When I was in Adelaide over the Christmas and New Year period I had the unique opportunity to get a photo, standing next to my car outside my parent’s soon-to-be-sold house in Seacliff.
What’s the significance of this photo? It happened to be 10 years to the day since I took a similar photo in the exact same position on the Earth’s surface!
Just a few things had changed in that decade…
Check it out:
I didn’t look at the first photo before I took the second one, so I was going by memory. That’s why the angle is slightly different, and why my Mum’s Honda is in shot.
Obviously that house in the background was recently knocked down. The concrete running down the centre of the Stobey Pole is a lighter colour in the recent photo because the pole was replaced in 2011 or 12.
Note the trees, brick house and grey fence on the far left of the photo are still there.
Had I not split my pants the night before during some mostly sensible new year’s eve celebrations, I would have been wearing the same style of pants again in the second photo. Alas. But I haven’t broken the habit of crossing my legs and shoving my hands in my pockets in the last 10 years.
As for the car, on New Year’s Day 2004 I’d had my P-Plates for less than a month and was just beginning to enjoy driving my 1986 Toyota Corolla Seca around the neighbourhood all by myself. In 2006, I traded up to a white 2001 Toyota Corolla Seca, which I then sold in 2010 when I moved to Melbourne. I only lasted one year without a car before I bought my current maroon 2000 Toyota Corolla Ascent. They’re wonderful cars.
It’s the end of another year this year. And what an end of a year it’s been. Also, the rest of the year was eventful.
I started 2013 with no regular work and by March I’d run out of money. Well, I say “run out of money”, but I mean it in the first world sense. I got down to my last $9 in the bank, but I still had a car and other things of tangible value, etc. But it was still pretty stressful.
At one point, I applied for a job as a school crossing guard with the Boroondara Council. It was basically this scene from the 1985 motion picture “Lost in America” starring Albert Brooks:
I wasn’t successful.
But I did do this for $150:
Salvation came with the AFL Season and my return to Crocmedia to panel their fabulous “AFL Live” football commentary to 100 radio stations around Australia. Best radio job I’ve had.
[Sports writing mode begins]
The most memorable moment was the Adelaide v. North Melbourne game, Round 9 at Etihad Stadium. The Kangaroos had lead for the entire game, only to have the Crows kick 5 unanswered goals in the final quarter, culminating in an Adelaide goal with only 15 seconds left to give my home town a miracle 1-point victory. It was a fairy tale ending. I’ve never heard Rex Hunt call anything as intense as that.
I don’t leap out of that panel operator’s chair onto my feet very often, but that was one of those moments.
[Sports writing mode ends]
After the AFL season finished, I started some weekend panelling at 1116SEN, using the ole MTR studios in Richmond. So finally, that move from Coburg to Hawthorn to be closer to work (2 days before MTR shut down) has actually paid off. Only took 18 months.
And actually, since I moved in July from the eastern side of Hawthorn to the western side, a stone’s throw from Richmond, I’m close enough to WALK to work in about 15 minutes. The route takes me down Bendigo Street past the old GTV Channel 9 studios, now luxury apartments. To use my favourite cliched broadcasting expression, it’s “absolutely sensational”.
Please enjoy this guided tour of my new place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T2pT_bdvAU
It’s much better than the last apartment. Cheaper. More space. Laundry taps and an exhaust fan in the bathroom (as mentioned). And the insulation is excellent. That 40 degree day in Melbourne the other week? Barely noticed it. Place doesn’t even have air conditioning. The insulation alone is just so effective.
2013 has been another year of media delights. In addition to 20 throw-away episodes of my “need an excuse to upload something” vlog series “Life of DMG” (as seen above), I also made a few videos with TV’s Shane Crawford for his website. I was basically Richter to his O’Brien. Shaffer to his Letterman. And to a lesser extent, robot skeleton to his Ferguson. Though I can’t seem to find those videos online any more, you can see part of one in my most recent showreel, where I took one for the team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Y9CBJ_BZs
31 Questions – The TV game show all the kids are listening about – returned for its second season. We shot 9 episodes, 7 of which were broadcast-able. They aired on community TV stations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and New Zealand. And will soon air in Adelaide after they finish repeating the first season.
Season 2 was a step up in many respects. Better graphics, better editing, a flashier scoreboard, more defined characters and some minor touches here and there. Although it wasn’t quite the step up in lighting and audio that we had hoped.
There are always challenges and setbacks when you’re making a television show. We had to make do with reduced studio time, simultaneously throughout the production my parents back in Adelaide were splitting up after 29 years of marriage, and worst of all I had a really bad haircut 2 weeks before we started taping.
But we had some good crowds towards the end and the laughs were there. And what our crew managed to do with those limited resources was quite impressive. Not bad for $4,000?
This is my favourite episode. It was the Season 2 premier, but it was actually the last episode we shot:
And in case you missed the memos, 31 Questions is indeed coming back for a third season. We raised $3,262 with our recent crowdfunding campaign and we’re back in the fabulous RMIT University televisual studio from late February.
This will be the big one. So stay posted if you want to come join the studio audience or BE ON THE SHOW.
Back in Adelaide, after talking about it for years, my folks have finally sold the family home at Seacliff. I remember the day we moved in: 17 March 1992, just before my 5th birthday.
It’s a great house. The big walls all around the outside got me quite used to privacy. Everywhere else I’ve lived has seemed quite exposed by comparison. And aside from 9 months in 2000, when the second storey appeared, I lived there 18 years until I left for Melbourne in 2010.
