I don't often type swears but that is in fact her middle name - ask the internet - and even if it wasn't... Amanda Fucking Palmer!
Friday night I rushed out of work, gathered a friend up in my whirlwind of excitement, stopped only long enough to have dinner and then tumbled headlong into the Forum and an amazing night of music.
It started off great and only got better from there.
Anyone who has gone to a few concerts will know that some performers pick their support acts to make themselves look better by comparison *coff Nine Inch Nails coff* but Amanda Palmer picks amazing artists she admires and wants to share with you.
The Jane Austen Argument played lovely, humorous and deeply Aussie songs. They drew more laughs and applause in a short opening performance than some top billing acts I've seen have warranted. I hope they get great crowds at the Adelaide Fringe Festival because they deserve them.
Mikelangelo and his band for the evening - The One and a Half Night Stand - introduced me to a particular brand of sleazy, Eastern European reminiscent style cabaret that I want to immerse myself in, roll about in and never tell my parents about. The lyrics are shocking, the music divine, Mikelangelo's hair perfect.
St Clare and her Go Go Gadget Girls added some flavour and awesome 60s dance moves to the night.
Lindon Chester led a four piece string quartet* to provide the strings which made songs I already found beautiful almost painfully breathtaking to witness in person.
Then all of a sudden Paul Kelly appeared to duet his song 'Winter Coat' with Amanda closely followed by Mick Harvey from the Bad Seeds joining the growing crowd of musicians to play on a song my brain was too busy geeking out to recall.
This was one of the best night's out I have ever had and I am telling you now, life is too short to say no to live music, some of the best experiences I have ever had have come from taking a chance.
No matter how the night turns out you will always have a story and sometimes those stories are glorious.
Here I leave you with just one example of why I will always adore Amanda Palmer.
Oh beg pardon, Amanda Fucking Palmer.
*I'm sorry ladies, she introduced you all so quickly that I missed your names, you were all superb!
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Succeeding To Fail
Well poot.
Turns out it wasn't just my romantically undernourished student ways that made me all woozy when I last tried to give blood, I just need all of my blood at all times :-/
Even as a responsible grown up person who has three proper meals and about 2 litres of water a day, I got halfway through and all of a sudden my temperature went up, my blood pressure went down and it felt like the space between my eyes was filling up with rushing air.
The nurse taking the donation was on to things like a shot, all I had to say was "Um, I'm feeling a little..." and the needle was out, the bandage was on, I had a damp cloth on my head, a cup of water in my hand and was being fanned with a clipboard whilst she reminded me to take deep breaths and asked how I was feeling.
"Some people just shouldn't give blood, love," she told me sympathetically.
It's really annoying because being a fairly healthy and robust person I always figured I'd be able to spare a bit of my life sauce but take any more than is necessary for a blood test and the system goes into emergency procedures.
The needle doesn't hurt, the process doesn't hurt, if it wasn't for the light-headedness it would be a doddle, a walk in the park.
So it looks like I won't be able to become a regular donor which is a real shame but I'm glad I tried. I'd been avoiding going back in case they told me not to come back* - yes I know that's faulty logic - but now that I know it's just the way I function I know I haven't been wasting years of potential contributions.
The day I went in the clinic received 152 donations** which will potentially save about 456 lives, they also took plasma donations which will help people with serious health issues live normal lives instead of being gravely hampered by their conditions.
This is something I want to be a part of, even if I can't give blood I can still give money and hope that others with more vigorous constitutions than mine will give it a go.
*If you have a poor reaction three times in a row you're told that you should probably cross it off your to do list as it just isn't meant to be.
**And my half a donation which I guess will help 1.5 people as well.
Turns out it wasn't just my romantically undernourished student ways that made me all woozy when I last tried to give blood, I just need all of my blood at all times :-/
Even as a responsible grown up person who has three proper meals and about 2 litres of water a day, I got halfway through and all of a sudden my temperature went up, my blood pressure went down and it felt like the space between my eyes was filling up with rushing air.
The nurse taking the donation was on to things like a shot, all I had to say was "Um, I'm feeling a little..." and the needle was out, the bandage was on, I had a damp cloth on my head, a cup of water in my hand and was being fanned with a clipboard whilst she reminded me to take deep breaths and asked how I was feeling.
