We all know there’s no shortage of mad latin/gypsy pirate bands at Open Studio in Northcote.

Just when you thought the world could brook no more such narrative, along comes the wonderful 8 foot felix. Their shtick is that of a group of sailors setting off on a wild and perilous journey, with adventurer Will Tait at the helm. On this night* they set sail, gradually building up to a rollicking, fast-paced mayhem, that had the crowd jumping, stomping and crying out for more.

Brendan’s carousing trumpet plays first mate to Will’s captain Tait. And there’s the masterful Kirri on fiddle, Francesca playing a soulful cello, as well as Steve on perčussion and others on delightful French horn and double bass.

This is meant to be a video from their myspace, but i’m not sure it’s working.
Excerpt from Amorcito Corazon

8 Foot Felix | Myspace Music Videos

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Well take a look at this. It’s only a tiny glimpse of the amazing Susy Blue. i had no idea her music was so beautiful.

Moose Hooves on Vimeo on Vimeo

via Moose Hooves on Vimeo.

and more
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Aah Jon Stewart. Sometimes you need a little heavy-handed humour. i know the whole experience has been very Team America: World Police; and what we’re looking at is a political assassination of the craziest kind. Killing an unarmed alleged mass murderer in his pyjamas etc. Not to mention the singing and dancing in the street. But ..How About the Bush People trying to take credit for killing Bin Laden?! No wait, it was Reagan who got him. If you need some laughter on the topic, watch this video.

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I love the Barons of Tang!

Ok for a few years I’ve found them too hard core, and they were always playing at the same time as spoonbill, so I would never stay and listen.

But tonight* they hit the spot like never before. They are extraordinary. And they’re going to the usa. i don’t think i’ve seen them properly since Aviva joined – her clarinet and bass clarinet riffs added a lot to the sound for me. Loved it.

Dance! Did we? I love those gigs where you start out kind of half-hearted, an you wind up jumping like a mad thing and shouting for more.

*When i say tonight i mean: Northcote Social Club 30 April.

Lou and I went to see dr brown play the tuxedo cat. It was the final night of the mammoth comedy festival and our last chance to catch this californian doctor clown this year.

He is insane. We hooted with laughter, and I can’t even remember why. He’s just really silly, and open, and ridiculous.

But the lovely thing was this: the week before i’d been to his “clowning with doctor brown” workshop, and as i saw him in performance – it all made sense. Everything he’d been trying to teach us, all the wisdom he’d aimed to impart; it all fell into place.

The workshop was crazy. I went because Lynne and Ahmarnya were going, and i’d wanted to try this for a while. The thing about simple clown is not that you have to make people laugh, which is good as I have no skills in physical comedy, but that when you fail – people need to see and feel your genuine emotional response. You need to connect authentically. To be vulnerable.

We all try to act upset, or show our masks of distress and failure, but the clown can simply be open and present, and let the whole world in.

It feels impossible, the more you try, the more you fail even at failing.

And then comes a moment of extreme frustration where you surrender completely, and the doctor calls out, “Yes you’re beautiful right there, we love you there!” Ah, thank heavens i got it finally, the surrender moment.

of course, if you can make people laugh.. it’s a whole lot better.

And the next day – after the Castlemaine festival madness – we all supported the legendary Sam Downing in her Sew Funky event “Beasty Beats” at the Elphinstone Hotel.. an awesome day of monster-making. Around 80 people, children and their parents, designed and created their own monsters in all shapes and sizes. At the end we had a monster monster dance. Fun.

One of the highlights of the Castlemaine festival was the Baroqu-eoke performance, “So you think you can Prance”. This was a very fun event. We’d seen them dressing up in the early part of the day, and i was looking forward to finding out more. The costumes were magnificent, as were the instruments and their players. Genuine harpsichord, viol-de-gamba, mediaeval flute and fiddle.

For the first part of the show, the MC taught us a range of emotional expression, Baroque-style. When expressing emotions in the world of Baroque (restoration?) one must always place the weight on one foot or the other. Never evenly balanced.

After teaching us the basics, we were asked to dance these emotions to a series of classic karaoke numbers: Dancing Queen, Don’t you Want me Baby? and You Should be Dancing. Classic! At one point, there were no volunteers for the karaoke, so Tim in his role as Barry Fluff the festival host pointed at Sam and me, calling out, “They’ll do it! Choose those two!” Nice one Tim – clearly we were being too shy. Sam and i belted out a raucous version of ‘Don’t you want me baby’, and were awarded a free jug of Pimms next door at Madame Brussels. Sam mentioned later on that perhaps we might have attempted to sing in a more refined way, however i’d been following the lead of the “Village Idiot” character who would sing in the most tuneless and hopeless way.

Tim made a quick video, you’ll get the idea. Oh boo, it doesn’t work. Why not? Oh well you’ll have to go over to their site to watch it.

You know Felicia Day, right? She’s one of the fledgling slayers in Season 7 ( – Buffy! – ) And she’s the laundromat girl in Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog; as well as being a major player in the future dreamworld (?) of the Dollhouse apocalypse/epitaph episodes. Well it turns out she’s also created her own webTV drama known as “The Guild“, all about a set of hard-core gamers who live in their rooms, surgically attached to their gaming equipment. It’s funny. The show went from being a web series to being on DVD. Go Felicia. Anything is possible these days.

Her character is a room-bound nothing-but gamer, just like Marigold in Questionable Content. Interaction between members of this World of Warcraft team is only online. Until something goes horribly wrong (in episode 1).

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