By 1930, America had experienced a decade of prohibition. But in Chicago, the booze flowed freely thanks to the notorious gangster Al Capone. With his contacts at City Hall, he virtually ran the city, lording it over a 3 million dollar a year bootleg business. That is, until the Treasury Department sent in a special agent to shut him down for the relatively minor offence of tax evasion.

Director Brian De Palma’s big studio film of this historic episode stars Robert De Niro as Capone and Kevin Costner as the initially rather naïve agent Eliot Ness. A newcomer to Chicago, Ness finds himself way out on a limb in the city’s police department where everyone it seems, is on the take. So he forms his own special unit recruiting a bespectacled accountant (Charles Martin-Smith), a crack shot kid from the south side (a terrific Andy Garcia) and an experienced older Irish policeman, played by Sean Connery in his only Oscar winning role.

This awesome foursome refuses point blank to be bribed, giving rise to the moniker ‘the untouchables’. And before too long, they’re launching an attack on a huge shipment of grog at the Canadian boarder with the Mounties bringing up the rear. It’s a moment straight out of a western with rousing music by Ennio Morricone, who scored many of the genres’ most famous themes. De Palma also pays homage to the great Russian director Sergei Eisenstein in a climactic shoot out at Union Station where a baby in a pram  hurtles down the staircase, echoing that immortal scene in the 1925 silent classic Battleship Potemkin.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story – that was obviously the maxim behind this film because not much of it is historically accurate. Ness didn’t have a wife like he does here, played by a luminous Patricia Clarkeson in her debut screen role, and Capone’s man Frank Nitti didn’t end up quite like Billy Drago’s wonderfully creepy character does. David Mammet wrote the screenplay “suggested” by the television series ‘The Untouchables’ which ran from 1959 to 1963 and Albert Wolff, one of the last surviving members of the 12 real life untouchables was a consultant on the film. But Georgio Armarni, who designed all the costumes, probably had a bigger input in the end.

We all know that when governments ban certain substances like alcohol, the trade gets pushed underground where all hell can break loose. The Untouchables  is a film about exactly this. After all the violence and mayhem that ran amok in the windy city with rival gangs, corruption and even white slavery, we’re left with the news that prohibition is about to be repealed.  It’s an irony that was not lost on Ness. Nor, one imagines, on Capone as he mulled it over for eleven long years behind bars.

Buy it here: the untouchables

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“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction”. So said the 17^th Century philosopher Blaise Pascal and his sentiments are echoed in the French film Of Gods and Men. It tells the true story of nine Roman Catholic Trappist monks caught in the cross fire of the Algerian civil war in 1996.

Conflict broke out when the government declared that the elections, which they didn’t win, were invalid. This prompted a battle with the rebel Armed Islamic Group and a state of martial law for the next three years. During this time 170 people were killed, including eight of these monks. But questions remain as to what exactly happened and which side was responsible.

Lambert Wilson of the Matrix movies stars as Christian, the leader of this band of elderly Brothers. When not conducting services at the monastery, Christian busies himself with his beehives and selling honey at the local markets. Brother Luc is played by Michael Lonsdale, who also featured as a cleric in Orson Welles’ film The Trial. Here he’s  a doctor who tends to patients in the Muslim community where they all reside, and even attends circumcision ceremonies in the village. Acceptance and tolerance of each others religious persuasions has led to a harmonious co-existence. But all this is threatened when the insurgents arrive on their doorstep.

Cinematographer Caroline Champetier gives us some gorgeous shots of the Moroccan landscape, standing in for the Atlas Mountains where the real story took place. Her beautiful compositions frame the characters to reveal their great dilemma in choosing their fate. French director Xavier Beauvoir sent his cast on a retreat to an abbey in the French Alps in preparation for their roles and they spent two months learning the songs that make up a large part of this film. One of these is sung during a powerful scene in which a helicopter, armed with machine guns, hovers menacingly outside their chapel – an acknowledgement of a theory that emerged long after the event that the monks were accidentally killed by the Algerian army in a helicopter attack on the rebels.

