Push it real good

Friday 26 November 2010, 10:03 AM
By The Team | Posted in Things

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all know bikes are cool. Hell, they’re so cool they’ve got their own festival. Hats off to you, Bikefest! We’re not complaining about the recent surge in bike popularity. In fact, we’re right up there with the flag waving, bell ringing and tyre inflating.

But we’re also wary of a world in which bikes are a trend. Bikes are not Coca-Cola Yo-Yos, OMC or bocconcini and spinach salad. No indeed: bikes are simply a beautiful way of getting around.

In old Melbourne town, we’ve had a few new bike-friendly services popping up that make bike riding in the city even better.

The most obvious one is the Melbourne Bike Share service that’s really taken off in recent weeks. Now you can buy a $5 helmet from participating 7-Eleven stores or from – wait for it – vending machines at Southern Cross Station and at Melbourne University.

So if you forget your helmet there’s an easy solution at hand. You can keep your helmet or return it and get $3 refund.

 But we think the best thing about Melbourne Bike Share is that now you can ride in the city but you don’t have to ride into the city to do it.

Regular cyclists know that riding a bike is often the quickest way from A to B through the city – so being able to jump on one at any time is really rather wonderful.

The other thing that’s worth knowing about is the free bike pod at the City Square.

This sweet little service is especially good news on hot summer days when you arrive in town a little bit sticky, or when you’re merrily pedalling along and the sky decides a spontaneous deluge is just what your journey needs.

Pop into the bike pod and grab a free shower. The pods are roomy, clean and there’s even space for you to park your bike under cover. (You’ll need to bring your own shower stuff.)

So there you go. While it’s lots of fun to think about bikes as the flavour of the fest, month or year, it’s even better to think about bikes as a part of city living. And these two services will help you do that.

Happy riding, folks!

Best of the Melbourne Fest – for free!

Wednesday 6 October 2010, 2:56 PM
By The Team | Posted in Events

The Melbourne International Arts Festival is back and it can only mean one thing: the city will be set alight with a creative fervour for all arts lovers to enjoy, whatever their budget or passion. We’ve pulled out some of the best free options for MIAF 2010 for you to enjoy.

Opening the festival, and on until 10 October is the astonishing K@osmos, a 21st Century aerial theatre show.  The dynamic visual spectacular K@osmos is brought to you by Argentinean production company Grupo Puja! and combines theatre, circus, dance, aerial sport, architecture, engineering, multimedia and music in a performance that is out of this world.

Those pondering their own existence will love MORTALITY, a visual journey from the cradle to the grave at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.  The free exhibition is curated by Juliana Engberg to reflect the Festival’s visual arts themes of spirituality, death and the afterlife by some of the world’s leading artists.

If you’re wanting to sneak a peek into the minds of the artists involved in this year’s Festival, the daytime Melbourne Festival Artists In Conversation could be for you.  An intimate series of discussions held at BMW Edge in Federation Square will leave you inspired by the diverse imaginations of some of the world’s most creative minds, from Melbourne Festival director Brett Sheehy, through to songwriters from Seven Songs to Leave Behind.

Or if it’s a digital post-modern experience you’re after, venture to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to revel in Bill Viola’s The Raft.  This video homage to The Raft of the Medusa by French Romantic painter Théodore Géricault is recorded in high-speed film and described by the artist as “an image of destruction and survival.”

At the end of an illuminating day of artistic discovery, take a dazzling journey from the NGV to the Forum and let the Halo project light up your night. Lighting designer Allan Parkinson brings the Festival precinct to life with a specially designed lighting project, flooding the space with a through a purple haze. From the footpath, to the trees, to the roofline, wherever you look you may discover exquisite lighting installations designed to bring some more spark to your 2010 Festival experience.

Melbourne International Arts Festival runs 8 – 23 October at a myriad of venues across the city.

Phillip Escoffey: where Scully meets Mulder

Friday 24 September 2010, 3:52 PM
By The Team | Posted in Events

Phillip Escoffey is one heck of a showman. He teases. He torments. He troubles our senses of reason and tricks us mercilessly. And we eat it all up with glee, thoroughly entertained as he twists our beliefs and disbeliefs about in confusing combinations.

Escoffey walks a fascinating tightrope as he makes a show of dispelling myths about psychic powers while pulling off all manner of psychic stunts – predictions, mind-reading, tarot cards and more.

He performs with such aplomb we became a little concerned about the welfare of the goats at the nearby Royal Melbourne Show. But it’s okay, Escoffey’s show focuses on the lighter side of psychic phenomena – friendly old playing cards, for example – and steers well clear of spooky ouija boards and unseemly US military activities.

But is he really psychic? Probably not. But see – there’s the word ‘probably’! For most of us in the room, Escoffey did one particular thing that defied explanation – and that made us doubt our doubt. And that’s the beauty of his show.

This is a guy who waves his hands in front of your eyes while telling you to watch closely. Who very helpfully explains how he performs some of his psychic ‘feats’ while simultaneously casting doubt on his own explanations.

Us humans are so good at suspending our disbelief that we’ll do it even when we’re being told not to.

Why? Perhaps for the same reason Scully followed Mulder around all those years – because believing is more fun.

Phillip Escoffey – Six More Impossible Things Before Dinner is at the Arts Centre until Sunday 3 October. Presented as part of Melbourne Fringe