Talking and Comedy

On Friday 30th, after a sunny day off work, my friend Jes and I went to see our last event of the Hello Darkness mini-festival, a talk and slideshow by Ken Warner about his photographs of Halloween from San Francisco.

I hadn’t heard of him before, but a quick search online found some photographs of high interest and good quality. He visited or lived in San Fransisco for twenty-odd years, and photographed the Halloween street parties which were based around the gay community there. He discussed how the parties came about, what people thought about it and some of the experiences he had while there. He showed us colour photos, as he had published a book of black and white photos and felt that the colour photos were something new.

There were some very interesting images involving people with costumes that were certainly worthy of some analysis. The highlight I think was the man who, apparently year after year, wore a costume consisting of pads and tampons with blood-red paint (at least I hope it was paint).

The room it took place in was on Brunswick Street, in an upstairs open-plan place. It seemed like the ideal place for a party, and although we headed off early, it seemed that a party would go on into the night. I even managed to sit on the hard wooden floor for the few hours it lasted. The crowd was an interesting mix of friends of friends of people who organised it, artistic types who were interested in the photos and quirky gothic types who just wanted to go to everything Halloween themed. I’m not sure where I fit in, but I was wearing plastic mini jack-o-lantern earrings.

The longer weekend was fairly quiet and lazy. Saturday afternoon consisted of an impromptu pub crawl and the evening a delicious dinner at the old Dainty Sechuan in Chinatown. Sunday was again, lazy, and involved watching
Flesh Gordon 2: Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders’. We’d seen the first earlier this year, and this was significantly worse, but still amusing and lightly entertaining.

Unfortunately I had to work Monday, breaking up what could have been a five-day weekend. However, Cup eve evening was spent eating good food, drinking good beer and watching good comedy. We had dinner at Red Pepper at the top end of Bourke Street, a tried and tested Indian eatery. At only $6 for a veggie curry, and slightly less for an alcoholic beverage, it’s a great bargain.

Next up we headed over to Spleen, where there is free comedy on Monday nights. Although I’ve had the intention of going many times, this was the first time I actually managed to attend. Adam Rozenbachs was acting as MC and there was a huge set of other small-name comedians. Adam used a lot of the material he had at the comedy festival and when I saw him at the Comedy Club, but had added some new bits and delivered the old stuff in different ways.

Otherwise, Sammy J was fantastic, Felicity Ward was great and Troy Kinne was fairly good too. They were the highlights, but the others weren’t all bad. I think I’ll have to make an effort to go again, but not when it’s too warm – the air-con wasn’t very good!

Melbourne Cup Day was an enjoyable public holiday, and to avoid the racing rabble we headed to the cinema. We saw ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, which I suppose is also called the movie that Heath Ledger was making when he died.

Overall, I liked it. It wasn’t amazing, and Heath Ledger didn’t get much of an opportunity to show how great he was, but it was an enjoyable movie and done well, particularly when you take into account what happened. I understand that they had to re-write chunks of it to enable three other actors to fill in (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell). I can’t say in comparison to how it was before, but the re-write definitely worked and the other three actors stepped up to the mark and did fantastically. Tom Waits also deserves a mention; I think I’m becoming a fan of his.

Otherwise, the movie is a long one, but doesn’t seem it. The story is interesting, if a little confusing. The special effects are beautiful and the costumes are especially impressive.

After that, it was all downhill and back to work today.

Of the four Death Sauces I bought two weeks ago at the Dutch weekend, I have only tried the Original (on baked chicken) and the Jalapeno (on baked beans). They were both fairly weak, but with a great flavour. The After and Sudden sauces are still to come, and I’ve been told that they’re the fun ones. Of course, the first thing I shall do is report to the Internet.

Over the last few weeks I’ve lost a lot of confidence in myself film-photography-wise. Loading film the wrong way, forgetting to cock the shutter, forgetting to use the ‘bulb’ setting…it’s all come together and helped me to revert to digital. I remember learning the manual settings of a camera on digital and how great it was knowing how I was changing an image with each setting. At the moment, I have three different cameras loaded with 35mm film, and yet I take out either my digital compact or the D-SLR more often than not, simply because I don’t want to waste or ruin any more film!

This weekend hopefully I’ll get out and get some decent photos with the digital camera and that’ll get me back on my feet to take more photos on film!

New toy

So a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Bronica ERT-Si and 50mm lens from someone I know through Flickr. It is my first trip into the medium format SLR world, and I was quite excited. Excited as I was, it took me until this weekend just past to test it and unfortunately, it didn’t go too well.

First of all, I had a problem with the battery, but after that was sorted, I thought all was going to be smooth sailing.

Get home with two rolls of film to develop, so I make a start on the first one – a single roll of a cheap black and white Chinese film I picked up for free. The roll came out with the text and some light leaks, but otherwise blank, so something had obviously gone wrong. As I finished and re-wound the second roll, some Neopan 400, I realised that it was the wrong way around.

As I all but concluded that this was the problem with the other film too, I decided not to waste the film and work out which way around the film went. I wound the film back onto another spool and loaded the Bronica in the light until I saw the film come through. I then closed and shot the rest of the film, just to check the shutter was firing well too. I developed that roll this afternoon, and all is fine.

The one thing that’s been frustrating with it though has been the waist level finder. I haven’t had a camera with a WLF before, but I’ve tried some at Flickr meets before and it’s not for me. I like the camera being at eye-level more. Now that I know the camera is working, I’ve purchased a prism finder (with meter) so that I can use the camera more comfortably.

All is well in the world of new-second-hand-cameras.

Second Anniversary

On September 1st it passed the second year I’ve been in Melbourne. As pointed out in my last post, I’m quite settled here and enjoying everything.

Anyway, the weekend before last, I took a day-trip out to Mt Buller to see Australian snow for the first time. After doing some investigative work, the best deal I could find was through the tourist agency ExtraGreen for a bus from the city and back. After a last-minute upgrade, we ended up on a good quality bus on our way out of the city at 6am. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t exactly pleasant, and as we headed to higher ground, the rain started to fall. It continued all day, and all but ruined the day.

If it hadn’t been raining, we could have hired some snow shoes and gone for a hike, or completed the Gnome Roam (as it was, I could only find one gnome on the clock tower before giving up), or even just had a better look around the village. Unfortunately, after some lunch and some more skipping between buildings, we headed up Summit Road to a pub and spent some time playing Buckhunter! The snow barely got a look in.

I was almost grateful to be on the bus going home after the wasted day there. As we pulled into Mansfield (where people had hired snow-gear), the rain cleared and there was some beautiful late afternoon light. As we had some time to kill, we went for a quick walk around nearby and took some photos before the clouds covered the rest of the sky.

Other than that, nothing too big has been happening for me. This Friday past, I had free tickets to the Comedy Club, where I got to see Adam Rozenbachs as MC, with Terry North and Lehmo. Terry North is an English comedian that I’ve seen on two other occasions, and he still has no new material. Thankfully Lehmo and Adam Rozenbachs both made up for this and it was an enjoyable night.

I’ve been quite busy at work recently, but I’ve also been to the movies a few times. I saw District 9 a few weeks ago. This was a refreshing movie. The fact that it was South African, with little American influence, was quite noticable. The acting was a little iffy at times – with the main character barely developing at all. Apart from that, the special effects and costumes were impressive, and I liked the movie.

The other movie I saw was Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. Now this movie has had a fair amount of press, and I was looking forward to it. It didn’t disappoint. The violence was plentiful, and there was more than enough dialogue, but overall I felt that it worked. The in-depth dialogue and speeches were, at times, overkill, but added to the rest of the action, it was fantastic. The acting was fantatic, with mostly unknown (to me at least) actors. The character of Col. Landa, played by Christoph Waltz, was particularly impressive.

As the Melbourne Silver Mine’s Unsensored 09 exhibition closes on Wednesday, I highly recommend heading down if you get the chance. It sounds like it has been quite successful, with a number of people passing through and some of the pieces have sold (multiple times!) My image hasn’t sold, but I was aiming to bring it home to adorn our wall instead. It certainly would have been nice to make a sale, but after agonising over the images, I decided to hang them just for the sake of hanging, rather than to make money. This is the first time my work has been displayed in public, and I’m quite content just to be able to see my work large and on the wall!

While on the subject of photography, I visited Scienceworks Museum last weekend to see the Star Wars exhibition. Taking my camera and a couple of lenses was the easy bit, but with many of the displays poorly lit and behind glass smeared with children’s fingerprints, getting the photos was a bit harder. I took my still new-ish 40D with my 50mm f/1.8, and by using my adaptor, I also had two Nikon mount lenses – 85mm f/1.4 and 24mm f/2.8. Unfortunately the former of these was of little use in the crowded rooms, but the 24mm was useful on occasion to get some close-ups of pieces.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to see any more movies at MIFF, but I did see the Whitlams playing at the Corner Hotel last weekend. Their show was quite extensive, with only one support and playing one album in full (Eternal Nightcap). It was a fantastic show with an intriguing crowd. Thankfully, MUFF starts soon, and I should be able to see a few more of those.

