The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter

Archived Newsletter No.300 - 26 February 2009

Contents

Music everywhere
Festivals
Free family day at the music bowl
Walpurgis Night
Coffee Concerts
Cheese
From the White Hat Inbox
Dance
Labour Day Weekend
Motor Show
Sydney Road Street Party
Pedants’ Dating Service
Benefit concert at the MCG
Guide Dogs Open Day
Bush Doofs
Classical music
Free Symphony under the Stars
Afghan music
Reader Feedback
Family Day at Cruden Farm & Malcolm Fraser's Farm
The White Hat Quiz

Music everywhere

For the next two weeks in Melbourne there is wall to wall music to suit every taste. There’s a rock festival at the Espy, large scale Mahler at Hamer Hall, Bananas in Pyjamas at the music bowl, folk music at Port Fairy, bush doofs on the edge of the city, bands in Sydney Road, didge at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Reggae at CERES, Proms at the Town Hall, Afghan music at Monash, Symphony Under the Stars in Malvern, the Police Band in Shep (I saw two policewomen from the band give a wonderful rendition of ‘Stop, in the name of love’ together with traditional point control gestures at the Yarraville Festival), aging rockers at the MCG, traditional Scandinavian choral singing and bagpipes at the Geelong Highland Gathering.

Someone around the 18th century said “The English don’t care for music but they adore the sound it makes” and they may well apply to Melbourne for the next few weeks. I can’t remember who that quote came from but, let’s face it, some of you studied the classics at uni only to find yourself writing advertising copy for ugly tilt-slab apartments so make yourself productive by finding out for the rest of us.

Festivals

This Friday night there is a community festival in Tunstall Square in East Doncaster. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Community.asp This weekend there is the Tibetan New Year Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Ethnic.asp

Free Family Day at the Music Bowl

This weekend the ABC is holding a free family day at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. They invite you take along a picnic but I wouldn’t be surprised if numbers are such that you may need to have your picnic outside in the Domain. This is a great opportunity fro grandparents to take along the grandkids. The littlies can dance along with Bananas in Pyjamas and Dorothy the Dinosaur, while later on grandparents will become motivated to stay active and keep out of a nursing home for at least another ten years until the staff no longer have the television glued to Spicks and Specks and Rock wiz. Other performers include the Choir of Hard Knocks. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Theatres/MusicBowl.asp

Walpurgis Night

Spare a thought for some of those Melbourne choirs out there. Numbers of them are made up of wholesome young people who work hard, attend rehearsal on time with all their music learned (well nearly always), perform concerts of first rate music with dedication and skill but still can’t get the free publicity and exposure of the Choir of Hard Knocks. Maybe wholesomeness is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Anyway, around this time of year Scandinavian peoples celebrate Walpurgis Night to celebrate the coming of spring. Even though they have migrated to Australia and the seasons have inverted, these are cold climate people whose years of race memory tell them that around this time is the beginning of spring.

On a good sunny day in Australia you might ring up a few friends, tell them you’ve fired up the barbie and have a few casks of Chateau Collapsible and why not come around for a party? It doesn’t happen that way in Scandinavia. They’ve had all winter to think about it.

In the dark.

In the cold.

Watching Ingmar Bergman videos.

No, a party has to have a ‘narrative’, but not your ordinary old post-modernist wishy-washy warm climate narrative, it needs a SAGA full of Norse gods and saints and bunyips and Vikings.

Thus it is that the Scandinavian peoples show their unity in celebrating Walpurgis Night to welcome in the spring. You can hear their common bond as you listen to their conversations. “Yes, but he’s Swedish, and they think they know more than the rest of us.” “She’s Norwegian and they’ve always been a little – well you know what I mean.” “Well I don’t like to speak ill of the Finns but they live in harsh conditions and they don’t often get to see civilised life . .” “The Danes think they’re so cosmopolitan because they’re attached to Germany but they couldn’t find a princess in their own region and had to get one from the North Island of Antarctica.”

We will leave you with the Scandinavians discussing their own unity while celebrating the arrival of spring at the end of summer raising money for the bushfire victims with a bonfire listening to a choir of wholesome young people performing songs in the building where Governor Hotham once made crucial decisions about the Eureka Uprising.

It all makes perfect sense when you’ve lived in Melbourne for long enough.

Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Places/ToorakHouse.asp

Coffee Concert

The first of Musica Viva’s concert is on next week at the new recital centre with pianist Roberto Cominati. Also this week at the recital centre is William Barton on didgeridoo and the Song Company. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Theatres/Recital.asp

Cheese

Coming up is the Jindi Cheese Harvest in Gippsland. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Food/Ingredients/Cheese.asp

From The White Hat Inbox

Each day we receive a report showing what search phrases people used to arrive at our site. One that made us feel particularly old was:

“How did people listen to music before MP3s?”

