Watch the big man Leverock from Bermuda move, watch him celebrate! Watch Malachi Jones do a lap of the oval after taking his first wicket with his first delivery in World Cup cricket.

Laurent returns to Australia for his first visit since 2000 - this time playing at The Cross, a smallish venue tucked up on top of The Bourbon down in Kings Cross. This, in addition to the Melbourne gig on Friday and the Playground Weekender festival where he played on Sunday.

Feelin’ It

Not the best set I’ve heard him play, but it kept us out late! A wide range of sounds, including the classic Derrick May Rhythim Is Rhythim (sic) track “Beyond The Dance”, the Carl Craig remix of Inner City’s “Good Life”, some New Order for good measure, plus a tangle of drum’n'bass and the classic Ralphie Rosario “U Used To Hold Me” which had all the hands in the air. Unfortunately, no “Acid Eiffel” and word has it that the best two hours were the last two hours. Of course, that’s when we’d gone to bed!

*ahem* Goons

Now playing: Rhythm Is Rhythm - “Beyond The Dance”

A solid night of music at quite a slick little venue - no comparison to venue in its previous state with stark white walls and a soundsystem lacking any punch. The Klipsch rig in that room was punchy, a little more bass perhaps, but certainly one of the higher quality purpose-built spaces in Sydney. My only gripe was that the bar prices for a nightclub were more top-end bar. $9 for a Peroni’s not cheap and neither is $5 for a 300mL bottle of water. A shame the balcony space was closed off early as well. Why not close the small front room and keep the balcony open?

View the full photo set.

As an initial introduction, this was originally written for our internal corporate blog, but I thought I’d repost it out in the wild.

There’s a lot of junk in the blogosphere, and the daunting task for many is sifting through it all to find the little specks of gold dust lying at the bottom of the pan. Over the past couple of weeks, several people have asked me, “Where do I start?”. With constraints on our time becoming greater, even though we now have 43 hours in day. We may be multi-tasking more - however, we still we don’t want to be wasting the time we’re spending online.

I’ve been blogging for seven or so years now, and in that time I’ve scanned many a blog. Thanks to RSS and feed aggregators, keeping up to date with my favourite blogs is simple and doesn’t consume much time. Here’s a list of some of my favourites on a wide range of topics - and if you’re not using an RSS aggregator or desktop delivery mechanism of some description, Google has a simple one on offer.

Pop Culture
Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things
Engadget - Cool tools and gadgets for all to play with

Web
Mezzoblue - Design, the web and some ‘other things’.
A List Apart - Exploring the design development and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
456 Berea Street - A web design and development blog focussing on web standards, accessibility, usability and best practices in general.
Google Blog - Googler insights into product and technology news and culture.

Corporate Blogging
What’s Next? - Internet and corporate social media marketing strategy, online marketing trends, news and commentary.

Marketing
Seth Godin - Author of acclaimed books such as “Unleashing the Ideavirus” and “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers“.
Creating Passionate Users - Brains, minds and science and how this translates into making users passionate about their lives and tools.

Miscellaneous - the following aren’t blogs, but will help you find more blogs.
CorporateBlogsList
CEOBlogsList

Didn’t find what you were looking for? Or perhaps you’re looking for a search engine that will help you find those Welcome Stranger sized gold nuggets, try Technorati, and just ignore the fact that Anna Nicole Smith is currently the top search term.

So get subscribed and start reading. Find something new that’s not listed above? Make sure you it share!

Web 2.0 - now, come on, tell me… you’re not sick of the term yet are you? It had to be the most overused term at ad:tech Sydney this week (I’ll get to the event itself in a post to come over the next few days) and if I wasn’t sick of it then, I certainly am now.

Personally, I think what’s more frustrating is that the notion of it isn’t new, nor is the application of it to the medium, but it’s more the fact that everybody thinks if they’re not web two-point-o-ifying their website and online capability, they’ll miss the boat.

Now, whilst this maybe true to an extent, more to the point is that people are developing capability for the sake of it, without actually thinking about how it may work, or why it may work. Also, there’s the copycats out there as well, thinking that if they build another Myspace.com that’s green and red, and contain some nuances of difference, then people will flock to it. Forget it. Don’t forget, there’s Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Eons, Facebook, LinkedIn, LinkMe, MSN Spaces, it’s just a little crowded in the social and business networking spheres… and then don’t forget there were sites like SixDegrees. Now, fallen by the wayside, because they were either too early on the scene, didn’t have their objectives mapped out as a business, or simply delivered a crap user-experience.

