The Prestige

Went out to see my first movie in a long, long time last night.

I was supposed to be going to see an ABC Radio National free preview of "A Scanner Darkly" with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, which I was keenly anticipating. But when the ABC Radio National crew couldn't get their act together and decide who was going to be let in, myself and my fellow movie-goers absconded down the hallway and into the first available theatre.

Luckily, it happened to be showing The Prestige.

By the writers of "Memento", Christopher and Simon Nolan, and directed by Christopher, it shares a similar story-telling device of a chopped up time sequence. But, like the part of the trick it is named after, delivers the Prestige at the very end of the movie quite dramatically.

The Prestige is part sci-fi, part period piece, part mano a mano thriller. Christian Bale is better than Hugh Jackman, with support from Sir Michael Caine, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall. They've even got Daniel Davis (Niles from "The Nanny") as the chief judge.

Do you like solving mysteries? Go see it. Do you like tricks? Go see it. Do you like tension? Go see it.

'nuff said.

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Does this not ROCK?

I ask you!

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Another entry on my 'list of things I'd like to be able to do'

After seeing Alex Lloyd and Chris Isaak in concert at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney last night, I've been forced to add another entry to my list.

List of Things I'd Like To Be Able To Do:
#71: Make 2900 people sit still, be quiet and watch as you sit on a stage with an acoustic guitar and sing

Alex Lloyd did it most effectively with a rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Alleluia".

Chris Isaak did it with "Blue Spanish Sky".

Superb.

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Australian Rugby, take a closer look at thee

A treat for you all this week...a special guest rant by an outraged correspondent.

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The time has come for Australian Rugby to have a long hard look at itself. Being pushed around by the All Blacks and South Africans is one thing, but when Italy start to smash our scrum to smithereens, something is drastically wrong.

In fact, I can’t remember the last time any scrum with Australia went forward, and certainly not since the time of Enrique ‘Topo’ Rodriguez.

What is being done to correct it? We bring in heavier guys and we still go backwards! Here’s something we should think about, why don’t we pick the best scrummagers in the country, rather than guys who can’t pack down successfully against Ballarat’s U/10b team.

No side can get anything going if the forwards don’t go forward. And this spring tour is the perfect example.

George Gregan has done more for his selection prospects by NOT going on the tour. The lack of direction without him is ridiculous. Granted he isn’t a Ken Catchpole or Nick Farr-Jones, but he is the best we’ve got at the moment.

Now, old ‘Knuckles’ Connolly, what is going on with the experimentation in the backline? I can understand Giteau to halfback with no Gregan, but surely you could tell Rogers at 5/8th didn’t work against Wales! Yet we have one of the top two number 10’s in the world standing at inside centre getting wasted.

The first time Larkham went to first 5/8th on the weekend, he put Rogers through a huge gap, maybe that should have rung alarms bells to change it, but no, lets stick with it.

I call on Gary ‘Storky’ Flowers to put an end to this debacle and have the best XV players in their position playing for Australia, and screw how many players come from which state policy, that appears to be happening now.

Finally, how can we waste either George Smith or Phil Waugh on the bench, when Rocky Elsom is only good to give away penalties and get sin-binned, and Wycliff Palu seems to be a gentle giant! We have former hard-men like Tony Miller et al turning in their graves.

Test matches like the last two weeks cannot continue, it’s the best advertisement Rugby League ever had.

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My limited rugby mind agrees.

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Downright UnAustralian

Lately I find myself doing something that many people would call UnAustralian. Mostly in sporting events.

Namely, supporting the opposition.

I was glad to see Wales draw the rugby test against Australia. I enjoyed the rugby league test match that Great Britain won against the Kangaroos on friday night as well, even though we lost.

Maybe its a sign of the overwhelming thrashings that Australian sporting teams have handed out through the last twenty years, and its time for our comeuppance? Its natural to want to see a dominant force crumble. Give someone else a go. We saw it in Formula 1 with the Williams teams of the late 80's and early 90's, and now they're struggling. We saw it in cricket in the 80's, with the West Indian teams, now beginning to restore the former team play that made them famous.

In a few years I'll probably feel differently. Particularly if we haven't won a rugby test, league test, cricket series, hockey championship, or world bowls cup between now and then.

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The greatest ad ever...according to most men

'nuff said.

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The Marble Theory of Marriage

For those of you unfamiliar with this, the Marble Theory of Marriage goes a little like this.

During your first year of marriage, you put a marble into a jar every time you make love.

Once the first year is done, on each subsequent occasion of love-making, take a marble out of the jar.

According to theory, you will never empty the jar.

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