I made a brief appearance on the radio this week to explain the different ways listeners to 702 ABC Sydney can experience their favourite regular shows as well as the cricket which often replaces these programs at this time of the year.
It was designed to be a “how to” guide, and nothing more complex than that. Hopefully, I didn’t sound too stupid, and helped a few people along the way.
Post Script
There was a followup appearance on Tony Delroy’s Nightlife on 30/11/12.
I’m not normally one for these meme thingys, but this one on Cellobella’s blog caught my attention. Maybe it’s because I’m sitting in a youth hostel in Prague uploading photographs and have nothing better than to do with my time. I mean, I am composing a blog in my mind about the fascinating people around me (there’s a Phd in it, I swear), but in the meantime…
You Are Chardonnay
Fresh, spirited, and classic – you have many facets to your personality.
You can be sweet and light. Or deep and complex.
You have a little bit of something to offer everyone… no wonder you’re so popular.
Approachable and never smug, you are easy to get to know (and love!).
Deep down you are: Dependable and modest
Your partying style: Understated and polite
Your company is enjoyed best with: Cold or wild meat
Even though it’s an absolutely beautiful day, and I know I should be outside, I’ve just woken up from a brief afternoon nap. I was up reasonably early (for a Sunday), as I had to go to Tamarama this morning for “Sculpture By The Sea”. On top of a reasonably late night last night, I found myself a little tired by the time I arrived home at about one o’clock. Walking in the door, I took off most of my clothes and headed straight for the couch. Ah, don’t you love Sundays?
Life’s funny, though, isn’t it? You can spend weeks on end with nothing terribly much happening in your life, and then suddenly you find yourself with hardly enough time to scratch yourself. This week, for example, I’ve been to see the new Brad Pitt film (Wednesday), the launch of the Sydney Festival at the Opera House (Thursday), drinks with Laura who is back from London (Friday), and to see the play, “Holding The Man” with my friend Sue, who is visiting from Melbourne (Saturday).
I got a phone call from Michaela on Tuesday, I think, asking me if I wanted to see the new Brad Pitt film, for which she had won some tickets. Aware that I had a fairly busy week, I ummed and ahhed for a while, until I finally thought to myself, “ah buggar it”, I’ll just go anyway. In this film Brad Pitt “returns to arthouse” (as Michaela put it), playing the American outlaw, Jesse James. Aside from the many cinematic references to Jesse James over the years, I wasn’t overly familiar with his story, aside from a vague understanding he was their equivalent to Ned Kelly. Unlike Kelly, however, James was shot dead by a member of his own gang. And while much of the film is about James himself, it’s also about the man who shot him, speculating on the reasons why it occured, and providing some insight into the life of the man after he shot James, and the reasons why James became a “folk hero”. Although it’s a comparatively long-film (2.5 hours), I never felt the time drag as we watched it. Indeed, by the time it finished, just after nine o’clock, neither one of us was ready to go home to bed, so we headed down the Spanish area of the city and enjoyed Tapas and a bottle of red. That was Wednesday.
I had to be up early on Thursday morning (5am start), so I didn’t really have all that much sleep that night. Luckily I was able to leave work a little earlier, and head home for a nap before heading off to Opera Bar for dinner with Colin and Vanessa, and then to the launch of this year’s Sydney Festival. Compared with previous years, there’s a lot more music and dance this year, and I love the way they’ve expanded the number of large public events.
It was another busy day at work on Friday (gosh the tax-payer gets good value for money in employing me!), before heading off to catch up with Laura who is back in Sydney for about six weeks, before heading back to London (or maybe New York). Hopefully, she’ll be in NYC when I visit there next year.
And then last night, my friend Sue and I went to see “Holding The Man” at Belvoir Street. As I’ve mentioned previously, Holding The Man is a very special book and play, which means a great deal to me. It’s both extremely funny and extremely sad, and once again last night I had a bit of a cry. I think the play means a lot to the cast too, as both Sue and I thought the performance given last night was terrific, especially by the actor who plays Tim. “Did you think he was really crying?”, Sue asked me. “Yes, I did actually”, I told her, as the look on his face and the tears in his eyes seem to indicate to me that whatever emotions he had summoned up for the final moments of the play were clearly very strong ones. I sat opposite him on the bus the other week, by the way, which was a bit of a thrill.
