RUN FOX RUN

The BIG DAY OUT!

2010-10-02T11:50:00.004+08:00

Our annual summer music festival, The Big Day Out just announced its first round of official bands making the lineup for 2011. Happy to officially announce, TOOL are headlining the shows! amazing stuff ... now this past week there's been a tidbit of info rumored that they may in fact do sideshows in a few cities. Guess where im going if this is the case :)

The 2011 Big Day Out dates have been locked in and the first lot of acts on the bill have been announced. After kicking off in Auckland as usual, the Big Day Out will circle Australia with shows on these dates:

Sun Jan 23: Gold Coast - Parklands
Wed Jan 26: Sydney - Showground
Sun Jan 30: Melbourne - Flemington Racecourse
Fri Feb 4: Adelaide - Showground
Sun Feb 6: Perth - Claremont Showgrounds

The Lineup so far :
TOOL - RAMMSTEIN - IGGY AND THE STOOGES - PRIMAL SCREAM - BLOODY BEETROOTS - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROES - M.I.A - GRINDERMAN

The rest of the impressive cast of international acts are BOOKA SHADE, LUPE FIASCO, THE BLACK KEYS, RATATAT, CSS, DEFTONES, DIE ANTWOORD, ANDREW W.K, VITALIC, THE JIM JONES REVIEW, PLAN B, THE NAKED AND FAMOUS, KIDS OF 88 and CRYSTAL CASTLES (East Coast shows only).

Plus there's a big contingent of Australian artists like BIRDS OF TOKYO, JOHN BUTLER TRIO, ANGUS AND JULIA STONE, CHILDREN COLLIDE, BLISS N ESO, DEAD LETTER CIRCUS, BLUE KING BROWN, GYPSY AND THE CAT, LITTLE RED, PNAU

Big Day Out 2011 : Official Site

Home Sweet Home ...

2010-07-29T12:45:00.004+08:00

First real breakfast after the 15hrs of A380 Qantas madness :) Real Bacon, Real eggs, Worstershire Sauce!! Thank You Melbourne!

Sunday : Comic Con Day Four ...

2010-07-29T12:42:00.006+08:00

The come down to an Epic Pop Culture Event. Thanks Trev / Abby and all the San Diego people we met. Flying out to LA and then 15hrs onwards to Melbourne. then ... yes, another 4hrs on a train to get to my Uncles place in Victoria, Australia ...

and yes, I have my ticket secured for Comic Con 2011

Friday : Comic Con Day Two ...

2010-07-29T12:38:00.002+08:00

A more relaxed start to the day, as we all split off to the Con later than expected, after sleeping in from the last night of Scott Pilgrim goodness. ducking down to Ralphs again i proceeded to stock up for the day but it seemed the weekly supply of pineapple had been exhausted from the day before :( oh well, fresh mango would have to do. quite good in the end, with Trev later commenting it brought back memories of Lost lol.

First up for me was a panel for Grant Morrison, the legendary Scot who's world famous in the comic writing arena, most notably for Batman and the DC universe. this guy is pure fun, and a great personality for the crowd to answer questions and give slight hints as to were his story arcs are going and what we can expect from the Batman universe. a pleasure seeing him again as i caught him back in 08. he also has a doco on his life and exploits coming out and he's writing for a movie too. again this was one of the first panels i attended which was filled with comic nerds, those guys that live and breath the characters so much so you don't want to say anything for fear of the "stupid look".

Staying in the same room, the following panel again pulled in Morrison with a cast of other writers and illustrators for the official DC Batman: The Return panel. I guess i gravitate to this character purely because he isn't a superhero. he has no super powers. he's a man behind a mask with technology, and a dark past seeking to put things right and settle his own demons. clearly the angle Nolan has been pushing in his trilogy films, which is going to end fantastically. this panel was great too, really delving into some works that i had never heard of and as with a few other panels, you hear a book mentioned, see the crowd buzz and figure, right that might be a winner, best be checking that one out on the show room floor. this was the case for Batwoman, Baltimore and The Invisibles.

Now comes the crazy part ... i had a bit of time on my hands and figured well, might as well try and line up for Ballroom 20 (second most popular room to Hall H and the movie studio previews). Joss Whedon was on and i thought i might be able to squeeze into his panel or at least i'd be early for the panel i actually wanted to check out, Entertainment Weekly's : Woman Who Kick Ass, with Jena Malone (Sucker Punch), Anna Torv (Fringe), Elizabeth Mitchell (V), and Ellen Wong and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). sadly i was mistaken for ever thinking there was a chance of getting into this panel. it was crazy. i must of stood in line for about 2hrs, and figured, nah this is bullshit, im off to the showroom floor. which i pushed to hit almost once everyday, more than what i did back in 2008. this proved to be fruitful and a swagged a bunch of Trade Paper Backs of series i had been hanging to pick up since the mid 2000's. mostly BRPD, Hellboy, 100 Bullets, Batman and a few others. note to anyone who heads to SDCC next, hit the far end of the pavillion away from the glitz and glamour of the movie studios and games, and you'll find many retailers selling stacks of books for 50% off. yes. half price! but the catch... you have to have patience enough to spend alot of time here and search through many boxes for those series you need. but its worth it.

Next up was a panel on Concept Design and Illustration for Film and Games. Spectacular stuff! headlined by a panel of stars who have worked on Iron Man, Avatar, Tron and other major motion pictures. i love seeing the concept art and theories behind what gets chosen to develop and what gets left to the cutting room floor. one particular feature was on the Banshee from Avatar. amazing illustrations and then a focus on how thats animated for proof of concept and later developed in 3D. we were told we were seeing behinds the scenes footage never shown to the public before. great panel.

Onto another panel for the next movie sequel for 30 Days Of Night, a movie based off of Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's Graphic Novel series. now i was a huge fan of the original and loved the tranformation to film staring our own Aussie, Melissa George and Josh Hartnett. for me it had the right low budget indie feel, whilst doing enough to be exciting and faithful to Ben's illustrations. i guess by the direct to DVD sequel of "Dark Days" the film didn't do so well. not even Melissa George signed onto part 2. smart move, as i sat through this panel, it was utter shite. the new actors were pathetic, hollywood shells, making a 2bit movie in 3 days, and yabbering on about how they trained to fire assault rifles and were stuck in sewers away from their trailers. what in gods name Steve Niles was doing attached to this i still don't know, maybe he needs the cash? this panel was so pathetic even the mic's were failing, and the room was one of the smallest at the Con. i left half way through, heading to dinner, and thought, ive gotta wash this taste out of my mouth with a bit o' Batman.

So to cap the night i ducked out at 10pm to check an advance screening of Batman : Under The Red Hood. the latest DC animated feature. fantastic show, and afterwards featured a presentation panel with all the voice actors and producers involved. check it out if your a fan. the Joker makes a worthy appearance.

Thursday : Comic Con Day One ...

2010-07-29T11:47:00.003+08:00

Early rise 3:45am, Cold fog greeted us and a lite rain drizzle, not the San Diego weather i expected. Both Abby and I got down to the Hall H line up first while Trevor got a few extra hours of sleep, tag teaming with us later to save a spot in line and go grab breakfast. In line we met up with Kristina, a fellow nerd traveller from Toronto Canada, down for Comic Con and a city tour. another fantastic person, who tagged along with us all day and the four of us got along really well. Once Trevor had made his way down to us in line, we headed for a Ralphs visit (major grocery store 10mins from the convention hall), stocking up here for the whole day with groceries so we wouldnt have to sample the convention foods of pizza / nacho's and pretzels. I dove straight in and grabbed a tub of pinapple, an egg and ham bagel, 2 huge sandwichs and a few other things... Trev and Abby passed the comment of "I guess you HAVE TO EAT EVERY TWO HOURS eh?" haha, seemed that way. these two were super fast eaters.

First up in Hall H, (the convention hall set up for all the movie studios to present panels and trailers) was Mastermind, staring Will Ferell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey. its a new animated flick staring a bunch of stars lending their voice talents to the story. i wasn't a bit interested. i was there for Tron Legacy :) but Will Ferrell saved this, great spirit, coming to the show as a commedian dressed up in the Mastermind costume lol. no Brad Pitt, no one cared. a lite hearted panel with laughs to warm up the crowd for the day.

Tron Legacy entered second on the Disney Panel selection. We began the presentation with a new selection of video showing Sam first entering the new digital world, and being picked up by a Recognizer. First off, this digital world of Tron looks amazing. the footage was fantastic and well received, showing a montage of disc battles, and how Sam collects his suit. afterwards though i still think it was a bit overhyped, and probably the second showing last year overshadowed this presentation. the new trailer debut and a tiny amount of extra footage solidified this as a winner and a huge movie come December. the panel of stars chatting after the movie included all the major characters. "The Dude" was uber cool.

It gets me thinking though, is the wait in line all really worth it? all that effort for maybe 8mins of footage... and if the panel is crap, the day can be exhausting. I later mentioned to Mike that this is really not "Comic Con" anymore... its a Pop Culture event, and yes, the DisneyLand ride is worth it, for those four days of crazyness.

Next up was Salt. Angelina Jolie made an appearance, mostly because she's the star of the production. again, this didnt grab me at all. not one bit. it seemed like another tomb raider action female role for her, and the storyline didnt grab me, revolving around some CIA espionage action were a russian american ... yada yada you've heard it before. even in the panel afterwords, her answers were really put on and it left a very fake hollywood taste in my mouth.

Battle : Los Angeles was next up.. first thing to come to mind. Guess they couldn't call it Battle of Los Angeles or Rage Against The Machine would have their balls on a rope. ok the premise has me hooked, as the core of the story if the UFO flap of 1942 over LA. great. then .... its Black Hawk Down from there. again, came off a tad cheesy and the panels answers were kinda lame. the whole "we got down like marines" was utter bullshit, and i expected more from Aaron Eckheart, but the footage was uber cool and much more interesting than Salt. look out for this one to be a sleeper hit and a franchise in the likes of Battle : NYC etc etc.

From here on I left Hall H and the other guys to duck out to the Dark Horse comic publications panel (famous for Mike Mignola and Hellboy). I think this was my first for the Con, having left the others viewing the Joss Whedon and J.J Abrams panel. I was primarily here to see Mignola and some of the other writers and creators for Dark Horse. learned quite abit. great panel. exhausted though after the 3am wakeup, so much so that the aircon was putting me to sleep. learned about Mike's new book series, Baltimore: The Plague Ships. I must admit I really do like DH press, and the indie horror feel over the hyped up superhero angles from DC and Marvel which just seem too PG. minus the Bat ofcourse.

written so much and this was only half of the first day at the Con...

After the DH panel I decided to try and make it back into Hall H with Trev and Abby. the line was crazy, and I spent another hour in there, but organisation is great, calm people in line, undercover and chilled. unlike the floor which is just UTTER CHAOS! for a person who likes his space to breath and can't stand people cutting you off or stopping dead in front of you when the traffic flow is moving.

Finally I re-entered Hall H again, and was in time to catch the Expendables. Sly Stallones panel for the movie directed and staring him and a bunch of other 80s / 90s action heros. Fantastic and one of the best movie panels of the day, and the Con. i really thought this was going to be cheesy and terrible, but in actual fact Sly was awesome, comedic and charismatic. the flick is a balls to the wall action fest that screams fun. great to see the main stars turn out too. can you believe Sly's 60? can't wait to see this. now heres the crazy thing. the rest of the evening and all its greatness could simply not have rolled out better if it had been planned. and i'll go on to explain.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World was next. ok apart from the trailer I had seen early in the year, i really had no major background to this film, or its Oni Press comic series from the last 5 years. so much so i didn't figure until after that alot of kids roaming around the Con were dressed like the characters from the series. along with the Expendables cast, this panel went down as the best of the day. star, Michael Cera even came out dressed in a Captain America suit! lmao. The story is basically a huge pop culture reference on video games and a group of 20 somethings living in Canada. A love story that follows a young guy chasing a girl, and quirky story involving him having to battle her 7 evil ex boyfriends. seriously this is so much fun and a ball to see.

Now here's the crazy bit, after the Expendables panel, somehow Trev and Abby had saved my seat near them and i frantically sms'ed them to see if i could sneak back in. sure enough my seat was there and i decided to re-join them. through the Scott Pilgrim panel we got free buttons handed out to us with the instruction we were not to "swap them" with anyone. it was later revealed this would be a ticket for a full advance screening of the film!!! that night!! I mean how lucky was that? not only did i make it back into Hall H, but i managed to get back into the seat i had at the start of the day which was the only row to receive these advance screen tickets.

Oh it gets crazier ... we were then told to immediately leave the Hall and follow the director to a theatre in San Diego for the screening. lol however as you can imagine it was utter chaos as a few hundred people scattered in their frantic race to find the theatre. in our excitement we hadn't payed attention to the directions and figured we'd follow the crowd. well the crowd split in two and we got lost! haha, eventually we found our way, with Edgar Wright the director high fiving all of us as we entered! sitting down to an advanced screening, free popcorn, drinks, this was geek heaven.

how could this get better? as the movie finished, and the curtin raised, METRIC!!! were set to play! LIVE! yeh the whole band! playing 4 or 5 tracks, and man did they kick ass. what an EPIC day. Thursday down, 3 days to go.

Preview Night SDCC

2010-07-22T08:22:00.001+08:00

Wednesday. Preview Night. chilled wake up today, for what is officially the kickoff to Comic Con San Diego. i ran around the downtown area for a bit just to get a feel for the place again. so nice to see the city decked out for Comic Con. there is no doubting the economic importance of the spectacle down here. every restaurant or retail outlet must depend alot on this one week of madness. increased sales and all the profits and chaos that must ensue. never the less the feel of the place is just super nice, very much like Perth, only 20 years into the future.

While i remember, Marriot? yeh its all pretty sweet, super super location, but we're missing a fridge and no free wifi. wait. no friggin wifi at all, BIG MIDDLE FINGER UP for that one, oh and its $13 a DAY! if we want to access it in the room. im typing this and sending it from a Borders store in the downtown area (yeh Dad, ive been looking for your books but no luck yet) so Mark, i gotta say, apart from the close situ, Double Tree was still an ace hotel. hell ... Adigio was 100% better mate. my nose has lowered haha.

Now the madness. people lose their collective minds here. it starts out as a placid buildup but i can tell its going to blow up. scary how many large overweight middle aged men and women seem to be running around, struggling to carry forty bags of crap and have no intention of giving way for anyone else in their way to seeing a showing lol. kids ? here? few and far between actually. its mostly people in their 20s. just in the hotel lobby, i saw a 30 year old lady, dressed as Lisa Simpson, giving an interview whilst her sister screamed and took photos. haha. Trevor cracks up when i see some crazy American thing and start shaking my head. "We don't get this back home"

Its now the afternoon of Preview Night, and we've just picked up our badges for the convention. im in a mellow mood, and it seems theres a few things we can do afterwards. im in two minds now to either hit a movie or just explore the floor and get a good nights sleep. we know Hall H will be mad tomorrow so im thinking we tag team it to line up. might get out at 3am and get in line for Abby and Trev to tag me out at 6am, and then i can sleep a bit and come back refreshed with breakfast... yeh the show only starts at 10am :) but im also in two minds weather to check out Nikita or Moon. but you know, this is about the Floor and Comics, so i figure watching the flicks might just be a waste, knowing we'll be doing that all Thursday. alright im outa here. the next you'll hear from me will probably be in line tomorrow at Hall H for ..... .. .. TRON Legacy!

Calm Before The Storm ...

2010-07-22T08:09:00.005+08:00

Well, things down here are pretty much the same as i remember. its currently the calm before the storm, and by storm i mean Nerd Storm lvl5. we ducked out of the SD airport pretty smoothly and found our way down town to the Marriot (right next door to the SD Convention Center. we were greeted by the south tower of the complex being fully engulfed by a huge advertisement from Universal Studio's for some upcoming movie. still no one knows what exactly SKYLINE is just yet. thats the thing about this place, you almost have to make your stuff more obscure to just get some ones attention. more hotels along the foreshore here are all lined with window displays. Scott Pilgrim and another that looks to be for Gears Of War 3 feature, along with HEAPS of True Blood marketing inside the convention center.

Mark you'll be happy to know, Ralphs is still kicking haha. its the be all and end all for shopping out here. we walked down early and bought a few things for our long days ahead. the range of fresh foods on hand was pretty amazing, and i can only hope the keep up with demand... the demon spawn are coming MMHAHhahahah. gotta say just quickly, the weather this year looks real mellow and cool. its overcast and slightly humid, in the mid 20's .... really nice to not be beaten down with full on sunshine and 40 degree heat. sorry for the dull grey pics but again, its busy, and these are just captures in the moment. enjoy.

Next out we hit Rancho's a Mexican Place here in SD with a local friend of Trevors (Anthony if im not mistaken .. :) great little place, and again, nice to see a bit of town driving around. to cap the night ... you guess it, another screening of INCEPTION. this is just such an amazing movie its hard to wrap your head around it in one digestion. i urge you to race out and see it at the cinema (IMAX makes all the difference). ok off to relax, and sleep as much as possible. tomorrow we have to pickup our badges and then theres a stack of preview night events to check out, but i have a feeling we'll be hitting the hay early for a HUGE Thursday

Green Eggs And ...

2010-07-22T02:42:00.002+08:00

Set off from Boston to San Diego yesterday and had a sweet flight over. unfortunately i was hit with a stomach bug from a bad case of breakfast at the airport, leaving me not to happy on the plane. really felt as if i might have to skip a day here to recover. but like magic, as soon as we arrived in SD, i started to feel better, and by days end, all was cool... now the next day, this is actually the best ive felt all holiday really. super pumped for Comic Con. plenty of photos to come, but probably short on words as things are just way to busy here to have an hour to think and type lol.

Boston, The Sights And Sounds ...

