CHRISTMAS bells could be hard to find in Perth music shops this year—and not because of a production shortage. “I’ve been buying out all of the local shops’ jingle bells,” WA jazz diva Libby Hammer confesses to the Voice. In the hands of eager 4–7 year-olds they’ll ring out a jazzy Christmas as part of…

IN the early 1950s the WA health department warned new mums: “don’t praise Baby so that he can hear, because he can understand before he can speak”. It also warns mothers (never fathers, nor parents) not to dawdle over undressing or bathing baby. That photographer and lecturer Kevin Ballantine has the material on his web…

THERE’S so more to Dr Seuss than green eggs and ham, as a Perth exhibition of works from every facet of the great man’s life will show. It includes rare early works through to iconic illustrations from the Dr Seuss children’s books, along with limited edition prints and bizarre sculptures. But don’t expect originals: those…

ERNEST HEMINGWAY is said to have bet a group of authors he could write a novel using just six words. On a restaurant napkin he scrawled: “For sale, baby shoes. Never worn” and won $10 from each of his writer mates. It’s six words that never leaves you. Perth is producing its own flash fiction…

THERE’S more to making it in the dog-eat-dog music industry than picking up a guitar, and Leederville Tafe is ensuring its music business students are industry savvy. The course has been around since 2008 and is the only one of its ilk available in WA, says coordinator Scott Adam. West Perth singer/songwriter Will Parker saved…

WHY give an exhibition a name nobody can say and which causes immense difficulty for keyboard-challenged journalists on old computers? To demonstrate that the Perth arts community isn’t silenced by the closure of many of its galleries in recent years, says Merrick Belyea. “We are not silenced we still have a voice, but it’s an…

PULSATING with defiance and a powerful primeval energy six Aboriginal men stare out from a canvas, backdropped by Rottnest, the island from which they had just escaped. This powerful artwork is part of an exhibition by Julie Dowling, a visual reminder of a little known piece of WA history–an escape from the island prison in…

PERRIER for the nostrils, designer air tailored to complement the occasion—or the dinner menu—Ben Elton’s Gasp is all about corporate greed and making the suckers pay. Mining is in decline because most of Australia has been shipped overseas, so a new market is needed, and air becomes just another commodity. More than 25 years old,…

FROM the searing heat and red dirt of the Kimberley’s 40-plus temperatures, to 35-minus and deep snow in Mongolia, Kimberley Kohan really has suffered for her art. “We travelled 350km through the Gobi Desert in mid-winter,” the North Fremantle local tells the Voice. Coupled with the killing cold, and her job with a mining company,…

I  WAS lost in a circus tent this week as the electrifying King Hit took me to places well outside my comfort zone. Laughter and tears tripped over each other during the performance, leaving audiences breathless. Many clearly wanted to talk about what just happened, and strangers turned to neighbours: “That’s a story that has…