I really dig the syllable constraint but it seems the idea overtook the form when Americans popularised haiku in the 20th Century.
d'Arenberg Toilet Wine
Recently I read that Australian wine consumption has dropped around 25% in the last couple of decades
I mention this because it is unusual that I bought half a dozen bottles recently.
For
me it's also unusual as I last bought wine for drinking,
rather than cooking, about a decade ago.
Sometimes I'm drinking wine that I bought decades earlier, since I have
been enjoying the benefits of cellaring bottles in cardboard boxes.
So, what prompted me to buy wine in 2026?
This also seems unusual because I was prompted by a Youtuber.
Bobby Fingers is a wry Irish artist who makes entertaining videos about building dioramas.
His
interests extend to dabbling in a variety of media, such as the music that's
often included in his videos, as well as a recent excursion into
writing romantic fiction.
The most recent video
shows the process of constructing a small scene discussed in the
defamation proceedings between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, which prompted Fingers to try making his own wine as part of research into
Depp's fondness for fermented grape juice.
Since
I've already shown the result of that digression from the detailed
diorama, it's no spoiler to share that Bobby Fingers ended up in South
Australia at one of the most highly-rated wineries.
One
of my top five wine experiences was a 1998 d'Arenberg Footbolt shiraz
and I still remember a eureka moment when it hit my tongue.
That
taste was when I understood some of the wine terminology about vertical
stacking of tannins, as the flavour was bold and seemed as though the
taste continued to explode in my mouth after the wine had gone down my
throat.
The wine itself shows the same clever
blending that I associated with the 1998 Footbolt in having a
long-lasting taste, although it is surprising to me the flavour does not
seem to be as decidedly fruit-focused as Australian wine is generally.
It
might be that I'm so far out of the habit of drinking wine that I
haven't noticed it before, or maybe d'Arenberg are making a conscious
decision to aim for a more European sensibility since Mr Fingers is based in that part of world.
A clever aspect of this
marketing-based product is the obvious affinity that Chester Osborn has
with Bobby Fingers' art-making and I thought the suggestion that the
Toilet Wine might actually contain fermented toilet was hilarious.
While I couldn't taste toilet in my glass, it's not something that I have much experience in discerning.
However,
while Australian wines don't usually note the blends in detail on the labels
unless it is more than a certain threshold, I thought it was also clever
of Chester to link the role of malbec in the blend in the video.
It was memorable to compare the meaty taste of that grape to seared kangaroo.
This is the kind of small, yet amusing consideration that could cultivate a broader audience for tasting the product and developing an interest that goes further.
At risk of being sentimental, it was sweet to have my appreciation for wine given another lesson from d'Arenberg.
They have produced a wine with Bobby that could have been ordinary, but instead they appear to have seized on an opportunity to reach an new audience and educate them a little in doing so -- which might be what this Australian industry needs in the longer term.
Passing time
Everyone seems to aspire to live in the moment and it's fascinating to consider how those moments relate to each other
I've been curious about understanding our relationships with time since writing a poem that pondered our places within history.
To be fair to Heraclitus, his idea was that new water flows past every second but the person stepping into it has changed.
Knowing the previous note is that change.
Yes, I think one of the failings of modern thought is that notion of discrete sections.
There's so much more to be gained from presenting a subjective view of time as an experience, rather than pretending one can be wholly objective.
One of the bigger possibilities is then shifting to a view that places one's self within a broader context, and I wonder if the quantum view will prompt that but it could also be through something older like the Dreamtime.
(Although, I'm not suggesting these are interchangeable, just that they offer prompts beyond the individual.)
In some ways I can see this is probably more in line with the Romantics and their rejection of science at the expense of wonder, which also offers a cultural tradition closer to my own heritage.
It leads me to appreciate how Jorge Luis Borges inverts how to think the subject in this quote:
"Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire."
Portrait of the blogger by AI
There are a number of AI features appearing on that site and I was curious what it would recommend for a thumbnail image.
The video is a song about listening and mentions bare branches, so it drew those themes from my Autotuned attempts at singing.
