PROOF

..we played a gig. This is Custard Bear playing a song Oli hasn't titled yet with Kurt! Awesomes.

Currantly*

(*man do I love currants!)

So, as things tend to do for me occasionally, I've found myself with some projects on the go. The latest completed is the one below, Grand Spectacular.

I'm also working on some illustrations for an adventure book my grandpa Terry is getting printed. It's called Fred's Dillema and is set on an island where a bunch of survivors from a sunken cruise ship try to survive each other and mysterious goings on. I'm doing sick Brett Helquist ish pencil sketches. Except way less dramatic and classy. I'll upload them onto here when I've scanned them, I'm pretty happy with them.

Also on the go is me painting. I have to get back into practice for art school, and I'm in the process of assembling my portfolio for my interview so it's as good a time as any.

The other exciting thing happening is band related. Hans Pucket played at a party the other week which was super fun. I bashed my knuckles on the edge of the drums and spattered blood over the snare and floor tom. It was super punk. Highlight was our Jungle Book medley. We're playing at thom's previously mentioned leaving thing, with all of the bands in the world, so that should be cool.

Also, Custard Bear returned from the depths of nothing-whatsoever to play a paid gig with THE FUCKING BATS! (aka The Bats). It was in the hagley park fanzone (yeah!). Jack had some wedding on an island, so we got our good pal Kurt in as a more than capable substitute, who proceeded to kick ass in every respect. So much fun. I missed playing bass more than I realised. We played a couple oldies, but a new rock song oli wrote that tuesday. My brother dishes them out like the best of them, really. It's insane.

So, all of this, AND full time working going down. In case you were wondering from my absence of posts, I do keep myself occupied, really.

(Photo from Hans flat party gig below)

One Hundred (And a Poster)

Apparently, this is my one hundredth (?) post on this blog. Cool. I assume it's some sort of milestone. Here, have a piece of internet cake.



Yum. Internet-licious.

The main point of this post is vague self promotion (isn't it always?). I just finished a poster for a gig Custard Bear is playing in Nelson with SFRQ alumni Peasants of Eden.


I was given the theme "1950's tin robot'. Turns out tin robots are hard to achieve with water colours, so it ended less tin-robot, and more Tin Tin. But I'm cool with that.

Poster Bear

I made this poster for a band competition. I hope you like it. It took me two whole evenings. It's done with collaged oil pastels, which is pretty much the best thing ever.

Bar Gig Bar - A Review

Dear The Press, heres a review for your reviews section in the paper on Fridays just before the movie photos and adverts and things. I think it will do just the tricket...

On Thursday (yes Thursday) the 13th of May 2010 I was really nervous sitting in my bedroom with Paige and Oli and Alex waiting for it to be late enough for us to go in the car to get to the bar in time for our gig. We waited for AGES. It was nine thirty by the time penisey texted me saying that they were on the way. So I ate a muffin and got in the car. Dad drove us there. In the car we listened to Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs to sike ourselves up. It worked. Alex and Paige walked us into Poplar Lane as I'd never been there before and would get lost if I tried to find it on my own or even with Oli. We just walked straight in! No bouncer or anything. I was relieved. Then we went into the band area room and met the sound guy named Mathew/Ben/Something I can't recall and he was real nice saying that I looked like freddy kruegar and started setting up mics. No one else was there but then Penisey was there and told me he got kicked out of home (SAD :(....) and Thom who was wearing SHOES!! which is a novelty for Thom. And others were there too but I dont know everyones names Im new. Then a surf band called Piha Rescue (geddit?) went up and set up on the stage and I got worried cause Jack said he was tired. He arrived and was all gc about it. His brother and my brother and their friends and my dad and jacks dad were all there to see us. We told them we were on next cause we were. Me and Thom danced to Piha and it was awesome. We did the Twist and had a "Play Fight" and bumped into this guy. They were all wearing sunglasses except for Ben Dodd. WHO is awesome as it happens and Penisey is started a band with him (GOSSIP!). Then they finished and we got to go up and play our songs (AWESOME!) We set up and got water and tuned our guitars and there were quite a few people at the bar including some friendly faces. We played pretty well. Olis guitar string broke two seconds into the first song! LOL! And the vocal mics were condensor mics which was pretty cool I guess. We played Fuck You Courtney, Safety Cheque, LPG Doesn't Grow On Trees Bro, Jessica, I Said To My Girl (She Looked Nice), Evergreen, and then we decided to finish, but Ben Dodd stuck his fluffy head in the window and said "play that Jazzy one" which we took to mean Cake, and so we did. It was well sick and everyone danced really well and clapped very loudly. It was very good fun and I was pretty tired as it was twenty to twelve. Paige seemed happy too which was awesome as Paige is wicked. Alex took photos (see below) for us which was nice of her. They came out topps. We didn't get to stay for Lonely Harris Club. But they were my favourites anyway. I was well gutted cause I heard they did a Strange Boys cover and I love them. I gave John a hug as we left though, and said thanks. He replied "Oh no worries. I really hope we go allright...Sorry for not dancing to your set. I'm not sure if I can play my guitar at the moment." But he did. I give the gig a wild 7 stars!! * * * * * * *

