The Big Issue Australia #648 – ABBA by The Big Issue Australia

Ed.

648 29 OCT 2021

28.

32.

40.

BANOFFEE HANNAH KENT and POH’S ASAM LAKSA

HERE THEY GO AGAIN!

NO CASH? NO WORRIES! Some Big Issue vendors now offer contactless payments.

NATIONAL OFFICE Chief Executive Officer Steven Persson Chief Financial Officer Jon Whitehead Chief Operating Officer Chris Enright Chief Communications Officer Emma O’Halloran National Operations Manager Jeremy Urquhart EDITORIAL Editor Amy Hetherington Deputy Editor Melissa Fulton Contributing Editor Michael Epis Contributing Editor Anastasia Safioleas Editorial Coordinator Lorraine Pink Art Direction & Design GOZER (gozer.com.au) CONTRIBUTORS

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Contents

EDITION

648

28 MUSIC

Tears on the Tracks Banoffee tells all about her COVID curveball, her new album, and what she learned from touring in Charli XCX’s band.

32 BOOKS

Filling the Silences

12.

Bestselling author Hannah Kent’s new novel, Devotion, is a magical take on historical fiction – and one that celebrates queer love.

ABBA FABBA by Claire Isaac It’s taken 40 years, but ABBA are back – and Mamma Mia, we’re celebrating! We deep dive into Australia’s love affair with the pop superstars. Plus, Benny Andersson tells all in his Letter to My Younger Self, Molly Meldrum thanks ABBA for the music, and Björn Again’s Benny Anderwear gives us his best ironing tips for sequins.

THE REGULARS

20 The Big Picture 27 Ricky 34 Film Reviews 35 Small Screen Reviews 36 Music Reviews 37 Book Reviews

Asam (Penang) Laksa Poh Ling Yeow shares the recipe that gave her chilli wings as a six-year-old, and still makes her mouth jig like no other.

cover photo by Getty contents photo by Baillie Walsh

04 Ed’s Letter & Your Say 05 Meet Your Vendor 06 Streetsheet 08 Hearsay & 20 Questions 11 My Word 18 Letter to My Younger Self

40 TASTES LIKE HOME

39 Public Service Announcement 43 Puzzles 45 Crossword 46 Click

Ed’s Letter

by Amy Hetherington Editor @amyhetherington

So Much to Do!

s we edge our way out of lockdown here in Melbourne, I feel like I’m in a dwam, as my Scottish mum would say. In that state of semi-consciousness, when you’ve just woken from a nap, still a little confused, not quite knowing what time or day it is, and yet knowing there is something you should really be doing. And, now, finally, there is so much to do! What’s on your post-lockdown list? Top of mine: hug my mum, who lives in regional Victoria, and whom I’ll soon be able to finally see. Hopefully, for those of you similarly finding your way back out of the pandemic fog, you’ve already knocked off a lot of your to-dos: dinner, haircut, visiting friends and family (and actually being inside someone else’s home!), going to the library, the gym,

LETTER OF THE FORTNIGHT

the beach, the cinema…and catching up with your local Big Issue vendor. All going to plan, this edition will see vendors all around the country back at work for the first time since we celebrated our 25th anniversary in June. Plus, the annual Big Issue Calendar is back, too! This year’s calendar celebrates vendors and their local communities. In it, you’ll meet Kim and Bill, who sell at the bustling Fremantle Markets, Andrew at his local cafe in Newcastle, Wayne in Brisbane’s leafy New Farm Park, Kerry‑Anne on Adelaide’s famous Rundle Mall, Grant at the Gungahlin shops in Canberra, and Gamal, who’ll soon be back on his pitch on Degraves Street in Melbourne’s CBD. So, drop by, say hi and pick up a calendar – it’s a much-welcome income boost as we head out of lockdown and towards something more hopeful.

HAPPY DAYS AHEAD!

Can’t find a vendor? You can buy a Big Issue Calendar via this QR code.

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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 25 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 magazine.

Your Say

I read a piece by Rachel Watts in Ed#643, called ‘The Sun Will Rise’. I was compelled to reach out. I’ve been swinging between too many feelings and complete numbness lately. I’m not even looking for happiness these days. That’s a quaint old dream from the past. And much too fickle, transient. But peace? More solid. So I truly appreciate anything that leads me there. Rachel, your piece did just that. It moved me. Very much. In such a beautiful way. A peaceful way. I felt connected to you and what you wrote. Felt less alone and disconnected – from myself, the land, the trees and everything. Thank you. LUCRECIA RIBEIRO ARTARMON I NSW

One of the highlights of my week is seeing Josephine, who sells The Big Issue outside our local supermarket. Both my kids love seeing her and she always takes the time to speak to them and ask about their day. She is such a beautiful person, and we are really lucky to have her brighten our days. Thank you – and love your magazine! WINNIE VAN DONK AVALON BEACH I NSW

• 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 23 locations around the country. • The Vendor Support Fund will offset the cost price of products for vendors, allowing them to earn a larger margin on their own street sales. • The Big Issue Education workshops provide school, tertiary and corporate groups with insights into homelessness and disadvantage, and provide work opportunities for people experiencing marginalisation. CHECK OUT ALL THE DETAILS AT THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Lucrecia wins a copy of Hannah Kent’s new novel Devotion. You can read our interview with the award‑winning author on p32. 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.

Meet Your Vendor I was born and raised in Canberra. I have an older sister and a really caring mum. My dad passed away when I was 11. It was pretty hard on Mum; she had to look after two kids. It was hard on me too. I went to a public high school and a public primary school as well. They helped me with my study. But at high school I had four years of bullying. I ended up at a separate college where I did Year 11 and Year 12. They had a program that helped me with English and maths. Mum helped a lot, but I didn’t end up getting my certificate. But at college I did get my first girlfriend. I don’t have a girlfriend now but I am looking for love. Absolutely! I have cerebral palsy. I can walk but not very well. And I’m blind at night and have to wear glasses. I communicate with people using my iPad – I type what I want to say. Before I started selling The Big Issue I worked at a mail centre where I pulled staples out of documents. This was in a public service office. Then I worked at a recycling plant. At the same time I was at CatholicCare one day and met a disability support worker called John who told me about The Big Issue. He was the support worker for Tau, who was also a Big Issue vendor. I decided to start selling the magazine and after a while left my job at the recycling plant so I could spend more time with The Big Issue. I’ve been selling in Canberra the whole time. My pitch is in Jamison. It’s a great spot and it’s really close to where I live. The best thing about selling The Big Issue is the money and the social aspect. I have lots of regular customers. They always stop for a bit of a chat. When we recently had the Big Issue postcards, I was really touched to get so many of them. I felt loved by everyone. I’m hoping to save enough money and after COVID go on a holiday to Broome. I love to travel. I’ve already been to Uluru. I’ve also been to Scotland, Wales, England, France and Singapore. My favourite place to visit was Scotland – I went with my aunt. I loved the haggis and Edinburgh Castle, because I love history. I didn’t try on a kilt though. When I’m not selling, I play UNO and boardgames like snakes and ladders. I love to watch the Sydney Swans, Wallabies and Canberra Raiders. I’ve got a new flatmate and he also enjoys watching football, but he follows the South Sydney Rabbitohs. I go to church every Sunday. It has really friendly people, and on the first Sunday of every month I attend a disability group called Rainbow Fellowship. They’re a great bunch of people too. I’m going to keep selling The Big Issue. It gets the big thumbs up from me. I’d like to say thank you to all my customers for their respect and for understanding me.

SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT JAMISON PLAZA, CANBERRA

PROUD UNIFORM PARTNER OF THE BIG ISSUE VENDORS.

29 OCT 2021

interview by Anastasia Safioleas photo by Rohan Thomson

Bryan

Streetsheet

Stories, poems and pictures by Big Issue vendors and friends

Love in a Box

HA ND LE D W IT H CA RE

WSE SPOTLIGHT

LYN

The Big Deal When I get poor, The Big Issue gives me money. When I’m depressed, The Big Issue gives me relaxation. When I’m bored, The Big Issue keeps me busy. When I’m hungry, The Big Issue feeds me well. When I’m sad, The Big Issue makes me happy. KATU ST KILDA | MELBOURNE

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Write Stuff I stand tall as I sell The Big Issue. My customers ask me what’s in the magazine. I proudly say, “On page 6, there is an article I wrote.” The customer buys the magazine and flips to page 6 straight away. I point out my latest article; they read it. They say, “Well done, that’s a good article.” I feel the biggest sense of pride swell up inside me. I stand a bit taller when someone tells me they read my article. I smile a bigger smile and I have

got a call to work for The Big Issue’s Women’s Workforce not long after my interview, which was super exciting. My first shift was at a Coles distribution centre to pack goods boxes for Indigenous communities in NSW. Because of COVID, they were unable to get enough food and essential goods. When I started, I discovered that some of the boxes were to go to my mob, being Wiradjuri myself. It near brought me to tears that people were looking out for my people. I was lucky enough to do two shifts at Coles DC and I put all my love and light into every box I touched. My mob would feel that at their end. The experience was so special to me, and both shifts were so much fun working with brilliant people. I was so proud to be part of it and was telling everyone I knew about it. I even called one of my Uncles to tell him about what I had done. He later called and said that the boxes were like getting Christmas pressies and that everyone he knew was so impressed about what they got. I know they appreciated all the help, and they could feel the boxes had been packed with love. LYN R WOMEN’S SUBSCRIPTION ENTERPRISE I ADELAIDE

a renewed confidence to interact with everyone walking past. I want to tell everyone I wrote an article – I want everyone to read it. I’ve always had a passion for writing even from a young age. When I was 11, I started a newspaper for my family. I included a TV guide of my family’s favourite shows, and I wrote articles on stuff that had happened in the week. Mum took it into school to show my teacher and I got an award in front of the entire class. Several years later when I was in my final years of school, I considered going into journalism as a career; I didn’t get the marks to get into uni and I needed time after Year 12 to mature a bit. Now six years after finishing school, at the age of 24, The Big Issue has given me the opportunity to pursue my passion and allowed me to take pride in my work. GRACE KAMBAH SHOPS I CANBERRA

Good Times I have been selling sporadically since 2004. I have a few good memories that stand out: within the first fortnight of selling, I was sitting in a Chinese restaurant waiting for a meal I could pay for with money from selling the magazine, while I was reading a book and waiting for a movie to start. Both the book and movie were also paid for with money from selling the magazine. DARYL HIGH ST, NORTHCOTE | MELBOURNE

On the Up and Up Life is what you make it. You can make it a happy one, a boring one, an angry one, or a loving one. But life can also throw you a curveball. You can be up one minute, and down the next – without warning – and it can happen to anyone.

Choices Having fun Anything to challenge yourself Love life as it goes ticking by Live in the moment Never give up Grow every day Even if you feel down Just pick yourself up SARAH | FREMANTLE

Sisterly Shout-out I want to send a shout-out to my second‑oldest sister, April. April is someone who I look up to. She helps me look after my daughter and make decisions. April is beautiful and intelligent. She is also a hard worker who does great work supporting kids and teens who need extra help. Thanks April! CLAUDETT THE BODY SHOP | ADELAIDE

Bowled Over I started tenpin bowling at the age of nine. When I turned 21, I got accepted on the national team. Every second year, I play the Blind and Vision Impaired National Championships. I also try to play the disability championship, which is played around different states and involves people with a range of disabilities. In 2017, I got accepted to play the World Championships, and then again in 2021. Even though I didn’t win, I was just so happy to be able to represent Australia. I still train even though COVID has meant no nationals. I play league on Mondays, train on Tuesdays and then play tournaments around Perth. I love bowling as it is one of the few sports I can excel at, being vision impaired. I consider bowling a career. My first couple of times at the nationals, I didn’t win anything. After doing a lot of training, I ended up winning lots of medals and trophies. My plan is to continue to concentrate on bowling and win more medals. I wish bowling was still part of the Olympic Games. RYAN ARTS BRIDGE I PERTH

ALL VENDOR CONTRIBUTORS TO STREETSHEET ARE PAID FOR THEIR WORK.

