ID 0:02
This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.
Kate Cooper 0:19
On Vision Australia Radio, Happy New Year and welcome to our conversation program, Emerging Writers. I'm Kate Cooper. This week we're featuring selected extras from conversations we held in 2024. We'll hear poetry and speak with Philip H Bleek, songwriter, singer. We'll hear a short story and some of our conversation with poet and storyteller Pam Makin, and then we'll talk with Michael Randall, author of The Mickey Tales blog.
Our first selected extras come from Philip H Bleek, who was our guest on last week's program, the final for 2024. Philip is a songwriter, singer, spoken word poet and photographer. I asked Philip to read some of his spoken word poetry for us, and we followed that with a conversation about his interest in photography. Here is Philip H Bleek.
Philip H Bleek 1 1:24
I'll put these two together just because I like it.
Mark said, you meet the best people in the poorest of places, in the hardest of situations. And I believed him, all that we get. Everybody's crying for the past, ruining the present. We live right here, right now. Leave the past for the lesson. Leave it for the story. Leave it for the memory, no matter how we keep making history, wake up from the slumber. Breathe in some air. Everything that hurts you is everything you care. Everyone you meet is your companion. In order, enjoy your time with friends, you will miss them when you're older. I feel it to my bone when you lay your hand on me. I know it's not forever, so we should let it be and just a little longer in these times of bliss, I'll be thinking of it later, thanking every kiss. So what am I to do whenever that you're gone? Who am I to fear if I don't really care? We live this life alone in the moment, we meet people and the time we spend together is all that we get.
Kate Cooper 3:03
Thank you. That's beautiful, Philip, you're also a photographer. What is it that most appeals to you about this creative medium?
Philip H Bleek 1 3:14
It's just something different. It's just something that I've always done. I always have a camera on me. It's just, just a distraction. I like to use the frame. I have a specific technique, so I like to use, I used to do black and white photography, and I always, it always had to be within the frame. I don't really try to edit anything. It's practical. You know, I don't do photo shoots. I don't I don't ask people to pose is just when I'm out and about, and if I see something, I might pick up the camera and I'll just take a few pictures, and then I might use it as a cover. Again, it all comes back to... other things kind of connects. That's the truth. Always has many reasons.
So I like to use my own photography for on on my albums or my covers or on my websites. I like to use my own imagery. Yeah, it's just something that I've done for a long time. But again, I don't some things that you know, some things are just for you. You don't, you don't need a reason. You don't need, you know, there is no exhibition, there is no rainbow, there's no pilot. It's just something you do, just for yourself, jumping out of habit. There's no awards for poetry. There's no you know, you just, you just write something down there. There's magic to creativity. You kind of heal yourself, you kind of help yourself. And there's an argument to be made that you could sell that, but then that's not the magic, you know.
I mean, it's, it's like, yes, you could all you can make good cookies and you can open a bakery, but it's not the same. You know, you could mass produce, you know, anything, really, if people wanted you, that'll be great. Yeah. I mean. Honestly. You know, we all want to pay our bills and stuff like that, but there are certain magics and creativity that that are just for you. It's not for sale. You know, me taking a picture of something in the corner somewhere that nobody even ever going to see. That moment is mine, and it's gone. You know, I lived it, and we move on.
Kate Cooper 5:24
That's an incredible line. The truth always has many reasons. I really like that line. Could remember that, Philip... can we hear some more of your creative work?
Speaker 1 5:36
Let's go First of May, as it says...
I just saw someone on the street that I fought with somebody else, even though it was utterly impossible for them to be that other person. But influence comes in a strange ways. Saw someone on the street today remind me of an old teacher. The ancient book was a subject, and she never preached it. It wasn't her, that's for sure, although I had to double check she lives in a distant country, a destiny we do not select. Life takes us so far away, our old streets were abandoned. How we felt. We can't forget, as we always remember, what happened at some stage of the past. I embrace my selective memory, although it's gone and over with I still carry it under my skin at times, I can't believe where I have been, pleasure and pain my eyes have seen. It was a privilege to know you.
Thank you for your part. Life took us so far away, our old friends we abandoned and their faces we almost forgot, yet we still remember what happened in our lives without any specific accuracy. We tend to believe what we choose, leaning on the bad with high frequency, you are a burden on my back. Why do I carry you with me? You who made me who I am. I need to let go of thee, and I'll do this one. This is an old one that I like. This is my take on immigration. It's called exile blues. Torn down house on my street. Somebody used to live inside. They moved away for a better future while the past it stayed behind and died, they've built new foundation, new walls for a broken home. Ain't it? Just like my family moving away all on our own? Don't look back. Don't even think about it.
