Vagrant Story

When it comes to travel, take money away from the equasion and the possibilities are endless. Now that's not to say that money isn't good to have on any trip, as a matter of fact it is essential. However, some of my friends travelling to, say, Bali or Thailand and grab themselves some nice 5-star hotel, with drink service included and a mega pool so they never have to leave the confines of the hotel during their whole entire trip except to partake in some specifically generated tourist event like riding an elephant. I say snore to this kind of treatment and bring on the do-it-yourself style, grass roots adventure's that come with the stereotypical idea of backpacking.

I believe that while moving about on a trip overseas, that roughing it is the best way to squeeze every bit of juice from the experience. Take my road trip through the west coast of the U.S.A in 2010 for example; 5 weeks sleeping in a van every night with two other guys, a new place every night, new people, new experiences. You see, the less you rely on money the more you rely on people and secrets to get where you're going. When forced by the hand that is economics, you begin to be able to see all the weird and wonderful parts of a city and its people that you wouldn't normally see when not cornered by a budget, as you are made to hunt for popular food joints and bars that offer more reasonably priced drinks (which are usually the most popular bars and food joints anyway), forced to talk to people to get where you're going and you become more open to everything and anything.

This post is not really a tip or clue as much as it is a empathetic pat on the back to those of you about to go overseas but worried about how little money you have to spend; you'll probably end up having a better time than you would otherwise. For example, when I was in Las Vegas with two of my best mates, we had probably $20-$30 to spend for the entire night, therefore we went to the self-dubbed "People's Casino", drank our arse in $1 beers and headed over to the only nightclub with a reasonable line-up we could see. That night, it was the opening of this "King-Ink Nightclub", a nightclub slash tattoo parlour across from the main club in the Mirage Casino & Hotel where we got in for cheap and after meeting two lovely Swedish girls in the line, had them get free drinks and subsequently give them to us all night. Little did we know that because it was the grand opening of this particular club, we were in the same place as Tommy Lee, Pink, Kat Von D, and heaps of other iconically tattooed celebs. To top it off the club was packed and epic until 7am when we went home. All this would not have happened in the VIP room at PURE in Caesar's Palace.

Point being, don't stress; stay in vans, hostels or camp sites; go to hick bars and follow the cheap drinks (if Dave Mckellar ever reads this...the Stumble Inn on 73rd Street, New York? YES), live off noodles if you have to; just hurry up and go overseas. If you get to see the things you see, meet the people you meet and live the way you do, either way it's going to be the best thing you ever do and an unforgettable and unmatchable experience.

BIRP if you like Indie

Now I am truly excited to be spreading the word about this particular music outlet. Unusually named, Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist (better known to regulars as 'BIRP.fm') is one of those sites that just make an ageing guy like me feel young again. Back in the days when you felt like every band you ever listened to was lower than underground and you would plug them and worship them like they were your little secret; damn it was a cool feeling. But then you got older, shit (life) got in the way and you don't have time anymore to keep up to date with anything. The lowest you get into underground is who is playing at the biggest indie rock festivals, and the fact that I say biggest says something about how little known they really are.

To cut out of this self righteous bullshit about being cool and underground, Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist is actually a brilliant music blog that does everything from interviews, reviews, announcements, and archiving to (what I think is the best part) releasing a monthly 120 song playlist in the form of a downloadable torrent, complete with maybe one or two bands you've actually heard before. I was stoked to find so many different new artists, most of whom come from some weird country in Europe and haven't got any other releases then the demo's from the playlist.


With 120 songs on the playlist you're bound to find a few things you like and I myself recently have been introduced to so many fricken cool bands that I literally cannot stop listening to. One of my fav's discovered from the playlist, a little british indie band that go by the name of Little Comets that I'm actually listening to at the moment.

