I think the difference here is that all the participants are actually quite likeable, if sometimes for different reasons. There’s energy and passion that goes beyond personal ambition from the choirs, and I think the conflict between the judges is usually about genuine differences in their assessments of the the choirs’ performances (rather than disagreements that, in other shows, have seemed gimmicky or manufactured).

Having said that though, my sister remembers Torbay from Australian Girls Choir and we do think that there is still a healthy dose of exaggeration for the sake of TV going on here! Besides, it seemed like in the end he actually wanted (spoiler alert — hover over text to reveal) the Sunbury Divas to make it though tonight?! When did he change his mind?

Lastly, I don’t even mind Kochie here, so the show must be alright!

It actually started shortly after O-Week this year, when Clairie first mentioned that she was looking for someone to produce a play that she had written. I made comments to the effect of: I don’t know anyone suitable and well, I had no experience in producing theatre. When Clairie later told me she had found someone interested in producing BoK though, I was, of course secretly disappointed.

That other person turned out to be Jess, who I was eventually meant to co-produce BoK with. I say supposedly, but I’ll come back to that. This is where the adventure starts, after all.

Throughout the course of the production, I ended up putting in a lot of effort and doing things that perhaps shouldn’t entirely have been my responsibility. I was up till the early hours of the morning multiple times on this project, whether it was putting the proposal together, designing posters or the program or just fixing artwork so I could send out promo playing cards to print — the latter with a broken arm (Lucy was amazing and came over just to help me select objects in Illustrator and move them around, which I couldn’t do with one hand).

I don’t resent any of it, but I feel it’s worth thinking about now. I think there were a number of reasons for all this — some of them my fault, some of them not.

I Think I Did a Bad Job, But Got Away With It!

In hindsight, I think I did a pretty poor job of motivating people to do a good job and making it easier for people to do their best work. I can see now that I should have, you know, been more assertive in helping set objectives and targets and holding people to them. But like I said, this is all hindsight.

For instance, my Co-Producer was a busy girl and had to juggle the various demands of uni, work, sickness at times and numerous other commitments and hence wasn’t always able to be around to help. Likewise, my Publicist, was holding down a full-time job while trying to work on BoK and deal with a designer who only communicates via email. It’s tough, it’s not easy… I understand. But the end result was that I did have to pick up the pieces.

I’m increasingly aware that it’s very hard to care about things and put in effort when everyone around you isn’t… and this criticism of course applies to myself as well, because it became easy for me to just think “well nobody else is doing anything anyway” and then just do the same too.

So what’s the point? Well c’mon, it’s my blog, so indulge me if I rant a little!

Seriously though, I’m just surprised and disappointed I didn’t do a better job on this play. I mean, with my years of experience in student organisations, I should have known better how to run a team effectively. I still feel bad we never got hoodies printed for the cast and crew. But I’ll learn… and besides, the story only goes uphill from here!

The Fun Part: the Script, Cast and Show Week!

This last week has been just awesome. Things actually started off a little less-than-ideally and by the end of bump-in and tech/dress rehearsals, we were probably a day behind in terms of where we wanted the show to be. People got stressed at times, but somehow everything stuck together and we had some great times. Hell, I actually look back upon bump-in fondly now!

What made everything go so well was the people — from Mo (our Stage Manager), who was initially tired and gravel-voiced, but turned cheery and ended up being a lot of fun to work with, to Josh who stepped in to do sound op when it turned out nobody else could do it. The cast, as usual, were amazing, putting up with everything and soldiering on… even Peter, in-between naps.

By the end of the week, we were zooming ahead… the cast nailed performances, everything ran like clockwork and we all enjoyed doing the show immensely. I hadn’t been so happy about doing anything since well, O-Week! I’ve met some great people doing this show, and gotten to know others much better. I’m so glad I had the chance to be involved in BoK and I had a ridiculous amount of fun doing so.

Along the way, someone told me something that went a bit like this: in doing shows, you always ended up with some people who you just couldn’t get along with after the show because that was the only way the show got done (and you had to accept this), and some people with whom you had to survive the show together no matter what because you couldn’t lose them, and hence you did. I can’t help but think that I (and everyone else) ended up with nobody in the former category at all and as for the latter category, I’d happily do this with them all over again anyway. And that makes me happy.

It’s really amazing having a chance to help bring something like this to life for the very first time, but what’s truly amazing is to see what the cast can do with it, playing characters they know nobody has ever played before. I’m so glad I got the chance to witness it! I have also definitely fallen in love with Clairie’s play, and she knows that originally I wasn’t totally convinced by it. Now though, having seen it on stage a few times I well and truly think it’s brilliant, funny and very intelligent… and my kind of thing!

OK, but enough from me. This has turned into a thousand-word essay! Heartfelt thanks to everyone who I’ve had the chance to work with on The Blood of Kings. I really appreciate it.

Now hang in there for the DVD and documentary!

AAC can be played on most current Digital Audio Players, not just iPods. Make no mistake — this is a landmark day for digital distribution of music, and it’s now only a matter of time before the other major players sign-up and offer the same thing. This is one of those times where I’m glad we have Steve Jobs to do what he is good at (even I can’t see Bill Gates getting such a deal out of EMI)!

