MAN ABOUT TOWN

As of February 1st I decided to try and give up drinking for a month. I'm doing this - unofficially, at present - as part of a fundraising event called FebFast . The reason it's unoffical is that I'm flat broke (work didn't pay me last week as scheduled due to an issue with invoices and a new purchase order number) so I can't pay the necessary registration fee. Hopefully I get paid tomorrow though, at which point I'll be an officially paid up FebFaster. Huzzah. Last year I failed spectacularly at FebFast, falling off the wagon after only three days and not getting back on. This year - perhaps because I made a second, more concerted effort to abstain from alcohol later in the year - I'm doing much better. At the time of writing I'm six days' sober, part way through the seventh day, and finding the whole affair considerably easier than when I tried temporary sobriety last year. Instead of being anxious about not drinking and regularly craving booze, t...

Melbourne's queer cultural festival Midsumma is in full swing at the moment. For a range of reasons (including being broke, tired, lethargic, having a head full of other projects to organise and stress about, and doing a week of breakfast radio - as well as the fact that I've seen enough bad gay art over the festival's 22 years to last me a lifetime) I've only seen a handful of shows so far this year, although I plan to rectify that this evening by attending another production. My Midsumma highlight to date was definitely the latest from Circus Oz, The Blue Show , an intimate and brilliant production in the company's new Spiegeltent. Set in the lifeless and barren surrounds of the docklands, the contrast once you stepped inside the gilt and mirrored interior of the Melba Spiegeltent was simply remarkable. The intimate scale of the venue, coupled with director Annie Davey's challenge to the performers to push themselves creatively while exploring the theme of ...