You will miss me every day. You'll live for the rest of your life, you will question what would have happened if I didn't leave what is done? It had to happen. Stop questioning the past, and it was for the better. These thoughts are full of rust that just doesn't stop them, or the nature of these feelings in my head, I live in exile every day I go to bed, every morning, the same story. Where do I belong? These people that surround me do not understand my song, so I sing to find a moment of entangled peace inside, and I give you my true story. Strangers don't have anything to hide. And I build, I build so slowly, a new place for me to stay. And every day I'm getting closer as I go further and further away, torn down house on my street. Somebody used to live inside. They moved away for a better future yet the past, it never dies.
Kate Cooper 9:39
Thank you, Philip. When you're not writing, performing your songs, doing your photography, what else do you like doing?
Speaker 1 9:47
My life changed quite recently. I just got some dogs. I've been wanting to have dogs for a long time, so we just got some dogs. And my life really much revolves around two poppies at the moment. So, but I like that, like there's a I think there's a need, as I've learned, there's a need for responsibility. I think a lot of people are quite lost when they they're young, and I think there's a lack of responsibility. And if you don't choose it yourself, it eventually finds you, and then you're kind of stuck doing that by necessity. So if you can choose your responsibility with with art or relationship or creativity, hopefully it's something creative, or at least something that gives you pleasure, I think we all would be better off outside of the grind of the world, as they say.
Kate Cooper 10:44
It's a very healthy philosophy. On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to Emerging Writers - with selected extras from our conversations in 2024. We just heard from singer, songwriter, poet and photographer Philip H Bleek - and you can hear more of our conversation with Philip held at the end of December 2024 on the Vision Australia Radio podcast site.
Next we hear from Pam Makin, with whom we spoke in early November 2024. Pam is a storyteller, written and spoken word, poet, fiction and short story writer, memoirist, open mic, co host and community volunteer. In addition to the poems and stories heard during our November conversation with Pam. We spoke about the concept of furious fiction, and Pam read as an example of her work in that style. Here is Pam Makin. Pam, what is furious fiction and why does it appeal to you?
Pam Makin 11:59
Well, very simply, it's a monthly flash fiction challenge. It's run by the Australian Writers' Centre. You have 55 hours to write 500 words. There are prompts released on a Friday afternoon. You have till Sunday night to write. There's usually three prompts. There could be a setting, words to be included, a structural element, sometimes it's a photo. And frankly, I like the exercise. There used to be a cash prize - I never won that. That's fine. I still am addicted to it in a very healthy way. I enter, I have entered every challenge since December 2019 in that time, I've been long-listed 10 times and shortlisted once. And that's... a pretty good hit rate, I think.
But it's the constraints that inspire you to write. I've written stories that I would not have written if it hadn't been for those prompts and those constraints, and I've now got quite a catalog of stories, some of those you will find on my website linked to my blog, where you can read them exactly as they were submitted. There are others that have held back and they've been edited. One such edited one has been published on the mindshare website. A chair is just a chair that was originally a flash fiction for furious fiction. But yeah, I think it's just the exercise that I really enjoy and the satisfaction of across a weekend in that very short period of time producing something that somebody else may think is worthy.
Kate Cooper 13:56
It sounds brilliant. Pam, would you read one of your furious fiction stories for us now?
Pam Makin 14:02
Sure. Now the one that I chose is called The Pub Test.
Right? Said Graham. They gathered reluctantly, outside the pub. I'll take the front bar. Kelly, you Canvas the lounge. Dave gaming. Jamie, you talk to anyone hanging around the lobby. Start with that police officer there. Kelly groaned. Graham, you know, the pub test is just a saying, not an actual test. Jamie was exasperated. You can just decide you've waited years to be in this position. You don't have to ask everyone, not even us. It took a lot for Jamie to speak up like that, but they've been sitting around a table for hours discussing the comparative merits of the two projects, budgets, environmental impact, long term maintenance costs, short term inconvenience. She was tired just as a coin. Now he wants to ask the pub ridiculous. Let's do this.
Graham was disproportionately excited and hard to resist. They entered. Graham watched them disappear into the corridors and side rooms. Dave was the last to leave his view as the door to the Sapphire Queen gaming lounge swung closed, Graham turned his attention to the blues like rhythm coming from the front bar. It was a blue collar crowd, or more accurately, a high vis crowd Graham had never mastered blending in with the working class. Every face turned as he entered. He approached the bar and confidently ordered a gin and tonic, sipping his drink, he cast his gaze around the room.
