‘Two in the Top End’ on ABC: Episode 6 (final) highlights

Episode 6: more of Kimberleys then on to Broome and the end.

When this episode opens, the friends still have nearly 2500km to go before Broome, and several more points of interest to check out. There is a lighter mood in the 4WD though, as they’re on the home stretch and both clearly looking forward to taking a break from the long distances.

On the Kimberleys coastline, there are impressive cliffs, waterfalls and raging tidal surges. They also check out some of the sea produce sought after in S E Asia -the sea cucumbers, trepang/beche-de-mer and other edible marine life that has been hunted here for centuries; now, the foraging pressure is stronger.

Going further, Tim and John find some huge fossilised dinosaur footprints, so John doesn’t miss the chance to try jumping onto each one in turn.  On the road again: a present-day reptile, in the form of a 2-metre-long banded python in healthy condition, gets an unexpected lift into the nearby bush, as Tim is in full ‘park ranger’ mode.

Coming into Broome, they both notice it is really ” a car town” and the sign telling pedestrians to give way to drivers pretty well sums it up. Fifteen thousand residents are here now and it looks like at least 1 in 3 have a vehicle of some kind. The real estate shop offers a “piece of paradise” in a caravan park -for about $110 000 on lease basis, and a corner block of land for $800 000. John reckons the price reflects increased options for additional driveways.

After learning how to dodge the traffic, Tim and John get to meet a father-and-son pair of local pearlers, who work with the cultivated variety. The father talks about the pearling story in Broome, shows off some seed pearls, talks about his own family and shows the travellers some gravestones of young Japanese pearl divers who were in the area back in the Edwardian days. Out on oen of their boats, the son talks about present-day challenges, water quality and difficulties in the near future, including the issue of sea temperatue increases on the oysters and the likely crushing competitive pressures once offshore gas reserves are drilled.

A final chat with a local Aboriginal guide gives a sombre picture of less care being taken in protecting the ecosystem, more pressure from 4WD traffic and less interest in what could go wrong. Tim and John end up on one of the main local beaches and find it is crowded with 4WDs and reaching the wrecked-by-those-attracted-to-it stage.  It really is the end of the road this time, so they do the goodbyes…then Tim comes up with an idea for checking out the Sepik River while they’re “still young enough”.

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Program website: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/interactive/twointhetopend/ and follow prompts for specific episodes.

What I’m reading now

Feasting on short stories

After the fun and major book-buying extravagance over the October long weekend, I’ve got masses of new reading material. Earlier this evening, during dinner in town, I enjoyed two stories in the latest edition of  Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy (Mirrordanse Books). I started with Adam Browne’s ‘An Account of an Experiment’, “narrated” by a Franciscan monk trapped in service to a sadistic king, then soon became immersed in Terry Dowling’s macabre mystery, ‘Toother’.

Not long after starting Dowling’s story, I found it was one that led to me asking myself: ‘I wonder if the writer had been thinking of [insert title of whatever one makes sense at the time]  that story when they wrote this?” That story in this context was Edgar Poe’s famous mutilation fable, ‘Berenice’, and it turned out that was the story one of the main characters talked about and which provided a clue. I’ll re-read the Poe story soon.

‘Two in the Top End’ series on ABC: Episode 5 highlights

Episode 5: start of Gibb River Road to Fitzroy Crossing & Mornington Wilderness Camp

The Kimberley region is essentially the whole highlight of this episode, from the scenery at the start of Gibb River Road, including the “pristine” streams John drives the 4WD through, to the heart of the region: huge escarpments, vast grassy plains, small gorges, picturesque canyons. Tim is thinking of the encroaching Toad menace and John is, as usual, ready with his trademark “could THIS be Australia’s next food bowl?” question.

When the pair find the entrance road is blocked while grading is being done, they have a chat with the woman driving the support vehicle. She says the fact the road is unsealed is a major tourist attraction in itself, but that so many first-time drivers make the mistake of thinking they can go at 100kph just because it has been “finished”. NO. Tim & John backtrack to a southern road then take a helicopter to head towards their next main feature: Mornington Wilderness Camp, owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Tim gets airborne to check out the innovative fire-control/burn-off program done from a helicopter, using ping pong balls filled with an incendiary fluid then dropped in strategic places. It has been showing very promising results in terms of big reductions of fire danger and far less land lost to big blazes.  John finally gets a direct NO to his food bowl question, by one of the Camp managers, while the three men are on a high rock platform: the manager points out the terrain is far too harsh, the distances make for prohibitive transport costs and soils are really not up to the job. It’s enough of a struggle for native drought-tolerant trees to survive.

Related to the terrain issue is the history of plans to dam the Fitzroy Crossing to get at the spectacular amount of water: in flood during the West season, the river could fill a volume equal to Sydney Harbour in about 5 hours. The scenery of the Fitzroy area  makes it clear just what could be lost by attempting a dam project. Another idea, of building a giant pipeline, was also squashed, partly due to amount of time the potable water would spend in the pipe before reaching southern built-up areas: 70 days. Not so appealing after that, especially during the Dry season’s heat.  While they paddle along in a canoe, John finally suggests it could be smarter to see if the Ord River project delivers more of its original promise before trying the Fitzroy schemes; Tim is only too willing to approve that one.

It looks like next week is the final episode, when Tim & John reach the western end of their big trip.

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Program website: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/interactive/twointhetopend/ and follow prompts for specific episodes.

‘Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye’ at National Museum of Australia

Visit to a major temporary exhibition at National Museum of Australia

Australian Aboriginal artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910-1996) has been the focus of a major retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Australia during August-October this year. It is full of massive and intricately detailed paintings, designs for batik cloth and smaller works inspired by her long-time work as a ceremonial body painting artist in her home area of Utopia, northeast of Alice Springs  in Central Australia.

The exhibition has already been a huge success in galleries in Japan, where it attracted more than 100 000 visitors, a number previously only connected with figures such as Andy Warhol. The ‘Utopia’ exhibition is also the largest, relating to a single Australian artist, to travel outside Australia. Film footage of the installation processes and launches in Tokyo and Osaka show how much expert care and cooperative effort was needed for safely transporting the artworks, unloading them, installing them and initial amazed reactions of Japanese gallery-goers and officials. What is even more spectacular is how Emily Kame Kngwarreye has been compared to many leading European artists and world-class Abstract Expressionists, but in her own life never went to a formal art school in any Western tradition or even out of her own home range in Central Australia, except on a few occasions.

In the Museum’s space for temporary exhibitions, the 120 works that comprise the Canberra version* of the show have been arranged in chronological sections, based on various eras of her artistic career. There is also information about indigenous cultural protocols on use of names, which has specific value in explaining the exception Emily herself made in allowing her name to be used soon after she had died, in order to keep the association with the artworks. Normally, a name is not allowed to be used at all for several years. Related to this is the notice about the exhibition containing some photos of Aboriginal individuals who have recently died, to give fair warning to any visitors who may have personal reasons for avoiding such photos. This warning is repeated in the on-line exhibition content.

Some of  my personal favourite works: the gigantic black&white ‘Big Yam Dreaming’; a ‘Wild Potato Dreaming’ painting (one of the smaller ones, with a very intricate design) and one that featured grass tufts. I was also impressed by a huge roll of batik-design cloth, and so many others. A few display cases contained a mix of more sculptural works such as wooden human and “devil dog” figures and a fun piece: a painted watering can that Emily presented to Janet Holmes a Court; this item has been loaned  to the Museum for this exhibition.

So many large detailed works, with so many stories involved in the design,  do deserve a substantial amount of time to look at. This was not a “quick 20 minutes” kind of show if you really wanted to appreciate even some of the scale of the output and quality of work. I took close to 1 1/2hr all up, and that involved some paintings getting only a couple of minutes’ viewing each. The content is so full of colour and energy that by the end of two lots of walking through the sections of the exhibition space, reading captions, watching the accompanying films and making a few multiple visits to favourite works, I felt I’d absorbed as much as I reasonably could in one visit. This is partly because the works are very symbolic and not, in the Western sense at least,  immediately obvious as landscapes of trees/mountains/ancient ruins in forest or group paintings of townspeople etc, so a visitor really needed to invest extra mental effort to connect the information in captions with the depictions in front of them.  Gallery-visiting experience in looking at Aboriginal art, and reading about it, could certainly help to get more personal value out of seeing the exhibition. Sadly, I ran out of time for more than one visit.

Congratulations to the Museum for collecting and caring for so many fine works, and thanks for putting these ones on display.

* Not all the works in the Japanese shows could be included in the one in Canberra, due to different gallery spaces and related factors.

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fyi: The exhibtion website is at: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/utopia_the_genius_of_emily_kame_kngwarreye/ The exhibition’s last admission day is 12 October, but the related website content will be available for a longer time and contaisn examples of various works.

TV on Sunday night – Galapagos Islands and ‘Midsomer Murders’

Wild and haunted landscapes: dramatic tv on a Sunday night

Earlier this evening I saw a couple of programs full of possibilities/topical appeal for lovers of speculative fiction:

1. Part 1 of the ‘Galapagos’ documentary series on SBS (7.30pm, approx.) showed primeval/before-all-people types of landscapes; strange animals “that Time forgot” -the marine iguana alone could give plenty of ideas/start nightmares about dragons and Lizard Men; volcanic eruptions above ground and under water; ocean currents bringing vital food supplies for local fauna; remote islands with rough coastlines, that might appeal to a mad scientist looking for a spot for a new lab, or an exiled court magician seeking a place to hide… More episodes to follow in coming weeks.

2. Last episode for current series of ‘Midsomer Murders’ -plenty of “talking with the dead”; crystals and sacred blades; local priest vs charismatic stranger in struggle for the villagers’ respect and obedience; liberal use of holy water and crucifix; secret gatherings in a haunted forest; a ruined & overgrown abbey; vivid visions of a massacre of monks many generations ago (I’m talking the Dissolution of the Monasteries here); credibility of those seeking to explain ghostly sounds; seances etc etc. I thought Jeroen Krabbe did a pretty fair job as the charismatic stranger. I’ll miss this series next Sunday.

Conflux5: online reports on two panel sessions

fyi: online reports now available for two panel sessions at Conflux

The Aboybgoesonajourney specfic website now has two new articles relating to activities at Conflux5 on the October Long Weekend. They are reports I wrote during this week*, covering two of the panel sessions I went to on Saturday: ‘Fantastic Poetry’ and the AHWA presentation on ‘Apocalypse horror stories’.
The home page is at: http://www.aboygoesonajourney.com/.

*after signing myself up to do it at some point during the long w/end, in a sudden fit of wild enthusiasm between full-on days at the venue, then being introduced to the web doyenne herself.

History of the K-Tel company: steak knives galore!

K-Tel proves that steak knives can be used to sell anything!

“But wait! There’s more!” Very few company slogans, sales pitches or mottos ever enter the public’s pysche the way that one did after K-Tel and its star voice-over man, Bob Washington, pushed it out over the radios and through millions of tv sets for about 25 years in the 1960s-mid-80s. We heard it again once  the company barely escaped irreversible financial ruin. In the intervening years, the founder had gone back to his gadget-selling background and found more energy to sell…and sell very hard.

Summary of the documentary content:

Tonight’s first documentary on SBS was about the rise, fall and resurrection of K-Tel International. It had some really interesting stories about the key players -including the charismatic founder-CEO Phil Kives, the No.1 Product Engineer, various former Vice Presidents, a record label manager and the essential guy with the (thankfully!) rare voice that immortalised sales offers involving steak knives. There were also the celebrated products, including: the series of “Hooked On” music compilations, golf & tennis practise gadgets, food blenders, aerobic exercise equipment…and the steak knives. Archived footage of ad campaigns showed a style as cheesy as a collection of Chevy Chase movies.

The business vision, founders’ massive appetite for risk and ways of ‘breaking the rules’ that won big successes in established industries -especially recorded music – was also obvious in many ways. In his own interview segments, the Chief Maverick Phil Kives occasionally sounded like a Canadian version of Richard Branson (Kives is from Winnipeg). Like Branson’s history with the Virgin brand, not all Kives’ ventures proved successful and sustainable: the diversification into oil, gas and real estate in early 1980s became a big factor in the fast drop of fortunes. Once there were problems publicised in the US, Canada soon followed, then Europe… Family fall-outs added a lot of problems and even Kives admits the company reached a point where, with 13 members in signficant roles, there was just too much family for the health of the company.

Kives and his remaining core supporters started re-building K-Tel in a motel room, then tasted come-back success near end of the 80s, first with a company called ‘K5′, then the renewed K-Tel International: the deals, increasing TV coverage that ‘got traction’ in the marketplace again and there was a whole new generation of products. The Steak Knife Guy had returned to action. Right near the end of the documentary, in full Revitalised mode, he says he is much too busy to have time to grow old.  In this, he is convincing.

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On air: broadcast on SBS TV Australia, 10 October, 7.30-8.30 pm approx.

‘Two in the Top End’ series on ABC -episode 4 highlights

Episode 4: Darwin to Gibb Rover Road, Kimberleys

Tim & John return to Darwin near end of the Wet season, but still get drenched and have plenty of problems trying to drive safely through a major downpour.

Toad-busting: the pair join a local group who go out at night to find toads and capture them, gas them (with CO2) and freeze the dead toads, then store them in a giant container -the ‘toad vat’ – and eventually turn them into fertiliser. John is really keen to start the ‘massacre’ but Tim is having very mixed feelings about the deaths of so many creatures, even though they are infamous pests.

Leaving the northern capital, they get back onto the Savannah Way and visit an old experiemental rice-growing area near Humpty Doo. It failed some decades ago, but the two blokes they talk with give an interesting history of what had been intended and what the conditions are like. On to the much more successful Ord River/Lake Argyle area, where sandalwood has become a crop of major promise and the dam has a spectacular capacity of at least 10 times that of Sydney Harbour.

In the mining town of Kununurrra,  the duo check out the real estate choices ..and find they are more like Sydney figures than country town rates they were half-expecting. The agent comes out to meet them and says prices have jumped 30% in past year. Tim and John decide to head back to the 4WD in case she starts a sales pitch in ernest.

Near the end of the episode, and by now in a much drier area, Tim and John head towards the famous Kimberley region, stop off at a border checkpoint along the way to get ’scanned’ for toads and at the start of the Gibb River Road find their options are pretty limited. Tim has plenty of ready info about the spread of the toad menace and they sombrely agree that pathetically little has been done about it compared to the amount of damage done and to be done in near future.

Conflux 5: last day & retrospective

Conflux Day 4: last sessions, final meetings, and the Closing Ceremony

The last day was finally here. I went to my last three panels: on blogging and fanzines, Steampunk and Shared Worlds, all of them full of interest. Late in the morning, another downpour threatened to drown out some panellists’ voices. Also to do: collect final autograph on a new book, take a break from hotel during lunch and walk into the shopping area, quiet lunch, killed some time and picked up a couple more books in Borders, then back to the hotel and read for a while until Closing Ceremony.

In the late afternoon, after all the ‘demands’ of swilling champagne and scoffing chips and lollies at book launches, trying to adjust to Daylight Saving, attending a pretty good sample of the massive variety of panel sessions, enjoying life near the bar, hearing tales from the guest speakers, workshops for some, final splurges at the book tables… it was time for the last hurrah of the Closing Ceremony.

It was an ending worth staying for, or coming back from the CBD for some, as the two MCs were in new costumes: Liz Argall as a sly black-winged angel with a taste for sheep skulls and Richard Harland as a good-natured tiara’d fairy with very short wings, bright sash and a wand used to assist the de-hypnotising process started at the launch ceremony waaaay back on Friday evening.  Thanks to both of them for a very generous and energetic two-part double act of themed entertainment.  Cat Sparks gave us a retro photo montage of both the days’ fun and many earlier years of ‘characters’ in the Australian specfic scene. Applause followed, for all the organising committee, guests, hotel staff, auctioneers, competition winners, lucky winner of the ogre-sized raffle etc etc. And all without any of the dodgy politics of the official live-to-tv ceremonies a month or so ago.

Good news: the next Con has been set for October Long Weekend next year, at The Marque, so I’ll definitely marque it on my calendar.

Last thoughts for now:

As I see it, coming to my second Con has been worth very dollar and then some. Throughout the days of the program and during my trips to and from the venue, I started to really feel ‘at home’ with Speculative Fiction, both as a reader and a hobby writer looking for a world of writing experience that could provide  fun, interest, possibility of new friends, a strong sense of wonder and adventure, and make fullest use of my life-long compulsive daydreaming habit. I’m sure I stepped into it for a while on the long weekend.

Conflux 5, 2008: Day 3

Day 3: more fun, more panel sessions, more additions to the specfic library at home

• Book launches were a major feature in the afternoon, starting with Margo Lanagan’s novel tender morsels, then a set of 4 books from small presses, including a collection of stories inspired by Canterbury Tales and an unusual one recipe book created as a fundraiser for writer Paul Haines. Full/nearly-full rooms for both events, with Jack Dann adding his own plugged-into-a-current energy. Bought copies of all of them;
• Panel sessions I went to included: editing stories; creativity processes for text and screen work -done as a duo of Jack D. and Mark Shireffs, who worked as writer for the acclaimed  ‘Jasper Morello’ animation feature; a panel on ‘achieving the dream’ -various authors recounting experiences of becoming a full-time writer/making their early significant breakthroughs. The Dreaming Again panel session brought together at least half of the contributors to the anthology, plus editor (Jack D) and publisher from the Voyager imprint,  for a light-heated chat about what went into making the book.
• Some more time and $ spent in the buyers’ room;
• Met a few more new people and had a chat;
• Realised during the day that I’m becoming more and more attached to speculative fiction as a reader and aspiring writer and appreciate the fun and generally casual atmosphere at the conventions, as well as gaining considerable interest value from the stories and discussions.  Maybe it is this, and not so much Literary fiction that I’m really most ‘at home’ with after all.

The last big day tomorrow!