Australias

This blog's been a little dead lately (weekly "this artist keeps me sane" will resume next Friday), and that's due not only to school starting up again but also a recent trip to Australia. I spent my days from February 14th to 21st feeling hot, sweaty and tired. It wasn't much like the last time I visited a few years ago - humidity levels were through the roof and Brisbane saw the worst rain it's had in 8 years. Despite the weather it was an enjoyable holiday.

The theme parks were great. Mom had broken her arm not long before the trip, and we were worried that she may not be able to go on anything. Movie/Sea World/Wet 'n' Wild were pretty strict, and as a result not much was on offer. Despite this, her & I both thoroughly enjoyed the antics of the polar bear at Seaworld, a favourite animal of mine since childhood. Dreamworld were more kind and we were all able to ride everything, including the Claw as pictured. We also were joined for lunch by some neighborhood Iguana-like lizards and bumped into Paramore at the zoo enclosure.

Soundwave 2010 in Brisbane was a definite highlight. The weather was kind and only showered briefly. It was a sticky, humid day but heck, I didn't care. I started the day with a bang at This Is Hell, followed by the end of Rolo Tomassi and lunch. I moved onto Set Your Goals who had me bopping along to all their songs, then joined the metal-heads and stoners for a 40-minute barrage of mind-numbing atmospheric, sludgy metal courtesy of Isis. Alexisonfire and Paramore followed in tow, both delivering reasonably well. I moved onwards to catch the end of Architects and then sing my lungs out along to A Wilhelm Scream (best act of the day). I returned to main stage to catch some of AFI and met back with the family for Jimmy Eat World and Faith No More. I finished the day surrounded by bimbos and scene-kids at A Day To Remember. A slightly disappointing set, but at least they played plenty of FTWHH material, including a couple of personal favourites of mine "Show 'Em the Ropes" and "Fast Forward to 2012".

Overall, a good holiday with plenty of great music, great food (I had loads of pizza and Mc Flurries), and great memories.

Sanity will find a way.

Most-played artist this week was local acoustic singer-songwriter Lydia Cole. She's been on my top-played weekly artists for a while now, though never quite reaching the top until now. And she sure is deserving of it, playing sincere, warm-fuzzy-inducing indie/folk-style music that provokes thoughts of rainy days, hot cocoa/coffee and fireplaces. "Winter music" some call it, though I haven't had any problem listening to her this last summer.

Sanity intact since Last Tuesday.

Most played artist this week was Last Tuesday. A band who I've known about for a while, it wasn't until I found their album Resolve that I really got into them. Playing catchy, pop-ish melodic punk/rock, they don't differ much from other bands of the same genre except that they have a flair in which they play their music, a flair with which you can tell they are trying things a bit differently. They've kept me chipper in a reasonably intense transition from holiday mode back into school life.

Konaya Japanese Restaurant

In preparation for a hectic year of work ahead, I familiarised myself with some new brushes and techniques, and quickly threw this together to get a feel for the kind of work I may be doing. Konaya is a small, ramshackle restaurant in my town that I thought could do with some sprucing up as a possible client. I'm not sure what it's meant to be, a banner or maybe one face of a business card. It's a bit rough & disgusting, but hey, it's only me playing around a bit.

Apologies for a lack of activity...

I have spent the last few days at Parachute music festival (which was amazing), and so my weekly "this artist keeps me sane" has been prolonged until now!

This week it's delivered to philly hardcore band Paint It Black. Anger seems to be a recurring theme in my most played artists, as these guys combine angry overtones with unique, verging-on-indie-ish melodic elements. It makes for an odd listen which leaps between these passages and simple, straight-up hardcore punk. It's an odd mix, but with hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide they obviously pull off the sound well.