Every eye refused to meet his, except one sitting in a gloomy corner at the end of the bar was a man who may have grown there. He rested his back against the wall, his elbow on the bar, his hand on his beer and his eye on Graham. He had only the one eye, the space where the other may once have been sported a piratical patch. Graham perched on a nearby vacant bar stool and held out his hand. Hello, Graham, he said, his hand left hanging, I'm conducting a small survey, a pub test. I wondered if you might help me. And he held out his phone for the man to see the photo. This is the project site.
And so it began, the pub test. Graham soon had the entire bar enthusiastically passing around the photo and discussing the site, the proposed projects and their own new and better ideas. Kelly, Dave and Jamie had waited a few minutes and then gone home surveying, nobody, deeming the whole thing embarrassingly unnecessary. It was almost three hours later when Graham caught up with them again, I've made a decision. He slurred, we're building a deck with a pizza oven. The boys will be here next week to make a start. That's great. Dad said, Jamie and while Dave and I don't live here anymore, don't you think you should at least ask mum? Kelly was tearing up both the plans for the pool and for the shade house, she shrugged, I like pizza.
Kate Cooper 17:24
That's hilarious. That's really, really good. Thank you so much. That was Pam Macon, and you can hear more from Pam on our Emerging Writers program on Vision Australia Radio podcasts. Again, on Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to Emerging Writers - this week featuring selected extras from some of our interviews in 2024.
In mid June 2023 and again in late November 2024 we heard tales and reflections from Michael Randall, author of The Mickey Tales blog and keen observer of city and country life in South Australia. Michael is an enthusiastic Park runner, and shared some of his experiences with us, which we've saved for this episode. Here is Michael Randall. Michael, you've become a real parkrun enthusiast, and we touched on that in last year's conversation. What inspired you to join this global movement? And with apologies to Haruki Murakami, what do you think about when you think about running?
Michael Randall 18:39
Murakami - that's interesting, Kate, because I've got his book on hold of the library right now, and I'm just waiting to get it because I'm sure I'm going to learn lots from it.
Kate Cooper 18:48
It's brilliant. I've read it, right? Fantastic, excellent, excellent.
Michael Randall 18:52
I look forward to his perspectives on running - but not not just those on running, because I'm sure it's about other arenas in life, and and running is a metaphor and all of those things, so I'm really looking forward to it. When I was younger, I enjoyed the social context of team sports and the camaraderie and all of those aspects that go along with it. But for me, running is the purest of pursuits, and if you choose, it can be utterly solitary, but can also be a social experience, and I like all of these. In early 2022 Claire said to me, why don't you run every day? Previously, I'd run two or three times a week. And thinking on her challenge, I thought, well, I can't really give her a reason. Why not?
So at that point, I thought, well, I'm going to just try and run every day. So I started, and one of the things I did to inspire me and reinforce that good habit was to note my running streak. We've got a whiteboard on our fridge, and I got to 196 days previously. Then we went overseas and I got injured in different things, and today it's got to 570 which I think is pretty good. It started last year when we got off the plane from Italy, and it's continued since. And of course, I know that with a street comes the point at which it'll be broken and I'll be devastated. But what do you do? You start again at zero and build your way up Park Run.
I remember driving past the baseball club in Glenelg one Saturday morning and seeing all of the Park Run people gathered about to do the Padawanga Park Run, and that was the start of last year. And I thought, Well, again, I can't think of the good reason not to go. I'd heard about it, and thought, I'll turn up, and I've barely missed a Saturday since. And as you say, it's a global move, and it's terrific. And I've run all around the state. I ran in Milan last year when we were there. Next year, when we go to Sicily, I'm going to run the Mount Etna Park Run. And the photos show that there's this very dark volcanic soil, as you might imagine, on the run, and so I'm looking forward to that too, and hopefully there's no eruption when I'm there.
My daily runs are normally along the Glenelg North Esplanade. And it's, it's great to see the Esplanade every day, and how that changes. So what do I think about when I run I, not surprisingly, think about the usual concerns of family and work and having two teenage boys who always give me plenty of, you know, food for thought. And I wonder about how Glenelg is traveling in the footy from a writing point of view. It's, it's an interesting strategy. I often go for a run if I'm trying to shape some material, or I'm looking for a better angle on something, or trying to locate a an appropriate metaphor, and often I'll come back with a solution. So it's, it's really a great aid to that process, too.
When I'm running, I'm sometimes I'm I'm really mindful and acutely aware of my surroundings, and it's great. And there's a real sort of loose community of people that that I see on the Esplanade a lot say hello to some of them, but in other days, I, as they say, I zone out and I don't really know if to tie Zuna out. And I get home and Claire will say, Well, how was your run? And I'll say, Well, I'm not really sure. I just know that I'm back. And then, of course, there are days when every step is excruciating and you hugely aware of the the effort involved and the torment.
But I guess, as with many things, the beauty is in the variety. If I'm doing a new Park Run like the one in Milan, I I'm really mindful of trying to see what what's there, and I was really thrilled when there was a velodrome at the Milan Park Run, again, a bit of a cliche, but still a nice thing to see. Something I've been inspired to do in my writing about running, and Park Run is and again, it comes back to Richard Ford and his sports writer series, which really has assumed a great cultural importance to me. As a reader, I've read the whole thing three times, but also as a writer.
And something he does, he has his narrator, the main character, Frank, describe just driving around New Jersey, around real places like Toms River and [?Man Toller King] and and those sort of places. And he turns the quite ordinary and dull into something really enchanted. And his narrator is so keenly observant and passionate that it really is terrific writing. So I've tried, in my own limited ways, to replicate that when I run and look at what's going on around me and try and capture it, be alert to the things that might leap out of me.
I was thrilled, of course, to meet Richard Ford at Writers' Week, at the one just gone. I tell people for me, that was my meeting Paul McCartney moment. So... that's the range of different things that to swim through my head as I'm running.
Kate Cooper 23:48
Michael, you do a huge amount while you're running. It's like you've got a virtual writing desk that goes along the Esplanade with you. That's terrific. Would you read for us your running story West Beach Park Run?
Michael Randall 24:06
Cocooned in this calm Esplanade an hour after Saturday's slow dawn, I edge into the throng at the Harold and Cynthia Anderson Reserve on the neat lawns. There's people from across the athletic spectrum, and dogs and dads with wide black prams with a few 100 others, I head north in the shared enterprise that is the West Beach Park Run. The congestion rapidly evaporates, and peering ahead, the colored stretch of joggers is elasticizing along the esplanade.
To my right is a playground with my teenaged boys having abandoned this age of innocence, I feel a saddening sting that comes from the despair of time moving quickly, too quickly, as I amble through I can almost hear the spectral shrieks we snake by the Henley sailing club, all imposing and vaguely smug in its. Whiteness, a grayish blue sea is on my left, and the trail chaperones us along the dunes and among the Hardy coastal vegetation. The city is close by, but we're immersed in this surprising strip of wilderness here, the beach presents as serene and health giving somehow more encouraging of a life to be brightly lived.
Then we take the bridge over breakout Creek and the Torrens outlet. We often hear of the mighty Murray and the Mighty Mississippi. Well, this is the tremendously modest Torrens, but it's our little river and makes for a fetching ecosystem. A pair of female runners catches me chatting about a casino win. Remember how going to the casino was once an event, but now holds less ceremony than popping down to the servo in Ugg boots and shapeless trackies pushing on the Henley Jetty swims into view the talented local poet John Malone once wrote that jetties are umbilical cords attaching us to better versions of ourselves.
Accepting this premise, every month I stride onto a jetty for the inner benefit of both gazing out to sea and back to the silent, sometimes worrying land, I think it works. We pass the Henley Beach Hotel. It's a serviceable Ale House, but fails to suddenly exploit its location, rather than embracing the seaside and affirming breeze. It seems to defy these maybe I should swing by soon to offer it Redemption at Joe's kiosk, I turn around and I'm South bound, encouraged by a clapping volunteer. There's an agreeable absence of Metropolitan sounds.
I'm cocooned in this calm Esplanade, and the solitude of running promotes a falling into yourself that's neither acutely aware of the current slog, nor meditative this morning running just is Gulf St Vincent is gentle today, and its mood washes on to me. Last week, we had a rearing surf as a winter storm dumped mounds of brown seaweed for all their ferocity. These tempests offer natural reassurance and a restoring intimacy. Returning to the Herald and Cynthia Anderson reserve, I quicken and then cross the finish line knowing my time is modest, I remember to focus on the act of having completed the run.
The story's narrative heave is often more important than the finale. I'm content. Clumps of joggers again gather on the clipped lawns their morning exercise now taken like me, some will disperse into satisfying and routine Saturdays. It's the seventh birthday of West Beach Park run. So this cake for all it's a robust community.
Kate Cooper 28:04
Thank you so much. That was Michael Randall, author of The Mickey Tales blog. You've been listening to Emerging Writers. This program can be heard at the same time each week here on vision, Australia radio, VA radio on digital, online at varadio.org and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes... and a very Happy New Year from all of us.
MUSIC, ID 28:47
Thanks for listening to this Vision Australia Radio podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. Visit varadio.org for more. Vision Australia Radio... blindness, low vision. Opportunity.
