Glen Moray Classic Single Malt

A Speyside Scotch whiskey I was told not to drink.

REVIEW. Thoroughly enjoyable, butter scotch, sea salt, honey. Fairly crackles with life, even though not old. Young & lively.

Scotch is very much a matter of preference. This scotch comes out of the same distillery as one of my favourites, the GlenLivet.

Despite this, the bottle shop owner, tried to steer me towards blends or single-malts like Glen Farclas. But I often go with feeling.

This is a soft, drinkable, pliable scotch. I should note, I drink it with ice (Australia is a hot climate) despite the requisite snobbery for straight or with water.

Crisp, honeycomb & butterscotch. A soft flowing feel, easy to drink.If you like Speyside (1 of the 4 regions) single malts from Scotland, then this will be thoroughly enjoyable for you.

True it’s not as subtle as the 15yo or 21yo, but it’s just different.

If you are drinking Johnnie Walker Black or Dewars, try buying a bottle of Glen Moray, Glen Livet, or another single-malt like this.

REVIEW: An interesting juxtaposition of beautiful modernist engineering & eclectic art objects from the Bugatti family. Small but interesting.

WHERE: National Gallery of Victoria Intl >St Kilda Rd > Melbourne.

I like Vintage cars. Give me a streamlined E-type Jag over an E class Merc any day. Curves. Speed. Class. Hand crafting.

So it’s no surprise I loved the elegant curves of the 2 vintage cars in this exhibition. The car below almost flies…

Bugatti 57C at NGV Intl Exhibit Melbourne

The ambitious exhibition tracks the Bugatti family’s interests in industrial design, art, furniture, scuplture & diverse artistic endeavours beyond the car.

An interesting diversion is the juxtaposition of a cougar sculpture, next to the 57C car. A car that seems crouched. Coiled like a cougar. Even now bursting to accelerate out of the small gallery.

It seems strange – a futurist object of speed, bursting at the envelopes of speed, contained to 4 walls. No matter how generous the space.

See the exhibition when you’re next there. The cars are the stars… but the Moorish inspired almost art deco-esque furniture, from 1900 is also a highlight. (And the primary reason for the exhibit).

It’s not worth a dedicated trip, being rather a small scale exhibition. But drop in when nearby or visiting Melbourne.

Eclectic, interesting, evoked futurism for me, and endless art school lectures. Could that be nostalgia?

I can’t believe it.

This may be the wine talking … but possibly the best Sangiovese I’ve had lately. A taste of summer, butter, a roll in the hay,… Yum.

Sangiovese is often a warm season wine, and with all this heat lately, I’ve been tempted even to Australian white wine (I prefer Austrian or German whites).

But this Sangiovese. Wow! It is a light summer blanket descending as a cloud over the mind. Lovely in the mouth, great floral tastes of violets, as if smelling a bouquet of flowers.

Well-balanced, well-rounded, smooth supple, but with more force than European varieties, it is a passionate wine.

A pleasing finish, that leaves soft notes in the throat.

I have been thoroughly impressed with Clairmont Wines & King Valley Wines in general. But this. Well this is a summer knock-out.

Highly recommended for balmy summer days on the harbour, when you want a red wine. Serve with a light pancetta, thin slivers of lamb or I would say even ricotta & olives spiked with lemon juice.

Yumm. 10 years cellaring will reward, but kapow now.

REVIEW. French comedy as we all love it. Champagne-froth but with a heart-felt message. Francis Veber’s movie is the funniest French Comedy I have seen recently. Fabulous!

WHERE. DVD. 2006. Madman.

Daniel Auteil (a great actor) is a billionaire who gets photographed with his supermodel mistress & a valet. Caught in a trap by his long-time wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas), he does what any Frenchman would do.

i.e. Concoct an incredibly stupid plan to regain the wife’s trust & keep the mistress. It’s French farce.

Having known more than a few French people over the years, I can say that sometimes their lives do resemble their movies. So for me, at least, the love quadrangle is a fair call.

20,000,32,450 EUROS later, he is the proud renter of 1 valet, 1 apartment, 1 supermodel and some optional curtains.

Needless to say the valet, Gad Elmaleh, is the star turn of the piece as he turns being a low-paid valet into an advantage, to try & get his real girlfriend interested in him again.

Whilst he lives with a billionaire’s super-model & his valet work colleagues turn purple. And the billionaire’s & wife’s minions duke it out, curtains and all. The curtains are very important…

French farce. Four-letter funny, French, pithy, witty and seductively sly.

I can’t watch most Hollywood comedies any more. And if you’re bored with the usual schtick Sandler-style formula flicks, give the French (or Italian) oeuvre a try.

