Big Day Out

I'm in the Gold Coast of Australia, in a town called Surfer's Paradise, with Dr. Pauly and John "Shecky" Caldwell. We flew in from Melbourne this afternoon and tomorrow will be attending the Gold Coast's Big Day Out. The concert is headlined by Tool and I'm excited to see Jet, The Killers, Muse, The Streets and various unknown Aussie bands. Pauly's passions are writing and music and writing about music so I'll be attending the concert with a real pro. He also runs two great blogs so keep checking over there if you want to read about what we're doing from a better writer that yours truly.

I had reservations at a hostel here in the Gold Coast but Shecky isn't down with hostels so he planned on finding a hotel room for himself. However, due to the Big Day Out and summer tourism, every single hotel was booked solid and Shecky almost missed the trip. Luckily, on the night before flying out here, Shecky had dinner with some powerful friends. One of these friends has an American Express Titanium Card, the baller version of the Black Card. Each Titanium Card comes with a personal assistant, hired by AmEx, who sits around waiting to help you with things. Shecky's friend called his personal assistant and said, "find a hotel in the Gold Coast for tomorrow night". The end result is the three of us sharing a room at the Palazzo Versace, one of the "World's Top Hotels". The Hermitage in Monte Carlo is the only other hotel I've ever stayed at that is on that Top Hotels list. The craziest part is that Shecky's friend is footing the bill for two nights and that can't be cheap. I'll try to take pictures of this place but it reminds me of the Hermitage. It's really nice but has a kind of classic look. I liked the hotel in Melbourne a lot because it was beautiful and felt really new. It's kind of like the difference between an old Bentley and a BMW M6. Both are really sick but I think I'd take the newer car. Anyway, Bentleys are still damn cool and I like this hotel.

The day after the concert we're driving down to Byron Bay where we'll spend a few days before getting down to Sydney for Australia Day, Australia's version of the 4th of July(kinda), on January 26th. I hope to have some pictures up soon but I wouldn't have my hopes too high if I were a reader of this blog.

BTW, Gobbo came in 2nd in the Aussie Millions and won $1 Million Australian Dollars. He's a real nice kid and I'm really happy for him. My friend, Shane, took a sick beat from Gobbo to go out in 20th place and has a great report up here. I like the post a lot and really wish that I could write as well as Shane.

It's 2 AM and time for bed but both Pauly and Shecky are sawing logs pretty hard. I'm not a bad snorer myself so I'll try to get my revenge tomorrow night.