Challenge: Listen to Hell Hath No Fury - Clipse

I had never even heard of Clipse. I assume they are maybe a big thing in Gangsta rap, but maybe not enough to have been mentioned on 30 Rock or on British panal shows. That is how I stay down with the kids, which is a pretty good indication of how not down with the kids I am.

The more I look at this album cover the more confused I get

I didn't listen to it super closely, as I was cooking while I listened. I do a lot of my music listening while cooking, and I guess usually it involves more singing. Overall, well, I got through the whole thing without too much trouble and there were songs that I would dance to, without even having to be that drunk!
Songs I quite liked: Hello new world, We got it for cheap, Nightmares.
Would I listen to it again: Maybe. I dunno. I want to say yes but I probably won't. But that is my fault, not your's, Clipse.
Rating: 7/10

Challenge: Korean BBQ

Sally's Thoughts:

I am pretty sure food challenges will continue to be my favourite challenges. This could be because I am not a particularly fussy eater, but also not massively adventurous, so there is lots to explore and the expectation is that I will enjoy most of it. This was actually the first challenge I set for myself, and was pleased to after at least a month of wanting to go, to actually go.
Korean BBQ is a thing I hear people talk about. There is no reason at all that I had never eaten Korean food, other than I guess it had just never come up, and because I had never tried it, never felt a particular craving for it. I think that may have changed now. Can we go get korean BBQ right now? It's ok, your plans don't matter. Not unless they are Korean BBQ plans.

Things I liked: The marinated beef was delicious, and the rest of the BBQ meats were at least quite tasty. The seafood pancake was great. The staff were friendly, and offered me warm tea while I was waiting outside for my friends to arrive/our table to be ready, and brought me a BBQ (a pot of hot coals) to keep warm.
I really enjoyed the communal feel of the meal, sitting around a BBQ watching delicious things be cooked was quite entertaining. I also really like meals where they come and give you an exciting array of side dishes which you don't need to specifically order.

Things I didn't like: Well, this is just a problem I have in the world where calamari that is not calamari my Dad has caught and cooked is just inferior. It's not calamari's fault. Sorry, calamari.

Rating: 8/10
Would I do it again: Yes. Can we please go now? Tomorrow? I am free anytime.


Dave’s 2 cents:

I’d never done Korean BBQ before, and I’m not sure I’ve had any Korean food before, and I had some vague ideas it was like yum cha. I went to yum cha last year and I was kinda over it, but I may have found a replacement.

For various reasons our booking went from 8 to 5, and that was kinda better – I’m not sure how 8 of us would’ve huddled around a BBQ burner they put in the centre. I liked that like yum cha it is a continuous thing – rather than having to make to cram too many dishes on the table it is a steady streamy of meaty goodness.

It as much about the condiments as the meat, which I guess is kinda necessary when you’re pretty much eating BBQed meat which can get samey. The marinated beef was the highlight and I would happily just order that if I went again. We even got a free steak because we had some onion in something that we specifically asked not to have it in.

At $25 each not including drinks it wasn’t expensive and there were lots of Asians there which is always a good sign.

Rating: 7/10

Nutshell: An innnersting alternative to the usual Chinese-Vietnamese stuff I usually have.

Would I do it again? Yes.

Challenge: Spiegeltent

The Spiegeltent has been popping up in Melbourne for several years now, and has always fallen into the category of things I meant to go to but always forgot about until it was gone. So, after convincing my sister and mum to go to a comedy festival show with me, when I noticed that Ali Mcgregor's Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night was on there, I figured that might be a good choice. Partly because Mum knew who Ali McGregor was (after a small amount of reminding), partly because the show offered variety and mostly because I like the name. AND IT WAS AT THE SPIEGELTENT. Finally, I could go!

This is a picture of Ali McGregor that also shows how happy I was to be going to the Spiegeltent.

The Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night featured four guests, as well as host Ali McGregor and her buttress Floxie McGinty (Virginia Gay). The first was standup comedian Matt Okine, who my sister and I liked enough to decide that we should go and see his show the next night. Next up was East-End Cabaret, who I liked enough that I would go and see their show if they were doing one in Melbourne. Although, hearing a song about how deflowering virgins is a terrible idea while sitting next to my mother was a new experience I possibly didn't need? Maybe next time that will be less uncomfortable. If that happens again.

I stole this photo from Ali McGregor's facebook page.

Burlesque act Agent Lynch was next, (sitting next to my mother while a lady is stripping to reveal a vagilaphone was another new experience). Finally, there was Dave Callan, who I have decided I should definitely go and see this festival. He danced to Beyonce. It was marvellous.
Between the guest spots, Ali sang some wonderful things, the highlight for me being the medley of Prodigy hits. If you have not heard her sing, here is a video of her singing a Blur song.

Virginia Gay, who was Ali's "buttress" (this may or may not be the correct term for a female butler, although I think the correctness of the term is probably irrelevant) throughout the show, was hilarious. Her face is just so delightfully expressive. She also had to earn her keep by singing a song, which had me in stitches.
Nutshell: A good way to see a variety of acts. Turns out the name of the show is an accurate description!
Rating: 10/10
Would I go again: Yes. I'd even take my mum again.

Challenge: Hillsong Easter Sunday Service or “Jesus is the Only One that can Unscramble a Scrambled Egg”

It’s not like I haven’t dabbled in Christianity before. I went to Anglican Church services as a child, although all the services were in community halls and recreation centres, with borrowed tables and plastic chairs. My first Sunday school was in a shed.

As an adult I have stayed out of Christian churches although they are curiously still in my life. The first flat I lived in when I moved out of home was across the road from a cute little Catholic church called St. Patrick’s, and even now the apartment I live in is next door to St. Brigid’s Cathedral, which is the second largest Catholic Church in Sydney. I popped in on Good Friday and was amazed to see Cardinal George Pell give an address in Italian.

I decided to go to a Hillsong Easter service today (Easter Sunday). Hillsong is a big evangelical conglomerate that normally has multiple services in locations all over Sydney but on Easter Sundays they only have one service at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Going there was an overwhelming experience. There was a lot of Hillsong paraphernalia on the walls, and even on toilet doors. It felt like their venue even though they rarely use it in this way. The ushers and people working the mobile coffee carts were Hillsong people. There was a Hillsong crèche area. And boy they needed it because the place was heaving with people and not everyone could get a seat. The capacity of the venue is 13,250.

The point of their Sunday night services is to have a “loud celebration of Jesus” and yes, it would’ve seemed like a rock concert to someone who didn’t understand English. There was a lot of singing and people shouting and swaying. The lighting people did a great job. The songs were suitably uplifting and Dan says he saw someone crying during a song. I hated the songs, but was impressed when they paraded two camels, a sheep, a cow, an alpaca and two horses (!!) during one of them.

I don’t like using the word cult because perhaps that’s a bit mean, but that’s what it felt like most to me. Every second sentence seemed to have the word Jesus in it and curiously, there were only a handful of mentions of God. Is this what separates the older Christian denominations from these new evangelical ones? Hillsong’s messages are very simple. Basically they say – believe in Jesus and you will be saved and you never have to worry about your sins ever again and your life will be so much better. For a religion based on the Bible they appear to use very little of it in their teachings, preferring instead to spread their message through songs and occasionally very sleekly produced videos and little group performances.

The supposed highlight was the guest preacher from Germany called Reinhard Bonnke. The scrambled egg quote above is from him. He was full of strange metaphors like that. He kept talking about Jesus’s blood having the capacity to cleanse EVERYONE’S sins. He talked a bit about how the horizontal beam of the Cross is a minus sign representing humanity that is full of sin but Jesus came down from Heaven and died for us creating a vertical beam – a plus sign. He said that atheists were “intellectual vandals” that kept saying “God is dead”. His answer to that is, “Where is God’s body so you can bury him?” He was kind of entertaining in the way that people speaking metaphors in a second language can be, but not when he was trying to get everyone to buy either of his books.

How would I rate this experience? 5/10, if only to confirm my beliefs as an intellectual vandal. Would I do this again? No, feeling this uncomfortable should only be a one-time event.