Do, then, start with the Valet. At 88 minutes. You’ll laugh.

It’s really a gem of a movie. Enjoy with a glass of Syrah!

REVIEW. How artists work & live in their studios by Ian Lloyd. With artists statements accompanying the photographs. Honest. Enlightening. Of interest to all artists.

WHERE. State Library of Victoria, Keith Murdoch Gallery, Foyer. Melbourne.

Studio: Australian painters photographed by R Ian Lloyd and written by John McDonald is an intriguing exhibition.

The concept is simple, photograph artists across Australia – many famous, some international, some regional – share & show their diverse studios. Honestly capture their work and processes.

The photos & accompanying captions are great – yet Lloyd & McDonald themselves proudly tell a story of Australian artists.

The differences between the artists spaces brought back Art School for me. And the internecine fights between the tidy small workers & the messy large scale workers like me.

I had a paint coat that was actually more screen ink, emulsion & paint than coat. It seems examining my compatriots I am in good company.

Perhaps it says something about the middle-class nature of Western adulthood that I now admired the neat studios of Imants Tillers or the nearby St Kilda Rd apartment of Wolsely.

My own studios or spaces have become smaller & neater.

This exhibit spoke of the creative block all creatives struggle with daily.

As Tim Storrier said:

“Artist’s block – or it could be businessman’s block – is nothing more than an inability to think creatively with pleasure… So take Harry Truman’s advice and go fishing. Leave it, go and play.”

The messy & neat. The artistic controlled vs the chaotic splatters. The comfortable room vs the spartan. They are all represented here.

Go. Picture yourself as the artist. See the studio you would have.

We can all be creatives in our own way. Learn from the pros.

It’s on at the State Library Victoria in Melbourne until 29 march 2009.

More > www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/exhibitions/kmg/2008/studio/

REVIEW. Karl Markovics tour-de-force as Salomon Sorowitsch distinguishes this film of the Jewish counterfeit racket set up by the Nazis, to prop up the regime in the last days of World War II.

An excellently conceived & executed moral dilemma, sharp & gut-piercing. ***** (5 stars).

WHERE. DVD.

Markovics, who plays the pragmatic Jewish counterfeiter Sorowitsch is perfectly cast in this role. Perhaps best known as the popular Stockinger in Inspector (Kommissar) Rex, the absolute ownership of the role, means Markovics IS Sorowitsch.

Set initially in Weimar Berlin (after a flashback) as Sorowitsch ignores warning. Soon he is caught as a counterfeiter & then ends up in a Concentration Camp.

After several years, he is transferred by his original captor to a facility where he is tasked to lead a team in printing British Pounds. Pounds that will act as Foreign Exchange to fund the German war effort in the dying days of the War in Europe.

Then to be produced is the difficult US dollar. In between there are numerous human foibles & heroics, as the war continues until the end of the conflict.

This film made me consider what price is ideology? What price is one more day of life? And whether it is better or not to be a wholly practical man? And how do differences in a group of reasonable men lead to what actually happens as history?

For me, this film reminded me of Ben Franklin encapturing of Enlightenment ideas. And the black days that come with central-enforced enactment in flawed ideology.

On these questions it is hard to reach a conclusion, yet in the dark days of World War II, we can ask, without impinging the moral certitudes of the present.

So watch this movie. Ask the questions. And watch Markovics, who all-but won the film it’s 2008 Best Foreign Film Oscar.

You don’t have to tell others your answers. Or your questions. But’s important to ask.

REVIEW. Australia’s grand dame of contemporary art, a unique deep & touching artist casting universal ideas into Australian country-tinged romanticism. Truly unique.

A well-curated exhibition of exemplary modern art. ***** (5 stars)

Rosalie Gascoigne Sweet Lovers

WHERE. National Gallery of Victoria. Ian Potter Centre, Fed Sq., Melbourne.

The Rauschenberg of Australia, Rosalie Gascoigne assembled her collages with care & poetic wit.

Juxtaposed road signs are her best known works perhaps, but there are symbolic collages, corrugated iron, sculptural objects & wooden arrangements as well.

Successful internationally in capturing the poetry of Australia scenes, this doyenne of Canberra art, carefully weaves her narrative.

The narrative tells tru-isms that are timeless & global, whilst using the accoutrements of the corner shop cordial crates, twigs, yellow & black signs and other fragments seemingly from the Country-Womens Association at the Royal Easter Show.

Her careful magpie-collecting of colours & objects captures the Australian landscape & her witty arrangments some of the diaspora. There is a hint of Australia’s engagement with Asia in the 80s, as well as the Canberra city & nearby country, as well.

