Little Running Bear

The title of the film is ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’. Step one wouldn’t necessarily be ‘make a bad film’ but I’m sure it couldn’t hurt.

This film reminded me so much of Ben Elton’s dreadful ‘Maybe Baby’ in its poor direction and terrible story development that to think about it much more would only serve to make me angrier.

I haven’t read the book and now I never will. The characters had little to no development and there were so many travelogue type establishment shots of New York that there was a moment I thought the director must have gone to the Ed Wood school of using found footage but he had obviously never graduated.

I could go on but I think you get the point. Avoid this film.

Ah, what a fine weekend of arts I’ve had. Well, I say arts but really it was just art. One art. Photography.
Peter Milne’s brief Shining Moment is a stunning display of his recent political work and exposes him for the absolute genius he is. Of course we all thought he was good when he was shooting Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds across Europe or documenting the comedians and punters during Comedy Festival but Brief Shining Moment really slaps us in the face and makes us realise just how far he has come and how far he’s willing to push us.
The show was a collection of his thesis works, taking a starting point of Australian politics in the 70s and following it through to how it has shaped us today. He doesn’t just capture moments but tells entire stories of power, corruption and downfall. Get yourself to 69 Smith Street in Collingwood before its gone.

I also got myself to the opening of the Frédéric Brenner exhibit at the Jewish Museum. Brenner’s subject matter is interesting — an almost 30 year exploration of Jews in the Diaspora. His photography, on the other hand is more medium than art and more expository than journalistic. Still, it exists primarily as exploration of a subject and in that it is fascinating. Of particular fascination to me were the photos of Morano Jews in Portugal performing their still secret rituals all these centuries after the inquisition has ended.

It’s wednesday night at 7.00 and people are lining up to get into Billboard. What the hell could they be waiting for?
Fashions vary from goth to prep to suburban shopping centre. I can see no pattern but I can’t be bothered crossing the road to ask.

Last Thursday’s Sleater-Kinney show at the Corner was nothing less than rock as it should be. Janet showed further evidence of being one of the best drummers in the biz while Carrie performed some great windmills and Corin hit all the tough notes while screaming earnestly.

While the songs from the latest album, The Woods, translated perfectly live and gave the band a chance to show off their segue skills with some great stadium-rock style improvised moments, a few more songs from their back catalogue wouldn’t have gone astray.

Still, as good as Sleater-Kinney are live and on record, one of the great things about seeing a band live is getting a chance to check out the support band. I don’t see as much live music as I used to and as a result I miss out on discovering all the new bands who maybe haven’t made it to radio. Sometimes these bands disapeared into nothing, like The Silver Surfers did, and sometimes they make it huge and support Supergrass on a European tour, like Rocket Science did. There was something to be said for taking that small risk and forking over ten bucks for a local pub show. I just don’t have it in me any more. Maybe I’ve just become the old, grumpy, hard-to-impress man I never thought I’d be.

Anyway, new bands for me are now relegated to the support acts for those touring. Still, I’ve discovered a number of my favourites by getting to a gig early. In 1994 Magic Dirt supported the Smashing Pumkins and in 1998 The Avalanches came across my radar as the first support for JSBX (they were followed on stage by Kim Salmon who, as good as he is, could never compete with what I had just witnessed). These are the sorts of acts that make you want to go out the next day and get their EP and play it 5 times in a row. I remember that the Avalanches didn’t even have an EP, just a 7-inch. I bought it even though I didn’t have a turntable at the time.

I walked into the band-room at the Corner just as The Grates started their set for the night. I didn’t realise until their last song that they were responsible for Message, one of my favourite songs off radio over the last couple of months. That lack of realisation, however, didn’t stop me recognising almost instantly that they have what it takes to get into the members only nightclub of my CD collection. They were simply amazing. They’re touring the UK from next week. If you get a chance there should be no question about checking them out.

**Thanks to Adrian for convincing me to go along early and also for one of the best birthday presents a friend could give. You rock 100%!