We should be inside by evening

       

 

I spent Tuesday attempting not to die from the horrible weather and the bad mood it put me in. I spent the day reading, hanging out with my sister as she built a model of a castle from Terry Pratchett books, listening to The Doors and generally being bored. My Canadian cousin Zoran came back from New Zealand and is staying with us until Saturday when he flies back to Canadia. He’s sleeping in my sister’s room so Jelena & I have become roomies. I decided I had to watch Gossip Girl but I couldn’t find it on DVD at Blockbuster (does it even exist on DVD yet?) so I got The OC season 1 instead. I’m convinced the girl working was judging me for borrowing that… But it puts me in such a good mood! Then I discovered that the PSP box in my room was not Vlado’s or Zoran’s PSP which I figured they’d left as it was too heavy to carry around; it turned out to be a present from their brother Sasa – it was filled with Canadian candy! Much more exciting than a PSP for someone like me who’s not into video games!!

 

On Wednesday I had to get out of the house because I’d been inside too long, so Annie and I went to the city. We wandered around Town Whore a bit and it was packed with people. We walked down Circular Quay-way, and stopped at some little park in Wynyard, which was quite nice. But then it started to rain a bit so we walked down to the Museum of Contemporary Art. There are so many new things in there that I’m completely in love with. GO HAVE A LOOK! Then we sat around outside people-watching a lot and making up new lives for everyone that walked past. We saw a man in a cowboy hat and a Marlboro jacket! Then back to Town Whore where we spent a long time looking at CDs in Red Eye, and I ended up buying a Doors DVD – one of those Classic Albums things, for their first record. It’s a pretty good DVD and features a snippet of one of their first demos, before Robby joined the band! I love The Doors…..so fucking much. Then we went to Chinatown for lunch, then to our new favourite spot, across from the cake shop, for cigarette smoking and barley tea drinking. Theeeeen to a park in Surry Hills where we hung out for a while before heading home. A really nice day.

 

So far today I’ve watched two Doors DVDs, a Bowie DVD, listened to two Doors CDs, made a mini-zine out of my short story Survival of the Fittest, eaten ice cream and complained about being bored and broke.

10th December

This is me attacking the Birthday Boy.

 

Wednesday

Wednesday was my friend Drazen’s 20^th birthday. It was also the day my Canadian cousin Vlado’s older brother Zoran came to Australia. There are three brothers, the sons of my dad’s brother, and Zoran was the only one I hadn’t seen since I was a baby and therefore too young to remember him. He’s about 30 now and he’s an artisteeee. It could be the age difference, or maybe just a personality clash, but I got along with Vlado much, much better. They’ve both gone to New Zealand now. They slept over at our place before my dad drove them to the airport in the morning. So I hung out with them during the day before heading over to Liverpool in the evening to see Drazen for his birthday.

 

I met up with Nenad at his place in the fucking ghetto (seriously, that area of Liverpool makes me feel like I’m stuck in one of those tales-of-inner-city-American-life movies), then we walked over to Black Rose where we met up with Nikola and Jasmina. Drazen’s family was having dinner and his annoying-beyond-words brother came outside to have a cigarette and insisted on sitting with us and questioning us like a teacher on what we’re doing. He made a snide remark about me being an Arts student. I didn’t make any comments but seriously…he’s one person that really shouldn’t pass judgment on others. Anyway. We ended up having a few drinks at Legends….which has been cleaned up and is now called Macquarie Hotel and is a shiny gambling hellhole really. Sasa, Mark George and Bodin joined us also. Then off to this little barbeque area behind Drazen’s building to smoke. Sasa left, we convinced Mark George to smoke weed, Bodin still refused (and refused to let me dress him up in tight jeans) & Nikola and I ‘officially’ started talking again! Fun times. Then we drove around a bit, ended up in some park in Carramar, Bodin and Mark George left, and we drove down to a lake in Lansvale. It was actually quite nice considering its location. Really quiet and peaceful and completely unexpected…I mean, a lake!

 

It was a good night.

      

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.  

I want a haircut that says who I am

Just a few quick things: I finished the Essay of Doom last night at around 3. My computer started dying on me right at the end from some weird keyboard malfunction but luckily my dad’s computer was working just fine. So I am ACTUALLY on holidays now!; yesterday I had a really great conversation on MSN with Dee who is currently in New Zealand. Sometimes it amazes me how much more comfortable I am talking to people I’ve only known for a little while than people I’ve known for years; I heard Ohana on FBi a while ago and wrote down their name to look up but never did until today. They’re great!; my review of an N.W.A compilation tribute album is up on The Dwarf: have a look; Channel V is making me remember all my embarrassing crushes from back in the day – Billy from Good Charlotte, Tom from Blink 182…

 

Things that are good…