Underage Sex, Spotswood, Actors, and Actresses

1. Dreamed about Imogen and Daniel from Neighbours. Or it could have been that I dreamed of Tim Phillips and Ariel Kaplan playing other characters. The people in my dream looked like Imogen and Daniel but didn't really seem like them.

Anyway, the dream: Daniel and Imogen (I'll just call them that) are hanging out together late at night. Imogen is younger than Daniel and not of the legal age. The two of them are flirting and seem to have feelings for each other. Then the police come, because Daniel and Imogen are up past curfew time. 

Then they're all in the police station with their families. Daniel is in trouble for being with an underage girl.  It seems, to me that Imogen is acting like a complete victim—pretending that she's never had any interest in Daniel. This annoys me but then I start to think maybe I'm wrong, and she's not being that way. 

2. Looked at Victoria's sex laws.

They seem pretty fair; or more fair than some I've seen in the United States.

First of all, if you're under twelve, no one should be having sex with you.  It's illegal no matter what. 
That sounds good to me.

If you are twelve to fifteen, you can agree to have sex with someone as long as they're not more than two years older than you.

So a thirteen and fourteen-year-old can have sex legally. That kind of gives me the chills, but I should face the fact that it happens.  

If an older person has sex with a younger person but THOUGHT the younger person was of legal age, they can use that in their defense. I'm not sure how they go about proving it.

If the younger person is kind enough to admit that they lied, that would probably help a lot.

3. Saw that if a person is ages sixteen or seventeen, they can have sex with older people, except if that person is caring for them or supervising them. Teachers shouldn't be having sex with their high school students. Foster parents shouldn't be having sex with the kids in their care.

4. Wondered how old Daniel and Imogen were supposed to be in my dream. I don't think Daniel was supervising Imogen so then maybe Imogen was fifteen and Daniel was eighteen.

5. Looked at the ages of Tim Phillips and Ariel Kaplan. Phillips is five years older than Kaplan. 

Six years ago, my dream could have been reality. Kaplan would have been fifteen, and Phillips would have been twenty-one.

But now they're both old enough. Sometimes it's just a matter of waiting a few years.

6. Started watching The Efficiency Expert.

7. Saw that the movie takes place in the 1960's.

8. Looked up Spotswood, the setting of the movie.

It's in Melbourne.

It's not the location of Scienceworks, is it?

9. Saw that it is!

So, that's why it sounded familar to me.

I didn't see Lord Wiki mentioning it, but then I looked up Scienceworks to find the correct spelling, because Chrome was telling me I was spelling it wrong. There, I saw that it IS in Spotswood. I checked back with Lord Wiki and saw that he does mention Scienceworks. I just missed it.

10. Looked at a photo I took of a house in Spotswood. I don't know why I took it. I think something about it just attracted me. 

Maybe it's the dog; or the turquoise stroller. 

11. Saw Ben Mendelsohn looking very young.



12. Wanted to say that I've been using subtitles, NOT because I don't understand the Australian accent. It's because Netflix is a bit quiet sometimes, and I exercise while I watch. It's sometimes hard to hear over the stepping. Plus, I'm a few feet away from the computer, and the distance adds to the hearing issue.

13. Did want to say that sometimes I wish Hulu provided subtitles for Coronation Street. There's been conversations where the accents had me completely lost.

14. Thought I should mention that I also saw a young Russell Crowe, but I'm too lazy to try to get a screenshot. Maybe if he appears later.

15. Looked at Ben Mendelsohn's year of birth.  He was born in 1969.  The Efficiency Expert came out in 1992; so he was probably twenty-two or twenty-three when the movie was made.

16. Saw that Ben Mendelsohn was in The Year My Voice Broke. I thought Noah Taylor was in that. I get those two guys confused.  

It turns out they're BOTH in the movie, but Taylor plays the main character.  

17. Saw Toni Collette and wondered what came first—this movie or Muriel's Wedding?  

18. Saw that it's this movie.

Muriel's Wedding came out in 1994.

