Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne

This imposing memorial to the men and women of Australia's armed forces stands on a hill overlooking the Melbourne skyline. A recent rebuilding program has added a huge underground exhibition space which contains detailed histories of Australia's involvement in international conflicts, ranging from the First and Second World Wars, to Korea, Vietnam, and to more recent (and still ongoing) conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Information also shows Australia's participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, which are arguably even more important, given that these operations can help stop local conflicts from escalating into major international wars.

History

Patriotism statuary

The Shrine of Remembrance was created to meet the needs of a grieving community after the extensive loss of lives in the First World War (1914 –18). 114,000 Victorians enlisted in the First World War. Of the 89,000 of them who served abroad 19,000 were killed. They were buried in distant graves far from home at a time when most Australians did not travel abroad. The Shrine provided a place where Victorians could grieve as individuals, as families or as a community. It also served to honour the courage of the men, women and children who remained at home. 

The Shrine of Remembrance was designed by two Melbourne returned-soldier architects, Philip Hudson and James Wardrop. The inspiration for the external outline came from one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—the mausoleum at Halicarnassus to Mausolus, King of Caria in South West Asia Minor.

The Shrine is composed of a number of elements consisting of exterior and interior features, a Crypt, a World War Two Forecourt, Visitor Centre, and the Remembrance Garden and Shrine Reserve. All are brought together by the grand design and the bold architectural elements that are each worth examining closely.

The Exterior

The east and west sides of the Shrine are marked at the corners by four groups of statuary representing Peace, Justice, Sacrifice and Patriotism. In addition, visitors can see sixteen stone ‘battle honours’ discs, commemorating Australia’s involvement in World War One battles at Gallipoli, Villers Bretonneux, Amiens, Ypres, and many others.

Western wall inscription: Let all men know...

The western wall of the Shrine bears the inscription: LET ALL MEN KNOW THAT THIS IS HOLY GROUND. THIS SHRINE, ESTABLISHED IN THE HEARTS OF MEN AS ON THE SOLID EARTH, COMMEMORATES A PEOPLE’S FORTITUDE AND SACRIFICE. YE THEREFORE THAT COME AFTER, GIVE REMEMBRANCE.

The Sanctuary

As visitors enter the Shrine of Remembrance they enter the main Sanctuary inside of which are the Stone of Remembrance. This is set into the floor and contains the inscription; GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN. This is part of a verse from the Bible (John 15:13), “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The stone is aligned with an opening in the roof of the Sanctuary so that a ray of sunshine illuminates the word LOVE, on the Stone of Remembrance at exactly 11:00 am each year on November 11, Remembrance Day.

Crypt memorial: Father and Son

RAAF Display

At left: Located beneath the Sanctuary in the Crypt, stands a large bronze statue of a father and son representing the two generations who served in the both world wars. 

There is much else to see and do here, including examining the numerous displays in the exhibition space deep below the Shrine. In the grounds surrounding the Shrine visitors will find the Cenotaph and Eternal Flame, the Remembrance Garden and Shrine Reserve containing important statues and memorials—such as the one to John Simpson Kirkpatrick who is commonly known as “The Man With The Donkey”.

Finally, if visitors  to Melbourne and are able to visit the Shrine of Remembrance on the two most important days on the Australian memorial calendar—Anzac Day (April 25), and Remembrance Day (November 11), I’m sure they will find the experience to be both memorable and emotional, especially if they are up early for the Dawn Service.

Acknowledgements
Much of the information in this post is sourced from the official Shrine of Remembrance website and from Wikipedia…

Note: Click on images to see at full size.

My 52-Book-Year #2: The Broken Shore

Peter Temple is one of Australia's best crime writer’s. He is a five-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award, Australia's most prestigious prize for crime fiction, and his novels have been published in at least 20 countries. He is also the writer behind the Jack Irish series that screened on Australian television last year—not that I had connected the two things (author/TV series) before I started to read The Broken Shore.

