Live overdubbed cinema depends to some extent on the films being used, and their ripeness for satire. Hard to go wrong then, with the cartoon-like post-apocalyptic worlds of the Mad Max trilogy, currently being pulled part at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, hot on the heels of it’s Sydney roasting.

The Dub Team
Writers and directors : Zoe Coombs Marr, Eddie Sharp.
Live Foley Sound Effects : Lil O’Neil and Blaine Cooper
Whenever Max spoke onscreen : Eytan Messiah
Whenever a female spoke on screen ( eg Tina Turner ) : Zoe Coombs Marr
Whenever anyone else spoke onscreen : Eddie Sharp ( including many accent gear-changes )

Previous Credits : The Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory Remix

And So..
Wander into Bar Open, Brunswick st Fitzroy before April 26, drift upstairs into that weird carpetted split-room that usually hosts clusters of experimental musicians, to discover a vaguely cinematic setting. Up-high, a screen to display an edited highlights package of the Mad Max trilogy, which will showcase over the hour, various re-composited scenes, super-imposed characters, various pop cultural inserts and a grab bag of editing tricks ( eg a wounded Mel Gibson crawling along the road, re-edited to suggest a dance sequence ). While nowhere near Soda Jerk in scale ( see their gargantuan remix efforts ), there’s still a considerable amount of work involved here, in retwisting the various Mad Max threads to suit the remaker’s new premise : Maxas a5 year old, dreams of being a dancer, and one day being accepted into Tina Turner’s Bartertown Dance Academy ( aka the thunderdome gladiator to the death set of the trilogy’s final chapter ).

Underneath the screen @ Bar Open, sit 3 microphone holding characters, faces lit by the tv monitor they take their cues from. And to their side, a pair of foley artists stand amidst a junkyard of soundmaking debris ( a lettuce to punch for fight scenes, a toy car with toy siren, various instruments, bells, gongs, a vacuum cleaner tube to emulate a V8 muffler, paper to rustle etc etc ). The edits flow thick and fast, leaping from film to film, all sense of the original film’s chronology dismissed in the servicing of the new narrative. And to their credit, the journey of Max to the dance academy mostly flows well, despite the consistent leaping between different eras of Max’s life ( y’know – before and after some unthinkable big catastrophe like an economic meltdown / global market collapse ).

The new lines being delivered live, to suit the on-screen edits, are for the most part hilarious and the obvious enjoyment in the faces of the microphone wielding folk on stage, adds nicely to the show. The glee with which the foley artists mangle their vegetables and ‘molest their balloons’ doesn’t hurt either. And the new script they’ve crafted is quite playful, characters shifting through quite a range of accents, scenarios and surreal possibilities ( time travelling cops, playing with the age of Max, and gay bdsm and feral raver parodies which’d seem almost inevitable ), and pockets of improvisation ( including many references to Mel Gibson’s recent divorce announcements ). And yet, the cult status and over the top of absurdity of the films themselves, clearly evident in the assorted cinematography presented, leave the remix feeling ‘not quite there’. An awesome first draft maybe, and very enjoyable, but needing to sharpen it’s claws somewhat before properly savaging that worthy flesh.

Update : Mad Max, the 2005 breakbeat remix, via toby *spark in the comments.

Sydney’s development laws and rental costs make any new arts space something worth celebrating. The scope of the artist and activist run Red Rattler, makes it doubly so, now offering in a converted Marrickville warehouse, a ‘creative playground for performers, musicians, artists, designers, multi-media makers, experimentalists, film-makers, theorists, activists, and collective organisers’. Penelope Benton is understandably excited:

What was the catalyst or the final straw which inspired the ambitious Red Rattler plan into motion?
The shut down of LanFranchis and the close of Space3 were the big ones, on top of a big list of artist run initiatives (Squatspace, Phatspace, Gallery Wren, Imperial Slacks, The Wedding Circle, Mekanarky Studios, Knot Gallery and just this year Gallery 44, and Medium,Rare) that’ve been forced to close in the last decade due to developers, landlord trouble, rental increases, neighbour complaints and other systematic shut downs including government and council regulations that make building compliance inaccessible and impossible for non-profit artist run spaces.

The constant police appearances, shut downs and fine threats were exhausting. Our events didn’t fit into pubs and clubs, we couldn’t afford other spaces, and the atmosphere was all wrong. So a group of us (five women: Meredith Williams, Patsy Black, Teresa Avila, NDY and myself) got together and started talking about ideas for a permanent space, a legal independent creative playground. We knew that the kind of budget and workload required to set up a legal space under today’s legislation would be huge and investing that into a rental was risky, so we emptied our pockets, shelved our personal dreams, harnessed the security that comes from working full time for 10-15 years, and collectively bought a warehouse in industrial Marrickville.

