The 7 minute film is part of an artistic series of movies and still images by US artist David Michalek titled “Portraits in Dramatic Time”. The aim? To attempt to capture compelling, dramatic scenes of roughly 10-15 seconds (real-time) in super slow-motion, communicating “a physical metaphor for an emotional condition…” to his audience.

He effectively achieves this objective in the following stunning 7 minute movie which started doing the rounds of the Internet this week. It features one of my all-time favourite actors, Alan Rickman partaking in what has been dubbed online as, “Epic Tea Time”. While it understandably kicks off sluggishly, I LOVE the sudden change in Alan’s demeanour at about the 4:00 min mark where his seemingly peaceful and relaxing cup of tea, becomes something different altogether.

While Michalek’s original version is silent, multiple web users have set the video to an array of soundtracks, the one above being set to Zack Hemsey’s “Mind Heist” from the score to the blockbuster movie “Inception”. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s the perfect fit and really adds to the drama of Alan’s epic hissy fit.

See, it’s all about context.

I’m a big fan of this creative concept. Check out his full collection, as it continues to build, in Tadao’s Facebook album.

Taking in dates in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney (tonight), the concert series has been billed as one in which Josh, “will be taking a fresh approach to his new and old material by playing around with lyrics and structure.”

This fresh approach, tonight at least, took the form of a selection of his hits, tracks like “The Lighthouse Song”, “Middle of the Hill”, “Memories & Dust”, played alongside some lesser known songs like “Feeding the Wolves”, and a killer opening rendition of “Goldmines”, both from his 2005 EP “Feeding the Wolves”.

I have to say, it felt a tad odd to be seated in the Tivoli Theatre – rated by Josh as one of Australia’s top two live music venues, but the crowd arrangement was near perfect for the scaled down, often acoustic performance. The varied crowd responded well to the band’s talented, altered arrangements, and also to Josh’s humorous in-between banter which included the introduction of his alter-ego, Ross. Haha – yup, you had to be there to appreciate that tid-bit.

At the completion of this tour, Josh will be heading back into “writing/recording mode” with the goal of releasing his next album sometime in 2013 – an awfully tasty prospect by anyone’s standards!

Gossling

I’ve no idea how one of tonight’s support acts, Gossling, has manoeuvred ”under my radar” for so long. Sure, I had heard Helen Croome’s (Gossling) unique vocal style featured in Aussie Hip-Hop outfit 360′s “Boys Like You”, but I was largely unaware of the fantastic catalogue of tracks that she had under her belt.

For tonight’s decent sized set, Helen informed us that she and band were presenting what could be considered a “mullet set” for the night. You know, all business up front (haunting, sorrowful, ballads etc), and nothing but party (the upbeat stuff) out the back of the set, thus finishing strong.

They sure stuck to their word, working their way through a number of tracks from their current EP release, “Intentional Living”, and a stunning cover of Chris Isaac’s “Wicked Game”. An “on-the-up” artist to keep your eyes on for sure!

…and then they found $50! (You had to be there tonight, to get that one!) Haha!

The following is a video of when Gossling joined Josh , mid-set, to perform “Punch in the Heart” together. Good stuff!

Having headed “Down Under” to participate in this year’s roaming regional “Groovin the Moo” music festival, Canadian Dallas Green and his band were tonight playing their second SOLD OUT gig in a 2-night series of “side show” concerts.

Tonight’s performance, the only one I was able to jag tickets for, was an alcohol-free, all-ages affair, so the pint-sized, fidgety crowd wasn’t exactly the best one I’ve been part of. But, as Dallas pointed out, you gotta let the kids have their night out from time-to-time… I suppose.

The playlist from tonight’s show hasn’t yet made its way online anywhere that I can find, but I can tell you that a nice selection of tracks from the band’s three platinum selling albums were rolled out including some of my favourite tracks from their latest release “Little Hell”, in “The Grand Optimist”, “Fragile Bird” and the outstanding “Weightless”.

There’s no doubt that Dallas connected with the all-ages crowd with a number of songs including a stirring, crowd-participating, performance of “What makes a man?” which literally had the two girls in front of me and Mel sobbing like the couple of schoolgirls they were. Good lord. Haha!

Oddly enough, despite the ridiculous amounts of camera phones being brandished around us, I can’t yet find any decent videos from tonight, but here’s a sweet clip from last night of Dallas performing “Day Old Hate” from the band’s 2004 EP “The Death of Me”.

Bahamas

As is often the case, I have to give a shout out to the charismatic, talented opener, “Bahamas” who entertained the Tivoli crowd with his solo, folk rock act that really surprised me. I enjoyed his 2nd album ”Barchords”, released in February, but I guess I never really had a full appreciation for the guy’s self-taught talent on a six string. Wow!

Check out this talented Canuck if and when you get the chance!

Travelling through Chile and Patagonia over 5 weeks with his girlfriend Nina, Dana has collated breathtaking images of their adventures, which, combined together under the all-too-perfect narration of Castulo Guerra, has resulted in this much-loved online short film.

The 5:30 production, amazingly shot entirely using a Canon EOS 1D Mk IV DSLR, covers the couples journey from the north of the country, through the Atacama Desert, the central wine valley and Lakes district, southwards to the Chiloé archipelago and into the lush Torres del Paine National Park.

The aim of the movie? To explore the age-old question, “Why do we travel?” I think Dana has done a stellar effort in capturing the essence of this question and I look forward to keeping an eye on future “Gnarly Bay Productions“.

Being conducted in partnership with the “University of Queensland” and insurance firm “Catlin Group”, “SeaView” is attempting to make Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef, one of the “7 Natural Wonders of the World”, more accessible to those who have never had the opportunity to get wet and snorkel or dive this amazing part of the planet, below the ocean surface.

Currently, the SeaView demo gives users 360 degree views of 8 spots located around Heron Island, about 72km north-east of Gladstone, including perspectives of the wreck of HMAS Protector, an Australian Naval light cruiser abandoned off Heron after colliding with a tug boat off Gladstone.

For the photo tech junkies out there, the survey is made possible by the use of the “SVII”, a squid-like camera that takes, “360 degree, geo-located panoramic images every 4-6 seconds while travelling at a speed of approximately 4km/h.”

The project is due to launch fully in September of this year, encompassing 3 surveys at 20 points across the entire reef. In the meantime, however, the demo is worth checking out, especially if you’ve never had the pleasure of diving on the magical Great Barrier Reef before.

Check out the introduction video below, and visit: www.catlinseaviewsurvey.com to check out the demo launched earlier today.

I’ve already recently praised the launch of the beautifully designed mobile app “Path”, which makes the process of connecting with friends and the people “who matter” in your life when it comes to your activity away from the web, but what about all the great stuff you find online day-to-day that you wish to share with your nearest and dearest? Is there a better way to share this kind of content than by using services like “Facebook” or “Google Plus”?

I’m pretty sure the answer to that one is YES, and, if all the tech articles that are starting to float around now are anything to go by, it can be found in the form of a fantastic, and highly addictive (there’s your one and only warning) emerging service called “Pinterest”.

Based around the idea that you “pin” interesting links and images to various user-determined “boards” via the mobile app, browser bookmarklets, or your profile on the Pinterest website, the site has initially found a HUGE audience in women keen to share pictorial fashion tips, book recommendations, inspirational quotes and more. With the site beginning to open up to more and more people, however, the user gender balance is evening up and there’s now all sorts of brilliant boards out there featuring music, cars, men’s fashion, architecture, design and plenty of other “blokey” stuff.

Pinterest is still in “invite-only” beta mode, but getting your hands on an invite from current members isn’t too hard. Ask around on Twitter, or even shoot me a message with your email address and I’ll get you in the door.

Happy pinning!

In mid-November last year, I caught 5-time 2011 ARIA winners “Boy & Bear” at the Tivoli and was massively impressed by their openers, a young band from Melbourne called “The Paper Kites”. Back then I vowed to be “in the house” for the Kites’ first headlining tour visit to Brisbane, and tonight I fulfilled that promise.

On the second-to-last-stop on their five-date “Woodland Tour”, Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy, Dave Powys, Sam Rasmussen and Josh Bentley packed out Brisbane’s intimate “Beetle Bar” last night, maintaining their perfect “SELLOUT” record for the tour so far.

Playing a selection of tracks from their current EP “Woodland”, keen observers/fans will have noticed almost instantly the notable absence of the sweet, harmonic voice of the gorgeous Christina Lacy who was on a self-imposed vocal ban for the night after losing her voice. Bit of a shame, but it by no means took away from the show.

In some ways her loss was our gain as a number of brand new tracks including “Follow the Fire” and “Troubadour”, were wheeled out and performed in front of the appreciative audience to make up for songs like “The Mortal Boy King” which understandably couldn’t be performed without Christina on lead vocals.

When it was all said and done, the guys finished strongly on what many in the room would agree is hands down one of their best tracks to date, “Bloom”.

Great song, great gig!

The Support Acts

Considering the way I kicked off this post, it would be remiss of me not to give some credit to tonight’s support acts – the “Oceanics” (look these guys up, they were great!) from the Gold Coast and “Kate Martin” (Townsville). Like The Paper Kites, both are Triple J Unearthed products which just goes to show how brilliant the home-grown-music program is!

The following is Oceanics newest release, “Chinatown (is not Newtown)” which they filmed a brilliant clip for… one I just have to share with you.

An amazing 1.3 million plus votes were cast from all over the world this year with plenty of votes flowing in from both the US and the UK. Given this voting trend, it’s even more impressive that 44% of the countdown was good ol’ Aussie talent! Woot!

Ok, enough of my waffle. Here’s the all important list as it played out across the day:

Triple J’s Hottest 100 Songs of 2011

#100: Mr Little Jeans – The Suburbs
#99: The Beards – You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man {triple j recording}
#98: Jay-Z & Kanye West – Niggas in Paris
#97: Foo Fighters – Arlandria
#96: The Strokes – Machu Picchu
#95: Grouplove – Naked Kids
#94: The Wombats – Our Perfect Disease
#93: Kimbra – Two Way Street
#92: James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream
#91: City And Colour – Fragile Bird
#90: Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise
#89: Beirut – Santa Fe
#88: Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle
#87: Gotye – In Your Light
#86: Seeker Lover Keeper – Light All My Lights
#85: Cosmo Jarvis – Gay Pirates
#84: 360 – Throw It Away {Ft. Josh Pyke}
#83: The Kills – Future Starts Slow
#82: Little Dragon – Ritual Union
#81: Busby Marou – Biding My Time
#80: Pnau – The Truth
#79: SBTRKT – Wildfire {Ft. Little Dragon}
#78: Husky – History’s Door
#77: Metronomy – The Look
#76: Redcoats – Dreamshaker
#75: Skream & Example – Shot Yourself In The Foot Again
#74: Drapht – Bali Party {Ft. Nfa}
#73: Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)
#72: Flight Facilities – Foreign Language
#71: Luke Million – Arnold
#70: Jebediah – She’s Like A Comet
#69: Bon Iver – Calgary
#68: Arctic Monkeys – Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair
#67: New Navy – Zimbabwe
#66: Bon Iver – Perth
#65: Kasabian – Re-Wired
#64: Owl Eyes – Raiders
#63: Foo Fighters – Rope
#62: Stonefield – Black Water Rising
#61: Radiohead – Lotus Flower
#60: Joe Goddard – Gabriel
#59: Washington – Holy Moses
#58: Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers
#57: The Rubens – Lay It Down
#56: Sparkadia – China
#55: Architecture In Helsinki – Escapee
#54: The Grates – Turn Me On
#53: Bon Iver – Holocene
#52: Kimbra – Good Intent
#51: The Drums – Money
#50: Boy & Bear – Part Time Believer
#49: Boy & Bear – Milk & Sticks
#48: Art Vs Science – A.I.M. Fire!
#47: Sparkadia – Mary
#46: Active Child – Hanging On
#45: The Kooks – Junk Of The Heart (Happy)
#44: Hermitude – Speak Of The Devil
#43: Grouplove – Itchin’ On A Photograph
#42: Florence + The Machine – What The Water Gave Me
#41: The Strokes – Under Cover Of Darkness
#40: Foster The People – Houdini
#39: Benny Benassi – Cinema {Skrillex Remix}
#38: Ball Park Music – All I Want Is You
#37: 360 – Killer
#36: Florence + The Machine – No Light, No Light
#35: Illy – Cigarettes
#34: Gotye – I Feel Better
#33: Jay-Z & Kanye West – Otis {Ft. Otis Redding}
#32: Noah And The Whale – L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N
#31: Ball Park Music – It’s Nice To Be Alive
#30: Calvin Harris – Bounce {Ft. Kelis}
#29: Drapht – Sing It (The Life Of Riley)
#28: Owl Eyes – Pumped Up Kicks {Like A Version}
#27: Example – Changed The Way You Kiss Me
#26: The Wombats – Techno Fan
#25: Kimbra – Cameo Lover
#24: The Wombats – 1996
#23: Emma Louise – Jungle
#22: Snakadaktal – Air
#21: Skrillex – Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites
#20: Bluejuice – Act Yr Age
#19: Nero – Promises
#18: The Wombats – Jump Into The Fog
#17: Seeker Lover Keeper – Even Though I’m A Woman
#16: Grouplove – Tongue Tied
#15: Foster The People – Helena Beat
#14: Foster The People – Call It What You Want
#13: Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out
#12: Architecture In Helsinki – Contact High
#11: Calvin Harris – Feel So Close
#10: Hilltop Hoods – I Love It {Ft. Sia}
#9: The Jezabels – Endless Summer
#8: 360 – Boys Like You {Ft. Gossling}
#7: San Cisco – Awkward
#6: Lana Del Rey – Video Games
#5: M83 – Midnight City
#4: Boy & Bear – Feeding Line
#3: Matt Corby – Brother
#2: The Black Keys – Lonely Boy
#1: Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know {Ft. Kimbra}

Now, if you happened to miss the big countdown yesterday, fear not! Throw on your headphones at work today and hit “play” below. If you have any troubles with the playlist, you can also go directly to my Grooveshark page and play it there.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

SEE ALSO: Triple J Hottest 100 (2010)

Last Dinosaurs

The band’s sold out appearance was a great opportunity for the supporting local band “Last Dinosaurs” to showcase a number of tracks from their upcoming debut LP “In A Million Years” (out March 2nd). I was really impressed with their sound which I liken a bit to popular Northern Irish indie band “Two Door Cinema Club”.

Genuinely chuffed to have the opportunity to play to such a large audience in their home town, the lads from Last Dinosaurs were received well as they made their way through tracks like “Hawaii”, “Saturn” and the one I really like, “Zoom” (below).

Foster the People

Audience warmed up? Check. Packed house? Check. One of 2011′s best live bands in the house? CHECK!

With an impressive level of pulsating energy that began with the first note and didn’t let up until the house lights came on, “Foster the People’s” lead, Mark Foster (vocals/synth/guitar), along with regular band members Mark Pontius (drums) and Cubbie Fink (bass/synth), and touring members Sean Cimino (guitar) and Isom Innis (synths/percussion) rocked the Tivoli to its core with a full compliment of hits from their top selling debut album “Torches”.

Highlights for me? Well I certainly wasn’t the only one blown away by the performance of tracks like “Waste”, “I Would Do Anything For You” and the thumping percussion of “Miss You”. The encore, however, was the real kicker starting with a fantastic cover of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So”, followed by an extended version of “Warrant” and, as was expected, rounded off with the hit that made a name for the band in 2011 “Pumped Up Kicks”.

Dripping with sweat I exited the “Tiv” with a wave of happy music fans stoked that I’m “two for two” with concerts so far in 2012. I’m sure you don’t need my referral, but if “Foster the People” are ambling through your city, town or village in 2012, buy tickets! Don’t hesitate, just DO IT!