New to Twitter in Brisbane? Come +meet lots of people, tonight Friday May 7 2010 @greystonebar #btub @btub

 

 

Photo by flickr user naehutch

 

So, if you've just joined Twitter you may be be wondering exactly what all the fuss is about. People use Twitter in lots of different ways, but the main way I use it is to meet other people in Brisbane. Brisbane has a thriving community on Twitter, and once a month there's a big meet-up called a btub.

The next btub is Friday night, Friday May 7th 2010, at Greystone Bar, Southbank.
btub stands for "Brisbane Twitter Underground Brigade" but it's not really underground any more, we have lots of people turn up. There's lots of interesting and friendly people to chat to so if you're free, drop in. Sadly I can’t make it as I’m working till midnight :(

There's a btub group on Facebook, and there's a Facebook event for tomorrow night's meetup. And you can also follow btub's Twitter account. There’s also a heap if photos from last month’s btub here on Flickr, taken by flickr user naehutch (her Twitter account is here), and lots of photos from the last year or so of btubs here.

The meetup is at Greystone Bar, 177 Grey St, Southbank - click here for a Google Map with public transport details. If you need to look up public transport routes or timetables, click here for the Translink journey planner.

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.

West End Carnivale: Sat May 15, Davies Park, West End

The West End Carnivale is on at Davies Park in West End on Saturday May 15 2010. The festival features over 30 artists, plus burlesque, Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School, and more.

A few of this year's artists include:

Dubmarine, seen here playing "Point the Bone" at last year's Dreaming Festival:

The Big Burlesque show featuring La Viola Vixen and Lola the Vamp:

La Viola Vixen at Auckland's Misdemeanours Festival in 2009

Lola the Vamp caught on mobile phone at QPAC in 2006

Laneous and the Family Yah: this is the clip for their track "Bubblegum":

The View from Madeleine's Couch, here with their song "Chega de Saudade:

For the full line up, check the West End Carnivale website. Tickets are $63 including booking fee, and you can buy tickets online at Oztix. The carnivale is at Davies Park on Montague Rd in West End - click here for a Google Map with public transport details, click here to look up bus route 199 timetables, or click here to use the Translink public transport journey planner.

Free Comic Book Day TODAY, May 1st 2010 @fcbd10

Free Comic Book Day is on around the world on Saturday May 1 2010, and Brisbane's comic book stores are part of it. Ian from Ace Comics and Games talked to me about some of the free comics you'll be able to pick up:

Iron Man/Thor, in time for the Iron Man 2 movie.

War of the Supermen #0, the latest DC cross-over.

Del Rey showcase, including graphic novel versions of Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman and Jane Austen and Seth Graeme-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Archie's Summer Splash: Archie's recent dream sequence where he married Veronica and Betty in turn may well spark big interest in this.

Bongo Free-for-All: Bongo Comics is Matt Groening's comic company which publishes The Simpsons and Futurama comics.

The Tick: A re-release of The Tick's first edition from 1986, to help promote the reboot of Tick comics.

Sonic the Hedgehog: This is one of the comics that's very popular with children.

For a full list of the comics available, click here to visit the official Free Comic Book Day's website. If you're going to Ace Comics and Games, you're asked to only take one copy of each title, and to only take titles you're interested in, and not just grab everything you can.

I also spoke to Terry at Clayton's Comics at Chermside, who told me they'll have comic artists in store on Saturday, and Star Wars re-enactors from the Redback Garrison of the 501st Legion (Vader's Fist) will be in store too. Clayton's Comics Facebook page is here.

Ace Comics and Games has two locations, in the City and Annerley, and Brisbane comic store Comics Etc will also be taking part in Free Comic Book Day.

You can click here for a Google Map showing where Comics Etc and Ace Comics and Games are in the city.

Click here for a Google Map showing where Ace Comics and Games is in Annerley.

And click here for a Google Map showing where Clayton's Comics is in Chermside.

Click here to look up bus timetables for the 100, 110, 116, 117, 124 125 and 333 buses, and click here to use the Translink journey planner to look up other public transport timetables and routes.

Brisbane Media: Courier-Mail prejudices attempted murder trial @couriermail

One of the most basic rules of reporting on crime and trials is that we must assume people are innocent until they’ve been proven guilty. Another is that you can’t publish anything that may unfairly influence the result of a trial. Today, the Courier-Mail, Brisbane’s only daily newspaper, has broken both of these rules.

A story published on the Courier-Mail’s website about an incident yesterday, where a man is alleged to have driven a car deliberately at a teenager, follows the rules:

 

However the Courier-Mail also publishes RSS feeds. Simply put, an RSS feed is a way to let you read updates from many different websites in one place – for instance I use Google Reader to catch up with stories from the Courier-Mail, The Australian, The Piping Shrike, Possum’s Pollytics and many other political sites.

So when I opened up Google Reader this morning to check the news, this is what I saw:

 

“Teen victim deliberately run over”, shouts the headline. No “alleged”, not even quote marks so they can pretend someone else said it and they’re just reporting it.

 

Perhaps the Courier-Mail thinks that when they publish something in a feed only read by a couple of hundred people, the rules don’t matter any more. What a pity if one of those people finds themselves on the jury, huh?

Brisbane Roller Derby results, pix: Diner Might Dolls 157 defeated Love Rockettes 113 @NBRrollerderby

The Diner Might Dolls defeated the Love Rockettes 157 - 113 tonight in a Northern Brisbane Rollers bout at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Northern Brisbane Rollers are on Twitter and Facebook, and you can click here for the Northern Brisbane Rollers website.

UPDATE: YouTube vid of the bout by texxxann



You can see 20 photos from the bout if you click here.

END UPDATE

Cameraphone pics from the NBR Roller Derby Posterous, taken by Coralie Amato (ferrous) CORRECTION: taken by Twitter user Sendai



Love Rockettes




Diner Mite Dolls




The crowd, reported to be 4 000 people.

Art Exhibition: 100 years of highlights from the University of Queensland Art Collection, Apr 16 - Jul 4 2010

The University of Queensland Art Museum opens a new exhibition tomorrow, Friday April 16 2010: "100 Years: Highlights from the University of Queensland Art Collection"

Some of the artworks that will be in the exhibition are below:



Self-portrait, Mary Christison, c 1870s



Outsider, Gordon Bennett, 1988



Self portrait with a scarf, John Passmore, 1940

The UQ Art Museum is free to visit, and is open from 10am to 4pm every day except public holidays.

Click here for a Google Map showing the location of the University of Queensland Art Museum, including public transport details. You can click here to look up the route 412 bus timetables at the Translink website.

Pro-Choice Benefit Gig, Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley, Sat April 17 2010

The Pro-Choice Action Collective has organised a benefit gig to support their current campagn for abortion rights in Queensland. The gig is on at the Globe Theatre, 220 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley on Saturday April 17, and doors open at 7pm.

Bands playing at the benfit gig include:

Pear and the Awkward Orchestra: this is the clip for their song "Fallen Woman"

Anarchist Duck, seen here performing "Hell n Back":

Girl with Cake, playing "Strike the Clock" in this video:

Eden Must Burn, playing at the Step Inn in this video:

Ofa Fanaika, of Chocolate Strings

Tickets are $17.50 including booking fee, or $11.50 for concession card holders including booking fee. You can book here through the Oztix website. You can join the Pro-Choice Action Collective's group here on Facebook, and there's a Facebook event for the benefit gig here.

The benefit gig is at the Globe Theatre, 220 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley. Click here for a Google Map with public transport details, and you can click here to look up bus route 370, 375 or 379 timetables, or click here to use the public transport journey planner.



NOTE: Abortion is technically illegal in Queensland. The practical result of a 1986 legal ruling by Judge Mcguire in the case of R v Bayliss & Cullen, based on a 1969 ruling in Victoria, is that abortions can be performed to prevent serious danger to the life or health of a pregnant woman. However this could be overturned by another judge's ruling at any time. Right now, a woman in Cairns faces up to seven years in jail for allegedly using a drug to abort her own pregnancy.