Just this weekend, I saw ‘Drag Me To Hell’ as it’s cinema run is finishing. I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite mixed reviews. There were moments where I momentarily cringed and thought it would go down hill, but it managed to redeem itself. The acting, for the most part, was very good, but I felt there were too many ‘jumps’ to be fun. It ended up distracting from the story and acting. On the whole though, it was fantastic. Hopefully this week I will manage to see District 9 too.

While I’m remembering, I never got around to mentioning the latest Harry Potter movie. As a movie, it was fantastic. The darkness, the acting and the effects were all very good and the movie moved along nicely. Obviously, as a comparison to the book, it’s disappointing. Many, apparently unimportant, aspects and scenes were left out, and there were huge chunks missing. Also, the scene of Dumbledore’s death, which could and should have been amazing, was a huge letdown.

So last month my parents were in the country – mostly in Adelaide, but flew in and out of Melbourne so there was a chance for us to catch up. I took them around to a couple of places and showed them the city. We had an afternoon at Fairfield Boat House, and I treated them to a dinner at Punch Lane Wine Bar. Both were delicious and I strongly recommend them if you have a chance to try either.

Other than that, it’s been the same old photography/knitting/reading/socialising mess for me! I’ve been knitting a cardigan for a friend who is expecting a new baby, and I’ve branched out a bit with a striped pattern and different stitches – it’s coming along very nicely and pictures will be posted once it’s completed. I’ve also been using a very easy bootie pattern and made a few pairs with leftover yarn. It’s very basic, but quite productive as you can do them almost with your eyes closed.

Photography-wise, as per my last post, there’s an exhibition of film photography next week run by the Melbourne Silver Mine group. I have a set of three photos displayed at this, which have been printed and framed but I haven’t had a chance to collect them just yet. What I know of the other shots are very good, if a little ‘Melbourne-y’, and I’d highly recommend you head along if you get a chance.

For my birthday I was given a Holga 120N with a small flash, and I eagerly tried these out at the last Melbourne group Flickr meet. Although I mixed up the film size without a mask, the photos came out quite nicely on Neopan 400.

Last night I managed to see the first (and probably only) movie of the Melbourne International Film Festival, a Norwegian one called ‘Dead Snow’. It was a story about Nazi zombies attacking a group of young, attractive students. I really enjoyed it; there were laughs and jumps, and the writer knew how to make fun of himself. It turned out very well, and it’s made me want to see more movies of a similar vein – many of which I own on DVD but haven’t watched yet. I’ll get to them!

I don’t know that I’ll get time to see any others, which is a shame as there seems to be a lot on (even with those pulled out for political reasons). I’ve heard good things about Tony Manero and Chocolate though.

Great Ocean Road etc (Part 3)

After raining all night, Monday was a little worrying to wake to. We had decided to head up to Hopetoun Falls, but there were two routes to get it. With one being labelled a track, we were unsure whether we’d be able to get through it in a Toyota Corolla, so we headed back to the information centre to double check what sort of condition it was in. Instead, she recommended that we go back the way went the day before and along the Turtons Tourist Track. This worked just fine for us, and Turtons Track was simply beautiful.

The small of the other track down to the falls however, was a little more worrying, and the turn off for the waterfall even more so. Taking it nice and slow, and seeing virtually no tourists, helped us to arrive in one piece. Still raining, we headed down into the rainforest to the Hopetoun Falls, which were worth the walk down (and the fear of having to get back up the hill). Again, photos to come.

Next we decided to head to the Triplet Falls, but getting lost and having to do a u-turn when we realised we were heading back towards Apollo Bay, we decided to stop for an early lunch instead. Kat and Trav discovered the small area of Redwoods just near the Hopetoun falls, and we went exploring. The area is simply stunning with the towering Redwoods and beautiful stream running past.

By this time we deemed it late enough that most tourists would have left and we could go to the Otway Fly – something Kat had really been looking forward to. It was still raining, and at the bottom of the rainforest, we might have stayed slightly dry, but 27m up, there was no chance. Still, the views were something different, and the 47m tower was fun (if only to see Trav so scared!) The walk back to the visitors centre wasn’t quite so fun, but headbutting the dinosaur at the end of the walk was worth it.

After that, we decided to take the same route back to Apollo Bay, along Turton’s Track and through Skene’s Creek, wanting to stick to roads that we knew while it kept raining and was getting darker.

Again, we had to dry out all of our clothes, and decided to have another lazy night in with ice cream, nachos and the projector.

The next morning we started our way out of town. We came back along the Great Ocean Road again, wanting to have another burger and chips at the same cafe! Between Lorne and Geelong though, we headed inland and came in through Geelong and back to the city. The rest of the afternoon was a chance to dry off and catch up on washing before we all went back to work.

Great Ocean Road etc (Part 2)

Sunday (7th) dawned earlier than usual for us, so after our complimentary continental breakfast (only until 9.30am, but considering we were the only ones in our unit, I’m sure it didn’t just disappear after that time), we headed down to the tourist information building to get some better maps and details about the waterfalls and walks.

Deciding to take it easy for the day, we headed to Stevenson Falls, up near Forrest, which was considered either a 20 minute or 1 hour easy walk, depending where you took the car. As we got up to the turn-off, we ended up on a narrow, almost gravel road, which caused initial panic, but became easier as the weekend went on.

As we came up to the carpark (a campsite), we could see that the road to the second carpark was open – which would mean a shorter walk – so we took it and without getting bogged, arrived in the carpark.

The walk was easy, and very nice, just as the brochure described! The path was pretty wet, but no rain was seen (yet), and we had no problems getting up to the waterfall.

The metal platform caused some problems, with the feet of my tripod slipping through! I still managed to get some shots (to come), and the area was simply beautiful. Travis let his adventurous side come through as he climbed over the other side of the river, then up onto the massive rocks in front of the waterfall. I could see it all ending in tears, but he’s home and we’re all fine! This was also the point where I noticed all the lichens and fungi growing – obviously, being a rainforest, the damp and dark conditions are perfect for it.

As we headed back to town, it was decided that I was getting fish and chips for lunch, to keep me happy and quiet. It was delicious, and there is nothing quite like eating fish and chips, on the coast, in winter while it drizzles!

Instead of heading to another waterfall (we’d seen two, we’d seen them all), we decided to take a look at Mait’s Rest walk – which takes you past a 300 year old myrtle beech tree. Again this was a very easy walk, which unfortunately meant there were lots of children, but the forest was so dense that you turned a corner and could barely hear them. It was stunning – although I’m disappointed they didn’t point out this specific tree; we’re left assuming that one of the many huge trees is 300 years old and the rest are only 200-and-something!

The rain was coming down quite steadily by this point; Kat kept pointing out that we’re in the rainforest in winter and I kept arguing that the rainforest could do without rain for a couple of days. While we were out in that direction, we decided that our last stop of the day would be the Cape Otway lighthouse.

Although I couldn’t see it from the carpark, the lady in the shop was adamant that it was just over the hill, so we paid our preposterous $15 and went through. The rain and wind was a little disruptive, but we skipped the communications museum and went straight up to the lighthouse. Grateful that we made the climb to the top, the views were amazing and the wind from up there just exhilarating. Looking out to the rough sea, it’s obvious why the lighthouse was necessary. Travis was only a little bit scared.

Coming back through, we also managed to buy discounted tickets for the Otway Fly, which would be one of the activities the next day. All that was left was getting home to dry out before dinner.

The gas heater turned out to be a godsend, as our jeans and shoes all went in front of it, as well as ourselves. Thankfully we managed to drag ourselves out to dinner, and we went to Cafe 153, which was slightly disappointing. The food was tasty but nothing special and the service was a bit of a let down, but at least I managed to get some seafood for the second time that day!

Great Ocean Road, Apollo Bay, The Otways and The Rain (Part 1)

Before we (Kat, Trav and I) had realised it was the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, we had arranged to go away for four nights to Apollo Bay and the Great Ocean Road. Of course, once we realised this, we had already booked an extra day off work and were hyped about it, so we just had to get a move on and book the accommodation quickly before it was gone!

We left on the Friday night (5th June) after we’d finished work, and headed down to Torquay. Of course, an accident on the West Gate delayed things by half an hour or so, but all in all, a relatively quick trip was had. A stop for fast food in Geelong, Kat’s first booze bus and we arrived in Torquay by 9pm. We stayed in a small cabin there just overnight before moving on in the morning.

We took a leisurely drive down the Great Ocean Road the next morning, stopping frequently at the lookouts and towns. Our first stop was Aireys Inlet, where the Split Point Lighthouse is. We had a walk down to the beach before heading over to the lighthouse (which we didn’t go up) and wandered around in the sunshine before moving on. I’ve since found out that this is the same lighthouse from the TV show ‘Round The Twist’ and would have been much more excited there had I known that!

I can’t remember the other various stops that we made, but we timed it so that we came into Lorne just before lunch time. After a quick walk around, we decided on a place called ‘Bottle of Milk’ which served large burgers accompanied by loud music. Very delicious, and we even stopped again on the way back!

Just as we were finishing, a couple of friends I know from Flickr came in, so we hung around for a quick chat before leaving them to their food. It was a bit of a shock seeing Melbourne people out of town like that!

On the way out of Lorne, we spotted Sheoak Falls and decided to stop for a quick look. The walk up wasn’t exactly easy on my ITBS, Kat’s legs or Trav’s lungs, but we got there and managed to have a look around before more people arrived. We only went to the bottom lookout, deciding that as it was, getting back to the car would be a struggle! Unfortunately, this set the tone for the weekend. If only we’d have been fitter and more prepared…

After several more stops and more beautiful weather, we came into Apollo Bay in late afternoon. On arrival, we couldn’t see anyone there to check in, so we left a message and went to grab a drink. After they had called back and directed us to another building, we checked in, paid and were then directed to our own 2 bedroom unit on another site. It was an older unit, mostly decorated 70s style (wood panelling, old gas heater and stove), but was ours for three nights so was quite convenient.

The rest of the afternoon was relaxing, and we had a look around town and just rested our legs. Although the TV had a few issues, we had brought laptops and a projector, so could cuddle up and watch a movie after dinner.

Adelaide

After it being a good year since last visiting Adelaide, the arrival of a football game between my friend’s team (Hawthorn) and my team (Adelaide) in Adelaide seemed like a good excuse to go back.

It was a difficult trip, with the Skybus to Tullamarine leaving from Southern Cross at around 5am, requiring a ridiculously early start on our part! The trip to the airport, checking in and the flight itself were all very smooth – especially considering we were flying with Jetstar!

Adelaide at 7am was fairly cold, but we managed to find the bus (which was running on a Saturday morning) and get into the centre of town. Finding the hotel was no problem, but check in wasn’t until 2pm, so we had some time to kill. Luckily we could leave our big bags in the hotel while we explored the early morning city. After walking up Rundle Mall, Rundle Street and looping back around on North Terrace, we stopped for a bite to eat (brunch?) at a small cafe called ‘Not Coffee’.

As we weren’t staying with my Grandma this time, we went to see her later on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the buses were over an hour apart so we ended up getting a taxi out into the inner suburbs. As my friend is vegan, I had baked some cookies to take with us to save my Grandma stressing over finding something vegan. As it turned out, she did have some other biscuits in her cupboard which were milk/animal-free, but little else!

Back in the city, we got off the bus and went in the Central Markets for a look around – not much has changed – and then back up through Victoria Sqaure. Many a photo was taken.

Thankfully after that we could check in and had a little nap so that we wouldn’t crash too early that night. Our hotel was the Adelaide Paringa Motel, which despite the old decor, was clean, cheap and cheerful. The receptionist was quite amusing too, making sarcastic comments about the ’sights of Adelaide’!

We went out just as the sun was going down and went down to the Torrens, opposite the Festival Centre to scope out potential night-shooting places; unfortunately we came up with very little and didn’t go back down there later.

Dinner that night was at a delicious Thai joint in Hindley Street called Mekong Thai. The prices were reasonable (especially for booze), the food delicious and service fantastic. I’m still trying to establish what was wrong with it!

That evening we headed down to Rundle Mall to take some night shots. A surgical mask on the pigs covered the hilarity of the swine flu panic, and then the balls and some other long exposures were enough to cover a night shoot in Adelaide. The idea of a warm hotel room and a good nights sleep was just too tempting, so we had an early night.

Sunday; the day of the footy. Without too much before the early afternoon game, we took a quick walk down King William Street to do some shooting before catching the bus out to the game. I’m still in awe that the public transport is so readily available and civilised.

The game itself was OK – we played well, but could have played better. Hawthorn didn’t deserve to win, but we could have fought a lot harder and won by a bigger margin. Overall though, very happy result and a great atmosphere for the game. The little bit of rain was only a little off-putting but thankfully didn’t last too long.

After catching the bus back into the city (still in awe), we headed back for a rest at the hotel and then out for an early dinner again. Again we settled on Thai, but this wasn’t as impressive (down on Rundle Street), and then a couple of (dirt cheap) pints at the Exeter to keep us warm before walking back down to our hotel.

Monday morning was free for us until around 1pm, so we took a last walk around the city for photos. A loop took us up onto North Terrace, through the museum/university area, back around down Frome Road, down towards Victoria Square and back along Rundle Mall to our hotel. By this time, we were both ready for a sit down! The journey back was uneventful other than a 20 minute delay on the flight, and we managed to get home between the light showers of rain.