Toussaint

Wow! I almost missed this concert. I just happened to look in the West Australian and saw a notice that the Dirty Dozen Brass Band were unable to play in Perth but Allen Toussaint would still be. I nearly dropped the paper in shock.

The one and only Allen Toussaint was coming to Perth?

I bought tickets as soon as I could.

The concert was Friday 7 October and it was brilliant. Fantastic. Out of this world. Oh, I am so glad I went and so glad Allen came to town.

I am now trying to assemble a Toussaint inspired vinyl display but in all my collecting and hunting I have never come across a Toussaint album but I do have a few produced by him and a few New Orleans music related albums so I will try and put something together using those.

For now, here are some photos and a clip of what was a fantastic concert.

 

Stage for Legends of New Orleans concert at Freo Arts Centre - the piano is in position for Allen

 

 

Allen Toussaint walks on stage

 

Allen Toussaint almost at the piano

 

 

Allen Toussaint strikes the keys

 

 

Zoomed in too much - crazy colours

 

Toussaint plays on

 

 

At the end of the show Allen Toussaint handed out his set list

 

 

Aro and LP waiting for the show to start

 

Giving up food for funk? Not me!

Spring Feast was on last night here at UWA. This food festival, part of multicultural week, is one of the annual highlights here at the Uni. However, it was not the only thing taking place last night. There was also a fascinating lecture on DNA evidence by Dr Christine Funk. That’s right; Dr Funk.

So, I was faced with a dilemma; do I give up food for funk or pass up funk for food?

Food won!

The night started with the gathering. Joining me amongst the throng of people waiting to go in was Bookbuster and HelenKitty plus AusPolTragic and HipiKat.

There was a printed programme this year, which we read while we waited. Sadly the organisers have yet to bring back the showbag which was a very popular feature a few years back.

Reading the program too quickly it seemed like a food stall was offering Sushi Popcorn Chicken. It must have been our hunger causing illusions.

When the gate opened we first visited the Red Bull Girls and went through the ordeal of having to say to them “yes we want our wings please” in order to get our free drink.

Hey, it was free. All it cost me was my dignity to say "I want my wings"

From there onto the food.

"I'll have one of everything"

Yes, I too wondered about the fried oreos and so I just had to have them, along with the curry puff and the pork. All good; especially the oreos. Three of them fried in a light batter served on a stick and dusted with icing sugar. This was the first thing I had after my Red Bull. The crash after this sugar powered flight was not going to be pretty.

Peeking into the bag, you can see a fried oreo on a stick

 Other delights sampled included giant popcorn chicken that were very crunchy, fried potato twirls on a stick that were just as good as last year, a few octopus balls and some sort of folded fried pancake with meat inside which was very tasty.

My thanks goes out to the organisers for this UWA event.

Since I could not give up food for funk, for the Friday song here are some people who can! The JB’s!

UWA Booksale 2011

Yes, I waited in line, and yes it was worth it.

For this year’s Save the Children booksale at UWA I rocked up just after 12.30pm to stake a place in line. I was 6^th at this point and with only one extra person joining someone in front of me I got to be 7^th inside the sale and certainly I was first to the boxes of records.

Running Around Friday Song

I bought a Boots Randolph album over the weekend; perhaps his name sounds a bit familiar to you. Also, more immediate, today is a sporting carnival day here at my place of work, and we are all going to be running around like crazy doing this and that and going here and there.

So, with Boots Randolph on my mind, and the imminent whackiness of too much motion, I just have to play this song. It is Yakkety Sax, by Boots. Some of you might also remember it from repeats of Benny Hill. However, I am pretty sure that no one today is going to be running around in their underwear.

Delay in vinyl

Well, how about that? One of my records in my display this week has a cover that I cannot find online so there will be delay in our regularly scheduled programme.

The records from the UWA booksale 2010

So, I have been getting people asking me how did the booksale go last week?

I take my Save the Children booksales very seriously. I joined the queue at 1pm. This might surprise you as the sale was not going to start until 5pm. What may surprise you even more is that at 1pm I was the 6^th person in line.

So the waiting commenced. I had a book to read and some snacks to help pass the time. The line grew, of course, both behind and in front of me. Behind me, the line wound around the reflecting pool in front of Winthrop hall and back again in a gigantic figure 5. In front of me friends and relations of those in front joined in and I was now at number 10. I too am guilty of this and let my Dad in. Hey, he has spent time waiting in lines at these events for years and I have always reaped the benefits of his endurance. It is about time I started to return the favour.

As it got closer to the opening time of 5pm the line started to bunch up all along it’s length, everyone taking what few steps they could to get just that little bit closer to the door, to get in just that little bit sooner that would they would have if they had stayed a foot back.

My time in the line paid off. I was the first person to be there at the box of records at the back of the hall. I wish I could say that I scooped up all the good stuff before anyone else arrived but it was not so. What did happen though was that I had looked in the window from the other side and seen a record that interested me (Billie Holiday Story volume 2).

The Billie Holiday Story volume 2 that I saw through the window.

 It was in a box in the middle of the table of boxes and so with this to guide me that is where I started. I had about two blissful minutes of being completely alone with the records as I flicked madly through box after box, searching.  

Then the others arrived. Amongst them were two that I recognised. I don’t know their names but I often see them at this event and in other haunts picking up records and then reselling them. For them, this is a business. But whatever their motivations they were faced with the same reality as I. These boxes, apart from my Billie Holiday discovery, were full of classical music recordings.  

One of my main competitors said as much out loud. I responded that it seems there are no good records left out there. He agreed, as we both kept hard at work, our fingers flicking past record after record. He said that the situation was so dire that someone he knew was reduced to selling Nana Mouskouri records to US buyers. She never toured there he explained and they sell for a good price.

I contemplated this while I kept searching.

Billie Holiday had guided me well, because I kept my competition to the right of me and as I kept exploring box after box on the left I made some discoveries. It is not the case that all the good records in the world are gone. It is just that there are fewer and fewer and there are so many classical recordings that you have to get past to find what you want.

In the end, with times as they are, I could not afford all the records that I grabbed and had to put some back. In fact I ended up spending more time contemplating which to return than I did searching. Of course, there are a few regrets looking back now at what I discarded, and recriminations with myself as I say surely I could have afforded to pick up that one and go without fresh fruit for a week, all in the name of music. (I remember when these records at the UWA booksale were all $1. Now that they are $2 each, I might be saving more children but I can afford less records). However, I would rather dwell on what I did get.

There were two brilliant finds that I am very happy about.

First up is this one.

Walkin' My Cat Named Dog by Norma Tanega - one of my two top finds for the night.

You have probably never heard of her. Few have, but for some reason I have (spot the music nerd – but hey, there are still acts out there that I don’t know of) and I have heard that this record is actually pretty rare and hard to find. So to see it there I just had to have it. Wow.

Next up is this one.

Original Recordings by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks - Yay!

I have a CD release of this first album by Dan Hicks, which, strangely, omitted two tracks which were on the original album, so in a strange reversal of the bonus track phenomenon I am buying the vinyl version to get the tracks that I don’t have.  

What else? Hey, I was all excited recently about Leon Russell’s upcoming album with Elton John. I got this live album he cut with Willie Nelson. Wow, two old grizzly looking bearded blokes playing together. I look forward to giving that one a spin.

One For The Road by Willie and Leon - They take turns driving the bus, I'm sure.

What I always love about buying old records is finding the new old; bands and artists that I have never heard of but which lay in wait for me to discover them. There were a few cases of this on this night.

First up I found The Bus Boys. Don’t know who they are, but anyone who calls their record “Minimum Wage RocknRoll” is alright with me.

Minimun Wage Rock'n'Roll by the Bus Boys - How often do you see waiters on record covers? How very cool.

Rita Jean Bodine is another “who is that?” artist. So far, I still know little but I did discover thanks to this blog that she did come to Australia sometime back in the 70’s.

Sittin' On Top Of The World by Rita Jean Bodine - is Bodine meant to rhyme with Jean? I hope so; it sounds better that way.

This album by Lainie Kazan was one of those records that, had I more money I would have just bought for the lovely spring themed cover. However, with things tough all over I could not afford to just buy stuff for the artwork so what clinched the deal here is Sunny. Recently upon the passing of Bobby Hebb, who wrote that mighty tune, I went in search of as many versions of Sunny as I could discover. This album contains another one. Turns out that Lainie is a well regarded Broadway singer and actress, who also posed for Playboy. Wow. Wikipedia even says that she inspired Jack Kirby’s comic character Big Barda.

This album by Lainie Kazan is sure to feature in a vinyl display soon. I love how the image is not encumbered with a title. However, I fail to remember what the title is ATM.

What else did I get? This Melanie album The Good Book has been on my wish list for some time, so I was happy to find this.

The Good Book by Melanie - y'know she played at Woodstock people.

Hey, it’s Maria Muldaur. She didn’t just sing Midnight at the oasis people. I quite like her stuff so another good find.

Sweet Harmony by Maria Muldaur - before this she was a waitress in a doughnut shop.

Y’know I got plenty of Beach Boys but I have never owned an album by Jan and Dean, until now.

Golden Hits by Jan and Dean - you just don't see many people sharing skateboards nowadays.

Hey, a comedy album. It’s Rowan and Martin. I have long heard about their comedy show Laugh In, so hopefully this gives me a taste of what it was like.

The Humour of Rowan and Martin - I believe that Nixon was once on their show.

 I got a few more records but I have to stop sometime. There were some books I got too and I might blog about them later.

SupaNova: the rest

Darn, had so much to do I just have not had time to blog on about the rest of my day at SupaNova, but I hope to. So, while we all wait for me to add the details here at least are the remaining photos from the day.

Dalek at SupaNova Perth 2010

Another Dalek at SupaNova Perth 2010, this one at the Doctor Who Fan Club stand

Also at the Doctor Who fan club stand, there was a Tardis tent

At Empire Toys, there was no credit card facility but the staff did dress up. Here is Loki.

Two Ghostbusters and one Johnny Cash as a Ghostbuster

Lou Ferrigno enters

Lou about to impersonate Arnie; he did the voice rather well

Summer in Winter shade

I was right at the back for this session

Don't blink! Weeping Angels are near.

(insert sound effect here) Michael Winslow comes onstage (insert another sound effect)

"Still can't find those droids I'm looking for; just Jawas."

I don't remember the purse in episode 1

It's Hit Girl!

SupaNova part 3

Everyone had to leave the seminar room at the end of Mark Lutz’ presentation, with the exception of those who had purchased VIP tickets. People who had those could stay, and they would be staying in the front row seats allocated for them. However, everyone did leave the seminar room because there was no one there with a VIP ticket.

Upon leaving I was met with another long line, this one about to come in. Yet that was not the only line. There was another line that snaked around and almost joined the line to get back into the seminar room; this line was to buy photos of the stars appearing at SupaNova. There were more lines still, as the autograph booths were nearby and the queues for them were backing up into these first two lines. To get to the back of any line you had to cut in front of some people and squeeze past others and then, once at the end of the queues, try to figure out which of the many end of the lines was the line you wanted.

This time it wasn’t too hard to find the line to go back into the seminar room to see the next guest. It was the only line that was moving.

The next guest was Charisma Carpenter, another Wheddonverse star. She played Cordellia in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Charisma Carpenter at SupaNova Perth 2010

This session was very well attended. I did not see any empty seats and people were having to stand up at the back.

I also discovered that you could take photos. For the previous session for Mark Lutz I thought I was doing something illicit so I only took the one photo, but now I could snap away all I wanted, for all the good it was. The restriction was, and I knew that there had to be one, no flash photography.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else’s digital camera, but mine, with no flash, gives me blurry pictures. These can be interesting, as the subject ends up with waving arms and sometimes two heads, but as a document that identifies who someone is, they are not so great.

Charisma was asked plenty about Angel and Buffy but also about Veronica Mars, which was fantastic. She explained how she got the role after proving that she could be sexy; she had just done a Playboy shoot. She also spoke about how Veronica Mars was almost a Bufy reunion with her seeing Alyson Hannigan on set and later Joss turning up for a cameo.

