Crow guitar

Started painting a new 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'd like to see this version of The 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. 

Girard came to believe in God through his study of this imitative rivalry and scapegoating mechanism. 

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

I first attempted to watch it decades ago on DVD, but found the audio was too quiet.

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That this romantic comedy is set in a newspaper is so clearly out of date, but so too are the references to American socialism and also a joke about Hitler that are interesting in how they give a glimpse of attitudes that quickly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

Perfect Days is a remarkable film for many reasons

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:

Wenders was invited to Tokyo by Koji Yanai to observe The Tokyo Toilet, a project in which Japanese public toilets were redesigned in 17 locations throughout Shibuya... At first, the producers envisioned Wenders would make a short film or series of short films on the facilities, but he opted for a feature film

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 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.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is a surprising story with developments that lead into dark satire and, no spoiler, an ambiguous ending that still manages to resolve character arcs.

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.

When I started working at a public school in Narrandera the principal seemed to be almost as in the dark about steps as I was, although a mentor assigned to me had answers to many questions.

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!