"Some people just shouldn't give blood, love," she told me sympathetically.
It's really annoying because being a fairly healthy and robust person I always figured I'd be able to spare a bit of my life sauce but take any more than is necessary for a blood test and the system goes into emergency procedures.
The needle doesn't hurt, the process doesn't hurt, if it wasn't for the light-headedness it would be a doddle, a walk in the park.
So it looks like I won't be able to become a regular donor which is a real shame but I'm glad I tried. I'd been avoiding going back in case they told me not to come back* - yes I know that's faulty logic - but now that I know it's just the way I function I know I haven't been wasting years of potential contributions.
The day I went in the clinic received 152 donations** which will potentially save about 456 lives, they also took plasma donations which will help people with serious health issues live normal lives instead of being gravely hampered by their conditions.
This is something I want to be a part of, even if I can't give blood I can still give money and hope that others with more vigorous constitutions than mine will give it a go.
*If you have a poor reaction three times in a row you're told that you should probably cross it off your to do list as it just isn't meant to be.
**And my half a donation which I guess will help 1.5 people as well.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Tais Toi Mon Coeur
Let's ignore the day - with the cynical commercial trappings that attend it - and just watch this lovely video by Dionysos shall we?
Good.
Good.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
One Giant Leap For Me-Kind...
This week I bought a nanna cart.
A nanna cart?
Oh you know, one of the things that look like this...
I don't know if they have a real name, give me a break!
I bought it because the other day I was down at the supermarket and I saw a woman put her one bag of shopping into her car, get in, drive 100 m to the other supermarket, park and go in to complete her shopping.
20 minutes later when I was exiting the butcher down the street I saw that she had driven the 300 m from the second supermarket to the post office.
I was aghast.
And I'm not saying that for comedic effect or because I think people don't use the word aghast enough these days, I was genuinely stunned and more than a little perturbed.
I know I habitually describe myself as lazy but if I ever get that lazy I want you to hire somebody to put a pillow over my face as I sleep.
It would be a mercy killing.
I'll leave a note absolving you of any wrong-doing.
I live 10 minutes walk from the supermarket and various shops and with the power of this recent invention - the wheel - I can now walk there and back even when I do a big shop or one that involves an ungodly amount of cans/bottles/acme 100 lb weights.
I know I don't walk as much as I used to.
Before I had no holds barred access to a car I'd walk 30 minutes into town to meet my friends, bike 20 minutes to visit somebody, walk an hour into Uni because I had nothing else to do before class or just do laps around the local lake for funsies.
Without going to the extreme of suggesting my car is trying to kill me - yet - I think it's time the two of us started to spend a bit more time apart.
I'm taking back my perambulatory prerogative!
A nanna cart?
Oh you know, one of the things that look like this...
I don't know if they have a real name, give me a break!
I bought it because the other day I was down at the supermarket and I saw a woman put her one bag of shopping into her car, get in, drive 100 m to the other supermarket, park and go in to complete her shopping.
20 minutes later when I was exiting the butcher down the street I saw that she had driven the 300 m from the second supermarket to the post office.
I was aghast.
And I'm not saying that for comedic effect or because I think people don't use the word aghast enough these days, I was genuinely stunned and more than a little perturbed.
I know I habitually describe myself as lazy but if I ever get that lazy I want you to hire somebody to put a pillow over my face as I sleep.
It would be a mercy killing.
I'll leave a note absolving you of any wrong-doing.
I live 10 minutes walk from the supermarket and various shops and with the power of this recent invention - the wheel - I can now walk there and back even when I do a big shop or one that involves an ungodly amount of cans/bottles/acme 100 lb weights.
I know I don't walk as much as I used to.
Before I had no holds barred access to a car I'd walk 30 minutes into town to meet my friends, bike 20 minutes to visit somebody, walk an hour into Uni because I had nothing else to do before class or just do laps around the local lake for funsies.
Without going to the extreme of suggesting my car is trying to kill me - yet - I think it's time the two of us started to spend a bit more time apart.
I'm taking back my perambulatory prerogative!
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Hourly Comic Day 2010
Boy I love Hourly Comic Day, I love it a whole bunch!
Click on each image for bigger versions of my bad handwriting!
Click on each image for bigger versions of my bad handwriting!
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