So i guess you’ve noticed that Elton has done a John Lennon and made a comment about how Jesus is just like himself.  One of the celebrity bloggers added to the outrage by saying that Jesus was a fictional character anyway, so why wouldn’t he be gay like Batman.

Of course the minute you mention Jesus, you’ll get fifteen thousand comments flaming each other with the torches of internet comment hell. Well no i won’t, but mr superficial got many, mostly because he dared use the F word: fictional!

Anyway i left my own comment there, and this is it:

There’s a great book called “The Pagan Christ” by Tom Harpur, a Canadian Anglican minister. He explores the Christ stories back to 5000BC.

..and similarly to the  Zeitgeist movie, Harpur concludes that the original “Yasu Christos” stories contained a series of metaphors for the human soul’s journey through this life..

.. but the early Christians decided it would help their church if the guy had really lived.

The stories make more sense to me if it’s about the human soul, actually: if you stay connected with your soul during this life, you can walk across the waters of your troubled emotions, always find plenty of food to feed your family and friends, heal the sicknesses that devastate us.

i guess Christians prefer to project that power onto an external spiritual being. And why not, if being powerful upsets you.

Yes i’m certainly in the tiny minority for entertaining these thoughts. Even non-Christians usually believe that this actual person walked the earth at some stage. Not me. The stories are bigger and stronger than that.

Peace be with you all, despite your different beliefs.
michael

Links:

• photo credit: looking4poetry
• Mr Superficial’s incendiary response to Elton’s outrageous comment.
• A long article explores the idea that the historical Jesus is fictional over there: nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
• Tom Harpur’s “Pagan Christ“
• Zeitgeist the movie (Yes i know, it’s a terrible mish-mash of conspiracy junk, but we love that stuff!)

Some great photos from flickr.com

photo credit: danny.hammontree

photo credit: The Searcher

photo credit: Beerbauf

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i’m re-reading chunks of Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything”. In chapter 19, ”The Rise of Life’, he points out that collagen – one of many useful proteins for life – needs 1055 amino acids to be organised in exactly the right sequence.

And collagen organises itself spontaneously. There isn’t someone assembling it each time.

“The chances of a 1,055-sequence molecule like collagen spontaneously self-assembling are, frankly, nil” (p351). Bryson compares it to a poker machine where you have 1055 slots instead of the usual 3-5, where each wheel has 20 different amino acids to choose from. How long would you have to pull the handle of this one-armed bandit? Forever. The odds against winning are 1 in 10^260*.

Not only that, but as well as amino acids forming themselves into proteins, somehow DNA manages to get in on the act – so that the whole thing can reproduce itself – and then there’s a cell membrane to contain all this activity.

Freakishly unlikely.

Fred Hoyle the astronomer once said that it was as if a wind swept through a junkyard, and a fully formed jumbo jet arose by chance (p352).

No wonder the creationists go mad trying to bring their paternalistic version of god into the equation.

Even the Nobel Laureate scientists like Francis Crick (who sorted out the DNA double helix model) have come up with outlandish theories like aliens “deliberately seeding” the earth with life ingredients such as amino acids via meteors and comets.

So we’re incredibly lucky to be living on earth..

Then why am i feeling so glum?

Better get active. Do the dishes. Find a costume for the Chinese new year dinner party. Get off the couch. Start spontaneously re-assembling myself. etc.

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(* 10^260 means 10 with 260 zeroes, and it’s more than the number of atoms in the known universe. That’s big.)

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Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, Black Swan edn 2004.

Bryson’s book is such a great read. You find out all sorts of things, for example the universe is 13 billion years old, and the earth is around 4 billion years old, and life on earth actually started around the 3.85 billion years ago mark..

..and in 1946 Reginald Sprigg discovered pre-Cambrian fossils in the Flinders Ranges, but nobody paid any attention because.. i don’t know, maybe it was his name.

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photo credit: Steve took it,

photo credit: 8#X

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“i’m sorry, i didn’t hear anything. Please tell me the registration number..”

second attempt

“Did you say ROFL w t f 6 8 3 ?”

another go:

“Did you say LOL w t f 6 8 3 ?”

i was sure the insanely cheerful machine at the other end of the phone line was giving me some kind of internet speak as well as the registration number. In fact i’m sure the eastlink machine with the personality disorder was laughing at me.. in LOLCATS language.

“For F sake,” i cried, “What does it take to get a live human being around here.”

“Now transferring you to an operator.”

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$5 to drive to Frankston these days.

But all that ART along the way makes it almost worth the cash. The mini-hotel? Hilarious!

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photo credit: (creative commons at flickr) Thanks: peter forret, and Vermin Inc.

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Pete and the Tar Gang were one of my favourite performances from the season. Pete is such a bold character on stage, with his old sea shanties.

They played the following week at the Fringe Club in North Melbourne, and followed up with the Tar Pit Men’s Choir. One of the guys sang a truly amazing solo piece which got the whole crowd turning their heads (at the Fringe CLub). Talk about upstaging!

Mamushka were hilarious and jazzie. Aviva is so stunning up front, and when she pulls out that bass clarinet, you know you’re in for some rollicking.

(i saw them again last week at Open Studio.. without all the costumes. They leap from their circus jazz into a bit of rock thrash every now and then.. and back again. What a blast.. but why was nobody dancing?)

The Kurtletts of course were thoroughly gorgeous.. Kirri and Sofiya play so beautifully together.

Links:

• more videos from the Tar Gang, and their myspace
• mamushka on myspace
• sanctum theatre (main site, youtube, flickr)

Oh, and the photo slideshow, which has some of my photos mixed in with other people’s too.

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Just saw the finale of season 1, and i’m completely shredded.

Wow.

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i hope we’ll see more from this bunch:

from You tube of course.

Ha ha. Thanks Logan for this video.

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Candy Bowers in Who’s that Chik? (“A hip hop tale of a brown girl with big dreams”).. Candy B is probably best known as Rasheda Eda MC of Sista She.. and now she has ventured into the world of the solo show.

Hip hop superstar.

With sister Busty Beats on sound (and video perhaps).

i don’t want to give too much away, but this show draws on the lady’s life history. Hip Hop etiquette 101 meets Candy B’s ethnicity. If you’ve ever wanted to ask her, “So where are you from?” (Dandenong!) this show will give you the answer. She is not happy about the lack of cultural representation given to minority people and particularly people of colour. One act features Candy on fire (metaphorically?) with anger. This was really strong and emotional and courageous and beautiful and it hit me bang in the heart.

Full on. Go Candy.

..

“But where is your hair from?”

“Uh.. my head.”

..

Ooh look here she is in a preview:

and here’s some more publicity shots:

if that doesn’t convince you, please note that in the tags for that second video on you tube, the lady herself lists “velurejumpsuit” and “hoodie”

..

So anyway, What Was i Thinking sitting in the front row? All on my own?

i was thinking.. “this show is going to be righteous! and Somebody has to sit in the front row. What is wrong with you people!”

You do feel a bit vulnerable in that position, but fortunately for me when Candy singled me out for some audience participation, it was for the final dance, when my heart was already jumping from her “on fire” closing number.

Ka boom.

Sweet.

..

other links

• Candy B was on Q & A recently (vodcast links here).
• Melbourne fringe site Chik page.
• A recent interview at same same.
• Review from when the show was in Sydney.

..but wait here’s more.. an interview where she talks about a different show that i wish i’d seen now, where she had young people and senior citizens on stage in Footscray earlier this year:

Plus, one more.. via Defamer Australia: the Lionel Ritchie “All Night Long” video clip (which Candy incidentally showed as a video during the show).

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Neon Toast opens in darkness.. but i won’t tell you why. Let’s just say the lighting arrives unexpectedly.

There are plenty of surprises in this delightful piece from Brunswick trio Eleanor Riley, Kerrily Aitchison and Rachael Dyson-McGregor.

A series of diverse dance pieces touching on life in a bakery, urban dating, the thrill of the chase. Such a beautiful sense of nostalgia in some of the scenes. Although there’s no time setting, it feels like the past, with jazz from the twenties and a bath before dinner. Gorgeous humour in the words and movement. Sifting flour through socks as all three women move so gracefully.

i really enjoyed this show.

Anytime Place has a strong record for astounding performance..
and Neon Toast builds on that tradition.

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Links:

• Melbourne fringe festival show page.
• Don’t just take my word for it: Also reviewed over at Simple Things, and the Arts Hub.

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Emma Bathgate opened this extraordinary gig at the Fairfield Amphitheatre by welcoming 8 year old Zafiya Witkoski-Blake on drums and poetry. Beats and words. There is something really moving about a child who’s able to get up and work her performance magic in front of a bunch of adults. Plus Zafiya is an amazing performer. A great way to start the show.

Several of Emma’s songs i’ve heard before, having seen her perform with Natalia Mann the incredible harpist in Shima and the Wikimen as well as solo. i enjoy the way her soulful voice jumps across various registers and tones as she searches for the most authentic sound at any moment. Great to hear Emma step away from the crowd-pleasing (crowd-horrifying?) Dilapidated Diva and sing as her own self.

.. and so it was lovely to be a part of the backing band of singers (first chorus), singing This Ancient Land, Flame Trees and Adoration – a song devoted to Emma’s singing teacher for many years.  There were a few emotional moments in the show, especially when Emma was talking about her inspiration for the song about the wombats during the 2009 bushfires.

Plenty of deliberation before the show about whether to go ahead in the cold windy rain. In the end Tim the sound guy who’s had experience running outdoor gigs said, “Let’s just do it!”

i hope someone got a photo of the choir with all our umbrellas out. i’ll have to settle for these photos of the bridge at Fairfield park.

Links: myspace pages for the musioes:

• Emma Bathgate,
• first chorus band o singers

photo credits: yewenyi (thanks)

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Quiver | New Music Ensemble | is a group that plays some kind of Alien Spacecraft Contemporary Classical music. Plucking the strings of a grand piano, playing tuba without the mouthpiece, blowing the clarinet reed into a bowl of bubble bath.

Such beauty.. in the church setting, with the organ up on high.

One chapter of the performance used the full organ to great effect.. a drummer who would intermittently cease drumming to cry out his quotes from cinematic history (or was it comic-book history?).

Nothing ordinary about this performance.. very enjoyable.

Links:

Can’t find any link to Quiver online, but Aviva the magical clarinet player also plays with Mamushka who have some great tunes online.. and who are playing Wealth of Nations this Thursday 1st October. i can’t wait!!

Visit their site.

Listen.

Extraordinary music!!

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• an event with Emma Bathgate
• at the Fairfield amphitheatre.
• More details, plus book tickets at the Melbourne fringe site.
• (This Sunday 27 September at Fairfield Amphitheatre, near the Boathouse.)
• (Here’s the faceboo event page if you have a residence in that place.)

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Plus, from the Victoria hotel event in August:

The choir i’ve been singing with had our big big night.. seven original songs by the songwriters in the choir. Songs in genres including folk, pop, jazz, operatic and gothic-epic, the arrangements all worked by Virginia Bott the amaazing musical director.

i wish i could put up the video right now, but it’ll take ages to be ready. i’ve heard the bootleg recording came out well.

The first show was electric and intense.. while the second was more sedate, laidback, and somehow harder work. Probably because we were already exhausted. As Lou said, it was as though we had a whole season, from opening to closing night .. in the same evening.

The Victoria Hotel has really picked up its game, reshaping into a kitschie Melbourne style classic. Upside-down lampshades hanging from the ceiling.. which any self-respecting Melbourne bar must have.. since the Night Cat started the tradition back in ooh 1990-something.

Really great to be involved in such a dynamic and powerful performance, eh!

Lovely people.

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Of course i must kick off with the very wonderful Flying Scribble, my favourite band in the whole world. Mal Webb at 303 was hilarious, doing mad things with his beat-boxing, a loop pedal and several trombones.

Then i bumped into some extremely glamorous and funky dancers from the first chorus band of singers, who’d created an impromptu dance floor outside Subterrain. Good venue! The dj was spinning plenty of funky dance tracks from the 80’s and 90’s. When i arrived it was Blondie doing “Rapture”. For a while we danced up and down the tram tracks.

Perfect and ideal, both at the same time.

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Barons of Tang had everyone dancing at the Open Studio end of town, and the Jelly Tub Rollers took the dance party back inside for a whole lotta jumping. Lovely.

Ooh look here’s some more great shots: The very talented and wonderful Les with his lighter sculptures (how did i miss that?) (Thanks michaelpickard)

Plus the no-black-keys piano that lived in the Town Hall field during the entire music feast. Yes one night we had a play along. Great idea.

More good photos over on Lonely Radio’s flickr site. (Thanks Lonely.) Plus i found on flickr you can get the most interesting photos from high vibes over the years.. here. (“interesting” according to flickr’s secret algorithm that is.)

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Big thanks to the Stew and the Dump.

Plus, special treat .. Anto hands me their brand new freakishly amazing camera and says would i mind taking some shots. So i pretend to be a rock photographer. Yes this was back in late october 2008, but i’ve just tracked down the video:

and here’s their mad backyard video clip for “put that thing on”:

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