Sunfilled Saturdee

At the Mediterranean cafe at Newtown a good coffee and a Calebrese sandwich made a nice lunch, that is, after a round drive to Island Bay in Tom's newly refurbished Nash Rambler, vintage 1962.

The sun was shining and I had a movie scheduled for later at the Film Archives before a session of Tenpin Bowls with my swimming friends. But first I had some market shopping to do and then a quick rest before the big evening.

Btw, I saw another movie at the Paramount last night called 'It Follows'. It was a so-called 'horror' movie made by today's Hollywood, but set somewhat earlier, in the eighties it seemed. It starred a teen-age cast who were all fabulous and believeable. The subject was necessarily quite ghoulish, but it nevertheless sufficed, and I came away from the viewing not feeling too bad at all. It was a very well made movie for its genre, which is, I must admit, not really my favourite sort, however I believe it earned its five star rating.

Russet-haired, smiling Harry, front page of course

Inside, a convict turned academic...

Why we go to horror movies!

Well the documentary movie at the Film Archives which I caught before going Tenpin Bowling was celebrating the jingoistic Australian bi-centennial in the year 2000. 

For me it was a nostalgic visit to the red centre of Australia, made even more beautiful by the singing of the great Kiwi, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. She, Maori born but now living in London, is one of the world's greatest sopranos, and had been invited to sing selected operatic excerpts to warm and excite the soul and entertain the many thousands who came from all over Australia to see her in this most exotic and unusual location. All this was at a tiny outback town in the far north of South Australia which normally has a population of twelve, so you can see why it was an event to be recorded in history.

With the unabashed grand beauty of the harsh landscape of the desert Australia had never looked so inviting.  This concert was staged for one night only, and was called 'Opera in the Outback' and was indeed a grand event to commemorate two hundred years of invasion by the white colonial power of the United Kingdom!

However the film itself was most enjoyable, and amusingly written and filmed with a very Aussie sense of humour, although for copyright reasons I am sure, they filmed only about fifteen minutes of her actual singing. It also succeeded in making me want to return home more than ever.