ABC

In conversation with Robert Dessaix

As Robert Was Saying

By Gail Bell

Robert Dessaix refers to the heart attack that almost ended his life in July 2011 as “the emergency”. “I’m not interested in the physical details of what happened,” he says, breaking my gaze to watch the playful nosings of his dog, Polly, on the back terrace of his Hobart home. “If I wrote about it, I might not even give the emergency a name, just as I didn’t when I wrote about

The Crisis of Alcoholism

Booze Territory

By Anna Krien

“2 pm,” comes the answer. “Oh,” I nod. I’m about to get back into my car when I realise the woman is talking about the bottle shop. “You mean the bottle shop isn’t open till two?” I ask. She nods. “You waiting around for that?” She nods again. “Isn’t there a bar here?” That’s when I discover a section of the pub is open. The woman directs me out of the car park, ba

Mark Scott Embarks on Another Five-Year Term

Second Life

By Margaret Simons

Shortly after his appointment to the top job in mid 2006, it seemed as though the 3-D virtual world Second Life was the new thing – a place where Australians might spend large amounts of their time. No field is changing faster than media, and Scott believes that where the audience goes the ABC should follow. So Scott created an avatar and went to try it out. History does not record, and he does not say, what modifications he made to h

SBS

Sex Before Soccer

By Margaret Simons

“This mean-spirited, greedy little television station,” fulminated the Australian’s media critic Errol Simper recently. “A tasteless, asinine, lunatic little fringe station that would struggle to justify its existence were that existence to be seriously called into governmental question,” Simper continued, before admitting the “paradox” that it

Expert Appetite: The Plight of the Connoisseur

By Robert Dessaix

I am in Soups and Tinned Veg at my local Coles supermarket, immobilised by an attack of anomie. Why am I feeling like this? I stare catatonically at the rows of tinned soups, quite unable to move. There is no point in discussing Durkheim and the roots of anomi

Bad Old Days

By Jack Marx

From his chambers opposite Hyde Park in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, Charles Waterstreet – author, barrister, film-maker and one-time man-about-town – does not have a view to speak of. But he does have an attractive young assistant, Becky, whose presence suit

Hugh Lunn’s 'Words Fail Me: A Journey through Australia’s Lost Language'

Lest We Forget

By Peter Conrad

Hugh Lunn, vegging out as he sunbakes in his popularity, has come up with an unstrenuous new method for manufacturing a book: why not anthologise your fan mail? In Lost for Words (2006), Lunn assembled a chatty glossary of Australian lingo or ‘slangwidge’ that has d

Adventures in Lexiconia

Infinite Anthology

By Les Murray

Here is a brief sample of words I have submitted to Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary over the last two or three years: pobbledonk – scarlet-sided banjo frog. Large robust frog common in swamps in coastal Queensland and New South Wales.kiddy-fiddler �

John Safran's 'Race Relations'

Border Crossings

By Alice Pung

The Torah says that we do not see things as they are. We see things as we are. In our everyday relationships, we take ourselves as the yardstick of normality – of rationality, leniency and consideration. The Dhammapadda tells us that conquering others is simple, compa

James Murdoch

Rising Son

By Malcolm Knox

The Absence of TrustMurdoch’s choice of speech title was a simple pun. The object of his attack was to be the BBC Trust, the governing body that, he argued, has let the public broadcaster run out of control. James Murdoch likes wordplay and literary referenc

Cafe Clairvoyants

By Robyn Annear

Late on a blustery Tuesday afternoon in July 1932, three customers entered Black’s Café in Bourke Street, Melbourne. Despite the season, the young man ordered ice-cream for himself and his female companions. “With readings?” asked the waitress, indicati

Norman Gunston & Frank Zappa

By Shane Maloney

Frank Zappa was no stranger to Australia and its wildlife. Inspired by a monotreme encountered during his 1973 tour, the avant-rock polymath composed a complex jazz-fusion instrumental entitled ‘Echidna’s Arf (Of You)’. Three years later, he came face-to-face with

The Victorian bushfires and the royal commission

Why We Weren’t Warned

By Robert Manne

Shortly after midday we learned that a fire had broken out in Kilmore, some 50 kilometres to the north-west. From now on we were alert, glued to ABC local radio and the Country Fire Authority website. It soon became obvious that this was a serious fire. Wallan received threat warnings. Wandong came under attack. What this meant was that the fire had jumped t

Forty-three Years at the ABC

Hidden Treasure

By Chris Masters

Despite that dismal episode, I still see the ABC as a national treasure. It can be snobbishly self-important and oafishly bureaucratic. There are a lot of cardigans in those corridors. Managers come and go with the barest understanding of broadcasting, the central purpose of the place. A recent board became its organisation's own biggest enemy.The flaws are regularly pointed out by a press gang of

Eugene Goossens & the Witch of Kings Cross

By Shane Maloney

Sir Eugene Goossens was a man who liked a little magic in his life. Sex magic, to be specific.Goossens was a world-famous conductor and composer, a friend of Picasso and Stravinsky. "My heart just loosens when I listen to Goossens," wrote his pal Noël Coward.

Opera Australia’s Troubles

La Travesty

By Gideon Haigh

When Martin retired in January, after a 45-year career, it was with all passion spent. The voice of Wagner's Hans Sachs and Wotan was as rich as ever, but so tinged with bitterness that he declined a formal farewell. He would not be speaking now, save for the

Unforgiven

By Craig Sherborne

New Teeth for Aunty

By Robert Manne

This outline of my daily routine should at least make one thing clear: the ABC plays a very important part in my life. As it does for very many Australians. There is almost no institution in Australia that is more generally trusted, valued and loved than the ABC, as survey after survey shows. There is probably no other that has so loyal and attentive and possessive a society of Friends.It is uncon