a year ago today: publicity for the bogan delusion

Publicity is tapering off, I assume, even if television is catching on. On Saturday I did the MTR interview as mentioned, then yesterday I did the final capital city ABC of all - Hobart. It was a good half hour, and very enjoyable, so I didn't mind too much basically devoting my Tuesday evening to the whole thing. The interviewer had gone round her office (I think?) asking random (?) people what a bogan was and once again my point was proven - everybody gave different viewpoints. And ultimately the only commonality was a mullet, and I said I am quite often in Tasmania ('because I love it' - I thought that was a nice touch and also true) and I have never seen anyone with a mullet. Then I went off on a strange little tangent, even as a voice in my head was saying not to, talking about how in 20 years maybe when we're all celebrating the fabulous days of the bogans everyone will have mullet wigs.

Television is catching on because apparently my book was mentioned on The Circle on Monday morning prepping the world for discussion of 'is "bogan" a slur' on the new show Can of Worms which was premiering that night. The actual COW didn't mention my book at all, though, I'm told. I don't care but Martin Hughes was pretty cross I gather.

No doubt I've said this before but I'm ready to move on, really. I have two more interviews - both public radio - Perth and Melbourne. Then that's it.

it just goes on

So as you can see for the last few weeks I have let my younger self from June-July 2011 run the show, he has been doing an OK job. In the meantime my present self has been getting on with work related things, went to Canberra to do some research (I know, we've covered that, to some degree) and have been trying to get some long-overdue writing done. I've been listening a lot to the Soft Machine era when they drafted Phil Howard in to replace Robert Wyatt. I am intrigued by Phil Howard (1) because his playing was (perhaps still is, though no-one knows where he is or what he does) incredible and challenging, and (2) because he was Australian apparently but he does not appear to have done anything in Australia before he left - he must have done something but what?! and (3) because as implied earlier, he disappeared about 40 years ago. 'Moved to New York', they say. So, I'm just fascinated. (1) is the only really important part of it and without (1) I wouldn't have too much interest in (2) or (3) but it is fascinating when people just slip away like that. He was in Soft Machine for 5 months and he was too free form for 2 of the 4 members at that time. They'd just thrown Robert Wyatt out, who was the heart and soul of the thing, and now they had to contend with another drummer who was looking like he might well end up taking them into a whole new territory, and they had enough trouble marking out the territory they had. He recorded one side of Soft Machine 5. I still think SM went downhill badly when they stopped RW singing, but this PH stuff is really fascinating, especially when he gets out the two kick drums.

Did I mention Garry Disher? I've been reading a lot of Garry Disher, who I really enjoy as well. When 'I say a lot of Garry Disher', poor Garry he seems to have written a huge amount of books and I'm only reading the thrillers. But they are pretty great - I have a feeling I'd be reading them even if there weren't the killings and the crimes. Particularly the Challis-Destry ones because of the atmosphere of the Mornington Peninsula. But I like the Wyatt ones too.

Last night I had a dream I had a birthday and almost everyone there was older than me and wore white bowling uniforms. Anyway, back to the golden olden days of 2011... there are three more posts coming up re: the publicity campaign of last year. I edited some of this stuff into a final chapter for the e-Book version of the book, which I still haven't seen incidentally but I gather it exists. 

a year ago today: publicity for the bogan delusion

I was most gratified by a good review in the Spectator. Even if it was short, and my pleasure a little problematised by the fact that the reviewer compared my book favourably to Owen Jones’ Chavs book which I didn’t necessarily need to happen (at the same time, I did kind of note that Jones somewhere, somehow is attributed with comparing himself to Orwell, which seems a bit Icarusy to me). Jones and Imogen Tyler, who I discussed (i.e. ‘used’) a little bit in my book were on Laurie Taylor’s Thinking Allowed on Radio 4 last week. I’d sent Taylor a copy of my book a few weeks ago, with the hint-hint that I’d be in London in September, and Jones is aware of my book, so I was hoping they’d mention it but nope.

My grandmother Marion would have loved me getting a review in the Spectator, favourable or otherwise, because she read it every week. Though she would for all that have probably not agreed with my book (I’m not sure; it’s hard to imagine her responding to 2011, particularly as she more or less disengaged from daily events in the final years of her life, so I’m used to memories of her not caring about what was going on outside her four walls).

I am writing this en route to my third (I think) commercial radio interview, at MTR (Melbourne Talk Radio – I’d never heard of it – used to be 3MP, which I listened to a lot when I was 11 or 12). It’s Glenn Ridge’s show, I’m only vaguely aware of who he is, too, which would only make sense to me via who he was – a tv game show host or something similar? That’s what I told Mia anyway, now I’m starting to doubt it.

