The Guilty Pleasure

 I'm catching up on the last two night's of MAFS (for those out of the loop, that's the terrible show Married at First Sight). 

And I'm learning things. 

Sort of. 

See, I've never really been a fan of Australian men. I freely admit this. And I do know there are good ones out there, but I'm yet to meet them. They do make good friends, for the most part, but as a partner? Nah. And MAFS is going to show every last trait which I just don't want or need in my life, which I've put up with and run a mile from over the years. It's a good reminder of things. 

But I did think Australian men were getting better - then again, you look at the people who go onto these shows and you have to wonder. (I also know that these shows are highly produced and edited to show the worst of people.)

Look at the current cast. 

There's Patrick. Poor Patrick. A bit clueless. He reminds me of the blokes I went through high school with, complete with the same hairstyle. As it goes, he's a bit gormless, but there's nothing to wrong with him other than he's a bit misguided (and would be stuck in the friendzone for years until he lost the puppy fat).

There's Jake, who appears to be a really good egg, but he's been placed with this rather overbearing woman, who seems to put him down and drown him out. Rather dishy with a compassionate soul, he appears to be the best of a bad lot. 

Brett is another one who I'd have as a friend. I'm not sure about the moustache and the hair, but again, seems an okay sort, although for a psychology student, he's not great on the empathy or the working with people - likes things his own way and not good at compromise. (Another Australian man's trait. Hmmm) But he and Booka have left the show - on good terms - and this I like. At least he showed some growth. 

There's Liam, now pegged as the bisexual bloke with the girl in pink. He's not been around for that long and again, he seems legit. His bride did ask him as a part of the tough questions they had to answer, how would he cope without cock in his life. A good question if you're looking to remain with somebody who's bi. 

Johnny the theatre producer seems a bit vanilla for me. Again, a nice bloke, set up with a bubbly girl. Nothing odious, but nothing to write home about either. 

Thankfully a couple of odious tools have left already. That bloke who was just there to be on telly, giving his 'wife' no time at all, going off without any regard, showing her little respect. He's gone. And the FIFO cum Clothing Brand Owner who, despite being nothing to write home about himself, who was hyper-criitical of his exuberant, yet perfectly lovely wife. Goneskis. 

But that leaves the two rather problematic men. The ones that if you come into contact with really, you should be running from quickly and in the other direction. 

There's Jason (or as Clementine Ford calls him, Jizzon) On the surface, he fine. He's good in bed, and proud of it. But when he gets jealous of her vibrator - yeah... nah... If he thinks your vibrator is competition, he's got an overinflated ego.Doesn't he know that you have cock for one thing and a vibrator for another?  He's allegedly big into loyalty and trust, but he won't give second chances and he sulks. Sorry, mate. Grow up. 

And there's Bryce. Bryce is a gaslighter - which watching this play out on national television, is quite triggering to watch. He uses all the well known techniques. Isolating his partner, putting things back on her, making her doubt her own sanity, speaking over his partner, 'for her own good' and if this wasn't enough he's an incendiary, moody wanker. Love Bryce. I just feel sorry for his on show partner, who seems to be a sensitive soul who's fallen under his spell and is struggling to get out from it. She's looked miserable from the day dot. I think his come-uppance is coming tonight. 

But why do I watch this drivel? 

Well, it is a guilty pleasure. I'm also very aware that there are always two sides to a story and the way the show is edited portrays many of these people in the a way the producers want them to be portrayed.

But as a friend of mine said, who refuses to watch the show, 'It's like they've taken every one of my loser exes and put them up there for me to see.' She doesn't need to see that. 

Part of me is liking learning from other's experiences. 

Today's song:

Movie Review: Godzilla vs Kong

 Movie: Godzilla vs Kong

Stars: 3 1/2

Cinema: The Sun, Yarraville

What other movie to do take four ten-year-old boys to? Peter Rabbit 2 or Tom and Jerry? No, they're too old. Raya and the Last Dragon. Nope they're too old for that too.

