Earthcore 2006

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Earthcore again and this time we did it in style, having hired a 6-berth camper van. I don't thin kI can go back to camping after that little experience. There's something to be said for having a decent bed, for not having to do very much setup when you arrive, and for always having a cool shady spot to go and have a sit-down. It was also useful to be able to keep my batteries for the camera charged and ready to go, so I basically didn't have to worry about running out.
The event itself was fantastic. We had VIP access and also I had backstage access to shoot it (thanks Spiro!) so I managed to get a heap of really good shots, and just had a blast as per usual. It was also really cool to see so many people I knew up on stage. Big props go to Bubble and Squeak (Ehsan and Evan) who played the main stage and who absolutely blew it away. These guys have always been good, but that was the best performance i have seen from them, truly worthy of their international status.

inthemix.2006

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The launch of ITM's second annual magazine, inthemix.2006, which was held at Eurotrash. Not a bad little party, got to see the magazine early and got a little showbag of stuff. Got to meet some of the ITM staff from interstate and one of the ITM photogs from interstate too, and got to drink a whole lot of free Smirnoff Ice Black again. That's getting to be a habit :)

ITM meetup @ Push

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Sunday 19 November saw a combination ITM meetup and Push party at The George White Bar in St Kilda. Quite a good event it was too, with lots of ITMers showing up and ITM/Smirnoff providing a case or two of Smirnoff Ice Black, which is a damn good way to get hammered :)

Tezuka Osamu

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Kate and I went to see the Tezuka exhibition at the NGV. It was so good, the man was a master of the line drawing, using novel new ways to illustrate actions and thought and directions. Some of the images were extremely moving, and not something you would expect to see in a 1950's or 1960's comic.

Smashbang!

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The guys from Smashbang records launched their new night at Lounge. Now every Friday is a Smashbang friday :)
Finally got to hear Luke McD bang out some tunes on the trumpet, which Ehsan plied us with laptoppery and Davarj played the bass guitar. Fantastic, and definitely added to every Friday's list of options from now on.

Look who's coming to dinner

Teh Hotness
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Elli held a dinner party to get all of her friends together, and her and Jake cooked up a damn feast!
Elli then paraded her latest fashion look, yet more examples of her insane obsession with KFC :)
It was great to hang out with Elli, Jake and Kerryn, and we also took the time to surprise the hell out of Joe by having his friend Elle arrive back from the UK a few days earlier than he expected :)

Interview

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another round of the Interview party. Another good time. Lots of good music, some good people, jager bongs galore, and Blinky's girl Bec getting a slight burn on her hand from a flaming drink of some kind :)

Happy Birthday Becy

Happy Birthday Becy
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Time for Becy's birthday, a party featuring lots of standing in the kitchen, lost bottle openers, crazy food, broken bottles, crazy shenanigans and silly stories. Pretty much like any good party :)

Sasha and John Digweed

the ghosts of parties past
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The traditional event for Cup Eve is a tour by Techno giant John Digweed. This year he was accompanied on tour by Sasha, so we were able to experience the first Sasha and John Digweed party in five years.
This was also the first party in a long time that I have not been taking photos for, didn't even have my camera along, so i was just there to party and have a good time. It was an awesome party, those guys are really the kings of this genre (techno) and were relentlessly pushing out tunes and sounds to drive us into a frenzy. Good times were had by all, although I got a bit more wasted than I had originally planned, it was all good in the hood. :)

Honkytonks

Kimberley
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Some of the Sydney ITM crew were in town for the weekend so we had a bit of a meetup at Honkytonks.

