perth

Tim Rogers and The Bamboos

Posted on February 25, 2013March 12, 2013 by bekswhoknits

The last few weeks my city has become alive. Perth Festival and Fringe World transform my city from dullsville (which is a popular name), into a hive of activity with three new bars in the city, outside entertainment, and mermaids!

Every year I say that I should get out and explore Perth Festival more, and this year I actually did.

Of course I forgot my camera for the first 4 shows I went to.
In all fairness, one of them was Laneway and I wasn’t really keen on taking my camera, and I haven’t got the photos off my Blokes camera yet.

So I only have crappy iPhone photos of Laneway Festival, Stars, Father John Misty, and Sleepy Suns.
But I do have some awesome pics from Tim Rogers to show you.

Tim Rogers is an Australian rock and roll icon. His band You Am I shaped the lives of countless Aussie teenagers with break-up songs, party songs, drinking songs, and everything in between. Being one of these Aussie teens it’s surprising that it was my first time seeing Tim Rogers. So I was pretty chuffed when he put on a good show.
He’s the quintessential showman although, some nights it’s ‘I’ve just drunk a bottle of red wine- lets do this!’, others it’s ‘I’ve just drunk a bottle of red wine- do I really have to go on stage??’.
We got him on a good night, and boy did he put on a show.

As my best friend said “cool is an overused word, but in every sense of the word Tim Rogers is cool”.
Maybe that quote is better when you actually hear it.
Tim Rogers does exude coolness, except when he took off his shirt. That was hot!

listen to the album

I’m at the cricket

Posted on February 1, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Today’s post comes to you from the WACA.

I have polkadot converse and I’m knitting socks.

Tube socks which I’m hoping to finish today.

Oooh a wicket! Excuse me while I pay attention.

Maybe next year…

Posted on January 21, 2013January 21, 2013 by bekswhoknits

It was thrilling finish to Wednesdays game to put the Perth Sorchers into the semi final (watch it below and just imagine a green haired girl in the stands jumping up and down, hi-fiving everyone in sight.)

Unfortunately Saturday night’s grand final didn’t quite live up to expectations.

It was a bit of a fizzer if I’m honest. There was no buzzer beater, no heroics, not much of a fight at all. We knew quite early on that Perth didn’t look like winning.
But that’s allright. I mean it’s not like Perth hasn’t lost a grand final before. Oh wait! We did this last year too!

Still it’s not all bad news. The end of Twenty20 cricket (3 hour matches) means that Sheffield Shield (4 day matches) and Ryobi cup (1 day matches) start again. That’s the real cricket.
The longer forms of the game don’t attract the same crowds that Twenty20 does but that’s a good thing.
There’s less queues, less chance of sitting behind someone wearing a huge hat, and less chance of being stuck in the vicinity of the ‘wannabe commentator’.
(I sense a blog post brewing about the 10 most annoying types of people who go to sports events.)

I’m a grumpy old woman sometimes.
Ok a lot of the time.

Here’s my grumpy self after the game.
If you look closely you’ll spy Finished Object #2!

