Vandals defeat Defiants 125-97 – Sun State Roller Girls Match Report
A dominant first 15 minutes saw the Vandals defeat the Defiants 125-97 last night at Beenleigh Arena in a Sun State Roller Girls bout. In that first slice of the game, the Vandals took lead jammer 11 times to three, scoring 24 points to two. The Defiants climbed to 9 points in the next five minutes, before facing another five scoreless jams before ending the first half on 17 points to the Vandals’ 45. Cookie Cutter scored 22 points for the Vandals before the break while only losing the lead jam once out of seven times up to then.
The Vandals’ Cookie Cutter.
The Vandals tired in the second half, allowing the Defiants to score 70 points as the Defiants’ two main jammers for the night started to grab lead jammer more often. The Defiants’ Rose Ruin put on 47 second-half points including power jamming for 20 and 14 points, while Sweet Enemy kept her skates on the Vandals’ necks, losing the lead jam only once out of her eight jams in that half and power jamming once for 12 points.
The Defiants’ Sweet Enemy
The Defiants’ Rose Ruin
Apart from Belle DeBrawl the Vandals’ blockers were often ineffective, allowing points through the pack they could have slowed or stopped. If the Vandals hadn’t also made the most of their chances to power jam, scoring 25 then 20 points in the first ten minutes of the second half, they’d have been in trouble; they were held to only 9 points in the fifteen minutes after that.
The Vandals’ Belle DeBrawl about to be blocked by the Defiants’ Oh Hell No
The Vandals’ victory brings them to two wins for the season, bringing them level with the Defiants. The Furies remain winless for 2012. To see 17 photos of the game, click here.
Edge Impro workshops begin July 31 – $190 for the full course
Edge Improv is one of Brisbane’s improvised theatre troupes, and from Sunday July 31 they’re putting on a 5-week course of impro workshops for people who want to learn how to make stuff up on the spot in front of a crowd but aren’t already politicians.
The workshops cost $190 for the full course. If you’re interested, you can call 07 3369 5058 or email workshops@edgeimprov.comworkshops@edgeimprov.com to book or get more info. The courses are in the basement at Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Brisbane (click here for a Google Map)
There’s another advanced round of workshops after the first course, if you want to get into longer-form improv (that is, longer than sketches of just a few minutes).
Edge Improv also puts on free shows every Wednesday at 7.30pm at Kitty O’Shea’s at 25 Caxton St, Petrie Terrace/Brisbane (click here for a Google Map), and paid shows once a month featuring the “Harold” (a 3-act improvised play) at Metro Arts.
Sun State Roller Girls’ Roller Derby Bout: Beenleigh Arena Sat 23 July 2011
UPDATE: The Vandals defeated the Defiants 125 to 97.
Hip bumps - Sun State Roller Girls Roller Derby in Brisbane, Australia
Photo by Storm Jury, the Roller Derby Photographer – http://www.photographicstorm.com/
The Sun State Roller Girls, one of Brisbane’s three roller derby leagues, is putting on its next bout on Saturday July 23 at the Beenleigh Arena, where the Defiants will take on the Vandals. The Defiants have won both their bouts this year, including defeating the Vandals 137-87 in February. The Vandals have won one and lost one so far in 2011.
If you need to know more about the rules of Roller Derby, just watch this video:
And if you’d like to see some really up-close footage of derby, this video shows some helmet-cam footage from one of the referees when the Vandals bouted the Furies earlier in 2011:
You can buy tickets online from Oztix – if you buy online it’s $12.75 for adults or $10.75 concession (those prices INCLUDE booking fees). If you pay at the door it’s $15 adults and $12 concession, and under-12′s are free. Doors open at 6.30pm and there is food, merchandise and alcohol for sale – but there’s NO EFTPOS, so make sure you bring cash.
