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| A l w a y s! |
I found the above poster of the frog, by the way, while I was looking (both ways;-) for a poster of the movie, which is below.
The green frog with the red eyes has become one of my synchro symbols to watch out for lately ... or should I say watch Inside Out for?
I love this movie, to me it is a work of art.
Here's a clip so you can see a little bit(e) of what I am talking about.
And if you don't believe me here is a review by two American TV film critics who loved it as well.
Years ago I read a book called
A Blessing and a Curse - Autism and Me by Caiseal Mor.
Now, I would never have picked up a book on autism to read for pleasure, believe me.
I lived for over 20 years under the one roof with a brother that is way beyond autism, and I can honestly say to anyone, it was hell for the whole family, and it still is.
If you ever wanted an excuse to believe there is no God, then 20 years of living with a monster like that, tearing up your family in front of you would just about do it ... but try 48 years of it like my parents have ... and I can see why they don't believe in a loving God ... but I digress ... Caiseal's troubled childhood would have looked like a saints life compared to my bother's life (not that my brother could really help it ... but that doesn't put a smile on my face).
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is forget about the Autism, because this book is more about a wonderful story about a man that despite his handicap, or because of it, becomes a creative genius in music, writing and various other things.
Here's what's written on the back cover to give you an idea of what it's about,
Now, I would never have picked up a book on autism to read for pleasure, believe me.
I lived for over 20 years under the one roof with a brother that is way beyond autism, and I can honestly say to anyone, it was hell for the whole family, and it still is.
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| Me (in blue) and my older brother |
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is forget about the Autism, because this book is more about a wonderful story about a man that despite his handicap, or because of it, becomes a creative genius in music, writing and various other things.
"Growing up in Australia in the 1970s, Caiseal Mor was labelled 'retarded' and 'an idiot',
and his parents were led to believe that physical punishment could cure his autism.
In this courageous and captivating autobiography, Mor vividly captures his early experiences of dissociation from his true existence - a common reaction by children suffering from repeated abuse - and the various personas through which he lived through in his teens and early adulthood - the Mahjee, Charles P. Puddlejumper, Marco Polo and Chameleon Feeble.
The rocky path towards discovering his true identity and finally accepting himself takes him on a spiritual pilgrimage via several different countries, once nearly getting caught unwittingly carrying drugs over the Moroccan border; forming relationships with people he meets but very often misjudges; to the revelation - the awakening - of love and acceptance."
Anyway, it's a great book, but I'm not here to do a review on it.
All I could think after reading this book was that this book should be made into a film, because it could bring so much to the world, if this story could be skillfully delivered to the screen.
Who could do it, and in what style would it be effective, I thought?
Sarah Watt could!
In a similar style to Look Both Ways, using painted animation and live action.
Great I thought, then go tell her, not me.
I just always had this nagging voice in my head saying this should be made in to a movie, and if you could just get the book into the right hands, then maybe it would be.
So, I've always thought, if I see Sarah Watt at a book signing event, or something like that, I should just pass it on to her as a gift, then the ball is out of my court and into hers.
Talking of coincidences (meaningful or otherwise) she has only made 2 feature films, but she has made a heap of shorts films.
Among them are; Illusion is All, The Web:Frogs,
The Way of the Birds and Small Treasures.
Here is a trailer from the last feature film that she made in 2009, called My Year Without Sex.
Now, in that trailer is an actress by the name of Katie Wall, who oddly enough is from Byron Bay (she is the one talking to the little girl about "... licking honey from your toes").
She was also in a movie called Clubland (AKA 'Introducuing the Dwights'), with parts of it actually being filmed in the
Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club (which is the team I have been a life member of for the last 23 miserable years;-)
She was at the Byron Bay Writers Festival and I got to hear Katie at a talk called, "The First Book: Writers talk about their experience", and she talked about her book I Say Tomato.
It's about a girl named Sunday “Sunny” Triggs, a young Australian actress trying to make it in Hollywood.
Both a witty satire on the Los Angeles scene and a romantic comedy about a woman trying to find herself, this narrative follows Sunny as she auditions for parts, attends the Sunday (Sundance) Film Festival, negotiates relationships, and struggles to recognize what and, more importantly, who matters to her most.
