Found a place with Chris ("Tilly") who I know from London - we'll recreate London lifestyle! With bars, restaurants, cafè's and a pack of briscola cards handy, we're all set...
Location - Windsor, at the end of Chapel St, 3kms from the beach and even less to St Kilda...
Will be great to set up my own place again! Need to get myself a new double bed and a wine rack...
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
It wasn't supposed to be a comedy!
...About as subtle as an elephant
The Italian director of the film Bianco e Nero (Black and White) managed to do things I never thought possible. Here is the movie:
- There is a man, a computer technician, married to a stunning Italian woman. This is wrong, or at least unfair, to begin with.
- The wife of said man looks about 3 years younger than her mother and about 3 years older than their daughter. Ok, so this is fairly common in Italy.
- The wife spends much of her time at an African aid organisation, along with a Senagalese man
- The Italian man doesn't care too much for the charity events which her wife helps organise.
- The wife of the Senegalese man (a stunning African woman) finds the whole thing a little pretentious, and expresses this to the Italian man, establishing a relationship between these two characters.
At this point, the film diverts from its true goal (which by the end we know is clearly to show some gratuitous sex scenes) to 'explore' some racial issues. The African couple are invited to the Italians' daughters birthday. There proceeds a laughable amount of not-so-subtle symbolism. The Italian family have an African maid who wears a white apron, for example. The guests give their glasses and dirty plates to the African wife, also a guest. The Italian man's father offers to pay her for sex.
But never fear, because the film reverts back to its intended course - the beautiful African woman takes her computer to the Italian man to get it fixed, he delivers it back to her house, and all of a sudden, while the African man is in Brussels, an affair has started. Ah, Italian cinema!
Getting less and less subtle as time goes by, we see a black hand on a white hand, a white leg on a black leg.
But alas, some troubles begin. Beautiful Italian wife becomes very angry when she finds out and makes him leave. African husband can no longer talk to his wife and makes her leave.
Then the Italian man tries to explain himself with possibly the worst line in cinematic history: "You don't understand, not everything is blackand wh... . uh I mean life is all shades of grey". No kidding. He said that.
Both having failed to convince their partners to have them back, they continue having sex. Why not? Nothing to lose! We get another great one-liner here, from the Italian man to the African woman - "I was always a black sheep... I mean, we say black sheep because our sheep are white". What?
After some time, they both decide to try again with their partners, no jealousy of course. Oh yeah, this is after they have declared they can't live with out each other (only a minor detail I suppose). This time, they are taken back with open arms. Forgiven. That said, in the meantime the Italian woman decided that she might 'have a go' at being with the African man too.... no, no, it's true!
Both sets of partners are reunited.
Just when everything is looking happy for both families, the black and the white (does anyone see where the name of the film came from yet?), Italian man meets African woman in the park. Within, oh about 17 seconds, they are making out again, in front of their children. The children run off and play together happily (how sweet).
I'm not really sure what the moral of the story was. That if you have an affair, you may as well continue with it until your partner forgives you? That if you are a geeky and not-so-handsome Italian man, whose every sentence is a racial faux-pas, you can switch freely between two beautiful women?
Maybe films concerning racial 'issues' have to be like this in Italy, to get their message across. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if this film caused considerable anger if it were shown in the 'States. But in Italy, there is a xenophobia, a mistrust and misunderstanding of foreigners so great, it seems they can get away with this!
The Italian director of the film Bianco e Nero (Black and White) managed to do things I never thought possible. Here is the movie:
- There is a man, a computer technician, married to a stunning Italian woman. This is wrong, or at least unfair, to begin with.
- The wife of said man looks about 3 years younger than her mother and about 3 years older than their daughter. Ok, so this is fairly common in Italy.
- The wife spends much of her time at an African aid organisation, along with a Senagalese man
- The Italian man doesn't care too much for the charity events which her wife helps organise.
- The wife of the Senegalese man (a stunning African woman) finds the whole thing a little pretentious, and expresses this to the Italian man, establishing a relationship between these two characters.
At this point, the film diverts from its true goal (which by the end we know is clearly to show some gratuitous sex scenes) to 'explore' some racial issues. The African couple are invited to the Italians' daughters birthday. There proceeds a laughable amount of not-so-subtle symbolism. The Italian family have an African maid who wears a white apron, for example. The guests give their glasses and dirty plates to the African wife, also a guest. The Italian man's father offers to pay her for sex.
But never fear, because the film reverts back to its intended course - the beautiful African woman takes her computer to the Italian man to get it fixed, he delivers it back to her house, and all of a sudden, while the African man is in Brussels, an affair has started. Ah, Italian cinema!
Getting less and less subtle as time goes by, we see a black hand on a white hand, a white leg on a black leg.
But alas, some troubles begin. Beautiful Italian wife becomes very angry when she finds out and makes him leave. African husband can no longer talk to his wife and makes her leave.
Then the Italian man tries to explain himself with possibly the worst line in cinematic history: "You don't understand, not everything is blackand wh... . uh I mean life is all shades of grey". No kidding. He said that.
Both having failed to convince their partners to have them back, they continue having sex. Why not? Nothing to lose! We get another great one-liner here, from the Italian man to the African woman - "I was always a black sheep... I mean, we say black sheep because our sheep are white". What?
After some time, they both decide to try again with their partners, no jealousy of course. Oh yeah, this is after they have declared they can't live with out each other (only a minor detail I suppose). This time, they are taken back with open arms. Forgiven. That said, in the meantime the Italian woman decided that she might 'have a go' at being with the African man too.... no, no, it's true!
Both sets of partners are reunited.
Just when everything is looking happy for both families, the black and the white (does anyone see where the name of the film came from yet?), Italian man meets African woman in the park. Within, oh about 17 seconds, they are making out again, in front of their children. The children run off and play together happily (how sweet).
I'm not really sure what the moral of the story was. That if you have an affair, you may as well continue with it until your partner forgives you? That if you are a geeky and not-so-handsome Italian man, whose every sentence is a racial faux-pas, you can switch freely between two beautiful women?
Maybe films concerning racial 'issues' have to be like this in Italy, to get their message across. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if this film caused considerable anger if it were shown in the 'States. But in Italy, there is a xenophobia, a mistrust and misunderstanding of foreigners so great, it seems they can get away with this!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Hallway bowling is underrated..
Visited Nick's new place in South Melbourne today, and took on Nick, Jimbo and Jane in hallway bowling. Sadly haven't quite worked out the spin on the ball and wasn't even close to victorious...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
A little update
Despite having returned to Melbourne, the Junket continues!
New features on the panel to the right:
- You can now view my blog posts by location, instead of just by date. For example, choose Copenhagen, Croatia, Bosnia, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Russia, London...
- I have added a link to Chris Townsend's youtube music video channel - he has just uploaded heaps of cover songs he recorded at home - Damien Rice, David Gray, Snow Patrol, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, Radiohead, The Verve, Gavin Degraw
[For those who don't know Chris, he is one of my closest friends from my time in Copenhagen, and has taken the last year or so off to record an album (entitled "Copenhagen") which is available now here ]
New features on the panel to the right:
- You can now view my blog posts by location, instead of just by date. For example, choose Copenhagen, Croatia, Bosnia, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Russia, London...
- I have added a link to Chris Townsend's youtube music video channel - he has just uploaded heaps of cover songs he recorded at home - Damien Rice, David Gray, Snow Patrol, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, Radiohead, The Verve, Gavin Degraw
[For those who don't know Chris, he is one of my closest friends from my time in Copenhagen, and has taken the last year or so off to record an album (entitled "Copenhagen") which is available now here ]
Anglesea
Spent Sunday relaxing on Yogi's farm down at Anglesea. I awoke this morning probably a little earlier than planned, given last night's feast and late night of vino down at Fran's "farm" at Five-Ways... but because the sun was out I packed a towel and bathers. In the end, the only thing warm down at Anglesea was Jill's delicious pasta, helped along by Jim's '94 bottle of red.In the afternoon, the sun made its way back, bringing out this spring-time rainbow.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sunday, September 07, 2008
A Slow Race
Andy Hickey shows up late. He had 2 meat pies and 4 chicken sandwiches for lunch. Pickles has only had one beer at the BBQ and the pressure is great: if he loses to Andy, well...Pickles (with whom I lived in London) only nudged ahead in the final 10 metres. Andy had the early momentum, but not the stamina. Or maybe its only because Pickles went all out: running shorts, footy boots, taping, massage...
Friday, September 05, 2008
Melbourne
I wandered around the "Paris End" of Melbourne's compact city centre yesterday, feeling that the only thing "Paris" about Melbourne must be the prices. The view above is outside by soon-to-be office building. Mercifully, my first day of work is Monday. On my return to Australia, I feel like I did in my first few weeks in London - that suspended animation: an impotence caused by a lack of money, lack of structure and lack of visibility. While I will start to earn next week, it is a paralegal position to fill the gap until I start the journey towards qualification. It is this that I look forward to. My hopes and plans on returning to Melbourne - and enjoying this city of my birth - revolve around career establishment and rediscovering the city by moving out: new housemates, new bars, new cafes and continuing the merry-go-round of fun that is life. As my French friend Michael says: "C'est cool, la vie" It's cool, the life - Yes it is and I can't wait to begin again!
Monday, September 01, 2008
Antipodean
To those of you who thought this day would never come
To those of you who didn't want this day to come
To those of you who will still be on a different continent than I
And to myself
I am moving to Melbourne, the other side of the World.
To those of you who didn't want this day to come
To those of you who will still be on a different continent than I
And to myself
I am moving to Melbourne, the other side of the World.
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Iceland
Swiss Alps
Phi Phi Cliff Jump
Laos
