waitingman: (Still Waiting)
But I'm only just home, so it counts as the day before...

An odd day ~ starting out rainy'n'windy & more conducive to staying at home, so we did. Then, as the weather improved, we headed out to our various engagements... the Loved One to a wedding & reception & I to a catch-up over drinks & eventual dinner with an erstwhile workmate I've been promising to meet since mid-December last year

The three of us wound up in the North Annandale Hotel shortly before their turf-out time. Now home, perchance to get some sleep before the first day at the new job...
waitingman: (Mother's Milk)
A rainy day... so I didn't feel too bad about sleeping in. Trouble was, lethargy then followed me around for most of the day, clutching at my ankle like a ball & chain. No reason I can think of... just because

The Einstürzende Neubauten gig was a great one ~ must chase up some of the albums I've missed over the years, though I did recognise a lot of the pieces played last night. Met an erstwhile drummer outside the theatre afterwards ~ other than a few faces which seemed familiar from many 'alternative' gigs over many years, he was the only person I knew who turned up. That I know of...

Now... bed & a book
waitingman: (Happy Days)
A low-key day, a late breakfast at our new local Café, then a quiet afternoon at home before dinner this evening with some friends visiting from the UK, where they moved to a couple of years ago

They're staying with a relative in Annandale ~ your typical late 19th, early 20th century single-storey terrace off the main street, with postage-stamp sized back yard just big enough for a beagle to run around in. Barbecued lamb & a selection of tasty salads were the bill of fare... A good night. Our friends were always good for interesting conversations & it got late too early... Hopefully we'll see them again before they return home

More interviews tomorrow...
waitingman: (Looking at you)
Finally made it to a beach this Summer... Sort of

Coming home from running errands the other day, I had the point'n'shoot camera with me &, having been pretty much stuck at home for most of the week, decided to stay out of the house for a little while longer & drove down to the little inner-harbour beach at the bottom of our hill, got my feet wet & took a couple of photos

Ebb Tide

Dinner tonight with friends at a new-ish Chinese restaurant in Ashfield. It's a new place, but it's run by the son of the owner of the one I've been going to for about twenty years. He's even swiped their main chef... cheeky sod. As such, many things on the menu are the same as his Mum's place, but we tried some of his new dishes & made enthusiastic noises. When he asked me if I preferred his place or his Mum's, I said I'd let him know in twenty years

That said, our friends enjoyed it & we ate plenty
waitingman: (Bubble Gun)
Dinner with friends at an Indian restaurant this evening... Should be interesting, given the reaction my plumbing system has had to subcontinental delights the last couple of times...

Which is extremely annoying, as Indian has been my favourite cuisine for as long as I can remember, so to have it play havoc downstairs is a worry. I don't want to give it up the way I've had to give up orange juice, pineapple juice, dairy milk (mostly) & sundry other things I used to enjoy

And so to bed, to wait...
waitingman: (Too Darned Hot)
Things are heating up again in the old town...

A domestic day with various duties, then dinner this evening with bits of the family-in-law at my long-time favourite Chinese restaurant, which has had a facelift since the last time I was there, increasing the seating capacity, but it was still absolutely chockers when we arrived. Thank the Loved One for booking a table...

Now, struggling with dumpling belly. A couple of aspirin & an early night, methinks
waitingman: (I'm All Ears)
And so ~ seven days into my Exile from the mean streets of the Marketplace

Let's first backtrack to last Friday, when I spent the afternoon both chasing & pushing pieces of paper around, had a much-longer-than-expected talk with a prospective employer whom I'd visited only on spec, then played a second gig in my low-key return to musical pursuit & performance. Having stood in line at the local MissingCentreLink office for 30 minutes, it eventually transpired that all I needed could be done on the phone. Thence to the most convoluted opening of a new bank account I could imagine... Why do they need so much ID from someone who wants to give them money?

