And God said "Let There Be FRIV"

If you've been keeping up with the news - and I know you all have been - you've probably heard about this new "Creation Museum" that's opened in the US. If you haven't, well, this is a brand new US$27 million, state of the art Fundamentalist Christian propaganda device that represents the book of Genesis as the literal truth, complete with Adam and Eve playing with dinosaurs and cuddling lambs.

Now I have all sorts of issues with this (not the least of which is the fact that the guy who runs the thing is a freakin' Australian), but there are many other people who have written about it far more cogently than I could hope to. By all reports, it is jam-packed with the sort of bizarre pseudo-science that makes the vaguely intelligent shudder and the less-than-clever think they might be onto something.

I'm particularly fond of the well-muscled Adam and waif-like Eve as seen in this picture.

[Link]

Does anyone else think Eve looks like a Gelfling?


And here they are sans water (that blows any nudie-bits fantasies out of the water - so to speak).

[Link]

Still. The whole thing is utterly ridiculous. Read more about it here. And who better to make my point for me and to usher back the first Friday Random Interweb Video for, well, AGES, but Ricky Gervais.



Happy Friday team!

Oh dear

A five-year-old captive-bred panda fell to his death less than a year after he was released into the wild, possibly after a fight with other pandas, Xinhua news agency said today.

Xiang Xiang, the world's only artificially bred panda living in the wild, was released at the Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan in April last year.

That's very sad.

Kevin Judd?

At lunch time today in general conversation about the local football code, I referred to the Worlds Greatest Footballer (TM) as Chris Rudd.

Freudian slip? Or perhaps I'm onto something... They both certainly seem to be teflon coated right now. Still. Makes for fun with the photoshop.

It could be good...it really could

Have you read the Phillip Pullman 'His Dark Materials' Trilogy?

If so, isn't it unreal? If not - WHAT ARE YOU THINKING - get ye to a library/book-selling emporium immediately!

I'm actually serious. It may be pitched as young adult fiction (even though there are many who think this is not the case), but (at the risk of being howled down) it is honestly one of the most beautifully created fantasy worlds since the Lord of the Rings - and I don't even LIKE fantasy.

This mildly hysterical outburst has been brought to you by the fact that the books have been turned into films and the first official trailer for the first film "The Golden Compass" has JUST been released.

Quietly - I'm excited. Really very excited. Some may even say pumped.

Now I try to keep these things a little under wraps. The last film I got this excited about was Happy Feet and that let me down in any number of ways, but this one has real promise. Starring an unknown young actor as the principal protaganist Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards - sounds more like a show name for a pedigree dog than a young girl, but still), the film includes notable performers such as Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green and Sam Elliott and with the screenplay adaptation from Pullman novels by none other than Tom Stoppard, it could be ace.



See the first official trailer here. Wheee!!

Helloes

On Saturday morning I was woken by my clock radio.

I was confused.

What room was I in, how did I get there, what country was it, why were there people speaking in Australian accents?

Eventually I emerged from my drug and flight induced stupor sufficiently to work out that I was in fact in Melbourne, in my own bed at 9:30am - not in fact in Barcelona at 5:30 in the afternoon.

Crazy business.

So yeah, I'm home. Woot. And it only took 36 hours of transit.


I shall shortly be boring you all senseless with irritatingly smug tales of European jaunts and jealous-making photos of sun-drenched larks. Lucky youse.

Remain tuned etc.

Bloggerissimo

Helloes.

I am sitting in an apartment in Rome punching this out on a borrowed but very beautiful Power Book having been out and about all afternoon looking at, you know, Rome and stuff. What an extraordinary place.

Still. I'm not going to go into great depths at this stage. This is essentially a 'what has Tom been up to' post in pictures for those who can't be bothered reading.

So last Thursday morning Snooze, Mother Snooze and I arrived here at 5am local time.


Snooze and Mother Snooze immediately got in a hire car and drove away, leaving me to fend for myself. I did ok.


This thing is truly enormous.


See.

I also saw a bit of this action.


And a sampling of this sort of thing.


On Saturday, I then bravely stepped onto a plane all on my own (quite a big thing for me) and went all Continental on my own ass, ending up in Rome.

Rome's old.

They have little cars and cool walls / gateways.


Their houses are pretty.


And they build monuments to hideous torture - this is San Giovanni in Oleo - that's right, Saint John in Oil. Actual boiling oil.


The point is he was immersed in the boiling oil (I can't work out by whom), but rather than perishing horrendously, he popped up just fine, some say even refreshed. Sweet trick. He's the one who wrote Revelations in the Bible. I guess it helps to be into God and stuff.

Being in a country with few people who speak your language is hard work, but kinda fun. What's not so fun is that I have developed a troublesome tooth. I am about to go and see a dentist. I expect it is going to cost me pretty much every penny I have and I'm not even a week into a four week holiday, but that's all part of the fun right?! right?

Anyhoos, I shall leave you to ponder these marvels and will aim to do it again some day.

Ciao (that's the extent of my Italian).

Exit the Tom

Last night I saw this. It was one of the greatest pieces of theatre I've seen. Truly brilliant.

Geoffrey Rush was extraordinary, the supporting cast magnificent, the design beautiful, the sound stunning, the lighting amazing. If you haven't already got tickets I suspect you'll miss out as it closes this week, but wow.


I'm not 'in' to absurdist theatre. That this production not only won me over but was at once funny, deeply moving, strange yet frighteningly familiar is testament to the strengths and depth of the talent on display.

I don't want to write an in-depth review. While it was overwhelmingly good, there were a few quibbles I had with it, but it wouldn't be theatre if it were quibble-free. Suffice to say that combined with a number of other shows I've seen of late, my faith has been restored in the state of theatre in Melbourne and Australia.

Blogging has been sporadic of late because I'm all distracted with a trip over the seas. We fly out on Wednesday for four weeks of holday funtimes in Europe.

I've mentioned here previously that this is my first holiday of note since 2002 and I am MORE than ready for some away-from-work time.

Whether I will blog while away I haven't the faintest idea, but if I go quiet for a month you'll know where I am.

In the meantime, here is a photo.