Tuesday 30 September 2008

The Narcissist


Last night, Mk and I saw The Narcissist at the Drama Theatre in the Opera House. A gay political staffer has a bet with his female best friend as to which of them will be the first to land a boyfriend before the end of the year.

The Sydney Theatre Company blurb asserts "this politically incorrect comedy of manners promises to be one of the funniest nights you'll have this year!"

Well....not Mk nor myself.

Mk was stony faced throughout and felt the play was juvenile and the worst example of the No Sex We're British style of 1970s humour. Unlike Mk, I thought there were a lot of funny lines in the play but they fell dead for me because of the way the play was performed.

The lead actor played his character in mincing gay style somewhat like the Jack McFarland character in Will and Grace. This irritated me and detracted from any appreciation of the lines he was delivering. Adding confusion to the mix, the second male character flounced on stage at his first appearance and for the next fifteen minutes I assumed he was meant to be gay too until it dawned on me from the unfolding action that he in fact was a straight character, albeit rather juvenile.

The narrative was muddled with inconsistencies and changes in the characterisations mid stream added to the mess.

It was a disappointing night for us both although, to be fair, all around us in the packed auditorium were having a rollicking good time and clearly found the play hilarious. Perhaps this work is how straights imagine or expect all gays behave.

The most interesting aspect of the night for Mk and myself was keeping an eye on Richard E Grant, the British actor, who is in Sydney to play Professor Higgins in a revival of My Fair Lady. Grant sat in front of us and we tried to gauge how he was enjoying the work. Neither of us observed him to laugh at any stage. He applauded the cast politely at the end and then like us made a speedy departure. Perhaps he had a dinner date.

Monday 29 September 2008

Eagle Eye


In Eagle Eye, Shia LaBeouf is a low achieving drifter and Michelle Monaghan a single parent who are thrown together on the instructions of a disembodied voice representing an unknown organisation.

The pair become unwilling partners steered through increasingly dangerous situations by the voice for purposes they do not understand.

They are not the only ones.

In the style of modern Hollywood movies, the viewer of Eagle Eye is presented with a noisy, high tech, heavily edited series of adventures full of confusion such that I had little idea of who was doing what to whom.

The one thing I was certain about was that I shouldn't think. The action on screen defied all logic. When towards the end, pieces of the jigsaw were revealed and the overall premise of the film became clearer I realised that the movie was a modern take on aspects previously covered in movies such as No Way Out and even 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Steven Spielberg is the Executive Producer, so the film is slick and stylised.

There are many males in the cast, enough to suit most gay tastes, although for the most part they flash across the screen in a flurry of activity.

Sunday 28 September 2008

Terrorism, Grievance, Fire?


Yesterday morning a series of fire engines raced along my road in the general direction of Bondi Junction. The sound of the sirens of fire engines and police vehicles is common in my area but the number of vehicles yesterday morning was unusual and for a while I wondered whether there was a major fire at the Westfield shopping centre.

Later in the day I was caught in major traffic delays around my home and then on the return journey found my street blocked off by the police. I still didn't know what had happened as I hadn't heard any news bulletins.

I subsequently heard about this event. The suggestions seemed variously to be possible terrorism or political act (both since discounted) or possibly grievance following loss of a job.

UPDATE: Police allege in court proceedings that the individual's grievance relates to an unsuccessful workers compensation claim.

Paul Newman 1925-2008


Paul Newman has died of cancer aged 83.

Memorable for many things including those beautiful blue eyes, playing Elizabeth Taylor's closeted gay husband in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and hit movies such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.

He founded a line of food products whose entire proceeds of more than $100 million dollars he donated to charity.

This quote taken from Towleroad;

Newman: "I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant."

Saturday 27 September 2008

Hawks in an upset


Hawthorn Hawks have beaten hot favourites Geelong Cats in this afternoon's AFL Grand Final.

The Cats, the defending Premiers, had lost only one match all season but the Hawks proved too strong on the one day that counts the most.

Cute Guy Investigation: New York


I have never seen CSI: New York but having just noticed a reference on another blog to Eddie Cahill, who is an actor in this series, I will certainly be keeping an eye out for it in future.

Cahill has an Italian mother and an Irish father, a heritage which must surely contribute to his gorgeous looks and attributes.

Friday 26 September 2008

Slap and tickle


Would you believe that when I googled for a gay slap and tickle image this was one of the photographs offered? The photograph appeared in a blog with a notation as homoerotic slap and tickle!

All because I just wanted to let my readers know that I enjoyed a moment of outdoor slap and tickle in the Spring sunshine late yesterday afternoon. And yes, it was a more homoerotic experience than what appears above.

