140213 citynews

ASIO’s blot on the landscape

MICHAEL MOORE

Lighten up the booze debate

ROBERT MACKLIN

Sports stars shine early

TIM GAVEL

Burch tipped to lose Education

CANBERRA CONFIDENTIAL

Sophie’s choice

The frantic fashionista who looks good for less

SPECTACULAR PERFORMANCES

ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTIONS

BLOCKBUSTER EXHIBITIONS

EXCLUSIVE DINING EVENTS

Taking a fence at ASIO’s Spy Central

The ASIO mandarins have their Taj Mahal on Parkes Way. It’s wrapped in barbed wire and looks like a disgraceful blot on the landscape, says MICHAEL MOORE.

IT’S an eyesore. It is a blight on the environment. It is right there in central Canberra on the road between the city and the airport. It undermines the aesthetics of the Territory and the Parliamentary Triangle.

The fence around the new ASIO building on Parkes Way is simply a blight, a blot, a blemish on the national capital. Is there anyone in Canberra, any visitor, any of our politicians who believe it is acceptable?

The blight is even worse for the fact that it takes such pride of place in the Parliamentary Triangle. It has to go. It has to go soon.

There are two prime possibilities as to why the cyclone and barbed wire is still standing. The first is that the work on the building stopped without the landscaping being finished. The second possibility is worse. Perhaps the ASIO designers assume people will get used to this ugly carbuncle and just come to accept that the spies need this type of protection.

Consider the first possibility – just part of the building security. A few years ago, when word spread that the spies were building smack in the

centre of Canberra, most Canberrans accepted the need for a secure site. As part of the building process the fence needed to be secure not just to avoid pilfering but to stop snooping about the design of the building – who was to know that the Chinese would just hack computers and get the plans?

The need for the fence in the construction phase was largely accepted. However, surely the long-term site security for the building was designed into the landscape. Even Parliament House has been refitted with aesthetically pleasing security that apparently cannot even be breached or mounted with a Russian T44 or an M1 Abrams tank. Surely the design of the spy building took this knowledge into account?

During the construction the NCA reassured residents. In July 2009, its head said: “I don’t think barbed wire city is a fair representation”.

He added: “The ASIO website has, from the very front page, a link to an artist’s impression of the view of the building from Constitution Avenue. There are some security measures there, but they mostly take the form of

index / contacts

Arts & Entertainment 21-23

Canberra Confidential 15

Cinema 23

Dining 23

Garden 26

Horoscope 27

Newxs 3-12

Puzzles 27

Socials 17-19

Sport 12

Suduko 27

Cover: Fashionista Sophie Ranson. Story Page 6.

Tackle

That fence around the ASIO building, facing the lake... Is there anyone in Canberra, any visitor, any of our politicians who believe it is acceptable?

bollards that would prevent vehicles from getting close to the building.”

The construction phase has ended. Anyone who has even built a house in Canberra or the surrounding areas – let alone a building of this dimension – knows that building completion means ensuring the construction accoutrements have gone and the site looks acceptable.

Consider the second possibility –

the fence is there to stay because it is needed to protect the people in the building. There are similar fences that protect some of the defence buildings at Russell.

Those buildings have the same ambience as the Alexander Maconochie Centre in Hume. The difference is the Defence buildings are not on Parkes Way. They should also be redesigned – but it is understandable

that the challenges around security of buildings from decades ago are much more challenging.

Never mind philosophical views about whether or not the spy building should be one of the largest buildings in the ACT, or that it should dominate the view across Lake Burley Griffin from Parliament House. The reality is that it would take very little comparative effort and expense to remove the ugly piece of prison paraphernalia.

ASIO and the other spy agencies will (one day) move into the building that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened. They will have a spectacular work place. But they will wonder why it sits so far away from normal services, shops and cafes. The building was really needed in Gungahlin where it would have injected a significant economic boost to the town centre and contributed to reducing traffic congestion.

The mandarins have their Taj Mahal. It’s just wrapped in barbed wire. The wire should go. If the security threat really is that great – at the very least look at a few of the embassies, get some ideas and adopt an acceptable solution.

Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health.

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Fine Craft

Theatre takes the soft option

By Laura Edwards

THE Playhouse theatre will raise the curtain on a fresh new look this month, as part of a $3.109m upgrade by the ACT Government.

The 16-year-old theatre has ripped out and replaced its 622 “deteriorating, worn out” seats, which had been at the theatre since its opening in 1998, with plush new seats across all three levels.

The seats, which are a slightly darker shade of green, have wooden backs and inbuilt vents for air-conditioning, while selected seats have adjustable arm-rests for wheelchair access.

Canberra Theatre Centre director Bruce Carmichael says the new seats are a “big investment” for Canberra’s cultural assets.

“The cushioning is thicker so they’re more comfortable for people visiting, and will hopefully encourage them to return,” Bruce says.

“When we first built the theatre in the 1990s, it was for only $9m and that meant other costs got trimmed, including what

Dr Pegah Noorizadeh has joined our dedicated team at Manuka Dental Care. Pegah was a pharmacist, before she graduated with honours from Uni of Sydney in 2006. She has practised in private dental practices and has provided training in implant dentistry at the post graduate level.

Manuka Dental Care team

Animals of war

A FAMILY day commemorating the role animals played in support of Australia’s war efforts will be held at the Australian War Memorial on Sunday, February 23. “Of Animals in War” begins at 9am with a commemorative ceremony, which will include an overview of the significant role animals have played by renowned animal trainer and behavioural advisor, Nigel Allsopp; songs relating to the sacrifice of war animals sung by Tania Kernaghan and stories of the support of explosive detection dogs in Afghanistan. A tribute wall of war photography drawn from the Memorial’s National Collection and the Department of Defence will be on display. More information at awm.gov.au/ events/animals-memorial.

Hill strikes gold

VISITCANBERRA chief Ian Hill’s innovative Human Brochure campaign has won gold for Destination Marketing at the Australian Tourism Awards. The Human Brochure was a world first tourism advocacy campaign that brought 500 social media savvy people to Canberra for a free weekend to sample the region’s tourism offerings and share their experiences via social media. The campaign has already won silver in the Best Use of Social Marketing and bronze in the Most Innovative Idea/ Concept categories at the Australian Promotional Marketing Association’s Star Awards.

Sheedy speaks up

we could spend on seats. The base of the old seats were starting to really wear out and they had a steel frame, so everybody ended up getting cut with the frame digging into the back of the thigh.”

The theatre recycled about 80 of its old seats, donating them to a local church, while “whatever possible” will be recycled, including scrap metal.

Contractors are still working on the finishing touches to what has been a two week-long overhaul, with the new-look theatre to be ready for its first production later this month.

Bruce says the seats will breathe new life into The Playhouse, which he believes is one of the “most loved” theatres for actors.

“Particularly actors in a drama production love it because of the acoustics, the small size and the way they can feel like they’re very close to the audience… a lot of companies come back year after year for that reason,” he says.

The upgrade also included new air conditioning for the Canberra Theatre and “general maintenance,” according to a Canberra Theatre Centre spokesperson.

