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Saturday Morning for Saturday 23 May 2020

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8:10 Robert Fisk: reporting from the frontline

Journalist Robert Fisk has spent the past 40 years living in war zones, covering conflict in the Middle East.

He's dedicated to being on the ground and on the frontlines, and this commitment has landed him several scoops including face-to-face interviews with Osama Bin Laden.

His sometimes controversial career is the focus of This Is Not A Movie, a new documentary by Canadian director Yung Chang.

The film is playing at the Doc Edge Festival, which will be online only this year and runs between Friday 12 June and Sunday 5 July.

9:10 David Simon: Creator of The Wire

The Wire is regarded as one of the best drama series ever made, and a herald of the new golden age of television.

Its creator and showrunner David Simon started his working life as a journalist at The Baltimore Sun newspaper before taking a year's sabbatical to research a book shadowing the Baltimore Police Department.  

The book spawned a TV show Homicide: Life On The Street and Simon has gone on to create a run of acclaimed shows including; The Corner, The Wire, Generation Kill, Treme, and The Deuce

His most recent work is an adaptation of Philip Roth's 2004 novel The Plot Against America, a cautionary tale about anti-Semitism in the U.S. and the dangers of a cult-of-personality presidency.  

It's showing at the moment on NEON (where you can also watch The Wire and The Deuce) and stars Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro among others.

David Simon

David Simon Photo: HBO

9:45 Wendy McCulloch: Kiwi vet helping New York pets

Wendy McCulloch

Wendy McCulloch Photo: supplied

Before becoming a vet, New Zealander Wendy McCulloch worked as a caterer for some of the biggest acts in music, including Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones.

Now based in New York, she's been offering home-based vet visits to city residents as the founder of HomeVetsNYC.

Her house calls have become even more complex and demanding during the Covid-19 outbreak in the city, especially as many of her clients are elderly or immuno-compromised.

She's also a board member of the South African wildlife charity, the Wild Tomorrow Fund.

 


 

10:05 Virologist Dr Chris Smith: Covid-19 antibody testing and the vaccine race

Consultant clinical virologist at Cambridge University Dr Chris Smith returns to answer questions and examine and explain the latest news and science around Covid-19.

This week: the hunt for a vaccine, the fuss over hydroxychloroquine, and what antibody tests can and can't tell us.

Dr. Rhonda Flores labels protein samples at Novavax labs in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States, on March 20, 2020, one of the labs developing a vaccine for Covid-19.

Photo: AFP

10:35 Ian Wedde on his new novel The Reed Warbler

Fiction writer, critic, essayist, art curator and former NZ Poet Laureate, Ian Wedde has a new book out.

The Reed Warbler is his eighth novel and is being billed as a masterpiece. A work of fiction, it's reminiscent of a family history, and calls into question the reliability of our memories, and the stories we tell about each other.

Ian Wedde and the cover of "The Reed Warbler"

Ian Wedde and the cover of "The Reed Warbler" Photo: supplied / Joanna Forsberg / VUP

11:05 Photographer Judith Crispin - exposing life and death

Warlpiri law man Henry Jackamarra Cook and Judith Crispin

Warlpiri law man Henry Jackamarra Cook and Judith Crispin Photo: supplied

Since 2011, Australian poet, writer and photographer Judith Nangala Crispin has spent part of each year living and working with Warlpiri people in the Northern Australian Tanami desert.

Her work centres on the concept of connection with "Country" and includes themes of displacement and identity loss, and reflection on her own lost Aboriginal ancestry.

Her exhibition "Unseen - The Dingo's Noctuary", features at this year's Auckland Festival of Photography. It will be outside on lightboxes near the Ellen Melville Centre.

It includes images of roadkill and other dead animals made using a camera-less technique she calls "Lumachrome glass printing".

She'll also be giving two talks via Zoom at 5pm Thursday 28 May, and 11am Sunday 31 May. 'Talking Culture: Judith Crispin'

She's also the Creative Director of Kurdiji 1.0, an Aboriginal suicide prevention project.

"Peter Lapin, looking for Wittgenstein in the afterlife - for Jan Harry" Lumen Print. Roadkill rabbit, blood, sticks and grass on two pieces of fibre paper. 32 hours under marked glass, back of the ute in winter light and moonlight.

"When Richard was ready, magpies sang at his hospital window until he remembered wings" Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Roadkill Magpie, painted with mineral salts, with ochre, grass seeds, blood and waxed netting, on fibre paper, 36 hours in shade and autumn light.

"On a rainy afternoon, the Lorikeet of Transcendence" Lumen Print. Roadkill Lorikeet and fennel seeds on Fibre paper. Developed 30 hours under marked glass in heavy rain. Stormlight.

"Zoe descends to comfort her daughters, in a burning country" Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Smoke killed baby tiger snake on fibre paper with seeds and honey (for the stars – constellation lines drawn on with pencil) and glass plate. Exposed 32 hours in rain and bushfire smoke, then rubbed with charcoal from the burned trees.

"Malcolm, knocked to ground by monsoonal storms, waited - feather and bone, stones, grass - until fire lifted him". Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre. Fallen baby Myna, stamens of Rainforest flowers, copper II chloride, Tumeric and salt on Ilford paper. 22 hours under marked perspex in variegated summer light.

"There are strange ones among us, with fragile eyes and wild hair, just transiting the world. Try not to love them. Steven, wrapped in night, already stars by the time we find his body." Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram (with current). Roadkill blind joey, sesame seeds, blood, acids and chlorides under current, on fibre paper, 32 hours under marked perspex.

"Olibart had not been in a body long, so when he dropped his form, in a blaze of oncoming traffic, he stretched himself gloriously across the night sky in Vulpecula, sacred constellation of foxes." Lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram. Road-killed adolescent red fox, dandelion seeds and sand on fibre paper. Exposed 36 hours under marked perspex in a geodesic dome.

"Map of Country. Aboriginal Protected Land in the Tanami and Northern Great Sandy Deserts." Digital Drawing.

"Herbarium pressing 1 (Bloodwood) scan from original

Herbarium pressing 2 (Yinirnti) scan from original

 

11:35 Doug Wilson: how older people are feeling about the pandemic

Dr Doug Wilson

Dr Doug Wilson Photo: Supplied

Doug Wilson is back to report from the front lines of ageing. This week he's talking about the impact Covid-19 is having on older people.

From the positives of a rise in contact and help from neighbours and friends, to the dark side, of ageism, the casual devaluing of their lives, and the devastating toll it's taking in countries with widespread outbreaks.

He'll also look at the role and responsibilities of aged care facilities in protecting those most vulnerable from harm.

 

Books mentioned in this show

Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
Robert Fisk
ISBN: 9781841150086

The Plot Against America
Philip Roth
ISBN: 9781446400647
published by Penguin

 

The Reed Warbler
Ian Wedde
ISBN: 9781776563005
VUP

 

 

Music played in this show


Song: Way Down In The Hole
Artist: The Blind Boys of Alabama
Played at 9:07

Song: Azad
Artist: Frazey Ford
Played at 10:35