Mum and I went to the see Waitress tonight as part of a 612ABC sneak preview for the upcoming BIFF (Brisbane International Film Festival). I am looking forward to BIFF as this year I am actually going to go to some of the movies been shown. I have highlighted I think 35 odd movies that I like the look of. However, as of next week I am getting an extra 8 hours a week at work, which I will enjoy for the money side of matters but since I do work at night it is going to cut into my planned BIFF time.
The waitress was a crack up of a movie, it was sad in parts but other parts just had you laughing and laughing and laughing. And gosh some of those pies that she made up just looked and sounded incredible. Kerri Russell was delightful and a much more developed actress than she was in the last movie I saw with her in Mad About Mambo. However it was the supporting cast that really made the movie for me. Joe the grumpy old man who owns the pie shop, Earl the husband who is not much of a husband, the two other waitresses Becky and Dawn, Ogie the guy who just doesn’t give up and so much more. It was a really great movie with just the right amount of quirk in it. I would like to make a couple of the pies mentioned in the movie and in particular the “Earl Murders Me Because I’m Having An Affair Pie” which as per Jenna’s commentary is “You smash blackberries and raspberries into a chocolate crust.†mmmmm.
The night was going so well until we tried to pay at the parking on our way. In short close to 45minutes and numerous phone calls later we managed to get out of the parking as the machines were extremely poorly designed and don’t like any coins that aren’t minty fresh. One guess who I am ringing in the morning to give a piece of my mind to.
This year the ABC turns 75 and what better way than a party at the riverstage with a sway of ABC personalities and entertainment for the kids (Bananas in Pajamas, Fireman Sam etc) and music and comedy for the big kids (The Boat People, Troy Cassar-Daly, Craig Reucassel from The Chaser, Scared Wierd Little Guys, Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur and The Great Debate).
I have mentioned before how much a large part of my life the the ABC has been both the radio, tv and now the internet. That is why there would be nothing holding me back from going along for the show. Was a really great day and a perfect 3rd concert for my 4 concerts in 4 days weekend.
First up on show were local lads The Boat People. I remember hearing a lot of these fellas back in the end of Highschool/early Uni when I was listening to 4ZZZ a fair bit. Since then I don’t think I have consciously listened to them. This meant that I was blown away quite nicely on Sunday arvo.
Scared Weird Little Guys
I have only been exposed to the Scaredies once before and that was on Music Tour in year 12 when Ms Jabs played the Macadamia EP on the bus and we were all curled up our seats doing the actions. It was a funny event. With their matching suits, mis-matching heights and some rather topical lyrics they proved a hit with all members of the audience. At one stage they were siniging three songs between them (Summer Nights, Louie Louie and X) whilst the crowd sung Wild Thing (all four songs have the same basic chords in them)
Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur
I have heard a lot about The Aunty Jack show over the years but this was my first exposure and they were pretty funny.
Craig Reucassel from The Chaser
Of The Chaser guys, Chas takes out first place for my favourite and Craig is a close second. Having him up to muse out the next 75 years of the ABC/Australia and what is happening currently was rather funny. His prediction is that in 75 years time John Howard will still be PM and Maxine McKew will be opposition leader (which thinking about now is rather flawed sine Maxine is running against Howard for the seat of Bennelong). To finish off his segment he picked out people in the audience with Andrew Hansen hair, the crowd then voted for the person who had the most Andrew Hansesn like hair (read weird) and they had to sing a closing song for the segment. The girl who won though by her own admission had a few drinks under the belt and really should have thought more I thought about what words she lets out her mouth at such a day. Moving right along…
The Great Debate.
This was quite an event and a lot of fun. The question of the debate was “Are interviews more important than music?” in regards to radio. Heading the affirmative team was 612 ABC’s drive presenter Kelly Higgins-Devine with John from the Scaredies and Craig Reucassel from The Chaser. Heading the negative team was AM presenter Tony Eeastly with Rosie Beaton from Triple J/jTV and Rusty from the Scaredies. It was really amusing to listen and watch and at the end of the day the crowd decided that interviews were more important than music.
