Two Crips Nod

Yesterday I had a nasogastic tube inserted into my skull to measure pH levels of my belly acid. I had to have it in for 24 hours, and once I got home from hospital, needed to step out for some food. With tape all over my face and the tube leading to a device strapped around my shoulder, I felt a little self-conscious.

Coming out into the carpark, I saw a chap in a wheelchair pulling up to his car. He saw me, I saw him. We both nodded. We both had an idea of what the other was thinking.

Crip brotherhood.

Here's the latest article of mine on The Punch. All's I'm saying is, if each generation really was worse than the last, we'd all be running around wildly raping each other, covered in infant blood right now.

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-world-has-always-been-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket/

I did

Tina Fey.

UPDATE: Stuff I've Done

Here's some stuff that's been put up around the internets by Simmy G.

On The Nervous Breakdown, I look at the comedian Louis C.K.'s Live At The Beacon Theatre sales experiment, and what it means for the future of the industry. He made $1 million!
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/sjgreen/2011/12/louis-c-k-s-great-experiment/

Mia Freedman copped it, and I defended her... sort of. On The Punch, I express a feeling many Australians share: that sport isn't everything, and maybe we should have a ticker tape parade for nobel prize winners too. This one got a lot of people (unnecessarily) angry.
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-a-proud-aussie-and-i-dont-give-a-stuff-about-sport/

I was confused as hell when a woman who won an award for helping deaf children hear was attacked in the media by deafness advocates. Read my piece on ABC's Ramp Up, where I learn all about deafness as a culture, not just a malady.
http://www.abc.net.au/rampup/articles/2011/10/18/3342304.htm

Vote for my company logo!

Please vote for the logo you like the most. The X Gene is a video agency: we work with brands and companies to create online web content that integrates social media marketing. I'm going for a super-science feel - the science of video down to a fine art. I'm curious to know what you think!



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The Many Flavours of Suburban Theatre

I'm making a lot of calls and sending more than the usual billion emails this week, trying to secure venues for BULLET: A Superhero Comedy. We're going to tour the show to outer-city suburbs like Melton, Cranbourne and Whittlesea. The differences in expectations and interaction are interestingly varied.

The joyful calls are when the venue manager gets very excited about the project. The idea of a show for youth, where otherwise there is none, really gets them revved up. An original idea (not a re-staging of a licensed show) that started in the city but is delighted to come out to the 'burbs gets these venue managers going on how much more they'd love to see out their way. They love the cultural injection, the family friendly nature of the show, and how easy our show is to run. They're all too happy to make accommodations for our ticketing system (trybooking.com) and their venue prices are reasonable. They're also happy to have a hire! These managers are warm, encouraging and really care about giving their community events to enjoy.

Then there's the 'insiders only' groups. They see anyone beyond their shire or council as outsiders. It's an odd kind of reluctance, or more an indifference to what we're doing. All venues in the area are booked up by local amateur theatre groups, no, sorry, there's no leeway to squeeze in between rehearsals. The managers aren't interested in giving me alternative locations, and the Events and Facilities co-ordinators in the councils find my enquiries a tiring hassle. Probably the worst offenders in these groups are the ones that simply don't return my calls. I give up on these areas with a sour taste in my mouth.

Third are the prohibitively expensive, charging over $1000 for a 100-200 seat venue with minimum use times of 4-8 hours. These places are flat out unfeasible, usually none too keen to negotiate, and in some cases, snobby. They must be getting regular concert or high-end productions and don't need our little radio play. I hope so, otherwise that's a lot of expensive, empty space.

Last are the really sweet, lovely people and places who just can't accommodate our needs or costs for perfectly legitimate reasons, like, "Our chairs are erected by a nice old man who has to be paid more than you can afford" or "Oh, we don't have a PA system, you'd need to bring your own."

It's a strange and varied mix out there. Costs range from $50 per hour to $2000 with a minimum of 8 hours only. Some demand we use and pay their front of house, an usher, a stage manager and a techie, each with a minimum 4 hour call, with $5 per ticket going to their booking fees. Some ask only for a techie. Some just ask for a bond and that you don't smash the windows. Some of the managers are great people, happy to chat and keen to have original, interesting theatre. Some couldn't give a toss and find the whole concept of a phone conversation the most gall inducing thing they've ever encountered.

Good luck out there, Producers! If you find a good venue, stick with them.

An Auto-Eligible Health Care Card For Chronic Illness Is Crucial

$422.15. That's how much the bill for my last batch of medicines is. I opened a box delivered to me today and yelled when I saw the price. This is for three months worth of medication, and doesn't even cover all the medication I take over that period. If we added them all, including my pancreatic ezyme supplement Creon (I use about 18 tubs in a month) and Pulmozyme, a gene therapy treatment, we'd be at about $1000 every three months. $4000 a year. $108,000 over the course of my life so far.

With a health care card, currently supplied at bare minimum via a mobility allowance ($80 per fortnight) from Centrelink, that $422.15 would become about $50. I can afford $50.

We need Centrelink to create or change their rules so that certain chronic illnesses are automatically eligible for a health card card. Currently, you must be approved for a certain allowance or benefit - a cash payment - in order to get the card. Centrelink, or the Dept of Human Services, are constantly changing their rules to become more confusing, but last I looked into it, there's no way to simply get a health care card on its own.

Here's the dumb bit. Say you have CF or Down's Syndrome. Your illness isn't going anywhere. You have it for life. However, every year, you'll be sent a fairly exhaustive, 20 or so page form that asks you, essentially, to confirm you still have your illness.

"Yes, I still have my genetic mutation, the one I had at birth, of which there is no cure."

If you don't get that form in on time? Suspended. Payments cut off. Pharmacy no longer recognises your health care card. Miss the next 14 day deadline? Cancelled. You have to start again. Do you think Centrelink can just dip into your existing file, see the past form that state you have CF or Down's and say, "Oh, right, well, let's reinstate him?" NOPE! You have to tell them the same info all over again!

Without going into my suspicions that Centrelink's ethos is to establish a series of impediments, designed to frustrate claimants in a war of attrition, here's what we can do to fix it:
http://goo.gl/gLQjT - A GetUp campaign suggestion from Samantha Durrant (CF patient and receiver of double lung transplant), titled
'EVERYONE WHO HAS A CHRONIC ILLNESS SHOULD HAVE A HEALTH CARE CARD'.

Go on in and vote for this to move up the chain. You can do it via your Facebook or Google account. Write to your member for Health and Caring. As I commented on the site:

I have cystic fibrosis. I was born with it, I'll have it until I die. WIthout a healthcare card i would be looking at about $1000 every three months for my ongoing drugs. I can't have saved up for this "rainy day" because I wasn't born yet. Similarly, my parents couldn't have saved up, as they'd have had to have saved $108,000 so far, just for my meds. This doesn't cover 3 monthly specialist check ups, surgery (I've had 7 on my bowels alone), equipment and the various other joys of a chronic illness.
The current system is ridiculous. Centrelink are constantly throwing up roadblocks that result in recurrent reviews and changes, the ability to keep up with which would require superhuman bodyparts, not just a regularly working body. For certain diseases and illnesses that the sufferer will have to tend to for their entire lives, it just makes sense that they should be given a simple health care card, even if it is without any sort of money or stipend, just to keep the costs of living manageable.
When Cystic Fibrosis Victoria can't afford to keep essential services running, as is the case right now, then who else can we turn to when the broken health car card system is constantly waging a war of attrition against those who need a card.