Mister Brisbane: The friend zone
Secret museums | Uber and out | Breen's scene | QSO for You | Language police
Mister Brisbane acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we live and work and pays respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. NAIDOC Week 2020, from Nov 8-15, carries the theme “always was, always will be”, and it recognises that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this continent for more than 65,000 years. Click here for more information about events during the week.
MEET AND GREET
As they say on the internet, I’m asking this for a friend: Where does one go to meet someone in Brisbane these days? I was going to say “hook up”, but that phrase apparently has a newer, more specific meaning than it did when I was growing up.
Now, I want to make it clear that I am talking about two separate things: where do people who already know each other arrange to meet, and where do strangers who want to meet a like-minded person go for a possible friendly or romantic encounter? In the first instance, the answer might once have been the Courier-Mail clock in the Queen Street Mall (although my memory of this clock’s existence may be faulty) or, because its advertising is so pervasive and persuasive, at a Coffee Club outlet. But there must be other places.
On the second matter, I know that more and more people are meeting online — I’ve done it myself — but at some point, if they both want to, the parties have to go somewhere to meet in person. So, where do they do that, particularly when safety may be an issue? And where do people who haven’t already made an arrangement go on the chance of meeting the love of their life? Again, I’m just asking for a friend.
Join Brett Debritz and Spencer Howson for the Mister Brisbane show on Reading Radio at 1296AM or DAB+ in Brisbane on Tuesdays at 6.30pm, Wednesdays at 4am and 7am, Fridays at 4am, Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 5pm. It is also available as a podcast on popular platforms including Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts.
GALLERIES GALORE
We all know about the Queensland Museum and maybe the Museum of Brisbane, but the capital has more than a few other niche museums with which you may not be familiar. During a wander through the city last week, my friend and podcast co-host Spencer Howson snapped this photo leading the way to the little-known Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying. We also have the Police Museum in the city, the Queensland Maritime Museum at South Bank, the 9th Battalions War Memorial Museum at Enoggera, the Army Museum at Petrie Terrace, the Brisbane Tramway Museum at Ferny Grove, the Griffith University Art Museum at South Bank, the Mater Archive and Heritage Centre in South Brisbane, Newstead House in Newstead, the Samford District Historical Museum, the Sandgate & District Historical Society and Museum, and the Scouts Queensland Heritage Centre in Samford. And the University of Queensland campus at St Lucia has an Art Museum, a Classics and Ancient History Museum, an Anthropology Museum and a Physics Museum and perhaps a few others.
Have I missed any?
P.S. When we consider the whole state of Queensland, there are dozens of museums and galleries dedicated to everything from peanuts to vintage aircraft. Here’s a story I wrote about them for InQueensland.
RADIO WAVES
I’ve written many times about the great mystery of radio: why the commercial talk format, which has been a winner elsewhere in Australia, hasn’t really worked in Brisbane in recent years or decades. I may have to revise my opinion on the matter, because it looks like 4BC is starting to prove me and the other “experts” wrong. In the radio ratings survey released last week, 4BC and especially its breakfast host Neil Breen (pictured, below) had a bonza result. Breen, who replaced the networked Alan Jones show, catapulted to number 2 in the early-morning shift, with the station overall overtaking the ABC and giving the FM music stations a good run for their money. I should, of course, point out that Nova 106.9FM is the no. 1 station overall, and leads in the important drive and breakfast shifts.
The result bears greater analysis than I have space for here, but it’s been undoubtedly assisted by those talkback staples of politics and sport, with the lead-up to a state election and a couple of grand finals included in the survey period (which ended on October 24, the day of the AFL deciders and one week before Queenslanders went to the polls). Undoubtedly it’s also been helped by the fact that Breen and his colleagues, including sports guy Peter Psaltis, traffic reporter Olympia Kwitowski, drive host Scott Emerson and, more recently, mid-afternoon host Bill McDonald, plus a production team lead by Max Dudley and including Breen’s executive producer Karryn Wheelans, are based in studios in suburban Brisbane rather than in Sydney. Local and relevant radio is the winner.
UBER AND OUT
I’ve been catching a lot of Ubers lately and while the service has been mostly good, I had a strange experience one morning last week. I was searching for a car about 8.30am, and was even prepared to pay surge pricing which meant it would be almost twice as expensive as the same trip a little later in the day. The car the app found was 11 minutes away. Then it was 12 minutes away, then 13 … I noticed that the driver, who had accepted the ride, was ignoring the suggested routes and was driving along roads that were heading inbound, even though I was in the other direction.
For a while I thought that perhaps he (“Garry”) was just using major roads that he knew rather than the backroads that would’ve got him to my place faster and more directly. It was only when he turned on to a main arterial directly into the flow of peak-hour traffic heading towards the CBD that I cancelled the trip. It had been a complete waste of my time as it was clear Garry had no intention of coming to get me. Yet he hadn’t cancelled out of the job — I had to do that.
The upside is that by this time it was 8.45am and the next trip was quoted at the normal rate, and the driver was wonderful. However, I really want to know what Garry was up to. Was he hedging his bets with me on Uber while, perhaps, also operating on Didi or Ola, and had decided to take the other ride instead? The upshot is that while ride-share is a wonderful advance on taxis in terms of providing customer information, it can also be extremely frustrating when the driver does the wrong thing and it’s there for you to see.
THE REAL DEAL?
Something that happened the other day reminded me of the old story about the 200-year-old axe that had only had four new handles and three new blades. The prompt was a news story revealing that musician Brian Wilson had objected to his cousin Mike Love playing at a campaign event for Donald Trump and billing the band as The Beach Boys. It’s been a long-running dispute since Love acquired the rights to tour as The Beach Boys even though none of his band’s members apart from him were actually part of the original classic line-up (above) of Wilson and his now-deceased brothers Carl and Dennis, Love and their school friend Al Jardine, who also disavowed the Trump gig. Brian Wilson’s opinion on the issue is relevant because there would be no chart-topping band without him. He wrote their really huge hits, sometimes with Love but also on his own and with other collaborators, and produced most of their albums.
The situation is not unique. In a deal they came to regret, Australia’s Little River Band — which was formed when Glenn Shorrock, Graeham Goble, Beeb Birtles, Ric Formosa, Roger McLachlan and Derek Pellicci got together in 1975 — sold the rights to their name to Stephen Housden, who joined in 1981. Since 2006, Housden no longer even tours with the band even though it still performs across America, where the original line-up had great success. In 2015, the new LRB fronted by Wayne Nelson, celebrated the 40th anniversary of the band’s formation despite none of the people on stage being original members. Back in Australia Shorrock and co. couldn’t even be inducted into the Hall of Fame under the Little River Band name.
Over the years, many acts have replaced members who’ve left or died, or have had acrimonious splits which, in the case of The Angels, briefly saw two versions touring the same material and claiming authenticity. I find this interesting because, for example, nobody would accept it if four blokes got together and called themselves The Beatles, even if they had the blessing of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
I’m going to risk the wrath of social media and nail my pedantry credentials to the wall. In a recent tweet, Channel 10 described Victoria Derby Day as “very unique”. In my book (which is a dictionary that actually stands its ground on word meanings), something that is unique is a one of a kind. There are no degrees of uniqueness; something either is unique or it isn’t. Why is this important? Because if we accept that “unique” is interchangeable with plain old “rare” or “unusual”, then we’ve lost a powerful word from our vocabulary. Instead of one word, we’ll have to use three or four to convey the same meaning. And if you tell me that it’s too late, then I refuse to listen to you.
P.S. There’s a bloke I know and like but his social media posts disturb me. Now I’m prone to the odd typo myself, but after following him for more than a year I’m now convinced that he simply doesn’t know (or, worse, doesn’t care about) the difference between it’s and its.
P.P.S. Spencer saw this Brisbane City Council poster (above) in the CBD, and asks how expensive it would have been to add the “ly” to “local”.
MEANWHILE …
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s We’re Sharing The Joy program will see QSO musicians play private performances for “unsuspecting but deserving Queenslanders”. If you know a Queenslander who loves orchestral music and deserves a personal performance, visit the QSO website to nominate them for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Jimmy Barnes will be performing and a host of local celebs will be hosting and taking donations when the Channel 9 Telethon screens on Saturday, November 14 from 3pm on Nine and 9Now. Funds raised will help the Children’s Hospital Foundation, and you can show your support by visiting the website, 9telethon.com.au.
FEEDBACK
On the subject of Guy Fawkes, Kathryn simply said, “I loved Cracker Night”, while Maria said it was “dangerous but exciting”, and Peter noted, “I remember well the news reports on the casualty toll the day after.” David remembered how a stray Jumping Jack found its way into a box of fireworks and they all went off at once.
Regarding books and films and podcasts being way too long these days, Philip responded with a dose of sarcasm: “I agree. I'm reading this Homer guy and he just goes on and on and on. Don’t even get me started on Milton. Surely Finnegan’s Wake could have been a comic book. Yep, give me the good old days when things were short.”