The Jamjar

Lizard: loving the camera

Bowling for Northcote

The Afterdark, Northcote - Arj Barker

Bart - Subnormal drummer and comment-hicupper - tonight proved to me that his local chippery did the best hamburgers in town. I can now attest to their groaning goodness, after mangalising one that was jammed-packed with "The Lot" PLUS beetroot PLUS pineapple (cos those are extras).

It's important to know where to get a good beef burger in a new town and now I know. Thanks Bart!

With bellies full of beefy goodness, we ambled to The Afterdark bar in Northcote to see Arj Barker and sip a little beer. Apart from being funny, Arj showed exceptional taste by consulting a small, Moleskine storyboard notebook which contained his neatly printed joke list.

Arj is playing at the Lithuanian, on Errol Street (every night except Mondays) throughout the Fringe Festival.

Bell Shakespeare Company - The Government Inspector

Miss Fox and I went along to the Arts Centre to see Bell Shakespeare's latest work, The Government Inspector.

During an early-evening in-theatre-foyer dinner of ice-cream (Fox) and coffee (me) we watched theatre patrons both come and go to and from theatre sessions in the velvet'd underground theatre complex (not that it's very complex, just that is the word I choose to use at this time). As time for the performance drew closer, we joined company with the ever-pleasant Mr and Mrs Fox and took our fine seats in the theatre.

A dazzling blend of farcical characters and all-too-real situations, Gogol's masterpiece has lost none of its bite. This unflinching send-up of institutional greed, stupidity and sloth is not to be missed.

Bell Shakespeare Company

The Government Inspector was written with 19 different characters and has been adapted by Roger Pulvers for two actors. I'm not sure if you're any good at math, but where I come from, 19 doesn't go too well into 2 - but these guys managed it.

Fabulous set, great little play, outstanding performances by Darren Gilshenan and William Zappa. Get along to see this at the Arts Centre in Melbourne - it's a hoot and you'll have a good time.

Tesselaar Tulip Festival

The Butterfly Club - Cabaret Does Emma Rule

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.

Movie: Joe Strummer - The Future is Unwritten

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.

Possum Park

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.

Hi-Fi Bar - Good Drugs, Bad Women

Be warned this show is not for the shrinking violets - it’s for the live fast, die young. It's for the hard working, hard drinking son of a bitch in all of us. If you want to play Russian roulette with your libido... if you want something to confess on Sunday morning... if you want the hangover to be worth it... then this is the show for you.

Resident Advisor

Good Drugs Bad Women was a wonderful surprise of a Friday night burlesque show at the Hi-Fi Bar in Melbourne. Good-old dirty bluesy band and inked sirens entrancing with hips and tassels and more sass than you could shake a stick at if you could manage shake your mind from the hypnotic movements of these real, sexy, good bad women long enough to notice.

Fucking *awesome* show - who knew women taking their clothes off could be so much fun!!

smh.com.au review/article | Good Drugs Bad Women website | Resident Advisor

Please do not adjust your set

Yes, it was me. I borked it. I drank beer and I tried to make a Spring-time theme for the Jamjar and I ended up looking like.. well.. this.. same result as if I'd drank beer and decided to get a tattoo I bet.

Meanwhile, to help you while I get my blog feng shui right again, go watch these movies - I like them, you might too. Even if you don't, at least i'll keep you occupied until I have time to fix this dog's breakfast if that dog had eaten a whole village of Smurfs and then poo'd them on my site.

• Boxes
• Spoons
• Kid
• Racism
• Hobbies

Last to know

Tram banter

Tram Boarding Facilitator: This tram is now boarding, please move quickly into the tram.
Tram Boarding Facilitator: That's right folks, all aboard, move quickly into the tram.
Tram Boarding Facilitator: Both trams on this platform are travelling down St Kilda Road.
Tram Boarding Facilitator: The rear tram going to St Kilda and to the beach, all 5 carriages.
Tram Boarding Facilitator: The front tram going to Malven, which has no beach - well, not yet anyway: maybe if you come back in a thousand years they might have a beach by then.
Old Woman Next to Me: *chuckling* It's so nice to hear someone so funny early in the morning. He must enjoy his work.
Me: *smiles*
Old Woman Next to Me: People like that put a real sparkle into our morning.
Me: *smiles and nods*
Tram Boarding Facilitator: *answering a passenger's question* Surely, this tram does go to St Kilda, and I'm sorry I called you Surely.
Old Woman Next to Me: What did he say?
Me He said, "Surely this tram goes to st kilda and I'm sorry I called you Surely."
Old Woman Next to Me: *doesn't get it, not chuckling any more* Ah well, I don't suppose everything he says has to be funny.

I am easily amused

Spring City

Pipers piping

Spring blossoms

White Rabbit