I reckon our national anthem is a pretty good song, however there are just some cases when you wish the anthem was, say, slighlty more progressive, so when I came across a reference to ABC Comedian Adam Hills perfoming such a version this morning, I had to find myself a copy. A quick search of youtube and there she was in all her beauty 🙂 enjoy.
Walk This Way
Yesterday marked the start of the 2nd week back at uni for me and I am getting used to new lecturers, doing my readings, going over notes and starting to plan my assesment pieces. I am a bit ticked off with one of my classes as the lecturer said at the first lecture last week, that he should have the reading brick put together in the next couple of weeks! Dude, based on the fact that reading bricks are designed to have the readings that accompany each weeks lecture, they should be ready for week 1, week 2 at the latest. grr.
These are three things that I am loving at the moment.
Strawberries. Fresh, sweet and flavoursome Queensland Strawberries. Strawberry season also means that the Ekka is fast approaching and that means strawberry sundaes and fireworks.
Hayseed Dixie. I am a big fan of the cover version and these guys with their “rockgrass” versions of classic rock songs produce some of the best covers I have heard in a while.
The Mountain Goats. Well I have loved these two guys for over a year now and in a mere 20 days their new album Get Lonely is released. I can’t wait to hear the other songs after listening to Wild Sage on NPR’s All Songs Considered.
And this is one thing that makes me so incredibly happy.
West Papuan David Wainggai is finally set to receive a TPV (Temporary Protection Visa) after the Refugee Review Tribunal overturned the original Department of Immigration ruling that granted visa’s to the 42 other West Papuan’s who landed on Cape York in January. I can’t describe how happy I was when I first heard it on the news and later read it in the paper. Justice Comes Ashore. Govt weighs appeal against Papuan visa decision.
After I had done my school work yesterday I sat down and had a little play.
I like rain on a tin roof
I like rain on a tin roof,
only when you’re deep in my arms.
The sound of rain on a tin roof
reminds me of the beat of your heart.
And I like rain on a tin roof,
takes me back to something I started.
I like rain on a tin roof,
Baby it’s all right, all right,
It’s all right, I’m inside.
– Tin Roof
women in docs
Last night I went to one of the most magical shows I have ever seen. There are two main things that make a show magical for me; they are great storytelling lyrics and lots of band/audience interaction. A band can play great music but if they just rock out on their stage and don’t interact with the crowd telling stories or making jokes the show looses a lot of interest for me.
Last night was purely magical because amongst other things these two things happened with both bands that played.
As part of the Brisbane Festival a series of free 9:30pm concerts have been running in the Spiegeltent after the main concert has played. Last night the 7:30pm concert was the amazing songstress Kate Miller-Heidke which was also broadcast on ABC QLD radio which when I heard it was been broadcast I ran around the house finding a tape and a tape recorder so I could “podcast” the show later. I have listened to parts of it already and am reminded of just what an amazing voice she has. Pure Magic. Just before the live broadcast started Steve Austin mentioned that the 9:30pm concert tonight was The Genes and women in docs and that all those people in SE QLD who could get to the Spiegeltent in King George Square by 9:30pm should. I made a decision that and after waiting so many years I was going to go and finally see women in docs live. I am so glad I went.
The Genes played first for about 1hr and a pretty rocking three piece of two brothers and their drummer. Lots of super cool songs with some great lyrics and plenty of harmonica. One of the songs that stood out was one that was all about surfing and the sequence of events from throwing on the wetsuit and running down the sand to the waves.
Then shortly after 10:30pm a band came on that I have been wanting to see since 1999 when their self-titled debut EP was released and like many others I fell in love with the song “Tin Roof” and the other five superbly written songs on it. I can tell you that since 1999 “Tin Roof” is one song that has always stuck in my head and I often find myself humming the song or when we get heavy rain and I can hear it on the tiles I sing a couple of lines from “Tin Roof”. Due to a number of reasons it has taken me seven years to see them live. Seven years of built up waiting meant that the show meant so much for me. I sat on my seat, clapping, swaying or singing along with the rest of the crowd as magic was created before our eyes.