Filled with humor and heart, this story looks at the American film industry from an Australian standpoint.
I bought a copy and had it signed after the talk, and I thought how funny it was that if James Redfield had not have canceled, I would be listening to his talk right now and would have missed this one, which would have been a real shame.
I only went to this talk on a whim because to quote Katie in the first page of her book,"I love the space of time that is created when plans are canceled at the last minute".
With James not talking, there was a hole in my schedule that let me wander around and go to talks I would not have gone to, and discover books I would not normally read.
Katie said in her two talks that I went to that day (the other was later and was called "Actors Who Write Show Us How to Deliver Words") that she wanted and tried very hard to get some spiritual stuff into the book, but the book publishers didn't want it in.
It now intrigues me as to what she would have put in.
I would not have gone to her second talk either, if I hadn't gone to the first talk, because I was going to go to the Paul Kelly talk.
But because I now knew who she was, and Brendan Cowell was also on the program, Paul Kelly lost out again (I decided to see
Elvis Costello play instead of Paul Kelly, at the Byron Bay Bluesfest last April).
At least I got to shake hands with Paul and get him to sign my book after the talk of his that I missed.
I vowed I would catch him talk the next day, but he lost out again to Barry Eaton's talk ... sorry Paul ... maybe I'll get to something of yours one day;-)
and his parents were led to believe that physical punishment could cure his autism.
In this courageous and captivating autobiography, Mor vividly captures his early experiences of dissociation from his true existence - a common reaction by children suffering from repeated abuse - and the various personas through which he lived through in his teens and early adulthood - the Mahjee, Charles P. Puddlejumper, Marco Polo and Chameleon Feeble.
The rocky path towards discovering his true identity and finally accepting himself takes him on a spiritual pilgrimage via several different countries, once nearly getting caught unwittingly carrying drugs over the Moroccan border; forming relationships with people he meets but very often misjudges; to the revelation - the awakening - of love and acceptance."
Anyway, it's a great book, but I'm not here to do a review on it.
All I could think after reading this book was that this book should be made into a film, because it could bring so much to the world, if this story could be skillfully delivered to the screen.
Who could do it, and in what style would it be effective, I thought?
Sarah Watt could!
In a similar style to Look Both Ways, using painted animation and live action.
Great I thought, then go tell her, not me.
I just always had this nagging voice in my head saying this should be made in to a movie, and if you could just get the book into the right hands, then maybe it would be.
So, I've always thought, if I see Sarah Watt at a book signing event, or something like that, I should just pass it on to her as a gift, then the ball is out of my court and into hers.
Talking of coincidences (meaningful or otherwise) she has only made 2 feature films, but she has made a heap of shorts films.
Among them are; Illusion is All, The Web:Frogs,
The Way of the Birds and Small Treasures.
Here is a trailer from the last feature film that she made in 2009, called My Year Without Sex.
She was also in a movie called Clubland (AKA 'Introducuing the Dwights'), with parts of it actually being filmed in the
Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club (which is the team I have been a life member of for the last 23 miserable years;-)
Both a witty satire on the Los Angeles scene and a romantic comedy about a woman trying to find herself, this narrative follows Sunny as she auditions for parts, attends the Sunday (Sundance) Film Festival, negotiates relationships, and struggles to recognize what and, more importantly, who matters to her most.
Filled with humor and heart, this story looks at the American film industry from an Australian standpoint.
I bought a copy and had it signed after the talk, and I thought how funny it was that if James Redfield had not have canceled, I would be listening to his talk right now and would have missed this one, which would have been a real shame.
I only went to this talk on a whim because to quote Katie in the first page of her book,"I love the space of time that is created when plans are canceled at the last minute".
With James not talking, there was a hole in my schedule that let me wander around and go to talks I would not have gone to, and discover books I would not normally read.
Katie said in her two talks that I went to that day (the other was later and was called "Actors Who Write Show Us How to Deliver Words") that she wanted and tried very hard to get some spiritual stuff into the book, but the book publishers didn't want it in.
It now intrigues me as to what she would have put in.