That said, I found a new collaborative site today, upcoming.org (which incidently, I stumbled across via last.fm. I’m heading of to San Francisco and Seattle in a couple of weeks time and will have a bit of time up my sleeve, so I thought I’d see what was coming up. I’d been in contact with an acquaintance through the music game a week back and he’d already given me the run down on a couple of events that were on whilst I was there, but I was thinking about things to do other than going to gigs. I’d also checked out the local Citysearch, and found it a little lacking.

So, I found out that Derrick May & Gary Bredow hosting a screening of Hi-Tech Soul with a Q&A session and an after-party with the man himself on the decks. Now, that’s just Friday night, in addition to Fuckwerk Friday. So much for finding other things to do!

Saturday night, there’s Butane doing a live PA at Low End. Happy days.. and no, I’m not going to spend two or so days asleep by day in SF - let me assure you!

Back to the topic of discussion, web 2.0, definately has its uses, and when done well, it’s great. However, look before you leap. Think about your rationale for doing what you’re doing here and what benefit it can drive your business.

As for the other reason for the post, well… I just wanted to make a few of you jealous. That said, the Mad Racket crew are putting on another great party featuring Claude von Stroke which is on whilst I’m in Seattle. Unfortunately, I miss him in SF by 10 days.

A clip from “The Scene” in 1982 with Shari Vari by A Number of Names - one of the cuts that started it all. Perhaps the get-ups could serve as inspiration for the next Paradise Lost party.

Some bread and cheese and fine white wine
Designer chic is a matter of time
Could this be the real thing?
Or is this just another fling?
Seen by millions nationally
L’uomo, Vogue, Playgirl, G Quarterly
Because he’s down on his etiquette
Shari Vari is really it

Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari

Smoking on his cigarette
Listening to his car cassette
Cruising with his hot playmate
In his Porsche Nine Two Eight
Heading for the highest heights
For the climax of the night
The people there they just won’t quit
Because the music’s really it

Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari

Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari

Smoking on his cigarette
Listening to his car cassette
Cruising with his hot playmate
In his Porsche Nine Two Eight
Heading for the highest heights
For the climax of the night
The people there they just won’t quit
Because the music is really it

Chorus
Shari Vari
Shari Shari Vari

Directed by Spike Lee and starring a youthful Lawrence Fishburne.

Hip Hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame making them the first rap/hip hop group to be honoured (yes - I know that sounds a little weird, but you wouldn’t expect say Aerosmith to be inducted into the Hip Hop hall of fame now would you?).

The early innovators of the sound we know as hip hop will be acknowledged on March 12 in New York City alongside R.E.M, Van Halen and Patti Smith and the Ronettes. Flash is credited for the creating the process of blending two breakbeats together, thus creating one of the fundamental formulas for hip hop music.

A little bit of Sesame Street nostalgia.

Australian fast bowler Brett Lee shows us that his talents go beyond the green fields and picket fences.

In the song - ‘Your The One For Me’, Lee plays the part of a blond Westerner trying to win the heart of a Hindi-speaking young woman by singing and playing guitar. Bhosle translates for him, teaches him to speak and sing Hindi himself. Check the video for yourself and make your own judgement on this quality piece of music.

Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg collaborated on a music video for a new holiday gift idea on Saturday Night Live - Dick in the Box. Haven’t seen it yet? Here it is.

Loving those dance moves on the basketball court. Anyway, this video has been getting some widespread attention, and we’re seeing the Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead version, some guy dancing in his parents living room with a box fastened to his crotch with a belt, (and not to forget he can’t keep the beat - how hard is it to click in time with the music?!) version, and this version - which really illustrates that some people should not be allowed to purchase video cameras.

Not everyone gets to see the steps in between the time the model walks in the room to the time the artwork is complete and sent to print.

We all know how make-up can transform a person’s look, but do you really know what happens on desk of the Mac operator as they take a copy of Photoshop and wield their light pen like a craftsman uses his chisel, carving up the initial creating, sculpting and re-shaping until the original product is no longer identifiable.

Watch. Be surprised. Be saddened. Our chase for perfection is such an unfortunate and unforgiving indictment on Western culture today.

By Dove Canada and Ogilvy Toronto. Find out more about the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.