farewell to Mercat

Good work Tim and Jane
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The Mercat closed its doors on Saturday with the biggest Technoir yet. I'm still not 100% clear on why they had to close, but it looks like they weren't making enough money to keep the place afloat. They were trying up until the last minute, so only publicly announced the closure on Friday, So I spent a large part of the day in a stupor, wondering what was going to happen to my weekends, and what was going to happen to my favourite parties.
Tim and Jane from the Mercat have done so much for the Melbourne party scene, helping so many promoters and musicians to bring their party dreams to reality, and in the process creating an environment that all sorts of people can come along to and just have fun without feeling threatened or unwelcome. I know the parties will survive the move to another venue, they all had a decent following and will be strong enough to take it, but the fact is they are extremely unlikely to end up at the same venue, and with that something will be lost.

Lectro, Technoir, aLive, Dancehall and Nutshell all threw great parties here, and I was looking forward to Schpunk, Interview and Plus:One that were coming up.

This last Technoir party was really fantastic, not much in the way of Decor, as they weren't sure if they were going to make it happen at all so they didn't do much prep, so instead they blew the decor budget on a kick ass laser that really gave it something special. All the guys playing, all Technoir regulars, pulled out all the stops and played their best tracks and their favourite tracks and the crowd really responded.
Overall it was a bittersweet moment, a party that I would prefer not to have happened in many ways, but that I wouldn't have missed for anything.

two worlds collide

two worlds collide
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

I was shocked when Tash (who I know form inthemix.com.au) walks in with Bev (who I know from flickr) I had toruble aligning my world so they could both be in the same room at the same time :)

Ketchup!

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Caught up with some of the key peeps on Friday after work, a very crucial catchup as most of these guys will be going overseas for a while :)

night wanderings

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

I've been wandering around the city a bit lately, trying to take the time to get some photos that weren't taken in a club. I like taking photos during the day, because you get so many more options for each shot, but I also kinda like hand held shots at night, because you have less options.

Think of a happy place

Think of a happy place
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

This week has been fairly eventful, although not many photos to commemorate the occasion. During the week I was working the late shift, which used to mean finishing at 8pm or 9pm and having a pretty crappy life outside of work, but those days are gone and the new late shift only goes until 6pm, which leaves plenty of time to lead a normal life :)
On Friday I went along with the Incandescent Kate to see her boyfriend Nick in a local Gilbert & Sullivan production, Iolanthe. He was pretty good, especially considering it was his first time on stage, and he handled the dinging and dancing with aplomb. I was quite impressed with the production overall, a very high level of talent displayed in the cast and good production values otherwise. I was also able to chat a bit more with Nick's mum and dad that I had met previously on Kate's birthday, and met his sister Tash for the first time. Overall a good night, and made a change from the usual dark and dreary clubs that I normally skulk about in (which I love skulking about in)
Saturday night I went to a birthday party for a friend of Vanessa's and shot some photos for them. It was a pretty good party, with lots of free booze and heaps of people all catching up and stuff. I didn't really know anyone except about 5 people but it was still a pretty decent party anyways. Afterwards I went down to the John Curtin hotel to catch some of the Parliament gig that John/Hercules runs there. Hung out with John and Little Chris and met a few people associated with the gig, including Lisa the very cute bartender. Funniest part of the evening would have been when a group of young 20-24 year old girls came in as part of a Hen's night, and they were dancing away but kept asking the DJ to play some RnB. He just smiled nicely and shook his head, since he was under instructions from the promoter (John) to not play RnB, and also it was his birthday so he was just playing his own set of favourite tracks and wasn't really interested in what any of the punters had to say. I don't think it was that big an issue, as they were dancing pretty much the whole time they were there :)

