Come on feel the Illinoise

Before we came to NZ we bought a MP3 player to download all our albums. I reckon there was about 300 or so, so it took some time. (I keep wanting to write AN MP3 player as opposed to A MP3 player?)

We decided that would do us for the year and there would be no need to buy any albums when we were over here, but we forgot to factor in the absence of a TV and there is only so much music you can listen to over and over again.

We therefore bought CSS' album CSS Suxx a couple of months ago. That helped for a while and although it's a really great album, we became bored again quite quickly. We could also download the music instead of buying the CD's but we prefer to have the original in some sort of "real" format.

It was my birthday not so long ago and I got some funds sent over from Ireland, thank you! So I decided to buy some music. The only problem being that I cannot buy something unless I have read some sort of review or got some sort of feed back. We only get two radio stations at our house, crap one and crap two. So that didn't help.

Eventually I came across this website called metacritic.com which takes all the reviews from the various music magazines and gives a grand total. They also have the best of each year and an overall best and worst list. I looked through the best of the various years and took a leap of faith and purchased the following in Real Groovy on Cuba St. in Welly

Sufjan Stevens- Come on feel the Illinoise
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
My Morning Jacket- Z
Beth Orton- Comfort of Strangers
Ali Farke Toure- Savane
TV on the Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain

They didn't have all the records as some seemed to be quite obscure or sold out so I ordered the last two on amazon.com.au. Which incidentally also sell second hand copies, which surprised me. I didn't think amazon sold second hand, but maybe it's only down under?

I don't buy second hand out of principle as I always think they were part of someones precious record collection before they were stolen! Or maybe that's just Dublin.

The metacritic site only seems to go back to 2000 but it also reviews books, DVDs, Games etc. and appears on the surface of things to be pretty handy to know about. We have listened to some of the albums and are really enjoying them especially Sufjan Stevens. The guy seems to be a genius. ( If you, like me, think you have never heard any of his music, you will be surprised to be singing along with a few of the tracks on the record first time of listening. It appears he's not as obscure as I thought).

Cathal

Sydney (Days 16-17)

Our penultimate day in Sydney saw us cramming as much as we could into it. First and foremost we had run out of clean clothes so we decided to go and buy some cheap T shirts.

We had passed the QVB or Queen Victoria Building a few time and actually walked though it's arcade another, and I was anxious to go back and take a proper look around, I mean do some clothes shopping!

The building was restored to it's original grandeur a few years back and has won countless awards since. It also has some nice shops, and despite the setting, they are not necessarily expensive. Here are a few pics.

I really like the old fashioned lifts. Anyway I met Sharon about an hour later, she had shopping bags, I had photos. Sharon reminded me that the purpose of going to the QVB was to buy some clothes and we therefore stopped in another shop on the way back to the hotel.

We went into a unisex clothes shop and we weren't in the door five minutes when a guy came up to me and told me that if I bought two T Shirts I got free thongs! I think I actually ran away from him. I eventually found Sharon and didn't let her out of my sight. To be fair to the guy he came up to us at the cash register and said that he must remember to call them flip flops in future! The penny finally dropped, we called them flip flops, the Kiwi's call them jandels and the Aussies call them thongs! (It's good to know these things).

After the morning shopping we had lunch in the MCA Cafe (Museum of Contemporary Art) and it was really good. It has a nice setting at the harbour and has seating outside if you come early or book. We did neither so we ate inside, but the food and service were really good, even if it did put a bit of a dent in the old wallet. After that we did a quick tour of the Museum and saw an interesting exhibition by Paddy Bedford, a very well respected Aborigine painter.

After we were fed and watered we headed down to the Opera House to go and see, or should that be hear, Brahms Symphonies No's 1 & 3. Here's a poster and a pic of the second iconic feat of engineering in Sydney harbour, the harbour bridge.

On our previous tour of the opera house our guide was at pains to tell us that photographs within the main theaters was not allowed, we duly left our camera and bags in the cloak room and proceeded to the hall.

We went inside the theatre and I was glad I didn't suffer from epilepsy as the amount of cameras flashing would surely have brought on an attack. I was raging, ignorance is bliss it would seem and I came away from the concert without a photo. Not only that, but as we booked so late, we were in the "gods" and had fantastic seats to take in the entire venue.

After the concert, which was excellent, we got a bus out to Bondi Beach, Sydney's other famous beach. We had lugged our swimming gear around with us all day and were looking forward to a nice swim on the famous beach.

