Aug 26 - rum.gold

Well today was exciting! Not as a day entirely, but just a couple of things about it. And these couple of things kind of go hand in hand, I guess. But they are exciting for different reasons.

The first exciting thing is I finally went back to a yoga class. I have been wanting to go but haven't looked too much into it. I only looked at places I was recommended by my yoga teacher in Shanghai (she's Australian and used to live here and actually got trained here) but they're all in the city. But I looked up what's around me and found something and finally went in this morning. I have done yoga one time in the last 6 weeks or so and I've been missing it. It just makes me so relaxed. It's my favorite.

Anyway, so I went back to yoga today, and we had a substitute teacher, this Japanese woman. And at one point she said something to someone else in Japanese about a Japanese language yoga class. So after class I spoke to her in Japanese and asked her about it, and it happened right then, so I took another yoga class in Japanese! It was difficult, there were a lot of things I didn't catch, but I got like 70% of it and was able to follow along. And tonight I have a session with my tutor so we're focusing on body parts and body movement verbs.

I will definitely go back to the studio cause I got a great 2 week intro deal and it's close to the hotel. And hopefully I won't be in the hotel for more than 2 weeks... And anyway, I actually might keep coming later on. If there's a Sunday class, it's actually only about a 20 minute drive from where I want to live, and if I can do it in Japanese, that's fantastic practice. And hopefully friends. And there was a Japanese pottery shop across the street that looked like they did classes and I want to go ask about it. Lots of Japanese stuff around there, actually. Which was surprising cause it was like a little street in a neighborhood that all of a sudden had a row of shops and restaurants among the houses. And they were 90% Japanese. I'll find out more and report back.

And I'll also report on rum.gold now. He is a new artist from New York (of course) making more queer black music. I've written about this a couple of times lately. And we all know I'm obsessed with Moses Sumney. And now here's rum.gold who's somewhere in between Moses Sumney and James Vincent McMorrow. I heard his track Where There's Smoke on a playlist a few weeks back and immediately loved it.





Love that falsetto. And everything else about it. He actually only has two songs out, the other being Cashmere Cage, which is also fantastic. And nice to hear his non-falsetto voice, which is also fantastic. He'll be putting out an EP called yaRn in January, I think. I'll be impatiently waiting for it, cause this is some excellent stuff.

Aug 25 - Courtney Barnett

So this is the first Australia post. Things have been pretty hectic since I got here. Although not so fun. I showed up about 10 days ago now. Got in and went straight to work. And then again the next day. And then it was the weekend. And I spent my entire Saturday first house hunting, then applying for apartments. Because you have to go through this insane application process to get a place here. It's dumb. It's like 10 pages of questions and you have to give all kinds of supporting documentation. I've never seen anything like it. Then Sunday was for car shopping. That was a new one. Never done that before. And then Sunday night I did my first fun thing, which was go to the movies and see Blackkklansman. Great film. Highly recommended. Also super sad. But super well done.

Then I was back at work. And every day it's like 10 hours. Which is fine, I don't mind. I have nothing else to do and don't know anyone, so no big deal. I did have my first non-work social interactions this week, though, which was pretty nice. I should say that I don't know anyone in Sydney. I have a couple of friends of friends, and actually there is one girl I worked with in a restaurant for 6 months over a decade ago, but that's it. So I'm trying to meet people, although I'm more focused on getting an apartment first. Since I did get a car! Woohoo! Well, work got me a car. Even more woohoo! And it's a nice one. An Audi A4. Can't wait for that to show up. It is wonderful to drive. But I have to wait a couple of weeks still.

Anyway I did finally do something fun on Thursday, which was also my non-work social evening. I went to see Courtney Barnett! Pretty fitting for my first concert in Australia, as she's pretty massive when it comes to Indie music. And she's from Australia. And to make it even better, she played at the Sydney Opera House. Where better to go to my first concert since moving? I am actually not as huge of a fan of hers as most of the critics are, but her new album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, came out a few months ago, and it's actually quite good. Especially the opening track, Hopefulessness. Which is also what she opened the show with.





I love that slow build of the song. And it's a great bass line. And then finally really gets going at about 3:30. So this song, I love. But this is not how I think of Courtney Barnett. She is a witty singer-songwriter in my mind. But then this concert was a full on rock concert. She built up a lot of the songs and then just let them explode. Which was fantastic, but also kind of weird, considering we were in an opera theater. But hey, great show. And she's so deadpan but then the music goes crazy and it's fantastic.

So like I said, I enjoyed Courtney Barnett, but not as much as all the critics. Her first album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, got a ton of attention and acclaim and I thought it was just ok. But it is clever. She's clever. And then she put out an album with Kurt Vile, who I feel similarly about, but it was a pretty damn good album. And then she started putting out singles from this new album, and I kind of liked them all. The first one that really caught me was Sunday Roast, though. It's funny, cause it's also super chill, but if you listen to the whole album (which you should) it is not so chill. There are lots of hard songs on there. Which now that I saw her live she has impressed on me, but listening to the album it did not overcome my idea of her being a chill singer-songwriter. But anyway, great show. And yay Australia! Although hopefully more yay soon when I actually have a house and can start to settle down. Hopefully that comes soon. And now, Sunday Roast.