For me it reminded me of Wyong trains, of lollies sneaked & gorged from corner shops with a stray 5c piece, of cordials, of Tamworth and the roads & stops between Sydney & Newcastle.

Of a happier, friendlier, warmer Australia where your neighbour had a kind word, not a comment on stock prices. Of back fences & community stores.

Maybe this is what Rosalie had in mind when she entered her art late in life, at the age of 57. Proof that for a talented artist it is never too late.

She’s no longer with us, but this critically important, globally-relevant Australian artist lives through her stories. Go read her stories at Fed Square’s Ian Potter Centre in Melbourne until 15 March 2009.

My recommendation – Don’t miss it if you are in or coming to Melbourne.

“There’s no smoke without Liars.”

WHAT. DVD.

REVIEW. West Wing dialogue with so-called Merchants of Death. Caution, you may feel smoker sympathy!

A movie that sets out the role of a pro-tobacco lobbyist before the major compensation settlement in USA. With a healthy dose of scepticism mixed with acerbic observation the film unwinds absurdist politics of smoking.

Making great comparisons between causes of death, the movie cannot help but provoke in the viewer questions of personal liberty.

I found it intellectually stimulating, but in a light way. Particularly talented is the boy actor, playing the son learning about the world from his amoral yet moral father, and his vacuous mother-stepfather combination.

At around 90 minutes, edited exceptionally tightly so as to bounce along, with Aaron Eckhart in the lead, and an insightful supporting cast.

This is simply one of the great satirical films of all time, equal to Primary Colors or Wag The Dog.

If you enjoy West Wing, or biting satirical arthouse, watch this movie. This movie may cross the US political divide…

WHAT. Joyeux Noel .the movie. (2005)

REVIEW. A touching story of the change of centuries in WWI trenches in France. Notably tri-lingual dialogue. ****_ (4 stars)

WHERE. DVD.

This movie is a telling of the true tale of the Christmas Truce of 1914 in Vosges . Soldiers of Scots, French & German regiments, tired of relentless battles over pointless dirt decided to have a Christmas Eve truce.

The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards.

There are some factual differences wit the actual 1914 truce, but the film is dramatic & sweeping, whilst being more accessible than some art-house fair.

Evocative of the horrors of war for the average man, and the dangers of a detached command, there are little moral tales for the leaders of our time.

On its own it’s a compelling movie, with a love interest between two singers. But in French cinema manner, it is the cast of men who are the heroes.

There is no “lead” rather a series of men, thrown together on manufactured hate & territorial ambition of their leaders. As Austro-Hungary declines, the dehumanising propaganda of each side is cast aside.

And the men learn to be human, with the French, German & Scots having more that unites them at Christmas than divides them.

A good film with a message of faith for Christmas.

Thoroughly recommended viewing.

WHERE. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

WHAT. An Exhibition on Magic.

REVIEW. Props, posters, whimsical past. Well worth a look. ***– (3 stars)

Hey Presto! An exhibition on magic. In Melbourne, arguably Australia’s most magic interested city.

The exhibition is held at Melbourne’s City Museum. I wandered in one work day when waiting for an appointment, I suggest you do to.

The exhibit is small but welcome. There are numerous magical posters from Houdini, Thurston and local talent. Performances at the Tivoli & Melbourne institutions are invoked.

Also included are numerous props, from Bernards Magic Shop & others. All arranged so secrets are preserved, but bringing back the spirit of a bygone age.

The Peppers Ghost invisibility illusion is at the door, although I think it is not perhaps clear to the non-magical person how realistic that was at the time. (This method is suggested in the movie The Illusionist).

The city museum is located at Entry is AUD $5.00 including ground floor museum access to Melbourne’s history.

There are numerous clubs (3 I know of). Plus a magic restaurant – Dantes Magic Mondays. And 2 Magic Shops. Magic is a Melbourne pastime thanks to the efforts of Gerald Taylor & others.

Growing up in my child & teen years in NSW & Tasmania, my magic hobby suffered except for my visits to Sydney. Eagerly I would buy the magic show bag at the Royal Easter Show. Or head to somewhere I could get the latest Chu’s magic.

I enjoyed magic, still do from time to time. A great card trick or a coin roll, is an occasional pastime when travelling.

I think this year, I may make a magical reawakening, discovering the magic of my youth again.

Go see it, if in Melbourne. Allow 20-30 minutes for the exhibition. Plus more than an hour to see the ground floor exhibit.

And stay for awhile in Deakin’s office, well worth a a visit to visualise Federation of Australia.

The City Museum is on Spring St (Treasury) near Collins St intersection. Look for the big red sign out front and walk towards it.