fitzroyalty

I was in Sydney yesterday and today doing a course at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Worthwhile but not really something to blog about. Breakfast, however, deserves close scrutiny.

Breakfast today was at Industrie: South of France on Pitt St in Sydney. Not the most exciting part of the city for food and drink. Finding good food and drink in Sydney is a trial, at least from a Melbourne point of view. Industrie make a fabulous macchiato and delicious sour dough toast with a choice of spreads. I chose pear and vanilla jam, which was joyous.

Less joyous was the service. It wasn’t busy, but they took their time clearing the table I sat at and bringing me water. After ordering and eating my breakfast they ignored me. They didn’t come to clear the table or ask if I wanted another coffee. I probably would have said yes. I enjoyed the coffee and the toast but probably wouldn’t go back. Pear and vanilla jam alone does not make me feel special.

I loved the restaurant called SOS when it opened in Melbourne, and enjoyed eating there a couple of times. It got some very good reviews. Then things went wrong, and it eventually closed.

Now the venue has reopened as the 100 Mile Cafe. The theme is that all ingredients are sourced locally (within 100 miles of the Melbourne CBD). The concept is explained here.

Their new website does not have interior photos so I don’t know if they have retained the SOS furniture and design, which was modern and appealing. The WWF video in YouTube below explains more about SOS and shows the interior.

It seems such a waste when a restaurant changes and they dispose of tens of thousands of dollars worth of quality design and fittings. This review suggests that the fitout is all new.

I’m looking forward to eating there soon.

On Friday night I went to see Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten at MIFF. It was well attended, and I saw some well known Melbourne faces in the audience, including film director Ana Kokkinos and art gallery owner Helen Gory.

Director Julian Temple (documentor of the Sex Pistols in The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury) introduced the film and answered questions afterwards. According to Temple, Joe Strummer “hated Tony Blair not just because he was a cunt but because he was a destroyer of freedom”. Punk lives.

The film is beautifully made, with extensive use of animated versions of Strummer’s drawings and lyric sheets, lots of The Clash archival images, and also lots of general archival film. This is integrated into the story in such as way that at times you don’t know whether it is a Strummer home movie or something else. It also uses a lot of classic film sequences to illustrate themes, such as sequences from the animated Animal Farm. It’s fast, clever and amusing.

Temple interviews the usual bandmates, ex girlfriends and others around large campfires at various locations, and we learn that Strummer enjoyed camping, including at Glastonbury, and loved the intimacy of communicating around a campfire. What is annoying, however, it that there are no captions, and sometimes the context does not make it clear who the person is or what their connection to Strummer is.

Some of the people interviewed are very curious. Bono, for example, is entirely suitable, although pompous, because he tells of seeing The Clash - his first big concert - in Dublin when he was 17, and how inspirational it was. Bono is interviewed alone at his own campfire, and Temple explained after the film that this was done “because Bono thinks he’s god”. Hilarious.

Other interviewees are curious simply for their presence. Johnny Depp in Captain Sparrow beard, for example, and other Hollywood and New York film luminaries. Depp says nothing of significance. Temple admits their inclusion was all about money - their general popularity helps ensure international sales as people will presumably go to a documentary about a relatively unknown topic if they know it has some more famous faces in it.

When I saw Scott Walker: 30th Century Man the night before, director Stephen Kijak said exactly the same thing about including a brief interview with Sting. David Bowie was naturally interviewed as he is known as a Walker fan and has covered his songs. Brian Eno is a fellow experimental music pioneer and has wise and worthwhile opinions. Sting? He secured a sale of the documentary in Japan, according to Kijak, because he is so popular there.

I understand the desperation of filmmakers to get films financed, made and seen. For Kijak, making a relatively low budget doco about an obscure topic, compromises are probably necessary. But for such a famous director as Temple, making a doco about a much better known musician, to have to adopt the same tactics is troubling. I want to end on a happy note. I was not expecting to see Temple at the film and it was exciting to hear him speak.

On the first night of MIFF I went to see Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, a biographical documentary of the enigmatic musician Scott Walker. Director Stephen Kijak introduced the film and answered questions afterwards.

The film is very well made and tells a sympathetic story that does not cover much of Walker’s darker side or the reasons for his reclusiveness or slow productivity. It is also very revealing about his music and his obsessiveness and perfectionism in creating sound. His work has moved away from song and into sound - he’s now more like a performance artist in the studio and you could compare some of his music to Phillip Glass or Laurie Anderson.

Interviewees include David Bowie, Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, Damon Albarn and Johnny Marr. Kijak joked about getting Bowie to wear an ugly polo shirt in his interview segments and about his importance in getting the film made.

As usual ACMI were disorganised and the film started over 30 minutes late. The earlier session must have started late due to those arriving fashionably late. Their ticketing office is usually under staffed and the service is so slow. It’s so annoying to wait for so long when you’ve got a pass and are organised and get there on time to secure a decent seat. This rarely happens at other MIFF venues but seems common at ACMI, such as at the La Mirada Spanish film festival sessions earlier this year.

I first heard Walker through Bowie, and heard Bowie perform the Walker song “Nite Flights” in Milan during his Outside tour in 1996 (he’d recorded it on his 1993 Black Tie White Noise album).

In another first for me I had breakfast last Saturday at Cavallero (warning: pointless single page website) on Smith St. For me it was definitely breakfast although it was 1pm so I ordered the omelette, but my friend who also had not yet eaten that day decided to go straight to lunch food and selected the anti-pasto plate, which was spectacular.

Below are before and after (more like outside and inside actually) photos of the omelette with cheese and baked cherry tomatoes. I make no apologies for creating food porn. It is as good as it looks.

A new shop / gallery hybrid has been open for a week now on Smith St in Fitzroy. Called in.cube8r, it leases space in its cabinets and shelves for local artists, jewellery designers and other craftspeople to display and sell their work. The business model is based on renal rather than commission - artists don’t have to pay an additional commission to have their work in in.cube8r. I had watched the shop evolve from the usual newspapered window to something bright and inviting to enter.