I think it’s a great win-win for all. EMI gets the price hike they wanted, consumers get DRM-free music at a higher quality (helps justify the higher price), and Apple gets an instant halving in iPod capacity. The new pricing structure will also encourage consumers to look towards buying whole albums again, but at least they won’t be screwed over because you can upgrade existing purchases to the new DRM-free AACs for USD $0.30 per song. Increased sales and great PR for massive damage.

This is great news and might mark the start of digital music purchases for me! Wow, I’m actually excited… (I still hate iTMS, but since there is no DRM I can safely run it inside a Windows XP VM or something.)

EMI press release: EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

Some of you may know that I basically get no perks whatsoever for volunteering my time to run the COFA Students’ Association. Well… that’s not always true. PricewaterhouseCoopers, our consultants, ran a screening tonight for their clients of Al Gore’s new film about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth.

Each and every person should see this film — without exception.

You may not like the structure of the film, which is essentially a lecture on the topic delivered by Gore (using Apple Keynote, I think). Or you may not like Gore himself, who actually does narrate the entire thing. Even I must admit I did get sick of his voice by the end of the film, and it dragged on a little and took a while to get to the final third. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is the message — and it is absolutely compelling.

For all of you who do not believe global warming is taking place, please have an open mind and give this film a go. The fate of all human civilisation could be on the line — can you afford to not even consider the possibilities? Are you thinking it’s something that won’t affect us until the distant future? Do yourself (and the planet) a favour by checking out the evidence the film graphically illustrates.

You may have guessed that I already did worry about climate change and yeah, I was converted without any preaching from this film. But, I still liked the film. It didn’t annoy me even though I expected the message it delivered. Forget Gore’s delivery of the material, the content was riveting. And most of all, its timing is impeccable. 2005 has been a year of unprecedented adverse weather and the crisis worsens without abatement.

The time for action is now — go out and watch An Inconvenient Truth when it opens tomorrow. A solid 4 out of 5.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Australian website: www.aninconvenienttruth.com.au
USA website (with supporting material): www.climatecrisis.net
97 minutes, English
Australian release 14 Sep 2006

I bet my friend Jo will be happy about this! She’s been very excited about this… even going as far as to suggest that the iPod nano, Motorola ROKR, and iTunes 6 have all been signs we were about to get our own iTMS. Well, somehow I don’t think Australia is that important — I’m sure these releases would’ve happened even if our entire continent suddenly got sucked up by a giant sea monster a few months ago. But hey, I’m excited too!

I’m far from an Apple fanboy and I’m still a poor student, but I do own an iPod Photo and listen to a good deal of music. So it was with great anticipation tonight that I launched iTunes, browsed to the new Australian iTMS and setting up my my Apple ID as in iTMS account. Sadly, this is where the joy ended.

Limited Catalogue

The first problem with our own iTMS is that the selection of music available is currently hopelessly limited. In particular, I was hoping there would be a good selection of Australian music — this is the stuff I usually find hard to locate through ‘alternative means’.

I understand that not all the record labels are on-board for the launch. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Sony BMG are holding out at the moment. With a music industry the size of ours, leaving out a major record label means leaving out a sizable chunk of local talent. Adding to this problem is the fact that even for the artists who can be found on iTMS.au, often not much of their back catalog is available.

In it’s current state there’s little music I’d be interested in purchasing.

Pricing

The second big problem with our iTMS is the pricing — AUD $1.69 for a song and $16.95 for most albums?! You’ve got to be kidding. Why should we pay a premium over what those in the US pay for their tunes, when the product is exactly the same? Music in Australia has traditionally been expensive, but I’d say a popular album today retails for around $20.00 at places like K-mart and Target. Is the loss of the album packaging and having to accept DRM restrictions worth a mere $4.00 saving? Last time I checked, Dick Smith Powerhouse stores sell many singles for a mere $2.00 too.

Sure, on many days I pay six times the cost of a song in tolls alone, but I just don’t think $1.69 per song is good value. The absolute maximum I would pay for a song (taking into account the convenience of iTMS) would be $1.49 I think.

DRM Restrictions

At least iTMS DRM is still one of the more relaxed varieties available at the moment, with the Australian store offering these rights:

• unlimited CD burning of songs (burn any playlist up to 7 times)
• play music on your iPods
• play music on up to 5 machines (Macs or PCs)

Of course, we still have the restriction of not being able to play any purchased music in any player other than iTunes or an iPod. That’s a shame since I use Winamp with the excellent MEXP plug-in to organise my music library.

Also, while my current DAP is an iPod, I definitely have plans to use Windows XP Media Centre Edition to stream my music to somewhere else in the house in the future.

Ah well, an Australian iTunes Music Store is still something I’m glad we finally have, and I’m sure I might still buy a song or two from there occasionally if I happen to have a song stuck in my head that I want to hear straight away!

This weekend, Lucy and I finally got around to watching Tim Burton’s new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka — a shame we waited so long!

I’m not going to compare this adaptation to Roald Dahl’s book or the 1971 film as neither are exactly fresh in my memory, but I’ll assume you’ve read or seen either of those and include some spoilers in this review.

Johnny Depp’s performance was just amazing! Deliciously quirky in his silliness and masterfully hilarious as a mischievous, slightly unhinged Willy Wonka, how he managed to keep a straight face I’ll never know. I certainly couldn’t while watching Depp — on a few occasions, Lucy had to cover my mouth to stop me from giggling uncontrollably.

In the same vein, Deep Roy as, well… all the Oompa Loompas was also delightfully disturbing. Comparisons between the scale of the tiny Oompa Loompas to the humans were executed very well in a number of carefully chosen sequences, without going over the top. The great song and dance sequences featuring the Oompa Loompas were brilliant as something you could laugh along to without having to cringe.

The sets were rich, exciting and blindingly colourful, and the effects spectacular — though I found some of it, especially some of the latter scenes involving the glass elevator, too spectacular, managing to look obviously computer-generated. Watch out for the squirrels in the nut room (well, they’re kind of hard to miss) for they are adorably cute.

I think Burton’s vision of Dahl with a touch of darkness is brilliant. Although it’s a tone I clearly didn’t pick up on when I first read Dahl in primary school, I suspect it’s something Dahl would certainly have approved of.

The film kept a brisk pace, which served well for the majority of it. Unfortunately, the ending felt a little bit too rushed, jumping quickly between questionable plot points. The introduction of a background story for Wonka was great but the resolution just wasn’t quite there.

All in all, thoroughly enjoyable and a definite 4 out of 5. Brilliant!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
chocolatefactorymovie.warnerbros.com
115 minutes, English
Australian release 01 Sep 2005

A news article on Ars Technica by Ryan Paul (aka segphault) reports that Tanya Anderson, a 42 year old disabled single mother from Oregon, was accused of downloading gangster rap via Kazaa. Denying the claims, she filed a countersuit against the RIAA.

She claims that the organization engaged in numerous crimes, including fraud, deceptive business practices, and racketeering. In addition, she claims that RIAA has been “abusing the federal court judicial system for the purpose of waging a public relations and public threat campaign targeting digital file sharing activities.

The news article concludes with the most hilarious line I’ve heard all week:

If the RIAA is found guilty of fraud and extortion, I bet that SCO will sue them for infringement of a business methods patent.

These are serious allegations, but would you put it past the RIAA? The lawsuits will undoubtedly cost an enormous amount to fight out, and the RIAA most certainly has deeper pockets than a 42 year old single mother. So my only question this is: how can we help?

Woman countersues RIAA for fraud and deceptive business practices

Sorry for not having updated for a while, I’ve been a bit busy over the weekend an the following few days.

On Sunday Lucy and I went and watched the new Australian film Little Fish starring Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, Dustin Nguyen and Noni Hazelhurst — really, an all-star Australian cast. It’s great to see some of our exports still willing to do local films. (Sam Neill is in just about every one of them, of course! ;))

Excerpt from the official synopsis:

How do you learn to love again when the pain of the past won’t let you go? When you’re 32 with a troubled history and a doubtful future, it’s a question that isn’t so easy to answer. And for Tracy Heart (Cate Blanchett), it’s a question she can no longer ignore. A story about families. About lies. And about learning to love again.

The film is beautifully shot, poetic yet edgy, and is accompanied by a wonderfully haunting score.

The acting is unbelievably real and Cate Blanchett gives an outstanding performance as the conflicted Tracey (even if despite her best efforts Cate still looks too good). Noni Hazelhurst also nails her part (this actually surprised me a little, but I have admittedly seen very little of her work — I’ve been told I shouldn’t have expected anything less!) and Sam Neill is competent.

However, Hugo Weaving is is astonishing and barely recognisable. Playing Lionel Dawson, a gay former AFL footy star who is now a heroin addict, he is utterly convincing as a tormented addict who just doesn’t have the willpower to kick his habit and move on with his life.

Set in Cabramatta, Sydney, the film really hits close to home. Maybe even too close. The tight, gritty shots and our familiarity with the typically Australian characters already makes the film something we can relate too closely to, but being able to recognising just about all the locations in the film almost made it unbearable to watch — but also made it riveting at the same time.

All that I’ve said so far applies to the first two acts of the film — up to this point it is just brilliantly executed. But after, it starts to unravel pretty quickly. The the plot becomes increasingly far-fetched, and it takes us further and further away from the grim reality we’ve just been immersed in for an hour and a half, until the unimaginative cop-out climax hits. Without spoiling the ending, I can only say that the characters all get away with not having to face or resolve their conflicts.

I left Little Fish feeling terribly disappointed, as did Lucy. It had so much potential to be the quintessential Australian film we’ve been waiting years for, yet it just couldn’t follow through.

I can only give it 3.5 out of 5, but would nonetheless recommend that no Australian, and certainly no Sydney-sider, miss this film. Little Fish may be flawed, but it is still amazing.

(I expect a lot of people will disagree with me here… and I’d really like to know why. I’d love to love Little Fish — let me know how?)

Little Fish
www.littlefishmovie.com
114 minutes, English
Australian release 08 Sep 2005, in selected cinemas