Bloggers & Tweeter Drinks

I went for drinks with some of Melbourne’s bloggers and tweeters, unfortunately the whole thing turned into a debacle as Sister Bella’s was closed. It is pleasant to stand around or even eat in some of Melbourne’s lanes but Sinder Lane is not one of them due to the smell of garbage. Trendy as these laneways are with all their bars and street art, the rubbish bins are a reminder of their true function as service lanes for deliveries and garbage collection.

Michael had organized another Melbourne Blogger and Tweeter drinks. Michael writes the blog My Aching Head and at Sister Bella’s on Sinder Lane (off Drewery Lane, off Little Lonsdale) was his choice of venue. I went to the last blogger drinks that Michael had organized back at the end of May. This was the first time that there were tweeters at the drinks. I don’t tweet (too many tweet might make a twat).

I meet up with two women who were also looking for the blogger and tweeters drinks. One of them was Vetti who writes Vetti: Live in Northcote. Vetti writes about life, food, op-shopping and interesting things.

On finding the bar closed the tweeter tweeted this information and an alternate plan. However, even with all this cutting edge communication Michael still had to go and wait at Sister Bella’s for any stragglers. We went to Section 8 in Tattersalls Lane which was open. Section 8 is a container bar; basically two shipping containers behind a chain-link fence on an empty lot in the city. One of the shipping containers has been converted into a bar with a large window cut along one side. It was crowded and the three of us had trouble finding somewhere to sit. There are more Drew Funk murals on the wall. I had just seen him spraying over at Don’t Ban The Can’s Croft Alley Project. On the walk to Sister Bella’s I had seen another one of his murals on the side of Chinese restaurant. The man’s work is all over the city.

Back to the subject of blogging and to blow my own trumpet – this blog has now had 40,000 hits. I believe that I have attracted this number of readers because I have written about other people (generally interesting artists) rather than myself. I have done research, thought, fact checked, asked people, found relevant links and put the leg-work in to see things for myself before reporting on them. There is also very little competition in writing about the visual arts and so much to write about. I wish that there were more bloggers writing about the arts and culture.

I noticed that my old blog, Culture Critic @ Melbourne, has been closed by its host, Arts Hub. I will consider republishing some of the entries on this blog and rewrite others.