and that was the year that was

I've been relaxing and trying to keep away for the internet but i like 'year in review' posts.

Favourites

Moment - the wedding
Trip - Doujicon with Team Radeliade
International Comic - Scott Pilgrim #3
Australian Comic - I'm still going through the piles of stuff i bought through the year for my Ledger review but if i had to pick one, Steve Martinez's Mojo and Fuzz got read multiple times.
TV - 24
Place - Cradle Mountain
Wine variety - Rose (i dunno, i'm getting soft)
Wine - Wirra Wirra Church Block
Album - Album that probably got the most play this year was Ben Kweller's 'On my way', but in terms of new albums Be Your Own Pet's Be Your Own Pet was probably the strongest (Sonic Youth's Rather Ripped was a return to form, same with Prince's 3121) but on a whole nothing really stood out.
Hip Hop Song - Golddigger by Kanye West
Non Hip Hop Song - Elbows by Darren Hanlon
Present - Wii
Movie - The Prestige
Concert - Go Team at BDO
Dish - Em's Spaghetti Marinara
Beer - Mythos
Purchase -8gb MP3 player/Hammer Drill
Book - Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq (though i didn't get to read much)
New Skill - Welding

I worked way too hard and this year I'm pulling back with the home renovation work but that was my year.

Happy new year everyone

Merry Xmas

My favourite xmas carol is "Little Drummer Boy" because it shows us even the little presents are important and it also means i get to sing 'bum' alot.

Merry xmas to everyone, we didn't do cards this year because we've been busy with stuff so 'pa rum bum bum bum, pa rum bum bum bum, pa rum bum bum bum' to everyone out there.

Buy Sureshot Presents this Xmas

You can get purchase Sureshot Presents Doug Holgates' All Adventure Annual at

Minotuars in Melbourne
Impact Comics in Canberra
Pulp Fiction Comics in Adelaide
Phasetwo Comics on the Internet

Make it a merry xmas for you and yours with one easy purchase.

Groan, James Groan - sorry Henry

Actually it wasn't that bad - Casino Royale, that is. Usually i leave the cinema after a Bond film muttering under my breath - pissed off at the shabby plot, poor charaters and tacky one-liners. But funnily enough, when ever a bond movie is on tv i'll switch over and watch, just for the action scenes; whenever the actors start talking i can do something else.

Casino Royale is probably one of the most mature Bond films, harking back to the early days (the first 3 connery films) its less about explosions and more of a mystery. There's actual plot, outside of "Get him bond""lets get out of here""It was YOU all along!". The quipping, roguish cad has been replaced with something more out of the Jason Bourne/Jack Bauer cold intelligent killer, which i like, since that's how i imagine an assassin to be.

The action scenes, the few that there were, were really good, especially that first parkour type chase scene. What did rankle me was the Bond shooting gas cylinders, and air bags and everything else except people. Assassins shoot people, dammit.

Some of the editing was a bit clumsy, both in terms of within in scene edits and story; particularly one jump from Bond sitting down to play poker to him taking off his tie in his room. And the Bond-Vesper love thing towards then end ran too long.

For a Bond film its pretty good; smart and reasonably well written but i don't think i'd watch it often as it doesn't have the explosions and kicking to distract my tiny brain.

..and back

We had a fantastic time in Tasmania, I've got a couple of weeks off now which i need.

Thanks for everyone's emails, messages, comments and smses - it was much appreciated.

The Big Day

41 degrees celsius

Not Cool!

breaking news - kirk never said 'beam me up scotty'

No, not hamfisted over reactions too slightly negative reviews of comic exhibitions!

Melbourne MAY have a supanova in 2008

Shit I came home with

I started with a lot more, I'm trying to figure out what i did with it all.

The gig was good and I chatted with Anthony, Louie (from midstate orange)(while I was urinating and he was waiting to take a bory) and Marty from the Luckies (i was more excited talking to him than strippers). I also now realise there's a banana in that picture - I didn't bring that home.



Dan + texta

Josh discovered this chain by the Grace, which i wore like a belt - i was ready to rumble.

This bike has been outside the railway station for 2 weeks. I didn't have enough money to get all the way home by taxi so... i improvised. This is Josh's xmas present.

Oh and a hangover.

Thanks to all those who came and enjoyed the night with me - you're all awesome.

(Does anyone remember me yelling 'anus cherries'?)

like a stag but goofier

Footscray Library gets graphic and novel

WEST Footscray Library has opened its Graphic novel section with 550 books. That's pretty massive, hugely massive even. i'd be interested what the Australian Graphic novels included are (if its compilations of Snake I'll be pretty unimpressed) and what the manga/superhero/alternative split is.

Looking forward to the first "there's sex in them books!' cry from a stupid parent.

Aussie Columnist

Jason Berek-Lewis is an Australian writer working on a bunch of projects for Dabel Studios (who now have some sort of contract with Marvel). He also has a column at Broken Frontier.

Kwok Rocks Witchblade

Issue 102 of Top Cow's Witchblade features the glorious colours of Annette Kwok, best known for working on part of Witch King and the covers of the last Watch series as well as being Jason Badower's go-to colourist.

Congrats Annette

Adelaide for cosacks; part one

I have family from Slovenia visiting and spent the weekend showing them around, which involved alot of broken Slovenian, driving, eating and drinking.

Friday was a simple roast at my mums - highlight was introducing them to Coopers Pale Ale, which was given the tick.
Saturday we spent by the ocean, in the pub and walking in around with a spot of shopping. European beaches for the most part are very rocky, so sandy beaches are quite the treat. What shocked them most is the dryness of the flora. Slovenia is the third most forest covered country in Europe, their green is deep and rich. Our green, barely is, its more of a brown, our native trees are more khaki camoflaged than evergreen.
Saturday night i cooked a feast for 12; oysters kilpatrick, sweet chilli prawn skewers, satay chicken strips, kangaroo with a berry sauce served with basil/garlic mushrooms, bqq capsicum and zucchini. A fancy multicuisined bbq, which i thought would blow their minds.

It did freak them out - they were not at all used to sweet meat, which kind of makes sense, they come from a balkan/slavic tradition where meat is not really that bountiful or cheap. So they tend to either store their meats (in the form of salamis) or try and give cheap meat flavour by adding spices (ie salt). The kangaroo was served rare, something a)you are supposed to do because it becomes too tough to eat b) are able to do because we have clean meat. Having cooked for some of my parents' friends i've noticed that they have to eat wellcooked meat, otheriwse they think its too dangerous. Its a cultural throwback to when things were tougher.
So there were leftovers, which usually would freak me out but i can dig it, i should have done some tamer.

Sunday - we went up to the Hills, to Handorf, usually noted for its old architecture (some buildings are 150 years old) well that's not so amazing when their holiday house was built in 1827. But it was an excuse to find a country pub and feed them steak. But before lunch the men bought kangaroo leather akurbra style hats which they decided they would wear for rest of the day. It was a good ice breaker with various people "They're tourist and they've bought hats".
The steaks were a hit, used to smaller portions (i think 200g) giving them 500gram tbones lit up faces and filled out bellies. I stupidly stuck to my pub burger fest (where i try burgers from every pub i go to) and had a shit burger but even a good burger would have failed against the steak.
then we went wine tasting.

Mark's Moose Party

Mark's satorial tips

I've been wearing my new suit and i feel so swanky and awesome.
Why?
because i like wearing suits, i look the best (ie least goofy) decked out in jacket and pants.
Some general tips

• Don't buy off the rack. Suits off the rack are only designed for male models, you most likely are not a male model. Buy from a place that alters the suits (or makes them from scratch), they'll alter the suit to make you look good, no matter if you have monkeys arms, or a belly, ot fat neck (ie me, all of the above). Spend a couple of hundred dollars on making it fit so it doesn;t look like you are wearing a sack.
• Get two pairs of pants. Pants wear out much faster than suitcoats, so you extend the life of the suit with extra pants.
• You have to have a navy blue suit. You can rock the navy blue anytime, from weddings, to interviews to funerals. Buying a black suit will not make you a reservior dog, it will make you look like you work as a waiter or at woolies. If you only buy one suit make it dark navy blue, made out of wool because you can't go wrong.
• Don't worry about fashion. Get classic stylish suits, a good tailor will know how long the sleeves are supposed to be, how wide the shoulders, etc. Sure jackets are cut shorter now, but in 3 years time you'll look dated.
• Get 3 button suits before you branch out into 2 button suits. 1,4 and 5 button suits look boy-band ridiculous. And doesn't matter how many buttons you have, never button the bottom one, its like wearing a hat in a restuarant.
• Don't use the jacket side pockets. Ther are usually sown shut, keep them that way, it keeps better shape.
• Dryclean only once a year. Drycleaning more makes the material look shiny and decreases the life of the suit. Just let the thing hang and air, maybe get it steamed and pressed.
• biggest tip, get to know your suit guy. he won't love you the first or second time, but after awhile he'll warm up and see you as an investement. my guy is awesome, he's turkish but spent a number of years in london. For the wedding he's doing half a dozen suits for less than half price because according to him 1) He'll earn the money back from me in the future 2) he likes it when young guys buy and wear his suits because its good publicity. I don't have to chose anymore, he makes all the decisions and he's always right. "When i find a double-breatsed suit with a good cut, that's your next suit".
  

the livingz hellz

1) Emma is in Sydney learning about the new contraceptive. Its a nunga band females shove up the clackerz and it sitz there for 3 months killingz the spermz.
2) I have Fergie's Fergalicious running in my mind constantly
3)I keep wanting to start conversations with "Konichiwa bitches"

Australian WebComics online

Tonia W. has done a fantastic job of making my life easier compiling a website full of Australian Webcomics . Now i don't have to trawl various sites remembering urls and whatnot.

Well done

I wish U2 played Camp Xray (LFW you can read this but don't ask for an autograph)

Last thursday U2 played Adelaide. 60,000 people went, 6% of the population. The paper still has articles about where they stayed, what they did and its getting quite embarrassing. More so by the fact that a manager whose last album purchase was probably Van Morrisons Astral Weeks or possible Carol Kings Tapestry was very excited to get tickets.
At roughly $120 a ticket, that was a gross of $7.2 million dollars. That should keep the Edge in beanie caps for awhile.
I was watching Darren Hanlon play at the Jade Monkey, after a mad dash when i realised at 11pm he was playing that night (and i had already bought tickets). There was probably 80 people there; with a grosse of about $1600. He did get a medely of U2 songs in the refrain of (Not enough songs about) Squash (i think that was the song).

So the overexposure of dad-rock is a bit boring but whats really crazy is when Bono gets a meeting with Peter Costello to talk about rubber wristbands and tinted glasses or whatever at the drop of a hat (a cowboy hat given to him by his stylist) but Terry Hicks (a tax paying citizen) had to wait 3 years to meet Phillip Ruddock.

God, Elton John is coming next year, the pain!

Candle records

It was sad to see that Candle Records is closing down. Home of the Lucksmiths and Darren Hanlon, as well as Rob Clarkson (and Simpletons, etc), I’ve gotten noting but joy from this indy record label. I never missed a concert, an album or dvd. I admired the way Chris Crouch built the label, how the professionalism was coupled by a sense of whimsy (and even love of what he was doing). I spoke to him a couple of times at gigs and by email, there was a realism that I understood (usually displayed as exhaustion after a show or when I talked about how Adelaide got bypassed a couple of times) but he still seemed to enjoy what he was doing. It was kind of inspirational, especially when I started thinking about Sureshot.

So they are having a sale; I’ll probably be replenishing the cds lent and lost but would like to hightlight

Hello Stranger – Darren Hanlon. Songs that are extremely hummable but with some sweet (as in nice not as in ‘sweet mate!’) lyrics.

Shirts and Skins – Rob Clarkson. I great double cd with some fun songs tinged with the melodrama of growing up and relationships and other melodramatic songs tinged with a sense of fun.

Private transport - The Guild League. A love note to travel, I'll call this up while I’m on the train and going to work doesn’t seem so bad.

Where were we - Lucksmiths. I’d recommend all their albums but if I had to pick one, this would be it.

Loyalty Songs – Anthony Aitkinson. Anthony is probably the most mature (or maybe better put the least quirky) singer/songwriter in the Candle Records stable. His latest album is a treat.

The only time i haven't been completely satisfied with a Candle record was probably Mid-State Orange, its an ok album but you need to play it at the right time, I still haven't figured out what time that is. Otherwise the Richard Easton stuff was not really to my taste.