Snippets from Camelot - Nick Brennan

Nick Brennan joined us again the year at the Camelot Lounge to sing and play two more of his original compositions. Usually Nick sticks to his guitar, but this year he hauled his banjo out of the attic for one of the songs and showed us just what a versatile musician he is!

Nick's day job is as a geriatrician at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and at War Memorial Hospital in Waverley. Each year he organises a concert at War Memorial Hospital with special guests and proceeds to charity. This year the concert is on Saturday 23rd September from 7.00pm to 11.00pm with special guests "Naomi and James" and proceeds will go to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

If you were unlucky enough not to have seen Nick perform at Camelot here's a link to some of his music Nick Brennan in Triple J Unearthed (beware if you go looking on the net for him. There is another Nick Brennan who is a young country music artist - that's not our Nick. Follow my link to find him!)

If you'd like to be at the concert give Nick's secretary a call on 93690238 and she'll be happy to sell you a ticket or two for $25 each. You can also email Nick on nicholasbrennan@health.nsw.gov.au
For the price of your ticket you get drinks as well as the concert and you get to share the food everyone brings as well as share yours with others. You can buy tickets at the door but I do recommend you book in advance as these concerts are very popular and usually packed to the rafters.

As a bonus you can CLICK HERE to find the lyrics of one of the very moving original songs that Nick performed for us at Camelot.

Snippets from Camelot - Hawkeye Reis

Hawkeye Reis

Studying medicine can jolt you into real life pretty suddenly. Ali Cimen (AKA Hawkeye Reis) is in his fourth year as a medical student at the University of Western Sydney. He sang “Tough” at Camelot last week, his heart-rending song dedicated to “King”, a patient he met in palliative care.  

Here are the lyrics:

I used to run eight miles every day, young man,

See that's what you did back then,

No iPhone, no laptop computers, just you,

Your two legs, your two hands

I was training for the army you see, young man,

All my friends had gone to war,

Sixteen nine months I snuck my way in, saw some things I did,

Saw some things you wouldn't understand.

Now my shit just collects in a bag on my chest,

And I need someone there just to help me get dressed,

And the doctors keep saying that I should just rest,

So I sit here all day, stuck in this bed,

While my legs,

Just waste,

Away

Oh my legs,

Just waste,

Aw

My wife's lost her mind, young man,

She wanders around in a world of her own,

She needs me, She needs me at home, young man,

Where's your compassion? Don't you understand?

Now my shit just collects in a bag on my chest,

And I need someone there just to help me get dressed,

And the doctors keep saying that I should just rest,

So I sit here all day, stuck in this bed,

While my legs,

Just waste,

Away

Oh my legs,

Just waste,

Away

Oh I'm going to break this bed and run away

See I was a tough, old bastard, young man,

What have you done to me, what have you done to me,

Yes I was a tough, old bastard, young man,

What have you done to me, what have you done to me,

Yes I know where I'm headed, young man,

Oh I know where I'm going, young man,

Let me go home, let me go home, let me go home,

See I was a tough, old bastard, young man,

Look at me now

Performers Night Photo Gallery

Curious about the Creative Doctors doings at Camelot last week?
Click HERE to see the pictures

Love your work everybody concerned!

What a night we had at Camelot!

Camelot Lounge was busting at its seams last night with a house full of doctors and their friends and family for the annual performers gig. It was a night of exciting, varied and high quality entertainment. Who'd have thought that bagpipes and burlesque could work so well on the same bill!

Many thanks to the entertainers for their fabulous efforts and the audience for rolling up in great supportive numbers. Thanks too to the fabulous staff at Camelot who have now hosted SIX wonderful shows for us.
But most of all, thanks to Judith Babich from Active Locums who has unfailingly supported us as our sponsor for all these years.
This is what Judith has had to say about Performer's Night 2017:

"Huge congratulations to you all for another wonderful event  at Camelot last night.  The Performers Night was, as always, very inspiring and there were  many highlights.  It was a great turnout and an interesting and well balanced mix of doctors and medical students. 

Active Locums Pty Ltd  is very proud to sponsor such a fine and talented group of doctor performers  which allows them to explore and nurture their creative side. Everyone had wonderful time and I am already looking forward to next year's performance."

We'll post some pictures when Howard has recovered enough to provide them!

Here are some more doctor-friendly events coming up in 2017 that you might like to know about:

Doctors Gerard Ingham and Genevieve Yates

• From 14th to 17th September the Parade Theatre in Randwick will host "GP: The Musical" on the back of last year's sold out season in Melbourne with a cast of talented doctors. The show was written by NSW GP Genevieve Yates (on whose blog you can find photos and video clips of the musical and possibly even some familiar faces) and Victorian GP Gerard Ingham. Tickets are available on the NIDA website  

• On Thursday 5th October Creative Doctors present our Visual Arts Night at  North Sydney Community Centre. Doctor artists are invited to show their visual art accomplishments - from photography to felting, portraits to pastels, bookbinding to beading, sculpture to sandcastles - everything is welcome as long as we can see it and it's art and a doctor (or medical student) did it. More details later on the blog.

Members of the NSW Doctors Orchestra with founder
Dr Cathy Fraser at centre back (on flute)

• NSW Doctors Orchestra's 2017 performance in the afternoon of Sunday 5th November at Chatswood Concourse (also sponsored by Judith with proceeds to aid research into Huntington's Disease). Special guest at the concert will be Slava Grigorian who will play the wonderful Rodrigo guitar concerto! More details on their website soon.

Come to Camelot and see what we can do!

Performers Night is almost upon us and what a line up we have this year! If it seems to have come around fast its because we've moved the event forward to catch a few performing doctors and medical students who've been unable to come in the past when Performers Night has been in exam season or holiday season.
The date to mark in your diary is 20th July. Yes, it's a Thursday night so you might have to be prepared for a slow start on Friday morning but I promise it will be worth it and by eight the morning fog will definitely disappear. 😊
Camelot is great fun. It's a fully equipped club with 2 stages, a sound engineer, a grand piano and even a dance floor and, just as importantly, it has food and a fully equipped bar.
Come at 7.00 if you can. Bring friends and relations, grab a good table to share, or find someone friendly to share with, and order your food and drink at the bar. The entertainment will start in earnest at 7.30 on the dot.

We have old faces and new faces - a good many new faces I'm pleased to say. We have lots of music on a variety of instruments, some original songs and some covers, and some very special surprises. That dance floor might even see a bit of action at the end of the night because the one and only Dave Eisinger and his band have agreed to make a return performance.
There'll be no Sir Lancelot or Lady Guinevere at Camelot this year but there will be a whole lot of camels and a few doctors trying not to make monkeys of themselves! Come and join the fun! There's no more congenial spot than the Camelot Lounge http://camelotlounge.com/ Cnr Railway Pde and Marrickville Rd Marrickville
Thursday 20th July 2017

Catching Up on our Reading

One of the best things we can do to improve our writing skills is to read the work of others. As doctors we don’t get all that much time to do so. But with podcasts we can get our reading done while we drive, while we exercise or while we take a shower! 

I’m really excited about The New Yorker Magazine's podcast “The Writers Voice” which they’ve launched as a kind of companion to their popular and long running New Yorker Fiction Podcast. 

If you haven’t already discovered the latter, let me tell you about it. It’s a regular monthly podcast featuring writers who have been published in the New Yorker reading stories by other writers that have been published in the New Yorker and talking about why they have chosen them and how the author they have 

chosen has influenced their own writing practice. (Pause to take a breath!) I find it fascinating. I’ve discovered lots of authors I’d never heard of before and heard some very interesting writerly conversations along the way.

Take a look here to see what a rich library of work there is to listen to. 

The Writers Voice is different though. In "The Writers Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker" writers are invited to read their own stories – stories that have been recently published in The New Yorker magazine. It adds an extraordinary layer of richness and understanding to hear these writers read their tales in their own voices. 

Etgar Keret

One of my favourite short story writers is reading in the Writers Voice podcast this week from the May 15^th 2017 issue of the magazine. Etgar Keret is an Israeli author who writes short stories that are often quirky but also extraordinarily cleverly told. They are compact but enriched by so much detail that a very short story feels like a whole world. This story is called “Fly Already” and exemplifies his style.

Listen to Etgar Keret here  – it will be one of the best 14 minutes you’ve ever spent.

  

On a Wintry Night in Camelot

Performers Night is coming early this year!

Performers Night is always full of all sorts of surprises!

Because we couldn't wait a whole year to do it again we've booked the Camelot Lounge for Thursday 20th July for this year's CD Performers' event.

What a great way to spend a cold winter's night! Eating and drinking and screaming with delight at the antics of our more theatrical colleagues. (Or even eliciting those delighted screams if that happens to be your thing)
Save the date and come and join us. Previous years have been a great success and there's no reason to suspect this year's Performers Night will be any different.

Camelot Lounge, for those who've not been there, is a great little venue in Sydney's Marrickville with everything a performer could want to enhance their performance and everything an audience needs for a terrific experience
.
To perform or be part of the audience
RSVP by contacting us using the space in the right hand column of your screen or contact Dr Howard Gwynne at howard@aya.yale.edu
We'd love to hear from you!

http://camelotlounge.com/

Cnr Railway Parade and Marrickville Rd
Marrickville
(Plenty of street parking and right near the station)

A New-Look Creative Doctors Writers Night in 2017

We're taking a fresh approach to Writers Night this year.

Hilton Koppe

As well as the usual opportunity to network and share our creative work, we have invited a very special guest.
The wonderful Dr Hilton Koppe, North Coast GP and international football player with the famous Docceroos soccer team, has agreed to lead us in some creative writing exercises. Hilton is almost as famous for his creative writing and teaching skills as he is for his football skills! He has presented his  "Beyond the Medical Record" writing workshop internationally, including at the examined Life Conference in Boston in 2015 and even  for Creative Doctors that same year! You can see how proud the folks at Lennox Head are of him in this article in the local paper. He is also a published writer of poems and short stories.

Hilton will lead us in some writing exercises on the night that will be fun for everyone, including those of us who don't (yet) do any writing at all.
We also invite you to bring along copies of your published work for sale or any unpublished recent work you may wish to share.

Join us for Writers Night:
7.00pm Thursday 30th March 2017
Heritage Room, Moore Park Golf Club
(Enter off Cleveland St to onsite parking)
Here's the map
RSVP to Dr Howard Gwynne at howard@aya.yale.edu as soon as you can - it will be a great night.

Performing at its Best

If you are a doctor with a performing bent you really need to listen to this. It's a monologue by American actress Ruth Draper. It's not new - Ruth died in 1956 - but its a timeless masterpiece. Ruth wasn't a doctor but this piece happens to be about doctors. That's my excuse for writing about it here!

A Doctor by Day and a Poet by Night

      

If you stick to the big chain movie theatres you probably haven't seen Paterson. It's a great new movie, worth seeking out, that sits somewhere between art-film and mainstream movie. 

As long as you are not into action movies, which this one is definitely not, you'll love it - even if you don't know anything about modernist American poetry.