Whole lotta DVDs

Wednesday and Thursday were legendary.

Wednesday night was Yo La Tengo at The Basement, playing a fun and relaxed set and manning their own merch stand. Legends!

Thursday night was the mighty Spinal Tap ACDC at an enormous stadium, featuring a 55 year old man dressed up as a schoolboy and a 50 foot inflatable woman. Legends!

Also on Thursday, I found myself in a suburban pub at the next table to Doug Walters. Proper, proper legend!

The weekend was quiet, because M&Bs were up in Brisbane. I pretended to be a dwarf on Saturday afternoon, but spent the rest of my time ensconced on the sofa and watching obscure DVDs, to whit:

Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom
Taboo
A Christmas Story (not obscure if you're American)
The Brave Heart Will Take The Bride (fantastic Bollywood)
Yeelen
Le Dernier Combat
Sombre
The Story of Women
Peking Opera Blues (with terrible subtitles - "We are tossing for the president!")

All from "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". 929 down, 72 to go!

Beth in The Behemoth (Video)

URL; http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomgoodfellow/4361931950/

Featuring Big Daddy Don Bodine's truck "The Behemoth"

We had a lovely, low-key weekend with various friends. Thanks to all who sent birthday messages.

I've mentioned before that the cul-de-sac that we live in has developed an increasingly strong sense of community. The Bs get to play with lots of other kids who are always in and out of each other's houses, and we get to do lots of neighbourly greetings and catchings up.

The other day a fellow called Richard mentioned that his daughter Kate had outgrown her toy car and asked whether we would like it for our sprogs. Picturing the kind of plastic pushalong thing the likes of us had to make do with we naturally said yes, only to be presented with the behemoth you see below. It has an electric motor and even 3 gears! We went for a spin around the close and I had to maintain a fair trot to keep up.



Kids today, eh? they don't know how lucky they are.

Quiet. Comparatively.

Having spent most of January and early Feb in a haze of artistic hullabaloo, I have neglected to keep my avid blog readership up-to-date with the latest B related developments. So here you go.

B1: Beth is sociable and confident, bordering on bossy. She loves craft, and can content herself for hours with drawing or making beds for her various toys. Recently she has developed a bit of mum-specific separation anxiety, meaning a whole lot of wailing when she’s dropped off at daycare but we’re assured that she calms down very soon after we leave. She has an amazing memory, remembering people and events from years ago (“I vomited when Lou and Bruce were here”). She’s at the endearing age when everyone she meets is automatically her friend. My favourite thing is to take her to the movies, last weekend we enjoyed The Princess and the Frog.

B2: Barnaby is a very kinetic child who enjoys racing around the place and kicking footballs. This can lead to over-physical behaviour such as hitting – last weekend he whacked my gout-afflicted toe with a rubber baseball bat. He has begun to talk in short sentences, but many of the words remain unrecognisable to all but his immediate family. He is obsessed by The Wiggles. Like his big sister he likes nothing better than being in the pool, and last week he graduated to a higher level of swimming class with a teacher as opposed to with his mum.

I haven’t taken any photos for a while, but we have a family-oriented weekend coming up so I’ll take a whole bunch then.

(btw, Tex Perkins as Johnny Cash was heaps of fun, Yo La Tengo and ACDC next week. My film course started last night, we’re up to 1927 which means The Jazz Singer and the birth of the talkie. You ain’t heard nothing yet!)

I need another world

Well, St Jerome's on Sunday was a blast, but we had to leave early to hare across town for Antony and the Johnsons at the SOH. I was a bit pished/sunburnt/tired by then, so it was a testament to Mr Hegarty's brilliance that I even stayed awake, let alone really enjoyed it. We had to keep track of Murray v Federer on M's iPhone.

The Bunnymen on Tuesday were disappointing, but support act Frightened Rabbit were thoroughly splendid and will be famous very soon. Lou & I also befriended the singer from the third act on the bill, who was sitting on his own in the bar and looking forlorn after playing to a few disinterested passers by. He was a nice chap (used to play keyboards in Panic At The Disco, you know) and I think we cheered him up a bit. He liked my t-shirt, anyways.

Barbecues, pub quizzes, movies, etc.

This weekend is thankfully looking much quieter. I need a rest.