“I’m going to go home and tell my children they’re not trying hard enough”, a friend of a friend joked tonight at the announcement of the NSW finalists for the Australian Of The Year. We agreed all of the finalists, but particularly the recipients were seriously impressive people who made us feel somewhat inadequate about the achievements in our own lives.
There was the man who was one of the Sudanese childhood soldiers who came to Australia, and was now an immigration lawyer. There was the former “TV celebrity doctor” who had amassed more than 1,000 properties which he rented at significantly reduced rents to older people in need. There was the woman in her eighties who had volunteered for local community organisations for most of her life. The list goes on.
I have had an association (through my work) with the Australian Of The Year for close to a decade. Of all the work-related things I do each year, it’s one of the most enjoyable associations I have. Great people doing great things. Here are some photographs from tonight’s announcements, held at Sydney’s Museum Of Contemporary Art.
Microwave Jenny perform at Australian Of The Year NSW
Dr John Knight aka Dr James Wright
Refugee and lawyer, Deng Adut is NSW Australian Of The Year
In the midst of it all, it was also great to hear/see Microwave Jenny perform. “The last time I saw them perform she was VERY pregnant”, I told a colleague. Tonight I saw them (memorably) perform “Advance Australia Fair” with a simple, guitar-led arrangement. In contrast to most performances of our national anthem, I actually “believed” this performance. Thank goodness, we weren’t asked to sing along to the second verse.
It’s Sunday evening and I’ve just woken up from a late afternoon nap, at the end of several busy days. It comes at the end of a few days in Newcastle (work-related) which was both enjoyable and hard-working. I enjoyed, though, catching up with some of the many people I only ever talk to on the telephone and meeting some new people. Oh yeah, and the team from Sydney were very excited, being recognised for our hard work over the last couple of years.
While there, I also caught up with Kate and her dog, Jack.
Since Kate normally comes to Sydney, I haven’t seen Jack in a while, but I’m pleased to report he is well. I mean, he barks madly at noises neither Kate nor I could hear as we sat in her backyard eating cheese, crackers and sharing a bottle of Verdelho, but he seemed happy.
On arrival back in Sydney on Friday night, I went to bed soon after and slept well ahead of a busy day of socialising yesterday.
Because yesterday involved drinks and lunch (almost turning into dinner at The Royal Exhibition Hotel, near Central Station). The usual crowd of ABBAMAILers gatherted to celebrate Donna’s birthday at a venue we’ve all been going to for several years.
The beer garden venue out the back has changed significantly since the last time we celebrated a birthday there. Re-designed with Raffles, Singapore in mind, the concrete has been replaced with tiles and the plastic chairs with cane furniture. Half way through the afternoon I scouted out the upstairs room as a possible venue for my own birthday celebration this year. Having not really celebrated my birthday properly in a few years, I’ve decided I would like something more formal this year.
On reflection it’s amazing that we’ve all met each other in the way we have. The core group of regular ABBAMAIL function attenders in Sydney includes people from diverse range of professions and backgrounds, and yet we all get on famously, and care about each other, and yet we hardly ever talk about ABBA. Well we do, but not incessantly.
So here it is, Sunday night and, although I’m feeling refreshed after the nap, I’m still a little tired. For me, Sunday night will be an evening of television watching. Out of curiosity, I’ll be watching the new Channel 9 reality series where they’ve placed suburban families in a “Survivor-like” situation. That said, the opener in which is already beginning to look incredibly dodgy. Out of curiosity, I’ll also be watching “The Logies” since I actually know three people this year who will be attending and one who will be presenting.
The early part of the week is quiet, and then on Thursday night I’m off to a cabaret show, on Friday night, it’s the opening night of “Trying” at Ensemble, and then on Sunday I’m hosting my usual “Eurovision Party”. Life goes on…
The “Andrew Olle Media Lecture” is one of my favourite nights of the year, professionally-speaking. I get to dress up (in the same tux I’ve been wearing for several years), I get to do a bit of schmoozing, and I get to hear someone interesting talk about the state of the Australian media.
