It’s our final Behind the Scenes Summer Special for the start of 2025 and this week we’re trying out a bit of a different format for our usual Screens & Streams segment. Generally, in that spot on the first week of every month, Marc Gracie joins us to review current movie and streamer releases. But, because this is a ‘special’ edition, we’re changing the focus from ‘reviews’ to ‘Re-Views’ which allows us to revisit films we’ve seen some time ago and to ask ourselves the question; ‘is our response to this movie still the same on a re-viewing as it was on our first viewing? The two films we focus on here are Lost in Space (1998) and La La Land (2016). We’ll also be making some comments about the 2024 Francis Ford Coppola epic Megalopolis with a view to ‘re-viewing’ it a year or so from now…  that’s on this week’s final Summer Special edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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On our second summer special for 2025, you’ll meet two fabulous Sydney based singer/songwriters – Ella Haber and Cinta - who sometimes tour together, often sing backup vocals for each other and, not surprisingly, are very good friends.

They both have new albums – Cinta’s album Worth Control came out late last year and Ella’s album Through Blood Like Kin, will be out later this year.

In November last year we caught up with them both but you only heard an edited version of our conversation. This is your chance to hear the whole thing PLUS a selection of their songs – you’ll hear Cinta sing Walls and More Than Enuff from the new album – as well as Bang Up To The Elephant, a very cool instrumental from her previous album Feel Good. You’ll also hear Ella sing Good For Me and My Father from her previous album Moments Between Dreams – but to get us started, we hear Ella with the first single from her soon to be released album – Walk On.

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We kick off our first summer special for 2025 with a visit to Toronto in Canada (where it is most definitely not summer). There we’ll find our first guest. RJ Martine is the founder of Joyslam  - Canada’s premier Aboriginal funk rock recording project.

At the end of last year, RJ was a guest on the December 16 episode of Behind the Scenes… if you missed it, all is not lost – just search for Vision Australia Radio Behind the Scenes wherever you get your podcasts and you can hear that show and any others you might have missed, or want to hear again…

If you did catch that episode, you only got to hear an edited version of that conversation. Tonight is your chance to hear the whole thing PLUS a selection of songs from RJ’s new Joyslam album – Spirit Star.

We play Misfortune, Real World, Spirit, Set The World and Drum Beats…  BUT we start off with another track from that album – Who Do You Want To Be…?

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It’s that time of the year again, when we review the movies and streamers we’ve seen on our big and small screens – not just the ones we talked about on Screens & Streams but many more that we couldn’t fit into the show. As always, Marc Gracie joins Chris Thompson to talk about our favourites, our disappointments and the releases we’re looking forward to in 2025.

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Our last regular show of the year is always also our Christmas show – HoHoHo… and so tonight. we’re looking at some events coming up in January and February which might just make excellent last minute Christmas presents…

We’ll chat with Simon Myers to hear what gigs are coming up at MEMO Music Hall in ST Kilda…

We’ll chat with Melissa Doecke to find out what she and Ben Opie have planned for the 2025 Peninsular Summer Music Festival…

Plus we’ll meet Giovanni Adams who plays Ike Turner in the fabulous Tina: The Tina Turner Musical….

AND, just for good measure, we’ll welcome back Aislinn Sharpe who’s just released a new single… AND a bit of Christmas music from two or three of the stars appearing at this year’s Vision Australia Carols by Candlelight.

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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How does a dancer and choreographer end up as both a doctor and a highly successful music event promoter? Best we ask The Sound Doctor, David Corbett when he drops in for a chat.

How many artworks can you see at Linden New Art’s annual Postcard Show and how can you get an audio described tour of the exhibition? Best we ask Linden New Art Curator Hamish Sawyer.

How do you capture the magic of an Alison Lester book in a live performance on stage? Best we ask the creative mind who adapted Imagine Live from her book Imagine – Jolyon James.

And who is Canada’s premiere Aboriginal Funk Rock Recording Project? Best we ask RJ Martine from Joyslam.

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Kim Marriot leads the Monash Assistive Technology and Society Centre at Monash Uni and has an ongoing interest in the way data visualisation can be sued by people who are blind or have low vision. That’s why there’s a chapter about it in the book he’s just written – The Golden Age of Data Visualisation: How Did We Get Here?

Meanwhile, in Japan, singer/songwriter Laurier Tiernan (who we met some time ago as one half of the group Nature Airliner) has just released Descending, a new album – except that it’s not really – it’s actually his very first solo album re-released after twenty years.

Back in Naarm/Melbourne it’s time for our annual visit to the Koorie Art Show with Gail Harradine at the Koorie Heritage Trust and we’re also just in time to get excited about a Very Koorie Kristmas…

And speaking of Christmas, the Victoria Chorale and the Art of Sound Orchestra are about to head into St Paul’s Cathedral for their Christmas Celebration and Conductor Dr Mario Dobernig returns to the show to tell us what he’ll be conducting…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Our final Theatre Network Australia Member of the Month for 2024 is…  TNA itself – and we’ll look back over the achievements of the year with Erica McCalman, Josh Lowe, Steph Spiers, Lauren Swain, Christian Schooneveldt-Reid, Wen-Juenn Lee and, of course, Yuhui Ng-Rodriguez…

Then, Theatre Works’ final show for the year is Skating in the Clouds and its writer, Clare Mendes will tell us what kind of skating that is, and what it has to do with Juli Gillard…

After that, Stuart Maunder is back to tell us what Victorian Opera has on offer for 2025…

And finally, it’s our last Screens & Streams for the year and Marc Gracie is nowhere in sight (but he’ll be back for our annual wrap up) Sitting in for Marc, his first appearance for quite a while, is former kids’ films reviewer, Gully Thompson.

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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First up tonight, Sophia Hall from Brown’s Mart is here for the very last time…  she’s moving on…  so we say farewell as she tells us about the 2025 programme she’s leaving behind…

Then, I drop in on Next Wave where Jacina Leong and Frances Robinson can tell us about their exciting new strategic plan…

Meanwhile, the Bendigo Brass Band and the Bendigo Chorale are joining forces for a spectacular Christmas concert and Janice Donnelly will spill the beans about what they’re playing…

And at Melbourne Theatre Company Ilbijerri Theatre is rehearsing Blak In The Room and I catch up with Directors Rachael Maza, Amy Sole and Kamarra Bel-Wykes…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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Helen Simondson from WA Museum Boola Bardip is here for our final Perth round up of the year… plus, of course, her final local guest artist for the year – Ricky Arnold, Executive Director of Art on the Move…

Then, I’m down on the banks of the Birrarung/Yarra River with author Dr Judith Buckrich to talk about her new book which, of course, is all about the Birrarung/Yarra

Meanwhile, at ArtsHouse in North Melbourne, immersive theatre group Zaffe is throwing a wedding party unlike anything you’ve ever seen and Taj Aldeeb is here to invite us along…

And finally, a bit of music from our old friend Ernie Gruner who’s soon to be playing new, improvised and surprising music with Bowlines at Prana House in Thornbury…

They’re all on this week’s edition of Behind the Scenes with Chris Thompson right here on Vision Australia Radio.

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