The Scene - Local Entertainment News

S Sense

Driving past the local primary school, I notice that it still has the same demountable school rooms that it had when my son went there. What's the point of calling it a demountable if it never gets, well, demounted? Public education obviously needs more money.

Watching the little kiddies play ball, I get an idea - why not introduce gambling into school sports?

Look, with funding for education of the wee ones hard to come by (hey, tax breaks for the rich have to come from somewhere, right?) and gambling being a big earner (and condoned by the elected government), it sort of just makes sense.

I mean if it's your own kid who sits down in the middle of the long distance run for under nines, because of a sudden interest in a dying March fly being hauled over the grass by two ants, it's so cute you could cry. But for the general public sports day is about as interesting as an Alexander Downer speech.

Gambling even makes horse racing interesting.

Kids, sport and gambling go way back. Kids have been used as lightweight jockeys on horses, camels, cattle and even elephants (though you would think the weight advantage would be minimalised on a three tonne elephant) since the dawn of bookmaking.

I'm not suggesting we get our primary kids to ride thoroughbreds at the Lismore racecourse on weekends to pay for their Intelligent Design education - I'll leave that for the minister - but given that sport and gambling go together like politics and big business, I reckon that not gambling on primary school sports days is unAustralian.

The school would get important facilities like big screens, free fizzy drinks, sponsors' caps and a big banner to hang on the school's tuckshop franchise. Lovely.

Imagine arriving at the sports ground, checking out the bookie's odds on that eight-year-old out of Barkers Vale in the 3.30 sack race. Look at his form - a second in the North Coast Primary with a damp sack.

And his bloodline is impressive - his father once caught a ball hit by Greg Chappell off the bowling of Laurie Axtens in a Legends versus Locals charity match at Oakes Oval. (He didn't technically catch it. It knocked him unconscious but remained lodged in his dreadlocks. Anyway, he gave up smoking and joined Christians for the Sensible Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons.)

With professional management this mini-athlete could acquire an imposing investment portfolio by the end of his career (at 12 years old) which could offset the many financial outgoings and ongoings associated with free public schooling.

All this for a skill the little tyke developed running to the outdoor dunny with his pants down.

Gambling on education - the way of the future.

Global does local

Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa will be one of the many international acts at the Bellingen Global Festival, which kicks off on September 30.

The Bellingen Global Carnival is in its 10th year. On the weekend of September 30-October 2, the pretty village of Bellingen will experience a population surge as thousands of people congregate to participate in a feast of world music, dance, theatre and electronica - all in a rural setting.

"Bellingen Global Festival offers people from all walks of life the chance to take a break, and slow to the rhythms of a beautiful country town whilst taking in the world and celebrating cultural diversity," said festival organiser, Bryony Taylor.

The line-up this year includes international acts Vusi Mahlasela, DobaCaracol (Canada) and two traditional groups from Papua New Guinea. The Australian content encompasses Tina Harrod with The Jackie Orszaczky Trio, Seaman Dan (with his songs from Torres Strait), Tango Paradiso (a group of professional musicians and dancers dedicated to the presentation of authentic Argentinean tango), Vox Congo (African Congo), Kush Cabaret (where tango and fire-eating meets circus), the Concertino Trio (Eastern Europe), Kingtide (Ska/Reggae), Ngambaa Elders (Indigenous) and many more...

Tickets are $25-$155 depending on age and duration of attendance. For more info or to purchase tickets phone 6655 3024 or by visit the website at www. globalcarnival.com.

Freebie: The Echo has a copy of Kingtide's latest CD To Our Dearly Deported to give away. To go in the draw to win phone 6622 2888 between 10.30 & 10.45am next Monday, September 19, and tell us in which country did reggae develop its distinctive sound. Clue: It's not New Zealand.

Jazz connected

The Lismore City Bowling Club (let's just call it the City Bowlo) in Molesworth Street is home to the Lismore Jazz Club. They have presented some hot jazz gigs there as the whole area prepares for the 60th Australian Jazz Convention, which kicks off on Boxing Day this year. (The convention will have live jazz in six venues in Lismore every morning, afternoon and night over the week. Phew!) Check it out at www.lismorejazz.org.

This Sunday, September 18, the 'dance-orchestra' sound of Jazz Connected (pictured) will wash across the bowling green and river as they showcase swing and popular songs from the 30s and 40s. Jazz Connected is led by the smooth vocals and swinging drumsticks of Doug Heaton. Featuring with this seven-piece ensemble will be trombonist Steve Jackson.

This is a great afternoon's groove in a venue that is comfy with easy parking and cheap beer. All for $8/5. (Check it out after the long, long, long awaited pool opening next door.)

Jazz Connected will be swinging from 2-5pm.

For more info or to become a member of the Lismore Jazz Club phone Michael Bird on 6622 5912 or email info@lismorejazz.org.

The chosen few

It is now the business end of the Ballina's Idol competition. With the first semi-final judged and three to go, four of the eventual 12 finalists have been picked. The next semi-final is on this Sunday, September 18, and the third is on September 25. Both semi-finals will be held at Ballina RSL Club from 3pm.

The grand final, with $10,000 in prizes, will be on Friday, September 30, at the Ballina RSL.

Russell Hibbs will feature at the Mullumbimby Folk Club in the Old Drill Hall, Mullumbimby, next Thursday, September 22, from 8pm. Russell is a poet, singer, storyteller and nature spirit. Also performing are Nyck Jeans, April, Tarshito, Dr Didge and Darpan. Gig starts at 8pm.

''I just want to bring the best, meanest, horniest, rockin', swampy, smokey blues music to my audience... there is no slow sad stuff," says Mason Rack from the Mason Rack Band, who wowed the East Coast Blues & Roots Fest, and will play the Lennox Point Hotel this Saturday, September 17, at 9.30pm. That just about says it all folks...

Gyan, an international voice that thrills when heard, will sing with the Willow Neilson Quartet at the opening of the Thursday Plantation East Coast Sculpture Show at Thursday Plantation just north of Ballina on the Pacific Highway this Saturday, September 17. The music starts at 1pm. Entry is $5.

The Byron Peace Carnival lights up the coast this weekend, September 16-18, with a host of activities and entertainment.

On Sunday, September 18, following the Peace Carnival Parade, Butler Street Peace Park will be packed with entertainment from 12.30-5pm, promoting peace in our world. You'll hear The Old Spice Boys, Greg Sheehan, Blissmongers, Gyan and more. There'll be speakers including Jack Thompson and Greenpeace Australia's Danny Kennedy.

For more info phone 6684 7579.

Aussie Fahrenheit 9/11

After screening to packed venues and standing ovations in Melbourne and Sydney, Melbourne filmmakers Tahir Cambis and Helen Newman will screen their film Anthem at The Red Dove in Lismore (Woodlark Street) next Friday, September 23.

Including commentators and characters such as Julian Burnside QC, Tony Kevin, Paul McGeough, Tim Page, Phillip Ruddock and John Howard, Anthem combines live action with on-the-spot reportage as it presents the viewer with the devastating consequences and acts of resistance to the 'War on Terror'.

Funded through the Australian Film Commission and Film Victoria, Anthem offers a timely opportunity to encourage critical dialogue on important issues. Yet apart from emotionally charged screenings at film festivals Anthem has been ignored by distributors and broadcasters.

Following the screening, Cambis and Newman will discuss the film and its issues with the audience.

This event is sponsored by the Rainforest Information Centre in Lismore. All proceeds will benefit refugees in detention centres and the filmmakers.

The film starts at 7pm and entry is $10 donation. See ya there.

New gallery plans

BACCI (Ballina Arts and Crafts Centre Inc.) is the Ballina-based group raising funds to build the Northern Rivers Community Gallery at Treelands Reserve in Ballina. They'll be among the exhibitors at this weekend's (September 17-18) upcoming Rivafest in Fawcett Park, Ballina. (See front page.)

The 2006 BACCI calendar, featuring the work of 12 local artists, will be on sale, as will "bricks" (sponsorships of the new gallery). The new gallery's plans will be there for the public to view. Look out for the BACCI tent.

Growing sculptures

Joy Flight, Forced Landing, a steel replica of a paper plane (?) by Geoffrey Farquhar from Canberra, has crash-landed in a tree at the Thursday Plantation sculpture park. Don King from WHK Rutherfords (in tree), founder of TP Health Christopher Dean (front) and Dev Lengiel are trying to untangle it in time for the 10th anniversary East Coast Sculpture Show.

The 10th Thursday Plantation East Coast Sculpture Show opens this Saturday, September 17.

To celebrate its first decade, this year's Thursday Plantation show will feature 43 new works by the show's previous winners. Since it began, the show has hosted over 700 works by 400 artists, many of them from the Northern Rivers.

The show's opening day runs from 12-5pm, with entertainment by the Willow Neilson Quartet and singer Gyan. The awards ceremony is at 2pm. Visitors are welcome to bring a picnic or to lunch at the Verandah Café.

Entry is $5 including a catalogue and a chance to win season tickets to the Woodford Folk Festival.

The sculpture show continues every day from 9am-5pm until January 31 next year.

For information phone Priya Woolston on 6686 7273 or visit the website at www.sculptureshow.net.

Dramatic Kids

The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy has qualified teachers who understand that drama develops communication and teamwork in kids. Enrolments are now open for term four with three levels of classes for children aged 5-16.

Plays are especially written for the Academy ensuring that everyone has a speaking part in the production.

Classes are held weekly after school and on Saturday mornings.

For more info phone Stephen and Christine Holmes on 6681 3132.

This striking artwork is called Reach for the Stars and is part of Catherine Flint's exhibition at Caddies Coffee Shop in Lismore. The paintings are on display until September 30.

Importance of getting a ticket

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde has been playing to big houses at the Rochdale Theatre in Goonellabah over the last few weeks. This is its final week and tickets are going fast.

You can catch this play this Friday and Saturday, September 16-17, at the Rochdale Theatre. Tickets are $15/12 and are available from Caddies Bean Shop in Lismore.

For more info phone Jennie on 6687 9167.

Koori films

The Lismore Film Society presents an Indigenous film night next Friday, September 23, at the Campus Central Union building at SCU in Lismore.

Christine Devine will show her latest film about Lismore's Indigenous hair salon. Also showing is Women of the Reeds, which won the local WOW film contest two years ago.

Entry is $5/3 (includes nibblies). And the bar will be open.For more info phone Christine on 0402 697 791.

Nunn but the best

Is it poetry? Or song? Well, both. Graham Nunn and Simon Sheehy do some poetry and music at the recent Byron Writers' Festival. They'll bring their hybrid brand of poetry to Lismore next Wednesday.

Next Wednesday, September 21, the Rous Hotel in Lismore turns into poetry central when the monthly celebration of words, the Live Poets!, features the wordy talents of Graham Nunn.

Graham is director of the Queensland Poetry Festival, which has just concluded, and he's also the founder of the newest poetry sensation in Brisbane, the Speedpoets, who deliver short, sharp readings with musical accompaniment.

Graham Nunn will perform with guitarist/poet Simon Sheehy.

Open readings are always on the metaphoric menu. $6/4 gets you in.

For more info phone David on 6688 6485.

Freebie: The Echo has a double pass to give away to some lucky reader. To go in the draw to win phone 6622 2888 between 10.15 & 10.30am next Monday, September 19, and tell us which word, rhyming with Hallett, is great for hitting things.

Connors - a little further North Coast

Graeme Connors, a hatless shining light of Aussie country music, demonstrates the denim-jacket-with-rolled-up-shirt-cuffs look he has especially adopted for his upcoming Lismore gig.

12 albums, 13 Golden Guitars, 12 Tamworth Songwriter Awards, Two MO Awards and an ARIA Award... Graeme Connors has achieved deserved recognition for his talent - writing songs. Since his first album North in 1988 with its hit single A Little Further North, Connors has explored many aspects of his songwriting art. He is labelled as a country star but in reality his music is far too diverse in style and content to really be confined by such labels.

His latest live show is called Graeme Connors... In a Different Light and will shine on the North Coast next Tuesday, September 20, at the Lismore Workers Club from 8pm.

Set in Graeme's 'inner sanctum' with his writing desk, guitar, piano and a window to the world, the show is a journey into the creative process. Connors is a compelling storyteller and this two-hour performance brings familiar songs from his huge catalogue to the stage.

Tickets are $27.50 and available from the venue (6621 7401).

Funny Looking Funk

Featuring at the Jazz & Blues night at the Rous Hotel in Lismore next Tuesday, September 20, is Nick Gibbs and Other Funny Looking Things. This is a dance band containing members of some of the coolest bands in the area (like Zoe Kalenderidis from Zoe and the Soul Triggers).

With original music that Nick has been refining for the last five years and a stack of rarely heard covers from the last 35 years, Nick and Other Funny Looking Things will take the punter to musical worlds filled with rhythm, soul, jazz, reggae, funk - just great music.

The gig starts at 8.30pm and costs $5.

Rock fishing

Rock and roll is a bloody business. Rock surgeons Sleigor Trout sliced up the opposition in the SCU final of the National Campus Band Competition.

Sleigor Trout won the SCU final of the National Campus Band Competition last Thursday against an impressive array of acts that had won their positions in the final through hard-fought victories in a series of heats, which have been entertaining punters at the UniBar in Lismore.

Lismore-based Sleigor Trout formed in 2003, morphing through a series of line-ups until this present combination launched their first album Swimming Dementia in March this year.

With their colourful and flamboyant on-stage antics and their distinctive music (a sort of heavy metal meets circus) Sleigor Trout are off to Townsville this Friday, September 16, to represent this area in the state finals. (Oh, didn't you know that Lismore is now in Queensland?)

Congratulations boys, do us proud.

You can grab a copy of Swimming Dementia from Music Bizarre in Lismore.

Real country energy

Artist Digby Moran will exhibit his works and expose his love of country at the Lismore Regional Gallery.

Artist and Bundjalung man Digby Moran will present his latest exhibition Energy of the Earth at the Lismore Regional Gallery from September 23 until October 22.

The exhibition will be opened by Digby's uncle, Uncle Charles Moran - a Bundjalung Elder - on Friday, September 23, at 5.30pm. The Widjibul Dancers and the Widjibul Jahgoon band will perform.

As well as Digby's paintings there'll be a continuous screening of Shar Hill People of the Reeds - a documentary about the Cabbage Tree Island women. Digby was raised at the Cabbage Tree Island mission and many of his paintings reflect his early life there. His love for his country and the Bundjalung heritage is evident in his work. And his work has taken him far from that little island in the Richmond River.

He had a solo show last year at the Museum Hamlen, at the Berlin Aboriginal Art Gallery in 2001 and 2002, and at the New Media Art Gallery in Vienna, Austria, in 2003.

For more info phone the gallery on 6622 2209.

Sensuous shapes

This is a painting by Polly Floyd called In The Garden and is part of her exhibition now showing in Evans Head. (My garden bed - or even bed - should look so good.)

The human body is beautiful. Despite commercially inspired versions of the idealised body and the cheap soft porn of 'sex sells' retailing, the lines and shapes of the human body resonate within us and create an internal warmth.

Polly Floyd celebrates the human form in her paintings. As a refugee from down south now living in Tregeagle, she explores the nude in her first exhibition since her northern arrival - Nudes: Exploring Human Form - at the Paperbark Gallery in Evans Head (in the Arts and Industry Estate).

Polly doesn't use models but draws on her knowledge of anatomy and human shape. She is intrigued by the subtle shift of position or shadow and the different meanings this conveys. Polly's use of colour in oils and pastels elicits a sensuality that is bold in some works, subtle in others.

Nudes: Exploring Human Form is currently showing and will run until next Friday, September 23.

For more information phone 6682 5188.

Peace, Man

Jack Thompson will take part in the Byron Peace Carnival this weekend - along with speakers, dancers, musos, skydivers - all peace lovin' people.

The Byron Peace Carnival is on this weekend, September 16-18. There's heaps of family activities and entertainments - all with the inspiring purpose of spreading peace.

This Friday, September 16, the Bangalow A&I Hall will fill with music and dance as the tribes gather to celebrate peace at the PeaceLovers MoonDance. No self respecting earth fairy, nature spirit or peace lover should miss it. Tickets are $15/10 and are available from Music @ Byron or at the door.

Then on Saturday, September 17, from 2-5pm, YouthSpeak4Peace will provide a forum for youth to speak about peace. Two bands, Power Slam and Atlantic from the Byron hardcore contingent, will join Mullum's Grass-roots Street Orchestra (fronted by Surya - Master of the Lyrical Word). The Byron Youth Services will have their Humanitarian Tipi set up with plenty of info on their eco-activism program. Local dance troupes will also be breaking and shaking some energy into the day.

The World Peace Flame will be the focus of the Byron Peace Carnival prayer vigil and concert for peace on Saturday evening. The World Peace Flame will be ceremonially welcomed at Byron Bay's Butler Street Peace Park from sunset this Saturday, September 17. Special guests will share inspiration in speech and song.

At sunrise this Sunday, September 18, the Elco Island Dancers from Arnhem Land will perform a Morning Star ceremony as part of EarthDance, with everyone dancing for peace at Main Beach. This Sunday at 9am people will paddle out from Main Beach and create a circle for peace as part of the Peace Paddle Out. Bring your friends and favourite ocean craft (maybe not a jet-ski).

Later, The Big Flag Flight will start at 11am. A huge rainbow peace dove flag will descend to Main Beach with a spectacular display of skydiving signalling the start of the Peace Carnival Parade. The parade will be led by the Samba Blisstas drumming troupe.

At 12.30pm on Sunday at Butler Street Peace Park it's time for Celebrate4Peace - a program of entertainment and speeches - with Jack Thompson speaking and a feast of music.

Then at 7pm that night there will be Films4Peace - a festival of short films by local filmmakers, including clips of Michael Franti in Byron, the Venus Transit, Wollumbin, Two Visions For Tasmania, and a preview of The Gathering.

For more info phone 6684 7579.

Social Clubbin'

This Sunday, September 18, the Byron Vista Social Club starts a new season at Ewingsdale Hall. Featuring this Sunday is Daevid Allen - a globe-trotting poet who is well known worldwide for his many appearances and recordings with legendary band Gong over the decades. Also performing are Janey Conway (from the famous Conway family), singer/songwriter Fintan, Jera from the Iona group, songstress Gabi Bliss and the venerable Mook and Shanto.

Entry is $10 and the gig starts at 8pm.

Anyone wanting to perform and record their original music with the Byron Vista Social Club should phone 0402 934 109 for a booking.