The conversation-which-became-an-interview was with the owner of a business that, 'til last Thursday, was in competition with me but now represents a possible lifeline. Sure, it was Friday afternoon & it wasn't too busy, but two hours talk & a beer was a lot more than I'd expected. Having refused the beer because I was playing a gig that night, my former competitor said he'd picked me as a musician not long after I'd walked in. Now, I've seen myself in the mirror often enough to know I don't have any instruments tattooed on me, nor do I wear a neon sign labelling me... so how do so many people I've met all seem to know that I'm a 'Musician'? And what is it about that pastime/preoccupation that makes it so remarkable to them?

The same was true of the gig that evening ~ a corporate 'Awards Night' for the advertising arm of a major media group, held at the Function Centre at Taronga Zoo. Plenty of wildlife was on display, but it was all in various degrees of fancy dress. Our singer/songwriter works for the conglomerate & had snared not only the gig, but places at a table, drinks & a three-course meal for her guitarists. And again, her colleagues were impressed that the two guys not in costume were 'musicians'... even though any one of them earns more than I do

Our five songs were performed against a cacophony of cutlery & conversation, with polite applause. My only complaints were that we had no monitors to hear ourselves & that we were called up to play just as I was about to sink my teeth into the pork belly entrée which, of course, had been removed by the time we returned to the table

The annual Coffee Festival at the Rocks on Sunday was overcrowded & underwhelming. Queuing for fifteen minutes for a dribble of espresso, then being barged into by the Great Unwashed & their double prams from all directions does not make for a grand day out. The Loved One & I agree it was probably our last attendance

Otherwise, the Jobseeker carousel spins ever around with its jaunty music & painted smiles. How many people want to run away from the Circus, I wonder?
waitingman: (Droopy!)
Oh look... my Journal... I'd forgotten about that!

Pretty quiet 'round here though, so it's not like my Reader has been missing much. Highlights of the last week or so include being told I was funny by John Bluthal... which is a bit of an honour, really. For me, it's like the compliment came from Spike Milligan, once removed. I was called eccentric tonight too, but not by anyone as noteworthy... & possibly not as complimentary either...

We scored free tickets to the only Sydney show by Michael Rother, Dieter Moebius & Hans Lampe ~ three seminal musicians from the German electronic/ambient/experimental scene of the early 70s. One was in Kraftwerk, two were in Neu! & one was in Cluster, so there was a bit of history on that stage. They played for about an hour & it was great... Like the Aphex Twin show a couple of weeks ago, I didn't recognise any of the music, but, unlike AT, there was a bit more going on melodically that stuck with us for a while longer... & we bought two Neu! albums which I'd last heard on vinyl LP about twenty years ago. Should have bought the other two that were on sale as well, but that's what Amazon's for I suppose.
waitingman: (Default)
Alors... une soirée avec La Soirée... ce soir.

If you want to know what it's like to be molested by a 130kilogram baritone Drag King/Queen in front of a few hundred people, then I heartily recommend going to see the show before it ends in early February... & get yourself front-row seats right next to the artistes pathway. You WILL be noticed & you WILL find yourself part of several acts, so you may as well go along for the ride willingly & with gusto... I did.

Though how I'm going to explain the glitter in my hair & beard to the guys at work tomorrow will be interesting. One of them is gay, the other's a racist homophobe...
waitingman: (Magritte Guitar)
A progress report & a bit of a catch-up.

After limping around on my sofa-damaged foot for a week now, I'm relieved to report that there doesn't seem to be any structural damage among the myriad bones, sinews & tendons which hold me upright most of the time. The bruising took a day or so to come up, but when it did, the colours were spectacular ~ all purples, reds, black'n'blues & I swear there was some green in there. A matching smaller set bloomed on my left foot too, which obviously didn't want to feel left out of the story. My foot (feet!) only really hurts now when I've been wearing my work boots & standing/walking/lifting/carrying for much of the day, making me appreciative of the cliché of the man coming home from work & taking his boots off... it's the best part of the day!!

We saw Kings of Leon last night, out at the old Toxic Dumping Ground at Homebush. I've never really had much of an opinion about them... don't dislike them, but don't really find them that great either. I was surprised how many of their songs I knew though... & even more surprised to enjoy one I'd never heard:~



Caleb the frontman/lead singer has all the stage presence of a dead fish, a 'Pass' Certificate in Arena Crowd Banter ("Hi Sydney... It's good to be back in Sydney... Y'all having fun?...Sing along Sydney!!") & the band aren't the most energetic & mobile bunch, despite the lead guitarist channeling Jimi Hendrix at one point & playing guitar with his tongue, but my award for best musician on stage went to the bass player for some really inventive basslines & a sound that cut through the typical arena concert bottom-end murk.

