Mister Brisbane: It's life, but not as we know it
Baking bread, looking back and looking online
A lot of people are feeling a sense of nostalgia for a time when we’d mix freely with our neighbours, children could play in the backyard, and we’d go to the beach on the weekend. So much for a month ago. This week I’ll be serving up fresh bread along with some blasts from the past and news you can use.
BREAD, BUT NO CIRCUS
So, I made some bread. It’ actually not difficult but you do have to set aside enough time (which isn’t difficult for those in self-isolation), have the right ingredients (d’uh), and carefully follow a good recipe. Here’s a link to the recipe I used. The kneading bit is important; if your arms aren’t aching, you’re not doing it properly. You’ll have to convert it to metric, so you use 7 grams of yeast and bake it at 190 deg Celsius. I’m happy with the result, but I’ll probably use another recipe next time for comparison sake. There are plenty of recipes online and, if you choose a reputable website, you should get something that looks and tastes like actual bread. A note of caution: it’s not necessarily the cheap option, because the ingredients are expensive. However, baking bread can be therapeutic and useful at a time of shortages.
BILLY ON THE BOIL …
Billy Bragg, who is one of my favourite performers, has confirmed that his Australia/ New Zealand tour is off, but he’s hoping to reschedule for early next year. Given the Brisbane gigs were sold out — I’m on the waiting list (or at least I was ) — maybe he’ll add more dates or perform in bigger venues. Bu it’s not just about Billy. At the time of writing almost all entertainment, from the soloist at your local club to stadium gigs, is cancelled at least until May. If you want to know what’s not on, here are links for QPAC, the Brisbane Powerhouse, the Brisbane Convention Centre and Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Oh, and if you’re able to, you can support individual artists and groups that rely on performing to earn a living through various online fund-raising initiatives. One that I’m supporting is the Queensland chapter of the Actors’ and Entertainers’ Benevolent Fund.
STREAM SCENE
If the free-to-air TV offering is leaving you cold during these lonely days at home, perhaps it’s worth investing in a streaming service or two. We’re all familiar with Netflix, Stan, Prime, Disney+ etc, but if you’re a theatre fan, and you don’t already know about Broadway HD, you may care to check it out. It features musicals ranging from Oklahoma! to Sweeney Todd to Jerry Springer The Opera, to drama, from Shakespeare to Coward to Tennessee Williams, and ballet. At the moment, it’s offering a one-week free trial. Details here. If your fancy turns to Shakespeare performances recorded at the Globe in Stratford-upon-Avon, here’s another streaming option.
Note: I haven’t signed up yet, partly because that might put an end to work that I have to do, so I can’t vouch that these services work properly and legally in Australia.
Here’s something you can binge on for free: A Country Practice on 7Plus. The first two series of the (mostly) feel-good 1980s soapie are online now. Spoiler: don’t get too fond of Molly.
YESTERDAY’S VIEWS
I’ve decided to delve into my blog archives to see if anything is worth repeating. Perhaps they aren’t worth repeating, but here are some of things that were on my mind back in March, 2007. Some of the irritations mentioned are still irritating.
A sign in a pub I've been known to frequent warns that it is an offence to serve liquor to “unduly” intoxicated people (my emphasis). Some mates and I chewed this over and decided that the sign must refer to the two-pot screamers. If you stay there all day and get quietly stewed, you could be said to be duly intoxicated, and they’ll keep ’em coming.
I’m sure there are many responsible bicycle riders out there; I just haven’t encountered any recently. This morning I almost got skittled* by two cyclists while I was crossing at pedestrian lights on Bowen Bridge Road (conveniently near the Royal Brisbane Hospital). Apparently they thought they were entitled to ride on the road but didn’t feel the red lights applied to them. One of them then decided he’d use the footpath. Never mind that there’s a dedicated bike path just one street over.
* A word much-loved by my father, meaning run over.“It ended up being great because it was a good adventure.” So said actor Rob Morrow after Ski Patrol members had to rescue him along with Chad Lowe and Fisher Stevens when they got lost in fog and snow on an unfamiliar mountain. I wonder whether the members of the patrol who risked their own safety to find the errant actors felt it was a “good adventure” too?
I would not make a very good supermarket shelf-stacker. Why? Because it would be my inclination to put all like items together. Apparently that’s not the way to do it. In a nearby Coles, you can find peanuts in three different places; in a specialty supermarket near me, they separate the ordinary products from the “special” varieties, even if they are the essentially the same thing. The customer may always be right, but obviously there’s no motto that means they should make it easy for us.
It happened to Superman a few years back, but he got better. Now another comic-book superhero, Captain America, also known as Steve Rogers, is dead - killed by a sniper’s bullet. What’s the bet somebody else will pick up the star-spangled shield and continue to fight the good fight?
Are ties sexy? Probably. I hardly wear them any more, and I always seem to get these things wrong.
Well done to Spencer Howson, who this morning on 612ABC caught out would-be education minister Stephen Smith for not knowing the difference between “less” and “fewer”. Now, can we move on to Brisbane City Council and ask why the public transport services that run along the northern bypass are called “Buz”? Why not use a proper word?
A colleague in her twenties farewelled me today with the term “hooroo”. It’s been decades since I’ve heard that jolly Australianism, and it made me wonder: is language, like fashion and music, cyclical?
