What’s in a name? Very little these days it must be said, as everybody stands out from the crowd, forming a fairly big crowd themselves. The amusingly titled Phenomenal Handclap Band release their second album and immediately it is 1984 again. Not in an Orwellian sense, in an OMD, Depeche Mode Human League sense. Deliberately dated synths abound, along with heavily treated vocals, the ice cool but trying to be sexy kind. What does hang things together for the Handclappers is the use of real drums, bass and guitar over this mix, adding an organic element that propels the songs along out of the occasional disco mire. Throw in a little art rock, such as opens Winter Falls, and there is enough, just, to keep this album from disappearing up its own influences (there is a fine line between tongue in cheek and tongue elsewhere). The Unknown Father James Park stands out on the back of a strong melody and chorus, and the most personal of performances from the dual female vocal leads. New, neu, nu-romantics?

** 1/2

The state government will discuss whether to construct a tunnel through Surry Hills or to install surface rail between Central station and Anzac Parade as part of the city’s light rail extension.

The tunnel is purported to reduce the journey by seven to eight minutes between these two points, compared to surface rail and would cut down travel times for commuters to UNSW and the eastern suburbs.

Convenor of EcoTransit Sydney, Gavin Gatenby said a surface route along Oxford St would be significantly cheaper, but would not be efficient for students travelling to UNSW.

The not-for-profit advocacy group is dedicated to promoting a less car-reliant urban landscape.

“It makes a lot of sense to have the tunnel go under Surry Hills. I think it should have at least one underground stop at Surry Hills, but this could be fitted retrospectively,” he said.

“The critical problem at the moment with establishing light rail are the buses in the CBD. We must get big chunks of the buses out of the CBD.”

The light rail extension and the Surry Hills tunnel are part of the same NSW transport project but would service two groups of transit users, daily commuters to Randwick and visitors to the city’s retail attractions.

“When the light rail goes out to the eastern suburbs, the route along Oxford St should serve the businesses along Oxford St,” Mr Gatenby said.

The state transport department has dedicated $103 million to light rail this year and the tunnel is projected to cost $100 million.

“$100 million is the first realistic cost for tunneling that I have seen in many years, the treasury has wildly exaggerated the cost of tunneling to discourage development previously,” he said.

Last December, NSW Transport announced it would host a series of roundtable discussions to involve key stakeholders in the light rail development plans and the broader masterplan.

A discussion paper incorporating community input issaid to be released this month. The paper will precede the department’s official NSW Long Term Transport Master Plan which is scheduled for mid 2012.

An executive member of the 2010 Business Partnership, Sue Ritchie said the tunnel would benefit the neighbourhood since it would remove traffic from the surface.

“It will liberate the streets and other village areas,” she said.

“The more underground traffic to accommodate through traffic, the better.”

“Surry Hills is an interesting enough place and will attract people no matter what.”

She said there is a critical need to relieve surface congestion and to facilitate movement from one side of the city to the other.

A free exhibition in Newtown will display a
broad collection of photographs united under
the banner of fighting poverty for a quarter
century.

The event is jointly hosted by CARE
Australia and the City Of Sydney at
Newtown Library from February 6 and will
feature 25 selected images.

The startling photos depict various
people and places during the humanitarian
organisation’s 25 years of operation.

Chief executive of CARE Australia, Dr
Julia Newton-Howes, said: “The exhibition
displays a collection of beautiful photos of
people from around the world and shows
their inspiring determination to create longterm,
positive change in their lives.”

“People in developing countries lack
access to the basics in life such as enough
food, clean water and education.

In Australia it’s hard for us to imagine life without
the basics when we are surrounded by
opportunity and sometimes
even excess,” she said.

The exhibition features
American-born photographer
Josh Estey, who has worked
with CARE for over a decade,
on projects in Cambodia,
Timor-Leste, Vietnam,
Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Papua
New Guinea and Jordan.

“Choosing only 25 photographers from a
catalogue of thousands was very difficult, but the
result is a truly moving exhibition that CARE
hopes will remind visitors of the challenges
facing people, and what is possible with
the generous support of our donors,”
Ms Newton-Howes said.

The photos snapped from Papua New
Guinea to Afghanistan show the delivery
of healthcare, education, agriculture and
income-earning skills programs.

CARE’s response to emergencies such as the East
Africa appeal will also be included.

Georgie Sacks of CARE Australia said:
“Personal stories and professional
photographs of the people CARE works with
around the world are one of the primary
ways CARE communicates our work to the
Australian public.”

“We are very fortunate to have an extensive
collection of professional photos of our projects
and beneficiaries, and we wanted to share them
with our supporters and the general public in
celebration of our 25th anniversary.”

A Sydney duo is revamping a favourite Leichhardt haunt with a new lick of paint and some fresh ideas.

Norton’s on Norton will now be managed by brother-and-sister team, Phil and Vicki Webster, who are known for their work with Richard’s On The Park, at Canley Vale. The duo has commenced an over haul of the pub, including the establishment of a new restaurant in the bar, HUX @ Nortons.

Mr Webster said the development of the restaurant is important as the days are over when a pub could get away with only serving alcohol.

“Food will be the back bone of the change,” he said. “Food is the mainstay of pubs nowadays.” The head chef, Jay Huxley, is a former contestant on MasterChef who reached the later rounds.

He said they will be avoiding Italian food, for which Norton St is renowned. “We’re not going to be Italian. To take those guys head on would be a silly move.”

Mr Huxley said the menu will include a diversity of foods from tapas to seafood, with a focus on what is in season. Changes will also be made to the bar’s events, which will now include a monthly drag show and, potentially, a monthly cooking lesson with Huxley. Cocktails will feature on the menu and they may be installing ping pong tables.

These changes are all part of developing a clientele beyond the usual tradespeople Norton’s on Norton is known for.

A bartender at another pub on Norton St, Chris Curcuruto, described Norton’s on Norton as “a real pub-pub”.

“You get those tradies, the fluoro wearers,” he said. “Maybe because of that pub pub feel.”

Mr Webster said he wants it to become a more family friendly place where you can come grab a drink with your girlfriend and not worry about getting in trouble.

The Websters said there would be a degree of experimentation to see what works for a pub that has recently been struggling. The couple said that a combination of health issues for the previous managers, the general economic slowdown and the problem of parking have all had an effect.

“You go out for a nice meal, it costs you an extra$100 for the parking ticket,” said Mr Webster.

The new restaurant will host its soft-opening on February 1, with a limited menu.

The venue officially opens on February 24 and has invited special guests including MasterChef contestants.

Four Sydney designers are injecting some creative energy into one of Oxford Street’s long-vacant retail spaces.

He Made She Made is an art and design collective formed by friends and designers Patrick Chambers, Laura Kepreotis, Maaike Pullar and Bent Patterson.

It is one of 15 creative start-ups to be granted a partially subsidised, short-term lease on City-owned studios as a part of a City of Sydney strategy to revitalise lower-Oxford St.

Mr Chambers said: “It’s beneficial to both parties because the City wants to boost its creative profile, especially in somewhere like Oxford St where it’s generally [populated by] clubs and retail food chains, so it’s great that they’re helping the design community to break that barrier.”

The new gallery, workshop and retail space will promote and exhibit the prototypes and projects of established, emerging and under-represented conceptual furniture designers and artists in the notoriously difficult Sydney market.

“We’re not your typical gallery – we’re here to be accessible. If someone’s interested in the process, then we want them to be involved in it. The whole process has to be really honest,” Mr Patterson said.

These types of enterprises are often difficult to establish because of an increasingly expensive rental market, and while most designers rely heavily on their web-presence for exposure it must be actively sought to be effective.

“Having a group of designers and artists that can relate to each other and that can talk amongst themselves within the design community, and also to have a shop-front that thousands of people walk past every day, is a huge opportunity,” Mr Patterson said.