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Dr Pegah Noorizadeh B Pharm (Syd) B Dent Hons (Syd) Ms Liz Codina, Ms Kathryn Novak and Ms Elena Hopwood (Dental Hygienists)

LEGENDARY AFL player and coach, Kevin Sheedy, is guest speaker at a Friends of Ireland meeting at the Canberra Irish Club, Weston, 8pm, on Wednesday, February 19. Two of Sheedy’s four grandparents were Irish-born and his talk will cover his career, recruiting Irish players in the AFL and the links between Aussie Rules and Gaelic football. Enquiries to 6251 4838.

Birthday lake Boatfest

THE Traditional Boat Squadron is celebrating Lake Burley Griffin’s 50th anniversary with the Canberra Classic Boatfest at the Canberra Yacht Club, Yarralumla, February 22-23. The Boatfest will feature a wide range of meticulously restored and replica vessels, powered by sail, steam, electric motor, putt-putt and diesel engines ranging from dinghies to 10-metre launches. More information at tradboatsact.com

First ‘Language Walk’

UNESCO-designated International Mother Language Day is celebrated globally on Friday, February 21 and the recently-formed Mother Language Movement is staging an inaugural Canberra “Language Walk” around Lake Burley Griffin on that day, beginning at 5.30pm under the flags in Nara Peace Park. All welcome.

Fashion editor LAURA EDWARDS meets a successful local blogger with an obsessive eye for fashion on a budget

DRESSED in a bright orange skirt, matching shrug and killer heels, Sophie Ranson certainly puts the drab publicservant stereotype to rest.

For more than two years, the Gungahlin-based fashion blogger and Government IT consultant has offered Canberrans a glimpse into her everyday wardrobe on her personal style blog, Happy Schnapper – and there’s not a beige shirt or lanyard in sight.

“I’ve always loved being colourful at work, I think it improves your mood and it will always draw compliments because it’s a little bit different,” the 30 year old says.

Happy Schnapper is devoted to showcasing, through several photos per week, Sophie’s every outfit and accessory itemised, and is aimed for fashionistas on a budget.

Sophie originally started the blog “just for friends” but it is now part tutorial, part sartorial voyeurism for the masses, reaching around 40,000 hits per month.

“Initially I wanted to do the blog because work colleagues would say: ‘Oh you always look so good, how do you do it?’ So I wanted to show people that dressing for work can be easy on a budget,” Sophie says.

“When I first started I posted what I was actually wearing every day, but it just resulted in not-so-great photographs and I couldn’t write that much, so I started to post slightly less but put a bit more time into the photography and putting the outfits together, so it was higher quality.”

And although her wardrobe is to-die-for – she has a spare room at home for her shoe col-

lection alone – Sophie says her outfits usually cost no more than $150.

“I’m usually pretty thrifty, so I’ll go shopping usually every fortnight and just pick up two or three items, with brands ranging from mid-range to the more affordable, such as Target, Cotton On, or second-hand clothing on ebay,” she says.

“I do have a rule though, if I get a new garment, I have to throw something out.

“It’s about understanding your wardrobe, if you’ve got lots of pairs of jeans you don’t really need another pair – it’s about getting leverage off your items.”

Sophie’s blog includes the popular “tight-ass Tuesdays”, where she will put together an outfit for under $100, while outfits on other days are usually under $200.

Husband Michael acts as her personal photographer – “I

bribe him,” she laughs – using the backdrop of Canberra’s picturesque streets and greenery.

Sophie believes the rise of self-style blogs is due to “relatability”, and what might appear as narcissism is actually an exchange of ideas about fashion, bodies and consumerism.

“I think everyone goes through days where they just want to wear flat shoes, and I definitely go through those where I just wear flat shoes, pants, a basic top. It’s about being real; people can relate to me,” she says.

Sophie says her readers often recognise her on the street and tell her they “love” the blog.

“My worst fear though is if I run into a reader and I’m at the supermarket wearing trackies… I’ve got a fashion reputation to uphold!” she laughs.

Visit Sophie’s blog at happyschnapper.com

Time to lighten up the booze debate

So far we have been lucky in Canberra to have escaped the “coward’s punch” tragedies that have killed young men and shattered families in Sydney. But ROBERT MACKLIN fears it’s only a matter of time...

ALCOHOL is Australia’s drug of choice. Nothing new in that. We are probably unique in world history to have actually used booze as our colonial currency in the days of the Rum Corps.

But since that time it has become so embedded in our national ethos that when one of our sporting teams triumphs – the cricketers being the most recent case in point –we’re more than happy to see them embark on a three-day bender to “celebrate”.

Unlike the more civilised countries of Europe, notably France and Italy, our drinking habits tend to the nightly pre-dinner tipple and the weekend binge.

It’s the latter that seems to have been responsible for the violent attacks on innocent passers-by, to say nothing of the regular punch-ups that degrade our public places, our national image and our self-perception.

But beneath the surface there is another related problem. Those pre-dinner (and pre-lunch) tipples can all too easily become habit forming.

public placebos. An increased police presence at binge drinking trouble spots cannot be sustained; and in any case these “spots” incorporate the entire continent.

Moreover, a powerful combination of hotels, clubs and retailers have joined with the alcohol industry to run interference on all attempts to reduce opening hours or tighten age-based regulations.

AA is a more complex matter.

The organisation was developed in the 1930s by men who were “chronic inebriates” and offers a single path to recovery: abstinence, accepting one’s “powerlessness” over alcohol and surrendering to some external godlike power one day at a time.

Our response to the problem has focused on the symptoms rather than the cause

And the figures for alcohol dependence – a polite expression for alcoholism – are frightening. According to the AMA, one in 10 Australians drinks at “unsafe” levels; and some 40 per cent of our young people are binge drinkers.

The results are family breakdowns, domestic and public violence and carnage on the roads. Our ER clinics at the weekend can resemble a war zone.

Our response to the problem has focused on the symptoms rather than the cause –greater policing and shorter licensing hours for the bingers; and AA for the “disease” of alcoholism.

Unfortunately, both are little more than

Hair and, well, gone

MIKE WELSH tiptoes into the world of tuft love...

WHAT do celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz have in common?

Female pubic hair.

Ms Diaz says she favours the natural look and recently suggested that trying to get rid of one’s pubic hair “is like saying: ‘I don’t need my nose’.”

While Cameron’s controversial comments have cast something of a five o’clock shadow over the downy debate, Leonardo’s character also touches on the topic albeit a tad more tenderly, as tenderly as a Wall Street cowboy can, in the latest Martin Scorsese movie, “The Wolf of Wall Street”.

Combine that with recent media frenzy over a US frock shop that adorns its mannequins with a lush tuft of pubic hair, and that little bluebird of tappy-ness is positively bristling.

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And while AA doesn’t conduct research itself, independent studies have produced “no conclusive evidence to show that AA can help patients to achieve abstinence” (Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group 2006). However, what we do know is that taken in moderation alcohol is a delightful social lubricant.

The real problem is that the industry has so doctored our favoured tipples – beer and wine – with the active (and addictive) ingredient that the drinks themselves are unsafe.

Popular beer brands contain 5 per cent alcohol while wine is about 15 per cent.

There are light beer alternatives, but they represent only a small percentage of the market.

There is little to no “light” wine. Surely, that’s the place to start on our road to maturity in enjoying alcohol. Cut the percentage and we can have the pleasure without the pain… and the deaths.

www.robertmacklin.com

From a diplomatic distant vantage point, it seems to me the mere mention of this once “unmentionable” has ladies from both camps in a foaming lather.

