6/15/2012

State Library of Western Australia (Perth WA)


25 Francis Street
Perth Cultural Centre
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9427 3111
http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/
Hours:
    Mon-Thu 9:00 - 20:00
    Fri 9:00 - 17:30
    Sat-Sun 10:00 - 17:30
 
Revamped in the last years, the State Library has become an open public space to lay and professionals, students and researchers, yummy mamies and homeless people. The Library offers what you can expect from a State Library: an ample collection of books, rare documents, private archives material, an important collection of maps, music-related material, an impressive photographic collection, sources for Family history and WA History, the daily newspaper and most of the State newspapers microfilmed from their first issue. The 3rd floor, formerly known as Battye Library, holds material specifically related to the History of Western Australia, the microfilms area, and reproduction machines. Borrowing books from the library has become one of the improvements in the last years, formerly not allowed, and makes things even easier for book lovers.

The Library's ground is both a source of relax and free Internet for backpackers from around the world, while the 1st and 2nd floors are also places to unwind, read a novel, checking your fav travel guides or technical books, or finding a nice quite place to use your computer or study, with plenty of study desks for students.

The Place, on the mezzanine floor, is a colourful and fun area devoted to children. Check my other review.
The Library holds yearly concerts, movie shows, and small exhibitions at the foyer and theatre areas, as well as corporate/academic privately arranged functions, and plenty of cultural activities all around the year. It is a place where you meet people in the city, have a coffee at the Aroma Cafeteria or use the toilets, which seem to be very popular!

The Library being such a welcoming place, is often crowded with people with mental and/or anger problems, smelly homeless and the occasional petty thieve and drug dealer. Beware, if you leave your computer unattended it can be stolen. Really? Yes, really. The same apply to the lockers: make sure you introduce your pin when people are not watching, as there are petty thieves who, at seeing you leaving fancy stuff in the lockers, will pay attention to the pin you are using, then open your locker and steal your things. This info is not to scare anybody, just to let you know that there are nasty people everywhere, the Library included, and that you have to be cautious, because these happen quite often. Having said so, I have never ever had a problem of the sort here, ever.

The staff are all w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l.

The Place (Perth WA)

25 Francis St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9427 3211
http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au
Hours:
    Mon-Thu 9:00 - 20:00
    Fri-Sun 9:00 - 17:30
 
The Place, located on the mezzanine floor in the State Library, is a colourful and fun area devoted to children, which has become increasingly popular among the little ones and their parents because of the free activities it hosts, like book readings, story telling, painting and drawing and other activities that children love. In fact, any child going to the Place will tell you that loves the place.

Some people are using The Place as free day-care leaving some children then unsupervised and unattended, which is like WOW! Which sort of parents are they? Most of the children, though, are supervised, however their parents/carers do not supervise them and the kids run wildly, shout wildly, and cry wildly during  part of the day. Please, parents, put into practice some of your parenting skills. The fact that The Place is a free place for children doesn't mean that they can act wildly.

6/14/2012

"Code 46" by Michael Winterbottom (2003)

Code 46 is Michael Winterbottom's allegory about a our near future, a world where human relationships and society are damned by the power of eugenics and the extensive use of in-vitro genetically-designed pregnancies.

Tim Robbins is William Geld, a Government official on a trip to Shanghai to investigate a case of document forgery in a Government security plant. There, he finds worker Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton), to whom he feels immediately attracted despite his conviction that she is the forger. Their love story, however, is cursed from the beginning as, under Code 46, they must not enter in a relationship, get married or have a baby as they share at least 46% of their genetic code, being, therefore, family related.

The movie is an allegoric projection into the future of the technological, scientific and cultural trends and issues predominant in our modern world. Being so, Code 46 is set in a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic society. The characters in the movie use an hybrid English mixed with words from different languages, mostly Spanish, but also Italian, French, Mandarin, Arabic, and Basque among others. A pigeon-language similar to Spanglish. Winterbottom's future is strictly compartmented and structured, with a controlled individual freedom, and limited freedom of movement between world areas unless you have "papelles" [= from the Spanish papeles, i.e. papers/documents), which are only granted depending on your health state and genetic disposition to certain maladies and weaknesses. A believable situation in which Private Health Insurance and Government are almost the same.

The premises of the film are brilliant, thought-provoking and original, although connected with themes already presented in Gattaca. The high-tech future world is perfectly drawn and showed, and uses a mix of Shanghai, Dubai and Kuala-Lumpur futuristic urban settings and architecture, which provide a very sleek urban, metallic imagery and a cold feeling. In contrast, the outcast areas are wilder, more rural and underdeveloped, but warmer from a human point of view; they were shot in the desert area near Dubai and in India. The music (with a cameo performance by Mick Jones singing "Should I stay or should I go?) is also great, and gives a great mood to the movie.

Despite the undeniable style and good premises of the movie, the whole gets washed out by the poor script. The movie is supposedly a love story, but the  leading characters' personalities and emotions are poorly drawn, explored and portrayed, and the love story feels more like a lust story than anything else; moreover, Robbins and Morton don't have a great chemistry on camera, so the movie ends lacking emotion and when the film finishes, you wonder: where is the love? On the other hand, the outcast society and the outcasts are barely introduced, so it is difficult to understand the sort of world we are dealing with, as we are just presented with the developed part of it. In other words, while the future society feels like real future, the outcast society looks more like the underdeveloped rural areas of our modern world, not the underdeveloped areas of the future.

A thought-provoking film with sleek visuals and music that is wasted by a drafted script and mediocre performances

The Merchant Tea & Coffee (Perth WA) - CLOSED

183 Murray St
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9221 1323
http://www.themerchant.com.au
Hours:
    Mon-Thu 6:30 - 19:00
    Fri 6:30 - 21:00
    Sat 7:00 - 19:00
    Sun 8:00 - 18:00

The Merchant Tea & Coffee Perth on Urbanspoon The thing I like the most about the Merchant at Murray is that it is located in the busiest place of the city, but it is an intimate place for you to escape the world. The atmosphere of the place has always mesmerised me, me being a sucker for old colonial style, woodiness, cosy corners, little iron tables, ceiling fans, wood shelves and pigeon-hole areas with plenty of coffee-related stuff, and cozy corners with people whispering their secrets unaware that there is no noise-insulating bubble protecting them.  The whole furniture and decoration of the place is wonderful, and very welcoming and inviting to stay there for a long time, and that is why the place is usually full. Groups tend to seat in the terrace outside, though, while couples and solitude seekers tend to seat indoors.

However, the coffee they serve is just OK - Average, as well as their cakes, or at least the ones I have tried in the past. I haven't eaten there for a few years. Back then the food was simple but good, but I cannot say how things are at present. I will try again and report back. 

The service is just OK.

P. A. W. S. City Cafe (Perth WA) - CLOSED

120 Beaufort St 
Perth Western Australia 6000 (08) 9228 2435 
Website
Facebook
Hours: 
    Mon-Sun 8:30 - 21:00

Upon entering PAWS, you will get a feeling of entering a comfy backpacker hostel's lounge that is also a bit chaotic, as the shop, eating, serving and cash out areas are all mixed without any sort of harmonious spatial amalgamation - harmonious in its dysfunction, perhaps.

The seating area is very luminous, colourful and comfy, with a few nice ethnic details, office-like furniture, and wonderful world music. It would be great having some sort separation from the other areas by, for example, using cute ethnic screens/curtains so eaters have more intimacy and enjoy their meal without asking themselves "Where am I?".

THE FOOD - The selection of dishes is small, with six varieties of hot dishes and six cold ones, and a cake corner, but everything I tried (two salads and two hot dishes) tasted very good. This is unsophisticated cooking, more home-made vegan cooking than anything else, but the food was very tasty, and had an interesting mix of flavours and textures.  I liked it a lot! 


