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tapes from the dark side contains descriptions of violence and sexuality

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Annual New Year's Eve parties were an event that the friends of Ken and Ruth Nash always looked forward to.

The parties themselves weren't extravagant, but the Nash's prided themselves on inviting an eclectic group each year to ensure the evening

wasn't only fun and celebratory, but also intellectually stimulating.

The Nash's lived in the suburb of Chatswood on the leafy upmarket lower shore area of Sydney, Australia. If you're like me and

no little of Australian geography, if you imagine Australia is a round blob somewhere in the

Pacific, then Sydney is on the southeasternmost tip. It's the most populous city in the country,

and at the time it was home to an estimated

two million people, less than half of what it is today.

Ken Nash was a talented photographer, and he worked as a senior technical officer at the CSIRO. We'll be referring to this often, so be aware

that CSIRO is an acronym, as you may have guessed, standing for the Commonwealth Scientific

and Industrial Research Organization. That's a very long term for what is similar to, say, the National Science Foundation in the U.S.

The CSIRO is basically responsible for scientific research across Australia, and it's fair to say that the Nash's

surrounded themselves socially with people who had a broad range of intellectual and artistic

interests. The invitation to the couple's New Year's Eve party to see out 1962 advised a start

time of 9 p.m. Throughout the evening, a select group of around 20 guests mingled, laughed, and danced the night away,

...