I’ve seen a few Burlesque shows this Fringe, and some I have openly pondered about how well the mood has been set by the Master of Ceremonies, what I believe to be a critical role. They are no less than a Ringmaster, an Orchestral Conductor even.  Look and learn would be MC’s.  The Dolls House Master of Ceremonies (or is that Master of Seduction?),  is the wonderfully androgynous Johnny Castrati, a dandy indeed and resplendent in a frock coat with dual peacock motifs (cocksure compensation perhaps?).

But he promises us much. “Less David Jones and more Carnivale!!” he proclaims to my welcome relief, my growing anticipation.

Thus the tone and tenure of the evening is set, and the foundations laid for the entrance of Flavella L’Amour, corseted in period garb and parasoled like Marie Antoinette, who teases wonderfully by appropriately pacing her routine, losing not an inch of kapow in the process, across a soundtrack of 1920’s jazz, modern rock and then swing.  She will push the ceiling higher later in the evening with a sassy cabaret jazz routine climaxing in her adornment in her trademark pet python, its random wandering across her curves producing a natural snakeskin garment that moved and reacted to her gyrations.

Karrey Dolly gave us an ‘Edwina Scissorhands routine that was cleverly constructed, although her movements in this routine and her follow up Middle Eastern Gogo Explosion occasionally had timing issues, which need to be forgiven as she was last minute a stand in, and she clearly was committed to delivering a solid performance.

Zoe L’Amour Princess of Pain & Daredevil Diva fulfilled provided a nice contrasting hard edge darkness to the otherwise bright display through acts of masochism, illusion and daring – mousetraps on the tongue, consuming razor blade laden apples, climbing a ladder of swords bear footed and tongue kissing an electric metal fan.  The girl is hard. Well hard.  If this wasn’t enough she proved that battery operated love toys are no match for a mains electricity powered angle grinder thrust into an armour clad groin.

Lastly, to the crooning tunes of Just A Gigolo, our psychopomp extraordinaire Johnny Castrati emerged from his chrysalis to reveal Australian Burlesque royalty, Rita Fontaine who gave us a full contact Gogo shimmy and shake that threatened to undermine the building foundations.

A Dolls House was Burlesque in a Mexican wrestling mask that slammed us into the canvas repeatedly, leaving us much too delirious and weak to tag out.

A Dolls House has their last performance on tonight, 12 March, at 11pm - SOLD OUT

I would like to use this review of Adelaide-based Syrian Oud player Adnaan Baraky as an opportunity to make a comment on the multiculturalism debate, and this so called notion of “assimilation”.

A number of years ago I started to learn the Oud with a wonderful teacher in the Western Sydney Turkish community, which culminated in me joining their community orchestra as the token White Anglo-Saxon. I didn’t speak a word of Turkish, I was not a Muslim, I had never been to Middle Eastern country, I knew nothing of the culture – and yet I was welcomed with open arms because of my willingness to cross the cultural bridge halfway on account of my love of the instrument. And I came to learn and love that there is such a thing as a unique Australian Turkish culture, a thing in itself. This was for me represented best in a song composed in Turkish Classical style by my Oud teacher which sang the history of the Australian “Johnnies” and Turkish “Mehmets” fighting on the shores of Gallipoli. “Assimilation” as the critics of multiculturalism would have it, would prevent art such as this from being born in Australia.

During the performance by Adnaan, a highly skilled and creative artist with a learned musical pedigree, he spoke of composing his piece Melodies from the Other Side as the US Forces invaded Afghanistan, written for the dead on both sides of the conflict. He was unable to finish the song. Then when the US invaded Iraq, again he tried to complete the piece but was not able. Finally, after moving to Australia, he was so touched the tragedy of the victims of the Victorian bushfires he was able to finish the song, as if the spirits of the dead were saying to the living “Don’t worry about us, instead, worry about yourselves, for we are in peace”.

This is what is created in the crucible of multiculturalism.

Much of his new music being showcased tonight from his newly released album is born of his migration to Australia, of the search to find a means of expressing his Syrian heritage in the Australian setting. The Blues was not born here, but we are often happy to talk about an Australian Blues scene, and cultural context. Why are we then so hesitant about recognizing Australian-Middle Eastern culture and music, or Australian-African, or Australian-Asian for that matter?

There are songs of geographical dislocation, Ya Balady, of Sufic spirital ecstacy through Union with the Divine, Dinaan and well as traditional dances, Lawha. Through all these works and thematic melodies he conjures amazing taksim (improvisation) that carries one into deep meditative admiration.

Adnaan Baraky will be doing one more performance for the Adelaide Fringe on Sunday 13 March. Attendance would be all the more culturally enriching for you I think, an opportunity to pick up his CD while you are there.

