St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival Brisbane

It doesn’t quite feel as much like summer without a nice music festival. St. Jerome’s Laneway started out as a Melbourne affair, but has spread to all of the major Australian cities including Brisbane and features a great lineup of promising and established talent with a modern sound.

We got a chance to see Methyl Ethel, Majical Cloudz, Japanese Wallpaper, Diiv, Health, Big Scary, The Internet, Battles, Violent Soho, Grimes, Chvrches and Purity Ring.

It was great getting back (or at least closer) to that old Lowlands vibe (thank the heavens for chips in cups!). From the poppy and booming Grimes to the experimental and attention-demanding Battles. With amazing performances like the drumming in Health, Battles and Big Scary to the promising talent and enthusiasm of young acts like Methyl Ethel. And unlike Lowlands, rain is actually a welcome refresher in the Brisbane weather.

And it’s nice to be able to fit in some personal favorites like Chvrches. More so because they were virtually exploding off of the stage with a performance that takes them from promising indie band to self-assured power act. It’s a rare thing when a concert feels both personal and fun, but also energetic and larger than life.

What stood out as typically Australian: a smoker’s section (no smoking in the concert tents); no sweets – just deep-fried and BBQ and a bit of ethnic food, but all savory; far less drunkenness, probably because of prohibitive alcohol prices; a distinct lack of weed smells; slightly more polite and generally happy looking audience; horrible Australian fashion sense extending to festival outfits, with many (too?) revealing outfits added on top for women; hotpants are back in full force; Australians clean up after themselves in daylight, but when night falls they make up for it.

Cinematic futurism in games in retrospect – Syria drone footage

The horror of this video is self-evident and though it’s impossible to ignore, it’s not what I wanted to share.

What’s interesting to me is that this montage of drone footage offers a view of an environment that’s reminiscent of video games. Not just because many video games will offer views of devastation and war unlike most of us ever seen in real life. But also because of the camera positions and mobility a drone affords.

In recent years, I sometimes got annoyed at the artificial feel of cinematic sequences in games, because they allowed the camera freedoms that were simply not achievable in reality, not without CGI. They break the suspense of disbelief and certainly don’t work for anything that’s intended to evoke a sense of realism. However, now that sentiment is flipping – some of those cinematic sequences appear simply ‘ahead of their time’, foreshadowing the cinematic acrobatics of drone-borne cameras.

Watching the (very interesting) movie “The Double” (2013) by Richard Ayoade, I got a similar sensation – many camera standpoints and the visual storytelling seem to break away from traditional cinematographic conventions and instead speak the language of the cinematic cut scene in computer games.

Have a watch and let me know what you think, anywhere.

Stormy night in Night Vale

Our first thunderstorm down under started building up at sundown, with the mountains as backdrop. Did I already tell you I love the view from up here? Lightning was beautiful, but I understand Australia has more spectacle to offer.

I’ve been spending my mornings on the balcony as well. After the Kiss and dark chocolates, we now also have “our” coffee cups. The more things change, the more they stay the same. But I do have (and make) more time for reading. Finished “Welcome to Night Vale”, the book from the podcast of which there will be a show in town next month. I liked the book better than the podcast. It’s just as weird but with a more defined story line and dare I say plot. It’s still Night Vale, but the book allows you to set your own pace and reflect on the ideas now and again.

I bought this book in Brizzy, at a 50% discount. There’s plenty of bookshops to be found all around town, but unfortunately a lot of them have closing down sales. Seems like the bookshop will soon be a thing of the past here as well. Alas, I too will contribute to their downfall, with an e-reader filled to the brim with unread books…

The view down here

Not too bad actually, we have a 270° view towards Mount Coot-tha and on clear days can see mountain ranges on the horizon.

The full 270° at night:

To polo or not to polo

I’ve got my sewing machine in Brizzy! Time to make good use of it by vamping up my “uniform” a bit. I don’t really have a uniform of course, but I might take up the habit of my colleague down under of wearing Deltares polo shirts. It makes it clear to my office mates where I’m from. However, I don’t like to wear poloshirts, hence the sewing frenzy this weekend. Two down, two to go!

Stuff, stuff, glorious stuff

Our shipment finally arrived on Thursday January 14th. It took a bit longer than the promised 10-14 days, since pick up in The Hague was on December 16th….

Turns out that signing up for http://www.meetup.com/, the Fri-Arv-Grog (my attempt to translate vrijmibo to Aussie, but it doesn’t have the same ring to it) and even a quick chat in the elevator are pretty good ways to meet the locals.  Aussies are pretty friendly and welcoming folk, that’s for sure.

So what do you do on a cloudy, drizzly Saturday in Brisbane? Right, you sew!

Daily grind

At the end of the first week of work, I’m still trying to decide on the daily routine. The early bird here definitely catches the cooler wurm, it’s just hard to break old habits.

Spent the weekend doing a fat lot of nothing, reading my new book (http://www.welcometonightvale.com/) on the roof and making my first poached egg since chemistry class. Jaap has been more productive, working on our shoe storage solution.

Next step is to get a workout routine into the mix. My bike is still in transit and in any case I won’t be using it like I did in NL. I guess it’s the gym for me. It’s right there on the roof. Just get up and go. You can jump in the pool afterwards to cool down and enjoy the city view. Why are you still sitting on your lazy ass?

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Classic T&T

Now that we’ve had a taste, we can’t wait until it’s 19 October. And we won’t wait until then either before we pour ourselves another G&T, or T&T as the local bottle shop would have it. And thanks to the amazing Hong Lan asian supermarket for the sweet limes.

T&T BeforeT&T After

An even more belated gin & tonic for a belated birthday party – cheers Cath! Better late than never, right? Right?!

New year, new home

We’ve moved into our own place on New Years Day.  This might seem like a small feat for a furnished apartment after our last move of our entire house in only one day. However, that was with the help of friends and after a long and thorough preparation. Here in Brizzy, it was just the two of us, still unaccustomed to the local temperatures (and a bit intoxicated by the two glasses of champagne for breakfast to celebrate first the Dutch and then the Portugese New Year).

Furnished or not, the place needed some adjustment to suit our needs. The second bedroom had to make room for a work- (and play-)room. Fortunately, there’s a completely useless second bathroom (who wants to clean two?), which nicely holds the second bed. And yes, we did make (several) IKEA run(s). So we’re happy to announce we once more invited Ivar to our home, this time in good company with some new friends Markus, Tornlinden and Nilserik and the trusted Molger in the bedroom. And as a finishing touch, we once again have The Kiss by Klimt above the television.