October 2004

the act is so different to other places i’ve spent time… and i think the key to it is the way that communities operate. from the family unit to churches, cultural groups, or in my case music or arts niches. anyway, i just found act communities who attempt to bridge these divides, by making some of the groups more accessible.

just a quick mention that the canberra film festival starts next week. movies from across the globe – turkey, germany, scotland, us, sweden, argentina, taiwan, chile, israel, czech, denmark, norway and spain. the lineup of films looks pretty good, like ae fond kiss, the romeo and juliet story of a glasgow pakistani dj and the white teacher he falls in love with.

it’s also worth checking out the electrofringe show at ccas. curated by gail priest (who was the electrofringe coordinator this year) it features work from some of the best video artists involved with the festival. i recommend checking out work from khaled sabsabi and scott morrison.

i also recommend checking out somaya langley and michael ascroft’s new work familiar circuits at the old bus depot markets on tuesday oct 26. their audiovisual work built around urban atmospheres is curiously engaging.

after joc from livid pulled out, i was asked at the last minute to speak to an audience of artists, writers, film makers, musicians and actors about staging events, festivals or projects.

it was at the gold coast cultural summit – staged by the gc council last weekend – and meant that still reeling from tina, starting a new job, the art school ball, as well as my regular thursday nighter at toast and 2 hours sleep after djing with the fantastic urthboy, ozi batla and hermitude, i was up on the gold coast, sitting on panels, presenting a couple of talks, and chairing a workshop.

i was a bit tired, but in retrospect it was a great event. good to see a council trying to support the arts community, encourage them to prepare better, and generally have a more interactive relationship. lots of good people.

though i must admit my favourite part of the day was climbing back into my friend gemma’s car for the trip back to brisbane, where i promptly fell into bed. i woke more than 12 hours later feeling better than i have in weeks. easy sunday morning, followed by a trip down to the fantastic rocking horse records, which is fantastic. unfortunately i couldn’t buy much, too much purchasing of late – especially in newcastle – but i did pick up a few cool lps…

common – one day it’ll all make sense
v/a – detroit soul
as one – best of
iron and wine lp

public education, health and welfare run down across the board. australia fasttracks its move to a user pays system. the only outcome? an ever widening gap between the haves and have nots. our country is turning into a selfish, mean-spirited place that leaves me ashamed to be here.

the howard government plays tragedies like bali, s11, refugee arrivals and the cycle of koori poverty to its political advantage. along the way dismissing civil liberties and our obligations under international law.

they have lied, undermined and manhandled the laws and freedoms which are fundamental to our democracy. and each time they get in they go further with their slash & burn economic reform, damaging misleading and dishonest public coverups.

limited media ownership makes it difficult for people to be exposed to unbiased news coverage… can’t really blame them for going with the status quo in that case, but back in with an increased mandate and the senate control they’ve craved, the howard government will destroy the last checks on media ownership creating the sorts of media monopoly that will ultimately and completely undermine the token democracy we live in.

this is so depressing.

i can’t really explain how angry, confused and disillusioned this makes me feel, but my brother managed to put it into words in a post on his website here.