As per the standard tropes of the genre, our hero, Joe Cashin is plagued by the usual lawman's deficiencies: a failed relationship, smokes and drinks too much, is something of a loner, and has a hard-assed superior who thinks he alone has all the right answers, and who also thinks the crime at the heart of the book has been quickly solved and neatly wrapped up. Of course, Cashin does not agree and continues to follow up loose ends and new leads on his own. Needless to say, Cashin is proved right.

The story revolves around the brutal murder of a rich, elderly white man, at the (possible) hands of three Aboriginal youths. There is plenty of intrigue, false leads, dark secrets, small Australian country town politics, and seamy murders to keep lovers of the genre happy and guessing throughout the book.  

The quality of writing is a big step above most of the crime fiction I have read over the past couple of years. Temple writes were others fear to tread. He makes liberal and frequent use of the coarsest of everyday language such as c - - t, f - - k, and Australia’s versions of the ’N’ word, abo and boong. His police officers are believable, and their talk rings true, and happily, Temple doesn't waste a lot of time with filler of the sort I dislike so much in crime fiction—extended descriptions of landscape, streets, nature, and the back stories of his lead characters. When he does mention these elements they are brief and too the point. 

South African born, Peter Temple turned to fiction writing in the 1990s with the publication of his first Jack Irish novel, Bad Debts. This, and his subsequent Jack Irish novels (Black Tide, Dead Point, and White Dog) are set in Melbourne, and feature a protagonist who is both a lawyer and a gambler. In 2012, an ABC Television and German ZDF coproduction produced two full-length films of the first two Jack Irish books, with the international film star, Guy Pearce in the title role. How he juggles the two potentially conflicted occupations (law and gambling), is what helped to make the television programs, at least, great viewing.

Temple has also written An Iron Rose, Shooting Star, and In the Evil Day (known as Identity Theory in the US), as well as The Broken Shore and its semi-sequel, Truth. Based on this one story, I would be more than happy to seek out more of Peter Temple's work, and there is a lot of it, apart from the four Jack Irish novels.

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Luna Park, Melbourne, Victoria

Melbourne's Luna Park may have seen better days, but try telling that to the hundreds of thousands of children, teenagers and adults who flock to this fun park throughout the year. Entry is free, but of course the rides and attractions are not. I visited on a Monday afternoon, and the place was buzzing with activity, and excitement. The rides and attractions are somewhat 'old school', and small in scale  compared to large, modern fun parks, but it is very popular just the same.

Overlooking Port Phillip Bay, this historic park—now in its 105th year—has been a favourite destination for generations of Melbourne families, and visitors alike. NOTE: Luna Park is open every weekend, and every public holiday except Christmas Day. However, it is not open during the week during school terms—or to put it another way, it is only open during the week when school’s out for summer, and other mid-year vacation periods!

Having said that, just to confuse the issue, the Park does open for the occasional special event during school terms, so I highly recommend readers check the Luna Park Opening Hours page to see if it is open for just such a special occasion.

The Ride of Your Life?

Luna Park offers 18 attractions which are suitable for a wide range of ages. However, all rides carry a minimum height restriction (and in some cases a maximum height restriction). Very young children may have to be accompanied on some rides by an adult.

Check Luna Park’s Rides and Attractions page to see a complete list of rides and which restrictions (if any) apply to them. Speaking of which, among the more exciting attractions Luna Park features the Circus of Screams, Power Surge, Twin Dragon, and Spider rides, and those ever present fair ground staples, the Sky Rider Ferris Wheel and of course—Dodgem Cars.

Life is a Carousel, Old Chum…

Luna Park’s wonderful Carousel is said to be the largest and most elaborate in the Southern Hemisphere. Visually stunning, its 68 horses and chariots are individually hand painted and intricately decorated in brilliant colours. Each horse is unique and even has its own name.

The Carousel was built in 1916 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, and was number 30 out of a total of 80 carousels built by the company.

