Read this story: Sam and Tim: Our Little Red Rooster.
Sam and Tim have been growing chickens for some time now. After some early trauma involving a dog, they’ve bravely continued the nurturing. i’ve been following their chickenly adventures on skype, where they’ve set up a web cam called “Chicken View”.
Looks like the babies have migrated to the outside pen, after living their infancy in the bathroom.
Yay for the Little Red Rooster of Tallarook!!
More than i have been in a long time, i’m totally excited about family christmas.
woohoo!
Margot, katie and michael .. in Pnomh Penh, soaking up the magnificence of Cambodia.
i can’t wait
Lovely wonderful friends who bring food. That’s my idea of heavenly bliss.
Hula hooping in the back yard, whipping up multiple salads with lovely Jude and Jody. Tim was master of the BBQ. People fully dressed up and were gorgeous.
Yes there are pictures of people hula hooping. Tony – the genius maker of said hula hoops – was sick in bed all day with a fever, so we really should have been a bit quieter. Whoops.
Now where did i put those photos .. ?
Ok i’ll make do with this magnificent shot from Chicago instead.
photo credit: rebecca anne
Much joy on Cup Day, our official gambling holiday. For the first time ever i did not watch the race, i have no idea who won (oh wait a minute, yes Bart “don’t have a horse” Cummings won again).
i spent my time picnicking with Zeena in the Edinburgh Gardens, and then stumbled upon the annual billy cart race in Eastment St Northcote (thanks to the wonderful Cos for texting me). This was super fun, and very civilised.
The only photos i remembered to take were during the fashion parade. An hilarious romp, with boys in a Zoolander-style walk-off. The winner was very clear from the deep growl of crowd approval. Not so much a louder cheer, but definitely a different quality.
And Barak Obama bin Hussein won the Grand Presidential Lottery over in the land of Hollywood. Yay Barak! Finally a communist in the white house. (Ha, ha.)
What a great fringe festival! i’ve only been to three or four events but i’m sure i chose the best ones:
oh the Town Bikes .. how ever did the world manage without them, way back in the 20th century?? That’s right, we had the Butt Funky troupe of mischief-makers. Along with their buddies .. the magical dj marieke, the hot slush puppies and more, they roused the crowd into a wet and wild state of krumpy frenzy. Yum.
( What’s this video .. a Town Bikes showreel? They are fun. i love them. )
Deceased Estate was insanely wonderful. Many old stories from the history of an East Brunswick house. Blindfolded sessions, of course, down the side of the house. Shadow theatre, hot milo and monsters in the backyard, a neighbourly dinner party in the front yard with the original family back in 1946.
Harry pours scotch for the gents and tells us he’s delighted that Chifley’s at the helm. The 1940’s couple freeze, as we flash forward to a teenager climbing out the window and listening to Joy Division on her walkman.
.. the live event at 3RRR was a thoroughly weird adventure. Pikelet and Qua were on the bill, so i’d thought it would be fun. Bum Creek started off the action with their bizarre journey into sound .. and the night looked promising. One guy had invented an instrument made out of old coils and springs .. he was hilarious and i wish i’d gotten a photograph.
Ah Melbourne – joy and delight and wonderful weirdness at every turn!
i am a huge fan of Roundangle theatre .. the multi-sensory works of Will and Jodie. eg Source/Sauce which was so good that it won many awards.
So it was a buzz to be drawn into their blindfolded conga line at hi vibes.
“Hey Will, how are you?” i said. “Do you want to join our conga line?” he replied, “.. just put on this blindfold.”
The experience was pretty much my highlight of the day. Several people blindfolded, walking through that enormous crowd, joined only at the shoulders. Will sent directions from the back via hand-on-shoulder touch: stop, go, left or right. Crowds swarmed around us, murmuring and shouting ..
How could i resist booking a ticket for closing night of the play, Deceased Estate .. this saturday.
Here’s Jodie talking about the Source/Sauce experience.
What a beautiful day.
i am completely blessed .. as the wonderful Louise invited me to a delightful brekkie in the wilds of westgarth, only moments from the action.
Yes this is the first year i’ve been an off-world visitor to planet northcote during the high vibes festival. i was feeling a bit sad, but being rescued with French Toast and Fruit Salad is such a good way to build up your spirits and get ready for a day of pleasure.
as i arrive, gray is tapping away on Renato’s drum kit, in time with Bessie Smith. Life is deliriously gorgeous.
The sun is shining, there are thousands of angels pouring gigalitres of love into the whole festival, and i’m filled with joy, as we wander up the hill to join the throng.
Everything is so packed, and the weather is so gorgeous that we don’t actively listen to much music .. but i dance to a couple of Tzigas numbers outside Open Studio; and Gerard has a funky dj in his backyard next door. That was fun.
The gig that i really savour later on is the magnificent spoonbill at 303 .. who plays a very enjoyable set. Listen here to his version of Gum Tree:
It was a bit weird when he invited dj drizzle on stage to do some MC work, and this guy just wouldn’t let go of the microphone. Some of the crowd shouted at him to get off so we could enjoy the spoon .. but mr bill was too polite to grab back the mic.
Ah madness. Oh fun. Potato cakes and broken yellow buckets. Huge sunglasses and crazy thongs made out of rubber LP shapes. Lots of wonderful people from the Northcote tribes.
.. and i forgot my camera, so only mobile phone photos. Will post if i can get the blue teeth to work.
Later in the week, i read in the local paper that there were 100,000 people at the event .. 30,000 more than last year. Big !!
Ciao.
Brilliant post from katie chalk, on the topic of sampling and fair play (=Link=).
The Black-Eyed Peas sampled from a couple of original Bollywood tracks, and katie reckons there’s not enough credit being given. Listen to this video first .. near the end you definitely get the main riff of “Don’t Phunk”.
Whoops no, i was going to include the video, but YouTube have removed it due to copyright. That is ironic. The other one is still there:
Go and read katie’s post, and leave her a comment. Oooh, go on!
photo credit: woodleywonderworks
Well here’s an exciting event. My wonderful sister katie has an article over at Reuters news agency (in the Alert Net section).
Not so much a good news piece .. more focussing on the humanitarian disaster that is the lack of food in developing countries at the moment.
While we lap up the luxury here in the West, a $25 sack of rice is not so easy to get hold of in Timor Leste, especially given that’s more than a month’s wages. Katie met with one woman who is struggling to feed her children.
Very sad really.
But kt is a really good writer, isn’t she!!
Yah.
photo credit: decade_null
Time for some good news. i’ve just been reading Pitchfork Design .. where Sam talks of a new project up near Swan Hill; and her inspiration is this amazing tale of greening the desert in Jordan.
This video is so worth watching, from desert to fruit trees and oasis: “You can solve the problems of the world in a garden,” says Geoff Lawton the permaculture artist behind the project.
3years later they’ve revisited the system to see what’s happened:
and here’s Geoff Lawton talking more about the project:
.. and read up on Sam’s projects too, she’s doing amazing work rebuilding the gardens in schools around Victoria. go Sam!
