John Waters: Indecent Exposure

University of California Press

You might know him from cult classics of the raunchier kind like Pink Flamingos or his emissions that appealed more to mainstream audiences, e.g. Hairspray. and other great, funny and raunchy movies.

John Waters is many things: Style icon, agent provocateur, artists and film director being only few of the many facets that comprise his personality and creative output.

Indecent Exposure is an ode to his photographic emissions from the early ninety-nineties to the present day and age. The eye candy is substantiated with essays by contemporary art aficionados and academic types along with an interview with Waters.

How would one describe Waters’ work you ask?

Hmmm, whimsical, at time deliberately in advocacy of bad taste, witty and more often than not vulgar for the sake of vulgarity but never without another dimension added to it and thereby provoking deeper thoughts regarding the state of affairs in this fact paced and often plastic world of ours.

A weak spot for the demimonde specifically that of his hometown Baltimore pervades every aspect of the book and his annual exhibitions form the foundation for this book, for which Indecent Exposure doubles as a catalogue.

The artwork of the book with its stained brown wrapping paper and John Waters being portrayed as a Pepping Tom is more than suitable and sets the right tone for his explorations of the (fake) world of celebrities and the gears that keep the machinery recklessly moving forward.

Despite having a Sendungsbewusstsein, John Waters is always delightful, playful and enjoyable and it is up to the beholder in how far one chooses to actively interact and dig deeper when it comes to embedded meanings, allusions and criticisms his oeuvre conveys and how it questions the status quo.

Water of Life – Whisky Co-op Sydney

Tasting curated by Scott (The Oak Barrel) at the Wild Rover

The age-old question - what makes a good whisky?

Many roads lead to Rome and even more to creating the water of life bottle of whisky, which vary across the gazillion of distilleries around the world let alone the ones popping up like mushrooms around terra australis’ on-going whisky boom.

Of all the spirits, whisky and its variants seems to be a focal point for the more enthused and passionate consumers, with a whole industry dedicated to catering to their every whim and need.

Started at The Wild Rover in 2012, Sydney’s members-only Whiskey Co-Op is one of them, yet it has something to offer that others do not, which to a large extent boils down to their curation of presenters.

Enter Scott Fitzsimmons from one of Sydney’s only specialist bottle shops The Oak Barrel.

Personally, I'm a lover and devoted follower of world whisky in all its many forms and have attended quite a few tastings, however, there’s few like the ones arranged by the Whiskey Co-Op as the stars are still the liquid emissions being proffered, yet they are set in scene in a manner that few other hosts are capable of.

Given the subjective dynamic part of the whisky fabric, Scott displays a deep understanding of what one of the qualities of tastes and flavours are: The creation of Proustian moments, where they trigger e.g. feelings of nostalgia and transport you via their engaging flavours to another place and time – an experience that results from your nervous system being fully engaged and creating an experience that culminates in more than the mere stimulation of your taste buds.

Apart from the ability, Scott’s “technical” knowledge of everything spirit related is a nice melange of a borderline scientific approach to thoroughly understand each component of the production process paired with an unbridled enthusiasm and a respect both the craft that goes into it as well as the audience that creates the stage for him to guide them.

Taste can obviously not be being led by price or grade alone, even though mostly it is the stigma attached to it.

The way Scott approaches his elaboration makes those considerations irrelevant as the way he approaches the curation of tasting events is informed by what makes his heart pump, which was backed by him paying homage to new emissions, e.g. Starward’s excellent and affordable grain-barley hybrid  Two-Fold (which we recently elaborated on in a previous feature) or a dram of Speyside’s fairly modern Speyside distillery Tamnavulin, which is something that has not even been familiar with me on a name basis.

Given the expert selection of the six whiskies of the night, they spoke for themselves in terms of complexity and balance.

However, it was due to Scott’s expertise that his elaboration inspired your humble narrator to take a sip and approaching it from a different perspective, which changed how the character, smoothness, finish was perceived and resulted on an X-factor being added and the creation of an additional dimension.

A fulminant first tasting of the Whiskey Co-Op that has set the bar high for things to come.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Lead photo by T, Bundaberg photo supplied

Water of Life

Bass and Flinders Distillery and Bundaberg’s 130th Anniversary Spiced Small Batch Release

Good god, the gin industry – especially on terra australis is exploding with new distillers popping up like mushrooms. Given the myriad of flavours and infused variants, it was only a matter of time until somebody actually started working with them.

Hailing form the shire of the Mornington Peninsula, Bass & Flinders Distillery has refined a Truffle Gin, which aligns perfectly with their mission statement of producing premium emissions while honouring and accentuating local produce.

The earthiness the Australian Black Perigord Truffles sourced from the depths of the volcanic soil underneath Red Hill farms rest on a foundation of juniper and are flanked by nuances of angelica root and calamus root. The fact that the gin is made with Bass & Flinders’ own grape based spirit, which is produced in-house by distillation of Victorian wine, which adds a velvety, creamy texture to this drop.

Being a whiskey aficionado, I very much welcome the fact that the Truffle Gin is best served neat. This is not another novelty experiment but a delicious artisanal beauty that you would want to get your hands on before the limited edition sells out.

