Friday, April 27, 2012

Splendour is a Sellout!


And not the bad kind of washed-up sellout either! Yes, thats right. Splendour In The Grass 2012 has officially sold out in less than 43 minutes (thats record time)! Which definitely proves that this year's lineup, ripe with an eclectic array of artists and sans big fat fancy headliners, is what we festival folk here in Australia want! I had a late night studying and only remembered at 9.09 that tickets went on sale at 9am this morning!! So as you can imagine, my Poptarts went flying and I swore a hell of a lot. By the time I got through the shit-fight online waiting room to purchase my tickets the allocation had exhausted. Luckily enough, one of my lady friends was already amidst the purchasing screen! So with a short text, I quickly secured my spot at Splendour. And possibly just gave some sort of text message interceptor the perfect deets for credit fraud and identity theft. I'm going to say it was all worth it but! 

So a giant congrats to the Splendour crew for their massive sell out, and to everyone who managed to claw their way to the top of Moshtix this morning. For those who's fate was not so kind, maybe try eBay!? Not all eBayers are peaky scalpers. I had a splendid time in the grass last year off a last minute reasonably priced eBay purchase... (Splendour have announced this morning that they may bring in the reissue option that they had last year). There is still hope! 

Monday, April 23, 2012

Life Amongst Trees

It's early Monday morning and I'm sitting at my desk. I am supposed to be studying for an exam this coming Saturday, but instead I've found myself staring out my window and daydreaming about living in a tree. Ever dreamed of living in a tree house when you were a child? I know I did. I used to ponder with amazement how a little tiny house would sit perfectly perched between two branches without budging. I had a cubby house when I was younger, and while I know my Papa poured his heart into building it, it was definitely no treehouse. Come to think of it, I've never actually seen one in real life!?

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All this dreaming as got me thinking that I could make it happen for real. I've researched a few places and taken down a couple of figures for a little treetop getaway. Could you imagine, waking up and having all the wonderful sights and smells of the Australian rainforest just outside your treehouse door. Wow...

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Sunday Sounds: Gossling

I don't know whether its her alluring voice, or those sweet sweet melodies that have me in 'Wild Love' with Gossling!? Perhaps its both? If one thing is certain, its that Gossling has a definite winner with her new EP Intentional Living.


Following the success of Gossling's second EP Until Then, Intentional Living features much of the same lyrically sweet sounds we have come to expect and of course, the distinctively beautiful voice of leading lady Helen Croome. This track, 'Wild Love' was the first to be released back in February and has been capturing hearts ever since! My personal favourite has to be 'Heart Killer', because of its undeniable magnetism. But each of the four tracks are absolute gems!! 

I was a lucky duck and scored a pre-ordered signed copy of the EP earlier this week!! Intentional Living was just released on Friday and is available right now on iTunes or in record stores nationally! Definitely recommended for those of you who have fallen in love with Australia's other lovely ladies, Julia Stone or Lisa Mitchell. 

For tour dates throughout the end of April and early May, click here!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Splendour in the Grass Announced!


Well it was another exciting morning here in Aus, as the lineup for this years Splendour in the Grass festival was announced. I was banking on The Black Keys headlining after their massive launch of El Camino last year. But that hope was pounded to smithereens on Tuesday when they announced an Australian tour for October, which sold out instantly three hours later!!! Anyway, back to Splendour. It's interesting to see how many of the rumours for this years lineup turned out to be true. Yes folks, Jack White, Bloc Party and Miss Lana del Ray are coming to our shores this July! 

The full line up is as follows... 

Jack White
Bloc Party
Smashing Pumpkins
At The Drive-In
The Shins
Hilltop Hoods
The Kooks
Gossip
Miike Snow
Dirty There
eLana Del Rey
360
Azealia Banks
Tame Impala
Explosions In The Sky
Ladyhawke
The Afghan Whigs
Missy Higgins
Wolfmother
Metric
Kimbra
Mudhoney
Band Of Skulls
Spiderbait
Django Django
Gypsy & The Cat
San Cisco
Last Dinosaurs
Electric Guest
Muscles
Angus Stone
DZ Deathrays
Howler
Lanie Lane
Fun.
Big Scary
Michael Kiwanuka
Seekae
Friends
Yacht Club Dj’s
Bertie Blackman
Jinja Safari
Blue King Brown
Youth Lagoon
Pond
The Beautiful Girls
Tijuana Cartel
Ball Park Music
The Rubens
Ben Howard
Bleeding Knees Club
Zulu Winter
The Medics
Shihad
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Husky
Kate Miller-Heidke
Father John Misty
Emma Louise
Chet 
Faker
Here We Go Magic Parachute Youth
Mosman Alder
The Cast Of Cheers
Wolf & Cub
Gossling
BeniSampology (AV/DJ show)
Canyons (DJ Set)
Nina Las Vegas
Danny T
Alison Wonderland
Nice and Ego (AV/DJ show)
Flume
Gloves
Luke Million
Harris Robotis
Alley Oop

Few people have expressed their disappointment with the lineup already, claiming how last year was "sooooo much better". But I think it is important to take each year as they come without too much comparison. This lineup is very reflective of what has happened in Australian music late last year and during the beginning of this year... So many of the artists included had just dropped new albums last year, some were just unearthed last year and some were just thrown in for good measure. 

