The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter

Archived Newsletter No.162 - 17 February 2006

Contents

Music
Last week’s quiz
Melbourne Conversations
Last Chance
Reader feedback
Festivals
Puccini Visits Knox
Theatre
Country Victoria
From the White Hat Inbox
Advance notice
The White Hat Quiz

Music

Tonight there is a free concert by Orchestra Victoria with another one next Thursday. On Sunday afternoon is a free classical performance in the Fitzroy Gardens. This Saturday is the annual Opera in the Park in Prahran. As a public service offered by White Hat we point out to our single female subscribers that at this event you will find a number of good looking cultured young men with good jobs and great personalities who are unmarried. So if you manage to sit between two of them you know you have two chances.

Also in town are Stevie Nicks, Amici Forever and the Copenhagen Chamber Choir. The world music series at the Fairfield Amphitheatre continues. Details at Music in Melbourne.

For those who, when they feel the urge to sing, break out into a Requiem Mass there is a sing-along Faure Requiem on Sunday. And for those who like a good maudlin Victorian hymn (preferably accompanied by a Wertheim harmonium) there is a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Sankey’s hymn book sing-along this Sunday.

Details of all these at Free Concerts in Melbourne.

Last week's quiz

We had large numbers of correct responses to last week’s quiz – far too many to mention – but we will use Rob’s as he spells out each of the rhymes.

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 Accredited.

Many of you also submitted the standard Australian usage of ‘burk’ meaning [Burke & Wills =] dills. Hence the appropriate spelling when when using this mildly derogatory term is Burke.

At this point we should mention that some of our readers responded with a somewhat coarse derivation based in on an English county which people from a sheltered background such as ourselves had never encountered. And we should therefore remind those readers of questionable breeding who submitted their alternative version that unless they observe proper decorum they could find themselves ejected from the White Hat Village.

Melbourne Conversations

Early next week are a number of free public forums about the future and development of Melbourne at Fed Square under the title of Melbourne Conversations. Details at Forums in Melbourne.

Last chance

The excellent free summer entertainment provide by the city council is coming to an end. This weekend is your last chance to take the kids to KidsBiz, to take part in drumming classes or to indulge in the Twilight Moves and Twilight Rhythms. Details at Melbourne Parks & Gardens.

Reader feedback

“Thanks for the heads up on the fireworks at Docklands. They were great and we would never have known they were on except for your newsletter.
Steve & Linda”

Festivals

This weekend there are community festivals in Maroondah, Springvale, Edinburgh Gardens (‘Celebrate Yarra’) and on Monday there is a ‘Getting Involved” festival in Nillumbik. Details at Community Festivals in Melbourne.

There is an Osaka Festival on Sunday and a Holland Festival on Saturday. Details at Ethnic & Religious Festivals in Melbourne.

There is a Sustainable Living Festival at Fed Square and a Writer’s Festival at Como (there will be an attendant at the gate ready to shift the apostrophe when the second writer arrives).

Puccini visits Knox

On Tuesday there is a performance called Puccini visits Knox. White Hat has done a little research and discovered that Puccini wrote an early opera based on Victorian Local Government. Set at a council meeting it opens with a ratepayer complaining about the early morning racket made by garbos in an aria called None shall Sleep. Another ratepayer then asks when the roads in their ward will ever be fixed, and the city engineer responds in the aria One Fine Day. The HRM had planned to kill the CEO with a blunt splayd during the refreshments break, but because it is her RDO the job is given to a work experience student. Meanwhile the chief librarian jumps off the balcony because she is secretly in love with the head of outdoor services. After refreshments, the head of the community arts centre launches into a diatribe against the mayor who retaliates in the aria Your Tiny Grant is Frozen.

In the end, Puccini had to drop the project because promoters told him that Victorian Local Government contained too much sex and violence. However Puccini was able to recycle the music in later operas. We are not sure if this is the basis of Puccini visits Knox Community Arts Centre. You can find more details about that at Classical Music in Melbourne.

Theatre

This week Mummenscchanz opens at the Comedy and An Inspector Calls at the Maj. Both have been highly praised internationally and are here for a limited season.

Country Victoria

This weekend is choc-a-block in country Victoria. Life saving competitions in Lorne, sand sculpting in Rye, the Bunninyong Gold King Festival, Drouin Ficifolia Festival, Country Music in Shepparton and Colac, Blues in Bruthen, Grape Grazing in the Yarra Valley, Hot Sauce & Fiery Foods in Jindivick and a garden fair in Kilmore and an All Ford Day in Not-so-Comatose Hollow.

For details go to our home page and choose this weekend from the drop down menu of events in country Victoria.

From the White Hat Inbox

“Your calendar of events is by far the most comprehensive out there. We used to subscribe to a number of expensive publications but find they have less than half the information you have on your website. Anyone planning an event in Melbourne should use it as their primary resource. Congratulations.
Peter . .
Major Events Manager”

We also received the following personal messages:

“hi from portc. MT says I should take a gap year and crystal thinks I should 2 so i can find myself and craig said he didn’t know i had lost myself and it sounds gr8. i don’t know what ill do but pls don’t tell dad till after hes bought me the car. cant w8 for u to meet MT.
love nat.”

Advance notice

The following weekend sees the start of the pre-season football, festivals in Moonee Valley, Seddon and Altona, a Tibetan New Festival, a Pacific Islands festival and a free symphony concert under the stars in Malvern.

In the country are festivals at Western Port Bay, Trafalgar, Mt Toolebewong, the Albury/Wodonga Festival of Sport, the Tumbafest Food & Wine Festival, the Pako Festa in Geelong, the Mildura/Wentworth Arts Festival, Couta Boat Regatta at Queenscliff and the Paynesville Jazz, Swing & Blues Festival.

For details, go to our home page and select the appropriate weekend from the drop-down menu of events in either Melbourne or country Victoria.

The White Hat Quiz

How well do you know Melbourne & Victoria?

Inspiring Songs.

There are times when personal or world affairs become so depressing that there is only one thing left in life that can drag you out of the slough of despond and it is the faintly remembered lines of your town song, or maybe the school song, the sporting team or some other local institution. For my part, when I’m really feeling down I sometimes hear a long lost tune faintly in my head and the words start coming back and before long I’m out on the street singing

“B-A-double L- double A–R-A-T (Ballarat, Ballarat, Ballarat), It spells Ballarat and its home sweet home to me”

and the world somehow seems more positive and friendly - even the men in the white coats. And as they take me back to my room I can hear the faint sounds from some of the more hopeless cases attempting a garbled version of

“good old Coll . . “

So for a slightly different quiz, we invite you to send in the most inspiring lines from a song associated with a local institution such as your school, your town our some other local institution.