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July 19, 2006
Famous Last Words
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Posted by james at 05:45 AM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2006
Jarrad's Little Soundtrack Game
Mr Pad suggested creating a life soundtrack. Here's a stab at mine.
Opening Credits: Best I Can--Queensryche
Waking Up: Also Spake Zarathustra (The opening song from the movie 2001)--Karajan/Strauss
Falling in Love: Turn Me On--Norah Jones
Fight scene: 5 Minutes Alone--Pantera
Breaking up: My Girlfriend's Dead--Vandals
Bad Breakup: It's Probably Me--Sting/Clapton
Missing Someone/Feeling lonely: Unforgetable--Nat King & Natalie Cole
Getting back together: N/A
Secret Lust: Something I Can Never Have--NIN
Life's okay: What a Wonderful World--Louis Armstrong
Walking through the city: Where the Streets Have No Names--U2
Mental breakdown: Pull Me Under--Dream Theater
Traveling Montage: Road to Nowhere--Ozzy (This is especially true in Alice Springs--Jarrad might have "been everywhere" but he's not yet been here to Nowhere)
Driving Flashback: Bermimbau Jam--Kodo
Making art/writing/music etc: The Story of Isaac: Suzanne Vega (Written by Leonard Cohen)
Working for the man: Dopeman--Less Than Jake (There's a reason "special arrangements" in the government are referred to as "Drug-Deals."
Partying: Whistling in the Dark--TMBG
Regretting: Photographs & Memories--Jim Croce
Long night alone: Shape of My Heart--Sting
Final Battle: Infra-Red Combat--Front Line Assembly
Death scene: Tango 'till They're Sore--Tom Waits
End credits: Fade to Black--Metallica
Posted by james at 05:25 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2006
Canberra: The Real "Biggest Little City in the World"
Canberra is the nation's capital. It was planned by, ironically, an American and is still a long way off from growing into itself. There are about 325,000 people in the city, but it feels like a city 1/10th that size. It's were I to imagine a post-apocalyptic city it would look alot like Canberra.
As the capital, Canberra has all the government buildings and many of the national museums and monuments. The War Memorial is also a museum and has the best technology integration I've ever seen. Multi-media is seamlessly woven into the exhibits and you hardly notice the novelty--it's quite well done. One particular show had audio and video from a WWII air raid projected on a two story wall with full surround sound and supporting theatrics like searchlights in the mueseum to match searchlights in the film. It was most excellent.
If you end up having a choice between touring Sydney and touring Canberra, I highly recommend the latter.
Posted by james at 07:31 AM | Comments (1)
July 12, 2006
Sydney: Ass-Cracks for All Ages
On the scale of someone raised in western North America, the city of
Sydney is quite old. It has many of the things I find appealing about old places: brick/cobble streets, strange nooks that an urban planner would find revolting, a spiffy iron bridge. But like most pseudo-old cities in the states it's desire to be perceived as modern has destroyed all traces of age-acquired coolness.
Were it not for the obvious difference in accent, it would be quite hard to tell Sydney apart from any other WASP town. Australian tourists and city-folk are every bit as bigoted, sexist, and xenophobic as their american counterparts, but there are a few small differences worth noting:
- As you would expect, airports, ferry stations and train depots are not easy to navigate by non-english speakers--the Aussies preferring English words to icons--they've managed to adorn their toilets with icons of unclear meaning. After being laughed at by a barkeep I discovered that the half-colored circle represents a half flush (for the proverbial "Number-One") and the fully colored circle is a full flush for good 'ol "Number-Two."
- There are some notable differences in slang.
- The small bag attached to a belt that one generally wears around his waist is called a "bum-bag." If you loose yours do not go into the pub asking if anyone's seen your "fanny pack" as the word "fanny" is a particularly vulgar slang term for a vagina.
- If you are a sports fan you do not "root" for a team. To Aussies, this is equivalent to saying "I screw for the Bronco's, how bout you?" A good-humored bartender told me a story of this happening.
Female American tourist: I root for the 49ers, how 'bout you?
Barkeep: You root for the whole team?
Tourist: Well, you can't really root for half-a-team, now can ya?
- Here you don't tip restaurant workers. You also get intensely bad service. This is less noticeable when you're busy complaining about the bad food.
- Women's fashions don't follow age categories as strictly as in the states. Clothes considered fashionable for teenagers in the US are frequently worn by Aussie women of all ages. This can have unfortunate consequences.
About a year ago in Colorado, a short-lived fad had women wearing especially low-cut pants under which you could see thong-underwear. While this might seem sexy on a magazine cover, whenever a real person dresses this way, her ass-crack is all-too-often thoroughly exposed. This is not attractive, even on an otherwise gorgeous woman.
This fad is alive and well in Sydney, except instead of being confined to those of High School and College age, women well into their forties partake. This has the regretable effect of dangling every-other woman's ass-crack for the world to see.
Overall, I would not have Sydney on my list of places you must see before you die. It's a really long flight (~14 Hours) there's not much there you couldn't do in, say, Seattle. If you're a biologist, though, you might have a different opinion.
P.S. The Opera House is cool.
Posted by james at 04:46 AM | Comments (2)