Late: so I went to do the Ridge show, and it was fine – the guys on the show were pretty slick, and I was fairly scattered in my responses, but I imagine that’s OK – the important thing probably is not to seem smug or pompous. The whole thing had a cloud over it though, because there were police all over the station because someone had died in the building overnight, probably a suicide. When I got there the producer mentioned all the cops and I said, what’s that about and she said you don’t want to know, but then later when I was in the control room a panel operator came in and talked all about it, occasionally casting glances at me. The person who died had motor neurone disease, he was 60 and apparently there had been some kind of party the previous week after which he had called to thank everyone who had come, and there was a theory that he’d been saying goodbye to everyone. He’d done his show that morning and then he had died somewhere on the premises. I thought the staff I was talking to there were a bit in shock but they were coping.

So I did the Ridge show and it was fun. Unlike Fidler, they hadn’t read the book and I should be regarding that more as an opportunity (the difference is, I suppose, if the interviewer has read the book they become your collaborator in presenting your ideas to the audience; if they don’t know anything about it, you have to scrub away at their unknowingness). Not that I blame anyone for not having read it, I couldn’t give a loose root.

a year ago today: publicity for the bogan delusion

I am writing on an aeroplane and watching Limitless at the same time, for my sins and guess what, I paid for it. Today I was in Brisbane to do a half-hour interview with Richard Fidler for his Conversation. I am pretty impressed with how I managed to find the ABC studios in Toowong, in a hire car, using nothing more than the gps in my phone and a very rough idea of directions in Brisbane which of the state capitals is probably the one I know least well. I got there with ten minutes to spare and then waited around for ¾ of an hour. But that was ok. I felt a bit frazzled anyway as I hadn’t slept well and the 2 hour flight + the rather fraught drive had made me more messy. Then we went and did the interview – it was originally slated to be live, but then for some reason it was recorded instead (while an interview RF had previously done was put to air) and will be played tomorrow.

I was pretty happy. I think I have the schtick down. Previously I’d done interviews so rarely, I felt I always wanted to be agreeable with things people said even if I didn’t technically believe them – or rather I would try and find common ground. Now, for whatever reason I am happy to contradict interviewers. I imagine once I go back to never being interviewed (which, honestly, is fine) I will return to my former state.

After the interview I had a few hours to fill so I went to Springfield, ostensibly a new town between Brisbane and Ipswich. I was just feeling my way around. I went to Springfield Central, which was just a shopping centre with a wavey street through the middle with cars parked either side of the main street, and I had some crappy coffee and arancini balls at a café there, and then I bought another coffee at a book shop there, and then I was really annoyed by both those coffees, so I went to Springfield Lakes which seems to be the most developed part of the area, very new nonetheless, and drove around a bit, and took some pictures and went to some display homes where a guy was very suspicious particularly after I stepped out and took two pictures from the verandah – he said, ‘You’ve been taking a lot of photographs’, which was a gross exaggeration. Then I started to worry that being so tired I was getting a bit reckless with getting my flight back, considering I had no idea how to get to the airport, so I started driving, and eschewed – foolishly, I now realise – the freeway to the airport because it was a toll road. Then I noticed there was a transponder in the car so that was cool.

So I got to the airport really too early and of course the plane was late to leave but at least I was on it and now I’m watching Limitless.*

I have a couple more radio interviews to do now, but nothing too special (sorry 6RTR and 3CR; I’m sure you’re very special; but you don’t reach millions like the Fidler interview; yes, this is what I’ve become).

* It still arrived ten minutes early, or so the pilot said.

four days ago - publicity for the bogan delusion

How weird that exactly a year following the initial kerfuffle here I am again, revisiting quite a few of the same shows & people and giving my 2c worth on this bogan thing all over. The reason being that the Oxford English Dictionary has decided to include the word 'bogan' in its pages. I cannot believe this is a news story, but Affirm got onto me and people wanted to speak to me, so...

As it transpired, circumstances got a little in the way, because the day this was announced (someone really announced it?!) I was due to go to Canberra, but I was tying up stuff to make my departure in the early evening, so I was able when asked to drop into the ABC at Southbank yet again and have a little chat with Rafael Epstein. I then raced home to get a call from ABC South Australia, which meant me listening for a long time to their other guest - from the Macquarie - talk about bogan moths (pur-lease!) and then when I got on they said the phone line was so bad they had to dump me. This happened again an hour later when I was actually at the airport - this time on my mobile - and I was on the phone to Louise Maher on ABC Canberra; I barely got a sentence out and the phone cut out, which (I know that iPhones have a reputation) never normally happens. It was infuriating.

However, since I was going to Canberra anyway, they teed me up to come into their studio the next day. And I did, and met Louise Maher who was very nice, and we had a quick chat. During this discussion I stepped outside myself and came to fully appreciate that I really needed to get a new schtick, as I was getting a bit uncontained in my commentary (for instance a la Kath Day Knight I got in a simultaneous swipe and kudos to the Australian for a recent editorial on the failings of Fairfax and even though I tied it up with 'and the bogan is a tool in all that...' or words to that effect, let's face it I have said everything there is to say on this subject. Ditto an interview I'd done earlier in the morning with RTR in Perth where the interviewer was very cognisant of everything I'd said in my RTR interview last year... have I moved on? I sort of feel I have, but no-one else has, in this regard. That is an unfair thing for me to think, as the media simply reflects (I hope) society, and it was my job and no-one else's to get the world to move on, and I failed. But still...

a year ago today: publicity for the bogan delusion

Last night (22 July 11) was the launch for the book, and it was really exciting. We had it at Handsome Steve's in Abbotsford Convent (one of my colleagues made the very sensible comment that this was an inappropriately inner-city space, but the interior is very anti-elite, retro and full of fun memorabilia inc a lot of footy stuff). The Suburban and Cokes played, basically New Estate with James Dutton as an extra, doing five songs. 'Flash' by the Coloured Balls, 'No Secrets' by The Angels, 'Cheap Wine' by Cold Chisel, 'Suburban Boy' by Dave Warner's From the Suburbs and 'We Can't Be Beaten' by Rose Tattoo. All went really well, though I am very ambivalent about 'We Can't Be Beaten' because it seems so much to be the inarticulately expressed sadness of an abused child channelling his rage into racist violence.

There were lots of people there and Handsome Steve's being so small made it seem like there were even more than there were, I suppose. We sold a lot of books and I had trouble coming up with valid things to write in them when people asked me to sign them. It was wild overall though and I was really happy with the way it went. I had assumed I would be largely patronised in a jovial sense by many but I wasn't, on the whole. I see a measure (only a measure, I'm not up myself) of success is enough to get people off your back in that sense, or perhaps it wouldn't have happened anyway, don't know.

I still have a few more bits and pieces to do before it's all over - notably, Brisbane next week and another interview (with RTR in Perth of all things) has been booked in as of today for two weeks away. More thrillingly, the ALR has asked me to write something about suburban creativity and that's grouse. I continue to be chuffed. It will be interesting when this all gets 'published' a year from now (in case it's not apparent, I've simply been writing this stuff up as it happens and using the post options function in blogger to publish a year in advance; who knows what mid-2012 will be like, maybe I'll be dead) to see if there were any long-term ramifications. I am keen to do a revised version of the book in the future, and this stuff will be handy for me to look back on then, too.

Just to keep things in perspective, it's not the greatest thing in the world, it's just been really interesting and worthwhile, and I've really enjoyed the experience. That's it.

a year ago today: publicity for the bogan delusion

Got what was I think my first review yesterday from a Saturday Age journalist called Dianne Dempsey. I didn't see it till Saturday evening, and no-one had told me about it in the time leading up till then and no-one has spoken to me about it since. It was not a particularly favourable review, although Dempsey did put forward some positive qualities she found in the work.*

I have probably written about it here previously but I do lead my professional life via the guidance of Paul Fussell and his remarkable essay 'Being Reviewed', one part of which in sum states that if you can't stand being reviewed negatively, don't write books and publish them. I actually feel this is more or less fair enough and I try to abide by its implications, one of which is, oversensitivity to reviews is pathetic. But it was interesting being in a few minds at once - I felt a bit savaged, and also a bit patronised, and also wishing I had a right of reply. But also I could assume the smart reader could see right through this review, which like so much of the guff I have received from the media kind of proves one of my points as outlined in the book (it's a light-hearted bit of fluff from a very middle-class, 'latte coiffing' point of view, which impugns my motives) and so I wondered whether it was ultimately a good or a bad thing. Fussell says, and my limited experience seems to prove, that if you're (or in this case, your product is) important enough to be talked about that's all that really matters.

Still it got up my nose particularly in tandem with the Safran thing which I have been playing over and over in my head since.

I shouldn't be so sensitive, as the book has gone into a 2nd printing, which means I have now to make some corrections. That's a good thing.

* Martin the publisher called me later in the day to commiserate on the review and suggest he was sufficiently irritated by it to 'arc up' with Dempsey/The Age on this but I said I didn't think this was a good idea. I felt a bit like I was being managed, but I am still not sure if my response is a little too emotional.