A SHORT film delving into Perth’s street art scene has documented the good, the bad and the ugly of graffiti and murals. From grand commissioned murals to tag-ridden alleyways, filmmaker Wayne Waples has sought out the people behind both endorsed and illegal pieces for his doco ‘The City of Art’. “Initially it was very hard…

A little extra joy in the Blessing THE Joys of the Women Italian Choir (Le Gioie Delle Donne) is preparing to serenade Fremantle when its Italian community celebrates the long-standing Blessing of the Fleet next weekend. Choir coordinator Silvana Wiley says the choir will sing three songs throughout the procession that winds its way through…

A TRIAL public plaza on Grosvenor Road opened this week. Traffic will be banned until October 16 to see if it’s a good spot for a permanent public space connected to Beaufort Street. The strip needs more places to sit, although closing Grosvenor drew concerns from business owners that tricky carpark access might send shoppers…

TWO thousand native plant tubestocks were put in the ground at Edinboro Reserve on the weekend to help build food sources for cockies. The reserve had some diseased exotic trees that had to be pulled out and were replaced by five large trees along with the 2000 babies.  The species were selected based on what…

BAYSWATER council’s permit policy for personal trainers using public parks is so punitive that one fitness instructor has pulled out of operating in Maylands Reserve.  Bayswater charges personal trainers $1100 per year to train classes at a reserve, but they have to pay a separate fee for each park they want to use. They also…

WITH the help of artificial intelligence (AI), library archives and out-of-print photo books, local history fan Dallas Robertson is bringing colour to Perth’s past. Adding colour to black and white photos used to only be possible via a painstaking hand-colouring process. But as the AI gets more advanced the programs have gotten pretty smart about…

SINCE artificial intelligence (AI) helped give us a look at Perth’s past, we decided to play around with the recent advances in machine-generated imagery by asking an AI to show us Perth in the future. The program, Midjourney, has access to countless millions of images on the web that are typically associated with related keywords. …

Ellie makes her big orchestral debut AFTER composing her first orchestral movement at just seven years old, Mt Pleasant violinist Ellie Malonzo will finally get to hear a real orchestra play her music next weekend. The Fremantle Chamber Orchestra will be premiering her latest composition, Violin Concerto in A, at the Redemptorist Monastery in North Perth…

RESEARCHERS have discovered a photo that may depict the first documented Chinese person in WA, a carpenter named Moon Chow who likely played a key role in building some of Perth’s oldest structures.  Moon Chow, sometimes recorded as “Chow Moon”, “Johnny Chow” or “Chou”, arrived in Fremantle in March 1830 aboard the Emily Taylor.  In August…

“THE SEATS. I know it’s unlikely there’s anything you can do but they are ungodly.” After years of complaints PICA is finally upgrading the notoriously uncomfortable seating in its performance space, calling on donors to take pity on the backsides of audiences and buy them some sittable seats. Donors usually give to the not-for-profit Perth…