AUDIO Sam Watson's play 'Oodgeroo: Bloodline to Country'

Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, formerly known as Kath Walker, from Stradbroke Island in South East Queensland, was one of Australia's best-known writers and leaders. What is not commonly remembered is her experience on a hijacked BOAC aircraft in 1974 when Palestinian terrorists threatened passengers and took the life of a young German banker.

Kath Walker pleaded for the banker's life and the lives of the other passengers. The experience and the man's execution haunted her deeply. Brisbane writer and academic Sam Watson is Oodgeroo's bloodline nephew. He has been inspired by her stories and her poetry throughout his life and in 2009 his play Oodgeroo: Bloodline to Country was performed in Brisbane. This Encounter tells the story of the play and Sam Watson's own experience of Aunty Oodgeroo for her time and his own.

• Download audio 

ABC Radio (Encounter program) interview with Sam Watson(transcript) about Noonuccal and the play

SLIDESHOW ..and media coverage of the Resistance Conference

• WIN TV News, Mon Apr 26 
• Illawarra Mercury, Mon Apr 26 - Resistance, Norrie undress social rights issues: 
• Illawarra Mercury, Sat Apr 24 - Conference to save the world!(right) 
• Northern Leader, Thu Apr 22 - Resistance strives for equal rights: 
• Northern Leader, Thu Apr 1 - Resistance forum first for W'gong: 
• Wollongong Advertiser, Wed Mar 31 - Youth have their say on contentious issues:

Click on image for enlarged view

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

VIDEO Resistance Conference Thirroul , Illawarra, 2010

Watch this news report of the 2010 conference of Resistance, socialist youth conference, titled 'the world can't wait'!

Featured are Jess Moore, conference organiser and Richard Downs, spokesperson for the Alyawarr people, NT.

VIDEO SATIRE Capitalist bail outs -- what's in it for Jobless Jack?

This satiric animation video by Mark Fiore from the USA is called Goldman Sachs to Jobless Jack.

Nifty title, eh? there must be a song in it somewhere.

Tip Dear kitty

SATIRE Comrades come sally -- the SSY's Lydia Teapot (et al)

The Scottish Socialist Youth is the young person's outgrowth of the Scottish Socialist Party . 

With their sericeable Wordpress (lucky them! sigh!) website and all, they are making their webological mark with a voice that is aggressively populist and aggro, abusive even...and so terribly Scottish.

Aw naw man.
Here, ma wee chumpos and chumpettes, you’ll no believe this, bit ah’ll huv tae tell ye.
Thur out there. Lit sum kinna fucken zombie invasion, they walk amung is. They look lit normal people, but thur no. Thu’ll shout ‘it ye.
The peopo ahm on aboot, my wee muckers, thur the Troofers. “We ur Change” They caw thursels.
“9/11 Troof, mate”

I like the SSP  and exploit it as a source of regular inspiration so I had not been following these Celtic 'youth' so much...

But here's a canny tip: among the posters to the SSY webside is Lydia Teapot .

Maybe Lydia's offerings ain't  strategically rich nor tactically nuanced, but here at LeftClick we reckon this has to be a way forward (albeit not the only way forward)for the still struggling socialist, gotta-change-the-world, left.

Attitude. That's what the standups call it --  you gotta have attitude before you can walk out on stage and start editorialising.

And Lydia's got attitude to spare. Loads of it. (Where can I get me some?)

This fuck'em attitude may not be a compleat political programme --

compleat

1. Of or characterized by a highly developed or wide-ranging skill or proficiency: "The compleat speechwriter ... comes to anonymity from Harvard Law" (Israel Shenker).
2. Being an outstanding example of a kind; quintessential: "Here was the compleat modern misfit: the very air appeared to poison him; his every step looked treacherous and hard won" (Stephen Schiff).

but then you need to be listened to, not just be in earshot. Its' about grabbing and holding an audience.

And it seems to me, that we have to talk about dress up and role play , of being something else (rather than same ole same ole) -- a new you, sort of. 

The big boys call it 'spin' but they're paid to be cynical and paid to spin it.

So let's be aware of Scots bearing gifts.

As The Wild One(s) said:

Mildred: What're you rebelling against, Johnny?

Johnny: Whaddya got? 

VIDEO SATIRE Capitalism in 13 minutes -- Isle of Flowers

 "An acid and entertaining portrait of the mechanics of the consumer society. Following the trajectory of a simple tomato, from planting to be thrown out, the short throw wide the process of generating wealth and inequalities that arise in the middle of the road.'

Documentary Jorge Furtado
Source You Tube TV

Tip: Kasama. 

Isle of Flowers (Portuguese: Ilha das Flores) is a 1989 Brazilianshort film by Jorge Furtado. It tracks the path of a tomato from garden to dump with the help of a monotone voiceover and a collection of bizarre images. While a very humorous film, the message it delivers about how human beings treat each other is anything but such. The director himself has stated that the film was inspired by the works of Kurt Vonnegut and Alain Resnais, among others.

