13. All These Things That I've Done - The Killers

The average day for the average person is inherently boring and non-eventful. Put a few of them together and you end up with a boring week, and sometimes you can just wake up and realised that you've wasted a month, a year, a life.

And when this is the case, it’s the small things that make the difference. The small sparks of life that make you realise that things are going to be alright. Or at the very least, it’s the small things that provide me with things to actually write about.

Take today for instance.

If I were to big picture it for you, it'll be something like this; wake up, uni, work, home, sleep. Now unless you live in a small white room without any visual or audio stimuli and had no sense of time, my day isn't that exciting. But then I think about the small stuff.

Now I woke up this morning feeling not nearly as refreshed as I'd like, but as the good soldier that I am (or at least inspire to be) I managed to get out of bed and into university on time. Its strange but I think that I can get up easier before 9am then after it, regardless of what time I went to bed; it must be because I'm one fifth canadian or something. But anyway, got to university on time, managed to find me a park.

At this juncture, I could do a spiel about the sheer greed and stupidity of the Monash Uni council vis a vis carparks on the Clayton campus. I could, for instance, point to the fact that just this week they released more parking permits, while at the same time reducing the parking areas for parking permits. While I admit I somewhat respect their all-consuming greed and ability to put the almighty dollar before of you know, the students at their essentially education (i.e. student-first) centre, when I have to park on gravel instead of a paved car spot, I'm not happy.

But I digress.

At the best of times, a two hour lecture on taxation law is not fun, you don't have to be a law student to appreciate that. But when its a continuous two hour lecture without a short break after the first hour, well it hurts more than being kicked in the balls by a tall chick with pointy leather boots. At least in my three hour international law lecture we have a break every hour, but that still doesn't help the fact that it’s a THREE HOUR lecture.

Found some time today to head up to the John Medley library in the campus centre. I'd heard from a source that they had comics in this library, and me being the quasi-geek that I am, had to see it for myself. Originally the plan was to have a quick peek, then find a nice sofa and grab a quick nap before my int. law lecture. Obviously this plan went out the window when I realised that they had entire Batman: Hush series by Jeph Loeb. Comics yes, sleep no.

Loeb is one of my favourite comic book writers, he can write a good batman tale, from 'The Long Halloween, 'Dark Victory' or even the 'Superman/Batman' series. Daredevil: Yellow and Spiderman: Blue both by Loeb and Tim Sale are great pieces as well. And while I'm on the topic, who else do I like? Mark Millar (Ultimates etc), Bendis (Ult Spiderman), Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets), Frank Miller (DKR, Sin City), Dan Slott (She-Hulk), Brian K. Vaughan (Runaways)...

Yes, I know I sound like a geek, I'm well aware of that.

Anyway, here I was about to embark on the excitement that is a three hour lecture on the sources of international law (which is basically; treaties and conventions, customary law, general principles of law and judicial decisions and legal writings...haha so I did learn something in class) and I was about to fall asleep before it begun, it didn't bode well. Enter a can of V.

V is a flip of a coin for me, sometimes it works, other times it does nothing. I prefer to think of it as placebo caffeine; as long as I start thinking that it'll keep me awake, its done its job. However, I've found that it does actually work when I have 2 in the space of 5 hours.

Oh yeah, before work I had another can of V (2 in the space of 5 hours).

Needless to say, even though my body is bloody tired and needs sleep, I'm awake writing a blog of all things.

Yeah I need sleep.

Work was as uneventful as work gets, a bit of this, a bit of that and then I go home. At least I've got some cool friends at work; sometimes it feels like they're the only reason I'm still at that place. But then I remember that I'm doing a 10 hour shift on Sunday at double pay rates...so that’s 340 + 1 reasons why I'm still at that place.

As you've probably figured out, I'm not even going to try to link this one to the song. But I will say that I heard it on the radio on the long drive home and, possibly due to the stupid levels of caffeine in me, sung along at full pelt. And I have been listening to their 'Hot Fuss' album while typing this baby out. The Killers, they're good, trust me. Or not. Trust in the powers of the Arturians.

Haha the Arturians...stick around folks, I promise that I'll have a very interesting entry this time next week...

Sadly I don't think the V's are wearing off at all. Oh well.

12. Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey

There is a simple reason for choosing this song today;

Doot doot doot dum,
doot doot doot doot doot doot da dum.

And that's why I love this song.

My song selections for this blog/place/thing is never as structured as I would like. I view it as a very organic process, either I actually have a song in my head that won't leave (see 10. Caught Up - Usher), or I write an entry and then try to find a song that kinda links to it; be it a line from the song, the song title itself, or just random tiny thing that, in my mind, forms a nexus of connectivity to the entry (see 8. Honey And The Moon - Joseph Arthur and my discussion of the O.C.). In essence, I like to think that I'm a lot smarter and wittier than I actually am.

But sometimes it all falls into place.

Like this one. Now this song is relatively old, sometime during my primary school/early high school years (which is relatively old for me). And as luck or fate or whatever would have it, I found myself singing along to it in my friend's car on the way back from our weekend excursion to Philip Island (thanks for the lift El).

Frightening to say, I remembered most of words. What makes it even stranger is that I'm sure i didn't know the words to this song even way back then. Its amazing what you can remember about songs. I can remember the "doot doot doot dum" bit, but I'm pretty sure that everyone can. I also remember that my favourite part was the bridge right in the middle.

The thing about Mariah and me is that, to paraphrase the Regurgitators, I like her old stuff better than her new stuff. But when I think about it, its not the songs themselves that I'm fond of, its the memories that have woven themselves around it. For instance, when I hear 'Hero", it reminds me of my final day at primary school in year 6 when as a year level we performed the song to our parents. I guess its those things that brings songs close to our hearts, well that and any song that has "doot doot doot dum" in it.

11. Winding Road - Bonnie Somerville

Sometimes I find it hard to explain why I like things. Or dislike things for that matter.

But at the end of the day, I guess it can all come down to the 'vibe'. I have a lot of faith in the inherently indescribable 'vibe' of things. And while the results have been questionable at times, I'm going to stick by it for as long as it works.

Which brings me to 'Winding Road' by Bonnie Somerville. Now this song is tucked away as the last song in the Garden State OST. And for the life of me, I can't really give you a clear answer on why I like this one. Its nothing special, just a simple female vocal and guitar, and the lyrics are sweet and sappy, but it works for me. Lets just say that according to my itunes, its play count is at 53, ranking it as 14th on my all time played list. So its got something working for it that makes me go back to it.

Another strange thing is that while I love the Garden State OST, I've actually never seen the movie. I've actually got the dvd sitting on top of the pile but its never been played. From what I've heard, it’s a very good movie. So why haven't I seen it yet? There are three reasons that I can think of;

1) I just haven't had the time between uni/work/study and watching all the television series dvd box sets
2) I just haven't been in the mood to watch it
3) I'm subconsciously worried that the movie will not be as good as the soundtrack

I'm leaning towards a mixture of 2) and 3).

In other news, administration law is still as confusing as it was three weeks ago. And thankfully the Commonwealth Games are starting tomorrow, meaning that I now have to take public transport into the city for work. Thanks a bunch guys.

10. Caught Up - Usher

Currently I'm having some problems coming up with a good opening sentence for this entry.

As a temporary stop-gap measure I will now continue the entry at approximately 1/3rd of the way in and hopefully address the opening line problem at a later date.

And then I said to her, 'You think thats a problem? I lost $20 and my towel got wet"

Managed to pull the usual 12 hours of work this weekend, 8 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Now that itself is nothing special, but what made it even better was the fact that I got the chorus from 'Caught Up' stuck in my head right at the start of my shift.

Now my love for Usher is well-founded. Truth be told I had a lot more respect for the man before I found out that he uses 'wheelies' in his shoes. It was like when I was told Santa wasn't real (circa Dec 2001), or when I learnt that KIT from Knight Rider was just a prop. In short, I'm not personally affronted by Usher. Unless he starts bad-mouthing my bitches again.

So initially it was all cool, but after that 10 seconds passed, it got a little annoying, then a lot annoying. On later analysis it might have to do with the fact that I really don't know the words to the song. So for about 4 hours, I had this going in my head;

"I'm so caught up, and I don't know what it is but *something something* got me twisted" * repeat

Also note that as per the song, the 'caught up' bit is pitching in a bit higher. So its really running something like this;

"I'm so CAUGHT UP, and I don't know what it is but *something something* got me twisted" * repeat and rinse.

And then as I don't know the rest of the words, I get this playing;

"I'm so CAUGHT UP, *mumble mumble* CAUGHT UP, *mumble mumble* CAUGHT UP, and I don't know what it is but *something something* got me twisted" * shuffle and repeat

Obviously a lot of fun. But it got worse; the show started. Now just in case you didn't know, I work as an usher/merch guy at the Regent Theatre. And right now the 'Reg' (that's some sophisticated theatre-talk there) is showing Disney's The Lion King; the musical.

So anyway I'm standing at the back of the stalls with 'Caught Up' in my head, and then it starts, the beginning of 'The Circle of Life'.

At about this stage, I would have been willing to remove each of my fingernails with my teeth. Unfortunately it got worse.

The building next door decided to add to my woes and turn its alarm on. Well that or the building next door was broken into by a bunch of professional criminals. Actually if they were professional criminals, the alarm would not have gone off, so maybe it was just amateur criminals.

So here I am, 'Caught Up' plus the score from the Lion King plus an alarm.

Headache.

Now this is interesting, I'm having a problem closing this entry. These bookends aren't working.

Oh well, I'll just stop typing. Right about...now.

9. Frenchy, I'm Faking - Architecture In Helsinki

Architecture In Helsinki: cool band name, weird music.

From what I gather, Architecture In Helsinki is a Melbourne-based band, so big kudos for that. I love Melbourne so much that sometimes I wonder if I'm Mayor John So and Lavinia Nixon's illegitimate love-child.

And what special special event is happening in just a few days right here in my hometown? You guessed it, the XXVIXIVI Commonwealth Games. Ohh yeah, we get to watch Australia compete against the world giants of..umm Canada and Singapore and some random little African country.

So I read in the paper that Nikki Webster, the self-proclaimed 'star' of the 2000 Olympic Games (disregarding all those, you know, athletes) is a tad upset that she didn't get an invite to the Commonwealth Games. Additionally she warned the children who are taking part in the opening ceremony to be wary of Australia's addiction to the tall poppy syndrome...awww

.....

Sorry. Had to take a moment, its really hard to type with all these tears falling on the keyboard.

Now my darling Nikki, I love ya, especially your work in 'The Wizard of Oz' and your inability to even remotely have a plausible American accent, but please, can you shut the hell up?

In fact it was at work where I first heard of Architecture In Helsinki, I think they were an opening act for some one-off show or something. I didn't hear any of their stuff but I distinctly remember how much I loved the band name. Fast forward a few years, I was stuck in JB in one of my 'need to spend money' moods and I happened upon their latest (or it could be their first for all I know) offering 'In Case We Die'.

Its strange, nothing like I every imagined. But like that growth on my left arm, its growing on me.

8. Honey And The Moon - Joseph Arthur

And another thing, what the hell is happening with the o.c?

I managed to catch the last 20 minutes of tonights episode and I seriously have no idea whats going on anymore.

I'll admit that may be due to the fact that the last time I saw some of the o.c was last season. Maybe I should get back into it, coz the last thing I need right now is more television seasons to watch.

Which brings me to...

So what did I watch during the summer in terms of television series?

West Wing Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4
Arrested Development Seasons 1 and 2
Scrubs Seasons 1 and 2
Las Vegas Season 1
Firefly Season 1
Black Books Season 1

And who says summer holidays aren't productive?