Slappin' time

Rivers ... Coraki

where rivers meet ...

Alstonville

The Bookself

Bess Lomax Hawes: 1921 - 2009

As the youngest child of the song collector John A. Lomax, and a sister of the folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, Bess Hawes was part of the premier family of American folk scholarship. She assisted her father in his research and had a distinguished career of her own, teaching anthropology and directing the folk arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts. In the 1940s she performed alongside Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie in the Almanac Singers.

Bess Hawes and The Almanacs

After working on the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife in 1975 and 1976, she joined the National Endowment for the Arts, where she established the National Heritage Fellowships and a state folklorist program. She retired in 1992 and a year later was awarded the National Medal of the Arts. In 2000 the endowment established the Bess Lomax Hawes Award, which recognizes scholars and arts advocates.

Katoomba: Greek cafes history

Jack Patty in Aroney's 1988

A newly reprinted book reveals the story of early Greek migrants in Australia, writes Anna Patty.

The dockets at Aroney's Cafe in Katoomba trumpeted its 'famous fish dinners' and 'famous toasted sandwiches'. But it was the hot chocolates, created by my father, that won the cafe its true acclaim.

Customers travelled from as far as Canberra and Sydney, and even overseas, for a hot chocolate at Aroney's, which was named after its original owner, Peter Aroney. The cafe stayed open until late. The customers decided when it was time to leave.

My father treated every customer - whether they were men down on their luck from the nearby Eldon hostel or the prime minister, Ben Chifley, on his way home to Bathurst - with the same deference.

Aroney's stood at the top of the main street of Katoomba, across the road from the Paragon Cafe and Carrington Hotel, and near Theo Poulos Real Estate, which were also run … by Greeks. The Cordatos, Archondoulis, Zakis, Lekkas, Darias, Bistaros, Stavros, Prineas, Georges, Vrachnos and Fotias families have also run businesses in Katoomba in the past 40 years years.

A book distributed to Greek migrants in 1916, 'Life in Australia', has just been reprinted and translated into English by the Kytherian World Heritage Fund. The book, being launched at the University of Sydney today, reveals the struggles and successes of Australia's early Greek migrants.

"Greek establishments stand in the most important and most central locations in almost all of the cities in Australia," the book says.

"The lengthy nomenclature of their owners mean that such establishments are easily recognisable. Some Greeks, however, have shortened their names, as the Australians find it hard to pronounce such long, difficult names."

The Hunt for Moby Dick

http://lonestarproductions.co.uk/

Taking Moby-Dick as his starting point, writer Philip Hoare goes in search of the whale and the men who hunted it, from North Yorkshire to New England and the Azores. In the process, he seeks the truth behind our fascination with the whale - and perhaps discover the reality behind the world's largest and yet most mysterious animals

See also Philip Hoare’s book LEVIATHAN OR, THE WHALE winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009

Liam Clancy: 1935 – 2009

Legendary folk singer Liam Clancy has died aged 74.

The actor, singer and musician was the last surviving member of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, who were credited with bringing Irish traditional music to a world audience in the 1960s.

Born in Carrick on Suir, Liam Clancy was the youngest of 11 children.

As a young man he dreamed of life on the stage, but there was music in his blood too.

In his late teens he met and travelled Ireland with US song collector Diane Hamilton Guggenheim and eventually travelled to the US with her.

Liam Clancy emigrated to America in the 1950s to join his brothers Tom and Paddy who were forging out an acting career in New York's theatre scene.

Along with Armagh-born Tommy Makem, the four began putting on concerts in the bohemian hothouse of Greenwich Village - initially to raise rent money for a small theatre.

'We had no intention at that stage of pursuing a singing career,' Clancy said later, 'but the singing became more and more part of our lives'.

Tanaka film goes to Turkey

Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics has been selected for the Istanbul 12th International 1001 Documentary Film Festival


Believing he was sacked unjustly from his job as an engineer in a big Japanese corporation, Tanaka Tetsuro has protested outside the company gate every morning for twenty-five years. Is he an obsessive? What compels him? After meeting him on the internet the filmmakers travel to Japan in time for the 25th anniversary of his protest. They discover that in a world that places a premium on conformity, Tanaka-san has found a way to become himself.

Tanaka film: Best-in-Festival prize

"Tanaka-san will not do callisthenics" has won the CLiFF/Machinists Union Best-in-Festival prize, as voted on by the Toronto audience of CLiFF (Canadian Labour International Film Festival)