Girl Asleep

Belvoir Street Theatre

Against her wishes Greta's parents hold a party to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. But Greta is battling to fit in and the party turns into an hallucinogenic nightmare with her new friend Elliot and cliquey in-girls from school featuring prominently.

'Girl Asleep' is an entertaining coming of age story set in the groovy 1970s.

★★★1/2

A kiss on the mouth may be quite continental

A good friend, Jo, hosted her annual Christmas drinks this evening. We were work colleagues in years past. A divorced grandmother, Jo has a large number of gay friends who are often well represented at the annual gathering.

My first attendance at the function years ago was revelatory for me. There were workmates at the party I already knew or suspected to be gay but then there were workmates who had totally escaped my gaydar. The 'outing' of the latter category wasn't achieved merely by their attendance at Jo's party, of course. The clincher, so to speak, was how these already seasoned attendees at her parties greeted and farewelled each other with unabashed mouth to mouth kisses.

I was surprised at my slightly shocked reaction to the sight of those men kissing at that first party. After all I was a gay man of many decades standing. I had kissed and enjoyed kissing many a man myself and it wasn't that I hadn't seen men kissing before.

None of these men greeted or farewelled me with a kiss at that first party nor at subsequent parties. Perhaps I came across as standoffish? I grew up as a gay man in an era when homosexual activity was illegal - even in private - so public displays of man to man affection were just not on. In any event I had never been a great one for public touchy feely activity.

Well, that changed today. Nothing else seemed different about today's party so I don't know what triggered the change but it was as though I had been inducted into a club. I was kissed and I kissed in return.

How continental was that? How gay.

A hospital meal

(The Treasury Casino)

The hospital entertained its volunteers at the annual Christmas lunch today. The photograph above is not an image from our volunteer lunch but - as captioned - from an advertisement for functions offered by an Australian casino.

The hospital is very generous in its acknowledgement of the work and participation of volunteers. Our lunch took place in a hospital function room which was decorated in grand and tasteful style. The three course meal was beautifully presented and very tasty. A seafood selection for starters (prawns, oysters, salmon, crumbed calamari and crumbed fish pieces) was followed by ham and turkey and vegetables for the main course. Christmas pudding and custard, coffee and tea, mini chocolates for dessert completed the lunch. Oh, and wines, orange juice and sparkling water accompanied the meals.

The theme for the lunch was 'a splash of silver'. I wore a silver bow - in reality a decoration for present wrapping - poking out from my shirt pocket 'kerchief style'. Cs was a bit of a stick in the mud pointing to his grey hair as his splash of silver. No-one, though, could match our volunteer manager dressed, dare I say it, gayly, with his silver coloured crooner style hat, silver sequinned jacket and silver coloured shoes.

Nude

Art Gallery of NSW

Nude Art from the Tate Collection is the current feature exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

I'm not averse to nudity - in certain, ahem, circumstances I can be quite appreciative - but, in general, I don't find art nudity all that attractive. Except for the nudity in pornography where the subjects, or should that be objects, are often carefully selected, almost unreal, examples of physical beauty most people's physical 'normalness' in the nude is not always attractive to my eyes. But, we are what we are in the nude so it can be interesting to see how artists depict humans in our natural state.

This is a collection of mainly paintings but there are also statues and sketches on display. Some items attracted my interest but most did not appeal to me. Noticeably the attendance at this exhibition today was less than I have observed at other feature exhibitions at the AGNSW.

Bridge

Tonight, 27.67%, 18/18 - disastrous night

Giardini di Naxos, Sicily

Giardini Di Naxos is a township at the base of the mountain on which Taormina is located. It looks quite interesting although we mainly passed through it numerous times on our way to and from Taormina.

However we did enjoy a wonderful meal in this family run restaurant on the beach front. I can recommend it.

A rather grand railway station serving both towns is nearby to the restaurant although the walk between the two is somewhat dangerous at several points where the footpaths disappear.

Taormina, Sicily

Taormina was our first base on our short visit to Sicily. Situated atop a mountain reached by steep roads with hairpin bend features and blessed with lovely views across to neighbouring areas including Mount Etna this is one tourist trap worth spending a little time in and around.

Some photos of its nightlife.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Despite my love all types of films for some reason I have never been able to bring myself to see any of the Harry Potter series. I just haven't been tempted even though the various trailers seemed attractive enough to me.

I gather that 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is in some ways a prequel to the Potter stories and as it was the only film as yet unseen by me screening at a time when a friend and I wanted to take in a movie I was finally exposed to a 'Potter like' movie.

