MAYLANDS creatives will get the chance to pitch their ideas to locals over a bowl of soup later this month in the hope of scoring a micro-grant.
The community-led initiative is being put together by the Maylands Neighbourhood SOUP committee, which will charge people $10 for a bowl of soup and a vote on where funds raised on the night will be spent.
The committee has been established under the umbrella of town team Creative Maylands.
“Over dinner, they’ll listen to four-minute pitches from up to four people working on projects that help the local community,” says Creative Maylands member Chris Byrne.
• Catherine Ehrhardt, Chris Byrne, Rebecca Hall, and Sean Chinn mull over some creative ideas over a bowl of soup. Photo supplied
Votes
“Everybody then votes for the project they’d like to fund, and the winning project goes home with all the cash raised at the door.”
The winner will return to a future SOUP dinner to give an update as to how their project went.
The idea is modelled on Detroit SOUP in the United States, which raised more than $100,000 for neighbourhood projects over three years.
Vincent council picked up the trend a year ago, and communities over the country have started putting soup on the stove to raise funds for community creatives.
Last year’s Vincent SOUP saw winner Bronwyn Harris walk away with $1170 for her Boomerang Bags Foyer Oxford project. Ms Harris used the funds to make hand-sewn recycled bags for residents and staff at Foyer Oxford to use when they forgot their own reusable ones. They’re asked to bring them back for others when they’ve finished.
“I would average about 150 minimum people having access to the bags per day,” says Ms Harris.
She’s also been hosting sewing bees with the community to make the bags and talk about sustainability.
Mr Byrne says the Maylands event is a great opportunity for people to eat, talk and share resources, and many local businesses have come forwards to donate supplies.
“Maylands SOUP will provide a new way for local people to connect and get behind great ideas that make a difference for their community.”
To get involved head to the Creative Maylands Facebook page and list your project proposal by July 23, or to join in Vincent’s second SOUP night on Tuesday 31 July head to the Vincent Neighbourhood SOUP Eventbrite page.
THERE might’ve been the odd pro-car grumble, but closing Leederville’s main drag to vehicles on Sundays has taken out a top prize at the Parks & Leisure WA awards.
Joanne Fotakis, now a Vincent councillor, was chair of activation at Leederville Connect when the town team first trialled closing Oxford Street to try and get more people onto the strip and liven it up.
The first one was run on a nearly non-existent budget: “I went out and bought $20 worth of chalk,” Cr Fotakis recalls. The team also had to borrow a few chairs.
• No cars, more people: Photo by Joanna Fotakis
Great time
“It doesn’t actually take too much—people were having a really great time with it.”
The first event had to contend with blistering heat and a state election, but an extra 10,000 people flooded into Leederville.
The third week with no weather or electoral interference, 70,000 people came down.
Earlier this year it expanded, with Leederville Connect opening the streets for an extra four Sundays, and working with the City of Vincent and Fringe World to bring in little festival spin offs as “Leedypalooza”.
The project took out the PLWA’s category for “community based initiative of the year”, and they’re now entered into the national awards.
Vincent mayor Emma Cole announced the win at the June 24 council meeting saying “it was a really great initiative, and we’re really keen to continue that next year.” Ms Cole says they’ve got the budget to do it again.
LAST week we looked at the agony of England, perennially picking the ball from the net after a disastrous penalty shootout ended another Cup run.
Not quite this time, but what about that one glorious day when the Three Lions roared; when the whole nation roared as captain Bobby Moore held aloft the Jules Rimet trophy on home soil.
How it must have felt to be taking it from the hands of Her Majesty herself.
It almost wasn’t going to happen. Well before the first kick-off England manager Alf Ramsey was under fire for his choice of players as well as his tactics.
He’d ditched the committee selection process and made it his own, picking doughty, hard-workers like Bobby Charlton and Moore, cited by Pele as the greatest defender he’d faced.
As the Cup kicked off at home, with the stolen trophy scandal still stinging the nation’s pride, it appeared as though Ramsey’s critics were going to have their day. England failed to score a goal in their opening match against Uruguay, leaving the 87,148 fans in Wembley Stadium frustrated.
• Bobby Moore meets the Queen, Cup in hand.
Things improved slightly four days later when they returned to Wembley to knock off Mexico 2-0, but Ramsey was under pressure in the final round game following defender Nobby Stiles’ working class tackle on France’s Jacques Simon.
There were calls for Stiles’ head, but Ramsey stayed true and was rewarded when the Mancunian ensured Portuguese goal freak Eusebio had a barren semi-final. That pitted England against West Germany in the final.
