Tired Just Living.
May started slowly, winter has come and the days are cold and often damp and that spicy cough hung around like an unexpected hangover. It taxed my good humour and made me tired just living. So things were wound back for the first week of May.
So it was the time to feed the brain so I started with a panel discussion at the Melbourne Writers festival on Australia’s new Political environment which was bloody interesting if you like that kind of thing. The tip I can give you from the presentation is that Albo will go to the next poll early with a more adventurous agenda especially if the referendum on the Voice gets up. He wants to be in government for three terms and not be a flash in the pan.
Unfortunately the referendum on the Voice is now starting to look like a No instead of a Yes to me. I fear we are too afraid, too selfish. In my opinion we far too often a complacent, greedy, immature nation frightened of change and new ideas. it is our default position and as a result we miss out on so many opportunities to shape our world and our future.
Also checked out [finally] the Australian Centre of the Moving Image and the Ian Potter Gallery, an outpost of the National Gallery of Victoria both located in Fed Square, free to enter, fascinating and a wonderful way to spend a chilly weekend afternoon bookended by a drink or a feed. The current Melbourne Now exhibition in the Ian Potter covering art, product, graphic, fashion and environmental design is a cracker and runs to August. The Melbourne city centre heaves on the weekend with people everywhere shopping, eating, drinking, going to the footy, galleries, theatres etc etc.
Another absolute highlight is the retrospective exhibition of Australian artist Clarice Beckett’s work at the Geelong Art Gallery. Art is subjective of course but this is an amazing collection of paintings from the 1920s and 30s and a show other regional galleries should pick up. The interactive part of the exhibition was very cool as well. If you are in Geelong sometime the next six weeks go and see, go and see.
Then there was seeing and hearing with concert hall sound, the Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel in concert. He is simply a virtuoso and still pushing the boundaries of the guitar by exploring it as both a percussive and string instrument. This was an interesting show. I didn’t love everything about it but the skill and the showmanship couldn’t be faulted.
One more indoor highlight was our dinner at Gimlet to farewell the girl child before her trip to Europe. Seriously good food, excellent service, all in a great room and admittedly at serious prices. And yet I thought a value for money. As a special occasion restaurant, or if you’re a millionaire a regular meal drop in, Gimlet was one of the best dining out experiences I have had in years.
Finally something from the outdoors. The surf down here has been pumping, a lot of time beyond my capabilities now days. May 14 was a special day though, for the first time in seven months I surfed in the ocean and it was a great day. The day was a marvel, light offshore wind, totally cloudless sky and the right amount of swell. The water was kind of warm and the air certainly was, it really was a jaw dropper. I was drinking coffee and watching the waves at Torquay in a t shirt, it could have been Coolum in August. Check out the photo! Naturally after having COVID for three weeks I was nowhere near up to the job fitness wise but it was that sort of day when you just couldn’t really complain no matter how many waves you fucked up or missed.
In terms of culture I have been listening to a couple of bands that I missed earlier in life. Boards of Canada and Vetiver are grabbing my ears at the moment. On TV Lucky Hank was binged and my good deed for the month was subscribing to 3PBS public radio. Simply a must do if you ask me.
