Digesting Buenos Aires

Digesting Buenos Aires requires a certain amount of effort. Firstly, the city is enormous - 13 million residents in the greater metropolitan area, nearly a third of Argentina's 40 Million inhabitants. Thankfully most of the areas a foreign visitor is likely to visit are situated in an area near the coastline (or river mouth, more accurately), close enough together to be almost walkable - and easily navigated with metro, cheap taxis or busses.

But the digesting that gave me most trouble came in the form of Bife de Lomo, massive slabs of tender steak that Argentina and particulary Buenos Aires and the surrounding Pampa are justly famous for. Possibly unwisely, I made my first assault on one of these only a few hours after stepping off my 16 hour plane trip from Sydney via Buenos Aires. Airport, transport and hostal check-in simply were navigated without any fuss, so I made arrangements to meet up with Chris and Kath - travelling incognito as Paco and Conchita on their way home to Sydney from New York via too many exciting places to mention here.

Christmas dinner at El Territorio in San Telmo

After a few hours at a local bar sampling the local brew - Quilmes - and wine (various Malbec labels) and a nice Spanish strength gin tonic, we decided that we´d hit the restaurant previously planned for Christmas lunch at once (Conchita isn´t big on waiting once a good idea enters her head).

The place recommended (La Cabrera) is very popular with the locals so we supped on a glass of bubbly waiting for our table to come free - which it did sometime after 11pm. The waiter raised his eyebrow when we ordered two full and one half steaks -which should have sent off a few warning bells, but it wasn´t until two giant metal trays (tastefully cow-shaped) arrived, each with a one kilogram, inch thick slab of meet on them. The half kilo steak looked modest in comparison. Out of pride we polished off most of it, leaving the salad and fries untouched. I don´t think my jet-lagged body will forgive me in a hurry for that !

In general Buenos Aires is a place for strolling around, enjoying the cafes and sites. There are plenty of musuems and galleries, but none come particularly recommended. Instead on Christmas Eve I met up with with Pablo from Madrid (but originally BA) for a much more modest lunch and catch up and walked about 4 hours around the up-market districts of Palermo and Recoleta, visiting the cemetery where Evita (and hundreds of other famous Argentinians I really hadn´t heard of) are buried, before passing back to the hostel via Puerto Madero, the recently revitalised Buenos Aires port area.

Casa Rosada and the famous Evita balcony

Argentinians celebrate Christmas Eve rather than the 25th, so the Hostal put on a roof top BBQ grill and party for guests, staff and other random strays in the area. That finished at 6am (further impressing my jet-lagged and steak digesting body) so Christmas Day really started with a Christmas lunch of a steak sandwich with chips at Chris and Kath's hotel, before starting an afternoon's bar and tapas hop.

Boxing Day was in La Boca, which I'll save until I can get my photo uploading process going more efficiently than it is now ! Back into civilisation today so contact may well become more frequent.

Off to Argentina and Peru

Welcome to installment one of the South American series. After the time-travelling experience with Cuba and Mexico, it's now time to attempt some real-time travel blogging. At this stage, I'm not sure how effective this will be, as a lot will depend on internet access in the more remote locations and how much fun I'm having - and how little spare time I have !

One thing for sure, I won't be posting all my photos real time. As with my last big trip, I've decided to take a combination of cameras - one digital and one film. Sadly, I'm not taking my grandfather's old fully manual Pentax K1000 this time as I really couldn´t justify the extra weight. So there'll be no photos from Peru in 1932. I was always going to bring my compact Pentax digital camera for city and social shots, but I was in a dilemma whether to get a new digital SLR for the nature shots (especially from Patagonia and the Inca Trail), or to stick with slide film. In the end I've stuck with slide film, not because I'm any sort of luddite (I only play vinyl records for a laugh) but because I still think that slide film better captures light than all but the most expensive digital cameras, an opinion that seems to be shared by many experts (by no means all) in the inter-world. But I´ve certainly created a whole lot more work for myself on my return in February by that choice - hopefully that will help with the post trip depression !

The reason I've found some time today (Xmas Eve) is that there´s a brief lull between my first day wondering around and Xmas Eve celebrations - which are the main Christmas celebrations in this part of the world. Although I've only been here 24 hours, I've already managed to catch up with Chris and Kath on their slow way home from New York, and Pablo, a friend from Madrid on his trip home for a family wedding, as well as walking all round Buenos Aires in the blazing sun.

I'm staying at a hostel (yes, a 40 year-old backpacker) - called the ArtFactory on account of the themed and painted rooms - for the first 5 days in Buenos Aires. Following that, I'm on a 2 week trip to Patagonia which should give my fitness a good work out ! After that, I have two un-planned weeks that will cover some or all of the Iguacu Falls, Salta/Jujuy and the Andean Northwest, and Mendoza; before finally skipping up to Peru to walk the Inca Trail - a touristic cliche for sure, but not one I'm prepared to miss out on.

Finally - Merry Christmas to all from Buenos Aires, and stay tuned for hopefully some further updates !

Trinidad and Trains Revisited

So when last we were in Trinidad, I mentioned a train trip through the Valle de los Ingenios to a town called Manaca Iznaga, famous for its tower. Given that (5 years after the event) I still hadn't finished scanning my slides, the photos were a little limited. Finally that can be rectified. Without (too many) further stories, here are some more snaps from the train trip.

Firstly, the train itself:

On the move:


Not the one we were afraid we might have to take:

The first stop was a Hacienda called Casa Guachinango, just after a railway bridge:


It doubled as a sort of bar, and I guess the intention was that we stayed there and lined the pockets of whoever was working there. I took the opportunity to check out the surrounding countryside:

... and luckily, as I explained in the previous Trinidad post, I managed to jump back on the train as it departed, unannounced, for what was to be the final destination, Manaca Iznaga, famous for its tower:

from which there was a pretty view, including of the local hamlet itself:

... in which not much happened, although they were pretty casual about a steam train crossing,


a tractor seemed to be more interesting to the locals.

Next, I revisit Camaguey , from where my first impressions of Trinidad were written, so long ago !

