Your Story

Sculpting a Dugong for casting in Bronze

In this Episode 75 of Your Story we talk to Alick Tipoti about his preparation for a forthcoming exhibition in Monaco about his Torres Strait culture, it’s differences from the Australian Aboriginal and similarity to Melanesian cultures. We also discuss how he expresses his culture in paint, sculpture and dance.

Dugong by Alick Tipoti from Ian Kath on Vimeo.

Sculpting a Dugong

Recently while working at Urban Art Projects here in Brisbane, I had the opportunity to work with indigenous Torres Strait artist Alick in manufacturing a large dugong sculpture to be cast into bronze by theUAP foundry.

The video below shows the detail workmanship Alick used to share his cultural motifs and the production of the final, exceptional beautiful bronze casting to be shown at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco from March to September 2016, as part of a greater exhibition of Australian Indigenous Art.

Alick’s website is AlickTipoti.com

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Music is from

Nick Jaina at Free Music archive.

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How do you leave the country you love?

Not long ago, if you cared about having a good life and doing the right things by other people in South Africa, you had the real chance of coming up against the government. What would you do? For some it’s simply a matter of survival to leave and make a better life, away from the country you love. Some times this is the story of the refugee, sometimes it’s of the migrant but it’s always a variation on the theme where people wish to move to a better life.

In April 2014 I had the good fortune to attend the Do Lectures at Payne’s Hut where amongst many wonderful people, I meet Ian Cook. Later in the year I was passing through Sydney and asked him to share his migrant story, viewed from someone who had to abandon his home in South Africa with literally just a couple of suitcases.

A migrant’s life is never easy.

Even with a marriage, great education and the easier socio economic demographic in a first world country, migration is still not an easy path, especially when qualifications aren’t recognised as was the case for Ian’s wife but like all migrants they had to make it work, there was no returning to South Africa during the dark days of apartheid and the retribution they would have received for avoiding military service.

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Music is from

Siesta by Jahzzar

 Autumn Blood by Weinland

 Call Now by Podington Bear

← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.

 

Music, Architecture and Music of the Old Country.

It was 1936 and like many others, Morrice Shaw’s father could see the writing on the wall for his young family in Poland. More importantly, being Jewish, he knew things weren’t good and would only get worse. The best thing was to pay whatever was necessary to get his wife and 9 month old son to a safe country, then do what he could to get the rest of the family out of Europe. We all know how that played out for Europe and fortunately for this family it turned out to be immigrating to Australia.

Sadly most of their greater family fell victims to the Nazi persecution while the young Morrice grew up in the safety of Melbourne, later to hear the stories from the few relatives who did survive the the Nazi death camps. Not something easily forgotten.

A migrant’s life is never easy.

Growing up as a Jewish immigrant in the strong, Irish Catholic Melbourne suburb of Elwood was tough for the young Morrice (later to be known as Moshlo). Constant bullying and bickering from the other boys still weighs on him as some of the more unfortunate memories of his childhood. This he could also see playing out into the ’50’s in his father’s factory where new immigrants and locals clashed over cultural differences. This was the way it was long before the open acceptance of the multicultural society brought on by the post war migration boom and the mix of cultures we now enjoy.

What if you had to build a house with no money?

With the strong work ethic of his parents Moshlo did well at school while also preferring to play the violin to the rough and tumble of sports, leading eventually into university and architecture. Soon after graduation Moshlo whet onto garner international fame in his 20’s for The Cottlesbridge House featuring in L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui in 1963. Then after a sojourn travelling and working overseas, eventually onto designing the Wave House in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Returning to the musical past.

After many years practicing and lecturing in architecture Moshlo has now returned to his original first love of music and dancing, turning full circle to explore the ethnic roots of his family, remembered in the distant whispers of memory is the Doyen music of nursery rhymes from his mother.

We leave Moshlo just before his return to Poland for the first time since leaving as an infant.

If you’d like to hear a little more of the music that takes us out in this episode just go to his site at MoshloViolin.com.

Postscript: Sadly just a couple of weeks before I was able to return to podcasting after recording this conversation in June 2012, Moshlo passed away from a short illness.

 

Classic Doina performed by Moshlo.

Moshlo performing at Woodford Folk Festival with Marko Deferri.

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Ian’s back from three years of Pod-Fading.

After three years away it’s wonderful for me to say…

“Welcome To Episode 30 of Your Story Addendum.“

Having been away for so long I think, as we get started again, it’s only fair to bring you up to speed with what happened to cause such a long hiatus for Your Story and what you can look forward to in the future.

As I mention in this episode there will be changes here and also at Create Your (Life) Story, which is in the early stages of rebranding and new content about how to get your stories out to who needs to hear them.

This is just the first tentative steps in coming back to the world of podcasting. If you want to hear some of my stories from over the last few years you can listen to my audio feed at AudioBoo. Note: Sorry about having to log in but this is one of the examples of how AudioBoom is turning away from their community.

Come and say hello using some of the contact links available on the Contacts Page in the top navigation bar.

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Interesting Casual Conversations from Individuals about their Different Lives. Often with Words of Inspiration for the Lives of Everyone.

Passion, skill, determination and slowly move towards success!

Four years on from our discussion on Your Story with Rocco from Metroccolis we once again sit on the roof tops of Berlin just near Mauerpark in the old East Berlin. But this time Stefan as the other half of Metroccolis joins us for coffee and donuts and talk of life as successful mime artists.

No longer the starving artists.

Stefan and Rocco are the mime artists that are Metroccolis. A unique mime troupe who are passionate about silent theatre. Now together for 15 years since their school day they are managing to pay a real wage to themselves after many years as the classic startving artists.

In this episode we dig deeper from the previous episode into how things have progressed in the last four years. Back then when they are just an extra and making small, they usually spent their earnings on dacreate casinos to play some rounds. Now Metroccolis is making the dream happen and can share how they managed to get to where they’re a real business.

The ideas Stefan and Roccos share are gold for all artists. How to move forward with their passion and how to have the best shot at achieving success. Just some of the things they talk of:

* Not taking success for granted

* Importance of a specific unique vision

* Persistance

* Balance of business and art

* Passion for what you love

Their website is Metroccolis.com

Email is [email protected]

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← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.

Creating, then helping others with their Indy Movie production!

Creative people never have an issue with the making. That’s their passion and what we talk about here on Your Story. Their issues are to fund and promote their creation. And that means getting attention!

Independent film maker Juliane Block shares these challenges but has additional skills to help her productions. All good information for indy film makers. She also has a cross cultural experience of  film making in Asia and what that’s like.

We all need help.

There are many things all creative people need for success but much of the time these are the skills they’re lacking. For the independent film maker the challenge is to create but also to fund, market and distribute, leaving them with the task of doing it all. So they have to reach for help. With the development of the digital age the task of getting attention has only become more complicated requiring the skills of a new breed of producer in the PMD that we discussed in Episode 58 of Your Story.

Behind & in front of the camera.

Juliane has produced, directed and acted in several short and two feature films both in Germany and in Asia where she lived and worked. She’s is working on her next feature, while using her graphic/industrial design skills to help other film makers with the promotion and funding of their production.

Juliane explains the basics of how crowd-funding works, along with ideas for spin off sales of products using the example of the recent huge success of Iron Sky of what can be done by keeping the fans in the loop all the way through the production cycle. Depending on the production needs the film public aren’t just passive observers any longer but are now involved at all levels of the production.

If you need some help with your production you can contact Juliane at Indiekraut to see some of the different ways of getting an indy film supported.

For more information on Kinks or maybe to organise a house party for the screening of it just contact Juliane via her website and watch the movie trailer for Kinks at Kinksthemovie.com

Her website is J-Blockbuster.com.

Help with your production at Indiekraut.

Her email is on the Contact Page.

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Imagine waking one morning to discover your sex has changed!

On the last episode of Your Story we heard from Sophie, about her time in Berlin from before “The Wall” came down in 1989 to today.

Today we hear Part 2, a completely different story to what we heard last time, about her amazing story of gender transition and how it all came about and evolved.

Just imagine that!

Imagine waking one day to discover something as fundamental as your gender, which seems to be locked in stone for life, suddenly changing.

Despite the momentum of a lifetime Sophie found herself in this situation and she takes us through how it came about and how she dealt with it along with the reality of what it means to move through transition. This is not the standard story of gender transition that we hear from time to time but a medical condition that has lead to a change but then, as Sophie mentions maybe it was a transition that was always going to happen when the situation was right and the medication was what tip the balance.

