AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: “Ramona”

Published on May 16, 2012 in other. Tags: , , .

As a part of my course, we do a lot of writing [I know, what a surprise], so I thought that every now and then, I might share some of the pieces that I’ve come up with during class.  This particular one came from an exercise in our Storytelling class, where we took characters and conflict, and put them in different places.

Ramona

Ramona ate her lunch on the same park bench at the same time every day.  She had the same peanut butter sandwich, in the same lunchbox, preceded by seven barbecue shapes, and one granny smith apple.  This little routine helped her feel calm in the middle of a hectic day at work.

Jessica and Emily ate their lunches together every day, but the sandwiches and locations changed.  Sometimes they went to a café, sometimes they stayed in the office.  Sometimes, they too headed to a park bench in the Carlton Gardens, just near the one Ramona sat on.

Sometimes they would use this time to talk about Ramona, not realising that their voices carried on the wind.

“Ramona’s cut her hair again,” began Jessica.  “Does that girl even own a mirror?”

Emily laughed.  “Someone needs to tell her to visit an actual hairdresser next time, instead of letting some five year-old loose with a pair of safety scissors.”

Ramona had finished her apple, and was three bites into her sandwich before the tears began to fall.  The refuge of the park bench didn’t seem so comforting anymore.  Maybe tomorrow she’d eat the same lunch somewhere else.

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#MusicDiary2012 – Day Three

Published on May 10, 2012 in music. Tags: , , .

DAY THREE – Wednesday 9th May

8:17am // I make a cup of tea in the kitchen.  The radio is tuned to Gold FM.
Men At Work – “Down Under”

8:32am // Upstairs, getting ready for work.  I’m nervous, so I put on my “Most Played” playlist [via iTunes].
Eskimo Joe – “Sweater”
Codeine Velvet Club – “Little Sister”
Kaiser Chiefs – “Like It Too Much”
Blur – “There’s No Other Way”
The Pigeon Detectives – “I’m a Liar”
Oasis – “Cigarettes & Alcohol”
Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
David Bowie – “The Jean Genie”
Divinyls – “Hey Little Boy”
Falco – “Rock Me Amadeus”
The Strokes – “12:51″

10:00am // Such is the nature of my new job [first day today!] that I actually spend almost my entire day in the office listening to music, but I can’t really tell you what that music is.  I sit at a desk, with my headphones plugged into my laptop [trying not to tap my feet or move too much, in case people think I'm weird].

1:37pm // On my lunch break, I walk down to the local shops.  I’m too busy enjoying my food to take note of what’s playing at Grill’d, but I’m pretty sure the censored version of Lily Allen’s “Alfie” comes up at some point.

3:42pm // Later in the afternoon, my headphones are off, and somebody else in the office plays a couple of Mark Ronson songs.
Mark Ronson & the Business Intl [feat Boy George] – “Somebody to Love Me”
Mark Ronson [feat Amy Winehouse] – “Valerie”

Once I’ve finished up for the day, I head over to my other job.  Tonight is [hopefully] my last ever late-night retail shift.  I should be celebrating, but it’s hard to celebrate in a petrol station.  I listen to Triple M, because I generally find it to be the least offensive radio station [in terms of music selection].  Aside from the occasional Nickelback song, they rarely play anything that I hate.  As a  bit of an experiment, tonight I write down most songs that they play.  I don’t quite get all of them, but it’s enough of a sample to explain why I actually kind of enjoy listening to the station…

7:00pm // Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”; Foo Fighters – “Walk”; The Black Keys – “Gold on the Ceiling”; Aerosmith – “Love in an Elevator”; Pearl Jam – “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”; Rise Against – “Make it Stop [September's Children]”

8:00pm // Foo Fighters – “These Days”; The Verve – “Bittersweet Symphony”; The Cure – “In Between Days”; Matt Corby – “Brother”; Cold Chisel – “Standing on the Outside”; The Living End – “Prisoner of Society”; Powderfinger – “These Days”; 3 Doors Down – “Everytime You Go”; Maroon 5 – “Harder to Breathe”; The Doors – “Roadhouse Blues”

9:00pm // Pete Murray – “Always a Winner”; Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Can’t Stop”; Bruce Springsteen – “Glory Days”; Live – “Lightning Crashes”; Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”; Baby Animals – “One Word”; Kaiser Chiefs – “Listen to Your Head”; Evanescence – “Going Under”; Pat Benatar – “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”

10:00pm // Foster the People – “Pumped Up Kicks”; Strange Talk – “Sexual Lifestyle”; The Black Keys – “Gold on the Ceiling”; Emperors – “Be Ready When I Say Go”; Snow Patrol – “In the End”; Bush – “The Sound of Winter”; Young the Giant – “Cough Syrup”; Soundgarden – “Live to Rise”; The Art of Sleeping – “Empty Hands”

11:00pm // The Temper Trap – “I Need Your Love”; Linkin Park – “Burn it Down”; Gotye [feat Kimbra] – “Somebody That I Used to Know”; Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Look Around”; Arctic Monkeys – “R U Mine?”; The Living End – “Song for the Lonely”; End of Fashion – “Super Love”; Matt Corby – “Brother”; Garbage – “Blood for Poppies”

I have a little more that I’d like to write about yesterday’s listening habits, however I need to go to work. Not wanting to fall behind on my MusicDiary2012 reportings, I’m choosing to publish this now, with the intention of editing it later.

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#MusicDiary2012 – Day Two

Published on May 9, 2012 in music. Tags: , , , .

DAY TWO: Tuesday 8th May

Since the purchase of my Vespa in August of last year, I haven’t been taking public transport as much as I used to.  While this means that my travel times to and from uni are generally much shorter than they used to be, it also means I’ve cut down on some of my prime music listening time.  Yesterday [Tuesday], for example, I rode in to the city, had classes for eight hours straight, and then rode home.  I didn’t listen to music during any of that time.

When I got home, I did some writing/homework in silence, before rewarding myself with a first listen of Garbage‘s new album, Not Your Kind of People [currently streaming on NME.com].  Then, because I start my new job today [Wednesday], and I’ve not been sleeping too well recently, I figured I should probably have an early night.  A fairly dismal effort, I know, but sometimes these things can’t be helped.

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#MusicDiary2012 – Day One

Published on May 8, 2012 in music. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Last year’s Music Diary Project was a great insight into the different ways that people listen to music.  I was shocked to discover that I didn’t actually listen to CDs anywhere near as much as I thought I did. In fact, most of my music consumption that week took place on public transport, and came from my iPod. I don’t know if much has changed over the past twelve months, but I guess I’ll find out…

DAY ONE: Monday 7th May

8:18am // The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement [album, via iTunes]
I’m sitting in bed, checking my Monday morning blogroll. I listen to four tracks before getting up.

8:30am // The Travelling Wilburys – “The End of the Line” [radio, Gold FM]
Downstairs, the radio is on in the kitchen.  I’m in there for about fifteen minutes, reading the paper with a cup of tea, but they only play one song [damn breakfast programming].

8:57am // The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement [continued], Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman, Ben Folds Five – The Unauthorised Biography of Reinhold Messner [albums, via iTunes]
Back upstairs, attempting to write the hook scene of my film [for my writing film class]. The music is quiet, and I choose albums that aren’t going to be too distracting.  Still, I fail to complete the scene.

12:34pm // [iPod]
Time to head off to class. When I’m on public transport, I tend to put my iPod on shuffle.
Robbie Williams – “Strong”
Pavement – “Trigger Cut”
Katrina & the Waves – “Walking on Sunshine”
The Fratellis – “Whistle for the Choir”
[12:47 - I take off my headphones to identify the music being played on loudspeaker by the guy behind me on the tram. It's "Freestyler" by the Bomfunk MCs].
Blur – “Country House”
Codeine Velvet Club – “Hollywood”
Arctic Monkeys – “You Know I’m No Good”
Wagons –  “Love Me Like I Love You”
Beck – “Loser”
Suzanne Vega – “Luka”
Cake – “I Will Survive”
Florence + the Machine – “Kiss With a Fist”
Real McCoy – “Another Night”

5:35pm // [The Curtin]
Glenn and I are at the pub before trivia. They’re playing the usual tunes.