It was obvious that Charisma was a loving mother as she often mentioned her son, and talked about how when she looked at the episode of Angel in which she was pregnant, it touched her to think that her son is sort of in that scene. This lead me to ask her how she found balancing work as an actor and life as a mum. She responded that it was hard and that she had support and that when a mother she gave 110%.

Other topics she touched on included:

• The Expendables; the upcoming film with Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and Jason Statham. She spoke about being on this very macho set and how it was to kiss Jason
• On the topic of kisses she was asked who was the best kisser in Angel and Buffy. She admitted that she expected this question but not from the guy who asked it. She gave Mark Lutz a high rating.
• She remembered a few of the costumes that she wore
• How awkward it was in the early days of Buffy when she was ‘unliked’ as she was the mean one
• How it came to pass that she finally got to stake a vampire in the Graduation Day episode of Buffy as she was nice to Joss that night
• The differences in playing Cordellia in Buffy and Angel and which writer captured her character the best
• she admitted that she has not seen any episodes of Buffy after she left the show and that she only owns the first and last seasons of Angel. I should add that she stated how she would like to see those episodes of Buffy but as she was filming Angel at the time was not able to then and has not got around to it. She intends to get those missing seasons of Angel and one day will. She warned us, please don’t, out of fan boy kindness, buy them for her, because she could probably get them free somehow through the industry she works in.
• An accident that she had on the set of Buffy one time where she ran into a pair of antlers on a fake mounted deer head, and was taken to the emergency room. The hospital staff were told that the injury was caused by antlers and so admisistered a tetnus shot. The needle broke halfway through the unnecessary injection so they tried again and gave it to her in her other arm.

With the end of  this session the room was once again cleared. It was advertised that someone connected to Twilight was to be next, but I heard an announcement about a late change. I didn’t pay much notice. I now had some time to check out the stalls and spend some money, before the 1.10pm session with Eliza Dushku, who played Faith in Buffy and Angel.

SupaNova part 2

So, where was I? Oh, that’s right; I was in a line. Pay attention! Being in a line will be a recurring motif of these recollections.

Having finally got inside the venue and getting the back of my hand stamped to prove it, I found the seminar room where the first talk of the day was already underway.

I was able to walk right in and had plenty of seats to choose from, all with a good view of the star of the session, Mark Lutz.

Now as soon as I told my partner that Mark Lutz was going to be at SupaNova and that he was from Angel, she straight away remembered that he was “The Groosalugg”. So, if that means nothing to you, I guess you are not a fan of Angel.

I was annoyed to have missed more than half of Mark’s session, but so glad that I caught what I did, because he was most amusing.

He told the story of his worst ever TV appearance, which was on a fake reality show. He was given the 60 page script the night before and when he came on set was informed that there was no wardrobe department and that he was meant to have provided his own suit to wear. I asked if this was ever broadcast and the answer was no, so he discouraged us all to look for it online.

Mark asked if any of us had visited his My Space page, the site of his recent April Fool’s Day joke. He had posted on 1 April that the Groosalugg spin off series had just been given the go ahead. Most people did not realise it was a put-on, and Mark’s agent had to say that perhaps such a joke was not in his best interests.

Mark also spoke of another great April Fool’s Day joke wherein he phoned his mother to tell her about a “ new reality show” he was to be in. In this “new reality show”, Mark was going to marry a complete stranger and then have a TV crew follow them around for a year. Expecting his mother to go crazy over his marrying someone he had never met and who could be a whacko, she instead reacted with joy at this “wonderful news”.  

Mark also made a great joke about our new Prime Minister being Tilda Swinton.

Sadly his time ended before he could show us footage of his recent film, Victor. Thankfully I did have time to get a photo of him, although not the best shot of the day.

Mark Lutz at SupaNova Perth 2010

With him leaving the stage came the announcement that we would all have to leave the seminar room before the next session began. So I got up to leave, unaware that I was about to go join another long line…To be continued

SupaNova part 1

The Saturday just gone I went to the SupaNova event at Claremont Showgrounds. I almost didn’t make it.

