Honestly, between the last posting and now, I’ve done next to nothing. It’s been quite uninspiring. I haven’t seen anything interesting, I haven’t done anything that even warrants something huge either. What really should have happened was this, I should be in Singapore right now. A couple of days into November Johnny decided to tell me that Armin was going to be playing at a concert in Singapore, Zoukout. Armin, Carl, and Booka Shade. Well shit, I needed a holiday. After some quick searching over the internet, we end up finding that it would have cost $420 for a return flight to Singapore (from Darwin) and another $80 for tickets into the actual gig itself. Fuck yeah, next question, how long does it take to get a passport? Four to six weeks. When was the concert? In the first week of December. Fuck. I spent the next week or so after I found out trying to find passport forms and stuff like that. Eventually I fill one in (and knowing that it was going to cost like $200 for one) and I probably would have spent a day or so getting a passport photo done (by myself mind you, I didn’t want to have to get someone else to take my photo) and getting the forms filled in properly I went down to a post office and waiting around in the line for about 20 minutes until I was finally served (apparently even though there are heaps of people waiting, they will only make 2 of the registers open.) Well, I finally went to hand in my forms, she’s kind of looked over it and given me a ‘uihh-you’ve-done-something-wrong’ look.

Post Office Lady: “Uihh, you were born after ‘86 I see…”
Me: “…Yeah?”
POL: “Well, you’re required to show one of your parent’s birth certificates aswell”
Me: “…Are you serious?”
POL: “Yeah, you should be able to get a copy of it, unless they were born in NSW”
Me: “Shit. They both were.”
POL: “Whoops!” 

God. Damnit. She then proceeded to pick at my photo because it was ‘too small’ and that I could get one done there. Unfortunately, because I had just been shot down in flames, I just agreed to make the trip seem a little more worth my while. Well, that too was a mistake, because seriously, the photos they managed to get of me were enough to kill little children and choke infants if they saw it. You think the Nick Nolte picture was horrible? My passport photo rivals that one. From that whole trip I come out not being any closer to a passport, and a waste of money on a passport photo I want to burn in hell. I wish I still had it. I was quite cut up about that though, I was quite looking forward to going on a holiday, even if it did mean a weekend-long holiday, but with the chance of being able to see Booka Shade and Carl Cox? I think I could have dealt with that. The next week or so was more uneventful. Making myself get up in the morning to even go to work is getting harder and harder. It’s come to the point where I really do not care about that place anymore. It’s like, I go in there to be abused and berated to the extent where I could just walk out and not give two shits. Unfortunately, it’s now turned into a place where I’m just getting paid to go to work, I’m not getting paid to enjoy going to work, just to be there. I need to find myself something else to do. I need to move myself out of Darwin and somewhere different. Who wants to come with me to Sydney and live?

Well, at least we’ve been getting a steady stream of ‘well known’ DJs up here lately. The last one was Acid Jacks (part of the One Love crew) and about mid-way through november it was Wei-shen, and unfortunately nothing from that night even jumps out at me. I did try my best to get photos, but for some reason Discovery decided to have this Housexy concert on a Saturday night. Now, if you’ve never been to Discovery (or read any of my posts before) it’s incredibly packed on Saturday nights. It’s the weekend, and regardless who is playing, people are going to be out for the sole purpose of getting absolutely fucked up. Which to an extent I can understand, but for me that makes nights like this incredibly difficult. Normally when there are DJs playing, it’s on a Thursday night, and the only people who go are those who are out every night, or those who go to listen to some good (read: different) music being played (me, being the latter.) Taking photos where you can only just move, is hard. Getting up close to the DJ booth when there are people gyrating their pelvis’ against one another, is also hard. I try my best, but unfortunately I just can’t take the kind of photos I do when it’s a lot less crowded. Completely bypassing these facts, it wasn’t such a bad night. There were some awesome tunes being played, and considering some of them I didn’t think I’d ever hear them live, I was quite chuffed.

The next week was what I was looking forward to, slightly. Friday night Daryl and I headed out into town and proceeded to slightly intoxicated, the next night was going to be interesting though. It was the Kmart christmas party. Initially I was tentative to go, depending or not I’d actually enjoy it there, or whether I’d be a righteous cunt and make it a living hell for those there. Daryl ended up joining me, and frankly, it wasn’t that bad. Considering the only reason why I really was there because it was going to be free food before I go out to town, I don’t think it was that bad. We downed the first few beers just to kick start it, and the rest was alright. I’m glad I went though, you what people are really like when they are drunk. Typical fashion though, Jason had another one of his cries. I don’t know all of the details about it, but I assume it was something to do with the little kids having alcohol. At one point, I had come back from the bar and just as I sat down, Alistair saw my beer and started to say something.

Alistair: “Oh, did you just come back from the bar?”
Me: “Yeah, did you want something did you?”
A: “Oh.. uihh..”
Me: “Yes or no, I’ll buy it if you want”
A: “Oh.. alright..”
Me: “Beer?”
Me: “Beer it is.”

I trundled off with his money and bought him a beer. Now, I’ve got nothing against buying a beer or two for someone who asks, especially at a Christmas party, because what’s a christmas party without alcohol? Exactly. I come back and continued to feed my face, went back for seconds, and as I returned, Jason was in the ear of Matt, and from what I understood he was getting ‘in trouble’ for buying them alcohol. It finally got to the point where I had enough of those at that place and we fucked off into town.

