[sketches in a moleskine]

Long before Arj Barker started appearing in ‘Flight of the Conchords’ his name had been branded around Sydney as the comedian to watch. He’s not Australian, but he’s been touring here extensively for quite a few years now and has built up quite a healthy reputation. So I finally got the chance to see him on thursday night at the state theatre. Overall it was a quality gig but there was one segment where he was talking about the VHS video that not only caught me in stitches but also saw a healthy dose of the laughter tear dripping down.

Apologies for the lack of blog updates in the past month, I’ve been quite busy travelling, firstly I had to make a trip to Delhi for a work project, and less than 3 days after arriving back home I was off again, this time to Europe and North Africa where I was invited to attend a friend’s wedding in Morocco. I also made a stop in Paris, Barcelona, London and Edinburgh, hopefully when I get some time on my hands I’ll be able to post some updates from the trip.

A couple of weeks ago I received a tweet from a friend with the simple word ‘Wow’ attached next to a link to an article. The article in question was ‘ A Divided Prom’ published in the New York Times by Gillian Laub. It covered a simple enough event, a high school prom, but what made this coverage dramatically different to any other prom in the U.S or the world was the fact that in 2009 a high school in a little town in Georgia was still holding segregated prom’s. The white population of the graduating class of Montgomery County High held their prom on a Friday and the following night the black graduating students of the same class held their prom at the same venue. What was startling about the coverage besides the obvious racist sentiment that is blatantly shown in the school’s inability to hold a single prom or to prevent segregated prom’s from taking place, is the voice of the student’s.

Full coverage with voice excerpts and photos from the article

I finally got around to visiting my granddad today, he’s been in a nursing home for a good few months now. Reaching a century, he’s still as tough as I remember him, sure he’s got a few more wrinkles on his face, but I was still staring at the same man that used to tell me stories about the Korean war, how he managed as a lieutenant to get through 1950-53 without having to pull his trigger, about working as a milk boy while studying at a prestigious university in Japan during the Japanese colonisation of Korea. Now that I think of it I was probably only about 5 when I pressed him about the war, a lot has come and gone since then, namely my naivety. But I’d still like to remember the story as is.

More photos from my visit here.

After a few drinks at the AB Hotel, we decided to drop by Baja Cantina for dinner. Always on the look out for quality dining in Sydney, this place was chosen on a whim and it did not disappoint! I chose the Taco (corn, hard shell) with shredded beef, and it came with some nicely presented salsa rice and black beans on the side. And what better than to wash it down with some Sol cerveza! Most memorable mexican dining experience I’ve had in a while!

Update: Also found out afterwards that the Baja Cantina won Season 2 of The Chopping Block…

Quite surprised to see Animal Collective getting some mainstream screen time, and on letterman no less. ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ is a great album, check it out if you haven’t already!

The past few days I’ve been stuck in a book by Barack Obama titled ‘dreams from my father’…I guess you could call it a bio but it has much to do about his upbringing and growing up as a mixed-race kid in america than about general memoirs. As bio’s go – this one is quite a compelling read so far, I’m really appreciating how frank he is with his writing!

Via Alley has moved into the galleries victoria (TGV), the original importers of Graniph Design t-shirts sell everything from limited edition bearbrick figurines to a demekin camera. Check them out.

Shop RG26A, The Galeries Victoria (TGV)
500 George Street, Sydney

It looks like Spike Jonze’s long awaited film is actually going to see a release this year. I’m pretty sure principle photography wrapped up at least 3 years ago in Melbourne and since then there’s been all sorts of rumours flying around about re-shoots. Here’s the trailer!

Grabbed the latest vice mag on my way home today, and low and behold a GP summer catalogue insert dropped right out of the middle page to reveal a whole host of new items…hmm ‘Moleskines‘ and ‘Taschen Books‘….si…’Moleskines’ and ‘Taschen books’!!!!…I guess we can expect a crowd of fluoro wearing teens to be rocking a day-to-day moleskine on one hand and a steve mcqueen taschen book on the other…obviously not heard of thinking within the square?