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Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Perth Music
My first week as a Board member of the Western Austalian Music Industry has been huge, with the annual WAM Festival, featuring music industry workshops and gigs every night. I look forward to the up coming year contributing to the music scene in Perth. Six bands from Perth were nominated in the top 20 APRA songs of the year. The future looks bright for music from Perth.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
NEW SITE, BUMPY RIDE
BIG THANK YOU
Moving to the new site is proving to be a slower process than I expected but those of you who have watched this blog take shape will still have to through that process with me over the next few months, given that you perchance hang around and check in every so often.
The vBulletinPublishing suite I have chosen for the next step of the journey allows people to join and converse with each other and to also contribute to the main body of the site.
TOORAK TIMES IN PRINT
Toorak Times will reappear on the streets in May as an A5 sized magazine style pointer for the website.
It will include useful listings and and deals and discount vouchers, as well plenty of other interesting bits and pieces.
We are not too serious, in fact we can help to give you a bloody good laugh, whilst also assisting local businesses with their promotional budgets.
If our rates appeal please feel free to contact us.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
On the money Kent...
Music And Colour And All
The Senses Mixed Up
When we listen to great music we experience colour. Some people actually see the colours, others have a vague feeling of their presence. When this sensation isn't apparent it isn't music you are listening to.
Image via WikipediaAll the senses are connected and should inspire each other. Most of what I experience around me is aimed at a singular sense and lacks the depth to trigger other responses. I've been trying to work out what has been making me feel so uncomfortable for so long and today it just came to me. This knowledge was in me, another human triggered it.
When other humans inspire all the senses at once we know something deep and real is happening.
Parkstreet.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
BANGKOK BRASSERIE SUNDAY JAZZ
SUNDAY AFTERNOON JAZZ
This Sunday (3 April) we kick off our regular Sunday Afternoon Jazz sessions with two sets from the wonderful Travis Woods Trio and a scrumptious lunch menu from the Bangkok Brasserie Chefs.
$25 per person covers the food and the sounds, while drinks will be available at bar prices. We will be open for lunch from 12.30pm with the boys firing up at 1.30pm and performing live until 3.30pm. Bookings recommended on 9078 8698.
DEGUSTATION TUESDAY
Following our successful debut Degustation Dinner on Tuesday 22 March, Bangkok Brasserie will now host Degustation Tuesday on the first Tuesday of every month. The next Degustation Dinner will be on Tuesday 3 May, 2011.
Dominic Britten from winestore.net.au will once again personally select the wines to accompany the cuisine. Eight courses. Eight wines. $80.00 per person all inclusive. Bookings essential on 9078 8698.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
KENT PARKSTREET
The Unchosen Few
The day of the Lord cameth less like a thief in the night, more like a firestorm of death at around eleven on a Tuesday morning. I guess it was night time in the other hemisphere where most of the people lived.
A lucky handful survived. Comparing notes later we realized that none of us had kept up with our paperwork and we were all still in bed when it happened. Only the lazy made it, a new clan of inner city wasters were all that remained of this city.
A couple of pothead engineering students cobbled together enough solar panels and pumps to satisfy our energy and water requirements, a morphine addicted doctor keeps us healthy. There is plenty of stuff, so much stuff, so few humans.
A bunch of strippers and hookers are with us, their Daddy issues perished with their Daddies, what was bad news for most has worked out pretty well for them. As the majority they have ensured that women and men share this life equally.
It turns out the ashes of sinners makes perfect soil for growing fruit and vegetables, the fish have returned to the harbour, we have thousands of yachts to play with and fish from. The air is clear now the dust has settled, the water is clean. Every day in this new Eden is simple and free and easy.
As the only surviving songwriter my ditties have become the songs of a culture. I have to write more carefully, knowing that what I produce now will endure. We are all careful about what we do and say, we have a great responsibility to create a culture of beauty and equity for all.
