Toorak Times - Socially Aware

Perth Music

2011-06-01T00:26:00.002+10:00

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.

NEW SITE, BUMPY RIDE

2011-04-10T21:21:00.000+10:00

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.

On the money Kent...

2011-03-31T00:19:00.000+11:00

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 Wikipedia

Touch can give us a sense of taste, try it when you stroke a lover's skin and you'll know it is true, you'll know what they taste like. We can hear the sounds in a great painting. Again, some can actually hear the individual noises, most of us receive the sensation of the sound. The silence in some paintings can be daunting and completely unlike an absence of sound.

All 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.

BANGKOK BRASSERIE SUNDAY JAZZ

2011-03-30T17:58:00.000+11:00

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.

KENT PARKSTREET

2011-03-29T22:06:00.000+11:00

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/

Fabrizio Marsani

2011-03-26T00:27:00.005+11:00

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 Flickr

My 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

METAPHYSICAL FICTION

2011-03-25T13:56:00.006+11:00

Brilliant Whispers
By Rikimoto

I sit cross-legged; darkness surrounds me in an attempt to suffocate the brilliant whispers stemming from the candle before me.

I encircle myself with crystals and polished stones. As I prepare for meditation I close my eyes and begin a series of breaths within which I ease my mental burdens, out with the old and in with the new. It’s a slow process but one I am starting to master.

As my mind clears I feel myself lifting. As my body straightens itself, correcting my posture, I cleanse myself as I release what was yet another hectic day.

I feel a tingle in my fingers that soon spread all through my body, as my body fills with light I recognize this feeling as the arrival of my guides. Appearing in my mind’s eye wearing old robes like a monk, his eyes as always filled with light and love.
At each meeting his appearance has changed. He has come in many forms.

I always recognize those eyes, eyes filled with light and love.

Along the astral plain we walk towards each other traversing miles in moments.

His lips do not move but I hear him speak his voice echoing thru my mind,

"Come we must see the records."

I felt as if I were flying when I realized that we were we stopped.

I looked up at the barren wasteland that appeared before me; before I could speak we became engulfed by a fog that arose from nowhere.

We are here, welcome to the Akashic records.

Overwhelmed I took in my new surroundings.

I was right in the center of the biggest library I had ever seen,

"This is your library these are your books. Contained within them is a record of your past incarnations, your own history. Please feel free to look around and read at your leisure."

I picked up a book and begun to read it was a tragedy of sorts; a man hopelessly in love with a face a face that haunted him. He saw it everywhere, be it reflected in a river or a face in the crowds. Like a bloodhound he has searched everywhere, seeking an image that’s hounds him just as much.

This goes on for years until the day he finds her in a tavern no less, on the day he had vowed not another drop would pass his lips until they were together and there she was in the flesh, the star of his personal torment.

He makes his way to the bar trying to catch her eye as he passes no luck. He orders a drink and sits at the bar.

After a few ales and a quick prayer to Bacchus and Aphrodite he finds the courage to approach he walks over and greets her with a slight bow and a how do you do.

He looks deep into her eyes. Eyes filled with light and love. He is awestruck as a feeling of personal power surrounds him. But his first attempt at conversation with the woman of his dreams is cut short as one of her companions in a fit of jealous rage removes his head with a broadsword, the envy that possessed him leaving before the corpse had even hit the floor.

My hero died smiling, knowing his true loves face.

In another book I read of a hunter and his canine companion Mobda.

They are hunting a rogue bear that his terrorized the neighboring village.

Having already taken several lives the bear had changed that of the hunter by slaughtering his family before fleeing to the safety of the woods, Mobda’s pups were also lost in the carnage.

Mobda and the hunter although they had shared a home there was no love lost between them now their sense of loss was shared and a thirst for bloody retribution on their lips.

They hunter had played in these woods as a child. The anger he felt was the violation of the home ground.

A creature, an animal from his lands, his home had just walked right into his cottage and brutally removed everything that he had held dear.

For Mobda it was different. It was the scent of the beast drove her on, nothing else matters beyond this.