Anastasia Phillips of Rouse Phillips – a textile design duo and Oxford St ‘creative space’ success story – agrees that the City’s initiative has simplified the transition to a retail space.

“[It] gives artists a platform to develop their work in an environment that is supportive,” she said.

He Made She Made has already had a huge response from designers and creative professionals keen to showcase their work to the general public, with new exhibitions planned for every four to six weeks.

Many designers produce work that is not necessarily commercially viable in mainstream furniture stores and galleries, but He Made She Made provides a platform for experimenting with those pieces in a different market, Ms Kepreotis said.

The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore MP, said: “Making these spaces available, at lower rents and specifically for artists and creative enterprises, is about bringing a bohemian feel back to the strip.”

He Made She Made is online at www.hemadeshemade.com.

By Kristen Amiet

The departure of New Theatre’s
manager has thrown the
Newtown venue into unsteady
times with no appointed
replacement and undetermined
financial backing.

The theatre’s manager, Luke
Rogers has spent five years at
the iconic hub and is leaving to
study Directing at the National
Institute of Dramatic Art
(NIDA).

Mr Rogers’ legacy includes a
successful marketing strategy
aimed at promoting awareness
of New Theatre in the wider
community.

He also embarked
in an ambitious rebranding
initiative that launched only
days before he left.

Artistic Director of New
Theatre Louise Fisher said
the rebranding initiative was
one of Mr Rogers’ biggest
achievements. “It’s been 40
years in the making,” she said.

Mr Rogers is also proud of a
program he started called The
Spare Room, aimed at financing
smaller theatre companies
through a co-production scheme.

The Spare Room was a welcome
addition to the independent
theatre scene, and Mr Rogers
was disappointed to hear that
Arts NSW had not awarded
funding for the 2012 season.

“Initially, this meant the
program could not exist,” he
said.

“However, New Theatre
has committed to a second
season, even without the
security of funding.”

The loss of funding for The
Spare Room project is not the
only difficulty New Theatre
will face this year.

Mr Rogers’ departure has left some big
shoes to fill, and the woman
set to fill them announced last
week that she was no longer
able to take up the role.

Actor and designer Barry
French will step in temporarily.

He brings a creative
background and a sense of
business acumen to the role.

“Like Luke, Barry understands
the creative needs of the
Theatre,” Ms Fischer said.

While New Theatre searches
for a new manager, theatregoers
can remain confident
the positive changes put in
place over the last five years
will continue.

“Luke put in place an enormous legacy,” Ms
Fischer said. “We still have all
the strategic partnerships that
Luke set up and we are still
honouring and nurturing that.”

In the meantime, Mr Rogers
hopes his time at New Theatre
will continue to bring in ticket
sales. “I hope audiences get
behind all the work [that has
been] done,” he said.

By Rebecca Cleaver

A photographic exhibition depicting the extremes of human emotion will take centre stage at a Leichhardt gallery this month.

Photographer and activist documenter, Barbara McGrady, will fill the rooms of the Boomali Aboriginal Arts Cooperative at Leichhardt with her Protest and Performance exhibition until February 22.

The exhibition curator and fellow photographer Tina McCarthy said the collection’s two themes are fuelled by human emotion. Ms McGrady’s Protest photos witness activists at rallies.

“In Protest where she is covering so many rallies, it’s all about the emotion of the people in the shot who are trying to say something. And in the Performance, she captures the emotion of the artists in the moment.”

As activists themselves, Ms McGrady and Ms McCarthy met at an anti-intervention rally three years ago. Ms McGrady said that while she stands back to capture protests like Occupy Sydney, she cannot help but get involved.

“I look at things sociologically for that’s how I see my world,” she said. “I was [at Occupy Sydney] to document it with my photographs.

“Of course I was all for the 99 per cent and of course that’s how I saw it, and I think my photographs reflect that.”