Now, while the Truffle Gin is an excellence introduction to Bass & Flinders, the discovery I present next takes things to the next level:

Take Australian Chardonnay grapes, double distill them and let them mature for for a minimum of five years in oak barrels as Bass & Flinders is focused on releasing a premium product and willing to wait until they feel it is truly ready:”

Ochre Aged Grape Spirit – a refined brandy that upon the first sip unleash a mélange of aromas ranging from fruity nuances to oaky and vanilla notes with a lingering finish that makes one lust for another glass.

The fact that the Ochre is such a delicious and refined spirit is almost a shame as the bottle it comes it is something that enhances and adorns any liquor shelf with its hand-made leather label.

If you are remotely partial to enjoying Cognac and Armagnac, you have not lived until you have exposed your palate to this “Aged Grape Spirit” (Bass & Flinders Distillery abstains from referring to it as a “brandy”) and you would want to get your hands on it quickly as there is only limited supply.

Slight change of gear:

130 years of Bundaberg Rum

Started by a group of mates in 1888, award decorated Bundaberg Rum is as Australian as it gets when it comes to

Master blending, ingredients carefully sourced from what Queensland have to offer and its drinks range and its rum expressions enjoy iconic status on terra australis.

To celebrate a hundred and thirty years of channeling their rum crafting alchemy, Bundaberg Rum completes the quartet of their Small Batch release series with a Spiced expression: The result of the of the blend of aged reserves with rum mellowed in heavily charred American oak barrels, before being infused it with notes of thirteen different spices (to signify the thirteen decades of Bundaberg’s heritage), clove, hints of anise, fruit nectars, caramel citrus zest and the trademark Bundaberg “je ne sais quoi”.

There is certainly no shortage of spiced rums on the market but from the first sip of this anniversary expression, one can tell that extensive research had been conducted prior to its release to ensure that the essence of what makes spiced rum work is encapsulated, i.e. dry spices, the token orangey tinge, cinnamon, vanilla and a nice dry finish.

While rum is usually not my preferred tipple of choice, Bundaberg’s limited Spiced Small Batch anniversary release is an exercise in well-balanced complexity and I cannot imagine that it will last long on the shelf given the popularity of their core range.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Lead photo by T, Bundaberg photo supplied

Drop

Powerhouse Books

Street wear couture has always been a culture, but the combination of the advent of the internet, the crossover involvement of designers, the renaissance of cross-pollinating hip hop, everything associated with Hypebeast and pop stars along with their A&Rs having their ear close to the street helped balloon this once niche and independent phenomenon to a world wide industry and big business.

Limited editions are dropped every week and aficionados around the globe camp outside the respective retailers to cop the hottest gear to then either flip it for a multiplicity of the already high original price and proudly display it via their social media channels.

The congregations around such launches has become more than mere events – they effectively have become the catwalk of the millennial generation.

No matters if it is New York City, Tokyo or London, thousands of young faithfuls line up to get their gear, decked out in what has become the new high fashion, i.e. rare limited edition shoes and other one-off merchandise.

Drop zeros in on those “Drop” events, documenting this culture with intricate photographs that convey the spirit and excitement around these launches, which have become on par with the traditional fashion shows of haute couture houses.

For the initiated this is a worthwhile addition to their addition as there is a lot of eye candy when it comes to limited edition street wear – think Yeezyz, A Bathing Ape, Off White and of course Supreme with its various incarnations.

For the rest it would have certainly been more interesting if the photographic bits had substantiated with a bit more analysis or at least information around the launches that are being depicted – then again the book was clearly meant to zero in on a very specific phenomenon and viewed from that angle, the mission has been clearly accomplished.

Paul Capsis with Jethro Woodward and The Fitzroy Youth Orchestra

Spiegeltent

Sydney, Australia

January 18, 2019

Paul Capsis is a unicum and the versatility that has informed the myriad of his incarnations over the last nearly four decades make him a jack-of-all-trades.

No matter if it’s within the realm of cabaret, burlesque, acting or theatre, the man is one of those rare entertainers that shines no matter what scenario he performs in.

The current Sydney Festival saw him joining forces with Jethro Woodward and The Fitzroy Youth Orchestra and the fact that this collaboration is based on a mutual understanding of each other’s fortes pervaded through the evening, framed by the beautiful surroundings of the Spiegeltent, the annual emergence of which makes Hyde Park the epicenter of Sydney Festival.

The show was aimed at being an extravaganza of full tilt boogie rock with diverse material ranging from Led Zeppelin via Joan Baez, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, Janis Joplin, Lana Del Ray, The Suicide to even Childish Gambino.

The show was much more than a mere exercise in covering songs - Paul Capsis infused the originals with his own idiosyncratic camp approach and wardrobe, and it was a delight to see his very own interpretations, which were often interestingly dark, twisted and always emotional with a tinge of cabaret added for good measure.

Needless to say that the eclectic show was peppered with anecdotes, musings on the need to be and a bit of social and political commentary on both local and global issues, which substantiated the performance with personal connections.

The Fitzroy Youth Orchestra added a nice counterpoint to the maestro, whose eighty-minute tour de force performance and range were testament to his legacy and longevity.

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photo supplied by www.sydneyfestival.org.au