For my birthday, Molly gave me a gift of a “Drinking History Tour” through Fitzroy, where I’ve been staying in Melbourne. On the evening of Halloween, I walked down to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to meet up with the tour. We learned some history & drank some drinks! It was pretty fun!
Fitzroy Street Library
A house
A Tribe Called Quest
Judy Jetson
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Everleigh, a dope cocktail bar
George Costanza
I walked around Hobart a bit before heading back to Melbourne. Halloween isn’t huge in Australia, but I did see a few costumes … maybe?
Baked eggs
Port
Halloween?
Wildlife
I thought I wouldn’t get my chance, but the Hobart airport came through, and I had a scallop pie for lunch!
I met up with Joel, met his adorable St. Bernard named Victoria, then we got some dinner and some whisky to finish off the night.
Victoria
Gnocchi with funghi sauce
Pizza
Port at sunset
Glass House bathroom selfie
I spent a day at the Museum of Old and New Art, known as “MONA”. It was an incredible experience, starting with a delightful ferry ride from Hobart up to the museum.
Spoilers below! If you want to see these works without knowledge of them, please skip this post.
James Turrell’s “Unseen Seen + Weight of Darkness” broke my head. His work continues to blow me away since I first saw him at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art (LACMA). I couldn’t take my phone into “Unseen Seen”, and “Weight of Darkness” was a sensory deprivation room devoid of sound or light. The former was ensconced in a giant sphere in the room with one of their restaurants. After a brief chat with the lab-coated staffers, I walked up a stairwell into the sphere and laid down onto a bed, while the staff closed the door behind me and started the exhibit. What proceeded was 14 minutes of light with some ethereal sounds to accompany it. The piece was indescribable. Afterwards, you walk down a twisted hallway to a dark room with two armchairs. The room is such that you cannot see your own hand in front of your face. After 14 minutes in there, the piece is over. There were two other Turrell pieces at MONA: “Event Horizon,” a ganzfeld space; and, “Beside Myself,” a light tunnel. Both were also great, but not quite as mind-breaking as “Unseen Seen.”
I took a little break after Turrell before heading over to see Alfredo Jaar’s “The Divine Comedy”, which was another that I could not take my camera into. It includes a few rooms that mirrored the three stages of Dante’s work: Inferno, Purgatorio, & Paradiso. Inferno was an intense room with a small circular platform around a vat of water. The water churned and rose and came close to hitting us, while the ceiling grew ever hotter and descended until it almost hit us. Purgatorio was in a small cinema-like room and started with a black & white video of an elderly woman in a couple of rooms as she slowly walked around and performed a few mindless tasks. After the video ended, the walls at the top of the room descended to reveal windows to the outside world, where the natural sunlight flooded the room, and beautiful angelic sounds permeated the room. Paradiso was an anechoic chamber that sealed itself, removing any sound or light from the outside. It finished with televisions on the ceiling showing beautiful skies above, and then created a gorgeous three-dimensional cloud out of some kind of mist type substance.
The rest of the museum is filled with old and new art (get it?), experiential and traditional visual art, and they have a focus on overall experience that sets the bar very high for other museums.
Overall, MONA is unlike any museum experience I’ve had. Here are a few pictures from that day.
Ferry cow
Ferry views
bit.fall
Beside Myself, by James Turrell
Selfie at Beside Myself
The outside of Unseen Seen, by James Turrell
Lunch at the Museum Café: Moorilla Pinot Noir and a sausage roll
Black Beauty (Nana Series), by Niki de Saint Phalle
Game Boys Advanced, by Patricia Piccinini
Lincoln, by Nam June Paik
20:50, by Richard Wilson
Requiem for Vermin, by Christopher Townsend
Mummy and coffin of Pausiris (Egypt, Ptolemaic to Roman Period)
The Void cocktail bar and Sullivan’s Cove whisky
The top-side of Mona Confessional, by Oliver Beer
Chapel, by Wim Delvoye
Spectra
Amarna, by James Turrell
Outside MONA
Return ferry + Sparkling wine
Per Harper’s recommendation, I went on the Pennicott Seafood Seduction tour today, where our fearless guides Sam & Hugh took us on a cruise through the waters of Hobart, Tasmania. Not only were they our guides, they were also our captains, fishermen, chefs, and entertainers – their constant prattle & wit back and forth kept the cruise light-hearted and fun. The day was amazing, the food top-notch, and the sights were something to behold. Anyone heading to Tasmania should stop through and take the cruise!
Across the day, we ate:
The abalone and sea urchin were freshly caught by Hugh, one of our guides!
Of the course of the day, we drank:
The day started off pretty windy and cloudy, but ended up warm with gorgeous blue skies.
Pennicott ship: Little Penguin
Bruny Island
Raw oysters
Oysters poached in sparkling wine
Rocky cliffs
Salmon farm
Salmon sashimi
Sea
Selfie
Willie Smith’s cider & Moo brew
Tiny island
Shore views
Fellow passengers from Hong Kong
Inside the ship
Sea life
Chardonnay views
Appetizers: strawberries, blueberries, cucumber, hot-smoked salmon, cold-smoked salmon, brie, blue cheese, cheddar.
