“When are you going to open up a dancefloor?”, I joked to the woman behind the bar at my local pub tonight. After months and months of COVID-19 social distancing, people are at last, able to stand around in bars and up to 50 people at a time are allowed to dance.
Even though I don’t go out dancing all that much, the restrictions have been one of the biggest psychological barriers for me. I can’t begin to count the number of times the bar staff at my local pub have had to ask someone to sit down, to observe the restriction that if you were drinking or eating you had to be seated.
As I walked past one of my nearby restaurants, it was great to see they were close to full.
Khoi’s opened up only weeks before the full impact of the lockdown. Pretty quickly, they were forced to close for what appeared to be a permanent situation. A few weeks later, they opened with take-away. Throughout these difficult times, I continued to support them by buying more than my fair share of take-away. They’ve responded to my support in a friendly manner on both social media, and as I walk past. “Hello James”, they’ll say with a smile. I’m looking forward to catching up with a bunch of mates there for dinner later in the week.
As we read the news about the terrible situation in the United States in particular (can it get any worse?), it’s nice to see things start to returning to “normal” here in Australia.
In the last week or so, I’ve attended quite a few Christmas celebrations, all with the appropriate amount of social distancing. By the time Sunday came around, I was starting to feel exhausted by it all. I’m not the “social” person I once was in earlier parts of my life. I much prefer a gathering of only three or four others, and often struggle when the table extends to ten, or there’s a roomfull of people. Nonetheless, I do like getting out and about, and I welcome the changes.
Since I last blogged I’ve been to the movies again, to see the movie, “Monsoon”.
Monsoon tells the story of a man, who was born and spent the very early years of his life in Vietnam. His family left Vietnam, moved to England, and never returned. As an adult, he and his brother have returned to deliver their ashes to their resting place. As a 30/40-something gay man living in England, he’s led a very “Western” life, and the movie explores his disconnection and reconnection to life in Hanoi and Saigon. I really enjoyed the film very much, and would highly recommend it.
And this. My friend, Michaela has an awesome new film coming out in March. I’ve seen an early preview, and I can recommend it. Women. Surfers. Honesty. Check out the preview, and put in your diary for March.Storm clouds over Taylor Square, Sydney
Though I couldn’t convince the woman at the bar tonight to declare an impromptu dance-floor, I look forward to the time when I might return to Oxford Street, and do more than just sit around.
One of my all-time favourite songs covered by Sophie Ellis-Bexter. Her big hits included “If This Is Love” and “Murder On The Dancefloor”. Her social isolation music videos were a highlight of the year, and she sums it up pretty well. This was another favourite https://youtu.be/gBgqBWLAlaw
Though many people like to go away for long weekends, I’m far more inclined to be a home-body. It’s quiet and relaxed. And so, I’m starting the third day of the Queen’s Birthday Weekend with nothing much planned, aside from a very vague idea I’ll go for a swim, and maybe engage in some more “binge television”.
The weekend started on Friday night watching a couple of episodes of the new “Tales Of The City” on Netflix. “Tales Of The City” has been part of my life for almost thirty years. I first read/devoured the books while I was in hospital after an appendectomy. Along the way, they’ve been turned into TV shows, and now, there’s a further update.
The new series is “inspired” by the books of Armistead Maupin. Anna Madrigal is now 90 years old; after an unfulfilling marriage, Mary-Ann has returned to San Francisco; Michael has taken up with a younger man, and Dee Dee seems to be following in the semi-alcoholic footsteps of her mother. There’s also a new generation coming through, with Shawna (the daughter of Mary-Ann’s school friend, Connie Bradshaw) and others, taking on a central role.
Also on the weekend, I went to see the film, “My Big Gay Italian Wedding”, currently screening at Palace Cinemas. The film’s title is exactly what it is. There are elements of comedy and farce in the film (the film’s drag queen offers to dress up in drag to imitate one of the men’s mother who refuses to attend), and the closing scene demonstrates strongly the film’s theatrical background (I won’t give it away), but ultimately it’s a sweet love story. It’s in Italian with subtitles. I’d recommend it.
Then on Saturday night, I went to see Double J’s Tim Rogers and others perform Bohemian Nights at the nearby Giant Dwarf Theatre. The conceit for the show was that Tim was a radio presenter in a country town, doing talkback, cricket scores, with musical and interview guests. Again, I enjoyed it very much. Also, recommended.
