Cricket season

Channel Nine has arranged to show the whole Boxing Day test live into Melbourne. It's absolutely fantastic for the armchair viewer like myself, even if it does have ramifications for crowd attendance numbers. I hear the deal is for seven years.

I was considering getting a group together to go tomorrow, but with a forecast of 36 degrees combined with my poor sunburn record during the Boxing Day Test, I'm going to give it a miss and just chill. Rather than burn. Still, it's so different to watch it at the cricket, I recommend it to anyone when the cricket actually comes to town. Plus you should feel better about drinking at 10:30 in the morning if you should take a glance at Bay 13. They're usually sauced by the time I arrive.

Cricket surely is one of the greatest joys of Summer, or as it should be called: "Hot chick bikini weather". Cheers!

My Top 10 Gigs of 2005: #1

#1 - Hot Hot Heat (with Faker), Prince of Wales, November
I'd suggested seeing Hot Hot Heat as I'd heard a few of their songs, but it wasn't until an additional few shows with Faker as support that I found someone to come along with me. In the week before the show, I increasingly enjoyed listening to their first album Make Up The Breakdown and the half of the Elevator album I'd downloaded and kept thinking that my semi-gamble would play off. I was proven correct.

Faker were a great support act as they tried to get the crowd pumped up. Early on it seemed the sellout crowd weren't too interested, but either their great songs and energy or the Coronas with lime soon got everyone excited. It sure worked for me!

Amongst the poles of the Prince of Wales, which I'd never visited before, we found a good spot and saw the most impressive show of the year. There was no shortage of excitement this time around. The first sight of the Hot Hot Heat lead singer's recognisable blonde curly afro as he entered the stage was enough to stir the crowd near the stage into a frenzy. A Canadian flag was whipped out and given to the singer to wave.

The Canuck indie rockers brought their upbeat tunes from the start, excelling with Goodnight, Goodnight, You Owe Me An IOU and the fan favourite Bandages. It's a song I'd fallen in love with when SYN transmission broke down and they looped a CD for a weekend that featured it. I'd guessed it was by Rocket Science until a few weeks before the concert.

The evening was a perfect advertisement for the Elevator CD and I obliged and bought it not long afterwards. The clincher came during the encore in the form of the title track Elevator, with its great piano line and wicked chorus. My spine tingled at the sound of the line "Don't take me up/I'll just fall down". Wow. The night closed with the somewhat appropriate Running Out Of Time.

Hearing and enjoying a (semi) new album so much reminded me of my favourite album ever, Powderfinger's Odyssey Number Five, which I heard virtually in full at their awesome Forum gig (one of my first!) in 2000. Like Goldilocks, I had found everything was just right. Both bands, the atmosphere, the setlist, the sound, the ... alcohol: all first class. And first class deserves...first place.

Honourable mentions go to Evermore, Foo Fighters, Little Birdy and Oasis.

That time of the year

I'm not much for Christmas. Being lazy, selfish and a poor present shopper generally combine to show everyone what a terrible person I can be at Christmas time. Everyone else (i.e. women) has found that halcyonic gift that the receiver always wanted, but never expected; that is useful, but also conveys deep emotions of how you feel towards one another. Meanwhile, I'll be wrapping up whatever crap was most effectively thrown in my face at some stage as I try to escape the masses of clueless idiots at the shopping centre. Five minutes in that car park is enough to drive me fucking mental.

Then there's also the fact that I really don't like hanging around with the extended family or my parents' friends. I barely see them and even when I did, I had very little to talk about. Christmas is so traditional that nothing seems to change. So I'll be treated like a child. It's actually quite demeaning. I've tried my best to distance myself, but you can't mess with Christmas. Just the word itself implies something bigger than anything else. In two nights, I'll go steal a car and shrug my shoulders and say "But it's Christmas!"

What I don't fully comprehend is the religious aspects of it all. It seems like we need enough religion to make Christmas have some kind of meaning, but so little of it so that nobody gets offended. Well here's a thought. Perhaps the commercial bastardisation and near-total hijacking of the second most important milestone in that big Bible book to replace it with a bunch of meaningless generic traditions slightly offends me! And I'm not particularly religious at all!

