All bound for Mumu land

There is no rational explanation for this photo.

We all arrived safely in Mumu land with our friend Lisa Dempster and are having lots of fun. She's in town for the *award winning* Format Festival's academy of words and the zine fair, where we acquired our nice green Mumu.


An amazing find in the bag of free stuff at Format.

Lisa has been staying with us and is now our second ever guest blogger. Take it away Lisa!

Ten things I love about Adelaide

1. Format Festival - the reason I came to Adelaide in the first place and one of the reasons I keep returning.
2. Amazing and plentiful vegan food - my favourite spot is Bliss Cafe.
3. Fantastic people, in particular the clever, creative and welcoming people who are involved with Format. I don't want to generalise about Adelaideans but my experience of people who live here is that they are down to earth, laid back and very friendly.
4. Wonderful wide streets and lots of green space near the centre of town, plus the fact that it doesn't have that big city feel.
5. Central Markets - so much wonderful fresh produce and so cheap! But my favourite stall is dough... their fruit and walnuts rolls are divine.
6. It doesn't feel like a 'car city' the way Melbourne does. Lots of people seem to ride bikes and it's highly accessible for two-wheeled transport.
7. Broad availability and cheapness of all kinds of Coopers beer! Also love the fantastic local wine.
8. Heaps of free wifi spots - fantastic!
9. Free transport in the city.
   
10. Staying at Cassie and John's house! Not sure if Larshy and Nissa love having me but I think the four of them are tops.

"#11 - the mumu"

Yes, I have a lot of love for this city.

The #adelaide tag on my blog will bring up a lot of love for this small city, including my escapades at Format and my experiences of eating here.

Thanks to Cassie and John for having me, in their home and on their blog!

22. Tiny Towns pieces and zine and climate change zine

Things are gearing up for the start of February for the 2010 Adelaide Fringe! Yay! This is an exciting and busy time of year for us. Thing number 22, for me, is all about doing the work and starting to promote the three events. Check out our Fringe Guide blurbs!

To start with Ferris Wheels & Fairyfloss.
From a cowboy's fairyfloss-induced dream, from carnies to acrobats, to ferris wheel tattoos, John Willanski and Cassie Flanagan combine black and white drawings, colour-saturated photography and digital art to enter the hyper-real world of the traveling showground.

Princess Fairyfloss

Secondly Urban Jungle.
The city can be a stark unwelcoming place but the jungle is coming back to play. Street artist John Willanski invites you to come play too.

Some dresses waiting to be part of the Urban Jungle show.

and Finally Tiny Towns.
Exploring a new future of technology, energy and community Tiny Towns holds a mirror up to the way we live now and the way we will need to change.

Desert winds, a part of the Mini Art exhibition related to Tiny Towns.

I'm hoping that my work will entertain and enlighten. This year I'm also hoping to get to grips with timelines and trying to go that extra mile to turn something good into something very good. In the past I've over-committed and found that once the hatchet fell I'd fulfilled the briefs but I felt I could have done a bit better. By focusing on three smaller exhibitions I hope to have a bit more control and a bit less stress.

In other related news I'm going to be starting a short stint at the Science Exchange where I'll be learning about curating and running a space, managing a bump in and out and a marketing and media campaign as well as a whole bunch of other stuff.

There's a also session about Science Blogging at the Science Exchange that I'm really looking forward to next Monday.

As for the second part of thing number 22, the Climate Change Zine is Cass' and here she is!

The as yet untitled Climate Change Zine will be the third in an annual series of enviro-poetry zines presented by "Triple Bottom Line" - originally a trio but now a duo of environmentalist poets. (Why am I talking about myself in the third person?) When the three enviro-poets in question started the zines, we were all working as campaigners with different Adelaide environmental NGOs, but as of zine number two, there didn't seem to be room for both sorts of work simultaneously in our lives.

Jules remains with the Conservation Council of SA, and not with the zine, and Rachael and I are both studying higher degrees in creative writing at Adelaide uni, doing the zine, and no longer working at jobs in the movement.

I've been looking for other ways to stay involved though. Sustainable Communities is one, and this latest edition of the zine is another. It's going to be about the emotions involved in coming to terms with climate change and peak oil.

Rach and I also both take photos that have been part of the zines to date.

We were planning to launch it at this year's Format Zine Fair as part of the Fringe in March, but we have ambitious plans for length and content that make it seem more sensible to hold off until mid year. So we're now planning to release the climate change zine at a joint photo show, as part of SALA month in August.


Photo show meets zine and a powerful blend ensues!

Stay tuned, and please do come out to our fringe shows meanwhile!

Which reminds me, our friend Anna from next door has taken a challenge to go to as many fringe shows that her friends are in this year as she can! I'm planning to tag along to some as a way to narrow down the otherwise overwhelming options.