1. Had Australia-related dreams.
In the first one: Julian McMahon is on a TV show in which, every episode, one of the characters is eliminated. I try to find out who's been eliminated. To do this, I have to look at the photos of characters still on the show and try to figure out who's missing. I realize I'm not in the mood to do this, and decide I'll just look it up online.
In another dream: I suddenly think it's amazing that we live in Australia. Then I remember that's not true. But we live do in Melbourne in America, which is kind of like Australia. That's pretty cool. Then I remember that's not true either.
Then there was the weird shark dream. I'm pretty sure it took place in Australia. I say it's weird, because it felt like it was a real-life kind of thing actually happening. At the same time, there was the idea that we were on a film set.
In the dream: Sharks have been appearing in an indoor swimming pool. Despite this, people have continued to want to swim there. At one point, a shark appears, and a child continues to swim. Other people jump in to try to save the child. I start thinking that Tim will probably try to play hero and jump into the rescue as well. This annoys me, but then I realize I'm being unfair. If he jumps in, it might not be about showing off. It might be about having true concern for the child.
I stand at the end of the pool where a blond-haired woman is planning to race. I give her a short passionate speech about why she shouldn't do this. She replies in a bitchy way and then kisses a nearby woman in a very in-your-face kind of way.
Around this time, we notice a window in the pool building. There's the idea that it leads to the ocean; is broken; and that's how the sharks are getting inside.
We start to leave the pool, but then when we're out of the building, I want to linger and look through the window. I want to see the bitchy woman get eaten by a shark. I don't see that, but I do see a bloody mess in a small pool that's near the bigger pool.
Then I see some written information that states that the movie is based entirely on real events. This makes me feel bad for my ill wishes against the bitchy woman.
2. Remembered there was a part in the shark dream where I worried about my appearance—would I look okay in the movie?
3. Found a Curly Wurly bar! I totally forgot I bought it.
I think it was hidden under some boxes and other junk.
4. Started watching Holy Smoke.
5. Saw that Holy Smoke was directed by Jane Campion. She's The Piano woman, I believe.
6. Thought that Kate Winslet looks shockingly beautiful in this movie.
7. Saw Dan Wylie in the movie.
I can't remember if I noticed him in the credits a few days ago.
Or did I even look at the credits before? I can't remember.
8. Decided to look or re-look at the credits now.
9. Saw Paul Goddard in the credits. I wasn't sure who he was, but then saw that he's Stark on Farscape!
10. Liked that Neil Diamond music is in the movie. So far, there have been two of his songs. I'm wondering if all the music is going to be Neil Diamond.
11. Heard a non-Neil Diamond song.
It sounded familiar to me, but I wasn't sure who sang it.
I looked it up. It's "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morrisette.
12. Liked the movie so far.
It's interesting.
Kate Winslet plays Ruth, an Australian girl who's joined a cult in India. Her family hires an American cult-expert person to save Ruth.
What's kind of surprising, so far, is that Ruth seems more emotionally healthy than the family members not in the cult.
I'm wondering if the movie is pro-cult. Or maybe it's trying to say that not all cults are bad. Sometimes a person can greatly disturb us by making a drastic change—A heavy party drinker goes to AA, stops drinking, and takes on an anti-partying attitude; a skeptic suddenly becomes a born-again Christian; a left wing person suddenly becomes zealously right ring.
When these changes happen to someone, it can be hard to adjust. But is the change always bad? I mean from our viewpoint, yes it probably is. If we're atheist, and our best atheist friend finds Jesus; that's quite awful. But if our annoying Christian neighbour suddenly takes on Richard Dawkins as his guru, we'd probably be delighted.
13. Started to get idea that Australian films directed by non-Australian filmmakers tend to have more Australian animals than films and TV shows directed by Australians.
I might be wrong.
I'm mostly basing this on the movie I watched yesterday (Walkabout) and Holy Smoke.
I'm wondering, though, if Australian directors are more likely to take Australian wildlife for granted, while foreigners get all excited about it.
