It has been said, and perhaps rightly so, that there’s not much to do in Brisbane of an evening. Sometimes there’s not much to do of a morning either, or even of a late afternoon. This is why we should look twice at the creative output of young Brisbanians for, like so many Huckleberry Finns, they rely on their plucky imaginations in the daily quest for amusement.

The Lifted Brow is a testament to such deprivations. It blows our lazy, big-city zines out of their puddles. Even the interviews are quirky and well-thought-out. None of this lamo ‘what was the inspiration for your band name?’ – all interview questions in issue 001 were taken from I Wish I Felt Good All of the Time, a book of Christian devotions for children by Mildred Tengbom, producing moments of hilarity such as:

Lifted Brow: If you don’t wear the latest or best clothes, what do others say?
Animal Collective: “Are you going to a Jimmy Buffet concert?”

They’re launching issue 002 in Melbourne this week. Expect fiction about the drugging of someone’s brother’s breakfast cereal, surrealist comic strips and a CD featuring Brisbane bands with a cover by Ben Constantine. Originality is not dead, it lives on the Sunshine Coast.

By Penny Modra

Tireless music personality and friend of ThreeThousand and nownow, Michael Kucyk (AKA Nervous Jerk) holds up an ingenious mirror for us to see with the new concept album compilation, ESP. Assembled more along the lines of an obsessive fanzine or curated visual art show than your regular label sampler – ie: with planned, combinative aesthetic effect – this document stages new meaning to the music of more than 20 acts in a spirit of positive unification. Like the refrain from local eternal-flames Panel of Judges’ opener ‘Absolute Boys’ – “These things only come around every so often” – the overall feeling here is of a specious, unheard creativity, delivered to listeners as a personal gift.

Local notables and Nervous Jerk stable artists Sly Hats, Always, Kiosk, The Stabs and Fabulous Diamonds all appear, but so too do the seldom heard Superstupid (flat-out cosmic garage spliff), Hi God People (re-scored Zabriskie Point desert freakout), Sean Bailey (restless distorto prayer) and Birth Glow (spectral campfire folk). As many transcontinental artists again are included, revealing the far-reaching success of this young label’s community-building predicate – Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano, Weird War and Calvin Johnson all seamlessly beam into the meeting of psychic hearts.

Summed: a triumphant archive tour of Nervous Jerk’s fertile trans-underground network.

By Mark Gomes

How many times does your mother have to tell you? Don’t leave things until the last minute. Remember that time you failed VCE? Got audited by the ATO? Didn’t go to the toilet before the jazz ballet eisteddfod? All bad memories that could have been avoided. This week we’re channelling your mother because you still have a chance to see Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now at NGV International.

When else are you going to see a bunch of iconic artworks by Jackson Pollock*, Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, Matthew Barney, Dan Flavin, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman and other great western art practitioners of the late 20th and early 21st centuries? After you pay your tax bill and book a ticket to New York? Ya huh.

Get on that tram down St Kilda Road. No, not in that outfit what would your father say? I’ll bet that’s going to look good inked on your behind when you’re 75. I said NOW.

By Penny Modra

* Meanwhile, how mind-blowing is jacksonpollock.org?

What:
Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now

Where:
NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

When:
Until Sun Oct 7

How much:
$20 adult / $16 concession
If you go to Art After Dark on from 5pm on a Wednesday night there is booze and live music and you can get in for $10 if you’re a student.

Contact:
8620 2222

We often talk up new labels who are striving to make our streets a little better looking. If you bought every item we talked up, you’re probably be skipping meals and keeping credit card moguls laughing raucously in bathtubs filled with gold coins. This week, throw your malnourished fist in the air against shiny plastic.

Sift through your closet and pick out up to six items you’ve loved but are willing to part with. These items will be your currency at My Sister’s Wardrobe held at the Croft Institute.

Exchange your old threads with other indebted ladies and walk away wearing an outfit that brings new meaning to the second-hand – one that doesn’t smell of Frankston Savers* (cat wee, moth balls, puke).

