A BIT OF EVERYTHING

Well, I haven't blogged for a while! Sorry about that. As usual life takes over.

Here's just a quick wrap-up of what's been happening (or is coming up).

Artsy stuff I'm loving;

1) Kill Your Darlings literary journal. Not only is it an amazing collection of writing, reviews, interviews and awesomeness but it looks so sexy. It's worth the moula for the cover pic alone (by Melbourne-based artist Jeremy Ley). There's so much goodness here - do yourself a favour.

2) The Wheeler Centre: Books, Writing, Ideas. This is why I love Melbourne. The Wheeler Centre is all about creating discourse around writers and writing - does that sound boring to you? Well you would be wrong there - check out the videos of events that have already happened - including this amazing performance by Paul Kelly at the Gala Evening of Storytelling - and prepare to concede defeat.

I attended the Gala night on February 13 and let me tell you there was a spark in that very large room - the air was electric with anticipation. Not just for the evening of speakers ahead but at what The Wheeler Centre means for Melbourne and where it might take us. Booking online is easy, many of the events are free and if not, are very reasonably priced. The Wheeler Centre has added further evidence to the "there's always something to do in Melbourne" argument, and how.

3) Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Yeah I know, it's over, but bloody hell I love Melbourne ... did I mention that? I managed to catch a whole lotta Comedy Fest. this year but there were two stand-outs for me. Firstly, Good Evening, with Shaun Micallef and Stephen Curry. If you've read this blog at all you know I have a serious crush on Micallef, but don't let that make you think I'm bias in my very high opinion of this production. I know it was the big-name ticket of the festival but there's a reason that these two gentlemen are so loved; they are brilliant. And that is all.

My second pick is Catherine Deveny's God is Bullshit: That's the Good News. It's so hard to love Deveny because she's so hit and miss. One minute you're reading her column shouting "Right on Sister!" and the next you're cringing behind the couch watching her on Q&A, wondering why she told that really bad joke and was glaring at Peter Dutton as if her retinas were burning. 

So I attended her show hoping for the best and was really, wonderfully impressed. She wasn't cracking a string of one-liners - she was telling a story that was close to her heart and it really worked. You didn't have to laugh, you didn't have to agree, you didn't have to understand. I especially liked the references for us post-Catholic-childhood Atheists; liturgical dancing? check. She was wonderfully entertaining and I do love a good "Fuck You!" to organised religion. And the really good news? She's doing a return season at Trades Hall from the 5th to the 8th of May. In the meantime, check out her Lunchbox/Soapbox at, you guessed it, The Wheeler Centre! Whoop!

TV stuff I'm loving;

1) The fact that The Pacific out-rated Hey Hey it's Saturday on its debut Wednesday night.

I watched a bit of Hey Hey and was suitably appalled at the nanna jokes, thinly-veiled racism, not so thinly-veiled sexism and general cringe-worthiness. It's just so wrong. It's like someone tore a hole in the space/time continuum and vomited in it. I didn't watch The Pacific, I'm not really into war-porn. I will try to watch some of the Melbourne episode tonight though (or one of the seven hundred 'encore' repeats on 7 digital).

2) Wilfred (SBS, Monday night 10pm). That mangy dog is a heart breaker, but oh, how I love him. This season is brilliant, my favourite so far is episode 2 where Sarah takes the boys to Nambour and Wilfred has an interesting existential conversation with a Cocky played by ... what do you know? Mr Stephen Curry! (I'm really tying things together here, huh?)

Other stuff;

Underbelly - Episode 1. I watched the first 15 minutes, the last 15 minutes and some bits in between. The dialogue is crap, the acting is average, the voice-over is intolerable - let's see, that leaves tits, stabbings, guns, tits, money, tits, drugs and tits. The most interesting thing about it was following the boob-count on Twitter. Underbelly; where television soap stars go to die (in a knife fight in King's Cross of course). The most horrifying bit was when the voice-over stated that the good-girl-turned-hooker had "liberated" herself by becoming a whore. Seriously? For fuck's sake.

MTR AM - Melbourne's new boys club AM radio station. You can expect bigoted commentary from program director Steve Price and his mates Andrew Bolt, Sam Newman, Steve Vizard and Jason Akermanis, to name a few. Any women you ask? Well a woman does the news updates, and then there's a program on Sundays that's co-hosted by a woman. Take THAT glass ceiling! I am loving thinking of things "MTR" might be an acronym for though; More Tiring Rants is my current favourite.

Roberta Williams - Since the death of Carl Williams on Monday we can expect to see a whole lot more of Roberta (well, whatever there's left to see after her lads mag shoot *spews in my mouth a little bit*). Supposedly New Idea is offering $250,000 for her story and ACA and TT will no doubt be returning to the story every day with "new angles" - i.e. What did Carl eat for breakfast that day? Was he a boxers or briefs kinda guy and did that have anything to do with his homicidal tendencies? - You know, the important stuff that the public want to know.

Masterchef is back - I'm kind of watching it, in that I'm watching it but not actually looking at it because I'm doing other stuff (like cooking a masterchef-worthy dinner). It's all tears and coulis really isn't it? "I'm doing this for my family", "I didn't want to look back and realise I wasted my life", "This is the most intense thing I've ever done" and from the judges, "I'd sell this in my restaurant", "Who would have thought a *insert occupation here* could cook" and "We want you to continue your journey" ... there's the recap for you.

Twitter - I love Twitter. I especially love living vicariously through Twitter. Watching Q&A whilst following Twitter makes it almost bearable when a planted Young Liberal asks a stupid, irrelevant  question (almost). Reading all the hilarious responses to the latest scandal is especially fun - my favourites are @thingboganslike, @firstdogonmoon, @trubnad, @domknight, @scrivenersfancy, @catherinedeveny and @wil_anderson.

Right, so there's a bit of a lot of stuff that I've been musing on - hopefully I get a chance to blog a bit more frequently soon.

In the meantime - follow me on TWITTER ... it's over there on the sidebar ... do it ... do it now ...

Wicked Crime-Drama

Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story scored 1.3 million viewers last night for channel 9. Starring Rebecca Gibney and Vince Colosimo it told the tale of murdered mother of two Maria Korp in 2005 - a tale that included sex, intrigue, lies, swingers and a good dose of Colosimo-esque ego-mania. It was very watchable.

I wonder though, whether it might have been better to use different names for the characters rather than those from the real life case. With the success of Underbelly has come a trend for real life crime-drama on Australian television. The thing about drama is that the story is embellished to create it. Facts are included or excluded for entertainment purposes. Events are changed, assumed, embellished.

Many people watching last night would have developed an opinion by the end of the telemovie. 

Whether it was that poor old Joe Korp had a personality disorder that was evident from childhood (thanks to some grainy childhood flashbacks of little Joe in 'cowboy' mode) or that Tania Herman was a misguided fool-for-love led astray by her dominating lover - viewers are making assumptions about people in real life based on the character portrayals by some of their favourite actors.

I found it interesting that Maria Korp was portrayed (by Gibney) as a normal albeit long-suffering wife of a cheating husband but that her obsession with psychics, spirituality, animal sacrifice and penchant for the "swinger" lifestyle was touched on only slightly. Her 'eccentric' behaviour was definitely shown as only being a result of her husband being unfaithful.

Tania Herman was portrayed almost as an innocent. A lonely single mother looking for a good time on the internet who was convinced to commit a crime by her lover. A far cry from the tough, muscle-clad Queen of the Jailhouse as some news reports have suggested more recently.

Then there's Joe Korp, eerily portrayed by Vince Colosimo as an unhinged, egotistical, dominating smooth-talker. He is quite plainly the villain of the piece and is unlikeable from the very first moment we meet him - perhaps because we know how the story unfolds.

But these characters are not, in reality, accurate portrayals of the actual people involved in the case - how can they be? Yet some viewers have been commenting on forums and blogs today about the case as though they had read all the court transcripts and had a deep understanding of the actual events.

As a crime-drama Wicked Love was quite good. But it's not a documentary - if it were, then such attractive actors would not have been chosen and there would have been no voice-of-God narration from the dead victim. Even the title suggests that this is indeed the "Maria Korp Story" - not a story based on actual events.

In fact it is based on a novel that is based on actual events called The Maria Korp Case: The Woman in the Boot Story, by Carly Crawford - which I haven't read.

It seems to me though, that in using actual cases for these crime shows that networks are making the viewer the judge, jury and executioner of the people involved in the real case. 

It's an interesting genre and I do find these programs fascinating, but to be honest I'd rather watch Australian Story and get the facts from the actual people involved (if they want to tell them) - even if they are less attractive and there are no soft-focus sex scenes. 

East West 101

SBS is currently screening series 1 of East West 101 again in the lead up to the second season beginning September 29.

Series 1 is "the story of two men whose destiny is irrevocably intertwined", both crime squad detectives on the mean streets of Sydney's west - Malik and Crowley play a dangerous game of revenge.

I was reminded last night (episode 2, season 1) of just what a brilliant, professional, touching and well produced package this series is. It's one moment heart-stopping action, one moment heart-breaking drama, with characters to love, characters to hate and the odd hate-to-love and love-to-hate one thrown in for good measure. Aaron Pederson (City Homicide, The Circuit) stars in episode 2 as an Aboriginal leader and criminal lawyer and gives, as usual, a magnificent performance.

The whole series is fantastic and as one comment on the website aptly put it; "this makes Underbelly look B grade".

You can watch all 6 episodes form series 1 online here.

Double Burp for Channel 7

Well, both Double Take and TV Burp on channel 7 last night were pretty terrible. There were a few clever moments in Double Take (few and far between that is) and I will give Ed Kavalee the benefit of the doubt because he was so great on Triple M's Get This (with Tony Martin), but really, I'm not sure either of the shows will be well loved.

There have been a few negative comments on forums about the swearing and nudity on Double Take - of course the rebuttals have pointed out that Underbelly was aired at 8:30pm on channel 9 and contained a lot more violence and nudity. The thing is though, Double Take is a comedy sketch show - not a serious drama - and the promos for it have been generally tame, as opposed to Underbelly, which was clearly not going to be family viewing for the kiddles.

In any case, nudity and swearing are the mark of a desperate comic - it's only smart comedy that can make us laugh without resorting to a dirty joke.

Mind you, I barely noticed the swearing - I was too busy watching the clock - counting down the minutes until it ended. TV Burp wasn't as painful, but certainly wasn't quality entertainment.

HS Creative Writing (aka. News)

It's not like I expect exceptional journalism from the Herald Sun but this article on the website today is beyond a joke.

"Des Moran killed as fear stalks Ascot Vale"

I'm not sure if writer and ASSOCIATE EDITOR of the Herald Sun, John Hamilton, is in the right business - methinks he'd be better off penning fluffy prose for Mills & Boon. An entire article based on a parakeet with an anxiety disorder is almost too much to bear. My favourite line;

"Outside the florist's shop, the parakeet tries his cheerful whistle again. Then stops. And trembles again."

- there are so many things wrong with that sentence I'm not sure where to begin.

Worse still is that this made PAGE FOUR of the actual paper! Both this and an article about channel 10's Masterchef got top billing ahead of Peter Costello's retirement ... I honestly wonder at how I'm still shocked.

The title though, must take the cake. Fear 'stalks' Ascot Vale does it? How terrible. Perhaps Ascot Vale should stop updating its status on Twitter? Or take out an AVO?

Almost 600 words of 'setting the scene' - I've forgotten, is the Herald Sun a newspaper or the Old Testament? Talk about trying to ride the coat-tails of an already dramatised series of events - perhaps Hamilton is trying to get a job as a writer for series 3 of Underbelly?

Really, I'm just not sure that glamorising the high drama of another gangland murder is such a good idea ... it's not like there's any money to be made in it ...