It's neither hair nor there at Brisbane City topless hairdressers
Topless hairdressing opened at The Grosvenor in February.
TOPLESS hairdressers have set up shop in Brisbane's CBD, with customers travelling from as far as Townsville to get their locks lopped.
Barber Babes operate out of The Grosvenor on George and involve a topless female barber cutting their hair wearing only hot pants or underwear.
The scantily-clad barbers also offer scalp massages, brow waxing, blow dries and a shave with a cut-throat razor.
Owner operator Jasmine Robson said all her stylists are fully qualified.
"One of the gorgeous barbers was even apprentice of the year when she trained," she said.
"Some of the barbers are available for lap dances but not whilst you are getting your Barber Babes service. They are serious about their art and don't take it lightly."
Ms Robson said most men generally don't enjoy getting their hair cut so the service aimed to make the experience more pleasurable.
"We found that a lot of exotic dancers are qualified hairdressers and don't do what they love as the wages are quite abysmal," she said.
Since Barber Babes opened in February, Ms Robson said the response has been excellent with some men coming in every couple of days for a shave.
Clients include a lot of fly in fly out miners from Brisbane, local businessmen, musicians, barristers, women and university professors.
"We have one client who flies in especially from Townsville to get his hair cut,'' Ms Robson said.
"We've had a few strange looks and baffled inquiries but definitely no complaints."
But Melinda Liszewski from Collective Shout, which campaigns against the objectification of women, said she wasn't surprised to hear the service is popular.
"What we're seeing is the crossover of the sex industry into other more mainstream areas," she said.
"It's reinforcing the idea that women exist for mens sexual arousal and titilation."
A Singaporean navy officer currently training in an Australia academy was found guilty of forcing a kiss out of a fellow female cadet.
However, Benedict Ang Yong Chuean, a trainee at the Australian Defence Force Academy, was cleared on Friday of a second charge of undoing her bra and touching her breast while she slept, according to a report on The Canberra Times.
The Australian news outlet reported that Ang, 22, had entered the female cadet's room in the wee hours of May 6 last year.
He proceeded to lay down on a bed next to the 18-year-old cadet after a night out in town where she had 18 drinks.
Ang, who had five drinks on the same night, was said to have then rubbed her back, before holding her by the jaw and repeatedly trying to kiss her.
The female cadet said she used her teeth to force him to stop before falling back asleep, while Ang said that the kiss was consensual.
He also said that he stopped kissing her after she said: "I can't do this, you're like my bro."
The prosecution team claimed that Ang had an "unrequited love" for the cadet he reportedly refers to as "sis", and also told the court that he admitted to fellow cadets that he "f**ked up" and pleaded with them not to make a report for fear of ruining his career.
Ang maintained his innocence throughout the trial, and refuted the latter suggestion, saying that he was fearful of the ADFA's rules on non-fraternisation instead.
The Straits Times reported that Ang is a Singapore Armed Forces scholar who is studying at the ADFA to study for a degree awarded by the University of New South Wales.
Ang will be sentenced in late May, and is currently out on bail.
Dog Helps Save Owner Herbert Schutz, 76-Year-Old Trapped Under Car For Four Days
Boydy, an Australian kelpie, truly is a loyal companion.
After his owner, 76-year-old Herbert Schutz, became trapped under his vehicle in Australia, the dog stayed by his side for four days until help arrived, local news sources report.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Schutz crashed his car Thursday on his Rylstone property after hitting a tree. He was pinned beneath the vehicle until Monday night. Two neighbors began a search for the elderly man when his daughter became concerned that she hadn't heard from him.
"Even when we found him, the dog ran straight to his side and cuddled up to him. He didn't want to leave him even then," neighbor Eric Merritt told The Newcastle Herald.
Though Schutz was lucid when the two men found him around 6 p.m. Monday, he was taken to a local hospital in serious condition. He suffered from a fractured skull, two broken hips and a dislocated shoulder, the Herald reports.
As the Telegraph notes, Schutz "was adamant his dog had saved his life."
"He said his dog lay on him and kept him warm a lot of the time," Merritt told the publication.
Man's best friend has often gone above and beyond to help save people in times of crisis. In October, a Japanese Akita jumped into freezing water in Scotland to keep his owner from drowning. Earlier, in 2011, a 79-year-old Minnesota woman said her dog chased away predators during the night she fell outside her home, and she credited her survival to the pup.
A photograph of a nude six-year-old girl on the cover of a high-brow Australian art magazine today sparked an uproar after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called it disgusting, infuriating liberal art critics.
This month's taxpayer-funded Art Monthly Australia magazine placed the photograph of the young dark-haired girl on the cover, sitting and with one nipple showing, to protest censorship of a recent photo exhibition featuring similarly naked children.
"I can't stand this stuff," said Rudd, a staunch Christian whose centre-left Labor government won a sweeping victory over conservatives last year, in part on a vow to reinvigorate Australia's small but influential arts community.
"We're talking about the innocence of little children here. A little child cannot answer for themselves about whether they wish to be depicted in this way," Rudd added, as officials said they would review the magazine's funding.
Magazine editor Maurice O'Riordan said he hoped the July edition of the monthly magazine would restore "dignity to the debate" about artistic depictions of children and anyone else.
The magazine cover followed confiscation by police in May of photographs of a young girl taken by artist Bill Henson and briefly on display in a Sydney art gallery.
The cover photo, which had been on public exhibition in Australia for some time, was taken in 2003 by Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou and depicted her own daughter, Olympia Nelson, now aged 11.
The Australian Childhood Foundation said parents had no ethical right to consent to nude photographs being taken of their children, as it could have a psychological impact in later years.
But Nelson and her father, art critic and professor Robert Nelson, defended the photo in a press conference outside their home in the southern city of Melbourne.
"I love the photo so much. I think that the picture my mum took of me had nothing to do with being abused, and I think nudity can be a part of art," Olympia Nelson said.
