[JUST ABOUT NOW IS A COLLECTION OF THINGS HAPPENING IN OUR SPACES & PLACES, PHYSICAL & DIGITAL, intersecting PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE, CULTURE, COMMUNITY & CREATIVITY into the NOW. STITCHED TOGETHER BY GEROME FOR WSKRA.COM]
“The Yoorrook Justice Commission, represented by the design at the centre of the logo, is central to the truth telling for injustices for First Nations people and in turn is central to making recommendations for healing, system reform and practical changes to laws, policy and education.
“The circles represent meeting and community and they are connected through the songlines of culture and understanding.”
COMMUNITY. Apology to the Stolen Generations | Victoria Police’s acknowledgement and apology to the Stolen Generations (May 2024)
FILM. Perfect Days (2023) by Wim Wenders
“Now… is now. Next time is… next time.”:–Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho). Now Showing
MUSIC. 2003. Perfect Day by Lou Reed | BBC Two. “Lou Reed performs Perfect Day with Antony Hegarty, on Later… with Jools Holland in 2003.”
MUSIC. 1965. Feeling Good by Nina Simone | MMPF Music Makes People Free
INTERVIEW. Kōji Yakusho on finding happiness in simplicity, Perfect Days, and working with Wim Wenders | Q with Tom Power (March 2024). “The Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho is prolific, from his roles in Japanese films to parts in American movies like Memoirs of a Geisha and Babel. This year, Kōji won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders. He tells Tom about his rise in film and TV, how working with renowned director Wim Wenders showed him the fun of filmmaking, and what Perfect Days can teach you about happiness.”
Perfect Days review – Wim Wenders’s zen Japanese drama is his best feature film in years (February 2024) | The Guardian | Wendy Ide
MUSIC. LIVE. Ben Howard at The Palais, St Kilda, Saturday 25 May and Sunday 26 May 2024.
MUSIC. 2021. Ben Howard – Every Kingdom (live)
MUSIC. 2014.Ben Howard’s breathtaking performance of End of the Affair | Later… With Jools Holland | BBC
MUSIC. 2012. Ben Howard performing “Depth Over Distance” Live on KCRW
“Howard plays guitar left-handed and sometimes plays right-handed guitars upside down. He also has a distinctive percussive strumming style, called the “pick and go” and Howard’s method of laying the guitar flat on top of his knees and playing it percussively was influenced by contemporary folk songwriter and guitarist John Smith.”:–Wikipedia
PLACE. 1914. Palais Theatre, St Kilda
COMMUNITY. “Every day of the year, Sacred Heart Mission assists hundreds of people who are experiencing homelessness or disadvantage to find shelter, food, care and support. Sacred Heart Mission are strong supporters of the Indigenous and LGBTIQA+ community.”:–SHM
COMMUNITY. GASTRONOMY. Wednesday 15 May 2024 at the Palais Theatre, Dine With Heart with Sacred Heart Mission
COMMUNITY. PARTY. Friday 31 May 2024 at Captain Baxter, St Kilda Sea Baths, Groove With Heart with Sacred Heart Mission
Don’t miss a beat:
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DOCUMENTARY. Victorian Pride Centre | Spaces Of Becoming | Toby Reed, Anna Nervegna. Presented by the Department of Design, Monash Art, Design and Architecture. Monday 27 May 2024, 5.30pm–7.30pm.
ART. DESIGN. ARCHITECTURE. Melbourne Design Week, 23 May–02 June 2024
ART. The Huxleys: Bad Influences, Performance–Artist Talk, Victorian Pride Centre, Thursday 30 May 2024 6pm. “The Huxleys perform and speak about the work that has inspired them along with their views on legacy and art history.”
