Anne's Scrapbook

A noticeboard-style page of information, thoughts, links, creative projects, performances, folk festivals, and other postings.

News Snippets / Upcoming Events

September

Neurum Creek Music Festival - 6, 7, 8 September 2024.
Venue: Neurum Creek Bush Retreat, Rasmusson Road, Neurum, Qld.
The Neurum Creek Acoustic Music Festival is just an amazing little festival and the highlight of many Queensland folkies' year! It has its own various 'quirks', and warmly anticipated events such as the Shanty Session (with Poop-deck Mickey, Peg-Leg Kate, Nimbin the Cabin Boy and Captain Looking Good), Crap Raffle, the Sunday morning Gospel Session ... and, of course, the fabulous mulled wine! The festival venue is the beautiful Neurum Creek Bush Retreat (near Woodford) in South-East Queensland.

Predominantly a camping festival, it is small, friendly and brimming over with wondrous music, workshops and impromptu sessions at many campsites.

The festival aims to provide an atmosphere of community and inclusion for the south-east corner of Queensland by showcasing the established and up-and-coming talents of this corner of the world, as well as featuring acts from around Australia.

The main festival area (stage and bar) incorporates a magnificent old tree, atmospherically lit at night.

The Gospel Session held on Sunday morning is a 'must' for many of the festival goers and some have called it the highlight of their weekend. This year it will be hosted by Debbie and Rob Bowen-Saunders.

Day: Sunday September 8.

The best gospel session in Queensland (we've been told in Australia!) is a true 'session' rather than a concert. Song books are provided, audience participation is a must and many fine singers lead some great gospel/spiritual songs, perfect for singing along. Note: If you have your own songbooks from previous years, remember to bring them along. As usual, you will be accompanied by the Angel Band, a floating scratch band of great musicians who join us every year with their many and varied instruments.    
Place: Marquee.
Time: 8:30am.

Web: www.neurumcreekfestival.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Neurum-Creek-Music-Festival/189931787722880
Email: info@neurumcreekfestival.com

Red Hill Folk

Red Hill Folk: This vibrant and intimate Wednesday night gathering of folk aficionados goes from strength to strength with excellent performers, special guests and themed evenings.
 Venue: We meet every Wednesday night at the Red Hill Community Sports Centre, 22 Fulcher Rd, Red Hill, Brisbane (next door to the Broncos Leagues Club). We’re acoustic and unplugged, and floor singers are welcome.
Time: Performances are from 7:30pm - 10:30pm.
Special Guests: Every month we feature a 40mt ‘Special Guest’ spot, drawing on performers from other folk clubs, Red Hill Folk regulars or touring performers from interstate and overseas. Always outstanding, these are advertised in the monthly programme – Click Here for details.
Themed Evenings: We have regular themed evenings to encourage performers to stretch from their comfort zones, learn some new songs, and sing to the particular theme. For Themed Evening dates and details see the monthly programme as above.
The Supper Club: As there is no facility at the venue for meals, we instigated the Supper Club, where each week on a roster basis one of the regulars brings in supper. The suppers have been creative and delicious, from cakes, pikelets, dips and sandwiches to soup and crusty bread. We take a 20 minute 'talk and supper break' mid-way through the evening which creates an enjoyable, party-like atmosphere.
Our Room: We meet in the main bar (The Old Bowler's Bar) which we have for our exclusive use on Wednesday nights where we enjoy wondrous harmonies and choruses as the audience joins in with alacrity. We're totally unplugged.
Entry Fee: We contribute towards the Sports Club's expenses with a $7 entry fee which is dropped into a tin at the door on an honour system basis and goes directly to the Sports Club.

See also Performances

Reprinting Escape from the Past: The reprint of my novel set partly on the notorious colonial prison island of St Helena in Queensland’s Moreton Bay is now available as a paperback book and also as an e-book. It was released by Zeus Publications in December 2010.

Go to www.zeus-publications.com/escape_from_the_past.htm for details  
and also www.prlog.org/11133229-can-past-and-present-fuse-to-clear-williams-name.html for a recent press release.

Escape from the Past is also available for sale on board the Cat o’ Nine Tails catamaran which takes tourists to St Helena Island and from their website – go to www.catoninetails.com.au or www.sthelenaisland.com.au.

St Helena is now a beautiful National Park, four kilometres from the mouth of the Brisbane River. For more than 60 years it was home to hundreds of colonial Queensland’s miscreants, and the prison ruins still stand in mute witness to its former role as our foremost maximum security prison for men. The island is rich in history and has a fascinating and colourful past.

Escape from the Past was launched on Thursday February 17, 2011 at the Brisbane Danish Club by the brilliantly funny Brisbane journalist and folk/jazz singer/songwriter Sue Wighton. Around sixty people gathered for the event which was MCd by Ian Clarke from the iconic Brisbane folk group the Wayfarers.  I spoke about the three specific experiences that came together to create the story of William and Sally and their struggle to clear William’s name, then gave a reading from the book. This was followed by four songs inspired by St Helena Island; Sue Wighton sang her original St Helena song, Mary Brettell sang St Helena by the late Tony Miles, Robbie Dunn sang his original The Ballad of St Helena and I finished the set with my own song The Devil’s On St Helena, which I recently recorded on my CD Women Do.

