Friday Five: Old News

Yesterday's news

While unpacking boxes (yes, still), I found a pile of newspapers that I had put aside, obviously because I thought there might be some articles that I would like to read 'later'. The thing is with news; it very quickly goes stale. Back in the days when people would get fined for trading on bank holidays in the U.K., there was an argument that newsagents could open because they sold 'perishable goods'; not packets of prawn cocktail crisps and cans of Tizer, but newspapers. The expression, quoted in Elvis Costello's 1981 tune, Fish and Chip Paper, suggests that 'Yesterday's news is tomorrow's fish and chip paper', and we all know how quick we are to move on from the headlines. 

But what about the 'supplementary news': the stories in the magazine-type section of the paper? They might be reviews for films and books, thought-pieces about cultural events, or interviews with iconic personalities. These are often interesting many years later, as this sample from Panorama (the supplement to The Canberra Times) of 20 July 2013 indicates. 

5 Old (News) Stories from the Paper:

1. Taking Charge: Hollywood has developed an appetite for science-fiction tales starring young women in empowered roles by Nicole Sperling (including stories from The Hunger Games, Divergent, Mortal Instuments and Ender's Game, in which she finds it encouraging that 'young women have more role models on the page and on screen - heroes as physically adept as their male counterparts but admired more for their internal strength than their fighting skills').
2. Playing the name game: As J.K. Rowling has found, a nom de plume can be a writer's best friend by Anna Maxted (in which she examines the reasons writers hide behind pseudonyms from the Bronte sisters to the famous Harry Potter author).
3. From Bond girl to bar brawler: Rosamund Pike may have broken onto the big screen with 007 but she has still had to fight for her career by Benjamin Secher
4. Movie posters a design of the times: Vintage film imagery can stand the artistic test of time by Charlotte Cripps
5. Great Pie Drive: our adventurer journeys from Canberra to coast to sauce the best of our baker's products by Tim the Yowie Man (for the record he listed the East Lynne Store as the premium pie purveyor).

Friday Five: The Year's Best Beers

Today is the last day to vote for the GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers from 2019. I have placed my votes, but I have also trawled through my notes from the beers I tasted over the last 12 months, and found my favourites. The GABS Hottest 100 is only for Australian beers, but I have included top five British and International as well. Obviously, I can only rate the beers I tasted this year, so there may be many other great brews not included here, but this is my choice.

Top 5 Australian Beers:

1. St Phoebe 2019 (Wildflower Brewing and Blending) - Raspberry funk and farmhouse flavours; sensuous aroma and all-round top brew!
2. Double Stout Barrel Aged (Holgate Brewhouse) 8% - Smooth AF. Chocolate and hints of vanilla. Exceptional.
3. Inside Voice (Little Bang Brewing Co) 5.7% - A superb foreign extra Stout - roasty bitterness tempered with dark fruit/ berry/ raisin sweetness. Smooth. Nice. What jazz should be, if it were beer.
4. Botanical Hoppy Sour (Burnley Brewing) 3.5% - Fabulously floral and botanical characters blend really well with the sourness. Extremely enjoyable.
5. Hang Loose Juice (Capital Brewing Co) 6% - Blood orange IPA - great pithy bitterness and hoppy citrus goodness. Very tasty - one of the better hazy IPAs out there.

Top 5 British Beers:

1. Gravity (Brakspear Brewing Co) 3.4% - same beer; different marketing - this is the Brakspear's bitter I know and love. I grew up with this malty English bitter and it is the taste of home; oh, the memories...
2. Cambridge Black (Turpin's Brewery) 4.6% - oatmeal stout; full on chocolate and intensity - excellent and enjoyable; perfect with bangers and mash.
3. Pheasant Plucker (Bowland Brewery) 3.7% - purchased the easy-drinking copper-hued English bitter from the brewery itself - superb English Bitter (also excellent service).
4. Landlord (Timothy Taylor) 4.3% - Nutty and creamy; just the business; a pint of Landlord is a thing of beauty.
5. Spitfire (Shepherd Neame) 4.5% - still beautifully bitter

Top 5 International Beers:

1. Trappistes Rochefort 8 (Abbaye Notre-Dame de St-Remy) 9.2% - Sooo good; rich deep and spicy; this Belgian strong dark ale is one of the best beers ever
2. Nath (2018) (Brasserie Cantillon) 5.8% - Wow! Tart and funky; rhubarb and pastry - absolutely delicious fruit lambic
3. Felix (Aged in Apple Whiskey Barrels) (New Belgium Brewing Co) 8.8% - Sour golden with strong apple characters and sweet vanilla from the whisky barrel aging in the single foeder. Superb.
4. Stone/// Fear. Movie. Lions. Double IPA (Stone Brewing) 8.5% - rich, strong, chewy marmalade
5. Mr Pink (2018) (To Øl Brewery) 6% - Beautiful dark pink IPA; soft buttering; subtle hops; slightly earthy beetroot aroma and finish

It's Not About the Girl: The Girl Before

The Girl Before by JP Delaney

Quercus

Pp. 406

Edward has designed a house that is minimalist in appearance, with all the modern technology to make it seem almost sentient. To rent One Folgate Street, with its open-plan features, floating staircase and clean spaces, potential tenants must answer a series of questions before gaining admittance. Once they have been accepted, they understand that he has a sense of authority over them. Everything in the house is computerised and Edward controls the computer; if the tenants don’t answer the questions to his satisfaction, he will turn off the lights or the hot water for the shower. The questions get increasingly pertinent and personal, as the house computer search engine will only respond with certain information, and it collates all the findings to provide ‘helpful hints’. The novel questions when being cared for becomes being spied on; when does being protected become being stifled?

It is clear that Edward is a control-freak. He needs to control all aspects of his – and others’ – lives; not just their living arrangements. He cooks in a very methodical manner with precisely the right hard-to-find ingredients; he admires foreign things so that he can appear knowledgeable and correct people’s pronunciation to constantly assert authority. He also likes the Japanese custom of hitobashira, which he tells a tenant is about burying dead people under buildings, but she later finds out it refers to burying the living. So far; so creepy.

But wait; there’s more. He has very similar relationships with very similar women, two of whom live in his house and narrate alternate chapters. Jane is ‘now’. She has had a stillbirth which makes her vulnerable; she has memories which Edward triggers, she thinks accidentally. Emma was ‘then’. She had been attacked and raped by burglars – her partner, Simon, adores her, but can’t live by her stringent rules or those of the house. Jane’s friend, Mia, points out how much Jane looks like Emma, the previous tenant, who died in the house, and Edward’s wife, Elizabeth, before that. Emma defends him, “Men often go for the same type. Women do too, of course. It’s just that in our case, it isn’t usually physical resemblance so much as personality.” But when does it stop being a ‘type’ and become a fetish?

Past experiences are repeated in the present; the lines Edward uses echo over each other as he says them to both women and they find themselves starting to question his past. When Jane questions Edward about his former relationship (his wife and previous tenant both died in suspicious circumstances), he tells her not to look into it. “The past is over; that’s why it’s the past. Let it go, will you?” There are heavy-handed metaphors about clean slates with faintly discernible chalk marks from previous writings, and if we hadn’t already got the point, Jane spells it out for the hard of understanding with a high-school art essay about palimpsests and pentimenti.

As with any novel including the word ‘girl’ in the title, it seems we must have sex, violence, and an unreliable narrator. It is also worth bearing in mind that it is written by a man. A policeman advises Emma, “We take cases of rape very seriously. That means assuming every woman who says she’s been raped is telling the truth. The flipside of that is that we take false rape allegations equally seriously.” This suggests they are equally common. Fact check: over the past 20 years, only 2% of rape accusations proved to be false. It’s not that men can’t write realistic female characters, but a reliance on pop psychology and simplified gender stereotypes doesn’t help.

The Girl Before is not about a girl, before, after or present. It is about a house and a man’s viewpoint of manipulation and control. It is an entertaining read, but it is not earth-shattering. Shock value isn’t everything, and its veneer wears off very quickly.

Friday Five (Ten): Films from the Second Half of the Year

Following on from a previous post, these are the top ten (bonus five) films that I saw in the second half of the year, in alphabetical order.

1. Downton Abbey - There's nothing here to scare the horses:the script is dreadful, the plots are ludicrous and the dialogue is execrable. It's absolute tosh. But I loved it. The design, direction, costumes and locations are stunning. And what fun those actors are having!
2. Fighting with My Family - Based on the true story of professional WWE wrestler Paige, Stephen Merchant's tribute is charming and delightful. Florence Pugh is excellent as the girl who fights back, and the supporting cast (including Nick Frost and Dwayne Johnson) are well drawn. Like the sport it represents, the film is energetic and relentlessly up-beat. 
3. Knives Out - It's a delicious and well-crafted modern whodunnit (written and directed by Rian Johnson) in the style of Agatha Christie (all filmed in the one set - a country house), packed with twists and turns and a star-studded cast. Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette et al have a jolly fine time, but Daniel Craig absolutely steals the show with his laconic mannerisms and 'southern gentleman's' accent.  
4. Make Us Dream - Stevie G is a legend. He was the best player Liverpool FC had when they were arguably at their worst. He was Liverpool F.C. and, though he could have made more money and won more trophies if he had gone elsewhere, he stayed on Merseyside and gave everything to his home town and team. Sam Blair's documentary is heart-wrenching and affirming, exposing the pressure we pile on our sporting heroes to succeed, when we should be encouraging their talent and ability.





5. Mr. Jones - The way we tell stories is crucially important. This story is terrifying, but terrifically well presented. It focuses on the bravery (and foolishness) of  Gareth Jones, the Welsh journalist who broke the story of the horrific famines in the 1930s Soviet Union, placed within the narrative framework of Animal Farm. Every image; every expression; every word; every silence... it all amounts to a spectacular film.
6. Mrs. Lowry and Son - Fantastically-acted and tightly-directed claustrophobic drama about art and relationships. For most of the film we see only Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall playing the titular characters - it could be stagey (it was originally a play, written by Martyn Hesford, who also wrote the screenplay) but the gravitas of these actors allows us to indulge them in their oppressive situations. When director Adrian Noble and cinematographer Josep M. Civit broaden the canvas to show us the life which led to this art, we are treated to a bright but bleak palette. 

7. The Nightingale - Revenge narratives told well can carry a great weight. When they are further imbued with a sense of identity and questions of nationality, community, humanity and morality, they can be truly mighty. It's a lot for The Nightingale to carry, but under Jennifer Kent's direction (she also wrote the screenplay) it does so fantastically. Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr and Sam Claflin all give excellently measured performances, and the Tasmanian bush setting is spectacular.
8. Official Secrets - 'We were lied into an illegal war.' An important and timely film about morality and legality and what happens when individuals stand up to governments on behalf of the people. Keira Knightley is excellent as the real-life whistle-blower Katharine Gun, ably supported by a cast including Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Tamsin Greig and Shaun Dooley. My only quibble is that Rhys Ifans is completely over-the-top and appears to be acting in a different film. 
9. Ride Like a Girl - Charming Aussie drama about Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. There is no mention of the endemic corruption and seedy underbelly of the horse-racing industry (the 'no animals were harmed in the making of this film' disclaimer is moved to the opening credits). It's full of all the local favourites (Sam Neill; Magda Szubanski; Mick Molloy) with Stevie Payne playing himself, and the rousing soundtrack and girl-power mentality make this the feel-good film of the year.
10. Sorry We Missed You - I've been waiting for this since I, Daniel Blake. It doesn't disappoint in terms of film making (Director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty are an incredibly powerful duo), but it is devastating in its indictment on the heartless working conditions of modern society. It is brutally honest and angry, condemning the politicians who have allowed this zero-hours contract mentality, while it is heartfelt in its support of family relationships with a glimmer of hope. 

Friday Five: Home-made Christmas Cards

Okay, so the cutting of the card is far from professional, and they're not actually straight or anything, and I didn't quite send them until after Christmas, but if you receive one of these in the post; know that I made it for you with love. There were a couple of other designs (trees and gingerbread people), but I managed to send those before Christmas - not long before, mind, but before at least.

 

 

 

 

Cosy Cat Crime: The Cat Who Sniffed Glue

The Cat Who Sniffed Glue by Lilian Jackson Braun

Jove Books

Pp. 200

The eighth book in The Cat Who… mystery series is a light-hearted mystery featuring an eligible bachelor, Jim Qwilleran, and two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Qwilleran is biggish, 50-ish, and with a moustache that bristles when he is ‘on to something’. He is a bachelor so he eats out at restaurants every night and has a succession of lady-friends, whom he calls for dinner dates. They are always keen to accept (perhaps because of his inherited fortune) and he has a succession of romantic entanglements with housekeepers, librarians and interior designers.

The cats play a major role in his life, and they are incredibly spoiled, with their own apartment and chef. With feline intuition, they help Qwilleran solve crimes as he explains the details of cases to them, and they respond with clues such as banging into things, sitting on vital evidence, or tripping up villains.

