“It’s all going so fast”, I said to my colleague to the left of me.
We were walking / marching / dancing along Oxford Street, as part of the “ABC Pride” float in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Even though ABC Pride is a staff-led initiative (it was not an “official” ABC float), it was awesome to have Managing Director, David Anderson on the float, and ABC Chair, Ita Buttrose came along to meet and greet everyone, before making her way to the party at Taylor Square.
A photograph captured by a friend. Hopefully I wasn’t too uncoordinated!
For about eight months we’ve been fundraising – through morning teas, merchandise sales and donations etc – to cover the costs of mounting the float. There were no tax-payers funds involved.
Team Orange!
For the last few weeks, we’ve rehearsing a dance routine to an accompanying soundtrack made up of well-known ABC theme music.
A number of well known ABC figures – Jeremy Fernandez, Nate Byrne, Annabell Crab, Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas – led the parade for us, while sixty others marched behind. That included staff who funded their own travel from locations including Brisbane, Darwin, Newcastle, Melbourne, Wollongong, Adelaide and Perth.
After catching up with friends at the pub, it’s been a night of washing, dry and packing clothing for my trip to Sweden. I leave tomorrow night at eight o’clock.
The big dilemma? The denim shorts my niece gave me for Christmas. Should I pack them? On the one hand, denim shorts can be quite practical. They can be hard wearing. You can wear them a few times without need for washing. And they don’t need ironing.
But fashion wise? Do they look okay? So I took a photo, uploaded it to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and asked my peeps. Here’s the definitive answer on denim shorts in 2011…
Denim shorts …… are we talking YMCA style denim shorts…..
2 hours ago · Like
All I can say is no to the shorts. Have a great trip though.
49 minutes ago · Like
I’m with Grant – it’s a nooooooooo to the shorts
32 minutes ago · Like
@JamesOBrienAU only if you team them with socks and sandals and a denim vest and post photos
2 hours ago
@JamesOBrienAU depends how short they are lol
3 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply
@JamesOBrienAU There are pros to denim shorts? ;-)
I don’t really know. It’s hard to see with that lighting.
Yesterday 23:19
Three years ago when my friend, Sue and I were both here in Darwin, we were truly impressed by a busker we saw at the Parap Markets. He was a good-looking young man, with a good voice, and a good stage presence. We were both immediately convinced he was destined for “greater things”.
To my delight he was back at Parap Markets this morning, still busking, and still in the same place. It was wonderful that he’s “keeping it real”. I dropped some money into his guitar case and was pleased to see others had done similarly.
Jordan Ravi at Parap Markets, August 2022
Staying near the tourist and bar epicentre of Mitchell Street, I’ve heard quite a bit of live music over the last few weeks.
“There are far too many solo male singers with guitars doing cover versions”, I told a friend yesterday as we caught up for a drink. “There’s a lot of American soft rock from the 70s and 80s, and the occasional more recent number. But mostly, it’s lots of white blokes singing songs by white blokes to other white blokes”, I joked.
I did, however, see my friend’s sister perform in a duo with her boyfriend the other day, and again today at the Darwin Waterfront.
Spending most of my time in the CBD, I’ve probably missed out on some great local musicians, so if you know of some I could check out in my remaining week, please drop a comment below.
The one thing that’s really impressed me this time around is a large amount of public art on display. Here are a few examples of what’s on offer.
From little things, big things grow. Gurrumul Yunupingu Public art in DarwinWork by Lisa King, near Channel 9 in DarwinI’m a dingo, not a dog. The motorbike is just parked in front of it, not part of the work itself.
“Does anyone know the last time there was a drag show here at the Newtown Hotel?”, Minnie Cooper asked the crowd tonight. Instantly, my friend Graeme and I knew the answer.
On a Sunday afternoon in November 2007, Graeme and I were due to catch up for a beer, but to our surprise, the night before was the hotel’s final night after many years as a gay bar, and many years with drag shows.
For years, “The Newtown Hotel” had been a legendary “gay” pub run by the very famous/infamous lesbian, Dawn O’Donnell. It was a fun pub that you could hang out with your mates and have a laugh.
We were there tonight, due to a post by Minnie on “Lost Gay Sydney”.Minnie Cooper reflected on the changes tonight, with a witty one-liner. “The straights voted for us a couple of years ago with marriage equality, so we’ve got to let them in now”, she said or words to that effect. It got a laugh.
Minnie told the story of how she had been in rehearsal for a show at The Newtown Hotel, when the sudden closure occurred. Tonight’s show, she told us, was the show she had been preparing. There were lots of great musical memories of the 80s and 90s, and so both Graeme and I enjoyed it.
As I sat and watched the show, I couldn’t help but reflect on my most recent unfortunate experience at Darwin’s gay bar, “Throb”.
A couple of years ago, there, I had a young gay Aboriginal guy refer to me as “Uncle”. For Aboriginal people, “Uncle” (or “Aunty”) are terms of respect for older people. I was both touched, and to be honest, a little concerned, I’d reached “that age”. In contrast, on my final night in Darwin, I had a young caucasian woman walk past me and say “What are you doing here, grandpa”? As I didn’t get the impression this young woman meant it in the same respectful manner as the young guy, I responded with what I admit, was a sexist derogatory comment I remembered from “Priscilla, Queen Of The Dessert”. “Was she drunk?”, my friend Graeme, asked me. “No, just rude”, I told him. Despite this rather unfortunate incident, the drag show at “Throb” was excellent.
Nothing like that happened tonight at “The Newtown”, thankfully. The crowd was friendly, and incredibly young, compared to us, who you might unfavourably compare to “Statler & Waldorf”.
It’s great to see drag back at “The Newtown”, and good luck to Minnie and others for the return.
I remember reading somewhere – maybe in a history of the Bega Show – that one of my ancestors was a champion pig breeder.
I have no idea what that means. The closest I’ve come to day to day agriculture is growing up on the outskirts of Lismore, where there were cattle in the paddock behind us. Occasionally, on the way to the saleyards they would break through the fence. My childhood “chore” was to jump over the fence and collect the dung, which I would then mix with water to put on the vegetable garden.
We would also regularly visit the farm of Uncle Barney and Aunty Maisie who lived at Goonengerry, near Mullumbimby.
That’s me with my back to the camera, along with assorted family members at the farm of Uncle Barney and Aunty Masie at GoonengerryYears later, working in Renmark, I did this.
And so it was with some interest that I went to see the film, “Gunda”. I’d seen the trailer the other week and thought, “yep I want to see that”.
When I told friends at lunch yesterday I was going, and told them a little about the film, they instantly referred to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, and the 1990s classic, “Babe”.
It’s not like that, I told them. “It’s a ninety minute documentary film, shot entirely in black and white, there’s no commentary and there are no humans in the film”, I told them. Doesn’t sound great? But it’s definitely worth seeing.
The film was shot on farms in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. The connection with Norway is an appropriate one, as that country is also the home of “sakte-TV” (slow-TV), which has seen “marathon length” programs of everday life, such as train journeys receive high viewership.
In some ways, the film is a prime example of that. Over about ninety minutes, the film focuses on the everyday lives of a family of pigs. On the surface, not a lot happens. But in other ways, an awful lot happens, as the pigs (for example) transform from being very young (a few hours after birth) to being independent from their mother.
Though the pigs are at the centre of the film, there are side stories of chicken and cattle.
As I watched the film I couldn’t help but watch it with “human eyes”, to portray the events in terms of human emotions. In part, that’s because the film focuses so much on the animals eyes (giving you an insight into their “soul”), and because there’s so much about their experiences (eating, drinking, looking after their babies), in common with our lives. As you watch, you imagine the animals are, at times, happy, sad, and sometimes bored.
The film also sees the world from the perspective of the animals. For example, when a tractor comes into the film, you see the world from the line of sight of the pigs, and in close-up.
The film’s executive producer is Joaquin Phoenix, a well-known vegan, and so you have to think about the film from that perspective.
I really enjoyed the film. But as I watched it, I wondered about how my view might of the day to day lives of the animals might differ from that of my ancestors who were much closer to it all. I’d like to think they looked after the animals they had.
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!
“How long have you been back?”, I was asked the other night by a colleague about my trip to Spain. “Only a week”, I told her, though I had to think about it for a moment, because so much has happened in the last seven days.
Normally, I don’t have much luck getting through customs. Even though I have one of those electronic passports which is supposed to recognise you and allow you through quickly, I’ve never had much luck with it. “You’ve lost quite a bit of weight since your passport photograph was taken” was the excuse offered to me a couple of years ago to explain why it always takes so long. But on this trip, I made it through in record time, even though my passport photograph was somewhat damaged, due to a collision with a water bottle, thanks to the short queue. I was also lucky with the public transport connections. We landed at 8 minutes past 7, and I was literally sitting on my couch at home by 10 minutes past 8.
Oddly enough, only metres from my home, I ran into a colleague, who lives close-by. He was on his way to work, and we exchanged “headlines” about my holiday, and what had been happening at work while I was away.
As we’re going through lots of planning for next year, work has been extremely busy in the last few days. Though I still found time to go out for lunch twice – once with friends, and once with colleagues – which is more than I normally manage. Usually, it’s lunch from the downstairs cafe, consumed in front of my computer. Though I’ve returned to work from this holiday with renewed vigour to go out for lunch as much as possible. The weather’s beautiful in Sydney right now, and I DON’T NEED to work through my lunch-break. I also had dinner with my friend Kate at the awesome BBQ King.
And on Friday night, I attended the annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture. Though I’ve been wearing the same suit and tie for the last fifteen years (probably longer) I went out and bought something new this year. “At least I’ll remember what year it was from”, I told my aforementioned colleague, as you’ll see from the topicality of the bow-tie.
Andrew Olle Media LectureRainbow Tie
Other events from the last week, include attending the launch of Media Diversity Australia, the marriage equality rally last weekend, and then today attending the People with Cameras photo event, centred around Central Park. Catching up with a mate I’ve met through Google+ was also awesome.