Cuban Propaganda Badge

Following from my previous post, this is what a Fotki badge looks like when applied to an album of political propaganda from all over Cuba.

It might be more effective applied to an album with more photos in it, such as this one from the Urban Sights album. The size and background colours are also configurable.

All in all, cute, but not as much fun as the Stacks:

Stacks of photos from Mexican Bus Windows

I store my photos on the website Fotki. I can't remember now how I found it, but at the time (2001) it was far away the best (and most reasonable) of the photo websites around. Today I have more than 5000 photos there so I won't be changing any time soon. I actually prefer its interface to Flickr, and the multi-album facility to that of Picasa. Picasa wins with its desktop software you use to synchronise albums, which unfortunately is not available on the Mac. It also has a cleaner interface, but is not as well suited to storing large numbers as fotki is. One day I will spend more time doing a more rigorous comparison.

Fotki has come out with a new feature called widgets, which give you ways of emdedding collections of your photos on websites (such as blogs). There are 3 at the moment, and I'm using this entry to test out the Stack feature, which represents a fotki album as a stack of prints with an intuitive flickability to browse the album.

This stack comes from my album Mexico from the Bus Window which is fairly self explanatory. You'll notice that one of my busses has wings. If you find the little arrow icon on a given photo, it will take you back to that photo in fotki. You can also vary the size of the stack, and set the background to any colour you want. You can see a stack of my photos from Palenque, Mitlan and Mont Alban below.

Next post I'll test out the badge and slideshow (yawn) widgets.

Birthdays 2.0

The other day I crossed the big 4-0. It was less traumatic than I'd expected, which might have been helped by it falling on a Monday. These days though it's hard for a birthday to go unnoticed, especially for those with Facebook profiles. A few years ago, it was really only family and close friends who would remember the exact day. If I organised a party (which I often did), or someone at work managed to find out, then a few more people would find out and maybe wish me a happy birthday in person, but that was it.

This year I was struck by how many different ways there are to wish someone a Happy Birthday ! In fact the most frequent way I was wished a happy birthday this was via people scrawling on my Facebook wall (36 in all), a method of felicitations that didn't even exist two years ago. Facebook (for those who aren't familiar with it) gives you 3 days notice of impending friend's birthdays, which is enough to ensure that most people are aware of it. At the other end of the scale, I received exactly one card in the mail - kudos to my cousin in England who managed to time it to arrive on the exact day. The next most common method was text messaging - a grand total of 8 messages, or 9 if you count the text from my local pub, telling me they'd added $10 to my card for my birthday (at least 0.1% of my annual spend).

Apart from that, just a couple of in-person greetings (maybe helped by being out of the office for most of the day) and surprisingly few emails (4, mostly from family) and phone calls (3 to fixed lines and 2 to mobile). Quite a contrast to only a few years ago. Despite having recently signed up to Twitter, I'm still not active, so there's a possibility of yet another new means to be commiserated with next year.

Below a summary of Duncan's 2008 greetings !

Facebook Wall	36
Facebook Message	2
Normal Email	4
Snail mail Card	1
Text Messages	9
Mobile Phone Calls	2
Home Phone Calls	2
Work Phone Calls	1
In Person	5

Creative Graffiti

There's someone (presumably a Newtown local) who goes to quite an effort to create some cleverer than usual graffiti. The first effort was on the safety sign outside the substation in the car park behind Vintage Cellars, creating a more literal warning in the process:


The good folk at Energy Australia didn't take to kindly to that, and sadly the sign was returned to normal shortly after I took the above snap last year. However, our mystery tagger has recently struck back, albeit with a slightly more paranoid tone:


I'm assuming the same person is also responsible for this postural advice, several of which have appeared in the same area.


There are a few more pictures of Newtown graffiti here, and a collection of some of the Wilson St artworks, mostly near the rail sheds here. Anyone interested in random Newtown bits and pieces should head on over to Nosey in Newtown.

Final Reviews - Sydney Film Festival 2008

All in the fullness of time ... or not. Time has got away from me once again so the final Sydney Film Festival reviews for 2008 will be in semi note form !

In Bruge was always going to get mainstream release and commercial success, and certainly pleased the full house at the State Theatre. It's hard not to like this intelligent crime buddy movie from Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, although the ending could be considered unnecessarily graphic. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson match the razor sharp dialogue with pitch perfect acting and there are enough non-PC, Belgian and American jokes to keep even the grumpiest bum happy.

Lake Tahoe is - well, a different kettle of fish. Slow moving but moving, beautifully shot Mexican story of a young boy dealing with loss. Not a lot happens yet this film held my attention effortlessly.


Lemon Tree has also since earnt a wider release. It tells the story of the Palestinian neighbours of the newly appointed Israeli defence minister whose centuries old lemon grove is considered a security risk. With elements of The Castle (!), Lemon Tree uses human stories to tell a larger political story, without resorting to stereo-typing or over-sentimentality.


Stop-Loss is Kimberly Peirce's long-awaited follow up to the hard-hitting Boy's Don't Cry. The title refers to a little-known clause by which the US Army can over-ride the standard break between tours of duty and send recently returned soldiers straight back to Iraq. This film, inspired by Peirce's brother and his friends experiences in the US Army, un-ashamedly takes the side of the soldiers while sensibility avoiding the subject of the war's validity or otherwise.

The opening scenes, showing US soldiers responding to an attack on the roads of Baghdad, use a clever mix of actual war footage and shot film, to deliver a frighteningly view of the complexities of the war in an urban setting. The rest of the film doesn't move at the same pace, yet still delivers a rivetting story. Highly recommended.

Cuba in 1932

My grandfather Charlie was a keen photographer. Rummaging around his belongings the other weekend I found some old photos from an early trip of his to Cuba in the 30s. They were old, scratched and faded but had a certain charm, so I thought I'd scan them and see if they were salvageable. Age has done some damage, but you can still see some of what grandpa was trying to capture ...



Ok, so that's not strictly true !

