1. Had dreams that were probably influenced by my recent IMDb adventures.
In the past I've appeared on The Secret Life of Us. I think about this and also think about how I've been on talk shows regarding Australia. I start wondering if I'm on IMDb because of all this. I'm afraid to check, though. I'm not sure if this is because I'm afraid of seeing my name or afraid of not seeing my name.
2. Dreamed that, I know I'm dreaming. I want to have more dreams about Australia. I start my quest by going to a zoo. It's not a normal zoo, though. All the animals are statues. There's nothing alive. Still, I take the time to go into the Australian animal room.
I decide I want something more. I'll go to Australia in my dreams. I'm on a time restraint, but decide to give it a go. I ask the powers-that-be to help me along. I start floating around through Texas...quite slowly. I am wondering how I'm going to make it all the way to Australia at this rate. I ask the powers-that-be if they could perhaps speed things up a bit—maybe zap me to California. They don't seem to give my request any real consideration.
3. Had disturbing dreams likely influenced by The Snowtown Murders. The dreams involved me raping people and murdering children. I'm pretty sure I was a man in this particular dream. As for the children, they didn't seem real. I think they were dolls. I don't think I actually stabbed, shot, or did anything else disgusting like that. It was more like someone and myself made decisions about what was going to happen to the doll-kids. It was like a very dark form of make-believe games.
The dream made me think that maybe this is how some vulnerable people become murderers. They don't see their actions and the situations as being real. Maybe it feels like a dream to them. Maybe it feels pretend—like a game. Or maybe they feel like they're on a movie set.
4. Thought of the young adult novel I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. It's about a teenager whose father is a serial killer. The teen struggles with his identity and worries that he's going to be a serial killer too. One of the things he does is force himself to remember that the people he sees and encounters are real.
It would be easier to kill people if we saw them as dolls, characters in a movie, or characters in our dream.
In our dreams, we're probably the only real people. Everyone else is fictional, (sometimes I believe otherwise, but that's a different story) so it might be okay to kill them. It's also okay to kill people in our daydreams or in the video games we play. But when it comes to real life and real people, it's incredibly not okay. So we need to remind ourselves, when we're dealing with the real world, that we're in reality and we're dealing with real people who are NOT disposable figments of our imagination.
What's scary, though, is the idea we might confuse our reality with our dreams. I used to be nervous that I'd accidentally kill myself. In my lucid dreams, I'd often ask myself if I was dreaming. When I determined I was, I'd jump off some kind of high balcony. Then I started to worry that one day I'd get it wrong and jump off something high when I was awake.
5. Had some homeschooling time with Jack. He said when we finished our US history for the day, he wanted to show me this blog about someone traveling to each country without using airplanes.
We started reading the first entry, and we learned that the adventurer is Australian.
No! Wait.
I just looked again. The guy's girlfriend is Australian. Oops.
The guy doing the traveling is from Liverpool.
However, while I'm on the subject of randomly running into cool projects done by Australians, I found one the other day. It was after I posted my blog entry for the day. Sometimes if I see an exciting Australian thing after I've already posted, it gets forgotten. Or really, I'm too lazy to write about it...probably because there is already so much to write about.
But I'll write about it now.
I watched this lovely video where these people get on a train and pass out the lyrics to "Somewhere over the Rainbow". Then they have a sing-a-long with a bunch of strangers. It's so sweet.
After watching the video, I checked out the YouTube channel—Liberators International. Is it just me, or does that sort of sound like a terrorist group?
But these guys don't participate in guerilla warfare. Instead they do peaceful and fun things to get strangers to bond with each other.
Anyway, my point to all this is, I eventually learned through my exploring that the main guy running the show is Australian—I think from Perth, probably.
6. Explored the website of The Liberators to see if I'm right about them being from Perth. It wasn't overly easy to find the information. Location is not mentioned a lot. I had to Google the name of a festival. That ended up being in Perth. So I'm right about that. Good!
