The sphere of influence grows...

Over the last few months some theatre and arts related websites have emerged from the garden bed and are offering some interesting perspectives on the industry.

The first one I have become aware of is The Australian's Lynden Barber who has set up the blog site Eyes Wired Open. He describes himself as a "freelance journalist specialising in film and music, a feature film script-assessor and an occasional film studies lecturer".

I knew Lynden a couple of years ago as my boss when he was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Film Festival.

His site has become a bit of a hive of activity, as he debates with the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) about the standard of script writing in Australia. There is his initial article in The Australian where he posits that "the industry suffers from deep-rooted cultural problems that consistently militate against the possibility of compelling scripts emerging at regular intervals".

This got up the nose of the AWG who penned together a response in the same paper's op-ed pages placing the blame at the feet of directors uninterested in producing another persons script and a lack of money.

A great debate that I think that the theatre industry desperately needs to have as well.

I have also become aware of a new blog by ex-SMH theatre reviewer James Waites. It is my understanding that he is quite a man of principle who got pushed out from the Herald after giving Les Miserables a bad review. Sound familiar?

It's an interesting site, but terribly hard to navigate and it lacks a good comments section that gives blogs some life.

There is also a pop-culture and arts site run by FBI Radio's Matt Levinson. I stumbled across it the other day and it is an interesting read that captures the heart of the inner city youf culture of music and creativity.

Since the creation of FBI Radio in inner city Redfern, Sydney has experienced a renaissance in the local music and arts scene. This station has gradually fixed itself as a central point where all the latest news of good local music and arts is broadcast.

They have heaps of arts programmes and have funky young reviewers out and about to see what's going on in the city. We are finally creating a good community feel that Melbourne has had for oh-so-long.

Yes... this year is going to be exciting I feel. Don't be left behind.