Having previously been big fans of the now closed Bentley Bar, we were keen to have a look at their new venture Monopole, located on Macleay Street.
Trying to remember the last time we had a really good meal at Bentley Bar, I checked my blog, and discovered it was almost exactly five years. Damien had shouted me a birthday dinner.
Our conclusion at the time was the meal was interesting, excellent and fulfilling.
Five years later, Damien suggested he, Kristen and I should try out Monopole, and co-incidentally, it was also a birthday dinner.
We settled on the degustation which, at $65, we all thought was good value, especially as there were six or seven courses.
We all thought the meal was good, though not great. There were a couple of courses which were stellar. Others were, to be honest, a little underwhelming. Our favourites were featured in the photographs.
Monopole
Cured & Smoked Duck Breast
Rangers Valley Beef Brisket
Cured & Spiced Berkshire Pork Neck
Cured Trevally, Japanese Eggplant, Watermelon Radish
As we headed back through The Cross, I showed them both Fratelli Fresh, one of my favourite places to eat the moment, and they seemed impressed.
The evening ended with a quiet drink and a chat at what I know as “Bar Me”, though I don’t what it’s called these days. In contrast to much of The Cross, it was a quiet, laid back, and a comfortable way to end a lovely evening.
If you gaze out the window of the Air India flight from Delhi to Madrid, there’s some truly wonderful landscape to behold. There’s an area (in particular) to the north of Baku headed towards Tbilisi, where the snow-capped mountains, combined with rolling clouds, that had me entranced.
India MountainsIndia Desert
Though my preferred seats are generally aisle-side, I also love window seats when they afford you views of an area you’ve never seen before. To this day, I still vividly remember aged seventeen, traveling over the Middle East, seeing the oil rigs, and then traveling over The Alps, and being amazed at how tall they were, and how close we got to them.
Generally, though I prefer aisle seats, so you can avoid having to excuse yourself every time you want to go to the bathroom.
As dramatic as those views were, the day started more mundanely with breakfast in the Holiday Inn Express transit hotel at Indira Gandhi International Airport. As I’d read online, the hotel’s breakfast was, it’s fair to say, underwhelming. A couple of boiled eggs, a couple of pancakes, and a few potato dishes were pretty much all that was on offer. Then, as I went up to get my second coffee, the machine suddenly stopped working. When it was clear no one seemed able to fix it, I quickly realised, “That was the end of breakfast”.
So, with a few hours to spare until I had to check out, I went back to bed to relax, read, listen to some music and grab a few more minutes of sleep. While asleep, I had one of those lucid dream moments where reality matched what was occurring in my surroundings. As I was being squirted with a water pistol in my dream, I awoke to a couple of blokes washing the windows and looking in at me. Awkward.
After taking in a few of the airport terminal sights, including satisfying my curiosity for what they served at McDonalds, I had a couple of beers at the airport’s sports bar, named in honour of the Delhi Daredevils cricket team (part of the Indian Premier League).
Then it was time to board the flight which was probably only half-full. And just as well, I immediately encountered my two worst airlines hates the recliners and the rockers.
And on this flight, there was a couple who I knew instantly were “recliners”. As soon as they sat down in three seats in front of me, the first thing they did was see how far they could recline their seats. Of all the things I really hate on planes is when people recline their seats without first turning around to check with you. “Excuse me, can you wait until after the meal, and when everyone is ready to sleep before reclining your seat”, I’ve said to more than one person. This time, I couldn’t be bothered, and besides, there were lots of free seats I could move to. Although the flight wasn’t yet closed, I took my chances and moved to the three vacant seats on the right-hand side of the plane.
India Plane View
Starting to enjoy the flight, but about ten minutes later, I suddenly felt my seat shaking. “Is the girl behind me kicking the seat?”, I thought to myself. If she had been a three or four-year-old, I might have forgiven her, but she was a thirteen or fourteen-year-old playing one of the inflight video games. I gave her my best “Julie Bishop Stare”. When she failed to take the hint, I moved to one of the other free seats, where, unfortunately, the same was happening.
Thankfully, these were only minor annoyances for an otherwise enjoyable flight, where I had three seats to myself and wonderful views.
As I write this, the aircraft map and the ground below tells me we’ve started flying over Spain. Next stop: Madrid.
“I really love French disco from the late 70s to the early 80s”, I whispered into the ear of my friend, Sue, as we watched and listened to the DJ, and waited for the show to start, a production called Pigalle at Sydney Festival.
DJ warms up the crowd at Pigalle at Sydney Festival
As examples, here’s a few clips from the period. Heavily influenced by American disco, especially the band Chic, but with a European sensibility, the lyrics and the grooves are memorable forty years on.
To be truthful, I didn’t know too much about the show, when she suggested we attend. And I’m not sure she knew much either, as it was the suggestion of friends visiting from Melbourne. But once the show started, I was entranced. I knew every single song in the show. If there’s a “narrative”, I’m guessing it’s the music of people my age who love disco and who love dancing. There’s a common narrative of a guy dancing throughout the show, who starts as a young and energetic figure, and who lands in an older spot in his life, looking for meaning. Or at least that’s how I read it? Or maybe I’m putting too much of my own interpretation into it?
What is Pigalle? It’s the red light district of Paris, and the thematic, if not the actual setting for the songs. A modern take on the Moulin Rouge, perhaps? I loved the interpretations, with Iota (who I haven’t seen since he performed as Hedwig), and Marcia Hines as the lead performers. Along the way, there were also some acrobatic and burlesque performances, leading to a wonderful overall ensemble, where Iota and Marcia, though important, weren’t necessarily the “stars” of the show. Everyone was terrific, especially the acrobatic performances and the burlesque, which included amusing strippers and dramatic fire-eaters.
Definitely one of the most fun shows I’ve seen in a while, and the soundtrack is stuck in my head.
Pigalle Cast at Sydney Festival
Iota and Marcia Hines in Pigalle at Sydney Festival
I met Kate for lunch at Hingara today. It’s been a favourite spot of ours for a couple of years and today was a great example of why: the BBQ pork was stunning. Walking down George Street later this evening Kate commented, “Do you realise we’ve been talking about that pork on and off most of the afternoon?” Also at lunch was an artist friend of Kate’s called Pamela Mai-Leng See, who was recently signed by Boutwell Draper Gallery in Redfern. Some of her works are featured in a small group exhibition, Heavenly Bodies, currently on show at the Asia-Australia Arts Centre.
As we enjoyed the meal we also had to keep a close eye on the clock, as Pamela was due to speak at the gallery at around two o’clock. Although she has worked mostly in paper-cuts, and many of these were on display, she has recently moved into other media including stainless steel. The very large stainless steel works currently on display are very dramatic, and I like them very much. During her talk, she touched on issues of identity, as a Chinese-Australia who has lived and worked in both China and Australia. “Here my works are often considered very exotic, whereas in China they’re sometimes considered a little kitsch”.
As a young Chinese-Australian, another artist, Suzan Liu spoke about the significance of watching Monkey (although we saw the Japanese television program, it was based on an important Chinese story) on television as a child. Her work, a projection on a number of different surfaces was strongly influenced by the program. At one point during her talk, she was asked a really complex question about symbols in traditional Chinese art, to which she replied simply didn’t know. There was an assumption, I guess, from the audience member that as a Chinese-Australian she would have known everything to know about Chinese art. A bit like the assumption that’s made that all Asian-Australians can speak their own traditional languages. As I said to someone recently, my family came to Australia speaking Gaelic, so you wouldn’t assume I could speak that, would you? Dunno, she said, ¨but I should find out¨.
The other artist who spoke was Greg Leong who works mostly with costumes and digital photography. The oldest of the three artists, and the most eloquent, he spoke with a great deal of intelligence and humour, touching also on issues of identity.
After the exhibition, Kate and I wandered around for a while, and I bought new a suitcase.
From there, we headed off to the movies, though with no particular movie in mind. In the end, we settled on No Country for Old Men, the new film by the Coen Brothers. It was honestly one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen, up there with Silence Of The Lambs in terms of sustained tension. There are several intersecting plotlines to the film which centres around what happens when a fairly ordinary bloke discovers a bag full of money from a drug deal which went wrong, and his pursuit by an opportunistic serial killer. For a good while I had no idea where the film was headed, and even at the end I was still unsure about the film’s purpose. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to you.
After the movie, a further bite to eat in Chinatown, and that was my Saturday.
My heart almost broke when the guy plying Franki Valli sang “My Eyes Adored You”. It’s a song I haven’t heard in years and had almost completely forgot existed. And then when it came on, I was transported back in time…
My eyes adored you
Though I never laid a hand on you,
My eyes adored you
Like a million miles away from me you couldn’t see
How I adored you:
So close, so close and yet so far
I’m not sure if it’s the lyrics or the melody or a combination of the two, but it’s such a wonderful heartfelt song.
Another of my all time favourite songs is “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”.
You’re just too good to be true.
Can’t take my eyes off you.
You’d be like Heaven to touch.
I wanna hold you so much.
At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I’m alive.
You’re just too good to be true.
Can’t take my eyes off you.
“I can sing it in Swedish”, I told me friend Colin at half-time, remembering the cover version recorded by Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida) from ABBA.
And that’s the thing about Jersey Boys that makes it such a great piece of musical theatre – it has great music. Although we both quite enjoyed sseing Hairpsray the other night, one of that shows great weaknesses was the lack of memorable tunes. In contrast, Jersey Boys is full of memorable tunes.
The show also has a really great stoy. “You care about the characters”, I said to Colin at intermission. Even though theirs was an extraordinary story, there was something about the “ordinary beginnings” and “human frailties” (the gambling, the temptations) that made the story of The Four Seasons such a great focus for a musical.
Although we didn’t have the “main bloke” playing the role of Frank Valli, his standby was very very good. In fact, the whole male cast was excellent. The female roles, in contrast, are very secondary to the story and the to show. You could almost have written their parts out, though they were obviously still important to overall story.
As far as “hits and memories musicals” are concerned, this was in a whole different class to many of the others. This wasn’t just a string of hits loosely weaved around a story, as many of the other musicals of that genre have become, this is a genuinely meaningful story with genuinely good songs. Terrific stuff!!
Even though I’ve walked past it several hundred times (if not more), I didn’t know there WAS a Cleveland Lane, Surry Hills until earlier today.
Anxious to try out my new camera, and engaging in my ongoing photographic project – taking random photographs of various streets and laneways in Surry Hills – I set out to look for somewhere new. That’s when I decided to try a laneway I’ve walked past many times, but have never actually been down before.
And what a pleasant surprise it was. Cleveland Lane has greenery, terraces, some new apartment blocks, some street arts, and a very intriguing backyard to the hardware store on the corner. I love the hardware store. It’s one of those great “old fashioned” (pre-Bunnings) hardware stores. And behind it is a large forest-like backyard you might not otherwise expect to find in Surry Hills. It’s great. It gives Cleveland Lane an interesting level of depth that you find less and less with the so-called “gentrification” of Surry Hills.
I felt like a bit of photographic exploration today, though I didn’t feel like wandering too far from home. So I wandered over to Lansdowne Street, just off Crown Street, Surry Hills. It’s only a small street, and not all that remarkable really. It has a few nice houses. A couple of shops. A power station. And a park. And I think Tilley Devine lived on the corner of Lansdowne Street for a while, though I could be wrong. And it crashes into Belvoir Street. That’s about it, really, unless you know something else? It’s not as pretty, nor seemingly as interesting as other parts of Surry Hills, though I guess it has a charm those who live in the street obviously enjoy. So here it is…. Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills
Lansdowne Street sign in Surry Hills
Power station on Lansdowne Street in Surry Hills
Ward Park on Lansdowne Street in Surry Hills
Lansdowne Street in Surry Hills
I think this was the house Tilley Devine lived in for many years.
Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills
Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills
Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills
Currently Nandos on the corner of Crown and Lansdowne streets, Surry Hills
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2 Comments
Agree completely: good but not great. Somewhat disappointing after the glory of Bentley, with the wines surprisingly quite meh overall.
Next time, very happy to give Fratelli a shot! Or Movida…..?
Agree completely: good but not great. Somewhat disappointing after the glory of Bentley, with the wines surprisingly quite meh overall.
Next time, very happy to give Fratelli a shot! Or Movida…..?
Was a lovely night. Thanks to you both.