Friday, 31 July 2009

portes françaises dans ma maison

Ok ... more mangled french ... but we have doors!!! We have doors!!! I'll bore you later with the details but we have doors!!!

mit flash

ohne flash
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Comments:

Temasek wrote:
 
Stalkerbook ... no fucking way ... I am old skool hear me ROAR!!
7 Aug

dan cope wrote:
 
oh dude when are you going to Facebook.. I have all my news and crapola on there. :)
5 Aug

dan cope wrote:
Tres lovely.. mon ami.. tres tres formidable. oui oui.
:)
5 Aug

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Further Adventures of Demon Dog - hello Damian!!

Ok ... meet Damien the Demon Dog and Patricia the Pig (oh do you really want to ask??)
 
 
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Comments:

dan cope wrote:
 
why do i always read this with a cuppa of tea and manage to laugh out loud and spill it everywhere again.. *sigh* such a thing for me to do.
If you see P, or if P is reading this.. EMAIL me.. xxx
26 Aug

As he wrote the damn thing, he can mangle it if he wants - Michael Nyman Band - Hamer hall

Ok .. Hamer hall 28th July 2009 8pm:
 
 
When I grow up, I want to be in the Michael Nyman band. After a rather crabbed and peevish interview in The Age, which Nyman refers to later in the evening in well meant jest, I wasn't sure if I could engage with this rather cantakerous figure, but then again, he is an artiste!! But from those first humping brass notes and doggedly bowed strings we knew we were in for something special. Who cares if the balance was a little off. The bass player was particularly miffed and was gesticulating wildly off stage between songs - more Michael, less band!!
 
What better way to start than with "Chasing Sheep is best left to Shepheards" from The Darughtsman's Contract. Boy do those musicians work hard. It was like watching a human steam engine pumping and heaving to make it up to the top of the hill, or in less salubrious terms, like watching indigestion live on stage, intestinal muscles contracting and expanding as the tempo and volume gradually crescendoed to its climax. This is more rock n roll than sunday morning classical radio.
 
I'd love to know the internal dynamics of the band. I bet he is a hard taskmaster, but I can imagine egos writ large, so I'm sure there are frequent bar-room brawls. I bet there's fisticuffs!! You know these musos and their drink, the red faces aren't simply the result of blowing brass and woodwind .. oh and that piece in the camisole and leggings on 2nd violin .. uh-huh honey ... awright!! I'm sure you're angling for a raise of some description!! (I can feel M giving me the side-eye, but he's not even here)
 
Anyhoo, it was an exhilirating evening, and we were treated to a special performance of the piece that Deb Conway commissioned Nyman to do for the Qld Arts Festival and her friend William Barton. Barton performed on virtuoso didgeridoo, electric guitar and vocals. Some of the sounds Barton produced on his didg were a revelation, but oh his voice ... shivers up spine and tears in eyes ... are u kidding me here??
 
My only dissapointment was that there was no programme and mistakes in the little info sheet they gave out (memorial and Time Lapse are NOT from Man on A Wire, ta muchly!!). I would have loved to have heard Memorial, but the little suite from Wonderland and Revision of the Don more than made up for this - I have to track these down.
 
Oh and Mr Nyman, you wrote the music for the Piano, so if you want to mangle it, you have every right, but what happened to the 5/4s at the end of The Heart Asks Pleasure First. I wanted to know how you played it!
 
I think to make up for the Age article, Michael kindly sat out in the foyer signing CDs after the gig:
 
 

Monday, 27 July 2009

Is Anime so last season??

Ok is anime really so last season? I was caught perusing the anime aisle at the local stereoreo emporium and was asked whether I was into anime in an incredulous tone ... and I belive there was even a postcript of a snigger ... hypercritical poncy bitch, I swear!!
But whatevs haters, thanks to my local asian keeling on a customs knife edge of a dvd store, I scored:
(i) the last Miyazaki, which I have mentioned previously. It is cutenss overload but in such a brilliant way ... and it certainly encapsulates a particular child hood fantasy of mine of having my house and its surrounds covered in water ...



(ii) latest Studio IG offering "The Skycrawlers" - as expected the animation is top notch, the situations at once normal and at once inscrutable ... initial premise is promising, but some may find too much dialogue and "atmos" not enuff action ... I am preparing myself to be dissappointed.
 
(iii) a HK/China offering from 2008 - Storm Riders Clash of the Evils - this is really all over the place ... it kinda just starts and then forges ahead on some kind of steroid speedball ... I'm having touble keeping up ... and I'm starting to not really care ... still it could be your cuppa.

Sunday, 26 July 2009

Mit Bruno ins Gold Klasse - Alles Klar??

Ok ... so really apart from IMAX, the only other way to go is to see a movie at Gold Class.
 
 
 ... the plush seats, your own hostess with the mostest ... press buttons for personalised service ... I mean really ... this is what flying 1st class must be like!! Oh to be of the monied class!!
 
 
Anyhoo, I'd already been to a screening of Bruno with M's band ... a whole bunch of sniping queens taking up the last 4 rows at the Nova ... interesting to compare the laugh points between that audience and the one from work ... some of the,  lets say,  more "experienced" amongst us were actually laughing the hardest ... although A had to leave the theatre for a bit when Bruno was being slapped around by the MISF (or Mother I'd be Scared to Fuck) at the Swingers party he crashes.
 
 
I found the baby celeb parents the hardest to stomach ... the lengths they were prepare to allow their babehs to go to just to get the gig ... unbelievable ... lipo-suction? Science Experiments? Crucifixion? Nice one America!! Oh and those PR twins and dafur ... are youse for real?
 
  
After the movie it was off to Fiesta's for mexican food and rounds of tequila shots and roided up margaritas .. I realise I work with crazy people ... y'all crazee betches!!
I will be kind and not post any incriminating pics ... also I think its a matter of time before someone finds out and Yes!! All fingers will then be pointing at you TN!! So here's a blurred shot of yours truly with peg on head ... and the inspiration for this madness!!
 
 
Post-script: - had a great time at D's birthday freezing me tits off in the beer garden at Wesley Anne on a particularly icy wintry Melbourne nite. Top marks babe!! AND I finally got to meet DB, and all I can say is I can see why!!! Oh and I hate being put on the spot, and I was!
Post-post-script: - seeing the Michael Nyman band on Tuesday night and got my tix for Chicago, so when you're good to mamma ...

Thursday, 23 July 2009

Donkey Wheel? Why? - Melbourne Open House 2009

Ok ... on the spur of a moment, we decided to haul ass over to the city for Melbourne Open House 2009. We went last year and had such a great time clambering around on top of the Manchester Unity building, and there were certainly more buildings open this time round, and I made sure bladders were emptied and a bottle of water was packed in my bag in anticipation of long snaking queues.
 
We decided to start at CBD West - being mindful of time and the fact that there was probably more parking this end, which there was.
 
First Stop - Denmark house - billed as the "heartbeat of Danish culture" in Melbourne, I had high hopes of loads of danish design eye candy, of which there was some, but not enough to make it that memorable:
 
 Denmark house

I gather this operates as a Private club for Danish expats and Danophiles alike ... it does reek money of the stylish kind ... and the furniture and fittings are suitably indicative of that innate style that scandie's have for clean forms and textures:
 
 
 
What struck me the most was the wintry sun outside cool industrial window frames ... it was great seeing stylish people walking the streets with blue maps in hand and many with scarily serious digital slr's in hand or draped round necks ... I wanted to talk to all of them and have them over for tea ... this is the exact opposite of what I feel when I am traipsing through the shiny plastic halls of knifepoint!!
 
 
Next stop - the Donkey Wheel!! And why is it called the Donkey Wheel - I couldn't find an explanation anywhere and I forgot to ask the nice tall stretch of water on duty in the old ballroom space.
 
It used to belong to the the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company and dates back to 1891 - this is apparently Gothic revival style, but I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to Architectural Styles so it just looks like a really cool old building to me:
 
 
I think this would have been the most interesting of the lot. Only because there is still a real sense of history in its dilapidation. The basement areas are being developed as some kind of art space, so there are a few, lets just call them, installations lurking in the catacombs, including something that looked like globiles of my sensodyne toothpaste:
 
 
And yes there is a prismic effect with the glass tiles at the top, coupled with the slope of white tile below, it is meant to channel/funnel light from street level into the dingy areas below.
 
 
The Upstairs ballroom are is of course much lighter and airy ... not really sure what this space was used for. There's a sizeable kitchen and shower and toilet facilities as well as lots of ladders leading up to lofts ... which was of course off limits to the general public ... typical! ... bastards!
 
 
The highlight was using the old lift sans lift operator ...

 
We decided to give the Mission to Seafarers a miss as we really wanted to go to the T&G building, which on hindsight was a mistake. P went to the Seafarers with his Mum M (Hi Mum!) and he said it was pretty good. We went to T&G and saw the colour changing glass dome (big deal!) and some glass blocks (yawn!):
 
 
There was a modern take on light refraction going on in the atrium with the glass bricks:
 

And a water feature which provided a good opp for one of my shoe pics:


But we wanted to see the old, not the fucking new!!! No let me rephrase that, we wanted to go to parts where the general public don't normally have access to, otherwise what is the point!!
 
So as we walked past the Collins Street Baptist church (also part of the open house), we decided to recharge with a coffee and a biscuit (both pretty darn good with proceeds going to the church) in the glassed in foyer:
 
 
We took some time perusing the church itself ... it was strangely welcoming ... I would consider going to a church as pretty as this ... a few of what PT would have termed "Family" were also having a look and one of them gave us a lovely hello. Bless!
 
 
We tried to then get into the Substation - and it was the first long queue we had encountered and they had already blocked this off. So mental note - next year head straight to the Blockbuster events first!! Its the ones where you're taken in by a guide that have the longest queues. You had to put on protective garb for this one which adds to the time factor. Anyhoo, not having success with the Substation, we headed down to the Capitol Cinema and joined the line there. It was only about a 15 min wait but listening to that first volunteer who started the tour off with an introduction seemed interminable!!! Thankfully our other 2 guides were sprightly enough. But here again, its still pretty much a working cinema, so if you wanted to see the interior you just have to attend a screening at MIFF. However, they did show us some parts of the building that are not as easily accessible, and gave us insight into how things used to look, which really would have been pretty amazing:


 
But its the patterned ceiling in the main complex that is the star turn, and to think they were once illuminated by different coloured lights.
 
 
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Comments:

Temasek wrote:
 
Oh I thought this was someone giving me the answer to why its called Donkey Wheel!! Its sorta of an exhibition. You just get the programme and work out a schedule with the map. Most of the buildings have a tour of some description. Have a look at the website. Just had coffee with P. And yes he's good.
29 July
 
dan cope wrote:
 
I need help.. Is this an exhibition or are you just staring into buildings. How is P? Yes I know... x
28 Jul

Tuesday, 21 July 2009

Happy B'day KJ

Ok ... Question: would we still be friends if we didn't all love food? Answer: well we still have music and books and art and intellectual thoughts.

Our lovely hosts at work - sleeve detail is pre-loved (i.e. used to be mine) Saba

quail being stuffed with vine leaves

Entree - Greg Malouf's Morrocan soup with seared prawns

Main - barbecued quail stuffed with vine leaves and a north african spice rub served with rocket, fetta and grapes

Question: would we still be friends if we didn't all love food? Answer: with food like this, who needs enemies!

Thursday, 16 July 2009

Bitte Bitte Abschließend

Ok ... so I mentioned how things have been looking up slightly musicwise ... firstly I can't believe how my guilty pleasure continues to repay me with repeated listens ... there's something hypnotic about La Roux ... they make me want to strut and howl in falsetto!! Make no mistake this is a Pop album, so don't come hoping to hear anything cutting edge or trailblazing, despite what some of the critical paundits are saying. This is still 80s fodder rehashed and remashed for the noughties. But there's something endearing about that falsetto, and the lyrics can be a little quirky. I'm still humming the Bulletproof chorus in my head!!



 
On the slightly more po-faced front, my other current fav is the Dirty Projectors newie Bitte Orca:
 
 
How do i describe this?? Tempos shift, time signatures are a bitch, there's a strong electronic influence, but there's a real band in here with actual singers!! Its like listening to some 70s heavy metal/r&b/folk hybrid that has been glossed over for the current decade. Intriguing and just the sort of thing I want to listen to now.
 
And for complete and utter party fun - Major Lazer's Guns don't kill people ... lazers do!
 
 
Diplo & Co are at it again, trawling the london streets for grime, dub and ukfunky ... essential party listen!! (defining moment - autotuned baby crying ... classic!!)
 

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Arthur's Seat ... oh for godsakes ... surely this is the end now???!!!

Ok ... yes yes yes enough already .... I know ...
 
But we really had a great time ... so even though there were days like these:
 
 
For the most part we were rugged up and cosy looking out on breathtaking views:

lounge room
 
bedroom
 
 
backyard and balconey
And if you are ever up on the hill and stuck for a place to go eat .. head to the Pig and the Whistle on Purves road ... reasonably cheap and good fare ... great vibe ... massive outdoor are out front for summer libations!!
 
 
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