geekfest revisited

covetous touching
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

yet another beery afternoon flickrmeet, this time back at The Workshop in the city, and the turnout was quite impressive. It's always a bit daunting to meet a whole bunch of people for the first time, especially if they have two names you have to remember, and when you kinda already know them from their photo streams, it's hard to keep it all right in your head and I still end up doing little double-takes when I get home and realise that this person was such-and-such and that person took that photo, etc.
There's also the funny frenzy moment that usually happens when someone gets their camera going and it starts someone else and it all snowballs into a critical mass where everyone is taking a photo of everyone else taking a photo of someone else and so on and so forth.
Lots of cool people in the melbourne flickr group and I had a blast :)

aLive 11

Cuznmatt, KL, Luko
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The eleventh aLive, and about my 8th, and aLive just keeps getting bigger and better. It's graduated to the main dancehall at the Mercat Cross hotel and the nexo stacks there really give the guys some punch.

This time Cuznmatt, KL and Luko teamed up to perform together, and it was bloody fantastic. A year ago I wasn't seeing any real live music, and now i'm inundated with these phenomenally good locally produced acts. Awesome.

more housecapades

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

After drinkies with Mitchie I popped into Mikeys House Party for some more fun and games. I think this is going to be a regular friday thing, time permitting.

Farewell Mitch

centre of attention :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

after 5 years with KPMG Mitchie Girl moves on to brighter and better things. After a sufficiently boozy farewell party of course :)

Technoir

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Technoir again, what a good party that is. I think i've been blessed by the ITM gods, the main parties I go to, aLive, Lectro and Technoir are all awesome, and all almost randomly encountered. aLive was my first ITM meetup which put the idea into my head that I could publish pictures of events on ITM. Lectro was one of the first random parties I decided to check out, and Technoir was the first time a promoter had approached me at a party to take shots for him. All of those parties are absolutely awesome, and all are now on at the Mercat Cross Hotel, which is one of the best possible dance venues in town.

This Technoir was a huge party spread across two rooms, with such a great vibe going on in each. The messhall had Tronikelesch and Heath Myers lighting the place up and making it jump, and dancehall had Dee Dee, Ranjit Nijjer, Luke McD, and Elektra (my favourite) grinding us all down to pieces with dark and dirty techno goodness. Decor, was of course, fantastic once again, with a lot of attention to detail and unique usage of the dj space, and they also had some feature dancers and an acrobatic performance. This party gets better every time, I just can't believe my luck :)

house in the house

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Mikey asked me to pop into his regular House Party at Atoka/Stellar/98 Bourke on Friday and it was a lot of fun. The crew there are pretty cool, and the place always seems friendly and inviting, and they drop some very fine tunes too. I'm not into house so much these days for a dance party, but for sitting around chatting and having a few drinks it's pretty bloody good :)

Of pictures and poets

Jeff Lemon
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Tonight was one of the regular flickrwalks about the city, this time focusing on Birrarung Marr and the bridges nearby. It's always good to go on these things and take some pictures with other people, althoguh I try and not take the obvious stuff and usually end up taking shots of the weird stuff or shots of the other flickrnauts :)

Tonight was also the first time Fran's brother Jeff Lemon appeared as a feature poet, at The Spinning Room, held in ET's in Prahran. There were a number of good poets reading that night, some old hands and some new blood, but Jeff's stuff was really noteworthy. I had no trouble with his imagery, his words taking me to some interesting places and also reliving some interesting times, especially when he read a poem about Earthcore :) The night was very enjoyable and I thin I wouldn't mind going to another reading sometime.

a funny thing happened on the way to the forum

Geminae: bookends
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

A friend of ours, Sally, was in the local production of the Sondheim musical A Funny thing happened on the way to the forum, starring as one of a pair of courtesans known as 'Geminae' and managed to sing and dance up a storm. It was an excellent production and Sally was, of course, superb :)

(that's her on the right) :)

Dancehall

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Kathryn and I decided we needed to go out dancing this week, so we popped along to Dancehall at the mercat to have a bit of a boogie.

