#melbourne art scene

[r-antaures]

My first art exhibition is on! If you are in Melbourne please come and visit us at the Sunshine Library

[majormisunderstanding]

Detail from a hand-coloured lithograph by Harold Freedman, Bourke Street Looking East from The Second Melbourne Album, 1963.

State Library of Victoria.

[jay-fae]

by @jay-fae

[kittenboom]

22.04.23

What an INCREDIBLE stage show. It was like watching an amazing theatre performance and behind the scenes of a student art film at the same time, in the BEST possible way.

I laughed, I cried, it was written in language that they created so the whole show was subtitled but the language felt so consistent and never like gibberish, it was so good. Art truly transcends language, it reminded me so much of the album '( )' by Sigur Rós in that way.

The story largely centred around an apartment building where the character all lived in a fictional island where they were struggling and surviving a ten year drought.

It featured multiple love stories, some romantic, some just friendships and the love story I liked the most was between two of the females characters. It was split between three acts: drought, rain, and floods. Where the characters all developed in tandem with the long awaited end of the drought, followed by rain which leads to the island flooding.

The stage performance was shot live and integrated a massive screen to watch the actors on whilst the "behind the scenes" special effects were also visible (think: lighting, scenery). None of this took away from the story, it was just amazing, like watching two different artforms perform in tandem.

Anyways, anyone who happens to read this and is in Melbourne, Australia, they will be performing there next week and you should DEFINITELY check it out if you can.

[cuntvillage]

Silly goofy gorgeous times. Doing SFX makeup, beautiful music, Fontaines dc Nabokov poster, goofy silly tunes

[lamialamia]

We have a problem: why am I watching this sex scene again?

Ah. Sex scenes. You wild wild beast. The crossroad of many discourses and analyses and opinions and essays and now, here I am, a mere casual ww2 rpf fan, throwing my own hat to the ring. In this blog post I'm going to talk once more about sex scenes -- two in particular -- and why the eff one of them matters, making the ww2 rpf more compelling and the other did not.

Disclaimer: Whether or not sex scenes are needed in media in general or the right way to implement them across the vast spectrum of art is not part of this discussion. Please keep in mind I'm trying to complain about the writing decision in the small scope of the HBO War shows.

I have discussed the problem with the Crosby/Sandra plot line in a previous analysis here. But I think the problem with it requires another (and maybe a third) write-up. Here, I want to talk about why the tiny sex scene between Crosby and Sandra in episode 7 is a waste of screen time.

So, we have the sex scene in MOTA episode 7. It is somewhat explicit and it was clear it is consensual and that the people who are fucking is very into it. In comparison to other sex scenes in HBO War fandom, it doesn't exactly stands out to me with just the imagery of the act (of course this is a personal opinion, whether or not I find a sex scene hot or bad or corny or lovely or [insert adjective here] is not universal).

However, my problem with this sex scene between Crosby and Sandra is that it doesn't matter to the story.

After getting it on with Sandra, and then after she left him, Crosby never talked about this affair in anyway. Not over the narration, expressing some kind of sentiment over it, not with Rosie or any other guy, so me, the audience, have no idea what he think about it or how he might be affected about it. We didn't know what Sandra think or feel about it either because her scenes are about her spy works and that's it.

You might say: well he doesn't have to tell us how he feel if the show can demonstrate to us the same thing.

Yet, MOTA never did that. Furthermore, the show never portray the sex between them matters to the characters beyond getting their rocks off. And then, the sex doesn't matter to the theme of the episode nor the overall theme of the show either. It's just something that happened.

(Sad to say that maybe this sub-plot distracts me from the rest of episode 7 and 8)

This might be consider 'realistic'. In real life, people can have sex just for the joy of it. Which is true, but in a drama mini-series, the choices to include or exclude details must take in consideration whether what is on screen is valuable to the story the show is trying to tell. Why are they including this sex scene instead of the hundred other real life details that don't make the cut? We don't have a training montage for the pilots, we never learn how Quinn and Bailey get back to base from Germany, we never have the D-Day invasion sequence,...

Let's have a comparison to another sex scene.

In The Pacific episode 3, Sidney Phillips met Gwen in Melbourne and started a romance with her that ended in them having sex before he got shipped back to Pavuvu. Personally for me, it wasn't an awesome sex scene either. Both Gwen and Sidney were awkward, they kissed and the entire thing ended with him kissing her bare shoulder.

But what truly matter happened latter. When Eugene arrived in Pavuvu and reunited with Sidney, he asked Sidney about what combat was like. And to answer this, Sidney mentioned him sleeping with Gwen not to brag about his sexual conquest but to make a comparison with the brutal battles he survived.

Despite the fact that the two of them grew up together, in just a small amount of times, Sidney have been through things and done things Eugene hadn't. All of that (both combat and his brief romance with Gwen) had changed Sidney to the point that Eugene could not longer connect with him. There was now a chasm between them. Eugene looked at his friend and tried to understand him but couldn't. There were things that must be experienced to be understood.

And then, Eugene himself went through life-changing events. The war changed him so much that when he returned to Mobile, he once again couldn't connect with Sidney

Or his brother (who was in the Army and was in the euro theatre) -- another person who had gone through the war himself.

Both Sidney and Eugene's older brother had returned home before him while Eugene had just came back, fresh off the board with his mental wounds, and it showed the chasm had formed between him and these two men who supposed to shared this brutal experience with Eugene.

In fact his brother specifically mentioned how Eugene is still a virgin, which highlight further how he was 'missing out' on that particular experience that both these men have.

And this all started when we were still following H company and witnessed Sidney and Gwen having sex. That small thing compounded over time. It snowballed into all these differences and distance that Sidney would have with Eugene, and then Eugene would be having against his own hometown, his brother, his family, and his best friend. It served to show how war had did its number on Eugene in many ways.

The sex scene between Sidney and Gwen mattered to the story, it served a narrative purpose eventually.

Crosby and Sandra's sex scene did not. And to include it meant there would be less screen time for any other story line, leaving not just the sub-plot of Crosby's arc weaker, but the other ones as well. Overall, this creative decision left MOTA a weaker show in term of its writing.

[marta-diablo]

‘Noel and Julian were possibly aroused’: The Mighty Boosh turns 20 – in pictures

 ‘Something magic happens when they get together’

While filming the surreal comedy, Dave Brown AKA Bollo was on hand with a camera to snap awkward kisses, creepy venues … and crack foxes ordering pie and mash

Tony & Dennis (Series 3 – The Strange Tale of the Crack Fox, 2007)

Dave Brown: ‘Lunchtime on set was a feast for the eyes. It was always a treat seeing cast members milling about munching on a jacket potato with ridiculous full face of makeup, asking for more cheese on their beans. Here, Noel Fielding (Tony Harrison) and Julian Barratt (Dennis the Head Shaman) pose for a quick shot before tucking into their pasta bake. Behind the Boosh 20, an exhibition by Boosh cast member Dave Brown AKA Bollo, is at the pop-up Behind the Gallery, London, 10-13 October. All photographs Dave Brown

Up on the Roof (Series 3 – Party, 2007)

‘During a particularly long scene, Noel and Julian look a little nervous and possibly slightly aroused as they contemplate their upcoming big kiss scene. I love the light and composition of this shot’

Tony & Saboo (Series 3 – Eels, 2007)

‘This was a particularly special scene. On Head Shaman Dennis’s stag do, Saboo rubs sun cream into Tony Harrison’s smooth pink crease, saying: “Don’t leave it in thick blobs, rub it in. Factor seven?! Shit off! I need factor 67 you ball bag!” It was always a hilarious pleasure to witness Noel and Richard Ayoade riffing off of each other in scenes, kinda like jazz, but jazz on bikes. Two very funny humans in ridiculous costumes at the top of their game, trying to out laugh each other with hilarious absurdities’

Luna Looks (Luna Park, Melbourne comedy festival, 2001)

‘Noel throws me his best blue steel look beneath the giant face of Luna Park as I lie on the pavement among the chewing gum and cigarette butts trying to get the angle. Melbourne festival was always very special, such an amazing city with brilliant crowds’

Come Play With Us (Aberdeen Future Sailors Tour, Press and Journal Arena, 2008)

‘The last gig of an insane tour. A strange place to end things after 99 dates that included Brixton, Wembley, Manchester and Sheffield but still, it was a great gig. Rich Fulcher was doing his usual dicking about pre-show in the corridors, grooving to tunes, practising his fossil moves. As I walked around the corner he was at the end and the blue suit reminded me of the Shining twins. I took two shots of him stood holding his own hand then comped them together. Way more terrifying than Kubrick’s version’

Hitcher Nabootique (Series 3 – Eels, 2007)

‘Loved this set: the sign, the lighting and one of my favourite characters, the Hitcher. Him walking up to the door in the rain was just a perfect moment to capture. All undercut by the ridiculous graffiti. Not sure why “loose change” makes me laugh so much, it’s one of those perfect examples of Noel and Julian’s writing and their way with language’

Noel Draws (Noel’s House during the Future Sailors Tour, 2008)

‘I spent many an evening pre-tour and sometimes during tour, in my flat or at Noel’s place, scribbling artworks for tour posters, DVDs, the book. The two of us produced all of that material. Old art school mates getting busy with the fizzy. We could draw those Boosh faces in our sleep, which became a bit of a problem some nights on tour in posh hotels’

Moody Naboo (Series 3 – Journey to the Centre of the Punk, 2007)

‘Naboo was indeed an enigma. Often found gazing into the middle-distance meditating deep astral conundrums, solving some of the world’s biggest problems and answering those age-old impossible questions like what flavour Pot Noodle he was going to have later when watching Columbo. Here is one of those moments in-between scenes shooting series three in a warehouse in a disused Ministry of Defence site somewhere in Surrey’

Foxy Man (Series 3 – The Strange Tale of the Crack Fox, 2007)

‘One of my favourite characters: those two voices, the laugh, the costume and makeup, terrifyingly hilarious! This is me capturing Julian just after lunch break walking back on set. It was a wonderful vision seeing the Crack Fox stood upright on two legs by the catering van ordering pie and mash from a visibly disturbed catering assistant, all while the real hungry Hackney crack foxes looked on through distant bushes in awe and jealousy’

Fossil Faces (Series 3 Rehearsals – American International Church, London, 2007)

‘Rich isn’t really acting in The Boosh. The character Bob Fossil is 92.4% Fulcher. A force of nature, he will crush any down moment anyone is having with his comedy fists and have you wetting your little blue pants in a hot minute. These shots were taken during rehearsals for series three in the American church on Tottenham Court Road in London. It was a pretty intense afternoon with some writing issues and a few moody clouds brewing. Then Rich provides these six faces and everyone’s laughing again’

Hippy Boosh (Series 2 – The Call of the Yeti, 2005)

‘Vince, Parsley and Naboo in full Polyphonic Spree get-up in front of the big blue studio 11 doors at 3 Mills Studios in east London. We’d just been shooting the song scene in Call of the Yeti and I was still in my Bollo suit. It always amused me when cast and crew from other shows filming at 3 Mills would walk past and assume this show had a Gorilla as the official set photographer’

Bendelack Directing (Pilot Episode –Tundra, Pinewood Studios, 2003)

‘Steve Bendelack directed loads of our favourites: Lee and Herring, Newman and Baddiel, League of Gentlemen. So when he was directing the pilot episode of Arctic Boosh at Pinewood Studios it was a pinch-me moment. Paul King took over from Steve when the first series was commissioned by the BBC. Steve was no doubt busy on something else. Or maybe he swerved it? Stewart Lee, who directed Noel and Julian in the Arctic Boosh stage show for the Edinburgh fringe in the late 90s, said it was like ‘trying to direct smoke’

Mutant Readers (Series 1 – Mutants, 3 Mills Studios, 2004)

‘Mike [Fielding] having some down time in his dressing room sipping on a brew and glancing across at a coupon for 10p off Monster Munch. Two trained thespians sit beside him on the smallest sofa in Europe; one reads a crime novel and an unshaven Pete from Dixons in the middle reads about how Bolton are on the brink’

Graffiti (Series 3 – The (Power of the) Crimp, 2007)

‘I’ve known Noel for over 30 years and Julian for over 25. Something magic happens when those two get together. They’re one of the great double-acts. It was never easy getting a decent shot of them together. Noel on his own was easy; he’d spot a camera lens a mile away in heavy fog. Julian, on the other hand, was usually eating, talking, squinting those already tiny eyes or hiding somewhere in a cabinet. I love these two nincompoops like brothers’

x

[laurents-laces]

It took me 84 years, but here's the notes for Pacat's Instagram live on January 22, 2022! You can find previous summaries here. This time I added a section for things that involve both capri and dark rise because there was a lot of that.

“It’s funny, I tend to write, as I think back on Dark Rise and then before that, Captive Prince, I tend to write these book ones that kind of don't necessarily reveal themselves until the end or cohere until the end or maybe are written for the re-read rather than necessarily for the first read… I kind of have this philosophy that difficult pleasures are the most enjoyable because you have to work to achieve them, and so you know, I like the idea that you get rewarded at the end of Dark Rise for reaching the end.”

Important Updates

There has been some progress on the capri News™, though it was epically delayed by the pandemic. It’s not a fourth book, hardcovers, Laurent’s POV, or a TV series

There were updates about Dark Rise and Fence too but none of it is news anymore because this happened so long ago. The capri fandom is just unlucky like that

Pacat has a new project! It’s very different and is more adult in tone than his previous works. It’s kind of monster-horror-gore, he’s been wanting to do something with a shounen horror vibe like Berserk or Attack on Titan. It’s coming in the distant future, not soon

Captive Prince

Pacat hasn't heard of the capri fandom term Smaurent (small Laurent) but thinks that the idea of him does exist in the books as he was a very different person as a young child. Pacat likes writing characters who explore the idea that one’s past leaves fingerprints on one’s present self and Laurent is the most extreme version of this that she’s written

A fan said that they think of “Damianos V” as being a roman numeral, so that Damen would be the fifth King Damianos. Pacat really liked the idea

Pacat cried for a really long time while writing Nicaise’s death scene. Got a few strange looks as he sat in the Melbourne State Library with tears streaming down his face for a few hours. Nicaise’s death was planned from the beginning, he was always a bittersweet character to write

Laurent is such a private person. Writing more from his POV would risk exploding the mystery of his character and might kill some of the tension in capri

The capri News is like a missive from Rohan- it's on its way and it'll arrive at some point, just when you need it most

A fourth capri book isn’t completely out of the question but there isn’t one planned for now

The Brazilian capri covers are their own thing but they don’t represent the books well. They have a very dark-ages-hard-masc-medieval aesthetic

How tall is Damen? Laurent thinks that he’s a foot taller and that sometimes it feels like more

Orlant: Rough exterior, heart of gold, didn't deserve what happened to him

Pacat pronounces Vere like Veer (veer off course) but that is not the correct pronunciation that Laurent and the Veretians use so feel free to pronounce it how you want

Pacat wasn’t really involved in the art for the Japanese edition but has been a fan of Chinatsu Kurahana for a long time. Usually the author doesn’t get much input for foreign editions. The Japanese publisher was very welcoming and let Pacat have some input, but he was such a fan of the artist that he let her do whatever her vision was. He gave a bit of a description for clothing but didn’t tweak any character concepts once they were drawn because he likes having different versions of the characters in different media. We shouldn’t think of it as an official version of the characters or as Laurent’s canon hair length

Dark Rise

The submission date for the Dark Heir manuscript was June 2022. At the time of this live, Pacat was just past writing the midpoint of the first draft, heading towards the climax. The climax has been planned for a long time

We absolutely get James's POV in Dark Heir. Pacat had just finished writing one of his chapters when this live happened

How would Anharion describe Sarcean in one word? The answer would change depending on whether Anharion was wearing the collar. If he was wearing it he would say whatever Sarcean wanted him to say

James is not named after the gay king james (James I of England)

We will find out about James’s mother at some point, either in book 2 or later

Pacat’s current favourite Dark Rise character to write is a new character from book two

It was important that the stewards were racially diverse. When Pacat was pitching Dark Rise he had little pictures of the characters to show what the aesthetic of the book is, it was art that he found online. Things might have changed since then but this was three or four years ago and it was really hard to find fantasy imagery of non-white characters. If you wanted to find mages or warriors in suits of armor, all the artwork had white characters. So he wanted to include different types of people in the traditional western fantasy aesthetic

Favourite part of Dark Rise #1 is the ending because it was all of the pieces falling into place

Cyprian’s surname is not St. Clair but saying more than that would be a spoiler

Stewards have family in the outside world

Pacat would love to write short stories for Dark Rise like the ones for capri but she’s a slow writer so it would be some time in the future

Dark Rise/Capri

Justice’s appearance wasn’t specifically influenced by danmei, he has long hair because all the Stewards have long hair. The Stewards have long hair because everyone in the Old World had long hair and the Stewards carry on the sacred traditions of the past. This was inspired by the delightful long-haired-Laurent contingent in the capri fandom because they were so underserved by Captive Prince. No one in capri other than Ancel has really long, butt-length hair so Pacat wanted to change that in a new series

Where do you get inspiration for jewelry like Nicaise’s earring or James’s collar? Pacat has been thinking lately about the importance of creating a strong visual aesthetic for a character. The earring was created as a plot device. It’s long because it had to be very gaudy and noticeable because Laurent would use it as a disguise later, and it has blue sapphires because blue is Laurent’s colour. It's one single earring instead of a pair because it felt more poignant as a memento. The earring was more about purpose than aesthetics, but Pacat paid more attention to aesthetics in Dark Rise. When working on Fence, Johanna is so good at creating characters with an iconic visual look, and Pacat was thinking about that when he created James. He started with the idea of red because it's the colour of blood. The collar started off as a necklace that was a drop of blood, but it was changed to be more interesting and to have more of an impact. Pacat often thinks about the scene from the Hunger Games when Katniss is about to prove herself to the sponsors and they're not paying attention to her so she shoots the apple in the boar's mouth. A lesser author would’ve had her nail the bullseye but Suzanne Collins souped it up one more level, to come up with something slightly cooler or more imaginative. So Pacat goes through his finished drafts and thinks, is there anything I can turn up to 11? And the necklace wasn't at 11. So he thought about making it a choker, then a collar. A choker with rubies looks like a slit throat and that’s a very cool image, so that’s what it was changed to

Pacat is an only child so Tom and Auguste as older brothers aren’t based on personal experiences, but the idea of siblings has a strong importance to her. Dark Rise is dedicated to her half-sister Mandy who committed suicide when she was 15, which was the year Pacat was born

Fence Comic

The process of creating Fence: First Pacat writes the script, then it gets sent to the illustrator Johanna. It goes through a few rounds of notes where the two of them talk about the kinds of things they want to see happen, what would be cute or great in the upcoming storyline, and then Johanna does sketches. Then art edits happen, but usually the art is so incredible that it doesn’t need many edits so the only usual change is to make sure that Nicholas is left handed when he’s fencing. Then Boom (the publisher) looks over it before it goes to inks, then to the colourist Joana Lafuente, then to Jim Campbell for lettering. Jim places the speech bubbles and fits the script onto the page. Where the bubbles are placed and which words are emphasized makes a big impact on the flow of the script. Then everything gets sent back to Pacat for proofreading and editing of the lettering and then it’s done

Pacat worked very closely with Sarah Rees Brennan on the fence novels. They talked a lot about how events would play out, biographical details of the characters, made canon compliance edits, saw the books at every level and loved them. It’s impressive how Sarah can turn on a dime between two sets of opposing feelings when transitioning between emotions. Her books have a lot of wit and charm but also a lot of hard-hitting emotion

There was information about Rise and a preview but I'll skip over that part because it's already out now

Personal

When creating characters, Pacat often thinks of them in terms of dynamics they’ll have with other characters, or what they want to achieve, or what kind of archetype they resonate with, or how to build a backstory that gives them layers. Characters are interesting when they have more than one motivation, when they look one way on the surface but then different aspects of them from the past are revealed

Pacat was an Earth sciences major

Pacat chooses all the fanart friday posts himself and then his assistant Hannah sends a request to the artist

Least favourite book trope: band of misfits who save the world through a hail mary pass. Pacat likes a highly confident crew, not a small rabble of people who fluke their way into saving the world. It's not a bad trope, he doesn't know why he doesn't like it. He doesn't like Firefly because of this trope

He often reads fanfic on ao3 for more of a story than was in the original or more of a dynamic that was underserved in the original. But authors can’t read fic of their own works for copyright reasons

Owns multiple copies of the Lymond Chronicles. Book four is her favourite because the ending is so intense and devastating. Pacat often thinks of that ending when deciding what to do with her own works because most authors would’ve chickened out of writing an ending like that. She read book one for the first time in a restaurant at 9:00am and stayed there until she finished the book. She probably looked like a mess because of all the laughing and crying, and at one point one of the waiters came over to bring her a handkerchief and said “are you okay?” and Pacat said “I’m just at a really intense part right now"

Pacat does brainstorming sessions with friends to come up with ideas for books and looks at art books for inspiration

He’s reading the BL manga Twittering Birds Never Fly

Danmei dramas/web novels are really long so he isn’t familiar with most of them, but he ordered MDZS and he’s looking forward to reading it because he’s heard a lot of good things about it

Pacat doesn’t usually like love triangles, whenever he ships something in a love triangle he ends up choosing the unlucky guy. He liked Gale more than Peeta and liked Edgar more than Heathcliffe

[teenagesnuffproducer]

What is the Melbourne art scene like?

PEOPLE ARE DYING

[spnfanficpond]

SPN Rewatch: FanFic Edition

Our goal is to rewatch the show with fanfic writing in mind. We want to look for all the places in canon where we could add a scene, show a scene from a certain character’s point of view, or change something to make things turn out differently. (We may also critique what the show writers did; that seems inevitable.)

Episodes we're discussing: 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum and 3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me

What time will it be for you:

UTC - Saturday 17:00

Los Angeles - Saturday 9am

New York - Saturday noon

London - Saturday 5pm

New Delhi - 10:30pm

Melbourne - Sunday 4am

Who’s invited? All Pond members, including Turtles! You don’t have to be a writer to have an opinion on the episodes that could inspire a writer! Everyone has valuable opinions about the show and could spark conversation and inspiration.

Where will we meet? In the discord server.  (You must be a member to be in the Discord server. Not a member? Fill out this form here.) There is a special channel for us to chat in so we don’t disturb other chats happening at the same time.

How does it work? On our own, whenever we have time, we all watch two episodes of SPN. At the appointed time, we all get together and chat about them. Although we have several questions to consider and creative ideas for you to do if you want, there is no pressure to actually have answers to these questions or have created anything prior to the chat. Didn’t get to watch them? No biggie! We’ve all watched these episodes enough that we can probably talk about them without rewatching them!

More info under the cut!

What questions should we consider while we watch? We have a few questions you can keep in mind while you’re watching the episodes:

Are there any “fanfiction gaps” in this episode? Any places between scenes where a juicy story could happen? (For example, one scene ends at night, but the next scene begins during the day, and what did they do with all of that time?)

How would the episode be different if you changed one thing? What is changed is up to you. It could be as complex as a character making a different choice, or as simple or silly as someone wearing a funny hat throughout part or all of the episode.

What about this episode would you like to see happen differently? How would making that change affect future episodes?

List any parts of each episode that you think could be jumping-off points for a fic. Like, in the pilot, how did Sam meet their friend who was in the bar with them?

How would the episode be different if there were another character involved like a reader insert character?

Do any of the themes we've already discussed in The Archive (See the bottom of the doc under the heading "Thematic docs") show up in this episode? Does this episode bring up any new themes we should be watching out for in the future?

What else can we do before the chat? You can add any notes you have about the episodes we'll be discussing to The Archives! In addition, besides just discussing the fanfiction possibilities in every episode, we also want to encourage you to create things centered around the episodes we’re discussing and share them with the rest of us. Things like:

Write some meta about some part of the episode. What does this episode show us about one or more of the characters?

Write a fic based on the episode. Share a link to your fic in the discussion and we can talk about it!

Make a playlist that you feel reflects the mood of the episode.

Make some art or a photo collage or edits to go along with the episode.

We look forward to seeing everything you create! Be sure to tag us so we can reblog your work!

Have questions about this or anything else? Send us an ASK or send a private message to one of the admins below!

Admins:

Michelle - @mrswhozeewhatsis

Marie - @mariekoukie6661

MJ - @thoughtslikeaminefield

Mana - @manawhaat (Founder and Admin Emeritus)

[likeadeuce]

wip wednesday : challengers

Tashi smiles toward Art and Lily, tired and fond, and it ought to be a lovely scene but Patrick needs her looking at him.

“Whose idea was the kid?” he asks.

Her gaze pivots and she starts, he is sure, to say something sharp and vicious, but changes her mind and speaks with exaggerated patience. “You see, Patrick, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much --”

Patrick laughs.

Tashi glances across the lawn toward Art and Lily, though there’s no way they can hear her, then leans closer and speaks quietly as she continues -- “and they have mind-blowing, adventurous, emotionally fulfilling sex --”

“Okay.”

“-- on the night Mommy coached Daddy to an instantly legendary victory at the Australian Open --”

“Most of the time when people are having mind-blowing, adventurous, emotionally fulfilling sex, they don’t need to work so hard to tell you all about it.”

“Did you even make the main draw in Melbourne that year? I’m pretty sure you washed out of the quallies before we even landed.”

“Okay, so one of two things is happening here. Either you have been paying a weird amount of attention to the results of somebody you weren’t even speaking to. Or. You went back and memorized my entire record so you’d be able to change the subject to something that has nothing to do with. . .Wait, seriously. . .” He can’t help looking back over at Art and Lily, who still don’t give a shit that he’s watching. “That’s when you got pregnant?”

It makes sense. Art had won his first AO, and Tashi had been visibly pregnant six months later when he won Wimbledon, ready to pop by the US Open. It didn’t take a superfan to know all that; you just had to watch TV. The British tabloids had been particularly vicious about Tashi's looks (which was insane because it was Tashi) and the next year Art made an off the cuff comment about how he did “not particularly” enjoy the atmosphere at Wimbledon which got blown up into a thing about American arrogance, and (coincidence or not) Art never had a good tournament there again. This was all basic Donaldson lore.

[suikamelon6]

Copy/pasting my twt post about meeting Samothy's Dale last night in Melbourne CBD.

Well 😅😜🤭🤭🫢🫡🫣😬 thanks to @moderndaylestat and Lene I did spy and I did witness Dale/TNR activities. And we did see the wonderful & busy Samothy. Gorgeous and just as sweet as usual but it was end of a long day and he was ferried away quickly.

I'll let the lovely gals tell their versions of meeting Sam with their own words. But here are mine.

Sam recognised me with the mask on (I wear it everywhere bc of someone in family is not well for months now so must not bring home the lurgy). He thanked me for my art that I gave him last time(!)

And I was like I got more art (like some street drug dealer) and gave him the Nicki w/ violin, the Wolfkiller and Lestat after Gobi desert art. He only had time to look at Nicki one, smiled and said "It's Nicolas!" (god I love that he's fellow VC fans!!)

He's got a meatpie in one hand. We took a photo (also with my kids who are prob his youngest fans). He kept getting reminded to get in the car. I told him good luck with the nomination for Aacta. He said thank you!

The crew strictly warned about not posting/sharing it anywhere (they were nice about it actually about everything), Sam then said "Or at least until S3 is out." He's so reassuring!

We saw Michael Lucas, Emma Freeman. I didn't see Anna Torv but she was around coz @moderndaylestat saw her. There were about 50 ppl working on this scene. It'd been raining steadily so the CBD was quieter on Monday night. Perfect for an outdoor shoot really.

I look back sometimes at these 'Samothy' happenings. Never knew whether we'd get to talk/meet him at all. This time was not even 5 min. I was tongue-tied but he was always so nice about everything, despite me being this weirdo who keeps giving him VC book-scene arts.

I don't know what else I could give to thank him for bringing that much joy to my mental health. IWTV has been like an anchor!

I was hoping that art prints are light to carry and not cumbersome.

Also I never got more than a few hours warning or guarantee that we'll def see him, to prepare other things.

Someone asked about his health whether he looked tired from back to back filming. I think he looked marvellous. So we all can be happy to know that he didn't look tired at all. I really don't think it's just the makeup. I think he's really happy to be there. And so was all the crew. First day shooting of the Newsreader S3 too.

The Newsreader S2 premiere last time was 15+. That's why this time when I asked my kids you wanna go stalk Samothy on the street of Melb, they jumped up and like say no more. They had a great time watching filming.

My other kid (14 yo) yelled at Sam when he was getting in the car. "You were great, Sam!" and he shouted back "Thanks!" ROFL. Both my kids were really happy with their first celeb-brush.

We never met ANYONE who's even slightly famous. Sam was a really safe, lovely celeb to meet!

[majormisunderstanding]

Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, oil by Colin Colahan, c1929.

Art Gallery of Ballarat.

[zahri-melitor]

And I've seen my last booked show for 2024 and I'm into 2025 bookings, I thought I'd look back at what I've seen this year.

First half of the year discussed here.

Counting and Cracking: this was so good. One of my top three shows for 2024. I love a multi-layered generational story like this, and the use of place and identity and language in this was so very clever. It was captivating, I'm so glad it's been getting international tours.

Golden Blood: This got a wider season this year after getting transferred from Griffin Theatre, and I see why; it's got very tight writing in terms of the lives of two orphans growing up in Singapore together.

Hamilton: I finally saw it live, rather than in bootleg, as I got offered some discount midweek tickets and I have wanted to see it. About half my cast was swing, which actually worked out really well: my Angelica and Eliza's relationship had interesting different overtones and Eliza in particular was usually only general ensemble, so I'm hoping to keep an eye on her to see what else she is cast in, because I'd love to see her in another show.

Dear Evan Hansen: better than I was expecting, though as a show I think it needs some stronger songs. The lighting design, particularly for the final scene, was very good and probably the most notable thing that stood out to me.

Sunday: this blew me away. Again, one of my top three shows for 2024. There were some rave reviews of it from the Melbourne season last year and they were justified. It told enough of the story that you didn't need to know all the ins and outs of the mid 20th century Australian arts scene, though I think for some of the scenes it would have been stronger if they'd been able to licence some of the art to direct people to look at (I had to look up several of them afterwards to line up the image with the description). Extremely written by Melburnians.

Between this and spending quite a lot of time studying the dispute over Brett Whiteley's will at uni earlier this year, I think I am full up on niche 20th century Australia painter drama this year.

[laurenmitchellwrites]

A heap of my description vanished on the Redbubble preview, so I wanted to put it somewhere safe.

COVID is not over. But neither is comedy.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is one of the highlights of my year. Before COVID, and Melbourne's shutdown, I would go almost every night after work and see dozens of shows. When COVID came onto the scene in 2020, I was one of the people who asked MICF if we would be able to opt to give the costs of our tickets to the artists instead of receiving refunds.

I ventured out between lockdowns when it was held in a much more subdued fashion to see some of my die-hard favourites. In 2023, I planned my schedule to ensure plenty of time outside between shows, away from crowds, and masked at every show. I was cautious as hell, as were friends who I attended with, and yet I had an absolute blast—and I didn't get sick.

COVID is not over. But neither is comedy. I designed this work to showcase that feeling of joy I still get from attending live comedy, while also remaining mindful of the risks, in hopes that other people will enjoy this design as well.

I purchased the original stock art of the laughing people from iStock (credit: jesadaphorn) and added the masks myself in Photoshop, also recolouring some of the people to reflect the diversity in MICF performers and audiences.

I don't know what, if any, profit I will make from this, but I will donate 10% of any profit I earn to Oxfam, selected due to its ties to MICF and its COVID-19 response.

Thank you for reading and for considering this design. It came from the heart.

[supersonicart]

Abigail Goldman's "Small Improvements."

Currently on view at Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, Australia is artist Abigail Goldman's solo exhibition, "Small Improvements."

"Small Improvements" is the latest collection of sculptures by Abigail Goldman. They are miniature, rendered in 1:87 scale: the figures in each work are just under 2 centimeters tall.

Goldman calls these miniature scenes “dieoramas.” While they initially appear charming, the viewer looking closely soon realizes that the diminutive figures within each dieorama are holding weapons, lying in pools of blood or standing in a kitchen, serving body parts for breakfast. What first appears to be a generic suburban family setting unfolds into a macabre tableau where miniature mayhem reigns.

The dieoramas in Small Improvements are part of Goldman’s ongoing exploration of violence and our deepest selves, which are more depraved than we admit. The pull of violence is everywhere—in breathless TV news coverage of crime, in the movies and shows we consume, and in our primal selves, which are revealed in fleeting moments of daily rage: at the car that cuts us off on the highway, the boss that passes us over for promotion. Increasingly, we are angry and divided. Increasingly, we are unmoved by violence, which has become commonplace and predictable.

Dieoramas are an effort to capture and contain rage, to disarm with the contrast of awful and adorable, and to invite the viewer to assess their own attraction to misery and mayhem. In this way, dieoramas become both cathartic totems and miniature monuments to the id. Goldman finds that for every one person repelled by her dieoramas, there are three who delight in them. The vast majority of us, she believes, are fundamentally dark, and driven ever darker by our modern condition.

THE SUPERSONIC ART SHOP | FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM