Sound and Vision (PM)

Because my intensity is for shit, even though I only had a couple of beers on Saturday night, and even though I did not get drunk, and didn't have a hangover on Sunday I had that slight over-sensitivity that comes with a hangover. With a hangover it is usually more than slight. You know, like you really want cuddles, you love your boyfriend/girlfriend/dog even more than usual, cute things seem super cute, you cry when you watch that home improvement show where they are always renovating the homes of people with cancer. Anyway I didn't have that at all, I just knew I had a slight post-beer sensitivity when I drove past some posters for another gig Two Bright Lakes are putting on and I thought, "Wow, I'm so happy those dudes are doing so much great stuff, I love those guys!" And I guess that was helped along at least a little by what an great night was put on the night before and if only it hadn't rained non-stop the day before what a great success it would have had to have been.

You know what happened in the daylight hours. I just want to reinforce how great it was on that rooftop. I pretty much love being on a rooftop. Especially awesome ones!

I should confess that after we enjoyed our grande melts we decided to take a little breather from the rain and stand inside under the beautiful green leaves. It was a great place for friendly reunions and making jokes about cream without having to yell over the wind and rain and music. 


See how Russeth and  Mickey "Mikey Doubleword" Blue Eyes (aka Miguel) are so happy to see each other: 

But we couldn't stand inside for ever. Eventually we went outside and some of the best things happened! Bamboo Musik were playing some totally great danceable tracks so you could dance to take away those rainy blues; for about 90 seconds the rain stopped; and our eyes were filled with beautiful delights!

I don't usually go in for psychedelia, but I loved the projections

Bright colours on a monolith in the sky!? YES PLEASE!

Everything looked great, here is Biz and his projection box. It made the rain look really pretty.

 

 And they had pretty neon planes hung up. The whole thing was a bloody masterpiece. And then Oscar +Martin started and those guys make real nice music. And if you don't know it you should. The truth is that if it hadn't been raining I probably would have enjoyed their set even more. But as it stood I loved being in that lovely space with some favourite friends and listening to those great tunes. Also, there is something kind of great about saying "fuck you" to the elements and having a wonderful time in the rain anyway . (Not that I condone saying "fuck you" to the elements really, I mean, Earth is the boss. Fo sho.)

I told Biz, when I was leaving, 'I'm sorry its a wash out.' He kind of laughed in an offended way, but what I meant was "I feel sad for you that it's raining so much and there aren't as many people here as there should be." I sometimes say things wrongly. Whoops. I just meant , "Hey guy, this is great and what a drag that tickets sold out but so many people stayed home and can't see how great this is!"

Sound and Vision (AM)

This is a story about the Two Bright Lakes rooftop show J and I went to last Saturday night.
Remember last Saturday? It looked a lot like this:

All day it rained.  It was the kind of rain that drives people indoors. People are right to stay indoors in that kind of rain. Even ducks would be right to stay indoors in that kind of rain. But you know how it is when you're planning to go to something, and you know that thing will be really fun and even though you kind of want to stay warm and dry at home you also want to make sure that you are not turning in to a real pussy, so you go. It was kind of like that.

Plus, Biz, beloved member of the Crab community, is also a founding member of Two Bright Lakes. The thing Biz knows above all the other things is sound and vision. And don't you think that sound + vision + rooftop + rainstorm of biblical proportions = a wonderful night?
We thought so.




We met at Rue Bebelons for a drink  and a little text messaging first. The rain continued to fall outside but we were getting excited about the sound, and about the vision.  Russeth came to meet us, so we finished our drinks and headed out.

The show was on the Melbourne Central Rooftop. But who has ever heard of such a thing? No one, that's who. We thought it would take us ages to find it, but of course TBL are helpful guys and it was really well signed.


Excitement hit fever pitch when we found the door and got carded!Yesss!

The entrance was hung with beautiful strings of leaves that we wove our way through on our way out to the rooftop. It was light and airy and we couldn't help but linger for a little while to frolic  amongst the leaves.








But the music and its promise of fun times was calling to us. We soon joined the group of folks standing in the rain, listening to Lost Animal. 

Perhaps you can't get a sense of it from these pictures, but it was pretty great to be standing in a place I've never been, looking at a view of Melbourne I'd never seen and listening to some music in the rain. The rooftop space actually felt really cosy, and despite the persistent rain, in my famous blue yellow raincoat, nothing was getting in.

Of course, it wasn't long before we felt like a snack. We are, after all, us.

TBL thought of that too, and there was a delightful young man on hand to ply us with burritos and/or grande melt (which are slightly bigger burritos that you throw in the sandwich press for a while). Obviously we chose the grande melt.







