The Scene - Local Entertainment News

S Sense

The world is becoming dangerous and uncivilised. Or so it seems if you open a newspaper (not this one, of course) or watch TV.

One of our athletes was attacked by a monkey while training in Hong Kong for God's sake. Talk about Australian athletics getting the monkey off its back. Probably a Muslim monkey with a genetic memory of Christian barbarism during the Crusades. Or it was on steroids...

Community is becoming virtual and fractured by fear. People stay at home surrounded by deadlocks and sophisticated surround-sound home entertainment systems watching American comic books brought to the screen with a slick, sick blend of hard-core violence and soft porn especially created for teenagers who grow fat on crap food and virtual adventures.

And the pokies are replacing bands in our pubs.

But on Saturday night there was a party in the hills where I live. Under a tarp and with a generator providing power, local people made music with a joy that comes from being appreciated.

Kids ran about non-stop until they fell in small heaps exhausted but with grins and vegie curry still stuck on their faces.

No bouncers. No high priced ticket to sit in an uncomfortable plastic chair and listen to irrelevant stuff from a tired performer in the demeaning, shut-up-and-listen style that is a hangover from last century.

Next day, I travelled down what is still sometimes called the drug highway (cars used to rumble down this road from Queensland pouring into the green hills of northern NSW in the days before hydroponic grass-growing and suburban chemical factories) to a little café and music scene that had locals and travellers (looking for civilisation nowadays) lying in the winter sun, gazing at the mountain range and listening to music from some cool cats grooving on an outdoor stage.

There were lots of kids here too. This is a fertile area for sure. Must be the country air. Or the strong, pretty women...

Towards evening I backtracked (good to have wheels again) up the road to my local bush shop and gathering place where three local acts were putting on some Sunday entertainment as the sun sunk like an Australian submarine into the blue. People sat around, having a chat and a wee tipple. Oh, and there were lots of kids roaming in packs - like kids do.

So, I'm listening to a local drumming circle and looking at my brothers and sisters, thinking that here, far from madding media, culture thrives as strongly as bush kids.

All over the world there must be pockets of civilisation where culture grows out of community and children sprout like mushrooms after rain. That's reassuring.

Writing in Circles

Melaina Faranda's new book The Circle: Greenheart is the latest in a series for the younger reader. The author looks very happy with her work.

Melaina Faranda is a local author. Her series of books about 'the Circle" - ten very different girls - is a series about life, love and magic written for teenage readers. Her very successful earlier books in the series, Gift, Dreamer, Princess and Clan, are now followed by her latest - The Circle: Greenheart.

Cool, controlled Devi Greenheart's world is turned upside down when she discovers plans to destroy her beloved grove.

Somehow, her boyfriend's power-mongering father is behind it all and as she and the Circle desperately fight to save their sacred place, Devi becomes entangled in a dangerous web of intrigue and lies.

Melaina has travelled around the world, taught in secondary schools throughout Australia and England, and facilitated teenage personal development groups. She writes surrounded by a midden of books, struggling to ignore the outside world but likes to go for long walks contemplating mythology, magic and the fantastic possibilities of the universe. Cool.

• Freebie: The Echo has a copy of The Circle: Greenheart to give away to some lucky reader. To go in the draw to win phone 6622 2888 between 10.15 and 10.30am next Monday, August 8, and tell us how many degrees are in a circle. (Ask someone with a degree...)

Theatre hi-Jinx

Angela Mitchell (pictured) and local production company specialising in drama for adolescents, Theatre Theatre, present Jinx at the Lismore Workers Club next Monday, August 8, at 8pm.

Jinx, a novel by Margaret Wild, has been adapted to the stage by Angela. Jinx is a confronting but poignant story of a teenage girl, Jen, whose passage into womanhood is a tricky and emotional one.

When a boyfriend suicides and then another is killed in an accident, Jen begins to believe she is jinxed. She struggles in the consequent emotional darkness trying to maintain her relationship with her mum and her downs-syndrome sister... Will it all end well? You'll have to find out.

This is Jinx's second season of performance in Lismore, Newcastle and Sydney. The cast is aged 14-17 years. Tickets are $15/12 and available from Caddies Bean Shop in Lismore - or at the door.

Seeing the writing...

The Byron Bay Writer's Festival (this Thursday to Sunday, August 4-7) recognises the interrelated nature of the written and visual arts.

Photojournalism is a potent communicator of information and emotion. A (good) picture is worth a thousand words. Two experienced proponents of the genre, Alison Aphrys and Gerry Turcotte, will speak with Candida Baker to uncover why images can be the most powerful way to tell the story. A totally different perspective of the relationship between art and experience will be illuminated by Chinese master calligrapher Lui Can-ming. Liu Can-ming demonstrates the transition of traditional Chinese calligraphy into a modern style.

Staying with the visual, the festival celebrates form beyond content with books. A book is an art form that combines intellectual, aesthetic and tactile experiences. Children's book creator Alison Lester, Lui Can-ming and entrepreneurial bookseller Elaine Lewis, whose bookstore in Paris promotes Australian writers, share their insights as illustrator, calligrapher and collector.

Some three day and one day passes are still available. And note that Sunday's In Conversation with John Safran will now be hosted by award winning playwright Michael Gurr. Given the dynamics of these two articulate thinkers, anything could happen.

For more info or to book visit www.byronbaywritersfestival.com or phone Jetset on 6685 6262.

Lismore Art is doing Wells

This Thursday, Friday and Sunday, August 4-7, the Lismnore Art Club will hold its annual exhibition at the Lismore Workers Club. This is an opportunity to see the works of local artists. One artist who will be showing works at that exhibition and simultaneously at another in Brisbane (at the Hardy Brothers Adelaide Street Gallery) is local lad Terry Wells.

Terry has lived all his life in this area, finishing his schooling at Lismore High before embarking on a life as both a draughtsman for local home construction and an artist whose paintings adorn the walls of private collections in England and Canada as well as in our local area.

For more info about the Lismore Art Club phone Chris on 6628 2000.

Heidi seeks soul

Next Tuesday, August 9, the weekly Jazz & Blues night at the Rous Hotel In Lismore presents the sublime musical talents of Heidi Holland and the Scarlett Letter Band.

Heidi Holland began her career in a totally forgettable Elvis Tribute Show. Ten years later she is a graduate of the inaugural College of Country Music in Tamworth. (Bachelor of Ballads?)

Heidi is currently completing a Bachelor of Contemporary Music and a Graduate Diploma in Education at SCU. Catch her and her band's smooth soul grooves from 8pm for a cool $5. Special guest on the night will be saxophonist Yvonne Dengate.

Jazz & Blues at the Rous showcases the cream of this area's music - as well as guest acts from all over.

Kicking and screaming for tickets

Will Ferrell plays a coach for his son's soccer team in the film Kicking and Screaming. Coaching little kids is all about fun, role modelling and fairness... not.

Okay. The Echo has free tickets to Kicking and Screaming screening at the Birch, Carroll & Coyle cinema in Lismore from next Thursday, August 11. That's right. We have ten family passes to give away. That's a pass for four persons (kids and adults in whatever combination - no pets).

This PG comedy highlights the stressful world of father son relationships - especially when children's sports are involved.

And when it comes to sport, Phil Weston (Will Ferrell) is literally left on the starting block. Whatever game he tries his hand at; Phil's a failure. To make matters worse, his dad Buck (Robert Duvall), a sporting goods store owner who stars in his own appallingly bad TV commercials, is just the opposite and he makes everything in life a competition between him and his son, who inevitably loses. In such a competitive spirit both father and son have a son (well, their new wives do).Ten years later, the two boys play on the same soccer team... and the dramas between Father and son... and son, increase. Phil wants to be a winner. Can he be? Find out.

• Freebie: The Echo has ten family passes to give away to lucky readers. To go in the draw to win phone 6622 2888 between 10.30 and 10.45am next Monday, August 8, and tell us which country won the last World Cup (played in 2002 in Korea and Japan). Hint: it wasn't Australia.

Idol singing

Lee Smith won his way through to the semi-finals of Ballina's Idol after heat three on Sunday.

As well as Lee Smith from Ballina, other performers to make it through were Tori Dixon and Sarah Connor both from Lismore.

Heat four is on this Sunday, August 7, from 3-5pm at the Ballina RSL Club. Contestants will battle it out for the last three places in the first semi-final and ultimately for over $10,000 in cash and prizes. The competition involves eight heats and two semi-finals, with the grand final held on Friday, September 30.

There are some spaces left. To enter pick up a form at the Ballina Idol table in the Ballina RSL Club. Alternatively, entry forms can be downloaded by visiting the website at www.ballinarsl.com.au.

For more info phone Nancy on 66 81 4325 or 0414 462 513.

Stellar a capella

The Lennox Headliners - an all women a capella chorus - are busily preparing for their upcoming musical production Girls Night Out at the Star Court Theatre in Lismore on Saturday, August 27. There'll be a matinee at 2pm and an evening performance at 7.30pm. (The gals look pretty chuffed about it all.)

Byron Bay comedian Sandy Gandhi will feature at the evening performance along with other guest acts.

Tickets are now available at Caddies Bean Shop in Lismore, La Boutique Gift Shop in Ballina, Paperbark Gallery in Evans Head, JHA Recruitment in Byron Bay and at Barebones Art Space in Bangalow. Or by phoning Kerry on 6687 2531.

Jazz and blues come to Bellingen

The 16th Bellingen Jazz & Blues Festival is set to get toes tappin' and fingers clickin' for three days, August 19-21.

As in previous years, the musical line-up is impressive and features some of Australia's best jazz and blues musicians. Dale Barlow, Carol Ralph, Lily Dior (local girl turned international jazz star), Brett & Clare's Dilemma (featuring Brett Iggulden and Clare Hansson) will perform as well as the Continental Blues Party and Ray Beadle & The Vipers.

The RAAF Air Command Band will also be playing with the famous David Helfgott (remember the film Shine?) in a one-off performance on Saturday, August 20.

The whole of this pretty town gets involved with venues all through the town. Many of these venues have special acoustic properties which will enhance the festival-goers appreciation of these musical events.

Tickets (and more info) are available online at www.bellingenjazzfestival.com.au; by phone on 6655 9345 for credit card purchases; or by mail cheque or money order to Bellingen Jazz Festival Inc, PO Box 551, Bellingen, NSW, 2454.

Afro music attack

Afro Moses sings with his doubles in an exercise to baffle punters when he plays the North Coast this weekend. Contemporary African singing with a red ball in your mouth...

Afro Moses was raised in Ghana, Africa, becoming a teenage star - he was called the "African James Brown". This natural showman has become one of the finest exponents of world music with his blend of afrobeats, funk, reggae, jazz, raga, hip hop and percussion - a combination of traditional roots with a blast of modern grooves. (You can sample his musical delights on his new CD No Victims.)

He's toured all over the world and has shared the stage with the likes of Ziggy Marley, Angelique Kidjo and Salif Keita. Afro Moses will be joined by his seven-piece band, Moses O'Jah, featuring Mohammed Bangoura (Guinea) on percussion.

Afro Moses really gets the punters dancing and this Saturday, August 6, the Great Northern Hotel in Byron will be jumping to the Afro Moses beat when he and his band bring their joyous music to the North Coast.

Doors open at 8.30pm. Tickets are $20 and available from ABC Ballina, Music Bizarre in Lismore and at www.byronbayentertainment.com.

Little dramas

This bunch of likely lads and lasses were part of the Act-Up Drama show held recently at the Rochdale Theatre in Goonellabah. Lynn Preston teaches performance-based drama to kids aged between six and nine years old at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium in Lismore. There are openings for new students in term three. The classes are held on Mondays from 4-5.30pm and costs $11 per class.

For more info phone Lynn on 6621 9318 or 0407 734 316.

Deadline extended

Musicoz has extended entries until August 15 allowing musicians more time to send in their entries for Australia's biggest awards for unsigned artists.

Nationally, there are over $100,000 worth of cash and prizes - and remember if you live on the North Coast and enter the competition you'll automatically be eligible for some great bonus development prizes, including studio recording time, music video, photo shoot, marketing plan and more. 

Winners in each of the 18 categories will be announced on December 1. There is no age restriction to enter the awards. Musos can enter in one or all of the many categories.

All you have to do is pick up an entry form from a muisc store or by visiting www.musicoz.org, fill it out and send it with a bio, photo and your song or songs on CD, to Musicoz, PO BOX 1201, Wollongong NSW 2500. Simple.

For more info visit www.musicoz.org or call Musicoz Northern Rivers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on 6684 6056. Or e-mail: northernrivers@musicoz.org.

Writing in style

Liu Can-Ming was born in Jiangsu JingJiang in China in 1963. He graduated from university in 1985. Currently he is Dean of the Art Department at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Interesting enough I guess but Liu is regarded in China as an outstanding calligrapher, drawing (excuse the pun) on rich Chinese artistic traditions.

Liu's calligraphy exhibition, at the Next Contemporary Art Space in Goodman Plaza at Southern Cross Uni's Lismore campus, runs until August 11. The gallery is open from 10am-4pm Monday to Thursday.

For more info phone 6626 9421.

Special ability

One of the many paintings and photographs that make up R.E.D. Inc's annual art exhibition.

Caddies Coffee Shop in Lismore is host to R.E.D. Inc's annual art exhibition. R.E.D. Inc is a transition service for young adults with disabilities and, it seems, artistic talent.

The exhibition opens this Friday, August 5, at 5pm. There'll be live music and food until 7pm. The exhibition runs until August 31 with all artworks for sale.

9 songs, two double passes

9 Songs screening from this Friday in Nimbin is a film about love, sex and saving water... that's good, right?

Nimbin Bush Theatre presents Michael Winterbottom's (Wonderland, Welcome to Sarajevo, In This World) latest movie 9 Songs.

This movie caused a stir after it first screened in Cannes last year with its explicit sex scenes. It's not porno - it's a story of love and how sex shapes our understanding of that love.

There's also a great sound track with music (nine songs) by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Von Bondies, Elbow, Primal Scream, The Dandy Warhols, Super Furry Animals, Franz Ferdinand and Michael Nyman.

Matt (Kieran O'Brien), the narrator, is a British glaciologist remembering the recent past during an expedition to Antarctica. Lisa (Margo Stilley), the frisky, gamine lover he recalls with a mixture of fondness, exasperation and desire, is a headstrong 21 year old American he meets at a rock concert in London. The chemistry is electric, tender and sometimes erotic.

9 Songs screens at the Nimbin Bush Theatre this Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, August 5, 6, 7 and 10 at 7.30pm. For more info phone 6689 1111.

• Freebie: The Echo has two double passes to 9 Songs to give away to some lucky readers. To go in the draw to win phone 6622 2888 between 11 and 11.15am, this Friday, August 5, and tell us if The Nimbin Bush Theatre used to be the old Nimbin Buttery or the old Nimbin Catfish Farm.

Young art for species preservation

Primary school students on the North Coast with a love of wildlife and an artistic flair can now help save their local threatened animals and win prizes for themselves and for their school by entering the Dymocks Golden Paw Award 2005 - the major prize in the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife's threatened species drawing competition.

The best entries will win prizes including Dymocks book vouchers, adventure tours in local national parks and passes to the Australian National Maritime Museum which will host an exhibition of the best 600 drawings of threatened aquatic animals.

For every entry, Dymocks will donate $1 to wildlife protection. Good on them.

The competition is open to all primary school students in NSW and ACT. Entries close on September 7 - which is national Threatened Species Day (in memory of Benjamin, the last Tasmanian Tiger who died on that day in 1936 in Hobart Zoo).

For more info and entry forms visit the website at www.fnpw.com.au/Golden Paw.htm.

The Threepenny Opera all set to go

Lismore Theatre Company is at last opening its production of The Threepenny Opera next Thursday, August 11, at the Temple Theatre in Lismore.(opposite the public library in Magellan Street) at 8pm. The show will then run Friday and Saturday, August 12 and 13, and the following Thursday - Saturday, August 18-20. Tickets are $15/12 and available at Caddies Bean Shop In Lismore.

Coming to the streets of your town

Robert Forster and Grant McLennan are the songwriters and creative forces behind legendary Aussie band The Go-Betweens. Bono and The Edge from U2 list the Go-Between song Cattle and Cane as one of their top three all-time favourites.

Brisbane-based (but world-conquering) band the Go-Betweens are performing in the Star Court Theatre in Lismore this Friday, August 5. Celebrating 25 years since their first recording, their ninth album Oceans Apart has excited punters and critics alike.

Andrew Male from Mojo called it "bewitching, gutsy, driving, defiant, mesmeric. A musical odyssey - five stars."

The band is currently in the middle of a world tour that includes the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and the USA and has been playing to sell-out crowds.

The Go-Betweens have many fans including the Queensland premier, Peter Beattie who wrote to the band to inform them he'd been handing out copies of their LPs in the United States Senate and he considered them to be "one of Australia's greatest exports". Golly.

Special guest is Sophie Koh. Show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $32.50 and available from Northern Rivers Ticket Centre in Lismore or by phoning 6621 5600.

Waiting for the festival

Waiting for Guinness loves music, hats and the Health and Herb Festival.

The Northern Rivers Greenridge Health and Herb Festival (wow, is that a name or a novel?) will bring some fine music to Riverside and Heritage Parks in Lismore on August 20-21 as part of its diverse program.

As well as the Herbie Parade, the Fun Run, cooking competitions, informative talks, an exciting fashion parade highlighting the work of local fashion designers, herb garden talks (the list goes on and on...), the festival will some great music.

North Coast bands like the Old Spice Boys, Groove Dalley, Fatter Than Nusrat, Stipsky, Jim Kelly and Sambambenco, Jimmy Willing and the Real Gone Hick-Ups, Samba-blisstas, Nick Gibbs and Fuse will play the main stage over the two days. Sydney-based band, Waiting For Guinness is another gem in the music line-up.

Waiting for Guinness, a seven-piece outfit playing gypsy, cabaret, swing and jazz, create original passionate music that can have you dancing on the tables with the sheer exuberance of their music. I suppose that's not a good idea on the plastic tables at the festival. Maybe bring your own table... 

When I saw Waiting For Guinness I knew just by the diversity of instrumentation that this would be exciting music - and it is! With trumpet, trombone, piano accordion, banjo, guitarron (Mexican acoustic bass), guitar, drums and saxophone, they have entertained audiences all over Australia.

For more info on the Health and Herb Festival visit the website at www.healthandherbfestival.com.

Under the artistic influence

This artwork Something Fishy by Billy Dalton is part of the exhibition Under The Influence now showing at Blue Knob Gallery.

Nimbin Museum's director Michael Balderstone will open the new exhibition at Blue Knob Gallery this Saturday, August 6, at 11am. 

The exhibition Under The Influence investigates artists' preoccupation with other artists' work - whether it relates to style, content or medium. Of course such understanding of other's artistic processes informs their own.

A group of artists reveals their sources of influence in Under The Influence which runs until September 18.  Michael Balderstone, a local identity of some repute, will, no doubt, make a humorous opening address at the gallery on Saturday morning. Will he be under the influence?

There'll also be an artist's talk by Margie Rojo at the Gallery next Wednesday, August 10 from 1.30pm.

Blue Knob Gallery (near the corner of Blue Knob Road and Lillian Rock Road) is open Wednesdays to Sundays, 10am-4pm. For more info phone 6689 7449.

Oh, and the Blue Knob Café serves delicious food all day until 6pm - and tasty views of the Knob.

Babies prom promises babies the best music

With the Sydney Opera House's own 12-piece chamber orchestra and the main man himself, conductor George Ellis, at the helm, Babies Prom is coming to Lismore City Hall on Thursday, August 18, with its concert for under-fives called Music Book.

Music Book is a toddler-friendly musical repertoire incorporating picture books short-listed for the 2005 Children's Book Council of Australia Awards. It brings favourite books to life as it introduces the littl'uns to the joys of live music and stories illustrated on the big screen.

The concert starts at 10am. Tickets are $10/5 and are available by phoning 6621 5600.

Puss 'n Box

Byron-based band Puss (pictured), still on a huge high after their Splendour in the Grass gigs, will team up with Lismore's Box Monsters at the Tatts Hotel in Lismore next Thursday, August 11, in a night that will combine the organic electro sonic storm that is Puss with the punk goth rock of the Box Monsters. (I can talk the talk.)

The two bands will be joined by Pigman Vampire (who describe their sound as a "climb of the holy junk mountain". What?) and DJ Joolz.

The aural bliss and mountain climbing starts at 9pm. Tickets are $10/7. Bring a rope.

Who would play Chopin? Woodward.

On Saturday, August 13, famous Australian pianist Roger Woodward will perform in Byron Bay as part of his short Australian tour. He now lives in San Francisco so opportunities to hear this man play live are few.

Woodward has played with the world's greatest composers, conductors and orchestras. He's been hailed as an Chopin interpreter extraordinaire. The Australian newspaper called him "a Chopin interpreter of the highest order, combining intimate knowledge of the style, a fine balance of intellect and emotion, and an astonishing technique'. So there you go.

Roger Woodward will play Chopin at the Byron Community Centre on Saturday, August 13, from 8pm. Tickets are $50 for stalls and $45 for the gallery and are availble fgrom the venue. Phone 6685 5659 or drop in at Jonson Street in Byron.