Goodbye 2012

The 9pm Family fireworks in Sydney are for those who don't expect to remain up until midnight, hence the family tag, and also represent a farewell to 2012 for those who are going all the way. Here are a couple of snaps of those fireworks from a few minutes ago.

1/4 dare devil

One hour to the family NYE fireworks at 9pm and four hours to the NYE 2013 fireworks. A dare devil flyer is doing his/her stuff over Sydney Harbour. Click on the photo for a better view of the tiny plane and the trail of smoke the dare devil is leaving behind.

Meanwhile Radiance of the Seas enjoys the last rays of 2012 sunshine whilst 'stranded' at anchor in the harbour.

Radiant Fortune

Twelve hours left for 2012 (in Sydney) and the cruise liner Radiance of the Seas should be en route to New Caledonia, indeed a few moments ago a website that tracks liners showed the vessel as being off the Australian coast headed for the French territory.

Actually Radiance of the Seas is on Sydney Harbour at this moment. It was scheduled to depart last night at 6pm but has been delayed because of 'bad weather'. Wherever that bad weather is, it is not in Sydney.

All of this is most fortunate for any passengers aboard as the vessel appears now to be remaining for tonight's New Year's Eve fireworks. The vessel has had to move from its berth at the Overseas Terminal where it would block the view for hundreds of thousands of spectators and instead has anchored on the harbour off Point Piper and just down from my home.

Heading up harbour from the terminal

Getting in position off Point Piper

Parental Guidance

Grandparents Billy Crystal and Bette Midler are invited to babysit their three grandchildren exposing themselves to the generation gap, not to mention the technology gap, the political correctness gap etc, etc.

With these two performers you know pretty well what to expect and this one of their better recent outings.

Light and amusing Christmas time fare.

★★★1/2

Les Miserables

More often than not musicals fail to transfer successfully from the stage to the screen. What the imagination accepts when viewed from afar in the magic of a theatrical setting can seem ridiculous when viewed at large and close up in the cinema. There are exceptions but they are few. Three that come to my mind are Chicago (2002), Grease (1978) and The Sound of Music (1965).

The 'original' stage production of Les Miserables has been running in London for 27 years. Even here in Australia with our small population the stage production has toured for many years and is to be revived again soon. It is a theatrical event that has many admirers.

Victor Hugo's novel set against revolutionary developments in 19th century France sprawls across several generations and countless characters. It is a marvellous tale and has itself been filmed multiple times. There are 70 versions spread across more than one hundred years listed on the Internet Movie Database alone.

Now we have 'Les Miserables' the film version of the stage musical.

Cast with actors who are required to sing as distinct from singers who have to act the film aims for a realistic interpretation of the tale. It is a tightrope task particularly in this style of musical which has minimal spoken dialogue; almost every word is sung.

The professional critics I have read are divided.

For the most part, I like the film. I think the images are terrific. I love the film's overall look. I love how the poverty and oppression of the time are represented. I love the faces and appearance of the many support performers.

Much has been made that the actors sang their roles 'live'; that is they were not made to lip-synch to pre-recorded singing. In the instances where this works, it works very well. The problem is it does not work well in every instance.

For the most part it is the male actors who struggle. Neither Hugh Jackman (surprisingly) as Jean Valjean nor Russell Crowe (less surprising) as Inspector Javert seems entirely comfortable singing their roles. They seem to have to sing in too high a register. Eddie Redmayne as Marius is another who seems to be singing 'too high' yet I really admired his performance. Redmayne is perhaps the most successful male in the film apart from Colm Wilkinson who created the Javert role on stage all those years ago and who is a knockout in the film in the cameo role of the Bishop.

The female actors fare better to my mind. There are some weak singing voices in the smaller roles but the main performers all succeed.

The stellar performance comes from Anne Hathaway. She is sensational in her limited screen time. I was so affected by her performance that when she reached her highlight moment and sang 'I Dreamed A Dream' I was in tears. I rarely cry in movies.

★★★1/2

Christmas present tango

Video CHICAGO - Cell Block Tango - catherine... by tanemsu

Last year on my Christmas Day visit to Brisbane the two married daughters of my local friends gave me Christmas presents. Their generous gesture was unexpected as they had never given me presents in previous years. I was embarrassed that I had not come armed with presents for them especially as I was in no position to conjure up something in exchange.

In preparation for this year's visit I mentioned last year's embarrassment to my Ballina friend (who was there last year and would be there again this year) and said that I would make sure I had presents for the daughters this time.

