we be jamin

A girl who works for my boss wrote me an accusatory email today, berating me for not performing a duty at work. The problem was that I actually had done it.

I wrote a letter back that started: “…I’ll thank you for not talking to me in that fashion in future unless you have your facts straight…” and got harsher from there.

I umm-ed and ahh-ed about sending the letter and eventually let my finger quickly hit the send button. Not one minute later, literally less than 60 seconds, my fellow-Capricornian workmate read out our star sign for the day:

Capricorn - Avoid rash responses. You must try to keep a lid on your emotions today as fiery words could lead to regret later.

When I first started using the Internet in ‘96, I tried to use it to look up info on every topic of which I could think. One area that it fell flat on was the cartoons I’d watched as a kid. Now 10 years later, YouTube has made up for these inadequacies. Here are links to the intros of my favourite cartoons as a kid. They are heavily influenced by Star Wars and disco, and I feel sorry for today’s kids that their cartoons pale in comparison.

In order of awesomeness:
Battle of the Planets
Ulysses 31
The Mysterious Cities of Gold
Thundercats
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Voltron: Defender of the Universe
M.A.S.K.
Silverhawks
Centurions
Bravestarr

I think The Darkness may have ruined every other concert experience I will have in the future - they were legendary.

I lined up for The Darkness about 45 mins before the doors opened and was 100m from the door. By the time the doors opened, the line went down Roe St, along Milligan St, and up back around James Street - more than 400 metres. I helped my sister cut into where I was in the line (I hate people who do that ) and we managed to get seats on the balcony directly above centrestage. The view was awesome.

I’d seen the Darkness at Big Day Out ‘04 and they were my favourite performance that day, but this was something else again. Metro City was packed with obvious fans who hung on every note of the show and would sing along perfectly when Justin Hawkins tried to get the audience involved.

I was worried to hear that the band had kicked out bassist Frankie, but the new bass player Richie more than made up for the loss and even took center stage for a couple of AC/DC covers - in fact, the beginning of Thunderstruck that segued into a Darkness song was the highlight of the night for me.

The music was highly polished - I didn’t think they’d be able to get the same sound as their albums into a live performance. Justin’s banter with the crowd was excellent - he involved us in the show, rather than just shouting out nonsense like “It’s great to be here in [insert venue city here]” like other bands do. There were a lot of humourous moments too, like playing different tunes between songs, such as Van Halen’s Jump.

The Darkness themselves were impressed with the show. Their lead-guitarist Dan Hawkin’s tour diary said of the perth gig - “The whole show was one big highlight”, “our favourite place to tour in the world”, and “the crowd were the loudest we’ve ever encountered “.