Multimedia
ABC Sunshine Coast: May 2011
I’ve spent the last month or so at ABC Sunshine Coast, filling in as a producer for their Breakfast and Mornings programs. Here is some audio of the things I’ve been doing.
ABC Sunshine Coast – Motorbike deaths talkback by sophiebenjamin
We were overwhelmed with talkback callers who wanted to discuss the Queensland Police’s “taskforce” targeting motorbike riders on the Sunshine Coast. We spoke with motorbike riders, motorists and parents whose sons died in motorbike accicents.
Music: Powderfinger – ‘I’m On Your Side”
ABC Sunshine Coast – Solo at 60 by sophiebenjamin
I checked out the launch of the Reality Bites non-fiction literary festival and spoke to Maggie Counihan and Antoinette O’Connor – two women who decided to wave goodbye to everyday life and travel around the world solo at 60 years of age.
www.realityliteraryfestival.org
MUSIC: Skipping Girl Vinegar – ‘Here She Comes’
ABC Sunshine Coast – Annette Hughes, director of Reality Bites festival by sophiebenjamin
Interview with Annette Hughes, director of the Reality Writes Literary fesitval up at Cooroy.
We spoke about Annette’s move to the hinterland, the importance of having a dedicated non-fiction literary festival and the talent of local authors.
Toowoomba’s derby girls play first bout
Roller derby explained by sophiebenjamin
After almost two years of set-backs and hurdles, Toowoomba’s first Roller Derby team will play their first bout in Brisbane this Saturday.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” skater Ellen Grinham enthuses.
“We’ve had a lot of hurdles to get here, even in the last week we’ve had one skater out with chickenpox and another out with a broken collarbone.”
The team formed in early 2009 with plenty of enthusiasm, but nowhere to skate.
“For most of 2009 we were skating around whatever concrete we could find, netball courts and car parks and things like that, before we finally got the showgrounds to put us up here,” says Grinham.
The team has been training at the showgrounds twice a week since the beginning of the year, with coach Jaime Housman travelling from Brisbane to lead the sessions.
Also a dedicated road skater, Housman says he “gets a kick out of it”.
Part of the fun of roller derby is dressing up in team colours and choosing a ‘derby name’.
Players register their names on an international roster, and keep the same name for life.
“It’s something fun that has stuck around from the old roller derby days,” explains Grinham, whose derby name is ‘Thumper Hard’.
“It’s a persona that you get to take on. It could be cutesy or really mean, it can be whatever you want it to be.”
Skater Elouise Quinlivan says treating treating derby as athletic sport over a spectacle is the best way to approach the game.
“In the 70s it was a bit more of a spectacle and now it’s about the sport. It’s about doing things cleanly and doing things well and I think that’s where derby is moving for everyone.
“Not everyone’s picking it up, but people want to see it as a real sport.”
The roller derby revival has become a worldwide phenomenon, with 51 teams in Australia alone.
The Toowoomba City Rollers take on the North Brisbane Rollers at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Saturday the 20th of November.
A Faster Horse – Teaser
A Faster Horse: Episode 1 Teaser by sophiebenjamin
Teaser for the first episode of A Faster Horse – Erinn Swan and Matt Newton talk about writing songs with hit makers in Sweden.
www.afasterhorseblog.posterous.com
David Burton – Toowoomba playwright
ABC Southern Queensland – David Burton feature promo by sophiebenjamin
Award-winning Toowoomba playwright David Burton is a busy guy. Earlier this year, he launched the play April’s Fool, an account of Toowoomba teenager Kristjan Terauds’s death due to complications of illegal drug use, which was based on hours of interviews with Kristjan’s friends and family.
Now he and a group of fellow University of Southern Queensland graduates are set to launch his newest work, Furious Angels – a one-man play set in a mental institution in the 1930s.
Currently in the middle of a successful season at Metro Arts in Brisbane, Burton says the play has been “bubbling away for years” in the back of his mind, and was brought to life through a mentorship with master playwright Michael Gurr.
“In terms of the historical setting, it’s a really interesting time for mental health. In the process of recovering from the First World War, a lot of men are admitting that war has not been kind to them, so there’s this new era of compassionate mental health care that has set the tone for where we are now.
“The hospital in the play is somewhere between the two worlds, and a lot of awful stuff goes on because of that. At the same time, you’ve got Hitler on one side of the world and Gandhi on the other side with both of them on the rise, and Australia trying to find its identity in the middle of all that.
“It seemed to be to be a really interesting time to put a story in, especially one about mental health and healing. “
Burton’s civic pride for his hometown of Toowoomba is overwhelming, and he is passionate about the creative possibilities for regional artists.
“I think that with ‘cultural capitals’ like Sydney and Melbourne, people kind of glamorise them,” he explains.
“A lot of my friends who have gone come back because you’re dealing with a much bigger pond over there. There are a lot of wonderful Queensland institutions who are really interested in fostering young talent. It’s something I’ve found wonderful about this town and this state.”
The University of Southern Queensland and the Empire Theatre are two institutions in particular that Burton credits with keeping him busy, as well as creating opportunities for contemporary live theatre to be performed in southern Queensland.
“It’s our home town and we want to put on a show here that a lot of Toowoomba audiences wouldn’t get to see otherwise.”
“There’s plenty to be inspired by here.”
Written and published with additional multimedia content for ABC Southern Queensland, 12/11/2010.
