Some films are shown again and again and Four Weddings and a Funeral is very enjoyable escapism the first half full of gags and then a wedding in Scotland is a top romantic piece.  It delves into deep values. The English aesthetic is just right - like settings, characters, humour, eccentrics, floral masterpieces, music and style.
 I guess the current showing is connected with the current vote for SSM. 

 

Tradition Indonesian dress has splendid variety seen at a multicultural event recently.
 'Let the person who is without blame cast the first stone' - all the same, here goes.  In overseas media it is noticed how tiny casual racists remarks are often thrown in, Europeans often the target or the war years, as well we hear colonial attitudes expressed.
The Good Karma Hospital is not quite entirely free of that.
 In contrast, the gripping drama, Indian Summer (shown on ABC TV) when attitudes and class of some years ago were at their peak leaving the viewer anguished. 
 There is an expectation around here that newcomers will become one of 'us' we hear said. No one's perfect, how often the typical 'quaint' expat is always seen associating with other expats.
 When we see community development in the Australian Indigenous context more often than not it is led by a non-indigenous person, true opportunity needs to be further extended.

Bizarre.  Tooth fairy is in demand. 
All power to free to air TV.  Bizarre lineup on TV Wednesday evenings where it is tempting to waste a  few hours of this precious life on new season, Fargo and then The Young Pope, on SBS free to air.

Eco blog

As if beached marine life. Female and male life savers lined up to sprint to their rubber duckie, jumped aboard to join the crew, full throttle out to a set-up off-shore where they enacted a rescue, I'm guessing, then raced back to the shore.  The photo does not convey the fast pace.

  Looming on the horizon are two of the coal ships that queue for coal from the Port of Newcastle, the fossil fuel city.
 The post-coal era will come but not soon enough. Progress. Westpac Bank announced it will not finance coal developments which is greeted both with applause and with outrage.
  Current tales in Newcastle are about upheavals in preparation for the super-car races of note,   meaning certain roads works have closed the roads and residential areas are very cross at finding themselves on a speed way. The east precinct is vintage style, where high rise or modernisation is probably banned - apart from super-car events!
  A new light rail to serve the long lean main street is about to start installation.  Apartments are spring up in the western precinct and change is accelerating in inner city Newcastle.      

Off Hawkes Nest recently.
This is no Manchester By The Sea which is a very appealing setting for an unusual dramatic film.
The producers have copied the ways of the arty film genera which is fairly uncommon in an American work but it is unmistakably American yet unAmerican.
  We are not spared from conflict, irritations, silence, nor strong feelings yet amusement is often there and it generally moves with restraint. Yes, amazingly, exaggeration is limited. As well, the cold winter weather is special.
The score of classical music and other numbers is also surprising. The season finished in the city cinemas but the little independent Regal cinema came up with a screening good for those who missed out.

Live

This week, live, in Sydney, not only Guns N' Roses but Bruce Springsteen who is at Qudos Bank Arena which was earlier on an Olympic stadium.  Spotless (!) Stadium is nearby.  Almost every year stadia are given a new name, it is crazy.  The latest sponsor of Newcastle's stadium is in very large letters. This sponsor is a builder.

Road Trip at 7600 ks

   Becoming a 'true blue'. Is that what it takes to enjoy the dry unruly bushland.
Trees reach up then reach down again. It grows on you!   Could it be mallee scrub.



THE highly enjoyable concert last night was life affirming or was it about all that has changed on our home front?   Thanks ABC TV.


 

Crikey.  Australian films are pervaded by old fashioned settings.  More often than not the scene is set in a weatherboard home unchanged since the 1960s and peopled by down to earth characters to match. Cluttered, daggy.
  This time warp must be well liked by viewers yet none aspire to a lifestyle such as that.  Just the opposite. Is it done to gratify nostalgia?
  Genuine characters are the winners while ambitious, slick characters become losers. Again, that strays from the truth about us.
  Never the less, Aussie films are darn good even when they are less than perfect.  Authenticity and simplicity about complexity win hands down.  They say Muriel's Wedding is yet not forgotten - true, it is memorable.
 

 Holiday makers left us enduring messages.  Many are annual campers in the caravan park.

SBS TV.  Struggle Street, the doco, is it? The truth hurts about our community in the lucky country. More on next Wednesday unless halted by rioting bogans, westies citizens. I call myself a bogan sometimes.

