Tuesday Night Crew
Every so often on a Tuesday evening someone in our friendship circle puts on their hosting hat and cooks dinner for a long table of friends. This time Sheree and Craig joined forces, crockery and skills.
chefs
Sheree and Craig
entrees
get forked
mains
slow cooked beef cheek with pappardelle
green citrus salad
oven baked sourdough with garlic
dessert
cheeseboard
chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream
Homecooked Chilli Mussels
Sunday night in with Hanni, Tals and Ryan, before we kicked Ryan out for the company of a man of the same name.
Tuesday Night Crew
Every so often on a Tuesday evening someone in our friendship circle puts on their hosting hat and cooks dinner for a long table of friends.
chef
Ciara with assistant chefs: Ike & Willy
entrees
fetta and sundried tomato tarts, corn fritters with smoked salmon capers and creme fraiche
mains
haloumi salad, chicken, chorizo and potato bake with fresh herbs
dessert
brandy snap baskets filled with custard and berries
Are we alone in the universe?
A wall of transparent plastic looms in the horizon transforming the State Theatre into a quarantine zone. The stage is dotted with balloons of black and white of varying sizes. Circular and suspended in the air like satellite balloons whilst others are scattered on the ground like peculiar objects, rocks from another planet. A dull blue light reflects off the black balloons forming opaque alien heads with luminescent eyes.
Alienation is fascinating theatre from the Perth Theatre Company drawn from the curious stories of Australians who claim to have been abducted. Writer Lachlan Philpott has cleverly entwined real life interviews into witty and convincing dialogue. Directed by Melissa Cantwell, Alienation stars Luke Hewitt, Naomi Hanbury, Robert Jago and Natalie Holwood. Firstly introducing themselves to the audience as their true selves, then slipping into the guise of an abductee or non-believer. All four actors gave charismatic performances seamlessly switching between the actor and the character.
Holfold plays affable Katherine an odd girl with frightened eyes. She shares her first encounter at an abductee help group. She is only a child, money in hand on the way to the shop for paddle-pops. Something draws her down an overgrown lane into a yard. She walks towards the beautiful caged peacocks, their tails glimmering like gems. Her eyes grow wider as she recalls the birds gurgling as a small otherworldly being appears. The peacocks stir, feathers moving and he is talking to her, his lips don’t move, yet she can hear his voice. Katherine looks up to the audience with those sad eyes and asks ‘I am nothing special. I am not pretty. Why would they choose me?’. You soften, your heart goes out and you ask could this be real?
Then there is the story of Will. An accountant played by Jago, just a normal guy on his way to his niece’s birthday. It is a long drive to his sister’s house. Time ticks on and Will doesn’t arrive. His phone is off and night falls into morning. Will is stunned the last hours a complete blank. He then exists in a trance like state left wondering ‘where did that time go?’. Nothing makes sense until he remembers. Driving down the highway, the music stopping and that bright white light. Will attends the help group to find answers.
Katherine befriends Will, easing him out his shell in a heartwarming manner. Will is unsure and untrusting whilst Katherine is hilariously persistent, almost borderline stalking him. This refreshing dance of playful cat and timid mouse with a romance bubbling underneath makes Alienation utterly human.
The story of Brian, played by Hewitt, was disturbing yet truly thought provoking. Brian is a typical bloke with a stereotypical bogan girlfriend played by Hanbury. They are doing well, working in a remote area making good money. Brian wakes up, watch missing with his wrist searing in pain. He is bewildered and in shock and then he remembers. He shares this horrifying news with his loved one. She laughs in his face and brushes it off. You don’t really blame her as you think how you would handle such news?
A series of haunting events unfold, as Brian starts to go mad, a static sound taunting him. Hard screeches of metal punctuate scenes as their relationship is torn apart by his obsession with the supernatural. He is petrified, anger fuelled by the planted seed of paranoia. You can imagine how this would drive someone over the edge with Brian literally frothing from the mouth at breaking point.
