9 posts tagged “mobile”
Ok, this is not a good way to ease back into blogging. A post about Black Sabbath that I've been writing over the past 2 days has mysteriously vanished from my PDA. Gone. I am very quickly getting sick of the dodginess of Windows Mobile... I can see an iPhone or this new Palm Pre in my future...
What the fuck are we all doing on this bus? What makes us persist with this drab demeaning dehumanizing routine day after day? It's dark, has been since I clocked off. When I left my kids this morning it was barely dawn. I think my face has seen about 15 minutes of direct sunlight all day, most spent in half-light at the bus stop this morning awaiting the first act of the day's cattle train express. It is all an act. A sick show. A sideline to real life, awaiting real life to begin, to be won, to be earned (literally). Have any of us seen this real life, or did we miss it? Did any one of us on this state sponsored conveyer belt enjoy even 5% of what we did today? I mean really enjoy. Even kinda enjoy. It's a trap, a ploy, a ruse. We're all making money for someone, all being dangled enough of a carrot to keep us "happy". All up to our scared skinny necks in debt, all waiting 'til it gets easier. While we wait we get comfy and dig our selves a bigger hole. Hard to leave when it's so nice in. Just stay a while longer, a repreive from the tyrants, a reward for our suffering, a chance to just stop. C'mon, stay. It's so nice in.
Headin' to work, bit before 7, fuckin' dark and fuckin' cold. This is what the daylight savings naysayers are on about... They're wrong of course, i'll take light at night over light in the morning anyday. Too sleepy to appreciate the stinkin' morning anyway.
This is a photo of a booger. It is stuck to a toilet cubicle wall. This toilet cubicle wall is not in a shopping mall or other public place. Rather, it is in my workplace. Societal norms would suggest that this is not the most appropriate for an unwanted nose turkey. Nor is it the place to cultivate an army of nose turkeys, on every stall wall, beside the urinals, probably under the very toilet seat i'm sitting on.
Boogerman, we're getting closer to you, you dirty motherfucker. This cannot continue.
I feel extreme sadness for others suffering or misery, or for those who have been dealt a raw deal in life. My chest tightens up when I see people who aren't as lucky as me and a wave of sadness comes over me. It's just compassion or sympathy, I guess, but I feel it for very minor situations where the person probably lives life just fine. But my mind takes me on a Run Lola Run-esque flash forward into what I presume that person's life to be, which in my head is of course is lonely and sad.
I think that i've figured out what it's all about, though.
Loneliness.
I can't bear to think of people being lonely. I guess I feel that the downtrodden are more likely to experience loneliness and that's why I get the emotional response when I see someone who looks like they're doing it tough.
I don't think i've ever experienced real loneliness, so i'm not sure what it is about that emotion that gets me. If anything, i've always had so many people in my life that i've never properly been on my own. I think that I remained naïve and sheltered for too long because of this, if i'm honest. But possibly, this leads to a lack of understanding about living in solitude, and perhaps then, a fear of being alone.
If I had my time again the only thing i'd do differently would be to spend some time on my own to grow as a person before I met my wife. That would have saved us some grief along the way i'm sure, and would have removed the blinkers so my wife wouldn't have had to subsequently do it over the years we've been together.
Perhaps, being a man, i'm just explaining an emotion that everyone feels yet i'm shocked to be experiencing so acutely. Whatever it is, though, I hope to provide my kids with all the tools they need in life to never feel the isolation and pain that my imagination assumes these lonely people feel.
I've really wanted to write about my response to last week's apology to the stolen generation, but have been too busy until now. I was so impressed and it drew such an emotional response from me that I couldn't let it go by without getting my feelings down.
It seems Kevin Rudd can do no wrong so far. That he made the apology the first order of business for the new parliament was as symbolic of the way he's going to govern as the apology was symbolic of his commitment to changing the way this country views and treats our indigenous population.
His speech was heartfelt and meaningful but also pointed to his plan for action. He didn't try to justify the past, he commented frankly about the atrocities committed as a way to recognise what these people had been through. Probably most important beyond the actual act of apologising was his outline of how he plans to start to change aboriginal health and education and decrease the 17 year gap between indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancy. He was realistic about timeframes, but didn't look to pass the buck to future leaders.
My workplace stopped to watch the apology, and it was a very moving moment. People were crying. I even found tears welling up in my eyes and had chills through my body for most of it. The top brass were mainly there watching too, which impressed me.
Of course, Nelson's opposition leader speech was a different story, and was in fact largely offensive and inappropriate. I found myself shaking my head at what he was saying. His attempts to justify the past and highlight supposed "good intentions" was plain out of line. As a couple of people have said to me since, Hitler probably had "good intentions" too. The people turning their backs on his speech were justified in my opinion, and I wish that I'd made some kind of stance too -- I think I was too stunned at what I was hearing. As impressed as I was at Rudd asking Nelson to greet those in the gallery with him, and present the gift to the speaker with him, it was a hollow act on Nelson's and the Liberal's part after the sentiment expressed in their speech.
I am excited about the direction of this government and the country at the moment. It is so refreshing to have kindness and social justice on the political agenda for the first time in 12 years, as opposed to greed and fear. Thankyou Kevin Rudd. Please don't let me down.
Holy fucking shit. I have never been to one of those enormodome kinda shows where EVERYONE stood up the ENTIRE time. The whole place, from the front row to the nose bleeds, was on it's feet from the moment the band hit the stage.
Iron Maiden haven't been to our shores in 15 years, since the 'Fear of the Dark' tour, and this probably expains why the vibe was as intense as it was. A few songs in, between songs, Bruce came and sat down on the foldback up the front of the stage. The crowd went nuts, and we didn't stop screaming for a whole minute or more. At the end of the show he commented that it was one of the warmest welcomes they've had "in any city" apparently. Aww shucks, you probably say that to all the boys (blush).
The excitement was intense though, and I think I had more fun than I've had at any concert. I was with a bunch of guys and I don't think any of us stopped movin' and groovin' to the triple lead guitar onslaught for the entire show. I certainly didn't.
The stage set was kick-arse, with three stone-looking walls with heiroglyphics on them surrounding the band for that Powerslave vibe. Big curtains/sheets with various representations of their artwork were drawn across the rear of the stage during the appropriate song, with the default being one with Powerslave, Somewhere In Time & Seventh Son artwork on it. The only downside was that Nicko's drumkit sat in a little enclave in the wall, completely surrounding him on three sides, and blocking the view for all but those directly in front. Ahh well, he is credited as being the ugliest drummer in rock.
The set list busted out all the songs you'd expect, and fuck they sound amazing live. 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' especially sounded heavy and beefy, with eerie dry ice smoke covering the stage in the middle section, washed in blue light for effect. If I'm to get picky, I'd complain that they picked the wrong songs off 'Somewhere In Time' ('Heaven Can Wait', 'Wasted Years') but they've always had a preference for playing those two off that album, so it was no surprise. 'Fear of the Dark' was another highlight, as it seemed the crowd were all singing it as one. I found myself looking around at other people singing it, rather than the band. It was a 'moment'.
Before the show, one of my friends emailed around the setlist from the Mumbai show (a few days before ours) and I knew I shouldn't have looked because, as I'd feared, they played exactly the same set. Not that it affected my enjoyment, because I've never seen them play <em>any</em> song before, but I just don't understand how a band can want to play the exact same set, night after night, for a whole tour. Seems to me they're missing the point of live music. I guess there are a couple of types of band -- those who put on the huge 'show' with pyrotechnics/visuals and it's all planned out to come off perfectly (Maiden, Roger Waters, Kiss) and those who are free to take it as it comes and slot any song in at any time (Pearl Jam). Fundamentally I prefer the latter but I wasn't complaining on Saturday night.
UPDATE BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO POST THIS EARLIER: It's been a week since the show and I have still listened to nothing but Maiden, for 2 weeks straight now. Last.fm shows about 600 Maiden tracks in that time. I have no desire to put anything else on yet, and I'm singing their songs in my sleep. I've never been as obsessed with them, even in the 'old days'. I guess that's another mark of a fantastic show.
I've been really tired all this week and feeling really run down due to a massive lack of sleep so i've taken myself off to the park for lunch where I can soak up some rays and try to feel a bit normal again. Also, I get to type AND publish this directly off my new Tytn II, complete with beautiful slideout qwerty keyboard which makes this mobloging about 7 billion times more enjoyable. Life's good but would be better with sleep.
