Time, Setting, Simon Wincer, and Lost

1. Had a lovely dream about Geoffrey Rush.

I'm at a spelling bee show.  Geoffrey Rush is one seat away from me. The announcers of the show ask in Spanish for people not to dance.  They seem to be joking around.  In response, people (probably Spanish-speaking) get up to dance.

I have a bag of chocolate bars. I've already eaten one and think of eating another. I decide not to.

The person sitting next to me asks Geoffrey Rush how long the show is going to last.  Rush says something. Then I say, "It's going to go on forever".  I start to think the person next to me probably asked that so he could have an excuse to talk to Geoffrey Rush.  I feel kind of bad for butting in.  But Geoffrey Rush smiles at me, and I like that.

2. Looked back at the Aussie horror movie article.  

I decided I'm just going to look at the article every so often and find movies to look up.

3. Looked up Snapshot on IMDb.  

It was hard for me to find at first, because the name has been changed for American audiences.

Here it's called One More Minute. And in some instances, it's called The Day Before Halloween OR The Day After Halloween.

Are they not sure when the story takes place?

Well, maybe the plot begins the day before Halloween and ends on Halloween.

4. Saw Snapshop was directed by Simon Wincer.

He's the one who directed the Disney TV movie I used to love—The Girl Who Spelled Freedom.

It's funny. I think I wrote about the movie on my blog, but I don't know if I knew the director was Australian.  I think I just brought it up, because I was blabbing on and on about refugees.

I could be wrong.  Maybe I did find out the director was Australian.

Anyway, back to Snapshot.....

It was released in 1979.  

5. Found a website that talks about Snapshot

They say the movie is about murders among the modeling industry.

The website says, In the US, the film was retitled The Day After Halloween (The Night After Halloween on video) to cash-in on the popularity of John Carpenter’s hit Halloween (1978). It should be pointed out the film has no connection to Carpenter’s film nor is it even set on November 2nd.

That's pretty funny...and pathetic.

6. Looked at other movies Simon Wincer has made.

His most recent project was a movie called The Cup.  It's about the Melbourne Cup.

I feel like I've mentioned the movie recently. Did I?  I'm not sure.

Other Simon Wincer movies include Quigley Down Under, Free Willy, and D.A.R.Y.L.

7. Saw Australia mentioned on America news.

It wasn't anything exciting...at least not to me.

It was something about Kim Kardashan making an announcement on Australian TV.  

8. Ate dinner at a revolving restaurant.  When we got back, I showed Jack the Dame Edna revolving restaurant scene.



9. Had an Australian related dream.

Jack complains his ear is swollen.  It doesn't look swollen to me, and I pay it little attention.  But then other people, like Tim, can see that it's swollen. And it starts to bother Jack. We take him to the doctor.  They suggest giving him children's Tylenol and cookies with Eucalyptus. 

I woke up after the dream and thought maybe it was trying to tell me something. Jack has had swollen tonsils for over two months now.  We've been to the doctor twice about it. She's trying to help us fix it.  The weird (but good thing) is it doesn't bother him. I mean he doesn't have a sore throat.  And he's not having snoring issues. 

I think my dream combined his health problem with Tim's.  Tim's ailment seems to be related to his ears.

Anyway, maybe Eucalyptus will help Jack's throat?  Isn't it good for sore throats?  Maybe I'll order something, or see if the grocery store has something.  I want lollipops, though.  I don't like giving him hard candy without the stick.  I'm paranoid about choking.

10. Struggled to find Eucalyptus lollipops online.

Maybe they don't exist.

11. Saw there's Eucalyptus tea.  Maybe that will help?  

12. Felt better after I read this on a medical website.  Enlarged tonsils without any symptoms are common among kids. Left alone, enlarged tonsils may eventually shrink on their own over the course of several years.

13. Had urges to quit my blog.

I won't do it.

I love it too much.

There's just aspects of it that I don't love.

What do I love?

A) All the research, reading, and Australia-seeking that I do.  It's very fun for me. 

B) It brings people into my life that are fascinating.

What do I not love?

All the insecurities it brings into my life.

What if people hate me?

What if I'm too boring?

What if I'm too weird?

Why doesn't he visit my blog anymore?  Did I offend him?  

Do people think I'm pathetic?

Do people WISH I would stop blogging?  Are they reading only out of obligation or some anal habit? 

I'm guessing, though, that many bloggers feel this way at times.

14. Sat in the Star Wars ride at Disney Studios.  I looked around at my fellow tourists and imagined, what if we got caught in some type of science fiction scenario together?  What if we were trapped together for weeks or months?

I have fun imagining stuff like that.

Anyway...that got me thinking about Lost.

I started wondering why weren't there more Australians?   It was a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.  Shouldn't there have been more Australians visiting America?  Why was Claire the only one?