The Great Scenic Railway

With the Great Scenic Railway roller coaster, Luna Park lays claim to “the oldest operating roller coaster of its kind in the world,” although how they substantiate that claim, is unspecified. I assume the “of its kind” part of the claim relates to the fact that the Great Scenic Railway was originally built entirely of wood! Even more improbably is the fact that the carriages are still controlled by a brakeman who stands in the centre of each carriage and controls…what? Speed? Ascent and descent? Oncoming traffic? Okay, don’t panic. I’m only joking. That crack about oncoming traffic was put there to see if you are paying attention. 

Mummy, I’m Hungry!

The food franchises are of the fast food 'pie and chips' variety, along with the ubiquitous Fairy-floss (or Cotton Candy as Americans like to call it), pop-corn, snow-cones, and hot-dogs. While the prices are quite reasonable the choices on offer leave much to be desired.

Café Luna is a little more upscale, and sells gourmet pizzas, deli-style sandwiches and burgers. Apparently the café also caters for vegetarians as well. Personally, if you are planning a long visit—and given that entry is free—I would recommend patronizing one of the local cafés or restaurants nearby where the meal choices are broader and healthier.

Visitors with Special Needs

While the main Luna Park site is accessible for visitors with special needs and disabilities, many of the rides and attractions are not able to accommodate people with major disabilities, or who are wheelchair-bound. Check Luna Park’s Special Needs page for a complete breakdown of what visitors with disabilities can expect when they visit the park.

Getting There

Visitors without their own means of transport, can get to Luna Park with a minimum of fuss and expense from the CBD by taking either a number 3a East Malvern-bound tram, or a number 16 Kew-bound tram from the tram stops on St Kilda Road by Federation Square.

Another option is the number 96 St. Kilda Beach tram which runs along Collins Street, and also takes visitors directly past Luna Park.

Here’s a video compiled from multiple roller coaster rides that give you a good look at what a ride on the Great Scenic Railway entails.

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IF YOU GO

Address: 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda, Port Phillip, Victoria. Phone: +61 3 9525 5033

Opening Hours… 

Luna Park Online…

Yarra Trams… for public transport options.

William Turner: A Painter Of Light

Just last month I wrote about The Frick Collection, and spoke about the wonderful range of great art and artists that are represented in this small, but important museum.

Taking place at the Frick, from now through until mid-May 2017, is a special exhibition titled “Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages Through Time,” at which three monumental paintings by Turner will be on show, along with thirty or so other works encompassing oil, watercolours, and prints. The three major paintings at the centre of the exhibition are Harbor of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile, Cologne; The Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening, and The Harbor of Brest: The Quayside and Château, which is on loan from Tate Britain. The three port scenes are being shown together for the first time.

From Wikipedia we learn that Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was an English Romanticist landscape painter who was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an importance that rivalled the painting of historic themes which was a very common practice when he was working as an artist. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting, and is commonly referred to as "the painter of light”.

Many of Turner’s greatest paintings are characterised by his unique pallet, which used newly invented pigments such as chrome yellow, and chrome orange. These gave his most famous works a golden hue that captured the light from the sun at its most evocative point, either early in the morning or later in the evening.

Although Henry Clay Frick bought Harbor of Dieppe and Arrival of a Packet-Boat, more than a century ago, the first American to buy a Turner painting was the New Yorker, James Lenox, a private collector. In 1845, Lenox bought—sight-unseen—the 1832 atmospheric seascape Staffa, Fingal's Cave. On receiving the painting Lenox was baffled, and "greatly disappointed" by what he called the painting's "indistinctness". When his views were relayed back to William Turner, Turner is said to have replied, "You should tell Mr Lenox that indistinctness is my forte.”

In April 2006, Christie's New York auctioned Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio, a view of Venice exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841, for US$35.8 million, setting a new record for a Turner work.

If you can’t make to the exhibition itself, here is a short video produced by the Frick which takes a closer look at the three paintings, and some of the other works that form that exhibition.

“Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages Through Time”

At The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th St.

On now through May 14, 2017

Online: www.frick.org 

More about Turner at Wikipedia… 

My 52-Book-Year #1: Apex Hides The Hurt

Apex Hides The Hurt, by Colson Whitehead, was the first book I read at the beginning of January to kick off my 52-Book-Year Challenge. For a book that spends a lot of time talking about the importance of names, it was clearly a deliberate choice to feature a central character who remains nameless throughout the book. The man, referred to throughout only as 'he', is a nomenclature specialist. That is, a person whose skill in the advertising and market world is the naming of product names.

