TISM, Good Things Festival, Flemington Racecourse, 2nd Dec 2022 by Mary Boukouvalas
Stymied in their quest to find out the meaning of “stymie”, TISM pack their stymie and hit the road. They are led by alcoholic genius Don Bradnam. Bradnam’s unshakable belief in his cricketing abilities is matched only by the completeness of his failure. He writes 300 TISM songs during tea breaks and rain delays, and dies on December 7 1983. He remains the only batsman whose career average (0.9994) exactly equals his blood alcohol reading. Unable to recognize his own utter inadequacies, blind to the harm he was doing others, and pugnaciously insistent on his own beliefs, many feel that if Bradnam were around today he would have been one of the great leaders of the National Party. TISM split, their final gesture being a solemn division of what remains of their stymie.
Mary is a photographer and a writer, specialising in music. She runs Rocklust.com where she endeavours to capture the passion of music in her photos whether it's live music photography, promotional band photos or portraits.
She has photographed The Rolling Stones, KISS, Iggy Pop, AC/DC, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, PULP, The Cult, The Damned, The Cure, Ian Brown, Interpol, MUDHONEY, The MELVINS, The Living End, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine, The Stone Roses –just to name a few - in Australia, USA, Europe and the Middle East.
Her work has been published in Beat magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, Triple J magazine, The Age Newspaper, The Herald Sun, The Australian, Neos Kosmos, blistering.com, theaureview.com, noise11.com, music-news.com. She has a permanent photographic exhibition at The Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria Australia.
