Cultural Samplings

Photos:
1. The cultural "catalog" Lara found
2. Death Cap Mushroom warning sign
3 & 4. Walk around Lake Burley Griffin

A couple of nights ago we attended a play at the ANU Theatre. In the Lobby, Lara found a Spring Calendar of Events for Canberra (it’s Spring here).

The following are direct clips from this 24 page color brochure. You can’t make this stuff up (although we might have added a few parenthetical comments!)

Calendar of Events – Canberra (October to December 2006)

80 Years of Action!: This exhibition celebrates the 80th year of public transportation in Canberra. It showcases a selection of material from the Retired Transportation Employees Club Collection, showing such favourites as bus drivers’ uniforms, schedules, maps and tickets. (Defibrillators will be on hand for those overcome by the excitement!)

400 Years of Dutch Lace: Celebrate the 400th anniversary of a Dutch ship landing on a unknown land south of Java by joining Victoria van Strik and Petronella Wensing as they discuss the lace that was being made in Holland when that ship landed. (This sounds like a doctoral thesis gone horribly awry.)

Assembling an Archaeological Collection: Mary Clare Kelly discusses the Weston Storage Facility’s unique artifacts. Bar Opens at 5:30pm. Bookings are essential. (The essential bookings are to ensure your place at the bar as you see if any of your missing stuff made the cut!)

Naidoc Week Event: Norman Shillingsworth, didgeridoo musician extraordinaire, performs in celebration of Naidoc Week. His performance is augmented with selected dance movements. (OK so I am envisioning a guy playing a didgeridoo whilst prancing frenetically around a stage. I AM actually sorry we missed this one!)

Director’s Talk: Director of the Nolan Gallery, Peter Haynes, delivers an inspiring talk on the exhibition illuminations followed by refreshments in the courtyard. (Is this followed by a stimulating presentation on paint drying?)

Hedges and Edges: Good-looking hedges and neat, crisp edges are critical to the appearance of your garden. Graham Williams will reveal his trade secrets about how to make these time consuming garden tasks easier. (Does the term “give a rat’s patootie” come to anyone else’s mind?)

Is there Sci in this Fi?: Join science fiction author Maxine McArthur and Robbie Matthews, editor in chief of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Peter Barrett of the Canberra Skeptics as they discuss whether its important to get the science right in sci fi. Bar open from 5;30 pm (Because when you blow 0.28, who really cares about the “science” in science fiction?)

The Art and Science of Weather Prediction: Come along to Mugga Mugga to learn about old methods, and new, of weather forecasting. (It’s all still guessing. Where is the open bar when you really need it?)

I think Lara’s gales of laughter while reading it and waiting for the curtain to go up may have offended more than a few members of the cultural elite in Canberra!

After staying up late for the theatre (Aussies doing British accents – utterly incomprehensible to a couple of Yanks!), we slept in on Saturday (all the way to 6:15am). Then it was off to a pancake house we had discovered for a traditional Aussie breakfast and a 3 hour hike around Lake Burley Griffin. Very pretty and quiet.

Now it’s off to the horse races!

Head Scratcher: The photo above highlights another way to die in Australia. Our confusion was based on the part about not being sure if you had eaten the dreaded “Death Cap Mushroom.” How do you eat something without knowing about it? Is this an accidental byproduct of generalized grazing in the park? Wouldn’t the feverish chills and convulsions and vomiting be a pretty good clue?