Midnight Fuck

The house that we live in is divided into three units, all (fairly) identical in layout. We live in the middle unit, which is a pain because it means that we hear noises on both sides and we annoy people on both sides with our noises.

We are currently in a music war with the couple living in the unit behind us, who seem to think that we are playing music maliciously loud and with a sub-woofer. We are not; the sub has been turned off since they moved in, and we've been very careful not to have the music above a reasonable level. Really. The problem is that the walls here are very thin - fibro crap - and the layout of each unit places their bedroom next to our lounge room. Tough shit, says I.

Currently, there's nobody living in the unit at the front of the house. The owner has been doing renovations on it for aaaages. But last night, somewhere around midnight, Si and I started to hear this little dog whining and howling, getting louder and louder before dying down into a soft whimper. We ignored it, until our room started to shake and shudder - the cup of water on our desk went all Jurassic Park, our computer monitors threatened to tumble, and you could feel the whole floor vibrating.

Was a huge tanker driving past? Was our gas heater about to explode? Was it an earthquake?

No. It was the owner and a 'lady friend' fucking in the empty first apartment. HARD fucking. HARD cumming.

Who knew he had it in him to give someone that much pleasure?

Also... do we make the house shake? If so, no wonder the families with kids have moved out since we arrived. Fuuuck these walls are thin.

WEEN! LIVE!

Ok. I'm not sure how to start this. I can't think of a good way to begin the post except with a standard and uninspired "Holy fucking shit." So here we go.
Holy fucking shit.
I cannot express just how fucking mind blowing, how fucking ball busting, how fucking ROCKING the Ween concerts were. In fact, I won't just now - rather, I will start by filling you in on the events surrounding the concerts.
When the tickets went on sale, Lilly and I weren't quite sure where we would be for the concert, so we bought tickets for both Sydney and Brisbane, and figured that we could either sell the ticket for the other venue (ha) or make our way to it and see them twice. We (thankfully) ended up going to both.
Brisbane (also thankfully) was on last Friday night at The Tivoli. Ween didn't have any support acts this tour (who needs 'em when the main act plays for over 2 hours), so we got in there at about 7:30pm, for an 8:15pm start. They played through till about 11pm. Hell fucking yeah.
It was awesome. I bought a TShirt, silk flag, and button for my bag. Because of that, I couldn't afford any drinks, but that wasn't a real problem anyway, as I don't really enjoy drinking at concerts.
Here is the setlist:

BRISBANE SET LIST

Buckingham Green
Spinal Meningitis
Bananas and blow
Piss up a rope
Voodoo Lady
Your Party
Don't get 2 close (2 my fantasy)
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
Even If You Don't
Object
Exactly Where I'm At
Mutilated Lips
Roses Are Free
Learnin' 2 Live
My Own Bare Hands
Wavin' My Dick In The Wind
Johnny on the Spot
Mr Would You Please Help My Pony?
Mr Richard Smoker
Fat Lenny
Pandy Fackler
The Mollusk
Ocean Man
Stroker Ace
Touch My Tooter
Dr Rock
Shamemaker
Fiesta
LMLYP

So I was pretty stoked. Both Lilly and I really wanted to hear King Billy (so many fond memories), but, alas, they played it at neither of the shows. But I was super stoked to hear Don't get 2 close, Dr Rock and Mutilated Lips. Oh, and Voodoo Lady (I would have been bitterly disappointed if they didn't play that). It was crazy cool. Deaner takes every opportunity to bust out a rockin' solo. Gene looked high as fuck. He was floating around the stage, moving like a reggae master; smiling to himself, laughing to himself, pointing at the crowd and laughing at little jokes only he understood. I think at one stage someone threw some drugs on stage for them, too. Awesome.
The Tivoli is a nice venue! It's an art deco style, and there are TVs above the bar and merchandise stall showing the concert that is going on (which I think is a nice touch). It has a mezzanine level, and is small enough so that you can't get too far away from the stage (not as small as The Anandale though). I'm gonna go see Air there at the end of this month, which I look forward to.
Oh, and I saw Amie after the gig, too.

