Wagons off we ride

Well, Blogtoberfest was a learning experience. I learned that trying to blog daily and finish a semester’s graphic design folio for uni are not necessarily goals that should run concurrently. It was also a learning experience where I let myself stop doing something I had committed to, without driving myself into the ground with guilt. Well done, me. I do have some interesting things I have created that I might share sometime, though.

Meanwhile, I made a craft thing. Clearly it’s been long enough since submission that I can bear to think about creating again. It wasn’t a difficult – or particularly original – thing to create, but it caused much mirth. It was for my mum’s birthday yesterday, and it was themed with the other part of her present.

A moustache!

Or are they buffalo horns?

Perhaps it is a unibrow.

No, definitely a moustache.

You see, the other part of the present was ‘The Rise and Fall of Goodtown’ by The Wagons. You might recall a post from mid-October about them? Well, let me refresh your memory about Henry Wagon’s excellent facial hair:

(incidentally, I believe that is Henry Wagon in front of a Henry J Wagon. Correct me if I’m wrong.)

I thoroughly encourage you to listen to this excellent song:

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you’ll never recognise yourself on heartattack & vine

King Lear quote of the day:
“O, let me kiss that hand!”
“Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.”

Continuing the experimental ‘odd own projects about Tom Waits’ series.

Inspired by an interesting Halloween decoration project here.

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if only i could be so stylish

For some reason, today I have been looking at many things about 1950s subculture. I tell you, I wish I was cool enough to be this kind of Teddy Girl.

(these photos are from many different places, but they had been collated previously here.)

More information: Greasers (a subculture), Rockabilly (an awesome, awesome kind of music), London subcultures of the 50s

Just for a full sensory experience, here’s a song I love by a rockabilly band I love – Rock this Town, by the Stray Cats. When we saw the Stray Cats live recently, a couple in front of us had sex throughout this song. It was a bit much, really. Maybe they were having a profound musical experience, but I could have done without it. So I’m going to pretend this is my experience, and noone was exchanging bodily fluids in front of me. Awesome, repaint that truth.

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the happiest.

this has made me so happy for so many years. It makes me want to dance. And exercise. And choreograph.

If I had thought of this, I would consider my life one well spent.

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this is… Friday!

This is what I’m surprised I like.

Bart Simpson: Hey, it’s ZZ Top! You guys rock!
Rabbi: Meh, maybe a little.

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, originally uploaded by jack o’diamonds.

I’m surprised I like ZZ Top. I’m surprised every time I hear them. They’re even on my iPod and I’m still surprised. Why am I surprised?!? I have no idea. I’m just surprised. The end.

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music takes time

Steph posted this meme on her blog (originally from here) a little while ago, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It’s just not something I can rush through. It needs serious consideration. And so, here it is. Play along if you want to, and you haven’t yet.

1. Your first musical idol.

When I was two, I decided that Charles Neville would be my saxophone teacher, when I was eventually big enough to play saxophone (I was 8 when I was big enough, FYI. But only for Alto. that was as long as I could hold out). We went to the Neville Brothers’ concert around that time, and I sat, right up the back of the Tennis Centre, with an A4 sign I had made that said ‘Go Nevilles’. I was such a cool kid.

2. Your biggest musical shame/embarrassment.

It’s hard to embarrass me. I’m low on shame, especially musically. I looooove music!! Love love love. I like some of everything. Country? The politics! Metal? The performance! Opera? The…… Richard Gill! I even have a Britney song on my iPod, that *could* make me squirmy if it came on random… but even then, we were planning to cover it… it makes a smokin’ cover, with the right arrangement.

And I went to Band Camp too. And two of my friends slept together, and then half of the band was suspended. Yes folks, every bit as sordid as you’ve heard.

3. Your special musical talent?

I can play music by ear. Unfortunately, it meant I got pretty lazy and didn’t bother learning to actually read the music.

4. A musical thing that you wouldn’t do in public.

Play without practicing. Too much of a perfectionist. That’s why I don’t play in public. I can’t bear to hear myself practice, coz I left it so long and got so crap.

5. The last band you saw live.

Was it Nine Inch Nails? Was it Royal Crown Revue? Kate Miller-Heidke? Might have been Billy Bragg actually. Or Anti-Flag. I can’t remember, time is a bit of a blur. My *next* live band will be the Stray Cats, excited much? Oh, and Leonard Cohen is touring………

6. Favourite live music experience.

Seeing Ray Charles play live, on the same day as I saw Ani di Franco and Bob Dylan. Woah, overload. Or the first time I saw Royal Crown Revue, everyone did incredible solos, and then the drummer drummed on the bass player’s strings while he was fingering. Or! The time I talked myself backstage at a festival when I was 15, persuasive. And, although I don’t remember it myself, when I was one and I saw a saxophone band busking, and I wouldn’t move for half an hour. It was an epiphany, I reckon.

7. If you could see any band/musician live tomorrow, who would it be?

Tom Waits. My muse.

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