Books And Arts - Full Program Podcast

This week we’re baffled by a few things: A viral thread on ‘mind hacks’ for dealing with Gen X weirdos  Louis C.K. Grammy win for best comedy album in which he talks about how masturbating in front of people is “his thing”  The fourth and final season of Killing Eve, but we’re also kind of OK with that? And Aaron Blabey — the New York Times-bestselling kids author talks about the Dreamworks Animation feature based on his hugely popular graphic novel series The Bad Guys, and how he stays connected to things that make 6-year-olds laugh. Show notes: Generation X is weird: https://twitter.com/girdley/status/1511316479106453511?s=20&t=S-UG4yhBD6V1_9j_XMW5eA Louis CK’s Grammy win: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/arts/television/louis-ck-grammy-backlash.html Aaron Blabey: https://www.aaronblabey.com/ Killing Eve: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/killing-eve

One of the world's most successful box office entertainers, Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbour, Transformers), speaks about his latest blockbuster, the explosive heist thriller Ambulance, in which Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II star as adoptive brothers on a car chase through L.A. in a stolen ambulance. And, the story of an Australian film pioneer comes to life in a new documentary called When the Camera Stopped Rolling, a very personal tale of trailblazing and trauma told through the lens of cinematographer Jane Castle about her mother Lilias Fraser.

David Noonan makes intriguing black-and-white collage of people in often liminal states. But despite their evocative drama, his pictures don't tell a story. Plus, Hoda Afshar's photographic project Speak the Wind, about people in the Persian Gulf who believe that humans can be possessed by the wind. And spotlight on the Australian artist and feminist Erica McGilchrist, whose painting series in the 1950s was based on her experiences teaching art at a mental hospital.

Tchaikovsky's opera about a blind princess, Iolanta, raises challenging questions about the nature of disability — questions the West Australian Opera confronts head on in a new production reimagined with members of the blind and vision-impaired community. Also, we hear two Sri Lankan Australian brothers debate 'wokeness' in a scene from the new comedy Stay Woke and we pay tribute to the theatre director and arts leader Andrew Ross, director of pioneering works by Aboriginal writers Jack Davis and Jimmy Chi.

The Icelandic sagas have long been a source of fascination for Kári Gíslason and his latest novel, The Sorrow Stone, gives new life to an old Icelandic saga. Also disability advocate and writer Liel Bridgford explores disability representation in fiction with Kay Kerr and Jessica Walton, and Robert Lukins on his second novel Loveland set in Nebraska about two women who've experienced controlling marriages and asks whether trauma is inherited.

We’re talking about what happened at the Oscars when Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s shaved head. We can’t stop thinking about Will Smith slapping Rock on live television, his Oscars acceptance speech and all the commentary that has ensued in the aftermath. Then comedian Rhys Nicholson is our guest. Rhys talks about why he’s not mentioning the pandemic in his new comedy show and what it’s like to be a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.  Show notes: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Oscars: https://twitter.com/CaseyBriggs/status/1508275968531918848 Will Smith Oscars acceptance speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSmZ5Sdqf8s Will Smith apology: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbqmaY1p7Pz/ Sheila Bridges Good Hair post: https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cbpkco4DFlY/ Chris Rock 2016 Oscars opening monologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqhVNZgZGqQ Rhys Nicholson: https://rhysnicholson.com.au/

This week the Academy Awards celebrated Australian cinematographers Greig Fraser, who took home an Oscar for his work on Denis Villeneuve's Dune, and Ari Wegner, who was nominated for The Power of The Dog, a film which took home the best director award for Jane Campion. We re-visit conversations with both. Plus, UK based Australian actor Christopher Chung who joins Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott-Thomas in the new spy series Slow Horses.

Ian Strange uses entire houses -slated for demolition- as his canvas, exploring the symbolism of 'home' through eras of unaffordability and urban development. Plus, meet Irish artist Sean Lynch onsite at his new public artwork in inner-city Melbourne. Sera Waters uses old English needlework techniques and crafts to examine the legacy of her settler forbears. And celebrating the work of feminist artist Frances Phoenix, whose doilies and embroidery packed a punch to the patriarchy.

Colin Lane and Frank Woodley are having a whale of a time in their new show, Moby Dick. The pair join us to reflect on forming their famous duo, forging separate paths and then discovering that neither of them had quite as much fun without the other. Also, we meet comedians readjusting to life on the road in 2022, check in with theatre companies impacted by the recent floods and congratulate Bruce Gladwin, artistic director and co-CEO of Back to Back Theatre, on the company's International Ibsen Award.

