Expat Observations: Melbourne vs Sydney

There is nothing like a good city rivalry to get the blood pumping, and Melbourne vs Sydney is Australia's equivalent of this time-honored tradition. Dan Kelly even wrote a song about it. Each city has its own unique personality and attractions to set it apart from the other. So which one is best?

Sydney is obviously Australia's oldest and best known city. It is a leading tourist destination that draw people from around the world to see landmark attractions like the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and The Rocks. Sydney also has pretty good weather, fantastic beaches and a laid back surfer vibe. It is the home of rugby league and the entertainment capital of the country. Sydney has the glitz and the glam with its beautiful people and large nightclubs, and reminds me of Los Angeles.

Melbourne is the sporting and cultural capital of Australia, and has been named the world's most livable city by The Economist numerous times. It is the spiritual home of Australian Rules Football (AFL) and hosts the Australian Open (tennis) and Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix each year. Melbourne is a foodie mecca and known for its street art and thriving music scene. While it doesn't have landmark attractions like the Opera House, it is a city where you can wander around and discover hidden gems down the laneways and arcades in the CBD. This can be a good thing as Melbourne is also known for its unpredictable weather, so it's good to be able to duck into a cafe for a bit and wait for the weather to change. Melbourne reminds me of San Francisco as they have a similar vibe.

As you can see, each city has something unique to offer. For me though there is no contest - I chose to live in Melbourne for a reason. However, sometimes it is nice to make a quick visit to the Emerald City.

Crayon Fields- No One Deserves You Album Launch

It's been six years since the last Crayon Fields album was released, so it was definitely a time to celebrate with the album launch for No One Deserves You at Howler tonight. Opening proceedings was indie band The Goon Sax from Brisbane. This teenage trio played an excellent set, with everyone taking a turn on lead vocals at some point. They are definitely an act to keep an eye on, and will be releasing their debut album next year. Second on the bill was Totally Mild, who played a much more coherent set than the last time I saw them opening for Oh Mercy.

I have loved Crayon Fields' previous albums, but for some reason never managed to see them live before tonight. Their set was just as dreamy and fantastic as I was expecting it to be. They started with "Slow Magic" and played most of the songs off of No One Deserves You throughout the set. Highlights were "No One Deserves You," "If I Could," "She's My Hero" and "Somewhere Good," which is my favorite track off the album. Lead singer Geoffrey O'Connor was quite funny with his little antidotes in between songs. It was also great to get to hear the tracks "Disappear," "Mirror Ball," "Voice Of Paradise" and "All The Pleasures Of The World" off their last release. The evening ended with them playing "So Do I" for an encore. Overall it was a great set and I wish they would have played for longer. Hopefully they will do some more shows in the future to support the album.

Here's the video for "She's My Hero"

Expat Observations: Terrorism

Peace for Paris by Jean Jullien

I was very sad to wake up to the news this morning of the terror attacks in Paris, which have killed over 120 people and injured hundreds of others, the majority of whom were attending an Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan. This attack is in addition to the suicide bombings in Beirut a day earlier that killed 43 people and injured hundreds more.

The world's leaders have condemned the Paris attacks, and people around the globe are standing in solidarity with the people of France. Many historic buildings are being lit up in the blue, white and red colors of the French flag to honor the victims. It was lovely to see the true humanity of people in the way they helped their fellow citizens and offered people shelter in their homes using the #PorteOuverte hashtag. It reminded me of the aftermath of the Martin Place siege in Sydney and the #illridewithyou hashtag where people offered to ride public transport with Muslims who may have been fearful to ride alone due to anti-Islamic sentiment.

Thankfully Malcolm Turnbull is Australia's Prime Minister, so we didn't have to hear the phrase "death cult" today and witness a bunch of fearmongering and posturing by our conservative government. As we continue to experience terrorism it does make me wonder what kind of world would we all be living in if Al Gore had won the presidential election in 2000 instead of George W. Bush? My thoughts go out to all those affected by these terror attacks.

Expat Observations: Street Art

Melbourne is known globally for its street art and it is a huge tourist attraction for the city. All of those laneways around town are the perfect canvas for street artists, with Hosier Lane probably the best known spot (and one that is constantly evolving). There are some very talented artists here and these are some of my favorites.

Baby Guerrilla is best known for her large scale stencil paste-ups, which often have people floating in the air. Some of her more recent work can be found on buildings around the Victoria University Footscray Park campus.

