Reminder

Shit's been getting kind of real lately, which has been super lame. In the midst of all the stress and horror and depression and angst you kind of forget the simple things that can really help. Like listening to music.

I HAVEN'T BEEN LISTENING TO MUSIC.

How did I not spot this??

Anyway, Oli downloaded Smith Westerns' Dye It Blonde for me, and seriously, within the first three seconds of the first track I remembered...

MUSIC IS AWESOME.

Really.

I feel better now.

To-do

Man, these past two months have really disappeared. School for me this year has been an ever ceasing to-do list, so I've been living under self-imposed hibernation for a while now (see this time last year), forcing myself to do work that I've managed to go to ludicrous lengths to avoid (art art art art english english english classics classics music).

Procrastination is a young mans game. Being a young man, I take every opportunity to live up to this expectation.

For instance, I was given a copy of Thomas Hardy's novel Mayor of Caterbridge (a gripping account of the ups and downs of English wheat exchanges) on sign out day last year, preparing me for the 7th form Scholarship English class that I had managed to get into. The thought of completing ample preparation for classwork ahead of time (no doubt resulting in an engaging and stimulating learning environment) produced an excitement that motivated me through the first three pages of the novel. And that was where it stayed until about a month ago. I'm not going to lie to you. I had plenty of time to read it during the entire term we spent studying the book (an entire term that was essentially lost on me). And yet, I somehow managed to convince myself that the months lying ahead of me until the november exam provided me with endless opportunities to catch up, at my leisure, and read one fucking book. How wrong I was.

I'm currently halfway through, reading a strict chapter a night. It's actually not too bad. Everythings sosososooo melodramatic! Can I get a big *M* for melodrama? Look, I don't CARE that your daughters actually not your daughter but shes kept unawares while she lives with your mistress who's actually in love with your competitor who your dead wife wanted your daughter marying but she can't because she's meek but slowly coming to terms with herself and her hidden beauty but the townspeop;'.le hate you becaus...e you're actually a cunt but her!!! real fgathers!!! actually alive acxfnd reclaims her and yoru forieigi ntioe wheatiodknrojtbro88k;....8...ensobrietyoa..th. ntoiwu';.erbh religiousechosekpepe!!1!!

AHHRHGG IT'S ALL SO IMPORTANT TO EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE!!!!

I need to go outside for a moment.

Things Today

These holidays are going splendidly. I climbed a hill with a bunch of complete strangers and yet hat wiked fun, ran down Moorhouse Ave with some little kids, got in a parade and took lols of photos, walked far far too much (which I always enjoy), got over my fear of dogs and intersections, almost wrote a book and watched the end of Amilie with Paige (who, just so you know, is awesome. She explained to me her big awesome ingenious theory about the personality traits of all the numbers. It's brilliant. Next time you see me, ask me about it), walked more, watched more movies, watched Were the Wild Things Are and ate far too much popcorn (which I always really enjoy), and then slept in too far. MOST interstingly, my hatred of Letterman turned into a strange obsesive addiction. Hmmm... he's still not funny but the show somehow comforts me. Then I had minor surgery.

I had this weird mole thing on my neck that sprung up during exam week. I picked at it (yes... hate me) and it bled. And then it scabbed so I picked more (Go on! i know im a terrible person) and it bled more and grew and grew into something monstrous and disgusting. Luckily I kept it hidden behind a slick badass bandaid. Today I finally got it removed. I got a sick local anisthetic and they cut it all out. Amazingly they didn't get blood all over my tshirt which I was most worried about. The moles on my neck, and so quite close to all these delicate arteries and things. So, the other day, when I was all nervous about the operation, Sam and Oli were teasing me. Worst call came from Sam; "Hey Callum, you know what's going to be fun? Bleeding out."

Bastard. Luckily, he's moving out today. Party starts now.

ps. Photos coming soon. I tried to upload the video of Oli jumping the river but gave up. Il get it eventually. It is badass, I promise.

Los Cappuccios - Thom's guest post..?

Today I hung out with Thom. So he's going to tell you what went down. And other things that are on his mind. Take his word for gold....

Rolled up to town. Met up with the Custard Boys, they were at the library, went to.. Yellow Rocket's Coffee and Bagels cafe.. We had coffee and bagels.. Callum got.. basil pesto with garlic and herb cream cheese and a cappuccino. I (thom) had a.. Hazelnut with boysenberry jam and cream cheese bagel and.. a flat white (i'm boring and bad at coffee/it was the cheapest).
After an hour of organising our RDU application form (I have a spew on my blog about RDUing stuff if you're realy bored.. which you must be if you're reading a blog :) and some awkward interjections by Oli about it all.. After a spell of this, and a pretty wee Danish lassy signing us up for a petition involving the world and saving it (well.. might as well give it a shot) we were finally off to UC for RDUing..
After a pleasant walk through the campus we got there. Seeing as we hadn't actually met Benet (the boss man), we're pretty sure we passed him in the stairs, he was carrying soup.
The reception lady took our mix tapes and our form for us, Benet was out to lunch you see.. He's gonna call us and get shit properly sorted.
Off we were back to the cave (it's what I call the Custard boy's home.. Where else do bears live?) via waiting for half an hour for Oli to man up enough to jump a wee.. not even 6 foot wide river via an ice cream stop via checking out their section (they're building a house you see..) we were finally home.
Not much else happened. We nibbled on some grainwaves on our walk.

[*]ENDE[*]

Thanks Thom. Very brief.

It was so hot today...

I got a headache, walked home with my blazer off, I ate a popsicle outside this afternoon, I had a long nap, dad barbecued burgers... they were undeniably exquisite, its 8:02 and its still sunny and I thought of the poor people in the northern hemisphere getting colder and colder and I laughed and laughed.

Because of my Europe trip earlier this year I got two springs. I feel bad. But so happy. The downside of it is that winter this year was exceptionally hard, having tasted Parisian spring and loved it.

I feel bad. But so happy.

HAPPY ONE MONTH!!!

Happy One Month Anniversary bloggers! So far the blog is going quite well. I shall give it three bold L's (for Lapse) out of five...

L L L * *

I know what you're thinking, and yes I agree. Three L's in a cop out. When you rate three out of five, you don't really like something but you don't want to admit it to their face. Everyone knows that.

To celebrate, the band went out and played our first gig in ages ...at Zebedees. Oli doens't like Zebedees, but its where everyone starts. It where you go when you're to slack too organise proper shows. I enjoyed the show but left feeling very self conscious of our band. We were the odd band out. We had non straightened hair, no hats on, we play with too many chords, and we dont have names like Matt and Nick and Jacko. We have names like Jack Callum and Oli. Which is similar but importantly different.

I like Zebedees. Its familiar, like that uncle you only see at Christmas and always gives you colouring in books even though you havent been 8 for a while. AND plus there's one nice guy and one not nice guy who run it, which is even and I like even.

I rate Zebedees 3 out of 5

L L L * *

ps. I had a funny photo of jack standing outside Zebedees but I cant find the camera chord. So heres a picture of Danny Lee. But dont go thinking I like golf (or steam). He's celebrating too.

pps. I've almost finished my art folio. It's due monday. For people who don't know me well, this is my big thing for the year. And twelve credits too. I'm going in to school tomorow (SATURDAY?!?!) to paint so il take some photos to show you... if I can find the damn chord!!

Saltarello

"One of the most popular medieval dances was the salterello. Whereas an estampie my have been a stamping dance, a saltarello was a sprightly hopping and jumping dance (salterello is Italian for 'little hop')."




This is what my day has consisted of. With more to come.

Wa Wa Wah?

Things are starting to get very intense lately.

It sort of all just hit me this week... like a vicious simile. I realised how little time I have and just how much shit I have to get done.

For example... This week one monday night I completed my art history internal (that was actually due LAST tuesday... but as a class we had collectively forgotten). I was up til 2:30 doing that. But I could have got it done quicker but I got badly distracted by some far too intresting people. Tuesday I painted at school until around 5:00 and then walked home, then slept. On Wednesday I had band practice, then Samba Band practice with Jeremy Thin at CSM til around 6. Then I came home and started my English Research project. Worked til twelve that night.

On Thursday night I worked until 3:00 am on English Research. It was shit and I could have started it much earlier but its 3 credits so it doesn't reeeally matter.

