Culturazi

APRA Invite: Canberra Connect Meeting – Tilleys, 11th March 2008, 6.30-8pm, RSVP essential to Chris via cmoller@apra.com.au or 02 9935 7984 by Monday 10th March.

Yes, not the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority. The Australian Performing Rights Association collects money from a wide range of businesses and gives it to songwriters when their songs are performed: on broadcast media, jukeboxes, in supermarkets and interestingly, if you’re a struggling gig pig without much airplay, live in venues by the songwriters themselves. How does this work?

First you have to register with APRA as a songwriter. Then you have to register your songs and who wrote them (with percentage contribution). All this can now be done on line. Next you have to keep some sort of record of where and when you play and what songs you play, though this is only strictly necessary in case you were to be audited which, as far as I now, is unheard of.

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Tags: Music by loadedog
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Chanel Cole

We had cycled through the encroaching dusk in a fading summer heat with hidden chilly teeth. In my basket was a map printed from the Internet to guide me to the brand-spankin’ Backanalia venue (handily the exact distance from me, but in the opposite direction). Trailing behind me was my brand-spankin’ new lover, fresh from that jaded lady, Melbourne. Beginnings.

We pulled up next to a latent fire-pit, extracted a bottle of red (begged some plastic cups from the bar ” thanks guys) and settled in for the last few morsels of acoustic deliciousness from the Cyclone Rangers.

I’ve been to a fair few Backanalias since I was introduced to Canberra 18 months ago. Somehow I’ve never managed to turn up until at least halfway through: the backyard would be densely crowded with bodies, people sitting, dancing, standing around the fire ” a couple of older children maybe scattered here and there. Tonight was a mellower introduction (necessarily: it doesn’t do to scare the neighbours unduly). The BBQ was in full force, and a small tribe of kiddies were dancing ring-around the rosies, flirting for attention and generally being wobbly-legged and pretty cute.

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Tags: Gig Reviews by loadedog
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Tags: Backyard Backanalia, Gig Reviews by loadedog
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Tags: Art by loadedog
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Frencham Smith @ The Merry Muse, Fri 8th Feb 2008

by Meg

The Merry Muse was packed out for the Frencham Smith gig, probably the fullest house I”ve seen at the Muse. I regret to admit that I missed the support acts, but apparently Rafe was among them and I”m sure Rafe entertained with his cheeky songs.

Frencham Smith put on a lovely show in all my favourite tones- sometimes Fred “themes” his gigs playing either a funny show, or a serious one. This gig was a happy balance of fun (with obligatory singalongs and dodgy “bogan” dancing) mixed up with moments of beauty and seriousness, like Liz Frencham”s trademark Jericho and one of my personal favourites but rarely played of Fred”s songs, the moving and vulnerable Song So Uncertain.

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Tags: Gig Reviews by loadedog
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Hullo!

Last week has seen the beginning of another parliamentary year, and the big deal is the inclusion of a welcome to country ceremony and an apology, or not exactly an apology but an effort to say sorry but not for everything without the sorry and not so sorry that we want to sit around grieving with the injured but just sorry enough to want to move on and distance ourselves. Not that we are the guilty ones. Now every white, green and pink Australian who has voted for a government that has continually ignored this country”s unique legacies to promote their own version of How White We Are can hide behind this mechanism and not admit complicity in the whole affair.

Fucking gutless, that is what I think.

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Tags: Chiffon by loadedog
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I’ve already written a Gertrude’s Diary about writer’s block, so I’m unable to rattle off a piece on the subject foremost in my mind.

I suspect this particular episode of”the block”arises from the fact that I have serious and weighty matters on my mind, and am thus unable to muster my usual light-hearted and”irreverent observations.

So in contrast, this week, I’m going to go for gloomy.” Gloomy and fictional and let’s just see where we end up.

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Tags: Gertrude by Gertrude
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The Street Theatre, 19 February 2008

by Amy Dowler

When I found myself getting faintly excited as the three notes being played over and over by the double bassist went up an octave, I thought I was probably in trouble.” Perhaps, I began to think, worthy though I”m sure they are, the Necks aren”t for me.” About ten minutes later I began revising that judgement finding the particular music the trio had by that point meandered into pleasant, even lovely.” Not amazing, nothing to incite passion, but something with which I could imagine curling up in a warm, dimly lit room on a cold winter”s night with a glass of red.

As the music continued my thoughts began to drift and before I knew it I realised I had stopped listening for some time, that in this time the music had of course changed and that I no longer had any sort of reference point for what I was listening to.” Of course I could be blamed for allowing such a lapse in concentration, but the inaccessibility of the Necks” music once you have lost its thread, the meaningless of its parts without the context of the whole, is I think a failing.” It betrays the inherent linearity of their music, music that progresses – though slowly – inexorably, horizontally and always in the one direction.

What I find paradoxical about the Necks” music is that although the parts are meaningless when separated out from the whole, the whole somehow adds up to less than the sum of those parts.” There was a smattering of nice parts in both of the two sets on Tuesday night, but evidently they were not enough to keep me engaged: the set as a whole never lived up to these disconnected moments of pleasure.

Tags: Gig Reviews by loadedog
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by Rob Nugent

8 pm, 19 February 2008. Venue: The Street Theatre, ANU.

The three members of The Necks walk silently onto stage and focus on their instruments. There is a theatrical hush while they prepare themselves. Three notes on the double bass play repetitively for a minute before a single note on the grand piano builds slowly into a fluttering trill. You don”t notice the brush on the snare and the pulse of the kick drum at first. The journey begins. We are heading into badlands and strange spaces. This could be the beginning of a murder plot or a crime of passion. There are no slamming doors. They creak open, as things creep up on you. Thoughts slowly resolve themselves, or are overwhelmed and consumed.

I found the music of The Necks created spaces for all sorts of imaginings. You can superimpose the events of your life onto it, or simply be carried off into cinematic landscapes. Sometimes you are there with it, other times it leaves you behind and you have to catch up. Wonderful stuff.

Tags: Gig Reviews by loadedog
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Review by The Predictable Salamander

Approaching the Street Theatre without a clue as to what to expect from the ACT Raw Comedy festival heats, I was first impressed and excited to see the foyer of The Street jam packed for a main-stage event that did not involve musical theatre. As I made my way to the bar I saw a number of familiar faces from the ‘COMEDY ACT’ crew with whom I have been loosely associated in the development of local comedy nights such as CaCk YaSelf (the Front Gallery) and Cult Comedy (Soul Bar) and immediately wondered which ones were actually there to compete. After a quick wine and a few hello’s the dinger dinged and it was time to see what we were all in for.

The ACT heats were hosted by Corinne Grant which also filled me with unsure expectation having only seen her on Rove which can be a bit hit and miss. I was pleasantly surprised to find her and her sets absolutely charming, delightful, and funny throughout the evening.

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Tags: Comedy, Gig Reviews by loadedog
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Oestrogen. Shade trees.
An island of recovery in Canberra’s humanist delta.
Gutsy, massive support; coffee not good enough.
(sucks).

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Tags: Coffee Bitch by loadedog
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Loadedog has asked me to share with readers my recipe for a decent cup of tea.” I’m only too happy to oblige, believing that the committment, discipline and attention to detail required for tea can serve as an example for wise living that can be carried into the rest of our lives.” Also; I like tea.” Tea is yummy.

Firstly: buying tea.” Don’t buy those horrible, dusty sweepings that are called tea bags.” Buy tea leaves.” And don’t buy any old brand.” Those English people with their Royal Warrant make good tea, but it’s also expensive and pretentious.” It’s okay to splash out on the occasional box of Lapsang Souchong if you’re that way inclined, I suppose.”Look for”a good sized leaf; if there are tea leaves floating on top of your tea after you have followed the steps below, then you are probably buying the wrong brand.” Store the tea in an air-tight container.” Really.” Otherwise you may as well just suck on a tea bag with a mouthful of luke-warm water.

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Tags: Gertrude by Gertrude
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