krisalis

Spent an unexpectedly large chunk of time poking around on Facebook this evening.

Facebook used to be just for US university students, and my lil sis Lennie and her friends seem to talk about it often. It’s where Lennie uploads all her photos and gets the latest scoop on her friends. So when Facebook opened up access for the rest of us commonfolk, and I received a friend invitation from Vanessa, I thought I’d check it out.

It’s sort of like Friendster and MySpace rolled into one, only a lot less ugly.

If you’re on Facebook, you can find me using my gmail address, or searching for me by name works too.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to open that giant bag containing 150 pcs of “Hallowe’en” chocolates on September 17th.

It’s ACL Festival weekend here in Austin, which means Zilker Park has been drowning in thousands of hot, sweaty people, never ending heaps of empty beer cans, cigarette butts and water bottles, and of course, the constant buzz and beat from dozens of different bands.

I had a 3 day pass, but (shame on me!) I only actually attended on Friday and Saturday. I had a great time both days, but ultimately, I was festivalled out by the time the third day rolled around, and longed for nothing more than to sit in the clean, quiet air-conditioned comfort of my own home.

Friday was all about Guster for me. I’ve wanted to see Guster in concert ever since I randomly purchased “Keep It Together” in early 2004. The best thing about discovering Guster in 2004 was that there were plenty of other, earlier albums out already there for my listening pleasure – no need to wait! – and I bought them all. ‘Lost and Gone Forever’ and ‘Keep It Together’ remain my favourites, but their latest album ‘Ganging Up On The Sun’ is growing on me with each listen.

So – Guster. Excited.

They were great live. Really, really great. The bongos! All the different instruments – guitars, a banjo, a trumpet! The harmonies!

I just wished they could have played longer; and I wish they had played ‘Fa Fa’. But they played ‘Airport Song’ and they played ‘Amsterdam’, and they were good and I was happy.

On Saturday, we went prepared with folding chairs and bottles of water, and we set up camp at the AT&T stage pretty early in the day. We saw ‘The Shins’, followed by ‘The Raconteurs’, topped off by ‘Massive Attack’.

‘The Shins’ drew a huge crowd – looked like the biggest of the day from where we were sitting. Nathan jumped into the fray towards the front of the stage, Mark and I sat back and watched from further out. They were good, and the crowd clearly enjoyed the performance.

I wasn’t at all sure what to expect from ‘The Raconteurs’. When they first appeared on stage and all began jamming hard-core loud-rock style, my first thought was, ‘Ah, crap. I’m not going to like this.’, but I ended up really enjoying their set, and even knew, or at least recognized several of their songs.

‘Massive Attack‘ was mellow and relaxed and good. The sun had gone down and crowd had thinned out considerably by the time they came on stage (where did everyone go?! To see Willie? Home??), and leaving us with a great view from our little camp. They played several songs from ‘Blue Lines’ (stand outs included ‘Safe from Harm’, ‘Hymn of the Big Wheel’ and ‘Unfinished Sympathy’) and a couple from ‘Protection’ (although not ‘Protection’ itself, which was top of my wishlist) and some from ‘Mezzanine’, notably ‘Angel’ and ‘Teardrop’. Elizabeth Fraser from The Cocteau Twins did the vocals for ‘Teardrop’.

I could have squeezed more out of ACL than I did. But I enjoyed what I saw, and that makes it all worthwhile to me.

The Shins at ACL
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

Happy birthday, Katie!
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

Nath weighs in on his time in Austin so far….

I seem to be having an undesirable effect on Mark as he acts rather childish around me, something in which I will have no part. Kristen doesn’t exactly approve of Mark’s…well lets just call it boyish charm.

Having grown up in a house with three sisters, it’s proving,um, interesting to live with two boys for an extended period of time. There’s a lot of Playstationing going on, a lot of football being watched, and a lot of food being inhaled. Although you’d think that I’d be used to the food thing coming from my family, because we can definitely all eat.

Rosie approves of the new sofa
Originally uploaded by krisalis.

Last Monday, I was in Bangkok.

I went into the office, smartly dressed and ready for business. I was wearing black trousers, a white shirt with a green cardigan. Everyone else was wearing a yellow polo shirt. Everyone. Everyone on the street, everyone at the office, every manager, administrator, assistant, street vendor.

Naturally this made me curious. What was with all the yellow?

Apparently, it’s for the King’s 60th birthday. Last Monday was not actually the King’s birthday – that was sometime back in June – but the King was born on a Monday, and he turns 60 this year, and people have taken to showing their allegiance to the king by following a government-encouraged campaign to wear yellow shirts. Fascinating! I figured out pretty quickly that the Thais really like their king.

I also discovered that every day of the week is associated with a colour in Thailand.

Monday is yellow. Tuesday is pink. Wednesday is green. Thursday is orange. Friday is blue. Saturday is purple. Sunday is red.

When I heard about which colours were associated with which days of the week, I was surprised that Friday was blue. Fridays should be a happy colour! Mondays or Wednesdays seem more ‘blue’ to me than Fridays do.

The colours did not seem as obviously present on other days of the week as yellow was on Monday. There were definitely some pink shirts in the office on Tuesday, and several people wearing green on Wednesday, but nothing that really stood out the way the all encompassing sea of yellow did.

Next time I go to Thailand for business, I’m packing a yellow shirt.