Valley Fiesta 2009

Originally uploaded by Aleks and the Ramps

Snap!

Valley Fiesta 2009

Originally uploaded by Aleks and the Ramps

Crowd Shot

Valley Fiesta 2009

Originally uploaded by Aleks and the Ramps

Denim Owl Self Portrait from stage at Valley Fiesta, Brisbane 2009.

Places we have been and word association-

The Gorge: Safety

Launceston: Chocolate Ripple Cake

Ross: Anus

Hobart: Knitted Jumpers YEAAAHHH

Jetstar: Wobbly

Belgrave: Shiny

Letters to people-

Dear John Gay, Wow! The colour of your heart matches my mascara. Fuck you!

Dear Cops, Let’s go to a donut shop together and say “way-ohway-oh Ooh-way-oh-way-oh”.l

Dear Eco Salve, Say you’ll always be there. I love you. Many thanks.

Dear Wind Panther, Sorry to leave you again. Let’s play in a box soon. Love, your parental figure.

Dear Belgrave, Stay in touch, wont you? Catch up soon. Miss you!!

love d’owl

Dear Diary,

I am writing to you to let you know of our upcoming shows.

You will like this one, it is the launch for The Lifted Brow Magazine. I heard last night that there would be a special guest appearance by the …Sting. I am not pulling the piss. Probably no-one will read this before it becomes known, or before someone goes around and changes all the posters using tipex.

Next up, we’re playing next Friday at the Evelyn with the Evelyn. Pikelet. Launching an EP being released into the world with Jean Michel Jarre laser light show levels of excitement by Special Award Records. Be sure to bring paw paw salve in case you get a little laser burn.

Best stand back and zoom in.

And then we are going to New Zealand to play at Camp A Low Hum

http://alowhum.com/

Here is what New Zealand is like.

We haven’t been able to organise many shows other than Camp so if you want to see us we will be off looking at obscure woodland creatures.

Love,

Denim Owl :>

Montreal is such a marvelous city.
What other city dares to include pepper in strawberry sorbet, and a fruit kebab with an omlette?

Songs that I watched Leonard Cohen sing from row W at Place Des Arts:

Dance To The End Of Love
Bird On A Wire
So Long Marianne
Hallelujah
I’m Your Man

Songs that Leonard and band did not play and I therefore did not watch

Famous Blue Raincoat

Number of times that the loving Montreal audience gave Len and gang a standing ovation:

TWENNNYY MILLIONNNN!!!!

Tonight the Mini-ovation was born in Montreal. Whilst Leonard was crooning away like a gravelly bitch, every so often a person would feel so moved by a line that they’d pop up momentarily onto their feet for a mini ovation and then sit back down into their seat.

Our new best friends are a bunch of dudes from Montreal (kinda) called Mixylodian. Even though we are not in their top friends on Myspace at the time of writing, here are some things I know about each of them:

Mike: drives an RV which is very big and has places for sleeping, sometimes while driving, so long as at least one person is awake to drive it with their mind. Mike plays keys and sings and once took a little trip to outer space and the aliens made him allergic to nuts. He never auditioned for ‘You Can’t Do that on Television’ as a child but he did rule at playing Smurfs on Atari

Patrick: plays keys, hits the cymbal with a tambourine (co-signature move shared with Joe ramp), has incredible acting talent, and once found a fish tank abandoned in the snow with barely alive goldfish in it that he rescued and that now live safely in his apartment/aquarium where they clean their teeth with 1960s colgate toothpaste and perrier water. Pat’s girlfriend Joelene looks like Joanna Newsom a little bit.

Alex Boy: plays Game Boy and dances like a fantastic slender duck. He looks like a tall British sea-captain only with giant nerdy black frames, and black and hot pink geometric shapes where there would be medals and shiny buttons. His feet are made entirely of poutine, betcha didn’t know that?