29 OCT 2021

BRIAN W PALACE NOVA CINEMAS, GLENELG | ADELAIDE

RYAN ST RI KE TH E BO W LI S W HI LE NG ’S HOT

You can sit and watch it go by, or you can make it happen. At one stage I was making it happen. Then I got sick. And it started to go down. I was on the streets putting all my money on the horses. I just didn’t care anymore. But now I have been doing The Big Issue for 24 years and it has helped me a lot. I haven’t had a bet on a horse for 19 years. I have flown to Townsville three times. I have got my own Housing Trust unit. And I am getting my health back together after two heart attacks, two allergic reactions, ending up in ICU, viral meningitis, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Now, I am just happy to be out there selling the magazine. I have had good days and bad days, but just being out there doing something gets me through the day. So, thank you to all our customers! You make our lives a better and a happier place to be.

Hearsay

Andrew Weldon Cartoonist

It might be so lovely on the other side… I’m sure there’s something.

“James Corden, who’s a friend of mine but also does Carpool Karaoke, which I did, he did it with [Celine Dion] and knew how much of a fan of hers I was. And so he made her spit her gum into a piece of paper and framed it for me. And it’s my proudest possession!” Singer Adele on her framed piece of chewing gum, pre-loved by Celine Dion. Yes, you read that right! VOGUE I US

“He’s just such a happy-go-lucky lad. He’ll go to work eight days a week if you let him.” David Lee on his kelpie Hoover, who just sold for a record price of $35,200 in the Casterton Kelpie Association’s Annual Working Dog Auction. Who’s a good boy?

Former welder turned musician turned comedian turned actor turned artist Billy Connolly, contemplating death.

ABC I AU

THE GUARDIAN I UK

“We have just elected from among us a woman who is uniquely and passionately Barbadian, does not pretend to be anything else [and] reflects the values of who we are.” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on the election, by parliament, of the Caribbean country’s first president, Sandra Mason, formerly the nation’s governor-general, to replace Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

“We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live.” Prince William takes a swipe at the billionaires embroiled in the space tourism race.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

BBC I UK

“Mars’ fate was decided from the beginning. There is likely a threshold on the size requirements of rocky planets to retain enough water to enable habitability and plate tectonics, with mass exceeding that of Mars.” Kun Wang, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University, on findings that the Red Planet is simply too small to hold onto large amounts of water, or sustain life – including ours. Well, there goes Mars! SCIENCE DAILY I US

“I was shaking and scared when it happened; I thought someone had jumped in or it was a gun or something… I’m just totally amazed over the fact that it is a star that came out of the sky. It’s maybe billions of years old.” Ruth Hamilton, of British Columbia, who was in bed asleep when something crashed through her roof and landed on the pillow next to her. Turns out it was a meteorite. PIPESTON FLYER I CA

“Thank goodness some rich countries are beginning to suffer – unfortunately that’s all that will make them take action. There’s more awareness, but unfortunately, most of it is words, words, words.” Primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall on the climate emergency needing more action, action, action. IRISH TIMES I IE

AL JAZEERA I QA

“We use pigs as a source of food, we use pigs for medicinal uses – for [heart] valves, for medication. I think it’s not that different.” New York University’s Dr Robert Montgomery on the first successful transplant of a pig’s kidney into a human patient. Pig hearts, lungs and livers are considered transplant contenders too. BBC I UK

“We provide evidence that the Norse were active on the North American continent in the year AD1021. This date offers a secure

20 Questions by Rachael Wallace

01 Who will be replacing Emma

Watkins as the Yellow Wiggle next year? 02 Which two countries have square

national flags? 03 What electronic devices are

researchers using to track koalas in the Adelaide Hills? 04 What number player is the main

character, Gi-hun, in TV’s Squid Game? 05 In which city is Holyrood Palace? 06 What is the name of the tower in

London that was the site of a tragic fire in 2017, killing 72 people? 07 What is the collective noun for a

group of unicorns? 08 What did former Australian of the

Year Professor Fiona Wood invent? 09 From which animal does mohair

“Creating gachapon for adults is all about devoting yourself to making something that’s worthless. ‘This is ridiculous’ is the highest form of praise.” Japanese writer Hiroaki Omatsu on his country’s vending machines, or gachapon, that intentionally

THE NEW YORK TIMES I US

“I manifest my faith through my hair. I assume it to be like telling a Christian not to read the Bible or go to church.” Rastafarian teenager Tyrone Iras Marhguy, who took his school to Ghana’s High Court when it insisted he cut his hair. The High Court agreed with him. AFRICA NEWS I CD

“I acknowledge it, I know it’s there, it is the elephant in my brain but I ignore it as much as I can… I don’t open up that much because I’m scared of being judged and it’s just something that’s got to do with me. Fear of just being taken advantage of, as well.” AFL footballer and social media sensation Bailey Smith opens up about his mental health.

come? 10 How much did a Rolex watch

owned by Paul Newman sell for at auction in 2017: a) US$1.2 million, b) US$795,000, c) US$17.8 million or d) US$19.7 million? 11 Who was pictured sucking the toe of

Sarah Ferguson, the then Duchess of York, in 1992? 12 Who was the first jockey to win three

consecutive Melbourne Cups? 13 Which TV detective is played by

Brenda Blethyn? 14 How many children does Angelina

Jolie have? 15 On whose breasts are champagne

coupe glasses said to be modelled? 16 Which two South American

countries are landlocked? 17 Who wrote the poem ‘Clancy of the

Overflow’? 18 Joel Goodson is the lead character

of which 1983 film? 19 Cerumen is the medical term for

what substance? 20 Tilly Devine was a well-known

figure in which city’s organised crime scene?

NEWS.COM I AU

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.

29 OCT 2021

THE GUARDIAN I UK

sell boring toys – like miniature gas metres or barcode scanners – whose sales have gone through the roof during COVID.

juncture for late Viking “What? Bats are chronology. More real?” importantly, it A six-year-old, who thought acts as a new bats were just a Hollywood point of reference creation, overheard by Jumbo for European of Narre Warren, Vic. cognisance of the Americas, and the earliest known year by which human migration had encircled the planet.” Dutch researchers used tree-ring dating and astrophysics to pinpoint the exact year the Vikings inhabited Canada, which tallies with Icelandic sagas of the adventure. The scientists dated logs that were felled by Vikings 1000 years ago, against a solar storm in 993, to nail down the timeline. EAR2GROUND

My Word

by Tony Kelly

t’s an unseasonably warm mid-March morning. We’ve had a lousy summer, even by Melbourne standards, and this burst of autumnal warmth is a welcome gift. My brother, sister, nephew and cousin are with me. Along with my wife, we’ve formed a little swimming group that meets whenever we can in various combinations along different parts of Port Phillip Bay. We strip down to our bathers in front of the cafe at Middle Park and don’t waste any time getting in. The water is surprisingly clear after the high turbidity of the last few weeks and the temperature is holding up. “About 18 or 19 degrees,” speculates my cousin. I see starfish on the sandy floor and little silver fish flitting by as we strike out into the bay. At the yellow marker we stop and quietly take in the vista – the boats further out in the bay, the dog-walkers back on the now-distant beach and the gentle roll of the water. I look across at my nephew. He’s carrying a deep sadness. We all are since the death of Martin, his father, our brother and cousin, three months ago in Queensland. “Good to have you back in the water,” I say. Since his move to the country he hasn’t been able to swim as regularly. He nods in agreement. “On to the next marker?” he asks. My nephew’s a strong swimmer and could go forever, or so it seems, even in mid-winter. I’m the one who gets most affected by the cold and must keep an eye on my body temperature to avoid “the drop” and relentless post-swim shivering. But today the conditions are mild and I nod yes, and we continue on. I’m the youngest of a large family and, apart from a sister who died before I was born, Martin is the first of us to die. It feels as if the ramparts of our generation have been breached. My wife could see it in the tears of our children when she gave the news of his death. Their grief was tinted with something more than the loss of Martin, something destabilising. It was laden with the realisation that if their dad’s brother can die then so too can their dad. Mortality had edged closer. We had all moved further up the queue. We take another break at the next marker. A couple of swimmers go past heading in the other direction.

They are, surprisingly, the only others we’ve seen today. On such a beautiful day you would expect the water to be bustling with swimmers – heads down, arms swinging methodically – but today it just feels like me and my family, alone in the expanse of ocean, united in grief. “See you back at the beach,” says my brother. He’s the slowest and likes to get a head start. Not that there’s any sense of racing with our swims. Knee reconstructions, injured shoulders, dodgy backs and elevated cholesterol mean we’re all somewhat encumbered. Combined with poor navigational skills, we wend our way back to the beach in whatever time and fashion we can. I knew Martin was really sick when he told me he got “the drop” after only a handful of laps in the not-so-cold South-East Queensland pool where he swam regularly. Soon after, he stopped swimming altogether, and within weeks was dead. The irony was, he died on what would have been his last day of work before retirement. Fortunately, the COVID-closed borders opened just in time and he was able to have his six children, partner, ex‑wife, grandchildren, siblings and friends with him in his last hours. We laughed, sang and cried. We held his hand and told him we loved him. He was unconscious and we didn’t know if he could hear us, but that didn’t matter, as we knew he knew we loved him and we knew he loved us. Love was never in doubt when you were with Martin. On the beach I pour everyone a coffee from the thermos and my cousin doles out the scones. This is likely to be the last warm day for a while and we take pleasure in soaking up the sun and each other’s company. With the continuous threat of lockdowns, we don’t know when we will be able to do this again and, as the season turns, we know how important this swimming and this time with each other have become. We make our way to our cars, my brother to his bike. Despite being the slowest swimmer, he’s the fittest of us all, but as I watch him ride away he looks smaller, somewhat diminished. It’s then I realise that nothing will ever be the same again for any of us. There is a fissure in our world that won’t close over but that we will learn to live with, and in time will become part of each of us.

Tony Kelly is a semi-regular contributor to The Big Issue and is the co-author of Growing Pineapples in the Outback with his wife Rebecca Lister.

Going for a swim with his family, Tony Kelly feels the restorative power of water.

29 OCT 2021

Between the Waves

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PHOTO BY INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC

ABBA FABBA! After 40 years, ABBA are back! Ahead of the release of a brand new album, devoted fan Claire Isaac revisits our love affair with the Swedish pop group. And thanks them for the music. Claire Isaac is a journalist and life-long pop fan, and the co-host of podcast Playing Devil’s Avocado. She always wanted to be Frida.

“A friend once said they’re in my DNA. I love the new songs we’ve heard so far,” he adds. “They sound like a continuation of where ABBA were at when they finished in 1982, yet also what they’ve done individually for the past 40 years. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.” He’s not alone in his excitement. We’re a nation of ABBA fans. The band were super (trouper) successful here in their heyday – in fact they had six No#1 hits in Australia (and only three at home in Sweden) including ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Money Money Money’, ‘Fernando’ and ‘Mamma Mia’. ABBA were especially huge Down Under – The Best of Abba, a 1976 TV special made for the Australian market, got more views than the 1969 moon landing. When the ABBA world tour rolled into Australia in 1977, and the band were welcomed by thousands of hysterical fans in Sydney, it was Beatlemania all over again – but instead of Liverpudlian mop tops it was smiling Swedes who exited the plane. The two couples – Benny Andersson and Frida Lyngstad, and Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus – were perfect popstars, making clever music, with great hooks.“

n the music business, artists often take a break to recharge the batteries, find the creativity, you know the kind of thing – like Adele, for example, who has taken six years to bring out a new album. Some breaks, however, last longer than others. When ABBA release their new album Voyage on 5 November, it will have been an incredible 40 years since their last record. Yes, 40 years. When they released their last album The Visitors it was 1981, Malcolm Fraser was our prime minister, a litre of petrol was around 59 cents and Bert Newton had just won his second Gold Logie. When we weren’t listening to ABBA we were glued to Countdown or to A Country Practice. Today, we’re all on TikTok, streaming Succession and paying nearly $2 a litre to fill up. Times have changed. But for legions of Aussie fans, the appeal of the four musicians from Sweden has not. “It began in 1975, when I heard ‘Mamma Mia’ at a party. I got the ABBA album for Christmas that year, and from there on I was hooked. I still can’t fully explain it,” says Ian Cole, author of the book ABBA: Song By Song.

29 OCT 2021

@claireycluck

“They sound simple, but they’re really not,” says Cole. “There’s a lot of melancholy in even the happiest sounding songs, but at the same time there’s joy, even in the saddest sounding songs. It’s an unusual and appealing dichotomy.” As for how and why Australia embraced them, well that seems to come down to timing. “ABBA broke at a time when there was all sorts of music on the radio and in the top 40, but nothing quite like ABBA,” says Cole. “There was something in the music and the look of the group in their video clips that appealed.” “They were the first real ‘video’ band,” says mega fan and former Smash Hits editor Marc Andrews, “years before MTV began, which helped their appeal in Australia where the ABC’s Countdown broke them.” And it’s true. In Australia, the airing of the music videos for ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ on the national broadcaster’s pop show saw the band rapidly gain enormous popularity. The videos won the fans, and the fans went on to, well, thank them for the music by buying up big. Hit after hit followed, of course. Albums topped the charts – ABBA Arrival in 1976, ABBA: The Album in 1977 and Voulez-Vous in 1979 spawned songs that remain karaoke favourites today.

(I felt) great relief, happiness and proudness that we are still able to deliver and work together in harmony and with great friendship! FRIDA LYNGSTAD

PHOTOS BY GETTY, NEWSPIX

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1976: BJÖRN, AGNETHA, FRIDA AND BENNY

Then, in 1980, the album Super Trouper came out, and inside the fantasy world of the two couples, things had gone very, very bad. Indeed, both couples had acrimoniously split. Hit single ‘The Winner Takes It All’ was written by Björn just after his split from Agnetha in 1979. Agnetha said later she found it hard to sing: “But tell me does she kiss/Like I used to kiss you?” Speaking about the song in 2013, she said: “There is so much in that song. It was a mixture of what I felt and what Björn felt but also what Benny and Frida went through.” After Super Trouper came The Visitors. And then, nothing. The band did go back into the studio in 1982 with the idea of recording a follow-up. But nothing much came out of the sessions. Instead, they released a singles compilation, and made their “final” TV performance as a band, before walking off into the Swedish (midnight) sunset. All have released music and worked on other projects since. Agnetha released seven solo albums, while Frida made three of her own. Benny and Björn co-wrote numerous musicals, as well as the theme for the mighty Eurovision Song Contest, which of course ABBA had won with ‘Waterloo’ in 1974. And Australia just wouldn’t ever let go. “Not only did we make them big the first time around, but we helped revive them with Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert,” says Cole, of the two 1994 Aussie movies that celebrated all things ABBA and made it cool to be a fan all over again. “Muriel and Priscilla turned their camp appeal into mainstream nostalgia,” agrees Andrews. An ABBA tribute band Björn Again, formed in Melbourne in 1988, are regarded as the most successful of all time, playing more than 5300 shows in 77 countries (the real ABBA performed 160 shows in 16 countries). It’s not just Australia either, of course. ABBA songs were the basis for the movie Mamma Mia!, based on a 1999 musical of the same name, and the 2008 soundtrack gave the band their first No#1 album in the US. Covers albums, best-ofs and more have kept ABBA alive in fans’ hearts globally. There have been some appearances as a foursome in recent years, too. In January 2016, all four members of ABBA made a public appearance at Mamma Mia! The Party in Stockholm. And in June that year, the quartet appeared at a private party in Stockholm held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Benny

MOLLY MIA! AUSTRALIA’S FEVERISH AFFECTION FOR ABBA BEGAN IN 1975, WHEN A YOUNG MOLLY MELDRUM FIRST LISTENED TO A LITTLE-KNOWN POP GROUP FROM SWEDEN.

THEIR WATERLOO: WINNING EUROVISION 1974

MOLLY MEETS ABBA

the 60s had The Beatles and the 70s had ABBA. They united the whole family. And that’s what great pop music can do. I’m very excited about the Abbatars show – I think it’s going to be great. And the new songs sound fantastic. Classic ABBA. We have so much to thank ABBA for. All I can say is…thank you for the music.

and Björn’s first meeting. They performed one song together at the party: ‘The Way Old Friends Do’. But let’s be real here. For many ABBA fans, none of that matters anymore. On 26 August this year, a new website was launched, with the title ABBA Voyage. Overexcited fans signed up to “be the first to hear more” – if you listened carefully you could hear the sound of a million glitterballs being dusted off globally. And then came the announcement – a new album would be released on 5 November. There would also be ABBA Voyage, a concert residency in London featuring motion capture digital avatars (or Abbatars) of the four band members as their younger selves, alongside a 10-piece live band, due to start in May 2022 at the purpose-built ABBA Arena in London’s Olympic Park, and run until September. “We’re truly sailing in uncharted waters,” Benny told a launch event. “With the help of our younger selves, we travel into the future.” While the band say there are no plans to tour the show, make it available to live stream or even release it on DVD, it looks like any Aussie fans who want to see their heroes in action again will need to travel (COVID permitting). And many will, of course. For the rest of us, there are already three

29 OCT 2021

1977: FLARE ENOUGH

Have Faith in You’. We loved them back then and we still love them. I’ll never forget flying to Stockholm to interview Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida in 1976. I remember thinking, “I don’t understand what they are saying.” But one of their team told me, “That’s okay, they didn’t understand you, either.” We became good friends, though they were horrified when I dared to compare them to The Beatles. But, like The Beatles, they made a lasting impact on all of us. The 50s had Elvis,

The memories came flooding back as soon as I heard ABBA’s new music. Suddenly, it’s 1975 and I’m back in my little Countdown office, watching the ‘Mamma Mia’ video for the very first time. Australia and ABBA has been one of music’s greatest love affairs. One of the biggest thrills of my life was standing on the balcony of the Melbourne Town Hall with ABBA when they were given the keys to the city – with about 20,000 screaming fans singing ‘Mamma Mia’ to them. I smiled when shots from the Town Hall appearance popped up in the video for one of the new songs, ‘I Still

new singles – ‘I Still Have Faith in You’, ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ and ‘Just a Notion’. “Listening to the new songs it’s like the overdue, yet welcome, return of a long-lost childhood friend you loved and have missed dearly,” rhapsodises Andrews, “coming back to remind you of lost innocence, youthful joy and, of course, beautiful melancholy in middle-age.” Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer who has made no secret of his adoration for ABBA, perhaps encapsulates this feeling of giddy joy best. “Oh my god, I’m such a big ABBA fan,” he told the BBC. “[I] listened to the new song and wept like a baby. It almost sounded like time hadn’t passed. Plus it was such a beautiful romantic, melancholy, bittersweet retrospective. Ugh, it’s amazing. ABBA can do no wrong.” And while many ABBA fans are weeping into their white jumpsuits, it turns out the band themselves aren’t immune to the emotion of it all, either. “I cried myself listening to ‘ISHFIY’ for the first time!’’ said Frida on a recent Twitter Q&A with fans. “The melody and the lyrics are hauntingly beautiful, go straight into your heart and soul and bring back memories, both happy and sad! “(I felt) great relief, happiness and proudness that we are still able to deliver and work together in harmony and with great friendship!” she added.

“To know that we have given it all we have of our talent and creativity at an age when people would think you don’t have it in you! But we still do.” “I was completely floored by the way they delivered those songs,” Björn said in a recent interview of the women’s vocals on the new music. Andersson agreed. “I think hearing Frida and Agnetha singing again is hard to beat.” As for how the band feels about the reception the new music is getting: “It’s a strange and wonderful feeling because we didn’t know how the music would be received,” said Björn on Twitter. “When we got back together, we thought the result was good, but you never know if other people will feel the same. We did our best, writing the songs and recording them, as always.” Speaking at the launch event for Voyage, Björn also said they were as close as ever. “It is incredible to be where we are, no imagination could dream up that. To release a new album after 40 years and to still be the best of friends…to still have a total loyalty. Who has experienced that? Nobody… It is such fun and we have been longing for this for such a long time.” As for why now, 40 years on, Benny has a simple answer: “We wanted to do it before we were dead.” VOYAGE IS RELEASED 5 NOVEMBER. FOR TOUR DATES VISIT ABBAVOYAGE.COM.

PHOTO BY INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC

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THE ABBATARS VOYAGE TO LONDON

THE ORIGINAL ABBA-TARS

BJÖRN FREE: BENNY ANDERWEAR IN PERTH

strange, but it was very nice. They were very good natured about it and understood what it was that Björn Again was trying to achieve. And I think they got quite a hit out of it. Will Björn Again be releasing their own holograms? [Laughs] Somehow I don’t think the budgets will quite stretch that far. What about new songs? We’ve already incorporated one of the new ABBA songs in the recent shows that we did – very, very well received. But it was very strange, given that ABBA haven’t released any new material for 40 years, that we actually got to add a new song to our new set list. And what are your thoughts on ABBA’s new album? I’m really excited to hear what the rest of the new material is like. I just have a hunch that maybe the monster hit is still to be released. Just when we need optimism, ABBA’s timing for a comeback is impeccable… Absolutely! These last shows that we did [the band recently performed in Western Australia], you could just see that people were so grateful to have a joyful, positive atmosphere to celebrate in after what’s been such a difficult last couple of years for everybody. You know, nobody’s untouched by the reality that COVID has created… If there’s ever a time that the world needs a reason for joy and positivity, it’s never been stronger than now.

TO GET YOUR DANCING QUEEN ON, VISIT BJORNAGAIN.COM.AU.

29 OCT 2021

Hi Benny from Björn Again, what do you think of this other band, ABBA? I’m absolutely in awe of ABBA and the remarkable success that they’ve had over four decades. You know, I would probably give my left arm to have written just one of their hits. Any favourite song in particular? I really enjoy when we perform ‘Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)’ for a number of reasons. It’s an impeccably crafted pop song. It’s got a lot of hooks, and production wise it’s fabulous. And the other one that we all just can’t go past is ‘Dancing Queen’, and the audience response and the way they just absolutely go nuts. How do you get ready for a show? Well, unfortunately, there’s a fair bit of ironing to do. It’s so rock’n’roll. There’s a proper soundcheck, but mostly it’s some physical limbering, some ironing of the costume, coif the hair, and away we go. I read that the “other” Benny was horrified he had to shave off his beard for the first time in 40 years in order to film the Abbatars. Is your beard still real? My long hair is real, as is the beard. And what about your outfits: are they made of authentic 70s, non-breathable synthetics? They’re mostly satin. They’re not exactly what you’d call user-friendly in terms of breathability. And they’re all custom‑made for us. They’ve got to be looked after and properly laundered – that’s the really glamorous part of being in the band! Have you got any tips for ironing around sequins? Yes, turn the garments inside out, that’s the easiest way to do it. Have you ever been tempted to play Björn? [Laughs] No, no, I haven’t because I don’t play guitar – it’s an essential requirement of the job. Have you ever thought about changing the name of the band? After all it’s all about Björn... [Laughs] Well, unfortunately, that’s not my jurisdiction. But it’s a bit of a running joke from time to time on stage, you know, there’s a bit of angst between Benny and Björn that the band got named after him and not me. And have you ever met the real-life ABBA? I haven’t, but the original Björn Again line-up way back in 1992 met both Benny and Björn at the studio in Stockholm. I’ve heard a lot about it, and I know for sure that it was very

PHOTO BY DUNCAN BARNES

Benny Anderwear may look strikingly familiar, but he’s not from Sweden...he’s from Melbourne’s own Björn Again. He talks to Amy Hetherington about rocking ABBA hits and sequined jumpsuits.

