Slow News Day #001
Hi there!
Welcome to Slow News Day. A guide to some grouse things I like and wanted to share with you all.
I work as a freelance journalist/media person. Usually, it’s a pretty great gig and I’ve written about it before here.
But this lifestyle also affords the opportunity to dig around and find some other gems.
Usually I uncover content through RSS feeds, subscriptions, social media and newsletters. I don’t think that’s overly unusual these days — not least for an underemployed journo.
However, one of the best channels was a newsletter sent by Australian journo, Andrew McMillen called Dispatches. It’d pop in my inbox with a list of great work from around the world as well as Andrew’s. His success has seemingly been its undoing, with the regular missives put on hold due to his new job. Great for him, but a shame for us.
In any case, I thought I’d put together my own list of bits and pieces that I recently enjoyed. There is no real rules or themes to the list — it’s either a quality read, watch or development I’ve enjoyed. I could share what I’m currently listening too, but there are only so many times a person can wax poetic about Danzig, Vinnie Vincent, Jason Isbell and Bully.
I guess what’s missing is some journalism work with my name on it. I’m working on that for now. If I’m honest, freelance has been tough in terms of getting my hands dirty and writing stories I’m bursting with pride over. I do really enjoy the work I do editing video at the moment and love learning more about it with every shift (even if the hours aren’t always agreeable), but content producing (or whatever editorial bosses call it) isn’t something I hang my hat on.
Freelance work waxes and wanes and when it’s lean on the pay front I usually try to work on a few personal projects. I’m pretty excited with two that are on the go at the moment and can’t wait to share them.
They relate to the two most ambitious things I’ve probably attempted. Hopefully they’re not far away.
Until then, here are a few things that got me pretty jacked up and the first attempt at this thing called Slow News Day¹.
Promethea Unbound — Mike Mariani
I wanted to start this off by sharing something from The Atavist Magazine. It is, by far, my favourite online publication. You’re treated to one long form story, once a month and the strike rate they have is phenomenal.
While my favourite piece from the publication is the sprawling epic, The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff, this one in particular is a story that lingers.
A child genius is born into poverty. While she excels academically and outsmarts her situation, as she grows older, she never seems to escape from the reality she grew up in.
I loved the reporting in this — first painting the picture of a mother, Georgia, and her daughter Jasmine (who later changes her name to Promethea for beautiful and incredibly deep reasons) — to the life-altering events and how, after years in hiding, the reporter contacted Promethea to tell the story.
Two things in particular stood out for me. A section where the young girl of Greek heritage is given the chance to speak to a group of Greek Orthodox followers after winning a scholarship. After doing some research for her speech, she then eviscerates the church group for what she calls ‘religious fascism’. It’s amazing and brave. As is this passage from Mariani about why a then homeless mother took her kid genius to on a tour of Stanford University
‘ …I assumed that Georgia’s plan was to get Jasmine discovered, so to speak. If Stanford faculty saw her kindergarten-age child grasping the nuances of particle physics, they might be willing to support her beleaguered quest to find Jasmine a suitable education. Her goal, however, was much simpler than that: Georgia wanted to make Jasmine happy, to see the gleeful look on her face when she laid eyes on the linear accelerator.’
Bill Simmons on the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
These two guys are giants in the podcast field, and after Maron was on Simmons’ show last year, it was time for the sportscaster to return the favour.
Simmons himself is an excellent podcast host and interviewer, but the chance to hear him speak of his own experiences and how he ended up going from what was essentially an AOL blogger to ESPN’s star reporter in his own words was elucidating.
Simmons speaks of being a late bloomer and how he found a gap in the market with sports reporting of the day. That would later be parlayed into his podcast series, building up the site Grantland and producing ESPN’s excellent documentary series, 30 for 30, being sacked for speaking his mind and rebounding with his own company.
For me, I found it inspirational. So much journalism these days is focused on being first and just churning out content, whereas Simmons explains why his slower approach worked for him then and still does today. A must listen if you’re into sports or journalism.
Taxman closes in as William Hill skips the country — Michael West
I don’t know when the exact moment it happened, but a few years back the business pages of a newspaper started to interest me as much as the sport ones.
In Australia, there is no better business reporter than Michael West. His story goes that he was given the flick from Fairfax (some suggest, for rocking the boat too much) and rather than count his redundancy, his next move was to continue his public service and go out on his own — taking a massive risk to launch his own site and continue to cut down the big end of town.
It’s something I admire hugely and wish I could contribute more of my money to².
This story details how overseas betting agencies in Australia are operating around laws in this country around both wagering and tax loopholes for larger organisations. It’s a double-whammy of blood-boiling behaviour and no one dives deeper than West. His stories build upon transgression after transgression and offer a rare bluntness and honesty you rarely see in journalism anymore. West has a sense of humour drier than the Simpson Desert, but his reporting chops are not to be messed with.
Australians Are the World’s Biggest Gambling Losers, and Some Seek Action — Adam Baidawi
This was sent to me by a friend who recently moved from the UK to Australia and found our local approach to gambling quite bizarre; notably how they consider Australia today to be a nanny state in so many areas, but then you can go to the pub, drink plenty of beer before gambling on pokie machines and no one considers anything untoward about it.
This New York Times article shows that’s not always going to be the case. Even if the numbers reported are frightening.
What stood out for me was the honesty Baidawi got from his interviews. This line in particular is a pearler.
‘Australians, he said, “say Americans have a blind spot on guns.”
“Here, we have a blind spot on pokies,” he added.’
If you’ve ever been to Las Vegas and thought it reminded you of your local RSL, you’re probably in that camp.
Limmy’s Homemade Show
Scottish comedian Limmy is someone who could peel a boiled egg and have me crying my eyes out with laughter. I love everything he does.
