My First Ever Sketch

Well, that title is definitely a lie.  I know that I've done lots of sketches before, but this is the first one I've done that hasn't been for a school assignment.  Actually, that is stretching the truth a little bit too.  I remember my parents giving me some pencils and a sketch book when I was younger, but I was just really bad at it.  My mum seemed to have some sort of artistic skill and I can still see the picture that she helped me draw as vividly as the day I (read: she) drew.

Under The Table Tennis

A few years ago, I was at the Laneway Festival in Sydney and a friend demanded that we go to one of the stages and catch a guy named Tim Fite. Before I try to describe the show, check out his most well-known song "Big Mistake", the film clip for which he illustrated himself:



But I hadn't seen this or anything else before I walked into the packed room to see him play. What resulted was one of the most bizarre yet perfect shows I have ever seen (which still stands now). During the first song, his off-sider "Sexy Leroy" walked around the whole crowd with a rope and pulling it tighter and tighter so that everyone was squashed to the front of the stage. It definitely beat the age-old and awkward cliche of the frontman saying "There's lots of room down here in the front to dance. Why don't you all move forward?"

Osama and the 1960s

Once news broke that the US had found and killed Osama bin Laden there was widespread rejoicing in many parts of the world, particularly in America and even more especially in New York. All of this is completely understandable, but the point kept getting raised in conversations I had with different people was that it seemed odd for so much celebration over someone's death. And I remember similar conversations coming up when Saddam Hussein was executed.

With these thoughts going through my head, I wasn't really surprised when some Facebook friends posted a Martin Luther King quote as their status update. The full quote read:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Week 1 Of The Album A Day Project

So this project of mine has failed on both accounts. I haven't listened to an album every day and it hasn't prompted me to write more. The plus-side though is that I have been listening to a lot more music than the last couple of months and I have been listening to a lot more albums, rather than just tracks I like.

For the sake of pretence, I'm going to write about 7 albums at a time even if they weren't listened to in a calendar week.

It all started with Radiohead's "OK Computer". Its a little bit embarrassing to think that I didn't like Radiohead until about 3 or 4 years ago, but I'm now so well acquainted with this album that I found myself tuning out until I heard my favourite tracks.

A New Album Every Day

When I first started this blog, I didn't want to make it all about music because that is already such a big part of my life. But in the tour van the other day I decided that I needed to make more of an effort to listen to a wider range of music. I realised that there are a lot of classic albums that other people take for granted, but that I'd never properly listened to. Plus, there are hundreds of more recent albums that I've always meant to listen to, but never got round to doing.

So I've made a commitment to listen to at least one album in its entirety every day for the next year. No cherry-picking favourites or skipping ones that don't give me instant gratification.