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I’m just back from a brief stay in Cairns (FNQ). This included the obligatory trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and a quick stop on Green Island for the morning to go snorkelling. Now I’ve been snorkelling before in Fiji and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was with a some-what “been there, done that” attitude that I adjusted the mask and swam out from the tropical beach.
Very quickly I found myself in the presence of a wide variety of fish, initially all very small and colourful as if I’d jumped into some-ones aqaurium.
As I got out a bit further over the reef sections, I could see even more pinks, blues, greens and reds darting between the coral and the plant life all relatively unconcerned about my presence. Now these were larger fish and not just the one or two but small schools of 8-12 at a time.
Snorkelling is a very deceptive pastime. After about 30 minutes I stuck my head up to look around and found myself about 75 metres from the beach, just on the outer perimeter as designated by the safety buoy. No problems, I’ll just swim back in and have another look around as I go.
Once again I passed the coral and it’s colourful inhabitants and just as I was about to rejoin the sandy beach, I spied something much larger than I had previously encountered swimming in the same direction less than a couple of metres below me.
Instantly I held my breath as I recognised the familiar dorsal fin and gills of the shark family. Uh-Oh! Now this wasn’t the huge Hollywood relative but at around 1.5-2m in length, it was enough for me to stop in my tracks. I watched as it thankfully took no interest in me and swam off along the shore in relatively shallow water. I then swam the remaining few metres to the beach.
I sat and thought about the preceeding few moments and came to the conclusion that after the initial shock realisation of what I was witnessing, I wasn’t terrified. This was mainly because of it’s size and the fact that it behaved exactly the same as all the other fish I had witnessed; merely going about’s it’s business unperturbed by the boat full of curious visitors swimming about. I may have had a different view had it been larger.
As it turns out, it appears to have been a black tip reef shark which are fairly common and relatively harmless. Just goes to show you what a bad-reputation can do for you.

We’ll Never Turn Back (2007) Mavis Staples
Produced by Ry Cooder

Mud gave me this CD to listen to as he knew I really liked Ry Cooder.
From the first track I was gob-smacked.
This was the Ry I had come to know and love on his early albums: very sparse arrangements, deep bass, Jim Keltner on drums and of course the slide master, Ry himself.

What about Mavis you ask???
Sure, I’d heard of the Staples Singers and knew a couple of their hits from the 70’s  (”Respect Yourself” , “I’ll Take You There” ) but that was about it.  I was in for a surprise.
Mavis ”owns” the old gospel numbers (We shall Not be Moved, Eye On The Prize, Down in Mississippi, Jesus is On the Mainline) as if they were her own personal themes. She also injects new indignation at the issues of today as she did with the 60s civil rights movements (My Own Eyes, This Little Light). 
The voice and conviction are strong and the message is clear: “Have a look at yourself. Get it together. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!”

In summary, I’ve discovered Mavis Staples on what is arguably the best Ry Cooder album in years.

The cold Melbourne winter has one good point. It provides a perfect excuse to hole up in a dark warm place and catch up with the US summer blockbusters.

BATMAN - The (Long) Dark Knight:
Yes it’s good! No buts! 
Heath Ledger is very good as are many of the other supporting artists. Gary Oldman as Lt/Commissioner Gordon is superb and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent shows us all of his acting repertoire as the good, bad and ugly.   

XFiles - I Want to Believe:
The re-emergence of Mulder and Scully exploits the “absence makes the heart grow fonder” expectations as did the latest Indiana Jones chapter. I liked this movie but at the end I felt I’d seen a really good episode of “Law and Order” rather than the the conspiracy riddled paranormal X File adventure. I’m sure there’s plenty of room for heated debate on whether or not it conforms to a true X-File experience, but not from me. I liked it. (I never thought Billy Connolly could keep a straight face for so long)

In a nutshell: Young Temudgin’s life in the harshest of environments of 12th century Mongolia.
The metamorphosis of a young boy into the legendary Ghengis Khan.
I’m guessing this is the first of a series as very little time is devoted to his “taking over the world” phase, mainly concentrating on his rise to power.

Brush up on your Mongolian, or take your reading specs for the sub-titles. I liked it.

Well the verdict is in, Mighty Thong went down a treat last week at the Clifton Hill Hotel.

“What a fantastic performance ….. ” : Moira
“You blokes were great ….”: Ken
“OOOH Yeah”: Leonie
“More! More! More!”: The Crowd
“How can we make some money out of this???”: Bill W

Indiana Jones : Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I saw it. I enjoyed it. It worked well.
BUT …. (you knew that was coming) ……
Indiana Jones is like a favourite uncle that comes to visit once in while. When he’s not there, you reminisce about all the good times in the past. When he is there, you are never disappointed as he strives to put a new gloss on all his old party tricks. After he’s gone you sit back contented but ask yourself “Is it just me or was he better last time?”
The key to the success of this movie is the long time since the previous instalment and like the favourite uncle, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.
The question is, would this movie stand up on it’s own if you had never seen the previous ones? We’ll never know as finding someone who has never heard of Indiana Jones would be harder than sending a probe to Mars.

