Moments of small joys

Well, it's been a long time between drinks, I tells ya! I guess I've been busy... and lazy... and uninspired. But the inspiration flowed again with a vengeance on Sunday, after I had been to see the fabulous show Eyes, Lies and Illusions at ACMI. Over 500 examples of pre-cinematic optical toys and illusions from the private collection of German experimental filmmaker Werner Nekes. It really is a spectacle of staggering proportions, with a walk-in perspective room, peep shows, a live zoetrope, shadow puppets, flick books... the works. We were lucky enough to attend a couple of seminars, one of them a re-enactment of an old-time magic lantern show and the other a presentation by Werner Nekes himself. There's a few school-aimed workshops on over the coming months as part of it too, and a walk-in camera obscura in Federation Square that we missed this time, but will make a trip back to the CBD to experience for sure! Also, around the traps (we stumbled across ours at Polyester Records on Brunswick St) you can find free flick-books from ACMI advertising the exhibition... look out for a brown paper envelope with Don't Panic scrawled reassuringly over it's front in red... it'll be with the other free promotional stuff in shop windows.

I've also recently had a great food experience that was a long time coming, and is worthy of sharing... Dainty Sichuan Food (formerly of Smith St, Collingwood, now in Corrs Lane in the city). My friend and ex-housemate raved about this place ages ago, and it inspired him to teach himself Sichuan cooking, with great success. After revelling in the joys of Twice-Cooked Pork and Pock-Marked Mother Chen's Spicy Bean-Curd, I was moved at last to seek out the inspirational eatery myself to celebrate Dan's period of voluntary joblessness! Dainty Sichuan isn't fancy, and nor are it's prices, but the food packs a mean, keen chilli and Sichuan pepper punch that leaves your taste-buds reeling, your mouth tingling and sweat pouring down your face!!! I can highly recommend the Spicy Garlic Eggplant (I almost had a When Harry Met Sally "I'll have what she's having" moment over it!!)! But wear good runners with a grippy sole if you plan to go - most of the dishes arrive at the table buried in a pile of oily fried chillis, and in the the process of extracting your meal from the heap, a lot of chillis and their oily coats end up on the floor. A hasty and cursory sweep isn't quite enough to render the floor hazard-free, so watch you don't come a cropper! The cowboy boots saw me skating precariously to the toilets... lucky I've got good balance!!