quarter to closer (Sunday January 30th, 2005 - 13:57)

category: mmhuh?

So where did I leave off?

Last Saturday night I went on to Spectrum to see ex-Sydney, now Melbourne, band the Fangs who looked nice and sounded very tight. A week later I can’t recall any particular high-lights but there weren’t any low-lights so that’s okay.

Mark Bradshaw up next – an eccentric vocalist accompanied by three violins and a cello. He did a bit of Morrissey-esque prancing and arm waving and the sound was gorgeous… a stand out between two rock bands but not really what I was after. Another night maybe, another line up.

Finally Faker whose name I knew but didn’t think I’d heard any songs from. As they blasted along in energetic rock’n’roll form I recognised Quarter to Three (download from their site), Teenage Werewolf (download from mp3.com.au) and a couple of other tunes. Fine stuff for the ears on an unplanned Saturday night.

Drinks Monday at the Youth; working from home on Australia Day but watching the Roulettes fly past my balcony; drinks Friday at work with a few games of pool, then one at the Youth, my first venture into the Clare hotel (interesting crowd), popping our heads in to the Arthouse on Pitt St before settling in to the Century Tavern to while away the hours.

Saturday went to see my second Jude Law film in a week, Closer, a painful story set in London about 2 couples trying to demonstrate their straying loves for each other and wanting to take what they can’t and shouldn’t have. Confusion, betrayal, living lies, and making sense of feelings (is it fear of happiness or the chance of another being the real thing that makes one stray?). The execution of movement from one year to another could have been done a little better – I can understand it working in a play but on film it seems clumsy. Perhaps that’s the point. Clumsy relationships. Clumsy movement of time. People absorbed in the same problems for years on end when it relates to the heart, drawn out hope that things will be resolved for the better. Some fantastic scenes in there, great acting.

In other things.. I’ve decided I should check out as many venues as possible this year. There’s quite a few that have opened since I last lived in Sydney so I should stop relying on Spectrum, the Annandale and the Hopetoun. I need some more pointers towards good Sydney bands – bass, drums, guitars and vocals with a song or two that can really stick in your head and bug you afterwards is all I want.

I’m trying to stick to Firefox as my browser of choice but the RSS feeds bug me – is there any way for it to show a different icon or highlight new items? It doesn’t seem to keep track of which ones have been viewed – grr.