This just in about MIFF ticket sales

I don't often cut and paste emails and media releases, but in this instance I'm happy to make an exception:

DearRichard

It's business as usual on the MIFF ticketing website!

You may have read a lot of information recently in the press about the MIFF website and ticketing system. This email is to remind you that the web ticketing system is functioning as per normal, with some changes described below.

Some important points to note:

- The MIFF ticketing system has not been compromised in any way; no-one has been able to break into the system

- The ticketing system website passes PCI credit card and McAfee security checks; both are best practice industry security standards.

- All customer and credit card details are transferred using SSL encryption to maintain your privacy

- The ticketing site is locked down to Australian computer ip addresses only to filter out any potential offshore issues

- All information and activity on the system is logged and actively monitored, and any unauthorised activities that take place will be referred to police or lawyers for criminal or civil prosecution To access the MIFF ticketing website:

- You must have an account to log in to the ticketing system to be able to browse and purchase tickets.

- If you have purchased tickets this year on the website, you already have an email address and password to access the ticketing system.

- If you have forgotten your password, please contact MIFF via phone on 03 9662 3722 to recover your password.

- Make sure you print off your tickets to any sessions, as you book them.

Queues are developing to buy tickets and pick up bookings before sessions. You can create bookings via phone 03 9662 3722, or in person at any one of the MIFF box offices, but the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to book tickets is ONLINE using the ticketing system.

There are still tickets available for many of the excellent sessions over this final week of the festival. We urge you to take advantage of the ticketing website and see as many great films as you can!

Best wishes

MIFF ticketing staff

Drawing to an end...

It's the second-last day of the year; another of these pleasantly cool so-called summer days Melbourne has been having lately. In fact it's been the coldest December on record for years, which no doubt annoys the sun-lovers and beach-goers (not to mention gives weight to the 'there's no such thing as climate change' wingnuts), but which this particular heat-hating homo is rather enjoying - especially since I'm off work until January 5 and lack air-conditioning in my inner-city domicile.

Speaking of work.... Sigh. A couple of weeks ago, my boss announced that he was going to axe my brand new baby - the arts magazine Canvas - after only five issues, because the economic downturn meant that it wasn't attracting enough ads and so publishing it was no longer financially viable. Instead of being a stand alone magazine, it's now a two-page 'supplement' in MCV, the LGBT newspaper I was editor of until three months ago; a depressing situation to say the least.

At least I still have a job: as of January I take over as the online editor for Evolution Publishing's centralised website, which hosts the various titles the company publishes around the country. The only problem is, I'm not really sure I want to be the online editor - partially because I lack the necessary skills, and would need some major re-training; but also because I'm a bit disheartened by the way Canvas was dropped so quickly. Basically, I'm questioning my future at the company, I guess. Probably not a sentiment I should be writing about online, as I never know who's reading this blog, but what the hell. I self-censor myself enough on here as it is.

That said, I've also had a couple of friends suggest that retraining is a good thing - a new skill set always looks good on a resume - and besides which, becoming the online editor could lead in all sorts of interesting and creative directions in the future. We'll see. Certainly I'm not going to quit overnight. I just need to keep my options open, I guess.

So, since I have the week off, I should be making the most of the opportunity to bring my CV up to date and starting to consider said options. Do I want to keep working in publishing? Should I go back to arts administration? Maybe it's time to step across into the corporate world? I dunno...

I should also be writing - either working on a screenplay I've been contemplating, or re-drafting my novel; doing something creative at any rate. Instead I spent most of yesterday recovering from a karaoke-induced hangover (Sunday night was well worth Monday's pain however - a few good mates in a private booth and a lot of booze makes for a most entertaining evening) and watching some brainless DVDs: namely, the mildly amusing Hollywood satire Tropic Thunder, and Neil (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) Marshall's exceptionally silly post-apocalypse movie Doomsday, featuring: A killer virus! Scotland sealed off from the outside world! Punk survivors on the rampage in Glasgow! A rival community led by Malcolm McDowell as a mad doctor who are re-creating the Middle Ages ! A leather-clad heroine with a remote-control artificial eye! Explosions! Adam and the Ants and Siouxsie and the Banshees on the sountrack! Severed heads aplenty!

Daft as it sounds, and as mad as much of the plot is, Doomsday looks good and has an appropriately kinetic, retro feel that's part Mad Max II, part Escape from New York, with a hefty dash of 28 Days Later; so even while I was laughing at the often ludicrous set-up of the story, I still enjoyed it - sort of. Certainly the stunts, set-pieces and gore quotiant are high, if you like that sort of thing - which I definitely do. Just don't expect any originality, intelligence, well-developed characters or a coherent plot from Doomsday and you'll be fine.

