Rene

After the last two slightly depressing ones, it's high time for a fun post again. But how do I get back to the routine of fun posting without showing off again? I'm just having a great time down here, filled with work which I enjoy, evenings full of music, and surfing in between...

So here's the solution: feature someone else for a change. Rene deserves a post. He's one of my best friends, and a lot of the fun I'm having down here is due to him. I would like to thank him for:

* Sharing his great music with me and letting me join him on stage on a couple of occasions. Check out his new Youtube video! The one major thing that's still on our todo list is to go busking...

* Convincing me to go see Underworld instead of a more serious movie. What a good choice!

(forget the Oscar - I'm herewith giving the "sexiest vampire of the year" award to Kate Beckinsale, very well deserved. Congratulations Kate!)

* Introducing me to Drawn Together. How could I have missed this?

* Introducing me to a couple of cool mates down here - Turin, Geoff, Oedi, ...

Thanks for everything, mate! To end this post, here's a picture of brave Rene singing as a frontman (!) jazz singer at Dizzy... he was scared as hell but did a great job in my opinion.

The first Melbourne post

I guess that, with a bit more than a week now passed, it's about time for a first blog post.

Except for work (of course :) ), the week was music oriented. I went to see Rene play at the Espy on the day of arrival, we played a jam session at Dizzy's, an open stage at a place whose name I keep forgetting, and another open stage at the Spleen bar (where I accompanied Rene on a cardboard box and a beer barrel).

On the weekend, there was the big ending of the St. Kilda festival, with all kinds of stuff happening in the street; a guy set up quite a big drumkit to make money playing (I guess?), and for a dollar you could play on it. So I did :)

Here's me, looking forward to playing, and him, happy with the money:


Here's him, telling me not to break his precious cymbals:


And here's a couple of people watching me. In fact he told me not to stop when I wanted to, because people started putting coins in hix box ... so now I know that I have an alternative career possibility if I ever decide to quit computer science :)


Finally, a video of me having some fun with polyrhythms. Thanks to Mattia for taking these pics and shooting the video!


Check out the guy paying for my "art" at 0:55 :-)

I miss Melbourne

Yes I do. Every day, this picture which I took from a helicopter (sounds good, doesn't it? it was one of these tourist tours... and surprisingly cheap) reminds me of my stay there, these are the "twelve apostles", and it's my desktop background:


Isn't it strange, how you can wonder how people on the opposite end of the world are doing - how is Rene? How are the other Asoma guys, Turin and Mark? Guys, if you read this, I hope you're all right, and I hope I'll get to meet you again in the not so distant future (which means that Grenville would have to invite me again... well, Mattia keeps reminding him, apparently they even talked about me at the last CAIA party :-) (in addition to watching the great Midwest Teen Sex Show again). Who knows, maybe there's a chance for another visit soon. I sure hope so, I really enjoyed every part of it - the nice work environment on the one hand, places like the Espy on the other... well and surfing of course.


(No, there was no particular reason to hold my hand like that)