We then came home, ate some ice-cream, had a cup of tea, and chatted until about one o’clock this morning.
“Your alarm’s going off”, Sue shouted through the door of my bedroom this morning, just after seven o’clock. Despite the late night, I needed to be out of bed reasonably early this morning for Sculpture By The Sea. At about seven o’clock the sky was still very grey, and I wondered briefly if it was worth bothering going down given the inclement weather. Within an hour or so, the sun has started to appear and by about nine o’clock there were beautiful blue skies over Sydney.
It was the first time I’ve been to Sculpture By The Sea for a number of years, and I was reasonably impressed with most of the statues on display. The warm weather brought with it good crowds, and I sometimes found it difficult to really appreciate the works, surrounded by thousands of others. I might take the advice of my friend Colin and go back sometime during the week if I can get a moment away from work. “I always go mid-week at about eleven o’clock in the morning”, he told me on the phone yesterday, “when it’s just me and the little old ladies”.
Right now, though, I think I might head down to Darling Harbour where there’s a European Travel Expo currently underway.
Sculpture By The Sea
Sculpture By The Sea
Sculpture By The Sea
Sculpture By The Sea
Sculpture By The Sea
Sculpture by the Sea
Sculpture by the Sea
Sculpture by the Sea
Sculpture by the Sea
P.S. It’s my birthday this week and I will be having drinks from about 6.30pm Friday at a TBC venue. Although a workmate reckons we should go to Pontoon, I’m not so sure. I’m thinking inner-city cheap pub myself. Or maybe Opera Bar which, amusingly, a friend told me this week is known on Friday nights as the “Dry Cleaners”: it’s where you go to pick up a suit!
“So what’s it called, ‘Soulless’?”, I asked (and joked) as we headed towards the bar. “No it’s Solas”, he told me.
Damo and I were crossing the street headed in the direction of one of those new “Sydney-style Melbourne-style bars”, as I like to call them, we have in Surry Hills. This one has opened up on Crown Street, between the new tapas bar (formerly “Paua”) and the classic Surry Hills pizza restaurant, “Wood & Stone”.
For me, the space still reminded me a little of the once-named (and much visiited) “Camperdown Cellars”, which has since moved down the road to become “Surry Hills Fine Wines”. Sitting in the front-window, as we did for a while, I couldn’t help but be reminded of its former retail incarnation.
Inside, the crowd was predominantly aged in their late 20s, with a “dressed-in-black with scarves” Melbourne/indie vibe about them. The bar staff were really, really good. They were friendly, smiley, and knew their stuff. We had a glass of white and some small tapas dishes, including some very yummy pork belly which was good. The perfect entree.
We were on our way to the once visited, Xage, which continues to feature a review of mine on their website, about which I’m very happy.
The place continues to have a good vibe, and we got in with only a slight delay. Tonight’s meal was pretty good – the rolls were an excellent entree – though the chicken curry we shared as a main was, perhaps, a little disappointing. The texture suggested the chicken was maybe a little over-cooked. But even so, it’s still a fantastic place to eat.
To our left there was a group of people celebrating a birthday party. A table of 8. Six women. Two men. “That’s just wrong”, Damien commented, noting that amongst the eight they were sharing one bottle of Rose. To our right was a middle aged couple, their daughter and her friend. Much of the conversation revolved around how to eat at restaurants around the idea of balancing meat and vegetable etc.
After dinner we returned to Solas for a final drink of the night, concluding it was a good bar, worth revisiting. As we noted, as we walked around Surry Hills, the area continues to change from when Damien used to live here. A whole different vibe, and by no means, soulless.
Allsang pa Skansen - the national Swedish sing-a-long program - during Europride.
So I went online this morning looking for ferry tickets from Stockholm to Tallin, based on the advice given to me in my dream yesterday by that nice Norwegian travel agent. I am sure he was right about the ferry being very nice and romantic and all that, and the woman at the youth hostel today told me something similar, but they were both wrong about one thing: the price.
