storyLines

Did you know that Sydney’s short film festival, Tropfest, has a New York version?

Tropfest originated at the well-known Tropicana Café in Sydney in 1993. Over the past fifteen years, it has evolved into the “Olympics of Short Film” and into an Australian cultural phenomenon with the festival screening live via satellite to over 150,000 people in eight cities across the continent. Tropfest NY

This year Tropfest NY was won by an Australian made film “Mankind Is No Island”. Made using a mobile phone and filmed on the streets of Sydney and New York for a budget of $57 (obviously they didn’t count the airfare) this film also topped the people’s choice voting.

Made using footage of street signs the film-maker tells a story which is a meditation on the homeless people of our cities. See what you think.

You can listen to an interview with the director, Jason Van Genderen, on The Media Report (there is also a transcript).

Be the first to finish, the first to comment, or better still, the first to review…

[Tommy's review is here]

Come on, we’re all waiting!

It has come to my attention that not everyone in the world knows what Brisingr is. This was shocking news to me but I am happy to oblige those unfortunates who are living in such tragic ignorance.

This third book in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritence Cycle has been eagerly awaited by fans of Eragon and Eldest for over two years. It has recently had a simultaneous world-wide release (just one of the publishing advances for which Harry Potter can be thanked – those of us in the Antipodes need not be the poor cousins in this regard any more). 

Having written the first version of Eragon at age fifteen, I had been a little worried that Paolini might have run out of steam on this project. But no. He has proven his credentials as a world class writer once again, as this clip from The Sydney Morning Herald indicates:

Paolini, now 24, said that he had become “anxious and restless” after writing the second book, Eldest, feeling pressure from the high level of expectation from fans.

“But once I got past the first few chapters of Brisingr, I became so caught up in telling the story, I didn’t worry about what anyone else might think when they read it, which is the best attitude to have when writing a book,” he said.

“I have a story to tell and it wants to be told.

“I have been writing the lives of these characters for nearly 10 years now, so they are very close to me.”

Find out all the details at Alagaesia. To hear Christopher Paolini in conversation with two much older greats of fantasy writing download the podcasts from Random House: Pullman. Paolini. Pierce. Even as a teenager Paolini could hold his own in this company.

Meanwhile, still waiting for someone to review Brisingr here!

September National Geographic has a major feature on soil: Our Good Earth. The future rests on soil. Can we protect it? You can read this online or find a quiet moment to enjoy the hard copy in the library.

If you have had a try at playing Ayiti:The cost of life (featured in an earlier post) then you may be interested in the short story within this feature called Haiti Soil. This fills in some of the background to the terrible poverty of this small Central American nation. Here is one snip:

“Tè a fatige,” said 70 percent of Haitian farmers in a recent survey when asked about the major agricultural problems they faced. “The earth is tired.”

National Geographic is such an institution that it is often taken for granted as recreational and research reading. To tell the truth, I don’t find it an easy journal to recommend for specific tasks at high school level. The articles are rich in detail and illustrated with breathtaking photography. Their best use for me is just as recreational reading and a wonderful window on the world.

The bonus that comes with this is that you can enhance your knowledge of the world and many geographical and historical concepts whilst being engrossed in stories of real people, places, and the animal world.

Just what the teacher ordered!

Do you have a favourite magazine which extends your academic knowledge without really trying? Please add your suggestion via comments to this post.

Mrs Thomson

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

If you have read a book worth sharing, or have some ideas of your own to express we would like to hear from you. Check our contributions page for a simple way to get published. Or you might like to try PicLit and produce your own picture story.                                             

Mrs Thomson

Games can be an excellent diversion and  problem solving exercise. But can valuable skills or knowledge be developed with game play?

Here are a couple of games which will test your problem solving skills. Have a go at one or both and then add your thoughts via the comment function on this post.

In Ayiti: The Cost of Life you have to try to help the Guinards, a family of five living in poverty stricken rural Haiti. There are decisions to be made about work, education, health and other issues which will determine their quality of life. It is pretty tough to keep this family alive for a year or two. Try to help solve the problem of how to survive. You can find out where in the world Haiti is, and what the real life problems are for Haitians like the Guinards.

After Ayiti it may seem like a breeze to manage a river catchment and create a sustainable and thriving economy. You get a chance to try this in Catchment Detox. You can learn on the job in this one – you get 100 turns, each representing a year, to try out your plans - and you can investige the issues through video, audio and text based information. 

 Give one or both of these a go and report back. Good luck!

Mrs Thomson

Catch up with the latest issue of this fun magazine in the library.

What will you find in the August issue?

Imagine a chocolate car – life-size that is – and why it might have been made.

Perhaps the horrible fate of those on board The Batavia after it struck a reef off the Western Australian coast in 1628 might be of interest to you.

Or articles on Chinese acrobats, an overland race in a rickshaw or strange tales but true of animals and plants. Find out more at Wacky…but true!

Each month the editors publish reader contributions – stories, factual articles and poetry. To have a chance to be published in Wacky…but true! join The InkRoom. There you will find many works written by others (up to the age of fifteen) and writing tips to help get you going.

Posted by Mrs Thomson 

6 August 1945 8:15 am. Never again.

“What you see is one of the few buildings that remained standing in Hiroshima after the explosion of the atomic bomb. The building was designed by a Czech architect named Jan Letzel and served as a market for local products, but inside there were also offices, and a hall where organized exhibitions and cultural events were held. Today the building is known as A-Bomb Dome, and after a long debate, the city of Hiroshima decided in 1966 to preserve it as evidence of the atomic bomb and its destructive power. In fact, the building has remained exactly the same as it was immediately after the impact of the bomb, which occurred at 8:15 am on 6 August 1945 and at a distance of 160 metres southeast and at a height above the ground about 600 metres.”

Translated (with a few corrections) by Google Translate from the photographer’s Italian original.

 Posted by Mrs Thomson with apologies for any errors in the above translation.

Mrs Thomson

Photo: Fairytale Castle Originally uploaded by daytona_k

The poem was was first published in Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There in 1872. But just what does it mean? In storyLines classes we heard a variety of ideas from students and teachers. Stéphane Jorisch immersed himself in the words before coming up with his interpretation.

Click on the eyes above to see a larger version of this book at Lookybook, or find our copy on the picture book shelves to peruse at your leisure.

Jabberwocky was the first book in a series called Visions in Poetry.

by Mrs Thomson

Our Legend@Lunch for May was Business Studies and PE teacher Mr Ben Phillips. Ben drew an amazing crowd and had them enthralled. Along with his own recollections of learning about boxing and learning the life lessons of boxing, Ben quoted from some of his favourite books on the subject. Several are recalled in the video above. One of these is from On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates. Widely known as a fiction writer, her book surprised many but is considered a modern classic on the subject. The session was rounded off with video highlights of a few famous boxers of the last half century.

Ben inherited a love of boxing from his father who encouraged him to read about boxing history, then agreed to take him to lessons where he really got hooked. Some final words from Ben:

The thing that boxing taught me was the importance of being a man from an early age and using the skills I learnt wisely… Boxing taught me self discipline. What this discipline instilled in me was to finish things I have started. To go the extra mile. To run another kilometre when I had finished a set training distance.  To train when others weren’t. To finish the things I start.