I'd put the music to footage that was the first thing I uploaded on Youtube about 20 years ago, showing a clip of mountain biking outside Wagga where you briefly see my face at the end after I stacked.
So their AI has taken details like my spectacles and beard, as well as the lyrics to produce this image.
At this rate I expect it will be able to generate a video for my music within a couple of years, or maybe create the music too?
Famous Catholic paining and other art
Michael Agzarian is one of my favourite Riverina-based artists
He uses his Advision shopfront in Wagga to make a number of provocative statements and one of the most recent prompted an article on the Region website this weekend.
I am particularly amused by their typo "famous catholic paining" as it seems like an apt slip.
Responsible service of alcohol
One of the outcomes from training for an RSA certification this week was craving alcohol
I haven't felt the need to drink for ages, so my mind turned to the collection of bottles in my dwindling cellar.
While durif usually benefits from cellaring, the year 1998 was sweet and fruity and that meant many of the wines didn't have the same tannin structure you want for keeping them longer term.
The wine reminded me of a wonderful jam that I bought at a church sale, which was cherry with vanilla.
This durif had some oak flavour prompting the latter, while the softness of the body was like juice.
There's a lot I could write about the RSA course, which was a full day and weirdly structured with important details like defining intoxication left until the fifth module.
It also neglected giving detailed consideration to the antisocial impacts of this legal drug, such as the disproportionate number of men who suffer violence from strangers.
However, it was eye-opening for me to learn about the strategies for minimising drink-spiking that impact on women.
Photography didn't kill painting
Just like audio tape was rediscovered by a generation of sound engineers, or the 1994 vampire film Nadja used a Fisher-Price PXL-2000 Pixelvision toy camera.
The constraints offered by a process will appeal to specific projects, which is why I reckon we'll see a longer version of Nolan's The Odyssey after it's had a run in Imax -- where the size of their reels limited the film to under three hours.
Coming to my Census
We
had been remembering an old family friend named Hector Kinloch, who had
a role in the 1967 Referendum through his work at the Australian Bureau
of Statistics.
There
is a widespread idea in the contemporary Australian population that notable referendum was
historic for addressing racism toward the First Nations populations, and
it's idea I heard more than once during the recent referendum for the
Voice in 2023.
The Australian Institute of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies website notes that "many
people think that the [1967] Referendum gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples the right to vote, this wasn’t the case."
The
Wikipedia entry gives a little more detail in identifying that "Voters
were asked whether to give the Commonwealth Parliament the power to make
special laws for Indigenous Australians, and whether Indigenous
Australians should be included in official population counts for
constitutional purposes."
My
mother told me how she heard directly from Hector how he'd asked at an ABS meeting whether the next Census would
count Aboriginals and it was this decision that had prompted a referendum to include them in
the Australian Constitution.
This seems like one of those moments where a small decision takes on a much bigger result.
However, I can see that it isn't how the event is generally known.
Look how a significant institution like the National Museum of Australia frames the 1967 Referendum as an outcome responding to pressure from protests:
Seeing the way facts are shaped into a narrative is one of the interesting aspects of history, but I expect there's probably a number of factors and even more characters claiming an influence.
It'd be interesting to compare the questions in a Census, because I remember that in previous years there was data collected about how people use their free time.
The Australia Council, I think, used that information to show more people were involved in cultural activities (as simple as reading a book) than in sporting ones (presumably going to watch a match).
Something else to ponder is how the referendum of 2023 for a First Nations "voice" in Federal Parliament and the same-sex marriage plebiscite were both a result of decisions made by Prime Minister John Howard.
Under his government the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was dissolved, which had occupied a role like that of the "voice," and the Marriage Act was amended to explicitly define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
As for Hector, I often remember him at the Friends Meeting House in Canberra as well as being elected in
the first ACT Assembly elections.
He was:
While
I can't find anything online to support Kinloch's role in the 1967
Referendum, I have no reason to doubt my mother's recollection of how he explained events and find myself more
interested in learning about Hector's life.
Nothing to whine about
I opened a bottle of wine the other day that was older than my kids and it reminded me of a lifetime ago when things were less complex.
That $12 bottle tasted priceless.