I talked to Tim about this.   My guess was that there were Australians...theoretically.   But they were among the extras and not the main stars.  Tim suggested maybe they were killed in the crash.

The other thing I'm thinking now: Were there any plain old tourists on that plane?

It seemed like everyone was there for some kind of serious reason.

Jack was there to pick up his dead father.

Claire was there to give up her baby.

Kate was escaping from the law.

Sawyer was seeking revenge.

Michael was picking up his child that he hardly knew.

Locke was on a major life quest.

And....I'm not going to name everyone.  But I can't think of anyone who was visiting Sydney just for the fun of it.

15. Listened to Jack talk about American's perceptions of Australia—ones who know very little about it.   I asked him if he knew what people usually think is the capital.   He guessed (or knew?) that it was Sydney.  

I don't think most Americans know about Canberra. I didn't until I became obsessed with Australia.   Jack might have.  He's really good with geography.

Anyway.....

Then I realized America might be similar in that regards. For people who don't know much about America, they might guess that the capital is NYC instead of Washington D.C

But then other capital cities are the most well known cities (in their countries) to foreigners. London and Paris are the ones that come to my mind.   

16. Went to bed crying and woke up in the middle of the night crying.

I guess I sort of have what some Australians call the black dog. Although I don't like the term. It's kind of rude against dogs who happen to be black.

I prefer to say I have a dark cloud hovering over me.  Or I imagine I'm plagued by Dementors.

And fortunately my dark cloud is one of those that disappears frequently to let the bright sunshine through.

Most of the time I'm having fun at Disney World.  I can still smile, laugh, and have fun.  I still have energy.

But sometimes I feel sad.

Why?

One of the reasons.....

I feel there's no one I can easily depend on for encouragement, sympathy, and support.  The best I can usually hope for is not to be insulted or barricaded.  

The only one I can often depend on for encouragement, sympathy, and support is myself. And sometimes I'm not up for the job.

It might be because I feel several people depend on me to get a large portion of THEIR encouragement, sympathy, and support.  I think it's making me feel drained.

There's that thing about bucket filling.  How does it go?  If we're nice to people, we fill their buckets.  If we're mean to people, we take from their buckets.   I'm trying so hard to fill other people's buckets, but mine is running on empty.

So....it's getting hard.  

17. Learned from Lord Wiki that the black dog metaphor didn't originate in Australia.   It comes from Horace and was popularized by Winston Churchill.

Oh well.

I associate it with Australia.

I think the first time I heard it was from an Australian.  So...that's probably why.

If I had a black dog following me; I wouldn't be sad.  I would turn around and pet it—give it cuddles.  Although I'd prefer a cat.

Or a bunny would be nice.

18. Decided to get my mind off my pity party by looking at another Aussie horror movie.

If anything, it will remind me that there's MUCH bigger problems than mine out there.

19. Looked at the movie Harlequin on IMDb.

It's another Simon Wincer movie.

I read a brief plot description, and it didn't provide me with enough over-the-top angst to diminish my self-pity.

However, the movie is about politicians. And when I saw that, I thought about Stephen Colbert.

That cheered me up, because Colbert is one of my antidepressants.   

20. Started to read Harlequin's trivia page on IMDb.  

There's some interesting stuff here.

The movie is inspired by two things that happened in history. One is the Rasputin thing—a mysterious doctor curing an illness in a politician's family. The other is the disappearance of Harold Holt.

The movie was filmed in Perth.   It's an Australian film.  Yet there's no concrete references to location.  IMDB says that it's inferred the movie takes place in America.

I guess then the characters have American accents?

21. Started to wonder if I've looked into this movie before. The Rasputin stuff is giving me a sense of deja vu.   I remember watching clips from the movie for this blog, and there was a Rasputin connection.

Maybe the movie was on the Australian screen site?

I'll go look......

22. Found Harlequin on the Australian Screen website. 

I DID watch clips of it before.

And when I saw stills from the film, I remembered that one of the actresses in the movie had a role on the American soap opera Another World.  

23. Felt a little better after doing this research.

At least my tears are all dried now.

My blog is one of my other antidepressants.  

24. Read more of Harlequin's trivia.

IMDb confirms what I suspected.

The characters spoke with American accents.

No.  I don't feel like Einstein for predicting that.  It would be hard to infer a movie took place in the United States if everyone was speaking with an Australian accent. 

25. Thought more about the lack of tourists on Lost, and realized we also didn't go to Australia for purely tourism reasons. We went, because I felt I had some kind of spiritual connection to Australia.

I would have probably fit in well as a character on Lost.  I often feel so lost. 

But still....

I am guessing that there are SOME Americans who go to Australia just for the fun of it. Right?   And/or there'd be Australians who come to America just for the fun of it.

Then again, it's such a long and expensive flight.  Maybe you do need to have some kind of deep reason for buying those plane tickets.   Otherwise most  people would probably choose a cheaper and less lengthy flight.



How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts