Shotglasses & Suitcases
“And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation”
- Khalil Girbran

I had read this quote 7-8 years ago, in the book The Prophet, and it was not until recently that I actually experienced & fully understood what he meant. When I left for Melbourne approx. 6.5 years ago, I thought I understood, sadly – not quite! Maybe in the back of my head I always knew I’d be back.

Early this year I made it a point to make the most of life, seize the opportunity, take plunge etc. It helped me put things in better perspective. Life itself seemed so much simpler and less complicated. After my travels to Sydney, London & Paris earlier this year, I found myself at the crossroads again. The flight from London to Melbourne got me thinking. High above the clouds I got nothing to do but TH!NK. 23hr fucking flight, I can’t sleep, what else is expected? So here I am on the flight, attempting to weigh out my options, knowing that I have already made my decision. I knew it was time.

When I started telling my friends that I was headed back home in 3 months, I got mixed responses. Some were happy for me, a few were jealous that I could do it and few were annoyed. Over the months that I followed, I started to wrap things up, going to my fav bars, restaurants, pubs etc. Amongst all the chaos of emotions I simply chose to fixate on the fear of driving at home Manual Cars (I’m used to driving only automatics). Guess it was easy to fixate on something irrelevant rather than something substantial, I know I can adapt anywhere. As I drew closer to my departure date, I began to fear that whether I wouldn’t fit in again - with my friends back home. It had been way too long, even though we remained to stay in touch over the years with facebook, orkut etc. Would they accept for who I am now, rather than who I was before I left. Times change, people change – I’ve always known that. This again was another attempt to keep distracted from the real fear, which didn’t hit me until a couple of weeks after being home. The fear of all those friends I had left behind. The ones I took for granted, seemed to matter the most. They accepted me for who I was and didn’t attempt to change me or be cynical. Then there were those, who I pretty much put on a pedestal, with whom, I was not willing to accept the fact that we were barely had much in common anymore but we still held on to that last strand of a hyperbole relationship. Maybe that’s what life really is, a hyperbole of all relationships to help us feel comfortable!

Another place, another drink!

I think it was about a year and half ago that I found myself at the bar. We had been on the usual Friday night alcohol binge - crawling from one bar to another, our victory run after a week of work. As we were entering this place, the security guard asks me to take my tie off: I was in love with the place! Section 8 Container Bar.

The bar is surrounded by a steel fence, like that of a construction site. Shipping pallets placed appropriately to serve as tables and/or chairs. A few empty barrels too. The bar itself is a large modified container. The rest of the decor is simple art made mostly from recyclable items (like the rest of the bar). One image which still is unblemished in my head - a cage filled with bulbs and with only one that is actually lit. The place might remind you an old rundown shed in someone’s backyard), however, there lies true beauty. Since it probably meets the regulations like that of a beer garden, smoking is permitted. Not that I smoke, it does well for my most of my friends. On saying that, as open the place is, the portable heaters situated around the place are more than adequate in a cold winter night.

The music is not too loud, yet not too soft. Various DJs frequently play at this bar. The music scene is ever changing varying from Reggae to lounge to trip-hop. The crowd is perfect (well at least for me) filled neither with suits nor with 18yr olds running around. Majority of the crowd is quite Artsy in their mid-twenties to early thirties.

The selection of alcohol is, simply put, great! A good variety of beer including Cooper’s long necks . During the summer, Section 8 has an abundant number and variety of cocktails.
Apart from serving as the perfect Sunday afternoon bar on a sunny summer day, I love being there for mid-week drinks (anytime during the year).

Check out their site:
http://section8.com.au/

P.s: Been meaning to take a few shots of the place, sadly never got around to it.

Sydney!

