Wow, that was quick!

From ozgenre:

1. Given your exper­i­ence in the pub­lish­ing field, what do you see (apart from inde­pend­ent press recog­ni­tion) as being the real defi­cit in the Aus­tralian press/media, and how can we, in real­ity, fix it?

The race for AB con­sumers at the expense of solid polit­ical journ­al­ism. And on a per­sonal level, my dis­il­lu­sion­ment with the idea of ‘objectiv­ity’ means I am hor­ri­fied by the media as plat­form for right-wing colum­nists such as Mir­anda Devine and Andrew Bolt (who, rumour has it, is being cour­ted by The Age’s new head honcho). The under­min­ing of the ABC as an inde­pend­ent public media outlet. How do we fix it? Excuse me while I stop laugh­ing. Increase fund­ing for public media so that there is a media outlet that does­n’t have to rely on advert­ising dol­lars and there­fore con­sumer eye­balls to sur­vive. Oh but wait, that means they have to have an inde­pend­ent charter so they can bite the hand that feeds them and not be a State mouth­piece. Oh wait: wasn’t that the ABC? This is why the Inter­net and Indy­media/Wikinews are becom­ing so import­ant. And what hyper­people is call­ing hyper­d­istri­bu­tion: people cir­cu­lat­ing what interests them, becom­ing their own dis­tri­bu­tion system for media and not­ably polit­ical com­ment­ary in the form of satire.

2. You spent a lot of time in Spain, and doc­u­mented quite a bit of it. What was the urban high­light of your jour­ney and how did it affect you personally?

Toledo. I think it was the con­tinu­ation of a recon­nec­tion with a Jewish her­it­age that you began with that Rev­el­a­tions RPG, a place where lan­guage, poetry, trans­la­tion and cul­tural his­tory inter­sec­ted in an incred­ible way. I felt deeply con­nec­ted to a long line of writers and lovers and dreamers. 

3. Why Melbourne?

I was headhunted by The Age. But that was a long time ago and I could have moved back to Sydney when they closed my mag, or any time since then… so… the cafés, the cul­ture, the art in the streets, the atti­tudes of the people, the exist­ence of ACMI, the licenced cafés so that you can drink wine some­where without having to shout over the music, the dis­tinct lack of poker machines…

4. How has your life changed since your return from Europe, in essence how did it alter your per­sonal world-view?

Inter­est­ing. I wrote a whole thing about that shortly after my return. I go to more art exhib­i­tions. I re-engaged polit­ic­ally. I feel more con­nec­ted to my paternal grand­father who I never met. I go for more walks and try to remem­ber to stop and watch the sunset more often.

5. Think­ing about the last 15 years. What do you miss and why?

So that’s back to 1990… The cosi­ness and secur­ity of a full-time rela­tion­ship with two fab­ulous guys in a fab­ulous house where there was light and laughter and great food and awe­some, awe­some weekly brunches with all our friends. (hi, pluces, hawk_eye! Love you guys). Oh and the feel­ing that my whole life was ahead of me and I could do abso­lutely anything.

Oh, and now, ques­tions for you, young man:

1. Tell me what it was like to be in the 1978 Mardi Gras protest march. If that’s too big, what did being involved with that protest teach you?
2. What would you like to pass on to the next gen­er­a­tion if you could teach them just one thing?
3. I used to joke that there were only 200 real people in the world and every last one of them knew you. How have you handled being a social node?
4. What was your motiv­a­tion for writ­ing Revelations?
5. Have you ever wanted to live in another coun­try? If so, which one? if not, why not?