The film has been denounced as "materialistic" because one of its early credits displays the phrase "God doesn't exist". Nevertheless, critic Jean-Claude Bernardet defined Isle of Flowers "a religious film", and the Brazilian National Bishop Confederation awarded the film with the Margarida de Prata (Silver Daisy), calling it "the best Brazilian film of the year" in 1990. In 1995, Isle of Flowers was chosen by the European critics as one of the 100 most important short films of the century.

SATIRE Party On, Dave.

I'm a party person. I like to enrich my calendar with the occasional rage. If there's a turn on somewhere, I'll be there — usually in the kitchen in close proximity to the refrigerator. Although my tipple has changed over the years, I imbibe more than the odd glass.

In four states, I've partied. I've B my O G to many a domestic venue excused with such terms as "house warming", "birthday", "twenty-first" and "fundraiser". My partying has taken my ear from Bob Dylan to Arrested Development. I'm a veteran.

When Gough Whitlam stood on the steps of parliament back in '75 and told us, "Maintain your rage, Australia!" I just thought that man was so hip. All I wanted was to party on.

But what's a party person to do? When I first took up partying seriously my first stop was the ALP. I then drifted into the Communist Party in search of a crowd more my kind. Selling Tribune ("the only paper your boss doesn't own or print") and standing on picket lines seemed more fruitful than hanging around the doorway rubbing shoulders with the notables and fixing up the numbers at ALP state conferences.

Maybe I was just too keen to be where the action was, and somehow neither the CP nor Labor could put on a good turn. I'd always come home embarrassed over some incident or someone's behaviour.

But I was lucky. I could pull up after all this without so much as a hangover. Still keen to do it again, rather than partake in the hair of the dog I sought out a new crowd.

When you have some fire in your belly, you don't want it to turn into an ulcer, do you?

Back then, parties seemed to be going on all over. Each one promising to party on until a new dawn. They all raged and each one insisted that they had their own special something which made them different from their neighbour. None of them were big. A French bloke I know referred to them all as "groupuscules". It was almost as though you could call together your own party then wait and see who turned up after the invites had been posted.

Even with so many pre- and proto-parties around, there was also a line offered in Claytons — the party you have when you don't have a party. Come the moment when it was time to go out and rage there would be a wide choice to select from.

Nowadays, partying is not seen as the "in" thing to do. But I think the people who run the activity down are mistaken. Parties are the best way to maintain your rage. We all get hot under the collar every now and then. For a time we each embrace social life in a big way.

There's nothing wrong with that — I'm all for spontaneity — but there always seems to be a reason to party. Maybe the good times don't roll as often as they should and more folk than usual decide to stay at home. But if they don't turn up again, who is there to tell the tale of rages past? There's more to it than sending out for pizza.

So how would you know a good party if you came across it? The answer is simple: the one that returns to rage again and again. That's how I judge them, and I should know because I've been in a few. Maybe you'd like to join me and we could perhaps ... party on.

(1994)

Alan Sillitoe 1928-2010 -- the long distance runner has run his lonely course.

English  novelist Alan Sillitoe died yesterday.  He may  not be a writer many are familiar with.  His stories  of working class life were brutal takes on everyday  hard ship alleviated  only by hard fought for transcendence, the likes  of which -- with their rages and protests   -- became increasingly rare after the end of  the 1960s.

His two best known works, The Loneliness of  the Long Distance Runner and  Saturday Night and Sunday  Morning were turned into two superb films that set a benchmark in British  cinema  realism. In each case, due in no small measure to the  'kitchen sink ' approach of  directors  Tony Richardson and  Karel Reisz.

Tom Courteney's performance in the lead role  in Loneliness  captured, for me,  a  true grit perspective , unmodified by easy options. For Shilitoe, struggle was relentless. It wasn't just grist for drama  or excuse for a turn in the plot. Life was about surviving and fighting back, otherwise  existence  will grind you down.

His message essentially was that   the only response was an individualized one --  making do as best you could without  giving up on the core class allegiance that formatted and bore  you.

There's a lot to be reminded of in Sillitoe -- that despite the glitzy remakes over the last 50 years,and all the promises  we've been offered in way of a good life ahead, we are still Sillitoe heroes making do in a very different social reality to the one that we are told exists or supposedly beckons.

That we all forced to run  this course alone,  is our great collective tragedy.

Photomontage Gallery III -- Klaus Staeck

• Profile:Klaus Staeck (in German)
• Cut and Paste comment on and select gallery of Staeck's work

SLIDESHOW -- The Merzweb: Kurt Schwitters And The Inverted Web

Kurt Schwitters was eccentric even by Dadaist standards.