What really happened is not quite so interesting, but nevertheless merits some explanation. Firstly, my grandfather was a keen photographer - as an explorer in the New Guinea highlands in the 1930s (including accompanying the Leahy brothers on their famous 'First Contact' trip) he documented everything he saw; and donated his photographs to the Australian musuem, as well as his journals and collected artefacts. One day I'll go through his collection and scan some of the best ones to share with the world.

I inherited his Pentax K1000 in the 80s and I've always used it as my 'Black and White camera' - being fully manual it's better suited to more arty shots, though of course it's a great camera whatever the film. Once I shot a roll in Paris mistakenly thinking i had black and white film in the camera. The resultant prints were better than any I've taken with my automatic Canon.

I took the Pentax to Cuba, but, as the heaviest of my three cameras (the Pentax, the Powershot Digital and the Canon SLR), it often got left back where I was staying, and I only managed to shoot two rolls. Unfortunately, for one of those I had the film speed incorrectly set on the camera - 400 ISO instead of 100 (all cameras these days read film speed automatically) so all my shots were over-exposed. In 2003 I tried to find a camera shop that could develop the prints compensating my mistake, without luck. Even the good folk at the aus.photo newsgroup (remember them) couldn't recommend a solution - short of using a darkroom.

Fast forward to this year and I found the roll unloved in my draw. Hoping that developing technology had improved, I tried my luck at the local shop in King St (who do at least do develop black and white film on site). The lady there claimed that they could compensate the 2 stops needed; nevertheless the photos came back looking like they were 70 years old. Whether that's a result of the age of the film (5 years), or her not understanding my request (or both) I'm not sure - nevertheless the photos still have a certain charm so I thought I'd share some of them.




I also had some issues with the scanning (while I'm being vaguely technical). I use the Vuescan product for scanning (rather than proprietary software that comes with the scanners and is usually shit), and although the menu system is clunky and counter-intuitive, the resultant photos have always done the trick. However I now have a new printer (all-in-one with fax and scanner) and I was struggling to force the programme to generate decent sized files. Even on the archive setting - which normally produces multiple MB files, I was getting 200k scans. I guess this is probably because black and white scans store a whole lot less colour information - but these files weren't zooming in to the level I expected.

To get around this, I tried scanning one photo as a colour photo rather than black and white. I got the resultant larger file I was after, but it seems to have injected a pinkish tinge that really wasn't in the original at all !


I guess I probably need to get an upgraded and dedicated scanner if I'm going to continue with scanning black and whites.

There are a few more photos here.

More Splinters

Day 2 of Splendour in the Grass dawned with more talk of early starts, but in the end the beach won out over the charms of Van She and British India, and by the time we got there Vampire Weekend were half way through their set. I'd listened to their self-titled album a couple of times during the week, and the general impression was of up-beat Afro-pop, with a couple of stand-out singles. It's a style of music that translates well to the stage, and the big blue tent was packed with kids happily bopping away, without going really ballistic apart from for the main single.

No such problems for The Wombats though, whose high speed pop-punk had the crowd going nuts from beginning to end. They've had a lot of air-play for the catchy ditty Let's Dance to Joy Division, and judging by their gig and the crowd's reaction to it, there are plenty more hits when that one came from.

I had time for half The Grates gig and I have to say I was disappointed. There's no doubting the energy and enthusiasm of band or their fans, and I really wanted to like them, yet the songs don't really do them justice - at least yet. Anyway, Robert Forster was up next, so there was no need to hang around.

I'd had great expectations for seeing Robert Forster - at the G.W. McLennan tent no less - and they were more than met. Probably the only disappointing factor was the small size of the crowd, however that was mostly a bonus as it meant I could get up the front and still enjoy the gig without being knocked over by drunken dick-heads.

Forster covered his entire catalogue from early Go Betweens to his most recent solo releases. The sound was crystal clear and his voice was strong and clear. Particular highlights for me were Spring Rain, one of my all-time favourite songs, which I hadn't heard live in close to two decades, and Surfing Magazines, for its sheer cheesieness (especially when sung along to by a crowd of mostly 40 plussers). I traipsed back to the main stage with a huge smile on my face.

The night's finale was a strange triple-header in the Supertop: The Vines, Sigur Ros, and Wolfmother. On paper, it resembled the ridiculous to the sublime, and back again. The reality was no different, and ideal scheduling would have had us leaving after the near perfection that was Sigur Ros, rather than with the ears ringing to Wolfmother.

It was hard to imagine how Sigur Ros's ethereal music would translate to the stage, but I was blown away by the clarity and dynamics of the music and the soaring vocals. How singer Jonsi can speak after a gig is beyond me. It wasn't all operatic however, several tracks on the most recent album, including the aptly named Gobbledygook, are pretty poppy and the crowd responded in kind. A magic experience, and the highlight of the festival.

The Vines, back together after singer Craig Nicholls' much publicised difficulties, threw together a patchy set. When they rocked they really rocked, yet some of the more psychedelic numbers were just too self-indulgent, losing the good will of the crowd.

No such subtlety for Led ... I mean Wolfmother, of course. It turns out this was their last ever gig, the band announcing their break up shortly after Splendour. The music, as derivative as it is, makes for a great head-banging and body-shaking experience, and despite the protestations of my ankles, I got right into my first slam-dance in years ! I'm not convinved though, that it's practical for one member of a three piece to play both bass and keyboards, often in the same song, as Chris Ross attempted to. Anyway, lucky to see them before the end.

I decided not to risk my camera on day 2, so no photos this time round, sorry !

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - Final Reviews

Originally posted 24th July 2007 on last.fm.

Here's the final batch of mini-reviews / notes from the 2007 Sydney Film Festival. First the worst - Don't Touch the Axe - a slow, boring, pretentious, try-hard French film. I lasted longer than it deserved before walking out because I couldn't believe that it wasn't going to get better and reward me for my patience; but people I spoke to later who went the distance want that part of their life back. Gerard Depardieu jnr (his parents call him Guillaume) has the distinctive facial features but none of the acting talent of his father; and hobbled (literally) through the film with a single pained expression on his face as he attempted to justify the absurd story he was trapped in. An unbelievable (in the literal sense) love affair between unsympathetic characters; I'm not sure I've ever seen a worse film, at least not with the same pretence of being worthy.

