VR 3-D View Of David Hicks’ Old Cell

http://www.mediavr.com/hicks.htm

If you haven’t heard of David Hicks, go here.

This kind of flash stuff is very cool.

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We have adopted the value of the birthday week in our household. I have heard that for some the birthday week extends one week before and after the birthday. However, I have a sister-in-law and a nephew with birthdays within a week of mine, and to extend it to a fortnight is just not doable.

Jo is far better at this birthday week thing than I am, but I have new resolve for this year… and she has stepped it up a notch.

Day #1: A bag of mini-eggs… Bounty. One of my favorite chocolate bars. Mmmm, coconut goodness.
Day #2: Some fair trade, organic green tea leaves. I have started to drink tea and coffee more and more, and green tea is one of my favs.
Day #3: Astroboy #1. It is Japanese (translated into English), so you read it from right to left. It can be a little confusing. But still cool.
Day #4: Tether-Tennis. We had a set for the cottage at one point in the childhood, but could never seem to find a good one again. They are of abundance down here.
Day #5: A Waffle Maker! I am now the Waffle King!
Day #6: Art from the movie “300” book. I am soooooo looking forward to this movie. No it is not out here yet. April 5th I believe.
Day #7: Cool hand drum. Think Karate Kid 2 or 3 (i can’t remember) where they all have the drums. Yeah, like that.
Day #8: Unknown. Apparently it hasn’t arrived yet. Will let you know when I get it.

So we are going out for dinner tonight, and then to some secret activity. Depending on when it all ends I may even get to play some hockey tonight. Aging is so over rated.

The Sacred Balance

Just finished reading David Suzuki’s, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place In Nature. If you grew up with “The Nature Of Things” then you know what Suzuki is all about. He writes about the interconnectedness of our world, and why what happens to our planet affects everything. One quote that has stuck with me spoke to our treatment of our environment as something to be used… something for us to take what we can get out of it… without giving back. It was by an indigenous leader, and was basically this: “We consume like the earth is ours. However it is not. We are only borrowing it from the next generation.”

I think this is a brilliant change in attitude and perspective to embrace in order to help redeem our limping planet. It is one we are trying to embrace in our little spot here in Australia.

Trapped In The Drive Thru

Trapped In The Drive-Thru

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Fight Club

So these friends of mine have started up an amateur boxing league. I am thinking there are a few around that have too much time on their hands, but whatever.

I was part of a fighting league once. The venue was in the lounge room of the guys dorm in college. Helmets and gloves. I retired with a 0-1 record. But the fight was legendary. Maves and fought until I went blind. Good times. We broke a helmet and chipped his front tooth before he caught me in the back of the head as I bobbed and weaved. Some call a punch to the back of the head illegal. But that’s the way we rolled back in the day. We were tougher. No one wanted to fight us after that. Not that we could’ve. I blew my shoulder out for the year.

I also tried grappling with Matty B. twice. Never do this in water. You risk drowning. He got me twice. He’ll be happy I am willing to admit that. Always factor in water in a fight in the stuff. It is the top man’s third arm in the octagon.

Check out Green Rd Amateur Boxing (GRAB) here.

The End Of Religion

The End Of Religion – An introduction to the subversive spirituality of Jesus

This is a good read that sums up what Bruxy Cavey teaches about every week at the Meeting House. He is currently working on an updated version, and has several chapters up on his myspace page (yeah… he’s one of those ). Bruxy has been challenging Jo and I for the last couple of years about the radicalness of Jesus. One of the things I enjoy about Bruxy is that he seems to ask and resond to the questions that you ask yourself as you track along with his teaching. And if he doesn’t, someone usually asks it during the question time they have at the end of every message. Seriously, this guy can think on his feet like no other. Definitely a gift if you ask me.

You can download sermons, notes etc. from their website here if you’re interested.

Dylan Hears A Who

Free Music! If you like Bob Dylan, or Dr. Suess.
Dylan Hears A Who is free to download from the site. The track list goes something like this:

1. Oh, the Things You Can Think!
2. Green Eggs and Ham
3. Miss Gertrude McFuzz
4. McEllioot’s Fool
5. Too Many Daves
6. The Zax
7. The Cat in the Hat

You can download individual tracks, or the whole shebang in one big zip file. Check it out.

link via Darren

Much Better

Post Concert Residue

Well, the pics from the concert didn’t turn out great. Too little light and not close enough. But the ones I did get are here.

During “Canadian Idiot”… specifically during the instrumental bits in between verses, he did the Bob & Doug McKenzie call (YooKooKooKoo, KooKooKooKoo! YooKooKooKoo, KooKooKooKoo!) Again, which few people got, but it made me smile.

I am off to try and photoshop that guy behind me in the picture below.

Reflections, and So very Tired…

Ok, first of all, I got to meet, touch and be touched by the greatest musical genius this world has ever known. I have also got to cross something off of a very short list of things I wanted to do in my life. It’s is a short list. This was a big one.

