The Glass Pinata

Death Cream - Sonny and the Sunsets filmclip

2010-06-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hi hi
This took me ages. That's why I haven't posted for a while! I was living in quite a papery mess for a while there. Only used a fraction of what I shot so I'll have to do something with the rest of it. Sonny & the sunsets just signed to Fat Possom. Congrats! Hope to see 'em here soon.
Anyway here:

http://www.myspace.com/sonnythesunsets

Flash Forward To The Good Times

2010-04-05T04:15:00.000-07:00

Good advice

2010-04-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

I made it to Austin, Texas around 7 p.m (first class from LAX) and headed for the address I was given for the bus I was supposed to work on (chaperone was the title being bandied around) that was to head to MTY MEX music festival, Monterrey Mexico at 10 p.m.

It was the last night of SXSW and the streets were packed and going absolutely bonkers with bands playing every square inch of the town. It was also getting really fucking cold so I bought some gloves and warmed myself with local beer at Cheer Up Charlies.

I found my contact, a lovely girl who was in near tears as the bus drivers hadn't been turning up and quite a few bands were bailing out on traveling down south due to hearing the reports of increased Mexican mafia drug violence happening in the border towns. Cars blowing up and machine gun fire was apparently being shown on the news. These bad ass noise bands mummy's had told them they couldn't go or else they were just filling up their dacks with terrified turds themselves at the thought of scary ol' Mexico. None of the bands that were supposed to be on my bus turned up...but then again neither did the driver. I was told the bus wasn't going to be heading out until six the next morning by this chick so I wandered off into the night not really sure where the fuck I was going to be staying.

Funnily enough I bumped into alot of Melbourne. Crayon Fields, Guy & Ben, Beaches, Love Of Diaphrams and that other guy and went out partied for a while till the only choice I had was to head back to where the bus was supposed to be leaving and maybe sleep under a rock. Even a cold indie rock would do.

I got to the ricketiest, most decrepit yellow school bus I've ever seen and luckily enough there were a couple of terrified kids and a scattering of musicians huddled up inside. Grabbed myself a seat, dropped a brick and passed out only to wake up at some point when some psycho jock was running around outside the bus kicking it and throwing witches hats at windows. I went outside and me and an old hippie managed to subdue him until the police were called.

6 a.m came and went and no driver so they hired some big ol' Latino loco lady to drive the piece of shit and get us on the road. After ten minutes we were screwing in the screws on the side of the bus with quarters, taping the mirrors back on and preying to even get anywhere at all.
Bus lady stopped the bus 20 minutes out in a supermarket car park and said she wasn't going anywhere anymore 'cause this bus was going to get her and/or us killed. Said she'd drive us down in her own van for 50 bucks a piece. We finally convinced her to take us back.

I was watching bands break up and freak right out while I ate some local tamales I bought at a little farmers market on the side of the road and was just glad to be somewhere different. By midday we were back on the road with a radical bus driver and a slightly improved school bus and we tore down through Texas with me up in the front seat both trying to chaperone and trying to hide from any questions nervous band members might have had. They just gave me a gas card, some border crossing instructions and a good luck.

Shit this was my first time traveling alone and I didn't even bring a phone or ipod let alone a laptop. 'This should be interesting' was my mantra as we neared the border and the the Texan stars began to light up the sky.

Saint Simon

2010-04-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm back in one piece. Nobody got murdered by drug cartels while I was in Mexico.

In a botanica in The Mission district, back in San Fransisco, I came across a figurine of San Simon. El Hermano San Simon. Maximon (pronounced "Mashimon")

I went straight for the little guy, completely intrigued by the only saint wearing modern (mid last century at least) clothing.
Moustached and handsome, a smart black suit, red tie and fedora, sitting on a chair with a bag of coins in one hand and a flag in another.
The Espiritualista behind the counter told me his name but couldn't elaborate as my Spanish is non existent (for shame senor Montero, for shame) but since our meeting (the higher powers were gracious hosts and introduced us in polite and cosmic manner) in that little shop I have discovered that this dashing deity is a saint of the hopeless, the gamblers, the drunkards and a symbol of male sexual power.

