It’s all about balance. There’s the cultural side of life; where you allow yourself to be exposed to the fine arts, the community side; where you do your bit to support those around you, and the social side of life; where you usually get rancid. This story is about all three.
Greig and I are highly cultured animals. We are regular attendees at high-brow functions at the Sydney Opera House. Not opera itself, of course. Opera is rubbish. But the more refined occasions like performances by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Margaret Cho.
Patrons are reminded that photography is not permitted in the auditorium.
The stand-out performance this month was by Margaret Cho. She appeared in the Concert Hall of the Opera House in a new show that included surprisingly little content about her vagina. There’s little point in going into great detail about her routines here. You either love her or hate her.
At the other end of the cultural spectrum was the Rockdale Musical Society’s production of Avenue Q. Greig and I saw this show when it first came to Oz in 2009. Love it.
We were a little bit cautious about how well the show would be treated by the not 100% professional theatre company in what turned out to be an extremely dodgy venue. It turns out they did well. Shame about the dodgy venue though.
Alarm bells really should have gone off when we learned the venue was the Brighton Fisho’s. (Otherwise known as the Brighton Amateur Fishermans Association.) But we checked their web site and it showed a very classy looking establishment with exciting games rooms, a well appointed auditorium and two restaurants. When we arrived at the ramshackle brick shed that was at the provided address, it turned out to be neither exciting nor well appointed. It also had no restaurants.
“Yeah, they probably should change that”, was the response when we challenged the little man supervising the octogenarian poker game about the stunning facilities offered by their web site.
Greig and I are community minded animals.
The billboard at Town Hall Station that Rocky and Greig don't feature in.
In April we magnanimously consented to lending our image to the Commitment Project Website. This site features the images of same-sex couples who have lasted the distance.
To further the reach of the project Evan, the guy running the show, decided to buy a billboard at one of Sydney’s busiest train stations and plaster same-sex couple images all over it. Politically, same-sex marriage is reaching fever pitch at the moment so the timing couldn’t be better.
While we aren’t on the poster, we did end up plastered across the page in the Sydney Star Observer. Not that I aspire to become a media-slut, of course.
The actual launch of the Town Hall Station Billboard was held at the Bank Hotel in Newtown. We got to mix with a lot of the other couples that had also taken part but as our good mate “Tricky” pointed out, it wasn’t a good place for him to pick up.
And while we’re on the topic of the battle for same-sex marriage, Greig and I also participated in the making of a promotional video filmed in the Sydney Town Hall. Here it is. We’re part of the graph.
And finally we popped along to the ACON Honour Awards. Not to get an award, but to generally mingle with the beautiful people. Besides, it’s one of the few occasions when we can get past the security gorillas at Ivy.
The Honour Awards attract the upper echelon of the gay and lesbian community. And us. They award outstanding efforts in the community in a range of fields. This year b’Kirk’s new communications company, Sweet Telecom was nominated for a business award but he was pipped at the post by an Oxford Street institution – The Bookshop Darlinghurst. To be honest, if the Bookshop hadn’t have won, I would have been very disappointed.
Greig and I are very social animals.
Chris is heading over to the U.K. for a few months for work so he organised a quiet little drinkies thing to see him off. Just your normal excuse to pop a few bottles of wine and use that wine to wash down some tasty but probably very bad for you snacks. I quite pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon, really.
It turns out however that it’s the totally unplanned things that end up the most fun.
Bailey lobbed up at The Shed one Saturday evening with the plan to “pimp up his wheels”. He’d bought some LED lighting kits that rev-heads like to attach to their bikes to make them stand out to cops. The plan was to have a glass or two of wine and install the lights.
Mitch demonstrates what not to do when you are on a totally sick bike
Purely by coincidence, Mitch called and mentioned that he was at a loose end and did we want to catch up. Well, head on over!
So the three of us spent about six hours pulling Bailey’s new bike apart and installing lights. All while emptying bottles of wine somewhere. I’m not sure where. All I know is that they were all empty the following afternoon when I woke up.
Needless to say, Bailey didn’t ride his bike home, but it has been agreed that it now looks “totally sick”.
The other unexpected event was another launch at the Australian Centre for Photography. This time I had no input, just turning up as a guest and allowed to roam around enjoying a few glasses of wine and earnestly discussing the virtues of the exploration of memory and truth in a suburban landscape.
Afterwards the group (affectionately known as “Bookclub”) all retired to the local pub for a bite to eat and a few bottles of wine. This was followed by a trip back to Bailey’s where we helped one of the guys with a presentation for his work and a few bottles of wine.
And this, officer, is how we ended up at Arq at 2 o’clock on a Friday morning.
Having a few more drinks.
I took Friday off work.