We also had the following personal message:

“hi from portc
sorry i havent contacted u but ive been sooo busy. im getting ready 4 my 2nd gap yr so ive had 2 sign up 4 facebook & twitter & youtube & when u turn on facebook it sez what r u doing now so you have to tell it u are about 2 use twitter & u go 2 twitter 2 tell everyone you’ve just been using facebook but youre about 2 text someone and then facebook says what are you doing now so ive been so busy i haven’t been able to get out the door 2 do anything.
tweet me
luv nat”

Dance

Chunky Move commences this season with an offering called Mortal Engine. Also an inaugural Latin dance and Salsa Festival has been announced for April. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Parks/Private.asp

Labour Day Weekend

For the forthcoming Labour Day weekend there is a rock festival at The Espy in St Kilda. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/StreetsSuburbs/StKilda.asp The Nagambie on Water Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/Regions/CentralVic.asp The Port Fairy Folk Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Music/Folk.asp The Geelong Highland Gathering. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/Regions/Geelong.asp The Talbot Yabbie Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/Regions/Goldfields.asp The Ballarat Begonia Festival and the Portland Dahlia and Rose Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Garden.asp The Harcourt Applefest. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Victoria/Other/FoodWine.asp The Inverloch Jazz Festival. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Food/Ingredients/Cheese.asp While of course Melbourne has Moomba.

Motor Show

This weekend is the Motor Show followed soon after by the Grand Prix and Air Show. We expect the motor show to have a number of token ‘green concept vehicles’. If you are interested in the award winning environmentally car designed by students at Deakin University in Geelong, have a look at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Australia/Inventions/DeakinT2.asp

Sydney Road Street Party

This weekend is the annual Sydney Road Street Party complete with bands stalls & entertainment. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/StreetsSuburbs/SydneyRoad.asp

Pedants' Dating Service

Sarah had invited Damien to after-work drinks. It was the first time she had introduced him to her colleagues and they seemed to be accepting him well. When she returned from the bar he was deep in conversation with Jenny from accounts. “I hate it when they say a kilo!” she said. “A thousand what? – grams, litres, metres?” “I agree.” said Damien. “People are so sloppy when it comes to measurements. I remember when . .” Sarah could not concentrate. She fingered her pendant and wondered if it had all been a terrible mistake introducing Damien to her workmates.

Is Damien fascinated by Jenny? Should Sarah increase her medication? Is she carrying to many kilos? Find out next week.

Benefit Concert at the MCG

Due to a misunderstanding in Federal Parliament there will be a bushfire benefit concert at the MCG on March 14th. During a particularly rowdy session of parliament the Minister for the Environment, whose hearing has been impaired by years of having the foldback turned up too high, saw the speaker banging his gavel on the desk. As the speaker shouted “Order! Order! Order!” the Minister for the Environment thought he was shouting “Oils! Oils! Oils!” and since then nothing has been able to dissuade him from making a comeback. Midnight Oil, Hunters & Collector and Split Enz will reform especially for the MCG event together with the new look Wolfmother. Details in all the mainstream media.

Guide Dogs Open Day

This weekend is open day at the Guide Dogs training centre. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Festivals/Animal.asp

Classical music

Next week the MSO performs the Mahler 2nd at Hamer Hall and the Cologne New Chamber Orchestra present a concert of Baroque music at St Paul’s Cathedral. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Music/Classical.asp

Bush doofs

This weekend there are two bush doofs on the outskirts of Melbourne. The organisers have asked me not to mention their locations. We hope you found this information useful. If you want to know where they are, I suppose you had better go and ask the usual people. If you don’t know what a bush doof is we suggest you ask your friends – no, on second thoughts that would be terribly daggy to admit you didn’t know - best forget about it.

Free Symphony Under The Stars

This weekend in Malvern is the annual free Symphony Under the Stars. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Music/Free.asp

Afghan music

Next week there is a concert of traditional folk and classical music from Afghanistan at Monash uni. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Music/Folk.asp

Reader Feedback

“Thank you, thank you White Hat.
Last week my husband had his corporate boss from America visiting and we were at a loss to know how to entertain them. They are lovely people and don’t expect to be feted, but you know they are used to being taken to the best restaurants and impressive venues around the world. Then I told hubby how you bang on about Dame Elisabeth and Cruden Farm and why not take them there. They had a wonderful time, talked to everyone in sight, got invited to partake of their picnics and could not believe the wonderful relaxed atmosphere without a security person in sight. They have gone away with great memories of Melbourne which they will talk about for years.
Thanks again,
Joyce and Peter”

Family Day at Cruden Farm; Plant Fair at Malcolm Fraser's Farm

This weekend is the annual family day at Cruden Farm to raise funds for the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. There is also a rare opportunity to visit Malcolm & Tamie Fraser's farm on the Mornington Peninsula where a plant fair is being held. Details at: http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Parks/Private.asp

The White Hat Quiz

THE WHITE HAT QUIZ

First to last week’s quiz. The first answers came from Martin.

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.

Now to this week’s quiz

Roman, Greek & Norse Gods

1. In What Melbourne street will you find a statue of Atlas?
2. What Victorian swamp is named after a jovial god?
3. With football season approaching, what tendon do you need to take care of?
4. What Melbourne apartment block is supported by a number of gods?
5. How did Apollo Bay get its name?
6. What other Victorian bay is named after a god or goddess?
7. In what Victorian town do the gods live?

No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.