The Chronicles Of…

So James bought me a ticket to the Big Day Out – #2 Sydney show – as a christmas present (thankyou James!).

And because the BDO organisers didn’t sell enough tix to the 2nd Sydney show they made it “bring-a-friend-for-free” deal, so Pete and Todd came with.

I haven’t been to the BDO since 1996 when it was at Moore park so wasn’t sure what to expect of this one… I must say, I was expecting it to be filthy hot and crowded but thankfully it wasn’t… nice!

I must say I did feel somewhat out of touch not recognising many of the bands that were playing the BDO but it was refreshing to realise I did know some of them (heard on JJJ) and just didn’t realise I knew them… And it was good to be introduced to some new music and see what BDO youth culture looks like nowadays (maybe I should claim the ticket on tax each year as youth research? hmmmm…).

Of course I wore my tried and true concert going out fit – cut off cargos with zip/velcro pockets to keep your stuff secure in the mosh, black tee, sneakers, and hat (because after 96 BDO I’m more sensible about sun protection). However, I soon realised that I was probably the only one in such an outfit… seems the modern male concert goer where’s board shorts, singlet or no shirt, or they wear skinny jeans… how they stop their stuff  falling out of their pockets in the mosh? Easy, they don’t really mosh. Sure they get right up the front and move a bit (I was there for Tool, Deftones and Rammstein) but the mosh is soft if you ask me… dudes stand there with their iPhone, digital camera and handbag doing squat… soft I say.

And the modern female concert goer… well lets just say some super tiny cut off jean shorts and a bikini top or bra will get you by with the status quo (there must’ve been a memo about female concert uniform… you’d be hard pressed to find anything different).

Anyway, enough of fashion… I went really to see the Deftones and Tool, but I was glad I caught Children Collide, Paul Dempsy, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Washington, and (surprisingly) Rammstein… yes, that’s right Rammstein. I’m as surprised as you are.

Now I’m not really a Rammstein fan (they’re quite frightening!) but man they put on a good show! I’ve never seen such theatrics or pyrotechnics from any band ever. Certainly there were some vulgar theatrics (those who were there, you know what I’m talking about) but by and large they were super entertaining.

I’m not going to get their albums or become a big fan, but I certainly wont miss their show if I happen to be at a music festival where they’re playing.

I stayed to the end for Tool as well and because I only really have one of their albums I knew all but 2 of the songs they played… but they were worth it just to see the drummer Danny Carey who is AMAZING! (youtube him). I would’ve loved if they played Forty Six & 2 (my Tool favourite) but they finished the set with Aenima and Stinkfist and that was great.

All in all, a good day out! And I even escaped sunburn, woohoo!

I might even go next year… I’ll see…

• You’re that guy who doesn’t blog for months and then dumps like 4 blogs in one hour….

• You’re also that guy who doesn’t blog in ages and then expects that everyone will read and care about what you’ve written…

• You’re that guy who stays up late on the internet and then complains in the morning when you’re tired…

And while I’m here I’ll take the opportunity to announce that I am now on holidays until January 9th 2011, WooHoo!

I’ve got some holiday reading planned:

• “The Road” Cormac McCarthy
• “The Fry Chronicles” Stephen Fry
• “The Vertical Self” Mark Sayers

Some holiday travels planned:

• Coffs Harbour to visit in-laws and for NYE
• A one day trip from Coffs to Kalang to visit more rellos.

Some holiday activities planned:

• Tee Shirt screen printing. I’ve got 4 blank shirts and I need some ideas…
• Stencilling (this goes with the screen printing but I might spray some too)
• Beaching
• Lounging
• Playing with the girls
• Movies

And who knows what else!

Anything goes!

And while I’m here blogging again again after many months I might as well add my reflection on Santa this year…

I don’t know why I’ve not noticed this before but I’ve come to realise that Santa (at the least the modern day creation rather than St Nick himself) is quite the bastard.

