That's History — Ephemera Forever — An ephemerist is a collector of the sort of material most people would assign to the rubbish. But ephemerists are convinced that the debris of contemporary life offers a detailed record of the times we live in. This program presents people who collect everything from paint charts to train timetables. ABC Radio National, Friday, March 25, 7.10pm.
Back Catalogue — 1977, the Year in Music — This week's program looks at the best recordings of 1977 that didn't find their way into the top 40. Artists include Steely Dan, Genesis, Brian Eno, Stomu Yamashata and, from Australia, Windchase, the Dingoes, Billy T, Kevin Borich and more. 2NUR-FM, Friday, March 25, 7.30pm.
The 1993 Boyer Lectures — Helen Corbett — Corbett was a co-founder of the National Committee to Defend Black Rights and has been a key campaigner on the issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody and involved in many other local community and international bodies. She addresses the question of whether Aborigines should focus limited resources on local, state and national campaigns or try to use international law and courts to pressure the Australian government to fulfil its obligations to Aboriginal people. Corbett discusses the value of international lobbying in the light of its role in the campaign on deaths in custody. ABC Radio National, Saturday, March 26, 1.30pm.
Cheers — Tony Barrell decided last year that the crunch had come for his 10-year experiment of taking AFL to Sydney. If the Sydney Swans didn't perform well, it might be the final proof that only rugby worked in Sydney — at the first game of the 1993 season Barrell went amongst the red and white fans to see if they agreed. The extraordinary saga of the Swans season is documented in this colourful record of the year's ups and downs. ABC Radio National, Saturday, March 26, 3.30pm.
Labouring Pains — This program, the fourth in a series based on the theme We Are Family, explores families and work. The concepts of paid and unpaid work and how these are defined by both theoreticians and members of the community are examined. 2SER-FM, Sunday, March 27, 10am. Also broadcast on 72 community radio stations across Australia; contact your local station for broadcast times.
Art of the States — American Music of the 1980s — This production considers the use of digital synthesis and electronics with the sound of flutes; Christian Wolff's preludes draw melodic material from songs associated with the politics of the earlier labour and civil rights movements in the US; and Chinary Ung uses traditional Western instruments to create an evocative sound of his country, Cambodia. ABC Fine Music, Monday, March 28, 8pm.
Sound Stage — Master Class — The inspiration for this play by David Pownall lies in a conference presided over by Andrei Zhdanov, the chairperson of the USSR department of propaganda and agitation, in January 1948. Six composers were accused of adhering to formalist, and therefore anti-Soviet, practices in their music. This was alien to the artistic taste of the people, it was claimed; formalism was wrong and socialist realism right. Master Class takes its form from an imagined meeting between Stalin and the composers Prokofiev and Shostakovich in the Kremlin late one evening in January 1948. ABC Fine Music, Tuesday, March 29, 8pm.