australian rozie

On Saturday night I dragged R&R and Honka Princess to an event called Midas Touch. Billed as:
MIDAS TOUCH – A HUGE SALUTE TO THE 80’S!

2 hours of the finest 80’s funk classics from the masters including Earth Wind & Fire, The Mac Band, De barge, Rick James, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Midnight Star, The Whispers and many more!

I thought this would be a lot of fun. I love 80s music as it is and 80s funk is even better! Unfortunately when we arrived, the vibe was more Hen’s night than funky town. The venue was called Notes, I think it’s pretty new, I didn’t even know it existed but it’s just across the road from the Enmore Theatre on Enmore Road. It kind of reminded me of The Basement, but a bit newer and cleaner! They even do the dinner and show thing! The flyer claimed that Notes was a sexy venue, it’s not that sexy! Anyway, by the time we arrived the band Harlem Knights lead by vocalists, Mike Champion & Berni Love had already started. They dropped some great tunes from Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Lionel Richie, The Pointer Sisters etc etc. Nasser T was the support DJ, apparantly Sydney’s #1 80s DJ, I thought I was #1 ha ha (or is he Sydney’s best 80s funk DJ?). Anyway, the first track he dropped (yes, on vinyl) was Billie Jean, remember what I said about dropping a Michael Jackson track? He played some cool 80s funk tunes (Forget Me Nots) and some really bad 80s tunes (Rick Astley). Random. Anyway, seemed everyone had a fun time and by the end of the night all the band’s friends had jumped on stage to sing and dance with them!

Saturday night of the week before was quite a contrast. We went to The Forum at EQ to checkout Surgeon. Sub Bass Snarl were on when we arrived dropping their classic, crunchy beats. Surgeon played a hard, banging techno set. It was pretty full-on and I have to say that although Ms Obsessed with Lots of Things was in ecstasy (in, not on, he he), I just kind of felt… old. The only track I trainspotted was Jeff Mills, could do better. I’d seen him before at a big rave in Melbourne about 7 years ago when I was a bit more up-for-it. It was nice to see lots of old faces and catch up with friends. I used to love going out to parties with hard, banging music, but now I prefer to go back to the old old school tunes!

Here’s the complete set list and a download from Surgeon’s blog if you are up for it:
http://dj-surgeon.blogspot.com/2010/10/surgeon-at-forum-sydney-australia-23rd.html

1. Get my driver’s licence
2. Attend a trivia night
3. Have a dinner party
4. See Eat Pray Love
5. Get another pet fish
6. Conquer my clutter
7. Get Dave to do his tax
8. Have a picnic
9. Have a market stall (see #6)
10. Bake a cake

I recently finished reading Disco Boy by Dominic Knight, of The Chaser fame. I bought it a while ago for $1 from a stall at Redwater Markets in Redfern. Looks like it was a review copy.
I’m not a great book reviewer, so I’ll just list some points about it below:
1. I really enjoyed it
2. Name checks lots of Sydney locations we know and love.
3. Name checks lots of awesome pop songs esp from the 80s and 90s.
4. It’s chick-lit for dudes.
5. I actually quoted the character Paul as MobyDisc DJ in real-life while DJing at Rob’s 40th.
6. It feels like it was written by someone I know – it’s so Sydney!
7. It has a happy ending

I’m participating in this Buy Nothing New Month challenge, it’s a promotion for the Salvation Army. I know, it’s just like The Compact, but hey – it’s put a new spin on an old concept.

Old is the New New this October, with Salvos Stores’ first ever Buy Nothing New Month.
Get on board for more money in your pockets, time on your hands and a lighter carbon footprint.
Buying nothing new doesn’t mean going without. Make a Buy Nothing New Month pledge and you can buy, barter and swap for whatever you need, as long as it is pre-loved, but with the exceptions of necessities you can’t buy anything new.

So far, I have gone to the fab Surry Hills library to borrow some books & mags instead of buying new ones. OK, it’s not the biggest library with the best range, but it’s local, has free wifi and is well designed. The library chooses books that are appealing and appropriate for the local community.
I haven’t been near a shopping centre, so far, this long weekend. It’s easy to avoid buying new things when you avoid temples of consumerism, such as Westfield. Anyway, hoping I can really save some money and cut back on my clutter & stuff this month.

Here are some tracks I played at Rob’s 40th birthday party. I was using Mark’s CD decks, not vinyl or scratch live (which I prefer). Had a few technical difficulties with MP3s on disc and I didn’t bring enough music. It seems that I now do only one DJ gig per year (I’m very exclusive ha ha), so book in for 2011 now .

Anyway – a fun time was had by all, great to catch with lots of old friends and drop some 80s glory. Mark played some nice house and disco tunes too.

