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Post by dustdudes on Jan 29, 2009 19:47:22 GMT -5
warning: this will most likely be entirely about me and not the band. okay then:
Dusty vs. Australia. Day 1.
6:45: Alarm cock goes off. Hotel le Jolie, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I had no idea until last night that there was a hotel this close to Greenpoint. Shampoo and condition the beard. Somehow I always forget to do this. It feels like a cashmere sweater on my face right now. Crush the early morning continental breakfast in the lobby with a few Iraq War vets. Frosted Flakes, a spotty green apple, several glasses of orange juice. Walk back to the practice space in Greenpoint. It is twenty degrees and invigorating. I'm afraid I'll be missing these winter shock temperatures. The key to my productivity in NYC has been getting out in the air as early as possible and being cut through to the bone by the cold. After that there's no sleepiness, no sluggishness, just having to move and get stuff done to stay comfortable.
I slack the strings on a few guitars (the six we're flying with) so the tension doesn't snap them during baggage handling and pack all of the cables. Leave the space by 8:30 to drop off laundry at my Greenpoint laundry stop. A small load of shirts and underwear that I have ample pocket change for. Take the G to the L back to Williamsburg to meet Gertrude for breakfast. Try to assuage her job interview fears while reading the NYT business section and a Far Side colection. Oslo Coffee Company on South 2nd and Bedford may be the last great coffee I have for two weeks. I enjoy it. I say goodbye, wish her luck, and take my last twelve dollars down the street to the Salvation army on N 7th and Bedford. I have no Australia-appropriate clothes packed. I'm hunting for pants to turn into shorts. There are no dressing rooms but the four foot tall Polish woman working shows me how to measure my waist using my neck and elbow. If the waist of the pants, while held flat, fit around your neck then they'll fit around your waist. I trust her. I buy two suitable pairs of pants to convert to shorts for nine dollars. Blue wool pinstripes and brown corduroy. I plan on cultivating a weird style in Oz. I've been meaning to get a haircut and Jocelyn and cut off my beard for over a week. She finally texted me back and had time last night. Too late. I take my new out-of-control muppet-mopped hair disaster and convertible pants back to Greenpoint. I move my laundry from the washer to the dryer and do more packing at the practice space. I'm somehow ahead of schedule. I check my bank account balance and my payroll has gone through! This solves my last problem. I now have shorts for Australia but my big black Timberland winter boots are my only footwear. Not summer appropriate. I walk down Manhattan Avenue, into the Polish athletic shoe store and by some brown Adidas trainers. They'll match my brown corduroys. Shopping done I'm back to the practice space for the third time. It is 11:30 in the morning. We have 13 pieces of gear to check. And we're flying every other day in Australia. Tad cuts off the brown cords into shorts. I leave my winter coat in the space and put on Tad's new sunglasses that leave me blind but cool looking. We wait outside for Alex, our totally awesome Venezuelan driver to show up. Cram too many people and too much gear into the van and we're off to the airport. Check-in is somehow painless. Now is the time to sign up for frequent flyer miles on United.
Fly from JFK to LAX. I start reading the first Brooklyn Noir collection. It is one of the only two books I packed. I read three hundred pages of it. The flight crew is Australian but not going to Australia. Shortly before landing our stewardess gives each of us a large botle of water for the next flight and passes around a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies. Warm chocolate chip cookies. On an airplane. For free and without asking. I now never want to fly anything but United with this stewardess.
Land at LAX. Two hour layover. My time perception is already totally turned around. I was just going to pretend that clocks didn't exist and let my sundial figure it out. But the six hour NYC to LA already has me discombobulated. There's a great bartender at the terminal. Take half a xanax and two double-Makers gingers before boarding. Instead of knocking me out I just try to chat with Franz in the seat ahead of me or stare out the window like a zombie. I'm ready to sleeeeeeeeep. It doesn't come. What the hell is Australia going to be like? My iPod and iPhone are both charged. So in the best of all possible worlds I have batteries to listen to tunes for half of the flight.
surf. turf. surf. turf. This is gonna rule.
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emily
True Scene Leader
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Post by emily on Jan 29, 2009 20:12:38 GMT -5
Good call. Thanks, Dusty. There are no dressing rooms but the four foot tall Polish woman working shows me how to measure my waist using my neck and elbow. If the waist of the pants, while held flat, fit around your neck then they'll fit around your waist. I do not understand how this works at all.
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barx01
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collossal expectations...