It's just that time of the year.

My Top 10 Gigs of 2005: #2

#2 - The Hives, The Forum, October
You can tell The Hives are a huge band from the amount of "false starts", the times where a roadie walks on stage or the lighting changes and the crowd start cheering. It'll normally happen a few times, but it just happened constantly as the impatient masses couldn't contain their excitement. I was waiting in the drinks line, hoping to get back to my spot in time for the start. Anticipation is not usually a tangible quality; this evening was about as close as I've come to considering it as one, like at the start of all the Grand Finals I'd been to put together, except with better music courtesy of The D4.

The wait was not in vain. We were impressed immediately by the opening track Abra Cadaver. Lead singer "Howlin" Pelle Almqvist commanded the crowd from the get-go with his conversational style and witty Swedish accented remarks. They know everyone loves them and Pelle and guitarist Nicolas Arson really ham it up for the ladies. No Hives show goes without some clapping along, both impromptu and conducted by Pelle.

The setlist, the sound, the energy was all very good. Standout tracks from the night include Supply and Demand, Statecontrol, Walk Idiot Walk and the closer A.K.A I.D.I.O.T. The greatest moment was during Diabolic Scheme when they all froze like statues. The boys held it for quite a while while we cheered crazily and then they continued on with the song supremely. Come to think of it, they similarly stopped mid-song and then continued earlier on in the night when Pelle wanted to strip off his jacket.

It was quite an experience, as I suspected it would be. Their music lets you go nuts or mosh if you want, so a lot of people do their own thing. As they gradually take off their matching white-on-black suit jackets, it feels like the crowd lets their hair down along with them. Their style is accentuated by their outrageous performance. Pelle encourages, even forces the crowd to get involved and pumped up to the lofty heights of energetic madness that The Hives themselves play and perform to. They know the tricks to get the most out of the crowd and you can hardly prevent yourself from obliging.

War On The Sun: 1-1

That sun is just sitting up there laughing at me! Laughing! Laughing and lying! I knew I should have bought sun insurance. But pointless rants aside, I got sunburnt on Tuesday, my first time since declaring "War On The Sun" earlier this year after getting sunburnt Briony's going away party. You know, like the "War On Terror".

I can barely go outside in Summer without getting burned somewhere, but this time I'm not taking that crap. Even if I have to stay locked inside, I am not going to lose this one! I don't care if you provide light and life to the planet, you're a jerkwad and I hate you. I "beat" the sun at golf a few weeks back and lost playing volleyball during lunch at work. So it's 1-1. You bastard.

And here's one for the white supremacists: good going, douchebags. The hole in the ozone layer's only getting bigger, I think we need all the help we can get, rather than your creepy in-breeding. How the fuck have pasty white people not evolved to cope with this shit? You know, in times before roofs?

My Top 10 Gigs of 2005: #3

#3 - Idlewild, Corner Hotel, May
Scottish rockers Idlewild headed back down under to the Corner to tour their fourth album Warnings/Promises. I'd just missed them when they were here in 2003, having just discovered their brilliant album The Remote Part. They may not get any airplay bar a song or two on Triple J, but they're massively popular in their home country, having been voted the second best Scottish band of all time earlier this year.

The Scots and other Brits were out in force for the gig, constantly jabbering to the band and each other in their barely comprehensible brague. As they started various chants throughout the set, it gave a great soccer crowd atmosphere that was quite electric.

The setlist spanned their whole catalogue both chronologically and musically. They had quieter moments such as El Capitan but generally rocked up most of the songs; they're not afraid to break out the distortion pedal, which was well used in Too Long Awake. I "cut sick" in the mosh pit from my spot in the third row, particularly for A Modern Way Of Letting Go and I Want A Warning.

Other great performances included You Held The World In Your Arms and Little Discourage just to title drop a few more. The only slight lowlight was a 10-minute version of The Space Between All Things where the lead singer went off stage to have a smoke. It kinda killed the mood a bit, but they resumed well. Also the Sydney and Brisbane gigs got Faker as support, but the Melbourne offering Blueline Medic were more than serviceable.

