The Interesting Times

The Festival is consuming my life at the moment, but thankfully, there are some awesome upsides in the works. For starters, here's a date for your calendars: on April 21st, as part of Trade Aid, I'll be performing as part of BirdHouse, a tribute to the songs of They Might Be Giants. How cool is that? I'll be singing up there with Scott Edgar (of Tripod), Casey Bennetto (of the Drowsy Drivers), Tim Minchin (of Tim Minchin), Geraldine Quinn, Andy McClelland... It's going to rock! And it's all for charity: the proceeds benefiting the Asylum Seekers' Resource Group.

I bet you can guess one of the songs I'm going to sing. Go on, give it a shot. I'll give you a clue: someone else is doing Birdhouse in Your Soul.

Oh, and yeah, I have to do an obligatory plug: Science-ology is still on until April 29th. Plenty of tickets left at this stage, though if you want to come on a cheap Tuesday, you better book or buy tickets in advance, 'cos those nights are selling like hotcakes. (This coming Tuesday is already just about sold out.) I'm also performing with the Crew in Classic Impro Sundae (I'm hosting next Sunday, the 15th, at 8:30), Instant Order: Trial by Audience (had my first one last night - it's a great fun format), and Instant Musical Odyssey at Triple Trouble (got two of these coming up next week). Check out the Crew's line-ups for details!

I took the morning off work to finish my Expression of Interest proposal for a Hub venue in this year's Fringe. Realistically chances are slim, so it's time to start looking for somewhere else. And the festival isn't until September...

Caught up with Ian, which was awesome, and saw Scott Edgar and the Universe at 303 tonight. The guy is a genius. Actually, both of them are: Ian and Scott. Ian summed up the Universe with one of those "they're like a cross between x and y" comments, and I spent some time afterwards contemplating how accurate this was and also deciding that their sound was wholly unique, but that it intersected the other two bands. Whatever the case, they are exactly what I've been missing in the absence of those nights at Bar Humbug when Andy or Rob used to play. They were opening for Duckdive, who may be friends of friends, but they're too country for my tastes; they also had too many instruments for their arranging skills (they didn't seem to know what to do with them all, and subtlety was lost), and not enough metaphor or poetry in their lyrics. That's all very critical; I guess they're just not my thing.

House-hunting tomorrow. Man, it'd be nice to stay somewhere for more than a year, and to not move just after filling out the forms for the Fringe. Never mind. The next place will also be awesome. We have some time to find somewhere we really like, and if worst comes to worst, I have some backup plans.

The next two days are full of stuff. It's an exciting time to be alive, May 2006.

Last night was one of the best nights in my life. I went to the Ginormous Acoustic Guitar Festival at Bar Humbug; seven obscenely talented acts playing the finest in acoustic rock, jazz, blues...it was bliss. Rob Longstaff, organiser and performer, ranks among the most talented musicians I have ever heard, let alone been lucky enough to know. The remaining talent was no less impressive, with acts from Melbourne, Darwin and Brisbane. I ended up buying everyone's CDs, and sticking around with the artists afterwards to jam in the drunken morning as the clock ticked over from 1:59 to 3:00am and on.

Trii Raskasa is going well, with a sold-out opening, fluctuating but by no means empty houses since, and two strong performances. Early show tonight, then tomorrow the weirdness begins - the first of the short movie scenes with JMC, and the assessment piece at Deakin. Hopefully also the job interview I've been waiting to hear back about; it's call centre work, but customer service, and the hours and pay are good.

While I'm here, let me plug a couple of other shows going on at the moment or soon: first, my mate Scotty and a bunch of other talented lads star in Mojo, a heist comedy in the vein of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It's at the Storeroom in Fitzroy, same dates and times as my show, but you'd better book - they've already had to turn people away. This is what I'd be seeing, except of course, I can't be in two places at once... Book on 03 9486 5651.

The other is Theatre In Decay's A Mile In Her Shadow, also at the Storeroom, opening late November. It's an exploration of depression constructed from first-hand experience, and featuring the usual level of talent from the Decay stables.

Some people might know what rhubarb is, but me, well I think of Roobarb. And why not? Life is good. You know, since I was last here I've been working, sleeping, eating, rehearsing, drinking, listening to music (mostly Andy Gaunt, a guy I know, the Beatles, Barenaked Ladies, TISM, some Tori Amos, a group I took a punt on when I found their CD cheap called Antediluvian Rocking Horse (they're experimental, and weird), and best of all Jewel, who I'd forgotten was so awesome, though her new CD sounds like it's all dancey and she's lost her edges - I mean, this is the girl who wrote Pieces of You, Adrian and Who Will Save Your Soul, and now she has songs called things like Run 2 U and You & Me = Love...) You know, all the good stuff that human beings do. I have two new housemates, one of whom I already know (she's awesome) and another who seems really cool. I have found a job I really want, and all I need to do is convince the nice people of Darebin to let me help run their libraries. I think this is something within my mighty powers of persuasion. I have recently finished reading Ian Stewart's pretty good Flatterland and JK Rowling's meringue-like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I've been playing Tropico 2: Pirate Cove, which is like plugging a cable into my head which is labelled "Give Ben Pirates" and flipping a big switch marked "On." Tomorrow is the first meeting of my next show, and rehearsals continue for the Hartwell Players season of short plays, which opens at the start of August. My friends are doing really well in theatre too, with Theatre In Decay rocking everyone's socks off with All of Which are American Dreams, and Ben Ellis continues his usual high standard of work on Falling Petals, which is also getting rave reviews. Next week is Eddie Izzard week - I'm ready, Julian! - and any week now, the best film ever made will come to meet my face in glorious colour: Pirates of the Caribbean. I could pretty much only be happier if I was making love right now, but hey, I'll get some of that in when the right girl comes along.

Oh, and I wrote some answers to those questions from Xian, but I spent about three hours editing and revising the bastard things and then saved them somewhere at work, so they'll be posted when I find them. Plus a big hello to the nice girl who added me as a friend, you seem to know the Morgatron (Hi Morgatron!) and Kate (Hi Kate!), so you must be cool. This post is dedicated to you.

Oh right, I almost forgot: there's this cool guy, maybe you've heard of him, he's named Richard E. Grant and he's the star of Withnail & I and he's the fucking new Doctor Who baby! Yeah. I almost forgot.

PS I decided you could all be lazy and looked up links for all the most interesting things I mentioned above, that's what the underlined bits are.

"I say, that when a thing completely surpasses my comprehension, I am accustomed not to dwell on that thing, but to pass to another. Is supper ready, Signor Pastrini?"

Rejoice ye lovers of fine musical comedy, for the Southern muse Bill Bailey is in town! The comedy festival is two months away, but here he is - two shows only, and I'm going to one of them. Woohoo!

(If you don't know about Bill Bailey, have a look online for the Insect Nation song - if it doesn't make you laugh, then I guess you can ignore this whole post. And, indeed, much of what I say, since my humour springs from a well connected to Bill's by an underground stream.)