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.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

My understanding of a 'wallflower' is someone who is a loner, shy and who is not a participant in social activities.

The three principal 'wallflowers' in 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower' scarcely fit that profile. OK, the main character portrayed by Logan Lerman is a little shy but he and Emma Watson and Ezra Miller are a remarkably social threesome.

Whether it is at school football matches, or school dances, or house parties, there they are....participating, fully, visibly, attractively exchanging witty repartee and belonging in their own way.

Sure not everything is mellow in their lives. There are sexual identity issues and a hint of mental health issues in the past but for an hour or so it all seemed a case of attractive rich kids with first world problems to me. In that time I felt I was watching a stereotypical rights of passage tale.

And then there are the final twenty minutes. Patience is a virtue. I could have dismissed it all out of hand but in those concluding scenes issues that have been hinted at are explained and clarified and secrets until then concealed are now revealed. What seemed mostly innocuous takes on a dramatic and highly serious turn.

I feel the story is misnamed but taken as a whole the film packs a punch.

★★★★

Bridge

tonight, 40.20%, 13/14 (rubbish again)

Bridge

tonight, 42.70%, 12/13, rubbish.

Skyfall

I think that seeing a James Bond film is a bit like eating at McDonalds. Once you've tried one you know what to expect from every other tasting. An all action introduction is followed by a familiar course of womanising, villain baiting and an eventual 'too cool to be true' escape from deathly situations.

'Skyfall' is the 23rd film in the series which is now celebrating fifty years. This time, our current Mr Bond, Daniel Craig repeats the formula with his peculiar mix of urbanity and mournfulness. He does it well and so does everyone else who contributes to this episode.

The introductory sequence in Turkey is especially impressive and fun and for those of us for whom 'too much Judi Dench is never enough' we get extra exposure of her as the under pressure 'M'.

One of the better, recent, Bond movies.

★★★★

Sunset Boulevard

Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical interpretation of the Billy Wilder film 'Sunset Boulevard' is one of Lloyd Webber's lesser successes. The Wilder film is arguably one of Hollywood's classics with its vaguely eerie storyline of the forgotten silent screen star, stuck in her past, latching onto the younger screenwriter in need of money. The musical sticks fairly closely to the movie to the point of drawing on much of its memorable dialogue but fails on its own account with its repetitive, at times uninspiring score. There are several tunes to provide some highlight but not sufficient it seems for mass appeal.

The Australian professional premiere of the musical was in Melbourne in 1996 where it failed to live up to expectations and did not subsequently transfer to Sydney as would have been expected. I did see a full concert version staged in Sydney a few years back which thrilled the loyal followers but this staging by the Willoughby Theatre Company is the first ever in the state as a full production.

The WTC is a respected not for profit company which has a strong following for its annual season of musical productions. As far as I am aware they are largely if not entirely amateur performers and crew. Their production standards are ambitious and staging their productions in the relatively new surrounds of the impressive boutique Concourse Theatre, a community facility, lends a further air of professionalism to their output.

I thought they did a pretty good job with Sunset Boulevard. My companion, Cs, with a history of professional and semi professional theatre work of his own, was pretty critical of their efforts in the first act - unreasonably so in my view - but he did concede they finished on a high with the second act.

★★★

Signs of Life

(Sydney Theatre Company)

A new play by Tim Winton, 'Signs of Life' has a sibling Aboriginal couple encounter a recently widowed outback property owner.

All three are mourning the loss of a close relative, each in their own way, and in so doing they make discoveries about themselves and each other.

An interesting tale especially for those interested in the spiritual side of things. A little less shouting from Aaron Pedersen would have been nice but that aside all four performers, including Pedersen when he eventually quiets down, do well.

Peak hour on the harbour

Click to enlarge

Around 7pm and Voyager of the Seas (right) arrives in Sydney Harbour as Celebrity Millennium (left) departs. Out of frame to the right Pacific Jewel also heads out of the harbour city.

Voyager of the Seas

Bridge

tonight, 48.80%, 8/15 (reasonable).

Pre Christmas shopping

It's coming.....

Medea

(Belvoir Street Theatre)

'Medea' is a figure in Greek mythology. She married Jason (of 'Argonauts' fame) and bore him two sons. When Jason falls in love with another woman and announces he will take the sons to live with her and that he will send Medea back to her home town, Medea wreaks her revenge. She sends the lover a tainted garment which peels off all her skin killing her and her father who comes to her assistance. Expecting Jason to return to secure his own revenge, Medea kills her sons. A charming little tale.

Belvoir Street's interpretation of the tale is contemporary, set in the sons' bedroom where they have been locked whilst their parents argue unseen and unheard offstage. The only way we know about what is happening behind the scenes is from the brotherly banter between the boys as they play with their toys.

Their mother, Medea, makes several brief appearances mid play before returning for the final, emotional climax. The two sons played by Rory Potter (pictured) and Joseph Kelly are on stage the entire time. Aged, at my guess, about 9 and 13 respectively the two boys are exceptional. They are completely natural in their roles. Blazey Best performs superbly under the difficult circumstances of very limited stage time.

A very accessible interpretation of a classic tale.

★★★★

Fast food, fast...?

