Posts Tagged ‘Kylar’
It’s all happening
I’ve been forgetting to update. Things have happened.
Third year started and already there is so much work to do, but I love my subjects and it’s been really good seeing people again (especially Allie) and getting back into some sort of ‘normal’ routine. Although the early starts aren’t so good. My subjects this semester are Politics x3 and General Education x1: Propaganda & Satire; Australian Foreign Policy; The Art of Political Science; Introduction to the Australian Legal System. My politics lecturers are amazing. I have my favourite professor for one subject, Dr Levey, so I spend Tuesday mornings basking in his greatness.
Drawings by Allie (paying attention during Australian Foreign Policy, obviously).
I went to the Mardi Gras for the first time, except the crowd and trying to find friends in the complete insanity meant I basically didn’t see the parade at all. Still, the vodka + rum was nice, and seeing people I hadn’t seen in a while was good too.
My Wog friend Alex had a horrorpunk themed birthday party which was a lot of fun. Messy and fantastic. Kylar and Jack came as my replacements for Annie and Zig. A vey wasted girl in Kings Cross was nice enough to share her cigarettes with us. They were Vogues and actually quite nice. I made Alex a mix of music from the mother country (well, MY mother country). This was the track-list:
Van Gogh – Klatno (live) : Belgrade, 1997
Elektricni Orgazam – Nebo : Belgrade, 1981
EKV – Ja Znam : Belgrade, 1983
Azra – Krvava Meri : Zagreb, 1980
Prljavo Kazaliste – Noc : Zagreb, 1979
Riblja Corba – Necu da zivim u bloku 65 : Belgrade, 1982
Idoli – Moja si : Belgrade, 1982
Zabranjeno Pusenje – Guzonjin sin : Sarajevo, 1988
Partibrejkers – 1000 godina : Belgrade, 1984
Sarlo Akrobata – Mali covek : Belgrade, 1981
Elektricni Orgazam – Odelo : Belgrade, 1982
Bijelo Dugme – Pamtim evo deset dana : Sarajevo, 1974
Hung around Liverpool a couple of times and saw The Unborn with Jasmina which was actually quite scary. Also, Gary Oldman is brilliant!
Morgan and I helped Zig out with a COFA project which involved photobooths. I got to wear an eyepatch!
I fell in love with this poem:
Rhododendrons
It was the dream
I was allowed
to touch you in.
We were strangers.
You kept your eyes closed.
I cannot really say
if there were rhododendrons
or anything like music or
even if I asked you.
Only your blue skin and the pleasure it gave you –
the way you moved,
the way you caught your breath
whenever my hands moved
so I kept on moving them.
-Thomas Lynch
& ten more copies of Feels Like Friday #7 sold at Sticky in Melbourne!!!!!!!
Ne spavaj mala moja muzika dok svira
The other day I was lazing around on campus with Zig. We were supposed to get our new IDs but the queue was too long. Instead we drank amazing Coffee Cart coffee, smoked Marlboro Golds, took photos, ate sushi, bought books and migrated from one sunny patch of grass to another four times. I keep forgetting that being a student isn’t just about that….that there is work to do as well. Still, I’m really looking forward to starting the semester. People to see/meet and things to do and things to learn. I’ve been reading from “Munitions of the Mind”, the text for one of my subjects – Propaganda and Satire, and it’s really interesting. The subject I’m most looking forward to though is The Art of Political Science…not just because it interests me as a subject but because it’ll be taught by my favourite professor, Dr. Levey, the one who told us this joke: “what do you get when you mix a member of the Mafia with a post-modernist? …….an offer you can’t understand.”
ALSO: check out Andrew’s new blog, where music nerd meets real life nerd who likes to talk about science…..and stuff; Kylar is back from overseas and has posted new music on his blog so go have a listen.
