Sometimes when you're traveling it's not the monuments or the big bull on Wall Street that makes you stop and look twice. Instead, it could be guerilla knitters that have knitted and chained a bicycle to a pole. Very unexpected and very peculiar!
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Wanderlust Wednesday - A knitted bicycle in New York City
Sometimes when you're traveling it's not the monuments or the big bull on Wall Street that makes you stop and look twice. Instead, it could be guerilla knitters that have knitted and chained a bicycle to a pole. Very unexpected and very peculiar!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Melbourne Comedy Festival - Good Times Roman
I am a comedy festival virgin so going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival was nice way to be introduced to side-splitting live comedy.
Arj Barker - Original Bits and Pieces
Oh Arj, your use of video footage before your performance to relax the audience and get rid of pre-conceived ideas (eg. ladies comedians are not sleazy) was rather clever. Arj's show had just the right amount of crass mixed with his trademark anger. I like Arj for his laid back Americanisms and yes, he does have a lot of dirty jokes, but all were very funny. My favourite jokes were using fonts to be clear on your tone in a text message - Good Times Roman, Sarcastica, Chill Sans and his views on intimacy in a relationship...which are perhaps too rude to mention.
Arj is also in Flight of the Conchord which I am addicted to at the moment!
Arj's performance in the Comedy Festival Gala is below.
Jason Byrne - The Byrne Supremacy
Byrne is Irish. So that means he's already funny by default. Byrne has an incredible apt for jumping from one idea to another and is all over the stage even rolling on the floor. He takes the absolute piss out of the audience and gets it so right on the money. A lot of his jokes started with "I love Australians because..." "they love Easter only because they get time off to paint their fence". He picked up on subtle body language of audience members and just rolled with it. The best part about Byrne is that his humour is very real and self-deprecating. His high-pitched imitation of the Aussie accent left me saying for days..."Is that it?"
Byrne's performance in the Comedy Festival Gala is below.
Arj Barker - Original Bits and Pieces
Oh Arj, your use of video footage before your performance to relax the audience and get rid of pre-conceived ideas (eg. ladies comedians are not sleazy) was rather clever. Arj's show had just the right amount of crass mixed with his trademark anger. I like Arj for his laid back Americanisms and yes, he does have a lot of dirty jokes, but all were very funny. My favourite jokes were using fonts to be clear on your tone in a text message - Good Times Roman, Sarcastica, Chill Sans and his views on intimacy in a relationship...which are perhaps too rude to mention.
Arj is also in Flight of the Conchord which I am addicted to at the moment!
Arj's performance in the Comedy Festival Gala is below.
Jason Byrne - The Byrne Supremacy
Byrne is Irish. So that means he's already funny by default. Byrne has an incredible apt for jumping from one idea to another and is all over the stage even rolling on the floor. He takes the absolute piss out of the audience and gets it so right on the money. A lot of his jokes started with "I love Australians because..." "they love Easter only because they get time off to paint their fence". He picked up on subtle body language of audience members and just rolled with it. The best part about Byrne is that his humour is very real and self-deprecating. His high-pitched imitation of the Aussie accent left me saying for days..."Is that it?"
Byrne's performance in the Comedy Festival Gala is below.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Marriage of Figaro by WA Opera
Sex. Secret liaisons. Cross dressing. Just another Saturday night at the opera.
The Marriage of Figaro, performed by WA Opera, is a hilarious comedic opera. The plotline is slightly complicated and reminiscent of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream due to its scheming lovers.
Basically Figaro and Susanna are set to be married, yet their employer Count Almaviva has decided to intervene and seduce Susanna - despite the fact that he is already married to Countess Rosina. Yet the Count is jealous of the young page, Cherubino, who has a crush on the Countess and forces him to join a military regiment in Selville. Figaro, Susanna and the Countess conspire to expose the Count's infidelity. There are also many cases of mistaken identity in between the farcical set of events.
I don't blame the little girl sitting in front of me needing a running commentary from her mother. But once you've got the characters straight, you can begin to enjoy the beautiful arias.
Sara Maciver as Susanna and Zoe Kikiros as Rosina share many poignant scenes together as they lament the pitfalls of loving a man. I really enjoyed their harmonies.
Also commanding an impressive stage presence is Luke Gabbedy as the Count. His first appearance onstage in a dressing gown with chest bared gets a welcome reception from the females in the audience.
But the stand out performance is Fiona Campbell as Cherubino. The flirtatious page boy swoons over the Countess but falls apart when he is sent away to the regiment. Cherubino is so adorable that you forgive him for his youthful naivete. My favourite piece was the aria dedicated to the Countess: Voi che sapete che cosa é amor — "You ladies who know what love is, see if I have it in my heart".
Last year I saw The Barber of Selville, which was my first operatic experience, and I found it easier to appreciate the sequel The Marriage of Figaro. Yes it is an accessible opera and attracted many people to go see it. However judging from the mixed audience of old and young I think opera has been grossly underrated. Opera is sexy after all!
The Marriage of Figaro, performed by WA Opera, is a hilarious comedic opera. The plotline is slightly complicated and reminiscent of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream due to its scheming lovers.
Basically Figaro and Susanna are set to be married, yet their employer Count Almaviva has decided to intervene and seduce Susanna - despite the fact that he is already married to Countess Rosina. Yet the Count is jealous of the young page, Cherubino, who has a crush on the Countess and forces him to join a military regiment in Selville. Figaro, Susanna and the Countess conspire to expose the Count's infidelity. There are also many cases of mistaken identity in between the farcical set of events.
I don't blame the little girl sitting in front of me needing a running commentary from her mother. But once you've got the characters straight, you can begin to enjoy the beautiful arias.
Sara Maciver as Susanna and Zoe Kikiros as Rosina share many poignant scenes together as they lament the pitfalls of loving a man. I really enjoyed their harmonies.
Also commanding an impressive stage presence is Luke Gabbedy as the Count. His first appearance onstage in a dressing gown with chest bared gets a welcome reception from the females in the audience.
But the stand out performance is Fiona Campbell as Cherubino. The flirtatious page boy swoons over the Countess but falls apart when he is sent away to the regiment. Cherubino is so adorable that you forgive him for his youthful naivete. My favourite piece was the aria dedicated to the Countess: Voi che sapete che cosa é amor — "You ladies who know what love is, see if I have it in my heart".
Last year I saw The Barber of Selville, which was my first operatic experience, and I found it easier to appreciate the sequel The Marriage of Figaro. Yes it is an accessible opera and attracted many people to go see it. However judging from the mixed audience of old and young I think opera has been grossly underrated. Opera is sexy after all!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Ladies that...go to the opera
I'm hoping that I'll get better with photo editing as time goes on. At the moment I'm using Picasa, which isn't as user-friendly as Photoshop. These pics are a little darker than they ought to be.
Wore this outfit to see Mamma Mia. I have the t-shirt in grey as well, it's a bit penguin like but I think it's cute. The tights were only $5 in a bargain bin in Myer!
T-shirt: Mink Pink
Skirt: Sportsgirl
Tights: Columbine
On Saturday night I went to see The Barber of Seville at His Majesty's Theatre. I had never been to the opera before so I was expecting fat ladies, a lot of "figaros" and warbling. The Barber of Seville is a comedy in which Count Almaviva aka hot royalty is smitten with the beautiful Rosina and wants to court her without revealing his princely title. Unfortunately she's being kept captive by her guardian, Doctor Bartolo aka creepy old dude, who wants to marry her for her fortune.
Being a comedy, there's a lot of puns and slapstick elements to the opera. There were some beautiful arias, though perhaps not as gut-wrenching as I thought they'd be. This is probably because there's little heartbreak and death in the plot.
Nevertheless it was a great performance and my favourite was Figaro, the barber himself. He reminded me of Borat/Sasha Cohen in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He's vain, lanky and struts around the stage. Oh and he's a pretty good baritone too.
The set was designed by Leon Krasenstein and is a bit cartoonish. It's also reminiscent of Antoni Gaudi's architectural work. I loved the small touches like water spurting out of the statue during the last act. Although they used a faux-ladder which was potentially a bit OHS.
It's nice to take comfort in the fact that people do dress up to go to the opera. Lots of men in bow ties and women in gowns and fur coats. It was almost, almost like being at the MET in NYC. Not quite though.
Coat: Target
Dress: Mink Pink
Belt: Target
Tights: Columbine
Shoes: Chinese Laundry
Bag: Dior
I love Wei's Dangerfield coat, the buttons are too cute. Big thumbs up!
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