Is there something of a resurgence in artist run spaces in Sydney now?
Spaces open, run for a while, then get shut down and people spend some time feeling loss and remorse then start getting active and open up new spaces, its a cycle. In Marrickville, there is a buzz of new spaces brewing incorporating artists studios and one-off events. There are five or six ARIs currently looking into establishing themselves as legal places of public entertainment, rather than exclusive galleries, there are a few galleries already, but it is a bit difficult to get people to come to the inner west for art on the wall, don’t know why, but they do come out here for performance nights, film screenings, workshops, and sound or music events.

What have been some of the biggest challenges in setting up the space?
In NSW you need a POPE (place of public entertainment) license to host an event in a space. This legislation, full of exorbitant fire safety compliance, toilet quantities, and disability access requirements is the killer. Dissecting the BCA (Building Code of Australia) is a nightmare, funding it is horrifying and currently there is no support network for helping ARIs through this process. This is by far, the biggest challenge we faced. After months of research, a zillion meetings with Council, external consultants, and certifiers, our set up costs doubled.

We project managed the process ourselves and completed much of the work ourselves (electrical, carpentry, tiling, plasterboarding, general building works) with an incredible amount of help and support from friends and family. It was hard and overwhelming, but we did get through, our DA was approved in November, our approved construction certificate in Dec and received our Occupancy Certificate in March this year, so we’re now legal, yay, we’re very excited.

Our latest challenge is wearing the ongoing strain of extra set up costs and not being able to run properly yet – we applied for a liquor license under the new state laws that came into effect in July last year and were advised this would be a thirty-day process, however after almost ninety days now, we’re still waiting.

What’s the Red Rattler plan for “running the space largely on renewable water and energy sources”?
The Red Rattler has a five-year eco-sustainability plan – we’ve installed water wall tanks for rain water catchment and have low-flush toilets throughout the venue. We’ve fitted low-energy lighting and power systems including LED stage lighting rig and low-wattage light fittings throughout the bar, toilets, theatre space and rooftop garden. We’ve installed whirly birds in the roof and smoke exhaust vents that double as air vents in the ceiling, which we opted for instead of air-conditioning. We hope to install solar panels to our roof down the track to ensure maximum use of green power, with a vision to feed power back to the grid. Plus our bar stock will include local, organic, and preservative-free products. We’re taking a 50c eco-tax off door tix, or for free gigs we ask punters to donate 50c as they come in to contribute to this sustainability plan.

As a member of a Artist Run space, what do you think of the proposal to spend $1billion dollars to upgrade the Opera house?
Injecting even a bit of this sort of budget into a support organization for ARIs and non-profit performance spaces would completely revamp this city. Firstly the POPE legislation needs to be revised for like spaces. Then we need a service to guide artists and small businesses through DA and BCA processes, and a funding program for fire safety and toilet upgrades. Even if funding came with a condition that once you did start to make profit, from running a bar lets say, you paid back into the fund to support new non-profit creative spaces. A sustainable grant program. Sounds great!

Upcoming events you’re looking forward to at the Red Rattler?
PERV – Queerotic Film Festival Apr 23, The Box Brownie Flash (celebrating AV in performance art ) Apr 24 and much, much more~!
( see redrattler.org for full list )

Syd-Arts Related URLs provide by Penny :
http://www.myspace.com/tortugastudios
http://www.myspace.com/dirtyshirlows
http://www.billandgeorge.org
http://quarterbred.blogspot.com/
http://www.cadfactory.com.au/
http://www.officialsydney.com
http://www.workshopshowroom.org
http://quarterbred.blogspot.com/
http://www.figureight.org
http://www.blackandbluegallery.com
http://www.rizzeria.com/

Or : a journey through time and space, via the humble hyperlink. A recent post at onlinejournalismblog.com reminded me how important links are for online interaction, and yet how often they are overlooked or under appreciated by less savvy web writers / publishers. Obviously links are economically important (more in-bound links for a site = a higher google ranking), but there’s also a significant social dimension to links. Why do the better sites take a lot of effort to ensure they reference their ideas, and provide links to everything they mention? Sure, they understand it often means the site linked to, will often link back to them – but more importantly, it helps make the web function better for everybody. As illustrated by the following single link :

“Web Comic Guru Interviewed”
What we have here is a talkshow host who thinks impersonating a hyperactive foghorn is a good interviewing style. Thankfully the guest, web comic artist Nicholas Gurewitch manages to avoid being steamrollered and retains some integrity throughout. Mostly this is of interest, if you’re familiar with his comic Perry Bible Fellowship, which has recently made the transition from adored web comic into sold-out-book-and-people-are-knocking-at-my-door-for-movie-scripts-etc. But it also serves the purpose of letting us explore the social value of links. Where did the video come from?

10zenmonkeys.com
The above video link was within a post that explored the PBF rise to fame, and discussed the reasons for Gurewitch’s recent lack of web-activity ( hey – a pilot tv show for British TV, remastering the book for re-prints, working on a feature script etc – keeps you busy! ). I’m not subscribed to the monkey site, but I found it through a subscription to :

Waxy.org/links
Waxy.org is the site of Andy Baio, a software developer, whose steady stream of eclectic ( well, eclectic within the mostly tech/online ballpark ) and succinct links and commentary quickly found its way into my RSS feeds. Where did that come from?

Kottke.org
The Kottke radar stretches out to include the design world, the arts, cinema, tv, with perioidic snapshot reminders that the world is a very strange place. Although posts are longer than waxy’s, they are similarly succinct, regularly appearing and well written, drawing the reader into merits of a particular topic. At one point, Jason Kottke’s popularity could be measured by a one weekend donation drive, where he asked his readers to donate, so that he could concentrate on blogging links full-time and gave up his designer job for a year. He raised an annual income in one weekend, but later returned to design work, claiming the paid responsibility of blogging changed it’s nature for him. Found via:

Boingboing.net
“A directory of many things”, co-curated by a busy bunch, each contributing their particular thread-flows of interest. Pointed to many mooons ago by:

alexburns.net
After a certain number of emails were ping-ponged, projects were intersected ( ask him about DIY rocket-launchers ), and because he was the Australian based editor of:

disinfo.com
Back in the pre-corporate mall days of the web, this site emerged as a repository of alternative culture / politics / weirdness in general, albeit weighed down by a conspiratorial component ( the overall mix kept it worthwhile though, and nice being kept on your toes ). Founder of the site, Richard Metzger produced a cool spin-off TV series at one point, and is currently guest blogging on boingboing ( noticeably ramping up their weirdness ratios). Found via…

marcuswestbury.net
Marcus was one my the earliest pingers of links, and although his current site is relatively fresh ( and not where I would’ve discovered disinfo.com), I’ll credit him as the first link in the chain here, given his infamy as a 20th century bean-cans-and-string-modem-type-hacker.

Whether it’s the economic downturn, your choice of looming eco-pocalypses or just a desire for healthy food, there’s plenty of reasons why interest in growing your own food has recently skyrocketed.

Guerrilla Gardening
‘Anyone interested in the war against neglect and scarcity of public space as a place to grow things’ can browse through the photos and stories at guerrillagardening.org, which show a variety of reclaiming / replanting projects from all over the world by teenagers to grandmothers and all in between. And remarkably in Australia, this process has recently been documented on prime time television ( watch episodes, vote on the best guerrilla member etc ). Inevitably there are stylistic choices made to try and fit into prime-time television (( Welcome to the show where six young warriors are armed to the teeth with attitude and gardening tools …. the six Guerrillas will stop at nothing to reach a potential site – they will abseil, rope and parkour (picture the opening scene of Casino Royale) to get to the make-over site on a 20 foot high ledge… )), but still it’s quite remarkable to see channel ten producing such a show, with it’s tagline : ‘Against the law? Guerrilla Gardeners – bringing your city back to life’. Interestingly, while most online feedback was highly supportive, the negative responses tended to be people annoyed that the show seemed a ‘blatant rip-off’ of the site and group mentioned above. Aside from Tony J that is, who added his caps locked two cents, “They should be given 3 months jail each. It is ENVIRONMENTAL GRAFITTI.”

Permaculture In Cities

“When I first went to New York, I helped start a little herb-farm in the South Bronx. The land was very cheap there because there was no power, no water, no police, and there were tons of drugs. This little farm grew to supply eight percent of New York’s herbs. There are now 1,100 city farms in New York.”

- Bill Mollison, who along with David Holmgren, founded Permaculture in Australia in the 1970’s.

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in the natural ecologies ( thanks Wikipedia!), and started with Mollison’s realisation that no one had ever applied design to agriculture. “We’d had agriculture for 7,000 years, and we’d been losing for 7,000 years — everything was turning into desert. So I wondered, can we build systems that obey ecological principles?”

Some of these principles include looking at a whole system, observing how the parts relate, mimicking patterns in nature, layered stacking ( growing tall, medium, and low plants together to maximise the effectiveness of shade, pollination, watering and mulching), valuing diversity etc.

Transforming That Garden Plot
Sometimes a helping hand or seven can help springboard a garden into bountiful existence much quicker. A little planning and preparation and a group of people can gather together and focus on one garden at a time, taking turns to do a quick day’s work-over on someone’s backyard. This can happen between friends easily enough, but it’s also the insight being used to drive the hugely popular permablitz.net – once you’ve donated time to help other gardens get a kick-start, you qualify to have your garden selected as the one where a team of gardeners will come and re-jig it all in one day.

And an even less DIY approach, some of the permablitz crew have started veryediblegardens.com, recognising the usefulness of having the option for having people come to install a raised vegie-patch kit for you. “Package deals come to suit every price range, from DIY edging kits, through to soil-filled, fully planted packages with pest netting and an automatic timer-driven drip-irrigation system installed.”

Actually Growing That Food Stuff Yourself
Seasonal planting guides abound, these are two good ones.
Healthy soil is an important part of every good garden and making a good compost heap will help that process tremendously eg http://www.milkwood.net/content/view/53/50/