the vast sound of tuning out

While looking for places to live, one develops a keen eye for things. One thing I look for in particular is vandalism. Having been a victim of numerous house and car break ins, I enjoy finding places to live where that won’t happen.

There’s one aspect of vandalism that really infuriates me, and in the last couple of months I can’t go anywhere without seeing it. Affluent suburbs, poorer suburbs, main roads, brand new fences, alley ways, shop fronts…

Tagging.

I like to think of it as poor man’s graffiti. I can’t drive past a sign or bus shelter or building site or freshly painted wall without seeing some below average citizen leaving their mark. I’d like to think it was just an uneducated kid who did it once and learnt his lesson. I fear that it’s both a) not just kids under 10 years of age, and b) repeat offenders.

Guess what? It takes zero or less than zero talent to tag something. You’re not cool, you’re not clever, and you’re certainly a waste of space. If you have to graffiti something to maintain your place in the world, then at least have the guts to develop your talent and turn it into a work of art. Signing your pretend name on someone else’s property just shows the rest of the world that you probably don’t deserve to be here.

Quit it.

Trent Reznor never ceases to amaze me.

First this:

File this one under lost opportunities.

I’m very proud of the show we’ve put together for this tour and have been working hard the last few months to find a way to capture it. I had an amazing situation lined up that would have allowed me to film the show in 3D with James Cameron’s team for a theatrical release as well as DVD / BluRay, etc. We had an extra date added to the tour that we were going to give away all the tickets for and have a filming party / thank you show.

I made two critical mistakes. One was to approach a certain record company that owns some of the song rights about producing / funding. The second was to allow said company to fuck around as usual for months before saying um… no. We then achieved the impossible by finding alternate production / funding but the timetable is too rushed to get it filmed comfortably with the remaining time left on the tour. This tour and a lot of the personnel involved finish at the end of this leg, so we can’t push filming into Jan / Feb.

Deep breath…
This was an amazing tour and production – certainly the best thing I’ve ever been involved with and likely the final tour for NIN on this scale.

Then follow me here…

1. Convenient lax video taping rules for fans at remaining tour shows
2. Fans decide to make their own DVD keepsake of show
3. Trent announces mysterious Christmas present.

Then this:

Your gift…

The internet is full of surprises these days.
I was contacted by a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives who SOMEHOW managed to film a substantial amount (over 400 GB!) of raw, unedited HD footage from three separate complete shows of our Lights in the Sky tour. Security must have been lacking at these shows because the quality of the footage is excellent.

If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I’ll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool.

Oh yeah, you didn’t hear this from me.

So to summarise:

1. Official DVD is shelved.
2. Fans attempt to make their own with recorded footage.
3. NIN give away all their specially filmed footage (and soundboard audio mind you) to the public. Obviously picked up by the guys putting together the fan DVD.

Call me crazy, but this doesn’t happen very often. Glad I’m getting to see them in March in whatever format that ends up being.

I think I’m turning into a man. Today I went to Bunnings to purchase a tractor sprinkler, and came home with an assortment of goods. A new toilet roll holder, the sprinkler and also a box of screwdrivers on sale for $8. I already have one, but at $8 it was a crime not to buy it.

Half an hour after getting home, we now have a sprinkler in action crawling around the front yard, and a place to hang toilet rolls.

Scary! I had to get out of the shop before I bought all kinds of things.

With all the talk of steroids lately, funnily enough I have some in my heel today. A cortisone injection.

I injured my heel, and was sick of it hurting, so I went to see a sports injury medicine man.

Diagnosis “achilles bursitis”. 

1. Wait it out, and see if it goes away

2. Have a cortisone injection by the doctor, taking a punt on the main location of the problem

3. Have an ultrasound guided injection in a few weeks time when I can get in.

I went for option 2, even though I hate needles, and doctors, and hospitals. I figured it couldn’t be any worse than the cyst I had cut out of my back in Kalbarri, so I said juice me up doc!

