Bodies Without Organs "Prototype" Review

We promised a review of this after a more thorough listening, so here it is.

And boy have we listened. BWO has been ROCKING the streets of Canberra. "Rocking the boat" on Lake Burley Griffin if one wanted to be witty,



and "burning the tarmac at Canberra International Airport."



Kicking off the album is Sixteen Tons of Hardware. The best bit is obviously the ABBA reference and the acapella(ish) bit near the end that sounds bloody powerful. This song is about sex.



Conquering America is next. Probably the best song of 2004, it references Kylie Minogue, and American men who chew gum and smoke cigarettes, IN FRENCH! Perfection.

Next track is Son of a Gun. This is bloody awesome track. The best line is of course "And he fights like a son of a gun/son of a gun/aah aah/oh oh oh oh oh oh/son of a gun". Pure brilliance. The "aah aah" is orgasmic. I have no idea what a "son of a gun" is, but whenever I think someone is great, that they can walk the walk, then I tell them they are a "son of a gun." Even if they are a girl.

Open Door is next. It's grown on me. And what a great video!

But I've just got to get to Walking the Night. Who else but Alexander Bard would put in a lyric like "Planting my seed under street lights/cause passion is the root to my groove." That incidentally is one of the best bits of the song too.

Voodoo Magic is genius, especially "oh ooooh" and "You must have been the angel/who lost the grace of God/cos I can't stop repeating/your sweet hymn on my iPod."

Sunshine in the Rain is ridiculously catchy, particularly the terribly chirpy "When I'm in Berlin you're off to London/When I'm in New York you're doing Rome."

Riding Through the Night is my current FAVE. It's so DRAMATIC. "Rain! Thunder rolls! Pain! The night is cold!" And they name check themselves! Perfection!



Say I Love You is almost too dramatic. If Swedish Glamour was an Official Religion, then this track, and Alcazar's Dance with the DJ are its principal hymns.


Rhythm Divine - skip. Sounds like Ace of Base had diarrohea.

European Psycho - brilliant lyrics, crap song.

Living in a Fantasy - it references brilliant sunken liners, astrology, frosty weather and the important issue of global warming! Gotta love it!

Gone! What a load of dog's bottoms! It's still Bodies Without Organs though isn't it!

Liner notes - brilliant.

Choice of DVDs in the Big Brother Reward Room

Do the producers of Big Brother, as well as the contestants themselves, have some kind of movie choice impediment? Because Kate and Michelle just went in to the Rewards room and have been inspecting their choice of DVDs to watch. The titles she reels off as she flicks through the cases reads like a who's who of awful movies...."Oh look at all the DVDs! BRAVEHEART! Electra! Daredevil! Alien vs Predator! Dodgeball! [admittedly that is quite a funny one] That awful disaster movie whose name I can't remember [that's me who can't remember]" and get this, Kate then goes "BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT." Ever heard of a decent movie, like Muriel's Wedding? Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain? Dancer in the Dark? Love Actually? American Beauty? Debbie Does Dallas?


They're just movies OK? Now get into that rose petal filled bath!

Cafe Review: Cafe Essen

When I arrived in Canberra, everyone seemed to say "let's go to Cafe Essen, it's really cool." And it's in a rather busy little cafe area, and always seemed to have loads of people, so I've given it a bit of a chance. But what a heap of crap! Seriously.

Experience 1

Invited by a friend, we were sitting outside. From my memory:
- The water they gave us had little floatie bits in it
- Scruffy looking boy smoked in my face
- Uncomfortable metal chairs



Experience 2

This time we were sitting inside, but by the window. It was rather busy. The water had not floatie bits in it. A plus! Then the downsides:

- Hoping for loads of beautiful people at this place is a mistake. The place is fully of scruffy leftie types, like young Tims off Big Brother 5. Why can't the lefties there be good looking, clean ones, like Fop?
- They were all smoking. The worse one was a table full of them. Gawd they were ugly. I think they were Star Wars fans as they all looked very disparate but similar. They had some kind of box with a Darth Vader reference on it. There was a guy, I didn't see his face, but I assumed he was ugly, because he had icky black hair, with red at the front and looked pasty and was smoking clouds of disgustingness over the whole place. Other patrons were getting pissed off. I just coughed very loudly to draw attention to the issue. My coffee companion was suitably embarassed :)




- I spotted a couple of things on the menu that I liked the look of, namely the New York Cheesecake and the Cherry Ripe Tart. When I asked about them the waitress acted like she hadn't heard of them and as though I was an idiot for suggesting they would ever have such things at Cafe Essen, despite the fact they're on the menu. She then went on some kind of rant to the other staff members "why does Chris put those on there bla bla bla" Yes, blame this faceless "Chris"!



