The Big Issue Australia #604 - Vendor Week by The Big Issue Australia

Ed.

604

2019

OCT 2417 JAN– 01 NOV 06 FEB 2020

p20.

INSIDE A WILDLIFE HOSPITAL p30.

CLARE BOWDITCH

and p10.

A FIREY’S STORY

HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES the cover price goes to your vendor $4.50$4.50 of theof cover price goes to your vendor

$9 $9

NO CASH? NO WORRIES!

Some Big Issue vendors now offer digital payments.

NATIONAL OFFICE

ENQUIRIES

Chief Executive Officer Steven Persson

Advertising Simone Busija (03) 9663 4533 sbusija@bigissue.org.au

Chief Operating Officer Sally Hines Chief Financial Officer Jon Whitehead Chief Communications Officer Emma O’Halloran National Operations Manager Jeremy Urquhart EDITORIAL

Editor Amy Hetherington Deputy Editor Melissa Fulton Contributing Editor Michael Epis

Subscriptions (03) 9663 4533 subscribe@bigissue.org.au Editorial (03) 9663 4522 editorial@bigissue.org.au GPO Box 4911 Melbourne Vic 3001

Contributing Editor Anastasia Safioleas Editorial Coordinator Lorraine Pink

PUBLISHED BY

CONTRIBUTORS

Big Issue In Australia Ltd (ABN 61 071 598 439) 227 Collins Street Melbourne Vic 3000

PRINCIPAL PARTNERS

Contact the vendor support team in your state. ACT (02) 6181 2801 Supported by Woden Community Service NSW (02) 8332 7200 Chris Campbell NSW + ACT Operations Manager

Printgraphics Pty Ltd 14 Hardner Road Mount Waverley Vic 3149

Art Direction & Design GOZER (gozer.com.au)

WANT TO BECOME A VENDOR?

Qld (07) 3221 3513 Susie Longman Qld Operations Manager SA (08) 8359 3450 Matthew Stedman SA + NT Operations Manager Vic (03) 9602 7600 Gemma Pidutti Vic + Tas Operations Manager WA (08) 9225 7792 Andrew Joske WA Operations Manager

Film Editor Annabel Brady-Brown

MAJOR PARTNERS

Allens Linklaters, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Clayton Utz, Fluor Australia, Government of New South Wales, Government of Western Australia, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macquarie Group, MinterEllison, NAB, Newmont Australia, PwC, Qantas, Realestate.com.au, William Buck MARKETING/MEDIA PARTNERS

C2, Carat & Aegis Media, Chocolate Studios, Macquarie Dictionary, Res Publica, Roy Morgan, Town Square

Small Screens Editor Aimee Knight Music Editor Sarah Smith

DISTRIBUTION AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS

The Big Issue is grateful for all assistance received from our distribution and community partners. A full list of these partners can be found at thebigissue.org.au.

Books Editor Thuy On Cartoonist Andrew Weldon

HELLO@BIGISSUE.ORG.AU

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

@BIGISSUEAUSTRALIA

THE BIG ISSUE AUSTRALIA

@THEBIGISSUE

Can’t access a vendor easily? Become a subscriber! Every Big Issue subscription helps employ women experiencing homelessness and disadvantage through our Women’s Subscription Enterprise. To subscribe THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU or email SUBSCRIBE@BIGISSUE.ORG.AU

The Big Issue is a proud member of the INSP, which incorporates 122 street publications like The Big Issue in 41 countries.

Contents

EDITION

604

10 MY WORD

A Firey’s Story An RFS volunteer gives her account of the Gospers Mountain blaze in NSW.

20 THE BIG PICTURE

Call of the Wildlife A peek inside one of the world’s largest native wildlife rehab centres – the heartbreaking injuries and the staff dedicated to their healing.

12.

Letter to My Younger Self by Lenny, Rachel, David and Stephen

If you could speak to your younger self, what would you say? Big Issue vendors reflect on their lives with affection and humour, offering hope, heart and advice to the teenager they once were.

THE REGULARS

04 Ed’s Letter & Your Say 05 Meet Your Vendor 06 Streetsheet 08 Hearsay & 20 Questions 27 Ricky 29 Fiona

34 Film Reviews 43 Puzzles 35 Small Screen Reviews 45 Crossword 36 Music Reviews 46 Click 37 Book Reviews 39 Public Service Announcement 40 Tastes Like Home

BEHIND THE COVER

Lenny sells The Big Issue in Brisbane. photo by Kylie Kluger klugerhaus.com.au

typography by Carla Hackett @carlahackett

30 BOOKS

Girl Empowered Much-loved songstress Clare Bowditch on her battles with anxiety, and why she waited two decades to share her story with the world.

Ed’s Letter

by Amy Hetherington Editor @AmyHetherington

Looking Back – and Forward

f you could write a letter to 15-year-old you, what would you say? It’s a toughie. I spent time over the weekend flicking through teenage photos and diaries, and warbling along to Pixies and Hole albums, in order to channel that self-conscious girl in the tie-dye shirt and the rose-coloured glasses. And right now, I just want to give her a big old cuddle and tell her she was okay. More than okay. It really is an emotional exercise. Looking back on the truth of your life, and who you’ve become. The successes, failures, loves and heartaches along the way. The times you were courageous, and those others you wish you could do over. The importance of family and friends. In these pages, we regularly interview well-known people for our popular Letter to My Younger Self column. Over the years, the likes of Lee Lin Chin, Paul McCartney, Bruce Pascoe, Olivia Newton-John, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Billie Jean King have shared

with us their words of wisdom and encouragement. In this edition, we’ve posed the question to Big Issue vendors around the country: Rachel in Sydney, David in Perth, Stephen in Melbourne and our cover star, Lenny, in Brisbane. Together, they’ve penned a moving series of letters, offering hope, compassion and inspiration. It’s part of a very special celebration for The Big Issue: the International Network of Street Papers Vendor Week (3-9 February). It’s a global celebration, acknowledging the thousands of people who sell street magazines in 35 countries around the world. There are 110 publications just like this one you’re holding, all helping to combat homelessness and disadvantage. As David writes to his younger self: “Selling The Big Issue will be a rewarding job. It won’t be about making money – you’ll love sharing stories and articles and interacting with customers. You will be comfortable with where you are, and that’s all that will matter.”

Your Say E FO RT NI GH T LE TT ER OF TH

Thank you for the marvellous Christmas edition (Ed#601). With every issue I feel I know the vendors better. I wanted in particular to acknowledge Mariann’s piece ‘Food for Thought’. Prior to my retirement I met Mariann regularly at the top of the escalator at Melbourne Central. She has great dignity and an unassuming manner, and behind her gracious facade is a sharp mind, real wit and compassion for the human race. Mariann is a supremely talented writer. Each of her pieces has been a gem, revealing a deep mind and capacity to critique society without cynicism. I was delighted when she gave me the latest copy, with her marvellous account of three places offering food – and friendship with dignity – to people who are struggling. Implicit is a question about why a very wealthy country has so many in need of the basic necessities of life (to our great shame). But she employs her words to bring alive the sense of these gatherings. It left me with real gratitude to those wonderful people working to make this a reality. MARTHA MORROW

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

The Big Issue Story The Big Issue is an independent, not-for-profit magazine sold on the streets around Australia. It was created as a social enterprise 23 years ago to provide both a voice and a work opportunity for people experiencing homelessness and disadvantage. Your purchase of this magazine has directly benefited the person who sold it to you. Big Issue vendors buy each copy for $4.50 and sell it to you for $9, keeping the profits. But The Big Issue is more than a fortnightly magazine.

OAKLEIGH SOUTH I VIC

• Our Women’s Subscription Enterprise provides employment and training for women through the sale of magazine subscriptions as well as social procurement work. • The Community Street Soccer Program promotes social inclusion and good health at weekly soccer games at 19 locations around the country. • The Big Issue Classroom educates school groups about homelessness. • And The Big Idea challenges university students to develop a new social enterprise. CHECK OUT ALL THE DETAILS AT

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

As winner of Letter of the Fortnight, Martha wins a copy of Clare Bowditch’s memoir Your Own Kind of Girl. We speak to her on p30. We’d also love to hear your thoughts, feedback and suggestions: SUBMISSIONS@BIGISSUE.ORG.AU

YOUR SAY SUBMISSIONS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY AND SPACE.

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT CENTRAL STATION, EDWARD ST, BRISBANE

interview by Stephanie Young photo by Barry Street

PROUD UNIFORM PARTNER OF THE BIG ISSUE VENDORS.

Eddie D

I was born in Brisbane, and moved to Adelaide when I was a little kid. We moved back to Brisbane when I was 12, where I finished school in Year 10. I’ve got an older brother in Brisbane who I haven’t spoken to in ages, and an older sister in Sydney who I get to see a couple of times a year. For the past few years we’ve done the City2Surf together, and I see her every Christmas too. After school, I worked for Woolies doing trolley work for a few years, then in 1989 I started working in a brass foundry. It’s a trade job, but I was never properly trained as an apprentice, so I was classed as an assistant. I’ve also done some casual work for Queensland Rail, been a doorperson, done a bit of warehouse work and worked in a steel foundry. I even found work replacing rotten railway sleepers – that was a good paying job that one! I moved back down to Adelaide in 2008. I tried to find a job all that year, but I couldn’t find any work. My depression kicked in badly because I didn’t have anything to do. I decided to sign up at The Big Issue – that was about 11 years ago now; a lot of things have changed since then! I’ve been back in Brisbane since 2013. I’ve got a better quality of life now that I’m a Big Issue vendor. It’s given me a chance to do a bit of travelling, which I’ve always wanted to do. In March last year I went over to Perth, and in May I’m heading up to Darwin. I’m trying to go to every capital city. Eventually I’d like to go to Canberra and Melbourne. I’ve been a Collingwood fan for years and I’d love to see them play at the ’G. I am from Queensland, so I’ve also been a Broncos fan since 1988, when we entered the competition. I’ve even got a Broncos tattoo! I went to their secondever home game, which was against Penrith. I used to be a season ticket holder but these days I only make it to a game occasionally. Every Sunday I work at the Kelvin Grove Village Markets and it’s something I love. Some of my customers have made me feel like a member of their family; there are some kids I’ve watched grow up! Making friends with my customers means the world to me; I feel like I’m a part of the community. Working with The Big Issue has been great for my self-esteem. Making connections with people and getting out of bed with a purpose in life makes a world of difference. I’ve also made some great friends with other Big Issue vendors. Something I always try to remind myself of is this quote from Rumi: “The very centre of your heart is where life begins. The most beautiful place on Earth.” I’m ready to make 2020 my year!

