"The green, green night"

Floordrobe

Corb Lund And The Hurtin' Albertans are a country group from Canada with serious musical chops and a versatile store of songs on which to draw. Alas, their gig at Notes Live in Newtown - in support of their new "Cabin Fever" album - was marred by assclowns talking loudly the whole night. If Corb and band were annoyed by the rudeness of the yakkers, they didn't show it, playing on past the advertised finishing time - and with gusto. The M. brothers and I agreed they'd likely encountered far worse crowds in their travels, as at least there were no fists or bottles flying. Incessant chatter is a definite problem at Sydney C&W events, but, and in this case it ruined softer heartfelt numbers such as "September". My theory is it's because notable shows are so rare here that some fans flip out over being with their own kind and the music is forgotten. So let's not do that, and instead celebrate the fabulous title track from 2007's "Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!" - goo.gl/Vp5X7

Thumbling

Speaking of Canada, PG stayed at my joint on Thursday, ahead of a business trip there. We smashed decent pizza and trashed mediocre movies. "Stealing Harvard" was formulaic and crying out for more Tom Green madness. "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse" was one of the weaker animated adaptations of a DC Comics series, in terms of plot, dialogue, visuals, you name it (we did). And Edward R. Murphy's "The Adventures Of Pluto Nash" was switched off through extreme boredom. As always, it was great to hang with an old mate, albeit briefly.


Mildly disturbing fact: Disney cruise ships aren't equipped with libraries. (No casinos, neither, though that's understandable considering the company's ethos.)

Alcohol as a coping mechanism

I've created another Tumblr account. Rather than book covers or Artov Farkhus' mobile snaps, this'un collects cool images, mostly of cute gals. As I latterly explained to RS, I'm trying to restrict it to promotional or otherwise gratis pics I can legitimately credit. The title - "Promo Sapiens" (correct singular form) - wasn't in doubt. I considered "johnfowlesowls" for the URL kicker but hated that I couldn't insert the apostrophe. Don't be too harsh, it can only improve -

typedwithbeakandclaw.tumblr.com

Google Middle-Earth

From Ronda Rousey's biography on Strikeforce.com -

Q: Do you have any heroes?
A: FEDOR!!! I would have 57 of his babies if he'd let me.

Given the "fight genes" involved, something tells me those hypothetical children would have no difficulty defending themselves :-)


This clip was popular at work yesterday. I like the Mexican Day Of The Dead make-up and the parkour bits -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I83Xp7itj8c

KK Slider live at Budokan

Felicia Day AND Morgan Webb. Doing archery. While wearing elf ears. Today has peaked early.

goo.gl/8pC8l

When computer programs arrived via FM radio, straight to your cassette recorder...

If you were an 8-bit kid, this article (plus selected comments) should leave you feeling warm and fuzzy - goo.gl/OQmfi

Thrown up by memory IV

Breaking into a local school with the half-baked plan of stealing the starter pistol used for athletics carnivals. We quickly realised we had no idea where it might be kept, rode our BMX bikes along a few corridors and inside an auditorium for a thrill, then left without taking a thing.

Non-practising recluse

The pitch, roll and yaw of the couch when drunk

Saw "Indie Game: The Movie" at the renovated Dendy Newtown as part of the Possible Worlds 7th Canadian Film Festival. "IG:TM" documents the production and reception of three titles - "Braid", "Super Meat Boy" and "Fez" - from the perspectives of their creators. Like the first of those games, it plays around with time. Like the second, it isn't easy, e.g. it takes a while to really get to know the programmers, all of whom have their faults. Like the third, it offers moments of wonder. And like fellow videogame doco "The King Of Kong", it makes you want to jump on Wikipedia afterwards to learn WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. Keen? Pay to stream it here - buy.indiegamethemovie.com

Hayden Panettiere's stunning look in "Scream 4"

On PB's recommendation, I was front and slightly right of centre for the Spaghetti Western Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. An Aussie five-piece, they perform the music of Ennio Morricone from westerns like "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" in a style that's inventive and humorous but never does a disservice to the compositions. So along with man-made noises (lots of whistling) and traditional instruments such as the bassoon, drums, harmonica, mouth harp, piano forte, tambourine, ukulele, vibraphone, etc., sounds were made with everything from wooden clappers to Corn Flakes, twirling ropes and bicycle pumps. Imagine the Blue Man Group grew up in Deadwood :-)

Richard "The Lionheart" spoke French but no English

In the mood to dine somewhere different, I visited The Morrison Bar And Oyster Room on George St - but didn't have oysters. What I did eat was a delicious warm duck salad with lettuce, radish, pink grapefruit, pomegranate and chardonnay vinaigrette. An original and pleasantly sour combo. Followed that with a snow crab linguine seasoned with parsley, mint, chilli and lemon. Tasted better than it looked, but was probably still the weakest of the dishes I chose. Dessert was chocolate brownies with malt ice-cream and caramel popcorn (handmade, if I'm any judge). The little white plate was empty before you could say, "Even with beverages and tip, that's quite a reasonable tab."

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Baggy Pants And The Nitwits

Genuinely excited about this upcoming 'toon -

http://disney.go.com/wreck-it-ralph/

You can wreck the trailer (I scored 247k) as well as play the arcade-classic-that-never-was from the flick, although both were kinda glitchy on my craptop.

The Bandag Bandit

Lucky Tsotsi in Darlinghurst is modelled on a "shebeen", a rough'n'ready illegal bar found in South African townships. It sells grog authentic to the region and the type of street food expats like my friend AZ dearly miss. We went there on Saturday evening and now wanna return ASAP. The proprietor and his staff were incredibly welcoming and nothing was too much trouble for them. We ordered five dishes and they were all winners - Lucky's LM prawns for her, Kakhulu garlic snails and Bakgat bunny chow for me, and Tannie Sannie's sosaties and slap (pronounced "slup") chips to share. Some explanations... The chow was a hot chicken curry served in a hollowed-out bread roll, the sosaties exquisite lamb skewers that were among the best I've ever eaten, and the slaps regular potato fries drenched in vinegar. While the snails were VG, they were done just the same as those I've had in French and Spanish restaurants. But the prawns (I pinched one) and the sosaties featured spice mixes and accompanying sauces that were truly amazing. To drink, AZ had a couple of sodas from her youth - a green cream soda and a red Grapetiser - while I imbibed Namibian Windhoek beer and also threw down a Springbok shooter, comprising peppermint liqueur and Amarula. The bill was about a hundred bucks, which I reckon was an absolute bargain. It even included free jokes...on the pages from "MAD" magazine used to wallpaper the gents.