The Batblog by Photobat

Why?

Hopefully Easter will be over soon… I’m not enjoying it one bit.

My back has been sort of fixed with the help of a chiropractor who has also taken all the money set aside for my exhibition opening.

I can get money back from MBF, only about $60, but better than nothing. There is only one branch of MBF in Melbourne, and when I found it they couldn’t process my refund as Tasmania is on a different computer system and she had to send it off to Sydney to process and it will take a week. I then reminded her that it will take nearly 2 weeks due to Easter. So I won’t get that money till next week, after the opening.

I had to go to Hobart to do a wedding, so I got out to the airport in good time, checked in, got some food and then bought a magazine to read. I also managed to leave my wallet at the newsagent, so when I got to Tasmania I had nothing with me. I needed ID to get back on the plane to return to Melbourne. That all worked out with the newsagency taking it to the Jetstar terminal and they held on to it and put a note in my reservation saying I didn’t have to show any to check in.

I did have some nice moments where I was glad that my friends are real friends and helped me when I was back in Tasmania, Robbie and Choi for putting me up and giving me lifts to and from the airport, Ness for helping me carry my camera bag for the start of the wedding in Hobart. Also Nick for helping me for the rest of the wedding. Plus the great bridal party. It was a great wedding and I’m looking forward to getting images to you all.

Back in Melbourne and I was hoping for some good things to start happening. I’ve had the most exposure of any exhibition at the gallery I’m in and also the lowest number of people attending due to Easter.

I also found out that I had full backstage access to the Comedy Festival Gala to do a photo documentary on, which I had been working on getting access for a month and left about 5 messages and emails for people on the couple of days leading up to it. It’s good to know that I had access, would have been great to know before it happened and not 5 days after it finished.

Last night I discovered that Fleet.y who is opening my exhibition also has a show on at the same time as the opening. Meaning that his management who organized it for me didn’t check his schedule before saying he could do it (and the 2 more times I rang to confirm), as this show times would have been planned since December. So I will now have to get a projector to show a video that he is making, find a sound system to play the audio, an MC for the opening which I wasn’t going to need and also figure out how I will be able to play it in the gallery as there are no walls free.

And if you put into the mix my Aunt Nolleen passing away after a long and hard fight with cancer, you can get where I am. I really liked my Aunt, I have absolutely no bad memories of her at all. Just wish I got to know her a bit better. The whole family are coming over from Tasmania to go to the funeral on Wednesday. It will be good to see them all, just wish it was better circumstances.

Anyway, back to the world… hope it’s nice to me today. (and check ou the portrait of the week, it’s a rare good thing in a week of badness)

Sydney and Beyond.

I’m in a little bit of pain right now… but more about that later.

Sydney finished up ok, i got all my stuff packed on the sat arvo and didn’t achieve alot the rest of that day. Th\\I saw some Launch Pad with Sam Browing, Nick Sun and Bedroom Philospoler, after that there was some cheap meat and chips followed by some drink. Then to The Hat at the Seymour Centre, where The Bedroom Philosopher nearly destroyed $26500 worth of modern art by “loosing control” and trying to put it in the bin. The art is ok and a story was born that will develop into a legend.

Next mornging i was meant to pick up Justin (bedroom Philosopher) to drive to canberra to overnight on the way to Melbourne. I eventuly found him in a different location to where he was supposed to be, apparently the night before he wanted a cuddle from a girl. He then got me lost in 10 minutes which was not a good start to a long road trip. We recorded the trip, so if you want to hear aobut it email for a recording.
Highlights include, deciding not to stay in canberra in favour of Bec’s dairy farm, getting a little lost in canbera, changing the route so we went through kosiosko national park and all the nice hills, having the car stop working on one of those hills and having to do a roll start to keep going, making it to Albury just in time for KFC to give us left overs before they closed, me forwarding the clock in the car so that when justin woke up he thought we had travelled about 2 hours instead of the 10 minutes we had travelled. And arriving in Melbourne after 1100 kkms of driving.

Got to Melb on monday, dropped off the exhibition, saw some comedy at the local, which included some big name internationals who dropped in.
Next day more exhibiition setting up, and also the sudden and painful discoverey that i had screwed my back. So i end up at a chiropractor last night, got some alignments done, then had an x ray thismorngin and saw him again. It will be fine soon, i’ll see tomorrow if i can get out of bed easier, it took 5 mins this morning. I’m quite sore.

Also, check out http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/03/22/1111254010844.html?oneclick=true
for my nice story in The Age

Sydney, The First Night

I got rained on again, i stopped into a place to get some food, i prefered getting rained on to the microwaved crappness that was served to me. I walked on in less rain to the Seymour Centre. Talked to some people, realised that i still know very few people in Sydney.

I saw Peiter Dirk Uns (The South African drag guy), all I can say it is a mix of Dame Edna with Rod Quantock, it was great and brilliant at the same time. Some of the jokes were kind of lame but I guess that suited the format. I like story telling shows, this wasn’t really one of them but I learnt a lot about the political history of South Africa, and the teacher dressed up as the people, there was Bishop Desmond Tu Tu ,Winnie Mandela plus some of Pieter’s own characters. This guy is genuinely amazing, for 3 years he has been going around schools in South Africa and teaching about AIDs and prevention, meaning he has talked to over 1 million kids, and the great story at the end is where he is approached by one of the kids he talked to 3 years ago and Pieter asks him” How are things?” and the kid replies “I’m still alive!”. Interesting fact is that a third of South Africa’s population are under 25 and have little memory about apartide or the political struggle that happened to get rid of it.

Arj Barkers show Ego No Amigo is one of the funniest I’ve seen in ages, taking the guise of one of those “get sucked into a cult like group“ seminars, where your ego isn’t your friend. This is all inspired because Arj was taken to the planet of Labradoria and learnt of the Labradorian ways and has returned to share it with us all. It was full of lots of great lines and observations and a brilliant Yoga pun. This show is going to Melbourne, and he even stuffed up by mentioning we were in Victoria which the Sydney siders quickly let him know we weren’t in Victoria, so if you read this and you are in Melbourne go see it. Watch out for the Spants (Not quite pants, Not quite shorts) and also the Labridorians in the video at the end. So get to the “Isness of the Business” and see it.

After that was The Hat, where Nick Sun read from the Bible, Bedroom Philosopher did his usual kinda of funny stuff, and Gark Eck was dam good. I had a bit of a shat to Arj and organized some things for packing the exhibiton. It’s very good that the pass I have for the Big Laugh gets me 20% off drinks at the bar. Tonight is the last night of the Festival so it looks like it might be a big one, but I have to drive to Canberra tomorrow so I’m not too sure how hard I will go.

Tasmanian oak

This story was told to me by a guy on the Spirit, he just decided to tell me out of the blue.

He wondered why he hadn’t seen and Tasmanian Oak trees on his trip to Tas. He was at a forestry interpretation centre and they had displays of what certain trees looked like and also what certain woods looked like. He asked the staff why there was a wood sample of Tas Oak and no picture of its tree. The girls didn’t know so they asked their boss, he came out and asked the man to sit down as he told him a tale.

Back in the olden days when ships were the only way of getting from here to there, a man from England was in Tasmania and needed 200 barrels to take to England. He employed some ex convicts who were wood workers to make them. A few weeks later the man returned to inspect the barrels.

“What wood is this?” asked the barrel buying guy (let’s call him Esquire).

“Swamp Gum” replied the ex-con (let’s call him Simon)

“That’s no good, I need Oak barrels” said Esquire and left Simon with all his barrels.

The next year Esquire was in town again and Simon approached him.

“Do you want some barrels? I have 200 made out of Tasmanian Oak” Simon asked Esquire

“Let’s have a look at them then” Esquire said.

They inspected the barrels and Esquire was happy and bought all 200 of them. And for years after Tasmanian Oak barrels were bought by those poms.

So, Tasmanian Oak is actually any one of 12 Tasmanian gum trees.

IS it true? I don’t know, but I like the story.

I am in Sydney now for a couple of days, being put up by the lovely Cecilia and Leigh, i had my first Sydney driving experiance too, only involved about 10 rude people trying to cut me off in the kilometer i had to drive from the boat. I especially liked the truck that indicated and just went for it.. nearly very spectacular.

I’m going to see a South African drag act tonight, apparetly the Dame Edna of Africa, may also see Arj Barker. Or i could go to Newtown and catch up with Charlie Pickering and watch a band made up of ex members of Men at Work. The drag act is in walking distance, so that might win out this time, plus i have an access all areas pass so i won’t have to pay.

There will be more news soon, as i embark on my first trip to Canberra in 15 years with Justin Heazlewood the Bedroom Philosopher, i might give him the map and see if he gets it right. So from Canberra we head to Melbourne where i will be living and working as part of the comedy festival. So, i hope this blog will keep updated… but i know i will be almost dead within 2 weeks.