Travelogue Day 27

20/6/06

The President's Last Bang (2005, Sang-soo Im)

Slow to start, but pretty good once it hits its pace. Based upon the actual assassination of the South Korean president in 1979.

The defense minister, tired of the way things were being run and desiring real democracy rather than its imitation under what amounts to a military dictator, rallies his men in the K.C.I.A. and kills the president. The only problem is that all of the cabinet don't welcome the absence of the president in the way he expected. The coup d'etat fails and the conspirators are killed.

The film questions whether their actions, though perhaps necessary, were honourable. It also shows how disorganized such an event most likely always is.

Ahlaam (2005, Mohamed Al-Daradji)

Filmed during the active fighting of the U.S. invasion of Baghdad and its aftermath. Many elements feel as if the actors were inserted amongst them rather than being created for the film (i.e. at times it seems like the cast and crew sought out places where people were looting or there was gunfire in the streets and got the cameras out to film a scene).

We are introduced to the characters on the eve of America's "shock and awe" campaign in Baghdad, then shown how they got where they are in the mental hospital. Ali was a reluctant soldier in the Iraqi army who was sent to the asylum with his ear cut off for desertion though he was only trying to carry a friend to medics while shell shocked. Dr. Mehdi is dedicated and only wants to be a doctor to help people. Ahlaam has her fiance stolen away by Saddam's secret police on their wedding day and is hit in the head with a rifle butt, leading to her being placed in the asylum because of delusions.

A U.S. bomb breaches the asylum and the patients escape as the looters plunder. The madness from within the hospital seems to seep out into the surrounding area as we see Dr. Mehdi and Ali, who the doctor realizes isn't actually crazy, try to round up all the patients and return them to the hospital. Ahlaam searches for her fiance and is victimized by a group of looters before Ali finds her.

A sniper opens fire on the crowded street and Ahlaam flees into an abandoned building just as her parents and Dr. Mehdi catch sight of her. The Americans arrive on the scene and form up in front of the only visible entrance to the building Ahlaam went inside. Neither the Americans nor Ahlaam's family have interpreters, so they cannot explain the situation and are prevented from entering the building by the soldiers who know nothing of the customs of the country and take the family's behaviour as threatening.

Everyone recognized as good and bad. Lack of communication, and therefore understanding, is one of the biggest problems for the U.S. forces. The scenes with Ahlaam wandering in the dark are much more frightening and unnerving than what many other movies accomplish when they have bigger budgets and that is their whole point.

Frozen Days (2006, Danny Lerner)

This is the director's debut feature and was shot for $25,000. It was made because he wanted to prove that a quality film can be made on a tiny budget and because he likes psychological dramas. No one was paid, cast or crew, it was everyone's first feature, and they just liked the script. After the film won the Haifa(sp?) award, and its cash prize, everyone actually got paid.

It's a little bit of Jacob's Ladder. A girl who lives in vacant apartments and sells narcotics to get by meets a man she's been chatting with on the internet only to have him, presumably, lost in a suicide bombing at the nightclub where they were to meet. She takes over his life in the interim and finds that everyone takes her to be the him though he is in the hospital in a coma and covered head-to-toe in bandages. Only at the very end does she realize that things aren't the way she thought they were.

Some of the cinematography was good, and the actress was quite good (aside from her being exceptionally beautiful).

I met with Debs to finalize my travel plans today.

On my walk back from the films today, I ran into Mark and Pascal. They invited me out for a beer at the Broadway Cafe, which led to many meetings. Jerry, who was behind the bar this evening, told me about the play she was working on writing (I think she titled it The Animals, but I'm not entirely certain). After Mark and Pascal left, I went with a number of the Broadway staff members to the Lansdowne for even more meeting people. Surprisingly, I seem to remember most of everyone's names despite a glut of drink.

Travelogue Day 26

19/6/06

I finally did laundry, but I didn't drop in to see Debbie and finalize my travel plans. I'll send an email later. I missed the to-do with the Australia-Brazil game. I shamefully fell asleep on the couch while waiting for the time to go out. Perhaps I'll be in town for the match vs. Croatia.

