There’s no ‘I’ in Tim
I can relate to Jonathan Harley’s experience. Well sort of. Instead of chaotic, poor, hot, sweaty India, I lived in chaotic, rich, cold, modern Tokyo. And instead of being a journalist I was an English teacher. And instead of saying goodbye to my girlfriend I said goodbye to my boyfriend. Okay so I can’t relate that much.
But I do know what it’s like moving to a new country and immersing yourself in a culture completely removed from your own. It can be exciting, frightening and often bizarre.
Harley has captured the insanity of his experience beautifully in the first few chapters of Lost in Transmission. When discussing his decision to move away from his new partner to a land far, far away, my heart was breaking with his. I genuinely felt quite sad for the both of them. I may have even shed a tear. Which has nothing to do with my own traumatising relationship experiences or the fact that I was badly hung-over when I read the article, thank-you very much!
What were we talking about? Ah that’s right, not me.
Harley’s use of descriptive language was particularly effective. I could see the airport in India, and could almost smell the streets of New Delhi. The characterisation was terrific. I got a real image in my head of these people and they quite often gave me a good laugh.
Using himself in the first person has worked well in this instance. This would be a difficult way to write an article as it could be quite easy to bugger it up. In the hands of a lesser writer it could sound egotistical and boring. His stories are endearing and you definitely want to continue reading to find out what happens next. I didn’t read the whole book of course but I imagine that Jonathan and Sarah got married, had babies and lived happily ever after in Tokyo. I mean India!
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
A few years ago in 2007, I grew bored of Melbourne. The city that I loved, the city that I made my home at the tender age of 17 to escape regional Victoria wasn’t doing it for me anymore. My passion for this cool and creative city was waning. So I did what anyone with no qualifications and very little money would do. I packed up my life and moved to Japan to teach English.
Many Australians go to Japan in the hope of making some serious yen and coming back with a deposit for a spiffy new house in Caroline Gardens Water Spring Lakes Manor. I had similar dreams. Dreams that were crushed by the collapse of Japan’s gigantic English school, Nova.
As with thousands of lazy and disorganised westerners before me, I chose the easiest route to Japan by securing a teaching job with the country’s largest eikaiwa (English conversation school), Nova. At Nova, you are hired from your home country, they arrange your flights, organise an apartment, place you in a school in an area of your choice (sort of) and even pick you up from the airport. How cool is that? I wouldn’t have to do anything. Friends who moved to Japan years before had to look for a job and an apartment upon arrival. Suckers! This can be difficult in Japan, especially with limited language skills. Not to mention the mistrust from many Japanese of those sketchy gaijin (foreigners).
Nova was easy and convenient. And unbeknownst to me, it was also dying a slow death. A mere six weeks after I landed in Tokyo, Nova was dead. The largest English school in the country, one of the largest companies in Japan had declared itself bankrupt. All 7,000 teachers and 2,000 Japanese staff had gone unpaid for at least two months. The dodgy CEO kept sending faxes advising that our pay was coming but due to some “temporary cash-flow issues” it would be late. But the pay never came. How awkward?
I had little money when I arrived, foolishly assuming that I would be paid by my trusted employer. I had no language skills because I was too lazy and poor to get Japanese lessons before I left, and now I had no job. Oh and the leaseholder on the apartment I was living in was Nova and they hadn’t paid the rent in months. So I was about to be evicted. Good times!
What the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn’t go back to Australia after six weeks with my tail between my legs. I had quit my job of four years in Melbourne, left my house and had a really big going away party that I cried at. I absolutely could not go back home. Many newly unemployed teachers either sheepishly went back to their home country or shipped off to China. They were desperate for English teachers in the lead up to the Olympic Games. I had friends in Korea. I could move to Seoul and walk into a great teaching job where I would probably make a lot more money.
The problem was I had no interest in China or Korea. Bizarrely, just as my life began to fall apart, I started to fall in love with Tokyo. What a magnificently insane city. The food, the people, the history, the awesome nightlife and the beer! Good God the Suntory Premium Malts beer.
