Things I Like

Here's some songs I've been enjoying in 2007.
Firstly, the best thing I've heard all year, Parting of the Sensory by Modest Mouse. The linked video is just one of those fan-made cobbled-together things, but you get to hear the song. It sounds simultaneously angry, hurt, sad, and exhausted, before spinning into a sort of terrifying boogaloo hoedown, and the refrain that "someday you will die somehow and something's gonna steal your carbon." It's completely remarkable, if you're into terrifying boogaloo hoedowns.
Right behind is Arcade Fire's Intervention. All the trendy indie rock kids have been going ape about Arcade Fire, and really, why not?
Next, Grip Like A Vice, by The Go! Team. Super-funky, with kitchen sink present and accounted for.
M.I.A. has an even louder, funkier kitchen sink, banging all over the place in Boyz. As David Bowie wrote on Ziggy Stardust, "to be played at maximum volume."
Bjork has to get a mention every time she puts out a record - have a look at Earth Intruders. Ditto Radiohead - my pick off In Rainbows is Weird Fishes / Arpeggi (not a real video either, oh well).
I have no idea who Bluejuice are, but their song Vitriol is a first-class lesson in how to make a great video with no budget. The fake-interview at the start is hilarious.
My favourite video of the year is All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem. It does that neat trick of building up momentum and energy gradually, without you really noticing, without going "BANG! CHORUS! LOUD BIT!" like some songs tend to do.
Architecture In Helsinki can't put a foot wrong - cue the steel drums in Heart It Races.
The Polyphonic Spree keep making great pop songs, though the frontman looks like more of a tool all the time.
Lastly, Just A Song About Ping Pong, by Operator Please, is my pick for winning the Hottest 100. I'm sure I'm losing all trendy indie rock cred by endorsing a pop-chart hit by a bunch of high school kids, but so be it. Everyone in this band looks about twelve years old, and I'd give full praise for any schoolkid who can write a decent pop tune (Hanson aside, because they were evil).

Selamat Natal

Looking from Mum and Dad's lounge room. Adorable squirrels out of shot.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain! Okay, that's enough. Seriously, that'll do...

The tiny beach at Amarta.

That's "Merry Christmas," in Indonesian, in tribute to a Christmas season spent with the family in Ubud, Bali, one of my favourite towns anywhere, and curiously the town whose dining scene I am most familiar with. Seriously, ask me for somewhere to eat in Adelaide, and it's just... "Rundle Street, I guess?" For Okayama, "the izakaya? Or Moby Dick if you want something really special?"
But anyway. I spent three weeks total in Bali, mostly enjoying family time and battling swarms of flying termites and rains of biblical proportions. It's still a great place; visitor numbers are up a bit from the last time I was there, I think, which certainly helps local business, but there's so much more to it than tourism. The Balinese remain as legendarily friendly as ever, and become even more so with kids around, as I found with nephews T and M in tow. Really, if you have kids, it's a great place to bring them - no snooty looks from restaurant staff, lots of smiles and compliments, and plenty of playmates.
In the first week, we all went to the Amarta Bungalows near Candidasa for a two-day stay. The beach at Candidasa itself is pretty much completely eroded away, but there's a lovely little patch of sand remaining at Amarta. It's a private beach, more or less, since there's no-one else around.
I rented some snorkel gear whilst there for the princely sum of $2 and had a look around. Plenty of gorgeous fish and coral around, and after a rather scary attempt to swim out to and climb a sea wall offshore a bit, I emerged nicely diced up. Coral hurts.
It was M's birthday just before Christmas, so we had a little party, and invited a bunch of neighbourhood kids. The family who own my parent's house catered, and a good time was had by all.
For Christmas, we had a Balinese buffet at a little Ubud restaurant. The many Balinese and two American guests were introduced to the great Australian traditions of Christmas crackers (including the paper crowns and God-awful jokes), Christmas cake and decent cask wine. The food was fabulous, as usual - the Balinese certainly know how to put out a good spread of food.
Which brings me to my favourite discovery this trip - the glory of nasi bungkus. Nasi bungkus literally means "take-away rice," and is just that - a take-away lunch of rice with assorted toppings, wrapped in a paper cone. What makes it so great is both the cost (average about 40 cents for a filling lunch) and the variety - even from the same shop, it can be different every day. Chicken, pork, egg, tempeh, tofu, peanuts, fish, green beans, sprouts - anything goes. We had one for lunch almost every day.
We spent the last night and two days of the trip down at Kuta. I've always said point-blank that Kuta sucks, and... it doesn't quite suck, exactly. The best way to describe it is as a whole city of Bangkok's Khao San Road. There's lots of shopping and eating, and the beach is surprisingly decent, considering the state of the rest of the town. On the other hand, it's full of bogans, wandering the streets in their Bintang singlets, beer in hand... "funny" and "witty" profanity-laden t-shirts... McDonalds and Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks et al... and Javanese tourists who come to look at all the crazy Westerners (so I've heard).

This one's for Rachel. Rusty play equipment? Creepy paintings of the Teletubbies? It must be a Balinese kindergarten!