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Ghost boy in full flight at a previous Poetry Award
Now in it’s third year, the esteemed KURILPA Performance Poetry CUP will be taking off at 2pm, Sunday 23rd of February, at 91 Cordelia Street, Sth Brisbane on the edge of Musgrave Park.
Sponsored by local creative community group, the Kurilpa Poets, the Kurilpa Cup is open to all comers and free to enter.
Aside from the fabulous cup itself, the winner is presented with a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and a book of verses! (and $50 in an envelope.)
This years poetic Judge Judy is the Legendary Ghost boy.
Westender has two free double passes to the film of your choice at the French Film Festival. Tre bon!
The festival is organised by Alliance Francaise and features 42 films over four weekends in March. To get your taste of la cinema de France all you have to do to enter is outline in 25-50 words a French film (real or fictional). Westender and Alliance Francaise will review your entries, select a winner and publish it (along with our second favourites) in the March edition.
Submit your entries before February 14 – search “French film” at westender.com.au. The winner will be notified by email and the ticket will be available for collection from the Alliance here in West End (down by the markets on the corner of Jane and Montague).
To set the barre here is one of our scribes’ synopsis of the 1994 film A Pure Formality.
“Depardieu is the intellectual: ignorant, lost, afraid. Polanski is the interrogator, oozing charm and disdain. One room, hundreds of questions, a matter of life and death. The suspense lasts until the last scene. Where were you, what happened, why are you here? The answer, of course, is a pure formality.”
So despite the vast expenditure, the signs on every Belle Property regardless of owner or tenant approval, the announcement by the Brisbane City Council that it would not enforce its own electoral signage by laws, the voters grimly went out and voted exactly the same way they did last time.
You can count the people who changed their vote.
A handful of extra votes for the Secular Party.
A couple of hundred extra for the little Green man.
Half of Palmer’s three thousand facebook friends went to the Pirate Party and the others sprinkled themselves across the micro parties generally. They do not like politicians.
The only significant move at all is the thousand fans of one K Rudd deserted the ALP and voted for Abbott instead. These are the people for whom Rudd lurched to the right, damning international refugees to prison islands as the international cartel running the penal colony of Australia has always done.
Think Port Arthur, think Norfolk, think Palm Island. Think of the prisoners chained to the fort just off Sydney Cove. If you don’t line up for your loaf of bread and bucket of rum we will whip you. If you will not submit to the whip then we will chain you to a rock in the middle of the sea and laugh at you rotting in the high tide, while we have our Sunday sandwiches.
It is the Australian way.
So after all of that, we have a Labor representative in Griffith.
Well we would if Glasson would concede, but there could be a surprise in the postal votes and we won’t give up until they are all opened. We learned that from George Dubya didn’t we? Don’t give up until you have exhausted every challenge, tried every trick and cooked every book that can be cooked.
Glasson, you told us you are an honourable man and not a creature of the party. Concede. Go back to the family, back to the practice, back to helping your patients see.
Or have you been poisoned in the process?
Did the intervention get under your skin?
Did the power of riding into town on a jeep with the army behind you as the medical arm of the liberator go to your head?
Get out now while you still have your dignity, your humanity.
Go and rewatch the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and decide what sacrifice you are prepared to make.
And dear reader, if your name is not Bill Glasson, if you are one of the 50,000 who voted for the progressive cause on Saturday, gird your loins and clear the decks. When you read Damien Smith’s plea for liberty, think about how you will participate in the coming fight to restore humanity to Australian politics before we start disappearing.
Just when you thought that the last thing West End needed was yet another Thai restaurant, along comes Soi 9 Thai in Hardgrave Road to overturn all your preconceptions.
The Westender was one of the first through the door on the day they opened, and we’ve been back frequently – sometimes twice a day! – ever since. We’ve also been raving about it endlessly to all our friends.
According to proprietress Pla, Soi 9 aims to offer a range of different cuisines representative of the different regions of Thailand. That same theme extends to the decor as well, with furniture and seating reflecting different regional styles.
We’ve given the menu a good workout in recent days, and have found every dish a delight.
We were particularly taken with the Tofu Sweet and Sour with Tamarind Sauce, melt-in-the-mouth creamy softness with a crispy exterior, anointed with a dark, syrupy Tamarind sauce.
Other pleasant surprises were the Pla Rama Long Son (battered chicken with peanut sauce), Duck, Basil and Chilli and the Sweet and Sour Crispy Pork.
The Entrees menu is equally inviting, and deserves closer attention. Of the fifteen entrees listed, we’ve only tried half a dozen to date, and are looking forward to further exploration.
The decor is bright and cheerful, the service is excellent and the meals are presented so they look just as good as they taste.
All in all, Soi 9 Thai is a worthy addition to the local restaurant scene, and can only add to West End’s growing reputation as Brisbane’s premier dining destination.
Get in quick before it becomes too popular, and you have to book days in advance.
Soi 9 Thai
65 Hardgrave Road West End
Tel: 3846 5585
Open 7 Days
BYO License
No one wants to think about sexually transmissible infections on Valentine’s Day, but the day is a great opportunity to think about how you are keeping yourself safe.
National Condom Day falls on Valentine’s Day, February 14, to bring into focus the need for being aware of the risks of contracting an STI, says Jean Hailes gynaecologist Dr Elizabeth Farrell AM.
“We want women to know that they can catch an STI at any age, so even if you’re not worried about getting pregnant anymore, you still need to use a condom to practise safer sex,” she says.
