All Charged & Ready – Day 17 NaBloPoMo 2017

17 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Inspiration, Writing Tags: , , , ,

So, after a good night’s sleep and a fabulous session this morning with The Superstars, I did all my enrollment stuff for next year’s online study. And (as always) I feel incredibly invigorated by having a study plan 🙂

As is usual with undergraduate degrees, I need to do 24 units of study. I’ve just finished the 18th and start Documentary Screenwriting next week. So at the end of next year, I’ll only have one unit left!

The last unit will be an independent project, so I need to start thinking very seriously about what I want to do. Because my degree will cover two major streams, I can do something writerly and creative – like a suite of short stories or poems – or a scholarly screen studies project – perhaps an analysis of a particular director or suite of films. Also, other students I’ve chatted with, managed to get placements in organisations or private businesses to do specific research, but I’m not sure if there’s anyone in Hobart I could do that with!?!

I am very undecided!

Time to contact my course convener I think, and have a serious talk about my project!

In the meantime dear reader, any suggestions you might have would be gratefully accepted ❤

Have a great Friday, I’ll see you all tomorrow.

Sage flowers – for wisdom!

Time to Sleep – Day 16 NaBloPoMo 2017

16 Nov 2017 2 Comments

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Creative Writing, Inspiration, Music, Performance, Produce, Tasmania, Urban Farming, Vegetable Gardening, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Well, that was a ride and a half!

I’ve just submitted an 1800 word short story and 500 word exegesis for my Speculative Fiction assignment and I feel like I could sleep for a week. Unfortunately, there isn’t time for that!

Tomorrow (Friday here in the southern hemisphere) is the day I get to play music with The Superstars at Oak Tasmania, and we’re deep into preparation for a private function we’re performing at next weekend. These men and women are simply fantastic and I’m truly blessed to be able to write and perform with them ❤

Maybe I’ll be able to post some photos next week of our performance – I always love action shots 🙂

Meanwhile, there’s lots of gardening that needs doing over the weekend, a jam session at a friend’s place to go to and lots of new movies to see. I’m particularly keen to check out the Kenneth Branagh Murder on the Orient Express, Killing of a Sacred Deer, Loving Vincent and Jungle. Let me know if you’ve seen any of these films, I always like to hear other people’s opinions 🙂

I’ll leave you with a wonderful discovery I made in the greenhouse yesterday – the first Rocoto chilli flower for the season ❤

Love is the Thing – Day 15 NaBloPoMo 2017

15 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Writing Tags: , , , ,

A very quick (but important) post to mark the midway point of this year’s NaBloPoMo.

This morning my Facebook and Twitter feed turned literally into images of rainbows and love hearts. The results of the national marriage equality survey were handed down by the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning, and it was quite a resounding cry of “yes” from the nation, 61.6% in fact.

It was glorious, wonderful, moved me to tears and was entirely expected.

Heartfelt congratulations to all my LGBTI friends – but it isn’t over yet! A bill was introduced in the Senate this afternoon but there are already grumbling from conservative members to strengthen religious exemptions.

After a quick break to celebrate, we have to follow through and make sure that the marriage act is formally changed by parliament.  Why? Because the ability for every Australian to choose how they life matters, because human rights matter, because love matters ❤

 

I Saw the Light – Day 14 NaBloPoMo 2017

14 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Inspiration, Movie Review, Music, Writing Tags: , , , , , ,

I Saw the Light (2015) Directed by Marc Abraham.

This is a movie I’ve been meaning to watch for quite some time – yes, it’s been in my pile of shame for too long! – and I’m really sorry I left it so long to give it this a first viewing.

Hank Williams had a tragically brief life but meteoric career and penned songs that remain classics of the country and western genre. He also inspired artists such as Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan and can be seen as something of a stepping stone in popular music from the 40’s across to the post-war boom in record sales and interest in celebrity.

As much as I enjoy Tom Hiddleston’s diverse body of work, I seriously wondered if he could pull off portraying Williams but he really delivers the goods – who knew he could sing as well! He is matched by Elizabeth Olsen (also on leave from MCU duties) as his first wife Audrey, and the chemistry between them on screen is great. It is shot with great care and obvious love for the material, (kudos to DoP, Dante Spinotti) which gives the whole film an appropriately melancholic air. This was a passion project for director Marc Abraham, who started working on this as far back as 2009 and it is lovingly crafted in a very traditional bio-pic manner.

However, I can see why this was a box office flop. Almost the entire film is taken up with Williams’ relationships and his ongoing battles with alcoholism and painkiller addiction. While that’s undoubtedly the story behind his death at 29, I would have loved to have seen a closer, critical examination of his music and songwriting.

