This newsagency is secretly also a gift shop. It's bailed me out a few times when I've remembered…read moresomeone's birthday party on the day of the event. The gift shop section is viewable from the store front and occupies its own little room. The range of gifts here aren't extensive but they seem to nicely cover all bases. I recently had to buy a gift for my mother at the last minute, and picked up two modern-art-esque wire cat statues for around $30. (The best thing is look like they might be expensive, a big bonus for all Scrooges.) On the other hand, there's kids toys, board games, and presents for yobbo mates (yard glasses included, of course) and - causing me to raise my eyebrows - Golliwog dolls, on occasion. The card range is decent, and even though around 90% of humorous cards in general are anything but, there's a few funny ones here. There is also the rest of the newsagent with the standard stuff common to larger newsagents. It's really the gift shop part I like, and the earring selection at the front counter. Local designers sell their wares here and there's some very cool and unique stuff at cheap prices (around $10 for a pair of earrings). I find the staff to generally be on the frosty side, but then again I much prefer this to someone jumping all over me.

I am a loyal 4zzz subscriber and have been for a number of years. My favourite show is Concept…read moreWarning, Fishin in the Morning with Fisherman Dan and I was lucky enough to be Dan's weather girl one Sunday morning a few months back! Dan has now moved to Tuesday mornings at 5:00am, and as a dedicated fan I set my alarm each Tuesday and drag myself out of bed to listen to his show - Johnny Cash, Frank Zappa and The Ramones regularly featuring (their music of course). There is something for everyone! The Zed's Poet Society mix it up on Tuesdays with early era rock, jazz & blues, grunge, heavy metal and punk. On Wednesday nights you can catch Dykes on Mykes Davina and Ruth (their show is a hoot) and on Thursdays tune into Bhudda and Ben - the Brown Couch Men, featuring loads of local muso's. Sunday mornings you can chill out with Knoxy and his Jazz session - this session is a seriously good hangover cure. The Zed's is a not for profit community run radio station and as such relies heavily on its subscribers for funding, so if you love local music and aren't currently a subscriber - you should be!

In some way, you can thank Gough Whitlam for 4zzz. On December 8, 1975, 4zzz made it's first…read morebroadcast as the first community FM broadcaster in Australia, and 36 years on, they're still getting local music out to the local people via the air waves. Yes! 4zzz has it's home in the very uniquely painted building on Barry Parade, Fortitude Valley. 4zzz is a non for profit community radio station that promotes local Brisbane and Australian music, and does so on little funding outside of charitable donations. One of the best things I could ever tell a Brisbane local to do is subscribe to 4zzz. You're helping community radio and local music, and they provide awesome incentives to join up. Whenever they're giving away free tickets, for some mysterious reason, your chances are high at winning what's on offer. Lets leave it at that. Triple Zed are responsible for promoting a lot of local gigs through events they hold during the year, one being Dub Day Afternoon, held at the Jubilee Hotel, just up the road. A lot of gigs going on in town have ticket discounts if you're a 4zzz supporter too. I'm not patriotic about much, but I have to say, I want to put my hand over my heart in reverence when I speak or refer to 4zzz. Tune in on 102.1 FM.

Triple J is a great alternative to mainstream music stations and is famous in Australia for both…read moreits annual Hottest 100 (the worlds largest music democracy) and its Unearthed program. Unearthed focuses on unknown Australian acts and is responsible for finding Aussie superstars such as Missy Higgins, Grinspoon and the new Perth wunderkinds San Cisco along with a host of others. The program is now so succesful Triple J has launched a dedicated digital radio station playing solely Unearthed music. If you get bored of modern music, and have heard all the 80's / 90's classics too many times you should definitely check out Triple J.

Triple J is Brisbane's (and the rest of Australia's) alternative music station. They have a…read moreserious aversion to what they call 'bubblegum pop' and instead play plenty of home-grown Aussie bands and well as music that is actually new instead of music six months old but touted as 'new.' They play a little bit of everything, from rock and hip hop to electro and alternative, but mostly alternative. Once a year, on Australia Day, the amount of people listening to Triple J increases a hundred fold when they put on their Hottest 100 songs of the year before, voted by the listeners.