Escape, Bored, Waiting for Disaster, and Showbags

1. Dreamed last night about running away. I'm guessing the dream might have been inspired by Rabbit-Proof Fence. Although my dream was kind of the opposite of the movie. In the movie, the girls run away to get back to their mother. In my dream, I was running away from my mother.

It wasn't my real-life mother. I'm not sure who she was, really. And she wasn't doing anything evil to me. Nor did she pursue me. I just felt the need to get far away from her.

The dream reminded me, though, that although government care is an evil thing when it splits up happy families for racist or other tiny-minded reasons; sometimes government care is not all bad. If a child is living a horrible life with their biological family, being taken away might be a very good thing.   

2. Started watching Newcastle.

So far, I'm bored. Though I've only watched about three minutes.

It seems very slow-paced, so far. It's one of those movies where they keep the camera on something for a long time, but nothing really happens.  Well, it's not like they keep the camera on something for ten minutes. It's more like the camera lingers for a few seconds too long.

3. Continued to be bored by Newcastle.

I'm still at the very beginning, though. 

It might get better. 

4. Heard the F-word a lot.

This movie uses it excessively.

5. Saw underwater shots of someone surfing and expected a shark to appear. 

I don't have the same expectations when I see surfing scenes from above the water. But underwater? It's so weird to not see a shark coming.

6. Felt a shark would make the movie more interesting, at least.

7. Saw a storyline that sort of interested me. It's a father and son thing.  In this case, it seems like the son is the ass.  He's very disrespectful. But there could be things I don't know. Maybe the father did bad things in the past.

8. Felt most characters in Newcastle seemed like mindless assholes.  

9. Learned that one of the actors in Newcastle is the singer Israel Cannan. 

I've looked at the cast before, but didn't notice his name. Then I saw it just now. It sounded familar, and I thought there was a singer with a name like that. But I didn't know if it was one and the same.

10. Felt that the teens in this movie are the type that, when I encounter them in real life, they make me want to go home and hide from society.  

You know what they are? They're the over-sexed horror movie victims.

If this was a horror movie, most of these characters would start getting themselves slashed by Freddy or Jason.

I'm hoping that somewhere in Newcastle, there's the interesting, sympathetic, and admirable character—the type that would win the fight against the monster.

11. Thought it was interesting that the adults in the movie seem very decent and reasonable—in comparison to something like Puberty Blues where the adults seem prudish, clueless, and/or irresponsible.

12. Continued to think that Newcastle is like a slasher film without the slashing. It's like take Nightmare on Elm Street and remove Freddy Krueger. Would that still be interesting?

Not to me.

13. Decided I might start playing QuizUp while watching the movie.

14. Saw two of the surfer guys getting deep. They talk about astronomy and Picasso.

I imagine they'd be the ones to survive the horror monster.

15. Thought about how this is the type of movie that makes me feel hateful towards sex—especially the heterosexual type.

On top of that, I just finished watching a Crash Course video where Hank Green pretty much reduces all behavior as being for the pursuit of food and sex. There's nothing about love, emotions, or anything deep.  

Really. I think people and animals want more than just food and sex. 

But maybe I'm wrong.

16. Concluded that I don't like overly horny teenagers. Nor do I like people who are overly Darwinian.

17. Saw a surfer in the water with blood in his face.

Maybe that will attract a shark.

18. Saw that one of the characters might have actually died.

I wouldn't wish that on anyone in real life, but in terms of the movie, it makes things a lot more interesting.

19. Watched some Australian animal videos for our biology today. One was about Bowerbirds, and the other was about echidnas

20. Thought that scene between brothers on Newcastle was sort of sweet.

Or at least I think they're brothers.

I'm a little confused sometimes.

21. Saw that the movie has male frontal nudity.

That's fun. At least, it's different.

I don't see many penises in movies.

22. Finished watching Newcastle.

I don't think I'd give it a high rating, seeing that the parts that thrilled me the most was when someone was killed and seeing a very brief glance of a penis.

Also....

The talk between the two boys regarding astronomy was sweet. They were gay, I think, but maybe in the beginning stages of figuring that all out.

23. Could have done without all the surfing scenes, but I'm sure surfers and surfer fans would have appreciated it.  

24. Went to Random.org to see what I'll start watching on Thursday.

It's a movie called Love Serenade.  

I don't remember what that is, but I'll look into it later.

25. Had a great homeschooling session with Jack. He was very enthusiastic about story structure. We look at various story types and I concluded that Rabbit Proof Fence would be a quest type of story. 

26. Consulted Lord Wiki again about the seven basic plots.

I think they're a bit constrictive.

I don't think every story fits into one of their seven slots. 

For example, I can't think of what the Boys are Back would be. The choices are overcoming the monster; Rags to Riches; the quest; voyage and return; comedy; tragedy; and rebirth.  

27. Figured out that it could be overcoming the monster. The monster would be the death of his wife and the struggle to be a single father.  

28. Saw that Miranda Otto is the star of Love Serenade

29. Recognized Rebecca Frith in the cast list. I saw that she was on SLIDE, but I can't say I remember her on that.  

30. Saw that Jessica Napier is in the movie.

I like her. Or at least I liked her character on McLeod's Daughters

31.Saw that Shirley Barrett, the director of the movie, has directed episodes of Packed to the Rafters, House Husbands, Offspring, Love My Way, etc. 

32. Saw that Flickr is working now. That's good!

I'm going to look at palg1305's Ekka album. I had heard of that before, but wasn't sure what it was.

But now I know.

It's Brisbane's Royal Exhibition Show.  

33. Didn't really see any photos that excited me.

There's not many there.

34. Looked at the Ekka website. 

The event takes place in August.

35. Looked at the Showbags

I'm going to pretend I'm there and pick out ones for myself.

I'd get the Curly Wurly bag; the Freddo and Friends bag; the I Love Allen's Lollies bag; the Redskins bag; and...I guess that's it.

Mostly food stuff. Yeah. I'm a pig.

It's fun, though, to see what makes up the popular culture for the youth of Australia.  

36. Thought it would be cool if they did TV show bags for adults.

An Offspring bag could have a t-shirt and a little owl figurine. I don't know what else.

Underbelly could include a bag of heroin, a razor, and some type of gun.

37. Wished there was more official merchandise for Aussie television...especially T-shirts.