Rewinding a few weeks, I went to see Robben Ford's latest venture ~ Renegade Creation at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville with my latent Musical Foil.



Interesting to see Robben stretch out from his normal jazz/blues turf, but I'm not entirely sold on the overall result. A little too much gratuitous soloing from all players & too little of it was really interesting to put up with the other ten minutes of solo that wasn't. Thank god the bass player only took one solo though... it was one of those 'As-many-notes-as-I-can-play-in-the-high-register-because-I-really-want-to-be-a-guitarist' polytonal things that isn't so much a solo as an interruption. I really wanted this band to be something other than the usual thing that happens when you put a bunch of Session Players in a rehearsal room together & occasionally it was, but mostly... it wasn't. Six out of Ten.

A Domestic Duties day today ~ feed the Time-Share cat...

Time-Share Cat II

... laundry, vacuuming, re-organising the spare room & other general stuff. All to be done as barefoot as possible.
waitingman: (Scream)
Tomorrow, I'll be taking part in the annual Sydney City To Surf race/run/jog/walk/stagger... Taxi!!!... having been convinced it would be a good idea & fun by my L-SP a couple of months ago.

Now, less than 12 hours before the starting gun, I'm not so sure, but whatthehell... 14 kilometres can't be that far... can it??

I'll let you know how it all went soon... & all the other stuff from the week.
waitingman: (Orang Utan)
Well, this is the first time I've been able to do anything on LJ for quite a few days... I tried to post a fairly long & detailed entry a couple of days ago & the internet has eaten it.

Ah well... all's well & nothing wildly interesting or important has happened. We did go to a birthday party for an old friend & erstwhile bandmate & I now have ten LP records of my early band's work. Being old school, holding a big twelve inch... record feels more 'proper' than just a CD.

Sounds good too... although my inner critic can't help but feel that there are a few tracks on there where I'm desperately flailing around trying to sound like I know how to play guitar & patently don't. On the other hand, one track features a nice little guitar riff that I'd be happy to have come up with today, twenty five years later. So either I haven't improved much since then, or I at least showed a little promise after only picking up a guitar a year before the recordings...

Rhetorical...
waitingman: (DrunkAsA)
No matter how strange you think your life is... Nature can always go one better...

Now we know where the expression 'Sick as a parrot' comes from ~ Darwin.

We played Mini-Golf with some friends on Friday night, at a course not far from Warriewood Beach, so the air was misty with sea-spray &... mist. There were people on the adjacent driving range who had no hope of seeing where their shots were landing... One of those lost photo opportunities as I had no camera of any kind on me... Bugger! By turf-out time at 9pm we'd only done half of the second nine-hole course, but were quite happy to repair to the nearby Hog's Breath Café for a late dinner. Note to self: Order 'Medium Rare' next time, as my rare steak was a bit underdone... even by my bloody standards.

Rozelle Markets today... See what books & trinkets we decide we can't live without...
waitingman: (Keeping Score)
Ask & ye shall receive...

I mentioned in yesterday's post that going out to dinner with friends may give me something exciting to write about & it did... before I'd even left home. OBluV8's battery shut down, clammed up & plain refused to do anything when I turned the key in the ignition. So, a walk to the main road (about twenty minutes up hill & down dale) & a bus to the Crows Nest Pub, which was only meant to be a meeting point, but wound up being the provider of food & entertainment for the night.

My L-SP & I get rather competitive when it comes to Pub Trivia competitions. Despite being warned about this, our dining companion was up for the challenge of the three of us vs. the rest of the Pub. Our team name for the evening was coined by L-SP in a stroke of genius ~ we were 'Trivia Newton John'.

