In Like Flynn

In honour of Hollywood greats with the Oscars on today, I thought I'd take a closer look at old school Hollywood in the form of Errol Flynn.

The allure of Flynn has always been a bit of a mystery to me. For a start, he was deemed swoon worthy eons ago (born 20th June 1909), so I guess that means tastes have changed (it was really hard to find a picture of him without that horrible little mustache!).

Secondly, he is from Tasmania. I don't know what the american equivalent is (I guess being from the south?), but in Australia if it is revealed that you hail from Tasmania it is akin to marrying your cousin. Actually that's when the inbred jokes starts. And also the 2 heads jokes etc. Basically Tasmania is the butt of all states amongst australians, followed closely by South Australia and then Perth, Western Australia where I'm from (acronym of WA = wait awhile).

So the fact that he rose above his Tasmanian upbringings speaks volumes I guess. The fact that he was a sex symbol for a while and was actually born in Australia (do not see Gibson, Mel; Crowe, Russell or Kidman, Nicole) also gives him points.

Flynn was known in movies for playing the dashing swashbuckling hero but in reality he had a reputation as a notorious womanizer (married 3 times), a binge alcohol/drug taker and rumours circulated that he was bisexual (with Howard Hughes and Truman Capote no less) and a Nazi sympathiser.
The phrase In Like Flynn resulted from his charges that were laid against him for statutory rape in 1942. He was acquitted. So overall an interesting guy? "I like my whiskey old and my women young."
So not so sure about Errol anymore, seemed like a dirty old man at times.
I did like Guy Pearce's portrayal of him in Flynn in 1997, but then again I think Guy is pretty cute.


Australian Crawl a band popular here in the early 80s before disbanding in 1984 even immortalised Flynn in song:


Errol Convict state
It just don't rate
He want to get higher
Apple isle, the inbred smile
He's going to get by'a
His mothers hand
He could not stand
He left for the islands
To fish and hunt
He take a punt
The new guinea highlands


Ohhhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him


He had to go
The Sirocco
He's sailing the high seas
Hollywood, Captain Blood
He's billin the Nazis
Took a rebel stand
Contraband
Coast of Mexico
He wants to pounce
Like an animal
To the girls he just can't say no


Ohhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him (x 2)


He had them all
Screamin for more
He play the wild scene
Ah scandalise, no compromise
He's down on his knees
Swashbuckling
He was the King
The toast of Tinseltown
They build him up
They took it all
And then they just cut him down


Ohhh Errol
I would give everything just to be like him (x 2)


Bad grammar aside, it's succinct, a little ironic, quite a catchy song and a good sum up of Errol's life.

Thanks to:
theerrolflynnblog.com
lyricsdownload.com

Fun with animals

So I want do something a little different and do a more personal entry. I know I've done them before but they were kind of lame and the only reason I haven't deleted them is that deleting them would be more lame. This event is about something which only happened yesterday and I wanted to get it out of my system in a therapeutic writing session.

I have recently signed up with an animal volunteer organisation with animal welfare being very close to my heart (some would say too close, I have a tendency to get emotional about animals). Seeing as I wasn't getting much job satisfaction out of my 2 part time jobs I thought I could at least try volunteer work in a field I was interested in.

Basically the deal with this organisation is primarily all the volunteering opportunities are posted on a forum (things like fostering, home checks, transport help, events) and anyone who can help and who has signed up posts a response if they can help.

I am really keen to foster a cat or dog, but my boyfriend not so much. And since I am technically living in his house, it is up to him. He wants to wait until we have grown some lawn as at the moment it is sand city. But then I saw this posting for a staffy cross older female who was going to be put down yesterday unless we could find a foster/someone who would adopt. For a start I shouldn't even be looking at the foster section, but I was and my heart went out to this dog who had been in the pound for 14 days and was due to be put to sleep unless she was picked up.

I asked my boyfriend and he agreed reluctantly and I spoke to the ranger at the pound. They advised she would be put down soon and I told them I would try and get down there by 4 that afternoon and I would bring my dog Ebony down to see if they would be friends.

I got there to some very nice rangers and a volunteer with the pound and Ebs and I trotted out the back to meet this dog named Venus.

Well the two dogs did not even notice each other for a few minutes both happily sniffing around the yard. The ranger had walked away, just in the next room I think and I was left with the volunteer. I still had Ebony on her lead and they finally noticed each other and were nudging noses. Ebs was doing her little dance on the lead she sometimes does when she wants the other dog to play (she is a 2 and a half year old Labrador cross, also a rescue dog but we got her when she was 8 weeks old).

But out of nowhere after some careful sniffing, the other dog turned feral and latched onto Eb's neck. Well I tried grabbing the dog, Ebs was squealing, I'm sure I had some interesting sounds coming out my mouth, the volunteer rushed to get the ranger. I got my hand in the other dogs mouth and was trying to ply it away from her neck, I got her away once and Ebs started to wander off but she was a bit confused and the dog latched on again. The ranger came running out and managed to separate the dog and I grabbed Ebs who luckily seemed to be okay.

We went into the rangers office, because in all the hoopla I had grazed both knees quite badly and 2 of my fingers were bleeding. Some nice old ranger put antibacterial solution on my fingers and knees and band aids and then I started to feel woozy. Think my body had lost it's adrenaline hit and the shock was now catching up with me. Ebs was checked out and seemed OK, no bleeding, I seemed to be more traumatised by the incident than her! My vision started to go blurry and it felt like cotton wool was filling my ears. The last time this happened was when I had to give a uni presentation solo while everyone else had partners.

After a had a sit down and 2 mugs of water and felt well enough to go home, after being informed I would need a tetanus shot.

Today I had my shot and Ebs had a vet check up just in case (and yes because we are those crazy animal parents), we also did notice a superficial mark on her shoulder that we thought should be looked at.

So overall a sad experience for everyone. I felt so guilty taking my fur child to meet another dog and have it end so badly, and now Venus will most certainly be put down when I wanted to give her another chance to get a new family. And now I'm walking around looking like I've got major carpet burn on both knees (as if) and I'm having to use a different finger to click the computer mouse (a hardship I know). For a first time volunteer experience it could not have gone worse. The only sunshine through the clouds is to try and see how much I can milk the experience and get any time off work.

Although the pictures are a bit old, that is our Ebony one spoilt pooch.

Old and new Drew

I watched Firestarter about a month ago and Whip It on Friday night and just thought what an interesting journey for Miss Barrymore.
I'd read Firestarter a while ago but had never seen the movie, I'd enjoyed the book and read it a few times so knew the movie would not match up to what was running in my head.
Basic plot line: Andy McGee participated in a scientific study for cash while he was in university, while there he met Vicky Tomlinson who he later married and had one child Charlene (Charlie) who is played by Barrymore.
The study gave the Vicky mild telekinetic powers and in Andy a substantial mind power which lets him 'push' others actions. Their daughter Charlie has even more powerful abilities, namely the power to create fires.

The government who commissioned the study has been keeping an eye on the couple ever since their university days and are obviously very interested in their abilities, particularly in Charlie. The movie has them basically on the run for the first third of the film from the government agency known as the The Shop, after they killed Vicky and captured Charlie. Andy rescues Charlie using his ability but after a short reprieve they are caught again. They set Charlie and Andy up in separate parts of the Shop and dope Andy up all the time and eventually plan to kill him.
They make Charlie perform all sorts of experiments and plan on using her as some kind of weapon. Charlie's ties to her father are too strong though, and Andy's to her. He fools the doctors into thinking he is taking his medication but is secretly practising his pushing ability. He manages to get a meeting with Charlie and he creates an escape plan.
Unfortunately he hadn't counted on Rainbird, a sniper posing as an orderly in Charlie's chambers to have formed a bond with Charlie. They have a showdown and Andy dies and then Charlie kills Rainbird.
She then goes on a fire spree killing a lot of employees working at the Shop in a rage fuelled by the death of her father. She escapes and goes to an elderly couple who helped Charlie and her dad while they were on the run, and then they help her tell her story to a newspaper.