THE COFFEE - The coffee tastes a bit like mocha and is bland in general. A Lavazza machine with coffee pods produces great coffee and would not be out of place in PAWS. :O

THE PRICING - The pricing is fantastic. You can have a decent big vegan dish, mixing salads and hot dishes, for 12 dollars. Besides, you know the money serves a good cause and that what you eat is fresh. Not enough for you? Students get a 10% discount and takeaway is just 5 bucks!

THE SERVICE - Regarding the service, the lady behind the food counter was super-friendly, you go girl!, so much so that instead of charging me for two small dishes, charged me for just a big one, even though two small dishes are bigger than a big one. Lucky me! It was very cool. The cashier lady was completely plugged into her cashing machine and Ipod, and was a bit detached from the world. 

TIP
Servings are a bit small, so go for the large dish. I had two small dishes and I left feeling that there was plenty of room for more.

Meow!

UPDATE 24/8/2012
 I returned to Paws for lunch today, after Laura's photo showing a meal of humongous proportions. Humongous meals that taste good are my type of meal, you know. Last time I was there, my meal were very good but a bit small in size, and I had to have two small dishes to leave full. Today, I have ordered the big dish, which allow you to have three of the hot curries and three of the salads, plus the rice, for 12 dollars. The serving was indeed humongous. Most importantly everything was tasty and even yummy. The zucchini salad, and the parsley and parsnip one salad were terrific. The curries were also very tasty, and consistent in texture, not fluffy stuff.


I was really tempted by one of the sweets, a sort of vegan tiramisu made with custard, vegan jelly and carrot, and it was yummy and looked so very pretty.

Their coffee is still the same, not bad, but a bit weak for me.

The service is still very good, and the lady behind the kitchen counter a pleasure to deal with.

The place really is very quiet and will suit people who like quiet lunches, surrounded by people who also love quiet lunches in a luminous place. There was this grandma with her grandchild both sleeping on the sofa, as per the photo, and I thought that it was such a great sweet moment, in a restaurant, that I had to take a photo. Only at Paws.

I will be back.

Fez - NEW MANAGEMENT

83 Walcott St
Mt Lawley Western Australia 6050
(08) 9328 9999
http://www.fezcafe.net.au/
Hours:
    Mon-Sun 7:00 - 17:00

 Fez is a cute comfortable café located at the corner between Beaufort and Raglan Sts, occupying the round corner of the faux-art-deco building bellow which is located.

THE PLACE - Fez is an example of how to create a space that is attractive and welcoming to an eclectic group of people, from all ages, lifestyle preferences, attachment degree, sexual orientation or degree of "poshness". 

The indoor is very much like a little European café with a few ethnic details, unpretentious, welcoming and cosy. The outdoor area is lovely, with natural shading coming from the above balconies, so it is  open, still semi-hidden and relatively protected from the inclemency of the weather. The place, depending on the day and hour, can be quite or very loud.

I love the fact that they have tons of newspapers and magazines for the customers to browse while there.

THE FOOD -  The food is lovely, the portions generous and they are good value for money. Some of the dishes are Moroccan inspired and close to the original, and others are not. If you don't feel adventurous, you can always order some of their burgers, sandwiches, pannini, soups, salads or sweets. I usually leave the plates squeaky clean after finishing with them! So good.

The Charmoola chicken salad is one of the best chicken salads I have tried in Perth and so very filling. This is one of the best dishes in Fez.

The Murgaz is a tomato-based egg dish served on a ceramic dish coming directly from the oven to your table, still boiling. Very good.

The Veggie tagine is a mix of very hot vegetables casserole, very spicy and very hot! It is served in a traditional tagine pot, coming from the oven, very hot and still boiling. Not bad.

The Berber Breakfast is a variation of the Murgaz, but with meatballs instead of sausages. It is quite strong in flavour and perfect for brunch not as much for early breakfast. Not bad.


The Spanish Omelette is one of the disappointments in Fez. It is a simple omelette, quite small, with cherry tomatoes, mint, cheese and the supposed chorizos are instead Italian sausages. That is what call cheating! Forgettable.

The cakes are very good-looking but a bit too sweet for me, and average in taste. However, the last one I tried, the pear and sticky date was surprisingly light, moist and flavoursome. However, I wouldn't go to Fez for the sweets, to be honest, just  for their food.

THE COFFEE - Their coffee is a bit bland no matter which version you order, big or small, flat white or topped-up macchiato. If you are fussy about your coffee, as I am, order a topped-up macchiato instead of your usual flat white. Otherwise, their selection of teas, iced teas and natural juices might be a better option.

THE SERVICE - The service is relatively fast, and all the staff are very friendly, smiley and willing to serve and help. They guys are flooded if there place is full, and this is so because they need another hand helping. You can feel their stress! Instead you are served quite fast after ordering.

TIP
Forget the name. They have never claimed Fez as an authentic Moroccan restaurant. If you go without expectations, you will enjoy Fez much more, as the food is really good, and the Moroccan-inspired dishes are very tasty and something that you do not find in other places. If you want authentic Moroccan food go to Morocco. Simple!

TIP 2
If you like coriander, ask for an extra pinch of fresh coriander on your Murgaz and Berber Breakfast, as they certainly benefit from it.

Layout 7.5/10
Ambience 6.5 /10
Coffee 6/10
Food 7.6/10
Service 7/10
Pricing: 7.5

6/12/2012

"Don't Look Down" by Eliseo Subiela (2008)

Eliseo Subiela has that rare quality of seeing magic in reality, and portraying it in his movies with freshness and philosophical depth. His characters, despite being normal, live in a sort of limbo reality, and their interaction with our world is always eccentric and quirky. Subiela is true to himself in the premise of the movie, as it departs from a quote from an Andre Breton's poem that intrinsically links live, love and death and considers physical love as a redemptive element in life.

The movie revolves about the sexual awakening of Eloy, a sweet and absent-minded teenager, apprentice of electrician and courier boy to the nearby cemetery, who starts sleepwalking after the death of his father and ends in the arms of a sassy and older neighbour, Elvira, who will teach him how to satisfy a woman, and himself, in bed.

If you want to make a movie about tantric sex and erotic initiation you need two basic elements. Firstly, a couple of sensual actors who have chemistry on camera and are able to transmit eroticism to the spectator, so that we can believe that they are having sex and enjoying it. Secondly, to create the right atmosphere and mood so the sex scenes look natural and passionate. All of that was missing from the movie, despite sex being the main subject of the movie. The scenes look unnatural, forced, like a rehearsal. They are shot with constriction, without passion and with some visual bigotry, despite the intention of the movie being quite the opposite. It felt like those modern Kamasutra books with photos of nude couples posing in different positions - Boring and not erotic. It would have been better, perhaps, showing less, and leaving more to the imagination, which always gives great results.

The most memorable moments of the movie are, however, those few in which the movie distracts itself from Eros and portrays reality through Eloy's eyes and tells part of his family's story. The happy eeriness of Eloy's trips to the cemetery on his bike to deliver tablets are wonderfully photographed and shot, the natural interaction between the deceased and those alive are those more closely connected to Breton's initial poem and Subiela's style. Here we see the always charming Subiela in action, focusing on what he does best.

Regarding the acting, I found Leandro Stivelman good and believable in his portray of the sweet and dreamy Eloy, and also Hugo Arana in his short role as Eloy's deceased father. I did not find Antonella Costa believable at all in her portray of Elvira, neither in the erotic scenes or in the talking ones. Perhaps because the script does not give much information about her, and the viewer does not now or understands her; on the other hand, she does not have the sensuality or acting maturity necessaries to affront a role like this. The rest of the actors are Ok in their respective roles.

Glimpses of the best Subiela are wasted by a rather mediocre and un-erotic erotic movie with a very weak script.