Normally if I buy a T-shirt, that's a good sign that the gig was great, so my purchase of a more expensive hoodie must say something about how awesome this one was! Bravo!

My Top 10 Gigs of 2005: #4

#4 - End of Fashion (with Faker), Northcote Social Club, April
Anyone who's visited the Northcote Social Club for a gig will have an opinion on the set up of the place. Brodie hates it. Brad probably does too. End of Fashion's lead singer/guitarist Justin Burford summed it up best, describing it as playing in someone's lounge room. After seeing two of the best up-and-coming Aussie bands, I couldn't help enjoying the idea of seeing bands playing in my living room.

The Northcote might be the ugly sister of the Corner Hotel, but it still has some of its sister's good traits. Easy to get to and park and an up close, intimate viewing area. I love the discussion and banter between the band and the crowd. This time Justin successfully negotiated with the crowd to buy the bass player a birthday beer.

This was the first time I'd seen Faker, having never even heard of them at the time, but all through the set I kept recognising tunes played on Triple J...and I liked what I heard. It turns out they'd been around since 2001 but were finishing off their debut album after a string of line-up changes. Anyway, I was mighty impressed and the rest, they say, was history.

I finally got to see End of Fashion headline, after they pulled out of Gomez support and moved or cancelled a few other shows too. It was worth the delay as they totally rocked the place out. The straight bourbon swilling Justin belted his lungs out (à la one Dave Grohl) to their two EPs and a selection of songs from their forthcoming debut album.

Their more recognisable tracks Anything Goes, Rough Diamonds and Too Careful were all frantically and brilliantly delivered, but the screamed ramblings and walking bass line of the closing track Counting Your Friends sealed it for me. Unbelievable and warmly appreciated by the crowd to match the cosy living room atmosphere.

My Top 10 Gigs of 2005: #5

#5 - Eskimo Joe, The Corner, August

One of Eskimo Joe's greatest strengths is their fantastic choruses and the way that lead singer Kaz belts out lyrics that culminate on a high note. So you can imagine how awesome it is when the whole crowd gets into it too, which is what happened in their gig at the Corner in August. Heck, the latest album A Song Is A City is full of those lines like the title track's "He takes his time, oh he takes his time" or This Room's "All I know is she's never impressed by me" in the last chorus.

From The Sea was the most enjoyable track of the night, as the whole crowd chimed in for the chorus of "Hello, hel-lo-oh, oh hello-oh...", typifying my earlier observation. There was still plenty of great material from the Girl album and after a discussion with the crowd, they played their first well-known track Sweater, even if they all feel embarrassed to have wrote it.

The most touching moment of the gig was when Kaz invited the crowd to lift their mobile phones up like cigarette lighters and sway them back and forth during Planet Earth. It was truly an awesome sight even from where I was and we were reassured it looked great from the stage too! Smoking may not be so cool now, particularly with it banned at the Corner now, but with this novel use of mobile phones, the tradition won't die.

Eskimo Joe were great at the Big Day Out earlier in 2005 and certainly didn't disappoint me in their full set either!

My Top 10 Gigs of 2005: #6-10

#10 - Powderfinger, Festival Hall, January
A tremendous set from my favourite band ever, played to a very appreciative sellout crowd. I could sing along to the whole thing and pretty much did. Pockets and Up & Down & Back Again were unbelievably fantastic. Points off for the unbearable heat in the very crowded Festival Hall and the fact that the set was basically the same as the These Days DVD.

#9 - Gomez, The Forum, March
I bought tickets thinking that End of Fashion were supporting; they pulled out but Gomez was well worth it themselves. They're a very interesting live band considering they have three different singers to choose from. Plus their music can get a bit dancy at times (their old stuff), so they had a main drummer and a half-drummer, half-DJ. It was mainly old stuff I hadn't heard much of, or for ages, but it undeniably won me over. I couldn't stop listening to the song In Our Gun for weeks after that performance. Silence also rocked out, as my prediction of it not being a moshing gig was firmly proved wrong. I no longer put it past any band to generate a moshpit, whatever their music is.

