http://www.sarahjansen.com/ en Copyright 2008 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +1000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The recent calls for Australia to legalise polygamy to accommodate the country’s Muslim community have sparked some interesting discussions in the media. There have been a lot of statements about the issue of polygamy — a word that covers both multiple wives and multiple husbands — and how it relates to the “Australian way of life”. One camp says it threatens or is counter to it and therefore should not even be considered. The other camp says that it is rare for Australian Muslims anyway and that there are polygamous marriages here already so making it legal wouldn’t threaten anything. No one is talking about what the Australian way of life actually is, and why it is feeling so threatened. http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/07/polygamy_and_the_australian_wa.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/07/polygamy_and_the_australian_wa.html Politics Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +1000 Shanghai to Wuhan. They hadn’t actually declared war on China, claiming they were helping the country, which gave them more freedom to play outside the rules for things like the treatment of POWs and the admittance of the press. This is the setting for Children of the Silk Road, a film centring around the true story of one journalist’s experience of the eastern beginning of World War II. Desperate to get into the city of Nanjing, Japan’s latest conquest, and report on what’s really happening, George Hogg poses as a Red Cross delivery driver and makes it into Japanese controlled territory. What follows is not what he expected, but that’s what happens when life takes you in hand and points you in a different direction.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/07/film_review_children_of_the_si.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/07/film_review_children_of_the_si.html Film Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +1000 He’s a classical musician with a talent for improvising. A concert violinist who decides his playlist moments before taking the stage. A baby-faced professional. An outgoing Finn. Although he’s the current it-boy of the next generation on classical music’s world stage, Pekka Kuusisto doesn’t go in for all the rock star gimmicks his peers seem to resort to. There’s no designer punk hair style, fluorescent instruments, or psychedelic suits; just plain matte black two piece suits for Kuusisto, pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, and the page turner du jour; standard haircuts and clean shaven chins; standard wood violin and glossy black grand piano. http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/07/a_harmony_of_contradictions.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/07/a_harmony_of_contradictions.html Music Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:00:43 +1000 By all accounts, the Australian film industry is under the pump. Apparently, independent Aussie films are lucky to pull $3 million at the box office and usually cost between $3 million and $10 million to make. Not difficult sums to work out. Those films that do manage to get close to that $3 million mark are the relatively big ones like Romulus My Father that have actual marketing and publicity budgets. This situation leaves the others to survive on word-of mouth. Only they don’t usually stay at cinemas long enough for word to get passed through enough mouths that are attached to bums which will end up on cinema seats. People in all sections of the industry seem to agree that the business model is faulty. Although it isn’t as faulty as the one Australian independent theatre makers are currently negotiating. Independent films at least have budgets that include paying cast and crew, whereas it’s pretty rare to find an independent theatre production that manages to pay for its public liability insurance and time in the performance space, let alone its director, performers, and the myriad of highly skilled behind the scenes players it takes to put even the most humble of shows on the boards. The comparison may not be that of apples with apples, but the two are related artforms: both tell stories through image and sound; both need collaboration between several people; and actors, directors and writers often cross over and back from one form to the other. Film and theatre are two of the more expensive artforms because they take a lot of equipment and a group of people to create a piece. To practice as an actor or director or lighting designer, you need a specific project to work on. It’s not like being a writer, musician, dancer, painter, sculptor—those forms of expression you can practice on your own with a pen and paper, instrument, the right shoes, canvas and paint, clay or wood or a piece of rock and a chisel. If you’re moved to express what’s in you through one of those mediums, you can do so by yourself, in your own time, outlaying no more than a couple of hundred dollars, and without needing to relay on convincing other people they want to consume what you produce. Sure, you don’t make any money off it unless you convince someone that they want to swap it for your art, but you can still do it. And doing it, in the end, is what allows an artist in any medium to hone their craft, get better at expressing themselves in a way that resonates with others. http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/05/nowhere_to_go_for_film_and_the.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/05/nowhere_to_go_for_film_and_the.html Arts Film Theatre australia business film funding theatre Sun, 04 May 2008 14:39:02 +1000 With the resignation of their lawyer, it is now up to the Bali Bombers themselves to appeal their death sentences. They’re not going to of course, but that seems to be something that the Australian media and the families of the bombers’ victims are determined to ignore. http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/03/everyones_determined_release_the_bali_bombers.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/03/everyones_determined_release_the_bali_bombers.html Politics bali bomb bomber bombers death sentence penalty Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:30:00 +1000 Gillian Armstrong is on her way home.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/02/international_filmmaker_comes.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/02/international_filmmaker_comes.html Arts Film australia australian catherine zeta jones dendy dendy portside filmmaker gillian armstrong guy pearce portside Saoirse Ronan Timothy Spall woman Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:53:44 +1000 In the end, I had just over 7,500 words down about my heroine. Still 2,500 short of my personal target and nowhere in the neighbourhood of NaNoWriMo’s 50,000 words in 30 days target. http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/02/nanowrimo_wrap_up.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2008/02/nanowrimo_wrap_up.html Literature Personal Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:00:00 +1000 Dedicated to gem for reminding me to write it! I wasn’t counting on crazy work season in the middle of NaNoWriMo and it’s put my whole writing schedule out of whack. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/11/nanowrimo_just_cracked_5000.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/11/nanowrimo_just_cracked_5000.html Literature Personal Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:25:00 +1000 NaNoWriMo has fled, and as expected, I am well behind where I should be at this point. Nonetheless, it has been and continues to be a really positive experience, and even though I’m behind word-count-wise, I’m enjoying letting go of the responsibility for quality words and just getting some words — any words — up on the screen.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/11/nanowrimo_one_week_in.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/11/nanowrimo_one_week_in.html Literature Personal NaNoWriMo personal writing Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:00:00 +1000 National Novel Writing Month. Known affectionately as NaNoWriMo, it’s a month long event for aspiring novellists based on the writer’s-block-busting principle that quantity is king. The aim for participants is to pump out 50,000 words in the the 30 days of November, starting at 12:01am on 1 November and finishing at midnight on 20 November. It was founded in 1999 by frustrated US writer Chris Baty as a cure for his and his writer friends’ critical approach to their writing so that they could just finish something. And apparently it works, because the NaNoWriMo website membership has swelled to 90,000 aspiring authors gunning for the biggest word count this year. Plus, there are success stories galore, with writers having bashed out first drafts of novels and subsequently tweaked and refined it into something that publishers are interested in. I’m attempting the monster task of writing almost 1700 words per day for the first time this month. Considering I also write for a living, write the odd piece for this column, as well as everyday correspondence and my journal, that’s a whole lot of writing going on! I have a plot outline ready, have done some research and know my cast of characters fairly well. I think I’m about as prepared as possible. Let's into the breach — typing starts tonight! ----- You can help NaNoWriMo to continue helping people find their novel voices by donating anything from $10 upwards on their donations page.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/11/a_perfect_cure_for_writers_blo.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/11/a_perfect_cure_for_writers_blo.html Arts Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:40:00 +1000 Arts Queensland wants to hear from you about the future of the department’s support for our state’s design community. Starting on Friday, Arts Minister Rod Welford be consulting Queenslanders for a whole month on what we think about building a Queensland Centre for Design. It will be interesting to see what this consultation entails. The proposed centre will be charged with: strengthening Queensland's design industry and raising the profile of state designers by creating an internationally recognised hub for the varied design disciplines. Whoa. I kind of feel sorry for it already. That’s a lot to ask of one centre servicing a state with a population of around 4 million and a pretty terrible recent history of supporting those with a creative bent. Whatever the outcome, it will be great to see some government support of our design community, from the interior and furniture designers, to creators of gorgeous vases and bowls, not to mention those who specialise in lamps and light fittings, and even ceiling fans. Seriously.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/10/designing_consultation.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/10/designing_consultation.html Arts Politics arts queensland design queensland Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +1000 Four opens in Brisbane at Dendy George Street tonight. ‘The film is a journey for the audience, a journey through the four corners of the world, that is at once familiar and unknown,’ said Slade. ‘It demonstrates that the timeless rhythms and harmonies of music, and the rhythms and harmonies of life and nature, are one and the same thing.’ Following on from a hit season in Sydney and sold out sessions at the Sydney and Melbourne International Film Festivals, Four is geared to delight Brisbane audiences with what critics have praised in such glowing terms as ‘vibrant and ambitious’, ‘sumptuous and very poignant’, ‘exquisite’, and ‘seamless’. The film follows four world-class violinists from far-flung locations and backgrounds, one for each season and with Vivaldi’s iconic baroque violin concerto series, The Four Seasons, as an auditory backdrop.]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/10/opening_tonight_four.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/10/opening_tonight_four.html Film adelaide australian film industry award baroque Cho-Liang Lin classical concerto film finland four four seasons Jimmy Lin lapland music new york Niki Vasilakis Pekka Kuusisto Sayaka Shoji thursday island Tim Slade tokyo violin vivaldi waiben Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:00:00 +1000 Micro-Trip — seven brand new plays in 70 minutes! All the plays are new work by emerging playwrights, some of whom are performing as well. They are: Kale and Verona: a story of flatmates who may also be lovers Grace: a black comedy about partying and loss It’s Hot: an award winning screenplay about two con men adapted for the stage Ten Commandments: a satire about Catholic confession Moving Fast: something about politics and world domination In the Park: a 30-something dating story A Trip Down Brunswick: all about our very own Valley It should be interesting — the producers, performers and special guest director Elise Greig are all long-established features of Brisbane theatre, talented artist Kitty Taube has designed the set, and composer Brian Cavanagh has lent his skills to the sound design. A review will be here in a couple of days. In the meantime, see what the Courier-Mail and Australian newspapers have to say about it. Micro-Trip is Part of Metro Arts' Independents 2007. Credits: Producers: Jo Thomas and Sean Dennehy Performers: Nick Backstrom, Sean Dennehy, Christina Koch, Nigel Poulton and Jo Thomas Playwrights: Nick Backstrom, Shaun Charles, Sean Dennehy, Dan Evans, Adam Gelin, Brendan Glanville and Sally Rodda Special Guest Director: Elise Greig Set design: Kitty Taube Sound design: Brian Cavanagh]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/07/micro_at_the_metro.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/07/micro_at_the_metro.html Theatre Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:55:13 +1000 Tonight, QPAC's Cremorne Theatre will host the opening night of the Queensland Theatre Company's production of The Glass Menagerie, one of American playwright Tennessee Williams' best known works. Now we all know that a show being on at the illustrious Queensland Performing Arts Complex definitely does not guarantee us audience members a good night out. The last two shows I saw there were utter, utter garbage. One was an adaptation of a classic 1980s film and one was a certain recent production of a certain world-famous opera that painfully extracted three and a half hours out of my life. That said, and deep breaths taken, I think we're pretty safe with this one. Firstly, Tennessee Williams wrote it. Secondly, the meddlesome matriarch Amanda Wingfield is being played by veteran of the screen and stage Carol Burns. Thirdly Michael Futcher, a long time fixture on the Brisbane theatre scene as director and playwright, is directing. Add to these capable hands assistant director Marcel Dorney and actors Conrad Coleby (best known to the masses as a cute