My Morning Jacket in Oz - Tom the Tour Guide and Other Assorted Randomness

Some slightly old but definitely not stale words from Tom as he and the band explore Australia... followed by some random photox.

"Wednesday we rode the City Cat down the Brisbane River to the Gallery of Modern Art. The free admission included an exhibition of Australian artists' work titled "Optimism". The collection is beautifully laid out, kid-friendly (for the most part) and absolutely mind-blowing. Highlights were Del Kathryn Barton's "I Am Flesh Again", Jan Nelson's "Walking in Tall Grass", Patricia Piccinini's Vespa inspired sculptures and Kathy Temin's "My Monument: White Forest", which was literally a white forest of towering stuffed, plush trees. We were surrounded by children's groups that were coloring, singing along with songs about swimming and building with neon shapes in a black light room.

Next door to GOMA, the State Library of Queensland was hosting the Game On exhibit,
touting "play your way through the history of video games." We waited an hour to play the Star Wars arcade game (the vector graphics hold up remarkably well), rediscovered the addictive Discs of Tron, and challenged each other to a few fighting games... the original Virtua Fighter is hilariously bad and a play through of several classics of the genre just reinforces how awesome Street Fighter II Turbo really is. Hadouken, Brisbane! And thanks for the memories."

And now for some random photox courtesy of Eric Mayers and Tom Blankenship...










You can read other MMJ in the Southern Hemi posts here.

My Morning Jacket in Oz - Feeding Time Edition

How freaking adorable is this? Just when I think they can't send me anything cuter... Dave Kissner and Jim James spend some quality time feeding the 'roos. No boxing was involved.

More from Australia coming later. Sorry for the delay, but I had to work and fly home and stuff. Apparently I'm going to be iced in for the next couple of days, though, so I'll have plenty of time to post Tom's report from Sydney... which is also... late... since they're in Melbourne now (where Rafael Nadal is, too, damnit).

Catch up with all the goings on down under here.

(photo by Eric Mayers)

My Morning Jacket in Oz - Hangin' Out Doin' Stuff Edition

Befriendin' roos

Catchin' up with Marcia Brady

Past editions here.

(photos by Eric Mayers and Tom Blankenship)

My Morning Jacket in Oz - Koalas R Kute Edition

Is that not THE CUTEST THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN???????

Okay, well, it is to me. I'm biased, though. Unfortunately, Tom's shots of the rest of the guys with the little bearies (who are actually marsupials) didn't turn out too well due to low light conditions.

Mr. T had this to say about his already yesterday adventures Down Under:

"The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is self-funded, gorgeous and staffed with friendly folk. How many other places can you walk around free to pet and feed kangaroos (who I might add are quite lazy, but when people are offering you food all day just for being cute, who can blame them)? We also witnessed a territorial dispute between two male koalas, signaled by a string of guttural moaning from one, that ended with a staff member breaking it up like a high school lunchroom tussle.

Look it's a wombat sleeping with his butt in the dirt!

It's amazing how well "utes", or utility vehicles, have sold down here throughout the years. In the states we had Chevy's El Camino and Ford's Ranchero, but neither were quite so successful as their Aussie counterparts. My favorite is the Holden Sandman.

As for coffee Australian style... ordering it is a breeze with self-explanatory names like long black and flat white. Small here, like most places outside of North America, it's not the size of a Big Gulp. The iced coffee is served with a scoop of ice cream and topped with whipped cream & cocoa. Ice cream with breakfast? Yes please."

Many thanks to the Tom Blankenship for providing us with the sights and sounds (probably glad not to have the smells) of Oz. Hopefully I'll have some shots of the Neil Young shows sometime soon.

In the meantime, I hope your hearts are lifted today as we begin the next chapter in American history. It can't be any worse than the last eight years, right? I know that I, well-known as a grouch of undeniable proportions, feel like 2009 is going to KICK ASS (for reasons that kind of have nothing to do with Obama but every little bit helps, right?)!

My Morning Jacket in Oz - Reach the Beach Edition

Looks like the lads are having more fun than me. Of course, I'm sitting at a desk WORKING ON THINGS so... you know...

I'm in Austin, they're in Australia. Not quite the same thing.

Here's some more photox from the indomitably spirited Eric Mayers.





I said I wouldn't be bummed I wasn't over there until they got to Japan but I must admit, I would pay to see Tom surfing. He said he managed to ride two out of the five times he tried. I hope he brings that hat home as it's purty darn cute.

More from Down Under soon. You can catch up on MMJ across the world here.

My Morning Jacket in Oz - Gold Coast Edition

I think the travelogue pretty much writes itself with this one.

First Tom wore a sheep hat, now this. I'm beginning to wonder what's next. You can check out his other adventures in the Southern Hemisphere here.

My Morning Jacket plays Big Day Out on the tomorrow that is today.