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Home , 40 Odd Years, Angela Hewitt, Anna McGarrigle, Kate McGarrigle, Tell My Sister, Tomorrow the Green Grass

Scratch Pad 80

February 2012. 22 pages. Based on *brg* 74, a fanzine for ANZAPA (Australian and New Zealand Amateur Publish- ing Association). Written and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard St, Greensborough VIC 3088. Phone: (03) 9435 7786. Email: [email protected]. Member fwa. Ditmar’s Birthday card

Somewhat to my surprise I reached the age of 65 on 17 February 2012. (It was 1972 last time I looked.) At a small gathering of old friends on the night before, Dick Jenssen (Ditmar) presented me with the birthday card shown on the right. The image was generated by Dick using his own DJFractals program. Dick writes:

‘The escapetime fractal takes a progression of keyboard characters and converts them into coefficients of two cubic functions, and then uses these functions to generate a fractal. For your card, the characters were: HappyBirthdayBruce. But, of course, I then used my program’s bell and whistles and tweaks to generate the final image...’

1 What are we seeing?

Christmas Day, 2011. We arrive home from Christmas dinner. Greensborough has been hit by a rain and hail storm. We look out the back door and see the scene shown in the photo (right). What are we seeing? On the left is one of our compost bins. It is over a metre high and about a metre in diame- ter. Beside it is the col- lapsed cat enclosure, made of very tough netting. The white blob is the reason why it’s collapsed: a great ball of unmelted hail nearly as big as the compost bin. It took 24 hours to melt. (See story below, page 3.)

2 Contents Politics is too chunderous to mention in a family fanzine.

Cover: ‘Happy birthday Bruce’ :: Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) I don’t want a cloud of gloom to ruin your pleasant Sunday afternoon. All I want is a smidgeon of subject matter that will set me burbling. 2 Editorial meanderings :: Bruce Gillespie What, then, has given me the greatest pleasure over the last few 3 FAVOURITES OF 2011, months? PLUS TASTING NOTES 3 Favourite popular CDs heard for the first time in 2011 Lots of events, but they’ve been tarnished by writing about them on 5 Best popular boxed sets or reissues bought during 2011 Facebook. It takes only a few lines on Facebook to write about any 6 Best classical boxed sets bought during 2011 event, so I do so. Off the screen, out of mind. But they are the kinds 7 Favourite classical CDs heard for the first time in 2011 of events that used to fill fanzine pages. 9 Favourite NOVELS read for the first time in 2011 9 Favourite BOOKS read for the first time during 2011 We did have fun on Friday night (3 February). You might remember 12 Favourite films seen for the first time in 2011 Joy Window from the Good Old Days of 1976. I featured a few 14 Favourite music DVDs/Blu-rays seen for the first time in 2011 pictures of her on the cover of recent ANZAPA mailings, showing her 15 Favourite films seen again during 2011. emerging from one of the mechanical Daleks that competed in the Dalek Race at Unicon 2 at Melbourne University. She had dis- Proofread by Elaine Cochrane. appeared from our sight many years ago, but a few years ago she and Elaine ‘met’ again on the Internet as a result of doing freelance science editing for the same publishing company. She had kept in touch with fellow South Australian fan (from the early 70s) Alan I’m sick of editing textbooks and compiling indexes for a living. I’ve Sandercock, and in Scratch Pad 79 I published her article about sent out those little email messages telling you to download your visiting him and Jane in Atlanta. She and her partner Andrew Roberts latest Gillespie fanzines from http://efanzines.com. Addressing were visiting from near Lismore in New South Wales. We hadn’t met envelopes is a task too boring for words. So far I’ve sent out only Andrew before, and of course we were a bit nervous about meeting six print copies of Steam Engine Time 13. I’ve looked at the Joy, as we hadn’t seen her since 1977. But there she and Andrew documents I must fill out so I can apply for an old age pension on were, last Friday, outside the Australia, and it felt as if no time had 17 February. I’ve pushed them aside. I need to do is write something passed since we had last had a conversation 35 years ago. The — but what? conversation just fizzed along as the various members of the ‘Friday night group’ arrived at the Australia, and we then went on to Ciao I could write about the recent changes to ABC’s second radio restaurant. The group included such old MUSFAns as Dennis Calle- network, suddenly brand-changed to ‘Radio RN’. That would make gari, Francis Payne, and Alan Wilson. We were also joined by the me all hot and upset. You wouldn’t want me writing long strings of whole Wilson family, Judy, Timothy and Andrew, as well as Carol swear words about the ABC, would you? Kewley and Thomas Bull. A sort of mini-MUSFA Bistro Night, although not loud or drunken like those infamous 1970s events. I could write about politics, as Jack does with a flick of a keyboard.

3 A social occasion with a different outcome was Christmas Dinner. many neighbours had suffered severe damage: in one case water Elaine’s sister Val and husband Fred invited us over for Christmas straight through skylights into a newly renovated kitchen. Since the lunch in Diamond Creek (three suburbs away). It was hot and steamy centre of the storm was the Greensborough–Eltham–Diamond Creek and a cool change was predicted for sometime during the afternoon. area, full of steep streets and ex-waterways, many houses in lower We were joined by Val and Fred’s daughter Carol and her family areas had metres of water sloshing through them. (partner, one son, two daughters), had dinner and were taking the air, sitting on the back balcony and watching the ravens and cockies Elaine spent seven hours before she could get on to the insurance in the tree nearby when we saw the storm coming. We could see company. The man from CatMax has inspected the enclosure over the entire valley from Diamond Creek to Templestowe. The damage and given us a quote, and the house repairs man has clouds were flaring with strange colours. Suddenly we could see only inspected the small amount of other damage that needs to be the closest folds of hills. Then none. Then the storm hit. The rain fell repaired. But we still haven’t heard back from the insurance company so heavily we could see nothing much beyond the house. The — hardly surprising, since there were 15,000 insurance claims from hailstones fell — straight through the laserlight plastic covering of our area alone to various companies. the balcony. One of Carol’s daughters was dancing around on the balcony, but retired hurt. A hailstone had hit her on the face. It was Most other action around here has been rhythmic and boring rather the largest hailstone any of us had seen: an ordinary hailstone than melodramatic: things that happen stop other things happening, wrapped in a large coating of jagged ice. but must be done anyway. For instance, I turn 65 on 17 February, and have to do decide what to do about it. I could decide to just keep The first storm passed. The cloud formation that was floating off working, but that has hardly been profitable during recent years. looked suspiciously like a tornado funnel. Fred inspected the Since 2007 I’ve really been living on the inheritance I received from damage. The roof of his car was covered in pockmarks from being my mother’s estate, but that’s nearly run out. I have a small super- hit by the hailstones. Carol’s car, a little more sheltered, was hardly annuation nest egg coming in: not enough to fund an Allocated dented. Pension, but if set up correctly perhaps enough to give me a thin income cushion. The answer? The old age pension, if I can run the Fred drove us home to Greensborough, only 10 minutes’ drive away. race and leap the obstacles. I’ve started filling out the forms, five of We expected the worst: at the very least a torrent of water through them so far, and I don’t know the answers to lots of questions. The the skylight in the kitchen. We looked around. No problems, but the fact that Elaine and I are a private company, a helpful setup until cats were terrified. Fred left, and fortunately arrived home just now, could be a problem. Still, I need to obtain the pension somehow before the second storm hit. We looked out the back. Oh. One of the to have any hope of retiring from freelance editing. Elaine cannot two cat enclosures had collapsed. In the middle of the mess was a apply for another six and a half years, but she is certainly not earning gigantic ball of ice formed from hailstones. (The ball had still not enough to support me. Much scratching of heads around here. melted the next morning.) We couldn’t let the cats out there. The other, small enclosure had suffered much less damage, so we let the But, you say — what have I been doing that’s been really enjoyable? cats out there in shifts. My father owned a small bust of Mozart for the last 20 years of his Next morning, my genius wife Elaine found a way to tie up the life. It always makes me sad that he died so young (69), because in enclosure so it was usable for the time being. We found that out that death he cannot listen to Mozart anymore. Silly thought, but I often

