The Antennas

Well it was quite a night at the Antenna Awards – politicians, break-dancers, glitzy presenters, dwarfs in wheelchairs, dragon dancers, you name it.

As I don’t drive a car, I travelled to the city by train. The station and train at that time of night was hoonish – young louts with their girlfriends. I saw a couple of young hoons on the train harassing a guy with security guard written on his chest. He kept his cool and refused to be incited by the stupid approaches of the louts. Good for him. I kept my head down pretending to be engrossed by my book. I survived the trip.

The antennas were held at The Edge, a venue located in Federation Square, a newly developed architectural marvel close to the Yarra River. I’d never set foot in the place before, only seeing it from afar and trying to decide whether the architectural design was to my taste. It’s a strange structure of crazily paved glass, stone and steel. I must admit it looks far more impressive inside than out, and the closer to it you are the better it looks. In fact I decided that it is quite spectacular and unusual and that I like it. Walking into the place felt like virtually inhabiting a computer game environment. The site previously housed the hideous towers of the Gas & Fuel Corporation, an extremely dreary, ugly building so Fed Square is a definite improvement.

On to the show…

Nu Country didn’t win an award – better luck next time.

C31 programming is diverse to say the least. There are music, gardening, comedy, sports, multicultural, current affairs, self-help & children’s programs to name a few.

There was a jolly warming up by some exuberant woman, giving away ancient LPs and freddo frogs to unwitting victims who attracted her attention. Then the show began and the numerous awards were announced over the next two hours, interspersed with speeches by politicians and various forms of performance entertainment. By the end, we were hanging out for the drinks and canapés.

I thought the evening quite bizarre, the oddness being enhanced by the architecture of the venue. Unfortunately I was too far away from the stage to get any good photos of the acts, so you’ll have to make do with a photo of the venue from elsewhere on the net.