Well, we had an election over the weekend. It rained – a lot. We did our democratic duty and ate sausages cooked as an opportunistic fund raiser for something or rather.

It seemed an underwhelming day and I’m in two minds about the result. I can’t say I’m surprised by it. It seemed like there were enough things out there that really annoying people, combined with shirty ‘give the other bloke’ a go’-ness, that it was an near impossible task for the ALP to win another term.

Having a political week writing wise was interesting week too. Looking at the policies and talking to the various parties about what they think is important at the moment. I was disappointed that the stuff I personally think really matters most was almost entirely off the agenda until 48 hrs beforehand, so it got no traction or discussion.

Greens

Labor

Liberal

This week seems to have flown by – more so than usual. A funny week too, which has shown me yet again the wild variations that writing for ArtsHub proivdes.

Starting this week I was talking to Dr Kim Walker from the Sydney Conservatorium. She spent the week before at the 70th Anniversary Celebrations of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. It would seem from her description that like just about every other field of endeavour China has decided to make sure they’re the best in the world. They’ve invested in training classical musicians as well as musicians in traditional Chinese instruments and providing them with the best infrastructure they can.

We were talking about the way musicians, orchestras and academics are transposed around the world to build their careers, and how that breeds cultural understanding. As we talked however, I learnt far more about how Conservatoria around the world are trying to coordinate their degrees and courses to catchup with the way musicians are now working. There were a lot of things I had to look up afterwards, like the Bologna Accord. And to think about, Walker talked about how students today have to learn the theory and music of every age that has been, classical, baroque, new classicism, and presumably contemporary as well, but fit learning it into less time.

Then, the next day I got to have coffee with Lindy Cameron, the crime writer. She’s starting her own publishing company, Clan Destine Press. I’d missed the launch on Saturday night, so she was filling me in. She’d spent six years working for Lonely Planet when it was a much smaller company, and so she’d asked Tony Wheeler to launch Clan Destine for her, which he had. Being someone who’d started small, stapling his books and carrying them round himself basically, she figured he was sympathetic to the enterprise. It was fun to talk about genre writing and how we enjoy sci-fi and fantasy.

Lindy was getting so enthusiastic someone from the table behind us chipped in and started a conversation about the romance and metaphor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Gallactica’s social relevance. Not something that often comes up in interviews, but the danger of cafe venues, I suppose. Most exciting Lindy invited me along to a writing group session. This is very cool, and hopefully will getting me scribbling my own fiction more vigourously, as my NaNo month has not been going well.

Next week, I’ll be writing about the Queenscliff Music Festival, a Hip Hop Street Art ‘festival’ and considering the various political parties arts policies for the Victoria election.

Thursday night was quite an experience. I had no idea what to expect from Wladimir Kaminer’s Russendisko, which in retrospect seems a bit silly. I also hadn’t even thought I’d make it, with a deadline pending, and wasn’t in a great mood to go. What a mistake. Now, my main regret is that I didn’t take everyone I know along with me. Talk about letting loose. Either I need to go to Russia and find some night clubs or they need to get more of that music out here. It’s the sort of silliness that 80s retro nights are made of but with far more polka – and that has to be a good thing.

Other things this week, given the slow down on the festival circuit at this time of year were an on-going investigation on what managed to capture the eye of AbaF for their awards. Things out west are always of interest and talking to Shane Colquhoun about what they’re doing to try and slow the brain drain was interesting. I was also intrigued that Trent Suidgeest’s name came up again – as he was a bit of a star in another story I did a few weeks back about the Artstart program. They really are doing something right over at WAAPA. So many years ago, when I thought I’d be an actor, the dream was to get into WAAPA, far more than NIDA for me, more exotic and intriguing. Alas, a lack of talent is a bit of an impediment for some of us.

My last minute assignment of the week was looking into what Arts OutWest are doing next week. Tracey Callinan was lovely and I was amused to hear that Marcus Westbury had been out there last year, having just spoken to him just last week about all things Renew Newcastle. I find both Arts OutWest and the Creative Industries Innovation Centre interesting places. Especially given what Marcus has been saying about the way arts communities and enterprise reinvigorates regional areas. I’m not sure how much will come out of the Bathurst region as far as arts exports go as a result of these events, but in terms of small business enterprise it seems that creatively minded industries have a growing economic importance. There’s definitely something happening here in terms of small but globally connected people that should be watched by governments and policy makers.

This week saw me have the opportunity to investigate Renew Newcastle a little further. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since talking to Marcus Westbury about Renew Newcastle in early October, and thanks to their winning of the AbaF national partnership award – there was an excellent reason to.

Marcus as usual was amazingly helpful and forthcoming about and Renew Newcastle really is a passion for him. Talking to David Sleet from The GPT Group, however, really put a different slant on it.