“I still love you, the girl from Mars…” ❤️ @jpofoz and I continued our musical tour of the 90’s with tonight’s Ash gig at Sydney Uni. So fun! The openers (So I Says to Mabel) were great too. (They won me over with a Taylor Swift cover…)
Category: Music
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Sunrise, Sunset
The lyricist from Fiddler on the Roof has provided new lyrics for “Sunrise, Sunset” that make it suitable for gay weddings. That’s lovely.
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Celebrity Sightings
Two weeks ago we joined Kunaal for a special Popcorn Taxi screening of the new sci-fi comedy “Paul”. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (aka the guys from “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”) were actually there to talk about the film and do a Q&A with us afterwards. It was really cool! Popcorn Taxi’s posted video of it on YouTube if you’re interested. (Part 1 / Part 2) We all enjoyed the movie quite a lot. I’d probably say it’s not as funny as their other ones, mostly because the humour is a lot more broad. It’s still full of awesome geek references though.
Anyway, the cinema was in the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping mall, so afterwards we headed for the elevators to leave. While we were standing waiting for the lift to arrive, Simon, Nick, and their whole entourage suddenly came around the corner for the lifts too. One was about to arrive, so I turned to Nick and said, “That one’s free if you guys want it.” He said thanks and nodded and they all headed into the lift. The three of us stepped back and decided to take the escalators instead to avoid the crowd. And then I nearly fell over excitedly tweeting it on the way out to the taxis. How excitement!
Last Saturday our Knitters Guild meeting was moved to Kings Cross (due to Surry Hills being booked for the Writers Festival). We always break in the middle for tea, so me, Fiona, Merrin, and Margaret went for a walk to get coffees. We were standing outside a cafe in Potts Point waiting for our coffee when suddenly, stepping up onto the footpath in front of me was THE COMMANDO. I actually stopped talking mid-sentence when I realised it was him. He was wearing his trademark sunnies, but other than that he was totally casual in jeans, sneakers, and a pink T-shirt. Once he moved up the street a bit, I took a sneaky photo of him. He’s shorter in real life than I thought. But, uh, dude can fill out a T-shirt. That’s all I’m sayin’.
This Sunday we’re going to the Opera House for a special talk by Sir Terry Pratchett. Looking forward to that one. Maybe we’ll bump into him by the lifts too!
I almost had another one. I was utterly convinced for about 10 seconds the other night that Alan Brough was drinking in the laneway outside that annoying tiny bar next to Morris & Sons in the city. When I got closer though I saw it was just some other giant Kiwi in a checked shirt. Damn.
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Shared today on Google Reader
- McKellen takes gay tour to schools | The Guardian – Gandalf is the BEST.
- Taco Bell Testing Shells Made Out From Nacho Cheese Doritos – I don’t actually eat junk food crap anymore, but I’d pay good money (once) for a Cool Ranch Dorito Taco!
- Hacker News | That dev’s salary is higher than mine – Tips and real-world experience with salary negotiation. Useful reading.
- Also looking for Gussie Fink-Nottle / Newt slash fiction. – This may well be the greatest AskMeFi question EVER.
- Joystick Division – 8 Pop Songs Remixed for 8-bit Video Games – From the Snook. I think the Cee-Lo is the best!
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Sue Sylvester does Vogue
Sue Sylvester’s “Vogue”. AWESOME. I was surprised it wasn’t more tongue-in-cheek. Other than a couple references to “I hate Shuester” it was a pretty faithful reproduction! Kurt looks great in that tux and scarf.
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The Hollowmen
If you’re like me, every time you hear The Hollowmen credits start, you think, “What IS that song?!” Tonight the Snook tracked it down for me. It’s an 80’s band from New Zealand called The Bats and the song is “North by North.” There you go!
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Fiddler on the Roof
“If I were a rich man…” I’m gonna be singing that for days. I just got back from seeing Topol – honest-to-God Topol! – in the new Sydney production of Fiddler on the Roof. My boss Albert scored some comps and called me up this morning to say they had an extra. How sweet is that? We had excellent seats, right in the center, and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the Capitol Theater. It was very Italian, all marble and niches with faux Classical sculptures. I liked the twinkly star ceiling too. The show itself was excellent. I still cannot get past the fact that it was freakin’ TOPOL up there on stage. You know when he starred in the film version? 1971. THIRTY-FOUR YEARS AGO. And now he’s 70! He’s a little trimmer than before but I was just in awe of the energy and vitality he brought to the stage. I would’ve been panting after three hours of exuberant dancing but he just seemed to feed off every bit of applause (and we gave him plenty). It’s undoubtedly a star vehicle but it’s still well worth seeing. Amongst the other actors I particularly liked Hodel, Perchik, Golde, and the crazy woman playing Fruma Sarah. (“Tevye’s Dream” was awesomely psychedelic for such a sparse production design.) I was actually in Fiddler about ten years ago – man, I feel like Topol! – in a community production. This was my first opportunity to watch the show from the seats and, for the most part, I was just reacting to Topol and appreciating the show from a technical standpoint. Sometime in the second act, though, it started to get to me. During “Far From the Home I Love,” a song I always found boring in our production, I started to well up with tears. There’s just something about following the man you love somewhere far away from your family…
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Stipey got Fugged
Ooh, Stipey got fugged! As the picture was loading (from the top) I was thinking, “Actually, that isn’t really too bad, even considering the scarf-thing…” and then the boots appeared and I was like, “… OH.”
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Paul Kelly Interview
One of the Snook’s and my favorite Australian musicians, Paul Kelly, recently gave a one-hour interview to ABC Queensland. You can download the whole thing as an MP3 and apparently he performs four live songs on it. (I’m still downloading it at the moment.)
