Another Brian Caswell story – the most recent, as far as I can tell. And the darkest one yet: teen pregnancy, abusive parents, violent boyfriends, prostitution…. Again written from multiple first-person perspectives, some third-persons, and the occasional switch from past to present tense. The main characters are Cain, an average eighteen-year-old; his twin Chris, who has artistic talent coming out of his ears; TJ, a teen mother who’s escaped from an abusive boyfriend with her son, Tyson; and Abby, a sixteen-year-old prostitute who has run away from her sexually abusive stepfather.

It’s a very clever storyline; I really enjoyed reading it. J can vouch for that: I was reading it in the car, and he had to prod me to keep reading it because I was going on and on about it and trying to figure out what the resolution would be. I had guessed part of how it would work out, but not the whole lot, which is always a great way to end it I think.

Mum and I went for a walk organised by the National Trust of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, the other day. (And of course, we couldn’t avoid the curse/blessing of our family – although it was usually associated more with Dad than Mum: Mum knew the tour leader, from her Playgroup Assoc days). It was a fun walk – took us 2 hours to get from Spring St, down Collins, to Federation Square!

Started off with morning tea at the Park Hyatt, which was very swish. Then went into St Pat’s Cathedral (very impressive! Those Catholics know a thing or two about architecture and art, although I’m not entirely convinced about the Christianity behind some of the icons…), and past a couple of other little churches (including one where Nellie Melba learnt the organ, and later gave free singing lessons to poor children). It was yet another reminder to look up, when walking in Melbourne – the street-level shopfronts might be new and boring, but so many of the old facades have been retained above that – it’s great!

I love that families living in the east end of Melbourne would pack up their entire family, servants etc, and decamp for the weekend… to where the MCG is today…. Such a long trip! And the fact that the shop with the most glorious shopfront, Le Louvre, is owned by the daughter of the woman who opened it is very impressive. Of course, the mother would be unimpressed: some of their oufits are now imported, and not handmade; sometimes there are ‘sale’ signs in the window; and you don’t have to have been introduced in order to buy from there anymore. As well, finding out about the Melbourne Club (exclusively men’s), the Lycaeum (women with a degree), the Alexandra Club (women’s social), and the Athenaeum Club (men again) was a glimpse into a totally foreign world….

We’re watching it at the moment. Great film, great cast, great music…. When it came out, my high school principal hadn’t realised that it was a true story: he was in the NZ equivalent of the SAS, in Vietnam, and the news was censored so that morale wasn’t affected. And this was one story that didn’t make it through. Although quite how he managed not to hear about it over the next 20+ years is something I never figured out.

…was on the teev last night. Bruce Willis is always good. And he still had hair at the time! The little kid was great, too – reminded me of Leo DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?. The one thing that annoyed me was the flashbacks they gave Willis: I understand that the cop-having-a-hard-time-with-authority is a tried and true stereotype, but it really, really didn’t make any difference to this movie. It was just a bit dumb.

And golly, the bricks they were using as mobile phones….

…the one problem with the Caesar in Gaul doco is that the dude speaking as Vercingetorix looks like Hugh Grant, but even more horsey; he has terrible teeth, but he talks in such a way as to keep showing them. Urgh.

I’m watching some docos this afternoon, which I’ve had on tape for a while now.

First, SBS’ “As it happened: Peasants and Nobles.” It wasn’t bad, although I have to say that it wasn’t as focussed as I would have liked. I was anticipating more discussion on the lives of the two groups, the cross-over and similiarities… and that was there, a bit. But, although I found the discussion of the Swiss v Hapsburgs stuff interesting, I didn’t really think it fit with the topic! I’ll still be able to use maybe half of it, though.

Right now, one on Caesar in Gaul. I quite the idea of the historian and archaeologist playing Vercingetorix (sp??) and Caesar, talking through the tactics and intent of each man – it’s something that could easily have become tacky, but I think they’ve managed to do it in an engaging and even proud way. It’s a really interesting doco, actually; I don’t know enough about his campaign in Gaul to be able to figure out whether it’s white-washed or airbrushed, but it seems to be reasonable.

I also have a doco on Carthage somewhere, but I don’t think I’ll get around to that today, since we’re off to see the opening night of Macbeth tonight, at a fundraiser for Antithesis, Melb Uni’s postgrad group. Should be fun!

So yes, we’re a bit sad, but we are watching “20 to 1” on the teev. An what I wonder, and what I’ve always wondered, is exactly who gets to decide what order these things appear in? Who decides that the story of scuba drivers getting left behind is lower in the rankings than the story of Bigfoot? Or that the question of Marilyn Monroe’s death is less intriguing than whether ghosts actually exist?

So there are a bunch of Greeks who have re-created the Argo, using only what they hope are original-type tools, who want to head for Colchis. They’re calling for volunteers to row the thing for 2.5 months, possibly up to 15 hours per day.

The problem I have with this is that Tim Severin did the Jason voyage (name of the book, just by the way) a number of years ago now. So it’s not a new idea in the slightest. Although, as the Ma points out, this time it’s the Greeks doing it, recreating some of their own culture.

House actually is Holmes, for a new generation:

1. Drug habit
2. Musical
3. Sidekicks
4. Obscure to the point of nonsense until all is revealed
5. Solving mysteries