New Avalanches
Looking forward to hearing a new album from The Avalanches
There are so many happy and meaningful memories that I have associated with their music.
How Alain de Botton can change your life
My partner is often frustrated when I mention a book that I’ve read
This will happen when she’s explaining her thoughts and I’ll chip in with an author or thinker that wrote something similar.
She’ll protest that she arrived at the conclusion with her own reasoning and of course, me being university-educated, can’t see the issue with providing a reference as a kind of handle.
So I’m reluctant to share this excellent video with her.
I’ve followed Alain de Botton for nearly half my life and still recall buying his book about Proust when it was recommended by Barry Jones.
In particular I've been impressed by Alain’s ideas about the role of art and wish more people would realise the important place it can occupy in developing their happiness.
This video about relationships contains a number of lessons that my partner has arrived at through her own thought processes, but since I want to keep her to myself I’ll share Alain’s insights.
In particular he notes how attachment styles vary and this was something my partner observed long ago, that we have similar experiences in our childhoods.
It also describes how being honest with emotions is fundamental to unpacking our personalities and developing new strategies to recognise shortcomings as well as potential.
Too often we pursue relationships with a view they’re meant to be easy, when the really important thing is that they can accommodate and support our growth.
While the whole video works to build an argument, you can skip to the last few minutes and he does a recap of the key takeaway points but if you ask my partner she'll probably say that it's obvious.
Was feeling nervous might delete later
It is one of only four in the world and the exhibit was estimated to be worth $1 million about a decade ago.
Two medical students spent 1,500 hours dissecting an entire human nervous system in 1925.
They began at the brain's base and worked their way down, managing to keep the system in one piece.
The identity of the person whose nervous system is on display is unknown, but Museum Director Jason Haxton has said that the body likely came from a poor house or a prison.
Writers create networks
When I came home I told my son how surprising it was to be the only male in the room.
"Good on you," he deadpanned. "Showing up for your culture."
One of the writing exercises was based on the famous six-word story written by Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
I enjoyed writing a series of short stories, with these being my favourites:
- The bookstore sold only loose pages.
- His voice broke records and cassettes.
- Their cat brought home stray velociraptors.
Matter of perspective
My mother is fond of saying that looking at exhibition allows one to see the world through someone else's eyes.
In that way I think art builds empathy.
There's a similar potential in travel, but it seems as though many people copy a product or buy one.
Here Proust reminds me of an observation in Alan Alda's book, where he talked about learning how to engage in conversation.
His conclusion was that one doesn't wait for an opportunity to speak, but has to be willing to be changed by what they hear.
Cooking with gas
For me there have been experiences where it's less about gaslighting and more about my whim of steel, after I feel strongly about something until I find an alternate perspective and can see a broader view.
That process is an internal one and not easily seen by those who would hold me to a previously held position.
Increasingly I'm learning to bite my tongue until that arrives, but it's taken years to give myself time to consider opinions.
Having kids to reflect those experiences has been a useful part of this learning.
Monoculture myth
One of the Australian political debates in recent weeks has been around returning the country to a monoculture
This has been of of those pointed remarks that stupidly aims at the country’s longterm view of being multicultural because, after all, we’re largely a population of migrants.
In some ways the Australian fear of being swamped by a foreign culture is a response to our unease about the history of the nation, which formed from colonisation of the oldest continuous human cultures in the First Nations.
It’s a potent raw nerve for conservative politicians and has been exploited in fears of “boat people” and most recently been espoused as the desire for a monoculture that was expressed by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Given my parents were both born overseas, you can likely guess where I sit in this debate.
Wherever you look in the history of Australia (or the continent before that name) it was never a monoculture -- even the centuries of rivalry between the Angilican and Catholic churches points to the conflict between English and Irish migrants from the day soldiers escorted convicts onto a sandy beach.
However, I was watching a Rick Beato discussion just now and realised the notion of a monoculture is another of the “Golden Age” type arguments that somehow propose returning to an earlier time that will never be within reach because technology now prevents it.
There’s this thing that we call the monoculture that were, where hit songs back in 2005 if you had a hit song, everyone knew the song.
