Best Big Day Out ever!!!!!!!!

And why was it the best BDO ever ever EVER??? Two words really -

The Stooges.

Yep I said it, definitely the best ever! And I should know, I've seen 'em all!!! So what made this year's the creme de la creme of travelling rock festivals? Ok, a couple of things contributed to the experience in general - well, it was my first Gold Coast BDO, and I have to say it's a much better set up in this neck of the woods than the poor old Wayville Showgrounds - no bottlenecking as you move from one stage to the other, so 90 000 people in the crowd felt less crowded than the 30 000 you get at the Adelaide BDO; all nice and open and although for the middle of the day not a huge amount of shade all of the stages (aside from the two main stages) were under muhassive big tents so there was actually plenty of shade when seeing a band; The whole of the showgrounds is grassed so instead of hot baking asphalt on which to cook oneself from the underneath there was cool and pleasant (and actually quite wet for most of the day!) grass to sit on, roll around in, play hacky on etc etc etc; Friendliest crowd I've ever been a participant in (outside of the Falls Festival); and a great bunch of mates to share the day with :-)

We were uber organised and got up at 6, and on the road at 7.15 (not bad for a sunday morning when we'd gotten on it the night before eh?). Bubblicious drove her car with D and C, I drove my car with S and we picked up M on the way and made it down to the coast by about 9 - picked up a few further supplies and headed to the Southport Sharks (Aussie Rules can you believe it??) Football club - which is conveniently located right next to the Gold Coast Showgrounds, to meet Chops and L. Bubbles and I happen to be members so they were more than happy to let us park there for the day - the security guard on the gate even telling us to have a great BDO!! Woohoo!!! We went inside for breakkie, and met some more mates and after a munch out ended up in the cocktail lounge enjoying a pre-festivities cocktail - woohoo!! I LOVE IT when a plan comes together!!!

So off we trundled and within 10 minutes we were inside the gates and checking out where things were... can't do THAT at Wayville either!! As there were no sniffer dogs or body searches (the guy inside the gate barely looked inside my bag - I could've brought an entire METH LAB with me if I a) knew how to operate one b) had a bag big enough and c) had any interest in cooking up amphetamine inside the showgrounds!!). As it stands next year I won't worry about rolling spliffs before we go in and may well just take along my tin and pipe hehe too easy!

First thing I did as soon as I walked in and saw the rides in front of the main stages was drag S onto one of them with me - I chose the MegaDrop over the slingshot as I have ridden the Slingshot and sure it was great but man it's not enough! 2 seconds of fabulous gut-churning adrenaline is NOT enough (considering it's $20 or so to ride it). S bravely swallowed his trepidation and came on the ride with me - and as we cranked up to the ten odd storey top of the ride he said "I'm hyperventilating already!" so I advised him to breathe deeply and ensure he was exhaling on the way down!! We hung there for a few moments, savouring the height and the view and the impending rush before - WHAMMO!!! Down we dropped in a few heart stopping seconds!!! It was insane and I couldn't stop screaming and yahooing!! What a rush!! That so got the blood pumping I was bouncing for the next 10 minutes!

First band off the rank was local act The Grates on the Green stage - and not to put too fine a point on it, they were (unsurprisingly) great! So I thought 'right! No buggerising around I'm going to the merch tent where I promptly bought myself a Stooges t shirt and a Mars Volta t shirt. That out of the way I then went to check out Gerling with the kids - we had all gone our separate ways by this stage as some people wanted to look at some stuff and alla that malarky. All the while I was keeping an eagle eye out for a game of hacky, but nothing in sight, so we watched Gerling (Bubblicious' favourites) and enjoyed the crowd - quite colourful as you can imagine!! Some hilarious t shirts were making the rounds - a few of my favourites were 'I may look like a 7 but my dick's a 10!', 'my girlfriend told me to be more affectionate so I got a second girlfriend' and 'Rock n Roll Motherfucker' - a D4 t shirt that I saw a couple of times that I simply MUST have!!! (think ebay may be my only hope here).

We then made our way to the Local Produce stage to catch local band Shifter do their thing - and man!! Were these guys absolutely cranking it out!!! Micky the lead singer is shy and quiet and introspective offstage (I met him at a party some months ago) but onstage the man's an animal!! (in the best possible way of course). The bass player was wearing (and I kid you not in stinking hot, humid summer queensland weather) black leather pants, the worlds LARGEST belt buckle, and a black shirt open to the waist - yeehar!!! These guys were totally awesome, and did the best version of Highway to Hell I've ever heard (including the original) and just basically absolutely rocked their little hearts out to the small but devoted crowd there to appreciate them - totally my play of the day (aside from the Stooges of course).