Booty block - Sun State Roller Girls Roller Derby in Brisbane, Australia
Photo by Storm Jury, the Roller Derby Photographer – http://www.photographicstorm.com/
The Beenleigh Arena is at 2-10 Milne Rd in Beenleigh. Click here for a Google Map with public transport details.
Jammer skates ahead - Sun State Roller Girls Roller Derby in Brisbane, Australia
Photo by Storm Jury, the Roller Derby Photographer – http://www.photographicstorm.com/
Canberra’s Vice City Rollers dominate Northern Brisbane Rollers’ Brawl Stars 176-75
The bout was roughly even for the first 18 minutes, when Brisbane led 37-28. From then Canberra moved ahead, putting on 32 unanswered points in 5 jams. Brisbane could only manage 4 more points in the first half, and at the break Canberra led 77-41. Canberra performed even more strongly from there, scoring 99 second half points to Brisbane’s 34.
Canberra’s Short Stop led the scoring with 52 points in ten lead jams, including scoring seven points in two jams, and also scoring nine points twice. Bambi von Smash’er was close behind with 47 points from 9 jams. Brisbane’s top scorers were Pandemic with 19 from one power jam and Shanks Alot who scored 12 from 3 jams.
Brisbane did win the curtain-raiser game, as their NBR Raw Stars defeated the Gold Coast Roller Derby’s Maids of Pain by 149-121. Organisers estimated 1800 people attended the bout.
The Vice City Rollers is the senior representative team of the Canberra Roller Derby League, while the Brawl Stars and Raw Stars are the senior and reserve-grade representative teams of the Northern Brisbane Rollers.
Northern Brisbane Rollers’ Raw Stars player (light blue) stumbles in the reserve grade bout against Gold Coast Roller Derby’s Maids of Pain (black and yellow) – photo by David Jackmanson
“Australian Interior Authority” campaign linked to Australian branch of ad company @DraftFCB
Mr O’Hagan has not yet returned a call asking about the campaign. Online speculation continues about who the campaign might be for.
ADDITIONAL: One suggestion is that the campaign is for the Australian branch of tobacco company Philip Morris, as DraftFCB worked for Fortune Tobacco (now merged with Philip Morris) in the Philippines in 2008. However, Philip Morris is a supporter of the Alliance of Australian Retailers, the organisation campaigning against plain cigarette-pack laws in Australia. A spokeswoman for the Alliance said the Australian Interior Authority campaign was “nothing to do with us”. Unless there is a split in the tobacco companies’ campaign against plain packaging laws, that indicates that the AIA campaign is for some other client.
Review: “Orphans”, at the Queensland Theatre Company
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
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Disclosure: I saw this play after winning a free double pass.
I saw Dennis Kelly’s “Orphans” last night, produced by the Queensland Theatre Company. The story was impressive but I never felt carried away emotionally by any of the performances, even when deep anger and grief were on stage.
As the play opens Helen (Helen Cassidy) and Danny (Christopher Sommers) are beginning a romantic night in their comfortable apartment, when Helen’s brother Liam (Leon Cain) intrudes with the help of the key he’s been given and blubbering about a stabbing, while blood covers his T-shirt. He explains he saw a young boy, a victim of a stabbing, and stopped to comfort him.
From here the evening turns a little tense, although Danny has made some lovely salmon appetisers.
We learn that Helen and Liam are sister and brother, orphaned before the age of ten, who’d stuck together with almost no hope but each other. Helen’s worried that if the police find out about the blood on Liam’s shirt, they’ll blame him for the stabbing, especially as he has a police record of violent behaviour. Danny, on the other hand, guilts at them like a true soppy white liberal, angry that the other two plan to ignore the stabbing, even though he’s been attacked by a gang of local boys recently. Helen demands that Danny back up Liam’s story if the police find out, and makes it plain that she doesn’t want to have the baby she’s just fallen pregnant with if she can’t rely on her man to back up his family.
