Legal Alien

Rich Humanitarians

2007-01-18T11:28:00.000+11:00

Does anyone else think it's stupid that celebrity humanitarians such as Bono, Geldof, Brad and Angelina go on and on about global poverty whilst owning like $40 million dollar houses?
Doesn't Sir Bob even own an island? Or is that 'extreme capitalist' Richard Branson?
Whatever, it's stoopid.

ZOMBIE WALK

2006-11-06T22:16:00.000+11:00

I know it's a bit late but here is a segment I put together for Nocturnal on TVS on the Zombie Walk. Backing track provided by Say Cheese and Die.

Also, the sound is not mixed very well. At all. Sorry...

Secular Education?

2006-10-31T10:16:00.000+11:00

I am little pissed off at The Governments new plan to introduce chaplaincy into schools under a $20,000 cash incentive.

This is wrong in so many ways.

Firstly, I went to a Catholic High School until year 10 and having a religion forced down your throat is suffocating. During these years it is so important to form your own views, especially when it comes to religion.

Secondly, public schools should not be getting funding for religious activities from the government, church's can pay for their own propaganda, but not within the secular education system.

It is obvious that the government wants to establish Australia as a primarily Christian nation, as John Howard believes that most school will choose a chaplain of our 'national' religion. As each school is only allowed one chaplain, the plan discriminates against minority religious groups not only in the schools but in the wider community.

And what public school can afford to turn down a $20,000 cash incentive in this country?

animation yay!

2006-10-08T21:41:00.000+10:00

Uploading video is fun! Here is a short animation I made at TINA this year during a workshop.
I also did a workshop with the engage media team. They have set up a great website where you can share videos similar to you tube but with a social and environmental focus. It's a great little community so if you make videos you should get involved.

SAY CHEESE AND DIE

2006-05-15T12:00:00.000+10:00

Hon, Kat and Kurt's band are totally awesome and they are playing at Spectrum on Oxford St. on Saturday night. So if you're up for it afta the Surry Festival you should come down. It's also a fundraiser for our friends Kiosk, who are off to the Americas very soon. Say Cheese or Die!

HELLO CHOOCH-A-BARN!!!!!

2006-03-13T12:45:00.001+11:00

So, we're back in Sydney! In saying that 'You're my blog now!’ aka no more Hon, just me and my stupid ramblings.

So on Saturday night I went to Lan Franchi's Memorial Discotheque for a night of Chooch-a-barn goodness. It was so much fun.

I missed the first band, but made it in time for YOUNG ROMANTIX MAKE LOVE who had three rad songs and an even cooler mascot, which singer later told me he had found in the rubbish. excellent.

After that there was a cit of a break to allow beer drinking (VB cans only thank you) and catching up for me.

HOLY SHIT, Holy Balm were soooo good. They also only had three songs but played with such style we all forgave them. I filmed a little bit of their set whilst white balancing and it sounds really sweet. Congrats guys.

Then came SAY CHEESE AND DIE, Hon, Kat and Kurt’s band. I'm totally bias but they were great. It was good to hear their new stuff and see them live, as I'd only seen them play in Kurt's room previously. Kat is getting really good on the drums, which she plays for the new stuff, and the on stage improvisation was fun to watch, especially for half sleeve.

Overall I think everyone had a lot of fun with their set, which is what we were all there for.

Then the SHITTY RAIL DANCERS were on and they, again, were totally great and made me laugh heaps at the stupidness of City Rail cops and their constant power tripping, fav line was something about being bullied at school and now they have a uniform. I tried to get Hon to film these guys but he just held the camera in his lap after I passed it to him??????

Then came Naked On the Vague who I hadn't seen before and was quite drunk by this time and I though they were superb. I read some bad reviews the previous day in the Brag and Drum, but I just think they didn't get it. The crowd tonight definitely appreciated what was being delivered. The room stood to attention for their set and continued to stand and dance long after they'd left the stage.