I remember my days at uni, I couldn’t wait to graduate & move to Sydney. Being the financial capital of Australia, I always considered that to be in a way the Promised Land. However, various events unfolded during the years that followed & I never did make the move. I did visit Sydney twice: first time, it was part of a uni trip (when I completed my course). We had done pretty much the whole east coast – Great Keppel Island, Gold Coast, Byron Bay & Sydney. Loved Sydney. I couldn’t understand why the people (living in Melbourne) told me that they would never relocate to Sydney. The second trip was when my parents were visiting me in Melbourne. We had flown to Sydney for the day. Took the first flight in & the last flight back. Again, loved Sydney. I guess the hustle bustle & the chaos was an attraction. I didn’t have a real job in Melbourne, so I guess Sydney always looked more attractive. Last Month, (3 years after my second trip) I went to Sydney for the weekend, to catch up with a few friends and take a break from everyone/everything in Melbourne. Probably also because, this year I’m going to do everything I can, I had been procrastinating a fair few things. So there I was at the Sydney Airport buying my rail ticket into the city, thinking to myself why was it that I hadn’t yet made the move?

The rest of the weekend was a series of events, from visiting the local pub for lunch to clubbing, avoiding cops & drinking some more!

One of the highlights – the bakery at the Surry Hills:

It has the best croissants available in Oz. At the end of the day, I don’t think I would want to work/live in Sydney. As great as a place it is to visit, liveable... hmmm... maybe not! Melbourne trumps Sydney any day.

I’ll never say never – with right leverage I would move anywhere. Then again, I don’t really have any attachments in Melbourne – so not sure what’s keeping me here either.

And of course, I found some great art work on the walls (in Sydney):

Alley Art (part 2) - Hosier Lane

Hosier Lane

A little lane, tucked away in the heart of the city of Melbourne. A place where artists express themselves. You can spend hours looking at them, every single one is unique in its own way.

There are those that contribute to the existing ones sadly there are those too that are just there to tag over good ones & ruin it all.

another great one:

I guess what is frustrating is, that the new ones are not replacing the old ones. Its just "tags" & not anything creative.

You get some tiny ones

Then there those that are obviously larger than life & probably took forever (not saying the small ones are easy - i'm just simply terrible with anything close to even drawing a straight line)

I was lucky enough to meet a couple of artist whilst walking around taking photos.

Andrew & his friends were working on their own little projects:

11pm

11pm, I feel the gentle cool breeze through my window. I sip on a glass of French Pinot, whilst contemplating on what I must do this year. Too many options, yet none of them appear to fit correctly. The timing is just not right. Maybe, I just don’t understand what lies ahead of me. Or could it simply be that I am too distracted by attempting to do all at once? Probably.

(the wine is good)

I generally have a very realistic approach to most situations. However, I always ponder at the worst case scenarios prior to entering into anything, which in a way prepares me for everything, well almost.

I need a break, a good holiday. I have one planned for June. I have already bought my tickets, so I guess it is a concrete plan. London. Maybe, Paris for a few days as well. A perfect testing field for my new camera (though I just need to make sure that I know how to use it perfectly before). Relocating to London did cross my mind a couple of times. However, since my career is in Finance, now is not quite appropriate.

Now that I am not pursuing any part-time study at the moment, I find myself spending time on things I felt I have neglected for quite some time. Photography is definitely on top of the list. Apart from that I find myself spending a lot of time watching movies & reading.

I did finally manage to get through a few books over the last couple of months:
· Sophie’s World – It was great in the beginning. The story overall was enjoyable but the history of philosophy was a bit too much for my liking.
· An Equal Music – One of the better books I have read so far. Not recognised as one Vikram Seth’s best pieces but definitely a very memorable one to all those who have read.
· Golden Gate – If I am right, Vikram Seth won an award for this. Not sure. He is extremely talented & creative. (Thank you, Erica, for this recommendation). I still prefer An Equal Music.

Currently reading Great Expectations, I remember reading the abridged version as a child & loving it. Now that I find myself reading a lot more books, I have decided catch up on loads of them.

Similarly, with the movies I have been watching heaps of classics: North by Northwest, Cool Hand Luke, Hustler & Casablanca to name a few of the most recent ones.

Alley Art (part 1)

About two & half years ago, I was in Hobart (Tasmania) on work. Sunday afternoon, walking around the city area. Most of the shop were shut or about to close. I walk out of a shopping mall, into this alley. Great artwork on the walls.

This one is my favourite of the lot!

Sunshine of Your Love

Lazy saturday afternoon, a good night of drinking the night before. At a friend's place, recovering & re-collecting. Exchanging stories (more like memories from the previous night). Making plans for the rest of the weekend. As we sit on the couch, her neighbour plays a song. The tune is strangely familiar. Very soulful. She cries out "sunshine of your love". Explained it was a cover of the orginial by Cream. Still a bit oblivuos what she was talking about, I get home & look for the song on my laptop. I realise which song she referred to. I always preferred the version by Jimi Hendrix. I do appreciate the original but I never associated the song to Cream. So begins my search for this soul/jazz cover. I keep playing the song over & over in my head. I kept thinking it was version made in this decade, very naive of me. Eventually, I found myself surfing youtube.com (note: I never do) looking for that song. I find various covers & notably stumble across the two that I have been looking for. One by Ella Fitzgerald & the other by Spanky Wilson.

Ella's version- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiea8g6SqvQ

Spanky Wilson's verison - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-Nf7j2riU

The quality is bit low. However, I think it Spanky Wilson's version has a bit more soul. Funkier.
After spending a bit more time on google, I find myself listening to a higher quality version

http://forum.odeo.com/episodes/9491883-Sunshine-of-Your-Love-Spanky-Wilson-1968

Now I need to find this on album in a store. I do recommend this version over the others.

Another Day, Another Song

Written 01/01/09


Sitting at home – listening to the new album “Chinese Democracy” by Guns N Roses. Fucking great album! Worth the wait? Probably not. But highly recommended. Personal favourite on the album is “This I Love” – track #13. (Yes, I bought the album)
It seems like forever since I added anything –

1st of Jan ’09, we are always optimistic on this day – making a list “new year resolution” – chances are I’ll never make one – even when I do, I think I’ve forgotten what it is by the end of the week. I think the major flaw is trying to do something that we don’t want to really do... smokers say they will quit smoking, yeah right! Why does anyone have to wait for this particular day? A benchmark? Or simply a date that is easy to remember for the day that their life changed or an attempt. How tough is it to make a decision at the spur of the moment? If you honestly want to do something, you don’t need to wait for that particular day or time unless you are procrastinating. I often take breaks (not quit) drinking alcohol. The last one was in April or May 2008 (can’t remember – clearly not that important) – was nearly down on my 2nd drink one evening, decided it was time to take a break. Stopped right then for 2 months. My flatmate’s suggestion was to quit the next day, or after the weekend - enjoy the last few drinks – didn’t quite see the point. Why quit at all? Every drink would eventually always be the drink before my last one. I don’t take a break cause I excessively drink or anything of that sort – I often like to test my limits (in the opposite sense – not drink to excess, not to drink at all). Don’t ask why.

I (finally) picked up a digital SLR last week – Canon 450D Single Lens Kit. I will take my photography hobby to a more acceptable level. Hopefully, over the next couple of months I will be able to share some of this. The second half of last year, I concentrated most of my non-work hours on studying, it is very difficult considering I’m working full time and this course is very demanding. The material is sent home and I need to allocate time on my own to study, no assignments, lectures or anything of that sort. Only one exam day. The result of which is due at the end this month – not exciting at all. Considering the free time now, I have decided to make better use of that time. (Hopefully I stick to it and no, this not my new year’s resolution)

Got a fair bit of reading to catch up on:
· Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (was given to me as a gift by a friend of mine when I had gone home for Diwali - Oct ’08. The pink cover and the title, does raise eyebrows on my train ride to work. But I do recommend this book –philosophical – so if that’s not an area of your interest – don’t bother.)
· Golden Gate by Vikram Seth (came highly recommended by the same friend who got me Sophie’s World – this one is a novel in verse – when I read it, will add another piece on it)
· Lord of the Rings (seems like forever since I am reading this one – I borrowed this book from the library first – 6 years ago – read like the first 50 pages & couldn’t get through – too descriptive. Now, after watching the movies at least thrice – I am enjoying the book.The reason for my delay this time is, I got like a special collector’s edition or something – all 3 books in 1 – so it quite heavy and large to carry everyday & read on the train. I have managed to finish the first book, in the second. Taking a break. Will get back to it, hopefully soon)
· Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (gotta finish the ones above before I get to this – I just have to make sure that I finish it before the movie is released)
· Back issues of UNCUT (rock magazine)

To add my reading, I picked up a fair few movies (including boxed set collector’s edition) – many classics and all time favourites. To make it on the top of my list on that would be “The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration” which is simply put the director’s cut of the trilogy. Includes heaps of extras including 4 short films on The Godfather.


