Friday Finds

- How great is this genderswap cosplay of The Hobbit? I'd be much more interested in seeing this than the actual film.(Sorry! Not a Hobbit fan)

- The 50 Coolest Fictional Cities.

- 50 books by women authors to help you #readwomen2014. *Adds to reading list*

- How to Tell if You're in a Hemingway novel. Or! Even better! How to tell if you're in a Bronte novel.

- These aerial photos of Botswana are pretty amazing. So are these ones of Big Sur.

A Book a Week in 2014: 'Jasper Jones' by Craig Silvey (04/52)

Charlie Bucktin is woken up in the middle of the night in the blistering summer of 1965 by Jasper Jones, the outcast of Corrigan. Jasper takes him out passed old Mad Jack Lionel's place to where Laura Wishart, the politician's daughter, hangs dead from a tree. What occurs afterwards is an exploration of racism, death, first loves, and the ties that bind small town life together. 

Jasper Jones was heavily hyped for me and, as a result, I maybe didn't enjoy it as much as I might have. Craig Silvey's certainly a good writer, but he tends to labour in a lot of exposition and while the story starts with a bang, it takes a long time for it to drive forwards after the boys uncover Laura's body. Silvey spends a lot of time exploring small town life - everything from odd, household punishments to the heavy racism that dominated Corrigan during the Vietnam War and this is both the ultimate strength of the novel and it's downfall too. It's an atmospheric story, and the moments between Charlie and Laura's sister, Eliza, are entirely darling (their banter about traveling is so sweet). 

Likewise, Jeffery Lu, Charlie's best friend, is a great and compelling character, managing to snag a lot of the best lines of dialogue, and I both didn't appreciate and did the fact that he was never really roped into the Wishart family drama. That said, Charlie's mother never rang true for me at all, being a biting, angry woman with few redeeming qualities. Her shrill, aggressive nature added little to the story, and the pages and pages we got of her punishing Charlie were both dull and frustrating.  

In many ways, I think this would be a better film than a book. It's not that Craig Silvey's not a talented writer - he definitely is!  - there was just a lot of emotion and a lot of real visual sensibilities in this book that I can't help but feel would be represented beautifully in on screen. Silvey's writing thrives in these quieter, small town moments, and I think an adaptation has the potential to be pretty sublime. 

3 out of 5 Mad Jack peaches.

Monthlies + Farewells

Music is such a huge part of my life that it feels kind of natural to subject people to my taste on it here (or hear, hahaha, I've had a weird, pun-tastic day).  Anything from forties country through to indie rock, old soul, new folk and modern pop appeals to me, speaks to me on some level, and sure, some of it means more to me than others, but that doesn't detract from any of it either. This has been kind of an odd month for me, so have a bit of an odd mix to take you out for the month.

Speaking of odd things, one of my closest friends has gotten a job in Sydney and is moving out of my house and flying down on Friday. It's pretty great and I am so, so proud of her. She's always been such a hard worker and the job is awesome and one that she thoroughly deserves. That said, I can't be entirely unselfish about it. I've known her for ten years now - lived within driving distance for the duration of that and actually with her for two. We're very different personality types and butt heads like crazy, but we've stuck together through that. Thick and thin and all. I have faith in the strength of our friendship, that it'll survive the sideways shuffle of the move, but it's still such a strange thought to think she won't be just across the hall from me. And, y'know, there's still a big part of me that wishes my friends would stick around forever. At least Sydney's not so far anymore - I know someone who got a flight there recently from Brisbane for $56 which is pretty darn sweet.

Sunday Short: The Lists by Ryan O'Neill

No. 902: How not to get up in the morning
1. Wake.
2. Keep your eyes closed.
3. Turn your head to the left.
4. Say a prayer.
5. Open your eyes.
6. Stare at the empty space on the bed next to you.
7. Accept that she is still gone.
8. Close your eyes.
9. Sleep.
10. Go back to step 1.

I go on and off experimental fiction. I mean, the good stuff is so great, but the bad stuff is so bad, often clunky and lacking in both character arcs and meaning. That's not so with Ryan O'Neill's The List, a story told, as the title implies, through lists. This is a beautiful piece of writing. A totally simple concept executed sublimely and, not even going to lie, it may have been raining on my face a bit by the end there.

You can read 'The List' over on The Monthly's website.

Friday Finds

I'm a pretty huge fan of Adele, and this version of Make Your Feel My Love has been in my head all week. It's just lovely.

- Tor.com has a pretty great post over on their blog about mapping out your fantasy world.

- These Beatles vans are slaying.

- Broken Age looks pretty amazing too.

- Powerful photos of segregated America only recently discovered.

- These fake London Underground signs are also pretty great.

Ziggie by Edwin Tse

Oh, man, it's been a while since I've totally fallen in love with a photographer, but I've got hearts in my eyes over the work of Edwin Tse. His sense of space, colour, light and style are all pretty remarkable, and I was especially taken in by this set, Ziggie. I just want to be her, live in this place, wear these things. It's beautiful.
You can check out more of Edwin Tse's work over on his website.

Sunday Short: Cargo

Zombies have experienced such a heyday over the last few years that it's hard to believe that there's an original story yet to be told. That said, Cargo, a finalist at last year's Tropfest is a beautiful story well-told. The decision to remove dialogue from this piece - leaving the only sound the kitten mews of the baby and the poignant, arching violins raises this above a lot of other shorts in the genre. The result is a heartfelt story about parenthood at the end of the world.

You can watch Cargo on youtube via the link above.