Let's go fly a kite

A couple of weekends ago I made the trek to Brisbane to see Mary Poppins. Not in person obviously. She's a fictional character. Rather, this was the musical. Much lauded. Much praised. I had been told by many people that I would "love" it. So I was looking forward to seeing it but I was also a little hesitant. You know when Margaret and David give a movie five stars and then you and see it and think "meh...3 and a half from me actually". What I'm saying is that when someone tells me I'm going to love something I always start to worry. WHAT IF I DON'T LOVE IT AS MUCH AS I'M SUPPOSED TO? WHAT ABOUT THAT? So, what did I think about the Poppinses? Well, spectacular chorus numbers. Excellent and impressive special effects. The set was wonderful. The leads were good. I was particularly impressed that the guy from So You think You Can Dance who played Bert actually could dance...Really Well! I even got a lump in my throat when Mary Poppins "flew" out across the audience at the end. Shush...that's not a spoiler...we all know she leaves. So it was very good. But there were things that weren't quite right. For one, the balance between the orchestra and the singers was a little out. Brass...I'm sorry...you were too loud. And the girl playing Jane got a bit shrieky at times in her microphone. And I just didn't love Simon Burke as Mr Banks. Perhaps it was the part? I'm not sure. And I didn't love the "new" songs. As a child my parents had a limited record collection. One of the LPs (showing my age here) was the original cast recording from the Disney movie with Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. Now I know his accent still remains unforgivable as the cockney Bert but I loved the suffragette songs of Mrs Banks. Why was she suddenly made into a wannabe actress in the stage version? Are we not able to cope with a little bit of lightweight feminism in a musical? I found this a strange choice. Also, the letter that Jane and Michael sing before Mary Poppins arrive was way too fast. I like it slower and more thoughtful as in the film. Now, I understand that translating a film to the stage means there will be differences, certain things are not possible (dancing animated penguins for instance) but for the life of me the thing that bugged me the most was that they didn't finish with Let's Go Fly a Kite. It's my favourite moment in the film. It's the perfect ending as the family go out into the street and everyone lives happily ever after even without Mary Poppins. Why chuck it in the middle in some half-hearted fashion? It just wasn't quite right either. And then I realised...because I had listened to the original soundtrack so often, because I have watched the film so many times, perhaps it's not possible for me to fully embrace the stage show in the same way as say, a young child today who hasn't had the original version ingrained into their brain. That's okay. I still liked it. I just didn't LOVE it.

Thinking and writing about reading and stuff

As a lecturer at a regional university in Queensland who spends her days teaching academic writing in a preparatory program I am delighted that 2012 has been declared the National Year of Reading because it draws attention to the absolute importance of the skills of both reading and writing. The challenges facing Australia in terms of its slipping literacy levels were discussed in Louise Maher’s piece for The Drum earlier this week. As an educator whose work cuts across this area I believe it is absolutely vital for Australia to fund programs of the sort she described which cater for those people who cannot read or write to a level that would allow them to easily manage daily tasks. I find myself facing slightly different, although not unrelated, challenges in my teaching. University preparatory programs (sometimes also called access or enabling programs) cater for people who want to enter the world of academia in order to better themselves. Sometimes they want a degree to help build a secure future for themselves and their families. Sometimes they want an education for its own sake. Both of these are admirable goals and the motivation I observe in so many of my students is inspiring. That being said, it can be challenging to teach academic writing to students who, in some cases, have fairly average literacy skills to begin with. How do you explain paragraph and essay structure to someone who can’t tell if they have written a sentence or a fragment? How can we expect them to be able to write and edit their own work to a standard expected in tertiary education? I’ll tell you. We go back to basics. For instance, on more than one occasion I have found myself explaining the difference between “it’s” and “its”. The look of amazement on the faces of many students is a sight to behold. The light bulb finally turns on. That’s not all though. We also explain things like the difference between “affect” and “effect”, between “personal” and “personnel”, between “definitely” and “defiantly”. Together, we spend time in class working out the difference between “they’re”, “their” and “there”. It’s wonderful. But wait, there’s more. In the first week of term I joyfully introduce a group of adults (who can be aged between 18 and 80) to the fact that we are going to have a spelling test three times a week for the next twelve weeks. I ignore the groans, frowns and scowls. Then I wait. Because in just a few weeks, these same adults are taking great pride in the fact that their spelling and vocabulary is improving. Soon they are recommending books to me instead of the other way around. They start asking me if I saw a particular documentary, or a story in the newspaper. If this tells us nothing else, it tells us just how empowering improving literacy skills can be. Now you may think that none of this should be necessary for adults, many of whom have completed their secondary schooling, attended TAFE, held jobs of considerable responsibility and in some cases, even been accepted into undergraduate degrees. I suspect the answer to that question is more complicated than simply blaming technology or the telly. The sad fact for us though, is that it is necessary. Does this tell us anything? Well, if we maintain the same benchmark for measuring literacy skills that was employed before these technologies had such an impact on the way we communicate, technology might well be the culprit. Although, maybe we need to acknowledge that the way literacy skills have been taught for the last couple of decades has not actually connected with the wider context in which students live, study and work. For any learning and teaching to be effective it has to connect with the world of the learner. So, rather than harking back to the good old days of the three Rs, we need to find ways of reconciling the value we so rightly put on a literate society with a culture that is also now technologically literate. Perhaps, what is needed is a way of embracing the change technology has brought to literacy skills and working with it instead of against it. If, as a nation, we made that our goal, then perhaps the focus of my work in a university preparatory program would change also. I could stop worrying about stray apostrophes and confused conjunctions. Until then, university preparatory programs need to continue, they must be consistently and adequately funded and they need to be recognized for the excellent work that so many of them do. The flow on effects from a concerted commitment to improving the nation’s literacy skills can be great indeed. (I like to think that I make a very small contribution to those skills). As a reader, writer and teacher, the National Year of Reading warms my heart; but, we need to face the fact that a long term, coherent approach to the shifting literacy landscape is no longer optional. It is essential. A year is an excellent start but it is not enough. It might take a generation.

I'm betting on the Dickens

We waved goodbye to January and welcomed in what I think is the worst month of the year - February. Why so bad? It's stinky hot here in sub-tropical Queensland and it's too short. Suddenly I seem to be running out of time on everything. This year it was made worse by having to go back to work after my lovely holiday. Within I day I had a yucky headache that lasted for three days. In the post-restructure of our area madness I was still doing half my old role, helping with another role that isn't mine at all, and trying to find time for my new role. Perhaps it is needless to say I wasn't particularly happy. I can only cross my fingers and hope that this week will be better, with less swearing and less bringing work home every night. Still I found time to squeeze in some telly. Thank you wonderful ABC for screening Doctor Who every night. These early David Tennant episodes are fantastic (much better than the Matt Smith/Ponds stuff of late in my opinion). Homeland has also been a highlight so far. Claire Danes is excellent, as are the rest of the cast. I am very much looking forward to tonight's episode. And last night, I laughed out loud at Graham Norton. I have forgiven the ABC for letting this show go to Channel Ten. If I record it and watch it an hour later I can avoid the annoying ad breaks. Goodness knows we all want to do that. I am determined to keep reading some fiction this year. My Kindle is still one of my favourite things in the whole world. Last week I bought the complete Dickens and started on Bleak House. Then, like a silly billy I started reading The Help as well. So now I have two books on the go at once which is never good because invariably one will be left unread. I'm betting on the Dickens. We shall see.

it's all happening here

Today is my last official day of holidays. Cue sad face. It's back to work on Monday. I really don't know how I am going to manage to get out of bed before 8am and be at work on time. The first week might be a bit of a wrench I'm guessing. Still, it's been wonderful to have an extended break. I truly feel more relaxed than I have done in months. I've read lots of non-work type books. I've watched lots of TV. I've been to the movies. I've drunk coffees. I have napped in the afternoons. I went to Tasmania. Some days...I didn't even think about work at all. Amazing right? So, I know you're desperate to find out how I shall spend my last official day of holidays. Well, this morning I shall do some work on my LIS project. Then I shall luncheon, chat with my project supervisor, perhaps nap, watch some tennis, read some more of The Secret Garden and pretend that it isn't the last official day of my holidays. Yep, it's all happening here at Wendy's place.

Thinking about the Muppets

On Sunday I went to see The Muppets. Being a Generation X child who was six years old in 1979 when the first film was released I had high expectations. I had been following the stream of trailers leading up to the film's official release. I had been sad when I realised it would be at least a week before I could get to a cinema to see the movie. I had heard that Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords was doing the music. I am a big FOTC fan so that was okay by me. I had spent much of my childhood watching the television series. I quite like Jason Segal and Amy Adams. So here's my verdict after a few days of mulling the whole thing over in my mind. I enjoyed it but I won't go to see it again. There were lots of lovely moments, there was fun, there were winks to the audience, the songs were good although they sounded like FOTC songs rather than Muppet songs, there were great choices of cameos, Chris Cooper made an admirable villain. This was all very well and good. But for me, it didn't "feel" like a Muppet movie. While I think the love of the Muppets that ran through the narrative was genuine, it was for me, too nostalgic. It relied on Muppet history so much that there was a sense that there was no moving forward. It was treading the fine line of when good postmodernism goes bad. And although it asked the question as to why the Muppets might have been forgotten with their yesteryear vaudevillian charms, it didn't quite recapture the tone of the Jim Henson glory days, thus providing its own answer. Perhaps Frank Oz was wise not to be involved. Perhaps he realised that there was no going back. My reaction to the movie was different to my sister's. She is 12 years younger than me. She didn't spend her childhood watching the tv show, or listening to the original movie soundtrack over and over and over on the cassette player in the car. She doesn't like it when I sing Rainbow Connection in my faux opera voice. She doesn't know the joke about the fork in the road. She doesn't have the same relationship with the Muppets that I do. We are of different generations. Many of our pop culture references are the same but in terms of Muppets we seem to be different. I vaguely remember reading once someone (it may have been Neil Finn) saying that the music you love when you are 25 stays with you for life. The same might be true for the pop culture of your childhood. It stays with you in a way that is unlike anything else that follows. And I think this explains my reaction to The Muppets. I didn't not like it. I appreciated the effort and the sincerity that had gone into it's production, but when the nuances of the voices of Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Kermit and Rowlf (to name a few) jar, when you find yourself wishing you were watching the original Rainbow Connection, not a do-over, you realise that you are pining for the original experience, but by the same token there is no way you can recapture that moment.

what I did on my holidays

I had a beautiful holiday in Tasmania and it was sad to come home last Friday evening to stinky, hot Queensland. We had one hot day in Tassie where the forecast was 33 degrees. The locals were talking of nothing else but the weather. We Queenslanders felt a little like Mick Dundee, "Call that hot, THIS (humid and 35 degrees) is HOT". Not to say it wasn't warm, but it was dry and there was a breeze blowing all day. We ate dinner next to the beach at Randalls Bay near Cygnet. Some brave souls swam. I contented myself with paddling in the icy water which was plenty cool enough for me. By bedtime it was storming and colder. So you know, swings and roundabouts type weather. That's the boring weather talk over. My Mum and I left Bundaberg on the baby Qantas plane and changed in Brisbane for a direct flight to Hobart. We had to get up Very Early which meant by the time we arrived and added daylight saving it seemed like we had been up since 4:30am. This didn't stop us having a lovely lunch at the IXL building on the waterfront in Hobart. Then we went to the movies and saw the Women on the 6th Floor. This was a very nice film. What was even better were the leather lounges in the small downstairs cinema at the State Theatre. I may have dozed off at a couple of points. They were so comfy. Then it was "home" to Cygnet where we spent the next day planning our Thelma, Louise and friend road trip to the north. Unlike Thelma and Louise we did not commit any crimes or drive off a cliff to freedom from patriarchy. Instead, we stayed at a world heritage convict settlement farm stay at Brickenden outside Longford. Then we went to the Sunday morning markets at Evandale which are Excellent! I found some very cheap Carltonware to add to my little collection. There were also homemade scones and jam. Then it was off to Latrobe via Westbury and Deloraine. We visited Reliquaire..an astonishing shop which, if you have a phobia of dolls coming to life, should perhaps be avoided. They are everywhere. Dinner in Deloraine was a beautiful vegetarian pizza made from flour from the mill at Oatlands which we had toured on the way up the Midlands highway. The next day we drove down the Great Lake Road (I don't think that's its official name but it follows the Great Lake) and enjoyed the alpinesque scenery and brisk air before descending once more to Hobart and then home. Wednesday saw a visit to MONA which was both excellent and fascinating (and deserving of its own blog post elsewhere), a little bit of shopping and then back to the State Theatre for Hugo in 3D. What a stunningly beautiful film about film history. I lurved it and definitely agree with Margaret and David. Five stars all round. By then it was Thursday. We went for a little drive over to Franklin, at lunch in Huonville, bought some Valhalla caramel fudge ice-cream for our dessert and went home for final dinner. The next morning we trekked to Hobart with much heavier bags than when we arrived, had brunch at Jackman and McRoss, bought some home made chocolates, made sure the kilo of fresh blueberries were safely packed in my carry on luggage and hopped on the plane. We were sad to leave our wonderful friends. Here are some random photos.

(excuse my hair and weird expression...)