Anyway we had the Blueberry and Ricotta Cheesecake, and admittedly, it was very good.

My dining companion made a very pertinent comment as we were leaving. "You would think that these "alternative" people who "care" so much about humanity etc wouldn't smoke, wouldn't you."

The trip to Civic was topped off by the usual bus trip, pleasant up to the point where the usual "Canberra bus traveller" gets on and stinks like fucking awfulness. I mean for fucks sake, they all smell the same. Like cigarette smoke, mixed with unwashedness, unwashed clothes, unwashed hair, and general stinkiness. It's very difficult to describe, other than that it's smoky and it's stifling. Get a peg if you want to travel on a bus. The older buses have no ventilation, and if you attempt to open a window, some cool dude will shut it. Excuse the rant.

Remembering: AlleyCat

I used to love this game so much when I was 6 years old. I particularly loved the bit where the cat has to swim around in the bowl with the electric eels. I never understood how to eat the food from the dog bowls until many years later. The dogs ALWAYS attacked me, the noise from the tiny speaker in my IBM compatible computer armed with MS DOS always scared the SHIT out of me!

Party Review: Cops and Robbers

A few weeks ago PopGoesCanberra attended a Cops and Robbers party.



Because PopGoesCanberra was too lazy-arsed to go to any trouble to get all dressed up for the party, we wrote a badge for ourselves saying that we were a "male prostitute working an illegal brothel on a boat on Lake Burley Griffin." This is an extremely witty reference to mid-90s soapie, Pacific Drive. The lowly people at the party didn't really notice it. They missed out.



Then night proceeded in a hot and sweaty fashion. Lots of people in a small space, an extreme lack of food and music, but plenty of drink, which I don't feel like drinking. Didn't feel like getting red wine tipped all over me by a silly TART either, so I left. The end.

Le voisin qui vient de l'enfer

Imagine being so afraid of your neighbour that you run to the bathroom at the slightest sound of the jangle of a key, or, God forbid, a ring of the bell or a knock at the door. The excuse "I'm in the shower, I'm in the shower" goes through your head a thousand times as you turn on the cold water and wipe wipe wipe wipe down the tiles.



This is the life that PopGoesCanberra is living. He's not a bad neighbour.



Not "bad" in the sense that he means well.

But if you open that door,



Then he will talk and talk and talk and talk. About how hard he works, about his car, about bloody everything. And he'll give you candy and chips. Beware.



After the incident this morning, I only found comfort when I sat on the toilet and did a big poo while listening to Natalie Imbruglia's latest album, Counting Down the Days.

What's Hot in Canberra

1. Elize Automatic



A huge Dutch track that is blowing PopGoesCanberra's mind. It's so in your face. It's like Dannii Minogue meets some crazy Dutch chick. With great lyrics at the end of the pumping chorus like "I'm talking to you/she'll make a slave out of you/but you can't help it boy so it's OK".

2. Infernal From Paris to Berlin

A huge Danish track that is blowing PopGoesCanberra's mind. It's so in your face. It's like Dannii Minogue meets some crazy Danish chick and hot Danish guy. With great lyrics in the pumping chorus, that even features the word "pumping" like "From Paris to Berlin/In Every Disco I get in/My heart is pumping for love/pumping for love". It name checks two hot Euro cities and sounds totally Euro. No wonder 105.7 Radio Metro on the Gold Coast and Nova 96.9 in Sydney can't stop playing it.

3. Verve at Manuka

Great coffee. Pleasantly snobby, including champagne-quaffing "doctor's wives" who have blonde hair and flirt with waiters in their late 20s. It's almost like we're on Tedder Avenue, Main Beach on the Gold Coast! Very good-looking staff. Beautiful toilets. Only downpoints? The shades are sometimes down when it's sunny, and there is a tap in the men's toilets that doesn't turn off properly. What a terrible waste of water.

4. Canberra Autumn Leaves

The weather has been perfect, and the leaves are red. They fall onto the ground and one can crunch them under the leaves and play like a child. How lovely.

5. Seven's Amazing Thursday My Restaurant Rules, Lost and The Amazing Race

Who could have even imagined Thursdays in 2005 could be this good for television?

