| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The White Hat Melbourne NewsletterArchived Newsletter No.196 - 16 November 2006Contents
Festivals Myer xxxxxxxxx windows Markets & fairs Conferences Make Poverty History From the White Hat Inbox Literature Melbourne’s (semi-public) Hidden Gems Music Victoria’s Microbreweries Showcase Theatre Country Victoria The White Hat Quiz +----------------------------------------------------+ FESTIVALS This weekend is the Johnston Street Fiesta in Fitzroy. This has gone under several different names in the past including the Spanish Festival and the Hispanic Festival. On Saturday at Fed Square is a celebration of Turkish National Day and on Sunday there is a Polish Festival. If you find yourself at Fed Square on Saturday night while the Turks are bumping out and the Poles are bumping in, remember – don’t mention the war (that’s the 1672—76 war). Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Ethnic.asp On Saturday is the Eltham Community Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Community.asp and on Sunday is Victoria’s Annual Olive Festival at Rockbank. I believe the thistles are at their best at this time of year out Rockbank way. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/Other/FoodWine.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ MYER XXXXXXXXX WINDOWS The Myer xxxxxxxxx (we promise not to use the word until we are into December) Windows have now opened. This year’s story is Mem Fox’s Australian children’s book ‘Wombat Divine’. +----------------------------------------------------+ MARKETS & FAIRS At this time of year there are numbers of one-off fairs and fetes leading up to xxxxxxxxx. For hand made designer gifts there is the Magnolia Square xxxxxxxxx Fair. There is a twilight fete in Bonbeach, a book fair at Clarinda, a Twist Into Twilight Fair at Camberwell, a Sunday market at Melton, St Peters Fete in East Bentleigh and St Michaels Grammar School Carnival in St Kilda. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/FairsFetes.asp The next weekend there is a fete in Kew and because that Saturday is election day, every school and church committee within sight of a polling booth is likely to have a stall or two. In safe Labor seats they will be selling chardonnay to the socialists, in blue ribbon Liberal seats there will be canapés, in National Party seats there will be scones and lamingtons, in the inner suburbs where the Greens hope to poll well there will be biodynamic tofu, and in the new housing estates where Family First hopes to poll well they will possibly be selling Mogadon. +----------------------------------------------------+ CONFERENCES This weekend the Royal Historical Society of Victoria are holding their annual conference entitled “Victoria on the move – 1856’. I am also told that there is the Australian Skeptics Annual Conference at the Melbourne Museum but I won’t believe it until I see it. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Events/ForumsM.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ MAKE POVERTY HISTORY On Friday night at the Music Bowl is the Make Poverty History concert. The concert is free but tickets are required. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Theatres/MusicBowl.asp On Saturday there is a Make Poverty History Festival in the Alexandra Gardens. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Parks/Domain.asp On Saturday night the recorded footage of the concert is being re-run on the web on Rupert’sSpace at: http://www.myspace.com/makepovertyhistoryconcert +----------------------------------------------------+ FROM THE WHITE HAT INBOX “I think that it is great that you can send information to me about things to do in melbourne as i have just moved to tassie and melbornue being less then an hour by plane, it's great to go over for a few day's as there is lot's to do. thank you to everyone who is always so nice when i'm holidaying in melbourne............. Narelle” “Please unsubscibe me. I had a great time in Melbourne, but now that I'm back in Finland it might be useless and even painful to know about all the great things going on in Melbourne. Thanks, Ellie” We also received the following personal message: “hi from nat, crystals hitched a lift back to melb to go to the make poverty history concert. i thought of telling her she could improve my st8 of poverty by paying her share of the food & petrol but she gets easily upset when u talk about money. want to know something really cool? u know postcards – the things they have in cafes to advertise stuff – well i met an english backpacker who sez that if you write messages on them and put a stamp on them u can send them thru the mail. its just like texting. he sez its going to be the next big thing. ill send u 1 next week. love nat” +----------------------------------------------------+ LITERATURE For the next two weeks in the Atrium at Fed Square there is an exhibition of writings submitted for the Melbourne Literature Prize. Friday of next week is the Poets Union International Competition Awards Night. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Literary.