#8 - Doves, The Forum, July
Their atmospheric and chilled blend of music was perfectly matched to the fake sky ceiling of the Forum. So many instruments and gear on stage for just three performers. A very fun concert and I was just hyped on Red Bull not booze! Here It Comes and Black and White Town took the cake.

#7 - Faker, The Corner, October
An awesome live set performed just a week or two after the release of their debut album. The lead singer was so energetic he quite literally bounced off the walls and lapsed into a near-spasm on the stage. Quarter To Three and Kids On Overload were outstanding tracks. We met the shy guitarist Stefan after the show. He was almost embarrassed they had fans, so much that it was funny. After signing Claire's album, they told us it was the first copy they'd signed!

#6 - Interpol, The Metro, July
I couldn't believe how popular they were, the place was totally packed with trendies and non-conformists (think South Park) alike and they knew all the words. The floor was shaking as people jumped up and down to almost everything, which is testament to Interpol, or the shoddy construction of the Metro. Evil and Untitled were my favourites of the evening.

Stay tuned for the remaining five, which I will each give a greater account of the evening. What could they be? Either learn ESP or just wait there.

Time wasters for you (from Linksville)

Courtesy of Digg in association with the Internet and a little bit of perousal on my part, please enjoy this veritable bounty of hyperlinks.

How many caffeine drinks will it take to kill a person of your weight? Investigate! Red Bull can labels don't recommend over two cans per day, but this site doesn't think I'll die until well into the hundreds! Woo!

Some stupid ideas for Brodie, just in case he needed more, in Revenge of the Tattooed Nerds. My favourite was the Pac-Man one.

I wager that there are Star Wars fans out there who will find this spooge-worthy. Hell, anything Lego is a winner in my metaphorical book.

You can make shot glasses out of ice! What a fantastic idea, even if it'd be more fun to make than actually use.

An interesting study comparing four-year-old humans to chimps in problem solving tasks, with the focus on the test subject's ability to independently eliminate redundant steps in a process demonstrated to them.

For the politically incorrect: "copulating deaf couple unaware of own volume".

If the last link didn't bother you, you should know that this blog disturbingly notes that 12-15 year old Japanese kids would like to get a grip on the black guy with large wang notion.

Creative Dutch coffee drinking artists make Pat pleased, but also thirsty.

And finally *drumroll* ... the Florida Panthers hockey team beat Detroit 3-2 in OT! Take that!

The little black box that keeps on giving

It appeared out of the blue after I had listened to a throw away comment and ran with it. Keith and The Girl were discussing their expectations of a robot invasion and how humanity's survival shouldn't depend on people having read instruction manuals. The Girl pointed out that she's always asking how to fast forward on their new iRiver music player, and when the response is along the lines of "read the manual", it tends to shut her (like most people) up.

I had been pondering that same question since I purchased my fine iRiver H340, but I'd only read the manual to install the drivers on my PC and stowed it safely away in the box. I was unamused to discover that the manual's suggestion to hold down the forward button (everyone's first instinct) did not solve the problem. Instead it skips forward tracks quickly, which is totally ridiculous as it has a full menu structure and isn't an iPod shuffle. Again through chance, I flicked through the manual hoping to strike gold when I noticed the section about firmware upgrades.

Not only did the firmware upgrade fix the fast forward problem, it can now play video! I became so excited I encoded one of the Family Guy episodes I stole off Josh into the format for the beautiful 2 inch screen. It's far from real television, possessing a frame rate that compares with streaming video off the net. The audio's also a little off-sync, but it could've been my encoding. It's still a neat way to kill some time.

I'm very impressed with these little add-ons. I also found out about the text file reader. I took NFL.com's Rich Eisen's latest article, saved it as text and tried it out. It'll be great when you're just listening to music looking at nothing (e.g. on the train). Words span across lines on the ~20 char screen width, so I might write a parser to keep words on one line if I actually intend on reading stuff with this. With all the scripts I've been writing at work, I feel like the king of string manipulation. Hello, ladies!

