Rave Love - Stage 3 - Impregnation
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
The second party on Saturday night was a much different affair. The latest installment of Technoir, held in a warehouse in Coburg, harking back to the old rave days where it's BYO alcohol and everyone is friendly and there to have fun. Lots of great music (it's Technoir after all), heaps of silly shenanigans, and just a really nice party.
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Saturday brought a couple of very different and very interesting parties. The first one was Vermillion, held at the upmarket strip club Spearmint Rhino. Elektra played as well as Luke McD but the highlight was the floor shows, put on by a couple of very good dance troupes, that included some great burlesque, some very advanced pole dancing, members of the audience being dragged up for sexy dancing on stage and a group of very cute girls who dressed as various male fantasy models, cheerleaders, nurses, schoolgirls etc.
At one point I ran into one of Vanessa's friends, Elise, and she asked if I got paid for this sort of thing. I only had to gesture to the 12 hot girls dancing on stage a few feet away to indicate that it wasn't really necessary. :)
Princess Kerryn is crowned
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Playing a bit of catch-up on the blog here so bear with me :)
The day after the boat party we went to Bridie O'Reilley's on Chapel St to help celebrate Kerryn's birthday. It was a lot of fun, even though Joe and I were still a bit tired form the day before, but it was good to spend some quality time with Kezza and Elli and meet some of Kerryn's friends, her new flatmate, and to finally meet Elli's boyfriend Jake.
Joe is, er, distracted
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Hooray for the Screw crew's boat parties, simply one of the best parties in existence. These parties are definitely the most fun that can be had on any boat, anywhere, any time, up to and including being a Guest Star on The Love Boat and having a love interested with Judy, your cruise director (or Isaac, your bartender, if that's more your style).
The parties are a fairly well kept secret, in that you have to know someone involved to get tickets, and they sell out fairly quickly, so you know it's only going to be good people who are interested in having fun and not a bunch of idiots :) Just good people having a great time dancing to some fantastic DJs.
The after party was also pretty cool, although I was very messy by the time I got there so I think the less said the better. I will say that I was so drunk that when I ordered Smirnoff Ice at the after party and was told they didn't stock it, I managed to stuff up my order of the equivalent Skyy vodka drink that I ended up with Skyy vodka and pink grapefruit and didn't notice until I was nearly finished, despite another friend telling me a few times that I was drinking a 'girlie' drink and laughing at me. :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Joe and I got an email from our photo editor at inthemix, looking for someone to shoot the launch of Puma's spring women's collection in Melbourne.
It was a fairly easy shoot, and a quick way to make some money, although it was kind of weird shooting people who were basically shopping :)
overhand
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Well, another year's ski trip has come and gone :)
This year the snow was a bit light on, but we had enough mostly for our purposes. The summit area was closed the entire time, in fact I don't believe they've had it open at all this year, they'd also sent a lot of their staff home, as there wasn't enough work for all the towies and instructors. At one stage in the week we'd heard that Hotham had just closed down, as they're run out of their water allotment and couldn't make any more snow to keep the runs open. There was a big dump of snow the next night so they were probably pretty thankful. One of the advantages of Falls Creek (where we were) is that most of its ski area is on the edge of a lake, meaning that water can be drawn from that lake for making snow and any melt or runoff will flow straight back into that lake. I suspect this means that water used on those slopes for snowmaking doesn't count towards their water allotment to as great an extent and is the difference between a resort almost closing and only having one run open, and a resort doing well and having half the mountain open.
So the snow was pretty good, where it was, and we were able to ski every day. Except I only skied half days, and didn't ski at all on the day it was pelting down snow and rain, because, frankly, i'm over that ;)
Skiing was a lot of fun, as it usually is, you can tell because we often end up the run and meet at the lift queue and everyone has a huge smile on their face, and nobody has to say anything.
Apart form the skiing the time was spent in the usual ways, drinking a bit, talking a bit of crap, playing dice and card games, watching a few dvds, eating a lot (we eat very well, and there's no shortage of good food), and of course 'entertaining' the kids (read: torturing)
A very restful week overall, lots of good skiing, loads of relaxation, not as much alcohol as normal, heaps of home cooked meals. awesome :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Joe has returned to Australia after an absence of two months spent in the UK with his family so a bunch of us headed out for beverages to celebrate his return. In the hunt for somewhere to go we ended up at Altitude on Russell st, which i haven't been to for quite a while, not since well before they built their new balcony lounge, so it was good to get another look at the place and see how it's shaping up. It was also good to see Joey again and to just hang out with the crew again. It ended up travelling up to Stellar and getting a bit messier before we all went our separate ways, but it was a good night.
