Vin Maskell

Browsing Archives of Author »Vin Maskell«

Tour de Failure

July 28, 2017

Here’s the cycling story The Big Issue ran a few weeks back under the headline Tour de Flat. (#540 30 June to 13 Jul7 2017). Cheers. Flat tyres fill cyclist Vin Maskell with dread but he always gets back on his bike. Eventually. I was stranded by the roadside, about eight kilometres from home. Flat […]

Stereo Story: Alexandra Leaving

July 23, 2017

Here’s a new Stereo Story of mine. Based around the Leonard Cohen song Alexandra Leaving, it’s a tribute to my late sister-in-law, Jan, who died just over 12 months ago. Regards Vin. Alexandra Leaving Stereo Story

Tour de Failure (preview)

July 1, 2017

Never thought I’d be in a magazine with Nicole Kidman on the cover. The latest edition of The Big Issue Australia features the Kidman story (written by Margaret Pomeranz), an interview with Ben Mendelsohn, a look at The Handmaid’s Tale – and a yarn about cycling and the existential perils of getting a flat tyre. […]

A parcel for John Clarke

May 5, 2017

In the mid-1980s my friend Pat Hayes was letters editor at The Age. In May 1985, amongst the usual letters about politics and news and issues of the day, he started receiving letters about a curious sport known as farnarkeling. The letters were riffing on the imaginary sport created by satirist John Clarke. Open to […]

John Quixote and the true history of Moggs Creek

April 10, 2017

It was all a bit of a lark. In 1955 a group of friends bought land at Moggs Creek, a blink-and-you-miss-it spot on the Great Ocean Road between Aireys Inlet and Lorne. The land had been recently subdivided by the Boyd family, which had owned land there since 1905. The group was bemused by the […]

Hobsons Bay and Yarrabah – sisters by the sea

January 12, 2017

In July 2016, members of Get Up Out West visited Yarrabah to meet, interview, film and photograph a handful of residents, with a view to increasing awareness in Hobsons Bay about Yarrabah, and the friendship alliance between the two municipalities. The trip was funded by Hobsons Bay City Council, following a funding application from Get […]