According to this year’s lecturer, Julian Morrow from “The Chaser”, this was memorable as a year of comedy gaffes. He cited not only the “Make A Realistic Wish” sketch, but also the controversy around Kyle Sandilands, “Hey Hey, It’s Saturday” and a few others.
In tonight’s lecture, Julian apologised unreservedly to those people who had been hurt by the sketch, in particular those who had lived through childhood cancer, or have lost a child in such circumstances.
They are the people that I’m sorry about. I know that they have, arbitrarily, been afflicted with grief caused by one of life’s cruellest realities. You’ve got tears enough in your life if that happens. A comedy show shouldn’t add to those pools of grief. Lest there is any misunderstanding, if you are one of those people, I want to reiterate my sincerest apology to you for the unwarranted pain that sketch caused when you have already have too much suffering in your life.
He added he also understood why many people were offended by the sketch, defining these people as a second group who were usually motivated by compassionate, well-intentioned feelings.
But there’s a third group, he argued, that weren’t hurt by it, didn’t see it when it was first broadcast, and to an extent were expressing feelings of mock outrage. This was the group, he argued, who heard about the sketch through re-broadcast, re-transmission and so on.
The essence of his argument was the overall audience mostly likes and enjoys challenging material. There’s a danger, he argued however, that thanks to replay, discussion elsewhere, mock indignation and so on, that media companies will begin to under-estimate the audience and not be willing to take risks for their primary audiences.
It’s a nuanced argument, and I probably haven’t done it justice here, so I’d suggest you read the speech yourself.
As always it was a very entertaining evening, and it was great, once again, to get dressed up, to be wined and dined, and to discuss some interesting parts of my work.
As someone wrote to me in an email, ” the lecture caused a great deal of subsequent talk – for all the right reasons”. Couldn’t agree more.
Andrew Olle Media Lecture – Cassie, James, Cath, Wendy
It wasn’t the best sunset I’ve seen in Stockholm, but it was pretty damn good. So at the end of an afternoon of sight-seeing, we braved the conditions and headed to the top of Katarinahissen to take some photographs.
Stockholm Sunset
We were on the way home after a visit to the legendary Stockholm nightclub, restaurant and bar, Berns. Even though I’ve visited Stockholm on a number of occasions previously, I have only a vague memory of the inside of Berns. The memory involves standing in a busy queue waiting to get in, and then having to wait even longer for a drink. In stark contrast, this time around there were only a couple of small family groups, a few young singles here and there, and a couple of mother/daughter duos.
The inside of Berns is classic “old style”, with comfortable chairs, high ceilings and chandeliers. The waiters are fairly easy on the eye too. We thought a cocktail at the end of long day of hard-core sight-seeing was in order. Mine was mandarin flavoured, while Sue’s was mint and ginger flavoured. Yummy.
We had spent much of the afternoon wandering around Skansen, the open-air museum in Stockholm. As a museum, I can’t think of anything else like it in the world. The short story of Skansen is this: about 100 years ago, someone had the idea of bringing to Stockholm (in one central location) lots of different types of buildings from all over Sweden. As there’s quite a bit of variation in the style of buildings and animals (due to climatic variation), it gives you a good overall snapshot of life in Sweden from about 1850 to 1950.
Wedding party goes into church at Skansen
Inside the buildings there are often people dressed in costumes demonstrating arts and crafts. We chatted briefly with a woman who made jewellery for a living, but who worked/hobbied on the weekend at Skansen hand-making spoons. We also chatted briefly with a woman who’d made some traditional Swedish Easter meals, including some herring (of course), as well as a dish made from tomato and egg.
Iron Monger’s Store at Skansen
One of the more “modern” Swedish traditions we engaged in was a meal of köttbullar (meat balls). “Next time you go to IKEA in Melbourne, you can tell them you’ve eaten meat balls in Sweden and they’re nothing like the rubbish they’re serving up”, I urged Sue.
Although many of the exhibits at Skansen were closed due to the winter, it was still really very interesting to walk around. In some ways, it was actually probably a little better, as the crowds were small. I’ve been to Skansen a few times before, always in summer, and so it was interesting to see things differently.