As with other internal European flights, I’ve found it’s much better, cheaper and faster to fly than to sit on some dreary ferry or train for hours on end. I’ve realised at this point in my life that I’m someone who much prefers the destination and experience to the journey and the travel.
So I’m flying to Tallin next Wednesday morning and I’ve booked into – what seems on the internet – a reasonably modern and clean hostel. I’ve only booked three days at this stage, just in case it turns out to be terrible, or I get bored senseless.
That gives me about a week to squeeze everything in. And for most of that week, that means seeing some great Swedish music.
A case in point was going to Allsang pa Skansen again tonight. I went a couple of weeks ago for the rehearsal, but didn’t stay for the main show.
I arrived at about 5.30 and watched the remainder of the rehearsal, which included BWO, Bodies without Organs, performing “Lay Your Love On Me” which was terrific.
I then grabbed a beer and something to eat. I settled on a Swedish favourite, a meat ball and potato dish, along with a light beer. At half the price of a standard beer, and at 2.2% alcohol, I’ve found it’s been more than enough for me as I’ve travelled around Sweden.
But while getting the food, I saw another Swedish culinary creation which I couldn’t help but marvel at: chicken with nachos. I mean, last night I ate at a Thai restaurant where they had the chop-stick option (they don’t have chop-sticks in Thailand to the best of my knowledge), and it was pretty lame Pad Thai, with a Swedish salad on the side. And then I saw this bizzare combination tonight of a BBQ chicken drumstick (skin removed) on a plate with corn chips, guacomole and sour-cream. I think there’s an opening for an Australian celebrity chef on television here.
Bjorn Ulvaeus has Mamma Mia, Linda Ulvaeus has Steel Magnolias.
People fishing in the heart of Stockholm.
Grona Lund, Stockholm
Martin Rolinski from BWO rehearses at Allsang pa Skansen
Light beer and meatballs at Skansen.
Allsang pa Skansen – the national Swedish sing-a-long program – in rehearsal.
Allsang pa Skansen – the national Swedish sing-a-long program.
Martin Rolinski and BWO perform at Allsang pa Skansen
Allsang pa Skansen – the national Swedish sing-a-long program – during Europride.
BWO perform at Allsang pa Skansen
BWO perform at Allsang pa Skansen
Dagens Nyheter – Daily News, the Swedish newspaper.
By the time I finished my meal, the show was about ready to begin. Well, the pre-show warm up, which is about thirty minutes long before the program goes live to air.
As I’ve previously mentioned, the premise for the show is community singing. And it occurred to me that in a largely secular society, this is probably the modern manifestation of what used to occur in churches. Though instead they sing popular Swedish songs of the last fifty or sixty’years. There was one tonight about a “Flicka fran Smaland” (girl from Smaland, a beautiful region of Sweden), that probably has as much cultural currency in Sweden as, for example, “The Road To Gundagai”.
Tonight, however, also had a Europride theme. There were drag queens, comedy sketches with a gay-theme, and BWO who have written the theme song for Europride, “Bells Of Freedom”. As a song, I think it’s pretty lame, and not up to the usual standard. I’m pleased they also did another song for the tv show, and then one just for the audience at Skansen.
And what an audience it was. Thousands and thousands of people. Most of them incredibly tall. The third tallest nation on earth, after Norway and Holland, apparently. And most with children on their shoulders, making it a little hard for me to see sometimes. And if it wasn’t the kids on dad’s shoulders, it was a bunch of poofs with rainbow flags :)
I was really pleased to see BWO live. They have great fun songs and the crowd really loved them. Martin Rolinski, the lead singer, is also surprisingly good looking. He was always a bit blonde and bland for my taste, but then I saw him in real life. and was quite impressed. The woman in the band also looks like a real hoot, and you see more of her personality live on stage than you do in the clips. Alexander Bard is… well… Alexander Bard.
Allsang is a really great show and I wish we had something like this in Australia. Of course, our TV execs would turn it into a reality show of some sort, and you’d have SMS voting and all the associated crap. I think it’s a bit like Countdown was for us back in the 70s, something a bit daggy, but also a bit fun the whole family could enjoy together.
