Movie review: Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008)

It’s not that Australia is bad; the problem with this movie is that it was merely good when everybody expected it to be great. Whether from a sense of patriotic pride, fondness for director Baz Luhrmann’s previous works, or a natural curiosity about that “down under” country, people were expecting an epic. It’s not clear exactly when it stopped being just another movie, but it might have been related to the hype generated by its ties to Tourism Australia’s advertising campaign, turning it into the focal point for a swell of global interest in our Great South Land.

Despite actually being quite epic in length at a bum-numbing 165 minutes, it was quite entertaining throughout, with reasonably interesting if not particularly likeable characters, and of course the beautiful Australian landscape. But the pacing was terrible. My friends and family shared the same criticism, whether they liked or loathed it: the movie seemed to end every 45 minutes or so. Either the movie’s overall story arc was weak-to-non-existent, or else the sub-plots were too complex and elaborate. Or both, I can’t decide – I was too busy enjoying the scenery to be paying attention to things like the story…

It wouldn’t be a Baz Luhrmann movie without movie and music cross-references. In Australia, this is comes mainly from the song “Somewhere over the rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. After you get over the groan-inducing pun on “Oz”, it’s not a bad fit. As I discovered during some cursory research on the history, it turns out that Oz was released not too long before the events depicted, and would very likely have been at the front of Lady Sarah Ashley’s mind. However, it’s bordering on comical when you have a ship full of Aboriginal orphans all humming the song a-capella as Darwin is bombed. (My wife will probably want me to mention that in spite of this, musically, it was still very beautiful.)

So in summary: don’t watch this movie if you’re expecting a character or plot driven story. Treat it like a scenic bus tour, catching various sights and sounds with the occasional interesting bit, and you’ll enjoy it so much more.

Australia on IMDB

So Wong it’s write

I love words and working with words – the enduring nature of this blog stands testament to the desire of the words to escape from my head in some form. Ideas pop into my head quite frequently, so having something to say is not a problem, it’s turning these ideas from a concept into a finished product within a reasonable amount of time that I struggle with.

Take this entry for example. I started writing it more than a year ago, after reading an interview with Stephanie Meyer, the author of the book Twilight. The article spoke about how the catalyst for the first book was her status as a stay-at-home mother, a situation which gave her the freedom to write, and keep writing, as soon as the idea occurred to her in a dream. Oh, to have such luxury! The writing process makes the relationship between time and space so clear: writing with limited time is like trying to act in a limited space – maybe like how a tennis player would feel playing squash. Everything is faster, closer, more intense.

I’m working on a poem, which I hope to finish and publish soon (possibly my next entry here, the rate at which I post…), but my worry is that people will dismiss it as a trifle. They can hate it all they like – deride the subject matter, disagree with the sentiment, criticise the format… that wouldn’t upset me as much as if they thought I had cobbled it together with minimal thought and effort like I might have done on other occasions. This one was a hard slog… each word meticulously chosen, each line painfully scrutinised for both meaning and meter, and each stanza weighed against its neighbours to ensure balance. Despite this, the end result will simply be a single, insignificant mote in the vastness of cyberspace, resulting in neither fame nor fortune.

Hence I salute you, fellow authors and poets.

All your Webs are belong to Google

If there was ever any doubt as to Google’s impact on peoples’ way of life, I could offer myself up as an example:

• Today, I turned the RSS feed of this blog over to Feedburner, which Google acquired in 2007. The move was entirely narcissistic – after all, what possible need do I have for knowing the number of people that subscribe to my blog?
• To the feed, I attached Google AdSense, to display an ad every now and then, in the vain hope that my constantly updated, and hugely successful blog will generate some income. If you’re reading this on the Web, you’ll see that my blog already shows ads in the right column, but it hasn’t generated so much as a single cent for me since I first signed on :-)
• Metrics reporting is provided by Google Analytics from which I can observe the actions of my visitors, like a kid with an ant farm. Again, just navel gazing, but it is interesting learning that my blog was a GoogleWhack (a search that only returns a single result) for somebody’s search on a certain Eamon song lyric…
• This blog itself is created in Blogger which was bought out by Google in 2003.
• I use my own domain name for e-mail, which is hosted by Gmail (now part of Google Apps). I purchased the domain name through GoDaddy, which isn’t a Google company (yet?) by is still in keeping with the “G” theme.
• Jenny and I use Google Calendar to keep track of our appointments (also part of Google Apps).
• We navigated our way around Canberra last weekend using Google Maps.
• Recently, I’ve helped my father-in-law to promote his Guitar Shop using Google AdWords.
• And of course, who doesn’t use Google Search?

I’m sure there are others. The list above is larger than I had originally anticipated – as I was writing I kept thinking of more and more services. It’s sad, but there’s really no denying that Google plays a significant role in my life!

The evolution of Corolla

The cars belong to – from left to right – Jenny, me and somebody else that frequently parks here on weekdays. What is it with consecutively parked Silver Toyota cars?

The besterestest ever!!!

Ah, the travesties that marketing-types continue to inflict on the English language. Exhibit A: Finish Max in 1 dishwashing tablets.

Prior to moving into our current apartment, I had never lived anywhere that had a dishwasher, nor used one before. Therefore I was completely ignorant of the dishwashing detergent arms race that was happening all around me. Crockery Decontamination Engineers (as I’m sure they’re called) battled each other, through feats of arcane alchemy, for Ultimate Cleaning Glory!

Hence, we have dishwashing tables that boast an increasing levels of sophistication: 5-in-1, 7-in-1, I think I’ve even seen 15-in-1. But now, they must all bow down to the new Finish MAX-IN-1!

I can just picture that marketing board meeting:

Executive: OK team, sales are down, the economy is tanking, but I still need to finish paying off my boat. What have we got?
Marketing: Well, those other guys are starting to sell their 15-in-1 tablet. Um… maybe we could do 20, or 30-in-1…?
Executive: No, no… we need something… bigger!
Marketing: What about 100-in-1?
Executive: Can you get bigger than that?
Marketing: Er, yes.
Executive: Dammit, work with me here!
Marketing: What about… “Max” as in “Maximum”?
Executive: Max-in-1… hmm… I like it! Let’s go with that.

At this point, you can imagine Strunk, White, the Fowler brothers and Bryson all rolling over in their graves. Well, Bill Bryson isn’t dead yet, so maybe he turned in his sleep or something.