MAN ABOUT TOWN

So, I quit my job at the gay and lesbian publishing company MCV this week. Well, not this week exactly. I gave notice three weeks ago and finished up on Monday, which is an odd day to have your last day at work but hey that's production cycles on a weekly fag rag for you. The reasons for my quitting were many and varied; indeed I'd been contemplating the move since the start of the year; but the thing that ultimately forced my hand was a request from the boss in Sydney that I change the days I worked for the company from Mondays and Fridays to Thursdays and Fridays. Since Thursday is the day I do my radio show on 3RRR, I said no. The rest is history . Last night, Friday, was my very low key farewell drinks from the job. I'll miss the people I work with, especially the editorial team, Andrew and Rachel, but not the job itself. The income, on the other hand... Hopefully I'll be starting a new part-time job freelancing for Citysearch.com.au within a couple of weeks. Lucki...

In which I finally get around to briefly blogging about the rest of the performances I saw at this year's Melbourne International Arts Festival. I haven't blogged about any of the visual arts events this year as I didn't see very many of them, save for Callum Morton's Valhalla , which was a great piece of work though I think the location it was placed, and the fact that it was placed on a plinth, did it a diservice. These last few notes are perforce brief, written more as a reminder to myself than for any other reason, so you might want to skip this unless you're especially fascinated by the festival, or my life... The Dictionary of Imaginary Places This transcendent work was a piece of verbatim theatre, a collage of Melbourne mapped out through a series of real life conversations on trains that were recorded and then turned into a script performed by Heather Bolton, Christopher Brown, Rita Kalnejais and James Wardlaw. Violence and threat rubbed shoulders with comed...

Finally, with Brett Sheehy's first Melbourne International Arts Festival now officially over as of last night, I am at last finding the time to jot down some thoughts about some of the events I saw. Better late than never, I suppose! The Abbey Theatre - Terminus Ireland's national theatre company presented this powerful and surprising work by playwright Mark O'Rowe at The Malthouse , a gritty and grotesque piece of dark magic realism written and performed as a series of three interlinking monologues. An older woman working at a telephone counselling service and her alienated and unhappy adult daughter are caught up in the affairs of a vicious serial killer who goes on a murderous rampage after selling his soul to the Devil and getting cheated in process. Written in lyrical verse evoking both the language of the street and gothic fantasy, this was an engaging albeit grim piece of entertainment, and featured an outstanding performance from Karl Shiels as the sweet-voice...

Just a quick note to say that I will be trying to catch up with some micro-reviews of the remaining shows I saw at the Melbourne Fringe Festival over the weekend (I saw 32 shows in all this year, so have been struggling to find the time to write about them) as well as the first couple of MIAF shows I've seen, the Abbey Theatre's gorgeously grotesque Terminus and the Hofesh Schecter Company's dance works Uprising and In Your Rooms , both of which I very much enjoyed. So far so good for MIAF, in fact, though I was interested to see Peter Greenaway's take on The Last Supper , and his claims about visual literacy, roundly criticised by Robert Nelson in today''s Age . I suspect Greenaway might have a bit to say about that tonight at the Q+A after the screening of his film J'Accuse !

Clearly I'm not going to get around to reviewing the remaining 16-odd shows I saw at this year's Fringe. Apologies to all the artists concerned, but 42 performances was a lot to see, let alone blog about! Here's a list of the remaining events I saw, just for posterities' sake. Those marked with an asterisk are the shows I recommend you see if they return at the Comedy Festival next year... What a Little Moonlight Can Do Ghostboy with Golden Virtue The List Operators for Kids* Take Off Your Skin (TOYS) Antics Shop* The Bedroom Philosopher: Songs from the 86 Tram The Caravan of Love - Pure Kunst Attract/Repel * Dead River Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Accurate History of the Fall of the Roman Empire * Hannah Gadsby - Kiss Me Quick I'm Full of Jubes Anyone for Tennis - Cutthroat Newspower Daniel Kitson and Colleagues The Last Gasp

Oh dear. I seem to have fallen hopelessly behind on blogging about Fringe, but hopefully I'll get a chance to do a brief round-up of the most recent shows I've seen tomorrow - which now number 26 in total - on my afternoon off. Right now, I just wanted to post a photo that made me go squee . It's from the first epsiode of the new series of Doctor Who - yes, that's right, the one that hasn't aired yet. They're filming it in the UK as we speak. So, wanna see it? Beware spoilers! Ok. You were warned. Here it is! Yep, Matt Smith as The Doctor, and Karen Gillane as Amy Pond. Ain't it grand? Photo taken on set - presumably with a very long lens - by Alun Vega .

So, as you've probably noticed, I've fallen well behind when it comes to blogging about everything I've seen in the Fringe Festival this year. I blame the fact that I kept going to see stuff instead of sitting at home blooging. Anyway, in an attempt to make up for my tardiness, here are a plethora of quickly-written micro-reviews of some of the other shows I've seen to date... Bart Freebairn - A Breathtaking Magical Journey into the Ordinary In which Bart awkwardly but endearingly discovers the magic of everyday life. Loose and not especially adventurous stand-up, but with a certain relaxed charm; especially the stories about family members and farting. Working with a director to tighten up his material would greatly assist Bart's work, methinks. Three stars The Hounds Frentic pace and frantic mugging didn't work to The Hounds' advantage on their first preview night, which was when I saw this show, although working with a director who specialises in physica...