One of the things I really love about the public transport system (in the centre of town at least) is, for the most part you never have to run to catch the subway (Tunnelbana). Of course there are times when you’ll need to run, for the most part if you miss one, another one will arrive soon. That wasn’t the case yesterday, as I struggled with the stern look of a bus driver who wanted to stay on time, with little concern for the middle aged bloke from Australia struggling with a backpack.’
I had a deadline to meet: I was scheduled to meet my AirBnB host in about thirty minutes. Thankfully I made it in time. I was even a little early. The apartment is better than I thought it would be: more spacious than I expected, located in a terrific area, and my host seems like a really terrific guy. Once again, I’m located on Södermalm, with shops and bars closeby, and with excellent public transport options. As you’ll see from below, there is a bar located in the basement of the apartment block, though I’m unsure if it’s peak hipster or Steptoe & Son.
Before lunch with Robert and Sandra, we had been to see a private performance at the Hardrock Cafe by Isaiah Firebrace, Australia’s entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest. I hadn’t known he was going to be in Stockholm, until a chance meeting on Thursday night.
He performed three songs, had photographs taken with fans, and undertook one of those excruciating Q&As with a Swedish radio announcer (who we learned more about, possibly, than Isaiah himself). “I think you did a terrific job at Eurovision”, I told him. He seemed like a nice young lad.
“Because a lot of producers come from a journalism background, they mostly think about the words. I love that he spent so much time speaking about the sound”, I said to someone over drinks at the end of #ozpod2019 today.
We were talking about Dan Blank, creator of the fiction podcast, “Carrier”. Dan, incidentally, has worked mostly in the film industry, virtual reality and such, and this is his first major exploration of audio.
“We have a lot of people in our area with a previous film or vision background, and they make some of the best radio short features, using wonderfully layered sound, often much better than some who have worked exclusively in radio”, I added. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because they’ve often worked predominantly with images, sound presents them with a whole new creative canvas?
It was fascinating to attend this conference for the fourth year in a row, and in particular, to note the evolution of the podcast industry.
True Crime podcast panel talking about fraudsters.
True crime podcasts are still extremely popular, and there was a terrific panel featuring three people who’ve created recent podcasts. One in particular, I’d call out is “Snowball”, which is about the real-life experiences of Ollie Ward’s family who were taken in by a trickster. It’s great listening, and in particular, revelatory hearing how his family really opened up over what was, clearly, an embarrassing situation.
“The key to successful fraudsters is the personal humiliation which makes people not want to talk about this stuff”, Ollie commented.
Another journalist, Greg Bearup who works for “The Australian” spoke about the backgroud to his podcast, “Who The Hell Is Hamish?” which is also about a real life trickster known to his friends and family.
I smiled as he spoke about what it’s like to be a journalist, with thirty years experience, working at the moment. “You feel like you’re the crab in a Chinese restaurant, waiting for the hand to reach in, pick you up and take you away. I just wanted to stay relevant”.
Greg described his interview with a seventeen year old girl as “the most extraordinary of my thirty year career”.
My awesome colleagues, Ian Walker and Kellie Riordan from ABC Audio Studios
Throughout the day there were lots of other handy tips for those currently making, and those aspiring to make podcasts.
Andrew Davies, for example, said the research indicated the online headline and personal recommendations are the top drivers for listeners to try new podcasts, over and above things like cover art and even the actual audio itself.
Marc Fennell noted that in the area of putting together a complex and long-term project that, “having a one line clear reason about what story you’re hoping to tell will get you out of hell every time”.
The interesting development in the podcast space right now is narrative fiction.
One of the panel members talking about this has noted it’s no longer, “knock knock, who’s there, come in” which may have been the style of earlier radio drama.
“People have learned a sophisticated cinematic language since the 1930s and 1940s”, Dan Blank noted, as he spoke about the way this type of audio drama needs to keep pace with the time.
Rachel Fountain from ABC Audio Studios speaks with Dan Blank, creator of the Carrier podcast.
As a “sound guy”, I was fascinated as he spoke about a type of audio recording techniques which can give you a “3D-sound”, which is more natural to the human ears than simple left-right stereo.