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Letter to My Younger Self

I have no idea why ABBA’s music is still so popular Benny Andersson on the early days of ABBA, quitting drinking, and becoming a father at 16. by Adrian Lobb The Big Issue UK @adey70

was an ordinary 16-year‑old with no real clue what to do with my life. I didn’t know that I should be a musician or a composer. I am a self-taught guy, but I could already find my way around the piano. Then I got this offer from a rock band, The Hep Stars, who had lost their organ player. So I just slipped into it. I would tell my younger self, just keep on doing what you are doing. You don’t have to worry so much. Take it as it comes and everything will sort itself out. The early 1960s was a great time to turn 16. I was listening to all the music from the UK. The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who – those were the days! The Beach Boys could make such good recordings as well. Brian Wilson is one of my heroes, but it was definitely Lennon and McCartney who inspired me to write music. I was 19 when I wrote my first No#1. It was called ‘Sunny Girl’. I still think it is a good song. Rubbish lyric but good melody. I thought maybe this is something I should spend my life trying to do. I haven’t had a reason to regret that yet.

29 OCT 2021

TOP: ABBA WIN EUROVISION WITH ‘WATERLOO’ IN 1974 MIDDLE: CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF MAMMA MIA! WITH BJÖRN IN LONDON, 2019 BOTTOM: BENNY WITH HIS YOUNGEST SON, LUDVIG

If you drink too much, too often, for too long, you get into trouble. I decided 16 years ago that I have to give it up. And I think it is probably the best decision I have made in my life. We wouldn’t be talking now. All of a sudden, you are fighting fit every hour of the day. I was never political as a teenager, but I am now. That comes with age. You realise everything is important. I am engaged, I have opinions and support people who share my opinions. I think The Big Issue is a great initiative, for example. We have street papers in Sweden as well. Top of my list is gender equality [Andersson has donated to the Feminist Initiative Party]. I don’t understand why ABBA’s music is still so popular. I should hope it has to do with the quality of the songs. We were really thorough. None of us would have thought when we quit in 1982 that our music would still be around 40 years on, but there is still as much life in the records as there was then. We were lucky. The music was kept alive by Muriel’s Wedding, which was a really good film. Then Erasure recorded a few tracks and had a big success. Then ABBA Gold was released. And there must be millions of kids out there that don’t know about ABBA but know the songs from Mamma Mia!. There are a lot of things that this young guy could have a reason to look forward to. I am very proud of what we achieved with ABBA, the music of Chess, and we also wrote a musical in Sweden called Kristina, about Swedish immigration to North America in the 19th century. That was a huge success here – it is more of an opera really. Ending ABBA didn’t feel any different, I just kept on doing what I liked to do. It felt good. I wanted to try to write music for the theatre and then Tim Rice showed up with an idea for a musical about chess. I said that was boring enough to get our teeth into! I formed a little band because I wanted to go back to my roots in Swedish folk music. We are now a 16-piece band, Benny Anderssons Orkester. We tour every two years, bring a dancefloor and play for four hours. I still get the buzz.

PHOTOS BY GETTY AND ALAMY. TEXT COURTESY OF INSP.NGO/THE BIG ISSUE UK BIGISSUE.COM @BIGISSUE

My parents thought I needed a real job. In the 1960s, being in a rock band was not considered a real job. We were the biggest band in Sweden from 1965 to 1969 but they’d still say, “What are you going to do after The Hep Stars?” There were a couple of years before ABBA where all four of us needed to work to put food on the table and pay the rent. And I come from circumstances where we didn’t have much money in my family. So music has been good to me, but I know what it’s like to struggle. I was very young when I became a father [he was 16 when son Peter was born]. Even if I thought I was a mature 16-year-old and was ahead of my friends at school, it wasn’t an ideal situation. It wasn’t great when I was out touring. I regret that. But it works now and has done for many years. Now my son is 57 and my daughter is 55. They say, “We are happy you did what you did. Because it means being able to live a decent life.” They don’t complain, but I don’t know. My younger son [Ludvig] is 39 and I was with him the whole time he was growing up. I loved being hands on. We do everything together. ABBA came together organically. Björn met Agnetha and got engaged and at almost the same time I met Frida. They were solo artists; I had my band and Björn had his. Then Björn and I made a record called Lycka, which means “happiness”. For one song we asked our wives to come in for backing vocals and all of a sudden, wow. They sound good – we don’t! Björn said we should try to write pop music and sing in English. That was 1972 and we wrote ‘People Need Love’, which they do. It became a hit. After that, to make people realise us guys from the North Pole exist, we decided to enter Eurovision. All of a sudden, we had an audience that was not just in Sweden. That felt really good. I have known Björn for 55 years and it is like having a brother. That friendship has been very important. We still talk every week. We are not very much alike. I am who I am, he is who he is, which is one of the reasons we are still such good friends. Relations within ABBA have always been good; we are all good friends. We have met through the years to talk about things. We are good. Absolutely.

series by Trent Mitchell

Trent Mitchell’s photos of a bygone Australia hark back to the 1980s – when bigger was better, colours were pastel and life was one long summer. by Michael Epis Contributing Editor

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The Big Picture

A Blast from the Past

Matilda the kangaroo, 13m tall and weighing six tonnes, sitting pretty in downtown Tugun, Queensland

FOR MORE IMAGES, GO TO TRENTMITCHELL.COM.

29 OCT 2021

t all began for Trent Mitchell when he was a boy, growing up in Mona Vale on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in the 1980s, “in the middle of middle-class suburbia”, as he puts it. At every chance possible – school holidays, long weekends, any weekend – his mum, dad, he and his little sister would jump in the family car and head off to another world. That other world was Budgewoi, on the Central Coast, where it seemed everyone got about barefoot, no-one was in a rush to get anywhere, and there was unlimited freedom. Mitchell fell in love with this other Australia. “We’d jump in the car on a Saturday, Dad would put on his mixtape – plenty of Dire Straits, John Farnham and Diesel – and we’d head off. After the obligatory back-seat arguments between us kids, it was riding the BMX in the dirt tracks around the caravan park or the sand dunes, riding down to the shops for lollies and milkshakes. It was a super valuable experience, just finding out how other people lived.” Mitchell fell in love with the different sights of the regions – sights that he has been documenting in photos for 15 years now. Sights such as this giant kangaroo, who may ring a bell for readers of a certain age. “That’s Matilda, the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games,” he says, recalling the time he pulled over by a petrol station in Tugun where she stood tall – 13 metres tall. “She’s gone now.” Indeed, Matilda, having stood sentry at Wet’n’Wild Water World (in its various incarnations) for a quarter-century, has moved on to greener pastures – at the Matilda petrol station in Kybong, population 333, some 150 kilometres north of Brisbane. That sort of change is part of the project – “it’s not really why I started photographing these things, but it is the nature of it,” says Trent, who describes this series as “a poke and a nod” to the landscape of his childhood. Like the pineapple that sits in a couple of square metres at the rear of a petrol station in Ballina. “That’s odd because it’s at the exit. You could easily drive by and miss it.” The regions offer not just giant objects, but extraordinary museums, like Vic Hislop’s Shark Show, which stood for an eternity in Hervey Bay, but which is now shuttered, much to the delight of some who vented on TripAdvisor. “I was disgusted by this joke of a museum,” wrote one. It offered “hours of entertainment for the whole family”, with the promise that “you will be amazed”. Trent loves the randomness of it all. “Yeah, the handwritten signs, the colour combinations of the paint, the manual labour that goes into making these things, the quirkiness, the character, the randomness. Yeah, let’s put a dinosaur in our backyard, that’d be cool. Love it.”

Lifesavers at Queensland’s North Burleigh enjoying a prank

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Making a splash in the caravan park pool, Hervey Bay, Queensland

Vic Hislop’s Shark Show, a Hervey Bay icon for 30 years

Little Pineapple, West Ballina, NSW

Plane sailing at the Qantas Founders Museum, Longreach, Queensland

Camp Cope Teachers learn a thing or two on school camp too, writes English teacher and Yeats enthusiast Thomas Robinson.

illustration by Lynn Bremner

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Thomas Robinson is a Sydney-based writer and teacher. He is part of the editorial team for the literary journal Authora Australis.

eachers play different roles at different times – instructor, mentor, counsellor, litter-patroller – but “camper” is one I find more challenging. I’m talking here about the outdoor education camp, which combines tents, trangias and sleeping bags with five days of hiking or riding or kayaking, or some other kind of adventurous activity that you see on the back of a Nutri-Grain box. I have sometimes wished the Nutri-Grain people would use more accessible images of adventure – of me, say, about to teach Year 9 on Friday afternoon, my face contorted in a similar expression of sweaty pain. Perhaps my resistance to camping is because the classroom feels adventurous enough. But perhaps it is also because an occupational hazard

of English teaching is that you end up preferring the representation of reality to reality itself. I can analyse a character in a novel who is hiking through mud and rain and know they are progressing to some kind of epiphany, but when I’m doing it myself I only find soggy running shoes, broken backpack straps and grumpy teenagers asking how far away the next site is, which never seems sufficiently transformative. Still, I’ve grown to appreciate camps, both for their effect on myself as well as on the students. For one, they are humbling experiences, where the teacher has to listen and concentrate and not know exactly what they are doing for a change – and this is not a bad position to be reminded of, since it is, after all, the position we are normally putting students in. Alas, the

phrase I am looking for is the one beloved by motivational speakers, personal trainers, and Year 8 boys writing biographies of sporting heroes: camping takes you “outside your comfort zone”. Sure, roll your eyes – I certainly have, and squiggled my red pen – except that one of the irritating things you learn on camps is that being snobby about the phrase “comfort zone” is about as helpful as forgetting to pack the gas for the trangias. My knowledge of trochaic tetrameter and ability to declaim Yeats is no substitute for a truckload of Kathmandu gear and the ability to stabilise a ridge tent with tie-outs and guy-lines in pitch dark and freezing rain. It is fortunate, then, that you are always accompanied by one or two outdoor education leaders, who are exactly the sort of people who can do this, and who seem to come from another world. They are young and energetic and cheerful; they have muscles and their skin glows; they have just

bridge of their nose, and they’ve got a little bruise and it will probably scar them for life. You nod, sympathise, encourage, and try to distract them by talking about food, knowing that in the weeks ahead these experiences will metamorphose into a set of steadily more hyperbolic and entertaining anecdotes. Wordsworth talked about emotion recollected in tranquillity being the source of great poetry, and I like to imagine this insight came to him after a particularly uncomfortable day’s hiking of the Lake District, with Coleridge beside him moaning about the soggy scroggin and the slippery trail and the fact that the rain is actually horizontal: for teenagers, inconvenience recollected on the couch in front of Netflix is a similarly fertile source of creativity. However much they grumble, they all get a break from themselves, or the selves that they knew back home. The Australian essayist Robert Skinner wrote that one of the

reasons we go bush is to trade our old boring problems for new, refreshing ones, and the same is true here. Tedious as the new problems sometimes are, they do push out the old ones that preoccupied us before we left, and the mutable nature of our day-to-day frustrations is not a bad lesson to teach young people. Plus, the shared experience of managing the new problems can help establish friendships and connections that last long after the bus ride home – which, by the way, they will spend half asleep, as placid as toddlers as a PG-rated Disney film plays. Funnily enough, a faint connection will also remain between the students and their teacher. A month later you will both be enmeshed in some typical teacher-student altercation over a dropped apple core, firmly following your allotted scripts of rule-enforcer and rule-defier. Then a memory will float in – of how this time a month ago you had both just finished an 8km kayaking journey, and finally arrived at a mountain that had seemed, for the entire day, to be moving away from you as fast as you travelled; and of resting your aching muscles in the watery sun as one irrepressible Year 10 yelled that they could see a really interesting looking fish. The memory will only last a moment but it will be enough to interrupt the script. Back in the playground there will be a glance and shared nod and the apple core will end up in the bin without much further discussion. Then you will each go on your way. You’re returning to the respective dramas of your everyday lives, but you’ve both been reminded that it is only one set of dramas among many, and that the life of adventure is more complex than even a Nutri-Grain box can convey.

