Photo by Leonard John Matthews - licenced under Creative Commons

This beautiful church in South Brisbane, St Andrew’s Anglican, is having a free Heritage Festival Day on Saturday May 12, 2012, from 9am to 4pm.

Photo by Leonard John Matthews - licenced under Creative Commons

The day includes organ recitals on the 1884 JW Walker & Sons organ, discussions of local Murri history, heritage displays, guided tours of the church, and food and drink stalls.

Photo by Rae Allen - Licenced under Creative Commons

There’s a Facebook event for the Heritage Festival Day here. The day is part of the 4MBS-FM Festival of Classics, which runs from May 6 to May 27, where you can hear live fine music all over Brisbane. St Andrews is at 160 Vulture St, South Brisbane, about 400 metres away from the South Bank train and bus stations. Click here for a map showing exactly where it is.

There will be a bathing Buddha ceremony at 4pm on Friday May 4, and at 9am on Friday May 5 and Saturday May 6, and a light offering ceremony at 8pm on Friday May 4.

Children bathing Buddha at the Brisbane Buddha Birthday Festival in 2008.

Photo by Sheridan Tighe. Licenced under Creative Commons.

Light offering ceremony at the Brisbane Buddha Birthday Festival in 2008.

Photo by Sheridan Tighe. Licenced under Creative Commons.

There will be classes on Buddhism, and meditation sessions at South Bank too – click here for locations and more details.

In the Suncorp Piazza, there will be stage performances. There will also be cultural displays of Chinese calligraphy, percussion music, Chinese chess, a Tiger Lantern workshop, sand painting and more.

Cellist at the Brisbane Buddha Birthday Festival in 2008.

Photo by Sheridan Tighe. Licenced under Creative Commons.

From 10am to 9pm each day of the festival, there will be vegetarian food stalls. Apparently pearl/bubble tea will be on offer, so that’s me sorted. The photo below is from 2007, but the prices still look a lot more reasonable than a lot of events where you get charged $8 for a small serve of chips.

Food stalls at the Brisbane Buddha Birthday Festival in 2007.

Photo by Peace Fang. Licenced under Creative Commons.

Red lanterns at the Brisbane Buddha Birthday Festival in 2007.

Photo by Gashwin Gomes. Licenced under Creative Commons.

On Saturday May 5 at 7.30pm, there’s going to be a fireworks display.

Fireworks at Brisbane Buddha Birthday Feestival in 2010.

Photo by Luke Chapman. Licenced under Creative Commons.

Most of the events will be at or near the Suncorp Piazza in South Bank. See below for a map and public transport details, and click on the map for a larger version.

There are plenty of ways to get to South Bank by public transport. You can catch a train to either South Brisbane or South Bank train stations, catch a bus to either the Cultural Centre or South Bank bus stations, or catch a CityCat to the South Bank ferry terminal. For Translink’s train journey planner click here, for the general journey planner for buses click here, for general information about the CityCat ferries click here, and for the ferry journey planner click here.

First of all, the Scribo Scriptus exhibition has all sorts of displays about writing – letters and other documents, furniture, books, and “implements” (I hope this means old nib pens and stuff like that). The exhibition is running until April 30 2012.

Then there’s a special display of old watches from the 1600s to the 1800s, running from April 14 to April 22. This is a special loan from a private collection so it probably won’t be on display again anytime soon.

Finally there’s a lecture about the sinking of the hospital ship AHS Centaur, which was sunk in Moreton Bay by a Japanese submarine in World War II. The lecture will be by Pam Gilbert, the daughter and neice of two men who died in the sinking. The lecture is on April 18 2012 at 2pm.

It’s $5 for adults to get into the Museum, and it’s at 60 Smith St in Cleveland. If you want to go to the lecture, you should also book for catering reasons on 07 3286 3494. The Museum is open 10am – 3.30pm Monday to Friday, 1pm-4pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

See below for a map with public transport details – click on the map, then click again on it when the new version opens, to see a much larger map.

The best way to get to the Museum by public transport is to catch a train to Cleveland railway station – click here for Translink’s train journey planner. You can then either walk to the Museum, or catch a route 272 bus to the stop on Smith St that’s just after Long St – it’s about a five minute ride from the station.

The play runs from Friday April 13 to to Saturday April 28, with shows at 8pm Friday and Saturday, and a 2pm Saturday matinee as well. Tickets range from $21 down to $10, and you can buy online here.

The STG Theatre is at 14 Mains Rd, Sunnybank. See below for maps and public transport details; click on the maps for bigger versions.

The best way to get to the STG Theatre by public transport is to catch a route 130 or 140 bus to the Pinelands stop, which is just diagonally across the main road intersection from the Theatre. You can also catch a train to Altandi station and walk from there.

The quote in the title of this post is from a description of the play by a theatre company in Liverpool in the North of England. You can see their write-up here, but if you don’t want spoilers you probably won’t want to.

Hell

Hell is set in the future where society has collapsed, there’s almost no water and people will do anything to survive. Click the “CC” button on the video above for English subtitles.

Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping Sickness is about a German doctor treating disease in Cameroon – but it’s not really certain how much good he’s doing.

The Fräulein and the Sandman

The Fräulein and the Sandman is a comic fantasy about a man who is slowly turning into sand.

The System

The System is about a young, petty and not-very-competent thief who botches a job and stumbles into a new world. Just because the East German dictatorship fell over twenty years ago, that doesn’t mean the men who worked for its secret police have gone away – they are still around, still evil and still running as much of Germany as they can get away with. I couldn’t find a trailer with English subtitles but this film looks interesting enough that I wanted to post the German version. (The film will have subtitles at the Festival).

Tickets for all films are $18 for adults, and $14.50 concession, or you can get a five-film pass for $75. There are more details about prices and booking tickets here at the Festival website. Most films are for people 18 years and older only, except for a few family films.

All films will be on at the Palace Centro cinema in James St, New Farm – see below for a map and public transport details. Click on the map for a much bigger version.

The best way to get to the Palace Centro by public transport is to either catch a CityGlider bus to Stop 229 on Wickham St in Fortitude Valley, (just after the corner of Brunswick St), or to catch a train to Fortitude Valley railway station, and walk to the cinema.

IRON IMPROVISOR CHERRY BLOSSOM!!!! (Heat Number One)

The theme of this improv is ruthless, brutal yet weird competition, just as we’ve seen on Japanese game shows like Sasuke (Ninja Warrior):

In the spirit of competition, sixteen players will enter the stage at Iron Improvisor – but only one will move to the final.

The show is on at the Arts Theatre, 210 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane at 8pm on Saturday April 14 2012. Tickets are $12 at the door

To get an idea of what you’ll be in for at the show, this video shows some of Impro Mafia’s top people at the 2009 National Theatresport Championships:

Impro Mafia also presents the FREE “Speakeasy” impro shows once a week at Casablanca, on the corner of Petrie Terrace and Caxton St, just down the road from the Arts Theatre. There’s usually 2-for-1 dinner deals (but ask when you order to make sure).

See below for a map showing where the Arts Theatre and Casablanca are, and for public transport directions. Click on the map for a much larger version.

There are two buses you can catch to get to Petrie Terrace, where the Arts Theatre and Casablanca’s both are. You can catch a route 375 bus (make sure it’s the “inbound” bus, even though it’s heading away from the city) to the stop on Caxton St, right near the corner of Hale St. Or you can catch a bus to the Normanby Busway Station. You can also click here for Translink’s journey planner.

There are three levels, from raw beginners (even if you’ve never skated before) to people who are almost ready to hit the big leagues, so you’ll be with people you’re comfortable with. Training is only two hours a week.

If you’d like to know more, there’s an info session at 7.45pm on Wednesday April 11 2012 at the Northgate Hall, on the corner of Scott and Ridge Streets in Northgate. See below for maps and public transport information.

There’s a facebook event for the meeting here, and you can like the Northern Brisbane Rollers’ Facebook page here, or follow them on Twitter. If you can’t get to the meeting, you can email freshmeat [at] northernbrisbanerollers [dot] com [dot] au .

Maps showing where Northgate Hall is:

The best way to get to the Northgate Hall by public transport is to catch a train to Virginia station. A train leaving Central at 7.05pm on Wednesday April 11 will arrive at Virgina station at 7.28pm, leaving enough time to walk to the hall. For all trains between Central and Virginia on that day, click here.

You can also catch a route 306 bus to Stop 18 on Scott St, which is directly opposite the hall. But the last bus that day stops at the hall at 6.38pm, so you’ll be waiting for a while for the meeting to start.

The play is being put on by Brisbane’s “vicious theatre ensemble”, the Heartbeast Theatre Company. I spoke to Heartbeast’s Emily Pollard about the play:

This video is of one of the actors performing a song from the play, the traditional “The Convict Maid”.

Seems not all the men in the colony were happy about women being able to sing about their hard lives.

Mother Country starts on Mothers’ Day, Sunday May 13 2012. It’s at Queensland Terrace on Level 2 of the State Library of Queensland complex on South Bank. Tickets are $22 for adults and $17 concession, and you can book online or call (07) 3102 1978.

See below for a map showing where the State Library is, and for public transport details. Click on the map for a bigger version, then click again for a huge version.

The State Library is right near 3 big public transport stops – the Cultural Centre bus station, the South Brisbane train station, and the South Bank City Cat ferry terminal. To use the Translink journey planner to work out how to get there, click here.

Brisbane street artist bhats (flickr account here) will be painting a wall live in front of anyone who wants to watch next Saturday, October 29 2011, at the 2high festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm.

This photo of bhats’ work by ladypenrhyn on Flickr

The work begins at midday and goes through to 4pm. The entire festival is free. If you like the photos you see here, there are plenty more on Flickr.

This photo of bhats’ work by ladypenrhyn on Flickr

Click here for a map showing the best way to get to the Powerhouse by public transport.

Radical Dumb Productions are putting on the Radical Dumb Radio Spectacular at the 2high Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse this Saturday, October 29 2011. The entire Festival is free.

The Spectacular is set in the 1950s, as an epidemic of disappearing penises spreads throughout the world. We hear about the destruction through the on-stage radio, including news reports and interviews with men caught up in the suffering.

The Spectacular is at the Labyrinth at the Brisbane Powerhouse at 3.30pm. Click here for a map showing where the Powerhouse is and the best way to get there by public transport