Author: admin-blog

If you’re not familiar with Dave Eggers, he writes, in a peculiar but attractive way. Like the Mona Lisa smiles, or a certain favourite cat blinks. Each week, he writes a short short story for The Guardian, and you can check out the current one, a gem, just back there where it’s all underlined.

Last night in Byron Bay, The Polyphonic Spree were great.

Before it all kicked off, though, I ran into the lead singer and chief instigator, Tim DeLaughter (rhymes with slaughter, though I didn’t know that at the time) across the road. I had a quick chat to him, told him that we saw him at the San Francisco Apple Store last year, and that we’d come from Brisbane because they weren’t playing there. (Brisbane is a much larger city, about two hours drive north.)

We did see them in the SF Apple Store a few months ago, our first Spree introduction. Saw the ad outside the store, heard/bought the album, turned up early, got a seat in the middle row of three rows, stood very close to the band, asked most of them to sign the album afterwards, cool people, great live experience.

Back in Byron, Tim asked my name (it’s Iain Anderson) and said “Jethro Tull, right?”. I do get that a lot, though he’s one of the standard non-Scottish “Ian” variety. He did check my name again before we parted company, but I just thought, “cool, found Tim D. in the street”. Byron’s not a big place, it’s laid back like the Spree, and you could see many of the members around the place before the gig.

So, got in, settled down for support from Sarah Blasko, who’s fairly well known in the Australian indie scene. Pretty good but her single a clear standout. Unfortunately you couldn’t see her well because the spotlight on her mike was slightly off.

So onward to the Spree, and the crowd’s getting pretty excited. I suffer pretty badly from tinnitus after live music; it’s just too loud for me and I usually wear earplugs. The whole band’s wearing them, right? Well, they’re probably wearing better ones. Mine last night blocked out the high frequencies so thoroughly I couldn’t hear the high hats. One benefit of the earplugs is that I got a spot by the stage, next to the speaker stacks, feeling the bass. (I moved around during the set for a better view.)

The band came out and eventually squeezed into the small space available. Unfortunately, the stage was too small for a banner. As the last gig I saw, they started slow, then built up and went mad. Tim teased the crowd with “now we’re going to eviscerate you” when the beat first picked up. The playlist was a little like we heard in SF. Specifically:

HARP

AMAZED

SUN

HOLD

LONG INTRO-HANGING

2000

SUITCASE

SOLDIER

LIGHT-EVAN SOUND

DRUM OFF

KING

The crowd was right into it, and the crazy drummer was as crazy as ever. At one point he climbed up onto a box by the lighting desk, just missed the PowerBook that drives the visuals and the pre/post set iTunes tracks, and then moved on. Very rock and roll.

Late into the set, I was near the back when I got a big surprise. Tim gave me a shout-out: “Iain Anderson’s here”. Between tracks, his words were much quieter than the music, and I didn’t quite hear him. (I’ve been told what he said by my wife, also there.)

He said my name again, and I sort of heard it. But you don’t expect to hear the lead singer of a band give you a shout out, do you? My brain process: “What did he say? It wasn’t my name, was it? Naah, couldn’t have been. Could it?”

I wasn’t sure what was going on and how to respond to it. Too late, I figured out that I should be doing something, yelling and attracting attention for a start, not standing there looking confused, too far for him to see me. Besides, plenty of people had their hands in the air, and he might not have seen me anyway. He was looking for me, but, alas, couldn’t find me.

I looked at my wife, who was beaming at me and pointing. A girl near me was very excited: “Are you Iain Anderson?”

“Yeah.”

“Wooo! How come he knows you?”

(Story explained.)

“Cool!”

It was now too late to try to get Tim’s attention, and I’d now realised that it probably wasn’t the “cool” thing to do anyway. I guess he must have figured that I’d gone to the toilet or something. Nope: earplugs.

After the set, I tried to find Tim to explain and to say thanks. Alas, it was Oscar’s bedtime, and Tim wasn’t around. I had to be in a car driving back to Brisbane (and work today, dammit) so after half an hour or so I left. A few members of the Spree were about, and I asked Ryan to pass on thanks to Tim. (Ryan wouldn’t tell me when the next album was coming out, though.)

A drunk girl called Tanya swore she knew me accosted me for a little while, then I ran into a friend of a friend who knew I was there when my name was called out. Had a chat. Later, two people yelled out my name through a doorway while I was hanging around inside. I guess they thought a) I looked like I was meant to be there and b) someone famous connected to the band, but I’m not going to complain just yet if anyone wants to continue the trend.

So, a great night, a weird, wonderful, memorable experience that could have been better if only the mixer hadn’t been hard-of-hearing and forced me into fuzzy hearing. I’d go to a hell of a lot more live music if I could hear a) the music properly and b) anything afterwards. But the Spree — anytime.

I got a few good pics that are online at http://funwithstuff.com/spree/ – check them out, and thanks for reading. Also posted to The Polyphonic Spree Forum – Live Show Reviews.

Leaving work imminently (typing between Mozilla refreshes) to go to Byron Bay to see The Polyphonic Spree! Sarah Blasko’s supporting, which should be good too.

Wish they’d come to Brisbane instead, as there’s a long, late drive back. I’m sure it’ll be worth it – we saw them at the San Francisco Apple Store for free last year, and they were fantastic. More of the same, please.

We saw fireflies last night. In our house. Has anyone else in Brisbane seen one? We have weird insects on Mt Nebo, but I’ve never seen fireflies outside of New York/New Jersey. Don’t believe me? First, I’m disappointed in your lack of faith. Second, I have video.

Oh, if the pics I talked about earlier (last post) aren’t bad enough for you, check out the one with the knife that won silver.

Images like the two at the centre of the top of this awards page are why I’m reluctant to rejoin design work for agencies. How wrong does it have to be to not get an award?

Congratulations with your “fifth most creative agency” position, you idiots.

Just to give you an idea of how quiet Brisbane traffic is compared to most other places. Influenced heavily by where we live at Mt Nebo, 20+ minutes from the nearest traffic light, and the fact that I’m on a scooter.

This morning, I left at 8.34, and didn’t stop (ie. put my foot down for balance) until 9.08, when I stopped for a few seconds. Five minutes later, I’d arrived, with no further stops. Yeah, there’s a clock on the dash, I’m not quite that much of a nerd.

I’m glad the commute isn’t killing me as I had expected it to. There’s a sense of peace you get driving up and being at the mountain that’s valuable, and time has stopped whizzing past like the cartoon clock that drove life in London.

I’m having a sad day today.

Anyway, take a look at the new site that I’ve made for the Brisbane-based Mac dealer, Infinite Systems. Top five Google results for “mac dealer brisbane” and “apple reseller brisbane”, and the first relevant result. It’s probably partly because the competition’s invisible, but that’s their problem. Makes me happier, anyway.

I’m thinking of doing a memoir. Not because my life’s coming to an end, but because I know it’ll fuzz away if I don’t do it soon. There’s a lot I’d like to get down before it’s lost. A nice interactive, maybe using the new Keynote 2, could be good. It even exports to Flash, which could be nice. My life, click by click. Hmm.

Oh, I wish I could justify a new Mac mini, but two Macs is enough for a two-person house.

Something trivial in relation to the tsunami crisis, but it’s on my mind anyway. If you live in the US, have an HDTV-capable TV, and are buying a DVD movie, consider buying a multiregion player and foreign discs. Because R2 (Europe) and R4 (Australia) releases are nearly all in PAL, you get about 20% better video resolution. This article about PAL vs NTSC is helpful.

Anyway. One of our travelling friends has reported in, and she’s fine. Waiting for the others, though we suspect they were in less danger. Just one island north for the first bunch would have put them on Panang, now devastated. Funny how the odd decision sometimes turns out to be really, really important.

Xmas was lovely, a time of heat in Eden’s Landing with my delightful parents-in-law, my wife and my mother. Presents, superb food (traditional pudding made with suet, the best mince pies I can remember) and that general peace that comes with a large chunk of time off.

Cue the tsunamis. What can you say about a disaster like that? A friend of Nic’s is nearby, but apparently her island wasn’t hit. Another friend was in Bangkok, about to head to an island. They should be OK but we’ve not heard yet. Our thoughts are with them.

Back on the mountain, we’ve discovered a pair of tawny frogmouths living in a tree less than ten metres from our back deck, and in convenient viewing range. They’re strange creatures, like a cross between an owl and a kookaburra, with disguising plumage and truly odd mouths. Here are some links: KidCyber, EPA and Australia Museum.

Recently I’ve been re-reading Bertrand Russell’s collection of short pieces and speeches about and entitled “Why I Am Not A Christian”. Ah, rediscovering the joys of (ir)religious thought. Succinct points well stated. The first essay in the book shares its title, and is easily found online. Whatever your beliefs, it’s worth a read, and Positive Atheism has a copy.

Me? I’m really hoping to live to see the end of religion, already much weaker than it was when I was a child, or when my parents were. In primary school, I was one of just two kids in grade 7 who disbelieved sufficiently to be able to avoid RE, and I do think that number would be higher now. Let me just state my views briefly.

  1. There is no evidence for any god. Belief is based on faith, which I don’t have, and can’t argue with.

  2. There are an infinite number of potentially true but unprovable propositions. The classic example is of the invisible pink unicorns that are everywhere right now. And what about Santa?

  3. Though I have no proof of the non-existence of (any) god, I choose to actively disbelieve in one, as I choose not to believe in the invisible pink unicorns. I just think it’s very, very unlikely to be.

There are countless other arguments against religion (the cruelty of life and death; which god is the right god; the bible says a whole lot of stuff that isn’t followed today and contradicts itself anyway so why follow any of it) but the one above is at the core for me. That’s leaving aside the terrible acts of churches, Catholic in particular, with regard to contraception and the advancement of human knowledge.

The sooner we’re rid of this whole mess, the better; John Lennon was right. My boss in the UK sums up religious wars like this: “They’re fighting over who’s got the best imaginary friend.”

I can’t do better than that. Happy new year.