Speakers

The amp featured below feeds these whoppers!

New Furniture

Gigs have been good lately so we have been getting all the things we wanted to get about a year ago. Here is one piece in the kitchen, its a wine rack with drawers and stuff, and that piece of hifi equipment is an old amp we picked up from the neighbours (you guessed it, right before they left it on the side of the road) and it fits EXACTLY into the space left by one of the drawers. It runs an ipod in the middle wine slot below. Sweeeeeeeeet.

Soggy Doggy

Check out Fionn after an afternoon of jumping in and out of the river at the dog park.

Nice rack

Another consignment of red wine from the internet arrived yesterday, so thats a grand total of 150 bottles of wine in our collection now, with two more wine racks on the way from the furniture shop. Hic.....

Sprouts Ahoy

As i patrolled my veggie patch this morning i noticed this wee sprouter coming out of the ground. Its my first vegetable, i call it rodney.

Seeing double

Finn came over today for a bit of lunch and really enjoyed playing with this other baby, it was really funny.

Free Stuff

I am sure you have all heard by now of the abundance of free stuff (kerb reycling) over here. This was an antique telly we strolled past the other day, Jane wouldnt let me take it home though....

New Fridge

It arrived today, our new fridge, its MASSIVE

I am off to the kitchen now to hack away at some cabinets and make it fit.

Things that I will be growing....

Yes, it seems that the viola IS a vedgetable.................

Veggie Garden

We have been talking about this for about the last year, and yesterday we finally did something about it. One of the pre-requisites was that we do it on a budget of $0. So here we go:

This is an old book case which we found at the side of the road a kilometre away from the house, Adam and me transported it back to our house on the roof of the hooner (my mazda 121) by holding onto it from the inside, much to the amusement of the citizens of bedford

And here it is resting on two doors for support (also side of road booty) and the doors in turn rest on 5 old chairs (with the back rests removed) that i got from a guy last year for free (they were going to be let on the side of the road, Adam found another dvd player on the side of the road this morning. Its fantastic)

So then i wrapped it in black sheeting, put down some hessian sheeting to contain the earth, drilled feckloads of holes in the bottom for dtainage, nailed on some trellessing that i took off the wall behind our shed and filled the thing with potting mix (Yes, that is a clawfoot bathtub next to the veggie patch, we use it as a drinks holder at parties)

And here is my first plant, some spinach and herbs, cucumbers, carrots and onions. Appart from the soil, seeds and that black plastic weave stuff, a grand total of $0. Huzzah.

At the park with the lads

Here are some pictures from today with Fionn and Reilly at the park

Here is Reilly looking at a heron in the tree (on the small branch, click the picture to view it in another window and make it bigger). In the background is the belmont race course where we do gigs from time to time

The heron flew away before she could get to play it, better luck next time Reilly.

Adam & Nadine's New Gaff

Adam and Nadine bought a house the other day, about 10 mins drive down the road, its on an 800 square metre block and has a HUGE back garden. Looking forward to the first outdoor cinema/BBQ night!

Wine Shopping With Adam

Here is Adam looking like an extra from a bad mafia film. We went shopping for wine yesterday, in total we got 180 bottles of the good stuff from the shop and it worked out at about $2 bucks a bottle. This wine glut keeps getting better

Christening Of Oliver Wittek

(apologies for photo quality)

We went to a christening yesterday of Janes schoolfriends son Oliver. Jane was the godmother. It was a lovely service and. I had a reading and everything. We all went back to their place afterwards for a party and they had a quintet! No not the musical type, the quintet is a quail is filled with glazed cherries then placed inside a boneless spatchcock & then placed into a boneless open range chicken. This is then placed inside a boneless duck & then placed into a boneless turkey which still has the wings and drumsticks attached. It presents like a magnificent turkey. Incredible!

Next Level of Homebrew

OK, it would take a while to explain, but this is the next piece of kit I am going to build later this year so I can make homebrew directly from grain. Simon Brodie had a demonstration day at the brewshop at the weekend, I had gigs so couldn't attend but i did pop around early to see his settup. Pretty sweet! There is more at http://brodiescastlebrewing.com

Doubling Up

Hi Guys


You all remember the kegerator right? (http://violacharlie.blogspot.com/2007/03/kegerator-modifications.html) well, I figured that the only way to make homebrew better was to install ANOTHER tap. Here are a few photos.

This new tap is slightly different to the first in a few ways. Its running off a different gas (nitrogen C02 mix used specifically for stouts) and it also has a special attachment at the tap head, anyone who worled in a pub will recognise this as the thing that makes guinness heads creamy, its called a creamer (very technical)

Here are the two kegs all linked up to the taps on the door and to the gas canisters on the side of the fridge

Here you can see the two taps, giunness one on the left and the new drip tray i attached. Also, notice the gas in the space to the side which i covered up with a handy piece of wood spraypainted the same colour of the fridge.