“At the moment we feel that we are fortunate enough to be in a position where we are able to make Art–and to live our lives as we do–and it’s almost our obligation to keep making Art and keep being radical.”–Will & Garrett Huxley, 30 May 2024
ART. Style Over Substance | The Huxleys. National Portrait Gallery (2020)
ART. The Huxleys | National Portrait Gallery
DOCUMENTARY. The Huxleys; ‘Things are changing, which is really beautiful’ | Portrait Story
Electric Fields on their unlikely journey to Eurovision: ‘I’m ready to prove a point’ | The Guardian | James Norman
MUSIC. COMMUNITY. Electric Fields – Mardi Gras Live Performance 2021 from the Sydney Cricket Ground
MUSIC. NOW. Vanessa Williams – Legs (Keep Dancing) [Official Music Video]. Behind The Scenes
2015. Vanessa Williams on Returning to Miss America After Scandal | ABC News. Vaneaaa Williams gets Miss America Apology 32 years later
THEATRE. Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell, ends Saturday 4 May at Theatre Works, 14 Acland St. “Featuring renowned screen and stage actor Belinda McClory, and directed by award-winning director Kitan Petkovski, Things I Know To Be True is about loving too much, not loving enough and trying to find the right place in between.”–TW
In Conversation With Kitan Petkovski (April 2024) | Theatre Works.
kitanpetkovski.com
MUSIC. COMMUNITY. The Peptides at the Bowlo (St Kilda Sports Club), Sunday 5 May 2024, 5pm–7.30pm… and every first Sunday of the month, same time, same place, till they drop dead. Don’t miss them.
ART. Gavin Brown Grand Tour, at 45 Downstairs, Saturday 27 April to Saturday 4 May 2024. “An ongoing theme in my work is the fascination of collage and assemblage. I have been trying to work out how I could use actual oil on canvas cut-outs to create a new language.”:–Gavin Brown gavinbrown.com.au
PLACE. 2022. Theatre Works Explosives Factory, Rear Laneway 67 Inkerman Street
COMMUNITY. Let’s Keep Explosives Factory Open For Indie Artists. “I am inviting you to join us in supporting the future of local independent artists by investing in our little venue that is making a big splash–Explosives Factory.”:–Dianne Toulson
Don’t miss an act:
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THEATRE. 2024. I Have No Enemies directed by Christopher Samuel Carroll (Bare Witness Theatre Co.), was at Theatre Works Explosives Factory in April 2024.
Explosive cscarroll.com barewitnesstheatre.com
PLACE. 1926. The Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron building on the St Kilda foreshore. Learn to sail at the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron.
MUSIC. 2023. Enter: Shikari | 6 songs live in the studio (2023) | 2 Meter Sessions
First things first: satellites* * for all lovers still in the closet.
MUSIC. 2024. Enter: Shikari | live at AB Ancienne Belgique (2024)
INTERVIEW. 2023. Enter Shikari Sunday Brunch Interview 2023 | Channel 4
PLACE. 1861. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 1968. “The opening of the current NGV International building in 1968, marked the beginning of the Conservation department as it is today. In his building plans, Roy Grounds included a dedicated space for conservation of the collection, an area still occupied by the department today.”:–NGV
“The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia’s oldest and most visited art museum.
“The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two sites: NGV International, located on St Kilda Road in the Melbourne Arts Precinct of Southbank, and the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, located nearby at Federation Square. The NGV International building, designed by Sir Roy Grounds, opened in 1968, and was redeveloped by Mario Bellini before reopening in 2003. It houses the gallery’s international art collection and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.
“The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, designed by Lab Architecture Studio, opened in 2002 and houses the gallery’s Australian art collection.
“A third site, The Fox: NGV Contemporary, is planned to open in 2028, and will be Australia’s largest contemporary gallery.”:–Wikipedia
ART. Yayoi Kusama | Japan, at NGV International, opens 15 December 2024, tickets on sale from 22 April 2024. “A major highlight of the exhibition will be an impressive assembly of Kusama’s iconic immersive installations, including her infinity rooms that ingeniously use mirrors to create the visual illusion of infinite space. A new, never-before-seen kaleidoscopic infinity mirror room, currently in development especially for the exhibition, will make its global premiere in Melbourne.”:–NGV
ART. 2017. Yayoi Kusama | Flower Obsession, NGV Triennial 2017.