There have been only a few occasions on which I had to cross the “bikini line”; once when I wondered where “the Brazilian”, the name for a pubic wax, originated. I reasoned it had something to do with the association between the alarming rate of the clearing of Brazilian rain forests and the demand for a personal “clear felling”. Turns out it is just a name among many for a new trend in body care along with “the butterfly”, “the cricket pitch” and the fashionable-sounding “Hollywood” (also known as “sphinx”) where the pubic hair is completely zapped.

Males are often cast as the villain in this shave-or-save saga. One argument lays the blame at the feet of pornography. The reason for shaving pubic hair today, for both sexes, is apparently driven by the effect of the porn industry and its influence on mainstream media. Therefore it becomes normal. Society again becomes conditioned to a concept that was once an unmentionable.

I did have a close shave a few years back when I read a book by Jacinta Tynan, “Good Man Hunting”, which detailed her “napalming the nether regions”. But that was research for the radio interview I did with the talented Ms Tynan and I don’t recall us ever reaching the point of “over sharing” during our studio chat.

In “The Wolf of Wall Street” the bush debate between father and son continues as Leo’s character, Jordan Belfort, chats with his father Max, played by Rob Reiner. Suffice to say, the uncomfortable exchange between on-screen father and son is instructive from a contemporary viewpoint with dad admitting to be a bush man while his son favours the clean shave. It was, indeed, a whole new world, the old man wearily conceded.

This is an edited version from Mike Welsh’s blog “Mockery of Shockjockery, thoughts of an ex radio shockjock”.

WHO’D HAVE THOUGHT WE HAVE A

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Ricky Stewart Pro-Am organiser, golf pro Charles Kares… “It’s one of the most exclusive one-day pro-ams in Australia.”

Ricky’s pals take a big swing for autism

With Royal Canberra’s prestigious Ricky Stuart Celebrity Pro-Am tournament only days away, reporter STEPHEN EASTON talks to the man organising this hugely successful fundraiser for autism

A COUPLE of weeks before his first match coaching the Raiders in 2014, Ricky Stuart is heading to Royal Canberra, where golf pro Charles Kares is gearing up to host the famous footballer’s charity golf tournament for the third year running.

“It’s one of the most exclusive one-day pro-ams in Australia,” says Kares, who has helped both members and visitors perfect their game at the exclusive Yarralumla club since 2010.

“The prize purse the professionals play for this year is $25,000, and we’re limiting the field to 55 players so it’s going to be a strong field.”

Kares first started playing at Royal Canberra as a junior member, aged 14, and has been a professional golfer since 2005.

He is an AAA-rated PGA Professional – the highest level of teaching accreditation – and has been nominated for the PGA’s coveted ACT/ NSW Teaching Professional of the Year award three years running (the 2013 winner is announced on February 20). So what are his tips for the amateurs who’ll be mixing it with the rich and famous at the Ricky Stuart Celebrity Pro-Am on February 24?

“The number one thing is warm yourself up before you play,” says Kares. “Give yourself at least 20 minutes to warm up, stretch your muscles and go from there. It’ll make a world of difference.”

His next tip is equally simple, but overlooked by amateur golfers equally as often as warming up.

“Make sure you have a nice, relaxed grip because the grip pressure tightens as you swing, so if you start with a tight grip it’s only going to get worse. If you start with a soft, relaxed grip, it’s going to stay pretty stable throughout the whole swing.”

Number three is the swing itself, which should be a smooth, balanced harmony.

“Make sure you rotate on the way back and be assertive on the way through, finishing balanced,” he says. “I think the key to checking your golf swing is that if you finish balanced, it means that a lot of things were in sequence during the golf swing, but if you lose your bal-

Stars score early mark on the year

The year has barely started and already TIM GAVEL has three stories of local sporting success

CANBERRA sport is littered with inspirational stories of overcoming incredible odds to achieve success.

There’s Michael Milton’s incredible achievements in a multitude of sports after losing a leg to bone cancer; the Raiders becoming the first team to win the premiership from fifth place; the ACT Australian Rules team beating the might of the Big “V”; or the Comets upset victory over Victoria in the domestic one-day cricket series.

Already this year there are another three great stories for the list, including the ACT Meteors beating a star-studded NSW Breakers’ team in the semi-finals of the T20 National Women’s Cricket League.

ance, something wasn’t in harmony. Something wasn’t in sequence.”

The secret to making putts from all over the place? Engage the creative parts of the brain and use your imagination.

“If you actually are aware of the surroundings and can visualise where the ball is going to go, you’ve got a much better chance of being a good putter.”

For Kares, it was a lucky coincidence that led to him hosting the tournament, in his second year as a full-time pro at Royal Canberra.

“I was looking to host a pro-am so I started thinking: ‘How am I going to get sponsorship to make it run, and how am I going to make it bigger and better than other similar events?’,” he says.

After running the idea past a few potential sponsors, it turned out Ricky Stuart was the answer to both questions.

The Rugby League hero was interested in staging just such an event as a fundraiser for the Ricky Stuart Foundation, which he and his wife Kaylie established in 2011, two years after their daughter Emma was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

The first two tournaments raised more than $500,000 from the entry fees for amateurs (in the form of $6000 sponsorship packages) as well as high-priced raffle tickets, gourmet food tents set up around the course and a gala dinner featuring a charity auction, which last year culminated in lawyer Craig Edwards paying $15,000 for a luxury holiday donated by Qantas.

The Foundation funds specialist support services for people with autism and their families, which are desperately needed but currently in short supply, according to autism advocacy groups. “The goal is to raise enough funds to directly support the after-care for autistic people and help families who struggle daily with autism and maybe one day set up our own facility,” according to its website.

The Ricky Stuart Celebrity ProAm will be played at Royal Canberra on February 24.

The Meteors were not given a chance against the Breakers, the defending champions. The ACT had only beaten NSW once before, but the Breakers’ team this time was bolstered by the nucleus of the Australian women’s team that won four out of six games in the Ashes series. In fact, they had seven Australian players as well as a number from the Australia A team.

The Meteors, with one current Australian player, hadn’t played for six weeks and were well beaten by Queensland in their last game before the finals.

Knowing they are very much the underdogs, coach Andrew Dawson enlisted former marathon champion Rob de Castella to inspire the players with a speech about remaining calm under pressure, and taking time to enjoy the moment.

The players adhered to those words to the letter, with the ACT beating NSW by 12 runs.

THEN there was the performance by the Canberra Cavalry in making the final of the Australian Baseball League. Beaten by the Sydney Blue Sox 18 to 11 in the opening game of the preliminary finals series at Narrabundah, the Cavalry had to travel to Sydney for the remainder of the series.

But the travel didn’t impact on the Cavalry performance; Canberra came back from being down a game to win the series two-one to make the final.

What makes this performance even more memorable is that the Cavalry had to change their roster mid-season. The ABL ruled that Canberra had to reduce its import quota by two players with coach Michael Collins forced to find Australians who weren’t getting an opportunity at other clubs.

Collins found a pitcher who was struggling to get a game with the lowly-placed Brisbane Bandits. Steven Chambers joined the Cavalry late in the season. He got his chance in the finals series against Sydney and was an important factor in Canberra’s victory.