I have to wait 3 days to see if it worked, and in that time it’s meant to get painful. I hope it works, so the Rogaine is a walk in the park.

See what I did there.

I’d never even heard of this before…

Soundwave Festival – Steel Blue Oval, Perth, 2 March 2009.

• Nine Inch Nails
• Alice In Chains
• Bloodhound Gang
• Scars On Broadway
• Lamb Of God
• Alkaline Trio
• Billy Talent
• The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
• Face To Face
• In Flames
• Rival Schools
• Anberlin
• Every Time I Die
• Devildriver
• Funeral For A Friend
• Less Than Jake
• Poison The Well
• Madina Lake
• New Found Glory
• From First To Last
• Bedouin Soundclash
• Hellogoodbye
• Finch
• Goldfinger
• Say Anything
• Chiodos
• Silverstein
• Saves The Day
• Lacuna Coil
• 36 Crazyfists
• Straylight Run
• Evergreen Terrace
• Minus The Bear
• Moneen
• Ace Enders (The Early November)
• I Am The Avalanche
• Jaguar Love
• Unearth
• Bayside
• Emery
• Houston Calls
• The Audition
• Attack In Black
• InnerPartySystem
• Valencia
• In This Moment
• Alesana
• The Riverboat Gamblers
• HORSE the band
• Maylene and The Sons Of Disaster

Well, our 1 year anniversary came and went, and it’s high time I wrote about it.

This time last year I…:

• Was out on a boys night celebrating life and Mark’s bday.
• Got a message from Kirstie at 10:30pm which would change my life in an instant
• Spent the hour between 10:30 – 11:30pm, pushing for confirmation that I wasn’t imagining things in my head
• Spent 4 hours drinking water in an attempt to sober up. Partially worked.
• Jumped into Kirstie’s car outside Ambar, drove off into the night and the rest is history!

It’s been nearly 18 months since the last Rogaine. This time (in October), Kirstie is coming along and I’m really looking forward to it. Is it wrong to look forward to walking for 10-12 hours? Anyway, this should be fun! An excuse to buy some arctic style sleeping bags at any rate. Emma & Mark, we might need to borrow your floor to test them out

Last weekend we shipped Our Dyson vacuum back to Hong Kong with my sister.

A replacement was necessary, and what a deluxe find.

The Wertheim 6030.

This bad boy has it all, including a 10 year included service plan. On a vacuum cleaner.

But is this all just smoke and mirrors?

First try was to give it a run on the carpet with the power head. This is a separarte powered head to the main unit, which has it’s own roller that picks up dirt. It even has a light to show when the floor is clean underneath. You can adjust the height so it can be pushed with the right level of traction for your carpet.

The second test was the couches. These get covered in cat hair, and can take 10 mins to vacuum. A switch of the power head to the upholstery head (complete with own roller) enabled me to clean the couch in no more than 30 seconds. And it was spotless.

Best vacuum I’ve ever used. Blows the Dyson out of the water.

It’s Wednesday night and so far I’ve kicked the football, played grip ball (2000) & basketball, each day after work with Kirstie. It’s great having an awesome reserve nearby. Hopefully can squeeze in frisbee tomorrow. A pretty good end to winter

Bring on daylight savings!

I want more guitars.

I think I can validate my decisions as when there a little children running around, they will have access to plenty of musical instruments to go nuts with from a young age. Something I missed out on. And I mean real ones, not upside down tupperware drums.

I have always wanted a few in particular, and I will try and acquire them over the next year or two.

The new Fender American Standards are refined, state-of-the-art updates of our four core instrument models: the Stratocaster® and Telecaster® guitars, and the Precision Bass® and Jazz Bass® guitars.

Alder body, quartersawn eastern hard rock maple neck (through body), compound radius ebony fingerboard, Seymour Duncan® humbucking pickups, Floyd Rose® Original tremolo and black hardware.

*mmm*