These are the wonderful works that appear in The Perfect Diary in June and July.
Appearing below them is the Perfect Diary events listings. skip to daily events    

 

27 May
to
2 June
Weve gained a lot of prizes for many years until now. Therefore we supply many products with good quality; and good products are produced from a very well factory which is located in mainland China for over 16,000 square meters. The stuff in our company are very well, strict-control. We sell over 1,800,000 pieces of mice per month over the worldwide.
Text on packaging with the A4 Tech Fast Mouse.
3 June
to
9 June
What is true, what is false, what is, finally, important? It is not a sign of ignorance not to know the answers. But there is a great merit in facing the questions.
David Mamet

 

Wayne Marnell - Gloria

Free Way Walk

the wind is out from school today
she catches me

we sail the flyover
concrete rhythms gently
i am a spinnaker
blue shirt billows out
breasts curve aerodynamic
my spine is the mast
we skim and dip
                across six lanes
city petrol smell
cant lessen
this wind of petrels and salt and out-at-sea

we skim & skive
                                all the way

past the blank house of weeds
past the meditating cats
we cannot be calmed
we round these dull corners
we frisk them alive

we skittle into the home street

to moor in a garden of petunias
their skirts up
a can-can of pink purple frills

 

Gina Mercer

 
10 June
to
16 June
Grandmother of two who were killed in the Oklahoma bombing, talking just after the execution of Timothy McVeigh. I felt great. I felt wonderful that he was going to be dead in just a few minutes.... HeÕs a monster and he doesnÕt deserve to live on this earth.
Interviewer: Did he look like a monster?
Grandmother: No, thatÕs the sad part, he doesnÕt, or didnÕt, look like a monster. He looked like the next door neighbour.
17 June
to
23 June

We are killing the poor and the minorities and the people we believe to be different and lesser than ourselves. Robert Nigh, Timothy McVeighÕs lawyer

 

Elizabeth Jones

 

Riddle of the Beached Thong

Man has pondered hard and long
certain strange phenomenon.
Like were in fact the pyramids
the Lego sets of alien kids?

Were Aztec temples and Inca courts
the work of ancient astronauts?
From Stonehenge onto lost Atlantis
the Gods leave riddles, but no answers.

Easter Island statues vex us,
the Bermuda Triangle still perplexes,
And what happened aboard the Mary Celeste,
that ghostly ship, we can only guess.

But the weirdest of these phenomenon
must be the riddle of the lone beached thong.

Beached thong! there you lie, washed up by the tide
forlorn and mateless beneath the sky,
bourne on mysterious currents and torrents
to this sandy strand like a latter-day Lawrence.
What tales you could tell of travel and travail
of lands you’ve trod, of seas you’ve sailed ...
but alas you can’t speak, you’ve got no tongue,
nor eyes, nor ears, you’re deaf and dumb.

Beached thong do you thirst for my fleshy foot
to slide beneath your salty strap?
for my nakedness to fill you up
and re-animate your slip, slop, slap?
Alas, you must remain to dwell,
a monopod, an empty shell,
for a thong without its matching brother,
is a horseless cart, a childless mother.

Beached thong, I’ve seen your kind before
at different times upon the shore.
Some lie barnacled, broken and bruised
others intact, almost new,
but all presenting a mystery,
where are they from, these thongs from the sea?

Some theorise that thong flotillas
ply the deep like cod
great schools of thongs riding the waves
in migratory pods.

Some say their beaching’s suicide,
a death on purpose meant,
leaving brother thongs to wail
eerie songs of lament.
Or could it be that shipping radar
sends their sonar haywire,
leaving them to flounder
and on shallow shoals expire?

But if this is so, I want to know
why Greenpeace don't take action,
get together a rescue plan
and show a little compassion.

Where are the bucket brigades of hippies
saving stranded thongs,
waving placards, picketing and
singing protest songs?

Dousing thongs with water to
try and keep them alive,
’til they're floated back to sea
on the next high tide?

Where’s Ray Martin’s telethons
to raise awareness for the thong?
Does no one want to foot the bill
to put an end to this monstrous ill?

Where are the “save the thong” campaigns
are they deemed too low down on the foot chain?
Not cute and cuddly enough like Pandas,
or Dolphins sleek and smart,
no, when it comes to the poor old thong
no one gives a fart!

So with your hapless cousins, thong -
the Solo Bottle and Orchy bong,
the plastic bag and esky lid,
condom, bread-tag, peg and fit,

you’re condemned to sail the seas
harpooned by the Japanese,
caught in drift-nets, beached on high
as our indifference lets you die.

It’s only when the last thong’s gone
we’ll say “shit, what a bummer,
these bloody shoes are way too hot
to wear in friggin’ summer.”

 

Tug Dumbly
24 June
to
30 June
If we feel the least degradation in being amorous, or merry or hungry, or sleepy, we are so far bad animals and miserable men. William Morris
1 July
to
7 July

I really hate reality. I want to be wholly artificial. I fear everything that is natural. Lolo Ferrari

 

Luke Bowering

 

KITCHEN

her showered feet sweep
the tiles like straw somewhere a radio
is laughing the weather this morning
the blue sky is stirred into black tea
he wakes while dissolving
the last stars then pulls
the hot spoon from her
smile sawing a man in two hearing
her lips close like a heavy door
her feet sweep the tiles like straw

 

Christopher Parry

8 July
to
14 July
IÕm usually way, way ahead of music trends. I hear somebody doing something very different and my ears perk up. Barry Manilow
15 July
to
21 July

No text selections can be copied from this book to the clipboard. No printing is permitted of this book. This book cannot be lent or given to someone else. This book cannot be given to someone else. This book cannot be read aloud.
Part of the click-through End User Lisence Agreement accompanying AdobeÕs (free) electronic version of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland

 

Julie A Taylor - She wondered if ..

 

House-wife

A morning thick with mist
and jasmine scent.
She hangs out her washing,
lays her hands on memory
where she is always eighteen,
before the words loss or sorrow.
Fledgling magpies pick across the lawn,
their sharp beaks jabbing
for food. — Her children kneel
beside the sandpit, building castles,
sand in their hair.
Today, spring and the honey-eater's song
have pierced her heart with longing.
She watches her children run
amongst her unlikely plantings.
Her throat thickens with words
she will never speak.

Mark Miller
22 July
to
28 July
We will lock them up and then we will forget where we put them.
Greek Culture Ministry director, referring to 13 pieces of Maria CallasÕs underwear for which the Greek government had paid $46,000.
29 July
to
4 August

Semiotics tells us things we already know in a language we will never understand.
Paddy Whannel

 

Geoff Harvey - Seated Nude

 

Pressure

Lava like cannon shot captures the ratings,
bombarding Tofua’s newmoonlit sky
in another volcanic display.
Bligh retired to cabin, his candle guttered now.
Since arriving in Tonga, late for fair winds,
he has traded poorly, been outfoxed,
named Fletcher first coward, then thief,
& taken hostage three native chiefs
before becalming, releasing them
& inviting Fletcher to dinner,
thus ending this binge of humiliation.
Fletcher spurns him, wanders the ship
asking the men through tears what he should do,
but his anguish is not their concern.
He destroys his papers,
wishing to spare his family shame,
takes provisions & builds a raft from yard.
He will drift away to moody isolation.
Now Ned Young from the West Indies
of jealous nature but quiet
baneful nephew of a baronet,
dark of skin, of thought, even dark of teeth,
eases from his usual place, the edge of things
where he stood hunched like an ironic sculpture,
whispers against this mad plan,
suggests alternative action.

 

Ian C Smith

 

 
Festivals and events during June and July
 
Do you have any events you would like to add to the next 2 month's list?

