1. Read Miss Sparkles post about Halloween. She talks about how many Australians are resistant to it because of the overflow of American culture in Australia.
She likes Halloween, though.
AND....
She reminds us that Halloween is not an American invention. It came from Ireland.
North Americans are the ones who popularized trick-or-treating.
If someone wants a Halloween without feeling too American, they can always do Halloween without the trick-or-treating part.
There's so much more to Halloween.
How about visiting some haunted historical place in Australia? That would be a great way of having the Halloween spirit.
Or people can have an Australian horror movie festival. They can watch Rogue, Wolf Creek, and that movie with the dead Manatee. I forgot the name.
There's also the Aussie zombie movie, and I remember seeing an old vampire movie on the Australian Screen website.
I'm sure there's plenty of other Aussie Halloween things to do.
Of course Australians don't need to do anything Halloween, and they certainly don't need to do an Aussie-themed Halloween.
They can get into the Melbourne cup.
Or....
Whatever.
2. Found a website about Australian horror movies. It has a comprehensive article written by a guy named Robert Hood.
I don't have time to read it right now. I might not read it until we're home in Texas. But I'll bookmark it.
3. Skimmed through the site and saw some good Aussie horror movies.
There's The Cars That Ate Paris, and Patrick.
I'm not seeing the vampire movie with my quick skimming. But in case anyone's wondering, I'm not talking about Daybreakers.
4. Checked for Tim Tams at Target. We can no longer easily find them in Fort Worth, but I was thinking they might have them in Orlando.
I didn't see any.
We bought some British candy and some British biscuits.
5. Found the Aussie vampire movie. It's called Thirst and was released in 1979.
6. Read James' two blog posts about his journey to Brisbane. Fortunately, he had booked his flight on Jetstar. Although Jetstar is part of Qantas, they did not shut down over the weekend drama.
James' other post was about visiting his old workplace. He worked at Coles.
James liked the people he worked with, but he wasn't overly happy there. He was discontent, because he wanted a job in radio.
What's awesome is that his dream was eventually realized.
I like stories like that.
Good things do happen to people sometimes.
7. Had a feeling of loneliness and alienation.
Why?
I'm not Australian.
And I'm not a wizard, witch, vampire, or werewolf.
I should probably try to explain that. But I won't for now.
What else?
I feel young, but I'm old.
Yet sometimes I feel I'm not old enough.
I very often feel invisible. And then I also often feel people expect too much out of me.
If I was REALLY invisible, people wouldn't expect anything from me, because they wouldn't know I'm there.
It's craziness.
Anyway....
Thanks for letting me get all that off my chest.
8. Went to Tallygarunga but didn't read anything, because I promised myself I wouldn't.
I haven't read much of my The Dragon Man novel either.
Nor have I read my new zombie novel. I haven't even started my zombie novel.
That's probably why I sound a bit mental. I haven't been getting a good dose of fiction lately.
I need my fiction. It's my drug.
9. Wanted to say that despite my feelings of angst, I'm having a pretty good time at Disney World.
I miss the stuff that I'm taking a break from...like Tallygarunga. But it's good to take a break because then I have something to look forward to when I get home.
And you know what.....
I like to watch this video and imagine all the Tally wizards and witches singing it.
My current girl crush is in the video. She sings at 0:11. I love her voice, and she's totally beautiful. I RARELY have celebrity-crushes at first sight. But I think I was infatuated the moment I set eyes on her.
For those of you who've seen The Secret Life of Bees. She sings a song on the soundtrack.
10. Learned at Epcot that shark meat is sometimes used in fish and chips.
I consulted Lord Wiki, and he says it's Australians who sometimes eat fish and chips made of shark. The meat is called flake, and it comes from various small sharks.
I was sad and disturbed to hear that, but then thought, it's no different than eating other fish. Sharks are fish. I should be equally sad for all the fish.
Maybe it's just that I have a special place in my heart for sharks.
We all have our animal preferences.
11. Read this line in The Dragon Man.
He glanced at her. To his mind, she was as ugly as a hatful of arseholes.
Often....that's how I feel Tim sees me.
But I guess most married people feel that way at times.
12. Read the first section of the website about Australian horror films.
It talks about how the genre is dominated by American and British films.
The article says, Moreover, an indigenous film industry has always been hampered by overseas competition.
Despite this, though, there have been numerous Australian horror films. The article says there's been eighty.
That's a lot.
I'll read about them later.
13. Read more from the Australian horror movie article.
It talks about movies in the first half of the 20th century.
There wasn't much.
But there were a few things.....
14. Looked at the IMDb entry for one of the movies the article mentions: The Guyra Ghost Mystery. It was a 1921 Australian movie. It was about a ghost, so I guess it counts as horror.
