I’m one of those people who often walks around singing my favourite song, even at work.
According to those who’ve told me, it’s quite refreshing and usually brings a smile to their face.
Others, of course, probably think I’m just crazy.
But music has always been an important part of my life. And as I traveled over the last few weeks, I had a musical soundtrack to accompany me.
My favourite songs, the ones which accompanied me, were ones I heard/saw in real life and then got stuck in my head.
These were my five favourites… (in no particular order)
Keep On Walking – Salem Al Fakir
First, and foremost, I LOVE this song from Salem Al Fakir from Melodifestivalen. It’s a great song, and provided me with a great soundtrack as I walked around Stockholm.
I was aiming for the sky and ended up flat on the ground But once again the sun is rising I better keep on walking…
Since arriving back, it’s remained my favourite song.
The video clip also features the fantastic Swedish comedian, Björn Gustafsson
Manboy – Eric Saade
Also from Melodifestivalen was this very catchy song. It was a favourite to win for a while, but never quite made it.
Manboy, manboy, you can call me manboy….
It it gets a little repetitive after a while for you, skip up to the final 30 seconds for the “shower scene”.
Unstoppable – Ola
One final songs from Melodifestivalen has been this one… Unstoppable (the return of Natalie) by Ola Svensson.
Håll Om Mig – Nanne
This song was featured in Melodifestivalen a few years ago. I loved seeing it LIVE, and especially when the audience sang along. Magic moment.
Stockholm By Morning – Sarah Dawn Finer
And finally, a sentimental favourite. I saw Sarah Dawn Finer perform live, and I love this song, mostly for the lyrical content, and her wonderful performance.
From LA to New York To London to our front door Soon I’ll be in your arms Where I belong, babe Stockholm by morning It’s just a million miles When I’m away from your smile But it won’t be long ‘Til I’ll be home in your arms Stockholm by morning
There was a time, during the 90s and 00s, when Oxford Street, Darlinghurst was a fairly buzzy, lively place to visit.
Bars and restaurants were full, even on quiet nights of the week.
But then the licensing laws changed, and people went online to meet others. And then, COVID.
Oxford Street is still pretty buzzy on Friday and Saturday nights. But when you go for a walk at other times, you’ll see the reality of lots of empty shops.
Maybe it’s the rents? Maybe it’s the changing nature of how we interact and shop? Are we moving to a more online way of doing all of those things we used to go to shops for? It’s likely all of those things, and more.
I went for a walk along Oxford Street this afternoon, and these videos pretty much sum it up.
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard about plans to “revitalise” Oxford Street.
I wish I had a photograph to show you my “Frida Haircut” I had briefly back in the 1980s. Alas it was in the pre-digital photography era when taking photographs was a costly process. When getting a roll of film was a significant purchase for a teenager, let alone getting a roll developed.
But yes it’s true. I have a strongish memory of going into my local hairdresser at about the age of 17 and asking for a haircut like Frida from ABBA, and showing the hairdresser a copy of her from the “ABBA Magazine”.
In a scene reminiscent of that moment in “Shirley Valentine” (I think) when the largish woman goes into a hairdresser with a photograph, asking for a “Lady Di Haircut” I’m sure it gave my hairdresser a good laugh when he went home that night.
Unfortunately the attached pic fails to convey what I desired most – a rats tail.
Younger readers may not be all that familiar with the rats tail. Wikipedia describes it as…
A rattail is a haircut that is characterized by a long “tail” of hair growing from the back of the head. The rattail usually curls naturally; however, it can be braided, treated as a dread, permed, straightened, or curled with an iron. This hairstyle saw a brief period of mainstream popularity during the 1980s and has rapidly fallen out of vogue.
Though I never had a long rats tail, I, nonetheless, had one briefly in the 80s, as did Frida from ABBA.
Well, guess what? They’re coming back. On three occasions this weekend I’ve seen someone with a rats tail.
The latest occasion was tonight when I was having a drink with my friend John. There was a bloke maybe 20 years old who walked past us. Not entirely the most fashionable man around town. but certainly fashion conscious. And yes, he had a rats tail. It’ll be interesting to see if the fashion takes on, and for how long.
There were also a few 80s haircuts in a terrific film I watched on Foxtel this arvo called C.R.A.Z.Y.. It’s a film about a father’s relationship with his five sons, focussing mostly on one son, the gay one, Zac. It’s a beautifully made film with a good story, a wonderful poetic quality, and one which kept me intrigued the entire way through. Although we never got to see one, you just know for a while Zac would have had a rats tail too :)
cksonThe wet weather continues in Sydney. Dark, cold and wet actually. In fact it’s been raining fairly constantly since about lunchtime yesterday. I first noticed the rain when my friend Colin and I were enjoying a very nice “flash lunch” at Bentley Bar on Crown Street, Surry Hills. It had been overcast for some of the morning, but about half way through our meal the heavens opened up.