14. Thought that, so far, Holy Smoke is a brilliant film.
15. Saw Kate Winslet naked.
I'm not going to complain about that.
16. Felt a bit lesbian, because I actually paused the movie to look at her body.
Well, and I paused to write this.
I always pause when I stop to write things in my blog. Although I'm not sure I usually check back at the screen multiple times.
17. Enjoyed the nudity, because I feel it actually has a purpose.
Usually, I find nudity to be exploitive.
Thinking about Walkabout. Yes, it's nice to know that the English girl relaxes in the water. But I feel they showed it for too long, and I don't know if we needed such a clear view of her breasts. I almost felt like the filmmakers were thinking, This might get boring. Show some tits!
Underbelly had a lot of breasts scenes, and that was often mixed in with violence or other depravities. It seemed over-used at times.
What's different with Winslet is she's naked in the midst of a sort-of nervous breakdown.
She's going through something that I read about in the book my sort-of Australian cousin mailed to me. I forgot what it's called, but it's when you are plagued by a huge change in your thought processes. It makes you depressed. But it's actually a good depression, because you're going through a huge growth thingie.
I feel I'm not saying that right.
18. Found the term from Lord Wiki. It's Cognitive dissonance. I thought that was the term; then looked it up, and thought it wasn't the right thing. Now that I'm looking closer, I'm pretty sure it is what I'm referring to.
I'd describe it as your faith in something being shaken up or destroyed.
What's happening with Ruth, in the movie, is she believed strongly in the cult she joined. Then the cult-cure-guy (Harvey Keitel) has her and her family watch a anti-cult video featuring Charles Manson's minions, the Kool-Aid people, and the Heaven's Gate Cult.
This rattles Ruth. She becomes lost.
And she becomes naked, both literally and figuratively.
Or maybe this is all bullshit, and I'm just trying to justify my appreciation of the nude scene in this movie.
I don't know.
19. Decided Holy Smoke is about two people tearing apart each other's soul.
In the end, will they be better or worse from the experience?
20. Decided another theme of the movie is the mentally unstable trying to help the mentally unstable—which I think pretty much defines most of psychology.
21. Finished watching the movie.
It's my favorite of all the movies I've watched the past couple of weeks.
I thought it was beautiful.
For a few moments, I worried it was going to have a sick, dark, and depressing ending. But it ended in a lovely, uplifting kind of way.
22. Surprised to see from Lord Wiki that Holy Smoke has a 45% from Rotten Tomatoes.
I guess with that movie, I go against the flow of the critics.
23. Saw that Cinderella got an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. I didn't like that movie at all. I also strongly disliked Gravity, which I think got a very high review.
I need to remember not to put too much weight in Rotten Tomatoes.
Though I do agree with their very high score for Inside Out.
24. Saw that Not Suitable for Children got an 88%. Although that's with sixteen votes. Holy Smoke's score is based on eighty-two reviews.
25. Went to Random.org to pick what I plan to watch on Friday.
It's The Cars that Ate Paris.
That might be fun.
26. Saw that John Meillon, who I saw yesterday in Walkabout, is in The Cars that Ate Paris. He plays the mayor.
His name is listed at the top of the cast of the Paris movie, so I'm guessing he's the star.
27. Saw that Melissa Jaffer, one of the actresses from The Cars that Ate Paris, played the female pilot on Farscape. Then she returns in season three as a different character.
28. Decided to return to Holy Smoke.
29. Started with Jane Campion. Though she's a Kiwi by birth, IMDb says she lives in Sydney, and she attended film school in Australia.
30. Saw that Campion's latest project is a TV miniseries called Top of the Lake. It takes place in New Zealand and is filmed in New Zealand, but it has some Australian actors.
What's interesting to me is the miniseries aired in 2013 and a follow-up season is coming in 2016.
31. Saw that Jay Ryan from Offspring and Sea Patrol is in the series. He was born in Aukland. I'm not sure if I knew that.
32. Saw that Robyn Malcolm is in the series, and she was born in New Zealand too.
33. Felt that New Zealand actors in Australia are like Canada actors in the US. It's kind of a surprise to learn they're not from our country.
Well, I'm guessing it's that way. Maybe it's not.
Or, in both instances, it could be the same for some and not for others.
As for Canadians, I'm well aware of Michael J. Fox and Kiefer Sutherland, but then other people surprise me. Like Keanu Reeves.
34. Just checked,
Keanu Reeves was born in Lebanon.
But I guess he grew up in Canada.
35. Saw that Keanu Reeves is fifty-one!
Holy shit.
36. Saw that another of the three Robyns of Upper Middle Bogan is in Top of the Lake—Robyn Nevin.
She's an Australian born in Australia; and so is another Aussie in the miniseries: David Wenham.
37. Saw that Top of the Lake is available on Netflix.
Awesome!
I'm adding it to my list.
38. Saw that Hulu has an early Australian Jane Campion movie—Sweetie.
I'm adding that to my list too.
39. Went to palg1305's Flickr album.
Today I'm going to look at his Fraser Island album.
40. Liked this photo. It has a nice mix of clouds, ocean, sand, and greenery.
41. Thought this water photo was pretty awesome.
42. Liked this photo of a creek.
43. Thought the dingo in this warning sign was a dinosaur. When I clicked on the photo, and got a larger image, I could see what it really is. But when it's small, I got confused.
This happened the other day when I saw the small version of people walking somewhere. I forgot where. But anyway, I thought they were flowers. Once I saw the larger version of the photo, I could see that they were people.
44. Wanted to hang out with this kangaroo. It's actually in Gympie, not Fraser Island. But I guess Palg1305 decided to include it in his Fraser Island album. It might be because he didn't have any other photos for Gympie, so he couldn't do a Gympie album.
45. Read about Matilda, the giant kangaroo in the photo. She was used during the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Then she moved to Wet and Wild Water World on the Gold Coast.
Now she lives in Gympie.
46. Learned from Lord Wiki that Jane Campion has a daughter named Alice Englert.
Englert starred in the movie Beautiful Creatures. I read the book and didn't like it. It was awhile ago, though, and now I can't remember why I didn't like it.
In the first one: Julian McMahon is on a TV show in which, every episode, one of the characters is eliminated. I try to find out who's been eliminated. To do this, I have to look at the photos of characters still on the show and try to figure out who's missing. I realize I'm not in the mood to do this, and decide I'll just look it up online.
In another dream: I suddenly think it's amazing that we live in Australia. Then I remember that's not true. But we live do in Melbourne in America, which is kind of like Australia. That's pretty cool. Then I remember that's not true either.
Then there was the weird shark dream. I'm pretty sure it took place in Australia. I say it's weird, because it felt like it was a real-life kind of thing actually happening. At the same time, there was the idea that we were on a film set.
In the dream: Sharks have been appearing in an indoor swimming pool. Despite this, people have continued to want to swim there. At one point, a shark appears, and a child continues to swim. Other people jump in to try to save the child. I start thinking that Tim will probably try to play hero and jump into the rescue as well. This annoys me, but then I realize I'm being unfair. If he jumps in, it might not be about showing off. It might be about having true concern for the child.
I stand at the end of the pool where a blond-haired woman is planning to race. I give her a short passionate speech about why she shouldn't do this. She replies in a bitchy way and then kisses a nearby woman in a very in-your-face kind of way.
Around this time, we notice a window in the pool building. There's the idea that it leads to the ocean; is broken; and that's how the sharks are getting inside.
We start to leave the pool, but then when we're out of the building, I want to linger and look through the window. I want to see the bitchy woman get eaten by a shark. I don't see that, but I do see a bloody mess in a small pool that's near the bigger pool.
Then I see some written information that states that the movie is based entirely on real events. This makes me feel bad for my ill wishes against the bitchy woman.
2. Remembered there was a part in the shark dream where I worried about my appearance—would I look okay in the movie?
3. Found a Curly Wurly bar! I totally forgot I bought it.
I think it was hidden under some boxes and other junk.