Rudd last week met with the leaders of Australia's six states and said he would forge a national child protection system following a spate of shocking cases of child neglect and abuse.
His government also criticised Australia's "binge drinking" culture and sharply lifted taxes on so-called "alcopops" blending alcoholic drinks like vodka or rum with soft drinks and juices, making them popular with young adults, especially women.
"We're sick of being unjustly targeted by a small minority group of wowsers," Australian Hotels Association chief executive Sally Fielke said, using an Australian term for an excessively puritanical person.
Fielke represents mainly the $25bn local alcohol industry, but her thoughts echoed those of many social commentators and liberals.
Martyn Jolly, the head of photography and media arts at the elite Australian National University, said of the latest art controversy that the Henson photographs had been reviewed and approved by government censors.
"We aren't going to let politicians who are always wanting to jump on populous bandwagons dictate what we can and can't show," Jolly said.
Student turned away from Tiger Airways flight Was told the flight had been overbooked Complaint on Facebook attracted 50,000 likes
HELL hath no fury like an Australian university student scorned by a budget airline.
Nathaniel Martin took to Facebook to vent his frustrations after Tiger Airways bumped him from his flight from Hobart to Melbourne on Sunday, telling him it had been overbooked. Little did he expect his Facebook post to attract over 50,000 likes and grab the airline's attention.
"I went to board the plane and was informed that you had oversold my flight, and that I would have to be 'offloaded' and could not board the plane," Mr Martin's Facebook post to the airline read.
"The reason given was that 'I was the last to check in', even though I had booked the ticket a month in advance and was 15 minutes early to check in.
"The federal police officer of 20 years experience helping my family said it was the 'worst case of customer service he had ever seen' and the flight attendant told me to 'get them for every cent'."
With an 8am class in Melbourne the next morning, Mr Martin was forced to pay another $296 to get on a Jetstar flight later that night, leaving him nearly $500 out of pocket in total. For a university student earning $9000 a year, it was a substantial financial blow.
Luckily his parents came back to the airport and chipped in half of the fare.
"I am now two hours late, exhausted, $500 out of pocket and with no cash to get home from the airport for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING caused by YOUR INCOMPETENCE.
"Not only do I want a full refund of the $495.45, a full apology to me and my family for the unbelievable inconvenience you have caused and an assurance that you will never deliberately oversell a flight again. I am never flying with your airline ever again and will tell every living soul what you have done to me tonight."
The next day, after his Facebook post attracted 50,000 likes, he received a call from Tiger Airways who agreed to refund him the full fare and apologised.
After they had reached the agreement, Mr Martin deleted his original Facebook post.
"Tiger Airways have agreed to refund me the full fare of what happened last night including the other flight I had to pay for to get to Melbourne," he said in a Facebook post to Tiger Airways.
"They have been very good to me in responding to this quickly and rectifying their error."
Tiger Airways told news.com.au Mr Martin’s situation was a rare one.
"Overbooking of flights is common practice in the air travel industry here in Australia and world over – it’s a practice put in place by airlines (and other travel and tourism industries) to compensate for an average no show rate," a Tiger Airways spokesperson said.
"While issues in relation to this are extremely rare, we are very sorry to have inconvenienced one of our passengers recently. On review of the situation, we dealt directly with the passenger and resolved his specific situation.
"This is an isolated situation however Tiger does have policies and provisions in place to reaccommodate anyone who is affected by overbooking on the very rare occasion that it occurs, including free of charge transfer to next available flight."
Diggers reunite after 72 years They were school friends in the 1930s that lost track of one another during WWII. Now at the age of 90, they've reunited thanks to a newspaper ad.
On March 3, 1941, two former high school mates travelled together to the Sydney Showground to enlist in the Second World War.
Harry ''Hal'' Wolters and Cecil ''Buff'' Creswick were told they needed written parental consent because they were under 21. They went to the nearby Captain Cook Hotel, spent two shillings and sixpence on a beer and forged each other's parents' signatures.
On April 1 they travelled again to Sydney and became separated, with neither knowing whether the other had been killed, injured or even survived the war.
On the 72nd anniversary of their separation, Mr Wolters, now 90, thought it might be nice to know how Mr Creswick, also 90, was doing.
On the Easter weekend he placed a small advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald's RSVP column. ''I just wanted to know if he [Mr Creswick] was still going,'' Mr Wolters said.
Mr Wolters has thought about his mate from Penrith High often over the intervening years. World War II veteran Buff Creswick.
World War II veteran Buff Creswick.
''We parted in 1941 and we haven't been in contact since,'' he said.
Last week Mr Wolters was working, as he often does, in his shed when the phone rang.
''The voice said: 'It's Buff Creswick here.' I said, 'Holy, bloody hell.' I was just about dumbstruck.''
On Friday, Mr Creswick flew from Sydney to his old school mate's property at Kempsey, north of Port Macquarie.
The two nonagenarians , embraced, complimented each other on being alive and then, briefly, Mr Wolters was overwhelmed.
Then began the formidable task of catching up. Mrs Wolters had baked scones and sausage rolls and there were a few cold beers in the fridge.
As they chatted on the verandah, they discovered they almost got involved in the same unusual branch of the war effort. Mr Creswick, in the 2nd Infantry Battalion, was sent to Syria and Beirut but was among troops brought back to defend Australia.
He was then sent to the Kokoda Track fighting the Japanese in conditions he described as horrific. ''We started out with a strength of 697 fighting men and finished up left with 87. I was one of the lucky ones,'' he said.
But what finally took him away from the fighting was that he became severely ill after contracting malaria.
He was regarded as a useful experiment subject to help in the fight against malaria at the Medical Research Unit in Cairns.
Mr Wolters ended up at the same place, albeit at a different time. He also was enlisted as a guinea pig, but one they wanted to deliberately infect with the disease. He described his involvement in the war as ''five years of being buggerised around''.
''We were ready to go to the Middle East but when the Japanese came into the war they panicked and sent us to Western Australia. I got sick of the inactivity and one day they called for volunteers to partake in experiments to see what they could do about finding a cure for malaria.''
Mr Creswick said: ''I put my arm into a box of mosquitoes and they had to bite the buggery out of you.''
Mr Wolters said: ''I got mine through a blood transfusion. They put a tube into another man and then they put a tube into me and a nurse turned a little handle and the blood came out of the other bloke into me.
''It wasn't him [Creswick] because I would have been able to recognise him in those days.''
As they sat looking out at the property, they sipped the beer just as they did at the Captain Cook Hotel.
''We've got spare rooms and beds here,'' said Mr Wolters.
They are planning the next reunion. There's more to discuss.
A Brisbane man has faced court after allowing his 13-year-old son to visit a prostitute during a family holiday to Thailand.
The 45-year-old father, who cannot be named, appeared before Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday on two charges related to child sex tourism offences.
The offences allegedly took place on the Thai resort island of Ko Samui in September last year.
The charges, which carry penalties of up to 20 years in jail, relate to Commonwealth laws designed to stop Australian pedophiles preying on foreign children.
This is believed to be the first time the laws have been used in such a way, the Courier-Mail reports.
The charges allege that the father caused a child under the age of 16 to engage in sexual intercourse outside Australia and that he procured a child to engage in sexual activity outside his place of residence.
He was also charged with assaulting his son on Brisbane's bayside in February last year.
Moonee Ponds converted church sells for $2.4 million
A converted church in Melbourne’s Moonee Ponds has sold for $2.4 million.
Located at 1 Hudson Street Moonee Ponds, the sale was secured by John Morello from Jellis Craig Kensington. The architecturally transformed Moonee Ponds church had an incredible 12,500 internet hits and 325 inspections.
So in anticipation of a huge auction day crowd, the agency organised a coffee cart with complimentary drinks.
There were more than 300 spectators and three bidders, with the offering sold just after auction.
Its listing was reported by Property Observer last month.
Designed by owner and architect duo Dominic and Marie Bagnato, the property has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a gym and a basement wine cellar.
The Gothic-style timber church was originally built by Tadgell Brothers following the general consensus at an 1890 resident’s meeting that the area needed a church for religious purposes and Sunday school.
The church was officially opened by then Lord Bishop of Melbourne Dr Goe.
The church acted as a venue for sports meetings, working bees and other social activities.
The church was part of the St Thomas parish, before leaving temporarily in 1915 and permanently in 1960.
In 1904, an extension to the church was built at the rear and in 1918 a vicarage was built nearby. A church hall was built in 1927.
The current vendors bought the church itself in 2007.
Australian Customs Officials Will Search Your Laptop For Porn
The Australian Sex Party—which is a trade group, not a fun Friday night—has risen up against new Australian customs rules that allow officials to search your personal electronics for pornography. Even Crocodile DunDD? Outrage!
When heading Down Under, travelers are required to fill out Incoming Passenger Cards that list what they're bringing into the country. For the last several months, those cards have included a "Pornography" category. If you don't check the box but have mature content on your laptop or phone, you're breaking the law. If you do check it, officials are going to go through your stash.
While measures to prevent illegal pornography from crossing borders make total sense, Australian customs officials are looking for any and all R18+ and N18+ material—even of the homemade variety. As ASP president Fiona Patten points out:
"If you and your partner have filmed or photographed yourselves making love in an exotic destination or even taking a bath, you will have to answer 'Yes' to the question or you will be breaking the law."
The policy has been in place since last fall, and the fact that it's only just now gaining notoriety indicates that it hasn't created too much awkwardness. It's a terrible breach of privacy, though, and one that will hopefully be corrected now that the backlash is finally building.
But for now? Best to think twice about heading to the outback with a hard drive full of boobs.
Strippers (and sex workers) tend not to play to stereotype.
In April this year I had the pleasure of being on a panel at a feminist conference with Elena Jeffreys, the President of Scarlet Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association.
Elena is a compelling and articulate advocate for sex workers and their rights. She spoke passionately about the damage that some sections of the feminist movement were doing to sex workers’ struggle to ensure their voices were being taken seriously by politicians and policy makers. She made it very clear that sex workers were sick of being labelled as universal victims of patriarchy by feminist activists who had little appreciation of the diversity of the people who work in her industry and the discrimination they face.
She received rousing applause from hundreds of feminists of all generations. The idea that any woman who chooses to trade her body for sex - or dance naked for that matter - is a dupe of the patriarchy is now a middle class norm. And indeed class is the real elephant in the corner of much debate about porn, sex work and ‘raunch culture’.
Nice girls don pretty short tutus and show off their toned legs twirling in pink tights. Trashy girls swing around poles and bare their butts. Decent girls marry merchant bankers and give them good looking babies in exchange for houses in upmarket suburbs. Bad girls put a cash value on their bodies.
Best Undressed is a documentary that explores these nascent political issues in an understated and affectionate manner. It follows the young women competing for the title of Miss Nude Australia. Thankfully, the filmmakers resist the urge to truck in pro and con feminist ‘experts’ to put the girls under a microscope. As this documentary shows, the girls are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves.
An early interview features two of them chatting and giggling when one explains she’s interested in forensic science. She pauses a beat, looks her interviewer in the eye and says: “Strippers can read”.
Pageant organiser John Monaghan briefs the girls on the judging criteria. He doesn't guild the lilly. “We are not judging for the biggest breasts, the longest legs nor are we judging for the tightest ass”. Apparently a natural look and healthy hair are also important. The bottom line, as he aptly puts it, is a $20,000 prize. For most of the contestants, that's a deposit on a house.