As with most Stephen King adaptations, when they try and use the similar dialogue from the novel it comes across as laboured and not true to life. While it reads fine on the page, I felt some of Andy's dialogue particularly did not translate well to film. Barrymore does an okay job, she was only 9 at the time and just had to look stressed and whiny a lot of the time which most kids can do!


Now Whip it. I really wanted to see this at the cinema but never got round to it and just watched it on Saturday night. Have to say I was a little disappointed overall, but might have been due to my high expectations.
Ellen Page plays Bliss (what is with the funky hipster names, can someone please call their child Sarah?) whose mother keeps pushing her into beauty pageants she is not interested in. There is some back story with her now being an outsider at her high school, but it isn't fully developed and you feel there could have been a more interesting story there.
A chance sighting of some roller derby girls prompts Bliss and her friend Pash (what the hell is this short for?) played by the delightful Alia Shawkat, to check this event out. Check this out for info on roller derby, I cannot be bothered going into the rules.
Bliss decides to try out for the next intake of roller derby, hiding the fact from her old fashioned mother. She actually gets in and the team gets into the grand final or whatever Americans would call it! Along the way, Bliss forgets about her friend Pash, is lying to her parents, makes some new friends in her roller derby team (including Barrymore who also directed) and scores a (lame) love interest.


I found Drew's character to be unnecessary, she is basically playing a dopey, violent roller girl with lots of colours in her hair (roller derby name: Smashley Simpson). For a maiden directing voyage she didn't do too badly but I think she just wanted to be in the movie and have fun with all the girls, knocking people over etc that she lost sight that maybe the character wasn't necessary. Maybe others thought she added some more comedy to the proceedings but I thought Bliss and Pash's natural friendship had more funny lines.

Drew's career has had a progression from troubled child/teen actor to producer (Whip It, Fever Pitch, Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 and Donnie Darko) and now director and she comes across as likable in my opinion: "I know certain actors are total screwed up on drugs, yet it gets covered up. Why wasn't I excused for 'exhaustion' or the 'flu'?"

Oh and happy 50th post to me! My first post was on the 29th November which makes my blog a Sagittarius. As well as being the birthday of my fabulous aunt it is also the birthday of Louisa May Alcott, C.S. Lewis and Garry Shandling.

Some People Have Real Problems

Can I just totally not even do a real post but a shout out to my girl Sia (and by my girl, I mean we were both born in Australia, duh).

Her CD Some People Have Real Problems was on such constant rotation in my car that I was hearing her songs as I fell asleep. Which is kind of awesome as so many of them are dreamy mystical songs you could easily fall asleep to. But on the other hand as you are well aware, when you are trying to get to sleep is the absolute worst time to get a song stuck in your head.

Some of my faves are of course Buttons which has rocketed onto my top ten list of greatest songs ever, and is also the second most watched youtube video ever.

Another is Breathe Me (which is not on the SPHRP album) which is truly haunting and was the perfect backdrop for one of the greatest series ending episodes in Six Feet Under.

It also was apparently licensed to Coles Supermarkets in Australia and was used during the Beijing Olympics coverage.

It is terrible that she had to move to the UK before she achieved any kind of commerical success, and then Australia just jumped on the bandwagon last year and awarded her an ARIA (Australian record industry award). Although I guess I'm a hypocrite as I have also just jumped on the bandwagon when I got her CD for Christmas even though it was released in January 2008.

She comes across as down to earth in interviews: "I've always been open about it. People are making a fuss about it because I'm getting successful." [on her bisexuality] she also writes her own songs. Anyone who does a cover of Britney Spear's Gimme More gets a tick in my book.

Boy crush

Continuing on the trend on crushes, I thought I'd even it out and produce a male crush of mine from a particular movie. Chris O'Donnell in Circle of Friends.

Circle of Friends was released in 1995, set in Ireland in the late 1950's and is based on popular Irish author Mauve Binchey's novel of the same name. It tells the story of Nan, Eve and Bernadette (Benny) and their various adventures in college.

Benny is the kind hearted girl with parents who dote on her and won't let her stay in Dublin for study. She has...or is meant to have a weight issue, but to me she just seems voluptuous, Minnie Driver is already tall, so I guess the extra weight is meant to make her a bit dowdy or something.

Eve is Benny's fiercely loyal best friend who was raised by nuns after she was orphaned as a young girl.

Nan is a the beautiful sophisticated one who could have any guy she wants, but begins a relationship with the older (whom she believes to be rich) Colin Firth as a way of escaping her poor upbringings.

In the book, Eve and Benny are the friends from childhood and they meet Nan and a whole host of other people once at college. In the film, Nan is someone they knew from childhood but moved away and are reunited once they are all 18.

There is a clear catholic theme throughout the movie (as there are in many of Binchey's books) which would be obvious from the setting and time of the movie, as the characters struggle with whether or not to 'go all the way'.

Benny crushes big time on Jack (O'Donnell) who everyone seems to think is out of her league, and they start off as friends before it moves into something more.

Benny is played by Minnie Driver, who I believe had to pack on some pounds for the role and while I wouldn't find her traditionally beautiful, she is interesting looking (not meant to sound like an insult) and her character is lovely, if a bit of a pushover at times.

Also worth mentioning is the delightfully creepy Alan Cummings who I love in nearly everything (particularly in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion) and plays Benny's dad's work colleague and who her parents are eager for her to marry.

It stays true to the book in that Bennie is larger than your average leading lady, and I guess this continues the trend that women in film can't be 10 kilos overweight (and still beautiful), but a fat man with a supermodel is okay.

Anyway back to Chris - maybe it is the combination of the (admittedly not the greatest fake) accent, the 50's clothes and his adorable relationship with Bennie that I just find so cute.
I also emphasise with Benny in that dream of attaining that 'perfect guy' who you don't think will notice you as more than a friend. So when their relationship deepens, I like Chris (or his character, Jack) that much more. Which poses an interesting question: am I am now giving men/characters credit just for noticing interesting, intelligent females who don't have supermodel worthy looks?

As events in the film progress though, Jack does engage in some douchbagery and to the credit of Benny (in the book at least) she doesn't take him back.

In the movie however it is a different story and you do feel as though they wanted to tack on a bit of a Hollywood ending. So however bizarre my choice may be, I still stand by Chris's character as one of the cutest roles for at least half of the movie. Along with Gilbert Blythe. But for the whole series.

For the images:
moviemaker.com

zap2it.com

Girl crush

I have a tiny girl crush on Romola Garai. In case you don't know who she is, she has acted I Capture the Castle, Atonement, Vanity Fair and Dirty Dancing 2, and some other things I haven't seen.
I thought she was really sweet in ICTC, and much more likable than Rose Bryne's character (which was the point I guess, because Rose was meant to be more traditionally beautiful sister). You didn't want her to fend off the advances of Henry, because he was so cute but you could see that she had to.

Also about Havana Nights (DD2). Her quote: "The filmmakers were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn't they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that's what they wanted? An actress like that wouldn't worry about whether or not the political ideas were being sensitively or subtly dealt with. They'd do the job, smile and look pretty on the cover of Teen Vogue. There I am, 135 pounds and trying to make art! I was so wrong for it!"

One, awesome for pulling the piss on Kate 'alien head' Bosworth. Two thumbs up.

Second, I like an actress that speaks her mind. Usually they don't want to offend anyone, so it is refreshing to hear a honest opinion on a film experience.
Third, she isn't a waif which is also refreshing to see on film. Next to Reece Witherspoon in Vanity Fair, I thought Romola lit up the screen, and in DD2 even though the movie had no chance of living up to the original (and didn't really try, setting it in a new country, different style of dancing etc) and was kind of lame in many parts, there is no doubting Romola was gorgeous in that movie, and I covet so many of her clothes!

A typical girl crush I do not agree with: Angelina Jolie: just does not do anything for me. Plus too much baggage. Literally.

I haven't done a book post in a while, which is weird because I celebrated my 26th birthday last week and received 7 books! What I'm reading at the moment is John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoo's (which was filmed as the campy Village of the Damned!), which is nicely creepy so far. I like how he writes 'logical fantasy'. I've also got Labour Day by Joyce Barnard, my mum got me one I can't recall the title of, and a few chick lits to get through. So happy reading to me!

Images from:

images.starpulse.com

Moving out

I am nearly 26 and I have finally moved out. Sort of. My boyfriend has bought his first house and I am pretty much living there.
At the moment though I haven't moved much of my stuff in, since his crap is still in boxes all round the place, and I can't stand the thought of adding even more clutter to it, the house just is not big enough.
So it's a 3 x 1, built in the 70s with some ridiculous purple (and I love purple) carpet in the games room, but of course it's his favourite room as it has a huge bar in it, which is proudly displaying about 15 bottles of alcohol including some hold made red skin vodka. I don't want to bring my vanilla vodka over, for fear of it all getting drunk at the house warming party. It's good stuff especially with red creaming soda..mmm.

Anyway the kitchen's small, the bathroom is fabulously retro (read the sarcasm) and there are no walk in robes. It's practically archaic. Just kidding. It's a first home, and personally I'm glad it's not a McMansion with 2 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, a theatre room, games room, formal dining and lounge. I mean come on. There's 2 people and an energetic dog living here. How much room do we need? Sure the kitchen is tiny and annoying to cook fancy meals in, but it can get upgraded. Eventually. And surprisingly it has not taken as long as I thought to feel like a home. I'm getting there after nearly 2 weeks. And I've lived in my last home since I was 12, so you know a lot of memories. Now all I need is to convince the One Who Has The Mortgage (i.e. the boyfriend, forever on known as TOWHTM...then again, maybe not) to let me get a cat.

Can I throw in a random 'how cute was...' for Mel Gibson? Nowadays he gives off a bit of a douchey vibe what with the whole divorcing of the long suffering wife and now another freakin baby on the way. Isn't this like his 8th?
Although saying that I could never completely dislike him, since he grew up in Australia and used to sound Australian. And because he used to look like this:



Seriously how cute? And his little blue heeler with his bandana too. I don't think the first Mad Max was as popular in America because all the google images I could find were mostly from Mad Max 2. Funnily enough a picture of Val Kilmer in Willow popped up as an image result too. Heh, I guess they are kind of similar, maybe when Mel was in Braveheart anyway. Now that I think about it, in Sweet Valley Senior Year, Ken Matthews asks his dad if he wants to watch The Road Warrior which I thought was odd as it's the sequel but he called it The Road Warrior and not Mad Max 2 which would seem more sensible. Okay now looking for sensible in a SV book. But then again most people think Terminator 2 is better than the original, and might prefer that to T1.
Anyway I am clearly rambling when all I wanted to say was: What happened Mel?

Dogfight

I don't know where I was when River Phoenix died. I'll blame the fact that I was 10, but I got a major crush on him after he died (kind of wrong?) through movies like Dogfight and maybe for the fact he could actually act.

I even remember watching Stand By Me with my parents for the first time, it may have been not that long after his death and hearing my mum say 'He had so much talent'.

These young actors today (as a generalisation) have nothing on River. I even made him my subject for my year 12 biography presentation on him for english. Yes I proclaimed my love for a dead 80s/90s celebrity in the form of a well researched paper and speech in front of 30 seventeen year olds.

Dogfight was released in 1991 and is the story of Eddie (Phoenix) and Rose (Lily Taylor- who for some reason does not even have a photo on imdb.com! This woman was briefly in High Fidelity) in 1963 who meet under some ugly circumstances. Eddie is a marine and on a short leave before shipping out to Vietnam.

Eddie and his 3 marine buddies have this 'game' they play on their time off where the guy who can bring/find the ugliest girl to a dance they host, wins a large sum of money they all put into. Now this is all done under false pretenses to the girl they bring, who thinks she is being swept off her feet and wined and dined by a handsome marine. Don't call me Miss Obvious, but man that's cruel. I know boys are not nice guys but come on. That could screw a girl up for life, not too mention the self esteem issues. Anyway the film gets better.

This film had a very limited theatre release and I only happened upon it because of my love of River. Saying that Taylor is also good playing the initially shy but sparky Rose. Their relationship and the way it evolves is so cute and awkward but in a good way. I don't think it's one of his more well known films, but is definitely worth checking out.

Flirting

Flirting is an Australian film set in 2 corresponding boys and girls boarding schools in rural 1960s australia released in 1991. It stars Thandie Newton and Noah Taylor, although looking at the cover you would believe Nicole Kidman was the star.

This film looks into racism, the blossoming romance between Taylor (Danny) and Newton (Thandiwe) and their ultimate separation.

This film introduced me to the Trogg's song A Girl Like You, it is featured in a dance scene early on in the film and this song is still in my ipod. It also introduced me to Noah Taylor a great aussie actor who unfortunately never really hit the big time in the US and was regaled with being Angelina Jolie's IT geek in the Tomb Raider movies and the strange band manager in Almost Famous.

His character's uniqueness and even awkwardness appeals to Thandiwe, she herself being unique in the only black student at either school. The film also delves into the political situation at the time in Uganda which I admit total ignorance about.

Nicole Kidman does have a minor part in this film as the upper school prefect, Nicola. She plays the perfect ice queen with perfection but she does show character development in an interesting scene with Thandiwe late in the movie.

Overall the film's narrative is pretty simple, it tracks their blossoming (can I throw in a coming of age as well?) relationship, and their differing but at times similar experiences in each school.

To me, this film is ultimately so australian but then I also get the conflicting setting of the boarding schools which is more of an american or british concept in my opinion. Saying that, I love anything to do with boarding schools, be it the YA series Pen Pals or the more recent (and slightly more grown up) Prep. Probably because I had so little exposure to boarding schools, I held this fascination with them.

Curiously I never saw the first film starring Taylor's Danny character The Year My Voice Broke but I picked this one up at my local video store and even bought the VHS when they upgraded to DVD as I had never seen the movie anywhere else. It was widely acclaimed in Australia the year it was released, winning the best film at the AFI awards. It is interesting to see the actors so young and vulnerable, and since Newton has gone on to more high profile roles it makes me like her that little bit more since she chose to star in this little australian film.

Image from qag.qld.gov.au

3 Things I've learned from JEM!

1. Jerrica is too young to run Starlight music with Eric Raymond (evil guy left in charge after her dad dies) but not too young to run Starlight House, a home for foster girls? In episode one he calls Jem 'a kid'. Apparently a kid is perfectly fine to look after other young girls who are most likely more traumatised about never having a real home and are now getting looked after by 4 girls and a random nanny we see once. Heh. I never really understood how old Jem/Jerrica Bennett is meant to be. She must be over 18 otherwise she'd be into foster care herself but to be still called a kid, she'd probably need to be under 21. I'm going to go with 19.

Lesson learned: 19 is too young to run a music company (presumably because it is just outside the target demographic) but is quite alright to run foster children's home.

2.Mr Bennett (dear daddy who dies right at the beginning and we never get a glimpse of) is a truly outrageous clothes designer. Never mind the fact he also designed this whole synergy hologram program, the clothes (and car) the girls get presented with the first night they meet Synergy/secret warehouse were the coolest thing in the world to me in the late 80s when I was introduced to Jem.

I'm not sure if I'm just holding onto my childhood a teeny bit too much but some of the clothes the band wears is still pretty cool. I really wanted to go as one of the characters for my 80s party last year but it proved a bit hard with my lack of skill with a sewing machine. Shame because some of those outfits are still rad.

Lesson learned: Mr Bennett may have been gay, but he left his daughter a great parting gift with some awesome clothes and accessories.

3. Girl power is great, but for those really tough times you really need a strong boyfriend with purplish hair. Sure Jerrica can (attempt) fix her kitchen sink plumbing, pull off a concert when the band was only formed the day before but for those times when you're about to fall off a speeding boat or have a gargoyle statute fall on you, Rio is just handy to have around. Lesson learned: aim for the Spice Girls version of girl power.

I loved Jem as a youngster, I was never aware it was anymore than the first episodes that I watched originally, as I used to rent it from our video store where it was marketed as a movie. My favourite character was Kimber or Aja. Jem was okay but a bit predictable while Kimber had cool red hair, wrote the songs and was the 'other' sibling.

Several years later my grandparents got foxtel and I discovered the series continued and even had new characters and new songs I wasn't used to! The pain. I prefer not to watch these now and have just bought the original 1st disc DVD. I just pray this story isn't true. Some things should just be left in the past, in particular the 80's. It was a special time.

The classics

Not to sound completely dumb but I am really struggling with finishing Jane Eyre. It wasn't even on my list of books to read in an earlier post but I bought it back in February last year using a book voucher my brother gave me and I keep putting other books ahead of it to read.

I have 2 categories of books I choose to read: those which are lighthearted and usually 'chick lit' and I can read while I eat my lunch at work. And then there are those other books I want to read because they are classics, I've heard good things about them and I also feel it will give my book collection some much need street cred.

Unfortunately I think I am not just interested enough in the story to hurry to finish it. I promised myself I'd finish it in the work break between Christmas and new year and here we are early January with the book still about 3/4 finished.

I haven't connected with the characters much at all, and Mr Rochester is definitely not doing anything for me. I don't know if this makes me the opposite of a literary snob, but I'm putting it out there that I do not love Jane Eyre. Or Wuthering Heights for that matter.

Thanks to http://www.rarebookschool.org/ for the frumpist book cover pic I could find.

Prozac Nation

I'm nearly finished Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel and while not entirely sure what I expected, one thing for sure, is that it is depressing the hell out of me. I think I expected it to be more of an analysis of why this generation (X I'm guessing, since Wurtzel was a teenager in the 80's) is prescribed drugs instead of looking at the root of the problem but instead I'm reading a lot of whiny self absorbing behaviour.

There would be few among us who have never suffered depression and I think I went into reading the book looking for some empathy and similar experiences to my own. But good god Elizabeth is not a likable character.

I realise it is a memoir and she is being honest in her own experiences and in a way it is admirable not to sugarcoat anything but it doesn't make for an easy read. It also makes my problems seem smaller in comparison but while I'm reading it I am finding that I am questioning myself more and going back to some experiences I have had which is not a desired result. So will definitely be excited to finish this one.

Unfortunately I don't have much interesting on the horizon to read. I'll be getting the latest Marian Keyes for Christmas from my nanna (who has this vaguely hilarious trait of spending the exact same amount on every grandchild so that everything is 'fair'- my poppy jokingly said I was his favourite grandchild once and she yelled at him) and I considered buying A Clockwork Orange from Borders today or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest but it just didn't seem like holiday reading ya know?

Also I remember watching the movie very vaguely which starred Christina Ricci but I don't remember the character being so unlikeable in the film although it did come out in 2001 so my memory may be fading. According to IMDB trivia though, the film wasn't released until 2005 due to Wurtzel's unfavourable comments following 9/11 and the general distaste viewers had of her character. I was sure I watched it before 2005 though, perhaps this was the US release date? Either way not a great film to Ricci's name.

Wikipedia for the image.

New Moon

I'm really ashamed to admit it but I saw New Moon exactly 2 days after it was released. I only saw Twilight this year so I have no idea how I allowed myself to go with a friend to a Friday night screening with the screaming masses of teenage girls (and a few rogue boys).


Seriously I have not seen the Twimania before close hand. I know I've seen the previews around the world and all the girls lining up for a view of Rob Patterson but I was not prepared for the line just to get in to our seats.


Then more embarrassingly the screams, applause whenever Jacob took his shirt off. Dear lord, I looked at my 33 year old friend and silently our eyes said: 'We're too old for this shit.'


The actual movie: okay. I think I love to hate the book series, the author and the films. Bella is so damn annoying as I've said before, more so in the book and I don't really get the deal with Edward. Jacob though in the movie has really buffed up and the girls in the cinema really loooved him. The wolves special effects in my opinion were pretty well done, seamless and you know kinda cool.


There was actually a bit of muffled laughter and ewws when Edward took his shirt off towards the end. Actually felt a bit sorry for Edward and his lowly excuse of a six pack and general pastyness (I can say it cos I live it).




On a completly different tangent, my friends and I were having this discussion about young girls on Saturday night and it has been on my mind for some time. What is with their attitude and the way they dress now? I was 12-17 from 1996- 2001 and there is no way I was ever that fashionable or knowledgeable about certain behaviours (read: sexual) at that age. I was wearing cargo shorts and having movie marathon sleepovers not sliding myself into bloody leather leggings and posting cleavage enhancing profile pictures on facebook.


It was only 8 years ago but I really felt like I had a childhood, which I am supremely grateful.
I never had a boyfriend in high school and while this seemed like the end of the world in the late 90s, right now I am glad.
What I remember most about high school is the great times I had with my friends and the silly stupid kid stuff we did. Like filming our own horror movie at 15 and when I did actually hit 18 and start going out to clubs I wasn't a supreme confident queen swanning around I see now binge drinking 4 nights a week and using the disabled toilet if you know what I mean.
Maybe I've hit middle age at 25 and these darn kids today are just normal in our progressing society but I still treasure my adolescence for what it was, glamorous or not.

Thanks to behindblondiepark.com for the image.

Speak and others

I finished Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson on about the second day in Bali. I got some kind of platinum edition from Borders, it has some extra interview with the author, a new foreword (there's a movie based on the book? Probably going to be slightly more educational and up to date than what we were forced to watch in Health ed class - Sarah T- Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic circa 1975, yes I went to a public school) at the back and an interesting page layout but I think that's all that's platinum about it.

I got lured into this book by the awards it has won, and the secret that Melinda has and which I was curious to find out about and how it affected her. Ultimately it is revealed she was raped and she calls the police to help her but they also break up the huge Summer party she was attending. She gets back to school the following year and her friends have disbanded into other groups and everyone knows her as the girl who broke up the party. She has not told anyone about the rape.

I can imagine this book being popular on school reading lists, although in my experience in high school we had a drama teacher who did not give us the option of studying the Australian play Black Rock which was also turned into a film in 1997 with Heath Ledger in a small role. It dealt with the rape and murder of a young girl in a surfing town and how the truth comes out.
Our teacher said that he didn't want to bring that (meaning the issue of murder and rape I'm guessing) into the classroom.
Admittedly I never read the play but did watch the film which had rape scenes and were hard to watch. But also avoiding the issue is not going to help raise awareness. Surely at the age that we were at the time (17) which was around the same age of the characters in the play/film would have had longer lasting effects than watching it when we were a bit older and had 'been around the block'.

I still remember watching the film Threads in social studies when I was 14 and it terrified the shit out of me. Another friend in the same class still remembers too. It dealt with the after effects of a nuclear explosion in Britain and while it scared me, it was a real no holds barred look at what could happen if that situation occurred and knowing this and being terrified of it is power in a way.
Didn't mean to turn into a rant but it happens.
In more lighthearted news, Bali was so relaxing, I also read Larry Doyle's I Love You, Beth Cooper, I got a lot of mosquito bites, went horse riding, fed a few very hungry elephants (they eat 200kg a day!) and have started reading Valley of the Dolls.

Edit: Speak came out in 2004..must have missed that one. And it stared the always great Kristen Stewart. Sarcasm, sorry I can't work out who's more overrated her or Megan Fox.


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511F9YA7EFL.jpg for the image.

Bali

Think I hit a new low with the last post about food, ouch. Anyway I'm starting to get pretty excited because my boyfriend and I are heading to Bali (that's in Indonesia) at the end of the month for 8 nights. It's my 3rd visit and the boy's first. It's crazy the airline prices when we bought, it is actually less to fly to Bali, which is in a whole other country than to fly to Broome which is in my freakin state. Although western Australia does make up approximately 1/3 of the whole country. But $200 return each for us! We were tossing up between Queensland or Bali but the cheapness was too good to be true, plus the cost of living I've estimated for food is about $150 each for the week. Now just to avoid the dreaded Bali belly.

I think our outdoor bathroom looks gorgeous which was a huge appeal for this hotel. Of course I then read a recent review on Trip Advisor and was brought down to earth by the comment of the mosquitoes constantly bothering this travellers girlfriend while she was getting ready! That trip advisor site is so bad, I must have changed my mind 5 times before settling and I'm still debating whether we should change hotels or not. Why is it so easy to believe one bad review over 20 good ones?

Lunch

Lunch is the highlight of each and every working day. I get to stroll down to the outlet shopping near my work and browse the options (who the hell am I kidding I always buy either 1 or 2 different things). Sometimes I also stroll some of the shops, check my one lotto ticket of the week and then I get to return to my office, shut the door and read for half a hour.

Today I chose the delightful (as always) vegetarian wrap with the awesome sun dried tomato pesto, yes indeed I'm fancy. As usual I think about my choices and try and validate why a chocolate braid (wrote brain first, yum) would be a good option to eat after my salad wrap. Thought process is usually something like:
'I deserve it, I've had a crap day'
'It will be my only one of the week' (no it won't you big fat liar)

For those who don't know Croissant Express is a retail store in Perth who make baguettes, wraps, and these gorgeous pastry creations such as a chocolate braid which is pretty much delectable pastry and lashings of darkish chocolate all fashioned into a criss cross pattern - makes sense no? Anyway of late I have become rather fond of them and the urge to stop myself from getting them about 3 times a week is getting harder and harder.

Anyway today my little Irish server (who I keep waiting for her to just recognise me and what I order but she never does, should I feel rejected?) tells me it's $7 for my wrap and then I hold up my coke and she goes and puts that into the til and it's $10.50 including the coke (sweet Jesus that's expensive), she returns again and suddenly I haven't got the heart to make her scurry back there again once I've added on the braid.
So long story short she saved me money and some extra calories just because I was being too polite. I somehow don't think this is a ploy that will last too long, knowing me.

While I was there a woman came up with 2 baby bottles of milk and asked if they had a microwave to warm it up. Now a few years ago I worked in a cafe and this was a big no-no, management told us to tell customers we couldn't do it due to health regulations (basically possibility of being sued). This nearly always resulted in customers getting pretty agitated and this made me think of Customer Suck, a livejournal I like to lurk at and whether this would be considered customer or management suckery.
I don't remember the specific details of when it happened to me but it always annoyed me the sense of entitlement some customers feel, and makes me glad I now have a job where I don't have that much customer interaction.

The Faculty

I began writing a screenplay when I was about 14 which was, I believe, inspired by this movie. Yes how does one write a screenplay inspired by a story of host alien parasites that take over a small town, leaving a ragtag bunch of misfits struggling to save the town and kill thehost (especially when the movie itself was inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers)?

Well in all fairness my screenplay was more inspired by the characters, yes the one dimensional players of this piece included a jock who decides to quit the football team and become more brainy, his ex girlfriend who is head cheerleader and apparently also editor of the school paper, a nerdy photography student who gets picked on from the moment he steps off the bus, a 'lesbian' goth girl, the new bubbly southerner girl, and the hot Josh Hartnett who is really smart but instead channels his energy into having to repeat senior year and using his own lab to create some homemade drugs for the high school kiddies.

I really wish I still had my screenplay (then again I don't, how embarrassing) just to see how my 14 year old self deconstructed my own characters. Then again hopefully the old computer's hard drive got wiped beyond recognition.

Anyway to the movie, I think I shared an affinity with Stockley the Clea DuVall character (goth girl), probably just the outsider label she wore, although I think all the characters were meant to represent outsiders in some form. Except for Jordana Brewster's character who seemed to be popular from the beginning. Although by the end she was dating Casey (Elijah Wood) the nerd, and that is totally like social suicide.

I forgot this film did have some fairly cool dialogue, mainly due to Kevin Williamson's screenplay and he was riding high on the Dawson's Creek wave.

The whole drug thing Josh's character makes and eventually becomes a foil for the aliens as they are water loving and his drugs are a diuretic. Is it just me or did this seem really risque for the time? I mean it basically looks like these kids are snorting cocaine. Of course it turns out it's just a mixture of aspirin, caffeine tablets etc but I was still a little shocked. I must be getting old.

Overall viewing this movie when I'm not 14 did take some of the original gloss off. I did still enjoy it though.

I still found Josh really hot even with his bowl hair cut (he was 20 in this, cougar alert!).

I though Clea DuVall overacted a little (it's a teen horror movie from the 90s..am I being a bit picky?), but think she has gotten better with age, in particular with Carnivale.

I guess originally I would have thought it was cool finding out your teachers are aliens but now I also relate to them in a way and I'd completely forgotten Salma Hayek has a small role as a nurse at the school. Literally about 5 minute screen time, I'm guessing it was done as a favour to the director whom she made From Dusk til Dawn with.

Thanks to http://forum.ecoustics.com/ for the image.

Stephen King

I know it's not 'trendy' (using some hip lingo there) to enjoy Stephen King novels, but I do. It's okay to like some of his novel to film adaptations (who doesn't like Stand by Me or The Shawshank Redemption?) but to admit to be being a Stephen King fan is apparently a little embarrassing.

I have a secret (well not really if you look on my profile). I have a morbid fear of clowns ever since my dad let me watch the first 5 minutes of It. I can't even link to the IMB page as I'm terrified I'll see a picture of the little fucker.
Why oh why did my dad show a youngster (think I may have been about 8, again can't look up the details to see the release date) those terrifying images? And I have not been able to finish watching the movie since. My boyfriend has offered to watch it with me as a kind of overcome your fear bullshit where I watch the film and conquer old demons. Or something.
But he hasn't seen the movie so I would like someone who will be able to give me a heads up when something scary is about to happen. And I'm really doubting this is even going to cure my fear, although I doubt it will make it worse but who knows.