This morning I've just been procrastinating - and trying to get Outlook to work properly, since it's suddenly decided to stop sending and receiving email. Stupid fucking computer programs.

Hmm. That's odd. I was going to make this entry a look back at the year and a wrap up of some of the cultural highlights and lowlights I've experienced in the last 12 months. It was also going to be a recap of what I've been up to lately - watching The Day The Earth Stood Still at IMAX (The Day The Earth Fell Flat more like it), DJing at The Laird, surviving another family Christmas in Canberra with my religious relatives, reading the latest Torchwood novels (and at this point I'll give a quick shout-out to James Goss, whose novel Almost Perfect is something that every Torchwood fan should read) - but it seems to have got away from me.

Oh well. Maybe later.

Happy new year, everybody. I hope it's a good one for you. For me, I'm hoping for change...

Normal service will resume as soon as possible

I'm in Canberra, at my mum's place, for Christmas. Back in Melbourne late Boxing Day, at which time I shall recommence blogging - no doubt with some head-slapping 'huh?' annecdotes about family life at this particularly deranged time of year...

Reflections and fractures

The last couple of weeks have pretty much sucked, I have to say. Work's been a nightmare: we had to publish not one, but two issues of the paper in one week; indeed, within a day of each other, in order to be able to publish a paper next week, in the lead-up to New Year's Eve. Simultaneously, I've also been working on a 64-page magazine which we're publishing in early January.

To say that I've been stressed would be an understatement.

On top of which, I've been finalising the appointment of a new General Manager for Melbourne Fringe, and trying to arrange to get home for a couple of days over Christmas, which isn't going to happen now that I've agreed to co-host Summer Breakfast on 3RRR for the next two weeks, starting this Monday.

I really must learn to say no sometime.

On top of all that, a colleague's partner was killed in a motorbike accident last week (I went to the wake today) which if nothing else puts some of my own personal dramas into context, and helps me realise how insignificant they are.

I didn't go to the Meredith Music Festival with Glen, Darren and the boys because I had to go to a wedding instead, for an old friend who's been living in the UK for five years, with whom I haven't really kept in touch. It was a very, very Catholic wedding, which quite frankly left me cold - there was nothing of the couple in it at all.

And right now it's a Saturday night at 1:20am, I have only $45 to last me through until Thursday; I have no drugs to power me through the next few days; and I really dislike Christmas.

Oh yeah, and I'm missing the Irish mate I befriended earlier this year, and who I've hung out with almost every weekend since we met. I had hopes of romance, it became a bromance, and then - I hope - has developed into what I hope will be a solid, long-term friendship. But yeah, right now I miss my drinking partner because he's at home in Ireland until late January.

What a depressing post this is. Normal service will resume as soon as possible.

Coming soon...

The opening night of Sleeping Beauty...Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...the Irishman...and more. Right now: sleep.

Pause For Reflection

A couple of people have recently mentioned of late that the frequency with which I've been posting has reduced somewhat. To these people I say, "well aren't you the observent ones!"

For a couple of reasons (workload, too tired to go out, having some virus-thing for the last week or so) it's true I've not been posting much. Thus, anecdotes about dinner with that lovely couple, Mr and Mrs Path-Android; seeing both the play and the film of The History Boys, and enjoying both despite their flaws; the excellently entertaining way my Eurovision night played out at the soon-to-be-reverting-to-its-non-rock-and-roll origins Spanish Club; none of that has been recorded for posterity on this here blog.

So, you miss out on my self-indulgent ramblings, and I miss out on recording my day-to-day life, as this blog is as much my diary or journal as it is anything else. Such is life.

That said, ever since I became the Chair of Fringe a few weeks ago I've also been contemplating being a little more circumspect about what I write here, because of its potential for adversely impacting on the organisation. On the other hand I really don't like censoring myself, no matter who may or may not be reading (Hi mum! Hello Drug Squad!) my posts.

So, after due contemplation, I won't be censoring myself overtly. You can still expect occasional tales of wild nights on the tiles and casual sex with anonymous men in parks and alleyways on the rare occasions I actually get lucky. You'll also get details of the various films, performances and exhibitions that I get along to, when I find the time to post about them. On the other hand, I might not be posting as often as I used to, if the past couple of weeks is anything to go by.

Now that we've got that settled...on with the show!