Alienation is the journey of what happens after the spaceship. When all you are left with is the truth as you know it, that is, if you want to remember. Whether you are a believer or a skeptic or just a little unsure this production will get you thinking, ‘are we alone in the universe?’. A touching and comic performance of how we adapt during life’s most earth shaking moments.
Alienation is showing as part of the Winter Arts Festival at the State Theatre Centre until 13 July 2013.
deconstructed reuben
She Doesn't Want to Sleep Alone
Amanda is a young woman living alone in her apartment, her safe little bubble, where she goes about her monotonous days. She is unemployed, depressed and cannot sleep alone. Each night she fills her lonely bed with a steady stream of lovers with the hope of comfort, intimacy and a peaceful sleep. It is only on these nights that she falls sound asleep.
Her day is interrupted when she receives a phone call from her grandmother’s neighbour. A visit reveals that her alcoholic grandmother is a mess, living in the squalor of empty bottles and remnants of the past. Suddenly forced to care for her grandmother, Amanda’s once docile world changes instantly. Her grandmother, a former screen siren, suffers from dementia. Dolores flickers in and out often reliving her glory days acting the beautiful prima donna captured in the body of an old woman.
At first their time together is fiery as both lives spiral out of their own control. Amanda and Dolores grow close developing a deeper understanding of the other. They find a friendship within ordinary tasks such as swimming or putting on makeup. During her fleeting lucid states Dolores understands the struggles of her granddaughter and an empathetic connection evolves.
She Doesn't Want to Sleep Alone is a touching, character driven film, the quiet achiever of the Spanish Film Festival drawn from the Director’s own family experiences. In her debut film Natalia Beristáin explores her own relationship with her grandmother, “Where does age lie; in the skin or within the heart?”
Fin
When it comes to suspenseful films, I will find any excuse to leave the room. I will iron your tea towels, darn your socks or polish every single piece of cutlery, one by one. As soon as I draw in that short breath, pulse quickening, I will do any level of the mundane to take me away from that screen. I would prefer to half watch, my mind wandering to a safer place.
When the Spanish Film Festival season was released I excitedly selected a few films at random. The End or 'Fin' to our Spanish speaking amigos, was at the top of that hastily chosen list. I prefer to think of myself as a happy endings kind of girl. I am particularly pathetic during thrillers, forever squirming at the unknown. I simply hate being in suspense.
When the film synopsis reads that you will be 'glued to your seat right up until its last haunting moments' you know you are going to love it or hate it. So I enlisted my friend Shanon; the suspense junkie. I knew she would be keen to get her fix and wouldn't mind holding my hand.
The End tells the story of a group of old friends celebrating a 20 year reunion in a secluded mountain cabin. It is a time to reminisce, drinking and telling stories around the bonfire. They group catch up on lost moments and some they would rather forget. A series of unexplained events occur, and it all gets a little eerie. I won't give too much away!
The End is a movie that will keep you glued to the screen whether petrified or enthralled. Definitely a film to watch this season so head down to Cinema Paradiso on Saturday, 22 June for it's final viewing.
Great White
Da dummm. Imagine you are a young man frolicking with your girlfriend in the ocean one afternoon. You fight, she bites you and in a huff swims to shore, retreating to the safety of the sand. It is cold, its bleak, some would even call it shark weather. A drop of blood hits the water and a young girl appears from the darkness below. She rises and says with a predatory glare ‘I am going to eat you’.
Great White is a terrifying new play directed by Will O'Mahony bearing the tag line ‘ocean stillness dinner’. A lot less Jaws, and a lot more thought provoking than its title may suggest. Great White invites you into the Blue Room Theatre where the stage is a sea of balloons and blow-ups.
A journey into an ocean of love, fear and life grasping with remorse and lost opportunities. We follow Ben and not one but two Laurens as they struggle with the tick of time, themselves and each other. What does it mean to be great? And what is greatness after all. Great White makes us stop and think, are you great or are you just dinner?
The local cast of Adriane Daff, Mikala Westall and Will O’Mahony all gave an outstanding performance taking you from laughter to despair. Definitely not the kind of carnage you expected.
Great White will be the show this season that you will wish you had seen. This superb production is showing in the intimate surrounds of The Blue Room Theatre until29 June. This work was made pozible by a wonderful bunch of people who pledged their support. Pozible is an awesome platform for crowdfunding creative projects such as this.
‘GREAT WHITE started with a scribble and has grown into something with teeth’ Will O’Mahony.
slow cooked Sundays
By Monday morning the weekend is a faint memory, a blur of faces, food and the things that kept us busy. I always find that an afternoon in the kitchen brings a few hours of zen to my weekend. A trip to Mondo's the day before, an afternoon of trawling blogs and flicking the pages of recipe books leads me to the kitchen on Sunday for a few hours of meat time, I mean, me time.
WINTERING
Wintering is a work by award winning choreographer and dance artist, Aimee Smith. This production was inspired by an artist led voyage through the archipelago of Svalbard. A works touched by many talents from our little city.
The State Theatre Centre is such a beautiful installation providing the perfect setting for Wintering. The front rows of seats perched almost on stage, lending intimacy between the show and its audience.
Opening with footage showing the rawness and purity of the Arctic. Reminding us that this vast expanse of endless ice holds untold stories and beauty. Other worldly sounds accompany the opening visuals. Throwing shadows and grey over the landscape, a blanket of darkness almost plaguing the screen. I could not help but be in awe of this landscape, majestic but so fragile.
A sole dancer appears. Slowly moving forward, then retreats, repeating again shrouded in darkness suggesting isolation, being cut off from the rest of the world. You can only imagine how alone you would feel. Hidden away in the vastness of this part of the Earth.
Another dancer joins the stage and the seasons of the Artic are embodied in the two dancers. Winter moves slowly, the dancers dreamlike and fluid. There was something so sad and touching about their movements. Winter seems to go on forever, the dancers mimicking each other yet seeming to move as one.
Then Summer arrives. The dancers quicken their pace, almost frolicking in a merrier tempo. Their bodies springing to life like flowers suddenly blooming, peering out from under a bed of snow. The ice melts away and sunshine floods in bringing life but yet for only a fleeting moment. An Arctic’s Summer is short, so brief. The dancers’ free limbs quickly snapping back into a frozen state. The wintering taking hold as their movements slow and sadden. They stiffen, the ice setting, Winter returning.
Wintering is beautiful and thoughtful, showing the fragility of such a powerful and primal landscape. I found it very humbling to be confronted with such raw emotions toward a part of the world I really know nothing about.
Spanish Film Festival
The Spanish Film Festival returns to its spiritual home, Cinema Paradiso, tomorrow night. A Gun in Each Hand opens the Festival featuring one of the most star-studded casts in Latin American cinema. Celebrate the opening of the Festival with this irresistible film followed by a Spanish soiree with drinks courtesy of Estrella Damn and Torres Wines whilst you immerse yourself in tapas and entertainment.
Whilst I sadly cannot attend opening night, I am look forward to seeing the following films over the coming week:
The Artist and the Model
She Doesn't Want to Sleep Alone
I Want You
The End
Seems like there is some kind of tragic harrowing love story theme going on there!
Thundercat
A wave of silence, then shaking heads threw over the Bakery as Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) revealed that the welcoming in Perth was a little crazy. The day spent running all around town after “QANTAS broke my bass”.
The search for a replacement was worth it with Thundercat performing to a sea of happy people at The Bakery. Nicknamed ‘Bass God’ by his fans from the far reaches of the Twitter-verse, Thundercat infected us all with his mad skills on the bass and soothing melancholic vocals. Aquatic jazz and cosmic sounds from the future, with soul, pop and funk all mashed into electronic fun. "Oh Sheit It's X." will be on many a playlist including yours.
You can hear all this and more on his acclaimed album Apocalypse, out now on Brainfeeder.
family favourites
For as long as I can remember my Mum has been making curry puffs.
She finely dices the onions, chops the potatos into cubes, browns off the meat and adds a spoonful or four of Nanna's homemade curry. As soon as the filling was cooked it was customary to eat a bowlful whilst Mum lets it cool down. Then wrapped in pastry with a brush of egg, they go into the oven and turn golden brown with the delicious smells wafting through the house.
That smells reminds me of birthdays, opening presents and gatherings with friends. It reminds me of good times and even the sad.
Quail eggs + candied bacon
If only every weekend was a long weekend, I would get so much done. I bought beautiful new furnishings for our dining room, colour coded my cookbooks and fell in love with my new vintage teak study desk (which I have vowed to keep pristine and tidy). I even potted some herbs in my Angus & Celeste hanging jelly planters and found preloved books which I swear I will read (one day). I attended the launch of the Winter Arts Festival then watched The Great Gatsby at Luna, DJ Rashad at the Bakery and Game of Thrones with friends. I bought fresh flowers, made an Irish stew and started to rifle through my Urban Locavore box.
I was lucky to pipe up early getting my hands on a wee half dozen quail eggs from Urban Locavore. Speckled, pretty and so damn hard to crack. After a weekend of eating out it was time to rustle up a quick snack of panfried quail eggs topped with goat's cheese and candied bacon atop crunchy toasted baguette.
Ingredients
6 rashers bacon
4 tbs maple syrup
6 quail eggs
goat's cheese
baguette toasts
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180.
2. Line baking tray with baking paper. Place rashers on tray, evenly spoon maple syrup on each rasher. Bake until the bacon is crispy and the maple syrup reaches a toffee like consistency. Remove from oven and cut into small strips.
3. Carefully crack and panfry quail eggs in EVOO on a low heat.
4. Lay out toasts, top with quail egg, goats cheese, candied bacon and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
5. Eat.
Pretty quail eggs.
We buy our bacon from Mondo's and I use organic Canadian maple syrup.
You can find these three at Urban Locavore.
Flower bombing
The Flower Shop is now open for business and you will find Skye busy hosting workshops each Sunday. Arrive, mingle and sip on rose coloured champagne from vintage flutes. Then nibble on morsels of high tea whilst Skye shows you art of creating a FlowerBomb.
It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday morning. Skye will be running all different workshops but still has a few Flower Bomb workshops coming up. These would make gorgeous alternative to a hens party or kitchen tea.
This is Skye on the right in the pretty orange dress. My bestie Brook is on the left and now knows how to make a mean Flower Bomb.
This is my Flower Bomb. Pretty bloomin' amazing huh!
The Flower Shop
My wonderful friend Skye has finally stuck a pretty little label on the jar of talent she has been holding on to for so long. She will bring beautiful blossoms into your life, creating special bunches for weddings and special occasions. The Flower Shop will soon be running workshops full of flowers and fun. I am a little bit excited to be flower-bombing with Skye and a bunch of pretty girls next weekend.
GOT S3 EP7
breakfast with friends
Perth has a secret cake club!
Each month a group of likeminded souls plan and plot for a secret meeting of an ancient art. The morning of the grand unveiling is spent preparing and perfecting with only one thing in mind. CAKE.
This secret meeting of those who love to bake was started by my wonderful food loving friends Jacqui (Pantry in Suburbia) and Carolanne (Carolanne's Kitchen). In early 2012 the girls became the Perth arm of the Cladestine Cake Club. Not wanting to stick to the rigid rules of the CCC and with Carolanne moving to South Africa, Jacqui said the change in the air had her craving something new. So Secret Cake Club was created and born out of a desire to bake freely!
Spring always brings those feelings of yesteryear and the theme for last September was retro cakes from your childhood. I was a little too frantic to pull out my mum's dogeared Women's Weekly cookbooks so I did what any smart person would do. I attended, I listened, I ate.
The next Secret Cake Club meeting is this Sunday, 5 May 2013. The theme is to bring "you on a plate". This means we will rock up armed with a dish, sweet or savoury, that reflects our very soul. This is going to be interesting!
