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26 April 2024 / 0 Comments

Fauves are the best people!

I’ve been following the progress of Fauves are the Best People, a podcast about Mornington band the Fauves, for a couple of months now.

I was a massive fan of the band when they first started getting airplay in Australia in 1990 (and yes, I’m absolutely on a nostalgia bent right now: must be something about reaching a certain age).

The format of the podcast is intriguing, if daunting: an episode devoted to each song the band released, with special bonus episodes about individual albums (12 in total so far) and EPs. Meaning they’ll be at it for years to come.

Crucially, each episode starts with a full broadcast of the song in question, which for the early EPs the band recorded may well be their first ever digital release. Episodes also feature interviews with the band, producers, rock luminaries, snippets of onstage banter and quirky (but fascinating) analysis of the drum tracks.

The cover of "The Scissors Within", an extended play record by Melbourne rock band The Fauves from 1992.

Right now, they’re wrapping up a series of posts devoted to the first Fauves EP I bought, The Scissors Within (1992). I used to listen to these six songs constantly, wrote poems inspired by the lyrics and music, and still think it stands up today as a well-produced and atmospheric record.

Funnily enough, Jon Bampton, one of the guys who produce the podcast contacted me recently via this website (probably in response to this post about the band’s early EPs) and asked if I’d like to guest on an episode or two.

We’ve now completed hot takes of three songs the Fauves recorded for a compilation album, entitled Dress Ups (also released in 1992), which co-featured two other Melbourne-based bands: The Glory Box and Pray TV. I bought a copy of this EP when I was a student, possibly at Waterfront Records in Sydney, or else via the Fauves’ website.

Recording the three episodes was a pretty straightforward affair: Jon and I met up on Zoom; I used my own digital recorder so that we could isolate our respective audio tracks, and we spent around 20 minutes talking about the words, the music and my personal memories of seeing the band in the early 1990s.

It can be difficult to listen to one’s own voice, especially when you know a recording is going to be available to the general public. I had my fair share of cringeworthy moments in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a spoken word poet in Melbourne, so you could say I’m reasonably accustomed to the phenomenon.

The truth is, however, that I can’t even really bear to go back and listen to these episodes now. The cringe is just too much. So, I’m just going to embed the first episode here and anyone who’s interested in hearing the other two can just follow the Spotify links.

Anyway, check the podcast out if you’re into early-1990s OzRock nostalgia!

Crossposted on FaceCrack.

5 November 2023 / 1 Comment

Blocksy WordPress theme

The long-suffering reader(s) of this blog will need no reminder that [d/dn]’s been through more incarnations than the Wikipedia entry on Buddhism. But as my posts have become more sporadic in recent years, I’ve had fewer reasons to tinker with design and layout.

In fact, I last changed the theme for this site in February 2023: a mere nine months ago. I’d opted for yet another theme by Anders Norén, the beautiful and simple Koji WordPress theme, which at around five years of age is still less than a quarter as old as [d/dn].

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Looking back towards Doolin on the Cliffs of Moher walking trail in Co. Clare, Ireland.
2 November 2023 / 0 Comments

Postscript: 10 days in Ireland

It’s been a long time between blog posts, I know. But what better way to break that drought than by posting about my recent trip to the Republic of Ireland?

Returning to Ireland after an 18-year absence was both emotional and rewarding. The first time I visited, in 2005, I was at the beginning of what proved to be a life-changing world trip taking in North America, Europe and East Asia.

But my initial plan on this trip was more modest: to discover my family’s origins in County Clare on the island’s west coast and then see what happened after that.

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city under cloudy sky
Photo by Sava Bobov on Unsplash
14 October 2023 / 0 Comments

염기도: Basicity

Go back to Basi: get
   silly fresh.

Tidy your hair: check  
   that every memory you recall 
   is actually         yours. 

You may not get another chance 
   to protest at the passing of time 
   with such rigour. 

In Basi, all men wear shoulder pads. 

Hoaxes are committed on a daily basis. 

Don't be worried, 
   over-confident or fooled - 
   you have already been defrauded. 

Smell the long wisps of a lie, 
   coiled in the air 
   just above       your identification badge. 

Walk the streets and cross yourself 
   off wanted lists. 

Graffiti is encouraged here. 

Custom dictates that women be served first, 
   whether in a restaurant 
   or a bureaucratic exam. 

Water pipes dispense a strange liquor. 

Bathing in this yellowish gooze 
   is said to ward off many ailments. 

Those who make these claims 
   are also said to be 
   in the employ of one company 
   or another. 

Did you forget your satchel? 

How, then, do you expect 
   to gain entrance to our gentleman's club? 

You will spend the next four hours 
   in a cheap and dilapidated hof, 
   throwing peanuts at the walls and 
   lining up to urinate 
   in a closet half your size. 

Don't even think of initiating a bowel movement. 

Poetry evenings, while abounding, 
   suffer from syrupy background music during the recitals. 

You will one day experience 
   the sad fate of mis-recognising 
   your own words, pumped out of a loudspeaker, 
   their meaning changed by 
   the simple juxtaposition of violins 
   or piano with your original intent. 

In this city, no one is allowed to clap hands. 

To do so would be to violate an unwritten law. 

You may sleep, but only under the neon moon. 

The weather is surprisingly mild 
   at this time of year. 

The mopeds barely disturb the people's sleep 
   but their dreams - ah! 

If only you could see them!

When morning comes, 
   be sure to keep a map beside you.

Reassure your nocturnal half that 
   Basi is real. 

Just like the obscure system of 
   pressure points said to lead 
   to that oh-so-ordinary city, that

         of the smile.
24 May 2023 / 0 Comments

It’s out there: ITF Transport Outlook 2023

It’s out there! The 2023 edition of the ITF – International Transport Forum‘s Transport Outlook has just been launched at the ITF Summit in Leipzig!

The Outlook is the ITF’s “flagship” publication, examining the impacts of different policy measures on 🌐 global transport demand and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the actions governments can take now to decarbonise their transport sectors (spoiler alert: may involve 🚲 🛴 🚌 🚶‍♀️ 🚊 . . . ).


ITF Transport OUTLOOK 2023

Read or download the full report

The analysis in the report covers the movement of passengers and freight across all transport modes. A particular focus is placed on transport policies that make cities more liveable. A second focus is on infrastructure investment decisions and what different policy scenarios mean for them. As a third focus, the report explores regional differences in policy impacts.

The analysis is based on two distinct scenarios for the future of transport, simulated with the ITF’s in-house transport models.

The Current Ambition scenario assumes policies to decarbonise transport continue along their current pathway and considers the implications for transport demand, CO2 emissions and further aspects over the next three decades. The High Ambition scenario assumes policies focused on accelerating the decarbonisation of the transport sector and their impact.

I have to say this has been one of the most challenging reports I’ve ever had the pleasure of editing. As the Outlook is a “flagship” publication (not a term I’m fond of but sometimes you have to pick your battles), there’s naturally a lot of internal and external pressure to get it right.

The Outlook is also the only ITF report published using the OECD’s in-house content management system, meaning that we faced a number of technical challenges I won’t bore anyone with right now. Suffice it to say that the effort was worth it: the report is now available in print, as a PDF and in full-text HTML.

Massive congratulations to Orla Therese McCarthy, Josephine Macharia and the entire ITF team for putting the report together, and to Chris Wells FRSA for creating the wonderful cover image!

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This is [d/dn], the home of David Prater, a writer and editor currently living in the third person.

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