Every time I go to Bourke Street Primary School to vote, there’s always a healthy number of party officials handing out how to vote cards. In contrast to most occasions at the school, this time the Liberals outnumbered Labor two or three to one. I suspect they thought they may have had a chance unseating Clover Moore this time around.
Their candidate was a fairly good looking young gay man whose face adorned more posters than any other candidate on telegraph poles in the vicinity of Crown and Bourke. I swear there were may 10 posters alone at the corner of Devonshire and Crown Streets.
Having made my way through the “rumble chamber” of the party officials I joined the fairly lengthy queue of those waiting to vote, while simultaneously taking in the smells of the nearby sausage sizzle.
“A local?”, the electoral official asked me as I joined the queue. “Yes”, I told her. That was my cue to queue-jump. In a polling booth that’s seemingly overwhelmingly used by absentee voters, being a local voter is like being able to fly first class. They send you straight to the front of the queue, they give you the forms, and you’re in and out within five minutes and eating a sausage sandwich, while the poor absentee voters are left waiting.
Election day at Bourke Street Primary School
In contrast to the last state election, this was a rather leisurely day for me. In the last election I was working as the Executive Producer of ABC Radio’s coverage from the tally room which was at Homebush. This time around there was no longer a tally room, and I no longer have any involvement in state-based programming.
Election night at the ABC
As there wasn’t a “tally room” per se in NSW this year, the ABC did set up the television and radio studios in the downstairs foyer, making them open to members of the public to create a “tally-room-like” atmsophere. I went in for a while and enjoyed the atmosphere very much, but since I was still a little bit sick (the cough, the wheeze and the sneeze) I decided to come home to watch and listen to the coverage from the comfort of my own lounge-room.
Last week, I had the absolute privilege of interviewing Chris Blowes for an upcoming episode of The Limb Shift.
Chris’s story is one of the most harrowing yet resilient accounts I’ve encountered—a journey from the jaws of a five-metre great white shark to the world stage of adaptive surfing.
Hearing him recount the details in person was truly profound, especially as he described the incident on Anzac Day 2015. It was his first surf back after a minor knee injury, and while paddling back out, he was hit with immense force.
Chris told me, “It grabbed me so hard and it was going at so much pace. When it hit me, it sort of launched me out of the water… it popped up again behind me and, you know, pulled me underwater for the second time”.
The attack was brutal; he was opened up along his left side and ultimately had his leg amputated above the knee while still underwater. His mates, Nick and Brock, played a critical role in his survival, getting a tourniquet around his leg at the water’s edge—a move that likely saved him from bleeding to death.
Chris’s survival was nothing short of miraculous, as he clinically died in the back of a Landcruiser eleven kilometres down the road. He received CPR for over an hour at Port Lincoln Hospital.
Recalling the scene in the trauma room, Chris said, “I had eight units of blood and twelve units of plasma, which was the whole unmatched bloodstock in the Port Lincoln Hospital… They’d been going for so long and they’re like, ‘We probably need to stop, you know, he’s going to be brain dead.’ And I went to go pull the breathing tube that was in my throat out, and the whole room went silent”.
After ten days in an induced coma and eight weeks in hospital, his recovery was further complicated by complete renal failure. He described the dialysis process as a “world of pain” because it would flush out his pain medication, leaving him in “ten out of ten pain”.
Initially, Chris lost interest in surfing, the sport that had once been his “addiction”. It took two years and some prompting from his mates to get back into the water. He reflected, “I think when I lost surfing, I almost lost a part of me in a way… getting up and going for a surf is probably my go-to when I’m having a bad day now”.
Standing up as an above-knee amputee presented unique challenges, but Chris adapted, starting on a longboard to avoid catching his foot on the tail. His passion eventually led him to win the Australian adaptive surfing title and compete in the world para surfing titles in America.
