This has finally led me to have to change the plugin and that had a couple of issues in bringing the files across but I’m pleased to say that as of this morning when I look at all the files on iTunes it seems that everything is now as it’s supposed to be.

Cheers

The good thing about using the BlueBerry PowerPress plugin is that I can now put additional content up on the site with it’s own player and it won’t go out on the feed to iTunes. This has been something that I’ve been wanting to do for some time and I’ve resorted to doing alternative things that were not as neat as I wanted. This now means that the recent Episode 47 about Cliff which had the incorrect audio being sent to iTunes is now resolved.

If you heard the unintential additional content on iTunes for Episode 47 simply do this to get the correct audio of the show.

• Delete – YS Ep 47 : Cliff. Food Allergies and Cancer Treatment from a Life in Science.
• Un-subscribe
• Re-subscribe
• Right/control Click on the header – Your Story : How We Play the Game of Life and select Update Podcast

That will refresh the podcast feed instantly and the now missing Ep 47 should start downloading the correct file that was originally intended to be the episode.

Sorry about these issues but I’m learning as I’m doing and it sometimes takes a while to get the knowledge to sort out these problems.

Thanks to my daughter mentioning that the feed in her iTunes was not the correct file I was made aware of these issues and fix the problem. If you notice anything that is incorrect or needs improving please let me know as it sometimes takes a while for me to notice issues. Thanks in advance.

                          

In my discussion with Ant & Natalie, they mentioned that they would be happy to assist anyone with additional information by being first contacting me. If you would like to contact them, in the first instance send me an email to chat@YourStoryPodcast.com and I’ll happily pass on your contact to them so they can contact you in return.

To help you understand a little better Christopher’s condition, these are the PET scans mentioned that had been done at the time of our discussion.

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Music is from iodaPROMONET
Night Style
“Imagine” (mp3)
from “Pour L’Instant Fantastique 2″
(Stranamente Music)

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Argentine Libertarians

While sitting in the airport waiting to head back to my home in Australia I thought that it was time to share my thoughts on my time in Buenos Aires, it’s time for a wrap up on my visit. So I pulled out my Zoom H4 here they are, additional to the last Your Story Addendum where I sat down with my friends to give you an overview.

I also mention that I spent some time the night before with some Libertarians who mentioned  some interesting political points.  I would have loved to have recorded some of these conversations but alas it’s not possible on this trip and hopefully by staying in touch with them through some of their online systems, when I return I will have the opportunity to share some political stories and history of this once and maybe future great country.

                          

Ian, Heather, Alex & Bernard

Welcome To Episode 22 of Your Story Addendum.

Here is something a bit different for you.

I decided to sit down and have a brief discussion with a few of my friends of our appreciation of Buenos Aires, now that we have been here a few weeks and it’s time for a few of us to start heading home.

What is Buenos Aires, and how do we appreciate it from an outside view, without the cultural understanding of the people who live here. We chat casually about the character of the people, the shopping, the food and how it would be for someone similar to us visiting here.

We recorded this on the roof of the house that we are staying in and in amongst the conversation there is the din of the city in the back ground, the sound that is impossible to avoid and a constant curse to find somewhere quiet.

Shops, Shops, Shops.

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I’m still getting things orginised and hopefully soon I’ll have more content out for you.

                          

Although only 21, Grace has had a lifetime of experiences as a sex worker in the few short years since she started at only 17 years of age.

As a prostitute she has worked both in brothels and independent as an escort. Now out of the sex industry and for someone of such a young age she already has and shares a fascinating and mature insight into her motivations of how the industry is for a working girl.

What is amazing and wonderful in this story is how genuinely proud Grace is of her work, who she has touched and the good that she has participated in with the people she has meet through being involved in the sex industry. Both with the clients and the other girls she worked with.

She has from the very beginning come into the industry as a professional wanting to be there for the work and lifestyle and not as is the cliche of being a damaged individual who resorts to compromising herself. In fact, the exact opposite. She came to the Industry from a place of surety and confidence and maintained that during her time there.

She explains that the strong and negative societal prejudice against sex workers is unfair and that a great deal of good comes from the Sex Industry for the community. The Sex Industry is one of the places where a form of help and healing for many people in society is available that is unfortunately, at present, unavailable for other systems to ameliorate.

If you wish to contact Grace email me and I’ll pass it on.

Thank-you Grace for coming on the show and telling Your Story, you have given us  insights into an industry that many are unaware of.

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Music is from Mevio

Music is Hot by Arron

                          

As today is Anzac Day I thought I’d do a recording of the dawn service to share with you a little of the atmosphere of the morning. If your an Australian and you’ve never been to a Dawn Service give yourself the experience, at least once, if your from elsewhere here is a little of what it’s like.