7. Felt less impressed with The Liberators private function services. You can hire them for your events and help people bond with each other.
It's not a BAD thing, but it kind of just sounds like a glorified DJ.
I much prefer the idea of getting strangers to sing on a train together.
8. Saw that the leader of The Liberators, Peter Sharp, has his own website.
He calls himself a social artist.
9. Followed the link to Peter Sharp's blog.
From the blog and other websites, I'm getting the idea that his biggest project is an eye contact thing—getting people to stare at a stranger for a minute.
I wouldn't even want to stare in the eyes of someone I know for a whole minute.
10. Decided I much prefer the singing on a train thing.
11. Watched the video promotion of the eye contact experiment.
There were some sweet moments. I'll give it that.
I know, though, that for me personally I'd feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.
I think other people might feel very uncomfortable about being on a train with strangers singing together.
So...it's probably a good idea to have a variety of bonding experiences.
12. Looked at the tagline of the eye contact video. True Connection is Our Pathway to Peace.
I think another pathway to peace is understanding that there are many different ways to connect and what works for some doesn't work for others.
13. Read an article about people who don't like eye contact.
I didn't understand it, unfortunately.
14. Wanted to say that I don't hate all eye contact. I like short little moments of eye contact. I just don't like it when it becomes long and intense.
15. Started thinking negative things which is making me feel bad.
It's about the train video. I love it. But now I'm thinking it's a bit invasive.
The thing is, what if you're too shy too sing? Or what if the whole thing makes you embarrassed? Then you get caught on video looking bored and uptight.
Though I love these viral video things of random people singing or dancing, it can be kind of unfair to people who don't want to be on video.
16. Thought the best solution was to continue with these flash mob type things, but not videotape them.
That's never going to happen, though.
The world is one mass YouTube movie now, and we're all a part of it. That scares me and bothers me a bit, but I also kind of love it.
17. Started watching an episode of Scooter: Secret Agent.
The premise is interesting to me.
It's about children, from the past, who admitted to faking fairy photos. I think it's based on a true story.
On the show's version of the story, an elderly women talks about what she and her co-conspirator did as children. Yes, they faked the photographs. HOWEVER, the fairies were real. It's just they couldn't be photographed, so the children made fake photographs.
I like that twist.
18. Consulted Lord Wiki.
It turns out the version I'm seeing on the show is more based on the true story than I thought.
The two cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, did claim at some points that despite the fake photography, the fairies had been real.
19. Saw from IMDb that the episode aired on April 1. I guess the show's creators felt the date fit well with the hoax theme.
20. Saw that despite airing on April 1, the show took the believer stance.
21. Started watching more of The Snowtown Murders.
It's a very disturbing movie.
I just watched a scene where the serial killer ringleader, John Bunting (Daniel Henshall), coerces Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) into shooting John's dog.
22. Saw the first human-murder in the movie. Bunting rationalizes it by saying the victim was a junkie and a waste.
I think that's another way people get themselves okay with murder. They look upon the victim as being inferior and therefore less deserving of life.
23. Had to admit that I view some people as being inferior to myself.
For example...John Bunting. I definitely feel superior to him.
Despite these feelings, though, I'm not thinking it's okay to go out and kill anyone.
I think it's okay and natural to feel superior to some other people. But it's not a great idea to go out and kill them—the main reason being that someone else might see us as the inferior ones.
It's like the whole golden rule thing.
Don't kill shitty people, because someone else might think you're the shitty person; and you wouldn't want them killing you. Right?
24. Felt that The Snowtown Murders was one of the most unpleasant movies I've ever seen.
One thing I appreciate about it, though, is that the characters aren't all completely unsympathetic.
I feel for Jamie, because the film shows him NOT being okay with the murders. It's not like he happily and whole-heartedly joined the murder team. The film portrays him as being very scared and reluctant. He seems like a decent kid who got partnered up with the wrong mentor.
25. Finished watching the movie, which is a relief.
I'm glad to be done with it.