At the same time I was experiencing the highest of highs, I was also riddled with anxiety about how I could afford to stay in Tokyo, the third most expensive city on the planet. I was meeting amazing people, exploring Tokyo and living a new life.
As Nova was crumbling, many foreign staff continued working naively believing that we might eventually get paid. We would front up to class, teach English, lie to the students by telling them Nova would survive and hide our financial trauma. The final straw came when I had a nasty panic attack in front of a class of eight students. I lost it and ran out of the room in a hysterical state. That was it. I needed to forget about Nova and sort myself out.
By now I was in love with Tokyo and knew that I had to do something, anything to stay there. My family were pressuring me to come home. “This is crazy” my father yelled down the phone line. “When are you going to realise this didn’t work out and you need to come home?” But I couldn’t. This mind-boggling mess of a city had stolen my heart. The packed trains, not understanding a word anyone says, having no idea what I was eating and being treated like a, well a foreigner. I loved it all. I had to stay.
I arranged for my father to sell my car back home in Oz. In an unexpected twist the sale was made to my wonderful Nan. She insisted that she needed a car at the time, but I still think she just felt sorry for me. Bless her cotton socks. The money from the car sale meant I could survive for a little while longer.
But I still needed a job. I couldn’t become a host (kind of like an escort but without the sex) as I was too old and not twinky enough to succeed in Tokyo’s fickle gay scene. And of course I may feel a little like a prostitute. I was too tall and hairy to be a geisha. So I stuck with what I knew and after a few financially embarrassing months, I finally got another teaching job. It was at a more prestigious school that oddly didn’t pay as well as Nova. I didn’t care as I long as I could stay in Japan.
My time in Tokyo was brief. I was there for nine months all up. But it was nothing short of extraordinary. The initial culture shock, my horrendous timing with Nova’s collapse and my financial ruin were obvious challenges. But everything else I experienced was magic. Being the only white guy at a weird indie bar in super cool Shimo-kitazawa, getting lost on public transport, hanging out in Harajuku with the cos-play kids, lying naked in an outdoor onsen (Japanese bath house) on the top of a mountain in Kyoto in the middle of winter, pretending to be Bill Murray to my friend Miranda’s Scarlett Johansson in a rooftop bar in Shinjuku. It was like my own Lost in Translation, but better.
I loathed Melbourne when I returned. Shocking public transport, rubbish on the streets, poor customer service and everyone seemed so white. Nothing here was as good as it was in Tokyo. I loved Tokyo. But then I remembered how I would often describe Melbourne to my new Tokyo mates as the greatest city on the planet. Inevitably us gaijin would get together and get a little misty-eyed talking about our home towns. I LOVED Melbourne. The food, the people, and the beer! Good God the Carlton Draught! It soon became clear that I had two loves of my life. And I still do.
Dark features
Wayne Carey has quite the reputation. Not necessarily in a good way. The former AFL star/drug addict/alleged domestic abuser and all-round massive tool is about to be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame. Should he be inducted considering his colourful past? Is he tarnishing the great game? Should he be celebrated for his undeniable talent as a footballer, or derided for that time he said so delicately to a potential conquest in a King Street nightclub, “Piss off and get some bigger tits”? I am not sure.
It does appear though that being a little dim and having a complete disregard for human life and emotion is a distinguishing trait of his namesake. The feature article, ‘NYPD Inaction…’ by Sean Gardiner detailed the tragic story of Romona Carmichael’s kidnap and murder that may have been avoided had the NYPD, in particular, Detective Wayne Carey acted sooner.
This article was interesting in the way it approached the key question of whether policies relating to missing persons are racist. I must say, every time I see a high profile missing persons story in the news (think the Wales-Kings), I wonder about the people that don’t come from wealthy backgrounds or have family connections. How do they get help from the authorities and the media? Will anyone care? It seems not. I believe Gardiner sought to shock the reader into asking these questions. He is quite graphic in his description of the crimes that were committed against Romona. It can be uncomfortable to read. At the same time he uses quotes from her angry and grieving mother to tug on the heartstrings of the reader.