San Simon/Maximon is actually a pre Colombian Mayan pagan god of the underworld who the missionaries tried to turn into a bad guy by casting him as Judas! The plan backfired as the locals saw Judas as a hero for handing out the gold coins that he earned by snitching on Jesus to the needy and impoverished.

So he has a dark side. Like all of us. The whole yin and the yang thing that Catholicism and Christianity really has a problem with. If only they could learn to pull the release valve every now and then, right out in the open then they wouldn't need to do it behind closed doors. Then our spiritual crop would grow strong and healthy. I don't want or need to get into a religious rant here because I have no religious background for which to rebel against.

I sit here recovering from jet lag. Recovering from getting off the plane and heading straight for my empty house (which we all have been kicked out of! I ran around my room throwing things into bags and boxes and getting rotten drunk while two landlords stood over me) and I've lit my San Simon candle. I've bought him wine and chocolate and a yellow candle (yellow for the protection of loved ones...but only because I can't find green for prosperity, red for love or black for revenge. Which colour for money?) and I've made a prayer for myself.

I'm so glad that I've met you El Hermano San Simon. These drinks tonight will be for you.

MTY MEX festival 20th March - 22nd March

2010-03-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here's where I'll be motherfuckers: toddpnyc : MtyMx
Chaperoning Washed Out: www.myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods and Small Black: www.myspace.com/smallblacksounds and Paperplane: www.myspace.com/pictureplane over the U.S boarder into old Mexico.

Check out the line up! Gosh and gee willickers bratman!! You can keep ya Golden Plains.

After The Brutals the night before I'll stay up until the morning time when I catch my flight to LAX then a connecting flight to Austin, try and catch Sonny and the Sunsets in town, then head to the Bus station at 10p.m to ride across to Monterey, Mexico with clip board and whistle, ticking off names and bribing officials. Nuts. Free accom and fest, after party access and help clean up before shipping out Tuesday night.
After that I'm free to slowly wander back to L.A to play a show or two (one with Dave the Farmer!). Bay area? Hello Berkeley buddies. Are buses cheap? Do they really come with head chopping maniacs? Will I BE that head chopping maniac by this stage? I don't think so. I'll be too sleepy.

Jeneanne Jeneanne Clip

2010-01-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

I made this in my room with what was in my making things box (The Brutals are a band I play in sometimes)

Vega-Tables!

2009-12-15T00:29:00.000-08:00

My first animation put to The Beach Boys 'Vegatables' *crunch crunch*

2009-12-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Xanax Hello Turkey

2009-11-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

Alprazolam should never be abruptly stopped if taken regularly for any length of time because severe withdrawal symptoms may occur. Severe psychosis and seizures have been reported in the medical literature from abrupt alprazolam discontinuation,^[53]^[54] and one death occurred from withdrawal-related seizures after gradual dose reduction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alprazolam

I've always enjoyed the odd xanax when passed to me by a friend. Though, a little while ago before heading to the u.s I went looking for a prescription to call my very own and it didn't take me long to find at all. Actually it was the second doctor I visited. The first didn't even let me finish my plea and just pointed to a sign on the wall about not giving out drugs to desperate pseudo junkies, gave me a script for sleeping tablets and pointed to the door. I slithered out but only had to walk three doors down to a little out of the way hole in the wall doctors office in the heart of the city where I was quickly welcomed in by a funny old little man who kept staring at me funny. I gave him my story (a true story!) about having to embark on my first overseas jaunt that would include *gulp* performing and singing in my band in front of real live Americans and that although I was excited I was shitting myself and wondering how I would actually cope as I'm prone to anxiety and worried about the strange behaviour that it produces. He wanted to know about my anxiety and asked if I had depression. I said I didn't feel depressed. He looked at me a little while and asked if I'd heard of John Denver and in particular a song called 'Perhaps Love'...I said I hadn't so he printed out the lyrics for me (the pages had pictures of various flowers on them) and suggested I find the song somewhere to listen to. I wasn't sure what he was telling me but I looked enthusiastic as I could feel myself getting closer to drugs.

