Monthly Archives: December 2002

Pink? Punk?

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Apparently when Molasses was sold and became Aqua Velvet, none of the staff was kept. So the head coffee guy started his own coffee place. It’s located down the alley between Right Up My Alley and the ever-excellent GAg. There’s no menu board, just an espresso machine. So I went up there and ordered a takeaway latte and – oh my God – it was made in a normal-sized latte cup, not the usual big-ass bowl o’ latte that someone has become the way that lattes are served in New Zealand. There was no price list and the dude said I should just pay whatever I think a latte is worth. I gave him $2.50, but in retrospect I think I should have given him $3.00. It was a good latte.

I’m going to Hammo for New Years. There’s going to be a barbecue and beers, which is a good way to celebrate. Damn, I’ve spent the last month being all like “OMG! I will be spending New Years Eve on my own! No one loves me!!!” etc. So now I can officially tell myself to STFU.

I still haven’t figured out how to not scare guys, but I’m working on it. More pink, perhaps?

Baybee.

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I bought “Justified” from The Warehouse in Hamilton. I would have supported one of the incredibly cool independently owned record stores such as Big Tones, or maybe Tracs, but The Warehouse was cheapest – $29.95 vs $34.95.

I took the case up to the music counter to get the disc. There were two girls working at that counter. One of them was like, “OMG! We should listen to this one next! I woke up with that song in my head!” and the other one was trying to be all cool and was like, “Justin Timberlake tries to be like Michael Jackson”. So I was like, “Yeah, but he does it better than Michael Jackson does these days.”

I paid for the CD and lingered in the nearby women’s clothing section while the girls played “Like I love you”. All around me people were subtly moving to the beat. A Warehouse employee was sorting out underwear and putting it on a rack. I heard her singing along.

It was joy.

This is suburban re-invented

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(I promise I’ll shut up about Justin Timberlake soon, ok?)

This is what happens when you get three women together who are or have recently been pregnant: they talk about pregnancy stuff (motherhood really does mean mental freeze). Then they get drunk (except for the pregnant one) and they talk about regular stuff and for a while things are like they were when we were 18.

“You’ll be next, Robyn!” they say. Jesus. I hope not.

So we were going around bars trying to find one that had a decent amount of people (no one sticks around in Hamilton at this time of year). There was one bar that usually is a really good live music venue, but instead had an old drunk bogan lady sitting by the bar. We played a game of pool while Incubus and Blindspott were playing on the bar’s stereo. Still searching for a crowd, we went to one bar and there seemed to be a pretty good vibe there. There was an ok covers band and the crowd looked cool. I was at the bar about to buy a beer when the others decided that the bar was “too young” and that we should move on to another bar. Oh my God.

So we went to The Bank and the DJ was playing the greatest hits of the ’80s and ’90s. Occasionally there’d be a song from the last couple of years (but it wasn’t often). But by then I’d had enough beers that I actually got excited when “Groove is in the heart” was played.

But there was a bright spot in the middle of it all: the DJ played “Like I love you”. “Oh my God,” I squealed. “I love Justin Timberlake! I want him to marry me!” At that moment a drunk dude decided that my friend and I needed his company, but then my friend finished her beer and went off to the bar, leaving me maniacally dancing to Mr Timberlake with this lame drunk guy. It was spectacular.

I finally relented and bought “Justified” today. The idea being that eventually I’ll get it out of my system. But I dunno. It’s been over a year since I first got into Nsync and that’s showing no sign of fading. And how can you not love an album with a song called “(And she said) Take me now”?

I saw “Sweet Home Alabama”. I like how the heroine rejects the big phat diamond ring in favour of the dirty, muddy swamp.

Viva el revolucion!

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In a perfect world, the ugly hodogs would be the ones finding the golden Craig David CDs.

Fashion Tip: If you are fat, you should not wear black mesh clothing. By fat I’m not talking about medical definitions. I mean fat as in “OMG, I ate two muffins. I am such a fat cow!” – the internal body police. Don’t wear black mesh. It never looks good on fat girls.

I’m going to Hammo tonight. I’m going to hang out with a bunch of girls I went to school with. Only they’re not not girls anymore – they’re mothers. Not “baaaad mutha” mothers, but “got pregnant, had a kid” mothers. I’m the odd one out.

Is it better to make a lot of varied new years resolutions and end up maybe only sticking with one or two, or to make only a few resolutions, but to make the effort and stick with them? Or should we just forget about resolutions and start a revolution?

OMG! The Justin Timberlake is on TV! So, so, so hot.

Set the tone

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* It’s interesting how The Vines CD – which normally has a green cover, with a hippyish design involving green vines – has a plastic overwrap with a different cover design. It’s black with red squiggles. Less hippyish and far more rock ‘n’ roll.

* I bought a cool shirt today. Actually, it’s only partially cool because I couldn’t get it in the size I wanted, but I don’t care. It may be my BDO shirt.

* I was just thinking about how people plan well in advance what they will wear to the Big Day Out. Ten years ago (shit) at the first BDO in Auckland, I remember all the alterno-boys showing up with blue and green food colouring in their hair. That was also in the days before cheap cell phones, so when I got separated from my friend during Head Like A Hole, I just had to wander around for a couple of hours before I happened to find her. Things were smaller back then, only two stages, no dance music tent. That was also when “smart drinks” were big (and about three years before energy drinks showed up). I had two and I don’t think I got any smarter.

* The Alt Dot show on M2 needs to change. It seems bogged down by all that dreary indie music that is too busy either a) trying to be like Radiohead or b) trying to be artistic and serious, that it forgets about being not-boring. Like, if M2 want people to watch it (more viewers = more expensive advertising rates = less of those adult chatline ads), then they need to stop sending people to sleep at 2.45 am.

* Actually, I know that M2 has an anti-pop policy, but it’d be nice to see some good pop videos. I mean, I know it’s nice to diss pop and use words like “manufactured” and “soulless”, but there’s a lot of pop that isn’t shit. I want to see the new Justin Timberlake video so much more than I want to see a video of a guy playing his guitar, hanging his head, singing in monotone.