s h ! n d ! d

Has anyone heard the new Ben Lee album? I’m a little slow these days, so you will have to pardon my tardiness.

Ripe’s not a serious album, right? It’s a filler album, right? Cos there’s nothing on it that he hasn’t already done, if anything, he’s playing it really really safe by using the same music, gimmicks and even same old “messages” that he doesn’t seem to be phased by anymore…

Awake was a good album cos it was more pop-friendly; something he’s always objected to doing, and therefore had not done. Now he’s just running with it, good to see he’s having fun with music – finally. But I don’t think Ripe is worth paying all that money for. Should be an extended EP… (yes, I know.)

Don’t get me wrong, I like the new album. I think it’s funny having a song called “What would Jay-z do?”, and cool that he uses Bon Jovi’s “You give love a bad name” in “Sex without love”. But I think the album needs as much touring as possible.

In other news, I might go see Missy Higgins in Vancouver! Ha!

Doing my online rounds on my favourite cultural blogs, I noticed Kaki King’s career has been picking up some more momentum this week with the announcement of her addition to the SXSW in Austin, Texas; her Golden Globe nomination for Into the Wild; and the release of her fourth solo album, Dreaming of Revenge on March 11. My sentiments on this are best expressed by David Vo on the Josh Spear website: my little secret is out (even though I have referenced her a few times on shindid).

I saw King play a couple Summers ago in Australia – but hadn’t realised she also played with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters for the trapped miners – an explanation of which you will see in the video following.

So, enough said. I think her performances best explain her brilliant talent. If you’re gonna like her stuff, may as well see what she’s really made of! She’s touring in March – try and see her.

WTF?!?

Heath Ledger died! OMFG! What is with Hollywood and tragedies this month? Has the writer’s strike given too many people too much spare time or something? Why is everyone dying and killing?

I can’t believe it was Ledger of all people.
I can’t believe how much of a proud Aussie I’m suddenly being, but it’s true; he was one of our best young actors. I don’t usually toot the Ledger or Aussie horn, but #1 I’m no flag wearing Aussie and #2 I thought Ledger, despite his talents, was often portrayed as a pretentious artist type. At least he wasn’t a bogan.
The first I saw and liked him in was as the timid shaven legged gay teen cyclist “Snowy” in SWEAT – the Aussie teen drama set in an elite athletics high school. Followed by Roar with Kerri Russel.

Come to think of it, he’s been consistently good in all his roles… Not all the films were good or necessarily made sense though (Ned Kelly or I’m Not There), his best IMO (this is before Dark Knight has been released though) were Candy, A Knight’s Tale, Two Hands and Brokeback Mountain (despite my complaints about Brokeback’s actual film storyline).
Especially see Candy! Not the happiest film – infact I’d say it’s one of the most depressing films I’ve ever seen (and Pink’s Who Knew video totally stole from that film shot by shot!). I’ve been looking so forward to his role as Nolan’s Joker in the new Batman film. I’m highly anticipating brilliance – it’s Nolan, Bale, Ledger and Gyllenhaal! How can that go wrong?!

Other great Aussie actors (and great work) I’m actually in awe of most of the time:
Geoffrey Rush – Shine, Quills, Harvey Krumpet(!!!), Lantana, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Carribean
Toni Collette – Muriel’s Wedding, Cosi, 6th Sense, Little Miss Sunshine, Dirty Deeds, Japanese Story
Rachel Griffiths – Six Feet Under, Cosi, Muriel’s Wedding, Amy
Cate Blanchett – EVERYTHING!
Bryan Brown – Dirty Deeds, Cocktail, Two Hands
Joel Edgerton – Secret Life of Us, Ned Kelly, Star Wars, The Hard Word
Hugh Jackman – Paperback Hero, X Men, The Prestige, Swordfish
David Wenham – Cosi, Gettin’ Square, Lord of the Rings, Three Dollars, 300
Ben Mendelson – Metal Skin, Cosi, Amy
Noah Taylor – The Year My Voice Broke, Almost Famous, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Priates of the Carribean
Anthony Lapaglia – Lantana, Looking for Alibrandi, The Guy that’s brought back Soccer to Australia – YEH!
Deb Mailman – Secret Life of Us, Rabbit Proof Fence, Play School(!)
Guy Pearce – The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Dating the Enemy, L.A. Confidenial, Memento, The Proposition
Hugo Weaving – The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Interview, The Matrix, LOTR, Peaches, Little Fish
Last Note: IMDB tells me Ledger was even in Ship to Shore!!!! What a freakin great show that was! Kelvin was cool!
*Doot doo-doo dododododo-doooo, dododododoo doot doo doo, dododododoo doot doo doo, doot doo dododoo doo doo*

these are the reasons why i love the bands i do:

see, they talk a lot of useless crap – and i just found out during this past Oz tour, they played with Kaki King LIVE too! For the first frickin time! King is crazy amazing on the guitar – the new film August Rush was mostly her making all those crazy sounds on the guitar. She played with t+s cos she’s on the new album.

another reason, and great muso:

i can’t find video of him doing a solo arguing with the guitar as if it were a lover. it’s rad. and he’s a show-off. but i did find out he’s a republican today, so i like him a teeny bit less. i think i might sleep to some ’slow dancing in a burning room’… yay!

So, I’ve had a couple days off and what have I been doing?

Reading Perez Hilton! Again! But lots of news – Britney front doesn’t count, even Perez is bored with her.

OMG 1: Daniel Johns and Natalie Imbruglia divorced!? No!

OMG 2: New Harry Potter film will be in two parts/films.

OMG 3: Who are the Jonas Brothers? The S.O.S song is lame.

OMG 4: Golden Globe winners with no show.

OMG 5: One of my favourite directors and my obsessee; Roger Avary, has been arrested for not only a D.U.I, but manslaughter too! OMFG! He was the guy that co-wrote Pulp Fiction, directed Killing Zoe and Rules of Attraction. The latter is a film I still occassionaly obsess over… Meanwhile John Mayer has just blogged about his own non-drink driving habits. Good for him… yawn.

OMG 6: Leading from Avary, Shannyn Sossamon has a indie band now! Warpaint! She plays drums and her sister is on bass! Sweet! They even have gigs! I think I’ll reserve my judgment of the material until I’ve heard more.

OMG 7: Brad Renfro DIED! He was the kid in The Client, The Cure, Apt Pupil and Telling Lies in America – amongst other things. I had a bit of a crush on him in high school. Last I heard, he stole a yacht and now he’s gone! AND, he was filming the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ The Informers! (WTF is Chris Issak doing in that?) Maybe there’s a Bret Easton Ellis curse going round, seeing as though Avary did his last book to film…

Need to buy bread.
Bought bread.