By Fran Molloy
Born blind and diagnosed with Asperger´s Syndrome as a child, Mark Boerebach dreams of becoming a rock star in a detailed imaginary world that he has constructed, called Earth Two.
Mark Boerebach runs an online radio station, develops coverart for 80´s compilation CDs and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Australian rock charts of the 1980s.
Mark is articulate and obviously intelligent; he´s competent in web development, has good computer skills and has also completed five TAFE courses for high-demand skills such as graphic design, web design and prepress publishing.
And yet, since leaving school twenty years ago, the 37-year old has been unable to land full-time paid work. Born blind and diagnosed with Asperger´s Syndrome as a child, Mark has endured bullying and long-term unemployment during his lifelong struggle with dual disability.
Before he started school, he had gone through six operations to partially restore his sight and while doctors focused on helping him overcome his visual disability, he struggled to cope with the sensory overload and other early problems associated with Asperger´s Syndrome, which is a developmental disorder on the autistic spectrum.
Characteristics of Asperger´s often include an exceptionally good memory, a very literal communication style, difficulty in understanding non-verbal cues, narrow special interests which can become obsessive and strong adherence to routines and order.
Most people with Asperger´s don´t experience the learning difficulty and language delay typical of autism – in fact, many are highly intelligent - but they usually have difficulty with social skills and communication.
The youngest of four brothers, Mark was painfully shy and awkward as a child and has struggled to fit in socially for most of his life. And since childhood, each night in his dreams he has visited a detailed imaginary world called Earth Two where anything is possible.
On Earth Two, Mark has been a rock star, an astronaut, a political leader. On Earth Two, he has a wife and a rich and successful life.
But here in the real world, Mark is unemployed and lives alone. Bullied daily at school, he remembers many incidents where groups of boys would physically attack him in the playground, while teachers stood by.
"The teachers basically thought I needed to learn to fend for myself if I was going to make it in the real world," he says. "It just would not happen nowadays; schools don´t let that go on any more."
In the first job Mark held after leaving school, with a government agency, the bullying continued. "I was physically assaulted, yeah," he says.
For several years, Mark tried to find sympathetic employment but struggled to fit in – and by the mid- 1990s, unsurprisingly, he had a nervous breakdown. While I spoke to Mark about these dark times, I was surprised at his lack of bitterness, his compassion and his positive approach.
He spoke of sensory overload and says that ‘positive´ sensory overload, through the feel of a particular type of plastic, gave him a way of coping with the stresses he experienced in daily life.
Despite his positive approach and constant struggle to find work, his journey has been a difficult one. But things are looking up for Mark.
A chance encounter with film producer Amy Scully last year has led Mark to move closer toward his dream of working in the recording industry, to appear on television in a display of his extraordinary music industry knowledge – and to realise that life on Earth One, the real world, may be even more fulfilling than his imaginary dream world.
A series of coincidences brought Mark into a music industry class taught by filmmaker Russell Kilbey, who is also a well-known musician, sound engineer and composer.
Astounded by Mark´s knowledge of Australian music of the 1980s, Russell encouraged him to enter the music trivia show RocKwiz, which screens on SBS TV. Russell and his wife Amy Scully have filmed the journey of this courageous disabled man towards a different type of rockstar-dom.
Called Rainman Goes to RocKwiz, the documentary about Mark´s journey to Melbourne´s Espy Hotel to appear on the music trivia show RocKwiz screened on SBS on Oct 22 2008 at 8pm, with the episode of RocKwiz featuring Mark screening in the same week, Oct 25 at 9.20pm.
Late last year, Amy stopped to talk to Mark after she recognised him from a newspaper article about his struggle to find work.
The couple´s son, Marlon has Asperger´s syndrome, so Amy was well aware of the issues Mark was facing. "He´s very self-aware and very intelligent," Amy says. "The other world that he dreams includes all the things that he doesn´t have here. I´m just amazed at his resilience."
While helping Mark to prepare for an interstate journey, Russell and Amy introduced him to Australian music industry expert Glenn A Baker, who spent a couple of hours talking to Mark and quizzing him from music reference books that Glenn had written.
Glenn was astounded at Mark´s comprehensive knowledge – which Mark blogs about and broadcasts on his internet radio station, www.2prfm.com His internet radio station also has reviews of 70s and 80s rock albums, a section reviewing video games of the era, information for rock fans (including advice on transferring a vinyl record collection to CD) and even a review of classic boom boxes of the time.
Mark is also writing a story about Earth Two and has done many illustrations of this alternate reality. An approach to former Australian music publishers EMI attracted an initial positive response for Mark and he remains hopeful that record industry giant, Terra Firma, may have work for him in future, when he finishes his music industry course.
Mark Boerebach is an inspiring man; he has overcome blindness, he´s refused to let Asperger´s Syndrome limit his ambitions and he remains positive despite the many knock backs he has experienced so far. "As much as I would like to work in the recording industry, I think I´ve come to the realisation that whatever will be, will be," Mark says.
And as Mark´s unusual talents become better-known, it is likely that his future will be as bright in reality as the positive life he lives at night in his dreams.
