Downtime

In mourning for a little while, about a few things- but one thing in particular.

Back in a few days.

oh, while we are in Christmas mode

A big thanks to all you people from:
Sydney, New South Wales
Laverton, Victoria
Drummoyne, New South Wales
Melbourne, Victoria
New Orleans, Louisiana
Falkirk, United Kingdom
Burlingame, California
Trenton, New Jersey
Wilmington, Delaware
Medina, Washington
Unknown Country
Perth, Western Australia
Mountain View, California
Vastra Gotaland, Sweden
(wherever all those places are... though I've been to a few of 'em) who came and had a look at the blog recently, and so ended up in this random sample.
"unknown country"- hmm, sometimes I wish I could move there.
salut!

Christmas staff

With Christmas and all, these guys were the only ones available to keep an eye on things.

They came in just before closing, and quite frankly I didn't have the nerve to ask them to leave.

Salut!

Some more plugs

Some tough calls to be made over this festive weekend.
Friday night is a toss up between Penny Ikinger & the Evolution playing for free at the Pint on Punt in Windsor, or Tiger By The Tail over at some new place in Collingwood, called Exile On Smith Street.

Then on Saturday Kim Volkman is at the Greyhound
Like I say, tough calls, each of 'em. Maybe you should just stay home and wrap yourself in tinsel. Or not.

Podcasts

Seems like everyone's got a podcast (and a blog, and a myspace) going on these days.
One 'cast I try to keep up with is Dixiegrrl's Hangin' On For Mercy which is available over at Garage Punk.
And now the Barman has posted the first edition of his Drunk & Disorderly online at the I94-Bar.
Click through to listen, enjoy.

Christmas. Yawn.

Christmas shopping? Done in just over an hour. No messing around. Got hassled for change by some ice junkies when I was done, but thier teeth were so bad I could hardly understand what they were saying. Guess I was shopping in the wrong part of town.
And what do I want this year, you ask?
Well, Criterion are planning to release Border Radio, on DVD but not until January . And speaking as someone who's got everything in the Flesheaters/Divine Horsemen/Chris D discography (and more) it would be ideal, if only it was available...
So I'll opt for a copy of I Pass For Human instead- Chris' own full length directing debut.

Just leave it under the tree...

I-94 Bar Podcast

Bowing to the inevitable need to find some use for the thousands of sound files on his hard drive, the Barman joins the Podcast Revolution. The first episode is here. Be warned - podcasting with a shredded throat thanks to two weeks with bronchitis doesn't make for pretty listening.

One-Eyed Annie and Furious Francesca

This talk of Outre reminds me that Annie & Fran had volunteered to stand watch this weekend.

They (she?) are the work of the lovely Angelique Houtkamp and came home with me following the "Skulls, Wheels and Ink" exhibition earlier this year.

Outre Krampus party

I started the year having an adventure at Outre Gallery's Niagara exhibition, when I was kidnapped by Niagara & Colonel Galaxy, so it seemed somehow right to head back there last night for their Krampus-themed drinks evening.
And what a fine night it was too- cheers to Martin & all the crew.
If you've never been to either their Melbourne or Sydney stores- well what are you waiting for? You can never have too many Taschen books.

Where did all those comments go?

In the trash, I'm afraid. Gone.
Don't expect to see so much give and take here for a while- too much bullshit was being sent through. So I bounced most of them.
But now I have all the blog's tools and functions properly set up and will be able to track visitors and comments much better in the future, so any comments that I do let go up on the posts should be able to stay there, OK? So no sulking.

Hot & smoky

It was hot and smoky here all weekend, in more ways than one.
On Saturday afternoon I made the trip from the beach to the city, to see Louis Tillett play a solo show at the idGAFF Bar in Collingwood. It was worth the effort- more details to follow via the I94 Bar.
I also dropped by to the Old Bar in Fitzroy, for that Kim Volkman/Tijuana Souvenirs/Tiger By The Tail gig I mentioned last week, but didn't stay long.

Three bars in one post, that's a lot even for me. More soon...

I'll catch your fish for you

My old pal Quint has the helm this weekend.


Why not get drunk and show him your scars?

Suburban Mayhem soundtrack wins AFI award

A while back, I said the soundtrack for this movie was great.
Well, last night it won the 2006 Australian Film Institute award for best feature film soundtrack. The beautifully shot and edited official announcement is here
Congratulations to Mick Harvey, and to everyone who contributed.
And no, I still haven't seen the movie.

Some plugs...

Friday night in Sydney:

I wish I could go to this, I'm already regretting missing TSOOL when they were in town last week. And the New Christs are playing too...yeah I know it's not on my usual turf, but so what?

And on Saturday night in Melbourne, at the Old Bar in Fitzroy:


That's a great line up- think of it as an early Christmas present.

Greyhound to go gay- official.

They nicked my headline!

From the Emerald Hill Weekly, 6 December 2006:
Greyhound to go gay
The 300 capacity Greyhound Hotel band room will be converted into a gay venue by March next year following its sale to the owner of a chain of gay bathhouses.
The new owner of the Greyhound operates Wet On Wellington in Collingwood, Shed 16 in Seaford and Bay City Saunas in Caulfield and Seaford.

This was in a local St. Kilda/South Melbourne newspaper yesterday, and well, I hate to say I told you so. Chalk up a scoop for the Last Tram Home, I guess.
But I will say that I still think this is bad news, not because I’m anti-gay, but because I’m pro-sticky carpet local rock & roll venues.
Full article here, click on the (crappy) scan to enlarge.

An arty weekend

Had a very cultured weekend- oh, and before I get started, a big thanks to Vlad & Dmitri for holding the fort for a couple of days.

I spotted this in the paper on Saturday:
Felt Is The Past Tense Of Feel.

Artist Catherine Bell sucks the ink from 40 squid, then spits it onto her dead father's suit, in a torrid video work of violence, grief, and the purging of emotion.

Well, how could anyone resist that? And it was literally around the corner, at Linden. So on Sunday, after cleaning the frog tank we tore ourselves away from the Sci Fi Channel , and went to have a look, and it was as gross and fantastic as it sounds. On two separate screens this lady is in differing stages of the process- in the early part the suit is still white, then later it's black. As are her face, hands, arms, hair...the suit in question is hanging in the corner of the gallery space, and it absolutely reeks. She gets right into it on the video, ripping squid apart with her fingers, squeezing, sucking & spitting ink all over herself. The pile of dead squid she's sitting in gets bigger & bigger. But what does it signify? No idea, I'm afraid, but I'm glad I saw it.
Note: if this isn't enough, you can go to her website and see pictures of her swimming in a pool full of live eels while dressed in a plastic fetish suit, in a prior performance piece called Head Over Eels.

Then we went into the city to do some shopping and have a drink. There are a few Christmas decorations up in the streets, but what I liked was the view from up in Chloe's Bar- all the banner-sized pictures of Nick Cave (from the Howard Arkley exhibition at Fed Square), the posters of Astro Boy (from the Tezuka exhibition at the NGV) and the huge Sidney Nolan Ned Kellys on the facade of Flinders Street Station(from an exhibition at Heide )
An interesting choice of seasonal decorations, and a very spiritual trio- I'd pick Ned as the Father, Astroboy as the Son, and Nick as the Holy Ghost.

Hey comrade

It's weekendski here, OK? We're just a call centre. If it's urgent, talk to the Kremlin, if you can find someone there who gives a shit.
Da, da...dursty vagina!

Radio Birdman

Some of you are probably aware that I spent a fair bit of time earlier this year immersed in the return of Radio Birdman . I played "Zeno Beach" endlessly, reviewed a couple of their Melbourne shows, updated their Wikipedia page and lobbed a load of links and other bits and pieces into the I-94 Bar's Zeno Beach site. I did it because I wanted to, and enjoyed every minute of it.
So I was hugely surprised and pleased to get a parcel in the mail the other day, containing an enormous one sheet poster for the September 29th show at the Live Club, in Milan, and a beautiful limited edition print of this Stainboy work of art:
Not sure how it made the journey from San Francisco to my house, but it's gonna look mighty fine up on the wall.

You won't be seeing me on TV

A couple of months back I heard that the Lifestyle Channel were holding auditions to find hosts for a new program about barbecuing.
I wasn't going to bother (honest!) but on the day we happened to go past the area where they were set up, outside the Palais in St. Kilda. It looked kinda interesting, but still I balked at it.
Then an hour or two later a friend who did audition rang and explained the set up. You had to cook a sausage & an egg while talking to the cameras. That was all. AND you got a goodie bag...I was swayed by the thought of a new set of tongs, so went and signed up.
Steve Lucas from X, resplendent in a red tartan suit, and with a raging hangover from the Ian Rilen benefit show the night before, had decided to have a crack too. I'd love to see that tape.
I won't go into details, but will just say that when the producer guy said "We'll call you", I thought I was in.
Sadly, it was not to be. Jamie Oliver and Neil Perry can rest easy.
But the friend who sold me on the idea apparently got a look in. Her name is Janet A. McLeod and she is a very funny lady. If you have cable, and have nothing better to do than watch TV on a Saturday night, the program is called the Great BBQ Challenge, and is on at 7.30pm tomorrow, 2 December.
I'll sign off with a pic of some real BBQ. Here's one I made earlier, as they say. That's Underwater Jesus admiring some pork ribs.