Overheard...

...today while teaching year 9's at a local Catholic girls' school: 
"When I'm a mum and I have girls, I'm going to feed them homemade cakes and then tell them to go play outside and climb trees and roll in mud."

...this afternoon while walking past a bus stop. An elderly Italian or Greek gentleman speaking to a young Muslim woman in hijab: 
"This closes your face. Why you want to close your face? I can't see all of it, but I know you have a beautiful face."

Graffiti in North Fitzroy: 
"the future is bleak
 it is uncertain and beautiful."


...this evening outside my flat:
The sun sets and Cicadas sing in trees.

Jasmina's Birthday

Happy Birthday Jas!

Despite the fact that we checked in 70 school leavers  (ready to party and binge drink) into the cottages and the hostel on Saturday, Matt still managed to make Jas's birthday a pleasant affair. Friends came over in  the evening for a BBQ and some cake.

The Local on Sunday Night

The place to be in Lorne on a Sunday Night is at BabaLu Bar . There's live music, good drinks and good conversation. The locals all rock up after other restaurants close and sit outside on the benches.

Some still life:

BabaLu lighting inside.


Bartender Dylan shakes and pours a superior Appletini!

Note to Self #22

When looking for a new housemate, be prepared for the unusual.
On two separate occasions, two different people who described their part-time job/interest as "Medieval Re-Creationist" or "Medieval Re-Creation" came to look at the room Damian recently vacated.  Wow! Those crazy Medieval Recreationists, always dressing up in Medieval costumes and staging battles in random fields, setting up May Day feasts (with stuck pigs on spits) at community centres and Harvest festivals in parks! Who knew so many of them  -- or at least two  -- want to live in Northcote!
I wonder what the Universe is trying to tell me....

...and Finished

Our INCOMPLETENESS run at La Mama is over now. The last show was on Friday, and Steve P. did an awesome job onstage. So much text and action was crystallized and real! It was such a strong ending to the Explorations season!

Incompleteness Started

The Two Steves opened their show last night to a lovely audience at La Mama. It's so interesting to watch this project move from paper to stage. It has shifted now that Steve P. is in front of an audience of more than 4 people, and it will continue to morph as he works and changes different things from performance to performance.

The set is basically 150 cardboard archive boxes, and Godel's theorem. Steve P. in tech rehearsal.

La Mama is tiny. We can comfortably fit 31 audience members in the space along with set and performers.

The Box Office, Bar and Theatre Door. The Office is upstairs. The Front of House is a little garden courtyard.... with garden ornaments.

Hot Days

The heat has hit Melbourne and Spring definitely feels like Summer! The last few days have been in the 30's. I tell you what, it's been warm enough to invest in a pedestal fan!

You can tell it's still Spring because it does feel cooler in the evening, and Aussies come out of their homes to sit in soft, warm air with beers on front porches.
I walked home from yoga class last night. It wasn't late, just 8 p.m maybe. Three doors down from my apartment block I passed an older Aussie gentleman I often exchange "G'day's" with. He was sitting on a low brick wall in front of his house in his chesty singlet, short shorts, and Blundstones (no lie!). After a nod hello I asked, as one does, "How do you like the warm weather?" "Bloody oath!!" he replies (again, no lie!).
In the house across the street from my apartment live this older Italian Australian couple who are often yelling at each other in Italian. I've named them Nonno and Nonna. We exchanged nods and smiles, and as I pass I ask "How you going?" They both shrug and the Nonna says, "Eees hot."

No matter which way you say it, it's hot... and Summer hasn't even started yet! While it's a pleasant change from the Aussie "winter", it doesn't bode well for bush fire season.

Theatre Vocabulary

Dramaturg/Dramaturge: A position in the theatre responsible for any combination of the following tasks: 

• assisting with the development and editing of new plays 
• keeping a critical eye on the production, working to improve and maintain high quality.
• conducting research into the historical and social conditions, specific locations, time periods, and/or theatrical styles of plays to further assist the playwright, director and/or design team in their production. 
• locating and translating worthy scripts from other languages

I've been lucky enough to have been invited (and paid!) to work with "The Two Steves" on a new Australian theatre piece.  It's a One-Man Show they have been working on for a few years. I've been helping out for the last two months.

It's loosely based on the experience and theories of  Kurt Godel, a mathematical logician and friend of Albert Einstein. Like many people with intense creative ability and great minds, he was ... well .... a bit unusual -- a mathematical wild child! Definitely great material for theatre!

The work is logics, maths and the human experience embodied onstage. Of course it's fascinating!

The Gush: (an utterly sincere and honest one!)

It's been really exciting to work on a project with so much potential. It's so well written and well acted. The Steves are lovely!

We open a short season this Wednesday night as a part of a development program sponsored by  the  LA MAMA Theatre.

Wish us luck!

What the Storm Swell left behind

Kelp and seaweed litter Lorne Beach after a storm.

Boring As

If I'm going to be honest with myself, my last two posts are almost completely lacking in entertainment value. So, to reassure you that I do get out to do more than just hunt down public health announcements and practice my Breaking and Entering skills, have a look!

I went to a concert on Friday night with my friend Nadia. bluejuice is a popular Australian band that has been around for ages. Nadia's boyfriend's brother, James is the drummer, and Nadia also knows Stav, one of the lead singers. Good music; young bogan crowd. Nadia and I were happy in the mosh pit  until we were outnumbered by big inebriated blokes.

Like Cinderella, we set ourselves a curfew of midnight. Nadia was going to Derby Day (the first day of the Spring Racing Carnival) on Saturday, and I was catching an early morning train to escape to Lorne for the long weekend. Even with our early exit, we still got to hear some of the band's iconic songs AND we held our own down the front with the blokes. No shoes were left behind.