Unbeknown to me, my Ballina friend mentioned my embarrassment to the parents who passed this information on to their daughters but she must not have added that I would be bringing presents for them this year. As a consequence the daughters, in deference to my feelings, did not have presents for me this year and were in their turn embarrassed when I handed over presents to them.

We'll have to work on our dance steps.

Oooh lah lah

Mooloolaba is not exactly Paris, actually it is nothing like Paris, but it provides a pleasant day of casual leisure in the sun and, should you wish, the surf.

It should only be an hour's drive from my friend's home in the northern suburbs of Brisbane but it took us two hours of occasional road crawl to reach today. I doubt the travel delay was because my local Member of Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull, was also in the area addressing of all things the Woodford Music Festival about honesty in politics but rather the festival itself.

My evidence for that includes but is not confined to the men in a car alongside us who regularly flashed a sign with the words 'Show Us Your Tits' emblazoned on it to the female companions in our car. Class!

We had lunch at the Mooloolaba Surf Club packed with Sunday 'revellers'. I cannot recommend the basic fish and chips dish most us ordered but the Sunday roast one friend ate looked delicious. The club is well located on the surf beach. Der, I just realised how lame that reads.

Afterwards we joined a couple of friends at the camp site where they are staying for the week. Camping is not my scene, not that type of camp at least, but overall it was a splendid day. Here are some photos.

The Surf Club's dining room

The view from our table

Mooloolaba Beach, late afternoon

Boxing the day away

I've never visited Chermside shopping centre in Brisbane previously but have read references to it regularly in Eddie's blog. Ll and Mt arranged for us to meet there today. Mmmmm, Boxing Day is not the day to do it.

I couldn't find a parking spot and ended up parking illegally at a nearby community facility. The crowds were horrendously large. This photo does not do justice to just how crowded the place was today.

Ll and Mt picked up some 'bargains' and we shared a food court lunch before moving on to the tranquility of Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art where the current exhibition is the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. I have never been disappointed by a visit to GOMA and recommend it to anyone spending time in Brisbane.

The diversity of the works is exceptional. Here is just one of many that tickled my fancy.

Another perspective of APT7

Christmas also rises

Ll's souffles, one cheese the other crab, for Christmas dinner

the Coast

Well I made it safely to Brisbane, collected my rental car and completed the drive south to the Gold Coast to catch up with my various friends who live there.

The view from my accommodation for two nights, typical Gold Coast; sun, surf and skyscrapers.

Unfortunately I suffered an adverse effect from my flight similar to the vertigo I experienced for weeks after a flight in 2009 but not thankfully not quite as severe. It has certainly provided a downer to my two days on the coast but I managed to complete my three scheduled visits today. These took me from Harbour Town in the north through Maudsland in the hinterland and down to Tweed Heads on the New South Wales side of the border. A lot of driving in my little rental car completed without further damage to myself nor to the other drivers on the road around me.

There was a Carols on the Beach staged on that section of beach visible in my photograph this evening. From what little I could hear in my bedroom it was a very modern sounding Carols; not my style. It drew a big crowd.

Tomorrow I drive back north to Brisbane.

Beware

It matters not whether I travel alone or with others the odds are I will be taken aside by airport security for the bomb residue test. I don't know what it is but it must be something in my looks. I'm a sixty-three years old man. I reckon whatever days of terrorism I might have had in my CV are now well past. Only kidding, really, I am only kidding.

It has happened again this morning. The security guard waved his explanatory card in my face in the Qantas domestic terminal and wearily I answered with a degree of hyperbole 'I have done this a million times'. Obviously an exaggeration. He didn't laugh. He didn't smile.

He waved his wand about me and then waved me on. My fellow passengers are safe.

Oh well

We're all still here. The world didn't end in Sydney yesterday despite at least one tweet I read stating that the city had been destroyed.

I suppose I better make my flight to Brisbane today. After all, I have paid for it and I did make all those arrangements to meet up with friends.

For the first time I will be using my smart phone for navigation whilst driving in Queensland. If you should not hear from me again, blame technology.

Pitch Perfect

Here we go again. Yet another of these gross behaviour comedies. They must be raking in the money there are so many of these comedies being made.

'Pitch Perfect' is a sort of super 'Glee' for the big screen. This time the participants are in college (I assume) and the college has not one but three 'glee' type groups. One is an all male group fronted by what we in Australia might refer to as a 'Yobbo' who provide the main opposition for our film's heroes, a female group.

Unpleasant characters abound and the opening minutes set a tone with racial, religious, sexual and disability stereotyping.

