It’s Thursday night and I just arrived home a short while ago. Although I have been feeling a little bit down this week, the last few days have been pretty good.
University Assignment: On Sunday night, I finished my assignment, although I am not too sure how well I have done. Although I first thought 2,000 words was a lot to write, I soon realised it probably wasn’t enough to say all that I could, and so I’m not sure if I’m managed to include all I wanted to see or if I just ended up skimming the surface. I know one of the references was incomplete, but I just couldn’t be bothered. The assignment called for an analysis of a community-service campaign, and I chose the “Grim Reaper” AIDS Campaign of the 1987. Here’s the abstract:
ABSTRACT: Recent concern about the apparent rise in HIV notifications has prompted a number of commentators to reflect on the apparent success of the “Grim Reaper‿?, including Professor Ron Penny, who diagnosed Australia’s first AIDS case. Although acknowledging the campaign may have resulted in the demonization of gay men, Professor Penny declared it “one of the most effective campaigns ever launched in Australia‿? and one which “at least made people aware and probably… (changed the)… sexual practices of heterosexuals‿?. At the heart of Dr Penny’s argument is the inference of a direct relationship between the “Grim Reaper‿? campaign, heightened public awareness and behaviour change. This paper demonstrates the failings of a using “direct effects‿? model and suggests a more appropriate model for understanding the impact of this campaign.
Monday and Tuesday nights were spent at home, mostly watching television, while last night and tonight were spent out on the town, mostly in the vicinity of Circular Quay seeing a few “review performances”.
The Lion King On Imax: Although I have never seen this movie before, I knew that Tim Rice and Elton John had written the music and I was told by a workmate, Huw, that it was a good fun movie. According to a review
The story is a mix of classic plot elements (most of it comes from Hamlet and Richard III), in which young lion cub Simba (voice of Thomas) is groomed to succeed his heroic father (Jones) as the king of the beasts. But his sinister, murderous uncle Scar (Irons) twists events, sending Simba into exile, where he’s befriended by a meerkat and a warthog (Lane and Sabella). All grown up (now voiced by Broderick), he’s finally urged to return home and rescue the kingdom from Scar and a bunch of lowlife hyenas (led by Goldberg, Marin and Cummings). Oh, and he falls in love with his childhood buddy Nala (Kelly). Can you feel the love tonight?
I thought it was great on the HUGE screen, although there were moments when the animation was overwhelming. It was a work-related freebie – which I took my friend Grant to see – and so we were also given some propaganda about how other feature films, such as Star Wars II, will also be released on IMAX.
Melanie Oxley and Chris Abrahams: After the movie, I met up with Kate. Given her family connection with Oxleys, I asked her to come along to the CD launch at The Basement I had been invited to: Blood Oranges by Melanie Oxley and Chris Abrahams. The music they performed was sophisticated, personal, and satisfying. From my own perspective, it was one of the best music-related nights of my life. Loved it!
Hamlet: And then tonight, Yvette and I went to see “Hamlet” at the Sydney Opera House. This was a truly great production. Cheers must go to the the actor, Leon Ford, who played the lead role, revealing the wit and intelligence of Hamlet, that’s often neglected in an attempt to portray the mournful indecision of the character. Unfortunately I spent a little while distracted, trying to remember where I had seen him before, although a net search has since revealed him to be one of the actors in the ABC drama series, “Changi”.
According to the review in the Sydney Morning Herald,
Ford grows on the audience just as Hamlet changes and grows, and my early misgivings were soon dispelled by the agility, reckless enjoyment, tenderness and apparent spontaneity of his performance.
Unlike the critic, I had no misgivings at all, as he performed with such mastery I discovered much more about the character than I realise had existed. On the other hand, I thought Ophelia was disappointing. Again, I disagreed with the SMH critic, Bryce Hallett, who loved her. Go figure…
Tomorrow, I’m off to the Sydney Royal Easter Show and then on Saturday, Damien and I are going on an Historic Pub Crawl of Balmain, which should be fun, I’m sure.
For the last four years, from time to time, I’ve been indulging in a photographic project I’ve called Surry Streets. The project came out of a personal discovery desire to get to know the area in which I live a little better.
There’s a tendency just to walk along the main streets and the same streets every day, isn’t there? And so that’s when I started to look for streets I have either never known existed, or have always walked past.
Though I’m not really sure if you could call Miles Street an actual street. It’s tiny, and half of it is gated off as a private road for the Catholic Church.
The life story of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the dark-haired singer from the pop group, ABBA is a fascinating one. It’s one of those classic rags to riches stories, with a fair amount of personal tragedy along the way. But it’s also one with an fascinating historical context, and one which provided the compelling narrative for the documentary, “Norways Nazi Secret” which screened last night on Foxtel’s “History Channel”.
At the heart of the program was the story of her mother, Synni’s relationship with Alfred Haase, a member of the German occupying forces in Norway during the Second World War. Although the program makes the case theirs was a two-year love story, the program locates their narrative within the context of the bizarre Nazi scheme which encouraged German soldiers to “breed” with “racially pure” Norwegian women.
According to the documentary, there were many thousands of children in a smilar circumstance to Anni-Frid, who who were often born in special hospitals and asylums, and whose early lives were closely monitored and meticulously documented by the Nazi’s, with each child asssigned a “Lebensborn number”. Although the program explains how many of the young women saw nothing more in their relationship than, say, “the attraction of a uniform”, the program also explains how many of these young women were seen as traitors. When the war ended, many of the women and the children found themselves shunned by the broader community, with the children sometimes placed in mental institions.
Synni Lyngstad Grave, captured from tv special.
Anni-Frid was luckier. To escape the shame associated with her birth, Anni-Frid she was taken at a young age by her grandmother to Torshalla, a small town in Sweden. Soon afterwards, her mother followed, though Synni died soon afterwards, aged twenty-one, from kidney disease. Although it’s said Anni-Frid’s father, Alfred had promised to return to Norway after the war, he never did, and thus Anni-Frid was raised by her grandmother.
Although Anni-Frid escaped most of the excesses of abuse faced by other children in a similar circumstances, the program concludes her vdecision not to speak publically about the associated issues is evidence that she too has felt a life-long shame. One of Anni-Frid’s early musical influences, Charlie Norman, also describes how in her early life, she would always avoid discussion about her heritage, and was always a little withdrawn.
In the 1970s, however, at the peak of ABBA’s popularity, Anni-Frid was contacted by her father, Alfred Haase. In his book, “Bright Lights, Dark Shadows”, one of those interviewed for the documentary, Carl Magnus Palm, explained the apprehension Anni-Frid felt about meeting her father for the first time. For reasons unknown, Anni-Frid and Alfred no longer maintain contact. And until this particular documentary, the only other time this story received widespread coverage was when Haase appeared in a German tabloid magazine, pleading with Anni-Frid to resume contact.
Over the years there have been a number of newsaper article and television programs which have touched on the story of Frida’s heritage, and I thought this was one of the best I’ve seen. The program doesn’t seek to be a “tell all documentary” about “Frida’s Nazi Past”. This is a series program which seeks to tell an important story, using the story of a well-known person to personalise the narrative. That the program features people like Carl Magnus Palm, who I really respect, as well as a child-hood friend of Synni Lyngstad, as well as the photographer, Bubi Heilimann who had a friendship with Frida also gives it an air of credibility and respectability.
“A lot of people in the homes we’ve visited just stand and stare into space”, one of the volunteers working on the flood recovery in Lismore told me today.
I had just apologised to her for finding it difficult to respond to a very simple request. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but to illustrate, I found it difficult yesterday to put on rubber gloves. I struggled for a couple of minutes to find the thumb hole.
Today, I’ve seen two other family members go through this also. My job today quickly became one of assigning them simple tasks which didn’t require much thought. “I need you to wash these plates”, I said to one family member. “I need you to sweep this floor”, I said to another.
It’s the one part of cleaning up that I didn’t consider. I was expecting tears, as we moved into cleaning our family home, not an inability to think clearly. But that’s what has been happening today.
Today was the first day that Jack, who has lived in the house since 1969 came down to assess the damage. “It’s as bad as I expected, and then 100% worse”, he told me today.
Jack is my brother-in-law, “But really you and Pat (my sister) are like mum dad”, I told them today with a tear. Later this afternoon, we sat around and shared many moments of laughter, as we reminisced about family stories. It was a welcome end to the day.
Today I also visited some near-neighbours, checking in on their welfare. I also visited the former home of Nancy who died last year. “My sister lived here until last June”, I told Cathy who lives there now. She told me she had bought the house after that, and after significant renovation, had only recently moved into the house., “That’s my home on the lawn”, she told me, adding, “I can never go through this again”.
The flood waters reached the gutters of a number of houses on Union Street, South Lismore. All of their household items now sit outside on the street, awaiting assessment about what can be saved, and what will go to the garbage dump.
She welcomed me into her home to see the renovations and introduced me to the builder.
Only minutes after arriving in our house today, there was a group of six volunteer workers from the Gold Coast knocking on the door. There were four women who did an awesome job of cleaning mud-covered household goods and photographs, and there were two huge blokes (a carpenter and a plumber). They achieved all of what we wanted to achieve in the day in just an hour or two.
