first place
Number three in the impressive library of self published works by Melbourne's And Collective is A Place Tells A Story. Both a book and CD project engage with subjective notions of place and community via visual art, text, music and artefact. Produced by And Collective members Marc Martin (illustrator/photographer/graphic designer), Justine Ellis (production assistant/photographer) and Dan Rule (writer/editor and go-getting man about town) the book will expose "Milk bars, street corners, neighborhoods, roads within the context of an increasingly globalised consciousness, reconnecting with locality and specificity... exploring these sites' histories and narrative; posing questions about their future"...
Mmm sounds HEAVY but we'll forgive the earnestness as we look forward to seeing some of our favourite corners of Melbourne up in lights while finding some new nooks and crannies to wander down. After all there's nothing like being a tourist in your own town, and this seems like an ideal new guidebook. Oh and don't forget there's a soundtrack too including Perfect Black Swan, Nadia Combe, Saddleback, Bird Traps, Chris Smith, Lee Memorial and Jon Tjhia, which is excellent news because we love nothing better than loading up the ipod with site specific sounds before heading out for said wander.
And Collective publications are notorious for showcasing the best and brightest of Melbourne's emerging art scene, and this their newest project is no exception, featuring works by Warwick Baker, Tom Civil, Oslo Davis, Kubota Fumikazu, Rachael Wenona Guy, Andy Jackson, Kyle de Kuijer, Brigid McCarthy, Meg Mundell, Mandy Ord, Liza Power, Memuzin River, Lou Smith, Salote Tawale and Eve Vincent. Get some.
A Place Tells A Story: the launch happens this Thursday, September 18 between 6pm-9pm at the Metropolis Bookshop Lvl 3, Curtain House 252 Swanston Street, Melbourne.
The ladies of HML have always harboured not-so secret dreams of becoming great illustrators and we so hero worship peeps who just produce consistently jaw dropping work. We are very excited about the new gallery Lamington Drive
The new show highlights the work of genius penman Neils 'Nails' Oetjen and really I think we can manage to get to te corner of George and Gertrude St in Fitzroy...
well we'll give it a try. The weathers fining up, baby Maxwell is getting bigger (as is Ramona - Thomas is only 6 weeks away).
Oh and if any of you out there actually want to know what Graham Kennedy, Don Chip, Don Burrows, Andrew Peacock (caviar and cheese balls - too perfect) Derek 
The ladies of HML are immeshed in the fabric of Craft Victoria so we don't often promote the shows there citing conflict of interest (board member/retail manager). But this month sees three of our favourite people of all time grace Melbourne with new and thrilling work. We can't think of makers who consistently thrill us more than Stephenn Gallagher (above ), Irene Grishin- Selzer ...
and Anna Davern...
We are a bit beside ourselves with excitement. Three shows at once opening this Thursday night at 
In honour of yesterday's standing as International Speak Like a Pirate Day celebrations we've got an excellent weekend project that combines two of our favourite things... burly swashbuckling fella's with big beards, and the skull and crossbones. This "we call them pirates" hat comes from the excellent 
Nothing says "Check me out, I’m jolly trendy” more than experimental facial hair. However, not everyone is endowed with the neccessary equipment to 'grow their own', so alternatives have always popular. You may have seen this in the good weekend a couple of weeks ago, but we liked it so much we had to do a little more investigating and thought some of you may have missed it - so here it is... the beard cap. 
Alongside the beard cap the collection includes a brilliant knitted Sealpelt jumpsuit above that makes you look like a giant baby seal in a psychedelic beanbag which is just what we're both after at the moment.
And then there's the Regional and Sea blanket's, each resplendant in their respective oversized bold topographic and anchor patterning and the Twosome above - a sofa-sized snuggle blanket with double ended hoods especially handy for watching those northern lights that draws on the icelandic tradition of sharing beds during the coldest winter nights. Yes these are definately our kind of people.
And who can resist a dork in x-ray specs - not us that's for sure and we do need to make the effort to support the independently run space 
Usually this time of year sees us stuck to our chairs in the Nova cinema - which is about the only time you'll find us there, because let's just say... its not our favourite cinema, although the location that allows brunetti stops, trawling through bookstores and ti-amo across the road for a mid festival feed does have its charms!
This year sees have a retrospective of brilliant humanist auter 
We hate the phrase dynamic duo (the ladies of HML get that a bit and it always makes us think of old school Batman and Robyn) but we admit that Haby and Jennison are the real deal. We admire them both close up and from afar!