A young Englishman arrives in New York for some reason I either missed hearing or else was never explained to my understanding. He has a small suitcase containing some fantastic beasts. What ensues is two and half hours or so - it seemed much longer to me - of mostly tedious and chaotic magical events affecting both the city and its inhabitants. Some of the beasts seemed cute to me but elicited not a murmur of reaction from the huge cinema patronage. The effects are impressive but I had little idea about and less interest in what was happening.

I gather there are possibly four more films in this new series to follow. I doubt that I'll be seeing them.

✶1/2

The Founder

In 'The Founder', Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonald's Corporation of family restaurants; yes, that is the 'golden arches' hamburger empire.

Keaton dominates the film from his days as a struggling but ambitious travelling salesman through to his evolution as a ruthless business tycoon. It is a fine performance.

A riveting depiction of super sized capitalism in action. You might need a large serve of fries with that.

✮✮✮✮

Gzira, Malta during a rain storm

Nocturnal Animals

A married woman reads the manuscript of a new book written by her former husband. This, essentially, is the setting for 'Nocturnal Animals' the new film from Tom Ford. Much of the film is occupied with a visual representation of the manuscript with the wife imagining her former husband as the book's lead character. Interspersed are moments from the woman's current and earlier life.

Unsurprisingly, visual images and colour motifs are strong points in fashion designer Ford's film. However I found much else to be perplexing in this somewhat 'Hitchcockian' styled movie.

(WARNING: Possible spoiler alerts. Is her current husband having an affair or not? Did she have an abortion and if so which of the men in her life was the father? Does the brief appearance of an adult daughter have anything to do with the plot?)

I like Amy Adams a lot but her performance here, all flicking of hair and distant, moody looks just seems a waste of talent to me. Michael Shannon makes his usual impression and provides the most striking performance in the movie.

If you are sensitive about nudity and/or images of people's toileting habits then you might want to give the film a miss.

🟊🟊🟊🟊✮✮1/2

Bridge

Tonight, 34.62%, 15/15

More streets of Valletta

More photos from the streets of Valletta, Malta.

Bridge

Tonight, 47.62%, 6/9

More from Comino, Malta

Comino; another of the Maltese islands. We spent several hours exploring the Blue Lagoon area of the island. Some photos follow.

Disembarking at the Blue Lagoon

On (very) dry land

Let's explore

Wandering and swimming

More wandering, more swimming and the island of Gozo in the background

Dusty

The Production Company

'Dusty' is the musical retelling of Dusty Springfield's life from aspiring schoolgirl performer to international artist and the sadnesses in her personal life.

I originally saw the musical in its premiere season in Sydney back in around 2004 and whilst enjoyed the performances and reliving her signature songs I found the play itself to be rather unbalanced. The first half ran like a continuous concert with only superficial reference to the details of Springfield's life whilst the second half was melodramatic and by comparison sparse of music. At least, that's my recollection.

The program notes for this limited staging in Melbourne indicate that the Director worked with the authors to rewrite the play; or more specifically the Director requested 'a nip and rewrite here and a rethink there'. I think the play is improved as a consequence. I still think it is somewhat unbalanced but perhaps less so than I found it earlier.

The performances in this production are very good with Amy Lehpamer (Dusty) and Baylie Carson (Mary, the childhood 'Dusty') outstanding. Their duet to conclude Act 1 was exceptional.

★★★1/2

Comino, Malta

Gozo, Malta

The Maltese island of Gozo. A ferry trip of about 90 minutes from the mainland.

Bridge

Tonight, 52.14%, 6/14

Tarxien Temples, Malta

The Tarxien Temples date back more than 3000 years BC. We visited them on a rather cool and rain swept day.

Bridge

Tonight, 46.33%, 9/11

Nijinsky

Australian Ballet

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have been to the ballet (and yes that does mean not counting my thumb).

Attending the Australian Ballet's production 'Nijinsky' is only my fourth ballet, ever. I am not an aficionado of the art form although I can respect the extraordinary skill and athleticism of the performers.

I was attracted to attend Nijinsky by newspaper reports and images (and in truth the expectation of viewing superb examples of the male athlete).

This ballet relates the last public performance of the famed early 20th century Russian ballet dancer. Diagnosed with schizophrenia the dancer hallucinates images from his past; previous performances, early life influences and events.

The production is very dramatic and notwithstanding my general ignorance of the form a memorable event.

✶✶✶✶

Hell or High Water

Two brothers are on a bank robbing spree across Texas.

'Hell or High Water' is the surprise movie of the year for mine. What could appear on the surface to be a mindless buddy movie is in fact a little gem touching on all manner of social issues. Brotherly love, family responsibilities, racism and banking practices are just some of the issues woven into the plot.

Go see it.

✶✶✶✶1/2

Sliema and Valletta

Panoramic view from Sliema across to Valletta