I abandoned plans to go to Waxy Oconnor’s as I heard there was a private party, and went to what is probably the most Australian place in London, Walkabout at Shepherds Bush. Walkabout is a notorious chain of Australian pubs, known to be a bit mad at the best of times, any day of the week. While Shepherds Bush is commonly known as THE place for Aussies to live in London. So combining the two with Australia Day, it was going to be special!
We arrived a bit late, about 4.30pm (most non-Aussies were shocked at how early this was), and it was already packed inside. A live Cover Band was playing loads of Aussie tunes, with a DJ filling in breaks. Everyone knew all the songs, but in true Aussie style only actually knew the chorus to each one. Even when the played the Australian Anthem it was only the first verse.
I went with my house mate and a few Japanese friends (nice introduction to real Australia for them! :)), and met many Aussies of course.
VB, Fosters, Bundy Rum, Toohey’s etc were all available. The place was so busy people were just dropping their glasses when they finished their drink, walking on more glass than floor! But very happy and friendly vibe!
Great fun.
GO AUSTRALIA!
Heath Ledger has been found dead in a New York apartment. Jan 22, 2008.
Heath was a bit of a champion. Born in Perth, Australia, April 4, 1929. A true Aussie. He starred in “Two Hands” (quality), “10 Things I hate about you” (which I have probably seen 10 times), “The Patriot”, “A Knights Tale” (Awesome), “Brokeback Mountain”, among others. He was even in “Home and Away” back in the day.
He also plays the Joker in the soon-to-be-released “The Dark Knight”, the next tale in the Batman Saga, which I am very keen to see.
I very briefly met Heath while working on the video clip for NFA’s “Seduction is Evil” track, which he directed.
I’m not writing anything about the cause etc, just a simple RIP.
Cya Mate.
Naomi scored a couple of tickets to the Fiat 500 Launch Party. The idea was at 8pm, exactly 500hrs into 2008, the car would “arrive” at the London eye and make its debut to the UK. It was named the European Car of The Year, with one of its best features being the lengths you can customize it, with over 500,000 combinations apparently!
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Musicals are about as high on my fun radar as books, but Jon convinced me this one would be worth seeing.
Think Adult Sesamea Street meets RENT. Completely politically incorrect. And Very funny.
The cast of 7 has a male and female lead who perform most of the puppets voices, and use facial expressions and actions to match the puppet they are controlling. The main set stays on the whole show, but is reworked for various scenes and reveals a few hidden secrets. There’s also an introduction and bits presented as 2D animation on flat screens that lower from the roof.
The characters are intentionally stereotypical: a black guy aka “Gary Coleman”, a closet gay guy, a ball-breaking “Oriental” wife, and a struggling Jewish Comedian.
There are non-musical bits, but of course its all about the songs, and with jingles such as “It sucks to be me“, “Everyone’s a little bit racist“, and “The internet is for Porn“, you won’t be disappointed. These also give you an idea of the the direction of this show.
This is a pretty crap trailer and doesn’t do it justice, but you can get the idea at least.
Anyone who grew up on the Northern Beaches of Sydney in the 80s and 90s has a soft spot for the Dee Why Hotel.
Also known as ‘The Jet Club’ and ‘The Jetti’, this was THE place to go when you hit 16. (When you hit 19 you felt old and moved on to Mona Pub). It has its own Facebook Group.
This was the place of many random drunken nights, dancing away to Daft Punk’s “One more Time”, or slipping around at a Foam Party. It helped that drinks were $2.20 and it was literally a 2min walk home for me. It was even the location of our great Tri-21st party, with Phil and Craig.
Finally the Jetti hit rock bottom, tried Friday R&B for a while before closing its doors at night for good. It was no longer the place to be (was it ever really?) with Newport Arms, Mona Pub, Surf Rock, and now DY RSL all taking their share. So it was only a matter of time. Plans came through to redevelop Dy Hotel into a massive pub/shopping/apartment building, destroying forever our beloved Jet Club.
We knew this was coming, and is already under way. But being overseas I have been living in Denial. Now, I have just received these photos from my dad of the space that once was the Dee Why Hotel.
So, to the Jet Club. R.I.P.
Thanks tvinjapan for informing me of the new Stephen Chow Trailer!!
Chow directed, co-wrote, and starred in both Shoalin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle! They are awesome, over-the-top, comedy / martial arts films with loads of Special Effects and Chinese humor. I love both these movies, and was pissed when I heard he was delaying the sequel to Kung Fu Hustle for “some space move”. But this is pretty cool, and the creature is so cute! haha
No I haven’t been hacked by someone in Russia, but If Google translate hast that right, it means RUSSIAN WINTER FESTIVAL!
There are quite a few Russians living in London, but the amount of people that showed up at Trafalgar Square was huge! It was cold and windy, but they probably barely noticed! We couldn’t get anywhere close to the stage but saw a bit of Russian Dance action on the screens. There was a lady with a large Parakeet on her shoulder that was trying to bite people, she walked away too fast to get a photo. The whole thing just seemed to remind me of Eurovision.
Right now, Greenpeace ship ‘Esperanza’ is currently chasing ‘Nishin Maru’, one of the Japanese whaling ships, and will attempt non-violent methods to stop or interrupt their hunt. They played this message in English and Japanese to the group of ships when they found them, taken from SMH
“Your so-called scientific whaling is a hoax and has been dismissed as useless by the International Whaling Commission. Modern scientific research on whales does not require killing them,” the message said.
The ships dispersed and fled with Esperanza in pursuit.
Theres a lot of news, reports, jokes, commercials, and YouTube videos going around causing a fuss on both sides.
Here’s a quick round up of WTF is going on, some clips, and points from both sides.
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