returned from breath-diving in Bali or being a chef in Borneo; they know about knots and winds and weather maps. Here they are the expert and you are the support, keeping an eye on the kids while trying to remember how to pivot a paddle. In the nightly debrief, these leaders may use the phrase “comfort zone” and it will be the perfect thing to say. Any final vestiges of patronising superiority you may have will disappear as you concentrate on not weeping in gratitude when they give you a hot chocolate. And then there are the students, and there is usually a shift in them too. For example, there is the sort of student whose name teachers pronounce with a sigh. This is the student who gazes out the window during the quiz, spends essay-writing time trying to invent a new game of pencil‑Jenga, and who would literally rather eat Great Expectations than read it. Yet out here they are differentThey carry people’s tent-bags from the kayak to the land; they coordinate the collection of the bracken for the fire; they stop having to be told to listen, and they start telling other people to listen, and sometimes getting quite irate about it. The outdoor education leader addresses them in a different tone, in a way that recognises they might actually be doing the leader’s job in five years. They fit here in a way that they don’t in the classroom, and while it doesn’t happen all the time, it happens often enough to remind you that the classroom is just one kind of environment among many. Other students find it harder. Their sleeping bag won’t go in the compression sack, they tell you, and their sunscreen has leaked into their sandwiches, and their head-torch strap isn’t elasticated enough, so that the torch bounces on the

29 OCT 2021

One of the irritating things you learn on camps is that being snobby about the phrase ‘comfort zone’ is about as helpful as forgetting to pack the gas for the trangias.

by Ricky French @frenchricky

PHOTO BY JAMES BRAUND

ike so many other people stuck in the southeast corner of the continent, where lockdown settled into the longest winter of your life, I’ve been working from home. Working from home is not the ideal state of affairs for a travel writer. The last time Melbourne was in between lockdowns I caught the train into the city and had coffee with fellow travel writer Tim Richards. My train trip took about 20 minutes, but the train trip Richards has just written a book about took considerably longer. It’s not a great time to be launching a book. Authors rely on the initial kick of a fancy launch, where at the very least you can usually herd your friends and family along to buy the damn thing. I know a couple of people who have launched books during COVID and they all say the experience – via Zoom – is deflating. I went home and ordered Richards’ book. It’s called Heading South, and it follows his journey by rail from Far North Queensland to Western Australia. It’s more of a semi‑circumnavigation than a crossing, as Richards traces the tracks from the town of Normanton, just south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, across to Cairns, then hugs the coast to Sydney, zipping inland down to Melbourne before joining the great Indian Pacific in Adelaide and storming across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth. What incredible fun, and all those border crossings – it seems almost as daring and foreign as Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar. There’s something soothing about train travel – even reading about it helps to ease lockdown-induced anxiety. Being on a long‑distance train journey is a little like being in lockdown. Life is reduced to only a handful of options. Do you go and buy a sandwich now, or stare out the window for a bit longer? It’s a simple, pleasing existence, and with less risk of deep vein thrombosis than on a plane. I haven’t done many rail trips, besides years of the daily commute to work. A few

years ago I travelled round Germany by train with my family. It was a chaotic experience, interspersed with moments of bliss. Working out different ticketing systems in each city, finding platforms and allocated seats while dragging three months’ worth of baggage and a child behind you was stressful to say the least. Travelling from Berlin to Hamburg we took our assigned seats only to find they weren’t our assigned seats. Our assigned seats didn’t exist, as a humourless conductor explained to us. Apparently you have to pay extra if you actually want a seat on the train in Germany, otherwise you brace yourself against a wall or sit on the floor between carriages, playing cards and pretending it’s all part of the adventure of travel. Between Hamburg and Cologne the train did a very un-German thing. It broke down. But then there was an incredible moment of passing through Wuppertal and seeing the famous suspension railway, the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn, where the carriages hang from the tracks above. Magic! We’ve also taken the train from Wellington to Auckland in NZ – the Northern Explorer – a wonderful trip through the North Island’s volcanic interior. It was our driver’s last ever trip after a career of 40 years. He got out at Taumarunui when they changed drivers and from our seats we saw him on the platform smiling and waving at the train as it pulled away. We were headed for the dairy country of the Waikato; he was headed into retirement. Soon our internal borders will come down, and like the fall of the Berlin Wall, we will be reunified. Well, maybe not Western Australia. But we can always read about that enchanted land in a book. Travel well.

Ricky is a writer and musician who’s on the rails. Fellow columnist Fiona Scott-Norman is taking a short break to finish her next book.

29 OCT 2021

OK Commuter

Being on a long‑distance train journey is a little like being in lockdown.

Ricky

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Music Banoffee

by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen is a Vietnamese -Australian writer based in Melbourne.

n March 2020, Martha Brown moved back to Melbourne. The musician, who records as Banoffee, had spent four years living in Los Angeles, and had just returned there from her annual Christmas trip to Australia when COVID-19 was officially classified as a pandemic. It was only a month after her debut solo album, Look at Us Now Dad, was released; her year-long touring plans for the record were scuppered, and she played only two Australian shows supporting the record. Brown’s relationship with Melbourne had been complicated, but returning to the city in a time of turmoil and change was healing. “It was really nice to have Melbourne catch me in the way that it did,” she says. “It’s hard being a musician in Melbourne living here full-time because there are definitely limitations, but in terms of coming back, my family’s here, and Australia had so much more support than anywhere else in the world. I just had to keep reminding myself that I was actually one of the lucky ones.” Back in Melbourne, Brown didn’t have a permanent address and was moving frequently. “It was a big upheaval, and it took a lot of 2020 processing that and working out how to restructure what I wanted to do, and working out how to keep making music with everything going on,” she says. She ended up spending a lot of time at her mother’s cabin by the beach, where she worked on her new album, Teartracks. But another personal curveball changed the direction of the record again. “I went through a pretty difficult break-up towards the end of 2020. I had a pretty different record ready to release, and decided that I wanted to focus on the emotions I was feeling and release something that felt very current for me,” she says.

TEARTRACKS IS OUT 10 NOVEMBER.

29 OCT 2021

Banoffee’s second album has been shaped by COVID, a return to Melbourne – and a break-up.

Tears on the Tracks

Crossing international borders via email to work with Planet 1999’s Charles Teiller (based in Paris) and LA-based Ceci G, Brown has produced a record of vulnerability and honesty. Echoing the superlative pop sounds of Caroline Polachek, these glittering tracks catalogue the pains and absurdities of heartbreak, as on single ‘Never Get to Fuck Any1’, where Brown wonders if she’ll ever again have sex as good as she had with her ex. “I wanted to write a break-up record that wasn’t just that classic ‘fuck you, I hate you’ sort of record,” Brown says. “There are songs about sadness and frustration, but they’re never hurtful. There are songs about the pain of just letting go of a best friend – that isn’t as popular in pop culture because it’s not instantly gratifying. It’s not very satisfying to think about the fact that someone’s hurting you, but it’s not their fault. I wanted it to feel authentic and genuine to me, so in that way I think it is different to other break-up records.” Writing to a specific theme was a new experience for Brown. While Look at Us Now Dad dealt with intergenerational trauma and survival, she took a different approach to write this new album. “I was quite excited to do it because I’ve never really approached an album with one very specific topic, so it was a challenge to put my blinkers on and keep this record focused,” she says. Throughout our conversation, Brown touches on the idea of limitations a few times. A lot of people have come up against them these past 18 months, and they are certainly something that affected the making of this record. “Limitations are often the best thing for creativity – you give someone too much choice and they release garbage – so for me, it was about trying to make the most of the limitations I had, and being like, okay, maybe this could be really interesting,” she says. Brown spent 2018 touring as a member of Charli XCX’s band, in support of Taylor Swift on her Reputation tour. The idea of limitations returns here in that in Charli, Brown bore witness to an artist who was completely without mental blocks. “It’s always super motivating to work with someone who is just so hungry for what they do,” she says. “Charli has never bowed down to any of the limitations that a lot of people feel they have to. It was really just perseverance and hunger for something new that has gotten her to where she is. It was super inspiring to work with her and take on some of that mentality, and be a bit of a student on the road.” With Teartracks, Brown has created an album that she hopes will stand the test of time. “It’s not going to be a banger album – it’s not going to be an album with heaps of pop hits on it – it’s going to be maybe an album that stays with people for a while, that they don’t listen to excessively and then let go of and never listen to again,” she says. “I want this to be a record that stays in people’s catalogue that they can come back to.”

El Planeta

Film 30

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Planet Mirth New director Amalia Ulman casts her mum as her mum and her cat as her cat alongside herself in her debut feature, a wry look at our world of unemployment, wish fulfilment and faking it till you make it.

Bruce Koussaba is a Togolese-Burundian filmmaker, critic and writer based in the Liverpool area of Sydney.

t was such a family endeavour,” says rising filmmaker Amalia Ulman, whose acclaimed debut feature, the “eviction comedy” El Planeta, stars herself, her mother and her cat. The project lands very close to home for the Argentinianborn artist. To make the film, she returned to the place she works best: the city where she was brought up, Gijon, in northwestern Spain. She describes the working-class seaside city as “a beautiful gem that hasn’t really been touched by globalisation” – though the scars left by the 2008 financial crisis that devastated Spain are all too visible, written over Gijon’s quiet streets lined with closed-down businesses. The impact of the financial crisis looms large over the story, as daughter-mother duo Leonor and María (played by Ulman and her mother, Ale, respectively) teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, too. María is a widowed homemaker, unable to support herself, and the thirty-something Leonor is living

She’s a very comedic actor and such a goofball… She was actually really great.

PHOTO COURTESY HOLGAS MEOW PICTURES/SUNDANCE

AMALIA ULMAN ON HER MUM, ALE

back at home, having reached a dead-end in her career as a stylist. The pair have two months until they’ll be evicted from their apartment. To survive, they pose as wealthy Spanish citizens, bluffing their way into receiving, on credit, designer clothes, restaurant meals and opulent boxes of fruit and pastries. It’s a charade that can only last so long. “[Especially] in a place like Gijon, where there’s no opportunity,” explains Ulman. “As much as you try to get out you just run up against a wall. The characters know they’re running out of time. It’s like learning someone is dying, so they’re trying to maintain as much as possible their home life, untouched, out of love for one another, through jokes and memories. “They’re trying to find a way out, even though both of them are basically drowning,” says Ulman. “Leonor is more realistic…and the mum is doing it her way” – dressing in furs to scam her way to the next meal. Ulman drew inspiration from the unique townsfolk: “The spark of the idea came from this story of these two women who were pretending to be rich in Gijon.” In particular, a tabloid article brought to Ulman’s attention the escapades of Justina and Ana Belén, real-life mother and daughter grifters who wined, dined and shopped on spurious credit, before being found out and sentenced to prison. “Originally, I thought maybe I’ll make a documentary, but quickly it became more interesting if it was fictional

EL PLANETA SCREENS IN CINEMAS AND ONLINE AS PART OF THE SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL, 3-14 NOVEMBER.

29 OCT 2021

@garbadiive

and I could tell all these other stories that I had in mind,” she says. During the casting process, it became clear to Ulman that her own mother – though not a professional actor – should act alongside her. “I was going to cast actors but as soon as I did some [screen] tests with my mother…she was so good I felt we had to be in it together. “She’s a very comedic actor and such a goofball… She was actually really great. She loves films and she took it very seriously; she read all the Lee Strasberg books, did her homework and was devoted,” Ulman says. She explains that the situation the characters find themselves in determines the kinds of connections that are available to them. In the opening scene, Leonor considers indulging the sexual fantasies of a married man; later, she tries to impress a fashion editor she believes can get her a gig, until it becomes painfully clear her payment will be in “exposure”. “I didn’t go for like, ‘Oh, men suck,’ or that all the men are portrayed as bad because ‘men in general are bad’. It was important to show their relationships to men are bad because they’re looking for transactional relationships – these women are desperate, and when you’re desperate you attract the worst kind of people.” The duo’s companionship brings warmth to the moody black-and-white lensing of El Planeta – an intimacy tighter than the tiny apartment, where mum and daughter offer second opinions on each other’s outfits and coo over videos of their cat. Now together in New York, Ulman has been with her cat Holga since age 16. “She’s such a huge part of my family. Basically my family is my mother, Holga, and I,” she laughs. El Planeta debuted early this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where critics and artists like Miranda July were quick to praise Ulman’s tongue-in-cheek humour and singular style. In the wake of its success, she is being celebrated by the global cinema community as one of the most exciting newcomers. But Ulman’s journey has actually been a long road of experimentation as a multi-disciplinary artist. In 2014, she gained attention for her three-month Instagram performance piece Excellences & Perfections, which was quite possibly the first of its kind to challenge and deconstruct the influencer culture prevalent on social media. El Planeta maintains Ulman’s signature middlebrow style and the dry wit found throughout her art practice. The film weaves in eclectic references – from 1930s Pre‑Code movies to millennial video art aesthetics – to forge something totally her own. “Film really feeds into how my brain is… I’ve always been very narrative, which is weird in Fine Arts [which she studied]. Now [making films] I feel like I’m the best version of myself.”

by Bruce Koussaba

Hannah Kent’s latest novel takes historical fiction to magical new heights – reaching across space and time, life and death – all in the name of love. by Anna Spargo-Ryan @annaspargoryan

Anna Spargo-Ryan is a Melbourne writer and author of two novels. Her book on life with complex mental illness is forthcoming.