His recent show on the BBC was is a step away from his previous television show — but it’s not clear if it’s one forward or backwards.
It was typically zany and captured the innate creativity of the Glaswegian, but perhaps what stood out the most was its deliberate DIY nature.
There’s no polish.
It really is a homemade show, with Limmy doing all the filming on a Canon handheld camera and some Rode microphones. It leaves the rest of us without an excuse.
Pat Riley’s Final Test — Wright Thompson
It’s almost NBA playoff time and after having this article saved in Pocket for a year, I finally sat down and read it.
I watched a lot of basketball as a kid, and Riley was always a figure of intrigue. He looked like he belonged in the mafia and that his face had never smiled.
In his later years though, he is presented as someone who is ready to retire, but can’t due to his competitive nature.
Wright Thompson is one of the best sportswriters going and his portrait of Riley paints a man at conflict between two perfect worlds and a trauma. He’s torn between, success, putting his feet up and family. It’s a great profile of someone who has lived a very public life, but had not given it all up to the world, and one where Thompson’s access puts you right next to the famous coach.
And like those who have worked with him, you can’t help but admire the man.
Churches For Sale — David Lewis
People in Australia like to complain about the ABC, its taxpayer funded status and the notions of bias.
They never hand out the requisite praise for programs like Background Briefing, however.
The weekly investigative radio show/podcast produces some of the best journalism in the country. It’s always entertaining, multi-faceted and well reported. It’s worth the handful of cents a day we all pay for the ABC on its own. Everything else is a bonus.
This episode focuses on conflict between the church, a regional community, local history and how funding is sought to pay compensation for victims of child sexual abuse.
Revisiting Night In The Woods As An Allegory For The Millennial Condition — Leah Williams
I don’t play too many video games these days. I gave VR a go last year and loved it. I’m known to play FIFA on occasion and be the annoying cat who likes to tinker with formations. That’s it really.
This piece by Leah Williams — who is my girlfriend’s sister — gave some great insight into the new world of games writing.
Here’s a personal story that ties into a review of a game and reflects back on the feelings of its audience and how their lives are changing. That’s a lot to pack into a story, but gives me hope about the changing face of journalism. The internet has caused a massive shift in how things used to be done, but arguably opened the door to do things like this that weren’t necessarily possible before.
And it’s important to listen to the younger generation. Not least because they’re going to rule the world one day. But they’ve got a lot of great things to say already.
See, it’s not all bad being a millennial.
How James Storer is turning Port Kembla Blacks into contenders — Glen Humphries
I was saddened to learn Port Kembla won’t be fielding a rugby league team. It’s a club formed in 1914 that has battled financially in recent years, but has a storied history of producing many great players including a personal favourite of mine, former Illawarra Steelers captain, John Cross.
As a bit of a league history buff, I came across this on an internet dive trying to learn more about the team.
This shorter profile on Port’s (former) coach, James Storer, is not new. But it’s a great league story, and one where a player’s honesty gives it a wider appeal. Proof the top grades don’t hog all the best footy yarns.
Toyota To Back Search For Female Stars — Mark Fogarty
I’ll preface this by saying Foges is a mate and a former work colleague who I have tremendous respect for. It’s also great to see him back at AA.
This story strays from the usual Supercars-heavy approach that is motorsport media in Australia.
The notion of backing women in motorsport is nothing new and anyone who has spent any time in the industry understands there’s a huge under-representation. But I thought this story and the approach is important because its reported in both optimism and pragmatism.
The bravest journo I worked with in motorsport was female and she had one of the greatest bullshit detectors I’ve encountered and could call out tokenism from far away.
This is a departure from what’s occurred in previous years.
I wrote this would be about things that get me amped — not just stories, podcasts, videos and films.
So, on the theme of motorsport, I wanted to share this.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to go to the Le Mans 24 Hours and witness Porsche take a 1–2 with its 919.
That race project has since been halted, but what’s come next is extraordinary. The engineers have essentially been given free range to upgrade the car to what it’s capable of without racing regualtions. More power. More grip. More everything good. Less weight.
The result is this race car that is exceptionally quick. So much so it just smashed that lap record at Spa Fancorchamps.
There’s something engrossing about this raw video and watching the car attack the corners. It’s like witnessing the impossible play out in front of you.
A few years back a friend played me a video of some archival footage of an old race at Le Mans. It’s a camera fixed at one spot on the Mulsanne, with the occasional blur passing by accompanied by the shifting notes of engines. It’s essentially a home video, but it sucks you in and has nearly hit 100,000 views.
This reminds me of that. It’s purity.
Over the last few years I’ve fallen in and out of love with motosport.
This car and video is infatuating.
While work has been quiet, one of the ways to avoid sitting on my hands has been to enrol in a photography class.
Thanks to TAFE NSW and the Australian Government, I’ve been earning a Statement of Attainment for the course, Take & Improve Photos with your Camera.
Unimaginative title aside, I signed up because I wanted to learn more about photography, the mechanics of cameras, photo-editing and also hope a few of those skills would translate to the video work I do. And it’s free.
I’ve got a long way to go, but here is a quick glance at some of the work I’ve been doing. The photos were taken for educational purposes and trying to get better, but there’s always a joy in creating something. And as basic as they are, I wasn’t even capable of this a few weeks back.
The challenge was to take photos that captured three themes; colour, lines and texture.
Here’s a few from the campus in Ultimo, NSW.
Thanks for reading! Any feedback, suggestions or whatever is welcome.
[1]Any name suggestions also welcome.
[2]The site is free, but I make the minimum commitment of a fiver a month. I implore anyone too as well. You don’t get anything extra for it. But you ensure it’s free for everyone to read, and that’s bloody important.
