Gary Nostrils – otherwise known as Tim Monley – is not just an actor, screen-writer, producer, creator of large-scale interactive games a-la Woodfordia, flash-mob aficionado, fire sculptor, feet-bus driver, professional idiot, masterful physical performer, cheeky clown, general scallywag and rabble-rouser. He's a spirit animal!
“In April of 2015 2015 my nostrils became enlightened. I am not a guru, it’s not about me, it’s about my nostrils," say Tim. He'll be performing as ‘Gary Nostrils’ as part of 'Velvet Helmet Presents... Best In Show' on the opening night of Wonderland Festival at Brisbane Powerhouse.
Among his talents, Tim also loves the deep north. Here's why:
The Beach
It’s November, and we’ve been swimming for over a month. Need I go on? Okay. Well, we’re not just swimming in heated pools or the filthy bay, we’ve got our choice of national parks, idyllic waterfalls, tropical islands...In winter, it gets cold enough for a coat, but it’s never horrible. It’s really pleasant. When it rains it feels fresh and you can really enjoy it, it’s never dreary. You never get that feeling that you’re going to die a little inside each day and by the time summer eventually comes you are a cold and pale creature with no soul left.
We have the best festival
Hands down. Last year at the National Tourism awards Woodford Folk Festival took out the stop spot ahead of Falls Festival and the Melbourne Cup. We saw this massive spike in web googling of the festival site and were like, what the hell? And started getting thousands of hits from all the southerners who wanted to know who we were and how we pipped their big event!The fact is that Woodford is like a dream, a true celebration of everything arts in an ideal environment. Just imagine immersing yourself in all arts being performed at the purpose-built, custom site in the lush Queensland valley. SO much work and love has gone into the festival since it began in Maleny decades ago, and the tireless volunteers who return year after year to build this community spectacular. There’s been over 120,000 trees planted over the years so the site is slowly transforming into a magical forest. There’s nothing else like it.
Follow your nose, it's already in front of you.
Posted by Gary Nostrils on Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Coffee
It’s got to be said. In Brisbane, we have a joke... How can you tell if someone’s from Melbourne? Answer: They’ll tell you. Seriously, sometimes the southerners think we we’re still picking tea leaves from the garden. The fact is, you don’t need 200 coffee shops – just a few, serving the right kind of thing. And we have just enough. You just got to know where to go. Oh, and when you find it, play it cool, hey?Eats
We have farmers markets literally all over the city. Of course, we’ve got the lovely restaurants too, but we really rock it when it comes to local eats. There’s markets in West End, Red Hill, New Farm, Northey St Organics, Eat Street in Bulimbah, the Boundary Street markets, plus of course the monthly Young Designers markets, the Suitcase rummages... I could go on. Friends don’t let friends shop at supermarkets and department stores.
Our arts scene is thriving
There’s always a lot of hype about the arts in Melbs and Sydney, and even Adelaide, but you’d be surprised about what’s going on in Brisbane. To start with, our arts scene is really flavoured by the Asian influence, we host the Asia Pacific Arts Triennial, which brings a slew of internationals in from across the region, but we also see a lot more Indigenous arts and other unusual sectors. Not only that, but Brisbane makes weird and wonderful art. Did you know there’s a thriving poetry slam scene in Brisbane just now, with events all over every week? Players like Ruckus Slam and Bad!Slam!No!Memoir! are really pushing the possible.I guess it really reflects the co-operative nature of the scene here too. It’s on a smaller scale than the other cities, but it’s really co-operative and a lot of cross pollination takes place. I performed at one of the early Velvet Helmet cabarets, and since then have networked with a pile of other performers and I’m part of their show at the Wonderland festival. There’s this idea that the scene is smaller here and limited, but you can move quite quickly from one awesome project to the next, making friends as you go.
Velvet Helmet presents… Best In Show at Brisbane Powerhouse 3 December as part of Wonderland Festival which run 3-20 December.
