1. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy Founded in 1972 outside the then Parliament House, the Tent Embassy remains a vital link to the pressing issues of that time, as well as serving as a reminder that while we've made some progress in the intervening years, we still have a ways to go. They also make a nice cup of billy tea there, and it's a good place to go if you're looking for an alternative to the standard Australia Day celebrations.
2. The basketball courts at Telopea Park High School
The rings are the right height, they are pretty friendly, and unlike a lot of the outdoor courts around town they aren't placed on swivel stanchions. This is also where I went to high school, where my brother or my cousin when we were young would play these epic one on one games, first to a hundred baskets, win by two. Later on, I would go there with a mate who has since moved to Tasmania, and we would muck around until a sweat was broken, before wandering up to Kingston through Telopea Park for a cold beer. I would always come away from these encounters feeling like I had just stepped out of one of the basketball scenes in Woody Allen's 'Melind and Melinda.' I don't know why. Maybe it was the way the afternoon sun struck the backboard. (If you're looking for a pickup run, try the courts at Lake Ginninderra, as well as the indoor ones at ANU, usually on a Saturday.)
3. Art gallery openings
The other night I went along to one of these. 'Oh' my companion said, as we pulled up. 'Hipsters and babies.' She was right. There was also art, and finger food, a little booze, a convivial atmosphere, and probably a dozen or so people we both knew and could pass a few pleasant moments catching up with. I like the fact that Canberra is the kind of city with lots of art galleries. If I were describing this place to someone from interstate/overseas, one of the ways I might do it would be to say that in some ways it is like an overpopulated country town, but with art galleries. Lots of them. If you are new in town and don't know anyone, they aren't a bad place to attempt to start having a social life here.
4. Community radio
I was doing the afternoon commute the other week or month, didn't have any music in the car (my CD collection being dispersed among various friends/acquaintances/family members, who all said they wanted to rip and burn them), was feeling oppressed by the forced pseudocorporate cheeriness and boosterism of Triple J, the actual corporate moronity of the commercial FM stations, the relentless newsiness of the news stations, and so on, when I chanced upon 2XX (98.3FM). There was a young presenter, doing an arts and culture program, who was talking about 'Synechdoche New York' with a couple of dudes from the local hip hop community, and they spent a full minute an a half having a semi-earnest discussion about the correct way of pronouncing the word 'synechdoche.' Instead of feeling vaguely pissed off and more than a little tired, I became glad.
5. Impromptu ciphers at barbeques
There was beer. There was a huge barbie down the back of the garden. It was the start of summer. A group of people, boys and girls, gathered at the top of the stairs to inside started rhyming around in a circle. I seem to remember someone beatboxing. A few people gathered around them, smiling, nodding along, acknowledging it if someone said something particularly ill. It didn't need to be happening in the suburbs of Canberra, Australia, but it was.
6. Ainslie Village
Located at the foot of Mount Ainslie, the village is a supported accommodation service for homeless people over the age of 18, with a particular focus on people with mental health issues. While it does have some issues, it's far from the worse place you could end up, and for many people there it represents a second, third and sometimes ninth chance to get their lives on track. Also, after it was redeveloped in the early nineties, it won the Canberra Medallion for excellence in architecture, for the incorporation of ecologically sustainable practices into its restructuring.
7. They're building a bicycle lane on the Cotter Road
About five weeks ago, road crews started to go to work along the stretch of the Cotter Road in between the Adelaide Avenue turnoff and Lady Denman Drive. The road is being widened to accommodate a cycle lane on either side. Canberra is a spread out city with a lot of roads and a highly developed car culture, but these and other works also illustrate the growing influence of the bicycle lobby. Also, the work seems to be progressing in an orderly and timely fashion, which can only be a good thing.
8. The sheep sculpture outside David Jones in Civic
This is an exceedingly strange piece of public art. It isnt uncommon for passersbz to do a double take, or, if there's a camera around, to take a picture doing something inappropriate with the second sheep. Priceless.
9. Electric Shadows Bookstore
An iconic Canberra business. It used to be next door to the old Electric Shadows cinema, as a sister business, in the days before the Queensland Investment Corporation. It has a fantastic range of books about the cinema, as well as a well-thought-out general range, and a nice line in DVDs as well. It's also next door to the Cornucopia Bakery.
10. The ANU Refectory
Nearly everyone in Canberra within fifteen years of however old I am would have a favourite story/band/experience to do with this venue, which has hosted the spectrum from massive overseas touring acts (like Nirvana, in 1991, right before they became a massive touring act) to killer local bands (too numerous to namecheck) who may or may not get there but will at least be able to say they played here. My refectory story involves catching the second half of a Rollins Band gig (before he became a spoken word artist), despite definitely not being over eighteen (the side doors suddenly blew open while we were milling around outside), just as someone lobbed stray Doc Marten onstage (prompting Rollins to stop the music for about forty three seconds of improvised riffing about provenance and existential meaning of said footwear).