australian rozie

State Theatre waiting for Chris Rock

Originally uploaded by Australian Rozie

My bro kindly invited Dave and I to see Chris Rock on his No Apologies Tour. We hadn’t seen any stand-up comedy for about 8 years because stand up can often be a waste of money and of time - if they are not funny. I was really looking forward to seeing the creator of Everyone Hates Chris live on stage. His warm up guy Mario Joyner was great, he got everyone laughing and ready for the main man. Chris Rock was fantastic - really, really funny and as expected, he used lots of rude words Obviously, this kind of humour is not everyone’s cup of tea, especially when he kept going on about getting laid, but anyhoo… Other topics covered were Australia’s Stolen Generation, George Bush, Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, airplane service, being married, getting laid, getting laid and getting laid. There were some guys in front of us who were just loving it, I bet they’ve got all his DVDs. Dave particularly enjoyed the Flavour Flav joke. Overall, it was a great evening, with lots of laughs. Thanks JME.

A fraction of the whole

Originally uploaded by Australian Rozie

I was happy to hear that Sydney-born Steve Toltz has been selected for the long list (as opposed to the short list) for this year’s Man Booker Prize.
From what I have read so far of A fraction of the whole, it is fantastic and hard to put down. I’ve only read about a quarter of the book.
Why? This is gross but you asked for it. In my attempt to be a Compacter, I borrowed it from the library - it is a really big book (I didn’t think I could read 700 pages in 3 weeks but I borrowed it anyway). As I started reading the book I found… wait for it… it’s gross… I found pubes. Yes, pubic hair in my library book!!! I was like, gross! So I flicked the couple of hairs away and tried to forget I ever saw them, but they kept appearing randomly through the pages of the novel and I decided it was all too disturbing and returned it to the library. I did tell the librarian about the pubes and suggested they find the last person who borrowed the book and give them a DNA test. The unfortunate thing is, that I was really enjoying the book. I hope one day to finish reading it because it is so funny, compelling and witty. So good luck Steve Toltz for the Booker Prize.

This morning I was upset to hear that the Sunday program has been axed. Ever since I retired from clubbing and starting waking up at an early “grown up” time on Sunday, I have enjoyed watching this program in my PJs while having breakfast. Now it’s gone… boo hoo. I’ll have to watch music videos of scantily clad women singing terrible songs.

http://photojojo.com/timecapsule/

It digs into your flickr photos, and twice a month, it’ll send you an email with the most interesting handful of photos that you took a year ago. It’s kind of magic.

You seriously need to try it or we’re not friends anymore.

Josie invited a group of us to try the Monday night 2 for 1 mussels at the Gazebo Wine Garden. I think that back in the day, the Gazebo was a famous party place for rock stars visiting Sydney. Now it is all new and renovated into apartments. In the S section of last Sunday’s Sun Herald there was coverage of the Gazebo Wine Garden’s 2nd birthday party. I had not been there before, I guess it’s not really my scene. It was an extremely cold and wet night (was it the coldest day this year?) but we still managed to get ourselves over to Elizabeth Bay (thanks Nads for the lift).
When we arrived, we seemed to be ignored by the attractive wait staff for about 5 minutes (that seems like a long time when you are waiting). I think that the manager would have normally greeted us at the door on arrival but he was caught up in the kitchen. Once he came to the front, the service was excellent for the rest of the night. To be honest, I was expecting it to be a bit “obnoxious” there - like Hugo’s or something. The waiters were very cute, friendly and funny (wishing Josie a Happy Birthday all night - even though it wasn’t her birthday). Unfortunately, there was a bit of a stuff up with Joanne’s order not coming out, so they offered a round of some “special drink” (that smelt delicious, like Christmas and I wished I could have tried it) after dinner. At most restaurants, they would possibly give you an apology if you’re lucky and that’s it. (Please refer to my post “Customer service in this town has been flushed down the toilet”).
The mussels were very tasty, I had the white wine & chive cream sauce (most IBS friendly flavours). As a regular mussel eater, I’d say these were better than those offered at Bungalow 8 (that place gets so busy on their all-you-can-eat mussel nights, it’s really churn and burn).
The highlight of the meal was the dessert, Apple crumble crunchy cup & ice cream. I think it was made fresh because the pastry was so light and fluffy (and it took a while to come out).
After an initial bad start on arrival it turned out to be a top night with great food, good friends and very friendly service.