Frivolous, but fans will need to be up very early to vote live (the tyranny of distance) for Euro Vision.  Round 20, 22, 24 May from Vienna on SBS TV.
 Hear stuff on SBS 4  radio in the meantime.
 Be in it!!
Was any Aboriginal pop group considered as the Aussie entry? In their mother tongue, nothing else but.
 Good luck to our entry, hope it is much more than safe and conventional. How is our creativity measuring up?

 Right now, the First lady is doing very well in a Sesame Street appearance, promoting breakfast eating. Take heed. Of course, the TV in on for some children!

 Alasdair Fraser, Scotland's premier fiddler and Californian cellist Natalie Hass were outstanding duo at National Folk Festival, Canberra with 112 groups or individual performers from the four corners. Non stop.
 And Gordie Mackeeman and his Rhythm Boys from Prince Edward Island were blistering as they say.
 Authentic folk music, world music and lots in between, dance, choral and instrumental workshops, bush poetry, Australian folk, Anzac tributes, then alternative fashions, trinkets, foods were the abundant market stalls. Camping at the site is popular and extensive. 
 Next year marks 50 years and organizers are gearing up for four days always at Easter.
 Weather is warm to rather chilly with a little snow arriving this morning somewhere on a local hill top, they say.

Digging up the Road lead to a detour yesterday. It was all go as the house on the corner was under renovation as well. They're digging a hole in the road  is another likable song for children from ABC media.
  Now, the dialogue in Peppa Pig, for instance, is from real voices that have good enunciation even if they have a nice distinct accent.
 Why do most other cartoon characters on TV sound stupid and shout?    How do the neural networks under formation in a tiny child process the bizarre offerings ?
 Shock horror.  Peter Rabbit on you tube bereft of UK English. The very essence of a show is lost in any remake.
Thankfully we are adaptable to offerings from all over the world and don't need remakes.
Bananas in PJs has become unaustralian in the hands of overseas artists, the outdoors do not reflect our scene at all, the cartoon has simply gone generic. 
Hope we don't eventually dumb down on a generic diet.

Last photo is of random drug testing unit.   

Setting up again. Newcastle Show tomorrow for three days.  The greatest show on earth- not.
Outside the show ground, the police were making a show of strength with random drug tests on motorists.
A drug bus/coach, a trailer and the latest vehicles made up the ambush. State elections are just around the corner.

Overnights on ABC radio is fortunate to have an interlude with Scott Speck, a conductor of note, despite which he is light hearted, informative, pleasant and ever tactful with us general listeners who sometimes find ourselves awake listening at dawn.  His day job is with Chicago Philharmonic and or Ballet. 

International Children's games opening, Lac Macquarie, last night.

I'm not often in the mosh pit

Comedy and more from Williamson.  A revue-style exposition of Murdoch.
Ironic that left of centre, James Cromwell, plays Rupert. Fairfax readers will enjoy some attention.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Media.  Heard on our news this morning....the action of the dead priests...
Well, we know the context.
Is it bad timing?  Lots about lead contamination at this time of the uplifting international games for children at Speeres nearby.  Keep up appearances.

Yesterday, diesel fuel was purchased for $1.329 litre at sweltering St Marys, Western Sydney. Not in connection with discount vouchers. That price was a bit exceptional. In contrast, noticed first on return to Newcastle: $1.509.

Continued.  Creative hot air balloon Skywhale.

Continued.  More from Civic park.
 Currently, the theme is of the eschaton.  Strange times.

Give thanks for what city council bestows on us.

Islander warrior drama in pre-protest in Port of Newcastle NSW today.
Pacific Climate Warriors using traditional canoes are going to paddle into the path of coal ships in an effort to shut down the world's biggest coal port for a day and degrade the fossil fuel industry.
Pacific Island communities will be inundated by rising sea levels.
350.org is building a global climate movement.
Newcastle activists joined the action.
 

Recently, the annual catch of the day was mullet near the fish markets on the Port.
One down in Eurovision on SBS.
Azerbaijan approached magical heights, trad instruments plus song in native tongue.  Liszt like piano was part of a noteworthy item from Hungary.
Portuguese, Latvian and Icelandic acts were in the real spirit of Eurovision. An offering with Celtic like pipes, ice skater and non-English (I think) had something going for it as did the treadmill duet or the see saw act.
English language, seriousness and drama of all the rest were so so. The song about mother takes the cake. The dramatic build ups are over exhausted. Actions and dance over explicit, exaggerated, each contestant forced to outdo the other in histrionics.  So often, nuanced performance is unknown. That's the spell of Eurovision and all the rest.