Just returned home from one of the greatest nights of my life. Watching Florence + The Machine perform live at the Sydney Entertainment Centre was simply breathtaking. Florence has such an amazing voice, and the machine, what an amazing group. Yay for the return of the harp! I just love everything about Florence - her voice (both live and recorded), her songs, her fashion, her style, the design of the concert, everything. You leave her show loving songs even more than you could possibly imagine, but more importantly, you 'discover' a new favourite simply because she has transformed it into something amazing live.
I loved, loved that she sang songs from her previous album - Cosmic Love, Dog Days Are Over, You've Got the Love, Rabbit Heart, Between Two Lungs. My only disappointment was that she didn't play Drumming, one of my personal favourites. She played all my favourites from 'Ceremonials' (aka. the first half of the album), but also songs like 'Spectrum' which Florence called, "Let's play a dancing competition and see who loses the most shit." This made me laugh lots. A small girl in the audience 'won' the competition and got a personal visit from Florence, but also later followed Florence to the stage, and 'hijacked' it. Very cute. The images that projected onto the cathedral inspired centrepiece were gorgeous - I particularly liked the lungs which accompanied Between Two Lungs and the trees for Dog Days Are Over.
And even though the way she lead the concert was similar to previous shows (which I watched online), and I knew what she would ask of us next, watching it unfold live was still exciting. I knew what song she would sing next when she invited us to get on each other's shoulders (no, I unfortunately did not rise) thanks to Coachella, and anticipated the jumping when Dog Days Are Over began.
I just wished I had a camera to capture the amazingness of the show - the iPhone does not do well to focus or produce clear images, so I apologise in advance for the terrible images posted below (although I did Instagram them). I actually didn't take many photos. On the plus though, the new iOS feature that allows you to take photos while in 'lock' mode came in handy numerous times during the night.
If there had been enough room around me on the floor, I totally would've twirled around like Florence. That was how amazing it was.
Six months in the waiting
'Only if For a Night' opening spectacular
She wore a superb jumpsuit
'Shake It Out' - wished we had complimentary masks
'Spectrum' aka. 'Dancing competition to see who loses the most shit' Notice: disco ball and disco ball beam of light
Hooray, another published piece of work! This time, a review for one of the funniest TV comedies ever to have aired, Arrested Development. Creator Mitch Hurwitz recently confirmed that he's developing a limited run fourth series (as a lead in to a full feature) due for an early 2013 release, so if you haven't yet caught on to the AD bug, it's never too late to start.
Read my review for the 'Pilot' episode here, and purchase the entire three seasons at your nearest DVD retailer. No, don't borrow it. BUY IT. It is definitely worth your money.
"He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now."
My love for Batman has never been a secret - just ask any of my friends. The new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was recently released, and every single time I watch it, I get the chills. Christian Bale, you are beautiful. The reason I love Batman so much is because he's just a human being, devoid of any superpower - he's simply a superhuman.
I am ecstatic to be watching The Dark Knight Rises later this year, in none other than Gotham City, aka New York City after dark.
I recently wrote a personal essay for a uni assignment, and I reworked it, and now it's published! Gather all your friends, and read it here! Optimal reading amusement will be achieved by putting on glasses and eating yellow skittles. You can also follow the hilarious writer and creator of Bon Vivant, Ben Vernel on twitter here.
Take that, physiotherapy! I'm already enjoying my newfound calling in writing.
One of the benefits of moving from a Physiotherapy degree into a Communications degree is time. Where I was once attending university five days a week, I am now only there for three half days. My life has moved from "must-write-notes-on-the-gluteus-maximus" to "I-could-do-those-readings-oh-look-the-new-episode-of-Community-is-out" (I probably ended up watching Community regardless of how engrossing the gluteus maximus is, but let's be fair, sitting on our cushiony butt muscles while watching Community is simply putting theory to practice). I don't even have to do those readings because I no longer have any exams. And consider the fact that I tend to skip my lectures, so that leaves me, sitting at home, literally watching time fly by. I guess this is what it feels like to be a dog - just eat and sleep. The problem is, I have so much free time, but so much I want to do. It's on par with walking into a supermarket and being overwhelmed by the choices. I'll work myself up with everything I want to accomplish, but the moment I have the time to do so, I shut down. In the words of John Mulaney (who is an excellent comedian, and you should check out his stand up), "it is 100% easier not to do something than to do them."
