Frocking Fantastic

So here is the low down on frock swap shops; second hand shops that you can buy summer dresses at.In answer to your question Georgie, I'd probably recommend three contendors, close to Sydney Uni (if I haven't already missed the boat and you've been and gone from your workshop).

Broadway Betty - Paramatta Rd, Broadway, near the corner of city Rd and opposite the duck pond park. This one is a bit fond of the eighties, and is probably targeting people who barely remember the eighties at all because they were born in them. It is a good place to find printed t-shirts, and long bright maxi dresses, and you can probably find and ace pair of giant sunnies to go with said frock. On the down side they have somewhat inflated prices compared to the charity op-shops, but fairly reasonable in the whole world of vintage boutiques (do we count eighties as vintage?). Bonus features include funky music to listen to while you get changed, and the likelihood that your shop attendant will be boldy defining physics, biology and some might say taste in their choice of uber skinny jean, and likely have funky tats or good hair to admire.

The Salvos - this one is about half a block down from Broadway Betty, nestled on the corner of Glebe Point Rd and Paramatta Rd. This is a big store. A BIG store. This is seriously not for the faint hearted, as it has not just a sea of racks, but also eye dazzling array of homewares and strange baskets of new items like soap or cleaning products. This is a shop that you need to be well rested and endowed with great reserves of energy and bargain hunting vigour or it may end in tears. On the up side is that you are almost guaranteed a bargain, and the dress racks sport 60's, 70's and 80's as well as more recent frocks. If you sew and can take something home and alter it (as opposed to needing to wear it the next day as is) you are in even bigger chance of getting a gem.

St Vinnies - Glebe Point Rd (just before St Johns, a few doors down from Glebe post Office). Of the three this would be my choice. This is your standard charity op shop, but relatively small, and staffed by very warm and friendly older ladies with firm opinions on fashion, tea and local issues that they will be happy to share with you if you ask. Ladies dresses (as opposed to..?) are up the front on the RHS, and you are likely to find quite an amazing array of styles, in a fairly small space. Glebe as a suburb has a range of demographics and the stock reflects that - with older lady house dresses from the 60's, English labels from travelers, seventies exotic batwinged numbers, and last few years sensible work frocks. It's also a good place to see some of the local students, artists and 'characters' interacting over exciting finds of red patent leather shoes, or interesting hats. The homewares section is small and hidden, and there are even a half decent array of reasonable priced books.

Happy shopping!

Oh and PS - if you're going to the Vinnies, you might need a little coffee pit stop on the way up or back... I recommend Sappho's on the RHS past Glebe Books. It's a second hand bookshop with a fairly good range of 'literaray fiction' and looks and feels just like how a bookshop should (I reckon). There is a coffee shop out the back, and you can either sit outside in the courtyard in amongst nice tropical plants, enjoying the colourful walls from before the place was rennovated and it was constantly being covered in new tags and murals, or you can find a tiny little wooden indoors table in amongst the books. Both are good.

Teensy art

Here you can see the albums of artworks made for 2008/09
NanoArt international online competition. The winners of the last year's competition are here.

Woof!

These are the girls I am looking after while their mum ('mum' / human/ owner) is away in Perth. They are super affectionate in a very quiet and follow you everywhere way. If you pat one the other comes - as if possessing supersonic hearing that can detect the sound of patting from rooms away - and tries to get in the action. The second dog will squeeze up in between your hand and the other dog, making the two of them look a little like hairy pat hungry conjoined twins. They are very sweet though, even if one of them has taken to sleeping on my clothes (aah that'll teach me for leaving them in a pile on the floor). Shiny little black eyes they have.

Am I a Laura Ashley floral house dress?