& finally (I can’t post an entry without something Eastern European in it, can I?), since I’ve posted Zeljko Bebek and Alen Islamovic here, I thought it was a bit unfair to not post any Tifa. I didn’t know much about Tifa when I was starting to like Bijelo Dugme. Maybe because he had the shortest time as their singer or because I was so distracted by my crush on Islamovic…? When I saw them live in concert, all of them had gone well past their use by date but Tifa was the worst, acting really inappropriately on stage and being so fucked up by the end of it that he couldn’t even come up on stage for the final songs which they all sing together. It’s really hard to find footage of Tifa but what I did find on YouTube is AMAZING. Tifa was this beautiful drug-fucked incredibly talented singer and I have fallen a little in love with him. I was going to post one of those big Bijelo Dugme power ballads but the video was really poor quality so here is what is apparently Tifa’s first concert with them.
I know your name, I’ve danced with you
Tutoring going well – boring and repetitious and more work than I get paid for but the girl is nice & it’s $25 more than I was making previously; Kylar is back, yay – K-Rudd impersonations & Cuban cigarettes & bubble gum cigarettes & amazing, amazing things at the MCA & stories from the Americas; excited about upcoming zine fairs (Wollonghetto on the 5th of April; MCA on the 24th of May); excited about Feels Like Friday #9; the boy is lovely; I’m pretty excited about starting the third year of my Bachelor of Arts, although the idea of essay deadlines and early mornings is not so pleasant; my zebra-print curtains are too awesome; had my last trip to the dentist today, finally (although I still need to get a crown on my root canal & get one more wisdom tooth taken out, but those things can wait).
Baby, I’m bored
Postcard from Mexico (thanks Kylar!) & chocolate from Nenad
Don’t get offended
If I seem absent minded
Just keep telling me facts
And keep making me smile
Don’t get offended
If I seem absent minded
I get tongue-tied
Baby, you’ve got to be more discerning
I’ve known never known what’s good for me
I will be yours-Bloc Party
Yesterday evening I called Nenad & Drazen down to the ‘burbz to have a cigarette with me because these days, I seem to surround myself with people I can’t smoke around. We smoked and gossiped in a quiet street in Drazen’s car, then drove down to Black Rose for hot chocolate/peach ice tea/cappuccino (me/Nenad/Drazen).
Today I had another appointment with the Dentist of Doom. Since last week’s horrible experience when I felt I was suffocating and had a mini panic attack halfway through, going to the dentist has become even more intolerable than it previously was. Just a few more appointments…
The lovely people who develop my photos thought there was something wrong with my camera because the photos are Supersampler! How cute! (….stay tuned for a post with my new Supersampler photos!)
My new phone is so complicated!
I have a review to write and I seem to have “writers’ block”.
Where is my mind?
Some things that have happened since I last updated…
I saw Galija live in concert which was really good. I hadn’t really listened to Galija much before but I knew the music thanks to my sister (who also paid for my ticket because she really wanted me to see them play). It was a really great concert; I’m glad I went. The three musicians are all extremely talented and the frontman especially looks so happy when he is playing. They make incredibly beautiful music. Beforehand and in between there was a really great band playing. They did gypsy-d up covers of various Serbian songs, and a couple of songs were sung by an African man! In Serbian! It was amazing. I was with my sister and her friends and I worried about feeling a little……out of place? But it was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the night.
I hung out with Jasmina & Nikola twice. Now that I am on good terms with Nikola again, I’ve remembered how much I actually enjoy hanging out with them. I’ve known them for a long time and I feel very comfortable around them. Last week we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which wasn’t too bad (but not too good either – luckily Brad Pitt is pretty much perfect). Then today we had dinner at Black Rose where we also ran into Bodin and Nenad’s brother Milan. The pizza and tiramisu at Black Rose are really fucking delicious. Later we drove around a bit looking for a place to play pool and when we didn’t find any place we wanted to go, we hung around a park/graveyard for a bit before heading home. They have some great music in their car, including System of a Down covering Wu Tang Clan’s “Shame on a Nigga”. Fucking brilliant!
I also hung out with Kylar before he left for Amerikkka. I met up in the city with him, Morgan, Thea and Josh and we hung around Hyde Park, had coffee, etc. That was fun also.
