Episode 285

It's not every day that you get a journey (and a graphical one at that) of a century or more of history, an understanding of a culture and faith and a new lesson on popular culture in the twentieth century. but that's what we gave Yartzlovers with Bernard Caleo at the Jewish Museum of Australia, courtesy of curator Jess Rynderman.


But there was more! Who would have thought of the connection between a pogrom and Superman? The Jewish illustrators, cartoonists and graphic novelists of the 20th century, that's who!


Even though it's a special, we still had some time left for some picks--on Frost/Nixon, Frozen River, One Cloud, Slumdog Millionaire, The Tattooist and The World of Work, with our pickers being Scott Gooding, Fiona Jordan, Hermione Gilchrist, Misha Adair, Rachel Purchase and Ralph Mclean

Episode 307

This week's show was a big arts banquet of artforms and arts events. We had a new regular feature Awesome! for the first time--a way of highlighting our tips for the best in the next week. Will Morgan delivered the Awesome! news.

Ralph Mclean met up with Stephen Jolly, City of Yarra Councillor who is currently leading a campaign to return the Fitzroy Town Hall to arts and community purposes. On the steps of the nineteenth century building.


Karen Hadfield is the Artistic Director of the Big West Festival, having its first annual outing in the artsy corners of Melbourne's West. The Festival ranged in content from a revival of the So You Think You Can Cow? cult theatre and music and participation event through to community storytelling and even some High Art!

In its early history, Short and Sweet Cabaret was about to grace the boards of Chapel off Chapel in South Yarra. We caught David Read, Director of the event, in his preparationis for cabaret that's always short and sometimes sweet.

Andrew Scarano is the writer/director of a new film Into the Shadows, about the Australian film distribution and exhibition industry. He spoke with Ralph Mclean about his experience of growing up in Canberra and dreaming of making (and showing) films.



Our picks of the week were the Sookie Stackhouse Books, Le Salon, Prime Mover, Grizzly Trap and Asbestos House with picjers Fiona Jordan, Maryanne Caleo, Misha Adair, Ralph Mclean and Hermione Gilchrist.

Episode 306

This week's host was Ralph Mclean.

Dance, theatre and regular featured in Yartz. They return only rarely, but The Trocks are a very special dance troupe. Beginning as fun for winding-down ballet dancers in boho corners of New York City in 1974, the Trocks now take their extraordinary skill and artifice and humour to locations around the world.

We had the chance to catch up with Christopher Hampton, an Australian dancer who is now a fully fledged Trock.

Earlier this year, we found Gabrielle Nankivell at Melbourne's cutting edge dance venue DanceHouse rehearsing for a short season. We caught some rehearsal work as well as meeting Gabrielle.


It's November, it's Melbourne so therefore it's La Mama Theatre's annual Exploration Season. Week after week, three night exposures of new and developing work are featured in the grand ole dame of Melbourne's experimental theatre.

One of the most regular contributors to La Mama and the Explorations Season is Lloyd Jones. Lloyd met up with Ralph Mclean to explain the idea of the season as well as how it's done.

By contrast, Beng Oh is directing Porcelain a second time around. Starting out as a production at La Mama, it was being remounted at The Dog Theatre in Footscray prior to accepting an invitation to an arts festival in Canberra.


News was back! Martin Schoo was there to dish it up to us. For Picks of the week, we had Cry of the Marwig, Shooting Balibo and Happy Times--with Fiona Jordan, Scott Gooding, Misha Adair and Bernard Caleo.

Episode 283

The China Mieville special! China visited us during his Melbourne Writers Festival trip this year. A fascinating purveyor of "weird fiction", Mieville bring together several different genres in his work. Misha Adair drilled China for Yartz and Yartzlovers.


He belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigones. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law. He teaches creative writing at Warwick University.