FREE 70K

For those Melbournians or anyone familiar with the prolific (often difficult access and high altitude) graffiti of Stan & Bonez and the rest of the 70K crew, who have recently been the subject of an international taskforce, with most members having been arrested and facing prison…I saw this on the weekend Clifton Hill Station & Hoddle streets and thought it worth a mention. Looks like the Free 70K campaign has begun!
Still trying to find an online link to the most recent Herald Sun article dated 01/09/06.
here is a link that mirrors a previous article from The Sun earlier in the year.

Monkey Punch Dinosaur

G’day g’day! I’m very sorry dear visitors that I have been such a force of absence these past months. The sad truth is that during this time I have composed several blogs in my head, but have not got around to posting them. But anyhoo I’m back now and here’s why:

I have an entry at the fantastic Monkey Punch Dinosaur website so please check it out.

…and stay tuned for some retrospective blogs in the coming weeks.

Peace on yer.


Listening to: Chinese Rocks – the Ramones version and the Heartbreakers one…back2back double play roCK!

Good Friday

Here are some photos I took on Good Friday whilst walking around Fitzroy/Collingwood. I was going to show the street art pics, but I like the building shot as well, and in it's way I believe it is a related branch...part of what we like referring to as Accidental Art and the like. I will probably throw some more pics from this day up on MySpace.com, so check em out "by yourself or enjoy them with a friend"

Listening to: Arcade Fire, The Walkmen & rare instrumental version of 'Dosed' by RHCP

Blood Tests

(Sub title: “Tough Love” The prequel)

Recently for the first time in my life I had blood tests to test for every conceivable STD, HIV or any other similar neo-zoom dweebie hazards such as the Hep gang.

I recently arrived in Melbourne for a working adventure (*Perhaps more on this at a later juncture) and had to call a doctor in WA to get the results. I controlled the fear fairly well. You’ve got to “let go” I guess. The courage to ignore that which you cannot change or affect…it goes something like that doesn’t it?
Anyhow It was a nerve wracking few minutes as the receptionist placed me on hold to fetch the results and inform me that it was all good.
How good is that? Over the years I have done many risky things, and I’m a bit fortunate I guess…so if you ever did stupid things with Den…well at least for my part (ooh err) its all good! (Motions to the sky, praying or just taking a deep breath? it is unclear)



Listening to: Faker, Bluebottle Kiss and The Cure

Hey Hey My My

- This follows on nice from the previous blog entry. The 5th of April was the 12th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death.


There’s a good little write up here,
that comes from a Washington radio station called KXRO. As an additional side-note It also mentions that it was the 4th anniversary of Layne Staley’s (Alice In Chains) death, who I had forgotten died on the 5th of April also. Anyhoo…I’ve been in Melbourne doin a lot of walking and getting around on trams and trains, headphones in, volume up, soaking up the atmos of grey-london-antipodes, listening to “From The Muddy Banks Of The Whishkah.”

“New rock is the old rock rolling”

Lagged me to my Mum

Talking to my Mum it has just emerged that one of my old friends, and I WILL find out WHO, made some passing comment to my Mum about 8-10 years ago that, and I quote “Denny’s been into some heavy shit”
hehehe sounds like I was in a badass crew with a heavy rep doin jobs and chunks of time! ;-)
The Fuck.
Weak as piss whoever you are…weak as piss.

To make sense for my other readers, at the time the person was referring to my drug taking adventures in the underworld.
Lagged me out to my Mum. Didn’t even “Tough Love” me, or organise a freakin intervention (not that I needed one) …and we all saw how successfully “TL” worked with Kurt Cobain (Bless)

“Its kicking on to 12 years now, and still no sign of Mr Mojo rising!”

Nothing of any substance, just a cryptic note under a door or a whispered guilt breathing in a corner…
Lagged me out to my Mum was all one had to offer…
Weak As Piss!
You know who you are!

…hehehe that was fun…I’m so hard ;-)

Listening to: Bloc Party
Reading: Valis - Phillip K.Dick

Drive-Thru Dragon Fly

When I opened the Bottlo on Sunday morning an enormous Dragonfly blew across the ground in a curlicue of leaves and other detritus. I carefully picked it out and put it up on the desk. It seemed to exhale and it straightened itself out and we sat together quietly for a few moments while it died. I put it in a plastic money bag. By the time I got it home that evening, much of the bright tigerish yellow gold bands around its tail had faded. I scanned it… so that it in part lives on in digitized recollection of its brief but brightened glory.


“If you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep track of where it has been, you wouldn’t choose human beings for the job. But…we have been chosen, by fate or providence or whatever you wish to call it. As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is. It’s an unnerving thought, we may be the living universe’s supreme achievement and it’s worst nightmare simultaneously.” - Bill Bryson 'A Short History Of Nearly Everything'

Shit Sandwich

One of my regulars in the Bentley bottlo is this priceless old character called Tommy.

I was telling him recently that we were thinking about organising a social cricket game, and perhaps he might be interested in joining in. He instantly replied:

“You know me mate… I’ll be in anything but a shit sandwich! And that’s only cause’ I don’t like bread! ”

**lol**

Tommy >>>

Heavy Product

I meant to give a shout out to my old mate Adam Ford ages ago.
So better late than never I suppose.

Adam is an excellent writer and diligent advocate of literary expression. His debut novel Man Bites Dog was published by Allen & Unwin in 2003. In 2004 it won Best Designed Young Adult Book in the Australian Publishing Association Awards, and last year was runner up in the 2005 One Book, One Brisbane award.



Recently Adam chucked up a street art photo of mine on his website.
He is collecting photos of the work of a mysterious sticker artist. See extract from Adam's site below:

Heavy Product Gallery
Outside the wind has picked up. A solitary guy with a canvas satchel strapped to his back and a skateboard tucked under his arm walks past. He pats the side of the pub with one hand and strolls on. I notice that he’s left something behind where he touched the wall. Gina comes out and locks the door behind her.
“Oh, shit,” I say, nudging Gina. She looks to where I’m pointing.
Just underneath the blackboard announcing next week’s gigs is a Heavy Product sticker.
“That wasn’t there before, was it?”
“What?”
“The sticker, for fuck’s sake.”
“Oh. No. No, it wasn’t.”
“It’s him, then. We’ve found him!”

Though Steve and Gina are fictional characters, the mysterious individual who places "This Is A Heavy Product" stickers on flat surfaces all over Melbourne is all too real. Below are some of the more recent sightings. If you have spotted one of the tell-tale markings left by this mysterious individual, we'd love it if you took a photo and sent it in, so it can become part of this ongoing divination project. Or if you can't be arsed traipsing out camera in hand, you could drop us a quick email and let us know where you saw it and maybe we'll go out ourselves. All contributors to the gallery will receive an exclusive Adam Ford Zine-and-Other-Stuff Pack (tm).


Check out Adam’s site at:
http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~adamford/index.html


Reading:
Illusions - Richard Bach

Listening To:
Music Vs Physics

South Perth foreshore

Heres some photos I took down on the South Perth foreshore last night.

Hugh Ford (The Magic Cowboy)

This is a pic of an excellent work called "Walkers" by my good mate Hugh Ford. If you really like it you might fancy youself as some sort of art collector and want to buy it. Well your too late as it has already been sold!
Check out Hugh Ford's blog FOREVER APE at : http://magicowboy.blogspot.com/

and dorfens

How do you feel now? You’ve got to remember these things as best you can….long after they’re gone. Because in a way, that’s far more important than the ‘High’. The accurate and more still, meaningful recollection of ‘The Moment’. What it meant, how you got there…how you get there again.

Den's Top Ten Films 2005

As part of my ongoing list therapy (boy I’m never gonna get tired of that piece of personalia) here is my first blog regarding the top ten films I saw in the year. I started this list a couple of years ago, mainly as a nerdy celebration for me and my fellow film loving mates to enjoy.

I don’t feel like my viewing in 2005 has matched the stellar heights of 2004. With the likes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lost In Translation, Kill Bill 2, and Return of The King to name but four from last years list. I would however have to mention the Aussie contingent. Last year there wasn’t one Australian film in my top ten, (or even amongst the fourteen films on my short list). This year there are four. 2005 was undoubtedly an excellent year for the Australian film industry.

2005
1. The Aviator
2. Look Both Ways
3. Riding Giants
4. The Proposition
5. Little Fish
6. Sin City
7. The Weeping Camel *
8. Narnia LWW
9. Hitchhikers Guide
10.The Magician

*As in last years list, I made the decision to include a film, The Weeping Camel, that was released 30/9/04 in Australia (26/2/04 U.S), because I didn’t see this film until February 2005 and it was a significant part of my cinema going experience for the year. Interestingly this film is listed on IMDB as a joint German and Mongolian production. It was first shown to a cinema public at the Toronto Film Festival all the way back in September 2003. It made its debut in Germany 8/1/2004 and there is no listing for Mongolia. Guess I should look into this further, but I have no idea what Mongolia has in the way of cinema infrastructure. My mum was there in 2002, I should ask her what she thinks :-)

All other films on this list were released in Australia sometime in 2005.

As an example of how complicated things can get in listology, Stacy Peralta’s film Riding Giants made limited release in the US in July 2004, but didn’t get released in Australia until March 2005.

Listening to: Triple J

Energy Cannot Be Destroyed

I was going to make some big song and dance out of my return, but instead I’ve just decided to get the ball rolling again with this wee blurt about exercise, stuff and gunk.

Once you attain a certain level of fitness it becomes easy to forget how far you’ve come. As of writing this I have just completed my first boxing for fitness session for 2006. Prior to this it has been quite a lay off for me. In October I flew to Melbourne to work at the Spring Carnival for Advertising Associates, (but that’s another story), I ended staying in Melbourne for over six weeks. Whilst I was there I struggled to maintain a regular training program. I did a B4F class immediately upon my return to Perth, in which I was good and strong, but had clearly lost some endurance. Then I came down with a bizarre flu-like lurgy that ended up being viral conjunctivitis. It made my right eye puss up and close over, my nose bleed, my chest congest, threatened to turn into bronchitis threatened to never go away and generally beat the crap out of me for over two weeks.
So now I am taking a moment to reflect on where I have come from, how far I have come and how badly I want to resume progress on this journey to fitness.

I got onto this talking jag because tonight when the heat was on I was shocked to feel how weak I had become. On several occasions I actually had to stop during the circuit. I felt weaker than the first time I ever attempted this B4F circuit. Amazing sensation, but thinking about it now, it probably shocked me more because I have rarely been sick since about August 2003, (I know this because it was about six months before I quit cigarettes), when I had my final bout of severe bronchitis. And because I haven’t had to train back to form from being sick, since this whole campaign of transformation began some nineteen months ago.
I keep thinking of a scene in the M.Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable, when the character David played by Bruce Willis asks his wife “Do you remember me getting sick?” It goes on because she can’t recall a specific occasion and neither can he.

My old buddy Max Flory is fond of pointing out how many stories and novels could be condensed down to their first and/or last paragraphs…even last lines, without them losing their principle meanings. So it is with that in mind that I finish with:

It still surprises me how much the physical training battle is a mental one.


The First law of thermodynamics = Energy cannot be created or destroyed; only changed from one form to another.
(Also called the law of conservation of energy)


Listening To:
Bluebottle Kiss - Patient

Last Days

*From discussions of the Gus Van Sant film ‘Last Days’ on the Internet Movie Database website.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0403217/usercomments-51

I think much of the criticism surrounding this film is fair.
I however find myself rating the film fairly highly. Like many other reviewers, I too found myself challenged and slightly bewildered by the film’s long scenes with static camera work, that seem to not end up going anywhere. There is one scene in particular where Blake has fled out the back door from another unwanted visitor and has just run past a row of trees and plants in the back garden. Blake runs through the frame and the camera holds the shot on the background of trees and shrubs for what seems like 10-15 seconds. Although this is definitely unconventional filmmaking, I can appreciate what Van Sant and Co might be trying for. There is an emotional resonance throughout the film. Conveying this to an audience in a unique way is a delicate task. I suspect that the frequent use of long static shots is Van Sants attempt to allow his audience the time to consider what is transpiring. The film language is daring and requires the audience to participate in creating the emotional landscape that the film requires to live.
The film is definitely frustratingly static at times. The action is minimalist. The narrative probably does fail when held up against the orthodox requirements of traditional film and storytelling narrative. It is at the very least a daring piece of filmmaking and challenges its audience all the way. It is ‘empty’ in a way, but the films emptiness reveals a subtle emotional storytelling and a deep atmosphere. I found this playing on my mind long afterwards.
Does the film work without some prior knowledge of Cobain’s story? I can’t honestly answer that, as much of my appreciation of this film comes from my own personal ‘back story’ as it were. I think this film may suffer from people’s initial reactions, but I believe there is something living within this film that warrants quiet reflection.

http://www.lastdaysmovie.com/

Noi The Albino

Heart-achingly beautiful film from Iceland

Noi The Albino

http://www.noi-themovie.com/

do thine self a favour...
*grins*


Listening to: CKY infiltrate-destroy-rebuild

Alien Zoo

Last night I had a very vivid dream. At the point that I can start recalling the dream, it feels as if quite a bit of the story has already evolved. The sense of this is heightened by my actually waking up during the dream. In fact now I’m not sure whether I awoke at all, but rather dreamt that I was awake thinking about the intense dream I was having.
I was on board an alien spaceship. Actually I’m not sure it was a space ship, I’m assuming it was. It was somewhere big and aliens lived there. I was wandering around in a very clean set of halls and corridors. Like the movie cliché white and metallic spaceship interiors. Something had made me feel annoyed or distressed and almost instantly ‘they’ sensed it and gently levitated me into a giant domed area like the inside of a multilevel shopping mall an enormous domed ceiling enclosed a space the size of an arena. The atmosphere was very quiet and serene. There was a lot of lush hanging foliage dangling from large hanging baskets that reached down from high above. ‘They’ levitated me toward an enclosure that was walled by some sort of clear Perspex or glass and I immediately understood that this space was some type of botanical garden or zoo. Within the darkened enclosure there clearly moved several humanoid forms. I was levitated right up to the glass. The dim light from the giant atrium didn’t quite penetrate the enclosure. I'd have to say that this looked like a controlled phenomenon. I could see the humanoid shapes moving out of the darkness toward the glass I distinctly remember thinking ‘shit I’m gonna get a shock here when these creatures become suddenly visible right in front of me and I willed the levitation to pull me back a few feet from the enclosure. I then noticed that a few metres to my left there was an open doorway into the enclosure anyway, and one of the humanoids kind of half stepped out half leaned around with a long gangly arm that reached out in a handshake gesture. It’s upper half remained cloaked in dark so that I couldn’t really distinguish its features, however its arm was quite visible and the skin was a reddish brown colour with a ruddy skin texture flecked with what looked like large sunspots. It spoke to me in what I assumed was English, but thinking about it now it could’ve been any language or even non-verbal. It greeted me and introduced itself. Alas I can’t remember its name, but I’ve a vague recollection it was something unlikely like Richard or Wayne. I was then levitated to another enclosure where I saw another set of very humanoid looking creatures, again in a dimly lit enclosure. All I can really recall about them is that they seemed to have a green colouring (god this is sounding more and more like the product of 30 years of television). This bit of the dream is vague in my memory and I think it is here that I woke up in my room lying face down on the bed, feeling a bit spooked and looking around to see if there were aliens in the room! I remember they kind of spoke to me telepathically and explained to me how their method of ‘borrowing’ humans, was very different to our pop culture depictions of alien abduction. At the time the information struck me as some kind of revelation, alas I can’t remember what this information was. I Remember thinking that it was something to do with a ‘mind lift’ that left our physical body where it lay on earth, but simultaneously enabled us to be wholly somewhere else…in another dimension or just out in Space orbiting the earth? But a type of temporal/phase transfer. Extra dimensional, but linked…all linked. Particle physics I think…quarks, gluons, and leptons doing bizzaro virtually incomprehensible superstring theory stuff like being “vibrating strands of energy that oscillate in eleven dimensions, consisting of three we know already plus time and seven other dimensions that are, well, unknowable to us. Strings that are very tiny (‘well duh’) tiny enough to pass for point particles” Passing for point particles when they are in fact strands of ‘crazy string’…well, at least that’s my understanding (*grins*) Cant help but picturing pink string foaming out of spray-cans at this point. The above quotation is author Bill Bryson attempting to simplify the mind-boggling quantum physics ideas of people such as physicist Michio Kaku. http://www.mkaku.org/
Anyway I digress, although that’s pretty much it really. The aliens weren’t malevolent, for example the whole trip to the zoo was a response to my becoming uptight, they were trying to help…and responded instantly as if my thoughts were being monitored, which obviously in the context of this story, they were. I clearly recall being impressed by their technology and the childlike quality of their handling.
Best of all after that dream I went straight into a dream about my beautiful ex-girlfriend Sarah and it was very pleasant and comforting, and again very vivid and with full detailed settings, like standing outside in the car park outside Max’s old house, his Mum’s place in Subiaco. Heaps nostalgic, but also a celebration of things. This is a hugely important recognition for me. And it left me feeling thus. Which is nice for a change, normally such reminiscences are sad and at best ‘exquisitely’ painful. Gives me hope for the future. And for friendly aliens (*winks*)

“We are willing enough to praise freedom when she is safely tucked away in the past and cannot be a nuisance. In the present, amidst dangers whose outcome we cannot foresee, we get nervous about her, and admit censorship”
- E.M. Forster

Listening to: The Guild League ‘Inner North’

The Take

Went and saw a great doco at the Luna last night called ‘The Take’
http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/thetake/
It’s about a kinda socialist (dogma-lite ;-) movement in Argentina.
“In the wake of Argentina’s economic collapse in 2001, Latin America’s most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment.
Thirty unemployed workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act —the take —has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.”
-Director/producer Avi Lewis
Anyway the reason I mention this, apart from the fact that I enjoyed it and its worth checking out, is because this morning whilst at work in the bottlo, a nice old lady started talking to me about a current political issue in WA to do with trading hours and trading restrictions. (There is a proposal to lift restrictions on liquor stores opening on Sundays)
http://www.caan.adf.org.au/newsletter.asp?ContentId=t25072005
Anyhoo I gave her my spiel on how I saw the current state of play and then I went on a mini-rant about ‘The Take’ and my opinion on the role of big business in the decision making of Western governments. She asked me if I was studying Law, and then she said “Do you know that you’re the first intelligent young person I've spoken to..(she took pause)...well...in years!”
She was well pleased and left full of smiles.
Regardless of truths here…it sure did make me feel nice and hence my chucking it up here. Going to bed now…hard work today, then hard boxing and now wasted ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Croc drags man from canoe

“Crocodile kills man after dragging him from his canoe.”
16th August 2005
This is a terrible thing for the man who has lost his life in such a brutal and bizarre way and no doubt for his family, not the least of which his poor wife, who was in the canoe with him when the great beast struck and tried to help her husband b4 being propelled into the river after their canoe capsized during the course of the attack.
Of course I feel for these people.
But how is killing this animal going to help anyone?
If a 4 mtr croc was hanging around a drain in Newtown Sydney, then maybe kill the animal as a last resort, but we’re talking about a sparsely populated, fairly remote National Park in Cape York no less. In fact I have just found on the Queensland Government & E.P.A website the unequivocal piece of advice for people wishing to canoe within Lakefield National Park
"Canoeing is not recommended because this is crocodile country"
see: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/park/index.cgi?noback=1&parkid=187

It came on the news last night that they were searching for the “big rogue” croc.
I turned to my mum and said “Now they're gonna kill that croc or some other random 4 mtr croc that they come across…”
Unfortunately that’s exactly what has happened. They found a big croc on the 17th of August and killed it. http://www.abc.net.au/farnorth/stories/s1440820.htm
They cut it open and its stomach was empty. Apparently it could’ve still been the ‘guilty rogue man-eater’ due to a crocodile’s tendency to cache its food before eating it. But there’s no way to be 100% certain.
At the risk of hammering my point…best we go and kill some other big crocs, just to be sure.
August 19th Minister dismisses calls for crocodile cull
http://abc.net.au/news/items/200508/1441197.htm?farnorth

And finally I found this nice one page report (with an excellent drawing) done by a Queensland student, on the legend of a boat-attacking crocodile
A 6 metre salty known as ‘Sweetheart’
http://www.herbertonss.qld.edu.au/landofoz/judedwin.htm

Not Today

England v Australia, 3rd Test, Old Trafford, 5th day.
August 15, 2005
It was way past my bed time. I had just turned out all the lights, had got into bed. I had to work in the morning, but I couldn’t leave the cricket in such a situation. I got back up.
Turned the TV on just in time to see Ponting get out for 156. Australia are 9 for 354. Four Lee and McGrath must survive 4 overs to save the Test.
For 24 balls I knocked on wood, gripped the edge of the table and spoke firmly, nervously at the TV “not today” “we are not going to lose today” “its our turn for some luck” every ball, every single ball.
Ball beats the bat and narrowly misses the off stump…
“Not today”
Skied chance falls short…
“NOT TODAY!”
Somehow I felt in my knotted stomach that they would do it. And they did.
Lee and McGrath hung on and kept the Poms out for 24 balls. Saved the match and maybe, we shall see, the Ashes.
Series level 1-1.
In 20-odd years of watching Test Cricket a draw has ever meant as much to me.
Special mention to: Ponting, Warne, Lee, McGrath and Clarke.
Well done lads!

Final 24 balls cric-info commentary:
http://aus.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/AUS_IN_ENG/SCORECARDS/AUS_ENG_T3_11-15AUG2005_BBB-COMMS.html