Happy swapsies, ladies.

By Isabel Dunstan

* While we refer to Frankston Savers unfavourably, the trek to ‘the end of the line’ is often worth the stench for the largest collection of Coogi jumpers known to mankind. It was recently discovered that Frankston Savers became home to the entire shirt range stolen from James Cameron’s store earlier this year, so you can buy those too – if you wish to abandon any sense of moral decency.

What:
My Sister’s Wardrobe

Where:
The Croft Institute, 21-25 Croft Alley, Melbourne

When:
Next week. Wed Sept 26, 6pm or 8pm

How much:
$16 online or $20 on the door
Tickets include a cocktail upon arrival

Win:
Clothing Exchange have given us one double pass for My Sister’s Wardrobe to give away. Just email win@threethousand.com.au with the subject line ‘malnourished overspenders unite’

Julien Temple has a long career in music video, and directed the fascinating Sex Pistols doco, The Filth And The Fury, back in 2000. It used snippets of television, movies, and more to create a blistering media-wash of England’s popular culture. Now he turns his attention to the life of Joe Strummer of The Clash.

Now in Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, the same techniques are used for a more personal effect: using clips from George Orwell adaptations and the criminally-underviewed If… to illustrate the inside of Strummer’s head.

These stylistic choices sadly fade away we see as The Clash’s success, and their political credibility become infected by American fame. And the film loses its way here too, infected by the same celebrity-excess. When (still piratey) Johnny Depp pops up as one of the film’s talking heads, it’s for no reason except that he’s Johnny Depp.

Strummer doesn’t have the large-scale electric drama of The Filth and The Fury. It’s a smaller, warmer story of a man struggling with his passions for music, politics, and people.

By Martyn Pedler

Last time you were conjuring up a love potion, stabbing voodoo dolls over a relaxing G&T, or re-arranging your favourite wolves hides, did you ever shake your head and wonder: ‘what’s up with the same old, same old?’.

Well, now you can glam up your rituals and add a little sparkle to your shrine. Come get your magic on in the Apocalypse Voodoo Jungle - the only place to find ‘quality bling for witchdoctors and zombies’. 

Sydney based artists Torso Corso have been shakin’ their voodoo sticks and rattlin’ their skulls ‘til all hours, to bring you a fresh selection macabe jewellery. Their zombie-inspired pieces and wack will be unleashed this Saturday. Be the first kid on the block with a ‘knock-out’ severed fist necklace.

By Martha Powers

What:
$2 breakfast*

Where:
IKEA Richmond, Cnr Victoria and Burnley streets, Richmond

When:
Every day 9.30am till 10.30am

How much:
guess

“They were five strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time: a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel, and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules, bared their souls, and touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible”

The Breakfast Club: Seriously, there’d be few 20-30 year olds who’ve never twisted some Ringwald ringlets, flexed some Estevez charm or quipped some acid-tongued Judd Nelson insults to some poor math professor after seeing this coming-of-age epic. This film fully the ‘era defining’ tag, it birthed the Bratpack people!

In an ardent display of homage this spanking new Northcote caf? has taken ‘theme’ and written it all over its replica, school-sized blackboard. Offerings like the Sheedy toast, the Ringwald melt and the Emilio-omelette (sadly there’s no mention of Judd, maybe that’s coming - a ‘Full Nelson’ brekky may haps?) abound. Add some great coffee, the most impressive souvenir spoon collection you’ve seen outside your nana’s and some snazzy salt and pepper shakers and you’ve got pure, simple indulgence.

And there’s nary a teacher in sight. Though, even if there were, we couldn’t think of a better place to have a weekend detention, can you?

By Josh Gardiner

What:
The Breakfast Club

Where:
206 St Georges Rd, North Fitzroy

When:
Tues-Fri 7.30am-3.30pm; Sat-Sun 9am-3.30pm

Contact:
No phone, jus go there