I arrived home just in time tonight to catch the opening story on SBS World News.
They were leading with a story about a bomb blast in Lahore.
I don’t know why the tax payer continues to fund SBS, as they’ve clearly missed the most important world story of the day: the failure by Sweden for the first time ever to make the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
“You bastards, you made Anna cry”, I said, when I saw the front page of today’s edition of Aftonbladet, Sweden’s equivalent to The Daily Telegraph.
The headlines screamed that it was a “schlager fiasco” and that “Norway felt the sorrow of its big brother” when it was revealed the gorgeous Anna Bergendahl had failed to make it through the first semi-final.
I really liked the song, and hoped it would do well.
James was wrong, Yoda & I were right: Sweden’s Eurovision entry was crap. It got knocked out of the competition! Anna Bergendahl – L O S E R
It wasn’t my personal favourite to represent Sweden, though it was a popular choice on the night of the Melodifestivalen final. My favourite was “Keep On Walking” by Salem Al Fakir, though I also had soft spot for Peter Joback’s “Hollow”.
I maintain my view that Anna’s song remains a good song, and that it was a good song to represent Sweden (though there were better ones).
Sweden fails to make Eurovision final in 2010
But like someone supporting a football team, I guess I’m one who supports Sweden when they’re weak and when they’re strong.
In other news, I caught up with some friends tonight to celebrate a birthday. The birthday celebration almost compensated the tragic loss which occurred.
In my workplace that includes two half-Swedes and one faux-Swede (me), I declared today a day of national mourning. The Swedish flag was flown at half-mast.
As I sit down on New Years Eve to think about what’s happened in my life this year, there’s so much to reflect upon: overseas trips, new adventures at work, and the death of a close family member.
I ended last year feeling 2009 had been a year of treading water: I hadn’t really done all that much exciting in either my personal or professional life.
I began 2010 with a renewed sense of anticipation: in March I was returning to Sweden in significantly different circumstances to the last time in 2008. and I was to be on a panel at the Radio Days Conference in Copenhagen.
After my trip there in the summer two years ago, I was keen to go back and experience Sweden at a different time of the year. “Could I cope with the long, dark cold winter months?”, I asked myself. Probably not is the answer, but I gave the end of winter/the start of spring a try by visiting Sweden during March. When I arrived it was snowing and the waterways around Stockholm were frozen over. I went out on a ice-breaker and walked on ice for the first time in my life, nearly escaping plunging to my death by walking too close to the edge of a wharf. It would have been a dramatic way to go, though, wouldn’t it?
Stockholm winter ice tour
As well as experiencing the delights of a Swedish spring, I also went to Melodifestivalen, the Swedish finals for Eurovision, attended quite a few pop concerts, met some interesting people, and generally had a fine holiday.
I was also lucky enough to be invited to be a panelist at the Radio Days Europe Conference held in March in Copenhagen, and got to meet some people working in similar jobs in different parts of the world.
Captured on video at Radio Days Europe
My second overseas trip this year was to China. My friend Kate has been living there on and off for a few years, and I’ve been thinking of going for a while. As she had an exhibition opening in November, I asked when she had a window of opportunity and grabbed it. I loved Beijing. Seriously the best food I’ve ever eaten consistently on any holiday ever. And there was a lot to see and do, includng all of the obvious tourist spots. It was great to hang out with Kate and with some of the artists she was looking after while there. A return trip to China? Yes possibly.
My last trip was very much a backpacker’s adventure, whereas this was a more grown up holiday experience. Deep in the back of my mind throughout was the question about whether or not I’d like to live in Sweden for a while, or whether this was a short-term obsession that would pass with time. I’ve concluded the answer is yes, I’d like to live there, and have 2012 as the ball-park year I’d like to do it, though that may go back a little depending on what happens with work.
