Vietnam/China trip and R*A*S*H med revue and trivia

In December I will be leaving to go on a trip to Vietnam and China with friends. Hurrah! 3 weeks in Vietnam and 3 weeks in China. We're flying into Ho Chi Minh city, making our way up to Hanoi, then hopefully spending New Years in glitzy Shanghai and then moving onto Beijing, coming back mid-January.

All before my MAP Project subject, first semester 2008, which is going to make me incredibly poor!

* * *

Because UTS isn't particularly student-focused and we don't have revues, I had to haul ass to Sydney University to see med students' revue, R*A*S*H.

Lots of cross-dressing and nudity, as expected. Sometimes there was too much skin, even for med students. I sound like a prude, but honestly I'm not exaggerating. There are only so many times you can see a guy in bright pink underpants tucking a bird into his crotch. I'll let you think about that image for a moment.

Best moments:
NORTH SHORE GIRL: I'm from the North Shore. We don't rap on the North Shore.

CANADIAN STUDENTS: I wonder what Celine Dion is doing now?

* * *

Pub trivia on last Thurs night as part of the Economic Society and Business Society at Sydney Uni (honestly, just make me a honorary student, I go to so many of your events and almost none at UTS!) We came second, woo hoo! Only losing by ONE LOUSY POINT!

When you play trivia, it's scary how much useless knowledge is floating in your head. Like, how did I know that some cheesy 90s song was by M People?! If I could somehow re-edit my head to fill it with more useful stuff.

week snapshot

SATURDAY
At Camille's housewarming - laughing so hard I couldn't breathe when Ky didn't get our jokes about "cats", and was stuck holding a cup decorated with cats all night.

Ky's email on Tuesday "I'm very tempted to suggest the Hello Kitty branding toaster since I finally looked up that cat joke on urbandictionary ... you guys have dirty minds!".

Urban dictionary. Bless.

I love the following from Urbandictionary:
rock star parking - Parking directly outside the door of a bar, club or restaurant.
unprotected sleep - turning off your alarm clock and immediately going back to sleep; risking not waking up for a job, class, or other daily task.
tune wedgie - A song or advertising jingle annoyingly stuck in your head.
third joke - A "third joke" is when someone says something funny, someone else feels the need to follow it with something that may or may not also be funny, and then a third person, trying to keep up, follows up with a third quip, which by this point is most definitely no longer funny.

TUESDAY
Was prepped to go to the gym, but Lam and I ditched it in favour of some noodles, dumplings and pancakes. Literally waddled to work.

WEDNESDAY
At work late at night and crank up The Cops' Call Me Anytime on the computer speakers, and have a little dance around in the office. I want this as my ringtone "Calllll me, call me, call me ... you can call me anytime". It's a great, classic rock song, lots of handclaps.

THURSDAY
Mary and I audition actors, for a young male role. So, an ELDERLY man pokes his head in the room, and so goes the conversation.

MARY: Sorry, we've got the room booked.
ELDERLY MAN: I'm here to audition.
(Dead silence. We both just stare at him, thinking "Shit, what did we do?!")
ME: Oh, Stef's film! Wrong audition. It's just down the corridor!

FRIDAY
Celebrity non event! Saw a Chaser guy at the gym (they're EVERYWHERE, I'm beginning to think they have clones)

SATURDAY
I think whoever programs the ABC's Saturday nights had a bit of a snigger when they put Doctor Who on 7:30pm on Saturdays. They KNOW Doctor Who fans don't have a social life, ESPECIALLY on Saturday nights. Too busy building a life-size Dalek model or whatever.

Case in point. I was at home Saturday night watching Doctor Who, followed by a mini Six Feet Under marathon (thanks Lam!) where you just get depressed and repressed, but it's fantastic, chilling drama. I wish I could write as well as Alan Ball!

bloc party @ the Hordern

Really excellent concert, shame it's at the Hordern. Story of all my concert-going experiences at the Hordern.

Johanna and I had a great spot in front of all these short people, relatively close to the front at the beginning. Midnight Juggernauts supported, were ok.

THEN this girl collapsed in front of us, eyes wide open - she had taken something. Some guy picked her up, and the crowd parted to let them get out. I remember her eyes as he carried her out - pupils dilated, eyes open but it was obvious that she couldn't see anything. I think I'll remember her eyes for a long time.

Scary. Kids, don't do drugs. Hope she's ok.

Bloc Party hadn't come on stage, but when they did, the crowd surged, especially when they started Song for Clay. You wouldn't think that Bloc Party was that aggressive, but it was a bit of a nasty mosh, so Johanna and I got out of the front and went to the back a bit where we could see better and we got a bit more air!

It was a bit of a messy crowd - I could smell vomit really close to where I was (ugh), pot, and there were this crowd of guys close to us who were also on something and yelled themselves hoarse throughout SXRT (which is a very slow, quiet sort of song). People were pushing away from them cause they were idiots and spoiling the friggin concert for the rest of us!

I'd only been listening to their newest album, but when they did their old stuff I remembered how good it was. Never been much of a fan of So Here We Are, but live it worked really well. Another favourite was Uniform - I love their songs which have a slow build, then get more and more intense.

The three-song encore was The Prayer (I think), Helicopter - Kele got the crowd on side, announcing "Saturday night is for dancing" before launching into it, and finally ending with Sunday.

I miss the Metro. I love all the concerts there, just cause they're so intimate, everyone can see everything, and everyone has a good time. Often NOT a messy crowd, everyone is very respectful. Bring the good bands back to the Metro!

bad spirits and how the man at the post office laughed at me

So, I'm trying to come up with the concept for my MAP Project script (for next semester), and it involves some Chinese death rituals. Like the burning of fake paper money, and paper houses, cars, mobile phones. The smoke "carries" all these materials symbolically up to the departed soul up above.

I told my mum about my idea and she's banned me from doing it! She says I'll be cursed. If I screw around with the spirits, the spirits will come and get me, or some demon will come and live in me or whatever. She was very, very insistent.

Mum is not really religious and my dad and I are lapsed Catholics, so I didn't really think it applied to me.

BUT I remember the uneasy feeling in my stomach when on one shoot we kicked a Christian group out who were using a scout hall for a meeting. The film hasn't been edited, and I think it's been a year. Hmmm.

***

Today, I sent off 'Glory' to Flickerfest. When I brought the parcel up to the counter at the Post Office the guy looked at me strangely then started laughing hilariously.

Why you ask? He thought the "li" in "Flickerfest" was actually a "u". My bad writing.

I hope it provides endless amusement to all the postal workers out there.

(And please, please let the good festival sunbeams shine on me - I want a festival, any festival!)