Be Free is best known for her stencils of a little girl doing various things depending on the space that has been chosen. There is a lightness and sense of fun in her work that is very appealing to a wide audience.

Rone paints the most amazingly detailed portraits of women you will ever see. He also did the four Aussie muses for last year's Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition in Melbourne. His latest work is a mural at Etihad Stadium of two female AFL fans in the crowd cheering on their team.

Adnate is another artist who does very detailed portrait work, and is probably best known for his beautiful paintings of the faces of Indigenous children.

Alexander Gow- MPavilion

This morning, as part of Melbourne Music Week's Morning Ritual and the Face the Music conference, we were treated to a concert by Alexander Gow of Oh Mercy at the MPavilion in the Queen Victoria Gardens. Unfortunately it was a drizzly and chilly start to the day, but at least the structure designed by AL_A kept people dry.

Alex played an acoustic set and started (ironically?) with "Deep Heat." We got to hear "Let Me Be Him," "Iron Cross," and "Lady Eucalyptus" off of his latest album When We Talk About Love, and "Drums" and "My Man" from Deep Heat. The two special moments of the set were getting to hear the unreleased track "Get On" live for the first time, and Alex's cover of the Leonard Cohen song "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong." It was a lovely way to my Friday, and as always, a pleasure to see Alex play live.

You can check out the When We Talk About Love acoustic series on the Oh Mercy Facebook page. Also, here's a video of "Without You" from the Parlour gig I attended in June (hint- you may see someone you know in it).

Expat Observations: Monarchy vs Republic

Photo by AAP: Mick Tsikas

The future King of England is visiting some of his countries in the South Pacific at the moment. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were in Canberra yesterday for a Remembrance Day service as part of their visit to Australia. Prince Charles also met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Government House, which was probably a bit awkward as Turnbull was chairman of the Australian Republican Movement from 1993-2000.

Currently Australia is a constitutional monarchy, with the Queen of England as its head of state. The Queen is represented here by the Governor-General. In 1999 a republican referendum was held but neither of the amendments passed. While there does seem to be support for Australia to become a republic, the form it will take seems to be a stumbling block. Most leaders have also stated they won't pursue the issue until Queen Elizabeth's reign ends.

I am sure that Australians will ditch the monarchy at some point, but the question is when? Tony Abbott probably did the most to help the republican cause when he awarded a knighthood to Prince Philip on Australia Day (thankfully Turnbull got rid of knights and dames from the Order of Australia honours soon after he became Prime Minister). However, if it is Prince William who becomes King instead of his father, the monarchy may be safe for quite some time.

Expat Observations: Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is celebrated in Commonwealth countries on 11 November each year to observe the armistice on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" that ended hostilities on the Western Front in World War I in 1918. It is supposed to be a day for remembering all soldiers who have died in battle. However, like Anzac Day, it is still steeped in this mythology of World War I and the forging of Australia's national identity.

I find it fascinating how Australia still seems to have not moved on from the legend of the Gallipoli ANZAC soldiers. In the United States we have Memorial Day to celebrate those soldiers who have lost their lives (which commenced after the Civil War), and renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day in 1954 to celebrate the service of all military veterans. These are much more inclusive holidays that honor those who have served in the armed forces in different wars over time. Perhaps one day Australia will focus more on the service of its more recent veterans and not those from 100 years ago.

Expat Observations: Human Rights

Australia had its Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations Human Rights Council early this morning in Geneva. Over 100 countries commented and made recommendations on Australia's human rights record. Considering the Coalition Government campaigned on a promise to "stop the boats" and is currently holding men, women and children seeking asylum in detention camps on Nauru and Manus Island, Australia was rightly called out for its human rights abuses. Australia is the only country in the world to use offshore processing and mandatory detention. Countries called on Australia to stop boat turnbacks, end the detention of asylum seekers and refoulement, and to ratify the optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture so that independent observers can visit the camps.

The other main recommendations centered around Australia's treatment of its Indigenous people, including the closure of remote communities, constitutional recognition, high levels of incarceration, and closing the gap around health, education, housing and employment. Australia will have a few months to decide which recommendations from the UPR report it will accept. Considering it is bidding for a seat on the Human Rights Council from 2018-20, it will be interesting to see the Government's response.