For a band that got off a plane from North America 10hrs before they played I was more than impressed. From their classics to their newer stuff and some pretty rocking covers during their movie game section they played an amazing set. The movie game section is where they talked about who would play them in a movie of their life, what sort of movie it would be and what the theme song would be. When each of the band had talked about what their choices were, they would play the theme song. The “theme song” that got the most the laughs was when the drummer Geoff Green said he would be played by Hugh Jackman but he had to make a point clear, it would be Hugh Jackman Wolverine style (muscles and beard) not Hugh Jackman Boy from Oz style (maracas) in response to this they played Dancing Queen which definitely not Hugh Jackman Wolverine style.
There was lots of harmonica provided Roz, heaps of laughs provided by both Chanel and Roz as well as some kick ass fiddle and keyboards by Silas Palmer and rocking drums by Geoff Green. There was heaps of talking between the songs about the songs or about past experiences. When they finally finished playing shortly before midnight, I picked up a copy of their most recent CD red wine and postcards and drove home with a smile on my face as I put the CD in and let it play.
You can listen to three of their tracks at OzTrax as well as sample from their first two EPs on the samples section of their website.
Hello Holiday
So the Socceroos didn’t get up, we only lost by two against Brazil and Japan-Croatia tied with no goals, which means that we still look good for the next round.
I did my last exam for the semester yesterday, now I just have to wait for the results to come rolling in, even though grades are not announced until July 5, I already know that I have gotten two distinctions (6) and I think I might get another two yet and one credit (5) if I manage to pull this off, it will be my best semester at uni ever. One of those distinctions would have been a high distinction if I had not done miserably (11/20) on the mid-semester. Bring on next semester (which is my last semester of my undergraduate Bachelors degree)!
I watched three DVDs yesterday. The first was with Mum – Hope Springs, quite a nice romantic comedy and the character played by Minnie Driver was just a total piece of work. The second was with Mum and Matthew – Do You Remember?: Fifteen Years of the Bouncing Souls, which was a really great doco about The ‘Souls which made me think I really should have gone with Matthew and his friends to see them when the played the other month. The last one I watched was Speak, this was an incredible movie, I didn’t think it would be anywhere near as dark as it was but it was just incredibly moving.
Bring on five weeks of holidays and try to forget that this time last year we were busy preparing for the Palsson Grand Iceland Tour of 2005, I guess though in four years times we will all do our best to make our way back as a family for the quinquennial clan gathering.
I have plans of grandeur to fill my holidays with, which include the following.
- Make this top – Simplicity 4589, view A
- Make pasta
- Finish the final testing of a new blog template
- Attack the ever increasing pile of recipes to try and make a good number of them
- Learn how to knit – Continental style (Mum was taught English style like most Australian’s but thinks it would be better for me to learn Continental style as it is so more efficient, she talks of when she was in Iceland and like most of the other women spent a lot of time knitting by hand or with their machines and how the Icelandic women were just powerhouses with their knitting, maybe I can talk her into paying for me to go to Iceland these holidays to learn how to knit?)
- Get a fair stack of scrapbooking done
- Make a couple of bags
- Get my bike serviced so I can start riding again
- Go on a couple of mini photographic expeditions
- Go see Trivia at the Metro Arts
- Go see Death Cab for Cutie at the Arena
- The Brisbane Flickr meet up on Sunday
- Get a couple of photos printed and mounted for a long overdue birthday present
- Have fun
- Work a heap
- Organise some sort of filing system for the clippings I collect
- Hit up the shops/life with Andrea
- Party hard(ish) with Sam
- Play copious amounts of Gamecube with Matthew
- Organise something with The Girls from school
- Read all the books in this monstrous stack I have – five different trips to the library and the four I need to finish beside my bed (if you click on the photo you can see it full size so you can have a “browse” of my library shelf)
The real question is how much of this list will I actually get through and how much I won’t finish.
dance better at parties mixtape
I don’t know about you but I love making mixtapes (ok cds), picking a theme, choosing the songs, deciding on the order and then designing the case.
