ParkLife 2009

Hey kids! It's been a long time coming, but I figured that with this little blog getting some ink I should go ahead and update it.

First of all, let's start off with a couple of pics from the footy season. As usual, click if you wish to expand them.

looking to get the ball out of the defensive 50



















everyday I'm hustling. haha okay that was lame.















footy boys




















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For about a month now, my friends and I have been anticipating ParkLife 2009. ParkLife is an annual outdoor spring music festival held in Perth's Wellington Square, with five stages and over 25 artists lasting from 2pm- past 10pm. We bought our tickets awhile ago, and this past weekend it was finally time to party.

The concert being in up in Perth, of course we decided to make a weekend of our trip to the city. Even though we didn't leave until about 6:45am, we were meant to leave much earlier so I got up at FIVE A.M. Keep in mind that I requested off work for that day, and I was normally supposed to be at work at 5am that day. Getting up at work time on a day off, now that's dedication. Anyways that was night one of little to no sleep. There were 6 of us going up to ParkLife from Denmark along with a few others hitching to Perth so we took two cars. I went with Jeff and Mia, while Damo and a few girls went in another car. The only good thing about this crack of dawn, four hour drive was A) seeing the sun rise over the inlet as we left my house and B) the fields of gold. Allow me to explain: in addition to sheep and beef cows, Australia's SW also produces a lot of canola, and as it is spring, the canola was flowering. This meant that for much of the way we drove through fields and fields carpeted by bright yellow flowers. It was really scenic and pretty, especially with a ghostly, towering eucalyptus tree intersperced here and there over the fields.

I should state that the whole reason we left so early was so we could make it to Perth in time to watch the AFL Grand Final, essentially the super bowl of the Australian Football League. However, we had a few stops to make first. Finally in the Perth area, we initially stopped in at Mia's grandparents' house to drop off her younger sister who was on school holidays but ended up staying for lunch. Mia's grandparents are from Greece and we were treated to a delightful Greek spread. We had a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the thing that sticks out are the homemade stuffed vine leaves, which were little parcels of rice and meat wrapped in grape (?) vine leaves and served with an unsweet. Not too sure on what I was eating or what it was called but Dakes, I'm sure you can help me out here.

Next we hit the road again with one more stop before our final destination. This stopover was at the Belmont Forum, which is a mall. It's actually a quite ordinary, run of the mill mall, not even two stories, but it was great. If you find this humorous, try living in an isloated town of 4,000 for five months and then tell me how sweet a mall looks. I don't even remember what we had to get but unfortunately we couldn't stay long as it was getting close to 1pm and gametime. No thanks to the shoddy GPS, we finally made it to Sean and Pat's house. Sean and Pat are Denmark guys who moved up to Perth for college and live in a house together with some uni mates. We only missed the first quarter and were treated to a real thriller of a game. It was cool to see the game responsible for bringing me back to Oz played at the highest level, on its biggest stage. In the end, the dynastic Geelong Cats defeated the upstart St Kilda Saints (original, eh?) even though the Saints led at the turn of each quarter. The rest of the afternoon I attempted to nap but was distrupted by the Aussies playing drinking games in the backyard so after awhile I gave up and hung outin the back yard with them. It felt divine to throw on some shorts and soak up the sun after so many cold, rainy days down in Denmark. Just to feel that warmness lingering around even as the sun set was so nice... spring has arrived in Australia!

At around 7 Jeff, Mia, and I headed out to a part of the Perth area called Victoria Park for dinner with Mia's Dad, sisters, and relatives. We ate at a Lebanese restaurant, and along with that one time I got lunch from a Thai lady who spoke no English on the street in Bangkok and perhaps brunch in SDH on home game Saturdays, it was one of my more unique dining experiences. First, it was decorated just like a Lebanese Arab place if that makes any sense. There was canvas draped from the ceiling simulating a tent and other cool effects. We sat on small cushions on the floor at low tables, almost Asian style. As we had a big group, Mia's Dad ordered the works for everyone to share and we were treated to a delicious smorgasboard of fresh Hummus, Baba Ganoush, Feta cheese, thin Lebanese bread, Falafel, Tabbouleh, and multiple types of marinated Chicken, Lamb, and Beef kebabs and skewers. It was absolutely incredible so of course I stuffed myself. Oh and there was even a belly dancer who danced around the tables for at least half an hour. Keep in mind this was a pretty trendy, swanky place so it really lightened the mood and brought the whole restaurant together clapping, hollering, and dancing.

After that amazing dinner, the three of us drove back to Sean's house to quickly shower and get ready to hit the bars. Everyone else was already having drinks and ready to go so we had to move fast but were able to jump in one of the multiple cabs we called to take our whole crew to Northbridge. Again, another memorable moment. The cabbie had a brand new ride, and he surely was not holding it back... the dude was blowing by people on the freeway and tearing up entrance ramps like it was the Indy 500. We got to talking and it went a little like this:

Cabbie: So you are from Canada, yes? (note: unfortunately I get this a lot)
Kyle: Nooope I'm from the States.
C: America?? I'm from Iraq, so we're enemies!
K: Oh crap.

