A performer?

OK. So many other bloggers are doing and posting this that, like a sheep, I am following suit. You enter your URL into Typealyzer and it instantly provides an analysis of your personality based on your blog. I'm sure the whole thing is a scam. From the instant response it is obvious there isn't a team of analysers examining your blog and I imagine you get sent one from a series of pre-set analyses on a random or sequential basis.

This is the analysis I received.

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Apart from the analysis depicting me as a female, my friends also would not recognise me from most of the description in the first paragraph.

Do you require a bed or are you happy to stand?

I was tempted to ask patients this question today after just about the busiest day I can recall working in Admissions.


Newly admitting patients streamed into the hospital all day today pretty well without a break. Add to that a greater than usual number of 'walk ins' (patients referred directly to us by the Admitting Doctor without prior booking) plus a heavy load of preadmission appointments and it was one of the most tiring days I have experienced at the Hospital.

I joked to one of the staff members that the Hospital might need to install bunk beds to cope with the numbers and then was momentarily taken aback when he appeared to ponder the thought as a serious suggestion.

I also jokingly suggested to the Volunteer Coordinator that she might consider paying me a bonus. I think the Hospital gets good value from my twenty or so hours a week work that costs them nothing more than the $7 a day lunch coupon I receive.

Dear Dorothy Dix #1

The first in what may become an occasional series where I ask readers to answer questions that have me puzzled.


Being a left hander I always find it interesting to see someone performing a task left handed. But I have never seen anyone play a violin left handed. I have come to the conclusion that it may not be possible.

Does anyone play a violin left handed?

Swedish gay commercial

Apparently this is a humorous Swedish gay commercial.

I have no idea what they are saying and therefore can't fully see the humour but the young men look attractive, if nothing else.

Perhaps James can explain?

Who stole our Spring?

Spring in Sydney is often like Summer without the humidity; blue skies and high temperatures. This Spring has been unusual. The occasional hot day amongst many cool to almost cold days.

This morning is windy, cloudy, rainy and the temperature at 11am just 14c.

We want our Spring back.

Quantum of Solace

Daniel Craig, seeking revenge for the death of his lover in Casino Royale, finds himself in a battle to protect the water supply of Bolivia. The murder and mayhem that surrounds him defies any environmental overtones to this scenario as do the early scenes where historic buildings in Italy crumble as he chases a traitor from roof top to roof top.

The pacing of the film is oddly as regular as a metronome. Every few minutes the film breaks out into a pursuit. Craig pursuing others, others pursuing Craig. Despite being bloodied, dusted and lacerated repeatedly, Craig unfailingly maintains his clothes horse dignity and the better class of bystander who obviously inhabits Europe's streets and hotels remains oblivious to this evidence of unpleasantness.

There is a lot more of Judi Dench in this film and that cannot be a bad thing. Dench shows admirable, if curious, restraint as Craig disobeys orders time and again by killing potential witness after potential witness.

There are no gee whiz gadgets for 007 this time, those being replaced by high tech information wizardry instead.

A highly stylised film, especially in its opening credits and location titles, of the type that can age quickly and may well look ridiculous a few years down the track.

A highlight for me is the scene in Austria played out against the background of a fascinating looking production of Puccini's opera, Tosca. I assume there is such a production in reality and I must keep an eye out for it on the Ovation channel.

The very healthy (in numbers, not appearance) older audience at the 10.15am session I attended suggests that this film, although a little off key when compared with Casino Royale, is doing good box office.

I've been stolen

I received a comment from another blogger to a message I was purported to have placed on her blog. Except that the message was not mine. It linked back to my profile and blog but I did not send it.

Can anyone tell me how that is possible or what I can do to prevent it reoccurring? Is the solution as simple as changing a setting on Blogger?

I have security protection on my PC and hope this incident is not an indication of hacking or whatever.

Nights in Rodanthe

Diane Lane and Richard Gere cross paths in an eccentrically exotic seaside house in North Carolina. Actually that house is more in the sea than by it and looks nothing like the coastal houses I saw in North Carolina in the late 1980s but then what would I know.

If I were into women then Diane Lane is just the woman I would want to be into. I always enjoy seeing her. And from this gay man's point of view she has hit two jackpots. Lane is married to Josh Brolin. This means that she has Barbra Streisand for her mother in law and she gets to sleep at night with Brolin. A gay man's dream twice over.

A bonus for gay viewers is the appearance, briefly, of Christopher Meloni remembered fondly for his impressive personal attributes revealed full frontal in the television prison series, Oz.

Predictably, everyone and everything in Rodanthe is improbably picturesque and the film unfolds as a weepy of the type that had them teary eyed at lights up in the suburban Odeon and Kings Cinemas every Saturday afternoon in the 1950s.

For rent: maturity and experience

Passing through Oxford Street yesterday after my day at the hospital I noticed a man who pretty obviously was 'on the game' and looking for customers.

Judging by his apparent age, he was less rent boy and more rent gent.

Sex Drive

This film is awful.

Jacarandas

Two Jacaranda trees I photographed in my neighbourhood yesterday with contrasting residences as background.


(Click photos to enlarge.)

Andre Rieu Oi..Oi..Oi

I paid the supplement to watch Andre Rieu's Melbourne show live on cable television last night. It was considerably cheaper than paying $300 to see the show in person in two weeks time in Sydney at an open arena requiring binoculars and possibly in the rain (the way Sydney's weather has been this Spring).

