[gigs] I am Damo Suzuki

Actually I’m not, but then again, neither was Mark E. Smith when he sang that. The real Damo Suzuki, former singer with CAN on such classic albums as Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi (I can say that Future Days may well be is a classic too, but I haven’t now that I’ve heard it), is coming to Adelaide! It should be a great show, while his stint in CAN was a long time ago (over 30 years), I can vouch for his recent form after his brilliant collaboration with Sixtoo a couple of years ago.
February is, in fact, shaping up very nicely. The other major new one would be Jurassic 5, though that’s looking a bit pricey for me. I am still rather keen on both The Handsome Family and Camera Obscura, not that I know much about either but I have heard good things.

By the way, The Don suggested keeping the “[gigs]” bit in the header (as in the old emails) so that those checking the RSS feed for gig guide stuff can quickly identify it.

Now for the gigs:
Tonight Neko Case at the Gov, I was initially keen, but now I’ll give it a miss. If you were going then you’d already be there!
Tomorrow night is Melvofest at the Prince Albert

February

  • 9th – Jurassic 5 at Thebby Theatre. About $70.
  • 16th – Damo Suzuki at the Rocket Bar
  • 17th – Spindickle support Dirtbird at the Grace Emily.
  • 17th – Macromantics at Rocket Bar
  • 21st – The Handsome Family at the Grace Emily ($35)
  • 28th – Camera Obscura at the Rocket Bar

March

  • 8th – Yo La Tengo at Fowlers with Clue to Kalo. $40
  • 9-11th – WOMADelaide which I’ve written about elsewhere.

April

  • 27th-28th – Herbie Hancock with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the Festival Centre. Costs over $100, or about $80 concession. I guess orchestras don’t come cheap.

finally, by request (from Scares), the return of On the Stereo:

  • Various – Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Box Set 4cd (Flying Nun)
  • Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92 cd (R&S)
  • Tiger Trap – Tiger Trap cd (K)
  • Jane’s Addiction – Ritual De Lo Habitual cd (Warner Bros)
  • The Red Krayola – Singles 1968-2002 cd (Drag City)
  • Flanger – Templates 2LP (Ninja Tune)
  • DJ Food – Kaleidoscope 2LP (Ninja Tune)
  • The Fall – The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 6cd (Castle)
  • The Fall – Grotesque (After the Gramme) LP (Rough Trade)
  • Low – Secret Name cd (Kranky)

I condemn those who disrespect the flag, and I condemn the Big Day Out

I seemed to have missed out on a lot of this business about the flag while I was busy sleeping to get over my cold. Oh well, better late than never.
The protocols on flying the Australian flag can be found here. Some excerpts:

The Australian National Flag should be displayed only in a manner befitting the national emblem. It should not be subjected to indignity or displayed in a position inferior to any other flag or ensign. The Flag normally takes precedence over all other national flags when flown in Australia. It should always be flown aloft and free and should not be allowed to fall or lie upon the ground.

The Australian National Flag should not be used as a covering of a statue, monument or plaque for an unveiling ceremony (a plain cover should be used); as a table or seat cover, or as a masking for boxes, barriers or intervening space between floor and ground level on a dias or platform.

When the Australian National Flag is raised or lowered, or when it is carried past in a parade or review, all present should face the Flag, men should remove their hats and all should remain silent. Those in uniform should salute.

There’s lots more at the site, but I’ve had a pretty good read, and while it doesn’t specifically rule out wearing it as a cape, I’m pretty sure that would be against the protocols, particularly since, unless you happened to be rather tall it would probably drag along the ground. The spilling of beer on the flag would also, I suspect be frowned upon. I don’t think it takes too much stretch of the imagination to suppose that threatening to punch someone for not kissing the flag brings it into disrepute and so is also against the protocols. We’ve heard statements from various politicians (excluding Andrew Bartlett who was a rare voice of reason on the matter – and who brought up the flag protocols – and also Sharon Bird) and the RSL this week but none to condemn this sort of treatment of the flag, despite their professed concern that the flag be respected.

On the other hand the organisers of the Big Day Out actively discouraged this sort of activity – so why do I condemn them? That’s because this year’s lineup looks pretty bloody ordinary to me. Now, I shouldn’t be too hard on Ken West since he got into the business by putting on tours by the greatest Australian band ever (no correspondence will be entered into), and I thought last year’s in Adelaide was fantastic (and as far as I saw, free of obnoxious nationalism) so maybe this is just an off year.