2010-07-17T13:46:00.008+08:00

Saturday we decided would be the only day we had to really hop into the city real quick, and scope out some of the sights and sounds. we kicked things off with a great breakfast at "Mr Crepes" with Trev and Emily. diving into a strawberry and sugar crepe before heading off to the subway system for a quick journey into the city center. gotta say, straight up, the subway is fantastic. really really easy to follow and navigate. i love a city that has great public transport, even for the lame tourist like me, who doesn't need to get lost in 6hrs. highly recommend traveling using the "T"

The next 5hrs were solely spent in the city itself, just exploring. We decided due to the heat, which was in the 30's, not to over do things, and just get a taste for what the city had to offer. I hit a Celtics store and then grabbed a City Tour trolley for a ride round with colorful commentary. that way we got to see alot, without walking too much, and it was hop on hop off, all day. passing through the city it was eyeopening to hear bits of history from the 1700's being dropped left right and center. would love to be here for two or more weeks soaking it all in, but alas, we only had a day. we ended up at the wharf and tucked into an awesome meal for lunch, consisting of scallops and a seafood medley at this great restaurant "Chart House". yeh we paid through our ass for it, but it was a great one off, and considering all the seafood around this eastern seaboard is about to be killed off with this oil disaster, we better tuck in while the gettin's good. i can't imagine what new hardship that will bring to the local industries and fishing communities round here. sad times aheaf d im afraid.

Leaving exhausted, we took one final train out to Fenway Park, the local home of the World Famous Boston Redsocks baseball team. there was a game on this week, but unfortunatly we didn't have tickets so we couldn't check it out, but i'd love to on the next round. the Park and surrounding community is sports driven, and fans flood the economy here with merchandise and food purchasers. much the same as Subiaco is home to a plethora of pubs and coffee houses near the West Coast Eagles ground. again it was a taste, not fully explored, but loved none the less.

Finally for the evening we headed out for a bite and drinks with Trev, Emily and friends of theirs. great night summers night out we we're could really relax and just mix and chill with some great folks. cheers to all that were there. many beers, pool and rounds of darts later, we exited having one of the best nights out since those TOOL shows.

Lastly, today was spent chilling out and seeing Mark off to the airport. he ducks out back home today and im officially off to Comic Con tomorrow for the nerd fest of the year. sad to see him exit, as i would of loved to have seen him stick around for the Con if at all possible. however he's gotta deal with work and the prospects of new beginnings back home, so bon voyage buddy. the three amigo's will carry the flag over in California :) thanks for the great times on this adventure this year mate as always. see you for BRMC when we're back.

Next Post: Comic Con San Diego

Inception ...

2010-07-17T13:46:00.005+08:00

Boston. Touch down east coast. Yeh I know alot of you will be freaking out by now thinking where is he and why is there no word on the trip over from California. well the truth is, things have just been really busy, but really relaxing at the same time and i haven't had much time to spend online, let alone type much up. the whole point of the Boston leg was really to visit our good friends over here Trevor and Abby that we met whilst in San Diego a few years ago. its never been focused on sightseeing or history lessons, just good times before the chaos of Comic Con hits ... oh and it will hit.

So we arrived fine, and were met by Trev down at Logan International, it felt like 08 all over again. Great people all round. we've been crashing here for the last couple of days and just catching up, meeting new people and spreading the good Aussie charm :) Boston is fantastic. al bet we haven't explored much, but what's been seen is great. really friendly and warm. i wish i had more time over here to explore and delve a bit deeper into the history, its really one of the corner stones of American history and i love all that stuff ... i wish i knew more and had the time to explore. next time for sure.

We headed out on Friday to catch the latest Chris Nolan film : INCEPTION

Wow. just wow! an amazing movie, head trip and visual treat from the director of The Dark Knight and others including Momento, Hard Candy, Batman Begins and Insomnia ... Yeh "That Guy". Inception Trailers Here. The film is an absolute mind bender thriller, to give any large chunk of story away would not do it justice, you simply need to go see this right now in a cinema! Staring Leo DeCaprio the film centers around the theme of dream crimes, ideas and thoughts, the prequel to any action, how they can be controlled, changed and skewed to affect a real world outcome, for the benifit of those with the technology to infiltrate the subconcious.... deep, real deep. anyways, it was hands down movie of the year, and ended a great day for us here in the states.

TOOL Show #2 ...

2010-07-15T08:04:00.010+08:00

Back from the second TOOL show in two nights, we are still both hyped. what an amazing night of art and music, coming together in one giant whirlwind. thanks to everyone involved, everyone we met and the artists themselves. worth every penny, these guys once again proved why I'm willing to travel across oceans to see them.

The day began out with breakfast, and a quick trek out to Emeryville in Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco. our plan was to catch the Amtrak train up north (2.5hrs) to Sacramento for the next show, and stay the night over at a local hotel. yeh we don't do things by halfs, and we've learnt the hard way before, no point rushing around after a show, better to just relax and get some sleep for a travel leg back.

I must say the Amtrak train and coach service here is fantastic. quiet clean and easy to ride, i'd happily recommend it to anyone travelling through the US. boarding a train in Emeryville I managed a few snaps out whilst chilling to a Coast to Coast AM show :) the countryside curves around farming regions to towns along San Pablo Bay, and things are super dry here in the middle of summer. very interesting to see the views change from city to outer towns, steel works, industrial works, farming zones, naval yards and finally Sacramento City center. hopping out to a 32 degree day, we didn't walk around too much, but what we saw in the short time there, just didn't grab us. it was off to check into the hotel and hit the show early.

Now here's an interesting story for you. after turing up to the show, no doors are open, lines are only just starting to form, and out of no where, the base player for TOOL, Justin Chancellor rides around the corner on a mountain bike! just chilling out before the show. ok so if that wasn't crazy enough, we walk around the arena to just take it in. out of no where there seems to be an Arco Arena staff member selling limited edition event posters (same as previous nights, with different artwork) outside the arena. first thought was, this is a scam, has to be fake. i know a little about print design and production. i checked, this was legit. embossed watermark and all. so we each grabbed one and now have a matching pair of posters for the two shows we have attended in California. I mean .... it can't get any better. wait, it does.

We later hear that, although those posters were legitimate, and limited to 400, they seemed to have been pulled from sale for the night for some reason. seems this guys was sneaking some out to fans early? we don't know, but right now, there's less than 100 out there. we have two. oh it gets better ... after entering the event we hit the merch stand for Mark to grab a shirt, and we see 2 fully signed posters for the Alberta Canada show!! 2!! this artwork was some of the best ive seen of all the posters available, and no way could this be passed up. somehow, we lined up and reserved the two last ones available. shots attached. all signed by the band. trust me, as Mark and I were buying these, alot of fans behind us were whispering "those guys can't be buying two" there must be more ... lol

Onto the show.
Wow. what can I say that hasn't been said in the previous post? I mean, these guys have this so dialed in its a fantastic specticle. The show opens with Timothy Leary giving a speech "Think for yourself, "Question Authority". moving right into the track "Thirdeye". each song interacts with visuals and video that is displayed on multiple screens behind, side on and in front of the band. the result is all encompassing, and takes you to another place. to listen to the music is one facet. to FEEL the art in this true open sense is the true experience for this band. we even saw a 15 min version of "Lateralus" with dual drumkits and base guitars from members of the opening act joining TOOL onstage for the ultimate psychodelic jazz rock freakout and comedown before closing the set on AEnima.

Amazing....

TOOL Show #1 ...

2010-07-14T00:22:00.004+08:00

Perfect. Worth Every Single Penny ....
Thats the simple answer. man was this a great show, absolutely blowing our minds. these guys just keep on pushing the boundaries for on stage spectacles, and last night was no exception, from lighting to video to sound, it was aced.

The show was based down here in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, which only holds a small amount. say round the 7000 mark. however all tickets sold were of a General Admission variety meaning we had to turn up early, first come first serve for seating. I also planned on arriving early to collect my tickets that i bought over in Australia that were being held for me at the Will Call ticket booth.

Getting there was easy, waiting the next 4 hours out was the hard part. Im so lucky Mark came down to the show too, because as we arrived we needed to split so someone could jump into the growing line around the building, whilst i went and to sort out my ticket. without him reserving a spot in line i would of ended up not joining the que till doors opening.

So he stayed in line, and I walked around to find another line for ticket collection only. waiting there for 1.5hrs (crazy people wouldn't release the tickets) i finally got mine, and met two other guys there that asked if they could squeeze into line with us. no problem, as i would of asked the same in my situation :) we jumped back into the main que, where Mark had been the whole time and proceeded to wait till entry.

Doors opened and being right up the front we got a fantastic choice to seating. hitting the first floor slightly to the right on Danny's side. amazing view and for a small venue it was great. we even had time to run out and grab 2 limited edition (screenprinted solely for the show to #400) posters and some merch before the show started.

Ok to say TOOL is amazing is beyound doubt. each show just keeps getting better and better. The setlist was really a greatest hits, and they even snuck in "Intolerence" from undertow ... a song i never ever thought i'd hear. coming right out with "Thirdeye" and a Leary intro, "Jambi" "Stinkfist" and "The Patient" featured. rounding things out with "Lateralus" and the EPIC "Aenima" .... i hope you all learn to swim.

The production to the shows is what sets these guys apart. they don't just play. they incorporate a visual and spacial element to their shows that is second to none. utilising giant video screens to merge animation and video to giving a visual backing to all their songs, as well as a light and laser show, which fills the space with incredible feeling. what was new? two giant MOVING screens the could shift, rise and lower behind Adam and Justin.... Spectacular show. unfortunatly no cameras are allowed in the arena, so i snuck a few low light iPhone shots out just to prove we were there.

Now.... we do it all over again.
Magik

Across The Bay To Oakland ...

2010-07-13T06:30:00.006+08:00

Relaxed start to the day with a quick bite to eat round here at "Honey Honey", a swell place up on Post St in San Francisco. I remembered it being round the "Owl Bar" from last time, googled the Owl Bar, got the location and we were off ...

After a bite to eat, we decided to trek across the Bay today, out of San Francisco and off to the city of Oakland. considered a sister city, Oakland is really small and acts as more of a financial district for businesses out of San Francisco. cheaper rent, better weather, and close to residential zones, with the main freight ports along its shore. quick fact, upon seeing the wharf cargo haul cranes in the Bay, George Lucas (Stars Wars fame) was inspired to create the quad walking All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT). crazy stuff.

So we spent the arvo in Oakland and found an awesome little restaurant down by the city lake to the north. really nice way to get out of the SF cold weather and relax before the show tonight. check the pics. right now we're off to line up for TOOL. 4 hrs from the start, the show is completely general admission, meaning to get a seat we need to get there early. first come first serve. later all.

Spiral Out ... Keep Going ..

2010-07-12T13:59:00.011+08:00

Yup, we certainly had this one planned, all but at the last minute (last week). The full story goes something like, Mark was given forced leave for a few weeks at his restaurant, and we got together over a coffee to chat about that and i basically said, look, the dice have been rolled, its now time to play your hand. im going to see TOOL and you need to make it there too.

It was also the perfect opportunity for him to catch up with friends here in the states from back home, and generally just relax, before the proverbial might hit the fan in terms of work. So with less than 7 days to plan, we put our heads together in Perth and set about not only securing more TOOL tickets .... for two shows!! but then booking hotels and meeting up at the airport on the same day.

I suggested Mark go see my travel agent and once again she worked her magic. booking flights for mark on the spot and getting him landing into the US a week before me into Las Vegas and Phoenix for a run around and then flying down to SF the day i got in. from there we caught up and are trekking together for these shows. he ducks out next week and im off from there to Comic Con and the rest of the trip. but i gotta say, the last week of scramble to organise tickets was crazy. thank goodness for the internet and StubHub :)

Few things I gotta mention too. Americans are still Americans lol. they find it really difficult to understand any other accents apart from their own. everytime Mark goes to order something as simple as a coffee, they can't understand the pronunciation of "Mark" haha. We've now dubbed him "Bob". you should seriously see some of the blank looks we get when we natter off some aussie slang to ourselves and then realise they have no idea what we're on about. funniest thing ever. Another thing, service is out of control here. retail reception is just manic to the point that when you walk into a store you feel like someones right up your cracker trying to sell you a home loan or something ... its crazy. but you get used to the strange things and it makes you appreciate home a little more. makes you appreciate our real down to earth nature ... i love it, but i couldn't live here. well at least not in this big city hehe.

Ok we're off to the first TOOL show tonight. then packing our bags for Sacremento tomorrow, catching an Amtrak train up the coast for the second of two shows in two nights :)

Ride the Spiral ...

Viva Spain! ...

2010-07-12T09:04:00.004+08:00

Today was a bit of a blast really ...
Slept really well after not getting any sleep on the plane trips over. well at least not much. im sure i had a few "lost moments of time" but they were few and far between lol. So today was pretty much a relaxing shopping day. really just wondered around the local hangouts and grabbed a few bargins, which i have no idea how im going to fit in my bags haha, but i'll find a way.

I was so close to buying a life size skull ... and then realise A) its a money box & B) don't think that would be a great idea going through customs for speedy transfers lol

Grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast and headed out to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium here in San Francisco to see if i could collect my TOOL ticket for tomorrows show at the ticket collection counter. No luck, everything was closed, but the shows listed for monday and seems all good. guess i'll turn up early and secure a spot for what i expect to be an awesome show.

Next was the World Cup Final. Spain vs Netherlands. The local Civic Center Plaza here had some giant screens set up for the locals and tourists to check the game out free on the large screens. so we watched between all the Spanish and mostly Dutch supporters, before treking off at half time to hit the shops. man this game went on forever into overtime at 0-0. finally caught the end in a bar with a beer and relaxed :) .... oh did i mention we?

HA! surprise.
Marks down here too... i'll explain that in the next post :) we're hitting the TOOL show next WHOO HOO!

First Leg Down ....

2010-07-11T11:18:00.002+08:00

Well here's a quick update from the road for the first day into San Francisco. Setting off from Perth was a breeze, in actual fact the whole thing has been a breeze. Qantas has improved, and overall ive gotta say the level of service is up from the previous runs I've had with them. The food on the other hand was medium to mediocre at best. With a flight travel session of almost 20hrs, ive finally touched down to relax in San Francisco and nothings really changed here ...

The fog was rolling in as I trecked out on the BART into the city and by tonight, its freezing and overcast. yup typical SF summer. early night tonight. tomorrow is the World Cup final, and trips into town for a bit'o shopping and train ticket purchases.

Oh and you wouldn't believe who I bumped into here ....

Official Itinerary Crackers ....

2010-07-08T20:10:00.003+08:00

Qantas Airways Flight 574 Date: Saturday, July 10, 2010
From: Perth Arpt, Perth WA - Australia
To: Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia
Departs: 5:45 AM Arrives: 11:50 AM

Qantas Airways Flight 73 Date: Saturday, July 10, 2010
From: Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia
To: San Francisco Intl Arpt, San Francisco CA - U.S.
Departs: 12:50 PM Arrives: 9:10 AM

Qantas Airways , Operated By: AMERICAN AIRLINES
Flight 3079 Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010
From: San Francisco Intl Arpt, San Francisco CA - U.S.
To: Logan Intl Arpt, Boston MA - U.S.
Departs: 1:15 PM Arrives: 9:55 PM

Jet Blue
Flight 415 Date: Tue Jul 20
Departs 9:25 a.m. Boston, MA, (BOS) to
Arrives 12:29 p.m. San Diego, CA, (SAN)

Qantas , Operated By: AMERICAN EAGLE
Flight 3002 Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010
From: Lindbergh Intl Arpt, San Diego CA - U.S.
To: Los Angeles Intl Arpt, Los Angeles CA - U.S.
Departs: 6:30 PM Arrives: 7:15 PM

Qantas Airways Flight 94 Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010
From: Los Angeles Intl Arpt, Los Angeles CA - U.S.
To: Tullamarine Arpt, Melbourne VI - Australia
Departs: 11:20 PM Arrives: 7:55 AM 2 Days Later

Qantas Airways Flight 653 Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010
From: Tullamarine Arpt, Melbourne VI - Australia
To: Perth Arpt, Perth WA - Australia
Departs: 8:15 PM Arrives: 10:30 PM

See you all soon.
Trev, Abby, Skippy, Mike and Gayle.

And Here We .... Go!

2010-07-08T19:14:00.010+08:00

Bout Time For An Update ... Alright. Finally im ready...
The final touches have been made, plans are settled and bookings are locked in. Now for an update before I trek off to the USA for 3 weeks. Things are all jumbled right now in my head, bit of a whirlpool, so i'll try and pick out a few things of note to keep in mind for this new epic adventure.

So why the USA again?
Well. I needed a break. after last year, this year i needed time off for something, anything. Since my trek over back in 2008, ive stayed in close contact with friends Mark and I met over whilst in San Diego for Comic Con. Trevor and Abby (from Boston, West Coast USA) we're two of the most fantastic people we came across, and we just kinda got on really well upon first meeting. I distinctly remember I was coming down from a bad flu bug, and felt like my head was gonna explode, but they didn't notice, and we proceeded to laugh and swap stories as all nerd travelers do. So cut to 2009. still in contact, Trev and Abby return to Comic Con for another marathon run at San Diego. I kept in touch with daily tweets and emails, and man, it just felt like i was there again ... i said to them, no way am I missing out on another one. next year, its on. and ladies and gentlemen, im a man of my word. The Sandgroper, Returnith!

Now planning for this trip started back in July of 2009, and at that stage i felt, if im going to go all the way there, the only option was for a round the world ticket? no? and if that was the case, i might as well book in some part of South East Asia, as thats really next on my "Must Do List". Cambodia was high on the list to check out Angkor Wat and a few people went through Vietnam and that seemed awesome too, but then real life hit. the short story is i needed to refocus on a shorter holiday and saving a bit of cash this leg around, and plan for a new car and then a larger world trek in 2011 or 2012.... yes 2012. Mexico your still on the list my friend.

So having made a promise to hit Comic Con again with my friends from Boston, i now had to find other US hilights. Then about 3 months from booking any airline ticket, Mark drops me an email and says .... "You heard TOOL is gearing up for a summer tour in the states?" those three words were all i needed to say "GET ME THERE! everything fell into place and I found out not only were they touring the same month as i was heading to Comic Con, but this was actually becoming realistic to see them again.

