Dreams are funny little things, aren't they?

I think Kate's blogged on this before, but there's a certain stigma attached to dreams - particularly telling people about them.
Many times have I thought to tell someone of a bizarre dream I've had only to start telling it and realise midway through that it actually isn't all that interesting to them at all.

But someone told me a story the other day that changed all that.

I've always been fascinated inthe concept that people can control their dreams. It's happened to me a few times, where I've realised mid-dream that I am actually dreaming, and once that happens, if you can avoid waking up, the possibilities are endless.

Anyway this friend of mine told me quite a messed up but ultimately satisfying dream.

In it, an unknown guy walks up behind her, puts a knife to her throat and tells her to get down on the ground. She is fully aware that his intention is to rape her. (Bear with me) But rather than allow that to happen, she kicks him in the groin, grabs his knife, stabs him in the eye (!) and then she wakes up.

"Awesome," I said. "You showed him."

But no - she wasn't content with that ending. She wanted to make the guy understand what he had tried to do.

So she goes back to sleep trying to re-imagine the scene again, in the hope she can enter the same dream again.
Amazingly, she does.

So she's in the same position again - guy grabs her, knife round her throat, telling her to get on the ground. She gets down on the ground slowly and he pins her wrists. Discreetly, she lets his hand slip a little before grabbing it and the knife, throwing him off her and jumping on his back.

She then holds the knife to his throat and successfully lectures him on what he is doing and how it makes him feel now that the tables have turned.

Mission accomplished, and she wakes up.

Apart from the fact that it's pretty messed up to have that dream in the first place, isn't the fact that she was able to go back into it awesome?
I can't count the number of times I've tried to go back into dreams after waking up and failed miserably.

Anyways, I thought I'd share that story with you.
And, if you got to the end of this post without falling asleep or dying a slow painful death - thank you.

Proud to be a Hottest 100-voting Australian

This year, for the first time in ages, I was absolutely stoked with the choice of number one in the Hottest 100.
One of my favourite bands ever, the band that I saw recently in Perth and raved about on this very blog, took out the top spot.
That's right, Muse won with their ever-so-pompous effort titled Knights of Cydonia.

I've been disappointed with the number one song of the year before (don't even get me started on Bernard Fanning) but this year it was unexpected and I was completely surprised.

Oh, and Kate - bite me :)

Get me a beer, a barbie and 100 good songs...

As one of my favourite long weekends of the year approaches, the Australia Day holiday, I am often filled with an overwhelming sense of pride and loyalty.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who drapes themselves in the Australian flag and runs around drunkenly on the foreshore waiting all day for a 20 minute fireworks display. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

No, my sense of pride actually has nothing to do with the fact that it's Australia Day.

It all boils down to the fact that it's the day in which our national youth radio station, Triple J, broadcast the Hottest 100.
In what has become an Aussie insitution, the radio station counts down the top 100 songs of the year - and the top 100 songs played on Triple J are always going to be quality.

In a world where we are fed musical tripe in the form of monotone R 'n' B (thanks 50 Cent - but I just thought I'd point out there's very little rhythm and not a hell of a lot of blues in the crap you create) it is refreshing to still have a national broadcaster with standards.

A national broadcaster that provides people with a huge range, from metal, to hip-hop, to drum and bass, to the downright bizarre (yes, I'm talking to you, Architecture in Helsinki).

A national broadcaster that provides a bond between like-minded music-loving people across the country. I, for one, often describe myself as a "Triple J listener" when people ask me what sort of music I like.

To me, Australia Day means a healthy combination of sun, beer, barbecue and the Hottest 100.
I can't wait :)

Heath Ledger dead at 28

Often, when I hear news of a well-known person dying, I can be a little indifferent.

I didn't know them, their life had no real impact on mine and hence I hadn't been terribly affected by their death.

But waking up this morning and hearing about Heath Ledger's death shook me a little.

I'm a big fan of Ledger - from his cracking debut in Two Hands to the shocking and depressing character he played in Candy - the man has quite some talent.

And in what is probably one of his most anticipated roles, the pic above shows him in full costume taking on the role of one of my favourite villains of all time - the Joker - in the latest movie instalment of my favourite superhero ever - Batman.

I think the thing that hits home when something like this happens is that death is so permanent. There's no recourse if you decide, after the fact, that it may not have been the right thing to do. That's it. It's all over.

And at 28-years-old, it really is, for want of a better phrase, a tragic waste.

Grammar Terrorist Alert

An anonymous work colleague sent me two emails yesterday.

The first, instead of saying "We used to receive free tickets,"said "We use too receive free tickets."

The colleague followed that email up with another one. Instead of saying "Yes, probably" they said "Yes, properly."

If substituting words for no apparent reason is not grammar terrorism, I don't know what is.

teehee

In other news

• The Corey melodrama (read two posts below) took another turn yesterday - and it would appear his antics have finally caught up with him. After storming out of an interview at a Nova radio station when the DJ tried to get his glasses off, him and his two mates started to feel the pressure of the media pack following them and tried to run away via a taxi. I don't know the entire circumstances but the last bit of footage on the late news showed him and one of his mates being taken in for questioning by the police. Sucked in.
  
