Quick update

All is ok. I am still sore but my skin is on the improve and hasn't become infected. The steroids and antibiotics are making me hungry and nauseous and wide awake in the night. I am not buff nor stronger from the steroids.

I am exhausted now. Worked 9.00 am - 3.30 pm today. I could sleep for a week. I am in bed now.

I finished the 30 by 30 challenge on the day I went home sick, so no photos. I also purchased a dress online the day after the challenge ended.

My favourite (and expensive) headphones have been fixed. The plug that fits into the hole on my iPod/iPhone snapped off from the wire. I had no other choice but to listen through the crApple ear buds for two weeks.

Tomorrow I am going to Canberra for work. I am looking forward to it.

And here is my current favourite song. I am about six years behind the times, I know. Better late than never.


Goodnight and thanks for all of your wishes :)

Sia - The Palais, St Kilda - concert review

Sia
The Palais, St Kilda
1 February 2011

When I told a friend I was seeing Sia Furler live, he asked me to pass on a message, should I meet her. I was to be the intermediary for his marriage proposal to her. Unfortunately this is as close as I got to asking her.

But when I saw her on stage, I also wanted to marry her. Well maybe not marry - I can't cut my friend's grass - but I definitely wanted to become her friend.

One thing I admire is Sia's individuality and inhibition for being herself while in the spotlight. These traits make me want to be her friend. And also her creativity - wow! I love how she doesn't rely on tits and arse to get noticed, like many other pop stars do. Her beauty is her voice and imagination which she uses on stage.

I don't know how much of a say musicians have in the creative visual design of their stage, costumes and videos. But I'd say Sia has quite a bit of say. Her stage was decorated in small room dividers, crocheted nanna rugs and sheets, all geometrically printed with stripes and squares. These covered the floors, speakers and instruments. A big fabric mural hung as the back drop, with 3D letters spelling SIA. Even the musicians' clothes were striped different directions, so at times, all you could see was their hands playing their guitars or piano and their faces.

Sia arrived on stage looking like a doll stuck to its packaging. She was painted black - her arms, face, legs, shoes, and even hair. A giant piece of card was attached to her back. She wore a beautiful candy pink tutu skirt and black feathered top, perhaps inspired by the movie Black Swan. It was a wonderful, intriguing sight, and I imagine it may have been restrictive - judging by her extremely limited movement on the stage during the night (walk on stage, move arms to dance around a bit, walk off stage...).

The audience was a stylish one. Very many quaffs in hair, and some cool, cool clothes. I saw a woman with a tattoo of a skyline on her arm - so very cool! I felt like Sia gave me permission to wear my bright blue luxury pyjama pants, just by her previous clothing choices. Some of the audience seemed to be hardcore fans, probably following her whole music career. I, on the other hand, like perhaps some other fans at the concert, am a recent fan. I came to know her music from the We Are Born album via the lazy person's way - the Nova radio station. And I then listened to her older stuff and wished I'd known about her sooner.

Sia interacted with the audience throughout the show. I love that she's maintained her Aussie drawl despite living overseas for years. She is an avid Twitter user and gave a shout out to her followers (one lovely Twitter follower baked her cookies, and I spoke to the cookie baker after the show and she recognised me from No Limits!). A couple of weeks back I requested an interview with Sia for Ramp Up (I wanted to ask her about her illness, and also working with the Deaf community on the Soon We'll Be Found clip) - I asked her for an interview on Twitter. I was so impressed she wrote back, even with a polite decline.

My favourite songs of the show were Soon We'll Be Found (she signed through the song), I Go to Sleep, You've Changed, Bring Night, The Girl You Lost to Cocaine, and Clap Your Hands. Her vocal range really stood out live. She was powerful, soft, husky, and classical throughout. Some songs were calm, others were disco. Really amazing.

The thing that impressed me the most during the show was her wit. So very funny. So many memorable funny moments (I took notes).

After the first song, Sia spoke about heckling. Then an audience member called something which Sia misheard as 'party ruler' and she replied 'Party ruler. Like 30 centimetres'. And the laughs kept coming.

She spoke about her love for chair dancing ('it's relaxed'), and then said that chair dancing is not at all annoying for the person sitting behind you.

She asked what channel is our Mum and Dad, and proceeded to list the Australian TV channels. The consensus was most Dads are ABC, and she quipped 'some people get VH1 [dads]'.

