Blue Mountains

Today Mary and I took a train out to Western Sydney to meet up with Tash, who picked us up at the station, for our road trip to the Blue Mountains. Our first stop for the day was the lookout at Wentworth Falls with its expansive and spectacular views of the Blue Mountains.

Next we stopped in the town of Leura to visit Bygone Beautys Treasured Teapot Museum and Tearooms, which has the largest private collection of teawares in the world. There were over 5,500 teapots alone in the museum grouped by era, country and design. I particularly liked the art deco and royal themed teapots. We had a cup of tea in the tearoom and then headed back onto the road.

One of the interesting finds in the town of Katoomba was the Street Art Walk at Beverly Place. It featured local, national and international street artists, including a nice wall mural by Adnate that included the Blue Mountains.

The Echo Point lookout outside Katoomba is one of the most iconic viewing points for the Blue Mountains due to the popularity of the rock formation known as the Three Sisters. We began at the main lookout and then walked down the path to get a closer look (but didn't go down the Giant Stairway to the Honeymoon Bridge).

For our late lunch we ate at the Boiler House Restaurant, which was part of the Hydro Majestic Blue Mountains hotel complex. Tash wanted to check out the Hydro Majestic after having driven past it before, and it did not disappoint. We ended up doing a tour of the place with the concierge to learn more about its fascinating history. Founded by Mark Foy in the early 1900s, what was originally a health retreat became a luxury hotel to bring in business. The architecture was stunning, particularly the Belgravia building which was rebuilt in art deco style after burning down in 1922. The Hydro Majestic has amazing views of the Blue Mountains and glamorous interiors throughout since money was no object when it was built.

After our tour was finished it was dark so we headed back onto the road for the hour and half drive back to Sydney. It was nice to be able to get out of the city and explore the beautiful Blue Mountains region.

Vivid Sydney 2018

This year is the 10th anniversary of Vivid Sydney and my second year attending. For the past two nights we have been walking around and checking out the light projections and installations in the Sydney CBD and along the waterfront.

Our first stop on Thursday night was the area around Customs House. The installation Chrysalis contained colorful cocoons made of fibre optic cables hanging from trees that had butterflies inside that would flutter based on sounds nearby. Synergy represented a complex superorganism of a tree surrounded by ferns that changed colors.

On Customs House itself were light projections of the May Gibbs' children's books characters Snugglepot and Cuddlepie as they journeyed through the Australian bush.

Along the waterfront towards the Sydney Opera House were a few installations, including the light sculpture Visible Dynamics and the illuminated cube Fragmented.

In the Royal Botanical Gardens there were a number of fantastic installations. At the start was The Nautilus Forest with its changing colors, the illuminated Hyperweb, inflatable versions of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, and wave inspired light bars of He'e nalu.

Light Houses were created with different designs and shapes and changed colors. One of the most moving pieces was Oasis, which paid homage to the memory of children growing up in out of home care and combined audio with illuminated lights in a pond.

Further in the Royal Botanical Gardens were the cute perched birds of Parrot Party and the interactive Aqueous where the colors would change as people stood on different sections of the pathway.

Tonight we headed to Barangaroo for dinner at the Chinese restaurant Lotus and then saw my favorite work of Vivid Sydney, which was the illuminated large scale puppet Marri Dyin (meaning 'Great Woman' in the Eora language) in the piece The Liminal Hour.

There were some good installations around The Rocks, with the different colored light tubes of Peacock, the multi-colored birds of 1000 Cranes, the flying neon kites of Luminous Flight, and the large sculpture Illuminosaurus.

Of course the main draw each year are the light projections on the Sydney Opera House. This year's installation Metamathemagical transformed the sails into a series of kinetic digital sculptures.

In the surrounds of the waterfront there were some playful pieces, including a giant inflated Earth, the rotating pufferfish sculpture Fugu, The Garden of Sweeties which was powered by renewable energy, and the cute Harmony Valley - Rainbow of Peace and Trees of Friendship.

Once again there were large scale light projections on the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia with Virtual Vibration, but they weren't as exciting or dynamic as last year's ones.