Now whats better than securing tickets to your favourite band, playing a huge show in the US? Well ... you go get yourself a second set of tickets for THE NEXT NIGHT, and see them again in a different city haha. Yes thats right folks, not only have I got tickets for their San Francisco show, ive also secured tickets for their show in Sacramento California, the very next night! its pretty incredible to think about. these guys have stopped touring since around 2007, and suddenly they decide to come out again, at the same time i'll be in California. Perfect.

Crazy, I know what your thinking. but I dont care. Pick a classic, Hendrix / Sinatra / Elvis / ... your treasured artist. if they were still alive and kicking it, would you not drop what ever you were doing to try and see them? there, i knew you'd understand.

So apart from securing tickets to a second TOOL show, ive just wrapped hotel reservations for SF and SAC, and i'll sort an Amtrak train return ticket when i arrive to get me to the show. With Trev and Abby securing a hotel in San Diego for us all, things are set. Im currently packing and double checking everything before flying. trying not to forget anything. you know the deal. As usual updates will be posted here with photos for friends and family to comment on. No mass emails.

Oh and I have a little surprise for you all when I hit San Francisco. It will make you laugh, and think ... now how did that happen? Not sure whats up? you'll have to tune in. The fact that this also just seemed to "fall into place" is pretty amazing too. enough said. Synchronicity is well in motion. sometimes the dice are rolled, and you just have to use the numbers to your advantage, don't second guess. lifes too short.

Adios Amigos! ... Here We Go.

Might just get on one of these from Sydney. TBC

I'm Coming back you cold, fog loaded old bastard!

Capitol Building : Downtown Sacramento

Comic Con. TRON will be the be all and end all.

"I Think I Physically Saw My Heart Plop Out Of My Mouth" ...

2010-05-11T07:06:00.004+08:00

Having established TOOL's touring schedule last week, and going all out to add the San Francisco leg onto the front of my trip, to say I was taking a HUGE gamble is an understatement. I was banking on a single event, and somehow securing tickets for said event, all the way from Australia of all places. But what's to lose if the dice is never rolled?

Tickets went on sale Sunday 10AM Local Time. Yes ... thats 1AM Monday Morning Perth WST, but nothing was going to stop me trying, and boy, how fate just played its hand perfectly.

So a day before, I log in, and begin to check seating plans for the venue. Like any concert theatre, its a mix of GA (General Admission) Floor standing areas, Low level seats and higher Balcony Seating. For a two hour show I'm always looking for seats to get a better view and to relax. Thinking I'm prepped and ready to go, I wait for 1AM .... and then it all hits the fan.

Heading to the TicketMaster site (US) I log on at exactly 1AM, and im greeted by a panel stating quantity of tickets : price : location. Putting in all my details, and jumping through every security feature they have on this site, I somehow get to a queuing screen. Yeh a virtual "Que". I know its crazy, and I can just imagine the mice on the other end running round in wheels processing our orders. Finally after 3 mins of "Refreshing Pages" and holding my breath, I reach a purchase screen stating the "Best Available" Seat selection I made has delivered a ..... GA (General Admission Ticket). ahhh What the hell ?

Now here's the kicker. I freak out, thinking "No Way In Hell Do I Want A GA Floor Seat!!". I Quickly cancel the order at 1:02AM, thinking I can still get in que for a Balcony selected seat. WRONG!

Upon trying again, EVERYTHING JUST GOT SOLD OUT! .... I kid you not. In the space of 2:20 secs, It was now impossible to get a ticket, with warning screens appearing saying, "Your selection can not be accepted" no matter WHAT your selection was. I tried it all 20 to 30 times, and quickly figured there was only one selection available from the start, that being General Admission!

I had a ticket ... and had given it up. I think I physically saw my heart plop out of my mouth and stop beating on the floor. 1:16AM. One. Last. Try.

Then ... by some strange means, fate played it's hand and at 1:17AM, my screen changed. It now read ... Single General Ticket Available : Purchase Now ? HELL YES IM PURCHASING NOW!!! I've never entered credit card details in so fast to a site in my life, given they have you on a 4 minute counter until your tickets are taken away and reintroduced into the main pile. Having no idea how this happened, I secured a ticket, and proceeded to just reflect on what had gone from the lowest of lows, to the highest of highs. Sometimes, things just happen for a reason. Sometimes the dots are just ment to be joined.

Just to double check, I spent the next hour searching for another ticket with no luck. completely SOLD OUT. I also logged onto the TOOL forum and was greeted by a flurry of fans complaining that tickets were sold out in 2 minutes, and that some had also fallen for the GA "Best Available" Ticket scenario. To say im on a lucky roll is an understatement.

On The Road Again ....

2010-05-11T06:51:00.002+08:00

Hello to all. Been awhile I know. Alot has changed, and alot has stayed the same, but this blog remains as an extended online journal for those seeking to jump in my suitcase while I travel abroad, enjoying the laughs and stories along the way.

So it begins again. After an amazing couple of weeks, I thought I would tell you a brief story about how sometimes, just sometimes, fate seems to join the dots for us, and things just "work out".

So i'm off the the USA again, solidified last week with airfare purchases and plans coalescing nicely. But i'll try and stick to the beginning leg of this trip for now and how its shaping so far. Baby steps so far.

2009: July: Friends of mine From Boston, that I met in San Diego in 2008, are back at Comic Con, and are frantically emailing and twittering me with updates as to the latest at the convention and why I should be there. I make a long winded promise to be there the next year, having been blown away with what I saw of Tron Legacy and Avatar. I intended to keep this promise, but the how and when's were foggy, and nothing was certain about how this world trip should play out. Never the less I did secure tickets for SDCC way back in October 09 for the full 5 days.

January / February / March / April all pass. no plane tickets purchased, no solid plans. I've generally had the dots mapped out to this adventure for awhile, but real life took over and things got delayed. Eventually, with the thought of buying a new car in 2010, I made solid decisions to make this trip a scaled back approach, saving on the cashola for deposits later in the year. This would now chop out South East Asia for 2011 / 2012, and would only encompass North America.

Last week in April suddenly from no where,a good friend alerts me to the fact that TOOL (Progressive Rock Band from Los Angeles USA), whom i've traveled the world to see on 3 separate occasions, including a previous US tour show in 2006, has just posted on their website, that they are kicking off a Summer US tour in .... wait for it ... June / July of 2010. Synchronicity?.... Fate.

People who know me and know how passionate I am for this band for their collective musical talents, artistic approach in design, artwork and video, and links to many left of center spiritual and metaphysical themes and topics, know that when an opportunity like this arises, I can't look away.

This has to be happening at this time. It has to fall together. So finally as of 5am last Monday, I await the announcement of tour dates and city locations, knowing I have to start planning for airfares. Suddenly as the last city to be announced on the tour, San Francisco becomes available, a week prior to my Boston arrival. The dots begin to line up, and the frantic pace of flight bookings begins.

With San Francisco now on the list It takes all of 3 days to find flights, plan departures and arrivals, and secure tickets. Amazingly fast, and somehow all booked as direct flights, from a Qantas Airlines special that evaporated by the end of that week. The List goes roughly like this : Perth : Sydney : San Francisco : Boston : San Diego : LA : Melbourne : Perth

And Here We Go ....

Get Up! : Internet Censorship

2009-09-23T15:30:00.005+08:00

GetUp! It's decision time on internet censorship! This Friday our petition will feature in a massive newspaper ad. How many signatures will it have on it, that's up to you - add your name today to maximise the impact before the Government makes a decision!

It's decision time for the Government on internet censorship - with results from their flawed live trial due any day now. Now is the time to make it clear how deeply unpopular this scheme is.

You could be one of over 100,000 Australians to sign one of the largest petitions in our history. If that's not enough to make decision makers sit up and take notice, we're displaying our petition in a massive ad in The Australian this Friday. How many signatures will be on it? That's up to you.

Can you take a moment to tell your friends to add their name to yours today to maximise its impact? Simply forward the email below or click this link for more options:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/AddTheirNameToYours

We have to act fast - with serious question marks hanging over the integrity of the trials, the Government has indicated it will make an announcement before the end of this month.

The Government is admitting it has no criteria to determine if the trials of the scheme are a success, and refusing to disclose details of how they're being conducted. This leaves the door open to impose a scheme experts say simply won't work and will do little to prevent prohibited content.*

Few petitions in Australian history have ever hit the 100,000 signature mark. Your friends' signatures may push this one into the record books. Every new signature before Friday will make the total displayed in The Australian even larger - and it's a brave government willing to ignore such an outcry.

Minister Stephen Conroy : a case of amnesia
Minister Conroy : Promoting a civil and confident society online

Time for some more Doublespeak, that will cost us AU $44 million.

District 9 ...

2009-08-18T13:04:00.004+08:00

Its been a while since a movie has left me reeling abit, and im happy to say, District 9 succeeded. Working on many levels, it just left me kinda spinning at the end. sure its by no means perfect, its not a hollywood machine churned out to be the next Transformers, but what it does, it does well, and for once, we see an "alien" saga, turned on its head, where we are the ones to be feared.

If you've been living under a rock lately, or rural Victoria for that matter :) go and check the trailer for District 9 and do a little backstory prior to seeing the film, which i highly recommend you do. Set in modern day Johannesburg (one of the most unlikely settings in the movie world) the story is based around an alien civilization that has arrived to earth as refugees, in one single gigantic spacecraft. however we soon find the beings inside are not god like entities, or crazy killing machines like the xenomorphes, instead they are bipedal creatures with the same humanistic qualities as present day man. essentially, the ship contains average intelligent alien creatures, fleeing home, and arriving to be quarantined and persecuted by a fearful and racist human race, eager to steal weaponry and technology, at the expense of life itself.

Shot in a "realistic motion camera / documentary style" (help me out here Trev), it immediately feels real. its not glossy or clean. theres no typical hollywood flare. instead, you have this immense feeling that this is actually occurring in present day, and its believable. making this world even more credible is the CGI animated aliens and their interactions with the real world on screen. WETA (a New Zealand film and animation studio) has done an amazing job again.

Without giving too much away, the movie revolves around the struggle of these refugee aliens, interacting with a human populace, and the conflicts that ensue. its by no means perfect, and i think a let down is the characterizations of the white Afrikaners running the MNU (fictional UN equivalent). i couldnt help but laugh for most of the first 15mins, as the stereotypical South African was wheeled out play the jester. it kinda deflates the seriousness of the movies introduction. never the less huge applause goes to Peter Jackson (producer and presenter) and Director Neill Blomkamp on setting this movie in a believable surrounding, and not being forced to move to a huge spacecraft over a US city to draw ticketsales.

The backbone of the story is a commentary on human nature at best, the human condition at its most primal. the fear of anything different from ourselves needs to be controlled, enslaved or marginalized, the lust and greed for power and technology to further war, and the primal nature to destroy anything that gets in our way, a basic bloodlust to kill.

So instead of persecuting our own individual races, we've now switched to the alien "Prawns". like i said, its a movie with many levels, leaving you with the sense that at our human core, we are all screwed. we are so primal in our efforts to destroy, do we really have a chance at long lasting survival? you kinda get the picture, if a more advanced civilization is actually buzzing its UFO's in and out of earths atmosphere, why in hell would they want to shake our hands and welcome us to the universe ?

TRAILER:
INTERVIEW: 'District 9' Director Neill Blomkamp

Comic Con Wrapup ....

2009-07-27T18:15:00.006+08:00

So another year goes by and so does the 40th San Diego Comic Con. the four day long convention of epic proportion, where everything in pop culture entertainment is showcased to an audience in excess of 130,000 people and growing.

The Con started out as a mere Comic showcase with artists and publishers, but has now evolved into presenting everything from Hollywood blockbuster films, videogames, comics, artwork, sculpture, toys, merchandise and everything in between. blurring the lines to a huge degree.

Cheers to Trevor and Abby for all the local updates, as they managed to trek out there again this year round. it was great to follow their updates on the ground, remembering the efforts people have to go to, to actually see and do just about anything at the Con. we're talking 4am wakeups to be at the convention for 5am lineups to events that open at 9 / 10 and 11am. crazy stuff, but its kinda pain for pleasure, as you know, its all going to be worth it for that next 48hrs or 12 months. this was the case for me back in 08 when we got to see the extended first shots of Watchmen and Terminator. that set up so much anticipation for the theatrical releases back home. I missed being there this year so much, and im making plans for a return. if the money trees bloom alright this season. Trev, book me a spot!

So if you haven't caught the buzz yet, alot of stuff was announced and premiered. catch all the action over at IGN or G4. they seem to have the Con wrapped up pretty great with video and articles. quick standouts have to be the huge buzz around Avatar, the new movie from James Cameron (you remember the guy that made such small films as Titanic, Terminator 2, Aliens) Avatar has supposedly been in development for 15 years, filming for 4. its highly secretive and up until the Con, no one had seen anything of it, bar 3 or 4 still shots of characters (including the Aussie Sam Worthington). well 25 mins of it was shown to the 6000 strong Hall H crowd and by all accounts it was fantastic. its not only shot in 3D but is said to revolutionize the industry with use of CG and live action in ways we havent yet seen.

Next up was my second favorite film announcement in Tron Legacy. back in the day (1982) Tron was made for an audience that didnt even exist yet. way before its time, way before the term CG was even thought about, TRON was at the forefront of films developing computer graphic visual interrogations, when things like photoshop, maya, cinema 4d and wacom tablets didnt even exist. the general premise was filming a story inside a computer world, a digital data mirror of the real world identities (sound familiar to the Matrix circa 1999?) now in 2010, we go back to this world, and finally do it justice. Jeff Bridges returns, and if you havent seen the trailer teaser yet ...... go now! light cycles never looked so good.

Again this is being developed as an IMAX 3D film, which seems to be the latest bandwagon for film releases over the last 3 years. from all the talk, it clearly seems that the film industry is trying to evolve beyond what a movie goer can get at home via a BD player and large screen HDTV. but will it work? will it make the movie experience more jawdropping? or will it crush these new films in a failed techno bubble. we can only wait. but things are clear, the movies you know .... aint stayin that way for long.

Other points to note:
I find it extremely strange that so many people at this Con go ape crazy over other "stars" and entertainment idols, when really, what makes them any better than your average Joe. I mean, getting some hollywood airhead to sign a card for you.? what the hell is that about. its a freakin scribble on paper. i just don't get that envy thing, sure give up the respect to the talent that creates those great films, stories, artworks, but theres a line many cross to overvalue these actors, models, tv hosts. the most ironic thing is, for all the power these celebrities have, they're absolutely shit scared of walking out into that adoring fan crowd. do you ever see them on the show floor? ever see them walking into a crowd? absolutely not. watching a few blog posts from the G4 hosts, its clear theres a fine line between being there for the fans, and then truely being scared to interact with them.

Also : Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings director, District 9) has dropped alot of weight, looking healthier but the hair is still fading away, and he refuses to acknowledge it. funny stuff. check the worlds worst frontal comb-over. Peter, we love ya mate, just get back to Weta and start on Evangeleon live action already!

Ok time to predict for next year. I think Batman 3 will feature. how heavily? we cant know for sure. but i think its time, and i think the studios will want to milk that cash cow sooner than later, with all the Marvel films coming out. will we see another terminator? another 300? Green Lantern im thinking, something new from Jackson and Weta. PS3 slim? add your 2cents.

Hate To Say We Told You So ...

2009-05-15T14:05:00.009+08:00

Swine flu may be a lab error: Aussie researcher:
The World Health Organisation is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche's Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus's origins by analysing its genetic blueprint.

''The sooner we get to grips with where it's come from, the safer things might become,'' Gibbs said by phone from Canberra. ''It could be a mistake'' that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.

Gibbs and two colleagues analysed the publicly available sequences of hundreds of amino acids coded by each of the flu virus's eight genes. He said he aims to submit his three-page paper today for publication in a medical journal.

This very concept was brought to light in a recent Coast To Coast AM episode (April 27th 2009) > Appearing in the latter half of the show, Alex Jones and Stephen Quayle both agreed the new swine virus was not natural. It's a "genetically altered bioweapon," possibly being "beta-tested in the field".... Start thinking outside the square.

SMH.COM.AU
BLOOMBERG NEWS
THE MEDICAL NEWS
C2C APRIL 27th 2009

Something A Little Less Serious ...

2009-05-11T19:52:00.007+08:00

Do yourself a favour. Stop what your doing. Go here now and enjoy.
Discussions begin next week. Thats all for now :) Ha! that reminds me, ive got an Autobot Tshirt somewhere, guess ive gotta wait for the move before i can unpack it with the rest of my forgotten stuff. Anyways, can't wait for this to come to the silver screen, i was so not into the first movie, being M.Bay and all, yadda yadda, this one though ..... makes me wanna buy the first on Bluray :)

Official Trailer : Transformers 2

IGN Breakdown

Your Internet Is About To Be Filtered, By Your Government, Educate Yourself...

2009-03-27T18:27:00.005+09:00

"We've never seen anything like the avalanche Stephen Conroy has generated."

This is how Tony Jones opened last night's episode of Q&A on ABC TV. Thousands of GetUp members sent in their questions about internet censorship to be answered by Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy. The ensuing debate is still making waves in the media.

Last night's Q&A show was Senator Conroy's first major media appearance to discuss the Government's misguided internet censorship plans. But it raised more questions than it answered.

The Senator set off alarm bells when he disclosed that a "technical error" had resulted in PG-rated material being blacklisted, and that the proposed internet filter would miss crucial peer-to-peer content. It's time the Government is held to account for it's misguided internet filter.

Take a moment and educate yourself about the current trial of internet censorship taking place in Australia, soon to be implemented and expanded from April onwards. If your stance on the matter, like mine, is that this poses a massive threat to our rights of free speech and self regulation and education, then do something about it. Become informed, educate others and make a stand. Take a moment to view the Q and A episode below on the ABC website. follow the news and articles mentioned, and start to make your voice heard. Waiting for this to simply "go away" will leave Australia in the dark ages, destroy our internet infrastructure, and force the very topics we are legitimately concerned about to seep into a black market underground.

FULL EPISODE Q and A

SMH : iiNet PULLS OUT OF CENSORSHIP TRIALS

SMH : LEAKED AUSTRALIAN BLACKLIST

SMH : iiNet ISP IN COURT FOR AIDING PIRACY

GET UP!

ZEROPAID.COM

infrequent? yes. dead, never!

2009-03-16T19:29:00.003+09:00

After all the devastation that was the last month of Australian Bushfires, particularly round Melbourne and its outer regional zones, i often came back to the thought, we feel so deeply, but does giving away $100 into a charity fund actually help? both ways i mean. does it lead you to be less depressed at whats gone on, and more importantly, after giving away that money, will you remember that feeling of goodwill long after the action? or will it just jog your memory when you claim it back on tax?

I then came across this great piece of art, a limited run of screenprinted posters that are on sale to raise awareness and funds for the bushfire appeals. what a great idea. i mean, take one look at that and tell me you don't feel something, anything. what an ace print, and something you can look back at and go, "Yeh i bought that for a reason".

Full Story
Tyler Stout and Postersandtoys.com have decided to help out by releasing a new version of “Welcome Home”, Stout’s classic art print from 2005. This version features an all-new color scheme which includes four glow in the dark inks. It’s a 16″x 24″screenprint, the price will be $50. Half of all profits will be donated directly to the Australian Red Cross’ Brushfire Appeal Fund. These will be released on Monday, March 16th at 12pm CST, and will be available for 48 hours, ending Wednesday, March 18th at 12pm CST

Pay TV ...

2009-02-18T07:55:00.006+09:00

FULL STORY :

"The enigmatic Lost returned to US screens almost two weeks ago, yet in Australia the Seven Network is still spruiking it as "returning in February". So much for last season's efforts to screen each episode of Lost in Australia within a few days of it airing in the US.

Fast-tracking was clearly an attempt to win back viewers who illegally download DVD-quality episodes of Lost from the internet each week. Ironically, many of these people were probably driven to piracy after they missed an episode of their favourite show because the networks constantly screw around with their schedules.

The apparent failure of fast-tracking would support my theory that people don't download shows like Lost because they want to see it before it screens in Australia, they download them because they're sick of the contempt the networks show for their viewers."

Well said, but still too late. once you've had a taste of freedom, you don't give it up easily. it's much more enjoyable to watch your favourite shows, without advertising, whenever you want, at your leisure to suit your lifestyle. then again, Conroys coming to change all that aint he.

Casi Allí ...

2009-02-18T07:47:00.003+09:00

And to think i actually tried to stand on this, to check "if the leg was ok". 12 months to go and it will be out. think i'd rather have the metal out than risk cancerous tissue build up when im 40.

Save the Net Nationwide .... CLEAN FEED

2008-12-09T20:00:00.005+09:00

As Australia has already begun the testing phase of its new plan to have ISPs filter the Internet of "inappropriate content" and "offensive and illegal material," it's now being reported that the Labor government "blacklist" has already been compiled and will begin with some 1300 sites, moving towards 10,000 and beyond.

"The pilot will specifically test filtering against the ACMA blacklist of prohibited content, which is child pornography, as well as filtering of other unwanted content," Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy.

"While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list - as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 - so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined."

Many are rightly upset with the plan because not only is the plan mandatory, but it also means that a govt bureaucrat will be the one determining what sites are included. It's his decision and his alone that determines what is "unwanted content."

"Conroy said the list would contain illegal and unwanted content but we still have to see what would end up on that list," said Electronic Frontiers Australia board member Colin Jacobs. "Under the current mandate that includes adult material, which would mean most material that could be rated R and, in some circumstances, material rated MA15+."

The plan would try to turn the Internet into a G-rated version that really doesn't make anybody safer in the end. It's also entirely ineffective because it will never be able to sanitize the Internet of "unwanted" or "inappropriate content." Surely we are all able to close a screen or avoid a website if we are offended by certain content. I do it with comercial TV, and Junk Mail.

It's even dumber for Senator Conroy to think the plan is even possible, especially with a recent trial of the web-filtering technology showing that it slowed down Internet access by as much as 87% it doesn't bode well for Australian Internet users. And to think we were all falling for that pre election ramble of "Upgrading Australia's internet services to world standards and elevated broadband speeds."

Moreover, allowing the govt to begin censoring the Internet is a draconian effort to impose the morality of Senator Conroy and the suits like him, on an entire country. How did we suddenly go from being the free and fun loving country, to being a policed state, worse than mainland China, where Big Brother gets to decide what we must deem safe and informative reality..... this will not be tolerated. I hope each and everyone of you shaking your head right now, throwing your hands up in the air, actually cares enough to do something, anything, about this. don't wait for your rights to be long gone. think of how this is all going. Inform yourself and your fellow users, take time to voice your opinions in the various ways which show, we are here, we are the majority, and this is not acceptable.

SOURCE
jared@zeropaid.com

Inform, Empower, Make A Difference
NO CLEAN FEED
STOP THE CLEAN FEED
BLOG NCF
EFA
CONTACT THE MINISTER
CONTACT YOUR ISP

Hit the streets on Saturday 13th December in nationwide protests against this internet censorship. National protests are being planned to increase awareness of the filtering plan and let the politicians know what we think of it.

Perth Protest:
Date: Saturday 13th of December
Location: Stirling Gardens
Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm

This Weeks Dose Of BS !

2008-11-27T19:07:00.008+09:00

In all the instances of complete bull$%@t! coming from the mass media these days, this article just takes the cake. if this aint 50s corporate propaganda, forcing us to watch out for the boogie men and act like good girls and boys, then i dont know what is..... SMH News Story :

"Cinema 'Cops' Deploy Night Vision Devices"

In response to an increase in pirated movie recordings coming out of Australia, the copyright police are patrolling cinemas with night vision devices - and it's not just commercial pirates they're after. Movie studios are providing the scopes to cinema ushers across the country and "training them in how to spot people illegally taping films using camcorders and even mobile phones.

After Village Roadshow successfully implemented the technology to prevent pirated copies of The Dark Knight making their way on to the internet, 20th Century Fox has adopted it for Baz Luhrmann's "Australia", which opens today.

* ok firstly, "increase in pirated movie recordings coming out of Australia" ? last time i checked we are near last on the world scale for actually having movies appear in cinemas on debut world wide, this too goes for DVD releases. hence .... everyone knows that if you want to see a flick, you download the version that came out in the states 3 weeks ago and has been on the web way before any 12 year old gets a chance to whip out his mobile in an ozzie cinema.

Neil Gane, director of operations at the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), said the night vision scopes would be deployed at the majority of the 304 Australian cinemas. He said the film industry had become concerned over the past few months as "a number of big name movies that were the first to appear on the internet have been forensically matched to cinemas in Australia".

He would not name the movies, citing ongoing investigations, but said that, for a number of years, movie studios had been adding "unique forensic markers" to film prints distributed to theatres.

* wait a second .. "forensically matched to cinemas in Australia" ? your not seriously falling for this one are ya? wake up and smell the coffee already. this is pure and utter crap, dreamt up by organisations who are government funded, and would rather spend billions in protecting the latest release of "Australia" by spilling a scare tatic news story in the Herald.

come on, we all know where to get our new release movies. it aint from Australia, and it surely aint from a kid saving it on his 3 mega pixel phone cam. the sad thing is, most of the time the TS releases of "cinema films" from overseas appearing on the net are actually recorded in the projection booths by employees on debut night. what i would like to know is who creates organisations like the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), and how do they keep people employed?

* slowly going the way of the stars and stripes. watch out for those CCTV cams, you might be caught over thinking your reality, and thats gotta be a crime.

What a crock of "scare tactics 101" how about they fund Cinema seat repairs instead of this trash. Digital downloads just keep eating away at their greedy pockets, and yet they still fail to grasp the concept. embrace the internet and deliver us digital movies at a reasonable cost, when i want, and with no DRM restrictions. i'll pay for whats worth my dollar, minus the 12 year olds throwing popcorn.

It Starts With One ...

2008-11-16T18:32:00.003+09:00

I started hearing about the "missing feet" incidents on the western BC, Canadian shores around the start of this year. not paying too much attention. we travelled through Vancouver earlier this year and id have to say all went well. the place felt safe. now i wonder, was it such a smart thing for me to have been walking alone through Stanely park for 3 hours? the mind boggles, as the seventh severed human foot has now been discovered around the Canadian coast. the mystery deepens.

THE CANADIAN PRESS : RICHMOND, B.C.— A couple walking their dogs along the banks of British Columbia’s Fraser River made what appears to be the latest in a series of gruesome discoveries of a running shoe with a severed foot inside. It’s the seventh such find inside a shoe along the West Coast from Georgia Strait to the northwestern tip of Washington State since August 2007.

RCMP Const. Annie Linteau confirmed Wednesday that remains were inside a left-foot New Balance runner spotted the previous day, but said it would be some time before the B.C. Coroner’s office could confirm if the remains are human.

Ken Johnson and his wife spotted the shoe while walking their dogs Tuesday along the Fraser River in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. Police have determined that two of the seven feet - one found Feb. 8 on Valdez Island and the other found June 16 off Richmond - are a match. DNA testing linked one foot to a depressed man who disappeared in 2007 but the other remains have not been identified.

ok ok, the comic strip is in there for pure laughs. ... kinda reminds me of a mix of an X-Files + Fargo + Northern Exposure episode.... gone wrong

THE STAR .COM

War Is Over, If You Want It ....

2008-11-16T18:25:00.003+09:00

A group of pranksters handed out more than 1.2 million fake New York Times newspapers mainly in New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday with a front page story declaring "Iraq War Ends". The elaborate 14-page edition, dated July 4, 2009, is said to be the work of a group called the Yes Men, whose previous hoaxes include masquerading as World Trade Organisation officials announcing they were disbanding the body.

"It is fake and we are looking into it," said New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis.

A statement sent from a website set up for the fake edition, www.nytimes-se.com, said creating the newspaper took six months and that it was printed at six different presses and then given to thousands of volunteers to distribute.

"We've got to make sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do," Bertha Suttner, identified as one of the newspaper's writers, said in the statement. "After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start imagining heaven."

One side of me cries saying, yeh stick it to em, make em think.... the other side of me wonders, is this the best we can friggin do nowdays? what attention does this really get. then again, i guess we're all too comatose to even care.

SMH

Been A While ...

2008-11-16T17:58:00.003+09:00

Been a while i know. truth is it both feels like a year has passed, and then only 36 hours in the same breath. time is just bending. truth is i really havent felt like posting much here because, there hasnt been much change for me, yet everything else is moving. i still hear that sound, every now and then.

Taking each day one rise at a time. somedays i think im just going to solve it all, somedays i know its all spun round already. somedays the leg feels like it was better than the last. somedays i wonder if it will ever be right. if i will ever be able to fix it. then i remember where i was 4 weeks ago. 8 weeks ago.

For now my only concern is walking. full stop. ive worried about other things for too long. i just dont have the energy or patience anymore, right now. i need to get back to where i was, before i can move, and right now that seems reasonable. to those that stop by here still, thanks, you know who you are, and you know your the ones that matter. im trying to push more these days so come back, there will be more news. moving house. new jobs, old jobs, new travel adventures. maybe's

glad the summers here.

Alaskan Glaciers Grow For First Time In 250 Years ...

2008-10-18T18:03:00.003+08:00

Plans to implement a worldwide carbon tax in the name of saving the planet from global warming have taken another blow after it was revealed that Alaskan glaciers have grown for the first time in 250 years after an abnormally cool summer.

Evidence that the planet is tip-toeing towards the onset of a new mini ice age continues to present itself following unprecedented ice storms in Kenya as well as Sydney experiencing its coldest August for 60 years.

The cold snap arrives on the back of the Sun reaching a milestone not observed in nearly 100 years - the entire month of August passed without a single sunspot being noted. ... Are you confused yet? Full story below. A quick thanks to family and friends over the last couple of weeks for their help whilst my leg continues to heal. Cya again soon Miguel. Told ya i was good for my promise.

INFOWARS

Its The End Of The World As We Know It ... And I Feel Fine

2008-09-08T19:56:00.007+08:00

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is preparing for its first small tests in early August, leading to a planned full-track test in September - and the first planned particle collisions before the end of the year. The final step before starting is the chilling of the entire collider to -271.25 C (-456.25 F). Here is a collection of photographs from CERN, showing various stages of completion of the LHC and several of its larger experiments (some over seven stories tall), over the past several years.

Im surprised Miguel has been so quiet round here, and didn't want to pitch in his 2 cents for this one :) in fact, no one even picked up on the REM song reference. come on people, what more important things are happening than tuning in here ... ahh I kid, I kid.

Updated September 15, 2008 - It was last week on Wednesday, September 10, 2008, near Geneva, Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) fired only a single beam of protons around the 17-mile-long underground circular tunnel - not two beams of protons hitting head-to-head near the speed of light.

Two reasons: First, LHC wanted to test hardware and magnets first. Second, shortly after the firing, computer hackers broke into the computers connected to the Compact Muon Solenoid Detector (CMSD) and left this message: “We're pulling your pants down because we don't want to see you running around naked looking to hide yourselves when the panic comes.”

Physicist Joseph Lykken heads the CMSD science team and told me today that the hackers themselves closed the “hacked doorway” through which they entered. Further, none of the computers controlling the actual LHC proton beam collisions have any connections to the outside world for precisely the reason to prevent hackers from interfering with such a powerful laboratory as the LHC.

EARTHFILES.COM
BOSTON.COM
CERN HOMEPAGE

they must have blown they're budget on the LHC, they couldnt even give this poor worker a proper desk and an LCD screen. Come on fella's! :)

9/11: The Third Tower ...

2008-09-08T17:26:00.004+08:00

Miguel put me onto this a few days ago, and im just throwing it out here quickly as a reminder for all and myself. obviously lately ive had a few things on my brain, but a current affairs still grip me to the core and issues surrounding 911, this new generation of false terrorism, global elites and the nitty gritty behind the headlines are what we need to be waking up to.

Think and read, investigate and make your own conclusions. this latest doco may be late on the horizon here for us Aussies who don't download alot, but the questions should be timeless, until we know the truth. check it out.

ABC 1 TV
Seven years on, the destruction of New York's Twin Towers, played and replayed thousands of times over, is seared into collective memory.

A third skyscraper also fell that day. Unlike the Twin Towers, the 47-storey building known as Tower Seven was not hit by a fuel-laden plane, yet it collapsed neatly in 6.5 seconds.

The official explanation is that it was destroyed by fire. But in the seven years it has taken to present the final investigation report, suspicion has filled the information vacuum. Tower Seven has fed an industry of conspiracy theories that grew up around 9/11. Claims are pressed – by a phenomenally popular movie on the Internet and by supposedly credible "experts" – that someone in or close to the US Government brought the building down by controlled demolition.

How, among the many questions they ask, could Tower Seven be the first and only steel-framed skyscraper in the world to collapse due to fire? Why did the New York fire department not fight the fires? Why did it fall so symmetrically at freefall speed? Why did TV stations report that Tower Seven had collapsed before it had done so, when it was still clearly visibly behind reporters?

This BBC documentary explores some of these questions. In doing so it demonstrates how, when good information is scarce, or late, many people will believe the worst. 9/11: The Third Tower" – on Four Corners 8.30 pm Monday 8 September and 11.35 pm Tuesday 9 September (also 8am Tuesday on ABC2). Think for yourself.

Roll On Roll On ...

2008-09-08T16:46:00.004+08:00

Leg feels quite good, considering ive got a 50cm steel pin through it haha. today was probably the first time i could actually move round without a great deal of pain, or need for painkillers. so all in all i think a speedy recovery is on the cards towards October. and we all know what happens in October :)

I'm off again, this time to Melbourne for a day and then onwards to spend a week with family up in Bairnsdale, round the Eastern Gipsland, Lakes Entrance area. this little venture was promised and organised way before anything, even the world trip, so here i am saying "It's still on"! I'm heading over to visit my uncle and aunty (Mike and Gayle) who are fantastic people, owning and running their own bed and breakfast and local bookstore in the community. i share a great respect and friendship with my uncle who tends to think outside the square, and arrives at many subjects and conclusions i find most interesting. more than a relative, a good friend and confidant who has always been but a phone call away to support me and lend words of wisdom and comedic relief. we don't get over to see you as often as we all should Miguel, but if i can be the spark, the others will follow im sure.

So prepare yourself down there in Victoria, im coming back, and this time im bringing enough stories to keep the cows awake for many an hour. i can't say how much ive been looking forward to this for well over 18 months, and now seems the right time more than ever. for some period there, it was all i had left to look forward to, a goal to reach. and aint no bloody broken leg gonna stop me getting on a plane, i can assure you of that. hopefully i can walk by then, if not, you will just have to keep feeding me, and suppling the Corona :)

Thanks to all who helped organise this, and for the open welcome of staying there for a visit. i intend to pay this good will forward as soon as i can. take care all. ive included some shots of Melbourne and Bairnsdale town for the oversees viewers. adios.

So, What Exactly Did Happen ?

2008-09-04T12:24:00.002+08:00

So not only did i decide to move out, lose two of the closest friends i have, be in debt and financially strangled more than i was pre holiday, i just went and got myself hit by a car and wound up with a broken leg (femur thigh bone), shattered Mac laptop and damages to my car. what a great spiral this appears to be.

What happened exactly? well for the details read onwards, its a story i don't enjoy telling too much and one i seem to relive too often in my head. so it all began on Monday arvo, a week ago. i get back from visiting my accountant for a TAX return and im pleased that i wound up with a return of some cash, seeing as im now looking to save as much as i can for a major move into a house and paying off my car. i step outa the car, parked at my parents place, get to the front door and turn instinctively to see in slow motion, my car rolling down the verge into the house. the next moments are hard to type up. milliseconds passed, time did not slow down for me. my left brain simply said, this needs to be stopped, you can't afford damages to your car and expense. i motioned in front of the car and made one of the biggest mistakes of my life, one that could have left me with no leg(s), paralysis, or even death. i wish two of the closest friends i have could realise how serious this could have been and how big a mental "hit" this has had on me.

In theory i guess i made one of those rushed moves, i may have left my handbreak off, and most likely, the car simply sank into the lawn post parking, and began momentum to roll down the small inclination. now here's one of the many "lucky" bits of this story, as the car rolled towards the house and me, it was aligned to an outside brick pilar, near the front door, and not the front windows. hitting this pillar allowed for almost no damages to the house and also allowed me to injure only one leg.

Less than a second passes, i turn towards the car, and with the sound of the loudest crunching plastic ive ever heard, the car smashes me into the brick pillar, pinning my lower knee and upper thigh, bouncing backwards for a second allowing me to move out. shocked and paniced my first thought is, "Ok how bad is this, did this just break my leg? or was it just a thunder punch and now my leg is bruised" I instantly put the leg down and try and walk. ummm yeh bad idea. the leg collapsed and felt instantly like jelly, obviously with no thigh bone for support. thank goodness the bones didnt break the skin and visually the damage was less horrific. from here it was a matter of collapsing and bracing the leg whilst staying calm and talking my parents through what had happened and what i needed.

I cant quite explain it, but from here onwards i really felt like i was having a 3rd person experience, knowing this was all happening, feeling it all, but really not believing this was me involved, this surely couldnt be me stuck in here? the next few days were spent in hospital whilst i had surgery to implant a steel rod through the femur bone, joining it together once again and pinning it internally to the existing bones via screws. (see xrays attached) this went fantastically well and i only have 3 small cuts from the ordeal. however my knee is still extremly swollen and i feel could be damaged internally. i guess it wont ever be the same, i just hope it can be walkable again to a standard that allows me to travel and enjoy life. its times like this that make me so thankful that ive done so much traveling already. ive climed a few mountains, but i need to do so much more.

Lastly i would like to thank my parents first off for all they have, and continue to do for me. without them i really dont know where i would be or what state i would be in. thankyou. you mean more to me than anything else, and i need you to know your help, advice and love are welcomed more than ever. to my family, thanks to all for their get well wishes and concerns and your extra efforts in assisting my parents. to friends of the family and workmates, cheers to you too, you cant imagine what a spirit lifter those simple 2 second email or sms messages do. to my two closest amigos, i wish you could have been there more as i needed you, but your paths are moving, i know. but things can only be put aside for so long, people move on and cant always take the one side.

So im now out of hospital, feeling better, moving and boxing my life up for the next six months while i heal, walk again, save some cash and get a place to stay. the journey continues. ....

Not The Best Of Returns ....

2008-09-04T11:45:00.003+08:00

Alot of you have been wondering where things have gotten to, how im doing and whats been happening of late. truth is, things have been rather dark and gloomy for the most part. a series of bad luck incidents and twists have really left me in a situation that at the start of the year, i tried so desperatly to avoid. planning it seems has kinda gone out the window.

Upon arrival back from the holiday Mark wasnt doing so well, and has exited stage left to pursue other things, personal time, space and considerations on his own. traveling with one of my best friends round the world, twice, has been a magical time for me over the last few years, but this last trip was a muted one where things became rather one sided from my perspective. i usually don't voice these things, but after the 2 months ive just had, i kinda need to let people know whats going on and set the records straighter. Mark is taking time out on his own for reasons he doesnt wish to communicate at the moment. i hold no animosity, only a feeling of hurt that comes with losing a friend ive known for over 10 years. things can always be fixed, but for now im moving on with what i have to do.

So i've moved out from the Swan Valley, still planning to stay in Perth for a while as i now find my own feet again. the hardest thing about this scenario is that its come as another weight on parents shoulders which i feel extremly appologetic for. they have, and continue to support me in everyway and in anything i choose to do, and to have to reach out to them again is hard, and i can only thank them here, and in person, over and over again. it never goes un-noticed or un-appreciated. i hope someday i can repay this, or pay it forward.

Ive grabbed a few shots to wak on the blog of Perth, for the folks we met travelling in the states recently. thanks for all the emails guys, we must catch up again one day :)
Flickr Pics

Full Circle ...

2008-08-06T12:03:00.004+08:00

Well where has the time gone eh, in some respects it all went too fast, in others it slowed to a snails pace, all in all it was great. i really can't believe another world trip is over and ive been away for only 5 weeks, it kinda feels longer, maybe because of the lag in flying all the way back round the globe to Perth.

To those that we met along the way, thank you for your friendships and good times, please stay in touch and our door is open anytime you decide to venture down under to this big brown land of Australia and come explore. no matter if your heading west or east, we can help you out. opposite to that, when we trek out again, if we are stopping through your home towns, be sure to have a cold beverage on hand. last but not least, thank you to our employers, and families who allowed us the opportunities to do this, without them all we would not be here. we are both so appreciative just to have great jobs to come back to.

I really can't explain what a fantastic journey it all was, and standouts for me would have to be Mexico and San Diego. those times will stay with me for a long time, and im so glad i got to venture into those jungles whilst i still can, and not at the age of 64. really thinking about getting back in 2012, Dec 21st, maybe see the new year in there ... maybe a new something. Canada was also great, however due to bad luck, bad weather and bad timing things weren't explored as much as possible. would love to go back, but bigger and new locations call first. California id have to say im kinda done with, America in general i guess, for a while ... however i have a strong urge to hop back for an east coast trip and or another Comic Con. but from an outside perspective, the US is heading into really god awful times, and i dont want to be involved in that.

Where next? well no concrete plans, i need to hit Melbourne preferably this year, but the bank is saying no lol, other than that, SE Asia, China, North Africa, the Moon. really looking forward to just getting back into the swing of things and re-appreciating the life we have in Perth. we live in an amazing place, you all just dont have any idea how lucky you have it. from owning homes, clean and healthy foods, safe medical centers, stable jobs, raising families in safe surrounds, still having strong and open connections with our heritage pasts .... being able to walk to the beach, the park, an open space, to breath clean air, to not have to worry about natural disasters taking away everything in a rumble or a swirl. take a moment and just be thankful. see you all on the other side.

Vancouver : Last Goodbye

2008-08-04T10:04:00.002+08:00

Whistler : I Want Snow ...

2008-08-04T02:35:00.009+08:00

This famous resort ski region is just 45 mins away via air from downtown Vancouver. its the site of the majority of the 2010 winter olympics and is bound to expand in size and world scope in the next few years... but is it ready?

After a story of setbacks to try and actually get up there, on the morning of our delayed flight, both Mark and I said to each other, should we just call it quits and forget trying to get around the closed rail line (Sea to Sky high way closed due to landslide) well this question would reappear numerous times and generally i guess we just should of stayed in Vancouver. after a delayed flight due to weather, we were only flown half way to Whistler and had to spend another hour on a bus ride up the mountains to get in (which we were not informed of until landing) so basically our first day in the place was gone, we arrived tired, hungry, angry and too late for alot of things, not to mention a hotel where we couldnt even check in till 4PM! oh did i mention the weather was pouring with rain and freezing outside. hello summer ......

Skip to day two, after hearing the phrase "This weather is extremely unusual for this time of year" over and over we were both ready to just hit the valley air and walk a trail for 3/4 of a day. we took a path into the surrounding base of Whistler and Blackcomb, round the village and golf course's, round Lost Lake, onto Green Lake and round again. boy was that a slog. harder too was trying to judge the weather. its still chilly up there (ice / hard pack snow is still on all the mountain peaks) and packing jumpers became tiresome half way through the walk.

Never the less the scenery is pristine and breathtaking. well cared for and maintained as are most things round here in general. trash, and the alike are all kept to a minimum, if nothing at all. i found it cool how they have special bins around here with kiddy safe lids to ..... keep the bears from opening them and also tipping them over. never did see a bear though, although Mark almost got his leg ripped off by a huge dog led by a jogger on the trail lol. so we got out finally and gave it our best shot, but as you can imagine after the hit and miss of the last few days we were just ready to ship out by days end. mentally more than anything else. if we were there for more days there is plenty we would like to have done. lastly gotta mention, if your into mountain biking, come here, this sport takes over from skiing in the summer and every man and his dog is an extreme biker. the trails offer the perfect adrenaline circuit.

Pack Stack and Repack : News

2008-08-04T02:35:00.008+08:00

Hey guys, currently just finishing things off on Whistler, heading back to Vancouver tomorrow for a day and then off the next day to Germany, next day to Singapore and then same day Home. its gonna be a rush but more so for Mark who is skipping out earlier than me, heading back with no stop overs, im flyin solo from Germany onwards.

Canada has been great to see, however alot of things were slowed down or canceled due to the turn of bad weather here along the way. particularly in Whistler where we barely even got here to begin with .... so i guess i should explain that one a bit further, the story begins a day earlier and i don't know if you guys would have heard about it back home.

So we've had this run of bad weather and alot of rain everyday since we have been here so far, and on Thursday we decided to actually tackle it head on and just do what we always do, stuff the weather and hit the sights. it was overcast but not raining on the morning so we booked ahead and went out on a sea harbour excursion, a two hour bay tour on a Zodiac holding 12 people. the tour takes us through Howe sound and the bay area, lying at the base of the mountains, it too was carved centuries earlier by the same glaciers that had an impact on Yosemite and the mountains of the west coast. booking the tour we were told that today was the only day we could do it as Sunday was fully booked due to a landslide over the Sea to Sky highway (the way to Whistler via Rail and Car). We panic .....

Leaving the tour for a moment we start to freak out as now we hit the net, no emails or notifications from the rail services or float planes we have booked, but seeing the news, over night there had been a rock landslide covering the highway and rail line preventing all transport up to and down from Whistler and the surrounding mountains. now we are in a situation where we are unlikely to even make it up there and we have no other hotel reservations for Vancouver ..... not good.

Long story short we phone the Rail company, "oh yeh the rail link is closed can we rebook you" "No you can't", we're still after a refund, but we then figure if we can phone quickly we can possibly get the Float Plane service up there as well as back to Vancouver, a few phone calls later and we are booked on a plane for the next morning .... oh but the fun had only just begun.

Skip back to the Howe Sound sea bay tour and it begins to rain as we step onto the boat. it doesn't stop for another 3 days. so we shuffled round the bay on this awesome speed boat, raining, overcast, cold and windy ... just the way we like it lol. but positives were it was cool just to be out there. Dad, it reminded me of the Albany bay fishing trips we took out there in the dingy, minus the huge swells. i felt like dropping in a line. as we circled the islands on the two hour tour we got to see many Bald Eagles, Seals, marine life and forests. do it if you ever get out here. but linking these two stories, on the boat ride back in we actually passed the Sea to Sky highway and were able to view the landslide from the ocean, and man what a mess it was, this was expected to clear in a weeks time.

Skip onwards to the next morning and we get out to the float plane expecting, well, expecting what we paid for, a full flight to Whistler uninterrupted. this was not to be the case, not only had the bad weather stuck round, it had now sealed off Whistler in a cloud and rain bank that prevented flying. we were left with a delayed flight, and only flew 20mins, half way there, up to Squamish, and then we were bussed up the mountains a further 40mins. the best bit, no one bothered to inform us of this segway, and there were no compensations, hence to say i will not fly and will not recommend Whistler Air to anyone. unfortunatly we leave with them tomorrow as well, hopefully this time round we get out full flight, and a safe journey. (update: flight out of Whistler was a full flight, but passengers who booked during the weekend, post landslide were made to pay 30% more in ticket fares .... DO NOT FLY UP HERE WITH Whistler Air)

So things have been hampered here in Canada a bit but its all coming to a gradual end, and to be honest, its about time, we are kinda knackered and ready to just end the living from a suitcase life. when we make it out again i think it will be for a shorter time frame, but the same amount of hijinks. glad to have you all following along and commenting when you can. its been a great way to keep in touch and i wouldnt do it any other way. as a good friend in San Diego said on departure, go back to work, save your money, plan, travel, rinse repeat .... seeyou all soon. updates as we hit the floor home.

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Vancouver Aquarium : Morning Tour

2008-08-04T02:33:00.003+08:00

The Aquarium is situated inside Stanley Park itself, accessible via walking or car. we got there round 10AM and really saw the crowds grow as the day went past lunch. its extremely popular and having the kids summer holidays on at the same time kinda fills the place up real quickly. smallish in size, but similar in theme and scope to Sydney's the Aquarium is basically 3 zones. outer pools and marine life, arctic mammals. inner frog and swamp zone. freshwater basin and rainforest leading to ocean climates.

I found it to be great, especially the regions featuring sections on the local marine environments from the local bays. each one fully populated by heaps of fish and marine life in each tank, beautifully designed and maintained giving a great glimpse into what we don't see from above. i kinda feel a strong connection to these sorts of things generally because of living on the coast all my life and enjoying fishing as a past time. you get to respect what many just pass over. its also nice to feel that, seeing the sharks and dolphins etc in the tanks, i can stick my hand up and say ... you know what, ive feed, caught, released and watch those out in the wild, the real world.

Stanley Park : Hop Skip Jump

2008-08-04T02:32:00.003+08:00

Located towards the western side of Vancouver City, Stanley Park is a nature reserve set aside near the city as a public park much the same as central park in NYC and Kings Park in Perth. the size of Perth CBD roughly, the park it self is rounded by a "seawall" barrier which not only provides protection against erosion and the large tidal flows, but also acts as a round trip tourist walk which flows onto the city's foreshore and around the whole harbour area all the way round Granville island (google maps if you want to follow along).

Through the Park itself runs a major freeway and connecting minor roads, never impacting on the park to a great degree, but the freeway connects through the park via Lions Gate Bridge to the opposite side of the harbour, and Northern Vancouver. it also house a few beaches, cafes and the Vancouver Aquarium, which we trekked out to on the second day we were in town. all of this is accessible via foot and is the main reason why Vancouver is so tourist friendly.

Once we had finished with the Aquarium, Mark headed back to the CBD and i decided to explore the park itself, kinda felt well, im here, might as well. was really fantastic to explore and walk through the nature trails, often without anyone else around for 100's of meters. squirrels and birds were everywhere, along with the alpine trees and forest. i ended up rounding the whole park via the seawall as you can see, getting closer to Lions Gate bridge and then under it, out to the ocean front cliffs, then round the beaches, and cutting through the center hiking paths. before and after heading through the small boat mariner they have in the cover between the CBD and the park. (this by no means is the only or biggest mariner in the region). really, much more time can be spent here in its own, picnics, walking trails, etc etc, simply a 10min walk from the city. and to think, 20mins over the harbour via ferry you can be skiing in an afternoon. great place.

Capilano Bridge : Taste of Nature

2008-07-30T14:13:00.006+08:00

The only fine day out here in BC was our second day in, and we decided to hit the North Shore and Capilano, one of the closest locations to Vancouver, to get a taste of the mountains and the wildlife in BC. Capilano bridge was built in the 1800s and rebuilt over the last few years, and now acting as a tourist hub.

Built over a deep valley floor and river, crossing over to a forest, the parks board has built a series of tree top walks and boardwalks to allow the public to walk amongst the forest with minimal impact and erosion. Capilano bridge is basically half way up Grouse Mountain and is the perfect taste test to the country side, without having to hike for days into the wilderness. if you continue upwards you reach the peak of the mountain and a cablecar lift. we decided not to go onwards as the weather was beginning to turn sour again in the arvo. whilst up there, we saw eagles, trout and squirrels.

Vancouver : Big and Wild

2008-07-30T14:08:00.005+08:00

So we packed up our things early and got out of San Diego round 12PM. the funny thing was we decided we couldnt make it down to the convention on the last day to see the Supernatural presentation due to time constraints, but upon arrival at the airport and boarding of our plane to Vancouver, who was in business class? the two guys from the show, somehow they were shipped in and out of Comic Con so quick they could make it back to Canada for filming the rest of the season.

Yeh thats the funny thing you learn, most of the hit TV shows you all love (and movies including the new Watchmen) are all filmed in Vancouver BC. even the great X-Files. i think its all about the cheaper costs north of the border etc etc but it kinda made it feel like we were flying back to "movie town" lol

Canada Airlines, hands down the best we have flown so far, apart from the in flight movies which seem to skip and become unsynced in audio. kinda sucked, but we landed safely and got a shuttle to the hotel which was fantastic.

Ok here comes the bitch about Vancouver so far. the bloody weather, its been so good to us all holiday, never messing up anything to badly, but upon arrival we hit a winter weather patch in the middle of summer. yup you guessed it, rain, overcast and cold conditions. the month before and days after we leave its gonna be 30C and hot ... the week we are here we are hit by crap weather. this would also pose a hindrance in Whistler as will later be mentioned.

Never the less this place is just so beautiful and connected. 20 mins from downtown you've got the airport and the other way are mountains bordering North and West Vancouver, a energetic harbour and a nature reserve in Stanley Park that rivals our city center for size. amazing place, so bare with the pics, i tried to capture a few between the sunshine on our second day here, which gave us some time to sight see. oh did i also mention this place has the 2010 Winter Olympics. might be back for that.

Sea World : Too Plastic Fantastic

2008-07-30T13:55:00.005+08:00

Consulting the schedules, Mark really wanted to check out Seaworld as a breakup during the madness that was Comic Con. so we figured the easiest and smoothest time to do this was intro day morning, when people were just getting started, and not much was happening ..... or so we thought. I think this was the day that Hugh Jackman turned up and gave a sneak preview of the new Wolverine film and the announcement of Tron 2 with footage was made.

Anyway trekking out there was a breeze, caught a cabbie, the best of my life, and proceeded to discuss various californian themes with him. he was a blast. arriving at the gates the first thing that hits you is the price, $60 US just to get in, per person. i felt that was steep. the second thing you notice is this is a family outing, a location where every whipper snapper comes to run amuk, and pretend they saw .... the last great bloody whale on earth.

Walking around the park itself which is quite large, i noticed theres no main large aquarium, no central focus, its more of a group of broken up theme areas, with 3 or 4 main tanks for the dolphins, seals, whales and mammals to live and..... perform for your fatty dollars. kinda sad. the rest of the park is landscaped gardens, theme park rides and attractions and plenty of areas to stock up on those sugar shakes and fun time foods.

We began in the Arctic enclosure, viewing a whale and walrus enclosure, with a sleeping polar bear and swimming salmon. the layout is superb and gives the youngens a real sense of adventure and mystique. but this was the first time i began to notice things not feeling quite right. for me, yeh it was cool to see these animals, but as you view them swimming in and around their tiny pools, in the same repetitive motions, left to right, left to right, you have to ask the question, is this all worth it?. its a question many don't see as they get caught in the park "swirl of coolness, and kiddy themes".