So. I was updating my profile on a website - for a kind of art project thingo, and realised that I'd accidentally been earnest and chatty on a site where no one else was! I skimmed through a few other profiles and realised that where I had been cheery, descriptive, and honest, others were going for very brief, stylish, nihilistic, flippant. Fuck! (I thought). This was the online equivalent of turning up to someone's wedding in a blowsy floral ankle length house dress and finding everyone else in very stylin' cocktail frocks. If you know what I mean. It's a self representation dress code, and I fear that actually, I often come in under the mark on edgy, and would be freely and frequently relegated to the earnest table. When did I become earnest? Am I earnest? Earnest and cheery isn't cool. Brief is cool. Random is cool. Fuck it. And not caring is cool. But I care that I don't care, which isn't cool. What if you didn't care that you did care - is that cool? Am I having a monologue here that sounds like it should be from a bad sitcom? Very possibly. And is that cool? Or would it be if I wrote it more edgy, like, with spikey writerly heels.
I don't want to be virtually earnest! I want my online me to be edgy and mysterious and brooding and glamorous. Huh maybe we can design the world's first online image consultants - how to write a profile like you are edgy. whaddyareckon??

Jolie jolie, jolie jolieeeeee

Had a nice night seeing Jolie Holland play at the Basement last night. Went with a friend of a friend and talked his ear off after a few glasses of red wine. I really should remember that 2 glasses of red wine makes me ridiculously chatty - and not just chatty but frank. And not just frank but detailed. Detailed as in pedantic, and wanting to tell the full picture of every story I feel like telling, detailed. (Nooooo, you never would have guessed that from this blog, right?). Anyway it was fun to see someone play live whose music I hardly know, and to go with someone I hardly know too, all in the spirit of New Year and being more adventurous.

This reviewer sums up the performance really well, and I am too lazy and too badly acquainted with the performer's back catalogue to write anything like that myself, so you can just cheat and go there and pretend I told you about it. I know that is a totally lame 'yeah what he said', but there you go.

And golly it rained last night, like torrential - somehow this made it even better for listening to music somewhere downstairs and cosy. Except for my wet feet (how is it that my cowboy boots leak?) and my friend's wet everything (poor bugger - lucky it was warm inside). As well as her music, I loved her outfit - kind of Little House on the Prairie, good folk, simple living but with attitude. Quaker cool? I also admired her lack of sparkle: she was more of a soft glow, a 'here I am take me or leave me' performer, delivered with that kind of San Fran cool, delicious flat accent and the vague sense that she doesn't really give a shit what you think because she likes what she does anyway. The guitarist was cute (actually, was he the guitarist or bass player? seriously I'm so derr with music I don't even know). He looked a bit like he had the head of a cute curly haired bespectacled 9 year old on the body of Jemaine from FOTC. But not in a creepy way - seriously, you'll just have to trust me on this.

Don't you reckon everyone looks better playing guitar? - I am always reminded of this when I see men on stage elevated from lanky and average looking to focused, driven, mesmerised, cowboy shirt wearing rock gods .. well maybe not rock gods, maybe kind of generic folk pop cuties, but whatever.

That makes two live music gigs so far this year if you count Kristen Hirsch, who did a great spoken word gig for the Sydney Festival, but snuck in some atmospheric scene change music and a few whole songs too. Hoh! And it's not even the end of February!! Just joking - I'm kind of taking the piss, but actually kind of pleased too.

You see, I'm under no grand illusions that this is doing much to completely overthrow my nanna-like social habits, but hey it's a start. I do try to get out and mix it up with the kids you know, it's just that a visit to the crayon (sorry 'oil pastels') section of the art shop, or a solo jeans clad wander down the street to a cafe to huddle round a latte and people watch or stare dreamily out the window is my idea of crazy high paced fun times. Or having dinner with friends or visiting people. Yup, it's official, am basically extreme sport wild socialising diva - of the library, wool shops, op shops, bookshops, loungeroom, and random literary lecture circuit. Oh hang on - exhibition openings, I go to those, and they have people at them.

I think the problem with my social life is that I'm not sure if I have one (a problem that is, I do know I have a social life), but then again I'm not entirely sure I don't (have a problem). I like quiet, daggy, stay at home, DIY pursuits. I like my own company. I like a glass of red and some loungeroom dancing. I like quiet cups and tea and chats with friends. I like that I like this stuff. I'm just also aware that this stuff isn't the stuff that is most likely to propel you out into the world to Meet People (read, people to shag/hook up with/settledown with etc). Anyway, I do like going out as well, I think I'm just a bit lazy usually get my arse into gear to organise stuff. Does anyone actually know of anyone who's hooked up with their dream boat honey bun via bumping into each other hilariously in a bookshop? Or is it really the case that we only ever meet people drunk at parties or bars?