But Lilly and I couldn't go too hard Friday night, as we had to catch our flight to Sydney the next morning, which meant being ready for the cab at 4am. Yesch.
But we did it, which meant us arriving in Sydney at around 8am (curse you, Daylight savings!).
We met Mumma at the airport, and went and had a (shit) breakfast with her, Alex and Hannah. We then had to get dropped at Carlingford in order to spend the day packing the last of our stuff into Lilly's Dad's car and his trailer. This was so that Allan (Lilly's Dad) could drive her and I back up to Brisbane on Sunday (and he could drive back to Sydney on Monday - bless him). We got almost all of our stuff (books are really all that's left in Sydney) - including the fridge, the bed, the dining table and all the other bits and pieces of life. I'll just quickly say here that it's great to have a bed again, and the semblance of a house (we're still unpacking).
So having finished packing and getting ready, we ended up in Newtown just past 7pm. We met Ross, Boggle, Linden, Boom and Carlie at an African food store, and had a small bite to eat there, too. It was good.
Fearful of crashing after a day of packing after a night of only 4 hours sleep after a rockin concert, Alex nicked 5 tablets of Mum's Dex to help Lilly and I through. So Lilly and I took our 2.5 tablets with dinner (as prescribed, haha), and were both surprised at how quickly we felt the buzz. By the time we felt this buzz, we had finished our dinner and were walking to the theatre. It was on this walk that Boom and Carlie pulled Lilly and I down the side street for a joint. Shit yeah. I wanted - and was quoted as saying - to go into orbit for this concert. I did. It was awesome. I can say with all confidence that the Sydney show blew the ass out of the Brisbane concert. To quote Dean Ween "I would have to rank this gig up there with some of my favorites of all time." You fucken heard it. In fact, he's gone on to say "Overall I would have to rank this as one of my favorite ween tours ever." So I'm thinking they could come back here again in the not-too-distant future. Fuck yeah.
Here is the setlist, it speaks for itself:

SYDNEY SETLIST
Fiesta
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
Waving My Dick In The Wind
Mr Richard Smoker
Learning To Love
Voodoo Lady
Your Party
Spinal Meningitis
Buckingham Green
Happy Colored Marbles
Back To Basom
My Own Bare Hands
Touch My Tooter
Gabrielle
Zoloft
I'll Be Your Jonny On The Spot
Object
Bananas And Blow
Piss Up A Rope
Frank
The Final Alarm
Booze Me Up And Get me High
The Mollusk
Ocean Man
Mister Would You Please Help My Pony?
Tick
You Fucked Up
ENCORE:
Nan
Stroker Ace
The HIV Song
Fluffy
SECOND ENCORE:
Buenas Tardes Amigo

Oh shit yes. Holy balls. How awesome is that list? Still, notable lack of King Billy and Push Th' Lil Daisies (they played Daisies in Adelaide though, which makes me want to follow them around the country next time they come out - especially as Adelaide was such a tiny venue).
But wow. What a show.
Before they started, someone in the crowd was inflating and distributing blue balloons, which I thought was a nice touch. Also, a giant white volley ball appeared and bounced around for a while, and then during the show a blow up doll made it's way onto the stage. Cool things. All more interesting than the Brisbane concert.
During Zoloft, Boom and I sparked up another J, and it was perfect. They were playing this huge guitar solo as an outro to it, and it was amazing. When it ended, I was screaming my delight, absolutely blown away by the magic of the moment, when they started the solo again. They knew I wanted more, and they delivered - I never wanted that moment to end. When that second solo ended, I was in ecstasy, writhing with bliss, exultations of supreme joy leaving my body. Then they went back into the solo for a third time. They sealed it. Best fucking band ever. It was magic. It was Earth moving. It was a defining concert of my life. The sheer diversity of the styles they played is a testament to their awesome. Man. I cannot say enough how fucking awesome that show was. Fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking awesome. Fucking one of the very fucking best concerts I've ever fucking been to. Fucking wow. Fucking fuck. Wow. Fuck. Fuck wow. You get the picture.
Actually, during the show, it appeared that Claude (the drummer) was telling the others of a sore hand. It also seemed that they changed the setlist because of that. Actually, between shows you could see the band talking and deciding what song to play next - which is awesome. If I was nearer the stage I would have shouted out "King Billy" or "Reggaejunkiejew." But I didn't.
I ended up taking about 720 pictures, and about 10 minutes (maybe?) of video. There were about 340 photos taken at The Tivoli, with a similar amount of video. I'm going to sort the photos ASAP, as well as optimise the videos and post them both to the web. I'll post the links here when they're up.
But wow.
And Buenos Tardes. I can't express it in words.
Unfortunately, when Boom, Carlie Lilly and I got inside (after losing the others and going to smoke a spliff), I called Ross and found out that they were in a different section to us. So that was a big disappointment; that I couldn't see Ween play with those that I had grown to love them with (Jon included - oh man I wish you coulda been there - I really hope you can make it to see them in Amsterdam). So that would be my one request for improvement - to have been right there with more of my mates.
After the show we met up and went back to Ross' (very, very cool) new pad in Newtown. Being on a dex binge (and despite knowing I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning), Lilly and I stayed there for a little while. Boom and Carlie soon left, and Linden went to bed, but a friend of Ross' came around (his name was Jon, I think) and we ended up going to a pub. While at the pub Lilly was checked out by a chick. Hehe. Not a bad looking lesbian either, one of the good ones. Chance of a threesome, I wonder?
Unfortunately amphetamines have a habit of putting me inside my head after a while, and this combined with the loud music meant I wasn't at my social best. We soon left the pub (primarily Gothic types there), to head to another. By now it was nearly 3am (I think, or was it nearly 2am? Daylight savings, I curse you again!), so Lilly and I decided it was time to go home. Sleep didn't come easy, and was restless, but the amphetamines made it easy to wake up. We piled into the car and were on our way to Brisbane. I am very happy to say that the trip went off perfectly. We made great time (12 and a half hours including unpacking) and the unpacking also went of flawlessly. Fanfuckingtastic. I don't think I would have been able to handle a disaster.
To celebrate, Allan, Lilly and I headed out to West End for a fucking delicious (and well priced) Greek dinner. The garlic sauce rivalled even Abdul's in strength.
All up a fucking BRILLIANT weekend.
5 stars.

EDIT: Videos from the concerts can be found on my YouTube Channel. Enjoy.