He paused a moment, sizing me up and then with the sizing up part of the meeting over, relaxed and asked me what it was I wanted. Awlright! It was like the shutters went up on the tuck shop windows and all the colours and flavours of the rainbow were mine to sample.

Walking towards home I popped a brick (a brick is the largest bestest ass kickingest xanax there is) and considered starting on the the cymbatal, an anti depressent, that'd he'd also prescribed to me, but decided to wait a day or two and just dig the one thing for now. an hour later I was passed out drooling on the couch. Bliss.

So I took these little guys on my adventure of California and they seemed to really help me with the nerves before performing at each show. Especially with a shot or three of gin and some local beer. Oh and some medical weed and hash we managed to get our hands on.
Gerald was buying lots of packs of cigarettes and was calling them "social currency" which I was right... you could give them out to new friends and to the homeless. Xanax became my social currency. Not for the homeless...just for chemical minded new friends. I'd watch them melt and feel some pride. The guys from Sleepy Sun and Assembled Head In Sunburst Sound came to our Frisco show and I passed them one each with the warning to maybe just take half for now. They didn't listen and came back asking for another. I noticed while playing that they'd started to nod off and watched them trying to stagger to the bathroom and back to the bar and then just vanish all together by the end of the set. Ha! I later got a text from one of them which read something like: "what was in those Aussie xanax??? You guys sounded liek a choir of heavenly freaks before I orbited somewhere past Jupiter!" Goal! Take that hippies!

So we were gone for nearly three weeks, and I kept on eating them everyday unaware of the growing dependence. Those puppies, combined with cymbatal (which I later found out caused suicidal thoughts), fine weed and hash, plenty of alcohol and constant morning coffees had me at a nice crazy balance if I could lay it out all in the right order.

I came home jet lagged and confused and on a right high and dove into the Halloween party planning and the catching up with family and friends. I went over and stayed at my rad friend H*****'s place, not getting out of my pyjamas and just eating xanax drinking heavily and rolling joints. I was in and out of consciousness for three or four days like an opium dreamer from a Tin Tin comic before I decided I should actually get on with life and see what was happening in the real world.

So I never read the writings on the side of any packet of anything and didn't look up any dangers till today. I'm a pro. Apparently kicking a xanax is no walk in the park. That also goes for anti depressants like cymbaltal (I popped 2 one night for fun and woke the next day to my body jolting violently for a few seconds! gross!). Maybe even weed or alcohol or coffee perhaps? Is stopped 'em all one beat. You should ease off these things gradually. I did (or im doing) nearly two weeks of cutting cold. Now I realise why I literally didn't sleep for 4 days, bizarre scary fantastic colourful dreams when I finally did manage to close my eyes, bouts of crying, hostility, despair, suicidal thoughts and worst of all, from waking up to falling asleep, feeling like I was walking around in a dream or an acid flashback, with distorted vision and ghostly figures all around in the corner of my eyes. I even tried a Stillnox but there was no sleep only endless tentacles spiralling out of the walls and millions of strange invisible beetles on the floor. If it was anyone else who'd not had years of drug experience surely would've ended up a puddle on the floor.

Also, anyone in this state should not have access to a mobile phone or a facebook or any other communication device. In fact you should probably be locked in a box (or a coffin) for a good three weeks until you promise you are not in monster form anymore. Even then...don't believe the words of a monster.

