They're actually from last Wednesday when I was on my way to see the 100Bucks&Runnin exhibition... I knew there was a reason I ended up having to park so far away!
It's just a shame about the temporary wire fence...
Current Mood:
back alley sloppy
They're actually from last Wednesday when I was on my way to see the 100Bucks&Runnin exhibition... I knew there was a reason I ended up having to park so far away!
It's just a shame about the temporary wire fence...
Current Mood:
unconscious mutterings 422
A fairly unthrilling kind of day...
That is all.
Unconscious Mutterings...
That is all.
Unconscious Mutterings...
- Leaning :: Teaching
- Projects :: Design
- 404 :: Page Not Found
- Page :: View
- Twitter :: Connection
- Renaissance :: Man
- Webinar :: Need to be engaging
- Community :: Groups
- Illustrate :: Picture book
- Clean slate :: Start over
fringe: le gateau chocolat
Le Gateau Chocolat...That voice!
Let me say that again... THAT VOICE!
That deep, warm, powerful, comforting, beautiful, liquid velvet voice that wraps around you like so much gold sequinned lyrca!
Wow! Just, wow!
Le Gateau Chocolat is an amazing performer... not just the voice, but everything about the show felt incredibly intimate and comfortable. That's helped by the fact that the venue is the Deluxe, a kind of smaller version of the Spiegletent... which compliments the show beautifully.
He also knows how to work a crowd... right from the first moment of coming in from the back of the room and working his way slowly up to the stage during the first number, right through to dragging three lucky "volunteers" up on stage at the end and dressing them in lycra... he doesn't confine the act to the stage, but takes it out to the audience.
The show is kind of divided up into themes... on stage and backstage (not "off stage" as I assumed when he asked the crowd, which got me a Diva Stare and an "I'm watching you" gesture... although in my defence, I couldn't actually see him when he was indicating to the crowd about "backstage")... which do get a little muddled at certain points, but whenever he goes and sits at his dressing table, you can be reasonably certain he's backstage.
Backstage is more casual, not necessarily just the choice of more reflective or heartfelt songs, but it's Le Gateau before he's completely frocked up and ready to "on", and it's hard to say which parts were better. As much as I loved the big over the top outfits (and really, there could have been twice the number of costume changes and I would have been happy... more lycra says I!), seeing that other side to the performance was wonderful.
Unfortunately there were some issues with Le Gateau's headset mike during the show, and the moths and locusts had invaded the tent (although kudos to Le Gateau for not even flinching when a moth flew up and landed on his neck towards the end of a number... he just waited until the song was over before flicking it off) which was a touch distracting at time.
But the main problem is that an hour of Le Gateau Chocolat just wasn't enough!
I'm just glad he was waiting outside as we all filed out of the tent so that I had the opportunity to personally thank him for the show! This is definitely one not to be missed.
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fringe: niets is echt moeilijk
It's incredibly easy to see why Niets is echt moeilijk (or "Nothing is really difficult") by Dutch theatre group WAK is getting rave reviews.Bart Strijbos, Dorus van der Meer and Toon Kuijpers don't just sit back and expect people to come and see them, each performance is proceeded by about 20 minutes of them working the crowd, handing out plywood "flyers" (I got the very first flyer, right before the hoards of children descended) and drawing people in.
While waiting for last night's show I saw maybe 20 or 30 people front up at the ticket office after being handed a plywood flyer or just watching them carry on. Which, for a 90 seat venue, is pretty impressive! Especially as it turned into a totally sold out performance.
The only downside was that once it was packed with all those people, and the lights, and three guys running around, the big wooden box was very, very hot last night and it wasn't just the performers who were getting all sweaty!
It's a little hard to describe the performance itself though... the show is called "Nothing is really difficult", but as Dorus (the blonde one) pointed out before the show, it means both that "nothing is really difficult" but also "the thing that is really difficult is nothing".
And this is a show kind of about nothing. There's no plot, no dialogue, no real set beyond the interior of the big wooded box... I think the best way to describe it is as "physical theatre". It's not really acrobatics, or mime, but there are elements of that.
Essentially it's just three guys inside a big wooden cube making an audience of 90 people laugh fairly constantly for 45 minutes.
