The Beach!

This weekend saw Summer really hit the city for the first time; it was hot, sunny weather. Trams were full of boys in shorts and no shirts, and the whole city seemed to shed a layer of clothing and get better-looking. I headed to St Kilda beach – 30 minutes from the city centre – to find it packed. Glamorous young Indian girls sat in the tram there blasting bhangra music from their cellphones, and on the beach itself Middle Eastern and Mediterranean muscle boys played soccer and wrestled (hello!) .

The bars and cafes at the Sea Baths – fronting onto the beach – were packed. It made me realize that although other Australian often pay out Melbourne for having terrible beaches, they are really not bad by world standards. St. Kilda can’t compare with the best of Sydney or Perth or even Adelaide (let alone, say, Ipanema) – but it can still be fun.

I thought this cafe, with its Halloween decorations, looked oddly incongruous in the blinding sunlight though!

K-pop #1

Brown Eyed Girls (브라운아이드걸스) – Sign (싸인)

The Brown Eyed Girls were sexy sensations with their envelope-pushing (for Korea) lesbionic revenge-fest of a video for “Abracadabra”. Here they push the limits again, but in a new direction: melding unexpected and graphic violence to their boppy Europop, plus a creepy Silence of the Lamb-ish final scene. Nice

The Sao Paulo end of Collingwood

Melburnians have long talked about “the Paris end” of Collins Street, the city’s most prestigious shopping strip. But wandering yesterday through a very different part of the inner city, another comparison occurred to me. The suburb may be yuppifiying rapidly – those dilapidated former worker’s cottages would now be worth a mint, even on little sidestreets interspersed with textile factories – but its surprisingly gritty pockets reminded me strongly of Sao Paulo.

I had just been reading in a Dutch travel magazine about the hard-edged neighborhood of Baixo Augusta (where I hung out this time last year!) morphing into the city’s hottest ‘hood, and these streetscapes took me right back to the South American megalopolis – same low, grey skies, same dilapidated buildings and same vibrant, primitivist grafitti. Same gritty, industrial glamour (although without the fear – by and large – of being stabbed in the eye with a screwdriver and left for dead for $5).

See what I mean? Notice anything unusual about this strip of shops down the unloved end of Johnston St?

Oh yes, the menacing figure with the gun on the roof.

And this very unexpected and hidden away (and Paulistano-ish) hipster touch; a traditional Japanese bath house  - luxurious and sophisticated – tucked away in the shadow of adandoned brewery silos. This is the view from the doorway.

K-pop #2

091025 [HD] G-Dragon – A Boy + I Know (Seo Taiji) @ Inkigayo

G-Dragon unveiled a new look – spiked hairdo and Gaultier style kilt – at this great performance on the iconic Korean music program “Inkigayo”. He was celebrating the announcement of his first concert at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium, which sold out in 10 minutes.

Wall dialogues #2

Face Off!

Tom Cho – Look who’s morphing

Tom Cho – I just discovered – is the Australian, Chinese, transsexual David Sedaris. The Melbourne author’s book of brief, easy-to-read, absurdist stories is hugely entertaining, and all the stories share  a theme; people change into other things (hard not to read something into that, in light of his personal circumstances). In one story, he changes into Whitney Houston’s bodyguard. In another, into a car or a robot. Or an uncle becomes a computer – before being attacked by orcs. And all told with brevity and wit, like where he describes his Auntie Mei who was a Chinese riverboat gambler who came to Australia in search of a better life “and is now an officer in the Imperial Danish Navy, who lives in a beautiful mansion in France”.

Or this description of Elvis Presley: “Elvis was born to white parents. In that respect, I guess, he is not Asian.”

Lee Min Ki – Eternal Summer

Korean heartthrob goes out on a limb

Even as the robotic high-sheen of K-pop powers up the charts across Asia, and even in the USA, I’m starting to wonder if the winning formula is becoming a bit stale? Although like millions of others, I fell in love with the slick sheen, the glossy high production values, the urban beats and autotuned vocals – and of course the aspirational fashions – I wonder if the music has become too slick, too autotuned, too soulless?

Perhaps teen heart throb Lee Minki has the answer. The actor has branched out with a debut album featuring, surprisingly, rather mellow and organic sounding songs combining acoustic and rock guitars with gentle melodies and production by French electronica artists like Kid Loco.

He’s bucked the trend. Will others follow?

MV – Power Of Love (Feat. Lee Min Ki)

Where were the parties like this when I lived in Seoul??????
And just who is the hot blonde chick?