Tim RogersGeorgia MooneyTim RogersBohemian Nights at Giant Dwarf
Yesterday was also equally social, catching up with a couple of old school friends for a roast lunch at the Duck & Olive (Sunday Roast $19.99 – very tasty), and then, where the two groups combined, a couple of beers with some newer friends at The Carrington.
So yeah, a day of doing not so much on the Queen’s Birthday Holiday, may not be such a bad thing!
At some point during the night, “Fruits In Suits” was magically transported to Tamworth.
When I was one of the first to arrive at the monthly drinks at Slide Nightclub on Oxford Street, the bar had a distinctly urban feel to it. Lots of suits. Lots of young men (and older men) about town. Lots of real estate. Lots of lawyers. Lots of accountants. As I think I’ve mentioned previously, I have mixed feelings about “Fruits In Suits”. On the one-hand, I like that it’s somewhere “different” to go and meet people. On the other-hand, I’ve never really felt like they were “my people”. “The first point of discussion is always what you do for a living”, I told a mate last night. “And so you’ve got to make some small talk”, I added, suggesting that unless you have an interesting job to talk about, the small talk can be difficult. Tonight I chatted to a bloke who does property valuation for unusual things, and that was a really interesting conversation. But previously I’ve chatted with people with – what I think – sound like incredibly boring jobs.
I also think the cross-section of people go is quite limited. But every few months I go, and I usually have a good time, though sometimes I don’t stay around for too long. This time around, however, I stayed a bit longer chatting with a mate David. And then before we knew it, we were told there was to be a musical showcase featuring some up and coming talented performers.
Most of them were pretty good, I thought. There was a strong country music element to much of what was performed, though there were the occasional show-tune numbers also.
My mate David, who I’ve only known for about 12 months, seemed a little surprised – somewhat sceptical? – about my country music credentials. I still don’t think he believed me when I told him I was a judge for the Tamworth Country Music Awards a few years ago.
“Are podcasts dying? Have they peaked?” I wondered to myself when I saw some of the research presented at “Podcast Day 24” in Sydney. In relation to podcasts, the United States has always been a little ahead of the game. Compared with Australia, there has always been a greater awareness and use of podcasts in the United States until this year.
Australia now seems to be ahead of the United States, which made me wonder “Have we finally caught up?”, or “Have things peaked in America”. It’s hard to know for sure, though the vibe from today’s conference was that the industry was “maturing”, and that maybe some of the extraordinary growth in the past few years has come to an end.
I can’t remember who it was, but someone noted there was fear in the industry about the possible impact of COVID. As people worked from home, there was a fear there might be less podcast listening, as people stopped taking public transport. But they started walking a lot more. And there has been a significant increase in in-car apps from Apple and Google, meaning people have actually been more likely to listen to podcasts. And most people listen to podcasts from home!! Like seriously, most people.
“Being a radio guy, I know it’s all about routines”, one of the panellists said today, noting the challenge for podcast listening now was to re-establish routines. With radio, people get up, turn on the radio, and it sets them up for their day. The research around podcasts is that, on average, people listen to seven each week. Obviously, some people listen more and others less. The challenge is how you make your podcasts interesting/distinctive enough to be part of people’s lives. “You need a 50/50 rule”, one of the panellists today said, noting “You need to spend 50% of your effort finding audiences for your podcast, not just creating it”.
This was the second time I’ve attended this conference and actually enjoyed it much more than the previous one in 2021. “You almost had too much content this year”, I said to the organiser, James Cridland. By the end of the day, my brain was “full” of many ideas and thoughts for the futurue. “I haven’t been making notes, as much, as action points”, I said to a colleague who I sat with for most of the day.
She’s very active in the audio on-demand space, whereas my interest is very much around the state of the radio… um… er ah… I’m supposed to just say “audio” now, space.
As a “radio person”, I was especially interested in how some of the “rules” of radio apply equally to podcasts. For example, there was a presentation about the effectiveness of “live reads” vs “promos” in promoting further listening and advertisers (it wasn’t just an ABC conference, with lots of commercial people there too!). There were no surprises for me in the research: a presenter telling you to listen to something else, or to buy a product is more effective than an advertisement read by someone else. But for me, the “takeaway” was that we likely aren’t doing enough of this on podcasts. With the exception of someone like Leo Laporte who is a master at this, I think there is likely too much of a gap between the high-end “art” podcasts, and the more informal “two blokes around a kitchen table” style of podcast. “There is still a lot to learn from the middle ground lessons of 100 years of radio craft”, I said to someone.
