The Snow Gods Truly Love Us

They truly do love us, Bubbas. This week end saw the start of Winter with snow falling all over the mountains.

For example, here is the car park at Mt Hotham this after noon...

BEHOLD THE MAJESTY THAT IS SNOW. QUAIL YE MORTALS AT THE MIGHT OF THE SNOW GODS. (dear Sno Godz my name is Bubba, plz to keep gives sno. kthx).

Let us hope it will continue as it has begun!!

Fish News

Some more Onion themed fun about fishing (HERE)

Rock and Roll will save your Soul

I love music. It is an essential part of my day to hear it and enjoy it.

Well last night I was given the chance to play as part of a Friday night jam group at my buddy Steve's house. It was simply put, a blast. Steve is a passionate muso with a truly fantastic collection of guitars, amps, a drum kit and other little instruments. I've been looking forward to this evening all week, Steve and I had a jam a couple of weeks ago and I was really excited but how well we seemed to gel. Steve and I both like a similar kind of music and seem to have an ear for similar rhythms and tones. So getting together with a drummer and another guitarist was an interesting prospect.

Well everybody had a good time and thankfully there weren't any showboaters, we were all able to share and let the music play. Steve let me borrow an amazing semi-acoustic that had a beautiful deep sound and resonance. A real Dwayne Eddie style, I told Steve on several occasions that I may need marry this instrument!! :)
It worked out well as we didn't have a bass player I was able to keep the rhythm and bass notes strong (which suited the guitar down to the ground). I also tried a Telecaster special (that had an amazing custon humbucker in place of the bridge pick up) and an Epiphone ES-355 that had a fantastic jazz pitch to it.
What I know about guitars is that no two are the same and that there is a world of difference between a good guitar and a cheap one. But more importantly it was a great experience to be rocking out with a bunch of guys, have a good time and being able to keep up!!

I'm on a double high this week after meeting P.J. O'Rourke and having an awsome jam with a great bunch of guys. Tonite is the Hurricanes versus the Brumbies and another mates house!! Oh happy days!!!!!

Meeting People

So on Wednesday I met P.J. O'Rourke. I shook his hand several times, had a brief conversation about free market economics and Francis Fukuyama. I also got him to sign a book, dedicating it to my yet to be born child (which tickled him pink!).
I return I gave him my cufflinks to say thank you, which was also well received.

With regards to hearing P.J. speak, it was wonderful to hear an author whose written works I know so well talk. It was pleasing to hear the actual cadence in his voice and see his body language. The content of the speech was a collection of themes he has been writing away at over the past few months (there were a number of recycled themes).
What did strike me was the confidence of the delivery of the ideas (and the similarity with a boss I used to have many years ago [a positive comparison]). The transcript of the address can be found on the National Press Club website HERE. What I was equally impressed and surprised by was the way he handled questions from the press. He was asked a question about gun control and school shootings which he answered in a very courteous and articulate manner (again have a read of the transcript).

So in conclusion, Mr O'Rourke was an entertaining guest of the press club, one of the better ones I've seen for a while and I personally had an amazing time meeting a literary hero.

Stop and Chop

I got lent a CD yesterday it's a mix up of two bands (iron &Wine and Calexico). Its a wonderful collaboration between the two. Iron and Wine I know from their own work, but Calexico is new to me. Why I'm mentioning this is to highlight, perhaps more to myself, the differences in people with whom you can work musically.
Since starting at the Radiostation I've felt like I was amongst 'my people'. By which I mean, people who know music, understand the difference between a triad and trio, why a clavicle and a harpsichord are similar and the tonal difference between a 4th and 2nd part of a harmony. To me these are things that are as natural and simple as the octet formula of an address table for a router.

So I'm thinking about what it means, is it a signpost? Should I stay on with the world of IT or is this a chance to branch out and try something new? something more natural? Most of the motivational life coaching information out there talk of finding one's passion. I confess I've never been terribly motivated or super stoked about anything to do with day to day job. I'm just good at it.
But to find someone who actually wants to discuss in an intelligent fashion the open tunings of Bo Diddley music. Well that is something else...

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Tomorrow I'm back to Canberra to hear Mr P J O'Rourke speak at the National Press Club. This is a big moment in life. I first came across PJ many years ago at Uni, when the Internets was still in book format. I read him voraciously as well as Hunter S Thomson. The image I got of PJ was someone who could occasionally be funny, but who for the most part was angry. Angry at a whole range of ideas and people, coupled with a sense of worry at being found out and therefore no longer being paid to be a writer. I gather he has mellowed in old age, so it will be interesting to see what it is he will talk about. What are the thoughts of a die hard, anti Clintonian Republican on the devaluing of public discourse on the political process? Does he feel any responsibility for that through his writings? Can you be a serious commentator and make jokes at the same time? Alas, knowing as I do the caliber of Australian journalists, these questions will never get asked...

I'm taking a copy of my favourite PJ book (The Bachelor Home Compendium) in case the opportunity presents itself to have it signed. I brought that book with a gift voucher I won (2nd place, lost out to someone who ripped off a Roald Dahl story and exceeded the word limit) in a writing contest at uni. I'm sure there is something meaningful and symbolic there...

People who like people

This Easter weekend has easily been my best and favourite for a while. There have been ping pong championships, trips to Bright, yum cha, soccer and bike riding.

Currently I'm far too awake at the moment to be able to sleep. Perhaps it's too do with the waning full moon. I slept for a couple of hours then woke up clammy and sweaty. No matter what I tried to do I could not get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. Have come downstairs and tried watching Lawrence of Arabia, but even that hasn't helped.
Perhaps being online will do the trick.

Have begun to re-read 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' for a remedy against the appalling literature of the past few weeks. 'She' got even worse to the point I was skipping ahead page after page and scanning for narrative key words. It was something of a let down, I'm sorry to say. Which is a pity after such a promising start.

Reading Challange Update

I thought the 'Honey Thief' was an appallingly bad book. So I had my beloved read it to see if I was just making it up, she did not finish the first chapter.
Overall my experiment was a fail. Which I think was a reflection of a poorly design parameters. I may try again later in the year, but for now I'll draw a line under this first attempt at expanding my reading comfort zone.

Bah!!

At the moment 'She' is devolving into a turgid mess and I've noticed that there is a strong "funny how he never married" aspect to two of the main characters. I might just end up scanning the remainder of the book for the good parts. My penultimate warning sign arrived in the form of the baddy reciting poetry for 2 pages. To my mind its a mistake for authors to insert poetry as a dramatic device. Tolkien was an an epic fail with all the tiresome verse that populates his works and I'll be buggered if I'll indulge Mr Haggard either.

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In other news we are in the final strecth of bub baking. My beloved is off work from tomorrow with an eye to getting the house ready for Ladybird.

Aeneid on Facebook

I read the Aeneid in 7th form during my Economics classes (I got the school prize for Classic's that year). I haven't read it since then, but I do fondly remember ignoring the teacher (who was a lovely person) to concentrate on Aeneas and his shenanigans. It reminded me a bit of Battlestar Galactica in some respect. But I loved the continuity of the Trojan war from the Trojan perspective.

This is very funny, its the Aeneid as a Facebook profile (LINK). Well perhaps its funny if you're a super nerd who read Virgil when he should have been reading Milton Keynes.

Perhaps there are other books to be treated in the same manner? Moby Dick? Wuthering Heights?