Props go to the organisers for a super fun night, pity it ended unexpectedly as we were all getting into the swing of things.

Can't wait for the next chooch-a-barn. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Diplo

2006-02-19T01:54:00.000+11:00

Well, last night we went to Diplo at 'The Espy' in St.Kilda, which has heaps of live bands and stuff, but was as far away as Bondi...so it took us a while to get there. Once there we realised they had over sold the show to the most random rave/hip hop/whatever crowd I'd ever seen, and we were left with wishes of the Mandarin Club gig fresh in our minds. The room was long and narrow which meant that few could actually get close to the stage and the rest of the room was a perpetual walkway, and there is nothing worse than finding yourself in a walkway at a gig. But we accepted our fate and got on with it.

My initial reaction was that Diplo has his fingers in too many pies. Mixing Baltimore House with INXS appeared to be a crowd pleaser, but I was left wondering what support base Diplo had gathered in Melbourne as people struggled to acknowledge any of the Baile Funk goodness (was it because it was in Portugese?)that I thought was the highlight of his set. Although alot of sections were a rehash of his previously released mixes, he gave props to alot of female aritsts, M.I.A was left out (amid rumours of a breakup?).

All and all the crowd killed the night for me, and Diplo leaving the stage for ten minutes to answer his 'cell phone' wasn't very cool. The venue sucked and but the last half hour of crunk was well worth the wait, this was Hon's fav bit. Wish we were in Sydney for this one...

Melbourne walking gallery

2006-02-17T20:39:00.000+11:00

Is not magazine - Brunswick St, Fitzroy

15

2006-02-08T12:54:00.000+11:00

I watched this film the other night. It was called 15 and I had to turn it off about three quarters through because my stomach couldn't handle a drug smuggling scene that was literally making me dry retch.

But in a brighter note, this film really inspired me as a low budget filmmaker. The narrative revolved around the relationships between two or three different groups of young Singaporean males whose friendships are 'as good as they last'. Dealing with only a couple at a time, the director Royston Tan reveals the most intimate details of their friendship by filming them at their most vulnerable: in their rooms exchanging banter, awkward sexual teenage moments, emotional breakdowns that only the closest of friends are allowed to see. All this he films in minimal locations and by concentrating on the emotional development of the boys he creates a film of moments in friendships, rather than moments of happenings. Nothing generally happens in the film. Most of the action is talked about by the boy’s pre or post the event. Again a mark of an independent filmmaker, this saves money and time on talent, locations and demanding emotional scenes for inexperienced young actors.

The film itself is almost too stylish, with Tan attempting to make a 'Run Lola Run'- esque art film including animation and typographic signifiers that only slow the film down and saturate the actual beauty of the film. Apart from this the intimate cinematography that depicts the ritualisation of the boys everyday life serves to depict their teenage boredom and beautifully manifests the fickleness of their lives and friendships. The boy’s obsession with suicide paints the mise en scene with sickening reddish yellow that remains the theme throughout.

The use of digital video in sections points to budgetary reasons but is also used in times of intense emotion, such as a five minute close up of one of the boys on a bus who is to commit suicide the following day. As tears stream down his face, the camera stays still, focused on this moment.

Um, I recommend it if you have a strong stomach, but overall I felt the budget may have hindered the story telling ability of the team, possibly these methods would suit the short form better.

Can't stereotype my thing yo

2006-02-04T19:56:00.000+11:00

I've always found M.I.A so hard to figure out. On one hand her album Arluar is a perfect blend of political pop that goes beyond just charged lyrical content. Anyone can scream about chanting down Babylon but that gets so boring and non-threatening. If you sing about George Bush or refugees then you get put in the category of political (i'm talking about you, John Butler and Franti). If you play with three power-chords you're punk. If you have a heavy bass line and use a Roland 808 then you're crunk. Branding something as political music is just as formulaic and unimaginative as other types of musical branding. And by doing this it ultimately makes it so non-threatening, and more importantly, boring.

M.I.A has the ability to sidestep such brandings. When we talk about this album as political it is more than just simple lyrics of dissent. The actual music is political. It's schizophrenic and we're jumping from place to place. There's Brazil in there, and then we're in Britain, and oh shit! how the fuck did we end up in Baltimore? Oh, don't worry we've been taken to Sri Lanka now via the Amazon. And that is what makes this music political - it is the prefect self-articulation of anyone living the Asian-Western diasopra - nationless, a bit confused and very self conscious.

Having said that how does M.I.A fit in to the whole figure of cultural golddigger. Can she be seen as another cultural appropriator, like we could maybe see Elvis, or any other white American artist of the 1940's who would gain huge success covering African-American tunes while the original artists would get squat? It's now no secret that Diplo produced track Bucky Done Gun was 'inspired' by Rio de Janeiro artist Deize's tune Injecao (click here for a listen), a song that has apparently come from deep in the Rio favellas.

In her concert M.I.A cleared the question up for me. Just before her thrid song she screams "We are the musical missionaries! This one's from Jamaica!". And in just that one statement M.I.A cleared everything up for me. M.I.A was no longer the cultural imperialist that i had feared she might be, but rather a bit of an educator, someone who is here to teach us about all the cool sounds that are happening around the world. Rather than an exploitative position, M.I.A situated herself as a bridge, simply the middle person between third world artists and first world ears. And I don't think she does so in a Paul Simon kind of way because she doesn't use those sounds as a secondary exotic spice to make her music more interesting.

One of the highlights of the show was when she shared the stage with nearly every single woman that was in the crowd, Mads included. "I think we nead some womyn up here!" she screamed and with that Mads lead the female charge on stage. And in what could easily have become some weird male gaze thing actually just became a huge female party while the men took a backseat in the crowd. It wasn't the only time M.I.A centred the traditionally marginalised. Her show was peperred with shoutouts to the Sri Lankans in the crowd and perfromed a song partly in Tamil.

Oh, and did you know there's a NYPD Pizza joint in St. Kilda? Saweeeet!!

Hon Day

2006-02-01T00:20:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was Hon day, which meant that we had to spend the entire day doing whatever Hon wanted.

So we got up at about 12pm and went for breakfast at the cafe on the corner. We read about stupid people in the newspaper and then we caught tha tram into Smith St. Hon wanted to get some hoodies and new shoes so we did that and then went for fish and chips (of course). Because we'd gotten up so late everything had pretty much shut by now so we wondered around Fitzroy talking about films and street art.

We got to the blockbuster and Hon wanted some videos, so we rang Giles and got his password and hired out Kung Fu Hustle, Pretty in Pink, a film called 15 that was in the Sydney Film Festival that I missed last year, and Heart of darkness: the making of Apocolypse Now, which looks pretty full on.

We then mooched about Brunswick St. bookshop for abour an hour. I found this really cool book called Obey the giant which is all about subversive visual communication. I'm gonna go back and buy it when I have some cash. Hon read a book on Jonny cash.

Then we got home and went to the shop to buy Hon whatever he wanted for dinner, which turned out to be two minute noodles. I had some soup which was really yummy then we watched Kung Fu Hustle and Hon laughed and I fell Asleep.

Tomorrow is Mads day which will include the M.I.A gig. Yessssss.

Skeleton Boy

2006-01-30T14:07:00.000+11:00

We was walking around Fitzroy the other day when I took this photo. Hon is like the skeleton, skinny and cute.

W00T!!

2006-01-29T21:41:00.001+11:00

If You Think So

2006-01-21T10:54:00.001+11:00

It's so hot in Melbourne at the moment. All my Sydney friends said I wouldn't get a tan spending a summer down here. Everyone in Melbourne is obsessed with the weather. You can hardly have a conversation with the dude at the local shop with out an 'it’s gonna be 35 tomorrow, should all be going to the beach'. And what beach? I ask.