I only had photos of me and my favouritest girl in the world. I hope she doesn’t mind.

~~~
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All fun and games in the circus

Posted on October 15, 2012 by bekswhoknits

About 4 weeks ago I had a disturbing conversation with my Father.

It was my Bloke’s birthday so we were going out for dinner that night. My parents were wanting to get him a present, and they wanted to make sure that we were free on a certain night.

Of course my mind went into over drive, wondering what they could possible buy us tickets for that we wouldn’t already have tickets for.

My bloke hates musicals with a passion, he even dislikes the musical episodes of his favourite tv shows, so I was hoping it was nothing like that.

And we have just bought season tickets to the Scorchers and our 5 day test match tickets, so sporting tickets were out of the question.

So I was very much perplexed and left wondering what they could possibly have bought us tickets to.

Well it was tickets to the circus! The Great Moscow Circus was in town, and so on Saturday night we went along.

We both had such an enjoyable time.
There was clowns, knife throwing, acrobats, trampolining, and even little horses (which I was very conflicted about. They’re so cute! But they’re trained animals!).

The grand finale was 5 motorbikes in a tiny enclosed space. I know enough physics to know how they stayed up there, but still! It was impressive.

We would never have gone to the circus ordinarily but I’m glad that we did.

A day at the cricket

Posted on September 20, 2012September 20, 2012 by bekswhoknits

It should be no secret that I love cricket.
Test cricket will always be my favourite, but with the twenty20 world cup on at the moment, and season tickets to the Perth Scorchers acquired, I do enjoy the shorter forms of the game.

And the Ryobi Cup kicked off WA’s first game for the season, and even though we didn’t win (and we’re not looking likely to win our Sheffield Shield game that’s in progress), it still makes me feel like summer and international tests are just around the corner. Which is always exciting.

These are photos taken with my new camera. It’s not quite a dslr but it’s a step up from my phone and the free GE point and shoot I won some time ago.

I’ve been using it for a little while now, but I still have a lot to learn. But I think these photos turned out pretty ok.
(and my camera is pink!!!)

~~~
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Polka-dot vintage markets (how could I resist)

Posted on August 20, 2012August 24, 2012 by bekswhoknits

With a name like that, how could I resist?

With an equal share of crafts, antiques, and vintage clothing it was something I was keen to check out.

And I found a few gems.
My favorite being Kate’s tea pot hats.

They were so beautiful. And she has a new etsy shop which has just opened! It’s full of delightful tea pot hats.

Aren’t they pretty!

There were so many pretty tea pot related beauties.
I also spied these wind chimes.

There were tea cup bird baths as well!

And so many pretty tea cups!

And not so pretty ones.

But I only came home with one.

There’s another one in Perth in November. Perfect for all my Christmas shopping!

~~~
lets talk!
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I have no voice to speak of

Posted on April 23, 2012April 23, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Well the weekend got off to a bang when I made another hairpin skirt.
Then a yarn sale! Spotlight had all their yarn reduced so I picked up some more sock yarn (you can never have enough sock yarn!) and some Moda Vera Shiver in green.
Then it was back home to watch the football (port had a pretty dismal loss – with a very sickening injury in the last 30 seconds), and then go out to watch the football. The hawks – eagles game was very strange. And hawks lost which really sucked.
But at least it stopped raining after the girl next to me bought a $5 poncho. She was not impressed.

Then Sunday was spent In The Pines.
RTRfm is Perths community radio station, and they do a lot to promote local music. And in particular bands that wouldn’t otherwise have a voice.
And it was a tops way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Lieing on a picnic blanket with a couple (ok three) bottles of wine, some good music and great company.
In particular I think it might have been a first for a couple of the heavy metal bands to have someone knitting in their audience.

Dancing like a mad person to San Cisco, swooning at the sexy violin playing of The Kill Devil Hills, and rocking out to Sugar Army were the highlights of a wonderful day. Very impressed with the way it was organised and looking forward to going along next year.

I took her to see India! At the Oval!

Posted on January 16, 2012January 16, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Some would say my man and I are a strange couple. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s day (or most other Greeting Card holidays), I’ve never celebrated my birthday, and he’s a Christmas grinch. We both believe that all the little gestures during the year are better than one grand gesture.

But one thing we do celebrate every year is the WACA test. The WACA (Western Australian Cricket Association) test is the one international test match in Perth every year.

Allow me to backtrack for a bit.
My Man and I share a love of cricket.
We met at a pub’s beach party (because Australia doesn’t have enough beaches, we recreate them in pubs aswell), when we both broke away from our friends to check the score to the cricket.
We started talking about cricket and we must have hit it off because he called me the next day and we had dinner later that week.
In particular we’re both fans of Test Match Cricket. That’s 5 days of sport. And so the first year we were going out, I got us both tickets to the Test match as his Christmas present. And we’ve gone every year since.

This week we were arguing over how many years we had been going out and it was resolved by counting how many test matches we’d seen together (4).
With yesterday’s win, we’ve now seen 2 wins (India, England) and 2 losses (South Africa, Sri Lanka).

But the best part about this year is that my Man can now say he’s taken me to see India, at the WACA.
It’s one of my favourite quotes from Fawlty Towers. I love the Major. He’s such a well written character, and when he’s saying this quote he does it with such sincerity and comedic timing.

It’s always an enjoyable experience. This series against India generated quite a lot of interested so there were more people there than usual (Ashes excluded), but we still had some space either side to spread out. And the best thing is, Australia won!

Saturday lunch – The Royal

Posted on August 8, 2011August 9, 2011 by bekswhoknits

In the middle of a busy weekend, on the way to pick up some dry cleaning, we stopped off at The Royal for a late lunch.
Sitting in the sun, after a rainy week, was just delightful.

The pints of heineken went down very easily. J had the chicken penne, whilst I had the hand torn pasta with lamb.
It was absolutely delicious.
My lamb tasted like a roast dinner on pasta. The roast vegetables were little parcels of goodness, and the hand ripped pasta was divine.

I didn’t know what sauce was on J’s pasta, but if ever figure it out I would make it every night.
And there was still more options on the menu that we wanted to try.

I’ve been to The Royal before, mainly for after-work drinks, a few times for lunch, but this was the best food I’d tasted there.
J had never been there before and he wants to go back (always a good sign).

The views are lovely, looking out over the water.
Hopefully next time we could take the boat and stop off for a spot of lunch.
Either way, we’re going back.

A sad day for Perth – One Movement festival cancelled

Posted on April 5, 2011April 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

It is with great sadness today that I read about the WA Government’s decision to abandon the One Movement festival which has been held the past two years in Perth.

One Movement was run over 5 days, at several venues around the centre of our beautiful city here. It was crammed full of live music, industry showcases, and opportunities for not so well known bands to be heard. It is the closest thing Australia has to a SXSW. And, in my own opinion, had the potential to become the equivalent of SXSW.

I see the cancellation of One Movement as a loss for two reasons.

Firstly personal.
One Movement is a festival entirely driven by curiosity and excitement. It’s not about the headline band, but about who you can discover. Much like SXSW, bragging rights come from ‘i discovered this band 2 years at One Movement’. There are certainly opportunities to discover bands at festivals such as Southbound, but at Big Day Out, Soundwave, On The Bright Side et al. the crowd swells towards the latter part of the day are more apparent. Only the truly dedicated are watching the first band.
One Movement was geared towards this experience and discovery.
This event was quite important not only as a music fan but as a music blogger. Last year i had tickets and couldn’t use them due to sickness. This year was going to make up for that.

Secondly there are the success stories that have come out of One Movement.
Stonefield were a particular success, who after being seen at One Movement were invited to play at glasonbury. One Movement was a perfect springboard to perform in front of so many industry professionals, and also to get advice from industry professionals.
It had an important function within the Australian music industry and deserved its spot in the calendar.

One Movement was always an overly ambitious idea for a city like Perth. And no doubt much of the criticism will focus on the stale and backwards thinking stereotype (perhaps warranted) of Perth.

Yes, apparently they were making a loss at tax payers expense. But this tax payer will happily pay for it.

Maybe that’s why there is a government enquiry. Perhaps changing the business model is the answer.
Instead of canceling why not cut it from 5 days to 3.
Or maybe try hiring less venues.
Look at Perth Festival for inspiration.
Think about the bigger picture. The tourism money that can come only once a reputation has been established. The boost that you’re doing to the music industry as a whole. The exposure that young bands can get, which can only be a good thing for the city.
Imagine if Perth became the next happening place for musicians to come, be inspired, and be heard.

Please just don’t admit failure.
Particularly when you were offering such a unique product which had the potential to become the next SXSW.