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"

Remarkable Remake: 21 Jump Street

 All I know about "21 Jump Street" the T.V show is that it is now aired on "111 Hits" on Foxtel, and that it starred a very young, classically shaven version of Johnny Depp. I've never really watched it or took interest in it at all so I have little to offer as to the original versus the modern day remake. However, today I stumbled upon a trailer for the remake of 21 Jump Street, coming out on the 16th of March this year and it looks awesome.

Starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as two police officers at the start of their career. Tatum is all Braun and no brains and recruits Hill as his partner, who plays a whizz kid struggling with the physicality of the police force. Police work turns out not to be anything like they'd imagined and they quickly screw up their chance in the excitement of their first bust. Sentenced to go undercover at a local high school to find the source of a student drug ring, hilarity ensues as they try to fit into their environment and convince the world that they are students and not cops.


I would've had doubts about the ability of Channing Tatum to play a solid role in a comedy movie a month ago, and even being able to feed well off Jonah Hill's comedic prowess. But I recently watched an episode of Saturday Night Live in which he was the host for the night and he absolutely killed it. So here is the trailer below. Be excited to see a new and exceedingly hilarious Channing, and an always powerful comedian in Jonah Hill this March when 21 Jump Street hits the big screen. Finally, good cop buddy movies seem to be coming back.

KarmaLoop

 I've noticed that when attempting to review things that interest me personally, less words make for a better reception. So here it is, Karmaloop.com. They added me on Instagram the other week and it actually turned out to be surprisingly impressive. It's an online clothing store offering wicked deals on some really cool stuff at U.S. prices with the added bonus of no shipping costs.

 

 

 There are some awesome stuff for both guys and girls. If you're worried about this week's pay cheque pulling a disappearing act then hit the "Sale" section for some of the best deals I've seen available to Australia. I guarantee it, you're bound to love this site!

Related Links:

• Follow Karmaloop on Twitter @karmaloop
• Visit the Website @ Karmaloop.com

Eye Candy: Will business see the big picture in Pinterest?

In the last year, and in the midst of the social (but highly un-social) revolution there have been a large number of social media startups to take the world by storm. Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr and LinkedIn to name a few, but none more than the growing social media giant, "Pinterest". Over the past three months Pinterest have grown their usership by as much as 155% per month and (naturally) presented massive growth opportunities for businesses  to visually promote their brands, their products and their company culture with the power of repins.
Although Pinterest has recieved much coverage in terms of the value of user engagement and brand exposure, there are still questions to the matter of how effective is Pinterest in generating ROI (return on investment) as users are not yet converting their (P)interest into actual sales. It is already proven that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can do the trick, and it is said that Pinterest generates two the three times the amount of coverage and interaction than Twitter; so why is the P.R world so skeptical?


In an article addressing this very topic, P.R journalist Geoff Livingston says that despite all the rage about the new social platform, it is really too early to go nuts. "Outside driving traffic and Pinterest follower counts, most businesses don't have any outcomes to offer," he says. "Pinterest is a huge experiment in marketing". So far most of the articles declaring statistics about its success are predominantly referring us towards fashion or food retail, a department which has always been visually appealing and therefore cuts straight into the core of Pinterest users. But what does it mean for the rest of us?

Livingstone says the reality just doesn't meet the hype, not yet at least. "Experts who tout Pinterest as the second coming of Facebook need to answer the ROI question or damper the enthusiasm. Otherwise, we’ll be pinning burst bubbles in six months." Personally, I think this outlet for visual communication is a fantastic and promising platform for a similar style of visual engagement proved successful by many companies via Instragram, and it's proven that people are waking up to the opportunities it presents (155% growth per month!!). It really just depends on how people use it strategically. There is a massive opportunity for even tech companies and not-for-profits to engage with innovate ideas and an already proven example of this is General Electric, who pinned "bad-ass machines", their events and the history of their company and invited users to view and re-pin their company culture on a personal level. As a consequence of this, their top 10 most used links to their website following were coming from Pinterest.

I think that livingstone is right to question the value of Pinterest, especially in light of how quick everybody in the marketing world seems to have jumped on the bandwagon. I think that until we see results in business than there is no way to declare it the new big thing. Despite this, I believe in the power of Pinterest. It may not be the "new" big thing, but it is definitely the "next" big thing, and social media marketers need to be brave in order to see results in the future.

Check out the article by Geoff Livingstone, "What is the ROI on Pinterest?"

sourced from P.R Daily Online

Strange Talk

I never thought it would ever come to this. But I'm starting to realise that as I get older I fall more and more out of touch with new (out of charts) music. As a youngen I always thought I was on the cutting edge and that I'd always be catching wind of the cool stuff that nobody else knew about, but an increasingly busy lifestyle and work schedule means less time sitting in my short shorts scouring the internet for that next big thing (that sounds a little bit nasty doesn't it). That being said, since I've been back in Australia I'm starting to catch on to some cool Aussie stuff whenever I get some free time.

I picked up "Strange Talk" when an English mate of mine sent over their first single and hit "Climbing Walls" but only really payed attention about a year later when I somehow got their new single "Sexual Lifestyle" stuck in my head on Australia Day. I don't know how it happened but these guys will snowball into your life so quickly it's ridiculous. They only have an EP out at the moment but with their new single "Sexual Lifestyle" hitting radio's quite frequently, I'm sure there's an album on the way.

Here is "Sexual Lifestyle" as well as one of the unreleased songs from the EP that I just love, "Is It Real?" Enjoy, Strange Talk.

Lin-Sanity!

It took them a solid two weeks to catch on to the "Lin-Sanity" surrounding New York Knicks wonder child Jeremy Lin and the already out dated puns that came with him. But NBC's long running sketch show, Saturday Night Live this weekend produced a hilarious skit playing off ESPN's most recent journalistic muff up.

 I'll admitt when I heard about this being the opening sketch, paired with SNL's habit of producing incredibly sub-par, politically charged openers - I was worried it may just be another over use of the cringe worthy Jeremy Lin puns that had been splashed throughout the American sports media for the last two weeks. However, what I saw was a great spin, focusing on the recent racist remarks made by an ESPN jouralist (who was fired that day) and perhaps more importantly, the current state of American sports journalism in relation to the hypocrisy of racism in America. As they say in the short, American media has learned through such figures as Jackie Robinson to be "Tolerant". But of which race?

Stars Bill Hader as the host of New York Sports Now Dan Mardell, and Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah as two black commentators; and of course the white guy. Enjoy.

Sands on Sunday

Avoca Sands Cafe, Avoca Beach

 Lately I've been trying to think of something extravagant to bring to the blog, waiting for the next road trip far away from here, that crazy night out exploring new places, scouring the internet for something that tickled my fancy enough to write about. It turns out it was unnecessary, as today I stumbled upon a not so hidden, local gem that had (to my disappointment) eluded me for the entire time I have lived on the Central Coast.

 I hadn't been to Avoca since my teenage years when I'd hear about those classic under age drinking sesh's going down at the beach and quite frankly until now I had no reason to go there again; but today called for something new. I took my girlfriend (who is from Germany, so everywhere is new to her) down to the main beach access so we could scour the area for sweet spots to have lunch and right there opposite the surf club is the Avoca Sands Cafe. 

View from the Rocks at Avoca Beach

  As far as the venue goes, the outside terrace boasts the greatest of vibes. The bustling beach activity on a sunny day combined with the serene soundtrack of the ocean crashing against rocks and sand provides the perfect atmospheric backdrop for a summer lunch date. The inside of the place is fairly modern and the location makes you feel like you should be paying a little bit more than what the menu prescribes. Despite these being all massive positives, a cafe/restaurant is only really as good as the food it serves and this is what made Avoca Sands truly excellent.

  The inclusion of an all day breakfast menu is not something I've seen at a lot of places on the coast and as the type of person that loves a good brekky but tends to sleep through the appropriate time slot on the weekend, it was very exciting to see. I saw some other people with delicious looking plates and decided that lunch by the beach meant seafood, so I went with the "Fisherman's Plate". All I can say is amazing. A combination of perfectly seasoned and crispy salt and pepper squid; massive, freshly cooked prawns; super succulent after the crunch, deep friend Barramundi and last but not least the suspect 'soft shell crab', which actually looked like something from TLC's Bizarre Foods but ended up being really tasty after I came to terms with the texture and focused on the taste.

The Fisherman's Plate

 The food was undoubtedly the highlight. But the service, venue and overall experience of the place was wicked for a relaxing Sunday afternoon and I'll definitely be back again with friends to also check out the upstairs Glasshouse restaurant and bar. I noticed the place also has a Friday & Saturday dinner menu, Jazz from 6pm and a stunning selection of boutique beers on tap for just $6 (my favourite!). I kind of feel like I've been missing out all this time, and just when I thought the coast has nothing more to offer.

A Pod Where Everybody Knows Your Name

When I was doing a road trip throughout the United States late in 2010, the hours of driving mixed with an all too familiar iPod shuffle list drove me towards Australia's radio darlings, Hamish and Andy and their pod cast series. Although the new found passion for this particular series was short-lived, it opened my eyes to the magic of pod casts and made me curious as to what other comedy gems were out there when the music runs dry.

My search led me straight to Podfaces. Another chat-show style pod cast streamed straight from the couch in some guys living room. Led by the voices of the pod faces themselves, Anf, Josh and the Spice Rack, subscribers receive a weekly cast filled with the most obtuse humour guaranteed to ever hit open ears. Their unique brand of topical banter is worth hours of chuckling on the way to work or uni. When I say topical, I mean it in the most unorthodox way possible.

Whether it's engineering weird social experiments, baiting angry trick or treaters or even listening to my own sister's 'letter to the editor' get shot down hard live. Highly recommended and best to listen to in the car, on the train or any other setting that allows you to tune out, turn your brain off and just let the podfaces boys do all your pondering for you.

Recommended Links:

• Subscribe and listen to the weekly pod cast @ Podfaces on iTunes

• Check out their facebook @ PodFaces