Thursday 25 September 2008

Cute boy...out of season?


I took this photograph from Stunning Sexy Guys because I agree that the boy in the photograph looks hot.

But something else about the photograph interests me. I wonder what the season is when the photograph was taken?

Look at the photograph closely (or click on it to enlarge) and you see that the boy and some others in the background are wearing T-shirts and short sleeves as if in summer, yet others in the background are wearing heavy clothing as though it is winter.

Regardless, it is the boy who interests me most ;-)

Wednesday 24 September 2008

A new meaning for edging?


I would travel more often by train if the Sydney network followed the lead of its British counterpart above.

Tuesday 23 September 2008

He's having a ball...


Carsten Ball seems to have come from nowhere into Australia's Davis Cup team and at the age of 21 has performed admirably in our loss to Chile at the weekend.

I took notice of Carsten not just because of his success at the weekend in a losing side but also because he looks pretty good. According to his profile, Carsten is 1.90m tall and weighs 82kgs. Those are attractive stats.

Like me, Carsten is left-handed and I find that we have the same birthday too. (It's just that I am 38 years older, to the day!)

Monday 22 September 2008

Summer is coming


No other reason for posting this photograph other than he looks good (especially when you click to enlarge).

Sunday 21 September 2008

God of Speed


My current read is Luke Davies' God of Speed.

Davies is the author of Candy which became a movie starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. I attended a conversation with Davies at the Sydney Writers' Festival in May and was attracted to his honest and self effacing account of his drug addicted youth and his blossoming writing career.

In God of Speed, Davies delivers a fractured (drug induced?) first person narrative of reminiscences by the movie and industry mogul Howard Hughes.

I'm about two thirds of the way through the book and so far Hughes seems to have slept with every famous and quite a few wannabe famous actresses of his day. And David Duchovny thinks that he's a sex addict?

Saturday 20 September 2008

Overcoming jealousy


I finally got around to visiting Mk in the apartment he has moved into with Rs. This was months after the first invitation to tea to celebrate (with Mk's other friends) the big move which I shamefacedly avoided because I was too mean spirited to expose myself to their joy.

At that time, I was jealous.

A ridiculous thing because even then I was well over Mk as a possible love interest and not into Rs either.

This invitation was to make up for that missed opportunity and also to enable Mk and I to work out our subscription to the Sydney Theatre Company for its 2009 season.

Mk and Rs were gracious hosts. I brought a cake and they provided an excellent coffee. I was relieved that the earlier jealousy pangs had subsided. I took in images of their domestic bliss (romantic sideboard photos, loving glances exchanged by the 'newlyweds', the slide show of their shared travel experiences, the double bedroom etc) without that fateful feeling of my stomach knotting.

Thankfully I didn't sense that newlyweds' attitude of pity for the single man left behind that I have sometimes experienced with straight friends after they have married.

I can move on.

Friday 19 September 2008

Facebook....schmacebook...


I notice a few bloggers posting about Facebook lately. Some are getting into it and some are getting out.

I've been there, done that.

I signed up about a year ago, became instantly addicted and within days turned to disillusionment by the stream of emails, updates and the like that flooded in from 'friends' around the world demonically acquiring contacts like a magnet attracting paper clips.

Facebook must be a spammer's delight.

Thursday 18 September 2008

Blogging hurts sometimes........


I checked a blog I read regularly yesterday and found the message

Blog has been removed
Sorry, the blog at xxxxxx.blogspot.com has been removed.

What has happened? Has someone at Google arbitrarily removed the blog? If so, why?

Even more perplexing and sometimes hurtful is the message that tells me a blog I have been reading regularly for months is suddenly available by invitation only and apparently I am not invited. And I don't know why?

Wednesday 17 September 2008

I got the message...


A Government health advisory notice in a toilet on the road to Darwin.

Tuesday 16 September 2008

The Google Meme

This is my first go at one of these Meme thingies. I've taken this one from Steven who got it from....well you can guess the rest.

A) Answer the questions below. Do a “Google” image search with your answer. Choose a picture from your first page of results. Do it with minimal words of explanation.

B) Tag 5 people to do the same once you have finished answering every question. Like Steven, I won't tag anyone but if you want to play, consider yourself tagged and leave me a link.

1) The age you will be next birthday: Sixty.


2) A place you want to travel to: Alaska.


3) Your favourite place: Cinema


4) Your favourite food: Rissoles.


5) Your favourite pet: Golden Labrador.


6) Favourite colour combination: Blue and Yellow.


7) Favourite piece of clothing: Jeans.


8) Your all time favourite song: I Want To Hold Your Hand.


9) Favourite television show: Kath and Kim.


10) First name of your first significant other: Eamon.


11) Which town do you live in: Sydney.


12) Your screen name/nickname. Victor


13) Your first job. Hardware store salesman.


14) Your dream job: Champion cricketer.


15) The one bad habit you have: Laziness.


16) Worst fear: Snakes.


17) Thing you would like to do before you die: Marry (civil registration) my dream man.


18) The first thing you would do/buy if you get $1,000,000: Faint.


19) First thing that comes to mind when you think of your significant other: There is no man at the moment.


20) What present would you like to buy for your next birthday: Plasma flat screen television.

Monday 15 September 2008

Chocolate


I took advantage of yesterday's rainy 'stay at home' type day to file a lot of paperwork that had been piling up for months. I feel virtuous now, not to mention that the apartment is back to its minimalist look now that the mountain of paperwork has been dealt with.

I discovered a number of documents in that pile that I thought had been lost as well as some my tax agent had asked me to search for before filing my latest tax return. Oh dear.

I also found buried in the paper tower two birthday gift cards I have yet to convert into presents that I had forgotten about. One is (yet another) Borders gift card. I have a queue of books waiting to be read so that card can wait a while longer. The other is a Lindt Chocolate gift card to the value of $50. The thought of $50 worth of rich chocolate is a bit scary even to a sweet tooth like myself. I better tread carefully there.

Sunday 14 September 2008

Woman on a garden seat


About five years ago a new resident in our apartment block persuaded the Body Corporate to place a seat in a usually shady area of our front garden. In all the time since, I cannot recall seeing anyone sit on that seat.

Yesterday, out of the blue, summery weather hit Sydney with the temperature passing 30c. Looking out of my lounge window to the sunny aspect five floors below I saw for the first time someone sitting on that garden seat.

I commemorated that moment by taking the above picture of the event.

Saturday 13 September 2008

Just lie back and think of England.......


I performed my civic duty this morning and voted early, but not often, in the Council elections.

With the Labor Party so on the nose at the State Government level at the moment it will be interesting to see how they fare in this election. My well-to-do Council Ward didn't attract any Labor Party candidates this time so the party won't be representing my area at Council level for the next four years.

Any doubts about the 'silvertail' nature of my area (and in reality after nineteen years in the area, I had none) would have been dispelled on my arrival at the Ballot location by the sight of the slimy (in my view) Professor David Flint dispensing how to vote slips.

I had seen him around my local shops previously and should have been aware he seems to live in the neighbourhood but this is the first time I can recall seeing him accosting voters. Seeing him could have been enough to encourage an informal vote out of me but I desisted and made sure that my vote will count.

Seeing Flint always makes me recall those lyrics Professor Higgins sings in My Fair Lady; "...oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way around the floor...".

Friday 12 September 2008

Pop goes your card.....


New soft drink dispensing machines have appeared in elevator lobbies in Westfield Bondi Junction where usually people with groaning shopping trolleys and baby prams congregate waiting for elevators to arrive.

Those lobbies became quite crowded before the arrival of these machines and the situation should only be worse now to judge by how much of what space was available is taken up by these new monsters.

To add insult to injury the machines boast, if that is the correct description, that we now can buy drinks using our credit cards. This is a euphemism for the price of the drinks is now so high that we require a credit card to purchase them.

Thursday 11 September 2008

What is going on?.....


This man was forced to resign last night after just three days as our state's latest Police Minister for getting drunk in his office, undressing to his underpants and allegedly engaging in a simulated sex act with a female MP old enough to be his mother.

But, what the fuck.....

I've just heard an interview on radio in which two journalists discussed this matter and effectively outed the departed Minister as being gay.

Where did that come from?

Feeling ill


It seems that it wasn't the air conditioning that made me unwell.

I saw the doctor yesterday about my ongoing symptoms and he says I have a sinus infection and some bronchitis. I'm back on an assortment of medication and puffers.

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Kununurra and the Bungle Bungles

During our holiday we flew down to the Bungle Bungles from Kununurra using the delightfully named Alligator Airways. Our group was transported in two planes which departed one after the other. The other group was in a newer, slightly faster, plane which overtook us on the way south. I took this photo as that plane passed us. Just moments earlier we had waved to each other as the planes drew level. At this point we are flying over Lake Argyle, created from damming the Ord River and providing a body of water eighteen times the size of Sydney Harbour.


Once at the Bungle Bungles, we hiked to Cathedral Gorge with its magnificent rock overhang. We lunched there before undertaking the return hike.