The novel is set in Pickax City, Moose County, “400 miles north of everywhere”, with nearby towns called Chipmunk and Brrr (it’s the coldest place in the county) bursting with folksy characters. Written in 1988, it is a novel of its time, before the digital age. Newspapers are still read in physical form; the town does not have one but Qwilleran, himself a ‘newspaper man’ helps to establish The Moose County Something. It is going to “hit the streets” in a week, and there is no name for it – maybe things were run differently thirty years ago, but this still seems very slack in a corporate world, and is yet another aspect of the novel that is exceptionally homey.

Braun also incorporates theatrical tropes into her mystery, as each chapter is introduced with Place, Time, and Cast – this is both an original device and means to introduce characters, but also an example of lazy description and stereotypical characters. Interior designers and architects see buildings as a set designer would, and places are described like stage directions.

The crime begins with vandalism and drink driving, but all are shocked when it progresses to murder. It is what is described as a ‘cosy mystery’, the increasingly-popular genre of crime that is the literary equivalent to a hot cup of tea; the perfect antidote to the daily onslaught of violence and outrage. The characters are broadly drawn, there will be more description of meals eaten than of wounds inflicted, there is very little violence or pain, but copious cold leads to follow in the quaint little community, and the murders don’t really matter all that much. In these olden times there are no forensics, and red herrings include plenty of opportunities for the cat to sniff glue: snowshoes; bookbinding; taxidermy; model-ship making; theatrical make-up.

Amazon has three sub-categories of ‘cosy mystery’: animals; crafts and hobbies; and culinary. This places itself firmly in the former category, and if you know what to expect, you will not be disappointed.

Friday Five: Top Theatre from 2019

Christopher Samuel Carroll performs Icarus 

As I state every time this year, this list can only represent the theatre that I have seen. I have heard good things of lots of other productions that I didn't get the chance to attend, but here are my top five productions of 2019.

5 Top Theatre Productions of 2019:

1. Icarus (produced by The Street at Street 2) - Written and performed by Christopher Samuel Carroll, this is an amazing piece of physical theatre. It is wordless but with a rich soundscape and highly effective lighting that scales the heights and plumbs the depths of human nature and our relations with each other. The crafty re-imagining of the myth is both epic and domestic with moments of humour and great pathos that kept me spellbound for the hour-long duration. 
2. The Miser (produced by Bell Shakespeare at The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre) - Frothy, frivolous and farcical, this adaptation of Moliere's The Miser is an utter delight. The fresh translation sparkles with witty rhyming couplets and cutting dialogue. Set and costumes are exquisite, and the scene changes are seamless and a part of the plot. Some of the deeper nuances and themes are missed in the superficial fast-paced treatment of the text, but overall it is a lot of fun. 
3. Shakespeare in Love (produced by The Melbourne Theatre Company at The Canberra Theatre Centre) - Sumptuous production values combine with an earthy, bawdy to make this one of the best non-Shakespeare-written Shakespeare plays on stage. I enjoyed the film from which it is adapted, but the theatre is its natural home. There are actors acting actors; there are beautiful lines of the bard's which are sublime even out of context; there are lovers and duels and taverns and playhouses; and there is a dog. What more could you want?



Claire van der Boom and Michael Wahr in MTC's Shakespeare in Love

4. The Irresistible (produced by Side Pony Productions/ The Last Great Hunt, The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre) - If I had to sum this up in one word, it would be 'odd'. Nominated for the 2018 Helpmann Award for best play, it combines parallel narratives and voice modulations to tell a multi-layered, somewhat disturbing futuristic narrative with roots firmly set in reality and tendrils reaching into the realms of the surreal. Two performers embody a number of different characters across a wide range of ages and temperaments. If you want to challenge your perceptions of traditional narrative drama, this is one for you. 
5. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (produced by Trafalgar Entertainment, Trafalgar Studios) - Inspired by the author (Peter Nichols)'s own experience of raising his daughter who has severe cerebal palsy, the play, which was written over 50 years ago, bears up in this brilliant new production. Actors talk to each other but frequently break the fourth wall to explain their actions to the audience and reveal details of the past which have led to this point. The daughter, Josephine, is played by Storme Toolis, with the same disability as the titular character and the first time an actor with a disability has played this role. It's funny and moving in the way that black humour can be when done well - it makes us uncomfortable; and so it should.

Storme Toolis, Claire Skinner, Clarence Smith, Toby Stephens and Lucy Eaton in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg