but he's got the worst taste in music, if i didn't know this i'd lose it

as entirely tempting as it is to spend this post recounting the drunken antics of this weekend (with some largely unflattering picture proof floating about on facebook now), i think i can sum it up in one photo:


everything else can go unexplained for now, but suffice it to say, i've decided to remember it all as "shame-pagne weekend." (do note the bottle in hand is not my lovely assistant, vodka.) at least with vodka, i remember much of what i did, no matter how embarrassing, over the top, or trashy. champagne is clearly just fancily-served rohipnol, as there are large chunks of time i do not remember, and actions i hardly recall but in retrospect, maybe wouldn't have done. though, the good news is...i could have done a lot worse. (and in nights past, certainly have.) i guess i have a fair bit of time left here in australia to break my old records. or maybe reclaim my dignity.

but let's not get distracted by the main course here. it's been a heavy couple of posts lately, i think, trying to chronicle this transition. i've made some mention of the food, the weather, the people, the general shifting of tectonic plates in my life. the picture also speaks to the clothing (yes, look at that vest and deep v-neck shirt--and not from h&m, it's a brand new feeling), but what about the music? more specifically, what about australia's terrible taste in music.

now, i don't genuinely mean that. i think from a new york--hell, a general american--point of view, it might be considered terrible. not quite as bad as much of europe (david hasselhoff, et al), but one of the things that surfaces as the jetlag fades when you first arrive down under is the reigning royalty of kylie minogue. and the almost historic reverence for abba. and all the remixes!

naturally, i'm in heaven.

i had forgotten how permissive australia was about, truly, my own terrible taste in music. as i mentioned in an earlier post, i am generally ten steps behind everyone else on the path towards coolness when it comes to music, and often get sidetracked in a glut of remixes, which i reckon is much like an audio k-hole. what a relief, in this case, to be out of new york and in a country so far from the rest of civilization that marches to the beat of its own drum (machine).

say hello to some of the latest additions to my ipod:



to say nothing about the homoerotic overtones of the video, i've grown quite fond of the presets, with what seems to be standard fare in oz, a good electronic base to their music. but this song ("this boy's in love") totally wins me over with the melodrama of that plinking piano and the wailing vocals.



this song will always remind me of australia, even if the singer is swedish. this song is so australian. feel free to search for remixes of september's "cry for you," and you can get a sense of the newest playlist in my itunes.



i had heard of these girls before, the veronicas, but this song ("untouched") totally won me over. throw some well-placed strings in a pop song, and i'm sold like a used car. it's one of those songs that feels almost anthemic when you've got couple drinks in you. which, sometimes, i do.



this is currently huge in australia. i'd never heard of sneaky sound system before, but "kansas city" is growing on me. it's just one of those songs, with all that electronica and the 90s dance-pop vocals, that wouldn't seem to go anywhere in new york except buried in a remix. the video's fucking weird, too.



i know, i know, totally drinking the kool-aid here, but it's a rite of passage if you're going to live in australia. you have to sort of actually like kylie, too. and i have to say, the song ("the one") totally works, and the video's pretty. also about as soul-stirring as a gospel choir when you're drunk on champagne and dancing on a podium at 1 am. or so i hear...

and finally, because i think it's only appropriate, my latest musical obsession. it is, of course, an abba remix. with a bonus: check out the brilliant answering machine message at the beginning. and then sink into musical bliss.




feel free to watch the original video and song as well. feel free to fall in love.