I didn't go to see
The Exorcist tonight (it was tempting, though,
if just to spite our wise and benevolent Premier); however, I did go to a
rather anarchic live band/spoken-word night at the Empress. The night was
put on by the local fringe art scene. (It was also meant to have some films
from the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, though the projector didn't
work.) There was a guy dressed in Arab headgear, claiming to be from the
Taoist Jihad, violating the Victorian blasphemy law* by doing things to a Bible
whilst doing a silly dance; a bloke named Luke Somethingorother who did a number of (excellently amusing) spoken-word pieces, and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek
heavy metal band named FMC who appeared in drag, played a number of short songs in poor taste, and did various disgusting things like eating raw hamburgers. The MC, Phil Norton,
kept the crowd entertained with digressions and silly dances and stalled for
time when the projector didn't work, at one stage passing a microphone around.
The audience had a goodly number of odd people in it, including at least two
men in dresses, not counting the band. It was a fun night, as it usually is
from such a motley bunch of freaks.
* That's right; blasphemy is still illegal in Victoria. It has been
prosecuted as recently as the 1980s.