Luckily I didn't know much about Black Snake Moan, although the presence of Justin Timberlake in the cast didn't really give me much cause for optimism. However this is a surprising and powerful story; inspired and driven by the blues. If you get a chance to see this, do. If you can, avoid the trailer, which puts a misleading slant on the film, and destroys the surprise of one of the scenes with the greatest impact. It's also highly recommended to see it in a cinema with the best sound system possible. I'm no Blues fan, but the music makes this film, and I ended up buying the Soundtrack, in which Samuel L. Jackson demonstrates an impressive talent as a Blues musician.

My other unexpected highlight was Beaufort. I didn't have high hopes for the story of an Israeli army camp, and I only attended reluctantly. The press attaché of the Israeli consulate in Sydney had been invited to speak on behalf of the Consul General; and, demonstrating a woeful ignorance of his audience; launched into a political speech defending Israel's recent (2007) incursion into Lebanon. He was roundly heckled for his troubles; but most of the audience remained and were rewarded with an intensely powerful (again !) and tense personal story. Almost documentary like; the film focuses on the young commander of the Israeli military base - Beaufort - built on an old Crusader fort, and his relationship with his team. The commander had the challenging job of attempting to motivate his soldiers to defend the camp with their lives, given the knowledge that his government was contemplating abandoning the camp to give the peace process a chance. Politics was by definition present in the story but the film maker chose not to take a political position; instead focusing on the personal impact of the situation on the soldiers. In doing so, the audience was left with far greater sympathy for the plight of those soldiers than any propaganda piece (or ill-considered speech) could have done.

Danish film After The Wedding is a taut modern mainstream film that will certainly get wider release later in the year. Starring 'Maddie' (Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen) popular in Oz due to the SBS hit Unit One (and now a Bond star), the film follows the story of a Danish volunteer teaching working in India who is lured back to Denmark with the promise of funding for his orphanage. Highly recommended.

Finally, another episode in the Sounds on Screen series, Scott Walker - 30 Century Man, a bio-pic of former The Walker Brothers member Scott Walker. My knowledge of Walker came mainly through his covers of Jacques Brel songs; although I was also aware of his earlier fame, and vaguely that his later work was non-prolific and 'difficult'. This film covers the full range of his career and gives a great picture not only of the artist and his music, but also an insight into his motivations and extreme difficulty in concluding any artistic endeavours as he gets older. Other artists such as Jarvis Cocker, Radiohead, and importantly David Bowie (his involvement released much needed funding for the film) spoke of Walker's influence on their career. And the pig carcass slapping scene is not to be missed !

Sydney Film Festival 2007 - More Films

Originally posted 16th June, 2007 at last.fm.

It was a triple header at the Sydney Film Festival last night on a rainy, stormy Sydney Friday. My wish for rainy weather for the film festival has been amply rewarded - and it can stop now. Please. Sorry to anyone inconvenienced by the storms - I'll be more careful with what i wish for in future.

Before I get to last night's films, here are some more notes on films seen and half a real review.

Two films I omitted from my first report were The Dead - John Huston's last film, and All In this Tea. The latter is a moderately interesting documentary about Californian Tea enthusiast David Lee Hoffman. I was expecting a more general documentary on tea in China (and no price jokes) so to me this was a slightly lazy effort - telling Hoffman's story without any further research or perspective. Maybe my disappointed expectations were the fault of the promoters. The other notable point (again, made in the publicity) was that it was shot exclusively digitally. Unfortunately that equated to washed out and blurry on the large screen at the State Theatre. Hopefully that won't be such a problem on television, which is where it really belongs. As filmmaker Les Blank was a guest after the presentation i feel like a bad host to be critical of his work - so sorry Les.

The Dead, on the other hand, surprised and moved me - a gentle, small scale film, shot almost exclusively at a genteel dinner party in Dublin at the turn of the century (19th to 20th that is) and based on a story from Joyce's The Dubliners. Although the setting represented a fast disappearing world, and Irish politics (the film is set only a decade before 1916) rate the barest of mentions, the final scenes pack a powerful punch and the entire film was engrossing. The Dead was only released in 1987 but its languid pace is from another era altogether.

I was apprehensive about Half Moon (Niwemang) as Iranian films have not exactly been my cup of tea. After a hard day's work and a hard week's film watching I was worried I'd get an attack of the nods, no matter how stunning the scenery and unusual the story. I needn't have worried though - the only people suffering attacks of the nods in the theatre were characters in the film itself - a beautifully filmed road movie, with impressive performances from mostly non-actors. Half Moon is about a family of Kurdish Iranian musicians travelling to newly liberated Kurdish Iraq for a music festival. Being a road-trip you won't be surprised that we barely get to see the destination, but on the way we are treated to a fascinating insight into life in those parts, more than a few laughs, as well as a serious story. Although the realities of the political situation were ever-present in the story (the film is set on the Iraqi/Turkish/Iranian border) they never get in the way of the human story being told.

Kiwi cinematographer Nigel Bluck was presented before the film (as an Australian - much to his displeasure !) and told us how director Bahman Ghobadi wanted an outsider as cinematographer in order to get a different perspective on the Iranian landscape. What Bluck couldn't admit was that his cinematography was inspired by Iranian cinema, and thus he was not ideally suited to deliver to Bahman's vision. Thankfully he still got the job as it is beautiful looking film, on top of everything else.

Life Is All About Friends has a pretty twee title that seems to have been chosen just for this Festival - it's known as Unni in IMDB. The story of four primary school boy friends set entirely in their school and surrounding village, it is a mostly light-hearted look at childhood in rural India, with darker themes such as the caste system and alcoholism lurking in the background. It's a very funny film, with beautiful scenery and endearing characters, so it's hard not to like this film (although the 'festival virgins' sitting next to me weren't so impressed!)

The first film in the Friday trifecta was from Spain - Mallorca to be precise. Yo was classic festival fare – dark, complicated and slightly obscure ; basically about melding/losing identity. At some stage during the film it really annoyed me but it was certainly original, and by the end of the film i was converted. First time director Rafa Cortes was there and spoke afterwards. He's quite a charmer and even resorted to a self-contained Q&A when questions from the (slightly bemused) audience dried up.

Next film was pure pop, a great English comedy – Death at a Funeral, which will definitely be a mainstream hit. Despite it being completely predictable and somewhat derivative, I haven’t laughed so much in ages. Perfect for a rainy Friday night and a great antidote to the seriousness of Yo.

The last film of the night was Shut Up and Sing, the Dixie Chicks film. I’ve never been a fan, but those girls are pretty cool – especially the lead singer – Natalie Maines – who is feisty-ness personified. I have to admit it’s always fun to laugh at rednecks and GWB as well, and there's plenty of that on offer here. A well made and surprisingly interesting documentary, Shut Up and Sing following the girls from the fall out over their Bush/Texas comments to the release of the recent album, Taking The Long Way. Am I tempted to listed to more Dixie Chicks ? Almost !

Great Australian Albums - Born Sandy Devotional

I knew him as a gentle young man,
I cannot say the reasons for his decline
We watched him fade before our very eyes
And years before his time, and years before his time.

With these sadly prophetic lines from Tender Is The Night, the moving Great Australian Albums - Born Sandy Devotional concluded with a dedication to David McComb (17/2/62 - 2/2/99). The film, which tells the story of The Triffids, in particular focusing on their classic album Born Sandy Devotional, is part of the Sounds on Screen strand of the Sydney Film Festival, and screened to a nearly full Metro Theatre, more traditionally a music concert venue.


It will also be the last episode in the Great Australian Albums series to be screened on SBS (Australian television channel) from late July. The series features one classic Australian album per decade, the other albums to be featured being:

Silverchair - Diorama
Crowded House - Woodface (not the most obvious choice of album, IMO)
The Saints - I'M Stranded

After the screening tonight, there was a Q&A featuring filmmakers Martin Fabinyi, Toby Creswell, Danielle Kelly, and Larry Meltzer, hosted by SMH music critic Bernard Zuel. Hopefully a sufficiently enthusiastic reaction to the series (and DVD - good news for overseas fans) will encourage SBS or others to document more of Australia's music heritage.

The film itself has a low-budget, home movie feel, which tied in with the home made aesthetic of the Triffid's album (if not reflecting the production values, which are excellent, especially obvious in last year's re-mastered release). As well as some great archival footage, it features interviews with remaining band members Robert McComb (David's older brother), 'Evil' Graham Lee (described as the keeper of the The Triffid's flame), keyboardist Jill Birt, and finally drummer Alsy Macdonald, who got the laugh of the night describing his isolation stuck with his drum kit in the attic at the Mark Angelo studios in Farringdon as the band recorded the album (and had all the fun) downstairs.

Also featured are Australian musicians such as Paul Kelly, Steve Kilbey from The Church, and former The Go-Betweens Amanda Brown and Robert Forster. Paul Kelly describes how he has tried and failed to cover Wide Open Road, unable to find a new angle on the song, considering it perfect as it is. Steve Kilbey, a passionate fan, described it as Australia's Born to Run, but I guess he doesn't share Paul Kelly's opinion on covering the track, given there's a version on the Church's latest album, El Momento Siguente.

As well as focusing on the music and making of BSD, the documentary delivers a brief history of the band and its position in Aussie rock history. Much is made of the sense of light and space in the Triffids music, and many of the fans and friends of the band recalled how evocative of an Australian childhood the music is.

In that sense, much is made of how Born Sandy Devotional is not just a great rock album, but a Great Australian Album; but this tribute (really the best term for the documentary) is for all fans of great song-writing and great music, whatever nationality.

Originally published 13th June, 2007 on last.fm.
The DVD has now been released; and all 4 documentaries can now be purchased as a box-set. At the 2008 Festival, the first instalment of Great Australian Albums Series 2 screened, featuring Nick Cave's Murder Ballads. Other albums in series 2 are:

Powderfinger - Odyssey Number 5
The Go-Betweens - 16 Lover's Lane
Hunters & Collectors - Human Frailty

Splinter in the Arse 2008

For seasoned punters, Splendour in the Grass, a Byron Bay music festival considered by many to be the best in Australia, is synonymous with gumboots, and many of the shops in Byron Bay stock up in June in anticipation of a July windfall. There was no need this year though; since moving the festival into the first weekend of August last year, Splendour in the mud has become Splendour in the dust (there are those who are convinced that shifting the festival by a single week is responsible for the improvement). Don’t worry about the shopkeepers though, the gumboots still served for the nearly-washed-out writer’s festival the weekend before.

This was my first Byron Festival experience since the Byron Bay Arts and Music Festival in 1995. Memories are hazy, although I do remember The Dirty Three being absolutely brilliant. I also recall that the festival back then had a real ‘Byron’ feel to it, with all that implies, and I was looking forward to the chilled out crowd – as a contrast to all the 20 y.o. dickheads running around at the last two Homebake Festivals in Sydney I've been to. Unfortunately the dickheads have discovered Byron; lots of drugged up Brisbane boys with Rugby League brains and Rugby League manners, pushing everyone out of their way were a real downside to this event. Not enough, however, to spoil the enjoyment of the great music and venue !

We arrived at the venue just in time for the end of Operator Please. Not much to say about these guys; they’re not my cup of tea and I’m sure they don’t care. The kids certainly seemed to like them though, judging by all the high pitched screaming from the Supertop ! The Music, on the other hand, are very much my cup of tea live – and – it seems – everyone else’s. The big blue tent was packed to the rafters of heaving bodies swaying to the music (capitalised or otherwise) and they got the best fan reaction of the day. The only puzzle is why they were on so early. Musically, The Music's music can be a little repetitive (in the lounge room at least), with all the high pitched arm punching choruses, driving beats and angry guitars; but it's tailor made for a short set at a festival like this one, and they were for many the highlight of the day.

