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The Innocents
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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A dark little supernatural horror film. Norwegian. Well done, but not particularly enjoyable...
The Poetry Slam, Lakeside Park
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
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And last Sunday, the Poetry Slam in Lakeside Park, my third.
Filled with the usual suspects, everyone arriving fashionably late. It's a cool evening. Despite the crowd, perhaps 30 people, only a few are presenting.
There's *****, shirtless, wrapped in Persian Carpet that's been converted into a vest, living out of a van with his dog, a destructive little husky pup that's in the process of mauling a little stuffed toy.
He introduces himself, followed with "I earned this name", as if it were hard won in battle, clearly this is not his given name and he's adapted to the local tradition of both pen and chosen names. I'm unfamiliar with it, make a phonetic note of the spelling, can do some research later. Followed with by his stoner-styled poetry which is some sort of passionately delivered ode to life.
The judging isn't kind, he's a newcomer, only been to a couple of the slams, his overall rating (Originality, Presentation, Writing?) only comes to a high 8.7 or 8.9.
There are 5 judges, to get an 8 in this is a complete and utter fail. It's on a scale of 1-10, so while you might think an 8.7 is good having seen a few of them you realize that an imbecile barking and growling would score an 8.5, this is the overall threshold of kindness in the community, if he wants a better score he'll have to recruit a few friends to be judges...
Followed by a few others. One of the themes of tonight's reading is "Uncertainty", given the world at the moment it's pretty topical. One of the organizers does her finger-snapping, her "support" when she likes the groove a particular poet is laying down. Then there's the free-form, unjudged presentations. Another organizer has a little rant about how she doesn't need a man, then wanders the park outside the reach of the microphone and lights.
These events, there a who's who of literary nepotism, while most are good some are clearly better than others, the judging favors the familiar.
And as the weather cools down and the jeep is laid up it's time again to resume long-stalled projects...this is the motivation.
A Pretty Girl, Down on her luck
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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As the police described her, last weeks dine & dasher.
Even as I write this she's parked out on the Ferry landing, she's newspapers and blankets hung up over her windows, in the afternoon she takes them down.
She doesn't get out of her car, instead opting to sit inside for 14, 16 hours a day, on her cell-phone, playing Candy Crush.
It's insane and I'm curious - she's not so visibly marginal as many of our more established residents, so - what's up? Who do you call? Clearly there's been some sort of mental schism or break, but what, and how to remedy? Because this is madness, and if she was low on resources last week where precisely is she now? And all this whittling of time with Candy Crush...she's postponing some hard choices and who can you direct her to for assistance, guidance, because clearly the girl's in over her head.
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 809
Meh. I like Greenaway's style - and this had lots of it, beautiful scenery, cinematography, but perhaps should have known a little more about Eisenstein before watching.
Meh.
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