We see more lies, manipulation, cowardice and the effects of a vicious world on people who’d rather hide from it as the night unfolds. We’re left asking what we need to do to survive in a brutal world, and whether we’ll be able to feel anything but hate and emptiness after we’ve done it. Just how much can we give our families? Where will we be left once others have done what we demanded.
Sound, lighting and set design were all minimalistic. The stage was on the same level as the front row of seats, where I was sitting. Two tables, a row of cushions representing a wall and/or a sofa, two stools and a wooden child’s bicycle were the entire set. There was little sound apart from eerie music and thunderous clashes mixed with flashes of light to mark scene changes.
Unfortunately I didn’t feel carried away by the emotions portrayed on stage. In fact they felt like portrayals, not raw feelings bursting out, coming from the head instead of the guts. At least twice when characters had angry, violent outbursts I thought I should have felt scared and angry, but I only got the whole performance on an intellectual level. However my friend who came to see the play with me disagreed; she gave the performance a B+ and did think the emotions were done well.
“Orphans” runs at the Queensland Theatre Company’s Bille Brown Studio (click here for a Google Map with public transport details) until Saturday July 9 2011. Click here for ticket and booking information
Review – Brighton Rock
I saw the new version of Brighton Rock last night at the Palace cinema in James St in Fortitude Valley, so I thought I’d do a quick review of the film. Warning – WARNING: AHEAD THERE BE HUGE SPOILERS!!
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The film is based on a novel by Graham Greene, which I haven’t read yet. It opens violently and gloomily; within the first ten minutes or so we see a nasty knife fight and a man getting his head smashed in with a rock. The smasher is the main character, Pinky Brown (Sam Riley), and this murder drags his life towards final judgement. He carries the weak-willed Rose (Andrea Riseborough) with him; she saw the murdered man with Riley’s accomplices minutes before the crime, and Pinky becomes her boyfriend and husband just to make sure she says nothing about it.
Ida (Helen Mirren), a friend of the murdered man, wants to make sure his killer is punished. She approaches Mr Colleoni (Andy Serkis) for help. Colleoni is a gangster who has taken control of Brighton’s protection rackets away from the gang Pinky is a junior member of, and which he is ambitious to lead. Pinky tries to set up a deal with Colleoni to kill Spicer (Phil Davis), the leader of his own gang who’s going to seed and threatens to talk about the murder. Colleoni, however, double-crosses Pinky and tries to have him killed as well. Colleoni’s men fail to kill either of their intended victims and Pinky has to finish the job, choking Spicer to death.
From here the gloomy film centres on Pinky and Rose’s relationship, if it can be called that. Rose is helplessly in love with the dominant Pinky, telling him she’ll never ever ever let him down. He uses her carefully, yet he hates her.
The morality of the Catholic Church hangs over the film. Early on Pinky sees a religious pendant Rose is wearing and tells her that he, like her, is a “Roman”. He believes firmly in Hell. To him Hell is no metaphysical copout meaning the absence of God, but a real place where sinners are punished in blistering fire for ever. Pinky is already on the way there; we’re constantly reminded he faces the threat of judgement in this world and the next. As he does evil things to avoid this world’s judgment, he drives himself closer to the death which will send him, he fervently believes, to the Devil.
Rose also believes in Hell and punishment, but her path is submission, to both God and men. What makes the film truly hateful to me is that in the end it seems to justify this. A scratch in a record allows her to believe that Pinky loved her, when we know he was disgusted by everything she does and is. As she lies in bed, pregnant with Pinky’s child, believing a lie that can only lead to yet more submission, the camera pans up to a cross on the wall. I suspect we are meant to think that the lie is a merciful miracle that will allow her to carry on. And if you believe, as the more reactionary and old-fashioned Catholics do, that any human effort at all is vanity and the only worthwhile thing is submission to God’s will, then what else could you possibly conclude?
