Japanese Wins Tour de France

July on the Champs-Élysées…
Hiro: Unbelievable! A Japanese winning the Tour de France! On a Japanese bike!
Wataru: Historic! Always been dominated by Western cyclists.
Hiro: Never imagined a Japanese cyclist wearing the yellow jersey.
Wataru: Western sports medicine is so advanced and doping was so well hidden. Look how long Lance Armstrong got away with it.
Hiro: So how did a Japanese cyclist manage to win?
Wataru: I think teamwork was a big factor. The Japanese team were a strong presence in the peloton. Their strategies worked.
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Voice-over
Some other factors could contribute: anti-doping regulations getting stricter making for a more even playing field, Japanese physique has been getting stronger, Japanese research into nutrition improving. Japanese are becoming more prominent in a wide range of sports.

Archivist of Navigators: John Dunmore

Reminiscing on a mentor from 40 years ago...

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Jules: He interviewed me for my first academic job. He mentored me in research, suggested what I should do in the way of bridging courses, who I should approach as supervisors. I got where I went in no small part by his guidance.

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Adèle: I remember him well. And it seems he’s not finished yet. Still writing in his mid-90s, after 30 historical accounts, novels, articles, book chapters and radio dramas.

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Jules: He encouraged me. He gave me a place to work and study undistractedly in a quiet university town. Through him I appreciated Palmerston North as an academic and artistic feeding ground before my own migration.

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Adèle: Research as the measure of a life. Multiple awards and honours. It was un honneur to have known him.

Massey News 2008: JD

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Voice-over

John Dunmore, professor at Massey University 1966 to 1985, also publisher, writer, playwright. After downloading his book on Dumont d’Urville, From Venus to Antarctica, Jules sets off on a google journey following the digital trail of this explorer of French navigators such as Jean-François-Marie de Surville and Louis-Antoine de Bougainville.

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Notre Dame comparisons

An 800-year-old icon goes up in smoke...

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Louise: Terrible.

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Pierre: Striking at a nation’s cultural core. Like 9/11.

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BBC: Photo: Brookes Windsor

Louise: A bit different...

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Pierre: True. Not a good comparison. In New York, the building was less than 50 years old and 3,000 people died.

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Louise: And Notre Dame was 700 years old but nobody died.

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Eisenstadt: VJ Day

Pierre: Something else though. This photo of a man swinging his daughter just before the fire started. It went viral in a search for who they were. Like the sailor kissing the nurse on VJ Day 1945.

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Louise: A reversal of sorts. The 1945 photo was an expression of jubilancy after 5 years of the darkness of war. The 2019 photo was expression of joy before the fire destroyed an 800-year-old icon of France.

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Voice-over

Both photos became memes of a search for who the characters were. In the Life photo Alfred Eisenstadt’s photo was a mainstream-media transmitted top-down process. In the amateur picture posted on social media, the process became bottom up. Then it became top down as the BBC picked up the story.

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French film: Sage Femme

A break during readings...

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Κατερίνα and 笠利

Deneuve: Isn’t it odd. We’re both called Catherine.

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Frot: And spelt the same.

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Deneuve: There must be fifty different ways to spell our name.

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Frot: Actually, over a hundred. I checked.

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Deneuve: And not just in France.

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Frot: No. From Ekaterina in Latvia to Caitlin in Ireland. Kaarat in Greenland to Kasari in Japanese.

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Voice-over

Great film: Sage Femme (The Midwife). 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Brilliant actresses: double Catherines: Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot.
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