Later we were joined by a group of Michelle’s colleagues, a bunch of nurses from Lismore Base Hospital. They have been awesome in their hard work and care. One, in particular, has been wonderful recognising the emotional stress we’ve all been under. Another of her colleagues will be delivering dinner. We are so incredibly lucky, and fortunate to have been helped through this. And when Jack scratched himself, there was no shortage of nurses on hand who could treat the wound. But Jack, being Jack, he treated himself!
Colleagues who help
Michelle and I were interviewed for ABC Radio.
Dom: We continue to focus on Lismore here with our colleague James O’Brien, who is Lismore born and raised and coming to terms with what’s happened to his hometown over the past week or two where he still has a whole lot of family. James. Good morning.
James: Hey there, Dom Yeah, I’m at my sister’s house at the moment in Elliott Road, South Lismore. And there is a pile of rubbish. We’ve just thrown out the window onto the street. And I can see what’s happening on the rest of the street. The people next door would have similar size actually, these might be bigger, down another house. They’ve got rubbish out the front. And I can’t the reason I can see up the street is that our front windows were broken. So we’ve got lots of air conditioning we’re joking about here this morning.
Dom: Yes, I’m sure I’ve got a photo of where you are now. And really, it’s almost indistinguishable, the scene outside the front of your family home there. From when you gut to the house. It’s basically you haven’t got the house, aren’t you? That’s what’s going on?
James: Yeah, absolutely. So we’re in the front bedroom now. And I spent last year I have the last year living with my sister and brother in law in this house. And so this is my bedroom from last year. My great-nephew, Sam is living has been living in his bedroom over the last few months. And he was amazing in helping his nan and pop, my sister and brother in law survive. We’re in the bed in the front bedroom now of a two-story house. And the water as you can imagine got up to the top of the windows. So that’s about three feet taller than I am. And about four feet taller than my niece is standing here next to me. She grew up in his house. So to mom and dad’s house, and her son was amazing. Can I kind of hand it over to Michelle, we want to Yes. Here you go. Here’s Michelle.
Dom: Michelle, thanks for joining us. Great to have you with us. Talk us through the past couple of days. How on earth have you gotten through this?
Michelle: Oh, I’ve got no idea. I think you just switched into autopilot and you just do what has to be done. I think want to go over the shock of that. You know, like if I didn’t, except if my son wasn’t here with my parents, they would have drowned in their home.
Dom: And sadly, that’s been the case for some in your community. There have been deaths. But it just seems as though no one really anticipated something on this scale. This is an area that knows flood the Northern Rivers, you know that the rivers rise, everyone knows that but not like this not before and your community just got swamped, didn’t it?.
Michelle: That’s right. I mean, I remember the 1974 flood it’s there were a few steps from coming in. And that was a massive one. And then, you know, there’s been ones over the years when I’ve been in high school and then 1988 And you know, you know, it just went underneath the house and we were you know, just trapped in the house. You know, you can still live you still drive. We still got our electricity. But this was just and then 2017 Just just about wiped out loose more. And this mall was barely had barely recovered since 2017, and then this one come along to just about pretty much wiped us out completely. But everyone just thought, Oh, well, you know, we survived 2017. So it’s not going to be as bad as that. So you know, we rebuilt once we’ll rebuild again. But then it was just terrible. When my son rang me early in the morning he said Mum was coming in to nan and pops house. And I was just in shock. I was like, Okay, well, I need I said I need you to be strong. And I needed to look at the look afternoon and I just had the ad caught stay awake and worry. Yeah. And then just kept in constant, you know, half alley phone calls. And as I’m sure that the story for everybody else. And you know, that was quite affected.
Dom: I was talking to my colleague Chris Bath earlier in the show has just come back from spending the weekend in the northern rivers, she said that there were two hardshell flood boats in Lismore at the start of this and it just goes to show that even with the experience that has been had in the planning of this thing, this just went far beyond what anyone expected. How are you feeling about the future and about rebuilding? We’ve I’ve got a photo in front of me of just your house with everything ripped out of it. What are you planning to do from here? Or is it just too early to make plans?
Michelle: It’s far too early to make plans. I’m not even sure if the house is gonna be safe to move back into like the floorboards are bowing and you can see in part so you can see through to underneath the house and you think it moves, you know, you walk through it and it moves and it’s like, Well, shit, I’m not even sure if you know it’s safe for us to be in here ripping up carpet throwing things out, but
Dom: and this is a town of 20,000 people, many of whom would be in the same boat. It’s just the devastation is unimaginable. Our hearts are with you, Michelle.. I really hope you can find a way through this and work out what to do next. Because, yeah, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t know.
Michelle: Yeah, can I thank the volunteers. There are so many people that have just come in, even friends of my teenage son have just turned up and just came in and got their hands dirty. But work colleagues that are dropping in for a couple of hours at a time help out. There are random strangers pulling up across the road with washing machines to the service station, there are people pulling up in their cars out the front singing out food and water, food and water and we just run out and get some food, you know, and, and then they drive to the next house and hand out food and water. It’s like, the generosity has been overwhelming. We’re very, very grateful.
