by simon baird

Saturday, August 30, 2008

some music

Red Book Comics supporting The Panics at River Festival, Townsville: The Panics playing at River Festival, Townsville:

Friday, August 29, 2008

to my up the road neighbours

your unexpected horsey statue made be smile a lot! thank
you! he's from indonesia did you know.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

"what a surprise"


it's for mothers, especially new mothers, especially one new mother.

'Milk Eyes' by The Grates from the album 'Teeth Lost, Hearts Won'.

Please support musicians and the music industry by paying for music.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

experimental 3


I don't think they want me to embed. But with a little "view source" or "inspect element", there you go.

Via soundupload.com/. They want you to go to this link with loads of advertising I think. Still no volume control, but I like the player otherwise. Boomp3 still the winner on ease of use though. Nice work Boomp3. How about putting in a volume control?

tv recommendation: 30 rock

season 2. great tv. getting better with each episode. just watched this one:

experimental 2

Boomp3.com
If it works then that was pretty easy. Using boomp3.com. From Latvia.
Update: crap, no volume control.

experimental

For your enjoyment I'm going to try to post music that you can listen to right here in the blog. Here's an oldy but a goody. Recorded one night in my garage in November last year on a Zoom PS04. It's still one of the best things on my iPod. Featuring John on guitar vocals, Davy on drums and me on bass and Zooey the cat at the end if you listen closely. The bass part is a little flakey in parts but for a one (or maybe two) take job I'm happy with it. There's a nice growly tone as well. John and Davy sound amazing I think. Apologies if you heard this the last time I posted it.


Right click and put it on your iPod.

packing up at martas

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

ouch

i have somehow agreed to play indoor soccer. a team sport. and my team has no reserves which makes it hard to flake out if i don't feel up to it one night. i'm crap at it. i can control the ball. i can be aware of what's happening around me. but not at the same time. also i need about two minutes rest after each change of possession. but i guess i didn't embarrass myself too much. at least i did slightly better than the guy who had an epileptic seisure and went home in an ambulance. i was goalie for the first quarter. have you ever done a knee slide on astro-turf?

if you were ever in a restaurant and thought...

"this table cloth is just not doing it for me" then this might be the place for you...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/philliecasablanca/2777916722/in/set-72157606827275233/

brilliant.

"baby whale finds new boat to suckle"

http://news.google.com.au/news?hl=en&q=whale%20suckle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn
he's on the telly now. live helicam. he's going from boat to boat. and his sucking is getting weaker and weaker. :.(

Monday, August 18, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

the crown is back...

Oh, I should also mention that we got Orri's crown back at Way Out West, it having been purloined by an over-eager fan-boy collector at Benecassim in Spain.  There had been an amusing thread on the 'board about Morrissey (who also played the same fest) supposedly nicking it, and someone had even gone as far photo-shopping it on the old pantomime dame's coiff.  As someone who used to attend to his lordship's PR needs, it tickled me enormously.  The queen is dead, so he has no need of Orri's beloved crown.

And more from my new favourite tour manager who this week name drops the likes of franz ferdinand and sonic youth.

i know the street view guy

i confirmed this tonight -- every single google street view photo from bundaberg north to cooktown (ie, the top three quarters of coastal queensland) was taken by my friend alex, aka meangreen -- he's the guy on the right here. and i believe he once met russell crowe

Saturday, August 09, 2008

sigur ros tour manager on the australian tour

See here:
http://dot.sigurros.com/wp/management-tour-blog/managers-tour-diary-australia/

this is an interesting read. he's quite articulate. some excerpts:

...the reason why Amiina have not been with us in Australia was because – ta-da-da-da! – Maria and Kjartan are having a baby!

well okay then. I guess that's cool. it's also revealed that the band will be performing as a four piece only in the near future.

on batman:

...mildly diverting hoo-ha with a wafer-thin patina of substance

on barry's of melbourne:

... the place is kind of cavernous and heaving but without any obvious identity, just a load of young kids on the piss.

plus:
The whistling at the end of Festival on the album was also recorded on I-phone and features Georg and Jonsi walking home after the recording session revisiting the melody of what they'd just worked on. Amazing thing technology.

Jonsi has an iPhone? Okay. Shit. That's the last straw. Seriously. (Though they say coloured ones are coming soon...).