His collages and assemblages were erratic aggregations of found stuff pulled together in intricate ways that were never ruled by format.They weren't so much medleys of colour and shape but fleeting ideas thrown together on , initially , a flat surface. 

But by the time he got to making Merzbau -- via up-scaling --  he was creating Merz environments that like a Bower Bird, drew  their museum of Detritus from all over

Merz:...were usually collages incorporating found objects, such as bus tickets, old wire and fragments of newsprint, Merz also included artist's periodicals, sculptures, sound poems and what would later be called "installations".

While I've often wondered about the relationship between Merz and Montage (in the Soviet sense), Schwitters egocentric approach was consciously  devoid of meaning. It was a process but one without intrinsic purpose.

Here, web designer,  Dave Mee uses Schwitters  work as a template to outline a schematic overview of  the web  as a series of continuous dynamic relationships where information is ceaselessly being remade, added to and shifted about.

I think it is a brilliant outline.

• Related posts: Walter Benjamin

The Merzweb: Kurt Schwitters And The Inverted Web

View more presentations from Dave Mee.

SLIDESHOW Photomontage Gallery II -- Slideshow selection

Here are some presentations of selected  photomontage and collage gathered from among online slideshows/

Heartfield +Hoch Photomontage

View more presentations from windleh.

Digital Collage

View more presentations from xgonzalez.

El Fotomuntatge

View more presentations from cgifreu.

The Merzweb: Kurt Schwitters And The Inverted Web

View more presentations from Dave Mee.

Collage

View more presentations from Artur Coelho.

Wolkowicz 1 - Collage - 12/07/07

View more presentations from Julio Ferro.

SATIRE Making profit at the gas pump

The US Coast Guard on Friday evening ended its search for 11 workers missing since a Tuesday night explosion on a British Petroleum oil rig off Louisiana’s coast: here.

 Source: Dear Kitty

VIDEO: John Heartfield

OvationTV — August 22, 2008 — The story of John Heartfield, the father of photomontage and a key figure in the Dada movement. Using archive material and reconstructions, this program reflects on the significant changes in East Germany from the start of Heartfield's career in 1916 to the present day.

Photomontage Gallery I

Theme:Mixed

Girt by Sea (radio play or street theatre resource)

(One day I'll lay this down as audio...This is a radio play I wrote 5 years ago and it is still very much to the point. Its topic is refugees during the Howard years but lo! the race card is always top of the deck)

Free ebook Download: Girt By Sea

Girt by Sea is an amalgam of several street theatre performances reworked as a play for voices (or for radio broadcast). There is nothing especially ambitious about the play as it merely tries to touch on a few notions about the mandatory detention of refugees and package them in a short, sharp piece that quickly gets down to satirical business.

CHARACTERS

• COOEE! 
• AUSSIE OI! 
• INTERCOM (Some amplification and voice distortion required as through a loud hailer.)

FX SOUND OF VOICES DEVELOPED FROM A BABEL MIX OF MIDDLE EASTERN AND ASIAN LANGUAGES.

AS VOICES EBB THEY BLEND WITH THE SOUND OF WAVES LAPPING ON A BEACH.

ROUGH DRUM ROLL FOLLOWED BY A SINGLE DISCORDANT NOTE FROM A PARTY WHISTLE OR KAZOO. FOLLOWED BY COUGHING AND MURMUING AS IN A HALL OF PEOPLE.

COOEE! AUSSIE OI! (TOGETHER. SINGING UNACCOMPANIED.)

Australians let us all rejoice

AUSSIE OI!

For we are young and free

With ……..and

Our home is girt by sea….

COOEE! (IN TUNE - HUM/UM)

La da de da de da da da

AUSSIE OI! A beauty rich and rare

COOEE! (IN TUNE - HUM/UM)

Ummm Hmmmm Hmmm Hmmm Ummm Hm

COOEE!/AUSSIE OI : (TOGETHER)

AD vance Os tray lia fair….!

FX: DRUM ROLL. MUCH WHISTLE AND KAZOO BLOWING HAD BY ALL. SUDDEN SHARP BEAT. SILENCE

COOEE! Girted by sea.--

AUSSIE OI! Makes you think.

COOEE! To "girt".

AUSSIE OI! "Girtedness".

COOEE! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

AUSSIE OI! Oi! Oi! Oi!

(BOTH LAUGH.)

FX: BLOW AND HUMMING OF KAZOOS. DRUM BEAT. STOP).

COOEE! Girt--

AUSSIE OI! Sea.

FX: BABBLE OF ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES.

COOEE! Land.

AUSSIE OI! Girt-

COOEE! Sea.

FX: BABBLE OF ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES.

AUSSIE OI! Land.

COOEE! Girt-

AUSSIE OI! Sea.

FX: BRIEF BABBLE OF ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES.