Troy Cassar-Daly
Troy is a bit of a legend in the Australian country music scene, everyone knows who he is and it was great to see him live for the first time. He really got the crowd going with lots of participation which was really good.
At the moment I am listening to Confusion, a collection of unreleased live songs by Elliott Smith. It is a really great collection of his songs which have never been released and the sound quality is amazing. Pure Elliott. I hope to get the new album New Moon when I go to work on Saturday, I have listened to a few songs off it on various MP3 blogs and the album’s myspace and I am very much waiting to listen to the 2 CDs through.
I watched two really great TV shows in the past week (both on the ABC of course) , the first was Wildlife in a Warzone which looked at how wildlife numbers are coping in Sierra Leone as well a curious first trip home in fifteen years for the “host” Sanjayan Muttulingam. All in all very interesting, especially finding out that since the end of the civil war in 2002 personal ownership of guns has been banned in SL, which has had a secondary effect of reducing the number of protected animals that were been hunted. The other was of course BastardBoys, a dramatised telling of the 1998 waterfront dispute, I felt that it was really well put together and can see it picking up a few awards this year. Of course it caused a lot of debate round the net, in the papers, on the radio etc as to if it was Howard Bashing and free advertising for Labor or using it as an example of the bias in the ABC it went on and on.
I went for a walk to Aldi today and took this photo on the way there. It is the Chermside Bowls Club that is just round the corner from our house and in a couple of week we are having a barefoot bowls day there for work, which will be heaps of fun 🙂
Mum is up at IBISCA this weekend having fun looking after a group of high school kids who were awarded bursaries to attend for the weekend. The house as a result has been quiet. Yesterday I worked all day and then went out to a local pub with a bunch of people at work to celebrate two of the girls turning 40. That was the first time I had gone out with people from work since most of the “old school” night fill people had left, it was a very different scene mainly in the reversing of the gender ratios, going from two or three girls and a heap of guys to a heap of girls and two or three guys.
Went out for a long bike ride this morning which was really good, it has been a while since I have gone on a long ride. I went out a bit later than I had planned to. I had planned on getting up at 6am and heading out but I didn’t get out of bed till 7ish and got out the (garage) door close to 8. I was dead tired from having a late night last night but it was a case of well if I don’t go I will never go and then I would be a slacker. Which is not something I want to be.
I made biscuits this arvo between watching a tape of Rockwiz from last night (I like Spicks and Specks for the comedy but as a music quiz show Rockwiz is way cooler). Deni Hines was a crack up! Before tea, I made a batch of mixed berry muffins which will be frozen and taken out one at time when in need of something for morning tea at work or a snack on the run.
It is stock take this week at work which means instead of only getting up one morning at 4:18 to start at 5am, I will be doing it twice maybe three times since I can’t remember my roster. I have nothing against starting work at 5am, the store is quiet with everyone hard at work and customer free till we open at 8am. The issue I have a problem with is the sun and when it decides to get out of bed. There are 52 weeks in the year and only 9 or so of those weeks does the sun decide to rise above the horizon before or as I start pedalling my bike to work. Riding to work in the dark whilst that does not worry me, it can be rather depressing when you are cycling to work and not even the birds have started their morning singing.
I picked up the recent Po’Girl CD yesterday on my lunch break. Po’Girl were one of those cool bands that I discovered at Woodford. I am really impressed with the CD, I have listened to it through a couple of times and I’m happy. Hearing those clarinet strains and those harmonies takes me right back to Woodford. sigh, Those were the days my friends lol.
I have worked full-time this week as my boss has been on holidays so the 2iC and I each got to step up in our roles. I look forward to my paycheck as 36/37odd hours on a casual rate is very nice even after the tax is taken out. Working that much this week has sort of put my job hunt on hold but I sort of look forward to getting back into the job hunt because I really want to find a job soonish.