But it turned out to be okay... he had been in Australia for 12 years and was quite friendly. He also had family in America and was excited to go visit them soon. He said he is originally from Baghdad and had actually been back to visit since the invasion, which seemed insane to me. All he would really say about it was how annoying it was to be on the freeway, only to get stuck behind an American tank going about 12 miles per hour... once a cabbie always a cabbie I spose.

Anyways our group of 10 or so all met up in Northbridge (nightlife district of Perth City) and went to a few bars before settling on a club called Paramount where we cranked it until about 4:30. Interestingly enough, with violence on the rise in Northbridge, we had to be photographed and electronically finger printed to get into the club. When we finally got back to Sean's, I found all avaliable soft sleeping spaces occupied, much to my dismay. Rather than sprawling on the hardwood, I opted to spend the night moving from car to car parked on the front long trying to get comfortable before settling on Damo's SUV. My first sleeping in a car experience wasn't all that bad until the sun knifed its way into my eyes a few hours later. Night two of little to no sleep.

We all got up semi early and headed out to Sarah's house Sunday morning for our pre-ParkLife gathering at 10am. Same deal with Sean and Pat, Sarah and a few of her Denmark girl friends moved up to Perth. Hmm they must be onto something there... Anywho with ParkLife starting at 2pm, we had a few hours to chill and have pre-drinks while the girls got ready. The weather was GORGEOUS. Even by noon it was warm and sunny without a cloud in the sky and there was a perfect little breeze going on. We were having such a good time just sitting in the sun sipping our goon and juice that I didn't even want to go to the festival, but eventually the time came and again we hopped in a couple cabs.

ParkLife itself was really good. As stated earlier, there were five stages and tons of acts. It was mostly DJ's and dance/club type music. I really didn't know any of the artists, except I did see Lady Sovereign. Also, I saw Empire of the Sun put on their first ever live show. They are a Perth band that is blowing up in Australia and I wouldn't have even brought them up here, but they were recently mentioned on an episode of Entourage so perhaps they are getting noticed in America too? For most of the performances I would recognize a song or two that get radio/club play but otherwise it was all new to me. That didn't matter though, I still jumped and danced my way through all of it. It is really funny to think about my dancing progression and change of heart in terms of Aussie dancing. During my first time in Oz, when I was studying with other Americans, I can remember how much we made fun of the Australians for their dancing. We were shocked and amused to see groups of dudes dancing together, sometimes with girls and sometimes without. I guess you have to be here to see it but I think the best way is that us Americans were conditioned to be embarrassed to try and dance ourselves. However, since coming back the second time and spending all my time with Aussies, I have officially jumped on that dancing bandwagon. It probably helps that no one here knows me outside of 5 months ago but also it's just that carefree Aussie attitude. After Saturday night and ParkLife all day Sunday, I seriously need to detox from dancing... my friends and I cut some serious rugs this weekend.

That's generally all there is to say about ParkLife... it was warm, sunny, loud, crowded, energetic, blurry, and oh so much fun. When it was all over we all met at a predetermined gas station across the street. The convience store there had security out the wazoo; they had about 10 rent a cops inside the store and even set up a queue outside, forming a line and only letting a certain number in at a time like a bar. I bought everyone Paddle Pops (Australian fudgecicles) and as we sat on the curb slurping away and hoards of people descended on the place I understood the need for security. With somewhere around 30,000 drunk Australians across the street, if the place didn't have the insane security it would have been ransacked worse than Georgia during Sherman's march to the sea.

We couldn't get a cab so Jeff, Damo, Mia, and I walked about half an hour to 40 mins down to the central Perth train station to catch a train to Freo. Being a Sunday night it was rather quiet downtown, so we amused ourselves by softly singing songs such as Livin on a Prayer (oooh-oh walkin to Freeeo) and Dust in the Wind as we walked. We finally got back to Sarah's house and hung out before turning in around 2am. The next day Jeff woke up early and since we were all in the same room we all ended up getting up then too. Night Three of little to no sleep. Again, though, it was worth it, because Jeff wanted to go grab some breakfast at McD's or HJ's (Hungry Jack's aka Burger King) but I convinced him and a few others to go into Freo instead since we were just south of town. Monday was a public holiday so luckily the Fremantle Markets were open. It was kind of funny with myself leading the way for once, as I knew the area more than any of the others. I tried to refrain from too many "that place has great __'s" and "this one time __ happened over there" 's as that would probably be annoying but I slipped in a few fun facts here and there. For all those who studied in Freo with me, we got crepes from the markets and then had Old Shanghai. Everything is exactly the same, even that one bar that was boarded up (Madonna's I think it was called) is still closed with nothing new in its stead.

To make a long story long, that's about it. After walking around Freo a bit we went back to Sarah's, said our goodbyes, and hit the road. Sadly enough, I'm now sick thanks to my three nights of little to no sleep and the other disservices I did to my immune system over the weekend but luckily I have this weekend off as well so I can hopefully relax and sleep a lot.

That's all for now. In closing.... GO IRISH, BEAT HUSKIES!



ParkLife crew... spot the American


in the shadows of Perth CBD



...comments please!