Greedy

My new favourite band kinda sounds like - when you shove your fingers in your ears. They also sound like being underwater. They can be compared to the sound of one hand clapping in a forest. Or the sound of cotton wool.

Basically they don't sound like anything.

My new favourite band don't make music.

They have an album (available on vinyl), track listings and a video clip. Yet no music.

The girls at Greedy Hen are so delightfully obscure, my brain tingles and my armpits sweat a little.

Papercup

I want to become a school teacher!

Or a member of a typing pool!

Or a Librarian!

Basically I want an excuse to wear Papercup clothing. All. Day. Long.

These blue days from the hills

I was looking at Urban Outfitters Summer catalogue this morning. While it’s drenched in spectacular snapshots of sunshine and positively zesty with the promise of good times and divine outfits, it didn’t sit well.

It’s cold in Sydney. I want to reveal in the gorgeous winter weather of the place I call home. So with my scarf wrapped around me and I turned on the wintery sounds of Mumford and Sons and sunk into a stupor of delight for all things blustery, folksy and blue.

[Letters from the hills]

Have a lovely day folks.

If you’re not enjoying the weather as much as I am, then you may enjoy this. I laughed so hard I may have a hernia.

Teenage dreams

It’s day three of “retirement” – I’ve already reorganized my wardrobe, sorted through my tax and banking, washed many loads of laundry, returned an incredibly overdue library book and have basically acted like a responsible adult. I even started planning for when I return to Sydney and started looking up jobs…

Then I realized, hold on, I’m on holidays. Why don’t I just play it cool? So I’ve tried to zone in on what my self-indulgent, teenage self would do with bucket loads of free time, a small kitty of dough and a driving license. So I started singing along with this song to help me get in the freewheeling mood:

So far I’ve decided to go for a walk. Perhaps I’ll follow that up with reading some magazines. Party central right here!

Maybe after a week of living teenage dreams, I’ll end up reverting back to being a child and throwing some hilarious shenanigans like this.

In our circles

This song is just pure joy. Yet I'll be hard pressed finding a dancing partner today. Yup, it's day one of retirement (well for the next year anyway). My nails are painted and my butt is slightly numb from lounging around. Though I do have plans for today - buy some sauerkraut and cook some veggies.

Water

I think my world has just flipped on its head.

Well it was actually my Mum who passed on the tip. She had just finished watching a doco about the root bridges of Cherrapunji in Shillong, India. Intrigued I did an image search and almost swallowed my tongue.

Cherrapunji is toted as being the wettest place in the world. Which is an interesting factoid in itself, but what captured my imagination were these living bridges. The locals train the trees to grow and span across the provinces many waterways.

The process takes between 10 to 15 years, yet with each passing year the bridges grow stronger. Some of the more robust bridges are over 500 years old. I think I need to include the ‘land of oranges’ to my India itinerary.

[Root bridges]

Buoyed by the plethora of documentaries at our fingertips, Mum and I settled in to watch Gaslands. Needless to say this had a completely different spin on water.

What started as a why of understanding what natural gas mining would do to his family's farm in Milanville, Pennsylvania, Josh Fox winds up becoming a 'detective' and fields the complaints of hundreds of people nursing the side affects of mining in their backyards.

What he unearths, could only be described as wild west style shenanigans of major corporations. Yet that was the most profound fact is the coroporations are in fact acting 'within' the law. As due to loopholes in the clean air and the clean water acts, the mining processes are currently unmonitored in USA. As a result of the fracking process, the waterways in the ‘red zones’ are contaminated with some 580+ chemicals. Chemicals that would scare you senseless if you read about them let alone ingested the equivalent of molotov cocktail of them without knowing.

The homespun style of video footage, spliced together with interviews of ailing citizens and facts about the mining process, made for heart wrenching viewing. I definitely recommend anyone to watch it, as Fox finishes off the doco with the comment that Natural gas mining is becoming a major interest around rest of the world. Gulp.

Writing

I'm currently writing up my review of last night's gig and enjoying reliving the night. The dancing floor was heaving to the Perth indie pop, with OAF packed to max capacity.

This cover of Fleetwood Mac was definitely a highlight of the night. A synth-infused dream.