the hitlist

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to touch base with music, fine art, and film. In terms of music, I have been in excellent company with successive evening concerts and picnics at the Botanical Gardens, including Basement Jaxx, Leftfield, and Cut Copy, all of whom are significant international acts in the electronic dance genre. This said, all three bands played a number of their most well-known pieces (e.g., "Red Alert", "Romeo" from Basement Jaxx, "Open Up", "Release the Pressure" from Leftfield, "Time Stands Still" from Cut Copy") with great acumen and with surprisingly clarity, which is not always easy at an outdoor venue. It will make for multiple reviews on Rocknerd, even though I have reviewed a Leftfield concert in the distant past. Plus, in a completely different genre, I must also mention attending an EP launch for folkish performers Crittenden Tyndall with Jack Marshall.

Recently, I also have the National Gallery of Victoria for two special exhibitions. The first is the Westwood and Kawakubo fashion exhibit, with Westwood offering reinterpretations of British styles, especially in punkish tartan and flowing gothic gowns, whilst Kawakubo often presents extreme creations that remind me of the Bauhaus style. The latter is the 75 Years of Women Photographers, a magnificent 20th-century international and Australian collection that included the sort of flair that I normally associate with surrealist and abstract painting; Dora Maar, Lola Bravo, Annemarie Heinrich all caught my attention in particular. As an example of interactive art, I was also invited to a "Rats and Barbells" craft event, where I made Gandalf the Rat.

Moving on to film, Nitul (who was also with me at several of the aforementioned events) and I saw "I Swear" (hat-tip to Rade), a new film on the life of John Davidson. Funny, sad, and sometimes frightening, it was an honest and sympathetic view of people with the condition, with more than an inkling of hope. On a entirely different trajectory, I also attended of the opening of a science fiction film festival with the independent film, The Man Who Saw Them Arrive", mainly about Colin Cameron a UFO spotter who was based in Kew. The enthusiasm of other UFO spotters in the room required me to remind myself that this was a science fiction film festival.

Finally, and also on a related note, I attended some valedictory drinks for one John Atkinson, who recently died well before his time (thank you, Helen D, for organising the events). In his professional work, he was on popular Australian TV shows including "Chances", "Out of the Blue", "Home and Away", "McLeod's Daughters", etc., most of which I have little interest in, although the last episodes of "Chances" were hilarious . Personally, however, we got along quite well. He was one of my first flatmates in Melbourne, and we shared a mutual interest in French aesthetics, which definitely included red wine, cuisine, new wave movies, and fencing. Over the years, we managed to stay in touch after he moved interstate, and he could always entertain with stories of misadventures. Ever living the bon vivant lifestyle with passion, he was well-suited to his profession and would have done well in future years. Again, we are reminded of the shortness of life.