Another boring week of work goes by and another DJ come to Darwin, this time it was Grant Smillie (part of TV Rock), although it was a good night, there was absolutely no one out. At all. I mean, at one stage there would have been maybe 10 people on the dancefloor. It was really quite pathetic. He was playing some decent music, but the fact that there was no one was disturbing. I suppose it didn’t help that the following Sunday was meant to be the Hooker’s ball, but I mean, come on! I did bring my camera along, but because there weren’t many people out, I probably would have gotten a max of 20 photos. I was disappointed with myself there, but oh well. That, and the DJ wasn’t doing anything exciting either, and I swear, they are making it harder and harder for me to get photos now. They are starting to put big podiums right in front of the DJ booth, it’s painful. I’ve only been thinking about this the past few weeks, but what I think I should do, is print up my best photos of acts that have been up here (and people shots aswell) and take in some kind of portfolio to Discovery and get ‘permission’ (I suppose) from them. I mean, every time I go in there, I always feel there are people who are watching me thinking ‘who the christ is that, and why is his camera so big’. I think it’d be nice for them to know who I am, and that I’d be allowed to take photos in there.

Another couple of weeks fly by like there was no tomorrow. Finally, it’s the night that Nick returns! Saturday night was quite a rush of things aswell, seeing as Nick flew in (on a delayed flight) around lunch time, there was going to be a gather at Nick’s house before we went out to town. There was that, and Jono’s 21st the same night. God damn. I eventually make it to where Jono’s party was being held, I get held up at the gates into the barracks (it was at an old navy base.) My license states that my first name is William, second being Jarryd. Most people who know me assume that my first name is Jarryd, and they are shocked when they find out it’s my middle name. I’m sitting in my car waiting for this guard to let me in. After waiting for about 5 minutes, he putters back out with a list of sorts and looks and me questionably.

Security Guard: “Sorry, could I see your ID again, was your first name William?”
Me: “Ha, Yeah, but it’s probably ‘Jarryd’ on that list”
SG: “Oh shit, there you are”
Me: “ ”

I eventually roll in and stayed there partying on for a couple of hours. After a while things wind up and I make my way back to the suburbs and head over to Nick’s house where we stay there for a little longer until we putter into town. It’s funny, because it takes something like that to get everyone back together in the one spot. Seriously, we were all sitting out the back as if Nick had never left. It was quite good to sit around and feel like we had just finished high school. After getting lifts and such sorted, we finally get into town and head into Duck’s Nuts while we waited until Discovery opened. Apparently, Paspaley Pearls had booked the place out solid until midnight, so we had to wait until then to get in. Not only was Nick back in town, there was also the Ministry Of Sound gig on aswell. Brilliant, another night where they bring up national DJs on a Saturday night. It wasn’t long before it was midnight and we made our way into Disco. We weren’t in there long until we made our way up to the top bar and pretty much stayed there the whole night. We did see Katerina though. I dunno whether it’s just me, but while Daryl and I were talking to her, things were incredibly awkward. Like, it was that silence between when people were saying things that was just like ‘well, uihh, neither of us want to be standing here, so we’ll leave’ type thing. Oh well, didn’t see her for the rest of the night anyway (I reckon if I look hard enough in school books I could find letters she and I use to write to each other, now that’d be a laugh.) Nick didn’t end up spending the whole night out (which is unfortunate for him!) but I was still out, simply because the music was awesome. I had a couple of ‘drunken’ moments though. As I was standing at the handrail one of my favourite songs right now started to play. As I was dancing away (not giving two shits who was standing next to, behind or in front of me) I managed to elbow some girl’s tit (remarkably hard), grab another girls ass, and I knocked some guys drinking from where it was sitting on the handrail. Shit. Considering I was sober I felt like an idiot (until I realised my song was still playing.)

There was a couple of things that happened through the course of the night that made me feel all little wanted. As I was standing on the dancefloor, one of the regular bouncers wandered over to where I was standing and kind of stood to the side of me. While I was changing lens, he started to ask me what type of camera I had. I ended up having a five minute conversation with the guy. Also, after I got my photo of John Course, I was heading back when the guy who does the lights got my attention and asked whether I had lost a battery and did the same thing as the bouncer, had a conversation with me about my camera. What did make me feel good though (I’m not sure if I’m imagining this part, but whatever), but as I’ve gone up to DJ UK to ask whether I could get a photo with John Course, DJ Flash saw me and was emphatic in the way he was saying it was okay. I was quite impressed, because by the looks of things they all recognised me and understood I’ve been there before taking photos. Maybe I should get my ass into gear and get a portfolio done? Up until now, that’s been most of my life I think. In the next week or so I plan on buying a new machine (I know, I was going to buy a lens, but I desperately need a new computer), so I might have some unboxing photos of that pretty soon. I have been remarkably busy aswell. If you haven’t noticed my gallery recently, I’ve finally decided to integrate my theme with the gallery so it’s as seamless as possible. Honestly, I think it looks pretty spiffy now. I’ve re-organised the gallery aswell, so it might be best to check it out!