Happy 'GREAT 08'

We're Back!!

Hope you all had a great time with family and friends over the festive season. Matt and I certainly did, with a trip to the family farm for Christmas and a week of wonderful music, friends, rain and mud at the Woodford Folk Festival.






Business as usual again now and we can't wait to show you a few new styles and products we have in the making, so stay tuned to Pascoe Pop Art throughout 2008 for great photo art gift ideas.

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The Dreaming Festival

The Dreaming - Australia's international indigenous festival - is a massive celebration of Indigenous performers, arts and culture held at the Woodford Folk Festival site each June long weekend. The festival offers a fantastic mix of performances, films, forums and art, and leaves you with an overwhelming feeling of pride and respect for the diverse cultures that all Australians have such a unique opportunity to embrace and learn from.

Over the three days/four nights of the festival, you can expect to be entertained by musicians playing anything from funk/reggae, rap, country, and everything in between - some names of note this year were Blue King Brown, Oka and Street Warriors. Fast becoming one of my favourite comedians, Sean Choolburra left us in stitches once again with his high-energy show ending with another contemporary dance routine performed in a lycra wrestling-leotard. Tjupurru, a Brisbane-based international didgeridoo performer playing alongside his 11-year old son Jandamarra, entranced the crowd with awesome electronic beats. I felt honoured to witness much of the traditional dance and ceremony performed by tribes from all corners of Australia, many of which had not been performed outside their country prior to the festival. And finally, my favourite part of the festival, was sitting around one of the many bonfires each night and talking to wonderful people from all walks of life.


The forums we attended were excellent. People like Anita Heiss, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Aden Ridgeway and Stephen Hagan all provided such an important reminder of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and history must be acknowledged and respected by every Australian citizen before we have any chance of moving towards equality in Australia.

The festival was clouded with the death of one of the performers, a dancer from Pormpuraaw, during the opening ceremony. A man in his 30's, it was a stark reminder for the continuation of the festival of the fact that the life expectancy of an Aboriginal man is currently 17 years younger than any other Australian man. Oxfam are currently campaigning on this very issue and are collecting signatures to demand drastic action be taken to close the health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Please go to http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/indigenous/health.php to sign the pledge and find out more.


So in summary, The Dreaming festival takes you on a wild ride. Over the three days, my feelings peaked and troughed along the lines of feeling completely uplifted, inspired, disgusted, intensely angry, challenged, proud, amazed, ecstatic, humbled, ashamed, sad, refreshed... but above all, highly motivated to make sure I do everything I can in my small circle of influence to challenge stereotypes, reject racism and demand change.

Personally, I'm dreaming of a time when our country decides to grow up and pay well-overdue respect and recognition to the Indigenous peoples and cultures of Australia.

Cook Rock!

Went to the launch of the Rock n Roll Cooking Show last night.


Imagine being invited to the house of your favourite local band for a bit of a cook up and jam session. Well that is essentially what this show provides. Last night we ("we" being the audience of the show, unfortunately I wasn't personally invited over for dinner) were treated to a cooking lesson from "The Gin Club" and witnessed the creation of a mega-meat-lovers Veal Parmajana which included no less than 4 kinds of meat!

Each episode is totally in the control of the musicians, with no host or external mediation, so you really feel like you get to know the band members. And if the warning of possible course language, nudity, drug reference and adult behaviour at the start of the show is any indication of things to come, then I'm certainly going to keep watching!

Screened on Briz31, 8.30pm Thursdays.
It's only a matter of time before it moves to bigger and better.

Woodford 2006

What a fantastic event it is every year. From the 27th December to 2 January every year, a small little town called Woodford just inland from the Sunshine Coast, invites hundreds of thousands of people to camp in a field and have their senses overloaded on fabulous and original entertainment. All kinds of music from all over the world, comedy, dance workshops, craft, stalls, forums on current events and issues... you name it you've got it!



Matt and I just went up for the 27th and 28th. One problem about the festival being so awesome is that its getting more and more popular every year, and closer to New Years gets a bit full on, so we decided to just enjoy it in the warming up stages. Did I say warming up? It was bloody freezing. It poured raining the whole of the first day and night and I was cold! haha though I just noticed the photos don't exactly reflect the bitter cold quite as I remember it!

Some of my favourites...


Tripod - well-known Australian musical comedians that had the audience in stitches from start to finish... their first gig with a mosh-pit packed to the brim, they say.



Troy 'n' Trevelyn - an Aboriginal and Zimbabwean couple based in Brisbane with a great sound - kind of a reggae/funk but with didge and really beautiful vocals from Trevelyn. We actually ran into them again the other day at Tongue n Groove in West End and they seem to go by the name of Banawaran these days. Was a great gig in such a tiny venue.



Batacuda Sound Machine - 12 mad musicians from around the globe creating a massive sound with a high-octane brew of Brazilian groove, afro-beat and raw hip-hop!






That One Guy - yup, that's what he's called. And I really don't know how to describe him. Wait, I'll check the website...
“That 1 guys tunes are ‘eargasms’ lingering sublimely in your subconscious long after the show ends.”

“Like a one-man band plucked from the pages of Dr. Seuss, That 1 Guy delivers earthshaking future funk from 'the magic pipe' to accompany his madcap lyrics about turbo snails, meat storms, and weasel pot pies."
Please do me a favour and go to his website to listen to a sample...




Sean Choolburra - an Aboriginal comedian who gives the audience a blend of hilarious black fella yarns, didgeridoo playing and dancing. I loved it!

And of course fabulous performances by Matt Pascoe, Rachel Derrick, Katherine Lynch and Jez McNamara...

Happy New Year Everyone!!