Photo Bear

Lovely Alex took some photos of our band playing our first bar gig and standing akwardly on some grass and in a tree. I got to scan them! It was mean! The gig was at GBM with Lonely Harris Club and Piha Rescue, two wickedly awesome bands. And I'm not just saying that because they gave us reason to stay up past 10 on a school night.

I and Steven Made A Poster

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.

Dear Blog

Today I did something dreadful.

Anyone who really knows me will tell you that I'm a helpless nostalgic. I keep everything. Too much paper shit is everywhere in my life, and more obviously, my room. I have come to actually throwing a lot of things away recently, things I like but know I wont need in five years time. Something that makes me laugh but wont when I find it in five months time. Or will it? Usually I just sit there rereading it over and over feeling sad and mopey about how fun and carefree my life was when I was (five months) younger... until I realise its just a drawing from a friend, or a ticket stub, or a real old magazine I read lots.

When we moved into this house at the start of Year 9 I decided to cover my door with shit (posters, ticket stubs... mostly school events and shit for my wicked covers band JORC with Joel and Rory). My mum didn't like it at first because it was a rental place because we had a property we were going to be building on soon and we'd be moving and I'd have to rip it all down and probably peel off paint. But I did anyway... a way of making Bryndweird feel like home. Well, fast forward four years down the line and here I am, nearing the start of my 5th year of high school, were still in Bryndwr which has become well and truly home for me (despite the whole no vowel things... SOMETIMES Y IS A LIE!!), Joel and Rory are now in a r ridiculously scary (read 'good') Deathcore (or something) band and we're in (giggle inducing) Custard Bear. Plus, my door is still covered in shit from four years ago. So I took it all off.

Mum noticed straight away (the paint was fine fyi). Dad walked past twice before he did. But they were both sort of shocked. And so was I, kind of. It may not seem like a big deal, but to a hopeless nostalgic its pretty much the worst. But I didn't throw everything away. I kept the JORC posters. In like twenty years time when Behold Thy End is like crazy famous for biting the heads off of bats and Custard Bear (read 'Way Better Band Name') is mediocre famous for playing in librarys and touring the South Island, we can show people that poster and they'd be like "Woah shit, man... thats nutsbuckle*" and we'd be all "Yup... totes. We taught them everything they know".

Can I get a YEHAW for capitalising on friends success??? Nope.

I got scared at my overly clean door so I started blu tacking photo copies of work from my folio. Im liking it, to be honest. Waaaay better than JORC shit.


*future slang term. Trust me, everyone's going to be saying it. Its the new pish posh.


ps. tune into RDU tonight at like 1am. THOMS ON!!!

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!!

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.)

Thrills for Free

NUMBER ONE

Hearing your band play on the radio at like 3 am in the morning. Never before in my life has a poor quality mono recording has made me giggle with glee.