Mitcham Raiders 2007 Part I

Well, we are a few weeks into the soccer season now, and the Mitcham Raiders are back again. As always, we seem to have the same core of defence, and once again a newish midfield and forward line. Lazy as we are, we kind of didn’t bother about training. Or a pre-season. Most of us met at our first practice game. Some guys joined the team two weeks into the season. Our first few weeks we just couldn’t quite pull all of it together. Four games, three 1 goal losses and a draw. Funnily, it was in a big part due to our ‘trusty’ old defence, making a few silly mistakes (although our starting keeper is traipsing around Europe idolising Billy Corgan). We scored goals in all of our games, however, and things have balanced out. Sure, we lost to fellow Mitcham team Benitiez by a bit, but since then, we’ve pulled ourselves together. We’re two wins in a row now, and starting to look tidy. Our keeper, the Red Bull will be back, and hopefully the next two thirds of the season leave me plenty to boast about.

Insured.

So this week I was reading my insurance contract. RACV has an 80 page book that explains in fine detail what they do and don’t cover. I started flicking through it, but actually found it to be an amusing read.

Apparently, they will not cover loss or damage:
Caused intentionally by you, or a person acting with your express or implied consent. (Fair enough)
If a person legally seizes your vehicle or contents (understandable)
Caused by, or arising from any hostilities, rebellion, riot, civil commotion or war – whether war has been formally declared or not (err, what?)
Caused by, or arising from the use, existence, or escape of any nuclear or radioactive material (err, what what?!?)
Caused by or arising from any act of terrorism that involves biological, chemical or nuclear pollution or contamination. (yeah, sure)
Arising from failure to secure your vehicle, or leave it safe after it broke down, suffered accidental damage or was stolen and then found. (so somewhere between purposeful damage, and not locking my car, is war, nuclear meltdown and biological terrorism?

And come on, what is an undeclared war? How long could you drop bombs on someone before the lights flicked on in their brains that it was an act of war, rather than friendly neighbourhood shelling. What would constitute an undeclared war? Or a declared war, at that? Is it war if we get into a fight with Berwick mid soccer game? Or is it only war when shooting starts? I’m confused, somebody please help me.

Rockin' the suburbs (Just like Mike and Brian did)

So last night I was treading the sticky carpet, as I have been quite a bit lately (i.e., going to gigs in pubs!) I headed out to the Tote in Fitzroy to see Silence Dead Silence. These guys are old school, it was great. I was feeling shades of Smashing Pumpkins and loving it. It was also pretty cool to hear Stevee pull out some old Rogue Two music. I knew it was worth keeping that stuff on my iTunes for seven years, to finally hear it live last night. Last week I caught Artinem with Jess at the Laundry and Aerobleu with the gang at the Brunswick Hotel. Artinem were great - a quieter gig than usual - no mad fans on their feet, just a bunch of us on couches loving the funky bass, the smiling happy drummer, and Sam's amazing guitar work. I do prefer them when they've got a crowd that are into it, but these guys love performing so much that it doesnt change the intensity of their work. It was still notched up. Aeroblue - well, they were pretty darn fun, especially with some trumpet and keys. But points off for a shameless but unfulfilling Pink Floyd take off. A good gig, and I hope it's not the only time we see them in Melbourne. So while I was there last night I was checking out the Street Press, and found this review of an old Christian favourite.

Relient K
Must have done something right
College Rock Didnt used to mean this - this Fountains of Smashmouth pop-punk bubble music ready made for the next Shrek soundtrack. It's cute, it is. But REM were actually on about something. Also, these guys are Christians and they won a Grammy in 2003 for best Rock Gospel album. Now I'm not saying you should dismiss Relient K because they believe in the tooth fairy, but surely their fickle abandonment of the gospel genre does not speak well of their moral fibre. guess the church music wasn't getting them laid.

Now keep in mind I havent heard their new album so can't personally comment (please feel free to inform, folks) I found this review quite funny. First time Ive heard God likened to the tooth fairy - and as far as I know they havent abandoned Gospel. I'm pretty sure the only difference between the two is where the record sales come from. As soon as you start selling in stores other than Koorong (and whatever the seps have instead of it, you are mainstream. I assumed that Relient K have pulled out an album comparable to the old standards of Two Lefts, but it just hasnt managed to make an impression on the mainstream because of it's Christian leaning. Of course, I could be wrong and the new album could suck.

Cubicle Art

Lately I’ve been investigating Toilet Cubicle Graffiti – it’s such a fascination, when sitting and wanting to pass the time, to observe the rantings of the anonymous pen wielders who use the toilet cubicles and walls as a canvas. From political messages, to the arrangements of assignations, it’s a little phenomenon of life I’ve watched ever since visiting the public toilets in Benalla as a kid to see above the urinal ‘If you can pee this high, you should be a fireman’ beside a long lack line. Closer to the ceiling it read ‘if you can pee this high, you should be the chief’. While the Greeks had common public spaces for their philosophers to meet, it seems that some of the best thinkers of our age spend their time, sharpie in hand wasting their days in our public toilets.

God is dead – Neitchze – Neitchze is dead – God
I love cats, they taste like chicken
Pull here for an arts degree
Log on to the network
Veni, Vidi, Velcro – I came, I saw, I got stuck
Why don’t mathematicians get constipated? – cos they work hard things out with a pencil
Push for a message from the PM
Your mission should you choose to accept it
Shouldn’t it be spelt fonetic
Beware of limbo dancers
An al-turd state of reality
Why do they call it a building when it’s already built
I like monkeys
They paint the walls to cover my pen, but the toilet poet strikes again

The great new lot of movies coming out?

Cinema this year is strange to me. It seems that most of the movies that I am anticipating are the ‘franchise’ movies. There are so many sequels, trilogy conclusions, and movies being launched of TV series’ this year, that I can barely think of a NEW movie to see. Sure, there are a few things that pique my curiosity, but not enough to be like the old days (i.e. the days of little social life) where I knocked back 104 cinema trips in a year. Back then, if it was out, I’d seen it. Now I’d be lucky to go to 12 movies in a year. Of course, this year I’ve seen Hot Fuzz and absolutely loved it, but other than that, the list of the movies I’d like to see reads:
Live free or Die Hard, The Simpsons Movie, Harry Potter 5, Transformers, Sin City 2, Shrek the third, Oceans 13, Evan almighty, License to wed, I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry, Romulus my father, The Bourne Ultimatum, Pirates: at worlds end.
Only three movies in that are actually something new. So does this mean that once again, we are going through a cinematic era of ‘the franchise’, or is it just that my taste is getting really narrow? Worrying. This week I bought myself the latest ‘Empire’ but just didn’t see too many new movies getting good ratings. I used to aim to see new movies if they managed at 4 or 5 in empire, and that worked for me, but there just doesn’t seem to be much inspiration on the horizon.

Sunday Supper n Scrubs.

Lately after church on Sundays a small but growing (and hopefully still growing) group of us have been hanging after church, getting people to do munchie runs, and watching a couple of episodes of scrubs. I’ve really been enjoying it, as we can extend our usual social time after church, mix it up, muck around with youtube, and it’s open to anyone. I guessed we’ve experimented with al kinds of after church activities for cool social stuff to do. This week due to a lack of scrubs DVD a bunch of us went back to Whiteline, put on some music, talked sermon, ate food, and enjoyed listening to the ‘Clap on Clap off’ Stereo (nice work by Josh). It was a smaller group, a different vibe, but still a whole lot of fun.

And a few weeks ago a large group of us ended up at Ringwood Lake, playing on the playground, having chats around the lake, and burning boxes of matches for warmth, watching kids who think they are cool graffitiing. It was also a pretty nice time.

I still like Sunday Supper n Scrubs because it is more inclusive – people don’t need to wait for an invitation, you can continue to catch up with a bunch of different people or just sit back and enjoy JD go to war with the Janitor, Turk avoid offending Carla, Bob Kelso be self-centred, Elliot do something dumb, and Dr Cox try to be nasty but reveal somewhere inside, he is a nice loving guy.

State Youth Games

Is coming up! This Queens birthday weekend, the MASH army is once again invading Lardner Park. It’s gong to be our fifth year there, from our beginning as AJAX, to our current outfit name, MASH, and I hope our best yet. Well, maybe not out best points wise, but our best in other ways. The first year was miserable, I’ll pay that. We didn’t know what we were doing, we arrived in the dark and wet to find campsite on a slant and did our best to set up. We endured through that year, and came back better prepared. For year 2 we built a campsite almost bright enough at night to be seen from the highway (I’m not kidding) and we had an amazing year, with a big team, high scores and a top five (4th) finish. Year 3 and 4 we tried slightly different things – bigger numbers, more mixed sports allocations, more focus on teams and community than winning individual sports. And it’s all been good. This year, we’re looking at something new. Year 2 of MASH will see us take in a combined group of 6 churches, and once again, community is the focus. A team of us will be going down two days in advance to prepare the campsite, setting up an army outpost and taking a tilt at the prestigious ‘Spinning Cheese’ award, bringing along a team of parents and helpers as well.. Re-forming into two units, MASH Red and MASH Blue, we’re giving p the pursuit of outright points, and aiming to be a huge presence in the SYG community.

The General, and Colonels and Major that support are going to have their work cut out for them, but this year should be a real blast. If you’re not already going, talk to me – we always are happy to take on more conscripts