me, my camera and my life.


Tag Archive for 'brisbane'

No aphrodisiac like a Casio keyboard

Holly Throsby, man oh man what I can say about her and her duo of support (Bree van Reyk and Jens Birchall). I went on Friday night for The Dwarf and I went back on Sunday night to see her again. I have known who Holly is for quite a few years now and have adored her version of Not the Girl You Think You Are from the Tim and Neil Finn tribute Album She Will Have Her Way. However I have never gone to a concert, I have thought about it many times nor I have listened to much of her work. I did have a brief listen on Myspace before the gig on Friday night to brief myself a little but in all honesty listening to them on Myspace didn’t sell me on her. Clare was hoping to come along on Friday night as she was already in the Valley but by the time she got to the door the gig was sold out. I grabbed some floor space down near the front and caught the last bit of the support band Firekites and in all honesty I can’t remember much of their set three days later. By the time the support had finished the Troubie was filling up nicley and the security man walked through the sea of people sitting on the carpet and told us all to stand up and with much protest we all stood up. Then Holly came on stage and after she had said hello, a few people yelled out “Can we sit down?” to which she answered “I don’t care” and on that last word, everyone collectively sat down again. To which Holly made a few comments about that now she feels really tall.

A couple of seconds after she started singing, I sat up a little bit straighter and took a deep breath. Man oh Man, where I have been? Such an incredible sound, the little trio, soon to be known as Holly Throsby and the Hello Tigers (as of Sunday night) were just so tight in their sound, it sounded like there was just one person on stage. One of the sweetest things or perhaps I should say one of the nicest things was that at the end of the gig, it was Holly and Bree who were the merch stand and as I bought On Night on Friday, I told her that I had been meaning to go a gig for years but never got there and tonight she had blown the expectations I had for the gig by about 1000%. I was so sold that two nights later I bought the other two LPS A Loud Call and Under the Town and I would have bought a shirt but I don’t do black shirts.

Holly Throsby, The Troubadour

The set list for Friday was as follows
1) And Then We’re Gone
2) A Widow’s song
3) Now I Love Someone
4) On Longing
5) Don’t Be Howling
6) The Time It Takes
7) One of You for Me
8) Would You?
9) Some Night Are Long
10) Warm Jets
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) Things Between People
13) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided

17) The Shoulders and Bends

Friday blew me away but Sunday was bliss, a lot slower, a lot calmer, more talking and the music just leading the night away.

Set list for Sunday was as follows
1) To Begin With
2) If We Go Easy
3) On Longing
4) Now I Love Someone
5) The Time It Takes
6) One of You for Me
7) A Widow’s Song
8) Don’t Be Howling
9) Come Visit
10) Things Between People
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided

17) The Shoulders and Bends

There might have been one or two songs that were changed around but my lists are from the set lists that I picked up off the stage at the end of the shows.

Throsby

The Troubie whilst I love it and love it and love it is not a venue that is at all friendly for people wishing to take photographs. The lighting is two lights and a floor lamp but I wouldn’t change the fact that there is comfy lounge chairs, carpeted floor to sit on and a trendy bar. There were just so many cute, quint, funny bits that just made me smile. At the show on Sunday night, Holly asked if anyone had come to the gig on Friday night and raised my hand ever so slightly and she said that she had been thinking about wearing the same dress tonight but decided against it just in case people such as my self from Friday turned up on Sunday as well. Next time Holly Throsby is in your town make sure you go! If you don’t and I find out, well it may not be pretty.

Here is a youtube video of Holly doing Berlin Chair, the You Am I cover at the gig on Friday night. This user also has a few more videos from the two Brisbane shows.

Another thing I can’t contain my love for is the design of the CDs. All three follow the exactly same design for the CD and sleeve artwork. It is just perfect! Such a tiny thing like the fact that the

The rest of the photo gallery is here.

Ship Visits

Flying the Flag
The past weekend the HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Leeuwin have been in town and of course on Saturday they were open for a looksie. We ended up having a Medical Section family afternoon out with three of us from Med and three other family members. We toured the ships, had some good laughs and ate way too much ice cream at Hamilton Portside afterwards.

HSA girls on the bow of the Melbourne

There was a really impressive turn out of people for the afternoon and both ships put on really good tours. The Melbourne had people stationed at various points where the people accumulated waiting for people to climb stairs ready to have a chat about whatever they were near. On the Leeuwin we had good fun looking through the binoculars with which you could see a fly on a leaf 2km away, ok maybe not quite but they were slightly impressive.

Looking through the big binoculors

HMAS Leeuwin

On Monday the main deck of the HMAS Melbourne was the place where the enlistment ceremony took place for this months Navy intake. In addititon to the ceremony been on the Melbourne, it also saw the fourth son of one family enlisting. This meant that the Chief of the Navy was in town to do the honours and the press turned out for the occasion.

HMAS Melbourne A245 aka HMAS Leeuwin
Naval Signal flags on the Melbourne

Birthday Eve

I had a bit of flex time up my sleeve so I had a Birthday Eve day off (also because I was taking cake to work for my birthday and I wanted cake on my birthday not on the day before or after). I slept in till 7am!!! I did some washing, took care of the 1.8kg hunk of Pancetta I picked up last week, replied to some emails and then I headed off into the city. First off I collected my ticket for the Brandenburg concert and then I went to GOMA and checked out the Picasso exhibit at last (it closes on Sunday), that was everything I thought it was going to be and more. It was a really well presented exhibit. Getting a chance to see the works of Matisse, Cézanne, Rousseau, Renoir and all the other pieces that Picasso had collected presented alongside his own work was really good. At the GOMA shop I picked up one of the spilt pain teacup sets, it looks so good (I will take a photo of it later)

GOMA

Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!

