Yesterday, Federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews released the draft of the proposed resource book, Becoming an Australian Citizen, from which the questions for the proposed Australian Citizenship Test will be drawn. The Draft Citizen Test Resource Book details the history, values and demographics of the nation and has been compiled to be a reference for immigrants to study, to complete the proposed citizenship test. Did you know Canberra is an aboriginal word meaning ‘meeting place’? Did you know that Sydney has the most teams competing in the National Rugby League competition? Did you know that the wattle is our national flower? If you’re like me, maybe you should take a look, if nothing else but to update your own understanding of Australia’s history since primary school. To view how a variety of Australian communities and organisations responded, look here. I randomly read A Just Australia and the City of Yarra, whose comments put into words some of my own thoughts.
If you take four strong-minded men with very distinct personalities and put them in a recording studio to record a wild pastiche of rock, hip-hop, punk, funk and beats, on paper it shouldn’t work. But for 4 years now, Fortitude Valley’s own Butterfingers, have been laying down their trademark breed of fork-tongued rhymes laced with biting humour and clever wordplay. Known to make a crowd bounce and grandma’s wield walking sticks, Butterfingers are sure crowd pleasers. At this year’s Fiesta, lead singer/songwriter and guitarist ‘Evil’ Eddie Jacobson will be laying down popular tracks such as ‘I love work’, ‘Get Up Outta the Dirt and ‘Figjam’ backed by long time friends and band members, Damien Green, Olly Thomas and Dave Crane. Triple J hottest 100 regulars, Butterfingers will be dishing out the vibes and jibes like breakfasts at Fatboys on a Saturday morning.
I consider myself to be environmentally aware. I try as hard as the next person to watch every drop, turn off lights, disregard my car and use green bags at Coles. I recently gave myself a stern talking-to when discovering that a train within spitting distance from my house travelled straight to my work train station on the other side of town, and I had been needlessly driving to work every day for the last six months.
But lately the nay saying, doomsday prophecies of the looming climate change issue have been a heavy burden to bear. Some days it seems that all I hear is bad news on climate change with the apparently endless gloomy predictions forecasting our unavoidable collision course with a climate cataclysm….But I am refreshingly buoyed by the organisations and groups which are bantering positive word about, particularly regarding the practical, achievable things we, as individuals, can be doing now to help, and help considerably. The state government has been promoting Change a Light Bulb Day, which is this weekend and touts the good news that if every household in Queensland replaces just one light bulb in their home, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the same as taking more than 42,000 vehicles off the road. I thought that was a fairly amazing forecast. Continue reading ‘note to self: change one light bulb this saturday’
If you were actually surprised that Brisbane has an independent theatre scene, then you should see this play.
Co-written by two of Brisbane’s freshest playwrights, Dan Evans and Rebecca Meston, The Reunion weaves the story of five high school friends gathering for their 10 year reunion, when they are suddenly faced with their 17 year old selves. In an exploration of reconciling who you were and who you are now, breaking free from the hierarchies of high school and the release of 10 years of building tensions between ‘friends’, The Reunion captures both the raw pain and the carefree existance that high school wavers between. It is the Berocca and greasy bacon burger that cures your 10 year post-high school hangover, brought to life by an amazing crew of new Brisbane theatre talent. With the dry and kooky wit that is characteristic of Evans, and Meston’s articulate writing style, this is new theatre at its best.
One night. One hot cast. One killer soundtrack. The Reunion plays at Metro Arts’ Sue Benner Theatre from September 5 to 22, tickets $18adult/$12concession.
It is building awareness of the good quality institutions among us who aim to deliver a hit of entertaining/ethical/technological/educational love to Brisbane’s arts and cultural scene. Brisbane’s annual Riverfestival floods our city’s cultural and academic crevices from this Friday August 31 to Sunday September 9, once again improving on its ability to draw together both local and international talent to demonstrate our love of the river through many mediums.
