Melbourne in the summer

January 14, 2010 | Category: by Thomas

Melbourne

It’s summer time in Melbourne. They speak English here. And we’re staying in an apartment with our own bedrooms! This is all a little too normal coming from Japan and China and Beirut before that. We’re back in familiar territory, which is a little bit strange after so much strange…

Thankfully, we have a great, great host lined up in Melbourne. Beci Orpin is her name and she’s a graphic artist, graphic designer, clothing designer, sculptor, collector, mother of two and a true local Melbournian.

Beci’s house is full of colorful objects and artworks and inspirational things that she has collected over the years.

She seems to like beasts and so beasts abound. Most are fake.

But some are real.

In Melbourne, we kept encountering art, design, food and drink (often simultaneously). Creativity and debauchery: a winning combination. There were, for example, some delicious macaroons to be sampled at Di Chirico’s super stylized pop-up bakery.

And we visited a gallery where Beci had just had an exhibition.

Red dots everywhere.

I got some really nice custom Note to Self jeans made while in town. Yes the fit reference does say ‘36 stretch’…

We went to Grace Darling, a pub in Fitzroy. Nice wallpaper, a nice pint of Guinness and a great vintage clothing sale on upstairs.

We were also sent to the infamous Revolver nightclub by Beci and told that it really only gets going at 8 o’ clock in the morning. Of course we had to stay to investigate this claim. There were Banskys on the wall behind plates of protective glass. See…more art.

This appears to be the best photograph that was taken that morning…

Beci also introduced us to Brendan, an artist and lead singer of the local Melbourne band Eddy Current Suppression Ring. He was a lovely man and we saw him play a sold-out gig a little later in our travels at The Annandale Hotel in Sydney. Wicked.

Melbourne being in Australia, it was only a matter of time before we found ourselves barbecuing. Add a dozen kids to the mix and you get a Beci Orpin style barbecue: the perfect hangover cure.