(AUSSIE OI & COOEE! THEN DO THIS CIRCUIT OVER AND OVER FASTER AND FASTER    RAISING THEIR VOICES UNTIL…)

AUSSIE OI!: Land.

COOEE! Girt-

AUSSIE OI! Sea.

FX: BABBLE STOPS

(PAUSE.)

COOEE!/AUSSIE OI!

Refugees!

FX: DOUBLE DRUM BEAT.

COOEE! Over there,…

AUSSIE OI! Beyond the girt

COOEE! Beyond the girt… people live in garbage tips.

AUSSIE OI! Over there, they work for next to nothing.

COOEE! Over there, life is cheap.

AUSSIE OI! The root problem over there… is…

COOEE! --there's too many of them

AUSSIE OI! Over there.

COOEE! Or they're not over here.

AUSSIE OI! Over here, you can live the life of Riley if you work hard.

COOEE! But we don't want them from over there working hard over here.

AUSSIE OI! If they were over here who'd be working over there making all the    stuff we buy over there?

COOEE! So all those over there need to stay over there so over here can stay the same. If they weren't over there we couldn't enjoy over here as much as we do. So we need them over there.

AUSSIE OI! And they need us over here. That's the rule, the status quo…that's    geography in the market place.

COOEE! Thus the girt!

AUSSIE OI! (AGREEING)

Thus the girt!

COOEE! Without us over here, who'd buy what they've got to sell? It's a well known fact that over there you can live much cheaper than over here.

AUSSIE OI! Over here we don't live on garbage tips. Over here we've got a mortgage, a car to run and reticulated sewerage….Over there you can get by without those things.

COOEE! (ASIDE) So why don't they!

AUSSIE OI! Over here we've got problems. Over there they have them too. But    the problems over there are just so BIG.

FX: DRUMBEAT.ROLL. CYMBAL.

COOEE! Over here we have a big enough task making ends meet. Over there it is probably the same…but hey! we're not over there, we're over here. And since we are over here, over there is a world away.

COOEE! Thus the girt!

AUSSIE OI! Thus the girt! So who gives a stuff, if over there gets it tougher   than we get it over here.

COOEE! It's all relative. That's life.

COOEE! AUSSIE OI! (TOGETHER)

Fortunately it 's not ours.

FX: DRUMBEAT - CALL TO QUARTERS.

INTERCOM
I wouldn't "jump the queue" if I was you

"Cause we got ways and means.

Of making sure we lock the door

To protect our coastal seams.

Wether you swim or drown

It's all the same

'Cause we don't give a stuff

Blather and cry, winge and complain

It's useless --- we play tough.

Girt by sea we can live with

Refugees we can't.

We secure our borders

By giving orders --

One rule for all when you approach our door

It's simple, just …piss off!

COOEE! Globalise existence if you will. We're ready here downunder.

AUSSIE OI! Restructured--

COOEE! Best practiced--

AUSSIE OI! Marketed--

COOEE! Fiscally reformed--

AUSSIE OI! Downsized--

COOEE! Privatised--

AUSSIE OI! Corporatised.

COOEE! Christ! We got a GST!

AUSSIE OI! So come on world

COOEE! Oi! Oi! Oi!

AUSSIE OI! And do you stuff:

COOEE! Send us your huddled downturns, your in-balanced sheets and your homeless    capital yearning to be free!

AUSSIE OI! Oi! Oi! Oi!

COOEE! This is Australia calling.

AUSSIE OI! (SHOUTING)

Coooooooo_____ee!

FX "COOEEE" ECHOES…ENDS. THEN:
ANNOUNCER'S VOICE (FAR OFF. IN CLIPPED ENGLISH ACCENT OTHER THAN AUSTRALIAN) 

Stay where you are Australia - I'm coming over!

FX: FIRST THREE BARS PLAYED BY A BRASS BAND OF ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR. THIS    ENDS ABRUPTLY.
CARCOPHANY OF ASIAN URBAN SOUNDS MESHES WITH ANTHEN FROM WHICH EMERGE…CHORUS: AUSSIE OI'S AND COOEE'S VOICES EITHER PRE-RECORDED AND PLAYED IN FAST MODE OR THE SAME ACTORS EMPLOYING DIFFERENT OR DISTORTED VOICES .

1ST VOICE I don't know who they think they are fooling --

2ND VOICE We suffer and starve and go without schooling.

1ST VOICE: To make ends meet we gotta come cheap --

2ND VOICE Selling our labour till the end of the week.

1ST VOICE They told us the old days were over and gone -

2ND VOICE But everyone knows the same days live on.

IST VOICE Labour and capital, rich and poor --

2ND VOICE We don't want to live like this anymore.

IST VOICE We need some respite

2ND VOICE But what do we get?