Of the three though, I have to say that my favourite had to be Toon Kuijpers... he has the most expressive face and that slight nebbish quality which I found incredibly endearing.
So if you're in The Garden of Unearthly Delights, go and see Hilda in the little wooden box in front of the big wooden box and buy a ticket to see why nothing actually is really difficult, but amazing to watch.
Current Mood:
low-key saturday with art
Today has been a fairly low-key, if initially confused, kind of day...The confusion came from the fact that a) Ma was having her hair cut and coloured this morning which, obviously, takes longer, b) since I had my car serviced last week it's made an odd noise, c) Ma had her car serviced during the week, told them about the noise of my car and said I would take it in, d) when I got in my car this morning, the noise appeared to stop.
Following all that?
So I had to drop the car off at the garage, he said he'd look at it, and I went shopping.
Which isn't a great plan... shopping... theoretically without a car, and with Ma coming down almost two hours later.
I was a little bit of a cranky pants camper... but I was able to squish some locusts on my way to the supermarket, so that made me feel better... horribly little jumpy flying twitchy fuckers...
However, I did my shopping (or the light version of it anyway, just in case), went back over and it turned out he couldn't find anything wrong with it.
So crisis averted.
However, as I drove it back around to the supermarket to get a couple of other things it started making it again. Turns out that my initial suspicion was correct... it's something to do with the air-conditioning... but only really when it's on high, which is why it didn't really make the noise this morning... I'd discounted that as an option since it kept happening when the air-con was switched off (but only after it had been on, which should have been a clue).
Which means that I will have to go back, but it's not life-threatening, so it can wait a bit.
*big overly dramatic sigh*
Anyway, I got home just fine, and had enough time to sort myself out before Ma got here.
I really need to start taking her to Tink instead of her hairdresser... he might be able to cut hair, but he can't colour it for shit... not helped by the fact that Ma was wearing pink (and obviously I'm using Twitter too much because I wanted to put "#clashingcolours" at the end of that statement)...
Initially we were thinking about going to Marion... but really there isn't anything either of us really wanted, so it would have been a lot of wandering around aimlessly and looking in the same shops we always look in for no real reward... so instead we decided to hit the West End of the city and take in some visual arts.
Unfortunately it perhaps wasn't as successful a journey as we may have liked, but it worked out okay.
First stop was the Paper String Plastic gallery, so that Ma could take a look at the 100Bucks&Runnin exhibition and I could see if any of the decent ones were still for sale (and take a few more pictures while I'll post when I have more time). Sadly, nothing that appealed was still available, but like I said on Wednesday, I wasn't that enamoured with any of them besides the Gary Seaman piece.
I think that the gallery had only just opened when we got there, and the guy that owns/runs it came over to talk to us... actually he ended up talking to us for a good long while and showing us a bunch of artworks and just generally talking crap about art.
It was all very pleasant and it's always nice to talk about art, even if you're essentially making shit up as you go.
I may have to go back and take the photographs I initially did for another purpose and see if he's interested in using/displaying/selling them since I now have the beginnings of a relationship there...
Hmmmm... interesting...
Anyway... once we were done there we wandered further along Hindley Street to see if the Magazine Gallery was open, but alas they were not... and then everything became a bit hit and miss.
We headed around to the Mechanical Workshop on Waymouth Street to see the artwork stitched into the door... I saw it a few weeks back and it's looking much more impressive now (again, photos later when I have more time).
We were planning to head around to Gouger Street and see the StARTing Point exhibition... but trying to get a park on Gouger Street on a Saturday morning... yeah, right.
Then we thought that we might stop off and take a look at the Sketching North Terrace event that started today... except for the fact that it started today, so we really couldn't see any evidence of it as we drove down North Terrace... maybe next weekend will be a better time to take a look at it.
So we decided to give up on art and culture and head down to Arndale for some crass commercialism.
Oh, and some food.
Which we did... and I bought socks... which is about the most exciting thing we did down there. But at least it was cool and out of the sunshine, so it was nice enough for that reason alone.
And that was about it really. Now I'm just psyching myself up for a night at The Garden of Unearthly Delights... and charging my iPhone since the fucking thing is nearly out of juice and I forgot to plug it in before... dammit.
