MAN ABOUT TOWN

Courtesy of Evol Kween comes this rather fun meme, which struck me as an excellent way to waste 10 minutes at work on a Wednesday. Here's what you do. A) Grab your iPod. B) Set it to shuffle. C) Use the names of the songs that come up in order to answer the following questions. Easy huh? Here we go... 1. What does next year have in store for me? ‘The Wobbly Mammoth’ 2. What’s my love life like? ‘So Many Ways ’ 3. What do I say when life gets hard? ‘Headcleaner’ 4. What do I think of on waking up? ‘Cane and Rice’ 5. What song will I dance to at my wedding? ‘Mary Jo’ 6. What do I want as a career? ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ 7. My favorite saying? ‘Everybody’s Song’ 8. Favorite place? ‘Where the World Begins and Ends ' 9. What do I think of my parents? ‘ Redford (For Yia-Yia and Pappou)’ 10. What’s my porn star name? ‘Moonlight’ 11. Where would I go on a first date? ‘Over’ 12. Drug of choice? ‘Mesmerism’ 13. Describe myself: ‘Je ne veux pas quitter’ ...

I'm rather time-poor at the moment, so my MIFF reviews will be of necessity rather brief. That said, here are some words on the handful of films I've managed to see so far... NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD Had this opening night doco about the Ozploitation era been 15 minutes shorter, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As it was, I felt the film outstayed its welcome, with the last half hour or so definitely dragging a little. Conversely, the pace in its opening half was fantastic: a dynamic, scattergun approach to documentary making. Great to be reminded of the many Ozploitation films I've already seen (either on video circa 1985, the year I moved out of home, such as Dead End Drive-In ; or on television a few years earlier) and to have my appetite whetted for the many more I've not seen yet. Thereafter a pretty cool opening night party, although not enough food, which meant as a consequence that I was hungover as all fuck the next day - though the fact that I didn't leave t...

I promise to start blogging properly about MIFF soon, but for now, here's a small taste of what the last couple of days have been like: myself and George Romero sharing a laugh after recording an interview at Three Triple R earlier this morning (photo by Donna Morabito). God I love my life! And here (pix by Jim Lee) are some shots from last Saturday night's premiere screening of the new Romero film, Diary of the Dead . After the recent Zombie Shuffle, the festival had asked Clem and I to arrange for some zombies to turn up to the premiere, for a photo opp with George. As you can see, we had quite a turn-out! In the foyer of the Capitol before the screening - I'm the white-faced zombie to Romero's left (photo by Jim Lee) At the Q+A after the screening (photo by Jim Lee).

At some stage in the next few days I'll hopefully find time to blog about the last three productions I've seen over the last week: Bell Shakespeare's Hamlet , Matthew Bourne's 'dance-ical' Edward Scissorhands , and Yana Alana and the Paranas in Bite Me Harder . Today though, my brain in mush, so instead, I'm going to point you towards a fascinating essay on Batman's gay past . A Batman who continued to live in 1945 was an economic liability in 1955. He was a threat to the family and to the bottom-line. Batman's "gayness," then, was a flash point for a larger set of social anxieties. Just as elites worked aggressively to purge society and government of homosexuality, so too did DC purge Batman of any social deficiency which could be interpreted or construed as "gay." Was it enough? To satisfy the most vocal critics, yes. But, ironically, the move to surrealism and fantasy also pushed Batman into the territory of high camp, in wh...

At some point I should blog about recently turning 41 and the way my birthday slipped past me like a ship in the night; or the superb season four finale of Doctor Who ; perhaps the MIAF program, launched last night, which Alison has already blogged about in generous detail; or this year's MIFF program, which I've now finished digesting which means I can map out my film viewing for the next few weeks. But no. Instead, I'm going to alert those of you who don't already know about it to a fantastic new-ish (it aired in February) TV program from the UK that's sure to whet the appetites of anyone who's A) ever lived in a share household, B) wants to know what out gay actor Russell Tovey (Rudge in the film of The History Boys , and Midshipman Frame in Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned ) is up to, career-wise, and C) like myself enjoys sinking their teeth into genre shows with a supernatural bent. Readers, meet Being Human . In February, the show's pilot screened...

So, at the massive Catholic mass that officially opened World Youth Day in Sydney yesterday, Our Glorious Leader KRudd said : "Some say there is no place for faith in the 21st century. I say they are wrong. Some say faith is the enemy of reason, I say also they are wrong. They are great partners, rich in history and scientific progress." Yeah, right, Kevin. Tell that to Galileo .

1927 is an English cabaret company, whose acclaimed Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is currently being performed at the Malthouse Theatre here in Melbourne. The show, an inspired blend of silent film homage and delightfully gothic spoken word, is a singular delight, and one I strongly recommend for film buffs and theatre afficianados alike. The concept of the show is deceptively simple: two performers (writer/director Suzanne Andrade and Esme Appleton, both appropriately dressed in Louise Brooks mode) perform on stage against a backdrop of scratchy, flickering silent film-inspired projections by Paul Barritt, to a live piano score by Lillian Henley. I say deceptively simple, because the timing required to make the show work - for voices to speak in unison and for performers to match their movements to the images and sets projected on and behind them - clearly requires significant labour. There's a wonderful, playful sense of the grotesque permeating the show, as well a...

Derek Jarman on the set of 'Caravaggio' Derek Jarman was a true renaissance man. Through his books, his paintings and especially his films, the English artist and activist was an eloquent and passionate spokesman for gay rights at a time when Britain ’s conservative government, under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was doing its best to stamp out gay culture forever. In 1988, even as an entire generation of gay men were being ravaged by the AIDS crisis, Thatcher’s government introduced a notorious piece of legislation, Section 28 ; which forbade ‘ the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. But instead of silencing gays and lesbians the introduction of Section 28 galvanised them; uniting a community that until then had largely been divided along gender lines, and prompting the largest queer rights demonstrations the UK had ever seen. It was in these turbulent times that Jarman’s creativity was a...