Updating, Not Dating, and Other Things

Here's a quick guide to what I've been up to the last week...if reading it makes you exhausted, imagine how I feel.

THURSDAY
Presented Smartarts in the morning, then in the evening, prior to DJ'ing at Q + A, went to the launch of this year's Melbourne Queer Film Festival program. Lots of good stuff in the festival this year, or so it seems; the problem is that everything is written up with a glowing review, so it's sometimes hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Former rugby league icon (an aggressive, uncompromising player and at one stage the captain of the North Queensland Cowboys), Dancing with the Stars celebrity, and NIDA student Ian Roberts was at the launch, as he's one of the judges of the Oz Shorts this year; I hope to get him on my show, as I used to have a crush on him back in about 96-97 when he first came out. Unlike Midsumma, and other major events on the GLBTI calender, I truly love the MQFF, as it attracts the most diverse crowds of any queer event in town. Plus I love movies.

FRIDAY
Went to a media preview of the new indie American flick TRANSAMERICA, described to me by Lisa Daniel from the Melbourne Queer Film Festival as 'the sort of film about trans issues you'd take your parents to see.' She's right. It's a safe, comfortable and occasionally moving film about a trans woman who goes on a road trip with the son she fathered while still living as a man. The director has already described it as 'not a film a transsgender issues, but a film about love' or words to that effect. Bullshit. Instead of gadding around town on Friday night I stayed in, and watched Joss Whedon's SERENTITY, which I enjoyed immensely.

SATURDAY
A morning coffee at Arcadia with Michael, who I used to know in high school; missed a media preview in the arvo so went to see JARHEAD instead, and was disappointed: the direction, by Sam Mendes, is lackluster, while the characters are cyphers rather than 3-D people. Consequently it was hard to give a fuck about any of them. Oddly enough, the film is more homoerotic, and features more nude scenes of Jake Gyllenhaal, than BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Great cinematography though. Saturday evening I was supposed to attend the opening of the REAL LIFE ON FILM documenatary film festival, but I took a nap instead, then went to a party in the city hosted by Alexis Glass, the director of Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces. As you'd expect, more artists and curators than you could poke a stick at. Great party though. I drank, I danced, I had fun. Went home via Ding Dong (although I missed Bit By Bats) and Control HQ.

SUNDAY
Hungover. Had lunch with old friends Terry and Jane, Sean, and Hugh and Chiara. A lovely, relaxed afternoon. Another friend, and a neighbour of Terry and Jane's, Mark Holsworth, joined us late in the day. Went home and did fuck all. Then took an E, just for the hell of it, and caught up with the lovely Lisa Greenaway at an illegal public gathering under a bridge by a nameless body of water while a band played and the full moon shone overhead. Tres bohemian, darling.

MONDAY
Worked at Triple R on a couple of grant applications for most of the day. Instead of attending a media preview of SYRIANA at 6.30 I stayed in, and watched the first two episodes of The West Wing, which alicia sometimes has lent me the first season of. Good TV, other than the script-writers' habit of giving the President speeches rather than real dialogue from time to time. Then I watched a preview disc of one of the films showing at this year's Queer Film Festival, as I have to review it for MCV. Then I went to bed.

TUESDAY
Got up around 9am, and prepped for an interview with Duncan Tucker, the director of TRANSAMERICA. In classic freelancer style I plan to use the interview for RRR, MCV and The Age. Thereafter, after a bit of editing, I attended a media preview of David 'Scanners/Videodrome/The Fly' Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. Wow. What an devestating, amazing, and disturbing film. I'll say very little about it, as to avoid spoilers, other than that it continues the director's obsession with the human psyche, and our propensity for violence, in a stylish and startling way. And of course, because it was Velentine's Day, I had a twinge of angst about being single, although to be honest, it was a very minor blip on the radar. Thereafter I went to the opening of a new exhibition at the artist-run-space Bus Gallery, after which I went out for dinner with two old Fringe friends, Jude and Liza. Yes, I spent Valentine's Day night with two straight chicks and no cute boys. Story of my life, really...

WEDNESDAY
So far, pretty quiet. Up at 8.30 for a 9.30 chiropractor's appointment. Then went to the media launch of the 2006 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL, more on which in a later post, and had a couple of glasses of champagne. Am now at home and planning to write up my MCV article about director Duncan Tucker, although because of the bubbly, I think I might have a nap first. Tonight is my first Express Media board meeting as a potential board member rather than as a staffer, followed by the opening night of a new play at LA MAMA by Kieran Carroll (whom I'm interviewing tomorrow on RRR). If I'm lucky, I might get to the lauch of a new book about Melbourne's stencil art scene after that...