Moviehouse Memories...

A recent exchange of facebook comments left me reminiscing on times that I've spent at the movies over the year. You see, I love films, and I spend a lot of time watching them. However, an essential part of that is the experience of going to the cinema.

As a child, going to the movies was always one of those special treats. My family was far from wealthy, so it was one of those things we'd do on a birthday, or during the school holidays, usually down at the Westfield Shoppingtown or Forest Hill Chase. There was something magical about the cinema - the vast array of promotional posters, the carpeted floors, and the ever-present smell of popcorn.

And then, in my mid-teens, there was the Valhalla Cinema, now (and, apparently, formerly) known as the Westgarth Cinema. (Yes, I know the Valhalla was also in Richmond, but that was before my time). My first visit to the Valhalla was to see Double-Take meets the Killer Bees. For those familiar with Hercules Returns, this was the team behind re-dubbing that film - except that they used to do it live in the cinema. And then I went to my very first 24-hour science fiction marathon, which was an experience in itself. Audience participation was allowed - encouraged even. I first entered the cinema, early into a screening of the original War of the Worlds, to find myself surrounded by paper plate "flying saucers" whizzing through the air. Finally, once I convinced my folks that I was going out with a responsible bunch of people, I started going to the monthly Blues Brothers show at the Valhalla Cinema. To describe these nights would take a long blog post in themselves, but they were a defining memory of my teenage years.

Melbourne has a wonderous tradition of cinemas. In my first year of university, I started going to double-features at the Astor Cinema, one of my favourite places in Melbourne. I also spend far too many hours at the Melbourne Film Festival, and despite having moved to Darwin, I've still managed to find an excuse to visit Melbourne these past two years, and fit in at least one screening into my schedule.

And then, last week, when I was in Melbourne, I found myself on Faraday Street, grabbing some lunch at Thresherman's, and I looked up at the Carlton Moviehouse.



It was around June 1999 when I went to my one and only screening at The Carlton Moviehouse with a girl that I was seeing at the time. They had announced that they were closing down, and so it was basically our last chance to go and see it. From memory, there was a choice between "Face/Off" and "There's Something about Mary". A sad way to see out a long-standing tradition of films. We saw the latter. Our relationship didn't last much longer than the moviehouse, which closed that same month.

Nowadays, I seem to have developed a penchant for outdoor cinemas. I've seen many a film at the Moonlight Cinema in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, and I have yet to see anything at the Rooftop Cinema in the Melbourne CBD, having narrowly missed out during my last visit, but it will happen next time! And one of the bestest best things about Darwin is the Deckchair Cinema, which is exactly that. It's a cinema, out by the edge of Darwin Harbour, where you can see (mostly) arthouse films from April through to November, on relaxed balmy evenings with a cool sea breeze floating through (and a couple of glasses of wine).

It's my favourite thing about living in Darwin.

The Lemon Tree

Last weekend, I found myself unexpectedly back in Melbourne, despite having only left a fortnight ago after NLS4. It was a lovely trip, and I managed to catch up with many awesome friends and colleagues.

On Sunday afternoon, I was wandering through Carlton, on my way to attend a rare performance of Hector Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ (which was absolutely beautiful), and I was somewhat amused to see this:



Yes, the Lemon Tree Hotel is now a Children's Centre.

A flood of memories came rushing back. Some of them are vivid... some a little more vague. My first experience of the Lemon Tree was in my first week of my first year at the University of Melbourne, back in February 1997. I had joined the Simpson's Appreciation Society (which was, at the time, the club with the largest membership on campus... a title later taken over by the Chocolate Lover's Society) and it seemed like a sensible club to join at the time. What ensued at the Lemon Tree was a semi-regular evening of Simpsons screenings, projected onto a wall, accompanied by beer and donuts. The perfect distraction from the trials of undergraduate study.

The following year, I found myself joining the Law Student's Society. Now, I wasn't a law student, but I had a number of friends who were, and convinced me that I needed to join, if for no other reason, so I could get myself a much-coveted LSS keyring. This keyring would get me free food and drinks at LSS barbeques (which everybody knew was the best barbeques on campus - they always had premium beers and sub-zeros for the ladies), but more importantly, they'd get me reduced price entry to PTN's at the Lemon Tree. PTN was an acronym for "pleasurable Thursday nights" (although another P-word was often substituted, indicating the intoxicated nature of these events). It was always crowded up to (and possibly beyond) capacity, with a seemingly-endless bar tab. In retrospect, these evenings were the epitome of my more alcoholic times as an undergraduate, and I look back at them with a mixture of nostalgic fondness, and slight embarrassment.

Several years later, in October 1999, I found myself back at the Lemon Tree, after something of a hiatus. I was meeting a girl - a girl who would become my second girlfriend - for a beer, before heading out to a movie. We went and saw The Sixth Sense. Not a bad choice for a first date.

It wasn't much later that year when The Lemon Tree was closed down. There was still advertising splashed on the front blackboard, promoting the upcoming New Year's Eve party which would see out the millenium. Unfortunately, this iconic institution didn't last that long. The rumour that circulated claimed that the local residents in the adjoining houses finally won a long-standing battle to have it closed down, after the hotel violated noise restrictions by staying open too late. It always seemed a little odd to me that such a lively hotel was able to peacefully co-exist wedged between residential terrace blocks.

At least now, as a Children's Centre, there won't be the danger of patrons staying up past their bed time...

Merry Christmas!

Today's news
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

With Xmas a week away, it looks like we might be partying like it's 1974...

Guest Blogger: Maureen McCarthy

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Let me present to you, in her blog debut, esteemed Australian YA author, Maureen McCarthy!

Andrew: So, Maureen, what exactly are you doing in Darwin?

Maureen: God! sometimes I wonder that myself Andrew. What the hell am I doing here? The weather is .... impossible!!! (at times that is anyway - real slitting the wrists kind of impossible) I've come up at the worst time apparently. It's the "build up" season and sooo very hot. But it's interesting too. The heat I mean. Sometimes I forgot all about it and even ... amazingly quite enjoy it! But back to the question, Why Darwin. Well ..
The short answer is that I followed a man up here! The long answer is as well as that ie following the man, I also needed a bit of a change too. Darwin is sort of frontier country ... and there is part of me attracted to that.
Golly I forgot the main reason. I needed to get away from my kids!

Andrew: So, I had the pleasure of being present at the recent launch of your latest book, "Somebody's Crying". How many is that now, and where do you feel this book has taken you, compared with your other novels?

Maureen: Well I think its number eight actually and they're all still in print too - at least they were last time I've looked. People sometimes ask how long I've been writing and its sort of sobering to have to say, nearly twenty years! Yeah I think that is right. I strted as a script writer and my first books were four little ones connected to four hours of television that I wrote in 1987 (In Between) Of course the series is well and truly dead and buried but funny to think that the books are still out there - in very small quantities I might add. Other titles include 'Ganglands", "Cross My heart", "Queen Kat Carmel and St Jude Get a Life",
'Cross My Heart" "Flash Jack" "When You Wake and Find Me Gone" "Rose By Any Other Name". No, I can't say which one I like best! Honestly it's like your kids. If I said I liked one of my kids best, the other two would have me on toast! Same with books.

'Somebody's Crying' has been different. It's centered on a crime for a start and although I didn't set out to write a murder mystery - in fact I very much didn't want to do that. I'm NOT a crime writer and don't even read a lot of crime. Don't particularly like it to tell the truth BUT it in fact has turned out to be a murder mystery (of sorts) What I was interested in was the aftermath of a huge traumatic event such as some one being murdered. And of course the relationships of those left behind. The book was based on a real event in a country town in Victoria. When I heard about it from the lawyer who was representing the accused a kind of 'ping' went off in my head. Meaning ... I thought "Yeah that is really interesting. I could weave a story around that real live happening ....

Andrew: So, you've been in Darwin - on the wild Australian frontier - for a little while now. Have you been inspired in any way for future writing?

Maureen: Yeah I have Andrew. I've only been here a few months and it's working its magic on me - kind of! I'm a bit of a drama queen at heart. I go up and down like a yo yo (meaning I get very happy and then go down really low at other times). Up here is pretty dramatic too so it feels good. I like the saturated colours all around me too. Where I'm living these amazing orchids are growning up and around the palm trees. The sweltering intensity of the heat and then, suddenly the sky has darkened, the thunder starts rolling and its pissing down. Within an hour the sun might be out again and I'm thinking 'hell what was all that about?' Crazy stuff. It is a small town. Melbourne (where I come from sometimes feels too big and loud and impersonal)so people are friendly and that's nice. But getting to know people takes time I guess ... I have no idea how long I'll stay.

Thanks, Maureen! Her latest novel is Somebody's Crying, published by Allen & Unwin. Here's the video trailer for it...



I've read it, and it's excellent. Trust me, I'm a librarian. However, don't take my word for it, here's a review in the last weekend's Sydney Morning Herald:

2008: the year that was...

A few months ago, I co-hosted the Top End heat of the Australian Poetry Slam with Megan Spencer (formerly of SBS's The Movie Show) who is the current Drive-time radio presenter for ABC Darwin (but today's her last day).

Following the success of the live broadcast of the competition, I've had the opportunity to make guest appearances on her show on a semi-regular basis. It's been great experience for me, in terms of writing to a deadline (ie. "Hi Andrew, can you come in and perform something about Baz Luhrmann's Australia this afternoon?"), as well as just talking confidently off-the-cuff on live radio.

Yesterday was my final appearance on Megan's show. As such, the requested topic was a retrospective on the year that was.

So here it is - with thanks to Mark Pesce for getting me into a limerick mindset with his lines about Obama, and the Twitterverse for further ideas and support, as I worked to yesterday's 4:45pm deadline.

(Oh, and I'm afraid that I was far more cynical than usual - I blame our esteemed PM with his piss-poor proposal for Australia's carbon reduction scheme.)

2008
When I look on 2008
There's plenty that wasn't so great.
I don't mean to be shrewd
About things that I've viewed,
But some people I'd like to berate.

First up, there's that pollie named Kevin;
Voted in in 2007.
And whilst he said sorry
There's still cause for worry,
'Cos he's here until 20-eleven.

Sure, he called up the best and the brightest
To a summit, but hasn't the slightest
Idea what to do
When convincing you
That his values don't swing to the rightist.

But he's better than our Brendan Nelson
Whose popularity dropped, and then fell some,
Until replaced by Mal
Our Republican pal,
Whose entrance was still less than welcome.

Then there's that director Baz Luhrmann
Whose films will make millions, for sure, man!
But I like my screens
With more meaningful scenes
And less melodramatic manure, man.

In the US, we had Sarah Palin
The Gov'ner from Alaska hailin'.
A hot hockey mum,
Who was good with a gun,
But her campaign was subject to failin'.

Of course, the exception's Obama:
Ladies saw him, and murmured, "Oh mama!"
Oh, he took a stand,
And said, "Yes we can!"
Now we wait for the impending drama.

'Cos now the economy's screwed,
We can barely afford to buy food,
We're losing our homes,
There's no money to loan,
And we'd hate to live in Humpty Doo.

Yes, there's certainly plenty to hate,
When it comes to 2008.
Here's hoping '09
Will turn out just fine.
If not, have another beer, mate!

---

For those not familiar with the Darwin region, Humpty Doo is a town about an hour out of Darwin. It's claim to fame is the "Big Croc", as seen below.


P.S. I hopefully have a special treat for all you readers... watch this space later today...

Filling the void...

This feels awfully self-indulgent of me to say this in my blog, but there's been an awful void that's suddenly appeared in my life.

Firstly, it's that time of the year when a lot of people leave Darwin. Many take their six weeks annual leave, and never return. Some decide that they're going to be more frank about it, and resign straight out. And others, who are only casual workers, take off to Woodford, and work their way down to Adelaide for the Fringe Festival, and come back to Darwin in April, once the weather starts improving. In my local support network, there are a number of vital "hubs" that are leaving, and very likely not returning, and this upsets me. It makes me wonder why I bother trying to network in such a transient industry, and whether I should be joining everybody else on the East Coast, where I have more permanent networks. However, I'm a little torn, because I also kinda like it here. There's so much scope to do awesome work, as long as people don't leave. However, people leave, because it's too frustrating to do awesome work. It's a bit of a circular problem like that.

NLS4 is also over, and as awesome as it was, I'm sad now. For the last two years, I've worked with an amazing and inspiring team, and feel honoured to have been taken under their wing in the committee, given that I was barely-graduated when I started. It's been wonderful to share a vision with them, and work towards making it a reality, and one that was every bit as amazing as we'd conceived. But now, like all projects, it's over. Well, I still have to write my report.

So the big question is: what's next for Andrew Finegan?

A lot of my Big Hopeful Plans for 2009 have already fallen through, or are very uncertain, and I'm still not quite ready to talk about those in a public forum. A lot of it involves my future career, and I've got a number of options appearing and disappearing in front of me as each day passes. It's all a bit too much to worry about, really.

However, angst about my entire future aside, here's a few events and projects that I've committed myself to:

1. The Somerset Celebration of Literature - I've been invited to speak at the Conference for Librarians & Teachers, talking about my experiences as a young male librarian entering the industry, the ways in which I've been able to make it work for me, and my hopes and dreams for the future of libraries. Even better, the rest of the week will feature some awesome Australian writers, including Maureen McCarthy, James Roy, Garth Nix and Kirsty Murray.

2. The Passion of Saint Lawrence - is a 10-minute work that I'm preparing for Short + Sweet Cabaret in 2009... keep an eye out in July!

3. Carnal Knowledge Management - is a full-length show, which is kind of a sequel to "Librarian Idol" but not really. It looks at portrayals of sex, sexuality, and perversion, in the canon of literature, and offers an hour of reader development in a way that is hopefully both entertaining, subversive, and thought-provoking. That's the idea, anyway.

4. The Novel - Okay, NaNoWriMo is over, but I'm not quite ready to let go quite yet. I've written a story that I believe in. It needs a lot of work, but the heart and soul is already there - it's just a matter of fleshing out all the other vital organs. And then I might actually show it to somebody else. Draft #2 starts this weekend.

Hopefully, this will be enough to at least bridge that void in my life at the moment.

I look at my weekly bus ticket, and it reminds me that we're entering Week 51 of the year. Next year isn't far away, and I have a feeling that it's going to be a good one...

RIP Dorothy Porter

Today, the sad news appeared in my twitterfeed, that Dorothy Porter had passed away.

Firstly, I'm a bit of a bad librarian when it comes to contemporary poets. It's an area in which I need to develop myself as a reader. I'm getting a lot better than I was a year or two ago. I guess I partially have Dorothy to thank for that.

As such, I only became acquainted with her work this year, once El Dorado had been published, to astonishing reviews. I was at Adelaide Writer's Week, chatting to Nick Earls and getting my copy of Zigzag Street signed, and Dorothy was speaking at the tent next door, and I was captivated by her eloquence, talking about the idea of bringing the ancient tradition of epic storytelling through verse, into popular culture. Although she certainly was not the first to do it, she definitely raised the profile of verse novels in the public eye.

I actually had the pleasure of crossing paths with Dorothy at the Wordstorm Festival in May this year, and she spoke at a number of events, including an evening at the Northern Territory Library, in conversation with Megan Spencer, and an afternoon of queer poetry with Singaporean upstart poet, Ng-Yi Sheng. She was a delight to listen to, and always one to mingle and chat with the general public between festival sessions. Her company and sheer feistiness of character was one of the more memorable features of the festival, and a reminder to me that even the most celebrated writers are still human.



Leaving us far too young, at the peak of her career, she will be missed.

RIP Dorothy Porter
1954 - 2008

"Yes!" moments of the last week...

I don't like to take too many notes at conferences. After all, the more I try to write things down, the less I actually absorb through actively listening to a speaker. And also, the papers will be available online very soon. (We promise)

However, I have a number of "Yes!" moments, that I'd like to share with you all, from the last week.

1. Mark Pesce. A lot of what he said wasn't all that new to me, but I loved the implied-history-repeating of the Europeana crash, almost ten years after the EB Online crash. The big 'yes' moment, though, was his call to arms for librarians. That we need to become "The Necessary Army" and take our services "to the streets", because the average person is drowning in information, and they don't even know it. That's where librarians of the future will be vital.

I couldn't help myself, and asked him the very-loaded question of whether we should be doing the same as a "necessary army" in the political sphere, in the light of proposed ISP filtering. He said that we need to "own it". (I say we need to pwn it!)