As my work is usually fairly intense and fairly constant, it’s a rare pleasure for me to go out for lunch, a pleasure which I usually only enjoy when I’m on holiday. And so when Colin rang earlier this week and suggested we go out for a “nice lunch” one day, I responded with an emphatic yes.
There were three places we discussed as possible locations. The first I don’t recall now. The second was “Bird, Cow, Fish” which I’d been to once, which I thought was good, though a little noisy. And then when Colin suggested “Bentley Bar”, there was no doubt in my mind.
It’s funny, though, since I remember “Bentley Bar” when it was a fairly dodgy Surry Hills pub, with sticky carpet and rock bands. I’ve been to the renovated bar and restaurant on two or three occasions, including one very memorable occasion when Damo and I enjoyed tapas over several hours on a Saturday night.
One of my strongest memories of that night, in particular, was the dried beef dish. The thinly sliced, air-dried beef was to die for. And so when it came to deciding on an entree, I hoped we would have been able to share that. Unfortunately, it was no longer on the menu, and so the waiter suggested jamon (dried ham) from Spain instead. It was a great suggestion and just the perfect start to the meal.
As we cast our eyes down the menu, we were impressed with what was on offer. Duck? Oh yeah, I love duck. A vegetarian risotto? Yeah, maybe. I ended up ordering the beef cheeks, while Colin ordered the pork neck.
The beef cheek (s), served with an accompany red-wine based sauce, were tender and tasty. Very enjoyable. Colin’s pork dish was also tender and tasty, arriving on a beautifully decorated plate where the sweet corn puree was laid out in a crescent moon shape. We were both really impressed with the accompanying bubble crackling which both looked great and tasted terrific, without all of the usual accompanying fat.
To accompany the meal, sommelier Nick Hildebrandt suggested three wines of varying prices. Being a little budget conscious, we chose the mid-priced Argentinian wine, the Altos Las Hormigas, Malbec 2005′ which was about forty dollars a bottle. “It will open up”, he told us. And it certainly did, after about fifteen minutes, and was the perfect accompaniment for the meals we had chosen.
The boozing continued last night with farewell drinks for Paul who has decided he never wants to experience winter again, so he’s decided to return to England. As he has a four-year working Visa, I suspect he’ll return when it gets cold there too.
Aside from catching up with a mate earlier today for a coffee, a long walk into town, a walk around the Museum of Contemporary Art, and an afternoon nap, I haven’t really done all that much today. I had planned to start reading the new Armistead Maupin book which continues the much-loved “Tales Of The City” series, but I never quite got around to it. I’ll make an effort, though, this weekend.
The weekend? Well, I’m going out to catch up with Graeme and Andrew which we have promised ourselves will not be a repeat of the other week. I’ve also got a fifitieth birthday party to attend this weekend – it’s a worry don’t you think when your friends and workmates turn fifty? – and I might spend a few hours tomorrow at the State Library doing some family history research.
Holidays are good, aren’t they? Despite the weather…
There was a terrific response in the room to the talk given by fellow Australian, Sam Cavanagh. Sam is the Executive Producer of the Hamish & Andy Show. At the heart of his talk was an idea around how the program team treated their audience. As he spoke, with a great deal of passion, there was a real sense of excitement in the room around the idea of seeing your audience as “fans”, not “listeners.”
Many radio stations, he argued, saw their audience merely as “listeners”, whereas the Hamish & Andy Show came from the approach of seeing their audience as “fans”. Once you see your audience in that way, he argued, you can actually get closer to them, as they become more involved in what you do.
He gave some terrific examples of where the audience came along for some wonderful promotions, including one where Hamish & Andy attended something like forty family parties (from babies to adults, from christenings to “How To Host A Murder” parties), and one where they brought out Sylvester Stalone’s brother (who was a singer in the 1970s) to tour. Sam explained “we could have made it free, but we charged everyone a token amount, five bucks, so they felt like they had an investment in it”.
Sam Cavanagh, Hamish & Andy Show speaks at Radio Days Europe
On a totally different level, I was completely blown away by the talk given by Susan Marjetti from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As the manager of the local talk radio station in Toronto (probably one of the world’s most culturally diverse communities), she explained how she and her team transformed their radio station over the last decade.