First off, I know I’m a biased Stones fan and won’t find much wrong with anything they do. I was expecting something similar to the previous Bigger Bang and Four Flicks sets released to DVD. These have pretty much summed up the Stones in concert over the last decade and I couldn’t see where this would be different. Perhaps it’s not, but having just experienced “Shine A Light” on the big IMAX screen with the full surround sound, I can’t praise it any more than, “Fantastic!”

I’m not sure Martin Scorsese is going to win an oscar with this, but his own fanatacism with the Stones has certainly raised the bar in concert movies. There’s enough behind the scene footage and interviews to give an insight into how the Rolling Stones juggernaut operates but doesn’t take away from the intimate feeling of being there in the front row of the Beacon Theatre in New York.
The set list is surprising in that a number of the lesser featured Stones songs are included at the expense of some of the bigger hits. (”As Tears Go By”, “Faraway Eyes”, “Loving Cup”, “I’m Free”).

Look I’m not going to go on, simply see it , but at an IMAX theatre. The sound is terrific and superbly mixed for the movie (not like the usual live CD with Keith in one speaker and Ronnie in the other).
Warning: You may feel a bit queasy where the camera tries to keep up with Jagger running around from side to side of the stage and also a close up of Keith on a 50ft high screen may scare small children.

Mighty Thong re-union gig 2008 ??? … stay tuned

Sorry, but this left a prickly taste in my mouth. Cactus is the story of kidnapping and the relationship that develops between the two parties as they traipse across the NSW outback. Why? Where to? and Who is behind this all remain a mystery? Unfortunately it suffers the newbie filmmaker problem of not enough spent on the script, in particular the abrupt conclusion.
As far as I was concerned the star was the 1972 XA Fairmont. Travis McMahon and David Lyons explore the trials and tribulations of the kidnapper/ victim but may have been more at home on a theatre stage. Bryan Brown excels at playing Brian Brown dressed up in a policeman’s outfit as he has done many times before. Shane “Kenny” Jacobson makes a brief appearance as a Road Train driver and threatens to provide some much needed plot thickening but only has a very limited role.

Collard, Greens & Gravy
St Andrews Hotel, Sunday 27th April 2008

An unusual name, an unusual band but damn good blues. Ian Collard is a well rounded blues man with a growl in his voice, a bite in his harp and no slouch on the guitar either. James Bridges is the man keeping it all running smoothly with his sharp slide guitar and solid picking in the best of blues guitar traditions. But Anthony “Shortie” Shortte is the talking point of the band. Sitting behind one of the most unconventional drum kits I’ve seen, this guy can tap out the fiercest of rhythms on a vast array of percussion. The die hard blues fans that frequent the St Andrews Pub were all equally impressed and welcomed the return of the band to the venue. My only question …… why no bass player? Whilst the sound is fuller than I’d anticipated, I can’t help thinking it would be of benefit. But then again Collard, Greens and Gravy are not quite the usual blues band and obvioulsy strive to be unconventional.

www.collardgreensandgravy.com
www.standrewspub.com

“Taking from Peter to pay Paul”??? Not when you can rob Mum and Dad instead. Phillip Seymour Hoffman shows how things can go from bad to worse when the initial idea was crazy anyway. Good movie .. a bit slow at times but enjoyable if you like watching some-ones world fall apart around them.

Harry Connick Jnr - March 27, 2008 - Palais Theatre St Kilda
(Melbourne, Australia)

This was the night New Orleans came to Melbourne. Harry and his Big Band gave the old Palais a Bourbon St feel with some of the best jazz music to come out of the French Quarter. Featuring his new album “Oh, my NOLA” (New Orleans, LouisiAnna) we were treated to some of the city’s finest musicians performing a legacy of standards including ‘Bill Bailey’, ‘Hello Dolly’, ‘Jambalaya’.

Harry is very much at ease with his audience whether he be singing, dancing or even chatting about anything from “Cricket is Boring”, Fruit juices, or how much his daughter loves koalas.

Guest trombonist, Lucien Barbarin was a musical treat and a great offsider, bouncing off Harry’s lines.
The bottom line is: Harry Connick Jnr is a fantastic musician, arranger, performer complemented by some of the best musicians New Orleans has to offer. A great night out.

Any one who has ever had a movie or video camera and tried to make a short film will love this movie.
Jack Black, Mos Def and Danny Glover are high profile names in what appears to be a low budget movie.
Regardless of the cost, this is a very entertaining and funny film where a not so flash video-shop has all of its VHS tapes wiped.
Its up to Mos and Jack to satisfy the customer and carry on business as usual, so they decide to film their own versions of ‘Ghostbusters’, ‘Robocop’ and ‘2001 a Space Odyssey’ to name a few. See it.

Ray Davies. The Palais St Kilda (Melbourne, Australia) Wed 19th March 2008.

Here’s an Englishman that should be up there with the Pauls, Micks and Eltons. In terms of songwriting, tours and hits he’s done it all and he perhaps should be a bit jaded that he doesn’t command the attention that some of his peers do. But I think that is what makes up the Ray Davies persona. Here is a 63yo man who is still just as excited to be on stage as I imagine he was in his teens.
Did he care that the concert wasn’t quite a sell-out? Or that the majority of the audience was well into the ‘40 and above’ bracket? No Way. The performance we got was top class from the moment he nonchalantly strolled on, grabbed an acoustic guitar and started his serenade “I’m Not like Everyone Else”. He followed this with two of the classics: “Where have all the good times gone” and “Till the End of The Day”. This was an immediate crowd pleaser and proved to be the beginning of what was to be a “Sing-along with Ray” session.
He played a mixture of his recent albums ‘Other People’s Lives’ and ‘Working Man’s Cafe’ as well as all the Kinks favourites. Finally ‘Lola’ brought the house down and made us lose any voice we may have had left.

In between songs he’d give us a brief insight as to how songs came about. (Record Execs had turned down the Kinks because brother Dave’s guitar sounded like a barking dog - All Day and All Of The Night). Some were just places and events in his hometown, London during the sixties and others were penned whilst on huge arena tours of the states in the seventies.

As a songwriter, he outshines a lot of his contemporaries with simple tales of observation, family, neighbours, tourists and other assorted characters he has met along the way. He chats with the audience as if you bumped into him down at the local pub. An everyday guy whose had a bit of an adventure and is as proud as punch to tell you all about it.

Link:
ABC interview on 7:30 Report

Full Setlist: (Thanks to Mud)

I’m Not Like Everybody Else

Where Have All The Good Times Gone

Til The End Of The Day

After The Fall

A Well Respected Man

Next Door Neighbour

Ape Man (a couple of verses from Ray solo due to request)

Celluloid Heroes

The Tourist

Working Man’s Cafe

20th Century Man

Dead End Street (Ray + guitarist acoustic)

In A Moment

One More Time

Vietnam Cowboys

Sunny Afternoon

Come Dancing

Tired Of Waiting

Set Me Free

All Day And All Of The Night

Days

Lola

Waterloo Sunset

Walk Hard. I loved this movie.
I’m sure it comes with apologies to Johnny Cash and Walk The Line somwehere in the credits.
So many silly jokes make up for the lack of original ideas (”avoid the temptations backstage” … “talking bout my girl”)
The meeting with the Beatles plays out what may have been the real relationship between John and Paul.
Just see it.

Joe Cocker’s first concert of the 2008 Australian tour. This is his 15th trip to Australia and having recently been awarded an OBE by the Queen, it was business as usual at the Art Centre’s Hamer Hall.
After a brief opening set by Mia Dyson, Joe and his band hit the stage with what was to be a nostalgic night of hits. “Hitchcock Railway”, “Feeling All right”, “The Letter”, “Cry Me A River” and “When the Night Comes” were straight off the mark before slowing down to “Up Where We Belong” and “You Are So Beautiful”. They kept coming with “Summer In The City”, “You Can Keep Your Hat On” and “Unchain My Heart”.
Joe loves to do Beatle numbers and tonight was no exception with a version of “Come Together” with flashing police lights that only Joe could make sense of. The latest album “Hymn For My Soul” (Joe’s 22nd studio album) also contributed to the night with the title track, and “Just Pass It On”. Back to the hits and time for the big one - “A Little Help From My Friends” before a lengthy encore including “Delta Lady” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”. The final encore was another track from the new album: Creedence’s “Long as I can See The Light” with some fantastic slide guitar from Gene Black.

As usual the band was superb: Oneiedo James-Rebecca - bass, Norman Fimple - sax, percussion, Nick Milo - keyboards, Jack Bruno - drums, Mike Finnigan - Hammond organ, Gene Black - lead guitar, Nichelle Tillman - background vocals, Kacee Clanton - background vocals. Some of these guys have been with Joe for quite some time.

At 63, Joe may not be picking up a lot of new fans, but those that he does have are forever loyal and never disappointed. If you haven’t seen Joe live, you’ve missed out on a true living legend.

What a great movie. Vitto is the coolest bad guy/ good guy in such a long time.

Foxtel looks very lacking on a new HD TV.
Apparently Foxtel is due to be upgraded to HD early in 2008.
I doubt if this will make some of the older TV shows look any better though.

“No Country for Old Men” is the latest from the Coen Brothers.
I can’t put my finger on it but whilst I enjoyed the majority of the film, I wasn’t happy with how it ended.

Accompanying the new film “I’m not there” is a double CD of Bob Dylan covers.
Some very obscure songs covered by even more obscure people.

Some gems, but not enough to keep any-one’s interest after the novelty of the movie wears off.