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Meet Your Vendor

Streetsheet

Stories, poems and pictures by Big Issue vendors and friends

Sorrow and Sympathy My sorrow and sympathy to all the people affected by the bushfires. I know it will be hard to recover, but there are a lot of good, kind and supportive people and Australian spirit to bring you all through. God bless you all, especially the firefighters and support workers and all the wildlife and animals too. My heart and thoughts are with you all. PHIL RICHMOND MARKET I MELBOURNE

Doing What I Can

RON

Open Home, Open Heart

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

have two young people from NSW who got caught up in the bushfires staying with my wife Katie and me. Esther is 16 and Belinda is 21. It’s only them and their father. They lost their house in the fires just after Christmas and now they are homeless. That’s why I’m helping them. One of them also suffers from bad asthma. They are friends of a friend who asked if we could take them in as he didn’t have room for the girls, only their dad. I said, “No worries, they need all the help they can get.” They were flown to Adelaide from New South Wales by a charitable organisation. We’ve had them for about a week. They’ve lost just about everything, but at least they are alive, that’s the main thing. They were on a farm in Douglas Park, and lost two horses and three dogs… They’re holding up okay – they are seeing a counsellor at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

They’re going to stay with Katie and I for a while. They want to stay in South Australia now, so the Salvation Army is going to try to find them accommodation. I’ve said to them they can stay with us until they find something. I also have my granddaughter, who is six, living with us. She loves it and they love her so there’s five of us. It’s a bit cramped but we all get along. Plus the 16-year-old has headphones for her music, so there’s no loud music being played! We’ve opened our home to them because they are worse off than we are. If I can help someone in a crisis like this, I will. My wife thinks the same way. What goes around comes around, I say. It’s the same when people buy The Big Issue: they give a little bit and get a lot back in life. I’m not religious but I believe life goes like that. Esther and Belinda are very grateful they have somewhere to stay. RON K GAWLER , ELIZABETH & PIRIE ST I ADELAIDE

I feel sad about the fires in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and NSW. I have been praying for the people who have lost their homes. On Saturday and Sunday this weekend I donated money to the fireys. I like to try to help where and when I can, even if it’s just by giving some money to the cause. WAYNE A THE BODY SHOP & HUNGRY JACK’S I ADELAIDE

A Star Is Born I lived on the streets when I was 14 and I started selling The Big Issue five years ago. It makes me feel good. The best experience I’ve had is talking to people while selling the magazine. I feel much better about myself. It gives me more confidence to talk to people, and it’s all nice conversations. People call me a star. See, I’m a star! I get called a star every day. WILLY L PAKINGTON ST I GEELONG

Drive Away My previous job before selling The Big Issue was doing Uber driving. I used to drive people around Perth. It was exciting and stressful at the same time. Exciting because I got to see people in all their states: dressed to go to work, going on a

PHOTOS BY NAT ROGERS, JACOB PEDERSEN

VENDOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT

To establish your Big Issue business, set yourself targets for each day – how many magazines do you want to sell? Remember that your sales will change from day to day. Be prepared to stick it out. Think about when you would like to sell. Pick a place with lots of people going past. Stay close to a Body Shop so you can restock. Once you start to build your business you might want to branch out into shopping areas and establish a regular pitch there. If you can, buy 10 magazines for $44.90 and sell these for $90. Reinvest: put aside $44.90 so you can buy more magazines tomorrow. Living costs: decide how much each day you want to use for living expenses, say $25 a day. Save: put some aside each day; $20 a day grows to $100 a week. Over three months you’ll have $1200. You could also save your tips. Choose regular times and places to sell so that customers know where to find you. Greet everyone who goes past and try to engage in conversation with them. Stand up if you can. Act professionally. Wear your uniform and badge. Don’t smoke on pitch. Don’t play on your phone. People are more likely to engage with you if you are interested in them. DOUG P AINSLIE SHOPS I ACT

Star Wars Watching Star Wars at the cinema is always good in my opinion There is always a lightsaber fight and a battle between good and evil There are always gamblers, drug lords and drinking, just like real life And there is always love as I believe one day, like Star Wars – one day we might not have to fight because love will rule the galaxy and planet not Jedis or Jesus DANIEL K WAYMOUTH ST I ADELAIDE

We Loved You Magoo

his lovely, tough, funny, kind guy passed away. Magoo was a mate, a vendor and a larger-than-life character. Magoo often shared his story to schools and business groups with me. He had a tough life. On his 14th birthday his parents kicked him out. He was illiterate and innumerate, which he often laughed about given that he sold The Big Issue magazine. He struggled with alcohol and drug addiction a few times, got himself clean a few times, did a few stints in jail. He was in constant pain from osteoporosis and scoliosis, which was not helped by sleeping rough for decades. A few years ago, he endured a serious cancer battle. Magoo went through chemo and radiotherapy while living under a barbecue by the Brisbane River. Magoo will always remind me of the resilience of humans – our ability to rise in the face of adversity. Rest in peace my friend. SUSIE LONGMAN QLD STATE MANAGER

ALL VENDOR CONTRIBUTORS TO STREETSHEET ARE PAID FOR THEIR WORK.

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Big Business

HAIDAR NEWTOWN I SYDNEY

MAGOO: A LOVELY, FUNNY, KIND GUY

date, seeing their doctor. The ride I will never forget was a secret ride to Kings Park, and the person who booked the ride asked me not to text her guest where they were going – which was an interesting surprise for them. But driving was stressful because it was incurring too much expense that I had to pay, which eventually turned out to be not profitable work for me, so then I decided to stop.

Hearsay

Richard Castles Writer Andrew Weldon Cartoonist

“

I’m rather on Harry’s side. The tabloid press effectively murdered his mother, now they’re tearing his wife to pieces. I think as a man, it’s his job to protect his family, so I’m with him.

Actor Hugh Grant (Four Nottings and a Funeral Actually) on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to separate from the royal family and live in Canada, in the context of what happened to Harry’s mum, Princess Diana, in 1997. THE GUARDIAN | AUS

“Lots of Australians still don’t know what Australia Day represents. Some think it’s when Cook arrived in Botany Bay, not the day the First Fleet settled in Sydney Cove. This isn’t just black history people are forgetting. It’s white history, our history.” Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison on Australia’s hazy knowledge of its own history. Her new play The Visitors, performed at the Sydney Festival, is about the arrival of the First Fleet through the eyes of seven Aboriginal elders.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

THE GUARDIAN | AUS

“These are novel living machines. They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artefact: a living, programmable organism.” Joshua Bongard, from the University of Vermont, who helped create what scientists claim are the first “living

robots”. The machines are made from cells from frog embryos. Call them “ribbit robots”. THE INDEPENDENT | UK

“It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way. To be able to score the theme song to a film that is part of such a legendary series is a huge honour. James Bond is the coolest film franchise ever to exist. I’m still in shock.” American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish, 18, on becoming the youngest artist ever to record the theme song for a James Bond movie, the upcoming No Time to Die, joining such famous Bond performers as Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, Adele, Duran Duran, Madonna, Carly Simon and, of course, Sheena Easton. (NB: James Bond has never taken the morning train and worked 9 to 5.) TWITTER

“Ignorance is the source of discrimination. That’s why as Roma we have to be more open about change. I contribute to this by organising events and workshops dealing with, among other things, the centuries of persecution and the genocide against the Roma. But it is difficult to find Roma who are willing to go public with their identity. The experience they have all had is that if they want to get somewhere in Germany, they have to conceal their origins.” Ajriz Bekirovski, a young Roma originally from North Macedonia, now living in Dresden, on the prejudice that exists towards his people, as well as the Sinti, a diverse minority in Germany. He is the head of Amaro Drom, an organisation that promotes the integration of young Roma in Germany. SPIEGEL INTERNATIONAL | GER

“We already know that exposure to screens, which is now reaching stratospheric levels, is conducive to language difficulties, but this study is the first to reveal the impact in the morning. Face-toface interaction over breakfast is essential.” Michel Desmurget, a neuroscientist at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, on findings that young children left to watch screens in the morning are three times more likely to suffer speech or learning difficulties. Desmurget believes passive screen watching is a major public health problem. THE TELEGRAPH | UK

“I couldn’t have hated it more. Because I knew that you need two things. You need money and you need a girlfriend. With no money, there’s no girlfriend. Of course, I hated myself deeply, but that’s because I didn’t have the money

20 Questions by Big Red

01 How many US presidents have been

formally impeached by Congress? 02 What is the Chinese astrology

symbol for 2020? 03 Which city boasts the most hotel

rooms worldwide? 04 Which Australian sportsperson

released the 2019 biography, Perspective? 05 Which nursery rhyme was the

first song ever recorded, recited by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph machine in 1877? 06 What does the acronym NDIS

stand for? 07 For which movie has Margot Robbie

received a 2020 Oscar nomination for best supporting actress? 08 Can sloths jump?

on a hallucination he had under the influence of ayahuasca during a treatment program with a Colombian shaman. He believes the hallucination revealed his essential neediness to himself. “My idea of love was [other people] picking me up, showing up, telling me I’m great. All those things showed themselves in one ceremony. I realised I was dependent on others when I didn’t need to be.” THE GUARDIAN | AUS

find the Big Merino? 10 Which English explorer is credited

with naming Australia? 11 If you put a rotten egg in a bowl of

water, will it sink or float? 12 Who is the only person to have been

awarded both the Australian of the Year and Young Australian of the Year titles? 13 What is a female peacock called? 14 The Australian men’s cricket team

swept which two nations in Test series this summer? 15 Who is the longest-serving host on

GQ | US

“…I wake up and I’m a baby in the crib, and I’m looking out, and I’m crying, and in that moment, nobody picked me up. And I had a moment, half in the hallucination, half in the treatment room, where I was like, ‘Oh shit, I don’t need anyone to pick me up,’ and I put my thumb in my mouth, and I stopped crying. I realised that I didn’t need anyone. The thumb grew and it killed that moment – it killed that need.” Former NFL star Kerry Rhodes

09 In which Australian town will you

“The basic economic system that has never really worked all that great is no longer working at a functionary level. When you have people in America who have jobs and are homeless, something’s wrong with the system that is deep.” Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and star of TV show The Sopranos, on the working poor and the failings of the economic system. Sounds like something to write a song about.

Play School? 16 Which shade has been named

Pantone Colour of the Year 2020: Classic Blue, Foam Green or Air Blue? 17 In which city did the Australian

Commonwealth Parliament first sit? 18 How many ply is double knit (DK)

weight yarn? 19 Who did Mark David Chapman

shoot in 1980? 20 Which part of your body is most

likely to be bitten by mosquitos, according to researchers?

ROLLING STONE | US

FREQUENTLY OVERHEAR TANTALISING TIDBITS? DON’T WASTE THEM ON YOUR FRIENDS SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD AT SUBMISSIONS@BIGISSUE.ORG.AU

ANSWERS ON PAGE 43

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

and the girlfriend. If I had the money “Where does poo and the girlfriend, come from?” I knew I would [Mum, a little uncomfortable, hate myself a gives honest, detailed explanation.] little less.” Son [puzzled pause]: Larry David, “And Tigger?” co-creator of Overheard by Chelsea Seinfeld and the of Rye, Vic. star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, on why he hated therapy. So no issues there, then.

EAR2GROUND

My Word

by Lucy Baranowski

A Firey’s Story Lucy Baranowski is a secondgeneration firey on the frontline of the devastating NSW bushfires. She speaks to the true grit, determination and heart of her Blue Mountains community.