2. Christine May from VerbYL. That place looks like an awesome place to work, and concrete evidence that, yes, you can get troubled youth into the library - even if you have to sit them down on couches, and have Chopper Read storytime (I couldn't tell if she was joking or not - I suspect that she wasn't).

3. The Debate. For the second NLS in a row, I opted to play devil's advocate. However, my 'yes' moments came from Roxanne Missingham and Kate Davis. Roxanne said that there's "a little bit of librarian in everybody", and I totally agree. Training makes us "competent" librarians, however, experience, passion, and a pleasure for learning and sharing are all things that can't be "trained" into us. If we have those things, we don't need to be "made to requalify", because we won't need to.
Kate also mentioned that, when it comes down to it, if they don't have the skills, then yes, they should requalify - into another profession! It would be a win-win situation for everybody.

4. Naomi Doessel's paper. Something that she said, that struck home, is that we, as individual professionals, need to be able to market ourselves and create our own branding, especially if we want to break those stereotype barriers.

5. The Shanachies. These guys are inspiring, and have so much passion and enthusiasm. I loved the footage from their American Shanachie Tour, especially seeing Dr Michael Stephens sitting on the library floor with his students, playing librarian "Spin The Bottle" - his positivity and passion for the industry is so infectious, even on the screen.

And then Erik and Jaap turned the screen onto the audience, and interviewed delegates on their thoughts of what libraries should be. I have to admit that I was put on the spot (as were the others), and being filmed was a little nerve-wracking, but I stand by what I said - the key to libraries being relevant is about finding and sharing the pleasure in the way we interact with the community to share ideas and dreams - and(as Erik implied) in our own special ways, be it through songs, telling stories, debating, etc. There is a pleasure to be found in all of these things, and so long as we capitalise on that pleasure, then we will always be relevant.

6. Sherman Young. Technology has changed, but the book will always remain. It's not dead - it's just resting. It's a time investment, but it's also a pleasurable experience in itself. E-book readers are like the fast-food equivalent. I like that.


Of course, there were also many other really wonderful speakers, and definitely something for everybody. If you went, I hope you got plenty of your own "yes" moments out of it! Be sure to share them around. :)

Flying home...

NLS4 is over. I am currently at Tullamarine International Airport, awaiting my flight home.

Two years ago, NLS2006 was a turning point in my professional path. It really opened up the professional world to me, and gave me both inspiration and guidance to set myself on the right track with my career.

This year's New Librarian's Symposium was a completely different experience. This year, it was personally a celebration of "new librarianship". It was very much about finding the pleasure in what we do, and sharing our stories, our ideas and our dreams with other similarly-minded professionals. It has been a fresh injection of enthusiasm, and I've met so many awesome new professionals, some whom are only just entering the scene, and will undoubtedly do fantastic things in the future.

I'll blog more at length with my thoughts on the keynotes, plenaries and a some of the papers, once I've had a chance to relax, and let it all sink in...

Look out, there are librarians!

Pre-symposium drinks
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

Yep, in a few hours, the 4th ALIA New Librarian's Symposium will commence...

You can keep track of goings-on by following the #nls tag in Twitter, and photos will be uploaded intermittently into the NLS4 Flickr group.

Run, run, as fast as you can...

This is my 200th post. Wow - how did that happen?

Anyway, the build-up can send people a little bit loopy, from time to time. On Monday, I worked a nine-hour day, travelled home, including a 15-minute walk from the bus stop in the humid climes of Darwin. I had my first massive build-up hissy-fit when I got home. It wasn't very dignified, and I'm glad that I live alone.

It may have culminated in bashing out Smiths songs on my keyboard, and wailing in true Morrissey style.

Last night, was a lot more restrained, possibly because I was excited about travelling to Melbourne for NLS4.

Last night, I embraced the build-up madness, by torturing a gingerbread man, and then photographing him in compromising positions around my flat...



More gingerbread madness here...

Presentation

Today, I gave a presentation at the NT Libraries Professional Development Forum... it's always a bit tricky trying to cater for the kind of range of professionals that the library industry provides, from futurist gurus down all the way down to book-stamping luddites (not that there any many of those left), but the feedback was overwhelming positive, so I thought I'd spread the joy...

Web 2.0 and Australian Libraries

From: librarianidol,
1 hour ago

Web 2.0 and Australian Libraries

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Presentation at the NTL Community Development Forum

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