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Post by barx01 on Jan 29, 2009 20:14:14 GMT -5
Hey mate!!
Really looking forward to having you guys here in Melbourne.
If you want a heads up on where to have a decent drink or feed etc - shoot me a line. I'd love to buy you a drink if we get a mutually convenient opportunity.
As for the weather...Brooklyn's 20 sounds nice right now. The last few days we've had 37, 44, 45 and it is (currently) 42 at midday.
Oh wait...you were talking fahrenheit? OK - you might want those shorts bro' - the above equates to 100, 112, 114 and 107.
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Post by dustdudes on Jan 29, 2009 20:19:10 GMT -5
Day 2. The day starts on the flight to Sydney from LA. The pills are doing their best but there will be no sleep. The flight is packed and nowhere are there enough seats to stretch out my six foot frame. The first inflight movie stars Ice Cube. Without the sound on I just gather that he's spending a lot of time watching a girl play football(?). I listen to Richard Hell and close my eyes and try to fall asleep by pretending to be asleep. I do this as long as I can, like holding my breath underwater. I "wake up" and everyone has been served drinks and their in-flight pasta meal. It worked! I slept! I tap Franz's chair ahead of me and ask how long I've been out. I have been "asleep" for twenty-five minutes. The stewardess put a cold turkey and cheese sandwich on my lap while I was down. I eat it. The next fourteen hours are basically the same thing. Total Hell. I was warned to dread the flight and brushed it off with my usual positivity. It defeated me. I faked sleep as much as I could but acutely felt every single hour of it. Somewhere over California the sun set on us while we were in the air. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean a few hours later it rose again and we crossed the international dateline. I'm typing this at the beginning of "day" three. It is 6:00AM on Friday. At home it is 3PM on Thursday. We had a day disappear on us in addition to the one spent in the air. If you're going to lose a day it might as well be a Wednesday, I guess. I just realized that the day that disappeared is January 28. My dad's birthday. Sorry I didn't call you, Dad, but your birthday didn't actually happen to me.
We land in Sydney. The airline has lost Andy's microphone box. It is still in LA. They will ship it to our hotel in Brisbane. We discover this because all of our equipment comes off the baggage carousel instead of being forwarded on to our final destination. I check all of the guitars for damage, they're fine. Leesa, our Australian handler for the tour, finds us. She deals with bands coming to Australia for a living. She is the best thing in the world that can possibly happen to us right now. We have forty-five minutes to take a bus to another terminal, recheck all of our baggage and check in, pass security, and catch our next flight. Leesa makes it happen. Make it to the gate with enough time to (barely) order an Angry Whopper from Happy Jacks (né Burger King). Andy and Bobby and I all agree that it is better than in America. I sit between two very large men on this flight. I don't have the room or air to read a book. I watch the close captioned local news on the tv and hope it is a short flight. I can't even reach my bag between my feet to get my headphones out. It is a very long hour. We land at noon. Leesa has rental vans waiting. One of Tad's carry-on bags that was gate-checked has been lost. The airline has no idea where it is and failed to tag it. We get to the hotel at 1PM. We have been traveling for 32 hours. I haven't slept. Upon check-in I immediately buy two bottles of Budweiser from the bar, take them upstairs, drink them in the shower (the shower doesn't get hot), put on clean clothes, and stare out the window. It takes me a minute for it to register where I am. I know it is Australia because I've been looking forward to the word for months, but I can't remember the city. Finally: Brisbane.
There's an Australian tourism contest going on right now where you can win a chance to live in a massive house on the beach and blog about it once a week for $100,000 a year. All of their tourism materials feature kangaroos and the Crocodile Hunter. They are doing it wrong. I've been here for less than a day and here is what they need to tell you, what they should have been telling me to get me here: It feels exactly like America. Accents aside you don't know you're in a foreign country. The pace and climate and flora all suggest that you're in San Diego or, when a breeze comes up, San Francisco. The exchange rate is very favorable to Americans. It is AWESOME here. Finn and Andy and I go for a long walk. A loooong walk. Over a Very Big Bridge (The Story Bridge), into and through downtown to an outdoor mall. Find a patio bar to sit down. Even the chicken wings here are as good as a great American bar. Craig buys a round of beers. Andy buys a round of beers. I buy a round of beers. Galen, on his own separate walkabout, finds us and joins us. We have another round of beers. We start walking back. We stop at a liquor store and buy more beer. It is 85 degrees, sunny, and one big gray cloud in the sky sprinkles a little bit every fifteen minutes just to cool us off. It is perfect here. Shorts, sleeveless, no socks, feeling like a million bucks. High on sleep dep and jet lag and Victoria Bitter beer. We have another few beers on the patio at the hotel. I'm ready for a nap. It is 6PM and I haven't slept in two days. I crash.
