Brisbane Impro Comedy: All Together Now, Sunday April 5th

Impromafia is putting on "All Together Now", a new type of improvised comedy show. The catch is that there are no sets, no props, nothing except the actors and their impro skills.

"All Together Now" is on Sunday April 5th at 7.30pm, and it's ten bucks to get in. It's at the Arts Theatre, 210 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane - click here for a Google Map.

Brisbane Parkour: 2009 Sampler Video

This video by YouTube user AkumaWolfy shows some people from the local Parkour (free running) scence showing us their moves. If you're interested, leave a comment at the YouTube video or check out the Parkour The Puppeteer MySpace page about Parkour in Brisbane that AkumaWolfy's profile links to.

Parkour or free running is the skill and art of moving around obstacles in modern urban landscapes by running, jumping through and over gaps, often using rails, balconies, ledges, bannisters and more.

Reports of #nocleanfeed #nocensorship forum hosted by @newmatilda

Nic Suzor from Electronic Frontiers Australia speaks at "The Tangled Web", a forum on internet censorship organised by newmatilda.com. New Matilda's Twitter account is here, and their overview of the internet censorship debate in Australia is here.

On Tuesday March 24th 2009, newmatilda.com, a website with "Independent news, analysis and satire covering politics, consumerism, international affairs, and culture.", presented "The Tangled Web", a forum about Internet censorship.

Michael Meloni of somebodythinkofthechildren.com, a blog discussing censorship and moral panic, used CoverItLive to send out a live call of what was happening at the anti-censorship forum, which you can read if you click here.

Meloni was joined by media commentator Stigherrian and Mark Newton, an employee of iiNet who has been a big public critic of the Australian Government's plans to censor the Internet, who commented online. There were plenty of comments from people taking part online, and you can read it all if you click here.






Irene Graham, a meticulously detailed anti-censorship campaigner at libertus.net, and Senator Scott Ludlam, a member of the Australian Greens elected from Western Australia in 2007, who has questioned Senator Conroy about the Government's censorship plans:

Kieran Salsone, of the Websinthe blog and NoCharCom online comic, also did a live call of the foru, which you can read here for the next fifty days or so (the latest messages are at the top, so you are reading backwards). After that link stops working, you can still click here for screenshots of the coverage.





Peter Black, law lecturer at QUT and author at Freedom to Differ, speaks at "The Tangled Web", a forum about Internet Censorship organised by newmatilda.com, hosted by the Queensland University of Technology on Tuesday March 24 2009.

The forum was sound-recorded, and Peter Black said the recording should be online soon.



Rod McGuinness, Managing Editor of New Matilda magazine, which organised the forum on Internet censorship.

Brisbane Photos and Videos: The Who play Brisbane 24 March 2009

This photo by flickr user adam_weathered shows Pete Townshend of famous rock band The Who playing last night, Tuesday March 24th 2009, at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
For more of adam_weathered's photos of last night's gig by The Who, click here, and to visit his website, click here.

And this video by YouTube user DNQ1986 shows The Who playing their hit "You Better You Bet":

Brisbane Film Festivals: German Film Festival, April 15-28 2009

The German Film Festival 2009 will be in Brisbane from April 15th to April 28th.

There are twenty-two films being shown. Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, and Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (The Invention of the Curried Sausage) have both got me interested.

There's a blog here for the German Film Festival, with articles about some of the films if you want to dig a bit deeper.

The full program and showing times for the Brisbane films are here, and you can book here - prices for most films are $15 adult and $13.50 concession.

Brisbane Creative Commons photos: "in for repairs"

"in for repairs" by khrawlings

This photo of an old lightship (at the Maritime Museum at Southbank, I think) is by flickr user khrawlings.

khrawlings has licenced this photo under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which means you can use it for any reason you like as long as you give khrawlings credit and link to the page where the photo originally is.

For more info on Creative Commons in Australia, see the CCau website.

Brisbane Film: Queer Film Festival, April 3-9

The Brisbane Queer Film Festival is on at the Powerhouse in New Farm from April 3 to April 9th 2009. Some of the films include:

Mom I Didn't Kill Your Daughter, about two female-to-male transgendered lovers in Israel.

Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm, the story of the vibrator

and Blood on the Flat Track: The Rise of the Rat City Rollergirls, a documentary about the rise of roller derby in the USA.

Ticket details are here.

Brisbane Theatre: He Died with a Falafel In His Hand

UPDATE: Looking for the revival of He Died with a Felafel In His Hand in January 2010? Click here!.

END UPDATE

Next Friday, March 27th, the Arts Theatre production of "He Died With A Falafel In His Hand" is opening. The play is an adaptation of Brisbane author John Birmingham's classic book about the horrors of share-house living - you can buy the book from Amazon here.

This video shows some of what's in store: the video is NOT SAFE FOR KIDS OR WORK (just like the show):

You can see dates and times of performances here until the show opens. Once the show opens, you can find performance details here. The show runs until Saturday May 2, over 17 performances. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 concession.

The show is at the Brisbane Arts Theatre, 210 Petrie Tce, Brisbane City (click here for a Google Map).

If you're on Facebook, you can join the play's group here

John Birmingham writes the Blunt Instrument blog at the Brisbane Times, and his personal blog Cheeseburger Gothic is here

UPDATE, April 22nd: There's been some controversy about the rather "adult" nature of the play. A "home reviewer" on ABC local radio 612AM only gave the play 5/10, and a member of the Arts Theatre took exception to the "gratuitous obscenity and pornography" in the play - despite the play making about $30 000 for the Arts Theatre, which is badly in need of the cash.

(BTW, there's no pornography on display - the most "pornographic" it gets is girls wearing only a bra on their top while still in a skirt, and a guy naked with his hands covering his penis. And the obscenity isn't gratuitous, you have to pay to see it).

I went to see the play on Sunday April 19th and loved it. And I got lucky - author John Birmingham gave an hour-long talk after the play was finished, so I basically got two shows for the price of one. Some of the topics he talked about included his time working for the Defence Department, the history of the Falafel book, and the hunched-shouldered resentment of one of the people who served as a model for a character in the book. You can listen to the talk if you click here.

UPDATE 2: Read Rave Magazine's review of Falafel - click here


Technorati Tags: brisbane, queensland, australia, arts, theatre, he, died, with, a, falafel, in, his, hand, john, birmingham.

Easterfest (Australian Gospel Music Festival) at Toowoomba April 10-12 2009

Easterfest (formerly known as AGMF, the Australian Gospel Music Festival) will be held at Toowoomba from April 10th - 12th 2009. All the details are at the website.

If you want to know more about which local acts you should see at Easterfest, the Queensland artists playing at Easterfest 2009 include:

Nainby, shown here perfoming "Rain Down". Nainby's website is here, and the Nainby MySpace page is here.

JMX*2000 - click here for their MySpace page

Chris Poulsen Trio, shown in this video performing "Riverside Expressway". Chris Poulsen Trio's website is here, and their MySpace page is here.

Cindy-Leigh Boske - this video playlist shows her performing "You're Beautiful" and "It's Gonna Take Time" in Disneyland, USA. Cindy-Leigh Boske's MySpace page is here, and her main website is here.

Citipointe Live (shown in this video singing "You Reign") - click here for their YouTube channel, and click here for their website, and here for their MySpace page.

Tim Nelson, performing "Hide and Seek", Tim Nelson on Triple J Unearthed, and his MySpace page

Scat Jazz, performing George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm". Their MySpace page is here, their website is here and their YouTube channel is here.

Don't Come Monday, shown here performing their song "The Start". Don't Come Monday's MySpace page is here.

Mark Lowndes (seen here performing "Butterfly") - Mark Lowndes' MySpace page is here.

Fatis Valour - this video shows Callum Galloway playing their song "I Fall". Fatis Valour's MySpace page is here.

Mibus, seen in this video performing "Baruch Adonai". Mibus' MySpace page is here.

The Smart - this video is the film clip for their song "Smithereens". The Smart's MySpace page is here.

Jason McGregor, who's covering Steely Dan's "Josie" in this video. Jason's MySpace page is here.

Roby Curtis, performing his song "To Change" in this video. Roby Curtis' MySpace page is here.

Mike Frost and the Icemen, seen here playing at the Queenstown Jazz Festival 2008 in New Zealand. Mike Frost and the Icemen's MySpace page is here, and their website is here. (It's Geocities! I thought that was completely dead now!)

Newport

Lucy Hannah (MySpace)

HalfWayOut

Avaberee

The Vagrant City Scandal

Jess + Ted

Vibeke Voller

RaZ Jazz

Blame Sam

Steph Hill

Stand Or Fall

Umoja

Bel Morrison (MySpace)

Don't Tempt Theives (MySpace)

Kristy Evelyn

Lester Davis

Brontide

Marlei Klapper

Tbe Dream The Chase

Caitlin Turner

Maverick (MySpace page)

Caitlin von Berky

Fifth Man

Into The Ocean

Tarun Stevenson (MySpace)

Kane Bradshaw

Opposite Lock (MySpace)

Stu Larsen

Cardboard Castle

The Episodes

Candice Long

Emmanuel Worship (MySpace)

From Water to Wine

David Baker

Those Who Endure

Leftfield

Father Abraham

Guests Only

Jonathan White

Andrew Boardman

Christopher Wayne

Peter Pelicaan

Dave Larkin

Old Boys Gospel Band

Caleb Baker

Ada Richards

Rob Steffer and Des Dougherty

Ripple Effect

Holly Miranda Lovell

Psalm Blues Band

MPT Trio

Brisbane Zombie Walk: Postponed due to Problems and Setbacks

The Brisbane Zombie Walk has usually been held in late April each year, but this year's Walk has been postponed.

The reason is that this year the organisers of the Walk will have to pay for Police to be there - just like the organisers of huge sports events have to, except that the Zombie Walk isn't designed to make money. It's entirely possible that this is because of some moronic behaviour last year that resulted in an injury.

But all is not lost! It just means some fundraising events will be held this year so the organisers can afford to pay for the police. So if you'd like to help out, you might want to send an email off to zombie@brisbanezombiewalk.com

Brisbane Twitter Games: @comefindme sets up a photo contest

Twitter user @comefindme has set up a new game on Twitter for people in Brisbane. The account will send messages every 48 hours - ten messages in total - telling you to take a photo of yourself at a certain place or in front of a certain object. You need to send the photo to twitter using Twitpic and send an @reply to @comefindme. (If you start the title of your photo with "@comefindme" (without the quotes) then it will automatically be sent as a reply.

If you send in ten correct photos, you'll get a message telling you the correct location - and so will everyone else with ten correct photos. The person to get there first gets the prize.

This looks like fun, so I'm going to play. If you're interested, I'll see you while we're looking for the final prize! Except, you won't see me, because obviously I'll be there hours before you, because A Winner Is Me!

Brisbane Storm: photo by @dellvink and live coverage at the Courier-Mail #bnestorm

Brisbane Storm photo by Flickr user dellvink

This photo of tonight's storm just got put onto Flickr by dellvink. If you're on twitter, you can follow dellvink's updates here.

People on twitter have been using the hashtag #bnestorm for a while now to track what's happening with storms in Brisbane. The Courier-Mail have done a clever mash-up on their website using the Cover It Live service, so that all the Twitter updates that have the phrase #bnestorm in them show up in their live rolling coverage. (Click on the "view live event" link to start watching what's happening - but note that the times are an hour later than they should be). And if you're not on Twitter, you can still add a comment directly via the Courier-Mail page.

(What the hell is a hashtag? Click here for more info).

If you're on Twitter, a service that lets you find out what people are doing, you might want to follow the Brisbane Blog's Twitter account and you'll get updated every time there is a new story on the Brisbane Blog. Or if you want more, follow my personal account (David Jackmanson) and find out what I'm up to.

Brisbane Theatre Auditions: Peter Pan at Beenleigh Theatre Group

The Beenleigh Theatre Group has auditions for its production of Peter Pan coming up on Sunday, March 22nd. Further details are here, and you need to book - call 3200 8393 to make a booking.

Brisbane Dance Parties: Big Gay Day on this Sunday March 15th

Brisbane's Big Gay Day is on again at the Wickham Hotel on Wickham St in Fortitude Valley this Sunday, March 15th. Tickets are $30 and all the details are at the website.

UPDATE: Flickr user veryphatic has a set of 50 photos from the 2009 Big Gay Day - click here to see the set.

Brisbane YouTube: Grandmaster Flash and Coldplay

These two videos by Brisbane YouTubers show off two of the big gigs from the weekend just gone. BabyWize uploaded a video of Grandmaster Flash and DJ Demo at the Future Music Festival, held on Saturday March 7th 2009:

And mysilentparts made this video of Coldplay perfoming their hit "Yellow" (lyrics - NO popups) at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Boondall, last night, Sunday March 8th 2009:

Brisbane Films: French Film Festival March 19th - 29th 2009

The Brisbane French Film Festival is on from Thursday March 19th to Sunday March 29th 2009. For some strange reason, though, they seem to think that "Asterix at the Olympic Games" is going to be only of interest to children.

Despite that odd decision, you can see the list of the other films that are in the festival here, and the program with ticket details and prices is here. And all films will have English subtitles, in case you were wondering.

Brisbane Creative Commons photos: Kite Surfing

["Kite Surfing" by m.maddo on Flickr]

This photo of someone kitesurfing in an unknown part of Brisbane's bayside is by flickr user m.maddo. m.maddo has licenced this photo under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which means you can use it for any reason you like as long as you give m.maddo credit and link to the page where the photo originally is.


I've just done a quick Google search and there are at least two companies in Brisbane that do kitesurfing: brisbanekiteboarding.com and Surf Connect. If you know of any other ways to kitesurf in Brisbane, let us know in the comments.

If you like the idea of Creative Commons, CC Australia are running a contest called "Pooling Ideas" until March 23rd 2009 where you can win prizes for creating an artwork based on Creative Commons-licenced material.

Technorati Tags: brisbane, queensland, australia, kitesurfing, kite, surfing, creative commons, creative, commons, pooling ideas, pooling, ideas

Brisbane Art: Keith Armstrong talk this Friday

Via the Brisbane Artists Development Co-Operative blog comes news that Brisbane artist Keith Armstrong will be talking about "Knowmore (House of Commons)", an artwork he's the Artistic Director of, at the State Library this Friday night, March 6 2009, at 5.30pm.

Knowmore (House of Commons) is a spinning tabletop with video images projected onto it. When you move around the edge of the artwork, you change the video images.

The talk is in the InfoZone on Level 1 (the ground floor) of the State Library, and it's free. You can also see the artwork there. When you enter from the southern end of the library complex, the toilets are on your right and just after them is the InfoZone

Click here for a Google Map showing the State Library.

Technorati Tags: brisbane, queensland, australia, art, keith armstrong, Knowmore House of Commons, talk, lecture

Brisbane Creative Commons Photos: Kei apples

Kei apples, originally uploaded by Tatters :).

This photo was taken by Flickr user Tatters_:). She says:

Kei apples

Dovyalis caffra
Small spiny tree of Salicaceae family.
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Kei apples are native to Africa, where it is called Umkokola, Amaqokolo and other.

I would call it plum, not apple, as it has size and flesh as a plum, with a few small white seeds inside.
It is very rich with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), so the fruit is too acid eating out of hand, but I made a beautiful "Kei apples" jam!

She also says you can find more info about Kei apples if you click here.

This photo was licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which means anyone can use it as long as they give credit to Tatters_:).

If you like the idea of Creative Commons, CC Australia are running a contest called "Pooling Ideas" until March 23rd 2009 where you can win prizes for creating an artwork based on Creative Commons-licenced material.