When does semester 1 start?

I thought it was about time I double checked when semester 1 starts for Murdoch uni students. So I jumped online and had a look at the time-table. I thought this would be an easy task with the site telling me exactly what I needed to know in a simple to read format. But no... no.... this was not the case. I ended up finding the date that seemed right to me amongst a pile of other start dates, posting it on facebook and asking my fellow uni friends whether or not it was right.

Just in case your in the same position as me, or if you just haven't bothered to look yet (come on, we're students it took me this long to get to it!), here is the date:

15th of February

Enjoy what little time of the holidays you have left, and for those going to Good Vibrations (you lucky things) good luck getting up the next morning =]

Jess.

Under Construction.

So I've decided to update this blog page.

I think it's time for a re-vamp. This will include:

- A new background

- Possible new blog name

- and Removing the Miley Cyrus lyric found under the blog title.

I thought I should announce this because then I'll actually be motivated to make it happen. Otherwise I would just forget and leave a smidgen of my immaturity at the top of this page. (Boom de clap, boom de clap de clap)

Jess.

Plan YOUR Big Day Out! - Total awesomeness

Channel V has come up with a completely ingenious web gadget. You can customise your own Big Day Out timetable!!

It's really simple to use as well. All you have to do is click on the artists you want to see and the site will align them from earliest to latest and then tell you where artists clash!

To customise your time table head here: http://bigdayout.vmusic.com.au/bdo/timetable.asp?CityID=Perth

Soutbound - Part 2

Geez, what a busy week and a half. I guess its time to write a little bit about the events of Sunday at Southbound.

In terms if music and heat Sunday basically rocked. It was nowhere near as hot as the other days had been, and there were some pretty awesome bands playing. The first act I was desperate to see was Lisa Mitchell. I never really got into her on idol, I actually never watched idol that year either. But whenever I was flicking and I heard her sing I would immediately change the channel. I don't think she was singing songs that were suited to her voice, because I have fallen in love with her latest album. Watching her live was quite a surprise. She didn't just stand still and sing. She jiggled about stage, played guitar, and even talked to the punters. Just before "Coin Laundry" she asked if everyone could kindly hold onto their dollar coins and not throw them at her. To make her point clear she politely stated that "it really fucking hurts". The f word has never sounded so polite before.

After Lisa Mitchell it was radio time. One third of the team had become sick and had to leave early. It really was the worst time of the year to catch the flu. So for the last hour and a half Louise and I drove the radio desk together. We were both desperate for real showers at this stage and eager to see bands later on in the evening so we weren't paying too much attention to our radio duty's.

Once the three hour radio shift was up it was time for Xavier Rudd. I had never seen him live before, but I've always known he was a pretty awesome musician. He played "Message" which is one of the songs on my list of songs to see live, so I felt accomplished after that and decided to leave in time to catch some Paul Dempsey. When I reached Paul Dempsey there was some commotion in the audience. On second look I noticed Lisa Mitchell had turned up to catch a glimpse of one of Aussie's finest artists only to be pounced upon by fans. She took it great though and smiled for pictures while still keeping an eye on Mr Dempsey. The next band I caught were Miami Horror. Their song "Make You Mine" is by now pretty notorious for making me move my feet. It also didn't help that straight after they played "Fa Fa Fa". I got a pretty good workout during that set. If you haven't caught Miami Horror live yet I strongly recommend it, they are pretty awesome. I decided not to watch Hilltop Hoods, I'd seen them at Rollercoaster one year and also at One Movement Festival. Instead I decided to wait around and watch local Mandurah boys Tim and Jean. I caught up with an old school friend at this time as well. That's another thing about Southbound, you are bound to run into someone you either know or used to know. Tim and Jean were pretty impressive. They had the crowd moving and managed to rake in a fair amount of spectators considering Data Rock and Hilltop Hoods were playing at the same time. Their set didn't run till 8:30 either, which meant getting a nice spot for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's was easier.

I rocked up to the Yeah Yeah Yeah's with my old friend Liam. While waiting for the band to come out on stage which wondered about what she would wear. I've come to expect nothing less than amazing from Karen O so I was preparing to be blown away. When she walked out... I was happy but was still expecting a little more. She was wearing a tight black and white shirt with bits of fabric flowing off it along with ripped leggings. I must admit at this stage that although I was aware of Karen O's undeniable awesomeness I was still a little unsure of why everyone was so excited for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. For me I had to see them live, I will no longer be doubting the greatness of this band. The presence their lead singer holds on stage is unbelievable.  She can stand still with the microphone, strike a pose and the crowd will still go wild. It wasn't long into their set that the band disappeared, only to return with Karen O wearing her signature Chief outfit. After that, I was happy. I had to leave their set 25mins early in order to pack up my tent, stupidest idea ever I really should have done it early when I could actually see.

All in all the night ended well, I had a proper shower for the first time in 2 days, did not get sunburned at all, and ended up with the sorest feet I have ever had in my life (apart from the time I used my toes as breaks when I went down a hill on a skateboard lying on my tummy, not the best idea I've ever had). Goodbye Southbound 2010 and I am looking extremely forward to Southbound 2011.

P.S.
Other random things that made the weekend awesome:
- I did laughing yoga. I felt like an idiot for about 10 seconds and then jumped completely into, it actually works I was happy and awake all day.
- The general store was pretty god damn awesome. Red Bull was cheaper here?! Go figure, I used it to my advantage though.
- Walking past the internet cafe' and seeing people on facebook equals the biggest fail of the weekend.
- The groove tent at night went off!
- Base camp rocked. If you didn't camp, you missed out.
- This years art sculptures were way better than last years.
- Southbound radio - you know you liked it.
- All the artists seemed like they wanted to be there - except maybe Whitley...
- I didn't see one bad thing happen.

Souhtbound - Part 1

Wow. What a weekend. I had the best 4 days this past weekend, and I must say Southbound 2010 was better than Southbound 2009. I didn't get sunburnt, I rekindled old friendships, made new friends, and saw one of my favourite bands without their shirts on.

Firstly camping was a lot nicer this year. I was in the staff area so there was less than 10,000 people cramped into one camping destination. We also had a little chill area and some nice trees. I didn't have to line-up for a long time either, which helped with the not getting sunburnt.

After arriving I headed down to the Southbound Radio caravan where I would be spending a majority of my weekend. It was about 10:30 and people were pouring into base camp. It was still fairly quiet, but I was surprised to see the amount of people already eager to start their southbound weekend. The radio caravan was pretty nifty. It had air-coniditioning and also a fridge, the perfect hang out for a hot weekend. We also had sunblock stored outside on the radio desk that I would lather on about once an hour. The radio desk was situated right near the entrance to base camp, so people heading back to their tents could see. This was both good and bad... It was good because we could see our audience, which made it quite fun. Bad because at the end of the night we received a ton of people and their drunken antics.

Day 1 for music was fairly good. The first band I caught was Whitley, who is apparently dating Sarah Blasko (just a bit of gossip =P). He was good, as always. My favourite part of his set, however, was when he turned around to a crowd member and shouted "Fuck You!". The look on his face said he wasn't joking, for a split second I was actually kinf of frightened =\. Next up was the Boxer Rebellion, a cool little band from London. They had a really nice sound, and I really got into them while my fellow southbounder Gerry fell asleep... Emiliana Torrini was very cute with her little European accent, which no one could understand. She mixed up her set a bit with a mixture of bouncy and mellow tunes while leaving Jungle Drum to the end. Next up was Jamie T, and boy did he deliver. His rhymes and his beats had me on my feet dancing the whole time he was on stage. From start to finish I was bobbing. Half way through his set Jamie's band came out to wish him a happy birthday, he was turning 24 (I think...). He then thanked us for singing happy birthday and being his unofficial birthday party which in turn made us his friends. He was very sweet, something I wasn't expecting.

After Jamie T we went and had dinner. For me - a bread roll and a piece of cake, I wasn't keen for pasta that night. I then went and fetched my jacket from my tent and headed back to the radio caravan ready for my late night shift. Dea, Lousie and I had the pleasure of hosting Southbound Radio from 10pm to 1am Saturday morning. We had a great time interviewing comedians, receiving free hot dogs withouth sausages, and watching people dance to the Venga Boys. I would also like to add that several boys pleaded us to play "We like to party" by the Venga Boys. It was a good night. We went to bed at 2am after Louise and I had a freezing cold outside shower, well worth it though and way better than showering with 100 people in the morning =]

Saturday may just have been my favourite day of the weekend. There were several awesome highlights. First up, Liam Finn. That guy is incredible!! I was so dissapointed to hear that he had to cancel last years Southbound performance, but this year he was there in all his musical royalty glory. I can't really use words to describe his performance other than out of this world. It seems that the stage he played on had become a little posessed. Ending their performance before Liam Finn were Philadelphia Grand Jury. They spent the last five minutes of their set screaming "I don't wanna party!!!!" while swinging their guitars around and thrashing their drums. At the end of Liam Finn's set he started swinging his guitar around while also thrashing his drums. It was quite the performance by both bands, very impressive indeed. Next up were The View. A bunch of cute little boys from Scotland, who are actually most likely in their 20's but all the same were pretty short and sweet. Oh boy... the next band I'm going to mention had my heart beating fast. Ever since the One Movement Festival I have had an undeniable crush on the guitarist/singer of Little Red. I was so excited to see them again at southbound and when I rocked up to the stage to see them walk out I coulsn't have been more pleased. They decided it was too hot that day to wear shirts. I took about a hundred photos (not an exxageration =P). After Little Red I headed back to the radio desk for my next shift stopping by Kate Miller-Heidke's set, which was as awesome as always. Radio was very boring that day, everyone was watching Art Vs Science... I wasn't too pleased about missing them, but Moby made up for it. After a mediocre performance by Wolfmother, Moby came to save the day. Before his set I could only tell you the name of one moby song, now he is forver embedded in my brain as one of the best artists I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing live. He sang a cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" encouraging 10,000 people to sing the trumpet solo, turned Sir Bowell Park into a rave, and successfully dealt Wolfmother one of the biggest burns of the century. Yes... Saturday ended well.

Here are a few photos of Friday and Saturday at Southbound...