We kept cool by wandering through the spray tents and hung out under the shade just enjoying the spray that was misting the crowd through the trees... a really nice set up, without a challenge!

It was S's first ever BDO, and Ch (our gorgeous South African friend) also had never been to one, and we really wanted them to have the best possible time... which I think they did as Ch said to me within 5 minutes of walking inside the gate - "I just LOVE this country!!". S was having a blast and thoroughly enjoying the music so we passed a very pleasant afternoon as Magic Dirt followed Gerling. As always Adelita rocked - although there's a hell of a lot of hand clapping and encouraging the crowd to join in these days - cool for kids but not that rock n roll ya know? Anyways Mudvayne blew the speakers on the main stage at 3 and they were out of action for about 40 minutes until Wolfmother took to the stage and man! Just like last year I felt like I had warped back to the mid 70's and was at a Deep Purple gig... nice one boys! Now these guys only played a short set, but by this stage I had met three divine young lads (all up from Byron Bay) who were keen jellybeans to play some hacky.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!! Finally!!! My cup runneth over and this little peanut was happier than a pig in the proverbial!!! So hacky shenanigans ensued all through the remaining hours of sunlight and in the meanwhile Henry Rollins ripped out an awesome spoken word performance, the Beasts of Bourbon tore it up on the green stage, the Mars Volta cranked out a massive set, the Hilltop Hoods did their thing on the main stage, followed by our own awesome Living End (who still very much have it). Truth be told once the hack was on there was only one thing that could stop it, and Franz Ferdinand was just not it... entirely forgettable to be honest (although I confess the hacky was SENSATIONAL) and once day had faded I was up on the MegaDrop a few more times.... Yahooie!!! Love that rush!!!!

Our recalcitrant buddy Bruce managed to make a late appearance just before the Stooges and instead of waiting for me to finish my spliff made his way down to the front of the stage in time for the set to begin. I was somewhat more tardy and was unable to get all the way down to the front, but as Iggy took to the stage I was able to follow his onstage antics from the comfort of the hill (after one last go on the MegaDrop) and rock out!!!

The Ashton's were phenomenal - now I know what all the fuss is really about - the last 30 years have done amazing things for Ron Ashton's guitar playing - the man is a genius!!! As Bruce so succinctly noted 'that guitar could cut you in half!!'... it was unreal! Iggy is a maniac and so exciting to watch live... old, wrinkled and leathery he may well be but the man is unstoppable and still radiates unbelievable attitude and energy - in spite of his 'barely there' hipster jeans (that ended up soaked with sweat). 'I wanna be your dog' was a highlight for me... as was 'Fun House' and 'Skull Ring' - Scott Ashton thumping out relentless beats on the drums, with Mike Watt contributing to a seamless rhythm section that just totally drove home the power and energy of the whole Stooges experience. Iggy got members of the crowd up on stage as always and somehow even with all these people dancing around, as well as himself like the maniac he is, no one tripped over any cables, no leads were unplugged, and no damage was done to person or equipment - remarkable really. Just wish I was one of the lucky buggers up there on stage - well who knows... maybe next time eh?

Once in a lifetime? - Quite probably.

Worth every cent of the price of admission just for the Stooges alone? - Most definitely

And frankly, after they had finished up, and the sweaty, bleeding, utterly awesome and fanfuckingtastic Stooges had left the stage, anyone would have been crap but in my opinion, the White Stripes were utter rubbish!!! Complete crap. Total bollocks. Fucking shite. To put it bluntly. So after their very forgettable set finished we made our way back to the cars, where we hung out, smoked a few spliffs and waited for the traffic to settle down, before making our tired, yet happy way back home to Brisvegas.

Ah Iggy... I love your scrawny, leathery, sweaty little guts!!!

Sorry about that Chief

Ok I get the point.... I need to be more regular with this... forgive my tardiness, my absentia, my lack of general all-round respect and stuff... unforgivable really but hey! Wait'll ya hear what I've been up to! (Then you won't kick me out of the gang or make me sing the Froggie Song or any of that malarky hehehe... speaking of which... can you believe a certain friend of ours, who shall hereby be known as Jet tried to make me sing the Froggie Song by writing in our visitors book at home that I was out of the gang... unbefuckinglievable I say!! - Needless to say it didn't work at all at all but chukkas to her for giving it her best shot, the cheeky little minx!)

