Mister Brisbane: On the beach
Coming to you this week from the Gold Coast
I’ve been to scores of countries around the world. I’ve lived in China, Thailand, Scotland, England and the UAE, spent significant amounts of time in some fairly obscure places, and flown or sailed to dozens of desirable destinations. I’ve been to the Costa del Sol, Cannes and the Caribbean; Bondi, Blackpool and Ban Phe. But when I think of the word “holiday”, I think of Queensland’s Gold Coast. And when I think of the Gold Coast, I think of Currumbin Beach. Why? Because that’s where my family has holidayed just about every year, from well before I was born, back to when my mother was a child. So when intrastate travel became permitted again, it was a non-brainer that I and other members of my family would want to stay somewhere facing that stretch of golden sand between Currumbin Rock and Elephant Rock. And that’s where I am as I type these words.
Do you have a special place?
FESTIVAL REBOOTED
Alliance Française French Film Festival will be resuming its 31st season on Bastille Day, July 14, and run until August 4, at Palace Cinemas in Brisbane and other venues around Australia. According to the media release, “all participating cinemas will be adhering to strict social distancing and hygiene standards throughout the Festival in line with COVID-19 safety protocols”.
It continues: “Two outstanding films, which embody the spirit of optimism and reinvention, have been selected to bookend our July re-launch. For this incarnation of the Festival, first night audiences will be treated to the much fêted La Belle Époque, starring acting great Daniel Auteuil [below] as Victor, a disillusioned man who is given the opportunity to recreate the great love-affair of his youth in the hope that it can restore his future, whilst The Bare Necessity (Perdrix), a whimsical tale of a family forced to re-evaluate their stagnant ways and finally live life to the fullest, will bid adieu to the 2020 season.”
You can find the full program here.
SUCCESS STORY
Described as the “Airbnb of dinner parties”, Gathar is an online platform that “matches chefs, cooks and grazing table stylists with people who love to entertain, but don’t love the hard work that comes with it”. Customers choose a menu and a Gathar team member comes to them to cook, serve and wash up after. It’s the brainchild of Central Queensland University Cairns graduate Jodie Mlikota, who started it as a uni project and now has a business that has attracted $600,000 in seed funding and operates in 10 markets, including Brisbane. Details here.
FEEDBACK
Last week I confessed to overindulgence during the pandemic and asked people here and on social media whether hunkering down had been good or bad for their health. Here are some of the responses:
Meg: “I’ve slacked off too, Brett, and I was already slack about formal exercise and dieting. Also, started shutdown with lots of home baking! If it weren’t for big gardening projects, I’d have put on more than a couple of kilos...”
Brian: “I have failed repeatedly in my duty to maintain “social distance” from the fridge and the liquor cabinet. On the other hand my lady wife and I have been walking, at least five days a week.”
Jill: “Bad. I've been baking...and eating!”
Jason: “It’s been a cycling godsend. Just rolled over 10,000km for the year.”
Graeme: “…exercise type stuff in the mornings. Afternoons and evenings are dedicated to snacking and cider.”
MEANWHILE…
Queensland Theatre’s latest Play Club, at 7.30 tonight (June 23), features Violette Ayad, Nicole Hoskins, Thomas Larkin, Barb Lowing, Brian Lucas and Andrea Moor, under the direction of Daniel Evans, in a live reading of The Turquoise Elephant by Stephen Carleton over Zoom. Details here. Meanwhile, QT has announced that Steve Pirie has won the 2020-21 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award for his play, Return to the Dirt, which will feature in its season next year.
If you read my recent article for InQueensland, you’d know all about the Drama Merchant’s mission to bring back radio plays. If you didn’t, you can read it here. And if you want to read and hear more, you can check out Nathan Schulz’s Drama Merchant website here.
While others are trying to make social distancing work in theatre spaces, Andrew Lloyd Webber is hoping to reopen his London Palladium at full capacity using a range of measures, including enhanced hygiene procedures and temperature checks of everyone before they can enter the venue. Whether the authorities and audiences will be comfortable with this remains to be seen.
Over on Facebook, my friend Noel says Grinders at Woolloongabba has “the best cold press ever”. A big call. Do you have a favourite coffee shop and/or a caffeinated brew that never lets you down?
The Cosmopolitan Cafe in Fortitude Valley had the best coffee I've ever encountered - the best in the world (and I've supped on superb coffee from Venice to Paris - I won't go into the nasty slop I got in Vegas). The Cosmo coffee was very popular with the journalists at the Sunday Sun. As a copyboy for that paper, I was constantly there getting takeaways for the likes of David Bentley and Terry Shanahan. They also had coffee beans they would ground on the premises and sell you (the real stuff - not these silly pod things). I know Mister Brisbane is a fan of Starbucks (and, hell, if you like something, there ain't nothing wrong with that) but I'm not - I prefer real coffee. Is the Cosmo still there? I haven't ventured into the Valley for about 20 years.