Craig Anderson

Update your bookmarks to http://craiga.wordpress.com/ for all Craig related stuff, or http://craiga.wordpress.com/tag/music/look-whos-toxic/ if you're only after the Look Who's Toxic related stuff.

elrobbo's doing a solo show. If you've got nothing better to do, you should check it out.

Senor Peacock Boom is my new solo act. Me with a guitar with shitty little amp and an ipod.

It's at Bender Bar on High St. near my house. I'll be playing 4 songs (currently half written, might include a cover or 2) on open mic night and it will either be cool or it will suck the balls.

I'll be playing wussier stuff.

You homos should come.

Despite a complete cock up with the timing of the night (everyone was told we were playing at 8 when we were actually playing at 7, which caused nmoog a few problems) and a line-up that didn't suit us at all, last night was fricking awesome. I finally learned how difficult it actually is to play bass when it's covered in beer (thanks elrobbo; I think I can still smell it on me) and I finally did that rockstar bit where you go down on your knees while playing a wicked solo (only I wasn't playing a wicked solo, but I was way up on the 17th fret). Thanks to everyone who came down and lent their support. I think the next show isn't 'til New Years Eve Eve.

Seriously. Free fricking beer. Makes me very sad I don’t drink it anymore.

It’s the Solid Waste Live Recording Booze Party, Friday the 18th November (that’s Tomorrow) at Cumbersome Records (93 Johnson Street, Collingwood). Beer starts at 7.

(cross-posted)

Looking forward to our return to Pony on Saturday, which will hopefully spark a revival in the Toxic live shows. Hoping for a big turnout, so get off your excuse-maker and get down there by 10:30.

Anyone's who's interested in getting to know the “inner Craig” would be well-advised to check out my new personal blog at craiga.wordpress.com. I'm not shutting this LiveJournal one down, but I am going to try and keep it more focused on band stuff.

Why does it never seem to rain in Laverton?

As you may or may not have heard, I've been busily working away at the new version of lookwhostoxic.com based on WordPress, and I'm also been looking at switching web hosts (the one we're currently using sucks balls). All the web hosts I've been looking at offer a free domain registration (restricted to .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info TLDs). Anyone got any cool ideas as to what I can register? You can use whois.net to see what is and isn't registered. I'm thinking about making into a personal site, and only posting band-related stuff to lookwhostoxic.com.

So I'm getting my hair cut on Thursday. Your suggestions and warnings are most welcome.

therentals.com

They're back! Whoo!

Took my ‘indestructable’ Orange 15” Bass Cab to Gallins to get it repaired today. I managed to get it looked at under warranty, so here's hoping it's a problem covered by warranty.

While I was at Gallins, I got a call from APRA—they're going to send me money, and they wanted to check my details. Hopefully it'll be enough to cover any repairs to the bass speaker, but I doubt it.

I hate band practices when they keep me from cool stuff like this backyard remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

After running into Kirsty McCallum at the Tote last weekend, Kate Hibbert (nee Young) has got in touch with me, and I'm going to the Class of '95 10 Year High School Reunion on the 10th of December. Do I feel old? Hell yeah.

Spring Fling (the North and West Melbourne Festival) is on this Sunday. Hopefully it doesn't blow as hard as last year, which would be pretty hard to do.

Round 7: Brisbane Lions 12. 15. (87) def. by Western Bulldogs 15. 20. (110)

After our drubbing at the hands of Geelong the previous week and losing yet another captain to yet another knee injury, I wasn't much in the mood for footy. I, along with most other Dogs fans I knew, were now expecting the season to spiral downward, ending in another firey plane wreck. And now we were on our way to what, over the three previous seasons, had proven itself as the toughest mission in the AFL—the triple-premiership winning Brisbane in Brisbane, starring the all-conquering Jonathan Brown.

Simone and Clint's birthday celebrations coincided with the game, so I was more than happy to head down to I Carusi with a few beers, eat some fancy-pants pizza and get blind drunk. What I didn't expect were the string of text messages I received during the meal. The first came at half time, telling me the Dogs were four goals up! I was excited, but knew too well that I shouldn't be getting my hopes up. The next SMS was toward the end of the third quarter; Brisbane had eaten away at our lead, but we were still just in front. The fourth quarter was an arm wrestle, and the closer the end of the game got, the more frequent the text messages were. Brisbane got close, but the Dogs put on a couple of late goals and ran out winners by 23 points.

Later, the birthday party headed out for Back In The Day, an 80s rock retro nightclub. Unimpressed and kind of scared, I soon headed home to check out the Internet for any Doggies news.

I went and bought the super-deluxe re-release of Pavement's Crooked Rain Crooked Rain over the weekend, so I guess I don't have any use for my old vanilla copy. Anyone want it?

I've lost 5 kilos, so I'm now 125 kilograms—where I thought I was when I started. Spending Saturday night and Mum and Dad place's hanging out with my sister. What an exciting life I lead.

Round 6: Geelong 16. 12. (108) def. Western Bulldogs 11. 7. (73)

On the morning of this game, I woke up late to find a dead bird lying in the hallway, apparently a gift of friendship left my my housemate's bloody cat (no pun intended). As I disposed of the bird with some old newspaper, I couldn't help but to think of the irony—cats (of some form) would probably be pissing me off all day.

I headed out to Wezzbang to meet up with the posse I'd put together: nmoog, his wife Rachael, my sister Karen, her mate known only as Stubba and one of his mates (Stubba and Co. were the token opposition supporters). We were all a bit late to Neil's place, but we got over it soon enough and headed down.

Was good to see an old fashioned reserves match again. The Bees took on the VFL Cats, and Werribee won convincingly. Then, after much ceremonial hoop-la surrounding the unveiling of Kardina Park's new stand, the game proper was finally underway.

Things were looking pretty good in the first quarter until the unthinkable happened—last week's hero Luke Darcy's knee seemed to just give up on him, and we went tumbling to the ground. It turned out to be a season ending injury. The rest of the game was a bit of a blur as memories of Chris Grant being injured in Round 1 2003 came flooding back. Without our then-captain Grant, we were hopeless; I feared the same would happen with this captain.

Neil, Rachael and myself left and were pretty much silent for the whole trip back to Werribee. Mercifully, the Geelong supporters were in the other car.

Next we had Brisbane in Brisbane, over the last few years one of the most difficult assignments in the AFL. Jonathan Brown had just made an enormous comeback. Metaphorical storm-clouds were looming, and I was starting to think of things I could do other than watch the Footy next Saturday night.

I just went to the toilet to blow my nose; it took me five minutes to get it all out. It just kept coming and coming and coming… I guess it's the remnants of my sickness last week. It was kinda gross, but it could've been so much worse.

As part of 100 kilos, I've given up beer until I get to my target weight. It's tough—I love beer—but after a couple of weeks being just-about beer-free, I realise that I can do it.

Now onto my other big vice—coffee. I don't know if coffee by itself is bad for me, but the sugar and milk I have with it definitely are. This afternoon, I visited T2 on Brunswick Street and picked up some Monk Pear tea and all the paraphanalia I need to make tea. Wish me luck.

Phew, what a weekend…

Tri-State Lovers and Love Cuts Kill were fantastic at the Town Hall on Friday night. We all headed off to The Pubes afterward, where I stayed ’til 7 in the morning. God only knows what the guy at the QV Market's juice stand thought of me when I implored him to make me something that would ease the pain of what I thought was going to be the worst hangover of all time.

Got up at 6:00pm on Saturday, as was surprisingly chirpy. While I was asleep, I'd received a call from the video store, so I went and took my overdue DVD back. What I hadn't figured on was that it was 34 days overdue, which amounted to a $78 fine. Thankfully I ran into Mark (owner of the video shop) at Rrose a few hours later, and he let me off the fine in exchange for two Gin & Tonics. That's why I love North Melbourne—if there's ever a question, ‘booze’ or ‘more booze’ is usually the answer.

While I was out returning the DVD I ran into Simone and Ben, who worded me up on Willy's birthday celebration that night at Pony, and ran into the 3051 crew outside of Rrose. Went back home, had something to eat, pulled my shit together and headed back out—first to Rrose, then on to Pony, where I stayed ’til close.

Sunday was kind of weird. I got home and didn't feel like sleeping at all. Instead, I did my washing, looked around for housemates to wake up and sent rambling text messages to friends. I'm pretty sure it didn't happen, but I think it's still possible that someone has slipped something into my drink while I was at Pony. I ran into Emily and Diana while I was down there, and Diana was definitely taking something.

Anyway, on Sunday arvo I tried to cook an omelet and failed miserably, got through a couple of cans of Highland Scotch & Dry and headed out to Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia. Was disappointed not to see Jo or Jenny there, but Dan and I made a decent go of it for late night on Sunday.

Monday morning I felt fine and walked way to work. My new found stamina is either due to being healthier because of the 100 kilos campaign, or switching from beer to scotch (which in itself is kind of related to 100 kilos)—I'm not sure which.

Hooray, I'm back at work just in time for Friday afternoon lunch and after work drinks. My coworkers managed to get my first book out the door, so kudos to them for doing so well without my invaluable contribution.

Went and saw The Bombshells play at the Town Hall Hotel last night. I don't know how to describe it other than really fun punk rock. Crusty's got the moves down pat; Brett's just a fantastic bass player for a three-piece and Tochi, well, I don't know if I've got his name right but he's one of those great, no bullshit drummers that I've always loved. Brett (who used to play with old man nmoog back in the day) was talking up playing shows with the Tox, so we'll have to set up that show for the kids some time soon. Speaking of shows, I'm currently working on putting together some gigs, but everyone wants to give us shows around the time when nmoog's baby's due… frustrating.

Still torn between going to the Townie tonight for Tri State Lovers (who I haven't seen in aaages) and Love Cuts Kill, or to Pony for some Fringe Festival exhibition-cum-gig thing that I promised Terrorist Dave I'd be at… will probably do Townie then Pony, but I'm not sure if I'll catch Dave's Missus's thing.