So, now there is a creamy stout and a cooooool lager on tap at all times. 2 REALLY good resons to stay in on a friday night I think you'll agree.

Bass Infractions

Here is Pete Jeavons, one of our bass players, he is a great guy, an AMAZING bass player and pioneer of jazz in WA, he lectures jazz at the uni and has his own jazz radio show but on friday nights he dons his finest black shirt and folks it up with the rest of us in JB O Reillys guinness emporium. I spent most of last fridays gig trying to photograph him in the act of using his bow ($50 first time fine and $400 on repetitive use) He was lucky to get away from the gig with any cash at all!!!

When he started with us we gave him a list of "rules":

MUSICAL OFFENSES
Playing loudly during warm up $10
Sound-checking amp with funk slapping $25
Loud cursing after mistake $10
Playing high and fast after mistake $20
Practicing 2-handed tapping between tunes $20
Asking for "E" tuning note $25
Playing E anyway when horns tune to Bb $50
Playing written-out walking line $50
Failure to play written walking line $75
Writing note names over ledger-line notes $50
Writing beat numbers under dotted figures $50
Playing eighth notes $5 each
Playing sixteenth notes $10 each
Playing above 1st octave immediate dismissal
Dragging fast tempo $75
Dragging ballad tempo $100
Blacking out during ballad $200
Ignoring drummer's tempo $100
Following drummer's tempo $250
Asking to borrow Real Book for All Of Me $1000

UPRIGHT PLAYERS
Showing up before first downbeat $25
Playing audibly $25
Faking changes $25
Slapping $150
Missing tutti lick, then mentioning vintage of bass $25
Excessive sweating $25
Pedal point double-stops during horn solo $50
Asking leader for a solo $30
Accepting solo when offered $50
Taking second chorus $100
Playing solo arco $400
Pretending to check tuning after playing out of tune $100
Playing "A Train" ending on every tune $200 Playing extended "A Train" ending on every tune $500

ELECTRIC PLAYERS
Checking hair between tunes $15
Experimenting with odd meters $25
Missing root at end of blistering fill $25
Playing with a pick $50
Tuning during ballad $30
Playing Jaco groove on samba $75
Playing Jaco samba groove on ballad $150
Attempting last word on final chord $50
Achieving last word on final chord $100
Long gliss down to final note $200

EQUIPMENT VIOLATIONS - ELECTRIC
Forgetting strap $10
Changing strings after every set $15
Using electric tuner $15
Setting up mic "just in case" $75
Forgetting to turn amp on $40
Bringing amp larger than 1 person can carry in 1 trip $50
Asking horn player for help moving amp $25
Bringing custom-made bass $100 per string above 4
Bringing more than 1 bass $100 per extra bass
Skull decals on bass $150 Bringing fretless bass $500

CRIMINAL BAD TASTE
Telling bone player about all the gigs you get $10
Asking bone player about their day gig $10
Sitting behind drums on break $10
Quoting "Birdland" $25
Practicing scales during break $25
Practicing scales during drum solo $50
Practicing $150
Beginning a sentence with "When I was a guitar player..." $50
Casually mentioning to Musical Director of cheap theater that you are "into sequencing" $100

BASIC STUPIDITY
Wearing old Buddy Rich tour shirt $10
Wearing new Whitesnake tour shirt $20
Asking when the rock set starts $20
Continually asking "where are we?" $25
Continually shouting "Yeah!" $25
Asking bone player where "1" is $50
Taking cell phone call during 4's $100

The High Life

Check out where I was gigging the other day, yes thats right, I have really made a name for myself now, it went straight on the CV that i "performed" for the master plumbers association, the gigs just get better and better here!

New Gig

Here is a poster of our latest gig in Fremantle, there was exactly 4 people there to see us last week, Janes folks and two of our other friends SO we have plastered the town with posters, gonna try to get a radio spot and get in the local paper to try and get a crowd into the place. Twill be a pretty sweet gig (scoops on rider) if we can draw a crowd to the place, the last band they had was a kareoke trio who over the last two months scared away ALL their clientelle so we gotta get them back.

Jellys

Here is that box of jellies i was telling you about, they are all different flavours, banana, cherry, toffee etc and on the side it gives you suggestions for making "cocktails" that taste like a fruit salad, margharitas and all sorts of other fancy things. great craic

Look who I met

Whilst wandering around the burbs of perth during the week i bumped into this movie star, he wasn't available for interview.....