As a sociology student at Sydney University, Ms McGrady said she studies people and has always been involved in activist movements, making her mark in Aboriginal land rights movements from the “early years”.

Yet when asked about her upbringing, Ms McGrady sees her identity as multilayered as her photographs.

“I call myself Kamilaroi and Murri is the area and I am a Yina,which in my language means woman.

“I say that I come from three places. As a child I spent alot of time in my father’s country, Toomelah, and I went to school at Mungindion, the Queensland border.

[Toomelah] is an unusual town made up of three quarters NSW and one quarter QLD. The hospital where I was born is on the Queensland side, so technically I was born in Queensland.”

After school, Ms McGrady went on to study nursing. However, she said she had always been passionate about photography.

“I just always loved images. I was the official photographer in my family and at about 14 or 15 I would take family portraits.”

From family portraits in the sixties, Ms McGrady went on to capture intense moments of competitive sports such as Indigenous Rugby League.

“I realised the power in images a long time ago and I am absolutely trying to achieve the storytelling and the communication of those intense moments I capture.”

Ms McCarthy said Barbara McGrady has an unending source of energy and her photographs are a medium through which she communicates her study of people.

“Let’s show the world the world as her study about people has now come through the lens.”

By Kristie Beattie

A Carnivale-inspired festival will entice
amateur and seasoned dancers to
Homebush this weekend.

Latin music enthusiasts will gravitate
to Sydney Latin Festival at Olympic
Park to become rapt in the live music
and dance performances which begin
on Thursday, February 2.

The Festival aims to promote Latin
dance to Australians, with World Salsa
Champions, international and domestic
dancers taking the stage to perform.

The Co-director of the Sydney Latin
Festival, Angela Lau, said the event has
a good reputation in Australia. “The
whole point of the event is to inspire
Australians, and to enrich them in the
dance culture.

“There are a lot of salsa dancers
that are based in Europe and it’s a big
deal for them to come out to Australia,
because we put on a huge stage,” Ms
Lau said.

The event formerly known as the
Sydney Salsa Congress has since
changed its name to embrace all types
of Latin dance including Salsa, Samba,
Lambada, Latin Hip Hop, Rumba, Afro
Cuban, Cha Cha and Bachata.

The major draw card of the festival
is five-time World Salsa Champion
couple, Adrian and Anita, who will be
coming out from Spain to perform.

International dancer and promoter of
the Festival, Tony Lara, said the event is
a fantastic dance experience that brings
performers and the dancing community
together.

“I’ve been to hundreds of festivals,
and Sydney’s in my top three. I
normally come to Australia for two
months and I tour trying to promote
the event,” he said.

The Buchata specialist said he
considers himself to be an outside-thebox
dancer that incorporates comedy
and themed shows into his performance.

The Festival will hold live dance
performances over four nights followed
by Fiestas which will incorporate three
party rooms to ensure the celebrations
continue until the early hours of the
morning.

There will also be three days of backto-
back workshops to inspire beginners
and professionals to embrace Latin
dance and strengthen their skills.

The Tropical Soul Dance Studio is
sending 40 dancers to the festival, some
are first-time performers.

Co-owner of the studio, Juan Ruiz,
said preparations start three to four
months before the event.

“From the first day of training it’s
about their [performers’] journey. It’s
about getting together as a team, and
performing as a team,” Mr Ruiz said.

He said he will also be performing
the Bachata this year, as well as
teaching at workshops and will DJ at
the Fiestas.

The celebrations take place until
Sunday February 5 and tickets can be
purchased online or at the door.

In the lead up to this year’s festive Mardi Gras season, the Sydney Opera Trust sent a legal letter to the Harbour City Bears demanding that the gay social group for big hairy men immediately cease using its sixteen year old logo which features a bear paw over the sails of the Sydney Opera House. Each sail is a different colour of the gay rainbow flag. The Sydney Opera House Trust was established by the State Parliament in 1961 and manages the publicly owned site. The Trust’s own vision statement asserts: “Sydney Opera House belongs to everyone.”

While the Sydney Opera House is an iconic symbol for the Harbour City and the whole of Australia, the Trust’s legal department asserts, “The Sydney Opera House Trust manages the use of Sydney Opera House’s image and brand on behalf of the New South Wales Government.” The Trust does not distinguish between non-profit and commercial organisations in sending out legal threats to anyone using the Opera House sails as part of its own symbol, logo or marketing campaign.

In 2007, Telstra was threatened with legal action by both the Sydney Opera Trust and Uluru’s administrators when it used images of Australia’s two most famous landmarks as part of an online marketing campaign. The matter did not go to court. Whether or not a legal challenge against the Bears would stand a chance is problematic. Under the Australian Copyright law of 1968, it is not illegal to use “a painting, drawing, engraving or photograph of a building.”

The President of the Harbour City Bears, Jonny Bastin sent a statement out to all members vowing not to cave in to legal threats from the Trust: “We know that many people love our logo as it symbolises our city, our club and our community. The fact that we have been using it unchanged since 1995; and that it is recognised in the bear community worldwide means it is now part of our history. Please be assured that myself and the current Harbour City Bears Committee will be doing everything possible to protect our club’s history.”

Gays and lesbians are a large part of Sydney’s ever shrinking arts’ audience. Whether or not the Trust would ever succeed at winning a legal challenge against the Harbour City Bears, its actions are certain to lose the hearts and minds of an important market in Sydney’s struggling arts scene.

By Lawrence Gibbons

A Marrickville mall’s expansion is on the
brink of approval and once sealed,
will revitalize the neighbourhood’s retail
environment and provide much-needed
support to local shop owners.

The shopping centre is the focus of a
$165 million development project that will
extend the floor-space of the Metro and
provide new avenues of opportunity for
local shop owners.

The original proposal was revised in
December 2010, with owners AMP Capital
seeking to improve the surrounding
neighbourhood and draw attention to local
heritage sites, such as the Mill House.

The proposal has undergone a few
setbacks. A spokesperson of Marrickville
Council said: “[The Council] resolved that
it does not want the proposal to go ahead”
and forwarded a submission to the NSW
Department of Planning.

On February 13 the NSW Planning Assessment
Commission will consider the application
in order to decide whether the project will
be approved.

The Metro development project is
emblematic of Marrickville’s gradual
transition from an industrialised suburb
with increasing levels of investment in the
local community.

Jodi Powell of Jeans West Marrickville
believes the proposed development will be
a step forward for the community.

“I think it could only benefit the area. It
will attract more customers and there will
be greater profits for local businesses”,
she said.

“Since Christmas, a lot of stores
have gone bust. Some have closed down
and some have relocated as there hasn’t
been enough traffic. It then becomes
harder for the public because of the
additional transport required.”

However, with 528 new parking spaces
to be introduced as part of the revised
proposal, concerns have been raised over
excessive levels of pollution and a surge in
traffic congestion to the area.

The NSW Greens spokesperson for
planning and infrastructure, David
Shoebridge, believes that local residents
and businesses will be most affected by
the new proposal.

“The Marrickville area has a number
of vibrant local shopping strips, including
South King St and Marrickville Rd. If this
expansion is approved it will inevitably
jeopardise the future of essential
community hubs,” Mr Shoebridge said.

“The local community wants to protect
the character of their neighbourhood, and
the government should respect that.”

Ms Powell expressed similar sentiments
regarding the ramifications of the proposal.

“The residents were a bit sceptical,” she
said. “Having a bigger centre with more
businesses will increase the price of local
properties. But I think it will be beneficial,
with increasingly more opportunities for
local businesses”.

Ms Powell said the suburb of Marrickville
is an ideal location for such development
and that it will increase the value of the
community.

“A lot of people get scared of change.
If they could only see past that then there
would be a lot of potential for growth in
Marrickville and its surrounding suburbs.”

By Daniel Paperny