It was still nice to return to my home town and stay in my old bedroom. But I don’t have that any more. And the SA jaunts haven’t quite been the same. This year in particular, going back to visit Adelaide has felt less and less like visiting home and more like seeing a jigsaw puzzle with pieces gradually being removed and replaced.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Adelaide and there’s some exciting things going on at the moment. I’ve had many a conversation about local infrastructure projects with anyone who will listen. But it’s not where I want to be right now.
Ahh I’ll miss that house… But it will live on in so many video projects, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oQakmn_cAw
That reminds me, we really should get around to editing those 3 other Too Easy episodes…
So that’s about it for 2013. Well I did some other things. I went to Sydney for a bit. Bought a bookcase. Hosted a documentary series about webseries. Had a really nice sandwich, etc.
But my big news for the new year is I’ll be a writer on the third season of “Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell” starting February 2014! Coincidentally, my first day writing is on the 13th, which is the four year anniversary of my move to Melbourne.
How about that?
Best move ever.
Hope you’ve had a good year yourself and things are looking even better for 2014. I’ll see you on the other side.
You can buy me a coffee.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
No, I’m serious. Small cappuccino with one, please.
Merry Christmas from me and the team from 31 Questions: The TV game show of that name. Please view the appropriate Christmas message:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3v23l8BkG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V72Nkx6Tq94
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-dQCGkMsTU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=371W84T_tYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuoz0oKX-nQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6VdemGVKoI
If you live somewhere other than Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Sydney or New Zealand, just try to imagine your favourite message without any geographic references.
The 31 Questions Season 3 Crowdfunding Campaign is over! Well actually, it was over 7PM last night. I would have posted about this sooner but I only just got up. Was out pretty late last night (Racked up a huge bar tab! Just over 3 grand, from memory…). And thanks to our 69 crowdfunders across 7 countries and a favourable exchange rate, we raised an astonishing AUD$3,262!
Special thanks are in order for the following fabulous Indiegogo individuals:
Julian Jones (Melbourne, VIC)
Kimberley Seeto (Bankstown, NSW)
Nick Gates (Cambridge, UK)
Ellen McCutchan (Mitcham, VIC)
John Whitaker (Brunswick, VIC)
Luke Fincher (Brisbane, QLD)
Daniel Braid (Melbourne, VIC)
James Sablinskis (Wantirna, VIC)
Ryan Vickers (Newmarket, ON, Canada)
Ben Hayes (Warrenville, IL, USA)
Aaron Hayes (Warrenville, IL, USA)
Blazenka Brysha (Mount Eliza, VIC)
Sean Campbell (Doonside, NSW)
Elliott Klein (Elwood, VIC)
Robert Newbury (Stawell, VIC)
Rhys Barnard (Davoren Park, SA)
Hugh Macdonald (Cheltenham, VIC)
Pam “Drunk Mum” McCutchan
David Dower (North Perth, WA)
Tony Lee (Glen Waverley, VIC)
Matthew J. Smith (Somerton Park, SA)
Daniel Picton (Hemel Hempstead, UK)
Matt Meiklejohn (Miranda, NSW)
Alison Richards (Melton South, VIC)
Sam Hodkin (Manchester, UK)
Emma Raverty (Beaumaris, VIC)
Michael Doyle (Darley, VIC)
Mark Humphries (Crows Nest, NSW)
Rachel Delaney (New Plymouth, New Zealand)
Jessica May (Donvale, VIC)
Jason Hatcher (Kensington, VIC)
John Surace (Somerville, VIC)
Ruth Richards (Hoppers Crossing, VIC)
Anne-Marie Manolas (Murrumbeena VIC)
Patrick Bosher (Mitcham, VIC)
Kate McKenzie (Parkdale, VIC)
Faye Pettinella (Wantirna, VIC)
Scott Bryant (Brisbane, QLD)
Gerard Kotlowy (South Brighton, SA)
Ross Purdy (Mooroolbark VIC)
James Gormley (Melbourne, VIC)
Andrew Sullivan (Halifax, UK)
Kellie Elson (Grange, SA)
Zarya Volya (Brunswick, VIC)
Chris Legg (Joondalup, WA)
Samantha Moline (Mount Lawley, WA)
Adrien Buso (Besançon, France)
Casey O’Brien (South Yarra, VIC)
The Ultimo Bachelor Pad (Ultimo, NSW)
Karen Dennerley (Docklands, VIC)
Kristen Rogers (Hazelwood Park, SA)
Zoe Dekker (Croydon, NSW)
Justin Dalaya (Port Adelaide, SA)
@TravisButler (Hurstbridge, VIC)
Shane Dunlop (Brunswick, VIC)
Josh Mahoney (Melbourne, VIC)
Rudi Martin (Chermside West, QLD)
The Swedish 31 Questions Fan Club (Lund, Sweden)
Max Pfitzner (Warrandyte South, VIC)
Stephen Coote (Queanbeyan West, NSW)
Paul Mavroudis (Altona North, VIC)
Craig Faulkner (Semaphore Park, SA)
Hayden Faulkner (Semaphore Park, SA)
Sky Ingledew (Reservoir, VIC), and
Daniel Guglielmin (Ottoway, SA)
And specials thanks also to anyone who made an anonymous donation, shared the link, liked a status, subscribed on YouTube, sent a tweet or did some other intangible task that’s assisting us in making 31 Questions. I couldn’t make this TV game show without you.
Here’s the final arrangement of the 31 Questions Season 3 Crowdfunder Map. Welcome to the club, France, Sweden and New Zealand:
Just for a comparison, we raised US$1,846 on our last campaign, which was something like AUD$1,700 (exchange rate wasn’t on our side). And this is where our 72 Season TWO crowdfunders were:
It really is The People’s Game Show. Having said that, there are people in Africa, South America and Asia too. Probably. You certainly wouldn’t know if by looking at these maps.