After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.

Birthday Flowers Birthday Flowers

Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies :D Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some :) After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.

Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed :D so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today :D

Bridge to Brisbane

Bridge to Brisbane

On Sunday I did the Bridge to Brisbane with a friend who works in the Maroochydore recruiting office and another one of her friends. We completed the 10km walk/jog in a little under 1hr 20 mins and shortly after we crossed the finish line, we were deciding that our goal for next year was to jog the entire way and hopefully get near the 1hr mark.

It was such a great morning. Everyone was happy,sweaty and content. As we entered the RNA grounds, I picked up my pace and moved into a faster jog, thinking that the finish line was just round the corner, except it wasn’t just round the corner. I rounded corner after corner till I saw the gates to the arena that marked the 200m to go mark. I wanted to stop but I knew that if I stopped or slowed down my pace I wouldn’t get to the finish line, plus there were heaps of people lining the final 200m who had already completed the race and well I didn’t want to look like I had walked the entire race did I? I crossed that finish line and man oh man I was slightly buggered but I felt so good.

Now I am just waiting for midday on Thursday (my birthday!) for the results to come online to see where I placed in the 36000 people who competed.

Fireworks, music and photos

One of my favourite pieces of work to play either on Flute or Bassoon at high school was Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Musicso imagine my delight when I saw an ad in the paper on the weekend saying that the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra was about to start touring this piece! I booked my ticket this morning and thanked my mother for qualifying for the under 30 price :D The tour includes Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, details here.

On the topic of fireworks, this past Saturday night was Riverfire, the night that Brisbane puts on a firework show just because we are Brisbane and we have a mighty cool river. This year unlike previous years, I watched Riverfire from the hill that I live on.

I loved how they had coordinated the fireworks so well together. There was some song about two hearts and they had the heart shaped fireworks :D
Riverfire 2008, fireworks from Wooloowin

sigh fireworks.
Riverfire 2008, fireworks from Wooloowin

The second dump and burn to mark the end of the show.
Dump and Burn 2008

This is the view from my hill and the about a third of the crowd (the rest were behind me)
The view from my hill

A nice sunset.

It is the time of year when we tend to get a lot of nice sunsets and they just make me smile :)

Sunset over Nundah

The week and the end.

Monday, 71/366
little lost shoe, 71/366

Tuesday, 72/366
lantern, 72/366

Wednesday, 73/366
ohhhh dof diptych, 73/366

Thursday, 74/366
the things that are dear to me, 74/366

Friday, 75/366
a ray of light on a the seat, 75/366

Saturday, 76/366
stop, the end, 76/366
Stop Driving, such a West End thing. In my case though it is Stop 366.
This photo marks the end of my attempt at 366 in 2008. I was going to try to hold at out to 100/366 but I am throwing my lens cap into the ring now.
I have taken some photos I would never have taken before in the last 76 days, photos that I like but I have also taken photos which I don’t really like and were only taken because I needed a photo for the day.

The last couple of weeks it has seemed that taking a photo for the day has been the only thing on my mind. What will I take for the photo for today etc etc. I have better, more productive things to do with my time than sit there thinking, what in my room have I not taken a photo of.

And perhaps I might even shock horror post here more as I won’t be spending time, thinking what oh what can I take a photo of today.

a place of music.

On the Tuesday, the computer said go to Rics, stay out late and enjoy every minute of it. I did as the computer said.

Grassroots Street Orchestra (herein referred to as GSO because that is a whole lot easier to say and makes me think of a SO when I say it) and Mister Laneous & The Family-Yah (herein referred to as Mr Laneous) played a late Tuesday night gig this past Tuesday and even though I stayed out way past my bed time (am not a uni student any more) as the show started a little bit later than they tend to it was worth every bit of it.

I had seen part of a set by Mr Laneous a couple of weeks ago when they were playing a Sunday afternoon slot at Rics and I had liked what I had heard for sure. This time I got to see a whole set and it was like I am tempted to say a spoonful of sweet chilli philly, though it was a more grittier feel than that. One thing I did make a special note in my diary of was this song which I will call Going Crazy/Crazy for You, which was a pretty sweet duet affair with Mr Laneous and Georgia Potter. Really wish now that I had taken more photos of them but I was a bit slack and I made up for it with photos of GSO.

The Family Yeah

GSO.
I remember the first time I saw an “ad” for a GSO gig in a Time Off and thinking that sounds like a pretty cool band and I should get up and go to the gig. For some reason I didn’t. I wish I had now because between then and when I first saw GSO live in January, I have missed a lot of opportunities. That is life though and as much as I wish I could go back and start things over I can’t so I move forward.

GSO was raw music, words, reason. It was not really about a band playing to an audience, it was a much more fluid environment with the band feeding off the energy of the crowd and the crowd absorbing every word, note and arm waving of GSO.

Side note: Something else I have come to realise in the last week about local acts over national acts and even more so over international acts is that whilst the sound of a local act may not be as polished or the stage show as an international, I think given the option nine times out of ten now I would pick seeing a local act as they live in the same city as you. They have to deal with the same politics, events, landscape as you and it is through the music that they express how they see it. I rarely accept friend requests on myspace from bands that are not local. I have so many ideas to develop and enrich the local music scene (in fact I have a notebook full) and one day I hope I am able to get at least some of them up off the ground.

Back to GSO. Apart from having total respect for how Surya wraps his tongue around those words, it is just the right music for life at the moment.
GSO Crowd
steve
Surya

Gig Gallery