And we finished second... Grrr!! If I'd just naturally defaulted to 'red wine' as the answer to what colour wine 'Gammae' grapes produce & if we'd agreed that Speedy Gonzalez's hat was yellow, we'd have won. Now... older LJ readers... I have distinct memories of the 'classic' Warner Bros cartoons of the 40s & 50s & remember Speedy's hat as being white... same as all the other Mexican mice, but bigger, bouffier & in better condition. Most Google images of him show a yellow hat, but they look like the horrible homogenised modern WB cartoon version to me. I still dispute the 'yellow' verdict. And I can't find anything about those grapes on Google either... Maybe I misheard the name.

Anyway, second place won us $50 & made us determined to go back in a fortnight & WIN.

Tonight will be our second attempt at seeing Paul at the local Megaplex, with dinner plans to be confirmed. OBluV8 has a brand new battery, so hopefully there'll be no unexpected contingencies...

Knock on wood.
waitingman: (Default)
Swan Lake

A metaphor for life?? All peaceful serenity on the surface, but paddling away like crazy underneath...

Today's my Sunday ~ the second of my days off during the week. Confusingly, the first one is Sunday, which I call my Saturday. Down at Debtor's Prison they're expecting a visit from the company GM today... kind of glad I'm nowhere near that.

Also today... & for the last three weeks... my L-SP & I have been waiting for the latest round of repairs on her VW Beetle to be completed, so that we can finally get a feel for driving the thing. The whole saga may one day be told in a series of nine books à la the Clan Of The Cave Bear novels covering a similarly long era, but suffice to say the latest delay came in the form of the Bug being hit by another car while the mechanic was test-driving it last week. The up-side of that is the two front mudguards are being replaced... something that was on the 'To-Do' list for the car anyway... at no cost to us. I had cleared my leisurely schedule to be ready to catch public transport across town to pick up the car, but there's now a delay in getting the aforementioned mudguards & so another week slips by without the car.

And so, it's been a minor domestic day by default ~ washing, washing up, little chores & jobs that tend to go undone & unnoticed during the working week. Dinner with friends tonight... maybe that will give me something exciting to write about.

Food Baby

May. 31st, 2010 01:51 pm
waitingman: (Orang Utan)
We had some people around for dinner last night ~ a kind of low-key quasi-housewarming party for our newly, nearly combined residential status. We were expecting to feed five, including us, bought enough food & drink for probably a few more people than that, then ended up with just four of us.

Four people managed to get through:~

A generous helping of tuna, salmon & kingfish sashimi.
A rather nice goat's milk cheese, pesto dip & crackers
Honey & lemon grilled chicken wings.
Two Tandoori ling fillets in slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieces.
A rather large amount of Patatas Bravas
Four scotch fillet steaks & a motherlode of pork chipolatas
Accompanying salads... yes, plural... & four corn cobs.
An exceptional apple crumble baked & brought by our guests, served with ice cream.

With very little in the way of leftovers ~ about one small container's worth, which we made them take home. After which we lay around like walruses for a while, trying not to contemplate the precarious mountain of dishes, glasses & cutlery awaiting washing in the kitchen.

It's now nearly two in the afternoon the following day & I'm still not hungry...
waitingman: (Droopy!)
So we went to see Lady GaGa last night. My second big American Pop Show after Justin Timberlake a couple of years ago & my third 'Pop Idol' experience. Ever.

At times visually stunning, at times visually impressive, at times pure Rock Eisteddfod cheese, the show & the Lady herself certainly gave you bang for buck. Arty & moody video footage between costume changes? Check. Burning piano during ballad? Check. Giant 'Monster' manipulated & moved by backup dancers/singers conforming to a long line of acts using slightly naff arena-sized props? Check.

Sonically, it was a bit sludgy ~ the guitars & keyboards melding into potent white noise a little too often, obscuring vocals, backing vocals, samples &, as far as I could hear, a completely superfluous harpist & bass-player. Whether that was down to a lot of stuff being already sequenced, programmed & then just mixed badly with the live players, or the well-documented sound-killer qualities of the Sydney Entertainment Centre is, by now, a moot debate. But we had good seats, a stream of GaGa impersonators in the audience to keep us amused before the show & I have to say I enjoyed it. A lot.

