Gather ’round for some great yarns. Straight from the creative bustle that is the This is Not Art Festival in Newcastle, All the Best brings you tales from some of Australia’s up-and-coming storytellers. A father’s obsession with snakes goes too far, a migrant kid goes in search of her Spanish heritage and a woman’s desperate pursuit to capture the heart of a courier driver ends… awkwardly.
Snake
Performed by Nicole Crowe of Brisbane Yarn.
My Yayo
Performed by All the Best’s Features Executive Producer Belinda Lopez. Winner of Sydney’s first Now Hear This storytelling slam.
The Courier
Performed by Andrea Gibbs, co-creator of Barefaced Stories in Perth.
Many thanks to Adam Zwi for recording these stories. Recorded at the National Young Writers’ Festival, a part of the This is Not Art Festival.
Photo: Jew’s ear fungus. Credit: John Fielding (http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/36/30/363099_907bc266.jpg)
Stories ahoy! All the Best brings you intriguing tales from the high seas. A South American geologist’s rough-and-tumble journey on a raft to Australia leads to a life-changing encounter with Gough Whitlam. And, the real Puberty Blues: a young girl tries to join the blokey surf culture of the 1970s- but an initiation rite in the water goes terribly wrong.
That Summer of ’75
Forget the TV series and the book: the real Puberty Blues started in the summer of 1975. Shé Hawkes was 14, and had begun doing something absolutely outrageous on the beach. Shé- a girl- had started to surf. It wasn’t something that the other surfers were going to let her get away with.
These days, Shé is a writer and academic: read her piece about women breaking into the surf culture of 1970s Australia, and a fictionalised version of her summer of ’75.
Interview, recording: Kate Montague
Edited by Belinda Lopez
Music credits: Room with a view (Jahzzar) / CC BY-SA 3.0; Instrumental – Restoration (Dan Warren) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; Instrumental – The Buddha (Dan Warren) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Sea Hitchhiker
In 1970, Gabriel Salas had just finished his university studies in Chile and thought he’d try and hitchhike around South America. But what was meant to be your average graduate road trip turned into an adventure across the sea. It also led to a fateful meeting with Gough Whitlam, just as Chile turned from democracy to dictatorship.
See photos and read more about Gabriel’s Salas’ adventure in this blog post by Zacha Rosen.
Produced by Zacha Rosen
Music credits: Jupiter The Blue (gillicuddy) / CC BY-NC 3.0; Opening Doors (Jamie Evans) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; El barzón (Los Amparito) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.5; Spring Rain (Aaron Ximm) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Presenter: Georgia Moodie
Features Executive Producer: Belinda Lopez
Executive Producers: Giordana Caputo, Eliza Sarlos, Jesse Cox
Picture Credit: Gabriel Salas’ La Balsa raft after being located and towed into Mooloolaba Boat Harbour, Mooloolaba on 5 November 1970. Courtesy of Heritage Library, Sunshine Coast Council
Music credit: Skitzin by Shining Bird. Free download here.
We’re sitting you down and telling you about the birds and the bees: and it’s guaranteed to be just as awkward and intriguing as you remember it. From an parent- to-child sex talk that happens 10 years too late, just for your listening pleasure; an escort who falls for his client; and the craze for ‘vagina spas’ in Jakarta: All the Best does its very best to explain that crazy little thing called (making) love.
Escort Love
‘Tyson’ was only 19 when he started working as an escort to support himself as a poor student in London. He was new enough to the trade to break the number one rule in the business: Don’t fall in love with the client.
Produced by Joal London
Can You Talk the Talk?
Do you remember having ‘the sex talk’ with your parents? Tess Lawley never actually did. She comes from a long line of Anglo-saxon women who are slightly prudish about sex. At 21, a determined Tess sat down with her mum Kaye to ask about the birds and the bees, just for your awkward listening pleasure.
Produced by Tess Lawley
Music credits: Instrumental version of Anyone Else But You by The Moldy Peaches.
Some Don’t Like It Wet
If you flick open any straight Aussie men’s magazine and scroll to the page offering sex tips, you’re sure to see a bit of detailed advice on how to get a woman wet. But in Jakarta, Indonesia- that advice gets turned on its head. Ade Mardiyati is a 34-year-old journalist living in the capital city- and she takes us on a very personal journey into a curious cultural trend.
Narrated and recorded by Ade Mardiyati
Produced by Belinda Lopez
Picture credit: Self portrait by Ade Mardiyati
Music credits: ‘Les Deux Guitares’ by Kale Stiles: http://soundcloud.com/kalerstiles/les-deux-guitares; ‘Escale’ by Les Zekoutzy Pourvoir: http://soundcloud.com/zekoutzy/escale
Presenter: Georgia Moodie
Features Executive Producer: Belinda Lopez
Executive Producers: Giordana Caputo, Eliza Sarlos, Jesse Cox
All the Best presents New Kids on the Block: No, not the 1990s-era boy band. We’re sharing stories about the unexpected fights and friendships that happen when new people come into a neighbourhood. The arrival of a new priest splits a tight parish community in Redfern, and a couple moving to Sydney’s fringes get more than what they bargained for.
St Vincent’s
Producer: Gina McKeon
St Vincent de Paul Church in Redfern was formerly the parish of social activist and beloved priest Father Ted Kennedy. But the arrival of a new kid on the block- a new parish priest- has fueled a bitter dispute over power and theology. Many of the local community have left out of protest or defeat. This story was first broadcast as part of The Block. Gina McKeon won a Walkley for the piece as part of the Young Australian Journalist of the Year awards.
The Ponds
Producer: Adam Zwi
There are plenty of shiny new residential developments popping up all over the edges of Sydney, including The Ponds, in Sydney’s northeast. After ruling out the pricy suburbs closer to the city, one young couple decided to move out there- and found an authentic lifestyle beyond the newly-built facades. This story was first broadcast as part of the episode The Edge of Nowhere.
This week we welcome our new Features Executive Producer Belinda Lopez to the team.
Presenter: Georgia Moodie
Features Executive Producer: Belinda Lopez
Executive Producers: Jesse Cox, Brigitte Dagg, Eliza Sarlos
Picture Credit: Lauren Carroll Harris
