lame

Is when you bug people to come along to something that is usually really cool, and then on the night that they come, there's some lame shit ugly stuff that makes everyone uncomfortable, and they leave at intermission and miss your stuff.

Have Mercy

Mercy Arms played last night at work. I was really impressed- definitely would have paid money to see them. Besides sounding pretty, they are genuinely interesting to stand in front of. Kirin Calunan is bjork and jarvis cocker's shirtless, bounding love child and lead singer Thom Moore is as engaging and understated as their tunes.

The crowd was small (though apparently their largest over this tour), only just over 200 folks by the looks of it, but o my sweet lady, weren't they shiny. I think I even saw a couple of spray tans in there. Which always look stupid in the rain.

There don't seem to be any videos online that really capture their live thing. This is sort of close, but probably better just to go to their myspace to get the feel-up.

messy christmas

My flatmate shot down my brilliant idea to have a kiddy pool full of red and green jelly for festive wrestling purposes at our inaugral Christmas party. So now I need help in coming up with a new party activity, or maybe even several. Over the day the suggestions have evolved into a mass naked honey nut scrabble activity. I'm still taking suggestions.

I saw Baseball and the Mountain Goats over the weekend. Baseball seriously put shovel to dirt. The MG were pretty tired and their music isn't as energetic either, so it was kind of this warm up, cool down kinda gig. I had a good time. It wasn't too weird being there with the ex lover and i really like my new mountain goats shirt. It's long in the body the way that doesn't make me look like I want to show my belly button off to the streets and it looks like a white shirt that's gone through the wash with some bright red socks.

Also, I got namechecked on http://onlythemovie.com/. I need some kind of interpretive dance move that is half thankful-blush-for-reading-my-crap and half strut.

the you in every song

I'm going to see the mountain goats tonight. My little brother first introduced me to "No Children" years ago and I've loved their yearning, witty, apocalyptic folk ever since.

The ex lover will be there tonight and that's a little weird. Our song was "Old college try" and our breakup album was "Get Lonely". The music is pretty integrated into the way we grew into and out of each other.

I'm still learning whether there is music i can take with me or if some songs should be left in the past.

when the festival is over

I saw Only and Tout Est Parfait last night at the last night of the Possible Worlds festival. At first the long, languorous trekking by Only's two adorable protagonists, Daniel and Vera, frustrated me. Then I realised that I recongised this maddening, horizonless feeling that was pressing on my chest. It felt like being a kid again, the future stretched out before you and a whole other future stretching out beyond the first. This beautiful, natural little film didn't just remind me of being twelve. I actually had some kind of physical chemical reaction and felt twelve again. Only also featured what has to be one of the best on-screen kisses I've ever seen. That kiss captured all of the awkwardness and the uplifting joy that comes with every peircing transformation in that magical period of pre-adolescence.

In fact, if the little boy had been sitting on the swing and the little girl had run away straight afterwards, it would pretty much have been a faithful dramatic re-enactment of my first kiss. I think his name was Sean. I've lost all my diaries from that time.

The soundtrack from this film was brilliant as well- I'm not sure if this is the name I read on the credits, but I've been listening to these guys today and it's a similar sweetheart-indie kind of sound, so it does give you the general vibration. http://www.myspace.com/theenvelopes

The night began in innocence, and then Tout Est Parfait ripped it out from beneath us in the most achingly beautiful way. This story of suicide, friendship, and family was a delight to watch. The conversations afterwards were just as challenging. One person suggested to me that it was so difficult for many people to watch because it simply cut too close to the bone- the bone being their own suicidal thoughts or attempts. I've never, ever contemplated suicide personally. I don't think I'm hard-wired for it. I found I reacted to the film in the same way that I react to death generally; I find the ceremonies of death intensely life affirming, intoxicatingly so. Some of the people I watched it with had the opposite reaction, like the film was a portal window into some kind of terrifying abyss. We were all drunk on our own wildly disparate emotions afterwards, which I think might be the mark of universality.

The journey from the discovery of childhood to the pain of adulthood was a testament to Matt and Marianne's hard work. Anyone can put on a party- but creating moments in people's lives where they walk out feeling more excited about the possibilities of the immediate future is a gift, and one we are blessed to be able to share with them all year round.

Young People Fucking

Check out our pregame:

Photography by Victoria Waghorn.