1. Saw from Google News that the cooler weather might not help Victoria against fires after all.
Why?
The wind.
2. Started to read an
article about the fire.
Twelve houses have been destroyed.
3. Read that the cool weather and rain DID bring some relief to some areas.
The strong winds, though, help the fire.
4. Felt bad for the families who are leaving their houses and don't know if there will be a house standing when they return.
5. Hoped the families who have lost their houses will be able to recover from the disaster—both financially and emotionally.
6. Started watching an
episode of
Scooter: Secret Agent.
7. Was going to bitch about a character coming into work when he's sick and sneezing. But then I realized it would be hypocritical. Twice I've taken Jack into Epcot when he was sick. Hopefully he didn't pass his germs on to anyone.
I felt guilty about it and realized it's a lose-lose situation for everyone. If you're sick, you might spread germs, and you're not going to enjoy being out, anyway.
That being said, as for spreading germs, it's complicated. I think you can spread germs in that time period before you know you're sick—you know that time where you wonder if it could be allergies.
I guess my standards now are a fever and whether or not someone is sneezing all over the place.
I have colds where I feel like my body has become a snot factory. I think I prefer, and the world would prefer, for me to stay at home.
There are times, though, where there's not much of a choice. For example, airline flights. I don't think they usually give refunds if you're sneezing too much.
8. Saw that this episode is the one with Damien Fotiou.
He wasn't easy to recognize. I wouldn't have even considered it being him if I hadn't known that he was going to be in one of the episodes.
9. Wondered if I'm wrong.
Maybe that's not Damien Fotiou.
Maybe Fotiou plays another character in the episode.
I'll wait and see.
10. Watched the scene again to see if they give a character name.
Fortunately they do.
So now I know it's definitely Damien Fotiou.
11. Annoyed by Melanie's (Talia Zucker) behavior on the show.
She has a secret crush on Scooter (Martin Sharpe) and becomes jealous when he shows interest in a female music star (Ramona Von Pusch) he's supposed to protect. Melanie acts pouty about it and even goes as far to sabatoge a cup of coffee Scooter is making for the music star.
I think it's fine and sometimes cute for a boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse to be jealous and act mildly possessive. But a crush? No, I don't think that's okay.
Well, it's fine to feel jealous. We can't help our feelings. But I think it's very wrong to try to sabatoge our crushes chance with THEIR crush. By being so selfish, we could be standing in the way of soulmates, true love, and all those kinds of things.
12. Felt that I would not be open-hearted and generous enough to want to see an object of my affections happy with someone else. I'd be secretly wishing they'd break up. So yeah. I'm not that good of a person. But I think I am decent enough that I wouldn't actively try to break them up.
13. Started to watch
The Snowtown Murders.
14. Saw that this movie showcases the worst aspects of humanity. A mother asks her boyfriend to babysit so she can visit someone. In reality, she goes gambling. The boyfriend-babysitter uses the kids for his child pornography hobby.
Lovely.
15. Got a spoiler from IMDb. Apparently, one of the kids is going to fall in love with the boyfriend.
Read more.
Maybe it's going to be a different boyfriend?
16. Glad to see Elizabeth, the mother, (Louise Harris) attack the man who had photographed her sons.
And now she's calling the police.
So she might have a bit of a gambling problem, but she still cares for her children.
17. Saw that John (Daniel Henshall), the man who's going to have one of the kids crushing on him, is a homophobic asshole who seems to enjoy chopping up dead kangaroos.
I think he also might turn out to be the murderer.
But I'm not sure.
18. Thought the movie was hard to follow.
19. Finished watching the movie for today.
I'll probably watch more tomorrow.
I think I'm going to read about the real Snowtown murders. It might help me understand the movie.
20. Consulted Lord Wiki.
So the basic idea is this John Bunting led three other people in a seven year killing spree in South Australia. They targeted people that Bunting labeled as homosexuals or pedaphiles.
Yeah. I'm seeing that in the movie.
It's all kind of creepy and sad.
