RECENT COMMENTS

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

TV 20-10

Was inspired to do this after aftergrog was whingeing about 20-1, which I never watch, but I did hear Debbi Enker roast on 774 (such dumbed-down shows are cheap oz-content filler apparently). So this post of loose ends is likewise ez-oz blog-content filler.

20. Graham Kennedy biopic, The King. Well crafted, expert reproduction, but lacking a sense of authenticity evident, say, in any home movie of the period. The gaucheness therein. These suave doppelgängers are actually 21st century aliens stranded in a sovereign hill of decor.

19. Is that the dilemma of all biopics? The faithfully-enacted chronicle where everyone knows the ending? Do the best narrow the focus to a key incident or relationship? Famous Person and the case of the Close Shave?.

18.Love My Way series one: contains some of the best television drama I've seen. Series two was very good. Series 3 - overall, didn't do it for me. I lost sympathy with most of the characters whose drive seemed directionless and victim of soap stasis.

17. But I did see this in the new style - by the box-set load, which can skew both appreciation and tolerance.

16. Often though in later series of TV shows, the stories move away from the smaller everyday moments of revelation, and the world and characters arc up (in order to jump the shark I guess)

15. ditto Kath n Kim. Despite the exotic locations and product placement courtesy C7, the best scenes still often happen around the kitchen. Though I did love the very visual moment when the big rainwater tank rolled off the car.

14. Despite the corn, I enjoyed Rain Shadow. I liked the slower pace and the novel relationship of the two female colleagues. I enjoyed seeing the younger woman's quietly assertive negotiation of bullying boss. Time slot was a killer, no one wants to deal with drought-despair on a Sunday night, even though the story proved to be redemptive.

13. The Abbey was OK. A call to gardening for me as I feel guilty about my lack of horticultural attendance.

12. Summer Heights High deserved the hype- mainly for Jonah and friends.
Good blend of fiction and real-life, on location and in location.

11. My favourite show at the moment is Grand Designs, or castle-building for cashed-up couples.

11. The cricket is too early.

10. And too much.
 

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

prison alphabet

At first I thought- well, this is a strong contender for the dumbest use of a highlight pen in a school or university text award.



(Having once seen a history textbook in the library with 5 entire pages green-highlighted, nothing surprises me)
But further thought (and the annotation) suggests it's a script for a school presentation.
Still, I think I would have photocopied before striping my book.



(Update The poem is from Sometimes Gladness. Collected Poems of Bruce Dawe 1954-1997
5th Edition (Longman, 1997)
The teaching of poetry in schools is, after all, variously done, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. BD

Friday, November 23, 2007

rebecca

Last night I dreamt I watched Rebecca again.
Actually it was Sunday night, in the middle of a November heat wave, when the lounge was so hot the only thing to do was watch an old favourite.
(And what's not to like? Cinderella nervosa.)
A couple of days later, I savoured some of the chilling moments in matching climes, wearing a jumper.

Googling, I found my way to Self-Styled Siren, with a recent post on Joan Fontaine and Rebecca.

Monday, November 19, 2007

ben been

Last Saturday as I'm getting my hair cut, a woman rushes up and declares:
Ben Cousins is downstairs!!!!...
My hairdresser is (like totally) indifferent, and the woman retreats.
A pause before I ask:
Did she just say 'Ben Cousins is downstairs'?
- Yeah so what who cares he's a bogan.

- a line which inspires a Google poem

ben cousins
Compiled 11/19/2007 5:31:41 AM GMT

WITH the late-night behaviour
these days hey starro. spose, ur

Cousins drove through an underground
will arrive at AFL House in suit and

jetted into LA, where he was met by
in - From Consciousness Explained by

as What do you get when you cross
DRUG SCANDAL - In other news: grass

has bumped Britney Spears and Lindsay
team down at the cat bowl from a play

BEN Cousins will need AFL approval
was allegedly admitted to hospital

been forced to defend his wayward
is (your northern Have you heard

he was met by two attractive blonde
Cousins got picked up drunk outside

the football future of former West
grass is green, sky is blue – Post

Saturday, November 17, 2007

haiku


poorly placed chew toy
above the old cabinet
lonely but not dead

protagonist gone
soft-singing baleful ballads
what did I do wrong

Javascript Haiku generator via Twists and Turns
 

Friday, November 16, 2007

up there

My sister acquired a pianola recently. Of all the rolls I could choose to play, from the old June Balloon Moonlight Foxtrots, all the thirties ballads I love, all the forties songs I know by heart, at that moment I had to choose Up There Cazaly.

And maybe youtube is the pianola of the neo-noughties, but when I saw Up There Cazaly was up there, I had to play it 10 times. I love this clip.




In 1979 this gesture did not mean this guy's on his mobile. This crowd is a mobile free zone.

And the football was better in 1979 of course, "in those days when going to the football was not like going to the cinema..." Brian Courtis (When footy players have to pause on the field to let the ads run on telly you know they've lost the plot) But also part of my strange nostalgia for this clip may be that I was at the grand final in 78, the one featured in the ad, and I'm watching my past zoom in and out with the balloons in the aerial shots of the MCG where I stood in the standing room section with my brother and sister and their friends and my first crush.

But I also love the blend of words and images, the unpretentious verite of the crowd, the heritage stanza of champions in slow black-and-white, the rise and fall of the music matching the choreography of marking, that by Billy Picken becomes quite beautiful.




".....Cazaly" can still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up even after all these years. To say that it is outdated or old fashioned is missing the point. Football is about memories of winters past and ".....Cazaly" will always be a part of that for me, regardless of what some soulless bureaucrat might say. Posted by: Buck Buckaw of the real world 7:59am October 02, 2007 Readers' comments: Cazaly may be benched

critical

well if I were a single issue voter, a single issue that might swing my vote would probably be orangutans.
It's sad that the tragic and desperate plight of these gentle creatures has become lost in the gesturing and jesting of electioneering
We need to recognise the massive amount of suffering being inflicted on a species that is 97% genetically identical to humans. AOP

Monday, November 12, 2007

lolinate



LOLinator
via grow a brain


Update: so thiz is how I shoulda written this

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

post cup day

My punting was dictated by a bird, that woke me at 5:30 with the call: Purple Moon, Purple Moon.

Well that's what I heard. It was actually saying: Don't be an idiot. As if I'd know anything about horses.

Monday, November 05, 2007

know your

via Mefi and via the US (Northeast Film History), I was idly seeking some AU home movie sites, when I finally sampled some offerings at Australian Screen .

Once there though, it was hard to go past Know Your Melbourne c1945
 

gilbert

He hates teabags with a vengeance.

Gilbert O'Sullivan FAQ/ What is Gilbert's favourite drink?

Friday, November 02, 2007

fido friday

Have only just caught up with this classic Pan's People clip on PCL Linkdump.


See also: Pan Speak and The Top 5 most literal dance routines