Ronnie Johns Tour

Swell Season - High Horses

This is, for me, the best song off the latest album by the Swell Season. I was listening to it today as I walked down Sydney's Martin Place today and couldn't help but strut.

Favourite line: "Get down off your high horses, let me in. Get down off your high horses, let's begin."

Ripper

Fremantle Harbour: Perth

The strangest thing about Perth for someone who has grown up on the east coast of Australia is that you get to see the sun set over the ocean, which, in Sydney, we're not used to. Everyone warned me about how cool it was, however I still wasn't quite ready for how strange it felt to see the sun kissing the sea in the afternoon in a way I was so used to seeing at sunrise. Go nature go!

Stars - Dead Hearts

Continuing the "songs that make me smile" series, this latest offering off the new album by Canadian act Stars is a great example of sparkling pop at its best. I particularly love the sweet piano at 1:26.

"It's hard to know they're out there, it's hard to know that you still care... Dead hearts are everywhere." And who said pop can't be poignant.

The Bridge

That home

Following on from the last post, I press you to listen to the below video of To build a home.



It is the first track on The Cinematic Orchestra's fifth album entitled Ma Fleur. I've been a big fan of it for a while now (it came out in 2007). I recently listened to the whole album again. The second last track features a one and a half minute reprise of To build a home which is entitled That Home. Its juxtaposition with To build a home is hauntingly beautiful.

To build a home tells a mournful story of loss culminating in the final lines:
"And I built a home
For you
For me
Until it disappeared
From me
From you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust"

In contrast, the lyrics and music of That home, while still somewhat mournful, are strangely uplifting. When I'm sitting quietly with That home playing firm through my headphones, I feel like I've arrived in a place that I never want to leave. It is a feeling of intense belonging and comfort. The lyrics couldn't be more spot on, for this is a place where I don't feel alone. This is a place that I call my home.

For me, a combined listening of To build a home and That home epitomises Rilke's observation that music has the capacity to make "the innermost point in us stand outside". And the beautiful thing is, we have no control over it. It happens against our will. Yummy.

When the innermost point in us stands outside

Rilke has a way of navigating his way to your most sensitive heartstrings, and flicking at them. I love these two poems:

Music

Take me by the hand;
it's so easy for you, Angel,
for you are the road
even while being immobile.

You see, I'm scared no one
here will look for me again;
I couldn't make use of
whatever was given,

so they abandoned me.
At first the solitude
charmed me like a prelude,
but so much music wounded me.

To music

Music: breathing of statues. Perhaps:
silence of paintings. You language where all language
ends. You time
standing vertically on the motion of mortal hearts.

Feelings for whom? O you the transformation
of feelings into what?--: into audible landscape.
You stranger: music. You heart-space
grown out of us. The deepest space in us,
which, rising above us, forces its way out,--
holy departure:
when the innermost point in us stands
outside, as the most practiced distance, as the other
side of the air:
pure,
boundless,
no longer habitable.

Clarke and Dawe

OK. I'm really sorry. I didn't want to blog about Clarke and Dawe again this week but John Clarke's face in the below video at 1:37 is just priceless. I love the idea of Rudd being faced with a graph of how unpopular he is and his response being to just sit there and cry.

Check it out here or click on the below image to watch.

I promise that after this one, I'll stop. I'm off to Clarke and Dawe rehab.

Clarke and Dawe: Watch in Awe - It's necessary viewing

They're back. Australia's social barometer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Clarke and Dawe, with yet another surgical dissection of Australian politics.

The insights in this sketch, particularly those aimed at Tony Abbott, are so timely.

I especially love the line, "Does Tony Abbott tell the truth... or is he just a dinkum aussie bloke who says what he thinks".

I'd like to think that most Australian's are capable of dismantling Tony Abbott's manoeuvring and doublespeak by themselves. I'd like to think that. So thank god we have Clarke and Dawe there to help us all out... just in case we missed something.

Check it out here or click on the below image to watch. Necessary viewing.

Tea Club Gig - 22 May 2010

On Saturday night, Tamara and I performed at the Tea Club in Nowra under the name of Jamison Munro. It was the first time we've played together. I'm looking forward to many more in Sydney. Stay tuned. I'll try and get a bit of video up from the gig soon. Thanks to Peter Pigott for the below photos.

Johnny Cash

What is it about Johnny Cash that makes anything he sings sound so desperately melancholic? He has the voice of a man on his death bed who has decided to use his remaining breathes to impart a few last pieces of wisdom.

Listen here as he gives the song "If you Could Read my Mind", originally by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, the same gravitas as if he were reading a passage from the bible.

Yum.

Oh mino! Ils sont Champion de France!

Oh! Que c'est bon! L'Olympique Marseille a remporté hier le titre de CHAMPION DE FRANCE 2010 après avoir attendu 18 ans! Tellement je ne pleure pas. Tellement j'ai de poussières dans l'oeil. Et si j'étais au vélodrome à Marseille... et ouiiiiiiiiiiiii fils!

Pour revivre le match décisif contre Stadt Rennes, et voir les jouers de Marseille exprimer leur joie dans le vetiaire, cliquez ici. Le video donne aussi une idée de ce que c'est d'etre au stadt dans les tribunes parmis la foule. C'est beau.

Taken Out of Context!

The recent uproar over comments posted on twitter by The Age columnist Catherine Deveny has made for interesting reading. For those not up to date on this saga, Ms Deveny made a series of remarks on her Twitter page about different celebrities in attendance at this week's TV Logies awards ceremony. As a result of her comments, Ms Deveny has since been dropped as a columnist by The Age. The remark that resulted in her losing her job referred to eleven year old Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter. Ms Deveny tweeted, "I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid".

Ms Deveny's defence was that the remark was meant as a joke. She said, "[in the old days] it was just passing notes in class, but suddenly these notes are being projected into the sky and taken out of context".

There are two things I love about this statement:

1. The passive use of "being projected" makes it sound like someone is taking Ms Deveny's comments and putting them on the internet against her will, when in actual fact Ms Deveny actively posted the remarks herself. It was her that took out her phone, typed the remarks, and then pressed the big green button that said, "please post this remark to the entire internet despite its inherent poor taste".

2. The use of "taken out of context". This is such a little gem of a phrase. Taking something out of context implies that there is a correct context that this comment should have been taken in. Take a moment to think about this question: In what context would these comments have been appropriate? I am trying to imagine Deveny speaking to a person sitting at her table at the awards ceremony...

DEVENY: I hope that eleven year old girl isn't too lonely at this award ceremony.
PERSON: No, it looks like she's here with her mother. She'll be alright.
DEVENY: Oh... no... when I said "lonely", I meant, that I hope someone has sex with her tonight.
PERSON: Um... C'mon dude, that's pretty uncalled for. I mean, she's eleven!
DEVENY. Oh! You've taken me out of context!

This is not the first time the old "out of context" excuse has been used.

A young member of the Australian Liberal Party in Queensland recently found himself in hot water after tweeting about an interview involving Australian journalist Kerry O'Brien and Barrack Obama which aired on Australian current affairs program, The 730 Report. During the interview, the young liberal party member tweeted, "I'm not sure why they paid Kerry [O'brien] to fly to America, if they wanted an interview with a monkey surely a Ferry to Taronga [Zoo] would have sufficed". As if his point wasn't quite clear, he later added, "If I wanted to see a monkey on TV I'd watch [Australian wildlife TV program] Wildlife Rescue".

Of course, when the Australian media reported about the remarks in national newspapers, the young liberal member asserted that the remarks had been meant as a joke and that they had been "taken out of context".

Ding! ding! ding! There it was again. The old "out of context" excuse. "I was referring to the fact that Obama is black. Why? What did you think I meant?"

So, please feel free to go ahead and offend, abuse, ostracise, be racist, sexist or bigoted towards anyone and everyone. As long as whatever you do or say is "taken out of context" you'll be right as reign.

Here's a sample conversation to get you started:

YOU: Hey, [insert name of person]?
PERSON: Yeah?
YOU: You are a f*cking self-righteous c*ckhead. I hate you and I hope you die alone from lung cancer.
PERSON (hopefully crying at this point): Oh... god... that's an awful thing to say to me...
YOU: Why?
PERSON: Well, you just abused me and wished I was dead.
YOU: No! You've taken what I said out of context!
PERSON: Well, why would you say that to me? Do you really think I'm a self-righteous c*ckhead?
YOU: No. You've taken me out of context.
PERSON: Well... what context was I meant to take that in?
YOU: Are you offended?
PERSON: Yes. Yes I am. Extremely.
YOU: Yeah, you've definitely taken me out of context then. I didn't mean to offend you at all.
PERSON: But what you said is very offensive. What context did you expect me to take it in?
YOU: Well, whatever context you took it in, take it in another context from that. Take it in the opposite context.

Now, if you don't like this post, please go get f*cked!*



*If you have now taken offense at me telling you to get f*cked, just know that you've taken me out of context. So, good day to you. You c*cksucker. Again. Out of context.

Why we call Australia home

Days like this make you happy to be in Australia. These shots were taken on a lazy week day down at Balmoral Beach. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. Get a job.

Only in Australia: A Queue for the Bottle-O

I have spent some time in Melbourne for the last month or so whilst performing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. On my way home one night I walked past The Exford, a 24 hour bottle-0 in the city centre. This collection of photos was taken at two in the morning. If you look closely, you'll notice there is actually a line to get in, complete with security guard checking people's ID.

Awesome.

Late night Smart Casual

Took these shots of Smart Casual members Nick and Ben Mattick whilst flatting with them at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Currently touring the country with the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow. Check them out. They are hilarious.

People who should earn a banker's salary - No. 1: Laura Veirs

Lots of the most beautiful and most memorable things in the world are created for free by people who struggle to make ends meet. For example, Horace, Mozart, Van Gogh and Schubert all died poor.

A couple of weeks ago, I came up with the idea of starting a blog citing people who's professions are financially undervalued by society. I wanted to call the blog, "People who should earn a banker's salary". My sister suggested it be called The Robbin' Hood, as in, robbing from the rich to give back to the poor. The blog would have been full of musicians, actors, comedians, painters, aid workers, volunteers, religious leaders, nursing home nurses etc. Anyway, I've decided to integrate the idea into this blog. It's part of Jamison Inc's world, so I guess it sort of fits.

So get on board with the first addition to the "Should be earning a banker's salary" series: American singer song writer Laura Veirs. Thanks again to Guy Garvey, the lead singer of Elbow, for putting me onto this singer.

Laura is currently touring the states, and appears from the photos on her website to be heavily pregnant. I'm sure that as I write this, she has already given birth. Check out the official video for her beautiful song "July Flame".

Yummy.

Late Night Little Lonsdale

Australia's image: Are we more than shark attacks and enraged koalas?

An article entitled Let's Ingore Snobbery of Old Europe recently appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald written by German sociologist Jens Schroeder in which the author argued that Australia's egalitarianism (read: lack of culture, class or distinction) is a unique achievement and something to be celebrated. Schroeder intimated that whilst Europeans would be ashamed of such egalitarianism, (and often are on Australia's behalf), Australia can nevertheless afford to be proud.

Sound like a bit of a back handed compliment? A bit like saying, for example, "Hey Stephen Hawking, you are severely crippled, but that's what makes you special"? Well, be your own judge and check out Schroeder's article for yourself.

OK, now you've read it. Let me rant.

Commencing rant... now.

Listen up Australia. Apparently we are, quote, "a vibrant nation in a booming region" and we have, wait for it, "more to offer than beach, beer and (alleged) crassness."

Well, thank god for that.

"Proudly plebeian, Australia has no need to apologise for its egalitarianism and should celebrate its achievements more self-consciously. For Europeans... Australians are the plebeians of the Western World." These are the first two seemingly incongruous sentences of Schroeder's article. The first remind tells us we should be proud of our culture. The second reminds us that according to those that matter, we have none. It struck me as strange that Mr Schroeder should start his self-esteem boosting crusade by characterising Australia through the very Euro-centric lens from which he seeks to encourage us to escape. "Ok, so Australia, you're backward, a cultural wasteland if you will. But you have to stop thinking of yourself like that."

Maybe the idea of an emerging Australia shedding it's post-colonial skin is a convenient and original discourse in "tired Europe" (Schroeder's words not mine), but how many Australians really still consider Europe as the centre of enlightenment, and Australia as a simple beer-battered continent with nothing to offer but sun and beaches? Surely we have moved beyond this Paul Hoganesque oversimplification of Australian society.

I feel Schroeder misses an opportunity to shine a light on a more evolved and elaborate Australia, and instead ends up subconsciously reinforcing the very stereotype of Australia as the simple, happy-go-lucky, slap-on-the-back country that he has apparently come here to dispel. Shark attacks, enraged koalas and bogan beach antics might still be the most easily consumable version of Australia for Europe's media (Film's like "Australia" don't help), but a closer look reveals a much more complex (and potentially less romantic) stereotype than the one Schroeder paints.

Clarke and Dawe: The Great Barnaby

They're back. Clarke and Dawe. The ending to this sketch is so random. Love it.

Check it out here or click on the below image to watch.