The absence of TISM and me

I have not written anything for a year now. A lot has happenned in my life in the past few years. A lot of good, some not so good.

The absence of TISM may have had something to do with it. I still regard their last show in Brisbane in 2004 as being the best live performance of a band I have ever seen. The Arena no longer exists. It's now an RnB club. I think because it was a fire hazard. The Queen Street Mall has been done up, yet I still consider the Valley Mall to be a complete shithole. This brings me to my next topic.

I currently play bass in a Jazz trio called Blood Orange Juice. We have a semi-regular gig at a bar in the Valley Mall called Not Quite 299. Just downhill from Club 299. It used to be a burlesque bar but now it's a fledgeling place for small bands. Yes now small bands can whore themselves for fuck all on a tiny stage below a trapeze. How fucking rock-tabulous is that? Just a hint, if you're gonna use the bathroom there, you can rely on the soap dispenser working, but not the taps. Your best bet is to try the leaking pipe outside the bathroom. You'll be happy you made the right choice of money-sucking-soul-crushing-hobby.

A year and a half ago I went to Japan and South Korea for a month. Some of the highlights:

• Seeing Mt. Fuji and getting there via five trains
• Getting invited to see a "sexy show" at the red light district in Tokyo
• Arriving in Seoul the day after Korea's number 1 treasure Namdaemun burnt down
• Having a random Korean family asking me to be in their photo outside said torched gate
• Seeing it snow in Kyoto
• Being looked at by a North Korean guard at the border
• Failing at snowboarding
• Crying everytime I ate kimchi

Yep it sure was awesome.

That'll do for now. If you actually read the whole thing please make a comment telling me why you read the whole thing. Do people still subscribe to this blog?

ROOT!

ROOT! will be playing at the Troubadour in Brisbane on September 6th. Hooray!

lololololololololol

Why I hate Australia:

Racism 'not behind Islamic school knock-back'

Outside the meeting, some residents expressed relief there would not be an influx of Muslims in the area, including a woman wearing an akubra hat decorated with Australian flags.

"We just don't want Muslim people in Camden," she said.

"We don't want them not only here, we don't want them in Australia. They're an oppressive society, they're a dictatorship."

Another resident said: "It's not for racist [reasons], just all the crime and stuff that other foreign people bring into the town."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/28/2257535.htm

RIP Jock

James Paull (aka Jock, aka Tokin' Blackman), guitarist in TISM passed away on the 9th of April. He died of cancer.

I remember going to my 2nd (and last) TISM show in 2004. I glanced over at Jock for a second then watched Ron jumping around half naked, Humphrey singing and Les and Jon dancing away. I remember turning back to Jock and seeing he had pulled a lit cigarette from mid-air. That's my memory of him. Jumping around like a fuckhead in the mosh of a TISM show and seeing Jock smoking casually amongst all the craziness. I really don't know that much about him, but he was part of a band I love so much.

RIP Jock

Ron Hitler Barassi gives a moving eulogy to his friend:
http://www.smartartists.com.au/artists/jock.php