Having a day off today, in between some full days of office furniture
moving (we did have to carry desks up stairs this time). It's bound
to be doing me some good, full body workouts + getting paid. On
Thursday there's the trip over to Perth and driving back through the
desert for four days.
Just been for a swim in the pool at Brunswick - it's a Melbourne-style
swimming experience. 50m length, outdoors, heated, a 5m deep end,
unlimited hot shower at the end - they like to do things big here. Of
course the trade off is that every time you use electricity here
you're causing pollution. & going for a swim the day before going to
the desert is going to opposite sensory experiences.
Nigel turned up in Melbourne last night on a flying visit, playing
with the Black Seeds. Seemed like a big crowd for a Sunday night but
maybe that's typical here? People seemed to know the tunes anyway.
Nigel seems to have made another quantam leap recently - last year he
started developing an original sound, now he's getting recognition
too. He's getting paid to tour the east coast of Australia, he's got
a weekly residency for the Chandeliers in Wellington, a record deal
with a 7" single coming out, and he's getting a real (as opposed to
synthesiser) 1960s hammond organ (worth about $5000). Hopefully we
can still harness some of that influence for Ascension Band.
I keep going on about this, but the third episode of the new Doctor
Who was something pretty rare & special: excellent television. Makes
such a beautiful change to see the medium live up to its potential.
Set in 19th century Cardiff - brilliant how the Doctor makes no effort
to wear period clothing and turns up in his leather jacket. They meet
Charles Dickens, and have an encounter with gaseous aliens that leaves
Dickens wondering if his life's work has been wasted - he gets some
nice soliloquoys. More than the special effects, what stands out is
the quality of the writing. They've zoned in on the good aspects of
the whole 'Doctor Who' concept and trimmed off most of the padding.
And the acting is of a consistently higher standard than the original
series. Christopher Eccleston's an actor who I'd watch something with
just because he's in it - the last series I wanted to sit down & watch
regularly was 'Our Friends in the North', which also had him. And he
was in 'Cracker'... the other great thing about the new Doctor Who is
that they've been showing it without ad breaks!
We're about to go on this desert trip - hopefully we can avoid dying
of thirst along the way...