day 3 of the marija invasion

since marija wasn't suppose to be here and because i'm on a deadline, i had to abandon her to write for the morning. i'm in prep for the month of november and i'm already a little scared i won't make the 50, 000 words. eek.

anyway, we met afterwards for a film, again at the nova. and what a film.  i LOVE midnight in paris and suspect i will see it again, and soon.

i think perhaps my favourite woody allen film. purple rose of cairo would come a close second though.

day two of the visit

breakfast on degraves and dessert from little cupcakes before wandering the lanes of the cbd.

pasta for dinner in carlton with jamie, while marija juggled risotto and booking a flight to perth on virgin. damn qantas.

then onto the nova and ghostbusters on big screen awesomeness and choc bombs. mmm....

friday and marija turns up on my doorstep

as you might guess there was a hell of a lot of talking.  in fact the talking was only outdone by the amount of rain that fell from the sky in the evening.

caught up with a few friends at mao's in fitzroy so that marija could meet my not imaginary melbourne friends.  after a great meal we braved the rain for the newish cocktail bar the LuWow. it's owned by the same people who brought perth the hula bula bar and deville's.  tiki and fabulous.

nope, there are no pictures. i'm crap.

taking over the streets of melbourne

eh!

give me back the passion and humour of the early 90s three musketeer film, with charlie, kiefer, oliver and chris.  that at least felt like an adventure with spirit. this seemed more interested in the grandiose effects rather than the story.  which is sad since alexander dumas seemed to like his characters enough to put them in a great story. but this film wasn't concerned with anything but the 3d effects (p.s. i didn't even see it in 3d because i'm sick of wearing the stupid glasses and it rarely adds anything to the cinema experience anyway, so there).

this writer's journey

a day playing hookey of sorts. well, from work. but not from writing. worked on the script for a couple of hours at starbucks before heading across the road to the wheeler centre for a day's seminar with christopher vogler.

he wrote the writer's journey a number of years ago and most recently, memo from the story department with david mckenna. both are about what makes up a story, using joseph campbell and jungian principles. it was an interesting day and the one thing i did take away from it was not to give up. so i'll try not too.

serial lovin'

the reason i like box sets, or being introduced to a series of books after the last book/ episode is written is because i have anticipation problems. i don't like to wait. i don't see this as me being particularly impatient, i'm just eager for the story. all of it, at once. really, it's almost as if i'm two people. one of me needs to immerse for days and weeks on end in the story and the other me is hoping they'll find a way of downloading everything instantly into my being.

this uk series, the fades, is a great ride. just a little bit scary, fantastical, funny and just all-round super. and i hate waiting. hate it. and a really good thing about this show? i don't know what's coming next. well, maybe i have an inkling because at the end of each episode there's a couple of teasers, but you know what i mean. i know there has to be a confrontation, and that there's a high probability that the good guys will win but the rest... well, what fun. oh, i'm up to episode 5 ... crap, i just checked the bible IMDB and there's only one episode left in the series... eek! will it all be wrapped up or will there be another series? stay tuned.

a little bit violated

or lost. i'm not sure which yet.

there were 6 missed messages on my phone when i got out of the shower this morning. a message from a friend in mauritius, checking in to make sure i hadn't been mugged in the UK and i didn't need money. i know, an exciting way to enter the day.

some time last night my facebook account was hacked and my email address which makes up my login changed to something else. so i lost access to my own account. that was one thing but the other was that i had a few friends across the world who had had conversations with "me" through the night. FB instant chats where i related i had been mugged at gunpoint, pistol whipped and all my cash and credit cards taken. and the embassy was of no help and could they wire me money, the amounts differed per person. other friends were emailed and brought into the drama.

which meant i had to work out how to fix this. first off i couldn't access my account, so i tried to work out how to contact facebook admin OH MY GOODNESS... how crap is that? there is really no rhyme or reason to how it might work. honestly, for a social network they really haven't got the support services down at all. i ended up having to lock down my account so now i'm absent from facebook until it gets sorted out. which means i'm waiting.

i don't know how long i'll be waiting but it will be interesting to see how i procrastinate in the days to come.

p.s. i did email out a few friends to let them know that i hadn't been mugged and if i did need money i'd just give them a call. ha! but what i did find is that i got to speak to people i hadn't contacted in a while. so to the hackers i say thank you for that at least.

stuff on a sunday

i have a new spare room. okay, i don't mean i've built an extension to my little flat but that i've finally bought a bed for guests. i made my way over to ikea mid-morning to beat the rush of families and young couples (shudder!) and somehow managed to squash a single mattress and frame into my beloved mirage. i am continually impressed how much the green machine can take. she's no TARDIS but i think perhaps the next best thing.

so after putting it all together and prettyfying the room it was off to the nova for a free screening of a new australian film, burning man.


a little too fragmented for me to get emotionally attached to the characters, but my companion seem to get the intentions. a beautiful story, gorgeous cinematography and well acted by a cast sprinkled with who's who of australian actors. i enjoyed the journey but wasn't completely captured for some reason.

the aftermath of aftermath

(picture sourced from malthouse website)

WOW!

i'm going to recount the malthouse overview because it explains it perfectly:

"In 2008, acclaimed writer/director team Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen travelled to Jordan to interview 35 refugees, a broad cross-section of people who fled the chaos that gripped Iraq in the wake of the US-led invasion. Their words form the very fabric of Aftermath - a visceral theatre production that weaves these real interview transcripts into a shocking tapestry of war and loss.

Aftermath recounts six real-life stories of Iraqis from varied social and religious backgrounds - all are displaced civilians who lost homes, family members and history to catastrophe. Together the stories paint a picture of a delicately balanced coexistence sent swirling into dangerous chaos.

Critics across the globe have been floored by the human face the play puts on the thousands of innocent, but anonymous, victims of an ugly war. New York Theatre Workshop has captured, with impact and immediacy, the period of Saddam's regime and fall, the US-led invasion and occupation, and the rise of vengeful sectarian militias.

Stopping short of judgement and condemnation, Aftermath putsa passionate, authentic and deeply personal face on the staggering toll exacted on an innocent people".

i won these tickets through my subscription to aussie theatre, so many thanks for introducing me to this unbelievably amazing performance. i laughed, i got angry, my heart was broken and mended again.

who killed violet vario?

(photo sourced from the malthouse website)

half real, created by the border project, written by duncan graham and directed by sam haren.

a malthouse adventure. this was a great show that started as you walked into the upstairs theatre (reminded me of hayman's upstairs theatre all those years ago) and you were handed a little controller. a slab of plastic with a small flashing red light. a compact stage with few props and then when the show started the scenery was projected onto the flats. awesome.

so it was a whodunnit. and the audience, by the aid of the controllers determined where the action would go. remember the choose your own adventure books, sort of like that but majority ruled here. for example, a question is asked, do you want to find out more about the blood, the valium in the wine glass or the cracked window? it wasn't intrusive to the story telling at all. pretty fantastic. except for the fact that we/ they got it wrong. we never got to find out who killed violet vario.

not as crazy as expected

i enjoyed the film but i think because of the trailers i had seen i had expected something a little more madcap and funny. it was actually quite sensitive in places.

what caught me a couple of times were current cultural references. once when ryan gosling's character asked steve carrell if he thought he was steve jobs... timing probably wasn't quite right. watching it before the death of the apple co-founder might have been better. and then there was the 13 year old, desperately in love with his 17 year old babysitter and talking about the age difference between demi and ashton.

seduced... check

(photos sourced from the melb arts festival website)

the manganiyar seduction at the arts centre. very spectacular... started small with just one man opening the curtains of his booth and strumming his sitar (i think it was a sitar), to the overwhelming passion of all instruments and all voices. a fabulous event.

film @ acmi

eeek and arrgghhh

i don't know if it was worth the emotional anguish of sitting in my car for an hour and a half to get through the city from brunswick to south melbourne at peak hour, but there i was. spenser street from 5.30 til 6.30, mostly reading, occasionally driving. how do people do this every, single, day?? lucky i had taken a book along.

about ten minutes late for a writers guild get-together, tim ferguson spoke on comedy writing. he has a book, i might just have to purchase it. surprise, surprise.