"The Corpse Bride" by Tim Burton & Mike Johnson (2005)

A stop-motion comic-horror-romance musical directed by Tim Burton, which has all the elements and icons of the Burton's quirky universe.

The movie tells the story of Victor (Johnny Depp), who is in love with shy sensitive Victoria (Emily Watson) and finds himself married to the lonely Emily the Corpse Bride (Elena Bonham Carter) due to the release of an old spell. He'll have to find the way to leave the underworld and his unwanted dead wife, and return to the real world to marry sweet Victoria.

The movie mixes the moods of the classic Charles Dickens's novels and the 18th-19th century horror stories, and it is sprinkled with a great sense of humour and lots of winks to the adult viewer. 

The colours and backgrounds are beautiful, with a mix of the dark bright colours and precious quirky design that characterises Burton's world.

The characters are physically well designed, his personalities well-constructed and brought to live, and they are very witty and charming with the very charming old English and Scottish accents. The dubbing is excellent and helps the characters to come to live; you won't recognise the famous actors behind the characters, which says a lot about the good job they did at dubbing them.

The musical numbers are brilliant, hilarious sometimes.

The Corpse Bride is a very entertaining engaging animation movie for both adults and youngsters (not for kids, unless properly supervised) - Very sweet and funny despite the title. A classic of the stop-motion animation, perfect for the approaching Halloween.

Read More

Source Foods Café (Perth WA)

289 Beaufort St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 6468 7100
Website
Facebook
Hours:
    Mon-Thu - 7:30 - 15:00
    Fri - 7:30 - 21:30
    Sat-Sun - 8:30 - 16:00

Source foods is a nice simple café located at the corner between Brisbane and Beaufort St, which offers burgers, salads and simple dishes made using fresh produce. They have an emphasis on vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, organic, and free range food, and affordability. 

 THE PLACE

The café is very simple and small, cozy and welcoming, very quiet, and seems to attract a varied group of quiet interesting people. The place being so small, it is never crowded. Despite the austerity and 1970s vibe, the place has cute decoration elements, and the ambience is luminous and relaxed with a nice background music. They have some of the nicest cutest blackboards in town, painted by one of the lovely waitresses. Their toilets are simple but clean. 

THE FOOD

They have a good selection of burgers (normal, gluten free and vegan), salads, tarts and other simple dishes cooked in the premises. They have a Burger night on Fridays with more than ten different burgers starting from 5.30pm.

Everything I have tried at Source -salads, burgers and sweets- is good in taste and portion size. The  problem I have with their burgers is that they are too big, or better said, the bun is too small to contain all the stuff between its two halves, so it is practically impossible to eat a burger as it should be - with your bare hands without the food slipping out of it. If you have a big mouth and the burger fits in, well, good on you!

They have a small cabinet with sweets, but they do not bake on weekends, so you are going to find what is left over from the week (or so I am been told by the waitress), which is sometimes a poor meagre selection of sweets. I tried the brown rum balls, and they tasted really nice, but were very dry.  

THE COFFEE

Source uses prepares a decent coffee using Antz inya Pantz coffee, a brand that imports the beans and roasts them locally, so they are delivered to the shop in 48 hours. This means that no flavour is lost in the process and the coffee is really fresh. That sounds good. However, the beans are not especially flavoursome or strong if you are into Italian coffees or full-body strong coffee; however, their coffee is perfect for people who like light very smooth coffees with a chocolate-ish sort of taste. If you do not want the ants walking on your tongue, Source's Elmstock teas, smoothies and fresh juices are a great alternative.

 

THE SERVICE

The staff are terrific - a very approachable chatty friendly genuine group of people. They do not have the hype factor, and focus on doing their job and being themselves without any pose or pretence. Re-Source-full people.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

+ They have to figure out the way to have an awesome full burger that can be handled manually. Perhaps they need a bigger pattie, or put less stuff inside :O.

+ Guys, do not over-grill the chicken because it rests juiciness and tenderness to the salads. 

+ They would make a favour to themselves if they baked some desserts in advance for the weekend. Otherwise, it would be great having some easy-to-make-in-the-morning sweets that you serve during the day. Like cream caramel, rice pudding or whatever you want.

