I refuse to use the word 'tagged,' for some reason. But I just used it right then, so I guess that quest has failed before it even began.
(Oh, and quickly, I challenge Linz, Sorcha, Jibaili and the lovely er to share 20 facts about themselves. Linz won't though, 'cause she's a journal hater, aren't you Linz? Oooh! Challenge set!).
Here then - post-taggings - are 20 true facts about me:
1. I appeared on Sale Of The Century: The Family Challenge when I was 13. My grandfather - 'my grandad's a legend,' as I was made to say on the Channel Nine promo spots - and I scored 105 points on the first night, and we won. We were beaten on the second night. We won some random things, like a television and a VCR and a bloody aromatherapy kit (they asked me to refilm my reaction to winning that on the fame game board, because my original reaction was one of incredible boredom).
2. I've interviewed Marky Ramone, Sarah Blasko, John Safran, Ron & Humphrey from TISM, Frenzal Rhomb and a bunch of others.
3. Some of the best gigs I've ever seen have been with my parents, because they both have a fine taste for music, often more so than my indie-rock-obsessed friends: Chris Isaak (mum), Echo & The Bunnymen (dad, said they were 'very good, but not as good as in '83'), They Might Be Giants (mum), the Violent Femmes (mum).
4. I listen to Neil Diamond at least once a day.
5. When I was 10 I was into making colleges from photocopies of weird-looking sketches from 19th century books. Sometimes I'd arrange the collages to make narratives, and write poems on top of them. My best one was called, with beautiful earnesty, 'The Sky Is Crying.' It is vaguely disconcerting that I was more artistic at 10 than I am at 21.
6. When Glenn Ridge asked me what I wanted to be, at 13, I said 'a basketball coach... or a genetic engineer.' At six, I wanted to be an undertaker.
7. I marched in the '95 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. I was dressed as a ninja, and my friend Leni - named after Vladimir Lenin, naturally - was a ninja turtle on rollerskates.
8. The Best Of Cat Stevens was playing during my first kiss.
9. My friend Felix and I tried to start a movie review website at messiah.com.au in '99. I was the main reviewer, and in a burst of inspiration, I reviewed every movie I'd ever seen; the tally of films was more than 1000. Significantly more.
10. One of my great uncles spent 10 years catching sharks around Sydney beaches, back before fishnets stopped the sharks nibbling humans. He used to sell the shark teeth to a man at the pub, who later made heaps of cash putting them on necklaces and selling them to Japanese people.
11. Another of my great uncles is a shadow minister in the federal Labor cabinet. He lost his last portfolio amidst justifiable disgrace.
12. I'm almost always disappointed in my writing.
13. I've gradually collected a bunch of instruments over the years, and I play them all pretty regularly, because I find it sad when people have instruments but don't play them. They are: an old-school Holliday electric organ from the late 70s, a terrible Fender Squire Strat (my first guitar), an okay Epiphone SG electric, an amazing semi-acoustic Cort guitar, a Portuguese mandolin, a resonator Mandolin from the 1930s, a traditional mandolin also from the 20s or 30s, a beautiful piano accordion from that era, a nylon string guitar and a sitar from India, and a crappy-but-likeable cheapie guitar I always have tuned in Open D.
14. I smoked about a pack a day for three years or so, from year 11 onwards. I decided to cut down, and have smoked about 40 cigarettes in the past year.
15. I don't believe in god, or any guiding spiritual force of any kind. I don't believe in fate, though I'd like to.
16. I listen to music when I wake up, on the bus, in the car, reading books, while on the computer, and while I sleep.
17. I have a scar on my right palm where a screw went into it. I was drunk, in year 11, at a party, on Mardi Gras night, and fell in a hole in a dark lane near the house, and I put my handle down through a screw. I had surgery to remove it a couple of days later.
18. From '99-'03, I ended up in hospital on every single Mardi Gras night, which is really weird.
19. I've failed my driving test three times in a row, and it infuriates me incredibly. I get extremely nervous whenever I do the test, for no good reason.
20. I love Sydney more than any other place in the world.
(Oh, and quickly, I challenge Linz, Sorcha, Jibaili and the lovely er to share 20 facts about themselves. Linz won't though, 'cause she's a journal hater, aren't you Linz? Oooh! Challenge set!).
Here then - post-taggings - are 20 true facts about me:
1. I appeared on Sale Of The Century: The Family Challenge when I was 13. My grandfather - 'my grandad's a legend,' as I was made to say on the Channel Nine promo spots - and I scored 105 points on the first night, and we won. We were beaten on the second night. We won some random things, like a television and a VCR and a bloody aromatherapy kit (they asked me to refilm my reaction to winning that on the fame game board, because my original reaction was one of incredible boredom).
2. I've interviewed Marky Ramone, Sarah Blasko, John Safran, Ron & Humphrey from TISM, Frenzal Rhomb and a bunch of others.
3. Some of the best gigs I've ever seen have been with my parents, because they both have a fine taste for music, often more so than my indie-rock-obsessed friends: Chris Isaak (mum), Echo & The Bunnymen (dad, said they were 'very good, but not as good as in '83'), They Might Be Giants (mum), the Violent Femmes (mum).
4. I listen to Neil Diamond at least once a day.
5. When I was 10 I was into making colleges from photocopies of weird-looking sketches from 19th century books. Sometimes I'd arrange the collages to make narratives, and write poems on top of them. My best one was called, with beautiful earnesty, 'The Sky Is Crying.' It is vaguely disconcerting that I was more artistic at 10 than I am at 21.
6. When Glenn Ridge asked me what I wanted to be, at 13, I said 'a basketball coach... or a genetic engineer.' At six, I wanted to be an undertaker.
7. I marched in the '95 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. I was dressed as a ninja, and my friend Leni - named after Vladimir Lenin, naturally - was a ninja turtle on rollerskates.
8. The Best Of Cat Stevens was playing during my first kiss.
9. My friend Felix and I tried to start a movie review website at messiah.com.au in '99. I was the main reviewer, and in a burst of inspiration, I reviewed every movie I'd ever seen; the tally of films was more than 1000. Significantly more.
10. One of my great uncles spent 10 years catching sharks around Sydney beaches, back before fishnets stopped the sharks nibbling humans. He used to sell the shark teeth to a man at the pub, who later made heaps of cash putting them on necklaces and selling them to Japanese people.
11. Another of my great uncles is a shadow minister in the federal Labor cabinet. He lost his last portfolio amidst justifiable disgrace.
12. I'm almost always disappointed in my writing.
13. I've gradually collected a bunch of instruments over the years, and I play them all pretty regularly, because I find it sad when people have instruments but don't play them. They are: an old-school Holliday electric organ from the late 70s, a terrible Fender Squire Strat (my first guitar), an okay Epiphone SG electric, an amazing semi-acoustic Cort guitar, a Portuguese mandolin, a resonator Mandolin from the 1930s, a traditional mandolin also from the 20s or 30s, a beautiful piano accordion from that era, a nylon string guitar and a sitar from India, and a crappy-but-likeable cheapie guitar I always have tuned in Open D.
14. I smoked about a pack a day for three years or so, from year 11 onwards. I decided to cut down, and have smoked about 40 cigarettes in the past year.
15. I don't believe in god, or any guiding spiritual force of any kind. I don't believe in fate, though I'd like to.
16. I listen to music when I wake up, on the bus, in the car, reading books, while on the computer, and while I sleep.
17. I have a scar on my right palm where a screw went into it. I was drunk, in year 11, at a party, on Mardi Gras night, and fell in a hole in a dark lane near the house, and I put my handle down through a screw. I had surgery to remove it a couple of days later.
18. From '99-'03, I ended up in hospital on every single Mardi Gras night, which is really weird.
19. I've failed my driving test three times in a row, and it infuriates me incredibly. I get extremely nervous whenever I do the test, for no good reason.
20. I love Sydney more than any other place in the world.
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also,, could it have possibly been silver service??