Anyhoo I better get some sleep as Europride starts in force tomorrow. Tomorrow night, I’m seeing ABBA cover band, Arrival. I’m told they’re the best ABBA cover band going.
I was pretty chuffed today at work to see a copy of the James Valentine CD “Debut” and see my name in the “thank you” credits.
Really very touched actually.
But it doesn’t mean, James, if you’re reading this you’re going to get a favourable review. Although often compromised, I can’t be “bought” all that easily.
That said, I’ve spent the night at home listening to the CD all the way through, not just listening to bits of tracks as I some times do.
The CD is a combination of interesting jazz instrumental interpretations of well kown songs such as “Ashes To Ashes” (David Bowie), “Help From My Friends” (Beatles) and “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Ewan MacColl/Roberta Flack” – my three favourites on the CD – as well as well-known singer songwriter tracks including my favourite on this, “Clap Hands”.
I remember him saying at a show a couple of years ago he never had much time for singer-songwriters. And then when he discovered the likes of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, his eyes were opened.
It was VERY listenable. I suspect I may even play it a second time :) And perhaps a third time. Seriously though, it’s very good.
The official launch is next Friday night, which should be a lot of fun. It’s out through ABC Music.
As for me? I’ve been a bit crook today.
I woke up this morning hardly able to speak. I blame it on yesterday’s big dust-storm. So for about half the day all I could manage was a croak here and there as I went about my work.
Odd, since the only other time I’ve ever lost my voice was back in in October 2006. It came close today though.
At the end of the day I’m feeling a lot better, and my voice is sounding better, but I’m still feeling a bit crook. All that bloody dust!
February 8 : A few months ago I snapped this pic of Jordan Ravi at Parap Markets in Darwin and said to my friend, I reckon he’s destined for big things. And now he’s on #australiadecides#sbseurovision !!!February 11 : Admittedly it’s 1.30pm on a Wednesday, but it’s hardly a sell-out for my seat to see the winner of this year’s Best Movie at the Academy Awards.February 14 : Heading back to Swedish class next week, and we’re studying the classic Swedish novels by Vilhelm Moberg, about immigration to America, amidst widespread povety, in the 1800s. Not a lot of laughs, though this did make me smile.February 22 : In the commentary box with Natasha and @shannonbyrne23 at St Mary’s v Tiwi Islands in Darwin.February 22 : You know it makes sense. Tiwi Islands v St Mary’s in Darwin.
February 25 : Fourteen days in Howard Springs and I’d love a drink too.
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4 Comments
I listen through digital radio a lot and love it especially as it has such clear reception.
Once I decided I would listen to the football description through the App whilst actually at the game but found that the App, like digital radio, is about second seconds behind live broadcast so it wasn’t useful in that situation. Otherwise, the App is good.
My net connection is appallingly slow at present with frequent dropouts. It has been like this for years. It took four minutes to load this page and the audio file plays for 3 – 6 seconds then stops until the download catches up. This is supposedly a broadband connection, ADSL+2 in the inner south of Canberra. Telstra does nothing. I am not going to be watching or listening to online TV or radio any time soon unless I connect to the optical cable at greater expense and pay for a lot of Murdoch and similar junk that I definitely do not want, I have had it in the past and it’s not worth it.
I have a digital radio which I bought more than a year ago. It is unneccessarily diffcult to use, gets only one station which I can hear on AM or FM, (I forget which) anyway. It also uses significant power from batteries even when tuned “off”. I put it back in the box it came in and have not tried to use it for months. This, folks, is not an improvement on what has gone before, it is a step backward. Not perhaps to the days of wireless telegraphy, but it’s no better than FM.
Maybe I’m getting old and crochety, but it’s my opinion that as radio and TV channels have proliferated, the quality of the content has declined. That applies to both commercial and non-commercial outlets.
