Long night, White Night

Melbourne threw its own Nuit Blanche. I think this whole world's most liveable city affair has kind of gone to its head. Australian culture dictates that a night out must must must involve booze, lest it be labelled a waste and gay. My charming countrypeople! So what started out as a bright evening of culture and jazz dissolved, by about 3 or so AM, into a distopian day-night with tumbleweeds of empty vodka bottles, Pie Face wrappers and abandoned shoes. I wish I'd taken a picture of the bottle-o because it was empty. I mean it; spirits gone, two little miniature bottles of bourbon arranged thoughtfully on the middle shelf.

 

Aiie, but I am being negative. My own White Night was... multi-faceted. That has to be the word. Highlight of highlights: I saw Cent une tueries de zombies (have a look if you don't mind the gore). 101 zombie deaths cleverly edited into 40-something glorious minutes. Not for the faint of heart. (They even included my favourite zombie death, but be warned: this video is graphic.) I also got to see Flap!, the very best live outfit in Melbourne, perform, which was excellent as always. They have this way with an audience; it's hard to describe. Every time I've seen them (and I admit, there have been a few) it takes about three songs for them to win the crowd completely over. You know the kind of person you don't actually know, but feel close to and want to buy a pony for? That's this band. They're good value folks.

After the zombies and the music it was getting towards that eerie stage I told you about. I'd said goodbye to J and IMJ (soft!) and just sort of wandered. Things get very strange for me when I'm low on sleep. I don't remember much, but I have distinct memories of trying to walk toe-heel instead of heel-toe. What can I say? In the immortal words of Honey Boo Boo Child, girl's gotta get her beauty sleep.

I resurfaced at 6am, ate too much breakfast (cold scrambled eggs, bleagh) and went home, then to work. Probably should have had a lie-down beforehand; probably shouldn't have drunk six espresso shots in half an hour. Was it all worth it? You know, I think so.

 

Collins Quarter

 

The city of Melbourne

Last week may very well have been one of the worst times to run errands in the history of the world. The heat was so bad that the Beaureau Beurau Bureau of Meteorology (in all my life I have never been able to spell that word) had to invent a new colour for it. My original plans to go visiting some rural cities and take snaps for y'all have been on hold since -- well. I was going to make a joke about bushfires just now, but that's something you just don't do here. Actually, it's always so strange for me to see the English-speaking Internet explode with excitement for Black Friday, when here it's synonymous with a day of fires so bad that we still remember them, a good 70 years later.

I'm being morose. Here's a picture of my dog looking gorgeous.

Friday! I had birthday presents to hunt down and an interview at a bakery to DESTROY and sangria to inhale. But most of all, I wanted to show you around my city. So here it is.

Bit of a perv on Lt. Collins' Yule House. Is it possible to have a crush on a building?

Whoever let a tree (a tree!) grow in front of these sensational buildings needs to take a long, hard look at themselves.

(Here's hoping all these pictures show up, huh?)

 

WitW: Graz, Austria

Graz! Hallowed birthplace of Governator extraordinaire, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Europe's Cultural Capital of 2003. (I like my Capitals of Culture, don't I?) It's actually Austria's second largest city, but that's still less than 300,000 people, so I'll beg an indulgence from you all.

Now, I think Graz is truly very nice, but I have a serious bone to pick with town planning.

This is not okay. I mean, I like experimental architecture as much as the next, but this is what we keep Iceland for. That said, this so-called Friendly Alien (nicknamed by its creators, hm!) is a very excellent temporary art gallery, or Kunsthaus. Graz is actually a permanent UNESCO City of Design, which translates into an inordinate amount of chamber music and art installations. The place has more than twenty different museums and galleries, including -- but not limited to -- museums of contemporary photography, trams and locks. (The largest collection of locks and keys in the world!) Graz, in essence, likes its culture.

You saw it here first!

As if being a City of Art Things wasn't enough, Graz is also Austria's self-appointed (...) Capital of Culinary Delights. They have a Gormet Spectacular (and what I wouldn't give to hear that phrase in German) and spend a whole evening every so often eating all together at a really long table.

Did I mention that Graz is also home to Austria's largest cave system?



This little city is a busy place.

All credit to my sources: Graz, Wikipedia, Graz UNESCO City of Design, Graz Tourism, Culture Graz, Hanns Schell Collection, Thomahan Culture

Where in the Wednesday is my weekly excuse to trawl through Google Images. It's a profile of a place I wish I was in and an attempt to draw my eye away from classic travel destinations; I hope that you'll enjoy reading about all these places as much as I love learning and writing about them. Anywhere you think I ought to write about, from the obscure little town in your area to that place you visited in 1989? I'm at anscenicworld@gmail.com.