We stood by the wall, ate our grande melts and listened to the music. Darkness was falling, and it wouldn't be long before standing around would have to give way to a little boogie.

But readers, remember what we told you about Biz's specialties? Sound AND vision. As darkness fell, the light show began and it was then the wonderment really took over. I don't want to say too much, because in this afternoon's post, J is going to tell you what we saw.
Let me just leave you with this picture of rain and paper planes, and be sure to come back to Miss Soft Crab in the PM,  when our story continues.

Where is everybody?

Remember that time I thought the humans were dead? I was right! Here I am at China Red, THE VERY RESTAURANT THAT INSPIRED THAT POST, on Friday night. I was meant to meet 12 friends at 8 o'clock.



When I say 'here I am' obviously I am not in the photo cause someone had to take the photo, right? So I took it . I took that photo at 8:08! But where was everybody? You guys I think the humans are dead!

Obviously I can't really pursue this line forever, because of course everyone showed up and we had a delightful dinner. But something weird was happening on Friday night. I drove to the city that night, for a number of reasons (wanting to get home to Baby quickly, needing an external factor to make me minimise my alcohol in take, you can dig it). Anyway I was pretty conflicted about which way to go and where to park. I thought I would never get a park on St Kilda Rd because Melbourne Festival is on and I figured all those middle aged theatre-loving drivers would be in all the car parks. But there were so many parking spaces! Tens of parks to chose from. I got a totally A1 park! "That's weird," I thought to myself, "where is everyone? Why can I get such a good park." Then I started thinking about reapplying lipstick and never thought about why there were so many car spaces free again.

Until later when I was heading home after a lovely dinner and the best cocktail bubblecups I have ever had. I mean the only cocktail bubblecups I have ever had. (Toff were serving cocktail bubblecups and I have not stopped thinking about those delicious little bastards since!) Anyway it was this beautiful warm evening, the first of the season really, but at 11:30 on Friday night in the city the streets were practically empty.


I don't know what the eff was going on, but all together it kind of felt like the humans were dead.

That's all I'm saying.

Royal Melbourne Show, you're ok by me!

The Show gets a really bad rap. Does it? Or is that just me? I just think of it as heaps of crappy food and way too many people. Nothing but show bags and people trying to sell you really shit shit. Ugh. But you know what? I went last week and I kind of loved it.

I think there were two keys to success. Firstly, I was with LB and Baby. Baby is only 16 months old, he doesn't know what he is missing out on when I don't buy him fairy floss or show bags or giant inflatable plastic glittery things and when I don't put him on rides. He just likes looking at all the stuff.

The second thing was that it was a really miserable day. Cold, a little bit wet. Sounds bad right? But you know it made it kind of great because there were not too many people there and also you just want to get from place to place, no dawdling, just head down and move through the wind and cold. It means it is so easy to ignore all the ugly stuff that makes you not want to go to the show.

I will admit that the main reason we went was to see the Irish Setters. Doggy's brothers from another mother.

Here are some now.



We missed the showing bit (which is pretty weird anyway) and just walked down the aisles checking out these hot bitches. And dogs. Win.

After that we checked out the poultry and alpaca pavilion. OMG! Poultry friggen rules! Do you know how beautiful chickens are?! Really. Their feathers are actually so beautiful!



Do you know how many weird variations there are?




Did you know there are ducks with 18th century style bouffant?



And do you know, I mean really know, what a turkey looks like?


The poultry pavilion rules! OK!

Of course the animal nursery was also awesome. Cute little piggies and calves and donkeys. An adorable baby duck. And I saw a lamby that was born at 6am that DAY! Just walking around like an adorable little lamby.



Finally, of course, we went to the Country Women's Association pavilion. I love the CWA pavilion. I love how they put all the winning foodstuffs in glass cabinets to look at.


Like you can see a sponge and make some kind of assessment. "Mmm, you can tell by the height and crumb of this one that Marge really deserved to win."




Oh, and they have a fancy food pavilion these days too where people give you free samples.

You know the show really taught me to overcome some prejudices. You should check it out! Except it ends today. Whoopsee.

Pigeon knows best

Mate, you have to listen to the pigeon, it knows what it's shitting about.

Look, NY is a great C. There is no denying it. In fact since the day you left I have been checking the internet pretty much daily to find a cheap flight so I could come and meet you. Then when I finally realised that was never going to happen I started thinking about ways I could move myself over there for a stint. So far I've got bupkis. So I know it's great over there.

But you know what? M-town is okay too.

There is delicious food here.


Some centrally located parks.


Awesome shops with great stuff.



Friends.

And comparatively few pigeons.