Riot GRRRLS.

A new film by Urban Cowgirl Productions, "DON'T NEED YOU" looks at the Herstory of the Riot Grrrl movement. It features interviews with all the big music players of the day including Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna and even D.C Hardcore godfather Ian Mackaye. I remember these days well. When I was first dating, the Riot Grrl/Grunge thing was huge. I remember helping the Wimins group on my uni campus organise a stand to collect sanitary articles for the women of Kosovo. It was a mile away from the commercially obsessed times we now live in, where young women aspire to be Paris Hilton and wear little frou frou dresses and heels. When I met my wife she was wearing combat boots. The good old days...Check out the site and buy the DVD if you were a fan too.


Don't Need You

KINGS CROSS short film...

Here is a little film I made about the Cross for a course on creating content for mobile phone. If you are reading this blog from O.S, or you haven't been to the Cross, its a good primer on the neighbourhood covered in this blog.Check it out.

watch film

Ram Raid G Star.

The jeans shop G Star on Oxford street Paddo was recently the victim of a ram raid. Strangely, it is right next to Sass and Bide (See "Sass-y" Post) that was also the victim of a ram raid. The bandits didn't get away with anything this time. A metal grill inside the store saved their stock. This photo depicts the new glass going up.

Amstel Pop up.

Euro beer giant, Amstel, has opened a new temp pop up store/gallery on Oxford street Paddo (near fringe). It's basically a vacant shop with painted windows and little peep holes to look inside to the display. It comes with head phones to complete the experience. Inside is a looped film and some bottles of the beer. Will Paddo types, after getting drunk in their terrace's, be able to resist a break and enter on their way down to the Oxford street clubs? Good to see this type of marketing happening in Sydney. Look out for actual pop up shops coming soon....

The Squeeze is on.

Poor Junkies of Kings Cross. They seem to have been squeezed out of hanging out in the Maclaey street end (a.k.a "the Paris end") of Darlinghurst Rd for a couple of years now. Now, on the other side of Darlinghurst Rd, in the vicinity of the Coke sign, the also seem to be forced out, by a new wildfire of gentrification. Developments like Cross and the old Hyatt hotel revamp, will see that micro area transformed into a haven for boutique offices and more bars and cafes. It appears now that the Junkies' only natural habitat will be outside the train station and 100 metres or so of the actual strip.

Paradise Found.

It's hard to imagine a better wall as canvas for street art than the newly painted wall outside FAVELA (Rosyln Street). The wall is nice and smooth and even features subdued lighting encased in it's frame. Will update when the first work starts appearing. Favela, the club, is an interesting new addition to the Cross. Named after the Brazilian word for ghetto ( bizarre). It features a nice luxe exterior. Wait to see what it looks like inside...Meanwhile, let the games begin.

Not a good fit.

I saw something today that I hadn't seen on the streets of Kings X for a looong time. A syringe. Ironically I found it on the corner of Macleay and Darlinghurst roads, the start point for the so called "Paris end" of the Cross. Anyone who has been around the Cross for a while will tell you that the injecting centre and the numerous needle exchanges stopped this problem almost immediately. When I moved to the Cross, seeing these babies on the street was a common occurrence. At one point they were like carpet! The "ice age" may now be upon us but let's not forget the other drug problem Kings X has yet to solve. Here's hoping it was a once off...

Milk-Crate Great.

This concept has been around for a long-time but I wanted to give it some props. It involves fabricating covers to place over Sydney milk-crates. The milk-crates then double as tables or chairs. I love this idea because it is so Sydney specific and uses an available resource and enhances it. I assume that this stemmed from the practice, early in the days of Sydney's burgeoning cafe scene, of sitting outdoors on upturned milk-crates. I've not seen it outside of Sydney but sure it exists. If it doesn't, it should. As seen at the Edge cafe and Uliveto.

A.F.I pick.

My hot pick for this weeks AFI's is a great animation by Kate McCartney....

AFI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT ANIMATION-The Astronomer - Kate McCartney.

I caught her film at the Sydney Film Festival. Amazing. If you get the chance at a festival check it out. What sets it apart is the lack of computer manipulation. Classic. Beautiful and hand drawn.

Oi Vey! X-dresser wants to book a ticket on the Yentaprise.

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As seen at Coles supermarket Bondi Junction- You are a Hassidic Jew and you like to dress up as a woman. What do you do? You go to the Coles at B.J and post this note on the community notice board. (I obscured the phone number to protect the not so innocent). Has to be a joke, a weird tasteless joke, but maybe not...It's a strange world out there kids.

Korean Piss Up.

Whilst taking a much needed break from seven rounds of "all you can eat" at my local Korean BBQ restaurant, I noticed this poster in the men's room. It's an ad for a Korean wine. I don't read Korean but I think the gist of it is, that if you drink our wine, it'll make your urinating power so extreme that you will blow a hole in a porcelain urinal. This is the kind of thing that the Australian wine industry is just missing out on. Yet again we are 20 years behind the rest of the world!