Festive Fun
Here's a quick round-up of the Festive Fun I have been having of late:
* Ali and I went to a happening called Unsilent Night on Saturday. From SMH:
'Unsilent Night is a composition by New York composer Phil Kline designed to be performed as a street parade by whoever turns up with a boombox...The symphony is arranged in four layers and distributed on cassettes to participants, along with a map of the route through the CBD, St James, Hyde Park and Oxford Street.'
It was brilliant! After installing $32 worth of batteries in Ali's flatmate's boombox, we headed up to Town Hall to meet the other revellers. There was maybe 70-80 participants, with probably a quarter having stereos with them. After a countdown (and ensuring the volume was switched to maximum on all machines), PLAY buttons were pushed, the music began and we headed off down George St. Then on to Hyde Park, where we walked through the underground tunnels at St James station with the music echoing around us before emerging again and traipsing under the canopy of trees and fairylights. Then up Stanley St past the busy restaurants, up the huge hill of Crown St, and onto Oxford St where the music stopped a couple of blocks short of Taylor Square and we parted company. The whole experience was simply magical. Like carolling I suspect, but more subtle. Nobody was particulary dressed up (except for my silver plastic tiara with flashing lights), and so the effect was very discrete and lowkey, just a bunch of folk slowly walking the streets with this amazing music emerging from their midst.
* Was at GC's today and there was a movie called Mary Christmas *groan* on the TV. Somehow we became engrossed in it while eating our hommous and Turkish bread. Typical 'Dear Santa, I want a Mommy for Christmas' schlock, cute blond kid and widower who works too much. It did have the guy who played the Dad in Happy Days in it, which was reason enough to watch it in my opinion. Anyhow, the point of mentioning this is that in it the kid goes shopping for a present for her father. She decides on a sweater, in 'his favourite' aquamarine. The shop assistant doesn't think there is one- but 'what about HUNTER GREEN? Daddies like Hunter Green' (or words to that effect). I always knew that the folk who wrote this festive fluff were a bunch of perverts at heart.
* Found a link to this XXX-Mas Kitten clip. For some reason the PC I am on at Uni refuses to give me sound, but the visuals are fucked-up enough that I love it already.
* Did the whole Xmas shopping in the city thing with my Mum yesterday. Bought a bag of dark chocolate macadamia clusters at The Nut Shop in The Strand, hung out in DJ's food hall and wandered in and out of arcades getting all excited by the hustle and bustle of shoppers buying pressies for family and friends (not to mention the amount of tinsel and lights and decorated trees etc). Still not quite finished my shopping, but the list has shrunk considerably.
* On Sunday Night went to the Gurlesque Xmas Horror Show at the Impy. Sexy and funny as ever, with Team Princess getting just what they asked for from Buxom Wench Santa! Last night went to The Newtown with SauerKraut and Beculum to watch the staff perform their annual Xmas show. It started so late that I could only stay for the first act, which was more than enough to get me and most of the crowd all flustered as it contained A Certain Boy doing a striptease where he went from being Santa to a dirty tattooed leatherboy. Then I headed over to GC's where I gave her one of those magic trees, you know, the ones that start off as just a cardboard frame and then you add the special mixture to the tray and a few hours later they start to 'grow'? I remember them from years ago when I was a kid, and they still make me excited (surprise surprise). Especially as this one comes with a plastic gold star, a length of red trimming and multicoloured glitter with which to decorate it. When we woke up this morning it had done its thing on the mantlepiece. Yay! And tonight I am heading off with Schwee for an evening of eating fruit mince pies and driving around the suburbs checking out displays of Xmas lights in front of houses. Its one of my favourite traditions of the season... And of course, tomorrow night I will be all decked out in my festive finery at The Sly.
* Christmas Eve brings us the Metropolitan Community Church Service at The Town Hall. This is tempting somehow, as attending would mean I get to sing my favourite carols with the words changed to be completely gender-neutral. Although I'm fairly certain that I'll be givinganything Church-y a miss as Spurs For Jesus are doing their Annual Christmas Shindig at The Annandale. Reckon we ought to book online for it, which I am happy to do if folk want to just pay me back on the night. We could take our chances on the door, but I have no idea how big a deal this is in terms of selling out so would prefer to err on the side of caution. Email or call or text if you want me to grab a ticket or two for you.
* Ali and I went to a happening called Unsilent Night on Saturday. From SMH:
'Unsilent Night is a composition by New York composer Phil Kline designed to be performed as a street parade by whoever turns up with a boombox...The symphony is arranged in four layers and distributed on cassettes to participants, along with a map of the route through the CBD, St James, Hyde Park and Oxford Street.'
It was brilliant! After installing $32 worth of batteries in Ali's flatmate's boombox, we headed up to Town Hall to meet the other revellers. There was maybe 70-80 participants, with probably a quarter having stereos with them. After a countdown (and ensuring the volume was switched to maximum on all machines), PLAY buttons were pushed, the music began and we headed off down George St. Then on to Hyde Park, where we walked through the underground tunnels at St James station with the music echoing around us before emerging again and traipsing under the canopy of trees and fairylights. Then up Stanley St past the busy restaurants, up the huge hill of Crown St, and onto Oxford St where the music stopped a couple of blocks short of Taylor Square and we parted company. The whole experience was simply magical. Like carolling I suspect, but more subtle. Nobody was particulary dressed up (except for my silver plastic tiara with flashing lights), and so the effect was very discrete and lowkey, just a bunch of folk slowly walking the streets with this amazing music emerging from their midst.
* Was at GC's today and there was a movie called Mary Christmas *groan* on the TV. Somehow we became engrossed in it while eating our hommous and Turkish bread. Typical 'Dear Santa, I want a Mommy for Christmas' schlock, cute blond kid and widower who works too much. It did have the guy who played the Dad in Happy Days in it, which was reason enough to watch it in my opinion. Anyhow, the point of mentioning this is that in it the kid goes shopping for a present for her father. She decides on a sweater, in 'his favourite' aquamarine. The shop assistant doesn't think there is one- but 'what about HUNTER GREEN? Daddies like Hunter Green' (or words to that effect). I always knew that the folk who wrote this festive fluff were a bunch of perverts at heart.
* Found a link to this XXX-Mas Kitten clip. For some reason the PC I am on at Uni refuses to give me sound, but the visuals are fucked-up enough that I love it already.
* Did the whole Xmas shopping in the city thing with my Mum yesterday. Bought a bag of dark chocolate macadamia clusters at The Nut Shop in The Strand, hung out in DJ's food hall and wandered in and out of arcades getting all excited by the hustle and bustle of shoppers buying pressies for family and friends (not to mention the amount of tinsel and lights and decorated trees etc). Still not quite finished my shopping, but the list has shrunk considerably.
* On Sunday Night went to the Gurlesque Xmas Horror Show at the Impy. Sexy and funny as ever, with Team Princess getting just what they asked for from Buxom Wench Santa! Last night went to The Newtown with SauerKraut and Beculum to watch the staff perform their annual Xmas show. It started so late that I could only stay for the first act, which was more than enough to get me and most of the crowd all flustered as it contained A Certain Boy doing a striptease where he went from being Santa to a dirty tattooed leatherboy. Then I headed over to GC's where I gave her one of those magic trees, you know, the ones that start off as just a cardboard frame and then you add the special mixture to the tray and a few hours later they start to 'grow'? I remember them from years ago when I was a kid, and they still make me excited (surprise surprise). Especially as this one comes with a plastic gold star, a length of red trimming and multicoloured glitter with which to decorate it. When we woke up this morning it had done its thing on the mantlepiece. Yay! And tonight I am heading off with Schwee for an evening of eating fruit mince pies and driving around the suburbs checking out displays of Xmas lights in front of houses. Its one of my favourite traditions of the season... And of course, tomorrow night I will be all decked out in my festive finery at The Sly.
* Christmas Eve brings us the Metropolitan Community Church Service at The Town Hall. This is tempting somehow, as attending would mean I get to sing my favourite carols with the words changed to be completely gender-neutral. Although I'm fairly certain that I'll be givinganything Church-y a miss as Spurs For Jesus are doing their Annual Christmas Shindig at The Annandale. Reckon we ought to book online for it, which I am happy to do if folk want to just pay me back on the night. We could take our chances on the door, but I have no idea how big a deal this is in terms of selling out so would prefer to err on the side of caution. Email or call or text if you want me to grab a ticket or two for you.
posted by Zoo at 2:53 pm
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