PHOTO BY LAUREN BAMFORD

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Books

Hannah Kent

Filling the Silences

evotion is a love story. Not only a romance, though it is that, or a queer coming-of-age discovery, though it’s that, too. Hannah Kent’s hotly anticipated new novel is a story that transcends time, space and the laws of physics to explore unwavering, crystalline love. Kent’s own love story is life with her wife and their children in the Adelaide Hills. They live close to the original village where persecuted German migrants established new lives, many of them Kent’s ancestors. The family connection and locality drew her to fill in what was missing of those stories, using contemporary ideas to give a voice to those who had been silenced. “The questions that we have for the past are modern questions,” she says. “The absences that intrigued us, the silences, women’s stories. All of this comes from a modern fascination or a modern desire to have those narratives restored to us.” Unlike Kent’s acclaimed earlier novels, Burial

and lyrical, expressive and experimental. The narrative choices give a sense of freedom to play outside the usual boundaries. Ancient ideas are expressed with a contemporary voice, richly poetic but clear-eyed. And it comes from a surprising source. “I had two kids during the writing of this book, and both are awful sleepers. I’ve never been so tired in my life. I’m still so tired! It was like writing in a fever dream. It was writing in intense fatigue, but letting my mind go. And to be honest, it felt very free to do that. In my previous novels, I felt very anxious to adhere to all the facts or tether the story to imagined likelihoods. With this, I had a feeling of wanting to write whatever bizarre thing came to mind.” It’s a device that gives Kent freedom to explore complex feelings with purity. Taking them outside of a realist narrative creates opportunities to watch a flourishing relationship that, in reality, would have been forced into hiding by bigotry and hate.

“I knew if I absolutely honoured the time and the place and the historical mindset, it would be such a different book,” she says. “There is no way that I want to heap another one of those shame narratives on the queer community. There’s nothing worth celebrating in that and I wanted this book, ultimately, to be a celebration.” Devotion goes beyond even celebration to become almost an interrogation of the very concept of love. From its beginnings in the Prussian village of Kay, across the wild oceans to Port Misery, the relationship between Hanne and Thea seems nothing less than fundamental to the human condition. It’s their love story, but it is everyone’s love story. As Kent says, “These are the ways that we time travel. Through very universal human emotions.” Her character, Hanne, reflects in the opening pages: “The testimony of love is the backbone of the universe. It is the taproot from which all stories spring.” The result is an historical novel that moves outside of the social barriers while still acknowledging them. It demands that the reader look at a blossoming romantic friendship with wonder and compassion. It asks them to understand that this happens outside of the constraints of tedious things like linear time, physical touch, or life and death. Devotion is a love story: a wide-ranging, timeless love story that will resonate with anyone who has felt the stirrings of another’s heart beating in – or out of – time with their own.

DEVOTION IS OUT NOW.

Rites and The Good People, this work is not based on a specific historical event. Instead, it uses the backdrop of Prussian migration to South Australia in the 19th century to introduce us to Hanne and Thea, a pair of teenage girls who discover romance, sexuality, love and friendship in a community driven by religion. “The community was literally built around the church,” Kent says. “Religion was naturally going to form a very strong part of the book, and the ideas of faith are very similar to love. Love of God, love of community, putting someone else before yourself – all of these things are easily transferrable.” Balancing these two parts required a rethink of the traditional historical fiction novel. German Lutheran emigration was significantly driven by religious persecution – a hostile environment for two young women falling in love – and Kent knew that it would make it impossible to write the story she was compelled to write. Within the context of such fervent religious commitment, it would have become a narrative of self-denial and shame. “To have what is essentially a modern celebration of queer love,” she says, “it would be necessary to separate it from time.” Kent achieves this through a beautifully rendered magic realism element; the second part of the novel weaves fantastical heartache into Kent’s famously pristine prose. Narrator Hanne observes the community as it grows, out of time and out of sync, connected to the earth and history and the future. Fans of Kent’s work will notice some differences in the language here. The writing is often relaxed

29 OCT 2021

To have what is essentially a modern celebration of queer love, it would be necessary to separate it from time.

Film Reviews

Annabel Brady-Brown Film Editor @annnabelbb

inema is back, baby. Postponed from its original June dates, the Sydney Film Festival gets resurrected this 3-14 November, before an avalanche of held-back movies happily crash upon us over summer. The festival includes sneak peeks of major upcoming titles, like Leah Purcell’s period western The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious take on the untameable, gargantuan sci-fi tome Dune, and The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson’s star-studded homage to 20th-century expat writers like James Baldwin who found a home away from home in a fairytale France. Alongside such big, bold studio productions, there are quiet arthouse treasures, including the unmissable absurdist sci-fi The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet. Argentinean director Ana Katz casts her own brother as a sweet down‑and‑outer who just wants to look after his neurotic pooch. The film uses graceful ellipses to barrel through the years, landing in a funny-sad, COVIDesque dystopian future where humans must wear astronaut helmets to breathe above four feet – leaving those who can’t afford them crawling through corridors on their knees. For the rest of the country, check out Sydney filmmaker James Vaughan’s remarkable debut feature Friends and Strangers, which appears in the festival’s virtual stream. Crafted with thought and care, the film is not only beautiful to look at, but it interrogates white Australia’s inability to face up to its own history, with devastating, incisive wit. ABB

THOUGHT BUBBLE: DANIEL KATZ

JULIA 

Don’t make the mistake of bringing some paltry, packaged snack to this doco about American foodie icon Julia Child: the sizzle reels of sizzling boeuf, and pears drowning in coulis, will be torture. It’s a comprehensive look at her country’s cuisine BC (before Child) and after, claiming the French Chef presenter single-handedly pivoted the culinary focus from convenience to joy. That joy comes through in Child’s letters and diary excerpts, as well as talking heads: one friend admits they’re “constantly thinking about” the gravy Child served at a dinner party…in the 70s. A homemaker who began cooking in her late forties, Child defied every stuffy boys’ club she took on, from the kitchens of Le Cordon Bleu to cookbook publishing and public TV. Her outsized personality can seem enigmatic, even within her own whirlwind life story. But Julia captures a truly singular character, particularly that “gasping, strange” warble of a voice (Meryl Streep’s impression in 2009’s Julie & Julia was subdued if anything). ELIZA JANSSEN THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK

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Spinoffs of beloved books and series are always risky. But taking on The Sopranos, whose six seasons are often held up as prestige TV at its finest, seems to have been a particularly foolhardy decision by creator David Chase. Where the mafia hit show needled deeper truths about family, guilt, the American Dream and the Italian-American experience, The Many Saints of Newark offers nothing more than a sloppy mess of cultural stereotypes that lands with a thunk. This unnecessary movie prequel rewinds the clock to 1967, when future mob boss Tony Soprano was still just a kid in New Jersey. He is played by the late, great James Gandolfini’s son, Michael – a casting choice that sounds gimmicky but saves the film from all-out disaster. Everyone else (including Vera Farmiga as a young Livia, weighed down by a prosthetic nose) shuffles around like a re-animated corpse, aping the future, older versions of themselves that Sopranos fans already know and love. ANNABEL BRADY-BROWN

BECOMING COUSTEAU 

In Liz Garbus’ charming new documentary, the ocean is spoken of in divine terms. It’s a dream world and a “holy house of saints”, elevating the divers who navigate its waters – particularly the late French explorer-conservationist Jacques Cousteau – to godlike figures. Spoken by former crew members of the infamous Calypso, these descriptions capture the mystic appeal that first propelled Cousteau below the sea’s surface. Composed of archival footage, interviews and diary entries, the film traces his career, outlining triumphs and faults alike. For long-time fans, the film is a worthy and complex portrait. Yet Becoming Cousteau is most emphatic when considering the guilt that turned the explorer and his famous red beanie from research to activism, trading the early romance of underwater discovery for the pressing threat of ecological destruction. Restored footage of since-decayed habitats play like tainted memories, displaying what continues to be lost. TIIA KELLY

Small Screen Reviews

Aimee Knight Small Screens Editor @siraimeeknight

SPREADSHEET  | PARAMOUNT+

LOVE LIFE

 | PRIME VIDEO

 | STAN

The Green Knight begins with a challenge: the mythical Green Knight calls on anyone in King Arthur’s court to strike him, on the condition that he can return the blow in one year. The King’s nephew Gawain (Dev Patel, Lion), desperate to prove his worth, cuts off the Knight’s head. A year later, Gawain sets off to meet the Green Knight, but Patel’s Gawain is a man trying to run from his fate with every step towards it. Director David Lowery (A Ghost Story) delivers an Arthurian legend that is grounded and human without being cynical, with a stunning combination of production design, costuming, cinematography and practical effects. The quest is broken into short chapters, held together by Patel’s magnetic performance as a young man obsessed with honour but unwilling, or, perhaps, incapable of understanding it is something you have, not something you earn. There are no grand battles or knights in shining armour. Instead, it’s a slow, methodical meditation on humanity and honour that offers no easy answers. TANSY GARDAM

An anthology series with a different central character each season, Love Life’s second season nevertheless opens at the wedding of season one protagonist Darby Carter (Anna Kendrick, Pitch Perfect), where circumspect book editor Marcus Watkins (William Jackson Harper, The Good Place) is a fish out of water. Race is a perennial spectre here, as Marcus constantly examines and renegotiates his Blackness: in his interracial marriage, his exceedingly white publishing house where a Black author compares him to Obama because he’s “safe, non-threatening”, and in his burgeoning relationship with the enigmatic Mia (Jessica Williams, Booksmart). Unlike season one, which starts from a formulaic place of Darby seeking love, this season is grounded in confusion and infidelity. Yet other aspects remain the same; the show still trades in the magical alchemy of happenstance – the rom-com’s raison d’être – where each action is imbued with significance and possibility. Frank, revealing and, at times, heartbreaking, Love Life continues to ponder how the love we encounter shapes us. SONIA NAIR

s we hurtle towards the end of the year, a couple of my favourite shows are also winding down their multi‑season runs – more’s the pity. The first is Insecure, a comedy-drama about the friendships, work turmoil and dating escapades among a group of thirty-something women in LA. Created by Issa Rae (The Hate U Give), who also stars and often writes, the show is an extension of her YouTube series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (2011-2013), which drew attention for its amusing but realistic depiction of Black womanhood, without relying on stereotypes. When Insecure debuted in 2016, it was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top 10 TV Programs of the Year. It’s since been nominated for a swag of Emmys, and has taken home a Peabody and multiple NAACP Image Awards. The fifth and final season is now dropping weekly on Binge. Over on Apple TV+, it’s almost time to bid farewell to the godmother of American poetry – the Patron Saint of Sad Girl Summers – Ms Emily Dickinson. Her playful, interpretive biopic of sorts, Dickinson, embarks on its last outing in 19th-century Massachusetts (via 21st-century online and pop cultures) from 5 November. We spoke with Dickinson showrunner Alena Smith about feminism, anachronism and contributing to global conversations back in Ed#629, ahead of the season two premiere. If you haven’t yet fallen under Emily’s spell, it’s a great primer for this beguiling series, and it’s up now on our website. AK

