Impressed/Impressions

I've been ushered directly into a party. A confluence of music, culture, fashion, and bright spirits that everyone seems to have heard about. And I've skipped the queue.

Despite my shoddy clothes and hiking boots I've been offered the insider's tour, complete with food and drink and personal meetings. It began by entering the en vogue Melbourne neighbourhood of Carlton North, steps from Brunswick Street where all social ventures seem to revolve around meals and drinks. In that vein I've drank the local brew in the corner pub for dollar tacos, feasted at the impossible-to-get-a-table Moroccan restaurant, lunched at the $4 pizza hot spot with fashionable people beyond my understanding.

Perhaps most exciting for me is my introduction to the absolutely surging and dynamic Melbourne music scene. This has allowed me to drink with a singer in the band (The Boat People) before watching their show and then chat with him about their upcoming opening slot for Crowded House. In addition to that I've been sleeping in the music room of the former Isle of Man who is working on a new project as we speak (keep an ear out for Wilding). Browsing the Beat, Melbourne's local music mag, is like looking at Lee's personal daytimer as it is full of friend's bands playing around town and around the country.

All of this and still the chance to check out the local football club (soccer), Melbourne Heart, a day oggling penguin babies, sea-dragons and sharks at the aquarium, a bike ride/river paddle. Most hilarious was the 90's throwdown at the Town Hall full of unbuttoned, curly-haired (and I don't just mean that on his chest) characters, plus the angry grinding red-head, and the overly enthusiastic Zac Galifinakis dancing like it was 1999 all night long!

With the plethora of quirky little shops, tasty independent restaurants, grungy corner bars, talent-filled music halls and plenty of oddly dressed but outgoing people to frequent these places, it seems that Melbourne's party is going to go strong into the night and I'm just happy that I've gotten this opportunity to stop in for a drink.