This was one I made last week for the birthday of a friend. I had a few different ideas for the mix but then it morphed into this idea of 22 songs that will help you dance better at parties, if you can dance to the 22 different songs listed you will be the life of the party, although you probably are already but that is not the point.
The front cover is made from advertising material and some Making Memories wordfetti stickers. As can be seen from the back cover the entire thing is in a vellum slip case but I can’t show you the front because that would give away the secret of who is receiving it :). The back cover is made from flattened out cocktail umbrellas (I bought a box of 100 a while ago because they are so cool :D). The note on the bottom says that this CD is designed to be played one song at a time. Pick your mood and learn how to dance. 🙂
Song list is as follows
- Repeat it (Eric Prydz vs Retarded Phunk – Callin’)
- Have Some Praise (B(If)teck – We Think You’re Dishy)
- Sing it (Ute Lemper – Don’t Tell Mama)
- Shake it (unknown artist – typcial belly dancing song)
- Grab the Hairbrush (The Beu Sisters – You Make Me Feel Like A Star)
- Swing it (Acker Bilk – White Cliffs of Dover)
- Skank it (Reel Big Fish – Sell Out)
- Croon it (Rúnar Freyr GÃÂslason og Selma Björnsdóttir – Sumarnótt)
- Whip it (Devo – Whip It)
- Articulate it (Luciano Pavarotti – Le Donna E. Mobile)
- Bend it (Panjabi MC – Mudian to Bach Ke)
- Remember it (The Mountain Goats – Dance Music)
- Stamp it (James Last – Hava Nagila)
- Drag Queen (ABBA – Dancing Queen)
- Beat it, Break it (The Herd – I Was Only 19)
- Funk it (Michael Franti and Spearhead – Rock the Nation)
- Trance it (Air – Sexy Boy)
- Line it (Ike and Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits)
- Get Down (Black Eyed Peas – Dirty Dancing)
- Chill it (Bernard Fanning – Wish You Well)
- Hunt it (Karen Kamon – Manhunt)
- Love it (Beyonce – Crazy in Love)
That is it.
I am feeling so much better today :D, less coughs, less snot and less phlegm. Yeah!
This is Kosovo/Iceland Calling
The title comes from a song by Aussie singer John Willamson called “This is Australia Calling”
Tuesday morning I had a nice phone call from one of my older brothers who is probably the world’s best air traffic controller (well at least he is in my book :)). He is currently in Kosovo where he has been on and off for it must be a couple of years now working at the Pristina airport initially as part of the NATO mission in Kosovo (KFOR) and now with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). It was great to have a nice long chat with him about life in Kosovo, his family, our life in Australia and all the usual chit chat we do. Out of 8 of us Toti and I are the only ones who share a similar first/middle name. His first name is Þórður and my middle name is Þura which is a short version of ÞurÃÂður. Þor (Thor) was the son of Odin.
This morning, my big brother Karl rang to thank me for his very late Christmas/early Birthday present. It was great to talk to him about all the random things we normally talk about, life in Iceland, my uni stuff, all that fun stuff. Sometime round the 1996/1997 he was given the CD – Hype! Surviving The Northwest Rock Explosion – The Motion Picture Soundtrack. Let me tell you that CD had extremely heavy rotation on the Palsson Washing Up Radio.
Some time early this year I was walking past a local music/dvd chain and starting right at me was the Hype! DVD and with no second thought I knew I had to buy it and send it to Karl. It sat on my entry table for a couple of months until I got off my backside and sent it to him earlier this month. It arrived in Iceland the other day. 😀
Both the DVD and Soundtrack are fantastic and you should check them out. Ever since we first listened to the CD, it was the two songs by The Fastbacks that have really stuck with me through the years and when I got my new phone, one of the first ringtones I made for it was a sample from The Fastbacks song – Just Say.