19. Saw from IMDb that The Efficiency Expert was Toni Collette's first movie.

Two years prior to the movie, she appeared on an episode of A Country Practice.

20. Reminded by IMDb that Toni Collette is only a few weeks older than me.

Her birthday is on Sunday, by the way.  I hope she has a fun one. Or at least I hope it's one that doesn't involve sickness or disaster.

21. Remembered that Toni Collette once pretended to have appendicitis—in real life; not for a movie.

22. Saw Dan Wylie looking very young.

This is fun.

It's like looking at a high school yearbook of Australian actors.

23. Decided it would be more like a college yearbook; or recently-graduated-from-college yearbook.

But still. You get my point, right?

24. Saw that Rebecca Rigg, who plays the object of Mendelsohn's affection, is married to Simon Baker. 

25. Saw houses in the movie that remind me of the photo that I took.

26. Felt grateful for the existence of Anthony Hopkins.

27. Thought I liked the Bob Dylan song at the end of the movie. But then I learned it's not a Bob Dylan song. The subtitles made a mistake.

What I was hearing was a Donovan song. It's called "Catch the Wind". I don't think I've ever heard it before.  

28. Thought the song fit very well with the end of the movie.

It's a very good end-of-a-movie song.

It would also be good as a season finale song.

29. Could picture it being played at the end of a Walking Dead season, probably because it reminds me a little bit of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow is a Long Time"

30. Started to listen to Judith Durham's cover of "Catch the Wind".

It's lovely.

31. Wanted to say that I enjoyed The Efficiency Expert.  It was a very sweet, feel-good type of movie.

It's kind of the opposite of what I'll be watching tomorrow.

Tangle is NOT a feel-good, happy story. At least the first season wasn't. 

Programs like The Slap, Tangle, and Love My Way seem to have the purpose of reminding us that life is shit most of the time.

32. Went to Random.org to pick my next show.

It's Not Suitable for Children.  That's the one with the guy who looks like George W. Bush. I forgot his name. But today we watched a video of George W. Bush, and I thought of this actor.

33. Tried to remember the name.

Couldn't remember his True Blood name either, but now I do. It's Jason Stackhouse.

Jason Stackhouse is played by....

I remember!

Ryan Kwanten. 

34. Disappointed, because I couldn't find the movie on Hulu or Netflix.

But then I found it.

I don't know what wrong.

35. Saw that Ryan Corr is in the movie!

I think I love that guy...a little bit.

There's just something about him.

36. Decided you really shouldn't say you love an actor after seeing them in only one thing, because then it's likely you just like the character.

I'll hold judgement.

37. Thought about Richard Roxburgh. He's another one I can imagine I sort of love. But I've only seen him in one thing. I probably just love Cleaver Greene. 

Then again, maybe it's okay to love one performance from an actor.  I love Ryan Corr in Packed to the Rafters, and I love Richard Roxburgh on Rake.  I might not like them in anything else, but maybe one thing is enough.

38. Thought of Coronation Street. I love all those actors, and I've seen most of them in only one thing. 

39. Thought about actors. Some do a fantastic job of playing many different people. They have a long filmography with impressive roles.  Then other actors play very few characters—maybe only one memorable one. But they do a really good job with it.

It's like Stefan Dennis. I don't think he's done much beyond Neighbours. But for the last thirty years, he's done a great job playing Paul Robinson.  I don't need to see him in other things to judge his acting ability.

40. Wanted to say that Christopher Reeve opened my mind to some of this stuff.  It was in one of his books. He talked about how there's less respect for actors who play the same character or similar characters. OR something like that. It's been a long time since I read his book.  

Reeve opened my mind though. Because before I read it, I looked down at people like Julie Roberts. I felt she always played a very similar character. Christopher Reeve made me realize this is okay. She's still a talented actress. She still has the ability to memorize lines and feel/show various emotions on cue. That's the important thing.