Thursday, February 4, 2010

Our Lives Are Spent by How We Spend Our Days...

Hiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, business first: I got a job; actually I got two. Alright, that takes care of that, now on to the fun stuff. I know I said I'd write more often... the truth is, I lied. But, alas, I have some time to spend with you. You see, the weather here has been amazing. Hotter than a chili pepper dancing at a salsa club in Albuquerque New Mexico. At the moment however, the tropical rain drops are falling on my corrugated metal roof of my kitchen, all the windows and backdoor to my patio garden are wide open, and Omar and I have nothin but time. Oh, who's Omar you ask??? We'll get to that ina bit...

The hairdryer weather has kept me outdoors for at least 18 of my 24 hour days. Days in the park reading in the shade, skating for miles around my flat neighborhood late into the night, mad guitar sessions with my new Irish ladies followed by plenty of beers at the Corkman. Of course, I almost forgot, my new neighborhood: Carlton. It's awesome. I was lucky to grab a 4 week sublet with 2 really rad people. The girl is Australian, and has an incredible life story to tell. Her name is Heidi, she just got back from 2 months in India, her first time traveling out of Oz. She studies Anthropology at the University (one of my favorite subjects) and is the first person I have been able to sit down with and talk about politics with for a few hours. Finally, I found someone who keeps up as much as I do and we share very similar perspectives on life. As for Adam, he's really nice, but spends 99% of his time with his beautiful Italian girlfriend (could you blame him?) and therefore I dont get to see so much of him. As for now, no other options on housing once this one expires, so back to the Corkman it is!!!!

Living here in melbourne has been much healthier for me. Surely youre just dying to know how the music scene here is, and let me tell you my friends: It's fucking amazing!! (sorry mom) As I had mentioned in my last entry, there are tons of good reggae and hiphop clubs, but also, what I've found to be ever so wonderful is the music I've heard in cafes, boutiques, bars etc... Quite a few occasions has arisen where upon walking into a place, I've heard the music, foreign to my ears and just had to know who is was. After a cute chat with one of the worker bees I get my fix and run home to discover it in it's entirety. More often than not I am disappointed with the rest of what I hear, but not in the case of Melbourne. The kids here know whats up. I'll leave some juice at the bottom for those of you who are interested.

Ahhh! I keep forgetting to let you all know that I did in fact make it to the Sydney Peace Prize lecture. It was an amazing experience that I'm thankful to be apart of while here. I requested a copy of the lecture/acceptance speech given by John Pilger and can send it to anyone interested. I highly suggest it, he makes several astonishing points on our world's past and current state of affairs. In my opinion he rightly deserved the award and did a magnificent job in his humble recognition.

The rain has stopped... you all know what that means... I'll catch ya on the flip flop, I'm out.





This is Megan and I at Don't Ban the Can: a local graffiti artist art show... unfortunately, none of his work will be shown on my blog... what you see is as usual: me hittin the streets






Found this on the ground by my house...







D.I.T.C.







Ya Heard Me?

The XX

Bon Iver

Old Crow Medicine Show

Angus and Julia Stone (this one deservedly goes to Sydney)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I'd Almost Given Up... Then I Discovered Melbourne

What up everybody! I cannot even begin to express how happy I am to be here. Simply put: Melbourne is the shizznit son! This is an open invitation for all you kids to come down and visit me in one of the raddest cities. I'm home. I decided to move down here after Shalana and I came for a visit on my birthday; it was depressing getting on the plane back to Sydney and the move had to be made. The original plan was to move February 1st but I couldn't wait any longer. This place makes my heart flutter. I came back to the Corkman hostel and have been having such an amazing time living here and meeting incredible people. There are three Irish girls here who play together in a traditional Irish band and we've been jamming out in the kitchen till 5am for the past week or so. Guinness+ Guitar+ Hella Irish Girls=Good times.

As most of you know, my very wonderful and beautiful and best friend came to spend my 24th birthday with me. I am incredibly thankful and blessed to have such an incredible person in my life. I love you Shalandog. Needless to say, we had way too much fun as usual. We went to two reggae nights and saw Dilated People's while in Melbourne for my birthday. What would I do without her?

And, once again I'm on the job hunt. How hilarious is the life of a traveler...

My friends in Sydney had a wonderful going away gathering for me and it was sad to leave them all behind. I am forever grateful for the friendships I acquired and know that I will see many of them again in the future. If I got anything out of living in Sydney, it was a bigger heart from all the wonderful people I met.

Alright, I'm keepin this one short and will try to drop by more often; there should be several good stories on the horizon in this city. I hope everyone is enjoying a cozy warm winter and looking forward to our new year.

This is Victoria Market where I buy my groceries fresh everyday

And these guys give me my eggs
This is by far the most beautiful library I have ever been in, and it's all MINE now!
The new block