7:30pm // [The Curtin]
Trivia time! We control the music through a rather long and varied playlist in Glenn’s iTunes that we shuffle each week. This week, it looked something like this:

[Note: "Be My Lover" was in there by mistake. I think it was requested a couple of months ago, and managed to hide in the playlist without coming up again... until this week.  It has since been removed.  Also, most weeks, we try to play "Carry On" by Motor Ace, and Oasis' "D'You Know What I Mean?", but for some reason that didn't happen this time.]

9:30pm // [The Curtin]
At the end of the night, we play a couple of requests:
Men Without Hats – “Safety Dance” [which had been a question in our audio round]
Paul Dempsey – “Addicted” [ for someone's birthday]

Georgie kindly drives us home, playing Moby through her car speakers as she feels it is the least offensive thing on her iPod.  And so concludes day one.

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The Avengers Actually Lives Up to the Hype

Published on May 8, 2012 in movies. Tags: , .

HAVE NO FEAR: THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I really shouldn’t be so surprised that I enjoyed this film.
[Image source]

I don’t really watch “big” films.  It’s not a conscious choice. Somehow, I’m just the kind of person who doesn’t see movies.  In fact, I didn’t even know The Avengers was a “thing” until a few weeks ago.  You might wonder how a person like me ends up studying screenwriting… but, in my defense, I’m studying to be a television writer.  I never claimed to know anything about film [that's Glenn's territory].  There are enough film buffs in the world, anyway.

Still, with everybody talking about it, I figured that I should probably make the effort to see The Avengers, despite not having seen [or, really knowing anything about] any of the previous Marvel films.  It’s important to maintain at least a shred of credibility amongst my classmates [the fact that up until a month ago I hadn't seen the original Star Wars trilogy didn't really help me there], and I wanted to be able to contribute something to the breaktime conversations about Thor and Iron Man and Loki and The Hulk and everyone else who made an appearance in this film.

I thought an 11:30am session on a Sunday morning would be fairly quiet.  It wasn’t.  There was assigned seating [which I'm not going to rant about here, but it is a pet hate of mine], and a whole lot of people with little-to-no knowledge of cinema etiquette.  But, despite the idiot across the aisle who kept playing with his water bottle, I quite enjoyed the film.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon [finally, a real mainstream success for him], The Avengers has just the right balance of humour and tension.  While I felt that a few of the fight sequences went on a little longer than necessary, they were very well executed, with amazing camerawork and highly effective special effects.  The story actually made sense, and in typical Joss Whedon style, he saw no problem in killing good characters for the sake of plot.

While I’m not going to say that The Avengers is the best film ever made, having seen it, I can now understand the hype surrounding its release.  This is a film that really does deserve the attention it’s getting, and if you haven’t seen it already, I recommend that you do so.  You might be surprised – I certainly was.

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COMING SOON: Do You Know What I Mean? The NBC Comedy Trivia Special

Published on May 7, 2012 in melbourne and other. Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I wish I could take credit for this awesome poster, but Glenn created it with his amazing Illustrator skills.  He even put us in the bottom corner!

Entertainment 720 presents…

A trivia event for all citizens of Pawnee, students of Greendale Community College, cast & crew of TGS, and employees of Dunder-Mifflin: Do You Know What I Mean? The NBC Comedy Special.  If you know which Parks & Recreation character was awarded an honorary degree from Notre Dame, or which TGS writer created a website to prove that his girlfriend Karen really exists, then this is the special for you.  We’ll be asking all the tough questions about Parks & Rec, 30 Rock, Community and The Office, so you’d better get a good team of experts together.

Do You Know What I Mean? The NBC Comedy Special will be held in the front bar of The Curtin, on Monday 21st May at 7:30pm.  There’ll be many prizes [including one for best costume!], and entry is free.  For more details, check out our facebook page, or the event itself.

In the meantime, we’ll be having regular old pop culture trivia tonight and next week.  It might not be as exciting as any of our special events, but you can still win beer and chocolate…  Perhaps I’ll see you there?

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Garbage – “Battle in Me”

Published on May 5, 2012 in music. Tags: , , .

There’s not long until the official release of Not Your Kind of People, and I can’t wait.  Over the past couple of days, Garbage have been teasing me with clips such as this one – live rehearsal footage of new track “Battle in Me”.  There’s a punchier edge in this tune, compared to “Blood for Poppies”, and it’s making me a little jealous that the UK get this as their first single instead.

Edit: Seriously, the more I listen to this song, the more I love it.  Turn it up loud, and you’ll understand.

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Arrested Development is Changing Everything

Published on April 30, 2012 in television. Tags: , , , , .

[source]

It’s time to face the facts: everything is changing.  People don’t watch shows on the television anymore.

Okay, that’s a bit of a lie.  People don’t watch shows that aren’t Masterchef or the news or My Kitchen Rules on the television anymore.  The kitchen reality genre [I don't know  - what would you call it] is still pretty safe when it comes to drawing in viewers [if you miss an episode, you're not going to catch up online - you'll just watch the next one].  As are shows such as Packed to the Rafters, which appeal to those people who aren’t so good with computers and the internet.

But that’s not what I’m writing about today.  Instead, I’m here to discuss the return of Arrested Development – or, more specifically – the return of Arrested Development as a 10-episode series on Netflix, the entirety of which will premiere on a single day.  That’s right – no need to wait between episodes.  But, is this a good thing?  To decide, I’m using the Rory Gilmore method, and writing up a bit of a pro/con list.

PROS:

1. No waiting time between episodes.
I think many people will agree that shows like Arrested Development are often best enjoyed in concentration.  The short episode and season length makes it easy to watch the entire series over a couple of days.  So, with all ten episodes premiering at once, you can marathon straight away!  Of course, not everyone enjoys television in this way, but, with the beauty of Netflix, they don’t have to.  If people want to wait and watch one episode a week, or a couple of episodes here and there – they can.  The entire series is available at your disposal, and you can watch it however and whenever you want – without ever waiting.

2. This could be the start of something new…
I know that Netflix has their own original series, but this is the first time that something with a built-in fanbase has been carried across to the internet/streaming/online world. Could this mean that other shows might follow suit? I know it’s a little late for Veronica Mars, but there are plenty of other shows [Community, for example] that continually face cancellation despite having many dedicated fans. This could be the start of a new era where shows debut on network television, before moving online. And, eventually, where more and more shows are made purely for the streaming format.

3. … Which would lead to many more things.
But if the drama/comedy series format moves in this direction, and ends up becoming an online thing, then we’re going to need faster internet and better streaming services. While I don’t like to miss out on watching shows, and often use the internet to, uh, ‘aquire’ them, I don’t like the sacrifice in quality that occurs. Especially on sites such as ABC iView [which I use on an almost daily basis]. If shows are going to stream online, then I want them streaming in digital broadcast quality.

CONS:

1. We don’t have Netflix in Australia.
This means that those of us outside of the US have no choice but to either wait for the show to become available on DVD [or by other legal means], or to acquire the series illegally.  And for those people who choose to remain within the law, considering that it can take months or even years for some shows to reach our screens, the next point becomes even worse…

2. SPOILERS!
They are going to be everywhere.  There are some devoted Arrested Development fans out there, who will no doubt be live-blogging each episode the second they become available.  And it won’t just be spoilers for the one weekly episode that you’ve not yet managed to catch – the whole series will be there, haunting you around every corner of the internet.  Spoiler-phobes will need to either go into hiding, or watch the entire series as quickly as they can.  There is no other way.

3. Australia might never catch up.
It’s great that they have services like Netflix and Hulu in the US, but it could be a very long time before those of us down under have access to anything of the sort. And if online broadcasting is the direction in which this industry decides to turn [and, let's face it, it probably is], then it’s going to make things rather difficult for people like myself, who’d quite like to work in the television industry one day…

In conclusion…

This is a bold move for the television world, but it’s a good one, as it opens up all sorts of opportunities. The only real problem with it is that I’m probably going to have to move to the other side of the world…

Further reading:
Vulture: How the Return of Arrested Development Will Rewrite the New Rules of TV Watching
Vulture: Mitch Hurwitz Talks Arrested Development 2.0
The AV Club: Arrested Development Will Premiere Its Entire Fourth Season in One Big Lump

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