The return flight to Kununurra was largely uneventful until we approached the airport and found it obscured by smoke. We learned later that vandals had set off fires in the adjoining fields and our pilot decided to do a circle of the airport and land from the opposite end where visibility was better. The township of Kununurra is seen in the middle background of my photo on the other side of the Ord River and the airport is in the left foreground.

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Amok in a brothel

A posting by Sunshine in which he mentions not having ever been in a brothel triggered a memory for me. I have been to a brothel - once - back in about 1979.

I was working in Hong Kong at the time and had travelled to Macau for a weekend with four colleagues; all with their wives in tow. I wasn't out to them at the time and at least one of the guys suspected my true sexuality but the others and the wives seemed either blissfully unaware or else didn't care.

To my amazement, my four colleagues, despite the presence of their wives, decided we five men should patronise the hotel's brothel. Even more amazing to me the wives didn't seem to mind their husbands' brothel visit.

I tried to get out of it but they would have none of it and I found myself unwillingly and completely naively in this house of ill repute.



We were were outside a room containing the working ladies and thinking it was what I was supposed to do I nervously stepped into the room to select a lady. The madam quickly dragged me out of the room and informed me that I had to view the ladies through a one way mirror to select 'mine'. I wasn't supposed to be parading around the room in front of them.

I have never found women sexually attractive in the slightest and didn't even find most of these women attractive to me visually. I ended up selecting one by wildly pointing at no one in particular. The others all made their selections and then we were led into separate rooms for our half hour of 'fun'.

I dreaded what was to follow but 'my' lady took the lead and got me to sit naked in a type of steam box which gave me a feeling of sickening claustrophobia. She sat herself down adjacent to this contraption and then leaned over and started to masturbate me. To my relief she wasn't expecting intercourse.

This was the least arousing experience for me and despite her efforts I didn't get an erection. She battled on gamely and after what seemed an interminable period she asked me whether I was married. I gathered she saw this as the explanation for my non-arousal and I happily said 'yes'. I took that as the opportunity to thank her for her services and ended the visit.

I felt I had been in that chamber for so long I was certain I would be the last to return but found that I was the first to end my sexual odyssey. To my secret amusement, when the other four returned they all commented how 'refreshed' and 'relieved' I looked and how 'obviously' I needed the shag I'd just received. What a bunch of morons.

Monday 8 September 2008

In Bruges


Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are hitmen hiding out in Bruges following a contract gone awry in London. Gleeson finds the medieval Belgian town fascinating whilst Farrell is bored. All Farrell wants is to return to the bright lights and in the meantime he chases an attractive young local woman.

Gangster Ralph Fiennes has hired Gleeson and Farrell and has his own plans for the pair.

This film is violent in parts and littered with coarse language but it is surprisingly endearing nonetheless. A lot of this is due to the witty screenplay which had me laughing throughout and to the performances which are uniformly strong. Farrell is at his charismatic best, Fiennes is superb and the supporting players all contribute strongly.

A morality tale about friendship, honour and justice amongst thieves.

Sunday 7 September 2008

I'm no deep throat...

...at the moment.

I have developed a sore throat and cough since my return from holidays.


I checked with Ae and Hn and neither is displaying similar symptoms so I didn't pick this up on the return flight home.

Thinking back I probably developed the soreness and cough from setting the air conditioning controls too high on the last night in Darwin.

Saturday 6 September 2008

Sunsets


One thing about being in Western Australia is that you get to see the sun set into the ocean, something we east coasters don't experience. The sunset in Broome, just as we were completing a camel ride, was spectacular. Many people had driven their four wheel drive vehicles onto the beach and set themselves up with deck chairs and a drink, or two, to view the spectacle.

Back to earth

Being back in Sydney has certainly been a contrast to the past two weeks of travel.

A fortnight of sunny, dry days with 32c-34c temperatures has been replaced by 14c-16c and continual rain.

Two weeks ago today we flew into Broome, Western Australia. Whilst we were there we met up with Ye, a colleague from StV who is temporarily resident in Broome as chaperone for her young grandson who is filming a children's television series.

Ye took us on a drive around some of the scenic spots. The blue of the ocean and the red of the earth were stunning under the clear skies. The following photo taken at the point where a lighthouse is located is typical of the colour scape.



Being a keen cinemagoer, I was interested in the 'world's oldest picture gardens', an outdoor cinema which has operated since 1916.



Unfortunately, we were there in the heat of the day when the 'picture gardens' were not open for public touring. As you can see from the billboards, they do screen the latest releases.


(Click to enlarge photos)