Oh, the Hoey...

Ah, the Hopetoun Hotel, a bar with no AC that smells like a bathroom and has an audio system that sounds like the smell of a bathroom. As you can see, I wasn't exaggerating about Aussies making everything cute. Saturday night, the Pink Fits were playing again with a band called the Straight Arrows. The Pink Fits disappointed, but the Straight Arrows were fabulous; the Atlanta punk rock sound, right here in Sydney. They are young, they wear shark tooth necklaces, they are theatrical with their body fluids. They throw flyers at the crowd like its money, and then they scream "We're filthy rich!!" They are some goofy rockers. So, they're not quite as theatrical with their body fluids as The Black Lips...but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

We felt rather successful having found a Sydney sound we can stand. But it did bring up some stuff for me, namely the homogenization of the world. Is it wrong of me to move to another country and want to hear the same sort of music I listened to at home? When you move to another culture, aren't you meant to embrace the culture that is around you, rather than try to find and bring your own? It seems to me that my feelings here about what kind of bar I want to drink in, what kind of pizza I want to eat, what kind of music I want to find are all sort of selfish. It's not unlike the Europeans who brought foreign plants and animals to this sunburned land, plants and animals that ended up running rampant, extinctifying native species, and all for the colonizers' comfort. Just so they could try to create a little England on the other side of the world...a literally NEW South Wales.

The problem is this: there is a lot of house music here. And truly awful bars. So, does that leave me firmly on the side of the homogenizing forces in the world?

Regardless...

Congratulations go to Jeremy, once again! The first of our friends to get us an official copy of "Introducing Gentleman Jesse," Jeremy is really killing the contests on this blog; though we are willing to admit we didn't actually think of this as a contest. I, personally, just want to say I really hoped Douchemaster would come through on this one for Craig...and maybe they still will!! (right?)

In other news, I've gotten in touch with people at a radio station called 2SER and I might end up doing a segment on Atlanta music; send me mp3s of any Atlanta punk rock you might have! And we finally did get to check out the Brett Whiteley studio last weekend; it was awesome.

Sorry there aren't any pictures this time, and it's been so long...also sorry this one isn't that funny. I'll try harder next time, eh?

I love you all and miss most of you terribly. *wink*