You see a familiar face on the street. It’s someone you knew a long time ago. You couldn’t place a name, but you remember being very fond of them. You near each other, your eyes meet, you’re about to pass, you open your mouth, and in a second they are gone, moving onwards in the opposite direction.
Neither of you stopped or even smiled. It might have been something – you could have asked then for a drink, placed their name while your fumbled for your phone. But the moment is gone. All you’re left with is what might have been.
This week on All the Best – missed moments, alternate paths, loves lost, whole cities never realised.
North Arm
There’s a place on the north coast of NSW called North Arm Cove. There are 400ish residents, no shop, no town water, but they do have a tennis court they built with money from the government’s GFC stimulus package a few years back.
But North Arm Cove was slated to be something much bigger. For a brief, shining moment, it might have been the capital of Australia, designed by Walter Burley Griffin. That didn’t happen, obviously. But plans were drawn up and roads carved through the bush, and due to a strange confluence of planning laws and economics, a small community lives in a perfectly planned city that’s mostly gravel boulevards and eucalyptus trees.
Produced by Heidi Pett
Brother
One of the biggest, strangest things about ‘what might have beens’ is the ways they could change not only the course of our lives, and what happened, but our identities. Things that happen or don’t happen ripple through us and form the people we become.
Erin’s been wondering for a while what might have been if something in her family had happened very differently
Produced by Erin Rosenberg
Executive Producers: Heidi Pett
State Coordinators: Bethany Atkinson-Quinton and Bec Fary
Presenters: Pip Rasmussen and Michael Brydon
Image Credit: Google Maps
We’re hitting snooze, closing our eyes, and drifting back to sleep with Bec Fary. She’s the host and producer of SleepTalker, the podcast about sleep, dreams, nightmares and what happens in your head after dark.
In this special collaboration with All The Best, Bec follows three dreamers into the night to find out how their dreams influenced their waking lives.
Creative Freedom
“You’re almost given creative freedom in taking the fragments of your dream that you can remember and trying to churn them out into something that’s more cohesive. So you’re making these dramaturgical creative decisions about your dream.”
Declan Mulcahy, director of ____day Night’s Dream, collaborated with seven performers to adapt their dreams for the stage.
Music: ‘Drift’ by Charlie Salas-Humara, ‘Dream 5’ by Tonality Star and ‘Can’t Keep My Eyes Open’ by The Paperheads
Mind’s Eye
Zed’s skin is covered in ink. His arms, hands, back, stomach, legs, and even his face, are tattooed. An ornate, scripted word curves above Zed’s right eye. It might even be the first thing you notice about him. Turns out, it came to him in a dream.
Music: ‘This Is Where We Sleep’ by Brokeback and ‘Kaleidoscope Eyes’ by Noctambulo
Divine Inspiration
For Melbourne musician James Collopy, the unconscious hours of sleep can also be when creativity strikes. Here, he takes us on a musical journey through his dreaming mind.
Original music written and performed by James Collopy.
For more SleepTalker, head to www.sleeptalkerpodcast.com
Episode Producer: Bec Fary
Executive Producer: Heidi Pett
Presenters: Michael Brydon, Pip Rassmussen
Final song: ‘Mr Sandman’ by the Chordettes
Photo from the production of ‘____day Night’s Dream’
“You get every kind of story from every kind of woman. Maybe it’s just taking the bra off, all the secrets come out.”
We get a little bit intimate and talk intimate apparel. Bras to be exact. It’s about more than making your boobs look great, for so many women it’s wrapped up in our ideas of femininity, identity and also insecurity. Producers Hannah Reich and Elizabeth Kulas find that there are tears and smiles, sometimes breast milk and often something else very special in the fitting room.
Producers: Hannah Reich and Elizabeth Kulas
Music specially composed by Briana Cowlishaw (and one song by Podington Bear)
Sound Engineering by Calum Wakeling and Ariel Gross
Image by Nik Sandbridge