I would not have gone to her second talk either, if I hadn't gone to the first talk, because I was going to go to the Paul Kelly talk.
But because I now knew who she was, and Brendan Cowell was also on the program, Paul Kelly lost out again (I decided to see
Elvis Costello play instead of Paul Kelly, at the Byron Bay Bluesfest last April).
At least I got to shake hands with Paul and get him to sign my book after the talk of his that I missed.
I vowed I would catch him talk the next day, but he lost out again to Barry Eaton's talk ... sorry Paul ... maybe I'll get to something of yours one day;-)
I had brought my copy of A Blessing and a Curse to the Writers Festival with me on a whim, that I might run into Sarah Watt, or her husband William McInnes, who is an actor/author and is the main male lead in Sara's film Look Both Ways.
That's him in the trailer at the start of this post (he was born 13 days before me and grew up in Redcliffe, just outside Brisbane)
He played Senior Constable Nick Schultz (weird, because Schultz should have been my surname if my Nana had not have remarried and passed on her new husband's surname to my father) on a TV show called Blue Heelers in 1994.
A Blue Heeler is also a name for an Australian Cattle Dog.
McInnes starred on the show until 1998, when he left to focus on other work.
In 1999, he joined the cast of SeaChange which was a TV show about city folk moving to a seaside town like Byron Bay because they were tired of city life.
He also starred in a TV movie The Shark Net.
The Shark Net is a semi autobiographical/semi fictional account of Robert Duncan Drewe's (born 9 January 1943, is an Australian journalist, novelist and short story writer) childhood and adolescence and is best described as a memoir structured as a novel.
It was reproduced as an ABC television miniseries.
The name, shark net is a metaphor for the modus operandi of a character in the story, the serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, whom Drewe met in his childhood and can also be interpreted to symbolise a false sense of security.
In around 2005, Drewe moved to the far north New South Wales coast with his wife, Candida Baker, and their two children, partly to get "more writing done"
Candida Baker is the Festival Director of the
That's him in the trailer at the start of this post (he was born 13 days before me and grew up in Redcliffe, just outside Brisbane)
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| McInnes playing Schultz in "Blue Heelers". Top right. |
A Blue Heeler is also a name for an Australian Cattle Dog.
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| A Blue Heeler Cattle Dog. Red Dog??? |
In 1999, he joined the cast of SeaChange which was a TV show about city folk moving to a seaside town like Byron Bay because they were tired of city life.
He also starred in a TV movie The Shark Net.
The Shark Net is a semi autobiographical/semi fictional account of Robert Duncan Drewe's (born 9 January 1943, is an Australian journalist, novelist and short story writer) childhood and adolescence and is best described as a memoir structured as a novel.
It was reproduced as an ABC television miniseries.
The name, shark net is a metaphor for the modus operandi of a character in the story, the serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, whom Drewe met in his childhood and can also be interpreted to symbolise a false sense of security.
In around 2005, Drewe moved to the far north New South Wales coast with his wife, Candida Baker, and their two children, partly to get "more writing done"
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| Candida Baker |
Byron Bay Writers Festival coincidentally enough.
William McInnes also plays the drag queen in My Year Without Sex (who makes an appearance in the trailer above).
Now getting back to Katie Wall, she was also in a movie called Marking Time, which what I was basically doing after
James Redfield canceled his talk and I then discovered Katie's talk.
Marking Time was written by John Doyle.
and starred Abbie Cornish from the movie Limitless.
John Doyle is the Patron of Autism Spectrum Australia.
John's affiliation with the organization comes as a result of his younger sister being diagnosed with autism when she was ten.
Doyle is an atheist .... so far;-)
Talk about 6 degrees of separation!!!
I didn't end up giving the book to anyone, yet, because I also attended a talk by Gillian Armstrong and Paul Cox, who both gave a very negative run down about turning someone else's book into a film.
I was going to give the book to Gillian ... until I heard her talk about how hard it is to get films made the way you want them to turn out in Hollywood.
I went away from the festival thinking this book will never be made into a movie ... but I didn't know half of these syncs until I started writing about everyone who came into play directly or indirectly that weekend.
And what made me take the book along to the festival in the first place?
This ...