I was all set to go, bag packed, camera ready, etc, when I tried to start the Lada. No go. My partner had just left to go on her morning walk and had been kind enough to open the gate for me to reverse out. When I went to look up and down the street to see if she was still nearby, she was gone.

I was faced with a problem. Should I take the other car; the one that my partner needed to go to work that afternoon?  Or should I try and catch a train? I do live near the train line, and take it to work most days, but on weekends the trains are less frequent. If I was to catch a train it would have to be soon.

I raced inside to grab the timetable. There was a train in the next 10 min, which I could get, provided I reached the station in time. For me to reach the station, I would need a lift. In order to have a lift, someone would have to drive me. That someone was out walking, somewhere.

Thankfully I listen to my partner when she tells me where it is that she goes on her walks and so I drove off in the other car, trying to find her. She was not walking anywhere around the streets that I myself have in the past walked with her, but I remembered that she had of late been favouring Station Street, as that had less traffic.

I caught sight of her traipsing across the dead end of a cul de sac while I was driving nearby. I rounded a few corners to meet her at the entrance of that street. I explained my plight and she agreed to come with me to the station.

By this time, I had missed the train that I had noted in the timetable that I had quickly consulted. I reasoned that my next best bet was to go the next station, where the express made it’s last stop on the way into Perth. So off we went. My partner took the wheel as I kissed her goodbye and ran the last few metres to the stop. I had reasoned well; the next express was due in 5 min.

I was soon in Perth and looking for the next connection; the train to take me to the showgrounds. I changed platform and came across the sign informing me that the Fremantle line was closed for repair. I had to go to the Wellingston St Bus Station for a replacment bus. Would the complications of transport on this day never end?

I raced back down the way I had come and continued onto the bus station. I was basically retracing the steps that I take to get to work.

A bus was ready and waiting to go to the showgrounds with many people, some in cosplay, already aboard. Soon after I found a seat we were away. Not long now, I thought.

However, in the battle of Bus v Train, the train is quicker. The bus took half an hour meandering through Subiaco and at one stage driving completely past the showgrounds, before finally turning around, after having crossed the railway tracks, for us to disembark  at the Claremont showgrounds.

Little herds of cosplayers and fans started to make their way to the pavillions.

I had been aiming to get to SupaNova in time to hear the first talk of the day at 10.40. By now, with all the transport delays that I had it was a little after 10. I had pre-purcahsed a ticket, so I thought I should be able to get inside with no hassle and find a good seat.

Coming up to the pavillion I saw that I was in error.

The lines to get into SupaNova

Notice that there are two lines. The one in the background is the line for people buying their tickets on the day. The line in the foreground is for the smart people, like me, who bought their ticket ahead of time (and paid that pesky booking fee – grumble). Now the far away line stretched on far away, as you can see. But what about the pre-paid line?

Finally near the end of the pre-paid line

The pre-paid line was just as long as the line for pay on the day. Plus, upon arrival I had no way of knowing which line was which. I asked and no one with a lanyard around their neck with a plastic SupaNova badge could tell me for sure. Some of the people I started lining up with found out after 10 min that they were in the wrong line. I took note of these people, who were in costume, who had to march all the way to the end of the other line. I will mention them again later.

So, what was the point of pre-purchasing a ticket if this is what happens? I stood in that line for 45 min. At least I had the cosplayers around to entertain me and give me something to look at. I had these very nice anime cosplayers in front of me, who allowed the rest of their team to cut in to join them. I guess their strength is derived from each other.

The Cosplayers in front of me - does anyone recognise the characters?

I finally got near the front, having taken a few photos and got my show bag from some volunteers (more bag than show, considering it only had a few vouchers and the program in it), but I had missed the start of the first talk by about 15 min so far, and there was still 20 people in front of me. I looked over at the other line and that was moving a lot faster than the one I was in. Remember those cosplayers from before, who had to change lines? They were now entering the pavillion.

Still stuck in line? Why not take another photo.