I like them. I take them sometimes. I should take more.

Happy Birthday Emily :)

The Ellington Jazz Club is arguably the best thing to happen to Perth since Daylight Savings reared its delightful head.

Those in the know will tell you that Perth is no slouch when it comes to the jazz scene. Perth has one of the most respected jazz programs in the country at WAAPA, which draws students from across Australia and indeed the world. We also have local artists like Troy Roberts, Jamie Oehlers, Ali Bodycoat, Russell Holmes, Daniel Susnjar, and of course Graham Wood, who rate up there as some of the best in their given fields.

It might then come as bit of a surprise that until recently Perth had not one club dedicated specifically to Jazz. Which is why there’s been such a ground swell of appreciation that Bernard Kong and Graham Wood have finally gotten The Ellington out of their heads and into reality. Not that it was easy mind you. The guys fought long and hard to be able to open the club, obtaining the first new liquor license in Northbridge in 8 years… incidentally which was finalised literally half an hour before the launch night.

Now I am certainly no jazz expert. In fact if it hadn’t been for my good friend Alex Millier inviting me along on a number of occasions I could very well have completely missed the point. Fortunately he persevered though, because it doesn’t take long before the intimate ensembles bring you in. The bass, the piano, the drums, the sax, the trumpet. All melding into pieces both abstract and harmonious. There’s something distant yet inviting about jazz, there’s a certain uniqueness about how each performer approaches a piece, which means there’s always something different to appreciate. And with a line up of fantastic local and international acts performing every night of the week, there’s a real sense of community happening around the club.

It also doesn’t hurt that The Ellington is a beautiful space. Low slung lighting, a big brass polished bar, separate lounge with a live feed from the stage upstairs (for those that like to talk during a performance), a solid wine list and some very generous serves of food. They’ve also created a very savvy website and online identity. Reaching fans and locals through facebook and twitter to great effect. Add that to the fact that it’s walking distance from my house and the door staff are lovely, and you can see why I love it so much :)

If you live in Perth, and you haven’t been in to check it out yet, I’d highly recommend you do.

The Ellington Jazz Club
191 Beaufort St, Perth
http://www.ellingtonjazz.com.au/

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising campaign hosted by well known food blogger Pim of Chez Pim and a revolving group of food bloggers around the world. Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired Pim to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born. The campaign has since become a yearly affair, raising funds to support worthy causes worldwide. In 2007, Menu for Hope raised nearly $100K to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

I’ve always been a bit blasé about getting involved in causes. I like the idea of helping, but I’m generally happy for someone else to do it. Of course, that’s entirely the wrong attitude to have. For anything to get changed and make a difference, it takes the efforts of lots of people. So this year I’ve decided to get involved and offer a prize, and am pleased to announce Fiori Coffee have kindly donated a great prize, consisting of a barista training course and a gourmet coffee hamper !

The prize pack includes a 2.5 hour professional barista training course for 1 person and a hamper consisting of 6 x 250 gram bags of fresh roasted coffee, 1 bag of chai, 1 bag of hot chocolate and a stovetop espresso maker (moka pot). All up valued at $250.

If you’re a coffee fanatic and that sounds like something you’d like to win (and you live in Perth, Western Australia), then please follow the instructions below in order to purchase some raffle tickets, which put you in the running to win.

My good mate Ed from Tomatom is coordinating the Asia Pacific entries, so please head over to his site to view the rest of the prizes on offer. And if you like mine, then remember to quote reference number AP14 when you buy your tickets.

Donation Instructions:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from our Menu for Hope at http://chezpim.com
2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.
3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.
   For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02
4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.
5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Another quick one, just to proudly announce the marriage of my brother Francis to his beautiful new bride Joelle. They were married this past weekend here in Perth. It was a wonderfully unique ceremony (they both work in media, so there was plenty of music and videos playing throughout), an excellent reception lunch (organised by Mum with the help of a small army of volunteers), and some eloquent, funny and emotional toasting (accompanied by a pleasant Australian sparkling sourced by yours truly).

The moment says it all really.

The only problem was that it was so hot (41 C in Perth that day, with little to no breeze), that the makeup artist (aka the lovely Sharon) had a hard time making sure the sweat from the grooms face didn’t wipe off all of her hard work…

Still, nothing that a refreshing minty mojito couldn’t fix.

It was a great day and night, and I wish them all the best for their new life together.

Soppy post over… be assured, this blog will return to it’s usual sarcastic self shortly.

No food here, so run away now if that’s all you’re after… And if you’re reading this post through a feed reader like bloglines or google reader, or something obscure I don’t know about, then do yourself a favour and head on over to the site to witness the grainy beauty that is a bunch of guys smoking cigars and playing poker, in full lightbox hipness…

Incidentally, we started night off with a thai beef salad and a warm kipfler potato salad and a feisty Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon… so… you know… relax. This gourmet does not take a night off.

Congratulations to dtm for the comeback of the century to kick all of our arses, and for bringing over some damn fine Mexican Maragogype coffee that along with the cigars, and wine, kept us upping and downing all night.

For the aficionados out there, the list of cigars we had was:

Me: Montechristo Petit Tubos (courtesy of Cin)
DTM: Montechristo No. 2
Mr Barista: Cuesta Rey robusto No. 5 maduro
Gav the cigar virgin: H.D.M Epicure No. 2
Smoke Master: H.D.M Epicure No. 2 and a Padron 1926 series No 2. maduro