A magpie tapping on the ceramic knobs on the wires like it was trying to tap out a message to someone.
It would jump from wire to wire then tap it's beak on one of those ceramic knobs.
I threw the garbage bags in the bin, the original reason I went outside in the first place, then I raced inside to grab my camera, thinking the bird would be gone by the time I got back out, but it was still there doing its tapping.
This was a week before I went to the Writers Festival.
I then went to download my pictures to my computer.
Then I thought I would check out what Sarah Watt had been up to lately, but the last thing I could find on her was the movie
My Year Without Sex, so I did an intense search on her and I found this;
This was one of her pictures for sale in an art gallery.
William McInnes also plays the drag queen in My Year Without Sex (who makes an appearance in the trailer above).
Now getting back to Katie Wall, she was also in a movie called Marking Time, which what I was basically doing after
James Redfield canceled his talk and I then discovered Katie's talk.
Marking Time was written by John Doyle.
and starred Abbie Cornish from the movie Limitless.
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| John Doyle |
John's affiliation with the organization comes as a result of his younger sister being diagnosed with autism when she was ten.
Doyle is an atheist .... so far;-)
Talk about 6 degrees of separation!!!
I didn't end up giving the book to anyone, yet, because I also attended a talk by Gillian Armstrong and Paul Cox, who both gave a very negative run down about turning someone else's book into a film.
I was going to give the book to Gillian ... until I heard her talk about how hard it is to get films made the way you want them to turn out in Hollywood.
I went away from the festival thinking this book will never be made into a movie ... but I didn't know half of these syncs until I started writing about everyone who came into play directly or indirectly that weekend.
And what made me take the book along to the festival in the first place?
This ...
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| Bird on a Wire |
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| The Way of the Birds??? |
It would jump from wire to wire then tap it's beak on one of those ceramic knobs.
I threw the garbage bags in the bin, the original reason I went outside in the first place, then I raced inside to grab my camera, thinking the bird would be gone by the time I got back out, but it was still there doing its tapping.
This was a week before I went to the Writers Festival.
I then went to download my pictures to my computer.
Then I thought I would check out what Sarah Watt had been up to lately, but the last thing I could find on her was the movie
My Year Without Sex, so I did an intense search on her and I found this;
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| Art made by Sarah Watt |
You can view the rest of her work here;
http://qld.retrospectgalleries.com/artist-profile/sarah-watt/614/1
This is what it says about her on the gallery web-page;
"Whist having a seemingly varied arts practice, Sarah has been exploring the big picture themes of life, -mortality, happiness, how we create meaning for ourselves, using the canvas (or celluloid or paper) of the small picture, -the domestic world in which she lives in Australia."
We seem to be on the same page, so maybe she would be interested in turning a good book into a great film ... only time will tell?-)
http://qld.retrospectgalleries.com/artist-profile/sarah-watt/614/1
This is what it says about her on the gallery web-page;
"Whist having a seemingly varied arts practice, Sarah has been exploring the big picture themes of life, -mortality, happiness, how we create meaning for ourselves, using the canvas (or celluloid or paper) of the small picture, -the domestic world in which she lives in Australia."
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| Sarah Watt |
But she didn't seem to be too keen when it came to sharks I've noticed looking back through her work like this 1995 animated film of hers below.
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| "Clem Always Could " is Sarah’s first picture book |
But I wouldn't force the issue ...
out of the both of us;-)
Update: 22 June, 2014
Unbeknownst to me when I wrote the above post, Sarah Watt was fighting a battle with cancer.
A battle she would lose on November 4, 2011.
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| "Bird on Wire" by Sarah Watt Media: Hand painted photograph on canvas |
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| "Birds Off the Wire" by Sarah Watt Media: Hand painted photograph on canvas |
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| "The Rainbow House" by Sarah Watt Media: Hand painted photograph on canvas |
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| "Bird on a Wire, Sunset" by Sahah Watt Media: Hand painted photograph on canvas |
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| "Flight 1" by Sarah Watt Media: Hand painted photograph on canvas. |
If anyone had the ability to turn Caiseal Mor's book into a work of art on film, it would have been Sarah Watt.
See you on the other side of the rainbow Sarah.
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