The Perpetual Tornado

Sophie and I went out in search of a new park to sample our latest bottle of Margaret River red wine and to stare the sun down. I'm fascinated by the idea of open alcohol here, and must say that it appears to be a huge motivating factor for getting people away from the TV, and into the parks for picnics with friends and family. It's not that people are drinking heavily, but rather that they appreciate the social element of getting together and reaping the rewards of having some of the world's best vineyards in your backyard. For some reason, pop and juice just don't seem to have this ability to bond people. A magazine I was reading here mentioned that one of the recommended top 100 things to do in life, was to crush grapes with your feet. I currently have Jer looking into options for this in the Okanagan.

So here's a photo taken of the back of my head while we were hanging out in the park. The girl that was cutting my hair shortly after this photo was taken, was laughing at her inability to get my hair to straighten out in the back. I told her it was a "cow-lick", and she said, "Whatever...it just keeps wanting to go in circles". I've shaved my head as close to the scalp as it will go, and this thing keeps coming back.

The Noise Floor

The Dino show was alright, not epic...just alright. There was all this hype surrounding the return of the original members, and the fact that they were only playing tunes from the first 3 albums, but it ended up feeling forced. On their own, each member was tearing the stage up, but as a unit there was obvious friction which resulted in absolutely no stage presence. The volume was ear shattering loud, and the combination of heavy feedback on many of the original songs left many in the crowd fully clasping both ears about an hour into the set. Given that the club had all this residual heat from the 38 degree day, and still allowed smoking, we decided to hide out in the back for most of the show. Don't get me wrong...I still think this show rocked out. Anytime you can see a live band perform, where you know every single song, it's going to be good.

I was still working shifts during this time, so leaving the club at 12:30, and then driving to work at 3:00 am after a week of 15 hour days left me feeling rotten. It had to be done though, I'm not 30 yet.

You're Living All Over Me

Perth rockers are generally sour when it comes to pulling in the big rock bands, with most tours electing to skip the isolated city on the west coast. I'm surprised then at how lucky I've been to catch a couple of my favorite groups when in town.

Last July, the emo-punk band Anberlin ripped up the Lookout club, which is just crawling distance from our hotel. Tickets were outrageously overpriced at $40 a head, but the place was packed out, and the opening bands may have actually stolen the show. It turned out to be a memorable night, with good tunes, and an awesome venue situated along the beach and overlooking the palm trees.

This Sunday, my favorite band of all time is hitting Perth on a reunion tour. I've been listening to these guys since at least '88, when their skate rock was getting dubbed into some of the legendary skateboard video's of the era. Unfortunately, the band is coming together for admitted "monetary" reasons after a long and bitter period of separation, and I'm hoping they can rock-out just a solidly as they have in the past. And bonus - they are focusing the tour on the first 3 albums. Needless to say, I've been monitoring my messed-up work schedule like a hawk, trying to minimize the risk between the show selling out, or buying tickets and getting called in to work.

I'm still kicking myself for missin' the Crue last November.

The Booze Bus

On my last few trips here to WA, I've noticed that the state is absolutely militant about speeding. It's not uncommon to see 3-4 police radar traps on my 30 min. drive to work every day. Not that I think it's such a bad thing, it just seemed odd when I arrived to notice that everyone follows the limit precisely, and that the passing lane (the right side) is virtually unused. I can't imagine the rage that would ensue if Ottawa even tried to limit Queensway drivers to 120 km/h.

The other thing that the police do well, is the random "drink driving" road checks. I got funneled into one at 10 am last week, and before I had my window down, was blowing into one of their alcohol breath testers. After passing, I was then re-directed into a parking lot containing approximately 50-60 police officers, and told to park the car. Approximately 10 other cars had their hoods up, and were getting the full-on road safety check. After they spent some time passing my driver's licence around like it was a foreign object, they released me and my rental car. The whole procedure was quick and professional, but left me wondering, just how many people are they catching "drink driving" at 10 am? The road safety checks were likely more productive, nailing all the 20 year old "surfies" and their beat up "ute's" for being non-road worthy. I found it odd too that the passengers in the car can drink while driving, and that this wouldn't be deemed to have a negative influence on the driver. One area that does make sense is their mobile phone laws with respect to driving, and how you have to pull over onto the shoulder. Just this week, a 20 year old who killed two girls in a collision, was about to get a heavy sentence for checking his text messages while he collided into the victims car.

Universal the world over, is also every city's claim to have the "worst drivers in the world", as if this is some all-knowing truth that surely your fellow citizens are the most incompetent people alive. Winnipeg claims it, as does Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary etc., even Perth gets in on it. An article I read here in a music magazine this week, had a Massachusetts driver (Lou Barlow from Dinosaur Jr.) claiming the record. He said that Massachusetts drivers even had a well-known label, normally going by the name mass-holes.

Launch Anomaly

It's been a rather long past 24 hours here in Perth. I can't say much until offical statements are released, but you can check the ILS site for up to date info.

Update - Space.com has released a fairly detailed account of the Proton failure with the upper stage burn.