Sorry guys, this one is for the week before last. I’m
officially a week behind and so sorry about it.
I had this Monday off, which was such a lovely respite after
a crazy weekend. The sun came out for my day off and I tended to errands I
hadn’t accomplished because of a 9-5. The biggest one was the first set of
postcard send-offs, something I had been aiming to do since I got here. Send me
your address and you can get your very own postcard in tact with a kangaroo’s
apparently grinning face and my undying commitment to script (the only way to write a letter). Monday night,
Martha, Hannah and I headed into Fitzroy for the rehearsal for our show in the
Fringe festival. The show is being held in a bookshop called “Hares and Hyenas”
and you should know that the only literature available in the bookshop is
homoerotic “how tos” and hyper-sexualized cartoons. Rehearsal went well despite
the graphic surroundings
Tuesday was our first show and it really was the premiere of
the century. Well, nearly. There is a game in the show where the audience tells
a story and picks a style of music and I have to create a song (verses, chorus
and all) based on that prompting. Usually, I lean towards a more blues or jazz
genre but tonight I was gifted with “dub step”, as desired by the audience
member. Have you ever tried to make a dub step song with just your voice? Try
it and see how successful you can’t be.
Wednesday I started at my new blog in trendy South
Melbourne. I’m working with Pippa and Charlie and though it sounds like a
Dickens novel, it is an exciting new venture (the best of times and the worst
of times, if you will). We took our lunch break in the sun and Charlie treated
us to cakes and pastries from the café below, with whom they have a lovely
working relationship. I met up with Annie in the city afterwards for a music
journalism workshop. Such a cool night! People working for the premiere
music-oriented websites, magazines and television stations had an intimate
“this is what my life is and how I got here and how I got to speak to Billy
Corgan over coffee” session. So interesting to hear about the music journalism
scene as something so viable and profound- there were arguments that album
reviews can rival the literature of the times. Loved that! Met up with Uncle
Jim for trendy Mexican afterwards (scoff Americans, scoff) and was barely let in
by the guy at the front wearing suspenders and jean capris. The exchange was as
follows:
Suspender/Jean Capri combo guy: I know you’re meeting
someone, but we might not have room for you.
Me: Seriously? I can see him from here. He’s right by the
bar. His name is Jim.
Suspender/ Jean Capri combo guy: Hi Jim.
Me: I’m not Jim. He is Jim.
Suspender/Jean Capri combo guy: Right. Except that we
probably don’t have seats for you.
Me: There are two next to him. I can’t actually tell if
you’re kidding.
Suspender/Jean Capri combo guy: I’m not kidding.
That, American friends, is how cool Mexican is in Australia.
Thursday was another day at the new blog and a lunch spent
hanging out at the café downstairs. After work, I headed to Brunswick for our
first official radio stint at RRR, the NPR equivalent in the states. Such a
cool station-the headquarters are here in Melbourne, so everything being heard
comes through right where I was standing. Like NPR, RRR is on top of everything
important: music, culture and world news and the best part is, I get to be in
the thicket of all of it! I got to meet the team with whom I’ll be working and
start combing through the equipment for future production management.
Afterwards, I headed to Chapel Street to catch “On the Road” with Ciara, Penny
and Martha. Such an important story to put to film, I was so eager to see the
characters with whom I created such an intimate understanding and bond put on a
screen.
I worked Friday morning until about 2:30 then headed into
Richmond for none other than the love of my life, Beat. Today was “Hat Day” at
Beat and the discovery of a Sultan-esque hat prompted “Turkish 90’s Music
Trivia Day”, which then evolved into “What I Remember About American 90’s Music
Day” and “Why Rick Ross Should have an Australian Tour Day”. As you can see, my
days spent at the music magazine are some of my favorites to note. Afterwards,
I met up with Brett, Kappy, Jimmy and a few new additions at what was the most
tragic attempt at a restaurant ever to be experienced. Kappy chose the
restaurant, “Auction Rooms”, in the hopes of appearing to be the “foodie” of
our group of friends and arguably, to continue in his pursuit of impressing me.
So, we were faced with a menu of four options, one of which was a chicken with
24 cloves of garlic for $70 (in the chicken’s defense, it was a meal to be
shared) and Jerusalem artichoke. Needless to say, the table was
up in arms at both the prices and the content of the menu. However, the
waitress (a Pulp Fiction era Uma Thurman look-alike) patrolled our table until
our nerves/pride/combination of both prompted us to order things like “skate”
and “pork floss” with bated breath. Somehow, by some intervention of the
restaurant gods, Uma Thurman-waitress returned to tell us that our meal was
going to take 45 minutes. Alas, we were given our “way out” as the show we were
seeing post-dinner opened its doors in 30 minutes. We tried to act less happy
than we felt in apologizing for inconveniencing them but our joy couldn’t be
masked as we dashed for the door. We raced to Urban Burger, greeting the
disgruntled teenaged employees with insurmountable (and for the rest of the
clientele, inexplicable) passion for their burger patties and oily French
fries. Afterwards, we caught a hugely enjoyable improv show starring the
esteemed Dr. Brown. The show is silent, progressed only by his character work
and audience involvement. He is actually incredible in his physicality- the
hour passes by as if it were a second and you feel like you saw a full cast perform.
Saturday, I hung out with my older lady friends at Body Pump
in the morning then got ready for the epic all-day concert with Holly, Lauren,
Brett and Kappy. The venue was full of felt couches and we called the closest
spot to the hand-crafted wooden stage. So many cool acts: all acoustic performances by local Aussie musicians. Holly, Lauren and I fell in
love with each new guitar-toting male. After the frozen night started to set in,
Kappy, Brett and I took our frozen selves to Nandos for our traditional meal
and post-concert debrief.
Sunday, I met up with Jan for a lovely brunch and catch-up.
Afterwards, I trained to Ellie and we strolled along the beachside at the St.
Kilda Sunday markets. We took in the fleeting moments of sunshine and discussed
futures and bad bridesmaid dress colors whilst examining guitar pick necklaces and terry cloth onesies. I came home to grab dinner with Martha
before we headed to see “Choir Girl”, another incredible one-woman show.
The show, written, produced by and starring Sarah Collins, was so impressive
and so fun. We were singing along the whole time and also secretly plotting how
to write an equally profound script.
Beautiful tunes this week!
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Swim and Sleep (Like A Shark)
Breakfast: Grizzly Adams
Ali Barter: Marigold
Vance Joy: Riptide
Lots of love and hugs xoxox
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