A Perfect Day (2005, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige)

A day in the life of Malek. He is still asleep as his mother tries to get him to postpone an appointment, but when he wakes, he insists on keeping it. The appointment is with a lawyer to have his father, who disappeared 15 years earlier during the war, declared dead.

while his mother reaches out to him in her anguish, he ignores her telephone calls because he is too occupied with trying to reignite the passion with his ex-girlfriend. He keeps after her until, after he follows her into a nightclub and his narcolepsy overtakes him, they kiss and leave the club for a romantic interlude. Before the interlude, she realizes it won't be any different from any other time and flees the car.

We see the world through her eyes during part of the drive, and when Malek puts her contacts in, he sees the world through her eyes too. These are two quite beautiful sequences of the headlights of passing cars, streetlights, and signs as balls of light moving about the screen. He falls asleep at the beach, again, then sprints along in stops and starts (like his breathing while asleep) (this part is accompanied by very nice shots of the beach area and a flock of birds in flight).

I liked it, though I'm still not entirely sure why yet.

Travelogue Day 25

18/6/06

River Queen (2005, Vincent Ward)

Reminds me a bit of Dances with Wolves.

An Irish (already a subjugated people) woman, Sarah, has a child with a Maori which is taken by its Maori grandfather when Sarah's father tries to clear a Maori sacred site. She searches for him in vain until a native tracker, the brother of her child's father and also spy for the other side, reintroduces her to him in return for her healing the chief of the native resistance. When she does this, the chief makes her (or at least calls her) a queen.

Her son will not go back to become a European, and, after much to do and the death of the character Private Doyle (who recognizes that the "Maori are just like the Irish" but with darker skin), she decides that it is more important to be a family with her boy and his uncle than be European alone. She melts in to the surrounding community with her family , and they survive and thrive through the rest of the Maori wars.

The visuals are great, the story is fairly familiar.

The director's Q&A was rather informative. In the Maori wars, the Maori were able to fight so long despite being out manned and out gunned because they were tenacious fighters, brilliant strategists, and had more advanced arms provided by American whalers.

the film's story is loosely inspired by a few real stories. A man's daughter was taken for his having put a road through sacred land, and, when she was later found, she had forgotten ever being European. A Red Cross nurse treated Maori on the other side and kept it secret for 20 years because it was a treasonous act. From the further commentary by the director, it seems much of the Maori chief's actions in the film were based on stories of the old chiefs.

Le Samourai (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)

From what I hear, this isn't a bad introduction to Melville.

It definitely has a French New Wave feel to it with the handheld cameras at certain times. Alain Delon's virtually silent assassin is good, as is the entire film.

The assassin kills a man, is picked up by the police, but he has constructed a good alibi. His employers try to kill him as the police keep after him for the murder. He kills the head of the contracting organization, then sets himself up to be killed rather than fulfill his last contract.

This is supposedly the inspiration behind Ghost Dog and The Professional among others.

Travelogue Day 24

17/6/06

Burke & Wills (2005, Oliver Torr and Matthew Zeremis)

A portrait of two young men: Burke, who begins the film as a somewhat aloof but mostly ok guy, and wills, a layabout. Wills is forced to move out of his girlfriend's house by her mother and moves in with Burke.

Burke is quiet as Wills talks about his life, dreams, and ideas. He responds only in limited exchanges and does the same at his job. Wills finds a job (after a great interview scene) and starts to get himself together as he tries to reunite with his girlfriend.

Burke, who we can tell is schizophrenic if we know the signs, does well until his grandmother dies. This triggers the more severe symptoms and his consequent devolution that culminates in his rape of Wills' girlfriend and suicide. Wills finds him after these events are relayed to him by her, sees Burke bleeding, and leaves him to die.

The early parts of the film can be quite humourous, while the later bits are rather twisting. They did very well at showing that schizophrenics aren't always symptomatic and that those symptoms, once evident, can be pretty terrible; also that they can be set off by any significant stressor.

