Welcome to the fourth issue of Lost and Found Volume II, an email publication offering an inside view of Melbourne's creative people and places, and the first word on events to set the city buzzing from June to September.

Josh Petherick is a very busy person. As an artist, he has shown his work in gallery spaces from Paris to Tokyo including Mu Foundation, Colette, Paris; National Gallery of Victoria, and Rocket Gallery, Japan. Most recently his work has been exhibited in Venice at Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation. As a freelance commercial graphic artist and illustrator Josh has worked on projects with Vitra Design Museum, Nieves Books, P.A.M., Vans California, Tokion Products, Arkitip, 2KbyGingham and Colab Eyewear. But he still finds time to tend his terrarium garden, make music, drink Melbourne's coffee, and tour record stores appreciating design wizardry on LP covers.

Theatre Alive is a veritable online Personals for Melbourne's independent theatre players. Click through its pages of live production listings and reader-submitted reviews, and it's guaranteed you'll be overwhelmed by the vivacity of our city's performing arts industry. The listings for July alone range from Lucy Guerin's contemporary projection and dance work, Love Me, at Arts House, Meat Market to Complete Works Theatre's revision of Robert Bolt's classic, A Man for All Seasons at the University of Melbourne. This website is an essential resource for all local theatre enthusiasts. Register for the free eNewsletter to receive regular updates containing special ticket discount offers, competitions and giveaways. Romance may, or may not, ensue.

Love Me, July 25­-28. Arts House, Meat Market, 5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne, tel: (03) 9639 0096 (bookings)
A Man for All Seasons, until July 26. Union Theatre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, tel: (03) 8344 7447 (bookings)

Melbourne label Trimapee (pronounced trim-mar-pea) doesn't just walk the tightrope between art and fashion, it cartwheels along it. Launched in 2003 by two RMIT design graduates with a passion for sculpture, Trimapee has menaced catwalks with extravagant medical, circus and vampire themed collections - for men. This winter, they've left the sherbet-bomb palette behind for the monochromatic Cubical Confessions Collection. You can find it in their just-opened store The Milk Shoppe Gang on Fitzroy's burgeoning Johnston Street. Here, old TVs take the place of mannequins, octopoid tentacles throw light from the ceiling, and - like a Tardis - the cash register is never where you saw it last. It's a space as mercurial - and seductive - as Trimapee's clothes.

Although it's only July, the Melbourne International Arts Festival launched its October '07 program this week. And a good thing too - you could spend the next three months just pouring over the festival's massive line-up.  Singer/cabaret sex bomb/multimedia artist Meow Meow (the very best kind of singer/slash anything) will present her unique muddled cocktail of post-punk-via-1930s-Shanghai performances. Lucky attendees at the Andy Warhol Pillow Party and Slave Piano performance will be encouraged to snaffle one of the wigged-one's helium-filled silver balloons from a recreation of his Factory-era installation Silver Clouds (aka Goon Balloons). Not to mention fellow pop artist Robert Rauschenberg, moody Icelandic rockers Sigur Rós, organ-obsessed Brazilian installation artist Ernesto Neto and many, many more. Request a full program here.

Melbourne International Arts Festival, Thursday October 11 - Saturday October 27, tel: (03) 9662 4242

It's elegant but affordable; totally timeless; marvellous as a stand-alone or accessorised; won't stain carpet or clothes; goes just as well with Tom Waits as it does with Hot Chip. Aaah gin - faultlessly designed. Some other good designs can be found in the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award Exhibition at Melbourne Museum from Thursday July 19 until September 2. Showcasing the ten finalists who vied for this award in 2006, the exhibition features new approaches to furniture, lighting and accessories by some of Australia's finest emerging designers. This includes glo mesh-inspired lighting by Ruth McDermott and Bettina Easton, Donald Holt's 'Booktrough' storage solution, the winning 'Spool' stool by Charles Wilson and Lana Alsamir's 'Chinka' - a latex-imitating-crystal vase. You'll need to keep a clear head to cast your vote in the people's choice award, so save the sponsor's elixir for later.

Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award Exhibition, Thursday July 19 - Sunday September 2, Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton,
tel: (03) 8341 7777

Every city has its local drinking haunts; the quiet institutions where everybody knows your name. Or at least your drink. In terms of Melbourne's cult cafes, it doesn't get more 'always glad you came' than Troika and Rue Bebelons. On opposite ends of Little Lonsdale Street, both cafe-come-bars have been magnets for penny-poor uni kids, bar flies and creative hacks for years. Troika couldn't be more relaxed (or red), if it were on a Bahamas beach. The electro-rock playlist, typography-obsessed interior, broad beers and easy bites (fetta, olives and even Tim Tams) regularly attract the Dan Whitford's of the world. The proximity of Rue Bebelons to the local universities makes it a favourite among thick-rimmed academics and slacker students. Named after its location ('baby Lons Street', get it?) this cafe and bar has its own decks, cult-status salad rolls and (due to the rock-bottom property prices of '80s Melbourne) the cheapest shots in town.

Troika, 106 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, tel: (03) 9663 0221
Rue Bebelons, 267 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, tel: (03) 9663 1700

If you're in the design game and haven't heard of Six Degrees, then to Melbourne with you! This architecture firm is responsible for some of the city's top bars - an intricate, multiform, recycled aesthetic best appreciated on 'the crawl'. Start at the top end of town with a beer under the carpet-lined roof of Meyers Place (the laneway bar that started it all). Then slip down Little Collins into the urban jungle of Three Below at City Square, where steel 'tree trunks' separate tables and Asian Pear martinis keep spirits high. From there, wander down to the vaults of Riverland, a once derelict Yarra River wharf now transformed into an industrial mix of bluestone, pipes and pizza (hint: you can peek into the Six Degrees offices next door, they tend to work late). Then hail a cab and whip up St Kilda Road to Pelican, where curved windows peek out at the bay and tapas comes topped with the ocean's best.

Meyers Place, 20 Meyers Place, Melbourne, tel: (03) 9650 8609
Three Below, 3 City Square, Melbourne, tel: (03) 9662 9555
Riverland, Federation Wharf, Melbourne (03) 9662 1771
Pelican, 16 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda,
(03) 9525 5847

When you need a cab, you need a cab. Either it's late and you are filled with the jubilation and carefree abandon of a night on the town or it's 5am and you need to get to the airport. Either way, it's better to be armed with the requisite knowledge at these junctures than attempt to challenge your addled brain further.

Melbourne's system for cab hailing is quite simple. First of all, the cabs are all yellow (very jaunty). Second, if the cab is available, there won't be a little orange light on display (as there is in Sydney), there'll be a big white light. Apart from designated ranks at Flinders Street Station and the major hotels, watch out for the new 'taxi totems' - these poles are conveniently lit and feature the location name, nearest cross street and a list of booking numbers.

Of course the truly prepared book their cabs in advance. If you are one of these people, check the numbers below and find more advice on taxi-catching here. Once you've caught a cab, remember there's a late night surcharge from midnight to 5am, a fee for phone bookings, a fee for using the Citylink freeway and even a fee for taxis waiting at the airport rank. Money talks.

13 CABS, tel: 13 22 27 within Australia
Arrow, tel: 13 22 11 within Australia
Embassy Taxis, tel: 13 17 55 within Australia
Silver Top Taxis, tel: 13 10 08 within Australia

Josh's Visual Diary
Click below to discover Josh's Melbourne journey...