Coincidentally, Big Star Records have a competition on their mailing list where they ask you to give your dream BDO lineup (including bands from any era). I decided to stick to current bands who I haven’t seen to narrow the field a bit, here’s what I put:

A Silver Mt Zion
Dälek
Hood
The Fall
Larsen
Mouse on Mars
Joanna Newsom
Silver Jews
Sufjan Stevens
Subtle
You may notice that there are no Australian bands (if Peter Debnam ever gets into power he’ll have the patriotism police waiting for me at the NSW border), I assume that there’d be a load of locals as well & they restricted it to 10 so I just put in the
tourists.

For some excellent comments on the ban that never was and also the general state of the BDO, read Clem from the Age

If you didn’t get enough crazy knee jerk reactions from the politicians then you can check out the comments at Blogocracy. (note that I said crazy comments, not Tim Dunlop’s post)

I’ll throw in an acknowledgment to MGK for some of the ideas behind this post too.

There is other good commentary out there too, just follow the links from the links I’ve provided if you’re up for more.

What are you doing for Australia Day?

Or so the TV ads ask. I guess the government have changed agencies or it would have been “what the bloody hell are you doing?”. I’m really not too sure why they feel the need to advertise it anyway, so people don’t accidentally go to work tomorrow? I think everyone will notice a public holiday, and will probably work out what it’s for. If they need to advertise a public holiday I think it’s the October long weekend, no-one ever seems to know what that’s about. I suppose it might be Labour Day, which would mean the coalition wouldn’t be so keen on advertising it.

Anyway, since the ads have posed the question I’ll answer it, ANTaR SA are holding a community picnic on the lawns beside Tandanya, here is their flyer for the event. It starts from 5pm and will include food, music and guest speakers from the new Aboriginal Alliance Coalition Movement.

Afterwards I’ll be going to Melvofest as previously mentioned.

Almost forgot – throughout the day and into the evening remember that 3d radio will have their top 100+1 for 2006

Je suis malade

Quelquefois j’écrirai en français pour pratiquer, si nécessaire vous pouvez aller ici pour traduire.

Parce que j’ai été malade pour quelque jours j’ai été occupé avec beaucoup de sommeil et les films d’Eric Rohmer. La sommeil parce que j’ai été très fatigué, et les films parce qu’ils me rendent la sensation meilleure. Aujourd’hui et hier j’ai regardé Conte d’hiver , La Femme de l’aviateur , L’Amour l’après-midi , et bien sûr, Le Rayon vert.

Corrections dans les commentaires s’il vous plaît!

Tour Down Under: Stage 5

Today it all comes to what should be an exciting conclusion with Elmiger just 1 second ahead of Menzies, and a number of other riders within seconds of the lead as well.

There is more wind & rain in Adelaide today, and I left my bike on the other side of town, so it looks like I’ll be reporting back from in front of the TV rather than from the race. Well done to 10 for showing the final stage live, next time a nightly highlights package would be great as well though.

UPDATE 13:45 CST – The race is underway, looks like plenty of people weren’t put off by the weather and have gone out to see it. On the TV coverage Phil Liggett was commenting on the uncharacteristic Adelaide weather and suggested, as the riders went alongside the Torrens, that in normal conditions here everyone would be wanting to jump in for a swim! He obviously hasn’t seen it up close then.

UPDATE 14:12 CST – Getting close to the first sprint, just over a lap. The UniSA team are all up front and aren’t letting anyone get away, so they can get their man Karl Menzies a time bonus to put him back in front of the GC. Current GC leader Elmiger isn’t far off the front.

14:23 CST – Elmiger won the sprint! His AG2R team attacked the UniSA riders on Montifiore hill and from there Elmiger sat on Menzies’ back wheel down to the sprint, while there was a bit of confusion at the UniSA riders tried to ensure that Menzies would get the points, Elmiger made a move up the outside around McEwen who was also in there. Unfortunately for Menzies his teammate Allan Davis looks to have crossed second (despite a desperate last minute attempt to pull his bike back), so Elmiger should have extended his lead by a couple of seconds. The next sprint will be on lap 12, the UniSA boys are going to need a big effort to keep Menzies in it.

