Felafel Anger!

G’day gang, greetings from the Titanium G4 here in Bondi Beach late at night after the Nick Zinner DJ gig which I just left down at Club 77. I swear, that club looked like a wall-to-wall Vice Magazine �DO’s� page. Starting with the hot Asian contingent from Channel [v], Jade and Mel are Soooooooo stylish, I can barely stand it, and because I ran 14k today (more about that later), we sat by the door and watched endless streams of ridiculously hot girls and guys stream into the place. I felt especially daggy. I’ve never been in the company of so many beautiful people, oh my gosh – I simply had to go home, it was too much to bear. If I had a mullet and a V neck t-shirt underneath my cardigan, maybe I would have fitted in, but I’m afraid not. I just sat there and drank beer with Meltish watching the Monster Truck world championship ‘86 on the DVD screen, occasionally stopping to kickstart my heart every time a super hot girl walked by. I swear, these girls had shoes more expensive than most guitars I own. Oh well, I’m here in trackies now listening to some NZ dub and feeling a lot better about everything. I think I was just too tired to get in the �schoolnight shindig’ vibe after my run.

Yeah I ran to Coogee and back today. That’s about 14k. It was great, the rain was coming down (it’s still kinda winter on some days here in Sydney) and the sea was green and angry. I ran with my friend who’s a gym freak and reckoned she was up for the challenge. It was weird, because after about half and hour, as we rounded the headland into Coogee from Gordon’s Bay, we could hear �My Happiness’ from Powderfinger. Couldn’t understand why until we realised it’s October 12th, the Bali Bombing anniversary, and there’s a huge memorial there at North Coogee, and about three hundred people were at a service. Put a silence on our run for a while as we remembered that day three years ago. It was a hell of a time for everyone wasn’t it? I used the time to reflect on the urgency of living. Do it today, now, otherwise it won’t be there anymore. And I guess the other thing that I got from it, was that when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go – so you better make sure that you make the most of every moment!

I’m running so far these days, it’s awesome. You can build up to anything if you really want to y’know. You hit this zone after about fifty minutes of running that just lets you run forever, it’s so great.
At the moment, I’m on a huge Ska/Reggae/Dub trip. Can’t get enough of it, mainly because it’s a kind of relaxing music that’s far removed from anything I’ll ever hear at [v]/take 40 or Idol. It’s great to rediscover bands again, like The Specials (especially �Racist Friend’ and �Friday Night/Saturday Morning’) and all the early Studio One work. (Studio One was a famous reggae studio in Jamaica – kinda like Abbey Road in London, or The Record Plant in LA) Also really feeling my NZ Dub at the moment. There’s such a great scene over there, and the music is world class. Hooray. The other record I can’t get enough of is Ray LaMontagne’s TROUBLE. You simply have to own this album. I cried three times listening to it. It’s just so amazing, so deep, so intense, so heartbroken, so joyful all at once. Listening to Hanson’s live in Melbourne album too. Damn those kids can write some songs!

Speaking of writing songs, Rich came over the other day, with three bottles of red and we proceeded to play guitars for hours and hours. It was all time, and such a great release. We ended up at the pub quite late, and then into the street when the pub shut looking for felafel.

Unfortunately a fella outside the felafel store wanted to get mad at me for not getting mad at him when he called me names. I don’t mind when people are mean to my face when I’m alone, I understand that not everyone likes what I do and that’s fine – but when my friends feel like they have to wade in and intervene, it’s terrible. My mates shouldn’t have to deal with the anger of another towards me, though I love the fact that sometimes they do.

If you’re reading this young blonde fella (and your three mates surrounding me) with the cute Asian girlfriend who was hassling me in the street the other night, just think for a sec how it would feel if me and three friends all surrounded you and started verbally abusing everything about you. Not very nice? I thought so. I was just trying to get a felafel. I don’t mind if you can’t stand me, but there’s gentlemanly ways of dealing with these things, my friend, and I look forward to discussing them with you in the future.

Look I have to go to bed, as the internet poker cash has run out and I’m at the Gym early tomorrow. I thought of a few guidelines that I’m going to follow this week, just to simplify life for me.

1 – Be good to people, including yourself and other creatures.
2 – Eat a high fibre diet.
3 – Stay flexible.

Hope it works.

Thanks for all the emails – they make my day.
Xx andrewgthatguyfromv@yahoo.com