PLACE. 1859. St Kilda Botanical Gardens, Blessington St, St Kilda. “St Kilda Botanical Gardens are a botanical garden located in the suburb St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. Located on the former site of a gravel pit and rubbish dump, they were formally gazetted on 28 September 1859 and opened in 1861. In October 2010 City of Port Phillip provided funds for the design of four distinctive new gates, to celebrate the gardens’ 150th anniversary. The gates were installed on Tennyson, Dickens and Herbert Streets. They were designed and sculpted by designer/blacksmith David Wood of Bent Metal.”:–Wikipedia
COMMUNITY. ART. Bent Metal by David Wood
COMMUNITY. PHOTOGRAPHY. Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqua) by Timms Holden, St Kilda Botanical Gardens. “The Garden is open between sunrise and sunset seven days a week and the conservatory is open between 10.30am and 3.30pm all weekdays and from dawn to dusk Saturday to Sunday and on public holidays.”–City of Port Phillip
ILLUSTRATION. 1885. Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqua). “Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885, Gera, Germany. Permission granted to use under GFDL by Kurt Stueber.”:–Commons
ART | PAINTING. 1997. Areca Palm (Areca catechu) by Emmanuel L. Cordova (watercolour on acid free paper, 1997) | Shirley Sherwood Collection, Kew Gardens
PLACE. COMMUNITY. 1912. Luna Park, St Kilda. “With over 100 years of memories at our iconic St Kilda location, Luna Park is undoubtedly the most well known and loved of the theme parks Victoria has to offer. More than just some of the most exciting rides in Melbourne, Luna Park has seen many changes over a 100-year history, with highs, lows and of course many new rides installed throughout the decades. Take a step back in time and view over 100 years of history, rides and laughs within Luna Park Melbourne, including incredible footage of the Park opening in St Kilda back in 1912.”:–Luna Park
MUSIC. 2024. Beirut – Live at Tempodrom, Berlin – ARTE Concert (filmed 17 February 2024). “Mené par Zach Condon, Beirut libère toute la puissance émotionnelle de sa musique sur la scène du Tempodrom, à Berlin. Une performance à la fois sensible et puissante portée par Hadsel, album paru en 2023.”:–ARTE
MUSIC. Hadsel (2023) by Beirut
MUSIC. 2015. Beirut Full Concert | NPR Music Front Row. “When Condon’s Beirut first came to prominence in 2006, it emerged from Santa Fe with a fully conceived, pan-global folk sound unlike any indie sensibilities popular on the day. Zach’s trumpet and flugelhorn playing was informed by local Mexican mariachi horns, his engagement with the Roma brass bands of the Balkans, and modal jazz changes via a percolating bossa nova; he favored timeless instruments (ukuleles, accordions) and images, to the rush of the modern; and the songs his quavering tenor delivered, also traveled the old continents. Live, the group grew into a formidable sextet, heavy on keyboards, horns and harmony, a world onto themselves.”:–NPR
MUSIC. 2009. Beirut | Soirée de Poche #10. Produced by Stances & La Blogothèque
PLACE. 2015. Alex [Vass] Theatre, St Kilda
FILM | SHORTS. St Kilda Film Festival 2024, Thursday 6 June to Sunday 16 June 2024, Alex Theatre [mostly]
PLACE. 1980. Theatre Works, Acland St, St Kilda
THEATRE. You’re Being Dramatic by Zadie Kennedy McCracken, ends Saturday 4 May at Theatre Works Explosives Factory (Rear Laneway 67 Inkerman Street). “Darkly funny and deeply moving, You’re Being Dramatic is a devastating and beautiful new play from emerging writer/director Zadie Kennedy Mccracken, exploring intimacy, queer identity, patriarchy, and the agony of unfulfilled desire.”–TW
THEATRE. He by Rodrigo Calderón, Tuesday 7 May to Saturday 18 May at Theatre Works Explosives Factory (Rear Laneway 67 Inkerman Street). “Conceived, written and performed by Salvadoran-Australian theatre practitioner Rodrigo Calderón, He is physical, vivid and delirious storytelling, with a cumbia heart-beat. The performances on Friday 10 and Friday 17 will be in Spanish without English surtitles.”–TW
PLACE. 1986. Linden New Art, Acland St
Art Saves Lives:
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ART | PHOTOGRAPHY. TECHNOLOGY. Mirage by Aaron Christopher Rees, until Sunday 19 May 2024
COMMUNITY. ARTIST TALK. Pictured: Aaron Rees & Vincent Alessi in conversation at Linden New Art, Saturday 20 April 2024
INTERVIEW. Dr Vincent Alessi | New Life For A Gallery | The Art Hunter | Episode 60
PLACE. 1990. Malthouse Theatre, Sturt St, Southbank
THEATRE. Homo Pentecostus by Joel Bray, from Friday 10 May to Saturday 25 May 2024, at Malthouse Theatre
PLACE. 1983. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. “ACCA was established in 1983 and moved in 2002 to a purpose-built, award-winning architectural building designed by Wood Marsh at the heart of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. This consolidated ACCA’s position as a leading centre for contemporary art and a beloved platform for our diverse community of local, regional, national and international artists, curators, audiences, colleagues and collaborators.”:–ACCA
ART. Laure Prouvost, ACCA Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Exhibition dates: 23 March–10 June 2024 (Free). “A limited-edition artist’s book will be published to coincide with the exhibition, including contributions from fellow artists, friends and collaborators across the globe, paying homage to grandmothers, artistic matriarchs, ancestors, inspirational elders and forebears.”–ACCA
PLACE. 1876. Old Customs House. 1998. Immigration Museum, Flinders St, Melbourne
ART. Joy at the Immigration Museum, until 29 August 2025
ART | INSTALLATION. Video Land by Callum Preston, at the Immigration Museum
ART | INSTALLATION. Bring It To The Runway, Runway by Spencer Harrison, at the Immigration Museum
PLACE. COMMUNITY. Princes Pier, Port Melbourne, Princes Pier Refurbishment. “Melbourne every bit different.”
COMMUNITY. GUIDED MEDITATION. The Earth In Balance: Deep Time Walks | Port Phillip EcoCentre. “Deep Time Walks are transformational experiences that encourage people to look at our planet in a completely different way. Most people are aware, at least at a basic level, of some of our environmental challenges, such as climate change – but people lack awareness of the 4.6 billion years that led to this point, and struggle to conceptualise such a massive number.”:–EcoCentre
The Well of Deep Time – new contemplative practice | Deep Time Walk (November 2021)
POST-SCRIPTUM:
“Every year on 26 May, National Sorry Day remembers and acknowledges the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, which we now know as ‘The Stolen Generations’.”:–Reconciliation Australia
COMMUNITY. Sorry Day Lunch, hosted by Port Phillip Citizens for Reconciliation. Tuesday 28 May 2024, 12:30pm–3:00pm, South Melbourne Community Centre, Corner Park St and Ferrars Place, South Melbourne. RSVP by Wednesday 22 May.
Acknowledging the Stolen Generations on National Sorry Day | Behind The News | Jack Evans (May 2023)
2008. National Apology To The Stolen Generations (2008). “On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and assimilation. The journey to National Apology began with the Bringing Them Home report – the findings of an inquiry instigated by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1995.”–NMA
The Case Against Children | Harper’s Magazine | Elizabeth Barber (March 2024)
“One way to tell the story of antinatalism is to say that it begins with the beginning of the world, or with the beginning as it is described by most major belief systems—with the creation of a universe that contains misery, and whose inhabitants eagerly await their chance to be released from it, to rest in the arms of the divine, to transcend the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Pratima Naik, one of the founders of Childfree India, a support group of sorts for antinatalists in the country, told me that she was drawn to antinatalism in part by the Hindu and Buddhist satsangs she heard as a child, which suggested that “the main purpose of life is not to be happy” and “to come out of the cycle of birth and death.” (Schopenhauer was notably moved by both faiths, which he found told the story of existence not unlike he did.)
““I do not think that one should have children; I observe in the acquisition of children many risks and many griefs, whereas a harvest is rare, and even when it exists, it is thin and poor,” the Greek philosopher Democritus is supposed to have said. He thought people should adopt, as “one can take one child out of many who is according to one’s liking.” In The Childfree Christ, published in 2021, the Belgian antinatalist Théophile de Giraud argues that the Bible is an antinatalist text, a view emphatically held by Kierkegaard, who found it obvious that the Bible instructs the Christlike not to have kids. Jesus gave his followers lots of examples of how to be good in the world, but one thing he did not do was start a nuclear family. Instead, he collected a spiritual family, like that replicated in nunneries and monasteries.
