Joshua Levi Galleries, located in Woolloongabba, is an art space revamped from an old antique shop. Josh, an artist himself, seeks out emerging artists that he can explode into public awareness by combining a funky “dero-chic” gallery space with live music and attention-grabbing stunts.
Brisbane Confidential 13 – Joshua Levi Galleries from Brisbane Confidential on Vimeo.
Look for more weekly episodes about the best of Brisbane at brisbaneconfidential.com!
The one thing I love even more than 50s SF stories are advertisements from the 50s for Space Age promises. I bought a few copies of "Astounding Science Fiction" at a secondhand book store in Paddington (that’s a suburb of Brisbane) today. The owner told me that she picked them up in a deceased estate. They are all from the 50s and in near perfect condition.
I love this back cover of the November 1954 edition which promises "A Bona Fide Opportunity to have your name "On File" with the first company embarking on commercial flights to the moon!"
Working in advertising these days, I’m often trying to think up innovative prizes to offer people for taking part in competitions but I’d never thought about guaranteeing a trip to the moon. These guys were WAY ahead of their time. I wonder if the Science Fiction Book Club in NY still have those names on file? Maybe they will pass them onto Virgin Galactic? Assuming, of course, that the people who added their names to the list in 1954 still want to travel to the moon….
The inside cover offers readers a copy of the book "Across The Space Frontier" written by "seven of the greatest living space experts", including former Nazi and then director of NASA Dr Werner von Braun.
One of the other copies of ASF I picked up (December 1950) had this advertisement on the inside front cover which reads:
"Dianetics – the first true science of the mind. Dianetics started in Astounding Science Fiction. It is not the first, nor will it be the last time, Astounding Science Fiction precedes science generally."
Assuming the nice people at Macdoctors fix my Macbook Pro tomorrow, here’s a list of links that @fddlgrl and I will be talking about / playing / performing on tomorrow night’s gdayworld live show. Tune in here about 8pm Brisbane time.
Chrissy and I did a live show last night, where we talked some politics, some religion, and then played a violin / viola duet.
http://www.ustream.tv/flash/video/2085327
We’re going to get back to doing a live show every Tuesday night, 8pm Brisbane time. Tune in here.
Brisbane Confidential 07 – The Da Vinci Machines Exhibition
I don’t I’ve plugged the Brisbane Confidential show much in this blog, but I thought this episode might interest y’all, because it’s about Da Vinci – and who doesn’t love Da Vinci?
New episodes of Brisbane Confidential are available each Thursday on ourbrisbane.com, BrisbaneConfidential.com and through iTunes.
Join our Facebook Group and tell us which cafes, restaurants, shops, bars, events, and locations in Brisbane we should cover on Brisbane Confidential!
Brisbane Confidential is a production of ourbrisbane.com and The Podcast Network.
Brisbane bus drivers are given DNA kits to track down expectorators?
Seriously, what is the point of this? Okay so let’s assume your typical bus driver knows how to use a DNA kit. I assume they are just collecting a sample of spit to send off to a lab for PCR-based testing and not doing it at home in their own labs. But then what? To the best of my knowledge (?!) my DNA isn’t on file with any of the authorities. So what good will it do them? If I *do* get caught in the future for a crime, and I’m DNA tested at the time, they will be able to say "hah! you also owe us $50 for spitting on a bus!"???
Or is this a pre-cursor of a day in the near future when we’ll be subjected to a swab every time we want to ride on public transport in Brisbane?
What’s next? Taxi drivers scraping semen stains off of the back seat and turning up on my doorstep? Imagine if Travis Bickle had one of those?