I saw the man who performed the music for the film perform at the Statement Lounge between films. He was alright, and some of the songs had rather clever lyrics.

No. 2 (2006, Toa Fraser)

A grandmother's desire to name a successor before her death leads to a party that reunites a family at odds.

After much turmoil, the party goes off. Rather than just her grandchildren, Nana Maria, gets a party with her children, grandchildren and their boy/girl friends, and great grandchildren. They manage, after much frustration and effort, to all come together and have a good time and feast just like the parties Nana Maria remembers from her youth.

Devon puts this in the category of "ethnic family coming together for significant event and dealing with various problems because of it" (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding). While I don't agree completely, it does quickly become clear where the movie is most likely going next.

Travelogue Day 23

16/6/06

Saw Debbie at Backpacker's world about my trip. I got information and will finalize my plans on Monday.

Perhaps Love (2005, Peter Ho-Sun Chan)

Love triangle set in a circus, very Moulin Rouge. I didn't really like that either. A little too clever with the film within a film idea. Memory likened to film and the film brings up ideas of rearranging memory like a film is rearranged in editing.

The film within the film is the main story, leading to confusion between what is reality in the film and what's film in the film that in another place might have been better, but here comes off as trying to be too clever. Some of the CG work was clever in a good way, but a bit overdone. The spectacle was definitely there, but it's perhaps just not my thing.

The director's Q&A afterward was much more rewarding. He talked mostly about the state of the film industry in China.

Problems with cinema attendance in China are due to price (seeing 10 movies per year is easily one month's wages in mainland China), poor quality films, and piracy (enabling people to watch good movies at home rather than pay excessive amounts of money to see bad ones). The choice to make Perhaps Love a musical, and therefore big, was an attempt to use spectacle to bring people into the cinemas.

The top five films in China can make 100 million <Chinese currency>, number six is lucky to get five million. This leads to conflicts within directors similar to the one faced by the film's director character: a lot of pressure to make very big movies to get people in cinema seats.

Pusher II: With Blood on my Hands (2004, Nicolas Winding Refn)

A worthy successor of Pusher. It follows Tonny as he gets out of prison after Frank beat him with a bat in the first film. He gets out owing money, and his dad won't give him any work in his criminal organization because Tonny is notoriously unreliable.

He does some jobs, some poorly (stealing a Ferari without an order), some well (stealing a showroom full of BMWs), finds out he has a kid, fails to kill his father's new wife, and runs off with his kid into the unknown.

More character development than Pusher and less violence. Rather good.

The Bet (2006, Mark Lee)

A fairly standard tale of the pitfalls of greed and gambling, and how rich, upperclass people are evil.

The actors were very good despite the material they had to work with, and Matthew Newton has a potential future in showbusiness if for nothing else than that he looks like a movie star.

The shots of the city were good, but overused. It seemed as if they had gotten money from the city of Sydney to finance the film and were required to put a certain number of shots of the city into the movie in return.

Travelogue Day 22

15/6/06

Little Miss Sunshine (2006, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)

Family coming together, learning to embrace differences.

Alan Arkin's grandpa is the highlight of the film. Greg Kinnear's character is an aspiring self-help guru, but no one wants to buy his nine steps to being a winner. The son can't stand the antics of the family and takes a vow of silence until he enters the Air Force Academy. Steve Carell is uncle Frank, the foremost Proust scholar in America who tried to kill himself after his grad student lover ran off with his rival. Olive, the daughter obsessed with winning the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Toni Collette is the mother trying to hold them all together.

Everything is great, but towards the end of the film, many of the jokes are easily foreseen. Despite this they pull it off

Footy Chicks (2006, Rebecca Barry)

Mediocre at best examination of the world of footy groupies. Most know what they're getting into, and all of them seem to dislike most of it but continue to keep themselves in that world.

The highlight of the film is Jane, an 80 year old footy fan who makes needle-point, tapestries, and poetry about the players. She particularly likes the players' muscular legs and bums. Her screen time is the only enjoyable aspect of the film.

