Patti-Fest 08

While we’re on the topic of the arts, I was looking though the online guide for the Melbourne International Arts Festival for this year, and the first thing that comes to mind is PATTI SMITH OVERLOAD!

Firstly on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th October have two showings of Patti’s film ‘Patti Smith: The Dream of Life' being held at ACMI, with the Friday session being followed by a Q&A session with the great woman herself, along with Director Steven Sebring.
Following that, Patti holds two concerts at Hamer Hall on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th of October.
Then, finishing up on Monday the 13th, we have a Patti Smith and Phillip Glass collaboration based around the works of Allen Ginsberg. This is to be held at the Playhouse Theatre.

Who cares about food, rent or anything else for that matter?

I HEART PATTI SMITH!

Another Dead Legend

I was catching up with a mate the other day (hi-ya Lil), who mentioned that there was a screening of the fantastic Todd Hayes film ‘Poison’ coming up at the Astor Theatre over the next few weeks. This reminded me of when I first saw this film, late one Saturday night on SBS (a lifeline for me during this time, being a country kid and all that) and being absolutely astonished. I had simply never seen a film like this before, a film that was so experimental in nature and so bold in it’s depiction of queer sexuality, that it had me pulling out the videotape many times, once the rest of my family had gone to bed of course, for yet another clandestine viewing.

For those who have not seen the film, it is broken into three different, but interlocked sections that are inspired by the work of Jean Genet. Hero is a mother’s account of her son’s disappearance; in Horror a scientist’s experiments lead to contagion and decay; and in Homo a prisoner falls in love with a beautiful but cruel fellow inmate and becomes drowned in obsession, fantasy and, ultimately violence (The Bent Lens, pg 328). The film as a whole in absolutely mind-blowing, but with my budding queer tendencies coming to the fore during this time, my favourite one of the stories was Homo. The reason for this is I remember being captivated by the beauty and potent sexuality of actor James Lyons, who played the role of the object of obsession in the film. Upon being reminded of this actor by the mention of the film, I jumped on the net, did a quick search and discovered that James Lyons only had one other major film role, the equally astonishing ‘Postcards from America’. A film based on the autobiographical writings of David Wojnorowicz, covering the transition of American culture from the 1960’s into the 1990s. This came as a great surprise to me, as while I had been blown away by Lyons work in ‘Postcards’, I hadn’t recognised his and made the connection between his work in that film and his work in ‘Poison’ While at first glance only two major film roles may not seem like much of a career as such. Lyons was actually mostly known as a accomplished film editor, responsible for cutting together films such as ‘The Virgin Suicides’, ‘Velvet Goldmine’, ‘Far From Heaven’ as well as the affor mentioned ‘Poison’. I was also surprised, and somewhat saddened to discover that he had died of AIDS early last year.

Reading though some of the obituaries written about Lyons, I began to piece together a portrait of a man who, though involvement with only a relatively small amount of films, created a legacy of beautiful, provocative and life changing motion pictures. So I urge anyone reading this, if you have yet to see either of these films, track down and check out both ‘Poison’ and ‘Postcards from America’. Two brilliant films in their own right, but both worth special consideration for the magnetic performance by James Lyons, a man who clearly spend his life trying to create thought provoking art, and for this reason, a man who should be honoured by all those who truly consider themselves film-lovers.

Long Live The Radical Feminists

I stumbled across this great interview while doing some research for uni, it’s with John Stoltenberg, who was Andrea Dworkin's long term partner. It is particularly notable, as it gives a very personal insight into Andrea and personally allowed me to get another perspective to this very controversial character.

Enjoy

www.andreadworkin.net/memoria...iew.html

Missing gigs in the music capital

The last few weeks have been incredibly hectic with work and Uni and as a result my gig pig tendencies have had very little in the way of outings. Adding to this is the sheer dumb luck I have been suffering from on the few occasions that I can find the time and money to check out live music. It all started a couple of weeks ago when my mate Lil and I organised to go check out a band on a Saturday night; the only problem was that we wanted to see two different bands. I had planned to check out SixFtHick at the Ding Dong Lounge and Lil wanted to see Front End Loader at The Tote, so we met up in the city and decided that as both of us had seen SixFtHick before and neither us had seen Front End Loader, we would be heading to The Tote. What is the punch line to this story I hear you ask, well it came when we got to The Tote and quickly realised the BOTH SixFtHick and Front End Loader had been on THE FRIDAY NIGHT!
As you could imagine, we were both dually impressed that separately, we had done exactly the same thing!