Also I now know who decided I'd like a spotlight in my face: Freyr Vilhelmsson. Freysi, why?

...and we're back

didn't think i'd last this long but here i am. it's 2am. i've not been glued to the athletes parade however.

i did enjoy the nine year old earthquake hero who got to march.

the flag lap really dragged. now they're doing their torch relay. which sounds dull but i'm digging it. it's the olympic spirit. crap it looks like it's going to go out but it doesn't.

earlier i was making dove hands so, you know...

woah, he just took off. the new, new nikki webster?

oh that is so cool! with the super mario thing again. he's going to do a whole lap!! is that entire thing a video screen? blimey. maybe it's well engineered projectors.

drum roll....

no mistake with that fuse system.

you'd reckon china could put together a pretty decent fireworks show. you'd be right.

oh no. ad break. long one. i guess it was over anyhow. Bendigo Bank. Holden. Telstra. So we have Holden and Ford tonight. The Telstra ad is really grating. To think I was almost going to get my iphone from them..

they're showing a little highlights package. australia not wearing green and gold? eh? well they look pretty good i guess.

grant hackett swimming tonight

nice job china. now when is the ping pong on?

soko

you've probably heard this already especially since it was flogged on triple j so much recently but check out the video, she sings the whole thing "unplugged" in one take.

Friday, August 08, 2008

...where i live blog the opening ceremony of the 2008 olympics

okay i love drums. drums with lights on them are even better.

countdown.. i have chills..

ok, the suits... can i have the drums back please?

okay better. YES!!!

the drums are a thousand years old?

wow

and glow sticks!

AND GLOW STICKS!! okay I am enjoying this way more than I thought I would. the angle shots where they're moving their heads up and down with the yellow and white and the perfect sync are amazing.

are the city flyovers with the fireworks live? if so then impressive!

how did they do that with the rings? it's a curtain? the crowd with the coloured lights looks cool.

aw, the kids are so cute!!

poor thing has the bindi-irwin-don't-forget-to-smile smile :)

it's the national anthem

WHAT! commercial break!! mid fireworks!!! r u kidding me? telstra must die

there's s scroll thing with video. I thought it was another ad. comentator is explaining that's it represents paper. they are dancing with crayons in their hands. it's brilliant. the stringed instrument thing is 1000 years old just like the drums. it's a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guzheng

the way they did the rolling ends of the scroll is clever. the painting is about a guy who chased the sun.

now it's dudes with feather head dresses bringing in bamboo which is what they used before paper was invented.

the floor is opening. i'm missing the drumming dudes from the opener. the music is dreary.

movable type! and it's doing the mexican wave. that can't have been easy with no alphabet. i hope it's computer controlled and there aren't short people under those things.

the letters are growing pink blossoms. oh it was people! cool! how did they do that! I hope they had a little screen showing them what to do. in the style of guitar hero but with up and down instead of coloured buttons. otherwise, omg..

thanks bendigo bank for making me miss the start of the puppet show. look how about next time we do scrolling ads on the bottom of the screen. it's stupid.

the scroll is back. and someone standing on carpet with people under it? it's the something dynasty. they were the only buddhist dynasty and they were very arty.

the oars are cool. some kind of historical story about something or other.

celebrating the invention of the compass. did not know that.

there's some opera singer girls in dresses. nice costumes. i'm a little bored.

pillars are growing up. it represents the royal palaces. people are on them. careful dudes.

telstra. didn't qantas use that song last time? gag. and we've missed most of the piano segment. he's very famous. and young. he's teaching a little girl some licks. she's having fun.

i guess the scroll is sticking around. oh I thought it was done with suspecnded projectors. it's a giant screen then.. cool. the star men are nice. they've made a dove. and they can change colour. peter pan girl provokes a nikki webster mention. no comment. aw they're making the shape of stadium i think.

tai chi chicks are hot. OH HOW CAN THAT BE AN AD BREAK!! Goddammit. Ford Falcon. Harvey Norman. You are ruining my night!! And we missed the start of... mass tai chi demonstration. AHH!!!

what re they going to do with that piece of paper? ebay?

The kids are doing some painting. And talking about climate and protecting the environment.

wow. brilliant. the tai chi guys are awsome.

kids are getting their backpacks. there are virtual birds instead of those poor pidgeons. nice. aw they coloured in the mountains and the sun.

now it's space mountain. can we expect china to lead the human race into space in the next few decades? why not.