I had spent the whole day sick in bed, so it was good to get out of the house and have some dun, and Kathryn is always good fun :)

suspended

suspended
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

14 june 6pm - I helped George out by shooting a rope suspension he did for the artist Dennis Ropar. The photo shoot and suspension went really well, and it was quite good to meet Dennis as he's a very good artist. His current work is showing at his gallery about Popshop in the city, some really cool pop art depictions of some pvc/rubber kink scenes, I suggest you try and get along if you can. :)

Traincore

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Well, here it is, Traincore. I had wanted to go to the original traincore years back, but it just didn't eventuate, and I always felt a bit of regret at that. I had been to a number of Earthcore events and always had a lot of fun, they always seemed to know how to make a party special.

Add to that the recent parties I'd been to by the Lectro crew, parties that all managed to have that element of craziness, that glitz and glamour that just made the party shine, and the friendly atmosphere that makes it feel safe to be yourself, judgement free.

So when you take an antique train, restored to all it's glory, 600 happy ravers, partygoers willing to present the right attitude, willing to leave their dull and dreary lives behind and go out of their way to have fun, you add in the Earhtcore tried-and-true party team at one end, the Lectro shenanigans at the other end, then you have yourself a party.

There's something about dancing on a train and trying to add the motion from the rails into your dancing style. Something about being on an antique train and seeing an art-deco dining car turned into a Psy trance dance floor, including lasers and light up 70's style dance floor. Something to the look of the local when 600 munted kids show up at the local pub for some insane Goa and punjab trance. Something very special about being crammed into box cars like cattle and being surrounded by smiling people as the Lectro grinds its way out of the sound system all the way back to the station.

Fucking awesome, truly one of the great parties of all time.

Max Power!

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Today i had the honour of shooting photos for Max's naming day.

It was a very lovely ceremony with all of Max's crew there plus their assorted parents, and he seemed to have a pretty good day, and I managed to score some excellent trifle and chocolate cake. But it's all about the kiddies isn't it? :)

Pancake eating Freaks!

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Pancakes and beer with Elli and Kerryn and Joe. All such awesome people that it's hard to believe that we all really only just met recently (except Joe of course)

the Joe has left the Building

nice lunchpack joey
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

After nearly 10 years at KPMG Joe has decided to head on out into the wide world and see what it's like when you don't work for a large accounting firm. According to the people who have already left. It's a lot better :)

singing up a storm

singing up a storm
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

The Wilderness Society held their annual march to protest against woodchipping and to help commemorate World Environment Day and Vanessa was a part of the Wilderness Choir, who sang up a storm with some TV personalities :)

Good work 'nessa

Lectroland Glam/Grotesque

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

3 june 10pm - More craziness from the Lectro crew, they definitely know how to throw a party and I am so glad I happened to walk into that first Lectro party all those months ago. so glad :)

aLive 10

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

aLive hits the streets and makes itself known once more. Crazy drunken shenanigans and super good live and local music. Unsurpassed.

new location

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Found a new space in Richmond for some shots, so I'll be trying to visit it a bit and get some more cool shots.

Zoobedoo

I still can't beleive these guys are real
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Having taken some time off work to take some photos, I thought I'd better get off my arse and go take some. Therefore I headed into the zoo for a bit of a run around, grabbed a few shots, had a bit of fun looking at the animals, and came home :)

p.s.: The Mandarin Duck, how freaky is that? :)

vlad's artwork

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Managed to catch up with some of the old crew, saw Ali's new place in fitzroy, complete with a very cool wall painted by Vlad. Caught up a bit with Paul M, Paul C, Ali and Vlad.

Happy Birthday Nadine

tweaked!
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

On Friday we went along to Honkytonks to help our friend Nadine celebrate her birthday and have a bit of a dance. Nadine may be better know to you as DJ Elektra and I think we've become friends not just because she's a fantastic Dj but also because she's always up to some crazy party shenanigans, which is a good thing.
It was also a chance to catch up with Fifi who has been away from the party scene for a while to try and focus on some other things and also to confirm she could live without the club scene. Now that she's proven to herself that she doesn't need it, she's back out and about again and it was bloody good to see her again :)

The Bedroom Philosopher

The Bedroom Philosopher
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

If you haven't been to a show by The Bedroom Philosopher, then you're just weird. there. I said it.