Overall I enjoyed the light projections and installations, but was surprised at how empty the streets were of people on both nights. Vivid Sydney is on until Saturday, 16 June 2018.

Biennale Of Sydney- Cockatoo Island

The 21st Biennale of Sydney is currently occurring across multiple sites in Sydney. The theme SUPERPOSTION: Equilibrium & Engagement gives attendees a way to view these pieces and how they reflect current issues in the world. Mary and I took a ferry out to Cockatoo Island today, which is one of the locations for the Biennale. Cockatoo Island is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site that was a former convict prison in the 1800s and then a naval shipyard until its closure in 1991.

Artworks were spread across different precincts on the island. Our first stop was the Industrial Precinct, which contained a few of my favorite works. Austrian artist Martin Walde's piece Timeline explores the passing of time, with a sheet of paper being shot out from a printer up in the rafters every six minutes containing a calendar date that started with the opening of the exhibition and ending in 2071. Each paper floats onto the floor, and some of them have drawings or writing from the artist in addition to the printed date.

The focus of the pieces by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at Cockatoo Island is refugees. Law of the Journey is a 60-metre long raft filled with people that is made out of black rubber. There is also wallpaper made of photos taken while he was filming the documentary Human Flow, as well as four different video works that were made in the past couple years to focus on the refugee crisis.

Scottish artist Anya Gallaccio's piece Beautiful Minds uses a programmed 3D printer loaded with clay to recreate the sedimentary rock formations of Devil's Tower, also known as Bear Lodge Butte in Wyoming.

Thai artist Mit Jai Inn has a few large scale installations with Planes (Hover, Erupt, Erode) which involves the use of paint in different forms.

In the Ship Design Precinct were two interesting video installations. Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi's audio-visual piece Bring The Silence depicts video on five different screens of people offering their respects to the Sufi saint Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya at a sacred burial site. The floor of the room was covered in rugs and the scent of rosewater filled the air.

American artist Suzanne Lacy's multi-part audio-visual installation The Circle and the Square is the culmination of the two-year project Shapes of Water - Sounds of Hope in the town of Pendle, Lancashire. Residents came together in a closed down textile mill to sing choral music and do Sufi chanting. The sound of the choir singing rounds filled the room, and there were also individual interviews with local residents that you could listen to.

The Biennale of Sydney is on for a couple more weeks, closing on Monday, 11 June 2018.

Neil Finn- Out Of Silence with Orchestra

As part of this year's Vivid Sydney Live program, Neil Finn played two nights at the Joan Sutherland Theatre in the Sydney Opera House with an orchestra and chorus made up of Aussie and Kiwi musicians. Mary and I flew up to Sydney to attended tonight's second show. The first half of the set was the entire Out Of Silence album played from start to finish. It was so great to finally hear all these songs live, particularly my favorite tracks "Love Is Emotional," "Chameleon Days," "Second Nature," "The Law Is Always On Your Side," "Terrorise Me" and "I Know Different." Neil was really pleased once they finished playing the album, saying he really enjoyed it.

The second half of the set was a mixture of songs from throughout Neil's career. We got to hear tracks from his previous solo album Dizzy Heights, which also featured strings, with "Divebomber," "Impressions," "Better Than TV" and "Dizzy Heights." With the entire Finn family on stage they also previewed tracks off of the upcoming Neil and Liam album Lightsleeper with "Where's My Room," "Hiding Place" and "Hold Her Close." Then there were the classic Split Enz and Crowded House songs with "One Step Ahead," "Private Universe," "Four Seasons In One Day" and "Don't Dream It's Over," which finished the main set. For the encore a few bars of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" became an improvised cover with everyone singing along, and then they finished the evening with "Message To My Girl." This was such a special and intimate show, and with Neil joining Fleetwood Mac, who knows when we will next get the chance to seem him performing his own material live.

Here's week four of The Infinity Sessions which was the actual recording of Out Of Silence broadcast live online:

Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders- Blue Poles Tour

Last night was the launch of Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders new album Blue Poles at the Corner Hotel. Mary and I got there for the last few songs by electronic act Golden Syrup (aka Sara Retallick).

Next on the bill was Alex Gow from Oh Mercy doing a solo set. It's never a great sign when someone needs to use an asthma inhaler to be able to sing, and Alex was on his three times throughout the set due to a cold. He opened with a cover of Ed Kuepper's "This Hideous Place" and played a mix of songs from his last few albums ranging from the brooding "Iron Cross" and "Lady Eucalyptus" to the more uptempo "Sandy" and "Deep Heat." Alex invited Liam McGorry to join him on stage to play trumpet on "National Park" and his new unreleased track "Time And Date In New York," which was the last song he played. Despite not feeling great Alex powered through his short set.

The room was pretty full by the time Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders took to the stage. The set list featured many songs from Blue Poles, with highlights being "Can't Say," "White Flag," "Blue Mirror," and my favorite "Susan." Jack's baritone voice and the cool vibe of the band had the crowd entranced from the start, with bassist Donny Benet getting a couple of shout outs during the evening. The set also contained some tracks from previous releases, including "Cold Feet," "Come On Back This Way," and "Hurtsville" with Alex joining the band on acoustic guitar. Overall it was an entertaining night with two of Australia's most talented lyricists.

Here's the video for "Susan":

Shop The City: National Marshmallow Day

Today was Australia's first National Marshmallow Day, which was all part of this year's Shop The City event at the big shopping complexes in the Melbourne CBD. Mary and I started our evening of sweet treats at QV to make our own s'mores in their little winter village set up. It was a bit difficult to get the marshmallows toasty enough to melt the chocolate, and there weren't any graham crackers, but they still turned out ok. If you feel like making your own s'mores, the village is open on Thursday to Sunday from 4-7pm until 10 June.

Next we headed to Melbourne Central for their Ultra Violet Party (the Pantone color of the year) featuring different pop-ups on various levels. They had a Naked Negroni bar, an Ultra Violet Room for the ultimate selfie, marshmallows dipped in a chocolate fondue fountain, and some violet fairy floss. It was a yummy sugar rush.

After some dinner at Din Tai Fung we ventured to The Strand for their mini wagon wheels, and then to the Wonderland Bar at Emporium, which had Alice in Wonderland themed shortbread cookies and cute little potion bottles with a "Paint the Roses Red" drink made of Archie Rose gin infused with T2 chocberry tea (it was quite tasty).

Eurovision 2018

It is mid-May so that means it's once again time for the Eurovision Song Contest. This year the competition took place in Lisbon, Portugal. As Australia was once again competing, our local broadcaster SBS showed the Grand Final live and I was up at 5am this morning to watch.

This year's winner, Netta (Israel) performing "Toy" was in my top three songs as it was a quirky and catchy banger of a song, with Netta having a bit of a Bjork look and vibe going on.


My favorite song from this year was Saara Aalto (Finland) with "Monsters." She has an amazing voice and this was another strong dance track with some androgynous backup dancers. I was surprised it didn't do better in the final voting.


Continuing the theme of female sung dance tracks, my other top three song (which came in second overall) was Eleni Foureira (Cyprus) with "Fuego." She gave an amazing performance and hairography in both the semis and finals.


Australia did not do as well this year as Jessica Mauboy's "We Got Love" received the lowest total in the public vote. The song was decent but not a standout track. It will be interesting to see if we continue to participate considering this year's results.


The Grand Final also had a bit of controversy as their was a stage intruder during the UK performance, but SuRie managed to continue to sing her song "Storm" once she got the microphone back and finished the track strong.

Marlon Williams- Make Way For Love Tour

Tonight I headed down to the Forum for the first Melbourne date of Marlon Williams' Australian tour in support of his new album Make Way For Love. The opening act for the evening was Canadian folk rock band The Weather Station. Lead singer Tamara Lindeman sounded great and they played a really strong set.

Marlon Williams came out onto the stage solo with an acoustic guitar and started his set with a breathtaking version of "Down In The Garden" that had the sold out crowd silent. The rest of the band then joined him, with Melbourne musician Dan Luscombe an additional member of The Yarra Benders for this tour. As expected the set list mainly featured songs from Make Way For Love (which was recorded in Stinson Beach near my hometown), ranging from the beauty of slower tracks such as "Come To Me" and "Beautiful Dress" to the more fun and upbeat "What's Chasing You" and "Party Boy."

Marlon was really happy to be back in Melbourne and to have the opportunity to play the Forum. They did a couple covers in main set, including the surprising choice of Barry Gibb's "Carried Away." They also played some older tracks such as "Dark Child" and last year's single "Vampire Again." His beautiful duet with Aldous Harding "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore" was done with Marlon singing both parts, and they finished the main set with "Make Way For Love" (which could have easily featured on the latest Twin Peaks soundtrack). For the encore they started with a heartbreaking version of "Love Is A Terrible Thing" and then finished with their usual cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Portrait Of A Man." As always, I left in awe of Marlon's immense talent and that incredible voice.

Here's the video for "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore"

MICF- Helen Bidou

My final show for the 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival was Helen Bidou (aka Anne Edmonds) in Enter the Spinnaker Lounge. Helen Bidou originally appeared as the fashion expert on the spoof morning tv show Get Krack!n. In this show she attempts her own variety hour by interacting with the audience, chatting with guests and singing songs, all while accompanied by her awkward son and wannabe DJ Connor (Sam Campbell).

Helen wore her trademark sarong and was sipping cocktails throughout the show. She tried to keep it together while she occasionally railed against those in her life who had wronged her, including her on again/off again beau Simon. It was a show that kept you laughing but tense as you didn't know what Helen would do next. It wasn't nearly as shocking as I was expecting, although the final number is pretty revealing (and why the show has an 18+ rating).

Oh Mercy- Cafe Oblivion Tour

Oh Mercy has just put out their fifth album Cafe Oblivion, and tonight was the final show of their Australian tour at Howler to celebrate its release. I arrived for the second support act Jae Laffer, who played a mix of songs from his band The Panics and solo material. Playing acoustic guitar and accompanied by an electric guitarist and the occasional pedal steel guitar, his set included The Panics singles "Don't Fight It" and "Weatherman."

In a throw back to Oh Mercy shows of old the band came onstage to the sound of birds. They surprisingly started the set with a cover of Burt Bacarach's "This Guy's In Love With You." The songs from Cafe Oblivion featured prominently throughout the night, including the singles "Keep A Light On" and "National Park" as well as "Lee & Nancy," "Hot Topic" and "Auto Bellissimo" (unfortunately my favorite track "Ring & The Jewel" didn't get played). Alex Gow sounded fantastic vocally and did a mini solo set in the middle with "Lady Eucalyptus," "My Man" and a new song which I think is titled "Time And Date In New York."

I was impressed by the new arrangements for most of the songs, and this latest incarnation of the Oh Mercy live band is a bit of a powerhouse. Older tracks such as "Deep Heat," "Can't You Hear My Body (Calling Out To You)" and "Sandy" had a bit of new life to them. To finish out the main set they played "Restless Woman" and then Alex did an impromptu encore with a cover of Ed Kuepper's "This Hideous Place" that had the room silent. Overall this was one of the stronger Oh Mercy live performances I've seen in a while and I'm hoping we'll get more live shows sooner rather than later.

Here's the Aussie musician filled video for "Keep A Light On" where Alex wears a blazer he describes as a Split Enz b-side (he also wore it tonight):

MICF- Louise Beuvink, Zoe Coombs Marr and Danielle Walker

Tonight was a big night of comedy shows for me at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival as I went to three different performances. I began the evening with New Zealand comedian Louise Beuvink's show Ladylike: A Modern Guide to Etiquette at the Butterfly Club. Dressed like a 1950s housewife, Louise took the mainly female audience through her modern takes on being a lady, including lessons on how to dress and put on makeup, cheap ways to entertain through homemade food and drinks, and a quick lesson on cricket to be able to talk to guys. Her funniest bit was a twist on women acting like some men do when being turned down by the opposite sex. The show was a blend of stand-up and cabaret (Louise has a really great singing voice).