In no particular order and not a complete list:
Come Back and Stay – Paul Young
Girls on Film – Duran Duran
Pull up to the Bumper – Grace Jones
Heaven is a Place on Earth – Belinda Carlisle
Mad World – Tears for Fears
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
1999 – Prince
What have you done for me lately – Janet Jackson
Loose Fit – Happy Mondays
Blue Monday – New Order
Loaded – Primal Scream
Naughty Girl – Beyonce
SexyBack – Justin Timberlake
Bulletproof – La Roux
All Night Long (All Night) – Lionel Richie
Hung Up – Madonna
Music – Madonna
Vogue – Madonna
Holiday – Madonna
Dress You Up – Madonna
Cherish – Madonna
Suburbia – Pet Shop Boys
Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson
Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell (feat. Michael Jackson)
Got to be Real – Cheryl Lynn
I’m Coming Out – Diana Ross
Can’t get you out of my head – Kylie
Send Me an Angel – Real Life
and sorry I didn’t have any P!nk @#$%

Oh and Happy 40th Rob!

For Chinese, 8 is a lucky number, it’s a good date to get married, be born or run in the City2Surf. Once again Dave ran a fantastic time in the City2Surf, not a PB this year, but still under 60 minutes – which is quite awesome. Well done to my manager Christina and also Toddles who ran for the Think Kids Challenge for The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

I noticed your post that mentioned Kai Krause. So I wanted to send you this picture but your blog doesn’t have any contact details or allow comments. I’ve put it on my own blog and if you pass by or google yourself – you might see it. I don’t understand half the stuff you blog about but anyhoo… BTW your about page is dysfunctioned. (I like making up my own words)

I kindly received another freebie from one of my Aunts to see Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare at the Belvoir Theatre. Before the show, I had dinner at Al Aseel (the Surry Hills one) with Uncle Ron, Uncle Rob and Aunt Rosie. Yes, yes – 4 x Rs!

I didn’t know much about this particular production, so was in for a big surprise. The stage design was great, it consisted of a hotel room with bed, bathroom, tv and bar fridge that rotated 360 degrees. The actors were all amazing speaking in classic Shakespearean language, with occasional modern day lines. At first it was a bit hard to understand what they were saying, but a little bit of high school Shakespeare came back to me. The blurb said Theatre for the open-minded, which it certainly was. One scene was really violent, gory and vile! The characters went to the toilet a lot on stage! The most intriguing part of the production was the use of video cameras that projected the action onto screens next to the stage. The camera operators were the actors, out of character, but on stage. There was also a camera inside the bathroom mirror and one pointing directly down from above as well. Sometimes, I didn’t know where to look, it’s a small theatre so you could see all the action on stage quite clearly, not like you were at a concert and really far away, so you look at the screens. Anyway, it was a really great production, the story was intense and so was the acting. Although it was a bit disturbing, I really enjoyed it (and it wasn’t as intense as Women of Troy)

This is a permissive, decaying city with a dysfunctional government, and the Duke has mysteriously gone on leave. In his place he’s appointed a man whose “urine is congealed ice” – the austere moralist Angelo. His first act of law is to apply the death penalty for fornication: Claudio is the first to be condemned. But when Isabella arrives to beg for her brother’s life, her pleas threaten to bring Angelo and the state to their knees.

Measure for Measure is Shakespeare’s great dark comedy about desire and power. His world is familiar: sex is a commodity, government is subject to the leader’s moral whimsy, extreme liberality goes head to head with emergency powers to constrain and punish. And lurking in the shadows of this play is the idea that real wisdom comes from unleashed chaos.

Benedict Andrews was last at Belvoir St in 2007 with his brilliant production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. He’s returned to tackle a play he’s probably born to direct: Shakespeare’s magnificent and explicit meditation on anarchy and authority.

Theatre for the open-minded.

Got some commercial music bargain deals at JB Hi-fi on the weekend.
Aphrodite – new Kylie – with dvd as well.
Celebration – Madonna (I know, I’ve already got every track on previous albums – vinyl, tape, cd, mp3 etc but it’s nice to have it altogether in this collection + there’s a mini poster)
It’s not me, it’s you – Lily Allen – hey it was only $9.99
Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks – I’m not ashamed ;P

Can I claim this as a work related expense? Unfortunately, they don’t get into Detroit techno in the office.

Far out! It’s half way through 2010. I tell you, the older you get the faster the year goes.
It’s the end of the financial year – hurrah. Do I need to give you a summary of how my finances went over the past 12 months? I don’t think so. The best thing about it was starting a permanent position: doing a job I enjoy, working with a really great team and not being stressed out all the time. The only thing that stresses me out is the long travel to and from work.
So this marks the end of a resolution to blog every day for a month. OK, so I cheated a few times with back dating, but in the future, all you will remember is that I managed to blog every day in June 2010! Can I stop now?
Thank you and goodnight.