fRETfEST acourstic music festival. The search is on for South-east Queensland’s emerging singer-songwriters. If you can play acoustic guitar and sing at least 3 original songs, you should enter fRETfEST’s Find of the Year series at QPAC. Auditions in 4 age groups are being held.

Find of the Year 2007 (FOTY.07) is fRETfEST’s major program for finding, developing and supporting emerging acoustic singer-songwriters. FOTY.07 will be held every Saturday over 4 months at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Southbank starting on the 28th July 2007.

Ross Gittens of the Sydney Morning Herald writes, “I’ll give it to you straight, as no politician would dare to: the difficulty people are having affording a home loan is largely of our own making. We’ve made a rod for our own backs. Governments haven’t done all that much to contribute to the problem and will do little to alleviate it”.The true problem is that our homes are at the centre of our materialist ambitions. As our incomes grow in real terms over time we want to put much of the increase into our homes.

When a change in social attitudes meant girls started getting better educations and staying on in the workforce after marriage and childbirth, the first two-income families had a great advantage: they could afford to buy a better house than other families. But as two-income families became the norm, that advantage was lost.

We often talk about the price of housing in Sydney, which has now spread across much of Australia as too expensive. Young families unable to afford a new home, both parents needing to work just to make ends meat & this leading to many social issues in society today!

What do you think? Should governments step in to help? Can we do more as Ross suggests? Read more of Ross Gittens article here.

The Melbourne Cheese Show 2007 will be held on Sunday 12th August, 2007 from 11am – 4pm at Crown Towers Hotel, in Southbank, Melbourne.

Australia’s finest specialist cheeses will be on show for everyone to taste, sniff and enjoy! Sample over 300 award winning Australian specialist cheeses including varieties produced from cow, sheep, buffalo & goat milk.

This accompanied by Mt Langi Ghiran Wines and boutique beers from Gippsland’s Grand Ridge Brewery. Enjoy the day!

Entries are now invited for the Max Harris Poetry Award 2007. Offering a prize of $3,000 for the winning entry, the Max Harris Poetry Award aims to recognise the work and talent of Australian poets.

Established in 1993 with the encouragement of the acclaimed writer Max Harris, this national award acknowledges the significant contribution that poetry offers to Australian literary culture. The winning entry and two unpaid commended entries will receive University of South Australia Max Harris Poetry Award Certificates, which will be presented at an award ceremony in October 2007.

The best entries will be published in the Max Harris Poetry Award poetry collection to be released in 2008. The entry fee is $10 for one poem and an extra $5 per poem for up to two additional poems.

The closing date for entries is 1 August 2007.

Queensland’s life-style and environment form a natural incubator for some of the most creative and innovative fashion designers in Australia. The Queensland Fashion Industry is thriving but many of our top and emerging designers leave the state to seek fame & fortune.

The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane (MBFF) is designed to support, encourage and promote the local fashion and design industry. This year the MBFF will be held from Sunday 26 – Friday 31 August 2007 and will provide a platform for designers to launch their Spring/Summer collections to the national fashion media, buyers and, importantly the buying public.

This six-day ‘consumer-driven’ event will allow as many people as possible to attend fashion & retail events, exhibitions, educational workshops and celebrations.

The goal of MBFF is to promote Brisbane as a city of fashion and style, to increase awareness for our local industry and ultimately to increase sales. Core to the MBFF objective will be to provide a platform for designers to launch their collections within a framework that aims to support and drive exposure for their label.

Celebrating seven successful years, the National Musicoz Awards have been launched for 2007. Musicoz is now calling out for entries for the 2007 awards that are set to be the best year yet.

The Musicoz Awards are the largestand most credible awards event for unsigned and independent artists in Australia and have resulted in many major success stories from previous winners including Porcelain, Bliss n Esso, Sender, Anthony Snape, Sick Puppies, The Fumes, Felicity Urquhart and Blue King Brown.

The Musicoz awards give vital recognition, exposure and development opportunities to Australian artists who are finalists and winners at this event. Artists are selected and judged by some of the music industries finest from major labels, independent labels, booking agents, artist managers and record producers.

Artists successfully entered into these awards have the opportunity to secure a recording deal, advertising packages, National TV performance, publishing & production deals and more. Artists wishing to enter one or more of 17 categories such as Pop, Rock, Alternative, Urban, Metal/Hardcore and Acoustic Singer-Songwriter, can do so online at www.musicoz.org. Entries close nationally on 31 August 2007.

On 10 December 2005 Professor Barry Marshall, Patron of the Fremantle Hospital Medical Research Foundation, was jointly awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology for a discovery which is responsible for making immense savings in health care worldwide and preventing untold human suffering.

The prestigious Barry Marshall Travel Award now forms part of the Fremantle Hospital Research Awards and will allow a Fremantle Hospital-based researcher to attend a national or international conference to present their research findings.

The Fremantle Hospital Medical Research Foundation (FHMRF) invites applications from health professionals and scientists for two grants of up to $5,000 each for travel within or outside of Australia for the purposes of attending a conference/meeting to present the findings of research performed at Fremantle Hospital, to present a poster or similar. Applications close on the 31st August 2007.

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival is a community- based event that began in 1997 with a ‘beanie party’, organised by Adi Dunlop. In the early years, the festival was run by a group of friends on a volunteer basis. 

The festival was organised to sell beanies crocheted by Aboriginal women in remote communities. It has grown into a fun event where Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal artists share their culture and exhibit together. The festival is unique because of the incredible amount of community participation and our unique ties with local Aboriginal organisations.

The festival’s aims have always been to develop Aboriginal women’s textiles, promote womens’ culture and the beanie as a regional art form, as well as promote handmade textile arts.

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival Committee invites entries from artists for the exhibition, ‘My Journey’. Every beanie destined for the Festival is a creative journey for its maker that begins with an idea and some fibre or yarn. Their makers send them across land and sea to reach the Festival in Alice Springs each winter. Entries for the 2008 event are now open!

Ambiwerra Sports Fields, Corinda
5 August 2007

Get out your picnic rug and dedicate the first Sunday in August to some seriously great food from Brisbane’s top chefs and nosheries. You can also sample Australia’s finest wines or enjoy a glass or two of French bubbles.

From 10.30am to 5pm, the Ambiwerra Sports Fields on Erinvale Street in the suburb of Corinda are host to Brisbane’s best one-day food and music festival. Have a fabulous day with your friends, enjoying the finer things in life.

Check out the details here.

DJ G-Wizard & DJ Eko have opened the doors to Australia’s newest & most advanced recording studio establishment dubbed ‘Emerald City’. Home of the Wizard of Oz specialising in Hip-Hop & R & B.

Whether you want to record a demo, produce a hit or just pop in to check out the latest DJ G-Wizard projects in the works. For more info go to the DJ G-Wizard website.