I am quite ambivalent about Rieu's shows. I admire his showmanship, a type of Barnum and Bailey for waltz and operetta music, but find the lack of spontaneity irritating. The slightest wink and nudge is pre-planned.

The show lasted almost three and a half hours so there was little to fault in the amount of time granted with 'the great one'. It was very similar to the shows screened here from Europe and elsewhere through his ubiquitous DVDs and all the usual personalities were on display.

I had thought Rieu would include some Australian material to humour the Australian audience and was a little surprised that the encores were reached with only Botany Bay sung as a sop to we colonials. This was performed by the blonde Australian soprano bearing the exotic East European name who is a member of the usual ensemble.

But the local touch came to the fore deep into the encores. First came Advance Australia Fair performed as an entertainment rather than the National Anthem into which it has been converted. Then followed a curious selection including the themes from Bananas in Pyjamas and Neighbours both now elevated to semi-classical status by Rieu's imprimatur.

There was an interesting moment earlier when a microphone failed as a soprano commenced her song. During the break that followed whilst a replacement was summoned Rieu, without missing a beat, lead the audience in a rousing rendition of the Aussie..Aussie..Aussie Oi..Oi..Oi 'war cry'.

If nothing else, Rieu certainly does his homework.

Proposition Hate

There are protests planned for today across the United States, as well as some internationally, against California's Proposition 8.

In Australia, a protest is being organised for 12 noon today in Federation Square, Melbourne.

Check Join The Impact for more information.

El Tango De Roxanne

With Baz Lurhmann's new movie Australia about to open I thought I would post this video of my favourite scene from his previous extravaganza, Moulin Rouge.

The tango, the gorgeous male dancers and yummy Ewan McGregor.

I think they scored

I saw this funny clip taken from MadTV on A Flat with a View.



The two actors are Ike Barinholtz and Josh Meyers.

Would you like a pre-op dear?

I experienced a 'full moon' type morning at the hospital yesterday as one eccentric patient after another appeared at the desk. It was as though they had lined up to torment me in turn.

I reported this to my coordinator over lunch enjoying a good laugh as the other volunteers present joined in with their own 'full moon' patient experiences. Then the coordinator trumped us all with an experience of her own.

When working in another area, the coordinator was called to a ward by nurses seeking her resolution of a problem with a patient. She arrived to find a female patient being prepared for her medical procedure and an agitated husband by her side. He wanted to have sex with his wife in the hospital bed before she was wheeled off to theatre and was incensed that the nurses were telling him this was not acceptable.

I'm afraid none of us could top that experience.

Hunger

This film relates action taken in 1981 by IRA prisoners in the Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to be recognised as political, rather than criminal, prisoners. Led by Bobby Sands, the prisoners refuse to wear prison uniform nor wash themselves and eventually undertake a hunger strike leading to the deaths of Sands and nine others.

It is a very striking film. Apart from a single 20 minutes scene between Sands and a priest, the remainder of the film is largely without dialogue. Director Steve McQueen unleashes extraordinary images powerfully conveying the abuse and the lack of dignity that befalls not just the prisoners but their captors as well.

Michael Fassbender plays Sands in a riveting performance. His conversation scene with Liam Cunningham's priest where we learn just what made Sands the man that he became is superb.

A difficult but memorable film.

The Pig Iron People

Tonight I saw the Sydney Theatre Company's production of John Doyle's play.

Based on people he has observed from his past, the play centres around characters, neighbours in a suburban street, steeped in the Menzies (1950s/1960s) era faced with the generational change of the 1990s. Drawing on humour of the music and advertising from those days, the play also has its dark and poignant moments as it delves into the characters' backgrounds.

The staging and lighting design were brilliant. A bare backdrop on which is projected a realistic image of a 1950s suburban street came to life in a most impressive fashion.

I think it is quite an ambitious work. I enjoyed much of its humour and yet was baffled at moments. What to make, for example, of a German dressed as a cricket umpire singing "Thank Heaven For Little Girls"?

Despite my bafflement it was a most interesting and enjoyable evening and the play was extremely well received by the capacity audience.

Newcastle

Three brothers living in Newcastle, the middle one a budding surfer, the oldest brother a former surf champion and the youngest brother, gay, and an outsider. Not much plot, lots of swearing, lots of time spent in the water, some masturbation and sex and the young guys go skinny dipping at every opportunity.

This film seems aimed at mid to late teens, indeed most of the audience I saw it with yesterday was in that age group. Certainly the screenplay sounded juvenile to me but it probably hit home to the rest of the audience who were attentive.

Not much else to say.

For whom the well tolls

I've received an invitation to the wedding of a friend's daughter. Well, this gay man has not attended a wedding, straight or otherwise, in more than ten years and I am not up on wedding trends. So I was bemused to read in the invitation, "if you would like to give a gift, a wishing well will be available at the reception". A wishing well? What the fuck is that, in the context of a wedding?

My first reaction was to ring my friend and ask him but then I thought I would try the Google method. Sure enough, the simple enquiry - wedding wishing wells - brings up more than 400,000 listings. I was astonished.

Anyway, it turns out that the couple who already have everything except marriage can ask you to give them cash at their wedding instead of multiple toasters, ironing boards and the like so that they can then spend that money how they wish. The photo above was in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2006 on the day the couple pictured were to be married and their well is shown to illustrate an article explaining this phenomenon.

I suppose this is not too different from those cultures where bank notes are pinned to the bride's gown. Still, it seems a little strange to me. Do gay weddings have wishing wells?

Sometimes I am quite relieved that I am not straight. They have such strange practices.