entertainedissue 24|Friday February 18,2011|FREE

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b.entertained 02|Friday, February 18, 2011

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seven days

gigguide

in association with KLFM radio

96.5 FM

Friday, February 18Trivia challenge Bendigo Showgrounds. Rotary Club of Eaglehawk. Details: 0419 113 065

Bendigo Diabetes Support Group Meeting at Anderson Room, St Paul’s Cathedral, Myers Street, Bendigo at 7.30pm. Details: 5447 7097

Saturday, February 19Victorian Flood Relief Concert7.30pm to 11pm, Girgarre Town Hall. Details: 5854 6200.

Trentham Farmers’ MarketThird Saturday of every month at the Trentham Town Square 9am to 1pm.

Bendigo Community Farmers’ Market Sustainable Living Festival. 9am to 1pm, Rosalind Park end of Williamson Street, Bendigo. BYO bag/basket.

Sunday, February 20Chinese New Year Yum Cha Tea Rooms, noon. Con� rmation of numbers on your table required three days prior.

Flood Appeal Dance Spring Gully Hall, at 1.30pm to 5.30pm, music by Million Airs, a plate of afternoon tea to share would be appreciated. Details: 5444 2953.

Australian Institute of Genealogical StudiesSt Andrews Hall, at rear, Myers Street. Speakers are from State Trustees. $2, afternoon tea, all welcome. Details: 5446 3931.

Tuesday, February 22Mature Age Meet and Greet Every Tuesday 2pm at the Newmarket Hotel, no cost. Details: 5446 2189.

Thursday, February 248 Ball Aitken CD launchThe Tamworth TapesThe Basement Bar, 17 View Point, Bendigo. 8pm

Dragons Abreast FundraiserAutumn Fashion Parade by Undercover Wear. 1.30pm-4pm Uniting Church Hall, Chum Street. $10 entry includes fashion parade featuring everyday wear for autumn, and afternoon tea. Ra� e and lucky door prizes. Details: 5474 2153.

Friday, February 18

Basement BarStu Harcourt and Jim Howie9pm FREE

Newmarket HotelEl Montez9pm

Bridge HotelLeigh Turner9pm FREE

Old Hepburn HotelJord Allen8.30pm FREE

Pugg MahonesNew Jersey11pm

Saturday, February 19

Newmarket HotelSister Ray, Old World Sparrow and HR Special9pm

Golden Vine HotelBendigo Blues Club, Acoustic Beer Garden Jam2pm FREE

Basement BarManic9pm FREE

Huntly HotelSoul Contract9pm FREE

Old Hepburn HotelVinyl Tapp9pm FREE

Sunday, February 20Golden Vine HotelSunday Session with Old Buzzard Medicine Show4pm to 7pm FREEBasement BarOpen Mic with host Deano5pm FREECambrian HotelMalibu and Friends3pm FREEMarong Family HotelBob Starkie Experience12.30pm to 4pmBridge HotelStylists2pm to 5pm FREEOne Tree Hill HotelChris DeAraugo Band2pm FREE

Old Hepburn HotelThe Junes5pm $10

Tuesday, February 22

Golden Vine HotelJam SessionFrom 8.30pm FREE

Wednesday, February 23

Theatre RoyalMelbourne Ukelele Festival Showcase7pm to 11pm $28/$23 Concession

Thursday, February 24

Basement Bar8 Ball Aitken9pm FREE

Newmarket HotelJam SessionFrom 9.30pm FREE

food fossickers

BEING in the company of Barry and Karen Gibson is a bit like going backstage in a vaudeville theatre and listening to a long-time hus-band-and-wife act.

She has a go at him, he makes a joke about her, they both chime in for the punchline of a joke that’s likely to be at their expense.

When you work this hard, it helps to have a sense of humour.

The Gibsons set up the Pasta Pantry at the top end of Mitchell Street 11 years ago, quickly adding pies, then gelati and chocolate to their menu.

“You have to diversify, even in Melbourne,” Barry says, harking back to the days when the couple made pies in Moorabbin.

As with their Bendigo busi-ness, that shop was known for the way you could see Barry hard at work making the pies, because the kitchen was open to the shopfront.

Karen says some people would be-come so absorbed in watching it all happen they’d forget what they came in for. With her characteris-tic droll humour, she says, “it also means we’ve got nowhere to hide”.

The idea was to transport that pie business to Bendigo, where daughter Haley (the woman behind those brilliant chocolates in Indulge at Fountain Court) was living.

But a friend with a pasta shop talked them into trying pasta, and at that time, you had to search hard to � nd good pasta in Bendigo.

Fresh from churning out kilos of ravioli (all in a day’s work), Barry reveals the two cardinal rules for pasta-making: get a good machine and stick to the tried and true.

What you buy in the super-market has been pasteurised and gassed. When Barry stands over his $40,000 imported rolling machine, you can see him work the dough like a carpenter hews a plank, or a shoemaker softens leather. In other words, this is artisanal.

Barry uses durum semolina only, which is the reason Italian pastas are so malleable.

Fresh is the mantra with all the food in Pasta Pantry; in one bowl there’s a pile of chopped onion, in another a colourful mix of veg-etables waiting to be turned into frittata.

“We make it as we use it,” Karen says.

For a couple of seasoned pro-viders, there is nothing hifalutin’ about the Gibson’s approach – whether it’s pies, pasta or whatever.

“You have to use not just bet-ter ingredients but the best,” Barry says.

“If you’re going to cook with wine, for instance, I always say, use what you drink. There’s no point in using cheap wine if you want it to taste good.”

Displayed in the cabinets at Pasta Pantry are 17 di� erent ravioli combinations, from Moroccan lamb to bacon and cheese. Too many varieties simply confuses people, so they have pretty much stuck to their recipes from the start.

There’s ricotta cheese in every-thing, and anything with tomato sauce goes down well with Bendi-gonians (who don’t tend to be ad-

venturous, according to Karen). The all-time favourite is beef, particu-larly the “baby beef” style, which refers to the way it’s chopped up, in baby-pieces.

As soon as it’s made, the pasta is frozen, then used as needed.

It’s no surprise that the Gibsons eat a lot of pasta, but Karen still likes to cook at home. Her ideal rec-ipe takes a long time, she says, al-lowing her to slow down and enjoy the process away from the shop’s kitchen.

Pasta, of course, is Italian (which is not to ignore the huge debate about whether the Chinese actually invented it, and Marco Polo pinched the recipe).

Barry professes no Italian heri-tage, or even penchant. Like many of his generation he pronounces the word “Eye-talian”, much to Karen’s cha-grin.

“Yes, I know, it’s not Eye-taly”, he says, with a good-humoured grumble, “but I’m too old to change.”

the word “Eye-talian”, much to Karen’s cha-

“Yes, I know, it’s not Eye-taly”, he says, with a good-humoured grumble, “but I’m too old to

pastamasters

DETAILS: Pasta Pantry, 102 Mitchell Street, Bendigo, Monday 6.30pm to 6pm, and Saturday 6.30am to 1pm. w5443 4323.

COMING UP: Folk from the Food Fossickers network will be at the Melbourne Food and Wine Fes-tival on March 5 and 6, at a stall trumpeting the excellence of the region’s produce. It’s at the South Wharf Precinct in Melbourne, tickets $35.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: The Nestle website features a recipe for pasta made with eggplant, chicken liver and minced beef which they call, with no explanation, “Spaghetti Mussolini”.

rosemary sorensen

Karen Gibson...

...and partner Barry.

1802

CT Productions

presents A M D G

... a musical and comic

recollection of growing

up Catholic in the 1950’s ...

First Communion St Patrick’s Pyramid Hill 1957

1802

happy

An annual sanctuary for rockers, punk fans and metalheads alike, the alterna-tive music festival has earned respect in always being about the music rather than the party.

This year it is headlined by Iron Maid-en, arguably the biggest music festival headliner Australia has seen since Metal-lica at Big Day Out 2004.

Over the next two weeks in the lead up to the festival we are going to feature interviews with some of the stars of the festival for eagerly awaiting Bendigo tick-et holders to vent a little excitement and get geared up for the big day.

First cab o­ the rank is one of the big-gest names in modern heavy music, Bul-let For My Valentine.

Bursting onto the scene 13 years ago, the Welsh metallers have been schooled on all the legends from Metallica to Maid-en.

Taking that in� uence and turning it into something fresh, innovative and ex-citing has seen them catapult to the top of the list of generation Y metal bands, giving them enough mainstream appeal to even warrant a mainstage appearance at Big Day Out 2009.

Now with a brand new album called Fever, and a 2010 Australian tour done and dusted, the band are set to make

their Soundwave Festival debut later this month. I caught up with the band’s drummer, Michael “Moose” Thomas, pic-tured above left, for a few words.

Are you looking forward to coming over here for Soundwave then?

Oh yeah, more than ever.

You actually seem to be in our country more often than not, do you enjoy touring down here?

De� nitely, it’s weird because it feels like home only really far away. Always nice weather too.

Not the nicest weather recently!Oh yeah I’ve seen that. Hopefully it

comes good before we get over there.

I think you might be safe mate, if we don’t get any more cyclones. There’s a few more metal bands on the lineup than the last Australian music festival you played (Big Day Out 2009)…

Yeah it’s actually really nice to know that we aren’t going to be as di­ erent to everyone else on this tour, it’s going to be nice and easy and we’re looking forward to seeing some really cool bands.

Yeah cool, what bands in particu-lar are you keen to check out?

Well de� nitely Iron Maiden and Slay-er, also the new boys – Rise to Remain, really awesome band.

Couldn’t agree more about Rise to Remain, I had the pleasure of speak-ing to Austin Dickinson as well and the kid really has his head screwed on the right way in terms of music.

Oh yeah he knows what he’s doing. They all do, I think they’re great. Their

new album should be coming out soon.

It’s been about eight months now since Fever’s been released, do you � nd that crowd reactions to new songs grow as time goes by?

Yeah it’s cool, but the crowd reaction for Fever songs was really good from day one. I think with Scream Aim Fire to begin with everyone just wanted to hear the old songs, so it’s really nice to see people really enjoying the new stu­ at shows.

You released Your Betrayal as the album’s lead single. When it comes to deciding what songs will be singles and things like that, are they deci-sions you make or a record company decision?

We usually leave it up to them, but they’ll ask our opinion as well. Generally our producer will talk to our record label and they’ll work it out between them. But a single will never go out unless we are happy.

According to last.fm, Tears Don’t Fall is still your most listened to track by quite a sizeable margin. What do you think you got so right with that song?

I have no idea. It was just one of those songs that we wrote in � ve minutes, something special was just going on that day when we wrote it.

What would be your favourite Bul-let track to date?

I like them all really; it’s hard to think of one that I DON’T like to play. Prob-ably something o­ Fever because it’s still quite fresh.

You’ve toured with some of the greatest names in metal, could you

pick a favourite tour?We did Mayhem Festival in America

with Marilyn Manson and Slayer, that was de� nitely one of the funnest tours I’ve ever done.

How long do you think you’ll tour o� Fever before starting to think about album number four?

I think we’ll probably tour Fever up until the end of the British summer (Au-gust) and then we’ll take a bit of time o­ and do some writing.

If you could say there was a song that inspired you to want to play mu-sic, what would it be?

Probably something o­ Nirvana’s In Utero album. It was de� nitely one of the albums that switched me on to music.

Ahh cool, so I’d imagine Dave Grohl would have been an in� uence on your drumming?

Absolutely. I actually taught myself to play drums watching Nirvana videos.

Mad. You started o� playing guitar though yeah?

Yeah I did, I kind of wish I’d stuck to it too. It’s a lot easier! [Laughs]

With so much time in our country you must have gained an appreciation for some kind of local beverage?

Yes actually, I love that Pure Blonde beer. I’ll have a good swill on that when I come down.

Hopefully they have it on tap at Soundwave! Cheers for your time Moose.

Ok cheers, no problem.

SET to return bigger and better than ever in just two weeks’ time is the only festival in Australia that has the essential prerequisite that the bands need to make use of at least one guitarist to get on the bill. From humble beginnings in Perth in 2004, Soundwave Festival has been on a steady rise towards the top of the festival food-chain.

jake schatz

Interview also featured on Killyourstereo.com

valentines

b.entertained 03|Friday, February 18, 2011

entertained

For you chanceto win tickets to GROOVIN THE MOOLike us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

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and stay tuned

BendigoWeekly

1802

BendigoWeekly

Welcome to our � rst book club book

Dark BloodStuart Macbride’s

Only$11.55

65%off rrp

BendigoWeekly

BOOKCLUB

CONGRATULATIONS to reader Erica Peak who was our Swords of the Templars winner. This week, we’ll send Jennifer Weiner’s Fly Away Home to the � rst email to bookclub@bendigoweekly.com.au.

Read a good book you’d like us to know about? Email or write to BW Bookclub, PO Box 324, Bendigo 3552

Send us your book news and reviews at: bookclub@bendigoweekly.com.au

March 3 is the announcement of the regional winners in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, which this year will be celebrated at the Sydney Writers Festival. Australia falls into the “South East Asia and Paci� c” region, which it dominates, although this year a book by Malaysian writer, Rozlan Mohd Noor’s 21 Immortals, is up for the Best First Book prize, along with Sulari Gentill (A Few Right Thinking Men) and Ashley Hay (The Body in the Clouds). Australians Kim Scott (That Deadman Dance), Stephen Orr (Time’s Long Ruin) and Amanda Lohrey (Reading Madame Bovary) will have to oust New Zealander Lloyd Jones (Hand Me Down World) to win the region’s Best Book award.

Neilsen BookScan in the UK revealed that the average discount on recommended retail price last year was 26 per cent. More books are being printed, but also more discounts are being o� ered as incentives. This puts the bestseller lists into perspective. Jamie Oliver’s 30-Minute Meals sold the most books in the UK last year, but it was also the most heavily discounted, selling at almost half the recommended retail.

Women read more, they say, but men dominate the review pages, both in the books that are chosen for review and the reviewers themselves. Weird, eh?! According to Vida website, the most in� uential review pages in the English-speaking world, the New York Review of Books, last year had 306 books written by men reviewed, and only 59 by women; and 200 men did the reviewing, compared with 39 women.

The Summer Read promotion, presented by Victorian public libraries, comes to a close on March 4, so be quick if you want to enter the draw to win a pack of books. You can get an entry form at any Gold� elds Library. Recommended reading from the list of Victorian writers includes Anna Goldsworthy’s Piano Lessons and Anson Cameron’s Stealing Picasso.

news

1. Letters and NumbersSBS

2. Losing the Last 5 KilosMichelle Bridges

3. Clean and Lean: Flat Tummy Fast James Duigan

4. Lake of DreamsKim Edwards

5. The King’s Speech (� lm tie-in) Mark Logue

6. At Home with the TempletonsMonica McInerney

7. LeopardJo Nesbo

8. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

Stieg Larsson9. Jasper Jones

Craig Silvey10. To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Supplied by Dymocks Bendigo

this week’s top 10

While lives have slowly mend-ed since, several sculptures have been under construction, part of the new Bendigo Bush� re Memo-rial at Richardson’s Reserve.

A preview of it and the refur-bished park space was welcomed with much emotion, ceremony, and entertainment that morning by 200 of us.

Black Saturday was horri� c, and in the wake of the recent roll-ing � oods which have again chal-lenged so many Victorians/Austra-lians, these situations inevitably poses the question; how do we, collectively, best come to terms with such catastrophes?

Nine times out of 10 public art

is involved, a symbol of what was lost and what has endured.

This makes perfect sense, even in our ever-quickening, over-satu-rated visual culture.

Symbols stand in for some-thing; they’re important, designed to touch us deeply, even if we don’t understand how or why.

Creating public art – let alone a memorial – can be tricky.

How to please everyone, espe-cially when the stakes are as high as those of Black Saturday?

City of Greater Bendigo council coordinator for Arts and Culture Maree Tonkin has “supported the recovery process in Bendigo since the 2009 � res.”

The ideas for the Memorial “were generated by the commu-nity,” she says.

“Their input into the design has been a vital part of the process to ensure a sense of connection.”

Mia Mia sculptor Anton Hasell was chosen to create part of it. (His 2010 exhibition The Maps of Leich-ardt was also reviewed here.)

He made the aptly-named Firetree that sits at the end of a tri-segmented sculptural wall, which represents the time before, during and after the � res, the themes be-ing “destruction, remembering and renewal.”

Using 3-D digital design and working with KattleGear in Ben-digo who fabricated the sculpture and installed it in the Memorial

Park, Anton’s Firetree took a year. A � ame-red rosella sits atop this � ve-metre steel construction, which glints and glimmers in the sun.

From a distance it looks like a regular tree.

Closer, you can see it’s covered in delicate metal leaves and bells “based on the Federation Hand-bells made in 2001,” he says.

It’s beautiful and makes you go quiet.

The simple sound of a bell; a sonic symbol that runs deep, representing the sound of alarm or celebration depending – both themes embodied within the Fire-tree and at the ceremony. On the day, musican Andrew Rigby and lo-cal children gave a complementary � rebell performance.

“The speci� c concept came from watching blackened and burnt trees sprout back to life after the � res,” Anton says.

“I wanted to make a blackened tree that sported new leaves and

gumnut bells to demonstrate the community’s resilience is like that of the eucalyptus in the face of tragedy.”

Both Anton and Maree were moved by the ceremony, with Maree feeling “incredibly privi-leged to have worked on this proj-ect, with so many dedicated oth-ers.”

Anton says that waiting for reactions to the Firetree by those � re-a� ected in Black Saturday was a bit di� erent to the usual art opening crowd in a detached gal-lery context.

Touched by their courage, he says, “I feel sure that the Memo-rial will become a special place of comfort and remembrance for the Bendigo community, and a place in which re� ection will come natu-rally.”

Bendigo Bush� re Memorial, Richardson’s Reserve, Victoria Hill, opposite Gold Mines Hotel.

megan spencer

ON Sunday, February 7, Bendigonians commemorated the 2009 Black Saturday bush� res, which took one local life, 58 homes, damaged another 63 and threatened the lives of many.

quiet symbolpublic art:

HOW many Bendigonians does it take to watch an artist win $50,000? An-swer: 450.

Last Friday night, jammed into Bendigo Art Gallery, I witnessed Syd-ney artist Tim Johnson claim the cov-eted Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize – the richest in Australia – for ‘Community base’.

Presented by Premier Ted Baillieu, Mr Johnson made a humble speech, happy he no longer had to worry about bringing up two young chil-dren, faced with “not much money coming in!”

Inspired by Aboriginal artists, his painting is a thoughtful tribute to their place in Australian art and its role within Indigenous communities.

Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, View Street, Bendigo. Exhibition until April 2.

Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize

MICHELLE Paver is best known for her Young Adult series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, a six book series.

In Dark Matter we see her � rst attempt at a book for all readers.

A group of young hopeful English graduates embarks on a research trip to the Antarctic. Set in the late 1930s with war on London’s horizon, an eclectic mix of characters heads to Gruhuken, an isolated bay in the Spitsbergen region of the Arctic Circle, to undertake various experiments and weather readings.

This ghost story is written in the form of a journal. Loner Jack eventually remains as the sole team member after a series of accidents forces the other members back to the mainland.

Jack stays on to ensure the expedition survives, but soon realises there is more to Gruhuken than just old mining remains.

An extremely well-written suspenseful novel.

Reviewed by Harry Hart

Dark Matter Michelle PaverOrion

pick of the week

b.entertained 04|Friday, February 18, 2011

Tim Johnson.

Community base

Firetree.