The Australian Bite

Bollywood, booze & icebergs

10 June 2010

Listen and download: MP3

Australians have a reputation for being partial to a drink or two – but this week on the Bite we’ll find out why local experts are calling for greater regulation of alcohol sales and marketing.  We’ll also meet the producer of the new Bollywood movie that’s been filming in Melbourne.   Crook: – It’s Good to be Bad is a love story set against the backdrop of last year’s attacks on Indians in Australia.  And we’ll take a trip to Antarctica with sound artist Philip Samartzsis and find out what an iceberg sounds like underwater.

Bollywood film tackles Aussie violence issue

A new Bollywood movie is taking last year’s attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, throwing in a love story and serving it up as an all singing all dancing extravaganza. The film, called Crook: It’s Good to be Bad, has been filming in Melbourne, and the filmmakers say the power of Bollywood can heal the diplomatic wounds between India and Australia. Irene Scott from the ABC’s youth radio network Triple Jspeaks to producer Mukesh Bhatt, and local facilitator Anupam Sharma.

Experts call for increased regulation of alcohol

While most people drink alcohol in moderation, excessive or binge drinking by young people is on the rise and young women in particular are drinking more than ever. So with alcohol being one of the major causes of preventable death and illness in Australia, why is it that a bottle of alcohol contains no health warnings? And why is alcohol, unlike tobacco, able to be advertised on television, on billboards, and sponsoring sporting events?  To talk about these issues, Tony Delroy was joined by Dr Sam Roberts, a psychiatrist with the Sydney Clinic – a private psychiatric hospital and Geoff Munro – National Policy manager with the Australian Drug Foundation

The Australian Drug Foundation has a selection of Fact Sheets relating to alcohol and other drugs.  You can find them here: http://druginfo.adf.org.au/druginfo/fact_sheets

A sound journey to Antarctica

Australian sound artist and academic Philip Samartzis recently returned from a trip to Antarctica under the auspices of the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship. His aim was to investigate the impact that extreme environmental conditions have on the people who live and work in Antarctica, and how these people adapt to such conditions in order to survive. He speaks to Camilla Hannan, and shares some of his wonderful sound recordings with us.

For more information on Philip’s work you can go to his website – www.microphonics.org

And for more information regarding the Australian Antarctic Division go to www.aad.gov.au

Music ( not in podcast)

Melbourne multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer J. Walker started making music 13 years ago under the name machine Translations. His last release was back in 2007, but now he has a new single and an album to follow later in the year.  It’s called Telepathic Head and you can listen to it at the Triple J Home & Hosed blog

Artist: Machine Translations

Track: Telepathic Head