An author who attended said it was the best book launch she’d ever been to. We certainly all had a good time and everyone enjoyed the hospitality of our Danish hosts and their wondrous pastries.

See also http://bookszeus.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/escaping-from-the-past-with-jazz/

Here are some photos from the launch...
Julie Dendle reminds us why we are here	Book launch audience	Ian Clark, MC
Anne reads from Escape From the Past	Sue Wighton sings her song St Helena	Robbie Dunn sings The Ballad of St Helena
Anne (accompanied by Chris Euston from Stockade) sings The Devil’s On St Helena	Anne signing books	Escape from the Past launcher Sue Wighton with cover designer Mary Brettell

About Avaaz.org

Avaaz.org is a rapidly growing community of global citizens who take action on the major political, environmental and humanitarian issues facing the world today. The aim of Avaaz.org is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s peoples shape global decisions. Avaaz.org members act for a more just and peaceful world and globalisation with a human face. Avaaz means Voice in many Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages. The organisation has grown to nearly 25 million strong! Members come from every nation of the world, and are making a real impact on global politics.

In Avaaz’s own words: ‘Avaaz.org is a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want. Across the world, most people want stronger protections for the environment, greater respect for human rights, and concerted efforts to end poverty, corruption and war. Yet globalization faces a huge democratic deficit as international decisions are shaped by political elites and unaccountable corporations – not the views and values of the world’s people.

‘Technology and the internet have allowed citizens to connect and mobilize like never before. The rise of a new model of internet-driven, people-powered politics is changing countries from Australia to the Philippines to the United States. Avaaz takes this model global, connecting people across borders to bring people-powered politics to international decision-making.

‘Coming together in this way, Avaaz has become a wonderful community of people from all nations, backgrounds, and ages. Our diverse community is brought together by our care for the world, and a desire to do what we can to make it a better place.

 ‘Across the planet, millions of people young and old are flooding the streets and mobilising online to reject corruption and injustice and speak of a more beautiful world. A new Twitter hashtag in Brazil tells the story: #OGiganteAcordou. Translation: “The sleeping giant has awoken".

‘And Avaaz is there almost everywhere it's happening. We're growing by well over 1 million people per month, and it's accelerating. As more citizens shake off the slumber we are realising that the world really is ours and, while we face great challenges, what happens next, depends on all of us.'

 “Avaaz is poised to deliver ‘a deafening wakeup call’ to world leaders.” – The Economist.
“The biggest web campaigner across the world.” – The Indian Express.
“Avaaz is inspiring, and has already begun to make a difference.” – Nobel Prize winner Al Gore.

  China Wind 

From February to May 2009 I published my first online novel. This was a big stretch for me as, if I’m not the world’s worst Webophobe, I’d be a close second. However, never say never! I’d read an article Brisbane’s Weekend Courier Mail that inspired me to ‘have a go’ and to give away the end result to readers, just for the experience. I chose a novel I’d written after a holiday with my sister in Hong Kong in January 1994 – one that I was unable to place with a publisher, but that I thought deserved a wider readership than just my immediate family and friends.

I talked it over with my whizzy webmaster, Mary Brettell, and we explored the various ways I could blog the novel myself. I wanted to do it my way, and illustrate it myself. Then Mary suggested that I produce it in Word, convert it to web pages, and publish it on my website. With infinite patience she took me through the procedure; I mastered this huge and steep learning curve, designed the pages then had a great deal of pleasure illustrating each chapter with pictures that Juliette and I had taken in Hong Kong, revisiting a very happy event from the past.

Anne and Juliette in Macau		Anne on junk in Hong Kong

I very much enjoyed revising China Wind and it’s still as fresh to me as it was when I created it. It’s a tale of conspiracy and revenge in the high-rise glass towers of big business ... with a dash of corruption, secret criminal societies, a beautiful promiscuous woman ... and a twist of romance. A new chapter appeared each weekday and now all the chapters and readers comments are available at China Wind.

Mary B’s CD

With a Little Help from My Friends ...

In 2009 my whizzy webmaster Mary Brettell released her new CD With a Little Help from My Friends...  The title reflects the theme – all the songs on the album were written by local singer/songwriters, all Mary’s friends and acquaintances. Not only that; all the musicians and backing vocalists are Mary’s friends – as talented a bunch as you’d find anywhere.  After years of bewailing the fact that all her songwriter friends seem to just ‘have songs come to them’ and ‘why don’t they come to me?’ Mary wrote her first song, Danish on the Deck; a lovely tribute to her talented buddies, and as good as any of the others, and included it on the CD.  I see she’s been hiding her light under a bushel all these years.

Mary also selected one of my latest, Good Cleaning Man, a tongue-in-cheek ditty in praise of men who help around the house (take note, guys!) which gives a whole new meaning to ‘house cleaning’.

You can get this outstanding CD from Mary at www.bretell.com.au.