Straight-face party poster

What does it say about the state of the gay community when the decision to advertise a dance party with a closeup of a handsome face, (rather than a shot of a gleaming, unclad torso) strikes me as being odd and slightly subversive? I actually assumed it was for a straight party at first.

Grace Jones rocks out in Rio

Grace Jones – Oi Fashion Rocks 2009

Amidst a mounting death toll in its favela wars, Rio (characteristically perhaps) threw a fabulous bejewelled party for “Oi Fashion Rocks” – Mariah Carey, Estelle, Ciara and awful Brazilian singer Wanessa Carmago performed but the unananimous verdict seems to be that it was the ever-fabulous Grace Jones stole the show.

In The Future – Jack Splash Ft Kelis

After a quiet year, (well, musically at least – she separated from her husband, gave birth to his baby and won a high-profile child support case), one of my favorite singers has popped up on two cool new collaborations. Kelis features on the title track of the new Basement Jaxx album “Scars” and also this cool track with hotly tipped producer Jack Splash. Is this the direction she is moving in? love it.

(Yet) more Hosier Lane

It might be photographed to death, but the little street is just too colorful to ignore!

Cultural weekend

It was a stunning, sunny day on Saturday and I went to see my mum’s art exhibition (she is part of the VIctorian Women Artists and Scupltors Society, having a group show at the Caufield Town Hall), before heading into Federation Square where an Indonesian Film Festival was in full swing, while  a program of free Brazilian movies was happening inside.

I saw the seminal, but intense 1964 film “Black God, White Devil” – a stirring, savage but bleak look at religious fanaticism amongst impoverished, exploited peasants in Brazil’s Northeast. It reminded me of my trip through the scorched state of Ceara ten years ago where I had thought the little villages so picturesque until my bus drove past a house with its door open – and I could see there was nothing inside. The people there were still living much as they are in the film; with nothing. I realised then that poverty can be picturesque, but it probably doesn’t make it any easier to bear.

DDTS (3/12)

The spirit of 60s Brazil hits Melbourne

A Tropicália

The film screenings were part of the Melbourne’s International Arts Festival ,which concluded this weekend. This year, part of the program was a little mini-spotlight on one of my favorite cultural movements of all time: tropicalia.

Tropicalia is currently enjoying a(nother) moment in the sun. It was feted at a big exhibition in London last year and one of its leaders, singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil is now Brazil’s minister of culture. But indeed, the forward-thinking movement has much to say to our times.

It was a political and countercultural artistic movement which sought to change Brazil through surrealist pop music, to “cannabalise” the unique folk traditions of the country to make new art while still remaining open to the rest of the world, to celebrate kitsch and glamour, and to embrace multiculturalism, sexual freedom and  womens’ liberation.

And do all this dressed in full psychadelic, hippie gear.

The Melbourne mini-spotlight included the screening of the two films I saw and the graphic design exhibition (below) as well as a concert by Brazilian band Garotas Suecas and an event featuring local Melbourne bands performing the songs of the teenage punk-tropicalist storm troopers Os Mutantes (“The Mutants”) – both of which I missed.

Cool, though.

Rogerio Duarte

As part of the Tropicalia mini-0fest, I went along to a cool little exhibition in one of those funky old buildings on Flinders Lane that have all been converted to little crafts stores and galleries. It was at a place called “The Narrows”, a tiny little space tucked away on the third floor – and it was an exhibition of graphic design by a guy called Rogerio Duarte. Basically it was a small collection of record covers and posters from the era, with some explanatory text, but it was cool to see  in Melbourne, which doesn’t have much exposure to things Brazilian. My favorite singer from Brazil (in fact pretty much from anywhere), Caetano Veloso, featured heavily.

K-pop don’t stop: Roundup

It’s been a big month in K-pop. G-Dragon released this wonderful video for his third single, “Butterfly” .

2NE1 unveiled yet anotherstunning new look, dressing as vintage thugs for Korean “W” magazine – my favorite, as ever, Sandara park, here looking “hard” with a diamond-studded baseball bat:

R&B pinup boy TaeYang returned with a new single, and superstar Rain unveiled his new (but to me) disappointing proteges, MBLAQ.

But this was all overshadowed by the news that the Wondergirls, with their all-conquering hit “Nobody”, had risen 30 places to number 76 on the US Billboard charts. Could the first ever Korean-language American Top 40 hit be only a few weeks away?

Vive la 60s!

Chinese media reports as fact mythical Swedish women-only town

Xinhua is so dodgy with its fact-checking!

You always hear about these ridiculous urban myths being reported seriously in th Chinese media. Full report here.