JUST as they thought the Fringe Festival '95 was over, the overseas performers gone, the accounts signed off, organisers at the Ice House Street venue had a sad surprise last week.
Daphne Hellman, the gifted 80-year old American jazz harpist who has made regular appearances at the festival for the past decade, was knocked over by a taxi near the escalator and broke six ribs.
A concerned Benny Chia recounted how she had stood up immediately after being hit by the vehicle, and it was only the next day that anyone realised there was a serious problem. A recent visitor to the Central Hospital reported that Hellman was living up to her intrepid reputation, and was already drinking scotch and bird-watching through the hospital windows.
Hellman - who has played with Billie Holliday and many other top names - had another accident last year. When she was in India last year she broke a tendon - while roller-blading.
THEY might be less than 30 years old, but a collection of Japanese kites and spinning tops on show at the Visual Arts Centre from today is already a relic from the past.
Within a decade, the 2,000-year old tradition of flying vividly painted kites during carefree childish evenings has now almost entirely given way to the more electronic challenges posed by Nintendo and Sega, admits Japanese consul Tatsuo Hirayama who helped put the show together.