Silver Medal

Second place is one of the hardest to accept. Being "best of the losers" in volleyball isn't much comfort to me. We've come second a few times in a row now and I can't help but feel ... unfulfilled.

We've had a great season, packed with lots of powerful play and the wins flowed fairly easily for us for a while there. With only seven teams in our division, we locked up a finals spot in good time and finished second on the ladder. After our capitulation against the runaway leaders Phoenix two weeks ago in the qualifying final, we had to work very hard last week and discover a way to win the semi final against MLC. I'm not even sure how we did it. I just keep referring to our positive reinforcement approach at timeouts as good "chi". To face Phoenix again in the Grand Final and take out the first set in such a forceful fashion was the perfect start.

Phoenix may have only lost one game all season and are a bunch of skilled volleyballers, but the fact that we can compete with them and win sets made me just want more out of the game. I seriously thought we could battle through the tough parts and squeeze out a win somehow. It seems that we can match and beat opponents when we're "in the zone", but we can't sustain our play at that level for extended lengths of time. That was basically our undoing and we never recovered or took the lead of a set again I think. I've been trying to come up with an answer for us to stay in the groove for a few weeks now without success.

Considering Phoenix are being promoted, that leaves us as the division's new frontrunner by default. If all our players really want to win, like, desperately want to win, there's no reason why we can't take out the title next year. Or else we can just sit back, have fun and not get stressed about the finals. Whatever.

Congratulations and thanks to any Rastas reading this.

Channel 7 is programmed by morons

I tuned in to watch Family Guy last night, only to find out it had been moved to Thursdays (after only a week I believe) for World's Wildest Weather. My immediate response: "World's Wildest Weather?!? No amount of alliteration will diffuse my rage!"

I hate this sort of last-minute change (the Green Guide still said it was on and Channel Seven don't do EPGs). I hate it even more when I'm actually home to watch it! I've seen the first five episodes of Family Guy Season 4 (downloaded and burned to DVD), but I don't wanna miss any new ones that actually screen on TV.

In other news, I think Futurama really is better than Family Guy. I've been getting so into it recently. The episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" is my favourite right now.

Old school Red Bull night

In my first somewhat caffeine related post, Saturday night was pretty entertaining. It was a true, old fashioned xBox and poker night like we used to do, fuelled by none other than my old friend, Red Bull.

It was a little creepy cramming seven people into Brodie's garage and even creepier being one of the three men squeezed onto the leather couch. No amount of "I'm comfortable with my heterosexuality, so this is OK" makes me feel more comfortable. The xBox part didn't really work for seven people simultaneously, plus Brodie's xBox agonisingly fails to read discs mid-game with moderate frequency. We broke out Ricky Ponting Cricket. Matt began reading the instruction booklet to work out how to play and ten minutes elapsed.

That was our cue to start the Red Bull (if it wasn't earlier). Not all of us can drink and drive home, so this was our nice, social and cheaper alternative. Only $6 for a 4-pack is an all-time special if you ask me. Short of the on-the-way-to-work-after-a-late-one-and-I-feel-like-crap Red Bull or drinking them at gigs I've driven to (on P plates), giving me a virtually equal platform to fraternise with people on, I haven't had it for a while. And the buzz is still a bit of fun.

I swept the first poker game, flaunting my big stack when I got up. As usual, and duly noted by Brodie, I win the unimportant games where there's no money involved. But of course, it always becomes a practice or warm-up game for some of us if you're losing, and a deadly serious battle to defend your ancestors' honour if you're in front. The second game wasn't so great for me, but having one the first one I felt no pressure and accepted a game of Madden when my "ambitious" all in on a pair of pocket 8s fell over.