Lord Wiki says it's based on a real ghost legend.
Guyra is a town in New South Wales. In January, they have a potato and lamb festival.
Tomatoes are another big thing in Guyra.
Lord Wiki doesn't say anything about the ghost.
15. Found an article about the ghost.
It says the ghost was a poltergeist that terrorized a family.
It happened in 1921.
The movie came out in 1921.
The film people sure didn't take long to exploit the situation.
The story's interesting. Most of the supernatural stuff centered around a young girl named Minnie Bowen. Weird things happened around her.
Things became quite intense. Loud thumps were heard and rocks went flying.
It was all so dramatic, that the state government even got involved.
People volunteered and surrounded the house...armed. But it didn't stop the weird poltergeist stuff.
The story came out that Minnie had an older sister (May) who had died. She supposedly caused all the craziness to give family the message that she was okay and watching out for them.
The article says, What with the near-destruction of the house and the whole town in an uproar, it would seem that May had a very strange way of “watching and guarding” over her family.
Yep.
Well, maybe May's family wasn't good at listening. Maybe she was in one of those families where you have to cause trouble in order to be noticed.
OR....
Maybe May didn't realize she was being so loud and destructive. Maybe things seemed quiet on her end. It's like people with clogged ears who talk too loud. They think they're talking in a normal tone,but to nearby listeners, it sounds like they're shouting.
Anyway, after May and Minnie communicated, the poltergeist activity ended.
But then it came back again.
16. Had another theory about the poltergeist.
I think maybe Minnie caused all of it.
Maybe she's telekinetic. She was probably psychologically damaged by her sister's death, and her crazed feelings led to destructive supernatural behavior.
When she "talked" to her sister, maybe some of the feelings were resolved. She didn't need to haunt herself anymore.
However, when the hauntings occurred, Minnie surely got a lot of attention. When the hauntings stopped, the attention probably stopped as well. That might have upset Minnie and so the telekinetic activities began again.
I doubt she did any of it on purpose. It's just kids get angry sometimes, and when a telekinetic kid gets angry, you might have quite a mess on your hands.
17. Found Guyra on Google Maps.
It's about 2 hours north-east of Tamworth.
18. Received a letter from Qantas.
They say, The end of industrial action means we can concentrate on what matters - getting you to your destination on time and in comfort, offering the best network and frequency of any Australian airline and rewarding your loyalty as a Qantas Frequent Flyer.
I don't know.....
Frankly, I don't feel overly safe flying on an airline in which management and the people working on the airplanes are at war with each other.
19. Started to read more from the Australian horror movie article.
The writer talks about movies in the 1970's. There's stuff I've heard of before—Wake in Fright, The Cars that Ate Paris, Picnic At Hanging Rock, and The Last Wave.
20. Realized that all those movies except Wake in Fright are Peter Weir movies.
21. Saw from article that Peter Weir did another horror type movie. It's called The Plumber. It seems vaguely familiar to me. Maybe I learned about it the day I wrote a biography post on Peter Weir?
The star of The Plumber is the woman from Mother and Son—Judy Morris. She played Maggie Beare's daughter-in-law.
22. Learned there was a Jim Sharman movie called Summer of Secrets. It's about a guy who wants to revive his dead wife.
I think Sharman is the guy who directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
23. Checked IMDb to confirm.
I'm right.
Good.
I like being right.
24. Learned, from the article, about another horror movie director. His name was Terry Bourke.
In 1981, he made a movie called Lady Stay Dead.
It was about a crazy gardener killer.
The article says it's an exploitation film. Would that be part of the Ozploitation movement?
And what exactly is Ozploitation?
25. Consulted Lord Wiki.
He says Ozploitation are low budget comedy, action, and horror films.
26. Went to the Japan pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase. Jack and I went into the big shop there. It made me think of the whole concept of American cultural imperialism.
A lot of cultures (such as Australia) are infiltrated by American culture.
Yet America is also infiltrated by another culture. Japan!
Japan is huge in America. I think it's pretty huge in Australia too and probably in many other countries.
Most of what we get is pop culture and fads— stuff like Hello Kitty, Mario Bros, Transformers, Power Rangers, Pokemon, other Nintendo stuff, etc. That's all been big here for many years.
Anime is very popular.
Sushi.....
Fort Worth isn't known for having a wide range of international cuisine, but it seems like there's a sushi restaurant in almost every shopping strip.
27. Looked up a movie mentioned in the horror movie article. It's the one with the dead manatee, but it's the original, not the remake.
It's called Long Weekend; and it was released in 1978.
I actually don't know if the original had the manatee, or not. I'm guessing that it did.
28. Found a website that talks about the movie.
Scott Hamilton says an alternate title for the movie could be Don't F*ck with the Manatee. And he has a picture of the dead movie manatee.
So....
I guess the film has the manatee.
She likes Halloween, though.
AND....
She reminds us that Halloween is not an American invention. It came from Ireland.
North Americans are the ones who popularized trick-or-treating.
If someone wants a Halloween without feeling too American, they can always do Halloween without the trick-or-treating part.
There's so much more to Halloween.
How about visiting some haunted historical place in Australia? That would be a great way of having the Halloween spirit.
Or people can have an Australian horror movie festival. They can watch Rogue, Wolf Creek, and that movie with the dead Manatee. I forgot the name.
There's also the Aussie zombie movie, and I remember seeing an old vampire movie on the Australian Screen website.
I'm sure there's plenty of other Aussie Halloween things to do.
Of course Australians don't need to do anything Halloween, and they certainly don't need to do an Aussie-themed Halloween.
They can get into the Melbourne cup.
Or....
Whatever.
2. Found a website about Australian horror movies. It has a comprehensive article written by a guy named Robert Hood.
I don't have time to read it right now. I might not read it until we're home in Texas. But I'll bookmark it.
3. Skimmed through the site and saw some good Aussie horror movies.
There's The Cars That Ate Paris, and Patrick.
I'm not seeing the vampire movie with my quick skimming. But in case anyone's wondering, I'm not talking about Daybreakers.
4. Checked for Tim Tams at Target. We can no longer easily find them in Fort Worth, but I was thinking they might have them in Orlando.
I didn't see any.
We bought some British candy and some British biscuits.
5. Found the Aussie vampire movie. It's called Thirst and was released in 1979.
6. Read James' two blog posts about his journey to Brisbane. Fortunately, he had booked his flight on Jetstar. Although Jetstar is part of Qantas, they did not shut down over the weekend drama.
James' other post was about visiting his old workplace. He worked at Coles.
James liked the people he worked with, but he wasn't overly happy there. He was discontent, because he wanted a job in radio.
What's awesome is that his dream was eventually realized.
I like stories like that.
Good things do happen to people sometimes.
7. Had a feeling of loneliness and alienation.
Why?
I'm not Australian.
And I'm not a wizard, witch, vampire, or werewolf.
I should probably try to explain that. But I won't for now.
What else?
I feel young, but I'm old.
Yet sometimes I feel I'm not old enough.
I very often feel invisible. And then I also often feel people expect too much out of me.
If I was REALLY invisible, people wouldn't expect anything from me, because they wouldn't know I'm there.
It's craziness.
Anyway....
Thanks for letting me get all that off my chest.
8. Went to Tallygarunga but didn't read anything, because I promised myself I wouldn't.
I haven't read much of my The Dragon Man novel either.
Nor have I read my new zombie novel. I haven't even started my zombie novel.
That's probably why I sound a bit mental. I haven't been getting a good dose of fiction lately.
I need my fiction. It's my drug.
9. Wanted to say that despite my feelings of angst, I'm having a pretty good time at Disney World.
I miss the stuff that I'm taking a break from...like Tallygarunga. But it's good to take a break because then I have something to look forward to when I get home.
And you know what.....
I like to watch this video and imagine all the Tally wizards and witches singing it.
My current girl crush is in the video. She sings at 0:11. I love her voice, and she's totally beautiful. I RARELY have celebrity-crushes at first sight. But I think I was infatuated the moment I set eyes on her.
For those of you who've seen The Secret Life of Bees. She sings a song on the soundtrack.
10. Learned at Epcot that shark meat is sometimes used in fish and chips.
I consulted Lord Wiki, and he says it's Australians who sometimes eat fish and chips made of shark. The meat is called flake, and it comes from various small sharks.
I was sad and disturbed to hear that, but then thought, it's no different than eating other fish. Sharks are fish. I should be equally sad for all the fish.
Maybe it's just that I have a special place in my heart for sharks.
We all have our animal preferences.
11. Read this line in The Dragon Man.
He glanced at her. To his mind, she was as ugly as a hatful of arseholes.
Often....that's how I feel Tim sees me.
But I guess most married people feel that way at times.
12. Read the first section of the website about Australian horror films.
It talks about how the genre is dominated by American and British films.
The article says, Moreover, an indigenous film industry has always been hampered by overseas competition.
Despite this, though, there have been numerous Australian horror films. The article says there's been eighty.
That's a lot.
I'll read about them later.
13. Read more from the Australian horror movie article.
It talks about movies in the first half of the 20th century.
There wasn't much.
But there were a few things.....
14. Looked at the IMDb entry for one of the movies the article mentions: The Guyra Ghost Mystery. It was a 1921 Australian movie. It was about a ghost, so I guess it counts as horror.
Lord Wiki says it's based on a real ghost legend.