• Ike Turner was a coke addict - at the age of 76. The medical examiner who did the autopsy on his body said while hypertensive cardiovascular disease and pulmonary emphysema were major contributing factors in his death, the main cause of death was cocaine abuse. That's quite an effort for a 76-year-old to be barrelling lines of coke, regardless of his health of wellbeing.
  
• And down here in Kwinana, a 37-year-old man has been charged after a road-rage incident allegedly involving two women and their children in a car. the guy rammed their car repeatedly, until it rolled into the car park of the local police station. Smart move.

Forgive me Father for I have sinned...

"It's been years since my last confession."

"Go ahead son."

"I've been having evil thoughts about my boss again."

"The ones where you beat her with her handbag then throw her in a jail cell with respresentatives from each of the minority groups she so actively hates?"

"No Father. This is a new one."

"Confess, my son."

"Okay, so it goes something like this. She dies from stress and anxiety brought upon herself. Upon arriving at the pearly gates, St Peter is standing there with the longest list you've ever seen. She asks him what he's doing with such a long list. He replies: "It's a list of everything you've ever said or done which has been outrageous, old-fashioned, wrong and just plain hurtful." The list trails off in the distance. St Peter then reads every single one out to her. At the end of it all, he pushes a button and she slides down a chute to hell. I won't tell you the rest of my thought once she's down there."

"Best not to go over the top my son. God forgives your sins."

"Thank you Father."

Corey Delaney, you are an A-class tool.

Look at this dickhead.

I was flicking through the news stations last night when I happened upon an interview with this 16-year-old from Victoria.

His parents had gone away, so he advertised an open house party on Myspace. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary in that, except the party got out of control and spilled onto the street.

The partygoers then proceeded to cause about $20,000 worth of damage to properties in the street, etc etc.

So, the bastion of fair and accurate reporting in Australia, A Current Affair, decides to interview this 16-year-old knob.

Personally, I think they shouldn't have done it in the first place, since getting his ugly face on TV is obviously all he's interested in.

But they did, and the reporter took the bait.

Asking him to take his glasses off, he refused "because they're famous" and then went on to say that he hadn't spoken to his parents yet because he'd just been ignoring their calls.

After a bit of childish banter (on both the reporter and Corey's part) and a refusal by the teenager to accept any responsibility for the situation, the journalist ended by asking if there was anything he'd like to say to anyone his age thinking of organising a similar party.

His response: "Call me and get me to organise it for you."

Corey, I have something to tell you, and you may not like it. You're not funny. You're not cool. That five minutes of fame you had on-camera are just that - five minutes. Next week, you won't be a celebrity. You'll just be a cheeky shit teenager with parents you don't deserve and a $20,000 headache.

Good luck with that.

Keating!

I had the immense pleausure of seeing the opening of Keating! The Musical at the Regal Theatre last week. I expected it to be good, but I didn't expect it to be brilliant.

Based on the rise and fall of former Prime Minister Paul Keating (they don't breed 'em like they used to) the show is a must-see for anyone with even minor knowledge of Australian political history during that period.

Highlights included:

• The rap battle between Keating and then-leader of the opposition John Hewson.


• The duet between the same two aptly called "I Wanna Do You Slowly"


• The Alexander Downer character, complete with fishnet stockings and a corset.


• The duet between Gareth Evans and Cheryl Kernot - pure gold.

All in all, it was a brilliant show, one which made me laugh all the way through. See it - it's the musical we had to have.

The other side of the country

In response to Dave's pics of New Zealand I thought I'd post a couple of the nicer ones I took when I travelled to North Queensland recently. The trip was for work, but over the three days I was there I actually only had to work for approximately 2 hours so the rest of the time was spent travelling around inthe hire car and looking at the beautiful countryside.

Tully, the town in which we stayed, has the highest average rainfall in the country - about 5 metres per year - and as such all the vegetation is a deep, lush green. Humidity aside, it was fantastic.

Enough about movies already!

Okay, okay, but just let me tell you about these last two that have restored my faith in cable television...

• Candy

A brilliant Australian movie (haven't seen enough of these lately) that is heartbreaking and confronting in its bare honesty. Make no mistake - this movie is heavy. Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish are fantastic as a couple of young lovers who become involved in drugs - namely heroin - and then hit the downward spiral. Geoffrey Rush is also brilliant (as always) as Uncle Casper, a sort of father figure for the two lovers. The film starts off in a happy place, but with addiction there is only one place it can go from there - downhill, and fast. Four stars.

• The Chumscrubber

Triple J's film reviewer Megan Spencer raved about this one. Usually, that's enough to put me off a film, but I thought I'd give it a go. And I'm so glad I did. A brilliant indie flick about a 'perfect' little suburban town in which the resident shoolyard drug dealer hangs himself. The seriously dysfunctional family relationships and simmering tensions threaten to explode as three teenagers kidnap the drug-dealer's friend's brother, in order to make the friend retrieve the drugs for them. It's been a long time since a movie has had me squirming so uncomfortably in my seat one moment only to rip my heart out of my chest the next. I cannot recommend this movie enough. Four and a half stars.

What's that, Skip? Lots of shit movies on Foxtel?

One of the joys of housesitting at my parents' house is partaking in the unlimited trash that is Foxtel. In between the South Park marathons (seasoned with a dash of Jerry Springer and a hint of the Girls of the Playboy Mansion) I have had the opportunity to watch quite a few movies. The following is a list of some of the films I have seen (or seen most of) in the last few days.

• Empire Records

Classic film that I had failed to see many times before despite being told it was a must by many friends. I am so glad I've seen it now. I love Liv Tyler.

• Boy Eats Girl

Hear me out on this one. I like zombie movies and thought this would be a bit of a laugh. It's an Irish film. However I was disappointed - it's not funny. I turned it off about two-thirds of the way through.

• The Omen (remake)

I probably should have seen the original first, but I hadn't. Nonetheless, this was a good little film about a messed up little child. Mia Farrow is excellent as the creepy old lady who looks after him.

• Green Street Hooligans

A full-on drama starring Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame, whose character is kicked out of Harvard and moves to London, only to get caught up in soccer hooliganism at its worst. Good movie with a slightly different subject matter, however the fight scenes are pretty brutal.

• The Grimm Brothers

I knew it was bad. I'd been told by friends and reviewers alike not to see it. But I love hearing about the darker aspects of fairytales, and I do like Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. I watched about two-thirds of it. It was bad. Don't see it.

• The Butterfly Effect 2

I knew this one was bad too, but I loved the first one so much I thought there might be elements of coolness in this one. There wasn't.

And a couple I saw at the movies over the weekend:

• I Am Legend

Unlike Dan, I had forewarning that this was actually a zombie movie. I love zombie movies, despite the fact that every zombie movie that comes out these days seems intent on copying the 28 Days Later style of hand-held cameras and gritty realism. This movie was good - the zombies were fantastic and quite scary. However I have decided I don't like Survivor-style movies, simply because of the long, drawn out scenes with no dialogue. I'd probably give this movie three stars if I were a reviewer.

• Alien versus Predator: Requiem

This was a last-minute, off-the-cuff decision when I Am Legend was full the first time we tried to go. Being a little boy at heart, I love Alien and Predator movies. We didn't expect much, and we received very little in return - it was atrocious. The best parts were the alien and predator fight scenes - lots of detail and quite vicious - and the worst parts were, well, everything else. It would appear the director (whose name I had never heard of before) and the actors (same same) decided the digital characters were the stars of the film. The plot, acting and, well, everything else was atrocious. We walked out thankful that we hadn't paid for the tickets. It was fun though :) Two stars.

Maybe if we all ignore them, they'll go away...

Today in WA we have power restrictions in place.
For those who don't live here, it's a 40C day, but due to a shut down at one of our northern gas plants, the whole state needs to be on restrictive power today.
Western Power, our power utility, has issued a statement saying all air conditioners must be turned off unless it is a workplace involving senior citizens or young children.
Businesses have also been asked to run with half their lights on and turn off all non-essential power.

If people around the State don't stick to these restrictions, we will reach our power peak and blackouts will occur.

So I walk in to my office today and all four of the wall-mounted air conditioners are running at full pelt.
I turned to the distribution manager - who is sitting directly under one of them - and said to her "Did you hear about the power restrictions?"
To which she shrugs her shoulders and replies:
"Yeah - but I didn't turn it on."

Well that's great, isn't it. You didn't turn it on - so you're not reponsible.
Queue full scale discussion about personal interpretations of the restrictions.

My boss played the senior card - she's 64, and hence our workplace must be one of the ones included in the exemption.
How convenient.

The fact of the matter is, no one is willing to take responsibility for these sorts of things. And at the end of the day, if everyone has the attitude that the restrictions don't really apply to them, soon enough the power will go - and there will be no air conditioning for anyone to quarrel over.

Now, can someone give me a hand? I'm having a little difficulty getting off my horse. It's pretty high...

I'm trying. Really I am.

I'm trying really hard not to turn this blog into a bitching session about my boss.
But after calling in sick on New Year's and being in bed by 10pm that night with a nasty bout of flu, I made msyelf come into work today because I knew she wouldn't be able to cope otherwise.
And I got an earful the moment I walked in because she was so stressed, blah blah blah, oh and I hadn't done enough work to prepare for my sick day off.

Excuse me?? You think I planned this??
You think on Friday I thought "Hmm, I don't want to join my friends out on NYE, I might come down with the flu."

And then to top it all off, I was finishing off a take-away coke at lunch time today and crunching the ice. My boss said:

"Are you crunching the ice?"
Me: "Um, yes."
Her: "Oh David."
Me: "What, don't you crunch your ice?"
Her: "It's probably not good for you, you know."
Me: "It's frozen water!!!"
Her: "Exactly, it's too cold for your body, and you've got a cold anyway so it probably doesn't help."

Je-sus.