Month: June 2009

Sam Worthington

I watched Terminator 4 again last night. It was better on second viewing. I watched it for what it was doing, rather than watching it filtered through my expectations and what I perceived to be its faults. One thing I did like was Sam Worthington. He can actually act. This I found I little surprising. He expresses it here, in an interview:

Did you see something in that canon that you wanted to bring forward?

Sam: I wanted to make a role where he’d actually feel pain ‘cause I’d never seen that, I’d seen a bit of it in Blade Runner but I’ve never actually seen a movie where a cyborg or a robot hurts, not only physically but mentally and emotionally. I wanted to ramp that up a bit.

Australian actors seem to transition from working in Australia to the big time of Hollywood like they move through a phase space. It is very weird. It is like Australians only get to know about Australian actors once they leave Australia. I think this tells us something about the Australian media. What would happen if there was a fucking ruthless Australian publication or broadcast that only examined Australian popular culture directly and others only indirectly, like they do in the US? Am I stupid, do they already have this? I think it would have a positive effect on Australian culture.

enthuse

The enthuse issue of MC Journal is finally up. It wasn’t easy juggling a fulltime (plus!) job and getting the issue sorted. In the future I shall leave myself much more time to organise what needs to be organised. I thank all the contributors for their patience and excellent work. I also thank Axel Bruns for coming in at the end to basically save my skin and tie up all the loose ends. At just under a month overdue, it really is better late than never.

‘enthuse‘

EDITORIAL: The Challenges of Enthusiasm – Glen Fuller
FEATURE: Enthusiasm as Affective Labour: On the Productivity of Enthusiasm in the Media Industry – Goetz Bachmann, Andreas Wittel
“If you can walk down the street and recognise the difference between cast iron and wrought iron, the world is altogether a better place”: Being Enthusiastic about Industrial Archaeology – Hilary Geoghegan
Never Coming to a Theatre near You: Recut Film Trailers – Kathleen Williams
Enthusiasm, the Creative Industry and the ‘Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative Industries’ Project – Clementine Ruth Hill
Promises of Peace and Passion: Enthusing the Readers of Self-Help – Rebecca Hazleden
“Gently Caress Me, I Love Chris Jericho”: Pro Wrestling Fans “Marking Out” – Wilson Koh
The Blonde Goddess – Meera Atkinson

My writing has changed considerably since I have become a cog in the cultural industry. I was speaking with an old friend over the weekend. It is the first time we have really spoken in a long time. He asked me if I miss all the theory stuff. At first I was going to say, Yes. But then it occurred to me that I don’t miss it, because it hasn’t gone anywhere. Almost every article I write nowadays, and I write many, is in some way written in relation to what I worked so hard to express in my dissertation. There is something to be said for testing one’s ideas in a radically different cultural and social milieu. It is far from the case that I need to ‘dumb’ my ideas down, rather I am challenged to express the force of the ideas in ways that are actually forceful. The alleged elegance of a well argued scholarly piece leaves much to be desired if it isn’t actually read by anyone. Where is the efficacy then? To write in another discourse and yet address and grapple with the same intellectual problems that drove me to finish my dissertation in different ways is the current challenge I face. To participate in the practices of subcultural valorisation that belong to this scene I am part of, so my words actually mean something is my task.