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 To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on the iTunes player image to the right or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by writing a post on your blog, sharing on social networks below or writing a 5Star Review on iTunes Music is from Nick Jaina at Free Music archive. ← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.  

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. To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on the iTunes player image to the right or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by writing a post on your blog, sharing on social networks below or writing a 5 Star Review on iTunes 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. To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on the iTunes player image to the right or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by writing a post on your blog, sharing on social networks below or writing a

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. To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, search in iTunes for “Your Story“, click on the iTunes player image to the right or… Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by writing a post on your blog, sharing on social networks below or writing a 5Star Review on iTunes

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 mail@Metroccolis.com To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes ← 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. To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or ...

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. To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes. ← 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

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

It seems to have taken four weeks for my soul to catch up with me. I’ve been in Berlin now for four weeks meeting people and spending time settling in to how this city operates, find where to live and how to decorate your home using resources as CraftSide home which are great for this. I find it takes time to find my feet in any new environment and understand how the basic functions of life operate. It’s a mix of confusion and excitement, that is both fun and distracting. Now that the settling is hopefully completed I’m looking forward to seeing how things continue to evolve. I’m slowly developing a network of people who are openly and actively connecting with me and offering assistance both in general ideas of where to go and what to see but also who I could connect with. The open generosity of many of the people here is encouraging and maybe shows something of the personality of the people of Berlin. I said in 2008 that Berlin is like a run down share house full of university students who are doing some interesting things. With that attitude comes a “we’re all in this together”, attitude. Everyone knows that we can all help each other to help ourselves. That attitude gives this city a vibrancy of purpose to create and build some amazing things, even if the specific direction isn’t clear. If you want to follow all my content just go to About.me/IanKath or my daily Boos at AudioBoo Make sure you download from iTunes To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Grabbing opportunities that can’t be found anywhere else. When you’re young and exploring the world, there are chances for finding yourself wherever you are but the opportunities that present themselves will vary depending on location. Just take a moment to consider how different your life would have been and the opportunities that you took advantage of or missed simply due to where you spent your formative years. In this episode of Your Story we chat to Henry Richards about the opportunities that are presented for him here in Berlin that weren’t available to him in Sydney where he grew up or London where he migrated from. Henry is at that point in life right now, where he’s formulating the person he’ll become and it’s his current experiences in Berlin that will be part of that. We chat about how he identifies himself, how Berlin culture allows people like him to be as they wish, to risk presenting in ways that other communities don’t allow and how he sees a future for himself here to continue to grow, study and become who he’ll one day be. Do you automatically download Your Story to iTunes? To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by giving it a Digg or Stumble from the links under the heading for this episode or writing a review on iTunes Akir & R.E.K.S. “The Good Life” (mp3) from “Underground Overstood” (alchemetric) Buy at Amazon MP3 More On This Album The Glitch Mob “Drive It Like You Stole It” (mp3) from “Drive It Like You Stole It – Single” (Glass Air) Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Amazon MP3 More On This Album

One Guitar for a DJ Mix Party At a recent Betahaus event in Berlin, the Awesome Foundationawarded 1000€ to innovative musician Robin Sukroso, aka. Rainer, to help further the development of his one man band guitar modification. Taking the idea of percussive and traditional guitar playing, using the instrument as an input for a midi device, means that virtually any synthesized instrument can be played, looped and feed back into the mix all while performing in the best of the techno clubs here in Berlin. Three years of development including cutting into his beloved acoustic guitar and now Rainer has his own performance instrument and a prototype to take to manufacturing. Time will tell if we see this as an add on available for musicians to help them with a new style of performing, If you want to have  an understanding of how his creation works just watch this video… His website is Robin Sukrosos One Man Band His email is robinsukroso@googlemail.com Check-out Rainer’s music on SoundCloud Here To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.” Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here. If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here. Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes ← 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→

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

Megève’s a stunning place to see Snow and Ice, something I don’t know! I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be in the Alps in winter. The cold, the snow, the strong biting sun but I’ve never had the chance, until now! What we call mountains in Australia doesn’t really compare to what is the real alps scattered around the rest of the world. When I finally saw those mountainous rocks piercing the sky on my first visit to Megève in the summer of 1992 for my sister’s wedding I thought to myself, “these are real mountains!” …And as I left I wondered what it would be like in winter. Now I’ve seen a real winter scene. Coming from the sub-tropics, a real winter as experienced by most people is something that I’ve always wondered about. Sure I’ve experienced some cold moments in my life but never the ice and snow of the French Alps and all that it entails. It’s far too easy for me to have no idea what to do and how to live in this environment but there is also the fun of seeing for real what I’ve only every seen in film and images. * My first step when I arrived involved sliding on the ice. (The ground isn’t supposed to be slippery). * How do the hedges survive under half a metre of snow. * Amazement of the strength of the building to hold tons of snow on the roofs made by insured roofer. * Icicles forming from dripping water on the gutters. * Bitting cold that saps the warmth from every exposed or poorly covered part of the body. * Snow that remains dry and powdery even after days of warm weather. * Ice that melts (sublimates) to dryness without ever being liquid water. * How much air is in freshly fallen snow. * A large mouthful of snow results in very little water to drink. * Ice is really hard to walk on in leather soled shoes! * The comfortable inside temperature is no indication of how cold it is outside. * Ice crystals growing on the snow over the several days of fine weather . Many of these I’m sure you think are completely obvious but with half a century lived without the experiences of this climate and the natural tendency to take things from my life for granted I’ve been amazed at what I’ve observed. In my personal world I don’t even have a heater for winter. An Alpine Village Megève is a quintessential French Alpine village with all the cultural aspects that come with that. The people are fiercely proud of their farming heritage even though tourism has developed into a major part of their community. The local produce from cheese to cured meats is of the highest standard and in no time at all you can indulge way too much of the good life. And it’s the good life that attracts people to Megève. It is seen as one of the most expensive ski resort areas in the world attracting the rich and famous. A little people watching and listening and you’ll see the furs and jewlery and hear accents from all around the world. Lately Russian tourists have decovered Megève, having been lead the way by the Germans and British over the decades. One group who are notable in their absence is the North Americans but with the great skiing they have in Canada and the US I can understand why. But it’s not all about the snow! Mixing it with the Locals A huge part of being in the French culture is connecting with other people and being in this quaint village in the French Alps with all the French attitudes that come with that make this holiday for me far more than just spending time in the cold. Taking the time to sit and talk to people about...