Obsession

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

After Peppermint I headed on into Room to check out the Obsession party. This was also a pretty good party, run by the same crew that runs the Interview parties. Lots of good music, fancy lasers, and attractive people, all good :)

Peppermint

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to a pretty cool party on Friday night, called Peppermint, because it's a twist of different styles and DJs. The party is run by Piro and runs at The Apartment at the Inkerman Hotel, which is basically a spacious luxury apartment at the top of the hotel that is set up to be accommodation or to be a club-style venue. Not may clubs have a BBQ and a spa pool though :)
The party was pretty cool, has some good random music styles, and I met some cool new people and saw some awesome fire art (twirling, juggling, etc)

G.O.D. Halloween

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

This weekend I went along to the G.O.D. (Gospel Of Dance) Halloween party. The party was put on by the GOD, MDA, Reason and Smile Police crew and was really a sea of good costumes and hard dancing :)
It was also interesting to see a bunch of the people from the previous night at 3D, as the music styles were fairly similar to the 1st floor hard trance :)

140

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another installment of the excellent 140 parties put on by John Edwards and crew. I like this party a lot, not just because the guys who play are so good (they are, believe me) but also because by putting the party on at 3D I basically get three parties in one, hard trance downstairs, 140 tech/trance on level 2 and Psy trance upstairs. So we end up with lots of really nice people at the parties, because those music styles tend to engender nice people, but we get a variety of groupings. Young energetic 'kandy' kids downstairs dancing up a storm and shuffling (rocking) to their hearts content, a more mellowed out and older crowd on level two, having a drink and a chat and getting dragged onto the dance floor by the driving techno beats, and smiling stomping psy trance people on the top floor, hippie-like in their outlook and fun and games shenanigans :)

Interview

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to my first occurance of the Interview parties at Tilt this Saturday, and it was a bloody good party. Finally managed to see Mike Nichol play, which is amusing because I'm met him out a dozen times, in the company of Jules Plees and Ben Evans, but never actually heard him play, and he's bloody good :)
Even though Tilt is a fairly small place, they definitely packed it out with a good bunch of people, with some of the usual suspects and some new peeps. A good night all around :)

Farewell to KPMG

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Today was my last day sailing the wide accountant-sea at KPMG. After 9 years, 11 months and 2 days I

left the firm to start a new job as a Solutions Designer at CSC, a job I don't really know how to do and

something I haven't actually done before.
In my time at KPMG i've done just about every type of IT job that I was interested in, and a few that didn't even exist until I was put into the role. I've learnt a lot about providing IT services and honed my operations skills to quite a sharp point I believe. And now i'm moving away from the operations area and into design, working with a team to help put together designs and cost models for new infrastructure pieces for existing clients of CSC and occasionally to work on bids to get new customers.
KPMG was an interesting place to work and despite having had some bad times there were also a lot of good times, especially meeting a whole raft of really good people, forming the basis or seeds of just about every friendship I have at the moment, many of which have survived past the time the other people have left the firm, indicating that they are worthwhile friendships indeed.
The firm was quite generous in sending me off, giving me a very nice farewell gift (a portable hard drive to download images off my cameras without needing a pc - geeky but very useful) and also providing a significant financial input into my self-organised farewell drinks at Stellar Bar.

Technoodle

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another round of the Technoir party, and a simply wonderful party at that. These guys really have what it takes to make a fun and friendly environment, and the warehouse they are currently using has proven to be a useful and flexible place to hold it.

preparations

preparations
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

It had been a while since I had popped in to Stellar to check out the House Party crew, so we figured it was time again.
It's always fun down there, although Mudgutz didn't really like the music at all, but I like it :)

Godskitchen

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Time for Godskitchen again, one of the original 'large' dance parties we used to go to, and still going strong. This year it was a bit of fun because Elektra was playing in one of the rooms and so was Dee Dee. It was fun and strange to see DJs that I see so often up behind the large stacks belting out the tunes :)
The event itself was pretty enjoyable, lots of good music and I ran into a lot of people that I know from other trance events like 140. I also had some time to hang out with Calvin, Kathryn's new boy, so my official verdict is: he's good enough to date my friend :)

Sydney quickstop

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went to Sydney for work for one day to do a Secret Squirrel photo shoot and to be involved in the Infrastructure team day.
It was a good opportunity to say farewell to the Sydney team i'd been working with for years (nearly a decade in some cases) and get some free dinner off work :)