New ideas so often come from the darnedest places, as Marcus Westbury notes in the latest Griffith Review.

Cultures emerge from the spontaneous, temporary nature of human motivations, passions, interactions and enthusiasms. They often form in rebellion and opposition rather than by deliberation and design. They are unique and idiosyncratic. They result from adaptation and evolution, and they have a tendency to be strongest in the places where no one is looking or particularly wants them to be.

I completely agree. It’s the niche, the thrill of creativity reacting against whoever that needs support. But how - given the focus shifts so easily - and how - given the creation so often forms in reaction (to something)?

Global cities increasingly aspire to cultural prestige for its intangible aura and because they believe it will drive economic growth.

Cities invest in this stuff for a bunch of reasons - cultural capital, potential economic return, etc. The big things need that support and they’re easier to support, being institutional like the government.

When Adrienne Goehler, Berlin’s former senator for arts and science, was out late last year she said a relatively small investment in local scenes (for example, local bars/galleries that aren’t priced out of the market and can then experiment with music, art or other performance) is more effective in attracting young, creative scientists, technologists and artists than huge investments in supermarkets, research facilities and so on.

Should the funding model be a little less bureaucratic and a bit more entrepreneurial: e.g. Kiva, Zopa?

As if that wasn’t a headline waiting to happen.

Western Sydney community arts manager Lena Nahlous hinted all was not as it seemed with the 2020 Summit creative strand when she appeared on Canvas last Sunday morning. Nick Pickard’s article in today’s Crikey makes it explicit, saying the Initial Summit Report censored ideas discussed and included ideas never broached.

Oz theatre reviewer (and writer) Alison Croggon said:

Some points seemed disappear completely in the process: among them, a strong call for rethinking public broadcasting and the issue of responsibility towards climate change. Others surprisingly appeared: when Mr Rudd mentioned summer schools, the entire Creative stream went blank (”summer schools? who said summer schools?”) More generally, some concerns never quite made it to the whiteboards: a major oversight in the general debate was the digital gaming design industry, supposedly an area slated for discussion.

That shift came up in Pickard’s piece too:

What has amazed the delegates is that the initial report somehow changed ideas like develop “closer links between industry professionals and schools” into “Creativity Summer Schools”.

“No-one ever mentioned summer schools,” Crikey has been told by another delegate. “And the first time I heard about the Indigenous proposals was when the report was released on the Sunday.”

This is not to mention the contentious idea (also published in the initial report) which proposed that creative endeavours be funded “through a 1% creative dividend from all Government Departments for expenditure”.

“Everyone in that room knew that Queensland had tried that idea and that it had failed. I don’t know how that got put forward either,” the delegate explained.

Pickard’s source noted it wasn’t all negative:

“The summit has created a motivated group of diverse people who realised that we all have a lot in common,” another attendee has told Crikey. “Everyone realised that other people outside the stream were saying they needed the arts.”

Another attendee, the prolific (check his CV) Marcus Westbury, posted a blog entry saying much the same thing a week earlier.

Meeting people. The summit was a rare opportunity that brought together a wide range of people from across the creative, arts, cultural sector. Contrary to popular belief we don’t all hang out together all the time - particularly outside of narrow artform communities. It was both inspiring and practically quite useful to meet those people, realise that several issues cut right across the boundaries or artform or medium and begin to pull together a bit of a community going forward.

Understanding the power of symbolism has been crucial to Rudd’s government. But with this and the frankly bizarre delineation between gay unions and straight marriage - I’m married and certainly not “before God” - the government is showing the first signs of stumbling.

It’s true I guess. Sometimes I get half way through the day and realise all the clothes I’m wearing are from Incu and half the best jokes music I’ve heard came from Chris Wu at Popfrenzy.

Designer Vince Frost, uber editor Jess Scully, Sydney Festival director Fergus Linehan front up with Chris and the brothers Wu for a blow by blow from Time Out’s Sydney Style Council.

