Red Ned 3
Story and Paintings by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
This week by chance I found myself thinking that SBS was kind of unpleasant. I’ve always avoided feeling any unpleasantness about SBS; it was a given with me that SBS was tainted with no ambiguity.
It was an advertisment about a cooking show; some guy from an asian background going back to the land of his ancestors to experience their food and to show them his own. I speak the language of food, he said. I was disturbed. That’s what idiot cooks say when they go to a country and pretend to be really communicating with the natives. Not only communicating, but teaching them something.
I don’t like to say this, but sometimes I feel that the way multi-culturalism is represented on SBS is a bit like cultural imperialism, cultural pornography, cultural shopping. We own that, we say. We may be Australian but look here! We have one of those too. And so this – all this – is ours too!
Red Ned 4
I sometimes feel uncomfortably like a thief. Looking at the travel guides, the food travel guides, the interior and exterior travel guides for tips to do up my home. As if other countries existed to fill in some little stylish detail that would give me the edge. We often call it “appropriation”. But another word for it, just as ambiguous, is stealing.
It is still making me feel uncomfortable that I found myself not liking SBS. Has it changed so much? There’s a strange sense of ownership of culture these days, I don’t remember it being there before. Perhaps it was simply there in a different way. In the past we seemed to look at these foreign countries as being “them”. Now, sometimes it feels like we’re sitting on the couch with a glass of cold something in our hands saying “Oh yes, we got some of that just the other day!” And what they’re talking about is “foreignness”. But then you see them introduce “one of us” into the mix. And then it doesn’t feel like stealing, so much as it feels like completely nullifying the situation. It’s not even foreign any more. Weird.
But I’d be curious to know what you all thought about this. Does SBS ever make you feel uncomfortable ?
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I ‘do’ love SBS. It’s the only antenna channel that I watch,excepting if one of the others is exscusivly hosting a sporting event, that I’m interested in.
The news readers attire takes some getting used to. However, I deem it as normal now, to see Lee Lin Chin wearing a shredded gourd around her bodice and her lapels upside down. Janice Peterson helps me to endure photographs of Meetoo, shaking hands with The Pope. In fact she could just smile to make my day!
Their programming is good too; enjoyable, and often arty, or historical. Jenny Brockie’s skills a highlight, some weeks. Far superior to The ABC. Although to be fair, I haven’t watched ABC, for decades.
The cooking thing is subjective really. After running my own restaurant, cooking in it and studying at catering college (whilst doing it), I am not a fan of celebrity chefs who haven’t done the hard yards. That’s what I liked about Masterchef (not SBS, unfortunately); the two chefs were excellent and skilful. Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris, the hosts also had real chefs that appeared as guests. Including the owner operator Rene Redzepi, of Noma, the Danish Restaurant voted best in the world. Did you see his desert….mmmm.to die for, even though I’m not a sweet maker.
Nigella, as a cook, has a huge chest and makes chocolate look gooier than it should. That’s it. The Hairy Bikers provide riotous fun. That’s an essential ingredient too.
I like Neil Perry & Delia Smith, but retain a soft spot for Jamie. Underneath all that cheekiness beats a very good cook. He’s knowledgeable and knows the effect of items that he introduces. Whether it is stringent, aromatic, a liaison, an emulsion, or whatever. Yup-he knows.
It’s getting a bit overdone on the goggle-box now. And it’s making us all fat–so I read somewhere. We all feel obliged to consume these glistening creations. Simply because someone has put in the effort…Buuuurrrp! 🙂
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Nigella Lawson is a cook ? Bugger me ! How do you know, VL ?
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Every time he sees her something inside him gets scrambled.
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Whatever we think of all those travelling chefs on BBC and SBS, we all like PA’s cooks to keep sharing their recipes with us, and hopefully have another one joining Viv and Ato…When are we going to see Funston cooking for us here?
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Funston used to own a rest room; ergo, he can’t cook!
Probably over-fries the water and over deepens the fries.
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Until now I have wondered to myself why VL has not offered up some recipes. You will all have to get your French dictionaries out though as I gather he prefers to describe everything in French to impress his guests.
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Actually I did see part of a Luke Ngyuen program once and it felt incongruous for him to be cooking on the side of the road, particularly on the ground. It’s not as if that’s his background. I also think they should have sub-titled the Vietnamese language exchanges.
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I dunno. I only watch the shows I like.
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Good Lorrrd, Voice!
You found some? Where?
We’re not talking about downloading stuff from uTorrent, Voice.
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On SBS: I watched Inspector Montalbano this week. You’ve probably seen them all. It wasn’t a particularly good episode I thought. I still haven’t seen all the Wallanders. I like Gourmaet Farmer. They also have good movies if you make the effort to track them, which I haven’t been for a while.
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I saw all the Montalbano series, Voice. I remember waiting for each one with feverish anticipation and then, after seeing each one, fall into feverish depression! That twit who keeps shouting in a de-throated voice, had me, after the first few times, screaming at the telly! Never mind. I still have a quick gander at it, even if for a few minutes checking out the Italian vistas.
The Wallander stuff was also quite good but somehow didn’t manage to see too many of them. Can’t remember why.
New Midsommer carcasses but still fell asleep half way through it. Too… ivy like. Wandering all over the place and full of dull people acted by dull actors…
I remember the days when we’d circle a program on the Green Guide. Now, I can’t think of what I’d put a circle around… nope, not a one!
Oh, the Greek news on SBS but when a particular anchor is on I switch off. Like watch Uhlman or Sales. Highly irritating!
Ah! The Jim Lehrer (PBS Newshour). I’ll watch that if I’m around.
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If it makes people cook and sit around the family table. it surely is a good thing. SBS is still watchable but ads are irritating. Look at the ABC, what is it about that swinging of a cricket bat smashing bubbles around and than jabbers on about ‘entertainingment’. It’s all becoming so much fluff.
I remember radio and TV in Holland , all being government owned. No commercial TV, no commercial radio. Then coming here, listening and really believing at first that Omo was the best washing powder but being incredulous when ten minutes later Persil was the best. I could not believe that 2 soap powders could be the best. From then on, innocence destroyed and after that, those walks past the suburban houses all blaring out radio ads and later on TV ads. What a dreadful world. And now, and now, the whole of our living areas both inside and outside, one giant advertisement, signs everywhere, just so all and sundry can vacuum out money. American alright. Ghastly and so ugly. Oh, where is Norway?
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Just checked the map for you, Gez. Same place as ever. Well, not ever but the fairly dim past, at least.
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Yes Ato, I know. It is tempting at times.
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Luke Nguyen is Vietnamese. The new show is about China. He doesn’t speak Chinese and that is the context of his comment. Luke’s shows are terrific and you see and learn a lot about the country and its people (Vietnam). Now we will see some of China through his eyes.
I love SBS and am comfortable with it. We have only had SBS for about 12 years in this part of the world. Spent a decade being very irritated that SBS was not available everywhere.
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Me too, Vivienne! We don’t have it here! Think on me how horrible it is stuck with ABCs and lots of commercial rubbish all repeating like heartburn. My hat! You understand! It’s horrible without SBS!
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So you don’t get SBS even after all this time. Dreadful. I’d get on to the Council and ask them to lobby for SBS coverage.
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Another word for “it” Lehan -the word I much prefer- is “cross-fertilisation.”
It must happen with all organisms, or else all organisms will die.
But I do understand what you mean. This country has been fro the better part of a century, has been colonised by the worse of American fluff. Completely flooded our creative industries and almost every outlet -from cinema to theatre to TV, to radio preferred to buy the cheapest of American junk rather than support the local outlets, with the result that our creators have become cultural emigrants and Oz suffering a bout of severe brain drain.
I sense a little resurrection happening but it will be a long time before we gain our own authentic voice, articulating our own authentic thoughts, away from the “bang-bang, thank you mam” genre.
An interesting but not necessarily great, or even good, kitchen program is the new one from S. Korea, SBS is showing at the moment. Both, presenter and chef are locals and we get to see the “ways” of Korean people, not only in the kitchen but also in their thinking.
I prefer those sorts of programs, where local presenters exhibit the work of local artists.
I often go to a Greek TV (on the net) where there is a cooking program. Again, not only do I see what the chef does with the ingredients but also how the Greeks from various parts of Greece think -about all sorts of other things.
The Kylie Kwongs et al are good because they know what we, the collective mass of aussies like, in general terms and because an aussie accent is easier to the aussie ear, particularly to the ear of a producer. It’s “focussed marketing,” as I heard it called once.
Love the paintings, by the way.
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Such bad photos of those two little paintings, I was going to re-photograph them and send some better pictures, but they are quite unphotographable. And they are nice paintings, too.
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Lehan, I imagine you have captured a good metallic depth to the paint. It seems as if an automatic flash has cast a sheen on the surface.
The second one reminds me of the Holey Dollar and a sardine can. 🙂
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Lehan, you put words to a subliminal feeling I have had recently with SBS – it’s Luke Nyuen – about whom you speak – but he’s just the latest in a long line of similar wok shakers. I think Peter Kuravita seemed to have a lot more authenticity about his return to Sri Lankan cooking, but this trend to cooking simple but gourmet standard food in remote locations was appropriated from Curtis Stone and his mate surfing the menu
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…and English TV chefs went France and Italy…I actually liked one of them, was it Rick Stein, can’t remember…
Then you have the English cooks that stay at home and do slap-happy English food like Jamie and Nigella.
I also liked Kylie Kwong’s trip to China, but she is modest and she let the Chinese do most of the cooking…I saw a snippet of this Vietnamese bloke and turned the TV off.
Hopeless 7.30 with that smug Uhlmann, boring Four Corners, and even worse, last night’s Q&A..Thank god, I have plenty of books to read…
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