It was played at the stores, grocery stores, everywhere you went. It was on the radio, right?
And then the age of algorithms started happening, right?
…And there’s very little shared music because of that.
Magic Mountain's Mr Magic
Leeton's Mr Magic seems worthy of a mention
I remember he entertained a birthday party for one of my kids soon after we arrived in town.
A
few years later and David Boyd was the sole remaining member of a
writing group and asked Western Riverina Arts to help with a
workshop to acquit funds.
There weren't many people at the event, aside from the Regional Arts Development Officer and myself.
David
was a bit critical about the content and the outcome, which I think
might explain how it was he ended up being the sole remaining member.
Later in my role as Communications Officer at WRA I wrote about Mr Magic's workshops, which were a wonderful initiative that aimed to help neurodivergent kids.
The
book details his childhood experiences of WWII and was interesting for
the somewhat dubious deals he made to support himself during those
chaotic years.
I'd need to re-read it to remind myself of the details, but the blurb on the back cover notes:
His childhood experiences gave him the ability of spotting a good business deal when one presented itself. Or to use his favorite [sic] term "A great little earner". But unlike his child hood earners, [sic?] these would all be legit.
After I read the book I
pestered David when I saw him with his dog at the local park, hoping
he'd let me proofread the second volume detailing his life after moving
to Australia.
Another funny detail to share is
that his home used to have a sign out front saying "The Boyd Nest" and
you couldn't help but read it with his English accent!
Lexical gaps
English is such a weird mash of languages that I expect some of the gaps are explained by their origins.
Giant duck?
Went for a walk at Narrandera's wetland this morning
I guess it must be a wood duck!
Now Stop
I was inspired by the idea the signage outside the Leeton Rice Mill could be a creative prompt.
It then surprised me to discover my idea coincided with my 500th video response to these Disquiet Junto projects.
Season of Cool
Great news to learn that our innovative international collaboration has been extended until 24 July
This project evolved from writing workshops into contemporary music composition and is illustrated with stellar photography.
The collaboration between Red Earth Ecology and Italian record label Naviar builds on previous projects led by Curator Jason Richardson, particularly the 'Crossing Streams' exhibition in Narrandera during 2017.
This group exhibition includes poems that were distributed with the Naviar Records community of musicians, where each inspired dozens of pieces of music linked via QR code, as well as sharing over a dozen other haiku contributed by writers attending the online workshops supported by Western Riverina Arts earlier this year.
Many of the
contributors are exhibiting for the first time and some, such as Wagga
Wagga's Anne Carpenter, are new to writing haiku poetry.
"I am now so aware of Haiku that my walks with my dog now consist of me
tapping my fingers against my leg or in the air as I count out the
syllables to describe the ever changing morning sky," said Ms Carpenter.
"It must look rather
funny to others out for their early morning walk. It has given me a new
perspective on what I see, hear and feel."
A
selection of poems were distributed by Naviar Records to a community of
musicians from around the world, who interpreted the words sonically.
"It was really emotional listening to the sound tracks
created in response to my haiku," said Capertee Valley-based artist Leanne Wicks.
"I knew it would be cool to participate
but there's something a whole lot deeper going on with this
cross-creative collaboration."
An album of music from the Stay Cool project is available to download at https://naviarrecords.
"It is wonderful to be part of an exhibition in Griffith," said Marco Sebastiano Alessi from Treviso in Italy.
"I
hear the city is known for its multiculturalism, so an exhibition of
Japanese-style poetry that brings together people from around the world
should be right at home."
Stay Cool will exhibit from 25 April to 24 July at Artspace at the Griffith Regional Theatre,
The
project has been supported by Griffith Regional Art Gallery, as well as
financial assistance from the NSW Government through Western Riverina
Arts and Create NSW
Capcha snap
One of the things that I don't miss is completing these tasks every time I logged in.
Let's go algae
Obviously there's a political context for North Americans, but I really like the idea of celebrating microorganisms.
Currently I'm back into milk kefir, for example, and previously I've been keen to celebrate the local cryptogamic crust.