The girls are under no illusions about what they need to do to win. You start off with a carefully costumed dance sequence, teasingly remove your gear and end by giving the punters a few flashes of what they really came to see. In between the choreographed disrobing they give spectacular displays of gymnastics involving poles and hoops. It's top drawer athletics.
Some of them started very young. The delightfully frank Miss Nude Sydney, Trinity, takes the doco crew back to her small suburban home and shows them the verandah pole she began swinging around as a small child. Her mother confirms that the family always joked she'd be a pole dancer. While honest about her concerns for her daughter, she is loving and supportive.
Trinity is an incredible gymnast and delightfully straightforward about her exhibitionism. Funny, free-spirited and clearly tough-minded, she is excited about going to Adelaide for the contest. She's never been there. Suzie Q, Miss Nude NSW, is the most compelling of all the interviewees. She gives her interviews sans makeup and looks like the girl next door who's training for the state swimming carnival. Fit body, broad shoulders, sweet face and no bullshit. Of her colleagues she says: "[They] are just regular women...it doesnt mean they're not intelligent. It doesn't mean they don't have other options in their lives. The majority of them choose to do it ... it doesn't mean you can grab their ass, it doesn't mean they're going to have sex with you".
Miss Nude Tasmania is pragmatic about her talents : "Anyone can take their clothes off. But can you do it with a bit of style - a bit of class". She is sick to death of guys "who want to speak down to exotic dancers." She loves dancing but worries that her father will blame himself for getting a divorce if he knew she was a stripper. She tells a moving story about being asked to perform a dance for a dying 18-year-old boy in an intensive care unit. "I don't know if you've ever seen a mother who knows she's going to lose her son. I don't know if he'd ever seen a naked girl ... I took my glove off and I gave it to him ... I did the show and I lost it. It gutted me".
She got a message from the family thanking her.
I won't tell you who won the contest. Watch and see for yourself. For my money - and I'd definitely put dollar bills in the garter belts of all these girls - it's one of the best modestly budgeted documentaries SBS has to put air this year. Perhaps I'm biased - the girls remind me a lot of my grandmother. She worked as a barmaid in a very rough dockyard pub and there's something in these girls that reminds me of her - a knowingness about men, an ability to keep crowd control and a strong cheeky earthy sense of self.
Clive Palmer has ordered more than 100 mechanical dinosaurs from China, slowly turning his dream of a jurassic park at his Coolum resort into a reality.
The billionaire has confirmed the order, with his latest dinosaur, a 20-metre long and 3.5-metre high Deinosuchus, due to arrive by the end of next month.
The early relative of the crocodile will be the third of a planned 165 dinosaurs to be added to the dinosaur park, which is scheduled to open later this year on the grounds of the Palmer Coolum Resort.
Mr Palmer said the next shipment would include a 1200 kilogram brachiosaurus and a 7 metre tall mamenchisaurus - both tall plant-eating reptiles. Advertisement
The animals, which will be displayed in the woodlands around the resort, will sway their tails, heave their chests and blink.
The park was started with a life-size T-rex which Mr Palmer dubbed Jeff, widely seen as a dig at Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney.
"The Deinosuchus, whose name translates as 'terrible crocodile', was one of the biggest prehistoric crocodiles that ever lived," the statement announcing the latest addition said.
"Apart from its sheer size, the Deinosuchus is very similar to today's crocodiles, illustrating how little evolution has taken place in the species over millions of years."
Mr Palmer made an application to the Sunshine Coast Council last year to turn part of the Coolum resort's golf course into a dinosaur park.
For many people it’s the ultimate dream – ditching cubicle life for the freedom of the open road, without worrying about running out of money.
For a growing number of tech-savvy entrepreneurs, or ‘digital nomads’, making a decent living wherever there’s Wi-Fi has become a happy reality.
We speak to three enterprising types who have managed to create a work/life balance with a difference.
James Clark, website builder
Clark, who still calls Melbourne home when asked, describes himself as a “location independent entrepreneur”.
First bitten by the travel bug when he moved to the UK on a two-year working visa in 1999, Clark found his wanderlust impossible to shake. Luckily, it was around the time the internet started showing great promise.
“That’s when I kind of realised that I really loved the internet and I loved to travel and decided to put the two of them together,” says the now 41-year-old, speaking via Skype from Singapore.
After his UK visa expired, Clark moved to Dublin and vowed to set up a business that would let him continue his globetrotting life. Working temp jobs, he learnt web design at night.
In 2001, he began making travel websites and by 2003, his business, Urban Nomad, had become a full-time proposition.
For many years he lived half the year in St Kilda and spent the rest travelling, but has had no fixed address since 2010.
His main venture is based in Australia and offers web design, e-marketing and search engine optimisation. Clark says his work comes via word-of-mouth or his website, Nomadic Notes, which he created to boost his profile and document his adventures. That’s also led to perks such as a press trip to Jordan.
Clark gets some interesting reactions to his lifestyle.
“I went home once and I ran into a friend and they’re like ‘I heard you’ve become a bum’,” he says.
“It’s a business. I’m pretty sure I work more hours than half my friends.”
TIPS
Do easier work in cafes, but save new projects for a quieter space such as your hotel room. Meet up with other digital nomads through forums such as the Dynamite Circle.
Jodi Ettenberg, food blogger
Canadian-born Ettenberg, 33, originally planned to take a year of leave from her job as a lawyer in New York to travel.
But somehow one year morphed into five, as her travel blog Legal Nomads gained a following and spun off into freelance writing and photography, a self-published book, speaking engagements and social media consulting.
“For the first two years I was working off my savings. I was on a blogger site and not on WordPress,” says Ettenberg.
Now her website gets about 150,000 page views a month.
She’s travelled to destinations including South America, Russia and Mongolia and is now spending four months eating and working in Ho Chi Minh City.
“There’s a fallacy that because I’m posting photos of soup all the time I must not be working at all,” she says. “I’m building a business that I’m really invested in and I’m really proud of.”
Ettenberg says she rarely gets lonely as she hangs out with other digital nomads, arranges meet-ups on the way and regularly returns home.
“I didn’t set out to be a digital nomad. I just kind of followed each rabbit hole,” she says.
“It’s not like I quit my job because I was disenchanted with the corporate world, but now I've left it, I've loved building something new.”
TIPS Develop a routine to avoid sensory overload. Use Evernote, WhatsApp, Skype and Boingo.
Colin Burns, web developer
Surviving on your nomadic wits as a single person is one thing, but what about doing it with two kids in tow?
Ask Burns and his wife Tracy, who left Brisbane with Noah, now 7, and Hayley, 5, in January 2010.
Burns had sold a web design business to another company, which he then worked for – but quickly realised he hated being an employee. The day after quitting he won $25,000 in web design contracts.
“That was kind of the catalyst. We realised we really didn’t have to be in Australia to do this kind of work,” says Burns, who wanted to spend more time with his young children.
“We just figured raising kids was difficult anyway, whether we were at home or travelling.”
Giving themselves six weeks to take off, the young family was hit for six when Tracy was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Three months later she was OK and they were away.
“That first year we did a fair bit of travel, backpacker-style travel,” says Burns.
Tracy home-schools the children while her husband does the back-end work for Australian websites.
Much of their time has been spent in Asia, where life is cheap and Wi-Fi is plentiful.
“You pretty much know that most places in Asia have Wi-Fi. Unless you’re on a tiny deserted island in Thailand you’re going to be fine,” says Burns.
In July, Burns and his family will ditch the backpacks indefinitely, as the children start school in Queenstown, New Zealand.
“We’re at that point now where I’ve had enough and the kids have had enough and Tracy’s had enough,” says Burns. “You can have too much of a good thing.”
Burns plans to continue his business from Queenstown and is also involved in a soon-to-be-launched New Zealand start-up Scrattch.com that aims to be a Pinterest for content.
Tips Do something about which you’re passionate. Set up your business for at least a year before taking it on the road.
Have you ever seen the movie Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)? It's really quite good. The movie plays something like a fly on the wall rehearsal documentary of a stage production of Anton Chekov's immortal "Uncle Vanya." It marked the first important clue that Julianne Moore was going to be a major screen goddess (unless you count Short Cuts as just that, which some do) and it also gave Brooke Smith her first worthwhile role after achieving a kind of 'who is that she looks so familiar?' fame as "The Girl in the Pit" in Silence of the Lambs.
Two "Yelena"s: Cate (on stage) and Julianne (on film)
It's a worthwhile rental so long as you give it your full attention as it's full of intricacies and performances of quiet but potent dramedic depth. If you're in Australia, though, you can see more than a rehearsal. You can see the real thing on stage.
VANYA ON 42ND STREET
VANYA ON PIER 4, HICKSON ROAD
Andrew Upton (Mr. Cate Blanchett) has adapted the play for the Sydney Theater Company. The cast is full of familiar Australian movie faces like Cate herself, Hugo Weaving, Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge!) and this year's Best Supporting Actress hopeful Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). I expect a full report from Australian readers who get a chance to see it. Do as I say! The production is currently playing and runs through January 1st, 2011.
Can Cate's "Yelena" measure up to Julianne's sublime take?
And when is Hugo Weaving going to get another worthwhile film role? Lately the movies have reduced him to a disembodied voice or cameo player in noisy "event" movies (V For Vendetta, Lord of the Rings, Transformers). His next big role is the villainous Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. But given the role, we still won't really be looking at his face, will we?
And what's wrong with his face, I ask. It's got real character. Stop hiding him, moviemakers!
Have you ever loved a performance so much that your subsequent disinterest in the same actor is actually hard to wrap your head around? That's me when it comes to Russell Crowe.
I love everything about him in L.A. Confidential... but in particular the way he looks at Kim Basinger. God, the way he looks at her. It's just riveting. He easily made my Best Actor shortlist in 1997. For the record it went like so...
Russell Crowe, LA Confidential
Johnny Depp, Donnie Brasco
Christopher Guest, Waiting for Guffman
Ian Holm, The Sweet Hereafter*winner*
Mark Wahlberg, Boogie Nights
I'd probably rejigger to make Christopher Guest the winner now that it's been 13 years (yes, Guffman arrived in '97 even though it's listed as '96 everywhere) and that performance is still the most hilarious I think I've ever seen.
But I'm veering off topic. Damnit.
Back on. I watched a few key Confidential scenes after reading Craig's Take Three: Kim Basinger this weekend and fell for Crowe's "Bud White" (great character name) all over again. Before L.A. Confidential hit I had only seen him in the Australian movie Proof (1991, not the Gwynnie Paltrow movie -- this one is more interesting) and in the western The Quick and the Dead (1995). And after L.A. I rented another Australian movie The Sum of Us (1994) and also loved him there.
So back in 1997 I assumed he was totally my new favorite actor. He became everyone else's favorite actor (at least for a few years)... but weirdly not mine. Not mine at all. So now when he has a new movie out (like The Next Three Days) it almost doesn't register with me.
<--- Crowe in Proof (1991).
I lost interest so quickly.
Have you ever had that happen to you with an actor / actress that you just really thought was going to be a personal fav? Does it mean that we let external forces get in the way? Does it mean we never loved the actor/actress but just the role they won / did justice to? Or maybe it's a complicated mix of all sorts of things like media saturation, public persona, film choices, personal quirks.
I'd love to hear stories if this has ever happened to you... *
On this very day in 1939, Australia's Northern Standard incorrectly assumed that The Lady Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and her Drover (Hugh Jackman) had both perished in the Kuraman Desert!
Newspapers. They've always had it rough; The second you publish something it's ancient history.
Just as soon as this news was making the rounds the lady and her cattle driving man, rode into town in a cloud of triumphant dust and defeated their main rival. They won! Celebratoryparties, long delayed lovemaking and a return to the now thriving Faraway Downs followed. After a short orgiastic montage of Australia's natural beauty (the country's and the movie's), the epic movie ends with a speech by the young narrator Nullah (Brandon Walters)
Just like Drover say 'that rain make everything come alive.' The land it grow green and fat and we all go back to Faraway Downs. Mrs Boss happy. Drover Happy.
I hear for the first time that thing called Christmas. Then the rain, it stops. And then Drover, he go droving. The Mrs Boss, she always misses Drover. But I know, he's going to come back.
How perfect are these golden shots as closing romantic images?
Only there's no closing. The epic movie didn't end there, not on October 29th (and the cattle drive was already quite a movie) or with Nullah's first Christmas. Or even after the Drover went a-drovin' again, an amusingly brief montage which consists only of this leaving and returning, beautifully illustrating a family falling into its future pattern.
But there's a lot more adventure, World War II adventure, coming. There's roughly sixty more minutes of it. I've often thought that had Australia wrapped up with that three shot shown above and this clear romantic narrative about the formation of a family (after one hour and forty-three minutes of a rousing western adventure), the critics and audiences might have been kinder. Wasn't Australia's main sin only that it was desperately overstuffed, that it didn't trust that one adventure, one tone, or one lead character arc was enough and it had to pack in at least a few of everything? Sometimes less is more, even for gorgeous sun-kissed epic that aspire to the mythic.
Australia came out two years ago and though two years isn't a long time, you rarely hear people discuss this one anymore. Have any of you watched it recently? If you haven't seen it since its premiere, what is your most vivid memory of it? * * *
Remember that one year (2001) when the list-happy AFI (American Film Institute) decided to compete with the Globes and the Oscars in year end prizes? No, that didn't last long. But there's another AFI, The Australian Film Institute, that has been around for a long time and is in no such danger of being a one-off. This year, they're all about the amazing family crime drama Animal Kingdom which they awarded with a record breaking 18 nominations. Sure, the film is in danger of being way overhyped for people who are coming to it late (which is just about everyone given the sorry state of international distribution for dramas of virtually any kind) but for those who can slough off the "omg" raves, I guarantee you'll think it at least an insinuating and well executed crime drama.
AFI Favorites with multiple nominations
Its main competition for the coveted prizes, if you go by nomination counts, is Bright Star(different eligibility calendar over there in Australia). I haven't really covered the Australian Awards before -- we lean on Glenn for that -- but since i've seen three of their Best Picture nominees this time around (the two leaders plus the aborigine musical Bran Nue Dae), why not?
Complete nomination list -- with more Oscar adjacent & actor related comments -- after the jump.
Tomorrow When The War Began. Andrew Mason, Michael Boughen.
I'm actually not sure which of these categories Australian's consider their "Best Picture" but it's mostly the same competition anyway with only the widower drama The Boys Are Back and the widow drama The Tree working Swing position. Maybe Clive Owen & Charlotte Gainsbourg, who star as those grieving single parents, should've just gotten married to end their suffering: The Tree is Back!
AFI Award for Best Direction
Animal Kingdom. David Michôd.
Beneath Hill 60. Jeremy Hartley Sims.
Bright Star. Jane Campion.
The Tree. Julie Bertuccelli.
Macquarie AFI Award for Best Original Screenplay
Animal Kingdom. David Michôd.
Beneath Hill 60. David Roach.
Bright Star. Jane Campion.
Daybreakers. Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig.
It'd be nice to see Michôd fighting for a spot with Oscar in the Original Screenplay category, but even with screeners going out so early, that could be a tough sell. But still, his is an unusually taut and smart script.
Macquarie AFI Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Bran Nue Dae. Reg Cribb, Rachel Perkins, Jimmy Chi.
The Boys Are Back. Allan Cubitt.
The Tree. Julie Bertuccelli.
Tomorrow When The War Began. Stuart Beattie.
AFI Award for Best Cinematography
Animal Kingdom. Adam Arkapaw.
Beneath Hill 60. Toby Oliver ACS.
Bright Star. Greig Fraser.
The Waiting City. Denson Baker ACS
With apologizes to the two films here I haven't seen I'll be disappointed if Greig Fraser loses this. I'm still mortified that he collected so few nominations and wins here in America. Bright Star is jaw-droppingly beautiful. It's a shame the way it was treated in last year's Oscar race.
AFI Award for Best Editing
Animal Kingdom. Luke Doolan.
Beneath Hill 60. Dany Cooper ASE.
Bright Star. Alexandre de Franceschi ASE.
Tomorrow When The War Began. Marcus D’Arcy.
AFI Award for Best Sound
Animal Kingdom. Sam Petty, Rob Mackenzie, Philippe Decrausaz.
Beneath Hill 60. Liam Egan, Alicia Slusarski, Mark Cornish, Tony Murtagh.
Bran Nue Dae. Andrew Neil, Steve Burgess, Peter Mills, Mario Vaccaro, Blaire Slater, David Bridie, Scott Montgomery.
Tomorrow When The War Began. Andrew Plain, David Lee, Gethin Creagh, Robert Sullivan.
AFI Award for Best Original Music Score
Animal Kingdom. Antony Partos, Sam Petty.
Beneath Hill 60. Cezary Skubiszewski.
Bran Nue Dae. Cezary Skubiszewski, Jimmy Chi, Patrick Duttoo Bin Amat, Garry Gower, Michael Manolis Mavromatis, Stephen Pigram.
Bright Star. Mark Bradshaw.
Bran Nue Dae does have fun musical numbers though typically the trailer doesn't really play that up.
AFI Award for Best Production Design
Animal Kingdom. Jo Ford.
Beneath Hill 60. Clayton Jauncey.