PopGoesCanberra *hearts* Evan and Bella



and we have a soft spot for Fracesca at Louvre because she can sing and has funny glasses!



and we are NOT a fan of "The Sweat" from the West. Would it be cruel to say "stick some deodorant on your forehead!" Yes it would, but we'll say it anyway. PopGoesCanberra does NOT work at DFAT, therefore we are not diplomatic like some.



and we miss Deb :(



We think Kris and Jon are nice nice nice. And we are very jealous of how Jon's hair always looks good even when has a silly visor on and whether he is the wilds of Ethiopia, downtown Shanghai, the total and utter class of Stockholm's Gamla Stan or the tundra of Iceland. And if we were female we would be very jealous Kris' beautiful breasts.



We think Freddie and Kendra are not particularly attractive and not particularly nice.



We miss Lori and "Bow-low"

Bodies Without Organs hits Canberra

Wednesday 6 April 2005 signalled the arrival of Bodies Without Organs' debut album Prototype in Pop Goes Canberra's mailbox. Wowee.



Initial comments?

Pop Goes Canberra, and consequently the Australian Capital Territory as a whole desperately needs this Swedish electro-pop music. The album kicks off with the marvellous ABBA-referencing Sixteen Tons of Hardware. The highlight is of course the amazing Conquering America, the video of which we have all seen. It features bodily parts in jars, blood, and sexy mobile phones and hip thrusting on couches and weird little shorts. Great album tracks include Voodoo Magic and Sunshine in the Rain. This album will grow on me I think, though it already is brilliant. Let the strains of Bodies Without Organs ring over Lake Burley Griffin and beyond.

Roads review: Canberra

Pros of Roads in Canberra:

- They are nice and wide
- They are pleasantly tree-lined and that is great at the moment because it is autumn and the leaves are turning red and blowing on the road and making pleasant crunchy noises when one drives/rides/steps on them



Cons of Roads in Canberra:

- The drivers. What utter wankers. The roads being nice and wide, and fairly quiet too, they just tear round corners, not thinking that there might be pedestrians around the corner.
- The traffic lights. They don't seem to have those little pressure pads under the road so that you sit there in your car and have to wait and wait and wait for them to change. I have a life to lead you bastards.
- The lighting. There is none. And I have a story. Tonight I was riding my bike near Deakin when I was obeying the road rules apart from the fact that it was pitch dark and I don't have a light on my bike. I almost ran into a guy in a ute/a guy in a ute almost ran into me (kinda) and he screamed out the window "Dickhead! Get a light, Fuckwit!"



Wasn't that charming? I hate it when people tell me things I already know. I am a dickhead for not having a light on my bike. But if I could afford a light, I would have a decent bike. Rather than something that looks like what Emma Bunton would ride on her album cover if her stylist said "Get her on a bike! A blue one, rather than a pink one as you might expect."



Or I might even get a car. In any case, I'm a dickhead, but I wouldn't go as far as fuckwit. In any case, you have no idea what my personal circumstances are. My mother could be on her death bed and I was riding my only available transport to her house to say goodbye. Yeah, fuck you. I wasn't, but it could have been! I'd rather not of course. But it could have been! Then how would you have felt, angry man in ute!?

World Exclusive: Shirley Clamp escapes to Australia after Melodifestivalen shame

Pop Goes Canberra! is proud to present the first world exclusive shots of a new, less busty Shirley Clamp on the set of her new job at Prime ACT, where she hosts the night-time weather segment.

Shirley was obviously disappointed at the 4th placing of her 2005 Melodifestivalen entry Att Alska Dig, and subsequently fled Sweden in tears. She then recuperated at an unknown location, most likely Cable Beach Resort at Broome, or perhaps as some South Coast plumbers are suggesting, Nicole Kidman's new beach pad near Moruya Airport on the South Coast of New South Wales. She has since snared the prize job of Weatherwoman (Japanese movie style of course) on Channel 7 (home of Desperate Housewives, Lost, and of course, Dancing with the Stars, particularly Nikki Webster) affiliate, Prime.

Here are the photos of the new Shirley, taken tonight shortly after the end of The Amazing Race.



In happier times, still basking in the limelight of a 2nd place finish at Melodifestivalen 2004 with what was perhaps the best pop song of 2004, Min Karlek, this shot of Shirley being "held" by Andreas and Magnus from Alcazar was taken backstage at Nacka Strand, Stockholm on 22 December, 2004.