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I have about fifty billion words to write ahead of my Aussie Metal Month at Harm.us. I'm a journalist now, and that's what journalists do. Write until their fingers bleed. I was anxious the other day at the Elemental Burn EP Launch, interviewing the band and scribbling down whatever evocative and poignant bullshit I could dare to churn out at that particular moment. For a blues/death rock/metal combo, they have a lot of heart and they've got a lot of soul, but their line up needs work. Too bad the lead guitarist (whose chops are admirable) won't sacrifice his warbling wife for the good of the whole any time soon.

Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming workload, I'm very much getting used to hanging out with bands back stage. Talking shit with them, letting them buy me beer, making out with their groupies. Fun times. My next foot in the proverbial door should be at Vampora's next gig. If I can network my arse off there, I'll be set. Oh, and that minor obstacle of getting a run in a print magazine that people have actually heard of might help too.

I should really start doing some work. I do have a Queensland holiday to pay off, after all.

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Welcome Back To Here

I think I've finally outgrown my adolescent Live Journal, so I'm transferring everything over to my shiny old Blogspot blog. Just realizing i've had my LJ since 2004 is a bit disheartening; I've gone through two schools, two 'proper' girlfriends, even more flings and hook-ups, countless friends and acquaintances, two pairs of great headphones (alas), three or four jobs, read thousands of pointless words, and thankfully, two regime changes - one more dubious than the other. Hopefully by the end of this year it'll be a different mode of transport, a different place and a career. I want to go to the United States by the end of this year. I will be there. I will be in Washington, D.C. when they tally the votes as they are handed in. I've said all these things a million times before, my own drive to shift inside is giving me the impetus to change. I have changed, in some small ways. I will make this happen. My beliefs tell me so. I don't have to sit back and wait any more - Now my questions regarding life will be more "What are you doing for me?" instead of "What have you done to me?" Sounds empowering. And just a little arrogant. Just a little.

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This Society of Mine

I'm impotently enraged. There's a poison well of apathy running through Australian society; the spectre of conservatism. We've had 9 years of conservative Coalition government in this country, and it seems like the defenders of the status quo has prevailed all too easily. Conservatism is rife throughout every major fundamental institution - education discourages different streams of ideas by insisting upon arguments be positioned within already established norms. They may as well be reaching for an independent thought supressant any time someone has a new idea. And no one does - the right has condemned the left to take up a contrary position till the end of time. So much for the end of ideology. Even art has conceded that originality is dead, the advocates of postmodernism believing simulation is better than reality. Politics is irrevocably backward, art, music, fashion, major services and the media. What's happened to this society of mine? What happened to the age of enlightenment? What can I do about it, apart from sit on my arse and stagnate in my own stew of simmering hatred and contempt? It doesn't look like much from out here...

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http://twitter.com/crushtor