George Michael: 'The Untold Story'

'George Michael' Freedom will premiere on Wednesday, October 25, at 8.30pm on Channel Nine.

The doco covers the span of his entire career focusing on the huge period in the late Grammy Award winner’s life and career, leading up to and following the making of his acclaimed, best-selling album “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” and his infamous High Court battle with his record label that followed.

The doco is also very personal, speaking about the death of his late partner and first love, Anselmo Feleppa.

Filmed before George's shock death, the documentary is narrated by George himself, and was directed by George, and he was heavily involved in the making of the film that now serves as his final work.

The doco features unseen archival and private home-footage, giving viewers a first-person account of his life.
 
It also includes the original five supermodels from Oscar-nominated director David Fincher's “Freedom!” video who come together for the first time to discuss their experience on the iconic music video.

You're singing it right now, aren't you?

Here you go:



The doco also features interviews with some of Michaels’ most famous friends and music legends, including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Ricky Gervais, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, Tracey Emin, Liam Gallagher, Mary J. Blige, Jean- Paul Gaultier, James Corden and Tony Bennett.

Produced by Sony Music Entertainment UK and commissioned by Jonny Rothery, 'GEORGE MICHAEL: FREEDOM' was directed by George Michael and David Austin, produced by Lisa Johnson and David Austin. David Austin also serves as executive producer.

'George Michael' Freedom will premiere on Wednesday, October 25, at 8.30pm on Channel Nine.

Beppi Polese Dies, Aged 90

The news came post CIRA (Council of Italian Restaurants in Australia) meeting today... the man the CIRA members had intended to honour had passed away: Beppi Polese, an Italian icon in the Sydney restaurant industry. He died peacefully in his sleep.

Robert Dessanti, from The Wog With The Grog, shared the sad news post lunch, and on the restaurant's Facebook page, this tribute and photo:

Jonathon Mpi

6 hrs · 

R.I.P. Mr Beppi. Thinking of you and your family. — at Beppi's Restaurant.

I interviewed Beppi Polese in 2007, when his book - 'Beppi, A Life in Three Courses' - was released. It was for the weekly Sydney magazine City Weekly, where I was associate editor, and was utterly fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and interview all these incredible people. I have never forgotten my conversation with Beppi - I reminisced about it only last week, driving past the restaurant. What struck me the most? That I knew, in that moment, he would always be remembered as a pioneer in introducing Italian food to Australia, and to the Sydney restaurant scene, one that was starved (in every sense of the word) of Italian food. Indeed, we have lost a great.

Here is his book cover:

Here is a book blurb:

This illustrated memoir follows the story of iconic Sydney restauranteur Beppi Polese. Born in 1925 in a farming village in northern Italy, where food and eating were a matter of daily subsistence, Beppi began his training in silver service dining in Milan. His career was interrupted by World War II and his imprisonment in an Austrian labour camp, from which he escaped to join the partisans in the mountainous Friuli region. In 1952, after working in the great hotels of Florence and Venice, Beppi emigrated to show more

The man I found at his iconic Sydney restaurant - it is the first Italian restaurant established in Australia, back in 1956 - was a complete gentleman. So old school and respectful, with his venue a relic from a time gone by.

A wine wall to die for, walls of heritage where many a deal, proposal, and late night feed, and candlelit dinner took place, and decades of service to hungry diners.

Here is a vintage photo of Beppi:

Beppi's Italian Restaurant is a much awarded restaurant established by Beppi Polese and his wife Norma - it is still owned and run by the family.

Beppi immigrated from Italy in 1952; his son Marc still helps manage the business.

Famous diners have included singer Pink, who famously tweeted (on 13 November 2012): "Recently dined at Melisse in Santa Monica. Easily the best meal of my life. Aside from Beppi's in Sydney."

Here is the original tweet:

Recently dined at Mélisse in Santa Monica. Easily the best meal of my life. Aside from Beppi's in Sydney.

— P!nk (@Pink) November 12, 2012

Other famous faces eating there have included: Rihanna (who tweeted about the minestrone when she visited), Jerry Lewis, even Frank Sinatra.

Says the website blurb:

The History of Beppis Italian Restaurant in Sydney

Beppi began his working life when he left home, a small town north of Pordenone in Friuli, at the age of fourteen to go to work in Milan as a dish washer for Albergo Doria in 1940. Slowly working his way up the restaurant hierarchy at the Papagallo restaurant, Albergo del Corso and the Pricipe di Piemonte in Milan and subsequently in numerous hotel dining rooms and restaurants including The Grand, The Gritti Palace and Europa hotels in Venice.

