The old rogue.

I've mentioned Nick Cave here a couple of times previously.
By an interesting coincidence, the same week as I was considering going to the current exhibition on his life and works at the Arts Centre here in Melbourne, I was also doing some digging through the Honeysuckle archives- a vast underground complex, under a hillside in a secret location somewhere on the edge of town.
And I found this:

Hmm, they all look very young there.
Keith Glass, of Missing Link Records, gave me a few of these promo shots years ago. I got this signed after a show one night- at either the Ballroom or at Hearts, I can't quite recall. And I'm not sure why Mick Harvey signed it left handed, either. And no, it's not for sale- it's been framed and is now hanging up in my house.
I also found a couple of other interesting bits and pieces- more to come.

Nick Cave and such

So I see Grinderman are touring in a few months. It's an interesting idea- a set of regular Nick Cave stuff, followed by the same band playing a Grinderman set. My main misgiving would be that I think the Grinderboy's material would be much better served in smaller venues, but there is no word yet of any side shows. Still what would I know- I'm sure the fans will happy to see it, regardless.
This is from the TJH archive:

Nick live at the Venue in St. Kilda- now long since demolished- back in 1988. I'm not quite sure how I scored a stage pass for this- seem to recall that someone from Died Pretty gave it to me. I certainly didn't play, or get on stage.
My favorite memory of this night was going up to Blixa Bargeld on a dare, and asking him in my most sincere voice, exactly how to pronounce
Einstürzende Neubauten. I'm not even going to try and transcribe his answer, suffice to say I've never heard any else reel it off the same way before or since. I chatted to him for a minute, until he gripped my elbow and hissed "Do you know vere I can get zum speed?" , at which I pointed him to an acquaintance of mine who would be happy to help him out, and slipped away.

An arty weekend

Had a very cultured weekend- oh, and before I get started, a big thanks to Vlad & Dmitri for holding the fort for a couple of days.

I spotted this in the paper on Saturday:
Felt Is The Past Tense Of Feel.

Artist Catherine Bell sucks the ink from 40 squid, then spits it onto her dead father's suit, in a torrid video work of violence, grief, and the purging of emotion.

Well, how could anyone resist that? And it was literally around the corner, at Linden. So on Sunday, after cleaning the frog tank we tore ourselves away from the Sci Fi Channel , and went to have a look, and it was as gross and fantastic as it sounds. On two separate screens this lady is in differing stages of the process- in the early part the suit is still white, then later it's black. As are her face, hands, arms, hair...the suit in question is hanging in the corner of the gallery space, and it absolutely reeks. She gets right into it on the video, ripping squid apart with her fingers, squeezing, sucking & spitting ink all over herself. The pile of dead squid she's sitting in gets bigger & bigger. But what does it signify? No idea, I'm afraid, but I'm glad I saw it.
Note: if this isn't enough, you can go to her website and see pictures of her swimming in a pool full of live eels while dressed in a plastic fetish suit, in a prior performance piece called Head Over Eels.

Then we went into the city to do some shopping and have a drink. There are a few Christmas decorations up in the streets, but what I liked was the view from up in Chloe's Bar- all the banner-sized pictures of Nick Cave (from the Howard Arkley exhibition at Fed Square), the posters of Astro Boy (from the Tezuka exhibition at the NGV) and the huge Sidney Nolan Ned Kellys on the facade of Flinders Street Station(from an exhibition at Heide )
An interesting choice of seasonal decorations, and a very spiritual trio- I'd pick Ned as the Father, Astroboy as the Son, and Nick as the Holy Ghost.