March 2008 – Page 2 – helenthura.com

March 10, 2008

slightly bigger impact

I was walking home from the bus stop today for the first time in weeks (I have been getting picked up since I did my ankle), as I was walking past one house I looked up over the tiled roof to the blue sky and though to myself it really is a prefect day. I am walking home from the bus stop, the cake box under my arm is empty, my hair is down, I walked out of work at 4pm and my desk was clear, the sky is blue after it was washed this morning and the temperature is just right. Oh and I was also listening/singing along to This Year. That last bit might have had a slightly bigger impact on me realising that today is a perfect day than say the empty cake box.

It also wasn’t just any This Year that I was listening to either it was from the show at Bottom of the Hill in San Fran last week. One thing I have noticed from listening to the recent shows on archive.org and reading blog reviews is that the shows are becoming more and more a big singalong. Am I complaining? No. Incidentally the Mountain Goats are one of two artists who I have never felt uncomfortable singing along to at gigs, the other is Peter Combe, he is/was a children’s artist, that is expected. A ‘Goats show is really just one big family reunion or perhaps it is the growth of a cult, we all look at this man on stage (JD) and his disciples and we say those words along with them. Saying those words from the bottom of our heart. Where it is ok to say those words, not those gigs where people around you look at you and start “bumping” into you if you start singing along at any level above a whisper. Saying those words like they are going to deliver you from salvation. mmmm perhaps I should just put The Mountain Goats in the religion box on facebook.

Which leads me to the The ‘Goats and their upcoming tour. In just about a month exactly I am going to flex off early from work on Friday and fly down to Newcastle see them play and then go to Sydney for the Saturday night show before coming back to Brisbane on Sunday, catching their Tuesday show at the Zoo before going up to the Sunny Coast on Thursday for the last show. Crazy perhaps but as Mum tells me I am footloose, fancy free and working the 8-4. I haven’t bought my plane tickets or show tickets yet but I will be doing that in the next few days.

This is a photo I took on the way home today. A little lost shoe.

And two from the farm yesterday.

March 9, 2008

Fun in the kitchen

I have been playing in the kitchen this weekend and having a ball. It has also meant that Mum has been able to spend a fair bit of time on the computer organising a talk she is giving on her trip out west last year.

Saturday I made sugar biscuits to have play with icing.

Saturday night I listened to the Womadelaide 2008 live broadcast (and loved every single minute of it) whilst decorating those biscuits. I have wanted to go to Womad since 2001 or 2002 when I first saw brochures for it at the library, listening to it this year has just made me want to go 100 times more than I did before. There was just so many artists I enjoyed listening to. At the end of the night I had no regrets not going to see Tiger Army/Zombie Ghost Train with Matthew and his friends (which according to Matthew was an awesome show).

I learnt that so much of it is about getting the consistency of the royal icing just right. As I practice more though I know I will get the consistency better on the first time instead of adding more sugar because it is too runny and then adding more liquid because I made it too solid.

Saturday I also went to the shops and if I go to Chermside I normally tend to poke my head into the kitchenware sections of Myer and David Jones because you never know what might be on sale. Well when I went into Myer I saw a sign which said 30% off all accessories and in the little note below it said it included pasta machines. Well when I saw that they had Atlas machines on the shelf, I knew what I was buying! Ever since I returned the below par pasta machine I bought 16mths ago I have been keeping my eye out, for an Atlas on sale, you know to make the price a whole lot more appealing. So so happy to have a pasta machine again. It also just runs so smooth.

Today I made Ralphs chocolate cake to take to work for a birthday tomorrow and of course I made Pasta! and Mum took some photos.

Pasta is all about the rolling, that blob of pasta would probably go through the machine about 25 times before it is cut, it makes it this most beautiful sheet of pasta.

I decided to be silly and make very very very long noodles. The first three runs I made as spaghetti and the final run I made as fettuccine. Typically of course you would cut the long pasta strip into 12-20″ strips before cutting it but hey why not?

The final stage, dusting the the fresh pasta with flour before packing it up to pop in the freezer.

Now it is time for bed and the start of another work week.

