MAN ABOUT TOWN

It's been a mad month, with Fringe segueing straight into the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and not enough time to blog about it all. As well as the shows I've already detailed on this here blog, I also managed to catch: an array of visual arts, from oribotics to Riceboy Sleeps. Barrie Kosky's The Tell Tale Heart , which I admired for its attempt to convey the heightened senses of the insane narrator of the original Poe story in a theatrical setting, but whose - dramatic - pauses - began to pall for me after the first half hour. Nonetheless an exquisite aesthetic experience, even though I wasn't always fully engaged. Laurie Anderson's Homeland , a festival commission, which washed over me in waves of haunting electronica as I struggled to stay awake in my seat. Loved her evocation of 'the Underwear Gods' - the idea of the photos of giant billboard models striding around the city - but was less enamored of her more polemic pieces, which struck me as...

Two of my more eccentric habits are my deeply-ingrained loathing of ticket inspectors on trams, and my tendency to goad them at every available opportunity. For those readers not from Melbourne, let me briefly digress. Once upon a time, trams had individuals on board known as conductors, or connies. As well as selling you your ticket, they would assist tourists with directions; help the elderly, infirm or pregnant on or of the tram; and provide a vague sense of security when travelling late at night. Then, one day, in the name of economic rationalism, the state government did away with conductors, because they weren't cost effective. Since then we're have non-cost-effective scratchy tickets introduced (whereby you were supposed to scratch off the silver gunk covering the date and hour of your journey to demonstrate how long yout ticket was valid for; not exactly practical if you carry your spare tickets in your purse or wallet, where they chafe and rub and flake); non-cost-effe...

If you know me, whether it's because we've been friends for years or from occasionally reading this blog, or from listening to SmartArts on 3RRR; you'll know that the music of Iceland's Sigur Rós moves me to tears of joy. Right now I'm listening to a preview copy of the band's new album Hvarf-Heim , and loving it. (Thank you EMI, and no, I promise I won't burn it and distribute it to the world via the net: I lack the technical skills to do so even if I wanted to!). The album, which is released in November, is an aural accompaniment to the band's concert film, Heima , which is screening at The Forum this Sunday; and which is a documentation of a two week tour Sigur Rós took around Iceland last year that featured both grand scale concerts and intimate gigs for friends and family. If you go to see the film on Sunday , you'll also see the band playing a short accoustic set and doing a Q+A with fans; following on from the live performance of Ba Ba Ti Ki ...

I saw, without doubt, not only my absolute MIAF highlight on Monday night, but also the most wonderfully wicked cabaret show I've ever witnessed: Kiki and Herb: the Year of Magical Drinking ; at North Melbourne's Meat Market Arts House. Kiki is an aging, alcoholic chanteuse ; Herb her equally withered pianist and straight-man - an irony given that both are gay men; performed respectively by vocalist Justin Bond (who may perhaps be familiar to you from John Cameron Mitchell's superb Shortbus ) and pianist Kenny Mellman. Part of the point behind the duo's performance is to demonstrate that cabaret need not be stuck in the first half of the 20th century: as demonstrated with versatility, pathos, wit and flair last night, a medly of Velvet Underground songs, and the songs of Jarvis Cocker and Kate Bush have just as much resonance as Piaf or Brecht - and perhaps, for modern audiences, even more relevance. Equally, though, the pair delight in skewering and satirising the c...

A flurry of rumours about a sequel to the multi-award winning Brokeback Mountain have been quashed following a denial from the studio that made the film. Britain ’s OK! Magazine last week claimed that Australian actor Heath Ledger was in negotiation to reprise his role as closeted cowboy Ennis Del Mar, in a sequel to the acclaimed film about two star-crossed lovers in the American Midwest. “It will follow the nasty process of being openly gay in 1963 Wyoming ,” the magazine quoted an insider as saying. “Not true,” a representative for Focus Features, which produced Brokeback Mountain , has told PerezHilton.com, an infamous celebrity gossip website. The 2005 film, which co-starred Jake Gyllenhaal, is ranked eighth among the highest grossing romantic-dramas of all time.

