Music - Chris Isaak - The Best Of Tour 2006

Last thursday was lucky to FINALLY catch the great Chris Isaak playing at the Capitol Theatre. Last time he toured here I was out of Sydney, and the two times before that he sold out too fast. But this time I snagged a seat, exactly in the middle of the very last row.
Chris was as smooth and charming as you'd imagine him to be.
He was quite dressed up - a hot pink suit to start with, then a many-mirrored one to finish (I'd never previously imagined Chris as a mirrorball, but the suit suited him). The colourful duds went well with a night of songs that were more emotional and romantic than we'd get from most modern singers. A mix of Nashville, and lazy Californian beaches. Some of his female fans definitely approved. One ran onstage in the middle of a song (a dozen others were asked up towards the end of the night), and I noticed a couple of women in the audience who jumped out of their seats to scream and dance about at the slightest provocation.
He sang most of his well known songs - Blue Hotel; Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing; Somebody's Crying; Please Let Me Down Easy; Speak of the Devil.
There were some old rockin' numbers - Blue Moon; Don't Be Cruel; and Only The Lonely (hearing him live for the first time I realised how much he owes to Roy Orbinson).
He sang Return To Me while walking all over the auditorium, including visiting us plebs up the back, and there were two songs from other guys in the band (one with an Aussie influence - I definitely heard the lyrics 'yeast extract').
One song of his I wish he hadn't left out was Dancin'.
And even though he'd have a right to be a bit bored with it by now, he sang Wicked Game with all the moody passion it deserves - my favourite musical moment of the night.
But the huge highlight for this little fan was to discover that after the show he was available for autographs in the foyer. I was probably the 500th person in the line, but he obviously has plenty of stamina for this kind of thing (by the looks of him he's a very healthy fellow). I got a smile and a handshake, and he signed a photo for me. For the guy before me he added a halo above his head. I got devil horns.
He also said something to me, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what - I only remember how much cooler his voice was than mine! Smooth as.

Advice on Chopsticks and When to Bring Your Own

I've grown accustomed to visiting the flash sushi train downstairs for lunch 2 or 3 times a week now. I didn't like using their disposable chopsticks, as it's needlessly wasteful.
Today I brought along my own pair for the first time (a handsome pair in a box which I bought when I lived in Japan). When I whipped them out there was giggly surprise from some of the staff. I think it's usually only nerds and fussy old people who carry their own. Younger/Cooler folks are expected to walk around with only small electronic devices and a wallet full of cash in their pockets.
One young woman working there said her parents bought her a pair last year, as there were stories in the news describing some of the nasty chemicals used in making the disposable kind. But she's too embarrassed to take them anywhere, so they sit unused at home, making her feel guilty.
All up, it was a good move. I got fussed over, with a pat on the shoulder from the owner, and another person there rushed to get me a bowl of my favourite Korean salad before I'd even asked.
So my advice re chopsticks is, fear not embarrassment, take your own.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

A week & a half ago saw iOTA playing Hedwig (with his Angry Inch) at the Newtown RSL. We sat directly behind Tim Friedman (of The Whitlams) and his date. iOTA's performance (a bit Frankenfurter a bit 70's David Bowie) was very strong - an hour and a half of rockin' songs and monologues. Would be nice to see it get extended or even bumped up to a better theatre.
Favourite songs - The Origin Of Love and Wig in a Box.

Matthew's Survey Results

A week ago I used questionpro.com to survey my friends, getting results from 18 people (or maybe it should be 15 or 16, since I think some people accidentally did it twice!).
THE RESULTS:
* Most respondents were in Australia, though there was one response each from folks living in Canada, Italy, and the USA.
* There were 5 votes for me to dye my hair chocolatey brown; 2 votes for black & dark blue; and 2 for black & dark green. Other single votes came in for pink (eek!); blond with red tips (very 80's); silver (how distinguished); flourescent pink; orange; metallic purple (I like it); and pitch black.
* The most popular Australian actor was Cate Blanchett, voted for by 9 people! My friends have such good taste! There were 7 votes for Toni Colette; 4 for Geoffrey Rush; 3 for Nicole Kidman; 2 each for Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, and Hugo Weaving; and 1 vote each for Eric Bana, Ben Mendelson, and Grant Dodwell(!!!). NOBODY voted for Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. Poor Russell - nobody loves him AND he sings like shit :-(
* It appears that people would be equally horrified to learn that their daughter was engaged to either Tom Cruise or Michael Jackson, which makes sense. 3 people also didn't like the idea of their little baby getting engaged to Anna Nicole Smith, and 2 people didn't want to hear that it's Charlie Sheen. However, nobody was much concerned about George Michael or Mr Magoo. Go Mr Magoo!
* Out of seven obscenely wealthy people, only Paul McCartney managed to get only positive responses. It's nice to know that if he lost all his $ in a fire (a really really big one) he'd be welcome in pretty much anyone's home.
The other six folks, ranging from nice and ending as 'certified bastard' were - Oprah Winfrey (fairly nice), Bill Gates, The Queen of England, Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch and finally Donald Trump (correctly picked by almost everyone as a 'prick').
* What my friends have done with their lives - Riden a horse (14 people); Been to a drive-in movie (12); Spent over $200 on an item of clothing (9); Bought something off e-bay (9); Voted for someone on a reality tv show (8); Walked out on a movie (7); Shoplifted something (6); Eaten snails (4).
* As well as thinking Paul McCartney's sweet, my friends seem to love the Beatles music too - 12 people have owned a Beatles album; 9 had an ABBA or U2 album; 8 - Madonna, REM, Bob Marley, and Billy Joel (oh really!); 7 - Meatloaf, Nirvana, David Bowie, and Boney M (wow, 7 Boney M albums - I'm impressed); 5 - Queen; 4 - Pink Floyd; and 1 - The Clash.
* 64.29% of people ARE in favour of changing the national anthem from the bloody boring Advance Australia Bloody Fair to the Aeroplane Jelly song! This must be the best survey result ever!
* The following 6 items of behaviour were rated from nastiest (after Mass Murder) to nicest (after Being Kind to Puppies) in this order - Strong body odour; Nost-picking; Loud agressive swearing; Talking on a mobile phone during a movie; Shoplifting; Loud slurping of hot tea.
Which is a bit of a bugger - I was hoping everyone would agree with me that loud tea-slurping was an unbearable habit. Maybe more people would be on my side if they heard the tea-slurping that goes on in my work tea room. Horrific! Argh!