But first... check out these Jellyfish eh? The one above us is a Blueblubber Jellyfish... gorgeous innit? All frilly like and stuff... but don't you worry little chickadee's I have loads more lovely pictures of completely lickable jellyfish to amaze and delight you... like these little suckers here - now I know you're thinking 'Cor blimey - MORE Sea Nettles! What's she like then eh??' but just LOOK at 'em!! Bleedin' magnificent they are... totally floaty, utterly venomous, completely devoid of anything other than the whole jellyfish 'just floating along, waiting to sting things, and just sort of hang around, possibly feeding on plankton and stuff but I'm not really sure' thing... you know. Cool really I rection :-)

THIS WEEK'S PUZZLER:

On January 31, 1974, this legendary Hollywood personality died at age 95. The producer of such classic films as "The Best Years of Our Lives" and"Wuthering Heights," he's now best known for his fractured English, which produced inspired examples of "inadvertent oxymoronica" including this remark about Cary Grant:

"We pay him too much, but he's worth it."

Who said this?

And while you're thinking about that one, here's a picture of a Chiron Jellyfish - looks cool sorta like a little cupcake with tentacles (although come to think of it a cupcake made out of gelatine... ew how gross!)

Ok so basically LOADS of stuff's been happening since I last entered a post on this bloggermewhatsit thingamajiggy - Big Day Out for starters! Oh man!!! I so loved it... totally, completely, utterly, unashamedly LOVED ITS GUTS!!!!!!!!!

Iggy and the Stooges!!! But wait, I'm getting all excited and all ahead of myself... calm down, slooooow down, deep breaths, aaaaaaaaaaaah.

Ok so I went to the Gold Coast Big Day Out for the first time last sunday - it was alot of fun :-) I so loved it - way better set up than the Adelaide Big Day Out at Wayville - no bottlenecking as you go from stage to stage - so basically they are able to have a crowd 3 times the size with none of the problems - 90 000 people and all the stages aside from the 2 main stages are in these muhassive big tents and everything was very open plan. But enough of this I may speak further about the BDO at a later point. Basically I needed a day to recover as it is held on a sunday up here, so last monday I took off work... and big fuck off chicken me has STILL not broken up with her boyfriend.

I feel so horrible about it, he is totally aware of what's going on, I just can't find the right time to do it ya know??!! Anyways so I've been utterly miserable and moping around like a total dickhead - I have seriously watched about a squillion movies in the last 10 days - all I wanna do is sit around and detach from the world - it's not just that I can't find the right moment and the balls to do it, it's also partly that I'm scared I'm making the wrong decision, as well as HATING the idea of hurting such a nice guy, plus also it's really easy to spend time around him when there's other people.... all of that (and more) but GET THIS!!!!! Last night when I said to him 'ok I'll come to your house on tuesday and we'll have a bit of a chat about the state of the nation' (my totally chickenshit way of letting him know we have to talk about stuff) he said to me 'I know what's coming'

!!!!!!!!

I KNOW WHAT'S COMING!!!!!!!!

So basically he knows. He probably has for ages, and I've been EATING MY HEART OUT, and moping around like a twat, and putting it off, and listening to the goddamn SMITHS for chrissakes, (not to mention Nick Cave and PJ Harvey) and feeling likea bitch and total rubbish for WEEKS and he totally knows what's going on!!!

Has he tried to talk to me about it?

No

Has he tried to answer my probing questions when I ask him how does he FEEL about things??

No

Well anyways, tomorrow is D day. No more putting anything off. No more hiding stuff or anything like that - the way he said it broke my heart... I said to him 'What's coming then sweet?' and he dodged the question like the true professional he is, plastered on his biggest, brightest smile, gave me a kiss and walked out the door.

*sigh*

That man has an absolute ocean of grief inside him. It's a part of the problem. It's part of what is holding him back and forcing him into this unnatural stasis where he is suspended in the space-time continuum like some molecule of matter/antimatter and just hangs there immoving (hey technically I know that's a totally incorrect analogy as matter and antimatter - in fact all matter - is vibrating but I'm on a roll here so I don't want any complaints from the purists or the 'real nerds' - and you know who you are - ok??)

Anyway the point is moot isn't it? Plus I'm certainly no therapist... crikey I feel like I need one though! Gawd there must be summat very wrong with me, I'm never happy with what I've got... and sometimes what I've got is pretty fab! Regardless, I did not become the frantic, frenetic, fearless and fucked up person that I am today by ignoring those gut instincts!! So, tomorrow my darling boy gets the 'welcome to dumpsville - population YOU' card' - as suggested by the magnificently marvellous mermaidgrrrl at our Hottest 100 Australia Day bbq last thursday. Well, figuratively speaking of course!

Speaking of last thursday, man what a fantastic time we had - but I'll tell you more about that later too... today's been pretty frantic as I'm training the new permanent receptionist here (et voila! all of a sudden the world's most BORING temp job in the world suddenly gets not only way more interesting but shedloads busier as well!!)

And now - before I go - here's a lovely little swarm of Aurelia Jellyfish to keep you marvelling at the natural world!!! Oooooo look at the little suckers go!!!!

WOOHOO!!!! Look at the pretty pictures!!!

Hey hey!! Look at what I learned to do today!! I'm so excited I can't stand it!!!

These kinda gorgeous/kinda scary looking mofo's are Sea Nettles... freaky looking aren't they?
I get the feeling they would hurt like fuckery if you got stung by one... and apparently they swarm in warm waters... in fact whilst looking for pictures of jellyfish recently (in response to the question 'what sort of a jellyfish would you like me to lick?' I discovered that fishermen in the Bering Sea are having muhassive problems with swarms of Sea Nettles due to global warming... the good news just keeps on coming doesn't it??!!

But they do look fabulous just floating away... ok, so I would lick one that was floating along but not the tentacle-y bits because I'm pretty sure that's where the venom is...

Ok in an attempt to make this a wee bit edumacational (ok I know that's utter bollocks but I just wanna put in another picture!!!!) as well as gorgeous, fantastic, amazing and phenomenal (man I'm in the wrong industry - p'raps I should've gone into advertising or marketing - bleeeurgh!) here is the lifecycle of a jellyfish:

Hmmm I'm still not convinced

Personally my pandalicious-spudbearing-12 ft tall-thousand year old-capable of taking on seething masses of irate wharfies single-handedly one I'm not so sure you have all the answers here - aside from the suggestion to break up with my boyfriend through interpretive dance (THAT was a beauty!!).

Ok sure science geeks and computer gimps are generally known to be nerdy as all get out it has far more to do with their lack of social ability than their enormous amount of comprehensive knowledge regarding some obscure (and to many people uninteresting) stuff.

So I put it to you that REAL nerds (as you proudly claim to be) are in fact nothing more than awkward social outcasts, and it has nothing to do with knowing anything about anything.

And furthermore.... hmmph!!

Right well I think this is going to work just fine....

What can I say? I am overwhelmed by the support from my fellow blogging community. Panda baby, your blood's worth bottling. Thanks for the lovely advice - and as can always be expected from you it was pithy, witty, and groovy. (Not to mention spot on... cheers baby!!)

Ok so here I am working in the worlds most BORING temp job ever in the history of temping, and rather than staple my head to the coffee table I have elected to spend time surfing the net and blah blah blah.

So I've checked out my darling mates blogspots, and been similarly inspired to get one up and running for myself and discovered all sorts of groovy things - like nerd tests.

Now hopeful of being particularly nerdy (as I have always suspected - indeed my mate the Matthewiest Matthew in the whole wide world and I have decided to form a couple of clubs together - The Way Cool Nerds being only one of them, I was sorely disappointed to do the nerd test and come up with a completely crap result.

I am, in fact, only a wannabe nerd. I am hurt and ashamed, not to mention a little miffed that crap science-y type stuff is the only thing considered nerdy these days.

I mean COME ON!!! I can tell you shedloads of little known facts about obscure south american authors and the cruel political regimes that inspired their works!

I can tell you all sorts of bollocks about post colonial literature in Africa and endless reams of rubbish about contemporary world literature in places like the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea and yes, I know loads of stuff that ONLY a true nerd would even WANT to know about contemporary Australian literature.

So I ask you, is not knowing how to programme a computer or which stupid element is which in the periodic table necessarily un-nerdy?

Anyways, if not ACTUALLY disgruntled by my lack of obvious nerdiness (ACCORDING TO SOME VERY SUBJECTIVE NERD TEST) then certainly FAR from gruntled, I decided to take a loser test (ever hopeful of discovering that I am in fact a loser) and whaddaya know... I suck at that test too!!
It tells me that I am in fact hardly a loser at all, and in their opinion way cool

(hmmpph! Tell me something I DIDN'T already know pfft!!!)

Only 4% loser - in other words... totally cool.


I should have t shirts made up whaddaya reckon? (along with the 'Avon Crackwhore' t shirt for Jules eh... hehehe).

Ok let's get this baby off the ground

So.... what's on my mind? Well, I suppose I'm trying to figure out the nicest way to dump my boyfriend.
Sucks really, he's utterly lovely, and nice, and warm, funny, kind, alla that malarky... in fact exactly the sort of boyfriend you really wanna snag but here I am... wanting OUT!!!
If he's so great (and he is) then why do I want out so badly??? (and I do!!!).
OK... I'm thinking I will take him to the Big Day Out and have a blast, then do it nicely.
Any suggestions?