Things I found in my boyfriend's record collection

Many years ago in Australia, a teenage D collected records. I recently had the good fortune to peruse this gem of collection, which is essentially a treasure trove of 1980s nostalgia and hilarity. Here are photos we took of my ten favorites:

10. My sister Kerry had this on cassette and it ruled.

9. You know, I still dig Huey Lewis.








8. Bette Midler and the cure on the same album? Throbbin'!

7. Some music from this decade did age well.








6. Others, not so much. And now I have "Shake Your Love" stuck in my head.

5. D claims that Wham and Debbie Gibson belonged to his sister...






4. But he fully admits to purchasing the Dream a Little Dream soundtrack.











3. And now for something gayer than Wham- the English techno group Man to Man performing their club classic "Male Stripper." I love the cover art on this one...what goes well with shirtless men smoking? I know! The Leaning Tower of Pisa!








2. The first time was a great time, the second time was a blast...




and finally,








#1. U Can't Touch This.

DCoE's Return to Glory (coming soon)

Remember how my blog used to be awesome? (okay, my words) And now I hardly ever update anymore, and it's kind of lame? Well, all that's about to change with the arrival of....drumroll, please...my new laptop! See, my new work environment doesn't really allow for internet tomfoolery, and my old personal laptop has been on its last legs for months now...it's so slow I can barely send and email, let alone post pictures and blog entries. And I do have some ideas...like a photoessay pertaining to a certain boyfriend's hilarious record collections. And there are still durians to be had.

But for now, you can amuse yourselves with this collection of bad yearbook photos. (thanks, Jos!)

Quitting in style

Did you hear about the JetBlue flight attendant's dramatic exit? Fantastic. (except for the fact he may end up in jail...but maybe the chance to pull the emergency slide was worth it)

And now this story about a girl who quits her job via messages on a dry erase board that she emails to the office. I'm pretty sure it's fake (the girl looks WAY too much like one of those beautiful models who don a ponytail and glasses so they can play a misfit in a high school movie), but it's still pretty entertaining.

Links!

Some have you may remember the fascination I developed last year for the juggalos. Well, it hasn't faded. The infomerical for this year's "Gathering" is out and is as absurd as ever. Coolio and Gallagher at the same festival? Snap. And check out this news- juggalo culture has spread to Australia- I swear, I'm not responsible! (thanks for the link, Cupcake)

And now for something entirely different:

A travel article from the NYT about a guy traveling in Nicaragua with his parents. (thanks, Dan)

Concert Review: Band of Horses

I've been a fan of the band Band of Horses ever since I heard their first album, Everything All The Time, but I had never seen them live. Last night, I saw them play at the Palace Theater in Melbourne, and they were fantastic! The guitars sounded great, and I was really impressed by the vocals of frontman Ben Bridwell. He smoked a few cigarettes during the show- I guess you can break the rules when you're a rock star, but I'm surprised it hasn't ruined his voice, which is high and clear and sounds exactly like it does on the recordings. They seemed relaxed and happy on stage and bantered a bit with the crowd. They played a long set that featured mostly songs from their first album, including The Funeral, which rose to popularity partly because of this video. I liked the venue as well- there are a couple of balconies and the whole building is tiered in a way so that you pretty much always have a good view without blocking anyone behind you. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I don't have any blurry concert photos to post. In closing, if you like Band of Horses and get a chance to see them live, they're definitely worth seeing!

Weekend Report

I had a busy weekend in Melbourne, which included the following activities:

I went to see Tim Burton: The Exhibition, which has traveled to Melbourne from MoMA in New York. The exhibition featured a plethora of delightfully creepy drawings....and one Batmobile!

Checked out the State Library as part of Melbourne Open House. We went to see the normally closed Queen's Hall but were far more impressed with the massive reading room.

Made fresh margaritas from squeezed limes! Apparently margarita mix doesn't exist in Australia, so I resorted to the do-it-yourself method. They were really easy to make and quite tasty but a bit on the dangerous side. The margaritas were followed by a soccer club fundraiser at a Brazilian restaurant- it was one of those cheesy dinner show places, but the food was good (meat on giant stakes, oh boy!) and we all good time (the margaritas probably helped with that). I ate a chicken heart. And since D won a dinner for 4 in the raffle, it looks like we'll be back.

Aggressive agressive notes?

Someone, angered by the state of my building's rubbish room, decided to share their concerns by writing them on the door in permanent marker. It makes me laugh every time I see it. And when I'm done laughing, I throw my trash all over the floor. (just kidding)

I'd consider sending it in to Passive Aggressive Notes, but it doesn't seem very passive, does it?

Movie review: The Secret in Their Eyes

I just saw The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), which won last year's Oscar for Best Foreign Film. I had high expectations, as I love a good crime drama, and anything that's been described as "a really long, really awesome episode of Law & Order set in Buenos Aires" is bound to be my kind of movie. I was not disappointed. Benjamin Esposito is a retired legal attorney who decides to write a novel based upon the one case he never got out of his head, the brutal rape and murder of a young woman, in which the political corruption of the times (the mid 1970s) interfered with justice. He is not the only one haunted by the case, and soon he reconnects with his former colleague and unrequited love, as well as the victim's still grieving husband. I don't really need to say anything more, but if you are at all intrigued, I strongly recommend that you see the movie- a captivating story, great characters, excellent acting, and enough plot twists to keep viewers intrigued for a full two hours, especially the one at the end (yikes!).

Adventures in Strange Fruit

I went to the market on Saturday and saw an unusual fruit for sale at several stands- the custard apple. First of all, terrible name choice. From the outside, they don't look at all like apples, and if anything, resemble puffy artichokes. On the inside, custard apples have white flesh with big black seeds. They don't taste like apples either- the one I had was slightly underripe (I think) as the firmer sections were a little tough and bland, but the mushier parts were quite pleasant- fruity with a slight tartness. So I imagine that the custard part of the name is probably apt, as it seems you're supposed to eat them when they're squishy.

And don't worry, strange fruit fans, the durian is still next on my list.


As a bonus- here's a simple and delicious recipe for oven baked chicken parmesan. I made it the other night with garlic bread and a salad- so good!!

Links!

Animal hijinx in the news:

Woman who fears monkeys attacked by...monkeys. (thanks, Ry!)

Drunk Australian injured in an attempt to ride a crocodile.

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem got married- I had no idea they were dating (I can't believe they didn't tell me!) but it makes sense: they're both from Spain, incredibly talented (both have won Oscars), and very very very good looking (not counting Bardem's unfortunate haircut in No Country for Old Men). For movie recommendations, Bardem was fantastic in The Sea Inside and I loved Penelope in Volver.

Lastly, just when I thought that the splendors of the internet had all been revealed to me, I stumbled across this (incredibly extensive) collection of photos of people with slide rules. Enjoy!

Reviews: one book and one movie

The Book:
So, Oscar Wilde is like, super famous and stuff, but I've never actually read anything by him, until I picked up a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. As an aside, how much do I love Penguin Books? A lot. At least here in Australia, they've greatly expanded their line of cheapo orange and white paperbacks, which comes in handy because regular paperbacks go for like $30 down under. At the beginning of The Picture of Dorian Gray, we meet the three main characters- Basil, a mild-mannered artist, has become enthralled/obsessed with a young, handsome man named Dorian Gray, whom serves as something of a muse to him- gay subtext much? Basil's friend Lord Henry is a natural mischief maker who likes nothing more than stirring up controversy at dinner parties, and upon seeing Basil's portrait of Dorian, Lord Henry blathers on of the fleeting power of innocence and beauty. Dorian makes a wish for the portrait to grow old, rather than him, and it comes true, and the story turns into a gentlemanly horror tale. In spite of a few tedious sections, I did enjoy the book, and found Lord Henry particularly entertaining- full of quotes like this: "To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."

The movie:
The Cove, is a 2009 documentary about the killing of dolphins in the small Japanese fishing town of Taiji. Considering that I eat meat and have "sacrificed" rodents in the name of science, I may be somewhat of a hypocrite for siding with the filmmakers, but overall, it's a very informative, powerful, and well-filmed documentary. Ric O'Barry, who captured trained the dolphins for the tv show Flipper, eventually determined that dolphins suffer in captivity and has spent the majority of his life as an activist working on their behalf- protesting their capture and risking arrest to free them. The majority of captive dolphins come from a coastal village in Japan, where they are herded into shore and netted- however, only a small percentage are sold live, and the rest are brutally slaughtered in a hidden and heavily guarded cove. O'Barry and a team of activists and filmmakers (and free divers) aim to plant cameras and capture the slaughter in action, hoping that video proof of the killings will help put an end to the practice. In addition, the film also devotes time to the political aspects of whaling, painting the Japanese government as the clear villain and the International Whaling Commission as imbeciles for refusing to regulate dolphins and other small cetaceans (word of the day!). The Cove is certainly not a cheerful movie, but it is an interesting and effective one.

Giant microbes!

I learned of Giant Microbes, a company that makes stuffed animal versions of viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms several years ago, but I was pleased to discover last week that they have greatly expanded their catalogue. I even found two of the bacteria I work with- Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus. So of course I bought them. I was tempted to buy Neisseria gonorrhoeae and mail it to someone as a gag gift, but I managed to restrain myself.

Weekend in Sydney

I had a great weekend with Kris, Rodd, and Dean in Sydney- the weather is still fairly cool, but at least the sun was shining. We arrived Friday afternoon and spent most of that time wandering around and bar hopping in the Chippendale (heh) and Glebe neighborhoods. Saturday, we went to a local food market for breakfast and then flew kites at Sydney Park, which is built on top of a former brickworks. Well, one of the kites flew quite readily whereas the other one seemed to prefer crashing itself into the ground. Saturday night, we ate dinner at the delicious thai restaurant Spice I Am- where we saw a contestant from Masterchef Australia, a super popular cooking reality show. Later that night, D and I went to a joint Canada Day/4th of July party.

On Sunday morning, Kris and I went for a 7K run through the city, which made me feel a lot less guilty about the pig-out that ensued. We had lunch for the 4th of July at the Blue Plate Bar & Grill, an American restaurant with offerings such as Chicago deep dish pizza and Philly cheese steaks on the menu. And they even serve Sam Adams! (I had one.) We ordered three appetizers (hey, don't judge- it's not every day you can find buffalo wings and potato skins down here) and I had the gumbo for lunch. The whole meal was quite enjoyable.




My conference began last night- highlights included a seminar from a nobel prize winner, the society president announcing my name as Elaine when he handed out my travel award, and a lady who touched my face because she thought my black eye was smudged makeup.

In other weekend news, the four of us are now officially hooked on True Blood, because nobody does vampire smut quite like HBO.

4th of July

Last year, I spend the 4th of July frolicking in Newport and staging murder scenes at the polo grounds. (What?) This year, I'll be attending the Australian Society for Microbiology's annual meeting in Sydney, where my black eye and I will be giving a talk on Tuesday. The fun part is that I'm heading up a couple days early to hang out with Kris and Rodd, and D is coming along to meet my friends. Kristy's made us reservations at an American-themed restaurant (not McDonald's) for the 4th, and it Looks delicious! Nachos and wings and po' boys, oh my.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

The week in pictures

Australia got a new Prime Minister, and the first female to hold the position- congratulations to Julia Gillard. I'm still a bit baffled by the fact that here in Australia, you can get a new prime minister without an election or a coup. Although it doesn't happen very often, elected members of the ruling party can change their leader, and the thinking behind this move is that the former PM Kevin Rudd's popularity had sunken so low that the party deemed it best to replace him prior to the upcoming election, which isn't technically scheduled yet but will happen by the end of this year. Parliamentary system of government, you are bananas.

In unrelated news, I knocked heads with another girl going up for a header in Sunday's soccer game and am now sporting a massive black eye. Pretty! I did end up going to the doctor to make sure I didn't have a concussion (which I didn't), but he recommended a skull x-ray. Results are coming in tomorrow. I'm fairly confident that it's just a bad bump, though. And I think I'll stick with an ice pack rather than putting a steak on it.

List #43....Countries with disappointing bacon

1. Canada
2. Australia
3. France
4. Germany

Australia Update

When I took this gig back in February, I had a six month employment contract and a temporary work visa that expired in 2010, but I did have the notion that if things were going well, I would try to extend my stay. Anyone who works in science knows that six months isn't enough time to complete a project, especially if you want to get a publication out of it. The new job has been a great fir for me, both career and personality-wise, and after the long and painful grad school experience, it feels very refreshing to actually enjoy science again. And yeah, aside from the work stuff, I'm quite happy with pretty much everything at the moment. So, a couple of months go my supervisor and I had little discussion about my plans and it became clear that I wanted to stay longer and she wanted me to stay longer. The wheels were set in motion, and I ended up getting some internal funding for my current project plus a new one (both related to bacterial pneumonia, for you nerdlings out there), which led to a contract extension and a new visa application. It was approved last week and is good through the end of 2011, so it looks like I'll be staying down under until next December.
Fret not, Bostonians, I'll be back to visit, most likely next spring or early summer. And just in case you're considering vacationing in Australia, visitors are welcome!

New blog posts 3 days in a row- it may be a 2010 record!

Rest In Peace, Manute Bol

I liked Manute Bol back in his NBA days- aside from being astonishingly tall and thin, he had a great attitude and was always willing to laugh at himself, like in this classic SNL skit and this prank by Charles Barkley. I was unaware of his humanitarian work in his native Sudan until I read What Is The What earlier this year (which is fantastic, by the way), and once I did a little more reading up on the man, I was thoroughly impressed. A Dinka tribesman, Bol spent the majority of his life raising money and working towards peace in his troubled homeland- some of his efforts are mentioned in this 2006 profile in Sports Illustrated. In a world where someone like Kobe Bryant can win a MVP trophy, it's men like Manute Bol who truly deserve to be lauded. Here's a nice obituary on Bol from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

What I've Been Up To, Part II

The blog neglect continues….InLeWriMo is still going strong, and I think daily letter writing has zapped my usual blog posting energy source.

