Australia vs Quantum of Solace

I saw Baz Luhrmann's Australia on Tuesday but, with Christmas preparations descending fast, I hadn't had a chance to write up a review.

It was a lot of fun, but I'm not surprised some Americans just don't get it. I understand the film - and star Nicole Kidman - came under some harsh criticism in the USA. Sure, the first twenty minutes or so were rather disarming, as to what kind of film it was going to be, almost as if even the director hadn't yet decided, but I also felt this was on purpose. The movie is definitely great reflection of the Aussie sense of humour.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nicole's performance - even though the character starts off as aloof and stuffy as her character in last year's disastrous and cold "The Golden Compass", she developed Lady Sarah into a very likable and warm person. Hugh Jackman was excellent as Drover, although he's also come off badly in some critiques on the film. And young Brandon Walters, as Nullah, acted the pants off the adults in every scene!

By comparison, today I chose to see the new James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace". I was using a Hoyts' Super Saver voucher, so it only cost me $11, but I'm afraid to say that this 007 movie literally put me to sleep. I stayed awake for most of it, but I kept "blissing out" in the action/chase/SPFX sequences. With "Australia" I was alert throughout, despite its considerable length. And I did enjoy "Casino Royale", but this new Bond flick was a bit hard to follow a few times.

I just read the Wikipedia synopsis for "Quantum of Solace" a few minutes ago and a few things clicked - Daniel Craig and the cast were great, but aspects seemed a bit tedious. I'm also a bit miffed they didn't play the JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" trailer with the movie, although it did play in the foyer of the cinemas while I was securing my ticket.

Next up, I'll try the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" on the weekend. It opened today, but I figured its queues would be too long. And they were.



By the way, a five-track EP is now available for download on iTunes for the soundtrack of "Australia". I'd wondered why the full soundtrack album hadn't been in stores, but I was glad to hear it is coming. Eventually. Meanwhile, the EP is great, and is my first iTunes music purchase.

Luna Park: Just for fun, just for the record

About eighteen months ago, I noticed that the Luna Park, Sydney entry on Wikipedia had a section called Appearances in film and television that was lacking a favourite sequence of mine from 70's soap opera, "Number 96".

It had already been noted on the web page that Sydney's Luna Park had been a filming location for 1959's "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll", plus TV episodes of "Six O'Clock Rock" and even "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo". In more recent years, the movie "Our Lips Are Sealed" (starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen), an episode of "Farscape" ("Infinite Possibilities, Part I: Daedalus Demands") and parts of "JAG" ("Boomerang"), not to mention the excellent documentary, "Spirits of the Carnival: The Quest for Fun", were filmed at the location. The Rotor attraction was also featured in the 2006 film, "Candy".

But... in 1976, several Number 96 residents visited Luna Park. Dorrie and Herb Evans (Pat McDonald and Ron Shand), their old pal Flo Patterson (Bunney Brooke) and a naive man-child named "Junior" Winthrop (Curt Jansen), who believed that he was Herb's secret, long lost son, ended up on the opposite side of Sydney Harbour to the Sydney Opera House. You see, Junior's planned date with opera buff girlfriend, Isobel Mainwaring (Jill McKay) - turned out to be decidedly underwhelming. So he treats his pensioner friends to a trip to Luna Park instead. Scenes of them all in Coney Island, eating fairy floss, and riding on the original wooden Big Dipper and the dizzying Topsy-Turvy House, are featured in the episode.


Luna Park in "Number 96" in '76

This footage has been preserved in the first version of a documentary, "Number 96: And They Said It Wouldn't Last", which aired on Network Ten a short while after the episode to celebrate the 1000th episode of the soap opera. Repeats of the special have always omitted this footage. (Thirty years later, all three variations of that documentary have been combined for posterity as a bonus feature on the DVD release, "Number 96: 2 disc Collector's Edition" (Umbrella Entertainment, 2006 - black cover!). The original closing segments, which included the Luna Park footage, was almost lost to the DVD when it was discovered that the original ending was not part of the National Film & Sound Archive's collection - they only had versions #2 and #3!)

(Update: Someone had marked my Wikipedia updates about the sequence with the ominous "Citation needed" warnings but I now realise that blog entries, and websites that do not undergo "independent editorial reviews", are not acceptable as citations for Wikipedia. My attempted revisions have been removed; my original contribution to Wikipedia is destined to remain unproven, I guess... I have been contacted about how to footnote the DVD, though. Now I have to go and learn how to do so.)

Enjoy the Youtube clip! Unfortunately, the person who uploaded it misses the group's arrival, with a fleeting glimpse of them going through the famous face of Luna Park (above). (Don't forget, at the end of this month, another "Number 96" DVD boxed set is due: "The Pantyhose Murders" story arc - pink cover!)



Dorrie, Herb, Flo and "Junior" go to Luna Park (1976).

Wicked pedia

Judy O'Connell's recent post about students and Wikipedia reminded me that there was a very funny post about Wikipedia a few months ago, on a teacher-librarians' listserv, whereby someone had found, incidentally, that some fool had sabotaged the entry on the Newcastle (NSW) Earthquake... to say that it was started by someone stamping their foot in anger.

Of course, before the first post to the listserv was barely in people's "In" boxes, someone else, a registered contributor to Wikipedia, had gone into the site to edit the entry back again. And then announced their restorative action on the listserv. Which caused more consternation because several teacher-librarians had already bookmarked (but not thought to "Save to file") a copy of the sabotaged entry to use as an example when doing explicit teaching about online research.

Slam it all you like; Wikipedia is invaluable as an orientation tool. A living, breathing, evolving encyclopedia of everything, written by people who fancy themselves as experts in areas of trivia. (Sounds like me!)

I've been know to use the wiki when I hit a topic I know nothing about, and it usually gives me at least a feel for the type of more authoritative information that is likely to be out there, beyond the Wikipedia entry. Or whether it's a more obscure topic. And when I've found topics that have rather lean (or totally wrong) information, and I know something about them, I've been known to add data myself: Number 96, The Magic Circle Club, Luna Park Sydney, Star Trek, Andorians... important stuff like that. ;) Even cataloguers keep a watch on it.

Of course school and university students will be drawn to Wikipedia - like moths to a flame! The key is how we all, as researchers, use that information to keep on investigating!

Sunday's magic number: 90.6. Okay! Until just now I actually thought it was the third week in a row with no change. But it's down by 0.3. I guess that's good?

Wonderful wikis

Today I bit the bullet and leaped into the next era of ICT (information communications technology) and taught a dozen Kindergarten students (and myself, slightly one step ahead) how to design a wiki.

Now, I've dabbled in adding and editing an existing wiki (eg. Wikipedia, Memory Alpha, Memory Beta, etc), but this time I had to work out how to design one, and how to help the students to build up a narrative (in fable form, complete with a motto) - and post it to the wiki.

Within a few moments of launch, our fledgling wiki web pages were being looked at by two different Internet surfers in California, USA. Amazing! Young students are simply not scared to (literally) push that newest button in modern technology.