People are divided about whether the monks were foolish not to have taken the advice of the authorities and flee while they still had a chance but the fact was they were dealing with a corrupt government and had taken a vow of stability not to leave the monastery. To leave would’ve been to break that vow and to abandon the community that they felt a part of. Some say that they were a vestige of French colonial rule and  that they had no place there to begin with. But whatever your view, Of Gods and Men will make you ponder the good and evil things that people do in the name of religion.

Buy it here: of gods and men

When you think of ballet, the first thing that comes to mind is pretty girls in fairy tu-tus, all twinkle and twirl. And while Black Swan has its fair share of that, it’s the sinister underbelly beneath those tu-tus that takes centre stage here.

To say that Nina Sayers is under pressure is an under statement. Her overbearing mother, Barbara Hershey, is a former ballerina who now pins all her hopes on her daughter. But while Nina is physically up to the challenge of playing both Princess Odette and her evil twin Odile in ‘Swan Lake’, her emotional state is unstable.

Pushed to perfection by her manipulative artistic director Thomas (Vincent Cassell), Nina struggles to find the key to her dark side. Her jealous predecessor Beth (Winona Ryder), is constantly on the attack and when a new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) is introduced to the company, threatening to take the coveted part from her, it looks like Nina might snap.

Instead, she develops a severe case of dermatillomania or compulsive skin picking and creates a fantasy world where she finds sexual release from all her torment.

It took nearly a decade for director Darren Aronofsky to produce his long talked about ballet movie but it was definitely worth the wait. He originally spoke  with Portman about it when she was 20 and it went through many different incarnations, from a version based on Dostoevsky’s novella ‘The Double: A Petersberg Poem’, to being a part of his previous film The Wrestler. It’s hard to imagine that version, a love story between Portman’s character and Mickey Rourke’s, but one thing is clear and that is that with both of them winning Oscars for their respective roles, Aronofsky has a wonderful way with actors.

Portman is astonishingly accomplished in this film. She studied ballet for nine years as a kid and then paid for a year’s worth of  intensive tuition before playing the part. There was a dance double for a few wide shots but 80% of the dancing is her own. And the chillingly psychological acting is all hers.

Essentially this is a horror film. I was screaming and hiding my eyes in parts. Clint Mansell’s score takes Tchaikovsky’s original music and makes it a whole lot scarier driving the movie to its shocking  climax. The little girl inside Nina must die for her to play the Black Swan and the metamorphosis that takes place in her is truly blood curdling. If you thought werewolves were scary, wait til you meet this wereswan!

Black Swan  takes the idea of suffering for your art to new extremes and gives us a damn fine film in the process.

Buy it here: black swan

There’s often a very fine line between nationalism and racism and every once in a while a story emerges that reveals this dangerous relationship. Snow Falling on Cedars is one such a novel. Written by David Guterson and published in 1994, the book became an instant best-seller with its tale of a Japanese fisherman demonised by people who once were friends. The plot is a complex one also involving the history of two star-crossed lovers but Australian director Scott Hicks chose to adapt it as his first Hollywood feature after his smash hit Shine.

It’s 1954  and racial tensions between Americans and people of Japanese decent flare up when Kabuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) is accused of murdering fellow fisherman Carl Heine. Max von Sydow plays Miyamoto’s defence attorney and Ethan Hawke is Ishmael Chambers, a Marine Corps veteran now working as a reporter. Ishmael’s liberal father, played by Sam Shepherd, used to publish the local paper and was often accused of sympathising with the Japanese when he was simply reporting the facts. Since his father’s death, Ishmael has taken over the printing press but his bias in this particular case is bitterly skewed because the accused is his former lover’s husband.

Flashing back to happier times, we find young Ishmael courting Hatsue, a beautiful Japanese girl whose family lives on a strawberry farm that they’re in the process of purchasing. The pair consummate their relationship in the hollowed out base of an ancient cedar tree unbeknownst to Hatsue’s mother who warns her to stay away from white boys. But Ishmael is well and truly smitten.

Youki Kudoh plays the older Hatsue who in the wake of the attacks on Pearl Harbour in 1941 is shipped off with her family and all the other Japanese Americans to a detention camp in California. When they return after the war they discover that the owner of their farm has reneged on the property sale and has sold it instead to Carl. And when Carl is found drowned in his net, all fingers point to Hatsue’s new husband Kabuo, a man trained by his Kendo master never to show his emotions.

