Fitzroyalty

Hyperlocal news about Melbourne's first suburb: Fitzroy 3065

Monthly archives: October 2006

Italian film festival

31 October 2006 | Comments Off

northcote high st film

Italian film gives me a great deal of pleasure. I have been looking forward to the Italian Film Festival this year, as the program seems particularly strong. Also, now that the Palace group has bought and renovated the Westgarth cinema on High St in Northcote, the festival is much closer to me than the Como and Balwyn cinemas.

On Sunday night I saw Marcello: Una Vita Dolce – a documentary about the actor Marcello Mastroianni. It was an extremely lightweight doco, and brushed over many aspects of his life, such as never mentioning his wife’s name, or that his younger daughter Chiara‘s mother was his lover, Catherine Deneuve, who was described only as a co-star in several of his films.…

deadly things

29 October 2006 | Comments Off

On Saturday night I went to a friend’s 30th birthday party. It was a really fun night and the theme was something ‘deadly’. I decided, in my capacity as one of Australia’s most underground conceptual artists (so underground no one has ever heard of me) to go as a concept and not use costume to illustrate my theme. Consequently, I went as the tree that killed Peter Brock. It was judged the most tasteless idea of the night, although many people admitted to considering coming as a stingray, either the stingray that killed Steve Irwin or a generic one.…

product packaging

28 October 2006 | Comments Off

I am very interested in graphic design, including that for product packaging and in advertising. I fly occasionally to Sydney for work on Qantas, and have noticed how their snack packaging has evolved. The snacks change quite regularly, and the packaging is very consistent in its style and branding. The message is something like ‘simplicity is tasteful and expensive’. Below is an example.

visual art travel food …

Paying for HECS

20 October 2006 | 1 Comment

As an undergraduate university student 15 years ago I was aware that several students I knew through social networks worked in the sex industry to support themselves financially while studying. It’s a real circumstance, albeit one that gets exaggerated until it sounds like an urban myth. It took me 10 years to pay off my HECS through the tax system; some people obviously want to get it done much quicker than that.

Dr Sarah Lantz from the Centre for Adolescent Health, which is part of the University of Melbourne, is researching this area.…

Taliban-sans-frontiers

19 October 2006 | Comments Off

Maybe I’m becoming all conservative in my 30s. I am generally in favour of multiculturalism, but I have simply had enough of Islamofascists, or Taliban-sans-frontiers as I like to call them. Several events in the western world have made me mad. Firstly, Islamofascists shot a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, then they started making life miserable for blind people by refusing to take guide dogs in taxis, then they refused to carry people in taxis if they had alcohol in their luggage.…

The Church

18 October 2006 | Comments Off

st kilda music concerts arts

I have been a casual fan of The Church for a long time, but until last Saturday night had never seen them play. They concluded a brief electric Australian Tour at the National Theatre in St Kilda. It’s an old style theatre, a seated gig, with an excellent view of the stage and a very good sound mix: not too loud, but loud enough.

There were obviously many regulars at the gig, and we heard and saw a relaxed performance that included old and new songs.…

Bottega desire

17 October 2006 | Comments Off

I have wanted to dine at Bottega for some time, and last week this desire was finally satisfied. I can report that the recommendations are true: it is a fabulous restaurant. Below is the private dining room upstairs where I ate with a number colleagues, my chicken main meal and a friend’s steak main meal. Next time I will try desert!

melbourne food drink cbd …