Some sad, but not unexpected news, regarding Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan: she's been dropped by international recording label Sony BMG. Washed up at just 18 - and, arguably, a victim of "reality" television and a music industry that chews up artists and spits them out. The good news, according to this Sydney Morning Herald story is that Donovan has offers from at least two independent labels.

I made my first visit to the Brisbane Festival's Spiegeltent in what's left of King George Square* last night to hear the James Morrison Sextet play. The band is hot, vocalist Emma Pask has an enormous and engaging voice and the act is very funny (especially the contrived sibling rivalry between James and his drummer brother John).
*It is being dug up as part of work on the northern bus way, I think.

Ben Elton says he's sick of hearing how he's sold out from people who've read inaccurate articles about him on the internet. "It's totally unedited ... you don't know what you're reading," he told me. "I'm constantly having to do interviews about that sh-t that (people have) read on the Net. I do think I must get somebody ... to redo the Wikipedia*. Apparently some f--king arsehole has written an article about how I was a leftie and I've spent the rest of my life f--king selling out." Elton says he does not own any of the domain-name derivatives of his name and knows very little about the Net. However, he is thinking of buying a name and setting up a web site of his own. Listen to what he has to say about that, and other issues, in Part 2 of the interview. You can find links to Part 1 of the interview and to my other podcasts - including my talk with Woody Allen - here.

Extraordinary. That's the only word I can think of to describe Mabou Mines Dollhouse, now playing at the QUT Gardens Theatre as part of the Brisbane Festival. Lee Breuer's unique adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking A Doll's House features tall women and small men, adding another layer of meaning to the already potent text. To my mind, not everything Breuer and his cast attempt is successful. The exaggerated Scandanavian accents (especially Nora's high-pitched girly voice version) wear thin quickly and it's probably 20 minutes longer than it need be, but it is inspiring theatre the likes of which we've not seen in Brisbane. Only a festival could bring us this experience.

"The one thing I genuinely had not looked to, planned or thought about was becoming a stand-up comedian." That's what British comic, scriptwriter, director and author Ben Elton told me while promoting the standup tour, Get A Grip, that brings him to south-east Queensland in late July and early August. My article took up a page in The Sunday Mail's ie section, but with any Ben Elton interview there's always more words than you can use. If you want to listen to edited highlights of our chat, they are available in two audio files on this site. In Part 1 he talks about the standup tour. Part 2 will be the subject of another post later today.

As I predicted in my item on Graeme Murphy's resignation, the spirited commentary on arts funding has begun afresh. In this Sydney Morning Herald article, Arts Minister Rod Kemp defended the federal government, with a statement saying: "In the recent 2006-2007 budget, the total money allocated to the arts was $650 million. It was $250 million to sport." Kemp says Sydney Dance got $1.5 million in base funding and a one-off $600,000 to pay-off debt. The figures "speak for themselves", he says. Elsewhere in the SMH, an article about Barrie Kosky says the director "still wants to astonish audiences, to wake them from a pleasant slumber in David Williamsonland".

The Brisbane Festival has officially opened with an indigenous smoking ceremony preceding last night's opening of Johnno. I'll save my comments on that for my review in Brisbane News, but I will be posting some general comments about other festival events on this blog. Tonight, I'm off to Mabou Mines Dollhouse. More on that tomorrow.

"Hello, I'm Mary Smith and I am the chair of the Whizzo Arts Company." I've heard something similar twice in the past two days and I'm not happy. I know this is a way to avoid the gender-specific term "chairman", but it's simply not good enough just to lop the offending syllable off the end of the word. Surely the English language is rich enough for us to come up with a term to describe a person's job without appropriating a word that more usually, and more accurately, describes a piece of furniture.

Like me, you've probably never heard the name Aaron Kosminski before. Apparently, though, he's the prime suspect in the never-ending hunt to identify Jack the Ripper, the serial killer who terrorised London in the 1890s. The Polish barber was identified by investigator Inspector Donald Swanson in handwritten annotations to a book written by another policeman. According to this site, Kosminski is one of the five top suspects. The others are surgeon's son Montague John Druitt, a Russian doctor named Michael Ostrog, barber's assistant George Chapman (real name Severin Klosowski) and last, but by no means least, Prince Albert, the grandson of Queen Victoria.

Applicants for jobs with Jetstar's new overseas airline will have to pay $89 just to have a job interview. The cost includes $40 for a "personality test". Surely that's a bit over the top. I know a few people who provide free character readings on licensed premises after work hours.

This morning on 612 ABC, Spencer Howson and I spoke about the new "reality" show, Who Wants to be a Superhero!, the face-recognition software that says I look like supermodel Gemma Ward and, on a more serious note, last night's opening of QTC's Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset.

Artistic director Graeme Murphy and his wife-associate director Janet Vernon have quit Sydney Dance Company, saying they will leave at the end of April next year. Apparently their resignation letter blames funding shortfalls and government indifference, which has caused "a debilitating malaise among the dancers and management". There's sure to be some spirited commentary in arts circles on this issue.
PS: The Sydney Morning Herald suggests Brisbane-based Expressions Dance Company's Maggi Sietsma (who is currently teaching in Hong Kong) may be on the short-list to replace Murphy.

So you thought they'd run out of ideas for "reality" television? Not so. The newest idea in the US is Who Wants to Be a Superhero! The show, which debuts on July 27, has former Marvel Comics mastermind Stan Lee as mentor to 11 ordinary people who want to be heroes. I'm not sure where they're going to get their powers from, but from the website it certainly seems like they've got sexy costumes - and catchy names like Levity, Monkey Woman, Fat Momma, Feedback, The Iron Enforcer, Major Victory and, my favourite, Cell Phone Girl.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams, co-creators of Little Britain, are trying to explain the universal appeal of their show. In an interview with US-based The A.V. Club, Lucas says: "A girl who's a delinquent should be funny in any country. And the guy falling in love with his best friend's grandmother is not an exclusively British thing by any means."
Sure, Matt, it happens all the time.

Farinelli, the great castrato whose life story became a film, has been dug up for research purposes. A Bologna-based team of scientists is examining bone fragments, vocal-chord remains and DNA in a search for clues about his incredible voice. This BBC story reveals that up to 4000 boys - many of them from poor families - were castrated each year in Italy until the pratice was banned in 1870. Very few of them achieved success as singers.

"Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean."
That's the winning entry in the annual Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest, from the pen of retired mechanical designer Jim Guigli. His task was to "compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" - and I think he's done a marvellous job. Guigli said: "My motivation for entering the contest was to find a constructive outlet for my dementia."

A couple of weeks ago, the road outside my house was resurfaced. Today, workers are digging it up to lay new pipes. After that, of course, it will have to be resurfaced.

Tributes are pouring in (now there's a cliche) for Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett, who has died at 60. David Bowie said: "I can't tell you how sad I feel ... He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him."

The Queensland Theatre Company's production of Away is now in Gladstone. To follow the show's progress, visit the Away on tour blog.

An American man has succeeded in his aim to trade a big red paperclip for a house. To read how he did it, visit Kyle MacDonald's blog.