And on that topic, do you think that Jolie Holland ever worries about her social life and wonders if she's a loser because she doesn't go out to see live music? Or that through some perverse twist of fate maybe she secretly pines for respite from the rock and roll lifestyle and wishes she could be wandering up and down library shelves collecting picture books of gardens and books about renaissance buildings or brains or paints, because she doesn't see how being out on stage every night is going to help her meet nice people.

I really can't think why I don't meet flocks of young men as I wander through vintage ladies knitwear at Vinnies. Oh well. I did pick up a lovely sleeveless aqua knit with very cute peep neck and double button arrangement circa 1981 the other day, which totally rocked. Coming soon to an outfit near you.

Little Bo Peep

Well I don't know if she's lost her sheep but I have to say that the dogs I am babysitting while their owner is away are a little bit like little fluffy sheep but unlike Bo Peep I am very unlikely to lose them as they follow me almost every time I leave one room and go into the next.

It's kind of freaky because they generally rearrange themselves very swiftly and neatly. Every time you turn around they're there, politely facing you, arms out in front of them like little temple dogs, paws neatly arranged, eyes dark and questioning. But they do it in different little scenes - sometimes one sits up, one lies down, sometimes they're right next to each other, sometimes in the doorway, other times right behind you... and so silent. It is reminding me a little bit of a Dr Who episode where the statues creep on you behind your back - but not quite that creepy. They are very sweet dogs, and pretty content. It's just taking me time to adjust to my new furry shadows.

Whether there is a climate for change

My housemate put his hat in the ring for an NGO run community climate forum - and got accepted! Yah. I'm all warm inside with housematerly pride. I think it's super cool to be involved in these kinds of deliberative forums, and to put aside the time to be involved in a dialogue for something bigger than just your own interests. It's all very civic duty and I think it totally rocks. I know some of the panelists and people I work with have helped organise it so I guess I'm just that bit biased too.

Arty farty all invited to the party

I thought this was interesting.

"First report from ground-breaking new research shows art’s not just for the elite.

A report on the first year of a major new three-year study of visitors to galleries and museums released by Museums & Galleries NSW today strongly demonstrates the value of galleries and museums to all sectors of the community and puts the lie to the common stereotype of art-lovers as ‘champagne-sipping élite’.

The report, ‘Guess Who’s Going To The Gallery?’, is based on over 2,200 interviews with visitors at twelve galleries and museums in the Western Sydney and the Newcastle/Hunter regions. It presents the findings from the first stage of a major three-year strategic initiative by Museums & Galleries NSW – the first ever state-wide, standardised survey of museum and gallery visitors to be undertaken in NSW."

Too hot to trot

Holey Moley Guacomole! It's officially a scorcher again today here on the East Coast of Oz, following many weeks of scorcher-ness. I am usually situated close to the water in the mildly more northern regions of the East Coast which seem to miss the relentless dry heat of the more Southern States, and the dripping tropics of the Northern States. Lucky us. ie I live harbour-side in Sydney. But yesterday was a sharp reminder that not everyone in Sydneytown gets it is mild and sea-breeze blown as we do - as I came out west on the train, an hour inland, on my way to a friend's place to house and dog sit, it did feel hotter and hotter.

Last night was really very hot.

I got up super early this morning (for a Saturday) and in the cool morning air swiftly walked up to the shops to stock up on fresh fruit and veg and various seeds and grains to go with the standard pantry stuff my friend kindly stocked up on for my stay. Oh yeah, and vanilla icecream (low fat, so that's just basically a calcium hit right? Almost a health tonic - I'm sure I remember that being in the liver cleansing diet right after slippery elm and lemon juice).

