Sweet Dreams

While going through my playlist the other day I came across an amazing lady I thought I should share with you again.  You may know but if you don't its the wonderfully talented Ali McGregor.   I first discovered Ali many years ago by pure accident at the Melbourne Comedy festival and only a bit of research that I discovered that I had actually seen her perform with Opera Australia.  

I adore the fact that Ali sees so much beauty in the music she works with, but most of all I adore the way she can rework a song.  After attending her Late Night Variety Act during the comedy festivals I have never been able to listen so certain songs the same way again.  For instance Kylie Minogue's song "can't get you out of my head" will now always seem like a song for a stalker thanks to Ali's great reworking of it.  

So in honor of this amazing songstress I thought I'd share a clip of her performing "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)"originally by the Eurythmics.  It may be a song that has been covered a lot by the likes of Marilyn Manson and even Emily Browning in the movie Sucker Punch, but there is just something so beautiful about Ali's version.  So I hope you enjoy.

You Shook Me All Night Long

Now I've spoken about Ms Ali McGregor before and after unpacking I found one of her CD's in my music collection, so I thought I'd share a bit more with you.

Apart from being amazing vocally she also has a wonderful talent of taking 'modern' music and giving it her own unique twist. Some of my favorites include Creep by Radiohead, Can't get you out of my head by Kylie and Sweet Child of mine by Guns and Roses with a few even done on the Omnichord.

And here is a taste as Ali performs ACDC's 'you shook me all night long'

Melbourne Comedy Festival

So its Saturday night, your best mates in town and its the last Saturday of the comedy festival. What do you do? You do you a) stay in a hotel order room service and watch movies or do you b) walk your little boots down to the Melbourne Town Hall and see whats on. Well what do you think we did?

That's right we got all dressed up and headed into town. Now if you've never been to the festival the first and probably the hardest part is figuring out what to see. Watching Mikii's face go from excited to puzzelled to excited again was classic, I think he might of been a little thrown by the massive list and was a bit taken aback when I said "yep they're all on tonight, what do you fancy?" After a bit of a discussion and a wonderful chat with one of the event staff we decided........Kitten D'Amour Sailor shirt

And with tickets in hand and time to kill Mikii and I headed out for dinner, drinks and fill the next few hours as our show didn't start till 11. First off we headed to china town in search of Section 8 a very groovy bar made from 2 containership containers in an old parking lot. A very groovy place and thankfully it didn't rain (as there isn't really a roof) so it was a couple of drinks, great chats and then time to hunt out some food.

Section 8

Tony Starr's Kitten Club

Which is how we ended up at Tony Starr's Kitten Club for Tapas. Super yummy and it was under much restraint that we didn't order the entire menu. So more food, more drinks and so much more talking. Such fun. Then with a desire for dessert it was time to walk up to the theatre district for sweets, we ended up lapping around these really cool blocks and took ages to decided on this quaint Italian counter top coffee shop for almond cake with ice cream and hot chocolate.

And after a quick watch check it was time to make our way back to the town Hall for *drum roll* ALI MCGREGOR'S LATE NIGHT VARIETY NIGHT

For people here is a little bit about her from her webiste:

"In the late 19th Century, a group of chorus girls used to creep out of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, dash across to the east end and perform their arias in their corsets and drawers for the vaudeville loving public. In 2005 Ali was inspired by these ladies of the operatic night to do the same. She crept out of Opera Australia's production of 'Manon' and into The Famous Spiegeltent creating the very first Opera Burlesque. She has now been firmly bitten with the cabaret bug and although she still regulary sings operaticaly around the world, her reputation as a unique interperator of mordern day pop and rock classics is growing ever stronger. Oh, and she plays the autoharp, omnichord and stylophone which they never let her do in opera."

Basically she is amazing and at the variety nights you never know what your going to get. Last night featured Frisky and Manish, The List Operators, Adam Hills and Gypsy Wood and the amazing Saxon. We even got to witness Saxon to a dance first in a silk moo moo and then in a skin colored body suit while Ali sang Kate Bush's Babushka on the auto harp. PRICELESS!!!!!!

Another great night for the comedy festival and congrats Saxon (Asher Treleavan) for receiving the critics Choice award.