Cafe #21: Suede

Date: 16 June 2007, 4.50pm
Location: Smith Street, near Peel Street, Fitzroy
Coffee: $3.00 - latte, okay

This is a red and bass bar, too dark to read comfortably and too boosted bass-y to read concentratedly. Nor is the coffee good. Nonetheless it is probably a good place for an intimate (alcoholic) drink, offering brown and red couches and cushions, a gold and red baroque-patterned bar, green wallpaper with a silver wheatish motif on a far wall and big, square navy-blue fabric lampshades overhead with a fruit and leaf design. There is muted red lighting behind the bar created with red bulbs shaded by plastic squares with convex and concave circles in the centre. There is an upstairs and palms in the windows, exposed brick walls, gilt mirrors, and bamboo-blinded nooks hiding soft lighting.

I have been sleeping in too long on these cold winter Melbourne days. Today, despite setting my alarm for 10.00am, I did not manage to roll myself out of bed until 12.30. I had a quick shower and rushed off to the Saturday coffee group. After people wandered off from the Lygon Street Cafe I walked to Smith Street in search of an op-shop bedsheet. The cheap op-shop was closed, the Salvo's didn't seem to have a Queen-sized sheet, but I got very lucky and found a shop selling light blue brushed cotton sheet sets (fitted, flat and two pillow cases) for $15.00! So I happily bought those instead. I shall be off home in a moment to change and wash sheets.

I spent several hours yesterday reading one of my supervisor's books. It is a survey cultural theory text and as such is immanently readable. It was lovely to just read - not to have to re- and re-read in order to understand, not to have to take extensive notes to retain, not to have to read in small chunks of time in order to preserve concentration and interest. I hope I have more such easier texts to engage with throughout my study.

Ann and I went to see 'It's Not Your Day' last night at La Mama Theatre on Faraday Street. It was alright, especially for $10.00. The play was by a young playwright, and though a bit cliched and mainstream, it offered some funny moments and enjoyable acting by a few of the actors, including a particularly lively performance of a steely female wit. I should go to the (cheap) theatre more often...