A quick aside for some religious talk... what I typically hear as one of the primary complaints against the Catholic religion is the emphasis on the Death of Jesus rather than the Resurrection, this is why protestant crosses do not have the image of the crucified Jesus on them. I know some of the people who read this will say 'Duh, Dan, we all know that', but I am pretty certain that not everyone reading this does know. Although those that don't know also probably don't care at all.
Now, in my typical fashion, I was a little late to Mass. [another quick aside: Ben, the Aussie I met on the train did not know the term Mass when I used it while chatting with him later. I do not know if this is a cultural difference between our countries or something he just didn't know. After all, Lent is not the same term used in all countries.] But I did make it there for the readings and communion, not that I take part being that it is not my place. If you can't think of at least two VERY good reasons why it is not my place, just assume that I am not in a state of grace.
Joining me in the back of the church, where kneeling is done on the floor and there are no seats, were plenty of others who had arrive, though before me, much too late to have a place in a pew. There was also a girl there who was wearing no less than five Rosaries around her neck and one looped as a bracelet around her wrist. There were also a couple of girls, of good dating age for Ben, who were dressed for church in a manner that would prevent them from being admitted to St. Peters at the Vatican.
[Dan has too many asides: When I was going Italy many years ago, we were warned as a group that the ladies/girls attending the trip needed to be sure to pack with them a long skirt or dress to wear when touring some of the more conservative churches that do not allow ladies to enter wearing pants. Along with a long skirt as a dress code requirement for the ladies, all guys and girls had to have their shoulders covered to be allowed into these same churches. When in Italy, the only time I noticed this as an issue was on the day we went to the Vatican when a lady, not in our group, was wearing a tank top and tried to get past the Swiss Guards by placing small white napkins under the straps to cover her shoulders. It was all very amusing. Her boyfriend tried to distract the guard while she ran up the stairs. In three attempts, they never got past the guards, but she did get escorted away all three times.]
So, there I was at Mass. It felt like the perfect beautiful Spring day that should accompany Easter back home, except that it is technically fall down here. Flowers are still in bloom though. There was nothing particularly noteworthy in the service for posting here except that the girl with the Rosaries kept giving the evil-eye to everyone else in the church. I was almost saddened to note that after the service, just like in the States, many people decided to 'beat' the crowd by fleeing the church as soon as he or she had received their communion.
After the service there was a meet-and-greet in the courtyard and volunteers handed out slices of raisin bread and those small individually wrapped solid chocolate eggs. I stayed around for a little while, went to find lunch, and then went back to my hotel. I can't remember what I ate for lunch that day. It must not have been that impressive.
Once back in the hotel, I sent some e-mails, made some posts, chatted online, and made plans for the rest of my day. I again thought about heading out to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade, but decided against it for the same reasons that I didn't drive to Healesville the day before. I planned at the time to go there on Monday, but that didn't happen either. It is actually somewhat relaxing not having to worry about your car and traffic, and parking, and parking tickets, etc. (No I did not get any parking tickets here. I thought I might the very first morning, though).
One offer I did have for something else to do that night was attend a Bunny Shuffle. This was just the creative name for the Rave that night at a club called Twister. This offer came from Ben, the guy on the train, and it was because of this invite that I figured out what PHD stands for, and with it, what HSD stands for. PHD is Pure Hard Dance, and HSD is HArd Style Dance. This Bunny Shuffle was an event with dueling DJ's representing both styles of dance. I had a good feeling that I wouldn't be in attendance at this event, but was quite humored by, and appreciated the invitation. They flier for the event is below, and is in fact my only picture for this post.
What I eventually decided to do with the rest of my day, besides walking around the CBD some more, was to find a comedy show to attend. On April 4th and until April 29th there is a HUGE international comedy festival here in Melbourne. It does seem to be an annual event, and a organizational nightmare. The link of information for the festival can be found here: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/. There are hundreds of shows being performed by an even larger group of comedians in venues all across the downtown/CBD area. Most of the venues even have several rooms or stages setup for the performers. There are performances at almost any time of day that you might want to attend starting at 11:00AM.
I spent far too long trying to determine which show to go see. Originally I was thinking about one titled 'Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Ambitious Solution for Making the World a Better Place (in general)', but decided against it strictly because of the $30 admission charge. I figured that I can be cheap for my first show and then make a more educated judgment on the value later. The show I found instead was listed for only $19 (I know, not a big difference, I must just actually be THAT cheap). This show is called 'Sammy J in Cyclone'. I invited my co-consultant to attend the show with me, and would have invited other people had I been able to reach them, or had they (meaning Ben) not had plans. My co-consultant did join me for the show, and when I went to purchase the tickets I was only charged $15 each. I fronted his money to buy both tickets when I got the the central ticket booth/venue and saw the swarm of hundreds upon hundreds of comedy goers and I think they gave me the 'concession' (student discount) price, even though as a foreigner I am not supposed to be eligible.
Interestingly, my co-consultant claimed to not be a fan of comedy in general. I am not sure how this can be, being that I am convinced that everyone likes to laughs now and again.
We attended the show of Sammy J, where the premise was that we were some 30 people stuck in a small cyclone shelter in the middle of a huge storm crisis in Melbourne. They performer sang some jingles, all very funny, with the aid of his electric keyboard, and intermixed in his cabaret performance opportunities to have fake, though in line with the story, conversations on his cell phone. He also had a back story for the ensuing catastrophe that he had pre-filmed in parts to be played on the projector screen behind him. In short, he was the reason that no one knew that the cyclone was coming to destroy Melbourne. In the videos, he found the time for a side joke in which first a polar bear stole his car, and later, he got to fight the polar bear mortal combat style; complete with dumbed voice overs for 'Fight' and 'Finish Him'. What really impressed me was the fact that they had rented a helicopter to film the fight just for his act in this comedy show. He also arranged a phony interview with one of the most prominent news casters in the city on channel 7. The news caster read, again just for this comedy routine, lines from a script all about the cyclone coming to devastate Melbourne.
I know that my description is a little bit too 'matter-of-fact' but the show was very, very funny. At one point he asked someone in the audience to give out the phone number of a loved one who hadn't been warned about the impending doom. A guy in the back yelled out a cell phone number (all cell phones here have the area code 04) and our comedian called the unsuspecting person. When Sammy asked the guy in the back who we were calling, the response was "I don't know, I made up the number". "Well, its ringing", said Sammy. When we got the voicemail message, he had us, as a group, all yell out in unison "Run for your life, a Cyclone is coming". How would you like to check your messages to have that left for you? Again, very, very funny.
When the show was over, Sammy J (his character name, not his real name, though I don't remember what his real name is), thanked us all for coming and gave us each a sticker that says 'I Survived'. I am looking forward to adding this sticker to my mini-fridge in my basement.
This show had taken us well into the evening. My co-consultant and I parted ways and I headed back to my hotel. On the walk back to the hotel, I noticed a police officer walking quickly in front of me. This caught my attention mostly because I very infrequently notice police officers around town here. As I made my way down the street, the police officer in front of me stopped to congregate with five others. This, I thought was an odd sight. As I approached the congregation, I noticed why the cops seemed to all be standing at that spot. They had four young kids, all about 13-14 in hand-cuffs sitting against the side of the building. I decided that wise choice would not be to ask the kids, nor the cops, why they were sitting there hand -cuffed, and instead kept walking to my hotel.
I am still not sure what the kids may have done, but one thought was that the CBD might have a curfew. Hopefully I will remember to ask the people at work.
1 comment:
Why did you change the style of your blog?
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