I don't know if anyone else is a fan of JJ Abrams (Fringe, Lost, Alias, Super 8), Jon Favreau (Iron Man 1 & 2, Cowboys & Aliens, Swingers) and Eric Kripke (Supernatural), but they're all making a new TV show together, and it looks pretty freakin' interesting...

A creative long weekend in Brisbane

Thursday

Thursday night I was taken to the premiere of A Hoax at La Boite. Now, shamefully I must admit that prior to entering the theatre I had No Idea what the play was about. Fortunately there was a wonderful little program that told you it was inspired by cases of great 20thC literary hoaxes while giving away absolutely nothing of the plot.

The first act - I have never heard so much swearing on stage - was shockingly funny. The second act was confronting and the four actors excelled at every moment and we the audience of loving if slightly jaded Brisbane Arts Types lapped it up. Not so much about literary hoaxes as identity, the nature of truth, media and the lies we tell ourselves and each other, it’s a great work by Australian award-winner writer Rick Viede. Brisbane is the world premiere location.

Some shows this week have had to be cancelled. The lead actress is flying to Cannes because her film debut ‘Sapphire’ has been selected for the Cannes International Film Festival (congratulations!) so I don’t know if the run has therefore been extended.  If you get the opportunity, I’d recommend seeing it.

Image courtesy of La Boite.

Friday

Friday night saw me walking around Highgate Hill looking for the location an impromptu show venue. Anywhere Theatre Festival sees theatre work by starting-up writers, actors and directors being performed anywhere except a conventional stage. Last year I saw The Taming of the Shrew at The Zoo; there are shows in parks, in the Queen Street Mall and tonight I was looking for the ordinary suburban house hosting the show. 

A House of Cards has, sadly, finished its' run. It was performed underneath a house with the audience on couches, mattresses and bean bags. I’d got there early because Chuck was official photographer and got a front and centre comfy-couch position. The show was short and sweet, the work of writer / director / lead actor Michala and inspired by a Radiohead song.

Anywhere Theatre Festival is running until the 19th of May and is an annual event in Brisbane. There are usually half a dozen shows on every night so there is sure to be something you want to see and the tickets tend to range from free-of-charge to about $15, so don’t say you can’t afford it.  It’s a great way for you to have a night out and support your local just-getting-started theatre scene.



Saturday

Saturday was hastily organised on Thursday when I discovered that Polytoxic Loves You were putting on their new show The Rat Trap.

The brother-troupe for Polytoxic Loves You are ‘Briefs; all male, all vaudeville, all trash.’. I’ve been to see them twice now in Brisbane and its a show that I will happily see every time they come around because they’re juts so godsdamn entertaining. I knew Polytoxic Loves you - which is half the guys from Briefs with a couple of cool women thrown in - would be excellent so I persuaded a bunch of friends to coming along with me, telling them it was 'circus cabaret' and there we were on Saturday night.

This is the blurb for the show; 

Polytoxic invites you to The Rat Trap, a technicolour tiki bar where the doors are locked but the drinks are flowing. Curfew is lifted and the guest list includes the high flying King of Burlesque, a body adorned Samoan chief, a hot brown bitch, a fabulous femme fatale and a seven-foot Islander drag offender. Come witness the unholy union of these five mongrel cross-breeds as a soap-opera saga of epic proportions unfolds.

I can't do any better than that description. Fun, fabulous, circus cabaret, striptease and shameless overacting as the 5 performers ran amok in the closed studio. I can’t say anymore except we all had a wonderful night out and I now have another group of fiends who insist on being invited the next time either Briefs or Polytoxic Loves You are performing.

Photo courtesy of PolyToxic Loves You.

The Rat Trap is running at The Billie Brown Studio until 26 May. If you’re 30 and under tickets are only $30 and it’s a night out of genuine entertainment. Hell, it’s worth it just to see the crowned King of Burlesque do his stuff. Want to know what the hell that means? Go see the show!

Mark Winmill performing as part of Briefs.

