Thursday, September 24, 2009

Lawrie Kavanagh blog launch


Kavanagh's Queensland will be launched online on September 27.


2 comments:

  1. Lawrie, me old mate, we could swap "Old Journo Drunken Memories" tales for yonks, lying and misquoting memories of old, great drinking mates and great writers (Ron Saw, et el), but that's the joy of "old" journalism. Today's journalism? Well, not even you and I (with GE and Grumpy) could, with half a dozen schooners under our belts, find anything interesting in this new (post 1980) breed. All they have ever wanted to so is chage the world. Blame the uni enducation for that.

    We already did that. We didn't need a uni degree to bring the real news to our readers. We didn't need a hollywood-style personality or looks to boost our acceptance by "the readership" as to our knowledge of whatever we were writing about.

    We wrote facts, not comment. We didn't get bylines, certainly not on "straight" police or crime stories. We "attended the scene", to use cop-speak, instead of being afraid to leave our desks in case the phone rang when we were out.

    Attending the scene brings back memories, one of my most still-vivid being when I was a young (about 21) reporter and getting a phone call from a top detective telling me to meet him at a certain address. When I got there he took me inside, and there, lying on the bed with a bullet through his head, was one of the most famous crime figures in town.

    What would today's police reporter do in the unlikely event of a similar phone call. Probably tell the cop he wasn't allowed to leave the office.

    When I worked on the Telegraph for long-gone Sir Frank Packer, if you had nothing to do late in the afternoon, you would be told to find a pub, have a couple of beers, and keep you ears open. They said during the war the loose lips sank ships. Loose lips in pubs provivided great stories at times.

    Enough already! Great to see you off the surf board and the yacht and getting your fingers active again.

    Cheers, old son. But I have to confess that instead of sinking one of our famous schooners of liquid amber, I'm sitting at a computer with a glass of nice red. How times have changed, and I thought we hadn't!

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  2. Lawrie , I have always enjoyed your writing even back to the days when you reported Rugby League from the Redcliffe Showground.I became a Hugh Sawrey enthusiast way back and was privilidged to be at the Tia Gallery outside Toowoomba at the auction of the paintings taken off the walls of the Kogan Hotel of which paintings depicted the history of the starting of the Commonwealth of Aust.In all there were 18 paintings one of which I bought and still retain. Do you know of this. I would like to speak with you about this even if it is to pass on info. that you may not have. That auction was quite spectacular and there are some interestind facets to hear. My email is jabirulj@hotmail.com or ph.0414394495.I would be honoured to speak with you.

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