Farewells, Avatars and Howling Bells

With the run up to Christmas being in full flow the Hostel is now full of people coming and going all the time, the core group of "long termer's" dwindles down everyday as nobody wants to pay Christmas prices or they're just moving onto another travel destination. Last weekend was rather good but a bit sad as well, Dave and Kelly were moving on the Tuesday and coupling that with Decky, Owen, Paul and Andrew leaving a few days prior it meant that the hostel was losing much of it's atmosphere. We all made the most of the weekend though and Saturday night through to Sunday was some of the funniest and best times i've had since leaving. Everyone made an appearance in Francois, Nina, Marie, Owen, Decky, Kelly, Pemilla, Melanie, Guy, Stefan, Joe, Phil, Julia as well as the hostel randoms and it was actually quite nice for all of us to go and sit in the bar for a few drinks instead of being on the goon all the time (for the unaware, goon is a 4 litre case of wine for 10 dollars. It's rank but a half a lager is about 5, what would you choose?). Monday had a bot of a solemn feeling as it almost felt like the end of a chapter and it would be awhile before i hear my new nickname of "ENGLISH!" (everyone here is french, german or oirish)again . Being traveling your constantly saying goodbyes but there's always new people coming in and already the hostel has got some new sound people in and Francois, Jerome, Nina, Penilla, Iwan, Guy and Mel are all still  here so it retains its old charm.

On Wednesday i went off to to see Avatar in 3d at the iMax here. I rarely go to the flicks but it's the biggest screen in the world and Avatar is meant to be made for these places so i thought i'd may as well do it properly. My previous iMax experiences were limited solely to Kennedy Space Centre and my 3D to shows like T2:3D, Spiderman, Honey I shrunk the audience and that fucked up Captain EO with Michael Jackson that for some odd reason Coppala directed all at either Disney or Universal so i didn't know really what to expect from a "proper film". It took awhile for my eyes to adjust to everything (as well as combating the problem of "do i put the 35 specs over my glasses?", i wasn't the only one) but after they did the film was quite the spectacle. I wasn't completely blown away as the media were calling it a "game changer" but the level of depth in the world he created was pretty unbelievable. I couldn't help but think you'd have to be a genius just to envisage the type of stuff going on, the 3D effect suited the film too and i'd definitely recommend it. I can see how Cameron spent so long making too as it is so visually stunning and intricate, plus on the trailer i felt the characters looked fresh off a video game and that would make it stupid but Weta really raised the bar in the effects and i  believed there were actual 8 foot humanoids running around. Im not entirely sure how the story would translate to just a normal 2d viewing and if it would stand up on it's own, you really need to see it in 3D. It was nice to see a few nods to Aliens too with a role for Sigourney Weaver, the big robotic gun suits and Giovani Ribisi basically playing the Paul Reiser role of "company man"; can't believe there was no Bill Paxton though. There are a few cringe worthy moments, especially the scene that's almost like the rave sequence in the matrix reloaded as well as a nonsensical "here we come to save the day!!!!!!!!!!" bit and the social commentary is a bit hippiesh (humans are bad, kill the earth alas Wall-E, love the trees) but all in all it was perfectly acceptable entertainment. Special mention has to go to Stephen Lang as the Colonel though who doesn't just steel every scene but chews his way through it. There was a couple of odd moments in the cinema too, the first being when the Col makes a remark about killing all the "Aboriginals" on Pandora and the whole Aussie cinema started pissing themselves and then again at the end when everybody bloody applauded. I felt like screaming it's not fucking Cannes to everyone and it went on far too long, awful.
On the menu for Friday night was Howling Bells at The Gaelic club just outside Central Station, it was like a flashback to the early days of Sydney finding the place as i managed to somehow go up the wrong side street for about two hours in the wrong direction. I really enjoyed the first album but not gave the second one much of a chance so played it during the week and i was pretty surprised how good it was, i dare say it was better than the first which only increased my anticipation for the gig. There was a bit of bother getting in the place as EVERYBODY gets I.D'd here to a level that's ridiculous, the bouncers (and police) are constantly walking around the bars and clubs to the point you can't relax and they throw people out for any infraction stating you're "intoxicated". That's if you get in of course which is no mean feat in itself, if you don't have a female escort in some places you're not getting in. Case in point being at the gig too where the lead singer related that the bouncers wouldn't let her in to her own bands gig as she didn't have I.D. on her, that's the level of patheticness you face here. The venue again was perfect and probably just a little bit bigger than the Cluny or a little bit smaller than stage 2 at Northumbria back home so it was a nice and intimate place. The gig was great , Juanita Stein is an incredible front woman, her voice was probably better than on record and completely faultless, her guitar playing was surprisingly great, she looked fantastic and was completely charming too. Definite wife material haha. I'd compare her to PJ Harvey a bit which is a pretty high complement, only problem i guess is she overshadows the rest of the group to the point they almost become a backing band. The audience was a bit subdued but i noticed that at Animal Collective too so it could be reflective of the place rather than the bands, or maybe they just prefer shite like Jet who were playing on the other side of the city. Highlights of which there were many was Low Happening and Cities Burning Down.