Zig came over from Kempsey for a few days, from the 30th to the 2nd! She stayed at my place and I showed her around suburbia. We got stoned in a park in St Johns Park and walked to the Bonnyrigg McDonald’s to get ice cream when the Plaza was closed on New Year’s Day. We also watched a lot of bad 80s video clips and came up with a dance routine to Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”. When we got stoned in the ‘burbs we came back to my house, still stoned, and hid in my room away from my parents, with only my fairy lights on, lying down on a mattress, listening to Neil Young. It was….so fucking lovely! Neil Young is amazing. We also saw Twilight on the day Zig was leaving, because it’s not out in Kempsey yet. Robert Pattinson’s jawline remains as perfect as ever.
I found out that a kid I knew died. That really shook me up.
I went to a wonderful New Year’s Eve party. It was at Alex’s house and was a night of blazing and crazing…of course! A lot of wonderful people, conversations, music and Mary Jane. It was a lot of fun. We went to see the fireworks in the city and it was the first time I’d seen them live. I may have gotten more excited had I not been so stoned. The night ended with “Ignition” by R Kelly. Oh yes! As soon as R Kelly came on, there were complaints about the music! haha. I don’t really remember much of the night to be honest, except I think reciting the lyrics to White Rabbit with Alex, talking about pole dancing with Lachlan, being the Bong Master (then spilling bong water all over myself), walking to get hot chips because I HAD to have them, attempting to air guitar to November Rain, seeing the sunrise, bucket bong at 6.30 in the morning, waking up my parents at three in the morning because I was worried when they weren’t answering my midnight call….and just generally having a good time. We left around 7 in the morning and the city was COVERED in filth. It was disgusting. Then Oz Turk pizza….nothing better for when feeling seedy. When I got home, I crashed, still in the previous night’s clothing, and slept until 7 in the evening. And I would have continued had my sister not woken me up.
So yeah…it’s been mostly good times around here.
Update…
Thursday, 18th
Up early, lift to the city from parents who were driving to the fish markets, walk from Pyrmont to Town Hall…overly nice Red Cross money collector complimented my hair (and noticed it was dreadlocked…most people just think it’s a manic growth on top of my head) and my fork bracelet…met up with Kylar, coffee and cigarettes all over the place, Hyde Park and Bill & Toni’s and Hyde Park again….home, Slavica and Jasmina helping my mum cook for Sveti Nikola, but had to leave soon after I arrived…all day running around helping with whatever needed to be done around the house…late night Oz watching. Consumed five coffees and was still dead tired.
Friday, 19th
Sveti Nikola, my family’s Slava. I am horrible at getting into the spirit of things so I mostly hid in the living room and avoided all the guests who were in the sun room. I get really awkward every year because I rarely see a lot of those people, and there’s the confusion of whether I should just shake their hand or do I need to kiss them as well, and do I kiss them once or three times, and what the hell should I talk to them about, etc. Plus, every year someone makes a comment about me losing weight, which makes me wonder if I was obese as a child or something… Towards the end of the night I managed to get away with sitting on the couch and reading as most of the guests had left, my parents were with the older ones and my sister with her friends, and Jasmina had left – these days I have only a few Serbian friends, and those that I do have go to Nikola’s house because his Slava is also Sveti Nikola, and as they’ve been going to Nikola’s well before they met me, they of course still go there. Plus, everyone gets drunk there so it makes more sense anyway. Our house tends to be a bit quieter. Sveti Nikola reminds me every year, very blatantly, just how hard it is for my family to spend a day together and get along. The upside is waiting for midnight so I can eat chocolate.