Today, Chris is living a full life, working in the construction industry, performing corporate speaking, and raising two children. He continues to manage the physical and mental recovery, including phantom pain that feels like “electric shocks every 30s”. His advice for others in similar positions is simple: “Just stick at it. Be patient because it takes time to get back to that, you know, feeling good again… there’s normally more good days than hard days”.
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve just arrived back home after lunch, a very yummy Masala Dhosa, at the Indian cafe next to the Dhaba on Cleveland Street.
While having lunch I read through the Sunday Telegraph. There was not much of interest in today papers, although I did guess the identity of one of the “Guess Who? Don’t Sue!” people in Ros Reines column. However, the television guide was good as I discovered a documentary made by my friend Christian will be shown on ABC TV this Wednesday night at 9.25pm. Boys Don’t Dance is about Ben Smart (who) has been a competitive line dancer since he was eight years old. Now, at 15, he’s more determined than ever to take his rightful place on the dance floor at the World Championships in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s must see TV! So I gave Christian a call and he’s very excited, as all of the reviews so far have been really positive.
In the time since I last wrote here I’ve been quite busy and there have been several highlights. One of my favourite nights of the week was Thursday when a group of colleagues from all over NSW were in town and I was invited to have dinner with them at the Narita Teppanyaki restaurant, opposite the Sydney Entertainment Centre. As well as having a great night with some old friends and colleagues, dinner was also good fun. It’s one of those cook in front of you and then throw the food at you restaurants which I wouldn’t normally go to. But with a few glasses of wine, some great conversation, and lots of laughs, having food presented in this way was really good fun.
And then yesterday, Judy, Greg, Cotton and I went to see an amateur production of the musical Chess, performed by the Eastwood Uniting Church Musical Society at West Ryde. Overall a good production and well worth the trip to West Ryde.
Would it be wrong if I wore thongs, not shoes to work tomorrow? What about shorts, instead of pants? Yes, yes I know the answer to both questions.
For a mid-ranking bureaucrat such as myself, it’s part of the deal, part of the shtick that I should wear always nice pants (and usually a jacket) and a nice shirt (and sometimes a tie) because there are occasions when I need to be a public face for the organisation.
And after years of wearing reasonably casual clothing to work, it’s kinda nice to be in a job where I regularly wear nice clothing to work. I feel kinda grown up. And best of all, I don’t have the daily fashion crisis about what to wear. I mean, there’s not a lot you can get wrong when you wear a suit most days. At worst, a mis-matched tie on the odd occasion I wear one.
But today was warm. Really, bloody warm. And so I left my jacket at home and wore to work just a nice pair of pants and an open-necked shirt.
James and Vanessa wearing almost matching thongs at The Huntsbury
Everyone else I work in close proximity to was a little more casual, reflecting the warmer weather. And for a while today I spent some time in one of the more modern, creative parts of the organisation where it seems short and thongs were de rigueur. Hairy legs too :)
For just a moment, I felt rather envious of my colleagues who could wear thongs and shorts to work. Admittedly I did that when I worked from Lismore a few weeks ago, and usually when I come in on the weekends I’ll be wearing thongs and shorts, but I just couldn’t get away with it on a weekday, I’m sure.
I felt even more envious of my colleagues as I left work and made my way to Circular Quay to the Open Air Cinema. The train was a sweat-box in the extreme, not helped by long pants and collared shirt.
And then at the Opera House – as I found myself a nice seat to enjoy a bite to eat and a glass of wine ahead of meeting my friend, John – it was hot there too. The first cool spot I found was under a tree outside the gates leading to the Open Air Cinema.
Inside, we found a great place to sit, too, with some lovely shade. The only downside to the shade was later, when the sun set, and the fruit bats found a home in the tree above. The poor woman sitting next to me seemed to cop the most. I only had a little excrement worry about, but they pissed and shat on her for most of the movie.