As well as catching up with some friends and colleagues from interstate, attending the conference also gave me an opportunity to meet some people who I’ve only ever known through email, phone and video conferencing. There were hugs.
“You know what the best thing about attending a podcast conference is?”, I whispered to a colleague during one of the sessions. “Conference speakers actually know how to speak into a microphone properly!”.
The worst (or perhaps the best) podcast submission received by the ABC.
I’m not used to Sydney gay bars having so many people attending them. In the midst of “Sydney WorldPride”, in some ways, I’m kinda longing for the “good old days” when it was just people sitting by themselves looking down at their mobile phones. Of course, I’m joking.
As I walked along Oxford Street last night, there was a moment when I looked around and thought it kinda felt like Oxford Street in the 90s all over again. The crowd was overwhelmingly “gay”. That felt good.
Entering a few bars, however, I felt a little overwhelmed by the crowds.
“This is the only place I could find that wasn’t too crowded”, I told a friend as we met up for a late afternoon drink at “Universal Bar”, formerly known as “The Midnight Shift”.
Looking around the new bar, I reminisced about the “good old days” when the place had pool tables and a giant fish tank. I explained to my friend that the tank was there because goldfish have a memory span of only five minutes. It was a nostalgic moment as I remembered the lively bar scene on Oxford Street.
Queers of Java, onstage at Crown Street, as part of Sydney WorldPride
My friend confided in me that she was experiencing some Sydney WorldPride “fatigue” after attending numerous events. Although she had tickets to several more, she intended to give them away to friends. “I just need a break after a couple of weeks,” she explained.
I could relate to her sentiment. After enduring three years of COVID and a few years prior to that witnessing the decline of gay bars, it’s almost overwhelming to witness such a surge of LGBTQIA+ activity in Sydney. Seeing so many people on the scene is both exciting and unfamiliar.
Pride Anthems, as part of the Sydney WorldPride showcase on Crown Street.
This week, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying attending the 5 pm showcase hosted by my friend. The showcase has featured some amazing performers from the festival program.
Looking ahead, I’m eagerly anticipating the walk on Sunday across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where an estimated 50,000 people will proudly wear their rainbow colours. It’s going to be a fantastic celebration of LGBTQIA+ pride!
After that, like Christmas decorations, I assume the rainbow flags will come down, and we’ll go back to lots of solitary people sitting in bars looking down at their mobile phones. I hope not.
After a late start to the day, I set out to explore some of Tallinn. As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been feeling a little bit sick. I’m not sure if it’s the day spent in the rain in Stockholm, or being around too many other backpackers, but I’ve been feeling a little congested. Staying in some nice accommodation I decided to make the most of it and stayed at the hotel most of the morning.
Breakfast was nice enough. I especially liked the rollmops. There was also a curried fish dish which was tasty. As with most of these breakfasts, I ate all that I possibly could to make the absolute most of it all.
After breakfast I returned to my room to rest up for a while. The only thing that really made me leave the hotel was an unexpected power outage. “We have a problem with the power”, the woman at reception told me, on my way out of the building. “Not a problem” I replied.
Town was really really busy today. Lots of tourists everywhere.
“50% of all tourists come from Finland”, my tour guide told me on the Official Tour of Tallinn you get with the Tallinn Card. In our case, however, Fins made up 67.3% of those on the bus tour. You guessed it: there was just me and two Finnish girls. As there was only three people it was a very personal tour by the guide who was excellent.
Song Festival Theatre in Tallinn
The first part of the tour takes you on a bus around much of Tallinn, an overview more than anything. We were shown the Russian area, remnants of the involvement of Tallinn in the Moscow Olympics and visited the grounds of the Song Festival, an Estonian tradition that dates back several hundred years. The parklands there we also very important to the independence movement that came with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Statue of famous Estonian composer overlooking the Song Festival Theatre in Tallinn.
And then we returned for a walking tour around the Old Town.
Founder of the national drama institute in Estonia
I guess for me, with an interest in politics, the most interesting parts were hearing a little about the independence of Estonia. Time and time again the tour guide returned to the theme of Estonian independance, noting the country has only had 39 years of self-rule in 800 years. Time and time again she would refer to buildings as being from “The Danish Period” or “The German Period”. The word Tallinn itself means “Danish Town”.