“Some Christian sects—most famously, the Cathars, who were sentenced to death by Pope Innocent III in the thirteenth century—later found cause to conclude that the Christly thing to do was not to procreate. “Better than both is the one who has never been born, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun,” writes the author of Ecclesiastes. “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived,’ ” says the miserable Job. Likewise, the Talmud has it that “it would have been preferable had man not been created than to have been created.””:–Harper’s
The Case for Not Being Born | The New Yorker | Joahua Rothman (November 2017)
“The knee-jerk response to observations like these is, “If life is so bad, why don’t you just kill yourself?” Benatar devotes a forty-three-page chapter to proving that death only exacerbates our problems. “Life is bad, but so is death,” he concludes. “Of course, life is not bad in every way. Neither is death bad in every way. However, both life and death are, in crucial respects, awful. Together, they constitute an existential vise—the wretched grip that enforces our predicament.” It’s better, he argues, not to enter into the predicament in the first place. People sometimes ask themselves whether life is worth living. Benatar thinks that it’s better to ask sub-questions: Is life worth continuing? (Yes, because death is bad.) Is life worth starting? (No.)”:–The New Yorker
The Fight to Choose: The politics of abortion after Roe v. Wade | Harper’s | Andrew Cockburn
“The ubiquity of local anti-abortion laws is all the more striking given equally ubiquitous polls showing that abortion in some form enjoys wide support, though the level varies according to the circumstances. Some 60 percent of Americans, for example, told Gallup that they support abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, a number that dropped to 28 percent regarding abortion in the second trimester. Many people do not understand the restrictions already in place where they live. In the twenty-two states currently enforcing abortion restrictions, 70 percent of those polled were either unaware or unsure that these measures were on the books.”:–Harper’s
The Right to Not Be Pregnant: Asserting an essential freedom | Harper’s | Charlotte Shane
“I’ve never wanted to be pregnant, and I’ve been pregnant three times. Each time I learned the news, my commitment to what I’d already known was confirmed viscerally and instantaneously—with the unshakable certainty of no. I say “no” often. I think “no” frequently. I am no stranger to “no.” But this refusal lived at a different depth. It saturated me. It constituted me like my lungs and my limbs and my mind. No, I do not want to be pregnant, I do not want to give birth, I do not want to have children. I wasn’t choosing because there…”:–Harper’s
POST-POST-SCRIPTUM:
How Consumerism Destroys Our Minds | George Monbiot | Double Down News (March 2021)
“The dominant force in our lives is something we scarcely talk about as a force. It’s called consumerism.”
Consumerism Is The Stifling Of Our Moral Imaginations | George Monbiot
“It destroys our relationship to each other. Because when we commodify ourselves, we commodify other people as well. We start to think: what can they do for me rather than what’s it like to be with them. We start to monetise our relationships, even our relationships to the natural world. This whole natural capital agenda, which says, “Oh we won’t value things until we have put a price on them.” So, a primrose has to have a price. An elephant has to have a price on it. Otherwise, it’s not worth anything and we can’t account it. Everything becomes a consumable. It’s consumerism driven by the demands of capitalism, extends into every aspect of our lives, and the lives of those around us. It destroys our humanity. It destroys our place in society. It destroys our place in the present, in the past and in the future. It detaches us, it removes us, it objectifies us. It destroys our minds.”:–George Monbiot
Reexamining Desire by Joseph Goldstein, Clip from Mindfulness in Daily Life, Waking Up
What is the value of your lifestyle? Does it have a price? Is it called cost-of-living?
What is the value of your life? Does it have a price on it? What is the price of a life lost to war? Is there value in that.
Art Saves Lives. So does peace. Work for peace.
Gerome Villarete, Secretary
Honesty by David Whyte, from Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment And Underlying Meaning Of Everyday Words