ANOTHER great story is that of Daniel Ellis, who grew up in Canberra and was always destined to be a champion cyclist. He moved to the Australian Institute of Sport program in Adelaide, but after years of gut-busting training, competition and travel, at the age of 23, he’d had enough. He wanted to discover the world, which is often foreign to elite sports people as they focus on getting the most out of the short time they have in sport; he wanted a job and to get on with the rest of his life.

He became a postie, riding a Honda 90 through the streets of Adelaide, married a local girl and settled down. Eighteen months into full-time work he realised that the desire to be a competitive cyclist remained and decided to give it a go. This time it was different; he had a new perspective on his sport.

He decided to combine work with cycling and 11 months into his comeback he has been named in the Australian team for the World Track Cycling titles in Colombia to be held later this month. To make a return to this level after being off the bike for 18 months is remarkable.

These inspiring stories provide an understanding of how people can be motivated to achieve well beyond their ability. Through determination, persistence and self-belief, goals can be reached and new heights attained. We can all learn from these achievements.

Pam Lyndon | Partner

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Canberra Confidential

No Joy in punting tips

THE mysterious, though devastatingly accurate, Braddon Punters Club is setting odds of 5/2 on a ministerial change to the ACT Education portfolio this year, with incumbent Joy Burch being tipped out of the job. Likewise, they are listing the same odds for lone Greens minister Shane Rattenbury moving out of the TAMS portfolio (to Education?).

Given Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has announced a sixth ACT ministry and a probable reshuffle in July the narrow odds are probably unsurprising. They’re also tipping 4/1 on Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson facing a challenge.

The club precisely predicted the last ACT election result and picked the winner in the recent Governor General Stakes.

Obstacle course

ON Monday citynews.com.au ran a story, with photographs, wondering who was keeping an eye on public safety as the Multicultural Festival’s white tents were rapidly dismantled throughout Civic’s busy walking areas, noting that the dismantlers appeared to follow a systematic process that involved leaving various parts of the infrastructure lying around, presumably for other workers to come along later.

“This leaves pedestrians in some areas weaving through an obstacle course, avoiding various hazards like sharp pieces of metal tubing, piles of heavy wood and metal poles and a whole range of things

to trip over,” the report said.

Not, us, says Barlens Event Hire marketing manager Trea McNamara , who told CC that, after 12 years, the Government bumped the locally owned company for a Sydney outfit until 2016.

“At Barlens, we pride ourselves on our attention to detail and commitment to safety,” Trea virtuously trills.

The bitch is back

ELTON John is back in Canberra for the weekend late next month when Dendy screens “The Million Dollar Piano”, a live show filmed at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, where Sir Elt and his band are currently performing a season.

However, star of the show is arguably the garish, custom-built Yamaha piano, which features more than 68 LED video screens.

Bookings for the three screenings on March 22-23 to dendy.com.au

‘Prevelent’ problem

VINCENT Mawson, of Higgins, wrote sniffily to correctly point out that in last week’s full-page interview with Leonardo

DiCaprio there was a misspelling of the word prevalent. What is amazing is that the story came from a reputable London magazine where it had already been edited, then sub-edited and read locally four times before we published it and still a troublesome little vowel let us down. Oh, how we try!

Mum’s the word

FIRST there was Mark and Lisa, then there was Cam and Lisa and now there’s Lachlan and Lisa! Canberra’s former breakfast radio livewire and “CityNews” columnist Lisa Ridgley is now the proud mum to son Lachlan James, born Australia Day and weighing in at just a shade over three kilograms. Daniel Box is the happy daddy.

Passing Presleys

ELVIS will have left the building by the time daughter (and momentary wife of Michael Jackson) Lisa Marie Presley and her band perform at the Southern Cross Club on Sunday, March 23. The successful photo exhibtion of the King’s pre-cheeseburger years, “Elvis at 21”, decamps from the National Portrait Gallery on March 10. So close to the photo opp of the year...

Spot the sign

HERE’S a nice little earner for Katy’s coffers… the almost invisible disabled car spot in the group of four that keeps catching drivers in the London Circuit carpark opposite Bailey’s Arcade. The signs are lost to view behind tree leaves and the ground signage, unlike others in the carpark, are barely visible. Apart from being shamefully unfair on parkers, the fine is north of 200 coconuts. We know that because snapper Gary Schafer got bagged the other day. He’s going to appeal, with photos, of course.

Hmmms…

DON’T mention the war…. The irrepressible and unpredictable Fringe Festival director Jorian Gardner, in his time-honoured tradition of surprise, announced to the opening night audience, within earshot of Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and Office of Multicultural Affairs chief Nick Manikis, that the Fringe would be back on Civic Square for the next five years. Trick or treat? CC’s arts snout saw a few eyebrows rising.

THEN there’s the inner-south, private-school teenager who injured his hand at cricket practice last week. Staff thoughtfully helped him and his cricket equipment into his car and left him to drive home in pain and with one hand! Duty of care, anyone?

“HEAT fails to phase multicultural festival crowd,” reports an unfazed canberratimes.com.au

AND reader Julia Pedler says that having given the Multicultural Festival a miss in 2013, “appalled at the lack of rubbish collection when I was at the event in 2012 and sent a message to the organisers”, she sends us a photo and them a raspberry for nothing has changed in 2014. “Surely there is no excuse for this situation that, to me, reflects poor organisation,” she grumbles.

IT’S Random Act of Kindness Week (until February 16), which surely makes those acts of kindness a little less random.

At Opera by Candlelight, Albert Hall

albert hall • canberra friday 21 february 6pm-9pm saturday 22 february 10am-5pm sunday 23 february 10am-4pm

retro & vintage fashion and accessories from the 1920’s on • fashion art • jewellery • retro homewares & kitchenalia • textiles with 16 local and interstate vintage dealers

• free ‘mrs sew and sew’ vintage dress making workshops fri 7-9 & sun 10.30-12.30

• the ‘chef and the ration book’ - 40’s & 50’s foodies cooking classes saturday and sunday

• thirties and forties fashion movies all weekend

• swing & rock and roll dancers

• door prizes • cafe

• wear vintage on sunday for our best dressed fashionista at 12.30 and win $200 cash!

Braddon, 38 Mort Street

Only 4 units Remaining

• Ground floor units of 106.8, 120 & 182.7sqm available

• Level 1 unit of 184sqm

• Completion early March 2014

• Draw card businesses already secured

• Broad range of uses including restaurant, retail and office

• High onsite parking allocation

Ray White Commercial Canberra

arts & entertainment

Sally-Forth… “Very surprised”.

‘Eye

popper’ wins popular award

By Helen Musa

A STRIKING photographic portrait of a Dickson College student is the winner in the inaugural “People’s Choice” award selected from the recent “College Express 5” show at Belconnen Arts Centre of works by talented young artists in Years 11 and 12.

The portrait, simply called “Girl”,

The mixed tale of ‘Two Cities’

WRITTEN in the 1930s, this play was deliberately buried for decades, but knowing the difficulty of adapting such a novel to the stage, one can understand why! The result is mixed. With some very bold directorial decisions and a very contemporary context, the work had moments of brilliance. The use of popular music and costumes meant the production didn’t attempt to do a “Les Miserables” nor make it into an historical drama, which could annoy some audiences while thrilling others. However, it could appear like Agatha Christie meets Eminem! By down-playing any sense of heightened language and making it mostly pedestrian, the touches with microphones and other effects that sought to enhance certain moments made consistency very difficult. Perhaps this is the price to pay when developing an original voice for revealing aspects of a story that is so well known and travelled.

