Too Good Men
Posted on November 29, 2007
Went to see the marvellous Mr Beckham in action on Tuesday night. It was amazing to watch someone so familiar, from his jogging style, physical appearance, kick - that it was like watching an old friend play. And yes he is an amazing footballer in the flesh. There is something magical about the way when the ball comes to him it seems to bounce off his foot without him actually thinking about kicking it. There were several ‘bends’ that seemed to linger in the air in an almost surreal way and the free kick that sailed over the heads of Sydney FC, lined up in front of the goal, and skimmed just under the top bar - it was totally fabulous - and the crowd, obstensibly cheering for Sydney - went absolutely wild.
Yesterday went to the funeral of another good man - good in a different way. His name was Richard Symons. He wasn’t famous, I’m not even sure he had any stand-out talents but he was a man from the top of the manhood tree. He was a man who put his family and friends before everything else, a good bread-winner, committed father and partner who loved to fish and sail and have fun. He was a man who, as his wife put it, ‘Woke up the same man every day’ - calmly consistent. He was loved by hundreds of friends and family, all there to say goodbye to an ordinary, extraordinary man. We need men like that here on earth.
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Australia Liberated
Posted on November 26, 2007
Finally Australia has woken up and spoken up and we have a new leader, breaking the Bush, Blair, Howard triad - now it’s down to the US to complete the picture. Hopefully our new government will honour its promises to pull troops out of Iraq, sign the Kyoto Protocol and officially apologise to our indigenous Australians - that would be a good start anyway.
Among the affluent faced with a Labor government is the fear of unions, communism etc that is so out of date. The campaign ads were showing scenes of union riots 30 years ago! Brings this to mind:
First They Came for the Jews
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
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Story
Posted on November 13, 2007
Reading a couple of interesting writing books at the moment to support my thinking in a new venture working collaboratively on a screenplay with a more experienced screenwriter. The first book is STORY by Robert McKee subtitled Substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting. The second book is The Art of Dramatic Writing - its basis in the creative interpretation of human motives which essentially focuses more on the play - but still very relevant to any kind of fiction.
When I was first interested in writing fiction I read dozens of books on writing ‘the novel’ and realised at some point that reading about it was not actually doing it - so I gave that up and got on with it. So, it’s great to now come back to reading about writing techniques from a completely different perspective and with some experience under my belt.
I guess it’s that thing where you need to know the rules to break them and push the boundaries on what you want to achieve.
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