I can probably go on & on.... but I must stop for tonight, need to make it on time to work tomorrow!

Chinese Democracy

The smoke machines begin to run, the purple lights scan the crowd – the guitarist strums his guitar. We scream our lungs out. The guitar is strummed again. We eagerly wait. “Do you know where the f**k you are?” Axle Rose cries out. Saturday night June 16 2007, where else would I want to be but at Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne) to watch the Guns N Roses.

I stood in awe while I watched them perform “welcome to the jungle”. The concert had begun. Two & a half hours of absolut bliss. They continued to play “it’s so easy”, “mr brownstone” “live and let die”.

Axle Rose claimed by many who weren’t there – “too fat”, “has lost his voice” & “is crap without Slash”. Well, all I can say is you should have been there. Axl was like a 20 year old running up and down. His voice was in great shape. I had longed to watch them live, probably ever since I heard the double cd live album. So this was a dream come true – I had gold tickets!!!

They performed all the songs you would want to hear. The backdrop visuals were, simply put, brilliant! None of the animation crap – they used pictures, video clips, photographs. For “rocket queen” they had the cover titles of vintage pornographic movies, very tastefully done. Also “rocket queen” wasn’t performed on any of the earlier shows, even for the June 15 Melbourne show. Sebastian Bach came back during the GNR performance to sing with Axl Rose on “my michelle”. Songs like “novemeber rain” “knockin’ on heavens doors” & “sweet child of mine” blew the crowd away. Axl encouraged everyone to sing along with him on KOHD. Ron (guitarist) performed “don’t cry” alone on the stage while the crowd sang the whole song (the rest of the band was probably doing lines). But the song that tore the arena apart was the encore “paradise city”; probably one of the best bits of the concert. At the end Axl goes “aussie aussie aussie” & the crowd went “oi oi oi” three times. After which he thew the mic into the crowd – it landed just ten feet from me – but I would have been dead meat had I made an attempt. It seemed like I was in rugby game involved in a All Blacks tackle.

Rose tattoo & Sebastian Bach were the TWO separate opening acts for them. The concert began at 8pm with Rose Tattoo followed by Sebastian Bach (ex-frontman of Skid Row). He did sing the skid row hits “18 & Life” & also “I Remember You” didn’t really watch the whole thing, as I kept running to the bar (not allowed to carry alcohol to the concert area – seats or floor). We were expect GNR to come on by 11. They came only at 11:30 and they wrapped up around 2:00 am.


Here’s the song set for the Melbourne June 16 2007 concert.

“Welcome To The Jungle”

“It's So Easy”

“Mr. Brownstone”

“Live And Let Die”

Robin Finck Guitar Solo & Jam (with Dizzy Reed & Frank Ferrer)

“Sweet Child O’ Mine”“Better”

“Knockin' On Heaven's Door”

Dizzy Reed Piano Solo (“Angie”)

“The Blues”Band Introductions/JamRichard Fortus & Robin Finck Guitar Solo

“Out To Get Me”

“Rocket Queen”

Piano Moving Jam“November Rain”

“I.R.S.”

“You Could Be Mine”

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal Guitar Solo (“Back In Black”, “Don't Cry”)

“My Michelle” (with Sebastian Bach)

“Liquor & Whores” (with Bubbles)

“Patience”

“Nightrain”

Encore

“Madagascar”

“Paradise City”

Desert

Desert

Lost in the desert again
In the purple haze
Stepping on snakes
Glad to be out of the rain
Looking for the oasis
Looking for the shadow
Why don't you step into my mind
And lets see what you find...

*written on 10th March 2008

The beginning is the End is the Beginning

Ok!

Decided to move away from msn live space... actually not too sure what its called these days..

(http://blackwyvere.spaces.live.com/)

Probably copy across a few from there to make the transition easy.