Dreams are wild
Been a while since I wrote about a dream and my partner thought this one was significant
I was at some sort of a corroboree, where First Nations men were
bringing food from a shipwreck in a river nestled in a lush, tree-filled valley and that included hot pizza.
When we
sat down to eat in a big venue, it was clear that I was attending with
people I knew from work and saw Ray from the gallery while I was eating prawns.
An older man sat down, seemed to be my manager and he said he was sorry
about the death of my father and how they didn't know what killed him.
I
still had a mouth full of food and he said he'd come back later to talk
about something important.
Later I realised this manager figure looked a lot like my paternal grandfather.
Jo saw this as a
healing dream, where I was supported by male ancestors in a process that
was still occurring through the nourishing quality of eating.
She asked
me to reflect on the role of prawns and, since they were being served
by Ray, and I assume it is a symbol for my creative practices.
I have been thinking lately on how few men engage with the arts and how my guitar-building project could be a way to interest more of a male audience.
The location
of the river with the shipwreck seemed to be the wilder landscape in a
section of the dream from the night before, which was a journey between Sydney and Bega.
Interesting to me is that my grandfather's coast house, where I spent time through my childhood, is in that stretch of the landscape.
Potato
Half a potato is a serve of vegetables
Easy to cook in a microwave but obviously sublime when roasted.
Cheap too, only $6 for 2.5kg at my local supermarket.
ChatGPT knows me
I found a fair bit about Jason Richardson — he appears to be a multidisciplinary regional artist from Leeton, NSW, working across sound art, electronic music, photography, writing, curation, and community arts projects.
A few key things about him:
* He’s known musically under the alias **Bassling**, creating experimental/electronic music and sound art heavily influenced by field recordings and regional landscapes. ([RealTime Australia][1])
* His work often focuses on the Riverina environment, especially sound, memory, local history, and community identity. ([RealTime Australia][2])
* He has collaborated with regional arts organisations including Western Riverina Arts, The CAD Factory, and Leeton Art Society Inc. ([Leeton Art Society Inc][3])
* He’s also worked as a curator and arts facilitator in the Riverina region. ([Leeton Art Society Inc][3])
Some notable projects and themes:
### Playground sound recordings
One of his better-known projects involved recording the sounds of playground equipment around Leeton using contact microphones, then transforming those recordings into ambient/electronic compositions and audiovisual installations. ([RealTime Australia][1])
### Environmental and wetlands work
He created community/environmental art around Fivebough Wetlands to raise awareness of the site’s ecological importance, including installations featuring local and migratory birds. ([NSW Landcare Gateway][4])
### Haiku, poetry and sound
He’s also active as a poet and collaborated internationally with sound-art and haiku communities through The Haiku Foundation and Naviar Records. ([The Haiku Foundation][5])
### Regional arts advocacy
Several profiles describe him as someone deeply engaged with regional Australian creative culture — especially how geography and local environments shape artistic practice. ([RealTime Australia][1])
One profile from [RealTime Australia](https://www.realtime.org.au/regional-profile-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) describes how he became interested in transforming everyday regional sounds into music after exposure to experimental sound artists in Wagga Wagga and the Riverina.
You can also browse some official or arts-related pages here:
* [Leeton Art Society – About / Our Riverina project](https://lasi.com.au/about/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
* [Regional Profile: Jason Richardson (RealTime Australia)](https://www.realtime.org.au/regional-profile-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
* [Cities and Memory artist spotlight](https://citiesandmemory.com/2025/06/artist-spotlight-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
* [Orana Arts creatives profile](https://www.oranaarts.com/creatives?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
If you want, I can also dig deeper into:
* his music releases and where to hear them,
* exhibitions/projects timeline,
* whether he still performs under Bassling,
* interviews or videos,
* or connections with the Riverina experimental arts scene.