The next morning Kerryn, Joe, Elli and I met up for pancakes and a bit more laughing and joking around before we all split up for a week. I was off skiing, Elli was off to Sydney, Kerryn was off to NZ the next weekend and Joey had some sleep to catch up on :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Thursday night was the launch of the first EP from Matt Watson's band Autumn Gray. The launch was held at the Rob Roy hotel in Fitzroy and it went really well, with the band playing to a capacity crowd and sales of the EP quite high. It's quite a good 6 piece band, with most of the band members playing a variety of instruments, particularly on the EP. Check them out for yourself here
planet earth is blue
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Took the opportunity of working late to take a couple of strolls around the city for some shots. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but then it caused my knee to start hurting again (I twisted it at the Collision party but it had been much better lately). At least that prompted me to actually go see a physio to see what the issue was and confirm I would still be able to go skiing next week. She confirmed that my patella was slightly out of place and showed me how to tape it back down properly.
Sal
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
This weekend was the aLive 1st birthday party, despite the fact that it was only the 12th alive and not the 13th, but we celebrated anyways. This was the first aLive since the Mercat closed, and was held at a new venue the Bendigo Hotel in Abbottsford. The pub seemed to work quite well, with a decent beer garden and a large enough bistro to fit us all in comfortably, the sound system seemed fine and the food was excellent. It was also an opportunity to see Funky Monkey (Sal) DJ and she was pretty good, especially since it was only her second gig ever :)
Agnes Cecilia
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Kerryn and I wandered about Melbourne cemetery today to see what shots we could come up with.
Wandering a cemetery makes you think about tombstones, and how some types fade over time and some don't. At first I thought I would want one of the types that stayed visible for over a hundred years, but then again, does my ego go that far? do I really need my tombstone to outlast my children? outlast their children? At first I pitied Agnes Cecilia, whose tombstone is picture above, but after thinking more on it, I think i'll join her. If my name is to live on beyond my lifetime, i'd prefer it to be for my deeds, not my death.
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Lectroland.com, Earthcore and Dirty deeds combined forces to throw one hell of a party in the Prince of Wales on Friday. The whole night was pretty interesting, starting with drinks with Kathryn and Mudgutz at Yak bar after work, then segueing to dinner with Nick & Kate, Mick and Steph and Dave & Usha (Special guest stars direct from Canberra) at Kanzaman restaurant on Bridge rd. Then I went and grabbe Kathryn from the city and we headed down to St Kilda for Lectro.
The party was going full swing by about 1am with all rooms full and each set of decks pumping out fantastic music. Even the breakbeat stuff coming out of the Dirty Deeds stage was interesting, and something i'll definitely be checking out at their next party.
Collision was something new to try for all of the promoters, and in a new venue for most of them, but it was a roaring success and I think they'll be very happy to go for it again next month :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
I wasn't originally planning to go see DJ Shadow and Mos Def because i'm not really that into Hip-Hop, but I got asked to shoot it for inthemix, and I'm glad I did because it was really good.
It was also good to get up backstage and get some unique angles on the performers, even if I had to crawl a little through the speaker stacks like I did for this one :)
Happy Birthday Courtney
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Monday was my niece Courtney's 9th birthday so I went down to visit mum and dad and we had dinner and cake with Courtney, my brother Cam and his wife Cindy.
It is always nice to see them, and Courtney is growing up pretty fast so it's good to catch up at least a few times a year to keep track :)
rave juice
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
With the news that Honkytonks is planning to close after New Years Day next year I thought I'd better take a few more assignments in there, get it documented while I can.
It also helped that Dave Pham and Mike Callander were playing their very fine variety of minimal tech :)
I love these girls :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Carrying on from the previous week's collision of flickr/inthemix we repeated the event this week and added a few more crazy kids into the action.
Dinner with Elli
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Kerryn and I had this great plan to go out to Ikea for a bit of a photo stroll, and since Elli couldn't join us I made up these [this is elli] cards so she could join us in spirit. Ikea closes too early on a wednesday so all the plans fell in a heap and we went down to southbank instead :)
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
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 :)
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
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 :)
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 :)
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.
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.
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 :)
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 :)
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 :)
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.
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) :)
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
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. :)
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.
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? :)
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)
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
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
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 :)
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.
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? :)
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.
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
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.
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 :)
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 :)
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. :)
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.
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) :)
