Passing by

Long time no post. Aplogies.

But I'm barely home with my new job and when I am I generally cbf blogging.
Also I'm just back from a 3 night trip to the Hunter Valley. It was amazing, although I learnt there IS such a thing as too much wine tasting, and it goes something like this: white, white, white, white, rose, red, red, red, sticky, sticky; new vineyard- sparkling, white, white, white, white, rose, red, red, red, red, sticky, sticky, sticky; lunch; new vineyard- white, white, white, sticky, sticky; new vineyard- white, white, white, white, rose, sticky; cheese factory- cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, gelato; home- where all retire to bed at 5pm to lazily read, mother falling asleep upright with open magazine in hands.
No. More! We said... Until tomorrow. Actually it was untill dinner, when we shared a bottle of verdelho (pronounced: ver-day-o. Im a connosieur now!)

And off to Nimbin for two weeks tomorrow, for work. V. v. excited. Will even get to laze aout on the beach on Sunday! And no doubt get drunk most nights... Thankfully I am back on the 13th, which is the day before mine and J's 2nd anniversary :) unfortunately that means I have to leave it up to him to organise the activities, which probably means we'll do nothing like last year lol.

Anyway, that's pretty much it, all that's left is a hugely belated but entirely neccessary acknowledgement to the tragic death of genius Alexander McQueen.
With all that beauty buzzing through his head it's not surprising he was unstable. I'll always remember him as one of the first designers I noticed, and the fashion world is, and will continue to, miss him dearly. May he find the peace he lacked in life.

-Mell xxx

P.S. I'll probably be AWOL during my stay in Nimbin, but since my workmates are all backpackers and have to take all of their belongings with them, I may be able to borrow a laptop and check in. Also I got some uncharacterisitic nature photos in the Hunter so I'll get them up soonish.

Gorgeous GaGa

Just want to say I think Lady GaGa looked absolutely STUNNING on the Grammys red carpet. Thankyou Giorgio Armani!

Although I must say- give the girl a sandwich! She was so sexy and now she's wasting (or should I say waisting?) away.

Basking in doing nothing today, since there won't be much of that once my new job starts. But I will be able to go crazy buying clothes in Europe so it'll be worth it. But the New York plan is on hold for a year. It's just not looking possible right now. Thailand or New Caledonia or something may be a possible replacement for a nice beachy chill holiday.

Also, I bought this really cute necklace from GPco yesterday after my interview. I can't find a photo online but I'll put one up when I wear it. Also, I've decided i want to invest in some Cheap Monday jeans. I mean, they're like $90 and they have this really nice indigo colour that I've been looking for. I'll wait till it cools down a bit though so I can justify the spending.

I'm itching to go out and wear my new shirt so much! Grr...

-Mell xx

New

Marlow/Corpus photos from the 29th at the Bull and Bush.

And a new job. Which I am both excited about and dreading.

And new hair. Which is good all round

Firstly, the job. I am about to become a door-door sales "guru" for Integral Energy. The job actually sounds like it could be fun and I don't start till 12pm which means I can sleep in. But, unfortunately, I don't finish till like 7:30-8pm which makes going out very difficult unless I take my oh-so-chic work satchel with me. Therefore- I have no reason to sleep in! Also, it's 6 days a week. But I'm hoping I can negotiate it down to 5 or even 4, because i'll be getting payed entirely commission and bonuses so it'll only be a negative to myself.

And that brings me to the bit that makes it all (hopefully...) worht it: The pay. Or should I say THE Pay!!!

$25 per sale, and set bonuses for certain ammounts of sales in a week. $150 bonus for 15 sales, $250 bonus for 25 sales and so on. So basically, If I make 15 sales in a week (2.5 per day average) I get $525. And if I make 25 sales, (4 on average) I get $875. Now, $875 sure makes 40 hours of work worth it. I will have no life, so almost all of that money will go to Europe funds and clothing that I'll never have time to wear.

So, because I took photos of my interview outfit before I left the house, here it is: (+see my new hair)

Shirt; $19.95, Belt; $12.95 and Necklace; $6.95, all from Temt

Skirt; $32.95, from Forcast

Shoes; $115 from Betts

They're half a size too big so I glued elastic on, to keep them strapped to my feet. Unfortunately, I was a little too frantic with putting my shoes on outside the office before my interview today and one snapped. So I had to rip them off and put up with my shoes almost falling off.

Close-up of my belt- Ain't it pretty?

Close up of necklace plus shirt ruffles.

Me and my new "do"

(Posey McPosePose)

Half of my face, and my lippity lip piercing.

And now, for the Bull and Bush pic-a-tures.

Corpus. I like it because the crowds in focus, not the band.

Travis (J's Brother)

Blake. I love this one. The sillhouette effect.

Hey Jim Morrisson, didn't you die?

For the rest of this shoot, and my other photos, go to my spizz:

myspace.com/mbphotos

So, that's it. If you don't hear from me much after next week, it's because i'm too busy making commission...

-Mell

How so Halso?

So I was totally inspired by spying one of his photos in a blog I follow (brookestyle365.blogspot.com -have a look see) and thought I might revisit the work of Ilkka Halso. I discovered him early year 12, upon the advisory of my art teacher, as she thought he'd make a good "artist of obsession" for my process diary (hate that term, basically it means an artist that somehow inspires us. All a load of bullshit because he had absolutely nothing to do with my concepts or practice so...)

Anyway, so here is some of his amazing stuff:

Very similar to the one posted by Brooke

As you can see, he's mostly environmental and very into photo manipulation. But he actually does build some of the structures in his photos- They take ages! Now that's dedication to a cause.

Tonight is the Marlow/Corpus gig at The Bull and Bush in Baulkham Hills. So new, exciting photos of different people will be up soon! Lovely!

Still hunting for a job, unsuccessfully. Haven't heard anything from last weeks resume thieves but oh well. Something will happen soon I'm sure (I hope or bye bye Europe. And I have to book it soon so it'll be bye bye deposit on flights. I guess I could just go UK and Oktoberfest and maybe tack a bit of Germany on the end...)

Exciting news! 1. I'm getting a hair cut tomorrow. And I mean cut. I'm saying bye to my hair and hello to a new, Ruby Rose-esque do (not the blonde, just the cut). 2. I'm going on a snow trip with the RS crew in June. I'm not going to take Derek (the D90- I finally named him) but I should have a compact by then so I'll still be able to get some OK photos. I'm pretty excited.

Ok I just scrolled to higlight everything and a Spanish translation of my entire post appeared in a little box. Odd...

All for now.

Spizz

I totally have one now. Well I mean i had one before but I made a new one.
Go forth!
http://myspace.com/mbphotos

P.S. BDO was amazing on Saturday!

I made the smart decision to remain sober the whole day, since I don't really cope well with heat. Despite this, and drinking about 5L of water (not even exagerrating...) I threw up into and empty lemonade cup during Dizzee Rascal. But I recovered by the end of his set and was well enough to sing and even dance a bit to Lily Allen. God love her... she's so damn cute! Also loved what she was wearing. Unfortunately I can't find a photo of it but I'm sure some will surface soon.

But of course, the highlight of my day was Muse. I managed to survive 4th row of the mosh for about an hour without passing out, which is good!
Man they're fantatsic. Can't wait till they come back here at the end of their tour. Hopefully I'll be in the country at the time...

OK that really is all

Shacklers at Lewisham livehouse, January 9th


OK so photobucket so isn't working for me... I made a flickr, but unfortunately that has a monthly upload limit of 100MB, which really isn't much. So I'm either gunna have to downsize my photos to the extreme or pay for the pro account. So for now, it has no photos.

Also, I made a fan page for my photos on facebook ("which I'll admit, is both bogus and sad"- Wayne Campbell) but I figure once I get a few fans going, their friends will notice and I might find some bands who are actually willing to pay me! Maybe... Anyway, I have 92 fans so far so I'm doing something right.

Here, finally, are the most recent Ramshackle Pictures, from the 9th of January. Sorry it took so damn long...

J's part of the stage didn't have very good lighting.

He is way under-represented in this shoot.

Dedication-

risking broken ankles and embarrassment to climb on stage for a good shot

The set list, for those who missed out.

Tony, however, had very good lighting on his part of the stage-

There were too many excellent photos of him!

On another note, Uni offers just came out. Got into my second preference, so as of now I begin studying fine arts at COFA on the 28th of February, 2011. Untill the 3rd or 10th, when hopefully I will get a late offer from UTS. It's scary to have my studies for next year confirmed already, I don't even have to reapply! Eek!

Now I am off to do some job hunting (eurgh so not in the mood...) Good luck to myself.

-Mell

Facebook photo upload won't work!

It's a tragedy, for sure.
But here is a sample of my latest Ramshackle shoot (more bands will come eventually, I promise. I know you're bored of RS)
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OK. So they won't upload here either which is incredibly worrying, especially since I already cleared them off my memory card so if they corrupted somehow during upload there's nothing I can do. Eeeek!
Ok so I just tried a photo from a completely different camera and it didn't work either, so my computer must be spazzing. I'll try again at Dad's soon.
And coming in future blogs: Ramshackle shirts and my ever-growing scarf collection. Really, how many inventive ways of wearing scarves can I think of, since I have a fair amount.
Peace
Oh! and I made a fan page for myself on facebook. Melanie Brown Photography- go forth!