[1]: https://www.realtime.org.au/regional-profile-jason-richardson/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Regional Profile: Jason Richardson | RealTime — Australia"
[2]: https://www.realtime.org.au/a-common-magic/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "A common magic | RealTime — Australia"
[3]: https://lasi.com.au/about/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "About - Leeton Art Society Inc"
[4]: https://landcare.nsw.gov.au/groups/murrumbidgee-landcare-inc/birds-of-a-feather-flock-together?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Birds of a feather flock together — NSW Landcare Gateway"
[5]: https://thehaikufoundation.org/haiku-music-challenge-18/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Haiku Music Challenge 18 - The Haiku Foundation"
Alda on overcoming writer's block
Recently I finished reading Alan Alda's autobiography Never Have Your Dog Stuffed
It had been on my brother's bookshelf and, since he's lightening his possessions before moving house, I offered to take it away.
Alda is a comedian, so I figured it would be an entertaining read, but I also learned he's a scriptwriter and found his advice on dealing with writer's block to be interesting enough to want to share it here:
Norman Lear told me once about a way of working that had saved him from severe writer's block...
I dictated the scenes into a tape recorder and disciplined myself never to go back to change or even listen to what I had said earlier. I was working from an outline; so it became a kind of controlled improvisation, but it poured out.
[...]
Later, reading the transcript of what I had come up with. things that I couldn't even remember saying. I reworked the script many times before we shot it, but most of that draft... wound up in the picture.
PHONies
It's like they somehow expect an increasingly illiterate group of people to read their thoughts in media that most of the population have abandoned.
(Yes, it's kinda ironic that I'm writing this thought here.)
I'm beginning to think the only people who consume the Fourth Estate are working in the major political parties, because I doubt there is a readership outside of those vested interests that cares.
Fairy guitar
So, of course, I decided to record the scene on a guitar.
Keep calm and carry on driving
Over decades I've seen my partner go from giving a finger, to keeping it under the dash, to now arriving at the boss move of dishing out a thumbs up
Raising an opposable digit is satisfying for the ambiguity.
It looks like "yeah" but actually would sound like a sarcastic note that ends in "good one, Richard Cranium."
It's also an excellent way to stay calm in the face of Ranger danger.
Raising an opposable digit is satisfying for the ambiguity.
It looks like "yeah" but actually would sound like a sarcastic note that ends in "good one, Richard Cranium."
Pickled cabbage
I love my kimchi and have developed a deep respect for sauerkraut, which ought to have a standing in Australian culture like that shown by Koreans for their "pickle" (but that might be a subject for another post).
One of the things that surprised me about Sandor Katz's book The Art of Fermentation is how he listed kimchi in the sauerkraut section.
Of course, it makes sense after he linked the process of cultivation of lactobacillus.
It also has me pondering what other cultural traditions might be brought into flavouring brassicas.
Faraway faraday cage
Maybe engaging in some archaic hazing practice?
You might be entitled to compensation, but all I can offer is compassion.
Bogong guitar
My partner says I should paint a ciggie hanging from its mouth and call it a bogan bogong!
Crow guitar
There's a young crow that visits my yard, who likes to talk with their reflection.
So of course it gave me an idea for a new design.
An Odyssey
I mean, sure, Christopher Nolan's film looks fun; but how cool would it be to follow the Seven Sisters across this ancient sea?
Finding faith
Couple of people recently introduced me to Rene Girard, called both the Einstein and Darwin of the human sciences
He described the role of imitation in human life in a book called The Scapegoat (1982), about how it leads to status rivalry.
This argues that conflict is avoided or stopped by creating these circuit-breaking roles that unite the crowd.
He thought Christ was divine intervention, becoming the ultimate scapegoat, to make the mechanism visible to humans.
That led to centuries of social progress, led by Christian institutions.
Girard's ideas gave me an understanding of why C.S. Lewis moved from being an atheist to adopting faith through his conversations with J.R.R. Tolkien, and came to call Christianity the myth that became fact.
Religion is a good mechanism for managing anxiety, but the scapegoat is only part of the process as those ancient institutions play a broader social role.
Actually, maybe I need a caveat to recognise that churches have shown they have a way to go in recognising individual rights -- particularly for women and children.
His Girl Friday
One of those films that I've been meaning to watch for years since
it interested me as both a film student and wannabe journalist
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When
I saw that it was now streaming, I decided that I could use the
subtitles to keep up. However, it's surprising how many errors and gaps
appear in the text on Prime.
