rush gush

right now, i think i would LOVE to be geoffrey rush's personal assistant. or daughter. or some other kind of close friend that has proud gushing rites. prompted by seeing this gorgeous nerdboyfriend pic (in a play adaption of a favourite book: diary of a madmen), my rush crush has just hit peak.

his depiction of lionel logue in the king's speech has been fauned over elsewhere in the media, but i just have to remind you all, for those who have seen it, how brilliant he was.

he was brilliant. the end.

[there will be more on that movie later in the program of course, relating to sound in public, natch]

and of course him as barbosa in the pirates/caribbean trilogy and shine were both excellent. not to mention numerous other amazing films and theatre productions.

but it was a recent imdb iphone app entry that really endeared me to him. it spoke of his breakdown (i think in 1996) and giving up acting for a few years, distressed about his lack of success on stage and film. after 2000 he came back stronger, clearer and has since made all those fantastic films/plays that we know him for.

i was reminded that success isn't always for the young and that even the greats have points of intense doubt and retreat. it also reminded me that true artistic greatness can never really be lost. mr rush picked himself off, dusted himself off and started all over again.

thank goodness for that.

floating worlds

tonight i'm heading to sydney for an education workshop as part of the geek program. i've been doing a bit of research and in talking to phip, who also works with NGV, i found out about the sa-hu-pa-her cool gaming technology art education program, floating world.

here's a bit more info from the CAN blog, including the notes/ning by some of the teachers.

what jumped out at me first? "we put it up on the CLASS WIKI!!" (my emphasis). oh my god - i got so excited!

i think wikis are the bestest thing in the world, but i've only had a few really awesome experiences with using them. some people just don't get how they'll work. and perhaps email keeps people from really utilising them to their potential.


the interesting south crew used wetpaint really well, as did the candystripers for a couple of our projects so far. the website development part of geek program i'm doing here at west space is using basecamp, which is going well-enough, thanks to RSS and email capabilities, but could also be used a little more by peeps.

i've tried to get a few other groups using them, without success. and maybe its the interface, rather than the concept. or maybe i'm just not so good at convincing people :D

but the grade 5 kids from sydenham primary school have got a class wiki!! as the teacher said in her ning post - it meant that they could upload the links at school at the end of the day and then go home and be able to show parents what they had done for the day. and if they felt confident working on it at home, they could!

go team!





and it is the team aspect of this floating worlds project that i love the most - it just crosses a whole bunch of important learning outcomes: they're learning basic multimedia tools/techniques, they're using historical art as their source material (and they learn about the context for that art), creating stories and understanding narrative/dialogue, they translated the stories into japanese in their japanese class - excellent comprehension activity (not to mention ramming it home that technology is not just in english), plus they create the works in pairs and share the info with the class. this helps them also work problems out amongst the team and then wider to the class - information sharing and exchange 101.

no wonder it has been given the thumbs up by the New Media Consortium!

i'm excited again..

images from ngv.vic.gov.au

hold your horses

ok, i promise this is the last cut'n'paste thing for a while.

darling eddy showed me this and i think i'm officially in love with this video clip. if you can be in love with a video clip. i want to cry, squeal, dance and fall down when i watch this!

i don't feel that way about the mos def on yo gabba gabba video, the ipad on will it blend? segment, or even this too shall pass by OK go.

here is 70 million..

an equal and opposite reaction

"in the age of the internet, shooting the messenger simply spurs on new messengers."
marcus westbury.

in his fabulous article about the chinese hacktivism of the MIFF site for the screening of 10 conditions of love.

[it was in the age today, but surely it will be on his blog soon]

matilda mouse, max and monsters

this week has been filled with lots of cool stuff that reminds me about being a kid - swimming in the pool after dark, cycling in the sun, my mum's birthday, kids books and kids-books-as-movies.




tonight i found out about the seriously-long-awaited release of matilda mouse by simon griffin. simon is the brilliant copywriter from love, all round top bloke and fabulous childrens' story writer and i was lucky enough to get an audio book version of his book when i was in manchester in january. it's such a beautiful story and add to that a series of amazing illustrations, snazzy double gatefold in the middle and the smell of ink, and you have a very awesome childrens' book about a little mouse with hiccups.

plus...

i know that everyone in the universe has posted the trailer, but i couldn't resist.

where the wild things are is finally seeing the light of day.

a dear friend worked on the production, so i feel like i kind of know it a little more than i ordinarily would about a film. which means i'm super excited.




i'm usually a purist about books and their film adaptations. [i've only ever like one adaptation and that was, believe it or not, hitch hikers guide to the galaxy - mostly because of the cast.]

but this is one i'm going to break my rule and watch. how can you put spike jonze, dave eggers and that beautiful production design in a room and it not be at least worth $15. i have to wait 'til october, but that's probably for the best, because i'm kinda busy until then anyway. heh.

apologies to ms patti smith

dear ms smith,

i know that you probably don't have expectations when you walk into a room - it seems that you take each moment on face value, but i wouldn't be surprised if you left the post-doco Q&A wondering what godforsaken country den you had walked into. and i would like to apologise for us.

i'm sure in every Q&A session, there's someone gushing, quivering 'oh, i'm your greatest fan, thank you so much!', but i want to apologise for our lack of stoicism.

i'm sure you've been asked much more offensive questions about your appearance and your gender, but i want to apologise for words like androgony, mess and 'interesting'. perhaps what we wanted to know was about the role of appearance in your art and music. you've managed to glide through all manner of 'fashions' and 'trends' by sidestepping them.

i'd like to apologise for our lack of ability to think before we speak, when we ask for song requests at an evening about a documentary made by an artist, with another artist. although i loved the live performance of blakean year.

i'm sure you've met many more self-serving directors, but i'd like to apologise for our waffling, aimless and self-seeking artistic director. she's done a great job on the festival so far, but we really should have had a better MC - one with a little more control over the audience and a little less control over her own mike.

and i'm sure you've been part of worse-organised festivals, but i want to apologise for someone not letting you know that in 2 days' time you'll be playing in front of about 800 people, for two nights in a row, in an amazing concert hall with fantastic accoustics.

i'm sure you won't be able to answer this question, but i also wanted to ask both you and steven something. a lot of artists are multi-disciplinary, but quite often they run one after the other, or there are gaps in between: you paint when you're not writing and you write when you're having a break from lugging a camera around, or you take photos when you're not editing. but what's it like to be on for all aspects of your creative practice while you're here: writer, poet, singer, painter, photographer and muse? can they exist simultaneously, or is space-between a pre-requisite of multi-disciplinary practice?

kind regards,

lauren