Travelogue Day 21

14/6/06

Workingman's Death (2005, Michael Glawogger)

A fairly intimate portrait of manual laborers in five different places and professions (coal miners in the Ukraine, sulfur harvesters in Indonesia, abattoir workers in Nigeria, shipwreckers in Pakistan, and steel workers in China) that documents the death of very hard manual labor in the modern world.

We see how difficult coal mining used to be everywhere while following Ukrainian men into mines only tall enough to crawl through. The government abandoned the mines like these men, former government miners, and this is the only way they can survive. Seeing them eat their lunches in such confined quarters is interesting to say the least.

It is likewise hard for the sulfur harvesters in Indonesia. They brave volcanic gases on the mountainside to carry upwards of 115 kilograms of sulfur down the mountain to sell. On the way they walk through tourists and school groups who pose as sulfur harvesters for souvenir pictures. One harvester uses molten sulfur to make small sculptures he sells to the tourists on his way down the mountain.

The Nigerian abattoir is all out-door and highly specialized. There are the slaughterers, roasters (roasting whole animals, skin on and ungutted, something new to me), skinners, carvers, and those who carry the fresh skinned meat to waiting vehicles. A young boy even sells fresh water by the bottle to the workers. This landscape seems the most Hellish. Everything is blackened, often covered in gore, discarded animal parts, and enshrouded in acrid smoke.

The Pakistani shipmen work around the clock to cut apart old, large seafaring vessels. They cut them apart by hand, using a large winching system to pull these large sections onto the sore for further disassembly. The conditions are harsh, and workers face death many times daily (especially with their general lack of safety gear).

Chinese steel workers mention how things are changing. They still toil in harsh, dangerous conditions, but modernization is slowly changing that, new works are going up, and the older workers say they aren't likely to press their children into their line of work.

Every group of these workers express their happiness to have their jobs at the same time they lament the difficulty of the work. In the end, however, they ignore the hardships and carry on as does everyone else.

It is in the epilogue that the point the film wishes to make comes home. By showing a German steel plant that has been decommissioned and turned into a public park of sorts, the film seems to celebrate the march of modernity and its ability to eliminate the need for people to do such dangerous work by mechanizing it.

It seems to be a celebration, but should it be a lament?

Girl Shy (1924, Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor)

My first Harold Lloyd film is viewed (nearly) appropriately: in the picture palace that is the Sydney State Theatre and with live musical accompaniment (I say "nearly" because there are three musicians rather than a full orchestra).

The tale of a poor young man so afraid of girls he stutters uncontrollably whenever they're around who finds love with a rich young woman when he saves her dog from being left behind on the train one day.

Mishaps occur, as you would expect in a 1920s comedy. He is only able to talk to her about his book (a fictional tale of his exploits at love), and he wins her over. However, when he finds that he really won't be getting it published, he puts her off because he things he won't be good enough for her as only a poor tailor's assistant.

Luckily, he gets an advance cheque from the publisher (because they decided to go with his book) and finds out the man his girl is to marry is already married. This sets off a Grand Theft Auto style sequence (with Harold stealing cars, motorcycles, a horse and cart, and a streetcar) of Harold's rush to rescue his sweetheart, culminating in his theft of the bride and proposal.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Travelogue Day 20

13/6/06

La Moustache (2005, Emmanuel Carrère)

Time as Möbius strip?

Is he crazy or is everyone else? Perhaps he is trapped in an alternate past or future and has to find his way back? If time is a river, all the time spent on ferries to various places an attempt to find his way back to the river he knows? (Shaving off his moustache left him unanchored to his time and space. This drifting the reason why everything gets more different with increasing rapidity until he abandons his river/timeline to find another?)

I also attended a forum entitled "Where are the stories of Islamic people on our screens?" Thpanelel and audience managed to conclude (well, I concluded from their statements and comments) the following:

1. The lack of Islamic stories on screens is not due to an anti-Muslim/Arab attitude in the industry itself, but the audiences often fall victim to governmental anti-Muslim rhetoric.

2. There is a dearth of trained people within the Muslim communities. Also, industries like the media industries are often considered haram and, therefore, something to be avoided by observant Muslims.

3. Stories of Islamic people will continue to be placed in poor time slots, if they are seen at all, until they are told in a more engaging manner that can draw in the laymen as well as the already converted.

4. Islamic/Arabic filmmakers have trouble getting work for the same reasons other people have difficulty: those who fund films demand high return on their investment, so they are more likely to back established directors, known plot formulae, and are very risk averse.

The best comment of the evening came from a Muslim man in the audience who works in advertising (if I recall correctly) who said that the current productions, despite being good productions and doing their part, are like a webpage where the links lead to nowhere. They do not link back to the greater Australian or white Western culture, and without this, they have little chance of being seen by a greater audience on mainstream TV.

Travelogue Day 19

12/6/06

Pusher (1996, Nicolas Winding Refn)

Low budget crime film. Well done overall with no discernable "good guy." Frank pushes dope for Milo, trys to start something on the side, but every time something goes wrong. Radovan, Milo's enforcer, is sent to collect the money Frank owes Milo. Torture, escape, then Frank is offered a chance at redemption. Plenty of good times, blood, and drugs. It was also interesting to see Mads Mikkelson in a role quite different from Ivan in Adam's Apples.

House of Sand (2005, Andrucha Waddington)

The visuals are outstanding. The dunes, the sky, the sea, all are striking.

The story, however, was not so great for me. A group of people go into the dunes in Brazil to set up a settlement. The women in the group are very unhappy with the frontier and help along their own desertion and the death of Aurea's husband. They try to survive with the help of runaway slaves as she has a daughter and misses verious chances to go back to civilization until she finds happiness out there.

Why her daughter, Maria, is so intent on going to the city, I don't know. I suppose there is some sort of commentary here about the detrimental effects on women of being under the control of men (a man essentially forces them out there in the first place and it is a man's (in)actions that keep them there). But Aurea's mother likes it out in the dunes because, "No man can tell me what to do."

Starfish Hotel (2006, John Williams)

Seems to be heavily influenced by In the Mouth of Madness and David Lynch films.

A man, who is a fan of a certain author's mystery novels, has his wife go missing the day after he meets a man dressed as Mr. Trickster, a large and rather sickly/homicidal looking rabbit, who is promoting the author's new book. The man has dreams about places the author frequents and also, presumably, what is referred to in the novels as the "Darkland."

The man's tale seems to be narrated by the author as it sounds ever increasingly like the descriptions he is giving of his next to-be-published novel. Mr. Trickster makes further appearances to give omniscient knowledge to the man and perform the actions necessary to carry him to the end of the tale. Mr. Trickster, however, proves himself as tricky as his namesake.

The visuals in the dream sequences (Darkland?) reminiscent of Lynch and often in richer colour than the other sections. Despite its similarities to Western films and their style, there is something very Japanese about the film (especially in the bits to do with the other woman at the Starfish Hotel, but all pervasive).

It's days later, and I still don't have a full handle on it, which means it's probably quite good, my having liked it notwithstanding.

Travelogue Day 18

11/6/06

Adam's Apples (2005, Anders Thomas Jensen)

Opens with a long shot of a lone bus in a landscape of wheat fields. The bus stops in the middle of nowhere to let off a lone passenger, adam. As the bus pulls away, he scratches the paint with a pocket knife. He's left standing until a van pulls up, and we have the feeling this film will be quite heavy. It is, but how surprised are we when it turns out to also be hilarious?

How could it not be with the cast of characters? Ivan, the priest who indefatigably sees the best in everything; Khalid, the Saudi who robs Statoil stations to set right his father's loss of land to a multinational oil company; Gunnar, the former tennis star who went bad and alcoholic when he had one fatefull ball called out when it was in; and, of course, Adam, the "evil" neo-Nazi intent on thrusting them all into the world as he knows it.

Everyone has to accomplish a self-set goal before leaving the church/half-way house, and Adam's is to bake a pie with apples from the church's apple tree. The only trouble is that every time he tries pulling the church residents toward his world, the baking of the pie becomes more and more difficult. The humor is often created in the overcoming each of these hardhsips all the way through to a rather pleasing ending.