OMG it's mario galaxy! they are running around on the globe.

the singer guy chose to wear: black t-shirt, untucked. can we not manage some sequins at the very least... even buttons and collar would have been an improvement.

oh the umbrellas are beautiful! i'm moved by those umbrellas. i'm imagining felix is on one.

the next company to ruin my night is.... red rooster. and commonwealth bank. though robocop money box made me smile. and we've missed the start of... dance spectacular.

the costumes are pretty special. i guess if you now about chinese history and culture you might know the significance of each costume.

why am i looking at fat bored westerners in the crowd? someone asleep at the control desk? WAKE UP.

athletes are marching. greece first of course. i'm getting a beer.

i can hear bagpipes but I can't see them.

battery update. i've got my screen on full dim. 1 hr 39 remaining.

i like the mali flag guy. tae kwon do champion.

"when you think of bhutan you think of archery"

go israel!

go japan!

"winston churchill called this country the pearl of africa" - and various lame anecdotes and sports trivia... is that the best you have?

guess what? NOW WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER TIME FOR AD BREAKS. I suppose they get angry letters from people who miss their country coming out.

cool, the foot prints are going on the paper in different colours.

i guess this goes for a good couple of hours now. i'm signing out for the time being. good night and may the olympic spirit touch your heart even if it's just a little bit.

correction: i think it was a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guqin

my birthday present

it's original! made in australia. never been worn. found in an op-shop for $4!!

re sigur ros at hordern

it was amazing. jonsi is a god. but if i was going to dwell on negatives i might have said the following:
  • wtf is the deal with people getting up every two minutes to get drinks? and walking back and forth in front of me. go to the pub, you muffintime dildo scholars
  • sure jonsi looks good when he's backlit from the side but spare a thought for everyone on the right having a spotlight in their faces for the entire show. luckily someone left a drum stool in front of it for the last few songs and i could actually see something
  • the girls weren't there! i missed them :( ... i'm talking about these girls of course. the horn section dudes made up for it somewhat but i'm still grieving a little bit
  • the sound quality was so-so. especially compared to the enmore last year where the sound was godly. everything was a little muddy. the piano badly needed some eq-ing. the drums lacked punch. maybe it was better in the middle
highlights:
  • pivot were amazing. the second to last song they did blew my mind. i will figure out what it was and get back to you.
  • the warm up music, straumnes on repeat
  • first note of first song, the submarine ping from svefn-g-englar... ... if you know what i mean you know what i mean...
  • jonsi's jacket
  • first half of festival was otherworldly
  • that bit near the end of inni mer... where you have jump
  • se lest. so i kinda spoiled the surprise a little for myself via youtube but still, holy sweet snapping duckfeathers, it's like just ridiculous how brilliant that is (sorry i ran out of adjectives at godly...)
  • the horn section really were pretty awesome
  • the set list was pretty cool, see here (scroll down) if you're interested
  • gobbledigook complete with confetti explosions
  • two encores (i was suprised, especially after poplagid, a traditional closer)
  • hoppiolla
  • vid spilum endalaust
  • fljotavik
  • bavarian pretzels and beer in the place in the fox studios bit
  • the cirque du soleil tent. it's big and blue and yellow
  • meeting jared from last.fm and his buddy and selling them my spare ticket
  • spending a whole weekend with yoshimi

more from _why

why the lucky stiff _why because she steals all the pillows in the whole place, you muffintime dildo scholar.
why the lucky stiff _why now my therapist, "okay, complete this sentence then: when granny steals all the pillows in the place, it infuriates me so deeply because—" ...

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Setting up Zend to autoload eZ Components classes

In this article, Ralf Eggert describes how to make Zend autoload ezComponents classes by defining an __autoload method. I'm doing it another way (see below).  It seems to work just as well and it's shorter and cleaner:
require_once "Zend/Loader.php";
require_once "ezc/Base/src/base.php";

Zend_Loader::registerAutoload('Zend_Loader');
Zend_Loader::registerAutoload('ezcBase');

Disclaimer: I'm a beginner at all this stuff...

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

large hadron collider photos

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

if this thing can't re-create the opening scenes to half life then I just don't know what will