And what do they want to see? Of course it's Godzilla vs Kong. They're boys, after all. 

Owing Blarney's twin ten-year-old boys about three movies for the last year for their birthday and Christmas presents, I wanted to start paying down this debt - and after seeing the cast for this, and despite Blarney saying she'd rather stick pins in her eyes than see this, somehow, I talked her into this, and today was the day. We're both on holiday. The kids are on holiday. And the other two ring ins were coming over on a play date. Fun. And then there's the cast. I mean, it has Alexander Skarsgard in it - how bad can it be? (tee hee - yum)

So I schlepped out to Yarraville picked up the tickets and was greeted by Chance and Lance, and their mates Ollie and Marco - and Blarney. After the necessary purchase of popcorn, fizzy drinks and a banana choc top for me, in we went. 

And yeah, in front of us there was an hour and fifty two minutes of entertainment. 

Godzilla vs King Kong is just that. Entertaiment for the masses. This isn't a movie which is going to win acting awards - but it's not like you're watching one of the cast of Married at First Sight doing Richard III. It's not like you're going to be pondering the meaning of life after seeing this. But you'll come out of the cinema feeling a little bit better about the world after seeing two CGI monsters belt the shite out of each other, while you have a bit of a giggle in the mean time. 

The plot, according to Rotten Tomatoes is as follows: 

"Legends collide in "Godzilla vs. Kong" as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans - instigated by unseen forces--is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth."

There are two separate plot lines which meet near the end. The first is the King Kong tribe, with Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), Peter Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) and the rather luminous Jia (Kaylee Hottle - who is deaf in real life and signs through the film and is one of the best things about this film). With the threat of Godzilla, they decide to move Kong from his island home to quash the threat of Godzilla. 

The second plotline sees Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown), a high schooler, succomb to the words of Bernie Hayes' (Brian Tyree Henry) a conspiracy theorist's podcast. Her father (Kyle Chandler) is a big wig at a company which is researching Godzilla - and their labs have been destroyed by the creature. She's joined by her best mate, Josh (Julian Dennison, once again relegated to chubby mate) as they break into the lab to get to the bottom of what's going on. 

Oh, and there's the baddies, played by Demian Bechir and Eiza Gonzalez, who are multi-billionaires and want to milk this situation for all it's worth. These are the above mentioned unseen forces. 

I'll leave the plot there. 

Needless to say, the CGI is incredible. You can see that this was originally made to be see in 3D, but COVID probably scuppered this. But it's a movie you want to see on the big screen you to get all the detail in. 

You'll end up for barracking for one side or the other - Kong or Godzilla - or heaven forbid, both. You'll also end up cheering when the baddies are disposed of. 

Oh, and they may have found a solution as to what to do with Hong Kong... It might be easier than bringing in Chinese rule. 

For a silly monster movie, it's actually quite good. Go in expecting a silly monster film and you get a bit more. I was happily surprised. As I said, the little kid steals the show - as they always do. 

Don't dismiss this film. It's an enjoyable, light-weight diversion. A deviation from the art-house and quality films I normally see.

And if you want to win over a group of ten-year-old boys, take them along. They'll love it. 

Today's Song: 

Movie Review: The Courier

Movie: The Courier (M)

Stars: 4

Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

'Well, that was all a bit grim,' said Jay as we left the cinema after seeing The Courier. 

I didn't find it that grim. more thought provoking, rather saddening and a very good rendering of the early sixties, which made me like the film a lot. I'm a bit of a sucker for an English film - more of a sucker for the period. That it's based on a true story is the sad thing.

The film is based in the early sixties at the height of the Cold War. Khruschev is ramping up his nuclear arsenal, and deep within his cabinet one of his Generals, Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) wants the madness to end , sending a message to the Americans through it's embassy. 

A few months later, on this advice, Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) a businessman with links to Eastern Europe is approached by MI6 and the CIA to act as a courier, helping them to get access to Penkovsky, in his role as Trade Envoy. At first reluctant, Wynne appears to be the perfect courier having a valid reason to be in Cold War Russia and with a timeless English gormlessness which puts him above suspicion. 

At home, his wive Sheila (Jessie Buckley) is blissfully unaware of her husband's spying, rather, thinking he's having yet another affair. 

Wynne's handlers, CIA agent Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan) and her MI6 counterpairt, Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) are at odds on whehter to let Wynne continue on his missions. 

The crux of the film is the friendship which blossoms between Wynne and Penkovsky as they ship secrets out of the USSR and then try, in vain, to get Penkovsky and his family out of Russia, with disastrous results. 

There's so much to like about this film. It's got a tight script. The acting is great - Benedict Cumberbatch and Merab Ninidze are excellent as the courier and the contact. The development of their friendship really makes the film. Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvellous Mrs Maisel fame) is great as Emily, the CIA operative who coaxes Wynne into the job. Jessie Buckley is also great as Wynne's long suffering wife. 

The thing I liked most about the film is the attention to detail around he setting, the early sixties portrayed wth aplomb. 

As a thriller, this also works well as the cards keep falling and the stakes keep getting higher. Will they get caught? Will Penkovsky be able to defect? What will happen if they get caught. Being based on a true story you can get the basics here. 

This is a good film. It keeps you on your toes. It's what I call a 'take your father film' as there's a lot here to keep men (and women) interested from the opening credits. 

It just makes me happy that there are people like this out there who have a sense of right and will pay some very high prices to keep the world safe. 

Today's song:

Etsy

 It's Easter. The sun is shining. And I have a week off work. 

So I'm trying to turn myself into a novelist for the next week. 

Wish me luck.

Questions, as always, have been provided by Bev at Sunday Stealing. 

1. What’s your favorite kind of cake?

Oh, if I can have anything, please can I have David Jones flourless lemon cake with cream cheese icing. It's incredible stuff. I love anything lemon, but the one they do at David Jones is just phenomenal. (I don't do a bad lemon polenta cake either)

2. What’s your favorite cocktail?

I make myself Negronis regularly, but if somebody else is making me a cocktail, it has gin and elderflower in it, I'm happy. I'm also quite fond of a good Long Island Iced Tea and a Mojito. 

3. If you are alone for the evening, what do you fix yourself for dinner?

If I'm cooking just for me I'll do some steak, or a salmon steak, with salad and vegetables. Love that. 

4. What make was your first car?

I had a 1966 EJ Holden named Edna when I was growing up. The first car I bought myself was a 1989 Ford Festiva named Phoebe - and I had that for a few years in England. 

5. What is your height?

166 centimetres, or 5'5 1/2" in the old money. 

6. What was your least favorite toy as a child?

I was never really into fluffy toys, and I outgrew dolls really early as I had animals to play with and a very long standing adoration of Lego and craft. 

7. What’s your favorite cartoon character?

I can't think of one favourite, but here are a few I love:

• Jessica Rabbit (From Who Framed Roger Rabbit?)
• Rugrats
• Hong Kong Phooey (who'd probably very un-PC now)
• Kenny and Cartman from Southpark
• The original X-Men cartoon from the 90s.

And of course, anything from Pixar. 

8. What’s your dream car?

A late model Mercedes convertible sports car. 

9. What’s your favorite pizza topping?

Depends where the pizza comes from. Some sort of Mexican Hot arrangment (salami, chilli, peppers, anchovies, red sauce and cheese) if I'm getting a delivery. In a restaurant, where they do thin crust and have a wood fired oven, it could be anything that takes my fancy. They had a good special with rocket (arugala) figs, goats cheese and pine nuts at La Camera the other week.

10. What’s your favorite sports team?

The Adelaide Crows are my football team - this is for Australian Rules football, as there is no other game, when it all comes down to it. I also loosly follow the Australian Cricket team and will sit through the odd rugby union match. Other than the Crows, I'm not really into sport. 

11. What’s your favorite TV show?

At the moment, one of the following:

• Lucifer
• Suits
• The West Wing
• Six Feet Under
• Frasier
• Mad Men
• The Hour (BBC show  - amazing)
• Drop the Dead Donkey (From the late 90s in England - it was brilliant)

12. What is your favorite ice cream?

Again, depends from where the ice cream is purchased and in what form.

From the supermarket, Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia or Choc Chip cookie dough. Or Maggie Beer's burnt fig jam ice cream (incredible stuff just hard to find) If I'm out and it's in a cone - hmm, a good rum and raisin or coffee ice cream always goes well. And if it's one of the Asian places, decent green tea or black sesame is good - or if you can find it, white chocolate and wasabi ice cream is a revelation. 

13. What is your favorite song?

This. Always has been. Always will be.

14. What’s your least favorite chore?

Mopping the floors. I'm not fond of hoovering (vacuuming) either, but as I've just had floorboards put down, I'm trying to keep them clean and nice, so it's a necessary task. 

15. What was your first job?

I worked in the general store behind the counter for a number of year. I stayed in retail while I was at uni too. 

Today's song: 

How to write a 30 word story

 April is the cruelest  month... and T.S. Eliot is never wrong. 

My annual April challenge is the Writer's Victoria Flash Fiction challenge. You get a prompt every day early in the morning and have until midnight to get your 30 word story up on Twitter. The best stories are recommended the following day by Writer' Victoria. It gets a bit competetive. It's also a great challenge and helps to refine your language and storytelling skills. 

The other thing about the prompts - do you use the word? Or do you describe the word in your story, using it as an idea starter. For most writers, it appears you'll use the word provided, or some conjugation of it. 

Such as today. What do you do with the word segmentation? (Oh, the theme of this month's efforts is Unfold - so far they've given us the words crease, devlop and segmentation.)

The first tip - go with your gut instincts and don't over think it. Your gut is your True North when it comes to flash fiction. You have 30 words, you need to get in there. 

Secondly, get rid of all extraneous words. As a technical writer, I'm pretty good at this, tending to over write, then edit. 

Thirdly, think outside the box. Try not to be cliche. You can go all over the place with words, if you let yourself, and it's amazing where you can go.

Fourthly, paint a picture. Provide a character and let their actions show what is going on  - with the words. 

And lastly, have fun. Don't make this a chore. 

So, where I have landed over the last three days. 

Here you go. I don't think they are very good, but I tried. If you go onto twitter and search on #WVFlashFiction21 you can see some very talented people are out there. 

Crease

"Taking the letter from the envelope, she ran a gentle finger over the paper’s crease. Any more pressure would tear the fold. No amount of wishing would bring him back."

Develop

"She prodded the sopping paper, waiting for the image’s chemical pentimento, to fully develop. Under the red light, her she would gather the proof she didn’t want."

Segmentation

"Fists drawn downwards, her stare concentrated on the segmentations before her. A stone’s throw away from victory, she cast her fate. The hopscotch championship was a pitch and skip away."

FYI - My twitter handle is @TrellawneyThom

Today's song:

Film Review: Nomadland

 Film: Nomadland

Stars: 5

Thteatre: Hoyts Victoria Gardens

Oh my, oh my, oh my.

Nomadland is the treat I get for taking Blarney's boys to see Godzilla vs King Kong on Tuesday. 

I'm also putting it down to research for the novel. such is it's themes and impacts. I can see why it's up for six Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. This is a phenomenal film. As beautiful as it is harsh as it is thought provoking. 

It's quite a simple story when it all boils down to it. Fern (Frances McDormand), a widow, who has lost everything in the GFC, is living in her van while doing transient work around the West of the United States. Grieving while trying to make a life for herself, she goes from job to job, and trailer park to trailer park, living on her wits and her intellect. 

