Blogger no more...

Ok, so after quite a few years, I've decided that I'm not going to blog on here anymore. Why? Just because I get bored and like change, so I've gone over to:

healthyjaan.tumblr.com

I'll still keep this alive as it's got all my old posts from overseas and whatnot, but I won't be updating it anymore.

:)

Love love love.

Busy busy busy

Haven't forgotten to write another entry - I've just been stupid busy moving house.
That should all be over very soon... then more words for you to read.
Oh, I will mention I had a clinic last week, and my lung function went up to 68%, which is pretty decent since I was feeling like right shite.
So go lungs. :)
But until proper blog, check this - I saw her for the first time supporting Bob Log III with Jackson Firebird last week.
Amazing.

I don't usually do this...

but here is a bloody nice picture of a bloody nice singer that you should all check out.

Her name is Ingrid Michaelson.

That is all.

Proper blog coming soon...

Pending cure for cf??

I got sent this link from the CF association, and while in the past I've been careful not to get too excited over these kinds of things, actually I'm still doing the same thing. BUT, you never know - I've known that the only realistic possibility of a cure involves gene therapy, and that's what this is about, so hey, could be a bit of alright news. :)

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/17_schaffer.shtml

I'll do a proper update soon. Just thought I'd share this.

We Ain't From Round Here... Update #2

My grand plan to keep this going throughout the tour has failed miserably. It was too hot, I didn't have internet connection, I was too lazy, blah blah blah. Let's see how we go with the recap. Excuse the largeness of this entry...

Mildura. Yes, awesome. I'm remembering. It was warm. Very warm. So warm in fact that our original plan to drive there on the Wednesday so we could get an extra day and night before the show fell through as we didn't want the poor car to drive in that heat, so we left the next morning. Although, after suffering through Adelaide's hottest day in 70 years (and later Melbourne's hottest day on record, but we'll get to that one later) 43 degrees in Mildura really wasn't too bad. We kept cool in Hudak's Baker and the river, as well as being moved inside for the gig at the Sandbar. We were originally going to play on the outdoor stage, but it was too freaking hot. It was a great show though - the crowd were really receptive to all of us, had a brilliant pub meal and got to see Jackson Firebird in all their glory in their hometown.









Loxton. It is another riverland town like Mildura, about 2 and a bit hours out of Adelaide. We didn't leave Mildura till the late afternoon as we didn't really want to be driving in the middle of the day in the heat (was still in mid 40's). We had anticipated that the Loxton show could be a complete hit or miss in regards to crowd. The Big Day Out was on that night in Adelaide, so a lot of the youngen's would have gone there for that, and the with the heat, we assumed a lot of people would either be down by the river or at home under their AC. In saying that though, by the end of the night, quite a respectable crowd had turned up, and were all really enthusiastic. That night ended up being the biggest to date. All of the bands were put up in this house at the back of the hotel, so after the show we all went there to start on the rider that had been provided. Won't go into too much detail as to the activities of the night, but rest assured they included: drunk people sitting in a circle playing guitars and singing the blues, funny (and embarrassing) stories about each other, drunk photo's and a late night/early morning swim in the pool that had strictly and specifically been forbidden to band members staying in the house. Brilliant.

Rads! The night after Loxton was our home show of Adelaide. We had been looking forward to this for a little while, not that we weren't looking forward to the other shows, but you know, home town, lots of friends, blah blah. Again, another bloody hot day. But I think we were all getting used to it. Personally, this was probably the most fun show of the tour. The crowd were incredible, absolutely lapping up every band, and it was so great to share the night with so many friends, and give them a glimpse as to how much fun the last couple of weeks had been. We got Lochie to guest on a few tracks on bass, and they were PHAT. At 2am, Lochie and I decided that it was Maccas time, so we went for a quick bite to eat only to come back and find that the Grace Emily had closed. We missed the end of the party. Dayum.

















