FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT
Performance
THE Mt Eliza Australia Day celebrations were enjoyed by many people. A small crowd gathered in perfect weather to meet the Australia Day ambassador, former Essendon premiership player John Birt. Standing out in the crowd was 14-year-old Mt Eliza student Georgia White, who dressed as a Bindi Irwin, with a huge snake draped around her neck. Georgia said: “l have a lot of admi-
ration for the Irwin family and what they have achieved for wildlife conservation. I still think we should all learn to treat animals better.” Georgia (pictured with yours truly) will attend Woodleigh School and hopes to become a palaeontologist, who study prehistoric life including the remains of dinosaurs. “We still have a lot to learn about dinosaurs and my childhood memories were playing prehistoric park with my
friends. We had some wonderful dinosaur species in Australia including the Koolasuchus and Leaellynasaura.” There is no doubting Georgia’s love for animals; in her backyard and garage are guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, cats, budgies, goldfish, green tree frogs and her favourite – northern carpet pythons Baggers and Skittles. “I get my love of animals from my mother Michelle, who helps me look after my animals. I also dedicated
Australia Day to my golden retriever, Asher, who died recently from an illness; we all miss him so much.” Georgia is also a keen sportswoman and enjoys basketball, swimming, tennis, rock climbing and bushwalking. “I hope one day to do work experience at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast.” Is there anything missing from her collection? “My parents won’t allow me to have a pet spider, but I intend to buy a bird-eating spider after I move out of home.” If you share Georgia’s interest in dinosaurs, snakes and spiders, email georgia_snake@hotmail.com *** TO commemorate the 40th anniversary of Thick As a Brick, Ian Anderson will release a sequel, Thick As a Brick 2, on 30 March through EMI. Anderson is the flutist and voice of the legendary Jethro Tull, formed in the north of England in 1968. He wrote and recorded the progressive rock classic in 1972. The lyrics were credited to the fictitious child character Gerald Bostock, whose parents supposedly lied about his age. The record became a number one Billboard Chart album and enjoyed considerable success in many countries, including Australia. Anderson says of the album: “As we baby boomers look back on our lives, we must often feel an occasional ‘what if’ moment. Might we, like Gerald, have become instead a preacher, soldier, down-and-out, shopkeeper or finance tycoon?” To coincide with the release, for the first time since 1972 Anderson and fellow musicians John O’Hara (keyboards), David Goodier (bass), Florian Opahle (guitar) and Scott Hammond (drums) – as well as guest performers – will take to the road in the United Kingdom to perform the first album in its entirety. The second part of the show will see Anderson and the band perform the sequel. After 44 years of leading Jethro Tull to 54 countries, with more than 60 million albums sold, Anderson and band will showcase the progressive rock classic to old and new UK fans for three weeks. Since their first performance at London’s famous Marquee Club in 1968, the band has released 30
the train station, further on I’ll leave to the natives. *** STILL on January and something called “Australia Day”. Oh, how I cringe at all this “Happy Australia Day” nonsense. Happy Christmas, New Year, Mother’s Day, Easter and birthday is surely enough, so why add something the meaning of which is almost universally a blur on the brain? What say we have a happy “Pig’s Bottom Day”? It’s become bigger and bigger, and with it more and more nonsense; designed to make us feel special and with it to forget the sad state of our politics. Geoffrey Rush, Academy Award winner and fine actor, is our Australian of the Year. Why? Possibly because he lives in Camberwell – sometimes? Then there’s the Aboriginal tent embassy looking for sovereignty and land rights. Hmmm. Just the one question: What is it they’re looking for that we other Australians get that they don’t get? Stop it, Cliffie. OK, I support constitutional recognition of Aborigines, but really ... sorry. *** IT’S all about choice, surely. Yes, Mzzz Melody backed away from the
poker machine reform fiasco as indeed Tony would have, and, yes, almost all those letters of criticism to the dailies came with their political bias showing. But no. Time after time we have these faceless people thinking up new ways to make our life a misery. I’m a smoker so I put up with the dirty looks, mainly from members of the enchanting sisterhood or the odd feminine-looking male, not that there’s anything wrong with it. What next? Stop people buying Tatts tickets? God help the young single mother with the unwanted pregnancy, and so on. *** WHAT big mistakes are we making now? The two biggest of our past were, of course, the stolen generation in the 1930s where Aboriginal babies were taken from their parents to turn them into white people, followed by the Royal Women’s Hospital idea of forced adoption for single mothers. They no doubt appeared reasonable to the decision-makers at that time, based on the “for their own good” principle. Both clearly very wrong in retrospect. So can we assume we are more sensible in this day and age? No, no, no! The “for their own good” crowd is always there, pushing, pushing for what
