Small Apple Chip Tidbit: Come Estai...Mate??!!!

Dear Reader(Myself)

I promise my entry this week will be short. When one thinks of Australia's demographic makeup, it is natural to think of the commonwealth's Aboriginal(50,000 years old) and Anglo-Celtic(223 years old) heritage. However  many people might not know that close to  5 percent of Australia's population is made up of......immigrants from Italy and (mainly) their descendants? Starting with the Australian Gold Rush in the middle of the 19th century, London encouraged  limited amounts of immigration to fill labor shortages in agriculture caused by men leaving their jobs to attempt to find fortune in Victoria and South Australia. Amongst immigrants brought in mainly from northern Europe, these Italians were mainly middle class and wealthier folks who could afford passage to Australia. After the rush subsided,many of these folks stayed on in the country and assimilated into the fabric of Australian society. Many of them were skilled professionals and merchants who were quick to find success, and made a major impact upon the cultural and economic life of Victoria and the city of Melbourne especially. Fast forward some 70 odd years down the road  and we land in 1945.  At the end of the Second World War, Australia's political leadership, most notably amongst them, Prime Minister Ben Chiffley, realizing both how close the commonwealth had come to being invaded by the Japanese and the implicit necessity for more people to grow both the economy and thus its ability to defend itself properly, launched a massive immigration program. During the thirty years following 1945, more than a half million Italians, this time a much more economically diverse group, along with millions of other displaced persons from around Europe, were welcomed to come work and live in the country. As a result, 1 out of every 20 Australians today were either born in Italy or descended from someone born in Italy. I am stretching it a bit here, but if there is such a thing as Apple Gelato, I hope that this could be considered a mildly satisfying spoonful of such a concoction.
Cheers!

Apple Chip Tidbit: Who is Newcastle's pop culture claim to fame? Answer: SILVERCHAIR(Go 90's Rock!)

Dear Reader(s)(Myself and maybe Sho),

If one were to walk down the streets of either Queens, New York or Minneapolis, Minnesota and ask a random person on the street,

" Who is the most famous person, group or other cultural entity that comes to mind when mentioning Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia?"

I would be willing to bet almost six figures worth of American dollars that no one would say," Ah, but of course, those devilish lairikins of alternative rock Silverchair!!!"

 Up until a month ago, I would not have been able to answer this question either, but I when I saw a copy of the Newcastle Herald with an adverstisement for an upcoming Silverchair reading something like,"  Silverchair Playing Hometown Gig", your favorite aimless investigator decided to look into this important matter. And what did I find out: That all three members of the band were brought up in the inner-city suburb(read urban residential neighborhood) of Merewether Beach, which is only a few kilometers( a mile or so) from where we live in The Hill section of Newcastle. Why I find this obscure fact interesting is because Silverchair was a medium sized speck on the alt-rock landscape of the 1990's that reminds me of  the great years of Nirvana, Soundgarden and the Smashing Pumpkins, amongst many others. The band was(and still is) a three piece band with lead singer and guitarist Daniel Johns, Bassist Chris Joannou and Drummer, Ben Gilles. They were discovered in a talent contest sponsored by the national radio station, Triple J(a subsidiary of the Australian Broadcasting Channel), and went on to record three records that I knew of in the mid to late 1990's, "Frogstomp"(1995),  "Neon Ballroom(1999)" and "Freak Show(1997)" When" Frogstomp" was released in the United States it became the first time since the 1980's that an Australian band reached the Billboard Top Ten Album's list(along with fellow Aussies INXS and Men At Work). 

