Bjork Day Out - 2008

~Warning - this might be a bit of a longie!~

Am back, tired and proddly heavier than I was before I left because even though I did a buttload of walking I think I also ate a buttload more eating than I needed to. But tomorrow is another gym day and time to shake off the woe-is-me's... besides, a recap is in order!

Wednesday The Hun, eldest bro and I took off in the tough lil Swift for the trip to Sydney. The drive was relatively uneventful and we checked into the Pacific International (renamed as of this week I think) without much hassle - not a bad place to stay, it's right near central station BUT it's pretty old and has only 12 carparks for which they charge $25 a night(!!!). We had a look above the markets for a hat for eldest bro (he bought the first one he saw) and then the boys acted like boys and sat for a coffee while I snuck off to buy some super cute shoes which were only $30 and are supercute. I grabbed some sushi for snack, we changed and then headed down to the harbour at 6:30. The was a massive line curled all the way to the middle of the bits where you get onto the ferries - turns out that even though the gates only opened at 6pm, everyone wanted to be in there. The line was actually pretty good - people stayed in a long orderly line, rather than cramming around the entrance like you would typically expect.

We got in after about 30 minutes of wait and picked a spot in the front third (after getting myself a tshirt!!)(why do they only sell stoppid sizes? It will be another few kilos before I'm comfortable in my new shirt!) and chatted to a married couple behind us who seemed to think that we were older than we actually were... or younger... I'm not quite sure - I think my random agreeable conversation gene kicked in.

Enough dilly-dally! The show was FREAKING FANTASTIC. It was honestly the greatest show I have ever seen, one that just will not ever be able to be beaten for me. Eldest bro said he thought I was one of the first screamers in each song - proddly because as soon as I recognised each song I would get soo excited about what was coming up that I just couldn't contain myself. I spent the whole time staring at her on stage in awe, on the screen in awe and looking around in awe at just how freaking fantastic the whole thing was.

I'll be honest - my cranky gene was still there - AGAIN, I am overly tired of f*ckwits who move around once the show has started. I have an idea - if you're a big enough fan to pay close to $150 to see her, set yourself up in a good spot from the start AND STAY THERE. DO NOT WALK THROUGH EVERYONE (ESPECIALLY WITHOUT APOLOGIZING) AND DO NOT ARRIVE HALFWAY THROUGH YELLING TO YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT HOW AWESOME IT IS BUT HOW YOU CAN'T SEE AND THIS IS JUST THE BEST THEN SING THE WRONG WORDS LOUDLY AND OFFKEY.

*breathe*

Because I am freaky stalker-fan-stylez I wrote down the songs in order on my arm so that I wouldn't forget:

• Earth Intruders
• Hunter
• Unravel
• State Of Emergency
• Who Is It
• Pleasure Is All Mine
• Pagan Poetry
• Desired Constellation
• Army Of Me
• I Miss You
• Bachelorette
• Cover Me
• Wanderlust
• Hyperballad
• Pluto
  

~Encore~

• Oceania
• Declare Independence

One of the many things running through my head was just how bizarre it was to be there with The Hun - I listened to Post and Debut for a lot of college and high school when I'd walk to school, timing the leaving of my house so that he'd ride past on his way to school and slow down to walk with me. Particularly with the lryics to I Miss You:

i miss you
but i haven't met you yet
so special
but it hasn't happened yet

you are gorgeous
but i haven't met you yet
i remember
but it hasn't happened yet

and if you believe in dreams
or what is more important
that a dream can come true
i will meet you

i was peaking
but it hasn't happened yet
i haven't been given
my best souvenir

i miss you
but i haven't met you yet
i know your habits
but wouldn't recognize you yet

and if you believe in dreams
or what is more important
that a dream can come true
i will meet you

i'm so impatient
i can't stand the wait
when will i get my cuddle?
who are you?
i know by now
that you'll arrive
by the time
i stop waiting

i miss you

Yeah, corny huh?! ;o)

It was also good to have eldest bro there - knowing how much he and the rest of my brothers hated Bjork purely because I loved her and played her so much. And it was also good to discover that after the show eldest bro was also thinking he should go to a rave because the beats were so fantastic - we're going to try to pencil one in sometime, somehow.

