This is a radio sketch I made for SYN a couple of years ago, using clips from ACTUAL news bulletins broadcast on Adelaide’s Fresh 92.7FM circa December 2008 – January 2009.
At the insistence of my good friend Van Badham, I knocked up this visual version using stock footage from some American educational film about the 1956 Interstate Highways Act.
If you know anything about news or journalism, you should enjoy this.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Chelsea, you’ve done it again!
I’ve just returned from a 2 week chillaxment in Adelaide. Always a pleasure to visit my home town. Great to see the family and old friends, and boy, there’s nothing like that first glass of Adelaide water.
The last 2 weeks in Adelaide were probably the best weather I’ve ever experienced. Bright blue skies and sunshine every single day. There’s a certain brightness and freshness that you don’t often get in Melbourne. No offense.
I was back for Christmas. And the winner of “best present ever” goes to my thoughtful sister Hannah, who actually read the article I wrote on gifts for mX the other week. She got me this:
Instead of something useless that’s just going to take up the limited space I have in my room in Melbourne, she made a donation to charity, which provided a piglet to a poor family in Laos. This is fantastic.
This is what Christmas should be about. Giving things to people who really need it. I can’t remember the last time I reacted to a Christmas present with a genuine smile. Best present ever.
Was also good to catch up with my brother Luke C. Green. He, along with my other sister Alice, have a rare degenerative condition called “hereditary spastic paraplegia”. But Luke’s making the most of it. His reduced mobility gives him an excuse to do what he really loves: play computer games.
The whole thing is very hard on my parents. I really don’t know how they do it.
And I was very, very happy to see Katie, the family Cardigan Corgi. She’s had some problems with her hips the last couple of years. Since I moved it’s apparently become worse. She doesn’t tend to move around the house much any more. But when I arrived she ran out to greet me. A rare honour these days, so I’m told.
Caught up too with the talented Li’l Lisa Pellegrino. We go way back to those unsupervised days at Radio Adelaide 101.5FM circa 2007. In 2009 she moved to Darwin to do breakfast on Mix 104.9FM. She recently made the move to 105.7 ABC Darwin. Plus she also helped get me a job at the Palace Nova Cinema in Adelaide, so I still feel I owe her. She’s definitely one to watch.
I notice the Adelaide Advertiser hasn’t changed. Just as appalling as ever. And they’re persisting with the same poorly designed reader poll graph, which I have previously mocked on this website:
2 responses? Honestly, why don’t they just make it up? And the arrow points towards NO! This is the worst kind of ergonomics. When will they learn? The city really needs a second daily local newspaper.
I spent a lot of time listening to my vast collection of 80s new wave records, which I dearly miss. Resolution for this year is to get them all over to Melbourne so I can enjoy them all the time. I may have made that resolution last year…
In the space of 2 weeks, I managed to listen to all of these:
How many albums can you name on my vinyl floor?
Hilariously, when I put this photo on Facebook, the facial recognition system picked up Peter Gabriel (line 9, position 1), Phil Collins from The Face Album (line 4, position 2) and that guy from Wang Chung (line 7, position 2).
And probably most excitingly, I caught up with Radio’s Alex Williamson, Nick Godfrey and Tim Wray to shoot some more of our somewhat popular Internet sitcom Too Easy.
Expect 4 new episodes coming to your computer screens and mobile devices later this month! And we reckon these are the funniest ones so far…
Here are some behind the scenes snaps to wet your appetite…
Get ready for the return of Ricky T! Played by the talented Jack Ellis, who’s just been accepted into NIDA in Sydney!
Some great memories there. Can’t wait to share them with you when Alex cuts the episodes together.
I always enjoy being back in Adelaide. However, having said that… I think I would be a little depressed if I were to move back there permanently. For now, I’ve got to be in Melbourne to keep on with the career.
Alex said it best I think. Adelaide’s comfortable. But sometimes, you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Stay classy, Adelaide.
I’m proud to announce I’m back in the panel-operators’ club! I now work at Melbourne Talk Radio MTR1377!
It’s been a long time since my last paid panel-operator gig at Adelaide’s SAFM ended with me being replaced by a computer.
