#9: Above & Beyond

Fck, Above & Beyond were absolutely *brilliant*. It was worth flying over to Glasgow just to see them. It was worth all the lines I had to wait in just to see them! Airport security (the usual), getting on the plane, traffic jam in Glasgow, waiting to get inside the club, waiting for the cloakroom... All worth it to see Above & Beyond live.

Funny thing about Scottish clubbers. They're the most enthusiastic about DJs! It's BYO whistles (admittedly I wanted to garrote the guy with his whistle yard), and mass chanting. No kidding. "Go! Go! Here we fcking go!" Or for those who felt more inspired, "Let's! Let's! Let's go fcking mental!"

What on earth?

So here are some statistics for the night:
- Number of orientals in the club: 1 (that's me)
- Number of guys who kissed my hand/cheek: 5
- Number of chicks who kissed my cheek: 1
- Number of wasters who tried picking me up: 2
- Number of wasters who fondled his bits after I turned him down: 1
- Age of the youngest guy who tried to pick me up: 19 (man, I felt like a paedophile)
- Number of guys who showed me his chest and asked if I liked it: 2 (must be a weird Scottish mating call thing)
- Number of times topless guy next to me rubbed against me: 3 (ewwww...)
- Number of guys who took off clothes for me: 1 (He said, "It's really hot in here. I said, "Why don't you take it off?" So he took _everything_ off. I just meant his jumper, I swearz)

And this, made my night:
- Number of times I was kissed by the Above & Beyond DJ: 3!!! :D W00T!!!

I in turn became a giddy schoolgirl and started yelling, "I LOVE YOOOU!!"

The one on the left smooched me :)

What's worse?

Gale force winds? Or snow? Apparently, gale force winds. Snow only delayed trains by double the target. I thought Sydney was incapable of handling bad weather, but in Rondon, everything breaks down at the inkling of bad weather.

And check out this guy's bad case of dandruff *grin*

It snowed on me for a minute this morning while I was waiting for the bus :) I've never been so excited about being up in the morning before...

Someone

... snuck into Rondon and painted it white last night :) It snowed! It was soooo pretty! It's an amazing feeling to wake up, look out the window, and suddenly realise, "HOLY CRAP, SNOW!!!" It's the first time I've been in Rondon when it's snowed :)

One month ago, the church below looked like this.

I wish I could've taken the day off just to take pictures. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, I was also running late for work due to a sleep-in, so didn't have time to do much happy snaps.

Frosty, is that you?

Apocalypto

There is something really drastically wrong with Mel Gibson movies these days. I'm not quite sure where his movies are heading with the endless blood and gore. Did it start with Braveheart?

I've never seen The Passion of the Christ (and why is it _the_ Christ?). Well, I lie. I've seen the Benny Hill version. That was enough for me. Based on that, it looks like the real thing is all about suffering and blood, and not really about _the_ Christ's Passion that much.

In Apocalypto, it's about rolling heads, ripped out hearts, stabbie stabbie stabbie, blood spray, cruelty to endangered animals. It has it all. Errr, what's the plot again? Oh right, Mayan hunter trying to save his family. *Drone drone* Think of this as the Mayan version of Gladiator. Or the Mayan version of Braveheart. Or the Mayan version of The Last of the Mohicans. Only, it's less entertaining than its predecessors. Hrm, should I even call it Mayan? Normally, I don't really care about Hollywood historical inaccuracies, but something about this movie made me want to look it up. Probably because I thought the movie was done in bad taste, not really entertaining, and didn't understand why it's been getting more good reviews than bad.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
“This was not a film about the Mayas,” said Robert Carmack, a retired anthropology professor from SUNY Albany's lauded Mesoamerican program. “It's a big mistake – almost a tragedy – that they present this as a Maya film.”

Take the film's depiction of a major Maya city that serves as the setting for much of the film's third act. Many of the architectural details are correct, but they're cobbled together from different locations (including ancient cities in Guatemala and the Yucatan) and different eras, the experts said.

The sadism that permeates the movie was simply not part of the culture, the experts said. Yes, the Mayas practiced human sacrifice, but in ways that were highly ritualized and usually involved a single victim. Not pretty, to be sure, but a far cry from the slaughterhouse of mass sacrifice depicted in “Apocalypto” – a virtual conga line of the soon-to-be headless, followed by desecration of their bodies.

From the Boston Globe:
"When we tell the story of Alexander the Great, we get at least some of it right, but Mel's version of the Mayan civilization -- one of the world's great civilizations -- is totally wrong." The errors are too numerous to list here, but, as an example, Fash says he flinched while he watched Mel's Mayans run through the jungle. "They're portrayed as hunters and gatherers, and they never were," he says. "They were extremely sophisticated agriculturists." If all this seems like historical nitpicking, it isn't... "It's condescending of Mel to make money at the expense of a living culture," said Fash. "There are six million Mayan speakers out there, and it'd be too bad if Mel insulted an entire civilization and nobody was bothered by it."
(William Fash is the director of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology)

------
Well, how do the Mayan descendants feel about this movie? I did stumble upon this page by the Mexica Movement. Front page, has a mug shot of Mel Gibson on it with a "White Supremist" label. So, I'm guessing at least some of them are pissed off.

Apocalypto - 1/5

Spend your money and time watching The Last King of Scotland instead. Forest Whitaker has my respect as one of the most brilliant actors ever. Nobody else could've made Idi Amin's character as real as he did.

I <3 A&P

About 3 hours after coming home from Ferry, the sound of the doorbell drills through my unconsciousness and I crawl out of bed to let these guys in:

In the next 24 hours, B and I gave them the quick version of Rondon - Oxford Circus, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Eye, drinks at OXO Tower. Andre passed out when we got home *grin* Weakling!

6am this morning, the whole crew left me for snow in Austria. I already miss the giant Kiwis *sniffles* But with all my housemates gone, I have a whole week of running around in my undies! :D

#6: Ferry Corsten

I know I made it a priority this year to be a bigger DJ slut, but do you realise how hard it is to go clubbing at midnight when it's cold and potentially raining outside? Not to mention I'm a lot closer to 30 these days and my body's breaking down on me (excuses excuses). Regardless, I made the effort to see Ferry Corsten play at Turnmills last Friday. He's ranked No. 6 on the Top 100 DJ Mag list. Sadly, Ferry's music didn't inspire me to stay very long. At 3.30am, an hour and a half into his 4 hour set, I left for home. I use to love Ferry's music. These days, his sets seem... boring. So, no more Ferry Corsten for me this year. I did manage to get up close to him though :) I had to shine my super bright mobile light at him in order to take this really fuzzy picture *lol* Poor guy...

I can't wait for Above and Beyond in Glasgow next weekend! You can listen to their weekly radio broadcast every Tuesday @ 8pm UK time at their website.

Running late?

With gale force winds at 99mph, this is how late trains in the UK were yesterday:

Someone's not going to get their 2006/07 bonus :P

Psst

Look to the right, see anything new? :D I'll be in Sydney from 28th March till 19th April. Fill free to start filling in my schedule :P Hrm, time to start compiling a list of "Must Eats"...

Saw 3

One word: Sux0rz

Eavesdropping

Having dropped off the kiddies at the Gate Picturehouse, and finding myself at a loose end, I headed back to an old coffee haunt - Arancina. With my cup of mocha and a window view, I started to space out and ponder the logistics of cooking 2 Hainanese chickens for tonight's dinner.

Then random bits of conversation from the American and Kiwi guys sitting in the corner started to filter in.

"Why solve other people's problems when you have your own?"
"You know what I hate? People who donate to animal shelters..."
"I hate those people who sell the Big Issue, and they're not really selling it, they're just pretending..."
"I don't give money to homeless people... they're just going to use it on drugs..."
"NZ is sending all this money to Africa..."

I tuned in.

I guess I never expected much from an insular American, but I've never heard a Kiwi speak like that before. Bit of a surprise. It's such a bad attitude to take. What's wrong with solving other people's problems if I have the chance? Does it really take away from my ability to solve my own problems? These people, have obviously never had to go hungry for more than a couple of hours in a day. Or never had to lose a home. If the homeless used the money I give them for drugs or alcohol, why chide them for it? I'd rather give my money to the homeless than to the Scientologists. What else have the homeless got to make their lives bearable? Why didn't society prevent people from living on the streets in the first place? What I've noticed a lot in Rondon are homeless people on the streets passed out. During the day. It makes me realise how cruel a city Rondon can be to those without money. Why would you want to be awake if you're broke, cold, alone, starving? I'd do the same and knock myself out for as many hours of the day with cheap wine to forget. When I first moved here, the sight of homeless people scared me. They weren't all old and "crazy". There were a few who looked my age, living out of suitcases in tube tunnels near my place. It could easily have been me if I didn't have friends or family here.

One last thing I heard from the guys, "I like short girls. Probably because my Mum's so short. I like short girls." Wowsers. That's a Freudian slip and a half. Wonder if he wants to kill his father too. My verdict - he's gotta be single, and probably doesn't understand why :P

Is it wrong to eavesdrop? And then publish it online for your friends to read? I'm sure plenty of my private conversations have been picked up before. You can always tell when someone closeby starts smirking into their drink. Well, if you happen to be gossiping in a cafe, watch out for the short oriental in the corner with a mocha :P

Look!

No hands!

Our impressive 1.8kg commie cornfed chicken was ready for roasting. I think I was the only one in the household that thought a standing chicken with metal implements up its butt was hilarious...

The Decapitator

That should be my nickname. After months of ripping off and freezing prawn heads from making paella, laksa and Vietnamese summer rolls, we decided to make room in the freezer and cook up Har Meen!

Step 1: Fry up prawn heads

FIVE HOURS LATER:

I now understand why my Mum only makes this for my brother's birthday. The pork and prawn stock takes freaking forever to cook! To the Rondoners out there wondering where their invite was, errr, it got lost in the mail :P My valid excuse is, we don't have enough bowls to cater for guests in our house!

Yin* I hope you're proud of my efforts :)

Tourist Trap

I never realised how busy Buckingham Palace could get. All to see some fuzzy hatted people change positions infront of the Queen's door. Not that I saw them change... And I was there for an hour! I did see lots of tourists, lots of cops, and lots of badly synchronised marching though :)

Ka, Di & Chez in prime position

KY on a recon mission

All I can say is - It's not very exciting

Priorities

I don't believe in making NY resolutions.

Mainly because it implies that there's something wrong with the way I'm living my life and it has to be fixed. When I think about it, I'm quite happy with the decisions I've made. If you ask me, it's more about priorities. Sometimes career comes first, sometimes family, sometimes it's that special someone.

My numero uno priority this year - To follow more DJs around Europe! *grin* Starting off with Above and Beyond at the Arches in Glasgow. Raaarh! Can't wait! Flights for Jan 27th are booked and sorted! Can you believe that London-Glasgow cost me GBP$9.99, and Glasgow-London cost me GBP$8.99? :D Aaah, Easyjet, how I love thee. Taxes were an additional 20 quid, but it's still a value for money flight.

If anyone's interested in becoming a fellow DJ slut, let me know and I'll send you gig dates *grin*

Hippie New Year!

NY 2005: Babsy's last Field Day


NY 2006: My last Field Day


NY 2007: Insult the Russians Day :P






Recognise him? He's the same guy from the Oriental Pushca :)