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Welcome to the
December
issue of the Eastside Radio 89.7 FM Newsletter
Tracks in this issue:
SHORT CUTS Station news from the Manager
EASTSIDE KITE DAY - THIS SUNDAY 12-5pm
Eastside Radio, in association with Randwick City Council, returns to Maroubra Beach for its Annual Kite Day Event!
Featuring colourful flying kites, delicious Greek BBQ,
cool, live jazz and Eastside Presenters.
12 noon - 5pm
SUNDAY 6 DECEMBER
Arthur Byrne Reserve Maroubra Beach
Grab the family and come along for a fantastic fun-filled day. Your favourite station will be filling the skies with amazing aeronautical contraptions under a groovy bed of cool jazz and Kite Magic will be on hand with lessons for first timers.
Famous kid’s characters on enormous kites will again take to the skies - guaranteeing to keep the little ones amused for hours while you sit back, relax and take in a perfect afternoon of free entertainment!
For further information, give the station a call on 9331 3000 or visit the website eastside@eastsidefm.org
Station farewell
It was with a touch of sadness that we said farewell to our quirky and unique Arts Friday presenters, Tony Langshaw and Lee Young. After two years of classic anecdotes and old-time music, the time and effort put in for such an entertaining program could no longer be found. We thank them immensely for their time here at Eastside and wish them all the best in their future leisurely pursuits
Tony Smythe, Station Manager
FUTURES FESTIVAL : 15 -17 January
with 89.7FM Eastside Radio as Media Partner,
Presents:
EXCELLENT MUSIC OVER 3 DAYS at
The JAZZGROOVE FUTURES FESTIVAL
Friday 15 – Sunday 17 January 2010
23 bands play the future of jazz & groove in Surry Hills!
James Muller Quartet • Elana stone * Tina Harrod jazz band • Numerology * Gerard Masters Trio • Shannon Barnett (MELB) * Macklin & Newcomb Duo (Bris) • Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra • Casey Golden Trio * Marty Wieczorek 5tet • Glitch Jukebox Hammeriver with more to be announced.
FREE afternoon gigs and all ages workshops & concerts in the hot jazz venues of Surry Hills:
The Excelsior Hotel - 64 Foveaux St
The Macquarie Hotel – 42 Wentworth Ave
Tickets available at www.MOSHTIX.COM.AU 1300 GET TIX (438 849)
on your moBile www.moshtix.moBi
AND ALL MOSHTIX OUTLETS
For more info go to www.jazzgroove.com
Enjoying the heat of the cool
PHILLIP JAMES sees Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band steam up the Sound Lounge on Friday November 21, 2009
I couldn’t describe the style of music that the Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band plays better than Mark does himself in the liner notes to the Tell it Like it is CD. “The subgenre I’ll call my take on jazz fusion…melds the rhythmic feels and sound worlds of gospel, blues, soul, Latin and classical.” To compare the music of this band to fusion though is to compare zabaglione to a couple of eggs. This is Shakatak on steroids.
Most of the music played was lifted from their 2008 ABC CD, recorded coincidentally live at the same venue a little over a year ago.
After a strong opening, a piece named after the capital of Belarus (why not?) the band combined to create all the nuance, the anguish and joy you would expect in a piece entitled You never forget love, a simply gorgeous ballad. Matt Keegan’s Sax playing was superb throughout the night but his anguish on this item was palpable.
A new piece, Crossflow, followed. I’d recently seen the movie Julie and Julia and visions of a bubbling beef bourguignon came to mind; Brett Hirst’s bass and Tim Firth’s drums providing the heat, Matt Keegan’s Sax and James Muller’s guitar bubbling away, while Mark at the piano let off steam. Mouthwatering.
The highlight of the night was the delivery of the title track from their CD. All the benefits of being a busy touring band came to the fore. Opening like a classic Chess label blues riff, for 16 odd minutes the piece built relentlessly, like the Sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia. James Muller was like a softly spoken gunslinger; face impassive, his “weapon” (a Fender telecaster) doing the talking with licks fast and accurate and deadly; and Tim Firth demonstrated on his solo here and later on Aroura why Mark introduced him as the firebrand.