We then moved onto the dolphin and killer whale enclosures which seemed large, but were actually multiple tanks broken down into sections and a performing area. sure these guys had more space, but they seemed kinda more inteligent on the whole i guess, i mean when you have to perform for you daily meals ... you get kinda good at jumping and entertaining, yeh iv'e still got a bit of a bad taste in my mouth about it all, and it might be that god awful smoothie i had aswell. dont get me wrong, the sight and sounds were great, the animals performed great feats, but ... Dad, seeing these dolphins, i couldnt help but reflect back to our times in Monkey Mia and more so out in Rockingham when we could experience these animals in the wild, nothing will ever beat that, and im glad we have that opportunity.

Lastly Mark convinced me to hit this roller coaster called Atlantis which combined water and fast speed fun. this was gold and really lightened the day up as we shot through back to the Comic Con. the fun had just begun.

Comic Con : Nerd Central ...

2008-07-26T09:11:00.006+08:00

Time flew ridiculously fast whilst in San Diego, so much so that we never really got time to check out everything on offer in the convention center. we were lucky if we just got into the main presentations we had bookmarked. but all in all it was most enjoyable and for all its craziness, i kinda miss it.

The 5 day stop began the minute we landed, checking into the hotel early from a flight landing at 12PM we headed straight to the Convention Center located on the harbour foreshore, much like Perth's only 50 times as large and well laid out. its funny, the more and more we got into San Diego, the more and more we felt at home, kind of a mix of Perth in the mild summer and also a spin of Sydney modernness in there as well. picking up our tickets for the so called "Preview Night" we soon realised that this convention would be bigger than anything we had encountered .... ever. imagine 120,000 people hitting one place, everyday for the next 4 days.

The Preview night is set up as a sneak peek opening to those people that had bought a special "Weekend Pass" for all 4 days of the convention. the theory being that not alot of people would pay extra and see all this for 4 days. well your wrong. the place was packed and seemed like a day one, rather than a preview. it proved to be great though, as we met up with some local comic fans who themselves had traveled all the way from Boston on the east coast. shout out to Trevor and Abby, meeting these guys was one of the best things of the weekend, not only giving us a heads up on what to expect from the presentations, but also just to share a laugh with some semi normal folks like ourselves, away from the nerd storm :)

At this point i was still under the weather from the flu in San Francisco, but we managed to see a preview screening on the new J.J Abrams show, Fringe, which was quite good and gave us a taste of things to come. for those wondering, this aint a bad show, its kinda X-files meets Re-Genesis, i'd like it to be a bit darker and less to the point, but it moves rather quickly. once the screening was over we headed over to the show room floor, to take in the exhibition hall and the real nerve center of the Con. the floor where all the artists and publishers set up their booths and flog their latest books, films and toys to the passerby. but nothing could have prepared us for the sea of people that flooded in, it was crazy and left us dazed.

The next day we took off to Seaworld as mentioned, but on our return to the Con we managed to head into the Dexter panel showcasing the new season and discussions with the panel. throughout the weekend the majority of your time is split between shooting into preview screenings and panel discussions, or spending time on the showroom floor buying up comics, artworks, signings and general eye gazing. if this is your entertainment world, you will have a blast. simply seeing the freedom people have to dress up and be creative in their own world for 24 hrs is fantastic. hilights for this year included seeing new footage of the new Watchmen movie, Terminator movie and various TV shows in Lost, Dexter, 24, Prison Break, Heroes and much much more. on a personal note i stumbled over and saw Mike Mignola at his signing booth, Brain Wood, Brain Azzarello, Ben Templesmith and many more. but i must say, i was very shellshocked. these guys are some of my heroes and it felt sureal to see them in the flesh. to the point that most of the time i felt like just hanging back, almost hesitant to really say something. i mean what do you ask them that they haven't already answered 20 times a day. sometimes the mystery can still be kept alive. on exiting Comic Con rumors are flying round that LA or Las Vegas will bid to host the event in the future, but thats going to be a hard pill for San Diego to swallow as this has been an integral part of this economy for 39 years, yeh ... next year its the 40th anniversary. it all started with 300 people for a day convention, now you all want to be involved. great times.

Heya guys .... i know i know, your dieing for updates, well i know ive been slack an all, but seriously that flu just could not be shaken easily. losing it now, feelin much better. anyhoo, currently in line for a Comic Con presentation on the latest Prison Break season ... Mark's inside watching the latest stuff on 24. much much more to be said ....

ok ok i swear im here for the .. a, ... comics :)

San Diego : Sun Sun Sun

2008-07-24T05:10:00.004+08:00

What can you say, you hop outer the airport and the first person to great you is a shuttle bus driver from ..... Perth! yeh well it figures, this place is so much like home its uncanny. its just really american and really well sorted out and centralized. San Diego greeted us with sun shine and bright weather for the entire time we were there. located below LA and slightly above the Mexican border its the perfect blend of Port and City.

Our hotel was fantastic, no better yet, the best we have stayed in so far. perfect all round, and i think the views say it all, however if we were on the other side of the building it would have been an even better view of the foreshore. Sunny, 25 C and 18 C at night, without all the plastic BS Los Angeles has to offer, this place was just genuine and fun. as soon as we landed we basically had a room ready and fled to Comic Con to pick up our tickets and scope the place out. this was the only time i had to take pics of the general landscape, city, as for the oncoming four days, we were going to be in Comic nerdsville ..... ok apart from the Seaworld excursion.

Baseball Sunday : Giants vs Brewers

2008-07-21T08:51:00.006+08:00

Well we missed out on this American past time the last holiday we were on in the states, so this was a must do on the list, that being, to catch a "ballgame" as they say. quite a lot of work went into this, we had to buy tickets about 4 months in advance, and even then they were already sold out to members and locals. we ended up having to buy a few off a reseller site to the tune of 3 times the base sale rate, crazy stuff but well worth it.

Having a base in downtown, we had easy access to the harbourside where the ballpark is located, and to those that are not aware, the stadium is built on the harbours edge, so much so that the outer edge is a harbor sea wall, meaning that all balls hit outa that side of the stadium end up out in the ocean ... or as the locals call it " splash hits". from the photos, this wall is the right field, the opposite side to the "giant coke bottle" which not only serves as a visual advertisement, but an internal kids slide, complete with giant leather baseball glove.

The stadium itself (AT&T Park) is absolutly stunning in construction and fitout, i mean americans know what their doing when it comes to large scale sporting arenas and the alike. right from the seating to the layout and public access points, the whole thing is prestine and 100% functional, especially for those busy crowds. Dad you would be impressed, not only can you easily walk the entire ground on one level, witnessing the game at any point on the field and off via large LCD monitors, you can grab a millions drinks, and foods at the drop of a coin. none of this 3 selection rubbish of warmed up chicken treat and a dodgy chicken burger or fries. nope, these guys do it in style, and we need to learn how to do it. these were but a small small sample of what was there, all freshly prepared or at least prepared without the usual "fastfood" downsides. Burgers, Hotdogs, Bratworst Dogs, Asian Noodle Medleys, Popcorn, English Muffins and the list goes on. i ended up grabbin a Bratworst Dog and a fresh lemonade. the best game food ive eaten in my life.

As for the game, well yeh, San Francisco got there butts kicked but that didn't matter as this was pure viewing pleasure. we had killer seats as well, middle tier, raised, slightly right of home plate with a view of a clear out field. but as we took a walk round the stadium towards the end of the game, there really wasn't a bad seat in the house .... but yeh as you can imagine, on the outer walls it got breezy and chilly. we were also very lucky as the weather was foggy and cold all morning till it fined up round the second innings or so. a wonderful day out, and something i'd do again in a second.

Well you wouldnt believe it would ya, the last two days of our trip here in San Francisco and what happens? the weather finally decides to fine up and on the last day, pure sunshine and 25 C for the entire day. i almost cried i could finally walk down the road without a jumper and we were on our way out. maybe this was a quick leadup to San Diego i guess, but it was a nice send off never the less.

San Francisco has been great, but in hindsight we probably stayed too long this time round, and needed to have shifted out days to more in San Diego or even Vancouver, we just found towards the end we were slacking and wasting time. maybe that was good, for a change. maybe i just like to get busy on holidays. or by that i mean, get the hell away from the hotel as quick as possible and live a little, learn a little, enjoy the place we travelled so far to get to.

So here are a few flash backs from the last sunny day spent in Frisco. Mum, hope you notice "The Owl Tree", an uptown local Bar and Eats place. they had two mosaic walls outside with black, white and grey tiles, depicting two huge owl faces ... really really cool. thought of ya. also a few other shots of the Asian Art Museum and the Capitol Building. plus the tourist bus we caught and froze our ears off on riding up top and over the bridge. glad to be booking it back to warmer weather

Ferry Building : Farmers Market

2008-07-21T01:04:00.004+08:00

Since we arrived back from Yosemite it seems San Francisco has just become its usual Summer / Winter climate. for the past couple of days, the fog has blown in during the night and by morning, has chilled the air to basically be a winters day minus the rain. the fog has been so bad it hasnt lifted all day, apart from an hour or two round 4 - 5PM. kinda makes it impossible to figure out when to go and see the coast or do a trip out to the bridge.

This affected our bus tour in particular as we figured we needed to slot that 2 day pass in sometime before the baseball game on sunday. we booked it mid week, hoping that although the first day was really really crappy, cold, and windy .... the second day could fine up and be better. well it turns out it wasnt, if anything it was worse, and i didnt even take out the camera it was that bad. its the strangest thing, because its like a fog cloud above the city only, you go 20mins into the outer bay regions or hills and BAM its 25 C and fine summer sun. it really put things on a slight downer and well, you guessed it, i caught the flu, a sluggy case of it that i couldnt shake, unlike the 24 hr mexican version. so hence once again, we never got those full sunshine perfect shots of the Golden Gate, actually we froze driving across it, but at least this time we got to see it up close, more than last time.

So where was i, oh yeh ... Saturdays Ferry Building outing. yeh i suggested the trip to Mark, as today there happened to be a farmers market on, allowing local produce owners and distributors to showcase some of their offerings to the public, outside of a large chain store etc etc. a quick note about the Ferry Building, located at the end of Market St (main strip in the downtown area) historically built in the 1800s, now services ferries for passengers to travel round the bay area. think of it as the E street markets just ... bigger SF style.

Arriving mid morning the area around and inside the building are marked off and dedicated to sellers and buyers. starting from artisans and local craftspeople, we moved through the displays onto vegetable and fruit growers, organic produce, meat and fish sellers, and .... local cookouts. personally for me i loved it, the food and beverages on sale from the locals alone was awesome and i wish we spent more time there, however Mark wasn't too impressed. even inside the building, the craziest things can be found. ive never seen so much variety in things such as mushrooms. the sun also came out for an hour or two which warmed things up briefly.

Frida Kahlo at SFMOMA

2008-07-18T10:34:00.003+08:00

Another chilly day today in downtown SF. took another bus journey out to the Bay area, but headed back pretty early after a large breakfast. I took a trip out to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (mouthfull or what?) later in the day to just relax and scope out some fantastic art.

Funnily enough there's a Frida Kahlo exhibition on at the moment which was fantastic to view. i actually studdied her work and life for my final year of TEE Art. amazing to see her paintings up close and personal. so much feeling and emotitional content to digest, it was a great mixup for a day. tomorrow .... i think its time, crab time. or shrimp. ok dinner time here, gotta jet. oh btw, we're seeing The Dark Knight at the opening IMAX tomorrow (can't wait)

SFMOMA

Haight Venture ...

2008-07-17T08:32:00.004+08:00

Yup still here, relaxing and running mad in San Francisco. today was easily spent hopping on a 2 day tour bus that runs all the way around downtown, heading west, round the capitol building, asian arts museum, round the Haight district, over the Golden Gate bridge, returning through Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown. the bus is great, lasting for 2 days and being hop on hop off, we could tour to numerous locations, instead of spending big on taxis, or waiting 2 hours for the Cable Cars.

Unfortunately the weather over the last two days has been pretty average. foggy days, cold winds in the bay, not really the best for taking scenic shots. but eh, it was just nice to trek to the western side of the peninsula for a change. alot of the art and design culture still likes to stem itself from this end of town and for me, it was great to see. i also wanted to just see the famous area of the Haight, Ashbury region. knowing its free thinking hippy background, i wish i could have flowed through in an earlier life to see the great Hendrix or alike.

Heading down Haight street now left me empty and cold. there seems to be nothing left of the origins here, it almost seemed to me to be a bong shop for every coffee house for every over priced boutique shop that has now wormed its way into the strip. i'll go as far as saying its a little souless. we walked back to market street, and took in a movie from the cold. grabbing a slice (the size of my head) of the best pepperoni pizza i've ever eaten in my life with a coke for $4 .... nice way to chill.

Yosemite : California

2008-07-15T20:49:00.003+08:00

Having missed an opportunity to tour into the Yosemite National Park last time we were here, we decided it was a must do for this time round. but obviously not having a huge budget, we opted to just take a day trip to the park and also to view the giant sequoias (second largest redwood forests in the world).

Our options were basically to take a huge motor coach, travel in more space, or take a small mini van and travel with less people, but slightly more cramped. we took the second option and found it to be fine, eventually working out that by van, we could get there quicker and spend more actual time in the park.

Leaving early from the hotel pickup, we journeyed out through the Californian countryside with the driver / tour operator giving us bits of info along the way. the group was about 20 in size, so it was easy to move throughout the day. heading up through the local Sierra Nevada hills, along the major highways, we headed out through rolling fields of wind farms, placed here to capture the year round winds moving from the hot interior around the cold fog laden coast. amazing to notice these farms had been started in the 70s. unfortunately most of the 3 hour journey up to Yosemite can't be easily photographed from a speeding van if you know what i mean lol.

Heading out over the Bay Bridge, through Oakland, Over the hills and into the San Joaquin valley, the ride was pleasant. the valley itself is the fruit bowl of california, a flat valley floor that provides fertile lands for agriculture, due to a thick topsoil layer created during the last major fault movement (ocean floor rising to become a valley). everywhere you looked, it was fields of corn, orchids, fruits, veg and the famous almonds. the driver mentioned how well everything was doing, i felt like chiming in and saying .... is that before or after the current bee crisis, combined with the growing water shortage?

Moving up from the valley, we began to climb into the Yosemite National Park. the vegetation began to change gradually as well, to alpine pines and oaks, granite outcrops and winding switch backs. moving away from the fog bitten coast and low temps, and into the warm mountains, around 32C.

To say the scenery is amazing is an understatement. you can easily see why this was one of the first Parks to be reserved for conservation back in the days of the civil war no less. giant valleys, monstrous granite peaks, waterfalls and fauna at every turn. it was amazing to finally be out here, though unfortunately everyone else was out at the same time. as with most sites, i guess were learning its best to arrive early morning, or stay overnight, and experience the real peacefulness without the rush. moving through the carved valley, we took in lunch and a few scenic walks. ending the day with a journey to see a patch of giant Sequoia trees (Redwood forests) hundreds of years old, its hard to imagine them starting as mer seeds, fragile seedlings to emerge as huge towers. a beautiful day out, but slightly rushed. if we had the time and budget i'd love to journey out there for a day or two overnight.

San Francisco : Welcomes

2008-07-13T15:52:00.003+08:00

Arriving safe and sound the night before, we got into San Francisco via the BART (Bay Area Railway Transport) straight from the airport to Powel St exit, a mere 5 min walk to the hotel. made it super easy for us to get in cheaply and out. but after all the airport checks and checkin into the hotel, we were left to quickly spin around the city for a couple of blocks to find something to snack on at 11pm. we didn't find anything in the direction we went so we just crashed for a good nights sleep. however the next morning, we would come to find there were a heap of 24hr diners open just up the hill.

As expected San Francisco's weather is autumn fare, even though their in the middle of their summer. the bay area and winds provide cooling ocean breezes and rolling fog banks which chill the air, but once in the full sun, its quite warm, but after dusk, its chilly. don't know if i could put up with that full time, i like my hot summers too much i think, but you can keep the humidity.

Yesterday was spent just as a chill out and recoup day, not planning anything prior, we just wanted to settle in a little. so we decided in the best interest of our clothes and bags .... guess we should do some laundry lol. asking the hotel staff, they recommended a street laundry which most city based residents are forced to use aswell, having no space in one room apartments for washers and dryers. this was all knew to me, but old hat to Mark, who proceeded to do the laundry 101. change for coins (quarters 25c) buy washing powder, seek washer, wash, and the use the dryers. it all went real smooth and we now have fresh sets of all our gear.

Being round 1pm, the weather changed from overcast chilly morning to a blue sky affair, and we decided to just hit the world famous cable cars and take the rest of the arvo out to Fishermans Wharf, grab a smoothie and some crepes, and enjoy the bay. problem was .... everyone on the sunday had the same exact idea. families were out in their droves, the place was packed like i had never seen. catching the cable cars was a bit of a drag as we had to wait about an hour each end just to hop into a line and board. still .... we didn't need to be anywhere drastic.

Fishermans Wharf is still the same, exactly the same .... as remembered, its a harbourside mecca for all and by the late arvo the breeze had picked up quite a bit making for rough bay seas and hazy shots of alcatraz. whilst there we saw a few tour things to do and decided we might end up buying a bus ticket valid for a hop on hop off (2 day pass) which takes us around and over the bay.means we can easily get to the bridge and few outa the way places. we might also trek over to Oakland city and ofcourse we have to book a day trip still to Yosemite.

Heading back for the day we grabbed an icecream bucket each from across the road an immediately went into sugar highs, seriously, this stuff was like 150% fructose hell, i got through about 20% of my Blueberry and peanut concoction, and felt woozy. we even order the smallest size possible, so how the locals get through this stuff is beyond me. that goes for most of the food here. if your not careful, its junk food paradise, willy wonka esk, where sometimes i think the streets are candy and the trees are burgers lol. gotta seek some veg for dinner. speakin of which, stay tuned Dad, i plan on taking another day out to Fishermans Wharf for some dungeoness crab, world famous eats around here.