Sure sure, everyone has pressure. But I've never had this much before so I'm sort of slowly starting to freak out. Plus Ive still got two music internals due on Wednesday as well as my art folio due next Thursday (FUCCCKK!! And I have to do three times as much next year!!! AHAHSGF) and then Cambridge English exam that Friday. And then just after that my NCEA externals start. So its fun for the whole family.

This year Ive learned its okay to fail. But I dont want to fail.

On a related note, we were informed yesterday that Art History (the GREATEST subject ever) is cancelled for next year. This will NOT do. Me and Eli are going to fight to keep it. Its going to be a sick mission. Possible documentary opportunity.

Im going to go paint.

Sorry Sean...

Woah. Just got back from a super sick So So Modern gig at the Media Club. First gig ive been to in ages. Its great to see such a mint band playing an all ages gig (on the same night as a r18 gig at Goodbye Blue Monday... respect) but also, actually enjoying it. Sleepy Age were first up. For a really solid band playing some enjoyable dancey music, they didn't seem that pleased to be playing. They seemed sarcastic and akward. Okay sure, they had a rather small audience (it was a pretty early show... it started ten to seven) and il admit, little indie scenesters aren't exactly the most responsive audience. It's just a shame really that some bands dont give it their all for an audience of kids. Thank god we have people like Disasteradio.

Out of my top 5 concert experiences, 3 of them feature Disasteradio. Sooo much freaking fun. You've got to admire a person who can make an entire audience go monkey fucking nuts in dancing pleasure.... all by himself! Love him. Disasteradio... never change.

I hadn't really seen much of So So Modern. I stupidly missed out on their last gig because of ....something (cant remember... I think it was Scriptless). So slick, so exciting... dangerous and yet hypnotically comforting, their music is sharp and electronic but still maintaining that live power through guitars that is missing from electronica. So So Modern are from a distant future where humans have mastered guitar skills and sculpt sound through crazed effects boards. Man those guys are clever... that shit takes years of hard gigging to get tight.

Well... I know i'll definately be borrowing their new album from Thom.

Now... I need to go paint (will he finish in time???).

Coming up on monday, Ill tell you a new game. It's a goodun.

I think I may be going deaf...

It's not that bad. It happens to everyone/anyone who plays in a band and goes to poorly mixed and overtly ouch inducing live shows and listens to music very loudly on headphones. But im not complaining.



I'd much rather be deaf before im 21 then listen to music at a reasonable volume.



But the deafer I get, the louder I have to turn up the music to make up for it.



Whenever I play someone music off my mp3 they go "WOOAH, turn it DOWN! Are you trying to kill me??!"



Im not trying to kill them.



My ears rang for ten minutes today for no reason.



I dont want my ears to ring for no reason.



Now, I wear earmuffs at band practice.



On a related note, I told my History of Art Class that my dad assembles earmuffs for a day job. He's probably assembled most of the earmuffs in the South Island for the past 15 years. All the big earmuff companies get their earmuffs manufactured at the factory in Christchurch my dad works in. He's really good. In fact, he probably assembled the earmuffs in your garage.



My dads really an architect.

NB. Not really my dad... Its an illustration.

Counting Down....

I've been strangely anxious about something all day.

Its sort of like those mysterious unidentified jitters you get when your excited about a party or an awesome movie you've been dying to see. So yeah, its like the bad version of that.

I think the main culprit is the looming school term. It's the Saturday before term 4 begins. Yes, term 4. And that means its exam time, stress time, no party time and (because I'm a extremely paranoid person on better days) IM GOING TO FUCKING CRASH AND BURN time.

So I'm worried that I'm wasting my time today doing nothing before school makes me do a million things all at once. But maybe thats a good thing...

Today was pretty all right. Highlight would have to be going to the Court Theatre matinee of that Roger Hall play about retirees on holiday. Being a Roger Hall play (cited as "New Zealands most trusted play write" lol, poor guy) and being a matinee, it was full of chuckling retirees (and beyonds) reliving their days of travelling overseas as youger retirees.

Being one of the youngest people in the audience, I found myself in a unique position of being able to stand apart from the group of them and spy on their modest admiring glances and moments of self reflection. Even though I enjoyed the play, I was fascinated by the comfort the aged audience found in such a simple reflection of their own lives. Having not had a life yet, I concluded that I have much to look forward to.

But first, its time to FUCKING CRASH AND BURN!

Callum goes Bracket and Hyperlink CRAZY!! (or "It must be Friday")

So Jono's staying over this week.

(History Lesson: Jono's been a friend of mine since like waay back, probably longer than anyone. Well, except Thom of course. But he doesn't count this week because Jono's here now and he went home. We were like a wiked gang back in primary school. A clique maybe. It was pretty cool. It was definately the best clique too. We weren't the cool guys (as they are all jerks) or the nerdy guys (as they were embarassing). We were the middle group. The best group. Well, besides the group of 9 girls who made up the "All of The Girls" group that win by default. We even made movies (which were all badass with fights and shit))

We had a pretty fun week though. Our parents were on their best behavious because we had 'a guest' (Me: "Since WHEN did we eat at the table Mum?" Mum: *Tries to burn a whole through me with her eyes*) and we got wiked food too. Jono worked all day, so me and Oli got some sweet recording done (which are sounding awesome). We went on dates in the evening. On Wednesday we went to Inglourious Basterds (I hope I spelt that right), which as it happens, is the movie I've been waiting to see my whole life. Last night (Thursday) we went to see Poe at the court (which freaked the shit out of me). Jono and Oli wore suit jackets. But Oli was wearing this v neck t shirt and looked sort of stupid. He made a remark about how if anyone asks about it he'll say he's a homosexual. We all laughed. Then mum said he can borrow her scarf. "No mum, thats a pashmina" corrected Oli. We all laughed more. Dad looked worried.

After the play we went to Brigitte's place and made her watch the first Star Wars (which for some ungodly reason she had never seen). As it happens, How I Met Your Mother on tuesday night had a similar plot with Ted forcing that Elliot girl from Scrubs to watch it. On the show Elliot really hated it and made a joke about Chewbacca. But shes a bitch so she doesn't count. Back in reality, Brigitte really liked it. But for some reason she liked The Phantom Menace better (which is a crime). Eli was there too (of course).Turns out he has a rediculous knowledge of Star Wars trivia. This came as quite a shock to the group, as Eli resembles in no way a geek/nerd/star wars trivia buff. He even rides a long board and listens to Nujabes.

After Star Wars we came home and watched the Ladyhawke win a million awards at the NZ Music Awards. We had it taped so we stayed up for ages waiting for the Mint Chicks to play. But it was well worth it. They played She's a Mod with MICHAEL LOGIE on bass. It was awesome. Im a huge fan of Michael Logie, and I wonder if they might bring him back into the band. Oli says if they do that, there might be a chance that they would degress stylistically and become more punkish. But I think that they would put Michaels wiked F in Math work into the mixing pot and create a crazy awesome fucked up pop mess. But you never know with the Mint Chicks. Sadly, despite the unyeildingly awesomeness of Screens, they didn't win any of the awards on the night (up and commers Midnight Youth pinched them. But good on them. They're so young, it must have been crazy exciting. You can almost forgive them for dressing like Tomboys from the 80's).

In other news, that youtube video of Custard Bear at rockquest finally uploaded (after like 2 weeks). Check it out here. (sorry in advance for the sound quality... It was fucking loud.)

secluded in dust hell

This afternoon I continued my fight at trying (very hard) to clean my bedroom. I actually mostly really enjoy it. Im a compulsive nostalgic. When I clean my room I get to sort through all the old tickets and letters and drawings and songs all over my desk and floor. I spend far more time re-reading old letters then I do vacuuming.


SPEAKING of vacuuming; It's awesome. Mum bought a new vacuum cleaner. We used to have one that looks like this...

Now it looks like this...

Swish huh?

Its so awesome. I had so much dust in my room, I filled it beyond its full limit level. SPEAKING of dust...

I hate dust. Alot. This is the only reason that I dont clean my room much, because all the dust become unsettled and fills the air and chokes me to death. Its the worst torture. I end up sneezing my face completely off and rubbing my eyes until they are bleeding. I gave up yesterday because of dust overload when I finished vacuuming, and gave up today after less than and hour for the same reason.

The irony is I that even though I'm rediculously sensitive to dust (possibly allergic), I live secluded in dust hell (as I never clean my room). Hmmm... Maybe this time I'll keep my room ventilated.