Since there was a few days till we had to be in Melbourne, we thought it a good opportunity to take The Mischief boys down to the farm on Yorke Peninsula. Freaking amazing. When we left Rads it was 40 something degrees, but down at Yorkes it was 27. AWESOME! I could only stay for one night, as I had to work the next day at Alpha, but here's a funny story - my shift started at 4, so I had to leave around 1:30 to make sure I got there on time. I tried ringing my sister to see if she could fill in for me as I wanted to stay down on the farm for a bit longer with the guys, but couldn't get a hold of her. My mobile had run out of battery so I couldn't ring anyone else. Got back home, drove to work only to find a sign on the door that said "Closed due to weather". At home, I recharged my phone to find a message from the boss saying not to come in today. Hilarious. Not as hilarious as what happened to the boys though. Or is that tragic? Their Tarago decided to overheat and explode while they were down at Yorkes, which meant they had to cancel their show in Melbourne the following night. Definitely not a good thing... Long story short, we left the following day for Melbs, with the Tarago at a mechanics that had boats he was working on.





Melbourne. We arrived at The Brunswick Hotel on Thursday night a bit after 8pm, which didn't leave us much time to bring all the gear in and start setting up. It was all a bit manic. The show itself was great fun, but not as many people came that we thought would, not that that ever gets to any of us. There was a friend who I hadn't seen in at least 10 years that came, which definitely made the night worth while. As well as another friend who had moved to Melbs quite a few months ago, so all in all it was a great night. After the show, many drinks were consumed, exchanging of merch, lots of hugs, and stupid photo's a plenty were taken as it was the last time we would all be together on this tour. We got a 3am dinner of Macca's (much to Cookie's disgust) and got to the hotel where we found that we weren't on the booking list. Standing around in a hotel lobby arguing with the guy at the desk at half 3 in the morning when you have to leave for the 8 hour drive back to Rads the next day isn't fun. But in the end we got the room, had a good sleep, and left back home around lunch.



We had another show with The Mischief on the Saturday in Melbourne, but we decided to go back home for a night to see our really good mate John Woods play his final show, along with launching the band's EP. I was so out of it that the whole night is a bit of a blur. It was ridiculously hot and sweaty, but so good to see this part of his life end the way it did. Very glad we made the drive back for it. But next morning we flew back to Melbs into the hottest day on record there - 47 degrees. It really was a bit ridiculous - I felt my eyelids burning. We walked around St Kilda for most of the afternoon before our show at Pure Pop Records - a brilliant record store that is also licensed and has a little stage area out the back of the shop. It was hot, we were sweaty, I broke 3 strings, but it was an incredible show. The Mischief played a killer set, and Blowy had to leave straight after to catch a plane only to find out that it had been cancelled. No wedding for him to attend... (not his own - that would just be silly).









We spent that night getting a brilliant dinner and walking around trying to find a pub that wasn't swarming with people. We found ourselves on a tram heading back into the city, which we then proceeded to walk around for an hour trying to find a specific pub. We did, but weren't allowed in as some of us were wearing thongs (flip flops, whatever). Finally we found an awesome little place, where we sat down, drank and played Shithead (brilliant card game). Got 4 hours sleep and flew back home the next day.

That's it. Spent yesterday on the couch dozing while the cricket was on. Still needing to catch up on some sleep, but over this next week that shouldn't be too hard. Looks like I'll be playing a couple of shows with another good friend of mine Ange for the Fringe and Flinders Uni O'Ball, so really looking forward to that. And then of course there are the Fringe shows with Cookie Baker, which will be bloody amazing. If you are interested in attending that one, you should book tix ASAP as they will no doubtedly sell out fast. Until next time...

Rating: 6.2 (the tour finally started to catch up with me over the last couple of days - should recover no wuckas)

What I'm listening to: Jackson Firebird - Bottle Bin EP

It is warm...

Today reached 45.7C, which made it the hottest day in 70 years.
This means Mildura and the surrounding areas are going to be even hotter, which is where we're driving to tomorrow.
I'm going to have a 6am swim.

We Ain't From Round Here... Update #1

So Sydney sexies The Mischief, Mildura men Jackson Firebird, and Radelaidian rockers (HA!) Cookie Baker (and her collective) got together and thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of a tour with each other. Why? Mainly because we just want to see each other play. But in order to sound a bit more profesh, all thought the cross-genre idea would work amazingly well. And so far it has.



We left on a 40 degree day, the first we've had this summer I think, but luckily we had Cookie's dad's twin cab Holden Rodeo. How I love that car... First stop - Mildura. We didn't want to overdo ourselves on the first day of driving, so we did the 4 hour drive to Mildy quite late in the afternoon and made sure to have a good night's sleep. The following day, we knew we needed to sample the fine baked cuisine, so we stopped at Hudak's Bakery for lunch. We didn't end up leaving Mildy till after 2, so instead of seeing how far we could drive, we made it to Wagga Wagga (about 7 hours out of Sydney) and decided it was a good place to stay. Luckily as well because Cookie seemed to have a bit of a bout of heat stroke. Not much fun. Next morning, bright and early, and none feeling the ill affects of the day before, we headed north towards the Central Coast. Bloody lovely drive that is... and once you start hitting the forests, it really is amazing.



So first stop of the tour was a place called Wyong. Since none of the bands were from the area, we really didn't expect to pull a big crowd. We were right in doing so. However, it became almost a rehearsal to see how the gigs would go, and a chance for all of us to refreshen our live experiences of each other. It turned out to be an amazing gig. Sound was great, everyone played really well, and we all got to hang, chat and do Ross faces at each other (for explanation of what 'Ross faces' are, ask me in person - really can't be bothered writing it all down).

>

We spent a couple of nights at the wonderful Miss Sarah Humphreys lovely abode. What a getaway that place is... Surrounded by forests, birds, and the sound of nature. I almost forgot what we were doing there in the first place. But was then reminded when we had to make the drive to Wollongong (which I will now refer to as the Gong).





Pulling into the Gong, we were all taken aback by it's apparent chilled nature. Picture this - half 5 in the afternoon, lovely sunny day, the town is all quiet, a few people strolling casually down the road, really quite a picturesque place. Come 9pm, the locals start coming out, and it turns into one of the most hilarious, bogany, rough-around-the-edges places I've been to in quite a while. That being said, Jackson Firebird certainly won over the locals with their brand of dirty blues/rock, and we all had a good time. After we all finished playing, I was peckish so I went and bought a kebab from across the road. It was amazing. We then drove back to Sydney that night, and spent a VERY comfortable night at bass player for The Mischief's Lochie's house. Beds to die for.







The next couple of days were spent enjoying Sydney. We went to Bondi, which was awesome! I know it's prob not the best beach in the area and it's such a touristy thing to do, but you know what? I AM a tourist, so I will go there thank you very much. Also, coming from Rads where the metropolitan beaches are flat as a tack and have great white sharks nibbling at your toes, this was heaven. We went out for coffee's, dinners, lunches and the like. And then we had the Sydney show - The Mischief boys took the cake that night. Being their home show, in front of their home crowd, and being able to go home at the end of it, they pulled out all the stops. Beer chugging, audience members being tangled in leads, it had it all. When it had all finished, we tried to find a pub that we could all have one last drink in as the Jackson Firebird guys were heading back home the following morning, but not much was open, so we got New York Pizza, scoffed that down, and said our goodbyes.



The drive back didn't seem nearly as bad as the drive there. We made the 11 hour journey from Sydney to Mildura in one day, spent the night there, and did the rest the following afternoon. But before we left, we made sure to sample some more local Mildura cuisine, this time in the form of gelati. It was good. :)

So we've been back home for a few days and head off again tomorrow back to the land of Hudak's Bakery and 48 Flavour Gelati, Mildura. This time though to actually play a show there. Then we are stopping through the lovely town of Loxton before ending this leg back in Rads at the lovable Grace Emily. So all those Radelaidians who aren't going to be wimping it by sitting under an air conditioner or going to the beach, come down to the Grace on Sat the 31st for some amazing times. I promise. Amazing. Fact.