14:46 CST – Brochard won the second sprint to give him a good lead in the points classification (which appears to be a blue, rather than green, jersey). He was part of a 12 man breakaway which didn’t include anyone from the head of the GC. There was also a KOM but it wasn’t really contested and didn’t involve anyone who could threaten current KOM leader Dumoulin .

Now the field are all back together.

15:22 CST – McEwen won the final sprint but there is a chance of a protest, so it’s not official yet. There is no doubt, however, that Martin Elmiger is the overall winner with a lead of 3 seconds over Karl Menzies, thanks to his fantastic sprint on the eighth lap, and also his third place finish yesterday.

FINAL RESULTS (almost) – it’s official, Robbie McEwen is the stage 5 winner. Laurent Brochard was the best sprinter, Simon Clarke the best you rider, and SouthAustralia.com/AIS were the best team. I’m not sure whether Serge Pauwels or Samuel Dumoulin is the King of the Mountains – it is all a bit confusing because there was a sprint for it on the wrong lap.

UPDATE: I can confirm that Pauwels did win KOM.

Tour Down Under – Stage 4

I abandoned my plans to go and watch stage 4 down at Willunga due to the wet (and sometimes rather wild) weather today. So that means I can’t report back in person unfortunately, but as usual there is live coverage online.

The riders are just heading for the big KOM climb, with all of the GC leaders in the peloton. Sounds like there’s a storm on the way, we’ve had some pretty strong winds here in Adelaide, hopefully they all make it safely down to the finish line.

Hans Dekkers (Agritubel) won the first sprint today with Laurent Brochard (Bouygues Telecom) second. The two then swapped positions for the second sprint. This gives Brochard a nice lead in the points classification.

UPDATE 15:03 CST – It’s pouring down here but apparently not at Willunga where they didn’t get the storm that was threatening. The top 3 were Pieter Ghyllebert (Chocolade Jacques – Topsport Vlaanderen), Sergey Lagutin (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team), Martin Elmiger (AG2r Prevoyance).

Karl Menzies was in the lead group, but Elmiger’s 2 second time bonus puts him in the Ochre jersey with a lead of 1 second! Looks like there’ll be some action tomorrow around the North Adelaide circuit.

Also the top KOM points for today’s stage went to Julian Dean (Credit Agricole).

Alice Coltrane ; Jazz on You Tube

Last week Alice Coltrane passed away, as well as playing with her husband John in his final couple of years she recorded a number of excellent albums herself, my favourite is Universal Consciousness, though for the newcomer either Ptah the El Daoud, or Journey in Satchidananda would be an excellent introduction.

There isn’t much to see in this video, but the sound is fine

[youtube cTHPde8eZEU]

I found a few other interesting jazz videos as well
Last Exit

[youtube 7oqF8UWf9tw]

Matthew Shipp

[youtube WJe1wB7I_-k]

Ken Vandermark

[youtube WtSYQAtK6RY]

Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Orchestra
[youtube bIfDy2gFWZE]

Upcoming Adelaide Events II: Melvofest

Some people may have wondered what the hell Melvofest was when I mentioned it in this post, since it is not quite as well known as the other events in the list but I never miss it and consider it to be a major event on the Adelaide calendar.

This year it will be held at the Prince Albert on January 26 and the lineup is

9-9.30 WOMEN MOVING FURNITURE
9.30-10 HOLOGRAPHIC COLTS
10-10.30 HOME FOR THE DEF
10.30-11 SWEET RAXXX
11-11.45 BATRIDER
11.45-12.15 TERRANCE DICKS
You can read more about Melvo and his various activities here

Tour Down Under: Stage 3

It sounds like all sorts of things have been going on today, the commentary is rather funny so just go and read the whole lot yourself. The results are

– Both sprints were won by Viktor Rapinski (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team)

– KOM was won by Gianpaolo Cheula (Barloworld)

– The overall winner was Baden Cooke (Unibet.com)

Looks like all of the lead group were well back in the general classification so not too much should change there. If all the GC leaders are together in the peloton then Karl Menzies will hold the Ochre jersey by a margin of just 1 second from Martin Elmiger with the top 10 all within about 1 minute.

Tomorrow’s climb in Willunga could be the big deciding moment. If the wet weather keeps up I might not make it down there to watch though, since I’m not particularly keen on riding around in the rain. I’ll brave the weather for Sunday’s final stage if necessary though.