I noticed that Gardiner almost dehumanised the killers in the way he described them. He was also not particularly favourable when talking about Detective Wayne Carey. He comes off as an inept, heartless, procedure-driven cop who should have left the force years ago.
I really engaged with this article and it did well to illicit an emotional response from me. I want to know more, but perhaps the details of the crime overwhelm the main point of the article a little.
The second article, ‘Pearls Before Breakfast’ by Gene Weingarten was a much lighter affair and did not make me think of thuggish AFL stars. Yay! This was a really fun read and despite its length, I was engaged the entire time. What a concept! Are we too busy/self involved/brainwashed by our corporate empires and governments to notice beauty and art when it is laid before us by one of the greats? Sadly, yes.
This experiment would have been quite a massive task for the journo’s involved. The fact that they managed to rope in Joshua Bell is a feat in itself. They had obviously put a few contingencies in place in the event that the crowd went wild. A lot of research would have gone into this story. Quotes from W.H Davies and comparisons with the film ’Koyaanisqatsi’ are but a couple of examples.
The use of quotes from the passersby was particularly effective. It gave me a feeling of ‘it could have been me’. I could have walked past this amazing performance. Then I started thinking about my own existence and whether my job is turning me into a drone! Arrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh! Then I stopped being dramatic and read the next article.
The wonderfully titled article ‘We have still not lived long enough’ by Tom Griffiths was an unpleasant reminder of how quickly we forget the past. After our beautiful state was incinerated on Black Saturday, there was a lot of blame flying around. Not many people said they saw this coming, but how could they not considering our history?
Griffiths used quite dramatic language to get his point across. “And when they do burn, they do so with atomic power.” This has happened before. It WILL happen again. I found his detailed explanation of the geography of Victoria to be extremely effective. I learnt a lot from this article. Who knew that eucalypt had evolved so well? He would have researched botany texts and spoken to academic and governmental experts to get just some of this information.
Some of the language was emotive but as the article was published on 16 February 2009, just one week after Black Saturday, that is no surprise. Griffiths is almost aggressive in how he communicates his point. How can we forget what has happened to our state so many times in the last century? Why are we not learning from these experiences? Are human beings so arrogant they think they can win a war on bushfires? Maybe Wayne Carey has the answers.
There’s nothing sexy about crime
This post is the class exercise relating to the Underbelly article by Tim Dick from The Age. I have written a lead and followed this with the approach that I would take to write the feature:
There’s nothing sexy about crime
With well over two million people tuning in to the season three debut of Channel 9’s ‘Underbelly’, it’s fair to say that crime certainly does pay. Well at least for the producers and network executives of the not-so-family-friendly drama. Although the network itself is denying it, is the hit TV show glamorising crime? Former Supreme Court Judge James Wood thinks that it is.
Underbelly pushes the boundaries in every way. Its sexy depiction of organised crime includes flashy nightclub scenes, scantily clad women, money, corruption and loads of drugs. Sounds like the perfect ingredients for an edgy drama. But the fact is that all three seasons of Underbelly are based on actual events. It’s not just a ripping crime yarn, it’s about real criminals who committed real crimes that affected many innocent people.
Approach to the article:
I plan to look at whether shows such as Underbelly glamorise crime in Australia. Is there any evidence linking tv/film to higher crime rates (violent crimes, theft, drug related offences)? Do young people view these programs and think that it is a desirable lifestyle? Channel 9 states that the show does not glamorise crime, but how do they justify this? Have they done any research to suggest otherwise?