It seems the gods were against us on this trip when it came to swimming as every time we had an opportunity it rained. It rained in Lake McKenzie, Bondi Beach and we were to learn later on on our trip that it would rain also in Wineglass Bay. (well not actually rain but be overcast and duller than you would like). Here's two pics of Bondi Beach. If you are Irish and home sake, my advise is go to Bondi Beach, we heard Irish accents everywhere!

After Bondi we tried to get into Bondi Icebergs, which would turn out to be posher than we would have liked and totally booked up. Because of the former we didn't really mind. The waiter recommended their sister restaurant on the other side of the beach and we strolled down to North Bondi Italian Food. You couldn't book, so we had a 45 minute wait, and unfortunately it wasn't worth it.

That night, as we were strolling around, we saw the following poster and it reminded us of Fiona - we wondered if this was the secret reason for Fiona's love of Mojito's - did they offer a similar service in Buenos Aires? Sharon wonders if it's something we could introduce in Ireland?

That was our second last day, we got up on Day 17 and checked out of our hotel, and waited to be brought to Sydney Airport, next stop, Hobart, Tasmania.

I have a head cold at the moment and the mood is therefore a little sedated. I am also getting a little tired of blogging about Australia considering we are back a month. (Hence four posts in one day!). So if our trip to Sydney doesn't sound as up beat as it should perhaps that's the reason.

We love city holidays, and tend to go on them more than sun holidays. We went to Valencia in Spain for our first wedding anniversary last year and it was really fabulous, but I suspect that if we had done it immediately after Queensland it too couldn't match the shear "newness" of every experience we had up North.

It's unfortunate, but as an adult, you loose your child like innocence and things have a bad habit of becoming habitual, banal. With Queensland, there's no such fear. In terms of excitement it was like stepping back in time.

Cathal

Let's make love and listen to death from above.

This post was meant to be a rare Sharon post more commonly found on the Clickety Knits blog. Unfortunately due to a growing number of “WIP’s” (she’s found a yarn shop and is busy knitting) Sharon has not been able to write in our blog for the last few weeks. If you want to see what she has been working on since the beginning of 2007 check out her blog here. It might be worth a look, as there’s a damn cute guy modelling a beanie, if I do say so myself.

Anyway back to the post at hand.

We were watching MTV a few nights ago and there was a section on called “try it you might like it.” They had a Brazilian Band on called Cansei De Ser Sexy or CSS for short. I wrote down the name in a book and went on and on to Sharon about how good the album apparently was and how Tom Dunne was constantly playing one of their songs called “Let’s make love and listen to death from above.”

Anyway a couple of days later, my darling wife went into a local record shop to buy the CD for her devoted husband! Unfortunately they didn’t have any of the CD’s left but asked if Sharon was going to the concert on Sunday! Concert? They’re playing here? Where can I buy the tickets? were the questions that ensued. A serendipitous encounter it would turn out. (How’s that for good word usage Hugh?)

After much looking and asking, Sharon eventually found out where the shop selling the tickets was located. We both went up to “Real Groovy” the following day and purchased the tickets @ $40 a pop. That’s 20 Euros to you! The tickets stated the following. “Doors: 8pm- early show!” Notice the exclamation mark! Here’s a pic of the tickets.

Anyway the guy in the record shop confirmed that the gig was on in the “San Francisco Bath House” on Cuba St. (formerly known as the Indigo Bar) a notoriously difficult place to find as it is literally a door in the street. Here’s a pic of the signage and a few views from across the street.

We were late getting back from the Beach Volley Ball but decided not to rush as concerts rarely start on time in any event. A thought that would turn out to be oh so accurate. We eventually arrived at about 8.15 relieved that the concert had not started and somewhat disappointed at the bad turn out. Two hours later the turn out had improved ten fold and we had had a few promising tuning sessions. Our patience was starting to really wane by the time the warm up band started, a crowd called “So So Modern.” Thankfully like most start up bands they had a short enough set and left the stage promptly at 10.30.

By the time CSS got on stage we were bored to the point of despondency and wondered if we would be able to enjoy the gig. However to be fair to the five girls and one guy they energised the place, and us, within seconds. The lead singer to her credit “gave it socks” and the whole experience was fab. We bought the album at the gig and it’s well worth a listen if you’re open minded and don’t mind the many expletives.

I would go see them again in a heart beat but, maybe next time, a little later than advertised!

Cathal