Kate and I actually kinda saw him last year at The Comedy Festival by accident, in that we wanted to see someone else and they were all booked up and so we went to see him and it was extremely funny. So this year we went to see him on purpose as part of his "I'm so postmodern" tour. He was supported by a few other acts, including a very good gypsy jazz band called "Martin Martini & The Bone Palace Orchestra". These guys were very good, although a little dishevelled, but you get that sometimes :)
Justin Heazlewood himself was, as previously discovered, piss funny, and the incandescent Kate was of course, delightful as always (I have to suck up, she reads this you know) (although it's true) (not more sucking up, I promise)
Anyhoo, it was lots of fun and a barrel of laffs and a good time was had by all, including me.

opening time

From Web to Wall
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Well the time has come, the exhibition opens tomorrow at 69 Smith St (Click the picture for more details). The last two days have been spent in preparation, hanging the work and sorting out all the little problems that arise. Most of the hanging was completed yesterday in a very long day of bending and reaching and carrying and measuring and thinking (the hardest part) and cleaning and generally doing whatever it took to get the stuff up on the wall in a presentable fashion. Today was left for a few remaining touch ups, final cleaning of the glass and last straightening.
Also today Marcus (DJ Mudgutz) and I were interviewed on RRR Radio in their Arts show.
Anyway, it's all up and ready to go, so I think you should all come along and see it, maybe even come to the Opening party on Saturday and have some free drinks and see some great photos :)

drive by

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Did some drive by shooting on Thursday night. Haven't done any in ages because it was not as easy to get the right effects with the SLR, and it's also heavier, harder to handle, more expensive (no hanging it out the window) but I had some driving to do and thought it was worth giving it a shot.
Got some nice stuff and I think it worked well, now I just need someone to drive me around on the freeways so I don't have to do it the dangerous and illegal way :)

Night stroll

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went for another few night walks this week to get some shots done and get back into the habit. The Flickreens were going on a flickrwalk on Thursday night but I wasn't able to attend so I did my own one on Wednesday night.
I did some tripod stuff Tuesday night but for Wednesday I went handheld and managed to get some good stuff too. I like the tripod but I tend to do really long exposures with the 'pod now and I like the freedom of movement when handheld. :)

Mother's day

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

For Mother's day this year I once again made the pilgrimage down to Rosebud to have a family dinner. Mum cooked up a good feed as usual, although I think we may have finally convinced her to let us sort out dinner next year :)
Dad told his usual jokes, I did a few updates on her computer, Cam, Cindy and Courtney were there as well, all in all a fairly pleasant evening was had by all.
I don't know why but I never seem to get the camera out when I'm with my family, it just seems to be part of a separate world, so as a consequence I don't have any shots of mum for mother's day, just this shot of the moon I took on the way home.

Happy Birthday Elli

looks like someone squealed to the pigs!
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Saturday we attended a party to celebrate the birthday of one of my favourite people at the moment, Elli.
The party for Elli's 31st was in The Lucky Coq (formerly the Duke of Windsor) and was a bit of fun. Joe and I went around to Kerryn's first to help her drink some of the vodka she had lying around, since we were both a bit poverty stricken, so we got a bit hammered first on Absolut Vanilla vodka with lime and lemonade and it was pretty nice.
After we'd gotten sufficiently drunk waiting for the party to start, we jumped in a cab over to Chapel st.
Elli chose to celebrate her birthday by dressing up as a cop, a very hot cop, in fact she was an extremely hot cop, and we were all pretty happy with her decision. In part I was happy that she had chosen something fun, and in part because she was hot (probably still is, let's face it) :)

walkin'

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

I was starting to get a bit upset with myself for not going out and taking more photos so I decided to do something about it and do a few photo walks this week. This one is from the MCG. It's not even clear what these things are when you're standing in front of them. They're just these huge oval shapes in the middle of the pedestrian walkway. I suspect that they're there to provide some break in the crowd, to stop people being able to crowd to the edge of the area, but I don't really know. They look cool though :)

meet

Barry finally gets in trouble for his Gangsta ways
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Another Flickrmeet, this time at the Great Britain hotel in Richmond. Met some more flickr people, added some more contacts, and caught up with the usual suspects :)
Barry was there of course, although his latest incarnation as a Gangsta managed to catch the eye of the police, and his chicks had to sweet talk them out of arresting him. ;)

here's trouble

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

It was a pretty big weekend this time around, Two big parties in a row, Technoir on Friday night and aLive on Saturday, with a few bits and pieces in between. Technoir is looking like a pretty regular thing, especially given the quality of music they lay down, and the effort they put into the party decor. aLive was, as always, a great and dangerous messiness wedged into an afternoon and evening. Many shenanigans ensued, Becy played again this time and she absolutely rocked. Vanessa and Kathryn joined us this time and got involved in the various silliness. Spent Sunday morning on the couch watching movies with Vanessa and generally joking around. Such a great chick.

a walk in the park

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went for a walk in the park near Kathryn's place to take a few photos. Quite an interesting park for such a small place, and Kathry's company is always worthwhile.

Happy Birthday Kate

Happy Birthday Kate
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went around to Kate's place to help celebrate her 30th Birthday. The theme was that of a children's party, with games like musical chairs and pass the parcel, and cupcakes and fairy bread.
It was a great party, lots of interesting people, all the usual suspects in Kate's crew, plus some new faces I hadn't met before. Sh definitely has a very high calibre of friend, which is to be expected for such a great person :)

photo walk

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Went on a bit of a photo walk with Joe and Clayton down along the Yarra for some night shots. Got some good stuff I think, and had a look at the newly renovated Sandridge bridge.

Anzac Eve

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Anzac Eve we went to The Lounge as it was the last day Luke McD was playing there. It was a pretty good night, had some dinner, saw Funkee Monkee and Grania, hung out with Vanessa, Kathryn and Ryan. I have to say, I have yet to have a bad time hanging out with Vanessa and Kathryn :)

From Web to Wall

From Web to Wall
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

for those of you who don't already know, a bunch of us melbourne flickrnauts are having an exhibition of our work out in 'meat space' :)

The exhibition runs from 24 May to 11 June, Wednesdays to Saturdays, with the official opening from 3-6pm on Saturday 27 May.

If you're able to, please come along and have a squiz at everyone's work, it's shaping up to be a pretty good exhibition, with lots of very interesting works on display. Especially mine :)

Wonder Woman & Friends

Happy Birthday Vanessa
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Saturday was the occasion of Vanessa's birthday, and she held a fancy dress party. She came as Wonder Woman, I went as Dick Dastardly (although I also doubled as the guy from the monopoly box), Joe came as one of The Sopranos, Kim went as Dr Livingstone, there was also a Hunter S Thompson, , 3 Guinness cans (guinNESS for vaNESSa)Cat Woman, Fu Manchu, and Iron Chef (with Iron). It was a pretty good party, lots of decent people and cheap food and drinks, since it was held in a pub, and even though it started early (7pm) didn't finish up until 4am when they finally threw us out, 4 hours after the pub officially closed. :) They are a pretty good bunch of people, which is to be expected given how cool Vanessa is :)

canberra crew catchup

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Friday night was all about catching up with the Canberra crew :)
Joe and I met up with Dean, Felicite, Mick and Steph at Transport, where we had a few rounds of drinks in the crowded conditions, and then headed off to dinner. Joe has recently become obsessed with the Shanghai Dumpling House in Tattersalls Lane, so that's where we all headed for dinner. It's weird having a proper dinner on Friday night, as it's normally just some sort of nasty junk food snack at the end of an evening of drinking :) It's funny to head home at the end of the night and not need to stop in to KFC or McDs for a junk food top-up :)
After dinner we headed into the Lounge for a few choice tunes and then headed home. It's funny because I have been to Lounge heaps of times but never actually went to the bar/cafe part downstairs. It's pretty cool :)