Chris on Sydney:

Until last year, I had been to the beach maybe twice in ten years, and then I moved to Coogee. Not that I go swimming or anything, but reading the papers by the sea or just seeing it from far away is kind of nice which I would have never thought. Maybe next year I will actually touch the sand.

He gave Cyclic a plug too:

Cyclic Defrost is also a local zine that is worth consulting because the articles are well developed and the subject matters usually diverge from mainstream musical trends and are written with a lot of heart.

Time Out must be giving the rest of the city’s tired looking street rags a real fright. Decent features (mostly), interesting, frank stories. What next?!

Isn’t there something odd about paying thirty dollars to learn about making zines?

Second in my series of recent but not so recent things that have inspired me is this one.

I saw Le Ballon Rouge (the red balloon) at this year’s Sydney French Film Festival. The charming children’s film is more than 50 years old, and amazing.

I’m crossing my fingers very tightly I’ll get however many boxes of Cyclics back from the printers before the launch on Thursday night. I’m quietly confident.

Pretty post rock (Underlapper) and classic ’90s electronic sounds (Robert Luke). Check. Glitchy/dusty techno/IDM (Aluf). Check. And new demos and other sounds (me). All bases covered. It’s $12 from 8 ’til 11:30pm at the Sound Lounge (downstairs at the Seymour Centre in Chippendale).

Having made it through the challenging first couple of years, the Australian publishers of Dazed & Confused magazine have apparently called it quits on the the UK title’s local version. The website seems to have disappeared, though the Paper Tiger home page still brandishes old Dazed covers.

I’m playing records at the Tilbury hotel in Wooloomooloo (Nicholson St) tomorrow night. It’s a Future Classic thing, Nathan McLay’s playing from three until six, then I’m playing ’til 9pm. Free entry, etc. You should come.

I drove out to Auburn last night to a soundtrack of new songs from the Herd. First cut ‘The King Is Dead’ really resonates, with the refrain: “We danced like New Year’s Eve”.

I may never forget wandering into the Bat & Ball, Surry Hills, to hear Underlapper playing as the election tally turned against Howard last year. Here’s what I wrote the day after:

The prospect of those guys in power for another term had left me on edge all Saturday afternoon. It didn’t help that I was hanging out with Howard lovers as the Liberals took an early lead. I was starting to rant about indigenous rights, asylum seekers and the like, so I said my goodbyes - “Guys, I’ve just gotta go” - and headed to the 2SER party at the Bat & Ball, Surry Hills.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever been happier to arrive at a venue. Underlapper were playing - gorgeous spine-tingling stuff - and a bunch of close friends were hanging out by the bar. The ALP and Greens started their ascent, Maxine McKew and Bob Brown gave stirring speeches, and the Liberals were out. And I won the Oz politics/economy board game Poleconomy - a Monopoly-esque game featuring loads of companies that no longer exist.

I haven’t played Poleconomy yet, can’t even think where it is. But the sense of exhausted joie de vivre that night: dancing, drinking champagne, making new friends. There was a sense of a weight being lifted off our shoulders, the possibility of another way forward. And for all the criticisms of the Rudd Government’s first few months, they’ve made some very significant steps.

Dancing like new year’s eve - so apt - and those things come through in the song. Another Herd record that promises to continue their career growth. It’s out in May, and (thanks to Ryan from Everything at Once for connecting the dots on this) Jane Tyrrell has another thing on the go, with her group Firekites newly signed to Spunk.

I was blown away by when I saw Fiona Lowry’s self portrait What I Assume You Shall Assume at MOP Projects on Abercrombie St a while ago. The SMH reports Lowry’s won the $100k Doug Moran portrait prize for the painting.

Part of a series, the painting’s set in the Belanglo State Forest where the backpacker murders took place in the 1990s. The ABC has Lowry:

I’m more interested in just exploring that kind of paranoia that sits within the landscape, specifically the Belanglo State Forest.

The typically wowserish press coverage reached a haiku-like poetry with this headline from the Adelaide Advertiser: “Artist strips, wins $100,000″.