Outdoor - Stray
STRAY is about random adventure and escape. STRAY is about pretending that Melbourne is Ferris Bueller's Day Off and that fun and money aren't mutually exclusive. STRAY is cheap hijinx, cheap dates and the outings you could be planning while you're actually watching Video Hits on a weekend at 11am.
Werribee Open Range Zoo
I work hard six days a week, so when that rare day-off rolled around, I decided to spend it at Werribee Open Range Zoo with my ex-girlfriend and her mother.
Werribee Zoo is the underdog in the local zoo market, mostly because Werribee is a real bitch to get to from the city, and the since the day it opened 15 years ago, the administration hasn't done a thing to make it easier.
Golden Plains roundup: tops and bottoms
Tops:
Wooden Shjips play Neil Young!
Steven Malkmus can Brighten My Corners any day, nudge nudge etc.
J Mascis has magic, mind-melting fingers
Our gazebo survives!
Lou Barlow's ‘secret' acoustic set.
The chilli sauce on the ten-for-ten dumplings
The security guards waltzing during Calexico
The parts of Dirty Projector's set that didn't sound like Mariah Carey
My sunglasses stayed on my head
Everybody picked up their cans when asked.
Hot Licks Festival
After many teenage years of crippling boredom in Mount Gambier, the only thing that usually succeeds in getting me back there is the obligatory love of my family (and even then my mother would say it's an uphill battle). The town itself is nothing short of stunning - lush green expanses, a sparkling blue lake, and only a hop and a skip to the beach - but somehow I can't seem to shake that gut feeling that I'd be better off staying in Melbourne and watching paint dry.
Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm
I'm an Australian living and working in New York.
In January, New York is extraordinarily cold, so I spend most of my time indoors writing and reading and listening to my neighbor, Boo Radley, going insane. His name isn't really Boo Radley; I just call him that because, like Harper Lee's Boo, he's big, and weird, and you never really see him.
Community Gardening
When I arrived in Melbourne I put my name down for a garden plot at the Abbotsford Children's Farm. Want to know how far I am down the list? Ten years. No shit. So, naturally, I started searching for something to keep my hands dirty in the meantime.
Here's what I found. Alternative non-profit group Cultivating Community runs public vegetable gardens in most of the housing estates all over Melbourne.
Adopting a dog
Ever since fleeing the family home all those years ago, I have felt something missing from my life. Spare cash? Certainly. Home cooked meals? That too. Aside from all that, a certain gentle presence has been lacking, in the shape of a Jack Russell Terrier. Those little bundles of unconditional love, who literally wet themselves when you open the door and to whom the prospect of going for a walk with you is brain-meltingly exciting.
Motorcycle Learner Permit Courses
Not so much Brendan Nelson, but Steve McQueen, Uma Thurman, Dennis Hopper, even Carrie Anne Moss - no matter what your particular take on riding a motorcycle, it's more types of cool than you could poke a hipster at.
In pursuit of that vision, you should spend two days with a mixed bag of bogans and mid-life crises feeling scared, awkward and looking like a dick learning to ride at HART.
Random Entries:
Subscribe to our e-newsletter for weekly updates and exclusive stuff:
Browse our guide to Melbourne by interest
Melbourne Events Calendar
Select a date to see what's on in Melbourne
Browse our guide to Melbourne by keyword
Browse our guide to Melbourne by weekly issue
Working