Tree: Part I

Tree (left) with James: Smith St, Fitzroy

This past weekend (on a journey that unbeknownst to me became quite a spiritual one) whilst visiting my good friend James in Melbourne, I met a man named Tree who changed my life. Tree is a tarot reader (among other things) and on Sunday evening I had the ultimate pleasure of being the subject for one of his readings. Before I get to Tree and the reading, I will share with you the activities that I partook in this past weekend.

[Note: Tree will be discussed in Part III]

Friday 12/11:

Upon arrival in Melbourne on Friday afternoon, I made my way to James' house in Thornbury. We hugged and spent 10 minutes catching up. The last time (and the first time) I saw/met James was in July, at the Vipassana meditation retreat in the Blue Mountains. He travelled there from Melbourne by car with a girl named Carly, whom he had only just met through a mutual friend that knew they had both planned on going, and suggested that they travel together. They are now a couple :)

James filled me in on his living situation, and that he was currently in the process of moving out of the share house in Thornbury to another share house in a suburb called Upwey, in Melbourne's east, at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges (where James grew up) - the house in which we would stay that night. So after packing some things for the night into my backpack, we made our journey by foot, bus and train to Upwey train station as we had a Kabbalah workshop to get to...

Diary of an Elitist

January 5th

Hey Diary,

I didn’t want to write ‘Dear Diary’ it’s just so overused don’t you think? And this is just our first meeting so it’s not like I’m going to be all love at first sight. We’re just getting to know each other. Very cliché (it’s cliché to say something’s cliché).

Anyways, where to start? Well, I guess I should say that I’ve started you because Jonny left for his holiday today and now I’m a little lonely. I mean I can’t talk to anyone like I can talk with him. I guess the first thing I have to get used to is seeing movies by myself. We swore to ourselves that we would see at least one movie a week no matter what, so even if we can’t do it together, we will keep it up. I mean I have to keep up my movie blog don’t I? I’ve got 10 followers now!!!! I might message a few of them and try get them on Facebook, see if they want to leave some comments on the site. I’ll keep you posted!

As for the site, last week I blogged about Transformers 2 (ugh!). I gave it minus 1 star(s), the first time any movie has achieved that rating from me. I would tell you why, but after sitting through it, and then writing about it I think I would be sick if I spent any more energy commenting on it.

Well I’m gonna go watch some Family Guy (seasons 1-3 of course!!!) before I go to work so I better head off. Nice introduction I think. Like our own Act I! I wonder what story arcs and character development await us in Act II!!

ciao,
Sam

Epilogue: Jonny

From the Wakefield Flats series...starts here

To Kevin,

Hey lil bro, whats been happening?

Ive been pretty busy here. They moved me to kitchen duties which has been awesome. I’m really loving the cooking and it has given me some ideas on what to do when I get out of this place – you know apart from banging teens and beating on their boyfriends. Haha just joking (I’ll wait til I’m off parole before I do that). Sansky tells me that – Oh wait I ruined the surprise – but yeah Sansky tells me I should follow my heart and if my heart wants to cook I should cook.

So yeah I guess you guessed by now but guess who my new cellmate is. That’s right. Sansky. You probably knew that cos he banged one of the little girls in your school right? That’s why they got him here with me. They must just throw the young pussy predators together so we can trade stories about- yeah I’m sure you heard enough and are more interested in getting some fresh conch of your own. Its funny though I went to school with this little fucker. We called him Weasel, used to always wease from his astma (plus he looked like a weasel. Weasel Sansky…voted least likely to end up in jail but most likely to be a prison bitch if he did. Well both those turned out to be wrong. His here and is no bitch. His been working out big time, under my guidance of course and he talks his way outta any fight. But if he gotta fight he does it well. Got plenty respect. More than I had on my first visit. All he talks about is the broad he got waiting on the outside. Brainy bitch who promised to wait for him. I told him they never wait but he rekons shes different.

Fuck I sound like I wanna fuck this guy. So whats going on with me? Not much really…prison as usual. I already mentioned I like cooking… I really hope you get a chance to write or visit me. I’m sure there is plenty more interesting shit happening in your corner so hit me back.

Peace,
Jonny

Helly's Film Take- The Social Network

You would have to have been living under a rock for the last five years to not know what Facebook is. But what most people don't know is the full story of it's creation and the controversy surrounding it's founder, the enigmatic Mark Zuckerberg. I knew tid bits of information from an article I had read in Rolling Stone but I certainly wouldn't have been able to guess just how deep the rabbit hole goes on this topic.

From the very first scene, this movie ignites your intrigue and propels forth, never loosing it's momentum. The dialogue is sharp and punchy but still believable as some of the characters in this film are quite literally geniuses, so naturally they would have an incredible grasp of language. The cuts between the live action and impending law suit scenes really help build your anticipation for the unfolding events, whereas usually so much talking could easily bore an audience.  One of my favourite lines of dialogue comes at the end of the first scene and is delivered by Erica Albright (Mark Zuckerberg's irate girlfriend) -

' Mark, for the rest of your life you're going to think that girl's don't like you because you're a nerd. But I'm telling you right now that it's because you're an asshole!'

The performances in this film are extraordinary. Some of the characters (the Winklevoss' for example) seem  larger than life but it's almost a symbolism for the on-line exaggerated personas that people create for themselves. I know that some of my actor friends were not too thrilled to see Justin Timberlake appear in this movie and think they should have given the role to a real actor. But I have to say that it was perfect casting if you think about the thought process behind it. Fincher and Sorkin clearly wanted to capture the essence of Sean Parker- rebellious, cocky, magnetic...basically a rock star. So why not cast an actual rock star to portray him?! Timberlake oozes charisma as Sean Parker and it's easy to see how the Zuckerberg character could fall under his spell.  Jesse Eisenberg is used to using his awkwardness to endear an audience, the difference here is that his awkwardness manifests itself in such a way that makes it hard for his character to know how to behave in social situations and he's often not very likable (I mean this in a good way.) Still, one can't help but admire Zuckerberg's ambition and extreme intelligence  and he definitely wins you over in the final scene, when you see maybe a hint of regret in his eyes as despite everything, he still wants to just have a friend.

Even if you are the person I mentioned at the top of the page who's been living under a rock and have no idea what facebook is (or just have no interest in it for whatever reason) the themes present in this movie such as friendship, class, betrayal and greed are elemental in creating solid drama and are as old as the dawn of time.

'You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.' That says it all...

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Filming, Editing and Music by Jay Bovino. Uncompressed mp3s are free