A lovely little Autumn Day in Fitzroy and a trip to I Carusi Pizza

What a lovely little day of adventure in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. Went to visit my best friend, who lives in the coolest terrace behind one of the most atmospheric bike shops I have ever seen! Then off to Gorker Gallery in Fitzroy to see an exhibition by Darren Henderson. Great exhibition. Lots and lots of owl images, painted on little wooden boxes and lacquered in shellac (yes shellac is a type of varnish made from beetles and I reckon has a rather golden sheen). Never been to this gallery, rather industrial in the fact it exists in what I would regard a garage space behind a roller door. But certainly looks like it has a fair amount of kudos in the area.
This exhibition was inspired by the mythology surrounding owls and human nature. Cleverly Darren Henderson arranged all his paintings into a map of the world. No bird has as much myth and mystery surrounding it as the owl. Owls symbolically can represent so many things from knowledge, wisdom and fertility to death, famine and destruction. Many views across the world and time are contradictory.

Note to self: I would like to explore the power of "owl" symbolism and as a totem/power animal sometime in the near future.
Anyway from owls and wonder.... we went to the Centre of Contemporary Photography, which oddly enough I have never been too. Hugely dissapointed in the exhibitions and photographers work that I saw there. I was unsure of the meaning of many photographs. In my opinion the main exhibition had little/no visual impact, poor quality photo's with ideas so abstract they failed to even sustain my interest to what on earth they could be about. The only saving grace was one photographer by the name of David Van Royan had taken a set of self portraiture "Not Moving" which were rather thought provoking. One of his pics as below.
Yummo finally, lunch/afternoon tea at a local Fitzroy pub - Marquis of Lorne. Yes I reckon this is little inner suburbian gem! Friendly warm atmosphere, easy just to sit at the bar and munch away on delicious hot fat wedges with chilli sauce, and nice glass of pinot gris..... I would highly recommmend.
What a day. So early evening - off to a birthday dinner at I Carusi Pizza with a girlfriend and a whole group of her friends. "I Carusi Pizza" (affiliated with "Pizza Meine Leibe" in Northcote) is pretty well known to locals in East Brunswick and has a reputation for a great atmosphere and fantastic pizza. I was certainly not dissappointed. What a wonderful evening, scrumptious pizzas with toppings such as salmon, proschietto, pine nuts, whole baby tomatoes and rocket, pumpin, gorgonzola cheese, zuchhini etc.... taste sensations mmmmmmm...... Corkage was $7.50 so to be honest I opened mine under the table and shared with others.... not going to pay corkage at this price!! For dessert, someone had made an amzing chocolate and hazelnut tart..... the clincher of "I Carusi" to me was the fact they cleaned the tart baking dish afterwards... now that is friendly helpful service... :)

Gotta love the inner suburbs of Melbourne for food and art...... if you have time to explore them this Autumn you should!

By Briony