Next I headed to the Melbourne Town Hall for Australian comedian Zoe Coombs Marr and her show Bossy Bottom. In this show Zoe sheds her male alter ego of the past six years Dave and performed stand-up as herself. She promised that this show would be just jokes, jokes, jokes, but of course that was never going to be the case. Zoe was full of energy and commanded the stage throughout her set as she broke down the traditional tropes of stand-up comedy (particularly that of white hetero males) and did call backs to different bits throughout the night. Her use of props was hilarious, and she had the audience on its toes as you just didn't know where she would go next. This was my favorite show at MICF so far and I highly recommend checking Zoe out if you can.

My final show for the evening was Australian comedian Danielle Walker's Bush Rat at the Victoria Hotel. The title comes from the nickname that Danielle's grandfather gave her, and the show focused on funny stories about her family who live up in Townsville in northeastern Queensland. Danielle also does drawings, which she used to illustrate some of her stories, including a pig with wheels for legs that was a running gag throughout the show. You can see why Danielle has been nominated for Best Newcomer at MICF this year.

MICF- Fern Brady and Alex Edelman

It was Tightarse Tuesday again at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and I booked in to see another two shows tonight featuring comics from overseas. First I made my way down to ACMI for Scottish comedian Fern Brady's show Suffer, Fools! Fern did a set of stand-up and told stories about her life, including her relationships, time at university (including paying for her degree by being a stripper), and jobs as a cook at a halfway house and journalist. It was an honest hour long show with a funny ending.

Next I headed up to the Greek Centre for American comic Alex Edelman's Barry nominated show Just For Us. This is the second time I've seen Alex perform and the main thread of this show is the rise of antisemitism in Trump's America and Alex's decision to attend a white supremacist meeting in an apartment in New York. Alex expertly tells the details of that meeting interwoven with other stories such as working with Stephen Fry, encountering Prince William at the BAFTAs, and his brother competing for Israel in skeleton at the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea. The show is very well written and provides some interesting insights on the rise of intolerance and hatred in today's society.

MICF- Josh Glanc and Andrew McClelland

For tonight's MICF shows first I headed down to the Melbourne Town Hall to see Australian comedian Josh Glanc's show Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chamedian. Josh's show was a series of different sketches complete with costume changes (some of them quite revealing). The funniest bits were his Behind The Music take on the rise of the Danish Eurodance band Aqua of "Barbie Girl" fame, and a French mime having a crisis of artistry. There was a lot of audience participation in the show, and a recurring commercial skit with an American footballer was more distracting to me due to him naming the team the Cincinnati Falcons than using a raw fish.

Next I ventured down to the Malthouse Theatre to see Australian comedian Andrew McClelland's latest festival show A Seated Walking Tour of Western Europe. In typical Andrew style he opened with a little musical number. It was a fun show as he used Google Street View to take us on a low budget tour through Europe. Parts of the audience were assigned different travel groups, which were referenced throughout the show as we did certain tourist activities. The tour itself led to some unexpected adventures and side trips along the journey, but we covered quite a lot of ground in an hour.

MICF- DeAnne Smith and Sam Simmons

For tonight's Tightarse Tuesday I booked into two Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows. First up was Canadian comedian Deanne Smith's show Worth It at the Greek Centre. Before the show officially started she came out to admit that the show would not be about money as described in the flyer. Instead it focused on her observations on life, women's equality and tackling her fears as woven through a story about pit bulls. She engaged with the audience and gave a loose and funny set, although I think her show last year was tighter.

Next I headed down to the Arts Centre for Australian comedian Sam Simmons' brilliantly titled show Radical Women of Latin American Art, 1960 - 1985. While the show isn't really about what's in the title, the start and ending are inspired about an incident he observed outside the museum in LA after seeing that exhibition. The show itself is cleverly paced and organised around a series of impressions which are proceeded by a voice over of someone saying "This is an impression of a man...." There was a lot of audience participation, some singing and dancing, and a string of absurd observational jokes which made for a tense yet entertaining hour.

