Channel 7 followed up its two-part drama Molly (reviewed here) with a short, oddly premature obituary-feel documentary about Ian “Molly” Meldrum the following week. Molly’s brother Brian tells us that Molly loved music from day one. He moved in with Ronnie Burns’ family when his just wouldn’t do, he was a journalist at GO SET magazine, then on the television music shows The go Show, Kommotion (1966). Uptight (1968) and Happening 1971. Again, like Vivienne Westwood, Ian Meldrum was a young person with nothing but passion and a lot of nerve who blazed a trail through a wood that no-one…
Continue Reading →From diverse film sources: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” [Apocalypse Now] The lass at the publishing company wants to know how obsessive-compulsive misanthropist Jack Nicholson creates his female characters, to which he replies: “I think of a man. And then I take away reason, and accountability.” [As Good As it Gets] “Go sell crazy somewhere else. We’re all stocked-up here.” [As Good As it Gets] “Sometimes nothin’ is a real cool hand.” [Cool Hand Luke] “You’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” [Dirty Harry] Parting note from a consummate con-artist:…
Continue Reading →A colleague and friend suggested a bunch of lines from The Godfather saga: [Part I] Don Corleone to Buonasera: “You found Paradise in America, you had a good trade, made a good living, police protected you and there were courts of law. You didn’t need a friend like me.” Michael Corleone to Kay Adams: “My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.” Kay: “What was that?” Michael: “Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.” “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.” Don…
Continue Reading →(Dir. John Crowley) (2015) This film looks lovely. 1950s Ireland and Brooklyn were never more sumptuous. Here we have a story by the massively respected Colm Tóibín and Nick Hornby, with decent actors and competent direction. It is a sad and moving account of an Irish lass who is sponsored by her parish to work in New York, where she finds love and herself torn between two countries. Now for the bad news – it is possibly the most boring film in recent memory. The Varnished Culture, and two highly cultured friends, Grant and Melanie, fell asleep at various times during the…
Continue Reading →Last evening at the Annual General Meeting of the Glenelg Football Club, the Board’s message rang out loud and clear: the Club has a debt and a revenue problem (like the country as a whole). It also has a problem with winning football games: the 1985 and 1986 glories are a long time ago and far, far away. But these challenges we welcome and the Board is being up-front, honest and appears determined to take them on. Furthermore, it is easy to forget how chaotic the start of the 2015 season was for the Tigers: a new coach not given…
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