Eid in Western Melbourne

On this morning's walk we were overtaken by women and children in their finest. 'It's a celebration,' they said hurrying past. Last night’s news came to mind and we asked the next rushing passer-by if it had something to do with the Hajj. 'Yes, Hajj celebration,' as she jogged past with her kids towards the massive congregation on the lawns outside the flats. The smile on her face – whether at our interest or our ignorance – seemed to invite us to find out more, we followed into the worshipping.

Eid-el-Adha (Festival of the Sacrifice) celebrates the end of the Hajj, or the pilgrimage that Muslims are encouraged to make once in their lives. Lasting around three days, the festival commemorates Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son for Allah, and observances include prayer, alms for the poor and sacrificing a goat, camel or sheep. Here in Flemington, there was sombre intoning from the Iman, prayer and a sermon, collection tins, but thankfully no livestock in sight. Although given the site of the celebration, Debney Park, used to be an abbatoir there may have been a sacrifice in the past.

Towards the end of the sermon, or maybe the repeat of it, where the Iman had slipped from Arabic to English, celebration was definitely in the air. Kids were buzzing, teens were preening and there was a great sense of catching up with friends and neighbours. To one side of the mass prayer site, a mini carnival has been set up. Dodgem rides for Allah, anyone? Posters at the community centre say the celebration lasts all day, so I might make my way down for lunch or a whizzy ride.

A guest post from Ms. Hackpacker.

Welcome to the Wheeler Centre

A little while ago I wrote about being inside the mouthful that is the Centre for Books Writing & Ideas. A few other people must have been having trouble with the name because it is now the Wheeler Centre.

At a function this morning the curtain slid back to reveal a Lonely Planet founders, Tony and Maureen Wheeler. According to the speeches, they're funding top-class or "Melbourne standard" events at the new centre named in their honour. It's all part of their Planet Wheeler foundation.

The first program of events was unveiled in a glossy brochure. The big gig is A Gala Night of Storytelling, which boasts some of Melbourne's biggest personalities from Paul Kelly to John Marsden all telling stories passed down through their families. It's an intimate look at the cities literati. Its an exciting start to Melbourne's biblio-hub.

Vigilante Virgin: a review completed

Last week Vigilante Virgin, Australia's "first" m-book, wrapped up. It ran just shy of 7,000 words to the final “Thank you for reading” message and much was made of its technical deficiencies. But what about the writing? Did it stand up as a read?

As a story it’s a gentle encounter between two characters thrown together: newbie protester, Judy Bowler, and Greta, daughter of the object of the Dennis Ferguson-style vigil. From outrage to empathy, readers follow Judy as her allegiances waver, but will she be won over by the charm of Simon Markson or the social inclusion of an extra Scotch finger?

There’s good writing over the four weeks of the story. Hardy has a columnist’s wit that she cracks over the lamer characters – Markson is likened to ‘an off-the-rails Womble’ and there are well-timed deflations of pompous vigilantes squabbling over who is more committed.

Dialogue shows a good ear through Hardy's television writing. A besieged resident finds herself unable to explain herself to the mob and shouts "Just stop … putting shit on the lawn." Judy tenderly leans over to the booger-blessed Greta and diplomatically offers “You might need a little … hooter blow."

As a short story it hangs together well, but this isn’t a short story. It’s serial delivered to your mobile ("in the tradition of Charles Dickens" who totes wld hv txted Gr8 Xpectations) so to work it needs to keep you hanging for the next episode. But the pacing doesn't work well for the episodic delivery. Almost all of episode 2 is given over to characterization of Judy and, despite being the protagonist, she’s not that interesting to justify an episode to herself. The quick sketch of Greta – “the sort of blonde, gentle limpet of a child you would instantly forget if you saw her in a school concert, even if she was playing the princess” suits this tight format better.

And that dialogue – a great way to advance plot in a short story – creates long scrolling screens that leave you feeling unsatisfied by that day’s episode. The long conversations of episodes 12 and 15 particularly left the thumb throbbing from too much scrolling.

The narrative was unbalanced over episodes. By the end of the first week of five episodes, readers got little more than a neighbourhood meeting and Judy unhappy with her iPod. Episode 9 ended with a too-obvious cliffhanger:
“'And we might...'
She bit her lip, didn't want to say it.”

The real disappointment of Vigilante Virgin as an m-novel is that you had to click back and forth between episodes to re-read in a clumsy web interface. I ended up cutting and pasting it into a Word doc to make it into a very readable e-book. But perhaps this is Fairfax’s new direction.

Inside the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas

This weekend I went to the first workshop at Melbourne's brand spanking new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. It's the jewel in the crown of UNESCO's City of Literature and, based on the construction work going on out the front, there's a bit more polishing before it's fully open to the public.

Even still it's up and running in a pilot mode with most of the resident organisations already moved in and some even starting their events. Six resident organisations - Australian Poetry Centre, Emerging Writers' Festival, Express Media, Melbourne Writer's Festival, Victorian Writer's Centre and SPUNC - all seem to be in various stages of unpacking. The centre itself starts programming events early next year.

It's an impressive building from the inside and out - keeping the State Library's classic look while making it contemporary enough to be a work place. There's still a few bugs to iron out with the entrance which was still draped in construction scaffolding so signage was impossible. While waiting to be let back in after a break, I overheard a passing couple speculating on what the building was. He wasn't sure if it was part of the nearby QV shopping centre, but she was better read and set him right:
"No, it's that cafe - Mr Hulk or whatever."

Scott vs Murdoch

Rarely outside of Bond films will you get to see evil geniuses aiming for world domination, but this week ABC supremo, Mark Scott has been accused of just that in his new strategy for the national broadcaster. At the Media 140 conference (perhaps while Austen Powers was dangling over a vat of genetically mutated tiger sharks) he revealed his evil plans. And what was the dark genius at the bottom of his schemes? Widgets and soft diplomacy.



I was expecting at least a laser pointed at the UN, so freeing up the ABC's content with open feeds was a let down. A lot of ABC content is already available through RSS feeds (and videos like the one used above) so the real news is, as Margaret Simons pointed out, that content will be free to anyone including commercial users like, say, News Limited. Although as it's your ABC it could be argued that you've already paid for it.

Still this is at odds with the Murdoch's talk of locking his content up behind a paywall and stopping the parasites who leach the precious news from various web properties (that's anyone who links to news stories BTW). There were some delays with milking the content cash cow. And even speculation that Murdoch would launch a search engine - another deed for evil geniuses right?

But Simons tells us from the Media 140 conference a News Limited journo 'let slip' that there would be a 'cool new toy' with which has been jokingly referred to as the iRupert and The Sunday Kingdle. News Limited journo Mark Day says there's a clue in the Times Plus which has recently stashed culture and travel content behind a membership fee of fifty quid per year. Murdoch's The Australian has recently begun its A Plus section, so it's not too difficult to join the dots. Prepare to pay for your Sunday supplements if you want 'em online.

So the future of media comes down to these two media titans slugging it out - with their widgets and toys. And here I was hoping for at least one battle of super monsters.

(Interesting in this video that one monster has "sheer brute force... while Kong is a thinking animal" - which is Murdoch or Scott?)

Flemington by fascinator

It's the race that stops the nation and keeps Melbourne's milliners in business. Living not far from the track means that I've seen heaps of feathered finery so this Melbourne Cup I snapped a couple of fascinators while escaping the throng.

Made from feathers, flowers or fur and later on in the day bits of bread, beer caps and raceday flotsam, the fascinator is best seen in the morning. By the end of the day they're teetering on the edge like the drunk on high heels who is probably supporting this elaborate construction.

The wave of style washes in early as punters are keen to find their place in the carpark and flush away a few bets on dead certs. Somewhere in the balancing of headgear (when does a fascinator beomce a hat?) there's a horse race, but mostly it's about drinking. After a long day of waiting to not be invited into a celebrity tent, most stagger home or shout at cab drivers. Some take time out to vomit in local resident's letterboxes so we can all share the excitement of the big day. It's quite a feat to keep your headgear when all inside you is let loose.