4 think that the real purpose of living is to listen to Beethoven, or greatest composers and performers without having to suffer the Mozart, or even the Rolling Stones or Roy Orbison or any of the other discomfort of finding a concert hall and orchestra. thousands of favourite composers and performers in the CD and LP collection. I don’t believe in heaven (or anything) after life, but The other great privilege of the age is being able to play movies in heaven in life is a Beethoven piano sonata played by the one of the one one’s own home: unimaginable even 40 years ago except for great pianists, or a great version of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. This is the very rich. the first era in world history when the ordinary person can sit down in his or her own home and hear the greatest orchestras playing the All this is a long-winded overture to:

Favourites of 2011, plus tasting notes

I’ve sent everybody an email telling you about the fabulous last issue continuous work in recent months.) Hence the lack of time for writing of Steam Engine Time, No 13, which you can download from mailing comments. http://efanzines. com/SFC/SteamEngineTime/SET13.pdf. The illus- trations are in colour. The issue includes Matthew Davis’s wonderful I also lacked time to write notes about my Favourite Thises and Thats 35,000-word article about the life and work of Theodore Sturgeon, in SET 13. In that editorial I also said farewell to Steam Engine Time, Dick Jenssen’s article about Sturgeon’s ‘The World Well Lost’, and a which is really a farewell to my co-editor Jan Stinson. Not that I ever very long letter column. Most of the pics are in colour. In the print met her, but for reasons explained in SET, she did much to keep the version, which you can have only if you send me money or articles magazine alive beyond No 3. I hope she doesn’t just disappear from or letters of comment or otherwise show a deep desire for a copy, fandom, but that something can break the chain of depression that the pics are only in black and white. seems to have stopped her doing much in our field for the last few years. Finishing SET 13, then converting it into the PDF version, took all my time during recent months that was not taken up with paying work Here, my Favourites now include a few tasting notes as well as the for a very nice new client that Elaine found for us. (Or rather, they lists themselves. found Elaine; her work was excellent, so we both have scored

5 Favourite popular CDs heard for the first time in 2011

1Dingoes: Live At Last! (2 CDs) (2011) 16 Pigram Brothers, Alex Lloyd, Kaisey Chambers & Shane 2 Tom Russell: Mesabi (2011) Nicholson: Mad Bastards (2011) 3 Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Oddities (2011) 17 Ry Cooder: Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (2011) 4 Rolling Stones: Some Girls Bonus Material (2011) 18 Ray La Montaigne & Pariah Dogs: God Willin’ & the Creek 5 Rolling Stones: Some Girls Live in Texas ’78 (+ DVD) Don’t Rise (2011) (1978/2011) 19 Willie Nelson, & Norah Jones: Here We Go 6Ben Waters: Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute to Ian Stewart (2011) Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles (2011) 7Caitlin Rose: Own Side Now (2010) 20 Harry Nilsson: Harry (1969) 8Greg Brown: Freak Flag (2011) 21 Guy’s All Star Shoe Band & Garrison Keillor: Shake It, Break 9Dave Alvin: Eleven Eleven (2011) It, and Hang It on the Wall (2) (1996) 10 Buddy Miller: The Majestic Silver Strings (2011) 22 Eric Clapton & Wynton Marsalis: Play the Blues Live from 11 Dr John: Gris Gris (1968) Jazz at Lincoln Center (+ DVD) (2011) 12 John Hiatt: Comes Alive at Budokan (1994) 23 Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What (2011) 13 Neil Young: Live in Chicago 1992 (2) (2011) 24 Jeff Beck: Live at B. B King Blues Club (2003/2011) 14 Neil Young: A Treasure (2011) 25 Joe Ely: Satisfied at Last (2011) 15 : Hard Bargain (+ DVD) (2011)

I usually buy CDs by people I know, people whose new CDs I’ve been studio in New Mexico. Their fans never forgot them, though; it waiting for. I’ve had to wait a long time for the new CD by the seemed that only Brod Smith’s reluctance to rejoin the band pre- Dingoes, as they split up in 1979. Australia’s best rock band of the vented a reunion. Several years ago, they played together when they seventies, perhaps of all time, they had one very successful received the ARIA award for lifetime achievement. This led to a CD in Australia, played all over the land, then set off for America. In of new songs in 2010: a bit of a disappointment to me. But that in America they recorded two LPs, which were badly distributed. The turn led to two reunion gigs, which in turn led to an Australian tour. Dingoes were supposed to make their name internationally as the Live At Last!, all two CDs of it, is the result. If only I had been at support band for Lynyrd Skynyrd during that band’s 1979 tour. one of the performances. Brod Smith sings better than ever, and the Lynyrd Skynyrd flew off in their own jet one dark and stormy night, rhythm section has that punch that was the essence of their style in and it crashed. Only two members of the original Lynyrd Skynryd the seventies but is missing from the new studio album. All the survived, the tour was cancelled, and the Dingoes were left stranded Dingoes fans, starved since 1979, keep hoping for another reunion, in New York. So they broke up. Broderick Smith, lead singer, came another tour, and more CDs. back to Australia and established a career as one our best singer– songwriters. Kerryn Tolhurst, lead guitarist, set up a recording I suspect Tom Russell has come top of my annual Favourite Popular