The brand new piece, a triptich, was soft and quiet like some Scandinavian composer’s jazz one minute, hot and upbeat the next. In the flawless execution one can see the benefit of combining Mark’s experience, inspired vision and leadership with a band of younger, yet like minded musicians, as skilful as they are willing. This band is as tight and rewarding as a 25 year old wedding ring.
This group is not called the Resurgence band for nothing. The mood they create is uplifting, resurgent, vigorous like the very best Gospel revival meeting. Spiritual even.
Namaste Mr Isaacs, namaste.
Phillip James (Presenter, Jammin" Wednesday 7am - 9.30am)
Drama spotting
Arts Tuesday's GAZ SIMPSON shines the light and gives the thumbs up.
The two productions which really impressed me in the last few months both relate to musical theatre . For charm, delight and incisive contemporary comment, I recommend Love Bites which will be playing at the Seymour Centre until 6th December. For mid-twentieth century opera at its best , don't miss Opera Australia's Peter Grimes when it next comes to Sydney. Looking ahead, Sydney Festival 2010 under the direction of Lindy Hume looks like being a winner. In particular , I'll be booking early for German Director, Thomas Ostermeier 's radical retelling of Hamlet at Sydney Theatre and for Al Green who will be giving his first ever Australian concert at the State.
Gaz Simpson (Presenter, Arts Tuesday 9.30am - 11.30am)
Christmas stocking fillers for jazz lovers
If you're looking for good gift ideas for someone who loves jazz - Airwaves recommends on the ECM label Dark Eyes - Tomasz Stanko, January - Marcin Wasilewski Trio, and The Astounding Eyes of Rita - Anouar Brahem.
A little closer to home, Silverwater - The Necks, Tell It Like It Is - Mark Isaac's Resurgence band, Inter Vivos, The Catholics - all new releases. And any other album of the month featured on 89.7FM this year. You can ring the station on 9331 3000 for more information.
And if you prefer to read: The Australian Accent, John Shand and extempore, Miriam Zolin.
Airwaves Spring Issue and WORDS competition
Thanks to all who entered the competition and sent in various forms of the written word. Because the Christmas/summer issue is already brimming with content, there will be a special edition in the next month or two to publish some of the entries. If you missed out and would still like to enter - please submit to airwaveseditor@bigpond.com or reply to this email. Max length 1000 words!
Tell a friend
Please use the Forward
link to send this email to a friend, so it will display nicely.
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Christmas edition - from the Editor
Summer has broken, and amidst the raging debates of climate change and leadership upsets, we must ask ourselves what is there to sustain us over Christmas, and into the new year: a good book, air conditioning, self indulgence? A holiday closer to home so ocean spray can douse the consuming fires raging in our hip pockets? In this edition, Alex Campbell shares a few ideas on how we can at least keep the Christmas table green, even if the best way forward through the forest at higher levels seems unclear.
And, while some in Canberra are feeling the power of political pressure that just keeps on keeping on like a mesmerizing mist that will simply never lift, we – or most of us – just want to chill out over the holiday period. So we’ll put our faith in a higher force or higher source and hope that the grass really will look, even have a chance to BE, somehow greener after Copenhagen without costing us the earth.
In this Christmas edition you have the chance to WIN amazing prizes: tix to the best jazz gigs in town at the 2010 Sydney Festival, the latest ECM releases as well as old favourites to help celebrate the label's 40th anniversary. To be in the draw, you must be an Eastside subscriber, so if you’re not one yet, give the station a call on 9331 3000 or sign up on our website www.eastsidefm.org
today. Scroll down to find out how you can win!
Lloyd Swanton finds wasting time can provide hours of belly-laugh entertainment, Miriam Zolin sums up Wangaratta and, for those in need of an inspiring story, the success of Steve Kulak - Australian distributor of the ECM label - proves that, for those who knock on the door with enough passionate persistence, the ears of the faithful will eventually hear the call, listen and invite you in!
Phillip James experiences Resurgence, Gaz Simpson puts his best choice forward, and instead of the regular Presenter Profile, illustrator Jock Alexander, in true Christmas spirit, gives us a snapshot profile of one of our family of listeners: himself!
It’s a big summer issue in time for all of us here at 89.7FM Eastside Radio to wish you, our extended family of loyal listeners, volunteers, supporters and friends ALL THE BEST FOR CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR! Do enjoy a safe and splendid holiday season! There will still be lots of great music and programs going to air during the festive season – so do stay tuned! And if you come to our annual
KITE DAY
this Sunday (see left for full article), you can celebrate some pre-festive cheer face to face with some of the Eastside family!
Sue Thompson (Presenter, Late Night Score, Wednesday 9.30pm - 11pm)
Lloyd Swanton plugs the gap between two vastly different worlds in DOUBLE SPACE
DOUBLE SPACE invites Eastside Presenters and listeners to talk about a couple of books no longer on the New Releases shelf which have had a significance in their lives - or just provided a damn good read. In this issue LLOYD SWANTON shares tales from two men coming from completely different places: one outrageously engineering hilarity, the other facing his tormentors through the beauty of words.
#The Timewaster Letters - Robin Cooper
Humour is of course, one area where there is no accounting for taste, but this book constantly had me in fits of the giggles.
Robin Cooper (the nom de plume of British writer and TV producer Robert Popper) writes silly letters to organisations. Very silly letters. Should they reply, he prolongs the correspondence as far as possible.
Whether it succeeds as humour all comes down to tone, and to my mind the truly hilarious thing about The Timewaster Letters
is how Cooper manages to get that tone absolutely spot-on; composing letters which are just so breathtakingly stupid, so indescribably ridiculous, and yet, time and time again, somehow still so believable as to convince the addressee to judge his enquiry genuine enough to warrant a reply. His request to the Clarinet Heritage Society for assistance with a surprise birthday party for his wife (involving 200 clarinetists distributed throughout the Coopers' house, who, on his wife's return home, take out their clarinets as if preparing to play, but then instead, down their instruments and file silently from the house) is one of the most hilariously surreal (and vaguely sinister) scenarios I've ever encountered.
An alarmingly friendly tone (particularly conveyed through the judicious use of excessive punctuation) and an outrageously fertile imagination conspire to make the character of Robin Cooper larger-than-life.
This genre of humour is not without precedent. There's The Henry Root Letters, and Ralph Tritt's A Stream of Tritt, and there may well be others. But I've read both of those titles, and to my taste they just don't capture that elusive tone in the same way. What's more, both of them rely to varying degrees on hoodwinking British public figures, many of whom were not well-known to me, while Cooper for the most part tackles obscure little enthusiasts' organisations, perhaps better grasping that such organisations shelter a great many eccentrics, lending the gentle wackiness that is such a strong flavour of this book.
The only real problem with The Timewaster Letters is figuring out where to read it. Mad giggles emanating from the toilet can be somewhat alarming to passers-by, hysteria on public transport is generally not encouraged, and neither will your partner appreciate your convulsions in bed should he or she be attempting to get to sleep. Only you can solve that problem, but don't let it put you off an
hilarious book.
Second-hand copies of The Timewaster Letters can be found on the internet for as little as ₤0.01.
#The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
In the course of gathering information about the life of my uncle, who died a P.O.W in Ambon, Netherlands East Indies, in World War II, I have been amassing a considerable collection of books on the subject of prisoners of the Japanese. I came across this title in a second-hand shop and bought it on a whim. What a magnificent book!
Eric Lomax led a gentle, quiet, early life - working for the Post Office, studying radio and telephone, immersing himself in gadgetry, trainspotting for recreation; nothing to indicate the horror that awaited him. With the outbreak of World War II, he went to war as a signalman, was captured in Malaya, and sent to work on the infamous Burma/Siam Railway. Under suspicion of building a secret radio, he was brutally beaten, tortured and interrogated by his Japanese captors. His ordeal effectively ruined his life, until 50 years later, he tracks down and meets one of his tormentors.
One could say Lomax's only book was 76 years in the making (he is now 90). Some people have huge stories to tell, and this is one such. And Lomax is a born writer, utilising simple, elegant prose which conveys great beauty and feeling. Two of his descriptive passages, firstly of his first encounter as a child with a railway shunting yard, and secondly of the great natural beauty he encountered when on leave in Kashmir, a perfection that would help to keep him sane in his darkest days, are as lovely as writing gets.
Moving, horrifying, but ultimately offering hope, The Railway Man would, I think, prove an uplifting, inspiring read to anyone.
Second-hand copies can likewise be found on the internet for as little
as ₤0.01.
Lloyd Swanton (Presenter, Mixed Marriage, Tuesday 12 noon - 2pm)
Lloyd has recently released two new albums: Silverwater with The Necks www.thenecks.com and Inter Vivos with The Catholics www.buglerecords.com
WIN TIX to best jazz gigs at the SYDNEY FESTIVAL
Two separate concerts at the City Recital Hall on the 27th January will be one of the great musical highlights of the upcoming Sydney Festival. From Poland comes the breathtaking Marcin Wasilewski Trio (pictured) - three brilliant young players who cut their musical mustard with living legend and jazz trumpeter, Tomasz Stanko. This is their first Sydney performance, as it is for the Medeski Martin & Wood Trio - New York avant-groovers whose music is described as “adventurous and sophisticated as it is upbeat and accessible”. Sydney Festival
is kindly giving Eastside subscribers the chance to win a double pass to each of these exceptional concerts in the City Recital Hall on the 27th January.
For your chance to WIN, REPLY TO THIS EMAIL with the name of your preferred artist and subscriber number in the subject line. For more information on these amazing artists, check the following links:
sydneyfestival.org.au/wasilewski
sydneyfestival.org.au/medeski
And to win the latest Marcin Wasilewski album January on the ECM label, be sure to read the interview below.
After 40 years, ECM still maintains the standard and you get the chance to WIN CDs!
ECM has just turned 40 and the quality of music and integrity of the artists it chooses to record has never faltered for a moment. Built on love and understanding, it's more supportive marriage than hard core business deal. Sue Thompson talks to STEVE KULAK, owner of TITLE/FUSE Group about his role in sharing the spoils of music excellence with Australian listeners.
ST: How long has TITLE been in Crown St and what was the appeal and business sense of opening in Surry Hills?
SK: TITLE is celebrating it’s 3rd year in Surry Hills. We were a music wholesaler with so much to sell to the world that no conservative retailer was willing to take. So we opened our first TITLE store to explore the potential of running our own stores and capturing the public’s imagination with what we had to offer. Problem now is we’ve outgrown the space!
ST: What contributes to your success as a music retail store when so many other record shops are closing down or going on-line?
SK: They are closing down because of poor business choices and from a lack of public support. The stand alone music shop is dead and so it should be. People’s imaginations have expanded with the times and they expect a lot more from a store than monoculture. There is a total connection between music, film, books and even fashion that makes business sense but not many retailers have the expertise to be able to cover all areas confidently. That’s the secret.....but at the end of the day it’s actually no secret at all. It’s obvious.
ST: You stock and sell music, film and books – since they’re often inter-related, one could say “a wise business strategy”. Was it though the strategy, or your passion for all of the above that drove the business?
SK: It was necessary if we were to succeed in the modern era. And of course, everything we present in the store we ‘understand’ so there is no confusion about what we are doing or why. Creative people need an outlet for their creativity: musicians, writers, film makers......the internet is one of those outlets, great retail stores are the other. And people are social beings that need to get out and interact with other people in a social space that stimulates and energises them. A great shop full of creative expression does that.
ST: Who are your regular buyers?
SK: Every age group is represented. Kids and grandparents populate the store at the same time: one with vinyl in their hands the other with a music compilation and a couple of books.
