The first Carrotmob event in the southern hemisphere takes place this Saturday in Surry Hills.

Carrotmob?

My first thought upon hearing the name was that a group of red heads were going to run rampant through the streets of our suburb and cause a bit of chaos. Turns out, the “mob” will be making waves, but  in what they describe as a “reverse-boycott” intended to combat global warming (and they’re not red heads, they really like carrots).

Carrotmob Sydney visited liquor stores and supermarkets in Glebe and Surry Hills, and asked owners how much a percentage of their total sales in one period they would pledge to “greening” their business.

MFC Supermarket on Crown St pledged the most at 20%, making them the winning store.

“The process of deciding was based purely on who was going to make the highest bid for the event,” organiser Di Cohen explained. “So we created some competition between stores in the area.”

The event takes place this Saturday, October 24 from 11am to 2pm, coinciding with 350 Organisation’s Global Day of Climate Action. Ms Cohen said they hope to see about 300 people visit the store and make a purchase.

She also said Carrotmob hoped that customers were locals who wouldn’t consume energy or create pollution by travelling to the event.

“We want to keep it small because that means the people who turn up are locals and they can just walk down or ride their bikes,” Ms Cohen said.

“Once the day is over and we’ve counted up the money, calculated what is 20% of that gross profit from the day, then we will work with that budget and tailor our solution to improving that business,” she said.

The team will have an engineer inspect the store and suggest the best ways to make it more energy efficient, which might include things like changing the lighting or replacing fridge gaskets.

The first Carrotmob campaign took place in San Francisco and since then has spread around the globe. Here’s a video which documents that venture and explains what they’re all about:

WHAT: Carrotmob Sydney at MFC Supermarket – 20% of your purchase will go towards making environmentally sustainable changes to the store.

WHEN: Saturday October 24 11am – 2pm

WHERE: 435 Crown St Surry Hills

FOR MORE INFO: Visit Carrotmob Sydney’s Facebook page.

James St reserve may soon become home to a community garden, according to the City of Sydney Council. I was in touch with Community Gardens Coordinator Annie Walker last week who told me that there is a group of Surry Hills residents interested in transforming part of the pocket park into a garden. She also said there are another couple of groups currently investigating possible sites in the suburb.

There are currently 13 community gardens across the City of Sydney Council. More information about them can be found here. The gardens are supported not only by council but the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network.

Another Council spokesperson said this about the gardens:

“Most of the gardens offer residents the chance to reduce household waste by usung communal composting systems; demonsrate innovative and practical ways to reuse pre-loved materials; allow people to learn hands on gardening and grow your own fresh, organic food and are of course a great place to meet other people andget involved in the local area.”

It seems surprising that James St Reserve, on the corner of James and Young Streets,  would have beeen chosen. It doesn’t seem to possess the most ideal growing conditions. But then, perhaps if a garden were to be established it might beautify the area, which seems a little run down.

Unfortunately I’m yet to get in touch with any residents involved in the project. 

Here’s a map of the proposed site for the park. It also falls just outside the Surry Hills border, which is on Cleveland St.

The striking red exterior of the Belvoir St Theatre might exude modernity, but the building it occupies was once a tomato sauce factory. It was refurbished more than 30 years ago, becoming home to the Nimrod St theatre company. In 1984, Chris Westwood and Sue Hill devised plans to establish a new and innovative theatre, after Nimrod moved to the Seymour Theatre Center and the building was threatened with demolition. In 1985, Company B staged its first production, and since then has been managing the theatre and producing shows.

Belvoir Street has both an up and downstairs theatre. Upstairs is home to Company B, while Downstairs is home to B Sharp, presenting an array of independent productions curated by Company B.

Page 8 returns to the theatre after 5 years on October 21. Written and performed by David Page, the show is a self portrait of the actor. It tells the story of growing up the eigth child in a family of twelve in suburban Queensland. The journey to becoming one of Australia’s most renowned and original performers led to a comparison between Page and the late Michael Jackson.

The story moves from Page’s performances as a young child on Countdown and The Paul Hogan Show, to confronting his sexuality and to achieving success as a composer for Bangarra Dance Theatre.

The play was commissioned and produced by Company B in 2004 before it went on to tour New Zealand and the UK in 2005 and 2006.

It is directed by Page’s younger brother, Stephen, who said: “I am delighted to bring Page 8 back to the Belvoir St Theatre, where it all began in 2004. It is a deeply personal story about our family, our history and our culture. It is about courage, vulnerability, love, pain and loss, and finding your path in life without compromise.”

Downstairs is currently home to Silver, a solo work written and performed by Matthew Whittet. The show is described as “a strange and beautiful tale of a young girl’s search for stillness lost”. On the 21 October audiences can meet Whittet in a Q & A setting after the evening production.

The theatre appears to be well aware of its surrounds, in terms of the low socio-economic status of a lot of people in the area. Tuesday nights in the Downstairs theatre are known as “pay-what-you-can” nights. Tickets aren’t able to be pre-ordered and audience members are literally asked to pay what they can afford to see the show, the minimum being $10.

Company B also has a community access program, through which it “aims to provide access to the company’s work by minimising the financial and social reasons that deter attendance by potential audiences”. A mid-week matinee performance of each Upstairs production is performed free of charge to unwaged members of the community. The company also distributes tickets to community groups and charities.

Don’t bother checking out that site, however, as it appears to document nothing other than a collection of photos of Nicholas Cage (is there a link to be made, perhaps?).

Save the Hoey is the one to go to but they haven’t done much more than post media coverage and a letter to Clover Moore.

The Facebook site, on the other hand, has more than 14,000 members to date.

At any rate, the story has been reported all over Sydney’s mainstream and independent media, touting the closure as a loss to the music industry itself. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, despite rumours raging that the closure was forced by Sydney Council over needed upgrades and noise complaints, there are other possible reasons:

The Herald has learnt the hotel has been quietly put up for sale amid rumours of tension among the co-owners, Mr Patakas, his sister Anastasia and Ms Patakas’s husband, and the venue manager, Paul McCarthy.

Mr McCarthy and Mr Patakas did not return calls last night.

This month the pub was hit with $3000 worth of police fines in a week for not having enough security guards on the premises. A fall in ticket sales and the decision to remove poker machines are also believed to have contributed to the venue’s demise.

Sacha Molitorisz describes the Hopetoun as “unarguably one of the most significant venues in the history of Sydney’s live music, a tireless champion of the best upcoming acts, and some of the best big names too”.

Sarah Blasko once played to a crowd of 20 people on a Monday evening before a booking agent snapped her up. The Grates also signed their recording contract at the venue.

Molitorisz makes some wonderful points in his opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, including the fact that the gentrification of the suburb might have had something to do with the pub’s decline:

In Surry Hills, rock chords and cymbal crashes are being drowned out by conversations about unpasteurised brie and property prices. The fear for the Hoey is that it will reopen as a soul-less beer barn, with polished floorboards, piped music and wall-to-wall pokies.

Molitorisz also reveals the hotel’s role in … cough … his coming of age. I wonder just how many people have similar tales, stories which happened after too much beer or cheap wine. My neighbour, bless his youthful soul, decided to get a bit nostalgic with me yesterday, recalling a night he ran around the place with his underwear on his head. Perhaps the call for more security is not untirely unwarranted.

But it seems anything goes in places like these.

Yet I can only rely on the stories of others. Despite being a proud Surry Hills resident, and partial to an intimate gig, I never stepped foot in the joint. Kathy McCabe makes her point in an article for The Daily Telegraph, that if the amount of people who joined the aforementioned Facebook site actually had bought a beer or seen a gig there recently, The Hopetoun would still be open:

For all the chest-beating about how small live music venues like the Hoey have made Australian rock music the ferocious and world-beating beast that it is, there is only a few thousand people in Sydney who actually darken the doorsteps of these establishments on a regular basis.

It’s a vicious circle, wanting small numbers of patrons to remain seemingly underground, yet also needing people to make a profit. Surely if the pub reopens, it will be with a flood of new visitors.. but is the publicity enough of a replacement for a viable business model?

The clothing store Incu has embarked on a new venture, opening a pop-up store at the Blank Space Gallery on Crown St. I “popped” in to the temporary store yesterday to speak to the girls working there.

They said there were a variety of reasons as to why Incu had decided to open the shop, for a very brief amount of time (which is in fact, the nature of the pop-up store idea). Not only did it give them an opportunity to showcase some of Incu’s most exclusive range, but the permanent Paddington store is undergoing refurbishment at the moment as well.

I asked them why they hadn’t opened the pop-up store in Paddington, which one would assume would receive a lot more foot traffic and potential customers. But the girls suggested that Paddington has lost a lot of it’s vibrancy and attractability in the past few years (one of the reasons the store is getting a refit). Whereas they said that Crown St is always a bit fluid and transformative, with new shops and bars regularly opening for business and consequently attracting more people to the area.

Indeed, Incu isn’t the first to open a pop-up store in Surry Hills. The Carousel Girls do a similar thing in Fitzroy Place every couple of months. They inhabit a hairdressing salon for a few days, selling last season stock and samples of a lot of local designers. Other labels have been opening up all over the city in the past year. Clare Press wrote an article for The Australian in January titled Guerrillas of Recession. In the article she suggested that the pop-up store was one way that the fashion industry was battling the downturn, in that retailers were able to acquire a space for a short term without being locked into a contract. There was also a certain amount of intrigue that came with such stores, and there was the prospect that if customers only had a few days to buy something, then they were more likely to make a purchase.

But with the outlook seeming a lot safer these days, it may be that the pop-up shop will return to it’s original purpose: a unique and quirky branding strategy that does little more than get a label into the “cool books” of young consumers. As trendwatching.com reported in 2004 (when the idea was beginning to take off overseas, and hadn’t really hit Australian shores):

POP-UP RETAIL fits right in with the Entertainment Economy, the Experience Economy, the Surprise Economy, and so on. It’s about surprising consumers with temporary ‘performances’, guaranteeing exclusivity because of the limited timespan.

Incu has followed the style of merchandising like most of it’s pop-up store predecessors: free hanging clothing racks and stacked boxes, creating a temporal and fleeting allusion that is in fact a reality for stores like these. To add an extra level of quirkyness and further promote the store’s collaboration with Opening Ceremony which is what the store is showcasing, the shop was giving out free activity books about the label, contaning quizzes and crosswords and so on.

As an American label that is exclusive to Incu, the clothes don’t come cheap. They’re around about the $400-$500 price range, but you can pick up a pair of Keds shoes in store for just over $100.

What: Incu presents OPENING CEREMONY pop-up store

Where: Blank Space Gallery, 374 Crown St

When: 19 – 29 September

A walk south down Crown Street – the retail spine of Surry Hills – will take you close to all the best sustainable shops in Surry Hills. The northern end of Crown Street is where you’ll find most of the trendy vintage clothes shops; the middle section contains some organic food stores and cafes; and the southern end of Crown and on Cleveland Street is where you’ll find a few trendy fashion boutique stores.

I spoke to Mr Grosvernor on the phone last week, asking more about why the suburb made his list. He said that about a quarter of the eateries on Crown street serve organic food, and a significant number also use fair trade coffee.

Organic Produce

It’s interesting to think about how a concentrated area of sustainable goods and services comes about. Mr Grosvernor said that Surry Hills in particular is dominated by a younger population that are politically left, as well as there being a high rental market.

“It all adds up to a certain market segment that supports these businesses so that they’re going to be profitable,” Mr Grosvernor said.

“Another one of the reasons why I include these precincts is because they’re walkable and accessible by public transport,” he said.

Which might even be more true if the proposal for a light rail system along Bourke Street ever goes ahead. Read an article about the plans here.

A few of the sustainable choices on Crown Street include:

Cafes

• Organic Produce
• Kawa
• The Goods Organic

Retail

• Grandma Takes a Trip
• Zoo Emporium
• CC’s flashback
• U-turn
• Cream on Crown

Zoo Emporium

Cream on Crown

On the first Saturday of each month, Shannon Reserve on Crown Street hosts the Surry Hills Markets. The park is always overflowing with stalls and people as well as quite a few pooches that will scurry around while their owners peruse the offerings. Which, it should be noted, are always plentiful. The Surry Hills Neighbourhood Centre reports that there is a waiting list to secure a space for a permanent stall and that casual stalls are allocated in a first come, first sell sort of basis. You’ll find everything from clothes (new, secondhand and vintage) to homewares, books, records, fresh flowers and food. I took a look around and thought I’s share some of the more peculiar items up for sale, such as:

dog made of shells

witch figurine

The website for the markets has this to say about them:

 The original concept was to offer a focus for Surry Hills which was experiencing rapid changes in local population, and to provide an opportunity for local low-income earners to make additional money. Over the years, Surry Hills has continued to be ever-changing, and the Market now provides an opportunity for locals and visitors to experience the unique diversity of our area. A visit to the Market, either as a buyer or seller, is a reminder that the notion of a community market is still viable in the rapidly changing inner-city environment.

The fees charged for the stall spaces fund a number of projects run by the Neighbourhood Centre, including the childcare services and multicultural program.

The owners are putting on a variety of nights, which seem to make the most of the bar’s small space. Last Wednesday was the launch of Subplot’s Open Deck night.

Subplot duo Blake Arthur and Toby Pike  have organized a few dub-step parties over the past months, as the genre continues to become more popular in Sydney (Void and Headroom regularly run nights at Phoenix Bar and The Civic Underground). The guys plan to to hit the Ching-a lings decks every Wednesday and are inviting patrons to bring along their own vinyls and CDs to join the fun and have a mix. You can play whatever music you like, mostly, but when Blake or Toby get down to business they’ll be spinning dub-step.

When I spoke to Blake last week he explained why the genre is suited to a casual Wednesday night drink.

“It’s all about having a couple of drinks with friends when the weekend seems so far away. When I’m not having a boozy night I need to listen to interesting music.”

And how would you describe the genre of dub-step?

“The easiest way to describe it is to throw some drum and bass in the fridge, add a little bit of breaks and glitchy hip hop, and then listen to it about three to four hours later. It’s chilled and a little bit hard, but the longer you let it hang outside of the fridge, the harder it is to stop it from heating up again.”

Blake Arthur (pictured right)

Here’s a link to a mix the guys made to promote their new night.

What: Subplot presents Open Deck Night

When: Wednesdays 6-11pm

Where: Ching-a-lings, 133 Oxford St Darlinghurst/Surry Hills

It wouldn’t surprise me, however, if the new Surry Hills Library and Community Centre has some form of self-dusting technology as part of its many modern and sustainable design features. Here’s a picture of the new building courtesy of Alex Cheek on Flickr.

The City of Sydney Council also made a video to promote the features of the new building:

Clover Moore says in the video that the library is “…a wonderful model for community facilities. It’s a place where our eclectic community can gather.”

One way the library is seeking to do just that is the Emerging from the Green program. One Saturday afternoon each month, local emerging artists are invited to play an acoustic set inside the library for patrons.

I spoke to Nina Bullock, the Library Programs Coordinator for the City of Sydney.

“Surprise has been the first reaction,” Ms Bullock said.. “… [the artists] really enjoy the open atmosphere because at Surry Hills Library it opens onto the footpath and you’ve got a lot of foot traffic coming past, to they’re able to engage with a lot of different people and people who wouldn’t normally come to see them in a pub setting.”

She said that the interest from local artists has been so great that the event is fully booked until March next year. So far the library has been a stage for jjj unearthed winner Leroy Lee, James Edgar Francis, Jenny Biddle and The Creatures Rose. There is no preferred genre, as long as the music is acoustic. “We go from blues to jazz to folk, to all the mediums in between… obviously no heavy metal or hard rock but certainly the more organic kind of music,” Ms Bullock said.

Jenny Biddle from Emerging from the Green 

The event is currently attracting about 40 people each month. “Of course we have people in the library who weren’t aware that the program was on but will stop and come up and listen for a little while and then continue on with their browsing or borrowing,” she said.

“Libraries aren’t books anymore. They’re not just about musty smells and hidden nooks and crannies. They’re about interaction and community and particularly, if we lose a lot of community spaces, libraries are becoming more and more important… it’s really what we call a community hub… we’re trying to meet the needs and interests of different groups within the community.”

The next Emerging from the Green concert will take place on Saturday the 19th of September at 2pm, Jazz musician Emma Hamilton and Roger Lock are booked to play. 

While most of the musicians are from Sydney, a lovely duo from Stanwell Park that go by the name of Mad Polly will be playing in October. Here’s a YouTube video of one of their songs:

I wonder if bubbles will be allowed?

Burlesque dancing… in a church. While not the most common of occurances, The Kirk on Cleveland St has been nurturing this and other cultural art forms for years. The converted church building was bought by Gretel Pinniger in the 1980s and has been used as a community art space since.

Ms Pinniger,  better known for her days as a dominatrix in Sydney in the 70s and 80s, now lives in Palm Beach. I haven’t had the chance to meet her, but from what I’ve read and seen, she seems like one of the more unique characters of Sydney. Here’s a YouTube video which documents photographer John Ogden’s portrait of Ms Pinniger for the Archibald a few years ago.

Jack Marx also wrote a wonderful profile on Ms Pinniger in for the Sydney Morning Herald in 2006.

The Kirk is home to much of Ms Pinniger’s artwork. It has also served as a performance space for everyone from Missy Higgins to the Sydney Burlesque Festival. Now it is home to Wendy Dys, who through her company Art Babes, runs burlesque and aerial classes.

classes in The Kirk

Without a POPE licence from the City of Sydney Council, The Kirk can’t currently be used as a public performance space, but when I spoke to Ms Dys last week she said that there was hope of reopening The Kirk as a cultural hub in the future.

“Now I train here with my friends …and keep the space safe as it also holds treasure painted by the wonderful Madame Lash,” Ms Dys said.

“I hope that Madame Lash and her family will eventually get a POPE so artists can use the space again,” she said.

“But I wish I could have the space as a house of Burlesque and a space for all Sydney’s Circus, aerial, dancers, [and] physical theatre [performers].”