Like a lot of public service broadcasters in a similar position, the on-air line-up and listenership of the radio station remained older, mostly male, and mostly caucasian. Their goal was to transform their radio station into something which more closely resembled the city in which they were based. It wasn’t anything about being “politically correct” or anything like that, she argued, saying there was a strong business case about meeting one of the public service goals of the public broadcaster (to broadcast to all Canadians), and about growing their audience in the future. “If we don’t get this right, we’ll be a precious emblem to a dying elite”, one of her colleagues said to her.
When they began transforming their on-air line-up (including regular guests) with a younger, more culturally diverse people this initially led a fall in ratings. But within twelve months, they went from sixth place in the ratings to number one, and they’ve been number one for fifty surveys in a row, she explained proudly.
She’s a great speaker, and I found it personally very inspiring to hear her speak, as it’s something I also feel very passionately about.
Susan Marjetti . CBC Radio Canada speaks at Radio Days Europe
When it came to the discussion about digital radio, including DAB+, I admit, I had mixed feelings. At times I was inspired, other times I felt a little sad. Sometimes I felt it was almost as if the industry I’ve loved all of my life was “begging” for its future survival. I sometimes felt as though we were “pleading” with the public, government and manufacturers to convert to digital radio to ensure our industry can survive, as more and more people use smart phones, computers, televisions and so on, to access our content. I sometimes feel like we need to stop saying “it’s better quality sound” and emphasising all of the technical reasons why we should switch to digital and spend more and more time saying, “hey we’ve got the best damn radio you’ll ever hear”, emphasising how great the content is, and can be.
On the positive, there was good news about the future of digital radio in cars (two more manufacturers announced digital radio as standard in new vehicles), and about high digital radio penetration rates in a number of countries. On the negative, I noticed how high digital radio penetration rates were in many parts of Europe (ninety percent of the population of Germany can listen to digital radio) compared with Australia where it remains limited to five capital cities (with trials only in Canberra and Darwin).
In Norway and Denmark they have firm plans for switching off their analogue radio network, and in the UK, one of the speakers mentioned a likely announcement towards the end of the year. I was particularly interested in the discussion about the analogue switch-off in Norway, as, like Australia, the geography of the country (mountains) and the low population density (isolation), significantly increases the challenges involved.
It was, overall, a really interesting day which I enjoyed very much.
Here are some of my tweets and retweets from throughout the day which covered the key things which I found interesting…
18 Mar James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Opening night of #rde13 Radio Days Europe in Berlin tonight. Lots of fun.
Lord Mayor of Berlin reception at Radio Days Europe
19h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Caroline graze spoke of radio station dating app too bring listeners together and to get demographics of audience. #rde13
18h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Fans not listeners key to Hamish and Andy success says sam cavanagh at #rde13
18h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU BBC 1 & 4 skew twitter over Facebook in socmed interactions acc to research at #rde13 and wonder if same applies to other similar stns
18h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Danish research shows radio audience atten span drifts 4mins into segment then declines rapidly for both music and talk. Being human. #rde13
17h James Cridland @JamesCridland Great time at #rde13 – @samcav does an excellent talk, described by a senior programmer as “best radio talk I’ve seen in five years”
17h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU RT @Radio_Bingen RT @RADIOSZENE: ABC Australien hat einen intetessanten Kanal “Back to Vinyl” http://ow.ly/1TGomF #RDE13
17h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU RT @ronez ABC Extra, programmes originaux multiplateforme par la radio australienne (sports, musicaux, événementiels). #RDE13
17h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU RT @mxlabswiss O’Brien ABC about POP UP radios in Ausralia and Vinyl shows at #rde13 pic.twitter.com/45G79jKZ5c
17h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU RT @cbollert #RDE13 James O’Brien #ABC / @triplej talks about digital in Australia. Especially about ABC extra and #popupradio.
16h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Town hall meetings important part of CBC Toronto diversity strategy. #rde13
16h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Largest underserved communities strategy more than ethnicity for CBC radio. #rde13
16h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Host changes can take a while but prog changes quick in CBC diversity strategy. #rde13
15h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU What radio looks like on a mobile phone became our obsession says BBC r 1 controller. #rde13
15h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU TV has replaced radio as b/g noise says BBC r1 controller but pops for radio in IPTV. #rde13 Expand
14h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Visuals and interactions key to 18-24 radio future as smartphones and tablets preferred account to euro research at #rde13
13h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Norway with low pop density replacing FM with dab+ by 2017. #rde13 pic.twitter.com/rhQgMtKSj5
13h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Norway digital radio criteria for analogue switchoff inc. Web podcasts etc. Currently 30% with 50% goal. #rde13
James Dickie, Research Manager, Other Lines of Enquiry, speaks at Radio Days Europe
13h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Today Audi announced digital radio as standard in UK cars following BMW. #rde13
13h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Digital radio UK listening 50% and 5hrs per week longer than analogue. #rde13
12h UK Radioplayer @ukradioplayer We’re very proud to announce that Norway are adopting our UK Radioplayer system. The world’s waking up to the power of partnership #rde13
Ben Cooper, BBC Radio 1 controller speaks at Radio Days Europe
7h James O’Brien @JamesOBrienAU Bit surprised smoking still allowed in bars in Berlin. Arrived home tonight STINKING of cigarettes.
Oh, and as you might have noted from these tweets, I presented a paper too.
I’ve been a little bit sick the last few days. Fatigue associated with my amputation has been a big issue, and I have needed to balance my days with brief naps. On top of that, I’ve had an upset tummy associated with my diabetes which has resulted in some unexpected vomiting.
When you live with chronic conditions or are navigating life after a major change like an amputation, your relationship with energy completely changes. You quickly realise that energy isn’t an infinite resource; it’s a strict daily currency. Some days, the bank is full. Other days—like the last few—you wake up already in overdraft.
People looking from the outside often don’t realise that amputee fatigue isn’t just about being a bit tired—sometmes it’s a massive, physical drain. When you lose a limb, your body loses its built-in efficiency. Walking with a prosthesis can actually require anywhere from 20% to over 100% more energy than natural walking.
Without an ankle or natural muscles to help push off, my hip (replaced by a fracture last year), core, and back have to work overtime to compensate. On top of that, autopilot is turned off; I have to constantly concentrate on every step, scanning for uneven ground or obstacles. When you layer diabetes on top of that—which already messes with how the body processes energy—the physical toll compounds. Your body is essentially running a low-grade marathon just doing basic tasks.
Navigating a rough patch like this has made me incredibly grateful for my current work setup. Luckily, I have a job that I can do entirely from home. Even better, I have a work arrangement, which means if the fatigue hits hard or my tummy acts up, I can log off, take a necessary break, and simply make up the hours later when I’m feeling up to it.
I know just how lucky I am. Others are not as fortunate, and managing chronic health issues while being tied to a rigid schedule or a physical workplace is an immense challenge. Having this flexibility has been a total lifesaver for preserving my health without sacrificing my livelihood.
Even with the benefit of working from home, living through a rough patch requires a lot of brutal prioritisation. I’ve had to look at my usual daily to-do list and start crossing things off without a shred of guilt.
Choosing to postpone certain things isn’t laziness—it’s survival. By saying no to the small things, I’m actively choosing to save up enough energy for the essentials.
It is incredibly easy to feel frustrated when your body forces you to hit the brakes. We live in a world that constantly tells us to keep moving, keep achieving, and push through the pain. But pushing through when you are dealing with the physical toll of an amputation and the unpredictability of diabetes is a fast track to burnout.
I didn’t expect this to be my reality, but it is. And acceptance has become my biggest strength.
These last few days, a “productive” day didn’t mean ticking off ten different errands. It meant successfully keeping down a light meal, managing a 20-minute nap that actually helped, getting my work done in comfortable blocks of time, and listening to my body when it told me to sit down.
If you are currently managing your own health battles, pacing yourself, or dealing with an unexpected flare-up, consider this your gentle reminder:
It is okay to pause. Your worth is not measured by how much you can endure without breaking.
Be kind to yourselves, conserve your energy where you can, and remember that taking a step back to rest is often the fastest way to move forward again. I’m taking things one slow, deliberate step at a time, and that is more than enough.
Resting up and missing some things now hopefully means I’ll have the energy for a few major events in the next few days, including attending the Australian Audio Awards on Thursday, the James Valentine Memorial on Friday, and interviewing an amputee who runs a gym in Western Sydney. Updates to follow.
A catchy hit inspired by a lovestruck Tokyo girl’s new life in Malmö has soared to the top of the charts in Japan, as a wave of Swedish influences washes over the country’s musical landscape.
Aita Katta (Swedish Boyfriend), by 48-member (!) girl band AKB48 has rocketed straight to the top spot after a week of heavy rotation on MTV and Japanese radio networks.
Or click here for the version with English subtitles…
PS. A Japanese bloke I work with confirmed it’s an April Fool’s joke. The lyrics are nothing like what they pretend to be.
A year or so later I discovered David Fridlund, (also sings in English), and who happened to be on the same label Adrian Recordings. Now I’ve just found another in their stable (singing in Swedish!) – Emil Jensen.
When I was in Malmo in 07, I discovered a Swedish group ‘The Fine Arts Showcase’ who sing in English.
A year or so later I discovered David Fridlund, (also sings in English), and who happened to be on the same label Adrian Recordings. Now I’ve just found another in their stable (singing in Swedish!) – Emil Jensen.
So much interesting music from Sweden!