"Akmal Saleh is facing the stand-up comic's equivalent of that tricky second novel - the need to move on to new verbal territory in step with one's advancing age. 'The thing is, I'm old now,' he says. 'I'm 48. I can't get away with just doing jokes any more. I really feel that I want to say something that I believe in, or moves me, without being pretentious...'"

"To stage one Comedy Festival show may be regarded as a challenge; to stage two looks like recklessness. At least, that's what Oscar Wilde might say if he was around to peruse the program of the 2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In culmination of a growing trend, several well-known comics are staging more specialised shows in addition to their main solo acts..."

"The former Wertheim factory site on Richmond's Bendigo Street has lived an interesting life - it started out in 1908 as a piano factory, then became a Heinz factory before being transformed into the headquarters of Channel Nine. This month, however, there's been a spark of life in the old dream factory as it's been temporarily reinvented as the Richmond Weekender, hosting a cafe, cinema and market..."

"As the mosquito drone of the grand prix engines faded from the air outside the InterContinental Melbourne at The Rialto last Friday evening, jazz legend James Morrison was about to fill its Market Lane Bar with more melodious sounds. With the musician tucked into one end of the room along with a band, the compact space of wood-lined walls and low lounges took on a hint of backstreet jazz club..."

"So I return to the bench to sit in the light drizzle, looking up at the windows and imagining Plum looking back at me - we are, after all, separated not by space but only by the trifling matter of seven decades. If I could somehow pierce that veil of time and shout up to him from the roadway, what would I say? “Don’t do the broadcasts!” comes to mind. If he’d listen, it would save everyone a lot of heartache..."

Visiting the town in Poland where author PG Wodehouse was once held prisoner.
Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

"I've only recently watched the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so I'm understandably unnerved to discover a giant bust of a chimpanzee in bushland on the edge of Melbourne's suburban sprawl. A minute before, I was strolling across neat lawns behind the McClelland Gallery, admiring a gold-faced statue of Dame Joan Sutherland. Now I'm following a narrow track through native trees and things have taken a more primal turn..."

"Private investigator Felix Baker recently walked the streets of St Kilda, talking to homeless people and sex workers in an attempt to find a young runaway called Becky. Just another sad tale of a disadvantaged kid becoming entangled in a shadowy world of drugs, prostitution and sleeping rough, you might think. Except that both Felix and Becky are fictional, the lead characters within a new audio tour of St Kilda entitled Looking for a Girl?..."

"Genet was brought up on the wrong side of the Parisian tracks, the son of a prostitute, then turned to theft before joining the Foreign Legion. As a poet, novelist and playwright, he became friends with the likes of Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso, who helped keep him out of prison. This colourful back story gave him plenty to draw upon in his work; and The Maids is one of his more memorable creations..."

"The poem, set after the arcade closes at night, has a bunch of ornaments breaking out of fashion boutique Corky St Clair and running the length of the underpass. It's an amusing poetic romp, a light-hearted urban fairytale that provokes chuckles at the antics of the newly animated objects and their very Melbourne artiness..."

"'GET WITH THE ACTION'. It’s the type of advertising slogan whipped up by the 1960s ad men from Mad Men. In Sister Mary Corita Kent’s 1966 artwork For Emergency Use Soft Shoulder, however, it’s been cheekily appropriated to sell spirituality. For the artistic nun who created the work, the product on offer was God..."

"Anyone who's strolled past the Melbourne Town Hall on a sunny April day knows what it's like to be the centre of attention. Passers-by are assailed by Comedy Festival performers bearing leaflets, a publicity strategy known as 'flyering'. They're more entertaining than charity muggers, but there's no mistaking the scent of desperation in the air..."

"'Hal's Wigs, Merrylight Wigs, Di'Napoli Men's Hair Pieces,' I murmur, reading the labels on a column of cardboard boxes that reaches from floor to ceiling. Each title is stencilled in an old-fashioned font that suggests a commercial enterprise of the 1950s or '60s. I catch myself reaching up to check the status of my own hairline, as the artist might have expected me to do..."

"There are many big events on the Melbourne calendar, so much so that it has become an attraction itself. In March you can choose between (or combine) the Grand Prix, the Fashion Festival, the Food and Wine Festival, the Queer Film Festival, the International Comedy Festival, the International Flower and Garden Show, and the decades-old Moomba Festival. However, one exciting element of the city’s cultural offerings that often eludes visitors is its vibrant independent theatre scene..."

[Read the full article here] (jump to p82)

"'Nothing succeeds like success,' goes the old saying, and it could well work as the
motto for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Since its inception in 1987, the festival has become one of Australia’s biggest arts events - with over 400,000 tickets sold last year. Now the Comedy Festival is turning 25. What accounts for its extraordinary success?"

Revealing the highlights of the 25th Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Not available for republication.

[Read the full article here] (jump to p46)

"There's an unwritten rule in contemporary theatre - that you can include as much sex and nudity as you like, as long as it's tastefully understated. This is not, however, a view shared by Steven Dawson. Since 1997, Dawson has been writing plays that exploit the sheer cut-through marketing power of titles such as Big Dicks on Stage, Filthy Pervert Seeks Same and Naked."

"IT manager Ryan McNaught has a novel way of filling his out-of-office hours: he builds models out of Lego, the popular interlocking building bricks patented by Danish toy company owner Godtfred Christiansen in 1958. They're not, however, comparable to the simple misshapen houses you constructed as a kid. McNaught's creations are sizeable constructions, meticulously planned and involving hundreds of bricks."

"Which do you prefer: Mickey Mouse or Daffy Duck? The good-natured animated animal characters from the Disney stable, or the sassier gang from Warner Brothers? It’s the sort of question that might be exercising the minds of furry fans as they gather in Melbourne for the 12th Midfur convention. Furries are devotees of anthropomorphic art, which features humanoid forms with animal characteristics."

"No matter how you look at it, the suit gets a bad rap: ‘suits’ as a derisive term for corporate warriors, ‘men in suits’ to hint at masculine bias in the boardroom. Luckily the suit does have one true friend: the tie. This humble piece of neckwear has been allowed to be the one free and easy item in men’s power uniform, lending it the ability to mitigate the suit’s conformist look."

"Despite the progress made in achieving equality between men and women over the past half-century, the abuse of sexual power by sportsmen keeps raising its head. Now it's inpired a new documentary play about sexual violence and football, This Kind of Ruckus. Drawing on rugby’s sex scandals of recent years, the production starkly examines the psychology of sex and consent in both the sporting arena and the wider world."

"Stop me if you've heard this one - 683 punters walk into a Hobart bar to watch a comedy gig, and call it a comedy festival. In 2002 it seemed pretty funny, according to Hobart Comedy Festival producer Craig Wellington. 'We put on a stage show over summer, and called it "The Hobart Comedy Festival (The World’s Smallest Cultural Event)" as a joke.' But it turned out to not be a passing gag..."

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. But what happens when the gods move beyond wrath and manipulation, and simply become tired, worn out, and in need of a cup of tea and a good lie-down? They hire temps, of course, a group of actors who can fill in on Mount Olympus until they feel like returning to their heavenly abode. That’s the plot, in any case, of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Thespis."

"Picture this... it’s Brunswick in the 1980s, well before gentrification swept across the suburb. A baritone walks into a dingy jazz club, accompanied by a female soprano. He exchanges a brief nod with the barman, who’s rumoured to keep a gun under the bar, and the duo ascends the stage."

"If a nerd like Lawrence Leung could revive the Rubik’s Cube in his TV series Choose Your Own Adventure, the time must be ripe for a geek-chic makeover of the 12-sided dice. Enter musical comedy trio Tripod, whose latest production is an exaltation of that epic pre-console time-waster: the role-playing game known as Dungeons and Dragons."

"What would Christmas be without nuts? Or indeed, without The Nutcracker? This fairytale ballet by Tchaikovsky is the perfect way to introduce kids to dance, though adults will also be enchanted by the adventures of our heroine, Marie, and the toys she encounters along the way. 'Is there a magical transformation and a handsome prince?' I hear you ask. How could there not be? Sugar plum fairies included."

Available for republication (print only).
Images available.

"Though the satirical illustration has been around since the 18th century, and the cartoon is still a fixture on newspapers' editorial pages, they've had a bumpy transition to the Internet, where users click to specific stories rather than view entire pages. Enter a new medium - the wall of a popular inner-city music venue. But why decide to feature cartoon and comic strip art in the first place?"

Talking to the creators of Strip Billboard, a street art project in Melbourne, Australia.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

"Darius stepped away from the crack in the floor, now visibly expanding and contracting like a hungry mouth. He looked away from the sphere and caught Kovary’s eye. She appeared as mystified as he. Then, turning back, he saw that something was forming slowly within the golden light. It was vaguely humanoid, though it was almost three metres tall. There was something… animal… about the shape of its head."

My SF/fantasy thriller novel, Mind the Gap, was published in 2009 and is available for purchase on Amazon.com. For more details, visit the book's promotional website.

"Tired of Hollywood fare? Had enough of third-rate sequels involving comic book characters and bad computer-generated effects? Getting a headache from lurid multiplex carpets and overconsumption of popcorn? ... This late night offering is sure to get you pondering, even if it’s only along the lines of 'What were they thinking?'"

Casting a cinematic eye over Melbourne's quirkiest movie venues.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

"Riddle me this: what do you get when you cross a cow up a tree, a giant eagle, and a bridge that looks like a Slinky? Find out on the Docklands Art Journey, a walk through the strange and stimulating public art of the former port area..."

A look at 20 great cultural experiences in Melbourne, from galleries to public art.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

"When Six Feet Under finally expires from natural causes after its final episode next Monday, it'll be the end of a long and intense emotional journey for its fans. But the drama about the lives of a family running a Los Angeles funeral home was never going to go quietly..."

A farewell to the cult favourite TV program about a family running a funeral home.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

"The future is taking shape in a sunlit studio high above Flinders Lane. Shepherd’s workspace is located in the Nicholas Building, a grand office block from 1926 and home to a community of artists and artisans. Like the building, the CybaFaeries studio is cluttered with reminders of the past. But the latest technology is also present, as Shepherd works on his current project, crafting robots as pieces of art that will move and see."

A profile of a man who makes 'fine art robots' in his studio in Melbourne's city centre.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

"Bendigo had never seen a night at the theatre quite like it. On the evening of 2 April 1856, residents of the thriving gold mining town had paid five shillings to see a performance of Asmodeus, or The Little Devil. It wasn’t the play they were interested in, but its star, Lola Montez. Celebrated and condemned in the world’s media, she was a magnet for scandal and gossip. However, she was about to be upstaged..."

The story of the scandalous Lola Montez and her 1855 tour of Melbourne and the goldfields.
Available for republication (print only).

"Like Another Planet, Redletter aimed to provide a voice to marginalised groups. It also established its own campaigns, usually addressing causes outside mainstream politics. The result was a steady stream of big, bold posters exposing new ideas and events to the world. They were a godsend to cash-strapped grassroots organisations, and activists hoping to insert a new viewpoint into the heads of unsuspecting passers-by."

The history of Melbourne's famous anti-establishment poster presses.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

"There’s nothing funny about technology. Just think about it: spam, pop-ups, incompatible hardware and help files poorly translated from Japanese. Worst of all, computer crashes. There’s nothing remotely funny about your hard drive crashing..."

Examines a number of Comedy Festival shows focusing on the funny side of technology. 
Available for republication (print and Web).

"Nostradamus had enough sense to keep it vague. His mysterious predictions kept the punters guessing well past his death. If only his descendants had learned from his wisdom. Time and again, 20th century prognosticators set their books, films and TV series in a specific year of the future. In many cases, these years have now actually passed, enabling us to check the accuracy of their predictions."

Nostalgia piece about TV shows set in a future year which has now passed.
Available for republication (print and Web).

If you'd like to republish one of these pieces, or would like to commission a new arts piece, please get in touch via the contacts below:

email:
tim@iwriter.com.au

phone:
0411-242327
(international +61-411-242327)

• Blog
• Novel
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

articles by subject:
Travel
Arts
Life
Science & Technology
Pets
 

• Aerohaveno, Tim's travel blog
• Aerohaveno Nights, a guide to Australian accommodation
• Travelroads.com