sort of, but not quite, back

had a bit of a sabbatical from blogging. it's not that i haven't been doing stuff, stuff has been done. it's just that i haven't been bothered to write about it. i mean, since i last wrote there's been the annual trip to sydney for the writers festival, many films, trips to the theatre. oh, i went to the circus (research, i promise), a couple of art galleries and a day trip to clunes. so like i said, there's stuff done to be written about i just haven't.

but maybe i'm back, i don't know. i'll give it a shot.

i just finished watching a cool tv series from new zealand. i first read about it on a uk website, i can't remember if it was cultbox or den of geek, but anyway, one of those mentioned the almighty johnsons and i stumbled across the first season at jb hifi about a month ago. timing, i hope thou are looking up, as season two finished not so long ago and i was able to purchase that online as well. i was hooked. i love the story of norse gods who had immigrated to new zealand and found out their true identities on their 21st birthdays - awesome. hope the creators james griffin and rachel lang get picked up for a third series.

aftrs @ acmi

another one of aftrs friday on my mind sessions. this one started at 3.30 for a preview screening of australia on trial: massacre at myall creek.

the three-part docudrama was produced by december films for screening on abc, with each episode written and directed by a different team. this episode directed by ana kokkinos and written by andy cox focussed on the court case that involved white men on trial for the murder of 28 aboriginal men, women and children at myall creek in 1838.

after the screening, ana kokkinos conversed with sandra sdraulig so we got to hear how the actual court papers were used in the recreation of this fabulous episode. i was so utterly moved by the story and was sitting on the edge, hoping that the seven white men would be convicted (and thus hanged) but also knowing just how miraculous it would be if they were. this episode is airing on abc1 on thursday april 19 at 8.30 and the other two can be found on abc iView for the time being. check these australian stories out, they're fascinating.

love this show

a mixture of fairy tales and reality - right up my alley. waltzed my way through 12 episodes this day. yes, i know i can get a little obsessive but i do really like this idea.

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.

classic DW

a screening of the newly released to dvd episode of doctor who, day of the daleks, at the jam factory. it was amazing to see doctor who on the big screen, i found that i laughed at a few places that seemed a bit over the top but that's doctor who and what i still love about the show, classic and contemporary.

living in the reel world... not me.

okay, so you'd think i'd have enough of watching screens - big or small, but no. i've been playing catch up the last couple of days with tv shows from around the globe, torchwood (jury is still out on the move to the US - sniff), true blood, eureka (heard the series just got cancelled), warehouse 13, spirited and just finished watched first season of falling skies. but there's a new one on the horizon, from the UK, the hour. it's set in the mid 50s, early tv news room with some sort of conspiracy to be uncovered by an investigative reporter. well, that's what i got out of the first episode. stay tuned.


also rewatching harry potter and the deathly hallows - part 1 in preparation for the second part over the weekend. yes, i'm a glutton.

comets and a lighthouse

horror of fang rock with tom and leela. i think i told you how i used to act out episodes of doctor who on the playground when i was 8? trevor, jason and i used to be on the swings and slides and climbing apparatus' at boulder primary during recess and lunch. i'd rotate between sarah jane and leela - mind you, i'd never be the one fainting, or falling over and spraining my ankle but i was also less blood-letting than leela was. i can still see us standing on top of a structure that had a steering wheel on the top, pretending it was the tardis. that was 78, pinnacle of doctor who goodliness.

strange things, memories

i thought i remembered adric dying in another way. not going out in a spaceship hurdling towards earth, but according to this episode this is how it happened. i have this image in my mind that he was strung out limb from limb and sort of electrocuted to death. honestly i can't recall finding him that annoying, but he really was. whining tegan moreso, and she was australian - how embarrassing.

i'll admit...

i actually didn't mind this episode. i was told by a new friend to give this doctor a chance and this episode, further along in his career as the doctor, isn't too bad at all. (it was the first time i've actually heard someone say that sylvester mccoy was his favourite doctor - i know, the planets are surely out of alignment). first televised in 1989, the last season of the classic doctor who. ace is the companion, it's the first time i've come across her and brigadier lethbridge-stewart came out of retirement for this one. a mixture of arthurian legends and aliens - all the good things.

words to write, read & watch

the day starts with marvellous words flowing from my hands onto the screen. still doesn't have the same ring as from pen to page. i'll work on it. then i was drawn downstairs to the reader's feast, one of my favourite bookstores in town that is closing down. surprisingly it was owned by the same group as borders and angus & robertson and has to close it's doors. bah! but there's a whiff of hope in the wind and i've been told to keep everything crossed - there's a chance of a new door opening for the team at reader's feast. here's hoping. i bought a few (5) books from there - technically all for research too. two film books, one to write and one to pitch (ouch!), then a heavy tome on art, and two were YA fiction, see, research. ha! from there i walked along swanston to the nicholas building and buttonmania. new buttons for a new dress. down flinders lane for a wander and a look at all the "cool" people and the tourists before tramming home.


the master surfaces in this episode. i vaguely remembered seeing it whilst in highschool.

i was surfing (whilst watching tv of course) and came across an interview with peter davison, who is now part of the law & order uk team. almost thirty years between one show and the other. cool pic huh?

weeeeeekkkeeendd...

and a box of tissues. for my snotty nose, not the new uk horror series i'm watching.

who's who?

this was an interesting episode because there were two romanas in it. what i mean is that the doctor is travelling with romana version one and their adventure takes them to this planet, where the princess embodies the physical representation of who romana version two becomes. it's all a bit confusing and i haven't seen the episode where romana one regenerates yet. that's a tale yet to be told.

seeds of nightmares

another trip to the library and more dvd's to watch. i believe this episode of dr who may have contributed to my little sister's night terrors whilst growing up. i recall a couple of times her being trapped in her nightmares, babbling about plants coming to get her. hmm... i would say sorry sis but perhaps you shouldn't have watched them with me at the time??

maggots!

this is one of my favourite episodes. i've always remembered the maggots and the green death. this is companion jo's last episode as she heads off to journey down the amazon with the long haired ecologist professor. ah, sweet 1973.

july already

and i've volunteered to help out with the 2011 melbourne writers' festival. eek! i needed to get involved with the community more and i figured this is a great way of being part of something as well as attending something i'm interested in.


the festival doesn't start until late august but that will give me a chance to get over those long dark sessions of the film festival (which is about to knock on my door again).


introduction of adric to the show. i remember having such a crush on him as an 11 year old. how was i so blind to his whiney, selfish manner? ahh... youth.

the write stuff

i took today off work to do work of another kind. not that i really consider writing work, well at least not at the moment. i have to get draft 2 of the script finished in the next couple of days (i did want it by the end of june but i didn't make it). since i have this grand plan for this year to get out drafts of a feature, a novel and the outline of a tv mini-series i need to work to deadlines. so far i'm on target. go me.

since i tend to do my writing first thing in the morning i was up my regular time and sitting in starbucks by 7.30am. stuff got decided and worked on and i have two possible endings now, but as i like plan A better, i'm sticking with that for the time being.

later in the afternoon i found my way back to my old tv and more doctor who. remember this is also "research".


tom baker's state of decay with companions romana and adric. i thought i had escaped the fetish of the day when revisiting yesterday, but no, vampires make an appearance here as well. but of course, they were overcome.


the ark with william hartnell was interesting. i hadn't seen this before, nor had i come across steve or dodo as companions. it's been an interesting voyage travelling back in time with the doctor.

when the evening came i hightailed it across town to abbotsford and the aviary for dinner with jenn, jamie and tim.

more viewing pleasure

it's taken me a little while but i've now succumbed to the sarah jane adventures -there's a few seasons ahead so that makes me happy. i'm putting it under the heading of "research" for the novel. ha!

farewell to dave who's heading off into the great wide world for a bit. bon voyage my friend.

an addiction

i was forced by my library to collect and watch the city of death in the same day since they did the most fabulous job of retrieving it from another location for me. i just could not let them down, honest. this episode was written by douglas adams, yes the douglas adams of hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy fame, under a pseudonym. adams actually script edited all of season 18 of doctor who. i had seen this before, a lifetime ago and it was a trip through paris which was fun.


either david bowie got his dress sense from skagra the baddie in this episode or vice versa. very glam rock, but i guess it was the era for it. this episode wasn't televised at the time, nor completed. pieces of it were used in three doctors (i think) and it's been cobbled together here with tom baker narrating the missing sequences.

introducing k9

and there's a different companion, leela. the abc must have been quite current in the screenings of doctor who in the late 70s as i remember pretending to be leela in the playground in 1978. i recall even then wishing i could've been dr who, i would've been great. anyway, this episode was first televised in october 1977 in the uk. and leela was only in the show for the 77-78 seasons. see all these fun facts you're learning about doctor who??

in this episode clones of leela and the doctor have been shrunk and injected into the real doctor's brain where the invisible enemy is lurking. the invisible enemy, when it becomes visible, looks like a giant prawn. hilarious. k9 joined the tardis crew in this episode as well. watching him being resurrected in the 2006 school reunion episode was super fun.

i'll leave you with the words, "i only hope he's tardis-trained"...

number three

my library has a number of doctor who dvds for my viewing pleasure. yah! when the titles started i got all excited. jon pertwee is the first doctor i remember watching (in reruns i'm sure), though it's true i do tend to see strains of worzel gummidge in him as well.

an interesting episode where chronos, the time monster in question, has taken the shape of a silver bird (which really means a man dressed in wings and helmet) and when summoned flies around the room squawking. hilarious. i also got reintroduced to jo as the doctor's companion. perhaps i shall undertake a study of which companion annoys me the least. she is not one of them. i would have thought that the early seventies woman would have a little more gumption. fainting, bah!