Now, I like Dave Callan, MC for the Burlesque Beauties this evening – he is a funny bastard. But please Dave, please – no more clichéd Adelaide jokes involving Fruchocs, Malls Balls, The 5 Way Roundabout of Death or Iced Coffee. In exchange we will refrain from all Leprechaun, IRA and Michael Flatley jokes. I hope we have an understanding here?

The evening’s conviviality commenced with Lyra La Belle and Radha Leigh doing a ‘Bump and Grind’ Balloon adornment. Now, I’m probably too much of a hedonist because balloons pinned on full frilly undergarments aren’t quite titillating enough – the slow popping and removal to reveal what one can essentially see anyway left me scratching my head. This was followed by Lolly Dolly doing a grown up Shirley Temple ‘Good Ship Lollipop’ routine with giant novelty candy– which, admittedly, I thought a little “Sailor Moon Fetish” like, albeit quite innocent in intent I’m sure.

Thus the start, I will admit, had me worried that things might stay relatively safe. But then things got shifted into high gear and the girls made the rubber hit the road.

It is here I really need to mention Moon Daze singing a slow Billie Holliday ‘You’re My Thrill’. She smouldered, she was intoxicating, she prowled the stage and she made me sit up and take notice.

Radha, Lyra and Lolly brought in a good dose of Andrew Sisters tropical fun with ‘Rum and Coca Cola ®’  – it was sassy, it was sexy and made good continuity of burlesque sensibilities in the 1940’s blitzkrieg era setting, and hooray – pasties! I did mention my hedonist tendencies didn’t I? – oh, good.

‘Take It All’ – a musical number by the gorgeous Dahlia D’Frisco was an inviting, honest and upfront performance. This was followed by a mandatory gymnastic ‘Fever‘ routine, on chairs, draped by Lyra La Belle and Radha Leigh. Nice flow and form, maybe not scorching hot but a fever worthy of a pharmacy strength analgesic nonetheless.

There was no lack of good humour in the evening either – Lyra showing that Cos Play is now legitimate game in burlesque when dancing to ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, and Dave Callan proving he is the new driving force in Boylesque by nailing almost perfectly an entire routine to Beyonce’s ‘All The Single Ladies’ with support from the Beauties cast.

Maybe my main critique of an otherwise enjoyable evening is that some routines felt a little rushed. A bit more holding back, a bit more tease might up the intensity further  – but nor was it absent, accolades again to Moon Daze for hitting the mark bang on.

Burlesque Beauties continue their season until 7 March 2011 – and already sold out!

Many of you may not know the name Barry William Hale, but then surrealist & visionary art has never received the serious consideration it has deserved from the cuvée & canapé set. William Blake and Austin Osman Spare were not necessarily artistic doyens while they were still breathing, but then recognition is not the priority when the human canvas – that of the artist and the observer – cries out for transformation.

Over the years I have often found myself tripping into the path of his work. From some of his earliest showings in Sydney in the late 90’s to this latest manifestation conducted in collaboration with soundscape artist, Scott Barnes, and visual cortex metaphysician, Michael Strum, I am not necessarily convinced that I have ever stepped outside of a particular art gallery bound not by spatiality, geography or chronology. A veritable Chapel Perilous.

The contented ‘spiritual’ middle class will continue to flock to the words of visiting Tibetan Lamas or the dances of whirling Dervishes and their ilk. For most, this will ever be pantomime, the gulf between the performer and audience as wide as an abyss. A devotion to secular-flavoured Catholic indulgences for universal peace of mind.

But what if you could be in a space where the bolted gates of your conscious and subconscious Self could be gently assaulted by wave after wave of drones and beats, epileptographic machinations, Gyuato growling & Lilithian cries, all resonating to sacred form and syllables that arose not from some ascetic Bodhisattva on an Eastern mountain, but through the endeavours of a genius wife-swapping Elizabethan mathematician of high regard who spoke to angels?

To further describe the work presented this evening, representing just two of twenty one works in development based around Dr John Dees Enochian Alphabet, would be subjective in the extreme. What will you get from it? I couldn’t say – these things sometimes take time to work the required neuronal sublimation. Look to Youtube, keep an eye out on Fulgar Press.

Maybe I’ll see you in the Chapel sometime?