Well, I hope I'm done with it.
I hope it doesn't visit me in my dreams.
26. Looked at the filmography of Justin Kurzel, the director of The Snowtown Murders.
He's the director of the Macbeth movie that came out recently.
I imagine it's a very dark version of the story. Then again, it would be very hard to make a happy-light version of Macbeth.
27. Looked at Kurzel's upcoming video-game based movie—Assassin's Creed. Michael Fassbender is one of the stars of that, and he's also the title star of Macbeth.
Maybe Kurzel and Fassbender are friends?
28. Saw that Fassbender is going to be one of the stars of The Light Between Oceans.
29. Saw that Kurzel is married to Essie Davis.
30. Watched the trailer for Macbeth.
It looks very good.
I think Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play, though, I can't say I'm one of those big Shakespeare fans.
I once wrote a screenplay that involved Macbeth. It was inspired by Andrew Hubatsek from Pet Sematary. I think I've mentioned here before that Hubatsek is one of my minor life obsessions.
I'm trying to remember the screenplay.
There was a woman who had a life-long fear of a horror movie monster. It might have been so bad that she had to seek psychological care. I think maybe she ends up trying to face the fear by seeing the actor? Meeting him? That might be a bit stalkerish.
Maybe she was just supposed to see one of his theatrical performances.
I don't know.
I think they end up falling in love. The actor is in a performance of Macbeth as Banquo. When the woman sees him looking all bloody and scary, she has a relapse. I think?
There's a gay best friend in there somewhere as well. I vaguely remember that.
The thing I'm trying to figure out is this. Andrew Hubatsek is an actor in a New York theater. They do Shakespeare sometimes. Did I know that? I'm guessing I did. But another part of me is wondering if coincidentally I made something up that was close to the truth. Because I think I wrote the screenplay before it was really easy to Google people.
31. Realized if I did make it up, it's not a huge coincidence. It wouldn't be unusual for a not-overly-successful film actor to be working successfully in local theater.
What happens to most of these actors who have one or two very memorable roles in horror and sci-fi movies, and then vanish from IMDb? They probably either do local theater or they do conventions.
If my character became a veterinarian who specialized in hamsters and then I read the same thing happened in Andrew Hubatsek's life, THAT would be a coincidence.
32. Wanted to watch a short film and blab on and on.
This post is so long, though.
I'm trying to reassure myself. No one reads these posts in their entirety. They just skip around and find what's interesting to them. Right?
But I worry that someone out there is anal like me and forcing themselves to read the whole thing.
I HAVE made stupid rules about having to read a long blog entry in it's entirety. Then I start getting aggravated with the blogger.
No...wait. Actually, I stopped reading them after awhile. With this one particular blog, the posts were very long. So eventually, I stopped reading the whole posts. I read the first sentence of each paragraph and then the whole paragraph if it sounded interesting to me.
Or maybe that's not it. Maybe I read the paragraphs that were around the photos that interested me.
I'm not sure, really.
It doesn't really matter, though.
33. Started to watch a 2007 tropfest film called "Pig Latin".
34. Stopped watching the movie, because I remembered I need to go to Random.org and pick my next full-length thing to watch.
I was going to wait until after I finished "Pig Latin", but now I can't get my mind off of my show-picking ritual.
35. Had Random.org pick my next show.
Strangely, it turns out it's a short film.
I didn't know I added short films to the list. But that's cool.
The movie is called Glenn Owen Dodds, and it stars David Wenham.
If it doesn't involve murder and torture, I'll be grateful.
36. Went back to watching "Pig Latin".
The woman in it looks familar to me.
37. Saw that Stephen Curry is in the movie. Or at least I think it's Stephen Curry.
38. Wondered why the movie suddenly changed from black and white to color.
Unlike the Wizard of Oz and that surfing movie, the change seemed very random.
39. Finished watching the movie.
I think the main point of it all was to make policemen look stupid.
40. Saw that I was right about Stephen Curry.
He's in the credits.