I don’t want to come across all anti-santa or anything, I’m not actively against the tradition, but consider this:

1. Santa ignores 90% of the known world at Christmas time. He chooses instead to only give presents to people who live in the Western world.
2. Santa is manipulative. He only giving presents to those kids he thinks are nice enough and yet often giving presents to kids who aren’t good, just because he wants to people to like him.
3. Santa favours the wealthy. He gives bigger, better, more expensive gifts to rich people.

I don’t know about you, but if Santa is real someone needs to sort him out.

OK, so there’s probably no one out there left who still come to this blog because we write something new about every 6 months (that is, if the site hasn’t crashed…). But for the sake of those people who, still in hope, drop by occasionally then this is for you.

So we started thechroniclesof maybe 6 years ago now (?) and it’s been through various stages of (de?) evolution in those years, we were at one point even blogging about once a week – maybe even more! I’ve stumbled across my photos and travel blogs from the trip to Vietnam in 2007 and it was great to read over them and remember the trip afresh! I’m glad there’s a pubic record! We’ve even got some google ads which have sponsored us enough to supplement a couple of weekends away and a case of beer or 2.

Thechroniclesof has been good for us by and large, and at the very least it’s helped us keep updated with each other, vent our rage, attempt some humour and share youtube videos…

But after many months of resistance I joined twitter last year and it has slowly killed any initiative or urge to blog…

Mostly this is because it’s quicker, shorter, easier, and it also helps us do the very things thechroniclesof helps us to do - keep updated with each other, vent our rage, attempt some humour and share youtube videos…

So now the question is: what to do?

I still value thechroniclesof and the site as a place to share thoughts and reflections, but given my short and instant Twitter bursts, will I make the time…?

It seems pointless to ask thechroniclesof readership if we should persevere and make a renewed effort to blog more regularly (because I’m not sure we have a readership) but what say you? Do or Die?

Went and saw The Social network yesterday and I’m going to join the chorus of people out there that are giving 5 star thumbs up for this flick, It’s really really great! I already loved Aaron Sorkin’s writing for the West Wing and this is just another example of his genius.

What has particularly struck me about this movie is that Mark Zuckerburg and Eduardo Saverin only created FB around 2003 and in seven years Facebook has become part of daily life – you eat, breath, and Facebook. I mean 2003 was when I got my first computer!

I really like this comedy sketch. It reminds me of the shop Mel used to work for in Notting Hill London – Graham & Green.

So you want to know what’s been going on eh?

Sick. That’s what. Plain sick.

I came down with some crazy snot flu thing at the end of my holidays about 6 weeks ago. No problem. I swallowed down a whole box of Codral followed by a whole box of Sudafed and… nothing. Still sick. Turns out it’s a virus, so I’m on to the antibiotics for 2 weeks. That’s 4 weeks sick. I start to get over it and boom! Monday last week I’m feeling fine but at 11:30pm I come down with a fever and chills and I’m up all night, no sleep. Devastating.

We had our Salt October camp starting on the Thursday night and I’m in bed (and travelling frequently to the bathroom) all Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday . I got better about Saturday night of the camp. Things are looking up.

Monday this week I break out in some kind of itchy hives all up my legs, back, sides. either that or I was attacked by some crazy bug… who knows. Clears by Tuesday.

Tuesday afternoon I got roped into playing in the Youthworks College vs Moore College rugby league match (which we won for the first time ever! 8 tries to 4) and come off in the second half with some minor concussion after hitting the back of my head on the ground being tackled. Geez concussion makes you look and feel stupid…

Today is Thursday. I’m not sick today. Bit exhausted but OK. I am feeling a little wary though. I get the feeling that if some new alien flu broke out this week that only affected 5 people, I would be one of them…

And what’s with the crazy Medieval music that starts playing on our site after about 90 seconds?

Drives me nuts!

This server company we’re with are rubbish! What’s their name? HostSo or something…?

I’m blaming them for my lack of blogging over the last month… I mean, how can I spend all this time writing profound blogs on a regular basis if HostSo are going to crash the server and lose all the data?

I need security. Is there a Jesus server somewhere?