1ST VOICE The same old "solution" -

BOTH Debt! Debt! Debt! …

FX: THIS EXTENDS INTO A BALINESE STYLE MONKEY CHANT WHICH DRIFTS INTO THE BACKGROUND    WHILE AUSSIE OI! SPEAKS.

AUSSIE OI! What are we going to do? Offshore -- everywhere -- there's all these people dead set keen on coming here or any location offering a shot at three meals a day and an indoor toilet. Not that that's guaranteed, but that's the promise in the promised lands. And whether you recognise it or not what we've got here in the way of material pleasures is as good as it gets. Yesiree, it won't get any better than this. You may have misgivings. You may be one of those who harps on and on about how hard done by you are. Get a life! Instead of being born into a triple-fronted brick veneer low set and a regular breakfast of Weetbix plus choice of beverage, you could have been stuck in the household of a landless peasant from Upper Volta with early tuberculosis and a nasty case of intestinal worms. Get real, matey! You've got it good.

FX: "DEBT" MONKEY CHANT STOPS'

INTERCOM Stay away.

FX: WAVES ON BEACH

INTERCOM Stay away. Stay away.

FX: WAVES ON BEACH. STOP.

COOEE! Sheep shit in the South Pacific. With your baa lambs and your empty sky, you big fella stretched out sun baking.. Sunburnt. Sleepy. Empty. You lucky bastard of a country. You your own boss cockie. Sheep shit and blowies. My country. "Core of my heart."… My suburban quarter acre block with 3 b/rms, VJ interior, carpeted floors, refurb kitchen and all cons. You it. You girt by sea. You gloating in your wee little Aussie battlers this small. Youse the underdog. Youse all mates. Too bloody right you are… So with a sprig of wattle in our hand we celebrate from whence we came. Australians! You true blue sons and daughters of Oz! I ask you to charge your glasses and raise your voices. And let's hear it for all the dinky-dyes out there:

(ATTEMPT AT SINGING)

Australians let us all rejoice, for we are young and free ... etcetera, et…cet…tera…rah…rah…rah…rah!.

FX: MERGES INTO BACKGROUND OF DRUNKEN PARTY EXCHANGE WITH CLINKING OF GLASSWARE.    TAPERS OFF.

INTERCOM Stay away!

FX: WAVES ON BEACH

INTERCOM Go back where you came from!

FX: WAVES ON BEACH

INTERCOM You're not wanted here!

FX: WAVES ON BEACH STOP.

(PAUSE)

COOEE! If we offend it is with our good will.

AUSSIE OI! We want the best

COOEE! The very best

AUSSIE OI! For all and sundry.

COOEE! For you--

AUSSIE OI! And you--

COOEE! And you--

AUSSIE OI! For all of us.

COOEE! In this dry brown land do dwell.

(PAUSE)

AUSSIE OI! But the job market is so very, very tight.

COOEE! Let us make this quite clear: Very tight.

AUSSIE OI! We're not to blame.

COOEE! Free enterprise being what it is.

AUSSIE OI! Has its ups.

COOEE! And downs.

AUSSIE OI! Here --

COOEE! As well as over there --

AUSSIE OI! Here .. there… is-simply-not-enough-to-go-around.

COOEE! Not enough land.

AUSSIE OI! Think of our carrying capacity.

COOEE! Hospital beds.

AUSSIE OI! Think of our carrying capacity.

COOEE! Pensions.

AUSSIE OI! Think of our carrying capacity.

COOEE! Money.

AUSSIE OI! No where near enough of that.

COOEE! Jobs.

(PAUSE)

AUSSIE OI! So if you are down and out ...

COOEE! We don't want to have to be lifting up our heads and shouting:

AUSSIE OI! Some wog's got my job!

COOEE! Do we?

AUSSIE OI! (ASIDE) Many lands.

COOEE! (ASIDE) One voice.

AUSSIE OI! But them --

COOEE! Them. Them's a different matter.

AUSSIE OI! Sneaking into our country!

COOEE! (ASIDE) And there's no way of telling them from the locals.

AUSSIE OI! No way.

COOEE! No bloody way!

AUSSIE OI! If they were to-

COOEE! Play by the rules

AUSSIE OI! Follow procedures.

COOEE! Join the queue.

AUSSIE OI! They'd be most welcome here.

COOEE! Most welcome.

(PAUSE)

AUSSIE OI! (AGGRESSIVELY) Don't come in the first place.

COOEE! We're not a soft touch.

AUSSIE OI! (ASIDE) Many lands.

COOEE! (ASIDE) One voice.

AUSSIE OI! But to sneak in!

COOEE! Sneak!

AUSSIE OI! Without an invite.

COOEE! We don't want people like that here…

AUSSIE OI! You never know what to expect…

COOEE! (ASIDE) It's embarrassing…smudging our picture postcard like that.

