TIME FOR CLARITY

Riot Act (Pearl Jam's latest album) has this calming effect every time I play it on my car stereo... The music can be haunting at times, but you could also sense the equanimity in Ed's voice... Lyrically, I believe it's his best work to date...

Given the current political climate, and the band's established stature in the recording industry, Pearl Jam had the opportunity to make an album that would be the voice for awareness and understanding... And while not purposefully going out to write a "political album", what they have come up with is a beautifully structured masterpiece, that brings forth a sense of timeliness and relevance...

I have read various articles on the album, but this particular interview with Ed Vedder in The New Zealand Herald, probably best captures the man's thought process, and the band's chemistry...

SELADOR

I knew it!




Which Donnie Darko character are you? by Shay

SPACE - TIME CONTINUUM

* Spoiler Warning - Please read only if you've seen Donnie Darko...

Donnie Darko has to be one of the most warped out movies I have ever seen... I can only think of 2 others that have provoked as much thought and time/energy spent reading up on... (them being Fight Club and Mulholland Drive)...

These sorta movies require multiple viewings to fully understand what is going on.. and Dark Darko is no different... It has all the hallmarks of a cult classic - weird, warped out characters.. with delightfully insidious one-liners.. and a protagonist that we can all relate to (I have a dark side.. Don't you?)...

Moreover, Darko delves into that age-old mystery - TIME... What is it? Where is it? How does it work?

Scenario One - In the 12 Monkeys world.. time is circular... Everything has already been written (by who?), and your life is nothing more than a script for a play or a film... There are no other worlds or parallel universes... You have your life, and you will re-live it over and over again...

Scenario Two - In the Back To The Future universe, Robert Zemeckis will have you believe that time is linear, with an infinite number of parallel worlds (see Sliders)... Each decision, however small or insignificant they may seem, could have grave ramifications for the future...

In Darko, Richard Kelly (writer/director) creates a world that is boundless, yet finite... It's a world without rules.. and it's a world within a world.. within a world.. within a world.. et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

* FINAL SPOILER WARNING! *

Donnie learns how to control time... or does he?

Donnie chooses his own death... or does he?

Donnie finds God... or does he?

It is this ambiguity that I love about the movie... The ending is astonishingly mystifying... It reminds me of Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite (the last sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey)...

This is a more believable world... It is not until we are face to face with God, that we come to realise the inner workings of the world/universe/existence...

Now... go home and chut up!

Today, I learnt that two of my uncles and an aunt back in Korea had passed away over the last 12 months (it's a big family).. Not only that, but one of my cousins in Korea also died from Leukemia just a few weeks ago... I demanded to know why I was not told of this earlier, but mom simply said that it wasn't as if I took an active interest in my relos' lives back home... and she's right.. Before this news, I had no thoughts of going back there to see them any time soon (I have not been back in 7 years, and only been back twice since 1984)...

It is now up to me (once I get over the guilt) to figure out what is important.. Will I make a stopover trip to Seoul to see my grandparents and the rest of the relos? Time will tell....

SOME ENCHANTED EVENING

You know those nights... When everything seems to fall right into place.. When all your worries just dissipate.. When 'perfection' becomes a part of your vocab... Although rare these days, these nights can really exist (given the favourable planetary setting/alignment, and the right amount of luck)...

In the back of my mind, I always knew it could happen.. but I did not expect it to be on a night spent with La Famille...

Around this time every year, I take the family out for a meal... Last year, it was a lunch at Jonah's on Whale Beach.. This year, I chose an evening out at Doyle's by the Quay at The Rocks...



Maybe it was the chardonnay.. perhaps it was the warm evening breeze.. but I was just.. happy... for no other reason than being there.. taking in the view.. taking in the moment... I felt grateful for many things.. having the opportunity to treat my folks and spending time with my brother... It's times like these that the concept and beauty of family really hits home...

Throughout the night, I was playing hide and seek with Kim Klijsters, who was dining with Lleyton just a few tables away from us... She kept on looking our way, coz she didn't like the way I was taking piccies of everything... Talk about paranoid! (This came after seeing Turkan at the cinemas the night before - I dunno about her new blonde look)

To top off the night, a fireworks display went off in the harbour right in front of us as we were walking back to the car...

Unconditional friendships... It just does not work... I am SO over it...

What a summer it is going to be...

January 23 - Foo Fighters at Hordern Pavillion..

January 29 - Norah Jones at The Opera House..

February 11 - Pearl Jam (1st Show) at Sydney Entertainment Centre..

February 14 - Pearl Jam (3rd Show) at Sydney Entertainment Centre..

AND... Ed Norton just called me "cool" (on the Fight Club commentary track)... Does it get any better than this??

It's now official... For all you doubters out there, I'm going ok! I've got the visa approved.. Will you people just accept that I'm going already?!!

All I need to do now.. is book a flight and find a job... Easy........ *gulp*

This is Lia.. She is one of four polar bears at Sea World... All they do is sit there.. look cute and pretty.. play with their toys.. and sleep... Wonder what it takes to get a job like that...

While on the Gold Coast over the weekend, we also bore witness to one of Australia's most spectacular sights - THE INVASION OF THE TEENAGERS... As the thousands of pimple-poppin' booze-seekin' hormone-drippin' schoolies piled onto the streets of Southport, I could not help think back to the good ol' times...

Memories of November 1994 - The "I don't drink, I don't smoke" comment made at the Southport RSL Club.. Singing "Up Up Cronulla" in the toilets.. Sharpie getting bashed by a girl.. Hux pulling all the chicks.. Playing putt-putt everyday tanked.. Vitalogy.. and.. THAT chick...

I've had the whole week off work this week.. In fact, I do not have to worry about anything remotely to do with Van Leer.. or Greif.. or whatever the frig it's called now.. for two whole weeks...

Staying up, learning how to play John Mayer songs til the weee hours of the morning.. Waking up at 11am... Life is bliss...

The other upside has been the fact that I've been able to discover/watch Will & Grace on Arena... Never was a fan of the show before this week.. Didn't really take too much notice of it.. and never really gave it a chance.... But once you actually sit down and watch it, it doesn't take long to figure out that this is a sitcom at its mind-numbing best...

Eric McCormack (Will) and Debra Messing (Grace) are absolutely perfect in their roles, but the star of the show is, most undoubtedly, Sean Hayes as Jack.. I never knew how funny this guy was.. His 'funniness' has multiplied about five-fold after seeing an interview with him.. and seeing how 'normal' he is in real life...

Another show I have managed to catch up on is Whose Line Is It Anyway?... One can never get sick of watching the antics of Ryan, Wayne, Colin and to a lesser extent, Drew... Comedy at its spontaneously funniest...

Been meaning to post this for a while now... (yeh.. I know I'm a slacker...)

Two Fridays ago (Nov 1), I made my way down to Fox Studios to catch John Mayer perform live on Channel [V]... I missed out on The Metro gig the week before, so this was the next best thing...



He only performed 2 songs, Your Body Is A Wonderland and My Stupid Mouth (which I can play now!), but it was sure worth waiting and standing around for a good couple of hours... The perfect way to spend a day off work...

Obscure Pike Trivia: The way I found out about John Mayer is..... One morning, I saw an interview with Frank Muniz (yes, Malcolm from "Malcolm In The Middle").. He was asked a question on what sorta music he was listening to at the time.. to which he replied, "John Mayer"... Why I decided that little Frankie would dictate my musical taste that day, I do not know... But the fact remains.. I then proceeded to download "No Such Thing" pretty much straight away.. and have not looked back since....

yay!

-- o --

According to the dudes at Kabalarian:

"The name Pike gives you a strongly independent and highly creative nature, with drive and ambition to have experiences and accomplish things out of the ordinary. You can work intently at whatever is new and holds your interest at the moment, but your interest wanes quickly when drudgery and monotony set in. Obstacles to your progress or restrictions on your freedom to act create a sense of frustration which may cause you to feel resentful and even rebellious. You can then become intolerant of others, and caustic and belittling in your expression, thereby imposing stress on your personal relationships. Although you have a clever, quick, capable mind, your progress in life is restricted by instability in your affairs and misunderstandings with people. Your impulsive nature can lead to actions which you later regret taking, or to accidents. Relaxation is elusive, and depletion due to nervous tension can develop to the point where you become subject to moods of depression and morbid thoughts. Nervous tension centres in the solar plexus, with nervous indigestion and stomach ulcers a possible result."

Damn.. I didn't even realise Pike was a real name... but yeh.. that's pretty much on the mark fellas...

Here is a great article at Billboard.com with each member of Pearl Jam speaking about all 15 tracks on the new album "Riot Act"...

If you've downloaded "Arc" (track 14) already, you'll be amazed by what Stone has to say about it... Just unbelievable...

Only four more sleeps to go...

THEY'RE BAACK...

Pearl Jam are coming down under... Tuesday, Feb 11, 2003 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre... There are more shows bound to be announced...

Tix are on sale November 15th...

Let me know if you wanna.. (of course you wanna! it's Pearl Jam dude!)

Shit.. I haven't been this excited since.. well, the last time they were here...

and don't forget.. the new album, Riot Act, is out on Nov 12...

Pike is a school girl...

Interesting article on CSIRO's projections of Australia's population growth over the next 100 years..

Pike says... Bigger is better...

Challange me.

I'll challange you.

Make me think.

Make me cry.

Just do something.