41. Looked at the Thanks part of the credits. I love those.
In this one, they thank Saffron the cat.
I wonder if Saffron is still alive.
42. Thought Saffron is a cool cats name.
Actually, I think it would be a cool human name as well.
43. Saw that there's an actress named Saffron Burrows.
She was in The Deep Blue Sea.
44. Went to Pig Latin's IMDb page.
45. Saw that Nathaniel Kiwi, the writer and director, appeared as a paramedic in the Nicholas Cage movie The Knowing.
That was Kiwi's last film role.
46. Saw that Pig Latin was Kiwi's last film project.
Why?
And what is he doing now?
47. Looked at the 2002 TV series Flipside. It was a comedy show. Kiwi was one of the writers and also acted in it.
It was kind of a Curry family thing—with Stephen Curry, Bernard Curry, and Andrew Curry.
48. Realized I don't know for sure that Andrew is related to Stephen and Bernard.
I kind of just assumed.
49. Looked at Andrew's bio on IMDb.
He IS a brother to Stephen and Bernard.
I'm guessing that they're all friends with Nathaniel Kiwi. Or they were friends with him once upon a time.
50. Saw that Andrew Curry is the eldest of the Curry Brothers.
He's a few months older than me.
51. Found out what Nathaniel Kiwi is up to.
He's become an artist—the type that uses a canvas and gets their work hung up on a wall. I'm trying to clarify, because filmmakers can be seen as artists as well.
52. Started to watch a video about Nathaniel Kiwi's art.
53. Thought about the possibility of this being a different Nathaniel Kiwi.
But I doubt it.
How many Nathaniel Kiwis are there in Australia? It's hard for me to imagine it's a common name.
54. Thought that one of Kiwi's artistic themes is American pop culture.
There's a lot of Coke stuff.
55. Liked Kiwi's artistic style, and I also think his video is very cool.
56. Went to Kiwi's Instagram.
It shows his artwork. I think I saw a lot of it in his video, but this allows me to get a closer look.
It's also easier for me to link to it.
57. Liked his animal masks. They're kind of scary, but in a cool kind of way.
58. Liked the bright colors in this painting.
59. Thought this elephant and penguin picture was sweet. Sort of. The penguins look a bit sad and scared.
60. Loved the giraffe picture.
61. Wondered about the meaning behind all the McDonalds/Toy Soldier paintings. Here's one of them.
Maybe it's about America's aggressiveness—both with their military and consumer culture.
62. Had verification that I have the right Nathaniel Kiwi, because I've continued to be sort of worried about that.
But here. He has a painting of Stephen Curry.
63. Went back to "Pig Latin" on IMDb.
I want to look at some of the actors.
64. Looked at the actress who looked familar to me. Her name's Diana Greentree. I think the only thing I might have seen her in is House Husbands. She played a celebrant in one of the episodes.
65. Saw that one of the actors in "Pig Latin", Charlie Clausen, is a major Home and Away star now.
Or at least he was. IMDb lists his last episode as being October 2015.
But maybe they just haven't updated lately?
66. Saw that Clausen was on McLeod's Daughters! And it was the season I watched.
He played Jake.
I remember him, I think. I'm pretty sure he was that guy who was dating Becky (Jessica Napier).
67. Googled and saw I'm right.
68. Saw that Andrew Neil, the guy who did the sound for "Pig Latin" has a VERY impressive filmography.
He's done work for Wentworth, Patrick, Animal Kingdom, Mao's Last Dancer, Bran Nue Dae, The Proposition, Salem's Lot, Holy Smoke, and a zillion other things.
69. Saw that Jane Forbes, the script supervisor for "Pig Latin, also has a huge filmography as well.
Her projects include Grace and Frankie, Slide, Wilfred, The Pacific, Underbelly, Rush, Sea Patrol, McLeod's Daughters, Charlotte's Web, Scooter: Secret Agent, Stingers, and a lot of other stuff.
Read my novel: The Dead are Online