Castiglione, Sicily

We set off to explore Mount Etna but I missed a turn off and after driving for a while we decided to continue to another dot on the map, Castiglione.

Turned out to be a good decision. On a hot, lazy, sleepy Sunday we encountered a lovely little township. After wandering around the town for a while we settled down to a long, languid delicious lunch in a small family run cafe.

La La Land

Two aspiring performers, an actress and a jazz pianist, meet in Los Angeles and engage in an off and on relationship whilst each seeks their big break.

'La La Land' recreates the style of the classic 1940s MGM musicals using an original score and the time honoured boy meets girl, boy loses girl plot. Whether the time honoured plot is completed in the traditional way is something you'll have the see film to discover.

'La La Land' has reached our shores weighed down by clever marketing and lavish reviews. I really wanted to like it but I was disappointed. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are likeable and talented and if the marketing is to be believed both studied and worked very hard on their skills to portray their characters. However, neither possesses a strong singing voice and their dancing, whilst adequate, does not rate with their predecessors. Perhaps they were chosen for their roles precisely for that reason?

The first half of the film is mostly song and dance with minimal plot development and seems lame. The second half is much more plot focussed and the film from then on feels all the better for it even if that plot is as old as the hills around them.

Disappointing.

★★

Bridge

Tonight, 45.72%, 10/10

Those who have told me they don't like these Bridge postings will be happy to learn that is this last one for an indefinite period. Gosia, in particular, might be pleased.

I have decided to take an open ended break from the game. The late nights are clashing with my daytime commitments and this is the main reason for my decision. A secondary consideration is that we, my Bridge partner and I, have been performing poorly for ages with ongoing results that are disheartening.

Next Wednesday was to have been my last night but my partner informed me tonight she was unavailable for medical reasons. Unfortunately that sees us bow out tonight with a last placing; a result that has been ours uncomfortably often of late.

Little Men

Two thirteen year olds try to maintain their friendship against the background of a property dispute between their families.

'Little Men' is a low key touching film with fine performances from all especially the two teens; the outgoing Michael Barbieri a star for the future in my opinion and the sensitive Theo Taplitz whose main dramatic scene is a stunner.

★★★★

The coast of Sicily at Taormina

The coastal strip alongside Taormina in Sicily is spectacular as viewed here from the back of the Greek Amphitheatre.

Mediterranean Sea

Mazzaro

Giardini di Naxos on the coast and Mount Etna in the distance

Greek Amphitheatre Taormina, Sicily

Our visit to the Greek Amphitheatre at Taormina with Mount Etna in the backdrop was one of the highlights of our holiday.

Office Christmas Party

An IT firm stages an office Christmas party to impress a potential client against the wishes of their CEO and the party descends into mayhem and chaos.

'Office Christmas Party' is not the first movie to depict an event gone wrong as a comedy. Some of them, such as Peter Sellers' 'The Party', are classics but this film is not. It is not very funny and worse still it is somewhat nasty.

Some good talent completely wasted.

★

Bridge

Tonight, 46.16%, 11/16

Billy Linn's Long Halftime Walk

Billy Linn is a feted as a hero for coming to the aid of his Sargent during fierce combat against the enemy in the Iraq war. He and his unit are on a leave stay in Texas prior to their return to combat where they and some of those hosting them have intentions to profit from the unit's fame. There are a few life lessons to be learnt.

'Billy Linn's Long Halftime Walk' is one of the more thoughtful war stories.

★★★

Bridge

Tonight, 47.92%, 6/9

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