Lucy Baranowski is a writer, beekeeper, volunteer firefighter and mother-of-four who lives with her husband in Kurrajong Heights, NSW. She blogs at Four Times the Madness.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

he leaves in the crown of the trees suddenly rustled. All faces of the crew snapped up to the sky. We looked at each other, faces of stress and fatigue. The wind change was here. We knew it was forecast, but we didn’t know what impact it would have. That day I refer to as “that Saturday”. I don’t remember the specific date. The fire was encroaching on Kurrajong Heights. After weeks of this bastard fire jumping containment lines, making a mockery of our firefighting strategies, the Gospers Mountain fire was coming for us. It was born of a lightning strike deep in the wilderness, burning slowly and quietly until it transformed into a hungry raging beast. We had held a large community meeting a few days earlier where we shared as much information as we possibly could and encouraged everyone to have a fire plan. Above all, we urged people who weren’t prepared to stay and fight to just bloody leave the mountain. I’m what some call a hopeless romantic for Kurrajong Heights, the community I’ve called home most of my life. We live among the most beautiful bushland in the world. My four children attend the same schools I did as a child. My parents still reside in the home that I was raised in; my husband and I live on an adjoining property, allowing our children to freerange back and forth. Ever since I was really little, I remember my dad rushing around when he got a call from his fire brigade to respond to an incident. I never really appreciated

the magnitude of what Dad was doing, or where he was going. Mum was always there, passing him socks, holding a boot, telling him “be careful” and “I love you”. Mobile phones weren’t a “thing” back then, so for everyone left at home it was hours of radio silence. Mum paced the floor until Dad eventually walked back through the door. He would have the smells of bushfire on his clothes. It wasn’t an uncomfortable or scary smell. I actually quite liked it – maybe because those distinct traces of ash and flames on Dad’s clothing matched the look of pride and fatigue on his face. His Rural Fire Service uniform still hangs on the same hooks by the garage door. Now mine does, too. Joining the local RFS brigade in 2013 was a massive step for me. With a young family, I was nervous to volunteer. I wondered if it was the right time. My advice: yes! It’s always a good time to do something for your community. Our future relies on volunteering and kindness. And long gone is the idea that a woman doesn’t belong on a fire truck; women are very much encouraged to join the service. The RFS offers substantial training, and I’ve gained local knowledge, self-worth and camaraderie. I am bloody glad I took that leap of faith. I was destined to be a firefighter. My husband is also a volunteer RFS firefighter. With four children, we never travel together on the same truck. It’s part of the job to think of any potential danger that we might face. Some firefighters never return home – it’s a gut-wrenching reality for many families. On “that Saturday”, I was tasked with a property on the most northern side of Kurrajong Heights. Heading out on a truck for any incident with your brigade family prompts mixed emotions. You’re never certain what you are about to witness. You have to have courage and a belief that you will all make it home. You trust your crew mates; with every flash of a red and blue light you morph into a team of strength and grit. The ridge lines were laid out in front of us. We had prime position to see where the fire would impact first, where the fire would greet us and show us what it was made of. Our truck was parked nose out, meaning that if we had to flee, we were ready. Hoses were rolled out and pumps connected to both the truck and a pool on the property we were tasked to protect. You can

never have enough water. We watched the plumes of smoke from a distance. We felt the hot northwesterly winds in our faces. We noted the relative humidity dropping dramatically as each hour passed; the rising temperature made us all hyper aware. We hydrated ourselves, maintained radio contact, and texted our families to let them know where we were. We thought we were ready. We should have known this fire was renowned for its bad attitude, its ability to keep everyone guessing, and its power to do whatever it wanted. It was hungry, and nasty. As the southerly wind blew over our shoulders, we watched as it shifted the flames in the distance. One community’s blessings of a weather change means another is about to suffer. Bilpin was about to take the brunt. We held our breath. Our township had been spared, but our sister village was about to hurt, and hurt it did.

the sound of the radios blaring and all the questions without answers – I felt myself breaking. Every aspect felt so wrong. I didn’t sleep well that night. None of us did. Knowing that our RFS brothers and sisters were still out on the fireground, while the fire tore the landscape apart, was hard to accept. But the next day, we all got up, put on our uniforms and headed back out. That’s the reality of volunteering for the RFS: we’ve got guts and we don’t stop. Now that the fire has been put to bed, we try to find some normality among the blackened backdrop of our bushlands. The fire has burnt more than 512,000 hectares, with homes and untold numbers of wildlife lost. As our townships start the clean-up and the support of those impacted by the Gospers Mountain fire, this is where the work really begins. The emotional toll on the firefighters, the support staff, the truckies,

the caterers – there are so many who survived through this campaign. The media has moved on to the next fires, while those communities left in the charcoal and dust seem forgotten. We will stick together; a new level of connection has been born out of the flames. The Blue Mountains is a wonderful piece of the Australian puzzle. The landscape may be scorched, but the people stand tall, waiting for our amazing tourism industry to kick back into gear. We have so much to offer to those who are brave enough to drive through the blackened scenery, so come meet the most brave, kind and clever folk you’ll ever meet. Apple pies, cider, orchards, fruit picking, crusty sourdough, fresh harvested honey, bloody good food – Bilpin and surrounding townships are waiting to show you what “incredible” looks, feels, smells and tastes like. Catch a glimpse of strength and friendship, and fill your stomach and heart with nourishment and warmth. YOU CAN SUPPORT THE FIREYS VIA RFS.NSW.GOV.AU, CFA.VIC.GOV.AU AND OTHER STATE SERVICES.

We couldn’t leave our post. We couldn’t leave our mountain unprotected. We were forced to sit, and wait, and watch. It was terrifying, knowing there was nothing we could do while our friends up the road took a hammering. We watched as each ridge line went up like a nightmare sunrise. The fire was crowning well above the trees. It jumped, erratically, without concern. Even our seasoned crew mates were holding their heads in their hands, each taking a moment to absorb the destruction unfolding before us. We spent hours on that ridge top, watching, waiting, not able to do a bloody thing but listen to the familiar voices over the radios and wonder. The fire tormented so many people that day, in all different ways. After what seemed like an eternity, we were stood down, and quietly made our way back to our station. Warm, clean, supportive faces awaited us. They had food and cold drinks. Tears welled. Not knowing what damage was still being done to Bilpin, feeling major guilt and helplessness, looking at the faces of the incident controllers at the station, shocked at

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Even our seasoned crew mates were holding their heads in their hands, each taking a moment to absorb the destruction unfolding before us.

VENDOR WEEK

Letter to My Younger Self Big Issue vendors from around the country offer words of advice, hard-won wisdom and love to their teenaged selves.

ear 15-year-old Lenny, Don’t worry that your dad just passed away. You have still got your older brothers to take care of Mum. She did bring up all of you, anyway. So instead of worrying too much, find out what you really want; what makes you happy. You’ve been a good kid. You just tend to follow well-meant but useless advice, mainly from people who have their own interests at heart – not yours. It took following the wrong path to learn to listen to your heart more. Don’t be concerned about your nerdiness and awkwardness – it is just a combination of being a teenager and being you. Being smart doesn’t prevent you from making stupid choices, like hanging out with people who take advantage of you, taunt you or encourage you to do dangerously stupid things. Forgive your dad for not being around when you needed a male to help you become a man. And forgive your brothers for drowning their

loss in alcohol. Nothing is forever and all of us will lose someone we love, need and look up to. It is okay to ask for advice or help; just don’t blindly follow other people’s ideas. It is great to be able to do things on your own, but it is much more fun to do them with others. This will create bonds that will carry you through the dark times. Know that no-one can avoid the blues. Embrace them and transform them into smiles so that you don’t sink into dark holes for weeks, months or even years. Okay, the most important thought will finish this, if you are still paying attention: listen to your heart. Your overactive, babbling mind needs to quieten for a moment to allow this to happen. Whenever you listen to your heart, you will grow, and your life will take unexpected turns. Don’t be afraid – it will be fine. You will see many parts of this beautiful planet, meet some amazing and some horrible people, and one day learn to make every place you encounter home. Listen to your heart. It is the only guide you can really trust. From, Lenny

photo by Kylie Kluger

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Listen to your heart, you will grow

Lenny

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE OUTSIDE AVID READER IN WEST END, BRISBANE

Rachel

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE IN PYRMONT, SYDNEY

imagine that! You will see life through their eyes and learn to be creative in bad times so they can enjoy their childhood. Mostly you will understand children are born unique, wise and happy. You’re going to see why it is so important that love should never own anything. You’re going to face years of homelessness and abuse. You are going to get so sick you will be on death’s door. No-one is going to have time to understand that the choices you will need to make are from a slate of bad choices – there will be no good ones to choose from. You will even believe you destroyed the life you’ve been given, and that will nearly break you. But you need to stay hopeful and know that the kindness of others is not all about money. Just listen to the music and you will never be alone. You’ll get used to walking alone with the moon and that’s okay. You’ll sometimes still make bad choices, but we live in a community – please don’t forget that. You see, my little one, in all that trouble you will find strangers along the way who will help you keep your family housed, and help you understand that a fair go is still possible. Then you will get to 42 and decide to live. Slowly, all those life lessons will start to matter and people will take the time to listen. I guess the only advice I can offer is don’t push away the ones you love: let them into your life. Your time spent away from them will be your one regret. So, little one, get on that bus and learn that life is not the black-and-white world you have been taught. You will need to go through so much to understand that life is a gift. Lots of love, Rachel

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

ear Rachel, Hopefully this letter gets to you in time and you decide to get on that bus before you change your mind. I understand how you feel – I’m the older you. I have to say this: you must stay alive until you reach 42. Yes, I can see you reading this and laughing your head off. What is this crazy lady talking about?! Forty is too old to even think about, you will say. Then you will get sad, am I right? Because you’re confused right now. You live in a small community, an air force base in the middle of nowhere. The only place that makes sense right now is the small radio station where you volunteer, and the walks along the red sand. You were taught to work for a world that lives in peace with no poverty, but your community is living in preparation for war. The adults are strange, living a life afraid of so many things, friendly to each other but nasty about each other behind closed doors. Your world is boxed in. You are just trying to live your life, but something is not right. So, please get on that bus, as it will change your life. Oh and trust me, at 16 you might think you know everything but you know nothing, my little one. Golly gosh, this is the hard bit. I don’t want to scare you but I need you to listen. You think you are lonely now but you haven’t felt loneliness yet, I’m afraid. So, enjoy the bus ride and find a job, work hard and learn life. Right now, you don’t believe kindness can be used to abuse you, but it will in so many ways. You’re going to fall in love and have children –

photo by George Fetting

You will get to 42 and decide to live

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

ear Champ, I know you will appreciate me calling you that – it’s how Mum thought of you. You’re 15 right now; I am 41 years old. I know you’re going to take notice of what I am writing, even though you don’t like receiving guidance or help from adults. This letter you must keep safe, because I’m afraid of what lies ahead of you, Champ. At school, you’re athletic and excel at sports, winning lots of trophies and medals. You’re watching Top Gun over and over again with the dream of becoming an air force pilot. I need you to be successful at school. I want you to get the grades, to have that dream job, that dream house. I need you to ask for as much help as you can. Dial down the drinking and partying. Believe in yourself. I know that at the moment you’re full of doubts – you don’t know which way to go or which path to take – but do your best to choose what you love to do at any moment, and try to do that to the very best of your ability. Stand up for yourself when you get picked on, ignored, when people laugh or make fun of you. You are strong – don’t let people walk

over you. Just say no, which at times might be hard. Don’t be afraid about what people think of you – be yourself and show them what’s right. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do: respect others, knowing we all make mistakes. Don’t give up when things become challenging. Champ, you are a fighter. You’re not going to be afraid of any hard work that comes your way. When worst comes to worst, ask for help. You will be amazed how the world will help you out. You’ll regret falling out with Dad. It means you’ll sleep on the streets in the UK for almost a year. You’ll have nothing and still not ask for any help. You’ll have a plastic bottle that you’ll keep filling up with water from a tap in someone’s garden. The nights will be cold – bloody freezing – and uncomfortable. It will just be the concrete floor and the clothes you are wearing, day after day. Thankfully you’ll meet someone who will take you in, give you a room and help you back on your feet. Finally, you’ll achieve a lot over the years. Selling The Big Issue will be a rewarding job. It won’t be about making money – you’ll love sharing stories and articles and interacting with the customers. You will be comfortable with where you are, and that’s all that will matter. From, David

photo by Ross Swanborough

When worst comes to worst, ask for help

David L

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT THE SUBIACO FARMERS MARKET, ART GALLERY OF WA AND THE MYER BRIDGE, PERTH

Stephen

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT NORTH MELBOURNE STATION AND LYGON STREET, CARLTON

you put out, you get back – whether it comes back or not, you just give as much as you can, and if it comes back, it comes back. Have patience with people, learn to get around them. Mum used to have this thing: “You can keep your bad mood, because I don’t need it.” It was her catchphrase. Everyone likes the feeling of being a nice person. When you die, what will be your legacy? Would you like to be remembered as a nice person, who’s done nice things? Or an arsehole who’s unfeeling? Pick up a book as soon as you can: you’ll lose yourself in literature. It gives you different perspectives, insights; it allows you to see things through others’ eyes. As you’ve gotten older, reading has opened your mind to be a bit more flexible, more empathetic. Before it was all your point of view, and that was it. I remember a great thing George Orwell once said: he was very fortunate to have found his star very early in life. You find your star a bit later in life, but you find it. There’s a poem by Raymond Carver that sums up how you’ll feel about things. And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. And it’s true. You will love and be loved. From Stephen

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

t 14, you are incredibly naïve. A couple of black-and-white photos crackle with family tension in your Yarraville home. As a family knot it’s wildly overheated. The sensitive, precious boy who never met his father is the result of this. And then this thing called punk rock will come along in a few years – and overnight your hair will go green. You’ll think you know the answers to all of the questions in the known world. You don’t – you just become a royal pain in the arse to anyone who comes near you. But the music, it speaks to you. There’s the usual guff: don’t smoke, don’t drink or do drugs, don’t hitchhike, don’t roll your car off the cliff on the Great Ocean Road on New Year’s Eve. Luckily, you’ll walk away with only a scratch on your leg. You’re obsessed with pop culture: music, skating, surfing. You don’t really like school. You leave Footscray Tech in Form 5 to work full-time at the abattoirs, which is pretty brutalising. The attitude of the day is to leave school and get a job. But planning for the future isn’t something you particularly obsess over – you just let it come along. You’re leaving it to others to make the decisions for you, which in hindsight probably isn’t a good thing. Later, you become an apprentice carpenter, which you enjoy. Take more responsibility for your own direction in life. You just take life as it comes, and wait for things to happen. Have more clear-cut goals. What

photo by James Braund

You will love and be loved

The Big Picture Series by Doug Gimesy

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Call of the Wildlife

AN ADULT FEATHERTAIL GLIDER, THE WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SMALLEST MARSUPIAL GLIDER, IS FED NECTAR WHILE RECOVERING FROM BURNS TO HER FEET

Doug Gimesy visits Currumbin Wildlife Hospital – one of the largest native wildlife treatment centres in the world – and meets the creatures convalescing and the people nursing them back to health. by Mel Fulton Deputy Editor

DOUG GIMESY (GIMESY.COM) IS A CONSERVATION AND WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CURRUMBIN WILDLIFE HOSPITAL, VISIT CURRUMBINSANCTUARY.COM.AU

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

hen I ask Michael Pyne, senior vet and general manager of the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital on the Gold Coast, what a typical day is like for him, he cracks up laughing. “A typical day!” he repeats between chuckles. “Well!” It’s a silly question of course, because any given day is a complete unknown at the hospital, which is one of the largest of its kind in the world and last year treated some 12,200 native Australian animals, all free of charge to the community. One thing that’s for certain, though, is that the number of casualties admitted to the hospital continues to grow, and currently hovers between 50 and 60 patients a day. Another is that most of those casualties will require treatment for injuries sustained as a result of human impact on the environment. Pyne and the team at Currumbin treat animals that have been hit by cars, ravaged by barbed-wire fences or attacked by domestic pets. They treat birds that have swallowed fishing hooks or flown into windows. They treat animals whose habitats have been destroyed. They treat animals injured in the bushfires. “It’s been a really intense time that we’re still feeling now,” says Pyne of the fires that swept through south-east Queensland and northern NSW from September of last year, prompting a spike in admissions. While not all of these fire victims were burnt, many of them are suffering in ways that Pyne has never seen before – and he’s been working at the hospital for the past 20 years. “The extended droughts, the really dry weather and the hot weather have been devastating on our wildlife,” he says. “We’ve had a number of animals come in that are literally starving and dehydrated, and that’s a whole new thing… These are Australian native species that are meant to deal with drought – for it to be that bad that our native animals can’t cope with it is really extreme.” Treating burns victims is a slow process. He tells me about Ember, an 18-month-old female koala who came to Currumbin eight weeks ago with injuries likely sustained from climbing down a charred tree trunk. Her daily course of treatment is extensive. Ember receives pain relief, antibiotics and intravenous fluids, and has had surgery on the burned areas. Her bandages need to be changed and her wounds re-dressed every second day, which requires an anaesthetic. Ember, like all koalas, is particular about food and will only eat certain varieties of gum leaves. Like all koalas, she has a sensitive stomach, so giving her the right dosage of the meds she needs is a challenge. Ember’s around halfway through her treatment now, and Pyne looks forward to the day when she’s strong enough to be released back into the wild. He says it’s the most rewarding part of his job. “You see these animals come to life when they get to go back home and be released. It’s magical to see that – that’s what it’s all about.”

NURSE SARAH GIVES AN ANAESTHETISED 12-MONTH-OLD KOALA JOEY OXYGEN

NURSE MIMI CHECKS A BOOBOOK OWL CHICK, WHO WAS TREATED FOR HEAD TRAUMA, BELIEVED TO BE CAUSED BY AN ATTACK FROM OTHER BIRDS

A BABY BLACK FLYING FOX HAVING A HEALTH CHECK. SHE WAS FOUND ON THE GROUND BY A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC, NEAR HER MUM WHO HAD HER LEG CAUGHT IN A FENCE NURSE JASMINE TENDS TO AN AUSTRALIAN WHITE IBIS, RECOVERING FROM SURGERY TO REMOVE A FISHING HOOK STUCK IN ITS STOMACH

24 JANâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;06 FEB 2020

A 12-MONTH-OLD KOALA JOEY IS WEIGHED AS PART OF A HEALTH CHECK

Inner Pouch Size: XS

Outer Pouch Size: XS

illustration by Daniel Gray-Barnett

Joey Pouches Our furry friends need your help! These wildlife pouches are super easy and fun to make, so plan a crafternoon with friends and get stitching!

s bushfires wreak havoc across the country, many of us are asking what we can do to help. Well, look no further. Wildlife carers are in desperate need of pouches for orphaned gliders, possums and joeys, and this quick and easy pattern will have you helping out in no time. This extra-small (XS) pattern is good for sugar gliders. Check out our sizing guide (right) for larger animals.

Fabric Notes INNERS should be 100 per cent natural fibres – no polyester, synthetics or fabrics that have plastic or glitter. Breathability and softness are the priority. Flannelette, light cotton or jersey is recommended. No wool please. OUTER POUCHES can be anything from light fabrics for summer to warmer fleeces and wool for winter.

STEP 2 Fold the top of your pouch down approximately 2½cm. Press. Stitch 2-3 lines across the top to secure and provide some sturdiness. STEP 3 Fold over again. Press and stitch a line to secure. STEP 4 Turn pouch right side out and iron so all seams are flat. Sew around the outside of your pouch again with enough of a seam allowance to completely enclose the raw edge on the inside. Doublecheck for pins and loose threads.

Instructions Take the fabric for the liner and outer fabric and fold in half lengthwise. Lay your templates along the folded edge.

Sewing Your Inner Make 2-3 liners for every outer so that washing and changing is easier for our amazing wildlife carers.

ON THE FOLD

Cut two of each shape.

STEP 1 Repeat Steps 1-4 for making your outer, this time working with WST (wrong sides together).

STEP 2 Place your liner inside your pouch and fold over. Congratulate yourself on a job well done! STEP 3 For information on where to send your finished pouches, visit the Animal Rescue Collective Craft Guild: Facebook.com/arfsncrafts

Sewing Your Outer When it comes to fabric for wildlife pouches the softer side is your right side. This may not be the printed side.

Here is a guide to the finished sizes required Size

Outer Size (cm)

Inner Size

Suitable For

10 x 15

10 x 20

Sugar gliders, unfurred possums

15 x 20

15 x 25

Ringtail possums, Bandicoots

20 x 30

20 x 35

Baby brushtail possums, koalas

30 x 35

30 x 40

Very young kangaroos, Brushtail possums

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

STEP 1 Place your outer pieces RST (right sides together) and pin. Using approximately a 1cm seam allowance, stitch around the outside of your shape. Use a shorter stitch length to ensure sturdiness of the seam and lock your stitches at the beginning and end of sewing. Do not stitch across the top of your pouch. Trim your seams down.

PATTERN COURTESY OF SARAH SCOTT/PICCOLOSTUDIO.COM.AU

ON THE FOLD

by Ricky French @frenchricky

PHOTO BY JAMES BRAUND

n the horizon stood a monument, solid and staunch but barely perceptible through the ash and smoke. In the sky the sun assumed the texture and colour of a blood orange left in the fruit bowl too long. It looked like a dying star and it hovered, barely holding itself afloat, above a sick, choking planet. That was Sunday. Monday was rather nice in Canberra. A wind change had washed the sky clean. Lake Burley Griffin gently rippled and glistened under the restored sun, like a huge strip of corrugated iron fence that had blown over. It looked hot to the touch. We’d been looking forward to spending Christmas in the capital. I suspect that’s not a sentence you expect to see written too often, but there you go. I’ve always liked Canberra. Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne could be identical triplets, but Canberra is the ugly stepchild. It doesn’t really care what you think of it. It doesn’t decorate its streets for Christmas. It just gets on with the serious business of being Canberra. The city was empty, the pollies and bureaucrats shot through for the summer. The dead centre of town lived up to its name, but the streets – or rather street – of Braddon swarmed with gluttonous craft-beer pigs and waddling shoppers out looking for bespoke jewellery or loaded fries or discount outdoors apparel. This is as close as Canberra gets to being Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne. Apologies for sounding so boring but what Canberra does best is communities. Sporting clubs, organised activities, markets and events; maybe it has something to do with the party politics that defines the place? It’s a great place for families. My 12-year-old had always wanted to see Parliament House, so we forked out for a comprehensively underwhelming behindthe-scenes tour. The chambers were barren but had comfy chairs in the public galleries. It was a nice place to sit and get out of the heat. You could also sit there and stew. We moved on. “This is where the politicians eat,” said our humourless guide.

“Ah, but where do they drink?” I demanded to know. “There are no bars at Parliament House,” came the dour response. There’s your problem, right there. The spectre across the lake from Parliament House, smothered by bushfire smoke, was the Australian War Memorial. Turns out it’s not just a memorial but a fantastic museum, guaranteed to leave you feeling as fatigued and stiff-legged as the most gallant soldier. Christmas Day saw hordes of wholesome families gather at the lake for Parkrun: a worldwide cult for wholesome families to show the general populace of slobs just how wholesome they are by getting up early on Saturdays to run 5km, or in this case getting up early to run 5km on Christmas Day. There are walking tracks around the lake. There’s a giant inflatable aqua park on the lake. There’s even a bridge or two over the lake. The lake dominates the landscape and the wind blows off the benign surface and cools your face. It’s not a beautiful city – it’s like a giant Jindabyne: artificial, out of date and sorely in need of a makeover. But it exists in a happy place: bordering mountains and more artificial lakes; Kosciuszko National Park is just down the road; it’s not too far from the coast, but far enough from Sydney. My son opened his presents in an apartment on Kingston Foreshore at 6.30am. We popped pods of coffee in a fancy machine and let the dog out for a wee. It was a perfect, low-key affair, very Canberra, very…wholesome. “I’m going to live in Canberra one day,” my son said. I smiled and told him I thought that was a great idea. He’s been there once, smelled the power and the passion, seen the aqua park, played in a replica WWI bunker. We were together every day. And every day was Christmas.

Ricky is a writer and musician who’s running for parliament.

Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne could be identical triplets, but Canberra is the ugly stepchild.

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Capital Appreciation

Ricky

by Fiona Scott-Norman @fscottnorman

PHOTO BY JAMES BRAUND

t’s been a difficult start to 2020. The bushfires, obviously, which bring with them a definite air of “Okay, shit’s getting serious”. Not to mention a new aesthetic which is more like Blade Runner 2049 than the carefree sand’n’surf vibe riffed on by Eddie Perfect in Tourism Australia’s new ‘Matesong’ ad starring Kylie Minogue. Tourism Australia probably isn’t super keen on 2020 either, what with shooting $15m up against the wall flogging a vision of Australia that hasn’t existed since Kathy Lette co-wrote Puberty Blues. 2020 also slid in with a side order of “meh” because a goddamn fox got my chickens on New Year’s Eve. Bastard. Poor Phyllis, Priscilla, Val, Blondie, Dora and Violet. Foxes are the surplus killers of the animal kingdom, always slaughtering above and beyond their need, so I lost all six of my gals to what is essentially The Joker out on a maniacal spree. I miss Val the most. She liked nothing more than to fly up to my shoulder in hope of a treat, came on all the media calls for This Chicken Life with me, and was a chatty little trooper. Vale Val. May the afterlife for a good chicken be filled with sweet corn, mealworms and somewhere warm and dry to dust bathe. Obviously now’s the time for surveying the horizon for bright spots and potential joys. I’m sure I’m not alone. Here are some of mine, in no particular order. Happy 2020! 1. Gwyneth Paltrow has released, and immediately sold out of, a candle that retailed for a shave over 100 Australian dollaroonies, and is labelled “This smells like my vagina”. Hahaha! Good on you Gwyneth, you nutbag. I am disappointed that it does not, literally, smell like Gwyneth’s vajajay, but hey ho. It is, however, a “beautifully unexpected scent” (true: who expected this?), and contains “geranium, citrusy bergamot, and cedar absolutes juxtaposed with damask rose and ambrette seed”. For those who missed out, Paltrow’s site, Goop, still

3. 4.

has a candle called “Church” available. It smells of shame.* Megxit. Combining “Meghan” and “Brexit” is top-notch wordplay and I can see why the British press are finding it irresistible. However, the fact that Meghan is being painted as a Yoko Ono – a selfish drama queen squealing about imaginary racism – is precisely why she and Harry should absolutely bugger off, and good on them. Run! I’m not expecting the tabloids to self-reflect, but if they do there’s a shame candle with their name on it. My request to join the Facebook page “This cat is CHONKY” has been approved. The El Paso Zoo will name a cockroach after your ex, and feed it to a meerkat on Valentine’s Day. Whoever does their marketing is a bona fide genius. The Facebook group Animal Rescue Craft Guild has more than 230,000 members. Knitters, makers and crafters from all around the globe are sewing pouches, mittens and bat wraps for our burned furry friends, and raising funds. Even the El Paso Zoo is on it. How lovely. Tell me this would not make an amazing feel-good film about a small group of crafty men and women who find meaning and turn their lives around through sewing pouches for traumatised Australian wildlife. Starring, say, Meghan Markle and Gwyneth Paltrow?

*This is clearly a joke. Goop is a shame-free zone. Gwyneth banishes it from the building every morning – using a smudge stick made of sage grown by the Dalai Lama, and harvested with nail scissors forged from pure titanium mined on one of Jupiter’s moons.

Fiona is a writer, comedian and eternal optimist.

The El Paso Zoo will name a cockroach after your ex, and feed it to a meerkat on Valentine’s Day.

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Goop Think

Fiona

Clare Bowditch

Books

Girl Empowered For singer-songwriter Clare Bowditch, writing her memoir about crippling anxiety was a daring act of hope.

by Doug Wallen

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

@wallendoug

Doug Wallen is a critic and journalist, and aÂ former Music Editor at The Big Issue.

being able to tell more of my own story. But it did take many years until I was ready – until I could find the useful parts of it.” Hosting an afternoon radio show on ABC Melbourne for two years also taught her how to home in on the most valuable parts of her own story, as did studying creative writing at university. Your Own Kind of Girl very much captures the pendulum swing of self-talk. Though the circumstances of Bowditch’s story are obviously unique to her – growing up in Melbourne in the 70s as the youngest of five – most readers will recognise the intense rollercoaster of optimism and self-doubt that she details. With the same articulate yet conversational way she writes lyrics, Bowditch traverses difficult topics by providing a crucial through-line of hope, humour and resilience. She covers topics from depression and anxiety, to spirituality, pregnancy and childbirth – all with the flourishes of a born storyteller. “I just kept YOUR OWN KIND OF GIRL IS OUT NOW.

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

PHOTO BY ANNA ROBINSON

I’ve been carrying this story all of these years and hoping that one day I could do it justice.

doing what I’d always done – I skipped, I danced, I demanded the world join me in the musical of life,” she writes of her childhood. Having now fulfilled this longstanding promise to her younger self, how does it feel? “It feels fucking brilliant,” answers Bowditch. “I’ve been carrying this story all of these years and hoping that one day I could do it justice. “It’s also partly the story of family, and the role family played in my recovery. And the role love played in my recovery, in its simplest form.” Indeed, the book culminates in a heartening love story, thanks to Bowditch meeting and marrying drummer Marty Brown, with whom she now has three children. Brown has played with her across her various musical projects over the decades, spanning critical acclaim and Top 40 chart success, and their bond echoes nicely with Bowditch’s own parents having met due to music. Bowditch has been a memorable figure in Australian culture since the late 90s when she began releasing music with her former band Red Raku. She has earned a Logie for her acting on the TV series Offspring. She's toured closely with Leonard Cohen. As a journalist, she interviewed Julia Gillard. She’s also done a great deal of public advocacy, especially in regards to mental health. But while she has already started writing a second book, her next goal is finishing her eighth album, which she describes as “stories from messy middle [age]…about the minutiae of everyday life that gives us meaning”. Speaking of goals: does she still make the kind of sprawling to-do lists that she includes in her book? “This [time of year] is one of my peak list-making periods,” Bowditch laughs freely. “I still use lists as a way of managing my anxiety, [but] I use them more playfully now.” She credits that shift with techniques she learned from Self Help for Your Nerves, a 1962 book by Australian doctor Claire Weekes. “It’s not that it disappeared,” she says of her lifelong anxiety. “It’s simply that I was able to start using it quite well in my life, and now I think of it as just a feature of the Clare Bowditch model.” Sharing such a private story has meant hearing many readers’ own stories in return, which she calls “enormously gratifying” and a reminder that she’s not alone in her struggles. “The key to my recovery was realising that hope is everywhere,” she says. “I could even generate hope within myself; [I could] tell myself a better story about the day I might recover. That’s why I wrote this book, because the story turned out to be true.”

hen ARIA-winning singer-songwriter Clare Bowditch sat down to write her first book, she knew she didn’t want it to be about music. At least, not for the most part. “I wasn’t interested in writing a rock’n’roll memoir,” says Bowditch. “Because I don’t think that’s the most interesting story I can tell.” Rather, she devotes Your Own Kind of Girl primarily to her personal life and, more specifically, to the breakdown of mental health she suffered in her early twenties. She told herself back then that she would recover and one day write a book about it. “I promised myself I didn’t have to write it until I was really, really old: 40,” she recounts with a warm laugh. The resulting book is incredibly intimate and brave, probing into Bowditch’s inner world while growing up and coming of age. From losing her seven-year-old sister Rowena to a rare disease when Bowditch was five, to grappling with her negative body image and a vicious cycle of diets for years, Bowditch lays herself bare to share an evolving life story that’s raw yet all too relatable. “I think all art requires the act of courage. You’re gonna be scared,” she says, laughing again. “When it comes to music and trying to find something true to sing about, that has been a good training ground for

Blind Boys of Alabama

Music

Good Faith From Kanye West to Lou Reed, the Blind Boys of Alabama have collaborated far and wide to bring their gospel music to fans the world over. by Tom Mann @grattan_

