If you’ve got time on your side and you’re looking for a life-changing experience to kick off your career in tourism/ health/ nutrition/ human movement or management, consider applying to new five-star eco health retreat and day spa, Gwinganna’s, work experience program. The retreat is perched atop a ridge on 50 acres of private land in the Tallebudgera Valley, a breathtaking pocket of the world, and is surrounded by lush rainforest, fruit orchards, organic vegie gardens and herb mandalas. The program asks for five weeks of your time as a volunteer helping support the inspiring facilitators with everything from conducting morning tai chi sessions and bushwalks to guiding evening candlelit adventures, serving the organic feasts, tending to the gardens, leading guests through the day spa rituals, helping with cooking demonstrations, and keeping the open fireplace well stocked with wood. The reward is getting to reside on site in the gorgeous restored timber suites, use of all retreat facilities, all organic meals, and the chance to interact with and learn from staff, other volunteers and guests. And, to top it all off, you get to be pampered for the final week as a guest at no charge. Yes, it’s six weeks out of your life but I’m guessing it’s six weeks you’ll never regret. The volunteers I met there were shiny-eyed with excitement for the pure and revitalising experience they were living as their new reality.
More fatalities occur from car accidents in one month than all shark attacks throughout history. So why is it that when we get into our cars every morning, bleary eyed, in a hurry, sipping coffee or even using a mobile phone that we don’t even fathom the dangerous situation we are getting into? Why are we scared of sharks more than the short drive to work? Not wanting to instil fear into drivers, but more so wanting to alert attention to one of the highest causes of preventable deaths in developed nations, is acclaimed comic artist Woodrow Phoenix. His new comic book, Rumble Strip, highlights the perilous chances that drivers take everyday. Phoenix centres his book on the astonishing fact that 1.2 million people are killed in road traffic accidents around the world each year. Continue reading ‘if you want to get away with murder, buy a car’
For those already planning their weekend, it looks like rain clouds might settle in around Brisbane. One perfectly plausible activity would be to stay snug at home, getting high on aromatherapy oils, drinking copious cups of white tea and burrowing shoulder-deep into soulful books; the other is to hop in a car and take a two hour rain-splattered drive south to the super sweet village of Bangalow, atop the hill overlooking Byron Bay. There you’ll find Fehva, a mini music and visual art festival, already well under way. It kicked off on Monday 26 June with a concert by David Helfgott and closes the afternoon of Sunday 1 June. It features a bunch of workshops as well as a hearty mix of performers, artists and guest speakers from Brisbane (such as visual artist Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox and the Tobin brothers, Matt and Daniel, of Urban Art Projects) and further afield, including muso and Mambo’s much-loved artist, Reg Mombassa; northern NSW Aboriginal writer, curator and activist, Djon Mundine; video artist, Robert Iolini; and artist and author, Sally Swain. Even if you’re not an artist, a muso or a motivational speaker, you’ll still be inspired by the celebrated and subliminal messages of creativity, peace, expression, reconciliation and beauty. Don’t forget your wellington boots. (Image: ‘From the Heart’, Oil on Linen by Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox)
Think 1930s Shanghai with rich red, silk cheongsams. Think dazzling neon nights amidst a city booming with financial success, opulent ballrooms and old Hollywood glamour. This will bring you closer to imagining the aesthetic of the Queensland Design on Show (qdos) awards gala event, in which the 2008 award finalists will showcase their innovative designs at UQ’s Schonell Theatre on June 13. Themed ‘Red is the New Black‘, qdos will transform the space into a glittering evening of high fashion, red carpets, acrobatics and paparazzi. Judged by some of the finest design and fashion minds in Queensland and Australia, including Tony Gooley of designfront and Continue reading ‘red is the new black’
Just the name of the event suggests something mischievous is going on. And with guerrilla artist Banksy involved – of course there is. The Cans Festival was a three day street party of stencil art held in an old tunnel, which was evacuated when Eurostar left its Waterloo terminal and was formerly used by taxis. The tunnel was commissioned to stencil artists to convert the tunnel into a creative space. No doubt the drawcard to this event was Banksky and considering it was his first British exhibition in three years, the event was packed out over the May long weekend, experiencing crowds of up to 75,000 fans on each day. Continue reading ‘the cans festival’
Despite the international reputation of chocolate-producing countries such as Switzerland and Belgium, the first people known to have made chocolate were in fact from Mexico and South America. How appropriate, then, that Nestle’s new chocolate factory has been built in Mexico. Based in Paseo Tollocan and dressed in the same ruby rich red of the Nestle logo, the origami-inspired shape of the factory is certainly hard to miss. By combining the chocolate factory, a museum, a viewing deck, a shop and theatre (complete with seats that resemble pieces of chocolate), the uber modern space melds commercial, retail and tourist spaces into one unique building. Continue reading ‘nestle chocolate museum’
Just like developing an awareness to healthy eating habits, consciously learning how to question all of our cash transactions and the effect this has on a local and global level should also become habit. Supporters of this, Scoodi, provide an online community where users can contribute things they don’t need and find things they do, all within his or her local community. At Scoodi they strongly believe that recycling is good but reusing unwanted products is even better. After registering, Scoodi will provide you with a list of everything from antiques, appliances, books, furniture, and jewellery to kitchen appliances and collectibles within 20 km of your registered address. Until July 15, every time you list something you will receive one entry into Scoodi’s Sustainable Living Challenge, where Scoodi will off set your carbon emissions for a whole year. Now you don’t have to throw it away – so start listing and make some spare cash off unwanted products, whilst providing a sustainable means-to-an-ends to someone in your community.