The other cool part about this is that it battles one of the only downsides about torrents in that every playlist comes with an original and wicked cover art that gets chucked into your iTunes account; for example, the May issue to your left. The May playlist is out now so:



Visit their blog/website @ BIRP.FM

Download their playlist's as torrents @ Indie Rock Playlists 2012

I'll leave you guys with a bit of youtube-age of my favourites I've discovered from the playlist so far:

The Book Was Better

The recent popularity about this Hunger Games movie has got me thinking about all of my favourite books that never quite made it to the big screen and for countless reasons should have. I mean, if any of you have read Jeffery Deaver's 'Lincoln Rhyme' novels, you would know that Hollywood produced the wrong novel in 'The Bone Collector' when they should have drawn up plans for his better work, 'The Coffin Dancer". After the Twilight series and now this Hunger Games, I can't help but think Hollywood keeps over looking the better adventures in print that haven't yet made it to the silver screen.

This brings me to Matthew Reilly. An Australian writer who is also a New York Times Best Seller for his Jack West Jr. and Scarecrow novels and my favourite writer at this moment in time. Shortly after finishing his third book in the Jack West Jr series I felt compelled to vent. You see, this trilogy consisting of "The Seven Ancient Wonders", "The Six Sacred Stones" and "The Five Greatest Warriors" is a sad one to end; the kind of series that makes you genuinely upset that it had to finish somehow and most of the reason why I'm outraged there is no film yet to prolong my interest in this series.

The series follows adventurer Jack West Jr (as previously mentioned) and his efforts to retrieve parts of the seven wonders of the ancient world in order to stop a global event that will cause one nation to gain complete power over all others, only to encounter several other problems and subsequent adventures around the world in the following two books. It produces a sort of Indiana Jones style treasure hunter epic, but with Reilly's superb writing style making it so vivid in your brain that you get thrown into the adventure yourself and just can't leave it alone. I spent many nights reading till 4am because I just couldn't put these books away.

So basically...Hurry up Hollywood and make this series into a movie! Oh, and readers, if you haven't already heard of this series make sure to get it as soon as you possibly can. It's epic.

Cocktails @ Cara O' Cruz

Are you sick of the same old sloppy, muddy, sticky dancefloor every weekend? Tired of weaving your way through the cluster of testosterone that seems to be all around you? Bored of the same stench of puke wofting its way up into your nostrils and knowing you could very well be standing on it at that current moment? If you're just trying to enjoy a few fun drinks with mates on a Saturday night on the Central Coast, NSW, there's some exciting news for you.

Spanish tapas style restaurant Cara O' Cruz, found on the main block of Terrigal have just announced the 'soft opening' of their new upstairs cocktail lounge destined to be the next big hot spot for those of us wishing to have a great night out with friends without the annoying parts that have become somewhat synonymous with this part of the coast. I checked the place out with a few friends last Saturday night and it's absolutely great.

The lounge area upstairs @ Cara O' Cruz

As you can see they've recently renovated the entire place to mix a kind of city style classy atmosphere perfectly with the chilled out coasty vibe we are so used to up here. My personal favourite is the wall lounge, however, the whole place is great. They've somehow managed to bring this upper class vibe to the place without seeming pretentious in the slightest, making it a great place for anyone to go for afternoon drinks, to carry on after dinner or even just for a night out in itself.

It keeps getting better, as they stock higher quality spirits and wines such as Belvedere Vodka and Moet, they are offering drinks at pretty much the same price as competitors in the area whilst having the edge (basically, serving much better tasting drinks). As well as this, their interesting and extensive cocktail menu boasts delicious drinks at a reasonable price, the service was great and they continue on the bar food menu until late which basically tops any of the other places in the area already.

I believe the official opening of this place will be in a few weeks so I suggest everyone go check it out when you get the chance and try "The Matador's Quiff", it was pretty sweet. Check out the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/CaraoCruzRestaurant

OberHofer

This week we're going back to basics and doing a good old band recommendation. I picked up on these guys recently while checking out a review on Gold Fields in live 105 San Francisco's article on the Top 15 new bands of SXSW, 2012.

Oberhofer are described as "somewhere  in-between Vampire Weekend and Surfer Blood", and their style of melodic, energetic indie-punk is musical gold to hipsters and indie fans alike (or to be less stereotypical, anyone who enjoys music that isn't necessarily mainstream, but has more hooks than a slasher movie). The only thing that can make this better is to hear these brilliant tracks lain down in their upcoming record "Time Capsules II". I'm expecting to hear the roughness of their first EP cleared out because some of the melodies these guys have will hook you in indefinitely and after their success at SXSW they are sure to get some decent coverage in 2012, so watch out!

Here is Oberhofer performing "Away Frm U" on "The Late Show w/ David Letterman", and be sure to pick up a copy of their upcoming album "Time Capsules II" from the iTunes store as soon as it comes out!

Scavengers

Due to an increasingly heavy University workload I have been a little bit lazy with the bloggage. Might come as a surprise to everyone who frequently reads this (yes, both of you) after I had a little spree with a post a day for a little bit there.

As the study load is still pretty high on the agenda, I'll leave you today with a little video I made a couple of months ago documenting a single day in the life of the "Old Mates" crew during our time together in Canada at the beautiful mountain resort, Panorama Mountain Village. It was towards the end of the season and we held an all day Scavenger Hunt with 5 teams of 5 and 100 tasks to complete both on hill and off hill during a 16 hour period between 8am and midnight.

It's easy to do on any holiday just to spruce up the shenanigans and excitement with your group; all you need is the imagination to think up 50-100 challenges to complete, at least 3 teams of 3-5 willing to compete on the day and enough balls to get amongst it and not cheat in the name of fun.

So enjoy, "Balls Deep - The Scavenger Hunt Movie"

Hip to be Square

During my two weeks as an Intern working for the Social Media Marketing department of a well known P.R company in Sydney I noticed a lot of people in the industry were keyed in to all sorts of different phenomena of which I had previously been unaware. Sites such as Pinterest.com (which I wrote a previous post about here) and many others have sprung up throughout the past year to become social, cultural and professional hunting grounds for users and companies alike. Now, if you asked your average Joe about social media, they would most probably direct you in the ways of Facebook, Twitter, maybe even Instagram or LinkedIn; but there is one I'd like to mention in this blog that may be relatively unknown to most readers.

I happened to notice in my Twitter feed last week a few colleagues who kept popping up with statuses about something called "Four Square". It intrigued me enough to go out and download the App for iPhone. Much like Twitter stole the "Status" portion of Facebook and made it interesting for users, Four Square has grabbed the "Check-In" feature and made it fun. When Facebook did it, it came off a little bit pretentious to me. Sort of like a "Look how cool I am" with most users only checking in when they were at a trendy bar or nightclub. In Four Square, users can earn points, special badges and "Mayorships" by checking into places when they go out anywhere, you can check out tips for top spots and you can see the sort of places your friends are going (sounds a bit creepy but I can assure you, it's not). Ironically, it's kind of like an incentive to be social; if you want to earn more points and beat your friends, then get off your ass and do something about it.

Screen Shot of App after a "Check-In" is made.

Now, the only problem with this App that I've found so far, is that it was all well and good in the professional world last week. But now that I've completed my internship and come back to University to finish off my degree, I'm starting to realise that not many other people know about Four Square (hence my poor collection of 4 friends) and therefore much of the fun is sucked away when you're out there by yourself. I even pulled my Facebook and Twitter contacts and absoultely nobody has a profile. To explain this an article in Social Media News says that although it presents great opportunities for businesses to target customers and receive feedback, research shows it only recieves high usage from media professionals and business workers and it has not penetrated the general population yet.

Dont be a social outcast.

 So here it is, my attempt to gather the masses. If anybody has a chance to read this and wants to play the "I'm more social than you" game on their iPhone (ridiculous concept I know but fun nevertheless), then download FourSquare immediately. I'll be the guy with four friends that keeps checking into the Uni Library; by the time you add me you might as well call me "Mayor".



Add me on Foursquare: My name is "Jesse Lewis"