How I got the motivation to exercise
Becoming fit and healthy had always been a long-term goal of mine, one that I had never fully reached until a few years ago. In 2016, getting the motivation to regularly exercise was quite simply the hardest part of exercising! What turned it all around for me was that I feared that as a result of not maintaining a regular exercise regime, I would not be fit and healthy enough to be a positive role model for my children, and I had hopes for the future with regards to being more active and engaged with my own wellbeing and the wellbeing of my family. I started to form the belief that if I.......read more |
Nuheara (NUH): a new frontier in audio technology
Nuheara (NUH) is an upcoming company on the micro cap ASX landscape, which is focused in the realm of wearable technology. More specifically, Nuheara manufactures hearing augmentation devices. In 2016, the company released IQBuds, a game-changing product, allowing every day users to augment any hearing situation, whether it be zoning conversations in a noisy café, making phone calls, watching TV or simply listening to wireless music during exercise. This year, they released a new product; IQBuds Boost, which....Read more. |
Resistance training: a newbie perspective
Every year I have a few flimsy ‘new years resolutions’, which never seem to pan out. For this year, 2018, I’ve decided that I need to lift weights. Now, just so we are clear, I am in no way someone you would consider to be a ‘lifting’ type of guy. I am the very definition of an ectomorph or hard gainer. I am super skinny, my bony arms and legs have measly amounts of muscle. I’ve always thought that this was who I am, and that I could not change it. But, I’ve decided that I want to give this whole..... Read more. |
EREA: A positive step towards equality
The journey towards equality in the last few years has remained a political football. In particular, the debate over marriage equality has really put Australia very much behind the times. Religion is at the centre of this debate, however, the action taken recently......Read more. |
Turnbull's spectrum of conservativeness Turnbull’s ‘sensible centre’ sounds more like an androgynous zone, rather than a place on the spectrum of conservativeness. On one end of the conservative spectrum, Tony Abbott is jumping up and down, in some kind of ‘Oppositional Defiance Disorder’ boogie.....Read more. |
Gonski 2.0 is only the beginning...
The rhetoric behind Gonski 2.0 relies on an assumption that a marginal increase in funding will magically solve all of our education afflictions. Whilst the federal government is celebrating their vote-winning funding package, they have failed to address any tangible.....Read more. |
To vaccinate or to not vaccinate....
A year ago today, I read an article that was warning the public about a political party, called Health Australia Party. This article warned people to avoid voting for this party, as they are an anti-vaccination group. This post, on Facebook, was promptly flooded with comments.....Read more. |
How Mogwai changed my life
Roughly seventeen years ago, on a hot summers day, at the commencement of the year 2000, I had taken a leisurely stroll through Carlton North to a friend’s house. Upon entering the shambolic share house, my ears were drawn to music coming from the bedroom of one of.....Read more. |
Bill Paxton: The iconic bit part
Bill Paxton was an iconic actor, who featured in many of our childhood favourite films. For almost the entirety of his acting career he played smaller parts in an array of iconic films, such as playing a ‘solider’ in Stripes, a short-lived punk in The Terminator, an officer...Read more. |
Guns N' Roses: A concert of a lifetime
It was 1988. I was eight years old. I remember watching Rage on Saturday morning, and being mesmerised by the single ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses. Around that time, I was also mesmerized by the band Poison. At this point in time....Read more. |
The legalisation of ticket scalping
International pop star Ed Sheeran has just announced tour dates and ticket agencies have gone in to melt down mode, with secondary sellers trying to pawn off tickets at unreasonable prices. A similar issue occurred in Australia when Adele’s run of local shows went on sale...Read more. |
Carrie Fisher's role in Star Wars: The awakening of strong female lead roles in films
The recent and very tragic passing of Carrie Fisher has shocked the world. She has inspired many with her heroic portrayal of Princess Leia in the film franchise Star Wars, as well as her prolific writing abilities, both in books and script writing, and her public advocacy for mental health awareness. It could be argued that her role as Princess Leia was the ground breaking for its time. She was not portrayed as a damsel in distress, but rather a rebel fighter with enough gumption to battle alongside Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Perhaps, with the exception of super heroes, Princess Leia may well.....Read more. |
The genius of Sia Furler
Sia Furler has rose to international prominence over the last few years with her break through albums ‘1000 Forms of Fear’ and ‘This is Acting’. However, she has been performing since the mid-1990s, starting in her hometown of Adelaide, and over a twenty-year period has risen to the status of international pop star. I first discovered the genius of Sia Furler, as countless others did, through her track ‘Breathe Me’ which featured as the soundtrack to the closing scene of what is arguably the greatest television show ever created; Six Feet Under. The track also featured on many other television shows and films. In 2008 my wife purchased....Read more. |
American Football's self-titled sophomore LP: A review