All in all we are fine, Mark has a semi unruley stomach at the moment (i suspect he's still reacting to some tacos we ate for lunch before boarding) whilst im fine, just a little mild air-conditioning flu which is just a tickle cough. we plan on .... planning our stuff to do today and maybe a bit of retail therapy to follow. all in all still a beautiful city, rich in diverse people, eats, places and sites. time to slow down time.

Cancun : Avoid ...

2008-07-13T15:47:00.004+08:00

Get in, Get out ... never stay, unless you want to live it up at the beach, spend way too much, get plastered, stay up all night at a club 2 blocks from your hotel, stumble back to the hotel, and pretend you saw Mexico, and know what lies outside the Zona Hotelera. Thats Cancun. thats my impression of Miami .... i mean Cancun.

Beautiful beaches lined with hotels is the story of the day, although you can barely make it down to the beaches these days. we got into our hotel inside the city center away from the buzz of the beaches and took a taxi out to the zone to just get a glimpse of whats up.

I felt like someone just invaded the country i took 2 weeks touring around. i felt like i wasn't in Mexico any more. its a real shame. but being in the strip, last night in Mexico we decided to be in the moment, grabbed some dinner (lobster) and split early the next day to San Francisco. minor sour taste after the awesome Mexican journey. worth every penny. now to relax in the states. cheers for following so far people. stay tuned.

Chichen Itza : Blazing Heat ....

2008-07-13T15:29:00.001+08:00

We planned on swinging past Chichen Itza either first or last on the list. why? basically because its the most famous, popular and busy of all the ruins. its a disney land attraction for the gringos coming out from 2hrs away in Cancun, not wanting to dip their toes too far away from the sandy beaches. secondly its in the middle of no major town, outside of Piste.

So we pushed it till last, and im glad we did. heading out from Merida super early we planned on hitting the ruins at first opening, avoiding the dumb crowd and the exhaustive heat of the Yucatan. upon arrival right from the gates this place is set up for the tourist. its lost all its mystique and really ... if it wasn't for El Castillo, the largest and most well preserved / restored Mayan pyramid, i would have turned around at the gates.

Having said that, once we got in, away from the americanised entrance, with very little people around (seen in the empty photos) El Castillo, pops up square in the centre of the field. huge and jaw dropping. its to be seen, and like many temples, its a construction built on an earlier base pyramid, yeh 2 in one. for those wondering, this giant was a ritual temple, used not only to represent the Mayan calendar in 3 dimensional form (levels, stairs, sides all representing days and years etc) but is also famous for its construction, interacting with the rising and setting suns, summer and winter equinoxes to show a shadow serpent shadow moving down its steps to reach the base Kukulcan serpent heads.

From there the site also contains a giant but plain ball court, and many base pyramids. as well as the observatory and temple of 1000 pillars, the local residential palace. but seriously, nothing touches the center point. we took a spin around it all and the weather was the clearest we've seen on the entire trip, which made for some of the best lighting for our shots. but by 11am the sun was blazing and the tour groups from Cancun were beginning to roll in thick and fast, we needed to book it outa there and fast .... we had what we needed, we said adios and headed to see "what the real Cancun had to offer". we had been told by a few in Merida .... too many Gringos there.

Merida : Colonial Surrounds ...

2008-07-12T23:50:00.003+08:00

The next morning was a smashing road trip to Merida on our return leg to Cancun, with a stop in at Chichen Itza. hoping aboard the ADO bus in Palenque, things kinda happen differently here in the hills, as we couldn't check on our luggage early and were told to board it on the bus ourselves. no worries for two aussies, but i kinda felt bad for a few "over the hillers" who struggled in the early morning heat. to be honest, on reflection this was probably our worst bus trip (although all were safe, clean and good) it was simply poor this time around for personal reasons .... namely, the bus driver proceeded to assume his stereo in the cabin should be heard by everyone on the bus, and we got the greatest hits of Michael Bolten, Madonna, Erica Iglesius and Jennifer Lopez in full stereo sound. hence the iPods came out early for both of us .... my battery running out 20mins before de-boarding, i was in aural hell. the air-conditioning was also set at an arctic 18 C for the whole trip, Dad you would have loved that.

Arriving late arvo, we were once again welcomed into our hotel and given our room immediately, i must say all accommodation has been fantastic and our researching before hand was so worth it. having done Uxmal ruins on our entry leg, we left today as a back up day if it was raining. so not having to do that, we just chilled, walked into the city center, Plaza de Armas, and bought a few nick nacks. Merida is a fantastic Mexican town, modernish and clean, tight roads, bright coloured buildings, friendliest people you could meet. this is the true mexico for anyone flying in directly. a great base to begin your treks.

Having roamed the center streets, we grabbed a roadside hotdog (very clean and super nice) and decided to grab some eggs and bread to cook our own breakfast the next morning before our bus to Chichen Itza. (hotel room doubled more to a condo room). we had a great evening meal of mexican fare and relaxed, ready for the final ruins of the mexican leg. im so glad we avoided Cancun and had our first taste of city life in Merida, it gave us a much more realistic perspective.

Palenque : Return To The Dusty Streets

2008-07-12T23:48:00.005+08:00

It began with an early morning packup (surprise surprise) and a collectivo ride to the Guatemala border hut we passed coming in. least we knew what to expect this time round. the problem came when we crossed the river and hit the mexicann side of things, it seems they didn't expect anyone and we were told that the inspections officer was "out of the office" and would not be back today, not the kinda news you wanna hear when you need a passport stamp to exit the country, and you don't speak much Spanish.

Long story short we spent the better half of the whole day trekking into Palenque, and then being told we now had to pay another driver to take us to an outskirt imigrations office. we did this, only to be told ....."the officer is out for the day" again, i was ready to lose it. 1.5hrs later an 18 year old chico walks into the office with plain clothes and proceeds ..... to stamp our passports. we laughed and headed to the hotel, sorting ourselves out for the day trip to Merida and Chichen Itza.

I've included a few shots of the Palenque town centre just to give a rough idea of the feel of the place. we didn't stay in the centre of town, rather about a 5min taxi ride into an outskirt district called "La Canada". as mentioned before this was a 2 road strip perched around jungle, purely hotels and eating locales. really nice and quite, without being a rural location such as El Panchan.

Flores : A Warm Return To The Island Town

2008-07-12T23:38:00.006+08:00

Well after two days spent in the jungles of Tikal, one sunrise tour and one daytime venture the next day we packed our gear and hauled it back to Flores, the island village on Lake Peten, an hour outside the national park reserve. oh before i forget, did i mention on the second day in Tikal, Mark and i venture into the jungles to do a canopy zipline tour? took about 1.5hrs, and scaling a few trees, we proceeded to zipline (Indiana Jones style) from tree to tree, high above the ground. 9 zips in all, each one bout 100 to 150m in length. super fun.

So once again having a reservation booked, we checked into our Flores hotel with a breeze. for anyone seeking to do the same sorta trip, don't be freaked out by booking online and not getting email responces, often the people behind the counter don't speak and can't reply in english, but if you have proof of your reservations your all good.

Flores is a limestone island, a tiny retreat suited to the vagabond traveller. being filled with hotels, restaurants, tour operators and nick nack shops, its the base for the traveller not wanting to skip it to the jungles for a stay. its really beautiful in a rural 3rd world mexican way, clean, safe, yet not commercial. and who can beat a $45 night room with all the necessities and a view over the lake itself. put this anywhere in south east asia and you'd pay way more.

Dusty little cobble stone roads, brightly coloured buildings and friendly faces, a top stay all round, a mid stop break before the gruelling border crossing back to mexico. speaking of which .... this would turn out to be a bit of a hassle going back lol.

Tikal : Land Of Giants ...

2008-07-12T06:55:00.005+08:00

So making the right choice to stay inside the park grounds made our sunrise tour into the ruins all that much easier. unlike the other tourists who chose to all stay in Flores, get up at 3am, we got to sleep in a bit.

Begining the tour at pre dawn, we all gathered outside the entrance, hot and humid already, the group was broken down into smaller collections per tour guide. the only way to see the sunrise in Tikal is by doing a tour, otherwise the park doesn't officially open till 8am, way too late. so the bonus of not only seeing the sunrise, is to experience the jungle, in little numbers, as it wakes up. meaning for those first crack of dawn hours, all the monkeys, birds and animals start to roam and howl.

Tikal like most Meso American sites are only half uncovered, the whole surrounding region still boasts ruins that are undiscovered and untouched. an El Derado for everyone. so as we set off, our destination was to trek right through to the end of the park, climb Temple 4 and sit and wait. walking through the dark jungle for 20mins is breathtaking enough, not only trying to watch your step on the mud slick paths but keeping a sharp eye out for wildlife. we heard many howler monkeys calling each other and many beetles .... no jaguars.

Reaching the base of Temple 4, we were told by a guide ..."4mins to sunrise, 200 steps to go", well it certainly hammered us rushing up there ... jelly legs. but catching your breath at the top to see the first sunrays burst through the clouds in 3 weeks made it magical.

Sitting and listening to the jungles below, watching for an hour we soaked it all in, the guide explaining how lucky this was, as for weeks it had been overcast for the sunrise. the previous day we had travelled with the tourist group from Palenque over the border, so we were excited to see a few friendly faces along the tour that morning, great people to share the experience with. shout outs to Gideon and Libby for their enthusiastic and enjoyable company (hope you guys have a safe trip through central america, check in via email)

Climbing down the temple (man made stairs on the side from excavations) we began the tour, which proved to be most valuable. just to get into the park this early is worth the price of admission. many things were explained, layouts of temples in regards to celestial patterns, and rituals. one fact the stuck out is that like Palenque and Machu Picchu, the inhabitants simply abandoned the site, allowing the jungles to reclaim them, until rediscovered. in Tikals case this was via Gum Sap Collectors, using local trees for gum back in the 30s. they came across a temple and as history rites, archeologists flocked to the site. we moved through the major complexes, each being explained, and for some temples, we had the opportunity to climb and re appreciate the views. this was especially the case with temple 5 (the shot of the left had side stair case) which was purely restored from a jungle engulfed mound. the bonus of these sites is that, being all limestone, new blocks can be patched in for others, and after a month of rain, wear and tear, the take on the colour and form of all the old stone, no visible signs of restorations. this is a constant double edged sword though as, being limestone, the ruins are more likely to crumble and decay quicker that others, and Tikal itself is so large, restoring alot in the weather and jungle conditions present is a losing battle. .... see it while you still can.

Mexico to Guatemala ....

2008-07-09T03:41:00.005+08:00

Hola! an early early start, this is where the trip got a bit sketchy for us all. reading all the guides before hand i really had no accurate descriptions for ways to get through to Tikal in Guatemala from Palenque in Mexico. we knew the basics ... tour operators ran vans and bus's from place to place and these tickets could be bought in the town. so we winged it .... and it worked fine.

buying tickets the day before, we set out 6am, arriving at a local village on the border river between the two nations. your only way across once you have your passport stamped by the dudes in the mud huts, is via motor canoes ... and i mean wood canoes. long thin boats, similar to any native / Indonesian / Mexican fare. crossing the river was fine, although the river was about 100m wide, and flowing fast, did i mention no life jackets or safety warnings, yeh time to live a little.

Having crossed over, we find there to be no bus .... we also find out that its sunday in Guatemala, no banks are open, so not much chance of money exchanges from Pesos to Quetzals (local currency). anyway ... on this side of the border, things aint to strict. hell, its not strict anywhere round here, they are happy to see people coming in, and not fleeing the border to the states i guess. bus arrives and we head to the border crossing, a 2 man building in the middle of nowhere, with donkey drop toilets, the females were not impressed, especially with the no closing doors on some.

Passports stamped, we are officially in and sorted, unlike 90% of the rest of the crew on the bus, we seem to be over prepared, with reservations and plans for the tour all sorted ... i get weird looks when asked how did you know about this ... or are you staying here tonight? and we go, nup got plans already lol. all the other travellers, including Brits, Kiwis, Sweds, Australians, Italians etc etc felt it easier to stay in the island town of Flores for the night, rising for a sunrise Tikal Tour at 3am, busing it into the park. i had other plans, as i had reserved accomodation in the park itself, 5 mins from the entrance gates. we could sleep in till 4am, and join the same tour. this proved to be the best thing, as on exit from the ruins, hot / sweaty / exhausted, most of them then would have to bus it back to Flores for their hotels. all we had to do was walk from the entrance gates 5mins to our jungle lodge (Jaguar Inn) and have a shower and eats. .... one drawback, its the jungle, so prepare yourself for a few more insects around, howler monkeys in the morning, and electricity breaks during the night for the generators. Next morning .... sunrise, the first in three weeks in Tikal.

Palenque : Perfection ....

2008-07-09T03:32:00.006+08:00

Apologies for being so far behind on these logs, things are just moving so fast we barely have time to catch our breath sometimes. but mostly its a case of being on the road, at a ruin site, or at a hotel which doesn't have a net connection. we hope the Palenque and Tikal shots have been enough to wet the appetites so far.

Ok where did we leave off .... right, after our first trip into Merida and an afternoon tour to Uxmal and its pink limestone ruins, we headed back into town and decided to splurge on a huge steak each for dinner. the best meal i've had whilst on holiday so far ..... huge beef fillet, with a caramelised balsamic sauce, veg and Papas Fritas! you can guess at those :) awesome meal, expensive by Mexican fare, cheap to us. we would need it for the 13 hour bus leg to Palenque the next morning.

so once again, after a single night in the best accomodation in Mexico as well, we hoped on a bus to the Chiapas highlands and Palenque, central south east Mexico. Palenque isn't a native Maya word, its spanish unlike the other ruins, and names both the town and the ruins. the town itself is rural, the back water which is purely supported by the tourist dollars arriving and leaving each day. its a dusty, cramped but safe town, which is a step towards the "real feel" of rural Mexico. you don't see this place in the tourist guides from Cancun.

Arriving to our first 20min thunderstorm, (i expected more showers as this is technically the rainy / hot / wet season) we fled to our hotel and all was cool. reservations not noted but all was easily sorted. on researching i planned on staying in a section of town that was seperated from the main drag, enclosed in its own strip of jungle ..... yeh you heard me.

Next morning we were off to the ruins, taxi to and from was the quickest and easiest option. arriving on opening, the day greeted us with close to perfect weather, patchy clouds and sunrays, no rain. from the gates you approach the main plaza, and palace from jungle paths, moving up a small hill you can't see a thing until ... bang the first glimpse of the grand Temple of the Inscriptions hit you. the temple King Pakal built as his crypt and marker for his journey to the underworld. the temple representing a symbolic mountain, 9 levels high, for the symbolic 9 levels of the underworld (13 for the heavenly relms), to say this was breath taking was an understatement. this is what i came here for. to just try and sink into the moment, to be nowhere else.

The ruins are in pristine condition, the grounds themselves are well cared for and maintained, a mark to the great upkeep from the parks board. even today, some pyramids and structures are being restored with new limestone, whilst other excavations continue to uncover new works. this would also be the case in Tikal. from the images try to imagine little jungle surrounding, each temple covered in lime plaster, brightly coloured in red with ornimental flourishes of blues and yellows. simply amazing how well it stands up today. i can't help but think what advanced technology may have been present.

Moving from the entry, you begin to wind through jungle paths, waterfalls, ruin relics and scenes right out of an Indy movie. if i could give any tips it's to arrive early, beat the heat and the tourist bus's and wrap yourself in the mystery of the place. be in the now. the next morning we were off for a 6am start to the border of Guatemala, a river crossing by motor canoe, passport stamps and finally a long trek into our retreat in the jungles 5mins from Tikal.

Uxmal Afternoon Tour ...

2008-07-09T03:20:00.003+08:00

Just updating things into order ... here are a few pics of Uxmal, the ruin site just outa Merida on the Yucatan Penisula, South East tip of Mexico. arriving from our ADO bus that morning, we had organised a private taxi from our base hotel, to take us out to the ruins that arvo, wait for us and to take us back before close.

That turned out to be the best option as most tours only left early morning and we wouldn't have been able to get there otherwise. the ruins themselves, our first in Mexico, were fantastic. the limestone is noted for its pink hues and the site itself is kept in pristine condition. fantastic site, also filled with Iguanas at every corner.

Outa Cancun and onto Merida .. in a Rush

2008-07-08T09:00:00.007+08:00

Ok, where did we leave off? ... ahh yeh, arrived into Cancun late after the delayed in LA. so basically, instead of arriving at about 5PM, to a sweet Cancun sunset, Lobster tails on the beach, we we're rushing through the second busiest airport in the world, Mexico City, being told we had less than ten minutes to connect to our flight out .... in an airport speaking spanish, having to exit to a train to connect to a second terminal, and then through a rats maze just to get out to Cancun on time.

We got it done, out and onboard, we were seated with a mexican lady that was also delayed from LA, she informed us of the earlier bomb scare, and we discussed all things Mexico, as she lived in Cancun. phweeee, ok all done for that.

Getting our first nights sleep in BEDS .... for forever, we got about 4hrs in before we got up and trekked to the local ADO bus station, backpacks and all, hoping aboard a 6AM ADO bus to Merida ( traveling through central Yucatan to the regions second largest city). no breakfast, plenty of water and 4 hours later, we arrive in Merida well and fine. ready to check into our hotel. Merida in a sentence is ... large, crammed, yet diverse in areas. its split into a few sections, the tourist plaza as always, residential crammed streets, and then the outskirt city streets which are all light industrial and lead off to other connecting highways towards Chipas and alike. unlike Lima, the city was "Mexican rushed", but not overly polluted with diesal fumes. the thing that kept hitting me was that, this culture just can't quite make the leap from rural shacks to domestic housing or city construction. things just aren't there, basic things, planning and space considerations, traffic lights, etc etc. there's this break down of growing too fast into the 20th century.

Anyway, Merida is cool, we got out of the Bus terminal into a taxi and 10 mins later were at the most relaxed hotel / little retreat we could imagine in the center of town. hitting up lunch, we decided the day was young, we were feeling fine with a bit of lunch and well .... the rest was history as we toured off for the rest of the day to Uxmal, details and photos posted earlier. ok next up Palenque and Tikal. adios.

