Australia is Rubbing Off on Me
Hi there all cool ones for eva,
Have you eva heard of the Melbourne Cup? Phar Lap? One of Australia’s most famous icons? Phar Lap was one of those great big red horses that could almost guarantee that you’d back a winner, a favourite. Now he’s been stuffed in the Victorian Museum. It was that time of the year, the first Tuesday in November, the biggest day of the spring Racing Carnival is on…The Melbourne Cup. (and it’s a public holiday to boot? Wooohooo!!) I had never been before so this year I went with my mum, aunt and sister. It was a beautiful day and we all got dolled up but stupid me, who refused to wear a hat (cos it didn’t match my outfit) suffered sunstroke, sunburn and heat exhaustion. There was a record number of people at the race, 121,000 or something and boy it was jam packed. Walking around was a nightmare! We could barely even see the horses run…just a few coloured jockey hats whizzing by. Blink and you’ll miss it. So anyway, the big race was about to start, we managed to be standing next to the mounting yard, to check out the horses close up. We all chose what horse would win, mind you I had never even had a bet on a horse before and wasn’t about to begin so I just picked no. 24 for fun cos the horse was jumping around all frisky like! What do you know the horse wins the race and I am kicking myself for not betting! The horse’s name turns out to be ‘Brew’. And that’s exactly what we had a few of, when we survived the train crush and got back home.
I was also lucky enough to catch a great band from the states recently…hmmm..I think they were from Detroit, ‘White Stripe’. Celeste rang, and says, “come down to Raoul Records, Irene told me that there’s a great band playing and there’s beer, a BBQ and it’s for free.” Knowing that our friend Irene has great taste in music and it was a freebie, how could I refuse!?! It was a duo, brother- sister, team. He sang and played guitar, she played drums. They weren’t fancy players, nice and simple but very cool! His voice sounded like croaky ol’ bluesman..even though he was white and didn’t look like he even shaved yet! And the drums were just so well played, who needs all those ridiculous over the top drum rolls anyway! I loved their cover version of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself”. So I was pleasantly surprised and had a great afternoon. I think Raoul Records has regular afternoon shows on the weekends so if you are down in Barkly St., St.Kilda, I highly recommend you drop on in!
Well last night, I went to ‘Heat’ nightclub to see Philadelphia singer, ‘PINK’. Now usually I am not a fan of that kind of top 40 music but I think Pink’s stuff is a little more unusual than most so I decided to check it out.
The show was scheduled to be on at 10.00pm….two hours later…..the club was packed to the brim, maybe 2 – 3,000 people, some had been cueing since 6.00pm. Heat was a very apt name for the club, you could hardly breathe it was so hot and cramped! So there I am in the ‘special VIP section’ with a couple of members of ‘Antibody’ and ‘Los Dominaros’ taking in the spectacle. We couldn’t see jack shit even though we were on an upper level. We couldn’t even tell if she had been on yet or not…did we miss it? We hear an announcement ….”Sorry for the Delay…” The crowd is furious and begins booing. Apparently one of her dancers slipped over in the hotel bathroom and cracked his head! Pink was going to cancel the show, the record executives were panicking, the crowd was getting more and more
impatient. Then the announcer says, “Ok everyone, pink will be here in 15 mins”..crowd boos…15 mins later…”in 10 mins pink will be here”..etc.. Finally Pink turns up…the crowd is confused, booing and cheering… She starts singing, three male dancers behind dancing. Lots of feedback from the monitors. I can still hardly see anything from the god’s bar cos everyone is trying to catch a glimpse of the star in the flesh. Yes, she still had pink hair. She wore jeans and crop top, and funky glasses, very nice. Then she hears the beginning of the next song…she goes..”oh this is one of my favourite songs”…crowd cheers..she begins the song and then she says, “oh sorry, I’ve forgotten the words..” Music stops, new song comes on…crowd still loves her. She sings her hit, dancers dance, feedback screeches from the mic. Then that’s it. 2 and a bit songs! God how easy is that! To be that popular you only have to sing 2 songs, not worry about a band, let the stylist clothe you, no lugging band equipment, get flown, chauffeured around the world…god… I’m impressed by that! As for her performance well, I think you’d be better off just watching the video, at least you can see her.
Hey I found this cool publication the other day, ‘Farrago’, which is floating about the streets of Melbourne. It’s a Melbourne Uni magazine and it has the most excellent articles in it..poetry, jokes, interviews with politicians, activists, articles by the aboriginal community, music reviews and so on…. If you live in Melbourne make sure you pick one up, it’s free and it’s got better reading in it than most magazines you pay top dollar for.
Well that’s it for this update
stay cool
love
helcat
xxxx
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