Can late night gigs and early morning training runs co-exist without killing a girl? Probably not. But as a certain long-perm-haired "rocker", for I use the term loosely, once said: "I'll sleep when I'm dead" ... or at least when I'm at work ... or on public transport, because you should never be too precious to sleep-dribble on someone else's shoulder.
A few weeks ago a fellow tweeter reminded us of this wonderful story and then the whole of the eastern seaboard cried big ugly snot-tears for the remainder of the evening. It's perfect, and it's real and it's the truest, most glorious love story you'll ever see.
As StoryCorps tell it:
"Danny Perasa and his wife, Annie, came to StoryCorps to recount their twenty-seven-year romance. As they remember their life together from their first date to Danny's final days with terminal cancer, these remarkable Brooklynites personify the eloquence, grace, and poetry that can be found in the voices of everyday people when we take the time to listen."
Watch it all the way to the end. You won't regret it.
Credits:
Directed by: The Rauch Brothers Background Layout & Design: Jim Smith Producers: Mike Rauch & Lizzie Jacobs Animation: Tim Rauch Background Painting: Bill Wray Audio Produced by: Michael Garofalo & Sarah Kramer
Music: Fredrik Label: The Kora Records Publisher: House of Hassle
The wonderfully clever Marieke Hardy (I think she now officially sits at No.2 on my list of all-time girl-crushes) tweeted this last week. Four minutes later I was sitting by myself in the office crying so hard that when a courier turned up I had to tell him to leave the package at the door.
So that was embarrassing.
But seriously, if you can get past 3mins and 4 seconds without sobbing then
Don't be fooled by the BBC Comedy logo. Though there are moments of little smiles, Misery Bear will not make you laugh. He will make you MISERABLE. He will make you cry the tears of slain unicorns. He will make your heart hurt and he will make you want to break into a zoo just to hug a panda.
Another year, another Laneway has come and gone, leaving us with the lingering questions :
a) Can you ever have too many ironic hipsters in a confined location? (I say no, no you cannot)
b) Is there a better single-day festival than Laneway in any major city? (I say no, no there is not) and
c) Was there ever a funnier joke than my "What did the hipster toilet say when someone did a wee? Dude, that's so mainstream." Mainstream, STREAM. Did you see what I did there? Did you? Had to be there?? Okay.
As with any festival there were both highlights and lowlights.
Highlights:
Rat vs Possum. It was almost sad to see them as an opening act but give them two years and they'll be at the end of the bill instead. Damn they are fine.
Cloud Control rocking out a lot more than they did back in the day.
The Antlers being wonderful and perfect and doing the most beautiful version of Two which I still maintain is one of the saddest songs in the world.
The perfect singalong set that was Local Natives, so good I immediately bought a ticket to Thursday's sideshow at the Metro. Apologies to the stranger next to me who had to put up with my ferociously out of tune version of Airplanes.
Warpaint and the awkward yet utterly intriguing art student love triangle that unfolded right in front of us throughout the set. Note to humans everywhere: if the man you are unrequitedly in luff with is standing with his girlfriend holding her hand, then now might not be the best time to kiss his face, bat your eyelids (that was excellent actually because she was so drunk her eyelids got a bit stuck mid-bat) say "aah miss youuuu" and profess undying love for said man. If said man then starts pashing said girlfriend then he may or may not be trying to tell you something.
Foals, and our new little friend standing next to us, who was on the greatest trip of his wee life. Sub-highlights include the two and half songs where he just stood and hugged himself, the moment his friend turned up and he was so happy he could hug someone else he nearly wept. The bit where he realised "there are just lights everywhere, there are lights ... everywhere". The song where, despite clearly being a HUGE fan of the band and knowing every lyric, he hid his face behind his hands and peeped through his fingers like he was watching a scary movie. (We figured the lights, which were everywhere, were probably talking to the poor scared little bugger.) The bit where he clapped for the whole song ... behind his head. And finally the song where he had a little sleep, standing up.
Free fairy floss. FREE! As much as you like FOR FREE! Free hipster fairy floss. You don't know the happiness. You. Just. Don't. Know.
Truly excellent food and drinks. Yes expensive but I'll gleefully pay good money to have Miss Chu duck pancakes and a cold Asahi thanks very much.
Dancing like mofos to Yeasayer's ONE and then running to catch Les Savy Fav's set at the Clocktower stage.
EVERYTHING about Les Savy Fav (see below)
Lowlights
Forgetting to bring extra clothes for cool change
Dust. So much dust. So dusty that upon getting home I got in the shower still wearing my dusty sandals in an effort to clean them.
Only getting two lots of free fairy floss before the stand closed due to cyclonic conditions
So back to Les Savy Fav. Reports on the twittersphere from the previous two days all indicated that this would be the set of the festival. Our pre-highlighted timetables (look, don't judge, it makes life easier okay) were hastily re-arranged so as to catch these mad men, or to be more specific the mad man that is Tim Harrington. Without being there, it's hard to grasp exactly why everyone goes so utterly batshit crazy when watching Les Savy Fav, but let's just say audience participation is taken to entirely new levels. Or in the case of the first video (shot by Mr Ben Scarf and yes that's us you hear cheering), not exactly consensual participation on behalf of one of the dudes from Holy Fuck.
Other videos from the set, which may in same way explain why my neck still hurts and why it feels like I actually dislodged brain matter, include:
And apparently in Melbourne he jumped into the river, then climbed out and drank from his shoe. That's showbiz folks!
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