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The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter
Archived
Newsletter no.131 - 17 June 2005
Contents
This week there is a children’s film festival at ACMI. There is also a film festival at Bayside – not too far from the Percy Grainger plaque in the footpath. Details at Film Festivals.
Melbourne is a great place to bring up kids and there are always plenty of free and affordable activities – far too many to list in a general newsletter. We will send a separate set of suggestions to those subscribers who have indicated they are interested in children's school holiday activities.
A couple of weeks ago we mentioned how what we called a “three dimensional” view of Melbourne which filters out things like the sciences and enterprise as being unimportant. This week a number of significant Australians were presented with Federation Fellowships. This scheme sets out to reverse the brain drain by, among other things, allowing Australians to return home to continue work on significant projects. I waited to see the announcements and analysis of their work by the mainstream media. Not a sausage – or if it was there it escaped me. However I was given far more information than I ever wanted to know about Nicole’s boyfriend and other such important matters. Fortunately the filters applied by the mainstream media, the ABC and parts of the education system to downgrade or eliminate the chances of such information reaching the public can now be circumvented by our access to other news sources (repeat after me “I know everything I need to Know ‘cos White Hat told me so”). If you are interested in a current crop of Australians doing significant work you can head to Federation Fellowships. You may alos be interested in our listing of 200 Significant Australians as well as our criteria for choosing them. Next week we will have a look at four dimensional Melbourne.
Tonight (Friday) there is a free recital on the mighty monster of an organ at the Town Hall.
Next week we intend to start an occasional section on suggestions for weekend getaways. In the meantime, if you are heading out for the weekend, remember to go to our home page, select the printer version of What’s On in Country Victoria and print it out to take with you. It should list most of the markets and major events for the dates you have chosen.
INTERESTING QUERIES Like most website administrators we keep an eye on what queries people use to arrive at our site or what queries they use on an internal search. The following are some of the queries which people have recently typed into their search engines or used during an internal search of our site. Is Anthony Captain Feathersword Where are the best ski slopes in Melbourne How many days to July 2nd Why did the white people shoot and poison all the aborigines in victoria In what suburb is the St Kilda market Where is gough whitlam buried
This weekend is the Good Food & Wine Show at Jeff’s Shed. If you don’t want to pay the admission charges, just head off to the deli section of the Prahran Market and sample the free delicacies on offer there. Take a false beard so that you can don it for a second round without feeling embarrassed. Details at Food & Wine in Melbourne.
“Dear White Hat
My favourite graffiti is/was located at 'the cutting' on the 109 tram route. (Just past the tram sheds in Kew and just before Victoria Gardens complex in Abbotsford). I have mused over it ever since I first learnt to read: "Mispent Youth" (In my head I always read: "Misspelt Youth"). Cheers, Karen.” "You are ignorant and uninformed to poke fun at people getting in touch with their inner selves. It is the most important thing a person can do on this earth, and people like you who are too narrow minded to see that should not be allowed to write such uneducated rubbish. UNSUBSCIBE!!!!
Margaret"
We had a number of unsubscribes this week expressing similar sentiments. However each week we always far more new suckers (sorry subscribers) than we have unsubscribes.
This weekend at BMW Edge there are performances of The Beggar’s Opera by students from the VCA. John Gay’s eighteenth century words and plot are still biting and up-to-date and the popular melodies (this was pre-hip-hop so tunes were permitted) of the time are all rippers. Details at Classical Music in Melbourne.
This weekend is the Bendigo New Age & Psychic Expo - although I am not sure if we have any subscribers remaining who might be interested. There is the Stitched Up Textile Festival at Wang, the Warburton Winter Film Festival and while there wander wound to the Wondrous Warburton Wabbit Waffle where Walter Widdop will waffle Warburton’s weightiest wabbit with wonderfully wise words which will . . . (Sorry there isn’t a rabbit raffle – I Just got a bit carried away). Next weekend there is the Mildura Hot Air Balloon Festival, the Hazelwood Festival of Dance and the Kilmore Celtic Festival which is actually more important then the National Celtic Festival which has just been held at Portarlington. “Who said it was more important?” “Oi did!” “And would you be wanting to prove that?” “Come outside and oi’ll convince you!” “Oh yes ..” Gentleman mind the furniture, oh you’ve knocked over the Jamesons and broken the crystal vase. Next thing you’ll be breaking the gratuitous ethnic stereotypes left there by lazy newsletter writers. Details of all these at Victoria.
How well do you know Melbourne? Peripatetic monuments A number of Melbourne’s well known monuments and sculptures have changed position over time. Finding landmarks in the wrong position at a given time is a sure fire giveaway of a badly researched book or film. So here are this week’s questions. If you don’t know all the answers why not pin them on the staff notice board or stick them on the fridge (I hope you haven't wasted taxpayers money by throwing out that special fridge magnet the government sent you) to see if others can contribute. - A sculpture called Vault once stood in the city square. What unkind nickname was it given and in what two major positions has it stood since being removed from the City Square?
- The Eight Hours Monument stands diagonally opposite Trades Hall. What was its original position and why was it shifted?
- The Burke and Wills Statue in recent years has occupied several positions in or near the City Square. What was its original position (hint – try page 1 of the great murder mystery yarn Mystery of a Hansom Cab) and why was it shifted? What was its second position (hint you will find it there in a Tom Roberts painting) and why was it shifted?
Now to last week’s quiz. Our nearest correct reply came from – you guessed it – Clyde the Celery Capital. This just goes to show that eating celery makes you smart – or so bored that you’ve got nothing better to do than answer the White Hat Quiz. “Hi folks, I am thoroughly enjoying your quiz each week and learning lots along the way. I love the newsletter and a girlfriend and I often laugh about certain snippets. She quoted this part, for example, in an email to me, .....and Menopause the Musical at the Comedy and the Maj. Gentleman should be warned that this particular block of Exhibition Street can be quite scary as the theatres empty out and the streets become full of pre and post menopausal women. You may be safer taking your chances among the drug dealer in Russell Street a block away. The situation doesn't last for long because they soon head off home because they've got to get up and teach in the morning. [White Hat newsletter] I am a 52 year old teacher, hence her amusement. Anyway, back to the quiz. . . . .”
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