Miles Franklin Goes ALL Female

In a world that seems to scream “More Womaen in High Places Please!” Australia’s penultimate writers award – the Miles Franklin – has an all-female shortlist its 2013 Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize. First timer – novelists that is –  Romy Ash, Annah Faulkner and Drusilla Modjeska are among the five nominees competing for the $60,000 prize.

Author of Questions of Travel, Michelle de Kretser, and Carrie Tiffany, who penned Mateship with Birds, complete the shortlist. Romy Ash says she is excited to be a part of the female dominated list. She says her book Floundering is a simple story about a mother who effectively kidnaps her two sons from their grandmother’s house :: Read the full article »»»»

Legendary Divinyls Front-woman Chrissy Amphlett Dies

One of Australia’s most revered rock legends, Chrissy Amphlett, best known as the singer of the Divinyls, has died in New York aged 53. The charismatic front-woman was surrounded by family and friends at her home when she died on Monday morning.

Her husband of 14 years, former Divinyls drummer Charley Drayton, says Amphlett died of breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. In a statement released by ARIA, he added she had fought the diseases with “exceptional bravery and dignity”

Christine Joy Amphlett was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1959.

She gained fans – including this fan – for her energetic performances, complete with a signature outfit of a school uniform and fishnet stockings. Amphlett revealed her fight against multiple sclerosis in 2007 and in 2010 announced she had breast cancer :: Read the full article »»»»

Leonard Lauder’s Billion Dollar Gift

Avid art collector Leonard Lauder has given New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art an astonishing, no-strings-attached collection of Cubist art worth an estimated $US1 billion. The enormous collection, which Mr Lauder assembled over four decades, includes 78 works by Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Leger, and “will transform the museum,” a museum statement released said.

The Met has long suffered a hole in its early 20th century art collection, will be transformed by the completeness and quality of the sudden addition. The museum will also establish a new research centre for modern art, supported by a $22 million endowment created by donors including Mr Lauder, the gallery announced. The Lauder Collection will be unveiled late in 2014, the museum said :: Read the full article »»»»

New iPad App from Australia’s National Library Brings Sheet Music to the Forte

Tens of thousands of pages of historic, nostalgic sheet music from the National Library of Australia in Canberra are available for the first time on mobile devices.

The library has launched a new iPad application called Forte, which can access more than 13,000 individual musical items, dating from the early 1800s through to the 1950s.

Downloading the digitised musical scores is popular among musicians and historians, but also art lovers wanting to study the elaborate illustrated covers. The app was written by Canberra techy Jake MacMullin using an open data set from the Government’s data website.

Some of the online favourites include the Advance Australia Fair sheet music of the 1900s and the iconic Aeroplane Jelly song. The music collection contains over 300,000 musical scores and the largest collection of music research resources in Australia. :: Read the full article »»»»

MONA Removing Nolan’s Snake

A Sidney Nolan artwork which sat in storage for 40 years until it was unveiled at Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art in 2011 is being taken down. The spectacular mural is comprised of 1,620 individual paintings, which when hung as a polyptych creates a snake winding subtly across the paper mural.

MONA is the brainchild of eccentric millionaire gambler David Walsh, his acquisition of Snake was the catalyst for the museum.

Nolan’s serpent mural, Snake, was hung on a purpose-built 40 metre wall, it’s been a centre-piece of the museum which opened two years ago. Snake was described as a major structural component of the museum and one of the Nolan’s best, most dramatic works by Mr Walsh.

Snake will be replaced by an installation from the Japanese digital artist Rioji Ikeda in June 2013. If you haven’t had a chance to view Nolan’s spectacular work, hurry! More info: www.mona.net.au