2006 Sydney Film Festival - The Films

Made it to around 20 films this year at the Sydney Film Fest. Would have loved to see the Australian opening night film Ten Canoes but the $45 ticket price turned me off.
I'll just comment on the better films - with maybe one or two exceptions.
I didn't walk out on any films this year - though I did have to wake a patron who snored through one of the more tiresome documentaries!
The first four films especially get my full support.
* Little Miss Sunshine. Won the audience award for most popular feature during the festival. Indie-comedy. Lots of fun. A family celebrating the joy of losing in a culture obsessed with winning. Toni Colette is mother to a family of quirky loser types who go on a road trip to get their daughter to a horrid 'Little Miss Sunshine' beauty contest that she's always dreamed of winning. Has a hilarious feel-good ending. Total winner.
* United 93. Intensely realistic retelling of the fate of the 4th plane hi-jacked on 9/11, which eventually went down in a field. Cade came along to this one with me and he left the cinema quite traumatised. Terrifying at times, but made with impressive integrity. The terrorists are recognisable human beings, and the passengers' attempts to do something about their situation come across as heroic and perfectly believable. It left me with admiration verging on awe for everyone involved in making it.
* An Inconvenient Truth. Won the audience award for Best Documentary. Al Gore discusses why we should all be concerned - or more like totally wetting our pants - about global warming. Americans probably won't like being lectured to by one of their liberal politicians, but they should listen, because he's great at getting all the basic issues across. Australians need to see this too as we're far too lazy about what we're doing to this world's future - we were against the Kyoto protocols, have been slow to invest in renewable energy, and have a government bizarrely insisting on increasing the birth rate (there are 6 BILLION of us already!). Nobody should NOT see this film.
* Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story. Startling documentary regarding North Korea's old habit of kidnapping civilians off Japanese beaches and taking them back to Korea to teach them about Japanese language and culture. Sounds like a paranoid fantasy at first but it's all true, and it appears likely that some of the abductees are still being held captive. I'd heard the basics of this story before. The great thing about this documentary is that it spends a lot of time with the families of the abductees, so we can see what it is really like to be a victim to world politics. It's shocking to see these otherwise ordinary people continuing to suffer such a perverse fate.
* C.R.A.Z.Y. Canadian comedy/drama. The main character is a gay teenager, but really it's about his whole family - a family with 5 sons. I never had any brothers, but this family felt very real to me. There are a number of great little scenes revolving around what music means to them. Charles Aznavor & Patsy Cline for Dad. David Bowie & the Rolling Stones for the son. Ground Control to Major Tom...
* God on my Side. Andrew Denton made this documentary for ABC tv, spending a number of days talking to folks at a convention for religious broadcasters in the USA. It's funny & scary, but frustrating because he's there as an observer and therefore only gently challenges what they have to say. Almost everyone is white, and everyone supports George Bush Jnr simply because he professes to be humble before god (Denton was on stage after the film was shown and said that EVERY person they spoke to there supported crazy old George).
* Friends With Money. American comedy/drama involving 4 female californian friends - 3 of them wealthy, 1 doing it tough (Jennifer Aniston) and having to resort to being a cleaner (oh the horror!). Interesting & amusing movie, well-acted even by Jen, but then it just ends. Possibly one of the most useless endings ever (though at least it makes more sense than the ending of Mulholland Drive!).
* The Sun. Unbelievably slow russian art-house film on Emperor Hirohito's experiences at the end of WWII. For the first half hour all I noticed was how slow it was, but then it started to become mesmerising. Everything is dark, foreheads are sweaty, mouths twitch (Hirohito did this in real life), and odd sounds creak. Definitely better to see this in a cinema, where you can ease into the moodiness of it. Some great little scenes - my favourite being the emperor's dream of a Japanese city in flames as bombs are dropped from flying american catfish.
* Perhaps Love. Okay, this is one film I didn't like. A chinese musical made by people who obviously watched Moulin Rouge too many times without taking enough notes. The songs are HORRIBLE! Well, to be more exact, a couple of the songs range from okay to iffy, but the others are plain painful. The musical numbers are badly directed too , which doesn't help. Things aren't so bad when they stop singing. The story is about two actors in the middle of filming a musical, which is a very unoriginal plot but actually quite good WHEN THEY DON'T SING. The two stars are great to look at (the male lead is the adorable Takeshi Kaneshiro - the pretty-boy lead from The House of Flying Daggers).
* The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema. Slavoj Zizek is an 'acclaimed philosopher and psychologist' who likes to talk on and on about the 'fantasy' and 'reality' of famous scenes from famous films. This was sometimes enlightening and fun, but more often just pretentious waffling. This is the film where I had to prod a guy near me who fell asleep and started loudly snoring in the middle of it. That guy knew knew what he was doing.
* Girl Shy (1924 silent) The audience laughed and laughed at this silent Harold Lloyd comedy, featuring an absolutely smashing chase scene. This was a good reminder that silent films were never meant to be silent - an audience's 'oohs' and 'aahs' and laughter, as well as a final cheer at the end, being part of the experience.
* L'Armee Des Ombres (aka Army of Shadows; 1969) Based on the real experiences of people involved in the French Resistance during WWII. Damn good, with strange and memorable scenes that make you wonder what you'd be capable of doing in similar circumstances. This film should be better known than it is.

St John vs Tom Hanks

The Da Vinci Code movie is out, and tourists are flocking to Milan to see Da Vinci's The Last Supper. According to one of Dan Brown's puzzles, the face of one of the apostles looks like that of a woman, and people want to see this for themselves so they can go 'ah, it's true, Leonardo must have known something! How tricksy!'. What's particularly stupid about this is that nobody stops to point out that Leonardo loved painting androgynous-looking characters, so the fact that the guy in The Last Supper looks a bit girly is no earth-shattering discovery. To prove my point, have a look at the picture I've attached. It's Leonardo's 'St John The Baptist'. Just looking at John's face, tell me he doesn't look like a total chick!