My second overseas trip this year was to China. My friend Kate has been living there on and off for a few years, and I’ve been thinking of going for a while. As she had an exhibition opening in November, I asked when she had a window of opportunity and grabbed it. I loved Beijing.
Thats me and thats the Great Wall of China
Seriously the best food I’ve ever eaten consistently on any holiday ever. And there was a lot to see and do, including all of the obvious tourist spots. It was great to hang out with Kate and with some of the artists she was looking after while there. A return trip to China? Yes possibly.
James O’Brien, Phil James and Guy Maestri on the Great Wall of China
On the professional front, I enjoyed the challenges of a new “acting” position throughout most of the year looking after nationally networked content on ABC Radio. And then towards the end of the year, “acting” in the role of Network Development Manager which looks after a range of special event programming and other associated “development” work. Many aspects of the job are pretty sexy, and I loved acting in the role, and then securing it in the days before Christmas.
On the personal front, I went on a couple of dates this year, though nothing long-term came from either. I’ve yet to come to grips with how I feel about the idea of a relationship. Sometimes I feel like it would be nice to have someone there in a different way to close friends. Other times I feel like it may be all too much, and that deep down I know that I’m probably still too selfish to share my life with someone else and vice versa. I’m also reminded of advice several years ago which was “don’t leave it to late”.
Sadness struck our family this year with the death of Gloria, who plays a special role in my life. After several years suffering with both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s she died in June this year. In many ways her passing was a relief as she had been in a lot of pain for quite some time. Her death has affected her immediate family of Sharon and John deeply, as they had also lost son, John, three years ago. On the positive side, I’m hoping it’s lead to a renewed closeness between all of us.
Gloria Pepper, James O’Brien
I spent the last ten days of the year at home with my family in Lismore. Usually I just come home for a few days and then head back to Sydney, but I think I got the mix right this year. I was allowed to work from the office in Lismore which meant I could spend daytime at work, but night-time and weekend with my family which made for a very happy combination for all of us.
This time last year I felt as though I’d spent the year “treading water”. A year later, I feel like I’m happier, healthier (I’ve also lost weight this year), and generally feeling quite good about myself and my life.
Looking ahead to 2011, there’s a lot to anticipate. I have a new job, and hopefully the capacity to do some interesting work. Our art group, Hawkesbury One, winds up with an exhibition at the Newcastle Regional Gallery. And although I have no firm travel plans for the year, I’m sure something will eventuate. But overall, looking ahead to 2011, I’m feeling pretty good about life.
About six weeks after my fall and my emergency hip replacement, I had a follow-up x-ray and appointment today.
When it came to the x-ray, I was told by text message I couldn’t wear anything with a zipper. As a man, this was problematic, as every pair of pants I own has one. The x-ray technician’s solution was a gown, which meant I had to remove my clothes down to my underwear.
I saw a different doctor today than those who treated me initially. However, one of the doctors who saw me daily in the hospital was there. I was genuinely impressed that he remembered me and specific details of my case during a brief chat in the corridor. It’s remarkable considering the sheer volume of patients they see daily.
The doctor I saw seemed pleased with my progress, echoing the positive feedback from my physio and prosthetician regarding my gait. The x-ray looked good, he told me.
The issue of a bone density test was raised, scheduled for a few weeks’ time at my local hospital. Interestingly, the nurse in charge of the osteoporosis clinic suggested I might not strictly need it, reasoning that a fall leading to a hip replacement at my age usually indicates osteoporosis anyway. However, she recommended proceeding with the test, and provided some awesome follow-up.
Being an amputee increases my risk of falls, so it’s something I need to keep an eye on.
I still experience some pain, though not severe, and fatigue persists. My physiotherapist explained that this isn’t surprising, as amputees generally exert more effort than non-amputees, and combining that with hip replacement recovery means I’m working harder than most.
Today, we also had a discussion about medication. I mentioned receiving an injection for osteoporosis while I was in hospital, and that I had been given some medicine to take.
It’s funny how these are things you don’t consider until later in life, like osteoporosis. It’s something I hadn’t given much thought to, especially since I’ve never smoked and am not female – two significant risk factors. However, family history suggests a genetic predisposition, making my recent fall perhaps somewhat inevitable.
Amusingly, I noticed there was a ‘Caution” sign near the men’s bathroom at the clinic, indicating they had recently mopped the floor After all this recovery, the thought of slipping and fracturing something at the fracture clinic itself gave me a wry smile. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
It’s Sunday night. There’s a tv-special about two environmentalists / photographers from Tasmania which is interesting, but a little worthy, perhaps?
Anyway… the last week has been full and yet I’m going to have to sit down and think pretty hard about what I have actually done.
Last Saturday night, John and I went to see Slava and Leonard Grigoryan play at Angel Place. The show was excellent: a good mixture of styles, tempos and familiary/obscurity.
Nothing much happened on Sunday. The only highlight was watching the final auction of “The Block”, which in its worship of money, I actually thought was a bit offensive. I recgonised then why I enjoyed “Big Brother” more… as Big Brother was about collective harmony, while The Block was about rampant individualism. Any wonder it’s been so successful in John Howard’s Australia.
On Tuesday night, Kate and I went to the launch of the new CD by Renee Geyer. Held at Star City Casino, there was a sparkling of minor celebrities including Richard Wilkins, Judy Stone and the man from the cooking show on Channel 9.
Wednesday and Friday. Nothing much to report, aside from a drink or two here and there.
But Thursday was fantastic, as Damien and I went to see the band, Stringmansassy play at The Basement.
Stringmansassy play at The Basement in Sydney
Damien and I met near Circular Quay and then had dinner at nearby restauruant which Damien suggested as he had walked past there on many occasions but had never been inside.
We had a really nice meal, chatted a lot about France, I mentioned my forthcoming trip to Griffith and invited him. We then went off to see Stringmansassy, the band I had interviewed the week previous.
They were terrifici. Both will benefit from age though as Kacey (the vocalist) often went over the top with her vocalisations. Aaron (the guitarist) however was both talented and cute!
Even though I’ve visited Stockholm twice before, I haven’t visited all of the obvious tourist attractions. One notable omission has been home/gallery/museum of Prins Eugins Waldemasudde, located on Djurgården.
I don’t know why I haven’t been there before. Maybe I figured it was just going to a bit of a boring old house, and there was too much else to see in Stockholm in the middle of summer? If so, I was completely wrong.
The house itself is completely charming. Prins Eugins obviously had an eye for good design, as the house enjoys wonderful views and seems completely in touch with its environment. It’s very much an open, airy kind of space.
Outside also, there are lots of wonderful places to sit and enjoy the sunshine and completely relax, which I did for much of the day.
Prins Eugins was also, an artist and, thus, the house is full of many of his own works, as well as those of many other Swedish and European artists. His paintings are okay, I guess. Nothing really special in my opinion. It seems like he was a better collector than he was an artist, in my view.
However I did like his taste in books, which I thought, reflected an obviously worldly man with broad interests.
He died without heir – yeah, you guessed right – and so now his house is a gallery/museum space with a couple of current exhibitions. One features a lot of 19th century Italian works which held little interest for me.
Waldemarsudde
Waldemarsudde
Lars Wallin at Waldemarsudde
I was more interested in the exhibition of works by Swedish designer, Lars Wallin. Not being much of a fashionista myself, I’d never heard of Lars Wallin until I walked into the exhibition.
I discovered, quickly, however, I was VERY familiar with a lot of his work, as he has designed stage costumes for some very well known Swedish pop stars, including Nanne Grönvall and Peter Jöback. It was fascinating to see so many of the costumes up close.
And although dresses aren’t really “my thing” I was completely taken by the beauty of some of his work. There’s a series of red dresses, in particular, which I thought were just amazing.
Overall, a really great space, and a great way to spend a lovely sunny day in Stockholm.
Although I’m sure it would have been useful, I’ve been holding off on buying an umbrella while travelling. I’ve been thinking it’s just one more bit of crap to carry around. And besides, I have a very good leather jacket, which is both warm and water-proof, and I also have a cap that keeps my head dry, which is surprisingly important if you’re follically challenged. But today, after the second continuous day of rain in Prague, with my cap soaked through, I bought an umbrella.
It was one of those cheap ones I knew would only last a day or two. For only $3 Australian, I’m please to say it’s survived the day reasonably intact. But yeah, crap. And remember those underpants I bought in Latvia or Estonia (I don’t remember)? Well, they’ve turned out to be pretty crap also.
So with terrible weather today, I looked for something totally indoors to do. I noticed the other day a poster for the International Trienalle of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Prague, and so I’ve spent most of the day there.
It’s a really great overview of a range of contemporary visual art, including painting, photography, sculptures, installations and video. There is so much to see in the exhibition, it’s almost exhaustive to recount what I saw on about four separate levels of the gallery.
The most memorable works for me, though, were the following.
* A black on black landscape piece by Sven Druhl. It’s a forest scene and it’s just beautiful, even though everything is painted black.
* Chi Peng has a wonderful large photograph which portrays a field of hundreds of Buddas.
* Jae-une Choi has a great four-screen video piece where he does four individual dances to a simple atmospheric piece of music.
* There’s a very moving piece by Adi Nes which is a series of photographs of modern people, many of them apparently homeless, portraying stories from the Bible.
* Mariusz Waras has a great piece called “Drop & Drag City” where people are encoured to interact with the art, to actually move magnetic buildings on an imaginery city themselves. Great fun, and apparently you can do it online too.
* Marek Schovanek has an inspired piece which portrays a series of mounted throphies, like the ones you see with stuffed animal heads. Instead, because we don’t hunt anymore, he’s used parts of shopping trolleys to imitate the antlers.
* There’s also a very funny photograph, based on that famous painting of dogs playing poker called “Monkey Disco” which is just as the name applies.
In other news, I’ve decided I’m going to campaign for smoke-free bars in Prague. Although I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, I’ve never been to much of a fascist when it comes to smokers. I wouldn’t have anyone smoke in my house, but I don’t get upset if a friend and I have a glass of wine together on a balcony or something like that, and they smoke. Mostly, it doesn’t worry me.
Here in the Czech Republic, however, they don’t appear to have any anti-smoking laws at all. And it’s awful. Last night, for example I went in search of a friendly little bar I’d found on the internet called, “Friends”. It’s a nice enough place, mostly inhabited by men my age, and ten years younger or older than myself. But everyone smoked! It was like the smoking room at Changi Airport in Singapore which is disgusting even from the outside.
Thankfully though I found another place called Valentino, located about ten minutes from the hostel at Vinohradska 40. Although the restaurant/bar section you walk into can be a little intimidating, it’s much better downstairs where there are two more bars. One plays lots of camp and girly stuff (along with some disco classics), and even the occasional Czech language pop hit. The the other plays more “serious” dance music. You know: the stuff you can’t sing along to.
There was a really great vibe about the place, with lots of smiling faces without the chemical reliance you often see in Sydney. That said, I thought the “serious” dance space was on the verge of developing a little bit of that awful generic western gay ‘tude. Or maybe there were just too many tourists there?
But one of the best things about the place is they seemed to have got their anti-smoking ventilation system working pretty well. And although I was only there for a short while, I’ll probably head back there again sometime. Maybe tonight?
I don’t know why I needed to go looking for a gay bar though, as it seems I have one right downstairs in the cafe of the hostel where I’m staying. In the midst of the UK lager-louts, there’s a surprising number of gay men staying here (mostly with their “best female friend”). It must be the furnishings.
