The Smith Family is a national, independent children’s charity helping disadvantaged Australians to get the most out of their education, so they can create better futures for themselves.

www.thesmithfamily.com.au/littleheroes

ikoniThe Electrolux Appetite for Excellence 2011 national winners were announced at an exclusive reception held at the Electrolux Showcase, Sydney, attended by Australia’s leading chefs, restaurateurs and food industry luminaries.

Perth born Shane Osborn, Australia’s first Michelin starred chef, officiated as guest of honour joining Luke Mangan (Awards co-founder, Glass, The Palace, Salt Tokyo) and Head of Electrolux Major Appliances Asia Pacific Gunilla Nordstrom to announce the winners.

The ‘who’s who’ of the culinary world came out to celebrate what is widely recognized as the most prestigious awards in the industry showcasing a hotbed of Australia’s junior talent.  Guests included:   Peter Gilmore (Quay), Jill Dupleix and Terry Durack, Christine Manfield (Universal), Philip Johnson (Ecco), food commentator Lyndey Milan.

The 2011 Electrolux Appetite for Excellence winners across three award categories are:

Electrolux Young Chef
Winner:     Richard Ousby, Quay
Runner Up: Victor Liong, Marque Restaurant

Electrolux Young Waiter
Winner:     James Sexton, Sepia Restaurant & Wine Bar
Runner Up: Anthony Moore, Bentley Restaurant & Bar
Judges Acknowledgement: Glenn Mill, Jacques Reymond

Electrolux Young Restaurateur
Winner:     Clint Hillery, Time to Vino, Sydney
Highly Commended:  Belinda Stapleton, Restaurant Botanica, Hunter Valley.

The call is out for bands and filmmakers in the 2011 Music Video Mash Up – a yearly competition that pairs up and coming musicians and directors across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.  Following on from a huge inaugural year last year, The Music Video Mash Up filmmaking competition is back for 2011- and with the addition of Sydney and Melbourne to the competition,  bigger and better than ever.

There’s a stack of info @ www.mvmu.com.au and below but in short: MVMU is a time-based music video making competition. It’s simple:

•    Bands and filmmakers register (for their respective city – Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane)
•    They are then paired up randomly and given just THREE days (Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend (June 10-13, 2011)) to create, shoot, edit and submit a music video.
•    Bands – all you need is a recorded original song (no covers)
•    Filmmakers – all you need is a camera and a crew

There are stacks of prizes to be won including the winning clip playing on Video Hits, PLUS a representative from the winning band and filmmakers will be flown to the Video Hits set to be interviewed on air!  All entries are also showcased at a special premiere at Palace cinemas in their respective cities.

Some of Australia’s best known writers compete with a number of talented first time authors in an intriguing and eclectic shortlist for the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the nation’s oldest, richest and most prestigious State literary awards.

Finalists this year include popular comedian Anh Do; novelist and screenwriter Melina Marchetta; academic, poet and translator Ouyang Yu; two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey and former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. For more than 30 years, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards have honoured hundreds of established and emerging novelists, playwrights, poets, scriptwriters, social commentators and writers of children and young people’s fiction.

Please note that this year the People’s Choice Award, which gives readers an opportunity to vote for their favourite shortlisted book in the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, will be open for the first time to all Australians (in previous years only NSW residents were eligible to vote).  Voting is via the website: http://www.pla.nsw.gov.au/  There are great prizes to be won by voting.

2011’s shortlisted writers were selected from more than 570 nominations across 10 categories. Prizes of up to $315,000 will be presented at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards dinner on 16 May, the first celebratory event of the 2011 Sydney Writers’ Festival (16-22 May).

For more details on shortlisted individuals, please visit http://www.pla.nsw.gov.au.

Media enquiries please contact: April Murdoch, Publicist; mob: 0434 581 944 & email: aprilmurdochmedia {at} yahoo.com(.)au

Top Awards

Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year: Marque

Emirates Chef of the Year: Martin Benn (Sepia)

Plumm Wine Glasses Best New Restaurant: Manly Pavilion

Navman Best Regional Restaurant: Lochiel House, Kurrajong Heights

Star City Professional Excellence Award: Peter Doyle (est.)

The Sydney Morning Herald Silver Service Award: Alon Sharman (Arras)

Louis Roederer Sommelier of the Year: Matthew Dunne (Aria)

Brown Brothers Wine List of the Year: Rockpool Bar & Grill

Small wine list of the year: Spice Temple

Regional Wine List of the Year: Margan (Broke)

The Josephine Pignolet Best Young Chef: Jason Saxby (Quay)

Vittoria Legend Award: Michael McMahon (Catalina)

Sydney Fish Market Best Seafood Restaurant: Fish Face

Dan Murphy’s Best BYO Restaurant: Il Perugino

Coopers Sustainability Award: Margan (Broke)

iPhone App People’s Choice Award: Tetsuya’s

(more…)

The drinking and depravity continued throughout the day, into night, until I could no longer sit still. I was thinking thoughts a man shouldn’t think. The full moon was high and the mist was lurking, draping itself with seductive ease across the beautiful, dim night. I’d been listening to the debut album from Melbourne band The Graveyard Train for hours, possibly days. Who could be sure? I was hypnotised, entranced. I left the safety of home and lurched forward, shuffling down the street, towards the cemetery. All the while the words were ringing in my ears, rattling around my mind in the swirling oblivion of possibility:

I shuffle on down the street.
I can’t help dragging my feet.
Got my two arms leading the way.
And all the people there stop and say…
‘Let’s move like a mummy!’

And so it began; my night in the cemetery, esky of well-stocked beer held tight, howling at the moon about dancing to the devil’s drum, taking witches out dancing and children burning alive. It was tremendous fun, but maybe you had to be there. I was in another world, I was deep in The Graveyard Train and there was no way out. My raised head and out-stretched arms silhouetted against the murky, moon-lit cemetery as I cried out more of their words in wicked delight.

(more…)

The communities of Sydney need to know about the ‘Public Land Grab’ attempt that is about to occur under our noses!

Come to this first Community Forum and find out how to stop this and why. Get informed. Be inspired. Have your Say!

** Heaps of great SPEAKERS **
- on Business, Urban Planning, Arts Industries, Health & Tourism…

Help draft a public proposal for an Arts precinct and help keep The Old Kings School in Public Hands for a new heritage friendly cross-cultural and ecological precinct – for everyone in the Parramatta City region.

** ITS TIME! for State Arts infrastructure in Parramatta.

More info: http://www.facebook.com/oldkingsschool
Support here: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/oldkings

10am – 12pm, Friday 28th of January

Jubilee Hall, (next to Parramatta town Hall)

The communities of Sydney need to know about the public land grab that could occur under our noses! Come to the Community Forum and find out more. Have your say and help draft a public proposal for an Arts Precinct, and help save the Old Kings School!

The Big Issue is a fortnightly, independent magazine, which is sold on the streets around Australia. It’s a high-quality, general interest publication that features arts and entertainment, humorous columns, current affairs, lifestyle, personal experiences and there own particular brand of irreverence. The editorial team is headed by Walkley Award-winning journalist and author Alan Attwood.

The magazine is sold by authorised vendors on the streets of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and regional Victoria. Vendors come from a range of backgrounds including mental illness, homelessness, long-term unemployment, intellectual and physical disability, drug and alcohol dependency, family breakdown and others suffering from social isolation, such as refugees.

Get onboard & buy an issue, it’s an awesome read!

The State Library of Western Australia announces the Call for Entries for the 2010 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards including a new category, the Digital Narrative Award.

Entry is open to books, scripts and digital narrative which have been published/produced between 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010. To be eligible authors must be citizens or permanent residents of Australia or whose work has Australia as its primary focus. The closing date for entries is 5pm Monday 31 January 2011.

There are 8 categories in the Awards: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children’s Book, Writing for Young Adults, Poetry, Scripts, State Library of Western Australia West Australian History Award and the new Digital Narrative Award which recognises the use of new media in storytelling/writing. An additional Premier’s Prize of $25,000 is presented to the overall winner, chosen from the category winners.

Prize money is made available by the Western Australian Government. The West Australian History Award is sponsored by the State Library of Western Australia. Short listed entries will be announced in June 2011.

The National Maritime Festival aims to raise the profile of the Maritime Centre Newcastle and increase community awareness of the vital importance of our Maritime heritage. At its simplest, the National Maritime Festival provides a welcome spectacle and a day of entertainment and involvement for many, many thousands of Novocastrians as well as visitors from interstate and overseas.

The Australia Day Maritime Festival provides for education, cultural integration and community involvement while enhancing the use of maritime facilities. The annual National Maritime Festival leaves a lasting legacy of pride and enjoyment of our Harbour City of Newcastle. The National Maritime Festival is a chance for you and your family to experience a day on Newcastle harbour celebrating my story, your story, and our story .

What: Newcastle Australia Day Maritime Festival 2011
Where: 3 Honeysuckle Drive, Newcastle, NSW
When: Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 January 2011
Cost: Free