The media have been reporting that composer of lavishly over-the-top musicals, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, intends to finance a series of significant charitable contributions to the theatrical establishment through an auction of Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Absinthe Drinker’ (also known as Portrait de Angel Fernandez de Soto).

The painting, from Picasso’s Blue Period, is expected to fetch somewhere in the order of 35 million Pounds Sterling at auction. The intended sale, however, may not be so straight forward.

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Time for your monthly cross-promotion. Yes people, NeoTokyo, that decadent, Libertine, dirty electro night at Club 77 is upon us again, Friday 2 May.

I, once again, will be your host and, along with my dear associate Mr. Kasdeja, will be on hand to make sure everyone is having a lovely time of it. This months DJ talent includes the handsome Mr Disorder and Donnie Blood of Starfuckers, Ash Le Rouge of Midnight Express and Electro Pussy and, of course, our own NeoTokyo. The April party was a smash hit, and next months’ is set to be even bigger.

…and yes, there will be absinthe.

NeoTokyo at Club 77, 77 William St Kings Cross, Sydney.
10pm til 6am. $10 door entry.
Limited edition A2 poster prints will be for sale on the night.

Absinthe is officially in.

Perez Hilton celebrated his 30th birthday at the Beverly Wiltshire in LA this past weekend, and by all accounts it was the bash to attend, with Marc Jacobs, Candis Cayne and a host of other glam people trolling about.

The centrepiece beverage of the night?

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NeoTokyo, our ridiculously talented graphic designer, is more widely known as one of Australia’s leading Industrial/Electro DJs and club promoters. Along with fine friends Sveta and Pornstar, NeoTokyo will be taking over Sydney’s notorious Club 77 on Friday 4 April.

Crunchy, dirty, sexy electro with bohemian loveliness to ensue. See you there.

Through the good support of the fine folk at the Adelaide Fringe, Absinthe.com.au were fortunate to attend a ‘dinner date’ performance of cabaret & burlesque with the delightful Lorelei & Sarina at the deliciously 100% vegan & vego friendly/performance space venue - Sarah’s Cafe.

Compered by the hostess with the mostest, the infernally witty Gabrielle, the girls put on a highly polished performance that broke out of the standard conventions of ‘burlesque’, and took us on a journey to more unexpected places, to the festive Copacabana, and even the sex & glamour of 1970s drag strip racing.

We are also big fans of Lorelei (bom bom)

Lorelei was able to take time out of their busy schedule to give us her thoughts on the future of cabaret & burlesque, and a glimpse behind the golden curtain into the realities of the profession.

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Absinthe.com.au has received the first suggestion for an unholy alliance of absinthe and bacon vodka… yes, people. Un Cochon Vert is one step closer to hideous, chthonic existence.

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For those who are unaware - absinthe is “kind of a big deal” in America presently. Having recently become legal to import and sell la fee verte in the United States, people are falling over themselves to get their hands on a bottle, it would seem. The above photograph was taken at the St George Spirits distillery in December of last year, showing the queue of over 100+ people waiting to buy a bottle of their newly-released absinthe. Keen as mustard, I tell you.

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Lance Winters at the St George distillery (Image: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times)

St George Absinthe is the first absinthe to be both produced and sold in the US since US Tobacco and Alcohol regulatory agency, the TTB, passed legislation allowing for its sale late last year. Along side Ted Breaux’s Lucid and Kubler (read our review here) the label has garnered much attention from within the US as currently these three houses dominate the market. However, the international absinthe community has also been watching St George, partly out of sheer curiousity (it being the first ‘premium’ absinthe to emerge from the US), partly due to it’s ‘unorthodox’ formulation, which includes wormwood, star anise, mint, lemon balm, hyssop and fennel… as well as meadowsweet, basil, tarragon and stinging nettles on a 60% brandy alcohol base. Note: this absinthe is not currently available from Australia.

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Agnes Goodsir, ‘Girl with a Cigarette’, 1925

Artists have long flocked to Paris in order to ‘find’ their art and refine their techniques, and Australian artists are no exception. One of the most noteworthy Australian artists to make the pilgrimage was Agnes Goodsir, a native of Bendigo who would go on to become a well-known portrait painter in France at the turn of the 20th century. Goodsir was arguably one of Australia’s most pre-eminent bohemians, living with her lover and artist’s model ‘Cherry’ (fellow Australian Rachel Dunn), frequenting the cafes and bistrots of Paris and mixing in circles which included Picasso, Joyce and Hemmingway. A new exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria uncovers the life and art of Goodsir, along with the other Australian artists who would go before and after her, in search of their art in the streets of Paris.

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American glass artist Andy Paiko makes beautiful things. Absolutely gorgeous things which marry the modern and the historical. Each piece evokes the atmosphere of the Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities… beautiful things which have an air of functionality, but are ultimately ephemeral, often like ghosts of themselves… such as the glass spinning wheel , seismograph or his bell jar series. What I want, however, is highly functional, and sculpturally magnificant - one of his absinthe fountains. Complete with skull-and-crossbones motif on the bowl, gold spigots and finely worked glass finial and foot, they are sinister and arrestingly attractive at the same time… like all the best things in life.

Look here for more of Andy’s work.