We talk about the reality of what it’s meant for Sophie, both emotionally, mentally and physically. The way it’s impacted her personal and professional relationships along with the continuity of running the business at Another Country Books in Berlin along with family and friends in her greater community. Sophie generously shares with us some incredibly personal aspects of the transgender journey and how living real can be the most import aspect of gender transition.

Website: AnotherCountry.de

Address: Riemannstr, 7, 10961 Berlin, (U7 Gneisenaustr)

Phone: 030/96401160

If you’re in or ever get to Berlin make sure you check out Sophie’s bookstore.

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← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.

Berlin change & Another Country Books.

From the beginning of her time going back to 1987, Sophie has been part of the culture and changes in  Berlin. Back in the day, Berlin was a divided city with “The Wall”, still very much in evidence.

Sophie tells us about Berlin before the wall came down and what those dying days of the East/West divide were like. What was it like to live in the city that was the most likely starting ground for WW3 and then what was it like to see the end of the Cold War and the fall of the wall and the changes reunification brought to Berlin?

While remaining an ex-pat Brit, Sophie has now very much settled as a local in Berlin with her eclectic Another Country English Language Bookshop. A blend of club, reading room, library and book store designed to bring people together, especially those interested in meeting like minded English speakers and travellers.

Each week Sophie puts on a open house dinner for anyone to drop-in and meet other interesting people. On a personal note I can vouch for the wonderful opportunity to meet and chat with people from around the world while enjoying a great value meal, drinking wine and the wonderful German beer. Take the time to check it out if you happen to be in Berlin 🙂

Her website is AnotherCountry.de

Address: Riemannstr, 7, 10961 Berlin, (U7 Gneisenaustr)

Phone: 030/96401160

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Music is from

← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.

…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Music is from

Bright Moments

“Travelers” (mp3)

from “Natives”

(LUAKA BOP)

More On This Album

POLIÇA

“Dark Star” (mp3)

from “Give You The Ghost”

(Totally Gross National Product / POLIÇA)

Buy at Amazon MP3

More On This Album

Using a 350 year old model to create a 50% discounted Peer to Peer insurance scheme.

You hate insurance, I hate insurance, we all hate insurance but we all know, when things go down the toilet, it’s good to have the safety net to help us recover.

Like all of us, Sebastian Herfurth hated insurance also but after deciding he didn’t want to work in law, thought, there had to be a better way for insurance, using the power of modern social networks. This is simply reinventing the forgotten system from the history of insurance of 350 years ago, when friends and colleagues would group together to spread the risk of damages.

The reason we don’t like insurance is we’re dealing with a gargantuan, faceless company and we never see benefits unless something goes wrong.

If we’re a good risk we see little benefit.

Sebastian and the team at Friensurance are taking that model of insurance and turning it on its head. If we do the right thing, not to abuse the scheme and make no claims, we’re rewarded with up to a 50% refund of our insurance premium.

This scheme is all about using the opinions and good will of our social network to encourage risk minimisation and avoid people who may defraud the scheme.

It’s simple really…

* Buy insurance through Friendsurande from a large traditional provider.

* Group a good risk, social network to share the policies.

* Claim when needed but not abuse.

* If no claims are made, receive a refund of 50% at year’s end.

By grouping people who respect each other, abuse is avoided so all benefit by receiving the refund. If there are excessive claims the insurance company is supporting the policy to ensure that claims are still underwritten.

The insurance companies benefit by having low risk individuals keeping an eye on each other for their mutual benefit, resulting in minimised fraud and abuse. That reduces overheads for the companies resulting in refunds to the customers. The companies are generating the same income, it’s just that with Friendsurance there is no need to pass on to the customers the cost of abuse and fraud, resulting in the 50% refund. Bonus 🙂

High risk individuals whose social network isn’t interested in supporting them would still have to purchase tradition insurance at the normal 100% cost.

Friendsurance is all about someone having a vision for taking a tired old system, with good heritage, back to its roots using the power of modern communications to remove abuse for the benefit of all.

And Sebastian doesn’t have to be work as a lawyer.

The company website is Friendsurance.de

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