I'm off to Sydney for the weekend tomorrow.

The main reason is to see Say Anything. Yes, they're playing I'm Melbourne too, but it was a trade-off with @lu_doll for when she came here to see Anberlin a few weeks back. It'll also be good to have a day off work tomorrow, and a weekend away.

It's my birthday on Tuesday and it is the first of my life where I have no plans, no family or girlfriend or best friends to celebrate with. To me, this trip is my present to myself, even though I can't really afford it, in lieu of any actual presents. I've officially hit the point in my life where birthdays don't matter anymore, and that makes me a bit sad.

Say Anything are a wonderful band. One I've always thought were good, great even, one of my favourites. But in my attempt to be more in touch with their discography and finding that I can't find any albums in stores or purchase them in the Australian iTunes Store, I resorted to filling some gaps with one of those illegal downloads from the Napster all the kids are talking about. I've listened to nothing but them on repeat for the past two weeks now.

Say Anything is a man named Max Bemis. Max is a short, chubby, self-deprecating Jew-cum-Christian (am I spelling that right?!) man. Super-intelligent, ultra-talented, multi-instrumental (plays every instrument on the records bar the drums), prolific in his song-writing. Can write a poppy anthem, cliche love lyrics about his now wife ("we should make a verbal agreement to only kiss each other"), but paint so many pictures through words that you can empathise with it all even if you've never known or felt his experience before. His songs are heavily influenced by his super-Jewish upbringing, being in a band, falling in and out of love with girls, and struggling with/coming to terms with his own mental state. His angst comes through so clearly. His bi-polar disorder led to drug addiction and paranoid delusions, and caused the band to cancel world tours twice while he was hospitalised to deal with his illness.

I love that "tiny man, chubby man". He's in inspiration just in general. Someone who went through their own personal hell and came out the other side. I've been getting lost in his music this week while I work through a little low patch of my own.

My choice of song is this one here. Because I spend too much of my life scowling at people who do things which disgust me. Like the guy walking in front of me on my way home tonight who blatantly littered, and the guy at work who blew his nose in to the bathroom sink. People need to not be cunts.

And just check out how charismatic he is.