Bat Crap at the Open Air Cinema
Luckily the film was good, though I couldn’t get into it at first. I was too busy thinking about things from work for the first half hour of the film. I also found the opening moments of Conviction, a little confusing as the story began to unfold of the “working mother puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders.” Thematically it’s a bit like the biopisc about Erin Brokovich and Karen Silkwood, being the story of an “ordinary” person who does extraordinary things.
I never really warmed to the brother, though. It was difficult to understand why she would spend so much of her life defending her brother, especially when I wasn’t really convinced he hadn’t committed the murder until the very end of the film. But she’s very likeable, and very realistic. I would have preferred not to have seen the real-life shot of the brother and sister at the end, as I guess it highlighted how Hollywood may have “sexed up” the story a little with more bankable, attractive actors.
But like I said, it was a good film.
Open Air Cinema
And I loved going to the Open Air Cinema. It’s a truly fantastic experience to watch a movie on a big screen – the projection was excellent – with Sydney’s CBD, the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a back-drop.
As we walked back through the park and up to Oxford Street, there was a real buzz in the air. Everyone had enjoyed the film. By the time I got to Oxford Street, the oppressiveness of the humidity became evident.
There were people in thongs everywhere. Maybe it’s an omen?
In stark contrast to last week when I went to the Unisex Amateur Strip Night, tonight I went to a rather erudite discussion at Glebe Books about the forthcoming Federal Election, followed by tapas at a nearby Spanish restaurant. The occasion was a discussion between former ABC journalist and now political aspirant, Maxine McKew and Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Peter Hartcher. I admire them both for the consistently even hand approach they have demonstrated in their professional careers. The discussion was organised, though, in the days before McKew nailed her political colours to the flagpole. As such, what was probably going to be fairly independent and dispassionate discussion between two commentators on the state of Australian politics, took on a more overtly political hue.
I can’t decide, however, if the crowd was overwhelmingly an ALP-supporting audience, or if they were a crowd of ABC-TV viewers who just love Maxine McKew. The audience consensus was the former, but I suspect a fair degree of the latter, as McKew was welcomed with rapturous applause, and there was a fair bit of rubber-necking occuring, as the audience angled for a “real life view” (off-screen) of Maxine.
Bipolar Nation by Peter Hartcher
So although Peter was supposed to be the centre of attention, much of the attention (for the first half at least) was focussed on Maxine. Perhaps it was just as well, then, that she had to leave early to attend her first ALP branch meeting, as attention became focussed back on Peter Hartcher’s book, which has a very interesting central thesis.
At the heart of Hartcher’s book is a multi-faceted argument which explains why he believes Kevin Rudd and Labor (despite the current opinion polls) will still find it difficult to win this year’s Federal Election. Hartcher observed tonight that, historically speaking, Labor’s popularity has usually peaked, and John Howard’s popularity has usually bottomed, six to eight months out from the election. Hartcher also observed that, at the Federal level at least, Australians have preferred Liberal/National Federal Govenrments.
Hartcher explains this preference for State Labor Governments and Coalition Federal Governments in terms of “mummy” and “daddy” politics. That (and this is a generalisation) at the state level, we want governments who will care for us in the areas of health and education (for example), while at the national level, we want governments who will look after us, and sometime be tough, when it comes to national security and the economy. In the first instance, McKew responded to this conceit as one which waas “incredibly paternalistic”, but then offered the argument that Howard was the old-fashioned daddy who had failed to keep up with the times, while Rudd was new, younger father who was in touch with his children and was open to the ideas of the new world.
A recurrent theme for McKew, and perhaps indicative of the way in which Labor will position itself at the Federal Election, was the idea that Kevin Rudd offered solutions to an uncertain future, and that staying with John Howard was a “risk” because “he didn’t”. In common with Hartcher’s theme that Australians only choose Labor Federal Governments in difficult times (the 1940’s when we were at war and the 1980s when interest rates were at 22% and the resources boom had all but collapsed), McKew argued the challenges of climate change, mean the time is right for another federal Labor Government.
Despite the opinion polls which suggest a Federal Labor victory this year, with Kevin Rudd clearly the preferred Prime Minister, both McKew and Hartcher observed the rubbery-ness of the figures. Both noted that on the key issues of national security and economic management, the opinion polls show Howard remains the preferred choice.
Hartcher argued that unless Labor can convince the electorate they can be trusted on these key issues, they won’t be able to unseat the Coalition. McKew agreed, though, she noted the difference between Howard and Rudd on these issues was narrowing. To support his argument, Hartcher quoted a Rudd analogy that Labor was like one of those multi-layered Babooshka dolls. Rudd’s analogy was that Labor would only be “trusted” federally if the electorate was convinced of their credentials on the outer-layers of the national security and the economy, that the electorate won’t look inside unless they are happy with the outer layers. Hartcher explained that when he recently asked Rudd about where climate-change fitted within this, Rudd said “somewhere between the two”.
Oh yeah, and fellow Sydney blogger, Glen Fuller from Event Machinics works there. Hi Glen…
“All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!
All yours,
Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!”
I made a guest appearance on ABC Radio in Australia tonight, talking about the songs that inspired ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and the songs inspired by it.
Andrea Ho: This is Nightlife on ABC Radio. Let’s take a moment to go back in time. Let’s go back to nineteen ninety four. And this movie I know you know it. It’s Muriel’s Wedding.
Andrea Ho: This is Nightlife on ABC Radio. All around Australia. Now can you believe it’s been fifty years since that masterpiece came out? It was the lead single from ABBA’s nineteen seventy six album arrival. It was officially released on, depending on where you were in the world August fifteen or sixteen now went to number one in Sweden, obviously, but then number one after that in Britain, Mexico, Belgium, the US, South Africa. Wow. How about that? So what better excuse to hit the dance floor and celebrate this weekend? Someone who’s going to be doing that is ABC Radio exec James O’Brien. He’s going to be joining in the celebrations in Australia. Hello there James.
James O’Brien: Hi there Andrea.
Andrea Ho: People will remember you on the radio from the radio in different contexts.
James O’Brien: And certainly one thing that people in Lismore may remember me from, from forty years ago is I used to host a radio show on the local community radio station, where every week for five years, I hosted a program playing ABBA music. It was called ABBA The Scrapbook.
Andrea Ho: And it would have been quite modern music back then.
James O’Brien: It was. They were still currently releasing songs.
Andrea Ho: Wow. Okay. After that, then you went on to the ABC and the rest is history. So welcome back into the studio. Now, what is it that makes Dancing Queen so good?
James O’Brien: I think it’s a bunch of things going on, one of which it starts with the absolute opener with that piano tune sound, which is so good. It’s a good, feel good kind of song. It’s lovely and innocent, you know? It’s about the girl who’s seventeen years old, and she just wants to go out on a Friday night and dance. And how beautiful is that? I think it’s been one of those songs which has been reinvented over the years too, in lots of different ways, although it’s the original version that is so memorable. And in fact, the song was based on someone else’s song. Back in the seventy four, George McCrae had a song called Rock Your Baby, which you may remember, and they used that as the inspiration for Dancing Queen.
James O’Brien: But over the years there have been lots of other versions too. For example, the earliest inspiration I can find is from Elvis Costello.
Andrea Ho: Elvis Costello did a version. What?
James O’Brien: He didn’t do a version. He really loved ABBA, and he did some versions later in his career. But Oliver’s Army. Let’s have a listen to Oliver’s Army and see if you can connect with the Dancing Queen riff.
James O’Brien: I recognize you can hear the piano.
Andrea Ho: You actually can,
James O’Brien: And it was apparently one of the musicians in his band said, look, we just need something to make this song a little more interesting. And that’s what they did. They basically went back to Dancing Queen, which was a huge hit a couple of years earlier and incorporated it into that song.