flickr meet and 80's music

next stop please driver
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Instead of going to the movies this thursday I went to a flickrmeet and photowalk instead. The weather was pretty crappy so I only got a few shots, and I actually find I don't work well in a crowd, I find it hard knowing that everyone else is hanging around looking for the perfect shot. :)
It was good though to meet some new flickrnauts :)
After the meetup Kerryn and I went up to RMIT to join Helen Jamieson and some friends to be members of the studio audience for Chartbusting 80's, a locally made video show featuring 80's music videos, trivia, and live bands playing 80's tracks. It's a pretty funny show, with a very over the top hostess named Josie who you can't help laughing with. Anyway, as cheesy as it is, I had a pretty good time :)

Oh Comedy

Fran & Kate
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Managed to catch up with Kate and crew (Nick, Judy, Fran, Siobhan) for some Comedy Festival capers. We went to see The 4 Noels, which was pretty good, although difficult to photograph :) At first it looked like it might be pretty crappy, but then it turned out to be very funny indeed. We also had some time before the show to have a bit of a joke around and catch up. It was pretty good, I really need to spend more time with these people :)

Lectro

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Yet another superb Lectro party has come and gone, with all the usual elements of great decor, fabulous floor show, outstanding people, and this above all else: music music music.
More super electro loveliness was blasted out into our heads, this time by the ultra sweet Nexo stacks at the Mercat Cross Hotel, the new home of Lectro (and also the new home of aLive, making it our new home away form home).
Met some new crew, saw some old crew, dances to some new tunes and bopped to some old tunes, and overall just had a fabulous time. again. If you are considering coming to a party, Lectro is definitely a candidate, trust me :)

meetup

thanks beau
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Time fr another flickrmeet, this time at The Windsor Castle in windsor :) A good bunch came along, lots of new faces, and all the flickr schwag had shown up so there were all sorts of badges and stickers being handed out, which was pretty cool. Elli had also made up a bunch of Barry stickers, so we stuck them around all over the place until we started to get in trouble. When the meetup started to drift apart (due to an overcrowding pub and weather starting to get too cold for the beer garden) Joe, Marcus, Kerryn, Elli and I headed over to La La Land for a few more drinks and general shenanigans :)
These kids are all pretty cool, and the funny thing is that Most of us are really friends due to a mutual third party, Beau. Good people, all of them. :)

Life in a nutshell

Death's seduction
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

After Risque I popped over to the Mercat to check out Nutshell. It was a pretty good gig, with a few of the usual suspects, definitely worth checking out again. Even if future floor shows don't have partial nudity ;)

Risque

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Friday evening was another work social club function down at the boatsheds by the yarra, another night of drunken accountants and trying to enjoy stubbies of VB. Joy :)
Actually it wasn't too bad, since we don't really talk to the accountants much and just hang out in our little clique and laugh at them :)
After the social club Joe, Bec and I headed up to the John Curtin Hotel to check out Risque. It was a pretty good night, with a mix of tech and electro from some guys I hadn't heard before. Met the promoter and hung out a bit with some of the crew and then headed off. The John Curtin is shaping up to be a pretty good location, and i look forward to seeing more events there.

Bec's Birthday

Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Saturday Night we went to dinner with a bunch of guys to celebrate Bec's Birthday. It was a chance to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in ages and a damn fine meal to boot. The only problem was that the meal was so good I ate too much and nearly fell asleep on the table :)

aLive.8

sally likes beer
Originally uploaded by Scootie.

Well this looks like it was the last aLive at The Retreat, at least until summer rolls around. We managed to have a pretty god time, despite the venue mucking the guys around a bit, chopping off the tail end of the gig, but everyone seemed to have a blast and we squeezed into the undercover section to escape the rain and the cold as the day went along. :)