Because of the nature of my contracts, I have to take a day off every fortnight. And no that's not a typo, "contracts" is plural. I am still working at the Agriculture Department in WA, however due to the GFC (yuss, I got to use "GFC" in a sentence) HR got all antsy about the 20-day casual contracts (which I was previously on), and wanted me to switch to a six month contract. Due to other budgeting issues, my work with the wheat pathology section then went to part time (2 days a week) on this contract, and my barley work was funded through Murdoch University, which means I have a separate contract with them, for 5 days a fortnight. And so it is that I work nine days a fortnight rather than ten. Convoluted, I know.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my day off a fortnight, and it meant that I have just had a four day weekend as I took off the Friday for last fortnight, and the Monday for the current fortnight. I spent the Friday and Saturday basically chillaxing, although there was a failed attempt to fish in the Swan River on Friday. Traffic was very busy so we decided not to head to the coast and instead went for option B - the river at low tide, brown and smelly, but at least there were ciders on hand.
Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. After having a couple of mates over for an awesome lunch of homemade chicken and bacon sangas, we headed into Northbridge where they had closed off Aberdeen Street for something of a block party, featuring none other than Chali 2na from Jurassic 5. Although he was only given an hour to perform, 2na went OFF, and it was an amazing hour of hip hop, supported by his 'brother' Laidlaw. He really worked the crowd well, and while most of his set was new stuff from his album Fish Outta Water (which I will be running off to buy this weekend), he also chucked in Freedom, Quality Control, and the ever popular What's Golden from his Jurassic 5 days. He obviously still has a lot of love for his former group, with frequent mentions of the now defunct band. It is often said that it is a sign of a great artist if they sound as good live as they do on their albums. This can definitely be said of Chali 2na, who had the whole crowd with their fists in the air, singing along and giving him the hugest of cheers. I heard him a couple of days later on TripleJ saying that Perth was 'crazy', and it really was.
The other main hip hop act at the Low:Fi festival was NaS, who I saw last year supporting Kanye West. Needless to say, Kanye was crap, but it was my first time seeing NaS and I thought that he stole the show. The crowd was small so the gig was pretty intimate, and his band was pretty damn amazing too. This time round I can't say I was as into it as last year. It was the end of a pretty big day, which would have been a factor, but also the bigger crowd and coming off the back of Chali 2na made it less enjoyable for me. And where 2na had been even better live than from a studio, I felt that I preferred NaS on CD than live this time round.
We finished the night off at a couple of pubs, and spent Monday enjoying the fact that most people were at work while we spent most of the day in bed.
Chali 2Na live: 10/10
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