Tim is blacked out: Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" for New Zealand.

http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

It's an Omen!

Image: theprodigy.com
Warning: The writing's on the wall. It won't go away.

I'm listening to a copy of Invaders Must Die, the upcoming album of those most ferocious of break-beat electro monsters, The Prodigy.

Do I need to say anything more? It's a beast. The beats are nostalgic and razor-sharp cutting edge, with no souls spared in the bass. The homage to their older tracks (circa Music For The Gilted Generation is ever present - a step that all decent fans have been awaiting a long time. Samples in Take Me To The Hospital and Warrior's Dance could easily fit in well on M4TGG or Experience. But the sound isn't a rehash - more a natural progession. It's off the gawdamn hook.
Let me know if you'd like a listen - though I expect all who do to buy it come Feb 23rd. And see them live - you won't regret it.

In other music news, big ups to the guys at the Grammy's for recognising how truly amazing Radiohead's In Rainbows is (it picked up Best Alternative Album), along with the accolades for Daft Punk's Alive 07 (Best Dance Album/Best Dance Recording for Harder Better Faster Stronger), which may well be the best live electronic set ever. Period.

The other awards were fairly run-of-the-mill - though Led Zepp's Robert Plant picking up Record of The Year came as a surprise - I was sure Coldplay had that in the bag. Not that I really care. Awards for music, like talking about music, is like dancing about architecture, or so Mr. Costello would have you believe.

Don't Stalk Me

Warning: This post knows where you live.

Last Sunday I moved flat - my 3rd place since coming here in 2006, and a reversion back to living alone after the shambles that communal living deteriorated to in my last place (having my laptop stolen by my flatmate and living with people who never washed the dishes after they ate and built duvet-forts in the living room where they camped out and never slept in their bedroom are what I term "shambles", FYI). I have a Kiwi neighbour, an American and a few Japanese but I have the room (spacious but old) to myself. Much as I loved the previous place for its social factor, things like safety and general hygiene are vastly improved for having moved into a new place.

Looking it up on Google Maps, I clicked too far and suddenly found a remarkably high quality photo of the outside of the apartment block.

I know everyone got into Google Map's Street View quite some time ago, but when it first came out it was extremely limited (ie. certain parts of the States), and I never imagined they'd manage to make it all the way around to my side of the world.
How wrong was I?

Not only can you see my place in Osaka (above), the supermarket down the road and other wonderful parts of Namba, but it appears they've got New Zealand covered too. Not that you can see the whanau's house (it's down a long driveway), but still, the neighbourhood is there:
Driveway
Ferry Road and a view of the bay
The wharf near sunset
Still, they haven't made it into the countryside in Japan, nor anywhere in China from the looks of things. But the progress is almost scary. I just hope people only use it for good - like that story of the cop who found the girl kidnapped by her grandmother by using the GPS on her phone and Street View to find the motel they were at - rather than for the forces of evil -like a dude who might find a girl to kidnap and take to a motel, or (worst case), realising the political scenario of 1984...

One day, we're gonna live, in Paris

Warning: This post has insufficient funds.

The final leg of my trip to Europe was a night in Paris before jetting back to Osaka. The original plan was to go early in the morning with Sam, have a romantic walk along the Seine and check out the city before a night out. Sam couldn't make it in the end, so I headed off in the afternoon to check into a hotel and have 16 hours of Paris to myself.

First stop was a compulsory trip to Le Tour Eiffel, which was quite surreal - felt like meeting a celebrity. I avoided the queues for the lift and the guys selling roses (trying to con boyfriends into thinking an obligatory romantic gesture is in order), and merely enjoyed staring at it from underneath. For all its hype (and anti-climax: I heard at least one American girl say "it's so small!"), it really is a beautiful structural work. I want to climb amongst the steel and take pictures at interesting angles. Can't say I thought much of the epileptic strobe lighting that intermittedly explodes from it.

Getting halfway across the city (from Gard du l'Est to the Tower) was almost as simple as it is in Japan - though the Metro system suffers from graffiti scratched on the windows that brings the whole image down. I found it painful to look at - for some reason it reminded me of scar tattoos that gang members inflict on themselves with knives. The subway limped along, a victim of torture.

Dinner was pizza at a cafe, and after a kip I headed out to Rex Club, where Danger & Digikid 84 were playing. Nice club, large without too much fronting from the kids and only 15EUR to get in. I say "only 15 EUR" when that's around $NZ37, but considering the price of the drinks the entry fee was a bargain. 10EUR for Sex On the Beach* may sound like a cheap hook-up, but it's very dear if said sex on said beach is in the form of a mocktail masquerading as an alcoholic beverage. Still - I guess it stops binge-drinking...

Drinks weren't the only expensive thing - the hotel was 42EUR for a watercloset with a hard bed. This was apparently a steal seeing as I had the room to myself and most places would ask for double that, but it's hard to see it that way when you're wondering if the bed is supposed to make that cracking noise when you get in it.
But bar the prices, Paris did have this air of a city I could get very accustomed to. If I could only afford it. It's certainly on my growing list of places to visit (again) when I'm off travelling in 2010, but I might need to make some Parisian friends to avoid blowing my budget in a week.

Finally, here's a 5-second clip of a guy playing an accordion on the train. I think he's awesome. I bet the locals hate him.

More photos on Flickr and Facebook.

*Let me point out I don't drink Sex on the Beach. People I bought drinks for do. I'd never stoop to that alcohol level.

Buddha Pest

Warning: This post requires warmer clothing.

Part of my trip to Europe over New Years was around 20 hours in Budapest, mainly to visit Andris (a mate since '06: he went to Gaidai and we met at the kid's camp I mentioned earlier). He's just had a kid with his wife Adrian, a bouncing bubble-cheeked girl named Viktoria. Anyway, my lack of time and money meant I flew over in the afternoon and back out at midday the following day, but it was worth it to catch up and see where the man is at these days.


I flew via Wizz Air - I think they're Hungarian, and they have hot pink planes. They also have very cheap flights. It ended up costing me 60EUR or so each way, but that's with a week's notice and at the end of the year. I can't get prices like that in NZ or Japan even if I book 4 months in advance for a Tuesday morning in February.
The flipside is that the flights are almost guaranteed to be delayed 1-2 hours and there's no meal (nor seat-allocation), but hey - what you pay is what you get.

My impression of Budapest (all 5 hours or so of it) was one of a country sitting on the fence between developed and developing, between Eastern Europe and Western culture, with layer upon layer of ancient architecture, relics of Soviet control, and, well, Tesco's. It felt beautiful and also withered - but maybe that's just what winter does to a place.

The Hungarian women, who are vaunted by men (though it is mentioned in Lonely Planet that hotties are often used as bait for muggings in bars) certainly stood out, but they're not really my type. Something about the fashion or the extensive eyebrow-waxing just feels like they're trying too hard. The girls who tone it down a bit are probably very attractive, but so many look a bit "cheap". Or is that "expensive"? Certainly either way they look like they have a price.


Photos are on Facebook and Flickr of our "Budapest in 90 minutes" tour across the city in the morning. There's also a few videos I took of Andris's apartment and driving over the famous Budapest "chain bridge". Good times.




Thanks for having me Andris & family - I'll come see you next time I want cheap DVDs and vicious Eastern European spirits. Take care!