I have been very busy doing lots of research on my new and improved career. I’ve been checking out courses I want to do and finding out about potential companies I might like to work for. Then I came across this hideacious site for The Neil Clugston Organisation (Established in 1989, The Neil Clugston Organisation Pty Ltd is an Entertainment Management and Entertainment Consultancy company). This website looks like it was designed in 1989 (ha ha)! If only I had the technical skills to fix something like this. I’d also like to have the writing/communication skills to rewrite his blurb as well. Hmm…. you’ve just given me an idea

While I was browsing on MyCareer, I saw this awesome job…
I would say I have about 2% qualification for this role ;P

Head of Design

* Artistic and educational vision
* Leadership in design training
* Industry standing

NIDA is Australia’s national institute of dramatic art. Located in Sydney, it is a centre of excellence in education and training for careers in theatre, film, television and other performance media.
We are seeking an inspiring and energetic Head of Design to develop and direct the teaching program for the Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Design) and to manage the design elements of NIDA’s Play Production Program. This is a unique opportunity to take on a key role in one of Australia’s most influential arts and education institutions.

With a significant track record of achievement in arts/entertainment and insight into the role of education and training, you will have a respected profile in the cultural sector. You will have the ability to contribute to a collaborative educational environment to develop the potential of students pursuing a professional career.

As a fan of all things Warhol, I Bought Andy Warhol by Richard Polsky was on my reading wishlist. Luckily I picked it up at Ariel for only $8 (a hard cover even). I know I said I wasn’t going to buy books anymore, only borrow them from the library (btw speaking of library books… oh that’s another story) but it was cheap and it wasn’t available at the library. The author is an art dealer (since the 80s) and his goal is to buy an Andy Warhol artwork (under $100,000). The book also covers how the world of art dealers and art auctions worked in the 80s and 90s. His style goes from condescending to self deprecating, sometimes he sounded like a ‘wannabe” and others times a big snob. I was interested in the many references to Andy Warhol of course, but also the Californian art scene (which I had just recently learned a lot about after watching The Cool School). He also referred to work by Joseph Cornell whose work I only discovered when I went to SF MOMA last year. Overall it was an interesting story, but his writing style kind of annoyed me.

Recent observations on the morning train:
A guy with his shoes off with pirate socks on. His feet are on the seat in front and he’s reading a “nerd” magazine.
A man using an electric shaver to… shave.
A woman spraying hair spray - on the train!
Lots of pilgrims at the stations banging drums.

On the evening train:
Hoodlums (not pilgrims) drinking Jack Daniels and blasting out the Hilltop Hoods for everyone to hear.
Wish they were Hillsong Hoods (less menacing)

What gives me the $hiz this week is that I am working part-time out in Westmead. I need to catch a train a few days a week, but not everyday. So I wouldn’t buy a travel pass or a weekly because it’s not economical. I just want to be able to quickly get on the train when I need to without having to queue up to buy a ticket for each individual trip. And another thing, I always seem to get in the slowest line, whether at the ticket machine or the human booth. AND there are not enough of either at Central Station (I’m talking Central freakin’ station, not some piddly little suburban station). AND today, when I went to the ticket machine with my exact right change, one of the $2 coins I had just kept falling through, so I had to cancel my transaction and go to the human booth anyway. Why can’t it be like in Hong Kong with the Octopus card - OMG that public transport ticketing system is so good!