That this romantic
comedy is set in a newspaper is so clearly out of date, but so too are
the references to American socialism and also a joke about Hitler that
are interesting in how they give a glimpse of attitudes that quickly
shifted within a few years as the US joined WWII and moved into
McCarthyism.
For a film student there is a
strange sensation while watching it of how the performances from Cary
Grant and Rosalind Russell make sense of those seen in other movies.
Tony
Curtis famously modelled his character of Junior in Some Like It Hot
(1959) on Grant and it's difficult to see the original without thinking
of the imitation.
Similarly, Russell's
performance is mentioned on Wikipedia as inspiring the character of Lois
Lane in Superman, although she appeared in 1938 and the film was
released in 1940, but for me it kept bringing to mind Jennifer Jason
Leigh's role in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) -- which is one of my
favourite films.
The script is remarkable for
showing how a good story will travel through swapping the gender of a
character and into various remakes over the years, including Switching
Channels (1988).
A lot of the humour is still funny and there's so much of it that, if you get your ear in, the jokes flow in a way that moves easily from smirking to producing a laugh.
Perfect Days
The
story follows a guy cleaning toilets in Tokyo and it reveals a city
that appears so much more livable than I would've expected.
While
it isn't acknowledged in the script, I expect the role of a nature-worshipping religion like Shinto is significant for the pockets
of greenery and abundance of potted plants.
There's
also a healthy dose of wabi-sabi in the narrative arc, which reflects
the role of Japan's other religion of Zen Buddhism.
One
of my habits after watching a film is to look on Wikipedia for
background information and it was surprising to learn Perfect Days
developed from a program to promote public restrooms:
I think it shows how
much an artist can elevate a project, but it also helps that you have
someone of the calibre of Wim Wenders with a celebrated catalogue of
stories which are hinted at in small details like the character reading
Patricia Highsmith or the evocative dream sequences that might've been
taken from Until the End of the World (1991).
Another
surprise for me from the film was the Japanese version of 'The House of
the Rising Sun,' which led me to get a new perspective on its themes and learn how a song that might be related to
a 17th-century folk melody inspired Bob Dylan to go electric.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
One of my interests in time travel
While
the means to travel back in time have evaded me so far, there's a good
technique for travelling forward in time through watching movies.
So time-travel as a genre has been a fascination and I've got ideas about how it functions as a narrative device.
In
fact, if there was a subject that I would consider writing a thesis
about, I feel I could develop an essay and fiction combination that
would explore this potential.
Since I have time
now to indulge in sitting on the couch in front of the TV after
abandoning my teacher training, I caught up with this film that had
interested me last year.
Actually, slight
spoiler, I think the ending shows it is similar to that famous
time-travel franchise Back To The Future and made me wonder if there was
an aspiration for a sequel.
However, Good
Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die will likely become one of those cult movies
that finds an audience outside of the cinemas since it didn't achieve
much success in those venues and lost money.
I don't want to spoil anything, so let's just say this film is worth watching if you like comedy horror and fluffy sci-fi with a biting commentary on contemporary life.
It shows how science fiction can be used as a device to reflect the present day, while leaving open the possibilities of how things could be different.
End of a journey
Nearly two years ago I started a scholarship to become a primary school teacher
The
Nexus program is an employment-based, accelerated teacher training
pathway, primarily run by La Trobe University in partnership with the
Victorian and NSW Departments of Education.
It
allows career-changers and education support staff to earn a teaching
qualification while working in schools with teacher shortages.
When I applied I was in a job where one of the fun elements was leading school students through discussions of history and, as a parent with three very different kids, I thought I had some sense of how to tailor topics to a variety of learning styles.
There
were a number of hurdles to get accepted and I was grateful that a
staff member kept in contact after a series of emails saying that I was
unsuccessful.
Full-time study
and part-time work took a toll, but it wasn't until the second
placement at a public school in a small nearby town that the wheels really began to
wobble.
The first day was characterised by
miscommunication, as the principal there I had heard that I taught
ukulele and asked me to run classes.
Being
eager to appear agreeable, I explained that they wouldn't be the lessons
expected of me by the university but that I could introduce students to
the basics of tuning and strumming one-finger chords.