We wrote a song together - it comprised four words that audience members called out: Seven, Love, Locomotion and Spaghetti. It was fun, and cleverly impromptu.

She talked about mispronunciation of words and asked the audience what words they used to mispronounce. She said 'uncomforbumptable' and the audience called out words such as 'amblience' (ambulance) and 'barkaloo' (BBQ). At the end of the show she said this discussion was her favourite part.

Someone yelled out that they'd named their dog Sia. She said that she feels like she could die now, and that's the best thing that could happen to her aside from being placed on a worst dressed list in People magazine after the ARIAs - she came between Cher and Padma Lakshmi.

She asked the audience whether the onstage banter was boring. I thought it was equally as great as the music! I loved how funny she is - it's really charming.

Sia closed the show with a 'fake encore' - comprising of Clap Your Hands while wearing her bubble wings. Literally, wings that rotated, attached to her arms, and blew bubbles via a fan. Adorable.

And instead of the regular bow, she and the band showed thanks with starjumps!

Sia was so lovely, so charming, fun and cute and so talented that I really really wanted to hang out with her for a day. Definitely not your average pop/super star.

After the show I thanked Sia the modern way by tweeting her. My tweet is the first grey one, the other is from Ruby Rose. And lookie!

My summer of live music

One thing I am looking forward to this summer is the live music I will be seeing. Granted, most of it takes place in the first half of December though.

My summer of live music starts on Friday 3 December with U2. I have seen U2 in 2006 - admittedly, I was quite disappointed because I'd probably built them up to be more fantastic in my mind. I really love everything they've released until and including All That You Can't Leave Behind, and nothing since. I bought a $40 ticket, so I'll be sitting up in the sky. I knew if I didn't buy a ticket, I'd be disappointed for not going. Other than Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, I think this song is my favourite by U2.

The next concert I am seeing is Bon Jovi on Saturday 11 December. I am going with the beautiful Cheryl from Business Chic. I am really excited about letting my inner bogan rock out. There are a few Bon Jovi songs I am fond of, including this one.

In These Arms is from the Keep the Faith album. Keep the Faith was the second CD I ever received, for my twelfth birthday in 1993. The first CD I received was Janet by Janet Jackson, along with my large boombox CD player just before my birthday.

Jon Bon Jovi is as hot now in 2010 as he was in 1993.

1993:

(source)

2010:

 (source)

So many concerts that I found it hard to schedule in my birthday party. I am having two - a dinner this Saturday night and drinks on Friday 10 December.

After Bon Jovi is Muse, on 15 December, right after a Christmas party. I bought tickets on impulse, on a whim, because I really enjoyed Muse's concert on DVD - I watched it three times in three days recently - and the tickets were cheap affordable. I read a recent article about Muse, and I think it's pretty cool Matt Bellamy had the dream to become a superstar and now he has. I don't know many of their songs, but I know that I love Time is Running Out more than their more recent stuff. It was the song that made me discover them. And I also saw them at the Big Day Out in 2004.

The last big concert I have a ticket to is Sia. I have really taken notice of Sia since We Are Born was released earlier this year. She has an interesting sound. The concert is not til February so it gives me a chance to acquaint myself with more of her music.

I think she's interestingly beautiful, and has a pretty brilliant (and eccentric) imagination.

(source)

The last concert I am looking forward to is Kings of Leon in March 2011. I really hope to get tickets to it, despite my rather unfavourable review of their current album. Fingers crossed I get tickets! I can't wait to see them play their old stuff...

I am sure there will be more smaller shows I'll see too.

I will blog about them all!

Fucking Perfect and more music I've been listening to

I have two big announcements to be made on this blog in the next day or two. Stay tuned. Or should I say, Tune into Radio Carly!

For now I will leave you with a few of my current favourite songs. Apologies for the insubstantial blog entry. Very tired. But so excited, too!

2010 ARIA Awards. Wow. A train wreck.

The ARIA Awards came and went. Yawn. A wrap up is on The Age. For the uninitiated, the ARIAs are the Australian Record Industry Awards.

I don't recall them being this shitty. And full of ring-ins. As Brendan Maclean tweeted: 'Because when I think music I think: Bob Katter, Carmen Electra, Lara Bingle and Geoff Huegill.' The ARIAs were deemed a sellout by Jimmy Barnes this week. And its future was debated.

I was excited about the 'new guard' nominated for awards. Some quality artists. I thought those who attended and hosted the awards would be too. Pity the award show wasn't the same quality. I love Australian music and I expect more from the industry to honour and recognise our fine artists. It was shameful. And shambolic.

Most presenters seemed uninformed and disinterested. The main hosts didn't actually host. The logistics of the show were disorganised. Most performances other than Megan Washington's and Angus and Julia Stone's were lacklustre I hated it.

I read some incredibly funny tweets about the ARIA awards tonight. I loved the observations people made.

Here are my twitter comments as the awards unfolded (click on pictures for sources):

I wish Powderfinger could have played a classic song of theirs for their last TV performance. Passenger. These Days? #ARIAS

What has Rebel Wilson got to do with the Australian music industry?

Megan Washington and Yumi Stynes. Two new girl crushes. #ARIAS

Anti drug ads on in ARIA ad breaks. Do the musos at the ARIAS see the ad breaks? #ARIAS #justsaying

Bob Katter is like a cartoon character. Why is he there??? #ARIAS

Bob Katter needs to work on his pronunciation. 'Ah-rar-ia' #ARIAS

Sia has overtaken Connie from Sneaky Sound System for most interesting outfit at the #ARIAS. Connie now dressed by Cue?

I like the fact that Sia's dress can be reused to rope off the forecourt of the Opera House post #ARIAS
Is Sia just singing/ad-libbing over a recorded version of her song? Can't work it out, mesmorised by her dress. #ARIAS

Taking a phenergan for hayfever. It will be a race to see which puts me to sleep first. #ARIAS or phernergan?

Shut the fuck up British guy fawning to Carmen Electra. Australian music is NOT about Carmen Electra's body. #ARIAS

Clare Bowditch I hope you are correctly forecasting the rest of the ARIA awards when you said 'it just keeps getting better'. Please. #ARIAS

Powderfinger's announcement they're playing 2011 Big Day Out was met with NO RESPONSE. Is it a fable? #ARIAS

I just want to hear Rebel Wilson tell me how many minutes until someone turns the #ARIAS off at the switch.

Tim Rogers to Kasey Chambers: 'please, please can you tell me what the hell we're doing here' - quote of the night. #ARIAS

The guy from Jet is superfluous next to James Matheson. Good looking, but disinterested. And uninformed. 'their single from their album'

Stan Walker (neck tatt) couldn't read Dan Sultan's name. He needed Fuzzy to help. Idol clearly wasn't a remedial reading class. #ARIAS

Best bit of the #ARIAS = seeing Angus and Julia Stone's video clip.

I love how Angus Stone didn't dress up for the awards. It's like a middle finger to the trainwreck #ARIAS

Is that Ruby Rose's real hair? I can't keep up with her hair changes. #ARIAS

Megan Washington you are the best thing about the #ARIAS. Holy shit you sure can turn it on.

I love the feathers. And the dress. And the haircut. And the performance. I love Megan Washington. #ARIAS

Jess Mauboy pronounced 'debut' as de-butt. Again, clearly Idol wasn't remedial reading class. #ARIAS

Axl Whitehead, are you gonna get your wang out? It could make the night more interesting. #ARIAS

Yes indeed. The ARIAS are a little bit of a disappointment. Modern Family guy, you said it. #ARIAS

Angus and Julia Stone. Wow. :)

A 5 sec montage and a small, feint, clap? Seriously, James Freud deserved a bit more of a tribute than that.

Nat Bass is a trillion times more upbeat than Angus and Julia Stone. But I love The Stones a trillion times more.

Isn't someone legendary meant to close an awards show? Then why do we see Guy Sebastian close the #ARIAS?

>>End of tweeting. Following the Twitter feed was far more entertaining than the ARIAs.

I felt embarrassed by the ARIAs tonight. It has become less about the music and more about... well, I can't pin point what it's about. D-Grade celebs? Apathy? A clear disinterest in and lack of awareness about our fine artists? I hope if the awards continue, it won't be as bad as this year.

I can't find Megan Washington's gorgeous performance online yet. I have to find it!!

On a side note, this new romance was suggested today. Cute couple. Angus Stone and Isabel Lucas. Though I can't imagine they'd be too talkative around each other.