Andrea Ho: Wow. Elvis Costello, who knew for all of you music snobs out there, and I know that I count myself amongst you. You and I, we’re friends. There you go. Elvis Costello, even he looked up to ABBA. Okay. Who’s somebody else who we should know a bit more about and who loved ABBA?
James O’Brien: U2
Andrea Ho: Really?
James O’Brien: Back in the nineties, you two were probably the coolest band in the world, weren’t they?
Andrea Ho: They looked down their nose at everybody. Everybody knew it, you know. Bono, the edge, all of them. I don’t see them. And ABBA, even in the same universe.
James O’Brien: Okay, so at the time, they were cool, but ABBA was very uncool. But they performed in Stockholm, and they invited Björn and Benny onto the stage in Stockholm at Global Arena to perform dancing Queen. Have a listen to this.
Andrea Ho: Listener. That is U2 singing “Dancing Queen” and James O’Brien, t he thing I find most fascinating about that clip is not so much that you U2 were singing it, although that is shocking in itself, but it’s that their crowd of fans and people who are attending to see you two knew all the lyrics and sang along.
James O’Brien: Yeah, and that was about the time that ABBA started to become popular again. So a couple of years later, they were featured in the film Muriel’s Wedding, an Australian film, and also Priscilla, Queen of the desert. And so that’s really when ABBA started to go from being very daggy to being popular again. And, you know, I was talking to one of our sports commentators here at the ABC, and he told me about his five year old son who’s obsessed with ABBA. So who would have thought, fifty years after dancing Queen came out, it would still be a big hit song.
Andrea Ho: All right, so who’s somebody else who we should know about? Because lots of people have covered ABBA, of course, but you’ve got some other really great examples.
James O’Brien: Yeah. Another Irish example now, the great singer Luka Bloom and his brother Christy Moore. They also recorded a version which they performed on stage, and they described this version as a traditional Swedish folk song.
Andrea Ho: You know, James, if I had been dropped here by aliens and had never heard dancing Queen. But I knew Luka Bloom’s music, or indeed Christy Moore’s music, which I do, I would have thought that was one of their songs.
James O’Brien: Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing, and it’s got that lovely melancholic feeling about it too. I think that version.
Andrea Ho: And exactly the way that he’s brought it into his style of playing and his style of singing, in fact, his style of storytelling, he brings that Irish storytelling sensibility to his version.
James O’Brien: Yeah. Luka Bloom has done some other great covers. For example, I Need Love by L.L. cool J.
Andrea Ho: That’s actually pretty funny. That is fantastic.
James O’Brien: And also his version of wishing on a Star by Rose Royce. Yes, he’s beautiful as well, you know.
Andrea Ho: I’m going to reassess my view of Luka Bloom. He’s one of the world’s great cover artists. Amazing. Okay. Do you want to try something that sounds a little bit different?
James O’Brien: Yeah. This is possibly my favorite cover version of all time. Of dancing Queen. This was released in about two thousand and four by a Swedish funk band. A jazz trombonist called Nils Landgren.
Andrea Ho: And Nils Landgren is really. Well, I know his music. Yes.
James O’Brien: Have a listen to this version of dancing Queen, which is very, very different.
Andrea Ho: Well, Swedish musician Nils Landgren in the house. James less dancing queen vibes for me. More Tina Turner private dancer vibe.
James O’Brien: It does feel like Private dancer, doesn’t it? Absolutely. But he’s got a whole album called funky ABBA, which has got all these ABBA songs in that, in that kind of style, which is beautiful.
Andrea Ho: So it just goes to show that the song can be done in lots of different ways.
James O’Brien: I’ve heard a bluegrass version. I’ve heard an old style jazz version. If you go onto YouTube and just look for dancing Queen cover versions, there is so much out there.
Andrea Ho: Okay, so it’s quite a resilient song. It stands up to many different treatments. Is this true of all ABBA songs, or do you actually feel that this is perhaps peculiar? Like something special in their oeuvre?
