Lately
it feels like there has been so little time to write. It's moments
like that when I long for technology to steam ahead and invent the
chip that can be inserted into our brains and can download the story,
article or thoughts ready for publication. But
being a relatively lazy Sunday morning and seeing Zeus, the beautiful
cat, is happy to stay in bed, I am finally in a space to put pen to
paper (so to speak).
I've
just returned from a few days in Melbourne, a city that gives me an
enormous amount of visual and aural stimulation. There seems to be
art everywhere; in the landscapes, the architecture, the food and the
people. I trod the pavements; shopping in those high end places I had
never dared to enter and having new experiences. One of which was the
obligatory Peking duck experience. A little restaurant in Brunswick
where duck was their speciality. Like many such restaurants the décor
was pretty bland, but the skill of the waiter was astounding. He
sliced off crispy delicious pieces of succulent duck for us to wrap
in our almost transparent pancakes, The taste was sensational.
 |
| Some of the Melbourne CBD art |
It
wasn't difficult to find interesting artists. I happened upon many
arts experiences; an exhibition of fashion at Federation Square, a
groovy Jazz club decked out as an opium den and a cooperative of
artisans inhabiting one of the many laneways.
Only
days before heading to Melbourne I spent 4 days on the West Coast of
Tasmania. I was meeting with the Councillors to discuss the benefits
of a local council having an arts strategy. Just a week before at a
local government managers and mayors meeting in Launceston there had
been a unanimous agreement to establish an MOU between Tas Regional
Arts and the Local Government Association of Tasmania. The demand for
our work in local government had increased and it was a natural and
welcome progression.
