It's all about the 30s

Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 May - 120 Birds is a fun looking history-of-dance show at the Street Theatre. Three dancers, archival 1920s-1930s film footage and costumes inspired by Florence Broadhurst. 

Thursday 31 May - Cotton Club event at Cabinet lounge bar in Manuka. With Spectrum Big Band and singer Sarah Byrne. Apparently two performances at 630 pm and 800 pm. And actually, now I read the website I realise this happens the last Thursday of every month (they have other music themes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays). Looks worth a visit.

Saturday 2 June - Festa Della Repubblica at the Italian Cultural Centre (that out-of-place Tuscan tower just down the hill from the Parliament House potato masher). Includes everything you'd expect: food, coffee and an opera concert in the evening. Runs 11.00 am - 4.00 pm, with the concert at 6.30 pm.

Rumour mill - Apparently the 'summer blockbuster' exhibition at the NGA will be Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (hopefully his posters). I'm a bit excited about that!

Getting lost in exhibitions

I just saw a review of the Travelling the Silk Road exhibition that's at the National Museum of Australia until 29 July. I've been thinking for a while that it would be great to do the journey from Xi'an to Istanbul - now I can see it without the jetlag or traveller's tummy. The exhibition got a good review and is definitely on my to-do list.

They've also got a bunch of special events around the exhibition, including two concerts in May and a fantastic sounding night market on 15 June.

This reminds me, make sure you go and see 'Look: The Art of Australian Picture Books Today' at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (until 10 June). I saw it in Melbourne and it's brilliant, regardless of whether you have kids to drag along or not.