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Admin
Midnight Hauler
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Post by Admin on Jan 29, 2009 20:20:00 GMT -5
Nice Dusty. Much appreciated.
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Post by hoodrat on Jan 29, 2009 20:45:24 GMT -5
yeah, thanks dd.
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Post by Matt Jones on Jan 30, 2009 0:20:11 GMT -5
This is awesome. Three reasons.
1. THS. 2. Dusty. 3. I've wanted to go to Australia for the last 10 years of my life. I'm living through you.
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Post by Rich Tarbell on Jan 30, 2009 0:24:46 GMT -5
good stuff dustin.
don't wrestle any alligators, don't box any kangaroos, and don't surf any cop cars down there.
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Post by dustdudes on Jan 30, 2009 1:07:17 GMT -5
I'm alligator shy. I'll box a kangaroo if I can eat the meat after. If I can get the meat without a fight I'll go that way. No promises on the cop cars.
Just stopped in my room to put my swim trunks on. Franz and I are heading down to the pool.
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barx01
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collossal expectations...
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Post by barx01 on Jan 30, 2009 1:08:18 GMT -5
I've wanted to go to Australia for the last 10 years of my life. I'm living through you. Come on down, brudder!!! I'm always happy to spread a little hospitality to my friends from the far, far north east!! don't wrestle any alligators, don't box any kangaroos, and don't surf any cop cars down there. Dude - you guys are all Jimmy Swaggart devotees, too right!? ...oh - we have crocodiles rather than alligators, too! ;D
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Post by wealdstone on Jan 30, 2009 5:24:43 GMT -5
Nice work Dustin, which hat did you go with dude? One of those with the corks hanging off the brim should finish off the current look
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Post by lilhan on Jan 30, 2009 6:06:04 GMT -5
THIS IS AWESOME THANKS DUSTIN!
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mattjs
True Scene Leader
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Post by mattjs on Jan 30, 2009 6:17:10 GMT -5
Nice work Dustin, which hat did you go with dude? One of those with the corks hanging off the brim should finish off the current lookNow that is a picture I'd like to see! Really enjoying the updates, looking forward to seeing how the adventure continues
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Post by Matt Jones on Jan 30, 2009 11:55:51 GMT -5
I've wanted to go to Australia for the last 10 years of my life. I'm living through you. Come on down, brudder!!! I'm always happy to spread a little hospitality to my friends from the far, far north east!! Oh believe me I would if I weren't an incredibly poor college student.
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Post by Phils_fan on Jan 30, 2009 12:44:00 GMT -5
Dustin said alarm cock, heh, heh, heh.
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Post by dustdudes on Jan 30, 2009 18:00:23 GMT -5
Hahahahahaha. I just realized why everyone's been laughing at that. "Alarm cock." Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahaha. That's pretty funny.
This is what my next few days are looking like:
"
Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city recorded its third consecutive day of temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius (109 F) for the first time since 1855, when record-keeping began, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The temperature in Melbourne topped 45.1 C (113 F) on Friday ahead of a cooler change that might even bring some thunder showers, the bureau said.
Adelaide, the other major city on the south coast, is expected to match its longest heat wave in a century by Monday, with six consecutive days exceeding 40 C (104 F). The heat there buckled train and tram lines."
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Post by Rich Tarbell on Jan 30, 2009 18:43:22 GMT -5
Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city recorded its third consecutive day of temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius (109 F) for the first time since 1855, when record-keeping began, the Bureau of Meteorology said. The temperature in Melbourne topped 45.1 C (113 F) on Friday ahead of a cooler change that might even bring some thunder showers, the bureau said. Adelaide, the other major city on the south coast, is expected to match its longest heat wave in a century by Monday, with six consecutive days exceeding 40 C (104 F). The heat there buckled train and tram lines." you ain't in minnesota anymore, grasshopper.
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Post by dustdudes on Jan 30, 2009 18:48:57 GMT -5
No! Sleeves! Til Sydney!!!!!
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barx01
Cityscape Skin
collossal expectations...
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Post by barx01 on Jan 30, 2009 18:58:42 GMT -5
The temperature in Melbourne topped 45.1 C (113 F) on Friday ahead of a cooler change that might even bring some thunder showers, the bureau said. It is all comparative, I suppose. That 'cooler' change is going to give us the positively arctic top of 37 (100) today.
