28 August 2008

City Centre blooming? Or state sponsored busking?

| johnboy
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Ambling through Garema Place this lunchtime I was surprised to see buskers playing easy listening covers with a large and sophisticated PA system. They even had a team of sound techs making sure their two guitars were coming out just right. (video of performers included)

The Chief Minister has now announced that this spectacle is actually the city centre coming to life!

    The new Floriade in the City program is a joint initiative between the ACT Government and Canberra CBD Ltd. The ACT Government has committed $475,000 to the program.

Much more entertainment could have been had by making the existing busking population battle to the death for a fistful of fifties.

In other news, and of course totally un-related to an upcoming election we’re also getting some city beautification:

    “To complement the Floriade in the City entertainment, the ACT Government will beautify the heart of the city with the installation of new flower displays and fairy lights through the trees on Northbourne Avenue.”

And in case you missed it (as I did) the theme of Floriade this year is the cringe-making ‘Films That Shape Our Nation’.

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Government funded public art. I suppose Steve Pratt will be down there next time to punch them in the face and smash their guitars with a sledge hammer. John Hargraves hasn’t told him not to.

stereo henry9:11 am 29 Aug 08

There was a young fellow playing the sax the other night as I walked towards the bus interchange. He was quite good and I was more than happy to chuck in a dollar in the hope of he and others continuing the trend… keep it up, it adds a bit of life and colour to the city centre.

Oooh, Fairy lights!

Wide Boy Jake3:39 pm 28 Aug 08

Rock and roll *is* noise pollution.

Can’t tell you too much about what he was spoking about. As soon as he was introduced and the Rent A Crowd went into paroxyms of oragasmic applause, I suddenly remembered I had to be somewhere else or something.

I did notice that someone seems to have tamed his hair. Maybe the ‘Sonic’ tag is making him start to bristle.

To be fair the buskers did also sing.

You mean I missed the Chief Minister speechifying?

*gutted*

Point of clarification: that was when Sonic was talking. I’m pretty sure they scampered soon after the electrified buskers started.

Perfect mixture of both guitars! Brilliant sparkies!!

Did you notice that the ‘crowd’ were almost universally in suits? It looked like ‘Rent A Crowd’ from the Chief Minister’s Department.

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