Music's My Imaginary Friend.

I've recently been enjoying the CSS (Cansei De Ser Sexy) album, particularly the songs Alcohol and Off The Hook. Oh yes. I'm very much a sucker for girly electro pop (see Le Tigre), an inclination only enhanced when the girly electro pop has the accents foreign (see Electrelane and Cibo Matto). So CSS is a great thing, in my book. Yes.

I'm also liking the Nouvelle Vague album, Bande À Part (I don't think I'm supposed to retain the grave accent when the A is capitalised, but, oh well), especially their versions of The Killing Moon and Ever Fallen In Love. My little brother favours Heart Of Glass, and he is correct to do so. But the album doesn't really sustain as a whole and my interest flags after a while. Still, there's great stuff on it.

Hey, you know Fleetwood Mac, yeah? Well, I was a stranger to it mostly, until I got a bargain bin Best Of the other week because people were noting the Mac influence on Midlake, and as I love the Midlake I obviously had to see what that was all about. And you know what it was all about? AWESOMENESS, that's what. Particularly the song Tusk. My little brother favours The Chain, and again, he is correct to do so. Plus everything else, EVER. Accomplishment: another shocking musical gap filled.

Also, in a 3CR capacity, Nicole and I have appointed ourselves to benefit the world using the live-to-air recordings of 3CR's diligent music programmers. You see, we are executing a Brilliant Music Revolution which entails, quite simply, selecting certain live recordings and burning them to a compilation CD which we then place in Studio 1 so that other programmers can spread the music around over the airwaves across the week. Hard work, yeah. Sometimes takes almost a whole hour of our time, once a fortnight. Phew. But revolutions require hard work of this kind. Anyway, in doing this, I have heard more Bands Who Is Good And So Will Be Loved, including Assassination Collective, Dolly Rocker Movement, Sunwrae and Ride On Lonesome.

Also, you know what else is good? Galaxies by Laura Veirs. It's a song. This kind of observation is mostly for my own records, so I'll know what I liked.


Some Things Gig.

On Friday night I went to see Deloris play at Revolver, without really having heard much of them prior to this outing. It turned out to be a good idea, going to this thing. It began as gigs usually do, with Dave and I somehow arriving at precisely the same time. This is a freakish and yet frequent thing that happens, and seems immune to variables. Anyway, we entered while The Tigers were playing. This pleased me. They were followed by Tucker B's, also pleasing to me. Especially a song I've since found out is called Like Fighting When You Don't Want To Fight. Seriously, this line up was solid and new to me, and struck me as entirely credible/proper music. Moving on. Deloris. I really like them. I am not just saying that. I have bought the album. I have listened to it rather a lot. Really. Especially the song Xs For Eyes. Really. A lot. I plan to be getting into more of this Deloris business too, because the Ten Lives album does not contain this one song that was played live, you know, the one where Ben had a big dominant bass line running through the whole thing? Is this a detailed enough account of it for tips, clues, whereabouts and such? To recap the particulars: there was a bass line.

On Saturday night, I went to the East Brunswick to see Because Of Ghosts, who were ably supported by JP Shilo, Ned Collette, and someone's mum when it came to the chorus of voices requirement. Ned Collette was performing in what I imagined to be the 'Andrew Bird style', what with the layering of guitar lines into a recorder, and even some whistling, etc. Ned Collette seems nice. I like him. And I guess I'll find out on Wednesday night whether or not his deal is in fact similar to the actual real live Andrew Bird deal. Also, I should point out to myself that it's entirely plausible for there to be two separate and distinct deals, irrespective of certain similarities, one of which belongs to Ned Collete and the other to Andrew Bird. Yes, this is quite likely. Blah blah blah in summary: a good gig. You knew that.


Some Things TV.

Rome
I enjoy this very much. And thankfully Mel recently caught me up on an episode I'd missed in "The Exciting Adventures of Blondie and Burly", and then even more helpfully messaged me on Thursday night to remind me it was on. Thank heavens she did, because hello! INCEST WA HEY!

Veronica Mars
I don't think I've mentioned my love for this show, but it's a big sweeping love. My only quibble is that the boys aren't cute or good enough. Veronica needs better boyfriends. That aside, did you watch it this week? I hope you did, because it featured Kristin from Laguna Beach as a lesbian cheerleader. This is good for two reasons, #1: Kristin from Laguna Beach plays a lesbian cheerleader, and #2: out of all the Laguna Beach folk, they chose Kristin to play the lesbian cheerleader. You see Kristin, I have discovered, is generally viewed with disdain and villified as a useless fool. She seems to have become a hate-figure of special significance and focus for celebutard-haters, so I think it shows the further strength of Veronica Mars that they're not buying into that, and are instead giving her a proper guest role rather than dumping on her, etc. I mean, I didn't particularly like anyone from Laguna Beach. It wasn't really a show you could have favourites on, because they were all nuffers. But it was easy to see that Kristin would be singled out for real-world derision simply because she had a dumb boyfriend who was someone else's object of affection, which by some insane logic makes Kristin a dirty slut and a huge stupid bitch who is a way lesser person than anyone else whoring fame after that show. Which is, of course, crappy. And Veronica Mars doesn't swim in that shit.

The L Word
OHMYGOD. Season 4 is SO AMAZING. I just love this show so much. Please, BE INTO IT AS I AM. It's just SO WELL DONE.

The Five Obstructions / Dogville
These great films will screen on SBS this week (Five Obstructions tonight, Dogville tomorrow night). Won't that make a nice tape for you.


Some Things Australia.

Is it so strange to express reservations about flag-waving? And is it really all that credible to present as if a national flag can ONLY have positive connotations/inspire goodwill-type feelings for 20 million or so distinct individuals? Or to claim that ugly incidents don't impact on how we view a flag? Or that, if you're doing something, the fact that you're wearing/waving a flag while you're doing it makes whatever you're doing better, or in at least ONE way, irreproachable. NO, THIS IS SIMPLY NOT THE CASE. Damn, it really bothered me that there was an inevitability to the direction of this 'debate' - in which the media reported a 'ban', and so a 'ban' was denounced, all while the very existence of any such ban was in doubt/disputed - leading inexorably to Pauline Hanson appearing on Today Tonight to say, a) that the 2005 Cronulla riots were simply an expression by AUSTRALIANS of PRIDE in being AUSTRALIAN, and b) that if you don't think that every person you see walking around with a flag draped around them AS IS THEIR RIGHT is just the NICEST and BEST kind of person who OBVIOUSLY LOVES AUSTRALIA AND SO DESERVES OUR RESPECT, yeah, if you don't think that about people who wear flags, then you should just "go back to where you came from" (note: this is not a fake 'get the gist' quote, it's an actual quote). It's just so LAME. Especially as it doesn't even seem to matter who exactly she's telling to go back to where they came from. The line just has to be said by someone. As do lines about how the flag is a symbol of unity, how political correctness has run amok, blah blah blah. I just found it very disappointing to be reminded that even though the dubious quality of such reactions has been pointed out time and again, they're still the ones that dominate the discussion, that raise themselves to the full height of their unreconstructed and apparently undiminished form, and all at the slightest provocation. Do we not mature beyond these things? I felt the nightly TV news media treatments were especially shitful, as if put together by the very green on their first time out, except that you knew they were actually the work of the seasoned who still would not move beyond the ludicrous... "and today's viewer poll question is: Should the Australian flag be banned at any time, ever?" Anyway, let's credit the ABC for being the only ones who juxtaposed the "don't you fucking dare restrict my flag-flying freedom of expression" story right bang up against that of the guy banned from Qantas for his George Bush "World's #1 Terrorist" t-shirt. Nice of them to point out the "hmmm? you see that?" without actually saying "hmmm? you see that?"