$17.50 for a movie ticket? Really? Not even a 3D one - $17.50!?!?! What kind of ridiculous price fixing is at work here, when pretty much all the chains charge $17 or $17.50 for the extreme luxury item of sitting in a seat for two hours to watch a sequel to a toy advertisement (Transformers 2), or in the case of Shrek 4, a 90 minute ad for toys.

To put it in perspective, we have quite possibly the most expensive movie admission prices in the world. From vague memory seeing a first run movie was about $13 in New York (US$10.50), $14 in London (£8) and if you went on a Tuesday, $4.40 in Toronto (C$4). I even saw a Bollywood movie in India for 30 rupees (75 cents).

Sydney - really. What the fuck?

And they wonder why we're downloading movies. You wouldn't steal a car - you wouldn't steal a handbag. True, but the cost of cars and handbags hasn't doubled in the last decade, the cost of cars has in fact largely come down.

On an aside, tickets to next months Sydney Film Festival haven't gone up and this year are a comparatively reasonable $17 (Or $13.50 if you buy a 10 pass). So screw the chains, go see some art house crap ahead of time for cheaper, and support our arts organisations.

Sorry so many of these things are in the inner-west, but hey, it is the COOLEST part of Sydney.

Every Thursday for as long as I can remember, omnipod piano maestro and Sydney identity Chuck Yates has held court at the unpretentious local the Bald Faced Stag, playing three sets of impro-heavy trad jazz, with a rotating array of horn players, including on at least one occasion - no less than three trombonists. For free. Til very late. Usually with a free supper at midnight. Needless to say, Sydney's starving students and jazz-starved music fans ate it up - literally. One of the best free nights out Sydney had on offer, last thursday was supposedly the last of Yates' nights at the Stag. But i get the feeling he'll back.

Rumour has it one Thursday after playing a set of their pop-heavy hits at the Annandale, the multi-talented Thirsty Merc then wondered up the road to the Stag and played a jazz set, which I reckon probably would have been more enjoyable than hearing them play Thirsty Merc songs.

The Bald Faced Stag is at 345 Paramatta Road, Leichhardt.

NOTE: I leave Sydney in a week to go live in Canada for a year, so don't expect any new entries for a while. I started this blog as a piss-takey way of remembering the things i love about Sydney, and hopefully despite increasing commercialisation and over-crowding, most of these things will stay so i have something to look forward to coming back to. Rock over Sydney!

Seriously, most of the fun nights I've had in my twenties have somehow involved this man in some way, as DJ, organiser or generally just the glue holding it all together. He's just always there. No matter where you are - a crazy warehouse party, an illegal beach party, a rowdy pub, a bush party, a crazy gallery opening, Health Club - you just turn around and he gives you a high-five. He's ubiquitously Sydney.

Okay, so I'm biased. I've done some volunteer video editing on the Underbely festival the past two years and i'm a huge fan. Melbourne has long been considered Australia's home to the arts and creative expression, but the Underbelly Festival (held annually at Carriageworks) certainly gives Melbourne a run for its money in terms of creativity on offer and coldness of temperature inside the venue.

It works like this: 40+ collectives comprising of 250+ artists work for 2 weeks on various new collaboations that premier during the 2 day festival. The festival is a visual and aural orgy, and in typical Sydney fashion - there's way too much to do, too many places to be and not enough time. For those cash-obsessed Sydneysiders who devalue both art and artists, i dare you to come down and not be blown away and/or inspired by the sheer amount of hard work, unique collaborative process and sheer creative thinking that goes into the dozens of various, indescribable art projects crammed into two weeks work. Oh and there's beer and most of Newtown there too.

Underbelly is on this weekend, July 12-13 at Carriageworks. Tickets thru ticketbastard or on the door.
for more info: underbelly.com.au.

Look, I personally love every minute of the Sydney film festival, especially the screenings at the State, and I think it gets better every year, but I can't help but feel a large portion of older Sydneysiders buy tickets to complex and confronting foreign films just so they can storm out in disgust.

Also another typically great Sydney experience: if it's not a sold out session, no one really gives a toss about "reserved seating". Case in point: at my session of the new Errol Morris documentary Standard Operating Procedure tonight I duefully moved towards my reserved seat, only to find a dozy, dishevelled old codger (possibly without even a ticket) had plantet himself in my seat. It was Bob Ellis.

For nerdy film and media buffs like myself and the people I work with, this is our grand final season, and possibly my favourite time of year to be in Sydney.

Every may, the World Press Photo exhibition arrives in town, showcasing the previous year's most powerful, creative and inspiring photo journalism from around the world. It will leave you in shock and awe. For some reason I always seem to be a bit hungover when I go every year, which makes all the shots of African civil war mutilations and beheadings a little harder to take.

The best part: its at the State Library and it's free. And it doesn't visit Melbourne. Go Sydney (and to a lesser extent: Brisbane).

This is the last weekend it's on, if you haven't seen it, go (but take a box of tissues).

The annual Archibald Prize really is Sydney's only known visual art event. Once a year, every broadsheet newspaper reader in Sydney ventures down to the NSW Art Gallery, pays their $8, scans the paintings, passes judgement on the winner, ooohs and aarhs over one photo realistic entry, and then returns home to their live of Star Wars DVDs and/or reality TV shows, feeling cultured. Well, at least we've got one visual arts event that gets people out of the house.

Is there a better cinema in Sydney? Tucked away in Glebe next to the sumptious Craven cafe, The Valhalla is my favourite place to catch a cool Sunday double feature, the latest cult Ken Loach offering or ask your favourite filmmaker a question at the weekly Popcorn Taxi Q&A.

What's that? It's closed down and been turned into offices, sucking down the rest of that section of Glebe with it? Oh fuck.

The Excelsior in Glebe was home to some of the happiest memories of my early 20s. As an underemployed TAFE student at the time, this was the place a poor person could rock up and get a great nights entertainment. Their regular rotation of free bands included many future stars and under-rated talents, including Peregrine (who had like a 3 year residency from memory), Melanie Horsnell (before she did TV ads), Andy Clockwise (before he was cunt), Bertie Blackman (back when she was still a folk singer), Panda before they became Extended Family and starting selling out the Basement, Paul Greene, Tim Ireland and The Hands. Wednesday (and then Thursday) nights were programmed by Brett, the lead singer of Peregrine, and such was his friendly demeanour, he could convince anyone who popped in to jump on stage and join in on a song. Rai from Thirsty Merc would sing a future hit on a solo acoustic, Peta Morris would re-imagine her Paul Mac with Wesley Carr, Panda would lay down a 20 minute version of Rollercoaster that would blast into outerspace, ditto Peregrine with a drunken train-wreck of the Dave Matthews jammer Jimi Thing. Bertie had Andy Clockwise on drums, and has never sounded better or stronger. And it was always free and welcoming, and the music was generally always amazing. Nights ended either at some stranger's house party or the Different Drummer.

Okay about time I mentioned a pub.

Like Sydney in general, The Old Fitzroy in Woolloomooloo crams a lot of multiculturalism into a small space. There's a very London-like Fringe theatre downstairs, one of Sydney's best Laksa's from the Thai restaraunt out the back, a front bar to rival any Irish pub and a retro upstairs lounge. Thank god it remains tucked away one of Sydney's scariest streets, as this is a hidden gem. Oh, and it has Blue Tongue Ginger Beer back on tap and available by the pint.

The Old Fitz is at 129 Dowling St, Woolloomooloo.