Melbourne Fringe, weekend 2

The weekend seems ages ago, but I saw some great performances on Friday and Saturday as part of the Fringe. Oh, and on Wednesday I went to a circus thing, but I found it a bit disappointing. Some parts were really good though. Definitely different from your standard Ringling Bros. stuff, this was strange, modern-style circus.

Friday I went to a performance of a monologue-style story that I went to partly because it was held upstairs at the Vibe Bar, a place I wrote about before where I had a really nice afternoon just hanging out and reading. It was a cosy space, I mean it was quite large and with high ceilings, but the small audience of about 10 people (most of whom knew the guy performing) all sat in a semi-circle on couches and stuffed chairs. It was homey. The story was about when the guy lived in London for about 2 years and about this girl he would often see on the buses he rode into the city. It was a very simple story, but very well told and very touching. Along with it, some black and white photos of London buses were projected. Another performance I was very glad to have gone to.

The next night was puppet night; again, this stuff was not your usual kids stuff. The first show, Tyrannosaurus Sex, was a rock opera featuring a puppet penis who was feeling a bit... inadequate. It was very creative and funny, and I will never be able to look at a tyrannosaurus rex in the same way again.

The second show was called Pure Puppet Palaver and it was put on by a whole group of puppeteers and musicians. It was made up of various stories and songs using all sorts of puppets and techniques. There was the song by a Muppet-like character who sang of wanting to marry Annette, the marionette (haha). There was a Brothers Grimm tale about Death's godson that had some great puppets. Another thing featured Gary, the emcee of the evening, having himself closed up inside a huge paper bag, and then escaping from it and suddenly being dressed as a garden gnome. That one was a bit random. It was all a lot of fun though, there was a great audience, a lot of silliness and also some very beautiful parts.

I'm not sure if I'll get to any more performances, though it doesn't end till Sunday. I may go to a bingo thing tonight hosted by a woman who used to host a club night in Amsterdam, but I'm not sure yet if I'm going.

Last night I had some good bonding time with my housemates. Well, minus Wendy, she's at her mom's farm waiting for one of her horses to give birth. But it was my housemate Trav's birthday and he had some people over for dinner. I came home and they were getting stuff ready for when people would be there and I was thinking "great, I'm tired and they're going to have a party upstairs till who knows when..." but it wasn't like that, only a few people came over and they were all gone by 10 because it was a weeknight. I joined in, feeling a bit like I was crashing the party, but the people I met were really nice. One girl is from Sydney but dating a guy who is in Melbourne and she fell in love with Melbourne instantly and now wants to move here as soon as possible. Molly the dog got lots of attention and was spoiled by everyone giving her sausages all night. It's hard to ignore her when she sits in front of you and intently watches you eat. Later, after everyone had left, we (me, Trav, his girlfriend Dana, and Nick) were just hanging around in one of the living rooms and Molly was running around and being silly. Just before 11, we heard the sound of a crash. Nick heard it best because he was outside on the deck (inside we had music on). We all ran up to the main street near the house to see what had happened. It would not be a surprise for a bad accident to happen there because there is a pretty sharp corner and as we ran out we saw smoke and assumed something really bad had happened. It turned out though that this psycho guy had crashed into a couple of parked cars and was now in the grass on the side of the road, and he was trying to drive off and was telling us that he got hit and that the other car drove off. The smoke was from him trying to drive his car even though one front wheel was knocked sideways and was wedged against the wheel well so the tire burned when he tried to drive. Nick got out his mobile to call the police and the guy grabbed it away from him and told him not to call the police, but Nick did later anyway, though they took so long to come that I didn't see them arrive by the time I went to bed at least half an hour later. Dana said that she saw the main car the guy hit and it was really damaged, the whole side smashed in. It, and the psycho guy's car, were gone by this morning though when I went out to look at the damage. Another car that got hit was still there though, the body was pretty undamaged but one back wheel was smashed in at a bad angle looking like it was almost ripped off the axle. Some excitement to close off the evening...