Dom: Well, I’ll tell you what, but for the tinnies Michelle, what we’ve seen the tinny army going around and helping people and as we heard from some experts before, it’s quite hard to do. Flood rescue is there special training for that, that people do in the evacuation centre that was used for, you know, Olympic kayaking and so on, but people have had to do it for themselves. And that’s what happened in your family. People have had to rescue other family members and the community has pulled together but it’s a pity you had to
Michelle: Yeah, my poor mum, I mean, you know, she’s got a bit of a back end on her and I pushed it through an 18-inch window in the kitchen, you know, into a boat and the dock in under the power lines and you have a look outside how high the power lines are, you know, they were 20 foot off the ground.
Dom: Yeah, I mean, we’ve all seen the phone with the fast-food joint where the waters were as high as that as the sign. You know. I’ve been to Lismore a few times over the years and the notion of the amount of water that was there. The mind absolutely boggles Michelle. Look, really appreciate your time, all the best to your community. And thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you. Yeah, that’s Michelle there, the nice of our colleague, James O’Brien, who’s on the ground and Lismore trying to make sense of what happens next.
There are two really wonderful exhibitions currently on display: one featuring art from Central Australia, the other focusing on homelessness in Sydney. Although I quite enjoyed the one about homelessness, it was a new art exhibition which really excited me the most. I’d love to share some images here, but no photography was allowed, and so I’ve shared only the image that was used for the promotion of the exhibition.
The great thing about the exhibition is you get to see the contemporary styles of Indigenous artists. Not every Indigenous artist does “dot painting”, I’ve heard a lot of people say. And it’s true. You go somewhere like Boomalli and you’ll see all kinds of work. But without travelling to Central Australia, you might not often see the incredible variation in the styles of work from artists there.
Lizzie Ellis, Still #3, Tjawina Porter at Kuruyurltu, still image from film ‘Kuruyurltu’, shot by Matthew Woodham. Copyright Tjarlirli Art 2014
In this exhibition, my favourite works included the photography of Rhonda Unrupa Dick (which included some screen prints); “Tom Brown Roundabout” by Margaret Book (a modern variation on aerial style Indigenous works) and paintings by Sally Mulda (including a wonderful self-portrait).
We are in Wonder LAND: new experimental art from Central Australia runs until August 15 at UNSW Galleries, Cnr Oxford St & Greens Rd, Paddington
On Saturday night, I was fortunate enough to be a +1 for the launch of the Chinese / Lunar New Year celebrations in Sydney. Here are some photographs from the festivities.
Chinese / Lunar New Year in Sydney (Year Of The Monkey)Chinese / Lunar New Year in Sydney. Great to see same-sex marriage advocate (and City of Sydney Councillor) Christine Forster and her partner attending in support. Chinese / Lunar New Year in Sydney
I received a “Year in Review” post today from YouTube Music, and thought it would be fun to share my top 5 most played songs of the year.
All of these songs have been great company throughout the year, and they’ve often resulted in me dancing around the lounge room. They’ve been great for stress relief and relaxation. I might be fast approaching 60, but I still love a good pop song.
Real Power by Gossip : I LOVE this fierce track which challenges societal norms on many levels and celebrates female empowerment, both lyrically and in the film clip’s imagery.
Flowers by Miley Cyrus : This is such a great sing-along song. “Flowers” is a breakup anthem that celebrates self-love and independence. Apparently, the lyrics are based on her own experience of a breakup. She was married to an Australian actor, I think, though I don’t care enough to look it up. I think my favourite bit of trivia about Miley Cyrus is that her god mother is Dolly Parton.
Dance Your Pain Away by Agnetha Faltskog : This upbeat disco track encourages you to let go of your worries and dance your pain away. This is a remix of a song released about a decade ago, hence no actual video clip. She’s doing okay for 74 years old!
No More Drama by Mary J. Blige : This has been a long-term favourite, in part because the track samples “Nadia’s Theme”, also the theme music to “The Young & The Restless”. In fact, she refers to herself as being “young and restless”. The theme of the song is about self-respect and overcoming toxic relationships. The video is compelling. Passionate!
Violent Thing by Benjamin Dolic : This was Germany’s entry to Eurvosion a couple of years ago, and despite the kind of haunting lyrics about love, violence, and addiction, it’s also a great song to dance along to. Ben also has fantastic eyelashes!!
BONUS TRACK : This was my number six song of the year. The incredibly catchy “Rush” by Troye Sivan. I’m only sharing it because it has a very suggestive (explicit??) video clip.
Today’s list also gave me a list of my favourite / most listened to podcasts of the year, but I won’t bore you with it, as it was all about politics.