Gyroscope and The Fratellis came and went. I wasn't really familiar with either of these bands, and already their gigs are blurred in my mind, but I do remember enjoying both of them despite the lack of familiarity. Gyroscope in particular played with a real energy which suggests bigger things to come. I had heard great things about Band of Horses and had been meaning to give them a spin for a while. I wasn't disappointed - the show was great, both musically and as a spectacle; and even if the crowd reaction at the smaller 'GW McLennan Tent' wasn't as passionate as for The Music, this was my highlight of the day. These guys are a band I'll be keeping an eye on.

I'd also heard great things about The Polyphonic Spree and was looking forward to seeing their much praised live show. On paper it sounded great; multi-instrumental, with operatic influences, parallels to the Beach Boys and Flaming Lips, and (according to a recent interview) 'definitely not a gimmick'; it sounded right up my musical alley. The show itself was spectacular, from the build up behind the red curtain; the colourful stage props, through to the exciting light show. However (you saw it coming, didn't you) the music itself let me cold. Tuneful and happy, yet somewhat soulless; it reminded me more than anything else of a musical meeting a church choir - think Godspell - and I certainly won't be rushing out to buy the CDs.

Which brings us to Devo, the headline act for Day One if not the entire festival. It was a strange choice of headline act, and certainly the crowd was noticeably smaller and more subdued that for The Music and the other bands earlier in the afternoon. Although they'd resent being called a novelty act (and certainly their longevity belies that tag) it has been literally decades since Devo had done anything musically significant, and even an oldie and almost fan from the old days like myself was struggling to recall more than a handful of songs.

First things first - yes, they still wear the flower pots and boiler suits. While that's to be admired, there's no hiding age, and what was quirky on 20 year-olds looked - as much as I hate to say it - pretty ridiculous on a bunch of middle-aged guys.

Musically the gig was fine without being inspirational. Whip It was whipped out early and rushed through, and their version of Satisfaction, so inspirational in its time, seemed limp. Girl You Want and Beautiful World were better - and I'm definitely glad I saw them, yet somehow I expected more from Devo.

In good news just to hand, the Byron Bay Arts and Music Festival is being resurrected in the New Year after a 12 year absence. Stay tuned for part 2 of the Splendour in the Grass review ... and sorry about the crap title, if you've got this far.

Not So Positive

The first film review I remember writing was a high school English class assignment. While almost everyone in the class wrote gushing reviews of recent Hollywood blockbusters they'd seen and loved, I chose instead to bag Steven King's Christine, which had left me cold. I got top marks for that review; probably for the original take rather than any particular insight into the faults of Christine.

What is true is that it is (unfortunately) easier to criticise than to praise; and often more entertaining as a result. I really enjoy Bill Bryson's light-hearted travel books, but I didn't enjoy his book on Australia, Down Under, (released as In a Sunburned Country in some markets) nearly as much. The problem was he seemed to like Oz too much; and while he still managed to unearth some great anecdotes, it just wasn't as cuttingly funny as his trips around Britain, the USA and Europe had been. Some critics take this too far; and go out of their way to mercilessly exaggerate every fault in the book/restaurant/movie that has passed their way; causing considerable damage or hurt to the author/chef/director involved in order to show off their cutting wit.

All of this to say that, unlike my first set of reviews, there are some definite duds in the second set of films I saw at this year's Sydney Film Festival. First and worst was Girl Cut in Two, the latest offering from French veteran Claude Chabrol. It's hard to explain in just how many ways this film sucks. For a starter (and this will surprise you) it deals with a love triangle; in this case between a pretty and ambitious local TV weather girl; the spoilt rich son of a deceased local tycoon, and an intellectual three times her age. Given Chabrol's vintage, there are no surprises who Gabrielle really 'loves', and in fact a lot of this film plays out like a dirty old man's fantasy. The characters were all clichés; the story predictable; and the 'dilemma' of the film's title was literally enacted in the film's ludicrous conclusion. The heavy-handed attempts to satirise the French television industry, seen by some as a redeeming feature, were completely undermined by the fact that the film itself was a potpourri of French cinematic clichés.

I feel meaner criticising Slingshot; especially as the director himself was present for the screening - an Australian premiere. The film opens in a rush; and indeed the first 5-10 minutes are a dramatic and gripping ride through the slums of Manila following a police raid. The style and energy of this opening are reminiscent of a music video clip; unfortunately this can also be said of the depth and characterisation of the rest of the film. While the film is effective in capturing the desperation (and sad reality) of life in the slums, there doesn't seem to be any attempt to say any more than this. Most of the characters in the film are not likeable; in fact there is too much skipping between stories and characters to build any empathy with any of the characters at all. This is apparently director Brillante Mendoza's sixth feature film in two years - hopefully if he slows down a little he might come up with a film where the depth of character and story match the intensity of the action.

Finally for this post is Vogelfrei, definitely the first Latvian film I have seen. This film tells the story of a solitary Latvian male (Teodors) in four stages of his life, each directed by different directors. Not only is this take unusual; but there is no attempt to make his life chronologically consistent: Teodor is a shy child, an awkward teenager, a cold businessman and a lonely old man all in the early years of this century.

Teodors has a somewhat difficult, outsider's character which he gradually comes to terms with over the course of his life. The first part of the film, showing a pre-pubescent Teodors, owes a lot stylistically and thematically to My Life as a Dog. How many coming of age films show children playing on railway tracks ?

Teodors as a teenager was probably the least interesting (and effective) of the film's 'ages'; after-all, the teenager as a socially awkward outsider is hardly new territory. As a seemingly successful businessman, Teodors has developed a defence mechanism that allows him to interact with the rest of the world; even though he is still disturbed by this inability to relate personally to people. The austere style of this part of the film is in keeping with the tight control Teodors has learnt to keep on his character. It's only as a retired falconer that we finally see Teodors 'free as a bird' - interestingly in this, the most original of the 4 ages, he doesn't talk at all.

Despite the use of 4 different directors (and obviously actors) for each age, Vogelfrei works as a whole; and is noteworthy both for its unusual structure and character study, as well as an insight into a country most of us know little about.

