________  ________  ________
   2018-01-08                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   Firstly, apologies to Solderpunk  for the  /        _/         /         /
misleading  title  on my  last  post hahaha!  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
I'll  be  honest,  I'm  probably  the  least    /        \/        \/    /   \
interesting  person  when  it  comes to what   /        _/         /_       _/
software I use, especially in Linux/BSD. The  /-        /        _/         /
only thing I do that's maybe a little out of  \________/\________/\___/____/
the  ordinary   is  I  utilise  the   screen
hardstatus backticks pretty heavily. I've written little  scripts for separate
clocks for local time, UTC, pacific time  and swatch beat  time,  a  script to
notify me  when I get  new mail and one to  notify  me when I get new notes on
SDF. I think they're neat but probably they're pretty boring, sorry!

   If you  read  my  MadFest post from the start  of  last November you'd know
about Ladybeard and that we're fans, well he's back in Australia at the moment
and it's  been  a lot  of fun. He's over  here as part of the promotion  for a
documentary he was in called "Big  in Japan" which follows a group  of friends
from Australia trying to make their "very ordinary" friend famous in Japan. It
takes a pretty fun look at people from western countries that  become breakout
celebrities  in  Japan as well  as delving into what constitutes fame and what
lengths people will go to for their fifteen minutes in the modern day.

   Last Thursday  we attended a screening at the  Rooftop Cinema  in Melbourne
which was nice but man it's  cold up  there once the sun goes  down. I'd never
been  up  there  before,  although  I've  been  to the Toff  a few times. They
screened the film and did a Q&A at the end with the  filmmakers, Ladybeard and
David Marshall, a professor of "celebrity and public  personality systems". He
was  an unexpected highlight  and  provided  a  lot  of genuinely  fascinating
insight,  I would have loved to  have picked his brain about the current state
of things online. The screening was fun but the crowd was really weird. Mostly
inner-city hipsters, not who I expected at all. Hopefully they  found some new
fans though.

   Ladybeard recognised us from MadFest last  year  and came  over to say "Hi"
which was nice!

   Then Friday was Ladybeard's "homecoming party" live and it was a real trip,
the crowd was chalk and cheese compared to the documentary screening. A really
wild mix and everyone there was a  fan. One of  the  opening acts was  a group
called Phantom  Panda Power Wizard Master  Smasher  and they were some of  the
craziest shit I've ever seen live. I don't even know how to describe what they
sounded  like,  it was  like... big band...  grindcore? I have no  idea. Their
costumes were genuinely insane, like a laser-lit psychotropic fever dream, and
they were  live scoring old Looney Tunes cartoons projected on a screen beside
them.  I'll  admit,  I  hated the way  they  sounded, Dani pointed out  that's
probably the kind of reaction they're aiming for, but  the  more I think about
it the more  I love that  they exist because what  the actual fuck.  I kind of
regret not buying one of their band t-shirts.

   Of course their shirt had light-up panels on it, hahaha.

   Ladybeard's  live was great, he's a consummate idol and fantastic performer
and they crowd  didn't disappoint either. At  a couple  points  in the show he
almost  looked taken aback  by  how  loud and energetic  the crowd was, it was
great. At one point the wrestler  from MadFest stormed the stage for a rematch
but  was  swiftly   defeated.  Sidenote;  a  similar  thing  happened  at  the
documentary screening and half the crowd just rolled their eyes.

   After  the live we said  hi and got  hugs and photos and it was  all pretty
great.

   This afternoon  we're on  a plane to  catch one more screening and one more
live show! Phew.



EOF