Disgusting.

That’s how I would describe the weather of the last weekend. Perhaps I’m just sad that summer seems to have finally gone, my winter coats have come out and I need to wear more than one top when I go out, but I still think the wind and rain was so unnecessary yesterday!

Saturday wasn’t exactly ideal, but at least it was dry for the most part (as said in my previous entry, it only really rained during the comedy show I was at). Sunday morning was horrible though. A lazy start was good, but having planned to go to the KLM Dutch Orange Day, I needed to put on as many pieces of clothing as possible.

The KLM Dutch Orange Day was a bit of a wash-out (hah), with most stalls shutting up early, no music or dance and running between shelter and the croquette tent in high wind wasn’t so fun. On the other hand, I got to eat some croquette for the first time in years and found out there is a Dutch shop in Melbourne. I didn’t take any photos (with my first 120 roll of film!) and left as soon as I’d eaten.

Of course, after that, the sensible thing would have been to go home and stay home. Instead, after going for a proper lunch and heading home to warmth, I then went to the footy with a friend to see Adelaide vs. Melbourne! Thankfully it had stopped raining, but the cold wind increased and didn’t get any warmer as it got darker. I think the only plus side from it was that Adelaide won (in a horrible game) and I came home to two doonas and a good book.

This week doesn’t look too much better, but I have my heater out, I have yarn to knit another scarf and I have Kev’s $900 to spend as I wish. Bring on winter!

The Last Laugh

How sad, the comedy festival is over!

I had a slow last week and only saw three shows, but they were good and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself. I’ve missed some shows that I would have been interested to see, but I’m glad I’ve seen as many as I did!

So the last three started with Nik Coppin – an English guy who my friends help promote each year, and as such, I feel obliged to see. I saw him last year and enjoyed his show and so felt less obliged and more keen to see him off my own back. His show was quite empty on a Sunday evening with less than ten of us there, but he took the chance to talk a little more rubbish that was relevant to each of us.

After that, it was all relaxed until Friday night! Unfortunately by this stage I had (and still have) my second cold in as many weeks. I went to Wil Anderson to help to cure it. Although I don’t consider myself a huge fan of him, I do like him and was glad to have a chance to see his own show. Although there was quite a bit of swearing, it was different to Arj Barker in that it wasn’t for the sake of it. I’ve realised that what my high school ethics teacher (who was Australian) said was true – that Australians simply swear for punctuation. Wil swearing didn’t annoy me as much as Arj because it part of the language that he’s always and probably will always use.

The show was pretty extensive, and as with Adam Hills, had it’s sad moment, but for the most part was continuous laughs!

The last show for the festival was Ali McGregor’s Lullabies. It’s a charity show which has been on for the last three years and as my friend had mentioned it last year, I thought I’d get in this year and see what it was about. It raises money for an orphanage in Cambodia and simply involves a selection of comedians performing ‘lullabies’, although the term is used very loosely! This year included Tripod, Fiona O’Laughlin’s daughter, Adam Hills, The Boy With Tape On His Face (and his wife?), Stephen K Amos and many more which I can’t remember.

It was a beautiful show with so many beautiful and unconventional lullabies performed. Obviously there were many laughs, but constant mentions of the orphans brought it back to everyone.

About half-way through the show, which was in Bosco (a tent set up in City Square), it started raining. As most people would realise, it was very loud! It added to the warm atmosphere in the tent though, and strategic traffic noises added percussion to some songs! Unfortunately while we were warm and dry inside, there was no backstage for the artists and Ali McGregor had to arrange for some bubble wrap to keep them dry (and floating I presume).

All the acts came forward at the end and performed ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ as an a cappella. It was one of the best endings to a show, and definitely a good ending to the comedy festival for me!

So since the last post, I’ve had a few great nights of comedy.

The first show was Adam Hills: Inflatable. Although it had the usual charm and hilarity of a Hillsy show, there was a sadder aspect to it which brought everyone down for just a moment. However, ending with the Australian national anthem to the tune of Working Class Man, brought everyone back up. All in all, it was a different but fantastic show.

After that, a second big name was up – Danny Bhoy. Although I’ve only seen a DVD of one of his shows, I was excited to be able to see him live with new material. Despite a very rowdy (and not particularly funny) crowd, he managed to get through the show and make the most of it. I can definitely understand his hype, and I was impressed by his stage presence.

This week we also had tickets to see Adam Rozenbachs. We saw him last year and as we had to sit in the front row, there was some embarrassment as my housemate confirmed that I pee’d in the shower (his question after discovering I worked for a bathware company)! Thankfully this year we were sitting toward the back and could sit back to enjoy the show. The front row wasn’t quite as exciting (it’s hard to make fun of someone who cares for the elderly) but his show was interesting, up-to-date and as always, entertaining.

My Friday night plans unfortunately fell through, so we ended up seeing Randy’s Postcards from Purgatory – a puppet comedy. This was a new one for me, and was interesting. Obviously the puppetry demanded skill too, but it was more of a production of the last few years of his life involving different flashback scenes. It was funny, different and very interesting.

After that, we took a break from the comedy and went to see a showing of Deliverance at ACMI. I hadn’t seen this movie before, and I really enjoyed it. The story was better done than the lost-campers-hillbilly-trouble movies of today, and there were enough laughs to keep my attention for the entirety. After finding out that these showings are a regular event, I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for what’s on next.

Last night had two more shows in stock. The first was Rod Quantock Eats Himself, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He essentially just talks through the issue of global warming, what we should do, why the government isn’t doing enough – the usual. However, his delivery is what makes the show; he comes across as a mad scientist, complete with chalk-board. It was good to see the same material delivered in a new way and by a genuinely concerned and interesting bloke.

Later on, we went to see Ali McGregor’s Late Nite Variety Nite, a similar show to The Festival Club with a collection of comics performing while Ali McGregor is an MC, in a classic burlesque-esque style. As an MC, she has a great presence, but seems to rely too heavily on her guests; I would have preferred for her to take more of the show as her own. Despite that, we saw a good crowd – Kent Valentine, Celia Pacquola, Wil Anderson and Rima the itty-bitty burlesque dancer (yes, the midget from BB). I enjoyed all except the last.

With only one more week of the festival left, I’m not sure whether to start relaxing again, or to cram as many acts in as possible. I have a two more booked, but I’ll play the rest by ear; there are several more I’d love to see thoughC

“I only get annoyed when they ask me to see the fairy”

Happy Zombie Jeebus day.

Other than just enjoying a four day weekend without work, I’ve also been seeing copious amounts of comedy. After Goth Vs Nerd, things could only get better – and better they got!

On Friday 10th, a date long-awaited by us since the pre-sale, we went to see Dylan Moran. As huge fans of Black Books, this was a rather exciting time for us. Last year we saw Bill Bailey, also at Hamer Hall, and he was fantastic, so it was good to see the other half of the duo relatively soon.

As was expected, the show was fantastic. It was without a particular theme, which worked just fine for him and us. The subjects varied from religion (as quoted in the title), family, pleasure and health – focusing on how he’s getting older and things are quite drastically changing.

As with all great shows, there is always a tool in the audience who tries to heckle – but Dylan being an Irishman was having none of it and dealt out the blows accordingly!

All in all, the show was worth every cent and it was a lovely evening with which to end the first anniversary of my friend’s passing.

Saturday was a good day, involving a small memorial for our friend and a relaxed afternoon at home. That evening however, more comedy was on the cards. It started with another unknown show – ‘Elbowskin: Are We Stupid?’. The show was very reminiscent of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival style – young people, probably students, just voicing their slightly left-leaning opinions. Not that that’s bad – the show was fantastic and had me laughing for nearly the whole 55 minutes! A mixture of video, music and chit-chat, exploring how stupid we are. Very impressive.

After this show, I wanted more laughs, so we went to Town Hall and checked out the board of shows that evening. After debating whether we wanted to leave the CBD limits for a show, we settled on seeing The Festival Club at the Hi-Fi bar – a value-for-money show involving some bigger names and a mix of acts. With Adam Hills and Jason Byrne acting as MCs, it was hard to be disappointed. I can’t remember the names of the acts, other than Kevin Brennan, but I can say the standards were quite high!

Comedy

With the Comedy Festival in full swing, I have attended only two shows – but never fear, there are many more to come!

On Tuesday I was forced to sit through Arj Barker at the Town Hall. As Kat and I are dragging Trav to many shows, we thought it best we do something for him, and unfortunately, Arj was his choice! So a cold Tuesday evening arrived and we all rugged up, grabbed a Thermos of tea (no, really), and went on our way. After a kerfuffle with the trams, we finally arrived at the Town Hall, collected the tickets and made our way to the disgustingly uncomfortable chairs.

Now, I won’t say I didn’t laugh, because the show definitely had it moments – it’s just that the majority of the humour and the way it was delivered isn’t for me. He is very American, Californian to be exact, and even without the grating accent I don’t think I’d like his delivery. The excessive swearing is just that, excessive and unnecessary; the prolonged climate change joke was far too long and did I mention his accent was annoying?!

The show had it’s funny moments though, so I’m not entirely disappointed that I saw it.

So the next show was a last minute decision to see Goth Vs Nerd at Pony. I’d read the description and it sounded quite interesting with a lot of potential. Goths are funny (if they aren’t taking themselves too seriously), and nerds are often pathetically funny – so off we went. Unfortunately, instead of reaching the potential, it fell far too short and was over an hour of talking. About stuff. Which wasn’t very funny.

The nerd part of the show was interesting – although definitely not as nerdy as I had expected. He talked about different belief systems, which could have also been funny, but just wasn’t. It was a let down.

The goth part was definitely funnier, but I’m not sure whether that means it was actually funny, or just funny in comparison. There wasn’t too much discussion about the actual goth side of things, but at least there were over-acted jokes and gimicks, which helped to get a little giggle out of me.

So all in all, it hasn’t been too successful a comedy festival so far. Thankfully this weekend I’m seeing some big names which I know won’t let me down (Dylan Moran and Adam Hills), so I’m guaranteed at least two laughs this festival!

Relaunch

As I don’t think I posted about this before, I thought I should get to it.

My original website design was getting tired and too cluttered, and the content was old. I asked my housemate Trav, the resident nerd, to design something simple and snappy for me to display a small range of my photos, and within a few weeks, he’d come up with something perfect.

Here stands www.blankroll.com!

As an aside, I also have the story behind it.

I originally bought the site about four years ago or so, at a time when I was shooting primarily digital and gave little thought to moving to film. As digital films have no film, it is a similar to a blank roll of film – hence the name.

Since then I have, obviously, given in to shooting film (and am loving it), so the name is little more than something short and hopefully stylish now.

When I bought all the new developing stuff a couple of months ago and started to develop my own black and white film however, the first two rolls that I developed were actually blank – I couldn’t help but laugh! Thankfully it was only because I didn’t load the film into my Olympus OM-1N properly – all those since have been fine, and the name remains in tact.

More photos

At the Camberwell Market, I believe I mentioned that I bought a new toy camera which takes four half frames at once. I managed to shoot a roll and just got around to developing it.

Unfortunately there are a lot of finger-in-corner-of-frame incidences, but other than that, it’s great. Next time I be more careful, problem solved. I like it.

The novelty hasn’t worn off yet, and I think I have a few ideas for more dingy street black and whites with it, either during lunches or after work (boo to end of daylight savings!)

I’m also still looking at upgrading my slowly failing 10D for a nice, probably second-hand 40D. With digital models I don’t feel I have to go brand new – especially considering how quickly they are devalued and the technologically changes. As nice as it would be to pick up a 5D (mark I), I’m not sure I can justify the cost just yet, especially while I’m shooting a lot more film!

Speaking of film, I also bought my first ‘different’ developer. I’ve only ever used ID-11, but at the weekend I popped into Vanbar and bought a bottle of DD-X which I’m yet to open. Hopefully over the weekend I’ll get a roll or two done in it and see how it goes.

I’m also interested in trying push/pull processing, once I learn the difference and how it works! I’ve read that DD-X is reasonable for it, leaving it relatively low-grain and low-contrast (so I can bump that later).

In the manner of things changing, I’m also interested in purchasing some new black and white film. Exploring the some other Ilford films was a start, but I’m tempted to try some Neopan (400 or maybe 1600 if I can handle the grain), and perhaps some Tri-X too. All in good time though.