The End...

Just in case you were wondering, though I know you have pretty much figured it out. The no necked monsters are drunk on ice cream and won't be updating anymore.

Thanks for sticking around.

x

Sleeping Beauty

STAGE :: Sleeping Beauty
By Michael Scott
VIC | 18.07.2007

Fairy tales have lost their punch. The versions we are fed today seem innocuous to us as we grow up - they are pretty and safe and they have happy endings. Disney has a good deal to answer for. Gone are the days when Cinderella’s sister hacked off her heel to try and fit her foot into that dainty glass slipper. The Malthouse’s latest production of Sleeping Beauty attempts to drag the fairy tale back to its less sanitised beginnings.

You know the story: girl pricks finger, girl falls asleep, girl dreams her life away, girl is woken up by a charming young prince; you’ve heard it many times before but this time you’ll hear it to the tune of Bowie, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave and the Divinyls. Michael Kantor and Maryanne Lynch’s production is the bastard love child of a concept album and a mix tape come to life, and it has the strengths and weaknesses inherent in both.
Read on if you can be bothered.

Incoming: MIFF

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL :: Triple Dare + Hansel And Gretel + Little Red Flowers
By Michael Scott
VIC | 18.07.2007

This year’s MIFF is about to kick off and the new festival director has brought a few fresh ideas to the proceedings. This year MIFF is offering younger festival patrons (and the young at heart) something to get their teeth into through their Next Gen programme, a collection of films from a diverse range of cultures that don’t pander to the Hollywood “family films” mould.

You can check out my reviews of the three films at The Program

So, that's why that call it Falls.

So we went snowboarding last weekend.

It was fun.

It hurt a lot.

It was cold.

But pretty.

See...

Andrew was a lot better than I was. At least he stayed upright for longer.

Plug

Queue and A

It started like this...


And if finished up like this...


And now Q+A is gone for good.

It was fun while it lasted. Actually, it was more than fun. To say the place has been important is a bit of an understatement. I think probably 80% of the people I know in Melbourne I met there or through people I met there. I could blather on but I won't because I am hung over.

Thanks Richard, Pete and Helen. Words cunt express... The 400 strong queue at the door before opening can though.

Oh, and if anyone finds my phone (and isn't it a coincidence that I lost it on the same day that the iPhone is released.)

Stamos-a-rama

I picked this up on Dlisted (seeing as I am not in the habit of watching Kerri-Anne) and it is an absolute gem. Stamos is completely open and frank about what is left of his career and he manages to show Kerri-Anne up for the cloying monstrosity that she is.

In vino veritas...

PIXAR: 20 Years of Animation @ ACMI

As it seemed I had been neglecting my +1 duties of late, I allowed my live-in Man About Town to drag me kicking and screaming to the opening of the Pixar exhibition at ACMI , the first of Melbourne's to "winter blockbuster" exhibitions. You can imagine the scores my fingernails have left in the cement paving.

It was quite an exhibition, which we finally got to see after a couple of speeches by the Minister for Tourism, the Head of ACMI and video greetings from Geoffrey Rush and John Lasseter.

Much was made of the never before seen artwork that goes into making Pixar's incredible films and some of it is really sublime. There is a real sense of the love that flows from the artists into their work. And the shear breadth of talent that the studio has amassed over the years.

The centrepiece of the exhibition (not that it even needs one) is a huge 3D zoetrope, which at first sight looks like a wedding cake that has been pompously overdecorated but the effect when it is hit by the strobe lighting is just phenomenal and would have been worth the price of admission, had we paid.

I imagine there will be a few small kiddies over the coming months drooling over the glass casing of the pretty whirring machine.


Quite a few of Pixar's earlier shorts are on display as well as artwork from the upcoming feature Ratatouille, which ended up being helmed by Brad "The Iron Giant" Bird (though he took the reigns over half way through so it'll be interesting to see how his hand is felt).

Go.

Wave Goodbye

Had my last bout of hand therapy today.

Can't describe how good it feels. Almost a year of doctor's visits, pain, little black stitches, two operations, exercises, putty, and generally not being able to do stuff.

Today seemed a little routine but everyone was impressed. The doctor who saw me admitted he wouldn't have been able to do as good a job, which is encouraging.

Kate at hand therapy was just as impressed.

It is hard to believe it has almost been a year.

Know No Cure (for The Program)

STAGE :: Know No Cure

By Michael Scott
VIC | 25.06.2007

On a nondescript operating table in some nondescript O.R., in some nondescript location, Cyber lies, ready to receive a nondescript operation. The procedure that follows sends him on a whacked-out, tripped up journey into an unravelling subconscious so fraught with nonsensical happenings that even a cursory attempt at explanation would appear futile.

Read the full play-whipping at The Program

Ocean's Thirteen (or, The Best Laid Plans...)

Okay, so the first one was a lot of fun. Glitzy and fluffy.

The second one was a moderate amount of fun. Less glitzy, more fluffy.

The third one is a good deal of fun. It pulls back in the glitz and doesn't pad it with too much more fluff.

Let's face it. It is fun watching big, big stars in popcorners. Especially when they look as lusciously 70s as Soderberg's.

I can hardly remember the second film, but I remember enjoying it. That is pretty typical of these films though. Tomorrow, I'll forget I've seen this one.

This outing has no Roberts and no Zeta-Jones. What it does have is Barkin-galore, which is a perfect antidote. She brings some real class, and a few laughs, to the proceedings. So much so that at the end of the film, you'll be wondering where she has been these past few years.

The rest of the cast potter along as usual. They seem to be having fun and that has always been my biggest attraction to this franchise (I'll call it a franchise, but I don't see them making Ocean's lunchboxes for the kiddies).

Plot-wise, don't bother. I found myself sitting back saying to myself, "You don't know what is going on but it'll all come together in the end." And it did. Still, it wasn't as tightly composed as the first film.

Go, have fun, laugh and look at the pretty lights.

Monkey... Magic!

Okay, I've got to be quick because I am at work. I just wanted to let you know that I just found out that ex (or maybe not so ex) blur frontman, Damon Albarn and his Gorillaz side-kick, artist Jamie Hewlitt, have teamed up to write an opera.

And it is based on the ancient Chinese legend of Monkey.

And it is premiering next week, in Manchester.

And it has Shaolin monks in it.

Here is a clip from a doco about the show, which is going to air in early July. I haven't seen it yet but I'll be watching it as soon as I get home.



To be honest, the original television show made me violently ill. I think it was something to do with my impressionable young mind and really bad dubbing of the English soundtrack.

I'll have to take a bucket along, I guess.

Feature: Troy Innocent :: Field Of Play (for The Program)

Troy Innocent :: Field Of Play
By Michael Scott
VIC | 12.06.2007

Walking towards Digital Harbour in Melbourne’s Docklands is something of a journey into a barren wilderness. Yes, it is a weekday night but, even so, except for the few lone businessmen trekking towards their high-rise apartments, the buffeting winds seem to have blown everyone else away.

Tucked away down an alley, the bold green, blue and orange icons glowing from Troy Innocent’s latest urban art installation, Field of Play were commissioned to draw people into the growing technology precinct. The lights are bright, but the work’s attraction goes far beyond the reach of the cryptic symbols, seemingly stamped into the pavement by some ancient extraterrestrial lifeform, because Field of Play’s boundaries extend onto the Internet and into your mobile phone.

Continue reading at The Program...

Thanks Phil

UPDATED... To prove that D is the most eloquent letter in the alphabet, check out this response.

Review: Shining City @ The Mechanics Institute (for The Program)

STAGE :: Shining City
By Michael Scott
VIC | 04.06.2007

When John walks into his therapist’s office and admits to seeing a ghost of his recently deceased wife, he opens up an exploration not into the arcane but into the mundane.

Conor McPherson’s Tony Award nominated work Shining City is an examination of guilt and the disconnectedness of relationships in a world where disembodiment is far more tangible than fantastical.

Trot off and read the rest here...