There was very little real emotion expressed or shown at any point and, at times, the acting seemed uncertain. At other times, there was a sense of fun that celebrated the quirky and cheeky aspects of relationship against an historical drama that engulfed each character.

theatre

“A Tale of Two Cities”

By Charles Dickens, adapted by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud. Directed by Adam SpreadburyMaher

At The Q, Queanbeyan, until February 16. Reviewed by Joe Woodward

is by 18-year-old Dickson graduate, Sally-Forth Heaney-Garzoli, who said she was “very surprised” at winning the award.

We weren’t surprised, nor was College Express Belconnen Arts Centre director Daniel Ballantyne, who described it as “eye popping and very beautiful.”

A part of a series, the photograph of the artist’s girlfriend, Rosie Zatscheler, was intended as an experiment in perceptions.

That and her photographic work earned Sally-Forth 100 per cent final assessment at her college and a place in RMIT University’s highly competitive graphic design course.

“I can’t wait to get there,” she told “CityNews”.

It’s not the first time that SallyForth, the daughter of Canberra arts identities, Andy Heaney and Anne Garzoli, has been singled out for notice.

Shortly after her birth in 1995, “The Sydney Morning Herald” listed hers as one of the “most unusual names” of the year.

Singer home for awards

By Helen Musa

DAMIEN Bermingham is one of the busiest actor singers in Australian showbiz.

The winner of a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actor in a musical, he’s toured in the Australasian tour of “Chicago”, appeared in the Australian premier production of “Xanadu”, voiced half the characters in the award-winning children’s animated series “Patch Pillows” and played both a drag queen and a mechanic in the “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” musical.

He’ll be back in his home town Canberra to perform a song from “Love Never Dies” at the 19th annual CATS gala on February 22 and he couldn’t be more pleased.

Bermingham, 37, “never went to NIDA or WAAPA”, but got his entire training in Canberra and looks back proudly on his 1999 CAT award for playing the dustman, Alfred Doolittle, in the Canberra Philharmonic production of “My Fair Lady”, directed by Tessa Bremner.

His success and his gameness is a tribute to Philo’s commitment at the time to hiring good professional directors.

Of course, he could always sing. A member of a big Canberra musical family, he took his sister Lucy along for an audition for “King Kong” last year and she ended up being invited to become assistant musical director on the coming Baz Luhrmann stage musical version of “Strictly Ballroom”, in which he also has a part as Merv, one of the over-the-top inhabitants of the dance studio.

Pages 24-25.

Gallery restaurant with the topical taste of Peru

GOLD and the Incas at the National Gallery is a “great excuse to play with the energetic colour combinations, divine golden trims and the joy of food and family that the Peruvian culture enjoys”.

This is what designer Megan Morton says about her re-styling at the Sculpture Garden Restaurant in celebration of the major blockbuster. Does corn – so significant to Peru’s food culture – feature in the styling?

It sure does, in tea cosies, stools, macrame and other bits and pieces, although we felt the

Wendy Johnson dining

décor needed to be notched up a few degrees. Speaking of degrees. It was hot the day we dined and, although an open-air restaurant, it was stifling throughout lunch. More on this later.

To honour the blockbuster, the menu celebrates Peru’s rich history. Hot weather calls for cool ceviche, a traditional seafood dish popular in the coastal regions of “the Americas”, normally made with fresh raw fish marinated in tangy citrus juices and spiced

Blazing burst of eight local artists

“BLAZE Eight”, an exhibition by eight (of course) local artists – S.A. Adair, Katherine Griffiths, Martin James, Alex Lewis, Hardy Lohse, Katy Mutton, Jemima Parker, Tim Phillips – is expected to set the town on fire. Watch out for Lewis’s “gigantic labyrinthine staircase”. It’s curated by Alexander Boynes and Annika Harding and runs at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman House, Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm, until March 22.

THE Mah (it means “moon”) Ensemble, conducted by composer Majid Derakhshani, will perform classical and traditional Persian melodies at the ANU Arts Centre, 8pm, Friday, February 21, bookings to 0418 660399.

ALL eyes will be on the head of the ANU School of Music, vocalist Peter Tregear and ANU music student, pianist Aaron Chew, when they perform Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann in Wesley Music Centre’s “Wednesday Lunchtime Live Series” from 12.40pm-1.20pm on February 19.

BEN & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas is hosting music and movies in Commonwealth Park until March 8. On February 16 Jinja Safari heads up the “Sundae Sessions” before the screening of “Anchorman 2”. Proceeds go towards WWF’s “Fight For the Reef” campaign. Bookings and details openaircinemas.com.au

JON English will be back in town with a five-piece band in a show featuring all his hits and songs from

with chilli – heavenly with a Pisco Sour, a cocktail created in Lima in the 1920s ($12).

The Sculpture Garden Restaurant has reinvented ceviche, including a version with carrots, mushroom, saffron and sherry vinegar. It’s one of the three “mini serves” on the entree starter plate. It was bland and the ingredients too chunky for our liking. However, the ceviche of salmon, soaked in lime, jumbo white corn (how sweet it is) and fresh coriander hit the mark, as did the cauliflower quinotto fritters with creamy avo.

For my main, I bypassed the heavier beef short ribs and pork belly and opted for roast baby chicken with toasted, healthy Andean

super grains – so popular in Peru — crunchy green beans and gluten-free Pebre salad (a super salsa). I loved the innovative flavours, but the chicken was on the dry side. The grilled white corn maize with sultry, smoked tomatoes and fresh cheese was a winner. It was perked up nicely with coriander, an essential herb in Peruvian cooking.

Lunch is $49 per person for three courses and $35 for two. We were melting as we finished our mains and refrained from staying for something sweet.

Obviously the Sculpture Garden Restaurant can’t control the weather, and it’s tough for hospitality when temperatures are

in the high 30s for days. The fog sculpture helps if you’re there while it’s on (12.30pm to 2pm) but the restaurant urgently needs to install ceiling and/or floor fans so customers have air flow. I felt sorry for the staff working so hard in the heat.

Another tip? Tidy the area near the stairs entering the restaurant. Guests don’t want to see kitchen and other stuff strewn about when entering an elegant dining establishment. We felt we’d accidentally entered the back way.

Sculpture Garden Restaurant, Parkes Place. Open for lunch Wednesday-Sunday and breakfast at weekends. Fully licensed. Call 6240 6660.

Discomforting satisfaction of Mandela’s ‘Long Walk’

“Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom” (M)

THE dismantling of apartheid resembled those other 20th century political juggernauts, the Bolshevik revolution and Mao Tse Tung’s long march, that unfolded before there was instant media to deliver them into our living rooms, but with a longer gestation leading to democracy rather than a dictatorship. And more powerful world-wide exposure.

Justin Chadwick’s film uses William Nicholson’s screenplay adapting Nelson Mandela’s account of decades of political life. Running for 147 minutes, it concentrates perforce on the personal aspects and public events that became news rather than intimate back stories.

musicals he’s played in. At Teatro Vivaldi, February 21, bookings to 6257 2718.

IN the next free Sunday concert at the High Court of Australia, “Tapestries of Sound” will feature Indian classical and Celtic folk music, accompanied by dance. From 1pm, March 16, free entry, bookings not required.