There’s a lot of subtext in this film. Ethan Hawke said that the biggest challenge was all the silence because his character’s emotion is not articulated. But Hicks explains that the movie is more about atmosphere than plot and that the structure is designed to simulate how the mind works when dealing with memories. It was the job of editor Hank Corwin who cut Natural Born Killers, to weave the different time zones together using the beautiful, Oscar-nominated footage of cinematographer Robert Richardson.

This is a film about a small trial in a small place, but as von Sydow’s character  says; “humanity, integrity and decency are also on trial”. And it’s that debate, set in the snowy landscape of Washington state, that makes this film worth watching.

Buy it here: snow falling on cedars

 When a single mother gets a job as a file clerk in a law firm, she uncovers a case that will make her a household name.

Back in 1993, a feisty young woman called Erin Brockovich was trying to make some money to repay her lawyer after losing a personal injury lawsuit. She had three kids, a big debt and not many credentials other than having once been a beauty queen. So she pressured her lawyer into taking her on and before too long, gave him the sort of career break he could never have dreamed of – conducting the largest settlement in a direct action lawsuit in US history. It was a real life David and Goliath story tailor made for the big screen and director Steven Soderbergh served it up with an Oscar winning performance from his leading lady Julia Roberts.

Intrigued by some notes she finds in a file, Brockovich heads off to investigate a pro bono case involving a family in a little town called Hinkley on the edge of California’s Mojave Desert. The Jensens have been plagued by health problems and their neighbours, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, want to buy them out but they’re reluctant to leave. This is their family home after all.

Using her secret weapon – namely her boobs and her hot trashy outfits – she accesses crucial information about the case, like records at the water board incriminating the 28 billion dollar corporation for contaminating the local water resource. She even collects her own water samples to help save costs and despite initial misgivings her boss Ed Masry, played by Albert Finney, soon finds her services invaluable, especially when dealing with ordinary folk.

As the plaintiffs start piling up, Erin finds her life taking an upward turn. And when she falls into a relationship with her new bikie neighbour (a hairy Aaron Eckhart), even her kids seem happier. But the road to glory is not without its pitfalls and Erin negotiates them with an innate sense of streetwise justice and chutzpah.

Soderbergh scored the jackpot by casting Roberts in the leading role. As a star vehicle, the film drove her straight through the $20 million dollar per picture barrier that had until then separated male actors from their female counterparts. But it’s a very different movie from Traffic which Soderbergh also released that same year. It’s much more conventional and linear making it a lot more accessible. And that’s important because we need these kind of narratives to help empower us in the face of all those huge companies who continue to put profits before people.

Brockovich was instrumental in forcing Pacific Gas and Electric to clean up their act. And she still works as an environmental crusader, acting as the figurehead for Shine Lawyers here in Australia. While she’s not a lawyer herself and didn’t achieve her victory all on her own, her sassy take-no-prisoners attitude was instrumental in gathering all the incriminating evidence required to nail the culprits.

It’s an inspiring tale and one that proves that sometimes the little people do win. As anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said; “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has”.

Buy it here: erin brockovich

RANGO (2011)

When a pet lizard is propelled from the comfort of his fish tank into the middle of a highway, he begins a wild journey towards enlightenment.

A chameleon is that marvellous creature that changes its appearance to blend into its environment, a bit like an actor working in a certain genre. Mix a chameleon with an actor and you get Rango, a very rare animated animal with a voice supplied by Johnny Depp and a destiny mapped out by director and co-writer Gore Verbinski.

When we first meet him, the laid back lizard is a “hero who has yet to enter his own story”. Heralded by a Mariachi Band of four wise sombrero wearing owls, he’s initially undefined and aimless. But when he arrives in the frontier town of Dirt and drinks the local cactus juice, he discovers his mojo and steps up to the role of Rango.

The Dirtodians are a parched lot presided over by a sinister Mayor tortoise voiced by Ned Beatty. Their water supply has all but run out and they need someone to give them hope. Moved by the plight of a young iguana called Beans (voiced by Isla Fisher) and a little mole named Priscilla (Abigail Breslin) Rango accepts the job of Sheriff.  But little does he know that the wicked Mayor is the one diverting the water to build a vast desert empire.

Crazy as it seems, this hilarious cartoon has a lot in common with Roman Polanski’s Chinatown. It’s theme of manipulating a town’s water supply to make a fortune in real estate elsewhere is straight from that 1974 classic, and the evil Mayor even wears a white hat like John Huston did as L.A’s wicked businessman Noah Cross.

There are also plenty of references to Westerns made by directors like Sam Peckinpah, John Ford and Sergio Leonie. There’s a mythical character called ‘The Spirit of the West’, played by Tim Olyphant, who is a dead ringer for Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name in Leonie’s 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars. And just to ramp up the ridiculous a notch, there’s a moment when Rango meets Johnny Depp as Hunter S Thompson’s alter ego Raul Duke in the trippy 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Verbinksi had the idea for this whacky film while directing the Pirates of the Carribean movies in which Depp of course starred as Jack Sparrow. He wrote it with a team of seven other writers over a period of 16 months then spent just 20 days with the actors recording in an atmosphere that Depp describes as being like “regional theatre at its worst”. But with actors like Harry Dean Stanton as Balthazar the blind mole leader , Ray Winstone as Bad Bill the venomous lizard, and Bill Nighy as Jake the rattle snake gunslinger, the results are truly wonderful.

Creature designer Crash McCreery, who also worked on the Pirates movies, created a cast of characters that rise to the occasion, making us laugh and yes, even shed the odd tear. Hats off to the whole team on this highly original, and cleverly referential, Oscar winning animation.

Buy it here: rango

Busy helping to organise an event in Mudgee in opposition to a $3,200/head Mining Industry Conference. Seven local community action groups including our own Running Stream Water Users Association have banded together to mount a rally/conference/dinner/bus tour next Tuesday and Wednesday. Inspired by the razzle dazzle of Mardi Gras I’ve made my own placard (pictured). Now the question is will the locals come out of their high vis vests and support us? Many of them are enjoying the wealth that is flowing from the destructive mines and their tantalising export dollars. But our food and water security is being threatened. Anyone with a child or grandchild should be deeply concerned about the sort of legacy we’re leaving them. You can’t eat coal and you can’t drink gas.

We’re talking women and surfing tomorrow at the Museum of Sydney as part of the Surf City exhibition so come along and pose some sticky questions to our panel of pros!

girls-just-want-to-surf

Mark and Nell @ MG

It’s amazing what you can do with an ipad! Last Saturday’s Mardi Gras broadcast was presented by the unflappable Mark Trevorrow and myself with the help of a autocue operator using his ipad. He was scrolling down the text with his finger all night!

The intro was a particularly interesting adventure in improvisation given that we didn’t have a rehearsal and weren’t given one iota of direction. The rain then froze the ipad that the poor soul was trying to hold under the camera as it was whirling around on a giant crane in Taylor Square.

Luckily the subsequent parade narration was done under a tent because we hadn’t even seen the script and didn’t have a clue as to what was going on (if I had I would’ve changed the tense from future to present – not that any of the changes I made to the intro and outro made it onto the auto cue anyway!).

Just as well we’ve got decades of experience under our belts because we gave it a whirl and ended up with only a little bit of egg dribbling down  our faces.

Note to Mardi Gras; please protect your event by making sure that your community broadcast hosts are given some heads about about what the f**k is going on. Surely that’s not too big an ask?

MARDI GRAS 2012

Sunday night sees the return of Big Nelly to the cabaret stage after an absence of over a decade. Drawn back into the spotlight after several years of persuasion by my darling friend Mark Trevorrow (AKA Bob Downe, pictured) , I will sing an old favorite from the Patsy Cline songbook (no, not the one featured in Brokeback Mountain Bikes which also incidentally underscores a scene in Natural Born Killers).

Being a town and country girl at heart, I’m bringing a little bit of bush to the city this Sunday night for Retrogras, 6pm at the Beresford. Also on the bill is the divine Shauna Jensen who has the voice of a diva and a heart of gold. There’ll be drag queens and all sorts of hilarity – I believe Evita will also be making an appearance. So if you’re in gay old Sydney town come and have a hoot with us kooks.