When I’ve visited, it’s usually been for Allsång på Skansen, the iconic Swedish sing-a-long television program. “It’s like Countdown meets Carols By Candelight”, I told Sue as we walked past the main stage, now under re-construction for this year’s season in July and August.
Meanwhile, there was another “show” underway at the nearby church in Skansen, as we watched the beginnings of a wedding. “You’d need to be fairly wealthy to afford a wedding at Skansen”, we were later told.
You know how I mentioned a couple of months ago I had discovered the art of making home-made bread? Although I generally have a short-attention span, I’m pleased to say I’m still baking. I made this loaf for a colleague and friend who, unfortunately, called in sick today. It will remain on my window-sill for consumption tomorrow.
This afternoon, I ran into Neil aka Ninglun near the bus stop on Cleveland Street. He’s a blogger who lives not far from me who also likes to take photographs of Surry Hills. “I’m taking a series on ‘waiting'”, he told me this afternoon, explaining why he was taking a photograph of the bus stop near the Surry Hills Shopping Mall.
I was also in the mood for a bit of “Surry Hills” photography this afternoon, I told him as we walked down the street together. I love taking photographs of the area in which I live, especially the little back streets which have a character of their own.
And today I discovered Little Young Street, just behind Young Street, Redfern. From the start of the street it’s nothing spectacular, just a back laneway in many ways. And while it doesn’t have the glamour or notoriety of somewhere like McElhone Place, you really get a sense the people whose homes back onto Little Young Street quite like the place. In common with McElhone Place, there are lots of plants in pots and tubs. But what I really like about what the people have done is use really strong, bright colours, to accentuate what they’ve done.
Little Young Street, RedfernLittle Young Street, RedfernLittle Young Street, RedfernLittle Young Street, RedfernLittle Young Street, Redfern
Bright reds, stripes, all sorts of colours, which help make it an unexpectedly interesting street to walk down.
With a bit of free time on my hands over the last few weeks, I’ve been using a website to colourize some old family photographs I’d only ever seen previously in black and white. http://playback.fm/colorize-photo
Though, I can definitely pick there’s an algorythm at work (they all look a little bit “the same”), I’m still happy with what the website offers for free and without much effort.
And what they offer is a new level of detail of the people involved, which would otherwise be the lost in the grey background.
Anyway, here’s a few of them, family pics from the 1940s through to the early 1970s.
Wedding Photograph of Albert Bernard O’Brien and Bertha Ann Dunn, 1940s.Gloria O’Brien / Pepper (second from the right) taken at a nightclub in Lismore in the 1960s. I loved the black and white version. I love the colour version even more. Scowls, cigarettes, too cool for school! What were they drinking? Someone has suggested it ws “Porphyry Pearl”. A bit before my time – does that sound right?Gloria O’Brien (and me), Margaret O’Brien (and “Little Margaret”) in “the shed” at Kyogle Street, South Lismore. Looks like it was about Christmas 1966. Two or three years old? I’m not sure.“The O’Brien Girls” (Gloria, Patsy, Tootsie and Nancy), along with “Little Margaret” preparing for Nancy’s wedding in 1973.
Like this:
LikeLoading…
Related
One Comment
Interesting that someone who provides heavily subsided rental homes to those in need, is alternatively by hen surnames of Knight or (w)right’. I often argue that unless you have an investment property and need the ‘market rate’ of rent to make your loan repayments, it is immoral to charge the insane ‘market rate’ for rent, as we all know it is un-affordable to those in need, and indeed, to most people. Who sets the market rate? and who says we need to do what the ‘market’ says? What n great and inspiring person to be so humane and generous in providing affordable housing.
Interesting that someone who provides heavily subsided rental homes to those in need, is alternatively by hen surnames of Knight or (w)right’. I often argue that unless you have an investment property and need the ‘market rate’ of rent to make your loan repayments, it is immoral to charge the insane ‘market rate’ for rent, as we all know it is un-affordable to those in need, and indeed, to most people. Who sets the market rate? and who says we need to do what the ‘market’ says? What n great and inspiring person to be so humane and generous in providing affordable housing.