Despite all this the musical set scenes are often quite appealing and the obvious romantic pairing has a degree of charm.

Australian Rebel Wilson is a highlight. In the film she speaks with her Australian accent and states that she is from Tasmania. I imagine many millions of overseas viewers scratching their heads at the mention of this 'exotic' location wondering where Tasmania is or if it is real.

I also enjoyed Anna Kendrick who is turning out to be a very versatile performer.

Overall I enjoyed Pitch Perfect despite its gross elements.

★★★

Um....

......apparently today (20 December 2012) is our last full day on Earth. It all ends tomorrow. I wish I hadn't paid next year's car registration already.

Anyway, it's been nice knowing you.

All the best!

Bridge

57.60%, 4/13, better.

Beautiful One Day

(Belvoir St Theatre)

'Beautiful one day, perfect the next' is the marketing line for the state of Queensland that has entered the Australian lexicon. It provides the ironic title of Belvoir Street's production 'Beautiful One Day' which relates events leading up to and following the death in police custody on Palm Island of the Aborigine Mulrunji (known in his lifetime as Cameron Doomadgee).

More a performance than a play, this presentation is an informative exposition of the treatment of the Indigenous community, the discriminatory laws to which they were subject and issues of justice. The performance is all the more moving because several members of the cast, some of whom I guess are not professional performers, are related to actual individuals who featured in the events portrayed.

A number of those individuals are seen and heard in documentary footage displayed on screens surrounding the performance space.

An important record of modern Australian history.

★★★★

Somewhere over the harbour

(Click to enlarge)

Our next attraction

RTVE.es te adelanta el teaser de 'Los amantes pasajeros', la nueva comedia de Pedro Almodóvar

• RTVE.es te adelanta el teaser de 'Los amantes pasajeros', la nueva comedia de Pedro Almodóvar

I do like Pedro Almodovar's films. This apparently is his next one and it looks as camp as they come.

Why?

(Reuters)

As I type this, news about the latest mass shooting in the USA at Sandy Hook Elementary School is still unfolding.

Early reports indicate that there are 27 dead including relative(s) of the shooter at what was referred to as a secondary scene. Twenty of the dead are children. The radio tells me that in the USA Elementary School is for children aged between 5 and 10.

Now, let me say - just for the sake of argument - that the shooter and his dead relative(s) had a falling out of some nature that led to their shootings. I can sort of understand that. Not condone it, but understand it.

What I don't understand is why someone would shoot at the school children. What is going on in the shooter's mind? How does it come to that?

Why would it happen? Why? Why? Why?

I just don't understand.

Psycho Beach Party

Some play/movie titles let you know pretty well what to expect.

With 'Psycho Beach Party' we were not expecting high art but we were hoping for a fun experience and happily that is what we got....in spades.

It's a case of Sandra Dee meets The Three Faces of Eve with a level of sexual ambiguity thrown in for good measure.

Young surfer boys strut about posing for the women folk who themselves pose and flirt as they attempt to attract the attentions of these largely empty headed Adonises.

Ash Flanders (a male) plays the lead character Chicklet (a female) with exquisite timing and humour as her multiple personalities emerge. The surfer and wannabe surfer types dance, stomp and generally cavort with Chicklet in this parody of 1960s California lifestyle coming of age practices.

★★★★

Bridge

last night, 52.60%, 5/11, reasonable.

From Little Things Big Things Grow

Brrring, brrring..........

It's Mt on the phone from Ballina. Did I see that The Seekers are performing a concert in Sydney in May? Would I like to go? (The unspoken subtext is, if we go to the concert Mt will stay with me whilst she is in Sydney.)

Yes, I'm happy to go. Mt will book tickets.

Brrring, brrring an hour later........

It's Mt on the phone from Ballina again. She has just spoken to Ll in Brisbane. Ll would like to go to the concert too. Is that OK? (The unspoken subtext is, if Ll comes to the concert she will also stay with me whilst she is in Sydney.)

Ll's husband Fd will not be coming. (The unspoken subtext is I will only need to accommodate Mt and Ll.)

Brrring, brrring another hour later..........

It's Mt on the phone from Ballina yet again. Ll's birthday is only a week after the concert and she is turning 60. Fd has decided he will come after all. (The unspoken subtext is I will need to accommodate Mt, Ll and Fd.) That's fine I reply.