So, friend(s), now you know, when someone asks you about Newcastle's contributions to pop culture, you can knowingly chime in about these blokes:

APPLE CHIP TIDBIT: Australia's Jessie James

Dear Reader(myself and I),
I have got a sour apple gummy bear for ya( yay says dave..I like anything with sugar and an artificial sour apple flavor)! No chips of knowledge today. This is blood and guts and calories and intellectual fat up the wazoo!!! Today, I will talk about  briefly about Ned Kelly. Who is Ned Kellly, you might ask? Well, dear reader, he is only the greatest bushranger(read: wild west outlaw in the United States) who was a complete an utter thug, robbing, torturing and killing scores of people in the bush(read:country or rural) regions of  northeastern Victoria, Australia throughout the early to late 1870's  However is legend is more popular then that of any lawman or "good guy" that existed at the same time. Some say that this is due to  his supposed representation of the defiant and individualist ethic that many of the early pioneers that settled the then western stretches of Australia had. Some say his legend is due to the resonance of the great resentment that many Irish convicts, who were sent to Australia to serve time as prisoners or periods of indentured servitude held towards the colonial British authorities(today almost one third of all Australian citizens claim some Irish heritage on one or both sides of their family).  His legend was mostly forged in blood as he seeminlgly murdered with impunity for a period of five years, while successfully evading capture with the help of the large Kelly clan that would often shelter him after commiting one of his many crimes. One night, in late October of 1880, four regional policemen who were searching for Kelly were ambushed by Ned and his gang. Three of the officers were captured and one was able to escape. The escaped officer, realizing that he had been captured by Kelly, told the officers of his  gneral wareabouts. A posse of officers was dispatched to the area around Glenrowan, Victoria and found the three officers dead having had their scrotums and testicles shot off by the Kelly gang.  The regional police received a lucky break from a local informant that Kelly and his gang were holed up in a safety house in town. A few days later, a large contingent of police brought in from Melbourne to raid Kelly compound. The police arrived late in the afternoon on a freight train and promptly surrounded the compound and began firing live rounds at it. A ferocious gun battle raged into the night between the two camps. The next day during a lull in the fighting, Kelly, clad in a homemade suit  made of steel that covered his head and upper body tried to make a run for it into the bush in back of the house. However, one of the policemen spotted him and shot him in the leg, which was not protected. He was quickly apprehended and brought to Melbourne where he was quickly tried and convicted of murder. He was sentenced to death by hanging. A few days later, he was executed by British authorities at a  prison within the city limits.  He was only twenty five years of age at the time of his death. But his legend lives on in Australian folklore. Villain, symbol of defiance and the wild early years of  the European settlement of the Australian bush country and the untamed appetites, dreams and dangers that were realized there, Ned Kelly has come to symbolize an antihero whose chararcter has deep resonance in the Australian psyche. That was like eating a bag of just sour apple gummy bears! Thanks for indulging me, dear reader!!!

APPLE CHIP TIDBIT: I was never a math or science guy in school...

But "THE ROCKS" of Sydney tell a story that has more to do with vice then geology!

Dear Reader(Myself),
This past Thursday, I had the distinct pleasure of being able  to travel two hours south of Newcastle on the New South Wales "Country-Link" commuter rail service in order to visit the state capital(and one of the true gems of the Pacific Rim), Sydney. This is where the story of  modern Australia starts. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, Captain Arthur Phillip, who oversaw the first European(read: British) settlement of Australia, set up camp at Port Jackson(the formal name given to what most people call Sydney Harbor) in January of 1788, in the what is now known as the Circular Quay area of Sydney, in the shadow of where the Sydney harbor bridge crosses the water seperating the city center from suburban north Sydney. The very first neighborhood of what would become the city of Sydney was quickly erected and in  short  order would become a crime and disease ridden slum filled with brothels, taverns, boarding houses and trenchant poverty. It was the embodiment of  all of the social ills that manifested themselves in the British policy of "transportation" or simply the shipping  of criminals to serve their sentences far away from the motherland's shores(in the case of Australia, to what might as well have been the end of the earth) and out of sight and mind. The area's buildings were constructed largely with the use of local sandstone and the new locals started referring to the collection of sandstone structures as "the Rocks", and the name stuck. As I mentioned earlier, the natural sciences and math never were the subjects in school that truly animated me. However, the study of the human past does, and I found it to be rather neat to be amongst the sandstone rocks that would eventually spawn with it a major center of commerse and would thus establish  the  foundation of what would become the Commonwealth of Australia. You will have to forgive me as I poured an overflowing handful of chips into your hands. The chips that fell on the floor and that are still plenty good to eat will  boost your immunity to all sorts of illness. Sometimes, my pedantic ways gets the best of me. But  in the end, they are good for you!
Take Care!

APPLE CHIP TIDBIT: If only I had been born 192 years and 363 days earlier and was a british convict...

Then I could have been a member of the First Fleet!  The First Fleet was the group of eleven British Naval supply ships which set sail from England in May of 1787 and arrived at Port Jackson in present day Sydney harbour on January 26th, 1788. The flotilla, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, was sent to establish a colony on land claimed for Great Britain on the east coast of the Australian continent by Captain James Cook eighteen year earlier. Cook called this land, New South Wales. The First Fleet consisted of almost eight hundred convicts and more then six hundred members of the British military sent to establish the claimed lands' territorial integrity. Although numerous European explorers had set foot on the Australian continent prior to the late 18th century(Potuguese and Dutch), none had taken the time to establish an actualy community on the island(of course, the indigeneous peoples, known here in Australia as "first peoples", had been living here for almost 50,000 years prior to European settlement). This day is known as "Australia Day". I was born on January, 24th 1981. If I had been born 192 years and 363 days earlier in Britain and had been convicted of a crime, I could have been one of the first of His Majesty's subjects establishing the United Kingdom's largest(physically) colony! Crisp crunching sounds can be simulated by the reader at this point.

APPLE CHIP TIDBIT: How empty is Australia?

Yestereday, while sitting shivering on our very uneven couch on a chilly winter morning here in the southern hemisphere, I was reading a few pages of Bill Bryson's rather witty and clever travel book about Australia, " In a Sunburned Country" and was drawn to a statistic I found rather shocking.  In Australia the average population density is 6 people per square mile! In a country the size of the United States! In the U.S there are over one hundred people per square mile on average. However, Bryson mentions that 6 is skewed wildly due to the fact that over 85 percent of the populations lives in metropolitan areas along the Pacific and Indian Ocean coasts. The reality is that in most of Australia, the density of the population is less than one person per square mile. Taste that salty yet fortified apple chip goodness!

A New Brand of Information Tidbit: THE DRIED APPLE CHIP!!!

Dear Reader(read: probably myself):

When I was much younger, my parents on occasion would  pack my lunch before I went to school. My lunch pack would typically consist of four items: A sandwich, a bag of fruit, a drink and then some variety of  chip or cheese doodle. I rememberthat one of those types of chips/doodles were apple chips. Apple chips were baige,thin and crisp dried out slices of granny and fuji apples which were a touch salty and a bit sweet at the same time. I remember them  being quite good. They were in that gray area between health and junk food. They did not have too many calories and did not significantly add to ones waist line, however if one were looking for food that would  not exacerbate hypertension, this would not be it. However they were fortified with artificially enriched vitamins which gave them redeeming value. They were quick snacks that you could convince yourself were heallthy and you would be mostly right! Except that things that are truly good for you shouldn't taste quite as salty. Thus I introduce to you dear reader(TRUMPETS SOUNDING...DRUMS ROLLING...HERE IT IS.....): THE APPLE CHIP TIDBIT!!!!!

    My APPLE CHIP TIDBIT series is perfectly suited for Australia: Small to Medium sized facts that are interesting yet do not require heavy reading or research on my part. Tidbits that are educational yet have a little of that seductive "pop salt" on them to make them easily digestable! I figure that the rhetorical big bag of apple chips that is Australia will be constantly tilting into the rhetorical open hands that are my silly and dream filled head. Hopefully I can share with  you, dear reader, a few of these chips that Australia has handed to me. I will label such tidbits accordingly!
Cheers Mates!
Dave