The DINGOES ~ Live at the Caravan Club (December 2012)

Dingoes plural of din-go

Noun
A member of the top Australian music group who came into being in 1973

Plural
Australia’s premier ‘country-rock’ group, something of a ‘supergroup’ variously consisting of between 5 and 7 members


Left to right - Chris, Ashley, Brod, John and Kerryn

On Sunday December 30^th I was among a fortunate 300 plus people who came to the Caravan Club in Oakleigh, a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne.

This was the Penultimate show performed by the legendary Australian group, the Dingoes. With a show in the evening of Saturday the 29^th, and the show in the afternoon of the 30^th supposedly being the final show, at the last moment because of the demand for tickets, a 3^rd and final show was arranged for the evening of the 30^th. If the first and last shows were anything like the show I witnessed then Melbourne was indeed fortunate to have witnessed the Dingoes at their best on three oc...

This event wasn’t unprecedented, and we could’ve seen it coming

A fourth death has been attributed to Melbourne’s “thunderstorm asthma” emergency on Monday night, and it was lucky there were not more, according to the state’s health minister. More than 2,000 people suffered breathing problems when a severe storm combined with an extreme pollen count to cause what is being described as “thunderstorm asthma”.

The recent severe thunderstorm in Melbourne caused hospitals across the city to be put on emergency alert as thousands of people called ambulance services, reporting severe breathing difficulties. Emergency departments were overwhelmed, with the patient overflow having to be directed to day units.

What we know about thunderstorm asthma

Asthma epidemics associated with sudden changes in weather are well documented globally, especially in Europe, Australia and North America.

Interestingly, different causes have been ascribed...

Thangka painters have an entirely different conception of art to most Western painters. What should art do for us?

Beyond questions of its value and its sources there is a question less frequently contested about creativity: its relationship to us.

One evening some time ago, I was walking down Chapel Street in Melbourne’s South Yarra with a Tibetan monk who had just arrived in Australia. Namgyel had been brought out from China by a Buddhist centre in Melbourne and it was one of a number of outings we made as he got a feel for the city he had been transplanted into.

Noticing a small gathering inside a brightly-lit shop across the road we went over to take a look. It was a small boutique-y gallery and there was an opening underway, people standing around inside the white cube holding glasses of chilled white wine. “You might find this interesting,” I said, knowing he was a painter. “Let’s go in.”

We didn’t take a glass of wine – he was...

In broad terms a podcast will into one of two categories.

The first is the rebroadcast of a radio or television program. It goes to air, then's made available as media on demand. Think Hamish & Andy, or Late Night Live on the ABC's Radio National network. Often now if it's a prerecorded program, the release is simultaneous.

Second is the podcast created to straight online. The Sweetest Plum produced in Australia by Declan Fay and Nick Maxwell a notable success., and one show we'll look at in the future.

This American Life fits into category one and in many ways it sets the bar for what can be achieved. But it's also got a solid claim to be part of category two. Hosted by the person who started it in 1995 Ira Glass, it's produced in the studios of WBEZ in Chicago, and rebroadcast around the US. Those programs are also available as a podcast globally. In the US, the program estimates it has a million downloads a week. If you take into a...

Will the above hand prints be the only remaining evidence that traditional Aboriginal society once existed or will the mining company bulldoze these sites as well?

Please share, as we need as much support as we can get, for the remote Aboriginal communities, to help them to continue to remain on their land. If they are removed the first thing that will happen is that their sacred sites will be bulldozed, the follow on will the disintergration of our ancient Aboriginal culture. Once removed they will not be able to return to practice their ceremonies, eventually the language, ceremony and social systems will disappear. As what occurred along the east coast and in most area's, in cities, they will only be able to read about their culture and language in books. One of the saddest moments in history occurred in America where the local Aboriginal people had to hire an anthropologists to come in and teach them their own ceremonies, dances, language and social system....

"Leadbelly left his mark on his era; his steel voice, his steel on the twelve strings and his high voltage personality captured audiences everywhere.” (Alan Lomax)
"He bequeathed to us also, it is true, a couple of hundred of the best songs any of us will ever know." (Pete Seeger)
"The blues is like this. You lay down some night and you turn from one side of the bed to the other all night long. It's not too cold in that bed, and it ain't too hot. But what's the matter? The blues has got you." (Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter)



This is album review number one hundred and forty two in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.

The series is called Cream of The Crate and each review represents an album that I believe represents significant musical value, either because of its rarity, because it represents the best of a style or styles of a music or because there is something unique about the music, the group...

In May 2015, the Australian arts community was shocked, perplexed and bemused when the then Arts Minister and Attorney-General, George Brandis, raided the government’s allocation to its own professional funding body, the Australia Council, and withdrew A$104.7 million to create his own private slush fund, the National Program for Excellence in the Arts.

The raid had all the drama and high farce that accompanied another attorney-general’s raid on his own department, back in 1973. Then, national security was at stake, but here it was a petty power grab.

While some people may be critical of the Australia Council, myself included, Brandis’s move was arrogant, ill-conceived and foolhardy. His justification in the media release announcing the NPEA was transparently inaccurate and mischievous:

"Arts funding has until now been limited almost exclusively to projects favoured by the Australia Council. The National Programme for Excellence in the Arts will

...

The recent fatal accident involving a Tesla car while self-driving using the car’s Autopilot feature has raised questions about whether this technology is ready for consumer use.
But more importantly, it highlights the need to reconsider the relationship between human behaviour and technology. Self-driving cars change the way we drive, and we need scrutinise the impact of this on safety.

Tesla’s Autopilot does not make the car truly autonomous and self-driving. Rather, it automates driving functions, such as steering, speed, braking and hazard avoidance. This is an important distinction. The Autopilot provides supplemental assistance to, but is not a replacement for, the driver.

In a statement following the accident, Tesla reiterated that Autopilot is still in beta. The statement emphasised that drivers must maintain responsibility for the vehicle and be prepared to take over manual control at any time.

Tesla says Autopilot improves safety,...

This National Bookshop Day, Australia’s one-time Minister for Small Business, Nick Sherry, will be remembered for his words, not his deeds.

A reader, bookbuyer and enthusiastic patron of terrestrial bookshops, in June 2011 Sherry told a conference on online business that,

In five years, other than a few speciality bookshops in capital cities, you will not see a bookstore. They will cease to exist.

Booksellers were livid, and I don’t just mean standing behind their counters muttering impolite thoughts about the minister down into their cardigans. They got pretty shouty. And determined to prove him wrong.
...

The answer is Col Millington! Col has been recording since the 1970's and is well known and appreciated in the Australian Music scene.

The Toorak Times has been slipped a promotional copy of Col Millingtons forthcoming CD titled - "Hey Babe". A release date has not been set yet, but we believe it will be very shortly.

Col has been associated with the music scene since the 1960's and started writing in the 1970's. Col joined his first group “Natures Own” in 1968, then was a member of “Midnight Special”, “The Rondells”, “Bluestone” and “Bass Strait. In 1976 he jumped the fence and defected to Country Music, the rest is history. With 32 albums under his belt and over 100,000 units sold his own unique brand of "Country-Rock", has seen him win not only many awards but many fans.

Hey Babe has been produced at Col's own studio and features duets with Anne Hayward, who has been singing since the 1970's and has recorded with Col previously. Once the album...

THEATRE REVIEW of GLAMM Productions THE WISDOM OF EVE Theatre Works Directed by Meredith Fuller






How do solve a problem like Maria..... fck wrong movie damn How do u solve a problem like my Eva, ah yes that feels better already. Not a musical not an opera but of operatic proportions this juggernaut of dialogue and intrigue is none-the-less a fascinating amalgam of script to film n back again... phew!!


Arriving at the all now all too familiar "Theatreworks' in Acland St (just around the cnr from the only Penthouse I ever managed to live in longer than 2yrs in neighboring Eildon Rd St Kilda Melbourne Australia) it felt a bit like a nice homo-coming. The last time I was in this space (originally an old Sunday-school play-center) was to see hear the astonishingly brilliant Margaret Fulton Queen Of The Dessert which we (www.theoperaboys.com our now defunct website) loved loved loved also. (Perish the word) "Musicals" mercifully...