It’s always hard to not sound cliché and stereotype when talking about an Australia trip…

But the truth IS: it is really something of a paradise over there.
Especially when you’re touring with this crew of talents and good peeps here:
New Young Pony Club, Darwin Deez, Jack Beats, AC Slater, Brodinski, and of course So-Me and Busy P.

Speaking of them good blokes, my single highlight of the tour was the Adelaide stop:
About to play to a rather sparse crowd, I said: “Hey, I’m about to play a big wedding set, I want all the artists on stage and I expect a big karaoke dance moment”. So they all came up and we just had a joyful sing-along moment, until the stage-manager asked everybody off.
Look at this quick video:

In addition to the aforementioned, you can spot Dan Black, Uffie, Flight Facilities, the Bag Raiders, Kele’s drummer Min, Classixx, etc…

Taking this opportunity to thank them all for a great moment, and for being such a cool bunch to travel with.
(Special thanks to AC SLATER for the pic and the video)

Another highlight of my Oz trip was visiting the JUNIPERINA JUVENILE JUSTICE CENTER with my friends Nina Las Vegas and Levins from HEAPS DECENT.

For a few hours, I showed the basic tricks and craft of deejaying to 15 to 18 years old girls incarcerated in this minimum security ‘prison’. It was my first experience of a teaching workshop, and although it was rather short, it was simply GREAT. The girls were laughing and clapping when one of theirs scratched a record, or managed to beat-match two ‘Jerk’ records together.
We also played a few songs they had recorded themselves, and at the end, everybody cheered and clapped and I felt as happy as they looked.

Peace to the HEAPS DECENT crew: Nina, Lev, Charly and Bozz.

The Parklife All-stars football team:
Dan Black, The Wombats, Groove Armada, Sinden, Simon and Min from Bloc Party, Anna Lunoe and special guests So-Me and Brodinski.
(we lost 16-9 to the TRIPLE J team, please don’t mention)

The Busy Pictionnary was my favourite show of the whole tour, sorry Missy Elliott.

The idea is simple: Busy P spins the records, while So-Me reacts by drawing LIVE on a huge screen on stage.
The results are funny and inspiring and the crowd loves it.
I wish you all to witness it in a venue near you SOON.

A Parklife tour wouldn’t be complete without the traditional after-party game and fun.
Here in Melbourne, tag-teaming and ping-ponging till the break of dawn with my partners (So-Me not pictured, although he played an amazing Hip-Hop set that night).

(Another thing So-Me is good at: taking pictures of his friends, and that’s why he’s not on this one either.)

IT’S BEEN A REAL UPSIDE-DOWN DELIGHT.
BRISBANE, PERTH, MELBOURNE, SYDNEY, ADELAIDE, THANK YOUS AND SEE-YOUS.
PEACE TO ALL THE FUZZY GANG FOR A PERFECT TAKING CARE.
MING, JOHN, ANAND, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.
TO MY AUSSIE CREW: JAIME, GUS, AJAX, DAN AND BENI SINGLE, FROSTY, MIDNIGHT JUGGIES
YOU GUYS BE MY GUESTS, MI CASA ES SU CASA.

PEACE,

MEHDI.

(And special thanks to Patrick Stevenson, The Moonshine crew, and Russell Privet for these great pictures, good job guys)

Peeps,

All fine here in Sydney Australia,

Parklife fests in Brisbane and Perth behind us, we’re looking forward to Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide soon now.

Busy P and So-Me are killing it on the main stage, Pictionnary style, trust me, you won’t want to miss this—

Catch the Brodinski and I on the Atoll stage, having fun, playing with water guns and throwing paper planes at the 2Many DJ’s.

M.

In the ‘Did-you-know-this?’ and the ‘Everything-falls-into-place’ categories, let me tell you this, real quick:

This very blog was actually BORN in Australia.

Yes.

Pedro, Faf and I were touring the Down Under for Field Day when we started writing and snap-shooting here. For the recall, allow me to re-print my first blog ever, it was about two years ago, and evidently called:

MY FIRST BLOG.

OK, so, now, how am I supposed to start this?

I, dear reader, am under a rather mild pressure from my blog co-hosts to publish my first entry on this CoolCats verbal gathering. My close friends are often mocking my lack of spontaneity, and it is an actual fact that I tend to ponder, reflect, deliberate, and ruminate a bit before I publish something-whether it’s a song on a record or a simple comment on my Myspace page. (Doesn’t save me for making mistakes, but at least I always know who to blame.)

For instance, here are the ideas that I contemplated for this inaugural post:

-My top (Songs, Trends, Memories, Festivals, Airline meals or A-Trak blog posts) of 2008.

-My bottom (Canadian weather stories, Non-official remixes of Kanye or Justice songs, Youtube comments or XXLmag.com blog posts) of 2008.

-My most looked forward-to (Albums, Proxy productions, Stone Throw or BNR releases, Frat-Pack movies, or Busy P blog posts) of 2009.

And then I thought, what’s the use? Almost every blog I regularly read had their lists already, and I will probably intentionally or unconsciously copycat parts of it. (By the time I got to this conclusion I already received 5 or 6 text messages from So-Me and Pedro to start it already.)

Next i thought, hey, this blog isn’t called Mehdipedia for nothing: I’m going to share those little curiosity quests that make my everyday so interesting with you, dear reader. And this New-Zealand/Australia trip is indeed full of those:

-Why do people pronounce QWANTAS when it’s only called QANTAS? (because it stands for Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Services)

-What the heck is Vegemite? (It is a very, very odd tasting paste made of yeast extract that give Australian people enough powers to beat any French athlete at any sport.)

-Why does Burger King go by Hungry Jack’s in Australia? (it’s a long story)

And then, and then. (At this moment of my hesitations, Fafi already threatened to steal my codes and write a blog for me, god forbid.)

Dear reader, let me tell you one other private thing about me: when in doubt, I always, ALWAYS, turn to my masters, I call them THE 4 J’s: John, Jay, Jerry, John.

Lennon, -Z, Seinfeld, and Le Carré.

I have never been disapointed in finding the solution to any problem my life has made me come accross in the writings of these four masters of life achievement in the modern western hemisphere. Thus, with no futher blah-blah, this is me wishing you all a happy new year in the spirit of Mr Carter’s teachings:

Treating my first blog like my last, and my last like my first.

You stay classy San Diego,

Mehdi.