Gone Too Soon

I farewelled a good man today.

Last week the sad news that this good man had died was delivered and, as is the way with such news, it was hard to process and harder to believe. He was a man who seemed to be full of life, such was his humour and good spirits.  But now he was gone. Not apparently or obviously unwell (oh that bastard of a deception) he was felled by his heart, the heart that was behind the way he touched so many lives. But now that had been stopped, damn it.

He and I shared many funny and thoughtful moments, roughly of the same generation, we reflected on all that was wrong with the world and how everyone else (especially those young things) of course needed to be reminded how the world really worked. When either of us got a hint that Rivers had clothes or shoes on special we let the other know, although sometimes that might be after one of us had been over and got our spoils first. I well remember a pretty vivid pinkish shirt he scored over there, but hey it was only $12.

Today I saw 100 or so people stop for an hour to remember him, to remind themselves of how thios good man had made a difference to them. The family members who spoke were so very clear and thoughtful in their words, amidst the tears and that awful gaping hurt they must have been feeling.  Another bastard of a thing that. What a terrific family they seem to be, so fine and dignified and a testament to the parenting they had and the lessons they must have taken and chose to use as they have journeyed through their lives.

Here was what would be called an ordinary man and yet...

I believe we are all here to make a difference and many of us don't understand the ways in which we actually achieve that. It can be a momentary encounter with someone, or it can be through years of a relationship or a job. It might even be through some reflections in a blog. This good man had obviously made some kind of a difference to all these people, enough for each of them to want to say 'goodbye'.

This good man was often someone who was simply 'there'. He'd often wander past my desk and say 'second shift reporting for duty'. Some days were filled with his laughter and many others just with his presence. I realised last week what I now will miss, sometimes we don't know what we will miss until it's gone.

That can make a bloke cry.

Amongst an incredibly beautiful setting of rolling, verdant hills we all said farewell to this good man.

RIP Geoff Webb, how blessed was I to know you,good man thank you...couldn't you have stayed just a little longer?

Putting the Pen Away for Another Year

Tony Martin, Charlie Pickering and Steve Tolz

Saturday at the Fest was an easy one with just the one session, a look at comedy with Tony Martin, Charlie Pickering (oh come on, he's cute as a button,but surely he can only be 12) and Steve Tolz. Sadly the session was chaired by the person who put twit into twitter, the vile Catherine Deveny.  If I'd known she would be part of the session I wouldn't have booked for it! Self serving comes to mind when the theme of the session turned out to be 'offense'.  Yes let's all talk about how sensitive people are when all a comic is trying to do is make us laugh, sure it can sometimes be uncomfortable but don't we all secretly enjoy being made to 'squirm'.  Oh dear. Of course I agree no-one actually has a right to not be offended in life but that doesn't mean that we all don't have the right to feel offended when an insensitive, inappropriate joke is made by some half witted smart ass who has lost all sense of decency and thinks the world revolves arround them and the are the centre of the comedy universe. Yes I know some people take it too far (the offensirati)and can't laugh at anything a bit 'out there' but so what, why not let us just laugh at what is funny,life and people are absurd enough we don't have to be outrageous always to make people laugh. Maybe a bit of growing up sometimes would not go astray.

Now the rant is out of the way, the boys were pretty entertaining and the topic obviously peaked my interest. I chatted to tony afterwards as I had loved his latest book and he was as pleasant in reality as he comes across in his writing, oh and he's genuinely funny. Ms D - give it a rest, you screwed up badly and you unfortunately showed your cards, live with it.

Today two sessions to finish off the Fest for me.

Luang Namtha - Jack Faine photo

First up the streets of Melbourne were all but deserted as I walked from near the Arts Centre to Fed Square to ACMI 1 for a slide night with Jon and Jack Faine.  Some great stories (and slides) of their driving holiday that took them from Melbourne, through China, Mongolia the 'Stans', Turkey, France and into London over six months.  A brave and challenging trip with great stories.I waiver in my liking for Faine but this was a charming and absorbing hour and loved the photos. This was one of the few 'full house' sessions I went to at the Fest.  Don't know if it's just my imagination that the numbers seem to be down this year.

After a short coffee break it was into the BMW Edge for a session featuring William Shawcross.  most recently he wrote the mammoth 'official' biography of the Queen Mother but has also written bios of the Shah, Rupert Murdoch and Alexander Dubcek.  Lots of interesting stuff: the tradition is that the official biography of a Royal can only be written after the death of the subject and that person is selected by the 'firm'. He was given total unhindered access to the Royal archives, the QM;s letters and papers and his book contains a lot of her personal letters. The only real 'intervention' came when he submitted the text to the Queen for review.  It  came back with only a couple of fact corrections ( a date here and there) but no edits or requests for changes. He read one very moving journal entry she wrote in 1939 on the day Hitler invaded Poland and the British PM announced they were now at war with Germany.  She speaks of going back to her room and praying with the King for peace and then feeling the tears on her cheeks and she thinks of the affect the war will have on 'the people' and how hard it will be for many of them. Interesting to think this was someone who had no formal education and was from immense privilege and yet had compassion for others.  She had been brought up to know obligation, discretion and restraint and to have a love of family, a love of God and a love of Country. Towards the end the family called her the 'Imperial Ostrich' because she simply wouldn't involve herself in any of the dramas the family went through. She seems to have copped criticism for not taking a stand when Charles and Di were splitting up but this was a 92 year old woman, what would she think she might add?

So another Fest over for another year.  Readings can pack up its store, Fed Square tenants can get back to the normal , the writers probably have a few more stories to swap at dinner parties and the literary luvvies can take it easy again for a while. Maybe they can stop and think how to queue properly, why it might not be nicer if they didn't yabber when event speakers are having their say, check the times of events (never known so many late comers as this year) and use a bit of common sense when getting into a signing line (shouldn't have been as hard as some made it this year, the lines were never very long), try saying 'excuse me' when you step in front of someone to get to a seat (and try staying in that seat when there are people still finding theirs) and if yo bump someone with your bag might I recommend a courteous apology? Ignorance is not always bliss and it's NEVER becoming, no matter what age you are.

It's been, for me, one of the best Fests...I'm looking forward to 2011 already.

Writing a new weekend

A day off work too catch some more sessions on the second (and also last) Friday of the Fest.

First up was the very interesting Nicholas Shakespeare. I was keen to see him because I loved the film 'Dancer Upstairs' which he wrote (both the book and screenplay), had enjoyed reading 'In Tasmania' on a trip to Tassie and admired his work on Bruce Chatwin. He seems to be touched by coincidence quite often.  Case in point when he was writing his first book about a Peruvian 'freedom fighter' he wanted to write about him disappearing from public life and decided a good motivation could be that he had psoriasis.  Then he was researching for 'Dancer Upstairs'; he finds the way they discovered the real guy he based his character on was identified for certain by a tube of cream they found in his rubbish - cream for treating psoriasis. The female character was given the name Yolande, a couple of years ago when Nicholas was writing a story about the possible freeing of the freedom fighter he was given access to the 'dancer' in jail.  When they meet she tells him that her middle name was...Yolande! There were a few others and you can see the whole 'conversation' on SlowTV in a few days.

I was happy to let him know how much fun and interest his book had added to my trip around Tassie last year.  He asked which parts of Tassie I had enjoyed most and agreed Bicheno was a beautiful area.  This let on to a brief chat about needing to walk away from beauty to appreciate it. I guess that's why the concept of places like Queensland where the weather is constant leave me empty, if there is no variety or marked 'difference' how do you appreciate what is special about such places.

In the afternoon the gorgeous Jana Wendt talked about the meaning of 'work' and her book 'nice work'. Some marvellous stories about the people she met when writing her book, including an obese priest facing his last congregation, a boxer whose marriage is falling apart and a forensic specialist at the time of Black Saturday and her work in Dili. A strong but fascinating session and some good audience questions to fill it all out.

To end the day it was a real thrill to listen in on a conversation with the entertaining Steve Toltz, author of one of my favorite books, the epic and marvellous 'A Fraction of the Whole'.  Steve seems to have led an interesting and possibly 'imaginative' life.  it took him five years to right the book and was originally 1000 pages but after eight rejections he eliminated a character which pared it down to the not inconsiderable 711 pages it became. This didn't guarantee acceptance though, he went through another eight rejections before he started to get some positive enquiries. Now it sells in 20 non English speaking countries as well as Oz, NZ, UK and the US. Asked which of the book's characters he liked best he said that if each character represents a facet of an author then he has to 'like' them equally.He is secretive about his next book but doesn't think it will be as lengthy as the first. The briefest of chats with him afterwards where I commented on the range of people in the audience, a real mix of ages and 'types'.  He said he had noticed too and was thrilled by it, I guess it stops him being pigeon holed as a certain market writer. One of his comments I particularly liked was that he said it was pretty cool to be on book shop shelves next to Tolstoy!

So, only a few sessions to go.

<>

<><>

Beautiful Bicheno Tasmania

A thought on the political scene too.  Wilkie has done a good thing and it's now to be hoped the whole thing is over and done with on the weekend, I think at least one of the independents will make his decision known. I can't believe how badly the coalition has handled this in the last couple of days, it's as though they are losing the plot. Andrew Robb appears to be still fighting the election campaign, Joe Hockey has reverted to the Howard days and flat out lying about the budget black hole - which has simply served to convince most of us that the reason they didn't want their figures checked was because they knew there was a black hole.And the billion dollar carrot Abbott offered Wilkie was an obscenity and was like a bacchanalian frenzy and yet there is only 'surprise' when it was rejected. Then the barbs come out to bag Wilkie big time, from the same team that would have had him jailed for treason a few years back but forget also that Wilkie was once a paid up member of the Libs, then became a Green so any assumed alliance to Labor was drawing a long (albeit hopeful) bow.Anyway come Monday we will have a much missed (?) government and we can get on with it all for as long as it lasts.