If you agree with me, you should see this film so you can wrestle with its implications. It’s easy enough and childish enough to mock Christians for believing in a God whose existence science cannot prove, but someone who truly wants human freedom will move beyond sneering and think hard about how and why people can be led into a life of fearful obedience rather than struggling to be what they might.
Brighton Rock opens in Brisbane cinemas today, Thursday April 14 2011
Brisbane’s Queer Film Festival begins Fri Apr 8 2011
The Brisbane Queer Film Festival 2011 begins on Friday April 8.
Some of the films that look interesting are:
Spork is showing on opening night of the festival. It’s about a hermaphrodite dealing with the daily trauma of not fitting in at school, who takes on her bullies by…er…entering the talent show.
The Real Anne Lister is a documentary based on the diaries of Lister, who openly lived as a lesbian in Yorkshire almost 200 years ago. Her diaries describe her loves, and also her other interests as a well-off landowner.
Sistagirl is another documentary about Bindi Cole working on her Sistagirls project when she took photographs of transgendered women in the Tiwi Islands. The photographs are also on display at the Powerhouse from April 5 until May 29.
Christopher And His Kind is a screen adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s autobiography talking about his life as he leaves England for the excitement of the gay scene in Berlin in the 1930s.
There are also collections of short films, including Boys International Shorts and Girls International Shorts.
To see the full program visit the BQFF website. Individual films are $16 full price and $14 concession (except for opening night), and there are packages of films available too. You can book online at the Powerhouse’s website, or call the Powerhouse on 07 3358 8600 with your credit card details. All the films at the festival are rated R18+ so you might need to show ID proving you’re 18 or over when you pick up your tickets.
All the films are at the Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm Park – click here for a Google Map with public transport details.
Northern Brisbane Rollers first Roller Derby bout for 2011 – Sat Apr 9, Brisbane Convention Centre
One of Brisbane’s three roller derby leagues, Northern Brisbane Rollers, have their first bout for 2011 on Saturday April 9, at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Merivale St in South Brisbane.
The Diner Might Dolls and brand new team The Untouchabelles go up against each other this time around.
There’s also a curtain-raiser reserve-grade bout: a combined NBR Ferals team will go up against the Toowoomba City Rollers.
If you’d like to know more about the rules of Roller Derby, and how the game works, just watch this YouTube video:
Doors open at 5.45 pm, and you’ll be able to buy food, drinks and alcohol at the bout, and there will be EFTPOS and ATMs there. The reserve grade bout kicks off at 6pm, and the A-grade bout is at 7pm. Tickets for Saturday’s bout are $20.00 for adults, $14.00 concession and $8.00 for children – all these prices include booking fees. You can book tickets online at Ticketek if you click here.
You can follow Northern Brisbane Rollers on Twitter,become a fan of their Facebook page, or become their friend on MySpace.
The bout is at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, on Merivale St, South Brisbane. Click here for a Google Map with public transport details, and click here to use the Translink journey planner to look up bus and train routes and timetables.
Wanna meet some Brisbane Twitter people? Come to #btub on Fri Apr 1, 2011 at @greystonebar
If you have a Twitter account Twitter you may be be wondering exactly what all the fuss is about. People use Twitter in lots of different ways, but the main way I use it is to meet other people in Brisbane. Brisbane has a thriving community on Twitter, and once a month there’s a big meet-up called a btub.
The next btub is Friday night, Friday April 1st 2011, at Greystone Bar, Southbank.
btub stands for “Brisbane Twitter Underground Brigade” but it’s not really underground any more, we have lots of people turn up. There’s lots of interesting and friendly people to chat to so if you’re free, drop in. Sadly I can’t go to this one, I’m working, but there’s plenty of interesting people to talk to.
There’s a btub group on Facebook, and there’s a Facebook event for Friday’s meetup. And you can also follow btub’s Twitter account.
The meetup is at Greystone Bar, 177 Grey St, Southbank – click here for a Google Map with public transport details. If you need to look up public transport routes or timetables, click here for the Translink journey planner.