Thoughts are like fishes

Earthcore

This isn't the Earthcore I remember. This is.

Neve's first picture of Mario

My three year-old drew her first picture of Mario today.

Her brother likes Mario too.

There was a performance by Tim Rogers of You Am I in Wagga a few weeks ago to support the Metta Generation. At an auction earlier in the year I'd bought a one-hour songwriting lesson with Tim for about $250.

The show was good, I hadn't heard much of his solo material. Actually, I don't know that much of You Am I's material either aside from when I've seen them play and they were all over Triple J for most of the '90s.

The songwriting lesson was more of an opportunity for me to ask Tim and the band a lot of questions. I probably should've warned them I wrote music journalism for a while. I don't remember many of the answers, except for Tim's parting comment that no one knows how to write a hit.

A couple of other tidbits were that Berlin Chair was written with more of an obvious My Bloody Valentine influence but the droning guitar parts didn't get recorded. And that he'd been advised by an American producer to drop every second word in his lyrics to make them more palatable for the US market.

It was interesting to walk into a pub with Tim Rogers and see the faces around the place look and stare.

Now I wonder if I should've got Tim's opinion on my own songwriting?

The Day Twitter Stood Still

Drumming faces

Jonathan Coghill, drummer with Powderfinger, has this entertaining article in Australian Musician magazine on facial expressions while drumming.

Previously I've commented on the orgasmic faces of guitarists but I guess that's a better known phenomenon.

Future purchase

Pedal board

Here's the pedal board I've been using with my guitar recently.

A few comments about the effects:

Holy Stain is an interesting multi-effect but, as much as I like the reverbs and tremolo, it falls short in the distortions. Using an expression pedal to control the length of the reverb is a great feature though.
Tubescreamer is great for warm tones but also for taming the Giant Cooter.
MXR's EQ is beaut, even when it's off it seems to add something pleasant.
LPB adds a big bluntness to the attack that's great with the Cooter but I'd like something that adds more presence without the oomph.

Last resort

Do you reckon they get a lot of business by suggesting the Fruitshack is the last place you'd want to consider staying?

Male kangaroos ahead

I like the modification to this sign outside Ganmain.

It reminds me of another mod I saw a while back.

Don't be a mug

Spotted in Ganmain.

Cognitive Bias Song

Quite catchy for an educational tune.

Give generously

Ride me

Scene not herd

Dunno what this means but this Gooch character can consider themself seen.

Little wombat knob

If you look carefully you'll see this is a male.

Read snapper

It's a Knockout

This Knockout pedal is pretty good. It allows me to add more or less top or bottom to my guitar tone.

I'm surprised the red light always comes on when I plug into the input. Must be some residual power within the unit when the power isn't plugged in.

Goatse by hand

Dunno who drew this underneath one of our bunk beds but I suspect it predates the popularity of the internet.

Automatic headlines

This is one of the redesigned websites for the newspapers formerly owned by the Riverina Media Group, now Fairfax.

They've got these interesting links that seem to be generated from headlines, creating weird and sometimes nonsensical text, like 'Coleambally was once again on Coly Point'.

I'm mildly intrigued about the closure of Junee and the progress being made to make Leeton. Maybe this is why they make these headlines?

Riding kids for fun

I'm sure it should be 'Kids saddle up for fun' but maybe it's a Freudian slip from a kiddie bondage loving sub-editor?

Oscar's Mario party

Oscar must feel like royalty after celebrating his second birthday this year. Above shows Oscar as Mario, while below are the cakes and pinata, as well as our version of pin the tail on the donkey.