Show your support for the festival at events like the Liquid Lens short film awards, goa’s Advertising Challenge - pitching the concept of Odds & Evens Shower Days to the public, the Greening our City tree planting day, Pieces of a City program art exhibition by Jonathon Oxlade, Surf ‘n Symphony at the River Stage and the high-tech treasure hunt - dubbed The Amazing Race for mobile phones - Scoot, played at the South Bank Precinct. The International Riversymposium is in its 10th year too, welcoming around 1000 international delegates who are experts on the world’s water management - that is something to be proud of.
Sure, there’s the fireworks. But I assure you that’s only the beginning.
When words are not needed, or in this case translation necessary, the power of a message in advertising is simple and defining. For car manufacturers, the combustible engine will change, hopefully before the last drop of oil is sucked from the ground. Some brands are already leading the way. BMW’s entire line is now diesel and have also released the hydrogen model 7. Saab ran a recent campaign announcing it had gone green. And Citroen offers ethanol, hybrid and other technologies such as Stop and Start. All are efforts to reduce CO2 gases being emitted from the driving of cars. While some efforts are seemingly behind widely acknowledged strategies, they are nevertheless a beginning of a change in attitudes, to both lead citizens towards a new relationship with private transport and to reflect citizen demand for cleaner, greener cars. For others, bikes, buses and car sharing are alternative solutions. In grade twelve, my beloved Biology teacher would throw a hand-full of leaves into the air each morning to discern which way he would walk to work. Perhaps this is the greenest mode of transport yet.
As we catch the bus to work, walk to the supermarket and sweat at the gym, our beloved iPods increasingly remove us from the world’s daily aural landscape. On Friday we’re invited to use our iPods to connect with others, in an outdoor participatory opera at Southbank. iOrpheus melds contemporary technology and traditional performance. The opera - which will be performed on iPods, mobile phones, laptops and live instruments - is based on Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, first performed in 1607 and regarded by many as the birth of opera. iOrpheus is the brainchild of New York-based composer William Duckworth and media artist Nora Farrell, who pioneered a collaborative online creative community called Cathedral. The event begins at 4pm on the steps of the Queensland Conservatorium at Southbank and travels to the Nepalese pagoda and other Southbank sites, culminating in a concert at Suncorp Piazza featuring virtual and real instruments. Acts will be intersected with ‘ribbons of sound’ made up of sound bites such as birdcalls, bells, drones and spoken words. Using an online instrument called the PitchWeb, ‘audience’ members can become part of the iPod Band, the Laptop Symphony, or the Ringtone Choir. Continue reading ‘art among us’
A $2 billion environmentally-sensitive pulp mill being fast-tracked through legislative approvals, despite public opposition, in the warm up to Australia’s first real ‘green’ election smells rotten. Forestry giant Gunns proposes to build the mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley, a notable wine-growing and tourist region in the state’s northwest. They’ll need to clear 200 hectares of habitat for threatened species to build the mill, which would emit 64,000 tonnes of dioxins and other contaminants into Bass Strait daily. However, the full impacts are unknown as Gunns withdrew from the independent assessment by Tasmania’s planning commission before it was completed. Local fishing and wine industry representatives have spoken out against the mill and polls highlight significant public opposition. The Federal Environment Minister has given conditional approval and will consider public comments until Friday, before making a final determination. If approved, construction of the mill could start before election day. With both major parties apparently backing Gunns, it’s been left to our conscience in the Senate, the Greens, to lead the opposition. They’re considering legal advice about mounting a legal challenge in the Supreme Court, if the mill is approved. If you think an independent planning process is due, add your name to the ranks of public opposition by Friday.