She was wearing a gold bodysuit with puffy frills and I was thrilled to see that our hair is the same - pretty much unkempt and not so awesome, so now I don't hate it as much. She had pom-poms when she first came out, then she threw out a fantastic stringy thing in one of her songs, plus there was an amazing beat-music-glow machine that I cannot even begin to describe, the musicians were all dancing and in crazy outfits with matching facepaint and flags. There were lazers, fireworks and two different types of confetti guns. It was just a spectacle from start to finish AND she actually spoke more than 'thankyou'! There are some photos here and some other reviews - The Hun found those for me (as you weren't meant to take photos and I'm really a very good reviewer!).

After the amazing show we had a pretty decent meal in Chinatown - still taking new tables close to midnight! We had a good salt and pepper tofu and steamed tofu with mushroom and pickled vegetables - we will try to go there again the next time we are in the city.

Thursday we were up early and met with eldest bro and his gf for brekky before heading into the zoo for the day:





















It's no longer the simple pleasure trip it used to be, and it wasn't just me who realised it. There is a lot of pacing, a lot of sad and bored behavior - it is just terrible to see some of these animals the way they are. Interestingly enough though, the bird keeper guy raised a good point that I'm sure is not just related to the birds - the reason a lot of these animals are there is because they've been hurt or injured or raised in captivity incorrectly. Had there not been that involvement with humans then there would be no need for them to be trapped in there.

Also - that snow leopard went off because some d!ckhead parents let their children (and one of the adults) jump over a side fence thing and go right up to the edge of the cage! I would have LOVED to have seen a finger come off, just to teach them a lesson.

Thursday evening I got a call from Mick telling me that Bjork had pulled out of Friday's Big Day Out - a great big shock for me! I kept my fingers crossed, fooling myself that perhaps she'd change her mind - Rosanna can testify to this as she also thoughtfully messaged me to make sure that I'd heard and to check in on how I was taking the news. It put a bit of a dampener on the night, but I was ignorant enough to pretend it wasn't really happening and had a great night with one of The Hun's best friends and his new wife (those of the foggy Blue Mountain photos of October last year) at an amazing Dumpling House at the top of China Town and some awesome schnapps on York street at a Beer Hall (it was after that night that I declared I was more than ready for The Hun to get a job in Sydney City!).

Friday was the Big Day (Out) and we met up with the rest of the bro's as well as two of middle bro's good friends and one of their girlfriends (all of whom are realy lovely people) and headed into the stadium.

We saw Operator Please (good as always and I still want to marry/adopt the drummer), Josh Pyke (who I don't know that I ever really realised how good he is IF ONLY HE'D DROP THE VEST AND GET A HAIRCUT), some Kate Nash (who I don't really mind), some Dizzee Rascal (who is SUPER HOT ZOMG), the end of Spoon (of whom I didn't hear my favourite song from and I had a nap during), Augie March (good, as I expected), The Nightwatchmen (he should proddly stick to what he does best but I admired his sentiment), Billy Bragg (who is fantastic and one of my highlights but may have been preaching to deaf ears), Unkle (who The Hun loved), Arcade Fire (which I also quite liked - the timetable changes worked out quite well in that respect), and Rage Against The Machine.

Now - I was VERY lucky in RATM to be pretty much surrounded by tall guys (middle and youngest bro, The Hun, and middle bro's two guy friends) who weren't jumping around two much because even though we were roughly halfway back people were packing it in tight and jumping around like selfish wankers, mostly selfish. Then there was a mosh pit to our right, less than three people distance away and massive circle(of)jerk behind us (there was a girl behind middle bro who was part of the surrounding circle) - a bunch of d!ckheads with their shirts off running around in circles, puffing out their chests and fully bashing into each other as hard as they could then hugging each other at the end of each song. Total ridiculousness and entirely the type of people that make BDO so full of annoying wankers. It was good that a lot of the losers ran out of puff about halfway through - the most annoying guy who was all elbows at the start (and who got more than one poke in the ribs courtesy of yours truly) started to wind down after about four songs - roughly the same time that a new guy appeared to our left that was big and stocky and surprisingly calm, making for a good safety barricade.

It was an alright day, but I think that in retrospect I shoulda traded in both mine and The Huns tickets for a refund, saved a nights accomodation and parking and paying for overpriced food and drinks, gone to the movies and added $500 to my savings account. And I know I sound like a total killjoy but it was only an okay day - I really had banked a whole lot on Bjork being there and it being fantastic. But it was overall just a pretty good and expensive day rather than an awesome day.

And for some reason, like I was telling a friend of mine, I really resent the fact that she is now playing Melbourne and Adelaide. That she couldn't do Sydney but she can do the other two, like it's something personal or that I haven't done enough by not having tickets to those other shows the she is going to play at. Explain that one, huh?