6 chart more Eagle Rock that has been tracking down and releasing, on DVD and often than any Blu-ray, lost or forgotten Rolling Stones concerts. They had re- other performer. released Ladies and Gentlemen the Rolling Stones earlier in the His songs only get year (the only concert footage featuring Mick Taylor on lead guitar, better, his gravelly apart from Gimme Shelter), but then found in a one of the three vast voice improves, his Rolling Stones storage vaults some cans of film unmarked except for instrumentals are the sticker ‘Austin, ’78’. This turned out to be perfectly preserved 16 even more refined mm film, with soundtrack, of a concert that the Stones had forgotten yet rocking than had ever been filmed. The 1978 Some Girls tour proved to be before. His tales of important because it was designed to prove to the fans and the rock lonely men and world that the Stones could overcome all the shit cast at older bands lonelier women in during the punk rock revolution of 1977. They went on a stripped- desolate southern down tour with no backing singers, no brass, and with Ronnie Wood US landscapes are playing much better on stage than he has since. (The great rock ‘n’ memorable. roll mystery is to explain why Ron Wood, brilliant with the Faces and Mesabi is just some solo albums, seemingly the best person to replace Mick Taylor, about his best has turned into a very ordinary guitarist on most albums by the album ever. Unfor- Stones since 1975.) Some Girls Live in Texas ’78 is an excellent tunately it arrived in Australia in the first week of December, after DVD and a great CD. Even better is the CD of ‘Bonus Material’ that all the newspaper and magazine music journalists had written their accompanies the rerelease of Some Girls (1978) itself. The songs Best of the Year lists. that the Stones put in the bin seem (to me at least) better than those on the original album. We lost Kate McGarrigle to cancer recently. is about to release a CD in honour of his mother, and no doubt there Ian Stewart was the tour organiser for the Rolling Stones for 30 will be tributes from all the other singing McGarrigle/Wainwrights. A years, and pianist on many of their best early albums. He suffered tribute is Oddities, featuring songs that have remained for over 20 from a medical condition that made his face look square and fat. years in whatever bin the McGarrigle sisters stored their try-out Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones’ first manager, judged ‘Stu’ as too tapes. My feeling is that if they had spangled up these songs in 1990, ugly to be an official part of the band. (To me, the whole band looked they might have had a great success, the kind of success that eluded ugly when I first saw photos of them. I was an instant convert.) Ian their other albums. Maybe, like the third CD on the Stewart died a few years ago, and finally justice has been done to collection, also released in 2011, these songs would have always his memory. On Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute to Ian Stewart, British remained specialist items for people who appreciate the greatest pianist Ben Waters gathers the best rock musicians in Britain, folk/popular singing duo of all time. including some great boogie pianists, and the result is totally enjoyable. 2011 was once again Rolling Stones year, thanks to an outfit called

7 Best popular boxed sets or reissues bought during 2011

1 Loudon Wainwright III: 40 Odd Years (4 CDs + DVD) 8 Rolling Stones: 2Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water (reissue) (+ Some Girls DVD) (remastered) (+ 3 Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Tell My Sister (2 reissue CDs + CD new bonus of demos + unreleased tracks 1971–74) material) (2 4Jayhawks: (6 bonus tracks) CDs) 5Jayhawks: Tomorrow the Green Grass (23 bonus tracks) (2 9Richard & Linda CDs) Thompson: Live 6Various: O Brother Where Art Thou?: 10th Anniversary at the BBC (3 Edition (2 CDs) CDs + DVD) 7 Tom Petty & Heartbreakers: Damn the Torpedoes Deluxe (2 10 Dr John Original CDs) Albums (5 CDs)

Boxed sets and collections are for the dedicated fans rather than for tapes that have disap- the general public. Each time you buy one of these collections you peared for 30 or more need to calculate whether you really need the extra tracks. You will years. have most of the tracks already somewhere else in the collection. In the case of Loudon Wainwright III, who is about my age, I have Tell My Sister fea- great affection for almost everything he’s done, because he’s written tures the first two my life (not that my life has been afflicted by booze, drugs, hard magical albums by the travelling, and multiple wives, of course). I have the CDs that contain McGarrigle sisters, most of the tracks on the first three CDs of 40 Odd Years, but I plus an extra CD of al- have none of the tracks on the fourth CD. It includes a concert ternative versions of performance of Loudon’s most notorious song, ‘Surfing Queen’, their best songs and a which I’ve heard three times in concerts but have never before found few previously un- on CD. The fifth item is a DVD, which includes the marvellous Dutch heard songs. The documentary One Man Guy, from about 20 years ago. It follows a same procedure is lone Loudon on one of his many concert tours. used for the early al- bums by the Jay- Other items on my list feature remastered versions of original hawks, with a special albums, plus the ‘bonus tracks’ that are somehow found hiding on treat: the 23 bonus

8 tracks on Tomorrow the Green Grass. A CD of previously unre- five CDS, each the original album in a tiny facsimile of the original leased tracks also comes with O Brother Where Art Thou?: 10th LP cover. At their best, when they contain the first five albums by a Anniversary Edition. The first edition, you might remember, riding particular performer, these packages are invaluable. For instance, on the success of the Coen Brothers film, made bluegrass and Dr John has an elevated reputation for his many albums of blues and American traditional music so popular that the soundtrack was the jazz released over the last 30 years, but I’ve never before had a biggest selling CD of the year in America. chance to listen to his first five albums, which created that reputa- tion. Gris Gris, from Dr John Original Albums, is one of the most The only oddity on this list is the Dr John compilation that is part of original rock/jazz/blues albums of all time, but I’ve never heard it the Original Masters series that can be still found in CD shops all before. (The first Original Albums set I bought was by Paul Butter- over Melbourne. Each of these packages is only $20, but contains field, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet.)

Best classical boxed sets bought during 2011

1 (p.)/ (cond.) /London Phil. 4 Marta Argerich Edition: Chamber Music (8 CDs) Orch.: Beethoven: Sonatas and Piano Concertos (12 CDs) 5 Marta Argerich Edition: Solos and Duos (6 CDs) 2 The Decca Sound (50 CDs) 6 Marta Argerich Edition: Concertos (4 CDs) 3Angela Hewitt: Bach (15 CDs) 7Sir : The Later Tradition (8 CDs)

I’ve seen speculation that some of the great classical music and jazz of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas and his highly enjoyable versions, performances are about to go out of copyright, or rights have become with Bernard Haitink conducting, of the Piano Concertos. so scrambled because of the recent mergers of the large traditional record companies that the new owners are doing their best to chew Not every CD on The Decca Sound is a piece of music you might some last commercial taste from the old gristle. This is the only way want; but if you do, you can be assured it will be the best one that to explain why I can now buy the greatest music of the last 60 years Decca has released during the last 50 years. It was not always so. on packages that contain as many as 70 CDs (last year’s Miles Davis Decca’s LPs, featuring their famous FFRR logo, were the standard at Columbia set) or 50 CDs (this year’s The Decca Sound) for between bearer of recorded sound for many years. Unfortunately, much of $2 and $3 per CD. the clarity and gleam of this sound was lost on many of the CDs of the 1980s that raided the Decca vaults. Now, on the new set, the If you want just two essential classical CD sets, buy the 1962 set of jumping-out-of-the-speakers quality of the originals has been re- the Beethoven symphonies by and the Berlin stored. For many people, this will be the first aural glimpse of the Philharmonic Orchestra that is always being reissued — as well as riches that Decca LPs gave to LP buyers during the 1950s and 1960s. this new boxed set of Alfred Brendel’s second complete recording

