Snippets

Well, Sydney Festival has started and everything seems to be running smoothly. I reckon we should have an Edinburgh-style Fringe Festival around the Sydney Festival - not that the Festival in itself isn't doing a great job in bringing talent into the city, but an 'invite-yourself' program with randomised ticket-buying sounds pretty exciting and would soften the disappointment one might feel when one has one's heart set upon a particular show but finds that it is sold out.

I was supposed to be doing four Blue Invasion shifts selling 'cult paraphenalia' but director Tony Oursler decided to make those roles a bit more involved so they've ended up hiring actors for it instead. Which was a bit of a bummer as the group of us had turned up to rehearsal two nights in a row for not much stimulation. Effectively we were made redundant. However, we did end up keeping our Beck's Bar entitlements and by cancelling my shift last night, I was able to attend The Andersen Project for which volunteer tickets were given out.

Excellent show; about a Canadian writer in Paris commissioned to adapt a Hans Christian Andersen story into a children's operetta. Robert LePage plays the three characters - the writer, the French opera director and a janitor at a sex booth who are all haunted by the pathetic nature of their lives but who all react in different ways. Frequent laughs some cultural, some self-deprecating, but also intensely moving. The interaction with props and the film backdrop was especially cool.

On Saturday I was rostered on the door at the Opening Night Party doing 'VIP' wristbanding. Those press studs start to hurt your fingers after doing several dozen of them straight. We were under strict instructions not to wristband Cate Blanchett or John Cleese and their respective posses (which I found incredibly funny when we were told but I guess they need to clarify because we still did the 'minor' celebs like Simon Burke and Peter Phelps). But you don't really look at people's faces when you have a big crowd, just their arms as they file past continually, so the girl next to me very nearly wristbanded Andrew Upton (Mr Blanchett). Later on when things were quiet I left the more conscientous volunteers (and Anna, volunteer co-ordinator) and had a beer and a nibble, saw Kush (ex-Mac uni) and then danced the night away with Gloria who nursed a red wine before claiming a cabcharge home.

The rest of my weekend involved a lot of reading (the entire Saturday SMH, 'Saturday' by Ian McEwan, 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' and 'Tears of the Giraffe' by Alexander McCall Smith) but I hope to do much more writing in the coming weeks. Have a few ideas to pitch and I really want to have a piece published in Voiceworks before I die. I mean, before I get too old and turn 25.

As for actual job-hunting, I've cut out four snippets of decent jobs from the SMH and found quite an intriguing one for a Writer/Researcher position with Peter Sheahan, one time NSW Young Entrepreneur of the Year. I'm sure I mentioned before that things are looking up in that department. Now for an interview...

The rest of the week should be much the same - applying for jobs, chasing debtors, a few Sydney Festival shifts, reading and writing. Tomorrow, instead of going to Stuart's place I'm meeting him at the Macquarie Park Cemetery for Julian's father's funeral. Julian's dad died suddenly on NYE morning from a brain aneurysm. I haven't seen Julian since but apparently he's coping. Not sure if we'll be required to go to the wake, which I think is in Mosman, but selfishly I want to spend some quality time with Stuart because he's been working since we last saw each other last Monday. That's all folks.