Loading ...- Category:
- Soap Box
- Author:
- Phil Scott
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 25 February 2009
You know who I feel sorry for? Jack Brown, a Melbourne entrepreneur who moved to Sydney to take advantage of our new attempt to look cool. Brown has applied to open a Melbourne-style small wine bar near the Colombian and Gaslight hotels.
He sensibly wants two entrances: one on Oxford St and one in the laneway further up Crown (Little Oxford St). It seems like the way to go, considering the fanfare with which Clover and the City Council are promoting the idea of laneway bars.
Jack has my sympathy for two reasons. One: the laneway entrance has been knocked back. Apparently it would have a negative impact on the quality of life for neighbours.
Reality check, please? These neighbours live in the same block as two large pubs, one of which (the Colombian) has a dance area on the first floor. They also live adjacent to the busiest late-night strip in the city.
Their so-called quality of life is already established. The crunch of lime and pepper chips and the splash of sauvignon blanc are unlikely to add to the overall noise level.
In Melbourne I recently stayed in an inner-city apartment three storeys above a wine bar in Manchester Lane. There was a certain amount of hubbub on weekends, but it was nothing compared to the racket made by the garbage men at 5am.
I am also sorry for Jack because his cover has been blown: we published the address!
The entire point of Melbourne’s wine bars is that nobody knows where they are. They have no signage. They lurk behind unmarked doors at the end of dingy alleys. You have to navigate streams of rainwater and climb over skips full of debris to get to them.
And you never ask directions from the neighbours.
There are some terrific plays on during Mardi Gras. While this is partly because the current Arts Festival is carefully curated, it’s also the inevitable luck of the draw.
I saw Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at Parramatta Riverside last week. (Unfortunately, it has now closed.)
For Kushner, AIDS was as catastrophic as the Trojan Wars, so he wrote an epic about it. His achievement was to mix the personal in with the big picture. A noble piece of theatre, brilliantly performed in Alex Galeazzi’s production.
Downstairs at Belvoir St, still running, is Australian Lachlan Philpott’s play Bison. In our rush towards marriage, kids and suburbia, Bison and its visceral companion piece Natural Born Hooker remind us of the underbelly of gay life.
I’m not knocking mainstream values, but let’s acknowledge the gay men who don’t wish to mould their lives to a heterosexual template. The cast make a great fist of it. (Ahem.)
If you rarely go to live theatre, you should make this one of those rare occasions.
Tags: AIDS, Angels in America, Belvoir St, City of Sydney, Clover Moore, Colombian, Jack Brown, laneway bars, Mardi Gras, Phil Scott, wine-bars
