Gone but never forgotten.

A generous man and great loss to entertainment. Long ago and far away, Garry awarded a short film made from my script ‘Love You Mum’ and offered to ‘see more’ from the filmmakers.  Although his focus was on the young student filmmakers, a small moment of indirect personal validation from such an august and revered writer/producer, gave me great heart and kept my hopes alive. Thank you, Garry Marshall.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/garry-marshall-dead-happy-days-912665

And from The Guardian:

Garry Marshall: a genuine mensch who made everything improbably joyous.

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The Swinging Blue Jeans : Merseybeat Kings – The Hippy Hippy Shake, You’re No Good

Love this – ‘You’re no Good’ & Don’t Make Me Over’ bring back wonderful memories, as usual! Hope you don’t mind if I share this on my FB page as well, Thom!

The Immortal Jukebox

Some Other Guys 2 – British Beat Groups in the shadow of The Beatles

As the 1960s dawned winds of change were blowing not just across the colonies of the British Empire but also whistling through the great provincial cities of England.

A generation of young working class men, now that military conscription had been banished to history, no longer had to shudderingly look forward to years of endless spud peeling, square bashing and boot polishing.

Now, if they had the imagination, the will and the courage they could march to the beat of their own drum. And, if along with the drum they added two guitars and a bass they had a beat group!

If you’re looking for the great provincial city where the new call to arms was most resoundingly answered you have to sail down the River Mersey to Liverpool.

Liverpool was a great port city. And…

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Love and Friendship

Oooohhh, sounds delicious! 🙂

Film Mafia

Whit Stillman’s novelisation of his screenplay. Austen’s original was unfinished and published as LadySusan after her death.

***1/2

Whit Stillman’s fifth feature film – and first adapting material – is an adaptation of a previously unfilmed Jane Austen novella, Lady Susan, which he has renamed Love and Friendship. It’s a jaunty, spiffy, upbeat and pacy movie, the kind where everyone is too busy being witty, flirtatious and tart to sit down.

Stillman’s previous films – the thematic trilogy Metropolitan (1990), Barcelona (1994), The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Damsels in Distress (2011) – are united by their sparkling, erudite, literary and witty dialogue and their concern with a particular class of American folk, being the upper, and often the upper of the Upper East Side. One can easily understand why the strict codes of behaviour of Austen’s world would appeal to Stillman; London was the Manhattan of her…

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Persistence Pay Off

Congratulations to Josh Wakely, the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) graduate makes his dream of 5 bugs and Beatles songs, a reality for little ones.

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Words of Great Wisdom.

Steven Spielberg: 

“It’s all about making kids feel like they can do anything. That nothing’s impossible.”

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Trailer of the Day: Meal Tickets

Wishing local filmmakers Mat and crew a wonderful world premiere at MIFF!

Cinema Australia

Meal Tickets

Directed by Matt de Koning
Written by Brooke Tia Silcox and Matt de Koning
Produced by Dave Kavanagh and Brooke Tia Silcox
Cast Mat de Koning, Dave Kavanagh, Will Stoker, Lord Charles, Leroy Slick, Nici Ward, Matt Doust, Pip McMullen, Benny Barbarino and Mitch Mayhem

Facebook | Web | Vimeo

Meal Tickets is a coming of age roc-doc filmed over ten years about the lives of high school band mates and their roadie who dedicate their twenties to seeking success in the music industry. Australian filmmaker, Mat de Koning, filmed 700 hours of footage of his best friends to give this no holds barred look at being a rock’n’roller in an age where the Internet and social media changed the game. From Perth to New York, Melbourne to Los Angeles we are given a back stage pass to the gigs, the tour, the conflicts and indulgences. There is…

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2016 So Far

Thanks again, CJ.

Film Mafia

If you live in Australia, you’re in movie-goers luck right now: the two best dramatic features thus far this year are currently in cinemas, and the best feature length documentary opens on 18 August.

Sing Street and Goldstone are two very different propositions, and I use that word as a really deep cut reference to The Proposition, which, like Goldstone, is an Australian western. Goldstone is simultaneously full-genre and full-arthouse; it religiously revers The Western and The Detective Story while subverting both with its milieu and its staunch insistance on character development over plot tidiness. (Think less The Maltese Falcon, more The Big Sleep; less The Man Wh Shot Liberty Valance and way more The Searchers). Its stunning imagry rivals that of The Revenant of last year; its gaze is far more ordered than that film’s, though; the formal components of the shots are celebrated, and the shots themselves are…

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Southside Johnny, Rickie Lee Jones & Linda Ronstadt cover Walk Away Renee

Beautifully written, Thom. Your research and interpretations dig deep into my soul. Thank you, again.

The Immortal Jukebox

‘One fairer than my love! The all-seeing sun Nee’r saw her
match since first the world begun.’ (Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet)

‘Your name and mine inside a heart upon a wall
Still finds a way to haunt me though they’re so small’ (Michael Brown)

Some guys have all the luck. You know the type. They don’t shuffle and stumble. They stride, stroll and swagger through life. Golden apples and golden girls fall unbidden at their feet.

Most of us alternate between times when the tides of life seems to sweep us happily along and times when they treacherously turns against us. We carry on looking on in wonder at the guys who seem oblivious to those tides. Serenely they surf away from us into a golden sun.

And, some other guys just don’t seem made for these times. Fragile souls who retreat from the clashing, clangourous cacophony all around to…

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Peace and Tranquility by the Lake

Beautiful pictures, I wish we’d gone to see the place while we were there… next time.

Retirement and beyond

Peaceful lake Gougane

Gougane Barra Forest Park, in West Cork, is the source of the River Lee, which is 90 km in length, and flows through the valleys of mid Cork to Cork city and onwards to Cork Harbour where it joins the sea.

Gougane Barra is also where St. Finbarr, the founder of Cork, established a monastery in the 6th century.  He had a hermitage on a small island in the lake, the remains of which can still be seen, and the little church that still stands is a very popular place for weddings.

Gougane Barra church

There are lots of walks in the park itself, to suit all classes of walkers, and even on a misty day, it’s a peaceful place,as you can see from the gallery below.

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Sing Street

Looking out for this one, too!

Film Mafia

****1/2

John Carney’s Sing Street is a total delight from start to finish, and the best film about the pure joy of making music since We Are The Best! (2013), with which it shares similarities. Like that exuberant, inspiring film, Sing Street is about a group of kids forming a band in the 1980s. The girls in We Are The Best! were in Stockholm, and their aesthetic was punk. The boys of Sing Street – also the name of the band they form – are from Dublin; it is 1985, and they claim to be “futurists”, constantly being influenced by the likes of Duran Duran, Joe Jackson, A-Ha, The Clash, The Jam, M, The Style Council and The Cure.

It is also a completely engaging, hugely romantic love story. Sing Street’s lead singer (and Sing Street’s protagonist) is Conor, a fifteen year old who gets shifted from a private school…

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