Following the war he gained work again in dining rooms in hotels such as the Baglioni roof garden restaurant in Florence, Regina, Albergo Ungheria and Excelsior Palace hotels in Lido, The Gritti Palace again in Venice and the Ambassador in Rome.

In 1952 Beppi came to Australia. He worked for  Romano's, Milano's and Prince's restaurants all in Sydney before opening  Beppi's Restaurant on 10th June 1956 with his wife Norma, two months prior to the first television broadcast in Australia.

Beppi is considered the patriarch of Italian restaurants in Sydney and Beppi’s Restaurant an institution. Over the years Beppi’s restaurant has been the spawning ground for over 12 Italian restaurateurs and restaurants in Sydney. Beppi’s restaurant is thus the longest running restaurant under the same ownership in Sydney and we believe in Melbourne and possibly the whole of Australia.

Beppi has been responsible for the coaxing of the Australian palate out of its Anglo-saxon shell and introducing it to the flavours of his native Italy. Many Sydney siders ate for the first time such modern mainstays of today’s restaurants as mussel, octopus and artichoke at Beppi’s (the mussels he harvested himself in a small rubber boat scraping them off the pylons of the old wooden spit bridge as he was unable to buy them). Four generations of Sydney siders have passed through the doors of Beppi’s to this day in the same location as the first day it opened.

Over the years the restaurant has accumulated over 40 awards for food and service including the inaugural in 1963 the Forchetta d’Oro from Alitalia, Sydney Morning Herald Lanson Award for Professional Excellence and Best cellar awards.

In 1993 Beppi was inducted into the Restaurant & catering association Hall of Fame.

In 1998 Beppi was awarded, by the Italian government, the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro for his services in disseminating and maintaining the Italian culture in Australia through his work in Beppi’s restaurant over the 46 years since opening.

The Cavaliere title is the equivalent of our Knighthood or Order of Australia.

For more on Beppi's - to book at the restaurant, and more photos and history - go here.

Check back in to this blog post - I plan to find the photo taken for the story I wrote, and the story itself.

Rest in peace, Signor Beppi Polese.

Adele Horin Dies, Age 64

The news of the death of this journalist has left me deeply sad.

Adele Horin - a prolific writer, a staunch advocate of all she researched and wrote about, and an incredible writer on the area of aged care, in which I have long been interested. More on that below.

www.smh.com.au has done a lovely job of putting all her most renowned and well read posts in one link. You can see that link here.

Some of the feature titles include:

The reality of single Australian men in their 40s and 50s

Follow your gut: he may be a better bet than George Clooney

The man shortage myth 

Listen here, Sonny Jim, and we might get somewhere

The beauty of artist Margaret Olley's face

The true face of artistic beauty

Why provocation should not be a partial defence for murder

Out-of-step excuse is no defence

On Kyle Sandilands being banned from saying demeaning things about women, after his verbal spray against a female critic

A win for wowsers, not women

Why care workers are demanding better pay

Low pay come rain, halo or shine

Part of an award-winning series about abuse and neglect in licensed boarding houses

Sad truth behind closed doors

On sexual harassment in the workplace

Life wasn't meant to be sleazy, especially for women at work

And: Adele's final post

Dear reader, my luck has run out

She wrote, only a week ago:

"But dear readers, my luck has run out. I'm not going to be one of those feisty octogenarians I so admired."

And in the end, folks - that's all we have.

Our legacy, what we leave behind, we choose what that is until the day we die, how we project ourselves, the mark we leave, how we are remembered.

I was a BIG fan of Adele's writing, as it appeared on her blog, 'Coming of Age.' When I researched an article on aged care, for my blog 'The Sandwich Generation', a companion to my book 'The Australian Ageing Generation Handbook', it was Adele's articles that often came up in my search. Such articles as:

Caring for the parent who never cared for you

August 23, 2015

If a parent has been mean, unloving or even abusive towards you as a child do you have an obligation to care for them in their old age? It’s a loaded question for many adult children who harbour anger, resentment …

In sickness and in health: what sort of carer will be you be?

October 11, 2015

“I want a Chinese husband,” I tell my partner of 30 years when he arrives at the hospital to see me at 2 pm. “He’s been here since 8 am. He sits by her bedside for 12 hours straight,” I …

And so, so many more.

Adele succumbed to lung cancer yesterday. A former Sydney Morning Herald social affairs journalist, described as being "widely admired for giving a voice to the poor, abused and underprivileged", died on Saturday, having suffered cancer. She was 64.

Read more on Adele's life here.

Stephanie Rainey - 'Please Don't Go': VIDEO

This video will very likely make you cry.

