Card locked!

The last couple of weeks have flown by, relatively unchecked. You see, I thought my camera was broken. 'Card locked!' it screamed at me every time I tried to use it, even after my repeated attempts to fix it by turning it off and on again. So I worked at Golden Plains and only managed a few iphone photos - which frankly, don't cut it.



It's not as if there wasn't stuff to take photos of. For instance, when Beci and I had a few drinks and went on the ferris wheel.



We were seated in a carriage thing with these two, Mel (I think!?) and Jamie, he of Architecture in Helsinki fame (the band). They were really nice, big fans of Raph's burgers and even had bought some of my jeans! We had so much in common! We stalked them for a while afterwards.



Good view of the place from that ferris wheel.



Closer view of the stage while Os Mutantes played. They were pretty good, but it did seem like they were a bunch of session musicians playing Os Mutantes songs. That's what my friend Jamie from Architecture in Helsinki thought anyway, and I agreed with him.



The vast majority of my time was, of course, spent working in the Beatbox. We killed it.



I was tired for a whole week after that. Then one day, I was lamenting to Scottie about my camera's 'Card locked!' horror story when he grabbed it, flicked a tiny switch on the memory card and made it work again. 'Amateur move, Maxi'.

Hallelujah! I could take photos at my work's national conference day at our new office in Collingwood! This is the crowd giving Penny and I their undivided attention as we launch into our talk.



Penny gave a great, impassioned talk on writing, which everyone asked for notes on afterwards. 'Tell it, don't sell it' and 'think of the third thing' were amongst the inspirational highlights. I gave a talk about taking photos of a grey bag, which was slightly less awe-inspiring.



After we finished up with the talking and the listening, we started on the drinking and the skating.



Penny was really into it!



Here's a letter from Bob Hawke's secretary after a young Penny suggested Australia and the rest of the world would function better without money.



Scottie came along to our dinner, where we sampled a cocktail called the 'Karate Kid'.



Here's Rachel, putting on some lipstick, or lip balm perhaps.



The night culminated at our very own karaoke room, where Frunch had dressed as Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Barrie dressed as himself. I had never sung karaoke before, and kicked it off with a duet with Scottie of 'Be with you' by Mr Big.



Penny is quite the consummate karaoke pro, with impressive performances of several numbers throughout the evening. The crowd loved her 'Livin' on a Prayer'.



This is Alex from Sydney, a great chap. Not to be confused with Alex from Melbourne.



Kane was also a very impressive performer. There's Wilfred in the background, and the other Max, the one who knows about money.



It was our Alex's goodbye night from work, as he's off to New York to live, the bastard!



Another karaoke pro, Rosie gave a beautiful, ego-warming rendition of 'Stand by your man', though she complained the version they had was in a different key to the original.



The next day, Bonnie Bee had her first birthday in the park! Olivia celebrated by carrying Bonnie on her head.



Both Bonnie's parents turned up, which was a relief to everyone.



Cake time!



Cool kids, chillin' on the bench, hatchin' plans.



Some guys performin'

Photography

'What's been happening?' I hear you ask. Well, Ben was here last week, but you'd know that already from watching my hard-hitting debut into the world of hard-hitting documentaries.

'What else has been happening, though?', I ask myself, since I can't hear you ask anything anymore. Well Scottie and I did a quick camera-off the other day, just to test the relative merits of our equipment. First off, my portrait of Scottie:



Next up, Scottie's photo of me. With this evidence in front of me, I admit it could be time for an upgrade.



In the razor department, that is! Speaking of photography, Stuart helped me create a piece of art for an exhibition to raise funds for the Lost Dogs Home.



It's a photo of Tess running! This is the first layer of printing on the Risograph machine, which is a sort of colourful photocopier.



Stuart changed the ink cartridge thing and we printed a pink layer on top of the teal, creating a wonderful picture that will hopefully sell and look great on someone's wall, reminding them of the joy of life, like Tess does to me every day when we go walking.

The show is at Somewhere gallery on Wednesday night from 6.



Speaking of shows, Conor was back for a flying visit, to open his new show at Block Projects. Go and check out that big icy rock picture, among others.



Across town again, The Selby aka Todd Selby was doing a talk to launch his book of photos of people's houses. Tom weirdly managed to be next to both Todd and Conor in my photos. Good on him.



The talk was well attended, due to Todd's huge fame and popularity, but also probably a lot to do with the incredible interview I did with him only days beforehand.



The inevitable outcome of attending numerous art events is you wind up getting a bit tipsy and having adventures with these characters.



The next morning, I awoke and made Rosie and myself a cup of tea. While waiting for it to brew, I performed a Selby style photo shoot of our house. Here's the couch area, where we watch TV and guests sleep on (sometimes at the same time).



Here's Tessy having a little sleep.



My portrait of Sam, situated in the toilet.



More toilet action.



Another loungeroom shot, complete with our original Marc Baker piece.



Fridge time.



Stooge.



Old herbs and condiments - in the kitchen, no less.



Larger spoons and cooking utensils.



Some glasses. Note the smaller ones with ships on them, which I enjoy a snifter of Jamesons on ice from on occasion.



During the shoot, Tess switched positions from the rocking chair to the couch, just keeping in line with the morning sun. The tea was lovely.



I must have been a tad hungover, as we went for an epic skate and I forgot to take any photos, save this one of Marcelle buying a cake.



And this amazing barbecue made of cake, complete with smoke!

What's up? with Ben Ventress

Ben came over for a day or two earlier this week. We went for a breezy skate at Coburg and Reservoir, then met the gang at the Gasometer for dinner and drinks. It was good to get the band back together. It also presented me with the opportunity to begin my series of probing documentaries based on my friends: 'What's up? with Max'(Tom J came up with the name for the series).