James O’Brien: There must be something special about it. Because I think a billion plays on YouTube or something like that. It’s one of those songs that now, if you are a DJ looking after maybe a forty plus kind of audience at a party or whatever it is, put on dancing Queen and the Floor Will fill and everyone seems to know the words.
Andrea Ho: Which it’s going to do tonight. Yeah. Everybody who’s out and hears dancing Queen because hopefully somewhere everywhere where there’s a DJ playing tonight, they will actually have that on their list. Oh they should. Right. So is it your favorite ABBA song, do you think?
James O’Brien: It’s my favorite? It’s pretty close to my favorite top five. Absolutely. My number one would be the Winner Takes It All, which is that beautiful song about a breakup, their own breakups, and which is just so poignant and wonderful. So that’s probably number one, to be honest, but dancing Queen could be two or three. I think.
Andrea Ho: Okay. It’s not even.
James O’Brien: And it’s because it’s a very different song. You know, it’s still got that lovely, sort of almost melancholic feel about the, you know, the innocence of youth that, you know, and all she wants to do on a Friday night is go out dancing, not sit there looking at her mobile phone.
Andrea Ho: Yeah, I know times have changed, haven’t they? James O’Brien. So glad that you could come in and actually share some reflections on ABBA and dancing Queen for this particular anniversary. I mean, ABBA, beloved by Australians from Muriel’s Wedding all the way through to this particular movie. I think I might leave us with just these sounds. Enjoy the rest of your night. Have a really great Friday night.
James O’Brien: Thank you very much.
Andrea Ho: Thanks so much, John. Thank you. James O’Brien, ABC Radio executive and lover of ABBA.
The book and movie “Death in Venice” came into my mind today as I thought I might actually die here. Less dramatically, there was a moment today when I thought I would at least spend the rest of my life surrounded by tourists, unable to escape. Smelly, dirty tourists, most of whom smoked. (Italy doesn’t seem to have received the memo about smoking yet.) Vague, sluggish tourists who walked at a snail’s pace. Tourists who thought it would be a great idea to bring their babies in hummer-like prams down crowded medieval streets. I don’t really need to go on, do I? I think you get the scene.
So I took a moment out to go back to my hotel room, to enjoy the air-conditioning and to try to regroup on my sense of what I wanted from visiting Venice. Of course I wanted to visit and see the gondolas and the waterways. I also wanted to see some of the amazing art that would be part of the Venice Bienale. Thankfully I’ve been able to do that in the six or so hours I’ve been here by taking the sideroad. You avoid the crowds and you get to see a little more, I think.
I chatted briefly to another guy doing the same. We were at the end of a darkish lane, both looking at the boats, the narrow waterway, and the buildings that were presumably hundreds of years old.
By taking the sideroad I also got see some amazing art as part of the Venice Bienale. I visited Montenegro (which I didn’t really understand), Cyprus (a terrific installation piece) and my favorite (so far), the pavilion from Estonia. The work there called, NSFW, is most definitely NSFW. A series of videos and photographs tells the story of a former Communist Party Chairman who led a double life as a married man and as a closeted gay man who would pick up men in public toilets. After being intimately physically examined, he was charged with a sex crime. Later, he was killed by a Russian solider who doubled as a prostitute. Sadly this was as recently as 1990, so it’s an incredibly sad and touching work.
Without a real plan for the evening, I’ve wandered down to the waterfront where I’ve secured a terrific table for the sunset and am enjoying a couple of local beers. I may not come back.
Early Morning Venice
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One Comment
I think people tend to go about their day regularly and pop into a polling place wherever they see one.
I live and work in the city, so I always get to jump the queue ahead of the out-of-town office workers voting in advance. Success!
I think people tend to go about their day regularly and pop into a polling place wherever they see one.
I live and work in the city, so I always get to jump the queue ahead of the out-of-town office workers voting in advance. Success!