Creating – Page 51 – helenthura.com

July 10, 2007July 11, 2007

Aunty turns 75

This year the ABC turns 75 and what better way than a party at the riverstage with a sway of ABC personalities and entertainment for the kids (Bananas in Pajamas, Fireman Sam etc) and music and comedy for the big kids (The Boat People, Troy Cassar-Daly, Craig Reucassel from The Chaser, Scared Wierd Little Guys, Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur and The Great Debate).

I have mentioned before how much a large part of my life the the ABC has been both the radio, tv and now the internet. That is why there would be nothing holding me back from going along for the show. Was a really great day and a perfect 3rd concert for my 4 concerts in 4 days weekend.

First up on show were local lads The Boat People. I remember hearing a lot of these fellas back in the end of Highschool/early Uni when I was listening to 4ZZZ a fair bit. Since then I don’t think I have consciously listened to them. This meant that I was blown away quite nicely on Sunday arvo.

Scared Weird Little Guys
I have only been exposed to the Scaredies once before and that was on Music Tour in year 12 when Ms Jabs played the Macadamia EP on the bus and we were all curled up our seats doing the actions. It was a funny event. With their matching suits, mis-matching heights and some rather topical lyrics they proved a hit with all members of the audience. At one stage they were siniging three songs between them (Summer Nights, Louie Louie and X) whilst the crowd sung Wild Thing (all four songs have the same basic chords in them)

Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur
I have heard a lot about The Aunty Jack show over the years but this was my first exposure and they were pretty funny.

Craig Reucassel from The Chaser
Of The Chaser guys, Chas takes out first place for my favourite and Craig is a close second. Having him up to muse out the next 75 years of the ABC/Australia and what is happening currently was rather funny. His prediction is that in 75 years time John Howard will still be PM and Maxine McKew will be opposition leader (which thinking about now is rather flawed sine Maxine is running against Howard for the seat of Bennelong). To finish off his segment he picked out people in the audience with Andrew Hansen hair, the crowd then voted for the person who had the most Andrew Hansesn like hair (read weird) and they had to sing a closing song for the segment. The girl who won though by her own admission had a few drinks under the belt and really should have thought more I thought about what words she lets out her mouth at such a day. Moving right along…

The Great Debate.
This was quite an event and a lot of fun. The question of the debate was “Are interviews more important than music?” in regards to radio. Heading the affirmative team was 612 ABC’s drive presenter Kelly Higgins-Devine with John from the Scaredies and Craig Reucassel from The Chaser. Heading the negative team was AM presenter Tony Eeastly with Rosie Beaton from Triple J/jTV and Rusty from the Scaredies. It was really amusing to listen and watch and at the end of the day the crowd decided that interviews were more important than music.

Troy Cassar-Daly
Troy is a bit of a legend in the Australian country music scene, everyone knows who he is and it was great to see him live for the first time. He really got the crowd going with lots of participation which was really good.

ABC Personalities.
These are just the ones that I grabbed photos of, there would have been scores more round the place.
Richard Fiedler, Peter Cundall, Madonna King, Andrew Lofthouse, Jenny Woodward, Steve Austin, Rosie Beaton, Peter Thompson.

Blue King Brown closed the show and they very much deserve their own post which will come in the next day or two.

You may prefer to view a slideshow of the photos which is available below or here.

July 9, 2007July 10, 2007

remember that time

Regina Spektor kicked off her tour down under tonight with an all ages show at The Tivoli in Brisbane. Whilst there were some things that were not right (it took 1.5hrs after the doors opened for the support act Only Son to come on – the crowd was getting hot, angry and tired), overall Regina delighted the crowd with rip-roaring vocals and funny tales involving koalas, kangaroos and concerns about her electric blue underwear.

Met some really nice people who I expect to see at some more gigs round the place and also ~~met~~smelt some smelly people. There was no kooky dancing from Regina though 🙁 as she done some sort of damage to her leg/hip. She does however have a very cool cane. Only Son was pretty cool and his story telling at the end of his set was a really nice set and something I would like to see more of.

July 8, 2007

Eungella National Park

We ended up spending three nights in Eungella and not once did we utilise the QPWS campsites that we had booked before leaving. The reason you ask? We were prepped and ready to attack the Mackay Highlands Great Walk. We had been looking forward to it for months now. Mackay is in the tropics. That means they have a Wet Season and a Dry Season. It is meant to be the Dry Season at the moment. Well as a further example of the really weird weather we are having in Australia at the moment. It decided to pour for the first couple of days that we were up there. We are talking constant rain for days. Rain that made it impossible to complete the walk as planned. Instead we walked parts of it and the final two days will have to wait for another time.

I think I have mentioned before how much I love backlit foilage, so here is another healthy dose of it.

The stinging tree aka Gympie Gympie (Dendrocnide moroides) is one beastly plant. Yes in Australia, we don’t only have animals that attack, we have plants that attack. There are six Dendrocnides in Australia ranging from 40m trees to shrubs. Native animals are not harmed by the stinging tree but humans and introduced animals are. In having a closer look at the plant and picking a few of the berries so that Mum could have a closer look, I brushed my hand on the stem and by boy did my hand feel like fire when it got cold in the week following my attack. Touch wood that it doesn’t flare up again.

These are just some general snaps from the walk.

July 8, 2007July 8, 2007

busy busy busy

I have so many posts to write and photos to go through and never enough time.

Two food posts both involving lemons.
More photos and writings from our trip the other week.
Photos from The Bad Moon Company and Frankie Wants Out at the Shamrock/Step Inn last night.
Lots of photos from the ABC’s 75th Birthday Bash today at the River stage. Here is one of those photos 🙂

This is Natalie, the singer of Blue King Brown who closed the bash today.

July 8, 2007

Do you know the way to San Jose Brisbane

On Friday night I went to see Burt Bacharach and The Queensland Orchestra. From the first notes played to the last song of the encore I had a grin on my face like you just wouldn’t believe. I was chatting to some people waiting at the traffic lights outside the
Convention Centre waiting to cross who remarked that wasn’t I bit young to be at a Burt Bacharach concert. I replied that “who wouldn’t love Burt?”. As a pianist and composer he has a remarkable career and many of the songs that he wrote are entrenched in pop culture. I personally own two of his LPs which I quite enjoy.

The format of the 100min show was mainly the playing of medleys as well as a few full length songs. Whilst I knew most of the “old songs” and soundtrack tunes they played, it was quite interesting to hear three of the songs off his newest album At This Time (2005) which was the first time he had written lyrics as well as the music. This of course meant that he was singing as well as playing piano/keys which was very impressive.

July 7, 2007

Fungi of Eungella National Park

The two days that we spent walking in the Eungella National Park were through Rainforest and due to the recent rain they had had. The fungi was positively blooming. In addition to the fungi in the pictures we saw jelly, finger and elephant foot fungi.