NAKED CITY: FREETHINKERS ANOMALOUS
We are all familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous and the needs of folk trying to escape the demon drink, and more recently the internet hactivist group ‘Anonymous’ whose mission is to kill off the social media phenomenon that is Facebook (and good on ’em). But what is there, pulsating through the ether, for those freethinkers looking to explore a world deviating from the normal or the so-called common order – a jungle of the aberrant, abnormal and uncertain!
Now thanks to ABC presenter Maynard comes just such a group, ‘The Dirty Disbelievers,’ a quartet of enquiring minds morphed into a collection of half hour radio specials, broadcast throughout January and now available as a series of highly entertaining podcasts. There are many in Sydney who will remember the madcap Maynard from his days as a breakfast host on Triple J when he presented one of that station’s most memorable and unashamedly offbeat programs. Maynard was also responsible for the late 80s, early 90s sensation known as the Madd Club, a weekly food fight come disco which achieved platinum cult status at the Piccadilly Hotel in Potts Point.
These days Maynard’s inner streak of creative madness is somewhat contained by his job at the Newcastle ABC and it’s great to see he has been given carte blanche with the Dirty Disbelievers series. As moderator and producer he’s been able to lay down just about every topic permissible (by current broadcasting standards) on the chopping block of discourse – whether it’s the doomsday predictions of the Mayan Calendar to the alarming trend of wearing testicle choking tights as pants. The result is not a huffing and puffing tabloid style barney but more a gentile arm wrestle with the occasional nudge under the table.
The program brings together the Naked City’s own Jaimie Leonarder (aka Jay Katz) from Sydney’s Mu Meson Archives and a long time investigator of the anomalous in discussion with Richard Saunders and Dr Rachael Dunlop (aka Dr Rachie), both from the Australian Skeptics. The show also features the “reality challenged” Tony Push in a segment entitled ‘When Push Comes To Shove’ in which Tony promises to make whatever you are thinking about a lot less clear.
In a month where sedate Summer reading and lazing in the beachside deckchair has been heavily promoted as the accepted social norm here’s a radio experience to jolt you from that sedentary slumber and have you wondering whether the end of the world (as we know it) is just a terrifying twelve months away. And if you need even further cranial stimulation there’s also an extended twelve inch radio mix available on the ABC Facebook page. You can listen to podcasts of the entire series at:http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/12/22/3396763.htm