I've had my ticket money saved since last week, because even if I don't enjoy a few of artists in the lineup, there is always a buttload for me to get silly to. Besides, who wouldn't want to go to a festival headlined by Edward Scissor Hands!!?? That and, with Smashing Pumpkins on the bill, my Splendour experience (ticket pending) is going to be exactly like The Simpsons Hullabalooza! 




Kaisha Gambell, smiling politely. 

Rest In Peace My Darling Mindy


It's been little over two weeks since I tragically lost my little lady and I think I am finally okay to write about it. On the afternoon of Tuesday the 3rd of April, I was sitting in my study when the weirdest feeling came over me. I felt a wrenching in my gut and a tickle in my throat. Not knowing what had caused it, I set aside my work and ventured out the front door. I was on my porch, still completely unaware of the reason I had gone outside when I decided to grab something from my car. In that moment, something somewhere forced me to look out onto the road. In that moment my entire world fell apart. My dear kitty Mindy had been hit by a car in some freak accident. I'm going to spare you the details that followed, because they were more than horrific. I was left completely numb for hours...

Now, I have lost loved ones before and experienced grief. But never had I experienced the bodily reaction to traumatic shock. That night was tiresome. Thinking led to sobbing, sobbing led to crying, crying led to choking, choking led to hyperventilating and so on, until I finally calmed down around 3am to actually sleep. The next few days were a roller coaster ride of emotions. I felt guilty and thought up so many "what if" situations. I experienced denial, and every so often I would hear her bells. I was so angry and depressed that I really just could not understand why this had happened!? 

By the end of the week I had started to be honest about these feelings. I began to accept the whirlwind of emotions for what they were. I began to understand the pain and the anger and the guilt, and with that understanding I started working through them. Despite what anyone thought, I knew I had a right to feel the way I was... my baby had been taken away from me and I was completely alone and bereaved. 

I think the turning point was when speaking to a fellow fur mamma, she said "it's so cruel that we fall so in love with these little souls only to outlive them", because this was exactly what I had been thinking!! When asked if I were going to get another Cat (Yes! Some people asked that!?) I would answer so negatively and say "No, they are such high risk pets and I cannot deal with that pain again". But this isn't how one should live their life, safeguarding the pain by foregoing all the pleasure they bring. 

I know now that although her life was cut incredibly short, my family and I gave Mindy the greatest possible chance at living her life. But more than that, she gave us the greatest possible happiness. Her quirky character was so infectious that she brightened every single one of my days. While the horrific details of that Tuesday afternoon still creep into my sleep, I'm slowly starting to replace them with all the wonderful ones. Each time I walk past her beautiful urn I think of the times we used to chase one another through the house, or how often she would terrorise the garden of lizards out the front. I can remember the really odd noise she used to make when you asked her if she wanted dinner, or how whenever the internet was down it was because she decided to take a nap on the modem. I still miss her so, but I know her beautiful spirit is still here with me somewhere.


Rest in Peace my darling Mindy. 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Out With The Old...


And in with the new! Yes, this little blog of mine finally has a fresh new face! Part of the reason for my long winded blogger hiatus was because I was left feeling so uninspired by my last layout.  If you cast your eyes on the image above, you can see how my ex-layout was less than average! It was a quick fix /plain jane/no thought layout that I slapped together one day when I decided I was over its predecessor. The result was of negative consequnces... For the next few months I would cast each new idea or feature post aside, and instead think about how I so desperately needed to fix this face!  

Back in February I began frequenting a number design websites and downloading various fonts but nothing really came of it. By March I had drawn up a few complex plans and started tutoring myself in Dreamweaver... but still nothing. It wasn't until I had a spare few hours on Monday that I started playing around. I scraped everything existing and started anew with a blank blogger canvas. The plan was to just play around, and see what I could do to tweak the default templates (my Dreamweaver skills were not developing too fast). But after a while I began to like what I saw. The blank page was clean and crisp and white and I loved it! Of course it wouldn't be Far From The Mocking World without some floral up in there somewhere. Although it should be noted that I did try out some other things, including some aztec and chevron prints and even a hot air balloon theme!? In the end though I turned straight back to what I know and love. So here it is, in all its simplistic glory! 

This is my first time working with a right hand side bar, so its still a work in progress. But i'll iron out all the kinks and figure it all out shortly. What do you think so far? 

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