________ ________ ________
2018-01-08 / \/ \/ / \
/ __/ /_ _/
Firstly, apologies to Solderpunk for the / _/ / /
misleading title on my last post hahaha! \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
I'll be honest, I'm probably the least / \/ \/ / \
interesting person when it comes to what / _/ /_ _/
software I use, especially in Linux/BSD. The /- / _/ /
only thing I do that's maybe a little out of \________/\________/\___/____/
the ordinary is I utilise the screen
hardstatus backticks pretty heavily. I've written little scripts for separate
clocks for local time, UTC, pacific time and swatch beat time, a script to
notify me when I get new mail and one to notify me when I get new notes on
SDF. I think they're neat but probably they're pretty boring, sorry!
If you read my MadFest post from the start of last November you'd know
about Ladybeard and that we're fans, well he's back in Australia at the moment
and it's been a lot of fun. He's over here as part of the promotion for a
documentary he was in called "Big in Japan" which follows a group of friends
from Australia trying to make their "very ordinary" friend famous in Japan. It
takes a pretty fun look at people from western countries that become breakout
celebrities in Japan as well as delving into what constitutes fame and what
lengths people will go to for their fifteen minutes in the modern day.
Last Thursday we attended a screening at the Rooftop Cinema in Melbourne
which was nice but man it's cold up there once the sun goes down. I'd never
been up there before, although I've been to the Toff a few times. They
screened the film and did a Q&A at the end with the filmmakers, Ladybeard and
David Marshall, a professor of "celebrity and public personality systems". He
was an unexpected highlight and provided a lot of genuinely fascinating
insight, I would have loved to have picked his brain about the current state
of things online. The screening was fun but the crowd was really weird. Mostly
inner-city hipsters, not who I expected at all. Hopefully they found some new
fans though.
Ladybeard recognised us from MadFest last year and came over to say "Hi"
which was nice!
Then Friday was Ladybeard's "homecoming party" live and it was a real trip,
the crowd was chalk and cheese compared to the documentary screening. A really
wild mix and everyone there was a fan. One of the opening acts was a group
called Phantom Panda Power Wizard Master Smasher and they were some of the
craziest shit I've ever seen live. I don't even know how to describe what they
sounded like, it was like... big band... grindcore? I have no idea. Their
costumes were genuinely insane, like a laser-lit psychotropic fever dream, and
they were live scoring old Looney Tunes cartoons projected on a screen beside
them. I'll admit, I hated the way they sounded, Dani pointed out that's
probably the kind of reaction they're aiming for, but the more I think about
it the more I love that they exist because what the actual fuck. I kind of
regret not buying one of their band t-shirts.
Of course their shirt had light-up panels on it, hahaha.
Ladybeard's live was great, he's a consummate idol and fantastic performer
and they crowd didn't disappoint either. At a couple points in the show he
almost looked taken aback by how loud and energetic the crowd was, it was
great. At one point the wrestler from MadFest stormed the stage for a rematch
but was swiftly defeated. Sidenote; a similar thing happened at the
documentary screening and half the crowd just rolled their eyes.
After the live we said hi and got hugs and photos and it was all pretty
great.
This afternoon we're on a plane to catch one more screening and one more
live show! Phew.
EOF