Beats in the Basement

A rather shaky, hand-held iPhone video of Matty and I knocking out some DJ Zinc-meets-The-Fugees at Beats in the Basement. It was a top night.

Nah mean?

MTB

VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.

Nice Up!

These guys drop ludicrous amounts of music that really, really float my boat: J Star, DJ Shepdog and Mutty Ranks.

Their roots are in the ragga, dancehall and dnb arenas, which is where my head has been at for quite a long time now. They play selecta of the best bits of riddim and culture, and it's so damned funky... I just don't know what else to say.

Anyone who likes proper riddim and basslines that go on and on needs to get into the Nice Up!

http://niceupyourarea.blogspot.com/

Smiling

560km on the back of my R3 in three days. Promises to be a solid one.

Donate and be a part of the solution - someone you know will probably get this disease.

Boxy's 5th birthday

My musical lifeline:

Completed

Phew... another tranche completed. To celebrate, and as a part of The Honeymoon - Part 2, it's a return to Bali after nearly 18 years away. I'm looking forward to it too. I'll probably drink more beer than when I was last there, but that's a given now that I'm not 15 and have money. Though will try to make a bit of an effort not to get shit-faced every night. That would impact too severely on the surfing, which would partially defeat the purpose of going there. The Bali trip does form a neat bookend to the busiest six months of my life to date. Count it: Got married, Bought a house, Got a new job and, Studied three law subjects. Maybe I could have done more, but it seems like a lot to me.

And the soundtrack for this past half year included:

• The Black Keys - Brothers
• Jamie Lidell - Compass
• Massive Attack - Heligoland
• Nightmares On Wax - Thought so...
  
• Paul Dempsey - Everything is true (yes, I'm still listening to it)

Been buying a bit of techno lately too. I forget sometimes that I do like that stuff. Must remember to spend more time with it in the next six months. The album that I'm really looking forward to though is Dan F's new release. Fucking loved his last one, and he's been working away at the new one for so long, I just can't wait to hear what he's cooked up for us.

Josh Freese

I've loved this guy's playing for just about ever. Super fresh, brilliant technique, and above all, he rocks.

Choons

Once again, I'm back at the educational grindstone. Procrastinating, of course, but kicking around the content in my head, which hopefully means I will have some better recall of what was downloaded to me over the past three days.

The albums that have rocked my world over the past little while are, in no particular order:

• Dr Boondigga & the Big BW - Fat Freddy's Drop
• Everything is true - Paul Dempsey
• West ryder pauper lunatic asylum - Kasabian
• FabricLive 49 - Buraka Som Sistema

And that's about it.

Paper and folding stuff

This is brilliant

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

Scratch Live

Yes, my move into the digital deejay world has begun. No more lugging a hard cased CDJ into gigs for me. I'm still buying vinyl of course, because I love it.

Headz

I don't know how Goldie does it. Deejay, label owner, actor and all around happening dude. It's only a matter of time before he's appointed to public office vis a vis Gilberto Gil.

Look and see for yourself. He's already hanging with royalty.

Nearly there

It's harder than I thought it would be, and then, it's not as hard as I thought it would be.

What it has done for me is enliven my brain, and I am seriously, again, interested in learning. Dan F's venture into the new-copyright of Creative Commons has me thinking about where law is heading as we continue plummet head first into this digital world.

Everything is available, traditional copyright law is grossly archaic and new frameworks are required to unlock all this old-style threatening limitation stuff and get people into thinking differently about sharing music, film and any other creative content over the web. My law school is the Australian centre for Creative Commons, which makes me a bit proud, and a lot fortunate. They run a subject which I intend to take. My cousin (another late starter in a legal career) suggested to me that I find an area of interest and focus on it as I work through the core units. CC may just be it.

Soundtrack for this semester was:

1. Radiohead - In rainbows;
2. Q-Tip - The renaissance;
3. Commix - FabricLive 44;
4. Sia - Some people have real problems; and
5. Soul:ution Radio - various shows hosted by Marcus Intalex on RBMA Radio.
   

Almost straight after I finish my first semester of this course on Thursday, I'm off to see a film which is put on by CC Australia: RIP - A remix manifesto.

Looks interesting.

Legally insane

'Criminally Insane' s a sick Slayer tune from their renowned and landmark 27 minute long release Reign in Blood from 1986. Deicide tried to make a faster album, but they failed. As it goes, many a thrash band has tried to emulate, imitate or compete with Slayer, but none have ever gone the distance. All have fallen short. Formed in 1981 by Hanneman and King, Slayer are THE metal band.

I used to listen to Slayer a lot, and am thinking that I should re-buy Seasons in the Abyss. Seasons is my favourite Slayer record, and I can picture myself right now, in the car, with a little bit of Slayer on the stezza. Come to think of it, I should get that debut Machine Head album again too. Pretty tough tunes.

But not as tough as Slayer.

Anyway, I am going back to university to study law. I finished my last stint there in 2000, which was ordinary. And the year's worth of study I completed in 2006 was a near disaster. Because I treated it with the same disdain as my degree. Sure I got the award, but what did I learn?

Undeterred, QUT accepted my timid application to study with them, and now I owe them some sum of money for the privilege. It actually is a privilege, and I'll be the best student you've ever come across. That's a personal undertaking to myself.

Slayer are still awesome. Here's a link to their latest studio sessions: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1795749168/bclid0/bctid1877515798

And here's that title track:

Cyanide and Happiness

Usually ridiculous, frequent funnies such as this can be seen daily at www.explosm.net

Two thousand and fine

Early afternoon on January 2. That's what it is right now. I haven't had my usual full spectrum consideration of the year just elapsed, nor have I set any ambitious resolutions for the year ahead. Sure I've had a couple of thoughts about what 2008 included, patted myself on the back for a few of my decisions, and thought some more about those ones that weren't so hot. In all I can say I'm happy with '08 and am a better person for the experience. Perhaps there is some utility in mentioning the good bits here:

• Quitting the job I started the year in (a sensational move)
• Starting a new job (also excellent)
• Organisational involvement in the Sounds Boutique 'festival' in January (much learning happened there)
• Playing various shows at Ric's, Glass Bar and the Moon Bar (rocking dancefloors, or making heads nod, still floats my boat)
• Taking the personal pledge to surf more often, and relearning all that I had picked up while in Brasil in '07
• Spending the insurance money from my wrecked Daihatsu on a Kestrel pushbike (solid cardiovascular fitness without the aches and pains of running)
• The 'penny drop' experience in Sydney whilst at a contract law course... (watch this space)
• Chatting with Dan F on email and the subsequent article produced (thanks Dan)
• Getting confirmation of my first ever residency, which is a once-a-month Friday night at Glass Bar
  

I'm in the midst of nearly a month off, and am enjoying it enormously.

Bikini Rave 2008

Yeeesssss.

I approach the fourth annual Bikini Rave with equal measures of fear and excitement. The last three Bikinis have seen me attend the decks on and off for an average of 12.46 hours in a single stint and have robbed me of both coherent speech and proper liver function for 3-5 days afterwards. The same can be said for Rusty, and then Al, as my partners in these gargantuan musical odysseys. It's tough work, but, what's one day of your life?

Marto always delivers the ingredients required for concocting a party that is the best of the summer, and with a return to our new home of Wests' with the slippery slide (conspicuously absent in the '07 edition), this year's Bikini Rave is shaping up to be the best yet.

By the way, should you be in Brisbane on Saturday 20 December, you are most cordially invited. Bring a smile and be prepared to give 110%. It's an endurance event, not a holiday.

Great white, where?

I was floating around in the ocean yesterday when my mate Damo asked me if I'd seen the Gold Coast Bulletin this weekend. I hadn't of course, because I don't live on the Goldie. He smirked, out of the side of his mouth, and then asked why I thought there were so many jet skis driving up and down the beach, outside of the lineup? I thought that this was reasonably normal, though there were more skis than you get on your average day at the beach.