Oh, and to maintain the self-indulgent trivia quotiant of the day, have I mentioned that I'm trying to grow my hair? It's at the stage now where I'm seriously tempted to grab the clippers and trim it all off again, but god dammit I intend to persevere to the point where I can actually have a hairstyle again for the first time in some eight years; even I do have to wear a hat for the entire winter while my hair grows out...

Need.... new.... brain

As much as I'm enjoying my latest incarnation as editor of Melbourne's queer newspaper MCV, I so want my old life back. I've gone from working two days a week to virtually full time, which means I'm now always tired, preoccupied, and never seem to have the time to do all the other things in my life, like attend board meetings, read emails, plan my radio show, and do my freaking* laundry. *sigh*

I got to sleep in this morning til 8.45am. Decadence!

Tonight I'm off to see the Pixies, although I'm definitely going to need to get home for a quick this evening before I can muster the energy.

That's how tired I am - I can't even muster the energy to be excited about hearing 'Debaser' or 'Monkey Gone to Heaven' played life. Waaaaaaahhhhhhh!



* Non-swearing for Bevis's sake, just 'cause.

Good People, Good Times

Just home from dinner with friends: Darren (who proudly announced he'd purchased his first-ever hip-hop CD - this from Mr Indie-Boy, a big step indeed), Glen, who I haven't caught up with since he went to Mardi Gras, and his new bf. All rather lovely.

Slept through the heat of the day after presenting SmartArts this morning, only to step outside this evening to discover it was still 33 degrees. Ick - where's autumn when you need it? The equinox was only yesterday, so I can't expect we'll immediately be plunged into crisp mornings and chilly nights, but dammit, we could at least have a hint of appropriate chill in the air.

The last few weeks have seen me too busy to blog properly, which always makes me feel guilty. I don't know why, it's not like I have to blog, although I do enjoy leaving an electronic trail of my life and experiences for future biographers, should my life ever warrant such interest (unlikely, I posit, but a boy can dream).

Have just had a quick whip-through some of my fellow bloggers recent posts, and am heartened to see that many of us share the same sense of optimism over Howard's recent poor form and the forthcoming but as yet undeclared federal election. No doubt the rodent will pull some trick or another to try and win another term, but at this stage, it would certainly appear that Rudd and Gillard (go Julia!) are set to make significant advances at the election, even if they don't actually win government. Bring it on!

I've fallen behind on my MQFF updates but promise to catch up in the next few days.

I still don't know what I'm putting on the cover of MCV next week, god help me, and I really should know at least two weeks in advance. This Editor malarky takes a bit of getting used to.

I've announced my decision to quit writing Beat magazine's Art of the City column as of four weeks' time as I really just don't have the time to be able to do it justice; ditto the two panels I sit on at the National Gallery of Victoria.

I doubt it will take me long to find something else to do with my time, though. I really must learn to say no!

I've been a bad, bad blogger

As a result of taking on the role of Editor at Melbourne's Weekly GLBT newspaper MCV, I've been stupidly busy the last two weeks, and consequently haven't been a good blogger: I've fallen behind on both posting and reading other people's blog entries, for which I can only apologise.

Too much to do, so little time...

In the past two weeks I've:

• I've worked a 15 hour day trying to get the paper to print;
• Discovered that even an office with four staff has office politics;
• Put two issues of the paper to bed;
• Seen fellow blogger Travis Cotton perform in the 20th anniversary production of Michael Gow's play Europe;
• Attended the launch of this year's Melbourne Queer Film Festival;
• Started to discover just what having a mobile phone means, the good (excitedly texting fellow political-tragics after watching Kevin Rudd on Lateline and actually being impressed - not because he has gravitas and conviction, but because for the first time in years I'm actually starting to think that Howard can be beaten) and the bad (being harrangued by publicists keen for coverage for their latest client in one of my three media outlets);
• Enjoyed having a housemate, although I rarely see him as a combination of my hectic life and his spending time at his boyfriend's place;
• Failed to find time to continue re-arranging my even-more cluttered house;
• Consumed more alcohol than is good for me;
  
• Walked regularly;
• Complained about the heat;
• Put off reading a book and then reviewing it for ABR until the deadline is not so much looming as threatening to crush me with its weight;
• Started swotting for next week's conversation with Rupert Everett at the Atheneum;
• Contemplated popping over to Adelaide for the Fringe, or up to Sydney to see Holding the Man;
• And generally been over-committed - so much so, for instance, that I failed to make the most recent bloggers' meet - sorry D.U.P.!

This weekend I'm heading out of town, to visit my mum and catch up on some reading on the train, so I won't be around much. I am, of course, reachable on my new mobile... ;-)