September, Spring, 2007. The mossies are flickering. Sunsets are slower. There are no large festivals until Homebake, Falls and Southbound. For most, it’s the longest stretch without a holiday until Christmas. But for one weekend, a respite will come in the form of three stages, a street closure and the biggest concert Brisbane is likely to host this year; Valley Fiesta. Beginning on Friday night, September 14 and closing on Sunday night, September 16, Fiesta will present over 80 acts of the best emerging and established local, national and select international music talent. With confirmed names such as The Silversun Pickups, Youth Group, Butterfingers, The Audreys, Muscles and Katie Noonan, organisers The Valley Fiesta Executive Committee, have ensured a diverse line up caters for all tastes. Occurring later in the year than usual, the Fiesta is in its 15th year, and like Fortitude Valley itself, is growing at a remarkable rate. Over the coming days I will introduce you to a number of people, bands and other useful information about the Fiesta, to ensure you are informed, inspired and ready to lei your hair down, when Friday 14 comes around.
For those who can spend hours upon hours immersed in a good book (or two), take a look at this clever culmination of design and practicality. The Bibliochaise (literally, the ‘library chair’), from Italian design arbiters Nobody&Co, combines the comfort of a devouring armchair with the convenience of a built-in bookshelf. Holding the equivalent of up to five metres of books, the chair is a welcome space-saving convenience for the modern home and the ultimate piece of designer furniture for inveterate couch potatoes. The only disconcerting thing might be when others decide to peruse the bookshelves whilst you’re still sitting in them.
Watch this. Enviromission, a Melbourne based company, is in the final feasibility stages of planning the construction of the world’s biggest solar power plant and the tallest structure ever built. At Sunraysia (fitting), in the outback of New South Whales, the sun shines for 300 days of the year (a bit like Brisbane until this beautiful rain came our way) and this site has been earmarked for the project. Rising 600m into the air, the enormous pipe will tunnel hot air that has been heated up under an area of glass six times the size of New York Central Park. Is this a possible future? If private industry can do this in Australia with minimal government support and investment, what could it do with the opposite?
Last month’s, Melbourne Design Festival ran a number of projects under the theme of “when it rains it pours”. One of the projects was “There’s a hole in my Bucket” which asked visitors to take one of 100 buckets and photograph a part of Melbourne or everyday life that they thought was poorly designed. The project sought to create a dialogue about the design landscape and how design has the ability to transform our lives and our society for better or worse. It’s quite a fascinating collection of images and thoughts, and covers everything from high heels to toilets. For me, it’s the numerous photos about urban landscapes (roads, architecture, public transport, public spaces etc) which I find the most interesting. It’s about much more than just the physical design of things and places, because the photos have thought-provoking layers of environmental and/or social commentary to get you thinking. The photos will be online here.
In a busy charity landscape it can be difficult to choose the causes you identify most strongly with and the organisations where your support can do the most good. What if you could lend instead of give - and in doing so, contribute to increasing people’s capacity and economic independence? Kiva is like a Grameen Bank of the people, and enables people in the affluent world to provide small loans to support majority world entrepreneurs, who wouldn’t usually qualify for traditional bank loans. What’s unique about this micro-credit initiative is that you can choose the recipient of your loan. Loans are pooled to reach the sum required by an individual to start or develop their own business, and administered by established micro-finance organisations ‘on the ground’. Throughout the course of the loan lenders can receive email updates from the entrepreneur. When your loan is repaid - usually within six to 12 months - you can reclaim your funds or redirect them to a new entrepreneur. Seems like a great idea to help people get a leg up. The story of Kiva’s development (it was founded in 2004 by a computer programmer) is also quite a read for anyone interested in social entrepreneurship.
