Fave Movie Clip #2

Harold Crick goes shopping for an electric guitar in Stranger Than Fiction.The narration is just perfect. For many people I've met it seems like a love or hate film. I LOVE, LOVE this movie even more love for Will Ferrell for doing it. 

Fave Movie Clip #1

The Lonely Goatherd: The Sound of Music. How can you not be smiling when you see this part of the film?

In my most proper english accent:

"Isn't Julie Andrews just deeelightful?"

恭喜发财!

Gong Xi Fat Choi! 

(Happy New Year!)

I had a timely encounter with a lion dance after eating rice paper rolls with my 'ma in Richmond (Melbourne, Australia) this afternoon. The local news agent called on the blessings of the lions to come dance, eat cabbage, receive money in a red packet for its services and set some red pyro alight to scare all the evil spirits away.

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I miss being a kid. I saw this over and over for days during the New Year. I lived and breathed every Chinese Festival with my Grandparents (though my fave was, and still is the Chinese Lantern Festival). I was in charge of the cymbols for our own Lion Dances at Chinese school. At home all I did was over eat on home made prawn crackers and achar while listening to old red cassette tapes my Grandparents blared through the stereo for weeks. Looking back I'm surprised that our Italian neighbours didn't bang on our door to turn the noise down,  ah the beauty of the Melbourne suburbs ;-). 

Nostalgia is a great thing.  

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All I did for New Year was what I saw (above). No red packets, no prawn crackers... and just the thought of my dear Grandparents. Oh, I did pick up this neat hat on the way back to the car. 

The spirit is still in me though, and many blessings to you radcakes readers. To great health, prosperity and peace in 2009. Happy Year of the Ox!

I Can Only Dream

this poem is called "Someday, Someday"

Someday i will sell cd's-
so i can dress real real fly/

like kanye

and i will go to my show-
and tell my fans to eat shit and die/
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like kanye



thanking yous

Kids these days

This song and the clip are so incredibly perfect for one another. The clip feels exactly like what the song sounds like. Especially at 2:00 ish. Featuring the blackblack kids. 

The New Economy Stimulus Package...Me

I copped some new glasses the other day.


They're great.


They're a pair of vintage Dior Monsiuers that I found online and I'm so happy I got them.



But should I be?

I know that Costco sells frames for mad cheap, probably 6 times less than i paid for these. And further to that I've got like four or five frames floating around my apartment back in Sydney that I could have started wearing instead of buying new ones.

And not that I care, but the evidence is mounting that I make poor financial decisions.

Everywhere I turn I'm confronted by a failing economy where job security is an increasingly fleeting luxury.


With things as bad as they are there's probably no room for buying things like shoes Kanye designed:



...............................................................................but i still will.

Because when everyone else is unwilling to buy so called luxury items, preferring to appropriate their income streams towards boring things like food, water, and electricity...IIIII am more than happy to forgo sustenance for days on end, replacing meal time with time I spend walking around listening to the Chronic how Dr. Dre meant for it to be heard.

So what...am I just impervious to the onslaught of warnings and doom predictions that fill the space between the end credits and the opening montage of my daily routine at the moment?

Am i going to wake up one morning to find all the other sensible people getting by just fine on there well planned savings while I wander the streets searching for my next meal.

Inevitably I'll spend my whole life priding myself on thinking outside of the box only to end up living in one.




But that can't be a picture of me

look at the shoes dammit...

I'm gonna be one good looking bum.....i'll be wearing these




Diddy said it first but:

"it's all #@!&%# up now"...

this calls for a song >>>>>>>>>>>>

Janelle Monáe

Another great woman in music. It's always refreshing when this happens. I know she's been making music for a while now but this blew me away. Those words, those words!

For more on Janelle click here.

The Art of Letter Writing

I hope isn't dead. I think about letters received and written and the most poetic of words stem from passion, love and loneliness. It reveals feelings so deep that perhaps one may not be able to string such words together when face to face. 

It's true, (Ms. Doyle) that in the digital age the act of pen to paper is far more meaningful. Perhaps (unlike the book) we don't use words that were thrown around in the 1750s in a letter to a loved one these days. Despite this, language is so important, I sure hope the words we use on paper are far better than a lyric from a basic pop/cheesy RnB song from the last decade or so.

I picked up "Love Letters Of Great Men" today. The words between Denis Diderot and Sophie Volland are some of my favorite at first glance Here's two excerpts:

First from Diderot, 1759

"I am wholly yours - you are everything to me; we will sustain each other in all the ills of life it may please fate to inflict upon us; you will soothe my troubles; I will comfort you in yours...

Never was a passion more justified by reason than mine...

 I am as happy as a man can be in knowing that I am loved by the best of women"

pg. 30-31

From Volland, 1759

"... your very presence would not have delighted me more than your first letter did. How impatiently I waited for it! I am sure my hands trembled when opening it. My countenance changed; my voice altered...

My affection for you is ardent and sincere. I would love you even more than I do, if I knew how."

pg.31

Ying Ang

Some people are amazing.

Although as most of you know my own mode of creative release is through music, let's be real, most of the time music is formulaic. It's many lakes and ravines remain tainted by the capitalistic runoff of the fat cats uphill. And in many cases, not all, music is been stifled by the pursuit of happiness, which translates into the pursuit of cash for many.

The best art evokes emotion, forces you to confront issues, and grants you a perspective on things that you normally wouldn't have.


Ying Ang's work does more than that.

She is an amazing photographer and one of the most gifted artists I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.



I won't say any more...lest I detract...

please love it as much as i do

and here is her blog

http://posthalcyon.wordpress.com/2008/12/

DIRECTORY

Frustration flipped on the other side. The amount of times we've had to s-p-e-l-l street names, shop names, suburbs. Perhaps we should do this instead just to screw with it...

Ps. Fonejacker is THE best. The longer stints have made me cry with laughter... 

One more time, with feeling... 

Sell Out to Sell Out: Re-Invention

Hello young budding singer/songwriter/waiter!!!

Welcome to the first in a series of lessons designed to help you navigate the often tricky and hazardous roads of the entertainment industry.

Lesson 1: Surviving in a competitive market

So you've worked hard as an artist establishing yourself as the young heartthrob crush of millions of tweens now out there happily buying your cds:


Then the evil conglomerate that is Disney devises a scheme that will foil all of your best laid plans by trumping your one teen heartthrob from the hood, with three from the suburbs:

Blasted!!!

The tweens are bound to relate to their round the way clean cut charm more than your busted red Timbelands and "CZed" bling.

You may think to yourself "How can you possibly compete with that?"

Cue the light bulb...

What's the one thing that all girls old and young will always relate to better than a cute boy, no matter where he might be from?

Other girls!!!:


Problem Solved!!!



This lesson was brought to you by>>>

THE SECOND THING YOUR LAPTOP NEEDS

SPOTIFY!

I know that Roberto would still be filing through vinyl today but perhaps he would bend towards the digital realm - on this one exception.

It has been dubbed the 'World's Celetial Jukebox'. Spotify launched in Sweden last October and has over 90% of music catalogues at your fingertips. It's all good in Europe and the U.S. (I'm pretty sure) but has yet to launch in Australia.

Best yet, the artist gets paid. Mmm hmmm.... Spotify me, Spotify you...

Wow

Well it doesn't have to be said how amazing today is.

As much as I was griping before, I do have to say I feel incredibly honored to be here touring such an amazing and revolutionary time for this country.

I don't want to harp on too much because I know that everyone will be and I doubt any of us can do justice to the magnitude of the day.

But of course I see all things through music and I found this clip of Jay-Z in DC the other night doing a live remix of Young Jeezy's "My President is Black".

Now to clarify I think that Jeezy's track is dumb and focuses predictably more on materialism than on the new commander in chief.

However, the thing about this clip is not so much how good the verse is. I mean it is great as you come to expect from Jay. But the incredible thing is you can practically feel the electricity and the excitement in the air, even through the crappy qaulity recording.

He can't even get through four bars of the first verse without the crowd absolutely losing their minds.

The track doesn't start till around 1:20 so skip unless you want to hear Jeezy talking shit...


It's pretty incredible, check it here


just one thing though...

is everyone cool with us not reffering to the president as "my nigga" anymore?

that cool?

how bout not calling anyone that?

all gravy?

ok great thanks

=====UPDATE======


Here's the track

ONE OF TWO THINGS YOUR (MAC) LAPTOP NEEDS

Caffeine for mac. 

Last week was working away and getting REALLY annoyed at how my mac screen kept on dimming. I just wanted to glance at my screen every now and again! Without seeing BLACK! The cool guys that make up Autozamm said:

"You need Caffeine!" 

"Caffeine?" 

"Yes Caffeine. Caffeine for your mac. It's like a coffee cup on your desktop and you click on it to fill up, your screen will stay on all the time"

Wonderful! The delights of meeting people and them solving your woes after only meeting them for 3 minutes. Doesn't happen too often now does it?

So all you mac folk click on it. It'll make you a much happier mac user. Caffeine

Dear Roberto,

Dear Roberto,

You dont know me, but we have a connection. Heres why, in chronological order:

1. Sean and Fuzz write me about a blog. They want to start one. I volunteer to set it up, cos I secretly want creative autonomy.
2. Sean wants it to be called "Radcakes". No explanations. No alternatives. Me: "How bout, 'Radcake', singular?" Sean: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHH!! sghskghksfj" etc.
3. I rack my brain for 2 days, trying to think of an idea for the header.
4. First, I Google Image "rad". BMX bikes, neon colours, 80's haircuts. Gross. Too.......rad-y.
5. Second, I Google Image "cakes". i get a bunch of, well, cakes. BOOOOOOR. RING. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
6. I decide i'll draw it myself. That way we wont get sued, either.
7. As difficult as it is, I decide i will not succumb to the temptation of resorting to tiling a background of cutsy cupcakes in radical colours because that would be an injustice to our male contributor, not to mention an eye sore.
8. Finally, i decide on (see: header). I sketch him. I like him. He writes in hot pink chalk. He uses words like "radcakes" and appreciates good, wholesome, oldschool fun, ala hopscotch. He's an analogue kid in a digital world. I feel like i get him. We'd be friends.
9. Sean writes the first post.
10. Sean emails me. "NAZY! ITS ROBERTO!!! HOW DID YOU KNOW!!??! RAAAAADCAKES!" (Sean capslock types quite a bit)

Anyway, dunno if you dig the lilac socks i have you sporting, but i like them on you. Thanks for your mad telepathy skillz, Roberto. I think you're a pretty swell kid.

Love,
Nazy

pics: "rad" from google image search; gateaux by Leslie David. 

Fear and Loathing in Fresno

Something is wrong with me.

It must be me.

I'm back home for a break from work, which is music. For those of you who don't know that I live in Sydney and I'm originally from California. Pretty much middleton-anywhere USA part of California in a city called Fresno where the kids play basketball and drive their remote control cars in couldesacs while they're mothers sit in the shade sipping ice-teas while they discuss pan tone schemes so their mailboxes can coordinate. it's the kind of place where the neighbors get concerned if your dog looks a little chubby. (no joke it happened to me today)

It's pretty much the ideal, picturesque, downright perfect little slice of neighborhood.

I HATE IT!!!!

Everyone talks way too much...and says nothing.

And they all call you bud, or say things like "howdy stranger". Wyatt Earp lives in the burbs...

But I've been thinking, and i feel like it might not be them, it very well could be me in fact.

I feel like Robert Neville, the protagonist in the original I am legend. not the movie, the book. Its the moment in the very end where he the hero realises that he's not the hero anymore. He sees that although he thought he was correct in his ways and was saving the world, society had actually moved on without him and he was now the villain terrorizing a community that was completely content with where they had ended up...even if they were blood sucking vampires.

did i ruin that for you?...sucked in it was necessary

so maybe society here has moved on without me. Maybe I'm the villain in this scenario.

when they see this:



I see this:





And it's not just my neighborhood, it seems like the whole country has flipped since I've been gone.


When i lived here DL Hughley was making fun of people, Joaquin Phoenix was an actor, and the billboards were a respected music chart:





Now DL has a show on CNN, Joaquin Phoenix is a rapper, and the billboard chart is a joke:




That's it...

Time to get the hell out of dodge!

TALES FROM THE BIG DAY OUT TOUR

I'm in Sydney at the 'mo, via Auckland and Queensland over the last few days. I've been traveling with the Big Day Out music festival. The largest traveling music festival in the world, apparently. 

I've been surrounded, immersed in music. From Black Kids, to Arctic Monkeys, Lupe Fiasco, TV On The Radio, Neil Young, Prodigy to Cut Copy. I find it intriguing (and Sean most likely won't agree with this) how all these bands/artists interact with each other while they line up for lunch and dinner in the artist tent backstage. Duh!? Huh? How else would meal time play out? But then I brought this up with a producer and he thought the same thing... 

To me it's music school/camp where each group is a clique but everyone seems to get along. People from completely different musical genres having a hoot! Laughing, dancing in front of one another, commenting on each other's fashion etc. 

I imagine 'small talk' conversation between Jules and Katie of the Ting Tings with Lupe, "Should we have the calamari rings and chips this afternoon or settle with a burger and salad?". "This food looks good but I can't pork up before my set..." Ok enough insane imagined stories from me. Small talk is my least favourite kind of conversation. 

LUPE GETS BUSY AND GIVES ALMOST ALL HIS CLOTHES AWAY

Lupe went off in the Boiler Room. Commanded the stage with his slick lyricism and dancing. Forget just throwing the random white towel into the fan pit. Not only did his tee go in he threw his sweater out to the crowd that was ripped to shreads by the masses, two songs later (after 'Superstar' ) he swung both BAPEs out to the crowd in a split second, which, with any person's regular reaction, if they didn't slow it down like the matrix wouldn't have had quick enough reflexes to catch it and would've copped it in the face. So quick was his throw that I couldn't make out who became instantly messed up in the crowd.

It must be the best feeling to have a band that is so into your tunes. His band is tight, they don't mess around, and still well into his tour exchange a multitude of facial expressions which all mean "rad". Seriously, between the bass and keys player there must be 200 different facial expressions for having the best time.

ARCTIC MONKEYS VERY GC, AUSTRALIA

Arctic Monkeys have only really done 3 or 4 gigs after 13 months. Yet on stage on the Gold Coast Big Day Out everything was so fluid. Alex Turner is probably the most relaxed rocker I have ever seen on stage. He makes any guitar wannabe envious on how he glides up and down those frets. The new tracks sound awesome the only title I can remember is "Crying Man", I think the new tracks were different to the one's they performed at their side show in Wellington. 

Just some of the highlights...

More from my travels soon

x

THE STORY OF RADCAKES CONTINUES...

Radcakes. I like chain of events only cause if it wasn't for Roberto, Sean wouldn't have remembered such a cool word. Or should I say two cool words meshed into a one super cool one...

Somehow in history we (Nazy, Sean and I) all found each other in Australia. I badly wanted to blog with very close friends and now, we bring Radcakes from all different parts of the world. We drift to into one another every now and again but each day or every other day there will always be radcakes! 

Literally a radcake would look like the following...

Or like this... 

If only all parents would spend a week making our birthday cakes.

Hi Mom!

Yewwwwww it's here...

That's kind of exciting...in fact it's radcakes...as in radcakes is radcakes...

Radcakes being our new blog and radcakes being the word that i stole from a kid in year 5.

not when i was in year 5...no...he's in year five...now...and I'm 24...

I'm a jerk

Maybe I should explain. Many of you may be familiar with the uber hipster boutique japanese clothing label of the same name and think that they created the term:

http://www.radcakes.com/guys.asp


They didn't...

Story goes like this:

My friend is a teacher of sorts and he teaches children of sorts. One of said children is called Roberto, he's not really but if he was he'd grow up to be an international playboy...of sorts...so we'll say he is. Roberto always uses cool words that seem beyond his years. One day they were sitting in class and being pleased with something or other he stood up and exclaimed "Radcakes!!!!" My friend turned and said to him..."That's a cool word, you use a lot of cool words Roberto."...to which Roberto replied "yeah, it's tough work cause i have to sit around at home all day and think of them."

Hearing that story made me feel like this

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

I decided I would make it my mission to help spread the love for my new found slangression...that means slanguistic expression, i just made that up, how cool is that???

So when my my friend Fuzz hit me up and asked me if i wanted to start a blog I finally had a place where i could put my hard stolen new word to good use...

hence...radcakes...

Thanks Roberto!!!


Hmmmm lame first post indeed it tells you nothing about the blog, or me, or anything really

But at least the ball is rolling

I'll tell you about myself later and I'm sure the girls will do the same...but in the meantime thanks for reading my blog mom.