Tom Mann is a former editor of FasterLouder.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

t’s gospel music that brings them together, but in many ways Kanye West and the Blind Boys of Alabama could not be further apart. This is pretty clear from the moment Eric “Ricky” McKinnie – a long-time member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame-inducted Blind Boys – gets on the phone. We talk about rapper-turned-preacher Kanye’s claims that his $98 million tax refund was divinely inspired: “God is using me to show off.” Do McKinnie and the Blind Boys share West’s philosophy on the power of gospel music? McKinnie laughs quietly and explains, “We don’t show off. We show out.” Despite their philosophical (and musical) differences, the Blind Boys joined the ever-quotable Kanye on stage at the 2005 Grammy Awards. Assisted by John Legend, the Blind Boys sang a sublime version of the gospel staple ‘I’ll Fly Away’ as an interlude during Kanye’s performance of ‘Jesus Walks’. That night West won three awards, while the Blind Boys took home a Grammy for There Will Be a Light, one of their collaborations with Ben Harper. It’s one of six Grammys – including a Lifetime Achievement award – on the group’s long list of accolades. The Blind Boys of Alabama date their origins back

to the late 1930s when the founding members first sang together at the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind. Initially billed as the Happy Land Jubilee Singers, the group eventually became known as the Blind Boys of Alabama through a friendly rivalry with a group of visually impaired gospel singers from Mississippi. After many decades and several personnel changes, the group’s last remaining founding member, Clarence Fountain, passed away in 2018. However, the current line-up includes the experienced vocals of Jimmy Carter, who sang with the group at the school for the blind but was too young to join them on their earliest tours. Although McKinnie didn’t join the Blind Boys until 1989, his association with the group goes back to his childhood. His mother – also a professional gospel singer – first introduced him to the members of the Blind Boys when he was about four years old. McKinnie worked with the group as a drummer and road manager before stepping up to the mic for the release of their Grammy Award-winning 2003 album Higher Ground. “We were just excited about singing a song on the Grammys,” McKinnie recalls of their collaboration with Kanye, who released the gospel-inspired album

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA TOUR AUSTRALIA 29 FEB–12 MAR.

was snow everywhere; it was freezing,” McKinnie says. “It was cold but his house was warm and he was a warm-hearted person.” McKinnie also fondly recalls his work with Lou Reed – a man who, given that he once sang about heroin making him feel like he was Jesus’ son, isn’t the most obvious choice of collaborator for a traditional gospel group. “Lou was an interesting guy,” McKinnie says with typical understatement. “He brought us to Australia, and we found him to be a nice person.” That visit to Australia with Lou Reed was as part of the line-up for Sydney’s Vivid Live festival, curated by Reed and his wife Laurie Anderson in 2010. While touring has become more challenging with age – Jimmy Carter is now in his late eighties – the Blind Boys will return to Australia in February for a run of shows. “I like taking it on the road and going to different places because people need to know and people need to see it,” McKinnie says enthusiastically. “I mean, you can hear it [on record], but when you can see it and feel it, it makes a big difference.”

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

STAND BY ME, AND ME, AND ME, AND ME, AND ME...

Jesus Is King last year. “We really didn’t know who Kanye West was and it didn’t matter. It was a good song, good lyrics and we did what we had to do to make it work… We don’t necessarily go out and pick people, but we leave our doors open. If you have good lyrics, we have an open ear.” That willingness to collaborate and spread their message beyond the traditional world of gospel has paid dividends. Their cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Way Down in the Hole’ featured as the theme music for the first season of The Wire and they’ve worked with Lou Reed, George Clinton, Solomon Burke and Willie Nelson. But it was a brief impromptu cameo by Prince during a Blind Boys set in 2008 that McKinnie recalls most fondly. “It wasn’t long, but it was an explosion,” he says. “That was the most amazing time of our career… We didn’t even know he knew the Blind Boys.” Following a series of successful collaborations with Ben Harper, the Blind Boys recruited Bon Iver singer-songwriter Justin Vernon to produce their 2013 record I’ll Find a Way. This stirring collaboration between the sacred and secular was recorded in the dead of winter at Vernon’s home in Wisconsin. “There

Film Reviews

Annabel Brady-Brown Film Editor @annnabelbb

ithin minutes of Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Tom Hanks’ voice has cast its spell. Up for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Hanks’ emulation of the American children’s TV personality Mister Rogers is pitch-perfect. Wearing the familiar red knit zip-up sweater, he smiles into the camera and speaks with a gentle and unhurried clip, burrowing into your heart. Heller’s latest is an affecting homage to the young man who believed TV could be used “for the broadcasting of grace through the land”, and then tirelessly pursued that dream. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ran from 1968 to 2001 and had an interest in helping kids learn emotional intelligence – or in the words of one of Rogers’ songs, ‘What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?’ “There was some kind of wiggly jazz in his legs,” wrote Tom Junod in the 1998 Esquire article ‘Can You Say…Hero?’ that loosely inspired Heller’s film. An embittered journalist, Junod was assigned to pen a short puff piece on Rogers – by then a certified national treasure – and consequently melted under the force of his pure-hearted goodness. Through Junod’s fictionalised on-screen counterpart Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), we get to experience the same soul melting ourselves. For those left wanting more, the 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is a treat. ABB

PITCH-PERFECT: HANKS AS MISTER ROGERS

1917 

It’s long been the case that if you want to make a movie that says war is nothing but pointless slaughter, you set it during WWI. Writer-director Sam Mendes’ twist is to show the meaningless horror in one long take, as British soldiers Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (DeanCharles Chapman) are dispatched to warn another unit that their upcoming attack will lead them into an enemy trap. The one-take gimmick is only loosely adhered to (the movie runs two hours; their dash two days), but together with a string of extremely tense and effective action set pieces it makes for gripping viewing. Distractingly, every British officer is a star cameo (Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch), but MacKay and Chapman’s performances add greatly to the film’s immersive feel. They’re the heart of the film, and always thoroughly believable, even in sequences less interested in originality than keeping audiences on the edge of their seat. ANTHONY MORRIS BOMBSHELL

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As subtle as the name suggests, this drama about sexual harassment at Fox News is, to mimic the film’s predilection for cheap laughs, a misfire. Based on the real experiences of women at Murdoch HQ, Bombshell sees anchorsturned-whistleblowers Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) and Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) team up with composite character Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) to take on the network’s CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow). There’s a worthy tale buried here, but Austin Powers director Jay Roach is not the man for the job. While the female leads are empathetic (Robbie and Theron both scored Oscar nominations for their performances), that’s also part of the problem. By (rightly) taking aim at Ailes, Bombshell elevates Kelly and Carlson’s stories to near-saintly heights. It avoids victim-blaming but fails to interrogate the former Fox friends’ roles in perpetuating the bias and bigotry synonymous with Murdoch media. And when Rupert himself (Malcolm McDowell) steps in to save the day? That’s showbiz, kid. AIMEE KNIGHT

A HIDDEN LIFE 

You gotta have faith. The grand theme of Terrence Malick’s post-Tree of Life output hits an ecstatic groove in this expansive moral tale about a real-life conscientious objector, Franz Jägerstätter, who was executed in 1943 for refusing to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler. A devout Catholic, Jägerstätter (August Diehl) faces an impossible dilemma: if he does what he knows to be right, there’ll be grievous consequences for himself, his loving wife (Valerie Pachner) and their three daughters. How do you stick to your principles in a world falling apart? And at what cost? Though he was declared a martyr in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI, Jägerstätter’s heroism here is conflicted and discomforting. It unfurls in Malick’s trademark rhapsodic style, tumbling about lush hills and spewing highfalutin poetry in voice over. It’s guaranteed to irk some viewers, but for others, this drawn-out judgement of souls – following Jägerstätter from his Alpine village to a Nazi prison – is breathtaking to behold. The stakes couldn’t be higher. ANNABEL BRADY-BROWN

Small Screen Reviews

Aimee Knight Small Screens Editor @siraimeeknight

HOW’S WORK? BIG SHOES, LITTLE AMERICA

SEX EDUCATION

EVERYTHING’S GONNA BE OKAY

 | NETFLIX

 | STAN

Let’s talk about sex, baby! Let’s talk about season two of Netflix’s comedy-drama centred on the sexual proclivities of students at an idyllic English high school, and the shy virgin who teaches them all the ins and outs of the birds and the bees. Otis, the inexperienced expert in all things carnal, is once again embodied with twitchy delight by Asa Butterfield (Hugo). Life is still complicated for the awkward teen as he juggles his girlfriend Ola (Patricia Allison); the unrequited love-of-his-life Maeve (Emma Mackey); his flamboyant best mate Eric (Ncuti Gatwa); and his sex therapist mother Dr Jean Milburn, played with fierce abandon by Gillian Anderson. Where season one focused on the rollercoaster “will they/ won’t they?” relationship between Otis and Maeve – as the fledgling entrepreneurs tried to make a quick buck out of their fellow students’ inexperience – this darker effort takes a deep dive into the lives of those schoolmates, and the results are frank, ribald and surprisingly moving.

Cringe comedy gets a humane makeover in Josh Thomas’ new hopepunk sitcom. When his mildly estranged father dies, Nicholas (Thomas) steps in as caregiver and guardian to his two teenage half-sisters. With delightfully jaunty banter, Matilda (Kayla Cromer) and Genevieve (Maeve Press) chatter like castanets, wise beyond their years as Nicholas – keen but underequipped – must learn to be the dad he never had. It’s a wholesome ode to broken/chosen families and how their boundaries ebb and flow, steered thoughtfully by creator, writer and showrunner Thomas. Though his real-life ingenue act – also showcased in his breakout program Please Like Me – can be self-deprecating, awkward, even a little stale, here Thomas’ naivety rings true. This is not to say that his new series, produced in the US, is entirely toothless or frothy. The first episode alone touches on neurodiversity, menstruation, sex, school bullying, mortality and the Sisyphean quest to pull off a fashionable hat. Overall, it’s a reminder that family is a living thing. AIMEE KNIGHT

DAVID MICHAEL BROWN

ately I’ve been wondering whether dipping in and out of an anthology series may be the ideal antidote to mainlining several seasons of a long-running show. Perhaps their transient characters and self-contained stories just offer the same drug in capsule form. Either way, their finite format has whittled a singular space on the streaming landscape, particularly since Black Mirror moved to Netflix in 2016. Since then, facsimilies like Electric Dreams (Stan) and Love, Death & Robots (Netflix) have multiplied, all of them indebted to The Twilight Zone, which was itself rebooted by Jordan Peele recently (10 All Access). Horror podcast Lore got the TV treatment in 2017 care of Amazon Prime Video – also home to last year’s Modern Love – and now Apple TV+ is getting in on the standalone action with big-hearted drama Little America. Developed by The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V Gordon, among others, the series portrays real stories of immigrants living in America, where KFC and spelling bees are gateway drugs to assimilation (at least for hotel manager Kabir). Later, budding economist Iwegbuna takes a shine to Wild West iconography, and hot-headed highschool student Marisol holds her own in the middle-class arena of squash. From idle daydreams to harsh realities, Little America is about finding somewhere to belong. And with Apple green-lighting a second season a month before the first series had even debuted, it’s clear these tales have found their place. AK

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Belgian psychotherapist and author Esther Perel’s new podcast probes the invisible forces that shape our hours at work. Through one-off unscripted therapy sessions with employees from corporates, start-ups, service industries and family businesses, Perel helps reframe narratives around the personal and professional. This isn’t light listening: the iconic couples therapist often tells clients things they don’t want to hear, in service of inevitable breakthroughs. Standout episodes include ‘Laid Off and Starting Over’, in which two creative partners talk about gender dynamics and what it’s like to build a new company free of old wounds; and ‘Sex Work: The Unofficial Resume’, where two dancers chat about the male psyche and working in an industry without an official HR department. Fans of Perel’s first podcast Where Should We Begin? will fall for the conversational intimacy and dialogue-driven search for the profound. Uninitiated listeners may find some details too confronting. For those with questions about work that they’re too afraid to ask, How’s Work? digs deep. Now on Spotify. NATHANIA GILSON

