by cameron | Jul 8, 2008 | Cuba, Uncategorized
Today is day three in Ajaccio and I’m having an awesome time. This is my 2nd trip to Ajaccio (the first time was in 2004, just after I left Microsoft and before TPN) and I absolutely am in love with the place. Think Cuba but with modern cars and without the economic sanctions, and you’re pretty close. It has lots of old, beautiful but dilapidated buildings, lots of cobbled laneways filled to the brim with outdoor cafes and restaurants and bars, a hundred Cuban cigar stores (“Tabac Le Havana”), breath-taking mountain views across water filled with yachts, folk musicians playing bawdy French folk songs in restaurants, etc. I’m here with a terrific bunch of people, academics from around the world, scholars, musicians, and they are all wonderful, passionate, and hugely intelligent. I’ve spent many hours discussing Judaism, Israel, the Holocaust and the Palestine question with a party of Israelis scholars in their late 80s, who were alive during WWII, and I hope to get them recorded for the show before I leave.
We’re all staying up very late each night, drinking chestnut whisky, smoking Cuban cigars, in outdoor bars, debating religion, politics, history, art, you name it. I’m in my element.
Internet access is spotty though, so I’ve hardly been online and haven’t churned out any podcasts yet, but I hope to before I leave.
by cameron | Jul 7, 2008 | Podcast
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My guest today is Matt Norman.
Matt is an Aussie actor/director/producer who has a new documentary coming out called “Salute The Movie” (watch the trailer here). It tells the story of his uncle Peter Norman. Now, if you’re like me, you probably haven’t heard the name before but you probably do recognize this photo:
Peter Norman is the white guy. He was an Aussie Olympian who won the Silver Medal in the Men’s 200 metre race at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. The two athletes with him on the podium were Tommie Smith and John Carlos. They both raised their fists in the “Black Power” salute. Peter gave his support by wearing the OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) badge.
All three were booed when they left the podium and then ostracized in their respective countries for having the audacity to use this opportunity to make a political statement. All three were punished severely by their respective Olympic organizations and in Peter’s case, he was not picked for the ’72 Olympics, even though he came third in the trials.
This story is, of course, extremely relevant today, when Australian and American Olympic athletes are again being gagged by their respective organizations with respect to using the Olympics as an opportunity to speak out about China’s human rights abuses in Tibet and Darfur. Will any of them athletes have the balls to speak out? Or will they allow themselves to be gagged?
The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
More On This Album
by cameron | Jul 5, 2008 | Uncategorized
I nearly missed my connecting flight from Changi but, apart from that, the 28 hour trip (door to door) here went smoothly. It took me an hour to get through customers, an hour to get to the Latin Quarter where my hotel is… and then another 90 minutes while I walked around LOST because the map I’d printed out from Google Maps was WRONG. I’m bad enough following directions as it is, but it doesn’t help when the map you’re using is about 5 blocks out.
After I checked in, had a shower and a nap, I headed out to Notre Dame for a quick look. I was planning on sketching it – I have a goal to complete one sketch a day while I’m here – but it was raining. I bought a book from Shakespeare & Co (Henry Miller’s “Quiet Day In Clichy”) and ended up sketching the Pantheon when the rain finally stopped.
Now I’m sitting in an Aussie bar not far from my hotel (Hotel Home Latin), using their free wifi, before I head out to catch some jazz at Cafe Universal.
It turns out Nick Randolph (former TPN host) is here as well so we’re going to hook up tonight for a drink! We just hooked up over Skype when he saw my status message.
Paris is brilliant. This is my second time here and it is seriously the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to. I’ve got to live here. Soon.
by cameron | Jul 4, 2008 | Podcast, Uncategorized
I fly out today to attend the International Napoleonic Society’s conference in Ajaccio, Corsica. I’m spending a week there and a week in Paris. My co-host of the Napoleon podcast, J. David Markham, and I will be shooting video podcasts from Les Invalides (where he’s buried), La Malmaison (where he lived with Josephine), Arc de Triompe (which he had built to commemorate his victories), the Louvre (which contains lots of paintings of him), Musée de l’Armée (which contains lots of memorabilia, his hat, coats, etc), and from the house where he gre up in Ajaccio and on Elba where he lived out this first abdication in 1814. It’s going to be a busy trip!
I’m also planning to visit many of the Henry Miller sites around Paris as I’ve been reading a lot of his and Anais Nin’s work over the last few years since my last trip to Paris in 2004.
I’ll try to do a few shows while I’m over there. So stay tuned!
by cameron | Jul 3, 2008 | climate change, Melbourne, Podcast
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My guest today is Peter Singer.
He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. Outside academic circles, Singer is best known for his book Animal Liberation, widely regarded as the touchstone of the animal liberation movement.
I invited him onto the show to talk about the recent news from Spain that they will soon probably extend basic legal rights to all non-human hominids, an idea that has been driven by an organization that Peter co-founded, The Great Ape Project. We also talk about the basic ethics of utilitarianism and how the best thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is to stop eating meat.
The G’Day World theme music:
Conquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)
More On This Album