We, the unchosen, lazy few, we are humanity. The way we think and act now will affect our offspring and theirs. We don't have rules and therefore don't have sins. We have love and kindness and making new things.
Every day we wonder why we didn't live this way before the day of the Lord?
Parkstreet.
http://www.kentparkstreetblog.com/
A lucky handful survived. Comparing notes later we realized that none of us had kept up with our paperwork and we were all still in bed when it happened. Only the lazy made it, a new clan of inner city wasters were all that remained of this city.
A couple of pothead engineering students cobbled together enough solar panels and pumps to satisfy our energy and water requirements, a morphine addicted doctor keeps us healthy. There is plenty of stuff, so much stuff, so few humans.
A bunch of strippers and hookers are with us, their Daddy issues perished with their Daddies, what was bad news for most has worked out pretty well for them. As the majority they have ensured that women and men share this life equally.
It turns out the ashes of sinners makes perfect soil for growing fruit and vegetables, the fish have returned to the harbour, we have thousands of yachts to play with and fish from. The air is clear now the dust has settled, the water is clean. Every day in this new Eden is simple and free and easy.
As the only surviving songwriter my ditties have become the songs of a culture. I have to write more carefully, knowing that what I produce now will endure. We are all careful about what we do and say, we have a great responsibility to create a culture of beauty and equity for all.
We, the unchosen, lazy few, we are humanity. The way we think and act now will affect our offspring and theirs. We don't have rules and therefore don't have sins. We have love and kindness and making new things.
Every day we wonder why we didn't live this way before the day of the Lord?
Parkstreet.
http://www.kentparkstreetblog.com/
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Fabrizio Marsani
CULTURAL DIVERSITY WEEK
http://www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/projects-and-initiatives/cultural-diversity-week
According to my local council I live in one of Australia’s most culturally diverse municipalities where 150 languages are spoken. The council is currently in Cultural Diversity Week mode endeavouring to celebrate and showcase the diversity of these unlikely ethnic bedfellows. Melbourne has seen the gentrification of most suburbs which fall within a ten kilometre radius of the CBD during the last decade or so. It’s been a fairly predictable makeover were neighbourhood shopping strips have loosely supplanted utilitarian for lifestyle .
Image by Dublin City Public Libraries via FlickrMy suburb’s gentrification hasn't been brought about by the usual suspects (the Lifestyle Latte Lot) but by a racial transformation. For decades this was an area populated predominately by post war European migrants and their off spring.
Today the shopping centre has become a Indochinese stronghold. Cultural diversity takes on an especially poignant meaning as stoical octogenarian Eastern European women navigate shopping trolleys through South East Asian hawker style stores and stalls.
The catalyst for so many of the migrants having found themselves in this perennially unfashionable suburb is armed conflict, moreover war, and while six decades may separate the first wave of displaced persons from European refugee camps and the most recent Sudanese civil war, the common denominator which has brought them to reside here is the aftermath of either a political or armed conflict.
One of the better places to observe the diversity of this cocktail of incongruous bedfellows are the aisles of an independent supermarket owned by an enterprising Timorese family. These local entrepreneurs have embraced cultural diversity with a gusto befitting the most ardent of Multicultural zealots.
The godfather of Multiculturalism, Al Grasby would have been proud to see his policies inadvertently blossom in amongst the aisles of this global smorgasbord of ethnic foods served by an appropriate representation of one of Australia’s most culturally diverse municipalities. The owners are astute business people who have opportunistically carved out a niche market, by catering to all the area’s minorities whether they be Lithuanian, Laotian or Lebanese.
This enterprise is a rare example of small business taking on the big boys and hitting them for six.
The local Safeway just isn’t in the game with their countless offerings of homogeneously packaged and orderly shelved offerings. The entrepreneurial endeavours of many of these communities have manifested into creating a dynamic neighbourhood, albeit one demographers would struggle to pigeonhole.
While upheavals have dispersed migrants to this pocket of Melbourne, it‘s commerce which brings them together, albeit fleetingly.
The necessity to shop for food is this municipality’s gelling agent, irrespective of how bizarre their respective offal off cuts may appear to each other. The council rarely misses an opportunity to reassuringly remind local burghers of their commitment to promote and foster this cocktail of displaced persons. Flying the multicultural flag as enthusiastically as previous administrations deftly harnessed the electoral machinations of Ethnic Branch Stacking.
While Multiculturalism has been on the nose in major European Union states of late, this council knows its currency. “This Council is committed to the implementation of worlds best practice assimilation strategies. Our charter is unwavering in its commitment to deliver transparent benchmarks embracing cultural diversity underpinned by inclusive and consultative frameworks… ”.
A transparent translation would in all probability loose most of its poignancy in Urdu, Mandarin or any one of the dozens of languages spoken up and down those aisles. The linguistic challenges of technocrat jargon aside, residents can celebrate cultural diversity any day of the week. Fabrizio Marsani
http://www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/projects-and-initiatives/cultural-diversity-week
According to my local council I live in one of Australia’s most culturally diverse municipalities where 150 languages are spoken. The council is currently in Cultural Diversity Week mode endeavouring to celebrate and showcase the diversity of these unlikely ethnic bedfellows. Melbourne has seen the gentrification of most suburbs which fall within a ten kilometre radius of the CBD during the last decade or so. It’s been a fairly predictable makeover were neighbourhood shopping strips have loosely supplanted utilitarian for lifestyle .
Image by Dublin City Public Libraries via FlickrToday the shopping centre has become a Indochinese stronghold. Cultural diversity takes on an especially poignant meaning as stoical octogenarian Eastern European women navigate shopping trolleys through South East Asian hawker style stores and stalls.
The catalyst for so many of the migrants having found themselves in this perennially unfashionable suburb is armed conflict, moreover war, and while six decades may separate the first wave of displaced persons from European refugee camps and the most recent Sudanese civil war, the common denominator which has brought them to reside here is the aftermath of either a political or armed conflict.
One of the better places to observe the diversity of this cocktail of incongruous bedfellows are the aisles of an independent supermarket owned by an enterprising Timorese family. These local entrepreneurs have embraced cultural diversity with a gusto befitting the most ardent of Multicultural zealots.
The godfather of Multiculturalism, Al Grasby would have been proud to see his policies inadvertently blossom in amongst the aisles of this global smorgasbord of ethnic foods served by an appropriate representation of one of Australia’s most culturally diverse municipalities. The owners are astute business people who have opportunistically carved out a niche market, by catering to all the area’s minorities whether they be Lithuanian, Laotian or Lebanese.
This enterprise is a rare example of small business taking on the big boys and hitting them for six.
The local Safeway just isn’t in the game with their countless offerings of homogeneously packaged and orderly shelved offerings. The entrepreneurial endeavours of many of these communities have manifested into creating a dynamic neighbourhood, albeit one demographers would struggle to pigeonhole.
While upheavals have dispersed migrants to this pocket of Melbourne, it‘s commerce which brings them together, albeit fleetingly.
The necessity to shop for food is this municipality’s gelling agent, irrespective of how bizarre their respective offal off cuts may appear to each other. The council rarely misses an opportunity to reassuringly remind local burghers of their commitment to promote and foster this cocktail of displaced persons. Flying the multicultural flag as enthusiastically as previous administrations deftly harnessed the electoral machinations of Ethnic Branch Stacking.
While Multiculturalism has been on the nose in major European Union states of late, this council knows its currency. “This Council is committed to the implementation of worlds best practice assimilation strategies. Our charter is unwavering in its commitment to deliver transparent benchmarks embracing cultural diversity underpinned by inclusive and consultative frameworks… ”.
A transparent translation would in all probability loose most of its poignancy in Urdu, Mandarin or any one of the dozens of languages spoken up and down those aisles. The linguistic challenges of technocrat jargon aside, residents can celebrate cultural diversity any day of the week. Fabrizio Marsani
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