Standing Room Only for Sunday 13 February 2022

12:15  Film Commission CEO David Strong looks ahead to 2022

New Zealand Film Commission CEO David Strong has been in the job for nearly six months now, and has presided over both triumphs and setbacks in that time.   

There's dealing with Covid, of course, trying to keep the industry afloat as productions go into hiatus - or in the case of big-budget TV series Rings of Power and Cowboy Bebop, go off-shore.  

But there's good news too.  It's been one our most fruitful periods ever, with local films like Cousins, Juniper, Baby Done and many more.  And this week there was the historic news that Jane Campion's Power of the Dog has been nominated for a record number of Academy Awards.

Simon Morris talks to David Strong at the end of a very busy week.
 

12:41  Pictures of musical instruments - from the inside!

Just imagine being able to walk through the interior of an historic cello, a grand piano, or even a didgeridoo

Using special probe lenses and high resolution cameras, Kiwi cellist and photographer Charles Brooks takes us right into the heart of all kinds of musical instruments.

The extraordinary, blown-up images he's created make the spaces feel vast - as if you're walking into a room or even a cathedral.

They are quite jaw dropping, and they've attracted international attention.

Charles Brooks tells Lynn Freeman he made a name for himself taking unconventional portraits of musicians from around the world, and he was also hugely successful orchestral cellist.
 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews Belfast, India Sweets and Spices and Parallel Mothers.

 

1:32  Two new names on Dunedin's Writers' Walk

Getting your name on a plaque on the Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Writers' Walk is a huge deal, and also very competitive given how many writers Ōtepoti has produced.

The latest two writers to be honoured are poet Peter Olds and the late O.E - or Ted - Middleton, who was an award- winning short story writer.

Their brass plaques will be found at the foot of the city's landmark Robert Burns statue in the Octagon, after being unveiled this Friday.

Both writers were Robert Burns Fellows at the University of Otago in the 1970s, and but while the city was already home to Peter, Ted came from out of town and stayed on. He died in 2010.

Lynn Freeman speaks to Roger Hickin who is Peter Olds' long-time friend and publisher, and to Ted Middleton's widow, poet Cynthia Greensill.

Here is Peter Olds reading one of his poems.

 

1:47  Classical instruments meet traditional taonga pūoro

In recent years many musicians have experimented with the sounds of taonga pūoro - traditional Māori instruments.

Art music ensemble Tāmira Pūoro - Ruby Solly and Michelle Velvin - are the latest to reveal what they've learnt, in their debut album Feather Spines.

'Genre-weaving' is how they describe it - bringing together the sounds of instruments from both te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā. 

The Wellington-based musicians have been working on Feather Spines since 2019. 

Michelle is the principal harp in Orchestra Wellington, as well as a composer, educator and session musician.   Ruby is a writer, a music therapist and taonga pūoro practitioner who's played with artists including Trinity Roots, Yo-Yo Ma, Whirimako Black. 

Lynn Freeman talks with Michelle and Ruby about the album, which is out now on Oro Records.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - NZ Fringe's Tom Noble

With festivals and arts events dropping like flies at the moment, it's a minor miracle when any New Zealand event makes it to the finish line.

But the New Zealand Fringe Festival does minor miracles all the time.  For 32 years, the Wellington-based Fringe has turned into a powerhouse, open-access arts festival.  

And the new Artists and Venue Manager is Tom Noble, who's our guest on the Laugh Track.  Kia ora Tom and welcome to the show.

Tom's picks include Spitz and Crumple, Juniper Wilde: Wilde Night In, Trent H Baumann and Ryan McGhee.

The New Zealand Fringe Festival will feature a record-breaking 200-plus events across 37 different venues around the greater Wellington region from 18 February to 12 March 2022.  

 

2:29  Poet Oscar Upperton and the singular Doctor Barry

Transgender 19th-century surgeon Doctor James Barry is one of those fascinating characters from the past who you can't believe isn't better known.

He was by all accounts an excellent physician, though obsessive and argumentative.  He took part in several duels, and liked to travel with a goat.

No wonder widely-published poet Oscar Upperton saw enough here to write an entire collection about the singular Doctor Barry.  It's called The Surgeon's Brain.

Lynn Freeman asks Oscar how he came across the story of James Barry.

The Surgeon's Brain by Oscar Upperton is published by Te Herenga Waka University Press

 

2:45  25 years of the ground-breaking dance company Touch Compass

Aotearoa New Zealand's only disability-led professional performing arts organisation, Touch Compass, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a live streamed show.

Technically the dance company, which brings together disabled and non-disabled artists, reached this milestone last year.  But we all know what got in the way of the birthday show being presented then!

The show /rītaha/  will go on - a mix of premieres and revisited, even reinvented, past works that include some of the company's trademark flying wheelchair dances.

Last year also saw a change in  the leadership of Touch Compass, with disabled performers Rodney Bell, Suzanne Cowan and Lusi Faiva appointed to a new Artistic Development Panel.

Lynn Freeman spoke to them about Touch Compass's past, its legacy and its future.

 /rītaha/ goes live on February 15. 

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - God Knows by Joe Musaphia

A play about dirty politics, recorded long before the phrase became front-page news!    But it simply proves that dubious party politics never really goes out of fashion...

Music played in this show

Artist: Ruby Murray
Song: Trottin' to the fair
Composer:  Graves-Stanford
Album: Greatest hits
Label: EMI
Played at: 12.12

Artist: SOAK
Song: Valentine Schmalentine
Composer:  SOAK
Album:  Grim Town
Label:  Rough Trade
Played at: 12.37

Artist: Van Morrison
Song: Comfort you
Composer: Morrison
Album: Veedon Fleece
Label: Exile
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Stiff Little Fingers
Song: Alternative Ulster
Composer:  Burns-Ogilvie
Album: Inflammable Material
Label: EMI
Played at:  1.07

Artist: The Divine Comedy
Song: Everybody knows (but you)
Composer: Hannon
Album:  A Secret History
Label:  DCR
Played at: 1.43

Artist:  Tamira Puoro
Song: No 2 awe
Composer: 
Album: 
Label: Oro Records
Played at: 1.45

Artist:  Tamira Puoro
Song: Feather Spines
Composer: Solly-Velvin
Album: Feather Spines
Label: Oro Records
Played at: 1.52

Artist:  Tamira Puoro
Song: Please leave the light on
Composer: Solly-Velvin
Album: Feather Spines
Label: Oro Records
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Clodagh Rodgers
Song: Come back and shake me
Composer:  Young
Album:  single
Label:  RCA
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Katie Malua
Song: I think it's going to rain today
Composer:  Newman 
Album: Call off the search
Label: Dramatico
Played at: 2.23

Artist: Feargal Sharkey
Song: A good heart
Composer: McKee
Album: L'Amour CD 3
Label: Disky
Played at: 2.37

Artist: Gary Moore
Song: Back on the Streets
Composer:  Moore
Album: Back on the streets
Label: Universal
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Undertones
Song: Teenage Kicks
Composer: O'Neill
Album: Teenage Kicks
Label: Salvo
Played at: 3.58