All the hits from the album were played, my only disappointment was the absence of a great vocalist (& a pretty good dancer too!!) from her performance of 'Poker Face'...

waitingman: (Out There)
'Aqua Bikes' ~ you know, those 3-wheel pedal things you take on rivers... are a lot more work to propel than you might at first think.

And 6 metres doesn't sound very deep, but try converting that to an Imperial measurement of around 20 feet, then question the wisdom of pedalling downstream on an unknown river in a craft you've never used before, fully clothed with no lifejacket but wearing expensive leather boots.

Such are the places my whimsy takes me... us.
waitingman: (Looking at you)
Time to retire the Debtor's Prison Userpic then... 'til next time.

As of today, I'm a gentleman of leisure ~ except I'm not that gentle & leisure isn't what it used to be. Today has been by turns domestic & trying to be pro-active & productive scaring up the next career opportunity. And chasing up exactly what I'm owed for my sentence time in DP... in case the next opportunity doesn't knock for a while.

Then... Now... Soon )

Still hab a bid ob a code dough... bud id's a bid bedder, dags por arsging!
waitingman: (Orang Utan)
The following things may, or may not, have happened to me over the last few days. You pick 'em...

A. I was asked for proof-of-age to enter a licensed venue & marked with a big blue cross to indicate I was underage.
B. I was flung 70m into the air at a force of 3g, spun 360 degrees, then dropped 60m. Voluntarily.
C. I joined a crowd singalong of Bohemian Rhapsody when the power failed at a Nine Inch Nails gig... what is it about Queen songs that even moshing Goths know all the words & can sing the guitar solos too?!
waitingman: (Mutant Enemy)
So, Valentine's weekend. Somewhere along the line, I've offended the son of Venus, because yesterday & today did not go according to any plan ~ pre-made or spontaneous... couldn't win a trick.

An overnight trip out of Sydney? Scuppered by late finishing at work & inclement weather. Breakfast at a favourite café? It's closed. A walk through Rozelle Markets? See aforementioned weather ~ no stalls. A look at cars for future purchase? Nothing worth it. A movie at Fox Studios? Insert traffic jams from Mardi Gras Opening Party & 20/20 cricket at the SCG between our location & destination, then add hordes of 'families' at Fox studios lined up for 200 metres at the cinemas to see... what exactly?! Certainly not Transporter 3 which we were running five minutes late for. Dinner at a Japanese fusion restaurant tonight? It's closed. Takeaway fish'n'chips from a good local shop? It's closed. Substitute Manly Fish Café dinner? Expensive & criminally bland.

Boy, do I know how to show a girl a good time...

Enough. Have a picture.

Patchwork

Stories End

Feb. 3rd, 2009 12:25 am
waitingman: (Happy Days)
And so ends the musical week. Leonard Cohen at the Centennial Vineyard last night was, again, sublime... the outdoor amphitheatre was quite a sight & the Triffids (& Friends) played first support. The 'friends' included Steve Kilbey on a few songs & Mick Harvey joining his Bad Seed bandmate Martyn Casey throughout the set. No appearance from Nick Cave though. Paul & Dan Kelly were inoffensive, pleasant enough but not really memorable ~ kind of how I feel about Paul Kelly in general. Leonard played much the same set as Thursday, with the addition of 'Democracy', which got a cheer from the audience for its obvious reference to the recent regime change in the U.S. He also recalled the Triffids had done one of his songs ('Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On') on the tribute album 'I'm Your Fan' in 1991 "... when I was kind of dying", so he remembers his friends... & fans.

Downside was trying to get out of the parking area following the show. Seeing how there were three or four snaking lines of cars all trying to get out one gate, I locked OBluV8's doors, pulled down the visor to block headlight glare & nodded off for about forty five minutes while everyone else did the 'move five feet, wait five minutes' shuffle. At half past twelve, I drove straight out & burned rubber up the Hume homeward.

For something completely different, I saw David Byrne at the Opera House tonight. The concert was billed as 'Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno' & apart from one ('Burning Down The House'), they all were ~ either Eno-produced/co-written Talking Heads songs, or songs from DB & BE's new album. I'd hoped for some tracks from 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' & he played one. A good one, but only one. That's my only quibble, because the rest of the show was brilliantly done with band, backing singers & dancers all choreographed to illustrate & highlight the songs infectious grooves & melodies... & there were lots of them!!