Current Mood:
photo friday: shuffle
It's been an exceedingly meeting heavy and Apple orientated day at work today...We had a meeting at 9:30 which took up most of the morning, then a staff meeting at 2 which took up another hour.
And inbetween there was lots of Apple related discussions... especially because the iPads arrived and I gave a couple of people crash courses in iDevice 101. I'm not sure if it makes me want one more or less though, seeing them really up close and whatnot... I'm still undecided, although I'm interested to see what the iPad 2 has in the way of new features.
H-San, Rockchick and I also got into a discussion about the relative merits of Apple products, which was interesting if only because we were coming from three different positions. H-San is an Apple fan from way back even though he only uses PCs these days... Rockchick isn't a fan at all... and I'm in the middle, I see the upside and the downside, even though my iExperience has been mostly positive.
Other than that, I'm a little tired after the last two days worth of Double Fringe Shows... I will admit, it hasn't really been the shows themselves that tire me out, but the fact that I end up staying up until quite late writing up my reviews.
And then getting up quite early to go to the gym!
Contrary to my prediction earlier in the week, I can actually raise my arms over my head, although I officially hate the step/summit machine... poxy fucking thing. I still haven't been able to complete one of the sets of weights exercises in my program though... I manage the first two sets just fine, but I can't make it through the third set.
I'm also really bad at present at remembering the number of reps I'm supposed to do on things. Partly that's because it's 12/11/12 on three different machines, and I keep forgetting or just doing 10 or something. Possibly I need to just pick a number for all three and go with that, or drop them all down to 10 or something, trainer be damned.
Current Mood:
fringe: barry morgan's world of organs
It's incredibly hard not to smile while watching Barry Morgan and the 1981 Hammond Aurora Classic from his World of Organs... in fact, it's hard not to laugh and get drawn into his infectious attitude, especially when he's so "up" all of the time.For anyone unfamiliar with Mr Morgan and his ubiquitous World of Organs, he's kind of what would happen if Bob Downe and Liberace had a secret love child who was raised by Richard Simmons.
For anybody too young to get those three references, go look them up...
I want to get the very few quibbles I have out of the way first (and I'll gloss over the annoying people outside the show/in the audience, the fact that the guy organising the line-up did so in such a way that we were much further back than we should have been... and really, who brings a toddler to a show like this at 8:15pm?)...
I was slightly apprehensive about whether Barry could sustain a show for an hour, having only seen him in small segments on Spicks and Specks where he doesn't really talk very much and just plays the organ. And I won't lie... I think the show felt a touch repetitive early on, and the lead up to the finale was a little strange tonally speaking.
Unfortunately we were seated right in front of the speakers on one side, so I also can't help feeling that the volume was a little too loud for the size of the venue. It's only a small space and it did get very loud in there.
However, on the plus side... the fact that the show is called Barry Morgan's World of Organs lends itself to an absolute plethora of organ/dick jokes, puns and double entendre. If there were any other ways to make the word organ sound dirty... actually I think I can safely say that he used them all up...
As I said before, Barry's enthusiasm is incredibly infectious so I ended up with a big smile on my face and clapping along (as and when appropriate).
The other great thing about Barry is that he can definitely play the organ... it's not all big hair and even bigger smiles... oh no, Barry can play, even if a lot of the songs walk the line between nostalgia and 80's cheese.
Oh, and I'm also now the proud owner of a Barry Morgan's World of Organs - World Famous In Adelaide canvas bag... tres chic!
Current Mood:
fringe: shakespeare's mothers
My Fringe Shakespeare Trilogy (after Macbeth on Saturday and @Shakespeare.com last night) concluded tonight with Shakespeare's Mothers: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.As the Fringe Guide says, "while it's true that Shakespeare did write some lovely, kind, gentle mother characters, this play isn’t about them, it's about dangerous women - mothers whose rampant protectiveness, lusty appetites and vaunting ambition set them against powerful enemies and drove them to treachery, adultery, war, murder and madness".
Essentially they've taken all the "mad, bad and dangerous to know" mothers/female characters from a number of Shakespeare's plays and strung them together under the guise of Shakespeare presenting each of the characters to defend the claim that he only wrote "wicked" mothers.
The cast consists of three actors: Alexander Jonas who plays Shakespeare and all of the male roles, while Cat Martin and Kath Perry divide the roles of the mothers/women between them, changing between characters with the assistance of a large range of scarves/shawls and a few other accessories (crowns, the occasional bit of jewellery).
Martin and Perry are amazing, strong and feisty women who just act the living shit out of the various roles... as the title suggests, the play is much more about them than it is about Jones in either the role of Shakespeare or any of the male characters he plays to offset the women... in fact, in a number of the scenes he isn't really lit at all, the emphasis instead is squarely on the women.
Which isn't to say that he's not exceptional also, because he is, especially at the ease with which he switches between the parade of male characters and his portrayal of Shakespeare. But as I said, the play definitely belongs to the women.
They make amazing use of the space too... the stage is essentially bare beyond three chairs and two ladders which serve as racks for the various scarves and accessories... and I don't think that there's an inch that they didn't collectively cover, up to and including the steps through the middle of the audience.
It also made me realise that while I know one of two Shakespeare plays fairly well (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear), there are a whole raft of plays that I either have never heard of or have never seen.
In short, it's a fantastic journey through the strong women of Shakespeare, and well worth a look!
Current Mood:
random pantless hotness
Chris Wetmore isn't wearing any pants in these photos by Hedi Slimane!
But according to in VMan magazine, the 21 year-old subject of today's Random Hotness is also a hero... having just come back from Iraq...
Current Mood: 
But according to in VMan magazine, the 21 year-old subject of today's Random Hotness is also a hero... having just come back from Iraq...
fringe: @shakespeare.com
The premise for @Shakespeare.com goes a little something like this...@Shakespeare.com explores the impact of contemporary modes of communication such as facebook, twitter, email, texting and sexting on relationships and uses some of Shakespeare's most famous characters, themes and plots to do so.
And it was an unusual experience for a couple of reasons... firstly, it's the only play I've ever been to where they encourage you to leave your mobile switched on and one of the few shows where the cast moves through the waiting crowd in the foyer right before the show.
The reason they encourage you to leave your mobile switched on is that audience members have been asked for their mobile phone numbers before the show, and at a certain point all the characters on stage call people in the audience.
And yes, I was one of those people... I think one of the girls who played one of the Macbeth witches (amongst other things) was the one who called me. Very strange, especially as I could hear her over the phone, but it took a few seconds for me to actually find her on stage.
I was somewhat surprised by the average age of the audience... they seemed older than I was expecting... whether that was because the play had the word Shakespeare in the title or not I don't know. But now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure if this play really knew who it's target audience was... whether it was older people who don't quite understand the technology or younger people for whom it's second nature, I don't know. In essence it was a little of both.
The cast itself (with one exception) is University age (a number of them are graduating Theatre Studies students from the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle), and that added to the fact that it was opening night of a very short run meant that there were the occasional flubbed line and I'm not sure some of them knew when they are actually under the spotlight properly.
Having said that there were a few standout performances (I can't name names since the program doesn't mention it, and none of them really show up in Google). At the top of the list are the guy who played the Bard himself, complete with frilly collar and pantaloons... the best male member of the cast in fact. Secondly, the girl who played Cobweb... feisty and fantastic! And an honourable mention has to go to the shortest girl in the cast (the one playing the "motherly" characters)...
It was a trifle uneven overall... I think they had a great premise, but the execution felt a little haphazard, as though they either had too many ideas to fill up the time but didn't necessarily chose the best ones... or else they ran out of ideas just from one play and ended up throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it towards the end.
A large portion of the play concerned Romeo and Juliet... and I think they could have gone further than they did with it. Especially with the whole idea that the ending of R+J would have been very different in the modern age.
I also wasn't completely convinced about the "time travelling robot" plot device that underpins the whole show... I think it could have worked as almost a straight adaptation of R+J with texting and Facebook, or they could have run the whole play with just Shakespeare and Cobweb. It felt like a lost opportunity to me.
Some of the best sections were when they contrasted modern language with Shakespearean English... even if modern speech does lack a certain poetry compared with Shakespeare.
Unfortunately I think the weakest section was probably the Macbeth MMORPG, it just didn't quite ring true for me, but the idea was interesting.
To sum up, I'd have to say that it did feel quite "studenty" at times, but there were some pleasurable moments.
Current Mood:
fringe: 100buck&runnin'4
I never quite know what to do with myself when I got to gallery opening type things on my own... so I end up not doing very much and running away early...Of course, given that I parked about three streets away and had a play to go to directly afterwards meant I had to run away early anyway.
The gallery opening in question was 100Bucks&Runnin'4... artists are given the blank template to the right, complete with faceless running man stencil and can do as they wish with it.
There were definitely a range of ideas and executions... from those who stuck squarely to the stencil outline leaving it pretty much visible, right through to those who almost left no trace of it at all.
And there was a wider range of artistic skill than I was perhaps expecting. Sadly with maybe one or two exceptions I have no idea who did what since it was all anonymous (and each panel cost $100, hence the title of the exhibition).
A very crowded room actually... crowded and sweaty (the second floor and no real air-conditioning)... so I know I missed seeing a few of the pieces.My two favourite were these two...
The top one is Gary Seaman... and it was already sold when I got there, otherwise I would have slapped my $100 down on the spot, even though I bought a piece of his work on Saturday. Because, really, who doesn't love a genie?I have no idea who produced the bottom one, but it's kinda awesome, especially if you know that the running man figure is there... it still follows those lines. And I have this thing about octopuses.
But none of the works really grabbed me enough to lay down my $100... either that or they were already sold.
100Bucks&Runnin'4 runs until March 18.
Current Mood:
grey street details
A little bit overly effusive given that all that I did was find her webpage for her...
Current Mood:
unconscious mutterings 421
I'm going to be so sore come Friday... sore and tired... and sore. Did I mention sore? Turns out that while my Mon/Wed/Fri arms workout isn't that arduous while I'm doing it, between that and sit ups, I'm a sore little puppy at present.
And I got a bit of a surprise at work this morning... a strange text message from an unknown number saying "good to see you in and working hard"... I had no idea who it could be from, thinking that it was somehow work related... turns out it was from the trainer who did my program for me yesterday (I need a nickname for her, but nothing seems quite right yet)... I saw her on the way out today (enough to wave at as we went our separate ways) and I'm supposed to leave my workout card thing in her tray so she can keep tabs...
Not really sure what the hell that's all about... but I appreciated the text message, even if it was totally out of the blue...
Unconscious Mutterings...
And I got a bit of a surprise at work this morning... a strange text message from an unknown number saying "good to see you in and working hard"... I had no idea who it could be from, thinking that it was somehow work related... turns out it was from the trainer who did my program for me yesterday (I need a nickname for her, but nothing seems quite right yet)... I saw her on the way out today (enough to wave at as we went our separate ways) and I'm supposed to leave my workout card thing in her tray so she can keep tabs...
Not really sure what the hell that's all about... but I appreciated the text message, even if it was totally out of the blue...
Unconscious Mutterings...
- Maroon :: Five (shoot me for this one, somebody, please...)
- Save :: Cash
- Smithereens :: Smashed
- Conversation :: One-sided
- Visual :: Art
- Experience :: Sexual
- Steady :: Ready
- Wives :: Stepford
- Glass :: Menagerie
- String :: Ball
now i have a workout plan
Oddly enough, it's easy to forget when stuff is supposed to be difficult, especially when you haven't done it for a big chunk of time.And so it was today when I went in to get my "induction" at the gym. I also realised that if given the opportunity, I will just chatter on about myself for a good chunk of time! Possibly because I don't really get that opportunity in a face-to-face kind of way that often... plus the female trainer was very nice.
Once we'd gone through all the induction part, she took me through to devise a workout...
That's when I forgot that that shit is supposed to be hard work! And of course she commanded that I must use the one machine I told her I found it really hard to use. Evil wench!
But come Monday I now have to remember to switch between cardio and weights... and various machines... and crunches... I forgot how much I hate crunches... especially ones that are done using a medicine ball!
Surely there should be an iPhone app for this shit though... not the actual doing of the exercises, but to keep track of shit so I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
Any suggestions?
Current Mood:
ultimate mr sloppy
Although I've been hunting Mr Sloppy in the wild for a few weeks now... yesterday I tracked him back to his lair, if you will...This is Mr Sloppy as the host of the Dumpster Biennale... Mr Sloppy on the side of Ankle's dumpster... in stencil form... and selling off copies of himself (I now own one of those, even if I have no idea where I'm going to put it).
Current Mood:
fringe: macbeth
I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm starting to have an obsession with versions of Macbeth...It all started with studying it in high school... so I know the story, I know what's going on... but I've seen it six times now. I saw an amateur version years ago where the witches stayed on stage the whole time... a version with Jeremy Sims as Macbeth... last year we saw the very excellent VS Macbeth... I've seen the Macbeth movie set in Melbourne, and the Japanese reinterpretation, Throne of Blood...
But tonight's version, by New Zealand group, Body in Space, was quite possibly the most intense, moving and beautiful version of the lot!
It all starts with the location... and given that this was in one of the old gutted Regent Arcade cinemas, it had an incredible atmosphere (and we also managed to snag seats that were essentially front row centre... although possibly, seats to the right of stage would be preferable for certain scenes). And because of the location there was no backstage, no curtains, no wings... nowhere to hide... as we filed in, all of the actors were sitting around the stage, Macbeth in the centre, playing instruments and singing this beautiful but mournful song. And they stayed that way essentially... sitting around the stage in a half circle while waiting to perform, getting up to do their part, then returning to the seat and becoming a blank slate, ready to be filled by a new character.
I can only imagine that the way they performed the play is like travelling troupes of actors may have performed it in Shakespeare's day... they had no backdrops, no major costume changes, everything they use on stage is right there, either tucked away in the boxes they sit on (which double as chairs when needed) or just lay next to them, like swords and musical instruments. There also wasn't any amplification... it was all natural sound and echo from the location (which made it a little hard to hear certain lines... but honestly, it's Shakespeare, the lines aren't anywhere near as important as the emotion of the thing).
And there are only six of them. One woman and five men, all of whom, with the exception of Macbeth himself, play multiple roles (and occasionally furniture).
Even any necessary sound effects... horses or birdcalls or the sounds of "spirits"... are provided by the actors on stage. Very realistically in the case of the horses... and incredibly disturbingly in the case of the spirits.
In fact, the director's note in the program says that she chose to structure the play around the line "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more"... and there is a moment towards the end that really reinforces that, but mostly it just felt like pure, unadulterated theatre.
It's also the only version of Macbeth that I've ever seen that made me cry. And that is squarely down to an amazing set of performers.
Both Douglas Brooks and Laura Irish are magnetic and emotionally raw as the titular Lord and Lady... I don't know that I've ever seen such incredible passion between the two characters, and it made sense to me that she could manipulate Macbeth to do such terrible things because he is so madly in love with her.
And that when she says "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty!"... she's actually becoming a witch herself and bringing down spirits with her blood, something that I've not seen before in any of the versions, but which makes complete sense.
But Brooks broke my heart time and time again... his passion, his fury, his raw hacking sorrow. Irish too... there are moments, especially right before the interval, that just tore out my heart with how incredibly believable and real and raw she was.
Roger Sanders, Daniel Allen, Jeff Brooks (Douglas's brother perhaps?) and Luke Walton (Walton perhaps less so than the other, but only because he seems to have less parts to play) are equally good... although not as raw and effecting, they are incredibly mercurial, slipping from one role to another with ease and a completely realised character each time even before they speak!
From Sanders' going from regal king to uncouth porter to sexually ambiguous assassin, Allan's turn from crazed witch to gentlewoman (even with stubble) to the son of Macduff and Brooks' transformation from old man to young boy in a matter of moments.
I've seen versions where you become somewhat confused about who the limited cast are playing now... but in this, while I wasn't always sure who the character was right away, I always knew when there was a completely new character on the stage.
This truly was the BEST version of Macbeth I've seen so far! I'm incredibly disappointed that they're only doing three shows! They're in the midst of the second one as we speak and the third and final show is tomorrow at 7:30... I cannot recommend getting tickets highly enough!
Simply amazing!
Current Mood:
fringe: street dreams dumpster biennale
I so very much fail at having willpower...I promised myself that I wasn't going to buy a dumpster at the Street Dreams Dumpster Biennale this year (by the way, I absolutely adore that poster... must try and get a copy)... especially since I really have nowhere to put one... and, well...
Anyway... after we snagged a carpark up near the theatre, we wandered down to the Magazine Gallery in Clubhouse Lane, but took a detour via Format Gallery, just to see how the new mural is progressing.
To my surprise, it wasn't that bad... I don't know how finished it is (not very, I would imagine since the lost the whole of yesterday due to the rain), but it looks kinda interesting. Sure it's not the Toy Soldier Crew... but interesting...
While we were waiting around for the gallery to open I was taking photos of a few stickers and pasteups in the laneway and this older dude who was cutting through the lane on his way from the carpark stopped and asked me if I liked "that kind of thing".
Now, normally you don't stop and talk to people in Hindley Street, especially when they're missing a tooth and look a bit shady.
Turns out though that his daughter is a street artist (or an artist at any rate) and he was on his way to meet her at an exhibition... turns out it was the Dumpster Biennale! Small world and all that... even smaller that I was already aware of his daughter's work! Bless you internet!
It was definitely a bigger exhibition this year... more dumpsters, a bigger venue, other artwork (including Mr Sloppy!)... however because we only had a limited amount of time and not as many of the dumpsters spoke to me this year compared with last year, my photos are a little on the slim side... and by which I mean pitiful... I might try and swing past again when there are slightly less people around and snap some more pics.It was also great to see Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood there!
While less of the dumpsters really grabbed my attention (and at least three of them... including, surprisingly enough, Benzo's... were "left overs" from last year), what I was instantly grabbed by was Gary Seaman's contribution.
I've said on more than one occasion that I want to own one of Gary's pieces... and now I do! C'mon, how could I resist that...What with the cut-up dumpster and the Munny and the key and the staff... while I've loved other pieces, I think this one was supposed to be mine. My only problem now is somewhere to store it.
I'll figure something out... even if the dumpster itself has to go into storage...
The gallery started getting very busy once the Street Art Walk wrapped up, but we had to head off to Macbeth anyway... but it was definitely worth a look... if only to see the clear perspex dumpster with the two goldfish inside it.
Current Mood:
car, crockery and indecision shopping
A bit of a pointless shopping excursion today... well, mostly...The usual routine was somewhat interrupted by the fact that my car was booked in for a service this morning, so I drove up the road on my own and met Ma at the garage, then went across the road to partake of the usual.
Other times we've been somewhat better organised and have gotten out of the house and done some stuff before the mechanic rings up and tell me the car is ready. Today, not so much.
But at least that meant that when we went out again we didn't need to worry about having to cut it short.
Once we dropped my car back here, we headed into the city for the third time in four weeks... possibly not the best idea ever, partially because I hadn't bothered putting proper shoes on, so by the end of it all my feet were killing me... but also because we really didn't have anything that we wanted to do in the city.
We tried doing a couple of Fringe visual art things, but mostly they're very much a case of "oh look, stuff... okay, going now". Not really stuff you'd hang around for.
We also ended up doing a bit of sitting around and standing around... we detoured through the Garden of Unearthly Delights on our way into the city (since we parked on Rundle Street again), stopped at the Fringe Caravan under the Gawler Place canopy about three times to watch people perform (Lili La Scala aka Mrs Boy with Tape on his Face and Rocketboy both look worth seeing!) and took up perches on various benches while deciding what the hell to do next.
During one of those perches Ma said she wanted to go in to Harris Scarfes... not my favourite store to wander around in (although a lot better than it used to be). Ma said she wanted to look at crockery... she wanted new plates in fact. When we got in there, I suddenly decided that I was tired of the round plates with the yellow rims I've been using for years, and I also wanted new plates.
I also figured (although not until a little later) that slightly smaller plates and smaller bowls, not to mention less plates and bowl choices, would assist with some portion control issues. Will it? I have no idea, we'll have to see. So I'm now the proud owner of two square white stoneware dinner plates, two side plates, two bowls and two mugs.
This replaced the four dinner plates, four side plates, three saucers, four flat soup bowls, four dessert bowls, four pasta bowls and about six mugs I had previously. So now I need to sort out what the hell I'm doing with the extra storage.
Then after we bought the crockery (and Ma did find two plain white round plates for herself, it wasn't all about me), Ma wanted to look at chopping boards... and we both decided to get new ones... different ones... mine is round and was $129 previously, but I got it for $29... so, you know, bargain!
But the downside being that all that crockery plus two thick chopping boards are fucking heavy!
We dragged them all back to the car (stopping off on the way for a thickshake at Cocolat on Rundle Street... mmmm), then detoured back through the Garden, back up to the Mall, made a couple of brief stop offs and then headed back here.
And now, because we've got the Dumpster Biennale and a performance of Macbeth tonight, we're both sitting around playing on our respective laptops... I'm writing this, obviously, and she's looking at car websites.
Which would be kinda sad if we weren't, you know, us...
But now I need to decide on a new outfit, do something recent with my hair, put on grownup shoes and we need to sort out what the hell we're doing for dinner (which, whatever it is, will not involve pizza... I'm just saying).
Good times...
Reviews of the rest of the evening to follow later...
Current Mood:
fringe: talking poofy
Firstly, I didn't realise I raised my hand in a homosexual manner until I was asked to do so by Adam Richard, Scott Brennan and Wes Snelling. And they pointed it out to everyone...Second, I now officially have a full on man-crush (do you have to preface it with "man" if both you and the object of your crush are gay?) on Scott Brennan (my crush on Adam Richard continues unabated).
And lastly, just like when I went to see Adam perform solo in 2009, I had tears running down my face during the show and I now have a post-laughing headache!
Thus was the shorthand version of my excursion to the land of Talking Poofy tonight.
The longer version goes something like this...
Unfortunately, the venue, The Rhino Room, is on my venue "shit list" (which I only just invented this minute)... when your bar is also your waiting area and is full of seemingly drunk people having very loud and pointless conversations, turn down your fucking music so that they don't have to scream even louder over the top of music that nobody can hear anyway, and cares about even less.
Anyway...
I've been an avid fan of the Talking Poofy podcast for a while now (although I discovered it a bit late, I had the added bonus of being able to listen to episode after episode until I caught up), and although all three regular cast members couldn't be here for the live show, my two favourites (Adam and Scott) were (sorry Toby)... and Wes Snelling (wearing, of all things, King Gee shorts) was a very able replacement.
I don't know what it is about Adam Richard that makes me laugh so hard... I think it's his giggle... it's not a clean giggle, not by any stretch of the imagination, and once he starts, it starts me off.... and before you know it I'm essentially crying with laughter. But all three poofs had me pretty much in stitches.
I had heard some of the material before as various bits were familiar from episodes of the podcast (but they didn't feel stale even though I'd heard versions of them before), and other parts were completely new... like the PowerPoint presentation... and the fact that Adam is surprisingly strong, and Scott is surprisingly limber!
And once again, Adam Richard's singing amazes me!
One of the downsides was that the members of the audience called upon for a little participation were a little uncooperative...
But I had a most fabulous time! A very enthusiastic thumbs up!
Current Mood:
photo friday: raindrops
I've had what is best described as a hell of a morning, so much so that I choose to gloss over the majority of it... actually, all of it from about 10am until about noon...
In other news that has nothing to do with that period of time:
- It's the Fringe Parade this evening!
- It has been raining fairly consistently since before 6 o'clock this morning.
- These two facts really should be mutually exclusive... usually around this time of year the crowd and performers sweat their way though the parade... but not this time.
- Oh, wait... news just to hand... no more parade. And you know that means the rain will stop right about the time the parade was due to start, right?
- I'm off to my first Fringe show tonight, Talking Poofy (woohoo)... so begins about three weeks of insanity.
- Going to lunch at 1pm always makes 4pm come that much quicker, especially when you go to lunch until 2pm.
- I bought more figs... I ate the first fresh fig I've ever eaten yesterday... and it was nice... but I also saw something online about eating them with fetta and prosciutto... sounds very tasty.
- Something iPhone apps are a wonderful conversation starter... this slightly albino homosexualist (it shouldn't be attractive, but it kind of is) got in the lift with me when I got back from lunch and I was able to comment about his playing of Angry Birds (since he was).
- I'm making pizza...