This morning's walk reminded me that this is an awkward suburb, in terms of most people's regard - being somewhere between westie shopping mall dystopia and idyllic mountain towns. It could, perhaps unkindly, be considered to have all the style and grace, visible heritage and abundant greenery of the big western centres like Penrith (that is - little), combined with the super convenience and abundance of facilities that characterise mountain towns (err, sometimes less than great). But that would be a total glass half empty description. It's not really it's fault - it's kind of a boundary town, influenced by being sandwiched between these two zones, and not being particularly and outstandingly one or the other. And it doesn't help that it's main street is carved down the middle with a main road so unfriendly to pedestrians that it has a fence down the middle and a big pedestrian bridge over it. Hardly conducive to connectivity, or a sense of strolling through a peaceful, people friendly town.

But, surprisingly, rather than being scorched and scowling about the deficiencies of local urban design and cross about their unstylish cafes or the lack of shade on their footpaths or the lack of chi chi planters with stylish herbs dotted down their main street, the locals all seemed really nice. I had more people jump up to open doors for me (as I grappled with box of groceries), chat and smile in a an hour and a half than I have in the preceeding month and a half back in the big smoke. And that's despite living in a suburb that supposedly has a village feel and is full of quirky characters, for the city. Posing that age old chestnut - stylish and bitchy or homely and earnest and nice - which do we really prefer?

The optimistic cool of the morning didn't last, however, and now, in the middle of the day it is well and truly hot again. I walked outside earlier to get the dog's food out of the shed that it's stored in, and had the strangely delightful crunchy massage feeling of once thick lush lawn which has now dried to a crisp like some toasted seaweed garnish to a Japanese soup (um - the kind of soup you walk on? Terrible metaphor), cushioning my bare footed steps. It made me smile and I walked around some more just to feel it.

My friend whose house I am sitting on's pot plants are somewhat beleaguered by the heat, and several have lost green to brown on the leaf front. I secretly think her niece who was here the last couple of weeks was a bit patchy with her pot watering, Hmm, handy hint - if you are going to house sit team style (ie the time is being shared amongst a few people), volunteer for the first slot rather than the last slot - less dead plant guilt :) But the niece did leave me lots of additional cute little instruction notes about how things work and where things are, which was nice.

Oh fuck it, it's totally too hot to write anymore. I think I'm going to go have a cool bath and read my book. More tales of housesitting later - including 'what am I doing wrong that the CD player wont work?', 'Can I really bring myself to watch one of the 4 dvds already here or will I brave the heat to head to the store to borrow one?' (prizes if anyone can guess what they are), 'Miniature Lassie dogs - will they save very small people from the broken down well?', 'Other people's bookshelves - what do they reveal about the person?', 'How come when I was at the shops I was clear that I would drink iced herbal tea and water all weekend and now I wish I'd bought some beer?' and the controversial 'Housesitting and cleaning for the visually sensitive - is it ever ok to rearrange things just a little...? aka 'Housesitting interior design challenges for the slightly OCD'.

A growing art movement

*groan*

Check out this interesting story of street-art-cum-urban-greening gesture that Takeshi Tall Boy Jones sent my way. (Note - Mr T will henceforth be referred to interchangeably as Takeshi Tall Boy Jones in these posts, for reasons that may not even be clear to him, but hey, that's my perrogative as author. Characters in one's writing should not answer back - no?)

Hunting roots and berries in the city, part 1

I’ve visited a few new places for vego food lately in Sydney town, and thought I’d share what I’ve found. For a city this size I’m always surprised at how few vego places there are. Vego only places are a dream come true for vegetarians because you can peruse the whole menu and order with confidence knowing that there is no sneaky chicken stock or hidden fish sauce squirreled away in your meal. Vego places also usually ‘get’ some aspects of nutrition and taste that an omnivore café often fails to register (eg. that even non meat eaters want protein in their meals, or that after several years a person can tire of some kind of roast vegetable foccacia / Turkish bread/ sandwhich as the only vego option). For the most part dedicated vego restaurants in Sydney are Asian, thanks I guess to Buddhism, and these are great for vegetarians and vegans – vego Asian restaurants are almost exclusively vegan too because dairy doesn’t play a large part in their cuisine (Vietnamese post colonial stuff aside). These are lovely (Boddhis, Green Gourmet, Mamma Chu’s) but are mostly Chinese style cooking, which is great but only one slice (so to speak) of what I like to eat out. There have been some standout ‘nuvo Aus’ style cuisine vego-only places, such as Katoomba’s Nish Nosh, but this sadly lasted only a few years then disappeared. It seems like Melbourne has more of these than Sydney, is that because Melbourne is a city that gives a shit while Sydney is all about bling? (Hate to buy into the North South Eastcoast stereotypes but just wondering).

I personally think there is a real market for a couple more European or American influenced veg restaurants in Sydney. My top three suggestions would be:
- Mediterranean food – regional Italian, Greek, or Spanish or a combo of these
- North-South American food – think California style Mexican influenced
- Somewhere that is organic and all about high brow health food, very seasonal, clean and perky feeling, and posh enough to go for something special

I am also fine with eating at non-veg restaurants (mostly a pragmatic choice for convenience and variety – see above!), especially those with a decent variety of non-meat options on their menus. Lebanese, African, and good Italian places can often offer that – I suppose because peasant food is traditionally often light on meat and they have lots of interesting ways to do grains and beans and preserved vegetables.

African Feeling
1/501 King Street Newton
Ph 02 9516 3130
www.africanfeeling.com.au

African food in a cosy environment, with funky tablecloths and candles. the menu has meat and veg, but the vegetarian options are clearly marked, and extensive in range. One great thing about vego food at African restaurants generally is the supurb range of beans/pulses and grains. No worries about not getting enough of those coquettish amino acids, or getting stuck in a wheat rut. African feeling has a great thing on the menu for the indecisive, or maybe the solo diner wanting variety, which is the mixed plate of main courses. As in choose any three of the above and get a regular sized serve with a little bit of each, for a few dollars more. We did that for the mains – ordering a mnixed plate plus two regular dishes (so we tasted 5 in total), and also the entrees, trying the dumplings, plaintain chips and the lentil triangles. The triangles got the hands down thumbs up but the dumplings we thought were a little like small savoury doughnuts with not much appeal. This is definitely a place to get several dishes and share, and you can take your time as the food works well not piping hot. Vegan friendly as no dairy or egg in any of the mains, so no need to ask for any changes. We ended up with significant leftovers which they graciously packed away into (groovy moulded cardboard) take away containers and had enough for lunch the next day.


Sydney Dumpling King
183 Burwood Rd Burwood
Ph 02 97010055

Found myself in Burwood, and meandered to find a still-open dumpling place after the lunch rush. This one was clean and bright, with friendly staff, free tea, two different kinds of vego dumplings, freshly made (I watched them being made) and one serve is way more than one person would want so you might want to share 2 dishes between 3. Dumplicious.


Green Palace Thai Vegetarian
182 King Street Newtown
Ph 02 9550 5234

My new all time favourite vego restaurant. Don’t be distracted by the bay marie of curry and stir fries (unless you’re in a super hurry or want take away) but go for ordering off the menu instead and you’re in for a treat. There are mock-meat dishes here that cover the full range of thai faves – fish cakes, money bags, thom yum, thom kar gai, larb, stir fries, curries etc. The mock-meat thing I know is a little contentious for some vegetarians, but for me I really admire the cultural history of mock meat and see it as a sign of generosity towards including carnivores / having meals that keep everyone happy, rather than as a sign of a strange inability to let go of the idea of meat in a conflicted vegetarian. What I especially like about the mock meat style menu is the variety – of sauces, textures, dish construction. The tom yum here is excellent, and is one of the things I really miss about being vego, so it was a real treat to find this place for me. Oh, also really good value I think, price wise, and a nice busy, chatty, Newtown atmosphere, where BYO is fine and you get the requisite number of pierced and tattooed and funky folk – great for those days when you can’t quite do the austere silence of Mamma Chu’s for example. It’s like the punk rock version of Sydney’s otherwise chamber music vego Asian eateries. Oh except Bodhis – Bodhis is totally cool and is more like am expensive festival event with PJ Harvey and Phillip Glass and a Russian String Quartet and some kids on the triangle – stylish, high quality and cool.