March 5, 2008

dreams

Monday.
I set my alarm for 6:15 this morning. When it went off I was in the middle of a dream. I turned my alarm off and dozed back to sleep in an attempt to finish my dream. I didn’t finish my dream. Mum woke me up at 6:30. Really wish I had finished my dream.

Bus. Work. Bus. Dinner. Iron

Tuesday.
I set my alarm for 6:00. When it went off the first thing I thought as I reached for my phone to turn off the alarm was my name is Helen Palsson. Still thinking about that one.

Bus. Work. Bus. Dinner. Tomorrow’s dinner tonight.

Wednesday
I set my alarm for 6:00. When it went off my first thought was I wonder how the casserole I had in the oven went over night.

Bus. Work. Bus. Dinner. Laundry.

The Breeders new album, Mountain Battles leaked (how many albums these days don’t leak? I am not instantly in love with it. Which surprises me. I was meant to love it from the very first note I heard. This is The Breeders in terms of shaping musical tastes, they were the first “modern/current” band that I fell in love with. I am going to listen to it for the next couple of days and see how it grows on me. I am on the second run through now and bits are starting to grow on me but it is very much not how I thought it would be.

March 4, 2008March 4, 2008

no misery

Life is about arriving home from The Farm on a Sunday sometime round 8:30 and going, hey you know Georgia Potter and Banawarun are playing at Rics tonight and there is nothing stopping me from going. So of course off I went, I packed a bag, grabbed the keys and I was off.

I really need to start writing these posts down on paper when I get home or the morning after to see if I can get more of the words and feelings out of my head instead of sitting here looking at a computer screen trying to figure out how I want to describe something which seems to happen more often than I want it to.

Back to Rics though. It was a delightful close to the weekend. It wasn’t packed to the rafters but it was quite pleasantly full. Just that right number of people. You know how you sort of forget how much you enjoy a band as for whatever reason? Or you forget just how great their music is? Or you forget just how much emotion is in the music? That was Sunday night. Or do you ever think about what it would have been like back in the day, watching those now big artists of the 70’s doing the bar scene? Sitting there thinking to yourself that you are watching something special and that one day, hopefully sooner rather than later that more people in the world will know too? I like those gigs. Gigs where the guitar is just right, the lyrics have meaning and everything clicks together? Or acts that even when sick still have a stage presence that holds the attention of everyone in the crowd or acts that look genuinely pleased and happy to be on stage.

Sunday was one of those nights. Banawurun & Georgia Potter both were delightful. I can not recommend enough clicking those links and listening to them on myspace.

In a dream world I floated out of Rics, although in the real world it was a whole lot more like one foot after another slowly, thinking more about not stumbling/tripping over something rather than the magical music.

This is possibly my favourite image of the night, it was also the first photo I took. It was nearing the end of Georgia’s set and I had spent a lot of time looking at the reflection on the door. Wanting to do something different I took a photo.

Banawurun.
Troy
Trev

Georgia Potter.
Geo
georgia

Gig Gallery

March 2, 2008

one spire, two spire, cathedral

Yesterday the Cathedral across the street from where I work stepped one step closer to completion with the spires lifted into place. Each spire weighs a whopping 9 tonne and they were lifted into place by a 350 tonne crane on the back of a truck.

I had read in Friday’s paper that the spires were going up on Saturday but there was no mention of the time. When I woke up I rang the paper, the radio station, the tv station and the cathedral and I couldn’t get any answers either due to the phone not been answered or people not knowing. I then rang work and was told that one spire was up already. I packed a camera bag, jumped in the car and rushed into work. When I got to my level at work, I saw that they were still working on the first spire and there was a sizeable crowd in the square below. I figured that I would wait in the air-con, doing some loose ends at work till there was some movement on the ground with the second spire. When I saw things moving into place for the second spire, I raced to the elevator and willed it to descend faster. Oh it was a sight to see. The spires are almost as tall as the building itself. There were lots and lots of cameras and video cameras of all shapes and sizes. From Kodak disposables to a Leica to compact digitals and DSLRs, everyone wanted a photo.

If you mouse over the photos, you should get the titles, otherwise you can click through as always to the larger photo.

Then it was over, I went back up stairs (well up elevator) to say bye to the people at work, who were still shaking their head at how I found the event exciting, then it was back to the car and home again.

March 1, 2008

music, food and photos.