While common STIs in Australia, including chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV and genital herpes are seen at higher levels in teenagers and young adults, anecdotally doctors are seeing a rise in some of these conditions in older women.
Genital herpes is one STI where the prevalence is significantly higher in women than men, with those aged 35-44 having the highest prevalence (16% of women compared to 8% of men).
Dr Farrell’s advice to women in their 40s and 50s who are out there dating is that wearing a condom has to be non-negotiable.
“I see lots of women who say ‘I don’t need to worry about getting pregnant anymore so I don’t bother with condoms’. I tell them that while your period is irregular it is possible to fall pregnant and, more importantly, you need protection from infection, not just pregnancy,” she says. “And for women who are postmenopausal and may be starting a new relationship, pregnancy is not an issue, but you should still use condoms to protect you from catching an STI.”
“My advice is to develop the confidence at any age to talk to your partner about wearing condoms. There are lots of fun condoms these days, so explore what’s available and make it fun and enjoyable.”
“And for men and women this Valentine’s Day, why not be creative and say it with condoms – make it fun, exciting and healthy.”
Tips for safer sex
Condoms are not just for stopping pregnancy – they are also the best way to protect against STIs
Condoms are one of the most accessible and inexpensive forms of birth control and protection from STIs
You may not know if you – or your partner – has an STI as there may not be any obvious signs
You can catch an STI at any age – you are never too young or too old to practise safe sex
Use condoms if you are in a new relationship
Develop the confidence to talk to your partner about wearing condoms
Both Bill Glasson and Terri Butler held virtual ‘town-hall’ meetings in recent days, using new technology which enabled them to talk simultaneously with audiences of 10,000 and more.
These virtual meetings gave all the control to the candidates and their teams, allowed them to target particular sections of the electorate and run polls on voter intentions and priorities.
They selected the questions, determined the options offered for the polls, while the audience got to listen passively, unless of course you were one of the few selected to ask a question.
Well, on Wednesday night in the Griffith inner-city suburb of West End, we got the real thing.
Not a contrived and sterile virtual meeting, but a messy, sometimes raucous public meeting sponsored by the independent Westender online journal. It started late and went far too long, but it was real and exhilarating because we got to hear each other’s cheers and the jeers and sighs of exasperation.
And we watched, sometimes in embarrassment for them, as candidates were put on the spot or fumbled their words.
Most importantly, we got to ask our own questions. It gave control back to the voters, and they loved it. This is what it means for candidates to be on the hustings.
And we got to hear, finally, not just from the Labor, Coalition and Greens candidates, but from the independents and the minor parties who rarely get a public stage.
Ten of the eleven candidates fronted the standing-room only crowd.
In a gesture of thanks to organisers, Secular Party candidate Anne Reid posted on her Facebook page the next day: “Candidates like myself for the minor parties don’t always get the airtime and exposure the big parties get, so it is a privilege and an honour when organisations like the Westender show their support for real democracy by providing forums like Meet the Candidates tonight.”
Spencer Howson on ABC 612, following the ALP’s virtual ‘town-hall’ meeting, observed that a number of questions seemed to be about local issues, such as public transport and overdevelopment. Where were the questions, he wondered, on gay marriage, Medicare, climate change and asylum seekers?
Well, all of those questions and more were canvassed on Wednesday night.
The West End is Labor heartland and Terri Butler got the biggest cheers for the night. It must have felt like being amongst friends, an upbeat way to end the campaigning week for her.
It is not so easy for those who were less warmly embraced. It’s a brave thing to stand before an audience and convince them to vote for you, especially when it is hostile to your position. Family First candidate Christopher Williams felt the brunt of it when he declared his position against same-sex marriage, and Independent Travis Windsor won little favour with his bullish attitude towards the major party candidates.
The story of the night was the early departure of Dr Glasson to some accompanying jeers. My understanding of events is that Dr Glasson’s office had advised the organisers the day before the event that he would have to leave early. He was moved forward on the agenda to enable this, and at a suitable time, after each candidate had provided a 3-minute introduction, and after giving answers to some questions that had been submitted on-line, a 5-minute break was announced and Dr Glasson left.
Bill Glasson is leaving because he has another commitment. People are heckling him with "bye bye bill"
The great disappointment for many was that they did not get their opportunity to ask their questions of Dr Glasson. Others wondered about Dr Glasson’s political jugdement, and one commented to me privately that it seemed an odd decision to leave a full house forum that was being covered by live TV and radio. ‘What could be so important?’ people mused.
Geoff Ebbs’ campaign team summed it up in a Facebook post.
Geoff Ebbs himself said from the floor “It’s a pity that we gave Dr Glasson such a hard time. I know as a candidate sometimes it is hard to be in two places at once”
Dr Glasson’s early departure reminded me of his own widely reported disappointment when his then opponent Kevin Rudd had pulled out of a candidate’s forum in the last week of the September election.
No one could have been more disappointed by Dr Glasson’s departure than the Doctors’ Reform Society vice president, Dr Tracy Schrader, who early in the campaign had issued a challenge to Dr Glasson for a public debate on Medicare. She rose from her seat anyway and addressed her question to Dr Glasson’s empty chair.
@GriffithElects@drsreform copayment will hurt most vulnerable patients and a wrecking ball for Medicare. No money savings here, just pain.
– See more at: http://nofibs.com.au/2014/02/07/aint-nothing-like-real-thing-griffithvotes-candidates-forum-griffithelects-reports/#sthash.9nvbMFxa.dpuf