4. Started watching Holy Smoke.
5. Saw that Holy Smoke was directed by Jane Campion. She's The Piano woman, I believe.
6. Thought that Kate Winslet looks shockingly beautiful in this movie.
7. Saw Dan Wylie in the movie.
I can't remember if I noticed him in the credits a few days ago.
Or did I even look at the credits before? I can't remember.
8. Decided to look or re-look at the credits now.
9. Saw Paul Goddard in the credits. I wasn't sure who he was, but then saw that he's Stark on Farscape!
10. Liked that Neil Diamond music is in the movie. So far, there have been two of his songs. I'm wondering if all the music is going to be Neil Diamond.
11. Heard a non-Neil Diamond song.
It sounded familiar to me, but I wasn't sure who sang it.
I looked it up. It's "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morrisette.
12. Liked the movie so far.
It's interesting.
Kate Winslet plays Ruth, an Australian girl who's joined a cult in India. Her family hires an American cult-expert person to save Ruth.
What's kind of surprising, so far, is that Ruth seems more emotionally healthy than the family members not in the cult.
I'm wondering if the movie is pro-cult. Or maybe it's trying to say that not all cults are bad. Sometimes a person can greatly disturb us by making a drastic change—A heavy party drinker goes to AA, stops drinking, and takes on an anti-partying attitude; a skeptic suddenly becomes a born-again Christian; a left wing person suddenly becomes zealously right ring.
When these changes happen to someone, it can be hard to adjust. But is the change always bad? I mean from our viewpoint, yes it probably is. If we're atheist, and our best atheist friend finds Jesus; that's quite awful. But if our annoying Christian neighbour suddenly takes on Richard Dawkins as his guru, we'd probably be delighted.
13. Started to get idea that Australian films directed by non-Australian filmmakers tend to have more Australian animals than films and TV shows directed by Australians.
I might be wrong.
I'm mostly basing this on the movie I watched yesterday (Walkabout) and Holy Smoke.
I'm wondering, though, if Australian directors are more likely to take Australian wildlife for granted, while foreigners get all excited about it.
14. Thought that, so far, Holy Smoke is a brilliant film.
15. Saw Kate Winslet naked.
I'm not going to complain about that.
16. Felt a bit lesbian, because I actually paused the movie to look at her body.
Well, and I paused to write this.
I always pause when I stop to write things in my blog. Although I'm not sure I usually check back at the screen multiple times.
17. Enjoyed the nudity, because I feel it actually has a purpose.
Usually, I find nudity to be exploitive.
Thinking about Walkabout. Yes, it's nice to know that the English girl relaxes in the water. But I feel they showed it for too long, and I don't know if we needed such a clear view of her breasts. I almost felt like the filmmakers were thinking, This might get boring. Show some tits!
Underbelly had a lot of breasts scenes, and that was often mixed in with violence or other depravities. It seemed over-used at times.
What's different with Winslet is she's naked in the midst of a sort-of nervous breakdown.
She's going through something that I read about in the book my sort-of Australian cousin mailed to me. I forgot what it's called, but it's when you are plagued by a huge change in your thought processes. It makes you depressed. But it's actually a good depression, because you're going through a huge growth thingie.
I feel I'm not saying that right.
18. Found the term from Lord Wiki. It's Cognitive dissonance. I thought that was the term; then looked it up, and thought it wasn't the right thing. Now that I'm looking closer, I'm pretty sure it is what I'm referring to.
I'd describe it as your faith in something being shaken up or destroyed.
What's happening with Ruth, in the movie, is she believed strongly in the cult she joined. Then the cult-cure-guy (Harvey Keitel) has her and her family watch a anti-cult video featuring Charles Manson's minions, the Kool-Aid people, and the Heaven's Gate Cult.
This rattles Ruth. She becomes lost.
And she becomes naked, both literally and figuratively.
Or maybe this is all bullshit, and I'm just trying to justify my appreciation of the nude scene in this movie.
I don't know.
19. Decided Holy Smoke is about two people tearing apart each other's soul.
In the end, will they be better or worse from the experience?
20. Decided another theme of the movie is the mentally unstable trying to help the mentally unstable—which I think pretty much defines most of psychology.