Are you a coffee obsessive? Do you have to have three cups before you function in the morning or do you prefer to have one in a little cafe where you savour the creamy taste and quiet moment of contemplation? Either way, there’s a new coffee joint open in West End that might be worth checking out. BlackStar Roastery produces locally roasted 100% organic and fair trade coffee beans as well as fresh espresso beverages. The Roastery has already made a name for itself with a popular stall at the West End Green Flea Markets every Saturday. Now locals can get their BlackStar coffee fix throughout the week, with the new Roastery open six days and combining an espresso bar and retail outlet. Coffee lovers across town also have the opportunity to sample a latte or three at the BlackStar Espresso outlet on the corner of St Pauls Terrace and Constance Street in the Valley.
Consider yourself a literary genius, a future Orwell or perhaps Brisbane’s next Nick Earls? The State Library of Queensland is calling on all writers aged 18–25 to enter his or her short story in the 2008 Young Writers Award. The winner will receive $2,000 and the runner-up will receive $500, as well as gaining invaluable industry exposure. The 2006 winner James Halford has recently been published alongside the likes of Kate Grenville, David Malouf and Frank Moorhouse in Black Inc’s Best Australian Stories 2007. In such a cutthroat industry, it’s not very often that opportunities like this occur for young writers. So start putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard and submit your best short story in the Young Queensland Writers Award.
We all need a decent excuse to leave the house once winter rolls around. Staying in, curled up with a blanket on the couch watching bad Saturday television is good sometimes, but other times we need to shake off the cold in our bones with some more strenuous activity ‘round town. This week, we have a great excuse to rug up and go on a neighbourhood adventure as there are some wonderful exhibitions happening just yonder of our own back yards. Local animation talent Josh Rufford has work on show at Urban Grind in New Farm. Check out the quirky drawings from his ‘Los Socko and Friends’ collection and have a great excuse to warm up with a hot coffee. Hop over the river to GoMA for a peek at the Gordon Bennett retrospective, Continue reading ‘winter weekend wanderings’
July is looking like an great time to head to Melbourne because this year both the Melbourne Design Festival and the Victorian Design Festival are running at the same time. The 4th Australian Poster Annual (as part of the Melbourne Design Festival) is now calling you creative souls to enter. The theme this year is ‘Strength in Numbers”. The Festival Manifesto provides some examples of this saying and you can choose to interpret one of the examples provided or interpret the saying in some other way. The choice is yours. Entries close 19 June 2008 (P.S. There’s an entry fee of $60, which is a bit of a shame)
Not only is recycled furniture good for our planet, it adds a certain comfortable charm to any room. And when second-hand furniture is tastefully revamped, its impact on a room can be greater than any massed-produced piece of furniture. I was equally amazed as inhabitat.com at the slick design of wis design’s ‘Decades’ chest of drawers. The designers salvaged drawers from flea markets, repolished them in various shades and then married them with a white chest, to create a modern and endearing piece of furniture. wis design’s most recent quest is to show consumers that ‘not everything has to be brand new. Design can arise out of recycling the past.’ Continue reading ’someone else’s trash…’
Searching for love, coping with death, finding a place in the world – these are all topics touched on by the ninth annual Brisbane Queer International Film Festival, which kicks off this Friday night under the musical guidance of Sammy Jo, the Scissor Sisters tour DJ. A huge New York DJ in his own right, Sammy Jo will be blasting open the festival from 9 pm, which is being hosted by the Brisbane Powerhouse. The seven-day festival will feature films from all over the world. My pick of the flicks would be A Jihad For Love, where the filmmakers deal with the issues of homosexuality and Islam. Filmed in secret over five years, the powerful documentary looks at the risk, secrecy and religious divides surrounding the subject. Already taking home five international awards, Continue reading ‘a jihad for love’
One good thing about buying new school shoes was getting my feet measured on the cold metal device and seeing if they had grown. And the dream of wearing ladies shoes was only a few sizes away. The Brannock foot-measuring device is the standard foot-measuring scale found in shoe stores around the world. Patented by Charles F. Brannock, this measuring tool was the sole invention during the inventor’s lifetime and has remained almost unchanged since 1926. Son of a New York shoe entrepreneur, Charles became interested in improving the wooden-stick measuring system his father used, whose store was notorious for fitting people’s shoes with complete accuracy. The Brannock Device Co. still exists today – still selling the same product as well as custom-made variations. Continue reading ’some things never change’
Here’s a fun way to improve your vocabulary whilst providing rice to the third world. If you thought those two actions couldn’t work in conjunction with each other, think again. Check out freerice.com. For every word you get right, freerice.com donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. The donations are made possible through sponsors of the site. Each time you get an answer right, the site generates a new banner ad at the bottom of the page, which in turn generates dollars for the host website. In the website’s first six months, enough free rice was generated feed one million people. Here at the map office, we worked out that a cup of rice equals about 7,200 grains of rice, which averages out to about half an hour on freerice.com to earn a cup of rice per day. So get clicking!
We all have our party tricks – often revealed at the most inappropriate times and usually with a little liquid courage to back them up. Athletic moves, strange body functions or perhaps even a costume that appears every now and then. American sculptor Bryan Berg has a little party trick of his own. Except his has earned him international attention, a spot in the Guiness Book of Records and even an appearance in The Bravery’s ‘Time won’t let me go’ video. What does he do? He stacks cards – on a grand scale. Continue reading ‘house of cards’
With 30% of the country’s surface covered by volcanic fields on one side and 11% covered in glaciers on the other, it is no wonder that Iceland is a land of dramatic contrasts and unique musical heritage. From the quirky pop-jazz-electronic-folk eccentricities of Bjork to the sweet ethereal drifting of Sigur Ros, Iceland has produced some of the most unusual and groundbreaking musicians in contemporary music history. The Australian Cinematheque (based at GoMA) is celebrating Iceland’s diverse musical culture in the current film programs, titled Icelandic Waves. From May 9-30, the Australian Cinematheque will be screening Continue reading ‘icelandic waves’
I would like to say thank you to the brave souls who ventured out on Sunday May 11 at 4:00 am in the morning to witness the first ever Pangea Day held at map magazine. Thanks to the map team for all their help in organising the event, Morgs from Urban Grind for getting the coffee flowing and to Adam from Zenstick for capturing the night on camera. The night was a great success and it was great to see a crowd prepared to rise for the occasion and watch some powerful messages of peace on film. For those of you who were intending to come but the zzzzzs got the better of you, you can check out the films at Pangea Day. I was saddened by the fact that know Australian broadcaster picked up the opportunity to show this powerful global event to the world and equally saddened that I saw no mention of it in any of our mainstream print media. Continue reading ‘thank you those who chanced an early morning’
As we wait with bated breath to see whether Burma’s military junta will finally let some significant forms of aid trickle through the borders to help those suffering the devastating effects of the recent cyclone, it brings to mind other forms of international aid and how we can help our fellow human beings. It is easy to forget about the global crises involving the world’s developing nations and their need for water, basic health care and education – things that we take for granted in our day-too-day lives. When we do remember, it all seems to be happening so far away. A charity that has been undertaking inspiring work, and is in the midst of celebrating 30 years of “compassionate response to a world where many have lost hope”, is Mercy Ships. Founder Don Stephens dreamed of a world where he could bring aid, education and medical assistance to those who desperately needed it. In his mission to turn his dream into reality, Don purchased the first Mercy Ship in 1978 – a passenger vessel that took four years to transform into a hospital ship, complete with 40 beds, medical supplies, three operating theatres and an international volunteer team. Continue reading ‘mercy ships’
When he was 10 years old, James Redfield’s boyhood imagination was consumed by one particular dream. Living on a lake surrounded by verdant wilderness in all its glory, he dreamed of catching the biggest bass that anyone had ever seen. Everyday, he would imagine the moment when he would catch that fish, visualising every detail as the mighty creature jumped high into the air, its scales glittering in the sunlight as it leaped about on the end of his line. For years this dream occupied the young boy’s heart until, one day, when he was 15 years old, it finally became a reality. Everything he had visualised for so long occurred exactly as it had in the fertile depths of his imagination. This experience was an important one in James’ life path and, 28 years later, he would capture the world’s imagination with a story based on such premises in his iconic book The Celestine Prophecy. Continue reading ‘live dreamer - james redfield’