In writing this feature, I would investigate the following:
- Speak to the Australian Crime Commission to obtain data
- If not enough information from Crime Commission, speak to Department of Justice – (Maybe Corrections)
- Interview a media/comms academic to get their perspective on glorification of crime through film and TV
- Speak to an academic with a psychology background
- Speak with Supreme Court Justice James Wood and ask him to expand on his recollection of the events depicted in Underbelly 3
- He talks about impressionable kids out there – what kind of groups does he mean, is he discussing particular ethnic groups?
The joys of hospitality
When I was a young, naive country lad who had moved to Melbourne with dreams of making it big, I realised I needed a job to pay my way through university. And so I could purchase beer. I was only 17 and had little life experience so I thought to myself, “Where can I get a job really quickly without trying very hard or having an enormous amount of skills?” The answer was found under the golden arches. That’s right, the company that has poured billions of dollars into making us all fat, McDonald’s. I spent the first few years of my Melbourne experience asking customers if they would like to add a sundae to their order or whether they would prefer a large quarter pounder meal. (The answer was almost always yes to that last question by the way.)
I read the chapter of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed with great interest. I thought I did it tough in my tight grey pants serving drunken bogans and soon-to-be obese children, but this article gave me a greater appreciation of Australia’s labour laws. Ehrenreich’s article was an education on America’s labour laws, class system and underlying racism. More than once, I wanted her to just scream at one of her greasy haired bosses to “fuck off, you can’t treat me this way”, but this of course would have given the game away.
I find this form of journalism to be quite brave. I have not come across an awful amount of ‘gonzo’ journalism but I do appreciate what the writer does to expose an injustice. Immersing themselves into someone else’s life to tell a story is a truly effective way to tell a story. Although I do have a slight problem with the element of deception required in order to get the story. I understand why, it just doesn’t sit well for some reason.
In this particular article, Ehrenreich’s style is really engaging and I was immediately sucked into the story. Really fascinating, quite heart-breaking but very readable. Her humour is what drew me in initially and then the story flowed from there. I had very vivid images of each ‘character’.
This is very different to the Paige Williams article as there was little if any humour in hers and it was heavy on facts and figures. Ehrenreich would occasionally drip feed figures into the story through footnotes which did not overwhelm me. Too many stats would have detracted from the story.
Even though Ehrenreich believed she failed her experiment, I think she succeeded in exposing a fairly alarming side of America. I will never ever complain about my $12 an hour McJob again!
Wait till later for overseas adventure
Straight out of high school, Livia Cullen needed a break. Like many before her, she planned on celebrating the end of Year 12 by jetting off to Europe for the trip of a lifetime. But Livia’s plans to party her way through Europe were soon washed down a dirty kitchen sink.
When asked if she would recommend eager school-leavers to jump on the first plane out of Australia, Cullen, now 26, flatly responds, “No. I would tell them to wait.”
The lure of a post-secondary overseas adventure is understandable. After 13 years of study, why not get an education of a different kind and backpack around Europe, wind your way through South-East Asia or guide the leaders of tomorrow at Camp America?
But young people with little work or life experience may find it difficult to get started. Employers are unlikely to hire an 18 year old foreigner with a very thin resume.
Livia’s experience mirrors many others. Her dreams of an exciting European vacation disappeared quickly after arriving in London in 2000. She had hopes of scoring a great job, working with exciting people, and earning enough pounds to save for an extensive trek around Europe.
Instead she spent four months working in London for a catering company under poor conditions, doing long hours and for little financial reward. “I worked in a stinky little kitchen. It cost me a whole hours wage just to get to work on the tube”. This low wage combined with London’s high cost of living saw Livia’s plans to travel extensively through Europe scuttled.
Making friends with people from around the world can be a rewarding aspect of living in a foreign country. Livia found it very difficult to meet people in London. She worked with a lot of other Australians in her catering job, but it wasn’t the most culturally diverse workplace. “Apart from the Aussies there was maybe one English guy working there. I was hoping to meet people from all over. It wasn’t a lot of fun”.
While Livia’s time in London was fairly grim, she eventually saved enough money for a brief jaunt to Europe. When recounting her time staying in the Italian village of Bracciano, her face lights up. “The culture, the people, so beautiful. I stayed in this little village and was shown around by locals. I didn’t do the touristy thing at all. I loved Italy.”
