Beyond My Control

The Music of Failure

This was going to be a great, fabulous looking food post about how I cooked a fantastic roast chicken on my new barbeque.

I took preparatory photos of preparing the stuffing - lemons, garlic, onion, herbs - and of the BBQ. All that was left was the photo of the lovely crispy on the outside, moist on the inside chicken.

Ha!

I pulled the bird out of the BBQ too early, realized too late it wasn't cooked enough, then overdid it in finishing it off in the oven. I managed to salvage enough for a passable dinner, but there was certainly nothing worth capturing for posterity. Or even leftovers.

So, instead, the following is my playlist of 2010 - which I've been meaning to post before we get too far into 2011:

The Opener - The Courteeners

Trouble Comes Running - Spoon

The Ghost Inside - Broken Bells

Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem

Swim Until You Can't See Land - Frightened Rabbit

Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National

In Sleep - Lissie

Hustle & Cuss - The Dead Weather

Dilly - Band of Horses

Let's Get Lost - Beck & Bat for Lashes

Rocket - Goldfrapp

Crash Years - The New Pornographers

Hollywood - Marina & the Diamonds

Next Girl - The Black Keys

Scissor Runner - Jenny & Johnny

MoneyGrabber - Fitz & the Tantrums

Do-Wah-Do - Kate Nash

Barricade - Interpol

The Ghost Who Walks - Karen Elson

Come Undone - Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan

Fade Like A Shadow - KT Tunstall

Sunday Best - Washington

Coquet Coquette - Of Montreal

The Bike Song - Mark Ronson & the Business International

The Hair Song - Black Mountain

Sing Me To Sleep - Fran Healy (with Neko Case)

I bought a lot of music last year, and listened to a lot more, and I'm looking forward to keeping that up and hopefully seeing more live music in 2011.

My favorite albums of last year were definitely The Black Keys "Brothers" and Band of Horses "Infinite Arms", both of which are still on high rotation in my car.

See, that was a good way to forget about my failure as a cook, wasn't it?

Saturday

What's a weekend to you? What makes it a good weekend?

I have a certain friend - you know who you are - who often complains that one of these days she'd like 'a proper weekend'.  I never quite know what she means, because a proper weekend for me is pretty easy to come by: not having to go to the office.  All the other stuff that goes on, the washing and tidying and grocery shopping and all those little things you can't get to during a working week, are just part and parcel of 'weekend' for me.  And quite often can be satisfying in their own way.

Of course there's a difference between 'weekend' and 'good weekend'.

For me, a good weekend doesn't have to mean going away, or having lots of things, or nothing, on.  Sometimes they just sneak up.

Today, for example, has been a totally satisfying day.  A great combination of getting stuff done, seeing friends, resting.

Sure, I woke up this morning with the Nine Inch Nails "Head Like a Hole" playing on repeat in my head, and one earring on the bedside table and the other under the covers at my feet, indicating that perhaps I'd had something of a disturbed night's sleep, but not enough to have woken up during the night, so that was okay.  From there, the day proceeded as follows:

- Having showered the state of said shower suddenly annoyed me, so I cleaned it. And the basin.

- Put on a load of washing and hung up all the week's work clothes and put away the pile of about three week's clean clothes that had been lying on the bedroom floor.  Needless to say, I was feeling quite satisfied with the day at that point.

- I then walked - exercise! - across to North Melbourne and met up with four friends, well, three friends and a baby, for a two part brunch.  First we had a leisurely coffee, then went over to the Town Hall to see Peter Greenaway's Leondaro's Last Supper as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival.  Not only was it interesting, it was short, and I can say I've been to the Festival now.  But seriously, you should check it out, and don't worry, it's not 'classic' Greenaway, if you know what I mean. 

- We then went back and had a leisurely and large brunch.  At which I ate relatively healthily and just the right amount.  Because that's the way this weekend is going.  I then walked home, managing not to get rained on by the giant black cloud looming over the whole journey.

- Next up, hanging out the washing and consulting recipes galore to find a tomato chutney recipe that seemed reasonable for a chutney novice to attempt.  I've been wanting to do this for some time, and it seemed like the day.  Recipe in hand - turned out I had everything at home except the fresh stuff - I headed up to Sydney Road - more walking, perhaps a bit too much, truth be told - to shop. 

- I also went into K-mart to buy a new shower head as mine is all clogged up.  However the one I was looking at had a 'recipe' on the back for cleaning shower heads, so it did itself out of being bought in favour of me returning home to take the existing shower head off and soak it instead.  We'll see how that turns out in the morning.

- Then, part one of chutney making - chopping and salting - followed by the dishes, and an hour reading and napping on the couch, and then part two of chutney making.

So now here we are, 6pm, chutney is simmering, I have a glass of wine, several easy options for dinner, and feel like I have had a very good day.  And what's more tomorrow I don't have to do laundry or dishes or shopping or (much) cleaning, because that's all done already.

And for much of the afternoon I've been listening to mid-90s British pop in order to remove the lingering NIN, and am accordingly in such a mood that I think tonight I'll have to get out the This Life DVDs.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Mix Tape

I've been largely hanging out at home today, pottering, which has been lovely.

One of the things I pottered about doing was creating a little playlist of my favourite songs from 2009 so far.  It goes like this (and, as it turns out, has a bit of a windy theme in the middle there, which is appropriate given what a windy winter/early Spring we've had here in Melb):

1.    He's Frank - The Brighton Port Authority featuring Iggy Pop, I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

2.    Dog Days - Florence & the Machine, Lungs

3.    Ulysses - Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

4.    Houses - Great Northern, Remind Me Where The Light Is

5.    Hysteric - Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, It's Blitz!

6.    This Tornado Loves You - Neko Case, Middle Cyclone

7.    Hurricane Drunk - Florence & the Machine, Lungs

8.    Blow Away - A Fine Frenzy

9.    Road to Nowhere - Nouvelle Vague, 3

10.    Tell Me It's Not Over - Starsailor, All the Plans

11.    Wild Young Hearts - Noisettes, Wild Young Hearts

12.    Janglin - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Up From Below

13.    The Sweetest Thing - Camera Obscura, My Mauldin Career

14.    No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

15.    I Want Some More - Dan Auerbach, Keep it Hid

16.    Mirror's Image - The Horrors, Primary Colours

17.    Black Hearted Love - PJ Harvey & John Parish, A Woman a Man Walked By

18.    Skeletons - Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, It's Blitz!

Weekendy

It’s generally a sign of a good weekend when Monday morning finds me:

-          with more than $15 worth of coins in my purse, a sure sign of some pub-related activity

-          having not eaten a single meal at home since last Wednesday

-          with pretty hair

-          looking forward to going to bed at about 8pm tonight following a dinner of vegemite toast

The weekend included a night sitting around at Frey’s getting, well, quite drunk; curing any residual seediness with the combination of a Big Mac and three hours in the hairdressers chair; a Sri Lankan buffet dinner; David Bridie at the pub with friends (I will be picking up the new album upon release July 26^th); Sunday sleep-in and then brunch on Sydney Rd with the papers; Sunday afternoon lazing around reading and, perhaps, napping; a catch-up with Boofhead and a dinner at his local.

Now, if only my flipping football team had have won…

 

Sleeeepy and Annoyyyyyed

I'm on hold - long hold - and the muzak is Enya played on continuous loop with variable volume.

Urg.

The Reason iPods Were Invented

There are not many things worse than being in an airport on an hour and a half transit when it’s 7pm but you’ve just had breakfast on the plane and have a stunning headache thanks to mistakenly packing your sinus medication in your checked baggage and you’ve got another 7 hour leg to go during which you will be served dinner, again, and breakfast, again, four hours later, and arrive home at 4.30am likely to discover your bags haven’t made it with you thanks to delayed connecting flights, and when you sit down in the departure lounge to wait for hastily purchased foreign headache tablets to work you are assaulted by too loud transit lounge TV blaring out a particularly cloying Oprah celebrity interview.

Thank the technology gods for the iPod.

(This post has been proudly bought to you via a scribbled (and frustrated) note on the back on my itinerary.)

(Also, the bags arrived, though they were basically the last ones off the plane, so the benefits of being the first person in the immigration queue were completely undone.)

Look, comparatively new music!

My current high rotation playlist goes like this:

Are You Ready to be Heartbroken? – Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, 1984-1989 (1998)

Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken – Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out of this Country (2006) (you can have one without the other, but why?)