Retrogras

Shot by the cast of two in a day for your consideration, this inaugural short film by Naughty Tent Productions has been free wheeling its way into people’s hearts all over the place, most recently scooping the Audience Choice award at the Queer Fruits Film Festival in Lismore. Following on from the Honorable Mention at Shockfest in Hollywood, this accolade has warmed the cockles of all the happy campers in the Naughty Tent.

And because we love carbon neutral dating, the next screening will be pedal operated at the Bicycle Powered Cinema, Sydney on Feb 24.  BBMB . Who knows where Glenys and Jaqui will end up next?There’s even been an enquiry from Germany! It’s amazing what a difference a day can make.

If you like manta rays then you might like to pencil in a date with a documentary that I narrated called ‘Manta Mystery’. It’s had several screenings already on National Geo Wild with the next one slated for Wednesday, 21st march at 8.30pm manta mystery It has already screened on this channel in the UK, Asia, Latin America and Japan and has picked up lots of awards along the way including the Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Feature Documentary at the Celebrate the Sea Festival 2011 and the Australian Cinematographers Society Silver Award, Wildlife and Nature Films, for Malcolm Ludgate (DOP).

The film is scheduled for a screening on ABCTV on Tuesday, March 6 at 8.30pm after which the DVD will be on sale. It’s a gorgeous piece of work by underwater addicts Gisela Kaufmann and her partner Carsten Orlt who also made ‘Cuttlefish, the brainy bunch’ which I also narrated. As with that doco, this one features a fabulous aquatic soundscape by Mr Antonio Dixon. So make a note and dive down into the seductive world of these amazing creatures – coming to a screen near you in March.

The Museum of Sydney is taking a nostalgic look at the surfing sub culture of Emerald City with its exhibition Surf City.  I was interviewed by them (along with several other salty sea dogs) about my recollections of Bondi back in the day and feature in a video component of the show.

Now they’re holding a surf film festival  screening some golden oldies including our beloved albatross Pubes. I think I’ve seen it enough times now so I wont be in attendance for that one but I will be hosting a couple of sessions including the ‘Gidget’/'Blue Hawaii’ double bill and ‘Bra Boys’ which they’ll be showing alongside Tracy Moffatt’s ‘Heaven’  -  audiences will also get a sneak peek at my response to that art video gem called  ’Hell’ (nipple rash) . And for International Women’s Day we’ll be taking a look at the role of women in surfing on March 10. So stay tuned for more deets!

surf city film festival

talking about sex is fine

Show true Puberty Blues, not whitewash

In its wake I was contacted by Simon Marnie at ABC 702 for yet another trip down memory lane and an opinion on the current state of play with regards to young women. I had to say that I’m still very much in the minority out in the waves and that the issues that confronted us as young women are still around today. Unprotected sex can still result in pregnancy and with the rise of HIV AIDS since the book and film were made, can even lead to serious illness if not death. So in lieu of the Pope coming out with any rational statements on the matter, I made a public plea for guys to wear condoms. Who knows, it might have just got through to someone out there in radio land. Let’s hope so!

Back in the 30s the gangsters of Kings Cross used to slash each others body parts with cut throat razors until Roslyn street run with blood, or so the legend goes. Later it was known as the home of ‘Baron’s', an infamous dive where you could go for that final night-cap long after everywhere else had refused stragglers entry. Locals bemoaned the passing of the old neighbourhood when they pulled down that musty landmark and erected a shiny white Gaudiesque flat-iron building in which a restaurant called ‘Blanco’ initially operated. But for those who could afford it, the prow-like dining room provided a privileged porthole onto the same irrespressible street life outside, thrumming with people hell-bent on getting their slice of this seedy sexy city centre.

The venue is now called Gastro Park and the current dining experience provided by ex Pier chef Grant King is nothing short of sensational. Naturally opting for the degustation, we were handed heaven on a plate beginning with carpaccio of crystal bay prawns followed by  a crazy ‘putanesca wafter’ sculpted from parmesan cheese and other delectable ingredients. The liquid butternut gnocchi was a knockout, melting in our mouths like the most delicate egg yolks imaginable all floating in a mushroom consomme. We were also presented with slow cooked jurassic quail breast which sent us swooning – how could this sort of food exist?