AUSSIE OI! We like to pick our own.

COOEE! It takes real effort to become a bona fide Australian.

AUSSIE OI! You don't become one by sneaking into the country, for instance. 

COOEE! That's un-Australian.

AUSSIE OI! No. To become one you gotta play by the rules.

COOEE! Our rules.

COOEE!/AUSSIE OI! (TOGETHER.)

--We're searching for identity.

FX FIRST TWO BARS OF WALZING MATILDA. ABRUPTLY STOPS

AUSSIE OI! (ASIDE) Many lands.

COOEE! (ASIDE) One voice.

AUSSIE OI! COOEE! (TOGETHER. CURSORY ATTEMPT AT SINGING )

We are Aus-tray-lee-yarn.

COOEE! And just because you're here it doesn't mean you can stay.

AUSSIE OI! That's taking advantage.

COOEE! Stay away

AUSSIE OI! Stay at home.

COOEE! Go someplace else.

AUSSIE OI! Not here. Out there.

COOEE! Somewhere.

AUSSIE OI! Beyond the girt.

FX: WAVES ON BEACH QUICKLY BUILDING IN VOLUME AND POWER WITH A RISING WIND.CRY OF SEAGULLS. MUSIC RISING ABRUPTLY: 'ONEDIN LINE THEME' (THE BALLET MUSIC FROM SPARTACUS BY KHACHATURIAN.)

COOEE! (SHOUTING) Not here. Out there. Beyond the bloody girt.

FX: SEA, MUSIC AND WIND SOUNDS TAPER OFF QUICKLY TO SILENCE.

COOEE! Girt--

AUSSIE OI! Sea.

FX: BABBLE OF ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES.

COOEE! Land.

AUSSIE OI! Girt-

COOEE! Sea.

FX: BABBLE OF ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES.

AUSSIE OI! Land.

COOEE! Girt-

AUSSIE OI! Sea.

FX: BABBLE OF ASIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES.

AUSSIE OI! Land.

COOEE! Girt-

AUSSIE OI! Sea.

FX: NO BABBLE

(PAUSE)

COOEE!/AUSSIE OI! Refugees!

FX: CICADAS, BLOW FLIES,ETC ON A HOT SUMMER DAY.

RISING FROM BACKGROUND -- FAR OFF TO OFF --IS SOUND OF ETHNIC RADIO EG: ARABIC THEN INDONESIAN POP MUSIC -- AS STATIONS ARE CHANGED. THIS IS SUDDENLY SWITCHED OFF AND REPLACED BY STERILE MUSACK. SOUND OF A MICROPHONE BEING HANDLED AND STATIC.

INTERCOM Unlawful non citizens…Unlawful non citizens….This is not a borderless society. You are not wanted here….You are unauthorized arrivals...You are unauthorized arrivals…You have chosen not to apply for a visa. You refused to line up. You should have staid at home. You have shown no respect for the rule of law in this country...You have shown no respect.

FX: BLOW FLIES BUZZING

INTERCOM (PAUSE)

You are detained as a result of your unauthorised entry, not for asylum seeking …not for seeking asylum. You should have done that before you left to come here. That was your mistake. That was your mistake...You will be removed from here. You will be taken to the place from whence you came…You cannot stay in this country. You are going to be sent home...or somewhere else. You are non citizens who have broken our laws.

FX: BLOW FLIES BUZZING

AUSSIE OI! Naughty, naughty, naughty…

COOEE! We don't like that.

AUSSIE OI! Not at all.

COOEE! Any offshore resource is similarly girt by law.

AUSSIE OI! Girt by law.

COOEE! So if any unlawful non citizen were to beach themselves on Christmas    Island.

AUSSIE OI! That's girt by law.

COOEE! Ashmore reef.

AUSSIE OI! Girt by law.

COOEE! Cocos Island.

AUSSIE OI! Girt by law.

COOEE! Oil rigs at sea.

AUSSIE OI! Girt by law.

INTERCOM (BARKED AS ON PARADE GROUND)

Excised offshore places strengthening our territorial integrity.

FX THREE BARS, ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR.

AUSSIE OI!/COOEE! (TOGETHER PSEUDO SINGING IN 4/4 TIME AS SOON AS MUSIC STOPS)

Girt by law

Girt by law.

FX: BLOW FLIES BUZZING

INTERCOM (BARKED AS ON PARADE GROUND)

As your official detention service provider we have been contracted to run this    immigration detention facility.

AUSSIE OI!/COOEE! (TOGETHER PSEUDO SINGING)

Girt by law

Girt by law.

INTERCOM (PROMOTIONAL)

For around $120 per person per day twin share we offer a great deal. Three meals a day. Culturally appropriate menus. A bed for all. Laundry facilities. Games room. Shower block. Unlimited chilled water, tea, coffee, milk and sugar. 24 hour medical centre. All mod cons. So if you are depressed, severely depressed or slip into psychosis on occasion during your extended stay with us…We're prepared.

