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SYDNEY FILM FEST The Sydney Film Festival is one of the worlds longest-running lm festivals and is a major event on the NSW cultural calendar. June sff.org.au

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVALHear something new in Melbournes jazz bars and clubs this Queens Birthday weekend. May 30-June 8, melbournejazz.com

AUSTRALIAN BALLET: CHROMA Dancers push the boundaries in Chroma, which includes music by The White Stripes, at Melbournes 4UBUF5IFBUSF+VOFartscentremelbourne.com.au

ASYLUM EXHIBITION AT MONAArtist Roger Ballens photography sheds light on the dark side of the human form. The exhibition runs until +VMZ

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MUSICAL MUSINGS

When New Zealands The Naked and Famous rst started writing material for their critically acclaimed debut record, Passive Me Aggressive You (spawning the hit single Young Blood), they were in their teens.

I think it was an amazing effort for musicians who were just 18 and 19 at the time, says lead singer Alisa Xayalith. Now the ve-piece band is back with their follow-up, In Rolling Waves (out now through Universal Music), featuring a moodier, more mature soundscape.

Its just really tailored in sound, production and songwriting. The evolution of our music taste really shines through on this record and I think our fans have grown up with us along the way, says Xayalith. Fleeing their Auckland coop to break into the international market, the band is now based out of LA and has just completed an arena tour

supporting American Grammy Award winners, Imagine Dragons. I think it would be impractical to move back to New Zealand when all of our touring is in America and Europe. Were pretty well trained to live nomadically, says Xayalith. On channelling creativity during their at-times chaotic touring schedule, she claims it comes down to having a pen or smartphone handy. Any creative thought that comes by, I just take note of it. You have to be a bit of a merchant and just write down everything, even if you dont think its good at the time.

MiNDFOOD.COM Go online to read the full interview with The Naked and Famous.

KEYWORDS: NAKED, FAMOUS

With the release of their second album, indie band The Naked and Famous talk to MiNDFOOD about their evolution and creative process.

WHO AM I? I evolved millions of years ago. I live in the wet tropics of Australia and am the heaviest bird in the country. I am the third-largest ightless bird in the world. I am a keystone species and play a critical role in rainforest diversity. I am endangered and losing my home. Head online to to mindfood.com for the answer. KEYWORDS: RAINFOREST, DINOSAUR

The head of Talks and Ideas at the Sydney Opera House, Ann Mossop has been part of the performing arts scene for most of her adult life.

Ive always been involved in getting writers and thinkers to talk about their work, she says. So when the opportunity came to develop the Opera Houses standing, both nationally and internationally, as a vibrant centre for ideas and debate, she jumped at the chance. Mossop says part of the statute that established the Sydney landmark indicated that it was to be a meeting place for the discussion of national and international ideas. The Opera House is really a house for everybody, she says.

For this champion of the arts, its all about making events accessible for various groups of people and getting different audiences coming back.5IBOLTUPJUTRVJSLZTPNFUJNFTBCTUSBDUBOE

always controversial speakers, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) is achieving just that. Having picked up the festival after its successful launch in 2009, Mossop produced the second event in record time. But dening a dangerous idea has become a bit of an art form in itself.

The way I see it, there are several different kinds of dangerous ideas. There are the ones that are very obviously dangerous, like the kind of ideas that could get you killed, or the kind of ideas that SFBMMZIBWFMJGFBOEEFBUIDPOTFRVFODFT4PUIFbig issues around life, death, religion the things people feel incredibly passionate about and also that

people have incredible sensitivity to. Then there are the other dangerous ideas, looking at ideas that go against received wisdom and are much more about how we lead our everyday lives. They upset peoples comfortable preconceptions, she says, reecting on a speaker at last years FODI, Erwin James, a twice-convicted killer-cum-journalist who spoke about whether a murderer could be a good neighbour.

Sometimes we just like to have a bit of a laugh at the whole concept of dangerous ideas. Those are much more lighthearted.

So what can we expect from this years event? 0CWJPVTMZUIFXIPMFRVFTUJPOBSPVOEGSFFEPN

of speech and freedom of expression is huge, says Mossop. But also the kinds of ideas about surveillance that have come out with the Edward Snowden revelations. The imagination could run wild at the possibilities, especially considering that this is the same festival that featured WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange via video link in 2012.

Were also looking in a number of different ways at things that are so dangerous they might end the world, Mossop teases. Whats interesting to observe is that, in spite of the printed book and the written word and now the digital expression of transmitting all of these ideas, its still very important to people to see these things in person.The Festival of Dangerous Ideas is from August 30-31 and will release its programme on June 10. Go to mindfood.com during June for some of the highlights.

DANGEROUS IDEAS Oscar Wilde said an idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea. For Ann Mossop of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, this couldnt be more true.

CHAPTER TWO | COM M U N I T Y

MAKING BOMBS BEAUTIFULDuring the Second Indochina War, its estimated that a plane-load of bombs was dropped on the South-East Asian countries of Laos and Cambodia every eight minutes this continued for nine years. Today, Oz Fair Trade (ozfairtrade.org) is recycling aluminium and brass from the bombs and turning them into jewellery and utensils.

The Peacebomb project sees local artisans transform materials of destruction into objects of beauty, with prots reinvested into the expansion of the charity and its support of producers around the region. The product range carries a special message of peace, says Oz Fair Trade founder Qinnie Wang.