Get a real job!

I just thought I’d post this opening paragraph to an article featured on the Yahoo! frontpage today:

“Advice for Fresh Graduates During Tough Times

by Ben Stein

posted on Mar 10 03:34am

…

Learn a Genuinely Useful Skill

First, learn a genuinely useful skill. Abstract art and conceptual sculpture are great if your parents are wealthy. But if times are lean, as they are for most of us, learn to do what people need done: [my italics] medical care of all kinds (the shortage of nurses gets more acute every week, and wages are skyrocketing), accounting, engineering that is used in defense, and any kind of work connected to the criminal justice system (crime is an ever-growing menace)…”

Which gets me thinking, how much value do we really assign the arts?  And how much should we?  Is it ‘needed’ at all, and what would we do without it?  Hmmmm…..

I wrote an article on this theme for the last issue of dB Magazine (Adelaide).  Unfortunately it’s not up online as yet, but you’ll find it in Issue 642, 11 Marh – 17 March 2009.

Jo O’Callaghan: op shop queen extraordinaire

I’ve known Joanne O’Callaghan for a number of years but recently she has moved interstate to pursue a career in theatre. Her award-winning shows have sold out consistently at the Adelaide Fringe and traipsed their way through the regular Melbourne circuits. Joanne’s controlled and dominant voice, together with a natural flair for comedy, have seen her performing in solo shows such as Ca Va?, which we were most fortunate to see last night.

However, there is another side to Jo that brings all of her skills into alignment, and that is her passion for Op-Shopping. As a long-time expert on all things second-hand and vintage, Joanne brings her passion together with her theatre skills (and a big bus!) to immerse participants in an afternoon filled with fun, theatre, and a whole bunch of bargains along the way.

See Jo interviewed on 9am with David & Kim.

See a review of her Op Shop tour by the Independent Weekly.

If you’re in Melbourne and looking for cheap thrills in this time of economic meltdown, Jo might just have the solution you’ve been looking for.

Adelaide Festival of Unpopular Music

As our favourite independent undeground venue in Adelaide, we of Hidden Village are proud to announce that we will be performing at the

Gallery De La Catessen once again!

Director, Luke Altmann writes of the festival that “April marks the end of the fourth year of musical activity at de la Catessen. To celebrate, a selection of musicians with a special emphasis on those working in Adelaide’s underground, experimental, and academic fields will present a series of concerts from April 12-23.

The performance schedule includes:
ALEKSANDR TSIBOULSKI & JACOB CORDOVER: Classical Guitars
DAVID KOTLOWY: prepared guitar, ruined piano, shakuhachi
ADE SUHARTO: dance
STEVEN KOTLOWY: bowed metallophones
DEREK PASCOE: saxophone
JASON SWEENEY with Tristan Louth-Robins: Panoptique Electrical
CHRISTIAN HAINES: technology
TRISTAN LOUTH-ROBINS: technology
MINIMAX featuring Luke Harrald (computers), Derek Pascoe (saxophone) and Chris Martin (piano)
BITCHES OF ZEUS, solo sets and trio by Daniel Varriccio, Patrick Saracino and Mourgos Grund
ADAM PAGE SOLO
HIDDEN VILLAGE

Hidden Village (little scale and cloud sparrow) have a substantial online following and are internationally recognised in the contemporary chiptune community. They are re-discoverers of common discarded and nostalgic electronic entertainment equipment such as atari, game-boy, and commodore-64, as well as inventors of the electro-acoustic laser and water instrument the toriton.

The closing concert of AFUM is one of Hidden Village’s major performances for 2009, and will feature a keyboard controlled walkman-melotron, singing bowls, and live VGA hacking.
- Luke Altmann, Gallery De La Catessen

Be there, or be somewhere else!
7:30, 23rd April 2009

Embroidery: monogram handkerchief

It was my beautiful older sister, Stacey’s, 29th birthday last week.  With a combination of lacking finances and newly-acquired embroidery skills, I decided to make her a small keepsake and put my rudimentary skills to use to make a monogrammed handkerchief.  I transferred the lettering in washable pencil, then backstitched the outline and finished by filling in with satin stitch.