Brisbane and Our Journey North

Hello all, and welcome to my long delayed blog post.
On Friday 18th January 2008, Leanne and I finished packing our shit, and headed north to our new city of residence, Brisbane.
As is our style, we understimated just how long t would take to pack, and we didn't leave until after midday. It didn't really matter though, as we were going to stop off at my Uncle Bruce's place in Fernleigh (in between Byron Bay and Ballina) and spend the next day there.
The drive was good. Neither of us grew too weary, and the driver reviver stops helped us on our way. We had dinner at Coffs Harbour. A delicious fish burger each. Holy cow, it was *exactly* what I wanted. In fact, I want one now. Damn. So tasty.
We arrived at Bruces around 10pm, and talked for a little while before going to bed.
The next day we heard that the Mullumbimby makets were on, and thought it would be a great place to go. Unfortuntely, after driving out there we saw a sign informing us that they had been cancelled due to all the recent rain. Shame.
Well, not so much, because Leanne and I went for a beautiful drive through to Main Arm. Wow, so pretty. I'd love to live there for a few years. We followed the winding roads across fords and up into the mountains, and eventually turned around when it became a national park. We then took a different path back to the Pacific Hwy, but not before stopping off at a pie shop for some pies, peas, mash and gravy. Once again, yum yum.
We had a BBQ for dinner that night, and afterwards went down to Lennox Head pub as a band that Kate (Bruce's girlfriend) wanted to see were playing. A whole heap of Kate's friends and their families were down there, too.
So we went along. Not a bad band, but a cover band so they held no real interest for me.
Funnily enough though Casey Rickets (from primary and high school) was working there. Strange world. What's even a little stranger is that he has married a girl from Louisville, Kentucky. What's strange about that is that that's where Megan went to College. Funny how two boys from Turramurra end up going with two girls from Louisville.
The night went well. Leanne and I spent most of the time talking with Bruce, who's rather entertaining.
Strangely, during the night a man walking past reached out and stroked my sideburns, smiling. He then left, silently. Strange man.
After the pub we went back to Bruce's and lit a spliff. He had some hash, so we had some of that, and Kate rolled two fat joints. Holy cow. I went to another planet.
It was great talking with them through the night, but Leanne and I had to be up the next morning to meet Alex before he went to Gold Coast Big Day Out (which is about an hour and a half from Bruce's place).
Leanne and I woke up around 9am. We promised Alex we'd meet him by about 10am, which wasn't terrible when you consider the fact that Qld doesn't observe daylight savings. So we weren't doing too badly.
Of course, this "not doing too badly" quickly turned into "late" because we had a lazy breakfast, a lazy packing session, and then had to wait for Dad to stop by.
On top of this, the traffic was terrible so Alex ended up missing some of the bands he wanted to see. Of course, I was doing him a favour (playing mule), so he couldn't be too upset. Also, in the heat and the traffic, the car started to over heat.
We ended up getting into Brisbane some time around lunch, and to save the $$$ we ate pasta that we cooked that morning. The night's activities began to take their toll, so we bought some V, which helped us get by and made us excited about moving to Brisbane.
Rather than heading straight to Leanne's cousin's house, we thought we'd take a tour of the city.
It's small.
Very small.
Like about as big as Parramatta or maybe Chatswood. A teeny, tiny CBD. And then it's Central Coast-esque suburbia. And maybe 90% of the houses look the same. I unerstand now why they call them "Queenslanders." Every fucking house in Queensland is a fucking Queenslander. It's strange. If it's a nice house, it's a renovated Queenslander, if it's a shit house, it's a run down Queenslander. Rent varies dramatically between the run down and the renovated, but they're all fucking Queenslanders!
Of course, I'm exaggerating a little.
So Leanne and I are staying with her cousin, her husband and their two kids. They're all nice, so at least it's not terrible staying with them, but I'm keen for my own space - as is Leanne.
But the search for housing isn't going as well as it could. We viewed 5 or 6 houses yesterday, and only one of them was what we wanted, and one other was worth considering. So that sucks. Today we didn't see any good houses. Tomorrow is a big day though. 9-5 drivng around Brisbane kinda day. It's gonna be tiring. But, hopefully, we will come out with some houses having been applied for - and maybe even a house to call our own - although I'm feeling that could be a somewhat optimistic viewpoint at this juncture.
Either way, wish us luck.

Thoughts on Brisbane:
Hot & muggy.
Small but quaint.
More obviously bohemian.
A strange older brother of the Central Coast.
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Brisbane?

Brisbane?
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I'm currently sitting in the Nandos in Paddington, Brisbane.
Looking to my left, I snap this photo. You wouldn't think that we're only about 2km from the CBD, considering the photo looks like it was taken in a small country town.
Brisbane is a funny city.
I'm not yet sure what to make of it.
I will post more details to my blog tonight.
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Wrong Direction

20080122415.jpg
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Haha!
Simon and I are checking out places in brisbane today and we just spent an oblivious 10km going in the complete wrong direction while I drew old lady glasses and hair curlers on the photo of a man in our street directory. The worst thing is, that Simon was getting SO excited by the diverse array of shops on the drive that he thought he could be living near. Fucking hilarious. I love disappointment.
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