On Friday night we were lucky enough to be present at Gotan Project's Australian premiere at the Perth Concert Hall for the Perth International Arts Festival. They've been around since 1999, but they only finally managed to make it to Australia just now. The hall was packed full and they didn't disappoint with their superb performance.

Gotan Project is a French and Argentinian group of musicians and DJ's that explore Tango music with contemporary electronic elements such as samples, beats and breaks to produce a truly unique mix of sounds. I only heard of them about about 2 years ago, but I fell in love with their sound instantly, understanding why they've got a cult following worldwide.

I hope they make it back to Perth soon, but realistically it'll be a few more years before they're back. In the mean time, I'm tracking down the CD's of theirs I don't already own :P

So now I'm the tardy one, not updating in over a month. Fair cop, 'guv. So what's been on the go since the last update? Here's a brief rundown in something vaguely resembling chronological order:

A few of us went and saw FourPlay at the Fly by Night again. They were awesome, just like last time (except last time Peter didn't crack his cello - he didn't look happy about that at all). Sandy piked at the last minute, but that didn't stop her from getting Emiko to make Peter sign a shirt for her. He went the extra mile and wrote a haiku. I also picked up their "TheJoyOf" cd, the one I didn't have already. Shenzo threatened to sign it "to Susan" again, but luckily it escaped untarnished!

We found a fantastic new restaurant in North Bridge called "New Orleans". We stopped there by chance, and decided to give it a shot for dinner. Run by some people we suspect escaped from a devastated city after the flooding, they serve up a fine selection of Creole dishes that leave you wishing you weren't quite so full. Quite probably some of the best food I've ever had the chance to try, and at a very reasonably price too. We went back a couple of weeks later and I'm sure we'll be heading back there again and again.

We had a killer meal at the Oyster Bar in South Perth overlooking the Swan river (if that's your idea of fun). I ate too much and spent even more (but not as much as some others), and I'm still not sure if it was worth it. Their steak wasn't very good - I feel cheated. Although I haven't really been a big fan of oysters in the past, I have to admit they were pretty nice. I think I'll have to go back for more of them, and not try to order for variety.

We had a quick game of Trivial Pursuit at Darrell's, playing the 2006 genus. Our team didn't win, but at least Marcus and Darrell got their piece of pink pie! Dunja, Steve and Elissa's team won, but I feel luck was on their side when it came to the easy questions. I mean, c'mon! "What is the name of Google's email service?" "What is the name of the internet search company, who's name is the same as a one followed by 100 zeroes?"

Joey celebrated his birthday in style by having dinner at Seizan Japanese Restaurant in town. 25 or so people stuffed into the party room. They should have closed the sliding doors - we made too much noise. There was karaoke afterwards, but we didn't stay long 'cuz we were tired.

The office provided an almost perfect venue to watch the Red Bull Air Race. As our window overlooks the river and Langley Park, we got to watch them setting up, doing practice runs, time trials, etc. There was no productivity that week. Strangely, its more interesting to watch than Telstra Rally Australia. We're all looking forward to next years event.

Michele cooked us all a fabulous meal at Marcus and Michael's house. The meal was to wish J a happy work trip to Brisvegas for the few weeks she was there (any excuse for a meal, really - she's back already!). Michele cooked all sorts of Japanese dishes, and when I wasn't busy pre-washing the bowls and chopsticks I helped by standing around looking bewildered. Uber scrumptious. I even tried Natou!

We spent last weekend at an Iaido and Jodo seminar at Kent St high school. Budokan Academy arranged for Oda Sensei and Nagayama Sensei to come down from Japan for a week, and Dr Lee Sensei also came by. Together they spent the weekend beating us into shape, clarifying and refining our techniques. It was extremely worthwhile, especially since I won't be able to make it to the national seminar in January. Unfortunately I had been feeling off-colour since the Friday before and it caught up with me on the Sunday afternoon, but I did enjoy what I was able to participate in. They're trying to make this a regular event, so hopefully they'll be back ext year too.

Sadly, Rebecca is leaving us for greener pastures. She's moving to Melbourne for work and play. We sent her off with a meal at Mathilda's in Vic Park (nice place, check it out). She'll be missed around toe dojo, but no doubt she'll be living it up in Melbourne (on the other hand, that means she'll be a Victorian).

