OnDusk

Leaping the abyss into publishing my first book, update in an occasional series by Siv Parker ***** A few months back... Apart from the pain in both eyes unique to checking the edits, the other more pressing demand of getting my first book together was the essential conversation with the family. "What do you mean, ‘we’re not in it’", they’d asked as we sat - aunties, uncles and cousins - passing heavily laden platters of food around the large round table. For people who didn’t know much about writing a book, they had a clear idea what should be in mine. Them. They expected to be in it. I checked the temperature of a party pie, "It’s about blackfellas…and stuff. I didn't want to put anyone on the spot", before putting the whole thing in my mouth. "We’re blackfellas." Three kinds of cold meats and potato salad was being generously divvied up. Another made the correction in carefully enunciated syllables, "We are fam-i...

This is Deadly Blog Post No 2 - part of the Deadly Bloggers Blog Carnival 2015 . For more, follow the @deadlybloggers   updates. I was reading the newspaper, back in the day when my hot fingered pawing would smudge the print a little on the page.  Those were the days when it was rare to read news from home in the paper.  Not just of my remote bush town, but news from any of the short main street towns with the long Aboriginal names out that way, so I’d consumed half of the piece greedily looking for family references before I choked up on a bitter pill. The Indigenous bloke heavily quoted in the piece had said that he was best placed to speak his mind on all things political for mob out that way because the majority of my sleepy little town were doped up on antidepressants. This had been dutifully reported like he’d had a clutch of photocopies of valium and serapax scripts to hand around as evidence.   I rang home so some one cou...

What caught my attention about the foot tapping, head wagging Motown classic song – It’s the Same Old Song – is discovering that it was recorded in 24 hours.    From concept to recording to vinyl to first being played on the radio, the Four Tops had another hit song, right on the heels of their number one hit, I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch). Motown hit songs – there’s plenty enough for people to have a favourite or two. I’m convinced without even doing the research, that in 1950s United States, Motown music had a lot to do with white people taking another look, a closer look at Black people. Which brings me to Prison Songs. Prison Songs is a multi award winning documentary including  Best Direction in a Documentary (Stand Alone) for Kelrick Martin at the 2015 ADG Awards . Screened earlier this year on SBS, this one hour documentary is now available for download rental for the price of a Motown classic. The concept:   “T...