they believe is social justice, for us. It could be the boat people. It could be the half truth as to what causes cancer. Whatever, they will be there to steer us onto the path of their righteousness. Glory be to the committees to discuss our welfare. *** AS for we voters, that’s the rub. We are either entrenched Liberals or Labor or of the fascinating swinging lot, who for reasons best known to themselves believe they make a difference. Entrenched voters are more loyal than footy fans. They will justify any policy of party and oppose any policy of the other party. If the Libs suggest we bomb the boats, that’s OK. If Labor suggests we welcome Nigeria, that’s OK too. Or at the very least justify the decision. That’s overstating it obviously, but only just. True, a few have switched to the Greens, which provides us with another fascination, namely that they put themselves forward as “thinking” voters. Save my soul! We are all puppets, boys and girls. Tony, Julia, big business, the newspapers and television rule the roost and I’m not even sure about Tony and Julia. Don’t panic; relax. A brick wall is a brick wall. Simply en-
By Gary Turner studio and live albums, and earned a prominent place in rock history. www.jethrotull.com www.theinsoundfromwayout.com *** CONGRATS to Melbourne group Jetty Road for its second Golden Guitar – the 2012 Group or Duo of the Year at Australian Country Music’s night of nights. The band will perform on the main stage at Whittlesea Country Music Festival on Saturday 11 February. *** COLDPLAY is making a two-day promotional visit to Sydney on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 February after playing at the 54th Grammy Awards on Sunday 12 February. The band will play two performances in Sydney. Fans also have a chance to catch the band at Coldplay Live on Friday 17 February. The concert will be broadcast on the Seven Network and streamed from Huawei Mobile’s Facebook page. For a chance to win tickets to one of the events, head to www.facebook. com/huaweimobile and or Seven’s Sunrise.
Top 10 albums 1 Essential Acoustic Collection – Phil Manning 2 A Foot in the Door (Best of) – Pink Floyd (EMI) 3 A Few Best Men soundtrack – various (Universal) 4 Lioness: Hidden Treasures – Amy Winehouse (Island) 5 Testify – Jon Stevens (Universal) 6 Cities on the Sea – The Dead Leaves (Liberation) 7 The Acoustic Chapel Sessions CD/DVD – John Farnham (Sony) 8 Dirty Dirty – Jim Keays (Shock) 9 Not So Dusty II Tribute to Slim Dusty – Various (EMI) 10 Any Questions for Ben? soundtrack – various (Liberation)
A Grain of Salt I’M missing the young darlings and bare-chested males, not to mention the nightly world of adventure at that carnival. Even the little bairns are at school. What a pity. The bins are not overflowing, at last, which is something the shire should note to rectify next summer, although I expect nothing. In an effort to escape the mayhem here, I visited Flinders (too crowded; coffee and choofing) and pleasant trips to Balnarring and Hastings. A calming effect on my jangled nerves, ever so slowly welcoming in the year of the dragon. *** I GOT up the courage to drive to the big smoke mid-January. Opening night of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Rubbing shoulders with the hoi poloi. Actor John Wood said hello. Thank God I remembered his name. I thought it prudent not to mention I’d rubbished his superannuation commercials in this column. Other big names were also present, strutting their stuff, but as I’m against namedropping, one is enough. Besides, they looked right through me. Don’t they read my column? The play was a treat, top shelf, but even so, at my age (68), it remains a big effort to go to Melbourne. Frankston is fine if you dodge
By Cliff Ellen joy the ride. Is climate change a reality? That depends on which party you support. *** ANNA Bligh says “I want us to remember who we are. We are Queenslanders”. What does she mean? Whatever happened to that attractive, although seemingly mixed up, young woman from Frankston who was connected with tricky Ricky Nixon? I miss her. I saw a big cockroach in my sink. Go back to Queesland! I took a second, imagined it was a Carlton footballer, and squashed it. I feel for Captain Queeg of the Costa Concordia. I may well have done the same, only earlier. “If crime showed on a man’s face, there wouldn’t be any mirrors.” – Peter Ustinov in We’re No Angels. Ciao bambinos... cliffie9@bigpond.com
Western Port News 7 February 2012
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