That was August 2008. I was young and inexperienced. And it was in that brief period after the job cuts of the global financial crisis but before the increased opportunities that came from digital radio. But hey, that’s all water under the burnt bridge… 😉
So it’s only taken 3 years, a Graduate Diploma of Journalism, a move to Melbourne, and 76 job applications since October (not even joking), but I’ve finally found another job in radio.
So far I’m enjoying working at MTR. Everyone I’ve met has been fantastic. There’s a strong news culture. And it’s no secret I’m a fan of talk back radio (See On The Yacht).
I’ll be working on a casual and fill-in basis for now, which suits me perfectly, as that will allow me to work on my Channel 31 game show 31 Questions over the next few months. A big thank you to MTR operations manager Jason Taylor.
I’m particularly enjoying the idea of working in the same building as Steve Vizard and my childhood TV hero, Glenn Ridge! Actually, it’s kinda strange having filmed that sketch with Glenn just last month, and now I’m seeing him every Saturday night when I arrive at MTR just as he leaves.
So tune in to 1377AM if you’re in the Melbourne area, or listen online. You just might hear the audible results of me pressing buttons and moving faders.
I’ll leave you now with a tune that sums up this moment perfectly, from a fellow panel-operator by the name of Radio’s Sam Mac…
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Back on the buttons!
It’s one year to the day since I moved to Melbourne!
February 13 2010. The day I cast off the dead-end one-horse town of Adelaide and flew to Melbourne to chase the show biz dream. What a year.
I’ve done things I couldn’t dream of doing in Adelaide. The move remains, probably forever, one of my top 5 life decisions.
They weren’t all good times. Moving cities is very hard. And my first month in Melbourne was terrible. For anyone who’s been through it, I’m sure you can relate to this:
The above photo pretty much sums up the memory of my first few weeks in Melbourne. No family. No friends. No idea where anything was. No Internet. A shithouse sharehouse in Altona (which incidentally, has since been demolished). No idea how I was going to cope with journalism and a new casual job at a cinema that should have been great, but was made unnecessarily stressful by the boss, who was, and remains (probably forever), a complete arse hole.
At one point, I think on my second shift there, he took me aside and said, “I don’t know how people do things in Adelaide, but this is Melbourne.” What a dick.
But somehow I got through all that crap and 2010 turned out to present a bevy of experiences.
I was hired and fired, I met new friends and fell out with them, got drunk, danced the night away, encountered people I’d only ever seen on TV, became a professional writer, hosted a television show, was rejected in a variety of contexts more times than I can recall, explored the suburbs, rode the rails, once walked from Flinders Street to Bell Street, was in a car accident, and learnt a whole lot of important life lessons, the grit of which I won’t go into here.
As for the highlights, here’s a few photos that sum up the best of my first year in Melbourne…
It’s always an incredible honour to speak to my childhood hero and partial inspiration for moving to Melbourne. Those photos got me many an envious comment of praise. And I made sure to put the worst one on Shaun’s Wikipedia page, which for some reason, is still there. You can read my full interview with Shaun Micallef here… well, not “here”. Just over there, where the hyperlink is.
I never really “went out” in Adelaide. Melbourne 2010 was an awakening for my social life. Dancing to ’80s music at Trades Hall. Birthday parties at strange bars in strange suburbs I’d never heard of before. And unimaginable fun.
For the most part of my first year in Melbourne, I didn’t have a car, and often found myself tagging along with strangers at 2 o’clock in the morning. I’ve had some very interesting conversations with taxi drivers, some of whom seemed to know less about Melbourne than I did.
And I learnt a very important lesson about where my “limit” is. I haven’t been able to drink Carlton Draught since. Probably a good thing really.
It was the catalyst for moving to Melbourne. I was accepted into the prestigious Graduate Diploma of Journalism at RMIT University, which I completed with distinction.
It wasn’t just about the journalism. Radio, TV, writing, presenting, editing, dealing with people. I learnt so much in 2010. Universities aren’t just “degree factories”. I certainly grew as a person. I felt I grew more in my one year of journalism than I did in my three years of Behaviour Science at Flinders.
One of the other benefits was the friendships. And I was invited into my fair share of beds…
The photo above has been by desktop background pretty much since November 25, 2010, when we shot the pilot for “31 Questions”, my community TV game show. THIS was why I moved to Melbourne. I want a career in television. I’m certainly on my way.
