Yesterday (Wednesday), I spent most of the morning on admin. things which I'm catching up on. P. went off to Uncle Noel's on various errands. In the early evening, I toddled over to the convent to a Midsumma/Convent talk on Art Queery. It was moderated by Daniel Santangeli (convenor of Midsumma) and had panelists (not sure of any of the spellings) Zvonamir Dobrovic, Croatian entrepreneur/art curator, Jacob Boehme, convenor of the First Nations Art Festival Yirrumboi, Simona Castrocomb, a transgender singer/performer/architect and Maddie Clark, curator and editor of Un- magazine. They were refreshingly down-to-earth (I was expecting artspeak) and signalled this when they described their 'heroes' as Elton John, Boy George, Silvester and George Michael, respectively. They talked a lot about practical things, like funding. Zvonamir said that 'all money is dirty' even State money but he had less to worry about with funding as he lived in a socialist state. He did say he was good at fundraising though and said he would fuck someone to get money out of them. Jacob talked about the need for good business sense and marketing for both fringe and mainstream performers while Simona called for more visibility. Zvonamir said if your audience was getting too big, you were doing something wrong. Maddie, a Yugambeh person, said having never had any money, quibbling about its source was a bit pointless. It was refreshing having such a straightforward panel. It was even better coming home to find a beautiful cooked chook which P. had prepared in my absence. Today, I went into town to complete payment for South America (I don't trust Australia Post any more). Later I joined Frank and Jane N. for lunch at Pope Joan (P. was off with Robin S.) We had an excellent and wide-ranging mag across the world and locally. I kid you not. Then, in the evening, I went for an old Penguinis dinner with Julie, Maryanne, Pat, Andrew, Jackie and Peg. The conversation focussed on family and travel rather than publishing.