Anyway enough neuroses and back to my enjoyment of other King stuff. I think he can actually write, sure he uses about 250 words when 1 will do, but you'd never say he's not descriptive and you get a good feel for his characters. It's hard to pick a favourite book, but my top 3 in no particular order would have to be:

The Dead Zone

The Stand

Misery

The last one came courtesy of my dad who reminded me what a great book and movie it was. As my boyfriend put so eloquently about Kathy Bates Oscar winning performance, 'That is one crazy bitch.' Terrible terrible moment involving the sledgehammer has to be noted.
One Stephen King movie I saw when I was in primary school but have not read the book is Tommyknockers, but I haven't heard great reviews for that one? I do love vintage King though.

Speaking of books I want to finally get around to reading, is Prep which I received via my special order yesterday and Peyton Place is on the way. I feel like I'm getting my education in books everyone else has read already, but better late than never.

Short Circuit

I bought my boyfriend this film recently for his 24th birthday mostly as a joke as I figured it would be one of those movies that we loved in the mid 80s but was craptastically corny when viewed now. Also it was about $9 at K-Mart.

Watching it yesterday it took us back to a time when canape carrying robots were all the rage and Steve Guttenberg had a career. Namely 1986. Sadly I wish Ally Sheedy did still have a successful career, being my favourite breakfast clubber.

Basic plot is Steve Guttenberg is a nerdy scientist/copmputer programmer guy who is responsible for 5 defence robots, one of which (number 5) gets fried in a freak lightning accident. Number 5 then becomes alive (as he repeats many times in the film) and ends up at Ally Sheedy's (Stephanie) place who at first thinks he is an alien, then learns he is a robot from the Novo lab. She too comes to realise he is alive as he doesn't believe in hurting people and also you know he learns some cool dancing moves from John Travolta via Saturday Night fever film clips. She ends up hooking up with Steve and making him see the truth about Number 5 and not letting the Novo bosses blow him up. They end up running off into the wilderness where Number 5 can be hidden safely and can receive more input.

When I saw the back of the film case and saw Ally Sheedy dancing with a robot (not like a robot a la The Breakfast Club) I did cringe and wonder how bad this movie would be viewed through my more 'mature' eyes. And yes it has aged but it's not that bad. Steve Guttenberg has an Indian sidekick (who kinda sounds like Apu from The Simpsons) who is always messing up traditonal American sayings and is actually kind of amusing.
Some of the acting is rather awkward even from my beloved Miss Sheedy but she is literally acting with a robot for about 2/3 of the movie. Overall I still found it entertaining and kind of want to view Short Circuit 2. The shame.

Image: http://fivenonblondes.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/kohler-gone-karbon/

#3 Nobody's Perfect

The Gymnasts was another fave series of mine back in the day when babysitting ruled, being a twin held some kind of miracle superpowers (but only if you were blonde, pretty and popular) and girls still wrote letters to boys in a nearby school instead of filming sex videos with them.

The Gymnasts series was set at Evergreen Academy with the group of 'pinecones' (sort of beginner gymnasts) - Jodie, Darlene, Cindi and Lauren. I loved the name Darlene when I was a kid although Jodi was my fave character - she's the cute blonde on the cover. I even liked the Darlene in Roseanne although she was an altogether different character.

The Gymnasts author (Elizabeth Levy) has a quirky (if somewhat annoying) feature of naming the chapters. I found this kind of annoying now and pretty sure back when I was 11. For example, "Writer's Block for Blockheads", some are just inane while some give big obvious clues about what is going to happen in the chapter and I found this patronising even for the actual target audience for YA literature. Anyway this was one of my fave books as it starred Jodi and from what I remember her having to write in a diary for school.

Basically Jodi has been chosen to participate in a demonstration with her coach, Patrick but it will require her to take some time off school. Not being the greatest student already, her mum and teacher gang up and won't let her go unless her schoolwork improves. She has to write two pages in her school journal everyday until the demonstration.
Since this is an early one in the series it is still sort of introducing the characters and we learn Jodi is pretty fearless and she has the pressure of her parents being awesome gymnasts and her sister being a mega brain.

Jodi procrastinates (a lot) but eventually begins writing pretty much all about gymnastics and how much she lurves her coach. She gets to go and perform in the demonstration but not after some ripping up of the journal when Ashley (gymnast bitch) reads it and mocks her writing. It gets put back together with the help of the pinecones and they're all on their merry way, with Jodi getting to perform in front of her sister and prove she also has some talent and determination.

I liked this series for obvious girl reasons: it has gymnasts, cattiness, a hot coach and a group of tight knit friends. The girls do act more age appropriate and look their age on the (fugly) back cover (excuse the crappy pic). Suppose it was printed in 1988 though, but I think Jodi looks quite cute on the front cover. Also I distinctly remember trying out those gymnast poses on the left side of the cover, particularly fond of the second one from the top if memory serves. The body doesn't do so well lately though. Tried to get up on the high bar with my 6 year old cousin last weekend to attempt a swing (not even trying the death drop I used to do with ease in primary school), and I couldn't even lift my weight. Sigh.

The Thornbirds Take 2

I've been so lazy lately, but with my boyfriend working 10 days straight (6am - 10pm bloody hard worker, opposites must attract) I have an excuse to catch up on some posts I've been meaning to do.

The Thornbirds had quite a few characters in the big Cleary family, a family who emigrated to Australia from New Zealand in the early part of the 20th century after a rich sister (Mary Carson) of Paddy (the dad) decides she'd like her brother to work on her huge sheep station named Drogheda. Since they're doing it tough in NZ they hop on over on the boat. When they arrive there are 4 older brothers and arguably the main character of Meggie, the only daughter, with 2 younger boys as well.

Immediately Meggie forms a relationship with Ralph de Bricassart a priest who visits with Mary very often due to her sway in the community and her charity towards the church. Mary grows jealous of the priest's relationship with young Meggie (who at the time is around 8 and the priest 22) and decides to give Ralph the power to decide who will get her entire estate (worth many millions) when she dies. Ultimately Ralph decides to take the estate himself (leaving the Cleary to still live and work at Drogheda and be comfortable) thereby giving him the power to become a cardinal with the catholic church.

To go through the whole story would take forever. The family suffers so many tragedies through working on the land, losing loved ones and the ongoing battle between Ralph's faith and what he feels for Meggie (of course nothing happens until she is older).

Overall impression of the book was that I was engrossed about 3/5ths of the way through. I loved the early tales of the hard time working on the land and the tradgedies that seemed to keep falling on the family. I liked the drama of the courtship of Meggie and Luke a new worker at Drogheda, who anyone could see was no good but to innocent Meggie just reminded her of Ralph.

Once the story continued on to that of Meggie's children I lost a bit of interest. I felt Meggie for all her personality flaws was still betrayed in a more positive light than her daughter (who was referred to as several times as being nothing like her mother in looks and personality) just because she wasn't Ralph's spawn. While she had a more fiery and interesting personality and life rather than just pining after a priest who should have known better.

I am glad I read the book though, having heard a lot about it but knowing nothing and I am pretty eager to see the mini-series.

Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thorn_Birds

Movies I Loved

If I was going to define myself by any movies I watched religiously with my friends in the mid 90s when I was 11/12 and 'ruled the school' (primary school anyway) it would be the following 3 movies:

Clueless

The Craft

Reality Bites

Now in further detail:

Clueless is still pretty awesome. Whatever happened to Alicia Silverstone? I thought she was the prettiest actress I'd ever seen. And I wanted her wardrobe obviously. It had a young Paul Rudd who hands down, is doing the best out of his career compared to everyone else. It also has a very different looking Billy from Six Feet Under and it has Cher's dad Dan Heyada who is terrifying in a lovable way. Clueless even has its only language and I remember reading a teen magazine which deciphered all the lingo for me. Example, a mona lisa. A girl who looks okay from far away but is a big mess when viewed close up. Harsh yes, but can be applied to everyday life. This movie even spawned my love of knee high socks and where I learned the sad reality that they don't really work in real life (particularly not on 11 year olds with developing chests and the beginnings of acne). I bought some yet never wore in public. Tragic.

The Craft is obviously way darker in that superficial high school sense and so appealed to my juvenile interest in magic and the occult. We had this book in the school library which had, you know, 'scary' stories that was always been consciously checked out. One even had a picture of a woman looking into a mirror and in the reality she was alone but in the mirror there was a hand at her throat! Just saying, I was into some heavy stuff.

The Craft had some cool characters and actors playing them (for the time). Nor was I to know the really scary Fairuza Balk played Dorothy in the underrated 80s sequel Return to Oz (check that movie out - the queens different heads scene is awesomely creepy for a 'kids' film).

And who hasn't tried the light as a feather, stiff as a board trick? I know at least once I tried it at a friends birthday party with a bonfire in the background! Atmospheric. Or a lame teenagers party, I can't decide. Nah bonfires are always cool.

Admittedly I wasn't in the target audience for Reality Bites. I wasn't an angsty generation Xer. Heck I didn't even know there were generational gaps and there sure as hell wasn't a generation Y around back then. But Winona Ryder was awesome, so waify and pixie like. Pretty much nothing like me and she played Jo in Little Women - the best March sister. Plus she had the hot pre-Terminator outburst Christian Bale lusting after her.

I have to say I never 'got' Ethan Hawke though. He seemed so greasy, though I guess that was his attraction back then, being all grunge like and whatnot. Ben Stiller's character actually wasn't that bad, he was pretty nerdy looking and had a huge phone but he had cool collectables and a real job. I am so not the target audience for this film. But I loved it anyway. I also loved Vicki and their classic dance to My Sharona in the petrol station. It just had classic scenes which appealed.

Looking back on these films I still enjoy them, but in different more nostalgic ways. Clueless gets played about once a year on free TV while the other 2 wouldn't get a rating which is a shame for these young Gen Z or whatever the hell they're going to be named. Can I just say my generation has the crappiest slogans if you will. The noughties another craptastic example.

Images borrowed courtesy of http://www.20thcenturyflicks.co.uk/film-list?page=351 and http://images.google.com.au/url?source=imgres&ct=ref&q=http://www.lazydork.com/movies/clueless.htm&usg=AFQjCNGQFjBruiuz5Sb1rORu7VcprzhH9Q

The Thornbirds

Getting another one off my list is Colleen McCullogh's The Thornbirds. I'm about a third in and am really loving it (much better than that Orwell's 1984 so much easier to read. Although I ordinarily wouldn't have understood some of the references in Sadako's lastest post. Silly me).

I'd always heard what a classic novel it is, but maybe there was more hype around the mini-series. Wikipedia informs me it was the second highest rated mini series of all time in America? Sweet.

Having watched nor read either it would be interesting to compare when I'm finished the book. Anyway after hearing that Stephen King devoured this book I thought I also must read. My overall opinion won't be long.

Rebecca

Just wanted a quick post to say I took forever to get into this book but then once I started, I stayed up until 1am last night reading the last 100 pages or so.
It's weird but I didn't notice how at the end I was really gunning for the character who had committed murder. Eh.
Also thought it was interesting how Du Maurier seemed to add in dimensions of her own life into the nameless narrator and to the notorious Rebecca title character (lesbianism anyone?).

Apparently Hitchcock did a movie in 1940 and it has quite a big difference in the twist in the story which seems disappointing but without having seen it I can't really comment.

Since I seem to be the last person to discover and read this book I don't think I have much more to add, but I did also buy Jane Eyre yesterday without realising there were any similarities between the two.

Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life

So in a nutshell, Kat's a bitch, Carmel's fat yet talented and Jude's got a revolutionary dead father and is really smart.

This story is divided into 3 main sections with each girl telling her story in the first person.
The 3 girls are all from a country town and end up living together in Melbourne when they leave to go to university.

Kat's (or Katrina) studying law, and is the standard blonde good looking one but she gets messed up with the wrong people, including a gay drug dealer, a older rich married man and a 'naughty' photographer.

Carmel's pretty overweight and has a gorgeous singing voice. She didn't get into the music course she wanted and is studying some course so non descript I couldn't even recall it. She ends up pulling out, singing in a jazz band and hooking up with Kat's family friend's son Anton. She also fights a battle against her huge family who want her to come back and help around their farm.

Jude's incredibly smart and is therefore a medical student. She is trying to emulate her doctor Chilean father who died when she was very young. It all goes wrong for her when she finds out one of the men who tortured and possibly killed her father back in Chile is now working as a chef in Melbourne. Jude becomes a confidante and protector of Carmel and the two form an unlikely bond.

We don't get Kat's perspective until the final 3rd of the book and it is safe to say most readers would not have related to her up until this point. She does also undergo a transformation and becomes a 'better' person and the journey is realistic.

This was a book I reread a lot in high school and my late teens. For some reason I never actually bought the book though. I just kept checking it out at the library and bringing home a familiar friend every once and a while.

It did get made into a mini series in 1999 with the title dropping the 'get a life'. I didn't see all of it but I always felt they didn't get a lot of the main actors right. Regardless a great story though, by Maureen McCarthy who has also done quite a few good YA books.

Oztion Findings

I was browsing on Oztion which is pretty obviously an Aussie version of Ebay when I stumbled upon a few of the maybe lesser know childrens series books I used to read when I was around 10-12 (apart from the Babysitters Club, Pen Pals and Sweet Valley Twins) published around 1995/6.

One which I cannot remember a lot about is The Boyfriend Club but when I saw the cover it really jogged some memories. When I read the back cover of one of the titles I remember it did strike me as odd that you didn't need a boyfriend to be in the boyfriend club..was it about trying to get one? I can't really remember, but the mid 90s outfits and hair are snarktastic! I especially remember the first cover, I remember thinking that is what high school is all about, slumber parties, practising applying make-up and having crushes on boys (sadly I never really worked up the courage to talk to boys that I liked much in high school but this was American it was different! or so I thought).


Another one was the two book series Lost Girls By Linda Williams Aber. I actually bought these two myself as I always remembered the cover of the first and where I was
Basically a bunch of different girls of varying ages go on a cruise with a local as the captain (whose only 18!) and get shipwrecked on an island. It was very angsty and very me as a pre teen. There were the usual stereotypes but it was set on an Island! And the girls got to play house! Double excitement!


Another was the Cafe Club, also found a few of these books on Oztion. I remember reading this series around our pool for some reason, and all I can really recall is that the girls in this were English and their school seemed very posh to me (of course anything would compared to my feral public school experience).


In other completely different news was anyone aware Dexter is married to his sister (in real life of course). How cute is that? We are behind (I think) over here but I just spent all of Easter Monday catching up on season 2 and need to watch the finale tonight. And then I'm just going to have to go and buy season 3.

