TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Monday, January 26, 2004

12:59 AM
Posted by jodi rose

I love my life. Having such a great time - just got home from seeing 'The Morning After Girls' play at the Ding Dong lounge, the most retro rock'n'roll crowd you can imagine. All genres mixed in together, the girls in tight jeans with high pointy shoes and long straight blunt hair, boys in leather jacket and elvis hair, or stovepipe trousers, thin tie and winklepickers, the coolest rock chicks in knee high boots, short short skirts and lots of black eyeliner - it was fascinating. The band were pretty rockin' too, started with a wall-of-sound feedback blast, then some lovely harmonies sung over screaming guitars, pounding drumbeats and the girl playing not one but two tambourines... and maracas. It was like being in a timewarp, and I got some fabulous stories from Emer about her wild and crazy youth.
Just decided to go to the Big Day Out tomorrow, with Michael and Eileesh, we're going to relive some of our wild and crazy youth. Last time I went was in about 92, the year Nirvana played. It feels like time for some live music inspiration, having barely left the house all winter.
This week has been one of the best ever in Melbourne, fallen into a pattern of going to the gym (yes I know, it's very disturbing), or swimming in the morning, stopping by ICI for a coffee then home. Ostensibly spending the afternoon sorting and packing up my house for the move to Sydney, but keep being very easily distracted. One day Nic stopped by, so we went and got boxes, which was actually useful, the next Emer was in a state packing and moving her house, so gave her moral support and randomly threw everything in her kitchen into boxes. Yesterday was a picnic for Sue's birthday, very delicious and lush in the Carlton Gardens, and now the music festival. There's plenty of time next week, and I did go through all the random piles in my filing cabinet today, threw out heaps of stuff.
It's been a fabulous week for emails out of the blue, and I am going to reply soon, it's been a crazy week. First was from Pelle, an engineer who actually installs cables on bridges, offering me the opportunity to record the cables while they are being tensioned - yes yes yes yes! That's in Bangkok mid 2005, in exchange for a special composition of sounds from the cables. Then in the same morning heard from Josh and Arras who I knew at art school - the rabbit warren before we moved the Callahn park, something very appropriate about having an art school in an old mental home, that mad genius archetype. And this evening two of my gorgeous cousins in NZ wrote, with offers of a bed in Auckland, and a historic suspension bridge just out of Greymouth (on the West Coast past otira). I'm planning my NZ winter trip for the rest of my new wardrobe. One has to look the part of a successful international art star.
I'm going to miss my street, there are so many lovely people living around here, who say hello when they go by. It's cool knowing so many of our neighbours, from the people next door - Chris and Jo, Monique and Dominic -to Beannie Boy (ben) and Marty 2-3 houses along, and in the big blue art house (where the rock band played last year) Lyndal Walker - very funky melbourne artstar - Molly with the black curly hair, and the boys next to them, Leroy et al. The new house in Redfern has a great balcony, Lisa knows all the locals, and it has the added advantage of a fire station across the road. Apparently the fire men bring out the trucks and wash them on the street get every Sunday - I'm looking forward to that!