Mum, I and some friends are heading off for a 4-day canoe trip in the morning so that will put the hunt on hold for a couple of days. We are paddling down Teewah Ck and Upper Noosa River to Elanda Point on Lake Cootharaba. The last time we did this trip was the summer of 2001/02 so it will be nice to see how it has changed and of course to get out on the water for a paddle. (This map shows the general area we are paddling in. To give a sense of scale, Lake Cootharaba is a about 11km from tip to tip.)
I went out for Low Tea earlier today with Ms Andrea to Queenies Tea House at Ascot and had a delightful time, chatting and eating and chatting and eating. I had a Chocolate Low Tea which gave me a selection of little chocolate treats like little tartlets, mousse, fudge etc with quite a nice pot of Organic Ceylon Pekoe. Andrea was very dainty and had the Traditional Low Tea which gave her a trio of ribbon sandwiches, some sweets and a few cherries. Her tea selection was a Japanese Sencha Quince which to me tasted like marshmallows. I am serious! After a leisurely “lunch” we looked in the windows of the shops on Racecourse Rd as they are all shut on Sundays and saw quite a few pretty things 🙂
I should mention that a little over a week ago Mum and I went into the State Library to see the National Treasures exhibition before it closed and that was wonderful to see. Seeing Ned Kelly’s mask, Willis’s pistol, draft designs of the Sydney Opera House, Bradman’s Bat, design sheets of the classic EH Holden, Cpt Cook’s journal from the Endeavour, gorgeous artwork from the colonial era as well as some incredible botanical and zoological artwork and so much more. I urge you to explore the National Treasures webpage even if you aren’t Australian just to see some of the incredible things in the exhibition.
One of the first things you see in the exhibition is Jacob Cuyp’s painting of Abel Tasman with his wife and daughter. I dropped my jaw at the work of the restorers as this painting looked like it was painted yesterday not in 1637, the colours were so vivid and fresh.
When I wrote this earlier this arvo I didn’t think I would have a photo to share with this but whilst I was letting the post mature and thinking about a title (Untitled I?) I did a little chalk art out on the street much to my father’s disgust. The lady across the street and Mum appreciated my art though 🙂
I was going to do a 🙂 but my circle at the start went slightly pear shaped as you can see. Instead I ended up with just a face.
Mum and I also went to see The Queen last night and what a fantastic movie it was. I can definitely see it picking up a large swag of awards. Wow.
Several months ago as I was driving Sam home from her 21st present, she told me what I would need to do for her present to me. Which was basically just keep a night free, well with uni over for the year, I thought last night was a perfect night to take her up on the offer. I was then told that we had to be there are 6:30pm and it would take about 1hr to get there, so I sat and thought “I wonder what she has planned?”. On Monday when we were chatting Sam told me that I could wear whatever I wanted as there was no dress code. This got me thinking more and then the rest of the family popped in with suggestions as to what we could be doing. They ranged from going to the beach for Fish and Chips, actually only going 5mins down the road because Sam told me 1hr to confuse me, not actually going anywhere but just cruising the streets in Sam’s little Festiva or going to the Yatala Twin Drive-In.
My last guess was what we ended up doing. Many many months ago Sam and I were chatting and it came up that I have never gone to a Drive-In and she filed that little piece of information away for a later date :). Before we made the drive down we stocked up on a variety of different sugar sources to ensure that we would have a night of sugar induced hysterics, which we did of course end up having.
We were unsure of what the traffic would be like on the way down so we left a bit early and ended up having a long snack stop at Yatala Pies waiting for 6:30 to come around which is when the gates opened. We were both unsure how many people would be there since it was a Tuesday night and were quite surprised at how quickly the place filled up. The first movie we watched was Borat which was a total crack up and then A Good Year which was a decent yarn. Then it was home time and we cruised back up the M1 home with plans of future road trips we should do. Thanks Sam for a fantastic 21st present 🙂
