The Good, The Bad and the ugly- July 2013

The Good:

Yes, well... we have all heard about it, some of us have gone to it and in case you do not know, it is still on for a couple more days until the 17th of July!   Yes, I am talking about the group exhibition I am in,  'Together Again with more Friends', at Steps Gallery (62 Lygon St, South Carlton, Victoria, Australia). Daily from 11am until 5pm.

I will be manning the gallery this Sunday if you want to pop in and say hello.

I am humbled to have sold over half of my pieces! So get down and see what all the fuss is about! A huge thanks to all that helped out at the opening, especially my mates Dean and Eduardo, their help really made the day a success!

Here are a couple of photos of some of my art work and I, taken by the fabulous Ric!

 Ever the serious artists...... actually the truth is, I just never smile for the camera.

The Bad:  Hipstergeddon!!!!

Yep, last Monday, Northcote, Thornbury and some other (not so cool) suburbs, had a major power black out for 6 or so hours, lasting until just after midnight! In my area, we did not even have street lights or traffic lights! It was very eerie. Being Northside and being a hipster haven... twitter went mad and here are some of the tweets that I thought to be humorous!

Tweets courtesy of The Flack

-Van Badham @vanbadham: OMG WHAT INSTA FILTER DO YOU USE IN A BLACKOUT?! #hipstergeddon

-Johan @johanson_anders: Is it raining soy-substitute blood yet in Thornbury? #hipstergeddon

-Joey JoJo Jr Shabado @Straffo: It’s quiet now, #hipstergeddon. This is merely while they fashion their flat iPhones & iPads into crude weapons to use in the coming attack.

-Gordon Knight @KankiKnight: Knog lights being distributed to yarn bombers to keep their crucial work going #hipstergeddon

-Lol @wordhappylol: Relief for #hipstergeddon victims as free replacement beanies are handed out at a secret pop-up laneway location

-Timothy Zeven @Zevensoft: I let my iPhone battery die as a sign of solidarity to those in Northcote #hipstergeddon

-Alli Campbell @CampbellAlli: Hipsters attempting to cross the blackout border. Met by placards reading “GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM” #hipstergeddon

-Marc Clancy @clangaz: iPhone battery 2% If I don’t make it through the night tell my naturopath I love him. #hipstergeddon

-Benjamin Solah @benjaminsolah: iPhone nearly dead. Don’t think I’ll make it. Promise to publish my zine about fixies posthumously #hipstergeddon

-Joseph Miller @joffotron: My brothers and sisters still in the grip of the #hipstergeddon, as your batteries die, your voices may be silent but you are not forgotten.



Do Hipsters watch Q & A? these tweets suggest so....

-Mike Nicholson @Mikey_Nicholson: How could #hipstergeddon happen the same night as @TurnbullMalcolm is on #qanda?!? THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON.

-AlBay @AlisterBayston: If #qanda is broadcast but Northcote is in #blackout, does anybody see it? #hipstergeddon #ifatreefalls

-Declan Fay @declanf: Northern suburbs filled with high pitched desperate screams, as residents cry their #qanda tweets into darkness. #hipstergeddon

Lastly, The Hearld Sun newspaper lead their story on the power outage with: "ELECTRICITY became too mainstream for Melbourne hipsters last night."




The Ugly: Referring to oneself in the third person.

My work place has a 'back entrance' to a local cafe, which sees everyone from my quite large workplace, funnel in for coffees and food all day long.. a cash cow, if there ever was one....Recently, as I walked through the special entrance to the cafe to order a much needed morning coffee, I spied a work colleague, intimately holding hands with some new man and looking all googly eyes at him... I stared in disbelief as I walked past them and thought, I get this is a public cafe, but it is one used by work and 90% of the clientele are work people......seriously, is this appropriate? (rhetorical question!).

Anyway, on my way back through, Jane (lets just call her that), saw me and things went a little like this:

Jane, smiling broadly - 'oh, Hi!'

Me, Glaring and putting on a forced smile and a furrowed brow 'Hi'

Jane - 'This is my new man..... ' she said as she gazed off into space...

Me puzzled, but with brow still furrowed, 'Didn't you just break up with someone, like... 2 days ago?
(Do I need to state that I was direct?)

Jane- 'yeah.....Jane is so happy right now' (yes that is right, she referred to herself in the third person!)

Me , quick as a whip and angry as all hell 'DID YOU JUST REFER TO YOURSELF IN THE THIRD PERSON?

Jane, still smiling idiotically... 'yes'...

Me, shaking my head disapprovingly from side to side, as my eyes almost popped themselves out of my head in anger- 'THAT HAS TO STOP! THAT IS NOT OK!'

At which point I turned on my heels and furiously stormed back off to work.

I don't know what was worse, referring to herself in the third person, or being all lovey-dovey in a space which is practically a work cafe... and doing it whilst surrounded by single people! who want to be in a relationship, but are tragically still single....... and yes, matthew is talking about matthew!



Photographs copyright Ric 2013, Art works copyright matthew schiavello 2013