Rest In Peace Lyrebird 'Chook'

He shimmied and he shook

Like no ordinary chook.

He was handsome, he was bright,

He had feathers bronze and white,

A little chestnut black and grey -

His tail a wonder in display.

Chook died peacefully on 29 December 2012.

Chook was hand reared and lived for 32 years. He arrived at the Adelaide Zoo from Healesville Sanctuary 20 years ago. Now his aviary is silent.

In researching for my book about Lyrebird James and Edith Wilkinson, I don't think there is a you tube I haven't watched. This one of Chook is one of my favourites but then there are so many favourites.

Condolences to Adelaide Zoo and fans of Chook.

Tango Tangents. La Mama Sunday 18 December 2011

We are just having too much fun with this show ... last chance to see before 2012!!

Presented by The Sunset Sisters with special guests Tango Mundo.

Tango songs and stories from a woman’s point of view. A lively mix of original songs by Faye Bendrups, Alison Richards and Ella Filar, some classic ‘Euro Tango’, the work of Argentinian writer Luisa Valenzuela and the voice play Last Tango in Brunswick by Alison Richards and Jackie Kerin.

2pm

La Mama Courthouse

$25 Full | $15 Concession

Ten Tellable Australian Tales

I have been locked in the study trying to cobble together a presentation for the OWOVM Conference next week. How to squeeze all I want to share into 15 minutes is proving problematical. As well as sharing information about the storytelling networks I'm plugged into around Australia and abroad, I want to share the work I have been doing on the Ten Tellable Australian Tales. I've chosen these three: Edith's Lyrebird which you can see on the video clip, Split Dog and Phar Lap.

1. Edith's Lyerbird is the story of James and Edith Wilkinson. James was one of the first male lyrebirds to be filmed and recorded in display. Edith was a flower farmer in the 1930s living on the slope of Mt Dandenong. Soon this story will be available as a book but it will be called Lyrebird! a true story. This version will be more detailed with loads of information about these birds and other songbirds that live on the mountain. Illustrator: Peter Gouldthorpe. Publisher: Museum Victoria. Yes .. the spoken story is connected to the book like blossom to fruit!

2. Split Dog comes from my fascination with tall stories. He apparently appears in Nth American folk tale, sometimes as Davey Crocket's dog but his adventures have also made it into Australian folklore.

3. Phar Lap the wonder horse. This tellable is written in ballad form. Reciting traditional verse and contemporary original poetry is still popular. In my city of Melbourne, any night of the week. you will find poets, declaiming, rapping and rhyming in pubs across town. Only last week I had the fun of reciting Phar Lap in the Carbine Bar during the Cocktail Hour! You can hear more about this one on the Museum Victoria website, and you can hear me tell it to you ... website here.

Writing this post has been a diversion from the task at hand - now its back to work!

Frocks on Bikes and Kamishibai update

Now you might be thinking what this post has to do with storytelling or my continuing evolution as an artist.

The story is a little convoluted I admit. For months now I have been working on the kamishibai-on-

bike-project. My old bike was not suitable for a rig. After weeks of browsing bike shops - eight in all, I found the perfect bike at psbikes in Yarraville.

It's stylishly black, like the traditional kamishibai bikes and a step-through, so I no longer have to heave my leg over a bar. Peter Santos brings these bikes in from Sweden - it called a Pilen (that's Swedish for 'arrow').

The next step was to design and build a box for the Kamishibai and a stand for the bike. Peter has come up with a design in steel and Ted Smith (the K maker) has inserted some earth magnets in to the base of the K to fix it to the top the box. Clear as mud?

All this will make perfect sense soon. Peter and I are just waiting for the box to be powder coated black to match the bike. I will then be able to show you a pic.

So what's all this got to do with 'Frocks on Bikes'?

Nothing really ... well ... sort of connected. While I'm waiting for the rig, I am enjoying my Pilen. Last weekend I welcomed the Frocks on Bikes as they rode the bike punt across the Yarra River to western side. Then with skirts flying and ladylike banter, we pedalled in single file to a pleasant cafe for lunch.

I love my new bike!

Learn more:

psbikes

Frocks on Bikes

Mentone Public Subscription Library: An Author for All Seasons

Friend and fellow storyteller, Julia Reichstein is a great supporter of oral storytelling and the Storytelling Guild (Vic).

Julia has been the organiser behind the series of talks based at the Mentone Library: An Author for All Seasons. In a fine bit of planning, I was booked months ago, for November to coincide with the racing season.

Mentone has a strong history of racing and gambling; there was time when many properties housed thoroughbreds and horses could be seen working out on the the sandy tracks and swimming in the Bay not to mention the sly two-up games hidden in the tea-tree scrub. In 1947 Tom Woodcock moved into the area and kept a stable.

So ... thanks to Julia I had a chance to spruik my book Phar Lap the wonderhorse (available in all good bookshops, Museum Victoria and on line).

Pictured is Julia hosting An author for All Seasons. A more relaxed and welcoming mc you will not find anywhere.

Story mates, Beth Cregan and Matteo rocked up and as we are normally separated by water (Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra River) and freeways, it was wonderful to catch up face to face.

Buy a copy of Phar Lap the wonderhorse here

The Oral the Written and other Verbal Media. 12 to 14 December 2011

Hosted by Victoria University, the Oral, the Written and Other Verbal Media (OWOVM) Conference on Poetics and Discourse will be held in Melbourne, Australia from 12 to 14 December 2011.

With the theme of ‘Testimony, Witness, Authority: the politics and poetics of experience’, the conference brings together practitioners and researchers in a forum to explore the variety of ways experience is reproduced and cultures built through oral, written and other verbal media.

To be held at Victoria University’s city campus in Australia’s cultural capital, Melbourne, the 2011 conference will feature language, voice and text from scholars, composers and performers.

I'll be presenting at the conference alongside Michael Hyde and Christine-Martin McDonald in a sessional called Tellable Stories.

See the program here.

The Big West Festival Big Sing

Last night I was flying! It was the opening of the big West Festival.

With 200 other voices, I stomped and clapped my way through four hip hop numbers. We were the backing vocals for MASSIVE the only hip hop choir in Australia.

Behind us was the Maribyrnong River and on the other side, the grand stand at Flemington Racecourse rose up to the sky.

A storyteller is always on the scout for a good tale to tell. This is a story of folk coming together and celebrating life - full throated, full bodied, and full spirited. Looking at at the crowd it occurred to me that the word 'multiculture' may now be old hat. Somehow this word suggests a mosaic made up of difference. Last night was certainly multilingual and multicoloured but the overwhelming feel was simply of one community celebrating together. Time for a new word perhaps? Or maybe this is what the word the means ... hmm.. beautiful ...

This pic was taken from the stage. Standing squeezed up against my fellow sopranos, I held my camera up high and clicked.