Yet another post condensing most of a weeks activity into one blog post. I am so behind. I have dreams of posting a blog sooner after an event but I just get sidetracked. I have a whole week where I actually did things to blog about/process photos. Sunday I was at two concerts, Tuesday I baked, Wednesday Andrea and I went to the movies, Thursday I went to photograph Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Zoo, Friday I went out to dinner with Andrea and some of her friends, this morning I went into the city to watch the spires lifted into place at St John’s Cathedral. This arvo I went to the movies. Quite a week and now I am busy catching up.

I probably should start off with Sunday.
I had one goal for the arvo and that was to see Yeo and The Fresh Goods at Rics and that I did. Right next door at Kaliber, Nightillion were doing there Sunday afternoon sessions/jam thing. Fusing all sorts of musical goodness together, it was nice. Meanwhile at Rics, Mr Laneous (pron. similar to miscellaneous) were taking care of getting the arvo started. A wander round The Valley and then it was time for Yeo and Co to fill the stage at Rics and play to a bar full of Shiny Happy People. I was fancy free and relatively footloose or really it was a Sunday where we weren’t’ going to The Farm as Mum had taken Grandad road tripping and left us all at home. It is a catch 22 of sorts. I would love to go more of the Sunday arvo session at Rics/Powerhouse/etc but Sunday arvos/night is the time we spend with Grandad and I am smart enough to know that those days are a whole lot more numbered than Sunday arvo sessions at Rics. It was so great to see Yeo play live. Tom and Tiana were outside and asked me what sort of music Yeo plays, I described as sort of electro reggae, I much prefer the three myspace genres; French pop / Punk / Reggae. Much better.

Yeo, (click image for the gig gallery).

Random Valley Shot. 56/366

Sunday evening it was the Creative Vibes shindig at The Troubie, not much of a turnout but it was still good, the couches were “pulled” from the walls and arranged in a few more social friendly rows near the stage, made it feel even more like a lounge room than it normally does. The bill for the night was Tess Henderson (what a voice), Tom Woodward (see x previous posts on Tom) and Justin Grounds (technically interesting but I was too tired to appreciate it). The light seemed to be at half strength to what it normally is at the Troubie which was a bit bleh for me.

Tess’s piano player, (click image for the gig gallery).

Random Desk Shot.

Monday. 57/366.
Yep Christmas Cards are still up, it is only February (when this photo was taken) after all.

Tuesday. 58/366.
I was really tempted not to take a photo on Tuesday, was just so tempted to chucking this whole project in but I took a photo of my saeng cover, I love those flowers dearly. Yay for Ikea.

Wednesday night. 59/366.
Andrea and I went for fish (Barramundi-Andrea, Calamari-Me) and chips and a movie at Portside (Hamilton). We had 1hr 45mins between when the fish and chip shop closed and when our movie started. Granted we probably didn’t leave the fish and chip shop till a good 25mins after it closed, it meant we had quite a bit of time to laze around by the river talking, laughing, chatting and playing. The movie we went to see was Charlie Wilson’s War, which was not as funny as I thought it would be.

Thursday night I went to photograph Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Manchester Orchestra at the Zoo. I met Alain Bouvier, that was a laugh. I started talking to one of the other photographers, he said he was French etc etc, I asked if he knew Ange Takats, he said of course and we laughed, we knew of each other through Ange, that was a laugh. Music wise I preferred Manchester Orchestra over CYHSY, I left shortly after our three songs were up for CYHSY. I think that explains it.

Manchester Orchestra, (click image for the gig gallery).

Drinking Receptacles. 60/366

Friday was a hell of a day at work, just never seemed like I was going to get my work done. I got it all done though.
Friday night I went out to dinner at Sitar with Andrea and some of her high school friends who I had met round her parties before.
80% of us had the deluxe banquet. I was glad I wore a dress as I wasn’t unbuckling a top button like the others. Oh it was good, of the four curries we picked, the only one which we all disliked was the Bengal Prawn Masala most likely because the prawns were like rubber. The Lamb Korma was oh my and don’t get me started on the Peshwari Naan. I could eat that for breakfast, lunch and tea for the rest of my life.

That brings us to today, Saturday which will very much be another blog post as that has photos, photos, photos of the spires going on St John’s.