Cafe Culture Series   -   Flap

at The Mudbrick on February 28 at 5pm 

Melbourne's latest sensation, Flap, have burst their way onto the live music scene impressing the audiences, the festival directors and the critics alike. A quick scan of the internet reveals an array of impressive reviews seemingly from a variety of age groups. Most folk prefer to bypass the difficult if not impossible task of categorizing Flap's style of music preferring instead to say what they think about it. The most seasoned of musical ears are hailing the young groups MUSIC as intoxicating, cheeky, invigorating, classy, innovative, unique, exuberant and the list of gushing complimentary adjectives goes on.

The five piece group is led by honey sweet vocalist and ukulele player Jessica Guille who also writes a lot of their songs. Multi talented Eamon Mc Nelis writes the other half of the songs as well as sings and plays trumpet (not at the same time, that would just too multi talented!). His songs are as full of the drama, joy and humour of Melbourne's inner north. When you add Shannon Barnett on trombone, Mark Elton on double bass and Ben Hendry on drums you might begin to get a glimpse of why they are hard to pidgeon hole. Most, but not all, of their material is original as is played in kind of a 1920's jazz style. They sing about falling off cliffs, getting naked and being poor, as well as some universal themes like falling in love & getting drunk. Flap!'s sound is held together by their dancey, driving rhythm section & topped off by stunning solos. The band has loads of energy and charm and their stage presence is unmistakably, unpretentious Australian. 

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The Mallacoota Life Photographic Prizee The Mallacoota Life Photographic Prize was a new competition in 2009! Entrants had the opportunity to have their pictures exhibited and sold over the Xmas/New Year period.  Pictures depicted a slice of life in Mallacoota. The competition was judged by local professional photographer, Michael Rayner.

The winner of the 2009 Competition was:

Rachel Severs with her photo "Tip Beach"

Second Prize went to Elyssa Nelson for her photo

"Ice Cream"

"Ice Cream will be available here for viewing soon!

Highly Commended was Phillipa Hamilton's photo

"Sand Dune Hikers, Cape Howe Wilderness Area" 

Poster, guidelines, information, entry form and permissions form 

 click here                     

EJ Brady Short Story Competition

This Australia-wide competition has been run by MAC for about 15 years. The 2009 competition has now been finalised. The prizes ($1500 and $500 for the two winners and the Tom Donovan Encouragement Award) were announced on Saturday October 31 at the Mudbrick Pavilion. The event kicked off at 7.30pm and readings of the winning stories were accompanied by the music of John Wilson and Friends (Glen Warren and Rachel Severs with guest appearances from Chloe Scott and Lisa Morrison).

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