My uncle invited me to see The Great at the Sydney Theatre Company. It was a really rainy night and I walked from Wynyard down to the wharves. I don’t often go to the theatre (maybe twice a year at the most). We had really good seats 3 rows from the front (nb not much leg room, esp when someone wants to go past you). The play was a comedy but sometimes I didn’t think it was that funny. I found it odd that they were using their Australian accents and colloquialisms in a play about Catherine the Great of Russia. They used the C word twice (I really don’t like that word) and they said fuck a lot. Maybe it was just me, the audience (mostly older people, like over 50 
) seemed to enjoy it. The stage incorporated a rotating circle which was used quite effectively to set up scenes. The actors played a couple of parts each eg. the young Catherine becomes her daughter in the second half of the show. The actor playing the Grand Duke Peter and then his petulant son was very good. Overall, The Great was enjoyable but not great.
I had an interview in Westmead, so I caught the train out there (I didn’t drive because as you all know, I don’t have a licence – but apparantly parking is bad out there because of all the hospitals). Since moving back to the city, I’ve only caught a train about 4 times. The interview went pretty well and they have asked me to come in for a trial over 2 days. I have to prepare my body for the event known as the early morning peak hour train crush. At least I’m heading out of the city but I still think there will be lots of people heading to Parramatta and Westmead at that time. I also noticed that it’s colder out there. When I lived at home and commuted to the city in winter, I needed a coat, gloves, scarf etc etc. Since living in the city, I have found that you just don’t get that cold. After the interview I decided to check out Westfield Parramatta (my old hood), I still can’t get over how much it’s changed. (hmm have I blogged about this before?) it’s really ruined business outside of the complex, you can just go straight into Westfield from the station without seeing any sunlight now. Most stores are same shops I go into in the city but there was some excitement – I saw police & police tape around a store – there was a robbery a bit earlier. Good ol Pazzamatta.
Tonight’s episode of Insight called MiTunes was really interesting. Music being a really integral part of my life and the issue of illegal downloading and interviews with local musicians made it a must see. Jenny Brockie is a really good host of this type of show, she allows many different points of view and doesn’t set her own agenda on the topic. There were all sorts of different music and internet related guests in the audience – interesting to see Kate Crawford from B(if)tek there (she was very articulate about the issue btw).
I’m still surprised how little “young” people value music. I know it’s just the way it is now, it’s so easy to illegally download or file share piles of music. The young guys (hmm they didn’t ask any teenage girls to speak) on tonight’s show really didn’t seem to care that someone had worked hard to create this music and spent a lot of money to produce, record and distribute it (especially the local independent artists). When I was a teenager, I had to save money to buy a record from a shop. Sure, sometimes I would get a cassette tape copy of a friend’s album, but it was always on the premise of an equal swap for another album I had paid for. I would listen to every word, beat and chord until I knew it off by heart. Nowadays kids can get their hands on so much music, they don’t know what to do with it.
Anyway, there was talk of ISPs having some kind of subscription system (eg $10) and allow a certain amount of legal downloading, allowing artists to get their royalties which I thought was a good idea.
Here are the tracks I played at Matt’s 30th aka the Robot Uprising. Sort of, not really in order. Keeping to the party’s theme of course:
Dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back
Theme from Star Trek – Van McCoy
Starman – David Bowie
I.O.U – Freez
Xanadu – Olivia Newton John
Robot Rock – Daft Punk
Planet Earth – Duran Duran or The Reflex – Duran Duran (eek can’t remember)
Sex Crime (1984) Extended Mix – Eurythmics
Voulez-Vous – ABBA
What Time Is Love? (LP Mix) – The KLF
Underneath The Radar – Underworld
Rockit – Herbie Hancock
Buffalo Stance – Neneh Cherry
Ride on Time (Massive Mix) – Black Box
The Power – Snap
Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles
Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
Doctorin’ the Tardis – The Timelords
Together in Electric Dreams – Giorgio Moroder with Phil Oakey
Honorable mentions that I didn’t get around to playing:
This Beat Is Technotronic – Technotronic
Electric Youth – Debbie Gibson
My People – The Presets
Humanoid – Stakker Humanoid
The Transformers (TV show Theme)
Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears For Fears
Thong Song – Sisqó (although this song doesn’t have anything to do with robots, aliens, outer space or the future, it’s a classic party song that I will always fondly remember Matt, Dave and posse singing at karaoke at @Newtown. Matt, do you still have the schooner glass?)
During my “spare time” over the last two weeks, I’ve been to see a few exhibitions in Sydney. Here are some highlights:
Southern Exposure Works from the Collection of the San Diego MCA, 21 March – 1 June 2008.
Take a walk through the past four decades of contemporary art from America’s West Coast, with a new exhibition showcasing works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Jeremy Blake – Winchester Mystery House. I like how seeing an artwork leads me to find out about things I never knew about (random trivia?) such as the Winchester Mystery House.
Bill Viola – Eternal Return 2000 & Heaven and Earth 1992. Most of the Bill Viola stuff I have seen is very BIG & LOUD! These two works at the MCA were a bit different. One had two monitors facing each other with footage of his dying mother on one and his new born child on the other. It was a bit eerie looking at the poor old woman in such a state.
Jump by T. Kelly Mason and Diana Thater’s structuralist 16mm game involving jump-roping and a Bob Dylan song (Subterranean Homesick Blues). There were 4 different performances of the song in different styles such as folk and polka.
also at the MCA
Fiona Hall: Force Field 6 March – 1 June 2008.
This exhibition presents an in-depth survey of the work of Australian artist Fiona Hall from the 1970s to the present.
World Press Photo 08
This exhibition features the award-winning photographs from the 51st annual World Press Photo contest.
There were amazing images from war torn and poverty stricken countries as well as emotive portraits. One series I found striking was by Oliver Gulmann in the Comtemporary Issues section. It simply had photos of people watching TV, they were from varied places such as China, Morocco, USA, UK, Africa. What striked me was their expressions – zoned out, mesmerised and bored. It made me think about how mind numbing watching too much tv is!
I also liked the series by Travis Dove on images of Skatopia.
For a complete change the next exhibition I went to was Taisho Chic at AGNSW.
This exhibition explores the impact of the simultaneous clash and embrace of modernity and tradition on arts and design in Japan of the Greater Taisho period (1900–1930). 22 May – 3 August 2008. I really loved the artworks presented here, the modern meets tradition Japanese screens, prints and objects. I really liked the kimonos with modern patterns and I love art deco era hairstyles on Asian ladies.
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