Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton gave a talk to the Sydney City Council last night and they aren't happy with our town. They reckon it's lost it's mojo.
"Does anyone remember the Trade Union Club? Sydney in the 1980s was a city characterised as a place of live music. Every pub seemed to have gigs and everyone was trying to make music. Not only music, but comedy and poetry and stuff at the weirdest edges of performance.
What happened? Pubs and live music have been killed by poker machines, for a start. And gentrification of many of those areas made it less possible for the demographic range and the vitality of the shops to remain as sparky, quirky and forgiving."
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The Shuttle dined at the Glebe Point Diner late last week at the invitation of the management and we can report the service and food is as usual up to it's first class standard. It must be one of the most pleasant restaurants in the inner city Glebe area situated as it is in a wide leafy boulevard.
Certainly one of our favourite movie stars Toni Collette thinks so as she screeched to a halt in a black 4 wheel drive and rushed in wanting a table.
Sadly for Toni the place was packed and she was turned away looking very disappointed but not before hurling a fierce glance towards the Shuttle that said "don't even think about it" as one's slim hand reached for that ever ready camera.
We have a Love / Hate relationship with Ms Collette. We love her and she hates us. I suppose sitting at the much coveted No.One table on the balcony didn't help.
"Does anyone remember the Trade Union Club? Sydney in the 1980s was a city characterised as a place of live music. Every pub seemed to have gigs and everyone was trying to make music. Not only music, but comedy and poetry and stuff at the weirdest edges of performance.
The Sydney Front? It must epitomise real adventure and risk-taking and, more to our point, that sense of an organic, vibrant art-making precinct that erupted around Surry Hills and Oxford Street and down into Redfern and Newtown. All places where people lived and worked and got on with their lives.
For young adventurers from the suburbs, ''town'' was the centre. It was the magnetic attractor. It was freedom and the chance to invent and create and witness other creations. The suburbs could feel flat and dry and filled with sinister silence underneath the crickets and sprinklers. But the city was loud, crowded and dangerous.
The theatrical duo have certainly done their bit to breathe some much needed culture into this brassy, glitzy and sometimes ever so tacky town. Their stewardship at the Sydney Theatre Company has attracted international actors like John Hurt and Philip Seymour Hoffman for little pay with sell out box office receipts. Giorgio Armani has become the chief patron and their production of Streetcar Named Desire was hailed as the best ever version when it toured the USA to critical acclaim.
They even have a production of ZEBRA! coming up starring Bryan Brown which may reveal previously never glimpsed depths of Bryan's acting abilities.
Much of what the pair said is spot on. You can read the full speech in the Sydney Morning Herald here.
Certainly one of our favourite movie stars Toni Collette thinks so as she screeched to a halt in a black 4 wheel drive and rushed in wanting a table.
Sadly for Toni the place was packed and she was turned away looking very disappointed but not before hurling a fierce glance towards the Shuttle that said "don't even think about it" as one's slim hand reached for that ever ready camera.
We have a Love / Hate relationship with Ms Collette. We love her and she hates us. I suppose sitting at the much coveted No.One table on the balcony didn't help.
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| Toni flees |