Back to work tomorrow... today for a week or so of sweeping instead of selling. Praying for a cool change... might help if I believed in gods...
waitingman: (Magritte Guitar)
The End Of An Error Pt II

Today was the last official day of trade at Debtor's Prison ~ a fact I was only made aware of yesterday at about 2pm... Hey, I'm only the Store Manager... why tell me??!!

For the next 10-14 days )

The jobsearch continues...

Legends Of Music Pts I & II.

Leonard Cohen at the Sydney Concrete Bunker Entertainment Centre on Thursday last... was a number of words: Excellent, Exemplary, Spiritually uplifting, Sublime, Surprising... & more fun than you might think or expect.

More )

By contrast I saw Jeff Beck at the Enmore Theatre last night... And )

And so... to be continued: My life in the twilight of Debtor's Prison... an encore experience with Leonard tomorrow night in Bowral & then an evening with David Byrne at the Opera House on Monday night. To be continued...!!!
waitingman: (RoadTrip!!)
So... Quantum Of Solace at La Premiere Hoyts in Fox Studios this evening.

After the day I had, watching a pissed-off British guy killing people for ninety minutes was almost therapeutic. I may have cheered a little too loudly at some points, but I'm sure the explosions covered it.

Dinner at the Bavarian Bier Café was pretty good too ~ the giant pork schnitzel 'challenge' was a doddle... easiest apple schnapps I've ever won.

Burp.
waitingman: (Happy Days)
Like sushi?

Like computers?

Let's go here...

The world seems a little lighter today, despite being incarcerated in Debtor's Prison. I may have bounced.

Now, to open the main gatesdoor of DP, fire up the stereo & let Brian Eno, Bela Fleck, Django Reinhardt, Maggie Bell, The Church, Dave Brubeck & the Crimson Jazz Trio soundtrack my day. May it be a swift one.
waitingman: (RoadTrip!!)
... to keep the petroleum industry ticking over. I've driven about 200 kms today, never leaving the confines of this town. It's a big city.

I've been ev'rywhere man... )

Back to work tomorrow for a rest.
waitingman: (Self-Portrait)
Has it been a year already?! Went to the Aroma Coffee Festival in The Rocks today... Seven macchiatos later (3 good ones, 2 okay ones, 2 bilgewater), then 2 pints of Guinness in the Observer Hotel to take the hyperedge off, a wine with dinner & now a few more so I'll get some sleep before some time on Tuesday. Better not tell my local café I've been cheating on them...

Picked up a new phone yesterday & for the first time in quite a few years, it's not a Nokia, it's a Sony Ericsson C902, the camera in which has more megapixels than my late, lost Fuji did. Must try it out on some sunset shots soon.

And finally, before Boston Legal & a book before bed, a meme via Aquandrian ~ Pop Culture Junkie )
waitingman: (Default)
It's a big, strange world out there. Just when you think you've seen the strangest things, along comes...



Thanks, or maybe no thanks to a dinner guest yesterday for showing me the Noughties version of RiverDance.

Dinner was a mixed result: Entree ~ success at first ever attempt. Main course ~ could have been better, but I was distracted by conversations & 'Jumpstyle', so the mind wasn't exactly on the job...

Now... what to do with the day?
waitingman: (Cameras!!)
With not much to report/reflect & with a backlog of photos that somehow were deleted from the gallery ~ have some black & white views for a grey day... Can't wait for the new camera!!


Beside the front door of WaitingManor

More light, tone & shade... )

Oh... one piece of news ~ went to see The Monks of the Shao-Lin Temple at Luna Park(?!?!) yesterday. Not as many impressive/inspiring moments as one might hope & just the tiiiiniest bit too cheesy, but quite the spectacle nonetheless. Maybe we Round-Eyes are just harder to impress in these post-Crouching Tiger-et-al days...
waitingman: (Orang Utan)
Mmmfff... fnnarrgle... veryveryverylatenight... homeat7thismorning... showerchangeclothesgotowork... gottagettacoffee................. zzzzzzzzzzz

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