Apple Store Perth

Looks like we might be getting one...

Festival Time

So it's been the Perth Film Festival here (called Revolution for some unexplained reason, usually Perth events have to have WA incorporated somehow, e.g. WAnimate for the animation group, WASO for the orchestra) and I went to see a few movies. In particular I wanted to go as it was held at the Astor down the road, the place I was looking forward to going to when I moved to Perth, which shut down about 2 months before I moved in. I t was beautiful inside though, just like you'd hope an art deco cinema would be.

I have to say you get a very different clientele from the local googolplex; its not often you see lesbians with mohawks eating choc-tops. Or strange men dressed all in black with dark sunglasses on even during a film. Obviously not dark enough in a cinema for some people. There seemed to be a requirement for some kind of hat to be worn at all times too, anything from the standard black beanie, the 'artistic' beret or the knackered Akubra to the woman wearing the pink teddy bear bonnet. It looked like she was wearing the flayed skin of a Care-bear as a hat.

The thing that amazed me most were the people who still arrived late, even to a festival screening, I mean I'd expect that in Perth at a showing of the latest bold-red-Helvetica movie but not here. Even more annoying was all the rustling and talking going on. I mean for gods' sake this is not the Greater Union!

Anyway I saw a couple of documentaries. One was American Swing about Plato's Retreat in New York in the 70s. It was totally brilliant and hilarious as the club was a swingers club and all the reminiscing was being done by the people who were there, namely lots of ageing baby boomers. Is there anything finer than somebody's granny remembering her time in the orgy room? Well as long as it's not your own granny I suppose.

I also went to see Welcome To North Korea about a group of Czech tourist visiting the aforementioned Stalinist Paradise. This was totally fascinating as it's a place I'd love to go to and it was exactly as I imagined, all big empty roads and giant statues of the glorious proletariat. Not that many of them looked that glorious, you couldn't feel anything but sympathy for the poor buggers who have to live in such a 'paradise'. Seeing all the kids doing a perfectly drilled performance for the tour group was really chilling. I don't want to imagine what would happen to them if they got a dance move wrong. It was made more interesting as the tourists were from the Czech Republic and had all lived through their own totalitarian nightmare, they could totally relate to the situation and obviously felt a strong connection with the people they met.

Sadly the movie was a bit spoiled by the guy behind me reading the subtitles out loud and laughing at the most inappropriate moments. Every time I go to the movies I swear it'll be the last because of the other people but I keep caving.

Adam and I also went to a couple of talks given by some of the low budget filmmakers who were in town from the US to see if we could pick up any tips. We discovered that mostly we were doing what they did. That is made things with no money and still had to have real jobs.

Looks like it'll be a while until Sony Pictures is knocking the door down.

A Little MJ Reality

If you are a bit sick of the media coverage of the death of the gifted, child-like musical genius you should read this.

It adds a bit of balance to the scales of remembrance which I am very much in agreement with:

Michael Jackson: Bad! And very dangerous - The Independent