The Halloween party

2009-11-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Remember this a few weeks ago? I don't much. This is the show I organized for my birthday. I was still a little jet lagged as I raced around the Empress decorating and setting up from the early morning to well into the show. I sat down to enjoy the bands for a moment and skulled a bottle of champagne Jake had given me. I must've dropped a xanax (the brick versions mind you) from my ever present prescription bottle as not long after I crawled down the lane behind the empress throwing up and collapsing onto the cool soothing paving stones. As I lay there I could heard the distand faint rumble of a storm cloud heading my way... I couldn't move. I was entranced by the rumbles getting louder and growing nearer and the increase in rain drop size and volume until the lightening cracked over my head and a torrent of sky water fell down over me. I can remember reaching out my arm for a peice of corragated iron and dragging it over my body as bext as I could to sheild myself. I could hear the muffled sound of a band playing inside and the chatter and laughter of folks who seemed to be pacing themselves better than I. Get up.. said the voice in my head. No...said my body. Not yet. I came too and staggered inside filthy - drenched and re joined the festivities. The place looked great and the music sounded fantastic and everyone was wonderful. I asked Gerald for some acid. Everyone vanished and I rode around on a bicycle looking for friends until I gave up and went home.

CALIFORNIA - THE TM BAND TOUR OCT '09

2009-11-24T14:22:00.000-08:00

Hello! I got slack. So here's some photos from The Tm Band California sojourn (I've never used that word before...is this correct?) We met beautiful people and played some wonderful shows and fell in love and fought like slugs and ticked so many things of personal dream lists. Late at night I dream of the Mexican food. In the evening I long for Black Entertainment Television. Of a morning I crave the bustle of Berkeley. Hellowah to all our friends over the pond.

photo 1. The state flag. They love bears and so do we.
photo 2. with David Paulson at his old house in L.A
photo3. with friend in Monterey enjoying the party. Oh what a night!
photo 4. Oakland Taco Bell. I forgot the womans name who took the photo but she shared the same bday as gerald and Hitler.
photo 5. Hot Pick gig for Monterey @ Jose's. It was Pablos going away to Spain. Dude was drunk!
photo 6. First show in Berkeley, house party @ The Carpentary
photo 7 and 8. I join team Brit. Briefly my fiancee. Hi Brit! See you soon x

The TM Band - Cosmic Basketball (Space Jam)

2009-10-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN PARTY! OCT 31ST EMPRESS

2009-10-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

So it's my birthday on Halloween. I'm having the second annual Empress Halloween/bday party extravaganza. Jono from Pet's w Pet's came up with the name Haustrallioween! I think it's a snazzy mouthful. As a halloween present to everyone I wont be performing in any combination x

PETS WITH PETS
GOBLIN~NUT'S (KOKO~NUTS play Goblins cult-classic Tenebre!)
THE ANCIENTS
DIRTBAG (Beaches/Spider Vomit)
DARREN SYLVESTER
SCOTT AND CHARLENE'S WEDDING
VICMOD (secretive Melbourne EMS & synth modification ensemble and repair unit)
WIFEY (SYD)
POPOLICE
ACID CASUALTY
ANDREW COWIE
THE SUNBLINDESS
FATTY FRANCES
BAPTISM OF UZI
MAKE UP SEX (Sophie Brous and Tarquin Manek)
MILK TEDDY
SCHOOL OF RADIANT LIVING
DJ FAUX PAS/DJ EMMA PEEL

It will start at 4 p.m

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143704783035&ref=mf

TM Time

2009-09-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

TM Band California Tour

2009-09-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Computers are amazing. Look at the future!

2009-08-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

Old scraps. My room is full of them.

2009-08-24T15:37:00.001-07:00

presto presto do your very besto (a bing a bang bong)

2009-08-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

Sand pyramid. or how to reach Nirvana without Krist Novaselic

2009-08-23T16:42:00.003-07:00

animation. 1st one test run. 2nd one w/ Colin Blunstone singing Caroline Goodbye. I did this at home when I couldn't sleep

2009-08-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

Catchit

2009-08-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

he first step i took out of bed this morning i slid over on kitty's shit and fell on my ass. so this is my new life

Not a wet eye in the house or I was a teenage folk-rocker

2009-08-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

After 8 (about 6 too many!!) years the band finished last night in Ballarat with an onstage brawl. Falling through the amps and drums, I felt my jumper soak with Fail Draught and an old weight lift off my shoulders. What a long drag. Was finally starting to sound good too. Pictures of the past: