The Brisbane Powerhouse is currently hosting the Festival of Tibet through until the end of this weekend. It is the second such occasion, with the first being organised at the time of the most recent violent crackdown by Chinese government authorities in Tibet. The Festival features a lot of Tibetan music, art and other cultural and spiritual activities. There are a range of workshops covering some of these areas, as ...
This week on my regular shift on 4ZZZ FM, (Brisbane’s independent music and news radio station), I interviewed Ember Swift, an interesting Canadian-born musician and advocate for activism. She recently made her fourth appearance at the Woodford Folk Festival, and is playing her final Australian show this weekend on Saturday night (Jan 23) at The Troubador in the Valley Mall. Her style of music has been labelled as ‘folktronic’, ...
Yesterday on my weekly shift on 4ZZZ, I did an extended phone interview with Queensland Liberal Senator, Brett Mason. He talks about the CPRS and the climate change issue, the upcoming election with new Liberal leader Tony Abbott and where things are at with proposed changes to the Youth Allowance. You can listen to or download the interview by going to this link. Brett lives in the inner-city ...
This week on my regular Thursday morning stint on independent community radio station, 4ZZZ-FM, I’ll be interviewing Graham Perrett, the member for the southern Brisbane based seat of Moreton. Apart from being a relatively new MP from the Queensland seat with the highest proportion of residents born overseas, Graham is also a published author, with his first novel, The Twelth Fish, being released last year with the help of ...
When I finished my time in the Senate last year, I started doing a weekly shift on 4ZZZ-FM, Brisbane’s groundbreaking community radio station. One of the main reasons I decided to have a go at this – even though it involves the horror of rising at around 5 o’clock every Thursday morning - was as a way to get back in touch with Brisbane’s local music scene. It ...
There are a couple of interesting events being held next week in Brisbane. On Tuesday night at the Uni of Qld, two films about children: The first is called “Child in Charge” on the lives of child-headed families - children who have raised their siblings in post-genocide Rwanda. Director Kym Rolle will also be there to speak about the film. The second film is called “Invisible Children: The Rescue” This film is about ...
The online video of Susan Boyle’s singing performance of the reality TV show “Britains Got Talent” has reportedly set online viewing records. In a little over a week after being posted on YouTube, the video has been viewed more than 30 million times, and “according to Visible Measures, which tracks videos from YouTube, MySpace and other video-sharing sites, Boyle's audition has generated 66.3 million views.” (figures which are bound ...
Regular readers will know that since last July I have been doing a weekly shift on Brisbane’s original community radio station 4ZZZ (102.1 FM). It’s something I did very frequently throughout the 1980s, and apart from the occasional hardship of getting out of bed in time to start at 6am every Thursday, it’s been a great way to get back in touch with the enormous range of fabulous ...
I wrote in June about a screening of a film called Hope - the story of Amal Basry, an Iraqi woman who was one of the few survivors of the sinking of the SIEV-X refugee boat. The film is being shown again in Brisbane at 6.30pm on Saturday 6th December – Human Rights Day – at the Metro Arts cinema, 109 Edward St in the city. I’ll be speaking before ...
A commenter brings news confirming the rumours (including Paul Kelly being the support act) that Leonard Cohen will tour Australia early next year, after a 24 year break. This site lists five ‘day on the green’ concerts in various regional areas in January/February – although it also states “the tour will include a series of indoor concerts” in addition, which means more dates in some capital cities. ...
Leonard Cohen fans (I’m sure there are some of you out there) would know that the living legend is currently embarked on a world tour - his first extended run of live performances for many years. So far this has meant a heap of shows in Canada and Europe. But I heard a reasonably strong indication today that Leonard will be heading to Australia in early 2009, with Paul ...
The Greenfest being held at Brisbane’s Southbank over this weekend has been getting a lot of media coverage around town. Organiser Colman Ridge has obviously pulled out all stops (and a lot of his own money too by the look of it) to try to make the event a success and help encourage people to improve their awareness and actions about how to live in a more environmentally sustainable ...
I had an offer today to provide the opportunity for 5 readers of this blog to win a double pass to a performance of a new play called The Modern International Dead, which is about to start a season at the SBW Stables Theatre in Sydney's Kings Cross. This was rather unusual, as I’ve never had an offer like this in the four years I've been blogging. But ...
I am not overly fond of parochialism, but there is undoubtedly a lot to recommend about the cultural treasures within the soon to unfold Brisbane Festival – not least the free opening event of The Black Arm Band – free at the Riverstage in the Botanic Gardens. There are not stars here, the ‘star’ is the music and the stories it tells, the stories of Aboriginal Australians.
I went to a CD launch today at the Powerhouse down by New Farm Park. The band was called the Danger Bunnies, a local group of 11 and 12 year old girls (plus a newly added boy) who’ve been playing for a couple of years. It was the first live gig I’d been to in a while – an all ages show, not surprisingly. The CD is their ...
As most readers would be aware, I have a bit more spare time at the moment than I’ve had for many a year, so I am trying to take the chance to do a few fun things that I have let slide. One of those things is having a go at doing a weekly shift on local community radio station 4ZZZ. I used to do this through the 1980s, ...
A documentary film about a survivor of the SIEV-X tragedy is being screened around Australia for a couple weeks as part of Refugee Week, starting June 19th. The film is called Hope. I'm sure it was done and the title chosen before Barack Obama burst on the scene, but in any case, hope is a universal theme and this sometimes tragic story is a reminder is just how ...
The controversy surrounding the Bill Henson photographs coincided almost precisely with when this blog was offline. There has been extensive and often very interesting debate on a range of blogs, which I found more stimulating than most of what occurred in the mainstream media, which seemed to mostly reflect the extremes of the debate without much acknowledgement or engagement with the complexities of the issues raised. I had a ...
I got sent this clip from YouTube today. It has been up there since August last year. It’s a short (5 minutes) film which won best Film at the Queensland Short Film Festival 2006, among other awards, but it was the first time I’d seen it. It grabbed my eye because the opening scene is at the coffee shop directly across the street from my office. The first shot ...
Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art is currently hosting a major exhibition on/of Andy Warhol. I managed to get along to the opening night last Friday to have a look around. I’m no expert on visual arts and am just a casual observer, so I don’t profess to have any great insights. As far as I’m concerned, Andy Warhol’s greatest creative contribution by far was his connection with the ...
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This line from David Marr is one of the best descriptions I’ve ever read of the farcical sound and fury which is Question Time in the House of Representatives:
It’s a bit like an RSPCA pound: never free of the spectre of being put down, the dogs bark and howl to attract attention.(0)
For those interested in basic facts about temperature trends in Australia and globally over recent decades, there is a great post over at Lavartus Prodeo by Brian Banisch, who has been following the data and the various scientific reports on this issue for a long time. Very much worth having a read of for those who are just wanting some facts.
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Many not for profit and charity groups have got a lot smarter over the years in tapping into some of the large amounts of money that get spent over Christmas. Christmas catalogues full of gifts for good cause groups have become widespread. In recent times, that has extended to bypassing a present all together, and giving someone a donation which actually goes direct to the good cause. This form of fundraising is now also tapping into social media, so much so that even my humble blog gets occasional requests to promote a cause from people who specifically target the avenues of social media to widen their reach. Here’s one example I recently received on behalf of World Vision.
More... (4)I’ve posted a piece over at The Stump about the links between global hunger and climate change, and the unfortunate parallels between the less than successful climate change summit in Copenhagen and an even more dismal outcome at the recent Hunger Summit in Rome, which received far less attention.
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Following are links to some items I’ve had published on other sites
More... (0)Disclaimer: The inclusion of a blog or website in this list should not be taken as an endorsement of its contents by me.
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