My cousins (some of whom are in the same boat) and I were discussing this last night, and it was decided that we need a hobby. It occurred to me that other than watching a shit load of TV, I don't have a hobby. I am reminded of my Facebook profile, where you are able to list your activities or interests. The following contains some of my listed hobbies: travelling, markets, being off with the pixies, basking in the sunlight, exotic and tropical fruits, british accents, improv.
I also do not understand how these count as hobbies. Let me clarify that I do not go around shouting out names of exotic fruits to passer-bys in a terrible British accent, nor do I immediately transform into a lizard at the sight of a patch of sunlight. I need a real hobby.
The most popular suggestion by my cousins was a sporting activity, say swimming (I'm not sure if sports is a hobby so much so as it is a maintaining-your-health requirement). The thing is, my brain understands that taking up exercise will exponentially increase my life expectancy, but when this theory is outsourced to my limbs, I die. I'm still recovering from UTS' Amazing Race from 4 days ago, having run up and down 100+ flights of stairs - I have literally been walking around like a duck, and I have to swing my legs around my body because I can't physically lift them. I think the following .gif perfectly encapsulates my curent fitness level:
I have promised myself (many times), that I need to go out for a run, or even lift weights (mainly because I fear that my arm muscles are melting with every second). It's a worry that I haven't exercised properly in years. Maybe I won't be the first person to live to 150 after all.
Hobby suggestion #2: make something extravagant, like a massive costume. I have an almost unlimited supply to fabric, but making a costume requires me making it. I haven't even begun to sew on the lace trimmings to my socks from months ago - and I don't even have to make it. I'm not that talented of a crafts person to design my own costume, so I would have to use a pattern, and using a pattern requires me cutting out the pattern, then pinning it down to the fabric and cutting the exact same shapes again. It's painful. If I had the pieces already cut out, I would definitely be more motivated to sew. But almost all the time, the end result doesn't turn out to be as great as I hoped. The singlet I made when I was 13? Too embarrassing to wear out, and I modelled it for an event at school. The tiered skirt that I made when I was 15? It made me stumpy, and I have since let it gather dust at the back of my wardrobe. This poses a problem for my Hobbit costume plans for the Comic Con International event I plan to attend later this year. I can't turn up at one of the biggest festivals in the world in a poorly made Hobbit outfit. But there you go, something extravagant for me to work on in my spare time.
Suggestion #3 was the best of them all. Make a claymation or stop motion animation, to the likes of Ben Wyatt's Requiem for a Tuesday:
As you can see, the story is very deep and emotional. I myself have teared up from the beauty that is Requiem for a Tuesday. How such an animation was overlooked by Aardman Animations (the same production company responsible for Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run) I will never know. Let's see, if I take one photo (of a mini workstation set up somewhere in my room) each day, for one and half years, the animation will be completed...never. It will literally be to the likes of Ben Wyatt. Yay, for incomplete stop-motion animations! And if this becomes my hobby, who knows, I could have, like 50 incomplete films by the end of the year.
I'm currently eating my way through the first three seasons of Parks and Recreation (again), and Ron Swanson is one of the greatest TV characters in all of history. Behold, the 'Swanson Pyramid of Greatness', a "perfectly calibrated recipe for maximum personal achievement".
Favourite categories:
Frankness: Cut the B.S.
Capitalism: God's way of determining who is rich, and who is poor.
Crying: Acceptable at funerals and at the Grand Canyon.
Stillness: Don't waste energy moving unless necessary.
Handshakes: Firm. Dry. Solid. 3 seconds.
Skim milk: Avoid it.
Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson is stand out hilarious (as is the rest of the cast and show). I highly recommend watching 2.02 'The Stakeout'. It also wouldn't hurt to visit this website.