My bad gig karma continued that same week, when I was forced to choose between The Cherry Rock Festival with The Supersuckers and The Raveonettes on the Sunday and Henry Rollins spoken word on the Monday night. Having been a lifelong Rollins fan, I decided to go with the Monday night, only to find out that afternoon that the show was sold out. “No problems” I thought to myself, I’ll just grab some scalped tickets. To cut a long story short, after waiting outside the comedy theatre for over an hour, I found myself without a ticket when the big guy hit the stage and as a result I missed my first Henry Rollins tour in over 15 years!

So it was with a sense of trepidation that last night I once again made plans with Lil to check out a local band called Love of Diagrams at the Ding Dong Lounge, to my relief I made it to the gig in one piece and found that it was the right night. Having seen LOD once before at the Big Day Out, I was looking forward to them, but was truly unprepared for how fantastic they would be in the intimate confines of a club. Their rather unique brand of angular, punky new wave reminded me of why I so love living in the great city of Melbourne. I know that many cities around the world have similar independent music scenes, but seeing such a world class band in such a small venue for only $12, just makes me so darn thankful to be living where I do.

Van Sant Style

A short time ago, there was a Gus Van Sant retrospective held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). I personally find Van Sant’s body of work to be greatly frustrating, as for every work of poetic genius he has crafted (Gerry, Elephant). There is a watered down pile of wank (Finding Forester, To Die For). The film that I was most intrigued about watching at the ACMI season was Van Sant’s first feature ‘Mala Noche’ (Bad Night), a film I had heard a great deal about over the years, but a copy of which I had been unable to procure.

The film, shot in grainy black and white, follows the life of Walt, a working class gay man, who lives in Portland and who scrapes by working at a liquor store. When Walt becomes enthralled with an illegal Mexican immigrant working in the area, his pursuit of the young man leads his life into an interesting direction. I found this film to be a revelation, with a powerful visual style and a thought provoking narrative, particularly in terms of representation of queer identity on the screen. While the character of Walt could not really be deemed as positive representation in any traditional sense. The amazingly paradoxical nature of the lead character, whose racist contempt of the local immigrant workers stands in stark contrast with his fetishisation of them, creates a character who is not always likeable, but who is always powerfully and undeniably real.

Another positive point comes by the way of, that for all his redneck faults, Walt comes across as a surprisingly content character, sure there are moments of angst, but Walt is not some self-loathing, suicidal mess, which was the traditional approach to queer characters in American film of the time. While there are moments in the film that show the depths of Walt’s pathetic nature, i.e. - a scene where he attempts to bargain a monetary price to have sex with the object of his affection, he does so with such an air of frankness, that one can’t help but feel a level of grudging affection for him.

Also, seeing that this film came at the time of full blown AIDS panic and its resulting homophobia, there is no mention of the epidemic, and Walt’s inherent status as an outsider could be just applicable to his poverty as it is to his sexuality. All in all I view ‘Mala Noche’ as a groundbreaking and underrated film. It’s bloody hard to track down, but believe me it’s well worth the effort.

I'm still alive

FUCK, it has been way to long since I last blogged, what has been happening?

- I finally made it to the Meredith Music Festival, which was a whole heap of fun. The Gossip, The Black Lips and The King Brothers all kicked arse.

- K-Rudd finally made an apology to the stolen generation, it was heartfelt and powerful, and I was so elated to hear it that I couldn’t stop punching the air with my fist. It really felt like a new beginning for this country; let’s hope that the good stuff keeps coming from Mr Rudd.

- I was evicted from Wellington St, Richmond, along with the rest of the household. Currently living in a nice place out in West Hawthorn, but still missing Richmond, James, Stacey and yes even Kerouac.

- Made it to my 11th Big Day Out, the new venue blows, but Bjork and The Arcade Fire were amazing….oh and yeah, Daniel Johns is a total fuckwad.

That’s all I can remember for now, but going to make a conscious effort to keep up with the blogging this year.

Catch you soon.

Three cheers for Krudd

As you might have guessed from my last post, I was a tad pessimistic about the hope of the Labour party finally gaining power in this country. But as it turns out, I was wrong…and gladly so. The time had well and truly come for J. Ho to get the fuck out. Yes, he presided over a time of great economic prosperity, but by focusing on that we apparently forget that Howard himself said over ten years ago that it didn’t matter who was in charge, an economic boom was coming for this country. So we mustn’t overlook that Howard’s “main claim to fame”, namely his economic management was a combination of luck and riding on the coattails of the payoff from the Hawke-Keating years and the move toward neo-liberalism made during that time.

I found my anger building today while reading Howard’s eulogy in The Sunday Age, where they are already attempting to rewrite history by claiming that Howard’s adoption of ‘One Nation’ ideology was about defusing the party. With nothing what so ever to do with racism. What an absolute load of bollocks. Howard adopted those policies as it allowed him to create a scapegoat, a racial bogeyman, to stoke the fear that has been so prominnate in the political landscape worldwide since 9/11. This wasn’t a case of a strategy to eliminate One Nation. This was, to quote Greg Palast “the New Meanness”, an uncalled for and completely unfair attack of defenceless refugees, fleeing countries devastated by the wars we were starting. It was not surprising to see that in the mindless puff piece by John Roskam, that there was no mention of ‘Children Overboard’, nothing relating to ‘The Tampa’ and he must have run out of room to discuss the Australian Wheat Board scandal, because that was completely left out too. But I did have a bit of a chuckle to myself to see that according to Roskam, Howard’s refusal to say sorry to the indigenous people of this country wasn’t, as many thought, a damning indictment of race relations in this country under a coalition government. No, it was about changing “The terms of the debate….Because of Howard, the public argument shifted away from just being about whether to say sorry to the question of how to improve the living standards of out fellow citizens”. If this is the case, then why did it take so long for Howard to take action in remote indigenous communities? Oh yes, that’s right, because he was a lying, war mongering bigot.

So screw you Mr Roskam and your piss-weak attempt to try and wash the blood and grime off Howard’s hands, no less than a day after he was booted out of office for his sheer vileness.

Also a goodbye Mr Howard and Mr Costello, but in no way, shape or form do I wish you good-luck. May your consciences forever interrupt your sleep for the actions you have both taken in making this nation, however flawed, a new bastion for meanness and intolerance

It's been a long time between drinks......and I'm real thirsty

WOW…..I’m just taking a look at the date of my last post and realising how long it has been since I last vented my spleen. I finished my last exam on Monday and I am writing this 24 hours out from zero day. Yes, tomorrow Krud and J. Ho both enter the ring of which only one can leave the victor.

It has been a pathetic and disappointing election campaign that revelled in economic ignorance and good old fashioned racism. With no boat people on the horizon this time around. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was waiting with baited breath to see who Howard would make into a scapegoat in order to distract the largely moronic population of this country. But with the announcement of an end of immigration of Sudanese refuges, coming with a great heaping of racially motivated media beat up supplied by the Herald-Sun and its like. It was surprising to find out that no matter how hard you try and prepare yourself, it’s always worse that you could possibly imagine. The appalling blatantness with which the government was able to divert the attention of a complacent people boggled my mind. They were ably backed by many of the ‘independent’ media outlets such as channel’s 7 and 9, who played “Exclusive reports” showing “Ethnic Gangs on a Rampage” as evidence of why we should stop Sudanese refugees from coming here. The only problem with this is that when you have Police Commissioner, Christine Nixon on one side saying that Sudanese teenagers have no higher involvement in crime rates than anyone else. And examination of the footage you’re holding up as evidence of Sudanese violence, showing no involvement by Sudanese youth. You tend to come across as the incompetent Liberal shrills you clearly are.

