Weekly WTF: Phallic Sock Matching Robot

Open Your Ears Wk 34

TOKYO (Vampires & Wolves) - The Wombats


Ca-chinga, ca-chinga! Recipe for success, one part vampire, one part wolf, mix frequently, count your monies.

Circa 2007/08 The Wombats released a couple of crackerjack tunes called Lets Dance to Joy Division and Moving to New York. The former being their break through single and the latter being an even better track as a followup. I was seriously interested in seeing what else this Liverpool gang would put out. IN 2008 they released a pretty average track called Lost in the Post and kinda fell off of Triple J rotation, therefore off of mine too

anyway back to 2010 and the era of Twilight they release a new track called Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves). Now here is the saviour, I heard the song before I knew the title. Its a little beauty, catchy poppy sing-a-long, a band really doing what they do best. Its a pity that the record company or whoever insisted on the brackets.

So don't be scared now, no actual references or links to Twilight to be found, just a snappy brit pop ditty for your listening pleasure

so lets dance to the wombats

Weekly WTF: Tarping

Courtesy of Mike Maxted...@ http://mikemaxted.blogspot.com/

Show Us Ya Stats

Despite it's incredible geekiness I couldn't help but post about my download performance on the weekend. When we moved house I was disappointed that we couldn't stick with Amnet as I was very happy with the reliability and customer service from them. If we wanted ADSL2+ we had no choice but iiNet.

I haven't been an iiNet customer since working for them in the late 90s mostly because they were slightly more expensive than everyone else and the value wasn't there. With the new house we ditched the phone and went Naked for everything, choosing a plan which matched my download behaviour. I really couldn't be happier with the performance of the link and entire home VOIP package. Since installing it the competition has increased and iiNet have upped the download limit twice on my plan without additional cost.

The more recent download increase was Saturday when it upped from 50/50 to 75/75. As the picture shows, I downloaded steadily in the start of the month but when I neared the limit everything was put on hold. As soon as it increased to 75/75 I opened the floodgates to get maximum down before my 'month' ended that night.

Pic 1 shows the month trending downward then "Hammer-Time" on the last day. Pic 2 shows the day itself - 17.2GB in 13 hours - Bang! New record for my home connection - 1717mb in 1 hour or a 286kps hour average.

I checked my email the next day and I received the notification that the limit had increased, warning that I was getting close to 75 and the warning I was getting VERY close to 75 all within a few hours.

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd

Open Your Ears Wk 33

From Above - Ben Folds

Ben Folds is a really awesome artist in my opinion, a fantastic songwriter. Now I don't actually own a single cd of his but I do really enjoy his work. This latest project he has released is really interesting, he has collaborated with author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy amongst others).

Basically the two of them dug each others work and Ben requested Nick to write lyrics and Ben then came up with the music and melodies to turn them into songs. This is total opposite to how Ben normally writes where he normally does the music then kind of hums melodies which then get turned into lyrics

The first single is From Above and is a really interesting premise, the idea that people live their lives (happily and content) yet the possibility of a better life is possibly close at hand and people arent even aware. "yes we all have soulmates but we walk past them everyday"
Now for some reason I cant find a youtube of this track so you have to go to www.myspace.com/benfolds to listen

while your there may as well listen to the song "Bitch Went Nuts" coz lets be honest thats a great song title

Open Your Ears Wk 32

Bang Bang Bang - Mark Ronson

catchy as all hell Bang Bang Bang is the lead single off of Ronson's new album "Record Collection" he is most famous for his album called "Versions" where he did covers of well known artists and collaborated with a heap of current artists.

Valerie is the most renowned song he has done due to its association with the always infamous Amy Winehouse, Oh My God is his collaboration with the always funky Lily Allen, in a cover version of The Kaiser Chiefs original

Stop Me is the reason why I paid any attention to this guy, just a fabulous version of what is really a pretty damn good song in it's original form by The Smiths

Footloose Friday

http://www.sheep.com/sheep_sounds.cfm

Enough Said

Weekly WTF: Mario Filing Cabinets

All the world's your ashtray, I'm just your Marlboro

I just got back from walking to school with my little man, on the way there is a small grass & bush area with a playground that sits next to the school. Scattered across the grass was a torn up catalogue for books, the one that every kid gets in their school bag once a month. My immediate thought is: "thats terrible, some people are so lazy, kids these days, yadda yadda" then my second thought is "whose responsibility is it to clean it up?" and my third thought.."I gotta get the boy to school on time but I guess that I can pick it up on the way back"

Going back two minutes as we had walked past a house a lady had come out with her dog to take it for a walk. She says hello and my daughter starts laughing and gushing over the dog and we both head off in different directions.

Leaving the school I actually took a different exit heading to the shops to grab some groceries (forgeting my dilligent thoughts of rubbish clean up) and on the way to the shops we walk past the lady walking her dog, but she isn't just doing that... she is picking up rubbish with her handy grabber and lugging a garbage bag of litter around as her dogs trots about. What an absolute champion this lady is, off her own bat she is cleaning up the suburb for no reward and no doubt no recognition. Such a simple idea, for those people who have a dog to walk to be actively making a difference whilst doing it, kudos to her.

As we left the shops she was still going, with a ramjampackful bag, sadly it had only been about 20 minutes of time since the school drop off and the shop exit, pretty sad that a full garbage bag full of litter can be picked up in one park area.

So in the end it comes down to WHY?? what gives people the arrogance, the audacity, the laziness to decide that they aren't required to use bins that are at the park, in their house, out the front of everyone's house? who do they think is going to pick it up? or don't they care?

Go stop at any traffic light and look at the median strip and it's bound to be covered with cigarette butts, this makes me fume like no tomorrow, every single car has an ashtray but smokers still don't use them! How is this a socially accepted norm? its the old "everybody else does it so what will it matter if I do it"

When I was a kid there was no mandatory doggy-doo pick up, so when we went down to the park to kick the footy etc we had to look out for bombs. Times have changed and its no longer acceptable and yes you see the occaisonal one around but in general the expectations and standards of dog owner ship have changed for the better and thats better for everyone.

As a kindy student my son has a "no wrapper" policy being instilled into him via his kindy class, he gets rewarded for having lunch with no wrappers. So he actively tells us what he wants and doesnt want in his lunchbox according to whether we take the wrapper off at home first. I am impressed and hopeful that this kind of "cleaner" behaviour is being instilled in all kids in all schools. They recycle all their scrap paper, they encourage the kids to bring in batteries for recylcing/reuse, they always ask for cardboard/egg cartons and I for one am all for it, get 'em while they are young.

I'm not exactly a tree hugging greenie but I don't want to live in garbage tip either

PS. there is also the story of the "Car Park Sex Bandits" who like to get it on in the car-park where I work and then dump the condom and clean up tissues on the ground where they parked, coz that exactly what I want to arrive to work and find, and clean up. Don't get me started....

Open Your Ears Wk 31

Stopping All Stations - HillTop Hoods

Radelaide hip hoppers are basically Australia's premier white rappers, this track is really a great example of lyric writing, its certainly not the best song they have made but its worth the listen for the story telling which is what good rapping and songwriting can be about

Early morn, train station, aching from the arthritis, This war veteran knows what a hard time is, He needs his pension, dementia and half blind is, The reason he rides the train with no car license, So he boards with an expired ticket has a swipe, Gets a fine cos the change he got don’t add up right, We’re taking about a man who never lived a lavish life, Caught up in the age of computer chips and satellites,

A lovely lady boards looking tired and half awake, He smiles, she’s reminds him of his wife that past away, She says something as she walks right past his way, His old hearing aid don’t last quite half a day, Some young gentlemen alive with their laughter, Approach the old timer and put a knife to his heart to, Explain that money or blood the price of their barter, To a man whose friends probably died for their fathers.

Whatever it takes can justify, Whatever ends we make, whatever the price, To the end of a life, it’s just an observation, So take a ride we’re stopping all stations. It’s been a long night the suns lifting on a cold, Morning but she’s drugged and drunk tripping on her stroll, On the way home, she’s done with stripping on a pole, But she can’t pay for her son living on the dole, Jumps a train puts on her gloves she’s wearing black, Being watched by some old mug she’s glaring back, She’s on edge and got the bug from sharing smack, So she says, “Hey, what the fuck you staring at? He smiles, an unsteady hand rubs on his dome, She takes a seat, a messy band of ruffs board alone, To the digger with a machete at his lungs and he’s prone, He can barely stand but ready to stand up for his own, She tries to help him she doesn’t choose to flee the car, And catches a blow with enough bruise to leave a scar, She starts fainting, the rooms moving and seeing stars, Aint it amazing how courageous human beings are?

He knows nothing but toil, strife and hard yakka, Pissed at the world for playing wife in a slammer, This man was never given a life on a damn platter, So he jumps a train with knife and bandanna, Boys at his back, sleazy, hardened and far, From giving a fuck, an easy target his mark, He sees an old man and says “See we’ll part with your hard, Earned cash or rest in peace we can start with your heart. Some girl steps not afraid she’s gonna cop it sweet, And gets decked before she made it even on her feet, The old man leaped to her aid and to his horror he’d, Thrusted his chest into the blade of his robber s piece, He grabbed the wallet, dropped the knife as he fled the car, Concerned about the loss of life he’d never went this far, What’s done is done, he’d got the prize and he’d spent his half, Of two dollars in change and a pension card.

youtube linky

The hoods did a cool joint venture with the Adelaide Symphony, here is a stand out track called Recapturing the Vibe Restrung, it has a humerous video about "adult swinging"

Thats what I'm talkin abooooooouuuuuuuuut!

i won a Geelong Football Club competition!

Weekly WTF: Suitcase Stickers

Open Your Ears Wk 30

alrighty then, well inspired by the fact that I went out an bought BOT's new album and Gyroscope's new album last week, and I covered BOT last edition, its only fair...

Gyroscope - White Dove/Black Crow

Ok so they have released three singles off this reasonably new album and their radio play is pretty reasonable so you have probably heard
Some of the places I know
Baby Im Getting Better
Live Without You

so I figured I put out a different track that you probably havent heard. Gyroscope are a punk/indie/rock band out of Perth, who have a special place in my heart as we went to their gig as part of my buck's night, good times.

White Dove/Black Crow on good olde youtube, I guess I chose it because it shows a bit of transition from how they used to sound (chunky rock guitar) combined with some of their new aspects (more melodic, spacial sounds)

The first single off the new album is Some of the Places I Know which has some nice footage of WA and some of the place you'd like to be

and for anyone who remembers my bucks, here is a staple from those glory days Confidence in Confidentiality live in HD

The future is now...