Special order

So annoyed.
I special ordered On the Beach by Nevill Shute, bit of a classic I've never read.
The girl in Dymocks is not too helpful, couldn't find it with the title, then did find it with the author I confirmed and just said "It's a penguin reader." Um okay, am I meant to know what that means? I just smile and nod, I realise Penguin is a publisher and had the correct author so assumed all was ok.
Waited the nearly 2 weeks for it to get in (Ebay is quicker) and then find out penguin readers are 'simplified texts'. Crap, lesson learned. And no refund on special order books...mmm bit immature but got my mum to ring up and she got me some store credit (I've noticed shop assistants tend to be a bit nicer to the more 'mature' lady), so not a total loss. Although am still without the book I wanted!

To Do: Books to read

I found this list I wrote at some stage last year, of books I'd discovered on the net which I thought sounded interesting. A few I had heard of before but a few I hadn't, and then reading other blogs discovering how popular they are.
So I thought I'd better post them as a reminder and get onto reading them. Since I made the list though, I have read numbers 2, 6, and 11.

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison

2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

3. Peyton Place Grace Metalious

4. The Princess bride by William Goldman

5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

6. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

7. The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullugh

8. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

9. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

10. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

11. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

12. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

13. I Love You Beth Cooper by Larry Doycle

14. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

15. Prep by Curtis Sittenfield

Confesssions of a Shopaholic

Having just seen the movie today, I thought I'd compare the book and movie as they were quite different.
Rebecca Bloomwood is a journalist who is somehow working at a financial magazine although she is in debt and has a debt collector (or a 'stalker' as she explains to her parents) hounding her for money throughout the novel.

She lives with her friend Suze who practically lets her live rent free as she never has enough money for her rent cheques to be cashed.

Becki gets a good 'warm' feeling from shopping for mostly designer clothes, shoes, and bags and feels compelled to put everything onto her credit card and forget about the consequences of using all that plastic until she gets her statement and is convinced someone has stolen her credit card.
Becki does realise she has a problem though and tries 'cutting back' and then 'earning more' neither of which help the situation as she keeps making more and more excuses to shop. She even tries one disastrious day working in retail where she fights with a customer she's meant to be helping, for a pair of pants.

Luke Brandon, Becki's love interst in the novel is the head of Brandon Communicatiosn, a financial PR company. He and Rebecca have the usual misunderstandings about where they stand and eventually face off (very unrealistically but it is a comedy) on a morning breakfast show after Rebecca outsed one of his companies in an article for misleading clients right before they could have received a monetary windfall.
Rebecca does very well in the debate and it leads to a permanent slot on the show. She also sorts it all out with the bank manager and gets together with Luke who has broken up with his girlfriend.

The main differences are that the novel is set in London, while the film in New York.
Luke Brandon is Becki's boss in the film but in the book someone unrelated to the company she works for.
Suze has a boyfriend then fiance name Tarkin, who in the book was actually Suze's cousin, has a thing for Becki, is a multimillionaire and Becki considers him mostly for this reason but does grow a conscious and can't go through with anything.
In the book Luke is described as a self made millionaire and a genius. This doesn't come though so much in the film. They invent a story about his mother beiing a great rich fashionista but Luke wants to make it on his own, not on his mother's coat tails.
He's also a bit self doubting in the film in some ways, and he and Becki get together quite a bit earlier than in the novel.

I think the novel and film were both okay. I probaly enjoyed the film a bit more, the role was excellent for Isla Fisher (we like to compliment any Perth people pretty early on, see Ledger, Heath) and she comes across a lot more likable in the movie than in the novel.

Having read 2 of Sophie Kinsella's books now I feel she comes across as a bit obsessed with the finer things in life (read: outrageously expensive). I read Remember Me? recently and the preoccupation with mentioning expensive things can get irritating.

Overall the movie and novel were both similar pieces of fluff which are easy to watch/read when you don't want to press your mind too much.

Does it get any easier?

I'll be honest, I'm not getting any younger. I turned 25 last month and while this isn't incredibly old in the scheme of things I do feel I'm getting a bit old to not have a few things sorted out.

Job wise I still don't have much of an idea what I want to do. I have things I think I would enjoy but am getting to that stage where I don't want to start studying something again and then lose interest and decide I don't actually want to do this forever/full time.

Things I've tried (retail):

Toys r us, my first job lasted a couple of years after starting as a Christmas casual

McDonald's, a terrible 9 months which I hated and just did as I needed money. Worked the late Friday night shift 11pm-5am once and had drunk people through drive through asking me if I wanted to be burnt on the arm to become part of their 'club' *shivers*

cafe, lasted 4 years part time and really enjoyed the people I worked with and free muffins and slices

Office/administration:

lasted 2 days in an office for a courier company...Hated it with a passion and had a feeling from the beginning I wouldn't like it when they first told me I had 'won' the job

company I'm currently with, very small office have stayed nearly 2 years, pretty easygoing and low key but can get boring

other company I'm currently with, have lasted nearly a year..really don't have much of a clue about the industry, was meant to be a temp job until I worked out my plan...haven't gotten around to it.

In addition:

Have worked a few days as a dog washer, pretty hard work but I do love dogs but decided against it...I was young (19) and naive...thought working in an office was more 'glamorous' as you go to wear nicer clothes.

Also worked for 3 months for a rugby organisation but they let me go because I wasn't doing the accounts correctly (when I'd had no experience, formal training and was 19!).

So I have tried a few things and also studies. Straight out of high school I completed a certificate 4 in natural therapies and then did 2 years of an early childhood bachelor of education when I was 21. But I decided I wasn't ready to be a teacher, the whole thing was beginning to stress me out.

So I'm thinking maybe I need a job I can leave at work, I'll be stress less etc. But then I see all these high powered women with 'real' careers, passions and I want to be like them.
Maybe I just haven't found my niche yet.

Eh, this ended up being a lame journal type post.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

This is such a classic Australian book and I was just curious if it was popular in other countries as well. It is a pretty old novel and tells an even older story about girls in a boarding school in the year 1900. The book was written by Joan Lindsay and first published in 1967 and the movie directed by Peter Weir came out in 1975. I watched the movie when I was in primary school before I read the book only a few years ago, but they are both equally good.

I think I felt compelled to read the book because I found the movie to be so haunting and knowing it was one of the first international hits of Australian cinema, I suppose I wanted to see where it all began. I discovered the book has all these other dimensions relating to the characters which wasn't more explored in the movie, as so many book to film adaptations have due to the time restraints of the film.

I have to admit to imagining the characters from the book as they are portrayed in the movie which is good because it is an old timely book and it really gave me an image of just how British Australia was back then. Now we seem to be more American which I'm not really sure which is better but I digress.

In simple terms the book tells the story of how on Valentines day in 1900 during a school excursion to hanging rock in Victoria, 3 schoolgirls and a teacher mysteriously disappear.

The events that unfold concerning the headmistress, the two boys that help search and another student at the school all take up the majority of the book. The disappearance happens quite early in the novel.

Hanging Rock is apparently a picnicking area, although I have never been there myself living on the other side of the country. There is something about the Australian bush which is majestic but also a little frightening. There is a place I go bush walking about 20 minutes from my home and there is just that feeling like you are all alone and this is 40 minutes from our capital city!

The book has a few supernatural themes done in a simplistic yet haunting way. It's not like the book sets out to be completely spooky and throws in all these odd things it just seems to transpire that way.

It is a very interesting book to check out if you haven't heard anything about it at all - I would recommend it but even if you have seen the movie the book also has a lot to offer.