As I am now a converted Melbourner, I'm glad to tell you it will be 43 on Sunday and everyone is planning inside activities to get out of the heat. I find it really funny but in a town where you literally can have four seasons in one day I guess it's good to be prepared.

When I watched the Golden Globes the other night I was reminded ever so slightly of the passion that made me want to be a filmmaker. It was in Ang Lee's acceptance speech for Brokeback Mountain that he said that in the making of this film he was glad to be reminded why he made films, in the hope to change the way people think. Ever so idealistic, it still struck a chord. If someone at his level hasn't become jaded about the power of film, there is hope for us yet.

One night recently over a few bottles of red with my uncle we got talking about why I did film and he pretty much told me that my attempts in the film world would prove futile as there is not an audience out there wanting to be confronted with reality in film. He believes that people got to films to be entertained. He obviously hasn't been to any film festivals at ACMI recently, but as part of a mainstream audience I found his opinion interesting to say the least. It got me thinking a lot about who we make art for and why. Is it for an 'educated' elite (be it in film, academia, literature etc) who bring their acquired knowledge to their viewing of the works? If so can this be in any way productive in the dispersion of knowledge and art? Or do we make art for ourselves, and release it into the world urging the audience to do with it what they please?

Hmm, I guess I've got alot to ponder.

On a brighter note, Hon and I are getting haircuts today (I know you're excited). Stay posted for pics.

My email's not working

2006-01-15T17:07:00.000+11:00

Dear Mads,

I miss and love you lots.

Hon

Melbourne walking gallery

2006-01-08T15:13:00.000+11:00

Some electrical box in the city, Flinders St

Melbourne walking gallery

2006-01-04T22:18:00.000+11:00

Some laneway in the city

Kozyndan

2006-01-04T01:15:00.000+11:00

I was in Missing Link the other day when I stumbled across a couple of The Postal Service's singles that had cool illustrations. I later found out that they are from a L.A. based collective called Kozyndan. Their website has a blog which is really cool and it also has all their illustrations. Kozy is from Japan and I'm guessing Dan is from America and I just think it's reallly cool that they live and work together as a couple and their art is an example of the merging of these cultures. There's really Japanese elements, like in the photo above where the two school girls taunt the Gaijin or foreigner, which I love. Hon Loves it aswell and I got him a luckydisc for christamas which they also did the cover for. They do alot of stuff in Giant Robot which is Hon's favourite magazine at the mo.

Melbourne walking gallery

2006-01-02T21:06:00.000+11:00

Just off Brunswick St, Fitzroy

dancing in the street

2006-01-02T00:12:00.000+11:00

Hon bought me an iPod for Christmas and I love it! I have been listening to it so much he has threatened to hide it so I will talk to him. He also hates it because I break out in impromptu dancing in the street and talk really loud on public transport.

Ipod - traveller's best friend

2006-01-01T12:34:00.000+11:00

Secret Life Of Us

2005-12-31T17:38:00.000+11:00

A few days ago Mads and I went to St Kilda to see what all the fuss is about and because it's where Secret Life Of Us was filmed. The famous Prince Of Wales Hotel (where we're going to see M.I.A w00t!) is full of 30 year old types who talk about when they saw Nirvana at the Hordern.

When we popped in to use the toilet a drunk guy stopped me and yelled "I have one of your albums". After realising he didnt' mean Say Cheese And Die I told him that I'm not in Guitar Wolf.

This is a photo of Mads playing Secret Life of Us in the beach.

We Heart Melbourne

2005-12-31T00:06:00.000+11:00

Yay! Hon and I are in Melbs finally! We decided to set up this (very ugly) blog to keep in touch with everyone and document our adventures as legal aliens in Melbourne. We liked the idea of escaping from Sydney for a few months to have fun and be raucus. This is our adventure in words.