In mid-2015, I had the opportunity to see American Football. American Football are a band that existed in the late 1990s, releasing a self-titled EP and LP and then unfortunately called it a day in the year 2000. I had always wished I had been able to see them play live, but understood, like many other seminal bands of their time, like Karate and Slint, I was only a teenager at the time, living in Australia, and therefore it was simply an impossible feat to have the opportunity to enjoy bands like American Football outside of their recordings. In 2014, American Football suddenly appeared online, with a website and Facebook page. As soon as I had discovered this, I followed the Facebook page, and actively watched the reformation of this seminal band. I watched with great eagerness as they announced and performed shows around the US. I started hoping that they might come to Australia, but was doubtful. When the band announced they were heading to Australia, I pounced on tickets and counted down the days to see them play at the Hi Fi Bar in Melbourne. The show was magical, and definitely a show that I will remember for the rest of my life....Read more. |
Death Cab for Cutie's 'Kintsugi': A review
Having only run this blog for just three weeks today, I have a long list of music I’d love to write about. I’d firstly like to apologise, as this review is for an album that was released in March 2015. However, it is an album that has sat very well with me, and I believe it needs to be written about. Death Cab for Cutie are one of my all-time favourite bands. I was first introduced to this band when a friend of mine had spent some time in the USA on holiday, returning with a CDR full of bands he had discovered while there. One of these bands was Death Cab for Cutie, with tracks from their third album The Photo Album, which had just been released. After hearing this music, I was instantly hooked. I went out and bought the album the very next day, and a few weeks afterwards I also bought their first two albums. Two years later I was blessed with the release of the fourth album, which I purchased the week it was released. Furthermore, as if destiny was poking its head out to greet me, one of my other favourite bands, Something for Kate came back from a US tour, and announced a national tour with Death Cab for Cutie as the support.....Read more. |
The OA: A review
The OA premiered on Netflix just over ten days ago, and within a day of its release there was a buzz on the internet. I didn’t seem there was any marketing prior to this outside of a trailer released only a few days prior. The series was created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, who had previously collaborated on the film Sound of my Voice. Brit Marling also plays the lead role of the character the ‘OA’. In true Netflix fashion, I binged this show in a few days. The first episode peaked my interest, however I was unsure if it was going to be brilliant or terrible.....Read more. |
D.D Dumbo's 'Utopia Defeated': A Review
D.D Dumbo is the pseudonym of musician Oliver Hugh Perry, a solo artist based in Castlemaine, a regional city, just over an hour north-west from Melbourne. I first got in to D.D Dumbo when my wife purchased his debut EP ‘Tropical Oceans’ on vinyl for my birthday. I was instantly hooked. D.D Dumbo has recently released his debut LP ‘Utopia Defeated’, which has been widely acclaimed, both in Australia and internationally. Utopia Defeated opens with a sweet drone in ‘Walrus’....Read more. |
Stranger Things: A review
The Duffer Brother’s (Matt and Ross Duffer) breakthrough science fiction / horror masterpiece ‘Stranger Things’ was more a television event than just another TV series. The story commences with the disappearance of a young boy in a small town in Indiana in the US, while the three closest friends of the missing boy meet a young girl who presents with unusual abilities. Together they aim to find out what happened to their friend. The show was set in 1983 and the Duffer Brothers have managed to make the show look and feel like it was filmed in 1983.....Read more. |
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A journey in time: Timecop1983
I have recently stumbled upon a genre called synthwave. Music that makes me feel like I’m eight years old, watching Tron or The Goonies on Channel 6 In fact, it’s as if I’m watching Tron and The Goonies at the same time. In particular, I have been flooding my ears with Timecop1983. My journey to this point in time originated in my obsession with the Netflix series Stranger Things.......Read more. |
Daniel Johns: A hero of mine
In 1994, I was fourteen years old. My life revolved around being in Year 9 at high school. However, in Newcastle, there was another fourteen year old that was at the beginnings of a very different life to me. Daniel Johns was thrust in to stardom and public scrutiny from a very young age with his band Silverchair. I have followed this band closely, being the same age as Daniel, I have always been fascinated with them. At times, I have looked up to Daniel as a prodigy, as he accomplished things that I never could. I could not have written and recorded a whole album of songs when I fourteen years old, let alone, write and record songs that defined a generation. At the age of nineteen, he was touring the world for their third album Neon Ballroom.........Read more. |
Oh to be young again: A Day on the Green
When I saw the announcement that Something for Kate, You Am I, Spiderbait, Jebediah and The Meanies were playing A Day on the Green, I became extremely excited, giggling with joy. The bands of my youth were all getting together to play a festival, which felt like a festival just for me. I couldn’t believe it. My late teens and early twenties were flooded with music from the aforementioned bands. It’s quite funny, as when I was in my twenties, and A Day on the Green had started, I brushed it off as an ‘old peoples music festival’, and now, I am that very much that old person attending the old persons festival........Read more. |