TUGGERANONG Arts Centre Gallery is running the gamut in February with “Faces of Asylum” focusing on the human face of the refugee experience and Steve Roper’s “Suburbia” looking at, well, suburbia. Until February 28, Monday to Friday (9am-5pm).

EVER so quietly, “Weereewa – a Festival of Lake George” is resurfacing after two dormant years with “Weereewa – Alternate Histories”, a surround-style work recreating the escarpment and the Weereewa lake bed by local indigenous artists Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello and Lyndy Delian, running at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery until March 10.

CLASSICAL guitarist Matt Withers has told us of the Young Australian Music Composition Competition, where applicants will submit a new work for solo classical guitar with the chance to win $500 and a performance by Withers himself in November. Visit mattwithers.com.au/ compositioncompetition

The result is a film built from brief moments, visual implications, interspersed with longer sequences in which orations, sermons and homilies recount the seminal moments in Mandela’s political career.

The film rather glosses over the lesspalatable passages (including terrorist events

Dougal Macdonald cinema

committed while Mandela was in prison) that history will take a while to judge.

Idris Elba gives a sublime portrayal of Mandela – body language, vocal timbre, clarity of diction, combining in a verity persuading us that we are watching the real deal. As second wife Winnie, Naomie Harris is impressive. In a relatively small performance, David Butler as Robben Island commandant Col. Badenhorst, wealthy enough to retire but getting too much pleasure from unfettered, unquestioned power to inflict physical and emotional sadism, provides an over-arching allegory for the myriad anguishes that apartheid inflicted on South Africa’s black people.

Visually discomforting backlighting flags idyllic reminiscences from Nelson’s past, but none of the speed bumps in the film’s progress diminishes its essential power.

At all cinemas

Day of muted tension

“Labor Day” (M)

IS this film a melodramatic romance or a romantic melodrama? Whichever, its genesis is a novel by Joyce Maynard adapted by director Jason Reitman.

In a small New Hampshire town, divorcee Adele (Kate Winslet) mother of Henry (Gattlin Griffith) in sixth year at primary school, is a sad case, blighted by a gynaecological tragedy, reclusive, taking prescription meds to cope with Attention Deficit Disorder.

It’s Friday. A bearded man follows Henry from the supermarket to her car and asks for a lift.

Frank (Josh Brolin) is an escaped convict suffering from a gunshot wound when he jumped from a second-story hospital window following an appendectomy. He wants shelter until nightfall.

Frank’s not a bad guy. He had his reasons for going to prison. He’s full of human goodness. He gives the car a service. He cuts and stacks the firewood. He mops the floor. He teaches Adele and Henry how to make a peach pie.

By Saturday night, the adults have developed a plan to pack

up the house and drive across to Canada and the film has become an idyll driving us to wonder when the hammer will fall. Monday morning is when.

There’s nothing innately wrong with “Labor Day”, nor, alas, is there much that is inherently convincing. The tension is muted. There is no real conflict. Its target audience seems to be women whose main experience of the printed word is magazines full of fashion, gossip and household hints.

At all cinemas

“Last Vegas” (M)

FOUR buddies since childhood have grown apart until one of them contacts the other three to invite them to Las Vegas for a bachelor party.

That fundamental premise has been used for the “Hangover” series which never had much real grunt. With “Last Vegas”, four geriatric movie stars offer a modicum of freshness and variation on a worn-out theme. Septuagenarian guys at a bachelor party have different problems, aspirations and issues from men half their ages.

The actors are Michael Douglas (born 1944), Robert de Niro (1943), Morgan Freeman (1937) and Kevin Kline (1947). Douglas plays the prospective groom. The other main character is not a person but a community – Las Vegas, with conspicuous energy consumption, young women whose clothes scarcely restrain formidable busts, ugly architecture and worse decoration, excess in all branches of hedonism. Specially the gambling that powers its Gross Community Product!

Of the four friends, Douglas has gone furthest past his prime. Morgan Freeman delivers the best value. De Niro does his set-piece grumpy thing, Kline offers relative restraint.

At Dendy, Hoyts and Limelight

WIN AT SKYFIRE • SAT 15 MARCH

19th Canberra Area Theatre Awards Awards night promises

It will be a night of glitz and glamour at the ActewAGL CAT Awards on Saturday, February 22 at Llewellyn Hall.

“THEY said it would never last,” says founder Coralie Wood, but on Saturday, February 22, celebrated actor John Wood will host the 19th Canberra Area Theatre Awards at Llewellyn Hall.

With co-host, local music personality Ian McLean, the gala event will feature special appearances by singer Jon English, well-known Hollywood columnist Craig Bennett, film writer and director Mark Grentell (‘Back Yard Ashes”) together with local personalities and politicians.

Canberra actor/singer Damien Bermingham will also be a special guest artist.

Purchase a vehicle within the promotion period and go into the draw to WIN a NEW CAR! 10 finalists will be drawn and be given a keypad to BLEEP at 104.7 Skyfire 2014. BLEEP IT and you win a brand new car!* EXCLUSIVE TO NATIONAL CAPITAL MOTORS – includes • Special Alloy wheels • Carpet mats • Slim line weather shields • Head light covers • Bonnet protector • Commemorative badge.

ActewAGL is proud to put the energy behind the Canberra Area Theatre (CAT) Awards and help promote the creative talents of our local performers.

He won a CAT award in 1999 and has since gone into professional theatre appearing in musicals “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” and “King Kong” and is about to take a leading role in “Strictly Ballroom”.

There will be segments of many of the productions seen throughout Canberra and the region during last year, interspersed with the awards and ending with the ActewAGL Gold CAT Award.

Two new dance awards have been added this year, making 49 awards in total.

George Souris, NSW Arts Minister and local fellow parliamentarian John Barilaro will be there to cheer on the NSW regional section of the awards.

The second Mary Porter scholarship will be announced, which had many entries throughout Canberra and the region.

Coralie says the awards are like a local version of “The Oscars”.

“As a publicist working in professional theatre, I used to go to all the professional awards shows and I felt the amateurs weren’t getting enough kudos,” Coralie says.

“On our big night we’ll be showing all the people from the Canberra region who have won awards and gone on to make it both nationally and internationally.

“It’s a very big night and everyone is beautifully dressed.

“They said it would never last when Kate Peters and I started the little venture with six judges and six companies, and here we are in our 20th year,” says Coralie.

“Now it has evolved to boast 17 judges and more than 60 companies and schools, and has a board of seven and many volunteers.

“The CAT Awards are proud to be associated with ActewAGL and other sponsors, but we do need further monetary support to continue on for another 20 years.”

The reach of the awards spans from the NSW towns of Griffith to Dubbo and includes Orange, Molong, Wollongong, Shellharbour and Batemans Bay.

In 2005, the CAT Awards underwent a change in structure to reflect the size of the organisation and the importance of the awards to the local arts community, with the appointment of a board of directors and an executive steering committee, says Coralie.

“All board members and judges are volunteers and donate their time and skills and judges are selected on the basis of their availability, expertise, knowledge and commitment to the CAT Awards policy and philosophy, and act as an individual, not as a representative of any company with which they may be associated,” she says.

As the awards have grown over the years, Coralie has collected many stories to tell of memorable moments.

“Being a publicist, I’m always looking for the media opportunity and I remember sending Prime television out to interview someone who had just won an award – he was a vet in Cootamundra – and he told the news crew he couldn’t talk to them because he was in the middle of birthing a cow! This was a man who’d been dancing and singing in ‘Oklahoma’ the night before! Those things make me so thrilled,” she says.

Tickets are available at ticketek.com.au

Prices: $52.80 adults and $42.80 all concessions. More information at catawards.com.au

special feature

glamour, glitz and entertainment

CAT Awards patrons

TONI LAMOND, National Patron

TONI Lamond is part of one of Australia’s great showbusiness families. Her parents were Stella and Joe Lamond, her sister is Helen Reddy and her son is Tony Sheldon.

Her career began at the age of 10 singing on radio and touring with her parents’ variety shows.

In Australia she went on to star in “The Pajama Game”, “Oliver!”, “Gypsy” and “Anything Goes”. In the early ‘60s she was a regular on Graham Kennedy’s television show “In Melbourne Tonight” and ultimately became the first woman to host her own show.

She appeared in nightclubs and revues throughout the UK and on BBC TV and BBC Radio. In the US, where she lived from the mid-’70s to mid-’90s, her theatre credits include “Mame”, “Oliver!”, “Cabaret”, “Annie”, “Hello Dolly!” and “Nunsense”.

Returning permanently to live in Australia, she has appeared in “42nd Street”, “My Fair Lady”, “Beauty and the Beast” and Simon Gallaher’s “The Pirates of Penzance”.

Toni has won two Logies, a Variety Club Award, a Mo Award and has been presented with the key to the City of Melbourne.

JOHN WOOD

A GOLD Logie Award-winning Australian actor, best known for his role as Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon in the long-running TV police drama “Blue Heelers”, John became a patron of the CAT Awards at the 2011 Gala Evening.

Wood is well known for his TV appearances in “Rafferty’s Rules”, “Blue Heelers” and “Underbelly” to

name a few, as well as his stage appearances in “The Club”, “Born Yesterday”, “The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin” and the pro-am production of “Strange Bedfellows” – a musical mounted by Albury Wodonga Theatre Company, which is a member of the CAT Awards.

His most recent film is “Backyard Ashes” in which he plays a local publican with a passion for backyard cricket.

MARY PORTER MLA , Local Patron

MLA Mary Porter says she has long had an interest in all forms of art and in particular community based performing arts.

“Local theatre groups contribute so much more to our community than just their performances. They provide an opportunity for people from all types of backgrounds and all ages to work together to produce something really special,” she says.

Mary Porter with last year’s winner of her scholarship, Peter Ricardo.

“Our young people get the opportunity to learn from those who have so much to give and develop not only their talents, but their self esteem and sense of worth.

“In addition to producing great entertainment for those of us lucky enough to attend, we are also building community capacity and the CAT Awards are a very special part of that whole wonderful process.”

“CityNews” congratulates Coralie Wood OAM and her board for the importance and ongoing success of the CATs Awards

GARLIC

NERINE BULBS

CREPE MYRTLE

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• growers of drought tolerant and frost resistant plants

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Hang on to scorched foliage

WITH the distinct possibility of more extreme heat before autumn, it is important not to cut back heataffected foliage.

Cedric Bryant gardening

RECENTLY, I was reading of the suggestion of children growing hyacinth bulbs in a special hyacinth-growing vase (available from garden centres).

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This will only expose the soft leaves underneath and they will be scorched even quicker (equally, this applies to frost-damaged foliage in winter).

The first indication that plants are stressed is a browning on the tips of the leaves, as illustrated here. This indicates insufficient water at the root zone to draw moisture up into the plant’s leaves.

Repeating the advice of a few weeks ago; if the plants are not on a drip irrigation system most hand watering is a waste of water, time and energy.

With the ground so hard, water will simply run off. The only effective way of hand watering is to form a moat around the plant, preferably with soil. How large will depend on the size of the plant, but even a plant half to one metre tall will require a moat that holds at least 2-3 buckets of water.

I HAVE had several inquiries regarding the old building featured in the January 30 garden page with the wonderful display of wisteria and the lime-green of Euphorbia wulfenii. It was the old Rosebank Inn, at Yass, which was built by Thomas Laidlaw about 1840. Later it became a private residence and is one of the oldest buildings in the town.

THE thought of Mexico conjours up the country’s bright and colourful traditional costumes. I am sure they were influenced by the brilliant range of colours of their national flower, the Dahlia, declared in 1963.

The tubers were grown by the Aztecs as a food source. This practice died out after the Spanish Conquest, although not so the flowers. They were introduced into Europe and Britain via the Spanish colonisers and took the flower world by storm.

In Canberra we have Australia’s champion dahlia growers and there is a chance to see possibly the largest display of dahlias in the country at the Canberra Horticultural Society’s Autumn Flower Show, at the Wesley Church Centre, National Circuit Forrest, on the weekend of March 1-2. This year it encompasses the Australian Open Dahlia Championships.

The show opens on the Saturday, after judging, at noon and 11.30am to 3.45pm on the Sunday. Entry is free and the plant stall is always a feature.

While I am all for encouraging children to garden, it is important to always wear gloves when handling hyacinth bulbs, as the husk can cause a nasty skin rash.

WITH the assistance of Keith Colls, of the Canberra Organic Garden Growers Society, I have completely updated my vegetable guide, including many veggies not listed before. Go to cedricbryant.com and, at the home page, click on Cedfacts and scroll down.

Jottings...

• As the fruit on many citrus varieties such as Eureka are maturing now, apply an extra feed of Neutrog Seamungus, a combination of chook poo and seaweed. Do not allow to dry out, especially if container grown.

• If you grow your own annuals from seed, now is sowing time.

• Complete dead-heading spent flowers on rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias.

• Don’t let roses dry out and apply a foliar feed in the cool of the day to encourage an autumn flower display.

• It’s not too late to lift spring bulbs that may be in the wrong place for replanting next month.

• Know a friend or new neighbour recently moved to Canberra or Queanbeyan? Give them a copy of the Canberra Horticultural Society’s “The Canberra Gardener”, available from newsagents and bookshops.

Joanne Madeline Moore

your week in the stars / February 17-23, 2014

ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)

Rams can be selfish but it’s not all about you this week! With Mars marching through your ‘helping others’ zone, concentrate on the needs of those around you. When it comes to a problematic partnership, the more proactive you are about finding a solution, the better. It’s also a wonderful week to step out of the spotlight and get involved with projects from behind-the-scenes.

TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20)

Slow and steady wins the race this week, especially when it comes to work and relationships. Loved ones and colleagues won’t take kindly to criticism, no matter how ‘constructive’ it is. So keep your opinions to yourself, and don’t offer advice when it’s not wanted! Single Bulls – look for lasting love with someone who is stable, dependable and emotionally mature.

GEMINI (May 21 – June 21)

You’re in the mood for love and lust, as Venus and Pluto heat up your sensuality zone. If you are attached, it’s time to spice up the relationship with a sexy SMS or an erotic email. Single Twins – Cupid has his arrows pointed in your direction but, with your ruler Mercury reversing (until March 1), expect a few detours and communication glitches before true love comes calling.

CANCER (June 22 – July 22)

It’s all about love this week. If you are attached, do something wildly romantic with your spouse. Still single? Make a wish list of all the attributes you prefer in a partner; burn the list, and send your wishes into the universe. Be inspired by birthday great Anais Nin “Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back; a new life, a new friend, a new love.”

