Things I Love About Melbourne Part 3: Little Cupcakes

Oooh boy, I have been into Little Cupcakes a few too many times since I have been here. Their cupcakes are just too good to resist! I had heard of Little Cupcakes even before I came to Melbourne and I was pleased to find that they live up to their reputation. Each time I have been into Little Cupcakes the shop has been full.

The cupcakes are so fluffy and light they almost melt in your mouth and the icing is not too sickly sweet, which has been the downfall of other cupcake shops/cafes. They have a range of flavours including the standard chocolate, strawberry, lemon and vanilla ones, but also get others in seasonally, like passionfruit which sounds really delicious. In that photo above, I'm eating a Cookies & Cream flavoured one. Red Velvet is my favourite, though I'm yet to decipher what flavour it is exactly. 

Their tea is served in a beautiful tea set, which is perfect since I'm a sucker for pretty china. I know that their cupcakes and tea will be the best combo for those chilly winter days.

Am I swooning? Yeah, just another thing I love about Melbourne.

Little Cupcakes is on Degraves st

Carpe Diem

Photo from The Cobrasnake

All in an Afternoon

Probably my favourite thing about living in Geelong is the jaw-droppingly good op shopping they have. With every cluster of houses comes another Salvos or Vinnies store - there are three op shops between my house and the bus stop to uni. When I live in Melbourne, I will definitely still make a regular trip out to Geelong just to pillage their op shops. Maybe it's because the people here haven't really discovered the joys of op shops yet and have left all these gems for the rest of us to find... I dunno, I can't explain why I keep finding awesome stuff. I would have thought they would be quite popular, given the large number of them, and the generally working-class population of Geelong.

The median income of Geelong is $50,000. It doesn't sound like much, but it's approximately 50,000 times more than what I am currently earning. It wasn't the smartest idea to move to a new country in the middle of a recession when all the fashion boutiques are closing down. I'm not ready to start working in hospitality just yet. 

Aaaanyway, all these op shops are great, because recession and second-hand shopping go so well together. Here's what I bought yesterday (and I spent less than $50 all up!): 

You can never have too many striped shirts right? I may have to get this one taken in because it is so wide that when I put it on I feel like I am drowning in fabric. I have no sewing skills, but luckily my grandmother will be in Wellington when I am.

After falling in love with the floral blazer Allison Mosshart was wearing during the Kills encore, I was prepared to do anything to get one myself. Even if it meant ordering the $220 Topshop one. I found this one in the first op shop I went into:

This dress didn't look like much on the rack, but I took a chance and tried it on. I was surprised to find that the cut of it is quite flattering if you wear it with a belt and the sleeves and collar are super cute.

A close up of the collar

It started off coming down to mid-calf and had this yucky frilly bit at the bottom, but I cut it off and now it's a perfect length. May have to get it hemmed though.

This one is my favourite and also the cheapest one I found. Win win!

With the addition of these three to my (already heavily saturated with floral) wardrobe, I think there might just be such a thing as too much floral. I'll see how it goes, but I may end up selling the first two blazers on ebay. I'll let you know if I do!

I also bought this velvet bow from Forever New, a very girlie local chain store. It ended up being the most expensive item I bought all day at only $10. I love that it can be pinned either to your shirt or to your hair. 

Though this dress wasn't bought on the day of my op shopping adventure, I did buy it second hand on ebay. I am slowly developing an addiction to ebay... my wardrobe will be better for it but my wallet won't.

I found out today that I have been accepted to be a part of this year's Geelong Advertiser Hot Shots program and I am super stoked! It's kind of an internship/work experience thing where one night a week we get together at the offices of the Geelong Advertiser and a speaker tells us about various aspects of the newspaper industry. I'm particularly interested in finding out what is being done to prevent the death of print media. It's an amazing opportunity and I'm one of only 10 people from Deakin University to be chosen. It starts in two weeks.

I Put a Spell on You

As soon as I heard the first dial tones of U.R.A. Fever and the Kills walked on stage, I knew that the gig was going to be amazing. Stalking and circling each other like feral cats, VV and Hotel put on a performance that was one of the best I have seen in a looong time. The crowd was electric, everyone was dancing and having a good time. It had been four long years since the Kills last visited our antipodean shores and Melbourne was definitely glad to have them back, even if it was just for a night. The drought was over! Let's celebrate. I would say that the show was phenomenal, but I could tell that it was nothing out of the ordinary for the Kills who put on an extraordinary show every night. 

Their rise in popularity has been gradual (and perhaps even further boosted by Jamie's relationship with Kate Moss) but all their successes are well deserved. Before Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours came out, Midnight Boom was my favourite album of 2008 and I still listen to it regularly. I might even go as far to say it's my favourite of their albums. Key word being might. Their live performance is renowned for being rock n roll at its best: it's all about the intensity, the grit, the drugs and the sex. You really don't know it until you see it. 

Alison whips her hair around, clearly still enjoying the songs they must have played hundreds of times by now. She lit up a cigarette numerous times throughout the night, sometimes only having the chance to take two puffs between songs before she had to stub it out. What is it about beautiful girls and cigarettes that makes smoking look so darn (dare I say it?) ... cool?

Jamie was standing closest to me and I really enjoyed watching him distort the sounds coming out of his guitar. Sometimes he rapped on the guitar with his knuckles so hard that the strap fell off. 

No doubt the highlight of the night was in the middle of the set when they put their mic stands in the centre of the stage so they were facing each other as they sang. It was clear that this was a regular part of their show, to play up their reputation and to stir rumours, but the crowd loved it none the less. The best part came at the end of Last Day of Magic when Alison leaned over and kissed Jamie on the lips. I nearly died.

It was interesting seeing a band play without a drum kit, but the drum machine thingy worked well and I was so focused on watching Jamie and Alison that I never really noticed its absence anyway. There's no room and they don't need it. All of that sexual tension takes up the whole stage and a drummer would only feel left out as the two front people teased and flirted with each other. 

Now that I have seen them live, I know that next time they are in the same city as me I will do anything to see them perform again. I really wish I hadn't let a small thing like being underage stop me from seeing them last time.

Because I was on the far left of the stage, the side lighting often thwarted my attempts to take a photo. But sometimes they made a cool effect, like this one.

Moments before the kiss...

I love this moment. Jamie played the wrong part, again.

When I saw Alison come back onstage wearing this floral blazer, I knew I had to find one for myself.

I seem to have developed quite the gift for getting set lists. I thought I saw the girl next to me brace herself to jump on stage and as the Kills were walking off stage so I told her if she wanted it, I would give her a lift up. She looked at me, horrified by the idea and said I could have it. I didn't hesitate, and crawled across the stage to get it, pissing off the roadies on the way. I probably should be embarrassed by my actions but hey, I really wanted it and I wasn't going to let anything stop me.

From where I was standing, I could see straight into the backstage area. Louis XIV (who were not noteworthy) stuck around after their set, a couple of beautiful girls were making them laugh. I recognised the bassist from the Killers amongst the people backstage and I told a girl next to me, "The Killers are backstage!" She looked at me as if I was the stupidest person ever and said, her words dripping with animosity, "... The Kills." Before rolling her eyes. "Uuum, no I just saw the bassist from the Killers... "

The Ladies of Dogtown

More beautiful photography from Hobo Gestapo's Artemis:

Are they the same girls from these Cobrasnake photos?

You can read their blogs here and here

I Want you to be Crazy cause you're Boring Baby when you're Straight

Last Wednesday the Kills played at the San Francisco Bathhouse in Wellington. A lot of my friends went and told me of how good it was later. It hurt my heart knowing I was unable to party to this fantastic band with some of my favourite friends. In the lead up to the gig, I heard from numerous people that Kate Moss was rumoured to be coming to Wellington for the gig. I laughed it off, saying it was impossible because of the opening of the New York Topshop store, but secretly I hoped it wouldn't happen otherwise it could have been my first strike against Melbourne! I will be going to see them this Friday in Melbourne, but it would have been cooler to see them in Wellington, with my closest friends and at a relatively intimate venue like SFBH. I could almost imagine I was there, thanks to some photos that were up on Neon Sleep.

This photo reminds me of one time a few years ago when I was being lead through the back corridors of Auckland's St. James, only to come across Nick Zinner smoking in his dressing room. The law had just gone through a few months previous, but he didn't care. Nick Zinner and Alison Mosshart: Quintessential rockstars.

I have been searching for that perfect leopard print coat for years now. Turns out VV had it the whole time. Yeah, she's a minx.

I know they're not actually kissing but still, Kate who? I hear there is some intense on-stage chemistry that goes on between these two. Meow! I can't wait to hear No Wow, Cheap and Cheerful and Black Balloon live.

(repost) Light, Sound, Dance

The last time I saw the Bang Gang DJs play was August '07 in Sydney. There is only one word to describe that night: loose.
Question: can you say you saw a group of DJs "play"? It's not like they're playing any instruments. Or even their own songs. Can you call it a gig? I struggle to find words that suffice.
Despite only getting 2/5ths of the Bang Gang, last night at Good Luck was sufficiently awesome. More so, even. Since they're with Modular Records, they have the pick of the crop when it comes to great dance music. Hoodrat (or Angus as I learnt later) responded to my shouted requests for Cut Copy and/or the Presets with a grin. So you can imagine my euphoria when they put on Lights and Music and then My People within the space of 15 minutes.

Last night I christened my brand new camera, a Sony a350. I was taking photos for a secret squirrel mission that I may or may not tell you about later and I had great fun doing it. It was interesting observing the way people treated me because I had a camera in my hand. Everyone pouted and posed when I pointed the lens their way. I was treated as a friend rather than a stranger all because people wanted me to take their photo. Hardly anyone asked why I was doing it. I kinda felt like they each wanted their own 15 seconds of fame by being caught on camera at some cool bar where some cool DJs were playing. That's not to put down anyone that I took a photo of though, they were all really lovely and everyone was having a great time. Heck, I've posed for those kind of photos before. At fashion week there were numerous times when someone would come up to me and ask if they could take my picture. Before they could even begin to say "I'm from (insert publication here)" I was already smiling for the camera. I have no idea where most of those photos turned up.

I got asked last night if I was Neon Sleep. Haha! No, I'm not.

That weird situation was almost as perplexing as the time I went up onto the street to get some fresh air. I was by myself and sitting on the stone wall outside Good Luck, watching the interactions between drunk groups of people - always a fun way to pass the time. I had my camera in my hands and some guy came and sat next to me asking me questions about my camera. I was polite and answered all the questions he had but I would have preferred to be left alone. Out of the blue he said "So you like me and I like you, why don't you come back to my place?" I was all "Huh?!" It was sick, I think he was hoping that I was more drunk than I actually was and wouldn't be able to remember what I had been saying to him. So he said, "Yeah, you just said that you're interested in me, so how 'bout it?" I was completely dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say. Did he really think I was so stupid/drunk that I would fall for it and say "Well okay, if you say that's how I feel, then it must be true." Needless to say, I vacated that stone wall pretty quickly.

Good Luck often turns into a rather sweaty affair (Hawnay Troof anyone?) because of its low ceilings and restricted space and this time was no different. Fringes can be a bitch in those situations.

When the lights were turned on and we were all told to leave, I was still keen to party. Thank goodness for San Francisco Bathhouse!

Speaking to them afterwards, they said the Wellington show was better than the Auckland one. Haha. Hopefully I get to see them again soon, since they're always so much fun. Whether that's in NZ or Australia or somewhere else altogether, who knows?