Saturday, December 3, 2011

Road Warriors






Madcap story, beautifully put together by Bob Carlson of KCRW's "Unfictional", about a catastrophic day me and my friends Andrew (Gilbert) and Justin (Doughty) experienced when we were seventeen. Three different perspectives of the same event - just like Rashamon!

http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/uf/uf111202the_road_warriors#idc-container

In the old photo of us at school swimming carnival, that's (highlighted) left to right Justin, Andrew and me. And in the contemporary photos, Justin on the Ducati, Andrew in hat, me in green shirt.

Me and Hergé





This is the story of my childhood correspondence with Hergé, the author of the Tintin books. It appeared (print only) in the London Financial Times Weekend Magazine October 22-23, 2011; and yesterday (December 3) print and online in both The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald:

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/herg-and-me-20111201-1o7jw.html

Note a caption error (as of this writing) pops up in the online version: the caption seems to say the image is a panel from King Ottakre's Sceptre but it is in fact a section of one of the Christmas cards Hergé sent me. Also, near the end, a sub-edition error has cartoonist David Messer giving the letters to the daughter of the woman I stayed with. This doesn't make sense: it was in fact the unnamed later Honi Soit editor who held onto them and gave them to her years later.

I've been deeply moved by the outpouring of love I've received in Facebook comments etc about this article, and am happy it struck such a chord. Hence my linking to it here - for those of you who missed it.