Recovery
The head cold is in retreat, leaving me with the traditional cough, croak and cold-sore. Noice.
I haven't had the brain power to do very much lately, and I'd hoped to have been churning through Lily's quilt.
But all I've felt like is reading and knitting. Beanies for Will and his mates, who really like them. The endless rounds are quite soothing when you're feeling off.
And a Monteagle bag from Mason Dixon Knitting. You can find a lot of them on Ravelry, too. In my haste to start this one, I used the wrong sort of yarn and the wrong sized needles. But what the hey.It involves some fun stitches, and should all unravel when it's finished to reveal a handy string bag for shopping. It's quick, too.
:: We've been watching Mad Men on DVD. It's set in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in 1960. First episode was very clever, and the period is brilliantly created. But by the third episode, I need a break! So many hideous characters! Such rampant sexism and general arseholery. Shudder.
It won lots of Emmys, but I can see why it hasn't been a massive hit.
Plus, at the end of every episode you feel as if you've smoked a pack of Camels — without the filter tips — and downed a litre of scotch. I'll get back to it after a rest from it!
:: I wrote a story for my old paper back in Perth. felt a bit rusty at first, but as soon as I got the intro down, I was off!
:: We're off to see Neil Young tonight! Yay! With the election so close, he'll be hot to trot. I'll have to have a nanny nap this arvo to manage to keep up late tonight. Death Cab for Cutie is supporting — don't know them at all. But I've discovered — thanks to David — that the band name was the title of a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band from the sixties, which they performed on the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour. You can see that here. I've been a huge Bonzo Dog fan, since my brother and I lovingly watched every episode of the kids' show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, when we were very young.
:: We've almost settled on another apartment in New York for next week. Despite losing all our money on the last booking rip-off.
:: Got to go — need coffee.

Look familiar?How'd you like this black widow? She was in our garage this arvo — same untidy web as the redback, same beautiful body shape, same shiny black, and look ...
... the red flash is underneath, on her belly. It also seemed a little bigger than the redback.
I hope you're impressed with how close I got. David was watching proceedings and said, "I hope they don't jump!" At which point I got up in a hurry.

:: Here's a shot Will took of himself, with big fat smug smile, leaning on the stage at the Dandy Warhols' concert in San Francisco at the weekend. We saw them here in San Diego a few nights before Will did, and they were bloody fantastic.

:: We're waiting for the US version of Kath and Kim, which starts tonight in just over half an hour. I've seen a trailer, which looked okay, but the review in this morning's LA Times was not too hot, while very complimentary about the Australian original.

:: I spied this rubbish on a table in the living room soon after Will got home from college yesterday ... ... and was about to yell to him to chuck it in the bin when I noticed the contents.It's fun having a sculptor in the house!

:: We're off to Albuquerque and Santa Fe tomorrow. It'll be cool and dry, cold even, with autumn colour ... mmm! I'll be back in a little over a week — see ya!

Added slightly later: Forget to say — Bloglines isn't very reliable is it? It seems very haphazard about showing new posts, so I've probably missed quite a few. Kind of ruins the point really.
Also — I finally posted Larissa's quilt off to her this afternoon! All finished, quilted and bound, ends sewn in ... yay!

Martha!

There had been mention that Martha was going to put in an appearance at Rufus's show at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday night, and we were not disappointed. She stomped on stage in high heels and a satin dress that she really didn't seem comfortable in, judging by the amount of fiddling with it she did, and how often she yanked at it!

Rufus had sort of fluffed his way charmingly through a good few songs - though there were several that he did brilliantly - but it was with utter joy that we could sit back, relax, and watch Martha let loose on this ripper. Such a voice! It can be big and belting, and then tiny and childlike, smooth or husky, steady and quavering. And this song seemed absolutely perfect for her - she brought the house down.

Later, she returned to the stage with their mum, Kate McGarrigle, which was a further treat, and she sang - brilliantly again - Someone to Watch Over Me, dedicated to her brand-new husband of just two weeks. Aaaah! By this time we were in the encores, and Rufus, who had come out to do a previous number in Judy Garland drag, was now in his bathrobe, stockings and men's shoes - so there was a very humorous, laidback ambience, with much family banter between the three.

The next night, at the minuscule Hotel Cafe, off Hollywood Boulevard, was a far more intimate show. Martha was on stage for exactly an hour, from 9 to 10pm, and was the middle act of three scheduled for the night - but she was the headliner as far as were were concerned. So tiny was this place that Dave had been at the bar buying a drink when Martha came up and ordered a beer right next to him! And she had to walk right by me to get on the little corner stage - I'd snaffled a spot right up the front, and was only about 3m away from her.

She was very funny and warm, and joked a lot with the crowd - if you could call 50 people a crowd - about guitar keys, bootleg recordings and lyrics. A couple of times she started a song and swore when she realised the words had eluded her! But the crowd helped.

She did a few new songs and some of her more familiar stuff (Factory, the Car Song), and again we were knocked out by the variety of tone and depth of her voice. And she sings with her entire body, stamping her feet and getting right into it - if you watch the clip above of her doing Stormy Weather you'll see what I mean.

We'd been curious to see if Rufus or Kate McG would appear, and while Rufus was absent (probably recovering from what Martha said had been a big night the night before), Mum was there and came on stage to play on several numbers, and sang along with that unique, delicately warbly but distinct voice of hers. Oh it was wonderful, and we were so lucky!

As an encore, Martha and Kate sang a French (French-Canadian?) song, Barbara (with a break in the middle while Martha conferred with the audience over some of the words), and then Kate retired and Martha sang You Bloody Motherfucking Asshole, her heartfelt tribute to her dad, Loudon Wainwright III.

At 10 on the dot it was all over. Martha left the stage, the crowd thinned, and David and I walked off to the car and our two-hour drive back to San Diego. What a brilliant, brilliant weekend we'd had with the Wainwrights!

Rufus Wainwright at the Hollywood Bowl

This is just a short clip (not filmed by me) from the concert we saw on Sunday night - an absolute corker of a show, with a fabulous fabulous orchestra, a resplendent Rufus, sensational Martha, and even the legendary Kate on piano for a couple of memorable moments. So much fun!
As you'd expect of this heady mix of Rufus and Judy, this was an outrageous night for people-watching - and you should have heard the audience singing along!
Rufus's voice was not really up to it on several occasions - he was failing to hit high notes towards the end of the night, and even early on, many of the speedy, jazzy numbers were completely beyond him.

The orchestra, though, was out of this world. Fab big brass section, strings and the works.

But Rufus was the first to acknowledge his shortcomings and laugh them off, as did the indulgent audience. He introduced several songs with warnings that he had troouble witht hem, and he ended one particularly difficult song in a blur of words and then 'Whatever!' No-one cared; everyone cheered.

The whole point seemed to have been to recreate a 1961 JG concert right here at the Bowl, and to worship at the temple without slavishly copying Garland's style. And that's what he did.
There was a real Hollywood sort of moment when he spied Debbie Reynolds sitting in the front row and went down to give her a kiss.

When Martha came on and sang 'Stormy Weather', you could hear a pin drop - and later she came back and sang 'Someone to Watch Over Me', in honour of her new husband of two weeks. Both songs were absolute magic, and Rufus was clearly out-performed, though he had a big enough personality to carry it off with grace and affrection. It was all too lovely!

:: Dave and I stayed the night in a marvellous hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, just a walk from the Bowl, and spent Monday in LA.
That night we saw Martha perform in a club that wasn't as big as our Gloster Street family room. the complete opposite of being in an audience of about 10,000 the night before!
I'll post more on all that later ...

A few crowded hours ...

On Thursday night, some hotel group had bought out the whole of Bondi for a private function, and as this was our first buy-out, Dave felt he had to stay to see how it all went.
At nine o'clock, he saw some people outside wondering what was happening, so he went out to tell them about the private party ... and then he recognised them.
It is SO good to have a husband with a razor-sharp rock and roll mind! They were Crowded House, in town for a concert, and they had walked several blocks from their hotel to check out the Bondi, as they'd heard so much about it. Can you believe this?
Anyway, Dave pulled himself together, grinning from ear to ear, and with okays all round from private party people, he and Michelle, our marketing wiz, installed them in a gleaming boab in the restaurant area at the back of the venue, which was not being used.
Needless to say, Bondi had another party going on that night! The result was that Dave got home at 3 am, completely legless (so was Nick Seymour, the bass player, who was still hungover when the band started playing), and we had 10 tickets to last night's show, plus ...

... invitations to party on afterwards!

The concert was incredible. What a band. So polished and accomplished. All but the bass player and the drummer played several instruments and sang, which must be why they can achieve such a rich, layered sound. How many wonderful songs have they put out?
And the audience, like all American audiences I have been in, was just fantastic. They knew all the words, they hollered and whistled and cheered and sang along, and thoroughly partied. It was SO much fun!

Neil Finn's son, Liam, was the support act and played along with the band in the main part of the concert. Very happy to report he seems to have the full complement of the Finn musical and cuteness genes (... but he should lose the beard!)

Afterwards, we joined a very sedate and privileged little group who waited for the band to emerge. Not my sort of thing, in all honesty - but we really wanted to thank them for the tickets; the show had been a sell-out, so it was no small thing to get freebies.

And yeah - I did the daggy thing and got Neil to autograph my sticker so I can send it home to my brother, who is a huge, huge fan.
So ... wonder who else will come a-knocking at our door? Ain't it grand?

Floracolora

I hate to blog without pics - maybe it's my newspaper history: no story worth its salt should be without a pic!
Anyway, these glorious six-foot cannas are rioting in my front garden. I didn't plant them - must have been a previous tenant - but I love them, especially as they stand in front of a huge bougainvillaea, and the colours really zing.

We have a rabbit living in the front garden (can you believe it? I mean, this is the epitome of Cookie-cutterville suburbia) and every now and then I find one of the cannas is lying across the lawn because the bunny's had a nibble at the stem.

:: We went out last night, with our chef, Chris, and his lovely wife, Amanda (baby due late October - so exciting!). The excursion was the result of a visit to Bondi by the English band, Squeeze. Now, not having ever been a fan of Brit-pop, I wouldn't know them from a bar of soap, but David has long been a huge huge fan, ever since seeing them in England in the early '80s, when I think they were called UK Squeeze and had Jools Holland on keyboard.
Anyway, being the big bold groupie that he is, he went straight up to them at the bar and introduced himself, and I think he actually put his hand on his heart and said: "You guys are my heroes!"
So-oh, we had tickets to the best seats in the house for their concert. It was at a town in the mountains about an hour east of downtown, called Alpine. The government allows Native American people to build and run casinos on their reservations, and at Alpine the Viejas people of the Kumeyaay Indian nation have a huge complex, called Viejas, with a casino and a massive outlet shopping centre, in the middle of which is an amphitheatre-style concert arena.
The architectural theme is sort of, ummm, pueblo-moderne, with waterfalls and fountains and palm trees wrapped in fairylights.
The support band was a pretty cool set-up from NY, the Fountain of Wayne. And when Squeeze came on, I realised I did know a couple of their songs, but the concert sound was SO bad that it was a bit of a fizzer really. It was incredibly loud - which you can tolerate if the mix is good. But it was truly awful; painful even. I was quite relieved when it was all over - though it was a great disappointment for their Number-One Fan next to me!

:: Fab Sunday dinner coming up. Squeeze's Number-One Fan has spent all arvo in the kitchen making one of his amazing slow-cooked lamb casseroles, with red beans and potatoes in the pot. Yum-oh. Seeya!