It had been three day since the attack and the two trackers had gone beyond tired.

The trail was becoming cold. They both knew if the hunt were not over soon it would never end.

As they enter a ravine in an attempt to overtake their demon, a vain attempt to second-guess the devil.

Suddenly a shadow cast over them. They know more than ever that the moment of revenge is upon them. They see the blind rage in the face of death that rises to their challenge.

They enter the conflict head on. The hunter not expecting to enter into hand-to-hand combat so soon was forced to discard his bow and draw his dagger.

He charges the bear his wife’s name now a blood curdling battle cry screaming from his lips.

His dagger tore at the flesh of the beast’s thigh extracting a roar of pain.

The wounded animal slashed at the hunter with razor sharp claws slicing thru his shoulder as if it were butter, forcing him back against a tree.

He slid to the ground as the rampaging beast moved in for the kill.

Then Mobda leapt up, going for the throat.

Her fangs bit deep as she scampered up its back distracting him from the hunter whom had dragged himself to retrieve the discarded quiver and bow.

Looking into Mobda s eyes as he notched and arrow he saw her eyes fill with light and love.

At that moment the bear ripped Mobda from its throat snapping his back like a twig.

The hunter took aim as he watched the bare dispose of Mobda’s body. He lets an arrow fly and breathes a sigh of relief as the beast roars. For the arrow had gone off target and pierced the left eyeball and entered it’s brain killing him instantly. As he falls he lands on the hunter squeezing the last breath from his body. Now all that is left is the dead man and two animal carcasses.

Each book was a distant memory, each memory a lifetime and everything was so real.

I was in the tavern with the woman and I surveyed the land with the hunter.

These were not fairy tales works of fiction or fantasy stories this was real.

I eagerly began another. This book told the story of an old man who spent the last twenty years of his life in the same armchair every day. Getting up only to feed his cats or to toil in the garden. Occasionally his mind wandered back to a distant past that seemed like yesterday.

Back to the days when he went on many walks, loving and enjoying nature.

In those days the local park also doubled as a speakeasy. Crackpots kooks and preacher men, they all would wait in line to stand on their soapboxes and vent their frustrations, babbling nonsense about this and that, searching for someone else to buy into their dogmatic dream.

The old man could not remember what it was they had really said he had found it a tad too depressing and would pick up his pace whenever a speaker had thought they had found a sympathetic ear.

One day a sizable crowd gathered. Their collective chattering alerting him to their presence in advance, he saw them all crammed together to hear the wisdom of the week so he made ready to pass thru the crowd he noticed that they all seemed to be reveling in some newfound knowledge. Their cries of boo and harass filled the air. But from where he walked he could not hear the speaker of the moment but as he hurried passed he looked up and their eyes locked, eyes filled with light and love.

Then his whole world changed, he remembers a warm feeling as he lived a lifetime in that moment. He couldn’t make out her words over the crowd something about the kingdom of heaven residing within, she was whipping the crowd into a frenzy stirring them up it was as if time had slowed just enough for them to make contact. He felt that there was something he should do but he had no desire to battle the highly excited mob. He made a split second decision and chose to keep walking watching her over his shoulder as he moved on it was like his heart was demanding he stop and approach her but his feet had lost nerve and carried him away.

He thought about that moment everyday how it might have changed his life his destiny.

Over the years he thought about it more and more. The more he tormented himself. The more he became angry. It was not long before that anger turned to bitterness and his bitterness at the world eventually became an intense self-loathing. A self-penned failure. The only thing he had cherished was his cats and as long as he fed them he knew he had their unconditional love. He died alone; an old man with few regrets most of them stemming from lost opportunity.

A tear came to my eye as the familiar scent filled my nostrils.

The scent carried those memories of that house with the cats.

A question formed in my mind and took to my lips I turned to my guide but he was at the other side of the gallery.

Something told me that I held the answers myself.

How what I had been reading was affecting me so, I was not sure the clues pointed to me dying for love in the past. What could that mean?