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?

As promised last month, Absinthe.com.au have finally uncovered the evidence to demonstrate that Australia did implement a formal ban of absinthe.

A small, almost easily missed notice in the Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 6 November 1925

Importation of Absinthe - Melbourne, Thursday

It is notified in the Commonwealth “Gazette” this week that absinthe has been added to the list of goods of which the importation into Australia is prohibited under the provenance <?> of the Customs Act.

So there you have it - the pieces now fall into place. Although, as with the current Customs requirements for an import permit for absinthe due to the listing of Wormwood as a Restricted ingredient - this legislative move would not have prevented the manufacture of Absinthe within Australia, it only prevents the unrestricted importation.  Alas, by this time the wind had probably been taken out of the sails of domestic absinthe consumption in any case.

Speaking of Smoking Guns - crime writer, administrator of Crimespace and absinthe tragic, Daniel Hatadi is formally joining the Absinthe.com.au team.  Watch out for his reviews and views on anything that may take his fancy.

The Absinthe.com.au Team were recently contacted by a legend from the Australian wine industry, Peter Wall AM, a former Wine & Vineyard Director of the famed Yalumba winery.  Peter was able to provide some additional history into the machinations behind the legal status of Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) in the old versions Australian New Zealand Food Code.

In the versions of the Code from the mid 1980’s onwards, Wormwood was a controlled -  rather than a prohibited - herb and controlled by thujone content.  How it came to this status is a key part of Peters tale.

“You may be interested to know how the lifting of the Australian ban on the use of wormwood was initiated.

30 years ago I was deeply involved in the manufacture of Martini & Rossi (M&R) Vermouth here in Australia for the great vermouth maker in Turin. At this time there was a general ban on the use of wormwood in alcoholic beverages in the English speaking world, although its use in many European countries had gradually relaxed from the 1920’s.

I was also a member (later chair) of the wine industry’s Technical Committee.

With the help of the late, but legendary, Dr. Giorgio Rampone (the then M&R Technical director) we began a campaign here in Australia to rationalise the regulations for use in wine of GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe) botanicals, among them Artemisia absinthium. I was also involved in the technical negotiations for the EU Australian Bilateral Wine Agreement and served as an Australian delegate to the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin in Paris. These positions allowed me to pursue the opening-up of these ’strange’ bans on many fronts. Gradually the opposition relaxed and finally we came to the present more rational regulation of all the botanicals which contain alkaloids, not only in wine, but alcoholic beverages generally. I’m not claiming a unique place in the history of this rationalisation, however, I do recall I was a very lone voice when I first raised the issue in the late 1970’s. Whenever I now have a sip of absinthe in Australia, I recall my early efforts with added pleasure.“

Peter has kindly provided correspondence from the period to government, arguing how Italian wine law dictated that, by definition, Vermouth must contain wormwood, and argued for a position of international harmonisation on managing the risk rather than arbitrary prohibition.

These were much the same arguments we made (or rather re-made taking into account Peter’s precedent) when FSANZ sought to later prohibit wormwood a second time in later amendments to the Code in 2000-2002.

You will notice dear Absintheur, I make reference to a potential second prohibition of absinthe in Australia - and Peter’s historical recollection confirming an existing prohibition during the 1970-1980’s (and prior) during his period of lobbying.  This is seemingly at odds with a belief we previously held, and have documented in Wikipedia, that absinthe as an alcoholic drink was never specifically prohibited in Australia, only the import of ‘absinthe essence’ based on the legislative orders of the early 20th century. We were wrong.

New documentary evidence has emerged that confirms Australia did indeed specifically prohibit Absinthe, that led to the necessity of Peter Walls’ original efforts to lift the ban on the use of wormwood and will be the subject of a follow up article.

The Swiss are famous for many things - chocolate, wristwatches and half-assed neutrality. But one should never forget that many of the traditions of absinthe distillation were kept alive in the Alps of Switzerland amongst clandestine bootleggers when prohibition was enacted and operational.

These uncoloured La Bleue absinthes are quite a different style to many other continental absinthes, and La Clandestine Absinthe is no exception. The love child of distiller Claude-Alain Bugnon in Val-de-Travers, this particular incarnation of this very old style absinthe had its origins in a secret still next to his wife’s washing machine, before becoming the commercially produced and legally distributed product it is today.

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Fortune presents gifts not according to the book
When you expect whistles it’s flutes
When you expect flutes it’s whistles

‘Letrillas’ (1581) by the priest Luis de Gongora.

Thanks to the folk at Absinthesalon, we were supplied with a bottle of Nemesinthe, an absinthe produced by Liqueurs de France and distilled at the Timbermill Distillery in South West London.

