Melbourne’s 5th annual Thai Culture and Food Festival will be held on Sunday 2nd March 2008 at Federation Square and River Terrace from 10am to 9pm.     ENTRY is FREE!!     
 
There will be something for everyone with 20 Thai food and desert stalls; 19 performers direct from Thailand; Live cultural shows; Thai martial arts shows; Thai kick boxing shows; Fashion parade – 12 models direct from Thailand featuring Thai Silk; Thai cooking demo on main stage & Buddhist ceremony.

The week-long festival includes fashion shows, famous faces, exhibitions, business events, parties and all the glamour and excitement of the fashion world.

As firm supporters of art, fashion and innovation, Two Flat Whites supports this fantastic event being the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) 2008.

The festivals mission is to engage and excite the public about fashion whilst stimulating new ideas in design, business and innovation. LMFF will run from the 2nd to the 9th March 2008. 

Melbourne Fashion Week 2008 will feature a series of events and activities to launch the autumn/winter 2008 collections of Australia’s leading designers and brands, it also acts as a vital industry resource for marketing, promotion and exchanging of ideas. 

The Wishing Well was formed at the beginning of this year and has gone from strength to strength in this short time clocking up over 130 shows to date.  They have also been named a Music Oz Awards finalist, supported artists such as Adam Brand and have featured at music festivals such as the Queenscliff Music Festival this year.

The Wishing Well’s music is an infectious blend of folk, rock and pop. Their loyal and enthusiastic fan base draws regular comparisons to artists such as Ryan Adams, David Gray and Dave Matthews Band and The Waterboys.  Led by singer/songwriter Jai Larkan (who has supported artists such as Bob Geldof, Andy White, Liam O’Maonlai and Tim Finn), The Wishing Well’s masterful songwriting blends 3 part harmonies, infectious bass grooves, drumming flare and wicked violin solos.

Their passionate live shows and irresistibly memorable songs leave fans spellbound and eagerly awaiting the completion of their debut album (due out 9th March 2008).  Acclaim for this melodic five piece continues to grow steadily as word spreads for their classic songcraft and captivating live shows. You can have a listen to the bands music and see some great videos from one of their live shows here:  www.myspace.com/thewishingwellband

The Wishing Well will launch it’s first ever album on the 9th March 2008 (Sunday, Labour Day Eve) at the infamous East Brunswick Club (280 Lygon St, East Brunswick). It will be your last chance to see the band before July as they will be touring to promote the album nationally.

Its going to be a unforgettable night! Awesome support acts, fire twirlers, comedians, door prizes PLUS.. They’ll be joined by cellist extraordinaire Judith Hamman and our fantabulous band which includes the lovely Rachael Byrnes (harmony vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, piano & exceptional sangria drinking skills), Cat Canteri (drums, harmony vocals and all around hotty), Tom Morgan (bass and sexual deviancy), Zac “the cherry” Johnston (first violin and disgruntled call centre employee), Jai Larkan (lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, piano and crude jokes) & Rivkah Larkan (second violin and percussive laughter)

So get out there & support this great band – The Wishing Well.

The National Multicultural Festival includes several massive free events in the city centre, plus very affordable events by the lakes and right across town in community centres, clubs and galleries throughout the fortnight.

There’s also a suite of well-priced shows at Canberra’s main theatres, also in the city centre: Canberra Theatre Centre’s three theatres (Civic Square, London Circuit) and The Street Theatre’s two theatres (Childers Street).

Every evening after work, drop by the Fringe Festival in Civic Square for a cool drink and a line-up of free music, dance, theatre and comedy. It’s on every night up until the 17th February 2008. There’s a bar on site. See you there!

All girl exhibition titled ‘GRRRLs’ opens this friday 8th february 2008 at aMBUSH gallery in sydney from 6pm-9pm. The show features artwork by a selection of australian female artists: akina, andrea innocent, brooke bobridge, eugenia tsimiklis, kareena zerefos, lillian piri, love ariel, mel stringer, mini graff, nanami cowdroy, rebecca wetzler, smitten by stephanie and team kitten. FREE drinks on opening night… so if you’re in sydney come down and check it out. the show continues until saturday 23rd february.

We receive many queries from young authors about what to do to have their work published. The following information should be of help to you, but this is just a general outline of the steps that need to be taken and it would probably vary slightly from publisher to publisher.

On completion of your story, the first thing to do is to submit it to various publishers for their consideration. Should you find your age is a drawback to having your work accepted for publication, please don’t stop writing! You may also like to write to The Fellowship of Australian Writers (PO Box 528, Camberwell, Vic., 3124) who are very helpful with advice about suitable publishers.

If your story is accepted for publication, there is little more that you would have to do. Production of the book now becomes the publisher’s job, and it is the publisher who takes care of editing, illustrations, copyright, marketing and distribution, and pays any costs incurred. This involves a lot of work and production of a book can take a year or more.
 
There is no cost involved for the author. In fact, the publisher pays the author a percentage of the money received from each sale of the book (a royalty). Royalties are usually paid every six months, after publication, but this doesn’t mean you have to wait 18 months before you receive any money! Prior to publication the author receives an advance against royalties. This is usually a lump sum of, say, $1,000, half of which is paid on acceptance of the manuscript and half on publication.

There is a book available which goes into much more detail, called The Australian and New Zealand Writer’s Handbook, edited by Joan Clarke and published by A.H. and A.W. Reed Pty Ltd (53 Myoora Road, Terrey Hills, Sydney) for the Australian Society of Authors. Perhaps your local library could get a copy for you. In a more lighthearted vein, you might like to read The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl – one of the stories tells how Roald Dahl himself first became a writer.

We hope this answers your questions – and good luck!

Bollywood is the term used to describe the Indian mega-movie industry – I’ve often said that it starts with a “B” because it’s based in (the former) Bombay and ends with an “ollywood” because it’s not too original. So, why the obsession on my part?

Bollywood, when combined with other regional industries (namely Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada), makes India the largest film producer in the world. Bollywood itself releases about a thousand movies a year; 14 million Indians go to the cinema every day, be it in the air-conditioned comfort of their local multiplex or in the travelling theatre tents set up near their villages.

While there is a strong tradition of Indian new-wave or “art” cinema, the most enduring product of Bollywood is the “masala film” – so called because, like the mix of spices, it contains a bit of everything. Bollywood films are generally about two to three hours long, contain about six songs and combine elements of romance, action, drama and suspense. Most still contain characters recognisable from early filmic adaptations of the original epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana – the big-moustachioed villain, the chaste and loyal wife, the ever-suffering mother and the triumphant husband/son.

The ever-expanding Indian diaspora has helped the Bollywood phenomenon span oceans and borders, and all this travel through time and space has seen Bollywood morph and meld accordingly. Productions nowadays are more sophisticated and have a more international flavour – overseas locations are not just for song sequences any more. The Indian migrant experience dominates storylines, with the physical and metaphorical journey “home” a common theme – woven in with, of course, healthy doses of romance, action, drama and suspense.

So do yourself a favour & catch a Bollywood flick. The contents of this post were based on the article by Shalini Akhil, The Age 2007.

Tropfest 2008 is the world’s largest short film festival. The festival features filmmakers of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience making short films for the festival. The films can be about anything but must include the annual Tropfest Signature Item, which this year is ’8′.

Over 150,000 people will come together on Sunday 17th February 2008 to view 16 finalist films, selected from more than 700 entries at venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Hobart as well as a selection of regional venues across Australia.