Broken Hill

This film is set in outback Australia. It's about music, crossing the threshold into adulthood and redemption. I loved it.

Your Hearts a Mess by Gotye (Portable Film Festival animation)

The Portable Film Festival has this animation of my current favourite song 'Your Hearts a Mess'. The Portable Film Festival is a great place to watch all kinds of films from around the world.

I think Gotye is great. I just learnt that he's from Australia and in an article I read about him, he listed Kate Bush's 'Cloudbursting' in his top 10, so I think I'm a fan. Check out his blog.

Ned Kelly (2003)

Ned Kelly has been the subject of quite a few films in Australia's history and The Age:Kelly Gang Rides into History tells about the worlds first feature film "The Story of the Kelly Gang" and its inclusion as a United Nations heritage register. I had a 'Ned Kelly' excursion with my English and Humanities year 9 classes this year.

Today by coincidence we watched the latest film Ned Kelly (2003)based on the book by Robert Drewe 'Our Sunshine' in the humanities class. It is a heroic legend and the film is quite well made. The students commented on the darkness of the film and we discussed the parts that we felt were not accurately based on historical sources. For those interested this site The Iron Outlaw, contains a wealth of information. There are 11 Kelly based films listed on this site with details about the films on most of them.

yourCut - Coming Soon for Aussies

Revver and Ninemsn will launch on June 11 the first Australian video sharing online service that pays creators: yourCut. You can go and check it out now before everyone else gets wind of it.

This is exciting for Australian video sharers as well as viewers. I have looked around the site and it is using Revver to serve the ads and possibly for most of its usability. I have used Revver for over a year and have made over a thousand US dollars from my video's online. Revver are great to work with, they are fair and constantly improving.

From the FAQ of yourCut:

What is your mission:

"yourCut supports independent media artists. We believe that a free and open, democratised media environment is good for everyone. Our goal is to empower video makers and sharers to do what they do best."

Empower they will.

Lockie Leonard TV Series - Coming Soon

I was delighted to read the following article about Tim Winton's Lockie Leonard. IF: Tim Winton's Lockie Leonard winning hearts around the world . Winton's Lockie character is sure to be lovable to teens in Australia. We read this text last year in class. As someone who grew up in the 80s I appreciated much that the students didn't get.

New Magnify Channels - February 2007

Magnify are exploding with channels now. Each time I check in, there are new ones. Here are new channels worth checking out:

Movies
Public Domain Movies - Only 22 movies today, but potentially an interesting site, particularly for those who like old movies.
Some of them run for over an hour and I haven't watched them right through yet. Interesting concept though.




The TV Trail
Runs with a similar concept but I have a feeling these shows are not public domain. The Simpsons, Six Million Dollar Man and Twilight Zone are some of the shows featured on the home page of the channel.

I notice that many have created channels that so far contain nothing. I guess, Magnify is getting a lot of media right now and people are just staking claims, so to speak, creating their own spaces within this space with hopes for the future.

It is a space to watch.
The falling brick channel received over 500 views today. That's great! There is an interesting clip that was submitted today about the classic Australian delicacy of Tim Tams. Called 'Slam', it is interesting and whilst it runs a little long, is worth a watch.

Echidna

Wet Toes

This was taken at Cape Conron January 2005.

Southern Cross Windmill

These windmills are great. They are dotted all around Australia. They are an Australian icon.

Sand Surfing