Bright Star. Janet Patterson.
Tomorrow When The War Began. Robert Webb, Michelle McGahey, Damien Drew, Bev Dunn.
AFI Award for Best Costume Design
Animal Kingdom. Cappi Ireland.
Beneath Hill 60. Ian Sparke, Wendy Cork.
Bran Nue Dae. Margot Wilson.
Bright Star. Janet Patterson
AFI Award for Best Lead Actor
Brendan Cowell. Beneath Hill 60.
James Frecheville. Animal Kingdom.
Ben Mendelsohn. Animal Kingdom.
Clive Owen. The Boys Are Back.
AFI Award for Best Lead Actress
Abbie Cornish. Bright Star.
Morgana Davies. The Tree.
Charlotte Gainsbourg. The Tree.
Jacki Weaver. Animal Kingdom.
I had assumed that Abbie Cornish could finally collect a trophy for Bright Star until I realized that Jacki Weaver was sharing this category. Though she is absolutely the centrifugal force in Animal Kingdom, she's not really the lead (that'd be Frecheville... and arguably Mendelsohn) and she's offscreen quite a lot and sometimes backgrounded within the scenes she is in.
AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor
Joel Edgerton. Animal Kingdom.
Guy Pearce. Animal Kingdom.
Kodi Smit-McPhee. Matching Jack.
Sullivan Stapleton. Animal Kingdom.
Tattoed and Tormented: Sullivan Stapleton in Animal Kingdom
I need to take this opportunity to thank the AFI for not nominated Geoffrey Rush who is typically so far over the top he's back down again in Bran Nue Dae. But I am surprised that they saw through his extravagant hamming given his Master Thespian rep. This is a war of cops vs. criminals from Animal Kingdom with wee Kodi as the potential beneficiary of vote splitting. My favorite of the three Kingdom men is Sullivan Stapleton as the tattooed and tightly-wound comparatively tender Craig. But not knowing anything about AFI politics or Australian favoritism, I'm assuming that Pearce is most likely to win given his stardom that he gets the film's big theme-speaking moment.
AFI Award for Best Supporting Actress
Julia Blake. The Boys Are Back.
Kerry Fox. Bright Star.
Deborah Mailman. Bran Nue Dae.
Laura Wheelwright. Animal Kingdom.
In case you're wondering, Wheelwright plays the teen girlfriend of Animal Kingdom's lead character. I'm pleased to see Fox given props for her subtle but very well modulated reactive mother role in Jane Campion's romantic biopic.
AFI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR
Simon Baker. The Mentalist, Season 2. Nine Network
Ryan Kwanten. True Blood, Season 3. Showcase
Kodi Smit-McPhee. The Road
Sam Worthington. Avatar
I haven't yet seen Season 3 but it's nice to see acclaim for Ryan Kwanten who is True Blood's secret weapon, if you ask me. He's just so funny. He offers up a very smart take on a very dim character. As for Kodi, I wrote extensively about The Road here.
AFI I International Award for Best Actress
Toni Collette. United States of Tara, Season 2. ABC1
Bojana Novakovic. Edge of Darkness
Mia Wasikowska. Alice in Wonderland
Naomi Watts. Mother and Child
Um. Ewwww. on the Wasikowska nomination. I think she's quite a good actress but I think she's quite ungood in that movie. Meanwhile: Go TONI!!!
AFI Young Actor Award
Ashleigh Cummings. Tomorrow When The War Began
Morgana Davies. The Tree
James Frecheville. Animal Kingdom
Harrison Gilbertson. Beneath Hill 60
AFI Visual Effects Award
Daybreakers. Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig, Rangi Sutton, James Rogers, Randy Vellacott
The Tree. Dave Morley, Felix Crawshaw, Claudia Lecaros, Tim Walker
Tinglewood. Wil Manning
Tomorrow When The War Began. Chris Godfrey, Sigi Eimutis, Dave Morley, Tony Cole
AFI AWARD FOR BEST CHILDREN’S TELEVISION DRAMA
Dance Academy. Joanna Werner ABC
Dead Gorgeous. Ewan Burnett, Margot McDonald. ABC
Lockie Leonard. Kylie Du Fresne. Nine Network
My Place. Penny Chapman. ABC
AFI AWARD FOR BEST CHILDREN’S TELEVISION ANIMATION
dirtgirlworld. Cate McQuillen. ABC
Erky Perky. Kristine Klohk, Barbara Stephen, Tracy Lenon. Seven Network
The Legend Of Enyo. Avrill Stark, Michael Christensen. Seven Network
AFI Award for Best Television Comedy Series
Lowdown. Nicole Minchin, Amanda Brotchie, Adam Zwar. ABC
Review With Myles Barlow, Season 2. Dean Bates. ABC
Wilfred II. Jenny Livingston, Tony Rogers, Adam Zwar, Jason Gann. SBS
AFI Award for Best Light Entertainment Television Series
The Gruen Transfer, Series 3. Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby, Jon Casimir, Debbie Cuell. ABC1
Hungry Beast, Series Two. Andrew Denton, Andy Nehl. ABC1
MasterChef Australia. Margaret Bashfield, Judy Smart, Caroline Spencer. Network Ten
Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation. Peter Beck. Network Ten
AFI Award for Best Television Drama Series
The Circuit, Series 2. Ross Hutchens, Colin South. SBS
Rush, Season 3. John Edwards, Mimi Butler. Network Ten
Spirited. Claudia Karvan, Jacquelin Perske, John Edwards. W
Tangle, Season 2. John Edwards, Imogen Banks. Showcase
AFI Award for Best Telefeature, Mini Series or Short Run Series