Apex, an adhesive gauze in the style of Band-Aids is our anonymous heroes career-crowning glory, and the product 'hides the hurt' in more ways than one. In fact, it is so good at hiding the hurt, that he loses a toe because the product masks an injury that festers and putrefies beneath the product's secure covering (sorry, did I just give away an important plot point? Not entirely, but never mind). Luckily, this is only part of the story Whitehead carefully unravels.

The main plot centres around our anonymous main character and his contract to help the council of the small town of Winthrop resolve an internal fight to decide on a new name. The three main choices being New Prospera, favored by a local software magnate; or to keep the existing name, Winthrop, favoured by a descendant of the town’s namesake; or to revert to the original name of the town, Freedom, since the town was originally founded by free blacks.

Written into his contract before our specialist agreed to take on the contract, was a clause that stipulated the town elders must accept whatever name he decides on. By the end of the book he decides to name the town… — oh, okay then, I won’t give that away. Before making this decision our protagonist must learn the history of the town, and that of its leading citizens, while getting to know the contesting forces, and forging alliances where he can. The book is filled with wry humor, and much insight into the world of the nomenclature specialist.

I was particularly taken with this sentence referring to the Hotel Winthrop where our consultant stays while working on the problem at hand; Whitehead observes—or is it our consultant—that, "It was a good place to make a bad decision, and in particular, a bad decision that would affect a great many people."

On its release, the book garnered mixed, but generally positive reviews with the New York Times placing it among its list of the 100 Most Notable Books of the Year. The Library Journal praised the book, noting that Whitehead does Shakespeare one better by posing the question, “What's in a name, and how does our identity relate to our own sense of who we are?” The San Francisco Chronicle gave the novel a mixed review, commenting, "It's pure joy to read writing like this, but watching Whitehead sketch out a minor character's essence with one stroke, while breathtaking, makes one wish the same treatment was afforded the people who ostensibly inhabit the novel's complex ideas." 

Finally, Jennifer Reese, writing for Entertainment Weekly, called the book "a blurry satire of American commercialism", adding, "it may not mark the apex of Colson Whitehead's career, but it brims with the author's spiky humor and intelligence." Ignoring the obvious pun in her comment, Jennifer was right about the book not being the high point in Whitehead’s career. That was to come ten years later when The Underground Railroad, his latest book, was published in 2016.

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Thanks to Wikipedia for providing some background information about Colson Whitehead, and for the various newspaper and magazine reviews quoted in this article.

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Readers interested in reading Apex Hides The Hurt, or The Underground Railroad may choose to do so by purchasing either the print or eBook versions via the links below. By doing so you will be supporting my blog at the same time. Thanks in anticipation.

Click here to purchase Apex Hides The Hurt…

Click here to purchase The Underground Railway…

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

Tree form (detail).
Click here to see the full work... 

During my stay in Melbourne in January, I paid a visit (as I always do), to the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (the initials stand for National Gallery of Victoria).

This is one of the great Australian galleries, and its proximity to Federation Square and the heart of downtown Melbourne ensures that there is a constant stream of local and international visitors strolling the centre's wonderful galleries and excellent exhibitions. Entry to the general collection is free, while special exhibitions require paid entry.

The Ian Potter Centre is home to some of the most iconic works of Australian art from many of the country's most celebrated artists. Here you will find Russell Drysdale, Albert Tucker, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and many others.

Collins St, 5p.m. (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

"In the early 1950s John Brack adopted Melbourne's urban environment as his subject, recording the shops, bars and workplaces of the city with an ironic edge. In Collins St, 5pm, Brack's depicts Melbourne's financial hub at the end of the working day, it's uniformly dressed office workers streaming homeward. By personalising each figure Brack points to the enduring presence of the individual."

"Shearing the rams, (see image below) by Tom Roberts, is a response to the nationalistic sentiment that developed in Australia during the late 19th century. It reflects the emergence of a national identity defined through heroic rural activity and the economic importance of the wool industry.

The painting is based on a number of preliminary sketches that Roberts completed on the spot at Brocklesby Station, Corowa, New South Wales, in the late spring of 1888. He returned during the following two spring periods (shearing season) to work on the painting."

Jarlu Jukarrpa (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart was an Australian Aboriginal artist from Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory. Wikipedia provides this introduction to Mr. Stewart:

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart (circa 1940–2013) was an Australian Aboriginal artist from Mungapunju, south of Yuendumu. He was chairman of the Warlukurlangu Artists Committee. Stewart was one of the artists who contributed to the Honey Ant Dreaming mural on the Papunya school wall in 1971 - the very genesis of the modern Aboriginal art movement.

In 2004 Stuart Macintyre wrote in a A concise history of Australia that Paddy Japaljarri Stewart "...evokes the continuity of dreaming from Grandfather and father to son and grandson, down the generations and across the passages of time..."

Lost (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

"The theme of the lost child in the bush had a long literary and artistic tradition in Australia and was still topical during the 1880s. Lost was the first of Frederick McCubbin's 'national' pictures: paintings of Australian subjects which culminated in 1904 with The pioneer."

There is much to see and enjoy here, and the Ian Potter Centre is one place I make sure I visit over and over again whenever I am in Melbourne. Don’t miss it.

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Location:
Federation Square: Cnr Russell and Flinders Streets
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 
Ph: +61 3 8620 2222
Online at Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia... 

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Shearing the rams (detail).
Click here to see the full work...

Note: unless otherwise noted, text in italics indicates content adapted from the information cards placed alongside each of the above works of art in the Ian Potter Centre.

Santiago Calatrava’s New York City Oculus

The main concourse inside the Oculus

I know it’s a cliché to say, I don’t know much about art—but I know what I like. But in my case it is true. I also know little about architecture, but that has never stopped me from appreciating great examples of the form, be they magnificent Gothic cathedrals or cloud-busting skyscrapers; iconic bridges, or beautifully constructed Victorian homes.

On my visit to New York City last year, I often found myself surfacing from the bowels of the massive Fulton Street subway station, from where I made my way into Santiago Calatrava’s amazing Oculus, or to give the building its official title, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. Calatrava seems to have become a somewhat controversial architect for reasons I don’t fully understand, and since I am not qualified to comment on them, I won’t try and explain them here. I have not personally seen any other of his architectural constructions, so I can offer no comment on those either.

What I have seen with my own eyes, however, is the Oculus that sits above the vast underground subway and Path train network that services New Jersey, and sends tendrils of underground railway lines snaking up the island of Manhattan, all the way into the Bronx, and across the East River into the heart of Brooklyn.

Each time I walked into the vast hall that sits below the soaring white ribs that form its outer shell, I have been awed by the grandeur and vast scale. I suspect many New Yorkers don’t take the time to linger in the building or pause to appreciate the towering interior. If that is the case, it is a great pity.

The Oculus seen from Brookfield Place

Might that be why the building has come in for much criticism? Even now that the building is complete, the Oculus comes in for regular bagging. Why? Is it the design? Is it the final cost, which blew out from an initial projected cost of $2.2 billion to around $4 billion? Is it because only 40-50,000 commuters pass through the hub on an average weekday? Is it because, as the writer Martin Filler describes it in his article for the New York Review of Books, headlined New York’s Vast Flop, nothing more than a glorified shopping centre? Maybe it is for all these and many other reasons. 

In the article (which is in fact a review of three newish books examining various aspects of what came to be known as Ground Zero), Filler complains that the construction of the Oculus was a “…stupendous waste of public funds.” To be fair to Martin Filler, the title and thrust of his review seems to be aimed at the whole of the World Trade Center complex, not just at Calatrava’s Oculus.

However, I just can’t bring myself to agree with Filler’s feelings about the Oculus, which, apart from the “…stupendous waste of public funds,” he variously describes as "...this kitschy jeu d'esprit" (meaning: a light-hearted display of wit and cleverness, especially in a work of literature.) Literature? Whatever...

The Oculus and WTC One

Martin Filler also talks about the “…maudlin sentimentalism of his [Calatrava’s] design," and in his most damning paragraph writes in part: “What was originally likened by its creator to a fluttering paloma de la paz (dove of peace) because of its white, winglike, upwardly flaring rooflines seems more like a steroidal stegosaurus that wandered onto the set of a sci-fi flick and died there.”

Wow. Don’t hold back, Martin. And he doesn’t. He goes on to write: “Instead of an ennobling civic concourse on the order of Grand Central or Charles Follen McKim’s endlessly lamented Pennsylvania Station, what we now have on top of the new transit facilities is an eerily dead-feeling, retro-futuristic, Space Age Gothic shopping mall with acres of highly polished, very slippery white marble flooring like some urban tundra.”

And further:
“Far from this being the “exhilarating nave of a genuine people’s cathedral,” as Paul Goldberger claimed in Vanity Fair, Calatrava’s superfluous shopping shrine is merely what the Germans call a Konsumtempel (temple of consumption), and a generic one at that.”

Whew! I think it’s pretty clear that Martin Filler doesn’t like the Oculus. Personally, I’m with Paul Goldberger from Vanity Fair. I love the building. I love the “white, winglike, upwardly flaring rooflines,” and I also love the “retro-futuristic, Space Age Gothic shopping mall” feel of the building. If it doesn’t turn up in a big budget, oversized superhero movie sometime during the next five years I’ll eat my hat.

Who, but a handful of New Yorker’s cares that the complex took twelve years to complete instead of the five originally planned for? Who, but a bunch of bean counters even remembers that the price of the building blew out to $4 billion? And does it matter that Grand Central Terminal has a daily commuter tally of 750,000 subway riders, compared to the already noted 40-50,000 that pass through the Oculus? Of course not. Nor does it matter, that it cost more than One World Trade Center.

What matters today is that the building stands completed, and that as long as it is maintained and cared for properly it will still be standing there in not just fifty years, but in a hundred years. Properly cared for and maintained, no one (apart from a few critics

Visitors gather for the official opening, August 16, 2016

and envious architects), will remember or care about the length of time it took to complete, or the final cost.

Finally, in his March 9, 2017 article, Filler writes that the Oculus "...opened to the public in March 2016. thought with no fanfare whatever." While that may have been the case, it is also true that there was in fact an official opening for the center six months after Filler's article was published, on Tuesday, August 16. I know this because I was there, as were thousands of other people.

Native New Yorkers, and the many thousands of visitors who pass through the Oculus will make up their own minds about how they feel about the building. I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of them will stop to look up and admire the sheer scale and beauty of this new architectural gem, which I predict will eventually go on to be lauded for the “retro-futuristic, Space Age Gothic” building it may well be.

More Information:

• The Fulton Center...
• Westfield World Trade Center...
• World Trade Center PATH Station...

Was David Letterman At 1969 Jimi Hendrix Gig?

Well you can call me crazy but today I was watching a YouTube video of Jimi Hendrix playing a concert at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall in 1969, and as a camera pans across the faces of audience members, I swear I spotted David Letterman in the crowd.

Yes, that’s the David Letterman of the old Late Show With… show.

Letterman, who was born in 1947, would have been around 21 or 22 at the time of the concert.

Does anyone know whether he ever mentioned seeing Hendrix in London on his show?

Below is a screen grab from the video with an insert I’ve added of Letterman. You can see a clear resemblance, or am I imagining things?

In the video of the 1969 Royal Albert Hall concert, Letterman appears for about three seconds the 2:43 mark.

So, am I crazy or not? 

Festive Times in The Festival State

Adelaide Fringe Parade

As ‘Mad March’ fast approaches, Adelaide, the capital of South Australia is well into its festive season. Already this summer the city has hosted the Tour Down Under (January 17—22), that annual international bike race that was first staged in 1999, with the local rider Stuart O’Grady taking the win. Since then the Tour has grown to become the biggest cycle race in the southern hemisphere with international cycle stars like Cadel Evans, Marcel Kittel, Andy Schleck and Andre Greipel just a few of the many great cyclists who have participated. 

