Standing Room Only for Sunday 11 December 2022

12:16  Avatar interns get a preview of the biggest film of the year

James Cameron is about to launch one of the Greatest Shows on Earth - Avatar The Way of Water has just had its first sneak previews in the Northern Hemisphere.

We have a vested interest in New Zealand of course - much of the film was shot and produced here.  

When director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau brought the sequel to Avatar here in 2018, they decided to train and mentor a group of would-be film-makers across all aspects of production.  Over 36 interns and apprentices were selected for a wide range of disciplines - from lighting, costumes and cameras to set design and production accounts.

So what was it like to be dropped into the biggest film in the world?   Simon Morris talks to Dylan Patel, who joined the Camera Department, Shona Ward, a Costume intern and Robyn Bryant from the Music Department.  

Avatar The Way of Water opens around New Zealand on 15 December.

 

12:33   The Radio Doctor who broadcast health care for 40 years 

Dr H. B. Turbott was The Radio Doctor for more than 40 years - pre and post the Second World War -  dispensing advice on a range of health and social issues until his retirement in 1984.

His broadcasts spanned child rearing, vaccination and communicable diseases, through to healthy ageing and nutrition.

Dr Turbott's often very enlightened opinions for the time fascinated Dr Claire Macindoe, an Ōtepoti/Dunedin-based researcher and historian.

She based her PhD thesis on him - The Radio Doctor - Broadcasting Health into the Home.   Now she's won the Judith Binney Writing Award, she plans to turn that thesis into a book.

Lynn Freeman asks Claire how she heard about Harold Turbott's broadcasts.

We'd like to thank Nga Taonga Sound and Vision for the clips of Dr Turbott in this item.

 

12:47  Artstart - a practical launch of young artists' careers

A pilot scheme helped Canterbury secondary school art students build their confidence by getting their work into a gallery - and sold.   Now it's being rolled out to the next generation of Te Whanganui-A-Tara Wellington and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland artists.

Charlotte Sherratt and Sophie Paterson set up Artstart - formerly known as The Creators' Room - in 2017.   Now students are invited to send in their work, and a panel of judges chooses a hundred to be framed and exhibited.

Money from any sales goes back to the young artist and so far that's come to around of $375,000 in Canterbury alone.

To find out more Lynn Freeman talks to Ella Ward who's one of Artstart's many success stories, and to its co-founder Sophie Paterson.
 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews two from the British Film Festival - Joyride and Rogue Agent - as well as the surprisingly controversial Disney animated feature Strange World.

 

1:31  JR's radio repair shop

This year on Standing Room Only we've run interviews with all kinds of repairers.  Our last is with a colleague of ours, John Roberts - better known around here as JR - who mends old broken radios that still have plenty of life in them.

One of his specialties is repairing the plastic Bell radios that were in so many Kiwi homes from the 1950s to the early 1980s.

Lynn Freeman asks JR if he grew up with a radio in the family home.

John Roberts is a member of the New Zealand Vintage Radio Society

 

1:47   Pioneering Nelson photographer Rosaline Frank

Very much against the odds, Rosaline Frank was able to forge a career as Nelson's first woman professional photographer, starting at the end of the 19th century.

A local photographer Rosalina McCarthy became so captivated with her near namesake's work and achievements that she's written her story in a book called Belated Accolades.

It's actually a joint biography, also telling the story of William Tyree for whom Rosaline Frank worked before effectively taking over his studio.  

And as well as examining Rosaline Frank's all-consuming photographic career, Belated Accolades looks at the dilemma she faced as custodian of well over a million negatives and photographic glass plates accumulated over decades at the Tyree studio.  The famous Tyree Photographic Studio collection has UNESCO Heritage status because of its social history value.

First things first though - Rosalina tells Lynn Freeman how she came to be fascinated with Rosaline Frank's story.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - musician and radio presenter Robbie Ellis

The list of people who've combined comedy with a love of classical music is a short but distinguished one.  Dudley Moore and Bill Bailey, maybe.  Tom Lehrer and Tim Minchin.  And to it can be added the name of today's guest - former RNZ Concert presenter Robbie Ellis.

Robbie lives in Chicago now where he works at classical station WFMT.  But he also loves to make comedy.  His new album of comedy songs is called Metric System.

Robbie is about to come home to Aotearoa/New Zealand for Christmas, and while he's here he'll pop in for a couple of sets at the Classic Comedy Club in Auckland.    His picks on the Laugh Track are all Chicago musical comedians -
Bill Larkin, Jamie Shriner, Scoochie Boochie and Jake Dewar. 

Robbie Ellis will be playing at the Classic Comedy Club in Auckland on Thursday the 15th of December, and again the following night.  

 

2:25  K M Tarrant's new thriller Life and death in Birkenhead

 

An embalmer goes rogue in horrific ways in the first crime novel written by K. M. Tarrant - someone who is very much at home in a mortuary.

She's a qualified embalmer, she's fascinated by human psychology and reading crime fiction is her thing.

Now based in Auckland's North Shore, the Temuka-born writer says she hopes her book Life and Death in Birkenhead will not only entertain people, but demystify the world of embalming.

In it, Gerald the sociopathic embalmer is on a collision course with Maisie, a caring and bereaved young woman who also takes up the embalmer's tools.

Life and Death in Birkenhead by K. M. Tarrant is a Mary Egan Publishing publication. 

 

 

2:36  Tayla Alexander is an opera singer on the rise

At 11 she released an album, at 18 she set up a charitable foundation, and now at 21 Tayla Alexander is a lyric soprano.

Before that, she's about to perform in a short comique opera in Brisbane.   It's part of the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Programme for emerging professional singers from New Zealand and Australia.

On top of all that, this year she's been studying for an honours degree at the University of Auckland before going overseas for her Masters in music.  She was also a semi-finalist in the 2022 Lexus Song Quest.

Like her mentor Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Tayla tells Lynn Freeman, she's a "crossover artist", singing a wide range of genres - opera, classical, pop and music theatre.

 

2:47  Award-winning crime novelist Nikki Crutchley

 

Seven years after escaping a family tragedy in her home town, Jac Morgan reluctantly returns to search for her missing sister, Charlie.

But twenty years earlier, another teenage girl went missing in Everly.  Paige Gilmore disappeared during the town's annual Gilmore Hotel Open Day, and the anniversary is not far away.  As Jac looks for clues to lead her to Charlie, the two cases start to blur.

This is the premise for In Her Blood, the latest crime novel by Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted author, Nikki Crutchley. 

Lynn Freeman asks Nikki whether the characters - and the town of Everly - are based on real life.

In Her Blood by Nikki Crutchley is published by HarperCollins.

 

 

3:06 Drama at 3 -  the final two plays in the Maranga Mai series 

The plays in the Tawata Productions series have explored a wide range of themes, from childhood through to dementia. Today's plays involve indigenous values and the ancestral home, and the impact the arrival of a baby has on a woman's life.

The first play is Te Maunga, Te Toa e Manakia by Tehere Koteka.  It stars Nathan Mudge, Poe Tiare Ruhe Taroro and Tyrone Elia.   The sound engineer is Karnan Saba and it's produced by Tāne Rolfe & Stevie Greeks. 

The second audio drama is Whakaaraara by Sherilee Kahui.   It features Emma Katene, Taylor Terekia, Ngamako Rota, Tāne Rolfe, Waitahi Aniwaniwa,  Miria George and Hone Kouka.  Sound was once again by Karnan Saba and the producer was Hone Kouka.

And finally a short story by Wellington writer Barbara Anderson - The Man with the Plug in his Nose - read for us by Helen Moulder.  It was engineered by Phil Benge and produced by Prue Langbein for RNZ National. 

 

 

 

Music played in this show

Artist:  Steven Carlisle
Song: WKRP theme
Composer: Wells-Wilson
Album: All Time 100 TV themes
Label: TVT
Played at: 12.16

Artist: Charlie Dore
Song: Pilot of the Airwaves
Composer:  Dore
Album:  Radio Daze
Label: Rhino
Played at: 12.29

Artist: Regina Spektor
Song: On the radio
Composer:  Spektor
Album: Begin to hope
Label: Sire
Played at: 12.58

Artist: LL Cool J
Song:  I can't live without my radio
Composer:  Rubin-LL Cool J
Album: Radio
Label: Def Jam
Played at:  1.07

Artist:  Devo
Song: Big mess
Composer: Mothersbaugh-Casale
Album: Greatest Hits
Label: Warner
Played at: 1.46

Artist:  Roxy Music
Song:  Oh yeah
Composer:  Ferry
Album:  The Best of
Label: Virgin
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Shakespear's Sister
Song: Hello turn your radio on
Composer: Detroit-Fahey-Feldman
Album: Best of
Label: Warner
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Robbie Ellis
Song: 45 seconds
Composer:  Ellis
Album: Metric system
Label: 
Played at: 2.06

Artist: Jamie Shriner
Song: Crush on you
Composer:  Shriner
Album:
Label:
Played at: 2.10

Artist: Jake Dewar
Song:  The club
Composer: Dewar
Album: Mindful Insanity: Humor in Times of Quarantine
Label: 
Played at: 2.15

Artist: Scoochie Boochie
Song: I'm too fertile
Composer: 
Album: Sunrise at dawn in space
Label: 
Played at:  2.18

Artist: Bill Larkin
Song:  I wear a hat now
Composer: 
Album: Knowing Your Audience
Label:
Played at:  2.22

Artist: Tayla Alexander
Song: Signore ascolta (My lord, hear me), from Turandot
Composer: Puccini
Album: From Lexus Song Quest Semi-Finals
Label: RNZ 2022
Played at: 

Artist:  Steely Dan
Song:  FM (No static at all)
Composer:  Fagan-Becker
Album: A decade of
Label: MCA
Played at:  2.58

Artist:  Monty Python
Song:  I bet you they won't play this song ion the radio
Composer:  Idle
Album:  Contractual Obligation
Label: Arista
Played at:  3.05

Artist:  Bruce Springsteen
Song:  Radio Nowhere)
Composer: Springsteen
Album: Magic
Label:  Columbia
Played at:  3.58