Expat Observation: Music

Australian music has always been a part of my life, with those late 1970s and early 1980s hits by the Bee Gees, Olivia Newton-John, Men At Work and Air Supply peaking a curiosity in the USA about Australian bands. The next wave came in the mid-late 1980s with bands such as INXS, Midnight Oil, Crowded House, The Church and Hunters & Collectors scoring airplay on college and alternative radio stations and getting their videos played on MTV. It was then that my lifelong love of Crowded House started as "Don't Dream It's Over" went to number 2 on the charts.

I continued to monitor the Australian music scene and when I did a year abroad at the University of Melbourne in the mid-1990s I got to discover some new artists playing around town at the time, including Things of Stone and Wood, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, Deadstar, Dave Graney 'n' The Coral Snakes and You Am I.

When I moved back to Melbourne in 2005 I really started to plug into the music scene once again, which wasn't hard to do because there were so many venues around town. If you wanted to you could go out to see a band every night of the week here. My love of indie music remains strong, with 2007-2008 probably the strongest period for bands from Melbourne with the likes of Little Red, Oh Mercy, The Basics, Gotye, The Harpoons, The Good China, CW Stoneking and Eddy Current Suppression Ring playing gigs and/or releasing EPs and albums. Some of those bands have since disbanded, but the scene remains vibrant, even in spite of gentrification in the northern suburbs and closing down of some music venues. I am constantly discovering new bands and artists (it pays to catch the warm-up acts at gigs), and there have been a number of fantastic releases this year. Melbourne is the musical heart of Australia, and Friday will see the start of the annual Face the Music conference and Melbourne Music Week.

Expat Observations: Animals

Yesterday was the Great Victorian Koala Count where people could register to become certified koala counters and walk around parts of the state to record how many koalas they could see. Being an island continent means that there are many animals that can only be found in Australia, including the koala, kangaroo, wallaby, wombat, platypus, dingo and echidna. Australia is also known for its crocodiles, spiders and snakes, many of which are some of the deadliest in the world.

These animals are a big attraction for tourists who love to be able to get a photo and see them in person at a zoo, wildlife park or even in the wild (if you are lucky). I was able to see some koalas while touring the Great Ocean Road last year, and also saw kangaroos when I was at the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in the ACT many years ago. One thing I find interesting is the everyday animals from back home that don't exist here in Australia such as squirrels, raccoons and skunks.

Expat Observations: Food Trucks

In a foodie town like Melbourne it is no surprise that food trucks have taken off in popularity over the last few years. There used to be only a few trucks that you would track on social media to several different spots around town, but now the numbers and locations seem to grow by the week. There are not only your classic burger, taco and BBQ trucks, but also an increasing number of trucks that are focused on the cuisine of various cultures and nationalities.

While some councils have cut down on the number of trucks that can park at a given time in any one location, the truck owners have started to set up more permanent spots to do business. Welcome To Thornbury and The Food Truck Park in Preston are two such spots with a rotating range of trucks on any given night. And some of the more popular trucks like Mr Burger and Gumbo Kitchen have opened up restaurant locations in the inner city. It is an ever evolving scene. Now all we need are more dessert trucks out on the road.

Expat Observations: Tuna

Australians really love their canned tuna. In the States we would primarily add mayonnaise and lemon pepper to make tuna fish sandwiches or use plain tuna in a casserole. However, here in Australia it seems to be all about the flavored tuna. The supermarket shelves are packed with a variety of different types- tomato, chili, sundried tomato, and cracked pepper just to name a few. People either eat it straight out of the can or put onto a salad. It seems to be a big component of people's lunches and snacks here, even with concerns about the overfishing of tuna in the ocean. I find it fascinating how the same food can be eaten differently depending on the culture of the country you are in.

Expat Observations: Weather

Today's thunderstorms (BOM)

Melbourne's weather is notoriously erratic. One minute it can be hot, then a change will come through with rain and cool things down, and then later on it might get hot again. This unpredictable weather inspired the Crowded House song "Four Seasons In One Day."

Today was a typical Melbourne day- raining in the morning, clearing with some sunshine, then the sky going black and a massive downpour, and finally sunshine again. It rained so hard this afternoon that there were waterfalls coming off the roof of our building at work. The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued a severe thunderstorm advisory and tornado warning, with a tornado forming in the northern suburbs! This is not normal, even for Melbourne.

You would think with such varied weather that our local newscasters would be highly qualified meteorologists with the most advanced radar and weather forecasts possible. That's what I grew up with in the Bay Area- it was weather warfare between stations using the latest technology to try and have the most accurate forecasts for all of our different micro-climates. However, here in Melbourne you are more likely to see ex-sports stars or models presenting the weather. It was funny when 7News recently hired a qualified meteorologist and actually used that in promos for their news broadcasts. You would think it should just be a given.

Expat Observations: Public Transport

Melbourne has a lot of different public transportation options ranging from trains to trams to buses. Complaining about public transport is a favorite past time of many people, but I actually don't find the system to be that bad. I will note that I live in the inner city, so my experiences are quite different from those living further out. However, for someone who has grown up in California where a car is a requirement if you want to get anywhere, I love being able to hop onto a tram or train to get around town. In fact, I have managed to live here for 10 years without needing to own a car. That would not be a possibility back in the States.

The one thing I do find annoying about the network is that its design means all modes lead in and out of the CBD. Trying to get across town, especially in the northern suburbs, is a big pain and I often have to travel in to the city and then switch lines to go back up. While there are bus lines that go across town, they don't run that frequently (or at all late at night).

Overall though, I really can't complain as things are fairly reliable most of the time. One exciting development is that starting next year there will be all night public transport on weekends. This will be great, especially for getting home from those late night gigs I attend. Melbourne also even has an award winning public safety campaign around trains called "Dumb Ways To Die." What other public transport system can claim to have a catchy song and online game in app stores?

Expat Observations: Spring Racing Carnival

Photo by Robert Cianflone

It's currently the Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne, which not only features horse racing but fashion, parties in the Birdcage and on the grounds, and lots of betting. I have been to a couple races over the years - Stakes Day in 2005 and the Melbourne Cup in 2008. The Melbourne Cup Carnival is a huge economic boon for Victoria, with $20.91 million in food and beverage, $13.67 in retail, $7.61 million in grooming and $31.4 million in fashion spending in 2014. Fashion spending included 75,000 hats and fascinators, 61,000 dresses, 59,000 pairs of shoes, 30,000 handbags, 17,000 shirts and 15,000 suits. As you can see, the Carnival is big business.

Today was the 155th running of the Emirates Melbourne Cup. Only in sports mad Melbourne would you have a public holiday for a horse race. This year's Cup was an exciting one with 100-1 shot Prince Of Penzance winning, ridden by the first female jockey to ever take the Cup, Michelle Payne. Her after race interview was refreshingly honest about the struggles female jockeys face:

"To think that Darren Weir has given me a go and it's such a chauvinistic sport, I know some of the owners were keen to kick me off, and John Richards and Darren stuck strongly with me, and I put in all the effort I could and galloped him all I could because I thought he had what it takes to win the Melbourne Cup and I can't say how grateful I am to them. I want to say to everyone else, get stuffed, because women can do anything and we can beat the world."

Max Dynamite finished second, with Criterion coming in third. Unfortunately Red Cadeaux, who finished second in three previous Cups, broke down and didn't finish the race. At this stage it looks like he won't have to be put down, but it's just a reminder of the brutality of horse racing.

The Basics- The Age Of Entitlement Tour Finale

The Basics have been busy travelling around the country over the past few weeks and last night was the finale of The Age Of Entitlement tour at The Gasometer Hotel. Considering the size of the venue Tash, Mary and I figured it would be a normal show, but they had the world's tiniest stage set up in the middle of the floor for an in-the-round performance like their Melbourne Festival shows. The opening act was William Crighton, who played a great solo set and was even joined by The Basics for a couple songs. Next up was Benny Walker, who played with his band this time (and nearly fell off the stage at one point).

The retractable roof was opened up and the smoke machine was pumping as The Basics kicked off the night with the one-two punch of "So Hard For You" and "The Lucky Country." The set list was similar to the earlier shows, with highlights including "Whatever Happened To The Working Class," "A Coward's Prayer," "To Think Of You" and the hand clapping fun of "Roundabout." In a real throwback they played "You're Already Gone" from the first album, as well as "Second Best" and "Have Love, Will Travel" with David Bramble on the Wurlitzer. We were also treated to covers of Neil Young's "Birds" and "Out On The Weekend" (with William Crighton joining in), and a brilliant version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." The most hilarious moment though was when their cover of The Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts" morphed into Roy Orbison's "You Got It" complete with Kris imitating Roy's voice.

There was a massive and sustained call for an encore with the sold out crowd continuously clapping for a few minutes. Wally came down first and played beautiful versions of Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" and Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" solo on the Wurlitzer. Kris and Tim then joined him on stage to play the Split Enz track "One Step Ahead." It was around this time that things nearly went off the rails as Tim was encouraged to sing lead vocals for "Rattle My Chain" and clearly wanted the show to end. However, the boys restarted the song with Wally singing and then the encore took off as they just kept seamlessly pulling out song after song they wanted to play: Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love," Eric Clapton's "Cocaine," "Tunaomba Saidia," The Police's "Roxanne" and then finished with The Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night." It was an epic 2+ hour classic Basics gig, and while there did seem to be a bit of finality to it as they put their arms around each other at the end, I still think they might do the odd show in a few years time when all the stars align. You can never say never with these guys.

Here's the video for "Roundabout"

Expat Observations: How To Speak Australian

Australia may be an English speaking country, but that doesn't mean you won't have issues understanding what people are saying. Things can get lost in translation here, not only due to accents and different pronunciations of words, but also Aussie slang. I remember when I first arrived here I was speaking to a guy who was from the country and I literally could not understand a word he was saying - it sounded like a foreign language. Lecturer Dean Frenkel from Victoria University wrote an opinion piece for The Age last week saying that due to Australia's forefathers getting drunk together, it added "an alcoholic slur to our national speech patterns." Needless to say it didn't go down too well.

Foster's ran a famous advertising campaign in the States on "How To Speak Australian." It played on the outback, masculine stereotypes from the Crocodile Dundee films and ended in the tag line "Foster's: Australian for Beer." This is funny because no Australian would be caught dead drinking a Foster's. Here is a compilation of some of the ads:


Over my ten years of living here I have picked up on a lot of the slang and also learned what phrases and words NOT to say as they have a very different meaning. The majority of Australian slang is abbreviations of words as Aussies love to shorten things. Josh and Rhys do a pretty good job explaining this in the video below:


So these days I may say "no worries" and "mate," use "capsicum" instead of "bell pepper," and speak with a rising inflection at the end of sentences, but if you start using Australian rhyming slang I will have no idea what you are talking about.

NaBloPoMo: Expat Observations

It's the beginning of November, which means it is also the start of another National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). This will be my sixth year participating in trying to write something for each day in November. Some years I have just winged it, while other years I have done a theme for my posts (see Fave Albums and the Wear My Wardrobe challenge).

Since last month was the ten year anniversary of my move to Australia, I thought it might be good for this NaBloPoMo to write about my observations as an expat. I plan to cover a range of topics about my adopted homeland, and hopefully I won't offend anyone in the process! The last thing I need is the Australian Border Force stripping me of my dual citizenship and deporting me back to America.

Dan Kelly- Leisure Panic! Tour

Dan Kelly has been out on the road in support of his fantastic new album Leisure Panic! and tonight was the last show of the tour at The Gasometer Hotel. Ben Ely was the opening act, doing a solo set on acoustic guitar. He played songs off his new solo album Goodbye Machine as well as a couple Regurgitator tracks. Next up was Jess Ribeiro and her band, who played an alt-country tinged set.

The stage was decorated with LED rope lights before Dan took the stage with his Dream Band, who were all dressed in sporty gear with the girls wearing tennis outfits and the boys in cycling lycra (I assume for Halloween). The set list featured many tracks from Leisure Panic! with its stories of adventure and humorous lyrics. Highlights were "Baby Bonus," "Creme De La Creme De La Creme," "Never Stop The Rot," "Gold Coast Man," and the epic transcendental track "On The Run," which was absolutely brilliant. We also were treated to a few older songs with "The Catholic Leader," "Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam" and "Drunk On Election Night," which Dan played solo as an encore to finish off the night. It was such an entertaining evening and great to get to see Dan play in such an intimate setting.

Here's the hilarious video for "Never Stop The Rot"

T by LuxBite

Sometimes you just need a little sweet treat, and one of the best places to go to in the Melbourne CBD is T by LuxBite. Like the LuxBite cafe in South Yarra, they have macarons and cakes, but the added bonus is their cute little tarts. I sampled two of them this afternoon: Kuma the bear and the Halloween themed Jack Skellington.

Kuma contains cookie, Mork hot chocolate, strawberry, banana, white chocolate milkshake mousse, caramel, and chocolate tart.

Jack Skellington is a chocolate tart filled with white sesame caramel, sour cherry jelly and black sesame panna cotta, topped with hazelnut and coffee mousse and white chocolate glaze.

Needless to say both them were very tasty! I look forward to heading back to the shop to try even more of the assorted tarts on offer.