But the Tour Down Under is only the starter event for South Australia’s festival season. Underway as I write this is the Adelaide Fringe (February 17—March 19). The Fringe has been taking place for more than 55 years, and this year features a veritable smorgasbord of more than 500 acts covering everything from comedy to cabaret, music to magic, visual arts, theatre, film, and so much more.

For many local and visitors, the Adelaide Fringe holds more interest and excitement than the premier arts event in South Australia, the annual Adelaide Festival (March 3–19). This major international festival has been taking place since 1960, and features a program of theatre, opera, music and dance, more visual arts and film, talks, and installations, some commissioned specifically for the event.

Writer's Week

A major component of the Adelaide Festival is the free Writer’s Week (March 4–9), which takes place in the open air at the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden. This year, as always, Writer’s Week celebrates a diverse range of writers and writing, and includes writers from Chile and Cuba, Ireland, Iceland and Indonesia, the United States and Canada, and of course a host of writers from Australia. For a book lover like myself, the opportunity to listen to some of the best writers on the planet talk about books and read from their latest works is not to be missed.

But wait, there’s more!

Rev heads, have not been left out. Somewhere, in the middle of this high art and low culture, the annual Supercar motor race, the Clipsal 500 (March 2–5), hits the streets. During this event visitors get to indulge their love of fast cars, burnt rubber, skimpily clad women, and high-octane fuel. At the end of the day's activities on Friday and Saturday night, participants can rock into the night to the music of the Hilltop Hoods, The Funkoars, Baby Animals and one of the great Aussie rock bands, Hunters & Collectors.

But Mad March (as the locals refer to this period every summer), is the gift that keeps on giving. If you have not yet been exhausted or financial broken by fast cars, highbrow theatre and arts, books and their writers, and the almost unlimited shenanigans of the Adelaide Fringe you can always put on your tie-dye T’s, braid your hair into dreadlocks, douse yourself in patchouli oil, and spend a weekend at WOMADelaide (March 10–13).

This four-day world music festival is located in the city’s Botanic Gardens, and this year includes more than 60 acts and speakers from more than 20 countries. Among the performers this year are the Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans; the Specials, a band that brought an updated version of British Ska music to the world; and The Philip Glass Ensemble which will be performing music from Koyaanisqatsi. Apart from the music, WOMADelaide features workshops, Planet Talks, an ElectroLounge, a KidZone, a host of international food stalls, and a Healing Village for those needing some time out from the feasting and dancing.

Whew! I'm exhausted simply from the anticipation and the promise this list of amazing events suggests. Sadly, time, money and age will all combine to ensure that at most, I will only be able to dip into the many sweets on offer. But then, that is probably exactly how it should be.

Dear reader, you may not be able to attend any of the above events at this time, but I seriously encourage you to think about planning a visit to Adelaide during the summer festival season. If there is one thing I can guarantee you, it is that you won't be bored.

Crop Trust: Global Seed Vault

Nestled in the Svalbard archipelago lies a small unassuming-yet-sturdy building created to last forever. While it may look minimal, this building is one of the most important in the world because it hold the key to continual hitman survival. It houses the world’s largest—and most secure—collection of crop diversity.

While the Svalbard Global Seed Vault isn’t the only gene bank in the world, its seed collection is the most likely to maintain funding while also withstanding war, natural disasters and climate change.

Built by the Norwegian government and encouraged by the Crop Trust when the vulnerability of other gene banks came to light, the Global Seed Vault serves as a timeless record of crops throughout generations. It is meant to ensure—regardless of what happens to the planet—that agriculture can survive and thus, the human race can survive.

Since 1903, more than 93 percent of fruit and vegetable varieties in the United States have gone extinct. With a changing climate, the only way agriculture can adapt and continue to feed the world is with crop diversity. The Global Seed Vault’s mission is to ensure agriculture remains resilient to environmental changes.

There are currently more than 880,000 samples in the vault—seeds from every country in the world. Ultimately, the hope is to greatly increase this number. The vault has the ability to store 4.5 million varieties of crops and a maximum of 2.5 billion seeds.

It is every citizen’s moral duty—and in the world’s best interest—to come together to fund the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, helping it to not just survive, but thrive. Every $625.00 saves a single crop variety. Please join GoPro in supporting Crop Trust’s Seed Vault to safeguard crop diversity forever.

Below, follow world-renowned scientist Cary Fowler into the heart of the arctic, where the Svalbard Global Seed Vault lies nestled in the frozen Norwegian landscape.

GoPro Cause: Forever Securing World Food Supply with Crop Trust from GoPro on Vimeo.

Want to get involved? Visit Crop Trust here…

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UPDATE: FEBRUARY 25, 2017

Just days after adding this post, more information popped up on my Facebook feed linking the a Smithsonian magazine story titles, Syria Just Made a Major Seed Bank Deposit in the Svalbard Seed Bank.

According to the story, in 2011, during the Arab Spring, “…an advisor to the Crop Trust, which operates the vault in Svalbard, reached out to the Syrian-based seed bank to ask if they needed to back up their seeds. Though officials initially refused, they eventually acquiesced—just in case. Soon after, the political situation began to degrade.”

Thankfully, 49,000 types of seeds arrived in Svalbard just before turmoil hit Aleppo.

Read more from the Smithsonian magazine here...

Writers From Life's Other Side

A small selection of books bought this year

Over the past few years I have made a point of seeking out writers that have never been on my radar, despite the accolades they have garnered for their writing. I am especially interested in discovering and reading writers from ethnic backgrounds that offer a new and unique (for me), view of life that I have never experienced or imagined. Additionally, I have been seeking out male and female writers of colour, who tend to add another layer of insight and experience to their writing that non-white male and female writers are simply unable to provide.

Among my female 'discoveries' have been Maya Angelou (I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings); Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God); Jesmyn Ward (Men We Reaped, and Salvage The Bones); and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (That Thing Around Your Neck, and Americanah).

Male writers of colour that have also come to my attention and join my list of new 'discoveries' include the brilliant and insightful Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Beautiful Struggle, and his stunning follow-up, Between The World And Me); Teju Cole (Every Day Is For The Thief); Colson Whitehead (Apex Hides The Hurt); Ernest J. Gaines (A Gathering of Old Men); and Daniel Black, whose recent book The Coming, I examined here...

Still more of my recent book buying adventures

Of course, I am not completely ignorant about the pantheon of great African-American writers who were, or are contemporaries of the above writers. Men such as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, W.E.B DuBois and Ralph Ellison are names I have been familiar with for many years. Of these four writers, the only one I had read was James Baldwin. Indeed, earlier this year I reread two of Baldwin's now classic essay collections, Nobody Knows My Name (from 1961), and The Fire Next Time (1963).

I had read these and other books by James Baldwin during my 20's, but was motivated to read them again because two contemporary writers, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Jesmyn Ward have responded to Baldwin's famous essay, The Fire Next Time, by publishing in these past couple of years, Between The World And Me (Coates, 2015), and a collection of modern essays edited by Ward called The Fire This Time (2016).

Until recent years, my knowledge of female minority writers has been all but non-existent. I have read Toni Morrison over the years, and while I was familiar with Alice Walker and her book, The Color Purple, I had not, and still have not, read that or any other of her books. To be honest, I can not recall having read a novel by another woman of colour before Toni Morrison, which, for an avid reader like myself, feels like a terrible admission to be making.

Clearly I have a lot of catching up to do, and the list of authors, both male and female that I am adding to my reading list, continues to grow and expand. I just hope I have the time and energy to do the authors and their books, justice.

Here are links to some of the books I have read (or plan to read) this year...

• Between The World And Me, and The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Salvage The Bones, and Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward
• The Underground Railroad, and Apex Hides The Hurt, by Colson Whitehead

All are worth reading.