By now my appetite for information on what was behind these questions had been whet. Ususally when you're out having a surf with your mates, the talk centres on football or cricket results, what happened during the week, and other such subjects. Finally, Damo says, "They caught a great white, right here, at lunch time on Friday. And they caught another one last week down at Rainbow".

I burst out laughing.

I spent most of my youth in Western Australia going surfing every weekend, and I spent heaps of time swimming and snorkelling along most of the coast from Warroorra Station north of Carnarvon down to Esperance in the Bight. WA is renowned for it's sharks, and particularly its Whites thanks to the rich waters full of aquatic life that the Leeuwin current brings down from Indonesia. As a person who likes to spend time in the ocean, I've come to an understanding that there are fast fish with big teeth that may want to nibble on your extremities from time to time, if for no other reason than to check you out. Sometimes they want to eat you, but not often. So I'm resiled to the possibility, the potential, of a shark encounter every time I go into the water. I've seen a few out there too, but not many. You can mitigate the risk significantly by staying out of the water at night, at dusk and at dawn, and I do this as a matter of policy. But that is a mitigation only. The risk is never fully diminished.

Sharks draw a primal fear in almost everyone. Their appearance and skill in the water puts we humans many rungs below them in the food chain and there is nothing that can be done should they choose to bite you. Motor cars and aeroplanes provide far more compelling statistics for people to meet an early death, however these machines are so workaday that we barely give them much of a thought. Cars and planes don't look like this either:



So I burst out laughing. And then I caught another wave and it didn't enter my mind again until this morning. If your time's up, well what can you do but accept it and enjoy the waves?

The story from the Bulletin is here: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/10/18/17657_gold-coast-lead-story.html

Some new entries

It took me a bit of time to get going, but I've penned my first proper entry for the Elite Force's Tech Funk Manifesto, which can be seen here.

The Dan F piece is on there too.

Big

We surfed and surfed and surfed, last year in Brasil. Every day. We had the tide charts and revolved our existence around when it was low or when it was high, or whenever it would give us the best waves. We crammed ourselves and our 7'2" board into the mini-bus to take us to the Praia de Madeiro, and descended the huge stair case down the sand cliff every morning, peering through the foliage to catch a first glimpse of the swell, and listening all the time to try discern the size of the waves from the impact of the lip upon breaking over the sand bottom. When we moved from Pipa to Morro de Sao Paulo, off the coast of Salvador, it was the same. This break was the rocky reef kind, with heads of coral that poked through the face of the small sets, daring you to take off deeper inside, to run the gauntlet. And it wrapped beautifully in towards you on the right-hander, so that if you positioned yourself just so, you could sit in the pocket of the wave, with the spinning whitewater at your right heel, and the green face peaking and open in front of your face.

I can't explain why, but upon returning to Australia, there was so much stuff to do. There were gigs to play, birthdays, engagements and weddings to attend, those pesky five days a week at the office, rebuilding after the fire and who knows what else. Only twice in a year did we make it to a beach with board in hand, and with the fitness required to paddle, duckdive and push your body into the standing position mostly gone, the surfing was difficult and a little unsatisfying. Because to know what you are capable of, and to have lost it for reasons and activities that you can't remember as being that important, and in remembering the joy and thrill of surfing, well it hangs a gloom over the motivations for this life in 2008.

So we made a pact: To make the effort to get down to the beach and paddle, and duckdive and push ourselves into that riding position and have more of the joy and thrill that surfing provides in its unique way. To feel the wiry spring of the salt in your hair, and the crust of it on your skin. The fear as a big one looms overhead, breaking. And the yes! of making it through the bottom turn while your body is pulled and stretched as gravity takes your feet downwards and you keep your arms upwards.

I s'pose the guys who tow in to cliffs of water at 60km/h know that feeling well, and are as addicted as any person could possibly be. Why else would a guy like Mike Parsons do what he does?