Using “Studio A” at RMIT University city campus on fabulous Swanston Street, myself and a long list of volunteers filmed the first episode of “31 Questions”. We were under-time by 8 minutes. A bit of a shambles. But we got there in the end.
At present we’ve been approved by RMITV Student Television for a series, pending approval from Channel 31 Melbourne. I’m very much looking forward to making 13 new episodes this year. Here’s hoping!
That’s right. “Team Bell Street”. After my horror share house experience in Altona, I frantically searched for somewhere else to live. After a long list of rejections, I eventually checked out a house at the end of the Number 1 tram line to East Coburg. Right on Bell Street.
It was a little further out from the city than I wanted, but when Steph and Virginia offered me the room, I couldn’t refuse. It’s been almost a year since I moved in. A few people have come and gone – two German exchange students, Waldo and Toby. And after a couple of months, Kolinda moved in.
I gotta say, I am very lucky to have found this place. I didn’t know any of them. They let me move in with them based purely on a brief meeting in their kitchen.
I sometimes take them for granted, but together we’ve had a lot of laughs and I’ve always been able to count on Team Bell Street to cheer me up when I’m feeling down.
They’re a good bunch. And Team Bell Street had a major role in me being able to claim Melbourne as my home.
So as I raise a Farmer’s Union Iced Coffee, I say I couldn’t have asked for a better first year in Melbourne… Well, actually of course I could have… but it’ll do. And here’s to many, many more.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Melburnian
On December 2nd, I jetted back to Adelaide for 10 days of R&R. And I tell ya, a week and a bit of driving a car with the ’80s new wave music blasting; long lunches at Subway, taking advantage of the plentiful booth seating and free soft drink refills (regardless of which size drink you order… I’m looking at YOU Melbourne subway restaurants…); walking around Seacliff, Glenelg, Blackwood and the CBD; and just hangin’ out with old friends is just what I needed!
I swore I wouldn’t become one of these Adelaide ex-pats, who go on and on in a culturally cringe-worthy manor about all things SA; Stobey Poles, frog cakes, Farmer’s Union Iced Coffees and the like. But to be honest, seeing all these things again was quite comforting. Adelaide is my home town, and it seems only now that I’m no longer a resident, but rather a visitor, that I’m starting to appreciate it.
Don’t get me wrong, I prefer to LIVE in Melbourne. But it is good to get away from the hustle and bustle once in a while and reconnect with my roots. Keep it real, if you will.
I made sure to take advantage of my good friend Tim Wray’s generosity and access to hospital attire, and caught a refurbished 3000 Class train to the beautiful Adelaide Oval for Day 4 of The Ashes 2nd cricket test (England vs Australia).
We were going for a “we’ve just left a patient on the operating table for a minute to attend the cricket” kinda look. It’s that sort of line between cricket tragic and malpractice minefield that makes a true sports fan.
We may have looked a bit silly, but when the rain came, turned out the scrubs were waterproof, so that was a plus.
Here’s a quick video I shot. You can hear the Barmy Army singing Joy Division:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gydXVld_KoE
Also, at one point the camera guys took a break from filming the guy with the bow tie and the horse head (I think his name is Alcopop?) and put US on the big screen! I don’t believe we were broadcast on TV though.
I particularly like this photo. With the light tower, it sort of looks like we’re performing surgery on someone, from the patient’s perspective… and maybe we were?
Speaking of healthcare, I also took the opportunity while I was in town to donate some more of my blood. I went with my sister Hannah to the Pirie Street Red Cross, purveyors of fine bloods. It was her first time. It was my 2nd. Both extractions went off without a stich… hitch… And good news for me: No HIV!
I also caught up with Radio’s Alex Williamson and Nick Godfrey to discuss filming some more Too Easy episodes. I’m going back to Adelaide for a week over Christmas. We’re planning on filming 3, possibly 4 new episodes. And there’s a couple of big names who might just be making a surprise guest appearance… Billy Joel as Toby’s long lost jazz piano-playing half-brother? Florence Henderson as Adrian’s Brady Bunch-esque Step-Mother? Josh Thomas for no reason? Or… BOMBSHELL! Toby has a daughter?!?
Stay tuned…
I’m back in Melbourne now for my RMIT graduation ceremony. Then it’s back to Adelaide for Christmas. Talk to you all again soon.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
And that’s where babies come from… The Internet.