Bunting enters the family as they're dealing with the aftermath of the child pornography photographer. Bunting swoops in to rescue them—but his rescuing includes rabid homophobia and other disgusting things.
21. Started to read an
article about the murders and the movie.
22. Started to see the positives of the movie. Or at least the point of it.
I think it's similar to what I saw on
Review with Myles Barlow. You have a bad person but then those that come to fight the bad person are worse than the original bad person.
Yes, it's very bad to take photos of half-naked teenagers. But it's a lot worse to encourage teenagers to join your bigoted killing spree.
I think the main point is that when we're in a low place—when we're victims—we become vulnerable to people who might want to exploit us.
23. Figured it's probably similar to teens joining terrorist groups. They're hurt by society in some way. Then the terrorist groups swoop in and give the teens the sense that they belong somewhere—that they can make a difference in the world.
24. Thought this quote from the director (Justin Kurzel) is good.
It’s about the corruption of innocence. Many kids in these areas don’t have father figures, and they’re searching for them, so I found this paternal relationship between a serial killer and a young boy fascinating.
I think that sums up things pretty well.
There's a lot of loneliness in the world, and people end up clinging to ugly and dangerous things.
25. Excited to watch a Tropfest film.
I had so much fun with it yesterday.
26. Found the film I'll be watching today. It's called "
Being Boston", and like the other Tropfest films I've watched recently, it was released in 2007.
27. Started watching the film.
A dog is the narrator of the story.
28. Thought that the movie reminds me of the Pixar dog short—except this one isn't animated, and it involves masturbation.
29. Saw that Josh Pyke sang a song in the movie.
Isn't he famous?
I was thinking he did the songs specifically for the movie, but it could just be that the filmmakers bought the licensing rights.
30. Googled and saw that Pyke is an Australian singer.
I don't know what he sings, or why I've heard of him before.
31. Saw that I have two Josh Pyke songs on my Aussie Spotify list. That's probably why his name looked familiar to me.
32. Looked at "Being Boston" on
IMDb.
33. Looked at the writer and director of the film—
Justin Drape.
He did writing for two TV shows in 2009.
The first was a reality TV program called
My Family Feast. Drape wrote four of the episodes.
It sounds like a good show. The premise is that the host (Sean Connolly) is invited to a family meal. Each episode features a family from a different culture.
34. Went to Sean Connolly's
website. He's a chef. There's
a page about
My Family Feast.
35. Wondered how much of a reality TV show like this is ad-libbed and how much is scripted.
36. Looked at Justin Drape's other TV show. It's called
:30 Seconds. He was one of the creators.
Stephen Curry, from
The Secret Life of Us, was one of the stars.
There are other actors I recognize, including two from
Tangle—Kat Stewart and Joel Tobeck.
37. Looked at Abe Forsythe in the credits. His name sounded familiar to me.
It turns out I saw him in
Howzat! Kerry Packer's War.
38. Shocked.
Confused.
I just saw something that I should have seen before.
Have I see it before? Did I forget about it?
I don't think so. I don't know how I could have learned this little piece of information, and then forgotten about it.
So...I was looking at a cast member of
:30 Seconds— Peter O'Brien. He looked familiar. I saw that he had been on
Dance Academy and
Underbelly. That's how I knew of him.
But then I scrolled down to see his earlier credits.
He was Shane Ramsey on
Neighbours!!!
WTF! How did I not know this?
I could have sworn I had tried to find the Shane Ramsey actor before.
39. Wondered if I have the wrong person.
The guy I'm thinking about was half brothers with Danny Ramsey. He was in a car accident and couldn't drive anymore. He then worked in a limo business but killed someone in a car accident and developed a fear of cars.
40. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Shane dated Daphne (Elaine Smith).
I forgot about that.
41. Found a
post where I talk about the Ramsey family, and mention that Shane is played by Peter O'Brien. But I don't think I learned anything about O'Brien.
I didn't know that he was one of the past
Neighbours actors who found long-term acting success.
42. Wondered why Justin Drape hasn't written any TV shows since 2009.
What's he up to?
43. Learned that Justin Drape is in
advertising now.