29 OCT 2021

THE GREEN KNIGHT

THE MISADVENTURES OF ISSA RAE

Recently divorced, technologically inept working mother of two Lauren Davies (Katherine Parkinson, The IT Crowd) navigates online dating purely for sex, as she keenly reminds a world intent on policing women’s sexuality. And there’s lots of sex, with each episode of this eight-part comedy opening on a sexual act in choice locations reminiscent of teenage trysts. Aiding Lauren is best friend and colleague Alex (theatre star Rowan Witt), who meticulously maintains a spreadsheet of her conquests and is her all-round saviour when things go awry, which they inevitably do. Spreadsheet is unapologetically Melbourne – Luna Park, Bar Margaux and Chinatown all backdrop Lauren’s chaotic life – but the Melbourne of the show seems like a small village, where a comical web of interconnected relationships and coincidences combine to land Lauren in sticky situations. Tired tropes and heavy-handed messaging occasionally detract from the characterisations but, at its heart, Spreadsheet is an always amusing, sometimes unfortunate, never shameful portrait of a woman’s journey to rediscover herself. SONIA NAIR

Music Reviews

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

n an era where so many beloved musical figures of the 20th century have turned their backs on the political tenacity of their youth, Billy Bragg remains an outlier; a staunch political force whose concerns have remained ever‑relevant: the disenfranchisement of the poor, the cruelty of conservatism, and the importance of collective organisation. On his latest album, The Million Things That Never Happened, he persists with his concerns, writing about the political fissures that have emerged because of the pandemic – the starkest, he says, since the era of Margaret Thatcher’s economic rationalism. But his status as a respected activist and music icon in the UK was hard-earned. Emerging as punk took over the country, Bragg formed a pub-rock group and toured Britain, but received little attention. Turning his back on music, he enlisted in the army, only to return after three months of training. He then began busking and performing solo, playing spare, emotionally barbed folk songs with an electric guitar. Failing again to court any interest from the record industry, he snuck into a record label pretending to be a television repairman and handed his demo tape to the label’s A&R, who would eventually release his debut album. On The Million... he’s exploring a fuller sound than the skeletal arrangements of his youth. Sure it can venture into dogmatic, cringe territory (no-one really wants to hear a 63-year-old sing “world wide web”), but his voice sounds better than ever: rugged, powerful and filled with hope. IT

HUMB

AG LE, BR

Isabella Trimboli Music Editor @itrimboli

SOMETHING IS GOING TO CHANGE TOMORROW, TODAY. WHAT WILL YOU DO? WHAT WILL YOU SAY? EMMA RUSSACK & LACHLAN DENTON 

On their latest collaborative album (their fourth, following their brilliant 2019 record Take the Reigns), Emma Russack (known for her solo work and playing in Snowy Band) and Lachlan Denton (from bands The Ocean Party, Pop Filter, Lachlan Denton & Studio Magic, among others) again prove themselves to be Melbourne’s most formidable songwriting duo. It’s their most sonically dynamic release yet, with a sound that recalls the narrative-driven, singer-songwriter pieces that peaked in the mid-70s: frenzied piano, calland-response choruses and perfect, rich melodies. With wit and charm, they sketch stories of satisfaction cut short, wrestle with the cruelties of modern life, and bare their own inadequacies. These concerns are best expressed on ‘Authenticity’, where Denton charts the eternal search for it and all its expected pitfalls (“I don’t care much about bravery,” sings Denton, “it’s been used too many times”). While on the wonderful ‘Done My Time’, Russack wonders if it’s time to forgo the city and retreat to the sleepy coast of her childhood. ISABELLA TRIMBOLI

UNSOLICITED ADVICE ON YOUR DIY DISASTER THE BUOYS 

Following their breakthrough 2020 release, Sydney indie rockers The Buoys deliver their third EP. Here, the band are less punkoriented, revealing a more melancholic side without losing their edge or compromising their energy. Opening track ‘Bad Habit’ is the four-piece at their most concise, the song steadily building up to an anthemic chorus driven by blistering guitars and lead singer Zoe Catterall’s rousing vocals. Catterall, who serves as The Buoys’ chief songwriter, takes no prisoners in her lyrics, with ‘Best Friend’ dissecting a one-sided friendship with analytic detail, Catterall seething as she sings “You can only say you love me when you’ve had a beer”. This matter-of-factness is replaced with a striking rawness on ‘Lie to Me Again’, the song’s emotional bridge a standout moment on the EP. Though only 20 minutes in length, Unsolicited Advice on Your DIY Disaster packs an unforgettable punch and spotlights a band at the height of their power. HOLLY PEREIRA

MODERN CONDITION MOD CON 

Best known as a guitarist and vocalist in Tropical Fuck Storm, Erica Dunn enjoys leadsinger status in MOD CON, the commanding Melbourne trio featuring bassist Sara Retallick (Golden Syrup) and drummer Raquel Solier (Various Asses). This second album is just as intense as Modern Convenience (2018), with Dunn’s anguished voice taking hold immediately from opener ‘Ammo’. The band’s tightly coiled tension remains thrilling to behold: gnarled guitar hooks lead the mighty rhythm section through dub-inflected post-punk workouts that double as emotional venting sessions. ‘Mouth of Stone’ is slower but no less ominous, while ‘Is Your Heart a Joke?’ reveals more tenderness while keeping frustration front and centre. Balancing MOD CON’s concussive attack are more open turns, like the singsong verve of ‘I Saw a Rat’ and poppy punch of ‘Cool It!’ While Dunn plays a cooler-headed foil to Gareth Liddiard’s apocalyptic bombast in Tropical Fuck Storm, here she provides a sustained, forceful voice of discontentment. DOUG WALLEN

Book Reviews

Melissa Fulton Deputy Editor @melissajfulton

LIES, DAMNED LIES CLAIRE G COLEMAN

WILD PLACE CHRISTIAN WHITE

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In her non-fiction debut, Noongar woman Claire G Coleman shares personal accounts of familial dispossession derived from a continued and brutal colonial genocide. Coleman connects the personal with the political, debunking racist tropes as well as outlandish myths constructed about James Cook as part of a nation-building centred on violent falsehoods. Coleman presents a frank and logical rejection of white nationalism, calling on the centrist middle to seek truth and step wholeheartedly into allyship. Coleman discovered her Aboriginality and began the journey of reconnecting as an adult – and here lies a key premise of the book: the ramifications of displacement coupled with an insistence for truth, justice and cultural preservation. The book could do with fewer references to Cook, and a deeper deconstruction of the ways in which white nationalist ideology infiltrates contemporary realities, but Lies, Damned Lies wields a practical re-imagining of a decolonised society – a vital text that is both unflinching and full of hope. LAURA LA ROSA

When a high school graduate – and aspiring journalist – disappears from the Mornington Peninsula at the close of the 80s, the police think she simply ran away. It prompts her former English teacher to lead a search for answers, while her parents languish in the purgatory of mid-divorce. Unfolding between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, Wild Place is a lean, fast-moving thriller built on a series of minor cliffhangers and major bombshells. The era’s so-called “Satanic panic” evokes the Pentecostal snake-handling in White’s debut, The Nowhere Child (2018), but here it’s the neighbours who may just pose the most serious threat. As with that book, this novel features a streamlined narrative inspired in part by screenplays (which White also writes), though there’s still time and space enough to interrogate parenthood and marriage in pointed ways. Fans of TV series Mare of Easttown should enjoy the red herrings, dark turns and lived-in ensemble cast of this suburban morality play. DOUG

MY FRIEND FOX HEIDI EVERETT 

Heidi Everett’s debut memoir My Friend Fox begins in the nightmare realm of a public psych ward that she brings to life in vivid, off-kilter prose. Alongside the prose are Everett’s own line drawings, which add a homespun intimacy to the book. From this opening section the scope broadens: we learn about Everett’s difficult childhood and adolescence and about her first experiences with mental illness, and we also discover her deep love of the natural world. Her love of animals was present from a young age, and it’s her descriptions of the ways that animals relate to the world and offer solace to human beings that tie the book together. Her titular fox is a stalwart survivor – seen as a pest by many, but with an inner strength and cunning that guides him through the world. Everett’s book is about her uncovering those same qualities in herself, in holding true to the will to survive, and in finding purpose and meaning in an often cruel and painful world. JACK ROWLAND

WALLEN

IT AIN’T TOVE TILL IT’S TOVE

29 OCT 2021

ove Jansson’s 1972 novel The Summer Book begins simply. It’s an early morning, warm July, everything pretty and covered in a light haze, and Grandmother and six-year-old Sophia are on the tiny little island in the Gulf of Finland where they’ll be spending the summer together. Presently, they are scrounging in the peonies searching for Grandmother’s false teeth. They find them, Sophia wonders at the “smacking noise” they make when Grandmother puts them back in, and as they continue to stroll around this wild and paradisical little island they talk about life and death and swimming. At the promontory, when Sophia is scared of the deep water, Grandmother gives her this advice: “You let go of everything and get ready and just dive.” The book continues on this way – 22 vignettes that distil the essence of summer, the true meaning of companionship, and a quiet reverence for the natural world – in dazzlingly simple prose. Writing in The Guardian, author Ali Smith compares these little narrative moments to “lights on a string”: “Her writing is all magical deception, her sentences simple and loaded; the novel reads like looking through clear water and seeing, suddenly, the depth.” So why am I luxuriating in The Summer Book once more? In its gentleness, its humanity, its startlingly beautiful rendering of this far-flung wonderland, it ignites my imagination for the summer I might like to have – full of ocean swims, sunlight and robust conversation with loved ones. MF

Public Service Announcement

by Lorin Clarke @lorinimus

If you’re stuck on something or irritated or furious or miserable or have no energy at all or far too much entirely, watch how nature recalibrates some of that for you. Not immediately, and not completely. This is not a claim that if you go for a walk in the bush it will cure depression or dissolve your anxiety or pay your bills or whatever. What it might do, though, if you’re out in it for long enough, is shift the centre of everything sideways from you and your thoughts. There’s something lovely about sharing nature with someone. Going for a walk, noticing a kookaburra looking across at you, hilarious and serious all at once, and stopping the conversation, frozen, for a second, until the person you’re walking with notices suddenly and the pair of you stop and watch it. Solitude in nature is also superb. Being one of many animal bodies and minds utilising the services of the natural world – playing or walking or drinking or waiting or watching – that moment of glee over a kookaburra feels like a rock-solid secret when it happens to just you. There’s something about the combination of very tiny and gargantuan that makes nature incredible.

Waiting for my five-year-old friend the other day, I had walked on ahead and looked back to see the tiny shape of a human crouched below a massive rock face. The five-year-old looked miniscule. The rock was huge. I was being summoned back to look at something, so I walked over and, sure enough, the kid had discovered a trail of ants, busily bumping into each other on the way to and from something and something else. The five‑year-old was fascinated, gently using a eucalyptus leaf as a wall to gently put a bend in the ant run. The five-year-old was huge. The ants were tiny. Ever seen a dog exit a body of water? Glorious. Nature absolutely nailed that bit. Bees are incredible. Again, it’s completely ridiculous that bees exist. What talented creatures. What artistry. What industry. And their actual bums can sting you if you get into their business. Feeling insular? Get near the sea. I went to the sea recently and almost didn’t get out of the car it was so blustery, but it’s great! Bluster is great! It gets up in your face and your hair and your lungs and sea spray smacks you in the face and you walk at a lean into the wind and it makes you giggly and tired and feel like you really deserve a cup of tea. One of my favourite things in nature is how it stays with you afterwards. The feeling of mud under the soles of your feet as you drive back through the traffic. How your hands feel rougher and your legs feel different and the fact that if you’ve had to pick your way across rocks to get from one side of something to the other, your brain feels a bit different. Like it does when you finish playing Tetris. Nature. It won’t cure you. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. It truly is a glorious mystery and it’s older than you are and younger than you are and bigger than you are and smaller than you are. Public Service Announcement: your day would probably be improved if you got into some nature.

Lorin Clarke is a Melbourne-based writer. The new series of her radio and podcast series, The Fitzroy Diaries, is on ABC Radio National and the ABC Listen app now.

five-year-old asked me a question the other day. “All this,” they said, looking around at the trees and the grass and the rocks in the small stretch of parkland we were standing in, “so…who made it?” In terms of questions, it’s one of the most fundamental. People still kill each other over, essentially, the answer to that question. When you’re five, though, and you’re standing in the middle of some nature, it’s a magical question. What are the few seconds like, for a kid, before they get a boring adult answer to that question? What are they imagining? A team of people? A giant? Would I be believed if I casually replied that I did it? I’m guessing “gasses” would probably not be the anticipated answer, nor a bunch of things written in various scriptures. The idea that this is all here, growing and breathing and living alongside us all, for whatever reason, is completely outlandish. Public Service Announcement: nature is huge and tiny and ridiculous and astonishing. Go outside and stand in some.

29 OCT 2021

Pause in the Outdoors

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

Tastes Like Home edited by Anastasia Safioleas

PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY SBS

Tastes Like Home Poh Ling Yeow

Asam (Penang) Laksa Ingredients

Rempah 10 dried chillies, covered in boiling water and soaked until soft (about 30 mins)

Garnish 1 red onion, peeled, sliced finely lengthways 2 cups picked fresh mint leaves 2 fresh long red chillies, sliced thinly 1½ cups fresh pineapple batons (3cm x 5mm) 1 cucumber, seeds removed, cut into matchsticks 3 limes, sliced 1 tub har gow (shrimp molasses, found in Asian grocers)

Method

Bring the water and ikan bilis to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes then poach the fish fillets in it. Remove the fillets, flake the flesh, cover and set aside. Turn the heat off the stock. To make the rempah, combine all the ingredients, including the chilli-soaking water, in a blender and blitz into a smooth paste. Stir into the stock and bring to the boil with the lemongrass, Vietnamese mint, tamarind pieces and paste, half the torch ginger, sugar and salt. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Stir in the flaked fish and simmer for 5 minutes. Bring 1L of water to boil in a medium pot. Add the noodles and gently agitate to separate the strands. Simmer until the noodles are heated through. Drain the noodles, then divide into 5-6 bowls. Ladle enough soup to cover the noodles, then divide the garnishes evenly over the noodles. To finish, mix a teaspoon of the shrimp molasses into each serve. Serve piping hot.

PLAN TO RECREATE THIS DISH AT HOME? TAG US WITH YOUR LAKSA! @BIGISSUEAUSTRALIA #TASTESLIKEHOME

Poh says…

he word asam, in any Malaysian dish, refers to the use of tamarind in the recipe, and laksa, noodles served with a spicy broth. There’s no dish that makes my palate jig more. For me, asam laksa truly captures the dynamism of Nyonya/Peranakan cuisine. There’s the complex and rich spice paste that forms the flavour nucleus of so many Malaysian dishes, then the expert balance of push-pull, sweet, spicy, salty and sour, distilled for eons from generations of handed-down knowledge. Submerged in all this excitement are lai fun, or thick rice noodles, although I often use tapioca noodles because I love the bouncy mouthfeel. Asam laksa is much quicker than a curry laksa because the rempah isn’t first caramelised in oil, but stirred into a simmering fish stock. It makes for a soup with a cleaner, broth-like quality, rather than its richer counterparts, which usually involve coconut. My first encounter with this dish was many moons ago when I was about six years old. Mum would take me on a weekly shopping excursion to a local shopping centre, and after we would rest our feet at a cafe serving asam laksa. At first, I would only have small slurps of Mum’s because it was far too spicy for a six-year-old. I would be gasping and sweating, but aware that stoicism was key. I quickly grew addicted to the challenge. As months passed, I could endure through half a bowl, then eventually I graduated to big girl territory and was able to have a full serve on my own. I remember feeling victorious – getting your chilli wings is a proper coming-of-age thing in Asian cultures! Afterwards, we would have an ice kachang (a shaved ice dessert) to calm our fiery mouths. Whenever I get asked what my last supper would be, I always say asam laksa. It’s a dish I’ve avoided learning to make all these years for fear that the magic of it might evaporate in my hands. It’s nice to play helpless child and have those dishes you return home for, isn’t it? Even when you’ve learned how, it always tastes better when Mum makes it! POH STARS WITH ADAM LIAW IN ADAM AND POH’S MALAYSIA IN AUSTRALIA ON SBS FOOD.

29 OCT 2021

2 litres water ½ cup ikan bilis 500g snapper, brim or trevally fillet 4 lemongrass, halved and flattened with a pestle on a chopping board 2 bunches Vietnamese mint (laksa leaf), picked 5-6 tamarind pieces ¼ cup tamarind paste 2 torch ginger, halved lengthways, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste 800g fresh mung bean noodles (found in fridge section of Asian grocer)

5 fresh long red chillies, sliced roughly 1 cup roughly chopped shallots 2 garlic cloves, peeled, roughly sliced 5g fresh turmeric 10g galangal, sliced thinly 10g belachan (fermented shrimp paste)

Serves 5-6

Puzzles

ANSWERS PAGE 45.

By Lingo! by Lee Murray leemurray.id.au AWFUL

Sudoku

by websudoku.com

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

CLUES 5 letters Entomb Pit worker Railway vehicle Shade of colour Wrath 6 letters Cattle trough Conveying Object that attracts iron Stay Win back 7 letters Item of clothing Small baking dish Teacher’s task 8 letters One who moves abroad

Solutions CROSSWORD PAGE 45 ACROSS 1 Tragicomedy 7 Sub 9 Peril 10 Leisurely

11 Somewhere 12 Glean 13 Renewal 15 Tote 18 Croc 20 Serpent 23 Aisle 24 Milestone 26 Slush fund 27 Elves 28 Lee 29 Clear-headed

DOWN 1 Tapestry 2 Acrimony 3 In-law 4 Oil well 5 Evident 6 Youngster 7 Sween 8 Beyond 14 Work ethic 16 Resolved 17 Stressed 19 Commute 20 Solider 21 Tassel 22 Astute 25 Sieve

20 QUESTIONS PAGE 9 1 Tsehay Hawkins 2 Switzerland and Vatican City 3 Fitbits 4 456 5 Edinburgh, Scotland 6 Grenfell Tower 7 A blessing 8 Spray-on skin for treating burns victims 9 Angora goat 10 C) US$17.8 million 11 John Bryan 12 Glen Boss 13 Vera Stanhope 14 Six 15 Marie Antoinette 16 Paraguay and Bolivia 17 Banjo Paterson 18 Risky Business 19 Earwax 20 Sydney

29 OCT 2021

Using all nine letters provided, can you answer these clues? Every answer must include the central letter. Plus, which word uses all 9 letters?

by puzzler.com

Word Builder

Nowadays, we use awful to describe something that’s bad, but for a while there, an awful thing was actually very good! Awful took its two halves from two different places: awe from the Vikings (who had successfully invaded the British Isles at least twice), and -ful from Old English. At this time (around 1175), if something was awful, it was horrific and terrifying. Over the next 200 or so years, though, awful became a bit more positive; an awful thing could possibly frighten you, but it was much more likely to inspire deep respect and wonder. However, awful eventually did another U-turn. It wouldn’t be until the 1780s that we’d begin to use awful in the “bad” or “unpleasant” sense that we know now…and the 1810s before some of us would use it instead of “very”.

Crossword

by Chris Black

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

Quick Clues ACROSS

1 A devastating and droll genre (11) 7 Underwater vessel (3) 9 Risk (5) 10 U nhurried (9) 11 A n unspecified place (9) 12 G ather (5) 13 R estoration (7) 15 C arry (4) 18 R eptile (4) 20 R eptile (7) 23 P ath (5) 24 L andmark (9) 26 M oney used for illicit purposes (5,4) 27 Fantastic characters (5) 28 S helter (3) 29 L ucid (5-6) DOWN

1 Hanging artwork (8) 2 Ill feeling (8) 3 Acquired relative (2-3) 4 Source of fossil fuel (3,4) 5 Clear (7) 6 Whippersnapper (9) 7 Scandinavian country (6) 8 Past (6) 14 V irtuous principle of labour (4,5) 16 S ettled (8) 17 U nder pressure (8) 19 Travel to work (7) 20 S turdier (7) 21 D ecorative finish found on curtains (6) 22 S hrewd (6) 25 S ift (5)

Cryptic Clues

Solutions

ACROSS

DOWN

1 Mid-category production!? (11) 7 Public transport rejected for military vessel (3) 9 Danger played most of prelim (5) 10 H awaiian custom certainly relaxed (9) 11 H omes were demolished in unspecified

1 Medieval art records have a crack (8) 2 A friend accepts setter’s bitterness (8) 3 Relative at home with Bill (2-3) 4 Boring outcome? (3,4) 5 Plain yet striking? (7) 6 Youth urges Tony to change (9) 7 Country points to study… (6) 8 …after Ernst & Young leaders caught by agent (6) 14 R ow over unfinished kitchen renovation

and Democrat is settled (8)

17 W orried sweets get sent back (8) 19 W ebsite ending Zoom problem, get to work? (7) 20 S ervicewoman-turned-princess is stronger? (7) 21 C riminal steals decoration (6) 22 I nsightful, like uni class (6) 25 I nternally devised new filter (5)

WORD BUILDER PAGE 43 5 Inter Miner Train Tinge Anger 6 Manger Taking Magnet Remain Regain 7 Garment Ramekin Marking 8 Emigrant 9 Marketing

29 OCT 2021

Fantasy creatures (5)

28 F ish returns to shelter (3) 29 A lert doctors reached deal (5-6)

& value of labour? (4,5)

16 O nline crack between Republican

place (9)

12 O btain Google Analytics sample (5) 13 C oncrete covered modern restoration (7) 15 B aby given first ever bag (4) 18 A nimal partially micro-chipped (4) 20 P resent wild animal (7) 23 B eer-bottling is part of supermarket? (5) 24 D avis has sound breakthrough (9) 26 R eady for bribery? (5,4) 27 F irst Lady’s collecting Ultimate Final

SUDOKU PAGE 43

Click 1932

Phar Lap

words by Michael Epis photo by Getty

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU

t’s 91 years since Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup, but the legend lives on. It starts with the name, coined by Chinese-Australian medical student Aubrey Ping, who loved to hang around the track. He used a word heard from his father, in Thai or Zhuang, for “lightning”, denoting the speed of this new horse. It sounds like “farlap”. A superstition existed in favour of a seven-letter name over two words – so “far” was changed to “phar” and the word split in two. The chestnut gelding was registered under that name to American-born Sydney businessman David J Davis. Racing horses was his rich man’s hobby. He bought the horse sight unseen from a New Zealand stud, on the word of trainer Harry Telford. When Davis finally did see the horse, extremely tall with long gangly legs and an ungainly gait, he bridled. He made Telford an offer: you cover the costs for the first three years and you can keep two-thirds of any winnings. Telford knew Phar Lap was well bred, doubly so. Phar Lap’s great-great-grandfather on his sire’s side was Carbine, who was also his great-great-great grandfather on his dam’s side. Carbine, winner of the 1890 Melbourne Cup, was regarded as the greatest horse ever. His descendants would win more than half the Melbourne Cups between 1914 and 1978, and more beyond. Racing aficionados and casual punters

alike know their names – Comic Court, Rising Fast, Rain Lover, Think Big, Makybe Diva. Winx, the winner of 33 straight races, and rated at the time as the world’s top horse, was also related to Carbine on both sides of his family tree, but was not a Cup contender. Davis might have thought he got a good deal, as Phar Lap ran last at his maiden appearance, and did not place in his first four. But he won 32 of his last 35 races, with two seconds, and became a legend. Before the 1930 Melbourne Cup, the trainer, strapper and jockey were offered bribes to nobble Phar Lap, presumably by bookmakers who stood to lose fortunes. They refused. Shortly after dawn on the Saturday before the race, assailants opened fire with a shotgun – and missed. Phar Lap won that day, and then the Cup on the Tuesday. Davis took the horse to America, where it won its only race, the Agua Caliente Handicap, the richest race in North America, in Tijuana, Mexico, in March 1932. Sixteen days later strapper Tommy Woodcock found Phar Lap feverish in his California stables. Within hours he was dead. Foul play was suspected, without proof. Phar Lap above is standing at Belmont racetrack in New York, September 1932. Yes, he is dead. It is the same taxidermied Phar Lap you will find in the Melbourne Museum.