West Germany started their campaign with a glorious 5-0 demolition of Switzerland, tied with Argentina, then ensured top spot of their group with a 2-1 win against Spain.
They slammed Uruguay 4-0 in the quarter-finals and knocked off the Soviets in the semis.
They scored first blood against the English when Haller scored after just 12 minutes. But there’s nothing like a home crowd to cheer you on, and Geoff Hurst answered five minutes later.
England took the lead after 78 minutes, but again the West Germans surged back and levelled 10 minutes later.
Then it became the Hurst show, first for a controversial strike that hit the crossbar and bounced back, only for a linesman to confirm that it had bounced behind the goal line.
One up, Hurst made it a foregone conclusion in the dying moments of the game with another goal – his hat-trick.
England had won, and nobody there on the day would ever forget the image of Nobby Stiles dancing on the pitch, Cup in one hand, false teeth in the other.
FRANCE’S reputation as “surrender monkeys” has to be one of the most unfair stereotypes in existence for a nation that dominated the world stage for so much of written history, and they sure haven’t backed down this World Cup.
The stereotype really caught fire after a throw-away line in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, where school budget cuts led to gruff Scottish groundskeeper Willy calling the French-language students “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”.
A single joke from a left-leaning cartoon would be hijacked and popularised by conservatives, with the Bush Jr government’s chickenhawks seeking to demonise the French for refusing to get involved in the US’s ill-fated Iraq excursion.
That little venture didn’t turn out so well, but the damage was done: The French were cowardly in the public eye.
This ignores about 2500 years of being one of the most militarily dominant peoples in the world, from the Gauls sacking Rome, Clovis quadrupling Frankish borders, to Napoleon’s Grand Armée stomping about the continent leaving despots shaking at his ideas of égalité and the British fearing he’d pop over and dismantle their tyrannies.
We like to ignore or play down these victories so we can chuckle at jokes about the French flag being purely white, but the truth is the French lost as many soldiers at Gallipoli as Australia did (they just don’t talk about it as much: Losing 10,000 French soldiers at Gallipoli over 10 months was a minor tragedy compared to the 27,000 French killed in one day at the Battle of the Frontiers).
And they’re not retreating on the Russian football fields this year either. Unlike Brazilian forward Neymar’s theatrical performances, the only dives the French team has bene noted for this time round has been goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’ tremendous diving saves.
• They’ve done it before: France has shown themselves worthy of holding up the World Cup.
Incredible dive
His first incredible dive secured France’s match against Uruguay. Already dubbed “the save of the tournament,” his desperate stoppage of Martín Cáceres’ kick saw the stadium filled with gasps as he lurched right and seemed to hang in the air to stop the ball.
Lloris repeated the anti-gravity magic in this week’s match against Belgium, with one punching dive staving off an attempt by Alex Witsel and another diving spectacular that earned him Fox Sport’s “Save of the Day”.
Another standout among the French is 19-year-old forward Kylian Mbappé, who’s scored three goals in the cup so far. When he made his second goal, he became the first teenager to score twice in a World Cup match since Pele’s effort against Sweden in 1958.
Along with being outrageously skilled, The New Yorker says he helped France “troll” its way to victory against Belgium with his antics successfully running down the clock, chewing through the minutes in defence while playing a game of keep-away.
France has already taken out Australia in group play, taken down Peru 1-0, tied with Denmark, then defeated Argentina in a high-scoring 4-3 in the round of 16, before their 2-0 against Uruguay in the quarters and their 1-0 over Belgium in the semis.
The French go into Sunday’s match as the favourite.
CROATIA’S journey towards the World Cup semi-finals in some ways mirrors the broader picture of a country that only gained its independence 27 years ago and has since been recovering from a brutal war of independence.
Although Croatian declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the next five years were a brutal war of independence. Given that, it’s no surprise there was no Croatia at the ‘94 Cup.
But four years later Croatia was heading towards European Union membership and there were also the first moves towards a stable parliamentary political system.
The national team strode onto the Stade Felix-Bollaert in Lens, France to face Jamaica and their first World Cup campaign was off to a scorching start. First goal went to Mario Stanic and at full time they had a convincing 3-0 win.
Croatia beat Japan 1-0, then lost to Argentina 1-0, though both teams had already qualified for the round of 16.
• Croatia celebrate reaching third place in their first World Cup – could they go even better this year?
Grudge match
There they beat Romania 1-0 after winning a penalty in the first half. They faced up to Germany in the quarter finals, something of a grudge match against the Germans who’d bundled them out of UEFA Euro two years earlier. The Croats seized the opportunity after a send-off and slotted three goals into the back of the net.