Livia was also taken with France, in particular the Parisians she met along the way. “Everyone was so friendly. I didn’t even have to ask for help or directions”.
Livia’s trip wasn’t the adventure she had imagined, but her experience serves as a lesson for other travel-hungry high school graduates. “I would just tell people to think about other options first. Some people might benefit from staying in Melbourne and entering the workforce and then maybe head overseas in their mid-20′s.”
Hard (and soft) facts!
I’m a soft boiled egg man myself. I find when an egg is hard boiled, it loses its flavour. I mean it does the job, it will fill me up and I will be generally satisfied, but a soft boiled egg is a bit juicier and I am more likely to engage with my breakfast. That’s right, I said engage with my breakfast. Wow. Awkward. Anyway, I like my news the same way I like my eggs. Soft. And with Tabasco sauce splashed all over it! And maybe some bacon too. How good is bacon? I’m losing my point here. Let me explain…
The hard news stories provided were ‘RBA’s Stevens warns against housing speculation’ from Reuters and ‘Push to end underquoting as market stays hot’ by Marika Dobbin from The Age. Both of these articles get straight to the point without a crazy amount of detail. Hard news items I have read usually have a subject matter that only requires the basic facts. Both of these hard news items could definitely lend themselves to an editorial or opinion piece, however in the first instance, the writer/publication needs to deliver the basic facts.
There is no room for opinion or creative writing in the hard news items. I think this method of writing an article is extremely effective in getting the main points of a story across in a concise and efficient manner. It allows the reader to be educated and allows for follow up articles in the future. Kind of like a ‘watch this space’. It also gives the reader the opportunity to do further investigation of the story should they desire to. It is high level information only and keeps the reader’s attention.
It is of course limited in the amount of information it can provide. The reader is forced to wait and see if this story unfolds and more information comes to hand, or investigate it further themselves. In the RBA article, it gives the reader some data and almost a ‘to be continued’ ending. Writers are also limited in how much they can quote their sources in hard news because of the lack of time they have to tell the story.
The RBA article is more basic and has less information than the Underquoting article. I think both are effective but for me personally, I was more engaged with the Underquoting article. That may be more to do with the fact that I know nothing about interest rates!
The soft news items were obviously able to provide more detail to the story they were telling. More quotes, more explanation, more everything! The Francois Ozon article had some lovely quotes and detailed the directors history. I found this to be very effective. For some reason the article about Vindaloo Against Violence didn’t engage me as much. I liked that it gave various viewpoints and quoting the ‘Stuff White People Like’ blog is always fun, but it was an opinion piece with very little opinion. Just a bit at the end.
I loved the Melbourne Gastronome blog. It was simple yet engaging writing with a lovely positive tone. Obviously the writers’ style is very suited to blogging as she uses visuals to highlight her well chosen words. Having pictures interspersed with her stories was done very well. This article also made me very hungry. Oddly enough, not for boiled eggs.
Consumers unaware of GM foods
Australians are unwittingly buying genetically modified food because of lax labelling laws according to a report released by Choice last week.
The consumer advocacy group says that supermarkets are full of foods that contain GM ingredients.
Cereals, breads, sauces and snack foods contain ingredients like eggs and dairy from animals that may have been fed on GM feed, and the laws mean companies are not required to disclose this information.
CHOICE Senior Campaigner Clare Hughes said that even conscientious consumers are unaware that ingredients imported from the USA are mostly genetically modified. Ms Hughes added that the labelling laws should include disclosure of any GM ingredients. “You have a right to know if your food comes from GM crops or GM fed animals, directly or indirectly.”
Research concluding that GM food is of little or no harm is conducted by the companies that produce GM crops, CHOICE says. Environmental and ethical issues are also a factor in whether a consumer purchases a GM product.
The Federal Government is currently in the process of reviewing Australia’s food labelling laws.
Police save couple after car accident
Two police have pulled a Frankston couple from their burning car after they crashed into an embankment on the Nepean Highway yesterday.
Driver Darren Browne, 25 was taken to the Alfred Hospital with head injuries and his partner Sally Weinstein, 24 is recovering from a suspected broken arm.
Police say that the incident occurred after Browne turned into a McDonald’s restaurant in Wells Street Frankston to confront a group suspected of throwing a bottle at the rear of his red Nissan Pulsar.
A rock was then allegedly thrown through the windscreen, hitting Mr Browne on the head, knocking him unconscious.
Senior Constable Glenn Paxton and Detective Senior Constable Craig Small witnessed the incident while on patrol and pulled both victims from the front window of their burning car. The police officers were not injured.
Senior Constable Paxton said he saw flames coming from the undercarriage of the car. “Once we had them out, I grabbed a fire extinguisher … and put the flames out.”
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland commended the two officers for their bravery. “The two detectives have risked their lives to come to the aid of civilians. Victoria Police on behalf of the wider community, commend their fast-thinking actions and their bravery.”
Frankston Police are using surveillance footage to identify four Caucasian men that were at the scene.
I’m an ideas man
Wowsers! It has not been super easy to think of 3 story ideas for our first assignment for Journo in Context. Should I give Barack a call and do a quick piece about the public health overhaul in the States. Would K-Rudd like to talk about the zany internet filtering scheme. Hell maybe I’ll give Jesus a call to see if he or she exists??
I had to scale back my thinking. Think local. Aha! Not the 80’s supergroup. I had ideas. They are as follows:
- Comedy Festival is about to start. Wes Snelling has been involved with Comedy Festival for over 10 years as both an employee and a performer. This year Wes performs as character Tina Del Twist in a show of the same name. Wes has been performing as Tina, a female character for many years in the still rather male dominated world of comedy. Tina is kind of a grotesque, exaggerated beast of a woman. An Eastern European background and a massive booze problem add to her appeal. There is a misconception that this show is a drag show (man dressed as woman, show category is cabaret). However this is untrue with Wes/Tina belting out tune after tune as well as showcasing his massive comedic talent. I would like to interview Wes and his long suffering musician Twist (Steven Weir) about how they plan to tackle these misconceptions as well as how they conceived their current show for Comedy Fest 2010.
- My housemate and good friend Meg recently made the leap into pet ownership and bought a very lovely pooch by the name of Sailor. Meg did an enormous amount of investigation before she arrived at her decision to get a dog from a dogs home. Meg stumbled upon Halfway Home Animal Rescue which takes abandoned pets in and houses them with a foster family until they are matched up with a ‘forever home’. When Meg applied to adopt Sailor, I was shocked by the amount of paperwork, vetting, screening, reference checking and house visits that had to occur before she was eventually given the green light. I did not fully understand the reason these kinds of organisations are becoming more of an option for prospective pet owners until I spoke to the owner of Halfway Home, Jenaya. She explained to me the awful reality of pet stores and how they have breeding farms that keep the dogs or cats in much the same conditions as a battery hen. It isn’t pleasant. I would like to interview Jenaya and a happy pet owner (Meg) and get their perspective on why it is important to consider your options before purchasing a pet, rather than going straight to Pets Paradise at Highpoint to pick up the new trendy breed. Which I believe at the moment is French Bulldog.
- Channel 7 will shortly screen the much anticipated mini-series, The Pacific. This series is an accompanying piece to the critically acclaimed Band of Brothers, produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Much of The Pacific was filmed right here in not-so-sunny Melbourne town and surrounding areas such as the You Yangs near Geelong. Local talent and crew were used for the shoot which lasted close to two years. It was imperative that Head Costume Designer Penny Rose recreate the era accurately to ensure authenticity. I would like to interview two costume designers, Donna Miovich and Alastair Johns who worked on the set of The Pacific to get a better idea of this process and how they helped execute it.