The Eternal Flame

I’ve been attending the Anzac Day Dawn service in county towns and city squares for fifteen or twenty years and I’m always moved by the spirit of the occasion however I don’t understand why I feel the need to attend and why it always brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. I seem to have a deep intimacy with the spirit of World War One and find that attending the Dawn Service quite cathartic. It’s just one of those things that I feel compelled to do.

Brisbane Dawn Service

At 4:28 am the city is still asleep and although there are many thousands of people in the small Anzac square I find the quiet of the service extraordinary so much so that you can still hear a cough across the square.

I mentioned that the ABC has build an amazing site for Anzac Day which shows the events that happened on 25 April 1915.

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Today we talk with Andrew Leavold who has an alternative video store with nearly 20,000 tapes and DVD’s supplying all the odd, eccentric and obscure videos that have ever existed in all the genres imaginable.

Trash Video is the video version of the dusty old High Street Bookstore full of the old weird curios of the odd and eccentric that only the most passionate of owners can organise and know each of the individual items in the store. The vast majority of which aren’t available through the standard video stores.

The advantage Andrew feels  he has over the internet downloads is due to the fact that most of what is available in Trash Video isn’t available on the internet and so he feels that he is insulated in ways that the major video stores are not.

Andrew takes us through the journey of his childhood in Oman watching bootleg videos and creating fake satanic rituals as a six year old to the development of an alternative view on film from other children. He then moves us to Australia where his now restricted access to videos caused him to start collecting the substance of his interests for himself that eventually evolves into Trash Video.

Trash Video is now an important part of the support for Andrews’ other passion into discovering more about the Filipino film industry particularly in the worlds shortest leading man “Weng Weng”.

Weng Weng was a black belt in Karate who was discovered and played in Filipino James Bond spoof films. The bizarre thing with Weng Weng is that he is 2′9″ (84cm)tall and for a time was incredibly popular in the Philippines including within the Marcos family. Andrews’ story of searching for Weng Weng is not only a story of a flash in the pan novelty actor but also a story of his own obsession for the discovery of this person and the amazing coincidences and famous people that he has meet because of this journey.

Now Andrew has funding for the completion of the documentary film that has been started and can look forward to returning to the Philippines to tie all the story line together for release for all of us to see. Hopefully sometime in 2010.

This is a story of someone having a dream with no comprehension of how to do it and being able to manage to pull it off.

His personal blog is andrewleavold.blogspot.com
The Trash Video website is www.trashvideo.com.au
email is trash@trashvideo.com.au

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

John Lissauer
“Opening Credits” (mp3)
from “Apartment 1303 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”
(Red Parlor Entertainment Group)

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Ultre
“Favourite Mammal” (mp3)
from “The Nest And The Skull”
(Audiobulb Records)

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Hello all. I’m in Sydney catching up with friends, making new friends and recording a few podcast episodes so I thought, as I like to do, give you a quick opinion of my thoughts of Sydney and a few of the things that I’m up to.

This is short and sweet little episode and just dropping in basically to say Hello.

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Today we talk with David Shaw who as an Industrial Designer with his company Street and Garden Furniture Company shares a little of the life of an industrial designer. We talk of what design is for him with his early attempts at being a manufacturer to eventually realise that designing and out sourcing manufacturing is a better business model.

He mentions his efforts to help the up and coming new designers which enables him to able to give them a chance through his business. Additionally he plans to use the greater space at his premises for display and art purposes to help other people within the community.

David has been making Street furniture for decades now and to my surprise once he started mentioning where it’s been placed around Australia I realised that I’ve been seeing it everywhere for years.

It’s strange for me to know that street lights, bollards, water bubblers and rubbish bins that I’ve walked past with scant regard all come from David and I just through coincidence happen to ask him onto Your Story.

His website is streetandgarden.com
email is david@streetandgarden.com.au

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Wade Robson
“I Question Mark” (mp3)
from “Wade Robson’s Project: Dance Beats Vol. 1″
(Wajero Entertainment, Inc.)

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Dive Index
“Water in Our Hands” (mp3)
from “Collisions – The Mid/Air Remixes”
(Neutral Music)

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Saturday 13 December 2008 saw rallies around Australia in all capital cities against the Australian Federal governments plans initially to trial and eventually introduce a mandatory ISP level filter. In Brisbane several hundred concerned people turned out to speak and make their feelings heard.

Sam Clifford from Queensland Greens summed up the majority of points about the filter and to read his full speech go to his site. On a personal note Mike Fitzsimon showed how medical support research would most likely be shut down by the filter due to the use of inappropriate terminology that the filter would flag.

