The Frying Dutchman

Two Guys From Kabul

Just upgraded to WordPress 2.5 and thought I’d attempt a post to try out the install…

The image above is a drawing a friend did of the band I was was in back in 1995. We were called “The Frying Dutchman” and played at the Punters Club in the RMIT heats of the National Campus Band Competition. Hard to believe it’s been more than 12 years…

Anyway… came across the drawing when I was looking for my music books after I bought myself an acoustic guitar a few weeks ago… thought I’d share it.

U2 Tour Postponed

U2 have postponed the Australian leg of their tour because of “illness of an immediate family member of one of the band”… how much does that suck!

According to the Lypton Village, the immediate family member is Edge’s daughter, Sian and her illness is leukemia. Now that’s very sad.

While upset about the tour being postponed, our thoughts are with Sian, Edge and Sian’s mother Morleigh. We pray that Sian has a full and speedy recovery.

That said… man I was looking forward to the concert… but one can understand why you’d postone or even cancel a tour in the circumstances… I’d do the same if it was one of my kids… and if I was a world famous rock star in the world’s greated rock band… now they’re some big “if”… but I guess it wouldn’t matter who or that I was, in such a situation I’d drop everything for my family.

Entertainment and Internet Consultants, Music Teachers & Function Bands

As you can imagine, with me being a father of FOUR now, I don’t have much spare time to blog now days… but why the absence of activity here prior to little Stefan’s arrival?

Well, aside from a wife and three other kids, I had been keeping busy doing some web design. Particularly a couple of site I’ve knocked together for a good friend of mine… one for his own site where he promotes his wares as a music teacher and entertainment & internet consultant. The other for his party and function band, Musicology.

Both sites make use of WordPress which allows Steve to maintain the sites himself… which means everyone wins in the end.

So, if you’re in the market for an “Internet and Entertainment Consultant”, music lessons or a band for an upcoming party, why not see what Steve has to offer… tell him I sent you 😉

The Musical Baton Meme

Despite the sound of it, the Musical Baton meme has nothing to do with orchestra conductors or marching bands and twirling/juggling.

Natalie has generously passed me the Musical Baton, which will give you an insight into my musical tastes (supposedly). Anyway, there are some questions I need to answer…

Total volume of Music on my Computer:
0.00 Gb (0 items lasting 0 hour 0 minutes 0 seconds)
With a 4Gb hard-drive and a 56k modem, I can hardly afford the space or time to download music.

Song playing right now:
N/A
See answer above for explaination

Last CD I bought (as opposed to downloaded/copied):
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2

Five songs I listen to a lot/mean a lot to me:

  • Night and Day – U2. The first song I dedicated to my wife (wasn’t even my girlfriend at the time)
  • Surfing with The AlienJoe Satriani. Inspired me to take up the guitar… now all I need is some time to pick it up again.
  • Redemption SongBob Marley. The song which started my love of reggae
  • Kick Start My Heart – Mötley Crüe. I’m yet to hear a better driving song.
  • Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton/Damage. Always loved this Clapton song, and when Damage release a version just before my wedding with the “long brown hair” in place of the original’s “long blonde hair”, it made for a perfect song for use as a wedding song.

Five people to whom I am passing the baton:
This is where I’ll depart from this memes convention… instead of making this meme a chain-letter type thing, I’d like to see this meme spread based on a “opt-in” system. So, if there are five or more people willing to take on this baton, please let me know via the comments where I can go to get an idea about your musical tastes.

Isn’t He Cute

A reader of this blog was somewhat disappointed that I didn’t write anything about the Logies… to be specific, he was disappointed that I didn’t write about Anthony Callea’s performace during the evening. There’s a couple of reasons for this.

  1. I didn’t watch the Logies… therefore I didn’t see the performance
  2. After the attention my last Anthony Callea related post got, I thought it better that I not say anything to upset the hoardes of Anthony Callea fans that trawl the web for people speaking ill of the love of their life
  3. I haven’t really had the time to blog about anything

But all that said, I’m more than happy to post the review T-man provided.

So, I present to you T-man’s view* of Anthony Callea’s performance at this years Logie awards evening:

We’ve all seen it, some of us have even been it. I’m talking about that kid who at every family get together does that thing. At some time during the night uncle Albert will say, “Johnny, are you going to do that song/dance etc that you do that we all enjoy?” and Johnny being a young kid seeking attention will get up in front of the family and do his bit and everyone will clap and laugh and say how cute it all is. When does it stop being cute? When do you grow out of that role? Well I caught a small bit of the Logies last night and saw that maybe the answer is never. On stage, dwarfed by the set was one Anthony Callea, doing his trick, again he sang the Prayer, a song no self respecting teenager would listen too if it wasn’t on Australian Idol, and the audience sat back and politely clapped with that ‘isn’t he cute’ type of enthusiasm. And all I could think of was that kid who continually does his act at the family get togethers. At least he wasn’t miming, well I don’t think so anyway.

* I don’t necessarily share the view, but then again, I might.

Anthony “Milli Vanilli” Callea

Hopefully, if Melbourne manage to keep the rights to host the 2006 F1 Grand Prix, the organisers will know better than to book the Australian Idol runner-up to sing our national anthem.

Last year, Shannon Nolls butchered the national anthem I sat there thinking that *I* could do a better job, and I know I can’t sing
This year, Anthony Callea mimed Advance Australia Fair so badly that Ashlee Simpson, Betty Boo and Eminem are making room for Anthony in their “Mimers Anonymous” workgroup… run by Milli Vanilli.

Even the Anthony Callea fan-club is struggling with the situation… but have managed to lay blame with channel Ten… somehow.

Bob’s 60th Birthday

Today is Bob’s birthday.

Bob?

Yes, BOBBob Marley‘s birthday. Had Robert Nesta Marley not died a premature death almost 24 years ago, he would be celebrating his 60th birthday today… and one wonders just how much more he could have achieved had he not died so young.

Thankfully, but not surprisingly, the world has not forgotten and will mark the event, this time in the spiritual home of the Rastafarian faith, Ethiopia, Africa.

No doubt, the day will not go past quietly in Jamaica, despite his widows plans to move his remains to Ethiopia.

Happy Birthday Bob