Queen’s Birthday in Surfers Paradise-
We had a 3 day weekend for the Queen’s Birthday, and although I do not know which queen, when it comes to a Monday off from work, I don’t ask too many questions. I flew up to the Gold Coast to meet up with my college friend Alison and her flatmate Jess. Surfers Paradise is essentially the trashy Florida part of Australia, chock full of beautiful beaches marred by high rises, retirees, and teenage partiers. But we knew what we were in for and still had a great time. Plus, it’s gray and cold and windy in Melbourne this time of year, so it was nice to get some sunshine. Most of the weekend was consumed by the World Cup, including a 4am trip to the casino to watch the USA vs. England game amidst a hundreds of drunk Englishmen, or Poms, as they’re called here. A tie never felt so sweet.

In other sporting news, I did watch game 7 and was disappointed that the Celtics couldn’t scrape out a win. As I read somewhere on Facebook: “every time Kobe wins a ring, and angel loses his wings.” To be honest, I think Gasol deserved the MVP more than Kobe.

Lastly but not leastly, am I too old to buy trendy things like fingerless gloves? Well, I don’t care because I love them. So there.

What I've Been Up To Lately

Hello there, neglected blog! Here's what I've been doing the past few days.

Watching movies:

Animal Kingdom- Melbourne's very own crime drama. Like most major cities, Melbourne does (did?) have a rather infamous criminal underworld, the subject of the TV hit Underbelly, which I like to call the Australian version of the Sopranos. The characters of the film Animal Kingdom run in similar cicles, with much of the movie centered around a police assassination that actually happened in 1988. Our protagonist is a quiet teenage boy, who, following the death of his mother, moves in with his extended family- his gangster uncles and a grandmother who's just a little too friendly with her own sons. The movie is more of a psychological thriller than an action film, but I did enjoy it.

And since one can't watch crime dramas all the time, the next movie I saw was Sex in the City 2. No, it won't win any Oscars, but it's a fun movie to watch and if you liked the show, you'll definitely like the movie, critics be damned. However, it has recently occurred to me that Sex in the City is somewhat of Golden Girls rip-off. Samantha = Blanche, and Charlotte = Rose. Don't you see it? Miranda could be Dorothy, so it's really only the Carrie/Sophia match that is a little off. Oh, and in the new movie? They wear caftans. You heard it here first.


Reviewing beer: Check out my latest review on Beer Crusade.

Cooking:
Filet steak with mixed mushrooms and sherry. YUM.

and lastly, here are a couple of links:

Awesome Nike commercial for the World Cup. Woohoo!

Cops find one ton of marijuana in a Dorchester apartment. Ah, good old Dot. The photo does remind me of the "drugs on the table" bit from The Wire, but honestly, that is an astonishing amount of pot.

Cooking blog shoutout

Sarah's been posting some great recipes over on The Pink Shoe Cookbook. In fact, I made her Light Dijon Dill Crusted Salmon tonight for dinner and it was super yum.

Tasmanian Holiday

I just got back from a five day trip through Tasmania, that little island that sits off the southern coast of Australia (and isn't a separate country). D and I sailed overnight from Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Something about sailing away on a boat makes you feel like you're headed off on a grand adventure, and luckily the Bass Strait was nice and calm for the crossing- it has a reputation for rough seas. After that, we landed in Devonport and picked up the rental car, a ridiculous bright yellow Hyundai (or Hee-un-dai if your initials are AV) soon dubbed Mellow Yellow for its reluctance to accelerate. We then headed south to Hobart- the whole island only takes about 3 hours to drive across and it's still very sparsely populated- the main highway is a two lane road, passing mostly through farmland. Hobart is a cute little city on the waterfront, and opposed to Melbourne, which is flat flat flat, Hobart is surrounded by hills and a small mountain, Mt. Wellington, looms over the city.


We toured the Cascade Brewery, where beer has been made since 1824, making it the oldest operational brewery in Australia. The building itself is impressive and like many other structures from the 1800s, it was built by convicts. (My new slogan for Tasmania: "Built convict tough." I should have gone into PR.) The tour was a lot of fun- you have to wear safety glasses and a neon vest, and you get to see the entire facility, including the Laverne & Shirley bottling machines. And there's beer at the end!

We hit up the Salamanca market on Saturday morning before a scenic drive and a wine tasting adventure that led us down a dirt road to encounter a strange man who makes wine in his garage and tests it with pH meters and the like. After Hobart, the next destination was the Freycinet penninsula on the east coast with a brief stop at the Freycinet Vineyard, which was a more high-class operation than chemistry set man.

Freycinet National Park lived up to its tagline of "rugged and beautiful," although when you're staying in heated cabins and dining on oysters at the lodge, it's not quite so rugged. We did spend a day hiking out to Wineglass Bay, which ranks among the world's top ten beaches (according to a few travel magazines) and is only accessible by boat or by hiking in on fairly long and steep trail. It was indeed lovely even though it's too cold for swimming at the time of year. Well, that and intimidatingly massive waves.

While on the Freycinet Penninsula, I did encounter some of our furry friends- wild wallabies were all over the park (and notably in the parking lots) and some possums came a callin' on the porch one evening (and left their calling card as well). Fact: Australia possums are like a zillion times cuter than North American ones. We stopped by a nature park to check out their Tasmanian Devils and they did not disappoint, especially at feeding time. The staff feeds them what appears to be hunks of roadkill carcasses and the devils snarl and get all feisty-like. Good stuff. They're pretty cute when they're sleeping, though, and much easier to photograph. Overall, I had a great time in Tasmania and only wish I could have stayed longer.

Recipe: Tomato and garlic stew with prawns

We're headed into winter down here in the southern hemisphere, and on a cool and rainy night, nothing beats a big pot of soup. I made this really easy and tasty recipe from Donna Hay for Tomato and Garlic Stew with Prawns. Prawns being shrimp, not the aliens from District 9. It came our really well but was a little heavy on the onions- 1 large would probably be sufficient. I only used half the recommended amount of prawns/shrimp, because those little guys are expensive, but it still seemed like plenty.

My June Project: InLeWrMo (note to self: come up with better acronym)

What has turned out to be the most troublesome aspect of living in Australia isn't the distance per se, it's the fourteen hour time difference between Melbourne and Boston that makes it difficult to find a good time to Skype or call- usually at least one party is either sleeping or at work. Sure, there's always email, but I've decided to revert to the old fashioned way of keeping in touch: letter writing. I've always had a penchant for stationery and stamps (and even participated in a stamp collecting club as a kid- nerd alert!), and hey, everyone likes letters. It's nice to find something other than bills and credit card offers in the mail.
Like most people, I have the tendency to procrastinate, and often when I come up with ideas like "hey, I should write more letters!" they don't ever come to fruition. So I'm issuing myself a challenge. If you're a blogger you probably know that November is NaBloPoMo, a.k.a. National Blog Posting Month. I've declared June as InLeWriMo- International Letter Writing Month, in which participants (me) will write a letter every day for the whole month. Feel free to join in, or if you'd like to receive a letter from me, email me your address. I'd also welcome suggestions for a better acronyms and perhaps a slogan. It's better in a letter? Nothing says you're a champ like a stamp.

In the news

Hey hey, I'm in a magazine! A nerd magazine!

Thanks to Molly for taking a professional looking headshot while we were sitting in a train station in Germany.

Movie Reviews

Over the past week, I’ve watched a couple of DVDs.

The first was Let The Right One In, the Swedish vampire movie that’s essentially the antithesis of Twilight- these vampires definitely do not sparkle. The protagonist is Oskar, a 12 year old misfit boy who doesn’t seem to have a single friend until he meets Eli, a strange girl who lives in his apartment complex, who only appears at night, doesn’t seem to feel the cold, and smells funny. Yep, she’s a vampire. The movie proceeds slowly, with lingering shots of the cold winter landscape and limited dialogue, but when the action does occur, it is poignant and brutal. I thought the movie was fascinating, in particular by the relationship between Eli and Oskar, and it is brilliantly filmed, especially the swimming pool scene towards the end (holy crapola!!). It was refreshing to see such an unusual film: the main characters are children, and much of the movie is left up to the viewer’s interpretation- who is the old man that Eli lives with at the beginning? Does she really care for Oskar or is she using him? I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterwards. Be warned, though- it’s not a scary movie per se, but it is a dark one, and definitely not for the squeamish. Here's the New York Times review.

And now for something completely different:

Adventureland, set in Pennsylvania in 1987, is a sort of coming-of-age film about a recent college graduate who ends up back in his hometown working in an amusement park after his more grandiose post-graduation plans fall apart. It turns out to be quite the learning experience as the somewhat naïve James has never held a job before nor has he had any success in romantic relationships, but his Midwestern niceness (along with a big stash of joints) rapidly endears him to his new coworkers. I loved it! It’s sweet, funny, and definitely captures the good and bad parts of working at a shitty part-time job. Adventureland was written and directed by Greg Mottola of Superbad fame, but this film is more substance that slapstick, although there are a few similarities- the main character, portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg, reminds me of an older Michael Cera. Lastly, any movie that prominently features Bill from Freaks and Geeks is a winner in my book.

Things I'm into lately

Beer! I reviewed my first Australian brew over on Beer Crusade.

I generally dislike all things techno, electronica, trance, and the like, but I absolutely cannot get enough of this funky track by Australian DJ duo Yolanda Be Cool: We Speak No Americano. (right click and save as to download) It's a lab favorite! I just love that someone can take a brief clip of an old-timey Italian tune and turn it into a modern dance hit. Damn, that shit is catchy!


Hokkien noodles: Yes, they're cheap, they come in a bag, and you soak them in hot water before eating them, but they taste a zillion times better than ramen. Just throw them in with some stir-fried veggies and meat and YUM. I had them for the first time on Tuesday (thanks, D), and I just made them again for myself tonight.

It's all fun and games until someone loses their knickers

I laughed when I saw this note posted in the women's bathroom at work...until I looked at the underwear and realized they were MINE! No, there aren't any Grey's Anatomy shenanigans are going on at my hospital- they must have fallen out of my gym bag while I was changing. Couldn't I have lost a sock or something? Geez. I don't know if the fact that they were lame cotton workout underwear made it more or less embarrassing, but I didn't want anyone to know they were mine, so I waited to until I was leaving to slyly retrieve them. But hey, I'm okay with telling The Internet, because we don't share an office area.

Concert Review: Vampire Weekend

Last week, I saw Vampire Weekend at Festival Hall in Melbourne. I fully admit that I have completely fallen for their peppy sound and catchy guitar hooks, hipster haters be damned! I even like their oddly compelling cover image of a preppy girl in a Polo shirt, which they used as a backdrop at the concert. I hadn’t seen them play live before, so I had been looking forward to the show, and it did not disappoint. The venue was kind of a dive- it’s a former boxing ring that still feels like an enormous concrete gym, but luckily the entrance we used popped us in right along side of the stage, which was a good thing since there were about 3000 people in the general admission area. Since Vampire Weekend only have two albums out, their set list consisted of about eight songs from each album, including my favorites: A-Punk, Oxford Comma, Campus, and Cousins. Musically, they were spot-on and they seemed at ease on the stage, like they were genuinely having fun performing. The whole show had an energetic, upbeat vibe to it. I always associate VW with the northeast, so it was a funny being in Australia and hearing them sing about Cape Cod, and it even made me feel a little bit superior. Maybe almost everyone in the crowd was a decade younger than me, but I know where Hyannisport is. So there!

In other news, unlike Michael Buble*, Vampire Weekend is not being stalked by a velociraptor. (thanks, CR)

*for a long time, I thought his name was Michael Bubble. Not quite as suave.

Adventures in strange fruit

Last week, my coworkers were talking about fiejoas and how good they are, so when I spotted them at the supermarket I decided to give them a try. From the outside, they resemble small avocados. But when you cut them open, the flesh is fruity deliciousness. They're related to the guava (a highly overrated fruit, in my opinion) but taste more like a mixture between a strawberry and a pear. Yum!

Next up on my fruit adventure list: the infamous durian.

Chewy on your boot!*

My flatmate Belinda’s friend Tony ended up crashing at our place for a few weeks last month while he was waiting for his new lease to begin. How very Three's Company. As a thank you, this past Saturday he invited us to attend an Australian Rules Football game in his company’s corporate box at the MCG, the main sports arena in Melbourne. We're smiling because there's free booze.

People in this part of the country are absolutely mad about AFL, a.k.a. the footy, so I had been meaning to check out a game. The sport is fairly similar to Gaelic football and is something like a cross between soccer and basketball. The field is round (I had no idea!) and enormous, and each team has 15 players on the field at a time. The goal consists of four uprights and you score by dropkicking the ball between them- getting it between the inner two posts earns 6 points and between an outer post is worth 1 point. I had thought the players would be stocky rugby types, but not at all- it’s a fast paced game with a lot of running, jumping, and some mauling, and the players are incredibly fit in addition to being huge. The uniforms are quite snug and have fun stripey socks- I reckon they were designed by a gay man. I mean, look. One thing I really liked about the game is that it’s nearly continuous action- play rarely stops, and if it does, it’s only for a few seconds. Even better, the officials hardly ever call penalties, which means there’s no sense in diving (the worst aspect of professional soccer) or exaggerating to try to draw a foul (one of the most annoying things about the NBA), because unless someone punches you in the face (and maybe not even then), the ref ain’t blowing the whistle. Some more footy notes:

When the ball goes out of bounds, the referee turns his back to the field and hucks it over his shoulder to put it back into play. Crazy!

The other strange thing about the game was the flock of seagulls that were constantly on the field. When play gets close they fly around and move to another part of the field, but I think they live in the stadium, as no one else seemed to find their presence unusual at all.

Tailgating doesn’t exist here, and sounds sort of ridiculous when you explain it to people unfamiliar with the concept: “Well, you get to the game a few hours early and sit around in the parking lot and grill food and drink beers. It sounds lame, but in fact, it is AWESOME.”

Lastly, here’s a picture of D and me in our Essendon Bombers gear. (Note my fancy new haircut.)

*what you yell when you want a player to shank a kick. It’s kind of like the Aussie version of shouting “Wide left!”