ST: You’re expanding in Melbourne. Since it’s the home of the biggest horse race in Australia, and the biggest music scene, do you think Melburnians are more open to taking a gamble, even when it comes to music (be careful how you answer this :)?
SK: We are already in Melbourne and shortly will be in Brisbane and another Sydney location. There will be another 3 new TITLE stores in 2010 along with the 5 currently trading. We have found our public and the push is on!
ST: You’re the sole distributor of ECM records in Australia. Surely this must
give you immediate street cred and a certain respect in the music scene. Why and how did attaining the distribution rights come about?
SK: ECM is 40 years old and the greatest and best record label in the world for a reason. Years ago, I went to Munich Germany and knocked on their door. I asked if I could distribute the label. Of course they had representation in Australia, as you’d expect, and they politely bought me lunch and a beer for my efforts and nothing came of it. But I kept going back and if you knock loud enough.....it was the beginning of my business life. ECM became the calling card and I’m forever thankful that they trusted me enough to allow me to build a business from that initial impulse. It gave the FUSE Group which distributes ECM real credibility. TITLE
reflects the same consideration and high aesthetic that this label has nurtured for 40 years.
ST: In the lead up to Christmas, what MUST sees, reads, or listens can you recommend for stocking fillers or pure self indulgence over the holiday break?
SK: Anything on ECM: certainly the new Tomasz Stanko on ECM (Dark Eyes) is essential as is Mayer Hawthorne (A Strange Arrangement). But walk into the TITLE store and head for the Afro section......or the wall of Criterion film, close your eyes and pick anything. Nothing will disappoint.
And with generous Christmas spirit, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ECM, Steve Kulak and TITLE ( www.titlespace.com ) are kindly giving Eastside Subscribers the chance to WIN re-releases of Bill Frisell and Jan Garbarek AND some of the latest ECM releases, including Anouar Brahem's The Astounding Eyes of Rita, the Tomasz Stanko Quintet's Dark Eyes
(so deep and so beautiful....) and - in anticipation of seeing them live in concert in January at the City Recital Hall, the last album of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, January. Simply REPLY TO THIS EMAIL
and write the street address of the Surry Hills TITLE store in the subject line along with your preferred artist (mentioned above) and subscriber number or send to airwaveseditor@bigpond.com with the information in the body of the email.
Wangaratta - the answer is to improvise
extempore Editor, MIRIAM ZOLIN, found the perfect launching pad for the latest edition of the journal that takes the zz... out of jazz in the written word. Full of interviews, musings and music-inspired meanderings, what better place to show off the 3rd issue's wordy wares than at the biggest jazz festival in Australia (and find inspiration for future editions).
Each year Wangaratta is transformed from sun-drenched rural city to a destination for jazz enthusiasts and musicians. Some festival goers pore over their programme, planning their weekend of music. Yet the chance to meet up with old and new friends can really mess up your plans! The best thing to do is to go with the flow.
For me, the festival started with the launch of Issue 3 of extempore, the Australian journal of writing and art inspired by jazz and improvised music I edit. It’s no accident that it comes out just in time for the festival at Wangaratta each year!
My first concert was The Ari Hoenig Quartet (Gilad Hekselman guitar, Jamie Oehlers saxophone and Sam Anning bass). Threads of sound and light moved between the players. The highlight for me was Moanin'. Hoenig played the melody, using his elbow to apply varied pressure to the drum; a beautiful sound that didn't even sound percussive...
Next, Scott Tinkler led a group of Australian Art Orchestra musicians. The choice of instrumentation provided an opportunity to compare styles and sounds; two guitarists (Carl Dewhurst and Steven Magnusson), two drummers (Simon Barker and Ken Eadie), two trumpeters (Phil Slater and Tinkler) and Phil Rex on bass and Marc Hannaford on piano.
My Saturday started with National Jazz Awards finalists Phil Noy, James Annersley and Tim Wilson and the finals band of Phil Stack (bass, and winner of last year’s NJA), Ben Vanderwal (drums) and Sam Keevers (piano). It was great to hear songs by local composers such as Bobby Gebert and Bernie McGann included.
Then on to the Hoodangers, sometimes described as ‘punk trad’. It was an energetic, energising gig. Next, Scott Tinkler and Simon Barker in adventurous, transporting duo format. It's great how Wangaratta enables musicians from different parts of the country (and the world) to play together in interesting combinations.
Kristin Berardi was a highlight. I’d planned to stay for just a couple of songs but found myself enraptured by her pure clear voice and her heartfelt lyrics.
Band of Five Names (Phil Slater, Simon Barker, Matt McMahon and Carl Dewhurst) is always a treat along with the Wilson Magnusson Quintet, featuring Barney McCall, originally from Melbourne and now based in New York.
On Sunday, the New York-based Linda Oh Trio was exquisite. Oh is originally from Perth. She was in Wangaratta with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Tommy Crane. Akinmusire’s playing was a revelation, including some soft notes that sounded like a human voice. I followed that with Andrew Robson's Thomas Tallis Quartet in the cathedral, Ish Ish and the Paul Grabowsky Sextet.
By the time Wangaratta Jazz was over for another year, my programme had been folded and re folded dozens of times over the weekend and I'd only heard half the music I'd marked on it. But that's Wangaratta. You just have to improvise.
Miriam Zolin is the editor of extempore. You can find out more and receive a 20% discount on the publication (see membership discount page) at www.extempore.com.au
Keeping your Christmas parties Squeaky Green
ALEX CAMPBELL removes the icing from the cake but dishes up some eco-friendly tips to help keep your festive celebrations in hues of green. Happy Sustainable Christmas!
Most Australians love a celebration, especially in the summer time, and Christmas is no exception. It’s a fantastic annual excuse to gather around your favourite people, overeat, drink champagne for breakfast and give and receive unnecessary trinkets wrapped in pretty, shiny paper tied up with curly, colourful plastic ribbons. But despite our best intentions, Christmas these days would probably appear, to an objective onlooker, as a time of uncontrollable, senseless and most extreme consumption.
Indeed, our country has one of the largest carbon footprints per capita in the world, and on Christmas Day this, like our waistlines and credit-card bills, blows out to a veritable clown-shoe. But it IS possible to enjoy all the things you love most about Christmas without doing so to the detriment of our planet. Beyond obvious things like choosing and re-using recycled wrapping paper and real ribbons (instead of that cheap, plastic stuff) there are some thoroughly fabulous ways you can update your Christmas traditions and create a truly unique, enjoyable and sustainable celebration for your loved ones.
Several weeks after the heady height of the festivities, one of Christmas’ saddest victims makes their presence only too visible on our streets. Christmas trees once admired, adorned and given pride of place inside our homes, are just as quickly tossed out - literally into our gutters: brown, bruised and battered versions of their former glorious selves. Save yourselves this yearly tragedy by buying a living tree that you can revive each year with ornaments and tinsel! Go one better and buy a beautiful Wollemi pine tree - Australia’s native Christmas tree. These ‘living fossils’ are critically endangered and profits from their sale go to conservation (check-out www.wollemipine.com
). Your next Christmas tree could be the last one you ever need (they live for ages), will help preserve an important Australian species, and be a great conversation starter when your friends drop-in for Christmas drinks!
Seafood is a major staple for many Australian Christmas tables and a particular favourite is the humble prawn. Prawns are caught by trawling – a process that involves dragging weighted nets across the ocean floor, catching everything in the water column from the surface to the sea bed, and leaving tell-tale trails of destruction. As well as damaging our marine habitats, trawling is also really non-specific. Did you know that for each kilo of prawns you buy at the shops, about 14 kg of non-target fish were accidentally caught as well? Sadly, these unlucky little fish were most probably chucked-back into the ocean, dead. Happily, there is an environmentally friendly alternative to wild-caught prawns. Australian-farmed prawns are produced to some of the most stringent environmental aquaculture regulations in the world. They are also quite delicious and usually cheaper too. Overseas
standards aren’t as high, so make sure you ask your fish monger for farmed Australian prawns. The Australian Marine Conservation Society put together a very handy 3-step guide to sustainable seafood, which you can access for free at www.amcs.org.au and use to help design your Christmas menu. Remember, by choosing responsibly this year, you’ll be helping to ensure that there’s enough left for everybody next year.