They lost to France 2-1 in the semi-final, coach and captain faced criticism for their substitution tactics, but there was some consolation in taking third place against the Netherlands.
During the cup they had scored 11 goals, with six by Davor Suker who won the golden boot trophy for most goals at the competition.
Suker was in the squad that went to Japan in 2002, but couldn’t recapture his great form and went goalless. There was some criticism the team relied too heavily on old-timers, winning just one match.
Australians might have clearer memories of the Croatian team than their countrymen from Germany 2006, courtesy of a Harry Kewell goal in a cracker of a match at Stuttgart – a home away from home for many Croats who worked in the city’s automobile industry. Aussie fans had plenty of fodder for their light-hearted tease: “Your shirt is a tablecloth.”
It was do or die for both teams. Croatia needed a win to leap over Australia and take the last qualifying spot.
Croatia took an early lead through Darijo Srna, but Craig Moore equalised with a penalty. Nico Kovac tripped up Aussie goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac in the 56th minute with a bobbling drive, but Kewell’s finish in the 79th minute put the Aussies into the final 16 for the first time.
Sadly for Croatia it was the end of their tournament and they bowed out in 22nd place.
Croatia failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but it was agonisingly close as they’d finished just one point behind runners-up Ukraine in their UEFA group – a team they twice held to a tie.
They were back for Brazil 2014, but faced the host nation for the opening match of the tournament. The game started disastrously for Brazil, who conceded the first own goal to open a World Cup. They equalised, but controversy followed with a gifted a penalty by the ref from a trivial contact by Dejan Lovran in the box. There was even more heartbreak for Croatia when they got the ball in the net only to have it disallowed because of a foul by the keeper. The two incidents took the sting out of their game, and the Brazilians slotted home one more for a flattering 3-1 scoreline.
The Croatians regrouped with a convincing 4-0 against Cameroon, then faced another decider, against Mexico this time. They couldn’t afford a draw and coach Niko Kovac’s attacking formation in the second half left gaps which the Mexicans exploited to slam in three goals. The Croatians got a late consolation but were out.
Enigmatic
Russia 2018 is Croatia’s coming of age at the World Cup. They came into the competition ranked 13th and were expected to make the quarter finals at best, but with Luka Modric one of the best players in the world supported by Ivan Rakitic in the midfield they’re on a high. They sent the enigmatic but faded Argentinians packing 3-0, while comfortably taking the points against Nigeria and Iceland. The final 16 and quarter finals have proven a bit harder, and they’ve had to go to penalties against Denmark and Russia, but the semi win against England shows a team able to dig deep and hold their nerve for the big games.
Now there’s just two teams in the running to hold the 2018 FIFA World Cup; France and Croatia.
But it’s not all over yet for the plucky Belgians and perennially unlucky Brits, who were both beaten in the semi-finals, as they’ve still got to play off for third and fourth places.
So we thought we’d take a look at the four remaining teams in the competition and see what makes them tick and what got them onto the big stage of the greatest game on earth.
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BELGIANS will always rue the day they came across Diego Maradona.
The Red Devils as they’re known, had been knocking around the Cup since its inception, but rarely making it past the first stage.
In 1982 they made their presence felt with a stirring 1-0 win against defending champions Argentina, with a young Maradona on his first, but disappointing World Cup outing.
It was instead a stunning hat-trick by Polish striker Zbigniew Boniek that brought their dream run to an end.
But they had momentum, and in 1986 everyone took note when they knocked over the favourites, the Soviet Union, with an incredible fight-back after conceding yet another World Cup hat-trick in the second round.
They came up against the fancied Spaniards in the quarter final, and after stoppage time the score was 1-1 so they lined up for penalties, barely able to walk.
The Belgians held their nerve, and when Van der Elts smashed his past the keeper, they’d put in all five shots and were through to the semi-final for the first time.
And that’s where they really encountered The Golden Boy.
This was not the youngster of four years ago. Maradona made history twice in the quarter final against England. The first perhaps not so gloriously with the Hand of God goal, where the diminutive striker appeared to soar above tall English keeper Peter Shilton to score a goal, but had really helped the ball in with his hand.
But there was nothing shady about his second goal, a weaving masterpiece which has since been voted the goal of the century. Maradona bamboozled four English players, shimmied past Shilton and slotted the ball into the goal – he was clearly at the height of his powers.
There was more Maradona magic as he took apart Belgium in the semi-final. His opening goal in the 51st minute was sublime as he somehow found space between two closing defenders and the keeper.
Another simply astonishing run through the entire Belgian defence in the 63rd minute sealed the deal, leaving them gob-smacked as he did his celebratory run.
It’s taken some time for Belgium to recover from Maradona, but this year they knocked over big-hitters Brazil in the quarter final and held themselves well against France, conceding just the one goal in the semi. They’ll now play off for third or fourth place.
YOUNG Vincent residents interested in addressing social, economic and environmental issues could qualify for a $1000 grant under the city’s revised community funding policy.
The old policy didn’t have anything for youngsters, so the council had a look at what other municipalities were offering before adding in four new categories for 12- to 25-year-olds; community and social entrepreneurship, environment and sustainability, arts and creative expression and leadership and personal development
“We hope the grants will help to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills of the city’s youth, and provide opportunities for the city’s youth to learn and develop the tools and skills required to assist them in their future endeavours,” says mayor Emma Cole.
“The categories … align with the community’s values and aspirations and provide an opportunity for our youth to be involved in projects that impact the local community,” says Ms Cole.
Application forms are available on-line at the City’s website.
Signs help slow cars
IN relation to the letter from Hope Alexander “Vincent going nowhere slow” (Voice, July 7, 2018).
There is no doubt that the lack of speed enforcement on local roads is an issue that governments seem to have placed in the too hard basket. Given the vast number and length of local roads, it is simply not possible for the police to enforce effectively – if at all. As such, other approaches are surely required.
In my view, speed display signs – which publicly display the speed of vehicles as they pass – is one effective option. Another might be to give local government the power to issue infringement notices. A third option is to provide members of the community with the ability to monitor speed and for police to issue warnings for identified speeders. This is the approach in many cities in the UK.
Having said this, the lack of enforcement is not a reason why speed limits should not be reduced on local roads. If this defeatist attitude prevailed in 2001, the speed limit would have not been reduced from 60 to 50kmh. There are few people that now think 50kmh is too low on our local streets.
In relation to a further reduction to 40kmh, apart from the well-publicised and quite obvious safety benefits, greater confidence for people of all ages and abilities to use the streets for cycling and walking, should not be underestimated. I know of many parents unwilling to let their children ride on local streets because of the risk (real or perceived) from fast-moving vehicles. Parents make the decision to drive their kids around instead of letting them ride.
I am an optimist that believes we can reclaim the streets for our community. In particular, to empower our children with the ability to get around independently, or kick or throw a ball – like I and many did not so long ago. In inner suburban areas we are way too subservient to vehicles and drivers that use our streets as short cuts between main roads. A few extra seconds of driving time for those passing through is a minor impost to help rebalance the ledger in our favour. Andrew Main North Perth
They all just keep taking and taking
IN last week’s paper City Of Vincent mayor acknowledged that “people don’t have a lot of disposable income at the moment”. So what do they do, they put the average rates up by 2.7 per cent.
To the local businesses in Vincent – we would love to support you in these tough times, as we are the ones that live here. However, for years now our income has been stagnant while all levels of government have been putting our bills up by way more than our income.
Vincent has been particularly harsh on one-bedroom unit owners, with a 7.2 per cent rise this year, on top of the 9.2 per cent, 10.5 per cent and 28 per cent rises in the previous years, through the easy target of increasing the minimum rate. We are now $176 higher than the City Of Perth
Seemingly we are not paying enough. We are only entitled to half a bin, so because we are sharing with our neighbours this saving to Vincent should be reflected in our rates, which it is not.
There were originally two houses on our block, there are now eight units. A rough calculation would indicate that Vincent is getting an extra $7000 in rates compared to the two houses, with the same number of lights and trees on our verge.
There are much bigger apartment blocks appearing all over Vincent, a lot of extra revenue, so I would argue that unit owners are well and truly paying their way.
I have made my own savings by not renewing my Beatty Park pool membership this year. I now go once a week, saving me $300 which would have gone directly to the City Of Vincent.
Local businesses will be feeling the pinch by other residents making their own savings, and nothing will change till all levels of Government stop treating us like their own cash cow.
As for the community bus, we were gifted it, we used it, so maybe the right thing to do with the $46,000 we made from the sale of it, would be to donate this money to another charity group, such as to help the homeless. Gordon Lee Chatsworth Rd, Highgate
THE beguiling and hypnotic Watch Me Read You washes through the office, prompting a young colleague to ask; “Is that Odette? She’s awesome”.
Opening with a stanza more lyrical poem than song, the power, complexity and passion Odette (Georgia Odette Sallybanks) brings to Watch Me Read You belies her 20 years, even more so when you realised she was just 18 when she wrote it.
The song is an epic ballad about processing trauma, and a eulogy to toxic relationships, loss and pain.
“I watch you read me.
“The burning pages of my life
“Reduced to ash
“And overnight I find my body is not mine.”
Odette’s favourite poets Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman and Sylvia Plath are obvious influences throughout her work, the name of her first full-length album To a Stranger having been taken from one of Whitman’s poems.
“I’ve always been really into writing poetry and that’s kind of reflected in my music,” she says.
Odette’s music is informed by her own life and the album’s first single Take it to the Heart is more upbeat and boppy: “It’s a revenge song, which needed that kind of energy,” she says.
The album is a musical journey through her late teen years and young adulthood, the songs mapping every scar and heartbreak: “[During] the hardest years of my life so far,” she says.
“It’s a difficult time for a lot of people and I did struggle, but I’m not comfortable going into it,” she tells the Voice.
“I had a lot to process for a young person whose eyes were opened to the whole world and myself as a person.”
Born in the UK to a South African mum and an English dad, Odette grew up in Sydney.
She learnt piano as a kid and her early influences were her mum’s mix of soul, funk and rhythm and her dad who comes from a long line of jazz pianists.
Four years in the making To a Stranger began as a loose collection of songs, but under the guidance of producer Damian Taylor, who’s worked with the likes of Bjork, Arcade Fire, The Killers and The Tempers Trap, it was moulded into a powerful album.
“It’s just me and a keyboard when I’m at home writing a song.
“[Damian] added all these new elements so I could actually enact my fantasies of putting strings in my music. We ended up broadening the world of it.”
You can catch Odette at the Newport Hotel, Fremantle August 17 and Amplifier in Perth August 18.
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20) The new Moon is gentling your spirit. She is mellowing you out. She is softening you. She is inviting a fresh beginning. You love fresh beginnings. They have an innocence about them. This is a period of renewal. Get in touch with the voice of your instinctive wisdom. Easy is right.
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 20) There’s a hard path and there’s an easy path. The habitual fascination with taking the difficult option is to be watched out for. The ego likes to have good reasons for complaint up its sleeve. You have options; clear options. Love will come by taking things slowly. Pull fantasies into line.
GEMINI (May 21 – June 21) Mercury is in Leo. You will be inclined to make courageous decisions. The Moon will pass through Leo early in the week. That will add fire to the spirit of this moment. Your courage may catch you completely by surprise. You thought you were going to prevaricate forever. It seems not.
CANCER (June 22 – July 22) The Sun is in the last ten degrees of Cancer. Your feelings begin to fan out like the horizon over the ocean. You won’t necessarily know what you are feeling, but you will certainly be harbouring a deep longing. Figure out what it is that you are really longing for. It might be a revelation.
LEO (July 23 – Aug 22) The Sun is in Cancer, insisting on a certain amount of emotional reflection and home-coming. Mercury and the Moon are dancing through Leo. Though you might be ensconced in a comfortable, womb-like lounge room, you are dreaming colourful dreams of love, adventure and conquest.
VIRGO (Aug 23 – Sept 22) Venus is in Virgo. She opens up a path to pure delight. She offers you some space for plain sailing. You can trust your talents. You have done your homework. All that you have learned over the years is beginning to feel integrated and whole. Relish the feeling of respecting your resources.
LIBRA (Sept 23 – Oct 23) As Venus moves into Virgo, so you are reminded to keep coming back to the little rituals and disciplines that keep you on track and grounded. You don’t have to dazzle in every action and interaction. Less is often more. This is one of those times. Come back to what feels natural.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 21) The big picture looks good. The details are as yet unfathomable. To bluster, as entertainingly dramatic as it comes across, is unlikely to get you anywhere. This isn’t a good moment for puffing yourself up and putting on a show. Remember the long game. Tune in to the deeper currents.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 – Dec 21) Keep your focus on getting to know who you are, and figuring out how best to express who you are within the undergrowth of other people’s expectations. As long as Jupiter is passing through Scorpio and that’s until November, you will be riding through a landscape of emotional depth.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 19) Capricorns can easily get caught in the habit of trying to be lonesome cow-persons climbing the solitary hill of ambition. The truth is that this is only half the story. The Goat in astrology has a fishes tail. This hints at a world of sensitivity and need to be explored, under the hardy façade.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20 – Feb 18) The Moon is directly opposite Mars at the beginning of the week. Imagine the Moon as a mother. Imagine Mars as a son who wants to get out there, run into various obstacles and get to know his limits and strengths. You are bound to be living this psychodrama in one way or another.
PISCES (Feb 19 – Mar 20) Life is dancing with you. She is offering you her hand in ways that are profound – and playful. It takes wisdom to be able to laugh when the universe is testing us. When curve balls come, we soon see where we are on our journey of awakening. Identify and enjoy your unique strengths.
Perth Voice Interactive 