Concert Review: Regina Spektor

A few weeks ago, my friend Anna asked me if I wanted to go see Regina Spektor with her. Even though I'm not all that familiar with her music, I do like a couple of her songs, and let's face it, when you move to a new city and don't have many friends, you might as well say yes when someone asks you to do something. The show was at the Palais Theater, which reminded me of The Orpheum in Boston, only it's been renovated and sits right on the beach. And the show was very good! First of all, Regina Spektor is immensely popular in Australia (her music gets a lot of play on Triple J, an excellent radio station that's sort of like an indie rock NPR without the annoying NPR voices) so the crowd was really into it. It turns out I knew a lot of the songs, ones that sounded familiar but I didn't realize they were hers. Most of the songs were backed up by cello, violin, and drums, and of course Regina playing the piano, but I was most impressed by her voice- strong and clear, and she sang for almost two straight hours, even going a capella at one point (ballsy!). She has a nice stage presence- she seems to be enjoying the performance and comes across as both quirky and friendly, although it guess it makes it easier when the audience obviously adores you. Reviews from last night's show aren't out yet, but here's one from her Sydney concert.

Dandenong Ranges

This past weekend lasted an extra day due to ANZAC Day, which is essentially Australia's version of Veterans Day. These Australian state holidays feel like bonus days off to me, kind of like when we used to get the Jewish holidays off from school- not my holiday, but I'll take it! D and I headed up to the Dandenong Ranges for a couple of days of nature and relaxation. Highlights included:

Me driving on the left, yeah yeah!! It wasn't so hard to stay on the left side of the road as it was to get used to things in the car being in the wrong place. I kept turning on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker and looking up and to the right instead of to the left for the rearview mirror. However, aside from one itty bitty incident when I kinda sorta drove off the road, I think I did quite well.

I heard and saw a kookaburra (pictured above). Their call really does sound like crazy laughing. Now all that remains on my wildlife list is the elusive echidna.

Devonshire tea. Popular in that part of Victoria, it's tea served with warm scones, jam, and whipped cream. YES PLEASE.

Creepy statues at the William Ricketts Sanctuary. Eccentric man moves into the woods and creates hundreds of statues that reflect his personal philosophies about nature and religion. Said philosophies involve bearded men and Aboriginal children's heads growing out of rocks. Work of a madman living in the forest or a state park? You decide. (I vote the former.)

More pictures:
Devonshire tea, creepy statues, and me and D (who, contrary to photographic evidence, does not dress like a Sith Lord. A gust of wind provided that special effect.) on top of Mount Dandenong.

Links!

1. Sacrilegious link of the day: I saw a post on Metafilter about a controversial crucifix in a church in Oklahoma City. Then I looked at the painting and laughed out loud. Distended abs? I don't think so.

2. Here's a gallery of photos of Eyjafjallajokul from Boston.com's The Big Picture. The first one is particularly badass. Volcano lightning!

3. And lastly, WebEcoist has posted a collection of interspecies friendship photos. Awwwww. I've seen some of these before, but there are some cute ones and some hard-to-believe ones (a polar bear hugging a wolf?) in there. Thanks, Tom!

Book review: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I just finished one of the trippiest books I've ever read- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Hakuri Murakami. The protagonist, Toru Okada, is thirty year old Japanese man living a mundane life, until everything normal begins to unravel. A strange woman calls, the cat disappears, his wife runs away, and at the same time, a number of unusual characters start appearing in his life, from a psychic and her sister to lonely teenage girl to a World War II veteran with a tale to tell. I can't really even begin to describe the story- it's so weird (like a Japanese book version of an arty film from France) and oh so very long, clocking it at a dense 607 pages. Although I did like the book, it took me FOREVER to finish- normally, I'm a pretty fast reader but I really struggled with this one. On the plus side, it's definitely interesting and well-written and I liked the main character as well as some of the side ones, like the stylish mother and son duo who run a secret psychic enterprise. On the down side, occasionally the story veers off on metaphysical tangents about the soul, past lives, and whatnot, and I found these stretches tedious and would have enjoyed the book at lot more if it were just a touch more straightforward. It did redeem itself a bit with the ending, which did come up with an explanation for a lot of the trippy spiritual mystery stuff.

And now for something even weirder that The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle:

This music video by a band called Hot Chip. I've never heard of the band before but I saw the video and could not get it out of my head, it's so weird! I can't decide if it's brilliant and hilarious or just fucked up. Watch for yourself and let me know what you think.

Adventures in Australian bathrooms

Those of you who ever visited my old apartment in Southie will likely recall the one tiny and awful bathroom. My current apartment is much newer, and one of the benefits is a nice, big shiny bathroom. It's so clean and big- it has a glass shower with excellent water pressure, and the nozzle is high enough so I don't have to resort to odd yoga poses in order to wash my hair. It even has a separate bathtub, and although I haven't taken a bath in over a decade, I pulled a muscle in my soccer game today so I might go for a soak tonight. But here's the weird part- right next to the bathroom is....a strange little room that I refer to as the Toilet Closet. It is literally a closet with a toilet in it. No sink, no window, no shelves or cabinets. Just a toilet. Apparently in older Australian homes, the toilet was often located in a separate room from the tub/shower, but this is a modern apartment and the normal bathroom already has a toilet. The presence of a second toilet really doesn't make any sense- the apartment is a two bedroom and not very big, and doesn't have any closets outside of the bedrooms or any sort of pantry area at all, so some additional storage space would be a lot more handy than a second toilet. But hey, I guess it could be useful if I ever throw a St. Patrick's Day party and/or accidentally eat a plateful of fettucini alfredo.

In other news, bank card restored, dongle recharged, so I'm back online again.

W X Y Zed

Of all of the differences between life in Australia and life in the United States, nothing has been a startling as learning that the letter Z is pronounced "Zed" not "zee." I mean, I can handle going clockwise through a rotary, but Zed?!! That's messed up.

In somewhat related news, an ATM ate my bank card on Friday night, which I use to pay for my fancy internet dongle, so posting might be a little scarce over the next few days until my new card arrives and I can recharge the dongle (DIRTY!). I guess I've been a bit of a slacker about blogging lately, but no worries, I'll get back on the ole bloghorse soon enough. My bank is ANZ, and until I figured out the whole Z=Zed thing I had no idea what people were saying when they said my bank's name.

Easter in Canberra

Last weekend, I took advantage of two days off from work and headed to Canberra, Australia’s capital, to meet up with Kris and Rodd. The timing worked out quite well, as one of Kristy’s friends who lives in Canberra was going away for Easter and let us stay in our house (thanks, Bells!)- which was both cheaper and far more enjoyable than staying in a hotel. Canberra has a reputation for being really, really boring, and it isn’t exactly unwarranted. It’s a planned city that was designed to be the capital largely to avoid stoking the flames of the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry. The layout is similar to Washington, DC, with museums and government buildings set along a wide, grassy mall..…only there are hardly any people around (especially on a holiday weekend when parliament isn’t in session), so it feels eerily empty. Nevertheless, we found plenty to do. I arrived on Friday night, and since nearly everything was closed for Good Friday, we had dinner at home and proceeded to catch up over copious amounts of alcohol.

On Saturday, we had hot cross buns for breakfast- my only prior knowledge of hot cross buns was a from the song of the same name used when teaching children how to play the recorder, but they actually exist (see Exhibit A) and are baked goods traditionally eaten around Easter. After that, it was Day of Museums. First, the National Portrait Gallery (very cool with lots of photography), then Questacon science museum (nerd alert!), then Parliament itself, the best part of which is the grass on top of the roof that is perfect for lounging, and to be honest, seems like a prime location for smoking a joint. I’m sure thousands of Australian teenagers have had the same thought. Our main reason for the trip to Canberra was to see the special exhibit of impressionism paintings on loan from the Musee d’Orsay in France- several works by Cezanne, Seurat, Monet, and Van Gogh, among others, were on display. Lines were huge all day long so we waited until late afternoon and just waltzed right in.

Sunday morning, I accompanied Kris on a training run for her upcoming half-marathon (luckily for me it was a “taper down” week) and then we headed out to theTidbinbilla Nature Reserve for a lovely day of picnicking, bushwalking (heh), and sightseeing. We spotted heaps of kangaroos, some pretty cool birds, and an emu dad with three little emus. Awwww. On the way back to the city, we stopped by a space tracking center to see the largest satellite dish in the southern hemisphere (nerd alert part II!), a joint venture between Australia and NASA.

On Monday morning we had breakfast at a genuine pancake house, the kind with booths that look straight out of the 1970s. It was divine. The bacon was still weird but they pancakes, eggs, and coffee were all prepared in the classic American style. To kill some time before my flight, we returned to the art museum to see the regular displays- my favorite was a series of paintings by Australian artist Sidney Nolan depicting the story of Ned Kelly, a legendary outlaw along the lines of Jesse James or Billy the Kid. The paintings are colorful and striking in that Ned Kelly is portrayed as a boxy black figure in order to represent the homemade armor he once wore during a famous shootout.

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend, and if you want to read a more detailed account (with more photos!), you can check out Kristy’s version.

On holiday

Easter is a big travel time in Australia as most people have Friday and Monday off, myself included (thank you, Jesus!). So on my first trip since I've been here, I'm headed to Canberra, the capital, which is commonly regarded as the most boring city in Australia. However, I'm sure that Kristy, Rodd, and I will have a blast. We've got tickets to a special art exhibition and then will probably do some other nerd stuff and hopefully hit a nearby national park for a little hiking, or as they call it here, "bushwalking." Hahaha.

On the downside, I was hoping to torment Kris with peeps like in our college days, but alas, I'm now living in a peep-free land. Speaking of peeps, another former roommate and witness/participant to peeps hijinx, Kelly, sent me this link to a collection of fantastic peep dioramas. Who doesn't love a candy themed diorama?