Saturday, 20th
Kalaediscope fun; Emma; Kylie; Seeta & T-Nev; Katie & moi; Arex
During the day, Annie and I went to a small zine fair that was happening at the first Voiceworks launch to happen outside Victoria. It was nice. Small and kind of quiet, and the people that came along didn’t really seem to know what zines were, but it was chilled out; I mostly sat around reading and occasionally talking to the kids from Just Like Candy & the Black Rose Anarchist Bookshop (on Enmore Rd, Newtown). Afterwards we wandered around a bit, bought a present for Emma which was directly responsible for us speaking Engrish all day – part of the present was a Guns n Roses cigarette case. On the side it had a warning label against smoking but it said something like “cigarette smoke the harmful health”…what the fuck? So all day we were speaking Engrish – replacing every L with an R. “hero, may I have a rarge vanirra mirkshake?” Then I went home, frantically rushed around for an hour getting ready to leave again, then off to Scary Canary…which is a terrible venue but Up the Bracket happens there and it featured good people + vodka and therefore wasn’t horrible like the venue is. Good company featured: Emma (we were celebrating her birthday), Alex (Arex), Katie (ok just quietly, I’m sort of in love with Katie), Kylie, Seeta, T-Nev, etc. Seabas played a bit of November Rain – hell yeah! After a while we went to Emma’s (new) place which I really like. Stairs everywhere! Emma put on The Doors and packed a cone as soon as we walked in which made me very happy. Katie asked me why I love The Doors and I really couldn’t put an answer into words – they are just so special to me. Bit of hanging around, being lazy, that sort of high when sitting on a couch with a blanket is just like the most perfect thing, then we wanted to watch That 70s Show but the speakers connected to the fancy-computer-TV weren’t working so instead we watched so-bad-it’s-good Stripperella on SBS, then something else I don’t remember, before we went to sleep.
Sunday, 21st
I woke up around 9.30 and Annie was already awake. We sat on the little balcony smoking – I really wanted to have a cigarette first thing in the morning because I can never do that whilst living at home! Then we wrote a note for Emma and left before her housemates, who we don’t know, got up to find two weird kids hanging out in their living room. Wandered the city in search of a pretzel (nowhere to be found!), then went home. I napped on the couch, watched Oz, and otherwise generally lazed around.
Monday, 22nd
Spent the day in a really unexpected unbelievably happy mood. I don’t even know why! I just feel good all over. Have lazed around in the sun, reading, listening to silverchair’s Live From Faraway Stables, Love, Alice Coltrane (the last two thanks to Kylar), dancing around the backyard like a character from Hair, discovering Gogol Bordello and reconnecting with my Eastern European roots with mad gypsy music. Good times.
(Photos by ANNIE LY.)
Thursday, 4th December 2008
Continuing my recount of the last few days…
On Thursday I took acid for the first time. The day started at Town Hall where Annie & I met up with Kylar. Down to the Botanic Gardens, wandered around a bit, and then went to the Art Gallery. Maybe I’m not an appreciator of fine art or something, but I just tend to find the Museum of Contemporary Art a million times more interesting. Anyway. Then back to the Botanic Gardens, shared a joint, then I saw the clouds growing and shrinking and felt really good overall. Unfortunately Annie didn’t feel so good, so I got sort of snapped back to reality and it became a bit frightening, though the good thing was that time seemed so impossible and strange that even when I was feeling bad, it’d quickly disappear, then I’d remember the freak-out again, then I’d forget again, and so on. I’ve tried to explain how it felt but it’s pretty impossible. I guess I felt like I was in another world even though I was aware that I was still a part of reality. Or something.
It was a really strange, incredible, really intense, indescribable experience. I am really looking forward to experiencing it again! For hours we sat around the Botanic Gardens. Morgan appeared out of nowhere as well. I smoked Kylar’s filter-less Camels because we had no normal cigarettes. Those things are fucking impossible to smoke. Annie lost her hat ‘frolicking’ through the bushes. I was completely convinced that every single person walking nearby knew we were on drugs and I felt really seedy. But at the same time, I was really enjoying it and it was really lovely. I guess I alternated between complete ecstasy and oblivion, to sort of freaking out. I remember talking incessantly because that made me feel like I was still existing in the real world. On the train home I was writing my thoughts down and they went from sort of happy thoughts about reality/non-reality, to a rant about how disgusting humans are because I kept hearing disgusting noises on the train like people blowing their noses. Then I had to talk to someone – Annie was in her own world, Kylar and Morgan had stayed in the city, so I called Jasmina and as I was talking to her (more like, talking at her), I started drawing on my jeans without realising and when I noticed what I was doing, I knew I should stop because they are my good/favourite jeans, but I just couldn’t stop myself.