As the product promotional speil goes, Nemesinthe Absinthe takes its inspiration from the ancient Greek Nemesis, although known as the Goddess of Vengeance and Retribution, Nemesis was also a distributor of fortune, in due proportion to each according to their deserts.

Well, my lotto numbers clearly did not come up tonight. And I obviously did something worthy of retribution to be presented with such disappointment.

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While enjoying the afternoon at the Absinthesalon, I had the opportunity to partake in a sneaky glass of absinthe, and chose to indulge in the Jade PF 1901 – yet another creation of the master, Ted Breaux.

PF1901 is a tribute absinthe to perhaps the most famous of absinthe’s, Pernod Fils, with the date reflective of the year that the famous Pontarlier absinthe distillery caught fire and was destroyed.

from the Melbourne “Argus”, 15 August 1901

This verte absinthe comes in at 68% alc/vol, in an attractive amber bottle with a ornate label highlighted in gold leaf.  The liquid was clear and intense in a convincing natural peridot colour, leaning more towards the olive yellow end of the spectrum.

My first long inhale was something of a surprise – to be honest I did not get the usual herbaceous hit of many absinthes, rather this absinthe had some similarities to a fine Pinot Noir.  It was an integrated perfumed nose, touches of violet and other sweet floral notes. It actually initiated discussion about the use of wine as a spirit base and to what degree this can influence the taste of an absinthe. The other surprise was I could smell a certain pleasant minerality that usually I only taste and generally seek out as one of my benchmarks for quality.

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It must be said that the location of Sydney’s Absinthesalon, halfway along a steep hilly Albion Street, is well placed – given that the natural effects of gravity can only but assist the imbiber down the hill towards Central train station and other responsible forms of public transport. Let this be ample encouragement to leave the car at home dear absintheur, and enjoy the full experience.

Bad timing, pregnancy and the global financial crisis have all plotted against me in my efforts to be able to fly into Sydney to get along to the new Absinthesalon premises before now, but now I am here outside the dark grey toned establishment.  You may sometimes read this in other reviews of the Salon, but I can myself verify that as you linger outside the door you may detect the tell tale aromatic signature of aniseed in the air.

Proprietors Joop van Heusden and Gaye Valttila are most welcoming and usher me inside into the front room of the salon – exposed rustic brickwork, displays of the extensive range of quality absinthe products and water fountains, a giant antique cash register adorning a counter serve as a prelude to the inner sanctum behind the draped curtain adorned doorway.

Behind the curtain is a most intimate and inviting environment that captures the feeling of a proper absinthe salon. Now, don’t get me wrong, Belle Époque in Brisbane is an excellent representation of retro-French dining, all gold leaf edging and fleur-de-ly’s, but Gaye and Joop have utilised the limited space typical of a period Surry Hills terrace to manifest a very different type of neo-Gallic experience.  The interior is illuminated with a ‘petite’ version of wrought iron street lamp posts, tasteful minimalism to the interior decoration, round mirrors and sparing use of stylistic wallpaper. The far wall is adorned with a graceful mural of La Fée Verte, the Green Fairy herself, a fine rendition of one of the most famous representations of her from the original heyday.

With room for at most 30-odd patrons, all seating is set around a pleasingly non-crowded arrangement of small café tables adorned with 4 tap water fountains for the absinthe ritual. And let’s be clear, the experience and discussion of absinthe is not unlike that of wine, it should be shared amongst convivial company. The spacial design suitably encourages this.

Friday and Saturday nights are generally booked out in advance so don’t be surprised if you rock up on a whim and unable to satisfy your curiosity.  Another aspect to be aware of is that there is a three drink limit per person. Some may find this as profoundly odd that a drinking establishment would be seeking to limit their own sales, but as any absintheur worth their salt will tell you, the consumption of each glass of absinthe should be prolonged, savoured, and well considered. When approached in this fashion most will be satisfied after two glasses, some even after one.

So as Joop himself may tell you, “Slow Down!”.
(I know this is counter-intuitive to most Sydney-siders, but advice well worth heeding. Hey, you got a booking, stay around and enjoy the ambience for a while.)

Also, don’t be surprised if your hosts take on the role of Sommelier, and in fact steer you away from initially diving head-first into the high-proof absinthe brands. They are there to help you enjoy the absinthe experience as much as possible, and as such they will guide you through appropriate entry level absinthes until you have a better appreciation for the flavours, the nuances and styles. There are many absinthes to try in a range of price brackets (from around $12 a glass upwards), many styles and regions to explore.

You’ll just have to keep coming back won’t you?

I know I will.

Stay tuned for review of Jade PF 1901 absinthe conducted in situ