I Hear the Bells – Mike Doughty, Haughty Melodic (2005)

Handle With Care – Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat (2006)

Life During Wartime (Live) – Ben Lee and Ian Ball, Into the Dark (Single) (2005)

I Turn My Camera On – Spoon, Gimme Fiction (2005)

No Style – The Chalets, Check In (2005)

World Shut Your Mouth – Death Cab for Cutie, Crooked Teeth (Single) (2006)

White Collar Boy – Belle & Sebastian, The Life Pursuit (2006)

Let’s Get Out of This Country – Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out of This Country (2006)

Love Me Like You – Magic Numbers, Magic Numbers (2005)

Rattlesnakes – Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, 1984-1989 (1998)

Is It Any Wonder – Keane, Under the Iron Sea (2006)

All Sparks – Editors, The Back Room (2005)

Leaders of the Free World – Elbow, Leaders of the Free World (2005)

What’s Wrong With Me – Skye, Mind How You Go (2006)

You and I Are a Gang of Losers – The Dears, Gang of Losers (2006)

This being one of the means of keeping The Gambler out of my head.

I Know When to Fold 'Em

Apropos of nothing except sharing the pain, I have had “The Gambler” stuck in my head all morning. Damn you, Kenny Rogers, damn you.

B

B is for:

B.B. King
B.J. Thomas
Baby Bird
Babylon Zoo
Bachelor Girl (oh dear, that was on a compilation, I swear, it’s not even their song, it’s a Duran Duran cover. Wait, does that make it better or worse?)
Badly Drawn Boy
Bananarama
Barbara Seeger
Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb (otherwise known as the song that never ceases to scare the crap out of me when it comes up on shuffle. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: yes, you do have something to be guilty for.)
Barenaked Ladies
Barry Manilow
Basement Jaxx
Beach Boys, The
Beastie Boys, The
Beasts of Bourbon
Beatles, The
Beautiful Girls, The
Beck
Bee Gees
Belinda Carlisle
Belle & Sebastian
Belly
Ben Folds Five
Ben Harper (with and without the Innocent Criminals)
Ben Lee
Bernard Hermann
Beta Band, The
Beth Orton
Beulah
Big Brother and The Holding Company
Big Mountain
Big Star
Billy Bragg
Billy Idol
Billy Mack (yeah, also not a real person, I know)
Birthday Party, The
bis
Bjork
Black Box Recorder
Black Grape
Black Sabbath
Blackeyed Susans, The
Blink-182
Blondie
Bloodhound Gang, The
Blue Boy
Blueline Medic
Blur
Bo Diddley
Bob Dylan
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Bobby “Blue” Bland
Bobby Darin
Bodeans, The
Bodyjar
Bomfunk MCs
Bono
Boo Radleys, The
Boomkat
Bow Wow Wow
Bran Van 3000
Breeders, The
Brenton Wood
Brian Reitzell
Brick
Bruce Springsteen (with and without The E Street Band)
Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music
Buddy Guy
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Tom
Bukka White
Bush
Butterfingers
Butterfly Effect, The
Butthole Surfers
Buzzcocks, The
Byrds, The

Well, that started out with a legend and then took a frighteningly consistent path down the old middle of the road before actually winding up satisfyingly diverse.

R

R is for:

R.E.M.
R.L. Burnside
Radiohead
Rage Against the Machine
Rajiv Surendra
Randy Newman
Rascals, The
Ray Charles
Rebecca’s Empire
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Reef
Reels, The
Regurgitator
Renee Zellweger (so, shoot me, I own the Chicago Soundtrack…)
Republica
Revels
Rhubarb
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Gere (see above)
Richard Gibbs
Rick Astley
Rick Springfield
Rickie Lee Jones
Ricky Nelson
Rilo Kiley
Robbie Williams
Robert Palmer
Robyn Loau
Rocket Science
Rod Stewart
Rolling Stones, The
Rooftop Singers
Rowland S. Howard
Royal Trux
Rufus Wainright
Run D.M.C.
Ryan Adams
RZA

Hey, only five artists I’ve never heard of. The Rick Astley reminds me of high school when one of my friends won a Rick Astley Picture Disk(!) in a competition and was absolutely thrilled about it – I’m pleased to add that I found that song as amusing then as I do now, so I’m not even embarrassed that it’s there. The Rod Stewart doesn’t quite make me cry now, as it did when I downloaded it, but I definitely can’t see his name without thinking about Kimmy. The Renee/Richard combination reminds me that of that album I only ever listen to Catherine Zeta-Jones.