He's the co-founder and chief creative officer of The Monkeys.
44. Saw that Drape co-wrote and directed a short film called "Losing Face".
I don't know why it's not on IMDb.
I guess not everything is.
45. Saw that Lord Wiki has an entry on The Monkeys.
Here's something exciting. The Monkeys are what brought us the brilliant
Ship Song Project.
I haven't watched that in a long time.
I'll go watch it now.
46. Finished watching the video. At the end, when I saw the exterior of the Opera House, I thought about how I feel very lucky that Australia is my main obsession in life.
It's almost like it makes me feel patriotic, but not really since I'm not Australian.
I guess there can be obsession-patriotism.
It's like some of us are part of our fanboy/fan girl nations.
Like all the Star Wars fans are bonded lately in their massive Star Wars patriotism.
47. Wanted to confess that I can't identify several of the singers in the video.
That makes me feel like a failure.
The ones I do know: Neil Finn, Kev Carmody, Angus and Julie Stone, and Paul Kelly.
Oh! And I think Sarah Blasko is there.
48. Started to watch
a video about the making of the Ship Song Project.
Maybe The Monkey agency will be mentioned. And more importantly, maybe some of these singers will be identified for me.
49. Thought Guy Pearce's narration in this video is a bit annoying.
Actually, a lot annoying.
He's using this soft tone. I feel like he's trying to hypnotize me.
50. Had one of the singers identified for me.
Kate Noonan.
I've heard of her.
Although I'm probably mostly thinking about Phil Noonan (Garry McDonald) on
Offspring.
51. Saw one of the singers is Martha Wainwright. I don't think I've heard of her before.
52. Learned that Martha Wainwright is Canadian-American; not Australian.
The funny thing is, when I saw her name I thought of Rufus Wainwright. It turns out he's her brother.
I know of him because
Nip/Tuck used one of his songs, and I liked it a lot.
53. Wanted to mention that I didn't notice Wainright's American accent. Oops.
54. Wondered if it made sense to have non-Australian singers in the video.
At first I was thinking, sure. I mean lots of people from all over the world perform at the Sydney Opera House. But now....
It seems kind of strange to have all these Australian singers and then one American.
55. Remembered that Neil Finn isn't Australian.
But still. That's different. He's from New Zealand, which to me, when it comes to the entertainment industry, is part of Australia.
Lisa Chapelle, Alan Dale, Morgana O'Reilly...they're all Aussie even if they're not technically Aussie.
56. Went back to learning about The Monkeys.
They did an anti-cancer promotion with Ben Lee.
57. Watched that
video. It's called Sun Sound.
58. Intrigued by what Lord Wiki says regarding The Monkeys making some advertisements for
The Gruen Transfer. For some reason, they caused outrage.
Why?
Well, I'm going to read an
article about that so I can get some answers.
59. Finished reading the article. If I'm understanding things right, the complainers were mad because they thought they were watching real advertisements on ABC. And there aren't supposed to be advertisements on that network.
60. Watched the credits of "Being Boston" again. In their thank you section, Three Drunk Monkeys is mentioned. That's the original name of The Monkeys. I wonder when it started. I guess when Drape thanked them, he was thanking his coworkers? Was he also thanking himself, since he is part of the company?
61. Looked at The
Monkeys website.
62. Saw that The Monkeys are looking to hire people. They're needing a front-end developer, a senior copyrighter, and a Finished Artist/Designer. They're also looking for some freelance workers.
63. Saw that The Monkeys sell merchandise and that includes ice-cream. Though you can't buy it from their website. There's a link to Woolworths.
The ice-cream is called Homer Hudson.
64. Looked at The Monkey's client page and saw that Homer Hudson is one of their clients.
65. Saw that The Monkeys have an impressive list of clients, including, the government, IGA, NIDA, and The University of Sydney,
66. Looked at the address of The Monkeys. They're in Surrey Hills at 531 Sth Dowling Street.
The Sth is strange. What's that?
Maybe they meant to write 5th.
Oh! Wait. Maybe it's supposed to be south.
