TRAVEL: TOO MANY BOBBYS. (MELBOURNE #2)
May 3, 2011

Melbourne, Australia.

The Melbourne adventure and mission continues. Days 2 & 3, roaming and exploring Melbourne's alleyways with Lenny, Noah, and Tiffany. A rare opportunity for friends, old and new to converge together in a different city; all due to the hard efforts of the team behind the inaugural CARBON event. Although I'm back home safely in New Zealand as I write this, the past weekend has been an absolutely mental blur of ridiculously ridonkulus events; as Noah (Editor-in-chief, Complex) put it on the last day: "dude, I don't think I could even write a script about this weekend." It felt like a month long road-trip smashed into four short days. Backstage with House of Pain, playing "Where's Lenny?", half of the group inadvertently dining with the Bieber, playing Team America whilst watching Obama addressing the nation, MEGA just being MEGA, and every other hilarious moment in between. I've got a lot to share, but you've probably got a short attention span, so back to images.

I've got a recap of the forums & discussions coming up, but for now, here's the start of the weekend's chronicles and our crew of misfits.

Where's.... Vinny?

Leonard; perhaps better known as Futura. It's been a few years since I've seen Lenny in person, and it was amazing to connect again and help bring him down to Melbourne to attend and speak at Carbon.

Sitting around with him over the past four days and laughing at his comments, sharing stories and general clowning about, one almost forgets that this man is a true living legend of the contemporary art world, with no less than 40 years' worth of experience under his belt. By now, with the event done and dusted in real-world time, I hope those of you that attended understood the enormity of what he decided to do for everyone. For a start, this is only the second time in his career that he's made a presentation and spoke in front of a crowd of people, with his last presentation being a decade ago in front of a small room of people... something he vowed never to do again after.

Still, his humble attitude towards always wanting to remain on a relevant level with his audience gave the crowd the opportunity to connect and communicate with him through the forums, as well as the various events throughout the weekend, or even if you were to bump into him on the street on one of his 'wandering' missions. For this, I want to thank you Lenny. Not a very common trait of people when they reach a certain level in their career, much less one that is unanimously accepted by most as a living legend. That, and he does a killer Christopher Walken impression. Timmy, I don't know what you did in a past life to have this man as your father. Incredible. #shitlennysays

(image credit: YO-MAFIA!)

Bobby. Again, it's been a few years since we've hung out, and it was another experience crossing paths again. Aside from people continually mistaking me for him over the weekend (I just figured everyone thought he would be the best dressed asian person in the room... or a "Bobby" was some strange Aussie street lingo to refer to all asians) it was a non-stop back to forth comedy fest with his SoCal sense of humour and energy. At the end of the day, even with his hordes of 17 y/o teenage (male) groupies, he's just as much a fan of the culture as anybody else out there, and it was evident in his eagerness to check what Melbourne city had to offer, from drop bears to art studios. Sometimes in these kind of events the keynotes tend to exist on their own plateau and choose to not want to get involved with the people who attend these said events, but Bobby just jumped straight in, armed with a 16-35mm lens and a fistful of jokes. Judging by the amount of times people asked to take photos with me at the end of the weekend compared to the start, I'd say that Bobby was successful in this mission. Thanks mate.

Jasper Wong (The third Bobby) also made the trip down from Hong Kong to paint at the event, with Tiffany (Fresh Cafe, Hawaiian Tourism Board member) in tow. I'm posting this as this is the only photo I've got of him with a straight face. That said, who knows what's going on behind his hands? I think this was shortly after event Director Andrew Montell showed us a video of homeless drug addicts behind their offices doing the nasty, in between shots of smack. I wonder what he's thinking?

On the first night, a bizarre series of coincidences led us to catching up with Danny Boy and Eric (Everlast) of House of Pain/Coka Nostra legend. They promptly invited us to their first show in Melbourne, part of a huge HOP reunion tour across Australia. My 15 year old self could hardly contain the excitement meeting the crew (sans Lethal) in person.

I'll have to admit, a few people jokingly asked me "so, how was the gig? was there people there?" after we returned to the hotel. Seriously though, the venue was packed. Celtics jerseys, green track tops (and red hair?) as far as the eye could see, and a completely 100% dedicated HOP crowd bellowing their lungs out to every word. I think I've got "put your shit kickers on and kick some shit" engraved into my brain. Naturally, the venue exploded when they closed with "Jump around". I swear they shifted the earth's axis with the synchronized jumping.

Aside from being blown away by the real-life size of the guy, the best part was sitting down and shooting the shit with Danny Boy and Eric after the show; outlining their charity work, their philosophy on living, the humbling and inspiring story from Danny Boy about overcoming his addictions, and life in general. I wonder what my 15 y/o self would've thought, listening to them on the radio whilst trying to learn how to drive around Auckland. It's funny what life swings at you down the line.

Everlast, with my new buddy, the well-spoken, well-cultured, and distinguished commentator Noah Callahan-Bever, editor-in-Chief of Complex. Noah was perhaps the only person from the international contingent that I hadn't met in person beforehand, but it quickly turned into a Bill&Ted/Beavis&Butthead/WaynesWorld combination as the weekend progressed. I swear half of the group must've thought we were mental, bursting into laughter at nothing in particular. I must say though, I think Noah got the best value from the trip out of all of us. Well... that's what she said. (bazoonga!)

MEGA (not the SF version). You know, after you go to every city, you always come home, and at some point, you bring up the story of "this guy" who did something? Well, Mega is that guy, in every sense of the word. If you could imagine a French version of Steve-O, that guy would probably have been.... MEGA's protege. From running through bushes and backyards in Sydney with his pants around his ankles nursing a black eye, to living in a Favela in Brazil just for fun, or building his own home with his own hands in the tropical paradise of Bali for a paltry sum of cash, MEGA is everyone's "that guy". Oh, and I think he's also an artist or something like that. Congratulations on the show mon ami.

More soon. G'night mate.