pulp at festival hall

The last time Pulp was in the country, it was 1998. I was fortunate enough to see them play at the Livid festival in Queensland and now, thirteen years later, I was fortunate enough to see them again at Melbourne's Festy Hall.

It was great to hear so many of the songs that were my favourites back in the late 1990s. This is Hardcore was probably my favourite but, Disco 2000, Do You Remember the First Time, Common People and an encore that included Party Hard all tied for second.

But really, the main event was Jarvis Cocker. The crowd hung on every word he said and every dance step he made. Hilariously, early on in the performance, he asked if someone could get him a pair of rubber-soled shoes from backstage. The pair he had on was making him slip. When the shoes finally came out, he told the crowd to 'talk amongest yourselves' while he changed. Okay, maybe you had to be there but we all loved it! Hopefully Pulp won't wait for another thirteen years before coming back.

el bulli (miff film #3)

El Bulli needs very little introduction. I have not been lucky enough to dine at the avant-guard restaurant (and will not get the chance now that it's closed) so when I discovered that El Bulli: Cooking in Progress was showing at MIFF, I figured it would be the next best thing.

In an act of crazy planning, we booked for the Sunday morning session, i.e before lunch. When I realised our mistake, I thought that my stomach would be extremely angry with me by the end of the documentary. In actuality, once the film was done, my stomach was more confused than anything. The experiments and food creations I had just witnessed were completely mind-boggling, and the end results extremely un-food-like.

The film opens as the restaurant is closing for the season. The audience is then transported to the lab. There the work begins to create new dishes. I found the chef's process amazing to watch. Being introduced to Ferran Adrià was a bit of a thrill as well. He's a fascinating character who's presence changes the atmosphere around him whenever he's in the frame.

Once the lab work is completed, it's back to the restaurant to get it ready for the summer opening. By the time the chefs descend on El Bulli, the menu is far from set. The meals themselves are works-in-progress, even once the restaurant opens.

I thought the most mesmerising part of the documentary was watching Adrià eat the entire menu, one dish after the other, making notes as he went. Oh, and the naming of a dish, which was a cocktail made up of oil and water. Adrià triumphantly decides the dish will be called 'oil-water' and tells the chef to go 'in and win' when presenting the dish to the lucky customers sitting beyond the kitchen doors.

I'm so glad this documentary was made and would highly recommend it to movie and food lovers alike.

3 stars!

the hollywood complex (miff film #2)

The world of would-be child actors is terrifying. And sad. This is what I learned from watching the documentary The Hollywood Complex, the second film in my MIFF schedule.

This disturbing but fascinating documentary takes place during ‘pilot season’ in Los Angeles. Much of it is filmed at the Oakwood apartment complex, which specifically caters to children (and their families) hoping to catch their big break.

But what becomes quickly evident is that none of these kids have a hope in hell of landing a television commercial, let alone a television show or blockbuster film. What these kids do have a shot at, is lining the pockets of the vultures that descent on the Oakland, namely acting coaches, casting agents and photographers, making children and parents believe they have a shot at the big time, if they just have the right head shot or spend a little more to find the right agent.

Some of these families stay at the Oakland not just for the January to April season, but for years, running up large bills usually paid for by the parent that has stayed behind in the hometown the child is originally from. Many of the apartments come without furniture (the cheaper option) and children end up creating make-shift beds on floors, under tables. Collecting cans and bottles from dumpsters for cash is another way to help fund these pilot-season stays. What sort of childhood is this? One of the most infuriating scenes involved a father asking his seven-year-old daughter, after an audition, if she was making him money yet.

As the credits rolled, the cameras returned a year later to find out how the children had progressed in their acting 'careers'. There were no 'thank god he/she got that great role, it was all worth it' moments. None of the children got their big break. It has heartbreaking. I wanted to shake these parents and tell them to stop living such a futile dream. But as one mother put it, she didn't want her child to grow up in a one-traffic-light-town so staying at the Oakland was the better option. Man.

This documentary made me feel so fortunate that I had experienced a normal childhood. Sure, I had dreams of being a dancer and becoming rich and famous. Thankfully, my parents thought a well-rounded education was more important. Thanks mum and dad.

3 stars!

classic hollywood scandals

I am a lover of Hollywood's Golden Age. Before I crushed on Christian Slater and Jason Priestley, my pre-teen heart belonged to Cary Grant, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, and then Paul Newman, Marlon Brandon and Jimmy D. (I had a thing for Bing Crosby too but I prefer not to talk about that.) I used to laugh hysterically at Bringing Up Baby, wished I could talk as fast as Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, and pitied Katharine Hepburn for the impossible choice she had to make in The Philadelphia Story.

I longed to be part of that classic era. The women were beautiful and managed to exude sex appeal without having to release a sex tape. The men knew how to wear a suit and give a smouldering stare.

I never really considered that the Hollywood of that era would also have its fair share of scandals. But after reading many of Anne Helen Petersen's posts from her Scandals of Classic Hollywood series at the Hairpin, I've come to see that even the scandals were more classy and salacious than the fodder offered in the gossip magazines of today.

Here are a few posts you should read:

Lana Turner, Sweater Girl Gone Bad
Marlon Brando's Dirty Dungarees
Clark Gable, the Scandal That Wasn't

apple pie and archie comics

I love apple pie. Simple to make, tastes amazing, smells terrific and is incredibly comforting on a winter’s night (of which we’ve had way too many…summer please Melbourne!). I was very eager to get started on my apple pie for this week’s blog post. Again, I used my Williams-Sanoma cookbook and lugged home the six apples I needed for the recipe during my usual tram ride home from work.

I put aside a whole day and got to work peeling, slicing and coating my apples in a delicious sugar-cinnamon mix. I covered my pie dish in pastry and then assembled the whole lot until it was one giant mound of apple. I put the second layer of pastry over the top, cut a few slits for the steam and popped the pie into the oven. And waited. (And made sure I had vanilla ice cream in the fridge.)

Apple pie is quite the iconic symbol of the USA. But not half as American as...Archie Andrews! My sister and I had quite the Archie comic collection growing up. It helped immensely that each Saturday we’d have to accompany our parents to their place of business, which just happened to have a newsagency next door. We would spend our weekly allowance buying up every comic they had and then we'd read them from cover to cover, while eating potato cakes and watching Saturday morning cartoons. Oh, how simple life was back then.

Archie and the gang had so many adventures! I loved when they went to Pops, often wishing we had our own soda-fountain-type diner to hang out in, and since I was a brunette, I immediately aligned myself with the fabulous Veronica (the original, and best, Queen B). Pies were always showing up in Archie’s universe. Jughead would be at a pie-eating contest, Betty and Veronica would be selling them at a bake sale, and there was one comic strip in particular that had a really terrible pie joke in it. I laughed just the same.

The first time I went to the States, I bought an Archie comic for old time’s sake and it was quite the thrill.

I loved living in Archie’s world, and it seems that the popularity of the gang remains strong today. A gay character that was recently introduced to Riverdale has received his own series, just proving how Archie is progressing with the times. It was nice visiting Archie again for this blog post, and my pie turned out really well, too!

Next stop, cherry pie: take 2.

pool party (miff film #1)

MIFF is off and running. This weekend, I had four film screenings, all documentaries, all at the wasteland that is Greater Union. (This place needs a renovation, STAT!)

Pool Party documents the life of the McCarren pool, the largest public pool in New York. It opened to the public in the 1930s, closed in the 1980s, remained abandoned for over twenty years before becoming a free music venue in the 2000s. It will once again re-open as a public pool next year.

The documentary cleverly intercuts archival footage of the pool during its hey day with contemporary footage of gigs that have been playing in the space after it had been abandoned for over two decades. Yo La Tengo, the Liars, Black Lips, the Hold Steady and Matt and Kim are just some of the acts featured.

Interviews with members of the parks department (Leslie Knope, anyone?!) added interesting insight into reasons why the pool was left abandoned for so long and how the plan came about to renovate the entire complex and re-open it to the public next year. (Hint: The gentrification of Greenpoint has something to do with it.)


But the most touching aspects of the documentary, I found, were the personal stories of the Greenpoint residence and their determination to see the pool returned to its former glory.

All in all, a great start to MIFF (and check out a full review of the documentary at crawdaddy.com).

3 stars!

mad men opening credits re-designed

It seems that Mad Men will be off our screens for some time. This re-imagined opening credits reel by Paul Rogers might ease the pain. (Although Jon Hamm isn't in it so, probably not. But it's fun to watch!)

Mad Men Opening Titles Re-Design from Paul Rogers on Vimeo.

18 days, 16 films, 2 birthday celebrations, 1 miss fox manicure, and pulp

It all starts tomorrow so stay tuned.

Pool Party (miff film #1)

The Hollywood Complex (miff film #2)

El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (miff film #3)

Pulp at Festival Hall

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (miff film #4)

Little Rock (miff film #5)

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place (miff film #6)

Tiny Furniture (miff film #7)

Submarine (miff film #8)

Matchmaking Mayor (miff film #9)

Win Win (miff film #10)

Beginners (miff film #11)

Martha Marcy May Marlene (miff film #12)

Our Idiot Brother (miff film #13)

Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (miff film #14)

Life in a Day (miff film #15)

Page One: Inside the New York Times (miff film #16)

the time i applied for a job with lucasfilm

We’ve all had those moments. You know the ones I’m talking about. The moments when you’re so bored with your life that you decide the only thing for it is a big, big change. I was having such a moment a while ago. I felt like I was in a huge, suffocating rut. Luckily, I was given a tip by a friend that Lucasfilm was advertising a job position that was actually inside skills set.

At first, I shrugged off the idea. Yeah, right, like I’m going to move to San Francisco, I thought. But that quickly turned into, Yeah! I’m going to move to San Francisco! So, I sat myself down and navigated my way through the Lucasfilm recruitment website. The webpage had so many happy, smiley people pictured, how could I NOT want to work there?! I knew that my Australianness would hinder my application slightly but I didn’t let that deter me. I registered myself and off went my CV. I checked my email account two seconds later and found an email from the address jointheforce@lucasfilm.com confirming my registration and receipt of my CV. I got a little thrill from that!

From that moment on, I was determined to put as many good thoughts into the atmosphere as possible and hoped they made their way to California and the ear of George Lucas (because, naturally, he’d read my CV himself, realise how perfect I was for the job and call me personally to offer me the position).

A couple of weeks slowly crawled by. Every morning before I had even gotten out of bed, I’d grapple in the dark, find my iphone and check my email. But no news.

I told a few people about my application and they seemed really excited and happy for me. ‘You mean, as in George Lucas?’ they’d ask and I could see the wheels ticking in their brain. Well, if she moved to San Fran, I could visit and stay on her couch. Then, she’d introduce me to George and I could show him my script/ask him about that plot loophole/ see if he could introduce me to Harrison Ford…

A couple of weeks later, my rejection email arrived. I thought I would feel relieved – I didn’t have to pack up my Melbourne life, I didn’t have to have the awkward ‘I’m quitting’ conversation with my boss, I wasn’t leaving my family. But no, I was disappointed. I would have loved working for Lucasfilm and experiencing San Fran’s delights – living somewhere like the building described in Tales of the City, going to the Golden Gate Bridge and seeing if I could pick exactly where Kim Novak fell into the river, taking a photo of the Full House house.

The email did mention I should continue visiting their career centre just in case another job opportunity presented itself. Hmm, I might just do that…

George, you shall hear from me again…when the force is with me…oh, you know how it goes…

hot fashion boys

These boys are fiiiiine...and fashionable!

the daily show with harry potter

The world is currently in the throws of what-are-we-going-to-do-now-there-aren't-anymore-harry-potter-films anguish. I got in my viewing of the final film on the weekend and loved it. It was dark and funny and sad and Neville!

So this all means that the actors have been on quite the press junket. Emma Watson has been turning up to premiers looking lovely and the boys always seem to be smiling.

But if you only have time to deal with one piece of Harry Potter press, it should be this interview between Jon Stewart and Daniel Radcliff.

The Daily Show - Daniel Radcliffe
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

sesame street vs beastie boys

Let me ask you a few questions.

1) Do you like Sesame Street?
2) Do you like Sure Shot by the Beastie Boys?

If you answered yes to either of these questions (or both!) then you need to watch this clip.

Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo.

parks and recreation...and rob lowe

If you love Parks and Recreation (and really, why wouldn't you), then you need to watch this clip from the hilarious website, funny or die.

Rob Lowe Goes Nuts from Rob Lowe

ngv vienna art & design

While living in the UK, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Austria for a long weekend. It was around Easter time and the trip was split between Vienna and Saltsburg (The Sound of Music tour, anyone?). I revisited the memories of the Vienna portion of my trip when I attended the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces: Vienna Art and Design at the NGV.

This varied and inspiring exhibition includes paintings, architecture, decorative arts and much more. A highlight for me was Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven frieze. This 34-metre masterpiece is jaw-droppingly intense and I had originally seen it in Vienna’s Secession building. The building, a masterpiece in itself.

The decorative arts pieces were another highlight. I would have happily smuggled some of the armchairs on display out of the gallery to replace the ikea pieces I have in my flat, and now loath. The silver tea service pieces offered a glimpse into a world brimming with unique craftsmanship. A flower vase on display was unlike anything I’d ever seen before and it would have made me more inclined to buy flowers, if I was fortunate enough to own it.

The exhibition also showcases some of Vienna’s stunning architecture. Many of the framed images on the NGV walls, I was convinced, were the same images residing in my photo album. I could have looked at those buildings and their intricate designs all day.

Vienna is a beautiful city and those lucky enough to visit, I'm sure, have similar fond memories as I do. However, if you haven't visited Austria's capital, the NGV's exhibition will show you a glimpse of its beauty and leave you smiling.

s'mores pie and the baby-sitters club

I think this post was inevitable. Well, probably not the s’mores pie part but The Baby-sitters Club part. This book series is, after all, the main reason I started blogging about making pies.

S’mores are an American camping snack, and a treat I have only experienced second hand. I don’t know if the first reference to s’mores I came across was in The BSC but let’s say it was. The book was a Super Special (they were the best ones!) called Baby-sitters’ Summer Vacation. It centered around the baby-sitting gang and their crazy adventures at Camp Mohawk (if you want to check out the specific s’mores reference, skip right over to page 181). Anyway, reading about people making s’mores didn’t really mean anything to me, since there was no description about what a s’more actually was. Then I saw s’mores being made in a film, (might it have been The Sandlot Kids?) and it all clicked. S’mores are all about graham crackers, chocolate and a partially melted-over-a-camp-fire marshmallow. How yum does that sound? But graham crackers aren’t really something you can find in Australian supermarkets and I hate camping. So that ended that.

Childhood went on, as did my teens and twentys (gulp) before I revisited this American treat. I was initially inspired by the guest post from the blog Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, which introduced me to the idea of making s'mores into a pie. But then thought there were one too many sweet ingredients in that particular recipe, so I headed over to allrecipes.com and found what I was looking for.

Now, the trick with this pie was finding the ingredients. They were extremely American specific and I knew Coles wouldn’t be much help. Thankfully, I am a frequenter of USA Foods (both the physical store and ordering online) so I knew I’d be able to find what I needed, specifically marshmallow fluff, graham cracker crust crumbs and chocolate pudding.

I made the pie crust out of the crumbs and popped it into the oven to cook and then the fridge to chill. Next I made the chocolate pudding, which mainly consisted of stirring the chocolate powder mixed with milk until it boiled and thickened. Time to assemble! Marshmallow fluff is a sticky bitch. My god. It was an effort to spread it over the base but we got there in the end.

Over that went the chocolate pudding and then the pie had to set.

I’m sure you can imagine just how sweet this pie was. And it’s not a keeper. You pretty much have to eat it the day you make it. But I really enjoyed putting it together because of the ingredients I was introduced to and because it made me re-read Baby-sitters’ Summer Vacation just so I could find the exact page where they mentioned making s’mores. Good times.

Next stop Apple Pie and Archie comics!

miff 2011

It’s that time of year. I’ve been huddled over my guide to the Melbourne Film Festival since Friday, putting together my schedule for the two intense film-watching weeks that are just around the corner.

There are some great offerings this year including Submarine, Beginnings, Pool Party, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Page One: Inside The New York Times, Wasted Youth, Client 9 and Win Win just to name a tiny, tiny few. I only hope I can fit them all in. (And just a plug for the short film Meathead which is screening on July 31st and is directed by a family friend, Sam Holst.)

There's also a great MIFF app out this year, which can help you do away with pesky paper tickets.

Right, back to my schedule…

ricky gervais - life's too short

Exciting news. There's a new project from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and it's called Life’s Too Short. It’s another fake-doco-style show centred around a dwarf talent agency. True story.

Here’s the trailer and really, I can’t wait for it!

emotions with jon hamm (my favourite new website/blog/tumblr #4)

This is, quite possibly, the best tumblr ever. Promise me you’ll look at every page. Every page!

red band trailer interview with Kyle Chandler (aka Coach Eric Taylor aka the best character ever written)

I was quick to become obsessed with Friday Night Lights (which shouldn't be a surprise). But then, a show of this quality deserves nothing less than obsession from its viewers. But this post isn’t about the show itself, or its cast of incredibly written and acted characters (I want to be Tami Taylor but Julie can die). This post is about Kyle Chandler and his interview with Diablo Cody in her trailer.

I don’t know which part of this interview I love the most. His confusion about this TV wife is adorable and the answers to the quiz are pretty spot on. But really, it's all brilliant and it made me love Mr Chandler even more than I thought possible. (And while I mainly saw Super 8 because of him, he’s still best when he’s Coach.)

So, if you’re a FNL fan, do yourself a favour and watch this interview. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, do yourself a favour and watch all 5 brilliant seasons of FNL and once you too have become obsessed, watch this interview.



And here’s Diablo’s interview with Jason Bateman, who I love because, well, he’s Jason Bateman.

a.cheng

I really like these dresses. A.Cheng is a clothing shop in Brooklyn, so, a little far away. However, they ship internationally. Hmmmm…

beyoncé at glastonbury 2011

I am a very vocal lover of all things Beyoncé. Unashamedly so. When she was confirmed as the headline act at Glastonbury this year, I knew she’d rock it. And here’s the evidence showing that she did just that.

maple pecan pie and the american breakfast

Maple syrup is really tasty. I was, therefore, extremely happy to come across a pie recipe to use it in since I mainly contain my syrup use to pancakes (and oh how I love pancakes – I had my twelfth birthday party at a Pancake Parlour and my cake was the biggest pancake I had ever seen).

The recipe for Maple Pecan Pie was from the Williams-Sanoma Pie & Tart cookbook.

I made this pie for an occasion. I was having my parents over for dinner, for the first time since moving to my one-bedroom flat in 3054 over a year ago. My parents have a fondness for pecan pie (largely due to the pecan pie scene from When Harry Met Sally) so this pie was a perfect fit. I only hoped it wouldn’t be too sweet. When I saw that the recipe called for 2 cups of syrup to be reduced to around 1½ cups I knew it would be a little too much. I have found that when using American recipes, it’s best to cut back on the sugar included otherwise it’s just too sweet for my palate.

I got to work cooking the base and making the filling,which mainly consisted of syrup, pecans and brown sugar. I filled the crust shell and kept the pie on the bench until it was time to pop it into the oven (if only I had a window sill for such occasions!).

As I got the rest of the dinner ready, I started thinking about how lacking my pancakes-for-breakfast intake had been, especially when going out for brunch. I always want to order pancakes but decide it best to order an egg dish. In America, you don’t have to make such decisions. There are places you can go where both eggs and pancakes are included in the same meal. Amazing. American breakfasts are the absolute best. A few years ago, during a trip to NYC, a friend and I spent a Sunday morning walking over the Brooklyn Bridge and ended up at Bubby’s for breakfast. It was one of the best meals I’ve had. Being able to order the usual eggs and bacon with pancakes and then drizzling syrup over the whole plate is liberating. It’s not quite so accepted here. You can sometimes find French toast and bacon on a menu but I feel that we’re ready for that next step.

Back to the pie. It was a-MA-zing. I served it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. My parents insisted they take the leftovers off my hands and I grudgingly obliged.




Next stop, S’mores Pie and The Baby-Sitters Club.

animals being dicks (my new favourite website/blog/tumblr #3)

I was recently introduced to the hilarious Animals Being Dicks. I've never laughed so hard in my life.

I think this is one of my favourites.