Michele had her birthday last weekend! Yay Michele! Yes, the same weekend that we spent at the seminar. Celebrations were held in a mass birthday gathering last Friday, where we also celebrated the birthdays of Darrell, Jono, Luke and Yen. One big happy birthday party at The Blue Duck in Cottesloe. Jono and I got her a placeholder present of "Chess inna Tube" while her real present came from Sydney.

Yesterday saw the beginning of the Day Light Savings trial in WA, and what better way to start that by waking up at the equivalent of 5am to attend a grading. I wasn't attempting anything but was there to watch Michele. Although she was a bucket of nerves, she passed her ikkyu in Jodo and yonkyu in Iaido convincingly. Yay Michele!

So that's about it for now. Christmas is coming up soon, and that means there's some annual leave coming. I'm sure to have more to talk about later.

I can count the number of times I've been to live music events on two hands. The number of good music events can be counted on one hand. I'm not one of those people that heads out to some concert every other week at all. But of all the music events that I've been to, none have been as good as FourPlay at the Fly by Night last night. To people who saw me, I'm sure I must have looked positively bored, but I was sitting there totally entranced by the sounds these guys belted out on two violas, a violin, and a cello.

I first heard of these guys only a mere 18 months ago, from Michele's sister after we saw another string quartet called "Odyssey" at BeatleMania. Turns out they've only been around forever. I instantly fell in love with all their tracks on their "Catgut Yer Tongue?" album, but in particular - actually I can't narrow it down past there - they're all fucking great - even if they are mostly (all?) covers.

So even though I don't usually go to live music and have to get dragged along, I jumped when these guys came up. So we went. And we bought their cd's (woe: not enough cash on hand to get more than one - only 1 to go!), and we lined up like dutiful little fan-boys and fan-girls to get them all signed (mine illegibly signed "for Susan" by Shenzo). It was great to sit there totally immersed in the sounds pouring out from them, and even better was to see them totally immersed in it as well.

They said they're coming back in a couple of months. I'm keeping an eye out. I can't wait - I've had their cd's on rotation non-stop since then.

Lately I've been 'digging' all these old albums and artists from the 90's. I don't know why, but its' like I'm rediscovering them all over again.

New for the second time.

I only recently started listening to song lyrics. The words that I could never hear before seem to be jumping out at me, and even more scarily, making some sense. This is a big thing for me. It's odd, but a lot of what I like it probably considered 'emo', or something similarly dismissive. But is all the music I listen to like that, or does it just seems that way because those are the tunes that I'm listening to now?

But when I say that I 'get' the lyrics, I don't mean that I'm all morose and mopey or anything like that, but that perhaps having come through some shit in life and been able to look back on it objectively, analyse it, I can understand where they're coming from. I think the 'looking back and analysing' part is the key. While music is many things, one of them is that it's a reflection of the musician, or at least a window into part of their mindscape. But to get some sort of meaning from it, you need to see how it relates to yourself. Who can hope to try and understand what another person is telling you if you can't try and understand or accept the things that make up yourself? Your view of other people is always from the perspective of yourself, and in this way music can mean different things to different people. At least, that's how I'm starting to view things.

I think that the iPod has a lot to do with it. The listening to music bit. But at the same time it's a Catch 22: You can be some old hipster listening and discovering the meaning in all the old shit in the world, but as nice as it is, you risk missing out on listening to and discovering the meaning in all the new shit coming out. Sure, I listen to Triple J as well, but it seems that you get a fairly narrow view of the offerings, and an increasingly crap view at that.

I should 'diversify my music portfolio', if you know what I'm saying (and you do know what I'm saying, right?)

One of the fantastic gifts I got for my birthday was the most awesome new album "Demon Days" from Gorillaz. So good, in fact, that when I hear it at the music store, or on the radio, or if I just happen to catch myself humming the tune, I have to rush and put it on, and turn it up LOUD.

Michele got me the special edition that comes with a DVD containing extra lewt. The DVD has the video clip for "Feel Good INC." as well as a bonus track called "The Swagga". Michele and I were watching this, and we got the distinct impression that they don't like doing video clips, but the ones they do they do well. The DVD lets you unlock certain features on their website that allows you to get even more special features, including screen savers, wall papers, and another extra track "Happy Landfill". Very cool stuff.

It's really very good ^_^