emiko went to japan and brought back a treasure trove of pocky. winter pocky covered in cocoa, seasonal pocky that was chestnut flavoured, giant pocky that was 25cm long, almond crunch pocky, and some "dessert" pocky that seemed to be covered in chocolate mousse. in addition to that there was the chocolate almond latte koalas and red bean kitkat that was supertasty! and now i feel sick, so i will lie down.

emiko is luvverly.

also, if you haven't already heard, marilyn manson's come up with his own absinthe. it is called MANSINTHE.

there is a hole in the wall near viet hoa on william street. you won't really notice it if you're walking along william street because it's obscured by a vietnamese grocer and some parking bays. before last night, we've only ever speculated what could be going on in that little shop. stuie reckons every time he looks up he sees a guy in the window, who scuttles away upon making eye contact. and, they have a big heavy shutter beyond which lies another door which is always locked.

last night, brave leanda stepped beyond the roller shutter and had a good look at the door and noticed its very strange operating hours! i.e. 12pm - 1am weekdays, and 12pm - 3am weekends. this only heightened the intrigue i suppose, so she went home and googled "perth steam works" and unearthed this gleaming nugget of information, that will benefit mankind in no way whatsoever (unless you're part of their target demographic).

anyhoo, ponder no more, western australian blog-readers! for perth steam works is ... here.

an old man walks into our shop.

"do you sell mops here? you know the type with the handle that extends and the end that swivels?", he enquires

"no, we sell real estate, not household items", i replied

"oh. well i didn't really think you'd say yes. i was just wondering that's all. anyway you didn't say no, you said 'we don't sell them', didn't you. well ... that's as good as a no i suppose. okay bye then!"

and he leaves.

i think the last gig i went for was the grates o so long ago last year. so last night we went to watch van she and operator please, who were pretty darn good. i was pretty miffed when we got there though, because security meathead was a tool! he was looking at my driver's license not believing it was me, so i had to pull out my student ID and my credit card so they could compare pictures and signatures. what a crock =(

i think i would have enjoyed myself more if i actually knew all the words to all the songs, but not everything they played was from their EPs. in fact most of it was from new albums coming out soon-ish; 2008 for van she and november for operator please.

van she's music was pretty much 3-chord progressions in 4/4 time, but they have this 80s electronica sound going for them and they're really into their music ... not to mention the bassist is good-looking. the last song in their set was particularly good, so yes! two thumbs up, and buy their EP and their album!

operator please was pretty good too. those kids are super super talented! only all their music was super fast, and variations in tempo were also super fast and after awhile you just feel really tired listening to them. all the same, i'd rate them two thumbs up.

the support act was rubbish i don't even know their name.

and that's it!

has anyone bought the new hives album? yes? yes? no?

anyway if you're thinking about buying it, here's a little heads up. it's not too bad. but you kind of have to be a fan to buy it i think.

put it this way, there's a few super-kicky-get-up-and-jump-around kind of songs. but there's some that literally make you go "ok next". the thing is, you know that if they do tour australia, that the gig is going to be rocking. these guys are fantastic live performers. and if you want to get the max out of you have to know the lyrics of the songs so you can howl along with pelle.

so the verdict is:
if you're a fan, definitely buy it because that'll encourage them to go on tour here! and if you're not a fan but are planning to see them live, borrow the album from a fan or get the nice songs off itunes! and if you're neither of the above well then ... well then ...