My brain hurts

God, what a wild few days its been.

Tuesday night was the opening of Macbeth, as previously mentioned (and I've since heard from a few other people who also hated it with a passion - god it's a stinker!).

Wednesday night saw me dappered up in a pinstriped zoot suit, attending the media launch of The Age 2006 Melbourne Fringe Festival at Billboard nightclub. A throng of artists were present, including the delicious Town Bikes and some spunky circus boys; and Arts Minister Mary Delahunty went all hip-hop on us and delivered her speech as a rap: "I'm the minister for Fringe; call me Mary D."

Best. Speech. Ever.

Fringe runs from September 27 - October 15. Check out the website for details.

Thursday I DJ'd at Q + A as is my wont, and crawled into bed at about 4am, only to be woken by neighbours' renovations at 7.30am. There's nothing quite like the gentle sound of a buzzsaw in the early hours to help your hangover... *groan*

Friday night I popped over to the Colonial Hotel on Bruswick Street for half an hour, to say hi to my friend Cerise, whose birthday it was, and to see her band playing. I was ridiculously tired though, and found myself rapidly getting far too drunk, so I left quite early and collapsed into bed with a happy sigh.

Saturday was taken up by a four hour masterclass in dramaturgy, as part of the Fringe's new Outside Eye project, for which I'm going to be helping mentor a spoken word project.

Soon after getting home I happened to check out mskp's blog, and discovered that she and tobytoby were going to be having drinks nearby in Fitzroy, so after a quick call to ascertain her location, off I went. Blog-friends in real life are excellent people, I've discovered, to my joy.

I'll be hanging out with some of Melbourne gay bloggers next Saturday, and also very much looking forward to it! Am also looking forward to seeing tobytoby in a boxing ring soon, trading manly punches with someone; especially seeing as I've never actually been to a boxing match before...

Saturday night I dappered up again and took Cerise as my plus one to see the Melbourne premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Athenaeum, starring iOTA as Hedwig. OHMYGOD. What a peformance. Such amazing stage presence, charisma and vocal range. AND WHAT A SHOW! Funny, tragic, touching, beautiful, savage. I can't believe it's taken Hedwig so long to come to Melbourne. YOU MUST SEE IT DO YOU HEAR ME? NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EXCUSES. GO - GO NOW!

Clem liked it too, although she hasn't blogged about it yet.

Even before the show had started Cerise and I were enjoying a glass of bubbly or two, and we continued to partake in the libations afterwards as well.

Thence I went on to a splendid South Yarra party in an art deco apartment, then Control HQ, and eventually (although I don't remember exactly what time I got there) the Peel. When it closed at 7am I staggered home with a young delightful young man in tow, whose name I only vaguely remember - Rob? Bob? - something like that... His chest was much more memorable, and made rather a lovely pillow, until he remembered at 2pm that he was supposed to be at a BBQ and crawled out from my bed to make good his exit. Gave him my number; bet I never from him again; he apparently had a girlfriend. How do I manage to find them?

Went back to bed. Woke up at 6pm (!!!) feeling rather wretched: the price one pays for a spectacularly splendid evening. Watched a DVD, a gory horror-comedy called Slither (about all I was capable of) forced down a meal, and crawled back into bed about 11pm.

And I can't wait to do it all again!