This is probably going to be my favourite film of the festival

Ra Choi (2005, Michael Frank)

Not much different from other films of a similar subject. A guy goes to jail for stealing and dealing to get by squatting on the street but realizes the error of his ways. He isn't given a chance because he's an ex-con, and he falls back into his old ways. Squatter kids going what they have to do to keep up their heroin habit (hooking, stealing, dealing). Of course, the one with a kid steals from the kid. One of the squatter girls dies, which prompts another to quit. The young boy turns gay, then tranny, prostitute to keep his habit (and continues even after a gang rape). Yes, it's bad, but not a new tale. The differences: it's in Sydney, and they're Vietnamese.

The Director says the film is supposed to highlight racism in Aussie policing too (3 Vietnamese kids = gang, 3 white kids = 3 white kids), but I didn't really see much of that.

Travelogue Day 17

10/6/06

The Balanda and the Bark Canoes

Balanda translates to white man in the Aboriginal languages of Arnhem Land. This film is a documentary on the making of Ten Canoes and what it meant to the people in Arnhem Land.

Ten Canoes acted as a very important event for the peoples of Arnhem Land and Murwangi. They had lost many of their cultureal traditions over the years, and this was seen as a way to relearn some of them and as a document to pass down to the next generation, something concrete they can point to when the balanda ask "where is your culture?"

There were many projects for the people in that area named by different numbers of canoes (ten = the film, eleven = video production training for the children of the area, twelve = community website, &c. for a book and other things).

Aboriginal languages are more than just structurally different from English. For example, English is hierarchical and full of classification where Aboriginal languages emphasize a oneness in everything. Also, if I recall correctly, there are no personal posessive pronouns in Aboriginal languages, but there are 16 different words for 'we.'

Favela Rising

What began as a quite engaging documentary about the sad state of affairs in the favelas on the hills surrounding Rio de Janeiro and one man's attempts to make things better/stop the unending violence ended in catastrophe when the projection equipment refused to function properly. A great disappointment considering the film's potential. I'll have to try to get this on Netflix.

Solo

Barrett, the gangster who has lost his taste for his job, turns over a new leaf (the Aussie Larrikin?).

The timing changes on transition pans is interesting, but feels out of place at times. Some of the moving from section to section felt a little too quick.

Barrett is interested in jazz, has a hooker for a girlfriend, killer with morals; his life comes full circle. Rampant police corruption a return to the old bushranger film's depiction of cops?

The question and answer with the actors and director after the screening was rather entertaining. This film was the winner of Project Greenlight Australia.

Travelogue Day 16

9/6/06

I still haven't booked my travel for my week's holiday. I need to get on that before the festival makes me forget it entirely.

I made myself look terrible with my performance on this morning's quiz. I hope to fix my image after that. We saw Look Both Ways today. It was rather good, instructed us to remember to look at things from a perspective outside our normal approach.

Opening night of the festival. Ten Canoes and a fancy party are in store. Perhaps I'll actually mingle, maybe even do it well.

We got ourselves all dressed up and headed down to the State Theatre. A.C., Joy, Marc, and Donna went to dinner somewhere expensive while Mike, Tom, Devon, and I didn't. Instead, we got to the theatre early and walked down the blue carpet, having our pictures taken as we made our way to our seats.

Ten Canoes (2006, Rolf De Heer)

Stories being told in three different times all about origins and the past. The story of "our people." Good story. Present = colour, past = black and white, distant past = colour, all = one big cycle (present is past is ancient all at the same time) for Aborigines(?)

After the screening, we (the entire film studies crew including Daryl, Fred, and Greg) went to the party at the Argyle in the Rocks. The bus I was on made a wrong turn, so those of us on it got to take one round trip across the harbour bridge before arriving. The venue was pretty good. It had five interconnected areas, each with its own feel. I tended toward the cellar area because the cover band above just wasn't my thing.