Actually I probably will head out for a drink and a dance tonight at that bar just around the corner.
I hope the rain clears up though, as it’s starting to shit me a bit. On our tour yesterday, the guide showed us the level of the last big floods six years ago which affected the Lower Town. It reminded me of when I was in Germany at the age of 17 when, visiting Cologne, I was there for the start of their big floods. Hopefully, that won’t happen here.
The gallery itself is pretty amazing. I really like the way they make use of open spaces.
But my overall favourite work was by Laurd Ford called Armory Boys, a series of bronze sculptures depicting dead soldiers in a battlefield. It’s remarkably beautiful and very moving.
Today, I embarked on a journey to uncover details about a somber chapter in my family’s history: the stillbirth of my parents’ child in 1953. Such matters were veiled in silence within our family narrative. When I broached the subject with one of my elder sisters and presented her with the records from the online archives of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, her genuine surprise mirrored the shroud of secrecy enveloping this event.
Although the records listed her name as “unnamed,” a pilgrimage to Lismore Lawn Cemetery unveiled her resting place. Joan Kathleen O’Brien, christened after an aunt, was laid to rest on July 10, 1953. Armed with a map, I navigated the East Lismore Cemetery until I located her unmarked grave amidst other infant souls. While devoid of a headstone, a serene tree stood sentinel over her final resting place.
Her burial plot lies in proximity to my paternal grandparents, James and Lena, who passed away in 1944 and 1953, respectively. Discovering a newly adorned headstone at their previously unmarked grave was heartening. I presume it was erected by the descendants of their son Matthew, also known as Robert or Bob, who now rests beside them with his own memorial. Perhaps it is time to honor little Joan with a headstone of her own?
Following my visit to my namesake aunt, the remainder of the day was devoted to work obligations. Despite having managed numerous tasks remotely in recent days, I returned to the office today to attend to essential paperwork and engage in lengthier conversations.
And then tonight I went to the Tropical Fruits Film Festival at the Star Court Theatre. The Star Court was the cinema I used to go to most weeks as a child. Although a few things have changed, it remains relatively unchanged from the early to mid 80s renovation that occured. It was funny to hear the Film Festival spokesperson refer to it as an “old cinema”, as it seemed still modern in comparison with what I remembered as a child.
The films? There were a couple of good short films. My favourites were “Last Call” (about a bloke whose relationship with Mark failed because of his alcohol problem, who wants to get back with him, but who realises things have changed), “Oscars First Kiss” (about a male uni student chatting up a female class mate on a tram, but who ends up with an unexpected same-sex first kiss), and “Hens and Chicks” (about a lesbian couple with an eight year old daughter who need to have “the conversation”). All three were very enjoyable.
Less enjoyable was the longer featured called “Flow Affair”. It’s a fascinating story about “flagging” in the gay and lesbian communities of New York. “Flagging” is an art-form which involves a lot of twirling flags around in dance clubs, pride parades and so on. It’s quite an interesting story. It’s such a shame it was told so badly with almost no narrative evident. The film needed a damn good editor to chop at least 30 minutes out of it and to give it some structure, IMHO. It’s not enough to have a series of vignettes where a group of people keep saying over and over again little more than, “I like flagging. It makes me feel great”. Boring.
The main feature was a film from Romania called “Trip” about a group of twenty-somethings living in a share house of sorts who take drugs, have sex, and generally hang out in a pretty wild post-communist kinda way. It’s a pretty out there film, but I enjoyed it very much.
On the way home I called in to The Civic for a post film drink. It was pretty amusing to see a pretty average working class bar in my home town overtaken by the Sydney and Brisbane gays who’ve arrived for tomorrow night’s New Years Eve Party.
“You planning to have a bet”?, the barmaid asked me as she collected up the TAB information cards. “I think you’re safe to put them away”, I told her with a smile.
Unmarked grave for Joan Kathleen O’Brien, East Lismore Cemetery
