Ok, so before i go on again about some more Aussie music i have to share a link that came to my attention yesterday. I'm sure i'm about the ten millionth blogger to pick up the story but it was news to me...So According to BBC News:
"A potted plant at a cafe near Tokyo, Japan is entertaining customers by writing a regular blog about its feelings.
It is the work of a university engineer who has been studying how to communicate with plants. He devised a sensor which he attached to the plant named "Midori-san" that measures bio-electric signals. These are converted into data by a computer next the plant and then translated into Japanese in the form of a blog.
The plant's latest (21/12/2008)entry reads: "It was cloudy today. It was a cold day.""
I find myself somewhere between laughter and dismay...it doesn't actually tell you how on earth the 'language' is translated and to be honest i feel like the whole business smells kinda like off milk, but as far as a publicity stunt goes i've got to give it two thumbs up. Lets just hope the bastard doesn't get any more expressive anytime soon.
Onto music though, i thought i'd continue my last week's rant a bit with a few more contemporary examples of Australian music excellence, hopefully to cast out forever any unbelievers or possibly win over a few more skeptics.
To start with another Oz-Hop Group The Hilltop Hoods. This isn't one of their most popular tracks but it's a little different and one of my personal favorites so enjoy "Stopping All Stations":
And now to move on to something more Pop-ish, but i don't say that to discourage you just really to identify the wider audience that would be moved by this song. Unlike the song above i've chosen probably the best known track from Machine Gun Fellatio (RIP), but if you dig this then know that there's plenty more a quick search will yield. I've chosen this one because regardless of how many people love it and call it their own, it's still amazing on so many levels. Check out "Unsent Letter":
Cool well i'm off to Island Vibe festival out on Stradbroke Island, because there really is no better place to listen to reggae than the beach...so i'd love to make this post longer but...
Peace out from Brisbane.
Friday 24 October 2008
Friday 17 October 2008
Funky Chicken Friday
Its the Calzone, not the dance...
Welcome to the next riveting Heapsaflash installment...
It's been a hazy week in Brisbane and i'm not just talking about the transitory weather. I know Queensland has a reputation, living in the States for over 10 years if i had a penny for every person i met who knew what the great Barrier reef was but couldn't tell you much else about the country in general...well you know the saying. It's not really ignorance, because there are of course trillions of places which i have no conception of, it just always used to irk me that people i'd meet in Massachusetts would know more about the great barrier reef than i did (or even possibly have been there whilst i myself, had not.) Yet these people didn't know that Steve Irwin and Paul Hogan, whilst respectable in their own ways, are just as funny and over the top to most Australians. Or that No, hardly no-one drinks Fosters in Australia. I only mention them here to illustrate a point - and one i have only just come to fully appreciate - Queensland's beaches are honestly everything they are cracked up to be, unlike pretty much every other stereotype about Australia i've ever heard. Take the David Lowe Highway from outside Mudjimba up to Noosa and you'll see what i mean.
The other reason i bring up these grave stereotypes that all people everywhere have to deal with in some form or another is to make some further comments on Aussie music. I've heard from foreign individuals that they think it's harder for a band to make it if they're Australian because they don't have the clout say a English band does, which i find hard to stomach. I say this for two reasons, firstly in places like the U.K. and the U.S.A. bands have big shoes to fill and there's just a ridiculous amount of competition. Secondly, many Australian bands have and are making it in a big way overseas: for example my weeks pick Cut Copy
Or what about Skip-Hop, controversial i know and unlikely to sway any die hard Hip-Hop fans, but still valid, especially if given it's proper Australian context, and not seen as as simple emulation of the American ideal. Check out 'The King is Dead' by the Herd, Written about John Howard's final retirement. Incidentally this also happen's to be Ev's pick for the week:
And i know we've posted it before but as per the request of our resident junior correspondent here's Skipping Girl Vinegar with 'One Chance'
I'm not nearly done with my indignation on this topic but i am extremely tired...so stay tuned for the next post where i will hopefully expound these views further with additional solid evidence and more unecessarily personal anecdotes...
Peace out from Brisbane.
Welcome to the next riveting Heapsaflash installment...
It's been a hazy week in Brisbane and i'm not just talking about the transitory weather. I know Queensland has a reputation, living in the States for over 10 years if i had a penny for every person i met who knew what the great Barrier reef was but couldn't tell you much else about the country in general...well you know the saying. It's not really ignorance, because there are of course trillions of places which i have no conception of, it just always used to irk me that people i'd meet in Massachusetts would know more about the great barrier reef than i did (or even possibly have been there whilst i myself, had not.) Yet these people didn't know that Steve Irwin and Paul Hogan, whilst respectable in their own ways, are just as funny and over the top to most Australians. Or that No, hardly no-one drinks Fosters in Australia. I only mention them here to illustrate a point - and one i have only just come to fully appreciate - Queensland's beaches are honestly everything they are cracked up to be, unlike pretty much every other stereotype about Australia i've ever heard. Take the David Lowe Highway from outside Mudjimba up to Noosa and you'll see what i mean.
The other reason i bring up these grave stereotypes that all people everywhere have to deal with in some form or another is to make some further comments on Aussie music. I've heard from foreign individuals that they think it's harder for a band to make it if they're Australian because they don't have the clout say a English band does, which i find hard to stomach. I say this for two reasons, firstly in places like the U.K. and the U.S.A. bands have big shoes to fill and there's just a ridiculous amount of competition. Secondly, many Australian bands have and are making it in a big way overseas: for example my weeks pick Cut Copy
Or what about Skip-Hop, controversial i know and unlikely to sway any die hard Hip-Hop fans, but still valid, especially if given it's proper Australian context, and not seen as as simple emulation of the American ideal. Check out 'The King is Dead' by the Herd, Written about John Howard's final retirement. Incidentally this also happen's to be Ev's pick for the week:
And i know we've posted it before but as per the request of our resident junior correspondent here's Skipping Girl Vinegar with 'One Chance'
I'm not nearly done with my indignation on this topic but i am extremely tired...so stay tuned for the next post where i will hopefully expound these views further with additional solid evidence and more unecessarily personal anecdotes...
Peace out from Brisbane.
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