The following is the text of the newsletter sent on the date
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The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter
Archived
Newsletter No.146 - 14 October 2005
Contents
This weekend is the Station Street Festival in Fairfield. Details at Community Festivals in Melbourne. There is also an Irish Festival at the Immigration Museum. For details ring the museum . It would be safest to ring twice – to be sure, to be sure. And, of course the Melbourne Arts Festival continues with a wide selection of attractions including free entertainment at Fed Square in the Arts Centre precinct (it’s south of the Yarra so its called a precinct). Details at Arts Festivals in Melbourne.
For the duration of the Melbourne Festival there are free films at Fed Square under the title Ride in Movies. For there rest of the month there is also an Italian Film Festival in South Yarra and Burwood. Details of all these at Film Festivals in Melbourne.
When did we become famous? Just then - when we decided to put the name ‘famous’ in our title. Many organisations become ‘official’ just by putting that word in their title and at any tourist information booth you can pick up brochures declaring themselves to be the 'official' guide simply by using the word. Others declare themselves 'professional' simply by using the word or joining an organisation that uses the word. Then, after the marketing success of the Great Ocean Road, many other attractions are falling over themselves to put ‘great’ in their title. So for one week only this is the Famous White Hat Newsletter.
We continue to add new fairs, fetes and markets to our listings and we believe we have the most comprehensive listing of markets in Victoria – maybe we should call it The Official Victorian Markets Listing. This week's offerings vary from the Fashion Bazaar this weekend at Fed Square, through car boot sales at Ormond to Antiques & Collectables Fairs at Kilmore (next weekend). Details at Fairs & Fetes in Melbourne. For a full listing, go to the drop down menu on our home page and choose markets by date, day of the week or region.
This weekend there is the Great Australian Bushwalk (and you know how it became great) in various parks throughout Australia. Details at Walking & Jogging in Melbourne.
This weekend is the Melbourne International Tap Festival where you can find hoofers from all over the world plus a few confused overseas plumbers who had come to show off their wares. Details at Dance in Melbourne. If you feel your love life needs sparking up, why not take your partner along to the Bollywood dance spectacular at the Maj. Colour, motion, dance, bare flesh and whatever the Hindi equivalent of joie de vivre is (I’m sure one of readers will help us out). If, on the other hand your partner is getting a little too frisky, you could take them along to the Malthouse where there is a play about life and love in a New Zealand corner store. That should calm them down. Details of both at Theatre in Melbourne. If you are inexperienced in the courting process, you could go along to the free lecture on the historical origins of glassblowing. It could provide you with some valuable conversation to fill those awkward silences that can occur on first dates. Details at Forums in Melbourne.
“What a pleasant surprise to find a student discovering poetry and enjoying it. AND being knowledgeable about the people who penned the verses. Lovely change from those who waffle about computer games, that false idol show and the latest starlet fashion disaster. cheers,
Her Indoors”
Thanks for that. You have just offended half our readers – and that’s my job. We had several readers offering to drive Wen to the Singing Gardens in the Dandenongs if he could not get there himself. Thank you – I have passed on your contact details. “Thank you for your witty, intelligent and informative newsletter. For those who love Melbourne, it is a real treat. best wishes,
Michael” I Love receiving your letters on Fridays, they provide a sense of satisfaction that the end of the week is near - and lots of wry smiles besides. . .
Regards Tracy”
The Spiegeltent, which became famous at the stroke of a pen, is back in the Arts Centre precinct and offers a great place to wind down at the end of a night in Melbourne with entry prices from as low as $5. Details are spread across a number of websites, so it is best to pick up a booklet from most information booths around Melbourne.
I hope you all had a good time walking your dogs around in the rain last weekend at Royal Park. Well, now we have another service for dog owners. Our web pages have discreet ads created by Google down the side columns. Google analyses the content of the pages and then serves up advertisements it determines most closely matches the content of the page. So when we write one of our more scholarly and esoteric pages on Australian culture we feel quite pleased and sit back to wait for what Google determines to be the best match for the fruit of our insightful labours. Maybe enrolment details for a University of international repute? Perhaps subscription details for a scholarly magazine? No. Currently the most common match is an advertisement for “Stop Your Dog Barking”. So if you have a barking problem, just head off to one of more scholarly web pages and I’m sure you will find the advertisement.
During the Melbourne Festival there are a number of reasonably priced twilight concerts of classical music at BMW Edge. This can be a magical place to sit and listen and watch through the glass walls the progress of Melbourne twilight. If the blues are more your style, there is always the Blues Train at Queenscliff. Details at Steam Trains in Victoria.
A new school term is upon us and at White Hat we become very conscious of school assignment topics. Like most web sites we use web tracking software which tells us what queries people typed into their search engine to arrive on our site. Many students head off to Google and type in the whole assignment question – “Who are some famous Australian inventors and what are some famous Australian inventions? Discuss their importance.” Thus we become very aware of the project questions throughout Australia. Currently the word famous seems to crop up in every second question. We thought you watched the television to find out who was famous and went to school to find out who was important. Apparently not in every school. Several years ago when we listed Barry Marshall on our website amongst our 200 Significant Australians we received feedback that we shouldn’t list “unknowns” and “manic over-achievers” but should list people who are famous. Last week he received the Nobel Prize. I’m not sure if that will make him famous, but we certainly think he’s important. You may care to look at the criteria we used for choosing our 200 Significant Australians.
This weekend is the Awakeings Festival at Natimuk, the Geelong Show, the Selby Spring Arts Festival, the Festival of Flowers & Music in Ballarat and Opera in the Vineyards. Details at Events in Country Victoria.
How well do you know Melbourne?First to last week's quiz What prominent buildings have (or had) the following irreverent nicknames and why: - Jeff’s Shed
- The House that Ross Built
- Birdxxxx House
- The Nash
- Legoland and the Batcave
- Battlestar Gallactica
- The House of Stoush
- Y&Js
We have had to put some x’s in question 3 because a number of you spam checkers rejected the newsletter. We had numbers of answers. Ruth’s was the first in. As she stated – “indicative of a slow friday afternoon at the office”. Here are her answers:
| Please note: This section of the newsletter has been
removed as it forms part of a forthcoming publication or because it
is forms part of our
Questing activities. If you find yourself on a tour where the
guide is White Hat Accredited they are likely to know the answer to
many questions you may have in this area. All guides on
White Hat Tours are White Hat
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Now to this week’s quiz. Fame and greatness in Melbourne - Around 1930, a Melbourne person was generally regarded as ‘the greatest living Australian’. Who was this?
- A major crime in Melbourne is usually referred to with the name ‘Great’. What crime was this?
- Perhaps the most widely-known Melbournian (but not by name) throughout the world is the woman who burned the bails to create ‘The Ashes’. What was her name and where can you find a rotunda bearing her name?
- Ruskin said “The first test of a truly great man is his humility”. Name a Melbourne scientist and inventor who retired last week and fitting this description.
That is all this week from the Famous White Hat Newsletter. Next week we revert to be being the plain old newsletter. If it took you 15 minutes to read this newsletter, then that's all the fame we're entitled to.
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