The Future of Rock and Roll

My net connection at home is down, so no more pictures yet, and blog entries infrequent as I have to do them surreptitiously here at work.

The big up-duff news is that we’ve had the 20-week scan and all appears well. The nurse was pretty sure that no testicles were present, so it’s either a girl or a very unfortunate lad. Presuming the former, and if all goes well, Elizabeth Sara should be joining us around about June 20th.

Michelle is coping extremely well with the pregnancy. No sickness to speak of, just a bit of back pain when she’s been driving or similar for a long time. I think second trimester is the glowing period, so maybe there’s problems to come once her barely visible lump expands. She’s feeling kicking now, but I haven’t managed to feel anything no matter how long I’ve lain with my hand on her protuberance.

Meanwhile, it’s been a week of artistic highlights.

At the movies, we saw Sideways, which is ace – pithy, sad, funny and convincingly messy. There will have to be some corkers this year to stop it being in my end of year top…one?

Big Day Out ’05 was fun as ever – kind of a one-day Reading Festival with more sunshine and a twist of patriotism (it’s held on Australia Day). The Beastie Boys proved unexpectedly entertaining on the big stage, and we enjoyed Money Mark, The Polyphonic Spree and Little Birdy further on the fringes.

Last night was our last visit to the Sydney Festival for this year, an tribute to Leonard Cohen at the Opera House called Came So Far For Beauty. It turned out to be one of the greatest gigs either of us have ever been to. A stellar line-up included Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, LovelyBeth Orton, Rufus Wainwright and family, the Handsome Family and loads more I am less familiar with. Highlights included:
- Rufus doing “Hallelujah”, which made M cry
- Jarv and LovelyBeth doing an indiesexgod duet on “Death of a Ladies Man”
- Rufus chasing Jarv across the stage for a snog
- Mrs Handsome’s banter, e.g. “I should warn you that when we did this song last night, seven people caught fire”

Most startling of all was an androgynous guy just called Antony who nobody had heard of beforehand but who was getting the biggest cheers by the end of the night. He has a hypnotic stage presence and a voice unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. His version of “If It Be Your Will” could have gone on forever for me, and the guy is going to be a huge star. You heard it here first.

Love youse xxx