Wee Wee

Jesus, why is everything in France in French?? Please excuse any mistakes as this euro keyboard is all messed up. Well after a flight across the channel and three train trips I have made it to Belfort for the big gig. I am heading out to the camp ground tonight and it all kicks off tomorrow for three days. I,ll check back in then and let you know how it went. One quick word tho and that is fuck my pack is heavy with the tent in it. I,m sorry Andrew but that sucker is going in the bin when I,m done. Big ups D

Shit I'm about to go to France

I am feeling a lot better now so thank you to all of you that sent flowers and gift baskets wishing me a speedy recovery. I'm about to head to France for two weeks. All I have is a tent, a tentative booking at a youth hostel in Germany tonight and a ticket to the festival somewhere across the border. I haven't been able to get a ticket out of France back to London yet so I might need to check what visas I need to say on a little bit longer.....maybe I will finally get to live out my life long ambition to milk goats for a living, that or rake sea salt. I am hoping to meet some frenchies over there and stay at their holiday chateau on the coast.

Well here goes....au reviour(????), Damian

New York: Fame, misfortune and the subway

Downtown Aldinga Beach and Manhattan have a lot more in common than people care to give New York for. Both are the economic and culture hearts of the surrounding area, both attract a wide range of people hoping to make it big and both are places I could easily live.

I fare welled my brother and South Columbia (after missing my flight due to some slightly wrong turns and a run in with a mile long freight train, had to spend 4 hours in an airport the size of Kingscote's!!!!) and rocked into the biggest smoke of all on Tuesday arvo. I managed to negotiate the subway and to Brooklyn where I stayed with some good friends from Perth, Lydia and Jack (peace out to the WA massive). They are currently touring around the world, with Lydia having sometime soaking up NYC whilst Jack has a dream job in the Mountains of Canada.

We headed out for a look around, and the first decent coffee since I left, thanks to the cafe where Lydia works (no one knows what a fucking flat white is over here, asked for one and got a "flat water", three words America "Queens Fucking English" (sorry about that)). We ended up at a bar, where Lydia and Jack had connections, to have a few drinks. The Beat (or The English Beat as the Americans know them, an old skool 80/90's slightly sca band) where playing. Now I don't like to drop names but I really have to on this occasion because this night was very New York. Lydia (and myself to a very very lesser degree) know Heath Ledger from the old Perth days. Heath and his fine lady turned up at the bar to say hello a little bit later on in the night and whilst at our table where visited by the one and only Michael Stipe from REM (I told my brother Andrew and he said that I should have asked him to buy me a beer as some form of compensation for having bought the Monster album). Well to cut a long and boozey story short we ended up in the back room with, aside from the other hangers-on; Drew Barrymore, the other guy from Brokeback, the chic from third rock and a couple of Tommy models. Needless to say I played it rather cool in the corner and didn't talk to any of them.

The night was only capped off by the slice of Pepperoni pizza on the way home!!! I had at one stage of the evening though that I had wiped off all of my photos from my camera of the trip so far but have since had the majority (except San Fran) recovered from the memory card. So to have a big night and a slice was a good way get over that and say hello to NYC.

The next few days were taken up looking at sneakers (shit there is some stuff over here, $650 US for original Jordan Ones) and generally wondering the streets. Didn't really do any of the tourist things other than timesquare on the last night but had a good chance to check the city and subway out. I really love the subway, not sure why but it is really cool, I think I'm just a sucker for mass transit suburban light rail networks.

The other big highlight was the baseball, Mets v Reds, with 50,000 people at Shea Stadium in Harlem. Had a pretzel and a few Bud Lights with Jack and Lydia but the Mets ending up going down after Billy "The Sandman" Wagner (complete with Metallica soundtrack) lost it for the Mets pitching in the top of the ninth!!

I managed to get to the airport on time and am now in London. Have had a bit of a look but am taking it easy as I feel a dose of the Flu coming, thanks to a few nights on the town and a shitty trans-Atlantic flight. I'm about to head back to my brothers flat prior to England's big game this afternoon at 4pm. This town is crazy about the wog ball!!!!! Hoping to catch the Aussie game tomorrow. Watched the last group match in an Aussie bar, "The sunburnt cow" in New York. It was such a relief to get through to the group of 16 and even better when the owner shouted the bar to drinks, pity it was Fosters.

Photos of New York to come, hopefully prior to my departure for France on Wednesday.

Peace out, Damian

Some shots from the wedding

Well my brother has done it, he and Molly got married in good old South Carolina on Saturday night. It was quite an awesome affair with one of the best, best man speeches I have ever heard, delivered by a mate of Nathan's from Perth/Melbourne, Trusty!!!. It wasn't a really formal shin-dig which allowed for a more relaxed atmosphere and more drinking. I would have to say that one of the highlights (other than the 13 bridesmaids, please see pictures for a small selection of the quality on tap) was being introduced to the crowd with my other brother along the lines off "and all the way from Australian.....lets all give it up for Nathans two brothers.........Andrew and Damian!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was well WWF and of course the crowd just hit the roof. The other highlight was doing the "Safety Dance" with my two brothers (classic "Men without Hats" song from the 80's) in true goth/brit pop style.

We kicked on after the wedding at a few bars around town and then hit the hotel for a final hurray. Got up the next day feeling a little shabby but pulled myself together for the Australia v Brazil game (it was on at noon here) Pity about the result but we had a fair crack.

One more day of fried food (I ate deep fried cat fish balls at the wedding) before I hit NYC and catch up with an old friend, and maybe a few new ones.

Oh and one of the shots is from the pre wedding stag ten pin bowling championships during which my brother banged down seven strikes in one game (5 in a row!!) to score a well massive PB of 213. (Corny line warning) It was indeed the luckiest day of his life.

Hope all is well, Damdaw.

Choice bro airlines

Well folks, its been a long time coming but the first blog is here (I know that you haven't been able to sleep in anticipation). I'm currently in South Carolina, having got here last night and having the biggest night on the turps for quite some time, but more about that later, I need to update the trip so far.

Had about as good a flight as you can have traveling between hemispheres. My good cousins at Air New Zealand made the flight so much better, no matter how many times I hear them talk I can't help but snigger, hey cus??

I got to San Fran around lunch time Friday and made my way into the city on the train (called the BART for all of you light rail freaks playing along at home). I popped up in the centre of the city and straight away was bombarded with some of the craziest shit that I have ever seen and some of the most classic Americanism. Within the space of 5 mins I had given money to a disabled homeless Vietnam vet in a wheelchair, was asked if I wanted to "buy any weeeed" by a black gangster rapper with some crazy arse silver capped (and engraved!!!) teeth, there were some people playing chess for Jesus on the sidewalk, some hommies break dancing for money and a huge screaming match between a couple of bums. It was like holly shit..... all the stuff on TV is true!!!!

I couldn't put my bags anywhere, thanks to the removal of all public lockers post 9/11 (the fucking terrorists have won if you ask me) so cruised around a little with all my shit until I found a park and sat down in the sun for a while which was a nice change from Adelaide weather. From there I hooked up with my mystery host Albert and headed to his apartment. After all of the speculation Albert turned out to be a really nice guy and ended up putting up with me for my whole stay in SF (cheers heaps bro).

The next couple of days I checked out various parts of the city and have decided that I could easily live there, plenty of cool people, cool shops and a bit of street art/stencil stuff going on. The homeless situation is probably the biggest draw back. I think that the locals are a bit desensitised to it but you guys know me, I'm both a sucker for people with a sob story and a freak/weirdo magnet, both of which play against you.

One of the biggest highlights was the Haight Street fair. The Haight area is the birth place of the Hippie culture and the site of the first ever public performance of electronic music (thanks radio national). The street fair involves closing the street (about a km) with two stages at either end and then in the middle have a huge amount of stalls and food, with people just walking around smoking spliffs. There where a few stalls with beer and stuff on tap but with a bottle shop on every corner people just had massive cans of beer in brown paper bags. For some strange reason almost everyone was drinking Fosters so a though I better have one as well, ended up getting a can that had about a litre of beer in it. I got some great shots of the craziest cats drinking fosters and some corker Vice do's and don't style shots (mainly don'ts of washed up tie died hippies).

The other highlight was the Museum of Modern Art, some good stuff but the best bit was Jeff Kooms Michael and Bubbles porcelain statue, freaky and creepie, yet strangely mesmerising. I tell ya I don't know much about art but I know what I like.

Well that pretty much brings me to the deep south. Got in last night and met all the in-laws over pizza at the "freaky mushroom". Then headed out with a couple of geezer mates of my brothers. We went to a few joints around town with the english and Australian accents in fine form. Ended up at a bar were they throw the peanut shells on the floor, a few of us ended up staying after they closed to keep drinking and next thing the suns coming up and I feel like shit (hence the poor form on the typing).

Well my brother (the one not getting married) gets here soon, with the other one hopefully a few days away. A big g'day to everyone and also a big sorry to the Onka crew for dropping you in the shit with all my work (cheers Callum, will sort ya out when I get back). Talk to y'all again soon now ya hear!!!