MICF- Kate McCartney & Kate McLennan In Konversation

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is currently in full swing and this afternoon at the Comedy Theatre I attended the Q&A Kate McCartney & Kate McLennan In Konversation, which was facilitated by Benjamin Law. The Kates have worked in comedy for years and are best known for their mock cooking series The Katering Show and Get Krack!n, their satire of morning talk shows.

During this hour long discussion we got a peak behind the scenes as they discussed their creative process for writing their shows. After having seen one of their Get Krack!n characters, Helen Bidou (Anne Edmonds) live last night in her own comedy festival show, they joked how depressing it was to see something you've be created be taken further and funnier than you ever imagined. In the era of #MeToo they emphasised the importance of having a diverse writing room so that one person is not having to represent their entire gender/race, and ensuring that things were safe and fun on set for cast and crew. From a casting perspective they said they are committed to diversity and actively try not to cast white people unless it's needed for the punchline of the joke to work.

They showed a clip of once of the most daring bits from this past season of Get Krack!n, which was an Aboriginal man getting the Kates to "eat my black shit for reconciliation." They also discussed the filming of the infamous Katering Show episode that featured Kate McLennan's actual placenta (but thankfully they did not cook it or eat it). It was an insightful hour listening to two of Australia's great comedic voices, and will be interesting to see what they create next.

Stories Of Australian Music: Can I Have Your Autograph?

The Australian Music Vault at the Arts Centre Melbourne is hosting a series of public talks, and tonight I went along to the second one titled Can I Have Your Autograph? which discussed the role of fans and fan communities. Facilitated by writer and journalist Jenny Valentish, the panel consisted of my friend Peter Green (PR and fan club for Crowded House, Split Enz and Skyhooks), Lynne Trute (Nick Cave collector and fan), Owen Lambourn (co-founder of the Kylie Krew fan community for Kylie Minogue) and Holly Pereira (writer and assistant booker at Howler).

The panel discussion was quite interesting and covered a variety of topics. They started with discussing their earliest fan memories and then how they became involved with the artists they work for or support. There were interesting stories of encounters with fans (and how to spot the scary ones), as well as the importance of the fan community and the role it plays in their own lives as they've developed personal friendships. I know for me that my own fandom of Crowded House and the Finns has allowed me to travel around the world and meet people I wouldn't have otherwise become friends with. Peter Green and Lynne Trute also talked about their extensive curator and archival roles for artists to document their musical histories. I liked how Peter noted that each band usually has one member who acts as the historian for the band. Overall it was a really interesting hour long discussion and just confirmed that fan communities are pretty similar across the board.

French Film Festival 2018

It's once again time for the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival in Melbourne, which is running from 28 February - 27 March 2018. Over the past couple of weeks I've been attending a number of films both solo and with friends. Here is what I ended up seeing this year:

Rock'N Roll is an exaggerated satire based on elements of the real lives of its stars director and actor Guillaume Canet and his partner actress Marion Cotillard. Canet is shooting a movie when he realises his younger co-stars don't consider him as young and hip as he used to be. This sets him off on a midlife crisis and downward spiral of partying and and trying to make himself look younger (which is taken to an absolute and comedic extreme). The film features a who's who of French cinema all making cameos as themselves and has some laugh out loud moments throughout.

Number 1 is a drama that explores the status and influence of women in the corporate world in France. Emmanuelle (Emmanuelle Devos), a member of the board of directors of an energy firm, gets approached by an influential network of women who want to put her forward to be head of France's largest water company. The film looks at the white male power structures and the glass ceilings women face when trying to advance their careers to top leadership positions.

Problemos is a hilarious post-apocalyptic comedy about a couple that goes to visit the wife's friend on a commune for the weekend, but never gets to leave because of a global pandemic that is wiping out the human race. Somehow all of these different personalities have to try and work together to create the utopian society they've been dreaming of, but of course things don't quite work out as they would have hoped.

120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) is a film set in Paris in the early-1990s documenting how ACT UP Paris fought against the government and pharmaceutical companies for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. It shows the lives of various members of the collective, in particular the relationship between Nathan (Arnaud Valois) and Sean (Nahuel Perez Biscayart), who is living with HIV.

The Return Of The Hero is a funny comedy starring Jean Dujardin as Captain Neuville, a member of Napoleon's army and casanova who gets engaged to Pauline, the younger sister of Elizabeth (Melanie Laurent) from an aristocratic family. Elizabeth can see through Captain Neuville, and when he gets immediately called off to war but never writes Pauline as promised, Elizabeth steps in to lift her sister's spirits with heroic tales from the battlefield. When Captain Neuville shows up in town a few years later, all sorts of hijinks ensue.

Gauguin is a period biopic that focuses on post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin's (Vincent Cassel) years living in Tahiti in the late 1800s. He left behind his Danish wife and five children to travel half way around the world and be inspired by a new environment. Poor and sick he befriends a local French doctor who tries to look after him, and also starts a relationship with a young Polynesian girl Tehura (Tuhei Adams), who becomes a bit of a muse for his works. The film is told from Gauguin's colonialist viewpoint, which makes it hard to have much sympathy for him, especially the way he treats Tehura towards the end of the film.

Stefano's Restaurant Mildura

This afternoon a group of us flew up to Mildura, located in the north western part of Victoria along the border with New South Wales, for a work meeting we are having tomorrow. Since today is my director Sean's birthday we decided to celebrate by having dinner at Stefano's Restaurant in the cellar of the Mildura Grand Hotel. Owned and run by chef Stefano de Pieri, he cooks Italian food using seasonal and fresh produce.

We had the five course Italian style set menu for $99 per person. This degustation started with fried calamari with a light rocket salad. Next we had a beautiful spinach souffle with pesto and truffle oil. It was full of flavor and my favorite dish of the night. The third course was a simple pork ravioli with a cream sauce.

Our fourth and main dish was a perfectly cooked rump steak with green beans, very flavorful roasted potatoes and an almond puree. Even after these four courses I didn't feel too full as the serving sizes were just right and they spaced out each dish so you could enjoy it. For dessert we had a really lovely vanilla custard in a cinnamon flavored small filo pastry bowl with a fresh piece of mango on top. As a bonus they brought us out some handmade chocolates to finish off the night.

Overall it was a really tasty meal with excellent service in the unique surrounds of the historic cellar restaurant. If you are ever in Mildura I would recommend eating there or at any of the other venues Stefano runs in town.

Grizzly Bear- Zoo Twilights

As part of their Australian tour in support of Painted Ruins Grizzly Bear made a stop in Melbourne tonight to play Zoo Twilights at the Melbourne Zoo. This was my second time seeing the band in the last few months as I was fortunate enough to catch them in San Francisco in December when I was home.

The opening act was Swedish musician Jens Lekman, who played a really entertaining set of his poppy songs that had everyone bopping along. He told great stories to explain the origins of the songs, including "An Argument With Myself" which was written about Melbourne when he used to live here.

The whole front section of the crowd was standing by the time Grizzly Bear took to the stage. They opened with one of my favorite tracks off of Painted Ruins, "Aquarian." Other highlights from the album included "Cut-Out," "Four Cypresses" and "Mourning Sound." The band sounded great and seemed to be enjoying themselves throughout the evening. Ed commented that this was their biggest crowd yet in Melbourne. I was happy to hear many of my favorite tracks from their back catalogue such as "Yet Again," "Sleeping Ute," "Two Weeks," "On A Neck, On A Spit" and "While We Wait For The Others," which closed out the main set. During the encore Chris Taylor made the funny comment they thought playing at a zoo would be the low point in their career but that the setting was actually was quite nice. To finish the night they played a fantastic version of "Sun In Your Eyes." It was another amazing live show from the band and just so impressive to watch them play and enjoying themselves on stage.

Here's the video for "Neighbors"