Popularity contest ends with a paean to our junkyard future

February 10, 2010
Britney, "lolcats" and a radio stunt by Kyle and Jackie O were all used as evidence that "we've seen the future and it's junk". But overwhelmingly the audience didn't think so.
The first of the Herald's IQ2 debates on popular culture was held last night at City Recital Hall.
The Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly criticised the "non sequitur" that popular is good, arguing that popularity had become "the reigning value of our time" and it had undermined excellence.
The best-selling novelist Bryce Courtenay was first to hit back, saying that "popular" was often used as a euphemism for junk when in fact many popular things were valuable. He cited Elvis, Bob Dylan and the Beatles as examples of "popular storytellers" in the 1950s who are "still with us".
Courtenay also offered a historical view of popular culture, tracing it from the novel to television and the internet, while labelling himself the speaker "most likely to become confused by the speed of social change".

The literary critic Peter Craven likened junk culture to junk food. "If you've got a taste for it, you can eat it until you make yourself sick. If you don't have a taste for it, you'll be sick in the first place."
Tom Crago, a video game developer, joked to roars of laughter that he was the youngest panellist the organisers could find last week after searching for someone from generation Y and finding that people "couldn't possibly commit to a date so far in advance".
Crago argued that society's values were better than ever, with climate change and issues of gender and race in the mainstream consciousness.
The playwright Stephen Sewell spoke of a growing fixation with pornography, pole dancing as exercise and "obnoxious morons" on reality television. "For all our connectedness ... we're still as lonely [and] alienated as we ever were," he said.
"Is popular culture inclusive? Of course not. Just ask a Muslim on Australia Day."

Comedienne Wendy Harmer whipped out her "pet rock", a memento of being a teen in the 1970s. "It was as if the 1970s were testing just how low popular culture could go," she said.
Harmer used her son's iPod playlists, and bedside reading that included a book on the teachings of Buddha and a Simpsons comic, to explain the vast choices people now have and said that "in cyberspace junk is just junk".

Afterwards 66 per cent of the audience voted against the premise that the future is junk.

(source - Sydney Morning Herald)

Wendy Harmer and co take on the conservatives

February 9, 2010
Join us this evening for the first of IQ2 debates for 2010.
Go to iq2oz.com for more information.
The topic for tonight is “Popular Culture: We’ve seen the future and it is junk”.
There is a certain cast of mind that locates all virtue in the classics; a cast of mind that dismisses popular culture as worthless.
But in a society where so much popular culture is shaped by yesterday’s heroes, is the conservative critic just the "pot calling the kettle black"?
Arguing the case for will be writer Stephen Sewell, literary critic Peter Craven, and Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly, while comedienne Wendy Harmer, author Bryce Courtenay and video game executive Tom Crago will argue against.
The debate will be live streamed on smh.com.au from 6.45pm. And you can vote on which side you prefer.

(source - Sydney Morning Herald)

Pearlie Scores Major Market Sales

February 1, 2010
Animated series Pearlie is coming to several of the world’s major TV markets, including New Zealand and the United Kingdom under several new deals struck by Mango Distribution and Nelvana Enterprises with local broadcasters.
The sales are to Nickelodeon New Zealand, Viasat in Bulgaria, SRC in French Canada, Chello Media in Hungary, RTI in Italy, Viasat in Lithuania, M-Net in South Africa and Pop Girl in the United Kingdom.
Previous Pearlie sales include Nickelodeon Australia, qubo in the United States, Ki.Ka in Germany, TVB in Hong Kong and YTV for English Canada.
Pearlie is produced by Australia’s Sticky Pictures (Dennis & Gnasher, Monster Auditions) in collaboration with Canadian animation powerhouse Nelvana Studio (The Fairly OddParents, Franklin, Jane and the Dragon), and was commissioned by Australia’s Network Ten and YTV in Canada.
A $9 million project, Pearlie was two years in production and five years in development.
Pearlie is based on the best-selling books written by Australian comedienne, radio personality and author Wendy Harmer. More than 600,000 copies have been sold globally and are available in eight languages.
Pearlie follows the life of a fashionable young urban fairy in charge of Jubilee Park, a magical oasis in the centre of a bustling big city.