9 Elaine prefers Bach recording studio, keyboard music to and (these days) be played on the on rarely playing solo the harpsichord (or on stage, but always even on the clavi- playing duo, or with chord) rather than trios, other chamber the piano. I can see groups, or orches- what she means, but tras. All the per- when Angela formances on the 18 Hewitt plays Bach CDs of these three on the piano, the dis- sets are from con- tinction disappears. certs, where the She gives a sparkle sense of excitement and a lift, a munchy can be overwhelm- delectability, to ing. Bach’s music that is rarely heard on The Beecham The piano versions (and Later Tradition rarely heard on boxed set is a bit of harpsichord). And a disappointment, the price of the comprising EMI studio performances, many of which I own already. recent 15-CD boxed set Bach is ludicrously low when you consider But it’s essential if you don’t have them already, and have never the quality of the music in the box. experienced conductor Sir Thomas Beecham’s ability to transform any style of music and make you feel you have never heard it before. Also dominating my year’s listening, as you can see in the next list, In Britain, the Beecham Society has been issuing a vast number of are three CD sets (so far) honouring Marta Argerich, whose style Beecham performanes, both famous and obscure, on CD, but they combines extravagant Romanticism and absolute clarity in a way are not distributed in Australia. unmatched by any other pianist. She is famous for her performing eccentricities, including cancelling concerts on whim, despising the

Favourite classical CDs heard for the first time in 2011

1 (cond.)/Chicago Symph. Orch./Vienna Singverein: Mahler: Symph. 8 (1972/2011) (Decca Sound

10 boxed set) 7 Marta Argerich (p.) etc.: Beethoven: Violin Sonata 9 2 Marta Argerich (p.) etc: Shostakovich: Piano Quartet in G (‘Kreutzer’)/Franck: Violin Sonata in A (1999/2011) (Marta minor/Piano Trio 2/Janacek: Concertino for piano, violins, Argerich Edition: Chamber Music) viola, clarinet, horn and bassoon (2004/2011) (Marta 8Angela Hewitt (p.): Bach: The Six Partitas BWV 825–830 (2 Argerich Edition: Chamber Music) CDs) (1997/2010) (Angela Hewitt: Bach) 3 Peter Maag (cond.)/London Symph. Orch.: Mendelssohn in 9 (cond.) Australian Chamber Orchestra: Scotland: Mendelssohn: Symph. 3/Midsummer Night’s Dream Renegades: Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending/ overture and incidental music (1959/1960/2011) (Decca Kats-Chernin: Torque/Schubert: String Quartet D956 (2 CDs) Sound) (2003) 4 (cond.)/Orchestre Romantique et 10 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (p.)/ (cond): Revolutionnaire: Brahms: Symph. 4/Beethoven: Coriolan Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1, 3 (1980, 1987) (Michelangeli Overture/etc. (2010) Boxed Set) 5 Angela Hewitt (p.): Bach: BWV 988 11 Paul Lewis (p.): Beethoven: Sonatas 30/31/32 (Boxed Set) (2000/2010) (Angela Hewitt: Bach) (2010) 6 Candida Thompson (cond.)/Amsterdam Sinfonietta: Brahms: 12 (p.)/Lawrence Foster (cond.)/City of String Quartet in C minor (string orchestra Birmingham SO.: Mendels-sohn: Piano Concertos 1, 2/etc version)/Schoenberg: Verklate Nacht (2011) (1997)

Here are some had not already highlights — the been the listening ones I’ve had time highlight of ABC to listen to — from FM’s recent Top 100 the boxed sets Twentieth Century mentioned in the Classics week-long previous list, plus a countdown. The few other CDs. Mahler 8 is nick- named ‘The Sym- I might not have phony of 1000’. You reached into the need to use 1000 Decca Sound boxed musicians and sing- set for the Georg ers if you follow Solti/ Chicago Mahler’s instruc- Symphony Or- tions. Making those chestra version of 1000 musicians Mahler’s Sym- sound musical is an- phony No 8 if it other thing. This

11 ‘symphony’, a huge choral work, includes the most difficult choral Last year I heard on ABC FM the Peter Maag/London Symphony writing outside of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and many choirs and Orchestra version of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s soloists are not up to the task. However, trained by Solti, I suppose Dream Overture and incidental music. Aha! We have that on LP, you would have to be up to it or be shown the door. Nevertheless, don’t we, Elaine? The following week I bought the Decca Sound set, there is a sense of joy in this mighty soundscape that I find in few which includes the CD of that great LP. Most orchestras play the other versions. Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture as if they would rather be sitting at home doing the crossword, but Maag and his orchestra give back It’s difficult to pick highlights from the recent three boxed sets of to the music the spritzig and sense of midsummer magic that Marta Argerich’s piano playing. In everything she plays, sometimes Mendelssohn gave to it when he was only 17. (The version of solo but usually with chamber groups or orchestras, she makes you Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 3 on this CD is also refreshingly feel you have never heard the piece before. Or, in the case of spritziggy.) Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No 2, feel that you have finally found a version that matches the amazing version you’ve had in the LP I still wait for some conductor who can play all the Brahms collection for 40 years (Niew Amsterdam Trio on Turnabout). Other symphonies in the style to which I wish somebody would become CD versions of this piece prove disappointing, as have all other accustomed. I keep waiting for somebody to give them all the versions I’ve heard of the same composer’s Piano Quartet. This qualities of energy and flare and pulse that are so ruthlessly fierce and confronting music matches my idea of what Shostakovich expunged from them by most conductors. In his recent versions with should sound like. the Orchestre Romantique et Revolutionnaire, John Eliot Gardiner comes very close to my ideal, especially in his No 2 As you can see from the list, the other cameo from the new boxed (released in 2010) and No 4 (released last year). Nothing but sheer sets is Marta Argerich and friends playing Beethoven’s Violin listening pleasure here, with none of the awkwardnesses that mar Sonata No 9 (the ‘Kreutzer’). None of the other great versions, most other versions. (The only exception in the new Gardiner set is including the old LP that I inherited from my father, is quite so the Symphony No 1, which doesn’t work at all.) The filler, involving and exciting as this one. Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, is also very exciting.

As you can see, I haven’t yet explored deep into the boxed set of People who don’t like Brahms’s symphonies and orchestral music Angela Hewitt’s piano performances of Bach’s keyboard music. (like Elaine) often like his string quartets. In her enterprising Like any other CD collector, I have both of ’s versions reorchestration of the Quartet No 2, Candida Thompson and the of the Goldberg Variations, as well as Wanda Landowska’s 1940s Amsterdam Sinfonietta let us listen to Brahms in a new way. harpsichord version, but I find Hewitt’s version particularly engaging Highly recommended. and moving, as are her versions of Bach’s Six Partitas for solo piano. Much exploring of the set still to be done.

12 Favourite NOVELS read for the first time in 2011

1 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier (1997) Sceptre. 438 pp. 2 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens (1839) Penguin English Library. 974 pp. 3 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson (1995) Black Swan. 490 pp. 4 The Islanders Christopher Priest (2011) Gollancz. 339 pp. 5 Anna of the Five Towns Arnold Bennett (1902) Penguin. 256 pp. 6 Small Vices Robert B. Parker (1997) John Murray. 308 pp. 7 Whispering Death Gary Disher (2011) Text. 330 pp. 8 Mr Wakefield’s Crusade Bernice Rubens (1985) Abacus. 190 pp. 9 The Last House-Party Peter Dickinson (1982) Hamlyn. 222 pp. 10 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon (2003) Vintage. 272 pp. 11 The Philosopher’s Apprentice James Morrow (2008) William Morrow. 411 pp. 12 A Darker Domain Val McDermid (2008) Harper. 392 pp. 13 Mistification Kaaron Warren (2011) Angry Robot. 410 pp. 14 The Insider Christopher Evans (1981) Faber. 215 pp.

13 Favourite BOOKS read for the first time during 2011

1 Cold Mountain as for Novels as for Novels 12 Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music 2 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Greg Milner (2009) Granta. 416 pp. as for Novels 13 Mr Wakefield’s Crusade 3 Magic Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle as for Novels Peter S. Beagle ed. Jonathan Strahan (2010) Subterranean. 14 The Last House-Party 454 pp. as for Novels 4 The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales 15 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Angela Slatter (2010) Ticonderonga. 210 pp. as for Novels 5 Behind the Scenes at the Museum 16 Morning Knowledge as for Novels Kevin Hart (2011) University of Notre Dame Press. 86 pp. 6 The Islanders 17 Being an Actor as for Novels Simon Callow (1984/1995) Penguin. 240 pp. 7 Human Chain 18 Listen to This Seamus Heaney (2010) Faber. 85 pp. Alex Ross (2010) Farrar Straus & Giroux. 366 pp. 8 Life 19 Franklin and Eleanor Keith Richards with James Fox (2010) Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Hazel Rowley (2010) Farrar Straus & Giroux. 345 pp. 564 pp. 20 The Philosopher’s Apprentice 9 Anna of the Five Towns as for Novels as for Novels 21 A Darker Domain 10 Small Vices as for Novels as for Novels 22 Mistification 11 Whispering Death as for Novels

Most writers, even those who are writing for posterity and not just for National’s ‘The Book Show’ (the very ‘Book Show’ that has been cruelly the punters, seem too comfortable, too complacent, too middle class in snatched from us, and Ramona banished to outer darkness), and their concerns. No, it’s not a matter of class; it’s a matter of middle. They omighod did he sound like a nice man, not just modest and amusing, but sit in the middle of their brains and muddle away, never reaching out to exploratory and tentative, the sort of person who makes it very important the limits. Very seldom does a book give me that sense of utter urgency to find his best-known novel and read it. that makes it important to read this book right now, and keep reading to the end. Cold Mountain tells the story of a man called Inman, who suffers so much from surviving the unsurvivable during the last year of the American Civil But Cold Mountain removed my doubts. I bought a copy secondhand War that one day he decides to walk home to Cold Mountain. In the because I had heard Ramona Koval interview Charles Frazier on Radio meantime, Ada, the woman he loves, does not even know if he is still

14 alive. She has no idea how to run the farm after her father dies, but a Museum. Atkinson’s friend comes to the rescue. While the man walks home, escaping death specialty is people; she many times, Ada comes truly alive for the first time. All of which would has a special ability to be a bit predictable if it were not for the excitement of Frazier’s prose, put ‘on stage’ a large full of country nineteenth-centuryisms, sharp observations, and wonder- number of characters, ful tale-telling conversations. The reader feels that the author has walked make each of them im- every step with his characters, experienced every vicissitude directly. mediately interesting, Here is a writer with no complacency, who stretches his mind and nerve and keep them interest- ends further than would like to rreach. ing throughout the novel. It is often more Until I read Cold Mountain, during most of 2011 I was sure that Charles difficult to remember Dickens’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby would be the plots of her books, my Favourite Novel of the Year. I read it because I saw the 1949 British not because they are film of the book, a film so rich and powerful with Victorian melodrama lacking, or lacking intri- and moral force that it gives the impression of being the film Dickens cacy and cunning, but would have made of his own book if he had been able to do so. The book simply because they was Dickens’s third major publication. He was young, he had much to are not the point of her prove, and he was ripe with feeling, not only for the Britain he saw around books. Museum itself is him, but for the Britain that he knew could be much better than it was a family history told in in the 1830s. The result is Dickens’ most Hogarthian novel, rich with the most diffuse way images of the corruption he saw all around him, as well as the characters possible: individual bits who might overcome such corruption. As in most of Dickens’ novels, of time, spread over though, the villains are much more memorable than the goodies: several generations of a Squeers and Mrs Squeers at Dotheboys Hall (not an exaggeration, it divided family, but seems, of the schools for rich men’s bastards, actually slave camps for gradually placed care- luckless children, that littered England in the 1830s), and Ralph Nickleby, fully like jigsaw pieces the dark uncle who would sell his niece to a duke for financial advantage. so at the end the entire Still, none of this would be interesting without the richness of Dickens’ story of the family is re- language. Having read almost no Dickens for 40 years, I have a bit of vealed. I stayed inter- catching up to do. ested in all these characters, from differ- In 2011 I read two books that might well claim any prize offered for Best ent eras, as their fates interlocked and diverged. A masterpiece of First Novel of the last 50 years: Frazier’s Cold Mountain and Kate bravura and intricate writing craft. Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum.I had never heard of Kate Atkinson until at his sixtieth birthday party David Grigg recom- If I had not read novels as powerful as Cold Mountain and Nicholas mended to me her mystery novels. I went looking, and found that her Nickleby in 2011, Peter Beagle’s collection Magic Kingdoms: The Best four mystery novels and assorted other novels and a book of short stories of Peter S. Beagle would have been my standout book for the year. have all been released recently in a uniform paperback edition. It was Like some other people I was talking to recently, I thought that Peter very easy to justify buying them all, especially as the first book of Beagle had retired. His most successful novel, The Last Unicorn, ap- Atkinson’s I read was her first, best novel, Behind the Scenes at the peared many years ago, and I hadn’t seen any new stories from him.

15 However, Jonathan Strahan managed to grab from Beagle two brilliant rather than narrative. It can be hard work to read, but rewarding. new stories for two different volumes of his Eclipse anthologies, and in turn this has led to Strahan editing this collection of remarkable stories. Top of my poetry list is Human Chain, the latest volume by Seamus They are fantasy stories, but not ‘heroic fantasy’. Most of them spring Heaney, Ireland’s Nobel Prize-winning poet. His deeply intuitive poems from the possibilities of life now. They are the kind of fantasy stories I tell of the basic connections between the earth, tradition, and society. like, the ones that start with seemingly mundane reality, but quickly morph into revelations about the possibilities that lie behind the mun- In Morning Knowledge, Kevin Hart (an Australian poet currently living dane. Many have elements of aching sadness as well as triumph, and the in America) presents poems that are more personal and diffuse than characters are vivid. My favourite story is ‘The Rabbi’s Hobby’, which is Heaney’s, also striving toward the universal. I’ve enjoyed several other the astonishing story I first read in Eclipse; other special favourites books of Hart’s poetry that I’ve read recently. include ‘El Regalo’, ‘The Last Song of Sirit Byar’, ‘Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifki and the Angel’, and ‘We Never Talk About My Brother’. As you can In recent years, non-fiction has been much more prominent on my Year’s see, Beagle is good at story names as well as fine prose. Best list than in 2011. Last year, Australian rock singer–songwriter Paul Kelly’s major work How to Make Gravy put every other book in the shade. In Australia we can boast of having Angela Slatter living among us. Her This year, Keith Richards’ Life is also very entertaining, but not as 2010 collection The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales should have reflective and wise as Kelly’s book. Keef, as his fans think of him, has won all the major fiction awards — if short story collections were gained a fair bit of self-knowledge during his unexpectedly long life, as accepted, and if Ticonderonga Press publisher Russell Farr sent them to well as making a priceless collection of hair-raising tales about the rock the judges. (Perhaps he did.) However, some of our major writers, such and roll lifestyle. Life is the most entertaining book of 2011, along with as Kaaron Warren and Lucy Sussex, still seem trapped within the the six Kate Atkinson books I read. perceived walls of genre publishing, while mainstream Australian literary publishing goes from flabby to flabby. No Australian mainstream author Two books about music, and a biography, are worth a special mention. has the sense of style and economy of short-story attack that we find in Slatter’s stories. On the surface, they seem like ‘adult fairy tales’, but I’m not sure I understand the technicalities that Greg Milner takes for their insight into the vicissitudes and enjoyments of the whole of life is granted in his Perfecting Sound Forever, but I enjoy watching him immense. narrate the way he believes recorded music has declined steadily during the 120 years since the invention of the wax cylinder. Milner makes a My Favourite Books for 2011— the top 6 anyway — are fairly much equal strong argument that, because of the way the music went straight from in my estimation. The standout SF (or fantasy?) novel (or book of short sound-collecting device to recording device, the wax cylinder remains stories?) of the year is Christopher Priest’s The Islanders. On the the only device that has ever truly recorded what it ‘heard’. Every surface it seems like a series of short stories or travel descriptions of recording device since then has been an extension of various acts of aspects and dimensions of Priest’s Dream Archipelago world. However, distortion of sound. In the beginning of electric recording, the aim was we soon find that the ‘stories’ are dominated by characters who keep to sound more and more like a concert performance. Eventually engi- returning, therefore the book feels like a novel; and the book relies on neers during the 1960s aimed to make pop music that sounded as the personal as much as the geographical or other-worldly mysterious. artificial as possible. This effect was exacerbated during the CD era, where the 16-bit format was chosen almost at random, leading to many I read poetry because every now and again I become very sick of the limit-ations on what was supposed to be ‘perfect’ sound. SACD (24-bit noise — the filler writing — in most prose fiction and non-fiction. Poetry recording), now available only on a small number of CDs, is the format is compressed thought, leaving out everything but the essentials. How- that should have been chosen in 1982. Milner has the diagrams to prove ever, most lyric poetry of the last century is structured as argument it. In what sounds like glee, Milner reports that some current music

16 enthusiasts have gone back to the wax cylinder to redress all the insults deserves. It’s certainly a fascinating look at a marriage that was both heaped on music by the recording industry. People like me who love difficult and very rewarding for both Roosevelts, but it is too short. Rowley recorded music on CD can laugh at all this, but it makes for a thought- tends to use a few sentences to glide over political conflicts that occupy provoking argument. entire books of American history. This tends to soften the impact that these political difficulties had on the personal lives of everybody involved The other entertaining music book is Alex Ross’s latest book of essays, in the Roosevelt administration. The central point of the book is that Listen to This. In the first chapter he casts aspersions on the notion of Eleanor Roosevelt was as closely involved in the politics of the era as ‘classical’ music, but of course has to use the term throughout the book Franklin, and where she had control of the levers, she used them well. to help distinguish the various types of music he describes. His chapters If only we had an Eleanor Roosevelt in the Lodge at the moment. about Bjork and Radiohead have no meaning for me, but his chapters on some composers, especially Verdi, are penetrating. The title of his Fellow fans of Canberra author Kaaron Warren might be puzzled that book could have been Listen with Fresh Ears. I have placed her third novel, Mistification, low on my list. I do think that Warren is a natural short story writer and a bit uncomfortable with Hazel Rowley’s biography of Christina Stead is one of the best books, the novel form. But no fiction writer can survive on short stories in the fiction or non-fiction, I’ve ever read. Like many other readers, I was current publishing environment. Mistification is awash in wonderful looking forward to her new biography about Franklin and Eleanor concepts, but relies on interpolated short stories for much of its impact. (Roosevelt, that is). No sooner was the book released and Hazel sched- I did not come to know the characters well, and remained more interested uled for a speaking tour of her native Australia than she contracted a in the world presented than the actual drama of the novel. Not quite a sudden medical condition in New York and died within a week, in her late success, Mistification is nevertheless one of the most original Australian fifties. Her many friends and readers were shocked. For this reason, novels for many years. Franklin and Eleanor might gain a slightly better reputation than it

Favourite films seen for the first time in 2011

1 Red Beard (1965) directed by Akira Kurosawa 11 Les Miserables (1935) Richard Boleslawski 2 The Tree of Life (2011) Terence Malick 12 House of Strangers (1949) Joseph L. Mankiewicz 3 Howl (2010) Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman 13 Boy (2010) Taika Waititi 4 Nicholas Nickleby (1949) Alberto Cavalcanti 14 Hereafter (2010) Clint Eastwood 5 The Messenger (2009) Oren Moverman 15 Elizabeth (1998) Shekhar Kapur 6 Metropolis (remastered complete) (1928/ 2010) Fritz Lang 16 Cry of the City (1948) Robert Siodmak 7 Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Frank Capra 17 The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) Budd Furman 8 Lonely are the Brave (1962) David Miller 18 True Grit (2011) Joel & Ethan Coen 9 Radio Days (1987) Woody Allen 19 The City of Your Final Destination (2009) James Ivory 10 The King’s Speech (2010) Tom Foster 20 Cold Souls (2008) Sophie Barthes

17 In most other years, Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life would have and the death is just part of the Great Pattern, or God rules, and been the best film seen for the first time in the year. What is there not something malign has afflicted the family for an incomprensible reason. to like? It has none of the malignancies of today’s pop crap movies The son’s viewpoint versus the mother’s versus the father’s. And all of (sequels and imitations and car chases and explosions) and dares to have this told in gorgeous images, not in the dialogue. The Sean Penn that sense of ambiguity that has almost disappeared from American character is the older boy grown up. He still has not made sense of the mainstream movies. I knew I had to watch this film when I saw two short life he led before he fled his family. Some other members of the family clips on Margaret and David’s At the Movies film review program on ABC. believe they will meet in heaven after death. The basis of all their actions We find ourselves in the middle of a group of a family members playing is their desire to rejoin the lost son, the boy with great musical gifts, around on a suburban lawn. Mundane, you would think. But the camera whose death took the music away from their lives. The pleasure of this is perched just over the shoulder of particular characters during the film is in watching it, not explaining it. action; we are inside the family; we are there. This proves to be the main attraction of The Tree of Life. This family is a bit non-functional, because What film could possibly top The Tree of Life in my estimation? A film by the father has ambitions beyond his abilities, the mother protects her Akira Kurosawa. And not just another of his medieval samurai movies, children against everything, including him, and one of the sons is on a but a 1965 film set in the years leading up to the great Tokyo earthquake collision course that will disrupt the family then take him away from it. of 1923. Red Beard is the nickname of a physician who runs a hospital But why is there a 20- for the very poor in Tokyo. A fresh young doctor is sent to him; he is minute segment telling disgusted by the conditions at the hospital and the lack of opportunities the history of the last for his own advancement. As one critic noted, it’s Dr Gillespie and Dr few billion years of the Kildare all over again. (I assume the 1960s American TV show was as world’s history? Filmed popular in Japan as it was here.) Or, to judge from the westernised by the chap who did the appearances of the two Japanese actors, James Robertson Justice, the really great special bearded head doctor, and Dirk Bogarde, the fresh-faced hospital GP, in effects for 2001: A the Doctor in the House movies. The formal structure of the film is the Space Odyssey? Who is moral education of the young brash doctor by the senior doctor. The the chap played by actual structure takes us deep into the mindsets of Japanese people and Sean Penn, glimpsed their beliefs about life and death. A number of harrowing setpieces mooding around in a culminates in a recreation of the great Tokyo earthquake, and then an city from our period, astonishing scene where the villagers call back the soul of a dying man whereas the rest of the from deep down a well. This is the most hair-raising movie scene that action seems to take I’ve experienced since I don’t know when. Red Beard is filmed in black place in the 1950s or and white CinemaScope, the most effective format ever used in film, with early 1960s? The story memorable human figure compositions and conflicts created in light and is propelled by grief, shade. when one of the other sons dies (no explana- One could dismiss Howl as the kind of arty film that the American tion given). There seem independent scene and the Sundance Festival make possible, but I bet to be two points of view it took years to get the backing for it, and much preliminary work invested about this death, and in the script. James De Franco plays Allan Ginsburg during the early part the history of the fam- of his career, when his poem ‘Howl’ was hauled before court when it was ily. Either nature rules, published by San Francisco’s City Lights Press in the 1950s. In the script

18 we hear only (a) the worlds that Ginsburg wrote about his life and times I would not have known about The Messenger if it had not been for in the 1950s; (b) words from the transcript of the trial; and (c) De Dick Jenssen pointing me toward it, and lending me the Blu-ray. It gained Franco’s reading of the great poem, accompanied by the most imagina- only a couple of weeks’ release in the city. This film shows again (as in tive animation I’ve seen for a long time. The severity of the film’s concept, The Walker) that Woody Harrelson is the most impressive American actor rather than its extravagance of imagery, is what is most impressive. today. He doesn’t receive many top billings, but when he does, he completely lives within his character. In this film, he is one of the men I’ve already talked about Alberto Cavalcanti’s underrated 1949 film of assigned to tell American families that a member of the family has been Nicholas Nickleby when I was writing about Charles Dickens’ novel. It killed in the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan. We see him as he is breaking captures perfectly the tone and look of the novel, while sticking to the in a new member of the team, an unwilling messenger. Reactions from plot of the original until its last 20 minutes. And even the film’s change bereaved families vary wildly, and neither man is prepared for the to the last major conflict is more interesting than Dickens’ original. Cedric direction that this their profession takes them in. Highly recommended Hardwicke is perfect as the arch-villain, Uncle Ralph Nickleby, and George for those viewers who thirst for fine drama on film. Sanders has fun as the other main villain. I found this for $10 on DVD, so probably you can still find it too. Many of these films I might not have seen if I had been alerted by Dick Jenssen or Lee Harding. One night Lee handed me the DVD of a mighty We approach closer and closer to a really complete version of Fritz modern Western that nobody talks about, Lonely Are the Brave, and Lang’s 1928 masterpiece Metropolis. Recent discovery of another 20 Dick alerted me to Howl and The Messenger. Many other films I’ve found minutes of film in Argentina has led to the new restoration. Its main on $10 DVDs in obscure shops. Electronics supermarkets such as JB Hi strength over the previous restoration is the rearrangement of the bits Fi have given over their shelves almost entirely to the big pop crap that we already had so that finally the plot hangs together. Even in the movies, and ignore most releases by the arthouse and specialist distribu- previous restoration, parts of the story remained obscure. The black and tors. But I keep seeking out treasure. There ain’t nothin’ like a good white photography looks even better on Blu-ray than the last time I saw movie. it on DVD.

Favourite music DVDs/Blu-rays seen for the first time in 2011

1 Discovering : Christian Thielemann and 7 Paul Simon and Friends: Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (2007) Vienna Philharmonic Play Beethoven Symphonies (2010) Linda Mendoza (6 Blu-rays) Various directors 8 Jeff Beck Rock and Roll Party Honouring Les Paul (2010) Milton 2 ‘Once, at a Border’: Stravinsky (2008) Tony Palmer Large 3 Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talking About 9 The Passing Show: The Life and Music of Ronnie Lane (2006) Him?) (2010) John Scheinfeld Rupert Williams & James McKie 4 Margot (2008) Tony Palmer 10 Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones (1974) 5 Rolling Stones: Some Girls: Live in Texas 1978 (1978/2011) 11 Mrs Carey’s Concert (2011) Bob Connolly & Sophie Raymond 6 Jeff Beck Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott’s (2008)