A Model Daughter: The Killing Of Caroline Byrne. Karl Zwicky. Network Ten
Hawke. Richard Keddie. Network Ten
AFI Award for Best Direction in Television
Dance Academy – Episode 2, ‘Week Zero’. Jeffrey Walker. ABC
Hawke. Emma Freeman. Network Ten
Rush, Season 3 – Episode 308, ‘Train’. Grant Brown. Network Ten
Tangle, Season 2 – Episode 16, ‘Lost and Found’. Emma Freeman. Showcase
AFI Award for Best Screenplay in Television
Hawke. Glen Dolman. Network Ten
Review With Myles Barlow, Season 2 – Episode 6, ‘Happiness, Escapism, Acceptance’. Trent O’Donnell, Phil Lloyd. ABC
Tangle, Season 2 – Episode 15, ‘Sleepwalking’. Fiona Seres. Showcase
Wilfred II – Episode 7, ‘Dog Star’. Jason Gann, Adam Zwar. SBS
AFI Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama
Garry McDonald. A Model Daughter: The Killing Of Caroline Byrne. Network Ten
Corey McKernan. Lockie Leonard. Nine Network
Aaron Pedersen. The Circuit, Series 2. SBS
Richard Roxburgh. Hawke. Network Ten
AFI Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama
Cheree Cassidy. Underbelly: The Golden Mile – Episode 7, ‘Full Force Gale’. Nine Network
Justine Clarke. Tangle, Season 2. Showcase
Poppy Lee Friar. Dead Gorgeous. ABC
Catherine McClements. Tangle, Season 2. Showcase
AFI Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama
Damien Garvey. Underbelly: The Golden Mile – Episode 10, ‘Hurt on Duty’. Nine Network
Rhys Muldoon. Lockie Leonard – Episode 11, ‘Snake Hide Oil. Nine Network
John Waters. Offspring. Network Ten
Ben Winspear. My Place – Episode 5, ‘1968 Sofia’. ABC
AFI Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama
Linda Cropper. Satisfaction, Season 3 – Episode 8, ‘Not Vanilla’. Showcase
Sacha Horler. Hawke. Network Ten
Asher Keddie. Hawke. Network Ten
Deborah Mailman. Offspring. Network Ten
AFI Award for Best Performance in a Television Comedy
Paul Denny. Lowdown. ABC
Jason Gann. Wilfred II. SBS
Phil Lloyd. Review With Myles Barlow, Season 2. ABC
AFI Award for Best Feature Length Documentary
Contact. Martin Butler, Bentley Dean. ABC1
Inside The Firestorm. Lucy Maclaren, Alex West. ABC
The Snowman. Rachel Landers, Dylan Blowen.
Strange Birds In Paradise – A West Papuan Story. Jamie Nicolai, John Cherry.
AFI Award for Best Documentary Under One Hour
A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes In Australia. Sharyn Prentice, Marianne Latham, Lavinia Riachi. ABC
Rudely Interrupted. Susie Jones, Benjamin Jones. ABC1
Surviving Mumbai. Andrew Ogilvie, Andrea Quesnelle. ABC
You Only Live Twice – The Incredibly True Story Of The Hughes Family. Ruth Cullen. ABC1
AFI Award for Best Documentary Series
Addicted To Money. Andrew Ogilvie, Andrea Quesnelle. ABC
Disable Bodied Sailors. Karina Holden, Nick Robinson. SBS
Kokoda. Andrew Wiseman. ABC1
Liberal Rule- The Politics That Changed Australia. Nick Torrens, Frank Haines. SBS
AFI Award for Best Direction in a Documentary
A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes In Australia. Amanda Chang. ABC
Contact. Martin Butler, Bentley Dean. ABC1
Inside The Firestorm. Jacob Hickey. ABC
Strange Birds In Paradise – A West Papuan Story. Charlie Hill-Smith.
AFI Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary
Disable Bodied Sailors – Episode 3. Nick Robinson. SBS
Miracles - Episode 1, ‘Miracle in the Storm’. Tony Oliver ACS. ABC1
Strange Birds In Paradise – A West Papuan Story. Angus Kemp.
Surviving Mumbai. Jim Frater. ABC
AFI Award for Best Editing in a Documentary
A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes In Australia. Karin Steininger. ABC
Contact. Tania Nehme. ABC1
Inside The Firestorm. Steven Robinson. ABC
Surviving Mumbai. David Fosdick. ABC
AFI Award for Best Sound in a Documentary
A Thousand Encores: The Ballets Russes In Australia. Brett Aplin, Andrew McGrath, Erin McKimm. ABC
Inside The Firestorm. Jock Healy, Tristan Meredith. ABC
Kokoda – Episode 1, ‘The Invasion’. David Bridie, Chris Goodes, Ian Grant, Patrick Slater. ABC1
Strange Birds In Paradise – A West Papuan Story. Mik la Vage, Doron Kipen, David Bridie.
AFI Award for Best Short Animation
The Lost Thing. Sophie Byrne, Andrew Ruhemann, Shaun Tan.
Zero. Christopher Kezelos, Christine Kezelos.
AFI Award for Best Short Fiction Film
Deeper Than Yesterday. Ariel Kleiman, Benjamin Gilovitz, Sarah Cyngler, Anna Kojevnikov.
The Kiss. Sonya Humphrey, Ashlee Page.
The Love Song Of Iskra Prufrock. Lucy Gaffy, Lyn Norfor.
Suburbia. Antonio Oreña-Barlin, Richard Halsted.
AFI Award for Best Screenplay in a Short Film.
A Parachute Falling In Siberia. Sarah Shaw, Ian Meadows.
Deeper Than Yesterday. Ariel Kleiman.
Glenn Owen Dodds. Trent Dalton.
The Kiss. Ashlee Page
I know the Film Experience has plentiful Australian readers -- i can see the stats, don't hide! -- so let us know: How did the AFI do this year? As for the rest of you, do you think Jacki Weaver is going to pull off that Supporting Actress Slot with the American Academy? And do you share the love of Kwanten on True Blood and Collette as Tara?
