Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Parents deserve better from cinema classifiers
The lyrics of Blowin' in the Wind flooded into my head as I watched the movie trailers before the PG-classified Spiderwick Chronicles recently. You know the line: "And how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died". Apparently the answer is rather a lot. In five minutes on a Sunday morning in a cinema packed with families with young children, trailers for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ironman and Star Trek were screened. All were dark, scary and, in the case of the first two, extraordinarily violent. Yet all three previews had Office of Film and Literature Classification approval. They could have been shown with any movie any time. This is despite the fact that both Ironman and Indiana Jones have computer games already classified M and blind Freddy could see from the content of the trailer that the movies should carry M classifications as well. It seems to be a hole in the classification regulations big enough to drive a truck through that you can preview any movie any time until they are classified but at that point trailers are restricted to being shown only with a movie of the same or lesser classification. Granted, trailers have to be classified themselves but both the Australian and the US regulators considered all three trailers as appropriate for all audiences. Which can only mean that either the regulators are way out of step with community expectations or I am. You take the most violent highlights of a movie, package them in a trailer completely out of context and that's okay for general audiences when the same level of violence spread out over 90 or so minutes isn't. What kind of warped logic is that? It just seems harder and harder for parents to make active, considered choices about the level of violence their children are exposed to. Surely parents should be able to take the kids to the cinema on a Sunday morning and have a reasonable expectation of what kind of content they will see. The present regulator-approved free-for-all is just not in the interests of good parenting.
Monday, April 7, 2008
This is really f#$%&ing crazy
If ABC One's decision to screen the Australian Story on Michael Chugg at 8pm despite setting a new record in swearing is perplexing what happened next is just madness.
Apparently it is justified to air Chugg repeatedly dropping the F word in a timeslot normally restricted to coarse language which is "mild and infrequent" but writing the word is offensive.
The transcript of the show replaces the word with f***. Go figure. Either the word is rude or it isn't.
Bizarrely, the ABC's position on the word wanker is even more confusing. It is written in full twice but in the same transcript appears later as w****r.
Perhaps it is time for the ABC's Standing Committee on Spoken English - the body which claims to exist so broadcasters and journalists can check all aspects of spoken and written English – to start a f@#$ing debate on the subject.
Apparently it is justified to air Chugg repeatedly dropping the F word in a timeslot normally restricted to coarse language which is "mild and infrequent" but writing the word is offensive.
The transcript of the show replaces the word with f***. Go figure. Either the word is rude or it isn't.
Bizarrely, the ABC's position on the word wanker is even more confusing. It is written in full twice but in the same transcript appears later as w****r.
Perhaps it is time for the ABC's Standing Committee on Spoken English - the body which claims to exist so broadcasters and journalists can check all aspects of spoken and written English – to start a f@#$ing debate on the subject.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Force is with Canadian funnyman
I am going to immediately buy a copy of 365 TV-Free Activities You Can Do with Your Child.
The DVD player will be on sale on eBay before the day is out. There can be no alternative.
If you ever needed any evidence of the damage a TV and VCR can do to a child's developing brain you only need to consider the tragic case of Charles Ross and his One-Man Star Wars Trilogy .
Ross, who this week brings his one man show to the Cremorne Theatre is Brisbane, admits to have seen the original Star Wars at least 400 times - and it shows.
He has every little mannerism, every voice, every attitude of the characters exactly right.
Clearly he didn't get out much. It seems that a large percentage of the audience also spent a large slice of their youth watching Star Wars and its sequels too.
They were getting right into it. And why not. Ross is a funny, funny man.
He has taken six hours of film and condensed it into one hour and then delivers it without props or costuming - and the true believers still love him for it.
What is more amazing is that even those with a passing interest in the trilogy can still enjoy the show and laugh along with most of it.
It's a formula that has been phenomenally successful, has seen Ross travel the world and has spawned a second show based on The Lord of the Rings series.
For something that looks a bit like a school boy leaping around performing to entertain his friends, Ross has created a highly successful and doubtless lucrative franchise.
May be I won't buy the book and throw away the DVD player yet. May be I'll just encourage my Hairspray-obsessed child to watch it a few hundred more times.
The DVD player will be on sale on eBay before the day is out. There can be no alternative.
If you ever needed any evidence of the damage a TV and VCR can do to a child's developing brain you only need to consider the tragic case of Charles Ross and his One-Man Star Wars Trilogy .
Ross, who this week brings his one man show to the Cremorne Theatre is Brisbane, admits to have seen the original Star Wars at least 400 times - and it shows.
He has every little mannerism, every voice, every attitude of the characters exactly right.
Clearly he didn't get out much. It seems that a large percentage of the audience also spent a large slice of their youth watching Star Wars and its sequels too.
They were getting right into it. And why not. Ross is a funny, funny man.
He has taken six hours of film and condensed it into one hour and then delivers it without props or costuming - and the true believers still love him for it.
What is more amazing is that even those with a passing interest in the trilogy can still enjoy the show and laugh along with most of it.
It's a formula that has been phenomenally successful, has seen Ross travel the world and has spawned a second show based on The Lord of the Rings series.
For something that looks a bit like a school boy leaping around performing to entertain his friends, Ross has created a highly successful and doubtless lucrative franchise.
May be I won't buy the book and throw away the DVD player yet. May be I'll just encourage my Hairspray-obsessed child to watch it a few hundred more times.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Foul-mouth aunty invades lounge rooms
The ABC was perfectly within its rights to screen the Australian Story on Legendary rock music promoter Michael Chugg last night.
Okay it was only eight at night and the F word was uttered at least 10 times in the first five minutes and there were a few "wankers" thrown in for good measure.
In fact the Australian Story's own home page proudly announces "the tirade will almost certainly set a new record for the most F-words aired on ABC TV at 8pm"
So why was the ABC setting a new F word record at 8pm when according to the Office of Literature Classification on which the ABC Code of Practice is based 8pm is still in a PG zone allowing only coarse language which is "mild and infrequent"?
Basically because it can.
The ABC , like its commercial counterparts, operates under a code that allows for exemptions in the screening of news and current affairs programming.
Put simply news, current affairs and information programs are not subject to classification and can be screened at any time.
So, yes the ABC was perfectly entitled to show Australian Story at 8pm no matter how many times Chugg used the F word.
But that doesn't mean it should have done it.
Sure there was a warning.
And it can also be argued that the language was not gratuitous. It was clearly trying to make a valid point. "Chugg is famous for his chain smoking and on-stage rants full of profanities – which feature in the colourful opening of tonight’s program," the Australian Story site announces.
Problem is that either the ABC thinks that children aren't or shouldn't be watching TV - or at least ABC TV - at 8pm or that the F word isn't a bad word any more.
Both are just not right.
The F word might be perfectly okay at the pub or in any gathering of adults but surely most of us still don't want to hear it from the mouths of our kids.
And if we don't want to hear our kids using it we shouldn't be showing it in a way that makes it seem perfectly normal in what is still family viewing time.
Yes, the ABC was perfectly within its rights to screen the Australian Story on Legendary rock music promoter Michael Chugg last night.
But it shouldn't have done it - at least not until after 8.30pm when the M classification zone begins.
Okay it was only eight at night and the F word was uttered at least 10 times in the first five minutes and there were a few "wankers" thrown in for good measure.
In fact the Australian Story's own home page proudly announces "the tirade will almost certainly set a new record for the most F-words aired on ABC TV at 8pm"
So why was the ABC setting a new F word record at 8pm when according to the Office of Literature Classification on which the ABC Code of Practice is based 8pm is still in a PG zone allowing only coarse language which is "mild and infrequent"?
Basically because it can.
The ABC , like its commercial counterparts, operates under a code that allows for exemptions in the screening of news and current affairs programming.
Put simply news, current affairs and information programs are not subject to classification and can be screened at any time.
So, yes the ABC was perfectly entitled to show Australian Story at 8pm no matter how many times Chugg used the F word.
But that doesn't mean it should have done it.
Sure there was a warning.
And it can also be argued that the language was not gratuitous. It was clearly trying to make a valid point. "Chugg is famous for his chain smoking and on-stage rants full of profanities – which feature in the colourful opening of tonight’s program," the Australian Story site announces.
Problem is that either the ABC thinks that children aren't or shouldn't be watching TV - or at least ABC TV - at 8pm or that the F word isn't a bad word any more.
Both are just not right.
The F word might be perfectly okay at the pub or in any gathering of adults but surely most of us still don't want to hear it from the mouths of our kids.
And if we don't want to hear our kids using it we shouldn't be showing it in a way that makes it seem perfectly normal in what is still family viewing time.
Yes, the ABC was perfectly within its rights to screen the Australian Story on Legendary rock music promoter Michael Chugg last night.
But it shouldn't have done it - at least not until after 8.30pm when the M classification zone begins.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Holiday Blues
It's just so frustrating when different levels of government are unable or unwilling to work together for the good of us poor people living on the bottom of the food chain.
So when the Education Queensland decided that the autumn school holidays would this year be moved from Easter it would be too much to expect that those setting tertiary holidays would follow suit.
Education Minister Rod Welford described this year's Easter on March 23 as a "very rare and unusual occurrence" which would not occur again until 2160.
“As part of the State Government’s undertaking to set school terms of similar length, this year the first term holidays will commence two weeks after the long weekend,” he explained.
Fair enough, if only the universities followed suit.
QUT and UQ, despite being only four weeks into first semester, are taking their mid semester break this week and it is even worse at Griffith which after only three weeks four days in a 13-week semester is taking a break.
So? So, the juggle for all those families where a parent works or studies at a tertiary institution and there are school-aged children got that bit harder.
We get a break now and in two weeks we have to find some other care arrangements for our kids.
It could all have been so easily avoided if only different levels of government would work together.
Is that really too much to ask?
So when the Education Queensland decided that the autumn school holidays would this year be moved from Easter it would be too much to expect that those setting tertiary holidays would follow suit.
Education Minister Rod Welford described this year's Easter on March 23 as a "very rare and unusual occurrence" which would not occur again until 2160.
“As part of the State Government’s undertaking to set school terms of similar length, this year the first term holidays will commence two weeks after the long weekend,” he explained.
Fair enough, if only the universities followed suit.
QUT and UQ, despite being only four weeks into first semester, are taking their mid semester break this week and it is even worse at Griffith which after only three weeks four days in a 13-week semester is taking a break.
So? So, the juggle for all those families where a parent works or studies at a tertiary institution and there are school-aged children got that bit harder.
We get a break now and in two weeks we have to find some other care arrangements for our kids.
It could all have been so easily avoided if only different levels of government would work together.
Is that really too much to ask?
CSI Ipswich - murder investigation for children
Sometimes entertaining the kids can be murder but this is taking things one giant leap further.
Ipswich Art Gallery has given over two entire exhibition spaces to Whodunit an exhibition that invites families with children aged 8 and over to find out how security guard Arthur Locke came to be lying dead in the rhino enclosure of Menagerie Park.
Not since Miss Scarlett killed Mr Black with the lead piping in the ballroom have children been as actively involved in solving a gruesome crime.
But while the Cluedo board offered only dice, plastic markers and small fake weapons, this exhibition goes way, way further.
Families will find themselves examining poo samples, studying DNA and matching fingerprints, fibre samples and tyre prints.
They can roll out the body on a tray in the morgue just like in the TV shows and question the forensic pathologist.
Best of all, by comparing the size of maggots and analysing the core body temperature the time of death can be accurately calculated.
Yep, this is not your average children's exhibition and that's what makes it so much fun.
"This is really interesting. I want to be a detective when I grow up - Mr Oliver aged 10"
It sounds macabre but really it's analytical rather than despicable.
It is very questionable whether this exhibition is rightly housed in an art gallery but there is no question that it is a creative and imaginative activity for kids.
And it's not even as though the organisers are making a killing out of this - the exhibition at the Ipswich Art Gallery until May 5 is free.
Ipswich art gallery
March 26 - things to do this week
A free community and family event!
Featuring: Local Musicians, Market Sta, Circus Workshops, Food Stalls, Mystics Tent, Skate Lessons and Demos, Face Painting, Roller Derby Demo, Jumping Castle, and heaps more!
Live performances from: Screamfeeder, Ranger, Texas Tea, Little Vegas and the Fuzz Parade and emerging acts Meaningless Existence, The Grove and Sunflower.
The inaugural Paddington Fair, a drug and alcohol free community event will include music, markets, and a host of activities for kids and the whole family will transform the area into a vibrant celebration of the local community.
Born out of the Brisbane City Councils ‘LOCALe Music For Ya Park’ events, which have drawn thousands of families to local parks and facilities over the last two years and will include two stages, markets, skate lessons and demos, a mystics tent, temporary tattoos, face painting, jumping castles, heaps of other surprises to keep the entire family entertained. Ithaca Pool will be opening their doors with FREE entry from noon.
Free Sunday at the Gallery at the Queensland Art Gallery
Create a collaborative soft sculpture with Claire Robertson.
Children and their families work with local and exhibiting contemporary artists in the Sunday at the Gallery program. Each workshop involves a making activity connecting to the ideas and processes of the artist’s own work.
Free Tours for kids at the Queensland Art Gallery
Specially designed, interactive tours of works in the
Last movie in the park for the season Hairspray (Rated PG 117mins) Friday, 28 March
7pm Boyd Park, Cnr Boyd and Park Roads, Nundah
Shakespeare in the Park - Romeo and
Penned over 400 years ago, Shakespeare's tale of two star-cross'd lovers is as popular today as it was with
The classic tale follows Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet; young lovers caught up in a bitter feud between two great Italian families.
The sparks of their innocent love set the vibrant city of
"My only love sprung from my only hate; too early unknown and known too late."
This is Shakespeare at his undeniable best. - Love, lust ... plots, potions ... twists and tragedy. $11 School Group >20
$25 Adult, $10 Child (up to 12 years, under 3 free)
$16Student (secondary and university) $65 Family (up to 2 adults and 3 children)
Free multicultural Festival in Caboolture from 9am-4pm in Caboolture Town Square
A celebration of the cultural diversity of the Caboolture district with stunning cultural performances, creative workshops, arts and craft stalls and delicious multicultural cuisine. Tantalise the senses
Samford Rodeo at Samford Showgrounds on Saturday from 6pm to midnight
Bull rides, Barback horses and broncos, kids entertainment, comedy clowns, food and drinks, music.
Family - $40, Adults - $18, Children & Pensioners - $12
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