“I actually got sick about six weeks after we got together, that became quite difficult…”
“…But I think we’ve run the gambit through just about everything. The positives that come out of that is that we have an incredibly strong relationship and an incredibly good relationship as separate to the MS.”
The photography exhibition ‘Outing Disability’ was launched in February as part of the 2014 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Presented by Family Planning NSW in collaboration with internationally acclaimed photographer Belinda Mason, Outing Disability tells the stories of LGBTIQ people with disability.
The exhibition celebrated diversity in sexuality, sex and gender among people with disability. In this week’s episode of All the Best, we speak to some of the people and couples featured in the exhibition, about their lives and relationships.
Produced by Liam Knierim
Presenters: Michaela Morgan and Michael Brydon
Community Coordinator: Pip Rasmussen
Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo
Features Executive Producers: Heidi Pett & Jess O’Callaghan
Image Credit: Belinda Mason
Is there anything better than huddling around a fire in winter? Holding the palms of your hands just far enough away from a flickering flame that it doesn’t ignite? Fires have comforted, protected, scared and destroyed for thousands of years. We suspect they’ve inspired stories for just as long, including the tales we’re telling on this episode of All the Best – stories of sitting by the fire, of fiery red hair, of spinning and eating fire, and learning to live through it’s destruction.
Fire Twirlers
“It’s a medium that can easily get out of control…anybody who’s been through a house fire, a bush fire, anything like that can tell you exactly how ominous it is and how it can strike fear into you straight away. It’s about safety and respect for the flame, and what it can do.”
Philippe Perez met some people who don’t run scared from fire – they respect it and tame it.
Produced by Philippe Perez
Music Credits: ‘Plying With Fire’ by the Rolling Stones, ‘U Don’t Know’ by Jay Z
City Fire
Michael and Jess talk about how nice it is to have a fire in the middle of the city of Melbourne, if only for a month. Jess talks to the fire’s designer, Rob Bundle. The fire was part of Federation Square’s festival The Light in Winter.
The Girl with Flame-Coloured Hair
Bec’s immediate association with ‘fire’ is her flame-coloured hair. Although she doesn’t have the stereotypical ‘fiery personality’, her hair colour is her most vibrant characteristic, so she spoke to her mother, her best friend and her brother about whether or not hair colour, or physical appearance, really reflects on who we are, and whether the heat of the hair colour radiates.
Produced by Bec Fary
Music Credits: ‘Driftwood’ by Podington Bear, ‘Afterglow’ by Podington Bear
Music Credits: ‘The World (Is Going Up In Flames)’ by Charles Bradley
Presenters: Michaela Morgan and Michael Brydon
Community Coordinator: Pip Rasmussen
Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo
Features Executive Producers: Heidi Pett & Jess O’Callaghan
Image Credit: Percitta
Find your seat, settle in, and listen to the creak of those sleeper beams, the rattling of carriages. This week, we’re taking a train ride, on tracks that crisscross the globe. We go on an adventure along the Trans Siberian railway, chat to passengers as they stare out the window at the Nullarbor, and wait patiently on a city platform.
St Petersburg to Beijing – The Trans Siberian
Taking the train to Siberia is not something you do every day. I recently took the train from St Petersburg via Siberia and Mongolia to Beijing. One of the longest train journeys in the world – it’s epic length is matched by the epic nature of the adventure. In one instance, the train journey lasts for 5 consecutive days (from Moscow to Irkursk, Siberia) without stopping.
Produced by Joel Carnegie
Music Credits: ‘Button Up Your Overcoat’ by Hetty Kate & Gordon Webster, ‘Eight Russian Folk Songs, Op. 58 Round Dance’ by Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, ‘Emperor’s Box’ by Katie Noonan, ‘Canadia (Take Me)’ by The Little Stevies, ‘Merry Go Round’ by Kacey Musgraves and ‘Night Train’ by Amos Lee.
Sidelines
A non-fiction piece, based on scenes that happened a month ago.
Produced by Selina Springett
Perth to Sydney – The Indian Pacific
James Purtill takes the train all the way across Australia in Red Class – the cheap seats. Four days, three nights, 2.5 thousand miles. Across desert – the Nullarbor desert. The longest dead-straight stretch of railway in the world.
Produced by James Purtill
Presenters: Michaela Morgan and Michael Brydon
Community Coordinator: Pip Rasmussen
Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo
Features Executive Producers: Heidi Pett & Jess O’Callaghan
Image Credit: Joel Carnegie
Look out off the east coast at the moment and you’ll likely see them – whales. Come whale watching with us, on the edge of cliffs in Sydney, in 1850s Byron Bay, from the decks of the First Fleet and in a Melbourne theatre. But remember, all you’re looking at is big, sea dwelling mammals – the whale is only ever just a whale.
Shifting Baselines
Writer and biologist Mary Gardener is piecing together stories and find an answer to the question – when someone looked off the coast at Byron Bay 300 years ago, what would they see? Closer to shore, as recent as 60 years ago, they would have seen a long jetty with whales being hauled in, harpoooned. Mary wrote about when Byron was a whaling town in the Byron Shire Echo. You can hear some more of Harry Roberton, whaling folk singer, here.
You don’t have to wait for the boom of a harpoon to see a whale these days – follow @WildAboutWhales or #WhaleOn to know when to rush to the shoreline.
Produced by Jess O’Callaghan
The Whale is Just a Whale
Moby Dick: Show Thyself combined humour, history and literature. A tumultuous, seasick production of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick recently played at Melbourne University’s Union Theatre. The play, adapted for stage and written by Rohan Byrne, and performed by independent company Until Monstrous, is set to be reworked and reimagined for a follow-up performance run in 2015.
Produced by Bec Fary
Music Credits: ‘Overture’ by Liam Bellman-Sharpe, ‘Death to Moby Dick’ by Liam Bellman-Sharpe and ‘The Sea Claims Another’ by Liam Bellman-Sharpe
Whale Stories
Stories of whaling in the Southern and Pacific Oceans with Laura’s dad – John Newton, the author of A Savage History. We had him tell all our favourite whaling stories – stories of sperm whales as far as the eye can see, whaling boats alongside the First Fleet, baby whales breaking hearts, killer whales being border collies.
Produced by Laura Brierley Newton
Music Credits: Sigur Ros – Glósóli
Presenters: Michaela Morgan and Michael Brydon
Community Coordinator: Pip Rasmussen
Executive Producer: Giordana Caputo
Features Executive Producers: Heidi Pett & Jess O’Callaghan
Image Credit: Michael Dawes