Sunday

Sunday night was one of my first gigs of the year (shamefully slack). Frank Turner, William Elliott Whitmore and The Smith Street Band at The Zoo. I was going primarily for Frank Turner but Chuck got me onto the other acts in the lead up to last night’s show and I’d had Sigourney Weaver by The Smith Street Band in my head for a week!

I can’t write a gig review. I’m hoping Chuck will do that for me. It was a brilliant line up of local and international, the crowd was for the most part really into every set and the guys were all clearly having a brilliant time on the last night of their Australian Tour.

Frank Turner is such an enjoyable live musician. The fans at the front of the stage – of which I was one – single along to every word and he really plays for the crowd, putting on a fun show like he’s just really enjoying our company.  So we sang and yelled and I danced like a fool and bought CDs. Check out Frank Turner on his website or on YouTube.

Monday infographic: top 10 most read books in the world

Today’s info graphic is of the top 10 books of the last 50 years, by the number purchased. No 1 is obvious, no.2 is obvious when you think about it. The others, one or two surprises for me but I’m not up with the publishing world.

 

 Designed by Jared Fanning and found on Visual News. 

I’ve read 5 of the 10 – Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Alchemist , The Da Vinci Code and The Diary of Anne Frank.

Five for Friday no.18

As we all know the Federal Budget was released on Wednesday. This interactive budget shows you how it has been divided up. And a great little article by Annabel Crabb on how the surplus was achieved.

The Scale of the Universe. Everyone will enjoy this one, it is a bit mind-blowing.

Animal photographers. Very beautiful.

By Sharon Montrose.

 

Yeah, chickens can be arty too. Photographs by Tamara Staples. 

Tumblr from an LA based magazine editor, full of hilarious gifs.

Zen Pencils : Cartoon quotes from inspirational folks. I rather like this one by Audrey Hepburn:

 And I need to remember this one from time to time.

Diary of a travel-a-holic

We've had quite the run of long weekends recently, sadly now come to an end...sniff sniff. Anyway, one of the many benefits of this run of extra relax time is that I have been able to finally finish off my Vietnam holiday diaries. This is a personal project I was definitely going to finish by the end of 2011, then definitely by Easter. So 2 weeks after Easter isn't that bad.

I'm a bit of a diarist. I try to keep one – a proper, written, what I did and how I felt diary – every day but it is a lot more work than you might think. On holidays though, I'm much better at it. There is that gap in time pretty much every day when you've got back to your apartment / room after a long day out and you're having a rest before heading out again for food or drink of whatever it is you're getting up to, that is just perfect for writing about the day. So much happens on the typical holiday day and I find that you forget almost all of it within a few months. If you have a diary though, written on the day to record all those conversations and sights and meals and anecdotes, you have a physical memory repository you can pull off the shelf at any time and remind yourself of an amazing day.

 

This is actually a habit I picked up from my Dad who keeps an amazing record of every holiday he takes, and one of my favourite things to do used to be to pick a family diary off the shelves and read al about what we did when I was 5 in Spain or the Christmas in Germany when I was 12. It helps me to recall even the vaguest of memories.

So, I finally finished my Vietnam diary. Held up by the fact that 2 days into our three week trip my little iPaq died and I had to take notes or hand-write the whole thing, then translate to computer doc etc. I printed all my photos, I bought a couple of scrap books and voila! Here is the final result:

The two finished diaries. Not for public consumption.

I would be fibbing if I didn't say I wasn't a little proud of myself. It costs a lot of time and a bit of money to make even just these two (big) books. But then in 20 years time they will still be sitting on my bookshelves, where ever I happen to be, and I can pull them down and flick through them and remember our walk through the valley near Sa Pa and the amazing street food in Ha Noi as if it was yesterday. That makes it worth every moment and every cent.

12 diaries and a lot of memories.

Does anyone else keep a diary? Even just for holidays?

Hue: Part 2

On our second full day in Hue, we took an amazing boat trip, organised by our hotel. It was private, just the two of us, on a fantastic tourist long boat - bright aqua, with red and yellow dragon detailing. The boatman and his wife lived on board, so while we the front part, which had open windows on three sides and an open deck just behind the prow, we could see in the back to their tiny kitchen and living space.

We set off quite early, onto the Perfume River. First, though, we crossed to the Citadel-side bank, so the owner's wife - who I'll call Nana from here, because she never told us her name even though she clearly thought I was awesome and wanted to adopt me - could go into the market and get supplies for lunch. (To do this, we crossed towards the bank, met a long, low boat, she boarded that boat which took her to the bank, and we did a long, slow u-turn and a few circles, and picked her up when she came back.)

We headed upriver. It was great to be out of the city for a while, and there's nothing like a boat trip to make you feel like you're doing something when really you're just relaxing. The Perfume River and surrounds are really beautiful - the riverside land is full of grasslands, bamboo, farmlands and reeds, and then there's hills and blue mountains in the distance. We lucked into some amazing weather, as well - clear and fresh.

The point of the trip was to visit four historical sites upriver from Hue - a far more interesting trip than it sounds, even just to compare and contrast the different styles of mausoleum and temple. Lunch was included, and also, we got to go on a boat trip. Total price? $20 each. Only in Vietnam.

The extensive grounds of the first temple site.

We were headed to the furtherest mausoleaum first, so Nana whipped out the tourist prints and souvenirs. We looked through everything to pass the time, and I did buy an awesome little wooden carving of a man-turtle thing. (I still can't work out who he is - my Google-fu is still failing me.) Then we arrived at the furthurest mausoleum, and we got to spend an hour or so walking through the grounds and looking at the temples. The grounds of these places are huge - this one had a man-made lake, weeping willows everywhere, three temple buildings, and very ornately carved stone. The overall impression is quite European, actually, mixed in with the expected Chinese and Vietnamese elements.

The second temple site.

The second site was incredibly different - a small temple, built hugging a mountain, perched up above the river. It had spectacular views, but the temple itself was comparatively modest. We were back on the boat after about 20 minutes, headed to the third site.

To get to the third temple, we had to get off the boat, then Nana had to hire to motos to get there! We perched precariously on the back of the bikes, and got a ride through the countryside, to perhaps the most ornate temple yet - this one had a lake as well, and had been built in two sections, one for the emperor and his family to live in while he was alive, and one for him to be entombed in after death. I can't quite imagine living next door to your grave, can you? The complex included a pavillion over the lake, where the Emperor apparently used to sit and compose poetry. I quite liked this complex, not for the pavillion but because of the way some of the buildings were unrestored, unpainted or painted in dark colours - I liked the contrast between the dark interiors and the hot, bright sun outside.

Lunch!

Back on the motos, and back to the boat! While we were gone, Nana had made us an amazing lunch - she somehow produced about six delicious dishes in her tiny, tiny kitchen, and she insisted we finish all of it! She re-filled our bowls a few times, and she was very happy we ate so much (we couldn't exactly say no!).

The fourth and final site was actually a monastery, also set above the river but on a much larger site. And it was actually a working monastery, with monks and everything (it seemed rude to take pictures of them...). It was a very beautiful and different complex, with a front courtyard full of huge trees and turtle steles, with a beautifully painted entry gate and a great view. Once inside, the grounds were also lovely, with treed areas along the length of the complex and open courtyards in the centre. The temples were very clearly being used for worship, so it didn't seem polite to take pictures of them, really, or go inside without the intent to pray, but walking around was interesting enough.

In one of the side buildings was a very famous car - the Austin sedan that carried Thich Quang Duc to Saigon, before he burned himself alive in 1963 to protest the persecution of Bhuddists by the (Catholic) South Vietnamese government.

Once done, we headed back down to the boat. On the ride back into Hue, Nana came to chat with us. She had 7 children, including a daughter about our age, and she was interested in the photos I'd taken. (61 years old, and you should have seen her on this boat! She was bendier than I've ever been in my entire life...) The couple were, overall, some of the nicest locals we met, and we both agreed it was one of the best things we did the whole trip.

The lake and pavillion at the third temple site.

Shady interiors at the third temple site.

Close-up of a tortoise - he's carrying a huge stele. (This was at the monastery.)

Not sure who this colourful guy is... (also the monastery site.)

The front courtyard of the monastery, with view.

Back to Hue: Part 1

Hue: Part 1

Leaving Hoi An, we arranged for a car to take us to Da Nang, to the train station (took about 45 minutes). We were early, and had to hang out in the train station, where the TV seemed to only show one episode of Mr Bean on a loop, with ad breaks at very inappropriate moments. (Same ads over and over, too.) Finally the train, and the journey itself was slow and pretty uneventful. The view of the coast out the window was pretty fantastic, though - the train snaked around the side of mountains, just above where they met the sea.

Alley to our hotel.

It was raining in Hue when we arrived, so we took a taxi. Our hotel was on the tourist side of the river, off the main road and down a small alley (classic location for a Vietnamese hotel). The staff were excellent, very friendly - even the elevator was friendly! - and the room was also really nice. There were actually rose petals scattered around - not sure if they got the wrong idea about us? We relaxed for a bit, and planned out what we'd do after Hue - Hanoi, Sapa, Halong Bay - then ventured out.

About 2 people and no luggage fit in the friendly lift...

Hue was humid. We walked from our hotel down the main tourist drag - guesthouses, restaurants, tacky-looking bars - then onwards towards a more regular part of town. As always, the sidewalks had to be carefully negotiated, as did the traffic, but we found an excellent french bakery (I had pan au chocolat banane - delicious!). We walked down to the river and walked along, passing the prep for some kind of food festival, some kids rehearsing something on stilts, and a section of riverbank where for some reason someone was playing the loudest dance music ever.

We had dinner at a place near our hotel called La Carambole, and saw ads for a charity shop called 'The Healing of the Wounded Heart', which we decided to check out after dinner. It turned out to be a pretty amazing store; all profits go to a charity for victims of Agent Orange, and most of the goods are made by those victims. Not only that, but the goods were actually really nice and good quality - we both bought some jewelry and bits and pieces, to give as gifts.

On our way back to the hotel, I talked B into going to the DMZ bar - awesomely backpackery, with good beer and nikko signatures all over the walls from various travellers. We met a couple who were actually from Brisbane - I swear, you can't go anywhere in the world without running into people from Brisbane - and they recommended lots of stuff for Sapa, including a guide we could email.


Hue - The Imperial City

The Noon Gate: Main entrance into the Imperial City.

On our first day in Hue, we got up early in a futile attempt to beat the heat, and set off for the Citadel. Hue was once the Imperial capital, and the closest large city to the North-South divide during the war. The town is bisected by the Perfume river, and there's a huge fortress and palace dominating one side. The outer wall is huge, and once we made it inside, we found ourselves in a fairly vast courtyard, outside the entrance to the Imperial City. We paid the entrance fee, and spent the next three or four hours wandering in the Imperial Palace, the Forbidden City (which used to be restricted to the Emperor, his family, concubines, and various eunuchs) the grounds, and the many temples.

We'd arrived by 8.30, but it was already baking hot. Thankfully we'd each bought an umbrella in Bangkok, so we took a lesson from the Japanese girls we saw and used them as sunshades - best idea ever. There was quite a bit of shade, but also extensive courtyards without trees, and in other spots, the buildings themselves had been bombed out, leaving nothing but grass. Actually, the whole city except one or two buildings was totally flattened in 1968, during the Vietnam War, so many of the buildings were restorations rather than the originals. They've done an amazing job, though, and there are plans to gradually rebuild the whole complex - I'd love to come back in 10 years and see what progress has been made. I think it'll be an amazing historical site, once the restoration is complete.

As we circled away from the bombed-out centre to some of the reconstructed temples around the edges, we could see the effort that's been put into restoration - the details, the paintwork and carving, down to the painted blinds. Everything was painted bright colours, beautiful golds and reds. There were also lovely, tree-lined walkways, with beautiful gates - marked, of course, by remnants of the war.

In another part of the grounds, there were also elephants!

The ruined centre of the Imperial City.

Elephants!

Lovely avenues around the sides of the complex...

...where the gates still bear bullet holes from the war.

The restored buildings are impressive.

Details of the restoration, including beautiful gold tiling and brightly coloured blinds.

Continued in Hue: Part 2