Russian Orthodox Church in TallinnIn memory of those who were in the independent government before Soviet rule, many of whom were shipped off to Siberia.Tallinn Old TownA wave for the tourists.
But now they’re independent and you can really sense the pride our guide felt in that independance. “I’ve never seen him before”, she told us, when the President of Estonia appeared on the balcony near where we standing. He smiled for the camera of course.
It was an excellent tour. We had a terrific guide who was very knowledgeable, and who spoke English and Finnish very well. A bus trip. A walk. Two and a half hours in total. And we were lucky, I guess, that ours was such a small tour. And since it was included in the price of the Tallinn Card ($45 Australian), I already feel the card has paid for itself many times over.
Tallinn Old Town
I don’t know what the night holds. Although I’m feeling a fair bit better than I was, I still feel a little congested. I think I’ll check out the guide book to see what might be on offer on a Thursday night in Tallinn.
The first sound I heard today was a jack-hammer. I don’t know exactly what time it started, but it was early. Strangely enough, in a city that’s already highly developed, there’s still space for more. There’s a large section of land right near Central which is being turned into a waterside development. And everywhere you look there are cranes.
As with London, there are people EVERYWHERE. But unlike London, I haven’t felt crowded in today. I guess with a population of 7 million on a small (and previously limited) amount of space, they’ve learned how to get people around.
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The train system is great (and easy to use), and there are pedestrian walkways everywhere which mean you can cover large distances quickly (and often in air conditioning) without having to cross the roads. The downside of this is that there were parts of Hong Kong today where I felt I was in one giant shopping mall.
In stark contrast, I wandered today through some of the more run-down areas of Kowloon. By the look of things it was the Red Light district with large posters of scantily clad women inviting customers for a massage (and presumably more). As I looked down at one point at some of the publications being sold on the footpath, I was alarmed at how young looking were some of the models on the porno magazines.
There were also lots of buildings which looked in really bad shape. And as I looked up to the windows in those buildings, I wondered what was going on behind closed doors.
Despite the lack of initial planning, Saturday unfolded into an unexpected “pub crawl” adventure.
Originally, my agenda included a lunchtime workshop at Surry Hills Library, organised by friends, followed by an event hosted by the 4A Art Gallery. Still recuperating from my operation, I find daytime naps essential for my recovery, typically lasting five minutes. This time, though, my brief rest in bed stretched into a couple of hours. On waking, I messaged my friends to convey my apologies, and they later shared the success of the workshop, bringing some relief.
Later in the afternoon, I hopped on a bus to Sydney University for the 4A Art Gallery event, known for showcasing contemporary art, primarily by Australians with an Asian heritage. Expressing my enthusiasm for the gallery, I shared with my friends that I’ve acquired a few art pieces from there.
Upon arrival, it became apparent that I had overlooked the details, as the sole art form exhibited was a video projection, and the main attraction was a lineup of youthful DJs. Despite being old enough to be parents to the majority present, we didn’t feel out of place. “This has a late ’90s/early 2000s vibe,” remarked one friend, as the event featured enough music samples from our youth to evoke a sense of nostalgia in the midst of contempoary beats.
DJ in chain mail, for Club 4A
After a couple of hours, we made our way to Newtown, securing window seats at both The Newtown and The Coopers pubs, enhancing the experience on the delightful afternoon. Engaged in conversation, we relished observing the lively crowd strolling along King Street.
Climbing the rainbow staircase at The Coopers Hotel, Newtown.
As the evening progressed with a few beers and wines, fatigue set in once again, prompting my return to Surry Hills. And no, it wasn’t because I got legless!
The post-COVID lockdown era and numerous renovations brought a pleasant surprise—the renowned Turkish restaurant, Erciyes on Cleveland Street, had reopened. Ericyes is the location where many people have grabbed late night kebabs, Turkish sweets, or have enjoyed a meal. My particular favourite there, over the years, has been the Egg Penirli.
Erciyes Turkish Restaurant, Cleveland Street
Though I still have a LONG WAY TO GO in my recovery, I feel like, slowly, life is returning to some kind of normality.
