Celebrate the Small Things: a little shower

One thing I have noticed since moving to Darwin is that the weather is not usually a small talk topic, except for the month of October which is known as 'the build up'.

It's hot here. I mean it ranges from hot to hotter. Overnight temps hang in the mid twenties (celsius), while maximums are mid to high thirties. It's pretty much been the same since I arrived. When the weather is so entirely predictable, there doesn't seem much point in talking about it. People don't say, 'It's hot today' because it's always hot. Mark Twain's famous quote is meaningless in Darwin because no none complains about the weather.

October is called 'the build up' because it is the month leading into the wet season and is therefore characterized by ridiculous humidity: 96% yesterday, for example. The temperature stays the same pretty much, but the humidity? Whoa. Try stepping off an air-conditioned bus and having your glasses instantly fog completely because of the heat. Yes, that's steamy!

A peculiar weather event happened last Saturday and it had everybody scratching their heads. It rained overnight on Friday which is not terribly unusual, but the next day it kept raining-lightly mind you, but it rained all day and the maximum temperature only reached 26. It was in fact the coldest October day ever recorded in Darwin.

I set off on foot for gym that Saturday morning in the light rain, and briefly contemplated using the umbrella which I carry with me everywhere, in case of a sudden tropical downpour. There was a nice cool breeze blowing and the rain felt so nice and smelled so fresh, I decided to not use the brolley. I did get a little wet, but what  a joy it was to walk in the rain. It was magical.

The weather anomaly ended the following day, but I will never forget the invigorating respite that little bit of a shower provided. So today I am giving thanks for rain.

There are no lines

I note with interest, not surprise, that Channel Ten's 'comedy' show, Have You Been Paying Attention, received an official dressing down from Thailand's ambassador in Australia, who said the panel of comedians was "very inappropriate, disrespectful and certainly not amusing." Read the full story

I happened to be watching on October 17, but only because the show I was watching (Todd Sampson's Body Hack - a great show by the way, unlike Have You Been Paying Attention) had finished and I had nothing else to watch. I don't watch shows like HYBPA, or The Project or any of the other myriad shows which attempt to make fun of anything and everything in the news. Good taste, respect, and cultural and religious sensitivity get thrown out the window for the sake of laughs.These shows are quite popular, but I don't like them, 

Nothing is sacred. These people will say anything to try and get a laugh. They don't know where to draw the line. There are no lines. I avoid comedians in general for the same reason.

On HYBPA they showed a woman crying over the death of the

beloved Thai monarch, with one goose suggesting she had a problem with her backpack. I thought it was unbelievably disrespectful. I know a lot of Thai people, and I have lived in Thailand. I doubt any of them were watching which is good, because no one in mourning deserves to be ridiculed.

The other problem I have with these shows is that the viewer can get sucked in to laughing at everything. They find one comment funny, and the next, and keep laughing at the third even if they don't think its funny. Even if they think it's sick or offesnisive. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm weird. I mean I hate Funniest Home Videos because I don't think watching people get hurt is funny.

It's further evidence to me that I do not belong. So much of what is 'popular' nowadays is of such low morality it makes me sick. People like me get ridiculed for not having a sense of humour. So be it. I guess humour, like beauty, is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.

Celebrate the Small Things: Tick! Tick! Tick!

Short and sweet is my post this week because I'm pretty busy enjoying the weekend, during which a number of little things have brought me pleasure and relief.

I'm enjoying a getaway from my neat little granny flat and living it up at The Ramada Zen Hotel in Darwin. I checked in yesterday, and sat on the lounge. Yes! A lounge. It's the first time in nine weeks that I have had the joy of sitting, and reclining on this much taken for granted piece of furniture.

I hired a car for the weekend for convenience sake, and to have a

little break from the buses. It's so nice, and kind of strange to drive myself around the now familiar streets of Darwin. We go where we want to go, whenever we want to go. I haven't driven a car for nine weeks either,, and although the little Hyundai i20 is no match for my mighty Falcon, it's a lovely little luxury.

The reason for the hotel and the car? The arrival of a special guest, and when I picked her up at the airport, we hugged. As you know I've been suffering from HDS (Hug Deprivation Syndrome), so the first hug for ten weeks - exactly ten weeks in fact since we parted at Sydney airport - was immeasurably wonderful. We've had many more since then, and there are many more to come before I have to say good-bye once again.

Today, I'm thankful for lounges, cars and hugs.

The not so magnificent 7

Released in 1960 (eight years before I was born),The Magnificent Seven features a superb ensemble cast led by Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, and is is one of my top ten films. Curiousity took me to the cinema last Sunday to see the 2016 re-make starring Denzel Washington.

Let's start with the good stuff before I rip in and tell you why this film is a 'fail' in my opinion.

The final battle scene was a lot of fun. Superb choreography, bullets and arrows flying (with incredible accuracy from the weapons of our heroes), and even a Gatling gun. Vincent D'Onofrio was almost unrecognizable and terrific in his supporting role of Jack Horne, and Emma Cullen made a very sexy damsel in distress.

Here's why I didn't like The Magnificent Seven 2016:

1. The village of poor farmers being regularly plundered by Calvera's bandidos (1960) became a mining town being exploited by a business tycoon. (2016)
2. None of the original characters were included in the new film. 
3. Yul Brynner's ice cold, man in black, mercenary cowboy, Chris, was replaced by an angry black man with an axe to grind named Sam Chisolm.
4. Awkward insertion of classic lines from 1960. Vin's (Steve McQueen) story of the man falling from a building, for example.
5. More style than substance (a common problem with modern action films)
6. A series of lame attempts to explain the motivation of the seven.
7. The insertion of a random Comanche Indian in the 7 who cuts out and eats a deer's liver or something. Why did he join this gang of white men? Ridiculous.
8. Sam Chisolm being motivated entirely by revenge. The original film is a redemption story, and has nothing to do with revenge. I guess the makers of the film thought revenge was sexier than redemption. 
9. Number eight was the second worst thing about the film. The worst thing was the ending. I literally scoffed out loud when I heard the sexy damsel in distress voicing over a shot of four crosses on the hill with these words: "They were magnificent!" Get me a bucket! 

1960: As they look one last time down on the village they rescued from its oppressor, Calvera, Chris says to Vin: 'We lost. We always lose," and they ride off. That's an ending!

If you haven't seen the 1960 version, you might enjoy The Magnificent Seven (2016),  but I could only give it 3 stars. If not for the aforementioned positives, it would have only been 2.

Celebrate the Small Things: The Classics

I cut my teeth as a reader on Stephen King's horror stories: Carrie, Salem's Lot, Christine, Pet Sematary etcetera, and from there it was on to thrillers, sci-fi and more horror. The movies I watched and the books I read were basically in these genres. I read some other stuff at school including some really old stuff by a guy called Shakespeare, and I remember reading and studying The Crucible, but for entertainment I read pulp horror fiction.

At some point in my journey as a reader, which I suspect coincided with the beginning of my writing 'career', I broadened my reading to include everything: and I mean everything. Everything from bumper stickers and public toilet graffiti to classic works of literature like Don Quixote.

It is about the classics that I wish to write now because I have fallen so madly in love with them, I can confidently say it is my favourite genre. Interestingly, I think my writing style could be termed neo-classical, because I am heavily influenced by both the vocabularic breadth and syntactic complexity of the classics.

Having arrived at the classics party quite late, I have much catching

up to do, but I am attacking this deficit in my life with relish. I just finished reading Moby Dick, and as I usually am, I was struck by how amazing the writing is. Melville's novel of obsession is famous, but I wonder how many contemporary readers have taken it on. 19th century literature is not light reading. I loved it. Read my review on Goodreads

So today I am giving thanks for great works of literature like Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and I'm grateful for the fact that you can get many such classic novels for free on Kindle.

Next up: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Bring it on!