Fast food......fast women...fast......how come men are never fast?

Eclipse

As I type, a full solar eclipse is occurring several thousand kilometres north of me over Cairns in Far North Queensland.

Here are images being beamed on television in Sydney.

In twenty four minutes time, the eclipse (partial) will occur over Sydney with 68% of the sun covered by the moon's shadow. Unfortunately there is heavy cloud cover in Sydney at the moment so the event is unlikely to be visible to us.

Bishopscourt

I so often post photos of the harbour from my apartment I thought I should offer another aspect of the view.

The official residence of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney is Bishopscourt which you can read in the link has been placed on the market and is expected to fetch a considerable amount but nowhere near the figure of what was lost in the global financial crisis. I wonder what the parishioners feel about their church having lost 'about $100 million dollars'?

This is how Bishopscourt appears this cloudy evening as seen from my balcony.

It all looks very English (and 'Harry Potterish') in its leafy location amongst what Andrew likes to refer to as Sydney's salubrious eastern suburbs.

You can see from the lovely purple areas that it is the Jacaranda season in Sydney.

Bridge

tonight, 47.00%, 10/13, partner and I had words and I was accused of being childish! (I probably was.)

Sunday on the balcony

Leisure activity in the distance viewed from the balcony today

Private Lives

(Belvoir St Theatre)

Noel Coward's play 'Private Lives' about a formerly married couple meeting unexpectedly whilst on honeymoon with their new partners dates from 1930 and in this production is brought up to a date never mentioned but evidently is the present. I write 'evidently' because that is not a given with this staging. The music used in the production is a spread between World War 2 and the 1960s. Some confused thinking if you ask me.

Similar confusion is evident in the set design which is, as usual for Belvoir Street, minimalist. The opening balcony or terrace scenes take place in front of hotel doors with the room numbers on them, each door separated by an elevator which opens onto the terraces. It is an odd design. The same setting then is applied to the apartment in Paris to which the four characters later adjourn. It just doesn't seem right.

The production has been very popular with many performances sold out and the audience at the performance we attended mostly gave it a rousing ovation when it concluded. Neither Cs nor I felt as warmly about it. I thought it was unfunny for long stretches in the middle but I concede the final scene worked beautifully.

Times have changed since the play was written. Domestic violence, an element in the plot, may have been the acceptable butt of humour in the 1930s but nowadays the thinking is different.

★★

Alex Cross

A police psychologist, 'Alex Cross', is on the hunt for a sadistic killer.

Based on a book from successful author James Patterson this is a pretty awful film. The characters come across as cartoonish stereotypes, one scene in particular of a stand-off in a German company is lamentably ridiculous at times.

The sadistic elements are mostly implied rather than shown directly and prove sickening nonetheless and the film fails to deliver as a thriller.

On the plus side, Matthew Fox is effectively creepy.

Not recommended.

★

Bridge

last night, 53.30%, 7/16, a couple of poor boards prevented a much better result.

Safety Not Guaranteed

A magazine intern goes in search of the author of an advertisement seeking someone to go back in time, 'Safety Not Guaranteed'. The intern is as quirky and as much an outsider as the advertisement's author and unsurprisingly they become drawn to each other.

A mostly gentle, off centre comedy.

★★★

Bridge

last night, 47.60%, 10/14, need to do better.

Sculpture, sea and sun 3

Still more from the Sculpture by the Sea.

View™Dave Mercer

'where do the children play', Warwick, Ben & Sam Orme

'knot standing', Paul Trefry

Pacific Ocean

Two passers by

'the commodification of imagination', Petra Svoboda

Bondi Beach

Sculpture, sea and sun 2

More from the Sculpture by the Sea.

At Marks Park

'Mirador', Rachel Couper & Ivana Kuzmanovska

Inside 'Mirador'

Inside 'Mirador looking out at the rising sun

Not a sculpture, a passing runner

Sculpture, sea and sun

Sydney's annual Sculpture by the Sea concludes this Sunday. I paid a visit early on Thursday before the crowds, which become almost intolerable later in the day and all day on the weekends of the display, reached their peak.

Here are a few snaps.

At Tamarama Beach

'Kaleidoscope Cube', Alex Ritchie

'Transition', Greer Taylor

Sun over the Pacific Ocean at around 8am

'and in the endless pauses, there came a sound', Paul Kaptein

What's that exposed below his belt?

'love, cherish, remember' Patricia Prociv

One of three seats along the pathway this one being 'love'. And so say all of us.

Walkers, joggers and runners on the Bondi to Tamarama coastal pathway

More to follow.

Change imminent

Clouds signalling a weather change

This is a section of the car park at Sydney's latest super IKEA store in the suburb of Tempe with my silver/grey Mazda 3 nudging the walkway bottom left.

Sydney Airport is immediately to the right and planes taking off fly very low overhead with deafening noise however there was no airport noise noticeable whilst we were inside the store.

None of this was the reason for my photograph. I was trying to capture the interesting cloud formation moving in over the city signalling the predicted cool and possibly showery change after a hot day. The temperature had just peaked at 33.3°c

Bridge

last night, 48.30%, 13/17, middling and muddling.