But it was King’s signature dish of crispy scaled snapper that sealed his reputation as one of the most imaginative chef’s working in our gastronomically obsessed city today. The scales of said poisson were drawn back and, according to our friendly young waiter, hand-held over the pan until they were heated just enough to be crunchy. It’s a novel and delicious way to cook fish and it was accompanied by smoked potato puree and calamari crackling all painted with squid ink sauce. This wonder from the deep is one of the few dishes that King brought with him from Pier and will deservedly stay on the menu for a long time to come.

Another catch from Pier is M’aitre de Martijn de Boer who works the floor like a pro, making sure that everything cruises along smoothly  even when anxious customers like myself insist on popping out every few hours to check the dreaded parking meters. But all such pedestrian cares soon dissolve in the face of the eye-popping deserts which include a ‘nitro pavlova’ with mango, pineapple and coconut, and a delicate sphere of white chocolate topped encrusted with mandarin and honeycomb which when cracked reveals the inner workings of cookies and cream ice cream. Mirroring the full moon rising behind the crusted on 1940s apartment buildings flanking the nearby laneways, this sphere of joy seems to encapsulate all the fabulous feats of gastronomy that emerge from King’s kitchen.

Many have criticised the name of this remarkable restaurant but to my mind, their witty logo with a swing hanging fro the ‘A’ and ‘S’ conjurs up exactly the right playful experience of dining here. A more egocentric chef might have gone for the obvious ‘King’s Cross’ but not Grant. While the vision from the prow reveals the same urgent mix of pulsating humanity outside, the cuisine in here now is something altogether superior.  The team proudly proclaim  the venue to be ‘the playground of good food’ and their uninhibited, confident approach to busting down the doors of the establishment gives us gastronauts an experience that’s very hard to come down from.

Gastro Park, 5-9 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross Sydney

(02) 8068 1017

On the beach (no, not that one) came a new wave – until the tide went out

It’s going to get even more air time in 2012 with the announcement of the TV drama adaptation by channel 10. I’m still waiting for someone to call and offer me a part! A surfing elder perhaps?

In the meantime, I continue to enjoy a wonderful painting of that awesome landscape by the late Lucy Yukenbarri who is seen carrying a huge freshly painted canvas into the art centre in this video of the trip (you can also see my swag on the roof of the car!):

Here’s another story on Aboriginal Art posted by Paige on her vimeo channel:

State of My Country: Aboriginal Art from paige livingston on Vimeo.

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And here’s a kooky one on the ’1968′ exhibition at the National Gallery:

And another on Prince’s collaboration with New York’s Joffrey Ballet:

Whilst pounding the pavements of Wellington on a recent window shopping spree, my eye caught sight of a gorgeous little red merino wool dress on an old fashioned mannequin in a quaint shopfront on the corner of Willis St and Te Aru. Upon venturing in to Good Score, I noticed that all the labels had my name on them! It was also stamped on a selection of nifty colourful leather wallets.

The creator of these fab wares was hard at work at her cutting table behind the shopfront and I soon got to talking with her about her label. Nell Winton is an up and coming New Zealand designer who also sells her products through the online site goodscore.co.nz.

Her workroom and retail store is a hub of creativity, pulsating with the hot and happening sounds of Fat Freddy’s Drop, a local group that Nell has strong affiliations with, printing some of their more stylish merchandise. There is also alluring jewellery on sale, created by Nell’s siblings Kirsty and Craig. And highly desirable outdoorsey bags made from old canvas by Al Brown who co-hosts a local TV series called ‘Hunger for the Wild’.

I was thrilled to have stumbled upon the store which she calls “an evolution of the of a business that was established three years ago on the Parade in Island Bay’s old Post Office”. I was also stoked to find such a lovely new outfit for my trip. Nell was so amazed to meet another Nell, the first one that she’d encountered in her entire life, that she gave me a Nell discount on the little red frock!

I wore it the other night to the opening of the Sydney Dance Company’s new show ‘the Land of Yes and the Land of No’ where it was admired by another Nell…. but more about her next time.

Naughty Tent Productions are pleased to announce the world premiere of its short film ‘Brokeback Mountain Bikes’ screening tonight at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Bicycle Film Festival.

Starring Glenys del Marvellous and Jacqui Twister this is the story of two cowgirls who ride their folding bikes through the wild west and fall into the naughty tent, boots and all!

Made by the guerilla art collective The Stoked, the film will also screen at the Queer Fruits Film Festival in Lismore later this year.

In the meantime, check out another cycling film by The Stoked, ‘I♥ NYC Cycleways’

Our experience of Hobart’s hottest new wine bar/restaurant was so overwhelmingly wonderful earlier this year that we put it at the top of our ‘to-do’ list when we ventured south last week. We were devastated to discover, however, that the incomparable Garagistes is closed for annual holidays until October 11!

Pining for it has prompted me to revisit that lush lunch we had there one fine Sunday back in April with our tribe of lovely lady friends from Dykesart House. It was after our third visit to MONA that we ventured through those heavy black metal doors into the chic industrial space that once had been a mechanic’s garage. We were seated at a high shared table in the middle of the room illuminated by smart skylights. Red and black, raw was the look. And after a glass of sparkling wine we settled right in.

Sunday Lunch is a set menu at $65 per head which for us kicked off with striped trumpeter and elderflower mayonnaise sandwich with heirloom radishes, caraway salt and marcona almond butter. Next came the stand out dish of the day – poached calamari, glazed red top turnip, salsify (cooked in squid ink), quail egg, wild olive and lemon puree. More striped trumpeter followed steamed with creamed jerusalem artichoke, pangrattato and pickled young garlic heads.

By this stage, we were deep in food heaven. Not to mention wine bliss. With a 46 page wine list to choose from and 75ml tasting glasses starting from $6, several of our party were starting to glaze over. The smiling sommelier and co-owner Katrina Birchmeier indulged us with a bottle of Blewitt Springs “Ascension” 2010 Dry Grown Grenache from South Australia which, for a first vintage, was absolutely delicious and beautifully complimented the wood roasted boer goat, smoked yogurt, bagnet vert, radicchio and ortiz anchovy dish.

Suddenly we realised we were sitting right in the middle of a hotbed of gourmet delight. Food guru Tetsuya Wakuda was seated nearby table with a clutch of friends sampling the wares with much focus. He had mentored chef Luke Burgess, who has now been crowned “Best New Talent” by the Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards 2012 and must have been proud of his protege. Could things get much better?

After our parsnip ice cream with autumn fig, puff pastry, buckwheat and whey caramel I wanted to settle in for the long haul but the ladies were on a mission to see an installation by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota so we exited, elated one and all. That fresh locally sourced largely organic produce had lifted our vibrational field to a higher level. And, like a drug, it left us wanting more. But not until after Oct 11, I’m afraid.

Finally, those boring old black clone wetsuits are a thing of the past thanks to American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley. Not only has she just dragged Lindsay Lohan out of hiding for her recent New York Fashion Week show but she’s also designed a fabulous range of Roxy wetsuits for chicks who care about looking their best, both in and out of the water.

My new model was inspired by longboard star Kassia Meador and I’m loving it sick. It even seems to make me surf better! It’s made out of fiber-lite neoprene nyon jersey infused with anti-microbial bamboo charcoal “for less stink”. And it even has ectoflex kneepads, whatever they are.

So I’m now poised for a ripper of a season. And when I get round to waxing up my new fish, it’ll be all systems full tilt a-go-go.

Popped in to Monstrosity Gallery last night to deliver two art works by The Stoked for the exhibition ‘Fur’. The show, which opens tonight, is a group exhibition by “some of Sydney’s most dynamic and talented contemporary artists” responding to the theme of fur. Curated by West, who has a particular penchant for fur herself, the show features some fabulous works including a delicate painting of a cat skeleton with a wee bell around its neck. The absence of fur in this case is key. Other works celebrate fake fur by sticking it on all manner of objects like cups and frames, and another has painted it wrapped around a dark mask figure. One digitally manipulated photograph depicts the scene of a road kill where the dead animal has been dragged off, presumably by a wild dog, leaving in its place a man with a furry animal head. Strange and provocative responses abound.

The Stoked presents two photographic works; ‘Vulnerable @ Invincible’ and ‘Laying it on the Line’, both featuring a nude female body. The nude is a classical art tradition however, the exposition of human fur specifically in the form of a pubic pelt, remains one of the most confronting acts in contemporary western society. Stripped bare in a public space, the otherwise furless human body is a primal scream, a call from the wild that rattles so-called ‘civilisation’. It is with this intent that the naked body is exposed here in two specific locations intrinsically connected with coal extraction.

Highlighting the significant role that Australia’s coal industry plays in the species extinguishing phenomenon of global warming, a nude woman is artfully tied to a tree with red rope in front of a coal mine in New South Wales, and later to train tracks linking another of the state’s coal mines to an anonymous international coal-fired power station. Laid bare in the harsh sunlight, the single body acts as a metaphor for an entire species struggling to survive in the face of climate chaos.

These photographs document two chapters in an ongoing protest performance art work responding to climate change. ‘Vulnerable @ Invincible’ was performed at the Invincible Colliery to coincide with the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in Dec 2009. ‘Laying it on the Line’ was performed in January 2011 on railway tracks connecting the Charbon Colliery to the export port of Woollongong. The final chapter in this triptych, ‘Xtinct’, will take place later this year at one of the most polluting power stations in the country. Neither of the images have been exhibited previously and there is also a video component in development for this work. Watch this space.

‘Fur’ at Monstrosity Gallery, 93 Bourke St Woolloomooloo, Sydney
until Sept 15, 2011

But getting there can prove difficult. Hooning up Bellbird Hill to the familiar bell-like calls of the local bellbirds, Peachy Pops and I smelt a strange odour emanating from beneath Ravina’s bonnet. When a weird flapping noise ensued, we pulled over to investigate. The manifold was glowing orange and the whole engine looked set to explode. So we called NRMA road side assistance who were there in a flash. The mechanic pulled out his standard issue cardboard mat and slid under the vehicle for an inspection. He popped back out clutching a ragged piece of belting and asked how far we had to go. Luckily we were within 500 metres of Lochiel House which he assured us we could drive to safely.

So with Ravina’s manifold cooling in the fresh mountain air outside and our appetites stimulated by the averted catastrophe, we swooped in like a couple of seagulls and ravaged the menu with gusto.

First up, we devoured the restaurant’s signature dish of Steamed Dashi Custard with Smoked Eel, Scallops and Avruga Tartare, Sea Vegetable, Freshly Grated Truffle and Mushroom Soy – a dish fit for a High Lama if not the Dalai himself! The Celariac Souffle looked tempting too but we opted instead for A Series of Things, those things being warmed baby beetroot, housemade kefir cheese, organic chickpeas, chia carrots, coriander and cardamon Zhoug oil – wholesome but not quite as naughty and nice as the souffle would’ve been on such a winter’s night.

We took our paper thin concertinaed celariac in the main course roasted with Heidi Tilsit Cheese and sauteed exotic mushrooms. And shared a pan-seared organic Duck breast with smokey eggplant puree, fresh figs and roasted Jerusalem artichokes – scrumptious!!

Heartened by a lovely Mudgee red, we rolled on in to the valley of deserts with an amazingly fabulous warm chocolate mousse tinged with peanut pate, salted peanuts, a caramel chocolate wafer and peanut pebbles! And a quat of cum in the form of Cumquat cake, cheesecake ice cream, cumquat jam, poached cumquat and a cumquat glass followed hot on its heels – oh, joy!

Filled with this fabulous food, all made with true heart and soul, Peachy Pops and I left with our bodies aglow. The manifold, thankfully, was not so we confidently ventured forth with a promise to return at least seasonally, if not much more frequently.

Lochiel House‎
1259 Bells Line Of Road
Kurrajong Heights NSW 2758
(02) 4567 7754

The faithful quince tree, located quincidently at #555, is just starting to blossom again now so another crop is on its way. If anyone has any hitherto untried recipes that they might like to share please comment!

Nell shows at Oxley’s too and has one of her pieces in the collection at MONA – a chrome cast turd entitled ‘I Make Shit’. She has also just had her works transposed onto fabric for a collection of desirable frocks created by the wonderful label ‘Romance Was Born’ who recently made a splash with their design of the STC production of ‘Edward Gantz’s Amazing Feats of Lonliness’. So much talent! So much fun! Can’t wait to try one on for size.