Having just achieved my goal of winning the Superbowl on All-Madden, Dean favoured me to win but I know that playing people is totally different than the AI. Things got bad as I picked the wrong defensive scheme and got my ass kicked early. I had a few big runs and eventually got in front 21-14 before Dean's Seattle Seahawks had a 5 minute long TD drive, virtually all running. He topped it off with a 2-point conversion run that I would've challenged if it wasn't in the last two minutes and I had 42 seconds to reply. A 13-yard run out of bounds by Atlanta's Michael Vick was a good start. Next, Dean guessed my play right (I think), jammed the receiver and picked off my pass. That was it, 22-21.

I had a post-Red Bull buzz low after that, not helped by the Madden defeat. That meant it was time to break out another Red Bull. I see the recommended daily dosage as a challenge, and an easy one at that. I laughed when I heard Craig had erratic heartbeats the last time he did that. The man can conciously drink for 24 hours straight but can't do caffeine. Next drinking challenge against him I might have to bring out my old partners in crime from high school: Finlandia and Red Bull. I've had a lot of great nights and chunders with those two.

After that I went home just after 2 and couldn't sleep until after 5:30. I ended up watching all of Zoolander. I'm surprised I functioned at all yesterday after I was woken by the whipper snipper at 11am. Jerkwads.

It's Hip To Be A Square?

It's not easy for me to feel good about joining the horde of bloggers out there. Having my own "website" or "soapbox" gave me that nice security blanket of pretentiousness that kept me feeling superior to your average Joe's "What I did yesterday" or average Jane's "I wub my kitty so much" blogs.

I mean, I have qualifications! I've been posting blog-style stuff on my website(s) for years! Before it was "cool"! Basically, I've only converted to the dark side to see if I get a nice little commenting community and open up syndication possibilities. At least I (hopefully) distinguished myself from the great unwashed by changing the style sheet to somewhat reflect my actual website. It's just so damn easy to start one of these blogs that it feels...dirty. In a way, it offends me that anyone can do it.

Isn't technology fantastic? We've found these great ways of spreading the word of anything we want and in the end most people want to talk about...themselves! Sure, it's hard not to self-indulge, considering it's something that any person can know everything about. In many cases, you just can't beat real conversation. Bloggers don't get those blank stares from people when they crap on too much like in real life. Maybe conversations are so uncool. That's, like, so last May.

For some reason or another, I'm usually going against the cool, probably stemming from my general dislike for people and popular culture in general. Maybe I misinterpreted those "don't give in to peer pressure" lessons in school and instead alienated myself. I must have a problem with people acting phoney, as Lemming-like following of pseudo-social trends crosses the line with me. I don't know why. It's not like I get satisfaction out of being uncool.

Let's get a little thankful for a moment though; the Internet needs more stuff on it for us to browse. I should encourage more blogging out there, particularly from people who have a point-of-view! We haven't got much hope of mining gold out of the Internet, but the more there is to sift through, the more satisfying it can be to find a gem of a blog or podcast. I don't know how I'd do 40 hours at work each week without the Internet!

Patman Begins

Hey everybody, thanks for joining me and welcome to the circus that's tentatively titled "Tales Of A Caffeine Junkie". By popular demand, I've started a new blog with comments. I'm destined to follow the path of other bloggers, each with multiple blogs in various incarnations and each with a slightly different angle or audience, although I will try to resist for now. Using Blogger also opens up the option of easy RSS syndication (or should it be RS syndication to avoid repetition like saying ATM machine...) and dare I mention it, podcasting. I've always wanted to do a radio show, and having a non-radio voice and no guests isn't enough to kill that idea for me, especially considering all the deadbeat podcasters out there.

You'll have to do your part and comment regularly to force me into action. I reserve the rights to pour gasoline over this site, set it on fire and dance on the ashes (or at least the online equivalent, whatever that is) should the site fail to generate much interest. As for the angle of the site, I'm lumping all the posts here, as I get the feeling most readers will check out anything new. Don't let the caffeine junkie thing throw you either, it's just for a little character development.

Until I come up with something post-worthy, don't hesitate to check The Soapbox for old posts and drop me a line this instant. Until next time we meet again, thanks for stopping by, soon-to-be loyal reader and you stay classy, Planet Earth!