Sorry it’s been so long since I last made a posting. A lot has been going on since Easter Weekend at Mount Kosciuszko. A big part of April and early May was spent working 6 days a week on a large wetland mitigation project for the Australian Capital Territory and the city of Canberra. I’ll try to bring you up to speed on the more fun things that happened in between all the hours spent at the office.
In Early May there was the Melbourne Jazz Festival. I attended 4 events at several venues. One was at the city’s town hall where Iral and I wandered around the building experiencing different shows in the various rooms. It wasn’t your traditional Jazz performance I had expected. One event was just 2 guys with about 50 different items that made noises that they grabbed to form rhythms. They had cow bells, pieces of plastic tubing, buzzers, a guitar and one of the guys making vocal sounds. It’s what is considered improvisational Jazz. Another was a group of people that all used their voices to make a chaotic pattern of sounds. There was lady that wrapped her face in tinfoil and hummed into her microphone. While another guy grunted and a 3rd person made strangest noises with more people doing things too hard to describe. The group as a whole made me wonder whether they were all mentally stable or just on some acid trip that has lasted for years! There was a very cool performance we attended with this German drummer and a huge pipe organ built into the main auditorium. These 2 guys put on a spectacular show. One of the other events I went to was a Saxophone soloist also from Germany that had been playing longer than I’ve been alive. His style was unique in that it was based upon a free form Jazz style that he helped develop in Europe back in the sixties from the more traditional style of Jazz we all know from the states. Again this is hard to explain and a lot of what made it so cool was his technically ability to do things with the saxophone that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do.
Probably the most fun thing was at Southern Cross Railway Station where a portion of the stairs where converted into a piano and you could run up and down them making a tune as you stepped on each tread. There were lasers set into the side of the stairs and as you crossed the beam of light it set off a tone. This brought out the inner child in me and many other people.
After this was the performance with the Melbourne Rainbow Band, our Australiana concert at Chapel off Chapel. The weekend was VERY busy. It was just before my deadline at work, near the end of 5 weeks at 50 + hours. I went into the office in Saturday morning and was at the concert hall by 3 for our technical rehearsal. Out for a few drinks with the band after and did it all again on Sunday. The performance as a whole was very good. It was our first dual performance concert and we had been struggling with some of the pieces and some of our instrument sections were short key members. But in the end we pulled it all off beautifully. The concert itself was all music with an Australian tie. The music was composed by Australians or they were Australian folk songs. Iral showed us he has an amazing voice by singing “I am Australian” and bringing the house down. We had 4 performers that accompanied the band and many said Iral’s was the best of the show.
Then just last weekend I got to check off one more National Park in my book. This time it was Fort Nepean National Park, which lies at the tip of the mouth that creates Port Phillip Bay. Just about an hour or so drive from the city, the park was originally a dropping off point for many immigrants in the 18th century. It also became a quarantine area for live stock that arrive by boat in the 19th century and then finally being used at a military base helping to defend Melbourne during WWII before it was turned into a national park. We were able to tour some of the old military bunkers and bomb shelters. But the most spectacular thing by far was the view along this thin peninsula. We stopped in coastal tourist town of Sorrento for some fish and chips on our way home.
The last thing to fill you in on was my participation yesterday in DC Comics attempts to break the world record for the most superheros in one place. The record was originally set in the states with 1016 people dressed up as superheros. Then last weekend London broke the record with 1091 people. Melbourne SMASHED it with 1245 people. Yours truly went as the Phantom. While a co-worker, Kevin Donnelly, and his girlfriend, Jackie (she’s from Long Island) went as Zorro and Super girl respectively. We even managed to talk Iral in to getting one of the free costume DC comics was handing out and he became the tiniest super girl ever, by draping a toddler’s costume over himself. I rented my costume from a local shop along with Jackie and Kevin rented a few piece but made the others himself. We met at the office and changed before walking about a ½ mile to Federation Square to join our fellow superheros and nasty villains. We saw a lot of Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman characters. There were also a couple incredible Hulks, Iron Man, Jokers, and even a few odd ones like Indiana Jones and Princess Lea form Star Wars. I picked the Phantom mainly because it’s what the costume shop had available in my size and it was purple spandex who could resist that! People were snapping pictures all around and it gave me a sense of what the Hollywood elite must feel like. The Phantom was very popular here and I was the only one in his outfit that I noticed. Eventually, the parents of a little boy, Zane, found me and we got our picture taken together, he was dressed up as the Phantom too. It was a fun thing to do and while not actually named in the world Record book I can say I’m now a part of it.
Coming up this week for me is my first trip to Western Australia and the city of Perth. Iral and I are flying over on Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend. So be on the lookout for that blog entry before I leave on the big trip to the Middle East and the Gay Games in Germany on July 20th.
As far a birthday shouts go Marian’s was April 23rd, the same day as my flatmate Michael. Shelley had one on May 17th, Roger had his back on May 22nd, Mike Wrobleski has one coming up on June 16th and Phyllis notches up another year on June 26th. I’m sure there’s a few of you I have missed but you are by no less loved. I owe Marian special thanks for sending me 2 boxes of Peanut butter Captain Crunch and 2 jars of fluff.
COME VISIT!