ambo on All Saints) and Helen Cassidy, and we can all rest easy in our comfy QPAC seats. The Glass Menagerie was written in a time of change in America. World War II was over and there was a new mood in society that was, as always reflected in the theatre. According to a contemporary theatre reviewer, "the mainstream of Broadway was essentially a realistic tradition." Then along came Williams. Many theatre buffs were agreeably surprised by this more dreamlike "memory play", including Anton Chekov who “...was young and not prepared for a stage language in an American play of such exquisite lyricism.” The word "lyrical" comes up a lot when people discuss Tennessee Williams. As well as the beautiful words, Menagerie, like many of Williams' plays, includes copious stage and lighting directions. It is said that he included these because he was concerned that there wasn't enough hard plot to communicate his intentions to the director. It is a semi-autobiographical story of an overbearing mother, a shy and disturbed daughter who spends her days playing with the glass animals of the title, and a dreaming son who wants to be left alone to write poetry, and if he can't do that, wants to run away to sea. Williams' own sister suffered from chronic mental illness and he actually did run away with the navy. The parallels end there, however, hence the semi-autobiographicality. For example, the Wingfields of the play are in financial hardship whereas the Williamses never were. The Glass Menagerie is showing from tonight until 11 August 2007. Tickets are $26 to $56 Performances are captioned at 7.30pm Friday 27 July and 2.00pm Saturday 28 July 2007. For further information, see QTC's website. --------- What do you think of this article? Love it? Hate it? Spotted a spelling mistake? Comment! What do you think that button's there for?]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/07/tennessee_williams_the_glass_m.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/07/tennessee_williams_the_glass_m.html Theatre Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:30:30 +1000 the fest was the music. The musicians were an integral part of many shows, contributing to the action, both following and leading the other performers. One such muso is Dan Walmsley who plays with Melbourne impro group The Crew. Trained as a classical pianist, Dan quit when he was 15 once he had reached grade 8 because the options for continuing down that path were decidedly narrow. “I didn’t want to go to uni and do music and I didn’t want to be a music teacher,” he said. Meanwhile, he was busying himself writing and acting in sketch comedy shows at Monash University before getting into stand-up comedy. Dan joined the Crew in around about 2002 as a performer of the non-musical variety. “I did say to them ‘oh, you know, I can do piano too’,” he recalled of his early days. “But they didn’t really believe me.” That was until he jumped on a keyboard at the Kitten Club one night and bashed out a few tunes. The penny dropped and he became the troupe’s regular tunester. These days, he provides the Crew with a soundtrack most weekends and meets up with members at random to do overseas shows. “All the members of the Crew have stand-up careers as well, so sometimes a few of us will all happen to be at, say, the Edinburgh Fringe at the same time and we’ll throw together a late night show for the week.” Oh the life of the international artist! But artist’s life is not all fun and games as another of the festival musos, Brisbane pianist Tim Wotherspoon, attested. For the talented musician studying jazz piano at QUT, the last minute gig playing this weekend was a godsend. Tim wrote impressive on-the-spot scores for a few of the shows, including an interlude of the theme from Doctor Who, which drew hoots and cheers of excitement from the audience. “That theme used to freak me out as a kid,” he said when asked how he knew it off the top of his head. “You probably noticed that I didn’t really get it at first, I kind of got it about half way through and that’s when everyone cheered.” At the moment he’s working on an as yet untitled EP, which he says is jazz–pop–funk fusion. The album, Argo, is due out sometime next year. Local muso Matt Hadgraft, who plays with festival sponsors Impro Mafia, got a great response from his instant rendering of Mozart to give one of the improvisors a clue in the game they were playing. Unfortunately it didn’t help. While Matt, an aspiring actor, plays impro regularly, he has supporting gigs teaching and writing radio copy. He’s also a talented singer, having sung with the Brisbane Chamber Choir, Choir, Canticum, St Stephen's Cathedral Choir and the ACU Choir. --- Stay tuned for more post-fest articles, interviews and deconstructions over the next few days. ]]> http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/06/brizimprovfest_interviews_impro_musos.html http://www.sarahjansen.com/2007/06/brizimprovfest_interviews_impro_musos.html Theatre Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:00:00 +1000