The weather is...changeable

In what is becoming an annual habit (three years counts as a habit doesn't it) I'm off to Tasmania on Thursday. The stinky Queensland summer has arrived just in time for me to be looking forward to this even more than I already was. The trouble is....the packing. I believe I have posted on this before but I can never decide what and how much to take with me. Lucky for me I still fit into my jeans (it was touch a go there for a few weeks) but it's the coat, cardigan, jumper, top situation that has me baffled. Last year I spent some days in a summer skirt and t shirt, and another freezing in a southerly gale in a polar fleece coat with a hood. The weather is...changeable it seems in a Tasmanian summer. So, wish me luck as I attempt to stuff everything into the suitcase, and fingers crossed that I have room for my pillow. Yes, that's right...I'm one of those people who is attached to their own pillow and takes it with them whenever they travel if possible! (This year I also have the added dilemma of whether to take my iPad as well as my iPhone. And of course the Kindle goes with me as well. So many cords and chargers!)

He got rhythm

Ah the first Wednesday of 2012. How exciting! Well not that exciting actually but I had to start this post somehow. What's Wendy been doing I hear you wondering? Not very flipping much to be truthful. I have been doing bits and pieces on my assignment. Although part of me is wishing I hadn't taken a summer subject I know that in the long run I will be very glad to have it completed. Apart from that there has been a fair amount of sleeping and reading. Of course there has been TV watching but that's no different to any other time of the year. I am very happy that ABC2 is rerunning Doctor Who from the beginning of the Christopher Eccleston series. The story lines were a lot less complicated back in 2005 weren't they? I mean, honestly, I could barely follow all the time-travellin' hijinks in the last series. Also watching Billie Piper emphasises just what an ordinary companion the Amy Pond character is compared to the previous gals - Rose, Martha, Donna. I am not sad to hear that she is leaving. I actually prefer Rory. How about a cool male companion for the Doctor? Any enough of that Doctor Who talk. What else have I been a'watching? On the weekend I found I had recorded An American in Paris so I watched that. Firstly, Gene Kelly is an astonishing and amazing dancer. Sure, he did like to get carried away with dream/fantasy dance sequences but that's forgivable. The music of Gershwin is timeless and one of my absolute favourite things in the whole world. I had missed the dry genius of Oscar Levant the first time I watched this movie (which was some years ago now). Here's a little treat for you: http://youtu.be/LvglHa_P9BA - you'll have to go to youtube I'm afraid as "embedding is disabled by request". Here's another absolute treat though! Such joy!

What should I read first?

Hooray for me! I made it to 100 posts in 2011. As I wrote yesterday I resolve to do much better in 2012. I mean look at the years before that. I must have done nothing else but blog. I blame twitter actually which has gradually taken a much bigger part in my online activity. So the goal this year is to find a balance between the two. New Year's Eve was suspiciously quiet in my neighbourhood. Usually there is at least one party on the go that I can hear. But last night - nothing at all. I felt extremely noisy because I was watching the television until I went to bed at 10:30. I watched Graham Norton who I enjoy immensely. He interviewed Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law about their new Sherlock Holmes film. I didn't mind the first one but after seeing the Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman Sherlock I much prefer it and am waiting for the new episodes. Then I FINALLY finished the biography of Steve Jobs. What can I tell you about it? It was very long and detailed. He was a man of contradictions who probably should have got some proper treatment for his cancer earlier. Although they may not have made any difference in the long term. We will never know. What I do know is that it has given me a whole new perspective on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook in terms of their design and operation. Anyway, I was glad to finish it before the start of 2012 because I had been plugging away at it for some time. I wonder what my first book of the New Year should be? It is the Year of Reading after all.

I resolve to........

eat healthy food in appropriate portions (except on special occasions or when I feel like a treat), exercise as regularly as I can, resume daily meditation, find and use alternatives to swear words except in extreme circumstances when trooper-style swearing is called for, reign in what might be perceived as an overuse of smiley faces and exclamations in all tweets, emails, blog comments etc, say yes when previously I might have said no, treasure my friends and family, blog more regularly than I did in 2011 (seriously poor effort!...oops), ask myself "What would Liz Lemon do?" if in a pickle of any kind (also substitute Kim Deal, Miranda Hart, Dawn French, Karen O, Princess Mary or other famous person as appropriate to aforementioned pickle), find out what quinoa is and perhaps eat/cook it, continue to listen to more new music...especially music with banjos, accordions, ukuleles, string basses etc, tidy my desk regularly (ha...notice I didn't say HOW regularly), recycle more diligently, procrastinate less, stop eating dinner in front of the television at least once a week, ignore or change any of these resolutions at will. Goodbye 2011.