FX: BLOW FLIES BUZZING. STERILE MUSACK* BEGINS. THEN STOPS

INTERCOM (VOICE MOVE FROM 'OFF' TO 'ON' AS IN PASSING BY]

No escaping… No self mutilation… No starving to death…No sitting on roofs.... No stitching of lips together…No torching facilities…No rioting … No litigation…No attention seeking…No embarrassing behaviours of any kind … None of that…You can't complain. Not allowed…That's un-Australian.

[VOICE MOVE FROM 'ON' TO 'OFF', THEN 'FAR OFF' & PART REPEAT THROUGH A FADE.]
FX: BLOW FLIES BUZZING . SILENCE. STERILE MUSACK BEGINS. THEN STOPS

INTERCOM Thankyou for waiting. Your application as an unlawful non-citizen is    being processed.

FX: STERILE MUSACK BEGINS. THEN STOPS

INTERCOM Thankyou for waiting. Your application as an unlawful non-citizen is    being processed.

FX: STERILE MUSACK BEGINS. THEN STOPS

INTERCOM Thankyou for waiting. Your application as an unlawful non-citizen is    being processed.

FX: STERILE MUSACK BEGINS. THEN STOPS.

INTERCOM Thankyou for waiting. Your application as an unlawful non-citizen is    being processed.

FX: STERILE MUSACK BEGINS. FADES. SOUND OF A DISCONNECTED PHONE LINE. TAPERS OFF. DRUM ROLL. FOLLOWED BY SINGLE LONG BLOW ON SPORTS WHISTLE

INTERCOM All men on stage!

FX: RUNNING ON WOODEN FLOOR.

INTERCOM Everybody down on one knee! Now bend down low and look battle-worn. A bit more tension there. A touch more gloom on your faces. That's it.

You there, you'll play the role of Dole Bludger. Now dance over to the others    with an expression of furtive glee.

FX: SINGLE PERSON DANCING ON WOODEN FLOOR.

INTERCOM Furtive glee, I said, furtive glee! Ah, that's better.

All available female personnel. Line up!

FX: RUNNING ON WOODEN FLOOR.

INTERCOM You -- yes you! -- you're Miss Homelife. Sorry, Mrs Homelife. You seem demure enough for the role. And you're Miss Equality, because it's all the same to me whoever plays the part. And you're Miss Australia, so look stalwart and generous. Stalwart and generous, I said!

Get ready now. Let's go.

All you men there, break from your imaginary toil and rise upward toward an imaginary sun. Mrs Homelife, Miss Equality and Miss Australia, minister to them. Minister! Put some love in it! They're your little darlings, for crissake!

Men, pretend "you have nothing" and imagine "you can make it". Climb over each other, symbolising the effects of a free market economy. Excellent! Now build a pyramid with your competing bodies.

FX: STRAINED SCRAMBLE OF BODIES. SOME FALLING.

INTERCOM How about a little teamwork there! That's better. Dole Bludger, lay    down flat so you can break their fall.

You on top, take an imaginary flag in your hand and wave it to the tempo of a free country, conveying the joy of being a victorious Aussie battler. Great.

All ladies stand up. Come on up you get. Hang imaginary garlands around the necks of everyone -- for trying. That's to symbolise the blooming of happiness that only comes with effort.

Wonderful! That's it. That's it! Let in the sheep. Bring up the kookaburra chorus. 

FX BACKGROUND: SHEEP. KOOKABURRA CALL.

INTERCOM Add the didgeridoo.

FX BACKGROUND: DIDGERIDOO LEAD IN. ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR SLOWLY RISING

INTERCOM Now, unfold the flag. Slouch hats on. Wave the sprigs of wattle. I said, wave them -- hold them aloft and give them a bloody good shake. That's better. Now all you ethnics in the front row, face the front and smile. Good. Excellent. Send in the wombat and the kangaroo. And you, indigenous Australian blackfella-type person in a loin cloth, show us your teeth. Now we're cooking. Are we happy or what? I can't hear it? Are we happy? You bet we are.

(PAUSE)

No wonder they all want to come here.

FX ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR RISES QUICKLY IN VOLUME AND ORCHESTRATION. THEN FADES.    WAVES ON BEACH. BLOW FLIES BUZZING.

FINIS

*STERILE MUSACK: [Suggestion] The same few bars--repeated each time-from the instrumental version of The Girl from Ipanema (Antonio Carlos Jobim)

Political Photomontages

Political photomontages by dave riley

I use  free graphics editing software, Photofiltre, and play around. The complicated programs are too..complicated and with Photofiltre you can easily skill up by trial and error. So as I generate the output, I'll aggregate here in this slideshow.

 
Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

View in fullscreen mode

Inspiration: John Heartfield and Kurt  Schwitters


Galleries

• Photomontage Gallery I (mixed selection)
• Photomontage Gallery II -- Slideshow selection

AUDIO Bolivia opens "people's" summit on climate change

This morning (April 20th) marked the official inauguration of the People’s World Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Tiqupaya, Bolivia. Organizers are calling it an alternative to last year's failed Copenhagen talks - one that puts front and center the needs and concerns of poorer nations many of which are expected to be hit hardest by climate change. FSRN's Jessica Camille Aguirre and Aldo Orellana report.

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Original audio source (20100420JA.mp3)

CRIME FICTION Ken Bruen's cops: post traumatic stress disorder as a literary form

Ammunition by Ken Bruen
(St. Martin's Minotaur), July 2007 US
Synopsis and reviews

Bruen's even handed commitment to rough noir may seem a bit relentless if it wasn't so often a seemingly true take on the way people -- such as coppers -- go about  their lives. Quaint English Bobby stereotyping this aint.Amid the Metropolitan Police Force  these characters are in the main ethically challenged as though registered cowboys had gone mad in sync with one another and taken over the town. This is  Dodge City in London town fueled by drugs and alcohol -- and that's only the wallopers' sustenance!

Maybe Bruen's an acquired taste. While I cannot unconditionally embrace Bruen's characters -- I find I'm still uncomfortably resistive in their presence --  I can relate to them as disheveled products of where're they're at and while I would not invite any one of them home to meet mother, I defer to the fact that their stories are told with precision and some very  sharp prose.

I  so love the way Ken Bruen writes. No thrills nor pretension nor manipulated point-of-view 'attitude'. With verbiage kept to a minimum there's nothing to get between you and what's happening on the page.

Detective Sergeant Tom Brant -- Bruen's hero in a series of  (so far, seven )  crime novels (this is the latest -- 2007) -- may be for all intents and purposes a dedicated  sociopath. But if you step back and look at the genre overall, Brant wears all the contradictions that rule the lives of so many crime fiction heroes -- whether gumshoe or copper -- who simply reign over their own slice of the creative universe with  impunity. Regardless of what they get up to -- it's Ok because there's a story in it and, in fiction, the creative ends justifies the means.

With Brant, there's the rest of the Old Bill to deal with. While the top brass may try to maintain a certain  protocol and format order for showcase purposes, Bruen leaves us in no doubt that policing is a sham exercise ruled by self interest and  politics. So Brant and his creator are governed by deep cynicism and perhaps a sense of the tragedy of it all. Here there is no room left for idealism. The cops are as one -- a spent force running on auto pilot serving only to manage crime rather than solve or prevent it.

Bruen's knack  is his ability to explore  the consequences  of giving   legal power and weaponry  to individuals  as a career path, and then monitoring the ongoing consequences on their psyche. It's post traumatic stress disorder as a literary form as the gutter they are employed to clean up,  inundates them.

And when you come down to the wire -- cop or crim? -- we're left with the  choice betwen the lesser of two evils.

AUDIO: Tim Gooden -- Trade unions’ support for the Ampilatwatja walk off by the Alyawarr people of the Northern Territory

Stick Together Radio Show (3CR)

On this week’s program, we interview Tim Gooden, secretary of Geelong Trades Hall Council about Australian unions’ support for the Ampilatwatja walk off by the Alyawarr people of the Northern Territory. Tim will tell of how unions are assisting the community to build sustainable houses and infrastructure, as the Northern Territory intervention has left their community with virtually no services.

We also interview Imogen Schoots Research Officer for the Electrical Trades Union about the campaign for an initiative that would put solar panels on every roof in Australia.

File Download (28:51 min / 27 MB)

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Original audio source (3CRCast-2010-02-21-12030.mp3)

I'm late in pitting this up but the program is still very relevant.

Ampilatwatja Walk Out Protest Fundraiser

Location:Addison Rd Centre 142 Addison Rd Marrickville

Time:7:00PM Thursday, April 29th

FILM PREMIERE & INDIGENOUS MUSIC CONCERT
AMPILATWATJA is an indigenous community in Central Australia who are defying the government's NT Intervention Law by walking off their 'proscribed' area. They are rebuilding their community in the desert and they need help.
FILM PREMIERE new film on the Ampilatwatja protest and solidarity by unions and progressive activists
MUSIC CONCERT a range of Indigenous performers and others will entertain you during the evening
SPEAKERS Richard Downs, spokesperson from Ampilatwatja, Paul McAleer, MUA and Howard Bynes, CFMEU delegate
Music, food and drinks 6.30pm Cost: $20, $10 conc
Performers: Emma Donovan, Radical Son, Nadeena Dixon, Munkimuk and Ebony Williams, Ozi Battla and more...
Info 9564 1277