X, Y, Z... or I'm really sorry to see our classes end :-(

It's so difficult to let this go... so I probably won't ;-) I'm intending to keep this blog and post something from time to time.

Even if I have another class next year, it won't be the same without your group. When I started I wasn't entirely sure what it would be like and what the heck I was doing ;-)

THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR GOING ON THIS JOURNEY WITH ME! :-)



Ok, but now enough of saying goodbye, it hasn't ended yet. ;-P We still have a couple of topics to discuss.

1. Youth culture and youth problems

In a way we have already touched upon that talking about subcultures. Pity we didn't have a chance to watch Romper Stomper.

And it seems we won't be able, either, to watch any of the two films which would be a perfect illustration of the topic.

Both deal with the insecurities of young people: loneliness, lack of understanding, problems with defining one's identity, lure of the big world and its temptations, and so on...
Both star a very talented female - Abbie Cornish - who is well on her way to become next Cate Blanchett.
In both she co-stars with two Australian actors representing the young generation whose potential has been recognised by Hollywood.

Here are the trailers for you:

Candy (2006)



Somersault (2004)




2. Time Zones

Australia has 3 Time Zones

• EST - Eastern Standard Time
  Australian Capital Territory,
  New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria
  
• CST - Central Standard Time
  Northern Territory and South Australia
  
• WST - Western Standard Time
  Western Australia
  

		Standard Time	Daylight Savings
1	Western Australia	+ 8.0 hours GMT	no change
2	Northern Territory	+ 9.5 hours GMT	no change
3	South Australia	+ 9.5 hours GMT	+ 10.5 hours GMT
4	Queensland	+ 10.0 hours GMT	no change
4	Lord Howe Island	+ 10.5 hours GMT	+ 11.5 hours GMT
5	New South Wales	+ 10.0 hours GMT	+ 11.0 hours GMT
5	ACT	+ 10.0 hours GMT	+ 11.0 hours GMT
6	Victoria	+ 10.0 hours GMT	+ 11.0 hours GMT
7	Tasmania	+ 10.0 hours GMT	+ 11.0 hours GMT

3. Zoos


Sydney Aquarium - Amazing - The most amazing videos are a click away



















Australia's Heritage

TV

Now, where do I even start... ;-)

Inevitably this topic is going to be very arbitrary. Imagine that a foreigner asks you to recommend best 10 programmes/soaps/talk shows on Polish television now and in the past. Yes? Well? Czterej Pancerni or Szymon Majewski Show? I bet everyone would come with a unique list...

I've been nagging my Aussie friends for suggestions, plus I've discovered some gems of Aussie TV on my own. It will be a very incomplete list, but I feel that's the only way I can do it - just to share with you my personal favs.

First visit the infallible Culture Portal for a comphehensive insight into the history of TV in Australia.

And now you are ready to look at Top 10 Programmes (or rather categories - but let's not be too pedantic, eh? ;-) )

1. comedians: Adam Hills, Tim Minchin, Judith Lucy

You've seen some clips with Adam and Tim already, but now have a look at the one which unites them on screen :-)



And this one shows Judith at her sarcastic best. :-D I rarely find female comedians funny, but her style of comedy never fails to entertain me.



2. radio presenters guesting on TV shows: Hamish and Andy, Myf Warhurst

Hamish and Andy are a comedy duo with their own radio programme but often appear on Spicks and Specks and Rove.

Here is a little clip in which they instruct their mothers to play pranks on Mother's Day. It is not very highbrow humour, mind you, but it's endearing nevertheless :-)
Look for the expression of sheer dread in the boys' faces when they realise what they have made their moms do. And you have to admit that the ladies are really game to take on any challenge ;-)



Myf appears as team captain on Spicks and Specks. She is the heartwarming, adorable, gentle soul of the show. But her being the only girl in the gang, the host - Adam Hills and Kiwi team captain Alan Brough never miss an opportunity to put Myf in an embarrassing situation ;-)

Here is what happened one of the very rare times when Myf's team actually won...



3. talk show hosts: Rove McManus, Andrew Denton, Paul McDermott
4. comedy shows: Spicks and Specks
5. kids TV: The Wiggles, The Upside Down Show, High 5, Marine Girl, Silversun
6. soaps: Neighbours, Home and Away, Blue Heelers
7. modern TV dramas: Love My Way
8. "mystery"/sci-fi: Bryan Brown's Twisted, Two Twisted

From Two Twisted promo:
'Two Twisted' follows on from the 'Twisted Tales'(1996) series produced by Australian actor/producer Bryan Brown. These Australian series' follow the tradition of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' and 'The Twighlight Zone', of short dark thrillers which develop with a surprising twist. 'Two Twisted' consists of 14 episodes of 30 minutes each, screened in pairs, with a link connecting each of the two episodes. Can you spot the link?

It's another show which I love to bits! :-) Mostly because when I was your age I used to write such sting-in-the-end stories. Nice to see they sometimes make it to the screen.

Hare is the trailer:




9. spoof documentary: The Games

This is the clip which I tried to show to you last time, but the loudspeakers wouldn't work. Have a look at it again. It's worth it! :-)



10. entertainment: Strictly Come Dancing

Half of the Alphabet....

The best laid schemes of mice and men...

I was going to ask you to perform a couple of tasks over the past two weeks, but other things took over... oh well.

Anyway we have a bit of catching up to do with the letters T, U, V and W. But it won't hurt, I promise ;-)

Here is the list:

==============
- Tasmania
- TV
==============
- Uluru
- Life, the Universe and Everything (astronomy and Aboriginal astronomy) <- in a way we have already covered this topic

==============
- Victoria
- Vietnam war (past - Australians at war + now - Australia's involvement in international conflicts & people's reactions)

Here is an example of how outspoken Aussies can be on this topic:



============
- Western Australia
- wine industry
- weather and seasons

============
Remember to check this place in the following days as I'll be adding more links.

May 28, 2010 - The Day we were Great! :-)

Didgeridoo corner



Convicts corner



Deadly Animals corner



Dot painting corner



Food corner



















The ultimate Polish Aborigene ;-)



More photos here (taken by me)
Lots of photos here (taken by Ms Bogacz)


Please send me any pics that you have taken. Pretty please! :-)

YOU WERE ALL FANTASTIC TODAY!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH :-)

"Life, The Universe and Everything" ;-) (astronomy and Aboriginal astronomy)

A little build-up to the letter "T" ;-)

FILM CLUB

On Thursday we'll see ROMPER STOMPER - a film which caused a bit of an outrage when it premiered, and shot Russell Crowe to international career. He won, among many others, the prestigious AFI Award for Best Actor in 1992.

Synopsis:

Hando (Russell Crowe) and his best mate Davey (Daniel Pollock) lead a rampaging gang of neo-Nazi skinheads in Footscray, Melbourne, during the 80s. They beat up young Vietnamese migrants, get drunk and fall down, living off the dole, in a disused tyre shop draped with Nazi flags. Gabe (Jacqueline McKenzie), running from an incestuous relationship with her rich father, joins the gang as Hando’s girlfriend, but Davey is also attracted to her. When young Vietnamese retaliate, led by Tiger (Tony Lee), the skinheads escape to a disused warehouse, where Hando plots his revenge. Gabe pursues her own vengeance, by leading the gang into her father’s house. When Hando kicks her out, she tells the cops where the gang are hiding. Routed again, this time by the police – Hando, Davey and Gabe take to the road.

Curator’s notes (from the brilliant Australian Screen)

by Paul Byrnes

Romper Stomper was an incendiary device aimed at the culture of comfort in middle-class Australia in the early 90s. It had the exact effect that its writer-director intended, provoking outrage and retaliation, which then attracted a large youth audience to see it. The mayor of Fitzroy in Melbourne denounced it, along with the prominent Australian critic David Stratton, who said it should have never been made. Several film-makers said it was racist towards Asians, and sympathetic towards skinhead Neo-Nazis. Many similar things were said about Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, made in the UK 20 years earlier, a film from which Romper Stomper borrows heavily – but the outrage was similarly misdirected.

One of the reasons that Romper Stomper was so shocking was that it was so well made. It placed the viewer as a participant in the action, implicating us in the enjoyment these young men and women feel during the exercise of violence. Geoffrey Wright’s refusal to condemn their actions is part of this challenge to the viewer – you may want to disown them, but he makes you one of them, by the way he places the camera. The accusation of racism is hard to understand, given that he simply shows the young Vietnamese men responding to extreme provocation. They are hardly depicted as victims, in that sense.

Wright’s skill with action and violence, so early in his career, reminds us of another debut feature film from 13 years earlier, Mad Max, but Romper Stomper is altogether more morally complex and challenging. It’s not about the dystopian future – but the ugly present. In another sense, it’s a continuation of the Australian bush-ranging film traditions of the Story of the Kelly Gang, made in 1906, but without the bush, or the sentimentalism. In a way, Hando and his mates are the modern descendants of the Australian outlaw ethos – protecting their land, just like the Kelly’s. They’re just a whole lot more alienated from the wider community, but their own sense of community is very strong. The film is about family at heart – the Vietnamese family, the skinhead family, and Gabe’s own completely screwed up wreckage of a family. It’s not pretty or comforting, but it’s an incredibly exciting film to watch, and that forces the viewer to confront his or her attitudes to violence as entertainment.

Warning: At times it is a difficult film to watch - Rated R for brutality and violence, sexuality and language.