Daniel Kitson blew me away earlier this year with his Barry Award-winning comedy festival show, It's the Fireworks Talking , and I'm delighted to report that his MIAF show C9 0 is equally delightful, although somewhat less frenetic than his stand-up gigs are want to be. In the company of the lovely MsKP , freshly returned from her replenishing stint in Queensland but still not blogging much (the curse of Facebook, perhaps?), we wandered down into the bowels of the Arts Centre, and into the intime confines of the Fairfax Studio. Even this small space is almost too large for this show, which would have worked best, I think, at somewhere like the Tower Theatre at the Malthouse, or even The Store Room, but thankfully our seats were well situated, so this didn't really impact on our evening. The premise of the show is a simple one: Kitson plays Henry Leonard Bodley, the about-to-retire-today librarian of a library of mix tapes, which no-one makes any more thanks to digital equi...

"Sporadically sublime" is the phrase I've been using to describe my Melbourne International Arts Festival (MIAF) 2007 experience so far, as well as some of the specific events I've seen at MIAF; so I figured I may as well kill two Andrew 'lesbians ruined my festival' Bolts with one stone and use the phrase as the title of this blog post as well. Those readers who feel compelled to point out that, as a writer and commentator, I should perhaps be more able to coin multiple phrases rather than overusing the one, will be politely directed towards the fact that I'm simultaneously: Trying to write a 2500 essay about Jack Kerouac's contribution to modernist literature while seeing as much of MIAF as I can; Juggling the demands of my day job as a newspaper editor; Chairing the Arts Development: Creation funding panel at Arts Victoria over the last couple of days (I'm sworn to secrecy about the outcomes of the meeting and which applicants will receive fun...

Saturday night saw the closing night party and artists' awards for The Age 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival, at which good times were had by all. I called it a night at approximately 6am Sunday, and trudged happily home; I didn't crawl out of bed until 3pm that afternoon, and was fast asleep again by 9pm Sunday night. I've still been catching up on sleep the last two nights. Saturday evening saw me take it my final show, in the company of a couple of friends; a tribute to Tom Waits (right) at Abbotsford's Terminus Hotel called The Piano Has Been Drinking... Less a cabaret, more a cover band, but not a bad job at all. The band were tight, if a little conservative in their instrumentation by Waits' own standards (where was the person playing a giant seed pod when you needed it?) and the singer could perhaps have smoked an entire pack of cigarettes and gargled a bottle of whiskey before coming on stage to get that wonderfully raspy quality Waits has, but even so, they ca...

Could someone put me in touch his dealer, please? Mine is out of town.

So, the Rodent has called the election at last, after stalling for weeks in the vain hope that the polls might suggest a closing of the gap in terms of Labor's lead. No such luck, Johnny-boy. So, please make sure you're enrolled to vote and your address details are up to date by Wednesday, so that you don't get squeezed out thanks to the Coalition's sneaky reductions, and get ready to vote the fucker out. BRING IT ON!!!!! Oh yeah - final Fringe updates and first Melbourne International Arts Festival details coming soon; probably tonight...

Apologies for the paucity of updates, readers; life is moving at too fast a pace for me to fit in much blogging. It's all about living at the moment, and less about reflecting on what I've experienced. That said, on with the show! THE BEST OF MUDFEST 10 started with a brief puppet show that, while inventive in its application of grand guignol to the video age, failed to manifest its promise. While I delighted in its vivid and literal embodiment of one's everyday concerns about being devoured by your job (I'll never look at a photocopier the same way again!) its narrative lacked bite; a nice set up that went nowhere. Thereafter a series of dance works inspired by childhood games began; not what I was here to see, nor distinctive enough in their choreography to hold my attention, so I retreated to the Lithuanian Club's bar to read for a while. The best of Mudfest: Two stars The Lithuanian Club until Saturday 13 Testosterone is a local adaptation of a popular Polish...

Two comedy shows this time, although one, sadly, has already ended so you've missed you're chance to see it; while the second ends tonight. These will be kinda micro-reviews though, as I have to bolt out the door in a sec. Maybe I'll expand on them at a later date...though given my schedule over the next few days, with MIAF overlapping with Fringe, that's probably unlikely! FEAR OF A BROWN PLANET scored the honour of drawing the ire of one Andrew Bolt, publicity which certainly did them no harm. The premise of the show was a simple one, inspired by its three performers wondering, "When did a Muslim last make you laugh?". Consequently, around a framework structured in part by Public Enemy's classic album Fear of a Black Planet , the three young men responsible for this show proceeded to mount a Muslim comedy spectacular, exploring issues around race, politics, bigotry, family and related themes. Well, perhaps spectacular is too strong a word; Aamer Rahman,...

