The Null Device
2001/5/6
So that's why the last Nick Cave album has been so long in coming: because he has been spending his time starring in action films with John Travolta.
I think I will have to check out the Zero7 album; I heard a track from it on 3RRR's Far and Wide, and it sounded pretty doovy; perhaps a little like Air circa Moon Safari. No Australian distribution, but Heartland may have imports... (link via Meg)
The end of civilisation as we know it has been averted yet again, as Hollywood studios strike a deal with screenwriters, preventing a strike that would have crippled the entertainment industry. And the world breathes a collective sigh of relief.
As the dot-com bust bites, one type of consultant in Silicon Valley is seeing a boom in business: the repo man.
He follows morning traffic down Highway 280, past enormous Spanish-style mansions. As he zooms by Apple Computer Inc.'s headquarters, Mr. Kevern laughs. "It's unbelievable how many cars I got from that lot -- 100 cars easily," he says.
Silicon Valley's reluctance to give up its cars is a remnant of the great optimism that led to their purchase in the first place, adds Mr. Kevern's boss, Mr. Doyle. "You find a lot of lottery tickets in repossessed cars," he says. "It's their last hope."
A piece in The Age about the closure of the Continental Cafe, and another one by local music-scene figure Stephen Cummings. (Interesting that they mention that the Espy and the Punters Club are rumoured to be under threat of closure. The Espy, by the million-dollar foreshore of of hyper-yuppified, de-souled St Kilda, has had packs of predatory developers circling it like vultures for ages. St Kilda, formerly home to artists, bohemians and other scruffy lowlife, is rapidly turning into the new South Yarra, and in general, most of the live-band-venue scene south of the Yarra has been replaced by boutique DJ bars and things more polished and upmarket than the vaguely grungy, Dionysian phenomenon of rock band venues.)