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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Gilbert Rd., Thornbury.

i shouldn’t have looked, but i saw a car sandwiched between 2 big trams.

Scrunched up to about half its length.

Ugh.

Police cars everywhere, paramedics, the fire brigade.

Here is my artist’s impression of the event. 

Then 5 minutes further down the road, police cars around a house, and someone is being stretchered out into the ambulance.

This is days after the mad 7-11 incident at the end of my street, where some lunatics killed a person with a pram.

Hey everyone – be careful out there.

Roads + rain + night = very freaking danger.

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i thought for a moment the constant narration would be too much, but i got over it. How else can you tell the story in a claymanimation?

In the end, this story draws you in so well. The claymation is so invigorating and kitsch. The Glen Waverly curtains, the boots hanging over the power lines, Vera testing the sherry, Dad stuffing his birds in the shed .. Damian with his trips to Mikenos and his NZ pen-pal.

And the heart-stirring madness of Max the New Yorker who has anxiety attacks whenever Mary asks him a difficult question.

Really touching.

So fitting that Barry Humphries is the narrator. The madness of Melbourne.

i went along to the fundraiser for Pacific Black Box. Heck why not spend 6 extra dollars to support Georgie and her NGO on their mission to teach young adults on the Carteret Islands. They must be doing something right if the students are winning international awards, right?

i give it 4 and a half stars. Must see.

Links:

• ..plus, guess what, they opened Sundance !!
• There are extra bits on the wibsite.
• Margaret liked it more than David did.

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Half an hour ago we had bright blue skies and the muggy remnants of yesterday’s tropical torment. Now there’s a veil of mist across the city, and the delightful chill of rain on trees. You know that delicious fragrance, when the rain hits greenery?

mmmmm! oh that was a light shower, fifteen seconds of intense rain, a few sporadic drops and it’s clearing again.

Okay, enough weather report, back to study. mic x.

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It is still smoky in melbourne, but we only get the smoke, while the country folk get all the fire.

Intrepid blogger, Sam Downing writes about the yellow haze. “Victoria is burning like a mofo.” (What’s a mofo?)

(Sam also writes about the recent mic=40 gig .. btw, Sam gets the prize for most cheers on arrival, best cookies, and leaving a huge Rock Festival to come to my birthday.

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• no springtime hayFever in September-December!
• no shroud of smoke covering the entire city where you live so the buildings are only faintly visible (ie. your entire country is not on fire).
• no days spent inside cowering from 42 degree heat.

Seriously, i am sitting looking across the city of Melbourne, and i cannot see the city skyscrapers. A faint outline is all that remains. Can only imagine how crap life is for people living in the bush. Fires joining up all over the shop, and no water to fight them with. Ouch. Your heart goes out, dunnit!!

extraordinary loveliness
i have had the most wonderful birthday celebration, the final in a big series (a glamorous and wonderful affair at Northcote’s magnificent Open Studio.. with the very incredible Tzigas playing their gypsy jazz under the stars).

Jude and Jody-Lee surpassed themselves in cooking, hospitality and astounding generosity. I have no idea how i shall ever return such huge favours. People who missed out on these Footscray Gourmandes’ sumptuous sausage rolls, goat’s cheese tartlets, cucumber and feta wraps, as well as Annie’s lemon slices – are the unluckiest people in the world, i’m very sorry.

Among the very few things to go horribly wrong were: no Martini-Mahers, and no sister KT. Oh and Lola couldn’t make it either, despite being coincidentally in the Dandenongs that night. Many apologies, and a few unexpected absences, thanks to the 37 degree heat.

Healthy, happy, but Grumpiness Approaches
Yes the evil buckwheat monster has left my body, and i am healthy again, fresh as a light thunderstorm in sunny springtime melbourne. Phew.

Now it’s back to study time, so my Grumpy-meter will be rising. (No, no, michael, embrace the joy of learning!)

(Here’s an old halloween entry)
i have been spending far too much time online as usual, and found this astonishingly silly ‘tv’ serial: “The only thing dry about this Halloween was the Canada Dry.”

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