More details to be posted at a later date.
+ BALLARDIAN
Website recording the career and influence of J.G. Ballard. I’m the publisher and editor. I’ve commissioned and conducted interviews with J.G. Ballard himself as well as Bruce Sterling, Iain Sinclair, John Foxx, Simon Reynolds and Michael Moorcock among others. I’ve also published articles by numerous writers, […]
‘Hey now, baby, I’m beginning to see the light…’ The author, waiting to go through customs, ponders the notion of ‘flightless travel’ (photo: Simon Sellars 2007).
On my recent trip to the UK, I kept a blog over on the old Sleepy Brain site. I hadn’t quite finished it when Sleepy Brain went offline, but I’m […]
Best Film Award, Tropfest 07: ‘An Imaginary Life’ (Steve Baker).
by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 1 April 2007.
On April 7 Channel Nine, accompanied by the still-infuriating-after-all-these-years Richard Wilkins, screened the films from the finals of the Sony Tropfest 2007 short-film festival, which was held on February 18. Tropfest purports to showcase the work of […]
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Flyer for Northern Void.
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 19 February 2007.
Last night I attended the second (and last, for now) screening of Philip Brophy’s 50-minute film Northern Void, billed as a “live cinema performance” accompanied by the real-time sonics of Ph2 (Brophy and Philip Samartzis). Northern Void is set along Plenty Rd, in the northern […]
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Station Pier (photo: Simon Sellars). There used to be a sign here saying ‘Melbourne Welcomes You’, the first thing we saw when we got off the boat, I imagine.
by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 19 January 2007.
I was asked to contribute some thoughts about my family’s immigration story to the second book in Jim […]
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John Foxx live at Shrewsbury, 1998. © Extreme Voice.
interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 2 September 2006.
This is part 2 of my interview with John Foxx, former lead singer of Ultravox before the band’s Midge Ure era, and an on-and-off solo artist for the past 25 years. Foxx’s Ultravox purveyed a damned, dreamy, […]
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Traditional Yapese art, Trader’s Ridge Hotel (photo: Simon Sellars).
by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain 19 December 2005.
In late 2005 I travelled around the North Pacific on assignment for Lonely Planet. I visited the islands of Yap, Kosrae, Guam, Pohnpei, Rota, Tinian, Saipan and Palau and had the most marvellous time. The fruits of that […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 October 2004.
Newton Armstrong is a composer/performer, ex of Melbourne, now ensconced in research at Princeton University in the US. His recent project for kids, SPACE MONKEYS, focused on interaction design and performance. It involves rethinking and reconfiguring generic game controllers as tools for facilitating alternative forms […]
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photo: Michael Shaw
interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 September 2004.
Melanie Chilianis, a Melbourne flautist, has sallied forth in recent times with a successful union between the instrument she made her name with, the flute, and technological mixes, patches and crunchy electronic treatments.
Melanie has an honours degree in music performance from Monash University […]
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 16 May 2004.
SUBSTANCE D (mors ontologica) tames smooth muscle spasm (commonly known as the “Black Shakes”), as well as split-brain syndrome resulting from information overload and post-capitalist inertia.
SUB DEE provides effective relief in patients of all ages, also combating subsidiary BS ailments such as: hyper-motility of the gut, infant colic, […]
interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 11 May 2004.
Recently I was in Amsterdam on a writing assignment. I hadn’t been there for years and I had the usual backpacker’s memory of the place: hash, beer, Red Light District, canals…all the old cliches. This time around, however, I gained a deeper understanding of this […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 1 April 2004.
Gloria Dixon is Director of Investigations with BUFORA, the British UFO Research Organisation. She co-ordinates all reports that come into BUFORA, passing them on to teams of investigators throughout the UK.
Although BUFORA is now in its 40th year, building a reputation for solid research in […]
by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 1 March 2004.
Over the past year, a sweet little film about a strange little man has been getting a lot of attention. Harvie Krumpet, director Adam Elliot’s 23-minute claymation, is up for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. And right beside Elliot on Oscar night will be […]
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by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 November 2003.
Trevor Blainey is enjoying himself. In 2003, the former accountant’s first film as producer, Matthew Saville’s Roy Hollsdotter Live, won everything in sight, with awards for best screenplay, best short film and best cinematography. But filmmaking in Australia is notoriously tough, and while awards give off […]
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still from The What If? Man, dir. Mark Atkin
interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 November 2003.
Mark Atkin is a Melbourne editor working in film and television. His first feature as director, The What If? Man: The Science Fictional Life of Peter Nicholls, looks at the life and career of Peter Nicholls, science […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 November 2003.
Matthew Saville is the writer/director of Roy Hollsdotter Live, one of the more successful of the recent batch of 50-minute short features funded by the Australian Film Commission, SBS Independent and Film Victoria. Starring standup comic Darren Casey and comedy titan John Clarke, it’s shot […]
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Do-it-yourself soundproofing. Photo: www.g4noise.com
by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 2 November 2003.
It begins with a slow cycling noise, the heavy drone of massive turbines gearing up to complete some Herculean task. This sonic undertow – insistent and full of ominous bottom-end harmonics – ensures that writing my notes is a horrendous, teeth-gnashing exercise. Disorienting […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 20 October 2003.
There’s a unique sense of overload for the first-time visitor to Tokyo. Intricate layers-upon-layers of ever-shifting urban culture crush the hapless tourist, who’s invariably pressed up against the very bottom layer like a stuffed pheasant under glass.
If this is you, get on the web and […]
interview by Simon Sellars
screenshot from Untitled 2003, by Camilla Hannan & Cassandra Tytler
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 15 August 2003.
360 Degrees: Women In Sound was held as part of Liquid Architecture 4, the national sound art festival run by the ((tRansMIT)) collective. 360 Degrees was inspired by the need to address a perceived gender […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 6 August 2003.
Japanese culture, it would seem, has always contained a rich vein of magic, mysticism and mind power running through its myths and legends. Is there any connection between this tradition and modern-day UFO sightings? According to Junichi Kato, Director of OUR-J (The Organisation of UFO […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 20 June 2003.
NOTE: This is the full version of an interview that was published in various forms in the Age newspaper and RealTime magazine. Bear in mind that I interviewed Adam prior to his Oscar win for Harvie Krumpet. Neither of us had any idea of what […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 25 April 2003.
Melbourne artist Juan Ford is on a hot streak, his recent paintings blending innovative technique with spiritual enquiry, unlocking the unfathomable mysteries of human existence. Aligning his work with recent debates on the ethics of cloning, Ford attempts to bring religious debate into the – […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 5 January 2003.
In England, UK Garage has been sweeping the charts for some time now. But in London, typically, just when a sound breaks through, that’s when newer, virulent variants ferment, creating something totally unexpected from the ordinal ingredients. Kennington-based Steve Goodman splices the sexed-up vibe of […]
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interview by Simon Sellars
Originally published on Sleepy Brain, 3 January 2003.
Do you remember ‘hardcore’?
As a style of dance music, it’s become a historical footnote, the sound of rave’s innocence: primitive, immature music for immature people. Supposedly we’ve all grown beyond that — haven’t we? Only gurners and E-monsters listen to hardcore, these days — apparently. […]