Would it be a recurring thing? I cringed at the thought and then it struck me, of course the answers would be in the books, the lesson is the question.

What have you learned I asked myself?

I thought back to the first book. As I went over the tale in my head I lived it once again. I knew this time that it was I that was haunted and I felt the knowledge that she was near.

I followed as my heart led me onwards, towards town, pulling me.

I was led thru many streets all of them unknown to me. I wandered the back streets doubling back whenever it felt appropriate.

Seeing her face everywhere, in everything and everyone but alas it was never her.

She as everywhere at once, all around within my creation, She was in the clouds reflected in windows and in puddles. Everywhere but nowhere…

I let the sadness overwhelm me as I give up. If only I hadn’t vowed to abstain from alcohol. I could really do with ale to ease my weary bones.

He looked up and found he was at the tavern he had worked as a child, how far had he traveled to return to this place. It seemed to me that he had come full circle that’s when he looked up and saw her. Disbelief washed over him as she stood in the center of his former life. the one he had discarded to take up his foolish quest.

I knew that this was the moment of understanding so I willing became the character and allowed it all to play out in my mind.

Somehow my legs carried me to the bar I fumbled with my stool. I sat down and ordered a drink, all my vows fulfilled. I offered a prayer to Bacchus and Aphrodite then I drank deeply until I felt the blood of the god’s flow through my veins giving me the courage I believe that I need. My nerves stretched to almost breaking point as I walk around the bar gingerly at first but gaining confidence with every step.

Then I was face to face with the goddess of my heart in the flesh her pale skin and raven hair setting off her blood red lips.

Her eyes pierced mine to the soul looking thru me she smiled.

Taking in the beauty of her presence as I approached, focusing all my attention on her oblivious to all save this divine creation I had been waiting a whole lifetime to meet.

All these things flying thru my mind as I hold her gaze crossing the room towards eyes filled with light and love.

I bow and offer a greeting watching her eyes fill with horror then feel a cold burning sensation around my neck.

Struggling for a breath breaks the spell of death and I am back in the library.

I had found my love and died without even knowing her name. The thought sent a chill down my spine that scared the hell out of me. That’s when it hit me every time I was attracted to someone and the moment it came to speaking I felt as if I were about to die as I matter of fact I have a hard time introducing myself to strangers. Strangers who would not be strangers if I would just open my mouth I almost began my self-hatred routine and remember the man with the cats regrets from passed moments got him nowhere.

I knew then that these past lives were effecting my present. My reactions have all been based in beliefs acquired before my current incarnation this is fucking heavy but the simplicity of it all added a certain kind of authenticity.

Does understanding the question make the answers more apparent? What about the hunter who had everything taken from him his attempt at revenge over lost love led him to challenge death and come off second best.

If I had died for love twice in the past would I be out of character if I ran away the next time that love reared its ugly head.

I looked up and there was my guide,

Have you found the answers you seek?

He asked.

I think so it’s all so sad, what I have read has only made everything seem pointless.

Everybody dies and I don’t understand that. Where are the happy endings? The poor marrying into royalty you know what I m talking about those fairy tales that they force feed children with morals, twists and turns but most of all happy endings.

The silence emanating from him told me that maybe I just needed some more time to assimilate what I had learned.

Then the fog reappeared and the library melted away as we floated along thoughts of Icarus filled my mind ‘was that wax I could smell?’ I looked below me there was a star as I focused upon it, it became clearer it was not a star but a pentagram I then saw movement it was a couple making love their ritualistic lovemaking took place upon a pentagram painted on the floor.

What’s going on? I asked. Where’s the library? What’s with the satanic porno flick? You’re going too fast. I don’t understand what is happening.

Am I dead? I don’t even know where I am or anything.

I don’t even know your name.

He responded to my tirade of questions by reaching into his robes and producing a lotus flower and I became encircled by the aroma I inhaled deeply allowing the lotus to fill my body I looked up and was in my room the candle extinguished the remains smoldering.

A name bounced around in my head it was about to form on my tongue when a scream filled the air coming from street below.

"Augustine, Augustine!!!"