Oh, Mt adds, that means it will be an official birthday get together weekend now. We have two of these each year for this circle of friends. That means (very loudly spoken subtext) that Ll's sister Rs and her husband Gg will now also attend. (The very silent, unspoken, subtext now becomes that I will have to accommodate Mt, Ll, Fd, Rs and Gg.) No problems I respond, feeling slightly faint.

Anyone else out there who would like to join in?

These are The Seekers that we think we will see.....

These are The Seekers that we will see....

Liberal Arts

In 'Liberal Arts' a 35 years old graduate and avid reader returns to his former college where he meets a 19 years old undergraduate. They begin a relationship via correspondence discussing books and music which develops into something stronger. There are several sub plots touching on youth mental health, ageing and lost opportunities.

After a slow start this film develops into a superior depiction of relationships. The screenplay is particularly strong and a cut above the usual dross which passes for witty repartee. I found Josh Radnor very appealing (in personality as well as looks) and the other cast members all perform strongly. What on paper could seem a potentially distasteful subject is handled sensitively and quite believably.

This is an unexpected delight.

★★★★

Love Story

In 1970 a film of a novella by this name was a brief world wide sensation. This 2011 incarnation of 'Love Story' is a story and 'a love' of a totally different nature.

New Zealander Florian Habicht enlists an actress to travel the New York subway holding a slice of cake on a plate. Filming her, Habicht is drawn to the actress and he approaches strangers on the street and in restaurants asking their suggestions for how a love affair between the two should develop. Mixed amongst this, Habicht's father skypes him to discuss the movie's plot. Habicht senior offers enthusiastic support.

It is an interesting premise to have a story unfold according to the suggestions of passers by but I didn't feel it worked all that well in this instance. Perhaps because the object of Habicht's desire, a paid actress, makes it clear she only sees this as a job and is not interested in a relationship with him.

Many of the passers by are interesting and the images of the localities where Habicht spends his time are also of interest.

Habicht is very tall and lean and he reminded me of Sacha Baron Cohen. A scene where the girlfriend eats her morning cereal and milk out of the hollow of Habicht's sunken chest is a contender for the most bizarre movie scene I have witnessed.

★★

Eternity

If like me you grew up in Sydney in the 1950/60s you would have been familiar with the sight of 'Eternity' written in chalk in a neat and stylised hand on the footpaths of the city. This was the work of Arthur Stace, a former alcoholic who converted to Christianity.

Arthur Stace

According to the link, it is thought Stace chalked the word about 500,000 times. I can believe it.

Now the City of Sydney in conjunction with the Darlinghurst Theatre Company is converting a former Tabernacle into its new playhouse which will be named Eternity Playhouse in Stace's honour. An Open Day was held yesterday morning. Only the foyer, very much in embryo form, was available to the visitors although the shape of the seating area in the auditorium above was clearly visible.

The future foyer of the Playhouse

A quartet was on hand to sing Christmas carols a cappella. In a possible indication of the Theatre company's support base I judged a fair proportion of the visitors in attendance to be older gay males.

The facade of the former Burton Street Tabernacle

Through the looking glass

Westfield Bondi Junction

Celeste and Jesse Forever

Celeste and Jesse are best friends who live together and bill and coo in each other's company as though they are newlyweds. They are in fact married but they are moving to divorce. It's a case of can't live happily together married but can live happily together separated. Their lovey dovey friendship irritates their closest friends. It irritated me too.

When one of them enters into a new relationship the happily separated status begins to be strained.

I don't know that I bought the overall premise in 'Celeste and Jesse Forever' and more to the point I didn't care that much. Professional critics in this country are quite taken with the movie but the endless verbosity of some of the characters didn't do much for me.

The chuckles from others in the audience suggest I might be in the minority with this film.
★★★

Trouble in cruiseland?

According to the Sydney Ports Corporation website the cruise liner Oosterdam was to have departed Sydney last night but here it is this morning slowly entering dry dock in Garden Island. Have hundreds of holidaymakers had their holiday plans ruined?

Bridge

tonight, 54.10%, 5/17, better and more enjoyable.

The Sessions

'The Sessions', I understand is taken from the memoirs of an actual childhood victim of polio. Confined as an adult to twenty-four care and desperately wanting to experience the intimacy of sexual as well as loving relations, he secures the services of a sexual surrogate. The experience profoundly affects them both.

This is an honest account of a sensitive issue tempered with humour mostly in the man's dealings with his Priest.

John Hawkes is disarmingly moving in his search for intimacy. Helen Hunt is the no nonsense surrogate.

★★★★

Bridge

tonight, 32.40%, 12/12, clobbered all night.