I’ve mentioned previously that I feel that this is an appalling idea so to add a little weight to the protest I went to listen and participate in any way that I could. In the crowd I managed to catch up with Cameron Reilly from The Podcast Network, Ben Grubb from Tech Wired Australia, Michael Meloni from Somebody Think of the Children and Anthony Voevodin.

The speakers and each of the people that I spoke to added a little to the information that is out there. If you don’t know what the filter is about these people will help to give you a bit of a grounding on the debate.

This episode of Your Story Addendum is of some of the speeches and a couple of quick impromptu interviews from some of the people on the ground at the rally.

Additional information go to:

nocleanfeed.com
nocensorship.info

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It’s been some time since there has been a Your Story Episode, unfortunately the constraints to produce an episode while on the road travelling made it difficult to find the time required for the standard necessary to do justice to the wonderful people that I meet.

However now that I’ve returned to Australia it’s possible to finish the necessary work required to get an episode out and here it is.

Today we talk with Michael Kierans who in is a Canadian migrant living with his Czech wife in Prague, Czech Republic. He is established as a successful business owner of two cafes bars having moved from his successful life as a lawyer in Canada to Prague after the fall of Communism. Michael explains the difficulties of dealing with a different cultural and mental attitude that permeates all aspects of life in the Czech Republic from organising the necessities of running a business to the way that the government and politicians operate.

Michael explains the ever so subtle differences that he is able to be aware of now that he has been in Prague for a considerable period of time. He explains why the personality of the Czech people is the way it is, due to the long history of the Czech Lands and the impact that this history has had on the culture particularly during the communist era. Also he shows his enthiusium for this country and why there is an exciting time for the Czech Republic into the future as the next generations come through with their new and different mindset and continuation of their cultural heritages.

Impressively Michael explains what keeps him in Prague and why he loves it so much to make it his home.

His website is kava-coffee.cz

email is kava@mbox.vol.cz

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I asked a few questions that I would apprediate a quick response to if you feel inclined to help me with understanding the direction to direct Your Story. Please send you thoughts to chat@yourstorypodcast.com.

• Am I hitting the mark and what is it that interests you about Your Story?

• What is it that you like or don’t like?

• What type of personalities would you like me to find and what interests you?

• Did you enjoy my addendum episodes or would you rather I just stick to the main Your Story episodes?

Music is from iodaPROMONET

Time Machine
“The Groove That Just Won’t Stop” (mp3)
from “Life Is Expensive”
(Glow In The Dark Records)

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I’ve been nearly eight weeks away from Australia experiencing all that I could of the culture, sights but particularly the people that I met and had a chance to commune with as I drifted from home and country of one person into the life of another. It was an amazing trip as all trips that people do and it was a trip that will impact in ways that I cannot fathom yet. That and getting over a bit of jetlag is the reason that it’s taken a week to get this episode out but here it is.

It’s best to just let you listen to it. I thought about rerecording it but decided to leave it as it is as it shows the confusion that I have about a few things as I continue to settle back in.

I said it on the show but I’ll also say it here, Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who emailed me, connected with me on twitter or commented on the posts or my Flickr photos.

Particularly I want to thank the hospitality and friendships that I was shown from Claudia, Eve & Romy in Berlin. Adam Daniel Mezei in Prague. Todd & Rozzen in Vannes and Madeline in London.

Thanks all, you know what you mean to me.

I’m as interested as anyone to know where this is going so let’s hang on and see what happens. I’m already planning for the next trip but more later.

Links

Reichstag Fire

Kristallnacht

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My training post school was as an apprentice Pattern Maker. A beautiful craft of making patterns from primarily timber, to be used to produce the moulds that metal castings are made in. As I learnt the skills I developed an interest in how things are made and the manufacturing processes. So just before leaving on this trip I heard about the Whitechapel Bell Foundry from listening to This Week In London Podcast I knew that I needed to come and see it while I’m in London.

The Foundry is a modest but profound affair to me. There is a small museum and shop along with offices in the front of the old building on Whitechapel Road. Then out the back is the foundry where the bells are made, which isn’t large by foundry standards and seems to employ a dozen or so people.

But the history is staggering. They have made the two most famous bells that I know of. The Liberty Bell in the US and Big Ben here in London. They have recently made the new bell for the finally completed St Johns Anglican Cathedral in my home t

own of Brisbane. They are the oldest manufacturing organisation in the UK making bells for over 500 years and the history goes on and on. If you want more history here is the link to it.