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Post by mrfinch on Feb 1, 2009 1:12:48 GMT -5
Don't worry-the forecast for Monday is showers and possible storms and 29 degrees. A perfect Melbourne day after the last week of complete hell... Remember, this is Melbourne. Everyone in the City will be wearing black. Nobody died, it's just the way we do it here. Don't be shocked.
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Post by dustdudes on Feb 1, 2009 1:23:13 GMT -5
Day 3.
Day three is right now. It is now 6:45AM. Coffee in this country is great. The thing I'm enjoying the most about this trip, so far, is how very unlike England it is. I love my English friends, and I have an incredible time when I'm over there, but food, coffee, and climate control (and, really, climate in general) are things that need some work over there. So far everything in Australia (lost baggage notwithstanding) is as good or better than it is at home. I'm a known winter-lover, and catch flak for it, but I have to admit that just knowing that everyone at home is jealous of this making it worth it. And somehow the temperatures that would bum me out at home are refreshing and exciting here. Something to do with being coastal and having a light breeze and low humidity, I'm sure.
I expected to be days behind on this. I've never made time to write on tour. Believed it impossible. It may well end up that way for this trip. But I'm caught up, it is 7AM and I don't expect anyone else to be awake for hours. Though who knows how they'll handle their jetlag. I feel pretty centered right now. Like it is 7 at home and I just woke up and had my coffee. I'll take a short safety nap this afternoon to make sure that I don't go down early again tonight. Shows start tomorrow.
Day 3, continued: Our itinerary calls today a "rest day." Recovery from the flight and such. We took the order seriously. Walked across the Story Bridge, to the same outdoor mall as yesterday, and had the full English breakfast. Walked back, lounged poolside (biggest responsibility for the day: establishing a base tan so I don't get horribly burned in Melbourne), ate again, went swimming. At one point Tad, Craig, Bobby, Galen, Franz, Andy, and I were all in the pool at once. And it is a small pool. Bobby nearly emptied it with a few cannonballs. Dude Stew. McQ was up in our room watching a documentary about socialist painters. By 7PM we were all ready for bed again (turns out everyone else woke up at 6:30 in the morning as well) but Leesa convinced us to go out for Thai food. Being somewhere new but having someone local who knows where to eat on a Friday night is the best thing that can happen on tour. The restaurant was BYO, so after we ordered Franz and Leesa and I went across the street to the bottle shop and picked up a few bottles of wine. Red wine, yellow curry, chicken wings, fully belly, in bed by 9:30. At some point on this tour we're going to have to start doing shows, right?
Day 4: I've established a routine. Coffee and tour-diary updating at 6:30, in the pool by 7:30, dry off in the sun until 8:30, then back up to the room to shower and get breakfast. McQ and I keep it close to the hotel and find an amazing burger just a few blocks away. Giant bun, rockets, tomatoes, cheese, grilled onions, and TWO rare beef patties. Side by side. Served open faced because they were bigger than the bun. I'm sorry if I write too much about what I eat but seriously, this would have been a huge burger if they hadn't included an entire extra patty.
The festival starts today so I spend most of the afternoon in the Executive Boardroom of the hotel working on guitars. Some of them haven't been played since the end of the Drive By Truckers tour in November. And things are always jacked up after flying anyway. Even the neck on Galen's bass needs adjusting. We're traveling pretty light compared to a US or UK tour. One guitar for Craig (the blue Tele I put together last summer), one bass for Gales (the 1980 P-Bass I picked out at Willie's in St. Paul last summer), and four guitars for Tad. The Gibson J-100 acoustic, the Doubleneck SG, the blonde ES-335, and the sunburst Les Paul. Everything gets string changes, neck and bridge adjustments, intonated and played by Tad before going back in the cases. To be bounced around in the van on the way to the festival site. I double check that the power supplies for the pedal board are switched to 240V power, test all cables and pedals, tune Bob's snare drum, then head back up to my room.
Here's what's been on the news since we arrived: Melbourne is in the middle of the hottest heat wave since they started keeping records in 1855. Something like 5 days in a row above 109 degrees. Fires outside of town threatening to burn it to ash. Half a million houses without power. And the fires are getting close to the electrical station that supply power to the entire city. I'm imagining a Max Max sort of Gas Wars Tour 2009 happening on our way there tomorrow. Adelaide is the same. 104 degrees, bugs frying on the sidewalk, old people dying left and right. We go to Adelaide the day after Melbourne. Our shows there are all outdoors.
