Mister Brisbane: Festive feelings
Warana revisited? | Just the news | GoMA coup | Past vision
How do you program a city-wide celebration at a time when travel and social gatherings are highly restricted? That was the dilemma faced by Louise Bezzina and the creative team at the Brisbane Festival, and it looks to me like they’ve done a pretty good job of it. It’s true that some events, including the highly anticipated stage adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe, have been postponed or cancelled, and big-name international acts are missing. But the good news is that the festival is allowing local artists to shine — and providing many of them with much-needed work. Much of the festival action will take place at South Bank Parklands, where the Australasian Dance Collective will present its performance piece, Arc, in the open air at River Quay, Camerata will play classical music on the Rainforest Green, and there’ll be a sound installation along the Rainforest Walk. Also on the program are a laser and light show, performances in suburban cul-de-sacs and roving entertainers around the city. And we’ll see an installation by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, the man behind the famous giant Rubber Duck that did the rounds a few years ago. From Friday until the end of the month, six giant Gouldian Finches (there’s one above) will be perched around the city for us to see.
For me, the emphasis on outdoor spaces and audience engagement is a little reminiscent of Warana, which the Brisbane Festival replaced in 1996. I said at the time that, while I welcomed a festival including international performers we wouldn’t otherwise see, I missed the community feel of Warana. Maybe we don’t want boy scouts and brass bands marching through the city streets any more (even if we could have them in the time of Covid-19), but many people do want to be involved in celebrating their own city. They don’t only want to be passive audience members, they want to participate!
The full festival program is here.
The Mister Brisbane radio show with Spencer Howson and Brett Debritz is now on Reading Radio on Tuesdays at 6.30pm, and as a podcast on iTunes here and Google Podcasts here.
NO COMMENT
Also on social media, I speculated whether newspapers would attract more subscribers if they produced a “comment-free” edition. The idea, which runs counter to accepted wisdom that opinions create discussion and attract attention, would be to publish a paper that included just straight news, presented with no agenda. However, the proposal raises the questions: Is opinion a vital part of news? and Is total objectivity even possible?
DO ADS WORK?
The role of advertising is, of course, to sell products. But what happens when you remember the ad but not the product? For example, I know that there’s an amusing ad that features the song Call Me Maybe, and that it’s for a car. But I can’t for the life of me remember what brand or model of car it is. Apparently this is a common phenomenon. Many popular and award-winning commercials have ultimately been failures because they didn’t convert into sales. This got me thinking: has there ever been an advertisement that has made me say to myself, “Yes, I must go out immediately and avail myself of that product or service”? Nothing comes immediately to mind. But, then again, maybe advertising is more subtle than that, and the memory of the commercial kicks in when I’m in a position to buy and have a choice of products.
BLASTS FROM THE PAST
My latest column for InQueensland is about John Power, the man digitising the Channel 7 Brisbane film and video archive. The story notes that many great TV programs, including about 100 episodes of the classic BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, are still missing. However, episodes of shows including A Country Practice (below), Wombat and Blue Heelers have been saved. The story also notes that many old shows that have survived can’t be played again because of complicated rights issues. Which shows from the past would you like to see again if they were available?
PS: A correspondent informs me that the reason one other Brisbane commercial station doesn’t have a similar archive to Seven’s is that they put them in a shipping container and left it outdoors on the helipad. The temperature inside the container fried the lot.
BIRTHDAY BLUES
I’m celebrating a “significant” birthday late this year and want to organise some kind of celebration. But how to do that in the age of Covid? Is it foolish to plan too far ahead? I don’t really want to have a big party, but right now it’s a leap of faith to even confidently plan a small get-together for November. What venues will be open? What size gatherings will be allowed? Will people still want to come out and play? Maybe I should forget about it for now and wing it when the big day gets nearer and things become clearer.
ATHENS OR BUST
Not long after writing my piece last week about the “Paris of the East” and the “Brisbane of the West”, I heard on television — quite possibly on Hard Quiz — that Atlanta aspires to be the “Venice of the South”. A Google search comes up with other contenders, including both Fort Lauderdale and Winter Park in Florida, Sitangkai in The Philippines, Nashville in Tennessee, and Fremantle, Western Australia. Meanwhile, Vilnius, Lithuania is the “Athens of the North”; Madurai, India is the “Athens of the East”; and Columbus, Indiana and Lexington, Kentucky are both the “Athens of West”. Confusingly, Boston, Massachusetts, is the “Athens of America” and Fayetteville, Arkansas is the “Athens of the Ozarks”. It’s all so complicated.
MEANWHILE…
In a coup for Brisbane, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) will host the European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York from June 12 to October 17 next year.
Opera Queensland has posted more than 100 episodes of its Aria A Day videos, featuring some brilliant performers and wide repertoire of music. Check it out here.
FEEDBACK
Regarding the item on dealing with cane toads, Jan said she put them into the fridge for half an hour, then transferred them to the freezer. But she agreed that she didn’t see very many now. Anne wrote: “I used to catch them in old ice cream tubs and pop them straight into the freezer. A day or so later, the tub and toad would go into the bin. It was a great excuse to eat a lot of ice cream.”