Some research about promoting your podcasts. The impact of an unscripted live read from the host, a scripted one, and a pre-recorded read from someone else.
Another highlight for me was a presentation by Siobhan McHugh, a “veteran” radio producer who now works in academia, but still keeps her hands “dirty” by making podcasts. I first met her maybe 30 years ago when she did a wonderful oral history project about the people who worked on the Snowy Mountains scheme. https://siobhanmchugh.org/the-snowy/ More recently, she worked on a project with Patrick Abboud about the “special” gaols for gay men in Australia. https://www.patrickabboud.com/podcasts/the-greatest-menace She spoke about structure and sound in the creation of podcasts. She is wonderfully inspiring with her enthusiastic love of sound.
Wonderful presentation by Siobhan McHugh about structure within a podcast episode.
From a different generation, there was the wonderful story of a couple of young people from radio backgrounds who fell “accidentally” into podcasting, and who are now working full time on a podcast that’s been picked up by Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/show/5OzkclFjD6iAjtAuo7aIYt
Ryan and Toni
In particular, I loved how they spoke about their affection for their audience. “Do you think we should do the Spotify deal?” they asked them. Ryan spoke about the time it takes, but always responding to the comments from listeners. “I love their work ethic”, one of my colleagues commented. There was no sense of “privilege” that you sometimes/often find from people in the media.
Even though the conference is very much a “nerd fest” for those of us who work in the industry, I picked up a few listening suggestions along the way too.
The audience watches and LISTENSScott Stephens and Waleed Aly from The Minefield on video from MelbourneWith some of my colleagues from “our part of the ABC”: Blythe, Angela and Oscar
“This is definitely a film by Almodovar”, I thought to myself with a smile. Just when it seemed like it was going to be a fairly conventional film, there was a significant and (for me) unexpected twist in the plotline.
A friend and I went to see “Parallel Mothers” yesterday at the Verona Cinema in Paddington.
Neither of us knew much about the film, except that the plotline dealt with that classic story of babies at the hospital swapped at birth, and then raising each others children. Beyond that, I won’t give away any more of the plot, except to say it’s quite a rollercoaster ride of emotions.
As with all of Almodovar’s films, the actors speak to each other with frank honesty. In some ways, they’re more honest with each other than probably most of us are in our lives.
I sometimes wonder about the implications of being totally honest with each other, with family, friends and colleagues. Maybe it could be a good thing if we were more honest with each other? Or maybe it’s a good thing that we bite our lips, hold our tongues, and maybe allow the brain to react more thoughtfully than the voice would sometimes allow us to.
There’s another plotline in the background about people who were killed / “disappeared” during Franco’s time in charge in Spain. It’s something I didn’t really know anything about but was interesting to learn about, especially since it also taps into a central theme of the movie around identity.
Anyway, we both enjoyed it very much.
And then today I went to see “The Eyes of Tammy-Fae”, a biopic about Jimmy and Tammy-Faye Bakker, who were evangelists back in the 1980s.
They were evangelists who made a lot of money which was then embezzled.
They also had close connections to the religious right “Moral Majority” (Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart etc), who in turn had close connections to Ronald Regan.
As well as their issues around money, they also had personal indiscretions. Jimmy had a “history of homosexual advances” to members of the church going back to the 1950s. Tammy Faye also had an affair in the movie with her music producer, Gary Paxton. “I’ve never felt this good about a record since The Monster Mash”, he says. This is a real-life reference to the fact he produced that 1970s novelty song, though concentrating the later part of his career on Christian music. “Oh, it’s soooo big”, Tammy-Faye says as they begin to have a physical encounter.
Though I knew a bit about the story there were some interesting things about Tammy-Fae which surprised me. While the Moral Majority was strongly homophobic, she went down a different path, and on her Christian TV show featured a sympathetic interview with a gay pastor who was living with HIV/AIDS.
After last week seeing the Diana Spencer biopic (which was a bit unconventional as a bio), it was nice to see something a little more “conventional” this weekend.