For me to smell the grit and burnt sand of my trade, to see men still making things in an age old tradition and to consider the long and continuous history of a relatively modest concern was a wonderful experence  and if your into making things and manufacture I would strongly suggest that you drop in if your n the neighbourhood.

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For a reason that I don’t understand I have an affinity towards the sacrifices made by the Australian troops particularly in World War One. So while here in London I went on a mission to see the Australian War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.

On the way I was surprised to discovered the Canadian memorial in Green Park and the New Zealand war memorial near the Australian Memorial. Around these old British colonies war memorials is the grandiose memorials of old empire and militarism. The comparison for me was profound and I thought it was worth a comment.

Later in the day I had an opportunity to attend a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe of The Merry Wives of Windsor. I had a wonderful time laughing at a classic play performed in period Elizabethan costume in the worlds only open air Elizabethan play house . The costumes were impeccable in construction and function. The acting was the best in the world. The building that is the theatre is awesome in its style, function and construction.

The entire night was truly a wonderful experence in every way and I would strongly suggest that it’s a must see if visiting London.

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London is a city that is confusing to me. We know that it has the biggest financial markets in the world but the amount of underlying social issues that are obvious just walking down the street is disturbing when compared to the affluence that is seen in wealthy areas.

I observe that this is a community that is in a state of fear and there is an underlying big brother, circa 1984, feel to London that is constantly reminding all that the authorities have it  under control and with millions of CCTV observing our every movement they are keeping us safe.There is a constant reminder with the TV’s, the posters and the public announcements that it is dangerous and if we all behave like good little citizens. Then we will be looked after and controlled for our own good.

Is just the English/London mentality of a big city that causes so few happy people. I can’t help but wonder is it due to the fear or the multitudes fighting to get by or maybe it’s just the cabin fever climate and the lack of decent weather. I don’t know!

These are just my musings on being in London for a short time.

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I’ve been insanely busy but for me in a wonderful way as the people that have been looking after me have been filing my days with wonder, good food and drink along with entertaining conversation long into the night.

Vannes was a wonderful experience to see an old city centre that is still maintained and used for commercial and private residences with the modern community around it. There are photos on my flickr feed if you want to see more of it. The two market days I saw impressed me with the quality of produce, particularly the seafood, cheese and smoked meats. I’ve never seen such a range in my life.

Alas with so many things to say, do and see it seems a bit rude at times to get away to work. Fortunately I’m now in London and I may be

able to get a little time to get a few things sorted.

So here is a wrap up of my time in Vannes and a quick trip to Paris to see that culture with a dear friend.

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Adam introduced me to both the sights and also the issues that he feels confront the modern Czech Republic. These are the things that I took away with me as I continue my travels.

On reflection I can’t help but see some similarities when I reflect on Berlin and the issues created by two world wars, Nazism and Communism and the effects on Prague of multiple occupations over centuries and Communism.

These few things I reflect on now that I’ve left the Czech Republic.

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I’ve been in Prague, Czech Republic for a couple of days and I thought that a brief overview of my time so far would be appropriate.

I’ve been having a wonderful time courtesy of Adam Daniel Mezei who is showing me around the Golden City. The cool and the seedy, helping me to avoid being ripped off and talking for me so that I’m able to do some of the things, order drinks and food that the locals consume that are a challenge for a tourist.

Thanks Adam.

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While travelling through the Chez Republic on the train on my way to Prague I thought it would be opportune to put out another episode of Addendum to wrap up my thoughts on Berlin.

There isn’t much to say here I say it all on the podcast.

Good Bye Berlin, you were wonderful to me.

Thanks you to Claudia, Eve and Romy for your love and care for helping me around your home towns. It was an amazing time.

With more experience in doing this podcast and developing the skills needed to kick a few goals. I promise I’ll be back

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Here is another of my personal raves recorded while walking home through Potsdamer Platz about what I’ve seen and been doing but this time with a spin.

The first is the cafe that I had the wonderful meeting and conversation in.

As I walked in off the stark street-scape into the styled aura of what could have been Berlin in it’s heyday of the 1920’s I gasped in surprise because of the contrast to outside. An extraordinary cool and groovy place is the Joseph Roth Diele and a delight to spend some time in.

Inside while waiting and afterwards I drank fine beer from stoneware mugs and ate good wholesome home cooked food all for a price a third of what I would have paid back home.

Shortly I meet the gaze and had the opportunity to connect with two wonderful women, Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, who publish a very different travel magazine in Hidden Europe about the not so common but wonderful secreted away areas of Europe.

I initially hoped that I would be able to record a proper episode of Your Story with them but they prefer to remain private but they have allowed me to record my own thoughts about our discussion.

As I thought so many times during the chat I wish I had the recorder on as I feel that I didn’t even come close to expressing the salient points that they shared so well.

However you can always go to their site and see what they are publishing.

Nicky inquired with me about my heritage and the trip a few days ago to Swidwin and sent to me this insight to the area that my family originated from. This is a small excerpt of some generous research she gave me and which I know my greater family will be fascinated by. The way she writes and shares the information is more insightful than anything that I can say and is in a similar style to give you a feel for the writing style of Hidden Europe.

Świdwin had an interesting mix of Catholics and Lutherans. Members of the Kath family were baptised in the Lutheran church during the mid-nineteenth century. Being Lutheran did not mean having land. Many Pomeranian agricultural workers became Lutheran as a expedient to maintain good relations with their Prussian landlords. Improvements in agriculture led to a large amount of emigration from Świdwin from about 1855 onwards, and particularly post 1868. Some peasants, no longer finding work on the land, moved to the US, particularly to Michigan and Wisconsin where farmland was available in landscapes that recalled the spirit of Pomorze. Others went to Chicago, electing according to inclination to integrate there into the German or Polish communities in the rapidly growing city.

So to define Świdwin as Prussian is a stab at the town’s and region’s history. A reasonable one. But it masks the fact that Pomorze (or Pomerania if you prefer) had, and still has, its own particular identity and cultural mix. It had a measure of Prussian authority imposed upon it. Taking a long view, over the last 1000 years, that Prussia ‘overlay’ was quite brief.  But it is hard for us to be certain, at the time your forbears left some 120 years ago, quite how those individuals would have constructed their own identity. German? Polish? Prussian? Pomeranian? It’s very difficult to say. Very much the sort of issue we ponder in our writing for hidden Europe magazine.

Their website is hiddeneurope.co.uk

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Initially I was reluctant thinking that it would be the usual political hoopla but on second thoughts I thought that this is one of those cities in the world that history is made in and wouldn’t it be a shame if something was to happen and I was to miss it.

Would he make a mark in the history books like Kennedy or Reagan or would there be a tragic event like Bobby Kennedy while he was running for election in ‘68?

In the end neither event happened but instead it was simply a good night out in the summer air drinking beer for the people of Berlin and I don’t think many people really cared about the Obama Show at all. What they did care about was being out and about as the people of Europe seem to do. Especially when they can appreciate how wonderful things are when the weather is good.

And that is my point. I don’t think many people would have turned up if it was a wet and cold day in January. As for the cheering crowd. Well no one back about 500m where I was were cheering so I think the usual rent a crowd were up the front getting all the attention.

On the way home I looked around the old East Berlin that I was walking through and decided to give my thoughts on how wonderful and contradictary Berlin is with the starkly beautiful Eastern architectural style and the still developing commerce.

As I say in the audio, Berlin it’s like a run down share house of vibrant 20 year olds determined to make it work in any way they can. It’s a young city in an old skin.

Stunning.

                          

I have Prussian heritage on the side of my family that the Kath name originates from. Even though I’m seven eights British it is my surname that is the one eighth. So while I’m here I have a small opportunity to explore my heritage and I have company.

So three friends and I we went to Swidwin originally named Shievelbein in the days of Prussia but is now part of Poland to see where in the middle 19 century my ancestor Eduard(57) & Antonia(52) Kath with their four children Hermann(22), Wilhelm(18), Heinrich(14) & Auguste(11) eventually travelled to the ends of the world. The children were Christened in Pielburg now Pilawa but we chose not to go there as it’s a tiny village and we had limited time even though this is where they all probably lived but Swidwin is where Eduard came from.

They travelled from Europe in 1884 to settle at Glenco on the Darling Downs about 150 km west of Brisbane. Sadly from the information I have, old Eduard died within a year.

We had a look around and here are a few images of the area including a quick trip to the Baltic Sea coast to relax before driving back to Berlin late into the early morning. There are more images on my flickr page linked on the left.

                          

Berlin is a vibrant city with a huge amount of construction happening to the extent that it seems a little overgrown I suppose because it’s difficult to find the resources to maintain the city when it’s so necesary to build and replace the damage of primarally the GDR times and to a lesser extent the war so many years ago.

I also walked around the Holocaust Memorial which I had heard was an opressive and overwhelming place but I found it to be a stark but life filled space full of people exploring the mini canions and children playing hide and seek. Not a sad place at all but still a place of reverence.

                          

Here is a quick update on how it’s been travelling settling and having a bit of a look around Germany. Particually Tübingen, Potsdam and arriving in Berlin. I flush out a bit more of my observations in follow up Addendum eposides. So this is just to make the quick connection with you out there.

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