67. Found the address on Google Maps.
It's right outside Moore Park—the north bit.
68. Saw that The Monkeys have a blog. It's called
The Monkey Barrel. It features videos they like. The latest post has the Star Wars Bad Lip Reading.
69. Wanted to look at other people in the "Being Boston" credits, even though this post is already very long.
Oh well.
I figure people can fast forward through the stuff that doesn't interest them.
70. Looked at
Sean Lynch, the main actor of the film.
He has small roles in many things, so I guess he's a character actor, maybe?
He's due to appear in
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man Tell No Tales. He plays Liam—British Soldier 4. It's interesting that he's given a name. British Soldier 3 doesn't get a name. Neither does British soldier 2.
71. Saw that Sean Lynch was the writer, director, and also appeared in a movie called
Our Footloose Remake.
I wonder what that's all about.
72. Looked at the movie on
IMDb. It's full-length, and it's American.
73. Saw that the movie has MANY directors and writers. So it's a major group effort kind of thing.
74. Saw that the full film is available on Vimeo.
I'm reading an
article about it now.
What happened is many filmmakers were upset when they heard Hollywood was making a remake. Why? I think because the whole remake thing is getting annoying. Reboots are very cool. Remakes are usually not.
So these filmmakers got together and made their own remake. They broke it up into different segments and gave the scenes to various filmmakers.
75. Started watching some of the movie.
So far, it's awesome.
Beyond awesome.
I feel so American right now. Isn't saying "awesome" a very American thing?
76. Saw that the movie has multiple actors playing each character.
77. Skipped around and watched various pieces of the movie.
Some of it's adorable.
78. Did some more "Being Boston" credit exploring.
I came across Simone Brandse who is credited as being the dog wrangler and caterer.
I decided to Google her, and learned she
married Justin Drape in 2007. I wonder if that was before or after they made "Being Boston".
They got married in Boston.
79. Wondered. Are Drape and Brandse Americans living in Australia; or are they Australians living in America?
Or maybe they're Australian and live in Australia but wanted to get married in Boston.
80. Saw that the title of the article I was reading has the answer. It says,
Aussie Creatives Justin and Simone get Hitched in the US.
They must have a thing for Boston.
82. Saw
a photo of a Sculpture by the Sea project that Brandse and Drape did together. It's a giant straw in the middle of the ocean.
83. Went to Justin Drape's
Twitter.
He
thinks IKEA has come out with the best toy ever.
84. Saw that Drape wasn't actually promoting a new toy from IKEA. I followed the link and ended up with an article about The Monkeys doing an add for IKEA.
So the Tweet was a self-promotion one.
It had me fooled.
I mean not that I'm saying Drape was trying to fool people. It might not have been intentional.
85. Watched the IKEA ad.
It confuses me.
I thought they were talking about imaginary friend—or scary, evil spirits pretending to be imaginary friends. But then at the end, the ad says the best toy is you.
Is you the child? The parent?
I could have sworn one of the kids says their best toy is invisible.
Do they have an invisible parent?
Or maybe the intended audience of the ad are those evil spirits pretending to be imaginary friends...like Captain Howdy.
86. Reread the article about the ad.
They seem to be talking about parents—specifically fathers.
I hope I'm wrong about the father thing. That's rude. Moms can be just as good a toy as dads.
87. Decided I need to re-watch the ad.
And yeah. The first kid says,
My best toy is invisible.
Maybe it's supposed to be a sad thing. Maybe her dad is a ghost.
88. Continued to be confused by the ad.
89. Thought the ad could be a commercial for my novel
The Dead are Online, because there's a girl who has a dead father that she talks to all the time. She's not unusual in her universe. Everyone is talking to dead people. Because dead people are online—Twitter, Skype, Facetime, Texts....
But this particular girl also happens to be a medium, so she was talking to her dead father before most people were talking to their dead people.
What's sad is I don't remember the girl's name.
90. Found the girl's name. I have notes, fortunately.
It's Kayla.
I'll imagine Kayla is in the IKEA commercial. Then it will make more sense to me.
Read my novel: The Dead are Online