IMDB Links
Girl Cut in Two
Vogelfrei
Tirador

Sydney Film Festival 2007

My music listening has taken backseat to the movies over the last few days as it's Sydney Film Festival time again. There's actually an entire 'strand' dedicated to music, called Sounds on Screen, but I've not limited myself to that by any means.

So here, pretty much in note form, are some of the films I've seen so far. Hopefully this will help me remember them after 2 weeks immersion in the world of film !

12:08 East of Bucharest, is a dry 'post-revolution' film set in a small town outside of Bucharest, with a surprisingly funny finale that had us all in stitches.

Daratt is an unusual revenge story from Chad, with a great insight into some of the society there. One of the things that can sometimes get on my nerves in films, is a scene where great secrets are revealed, and yet in the next scene the characters are getting on without any apparent reaction or change in relationship as a result of the previous conflict. This film is full of scenes like that yet they didn't annoy me at all, and although it was mostly a low key film it still had me on edge right up to the final scene.

I Served the King of England is a riotous and absurd Czech film - based on a Hrabal novel that i'm going to have to hunt down. Apparently the largest budget Czech film ever made, it's possible that it could be mistaken as celebrating the life it portrays (the way rednecks have adopted Born in the USA for example) but in reality it's a wonderful satire on the delusions of Czech high-society during the first half of this century, visually rich and entertaining yet with serious ideas.

I'm still trying to work out if Antonia was a Brazilian Spice Girls or something deeper ! Often judgement gets suspended for foreign films, and i suspect that's the case here. I know my parents hated it - but i knew that would be the case from the first scene, which had Brazilian rap music shaking the State Theatre to its venerable bones !

More mainstream were the American films Bella and The Walker. I'm not really sure what The Walker was doing in the festival. While it's more overtly political that your average Hollywood release - with politics that please festival goers, of course - it had the cast (and budget) that you would think ensures a release into the chains later this year. Nevertheless, an enjoyable political thriller, and an outstanding performance by Woody Harrelson (tour de force, as they like to call it) as the eponymous walker, that is, friend and confidant of Washington's bored and rich housewives.

Bella is a different case. It too had the mainstream budget (the credits thanked 20 plus sponsors for the privilege of having their products prominently placed in the film) and production values of The Walker; and while the ethnic twist to the story (a USA/Mexico co-production apparently) adds to its festival appeal, i'm not so sure that the not-too-subtle pro-life theme would be so appreciated by that crowd.

Lastly (for now), the Chinese film How Are Your Fish Today was a kind of two-for-the-price-of-one deal, a chinese road-trip movie with bonus making-of weaved into the film. While not quite as funny nor original as its title deserved, nevertheless it's an interesting journey into a modern Chinese film-maker's world and motivations, as well as a visit to an older, more traditional village, Mohe, in China's far north.

Originally posted on last.fm June 12, 2007. And yes, it helped me remember these films so well I'm doing it all again this year !

Sydney Film Festival 2008 - First Reviews

They've snuck the festival opening forward this year, holding it on a Wednesday rather than the usual Friday night. I'm a bit of a traditionalist though; and with other plans for Friday night I kicked off my 2008 film festival viewing Saturday morning at the un-godly hour of 10am at the State. My selfish appeals for rain were ignored, and it was a glorious Sydney winter's morning as we settled down to watch the opening film, Quiet Chaos.

Directed by Antonio Grimaldi, Quiet Chaos stars Nanni Moretti and is very consistent with his earlier work; particularly in the exploration of the theme of family grief from The Sun's Room, and the conversational style of Caro Diario (amongst others) which in fact came out in Italy while I was living there. An easily likable film, it follows the way the protagonist (Moretti, of course) copes with his wife's unexpected death and the impact (or lack thereof) it has on his daughter, while offering a broader observation on some of the absurdities of modern life. It's lightly told and mostly subtle, with the exception of a surprisingly graphic sex-scene that seemed out of place with the feel of the rest of the film. This will most certainly get a run in the art-house cinemas later this year and is well worth seeing (that horrible expression from my travel diaries pops up again !).

The film festival is slowly expanding geographically - later in the year a sub-section of the films will tour regional Australia; and even during the Sydney fortnight, the festival now claims two screens in the George St Greater Union complex and one in the Dendy at Opera Quays. Next stop on the filmic agenda was Andalucia, down among the homeboys in George St. I'd assumed from the title it was a Spanish film, but in fact was a French film, which told the story of an Algerian immigrant, Yacine, trying to straighten out his life in Paris. This film can be accurately described as 'typical film festival fare' - with many unexplained scenes and random plot evolutions it's not at at all to everyone's taste. However I really enjoyed it, both for it's original view on life on the peripheries (literally and figuratively) of Paris; interesting characters (many played by non-actors) and particularly the talents and expressive face of the lead, Samir Guesmi. The ending (and link to the title) was really taking the piss though !

To take advantage of the weather, and complete the trifecta of festival venues, next stop was the Dendy in the Toaster building next to Sydney's Opera House (via a couple of glasses of bubbly watching the sunset behind the Bridge at the Opera Bar - a terrible day). On our agenda was a Swedish film, chosen mostly for my companion who was keen for a chance to practice her language skills. It was an inspired choice - I haven't laughed so much in a film in ages (much to the displeasure of my 'alien' a.k.a hernia). Du Levande (You, The Living) is a delightful series of loosely connected vignettes set in a run-down area of Stockholm. Initially purely humorous (and with unexpected outbursts of song, accompanied by a brass band), the film moves into exploring darker themes of history, guilt and human misery, while never losing its light touch and original world view. The soundtrack, credited to Abba's Benny Anderson of all people, is also a delight.

