Un-Australian
(26 January, 2016) When you start a thing, who knows where it ends? Throw a party, prepare to make new friends. Make a nation, make your nation state From plasticine, so to shape its fate. I watch TV and see this once great land Has changed and absolutely nothing’s planned For me: I’m persona non grata; I’m packing, and leaving, to foreign laughter. I feel a stranger, right here, right now, I’m going, I’m gone, if you’ll allow. [Note, It is instructive to track the Australian of the Year Award, which has become an Australia Day feature since its inception in 1960. The first…
Continue Reading →Goodfellas
(Dir. Martin Scorsese) (1990) Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) – by Irish Dad out of Sicilian Mom – doesn’t get school at all. He’d rather hang around and run errands for the local gonifs. And for about 30 years, it pays, but all bad things must come to an end. Probably Marty’s best film, a generational gangster saga both comedic and dramatic. Full of rich characterisation and smart, funny performances, authentic violence, amoral fun, and brilliantly directed. There are many truly inspired set pieces, such as the long tracking shot where Henry takes his girl Karen to a nightclub via the tradesman’s entrance; the bar-room ‘argument’ between psychotic…
Continue Reading →10 Types of People We Hate
Photo of Mr Vox by Ricardo Stuckert
Drivers who decide at the last moment to turn right across traffic. People who dither on pavements. People in our way in general. People who buy a big dog and never walk it. ‘Artists’ who can’t draw.. [Like Roger Moore’s character in North Sea Hijack] “I like cats…and I don’t much like people who don’t.” Bono (except when he sings “One” or “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”). People who have houses with wooden floors that can’t be trodden on with high heels. It’s a FLOOR. Religious fanatics and atheist fanatics. Bono.
Continue Reading →Monster
I’m in love with a monster, She means everything to me, Goes out all night, I know not where And comes home after three. Wheresoever have you been? She smiles negligently, Never you mind; I think you’ll find That you cannot suppose There’s blood on my clothes. So I pout, crinkle my mouth And do a Bogart wince. If she is stopped, will I be copped For my silence then and since?
Continue Reading →Daphne Gum – A Celebration
Yesterday, on the eve of her 100th birthday, TVC was honoured to join Daphne Gum MBE OA and family in a sumptuous afternoon tea celebration. Today, the 24th January 2016, Miss Gum is celebrating this milestone with friends in her care facility. Miss Gum is acknowledged world-wide for her contribution to the welfare and education of children, particularly children with cerebral palsy. To us she is Auntie Daphne, a staunch, cheerful and purposeful influence in our lives. To read more about this pioneering woman, see Lesley’s updated Wikipedia article, “Daphne Lorraine Gum” go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Lorraine_Gum Note: Sadly, Daphne Gum passed away on 28 February 2017. She touched and enlivened a…
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