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entries in black appear in the diary - entries in red are Australasian local holidays
entries in dark grey are additional to those appearing in The Perfect Diary 2002 and are verified - entries in light grey are not verified
 
1 June Taree City Festival, NSW. A Taste of Manly - Manly Food and Wine Festival, NSW. Koromo-Gaye, Japan (start wearing your summer clothes - even if itÕs chilly). Madaraka Day, Kenya. New Australian Migration Act abolishes the use of a dictation (skin colour) test to assess potential migrants to Australia, 1959. Marilyn Monroe born, 1926.
2 June Whale Watching Season Launch, SA Whale Centre, Victor Harbour, SA. Whit Sunday. Gawai Dayak (Rice Harvest Festival), Malaysia. St Erasmus Day (patron saint of sailors). Tarzan (nˇe Johnny Weissmuller) born, 1904. Marquis de Sade born, 1740.
3 June Foundation Day, WA. QueenÕs Birthday, NZ. Mabo judgement recognises a new class of Native Title, ending the notion of terra nullius, 1992. The frankfurter sausage introduced by the Butchers' Guild of Frankfurt, 1852.
4 June Grundlovsdag, Denmark. The Recruiting Officer, first play in NSW, was performed, 1793. Forerunner of the automobile, Henry FordÕs Ņquadri-cycleÓ, given a test run in Detroit, 1896.
5 June World Environment Day. Tuen Ng Festival, Hong Kong. Tim Anderson acquitted of Hilton Bombing charges, 1991.
6 June National Agricultural Fieldays, Waikato, NZ. Swedish Flag Day. A Los Angeles jury rules that Philip Morris should pay more than US$3billion in punitive damages to Richard Boeken, a two-pack a day smoker for 40 years, now terminally ill with lung cancer, 2001. AustraliaÕs first soccer match is played, Moore Park, Sydney, 1865.
7 June Mornington Peninsula QueenÕs Birthday Wine Weekend, VIC. Katie Price, a British topless model, runs in the Stretford and Urmston election on a platform of free plastic surgery for all, 2001. She says ŅI know it will take a big swing to win the seat, but thereÕs no bigger swinger than me.Ó SydneyÕs State Theatre opened, 1929.
8 June Monto Dairy Festival, Monto, QLD. Darwin City to Surf. Bounty Day Norfolk Island, NSW.
9 June Tiananmen Square massacre, 1989. Seven people die in a ghost-train fire at Luna Park, Sydney, 1979. Donald Duck appears for the first time, 1934. Charles Kingsford Smith lands in Brisbane from Oakland, California, 1928. Violet Crumble chocolate bar introduced, 1923. Skiing introduced to Australia by Norwegian gold miners at Kiandra, NSW, 1860.
10 June QueenÕs Birthday (not in WA). Malvinas Day, Argentina. Time Observance Day, Japan (be punctual). Unity Day, Portugal. Frances Ethel Gumm (who became Judy Garland) born, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, US, 1922. MacPherson Robertson starts making Cherry Ripe, 1880.
11 June Kamehameha Day, Hawaii. Lazlo Biro patents the ballpoint pen, 1943. Timothy McVeigh is executed, 2001. Captain Cook and crew discover The Great Barrier Reef by crashing into it, 1770.
12 June Philippines Independence Day.
13 June The Sioux Indian Nation is awarded US$17.5 million for lands taken from them in 1877 - after interest, settlement is over US$100 million, 1979. Vegemite goes on sale, 1923.
14 June Argentine troops surrender to British troops on the Malvinas, 1982. Paper clip patented by Johann Vaaler of Norway, 1900.
15 June Kataclismos Festival of the Flood, Cyprus. FarmersÕ Day, Korea. St VitusÕs Day Fires, Europe (roll fire down a hill). Benjamin Franklin flies a kite in a storm (to prove that lightning is attracted to metal), 1752.
16 June Bloomsday. Charles Perkins' birthday, 1936. Henry Lawson born, 1867. First Australian beer is brewed, 1796.
17 June Screaming Lord Sutch - founder of The Monster Raving Loony Party, dies, 1999. The Dy-Dee Doll, the first doll to wet itself, goes on sale in New York, 1933. Postage stamps are introduced in Belgium, 1849. James Brown's birthday, 1928 (though he claims it was 1933).
18 June South Africa ends (official) apartheid, 1991.
19 June Australian women are granted equal pay for equal work, 1969. Juneteenth, official end of slavery in USA, 1865.
20 June Errol Flynn born, 1909. Doughnut invented by Captain Hanson Gregory of Maine, USA, 1847.
21 June Winter Solstice, 11.25 pm, EST. The Royal College of Surgeons was founded from the original Barber-Surgeons Company, UK, 1843.
22 June Antifascistic Day, Croatia. Rose Festival, England. World's first drive-in cinema opens in Camden, New Jersey, 1933. First gaslights illuminate the streets of Adelaide, 1863. Slavery outlawed in England, 1772. Nougat first made in Montelimar, France, 1701.
23 June Sliced bread introduced by Sunshine Bakeries, Newtown, NSW, 1939. The typewriter is patented by Christopher Sholes in 1872. The worst flood in recorded history, Gundagi, NSW, 1852. The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax, 1848.
24 June Quˇbec Day. St JohnÕs Day (have a bath and a haircut). Bannockburn Day, Scotland. FishermanÕs Day, Zaire. Floods kill 89 at Gundagai (pop. 250), NSW, 1852. First republican constitution adopted in France, 1793.
25 June Mozambique Independence Day. Barbed wire was patented by Lucien B Smith of Kent, Ohio, 1867.
26 June St Anne Day, patron saint of Canada, miners and housewives. Madagascan Independence Day. Somalian Independence Day. Kennedy says "Ich bin ein Berliner", 1963.
27 June National Day, Djibouti. Helen Keller born, Tuscumbia, Alabama, 1880. The LadiesÕ Mercury, the first magazine for women, was published, UK, 1693.
28 June Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife assassinated in Sarajevo, 1914. Ned Kelly is wounded and captured, Glenrowan, VIC, 1880. Snow falls in central Sydney, 1836.
29 June
 National Capital Dancesport Championships, Institute of Sport, Canberra. Gay Freedom Day. Seychelles Independence Day.
30 June Spam (a contraction of "spiced ham") first marketed, 1937.
   
1 July Save the Koala Month. Independence Day, Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia. Dominion Day, Canada. Family Day, Lesotho. Freedom Day, Surinam. Restaurants and cafˇs in Victoria become smoke-free, 2001. The Goods and Services Tax comes into effect, 2000. Paid sick and long service leave introduced, NSW, 1951. Popeye born, 1929. Chinese Communist Party formed, Shanghai, 1921.
2 July Larry Walters ties 45 weather balloons to an aluminium lawn chair, floats up 4,000 metres and stays up for 45 minutes, California, 1982. Evonne Goolagong wins Wimbledon, 1971. Something crashes in Roswell, New Mexico, 1947, officially a weather balloon. On June 4 1997 the USA Air Force releases a report about the ŅRoswell IncidentÓ, saying the alien bodies witnessed were in fact life-sized dummies.
3 July A 25-hour power blackout in New York City after a lightning storm is followed by rioting and widespread looting. 3,776 looters are arrested and 100 police are injured, 1977.
4 July Club Marine Melbourne Boat Show. Independence Day, USA. Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars and sends back pictures of the surface, 1997.
5 July Alice Springs Show, Blatherskite Park, Alice Springs. Red Cliffs Folk Festival, Red Cliffs, VIC. Independence Day, Venezuela and Cape Verde. Apollo-Soyuz space mission, Soviet and American space craft dock in orbit around the Earth, 1975. The Postcode system is introduced, 1967. The first bikini is seen on a Paris catwalk, designed by Louis Reard, 1946 (ŅA bikini is a thoughtless actÓ- Esther Williams).
6 July The Earth is at its aphelion (its furthest distance from the sun) at 2 pm EST. Independence Day, Comoros and Malawi. The Rabbitohs get back in, 2001.
7 July Kanga Cup Youth Soccer Tournament, Canberra. The demise of the AC Nielsen TV ratings system, which extrapolated audiences of millions based on reading from devices on 3,000 TV sets, 2001. A Florida jury finds tobacco industry negligent in marketing a dangerous product and finds cigarette makers can be held liable, 1999. First Superman comics sold in USA, 1938.
8 July The first time fingerprints are used to convict a criminal, Buenos Aires, 1892. The Liberty Bell cracks, USA, 1835.
9 July National Day of Argentina. David Hockney born, 1937. Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven, born, 1894. Paper manufacturers John Dickenson introduce the first paper napkins at their annual dinner at the Castle Hotel, Hastings, UK, 1887.
10 July Bahamas Independence Day. Slavery Abolition Day, French Guiana. Mauritania National Day. Lady GodivaÕs ride, Coventry, England.
11 July Naadam Festival, Outer Mongolia (horse racing, archery and wrestling - the three manly sports). A mountain of rubbish collapses in Lupang Pangako - The Promised Land - killing at least 230 people who lived there, 2000. Snow falls on Uluru, 1997. Gough Whitlam born, 1916.
12 July National Aboriginal Day. In Victoria Square, Adelaide, the Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time, 1971. Ghorban Feast, Iran. US Surgeon General reports a link between smoking and lung cancer, 1957.
13 July Alice Springs Lions Camel Cup, Alice Springs. Gold Coast-Tweed District Bowls Association Annual Winter Bowls Carnival, QLD.
14 July

US jury awards a record $145 billion in punitive damages against "Big Tobacco" in a landmark class-action lawsuit, 2000. Ingmar Bergman born, 1918. King and Queen Kamehameha of Hawaii die of measles while visiting England, 1867. Alfred NobelÕs first demonstration of dynamite, England, 1867. Storming of the Bastille, Paris, 1789.
TODAY IS THE DEADLINE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PERFECT DIARY 2003
15 July Bluebottle Beach International Inodorous Awards, Bluebottle Beach, NSW.
16 July La Paz Municipal Day, Bolivia. The first atomic bomb is detonated at Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1945. Joseph Monier patents reinforced concrete, 1867. Joshua Reynolds born, 1821.
17 July Constitution Day, South Korea. Peaceful Revolution Day, Iraq. British Royal Family changes its surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, 1917.
18 July Nelson Mandela is born, 1918. Countdown, AustraliaÕs top TV music show, finishes, 1987.
19 July Sandinista Revolution Day, Nicaragua.
20 July Boulia Desert Sands 2000 Camel Races, QLD. Maritime Day, Japan. Viking I lands on Mars, 1976. Police destroy the Aboriginal tent embassy on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra, 1972. Apollo 12 deposits Neil Armstrong and Edwin ŅBuzzÓ Aldrin on the surface of the moon, 1969.
21 July Schoelcher Day, Guadeloupe. Independence Day, Belgium.
22 July Liberation Day, Poland. The Pied Piper rids Hamelyn, in Germany, of rats - and then children, 1284.
23 July Revolution Day, Egypt. Haile SelassieÕs birthday, Ethiopia. Bert Newton born, 1938. First ice cream cone dislayed by Charles Menches, Missouri, US, 1904. Raymond Chandler born, 1888.
24 July Sim—n Bol’varÕs Birthday, Ecuador.
25 July Royal Darwin Show, Darwin Showground, NT. A Concorde crashes in France, 113 people killed, 2000. Liberian Independence Day. Independence Day, Netherlands.
26 July Maldives Independence Day.
27 July Save the Koala Day. Sleepyhead Day, Finland.
28 July Childers Multicultural Food, Wine and Arts Festival, Churchill Street, Childers, QLD. Peruvian Independence Day. īlavsæka, Faroe Islands. A B59 crashes into the 78th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 people, 1945. Albert Namatjira born, 1902.
29 July The Feast Day of Martha, patron saint of housewives. Sir Francis Drake finishes his game of bowls before engaging the Spanish Armada, 1588.
30 July Independence Day, Vanuatu. Arthur Stace, famous for writing "Eternity" on Sydney pavements, dies, 1967.
31 July ParentsÕ Day, Zaire. Voting in Federal elections made compulsory, 1924.
 
   
   

Australian Tourist Commission

eventsCorp

Sydney Events.com

 Event Link Artsralia - Australian arts and crafts links
For more Australian festival and event information visit these sites
   Live Guide.com.au link Qstage - Free Arts events in Sydney and Australia
  Queensland Events   State of the Arts
   

 

 

    
Visit these sites for international festival information
 
     

 

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