21. Finished watching the movie.
It's my favorite of all the movies I've watched the past couple of weeks.
I thought it was beautiful.
For a few moments, I worried it was going to have a sick, dark, and depressing ending. But it ended in a lovely, uplifting kind of way.
22. Surprised to see from Lord Wiki that Holy Smoke has a 45% from Rotten Tomatoes.
I guess with that movie, I go against the flow of the critics.
23. Saw that Cinderella got an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. I didn't like that movie at all. I also strongly disliked Gravity, which I think got a very high review.
I need to remember not to put too much weight in Rotten Tomatoes.
Though I do agree with their very high score for Inside Out.
24. Saw that Not Suitable for Children got an 88%. Although that's with sixteen votes. Holy Smoke's score is based on eighty-two reviews.
25. Went to Random.org to pick what I plan to watch on Friday.
It's The Cars that Ate Paris.
That might be fun.
26. Saw that John Meillon, who I saw yesterday in Walkabout, is in The Cars that Ate Paris. He plays the mayor.
His name is listed at the top of the cast of the Paris movie, so I'm guessing he's the star.
27. Saw that Melissa Jaffer, one of the actresses from The Cars that Ate Paris, played the female pilot on Farscape. Then she returns in season three as a different character.
28. Decided to return to Holy Smoke.
29. Started with Jane Campion. Though she's a Kiwi by birth, IMDb says she lives in Sydney, and she attended film school in Australia.
30. Saw that Campion's latest project is a TV miniseries called Top of the Lake. It takes place in New Zealand and is filmed in New Zealand, but it has some Australian actors.
What's interesting to me is the miniseries aired in 2013 and a follow-up season is coming in 2016.
31. Saw that Jay Ryan from Offspring and Sea Patrol is in the series. He was born in Aukland. I'm not sure if I knew that.
32. Saw that Robyn Malcolm is in the series, and she was born in New Zealand too.
33. Felt that New Zealand actors in Australia are like Canada actors in the US. It's kind of a surprise to learn they're not from our country.
Well, I'm guessing it's that way. Maybe it's not.
Or, in both instances, it could be the same for some and not for others.
As for Canadians, I'm well aware of Michael J. Fox and Kiefer Sutherland, but then other people surprise me. Like Keanu Reeves.
34. Just checked,
Keanu Reeves was born in Lebanon.
But I guess he grew up in Canada.
35. Saw that Keanu Reeves is fifty-one!
Holy shit.
36. Saw that another of the three Robyns of Upper Middle Bogan is in Top of the Lake—Robyn Nevin.
She's an Australian born in Australia; and so is another Aussie in the miniseries: David Wenham.
37. Saw that Top of the Lake is available on Netflix.
Awesome!
I'm adding it to my list.
38. Saw that Hulu has an early Australian Jane Campion movie—Sweetie.
I'm adding that to my list too.
39. Went to palg1305's Flickr album.
Today I'm going to look at his Fraser Island album.
40. Liked this photo. It has a nice mix of clouds, ocean, sand, and greenery.
41. Thought this water photo was pretty awesome.
42. Liked this photo of a creek.
43. Thought the dingo in this warning sign was a dinosaur. When I clicked on the photo, and got a larger image, I could see what it really is. But when it's small, I got confused.
This happened the other day when I saw the small version of people walking somewhere. I forgot where. But anyway, I thought they were flowers. Once I saw the larger version of the photo, I could see that they were people.
44. Wanted to hang out with this kangaroo. It's actually in Gympie, not Fraser Island. But I guess Palg1305 decided to include it in his Fraser Island album. It might be because he didn't have any other photos for Gympie, so he couldn't do a Gympie album.
45. Read about Matilda, the giant kangaroo in the photo. She was used during the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Then she moved to Wet and Wild Water World on the Gold Coast.
Now she lives in Gympie.
46. Learned from Lord Wiki that Jane Campion has a daughter named Alice Englert.
Englert starred in the movie Beautiful Creatures. I read the book and didn't like it. It was awhile ago, though, and now I can't remember why I didn't like it.
