Mister Brisbane: Puppy love
Do dogs even care? Cashless society. Radio musical chairs. What's cooking?
As I write this, the neighbours’ dog (not pictured) is howling, presumably because they’ve gone out and it thinks they’re not coming back. A few days ago, a woman on the telly said dogs were her favourite animals because they showed us true love. These two things are related, because it’s my assertion that dogs don’t love us; they simply show us affection because they need us to feed them and otherwise care for them. Unlike in a true love scenario, they don’t get any choice but to stick with the person who “adopts” them. And, of course, we often cut them off from the company of their own species. If you could ask a dog whether it would rather stick with a human or run with the pack, as they once did, I think most would choose the latter.
Disclosure: I’m a cat person.
CINEMA: TOO SOON?
Some people are saying that the coronavirus has ushered in the beginning of the end for cinemas. Of course, picture palaces have been written off before (TV was supposed to kill them 60 years ago), but is it different this time? If push came to shove, I think I could live without going to the cinema. I like movies, and I certainly like heritage theatres, but right now I won’t be rushing out to see a film on a big screen in a modern multiplex among noisy and annoying strangers. I’ll stay at home and view it on my own device as soon as I can legally do so. Tell me why I’m wrong about this.
STATIONS REBOOT
The re-localisation of Radio 4BC has continued with the appointment of Scott Emerson as Drive time announcer. As Nine Radio’s press release puts it, “Emerson began his career as a cadet journalist with ABC News. He went on to help launch Triple J radio in Queensland before taking on senior reporting and presenting roles with the AM, PM and World Today programs. He later joined News Corp as The Australian’s Queensland bureau chief and State political editor. More recently Emerson has been a regular Queensland contributor on Sky News.” Of course, it’s his role as a former minister in the Campbell Newman LNP government that might raise some eyebrows in a Queensland election year. I hope, and expect, that Emerson and his producer Max Dudley will give a fair hearing to all sides.
Meanwhile, Graham “Snowy” Snow, a one-time executive producer of Triple M’s Big Breakfast and Grill Team brekkie shows, has taken over from Dudley as EP of The Big Breakfast with Marto, Margaux and Nick Cody. Snow (above) is Brisbane born and bred and has a passion for rugby league and rock music. “While most kids spent their Saturday mornings watching cartoons, we spent ours sitting around the kitchen table listening to the Triple M sports round up,” Snow said in a media release. “Trips to the Ekka always involved a trip to the Triple M showbag stand so we could replace our cooler bag and stubby cooler from the previous year.” Snow rejoins the Ms after three years at Fox Sports Queensland and a bit of travelling. “Returning to Triple M really does feel like coming home. Anyone who has been lucky enough to work there will tell you that it really is like a massive family,” he said.
LA BOITE BIRTHDAY
Happy birthday to the Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society, which will turn 95 on July 31. You may know it better as La Boite, the name it adopted when its members built their first theatre-in-the-round venue on Hale Street in Milton. Now resident at the Roundhouse in Kelvin Grove, the company is in hibernation due to the pandemic, but it has big plans for next year. It has also put together a great resource for those interested not only in La Boite’s own history, but the history of theatre in Brisbane. La Boite’s website also features details of the HWY program to support theatre-makers through paid commissions and seed funding, for which applications close on July 27.
BUSH WEDDING
They’re based in Nashville, but one half of O’Shea hails from Dalby, so Queenslanders can claim the award-winning musical duo as our own. Mark and Jay O’Shea’s new single, Bridezilla (It Only Gets Better), is available on Spotify and Apple Music. It follows a string of country-pop hits including Say Nothin’, Karaoke and Corona, Parade, Bad Day Good and The Truth Walks Slowly. You can find out more about them here.
MONEY MATTERS
A few people on Facebook have been complaining about stores that no longer accepted cash, and suggest that we boycott such places. I hold another view. It’s your right to go elsewhere if you want to use cash, but I can fully understand why businesses — especially small businesses — would not want to deal with notes and coins, and not just because of the risk of coronavirus cross infection. Every since we stopped getting paid in cash, paper money and coins haven’t made any sense at all. As consumers we have to go to a machine or a bank to get cash, and handling cash, counting it and banking it is an added nuisance and expense (which gets passed on to us) for businesses. Holding cash also makes businesses targets for armed robbers. Swiping a card is much easier and safer. And before you start the Big Brother stuff, bear in mind that we’re being filmed when we go to the ATM and the bank, and that cash is traceable through serial numbers and security features built into the notes. Roll on the cashless society, I say.
SEE IT … IN PERSON!
As the city begins to emerge from lockdown, it’s possible to actually go out and be entertained. How exciting!
The Alliance Française French Film Festival starts today, July 14, at the Palace cinemas. Details are here.
The Sit Down Comedy Club at the Paddington Tavern has recommenced live performances under Covid-safe conditions. The next show, on Friday, July 17, stars Kat Davidson with Mike Van Acker, Matt Ford, Shayne Hunter and Jayde O’Brien. Book here.
The Brisbane Arts Theatre is staging The Last Tango in Little Grimley and The Last Panto in Little Grimley from Friday, July 17. Audience limits apply. Details here.
It’s the one with the rescheduled dates. A bit further down the track, Friends the Musical Parody will play at the Tivoli in Fortitude Valley from November 19-21. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster.
PASSING THE TIME
A friend posted about renewing her passport and it gave me an idea. For those of us with passports that are full or about to expire, now is the perfect time to renew. I imagine the passport office is far from busy right now, but that will change as soon as overseas travel is allowed again. If you’re a traveller like me, where do you want to go first when restrictions are lifted?
FEEDBACK
On my comments about butter a couple of editions ago, Warren notes: “I hate those little hard as a rock butter bricks you get in motels. I usually go commando instead of destroying the toast when I get them. Though sometimes I just pop them on top of the toast to melt them a bit and flip them after a minute to soften them up a [bit]. Depends on my mood I guess.”
Philip had this to say about the West Australian banning Modesty Blaise: “I remember when comics were my entry into the rest of the newspaper and even now it is a section I always look at. That being said, I was never interested in the serial comics like this one as the story was too short from day to day to hold my interest. Keep the comics, ditch Modesty.” On the same subject, Mandy said: “I always thought the comics were for kids or the semiliterate…”
On the subject of a Brisbane cultural trail, Christine suggested City Hall, especially the clock tower, while Debbie said the Schonell theatre for “politics, protests, music, theatre. 50 yrs of it”.
MEANWHILE…
What do you get when you put together the likeable judges from My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef? The answer is Plate of Origin and we’ll no doubt be hearing a lot about it before it premieres on Channel 7 sometime next month. It stars Matt Preston, Manu Feildel and Gary Mehigan (above), and promises to be “a world class cooking competition with a truly international flavour that will pit plate against plate, cook against cook as teams go head-to-head in the ultimate culinary competition to decide which cuisine will reign supreme”. Does that sound tasty to you? Or perhaps you’ll prefer its likely competition, Farmer Wants a Wife, on Channel 9, where host Natalie Gruzlewski plays cupid for country blokes Alex, Harry, Neil, Nick and Sam.
Congratulations to all those who contributed to the official Queensland Quarantine Quilt, which began with a call-out by ABC Radio Brisbane Breakfast’s Craig Zonca and Loretta Ryan. It attracted 200 handmade blocks from across the state, each depicting the story of the maker's life in lockdown, that were stitched together over 108 hours by members of Queensland Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists. More here.