Stories from inside life’s big top.

Posts by Megan Spencer

Der Himmel unter Berlin (Heaven Under Berlin): Tim Anders

Posted on March 3, 2016

I literally stumbled upon Tim Anders and his music in a tunnel, en route to a rendezvous at the “Berliner Siegessäule” (Berlin Victory Column.)   As the Victory Angel towered over me gleaming in the sun, I heard Tim’s voice way before I saw him. It seemed to float up from the underground and into the busy street.   Descending the stairs his music echoed around corners and filled the labyrinthine, ‘otherwordly’, fluorescent-lit space, like a cloud that had somehow escaped from the sky above and had taken a wrong turn.   Many metres later I spied him from a distance, singing his heart out for no-one in particular and anyone who would listen.   I asked if I could take some photos of…

Force of Nature: Amelia Jane Hunter

Posted on February 24, 2016

One of my favourite people in the world is Amelia Jane Hunter: stand up comedian, TV producer and NT Bush Walking Tour Guide extraordinaire.   We first met ten years ago, when we were both living in Sydney, Australia. It’s been a while since we shared the same continent, but now we do again: she in Manchester, me in Berlin, the latter being her real home – that is of course, after the Northern Territory.   Amelia is an ADVENTURER. She has a gypsy heart, a rambunctious rebel spirit, and tells stories like no-one else I know.   She is also incredibly funny – coughing fit funny.   Call an ambulance: it’s hard to breathe when she gets started, whether on stage or around…

Sorrow

Posted on January 26, 2016

  David Bowie was my first major music crush – obsession, truth be told.   I spent an inordinate amount of time listening to his music, researching it, travelling to obscure suburban record stores to track down titles absent from my collection, taping friends’ records when I was too poor to buy them, and reading about him, voraciously.   It wasn’t always like that.   After years of persistence by my friend Lisa, the penny finally dropped. It was November 1983; we were in our final year of high school. I was at her place and we were listening to ‘Hunky Dory’.   “Can you tape that for me?” I asked, my interest in his 1971 album finally piquing after what had been the…

Brother From Another Planet

Posted on December 10, 2015

“If it’s electric we can play it,” Jeremy Conlon once declared in an interview about his long-time music project, Cooperblack.   Despite being published in the Northern Territory’s most ‘infamous’ daily newspaper – and pictured perched high atop a wobbly tin roof, astride a cherry-red vacuum cleaner and against the brilliant blue sky of Northern Australia – he wasn’t kidding.   Brandishing the machine’s chrome-metal tubing as if some kind of divining rod of “rock”, his playful grimace suggests, given half the chance,  he’d jump at transforming that domestic cleaning appliance into a magical, kick-arse “electric” instrument …   Either that or go into battle with a crazy cosmic creature from the outer planets.   Influenced by otherworldly pop pioneers like Bowie, Kraftwerk and Bauhaus, Conlon…

I made a new Music Video!

Posted on October 20, 2015

On their recent international tour, Australian indie-pop legends the Cannanes stopped by Berlin to play a house concert as part of the Sofa Salon series, a live music enterprise run by Berlin-based Australian singer/songwriter, Samantha Wareing.

 

And I got to make a music video for them! I like to call it a music video documentary…

 

We chose their 2015 single release, ‘Grotto Capri‘, which came out on  compilation album, ‘Nail House Party‘ through US indie label, Emotional Response.

 

I don’t get the opportunity to ‘film-make’ very often these days, so I was grateful for this opportunity, which combined my passion for ‘snapshot’ photography, documentary and music video. Perfect.

 

My partner in crime was Gentleman Jim Coad (Video Architecture), who I charged with editing responsibilities. We made it over a couple of days here in Berlin. (It was a cruisey creative collaboration – just the way I like it ; )

 

Jim was in Berlin on a four-month “self-imposed artist retreat” from Central Victoria; we had initially met there when I had photographed him at several live arts events, as part of my documentary work with Punctum Inc.

 

Jim is a projection artist: one of his major projects in Berlin was a live video projection on the outside of the famed Bauhaus Archive.

 

Many thanks to everyone who supported and/or took part in the ‘Grotto Capri’ music video project: to the various members of the Cannanes dotted around the globe (including Fran and Steve), and the generous members of the Sofa Salon Berlin community. And if you’d like to find our more about the glorious former Sydney restaurant which inspired this song, visit this blog post.

 

As a filmmaker and film lover, I’ve always been a bit in love with ‘the music video’ form. It’s such a creative, free and fun way to express yourself inside the dual worlds of music and film.

 

– Read the Double J feature Megan wrote about the Cannanes.

– (c) Megan Spencer, October 2015

 

Me and Patti Lee…

Posted on March 23, 2015

I am ashamed to admit it, but I’ve come to Patti Smith LATE. Recently. In the last four years in fact.    Where have you been all my life?   Truth be told, Patricia Lee ‘Patti’ Smith has always been right here, lurking in the periphery of my pop sightlines but never quite square on, in sharp focus, in the same way as say a David Bowie or Talking Heads. The latter have intensely occupied my soul with many years of study and devotion. Patti’s and my ‘relationship’ is relatively new, only now really starting to gain traction. Growing up in the 70s I’d heard ‘Because The Night‘ tons of times, usually on the any number of AM radios on in our house –…

Kodachrome Baby

Posted on March 23, 2015

It wasn’t until my Mum died that I was able to let myself ‘feel’ my little girl again, to recognise my childhood, my younger self. So much of my adult life, teenage-hood and the latter years of my childhood were steeped in the business of being brave, paving the way and forging ahead.   It was something that was not only instilled through family circumstance but biology. It’s always been in my make up to not give in. To keep trying… To go forward, to make things work, even at the cost of my well being or happiness – something which, as I grow older, I am at odds to sacrifice given what I know now of life and how it works.   But…

Circus Folk Photo Essay: Leon

Posted on March 23, 2015

All photos by Megan Spencer © 2014

Recently I needed to do a photo shoot for a job I was applying for.. One with ‘a local’ who I’d like to also write a story about.

I ended up withdrawing from the application process (I decided to move countries instead!) but walked away having had a rewarding documentary experience with a generous and humble skateboarder, dad and artist, Leon Cole. Well known in Central Victoria as a veteran skater – and a photographer obsessed with analogue technology – Leon has managed to convert his own history on ramps into a (sometime) present, coaching at regional skate clinics and mentoring young artists.

He is a talented, kindly, generous soul. Thanks for sharing your time, talent and lovely little tackers with me for the shoot!