My anger relating to economic ignorance around this election comes from the fact that Howard has managed to harp on and on about what a good economic manager he is and that the election of a Labour government would only lead to a rise in interest rates. The fact the J. Ho has barely been challenged on this, despite FOUR interest rate rises in the last few years is enough to drive you to drink. It is also infuriating to see ad after ad shrieking how incompetent the Labour party are at financial management, when the Liberal party were only continuing the economic reforms laid out of the Hawke – Keating years. Let us not forget that it was Hawke and NOT Howard that began to ditch most of the traditional Australian economic policies such as protectionism and centralised wage fixing. However, it comes as no surprise that in a nation apparently lacking in the ability of critical thought, such as this one. The example laid out by the Bush administration that you don’t need even a skerrick of proof for anything, you just need to repeat the mantra over and over again and the masses will soon be parroting along, proves itself to be far too true.

Just listening to the radio at the moment and hearing reports of a prediction of a landslide Labour victory this weekend, unfortunately I am not so optimistic. If there was finally going to be some mass awakening to the extraordinary amount of bullshit that the Howard government has been feeding us for the last six years since 9/11, than it should be showing itself by the sentencing of Howard and co. to a lifetime of hard labour in a maximum security prison. Rather than merely showing up as only a 4 point gap in opinion polls.

With their mimicry of Howard ideology in social AND economic policy, Krud has well and truly fucked up a great opportunity to show that The Third Way, namely a framework that adapts politics to a changed world, transcending old-style social democracy and neo-liberalism, could work in Australia. As in their refusal to call a spade a spade and call out the Liberals for the racist and homophobic liars that they are, the Labour party has missed a massive opportunity to turn this once great nation towards a new beginning. Away from the intolerance, bigotry and fear that has blighted our national character for far too long. I do not have a great deal of faith in what the Labour party has in plan for this country, but one thing that I am sure of, they are a far better alternative to the shitheads that have been ‘leading’ this country for far to long.

I don't know what I think about this

I was channel surfing on Sunday night and as I flicked onto Australia Idol I caught the end of one of the performances which just happened to be a cover of The Gossip's 'Standing in the Way of Control'. hmmmmm

I can't work out whether performing a punk/soul song about gay marriage on Australian Idol is brillantly subversive or if it simply a progession of the mainstream co-option of alternative culture. The watering down of punk for the easy digestion of bogans.

To quote Black Rebel Motorcycle Club..

..."Whatever Happened to my Rock and Roll?"

Vision of the future?

So after a great deal of time off, I am finally back at study. Although I was worried that doing nothing but politics and sociology units would leave this semester being…well a bit dull. All my subjects for the second half of 2007 seem to be really interesting and engaging, which is great.

However, there was an incident this morning, relating to the conservativeness of some of the younger members of the tute that just blew me away. The subject was Modern Australia with the focus of today’s lecture being the bust of the Australian economy during the 1880/90s, after the boom of the gold rush. When someone pointed out the parallels between what was referred to in the 1890s as ‘Freedom of contract’ (being that workers had the freedom to be on a contract…..or to simply not work) and the current ‘work choices’ legislation. A debate broke out on the merits of the current governments policies, and it unsettled me to see a large section of the tute argue for the ‘benefits’ of the Howard governments plan for the workers of this country.

I know it might seem naïve, but I was just really taken aback by the focus of these people, as it all seemed to be centred about money and how much they could make. Everything else was secondary, particularly in relation to building a fair and balanced society. The mentality was very much looking out for oneself, stuff everything and everyone else. The concept of solidarity and comradery between workers was particularly alien to many of these people. A particularly surprising comment, that got a few people nodding their heads, was from a young marketing student (cunts), who lamented that she was concerned about languishing in a shitty job ONLY earning 50 grand a year! When the tutor questioned her about maybe earning less money, but working in a job that was either personally satisfying or was of some benefit to the world at large. This young girl could only reply with a blank stare.

To quote Dr Smith ‘We’re doomed, we’re all doomed’