Another month down, and a busy one for me.

News

Firstly the big news I hinted at last month — I joined the YOW! Conferences team. This got quietly announced while I was at the Brisbane Tech Leaders Summit as an emcee, then hit socials a few days later.

Melbourne

We spent a couple of days in Melbourne in June, I was tagging along and hanging out at a WeWork while my partner ran some errands. Most importantly we ate some excellent food and drank some excellent coffees, as you do in Melbourne, but I also wandered around and took lots of photos.

We did see a show though, the very excellent Hadestown. It’s almost finished it’s run now, but I really enjoyed it. Greek Mythology meets New Orleans funk and blues, meets a little bit of a steampunk vibe. Loved every minute of it.

We also visited the aquarium, and saw the F1 movie (more on that in a moment).

Listening

I spent a lot of the time wandering around Melbourne after the show listening to the Hadestown soundtrack. I actually thought the orchestra in the Australian production was a little better, the trombone player was a little funkier, and the guitarist better here. But go listen to the original.

On top of that, Tidal suggested some old old favourite albums of mine, and I spent a lot of time listening to some Bob Marley, which led me back to Spearhead’s Chocolate Supa Highway, and I also listened to the first Black Crows record a bunch, as well as Shawn Mullins’s re-recording of the Soul’s Core.

Watching

OK, so F1. Short answer is I loved it. Yes it had a stupid romance side plot, yes it had some dumb stuff, but for the movie they were trying to make (Top Gun in cars) it’s absoutely perfect. It’s beautifully shot, the sound design is amazing, Hans Zimmer brought all his Hans Zimmerness to the soundtrack, and the whole thing is a wildly immersive and fun journey.

Worth seeing in the cinema for sure.

We finally finished Succession, a great show about horrible horrible people. The final season was so well done. Without giving spoilers, there were some very dramatic scenes that were so well written, acted, and directed. Really good television. I am a little glad we finished it, it could be hard to watch (the characters are truly awful), but it was fantastic.

From the same director, we watched Mountainhead. A film that shows the same disdain for tech billionaires that Jesse Armstrong has for the Murdoch family. It’s a darkly funny movie that is awfully relevant and topical.

Home Life

Other than that, have been settling into living in this new town. Lots of cooking and coffees at home, baking bread, growing herbs, and taking advantage of living on the water.

Until next month…