For his latest novel, Moon Witch, Spider King, Marlon James says "I was trying to connect with my own mythological history as a black man in an African diaspora, in a former British colony". Also, friendship in fiction with Susan Johnson, Juhea Kim and Paige Clark, and Perth writer David Whish-Wilson's writing space.

Stop being poor: Ziwe remixes Kim Kardashian’s Work anthem. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeals to Russian soldiers. Amy Schumer has some Ukraine jokes ready for the Oscars. And we raise our margarita glasses in solidarity with Lisa Wilkinson, a woman enjoying a solo dinner out.  We’re also covering two major screen releases this week. Ben Law talks to the creative forces behind the Apple TV adaptation of Pachinko, the blockbuster novel by Min Jin Lee. Hear from Soo Hugh, creator and executive producer, and Justin Chon and Kogonada, the series co-directors. Then RN’s resident distinguished professor of bodice ripping, Rudi Bremer, shares her review of season two of Bridgerton and why it may be necessary to lower our Great Sexpectations™ compared to season one Show notes: Ziwe: Stop Being Poor: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CbNO2TDF8yM/ Lisa Wilkinson’s solo dinner: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10622283/Lisa-Wilkinson-sips-margarita-dines-restaurant-Melbourne.html Amy Schumer wan

Streaming on Amazon Prime, Master is a gothic horror set on a haunted university campus that examines the ongoing legacy of American racism. We're joined by director Mariama Diallo. Plus, Uberto Pasolini, the producer behind The Full Monty on his new, Belfast-set film Nowhere Special, a tender drama about a father-son relationship where tragedy looms.

Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo gives voice to rivers dammed for huge hydroelectric projects. What happens when the art world turns its back on Russia's major contemporary art museum? And Dennis Golding shares memories of 'the Block', using treasured iron lace from Redfern's terrace houses.

George Gershwin's An American in Paris has been associated with dance ever since it inspired the 1951 Gene Kelly film, so who better to bring it to the musical theatre stage than the renowned ballet dancer, choreographer and now director Christopher Wheeldon. Also, with several Australian companies currently presenting works by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, we learn about the lives of these two men and their belief in the revolutionary potential of the theatre.

Aunty Elaine Russell has legendary status in her home town of Sydney. She was an artist and storyteller who inspired many, and whose work has been acquired by a number of Australia's major galleries and museums.

'I have a full and beautiful life', says Irish writer Marian Keyes, 'The only thing I can't do is drink'. And the experience of addiction and recovery is something she's given to the main character in her book Again, Rachel, a sequel to Rachel's Holiday. Also, Michael Trant writes a book on his tractor, Jane Caro explores coercive control in The Mother and Rhett Davis's debut novel, Hovering.

Can you tell me who will still care … about MMMBop?  We do!  Twenty-five years after Hanson burst into pop music with their smash hit MMMBop, we’re looking at the lyrics and nodding sagely at the brothers’ precocious wisdom.  Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson talk to BL and BW about breaking into the music industry as children, their 30th year together as a band and what they see as their creative higher purpose.  We’re also picking through award-winning NZ director Jane Campion’s milkshake duck weekend and talking about how she went from good viral — slapping down Sam Elliott’s take on The Power of The Dog — to bad viral — telling Venus and Serena Williams they’ve never had to compete against men, like she does.  Show notes: Sam Elliott on Marc Maron’s WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1309-sam-elliott Jane Campion calls Sam Elliott a B-I-T-C-H: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/jane-campion-says-sam-elliott-is-being-a-b-i-t-c-h-with-slam-against-the-power-of-the-dog-1235203098/ Jane Campion

Melbourne filmmaker Danny Cohen on Anonymous Club, his 16mm doc about Melbourne musician Courtney Barnett, an introspective,  introverted & reluctant world-famous rock-star. Plus, streaming on Disney +, U.S. director Mimi Cave talks about her horror take on the meet-cute/rom-com in Fresh and Hollywood actor Sebastian Stan on getting into character for his villainous role.

British filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien on his latest works: a spellbinding interpretation of Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi and a portrait of 19th C. abolitionist Fredrick Douglass. Plus, Heather B. Swann's potent retelling of the Greek myth 'Leda and the swan', where Leda is at the centre of the story. And why you should know the name Thanakupi -- the pioneering ceramic artist from the Thaynakwith language group in western Cape York, whose legacy looms large.

Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl was most famously adapted into a musical film by Barbra Streisand. Now a new adaptation breathes new life into the story. It's directed by Gary Abrahams, who is also at the helm of Admissions at the Melbourne Theatre Company. Also, playwright and Blak & Bright Festival Director Jane Harrison curates a session of monologues by First Nations writers and Voice and Text Coach at the Sydney Theatre Company Leith McPherson shares tips on how an actor's voice can supplement their income.