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Music Reviews

Sarah Smith Music Editor @sarah_smithie

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

TEX AND HIS FINGERS

uring the ABC’s official New Year’s Eve broadcast, Tex Perkins dedicated the Cruel Sea song ‘The Honeymoon Is Over’ to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, while flipping the bird in the general direction of Kirribilli House. The gesture attracted disdain from conservative commentators; for others it summed up feelings of anger, despair and frustration at the response to the worst bushfire season in the country’s history. A long-time resident of Northern Rivers, NSW, Perkins had evacuated his own house only weeks before due to the threat of bushfires – and had been announced on a bill alongside Bernard Fanning and Wolfmother to play a fundraiser for the NSW RFS Brigades. This wasn’t the last act of kindness shown by the music community over the last few months. During a summer of unprecedented horror for so many Australians, an outpouring of gestures from musicians – both locally and around the world – has offered support and helped sustain hope. After Falls Festival in Lorne was cancelled due to the threat of bushfires, dozens of acts including Peking Duk and G Flip held lastminute gigs to raise thousands in funds for volunteer firefighters. International touring artists including Halsey and Yungblud also rallied, while Courtney Barnett and Camp Cope teamed up for a fundraiser. Overseas, Selena Gomez urged her 59 million Twitter followers to donate and Pink pledged $500,000 to our local fire services. To see our community galvanised so immediately and effectively at a time like this is the real gesture worth talking about. SS

PLEASE DADDY SARAH MARY CHADWICK

ALL IN GOOD TIME EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING

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Sarah Mary Chadwick’s sixth album lifts again from the five releases that precede it, heralding more brave and dark art from the master of melancholy; work that is absent of vanity and aggressive in its exploration of life’s often painful realness. ‘When Will Death Come’ opens the record boldly. The song is dark in tone but bright and triumphant in melody, pleading, “When will death come? When will he save me from here?” It’s strangely comforting. In the title song, Chadwick laments the death of her father. This is a song for all who have grieved, trying to articulate the loss of colour and identity that comes when a loved one leaves. Set to stirring flute and horn parts, and of course Chadwick’s own striking piano, it is a masterful expression of love and pain. Chadwick’s music is always refreshing, cutting through the generic to deliver work that speaks to our souls, of our tribulations, and, perhaps by nothing more than coincidence, these uncertain times. IZZY TOLHURST

“Oh how times have changed, the world’s been rearranged.” Just like that, a stasis ruptures to bookend a strange and twisted decade. As we walk down memory lane, everything sounds quite the same: Brendan Huntley’s fractured croon; Mikey Young’s overachieving Fender Squier in a tapestry of tender crunch. This resistance to sonic deviation is thrilling in its potency, especially on belters ‘Medieval Walls’ and ‘Vicariously Living’. A new Eddy Current album, the first since 2010’s Rush to Relax (with scant live appearances since), must arrive with purpose – and the nervy introspection of the band’s initial triptych expands with a political bent. Calls for humanity and empathy echo throughout the record, most perfectly on ‘Our Quiet Whisper’. All in Good Time pulses with understated vitality – beyond a nostalgic rush for denizens of Melbourne’s rock underground – to stand alongside a beloved back catalogue. A defiant affront to entropic forces. LACHLAN KANONIUK

JOYFUL ANDRAS 

Melbourne electronic producer Andrew Wilson has released music via many guises and collaborations, but Joyful marks his debut solo album as Andras. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it feels more personal than dance music often does, inspired in part by Wilson’s fondness for 70s folk and 90s acid house. The folk influence surfaces mainly in samples and song titles, while the throwback house shines bright indeed. Opener ‘Honeybird’ mines childlike bliss somewhere between Orbital and Boards of Canada, and the bookending ‘Goggles’ exudes restorative warmth while remaining playful. There’s an organic ebb and flow of mood on display throughout, from the wistfully chill ‘Poppy’ to the romantic, ambient-shaded ‘Harf Green’. This is fairly compact for dance music: no track exceeds six minutes, and the miniature details convey a cosy intimacy. If Joyful can feel somewhat slight at times, its heartfelt good vibes more than fill in the gaps. Wilson’s even decided to donate a portion of the album’s proceeds to benefit the Invasive Species Council. DOUG WALLEN

Book Reviews

Thuy On Books Editor @thuy_on

BOTTLE GROVE DANIEL HANDLER

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Paul McCartney (yes, that McCartney) is the latest celebrity to have penned a picture book for children. It’s pretty easy to be cynical about this trend and it’s not as though those who achieved fame elsewhere need more money or publicity. Nonetheless, can the man who “changed the world forever with The Beatles” (as his byline so puts it) write a picture book? Kind of, with reservations. It’s about a lovable grandpa to four children “chillers”. On a miserable wet day, Grandude takes out a packet of postcards, a magic compass and “zing, bang, sizzle” the kids are transported to the worlds in the postcards: a beach with flying fish, a flower-strewn hilltop and a desert with horses to ride, to name a few. Each time, a small calamity precipitates the change of scenery. The illustrations by Kathryn Durst are suitably bright and cheery, but the story itself is anodyne. Sweet and inoffensive but not terribly imaginative. THUY ON

The new novel by Daniel Handler (perhaps better known by his pseudonym, Lemony Snicket) is ostensibly a comedy about marriage in the 21st century. It’s about a lot of other things as well: bartending, the San Francisco tech boom, womanhood and the corrupting power of capital. We’re quickly introduced to a large cast of characters – Martin, the bartender at the titular, struggling establishment; Padgett, an unhappy member of a privileged family; “the Vic”, a tech mogul behind a streaming service that Handler never sufficiently explains; and newlyweds Rachel and Ben. Martin contrives a plot to set up Padgett and the Vic, in an effort to con the latter out of some of his plentiful wealth, while Rachel and Ben experience the disappointments of marriage and the lure of infidelity. Oh, and the spirit of a fox periodically possesses and haunts the characters. The themes explored in this short, messy novel are worthy, so it’s a shame that they’re addressed in fidgety, overworked prose. JACK ROWLAND

NEVER SAY DIE FIONA CRAWFORD AND LEE MCGOWAN 

Released the same week as the landmark agreement that closed the gender pay gap between our national men’s and women’s football (soccer) teams, this is a passionate account of how the vibrant and inclusive world of Australian women’s football has flourished, despite decades of patriarchal control, gender bias, and an ongoing lack of investment, resources and attention. Never Say Die offers a timeline of momentous developments interspersed with engaging commentary, as well as research, quotes and anecdotes from football luminaries, players, coaches and supporters. While it claims not to be a “book of scores and fixtures”, there’s a wealth of details that will delight fans, though they can be overwhelming for the uninitiated. But don’t be deterred; it’s not just about sport but also an important social history, a manifesto for positive change and a tribute to the “persistence despite widespread discouragement” demonstrated by professional women and their supporters. JANE LEONARD

HEY GRANDUDE! PAUL MCCARTNEY AND KATHRYN DURST

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

anuary is the time of year when I deliberately avoid all high-brow, high-literary, potential award-winners for more easy, fun reads; after all, a good, balanced diet involves a range of books. One recently picked up and soundly enjoyed was Create Your Own Midlife Crisis by Marie Phillips. For those who remember those Choose Your Own Adventure series, popular in the 1980s, this book is modelled on the same premise: with alternative realities depending on which decisions you make. In this case, readers have to imagine themselves as a restless middle-aged, married woman and decide, for instance, whether she’d suggest to her husband to open up their marriage (turn to p37) or to renovate the kitchen together instead (turn to p73) to stave off boredom. I’ve also been browsing through Michael Wilding’s Wild About Books, a collection of essays on books and writing. They are short and easily digestible. Wilding roams about, taking on all manner of literary morsels, including utopias and dystopias, libraries, origins of characters, crime fiction and book culling. I’ve also got my eye on Louis Theroux’s Gotta Get Theroux This, a memoir of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans in his documentaries. As he says, “I am a TV presenter who specialises in getting out of his depth.” TO

Public Service Announcement

by Lorin Clarke @lorinimus

Looking up to notice in surprise a beautiful sunset. Reading a news story about something wonderful. It’s hard to imagine maybe, but wonderful things will still happen in the world. People will discover things and fix things and learn things and invent things and achieve remarkable things. In fact, people do this kind of thing on a small scale every day, it’s just that the news cycle thrives on real live footage of a bus going over a cliff into the sea rather than a little story about that nice Mrs Bennett from two doors down bringing your mum a curry when she has a bad back. Playing. You’ll do it again. Doodling on a page. Lining up the buildings with the rainbow by squinting. You’ll play. Animals play. Did you know that? People have studied them to see why they play, but that’s the point of play: there is no goal. Animals frolic and play just like children and, yes, even adults. Whether it’s joking or doing a sudoku or measuring how far forwards and backwards we balance in our new shoes, or walking down the footpath avoiding the cracks, we all play. When we play, it unlocks things in our brains. New pathways form. Chemicals are released that make us feel good. Play a game. One day, you will accidentally lose yourself in a laugh. You will. You won’t see it coming but you’ll laugh like a drain and the echo of the laugh in your muscles will make you laugh again to yourself and you’ll suddenly realise: I’m laughing again!

Just the fact that you exist at all is completely ridiculous. The likelihood of you being born is estimated (by people whose job it is to estimate such ludicrous things) to be one in 400 trillion. This certainly doesn’t mean you’re obliged in any way to enjoy it. You don’t have to feel any way about it at all except that it is a phenomenally slim margin of probability and it consists of all sorts of things that probably wouldn’t otherwise exist too, like lemon meringue pie and the ocean and those huge socks people put over cars to stop the birds doing poos on them. Life is strange and confusing and a tiny bit surreal – not in the way people often use the word surreal (“Oh wow, I haven’t seen you since high school and here you are in the supermarket – how surreal!”), but in the way surrealist art is surreal, like a person with a crab for a face or a flight of stairs that goes in two directions. Life has not – as of the time this is going to print – been figured out by anybody. Being a part of it is like an experiment. Finding the bits you enjoy and the bits that interest you is as good a use of it as any. Movies. Books. Music. Theatre. Radio. Podcasts. Computer games. Art. These are the things we humans have designed as ways of escaping and enjoying whatever this life business is. They might not solve anything. But they’re there for you, always, and sometimes you can lose yourself for a little bit, inside of something made for you by somebody else you’ve never met. What a thing. You might not want to hear that you’ll be okay. You mightn’t believe it. You might know for sure it isn’t true. Thing is though, it is. Even if it’s just in a small way. Even if it’s a slightly different version of okay. Things are going to be okay. A cup of tea. A warm bath. A hilarious video about a monkey. A nice conversation that makes you feel a bit sad and a bit better. Some lemon meringue pie. You’re going to be okay. Lorin Clarke is a Melbourne-based writer. The second season of her radio series, The Fitzroy Diaries, is on ABC Radio National and the ABC Listen app now.

his one’s for when it’s all too much. Genuinely terrible. When, as it has been lately, your world feels like it’s on fire. When life feels unfair and out of control and terrible and awful and relentless because it is. Public Service Announcement: things are going to be okay. They are. Even if they are as bad as you think. They’re going to be okay. Probably not immediately. Maybe not always and forever. But you are going to be okay. You can’t see past the next bit. There is a future version of you, though. You can’t see them right now but there are many possible very okay things that Future You might be doing.

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

It’ll Be Okay

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Tastes Like Home edited by Anastasia Safioleas

FOOD PHOTO BY JANAKA RODRIGUE, PORTRAIT COURTESY SBS

Tastes Like Home Diana Chan

Assam Pedas

(Spicy Tamarind Fish) Ingredients Serves 4

Method Make a smooth paste by blending all the spice paste ingredients, except lemongrass tops. Next, fry off the spice paste in a wok or saucepan with the oil for 3-5 minutes or until fragrant. Bruise the tops of the leftover lemongrass and add. Then add in the kaffir lime leaves and tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add the water and tamarind paste, stirring through. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. In the meantime, salt the fillets liberally and add to the wok or saucepan. Let fish cook halfway through for 3-5 minutes. Add the Vietnamese mint and okra and cover with a lid and allow to simmer for 5 minutes to soften the vegetables. Remove the lid and add lime juice, and salt if needed. You are looking for a balance of sourness, sweetness and a slight hint of spiciness. To serve, carefully remove the fillets of fish and place in a serving bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and top with a few sprigs of fresh Vietnamese mint as garnish. Serve with a bowl of steamed jasmine rice.

hen I think of something that reminds me of home, it’s often this dish as it was one my mum would prepare for us. It’s simple, delicious and feels like a warm hug. This recipe has been passed down through many generations in my family. It’s a typical Nyonya dish – a hybrid of Chinese and Malay flavours. Assam pedas literally translates to spicy tamarind fish. You can use any firm, white-flesh fish – the flavour is all in the sauce.

This recipe has been passed down though many generations of my family. It’s a typical Nyonya dish. I am so inspired by the culture and diversity you get from travelling to different parts of the world. Getting a sense of what people eat in various regions; understanding how food represents your ethnicity, your history, your region, your tribe, your family. To me food is a universal language and you learn a lot about someone when you share a meal. You find out about their origins, their culture, their traditions and family values. This recipe is very close to my heart and I hope it fills your tummy with lots of warmth and love. DIANA WAS THE WINNER OF MASTERCHEF IN 2017. ASIA UNPLATED WITH DIANA CHAN IS CURRENTLY SCREENING ON SBS FOOD AND SBS ON DEMAND.

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Spice Paste 5 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped 3 cloves garlic, peeled 6 dried chillies, deseeded and soaked in warm water for 15 minutes to soften 6 long red chillies, roughly chopped 2½cm block of shrimp paste, toasted 2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, reserve tops for cooking

Diana says…

½ cup vegetable oil 3-5 kaffir lime leaves, torn 2 tomatoes, quartered 1½ cups water 1 cup tamarind paste 1 cup sugar 4 snapper fillets (pin-boned) Salt to taste Few sprigs Vietnamese mint, extra for garnish Small bowlful of okra, washed Juice of 1 lime

Puzzles

ANSWERS PAGE 45

By Lingo! by Lauren Gawne lingthusiasm.com I

CLUES 5 letters Burn with liquid Chide Hard and compact Playground chute Trainee soldier

C D

O E

Sudoku

Each column, row and 3 x 3 box must contain all numbers 1 to 9.

3 6 9 1 3

Fortress, castle Local language 8 letters Quarantined

9 5 7 6 1 7 4 9 2 6 3 8 1

6 8 1 5 7 2

Puzzle by websudoku.com

6 letters ___down, reduced in size Covered Fastened Catalogued Preserved in brine 7 letters

by websudoku.com

Solutions CROSSWORD PAGE 45 ACROSS 1 Offshoots 6 Waldo 9 Cadence 10 Atlanta

11 Earwig 12 Dominica 14 Tort 15 Sheet music 18 Australian 20 Open 23 Champion 24 Arcade 26 Artiste 27 Sampras 28 Nadal 29 Toolsheds

DOWN 1 Orchestra 2 Federer 3 Hingis 4 Obey 5 Soap operas 6 Williams 7 Lentils 8 Osaka 13 Shallowest 16 Consensus 17 Proposal 19 Started 21 Prairie 22 Crumbs 23 Chain 25 ASIO

20 QUESTIONS PAGE 9 1 Three (Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump) 2 Rat 3 Las Vegas, USA 4 Ellyse Perry 5 ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ 6 National Disability Insurance Scheme 7 Bombshell 8 No 9 Goulburn, NSW 10 Matthew Flinders 11 Float 12 Cathy Freeman 13 Peahen 14 Pakistan and New Zealand 15 Benita Collings 16 Classic Blue 17 Melbourne 18 8 ply 19 John Lennon 20 Your feet

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

Using all nine letters provided, can you answer these clues? Every answer must include the central letter. Plus, which word uses all nine letters?

by puzzler.com

Word Builder

One of the shortest words in English has a long history. The first-person pronoun, used by the speaker to refer to themselves, was originally ich or ic in Old English, as it still is in languages such as German. Like other English pronouns, it is a fossil of the Old English case system, where a word had a different suffix (or in this case a completely different form), depending on where it was used in a sentence. I is for subjects (I high-fived them), but becomes me (originally mec) as the object of a sentence (they highfived me). In the late 1300s ich lost the final sound and i looked a bit underwhelming. By Middle English we capitalised it to I.

Crossword

by Chris Black

THE ANSWERS FOR THE CRYPTIC AND QUICK CLUES ARE THE SAME. ANSWERS PAGE 43.

Quick Clues ACROSS

12 13

17 18

22 23

24 25

Cryptic Clues

CLUES MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK ARE ALL 18-20-23-ACROSSES.

ACROSS

DOWN

1 Cricket side snaps branches (9) 6 Wally in the States to overturn law party (5) 9 Dance moves with extremely creditable rhythm (7) 10 ATO land tax reduced for city (7) 11 Insect hearing organ has artificial hair (6) 12 Country doctor: maid & icon (8) 14 Extortionist reveals wrongful act (4) 15 Miss the cue, lost keys found here? (5,5) 18,20-across Organised a super national

1 Players beat rest with Roach (9) 2* Angrily referred initial miss? (7) 3* Integral to something I said (6) 4 Observe top golfer missing bogey shot (4) 5 Knock a so-so paper’s serial dramas (4,6) 6* Prince takes aim, poorly (8) 7 Novice ordered, “listen to pulses” (7) 8* Post-Oaks, man loses jackets (5) 13 Played a swell shot with minimum depth (10) 16 Harmony’s against report of survey (9) 17 Tender expert polished opals (8) 19 Opened celebrity conference (7) 21 I repair damaged grassland (7) 22 Peculiar part of CBS scraps… (6) 23 … Succession (series) (5) 25 Spies like influencing oligarchy leaders (4)

sporting event (10,4)

23 Band cut Chopin composition for promoter (8) 24 Misguided care about commercial gaming venue (6) 26 Astaire dancing topless with model and singer (7) 27*South Australian politician starts rehabilitating

Australian Senate (7) 28*CNN and cable regularly drop out (5) 29 Hardware stores sold those wrenches? (9)

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1 Large group of musicians (9) 2 Most successful men’s Grand Slam player (7) 3 Youngest-ever Grand Slam winner (6) 4 Comply with (4) 5 Melodramatic serials (4,6) 6 Twenty-three times a Grand Slam winner (8) 7 Edible legumes (7) 8 2019 Australian Open winner (5) 13 Most superficial (10) 16 Agreement (9) 17 Offer of marriage (8) 19 Initiated (7) 21 Large area of grassland (7) 22 Fragments (6) 23 Series (5) 25 National security agency (4)

Solutions SUDOKU PAGE 43

6 4 3 1 7 8 9 5 2

7 8 9 3 5 2 1 4 6

2 1 5 6 9 4 3 7 8

8 5 4 7 3 1 2 6 9

9 7 2 8 4 6 5 3 1

3 6 1 5 2 9 7 8 4

4 3 6 9 1 5 8 2 7

5 9 8 2 6 7 4 1 3

1 2 7 4 8 3 6 9 5

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WORD BUILDER PAGE 43 5 Scald Scold Solid Slide Cadet 6 Scaled Coated Closed Listed Salted 7 Citadel Dialect 8 Isolated 9 Dislocate

24 JAN–06 FEB 2020

1 Subsidiaries (9) 6 American name for hard to find character (5) 9 Rhythm (7) 10 Capital of Georgia (7) 11 Insect (6) 12 Caribbean nation (8) 14 Cause for a lawsuit (4) 15 Printed notes/scores (5,5) 18 Victorian, for example (10) 20 Frank (4) 23 Winner (8) 24 Place for games (6) 26 Entertainer (7) 27 Tennis star nicknamed Pistol… (7) 28 Men’s number-one tennis ace (5) 29 Places to keep equipment (9)

Click 1935

Cary Grant, Randolph Scott

words by Michael Epis photo by Getty

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

ollywood, the dream factory, the industry of illusion, often manufactured lives and personas for its actors, to be played out in the pages of newspapers and magazines rather than on the big screen. So we have this photo of Randolph Scott and Cary Grant at their beach house in Santa Monica, designed to display their rugged masculinity. The house was dubbed “Bachelor Hall” by conspiring gossip columnists. The two lived together for 12 years and, according to those who knew them, were the very picture of domestic happiness. Some reports say they shared a house to share expenses, which is plausible, as Grant, who was to become extremely wealthy, was stingy. Really stingy. Those 12 years were interrupted by Scott’s brief first marriage to heiress Marion duPont (he had been the best man at her first wedding) and Grant’s even briefer marriage to actor Virginia Cherrill, during which he allegedly attempted suicide. Even then, the two lived only a few doors apart. Scott came from a wealthy Virginia family. He volunteered for WWI and served in France, then attempted a career in American football, but was thwarted by a back injury, which also saw him declined for service when he volunteered again in WWII. But the combination of a semi-rural upbringing and skills

gained in the army served him well in his acting career – as did his square jaw and impassive stare – during which he mainly rode horses in westerns, when not playing the part of a war hero. Five years after his first marriage ended he tried again and for the next 43 years, until his death in 1987, he and Patricia Stillman remained together, adopting two children. Grant, who specialised as a suave, debonair leading man with a light touch and knowing self-deprecation, was a more complex case. His brother John died before Cary was born and his mother blamed herself. She became disturbed and his father, an alcoholic, committed her to an institution. Only 22 years later, aged 31, did Grant discover his mother was still alive. Under psychiatric direction, he was administered LSD more than a hundred times in the 1950s and 60s. He married five times, the fourth to actor Dyan Cannon, with whom he had one child, Jennifer, in 1966. He devoted himself to her. “I’ve come to think that the reason we’re put on this earth is to procreate,” he said at the time. In 1980 when Chevy Chase made a joke about him being gay, Grant sued. Chase retracted. On 28 November 1986 Grant suffered a stroke and died, aged 82. Just two months later Scott, 89, passed away from heart and lung ailments.