MAN ABOUT TOWN

The outspoken entertainer Ian Dury was a remarkable and memorable figure on the British music scene; a proto-punk who came to fame in the era of The Sex Pistols and The Damned, and who was quick to lash out at anyone foolish enough to patronise or pity him. Stricken by polio as a child, he walked with difficulty, with the aid of a cane and callipers, but was never one to let his disability prevent him from living a rich and full life – and a somewhat decadent, selfish and self-obsessed life, if this film is to be believed. Together with his band The Blockheads, Dury had several hit songs in the UK music charts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the 1979 number one, ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’, as well as the singles ‘Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3’, ‘I Wanna Be Straight’, and the anthemic ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’, which was banned by the BBC upon its release in 1977. Many such songs feature on the soundtrack of Sex & Drugs & Rock ...

A LOVING FRIEND (Kerry Negara, 2009) The posthumously published diaries of Australian draftsman, diarist, printmaker and painter Donald Friend (1915 – 1989) – especially the fourth and final volume, which covers the extended period Friend resided in Bali – reveal that the artist was sexually active with teenage and pre-pubescent boys, some as young as 10, over a number of years. In her documentary A Loving Friend , filmmaker Kerry Negara sets out to confront the Australian art world with this fact, which has been largely ignored by Friend’s colleagues and associates as they attempt to bolster his standing as an artist of merit in the years following his death. Artist Margaret Olley and academic Ian Britain are among those interviewed by Negara who either sidestep the issue, or obfuscate when confronted with the fact that Friend was a paedophile. “He just liked the young company about him, and they’re easier to draw,” Olley claims of Friend’s predilection for the company of boys, despit...

POST-PUNK MIX TAPE #2 (Various directors and years) The cinematic exploration of the punk and post-punk era in Australia, and especially in Melbourne, is the focus of a central programming stream at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. Curated by Michelle Carey, Punk Becomes Pop: The Australian Post-Punk Underground consists of three feature films and over 40 shorts documenting the vibrant inner-city scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, where music, art, film and fashion fused together in a raucous and chaotic whole. Post-Punk Mixtape #2 is the second of five short film screenings programmed as part of Punk Becomes Pop . This diverse array of film clips and experimental shorts included a hilarious, drunken interview with Boys Next Door members Rowland S. Howard and Nick Cave; a film noir inspired music video for Sydney band Frontier Scouts, When Daddy Blows His Top , directed by Kriv Stenders; the hallucinatory and surreal short drama by Swinburne student...

Thanks to Strummer for the links... Kneel before the sweaty jock-strap of LIMP WRIST! "Tight pants and wallet chains Hooded sweats & Adidas drive me insane Dreadlocked crusties are hot and cant be beat Just double up the condom and stay away from their feet I LOVE HARDCORE BOYS, I LOVE BOYS HARDCORE! Bi-hawks and studs are really hot Emo kids whine, but i'll give em a shot Tight pants-skinheads with bodies that stack This whole damn scene makes my eyes roll back I LOVE HARDCORE BOYS, I LOVE BOYS HARDCORE! I love hardcore boys, its too good to be true One on one or the whole damn crew It's all exciting for us so lets give it a whirl I love hardcore boys cuz they make my toes curl Romulin-looking Justin clones got style But sports wearing edgers are who we'd like to pile After being with a peace punk in black We're definite that you're never turning back I LOVE HARDCORE BOYS, I LOVE BOYS HARDCORE!"

Happy 2007, everyone. I hope your New Year's Eve was wildly enjoyable, or at least moderately so? It is, I freely admit, an overrated evening, when dull suburbanites cut loose and go wild in a desperate attempt to have the sort of night out that they can boast about for the next few weeks - the sort of night that myself and many other jaded and drug-addled inner-urbanites have every weekend. I think I stopped enjoying NYE at least a decade ago, as a consequence of DJ'ing in clubs on the night in question for too many years in a row. Nothing like a spot of repetition to take the edge off! My faux-supercilliousness aside, I had a great night this year, at least for the majority of the night. My composer friend David had a house party, which was where I began my evening. From there I headed off to meet up with Graeme and Josh (ho has a blog but I don't know what it's called) at The Arthouse, where we were splendidly entertained by the raucous queer hardcore of US band Limp...