Guyra is a town in New South Wales. In January, they have a potato and lamb festival.
Tomatoes are another big thing in Guyra.
Lord Wiki doesn't say anything about the ghost.
15. Found an article about the ghost.
It says the ghost was a poltergeist that terrorized a family.
It happened in 1921.
The movie came out in 1921.
The film people sure didn't take long to exploit the situation.
The story's interesting. Most of the supernatural stuff centered around a young girl named Minnie Bowen. Weird things happened around her.
Things became quite intense. Loud thumps were heard and rocks went flying.
It was all so dramatic, that the state government even got involved.
People volunteered and surrounded the house...armed. But it didn't stop the weird poltergeist stuff.
The story came out that Minnie had an older sister (May) who had died. She supposedly caused all the craziness to give family the message that she was okay and watching out for them.
The article says, What with the near-destruction of the house and the whole town in an uproar, it would seem that May had a very strange way of “watching and guarding” over her family.
Yep.
Well, maybe May's family wasn't good at listening. Maybe she was in one of those families where you have to cause trouble in order to be noticed.
OR....
Maybe May didn't realize she was being so loud and destructive. Maybe things seemed quiet on her end. It's like people with clogged ears who talk too loud. They think they're talking in a normal tone,but to nearby listeners, it sounds like they're shouting.
Anyway, after May and Minnie communicated, the poltergeist activity ended.
But then it came back again.
16. Had another theory about the poltergeist.
I think maybe Minnie caused all of it.
Maybe she's telekinetic. She was probably psychologically damaged by her sister's death, and her crazed feelings led to destructive supernatural behavior.
When she "talked" to her sister, maybe some of the feelings were resolved. She didn't need to haunt herself anymore.
However, when the hauntings occurred, Minnie surely got a lot of attention. When the hauntings stopped, the attention probably stopped as well. That might have upset Minnie and so the telekinetic activities began again.
I doubt she did any of it on purpose. It's just kids get angry sometimes, and when a telekinetic kid gets angry, you might have quite a mess on your hands.
17. Found Guyra on Google Maps.
It's about 2 hours north-east of Tamworth.
18. Received a letter from Qantas.
They say, The end of industrial action means we can concentrate on what matters - getting you to your destination on time and in comfort, offering the best network and frequency of any Australian airline and rewarding your loyalty as a Qantas Frequent Flyer.
I don't know.....
Frankly, I don't feel overly safe flying on an airline in which management and the people working on the airplanes are at war with each other.
19. Started to read more from the Australian horror movie article.
The writer talks about movies in the 1970's. There's stuff I've heard of before—Wake in Fright, The Cars that Ate Paris, Picnic At Hanging Rock, and The Last Wave.
20. Realized that all those movies except Wake in Fright are Peter Weir movies.
21. Saw from article that Peter Weir did another horror type movie. It's called The Plumber. It seems vaguely familiar to me. Maybe I learned about it the day I wrote a biography post on Peter Weir?
The star of The Plumber is the woman from Mother and Son—Judy Morris. She played Maggie Beare's daughter-in-law.
22. Learned there was a Jim Sharman movie called Summer of Secrets. It's about a guy who wants to revive his dead wife.
I think Sharman is the guy who directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
23. Checked IMDb to confirm.
I'm right.
Good.
I like being right.
24. Learned, from the article, about another horror movie director. His name was Terry Bourke.
In 1981, he made a movie called Lady Stay Dead.
It was about a crazy gardener killer.
The article says it's an exploitation film. Would that be part of the Ozploitation movement?
And what exactly is Ozploitation?
25. Consulted Lord Wiki.
He says Ozploitation are low budget comedy, action, and horror films.
26. Went to the Japan pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase. Jack and I went into the big shop there. It made me think of the whole concept of American cultural imperialism.
A lot of cultures (such as Australia) are infiltrated by American culture.
Yet America is also infiltrated by another culture. Japan!
Japan is huge in America. I think it's pretty huge in Australia too and probably in many other countries.
Most of what we get is pop culture and fads— stuff like Hello Kitty, Mario Bros, Transformers, Power Rangers, Pokemon, other Nintendo stuff, etc. That's all been big here for many years.
Anime is very popular.
Sushi.....
Fort Worth isn't known for having a wide range of international cuisine, but it seems like there's a sushi restaurant in almost every shopping strip.
27. Looked up a movie mentioned in the horror movie article. It's the one with the dead manatee, but it's the original, not the remake.
It's called Long Weekend; and it was released in 1978.
I actually don't know if the original had the manatee, or not. I'm guessing that it did.
28. Found a website that talks about the movie.
Scott Hamilton says an alternate title for the movie could be Don't F*ck with the Manatee. And he has a picture of the dead movie manatee.
So....
I guess the film has the manatee.