TIPS

+ They are serving coffee now from 6am during weekdays.

+ They cater for private functions.

+ They have regular food and coffee specials and offers. Check their website and facebook site to get them.

 +++

Source Café is one of those unpretentious places that caters for people who like healthy food, good portions, decent prices, a chilled relaxed atmosphere and terrific service sans le hype. My kind of place. 

Location: 6/10
Layout: 6.5/10
Ambience 6.5/10
Food: 7/10
Coffee: 6.5/10
Service: 9/10
Pricing: 8/10

Read More

Llama Espresso (Perth WA)

Shop H17 Carillon City
Hay St Level
Perth City Western Australia 6000
0423 153 197
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Hours:
    Mon-Fri 6:30 - 15:00

Pop Up, pop Up, another Café has just popped up in the heart of the CBD, in the Carillon Ctiy, in a temporary shop facing Mazzuchelli's, where they are going to stay for a few months.

Llama Espresso is a very pretty shop, with lovely decoration details and colourful llama paintings by the RedTiki designing team. The place being so small, and the seating area limited to a big common table an four chairs, the place is always quiet. There are plenty of people entering for a take-away, but not many choosing to stay in, which is perfect if you are looking for quietness and an escape-the-world moment in the heart of the city.  

The most important thing is that their coffee is well prepared, good in flavour, and medium strength. Good enough to bring me back. They use fair trade organic coffee beans that are locally roasted by an artisan Perth house called Rubra. They also have a good selection of teas from the same brand, and an eye-catching selection of gluten-free cupcakes, muffins and sweet breads by Catering Green. The cupcakes are really really sweet, not my cup of tea, but perfect for sweetoholics.

The ladies attending to the place are lovely, relaxed and very friendly to  everybody. 

There is something especial about Llama Espresso, perhaps the colours, the quietness and not being that popular. Or perhaps the fact that I like it :O. 

UPDATE 25/02/2013
 Llama Espresso is already settled in its new location within Carillon City on the Murray St level, instead of the shop on the Hay St level.

The place has lost a bit of the charm and special something it used to have, and has transformed into a small coffee corner. Although there are a few stools and a walled table, and the llama motif is everywhere, the place is mostly for takeaways and quick munches.

On the contrary, the food and drink offer has greatly improved, and together with their nice coffee, they have now yummy crushed ice coffee and tea, a nice selection of soft drinks, juices, sandwiches, rolls, wraps, pannini, salads, and winter soups.

The place is still gluten free friendly.

Read More

Boticca (Online Shop, UK, USA)-REBRANDED

 http://boticca.com/

My fashion motto is "Who wants to wear vintage when you can wear the future?"  Then I found Boticca, and she told me "I'd rather wear a unique story" and the friendship was born.

Boticca's motto conveys well the spirit and philosophy of this chic, independent and artistic-oriented market-inspired website that sells unique accessories from emerging International designers.

What Do they Sell?

Boticca has a great selection of unusual creative jewels, handbags and accessories: quirky, daring, shocking, odd, artsy, sophisticated and timeless depending on the pieces.They have an stress on ethnicity and world-wide design, so you can get things from Sudafrica, Lithuania, UAE, Venezuela, Israel, France or USA, just to put mention some countries from where the stuff comes from.

The quality of the pieces and designs is good, classy and edgy. The articles on sale are sold in very limited quantities (1-10 pieces usually) so there are many chances that you get something unique or unique-ish. 

Generally speaking, most pieces are overpriced, although you can find things for 30-40 bucks. There are many things incredibly cheap, but most o them are pricey or expensive. If you are not too carried away by your fashion low passions, wait!

How Does the Place Works?

The place works as a market where the different designers set their stalls and rules. However, they are subject to Boticca's stamp of approval regarding the quality of the design and Customer Service. 

Each designer has different preferences regarding shipping (free or not) and how they ship, which are specified in their personal space; you can always contact them directly for shipping methods, size customisation, ask for out-of-stock items, and any other thing. In "Your Account" area you can easily check the date of order, date of dispatch, find your tracking URL, "received" button, and "leave feedback" button. 

The three items I have bought so far are true to the photo and description of the items on the website, and except for one, they were affordable and good value for money. 

What Makes Boticca Different?

There are similar shopping places on the Internetosphere (new word's alert!!!!), but they sell from well established luxury brands or emerging artists that are chaperoned by the same brands and fashion holdings, not truly independent.

Boticca is in a way, a posh well-groomed Etsy, and shares many things with that vintage and handmade market: internationality, direct contact with the designer, secure-payment, order tracking, clear product details and photos, free customisation, among other things. However, Boticca is more an avant-garde high-design boutique than a handicrafts social-global market. Many designers have accounts both in Boticca and Etsy, but Boticca has a specific market niche and the place is curated by a group of designers, collectors and fashion experts, so it looks and feels different - but it is also way more expensive.

The Dark Side

$$$ As mentioned above, most things are overpriced. In some cases the materials and design justify the prices; however, in most cases they are not justified at all. Sorry, my opinion. Overpricing is a marketing technique I have already mentioned in this blog, so you can get awesome sales when the price is right. This is a global marketing sin, so we have to surf this ocean of nonsense to get to the place we want.

$$$ Many of the items are sent by regular registered mail, so they can take three weeks to get to your place, plus the period required by the designer for customisation if you choose a ring or something sizeable. If you need faster shipping, contact the designer in advance to arrange things differently.  

$$$ They have a small selection of men stuff, but I find it a bit limited and boring. Still, if you are a man, decide by yourself.

$$$ They have a few email notifications options, and they are ticked on by default, so you are going to receive tons of emails from Boticca. They should be unticked by default! They inform of sales, price reductions, new items, and so on, but this is a constant incitation to purchase. Not good for impulsive shoppers and shopaholics!

Tips for Saving

1/ You can get some discount coupons if you invite friends and they join and/or purchase. 

2/ Wait for Boticca's regular free world-wide shipping weekends.

3/ Wait for private sales by the designer of your devotion. Private sales are held on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays; you access to the latter by pushing the "fan" button of each designer you fancy. The sales are regularly scheduled and emailed about, last for 48 hours, and the discounts go from 20-50% and are worth the wait, especially if you are after expensive-ish items. Beware that the sales are not on everything the designer sells, so you could be unlucky and not find what you want discounted.

3/ They give you discount vouchers after your first purchase to use in your next check out. Another invitation to shop, a thing that Boticca does perfectly well.

4/ Sometimes they offer discount vouchers just for joining the site.  

5/ The same item can suffer slight modifications in the price, for reasons that nobody has been able to explain to me. Like, you see a bag one day at X dollars, and next day is 55 more, or vice versa. Sometimes nothing changes, but sometimes it does. I have experienced it myself, so do keep an eye on your prey! 

***

If you want to splurge on unique pieces of jewellery and bags that will not be worn by hundred of women in the city, this is your place to shop from. This is a special need for Perth fashionistas, who have not many high-design places in the city and most of the hand-crafted jewellery is traditional, way too expensive, and mostly branded. To be honest, I think that my fav jewellers in Perth should be selling at Boticca, so the world meets them.
 
Boticca is the sort of secret you do not want to share with your frenemy, because it is way too cool for her, and you could not bear her wearing anything that is very much you. So I am just telling you, not your frenemy. Please, if you buy from Boticca, comment on your experience and the pieces you are buying, so we do not end wearing the same stuff at the Oscars. Mind you?

UPDATE
Boticca was swallowed by Wolf&Badger. It works pretty much the same. But I haven't bought from them since the change.  

Read More

Online Reviews. Can you trust them?

This morning, there was a very interesting discussion on one of the TV morning shows about food blogging and customers reviews in general, as there are undercover people writing over-the-moon reviews for which they have been paid or bribed by those business or brands they are reviewing. 

The discussion is extremely relevant for us, users and regular reviewers of Urbanspoon, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Imdb, Rotten Tomates, or Blogger, just to mention some of the most popular reviewing places out there.

***

When I told a friend that I was posting my blog's posts on Urbanspoon, she told me about a well-publicised case of customer's abuse and untruthfulness, which really gives the bad name to any reviewing place. These sort of isolated case adds to many people's suspiciousness about any reviewing sites. Then, there are other elements I think also contribute to this distrust: 

• Isolated cases of online trolls.
• Many reviewers slash or praise businesses without making clear why.
• Many reviewers mix in their head what they like with goodness.
• Many reviews are not based on objective criteria.
• Many reviews are one to five lines long. That is especially a problem when the review is nasty.
• The tone of the reviews is somewhat suspicious to the reader: Too grandiose. Too nasty. Too insubstantial. 
• Many reviewing places offer just a like/diskile button, or five-star rating, which is unfair and misleading because a three-star can mean 6/10 to 7.5/10, which is a whole world of difference in rating for a restaurant, book or CD. 
• Most reviewing places do not demand the use of personal photos to show they are real people, so people suspect that those people without a real photo are hidden trolls or liars.  

The thing is that most reviewers do review with the best possible intention, mostly for fun, and are real -in the physical way- lovely people. We all want to be helpful and share our experiences, promote those businesses that do the right thing and have a great customer service, and pinpoint the sins of those that do not do so. After all, we are paying for those services and products. However, we have a responsibility, especially when rating a restaurant, café, shop or business place. Any place has good and bad things about it, so mentioning them is just fair.  

On the other hand, I feel that the reader has a duty of care - care of his/her brain... to use it. You need to be conscious that reviews are always personal, affected by our personal tastes and character, and that you have to read a few to get the enlightenment you are seeking for. In fact, most people do so while using Tripadvisor before travelling overseas, still forget to apply the same approach when reading reviews of a camera, restaurant or book on a reviewing site. 

I agree with one of the invitees to the TV show about the need of a code of ethics for professional reviewers. Personally, I think this is important even if you are are an aficionado - Ethics are always relevant in life for whatever you do.

After munching my thoughts, I have come with my Decalogue to be a Cool Ethical Reviewer (CER):

1. You have a set of pre-established criteria that you apply to the product or place you review. If your criteria is your taste, that is perfectly fine. If your criteria is telling what you were doing today, that is perfectly fine. Just do so and do not pretend otherwise. 
2. We all have our likings and passions, and we think they are the best because are ours. This psychological bias affects us all us, so we have just to be aware of it and tame it when writing. The fact that I like junk food does not make it good, does it?  
3. You say at least a good thing about a place you do not like.
4. You do not review your own business, or your mum's, or your brother's, or your cousin's or your dearest friend's. That is unethical and unhelpful.
5. You do not review your boss' business. That is unethical and unhelpful.
6.  You do not accept gifts or invitations by businesses to review positively. That is unethical and unhelpful. Accepting invitations to dinners is OK as far as you know yourself and know that you are going to feel OK openly criticising anything bad that you see. That is never ever simple or easy.
7. If you suspect that the business is giving you a special enhanced treatment to write a positive review, do no write a review at all. After all, other customers are having a very different experience, and theirs is the norm.
8. Try to avoid reviewing restaurants after the first visit. If you do so, update your reviews later on. I have some examples of restaurants that gave me a bad impression in my first visit, to then prove to me that that day was the exception. And vice versa! 
9. You write a review that is decently written, structured, and that says something about the place. Sounds obvious, no?  The use of colons, semicolons, spacing between paragraphs and numbered or bullet lists do help. 
10. Try to think about what you would like to know about that particular business, which sort of questions would you be asking, and then reply to them.

This list is also to remind myself of my duties as reviewer in those days in which my plume runs wild or is too lazy! 

My main sin  is the lack of concision and my constant editing of my texts, but I prefer  to be precise to consise. It is just a personal option because, well,  this is my blog!!!

***

A fair review is good for the readers, because it gets them to know valuable information about the place they are going to visit, or tell them that a place do exist. 

A fair review is good for businesses, because they can get an honest feedback from customers and a highlighting of things that need to be improved. 

A fair review is good for the reviewer, because it gets you a reputation, an that is always very rewarding at a personal level. 

Reviews and Reviewing sites are needed. Reviews are useful. Reviews and reviewers can be trusted. All the ones I know are! There are some nutties out there, but that happens everywhere!

Read More

State Theatre of Western Australia

174-176 William St 
(Corner with Roe St)
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9231 9941
Website
Twitter


The State Theatre of Western Australia, is a great addition to cultural scene of  the City of Perth and a landmark of the city despite being barely one year old. It is home to the Black Swan Theatre Company and hosts their yearly programs in the Heath Leadge Theatre, which alternate with functions popping up from other states and overseas. They also have screenings for some extreme and winter sports films and festivals, and temporary Art exhibitions, Vintage and handicraft events, and other functions. The underground area has a theatre studio and an events space, and a courtyard that also holds other functions. There is a bar upstairs and a mini-bar downstairs, and two sets of toilets up and down. In a way, the STWA has a "Downtown Abbey" sort of approach to the venue, and you want to be up up up. 

When I saw the Kerry Hill' building finished from outside I thought that it was disappointedly concrete-ish square-ish and bland, and not edgy at all. However, once I entered inside my opinion completely changed. It is a magnificent building, very appropriate for what is designed for, has a mix of old and contemporary elements, and it is very edgy, classic, well organised and comfortable - uber-cool. Just the design of the ceiling is wow.

The Heath Ledger Theatre itself is extremely beautiful, spacious and Nordic-inspired style with a very soft sinuous and warm woodiness that swallows you in  - like a wooden warm womb. It is not only beautiful, it is comfy. The seats are spacious and the rows placed in a way that people seating below will not  impair your view of the stage and show. The toilets attached to this theatre are wow, movie-like. Hyper-clean and uber-classy. I had a movie-star moment when visiting. Dunno about the male ones. Perhaps they are too girlie for men? Men, do share your experience. The toilets downstairs, attached to the courtyard area, are on the contrary, not very appealing or glamorous, still OK.

The killer location of the place makes it super-easy for everybody going to functions without having to take the car out.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
 1/ There is an over-presence of elderly and middle aged people in general. That is so because the prices are very expensive for students to venture. Masterminds of the STWA be cooler by being more generous with student prices and memberships. Have a vision of future, and start creating the public of the future by making easy for young people attending and getting interested in Theatre. Do you know what I am saying?


2/ I like the overall whiteness of the bar upstairs, but I think that is too impersonal, boring and uncomfortable. It needs of some good paintings to break the white, and an overall restructuring of the space to allow some extra seating area to be included there. There is plenty of corners and walls to cling to. Eating a snack on a common white table on my feet is not my kind of exciting eating moment. At the moment the upper bar looks more like an airport sort of eating stop, so please fix it.

TIP 1
The ground level has an official BOCS ticketing office retailer. This means that you buy anything without being charged extra for the purchase. The chaps attending to are quite friendly. 

TIP 2
Pre-order your drinks and light meal online and save.  

DID YOU KNOW?
Previews are about 16 dollars cheaper than the normal shows. You won't notice any difference, as the Previews are for the show team and actors to test that everything goes smoothly and fix little things that you would not notice during a performance.

Read More

Kurb Art Gallery

312/A William St
Northbridge Western Australia 6003
Phone: Helloooooooo anybody theeeeeere?
Email:  kurbgallery@westnet.com.au
Facebook

OnWilliam

Kurb Gallery is always an exciting place to visit, as it is quite raw in conception, varied in visual languages and formats, and you get the pulse of what is happening in Perth. If you want to know what the young artists of Perth are doing, those emerging and not really known by anybody, those trying to break through and out of traditional art-market scene, Kurb is your place.

Kurb is a bit hit and miss, and some exhibitions are great, even fantastic, and others are not. Still, it is nice having the artists there, as some of them are quite nice and you can talk to them.

The artists pay about 300 dollars per week for exhibition, so it is quite normal having several artists exhibiting at the same time, or exhibitions lasting one week or two. Most guys are really young, so this is a lot of money for them.

The pieces exhibited are for sale, some of them really cheap, and others are, on the contrary, overpriced. However, nobody is there pushing to buy anything. Do as you please.

Kurb is worth a visit or several, especially if you live or hang out around Northbridge. It is an alternative place, and, as such, it deserves, our appreciation. There is no hype or pose about it, and that is always fantastic.

Read More