Although I’m Down

It’s Thursday night and I just arrived home a short while ago. Although I have been feeling a little bit down this week, the last few days have been pretty good.

University Assignment: On Sunday night, I finished my assignment, although I am not too sure how well I have done. Although I first thought 2,000 words was a lot to write, I soon realised it probably wasn’t enough to say all that I could, and so I’m not sure if I’m managed to include all I wanted to see or if I just ended up skimming the surface. I know one of the references was incomplete, but I just couldn’t be bothered. The assignment called for an analysis of a community-service campaign, and I chose the “Grim Reaper” AIDS Campaign of the 1987. Here’s the abstract:

ABSTRACT: Recent concern about the apparent rise in HIV notifications has prompted a number of commentators to reflect on the apparent success of the “Grim Reaper‿?, including Professor Ron Penny, who diagnosed Australia’s first AIDS case. Although acknowledging the campaign may have resulted in the demonization of gay men, Professor Penny declared it “one of the most effective campaigns ever launched in Australia‿? and one which “at least made people aware and probably… (changed the)… sexual practices of heterosexuals‿?. At the heart of Dr Penny’s argument is the inference of a direct relationship between the “Grim Reaper‿? campaign, heightened public awareness and behaviour change. This paper demonstrates the failings of a using “direct effects‿? model and suggests a more appropriate model for understanding the impact of this campaign.

Monday and Tuesday nights were spent at home, mostly watching television, while last night and tonight were spent out on the town, mostly in the vicinity of Circular Quay seeing a few “review performances”.

The Lion King On Imax: Although I have never seen this movie before, I knew that Tim Rice and Elton John had written the music and I was told by a workmate, Huw, that it was a good fun movie. According to a review

The story is a mix of classic plot elements (most of it comes from Hamlet and Richard III), in which young lion cub Simba (voice of Thomas) is groomed to succeed his heroic father (Jones) as the king of the beasts. But his sinister, murderous uncle Scar (Irons) twists events, sending Simba into exile, where he’s befriended by a meerkat and a warthog (Lane and Sabella). All grown up (now voiced by Broderick), he’s finally urged to return home and rescue the kingdom from Scar and a bunch of lowlife hyenas (led by Goldberg, Marin and Cummings). Oh, and he falls in love with his childhood buddy Nala (Kelly). Can you feel the love tonight?

I thought it was great on the HUGE screen, although there were moments when the animation was overwhelming. It was a work-related freebie – which I took my friend Grant to see – and so we were also given some propaganda about how other feature films, such as Star Wars II, will also be released on IMAX.

Melanie Oxley and Chris Abrahams: After the movie, I met up with Kate. Given her family connection with Oxleys, I asked her to come along to the CD launch at The Basement I had been invited to: Blood Oranges by Melanie Oxley and Chris Abrahams. The music they performed was sophisticated, personal, and satisfying. From my own perspective, it was one of the best music-related nights of my life. Loved it!

Hamlet: And then tonight, Yvette and I went to see “Hamlet” at the Sydney Opera House. This was a truly great production. Cheers must go to the the actor, Leon Ford, who played the lead role, revealing the wit and intelligence of Hamlet, that’s often neglected in an attempt to portray the mournful indecision of the character. Unfortunately I spent a little while distracted, trying to remember where I had seen him before, although a net search has since revealed him to be one of the actors in the ABC drama series, “Changi”.

According to the review in the Sydney Morning Herald,

Ford grows on the audience just as Hamlet changes and grows, and my early misgivings were soon dispelled by the agility, reckless enjoyment, tenderness and apparent spontaneity of his performance.

Unlike the critic, I had no misgivings at all, as he performed with such mastery I discovered much more about the character than I realise had existed. On the other hand, I thought Ophelia was disappointing. Again, I disagreed with the SMH critic, Bryce Hallett, who loved her. Go figure…

Tomorrow, I’m off to the Sydney Royal Easter Show and then on Saturday, Damien and I are going on an Historic Pub Crawl of Balmain, which should be fun, I’m sure.