So we came into the city a couple hours early, so we could grab some dinner before the show. Let me emphasize this point: I love Panang. Thai food is awesome. We then joined the long line out front of the theatre and waited. Got inside. Waited some more. Got to our seats, which were good. And waited some more.

Before I break down the set list let me tell you that I have the most amazing woman in my life. Not only did she thoroughly enjoy herself, but went to get me some batteries for my camera when we discovered the ones in it were dead. Please, for the love of this green earth, check your camera BEFORE you get to the venue… and BEFORE the show starts. I have never loved her more than at this moment of sacrifice.

The set list I posted below was pretty much it. Let’s break it down shall we:

Fun Zone – This instrumental is how the concert began. A fantastic tune, used by Trevor Beers for part of his magic show (for those of you who remember Trevor).
Polkarama – He led off with the polka, which was awesome. They also used the real videoes for the songs on the screen in behind the band again, which was one of the highlights for me during the “Running With Scissors” Tour.
Canadian Idiot – He moved straight into CI. I think some of the humour was lost on the Aussies on this one. He had some random hockey and maple leaf graphics going on in the background, and after the pre-emptive strike line they had a streamer cannon with red and white streamers shoot out over the crowd.
Close But No Cigar – This is one of my favorite songs on the album.
Bob – Had the video playing in the background.
It’s All About The Pentiums – As per usual.
You’re Pitiful – This song in particular, but also for a few others, people responded like they had never heard it before. There were a few times the crowd laughed out loud at some lyrics like it was their forst time hearing them. Which I found odd.
Wanna B UR Lovr – This replaces “One More Minute With You” as his crowd stroll song. One fan got treated to a Weird Al “happy dance”. Lucky bastard.

Medley -
Couch Potato, Do I Creep You Out, Headline News (with new Britney lyrics), Bedrock Anthem, Confessions Pt. III, Ebay, Ode To A Superhero, Pretty Fly For A Rabbi, Trapped In The Drive Thru, Eat It, Complicated (with the Alabama line changed to Tasmania) and a new “I Love The Skipper”, Gilligan Island song (after the first 3 or 4 they may not be in the order they were played)

Gump – Played footage from the movie.
I’ll Sue Ya – Dressed up like “Rage Against The Machine”… big head of dreads, and during the end vamp they had a machine on the ceiling that blew “Close Personal Friends Of Al” money all over the first few rows. It was snapped up pretty quick although I did briefly consider taking some from the punk kid who had a handful of them.
The Saga Begins – Always a fun song.
Yoda – The Yoda Chant had some new bits in it, and a Australian specific, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” which I thought was great.
Weasel Stomping Day – The video only.
Smells Like Nirvana – Aside from the usual costuming, they had two cheerleaders on stage as well. I did notice however, that they had clean shaven arm pits… so… disappointing.
Amish Paradise – For the choir bits they used the video from the … er… video.
White & Nerdy – West and Jay go mic only for this one. Al came out on a segway and just rolled back and forth for the intro. This song was very strong live. UPDATE*** I forgot all the great Donny Osmond clips they had for the screens. Classic.
Fat – Everyone loves the fat suit. They also included the punching, breaking glass, etc. sound effects that you hear as part of the video.

ENCORE:
Why do Birds Suddenly Appear – The encores always start with Al coming out and saying, “Look we are going to play the song you all came here to hear, so this will be our last one…” and then starts into a random song.
Albuquerque – I can’t believe I got to hear this one live. I wonder if they’ll develop some video for it as the tour progresses. I couldn’t stop smiling through the whole thing. All 11 minutes of chocolate mint on the pillow goodness.

That is the way it went down to the best of my recollection.

We then stalked this lady and her kids for a while, as it seemed that they were told something about where Al was going to show up… but they weren’t sharing that info. Some guy came out and ushered them side stage, so we went out to find the groupies and wait.

At this point it was 11:15pm and I had read that if he does come out it is usually and hour after the show, so we huddled with the 40 or so that were waiting. As the time got on, some of the lesser fans left, so when he finally emerged at midnight… in the back alley… there were probably only 20 or so people left.

Kudos to crazy lady who took 10 minutes to introduce herself, get 15 autographs, and have her son touch Al, give clothes to Al’s kid, and ramble on forever. You almost witnessed my first felony when you butted in on MY TIME with Al. This close. Could’ve killed you. Jesus saved you last night. Last night was the day of your salvation. Know this.

I got Al to sign my “Straight Out Of Lynwood” CD insert and my jersey, and then pose for a picture all in 10 seconds. Considerate.

Al looked exhausted, but was very gracious. Class act all the way.

So there it is. I will pay for the late night all week, but I can’t even begin to explain how worth it it was. I will try and get any good pics I got up later today. Out.