I know it’s not really ‘done’ these days, but I’d like to think she likes it and perhaps tucks it away somewhere safe.  Or else uses it to wipe up her baby’s sick, or lets the kids tear it up beyond use – I don’t mind either way!

Easy vegan: chickpea dumpling soup

A couple of days ago my lovely friends, Karen and Simone, came over to help me get my motorbike back on the road. I decided to make some chickpea and tomato dumpling soup for lunch. It was a veganised, adulterated version of a recipe I found in the Family Circle “Complete Vegetarian Cookbook”. Seb and I have cooked this soup regularly, but I still always enjoy the results.

Ingredients:
oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp chilli powder
2 x 300g cans chickpeas
3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
2 x 425g cans chopped tomatoes
1 tbs chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 cup SR Flour
25g butter
2 tbs grated parmesan (I used soy cheese)
2 tbs mixed chopped herbs
3 tbs milk (I used extra water)

Method:
Heat the oil & cook the onion until soft.
Add the garlic, cumin, ground coriander and chilli & cook until fragrant.
Add the chickpeas, stock and tomato. Bring to the boil, the reduce and simer for 10 minutes. Add in the fresh coriander.
Dumplings:
Sift flour into a bowl.
Add chopped butter. Rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the cheese and herbs. Make a well in the centre and add water.
Combine, then divide into balls.
Add the dumplings to the soup, simmer for 20 minutes (covered).

Easy!

Wednesday craft: embroidery!

I’ve been feeling a little unwell of late and, as such, decided to cancel my intern shift at the Art Gallery of South Australia on Wednesday.  Rather than moping about I walked down to the local community library to find a good book to read.  And, boy, did I find good books!  One in particular that I happened to stumble upon was a step-by-step guide to creative (contemporary) embroidery.  So I went and stocked up on hoops, sharps and crewels, and got to teaching myself this new craft.

As you can see I’m still just teaching myself the rudimentary stitches and getting a feel for things.  But I’m excited as to what I might be able to achieve if I set my mind to it for long enough.

I’ve come to realise in the last few weeks that I am just not a fine artist.  For a long time this confused me and I tried desperately to maintain a fine art rigeur.  But I think I have come to accept and rejoice in the fact that I just work better as a craftsperson.  For me, being a fine artist means making work for the outcome of someone else (ie. gallery audiences).  Craft, on the other hand, is incredibly self absorbed.  I want a dress that looks and falls in a particular way, so I get my tools out and I make it.  For me.  For my needs.  For my own satisfaction.  I love being able to indulge myself in my own little creative world where, if I’m happy with the outcome, then everything is good!

So, with knowing that, I’ve decided to push myself to refine more of these skills and get more creative and more active – not for galleries or exhibitions, but for me.  Fortunately, there are so many people out there that have come to realise this for themselves and, in doing so, have created some of the most stunning websites I have seen.

On the other side of things, one of my most respected South Australian artists and art writers, Sera Waters, has formed her own path in recreating embroidery as fine art.  Her work is just spectacular!  See it here:

craft culture review: Sera Waters

Artroom 5: Sera Waters

Easy vegan: peanut butter cookies

I’ve been feeling under the weather this weekend so didn’t find time for any Sunday craft.  However, that didn’t stop me from indulging in some terribly unhealthy baking.  I opted for these tasty, coronary-clogging peanut butter cookies (as found at ChooseVeg) and, really, baking doesn’t get any easier!  Just take the ingredients shown in the image below, mix them together, roll into balls and bake.

The results? It feels like eating peanut butter out of the jar… if you added extra sugar and oil to the spoon.  Eating any more than one is sure to cause longterm health problems.  However, these cookies tick every comfort food box.

Yesterday, I thought of you.

As part of the ST5K festival (Adelaide) I’ve put together a little project of free art postcards.  If you’d like one, or if you’d like to know more about the project, head on over to:

www.yesterdayithoughtofyou.blogspot.com

Indie.

Australia’s repository for independent creative projects…

Good for: inspiration, suddenly realising half the day is gone.

http://www.indie.com.au/

Rain on the window.

The rain today is amazing.