Author Archives: Tim

About Tim

I'm a Christian, a husband, a worker (for the Australian Public Service), interested in photography, books, music, movies, good food and wine, coffee, and many other wonderful things in life. God has blessed me in many ways - with faith, a lovely wife, two children, great friends, Christian fellowship at Crossroads Christian Church and more widely, a caring family, and so many more things as well. All in all, being found in Christ and with all these great things, I can complain about nothing.

Word of the Day: Spiflicate

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http://www.answers.com/spiflicate

1. Destroy. 2. Beat (Australian Concise Oxford Ditionary)

Trounce, Do for (Concise Oxford Dictionary)

It’s a word my grandmother (on the English) side used to use, but I had forgotten about it until this morning when a colleague mentioned it as a nonsense word that her grandmother used to use. I had great delight in telling her that it wasn’t actually a nonsense word and we looked it up in a dictionary and lo and behold – there it was.

But we were in agreement that it’s definitely a grandmother word.

Larissa’s 25th

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Larissa’s 25th photos
We went out for Larissa’s birthday on Saturday night just passed. We went to Pancho’s Mexican restaurant in Mortdale (the local Mexican to where I used to live in Sydney) – and it was great! It’s such great value, and the food was wonderful, the sangria was tasty and made us suitably happy – it was all great. The playing of a bad recording of ‘Happy Birthday’ and the forced application of a large sombero to Larissa made her pretty embarrassed, but that was all part of the fun. And far, far better than the so-called mexican food I had at Montezuma’s in Canberra in the preceding week (it was so bad, and I once again vow never to go there again).

A New Britannia: Tim’s book of the week

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This may be of particular interest to anyone in Canberra. The academic remainders bookstore in Garema Place currently has the most recent edition of “A New Brittania” by Humphrey McQueen for only $6.95. I have an old copy of one of the 1970s editions that I bought second-hand while in uni, and I found it to be a very interesting and enjoyable book, so I’m looking forward to reading the new content in this edition.

 The book is interesting, since it argues that the Australian Labor Party was never a socialist party (depsite having socialist tenets in its official objectives), but it was always more concerned with nationalism, racism and middle-class interests. In making this point, McQueen also criticises many Australian historians who glossed over these aspects of the ALP’s history.

For $6.95, it’s definitely worth picking up.

The other books I’m actually reading at the moment are also quite interesting – “Men and Women of Australia” compiled by Michael Fullilove, and “How to Get Things Done” by David Allen. More about them another time.

Another year over, a new one just begun (sort of)

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Well, it’s pretty late in 2006 to be writing about the start of the year, but despite it being the end of February it still feels as though the year is just beginning.

The year has already brought a lot of busy-ness. Tegan’s work has been absolutely flat out following a Ministerial reshuffle in late January and her work becoming massively busy supporting a new Minister and Tegan being the only member of her office to remain in the transition from the old Minister to the new. Not to mention that her work simply became busier anyway with the new Minister, since it meant a whole lot of extra administration, organising new briefings, etc.

My work has also been very busy – not as bad as it was in December, but relatively busy nonetheless. It has been good returning to subject matter that I studied at uni – in fact, it’s quite interesting since my current job has some connection with the subject matter of my honours thesis.

So – 2005 the year that was and has now passed. In reviewing last year, I could easily talk about work and other boring things like that, but I think that holidays, pop media and gadgets are far more interesting. So…

Holidays
1. Hong Kong (March)
2. Rutherglen and Milawa (June)

In fact, I can’t remember any real holidays other than those two, which makes for an easy to create top two list.

I really thought that Hong Kong was an amazing city, but it’s not somewhere you would go for your usual holiday – it was neither a particularly relaxing place nor a particularly tourist-y place. That said, I loved it (I’m really a big city person at heart) and I’d love to go back.

We also had a great road trip in June with the same bunch that we went to Hong Kong with – Richard, Kathryn and Cora – down to Northern Victoria in June. The trip was primarily to visit the Epicurean Centre at Brown Brothers winery in Milawa, as well as the Milawa Cheese factory and more wine tasting in the Rutherglen. The trip to that region has become something that we now do almost every year as we love it so much. Brown Brothers and, even moreso, All Saint and St Leonard’s wineries in the Rutherglen produce some of our absolute favourite wines. Yum yum yum.

Music
1. Emiliana Torrini
2. Tim – Louis XIV
2. Tegan – The Kaiser Chiefs

Emiliana Torrini was by far our standout pick of the year in every way – best artist we’d never heard before, album of the year, concert of the year for us – in fact, I’d almost go so far to say that her conccert in November was the best I’ve ever been to.

Louis XIV are, as one of my friends put it, quite naughty – including lyrically. But they’re quite sexy and quite fun.

Tegan found the Kaiser Chiefs as her pick of the year, mainly because they’re just so much fun. She particularly liked the “Na na na na na” song. They’re a great fun band.

Since we love music so much, I’ll give a bit of a shout out to some of my other picks and finds including Tecoma (out of Alice Springs of all places), the new White Stripes album, the “She Will Have Her Way” album of Finn Bros covers, and (to a lesser extent) the Nine Inch Nails album. On the other hand, there were some real disappointments, like the new Franz Ferdinand, Black Eyed Peas and Gorilaz albums – all disappointing compared to previous offerings from those bands. On the other hand, I was initally down on the Wolfmother and Bernard Fanning albums, but am coming around.
Finally – the Big Day Out was great last year, particularly the Beastie Boys and the Polyphonic Spree.

