Standing Room Only for Sunday 9 May 2021

12:15  Dunedin writers Vanda Symon and Heather McQuillan

 

This week Lynn Freeman presents Standing Room Only from our Dunedin studio, in time for the Writers and Readers Festival.  New Zealand is of course extremely lucky to be able to hold festivals at all. 

Featured in this year's programme is Dunedin crime writer Dr Vanda Symon.  She wrote The Faceless, as well as a series featuring determined female detective Sam Shephard - Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment and Bound.  

Vanda's books have been published around the world, including the UK and the US, which is why she was a popular guest at overseas literary festivals, until Covid stopped them all..

So for the Dunedin festival, Vanda wrangled five other writers for the Gala opening night event to debate the question, "What Does The Future Hold?"

Lynn also talks with Heather McQuillan - poet, Flash Fiction writer, Young Adult novellist and teacher.  

She's also this year's University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence Fellow.  

As well as her novels, Heather is also an international award-winning writer of Flash Fiction - ultra short stories - and is the director of the Write On School for Young Writers in Christchurch.

 

12:34  Photographer Jim Marshall captured music legends at their height

 

Photographer Jim Marshall was entrusted with unprecedented access to many of the world's music legends, and he documented many of the greatest events in music history.   

His best known images include candid photos of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis and the famous shot of Jimi Hendrix burning his smashed guitar.  But he also photographed Woodstock and Vietnam war protesters.

Like his subjects, Jim Marshall was difficult, abrasive, passionate and a heavy drug user.

After his death he left his hundreds of thousands of images to his long-time - and long-suffering - assistant, Amelia Davis.

Amelia worked closely with British documentary photographer and film maker Alfred George Bailey on a film about Jim Marshall.  It's screening in New Zealand as part of the touring Resene Architecture Design Film Festival.

Lynn Freeman spoke to Alfred in the UK about Jim's ability to get close to his subjects:

Alfred George Bailey and his documentary The Story of Jim Marshall is showing in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and here in Dunedin as part of the Resene Architecture Design Film Festival.  
 

12:45  Tim Barlow works in lime

Limestone, lime plasters and lime concretes, and how lime's been used in art and architecture - that's what Dunedin artist Tim Barlow is exploring in his new project The Lime Burners.

Tim received the 2021 Environment Envoy commission to create the work that will be housed in the city's old Gasworks.

Tim Barlow' talks with Lynn Freeman about his fascination with Lime.   His plans for the project involve other artists too - including Louisa Baillie who joins the conversation.

The Lime Burners opens on May 14 at the Gasworks Museum in Dunedin.  There are planned to be workshops too.

Environment Envoy is funded by Dunedin Dream Brokerage and Dunedin City Council 

 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews Land, First Cow and Wrath of Man.

 

1:35 The Laugh Track - Bec Sandys and China Gonzales

 

This year the NZ Comedy Festival is stressing the "New Zealand" part of the title, rather than the usual "International" aspect.

But that doesn't mean the stars don't often come from exotic climes.  China Gonzales for instance hails from Mexico, while Bec Sandys is coming all the way from Ashburton - or "Ashvegas" as it's known to the locals.

Bec Sandys and China Gonzales are our guests on the Laugh Track.  Their picks include Tom Lehrer, Joan Rivers, Hannah Gadsby and John Mulaney..

They're both appearing at the NZ Comedy Festival in Auckland.  Bec is on at the Sweat Shop Brew Kitchen, from May 11-15.   China will be playing at the Basement Theatre - on May 14 in Spanish, and on May 15 in English!

 

2:06  Panel:  Fake News - is it a new thing?

This is a panel discussion recorded in Wanaka, at the 2021 Festival of Colour's "Aspiring Conversations" series.

Lynn Freeman chairs the session exploring Fake News.  She's joined by two experienced and high-profile New Zealand journalists with, understandably, strong views on the subject:  Newshub's Paddy Gower and from the Dominion Post, editor Anna Fifield. 

Later they're joined by expat commentator Dr Mel Bunce who wrote The Broken Estate: Journalism and Democracy in a Post-Truth World..

The expression "Fake News" became a favourite of former American President Donald Trump.   But of course the idea of people in power discrediting journalism has been around for much, much longer.

The panel discussion took place at the Crystal Palace in Wanaka last month.
 

3:06 Drama at 3 - All Packed Up by Angie Farrow

Today we remember the late Dame Patricia Evison in one of the many radio plays she starred in.  In All Packed Up by Angie Farrow, an ageing woman with lifelong dreams of a trip to Africa faces a nightmare experience in her own home. 

With Dame Patricia as Mabel, Mildred Woods as Ivy, Fiona Samuel as Young Mabel, and Young Ivy is played by Robyn Malcolm. .