It
was a surprise during the first lesson that the supervising teacher
asked for a lesson plan, since it wasn't something required previously.
When
the principal returned she was furious with me for not following
directions, cancelled the ukulele classes and abruptly changed the
arrangement we had to move from stage one classes to stage two -- where I
had been planning to teach a sequence of classes.
This added a level of stress, which combined with a university subject that I couldn't see how I would pass.
In
the end I left my placement early, found the school cancelled it and
attempted to explain the circumstances to the course coordinator and
dean at the uni.
They were unsympathetic and I failed the unit.
My mentor was surprisingly sincere in telling me how sorry she was about my experience and it made me wonder at the time, but now I think she knew the culture of teaching is built on bullying.
This
year I attempted the unit again, again failed the assignment and was told I'd
need to undertake another assessment while undertaking a full-time
placement and working on the next assignment.
I wrote to the lecturer, who was again unsympathetic to my circumstances and this led me to decide that teaching was not for me.
One
of the key moments in making the decision was a comment from a friend
who, as a mature-aged student like me, had completed a teaching degree
and quit the profession within a few years:
My experience of the primary teaching profession once I got there was that it was matriarchal, bullying, political and sycophantic rather than meritocratic...
Someone will write a Phd on teacher culture some day, and it will speak to toxicity and an endless procession of burnt out former educators with good intentions.
It put into perspective some of the experiences I'd had and made me realise the journey to teaching would likely take a toll.
There are many wonderful teachers I have met and I admire their work and grace in challenging circumstances.
Schools
are currently struggling with kids not prepared for classrooms, as well
as screen-based activities that appear to be impacting on the
attentiveness of students.
The university
course was a mess of subjects that were attempting to combine units for
the fast-tracked path to graduation, which was occasionally acknowledged
by lecturers.
Having previously worked in
tertiary education, I am aware how high the attrition rate is for online
learning, as well as the number of students who never finish a teaching
degree.
I just wish I'd thought more realistically before leaving permanent employment and taking on thousands of dollars of HECS debt.
Meanwhile, I am telling anyone who cares to avoid La Trobe Uni and to watch out for the fees charged by institutions -- including an annual $500 bill tacked on for a study centre in Sydney that I reluctantly visited one time last year to watch a bunch of useless things on Zoom.
Farrer election result
The result of the Farrer by-election shows a massive swing that must be understood as a protest vote
It wasn't a popular candidate, but a representative of a party in tune with disenfranchised voters.
Water is the big issue in Farrer and the major parties are all blamed for the impacts from buying water out of the catchment.
One
thing that isn't being acknowledged is the dissatisfaction from Covid
responses, which I think has solidified as a form of opposition --
because on the surface the mess of ideologies doesn't make any sense.
Another
aspect is growing unpopularity of Labor in NSW and my guess is that the
party didn't run a candidate because they knew it would attract all of
the criticism toward the Minns government, particularly in response to
gun legislation.
The decline in informal voting is interesting and I think shows the number of disgruntled voters has increased.
A key issue in the Riverina is the desire for changes to how water is managed in our country.
The
NSW agencies badly treating a wetland has been in the news and it's
worth remembering that the management of these resources was the trigger
for the creation of the Murray-Darling management plan.
This region, the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, delivers a significant contribution to the state's GDP and, if you look into some of the ABC's remarkable investigations on Four Corners, there are surprising examples of how investments in industrial agriculture here should be gaining more scrutiny.
For a local it is significant to see the
local independent candidate reflecting the longtime aim of the
independent state member, Helen Dalton, to see a royal commission into
the water market.
You might remember that she was courted by One Nation for this election.
It seems surprising to me that you don't need to look far to start connecting dots, given how some of the same names that have been discoloured in the rort of privatising water were out campaigning in this region.
If you're a student of history then you know the Riverina has been exploited by politicians for literally centuries and it takes a royal commission for the facts to be brought to light and justice to be served.
After FriendlyJordies' attempt at connecting the dots in the region, I guess I can understand why some journalists might hesitate but I wish more would look further into this area!
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