Cancun ADO Bus : to Merida

Bomb Scares Make For Great Retreats

2008-07-08T08:10:00.006+08:00

Hey everyone, just a quick update on the flight out from LA to Mexico. well on my rant about how funny it would be for LA to have a bomb scare ... well it turns out that they indeed did have a bomb scare and they shut down the airport for over 3 hours just as we boarded our flight reroute to Mexico City and then onto Cancun. crazy stuff all round. we heard second hand that they actually arrested a bloke and it was a rather real event. glad we could get out on time.

The situation for the delayed flights was actually this, we arrived fully ahead of time in LA and began our auto check in that morning, only to find out that seat allocation was not given at that moment, we would later find out that for some stupid reason United Airlines does a secondary boarding and seat allocation at the departure lounge ....... real stupid.

Anyway we get through Customs ok, trek through and are still 1.5hrs away from fly time. Mark mentioned he needed something desperatly to drink before we hit the departure lounge, so we go off to get a bottle of water .... 15mins later, getting to the lounge, we hit the United counter and are told ..... "Sorry this flight is now overbooked and your one of 5 last to check in" you will now be forwarded on via other flights, we we're a tad pissed to be honest, but really took it well, we expected something in LA to go ass up.

Anyway now we find out this is now a usual process for US airlines, overbooking to cover people who don't turn up or miss flights, just to cover thier ass and "fill a plane". So we were left with compensation in the form of flight vouchers for $500 US and a delayed flight to Mexico City and same night connection to Cancun.

We finally arrived in Cancun at around 1AM, hopping off an airconditioned plane into 100% humidty.... never felt that before. literally swishing your hand in front of you produced wet hands. crazy. check in was cool, we notified our hotel ahead of the delay and we had a shuttle to check in and sleep. Next mourning we we're gone, out 5AM to hit our first Mexican bus to Cancun..... just for the curious, the public first class bus's are really cool, super easy and have got us to Palenque. so that begins the update. im currently in Tikal, swatting mozzies, drinking Fanta from a glass bottle. full update on Palenque and Tikal to follow. adios

(Photos coming in a day or two, cheers for your patience)

Guess Its Time ...

2008-07-03T02:22:00.002+08:00

WORLD TRIP ITINERARY 2008
Posting a full Itinerary for those following, outside our imediate families.

---------------------------------------
Perth to Auckland
---------------------------------------

Monday, June 30
DEPART : 7:25 PM - Perth
ARRIVE : 5:45 AM +1day(s) - Auckland

Check Baggage through to LA.
Arrive Auckland 6AM.
Catch Airbus Express to City Centre, Explore City.
Breakfast. Late Lunch - Return for Flight Out 4:30PM

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Auckland to Los Angeles
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Tuesday, July 01
DEPART : 7:15 PM - Auckland
ARRIVE : 12:30 PM - Los Angeles

Catch Airport Shuttle or Taxi to Custom Hotel.
Check In - Confirm Shuttle for departure or book Taxi for Morning 7:30AM
try and survive LA for a second time running.
Set Alarm 7:00AM Depart Hotel 7:30AM

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Los Angeles to Cancun
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Wednesday July 02
DEPART : 10:15 AM - Los Angeles
ARRIVE : 5:02 PM - Cancun

Arrive in Mexico - Follow Mexican Itinerary

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Cancun to San Francisco
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Saturday, July 12
DEPART : 5:12 PM - Cancun
ARRIVE : 8:55 PM - San Francisco

Arrive at SFO. Catch BART to POWELL ST BART - Yellow Line

Fri July 18th - TDK IMAX 8:30PM
Sun July 20th - Baseball 12:00PM

Tour Yosemite National park
Tour and Bike over Golden Gate Bridge
Visit Coit Tower

Shop Kidrobot, Haight and Ashbury. Isotope Comics
Check Out Studio Fifty24SF - White Walls
Sunset at Baker Beach
Catch Bart to Oakland
Tour Presidio

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San Francisco to San Diego
---------------------------------------

Wednesday, July 23
DEPART : 10:12 AM - San Francisco
ARRIVE : 11:51 AM - San Diego

Comic Con - Preview Night + 4 Days
Wed July 23rd - 6:00PM - 9:00PM
Thur July 24th - 9:30AM - 7:00PM + additional late hours
Fri July 25th - 9:30AM - 7:00PM + additional late hours
Sat July 26th - 9:30AM - 7:00PM + additional late hours
Sun July 27th - 9:30AM - 5:00PM

Bondi Restaurant - 7:00AM - LATE
Sea World - 9:00AM - 11:00PM

---------------------------------------
San Diego to Vancouver
---------------------------------------

Sunday, July 27
DEPART : 3:20 PM - San Diego
ARRIVE : 6:20 PM - Vancouver

Vancouver - July 27th to July 31st
Whistler - Aug 1st to Aug 3rd
Vancouver - Aug 4th

Celebration Of Light - Wed July 30th - 10:00PM
China Theme - English Bay Vancouver

Stanley Park Explore
Vancouver Aquarium - 9:30AM - 7:00PM
Sewells Marina Tour - Contact for Shuttle Transfer

Day Trip to Capilano Suspension Bridge - 9:00AM till 5:00PM / LATE
Catch SeaBus North the Lonsdale Quay. Free Shuttle 10:00AM on Hour

Whistler Mountaineer - Rail Service.
Departing Aug 1st - 7:45AM Pick Up From Hotel.

Whistler Air - Float Plane
Departing Aug 3rd - 7:30AM Pick Up From Village

Hiking Whistler Trails

Whistler Bungee - June 15th - Aug 30th Open 12PM to 5PM
Whistler Bungee provides free transportation for booked jumps from your hotel.
Book in advance. 604.938.9333

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Vancouver to Frankfurt
---------------------------------------

Monday, August 04
DEPART : 4:00 PM - Vancouver, Canada
ARRIVE : 10:50 AM +1day(s) - Frankfurt

Taxi or Shuttle to Hotel Airport
Check In and Confirm Transport to Airport.
Depart for Airport 10:30AM

----------------------------------------------------
Frankfurt to Perth, via Singapore
----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, August 06
DEPART : 12:35 PM - Frankfurt
ARRIVE : 6:35 AM +1day(s) - Singapore

Change of plane required. Time between flights = 3:00 hrs

Thursday, August 07
DEPART : 9:35 AM - Singapore
ARRIVE : 2:35 PM - Perth

Delayed LA Wednesday 02.07.08

2008-07-03T02:04:00.003+08:00

Well you guessed it, LA couldn't quite leave us with a friendly goodbye, im typing this up as we sit in LAX with an over booked flight and the outcome of now being delayed into Cancun, flying through Mexico City. great start to the day.

Im kinda bummed and really more surprised than anything else. turns out the major airlines overbook all their flights by about 5 passengers, so that if there are any cancelations of delays, they can still fill the planes and get their moneys worth. the stupid thing is we didn't even arrive or check in late here at LAX. we just lucked out on seat allocation and are now set to go through Mexico City.

well more on all this later, we've got a long day ahead of us and will be in touch as soon as we land. tomorrow we set off on our first bus trip out to Merida, looking forward to chilling out there and possibly squeezing in a tour of Uxmal if weather permits and we feel good. so yeh, downer day, but really it could have been alot worse, the second situation was to fly through Chicago and then onto Mexico City and Cancun. oh well, all is still cool .....

Ha! was just joking with Mark, mentioning that this place definitely has some Hoodoo to it, like it would just be our luck that a airport closure would happen before boarding for Mexico City, LA slappin us back for yesterday lol.

peace out.

LAX control tower : gettin some work done to the UFO they dragged back from Roswell

Total Negative + Total Positive = Neutral LA

2008-07-02T10:26:00.004+08:00

Its like everything we did just went so smoothly today, riding well on a good vibe from the minute we landed really. i guess its really boiled down to being a bit more prepared this time around for LA and its hassles. but all up today has gone so well for our rest day that we are feeling refreshed and ready to hit Mexico hard .... which we will need to in 12 days :)

dropping into the Custom Hotel just after 2PM we figured we were good to go out and see a bit of LA, rather than just stay cooped up all arvo in the hotel. we decided it was a fantastic day out to just trek down to Venice beach and scope out what California is so famous for, sun sand surf and .... palm tree filled blue skys.

Getting to Venice was great, and really felt like a hollywood Sorrento or Cottesloe. once we hit the beach, we saw how close Santa Monica was and went .... well , we're here are'nt we? might as well do it. so yeh you guessed it, we walked all the way up Venice to the famous Santa Monica Pier, rides, candy and fun all rolled into the Cali lifestyle. Mark has a few photos from this that i'll update and post soon, but below are a few of the shots from the arvo. really chilled and well rested for Mexico, lets hope the rain isn't going to hold us up too much, we expect afternoon daily showers and exhaustive heat, but the mornings will be our time to hit it all.
more soon, hope your all working hard, we may need funding as we go .... jk.

updated shots from Mark : Santa Monica Pier

Los Angeles : touchdown

2008-07-02T06:01:00.004+08:00

Arrived safe and sound from a so so Air New Zealand flight out to LA from Auckland. the hardest thing was that 12hr + layover after flying and not sleeping. it was just harsh. but we managed to push through and are in good spirits for Mexico. as you can see from the previous post we trekked around Auckland quite a bit for such tired lads, got to get a good intro to what the city's feel was like and the general layout.

Heading out on the flight a bought of synchronicity hit which on reflection is just kinda freaky, totally cool, and made the flight out enjoyable. quick shout out to Casey McIntyre who was seated next to me for the flight, just checked your site and work, and damn i should've known who i was chatting to ! stellar work Casey, cheers for the friendly chat and flight time wastage :) will have to catch you in sydney or perth for a beer one of these days. for everyone else the weird synchronicity comes in by ... Casey studied in Perth at the same places as me, same lectures etc etc. small bloody world.

Alright we're checked into the Custom Hotel, and will spend the rest of the arvo just milling round and chilling out, grabbin some good food and some much needed catchup sleep. photo updates possible. stay tuned.

CUSTOM HOTEL - LA

CASEY McINTYRE : Design Site

Auckland : Tuesday 01.06.08

2008-07-01T14:04:00.010+08:00

Finally arrived in Auckland all good and well. actually gaining time in flight due to a strong tail wind we came in slightly earlier than expected, something we didn't really need as it became hard enough to kill time in Auckland for a day. after a smooth flight with hardly any sleep as usual, we were told it was a chilly 8 degrees outside and overcast, to those that know me, yeh i packed a second jumper as i can't stand the cold, Mark didn't and survived fine lol. somehow i even packed a beenie and it definitely saved my bacon whilst we trekked on foot through the city center. note to self, NZ = Cold

First up i've gotta say Auckland is a medium sized but inviting location, a feel of Melbourne and a little London. the weather flat out changed every 20 mins from sunshine to overcast to sprinkles of rain to sunshine. all good though. it was actually nice to have seen the other side of the tasman for a change and the maori culture is alive and strong. such an artistic and earthly foundation in their art and motifs. wonderful to see, and it was hard not to buy up every little carving we came across.

This was the first opportunity we had to take our cameras out all trip and ive posted a few below to get the ball rolling. you can generally see the progression through the early dawn day and into the arvo. im currently typing this up sitting in the departure lounge, eagerly waiting to shoot to LA (surprisingly) and getting some decent sleep and maybe a hearty burger, no not the Golden M variety. we as my battery runs low i'll sign off, keep in touch as we cruise on through to Mexico were the real adventure begins. here's to warmer weather on my part. lol quick word to Craig, Ian and the rest of the related INK family, spotted a great news agent / bookstore here in downtown selling copius amounts of the new KingBrown mag, well done lads! now save me a copy in Oz :) nice Yager vehicle vinyls as well.

PS: (photos coming once we land in LA, Aucklands Net connection refuses to allow me to upload anything. super pissed off, time for a good meal and a decent flight)

The Beginning : Monday 30.06.08

2008-07-01T14:01:00.001+08:00

Hey to all, well we got off nice and safely. currently typing this up on board flight NZ 176 out of Perth to Auckland, yeh the things you end up doing when you cant sleep and the guy behind you seems to have a knack for letting the whole plane know just how loud his snoring can get lol.

well so far ive gotta say Air New Zealand kicks ass. i think i had the best airline dinner meal ive had in my life ... and for those who know me as such a fussy eater at times, the Roast Chicken went down a treat. so far so good, we will have to see what the flight to Hell Eh , i mean LA, holds.

For those keen to know where we will be and what the hell we intend on doing over the next few weeks, i'll post a detailed itinerary below, emphasis on the detail for Mexico as ive researched my ass off for this leg just to try and reduce the risks of things going pear shaped. anyway, details are below and we hope to squeeze in every bit we can. im reflecting on what Brad was saying earlier today about those people who trek away from home only to sit in their hotel rooms and wind the time away ... doing nothing. Brad, recon we've got the "getting off our ass" covered :)

Speaking of which, Kelly, Brad, cheers for the lift and warm company today before our departure. it was great to have some laughs before we left and it really put us both in good spirits. from my perspective. alrighty time to sign off and chill for the rest of the 3 hours we have until we hit Auckland. arriving there we will be on WA time of around 2AM. my body clock is hating me already. haha. Photos and Auckland updates soon, this may be delayed in uploading to the blog due to net connections as can be expected. much love to all our families and friends, we look forward to enjoying the riches of the places we intend to journey through.

Now does anyone have any tips for light sleepers ACTUALLY getting some sleep on a plane? someone FedEx me a bloody PSP with extra batteries :)

Pre Jetset

2008-06-10T22:22:00.005+08:00

What's happening?
No im not off country yet. ive just been living in a fish bowl for the last month and havent surfaced for air. reading, searching, planning the holiday. really hard to do with so many real life distractions. all is racing down fine though and this should mark the first of many posts rapidly leading to the departure and return of Don Q.

Quick recap.
Holiday is all go. 30th June - August 7th. Perth - Auckland - LA - Cancun - Merida - Uxmal - Palenque - Flores - Tikal - Cancun - San Fransico - San Diego - Vancouver - Whistler - Frankfurt - Singapore - Perth. ..... and CUT>

Now a long deserved reply to the Great M. i hope you post and read regularly in the coming weeks. your thoughts and inputs are true treasures. cheers.

"I kinda have a bee in my bonnet where i just feel that time is really shorter than we all feel it to be." Synchronicity or what?! And I’m not even being cynical. But around my late twenties that same “bee” visited and has never left. No reason, no rhyme just that “bee”. Do all humans get this “bee” or is it isolated to a few? Please refresh my aging memory when do you leave for Mexico? What is it about Mayan, history/ Culture civilisation that attracts you? I'm really interested to know. Miguel."

Well. where do i begin to answer a question, when there is no final answer. simple. we ramble for a bit, and hopefully splutter out some logical thoughts in the process hehe. What is it about Mayan culture that attracts me? interesting ... something i ask myself almost everytime i pick up a book, article, website on the subject. i can't look away. i have to delve in and absorb.

As a whole im really sucked into the "South American native Indian" cultures. the Aztecs - Olmecs - Mayans - Incas and the wide varieties of cross pollinations between and through the ages. it began with a high school geography project in which i had to research Aztec civilizations. Egypt was taken by another student .... so i picked the "dudes who created the other pyramids". boy did i fall head into a world of fascination. now moving on, having seen and read alot, i really find this branch of ancient people to be one of the most relevant for our times. a culture searching for higher answers, falling to the tides of war and being shattered by drought, population growth and environmental degradation. and yet rooted in a mythical timeline that ..... runs out in 4 years. not to mention at the heart of it all, i really fell in love with the architecture of the regions, pyramids and fortresses, engulfed in the vivid forests and lowlands. .... who wants to journey out to the deserts ? yeh i'll get there when they finally lift that Sphinx's paw and give me the truth to Atlantis.

I digress Miguel. this is a subject i can only ramble on so much in a digital format. we must converse over a cold beverage or two. soon. sooner than you expect. later than you wish. but eventual. stay healthy and positive. eyes peeled.

Next up, detailed plans. comments welcomed.

"Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we're going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities: the political, the religious, the educational authorities, who have attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations. Informing, forming in our minds their view of reality." TL.

I'm Not Sold Just Yet ....

2008-05-06T22:21:00.004+08:00

Ok first off, yes he's doing it again. secondly, does this man have balls of steel? absolute respect and gratitude for his fans?, or is this the beginning of the new age of music marketing. i guess we will all just have to watch this inter-web space and pray the cards fall in the favour for both music buyer, listener, lover, and artist.

What am i talking about? well a while back, Trent Reznor, lead singer of the rock band Nine Inch Nails took a tour down under, and realised that his record company were selling his album at almost 40% more than the average album lying next to it on the shelf. he quipped to crowds while on tour at his epiphany on why music sucks these days and why American Idol actually influences teens tastes. its simple he said, "who's gonna go buy music for triple the price"? the scary thing was, upon contacting his record label, the response was ... "Well we price your record higher in the market, because we know your fans are willing to pay that much for your music".

Moving on and releasing his album Year Zero, he suddenly found himself without any record contract and felt the need to use this power to start distributing his music in a different way. a new way, explored by Radiohead and others before him. a way that would link him to his fans without the need for a middleman, gobbling up 90% in the dollar. his decision was to explore the internet fully fledged as a distribution, promotion and creative tool. months later he did what many thought was crazy, settling on releasing his new album, Ghosts I - IV, digitally via the web.

For free, the user got the first nine tracks of Ghosts in high-quality MP3 files as well as a 40-page PDF book covering the whole release. For five bucks, you got all 36 tracks in a variety of digital formats plus the PDF and digital extras. Ten dollars got you all that plus two CDs in a six panel digipak package with a 16 page booklet ..... I mean what ever way you look at it, its a win win.

Well NIN went all out this time around, a mere months later, the new album, "The Slip" is now available for absolutely nothing. mentioning on the site "Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me". sure many have said Reznor is only able to do this now because of the success and wealth already gained from years in the business, but does that not make it any less of a good move for both fan and musician? i say as long as the end user has the power back in their hands to aid in a fair trade or purchase of such goods, then lets explore this further. sure the artist is due a royalty if the art is worthwhile to the end user, but the days of coporate suits and record company middlemen sapping the profits from selling music at record high prices is well and truly at an end. this is what the internet is all about. taking back the power one day at a time.

NIN - New Album