Books
Can’t really think of a top two for the year, but some standouts were “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, “American Gods” and “Good Omens” by Neil Gaiman, “Uncommon Grounds” a history of coffee, “The Confusion” by Neal Stephenson, “A Scanner Darkly” by Philip K. Dick and the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde – none of them new books, but all good.

Movies
1. Kung Fu Hustle
2. Sin City

Kung Fu Hustle was abssolutely hilarious – one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen – I can’t even remember how many times I’ve already watched it already. Just a great film.

Sin City was true to the comics it was based on, which was great. I’ve never seen a movie based on any book that was so faithful – it was great. I can’t wait to see 300, which looks like it’s coming out maybe this year. 300 is my favourite comic of all time and is by the same author as Sin City – so I hope that movie will be as good.

Computer games
I got into Eve Online in a big way at the end of the year. I’ve never played an MMORPG before, but this has got me quite interested. I don’t know that I’ll be into it forever, but it is quite interesting – I might write more about why this is another time.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, despite the controversy, it was excellent. One of the best single player games I’ve ever played.

Unfortunately, I also played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords – it was one of the most disappointing games I’ve ever played. The first one was so good – one of my favourite games of all time. However, it’s sequel was terrible – it had so mucch potential and just blew it. It was half-baked, felt incomplete and just fell flat. I really wanted to enjoy it, I really wanted it to be so good – but it just didn’t make it.

And on all these fronts, I’m looking forward to what 2006 has to offer.

Emiliana Torrini in concert

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Well, I’m home and absolutely wrecked, but the experience getting to this point was very much worth it. After a nice weekend away we were in Sydney last night for an Emiliana Torrini concert, and I must say that it was one of the best gigs I’ve been to. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep and the 5am departure from Sydney in order to get back in time for work weren’t so good. Where to begin, let’s see…

The first thing we noticed was that Emiliana is quite short, a bit shy and exceptionally charismatic. I find it quite unusual that someone who is obviously a bit introverted and/or shy could be so charismatic and build such a great rapport with the crowd. The way she introduced herself and the band and her reaction to seeing such a crowd (she said it looked to be the largest venue she had played in, but I can’t imagine that is the case) made it obvious that she was a little, perhaps, intimidated and certainly a little over-awed. However, once she started singing – wow.

I thought her voice sounded good on CD. I thought she had one of the best and most powerful voices for that style of singing that I have heard in some time. However, after hearing her in concert and going back to listen to the CDs again, her voice doesn’t sound quite as powerful on the album. She was simply amazing in concert – singing most of the time with her eyes closed, obviously feeling and very much ‘into’ the music – swaying along, holding her fingers and with her left hand sashaying about as she sang (in one of her little asides she described it as being like something from the Living Dead movie). She seemed to be the most honest and emotional singer I have ever seen in concert – there was no pretence or exaggerated stage presence; no ‘too cool for you’ attitude (unlike the support band) – just a wonderful music experience.

She played a great set too – she played all the songs from her Fisherman’s Woman album, which was what we were primarily there for, to be honest; but she also played some of the best songs from her previous Love in the Time of Science album, including ‘Unemployed in Summertime’, ‘Summerbreeze’ and ‘Tuna Fish’. I went in really hoping that she would play several songs from Fisherman’s Woman and also ‘Unemployed in Summertime’, so my wish was granted. One of the very interesting things, apart from the strength and clarity of her voice, was the way that some of the tracks varied from their album counterparts: some were sped up a bit, others slowed down, and others just syncopated differently. While we would have been happy just hearing the songs sung exactly as they were on the album, the variation was also pleasant and made the concert that much more enjoyable.

The other best thing about the concert was all the little asides and stories that Emiliana gave during the concert. She stopped and talked to the crowd between almost every song – sometimes telling a little story, sometimes a funny anecdote, sometimes something about the song itself, and sometimes all three. More often than not she had the crowd in uproarious laughter – as I said, for someone so shy it was amazing that she could be so charismatic. Unfortunately, most of the best stories don’t translate well into print – you just had to be there. On reflection, the stories really added to the experience – if it weren’t for the stories and tales, it still would have been a good concert, but not one of the best I’ve been to. The stories made it feel like you were sharing an insight into Emiliana’s songwriting – into her life even; they made it feel as though you were friends and just getting to know each other over a bottle of wine and a nice evening somewhere – it didn’t at all feel like we were purely being ‘entertained’. We are also convinced that Emiliana would make a very fun friend – someone who could always be the life of the party and keep you entertained with stories like that.

I would have loved to have posted photos as well – we even bought a new camera lens so we could take decent photos without a flash, and we had a great spot at the concert – only two people between Tegan and the stage directly in front of Emiliana’s microphone – but unfortunately they had a no-camera policy (although it would have been nice to know that beforehand). We have some suspicions about why that might be the case: if it wasn’t the promoter’s decision, then it may have been because it would have made Emiliana self-conscious, or because the flashes might have thrown her off her singing, particularly since it was a softly lit and intimate atmosphere. Anyway, it’s a bit disappointing since we would have got some great photos.

In summary: if you haven’t already, you really should buy the “Fisherman’s Woman” album. It’s one of my finds of the year, and has instantly become one of my favourite albums of all time. And go and see Emiliana Torrini in concert. Or come with us next time she visits Australia, or the next time we visit some other country where she’s playing. I was sorely tempted to try to make it to another Australian concert – it was that good – but there really isn’t enough time in the week as it is.