Published on 17 Aug 2015, it is already going viral, Irish singer Stephanie Rainey has released this video for her single, 'Please Don't Go'.

The video sees people share how loved ones died and messages they'd share. See, told you you'd cry.

It has already received 1.5m views in just 24 hours when it was posted on Facebook.

Says the YouTube blurb:

For the past few months I’ve been working on a video for my track ‘Please Don’t Go’ that I am so honoured to share with you all. It’s hard to put into words what this video means to me and how grateful I am to the people who took part - it wasn’t easy. A few years ago, I lost my nephew very suddenly and it was something that changed my life forever. I can still remember how it felt and I know there are so many other people who have gone through the same thing in one form or another.

I feel like this song has resonated the most with me since writing it. I remember the exact place it came from and it never loses its meaning no matter how many times I play it. Since then, I’ve wanted to create a music video that reflects this and which could potentially help people who are struggling with loss while also giving people a chance to tell their story.

To John, Dylan, Donna, Cian, Moira, Gary, Teresa, Kate and Tony, I will never be able to thank you enough for your honesty and willingness to share what you did, it takes tremendous courage and I have so much respect for you all. To Kate O' Hara, Miki Barlok, Gary Keane and Kevin Herlihy - all the time and effort you've put into this has brought it to life.

Also a very special thank you to Sarah Power for her incredible piano and production work and Gary Keane for his vocal and production work. This track would be nothing without ye and making the EP was best experience of my life. You guys are magic.

I hope that whoever watches this gets something from it.

All my love, Steph x
www.stephanierainey.com
www.facebook.com/stephanieraineyband
www.twitter.com/stephanierainey

Producer: Kate O Hara
Camera: Miki Barlok
Audio: Gary Keane
Editing: Kevin Herlihy

Piano/Backing Vocals/Production: Sarah Power
Backing Vocals/Production: Gary Keane

Here is the video:

Billy Birmingham Tribute to Richie Benaud

Billy Birmingham - forever synonymous with Richie Benaud.

The late, great cricket commentator (see more about his life here) and this beautiful tribute from Billy - who created 'The 12th Man' and will always be associated with his exaggerated "chew for chwenty chew" Richie quip - will become the most moving tribute you will read. Read and share the love:

"It's hard to put into words the way I've been feeling since I heard Richie "From The Body Of The Same Name" Benaud has passed away.

Very sad. Quite nauseous, actually. Struggling to find the right words. Disoriented.

What is the appropriate response to the passing of a man who has been such an integral part of your life, your career, your identity for more than 30 years?

How are you supposed to feel when the bloke with whom millions associate you has delivered his last "chew for chwenty chew"?

I know I won't be alone in feeling this way. Richie has occupied a special place in our homes and our hearts for decades. The world changed so much over that time. Richie didn't seem to.

I must admit that I was quite shocked to see how his health had deteriorated when we shot his brilliant Australia Day "lamb" commercial together at the start of the summer.

The first thing I noticed was that his always impeccably coiffed hair had succumbed to the ravages of chemotherapy. Then, when I put my arm around him and felt just how much he had wasted away, I was profoundly shocked and saddened. The recovery from the accident in the Sunbeam had clearly it taken out of him but he was now facing an even bigger battle as his years of playing cricket hatless had resulted in skin cancer.

There was something in his eyes, too. If you asked him how he was, the reply was always along the lines of, "Pleased to report I'm on the mend." But you knew that was stoicism, not reality. I was bloody amazed that he even had the strength to show up at all.

How thrilled I was to have been able to catch up with the great man one more time and to be a small part of his fabulous TV ad.

I took the piss out of him for more than 30 years and now here I was working with him on what turned out to be his last major project.

How marvellous!

It's hard to imagine there is another Australian out there as universally loved as Richie. It was a kind of affection that isn't conditional on cricketing skills or commentary work. People just adored the man.

That's why everyone gives their mate a knowing nudge when the scoreboard ticks over to 2-22, why entire sections of the crowd don silver wigs and beige jackets at the Sydney Test each year, why reciting Richie's commentary gems has become a national pastime.

Rest in peace, Richie.

Incomparable, irreplaceable, the one and only (he didn't like the word 'doyen’)."

Craving to hear Billy as Richie? Here we are:

And all the Richie's you'd see at the Test cricket… Marvellous!

Widowed husband recreates wedding album with three-year-old daughter: PHOTOS + VIDEO

Have you seen this series of very moving father/daughter photos, where a widowed husband recreates wedding album in tear-jerking photo series with his adorable three-year-old daughter...

Here is a video backgrounder:



Ben Nunery, 34, from Cincinnati, Ohio, lost his wife, Ali, in 2011 to a rare form of lung cancer, just one year after their first child Olivia was born.

Here is the original blog post from Ben, on his blog called 'Rock Pink 4 Ali.'

On the post, entitled 'Saying Goodbye… Again', he says:

The last two years have been a rollercoaster of emotions to say the least.  There have been ups and downs to such extremes that it leaves me wondering how I’ve managed to piece together anything that resembles a normal and happy life.  But, hindsight being what it is, I can look back now and recognize the progress I’ve made as a grieving widower and a single father to an amazing little girl.  These past two years have had no shortage of emotional hurdles to overcome, some small and some large, but none as big as saying goodbye to the home that Ali and I built together.  The home we started our married lives together in.  The home we brought Olivia to after she was born.  The home we turned from a shabby little fixer upper into an award winning showcase property (according to the Price Hill Press!).  In many ways it felt like the last vestige of the life that we set out to build together.  It felt as though leaving that house would be the first step in a new life that Olivia and I would build together. . .without Ali.

We said goodbye to Ali two years ago but her presence has remained undeniable in that house.  Every square inch of it was carefully and thoughtfully decorated by her and it was as if she had never left.   I remember, in the days and weeks after she died, it was impossibly difficult to live there day in and day out with constant reminders of the loss we all suffered.  I walked around the house with blinders on just trying to avoid looking at every little item that she left behind.  And slowly those reminders of the pain turned in to little moments of comfort.  I knew she was gone but I could look at her things, all those untouched little artifacts, and know that she was there with me.   I found comfort in bottles of shampoo and drawers full of socks and jewelry still neatly organized.  But always in the back of my mind I knew I would eventually have to say goodbye to the shrine that I was building up in my mind just like I had to say goodbye to her.

Ali and I bought our house on the day before our wedding and we thought that having some of our wedding photos taken in the empty house would be an appropriate and memorable way to commemorate such a big step in our lives (see the original wedding day session here).  As wedding days go, it all happened in a blur, but those images represent some of the happiest moments in my life.  It was the beginning of what we planned on being a long and happy life together.  And so, when it came time to pack up the house and schedule the movers, I struggled with the thought of saying goodbye and walking away without something to commemorate such a big step in mine and Olivia’s life.  Havingworld-class photographers in the family is a nice perk that I try not to abuse, but I managed to sneak into Melanie and Adam’s busy schedule and we set out to once again do a photo session in that empty house.  Only this time I would have a different partner, although one just as beautiful.   It was fun and strange and sad and comforting and just about every other emotion you can think of.  And, it wasn’t until I drove away that the significance of what we had just done hit me like a ton of bricks.   These would be the last memories in that house.

I did it for me.  I did it for us.  I did it so I would have something to show for the love and beauty that occupied that house for a short time in our lives.  I wanted to be able to show Olivia the place where her mother and I started our lives together and dreamed of raising children.  I thought it would be much harder to say goodbye in this way, but as I sat in the driveway, ready to drive away for the last time, I realized that it’s just a house.  The memories of Ali don’t live in that house.  They live with us, in our hearts.  We take them with us wherever we go and they will live with us in our new house too.  A house is just a house.  Yes, I will miss it but I still have the memories of Ali and I still have Olivia, the most precious evidence of the love Ali and I shared and still share.  Since Melanie posted the photos on her blog, many people have asked me how I felt while doing that photo session.  What I want them to know is that this isn’t a story about grief and loss and hurt.  Yes, I’ve gone through those emotions and still do but that’s not what I want people to see in these photos.  This is a story about love.  The pain is nothing compared to the love that I feel for Ali and Olivia and that’s the story I want these pictures to tell to Olivia in the years to come and anyone else that sees them.  The pain will subside little by little but the love never will, no matter where we live.   Our lives will continue down a curvy and uncertain path but Olivia and I will be able to look at these photos and know that for a short time there was a place where I was the luckiest man in the world, even if just for a little while.

- Ben

The photos are below. But first, here are is a photo of Ben and Ali with Olivia as a newborn:

Here is another pic of the couple with their baby daughter Olivia, taken from Ben's tribute website to his wife.

Ali, who worked as school teacher, was 31 when she discovered she had a rare form of lung cancer called Sarcomatoid Carcinoma in March 2011.

She had a tumor and the bottom third of her right lung removed and started weekly chemotherapy treatments. However, the inoperable tumors returned and she passed away nine months after her original diagnosis.

Ali's sister-in-law Melanie Pace, who works as a professional photographer, was called back to stage the shots she took of the newlyweds four years ago.

She recreated all the images of Ben and Ali, with Ben and Olivia, with stunning, emotional results.

Ben says he will hang the images from his and Olivia's recent photo shoot around their new home.

'[Now I can] show Olivia the place where her mother and I started our lives together and dreamed of raising children,' he concluded on his blog.

Here are all the photos:

 

'The Final Word': ABC2 - Daniel Mansour

Ah, deep breath.

This is as hard to watch as it is heartbreakingly beautiful, raw and honest. And it's a big part of our lives: death.

Starting on December 18 at 9.30pm on ABC2, 'The Final Word' is a brand new Australian doco focusing on this very topic.


Says the YouTube video description: "When death is at your door, how will you view the world and your place in it? Four terminally ill Australians from vastly different backgrounds take us on a confronting, uplifting and surprisingly humorous journey as they look back on their life and consider their 'final words'."

Here is the clip:



Says director Daniel Mansour (below, left, with co-producer Tim ‘Gonzo’ Ryan):

“I have always wondered why death is such a taboo subject in the Western world when it is embraced by so many other cultures. I’ve read a lot about life and death over the years, from various Buddhist and psychology texts to the classic paperback tearjerker ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’. Many of these books indicate that towards the end of life a certain sense of clarity and peace resides upon most. While this might be true, I have never seen this on screen purely from the perspective of those about to die. 

This made me wonder, if you knew your one and only shot at life was about to end, how would you view life? When death is at your door, what actually matters? 

The aim was to create a film where we simply listened to the life reflections of those facing their own mortality. To do so, we provided each subject the opportunity to speak their mind in a candid manner. No agendas were to be pushed; I just wanted to have a conversation with each person about life through the prism of death.

While exploring this topic, it was very important that I didn’t make a film full of clichés, like ‘you should work less and spend more time with your family’. The Final Word isn’t meant to be an instructional self-help film loaded with hints and tips on what you should and shouldn’t do. However, thanks to the words of George, Kylie, Debra and Paul, I now feel that through the eyes of death we catch a glimpse of a different perspective on how life might be lived.”

Daniel Mansour and Tim 'Gonzo' Ryan

If you have been touched by death, and who hasn't, really (and even if you have been lucky enough to not lose anyone close to you), this is essential viewing.

In a year when I have attended six funerals, several of which I was close to/related to the deceased, this is the kind of doco I am actually drawn to.

A friend once asked me: "Why do you watch 'Six Feet Under' when death upsets you so much?", alluding to the death of my father when he was 57 and I was 13, and my subsequent hyper-sensitivity and awareness to people, and the elderly and the vulnerable.

The answer: it's just something I am very present to and has not only made me grow up very quickly, it has ensured I appreciate life in its fragility and beauty and vulnerability. This is a gift, not a burden.

'The Final Word' will screen on Wednesday December 18 at 9.30pm on ABC2.

Anthony Del Col Dies Age 33

In shock news just in, celebrity wedding planner Anthony Del Col has died.

(Updated: funeral details below):

He died while holidaying in Greece, age 33.

No further details are available at this stage. Please check back in for funeral details.

Updated: the funeral for Anthony Del Col has been confirmed. It will be held on Wednesday August 21, at St Brigid's Catholic Church, 392 Marrickville Rd (corner of Livingston Road), Marrickville, at 10.30am.

Anthony was synonymous with weddings in Australia, and until recently worked with Staging Connections.

He was taking a break before branching out on his own with Anthony Del Col Events.

The company was to officially launch later this year - in fact, on the day of his 34th birthday on October 2, 2013.

My friend Kim was helping Anthony mastermind the launch event - she told me some details the day after he died about the event, and how the whole thing was going to be truly magical. Because that's what Anthony did. He always told his brides: "We only do amazing." A friend of mine pointed out: imagine making people happy all the time for a living. What a beautiful life to lead. That he did, in every way.

Anthony was a friend of mine and I am absolutely devastated.

His shining light burned SO brightly... he was the most effervescent, alive, happy, positive person I have ever met.

Every bride and groom he ever met was enamoured with him immediately. This was a very special soul.

Anthony will be much missed by his partner, his beloved mother, sister and brother, and nieces. I had the pleasure of meeting many of his family and have never seen such a close knit, loving family. They all adored Anthony to the ends of the earth. It was a true joy to see.

We have lost an absolute angel.

RIP Anthony.

Anthony Del Col at the 'Ultimate Wedding Planning Party' - one of his signature events

My friend created this just for me, for Anthony. I read it on his Facebook wall the day he died, and I thought it so fitting: