Brisbane Blog

If you’re into improvised theatre, you might want to check out a performance by Playback Theatre this Friday, May 29th, at the Uniting Church at 52 Merthyr Rd, New Farm – doors open at 7.15pm and the performane kicks off at 8pm.

On their website, Playback say:

The material for the performance comes from the audience. Assisted by the conductor, who holds a performance, people in the audience share moments and stories from their lives, which are then immediately re-enacted or “played back” spontaneously by a troupe of usually four actors and a muscian.

The actors and muscian then take on roles in a dramatic form and, using dance, movement, mine, music, dialogue, sound and imagination, the story or moment is played back in a creative and magical re-enactment. No Playback performance is like any other and no-one quite knows what to expect when they walk through the doors. That is the spontaneous nature of Playback, for actors and audience alike.

Click here for a map showing where the Merthyr Uniting Church is. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 concession and $22 for a family – to find out more you can call Deb Driscoll on 0422 809 195 or Jen Barrkman on 0405 110 955.

The Birds of A Feather exhibition opens at Rics Bar in the Brunswick St Mall in Fortitude Valley (click here for a Google Map) at 6pm tomorrow, Tuesday May 26th 2009.

Birds of A Feather features artwork by Georgia Freebody (who is @evilgesq on Twitter) and photos by Robert Mynard (who is @Robmynard on Twitter). The poster above gives you an idea of the sort of art and photos you’ll be able to see there.

Boymongoose, lead singer of the most successful Indian boy band ever to live in Brisbane, has released a new song, “Utah“:

Boymongoose’s other songs are The Twelve Days of Christmas (“On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: a totally insufficient dowry…”)

and Single Girls, to the tune of Jingle Bells (“Single Girls, Single Girls, please click my profile, everything that I may lack I make up in denial…”)

The new song is being released as a project with nexttophit.com, a site that lets new and emerging artists sell music, and lets listeners find new bands. If you want to join the site, you can click here to see Boymongoose’s profile, but you’ll have to register and log in before you can see it.

Thanks to Twitter user @scarlettjen for the info about the new song being out.

Harvest Rain Theatre Company are putting on the Lord Mayor’s New Works Festival from June 4-20 2009. The Festival is three different events showing off new Brisbane theatre, dance and song. All events are at the Mina Parade Warehouse, 81 Mina Parade, Alderley – click here for a Google Map.

The three different events are:

New Plays – June 4-6 2009, 7.30pm

Four different new plays in one night – The Cursing of Ms Haversham, Damnation Has Its Origin, Two Women and Lot. It’s $15 for a ticket and that gets you into all four plays.


New Songs, New Voices – June 11-13, 7.30pm

New music and new singing talent from Brisbane. $15 a ticket.


Dance Design – June 18-20, 7.30pm

Brisbane dancers show off pop, jazz, musical theatre, hip-hip dance and more. $15 a ticket.

Click here for more information on the shows, and you can book tickets for any or all of the shows if you click here

The Pussycat Dolls and Lady Gaga played a gig in Brisbane on Tuesday, May 19 2009.

This playlist of videos shows five videos of the Pussycat Dolls in Brisbane by YouTube users mpkelly87 and kayali7:

Click here for more YouTube vids of the Pussycat Dolls in Brisbane.

And this playlist has videos of Lady Gaga in Brisbane, by Madloverlicious, nicole82nz, and kayali7

There’s also a collection of photos of the Pussycat Dolls and Lady Gaga in Brisbane – click here to see the photos.

The Brisbane Anime Society has a monthly Sunday screening coming up on Sunday May 24 2009 in Room B119, B Block, at the QUT Gardens Point Campus in the city. (To get to B Block enter the QUT campus by walking down George St to its end, walk past Parliament House and once you’re past there, B Block is the second building on your right hand side – click here for a Google Map)

There’s 9 episodes being shown this Sunday:

Kurokami episodes 1-3

Nabari no Ou episodes 17-20

Ghost Hound episodes 1-4

The screening starts at 12 midday – please be on time. If you’re a member of the Brisbane Anime Society, it costs $2 to get in, otherwise it’s $3. Membership costs $10 for a year and you can join at the screening.

As you know if you’ve been in Brisbane since Monday night, there’s been plenty of rain around the last couple of days, and some parts of the city are starting to flood. Twiter user TrishwaH has created a very handy Google Map – just click here to see it – which shows flood reports and closed roads in the Greater Brisbane area. Anyone can update the map, so if you have new info, please feel free to insert it into the map.

Here’s some videos from YouTube of the flooding:

Having trouble watching the videos? Click here to go to a list of videos in the playlist.

And this slideshow from Flickr shows some photos of the flooding (click here if you can’t see the slideshow to go straight to the photos)

This post at the Woolly Days blog, by Brisbane journalist Derek Barry, has some more photos showing what Brisbane looks like under a bit of water.

I suggest you listen to the ABC’s local radio station on 612AM – it’s the best place to get updates from the emergency services about what’s happening. If you’ve suffered flood or storm damage call the State Emergency Service on 132500 but remember they are all volunteers so DON’T ring up several times in the night whining that they haven’t got around to you yet (Yes, this happens).

If you’re following reports on Twitter, I suggest you follow @612Brisbane, @brisweather and @bristraffic for the best info from emergency services and Twitter users about what’s happening.

Current warnings from the Bureau of Meterology advise that heavy rains and damaging winds are likely for the next few days. They advise:

Stay OUT of drains, rivers, creeks and the sea.
DON’T try to drive through flooded roads.
Make sure loose items in your yard are fixed down so they can’t fly around.
Take shelter if you’re in the open, but NOT under trees.
Beware of falling branches and avoid power lines that have fallen down.

Take care.

The Globe Theatre at 220 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley (click here for a Google Map) is Brisbane’s cult cinema. On Sunday May 24th 2009 they have a special feature starting at 2pm: 5 of the worst movies of all time for only $15.

The lineup is:

Plan 9 From Outer Space – regarded by many as the worst film ever made.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Robot Monster

The Blob

The Brain that Wouldn’t Die

Since “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die” is now in the public domain, you can watch it here, courtesy of Google Video:



Since the Globe Theatre has a liquor licence, you’ll need to prove you’re over 18 to get in, so bring photo ID.

The Paniyiri Greek Festival is on this Saturday and Sunday, May 23 and May 24 2009, at Musgrave Park in South Brisbane – click here for a Google Map.

According to Michael Lund, a Brisbane freelance journalist, Paniyiri has been postponed to July 4 and 5 2009 because of the heavy rain Brisbane’s had since Monday May 18 2009 which continues today (Wed 20 May) and is expected to keep going for a few days yet.

There’s music, food, dancing, lectures and more – click here and scroll down to see a list of all the different events.

To give you an idea of what it’s like, have a look at these photos and this video I took at Paniyiri two years ago: