White Night Melbourne, Saturday 20 February

Seemed much thinner and less exciting than previous years. Always hard to know whether it might've just been my particular route and time, and in this its fourth year some of the novelty might be expected to've worn off anyway, but looking at the program makes me think that might be an objective fact - perhaps due to the uncertainty until relatively close to the event about whether it was going ahead this year? Definitely felt the lack of the really large-scale cbd exterior projections that have characterised previous years, and nor was there any sense of discovery or scattered treasures throughout the landscape. Having said that:

• it was still somewhat great to see the familiar face of the REB all lit up
• "The Dresses", down the very southern end in the gardens, was pretty (Tae Gon Kim)
• the NGV front projection was good ("Still Here" - Josh Muir)
• given how little else seemed to be happening, we spent some time with "Manifesto" in the chilly time just before sunrise
• sunrise was also pretty.

Started around 3.30am, which wasn't actually that difficult given how all over the place my sleeping and other habits have been lately.

(w/ Erandathie)

(2013, 2014, 2015)

Anomalisa

Rightio, I've always been a bit vague about this, but actually it's not that complicated. Charlie Kaufman has written a bunch of films but only directed one before: Being John Malkovich and Adaptation (both dir. Spike Jonze), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry), Synecdoche, New York (the one that he also directed). Anyhow, Anomalisa worked for me and I'm very glad that I didn't know anything about it going in other than Kaufman, puppets and JJL - it felt real (reality <--> perception), Hotel Fregoli metaphorical site/syndrome and all, and I liked the kind-of coda of Lisa's letter (which was in her own voice and not Tom Noonan's, right?).

(w/ Daniel L and David)

Wilco - Star Wars

I do enjoy Wilco's approach to music-making; on Star Wars, that includes deliberately making the most uninviting track ("EKG") the opening one on the record (Cf The Whole Love). The rest of it is sweetly well-worn, modest while still interesting. Not a highlight of their starry (pun unintended but who knows, maybe the image was planted in my head by the title) career, but nice still.

The Village Bike (Red Stitch)

The (possibly deliberate) messy intermingling of satire, farce and character/social drama within The Village Bike didn't fully take hold of me, but I enjoyed the performances, and even though it didn't feel like a cohesive whole, the Situation made it engaging enough. Also, given that - insofar as it's primarily about any one thing - it's maybe mainly about the interplay between our basic drives and our attitudes towards sex, which is a subject about which it'd be hard to be clear or take any particular 'position' without being reductive, maybe the lack of formal or thematic resolution is apt.

(w/ Jen G and Anna F + mother)

Bells ring

Last Sunday, afternoon. I stopped by the Malthouse to while away an hour between things, on my own - the site of so many memories and associations, going back to the days when it hosted the writers festival. Drifting through the air outside in the sunshine, Mazzy Star on shuffle; perfect. Sometimes when listening to music, for moments, and moments on end, the feeling can be so strong that you might almost burst.

Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

When you're covering a song from Rumours, you're going to face at least - and possibly more than - one of four challenges: you're tackling one of the super-famous songs, you're doing a song that's super-great, you've got one that while maybe not super-famous has still attained a kind of minor iconic status over time (I'm thinking especially of "Gold Dust Woman" and maybe "The Chain" in that category), or else you're doing one of the other, less notable tracks from the record.In fact, though, it matters less which of those challenge(s) you've got than might at first seem the case, because every song on Rumours is very good and the whole album is so extremely part of the pop air that we all breathe, and so, in other words, it's really only a matter of degree any which way.

Anyhow, there are some bright moments here (a track by track set of covers) and actually they do tend to be the more particularly famous and recognisable songs, including Tonic's peppy "Second Hand News" and the Corrs' sweet version of "Dreams" (already well-known to me from radio play many years back) at the top and Jewel's simmering "You Make Loving Fun". Also, at once faithful to the original and decently in the voice of the coverers are both Elton John's "Don't Stop" and the Cranberries' "Go Your Own Way". Overall, this is a pleasant listen rather than particularly illuminating or exciting, but still, pleasant is not such a bad thing. Also, release date was 1998, which explains some of the artist picks, including several that I've already mentioned and also Matchbox Twenty.

(notes on a different Fleetwood Mac covers album here, including repentance for not initially understanding the greatness of the band and this album in particular)

Amy Espeseth - Sufficient Grace

Covered-over traumas from the past and present-day corruption of the soul come to the surface in the dead of winter in an isolated, rural and deeply religious Wisconsin community, seen through the eyes of a child, Ruth, who is at the centre of it. It has the ring of authenticity to it, in voice, setting and psychology.

(a gift from Susan a good 12 months ago)

Veronica Mars season 2

A scattering of thoughts on season 2:

• Smart move to set up another season long central mystery with large personal implications for Veronica. Not really a propos, the crashed bus full of school children (actually only half a dozen, but that's more than enough and the motif is the same) can't help but bring to mind The Sweet Hereafter.
• I guess the name 'Veronica' is a call back to the Archie comics, but it makes me think of Heathers instead (which of course draws on that same source). I like how Veronica Mars is so unintrusively but clearly embedded in pop culture, both through meta-references like that one (*) and the role that pop culture quite naturally plays in its characters' lives (**).
• (*) Another example might be the guest appearances of both Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat in the same episode, which can't have been a coincidence. Also possibly not coincidental: the way that both this show and Arrested Development are obsessed with family as a theme.
• (**) Also nice is how Veronica goes to the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides for her breakup music.
• Lots of plot and at times a bit soap opera-ish, but I don't mind that here in context.
• Does a decent job moving its main characters around and giving them things to do and room for development, including giving some more supporting figures from season 1 more prominence and introducing some new ones. It is fun never quite knowing which way anyone - well, most of them - is going to turn or what their true colours will be.
• Krysten Ritter shows up as a classmate. If I'm honest, it's hard to tell whether it's just because she's attractive or because she also has talent/charisma but she's eye-catching wherever she appears (Don't Trust the B... was fun while it lasted).
• Obviously, easy to watch, just like the first season.