LEO (July 23 – Aug 22)

Avoid jumping to conclusions this week Cats! What others say won’t necessarily be what they mean so don’t take things too literally. And don’t blur the lines between fact and fiction – especially when it comes to matters of the heart. If you are having serious problems with your partner, don’t give up too quickly. Maybe the relationship can be resuscitated and renewed?

VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22)

Choose your companions wisely. True friends will bring love and lucky opportunities into your life, whereas fair-weather friends will lead you up the primrose path to trouble. Mid-week’s not an opportune time for important meetings, delicate negotiations or business transactions, as you’re inclined to communicate poorly and focus on the negatives. Be patient and wait.

LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23)

With Venus (your ruling planet) visiting your domestic zone, home is definitely where the heart is this week Libra. So, whether you are building, renovating, redecorating, cleaning, gardening, entertaining or just preoccupied with a handful of kids, you’ll be happy to hunker down at home. “He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.” (Goethe)

SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21)

Sexy? Sultry? Seductive? You’re a Scorpio, so tick all of the above. But this week, add ‘secretive’ to the list. You’re keen to do your own thing, without the interference of others. You’re more sociable on Friday, when positive Moon/ Pluto aspects boost your ability to win friends and influence people. Some brave Scorps feel compelled to go back and re-visit an old romance.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

The gods are (temporarily) smiling on your finances, as lucky Venus visits your money zone, So it’s a great time to look for work, enter a competition, sign up a new client or finalise a big sale. The stars encourage you to come up with creative new ways to make money. Increasing your cash flow and decreasing your spending are the keys to financial success for smart Sagittarians.

CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19)

With Mercury reversing through your cash zone (and squaring Saturn) it’s not a good time to make major financial decisions, purchases or investments. Careful Capricorns are usually financially frugal but impulse buys are a danger this week (as are unrealistic expectations). So make sure your goals are grounded in reality – and leave your credit card at home!

AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

Saturn urges you to distinguish between the serious and the superfluous – and don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked from what’s really important (especially at work). With Mercury reversing through your sign (until March 1) remember your communication antennae is slightly scrambled so speak clearly and carefully, and double-check all information you receive.

PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20)

Welcome to Planet Pisces! With the Sun moving into your sign, there are no excuses for not putting your dreams into action. Don’t blame others for delays … the only person stopping you from achieving your heart’s desire is you. Be inspired by Michael Jordan (born on February 17) “Some people want it to happen, some people wish it could happen, others make it happen.” Daily astrology updates at www.twitter.com/JoMadelineMoore

Joanne Madeline Moore 2014

General knowledge crossword No. 441

Michaela Barlow Banerji

ADLS; BA (Communications); B ED; LLB, GDLP; FDRP

Psychoanalyst

condition in which the personal coefficient standing behind the ego and its relation with self and world is suddenly absent. particular functions of ego-consciousness operate as before: associating, remembering, perceiving, feeling and thinking unimpaired. But one’s conviction of as a person and the sense of reality

What is psychoanalysis?

Across

1 Name the renowned German composer (1833-97), Johannes ...?

8 Name the white marble mausoleum built at Agra India (3,5)

9 Which Arnhem Land national park is owned by the Aborigines?

10 Name a US city in N W Texas

11 What is a hot spring which intermittently sends up jets of water and steam?

12 What do we call a densely populated area of considerable size?

13 When one remains somewhere, one does what?

16 Which part of the tyre bears on the road?

19 What is a composition in verse?

21 Name the husband of Queen Victoria, known as the Prince Consort

22 Which persons serve in the army for pay?

23 Which Dutch navigator discovered Tasmania and New Zealand, Abel ...?

24 What is the art and training of a horse in obedience, deportment and responses?

25 Which term designates the fastest shearer of a group?

hard No. 120

Down

2 Which substance, on account of the reactions it causes, is used in chemical analysis?

3 Which type of evidence is generally not admissible as testimony?

4 What, until 1933, was the former name of Alice Springs?

5 What is a mark made by pressure?

6 Name the cup for the wine of the eucharist or mass

7 To be overwhelmed with an abundance of something is to be what?

13 Which term describes a grant or contribution of money?

14 What is another term for an artist’s studio?

15 That which is the most nimble or brisk is said to be the what?

17 Name the US bass singer, actor, and leader in the civil rights movement, Paul ...?

18 Which term describes a large allotment of rural land?

20 What do we call a person eminently skilled in something?

“What IS psychoanalysis, exactly” is a common and fair enough question, usually followed by the question “And how can it help me?”

And naturally, as with all complex things in society, the responses can vary depending upon the speaker or the context, or the problem at hand.

Psychoanalysis is a particular kind of psychotherapy that depends for its success on words.

Thomas Szasz MD, has described psychoanalysis as a “language art” and “language theory and practice where there can be neither mute patients nor deaf analysts”.

“Psychoanalysis is as immediate to word and syntax as mining is to the earth”, he says.

An apt metaphor—for the analytical session provides a safe environment for the ‘mining’ or ‘discovering’ of unconscious material—those thoughts and ideas and words that over time we have repressed believing them to be inappropriate, unacceptable or sources of danger.

Overtime, those unconscious thoughts and words may act against our proper individuation as persons with agency, leading to the most difficult of conditions to understand and treat—depression.

Depression can be described as a ‘wilderness’ experience, where the person feels an absence of agency in life.

Psychoanalysis can assist a person to understand such a loss of agency, and can assist in recovery in a most fundamental and lasting way.

Michaela Barlow Banerji is the founding director of the Australian Institute of Psychoanalysis and a psychoanalyst in the Freud, Jung and Melanie Klein “Objects Relations” school of psychoanalysis.

If you would like to speak to Ms Banerji, you may call her on 02 6253 2584 or email psychoanalyst@iinet.net.au

Discover a huge range of living options, from terrace homes, to land ready to build on now, to new land off the plan.

You’ll live a beautiful life and love it at Springbank Rise, the only Lend Lease community in Canberra. Every day you’ll enjoy the beautiful places, people and homes that make up this thriving and growing community. With a huge range of living options at Springbank Rise, there is something for everyone - no wonder over 1000 residents call this exciting community home.

Choose from a low maintenance lifestyle, perfect for first home buyers or retirees, with The Norfolk Terraces from just $328,500*. Or there’s a great range of land that is ready to build on now, or off the plan, to give you time to find or design the right home that suits you. There is also a range of home and land packages to make it even easier. So visit Springbank Rise today to find your new dream home.

Double storey terraces with individual titles have been popular throughout Canberra, and The Norfolk Terraces will be no exception. Scheduled for completion in 2014, these affordable yet elegant homes are positioned in a slightly elevated location in Arcadia Village at Springbank Rise, with views of Gungahlin’s surrounding hill tops.

Split contract - first home buyers save on Stamp duty.

1 bedroom and study both with BIR’s Stone Bench Tops - Yes Stone!

Full tiling and carpets throughout Choice of two colour samples

Full landscaping to front & rear

• Playgrounds and picnic areas

• Future Village Centre with local convenience and specialty stores

• Future childcare and medical centre and a large choice of schools nearby

• Easy access to Gungahlin (4km), Belconnen (11km) and Canberra (18km)

• Four main parks and the largest dedicated dog park in North Canberra

• Beautiful lookouts to Canberra City and the Brindabellas