Ayathuya, Thailand

Pic of stupas in Ayathuya, Thailand, 2006. Ayathuya is an old Thai capital, sacked by the Burmese hundreds of years ago. There are lots of old ruins around; you can still see the scorch marks on the brickworks, plus remants of an old moat system

This image is from my flickr account, the white background achieved using a museum-style mat courtesy of Big Huge Labs.

Re-Enactment

This is a video clip I made of a band called Re-Enactment. The footage was captured at a gig they played at in the city in May 2008. Also featured on the bill were Idle Cranes and Little Vegas. My flatmate K organised the gig.

Thirteen Tonne Theory: Life Inside Hunters and Collectors

Thirteen Tonne Theory: Life Inside Hunters and Collectors - My Library Thing Review

Mark Seymour's recent memoir of his time in Hunter's and Collectors: I saw this book at work and picked it up, curious to learn more about a band whose music I had mixed feelings for.

My earliest memory of this band was seeing the excellent videoclip of "Talking to a Stranger' on TV, Their earliest recordings were quite adventurous and avante garde. Driving bass, spidery guitar riffs, interesting percussion plus a horn section made their sound very distinctive.

Their better known work though smacked of a band desperately looking for commercial success. Towards the end of the band's duration they seemed to be perenially touring the country; interest had waned for their newer songs but they still had a substantial back catalogue of tunes that people would still pay to see them play live at some beer barn.

I saw them twice in the early nineties, paired up with Died Pretty. The first gig, at Wollongong, I thought was great but the second one I saw a couple of years later in Sydney, they seemed pretty flat. Died Pretty blew them away.

The book answers some of the questions that I had regarding them abandoning the adventuristic bent of their initial recordings and their turning towards using more simpler song structures. Dynamics within the band were altered when one of the original members was asked to leave. And Seymour admits that he tired of creating abstract music, that he wanted instead to write love songs.

'Thirteen tonne theory' is mostly a chronolgical journey. It is written in an almost fictional manner. The band members are given only generic names such as 'the bass player' or 'the doctor' (I think he was the Drummer - I'm not sure) so though you are given a sense of the band's collective experience a lot is held back and the reader can only see the rest of the band in the most foggiest sense.

Seymour of course is the character most revealed. The reader is given his viewpoint only. And in such a big band (they had up to 6-8 members at any one time) he comes across as quite an insecure character. One section of the book is devoted to a tour Hunter and Collectors did supporting Midnight Oil in America and how inconsolable he felt whilst doing it, feeling (correctly of course) that the punters in the crowd were more interested in the headlining act rather than his own band. And earlier in the book he recalls a conversation with a promoter who mentions his brother Nick who was playing bass in a much more internationally sucessful band called Crowded House.

All this insecurity on Seymour's part makes Thirteen tonne theory a humourous read. Seymour, 'The Singer' does not dominate his band, rather he seems engulfed by it. What relief he must have felt when the band finally came to a grinding halt.

(youtube clip embedded of "Betty's Worry or The Slab" : a song about . . . . . . frustration????)

booksorter film

This is a video clip I made last year during the first film editing class held at Brisbane Square Library. It was a lot of fun and still pretty much the only thing I've completed despite helping with all the other classes since. The program we use is Adobe Premiere Pro, an impressive piece of software. The computers tend to crash a bit when using this as it's quite a heavy load for them to bear. The classes have been good to facilitate: some of the kids really get into it. I have uploaded this plus some of the other film class clips onto youtube. have a look.

1982 With A Bullet : Worth Revisiting???

This was perhaps the second record I ever owned. I got a Ray Kernagan Lp for Xmas 1980 (heady times they were) and I used to frequently raid my parent's record collection (Cliff Richard, Gene Pitney, The New Seekers, Peter, Paul and Mary), looking for 'new sounds' but 1982 With A Bullet was the first album I had which I considered modern and ' with the times".

Last seen on an online auction site (top bid one dollar so far), this EMI compilation has on it such classics as 'What About Me' by Moving Pictures and Pete Shelley's 'Homosapien'.

In the midst of many a drunken stupor I would often rave to a comrade how legendary this compilation was. Imagine my delight and horror when said comrade (by dubious means) obtained a CD copy of it on which he passed on to me so that I had the opportunity to relive those 'precious memories'. So the question is, is 1982 With A Bullet worth revisiting???

Here are the track listings :

Side 1:
01 "Centerfold" -
02 "Just Can't Get Enough" -
03 "Homosapien" - 04 "Make a Move On Me" - Olivia Newton-John
05 "My Own Way" - Duran Duran
06 "Dirty Creature" - Split Enz
07 "Almost With You" - The Church
08 "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" - Diana Ross
09 "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - Tight Fit

Side 2:
10 "What About Me" - Moving Pictures
11 "Cambodia" - Kim Wilde
12 "Beserk Warriors" - Mental As Anything
13 "Golden Brown" - The Stranglers
14 "Let's Hang On" - Barry Manilow
15 "Mickey" - Toni Basil
16 "Come Back Suzanne" - Bill Wyman
17 "Body and Soul" - Jo Kennedy
18 "Daddy's Home" - Cliff Richard

thanks to http://80s-tapes.blogspot.com/ and katie b