Hi Ken, gosh it sounds like you’re paying for an ADSL2+ connection and getting a dialup connection. It may be worth checking your speed via this site http://speedtest.net/ and then if you’re not getting what you have paid for, I’d be complaining to Telstra and if not them, to the Telecommunications Industry Ombdusman if they can’t/won’t solve your problem. As for the digital radio, it also sounds like you’re having some trouble there. I can’t see how it’s using power, though, when it’s turned off. Have to agree with you, though, about some of the quality issues. The great thing about digital radio and TV is there’s definitely more choice, and we’re getting to see a lot of programs which never would have previously had a run on Australian TV when we had only 5 channels. That said, we now have 3 channels which are shopping channels, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Looking forward to the SBS launch of the new National Indigenous Channel in a couple of weeks. And by the way, back on the radio later tonight talking to Tony Delroy about some of the options.
Program Quality
I had Galaxy TV via microwave before they went broke in ’98. One of the channels was old TV shows, There were re-runs of stuff like ‘Route 66’ and of course ‘I Love Lucy’. I seem to recall ‘Ironsides’ too with Raymond Burr, though it might have been ‘Perry Mason’. It struck me that the plots of ‘Route 66’ were better than some of the then current shows, even if the production values were not.
I don’t disagree that there was some crap on free–to-air TV 15 years ago but we did not seem to get endless cooking shows, building, selling & buying houses in France or England (really relevant to us) or ‘Pawn Stars’ and swamp people. Any of these might be valid as a one-off but as a series? Jesus wept. Then there is all the supernatural drivel.
Galaxy included the Discovery Channel. When the DC was not showing docos about sharks, it was about some other large predators. When you have seen two or three docos about lions, you have seen them all. There was nothing even approaching the quality or variety of Attenborough’s work. Then they would get on to the history of aviation. What was shown was good enough, but after a few weeks you got the impression that nobody other than an American ever stepped into an aeroplane. Now perhaps we know too much about Kingsford Smith, Hinkler and a couple of others, but they were never mentioned on the DC. No early aviator from outside the USA was ever mentioned.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but my hypothesis is this. With 5 TV channels broadcasting 24 hours a day, you have 120 hours to fill with something. With 20 channels you need 480 hours per day. This dilutes advertising revenue since the advertisers can always use the other channels and you have to drop your prices. In addition, those producing content are in competition with each other and their prices fall too because the competition is intense. When prices fall too far, their quality suffers too.
Now I realise the ABC does not have to chase advertising revenue but have the allocations from government kept pace with the number of outlets the ABC is attempting to fill with some content, any content? Bruce Springsteen was right.
Digital Radio
According to the manual, the “Pure One Elite” digital radio has two modes, on and standby. Power consumption in standby mode is 0.67 W when connected to mains power. Standby does not operate on battery power, so apparently the entire thing has to be set up again from scratch if on battery power. To change a station, press the station button, rotate a dial, select station from a list on a tiny screen and press the button again. Adjusting the volume takes four operations. There were radios in the late 1920s that were easier to operate.
ADSL
Net connection speed varies here from nothing to 214 kbps or so download. My neighbour dropped ADSL long ago. Much of the suburb is the same, from what I gather. High signal attenuation and a long way from the exchange. A former colleague tells me that water has been found in phone lines here so it’s not surprising if ADSL does not work sometimes. Yet there seems to be no noise on the phone itself. So perhaps fixing my connection involves fixing the entire suburb and that’s not on. Probably not until the NBN passes by and that will not be until
(Oops! Internet Explorer could not connect to http://www.nbnco.com.au)
Third attempt – 2015 or 2016.
I listen through digital radio a lot and love it especially as it has such clear reception.
Once I decided I would listen to the football description through the App whilst actually at the game but found that the App, like digital radio, is about second seconds behind live broadcast so it wasn’t useful in that situation. Otherwise, the App is good.
My net connection is appallingly slow at present with frequent dropouts. It has been like this for years. It took four minutes to load this page and the audio file plays for 3 – 6 seconds then stops until the download catches up. This is supposedly a broadband connection, ADSL+2 in the inner south of Canberra. Telstra does nothing. I am not going to be watching or listening to online TV or radio any time soon unless I connect to the optical cable at greater expense and pay for a lot of Murdoch and similar junk that I definitely do not want, I have had it in the past and it’s not worth it.
I have a digital radio which I bought more than a year ago. It is unneccessarily diffcult to use, gets only one station which I can hear on AM or FM, (I forget which) anyway. It also uses significant power from batteries even when tuned “off”. I put it back in the box it came in and have not tried to use it for months. This, folks, is not an improvement on what has gone before, it is a step backward. Not perhaps to the days of wireless telegraphy, but it’s no better than FM.
Maybe I’m getting old and crochety, but it’s my opinion that as radio and TV channels have proliferated, the quality of the content has declined. That applies to both commercial and non-commercial outlets.
Hi Ken, gosh it sounds like you’re paying for an ADSL2+ connection and getting a dialup connection. It may be worth checking your speed via this site http://speedtest.net/ and then if you’re not getting what you have paid for, I’d be complaining to Telstra and if not them, to the Telecommunications Industry Ombdusman if they can’t/won’t solve your problem. As for the digital radio, it also sounds like you’re having some trouble there. I can’t see how it’s using power, though, when it’s turned off. Have to agree with you, though, about some of the quality issues. The great thing about digital radio and TV is there’s definitely more choice, and we’re getting to see a lot of programs which never would have previously had a run on Australian TV when we had only 5 channels. That said, we now have 3 channels which are shopping channels, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Looking forward to the SBS launch of the new National Indigenous Channel in a couple of weeks. And by the way, back on the radio later tonight talking to Tony Delroy about some of the options.
Program Quality
I had Galaxy TV via microwave before they went broke in ’98. One of the channels was old TV shows, There were re-runs of stuff like ‘Route 66’ and of course ‘I Love Lucy’. I seem to recall ‘Ironsides’ too with Raymond Burr, though it might have been ‘Perry Mason’. It struck me that the plots of ‘Route 66’ were better than some of the then current shows, even if the production values were not.
I don’t disagree that there was some crap on free–to-air TV 15 years ago but we did not seem to get endless cooking shows, building, selling & buying houses in France or England (really relevant to us) or ‘Pawn Stars’ and swamp people. Any of these might be valid as a one-off but as a series? Jesus wept. Then there is all the supernatural drivel.
Galaxy included the Discovery Channel. When the DC was not showing docos about sharks, it was about some other large predators. When you have seen two or three docos about lions, you have seen them all. There was nothing even approaching the quality or variety of Attenborough’s work. Then they would get on to the history of aviation. What was shown was good enough, but after a few weeks you got the impression that nobody other than an American ever stepped into an aeroplane. Now perhaps we know too much about Kingsford Smith, Hinkler and a couple of others, but they were never mentioned on the DC. No early aviator from outside the USA was ever mentioned.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but my hypothesis is this. With 5 TV channels broadcasting 24 hours a day, you have 120 hours to fill with something. With 20 channels you need 480 hours per day. This dilutes advertising revenue since the advertisers can always use the other channels and you have to drop your prices. In addition, those producing content are in competition with each other and their prices fall too because the competition is intense. When prices fall too far, their quality suffers too.
Now I realise the ABC does not have to chase advertising revenue but have the allocations from government kept pace with the number of outlets the ABC is attempting to fill with some content, any content? Bruce Springsteen was right.
Digital Radio
According to the manual, the “Pure One Elite” digital radio has two modes, on and standby. Power consumption in standby mode is 0.67 W when connected to mains power. Standby does not operate on battery power, so apparently the entire thing has to be set up again from scratch if on battery power. To change a station, press the station button, rotate a dial, select station from a list on a tiny screen and press the button again. Adjusting the volume takes four operations. There were radios in the late 1920s that were easier to operate.
ADSL
Net connection speed varies here from nothing to 214 kbps or so download. My neighbour dropped ADSL long ago. Much of the suburb is the same, from what I gather. High signal attenuation and a long way from the exchange. A former colleague tells me that water has been found in phone lines here so it’s not surprising if ADSL does not work sometimes. Yet there seems to be no noise on the phone itself. So perhaps fixing my connection involves fixing the entire suburb and that’s not on. Probably not until the NBN passes by and that will not be until
(Oops! Internet Explorer could not connect to http://www.nbnco.com.au)
Third attempt – 2015 or 2016.