Finally (for this review set) a Monday film (once again accompanied by holiday rain) that was both worthy and enjoyable. Son of a Lion is an Australian produced and directed film set and shot completely in the Pashtun areas of the North West Frontier of Pakistan. The story itself, of a sensitive and artistic son rebelling against his traditional father is far from an original one; however it's in the telling that this film is special. The filming was mostly surreptitious; while the film makers had the full support of the villagers who appear in the film, they could not get permission from the government and needed to be constantly aware of interference from soldiers and officialdom. Consequently, most of the filming was done on a hand-held camera often relying on natural lighting (unintentionally following some of the rules of the Dogma manifesto.) Despite those constraints the film is physically beautiful; and with a soundtrack of traditional musicians masterminded by former Go-Between Amanda Brown it also sounds fantastic.

At the screening itself, which was the Australian premiere, we were lucky enough to have the presence of the film-maker, Benjamin Gilmour, and producer, Carolyn Johnson, for a Q&A. Unlike many Q&As at the Film Festival, this one was brief, informative and contained (mostly) actual questions rather than the usual festival-goer showing off. Modest, yet justifiably proud of their work, Benjamin and Carolyn treated us to amusing anecdotes about the filming and some fascinating background covering the inspiration for the story, the contributions of the villagers to the plot evolution, and some of the issues regarding the filming of women in such a traditional area. The film-makers were visibly moved when a member of the local Pashtun community stood up and stated how much the film meant to him. All in all, a great experience.


IMDB Links:
Son of a Lion
You the Living (Du Levande)
Andalucia
Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo)

Sydney Film Festival 2008

One of the highlights of my year (when living in Sydney at least) is the Sydney Film Festival; which kicks off on the June long weekend, promising 2 weeks of travelling the world via the cinema. Ticketing for the festival gets more complicated every year, but basically there are two main ways to see the festival - via a subscription which reserves you a given seat for one or two weeks (further split into day and evening streams) at Sydney's stunning State Theater, or by buying a wad of festival vouchers and then exchanging them for tickets for individual films. I've managed subscriptions a couple of times in the past, but lately with the unpredictability of work and work related travel, I've gone for the wad approach. Typically this means seeing between 15 and 25 tickets in a fortnight - and selfishly praying for rain on the long weekend so that sitting in a dark cinema for 6-8 hours doesn't seem quite so criminal !

The downside of seeing so many films in such a short time is the risk of the films blurring into each other, or even forgetting altogether a given film (or at least not recognising the title in the video shop or SBS guide !) I use two techniques to avoid those problems. The first is the Internet Movie Database; one of my all-time favourite internet resources (along with CricInfo - yes, I'm a cricket tragic).

IMDB is simply a database of pretty much every movie ever made, with cast, director, year, actor profiles awards etc, all nicely cross-referenced. User maintained, individuals can contribute reviews, add websites and make corrections to almost any entry in a manner that's far more prevalent now with the fashion all things Web2.0, but was quite innovative for its time. One of the site's features is the ability for users to give a film a rating on a scale of 1-10. The accumulated votes are used to to generate charts, including the all-time top 250, which is calculated using a top-secret weighted average formula (to avoid rigging). As you can see, several of the films have been rated by more than a quarter of a million users.

I'm not a huge believer in summarising a film with a simple score out of 10 - yet by voting on films I see (especially the more obscure ones), I have a self-maintaining list of my film going history which I can even share with the general public. If you take a look, don't get too hung up by my ratings; although I try and maintain some sort of consistency in my ratings, I don't spend too much time on it - as my goal is recording before rating.

Of course, a simple mark out of ten does not help me remember what a film is about (although the Vote History feature comes with convenient links to full film descriptions). Last year, in order to address that problem, I started writing mini-reviews of Festival Films I saw; posting them on my journal page on the social music site last.fm. One day I'll transfer the reviews over here; but for now it's festival time again, so my Cuba trip will be put on hold while I try and keep up with my film viewing over the next two weeks. I hope you enjoy travelling with me.

Snapped around Santa Clara

Your Man in Havana

It was with great trepidation that your correspondent arrived at customs and immigration control at Havana airport. The guide books and web forums were filled with stories of hour long interrogations; not so subtle requests for bribes, and particular scrutiny to check that expensive state owned hotels had been reserved as a condition of granting visas (which I hadn't done, of course). There were two other obvious solo travellers on the plane, so we hooked up together for safety in numbers. In the end we needn't have worried; but Andy, Janet and I got one so well together we ended up travelling together for multiple stages of our respective trips !

Customs safely navigated, we shared a taxi into town to our respective accommodations. The best option for independent travellers in Cuba is to stay in Casas Privadas - private homes that function more or less as Bed and Breakfasts. Although mostly legal, the Casas take away business from the sterile and over priced stated owned hotels; and as such are subject to much harassment and exorbitant taxation from state officials. I'd arranged to meet up with a fellow solo-traveller at a Casa Privada in the old part of town so I said a temporary goodbye to my new friends and made my way there.

The next day was the first chance to really see Havana. Storms the previous night had cleared the air and the city had a fresh washed feel to it. Apart from the historic old town (Havana Vieja), which has been renovated to within an inch of its life, Havana is in a desperate state of disrepair. Depending on which guide book you believe, 100s or even 1000s of buildings a decade simply crumble through a combination of neglect and corrosive sea water. The roads (outside of a few key areas) are pot hole ridden warrens; and walking at night-time (street lighting is at a premium) requires real concentration not to end up going for 6.

Havana Vieja, on the other, hand, has been subject to years of funding from UNESCO and Spanish provinces, and is considered the best example of colonial-era Spanish architecture anywhere in the world (including Spain). It's the only part of Havana many of the European tourists get to see, and as such is strictly policed and almost completely free of the hustlers and scamsters that proliferate in the rest of the city. While this makes for a stress free tourist experience, there is a slight Truman Show feel to this part of Havana; as beautiful as it is it would be a travesty to miss out on the real feel of the town, which can be found walking 10 minutes in any direction.

I also made a visit to the Necropolis Cristobal Colon (or Christopher Columbus, as we know him), Havana's main cemetery. I was looking for the grave of Jose Raul Capablanca, a former world chess champion, who was supposedly buried here. I failed in that search, but the scenic cemetery was still worth the visit - not least for the bizarre story of La Milagrosa, known as Cuba's unofficial saint !