Beer and wine flowed constantly until they tossed us out, as did the food. Trays of tasty things were circulating throughout the night. Various wraps, miniature meat pies, fried prawns, fish and chips boxes, and much more were to be had.

I did a little mingling and ran into various people. Paul Burns said hello, and I spoke with many of the Ten Canoes cast members in attendance that night. Richard Birrinbirrin was a very nice fellow, and we spoke of what he was doing now. Jamie and David Gulpilil were both rather nice as well. I met David's daughter Toni (not sure if that's how she spells it) and ex-wife too. Toni had a few suggestions for good clubs to seek out, and I probably spent too much time talking with her.

We also ran into Rolf De Heer. He and I seem to lean the same direction with regard to American politics, and he gave Devon, Greg, and I (the other kids had run off in excitement after Daryl had played a little joke on them by saying he'd heard Johnny Depp was in attendance) the story of how Ten Canoes got made.

The night wore on, and they tossed us out around 02:30. We film studies kids were hoping to catch a last minute bus back to the UniLodge (walking a few kilometers in fancy shoes is not a pleasant prospect) from Circular Quay when we ran into Fred again. We had thought he was walking back (he and his wife had walked all the way across Spain a year or two before, so this wasn't unthinkable even with the fancy shoes), but he didn't like the prospect of walking that far in dress shoes any more than we.

The group of us started to walk in the direction of UniLodge while trying to hail a couple of cabs. This didn't work out too well, but we did get one eventually. We got everyone but Fred, Devon, and I in the first cab, and we expected a second cab would not be too far away. Little did we know that the cab drivers that night would be so fickle. At least two just drove off without a word after hearing our intended destination. We were saved by some of the internship kids who had been at a pub near where we were hailing taxis. They had managed to stop two, if I recall correctly, and had us along.

Travelogue Day 15

8/6/06

Saw Better than Sex and Lantana in class today. Better than Sex is a rare sort of thing, a "chick movie" that I actually enjoyed. Lantana looks at the dynamics of marriage and family, among other things (lantana itself is a lot like kudzu in the southeastern US, a foreign plant brought in that has now run rampant and is taking over, still not sure what that is saying), and it was better than I remember it having been.

We were given our first assignment for Greg this evening. We are to plan the online portion of a promotional program for a fictional theatre company. It promises to be fun.

Devon and I killed two-thirds to three-quarters of a bottle of absinth this evening. We then went out for beers because, well, that much absinth only feels like three to four beers until you get other alcohol in you. I don't intend to repeat this.

Travelogue Day 14

7/6/06

Devon and I watched Alvin Purple. It was a great '60s sex romp. Alvin is irresistable to women from the time he's sixteen, and that sets up a film that is unafraid of nudity and full of double entendre. How can you not like it, especially when it even has a car chase, sky diving, a transvestite surprise, crazy psychiatrists, a psychadelic sex room, and nuns? That's right, nuns. Highly recommended.

We had our first class at Greg's offices in Darling Harbour today. They're in a rather swank location, and his meeting room even comes with a terrace. On that terrace: a barbecue grill.

The group split as we went to get some dinner. The males went looking for something affordable on the harbour, but when that took a while, I left them and got pizza in Glebe from Lavera. It was pretty good but not T Anthony's. It was also a good decision to not continue the search on the harbour because I'm told the food they did find wasn't up to expectations.

Travelogue Day 13

6/6/06

Finished the lecture on Australian film to present and watched The Castle in class today. Clips from Alvin Purple make it look very entertaining too. Lynden Barber, artistic director for the Sydney Film Festival, came in to talk to us today as well. He was rather interesting and many of his festival picks were already on my screening list.

Later, we watched Candy at the Dendy theater in Newtown. The Dendy cinemas are very comfortable, well put together. The movie was alright. I, of course, disliked te covers of "Song to the Siren" they used. It also ran a bit long for my tastes. I would have had it end when Dan came home to find Candy gone and their story written on the walls. Everything else was ok, but it didn't put me off heroin like Requiem for a Dream.