I'll probably write a considered, analytical review of this show shortly, breaking down the various reasons I disliked it. For the time being, though, here's my non-analytical response: an emotive rant which let me get a few things off my chest... Now, I've been to a few openings in my time, but never have I seen more money, more people who've had work done, more theatre luvvies and art fags gathered together in the one place than at last night's gala opening of the stage musical incarnation of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at the Regent Theatre. It was quite astounding. And that was just at the pre-show canapes and champagne soiree. The after-party was even more remarkable: in my borrowed suit, I felt like an observer or an outsider, like I was visiting an alien world of privilege and position rather than part of what was going on around me. Cerise and I left after about an hour and a half, retreating to more comfortable, less pretentious confines of the Fringe C...

I've been tagged by the lovely alicia sometimes with a new meme, which requires me to tell you eight random things about myself, then tag 8 other bloggers. Accordingly: A self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh painted in 1887, in the form of a postcard I purchased at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, is peering down at me from the top of my clutered desk. When I saw the original, I had just smoked my first joint in over a year, and while gazing into the painter's intense eyes, became quite convinced that, like Vincent, I would end up going mad. Not suprisingly, I almost never smoke pot any more. My flatmate, who no longer maintains his blog, is working in the loungeroom and watching/listening to a live gig by Morrissey on DVD: we just heard 'First of the Gang to Die'. I'm currently reading a book by Mike Evans entitled The Beats: From Kerouac to Kesey, an Illustrated Journey through the Beat Generation , and enjoying some of the rare images it contains but getting frust...

Other committments have made it hard for me to see as many Fringe shows this year as I've wanted to; not have I seen much outside the Performance category, save for a few pieces here and there. But enough excuses: more reviews! The delightful performance/installation piece, KALEIDOSCOPE , is an exercise in memory and inspiration; rough around the edges but touching and effective. One or two at a time, the audience are taken through a series of vignettes presented by six different actors, beginning with the hum-drum daily life of Ben, an office worker. After another mundane, mechanical day, Ben arrives home to discover a package from mum, containing an old childhood toy which sparks a personal epiphany. Thereafter, scene by scene, we play out Ben's memories, becoming Ben, in fact; assisted by actors who play Ben-as-a-child (played by a child actor who passes us a note to read that young Ben has written to his future, grown-up self); Ben's childhood love; a favourite uncle, a...

Love this article in The Age today: Parents, government split on 'values' for kids A DRAFT report canvassing the values parents want schools to instil in their children has highlighted "considerable differences" between what parents want and the nine values identified by the Howard Government. The report, obtained by The Age , says parents are critical of the perceived inconsistencies between the values promoted by the Federal Government in schools — such as compassion, honesty, respect and tolerance — and the conduct of the Government on boat people, the environment, people from the Middle East and Aborigines... ...The findings were based on parent focus groups, held in each state and territory between May and September. All 150 parents who participated had children at non-government schools. The report — commissioned by the Australian Parents Council, which represents parents of students at non-government schools — was funded as part of the Federal Government's ...

Just received a media release announcing that Bjork will be playing the Big Day Out @ Flemington Racecourse on MOnday January 28 next year, alongside Arcade Fire (woooot!) , Rage Against the Machine (yawn), Billy Bragg (hmm), Paul Kelly, LCD Soundsystem, and UK hip-hop artist Dizzee Rascal (yay!) among others. OMG OMG OMG I am so definitely there. Tickets on sale Friday October 12. Like, yay!!!!

Sunday night I saw another two shows at the festival, which strikes me as just the right number of events to see in a row... First up was Cinderella Sucks which I regret to say, I didn't really enjoy. There were some moments of sweet simplicity in this story told by a young mum and dad and four of their five young children, but there was also an earnest awkwardness and lack of subtlety that I found grating, such as repetitious dance routines which over-emphasised the tensions which arise between mothers and their teenage daughters. On the plus side, a monologue by the dad in which he talked frankly and touchingly about his love for his wife was lovely; as was another scene in which one of the kids talked about ways of controlling your children (bribes seem particularly effective, it would appear). Essentially a reflection on the family's own lives, the saving grace of Cinderella Sux for me was that it only ran for half an hour. Given that the family's fifth child was sitt...