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ MELBOURNE’S (SEMI-PUBLIC) HIDDEN GEMS Melbourne is the club capital of Australia. In just about any block of the city there are official and unofficial clubs. (These clubs aren’t the ones where you put on your little black dress and go clubbing - maybe some of those next week.) When Melbourne was a wild west town, having access to a moderately comfortable club room with books and newspapers was not to be taken for granted. Squatters from the Western District needed somewhere to stay while in Melbourne on business and set up the Melbourne Club in Johhny Fawkner’s second hotel before moving to their current location. Judge Redmond Barry set up the Hunt Club at the Mitre Tavern from where the members could gallop off down Collins Street in search of deer. Later a fellow in Geelong imported some rabbits because he thought they would make good game hunting. They’re full of good ideas in Geelong. Many of these clubs don’t have their name above the door and thousands of people pass them each day without knowing what they are. Even more curious are those little gatherings you sometimes see in earnest discussion at hotels and other establishments. Melbourne has hundreds of small ‘clubs’ with enigmatic names that have no clubrooms and gather in the most unexpected places. Many of these are philanthropic but you don’t get to hear about them because they don’t hold ‘look-at-me’ charity functions. Others are quirky special interest groups with a specific interest in an obscure piece of history or science. If you live in Melbourne for long enough and move in varied circles, someone (probably a friend you’ve known for years) will tap you on the shoulder, take you aside and say “Listen , there’s this little group I belong to . . . “ Then again they might be talking about a multi-level-marketing setup. Possibly the biggest impetus for Melbourne clubs came with 6 o’clock closing. From WWI to 1966 pubs closed at 6 o’clock. However if your club was licensed then the curfew need not apply. Bowling clubs, RSLs and sporting clubs (it’s too dark to play after 6 anyway) all became very popular. However some of these clubs were more exclusive than others. Certain yacht clubs and golf clubs had lengthy waiting lists, hefty fees and required personal recommendations form existing members. And by the time you had set yourself up with a yacht or golfing equipment you had already condemned yourself to a life of genteel poverty. Melbourne’s ‘sand belt’ of golf courses makes an impressive arc through the middle suburbs, but membership of the top clubs is not easy to come by. However next week, you can gain access to the prestigious Huntingdale Club for free and watch some top golfers in action. Alternatively you can just sit in the club rooms with complimentary refreshments and watch it on the television. Access is free provided you own a MasterCard. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Activities/GolfM.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ MUSIC This week you can choose from the MSO playing Mahler 1, Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 at the Town Hall Proms, Turandot and Figaro from Opera Australia, Il Seraglio from Lyric Opera, the Australian Classical Players, contemporary improvisation by the Sunwrae Ensemble, the South Eastern Philharmonic in Concert and a free chamber music recital in Iwaki Auditorium. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Music/Classical.asp If that is all a bit daunting, there is Carole King on Friday night. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Music/Pop.asp And if that is still too challenging, there is always Hi-5. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Lifestyle/Children.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ VICTORIAN MICROBREWERIES SHOWCASE On Wednesday there is a showcase at Fed Square of Microbreweries across Victoria. Microbreweries are breweries that don’t sell much beer. Go along and find out why. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/Other/FoodWine.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ THEATRE Babes in the Wood continues at the Malthouse. Yeah Baby, the cult tap concert we mentioned last week continues in St Kilda. Slanting into the Void – described as a puppet opera with similarities to a David Bowie concept album opens at the North Melbourne Town Hall. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Events/TheatreM.asp Then at the Maj is ‘Allah Made Me Funny’ and the ‘Short & Girly Show’ with Judith Lucy and others. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Events/ComedyM.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ COUNTRY VICTORIA This week in the country you can choose between the Clunes Show and the Lilydale Show. There are two fayres (a ‘fayre’ is a fair held in a town which has an ‘Olde Tea Shoppe’). There is a Food and Wine Fayre at Malmsbury and a Medieval Fayre and Tourney in Berwick. Poor old Ferntree Gully can only run to a Village Fair – but never mind – stuff at fairs costs about half the price of stuff at fayres. There is a wine and food festival in the Macedon Ranges called Budburst, a Back to Kimgower and a ‘Stop and Smell the Roses’ Festival at Coldstream. In Echuca there is a ‘Sweat vs Steam’ run where you can run along the banks of the Murray pitted against a paddle steamer. The following weekend there is the Maude Ute Show, the Great Victorian Bike Ride, the Springfest Market Festival in Ballarat and the Queenscliff Music Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/victoria.asp +----------------------------------------------------+ THE WHITE HAT QUIZ How well do you know Melbourne? Melbourne Clubs 1. For generations, many Melbourne children were enrolled at birth to be put on the waiting list for a certain club. What club? 2. In the 1970s the Great Bookie Robbery relieved the bookies of millions of dollars in a daring daylight raid on the ‘Bookies Club’. Where was this club at the time and what was its official name? 3. Where can you find The Supper Club and the Italian Waiters Club? 4. What Melbourne club is named after a British scientist and where can you find it? 5. In Bank Place (just opposite the Mitre Tavern where Judge Redmond Barry set up the hunt club) is a building painted dark green. What club is this? 6. What is a club sandwich? (and why do they always taste so bad) 7. What Melbourne club has a clockface style traffic light (as used in Geelong in the 1960s) out the front? Send your answers to quiz@whitehat.com.au No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