Alex Cooper: plays guitar and keys and sings and his super long quiff comes alive at most mixy shows. I once heard him say his three favourite things in the world are reverb, ketchup and beer. I once saw him eat a hot-dog doused in reverb, whilst wailing-out on his ketchup soaked guitar sound. Beer may or may not have been involved. (I may or may not have made up the concept of “wailing-out”)

Max: plays the time-keeping machine. At mixy’s nxne show Max was busy regurgitating some bad pizza in the washroom whilst they started their first song, and made a full recovery! His mom makes rad pancakes. He looks great in yellow. His mom’s puppy dog, as far as I know, doesn’t run off and play with the chipmonks in the backyard, as much as I wish that he did.

I just looked at the time and it was 12:21:21 am.

Dear Diary,

My rooibos tea and I are once again back at Ideal Coffee. They roast their own coffee here, and the smell is so strong that I was disinclined to order a coffee, what with my epidermis being a semi-permeable membrane and all. Black Wasp is reading a magazine. Last night I fell asleep reading Believer, something about a dude who had audio-motor synaethesia in Hungary last century or some shit. Whenever he heard certain people’s names he would perform an automatic movement, like every time someone said “Jousaf”, he would make the motion of lifting a cat up by the folds of skin behind it’s ears. I wonder how you get that disease. I wouldn’t mind it. I think I had colour-athletics synaethesia once.

We had to check out at 11am today, which dramatically interfered with our regular wake up time of 1pm.

To make matters worsified, the cafe we were hell bent on having brunch at was not opening until 12. So we ate elevenses at Herbivore, and then brunch at Hibiscus half an hour later. The food there is the best in Kensington Market, and it reminded us of Jamie and Mel, as we ate hearty soup, delicious quinoa salad with vegetables, beetroot and hommus. Black Wasp (and I yesterday) ordered crepes, which reminded us of me. My only gripe was that the maple syrup was applied sparingly to my banana pecan buckwheat crepe, and no additional vessel of maple syrup was supplied. I shall return there for more crepes nonetheless, and next time I will request that they be served all oozy and drippy with maple syrup, as was stipulated in the original design of the UNIVERSE.

Speaking of forgetting that I’m not at A Minor Place or some other hipster hangout in Melbourne, every time someone walks into this cafe I experience that split second reflex of feeling the anticipation of recognition, after which my eyes fall upon a complete stranger, and return to the computer screen, completing the cycle of disappointment, like a sneeze that itches and then retreats. Or a sneeze that makes you wee your pants. Or that feeling I experience everytime I meet a non-human member of the animal kingdom. I see wind panther in it’s tiny animal eyes.

Wind Panther is now officially the coolest pet in THE whole world, having his myspace track “mind flies” on the play list of DJ Dolphin and his New Age Workout Tape at the Department of Safety in Anacortes, Washington, USA. If only he could have been there to hear his meow echoing through the building.

Here is a photo montage entitled Menagarie of Non Human Entities:

Trex as guardian of the merch at the D.O.S

The Beijing Olympics mascot/ill-defined-kicking-creature-thing

Anwyn’s cat Fushcia achieved permanent residency in Canada ahead of 3,201 furious residents of Paris, France. Maybe they should have thought twice about doing in all those cats in 1732.

Max’s mom’s dog is just like Wind Panther, only in dog form

Mikey’s kitten Augusta, and Aleks making the rude finger.

Ciao cuties xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Just your average Monday night in Anacortes, Washington. I can’t remember the name of the donut joint, but I imagine it should be named after the collective term for donuts, which I hereby dub, Encyclopaedia Of Donuts. This picture was taken by the camera, all by itself. Photo may contain traces of radness.

Top five things in the USA and Canada that are just like in the movies:

1. Yellow School Buses

2. Raccoons, chipmonks and squirrels.

3. Junkies

4. Hot dog vendors

5. Cups of Joe and donuts

Idea for a musical: a group of happy-go-lucky crack addicts go on a road trip up North in a stolen school bus. On the way they meet a squirrel made of donuts the size of a NYC hot dog vendor. Contains circa 1990 themes.