I’m giving kudos to the “Our Future, Our Say” series of articles and forums. This collaboration between The Courier-Mail, Channel Nine, Griffith University’s Urban Research Program, and the Brisbane Institute, is exploring the complex urban and regional issues which whether you realise it or not, are shaping how you live, work, move, play and interact. The series says that urban planning is a worthy conversation that our community ought to be having, and I can’t agree with that enough! The next forum in the series is happening this weekend - Sunday 26 August, 10am, Griffith Conservatory at Southbank. It’s about sustainability and the speakers are Peter Garrett and Malcolm Turnbull. Continue reading ‘our future, your say’
If you procrastinate on YouTube and enjoy original creative content, then I think you might like the 2007 Portable Film Festival. Created in Australia, it is an international festival of short film and user created content. It works in the same way as other film festivals the only difference - it’s delivered completely online and distributed through portable video devices such as iPods, mobile phones and laptops. As a cultural movement, the Portable Film Festival represents the growing democratization of filmmaking and viewing processes around the world. There are 5 festival categories to view - Short Film, Music Video, Look At Me, First Hand Capture and Media Achiever. (If nothing else, the Short Film category is a must see)
I was just looking through some recent shots of mine and came across a couple of sunset images that were taken from the same place, one day apart. It truly amazes me that nature/mother earth/existence can provide such a spectacular array of colours and light, then back it up the very next day with something that is equally gorgeous, yet so very different.
Just like buying wine for the pretty label, I confess, I bought The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs by Damon Galgut for the title. At the time, I’d never heard of Galgut, an award-winning South African novelist and playwright, but the words on the cover conjured up such an ironic and unsettling image, I just had to know more. In this case, my instincts won – I read the beautifully crafted book in one sitting/slouching and was left with a deep imprint of what harm military service can bring to soldiers, especially reluctant ones fighting a civil war they don’t believe in. Galgut is arriving in Brisbane in September to speak at the writers festival about many things, including why writers write and the shifting cultural and moral landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. He will, without doubt, be an interesting soul to engage with. His love of writing comes from a period from the age of six where, diagnosed with cancer, he spent much of his childhood in bed being read to by members of his family. Thereafter, hooked on stories, he was inspired to write his own and at age 17 published his first novel. While he doesn’t recognise his debut effort as a true reflection of his writing, it was a start. He hasn’t stopped writing since. He holed himself up in a hotel in Goa to write him most recent novel, The Good Doctor, which was shortlisted in 2003 for the Man Booker Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region, Best Book).
As a grey blanket slowly knits together behind upright steel, the memory of its wake ripples in shallow puddles. In Brisbane another day has started, and the species who inhabit its floors and transpire under its ultraviolet light begin again. A car panel is sprayed thick red in a Toowong workshop. A service attendant on Logan Road flicks her frown to a smile as the electronic doors open for another customer. In offices around boardroom tables, the ink of a whiteboard pen glides across white acrylic while a twenty something year old man thinks of the sun on his back. Meanwhile, the other side of the world sleeps, shakes woks or lies awake with eyes on a dark ceiling or a canopy of stars. People announce ideas. Events occur and cars crash. An earthquake hits Peru and another Danny Bedurus ruptures another ligament and is sidelined for six weeks. The news of this world comes to us daily. For some writers of the written word, the present and known, are both muses for reporting and ignoring it. Continue reading ‘a word, please brisbane.’
Energy Australia has introduced the ‘granny’ to Queensland and she’s laying down the law from the comforts of her wing back chair. Touting such tips as ‘finish the dishwasher cycle before drying to allow dishes to dry naturally’ and ‘by using just one 15 watt compact fluorescent bulb instead of a 75 watt standard bulb, you can save around $10 per year on your energy bill’, she is encouraging Queenslanders to not only reduce their fossil fuel energy usage but to also consider purchasing Greenpower energy. Per capita, Australia is one of the worst greenhouse gas polluters in the industrialised world. The main culprit for this, is electricity consumption – which is good news, because it’s something we can take control of.
Around 10% of Australian home electricity is wasted on standby power, so another of granny’s tips is to ’switch off instead of standing by’. After a couple of months of trying this I can say it has become a habit. In a recent initiative, Energy Australia is handing out six packs of energy efficient lightbulbs, paid for by people and companies who are offsetting their emission. Effectively they are offsetting their emissions by reducing ours. With rumours of a debate this weekend between Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Shadow Environment Minister Peter Garrett, things are surely heating up in more ways than one. And still the sun shines on Australia, with a reported area of just 35 square kilometres required to provide all our energy needs.