After the absinth last night, I awoke feeling like a million dollars. I did, however, wake a few times during the night whispering something I believe must have been about whatever I was dreaming at the time. I'm hoping for a repreat performance tonight. Well, not the whispering bit, but if I wake tomorrow feeling as much better than today as I did this morning with regard to yesterday, I'll be well and rather pleased.

Travelogue Day 12

5/6/06

I'm still sick. Damnit! If all indications are correct, I'm doing alright. It should pass in the next few days. I hope the absinth helps.


I picked up absinth today. It was $60, so it had better last me at least two days. I've been drinking it by just mixing it with breakfast juice and have noticed no psychedelic effects, but I remain surprisingly alert.

I'm quite tired of this sinus issue keeping me in. How will I experience the fullness of Sydney (read chat up Aussie girls) when I'm required to remain indoors due to illness? Liquor had best make me better.

"Adult's Only" Big Brother is on tonight. It's rumored to have full frontal nudity on occasion. Do I tune in or no? The mystery must be excruciating for the reader.

Travelogue Day 11

4/6/06

Walked to the Italian festival after the presentation from Al's highly attractive travel agent acquaintance. It was decidedly underwhelming. Devon and I then walked down to Circular Quay and had lunch at a reasonably affordable place. My lunch was very good, and I will be finding my way back there again.

We made it back to the UniLodge and, later, Devon, Mike, and Tom bought a bottle of absinth. I'll pick one up for myself tomorrow.

**I don't have a picture of the bottle they got and couldn't find one on the internet, sorry.

Travelogue Day 10

3/6/06

I went on the harbour cruise. We started in Darling Harbour and went under the bridge and around the various inlets of the greater Sydney Harbour. We saw where the ocean met the harbour and even got to look in the windows of some far too expensive harbourside condos as we floated past. The food on the cruise was pretty good, and I met some of the internship kids. They seem nice enough overall.

Got back and picked up some Jacob's Creek reserve shiraz. It was pretty tasty and left me with a clear head, which was nice. Afterward, we went to the Lansdowne for dinner and drinks. I met four nice young ladies, but began feeling poorly again, so I had to call it a night rather than accompany them to King's Cross.

**Some of the too few pictures I took during the harbour cruise will be posted once I set up a flickr account.

Travelogue Day 9

2/6/06

Had an Asian cinema primer with Paul Burns (former artistic director of the Sydney Film Festival among other things) that was quite good. A lot of overlap with Warren's class, but a lot of new information too. I missed the first bit of Picnic at Hanging Rock because the queue barely moved at all when I went to finish my film fesitval bookings.

During my walk back, I picked up some jiaogulan tea (translation of the Japanese name for this tea is: happy grass) from a shop in the Asian district. It's rather good and will, hopefully, keep away whatever is trying to make me sick. If I don't feel significantly better by tomorrow, I will have to miss the harbour cruise.

Travelogue Days 7 and 8

31/5/06

Watched Bliss, another excellent film. Devon, Mike, and I went with Daryl to the Broadway Cafe during the break before our 14:00 meeting with Greg, the instructor of our entertainment promotion class. I learned that Aussie businesses tend not to quibble over big bills ($100 to pay a $3.80 bill) and had some interesting conversation.

I'll be making my way down to the State Theatre again today. I have to get the rest of my tickets for the festival. I think I'll price out some chartreuse while I'm here since I'll be seeing a doco about the monastic order that distills it.

Greg's class was intersting. All indications are that I'll be putting together a promotional program for the Creative Commons organization. It promises to be an experience. After class I watched the interviews with Chopper on the Chopper DVD. He's just as charismatic as Eric Bana portrayed him.

Went to Newtown Thai II. The food was good. The company reinforced my determination to never go anywhere with <one of our number> if I can at all avoid it.

1/6/06

Saw The Tracker and a number of film clips as well. Many more are still to be seen.

This evening I saw The Herd at the Manning Pub on the Sydney University campus. Aussie hip-hop is pretty good. Tonight also saw the origin of the "ride the bus" joke.

I've spent far too much on booze tonight.