Rock lobster, with Sam & Hugh
Sam petting the rock lobster
Me holding the rock lobster
Rock lobster, raw
Rock lobster, poached
Hugh diving for seafood
Sam showing us the sea urchins
Prep’ing the sea urchin
Fresh, raw sea urchin
Prep’ing the abalone
Sam taking a mallet to the abalone.
Abalone, poached in butter
Abalone, sautéed with scallions, ginger, chilis, garlic.
Chardonnay selfie
I spent a few days in Hobart, Tasmania. This first day, I checked into the fabulous Macq Hotel, met up with Harper’s friends Joel & Mustafa, and drank some delicious local gin & whisky.
Mustafa and Joel
Macq Hotel
Hartshorn Sheep Whey gin
Potato, onion, & leek frittata, from The Old Wharf in the Macq Hotel
Selfie
Port
Ferry to MONA
Macq hotel with cruise ship
I had a wonderful breakfast at Industry Beans of Tea soaked steel cut oats, chia crumble, caramelised ginger foam, compressed watermelon, rosewater gel and fresh fruit. After, I flew to Hobart, Tasmania for a few days, which was awesome.
Breakfast at Industry Beans
Espresso at Industry Beans
Art
Flying to Hobart
I started off the day with a bagel at Mile End Bagels, which was a worthwhile look at what Australian bagels are. This one was good, if not a little off from what I’m used to otherwise. I saw a little art walking around Fitzroy and Collingwood, including a Keith Haring original!
I met up with Rob and his family at the Day of the Dead festival at Flagstaff Gardens in the afternoon, before Rob and I headed off onto a walking tour to see all that Melbourne has to offer. Some of the highlights were the State Library of Victoria and the various “arcades” of Melbourne (sort of a small shopping mall).
I was wiped out by the time I got home, so I got a burger nearby at “That Burger Joint”.
Keith Haring mural in Collingwood
State Library of Victoria
William Shakespeare at the State Library of Victoria: “All the world’s a stage”
Art in the Centreway Arcade
Fitzroy art
A burger from That Burger Joint
This morning, I had a scrumptious breakfast sandwich (the “Brekkie”) at Grace Cafe near my airbnb. Food and drink continue to amaze me in Melbourne in a way I haven’t seen so consistently well done across an entire city like this before. The eggs were light and fluffy and folded into a perfectly toasted ciabatta, with chives, cheese, sriracha mayo, onion jam.
I met up with Taylor at Aunty Peg’s. We enjoyed a coffee cupping before enjoying some coffees at the bar. I did their flight of espressos – I had presumed they would be typical short ristretti, but they were closer to a full espresso shot ala what you might get in Italy or the US. However, the espressos were simply delightful.
We left there to go to Aunty Peg’s sister restaurant, Proud Mary. We both enjoyed the bacon katsu sando, a yummy take on the traditional katsu. It was breaded bacon terrine, Japanese apple relish, mustard greens, a fried egg, and bonito flakes, all on a thick slice of toast, open-faced style.
As the caffeine high from my espresso flight subsided, we ventured down to a pretty neat Zero Waste event. Lots of interesting ways to reduce waste by lowering the amount of disposable items you use in the first place.
We hit up The Local Taphouse, an American-themed beer bar featuring Austin, Texas beers. We had a quick drink there, before heading back up to the Central Business District (CBD) to Whisky+Alement, a dope whisky bar featuring hundreds of whiskies from around the world. I focused on the Australian whiskies: Adam’s Single Malt and the Watkins Co Single Malt.
We ended the day with what turned out to be one of my favorite Indian meals of my life: Tonka. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the food, as my phone was dying, and I still needed to know how to get home. We started with the Zucchini flower pakora, delicately fried with just the right amount of creamy cheese inside. We moved onto the Spencer Gulf Kingfish tartare, a lovely dish with pomegranate, ginger, and fresh wasabi. Our main dish was the lamb curry with roasted coconut, black cardamom, and white poppy seeds: I savored the first bite for nearly a minute. It was that good. The lamb was so tender, and combined with the perfectly spiced curry was incredible. For a side, we enjoyed the fried cauliflower. Basically, I want to return to Tonka as soon as possible and have the exact same meal all over again.
Grace Cafe brekkie sandwich
Taylor & I at Aunty Peg’s
Aunty Peg’s espresso
Stay fly
Jimi
Whisky+Alement: Adam’s Single Malt
Tonka: Silk Road
Taylor at Tonka
I had a lunch of “Dill-icious” pork dumplings and garlic cucumber salad with a homemade lemon iced tea at Shandong Mama Mini. I walked down to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) International to see the KAWS exhibit, along with a few other things in the permanent collection, before heading to the NGV Ian Potter museum focused on Australian art.
After the walking & the sight-seeing, I treated myself to some cocktails at Eau de Vie in the Central Business District and Black Pearl in Fitzroy. For dinner, I enjoyed a scrumptious pizza at Capitano.
Shandong Mama Mini: garlic cucumber salad and dill-icious pork dumplings
KAWS sculpture
“Waiting” by KAWS (I saw a larger version of this in Greenpoint, Brooklyn last week.
Simpsons by KAWS
Snoopy by KAWS
Companion by KAWS
KAWS sculpture in a traditional room
KAWS selfie
NGV Australia
NGV Australia
Eau de Vie: Bitter Stripper
Black Pearl: Hendrick’s Martini with a twist
Capitano: Asparagus Pizza