(source - animationmagazine.net)

Brekky Double Angela Catterns and Wendy Harmer a summer success

January 11, 2010
WENDY Harmer and Angela Catterns have been the breakout hit of summer radio with ABC702 deluged with messages and comments of support since they took over Adam Spencer's breakfast shift - and they're now on the market as a double act.
ABC local radio program director Peter Brennan confirmed yesterday Spencer would return as planned on Monday, saying the station's line-up is locked in for the next 12-14 months - but would like to use the pair in casual shifts.
Harmer yesterday told Confidential she and Catterns loved working together, felt they had proved a point and wanted to do more.
"I have always been told that women do not want to listen to women on radio and that having two of them would be the greatest turn-off - to men as well," Harmer said.
"But we've had a huge response to our schtick from both sides, and while Angela and I took the job understanding the roster is full, we'd love to do more.
"It could be doing podcasts for the ABC, on an FM station, a digital one, other AM - you will hear from us again, but we just don't know when yet."
Harmer said Spencer's fans had let them know they were looking forward to his return.
The pair have worked until 10am when the cricket has been on, but will be on air until then all week - and not just Thursday and Friday when the third Test begins in Hobart.

(source - adelaidenow.com.au)

Wendy Harmer's big TV double

Michael Bodey | September 07, 2009 Article from: The Australian

IN a neat piece of programming synchronicity, Pearlie, the animated children's comedy TV series based on Wendy Harmer's books, will debut on Ten in the same week Harmer joins Celebrity MasterChef. But Harmer knows enough about television to realise it happened by default rather than design. Pearlie has been five years in the making and has been kept largely under wraps for a $10million co-production between Australia and Canada. In contrast, very little about MasterChef has been kept quiet in its short life. "It's one of those funny things -- kids' TV pretty much flies under the radar a lot," Harmer says.

Pearlie the TV series has been a major undertaking for the stand-up comedian, TV host and broadcaster. She spent 18 months adapting half of the 26 episodes (the other half being written by a Canadian writer) from her popular 10-book series for children and is the program's creative producer. That role is particularly significant in a series that is stridently southern hemisphere, despite the adoption of Canadian accents for most characters. The Pearlie the Park Fairy series of contemporary urban-themed books has sold half a million copies worldwide, in eight languages, most recently Indonesian Bahasa. Harmer wanted the books to follow southern hemisphere seasons, which has helped them become big sellers in South Africa and South America, particularly Brazil. For instance, in one book, a fierce tropical storm precedes Christmas. Harmer even stipulated when selling the book to Canada that the narratives don't allow it to snow at Christmas. And the Canadian producers at animation powerhouse Nelvana have embraced it, with one script coming back to Harmer with Opal the Aboriginal fairy exclaiming, "Geez, I'm knackered"! "I had to tell them that's probably not what a fairy would say," Harmer says.

Known to many as a broadcaster and TV host, writing was always Harmer's first love; she wrote her first short story when she was eight and later became a newspaper journalist at The Geelong Advertiser. She is currently writing her fourth adult novel and her first young adult novel, I Lost My Mobile at the Mall, will be out this year. "I'm quietly beavering away and have sold 600,000 books!" she says. "It's kind of funny because people see me and say, what do you do now? "I wrote the first adult book after being booted out of vega (Harmer was one of the first big-name signings to DMG Radio's baby boomer start-up radio station). And I was very lucky because I finally had the time and money and space to do what I wanted to do. "My fear is that one day someone would say, 'We don't want another book'."

Harmer's profile as an author will soar during her Celebrity Masterchef stint. She will join Queensland premier Anna Bligh, George Negus, Alex Perry, Peter FitzSimons and others on FremantleMedia's hit franchise. "I've tried to live and breathe cookery for a month and half and I don't think it's going to make any difference whatsoever," she says.