19 I follow my nose when watching music films, picking from among the released, but have only just started to reach Australia). The two standout many that I buy and hoping that eventually I might find time to watch items of 2011 have been his long documentaries about Igor Stravinsky the rest. The music DVDs and Blu-rays collect on the shelf. Often even (‘Once, at a Border ...’) and ballerina Margot Fonteyn (Margot). a CD is accompanied by a bonus concert DVD at no extra cost. Neither film overpraises its subject, but each is apt to leave out small details that would have made the story clearer. Each figure led a stormy Highlight of the year was a set of Blu-rays, presented to us by Dick life, but few figures in public life seemed to have been so prone to Jenssen, that includes 11 concert performancess: 9 of the Beethoven self-imposed doom as Fonteyn. I was not much of an admirer of symphonies, and two of Beethoven overtures, with German conductor Stravinsky’s music before seeing this film; Tony Palmer shows the Christian Thielemann conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orches- strands that bind together all his great works, as well as the very famous tra. This is the first time I’ve seen most of the Beethoven symphonies people who figured in the life. At least now I can listen to Stravinsky’s being performed. The experience of watching how the orchestra works music with some understanding. illuminates my sense of the structure and intricacy of the music itself. Each symphony is accompanied by a one-hour discussion between However, even Tony Palmer is never quite so unsparing in his dissection Thielemann and German music critic Joachim Kaiser. Some of these of his subjects as John Scheinfeld is in his film Who Is Harry Nilsson discussions are illumi- (And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him?). I’ve always loved nating; some are not. Harry Nilsson’s records, mainly because of their undertone of Brechtian The Kaiser–Thielemann self-mockery, but I had no idea why he slipped from public gaze so discussion of the 5th is completely after his huge successes with Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of just plain trivial, for in- Schmilsson in the early 1970s. Harry started out in 1960s pop music with stance. On the other a perfect voice, in a field not known for valuing great voices. His taste of hand, Thielemann is music could even be described as oldfashioned, but he fell in with great brilliant in his exposi- producers, and he happened to be heard by members of the Beatles in tion, both in discussion 1968. John Lennon told a reporter that Harry Nilsson was his favourite and as a conductor, of performer. Who? Hence the famous music magazine headline: ‘Who Is the so-called ‘minor’ Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him?)’ Instead of symphonies (the 1st, treasuring this kick start to his career, Harry threw it all away after his 2nd, 4th and 8th). For- two great years of 1971 and 1972. He adopted the ultimate rock and roll tunately, my new Blu- lifestyle. His friends, interviewed, say that Harry would arrive in town, ray player has a knock on the door, and command: ‘Let’s party’. The party would end ‘dimmer’ switch for the days or weeks later. By 1976 he had destroyed the top register of his screen, so I can play voice. Eventually few people would work with him, and he lost his DVD concerts as if they recording contract. However, in his last years, when his heart was failing, were CDs. he seems to have had happy years with his family. A riveting yarn.

The Tony Palmer Much the same could be said of Ronnie Lane, whose story is told in The documentaries about Passing Show. A bit sad, really, like Harry Nilsson’s story, but at least famous musical figures we now have some startling film of performances of Steve Marriott and are slowly being re- the Small Faces, the Faces, and those beautifully folky groups that Ronnie leased (or have all been Lane assembled during his later years.

20 I love concert DVDs and Blu-rays, because they give me a chance to ance from 1978 in Texas; two London concerts by Jeff Beck showing settle down in the front seat, put my feet up, and actually experience that a great rock guitarist just gets better with age; and a concert tribute the concert in a way I could not have if I had paid my money and rolled to Paul Simon that emphasises his great songs. up on the night. In particular, I enjoyed the Rolling Stones’ perform-

Favourite films seen again during 2011

1 The Conformist (1971) Bernardo Bertolucci 12 They Might Be Giants (1971) Anthony Harvey 2 Solaris (1972) Andrei Tarkovsky 13 To Catch a Thief (1955) Alfred Hitchcock 3 Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001) Francis Ford Coppola 14 The Dam Busters (1954) Michael Anderson 4 Rashomon (1950) Akira Kurosawa 15 American Graffiti (1973) George Lucas 5 The War Game (1967) Peter Watkins 16 Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) Vincente Minnelli 6 The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) Anthony Asquith 17 The Lost Thing (2010) Shaun Tan & Andrew Ruhemann 7 Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) Ingmar Bergman 18 Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) Bud Yorkin 8 Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman 19 The Power (1968) Byron Haskin 9 True Grit (1969) Henry Hathaway 20 Howards End (1992) James Ivory 10 The Edge of the World (1937) Michael Powell 21 Went the Day Well? (1942) Alberto Cavalcanti 11 All About Eve (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz

I’ve watched many of these films again during 2011 because they were Frank had not organised an expedition, but probably I wouldn’t have. shown as enjoyable social events. For instance, John Davies, Frank This is the best photographed film I saw last year: every shot a feast for Weissenborn, and I watch films together once a month at our place. the eye. The plot is intricate, and the main character a right bastard, but Films that they have brought along include Peter Watkins’ The War I love The Conformist because it is a celebration of the concept of the Game, which I hadn’t seen since 1968 (and which I wrote about in my ‘moving picture’. very first ANZAPA fanzine) — still as powerful and relevant as when it was made — as well as Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night and Some other films I caught because Dick Jenssen or Lee Harding gave Wild Strawberries on Blu-ray (I hadn’t seen the latter since 1965, and or lent me copies, such as the wonderful new print of Vincente Minnelli’s both are much better than I remember), Byron Haskin’s Phildickian Two Weeks in Another Town (finally restored to the colours I remem- 1960s SF film The Power (startling in a remastered print), and Michael ber from my first viewing in 1966 at a Melbourne University Film Society Powell’s The Edge of the World, about the last days of the population Friday afternoon showing) and Michael Anderson’s The Dam Busters. of a distant Scottish island. (When I first saw it in the mid 1950s at the Paramount Cinema in Oakleigh, the bit the other kids all liked best was when one of the flyers Maybe I would have gone off to ACMI (the Australian Centre for the emits a ‘bloody’.) Moving Image near Flinders Street Station in Melbourne) to see the jewel of their Bernardo Bertolucci season, The Conformist, if John and Films I have seen because of our monthly film-watching gathering at the

21 home of Iola and Race Mathews included the superb new print of Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (there’s that George Sanders man again), Asquith’s The Importance of Being Earnest (although the colour and Anthony Harvey’s sublime They Might Be Giants. values are still not fully restored), Kurosawa’s Rashomon (how can this film seem totally modern although it was made in 1950?), — Bruce Gillespie, 10 February 2012

Do you want a copy of

STEAM ENGINE TIME 13?

Read the LAST ISSUE of this Ditmar and Chronos Award-winning fanzine.

It’s also the THEODORE STURGEON ISSUE, featuring Matthew Davis’s 35,000-word definitive article about this influential author; Ditmar’s (Dick Jenssen’s) article about Sturgeon’s ‘The World Well Lost’; plus a long letter column.

80 pages. Cover by David Russell and Stephen Campbell.

Download the PDF file from http://efanzines. com/SFC/Steam Engine Time/SET13.pdf

Print copies are limited. Available for The Usual, or to SF Commentary subscribers: $60 (cheque) (Australia) and $US100 or equivalent (folding currency) (overseas).

Write to Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough, VIC 3088, Australia, or email him on [email protected]

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