The Ocean Walker (3:6)

Alright, alright, alright. Wipe those tears kids, cause things are so much better now. After a bit of a bump in the road I have plans to do awesome things.

After driving the Great Ocean Road and seeing a couple shows next week I will be crossing the ocean to the island state of Tasmania for some bush adventures. I have been hauling all this camping stuff around since I got here and haven't even busted it out. I somehow lost track of why I really wanted to come down under. What?

Anyway there is a ton of backcountry "bushwalking" as they call it here, down in Tassie. So I am going to make the most of the last month of summer there by packing it in and leaving civilization for a couple weeks to explore the great wilderness. This is exactly what I want to be doing right now. Straight up Into the Wild. But without all the dying.

Friday I had a proper night out with Melbourne locals. Our friend Alex W. back in Cali has cousins here that I have been hanging out with this week. They showed me the town last night. And in a city where all the action is packed into alleys and side streets, it's no easy task on your own. The best part of the city is the graffiti though. Unreal. And it's everywhere.

I also scored some free tickets to the "footy" match tonight. That's Australian Rules Football. Stoked to finally see what that's all about. But I do eternally hate the word football. It means something different in every country. Malarkey.

Thanks to those few that sent me some music. The ten songs I have been listening to on repeat where starting to sound terrible. I also posted some pics from Melbourne. Check em out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/andersn8

"Instead of building houses, maybe you should be building land. On the ocean. There's no land on the ocean, Michael."

Need Your Tracks!

So I caved and bought a new ipod. But it's empty and I am starting from scratch. All my playlists. All 3,700 songs. Gone.

What I am thinking is if you have a song that I need you can email it. If everyone emails one, I might have an hour of music? Sweet.

So send me your favorite MP3. Thanks.

Melbourne is getting better. Still no idea how long I will stay.

The One Where Michael Leaves (2:1)

So we meet again. It's been a rollercoaster of a week and I was about to crack. I book a flight to NZ and then that's not happening. I'd already quit my job. I talk to Jeremy again and get stoked to meet him in Sydney. Then I go out and have a huge night of partying. Then Sydney's not happening. Then I waste and entire keg at work. Then my ipod completely bites it. All 3,700 songs gone, and me with nothing to listen to. Then I decide it's time to move to Melbourne. Then I find out the free place to stay in Melbourne doesn't exist, but I am still going. The last night at work was the busiest we have had and it's a madhouse. I break glasses and can't even come close to keeping up with the crowds. Ugg. All this going down and the only thing I want is to listen to some of my god damn music but I can't.

I had two huge nights out before I left Brisbane yesterday. Oh yeah. I moved to Melbourne yesterday. I got home at 6am after a a very serious heart to heart - in front of McDonalds of course. Slept a few hours and then had to sprint to the train station to get to the airport in time for my flight.

It was sad to leave as I had made a lot of great friends in Brisbane and had a good steady job. Now I am in a whole new place and don't know what to do. It was 115 deg. here over the weekend. It was 60 yesterday. Melbourne is know for its terribly sporadic weather. The wild fires are ragin shortly north of the city. I am thinking after the weekend I will try to line up some volunteer work that I can do to help out in any way possible. It's the worst natural disaster in Australian history, with hundreds dead and so many more with homes lost. I would love to help out in any way I can. Donating money is not an option so it might have to be time.

I have a couple mates from Brisbane that are currently in Melbourne as well. I will be hanging out with them soon. My good mate/my manager at my job is coming down to Melbourne today for some work. He is staying til Saturday so we will be hanging out too. So I have a couple connections and it will be very helpful in getting a grip on the new city. Which I love so far. it's much more New Yorky than Sydney. Sydney was a lot more like LA. Most people have strong opinions about which one is better. Knowing me, I probably won't, but I have only been here one day so I can't say much yet.

Initial observations are that it's not growing nearly as rapidly as Brisbane. Last count there were at least 40 construction cranes around Brisbane downtown. It's growing almost too fast according to the government. They can't keep up. Melbourne has it's fair share and Sydney had none. Melbourne is more artsy fartsy if you will. Cultural if you want to french it up. This is not a bad thing, and I am excited to get to the museums and maybe a show or two.

There is so much shit going on over the next couple months I am going to have to pick and choose. A couple great music festivals. Formula un(1) racing is coming. There is the international auto show. There is the australian Air Show. Death Cab is playing next week. Kings of Leon are coming. It's my birthday next month. St. Pats day.

After Melbourne I am thinking I will head back to Queensland to do the north end of the easy coast. This is where it's tropical and it will be nice and warm still. Right now it's all completely flooded so it would not have been a good time to go. So Melbourne it is!

I know some of you have friends here and I have already gotten in touch with some. Let me know though. Also if you have an extra iPod......

Hope everyone is doing well.

"Do you remember that French film we snuck into? Dangerous Cousins?"