We have an hour before Leesa takes up to the festival site in Downtown Brisbane. So I go swimming again. This time I follow through on sunburning the hell out of myself. Especially the top of my belly. At least I can realize that I look hilarious. At least I'm not as burned as Andy. We're from Upper-Midwest Viking stock. We're not meant for this. Ah well. The festival is in/under/at a car park in the middle of Brisbane. The stage is small, the ground is red dirt that turns into swirling dust storms when people start to move around, and this Australian crowd is loving to move around. I'm so happy we're renting amps for this tour. I can't imagine trying to keep the Silvertone or Super Reverb alive like this. We get there just in time to watch Stereolab. They're amazing. I'm really truly blown away by how good they are. I realize that their drummer is a guy I've talked to around the pool back at our hotel. The band before us blows up the SVT that we're supposed to be playing through during the middle of their set. A backup amp is brought out. I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach. So does Andy. We look at each other and don't even have to say anything. Changovers at festivals are a nightmare. Changovers at festivals without a real staging area are even worse. We do our best to set up the rental gear backstage and as soon as the Drones are finished there is mad scramble to set up and check everything out. I think it is the most I've ever sweat onstage. By the time I get the guitar rig dialed in (Note to everyone: the Vox AC30 Custom Classic is a piece of garbage) and Andy gets back to the soundboard it is 7:47. We go on at 7:55. I have no idea how we did the changeover in twelve minutes. More amazingly: everything works perfectly. The stage sound is good, the crowd is great, the band is having fun, everything is perfect. Until the middle of You Little Hoodrat Friend when the backup bass amp explodes. Tad plays an extended solo, Craig raps, one of the stagehands steals an amp from the other stage. It isn't the worst disaster in the world, and everyone handled it wonderfully, but the day was stressful and the show almost went off without a hitch and it would really have been nice to have had the first show of the tour be hassle free. Ah well. Nothing's ever easy. The Hoodrat disaster means that Lord I'm Discouraged gets scratched from the setlist, the band finishes, we pack up, and before we load out I walk across the festival and watch Girl Talk in one of the tents. I can't tell how I feel about them yet. I'll have five more chances to see them this tour to make up my mind. Also: I didn't see Jay Reatard or No Age today. I'll make it a point to see them at the next show. And I want to drink a beer with the bass player from Stereolab. He looks like the most fun of the bunch.
Back at the hotel right now, listening to Bob Dylan's Infidels album while drinking Bisongrass-infused vodka and waiting for my laundry to finish. There's a free guest laundry facility in the sub-basement car park of the hotel. One of my personal touring rules is to not fly with dirty laundry. Dirty clothes in a laundry bag next to clean clothes in a suitcase makes everything gross. Since we're flying ever other day this trip we'll see how close I stick to this. It is 1:30 in the morning. Wakeup call at 7:15. G'nite.
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Post by Matt Jones on Feb 1, 2009 1:39:10 GMT -5
I've heard nothing but bad things about the AC30CC's. I've heard they sound great while they work, but it's just that.
While they work.
What was the back up bass amp? Because it blows my mind that a SVT blew. (unless it was one of the new Chinese made ones. Then it makes perfect sense. see: Vox). But if it was anything over 5 years old, I'm real surprised.
Oh by the way. can I have your job? Guitar Tech is very high up there on my dream careers. . . .
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Admin
Midnight Hauler
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Post by Admin on Feb 1, 2009 1:43:53 GMT -5
I'm really enjoying reading these. Keep it up, dude.
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Post by missalabamanobody on Feb 1, 2009 1:55:29 GMT -5
These are great. Definitely would like to read more.
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Post by mrfinch on Feb 1, 2009 2:46:57 GMT -5
I'm relatively new to the board, and absolutely loving this thread, great writing!
I'm concerned you got sunburned, dude. I'm sure Leesa (and everyone else) has clued you in, but here we go just in case:
*The one rule for Summer in Australia-ALWAYS wear sunscreen when you go out. The sun here is not like the sun you have at home-mainly because there's a very large hole in the ozone layer RIGHT above your head in this country. The sun here is BRUTAL, and you just cant get a base tan and not worry about it. It will burn you and flay you alive, and skin cancer is one of our biggest killers down here.
Not to be a complete downer, but all you guys need to be very careful with it. We dont want Australia to make ya sick!!
Looking foward to the Corner tomorrow night.....
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