So think creatively, revamp your family’s traditions and have a fabulous, safe and wonderfully sustainable Christmas!
To hear more from Alex, including all the latest and greatest scientific advances, practical ways to green your life and improve your health, tune-in to Boiling Point, every Tuesday at 6 pm on 89.7 FM Eastside Radio, or grab a copy of the Beast magazine www.thebeast.com.au
Community Profile: Jock Alexander - illustrator, Weekend Australian
The Eastern Suburbs harbours more than boats, luxury lifestyles and sheltered beaches. It’s a place full of colourful, interesting characters. In our new Community Profile section, Sue Thompson, caught up with one such talented individual. JOCK ALEXANDER, illustrator with News Ltd and previously with Fairfax Pty Ltd for many years, lives in the community footprint of Eastside Radio. Does he listen to the station? Yes. Why? He’s also a musician, makes film animations and has an interest in broad-spectrum arts. Eastside Radio keeps him up to date.
ST: You’ve lived your working life as an artist in the Eastern suburbs. What keeps you here?
JA: I was born in Oberon but started coming here from age 11. I evolved here in my Sydney life and as an artist. It’s on the edge of the city, yet the ocean is nearby and psychologically that’s very important to me. You don’t feel restricted as you might in the middle of the suburbs. There’s easy access to just about anything, but most importantly my family's here.
ST: How can art and artists help shape the community into a place where people can feel they belong?
JA: On a very practical level they help members of the community express themselves by engaging them in making murals and other types of works that resonate with people and their stories, creating meaningful personal and cultural touchstones.
ST: Over the years, you’ve been at the front line as a newspaper illustrator - drawing, in more ways than one, the news as it breaks. Given the story, is it the heart or head or moving finger having writ that inspires the visual snapshot?
JA: Ideally, as many of each of those things. I’d like to talk to the intellect, emotions, and the heart or viscera. It’s always a mysterious process but you try and hit as many of those aspects as you can. Over the years, and depending on the subject, it can change. Politics doesn’t appeal to me so much any more and though I’ve illustrated across sections of the press, I’m considered the go-to guy for poetry these days, which suits me just fine.
ST: What’s the biggest challenge for visual artists in the 21st century?
JA: Making an income from it, as in any other century! With current technology, some people will find it harder - there’s so much visual out there free for anyone to use. For others it will be easy, they can work virtually – live anywhere, work anywhere - everything is submitted on-line.
ST: You’re exploring the value of film now as an expressive medium – who’s your target audience and why?
JA: Television - because it’s mass media, or through IPTV (Internet Protocol TV). Ultimately I’d like it to appeal to everyone. Fango Fables is a series of animated stories about toy racing cars living on Mount Panorama. It’s for the kid, the inner kid, but also the inner adult. My biggest demographic on YouTube, funnily enough, is 45-50 year old males, but it’s for little kids - they love it, as do primary schoolers!
ST: What are the differences between painting an illustration and working with animation?
JA: Illustration is a compressed narrative – a little story in one frame, and usually the juxtaposition of two things – the convention and the comment. The goal is for people to get it instantly, but in films the narrative threads all the way through in a series of revelations, hopefully with a big payoff at the end.
ST: Where can people find out about your illustrations and short films?
JA: The Weekend Australian is a good place to start, but I have a blog http://jockalexander.blogspot.com/ or you can find me on YouTube and on the website of Channel 31.
ST: What’s the appeal of community media and broadcasting?
JA: On air you can see your film more objectively. It’s a testing ground – a place of learning about the medium. So many good people have started out in community broadcasting.
Illustration: Working Musicians by Jock Alexander
In Short Cuts column check out Kite Day, Gig Review, Futures Festival, Thumbs Up and Stocking-filler Ideas
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