Joy-driven recovery

2nd June 2020

It’s Wednesday just after morning tea. Carl Pannuzzo, rugged up against the cold in hat, scarf and jacket, steps up to his electric piano and launches into his set.

His soulful voice floats out along the conveyor belt filling the Fair Food warehouse with an all-out joyful power that takes me by surprise.

On the warehouse floor the packing crew led by Hema and Mo are filling groceries orders and swaying to the music.

A driver, new to Fair Food, watches, face aglow and utters he’s never seen anything like this at work before.

With venues closed and gigs cancelled all over the country CERES Fair Food is paying artists to perform at our warehouse.

Carl Pannuzzo is the first of six Live From the Packing Floor gigs.

Even with the lockdown easing most of Melbourne’s live music venues still won’t be reopening anytime soon.

But the biggest hurts coming out of this crisis is that our Federal Government have decided that 200,000 artists are ineligible for JobKeeper income support.

Which is deeply ironic given that in our isolation how much we’ve turned to drama, music and books to help us through, and yet somehow our artists’ jobs are deemed not worth keeping.

Carl’s songs plough fields full of emotion – plenty of sadness and pain but joy is the note that soars highest.

Inevitably packing stops and dancing and whooping breaks out. Genuinely touched, Carl shares this is a gig he’ll never forget.

Warehouses are especially utilitarian places – all grey tilt slab walls with no room for art – but today there is music in the air and tears in people’s eyes.

Early reports from the packing floor are that productivity levels have risen sharply.

Surely encouragement enough for the Australian business community to join in a joy-driven economic recovery.

If you missed Carl Pannuzzo you can see his Live from the Packing Floor gig here.

Life on a Grain of Sand

Three new sandpits have been built at the Terra Wonder Playspace at CERES.

To keep the sun off our kids a shade sail will be built over them, only this will be no ordinary shade structure.

Like everything in the world of Terra Wonder the shade sail is inspired by soil ecology – in this case a single grain of sand magnified 20,000 times!

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen say that between 10,000 and 100,000 microorganisms live on each single grain of sand.

This week Terra Wonder’s creators are asking for your help making ‘bacteria’ at home to decorate the new shade sail.

You can find all the instructions and video guides on how to make your bacteria here

Life on a Grain of Sand ends June 8th

Have a great week

Chris