Vale Articulate 2005-2010

After five years, ABC News Online has bid farewell to its arts blog, Articulate. I'm crossposting this here because, for the time being, our web developers don't have time to archive all the old Articulate posts. (Some of the links to newer posts won't work, for this same reason)

I know I speak for all the contributors when I say it's been a wild and crazy ride, so I thought I'd have a look at some of the highlights. (And by all means, you can have your say by leaving a comment below)

David O'Sullivan interviewed DBC Pierre, hot on the heels of the author's Booker Prize win:

It [the prize] was a licence to go out and become a real writer and so I felt a duty not to capitalise on what I knew worked in the first one and not to write shit that I knew would go down well but really explore the art and take a punt and so I came out of my comfort zone of the first person voice... but I had all my fun in the dialogue and there's plenty of dialogue in this.

Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop regaled us with tales from the Berlin Film Festival:

I’m walking down Potsdamer Platz, the modernised square that was once on the border between East and West, when I notice a red carpet surrounded by rose-toting onlookers.

A very over-it young guy with a huge list of names tells me it’s a doo for “celebrities and no-names” held by Germany’s second-biggest TV channel, Pro 7.

“Do you want to go in?” he asks me.

I tell him I’m not on the list but he gives me a wink, ticks an imaginary name and in I go. I kiss the press card hanging around my neck.

As well as schmoozing, Sean fired off questions at the likes of Sigorney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Robert Altman and Hugo Weaving.

Later in the year Sean sparked controversy when he admitted he couldn't see what all the fuss was about when it came to Rolf de Heer's Ten Canoes. Articulate readers came out for and against the film, which went on to become one of the highest grossing Australian films of 2006.

Meanwhile, I found out at the 45th National Science Fiction Convention that Spock ears are an optional extra, and also got to interview sf dignitary Bruce Sterling and author and activist Cory Doctorow.

"When Marxists and the Christian right and pornographers and anti-porn activists all agree that DRM is bad news, then you know that this is a cause that we're going to win out on in the end."

I also got to probe the dark underbelly of the arts world, interviewing horror writers, editors and film-makers from Australia and abroad, and taking the pulse of Australian speculative fiction. I even got to see Stephen King do a rare reading in London.

Emma Rodgers lifted the tone, immersing herself in the world of literature at the 2006 Adelaide Writers Festival http://www.abc.net.au/news/arts/articulate/200603/s1583180.htm, where she says one of the highlights was hearing Michael Cunningham (The Hours) talk about his writing.

Refuse to be talked out of the books you want to write.

More recently, Rosie Ryan probed public opinion on public art, gender bias in the Hottest 100 and, ah, Andre Rieu, as well as MP Graham Perrett's controversial The 12th Fish.

"The din from the party mocked me as Karen attacked my surly worm with gusto. It was as if she was professionally slighted by my medical predicament." (page 168)

"I started to worry about Cylla's jaw muscles cramping … orgasm threw my sense of perspective." (page 155)

We also had lots of fun with our long-running film trivia spot, Movie Minutiae, less long-running but nonetheless enjoyable Endnotes and lots and lots and lots of Eye Candy.

On behalf of Articulate, I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed, either by writing blog posts, being interviewed, or sending up tip-offs and leaving comments.

I'd like to leave you with the timeless words of Kurt Vonnegut: Things die. All things die.

(And so on...)

Posted via email from garykemble's posterous