I had the very good fortune to sit in the intimate surrounds of The Butterfly Club last night and witness Cabaret Does Emma Rule. The Butterfly Club is an old Victorian upstairs/downstairs home, lounge, bar and theatre cram-packed with found-objects, kitsch and pirate-ships giving the feeling of the South Seas Glam in South Melbourne. The boys behind the bar are friendly and cheeky and clearly having a good time. Guests poured into the tiny spaces of the lounge and bar, sipping on pre-show drinks and meeting old friends and faces. I felt like I was at some friend's grandmother's wake (in a good way).

Following a successful debut season, Emma Rule returns to The Butterfly Club with her one woman show - what she describes as "possibly the most horrific experience of my life so far" in other words, a great night's entertainment! The theatrical car-wreck that is Cabaret does Emma Rule - just try and look away!

the butterfly club

I was with my darling friend Fox who had arranged tickets to this one woman show put on by her old school mate, Ms. Rule. We sat (me on the uncomfortably-sprung lounge chair, she on the small fluffy stool) and chatted (she really is the best company) until we heard the sound of a ship's bell calling us to make our move into the Theatre. Squeezing down the non-existant aisle to the second-to-front row of old movie seats in the tiny theatre, this had the strong feeling of when children put on shows for parents and relatives in the front room of the family home. Lord only knows this theatre is smaller than most front-rooms. But once we were seated, and the pianist was situated behind the piano, the lights dimmed and Emma Rule's voice filled the space from behind us. This red satin'd creature made her way down the aisle with a hellovalot more grace than I had managed a few minutes earlier, and took her place on the tiny stage in front of us. The next hour was filled with her voice, and the funniest, touching, sometimes deliciously inappropriately songs and charming "patter" I've heard in a long time. She was, in a word: fabulous. Do yourself a favour, round up your own darling-friend and go see this gorgeous, intimate, hilarious Cabaret Does Emma Rule at the The Butterfly Club.

What a wonderful collage of a movie. A scrapbook of images, old film footage, doodles, sketches, friends and family all talking about Joe Strummer, one time lead singer of The Clash and full time creative soul. The film is as charismatic as Joe Strummer himself - carrying the people in his life along in his wake even while he was unpredictable and unreliable, slept with mates' girl friends and had other people fire band members because he wasn't so keen on confrontation; they were still affected by him and drawn to him. When asked about his moral stance he said "I would never steal money off a mate," and then he thought for a moment before adding "but I'd steal his girl friend." An authentic, determined, strong willed, thinking man, Joe Strummer protected himself with a tight persona and presented it to the world as an expression of will. I could feel the distance between who he was and what he showed us in the film and always felt at arms length, neither the film maker nor Strummer himself let us get to see "the real Joe" for more than just a blink of an eye. The film starts with Joe's voice as he lays down the vocal track in a studio, then gathers momentum until it feels like we're hurtling along a train track. The film seems to lift right off those tracks and soar as we realise it's not a movie about music anymore, or punks, or bands or even the man himself, but it's about living life. This film is about being alive. About making the intangible tangible, about thinking, about nutting things out, living out the puzzle of our lives at full tilt, with guts and glory. Living it with people we love, about loving people we are with, by being a thinking, feeling, part of the human race. Strummer even admits later in the film that punks were really just hippies after all: hippies with zips. Joe Strummer was a locomotive of a man and this is a heartfelt, moving film showing some of his public life, told in his own voice, and those voices of people who were close to him. Oh yeh, and the soundtrack rocks.

It's a really nice walk home from work - especially walking through Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens. I'm usually too early in the evening to spot many possums, but this little fella came down to say hi - I guess he's an 'early riser' in the possum-world and was waiting for his mum to wake up and get him breakfast or something. I didn't use a flash, but I do have a light on my phone, so I can safely say no possums were startled by my photographing them - though a couple were a bit miffed that I didn't have any snacks after they'd walked all the way to see me. Lust in the Suburbs (yes, it's possum related and SFW) - via F.O.X.