It was about 8 by the time I got home and because we’d taken it around 1, I figured it should have worn off by then, but it hadn’t and I had to be careful with the way I was around my family. The fact that I was convinced Jon Stewart was talking directly to me as I was watching The Daily Show wasn’t very helpful. haha. I couldn’t look in the mirror because my face looked strange to me. Attempting to shave my legs at 1 in the morning whilst still feeling out of it was an amusing experience – a bit of blood involved. Then I couldn’t fall asleep because I kept thinking about random things, with thoughts moving through my mind really quickly. I got a bit worried that it would never stop, that I’d damaged my brain. I eventually fell asleep and had a dream about being arrested for being addicted to ice…. When I woke up the next morning I was so relieved to be completely sober. Still, I can’t wait to try it again.
(A few more photos here.)
12.51
This arrived in New Zealand today so now it’s safe to post it here without the surprise being ruined – mail I sent to Dee with a mix I, just quietly, think is some of my best mix work yet.
Straylight Run – Hands in the Sky (Big Shot)
Bjork (feat. Kelis) – Oceania
Tricky (feat. D’na) – Call Me
The Weakerthans – Without Mythologies
Die! Die! Die! – Whitehorses
Kicks Joy Darkness – Collapse of the Wave Function
MGMT – Weekend Wars
The White Stripes – I Want To Be the Boy To Warm Your Mother’s Heart
The Magnetic Fields – With Whom To Dance
Patrick Wolf – Lycanthropy
The Dandy Warhols – I Love You
Bloc Party – Selfish Son
Pulp – 97 Lovers
Speaking of mail, this morning I received a lot of zines and it was so good; it felt like back in the day when the only zines I knew of were from overseas or from elsewhere in Australia and the idea of zinester friends in person seemed so far-fetched, so I’d get really excited every time I got mail addressed to “Ivana Stab”.
I chopped off more of my hair yesterday and have started straightening the ends so it fluffs out more and curls less and it’s pretty rad.
Aside from the inconceivable pain caused by my menstrual cycle, today was a pretty good day. I had plans of going to uni to return some books but the thought of climbing up all those steps was just too much. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and clutch my stomach. I got to the city around 1.30 and hung out at Hyde Park reading zines – Brainscan #23 by Alex Wrekk is absolutely fucking amazing and everything I love about zines combined into the one well written, amazing-looking zine. I bought a World AIDS Day ribbon, leaving me with $1 in my wallet. The man that was selling them said “excuse me sir” before I looked up…then he apologised quickly. Hah. I was wearing yet another shirt stolen from my dad, though. The man has a much bigger wardrobe than I do and he’s got style! Then Kylar joined me and brought some tube of neon green goo which was apparently candy – didn’t look very edible and neither of us wanted to try it. Kylar also brought presents. Then Morgan joined us, bringing Panadol thankfully (which sadly didn’t end up helping at all). We hung around for a while, put Kylar’s present to use, though it didn’t really do much for me, then left Hyde Park because they wanted food, then wandered aimlessly before going into Red Eye where I saw lots of CDs I wanted to buy (although the one that really interested me was by a band I’d never heard of but loved the name – Agnostic Front! …also, why are bands like Cobra Starship and Fall Out Boy and Simple Plan in the Punk section…?). Then Kylar left and Morgan and I went to Hyde Park again where we ended up staying until 7, I smoked an entire packet of cigarettes and it was decided that I have to go to Mother Russia before moving out, and I can move out after I’ve discovered the meaning of life in the mother country. Yes!
I came home to realise mother has completely stopped talking to me and I have no fucking idea why. Something about how I’m not taking care of my health and don’t listen to her? Lollerskatez.
Gonna live on science alone
I’ve been feeling down but I have ways of dealing.
Yesterday I met up with Kylar in the city and we went to American Apparel where he spent forever trying on clothes as I wished I’d been born a boy because their clothing is much better. Except for the heel-wearing girls get to do, but I’d wear heels even if I was a boy, and I don’t actually get to wear heels much now because I am a giant and also don’t really know how to walk in them. Anyway, the customers at AA bugged me a little but the employees are lovely, and Kylar bought green jeans. Then we had coffee at Bill and Toni’s, wandered around…I guess we wandered around a lot because I sort of lose track here and we end up at Jet…oh yeah, we went to get Kylar’s novelty lighter fixed but that didn’t really work out. We saw Albert so he joined us for a while at Jet. He was waiting for a friend who was an hour and a half late and we left a little after she arrived. Kylar went home to feed the cat and I went home to watch too much TV, then talk to Nenad until 3rd Rock From the Sun was on at 1.30 in the morning, doing lots of sit-ups in between because I have lost my mind and think that sit-ups are the cure for everything. (Since 10th November, I have done 1120 sit-ups and 450 crunches altogether. Go me!)
Today looked good to start with, then absolutely everything turned to shit rapidly, I did some crying, etc and then decided I had to make myself feel better or else, so I left the house in a hurry, went to the city with about $5 to my name & walked up Broadway giving my resume out (I am so desperate for a job I even gave my resume to that horrible Goth-by-numbers store near Easy Way). Then I walked further down to the University of Sydney where I met up with my sister and we walked to Newtown where she bought us Thai food for lunch and we wandered King St for a bit. By this stage I’d basically completely forgotten how miserable I’d been earlier. I just need to keep myself distracted. Then we went back to her uni, to her interesting but sort of depressing lab (it’s fascinating but spending long hours there would be horrible) where she finished an experiment. To my disappointment there was no fire, smoke, bubbling liquids…nothing. Science isn’t as fun as they make it seem on TV! Then we headed homewards, and she continued towards Liverpool to meet up with friends.
My Canadian cousin Vlado was at my house; he’d had lunch with my parents and so we hung out, talking, watching TV, etc. I found out he’s got a job at the same place Kylar works, so I warned him about it. Oh and then I got my grades and that sort of brought the good mood to new levels.
So the downside now remains that I am broke as a fucking joke, have no idea how to get any money, am on constant bad terms with my mother and my sister is going away for the weekend! But I’m ok and am seeing Die! Die! Die! & Ohana tomorrow regardless of the money situation…I’ll figure something out (dentist money, anyone?).
Thursday, 20th November
On Thursday I went to work. My job somehow manages to make three hours seem like the longest time in the world. It also doesn’t help that a lot of the people I call are very rude. My supervisor tells me I take it too personally. The good news is that they’re relocating to Bondi Junction which should help improve my mood when at work. St Leonards is just a little too quiet and depressing, and the office is dark and horrible. It will also be easier to get to work from uni because there are buses going directly to Bondi Junction from UNSW. I still need to find a job that is closer to home and that gives me longer hours. Preferably something that doesn’t make me want to kill myself. I really want to work at PSC in Liverpool but I don’t know much about skating. ALTHOUGH, I have met Tony Alva and Tosh Townend! I should put THAT on my resume! (Although Tony looked a little more like this when I met him.)
After work I met up with friends for dinner at a Spanish restaurant in the shady part of Pitt St. It was: Kylar, Zig, Morgan, Jack, Lee, Jasmine-from-uni & Morgan’s friends Mark and Anita-I-think-is-her-name?, and Annie joined us later on. Being a vegetarian, gluten-intolerant, picky eater isn’t helpful when eating out. Luckily there was a lot of wine. Also, good company. I’ve gotten so used to hanging out with one or two people without those people ever actually hanging out together, that it’s a bit strange when I’m around a big group of people. Still, it was nice. And I liked the people I hadn’t met before so that was good too. After dinner, Annie, Kylar, Jack and I went to Oxford St where we were going to see Warhorse play at Exquisite Corpse but figured they’d finished by then so we just hung around instead; were joined by Morgan, Mark and I-think-her-name-is-Anita in the gutter, had various strangers talk to us, etc. One of the reasons that gutter parties make life better is because of the random strange people that one encounters whilst in the gutter.
So Thursday was good.
(Photos: stolen jewellery – a fork from the restaurant and the little muscly man from Kylar. Fisheye photos by ANNIE LY - Jasmine, Kylar & Jack; Kylar, me & Jack; me, Kylar, Jack, Morgan & Mark.)
