Pam Ayres

Oh I’m sitting here all by myself, I watch the telephone, I can’t believe it’s Sat’day night and I am all alone. But just last night when I was not, My heart it went a flutter, Could it have been a heart attack from eating too much butter?

Last night I went to see legendary/iconic 70s performance poet, Pam Ayres, appearing at the Seymour Centre, just down the road. It’s twenty five years since she first came to Australia and probably twenty five years since I last seriously enjoyed her work.

But I had a lovely evening, and I saw new levels of meaning in her work, unapparent to the young teenage boy I was then, especially the wonderful rhythms. It’s hard to imagine, though, that she’s now 55 years old and has two teenage sons.

Am thinking about going to see some of the movies at the forthcoming French Film Festival, so I wrote to my friend, David and asked him for some advice (he’s French, you know!). He wrote

Just came back from an exhausting but fantastic ski vacation where I went down the French and Swiss slopes with enthusiasm under a wonderful sunshine ! After having a look on your website here are a couple I could recommend for you !

Monsieur Batignole is supposed to be excellent about the life in occupied Paris during the war, a man who hates jews finally decides to help two jewish kids, it s meant to be a great recreation of what life was then. L’idole I wanted to see that one and i would heartily recommend it too. Astérix et Cléopatre, now i wonder how that would translate !! It s really funny for us French and a huge success all over Europe, you might want to try it but it s Gaul humour ! Irréversible was cause of a great scandal cause of a very violent rape scene. Dont know much about this one though.

Plans for the night? I’ll watch “The Bill”. And then I’m planning on catching the train to the Lewisham Hotel. A few people I know have been involved in organising the hotel’s first gay night, hoping that it will take off where Caesar’s Hotel left off. According to Graeme’s email,

It’s called “Don’t Call Me Bitch!” and the ABBAMAIL gang has been intimately involved with developing and delivering the concept for the pub. Ask Ian, John “Frida” and myself came up with the original “Bitch” concept which then evolved into “Don’t Call Me Bitch!”. We decided on a look or “sell” for the night – I did the artwork for flyers that have been distributed at the Mardi Gras Fair Day and Parade night. John did the art for an advertisement in the Gay newspaper, SX. Ask Ian’s partner, Big Ian, has provided colour posters of various “bitches” including Barbra Streisand and Carol & Alice from the Brady Bunch. I am putting together a video to be played (without sound) on the big screen that will feature some classic “bitch” footage from movies and TV shows. Vanessa, the marketing manager at the Lewisham has organised for the bar manager from Caesars (now sadly departed inner-west Gay venue) to work on the evening and also for Gay friendly security. We’ve all put our heart and soul into this because we want to see our local pub be successful. And also because Vanessa has worked her arse off to try and make this a success.

Tomorrow – I must do some uni work!