Brisbane Roller Derby: Sun State Roller Girls at Beenleigh, Fri August 7 2009

The Sun State Roller Girls have a bout between the Liquorice Short Shorts and the Golden Roughs at the Beenleigh Arena, Milne St, Beenleigh on Friday, August 7 2009. Door open at 7.30pm, and it's $10 for adults, $8 concession/children and kids under 12 are free. The Beenleigh Arena is at 2 Milne St, Beenleigh - click here for a Google Map.

There's Eftpos available when you buy tickets, but NOT for the market stalls or the food and drink stalls - so it's a good idea to bring some cash for the night. Rock'n'rollers The Jim Rockfords will be playing at the bout.

Don't know the rules? The basics are pretty simple. Each team has a "jammer", who wears a big star on her helmet:



Every time the jammer skates past an opposition team member, her team scores a point - so the other team tries to stop her by blocking her, which can get pretty rough.



If you want more detail on the rules, click here to start off with the basic ideas, or if you want some serious detail, watch this video:

All photos in this article are by flickr user twmpyn, a member of the Sun State Roller Girls. They are from this set of photos on flickr, and show the Golden Roughs and the Liquorice Short Shorts in a bout from April 2009. There's also a group on Flickr devoted to Sun State Roller Girls photos - click here if you'd like to see the group photos, or if you'd like to join.

Brisbane Burlesque: Miss Bertie Page at the Ragtag Revue

This YouTube video shows local burlesque performer Miss Bertie Page performing at the "Myths, Fantasies and Fairytales" show by the RagTag Revue in March 2009.

The RagTag Revue is organised by Miss Lena Marlene who also has a lot to do with the Scoundrelles burlesque school. Scoundrelles have monthly open nights where women new to burlesque performing can come and try (don't worry, you don't have to get your top off) and also a free monthly performance at the Fringe Bar in Fortitude Valley (you can click here for a Google Map) - check their website for details of the open nights, performances, classes, and other functions they do.

Brisbane Photos: Under The Bridge

This photo is by flickr user Archmage01. I liked it because it was an original look at the Riverside Expressway/Captain Cook Bridge. If you get off the CityCat ferry at the Gardens Point/QUT stop, you walk out onto a narrow path under the Expressway - you can just see someone standing on the path on the far right of the photo. The description says this is a "beach in Brisbane". I suppose it's not much less of a beach than anything else in the middle of town.

Brisbane Bellydance: Tribalblossom's Feast of the Senses Gala this Sat Jul 25th at Buranda

The Tribalblossoms belly dance troupe are putting on a Gala Night this Saturday, July 25th 2009, at the Russian Community Club at 19 Lotus St, Wolloongabba - click here for a Google Map.

It's $30 to get in, and that gets you over 3 hours of dance from over 13 different dance troupes. There's food and drink (including alcohol) available to buy on the night.

Tribal Blossoms does a lot of sword dancing - the first YouTube clip below shows a sample of the sword dances, and the second clip shows Tribal Blossoms performing at a festival in Ipswich in April this year.

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Brisbane Museums: Tapa Bark-Cloth Painting from the Pacific at the Museum of Brisbane from Fri Jul 24

The Museum of Brisbane is starting a new exhibition this Friday, July 24 2009. It's about the tapa cloth of the Pacific islands, which is often used to tell stories and make large-scale decorations. The Museum of Brisbane is open 7 days a week from 10am to 5pm and entry is free. The Museum of Brisbane is in the Brisbane City Hall, between Adelaide and Ann Streets in Brisbane City - the City Hall faces King George Square. Click here for a Google Map.



This Creative Commons photo of two birds made out of tapa cloth was taken by flickr user Robyn Gallagher at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2006. Click here for more photos of hers from the Pasifika Festival in 2006.

The exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane shows wall hangings, old and new clothing including wedding dresses and loin cloths. Decorations include plants and animals, and clan and family patterns.

If you'd like to know more about tapa cloth you can look at the Wikipedia article, or there are some photos here of the Museum of New Zealand's collection held in Wellington, and also some photos if you click here, from the Virtual Oceana website.



Tapa cloth in the exhibition will come from Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.

Brisbane Creative Commons photos: Cactus Dust (beautiful close-up of cactus spines)

I'm not a huge fan of nature photography, but this picture made me stop and look twice. It's a close up of the top of a cactus plant (species unknown) taken at the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens in Brisbane. What really made me look again was the size of the cactus spines you can see rising from the woolly-foamy stuff on the surface. The spines look huge, like small trees, and I had to double-check to make certain of what I was seeing.

This picture was taken by flickr user zayzayem, who licenced it under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike licence. This means you can use it for whatever you want, even commercial uses, as long as you give zayzayem credit, but there's one more catch. "Share-Alike" means that you ALSO have to let people use your work for any purpose, including commercial. You've been shared with, so you have to share too.

Brisbane Art: Shaun Weston's "Waiting for Fluffman" show opens at Circle Gallery Fri Jul 24, 6pm

Brisbane artist Shaun Weston is putting on an exhibition called "Waiting for Fluffman" at the Circle Gallery, 274 Montague Rd, West End, on the corner of Scott St, about one block away from the corner of Vulture St and Montague Rd (click here for a Google Map).

The exhibition opens at 6pm on Friday July 24th 2009, and Weston will be giving a talk about his work at 2pm on the afternoon of Saturday July 25th.





The exhibition then runs for six days - the last day is Wednesday July 20th. From Saturday July 25 - Wed July 20, Circle Gallery is open from 9am to 6pm.

You can see plenty of examples of Watson's work at his website - I particularly like "Camp Pocket Constructions", "Single White Male" and "Spilt Milk" from his Recent Work page. The photos in this article are from the "Single White Male" series and will be on show at the exhbition.



The Circle Gallery is open from 10am to 5pm daily. It's a small gallery
in West End where artists can put on their own shows for a short time.
The gallery doesn't collect any commission for work that you sell - click here to find out more information about putting on an exhibition there.

Brisbane Festivals: In The Flesh: Burlesque, hip-hop, fashion parade, cabaret, music +more this Sat Jul 18, The Fort, Brunswick St

I was just listening to the Paper, Scizzzors, Glue show on Brisbane community radio 4ZZZ 102.1FM, and heard an interview about a great-sounding festival, In The Flesh (click here for their MySpace Page), which is on from 2-11pm this coming Saturday July 18 at The Fort, 57 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, on the corner of Water Street (click here for a Google Map)

Performers include:

Burlesque artist La Viola Vixen - seen in this video performing at Misdemeanours at the Auckland Fringe Festival in February 2009

Banawurun - click here to listen to them free on their MySpace page, or you can listen to and download one of their songs for free from the Banawurun Triple J Unearthed page.



Mr Laneous & The Family Yah, seen in this video clip for their track "Bubblegum" - click here to listen to them on MySpace or click here to download some of their music from Triple J Unearthed. They also have a Facebook fan page if you click here.

The Smokestack Orchestra - click here to listen to their music on their MySpace page or to listen to and download some of their tracks for free from the Triple J Unearthed page, click here.

Liam Griffin - this video clip is of his song "Until You Fall".

The View from Madeleine's Couch, seen in this YouTube video by rkdj2323 performing at Calabash at the Press Club, July 2008. The View From Madeleine's Couch also have a MySpace page, a Triple J Unearthed Page and a Facebook fan page.

Brisbane Creative Commons Photos by Certified Su: Valley meets City meets Spring Hill

I'm always interested in photos of Brisbane that show it from a different angle. There are so many photos of the Riverside Expressway, the Story Bridge and the Brisbane Eye that when I see yet another one I yawn and move on. So these three photos by Flickr user certified_su really caught my eye - in fact, I first saw the top one and commented on how much I liked it, only to find out about the other two.

The photos were taken from the Mantra hotel, which is above the SSS Steakhouse at the corner of Queen St and Ann St - click here for a Google Map.

The photo shows the junction of Queen St, Boundary St, Ann St and Wickham St, at the point where Fortitude Valley, Spring Hill and Brisbane City meet at a single point. This is a crucial junction for traffic going to and from both the New Farm/Teneriffe area, and also to the inner north-eastern suburbs like Hamilton, Ascot and Eagle Farm. It's busy in peak hour and often gets clogged with traffic - Brisbane has plenty of choke points for vehicles, and this is one of them.

The larger green space right in the middle of the picture is Centenary Place, a very nice park right in the heart of the busy traffic fumes of this major intersection, which offers a place to relax. The park includes a statue dedicated to the memory of Scottish poet Robert Burns.



The first photo was taken at 6 minutes past 5pm on June 19 2009, and the second one 28 minutes later, showing how quick sunset comes in a city as far north as Brisbane. The third photo was taken about thirteen hours after the second, at 6.25 on the morning of June 20, showing the same intersection absolutely deserted - I bet it didn't stay that way for long.



certified_su 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 certified_su credit and link to the page where the photo originally is.

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

Brisbane Historial Re-Enactment: History Alive Sat Jul 25 - Sun Jul 26, Fort Lytton

History Alive 2009 is on Saturday July 25 and Sunday July 26 2009, from 10am to 4pm each day, at Fort Lytton National Park, Lytton (click here for a Google Map). You'll have to drive or catch a cab, the nearest public transport is Hemmant station, about 4km away from the National Park.

History Alive is a full weekend of historical re-enactors performing for you - people who love to re-enact history including Roman gladiators and legionaries, mediaeval knights and ladies, and soldiers from the American Civil War and World Wars I and II. If you click here there's more info about what you'll see at the event.

This slideshow of photos from flickr shows you some of the action from last year's History Alive in 2008 (click here to see the photos if you can't see the slideshow):

And this video shows a re-enactment of German and Italian forces ambushing Allied soldiers in Italy in 1944

You can see more photos and videos from History Alive events if you click here.

A two day pass for 2 adults and 2 kids is $60, while a one-day pass is $35.

Standard tickets are adults $25 two days, $15 one day, Concession card holders and schoolchildren up to year 10 are $15 for two days and $10 for one day. Children under 5 are free. You can buy food there but you're also welcome to bring your own picnic, so they're not going to try to rip you off and force you to buy expensive stuff just because you've paid to get in. For more info on costs and what to bring, click here.

Brisbane Music: The Del Sonics play The Music Kafe, West End, Sat July 12th 2009

Brisbane surf-rock band The Del Sonics play The Music Kafe, West End at 8pm this Sunday, July 12 2009. The Music Kafe is at 185 Boundary St, West End (click here for a Google Map).

You can listen to 11 free songs and watch five videos if you visit The Del Sonics MySpace page - I really liked "Dawn Swell", it's the song that made me want to write about them.

Brisbane Coffee and Chocolate Markets and Festival at Portside Markets, Hamilton, Sun July 12

There's a "Coffee and Chocolate Affair" happening on Sunday July 12 2009, at the Portside Wharf, Hamilton (click here for a Google Map). It's basically a big coffee and chocolate festival and market with some interesting free events.

There's a competition to find the best home barista, apparently you can win up to six grand's worth of home coffee machines if you win the competition. There are also free masterclasses with Lindt and Sprüngli Australia chocolatier Thomas Schnetzler, and Dean Merlo of Merlo Coffee, and there's a competition for professional baristas that you can watch. I'm afraid the website doesn't say what time these events are on, but you can call the Portside Wharf office on (07) 3868 5111 and ask them (+617 3868 5111 from outside Australia).

The event's website lists 21 different stallholders so far, including Seatonfire Chili Chocolate, the Coffee Education Network, Import Tea, Eumundi Fudge and other upmarket coffee and chocolate sellers, so that sounds like an interesting, if potentially expensive, day of browsing and buying. There's also going to be blues and jazz bands playing. It's free to go and browse, see the free classes or listen to the music. If you're on Facebook, you can check the details of the event here.

If you're driving, you can park at the Portside Wharf. If you are using public transport, your best option is to either catch a ferry to the Brett's Wharf ferry terminal at Hamilton or the 300 bus to Racecourse Rd, Hamilton, just after it turns off Kingsford Smith Drive onto Racecourse Rd, near the Hamilton Hotel. Click here for a Google Map showing all this locations.

CREATIVE COMMONS: The photo in this article is called "briagdeiro" and it's by flickr user rodrigo senna - he has licenced it under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence which means you can use the photo for any purpose, including commercial uses, as long as you credit him.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/negativz/ / CC BY 2.0

New to Twitter in Brisbane? Come to a @btub meet up TONIGHT, Friday July 3, @greystonebar, Southbank

Laura from Greystone Bar

So, you've just signed up to Twitter recently and you're still wondering what the point of it all is? Well, one of the things Twitter people in Brisbane do is have a big meet-up once a month. It's called #btub (which stands for Brisbane Twitter Underground Brigade) and it's at Greystone Bar in Southbank, in between Grey St and Little Stanley St, opposite the Imax Cinema on Grey St (click here for a Google Map).

This month's #btub meetup is on Friday July 3, and starts at Greystone Bar at 6pm and will go through as long as people hang around (last month people were there till about 2am).



One of the great things about #btub is that there are no official leaders. People run smaller btub events as well, and if you think there should be an event, just announce it. If people are interested, they'll turn up, and you've got a #btub.

If you want to keep track of what btub events are on, you can either:

Join the BTUB group on Facebook
Follow @btub on Twitter
Follow the #btub hashtag on Twitter (what on earth is a hashtag? Click here for more info)

There are also plenty of photos from btub events on flickr - you can see the btub group photos here or search for photos tagged with btub here.

I won't be there tomorrow night until quite late, as I have to work until midnight :( But turn up, say hi, introduce yourselves and meet some friendly new people.





Some friendly btubbers



This is me at a btub.