Is she homeless? Not really, as she tells an old student, 'No, I'm not homeless. I'm just house-less. Not the same thing, right?'

Fern is one of the many nomad, living a life on the road, part by choice, part by necessity.

Along the way, she meets a throng of people, each having a different story to tell. The cast is mainly sourced from the nomadic people who are living on the road. Linda May and Swankie, who steal some of the movie as Fern's friends on the road. Swankie makes a huge impresssion. These friends help Fern find her feet as she moves around from South Dakota, to Nevada, to Arizona and onwards. 

She also meets Dave, an interesting man with a history which needs divulging and an obvious romantic interest. Dave is played by David Strathairn, who always manages to slay me, no matter what he's in (Good Night, and Good Luck anybody?) Dave is found by his son and returns with him to see his grandchild come into the earth. He invites Fern to come and stay with him. And you wonder. 

There is so much to unpack in this film. The scenery. The spot on directing by Chloe Zhao, who you get a feeling let her 'characters' tell their own stories. There's the superlative performance by Frances McDormand, who may very well walk away with another Best Actress Oscar. There's also David Strathairn, who I find devastating in everything he's in. There's the cinematography, which encapsulates the harshness of van life and Ludovico Einaudi's incredible soundtrack. 

And there is the transient life that many choose, working minimum wage jobs around the country, staying here and there under the stars, with no fixed address and a set of wheels. This shows another side of America. It's not pretty, but it has an honour and romance you cannot deny. 

Chatting to a friend, she found the film rather depressing. For me, I was bowled over by the agency of these people and their life on the road. In their own ways, they were living their truths. You got to see and hear stories you wouldn't normally witness. I found myself crying near the end. Not out of sadness, but out of pride for Fern and her decisions. 

Like Promising Young Woman, Nomadland has earned its place on the Oscars list. 

Top film. See it on the big screen before it goes.

Today's song:

Ten Days Off

My ten day off work has started. Ten full days. The work computer has been stowed away in a cupboard and I've had a half day of sorts Went to the gym and did some last minute, pre-Good Friday shopping, seeing that everything is closed tomorrow. And life is good. 

Life is even better as I get paid holiday. One of the better things about being on a fixed term contract. 

I made the statement that I'm going to turn myself into a proper writer over the next ten days - and work on the novel. Well that's the theory. 

In practice over the next ten days I have quite a bit of other stuff to do - including: 

• Painting the architraves
• Exercising daily
• Calling some applicants for some jobs at with the mason's property committee
• A doctor's appointment
• Breakfast with an old uni mate
• Dinner and drinks
• A gin high tea somewhere down the Mornington Peninsula
• Mediation
• Taking Blarney's boys to the movies
• Taking myself to the movies
• Make an appointment to talk to a death doula (for the novel) 
• Unpacking all of the crap from rearranging that happened with the floorboards
• Update my vision board

Among other things.

But what would I really like to do, other than spend a couple of hours each day in the Redmond Barry Reading Room at the State Library?

See, in my wildest dreams I'd like to take myself on a retreat. Go somewhere in the country - if it's near the beach, even better. Somewhere, like a holiday home, that has an open fire and a large bath tub and no telly (but good wifi). A place where I can read and write. A place where the cat will be happy indoors. (May as well take him with me). Maybe a place with a deck and a barbeque and a spare room so friends can come visit overnight. Somewhere, where I can get away. 

I haven't ever done this. I can't remember ever going away for Easter. I've not really ever gone on holiday in my own country. I've never really gone away for weekends - the odd writer's retreat a rare exception. If I go away, I tend to go overseas - head to see Geetangeli in New Zealand, or spend a week in Ubud in Bali.

But this time round - this Easter, a big part of me wishes I was going away. A bigger part of me wishes I had somebody to go with. 

Maybe this should be something for the vision board. 

I've found a place I want to stay. I like the look of this. 

Time to start looking at my dreams. Time to start manifesting. 

Today's song: