Withdrawals...

From a couple of things actually.

Firstly my SLR, which is currently on loan to a friend who's own Nikon had to go to the doctors. When I gave it to him, I hadn't had a photography session in about a month and a half, and since he took it, I haven't wanted to do anything else. But I will hopefully get the use of his new 10mm lens when I get the camera body back.

What I really want to do is try some street fashion photography. Theres a fairly diverse lot of people around here, and the only stuff thats getting photographed at the moment (as far as I know) are the events like Lick It and Wolfgang (Peny Lane being one of my favorites), which only attract a small section of what I think is a much larger picture.

My only problem is that while I've been long time admirer of the street fashion shooters, I have no idea how to go about the practice myself. I mean the crux is fairly self explanatory, but there surely must be someone out there who has typed up their experience regarding approaching people, the best way to explain yourself, should you provide your URL, is their legal shit involved etc.
Or I could just jump blindly into it and see what happens.

Second withdrawal being from The Basics, a wonderful band from Melbourne.
Theres been enough written about these guys, most specifically the issue surrounding the hindrance of their success because Richard Kingsmill 'just can't like their music' (thus no, or very limited airtime on Triple J). Oh and the fact that Wally DeBacker is their drummer/co-vocalist.

In order to compensate for the lack of radio presence, the Basics tour their ass off. To my count, they've played 7 shows in Brisbane this year. Thats more than a lot of BRISBANE bands
have played in Brisbane this year. So I could look forward to my Basics fix on a fairly regular basis. But alas, they have headed for greener pastures. Those pastures being a 2 month overseas tour that will take them to Japan, London, Oslo and back to Japan, before they get back for a swag of festival appearances and stuff. So no Basics shows for awhile :(. They have what has so far (the first 4 days?) proved to be a highly entertaining video tour diary on their YouTube.

Also withdrawals, because I've given up fast food. It occurred to me the other day I've been eating McDonalds etc an alarmingly large amount. Usually because I'm passing through the city at lunch time. So if I must eat in the city, it will either be Hari Krishna food (so great and so cheap), or sushi. Hurrah for me being vaguely more healthy.

Lastly, I'm seeing the Shout Out Louds on Thursday night. I may or may not talk about it here. Or I may try something a little different. We'll see.

The Dardanelles, Yves Klein Blue @ Exile, 10/08/2007

The fledgling 'electro indie rock' setup in the upstairs bar of the Transcontinental on Roma Street is far from fully developed. It's now only 2 gigs old (Young & Restless 2 weeks ago being the debut I believe), so I for one didn't expect it to be stellar. If I were to offer some suggestions they would be to serve more kinds of beer (no Coopers Green?! You fail), take down the horribly cliche, framed Joy Division poster, and veto the damn smoke machine. But they're booking good bands, so who am I to complain?

Yves Klein Blue do lovely work. They own the small stage, radiating a respectable amount of energy, and a large amount of noise. The crowd seem into it, even despite the length of the set (long), as the band do their thing. This is the first time I've been truly impressed with them, am now feeling slightly more friendly towards their 'it' status.

As it happens, they upstaged the headline (in my eyes anyway). The Dardanelles appeared on stage after a rather short break, and played what appeared to be a rather short set, but thats possibly only compared to YKB. The Joy Division parallels rang through loud and clear. Too clear. But the music was admirably played, and there was no mistaking their enthusiasm, most notably the lead singers attempts to crowd surf off a level stage.

While they were headliners, they weren't as well received as YKB.

That shall serve as my closing statement, having been suddenly struck down by a lack of enthusiasm.