or the beautiful Pale Green Things, a song about how simple life can really be.

My resentment ends there. The Mountain Goats were amazing.

After last night it's my thinking that a good show isn't just what goes on on stage. It's the crowd, the venue, but most importantly the approach the act takes: are they up there to just put on a show, or are they happy to make everyone in the venue feel a part of what's going on. I've never seen anyone enjoy themselves on stage as much as John Darnielle, which made you think that he was amazed at what he was seeing as much as the near-full Corner Hotel was. It was an intimate affair.

They opened with Wild Sage, a low tempo song with a crunching chorus. The Mountain Goats would be one of the few acts that could open with a lack of melody and have the crowd marveling at proceedings, grinning insanely at what would be coming. On Darnielle's behalf you couldn't tell if he was crying, laughing or acting. Eccentric twitches accompanied a dark and beautiful voice and an intense opening performance. I lent over to Andy and said "well, this is awkward". You didn't know how to react, but you undoubtedly loved it.

By the second song You or Your Memory it was evident at how big The Sunset Tree had become in Australia, largely driven by the catchy anthem This Year and Triple J's whoring of it. The gentle album opener had the biggest sing-a-long since Rise Against's Swing Life Away, much to the unexpected pleasure of Darnielle who stood back and exclaimed "wow". The second indication of this was when the first two chords of Song For Dennis Brown were strung and the subsequent cheer that went up for the simple song about watching life at its most basic:

on the day that dennis brown's lung collapsed, spring rain was misting down on kingston.
and down at the harbor, local cops were intercepting an inbound shipment.
and for a while there it was chaos
as they handcuffed and then roughed up some sailors.

on the day that dennis brown's habits caught up with him, school children sang in choirs.
and out behind the Chinese restaurants
guys were jumping into dumpsters.

One of the highlights for me was Magpie, an upbeat song full of sharp chords that forced Darnielle to use a cheat sheet. Before starting the song he acknowledged "and I know I'm on the wrong side of town to play this". The song is lyrically full of metaphors and is over in two minutes, but has a delicate, string plucking melody combined with faster, bolder chords that you can't help but admire.

He even stopped the gig midway to announce that he would be stopping the party to play Get Lonely, a song that barely rises above a whimper but the one that Darnielle had the most to say about (and there was a lot of talking about the inspiration for each song in the set). Hughes on bass barely did anything bar plucking at three strings every other minute, and you could sense that this was John's song, and that he had to play it. As if anyone minded. On the contrary rather you appreciated the level at which he felt his music.

Catchy as all fuck, The Mountain Goats have songs that are lyrically brilliant, telling stories about every day happenings as well as visiting experiences from Darnielle's past. No acoustic band would talk about death as much as Darnielle and even the songs I didn't know - No Children (a favourite for a small pocket of the crowd), The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton, Half Dead and a few more - were instantly recognisable and songs you couldn't help but smiling at, even if that smile was at how much Darnielle appreciated what he had written.

Despite only owning one album and a handful of songs, it was one of most inclusive, amazing experiences I've had at a gig.

tomorrow, this year

So tomorrow I am seeing The Mountain Goats, an accoustic folk duo made up primarily of singer/songwriter John Darnielle, with Peter Hughes on bass.

There's a certain serenity with Darnielle's lyrics, and acoustic in general. Like a lot of punk is political, and pop punk seems fascinated with ex-girlfriends and girls in general, acoustic seems intent on telling stories, relying on the simpler things in life to provide laid back sounds.

I'd happily tell anyone they are a band I seriously rate, but it's hard to really pinpoint what it is about them. What does stand out though is that Darnielle's experiences that shine through on 2005's "The Sunset Tree" aren't exactly what you would expect from an infectiously catchy acoustic band - subjects such as domestic violence, death and bane existence in uninspiring lives are all touched on in The Sunset Tree. I guess he succeeds by effortlessly changing the tone of his unique, but oh so American, voice.

I found this article intriguing about Darnielle's approach to his lyrics - while his past albums would feature characters, talking about his life through a third, distant person, The Sunset Tree, and one assumes Get Lonely (his latest offering) as well, saw him change direction and speak from a first person narrative.

I'll say I'm heaps looking forward to tomorrow night. It's bound to be an intimate affair with a much older crowd than me, but I can tell you now it'll be one of the most honest shows I'll see this year (Mountain Goats pun intended).

a picture tattoo says 1000 words

Dropkick Murphys 2007 tour

So at the Melbourne show

i might actually keep this one...

So my new years resolution was to revive this blog and keep it updated.

Here it goes.

Welcome to 2007.

As well as a hangover, January 1 brings the opening of voting for Triple J's Hottest 100. I'll vote in due time, after people have made a few more suggestions and the list grows bigger.

Current shoe-ins for my 10 songs of the year are the Infadels with either Topboy or Jagger 67, but I'll post my selections soonish.

Hope 2007 brings the best of memories and the most success :)