Peering thru the window I spied a person on my doorstep he yelled the name once more and then collapsed in the doorway. But by the time I got downstairs there was no one not a soul I wondered if I had imagined it. I pondered the name once more - Augustine - could my guide’s name be Augustine?

...end Chapter One...mtc

PAUL COLLINS BEAT GIGS

2011-03-25T11:17:00.000+11:00

POWER POP LEGEND'S FIRST OZ TOUR

http://www.i94bar.com/ints/paulcollins.html

Sat 26th March

The Tote, Collingwood w/ LITTLE MURDERS and THE BOWERS. Tix available from The Tote Front Bar, Polyester, Missing Link, Off The Hip & Corner Box Office 03 9427 9198 or www.cornerhotel.com

Sun 27th March

Pure Pop Records, St Kilda @ 5pm – “An intimate performance and conversation with the power pop legend, hosted by Leapin’ Larry L” Tix available from www.purepop.com.au or 03 9525 5066

NSW POKIE WARS!

2011-03-23T09:47:00.001+11:00

WILKIE’S POKIE REFORMS SET TO FAIL

The President of ClubsAustralia today said the Tasmanian Independent MP Andrew Wilkie’s $3 billion poker machine reforms have been designed to deter recreational gamblers and would not stop problem gamblers from betting.

Addressing the National Press Club, itself a venue that will be subject to Wilkie’s mandatory pre-commitment technology, Peter Newell said the anti-gambling lobby was well aware that responsible gamblers will refuse to register for a license to gamble.

“The Member for Denison is on the record as saying he’d like to see poker machines disappear altogether.

Image via Wikipedia

“But he admits that his “restrictions” – his word – are a good step along the way to this ultimate extremist and prohibitionist goal,” he said.

Peter Newell accused Wilkie and his followers of ignoring the advice of some of Australia’s leading gambling experts and welfare groups who have concluded that mandatory pre-commitment will not help problem gamblers stop betting.

“The Australian Government has seen plenty of evidence only in the last couple of months that this is a flawed proposal as far as helping problem gamblers is concerned.

“Australia’s leading academic on problem gambling, Professor Alex Blaszczynski, advised a Parliamentary Committee chaired by the Member for Denison himself that pre-commitment is unlikely to have a significant impact on the majority of problem gamblers, and may even exacerbate problem gambling.

“Common sense tells you he’s right, because problem gamblers are unlikely to set affordable limits and are likely to set high limits or none at all.”

“And with regard to the absence of cost-benefit analysis, isn’t this an amazing way to make public policy on the run – announce a wide-ranging measure impacting on millions of people, and only after that perhaps look to see what it might cost,” Peter Newell said.

Key facts:

· Mandatory pre-commitment has never been trialled in Australia

· There are 5,700 clubs and pubs across Australia and employing 268,000 people directly

· There are 10.5 million club memberships nationally

· 5 million people play a poker machine each year

· There are 95,000 problem gamblers in Australia (2% of poker machine players)

· The rate of problem gambling has fallen in every state over the past decade. In NSW, QLD and VIC, the rate has fallen by an average of 44%

· Andrew Wilkie has admitted gaming revenue will fall by up to 40% or $4.8b annually

· State and Territory governments will lose over $1 billion in gaming tax annually as a result of mandatory pre-commitment technology

· The Productivity Commission found that poker machines make a net positive social contribution of between $768 million and $5.5 billion a year.

RAINBOW MUSIC REVOLUTION

2011-03-21T21:16:00.003+11:00

RAINBOW MUSIC

IS HERE...

www.rainbowmusic.com.au

...FOR YOU

TO ENHANCE YOUR

APPRECIATION

AND ENJOYMENT OF

MUSIC AND

ITS RELATIONAL

HARMONY WITH

LIGHT AND COLOUR.

We invite you to have a look at the site and read the various sections to gain an understanding of the project's aims and aspirations.

HERE

VERY NICE MR PARKSTREET

2011-03-18T23:11:00.002+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

Two Boys Kissing

There is a new elevator in my building. The doors open more swiftly than the old ones. This morning when the doors opened I caught two boys, well, young men, sharing a kiss.

They were a little embarrassed, but not really, they enjoyed someone witnessing their romance. Cute as buttons in their fashionable stripey shirts and designer jeans they held hands as they entered the elevator and disappeared.

Even the world's most cynical man, and that could well be me, can't help but feel a little mooshy when faced with new love. I love that the two people involved feel like they invented the feeling. That showing off a public kiss is displaying their relationship to the world, and it needs to be displayed because it is important.

It is important. The excitement of new love is the reason we get out of bed in the morning. Even with an old lover the memory of that first flush lingers and sustains the difficult times. Us single folk look forward to having that feeling again, even better if it is returned by the object of our affection. The very moment two people, via words or any other method, say out loud that they are completely smitten is a golden moment. Spoken honestly it is truly beautiful.

Whenever romance doesn't go the way we'd prefer, like most of my love life, we swear off love then butter up again when a stranger stirs us. I had no desire to kiss either of the two boys in my foyer this morning, but I want to thank them for reminding me how sweet life can be.

Parkstreet.
www.myspace.com/kentparkstreet

RAINBOW MUSIC

2011-03-18T21:51:00.001+11:00

THIS IS MAGIC!

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS MUSICIANS!!!

DO YOU TEACH MUSIC?

Ever since I had my throat ripped in a motorcycle accident in 1979 my fine singing voice was destroyed, taking me away from any chance of contributing to a musical ensemble of any sort...I became a manager!

My parents tried to have taught guitar, but learning Twinkle, Twinkle didn't really hit the spot in the 60's, for me anyway, and I stopped learning...plus I found it really hard to get my head around the language of music.

Rainbow Music is offering to the planet a new way of relating to music.

I have a lot of talented industry people as friends on Facebook and I would appreciate it if you all could comment once the system is released on the 21st, at the Equinox, on the first day of the Age of Aquarius!

Keep tuned to this site, these people are not about trying to make millions, money doesn't really enter the prime equation...yeah, I know, who would do that!

Rihai and Cameron will!

I do not have the capacity to express the energy, the power, of this system of learning.

They are deadly serious, it is priced at a point where any serious rip off wouldn't bother, couldn't match the price of love!

TOPOLINOS ONLINE

2011-03-17T03:48:00.009+11:00

TOPO'S GO LIVE!

FITZROY STREET FAVOURITE GOES ONLINE

It has happened! Topolinos have gone and got themselves a website, you can cruise the menu, book online...AND now they will deliver as well!

I tend to like Italian styled food, not sure why but I love it!

I like both Topos and Leos, and think about it...how come Fitzroy Street has been able to have two such popular restaurants in the same strip? They are both grouse!

Topolinos reeks St Kilda, establishment family restaurant, priced to please and always at the top of the game with produce.

I was having this discussion with owner Chris, and I said you see these family owned restaurants on telly with rude British chefs telling them to change the decor, which quite honestly Topos has, a litany of their era which reflects Fitzroy Street's history, and Chris said to me, Mick, we're still doing well, would change nothing.

And he is right, because they are still doing it their way, but moving with the times.

I suppose that is why Topos and Leos and Monroes just keep on keeping on...they just keep on doing it...well!

QLD Flood Relief Concert Sorrento

2011-03-16T19:10:00.000+11:00

BRILLIANT EFFORT...YET AGAIN!!!

$30,000 RAISED FOR THE TOWN OF CHARLTON, QLD

These girls are UNREAL!!!!

Mae Parker and her crew of able bodied Rock Chicks have turned their attentions to a number of causes over the last few years, and in the wake of the Queensland floods they have stepped out to do it again, and boy did they do it well!

Over the years they have been able to arrange these benefits using their amazing ability to just get bands and other performers to p0ut up their time for the cause and this often backed up by road crew and equipment suppliers.

Sadly the weather was unkind, but when the skies opened up the crew manhandled the necessary equipment inside the clubhouse and the concert continued.

TWEED HEADS Bowling Club Autumn & Winter Carnivals

2011-03-16T15:29:00.004+11:00

THE VERY BEST IN LAWN BOWLS

THBC - a Site to See

For More Information click on LINK above - and on photos

Bowls Super Challenge Finals weekend - April 9/10

PBA Qualifying for World Bowls Tour events - May 1/2

Qld Qualifying for Australian Indoor Championship - June 18/19

Tweed Prestige Open Mixed Singles - July 3/6

BCIB - PBA International Challenge Singles - July 23/25

Junior Golden Nugget - August 6/7

Golden Nugget Prestige Singles - August 8/11

Australian Indoor Championships - August 22/25

www.thbc.com.au

WORLD'S GREATEST SHAVE - LAIKA BAR ST KILDA

2011-03-13T03:37:00.011+11:00

DONATE HERE

THANK YOU LAIKA BAR

Great Effort by the jackjackjackie team!

Big effort by Jackie Yong and her team putting on this public event for the World's Greatest Shave! Most of the pics were taken by my son James, who is in recovery from the disease, including the clip of Bex.

It was a brilliant day in Fitzroy Street, sun was shining and people were very willing to part with their cash, and a few even went through with a colour or a shave, including Bex who raised over $400 on her own to lose her crowning glory!

Off with what hair I have left!

I missed these kind fellows names...

Daniel and his mate Ollie did their bit all afternoon encouraging people to contribute to the cause...

Jordan from Pittsburgh...

Marcus from up Byron Bay....

Laika Bar Chef Paul gets some vegetable colouring...

My oldest daughter Zoe, contributing, also did some awesome spruiking and can rattling as did youngest Emma...

Tania got some purple added...

Thanks mate...

Bex...before shot...

Random hand of kindness...

Bex...after shot. Bex raised about $400 on her own to add to the team total.

Even Jackie's mannequin insisted on participating...

The real stars, Jackie and her crew raised about $500 over the 2 days and I believe the total will increase over the next week.

Jackie says she will do this again next year, this is also my son James last year of treatment and he says he'll shave his head at next years event.

LATE NOTICE EAST COAST CONCERT - SORRENTO FOOTY OVAL

2011-03-12T20:00:00.006+11:00

Qld Flood Relief 13^th March

Image via Wikipedia

Russel Morris

Sorrento Football Oval

Gates open 1pm

Tony Byrne/ Molly Meldrum/Coxy to share MC role

· 2:00 - 2:20 Munster Terrace 5 piece

· 2:30 – 2:50 San Fran Disco 5 piece. Keys, drums, bass, guitar and vocals. (Min 4 vocal mics)

· 3:00 - 3:20 The Love Stars ------3x vocals 1 x keys

· 3:30 - 3:50 Mick Pealing (solo Acoustic guitar)

· 4:00 - 4:20 Wendy Stapleton & Paul Norton (2 x vocals 1 x acoustic guitar

Image via Wikipedia

· 4:20 Elliott Goblet 10 mins

· 4:30 - 4:50 Ron Martini and band – 3 guitars, bass, drums 4 x vocal mics and 4 x di’s)

· 5:00 - 5:20 Chris and Peter Doe X FACTOR

· 5:30 – 5:50 Russell Morris (solo acoustic)

· 6:00 - 6:10 Degen Agnew (comedian acoustic guitar)

· 6:30 – 7:00 Madder Lake

· 7:15 – 7:45 Big and Horny

·

Final 15 minutes speeches, then Bye with a little help from my friends & Long Way to the Top.

If you are at a loose end tomorrow it would be a great place to spend a lazy Sunday

Thank you Electric Factory for the 11^th hour support

WORLD DISASTER MAPPING

2011-03-12T16:11:00.000+11:00

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

REGULAR GLOBAL UPDATES

I wonder what will happen next. Experts say that the devastating shallow quake in Japan should have no further chain effect on the seismic plate activity in the region.

But surely these events have been on the cards for a long time and even if the modern geological experts have no way of actually predicting events of this magnitude it seems that human intuition and the long range forecasting of the ancients may in fact carry some weight.

The 'Big One' along the United States' west coast has also been waiting to pop, could this current activity be a sign that this event is not that far into the future?

Image via Wikipedia

RABBLE ROUSING RANGA RETURNS

2011-03-12T02:19:00.002+11:00

OUR PAULINE

Why Not? She's far enough away from us in an environment that will supply oxygen for her latest attempt of saving our fair country, not without a fair whack of self promotion.

If nothing else her persistence has to be admired, Hanson could maybe fill the gap for the Far Right dunny poster now that Cowboy Bob Katter has gone all warm, fuzzy and Indie! She will certainly lift the hearts of the nation's cartoonists and caricaturists!

Image via Wikipedia

We can't deny extreme views, we have to engage them head on, although in Victoria extreme views are held by many we consider family, friends and lovers...bloody Collingwood supporters! We can't deny those poor souls the succour of our familial love as we can't deny Bob or Pauline their chance to say their bit.

Hansonism should start running fluidly again once she starts stomping the boards, giving solid sound bites for emulation in the stand up comedian arena as well. Now that has to be a good thing.

Lets see how our Quixotic one trick pony can tilt at yet more windmills, keep us amused and shake up the what will be an interesting New South Wales Parliament.

2011-03-12T00:41:00.002+11:00

Image via Wikipedia

The Gutter As The Road Less Travelled

Milan Kundera wrote a scene involving a woman stepping off a crowded pavement, walking in the gutter, staring at a flower she is holding in front of her. The flower is the only beauty she can find in an aggressive city. The people call her insane. The obvious inference is that she is the only sane one, that the pedestrian parade is the real insanity.

The gutter is sometimes the road less travelled. Sometimes the only beauty is a flower plucked from one's mind, a memory, the smell of a coffee, the taste of a lover, the feel of water, the sound of Coltrane, the sight of a flower. A life filled with beautiful moments will be full of beautiful memories. Stepping off the pavement and into the gutter is the tradition of the bohemian and a fine tradition it is.

There is beauty in every step we take, every step chosen with a spirit of beauty.

Parkstreet.

http://www.kentparkstreetblog.com/

AFTERBURNER LIVE GIGS

2011-03-10T23:14:00.004+11:00

AFTERBURNER

I've shown you the fantastic cartooning work of John Taylor, now is the chance to see his new band – AFTERBURNER – with members including Jerry Speiser (ex Men At Work: “Who Can It Be Now”, “Downunder”), John Taylor (ex Little Heroes: “One Perfect Day”, "Young Hearts”), Martin Walker (ex Crucial Kick) and Graham Dixon (ex X…).

AFTERBURNER currently play good covers; songs with a feel and strong rhythm, so if you enjoy dancing to live music please feel free to come along and enjoy.

Also, please feel free to pass this information onto anyone you know who enjoys getting out and getting live.

UPCOMING GIGS:

- SAT 19^th MARCH – Mitcham RSL

8:30pm start at 26 McDowall St. 9873 1792 to book a table

- FRID 1^st APRIL – Burrinja Café in Upwey

8:00pm start at 351 Glenfern Rd. 9754 5707 to book a table

Meals at reasonable prices available at both venues

WORLD'S GREATEST SHAVE - Robarta Session

2011-03-10T21:00:00.002+11:00

COLOURFUL DAY AT ROBARTA

jackjackjackie WGS St Kilda Event

Roger and Claire at Robarta need to be thanked for participating in this event. You will find a donation box on the bar if you wish to contribute whilst having a quaff!

Ex Tasmanian, Jarrod was coaxed out of the bar at Robarta, much to his mate's dismay, to have his hair sprayed blue.

Thankyou Jarrod!

Yours truly deciding whether to shave or colour my decreasing foliage...

I said Jackie could colour it as long as she left my reverse mohawk intact...the hair will be removed at Laika Bar in Fitzroy Street on Saturday where my boy will be there to cheer me on...yay...so glad he is just...there!

...and along came local State Member, Martin Foley, who Jackie had no problem coaxing to do his bit for the cause, his family has knownthe effects of the disease, now he's The Purple Headed People Meeter..

...and look at that, Martin found Michael Danby's pic in his office front window and asked the question, where are you Michael???

Come down to Laika Bar on Saturday between 4pm and 6:30pm...Be Brave and Shave!!!

Gambling plan limited: professor | Tweed News | Local News in Tweed | Tweed Daily News

2011-03-10T17:29:00.007+11:00

MY POKER FACE

Andrew Wilkie

Image by Christopher Neugebauer via Flickr

Gambling plan limited: professor | Tweed News | Local News in Tweed | Tweed Daily News

The Tweed District clubs, and much of the licensed club businesses in Australia are threatened by this attempt at nanna government at the behest of an Independent, Andrew Wilkie.

I have always been a great supporter of Indies, but it is a bit rich for an Indie to leverage his position in Parliament at the cost of thousands of average people.

Sure a lot of people blow their money on pokies, and such laws won't stop these poor fools chucking their cash away on something! At least in clubs there are perceivable and measurable benefits for local communities.

To me it is just a need to look at the energy around the situation to know someone is going to lose no matter which way you go. I'd prefer it to be the mug punter, rather than those prepared to go out and earn a quid to support their families

Google's Mass Animal Death Map - The Week

2011-03-09T15:57:00.004+11:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Image via Wikipedia

Descartes description of Earth's magnetic field.

Google's mass-animal-death map - The Week

THIS CAN'T BE GOOD

Google's power to view the planet is opening up some amazing opportunities for us to watch and follow what is happening to the environment and its inhabitants on a global scale.

This mapping shown in the above link offers tremendous insight into these mass animal deaths, much of it driven by human expansion, and if the astrologers and astronomers are correct another input might also be affecting animals that have migratory instincts.

Apparently the Magnetic Poles are on the move, so this will also have a marked effect on animal behaviour, and also species success will depend on how they can adapt to a change of this magnitude..

The jury is out as to what will actually happen to humanity if/when the Magnetic poles shift, as they have many times in Earth's life - the last time 75,000 odd years ago.

Some say that the magnetic field which protects us will drop away for a while and we'll all be fried by radiation, others reckon that it will effect the technological world in a disastrous manner. The window of time within which this is to occur also varies from a couple of days to hundreds of years.

Theories are great, remember Y2K? I try not to get too wound up about what might happen, and I'm pretty sure we humans can do little about any of it, just hold on for the ride!

One thing that is known though is that there will be no movement in the geographical positioning of the continents on the globe, no rocking and rolling of the planet, as in the geological record they have apparently found no evidence of mass extinctions at the times of the previous magnetic shifts.

I wouldn't be going all Henny Penny yet though, if planetary change does occur and we do survive as a species, we'll just have to deal with it.

The Alternative Gig Guide - tagg - Edition 1 Movie

2011-03-07T22:11:00.004+11:00

TAGG FIRST EDITION

My Rough Diamond Child

Helmut Katterl finally convinced me to publish this little mag with him as a partner. It was a wild ride...

I thought this movie of the mag serves the purpose well as you can pause the pages if you choose to read the rock history of that era.

I want to add tracks that are pertinent to each issue of TAGG, so if you were in any of those bands I would love to hear from you and possibly send me any updates, requiems or current gigs, giveaways for current product, etc..

I've chosen Dave Hole, for it was his 3 piece from WA, along with the lounge room gigs fromMen at Work and The Fabulaires, putting on my own Saturday afternoon gigs at The Waterside Hotel, featuring Dave Hole Band, Flash Annie and the Floyd Boys, The Dead Livers, Bush Turkys and The Illegal Smiles that inspired the magazines publication.

You just couldn't easily find out who was playing where or when.

TAGG told you what's happening!

Toorak Times - Socially Aware

Perth Music

NEW SITE, BUMPY RIDE

On the money Kent...

Music And Colour And All

The Senses Mixed Up

BANGKOK BRASSERIE SUNDAY JAZZ

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