A beautiful looking film, with a stellar performance by Hiddleston – good but not great.

Star Trek: Discovery – Day 13 NaBloPoMo 2017

13 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Movie Review, Writing Tags: , , , ,

Star Trek: Discovery (2017-) CBS Television Studios. Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman.

As many of you are probably aware, I’m very much a movie person rather than television but in recent weeks I’ve become completely hooked on Star Trek: Discovery.

I’ve always loved science fiction and I’m old enough to remember the original when it first aired. Up until now, I’ve always thought of the Star Trek universe as reasonably vanilla but Discovery is a completely different beast. Characters are quite real, conflicted, have agendas outside of Starfleet, suffer very human maladies, like PTSD, and (despite all the standard space opera shenanigans) it has splashes of wry humour.

The cast are all excellent but Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp and Jason Isaacs are absolute standouts and the scripts have been very solid.

I’ve just watched the first half of season one, apparently it will be resuming in January and it has been signed up for a second season. I can’t wait!

Let me know what you think and I’ll see you tomorrow 🙂

A Sunday Sidestep – Day 12 NaBloPoMo 2017

12 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Creative Writing, Inspiration, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I’m coming down to the pointy end of another unit of online study, so this is going to be a brief blog post today.

This unit has concentrated on genre fiction, specifically Gothic and speculative fiction and despite being behind now with weekly work, I’ve really enjoyed it enormously. Starting with Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872) we moved on to Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark (2001) for a taste of contemporary American Gothic. (I honestly found it an intensely disappointing experience.)

Leaving vampire fiction, we moved on to speculative works and Jean Rhys’ stunning post-colonial Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), one of my favourite novels. The thread of our study, looking at how Gothic fiction was melded into more speculative themes reminded me of that other retelling of the Jane Eyre story, Wild Island (2016) by Jennifer Livett, which was just as good to read the second time around.

Then, the course came to Margaret Atwood’s brilliant and disturbing The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) and I confess I spent way too long re-reading it and watching the recent television series. But Atwood’s prose is wonderful and I find this book inspires me both as a writer and as a feminist.

Now, in the final weeks, as I’m writing my own piece of speculative fiction, we are reading and discussing Paolo Bacigalupi’s short story “Pump Six” from Pump Six and Other Stories (2008). The main threads of  Bacigalupi’s fiction are speculations on the future of humankind, based on many current and often divisive environmental and socio-political concerns. He paints a realistically grim picture of the future which I’ve found stays in my mind long after I’ve read it. I’ve started but never finished his novel The Windup Girl (2009) and I wonder if subconsciously found it too scary. But I plan to go back and read it as soon as I’m able.

So, the rest of today I’m playing catch up with academic readings and responses, trying to add a little more to my own fiction and scoping out an accompanying exegesis. For the most part it’s been a really wonderful few months living with these works and I’d recommend all of them to you – except for the Charlaine Harris – but at least I know and can articulate why I don’t like that kind of fiction.

What do you like to read? I love to hear your thoughts and recommendations so please leave me a comment below. Take care everyone and see you tomorrow 😀

The Annual Egg Glut Games – Day 11 NaBloPoMo 2017

11 Nov 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Baking, Chickens, Cooking, Produce, Urban Farming Tags: , , , ,

 

Despite being mostly older ladies, my six lovely chickens are laying for all they’re worth at the moment. So, as we do every year, I’m giving away eggs to family and friends and making a lot of egg-based dishes. We’ve had custards and cakes, hard boiled eggs in salads and whole egg mayonnaise.

At the moment, I’m also suffering from a spring glut of salad greens – life is tough (not)! So, I picked a bunch of vegetables this morning and made a rich and luscious pastry-free quiche for lunch. It’s a very easy recipe and I often make it as a vegetarian meal as eggs are a great source of protein. But today, I added a couple of rashers of diced bacon, fried with garlic. It also works really well with cooked and shredded chicken, pork or cooked white haricot beans or chickpeas. I’d also recommend adding chopped fresh Italian parsley or chives, it’s really dependent on what you have on hand.

 

Deb’s Vegetable & Bacon Quiche (Serves 4)

 

6-8 free range eggs

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 thick bacon rashers

2 small leeks, washed and chopped (can be substituted with shallots or spring onions)

4-5 cups shredded green vegetables (spinach, silverbeet, kale, collards, rocket, pak choy, mustard greens)

1/2 cup milk (can be substituted with 1/4 cup cream)

1/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour

2 cups of grated Colby cheese (Cheddar would be fine)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

a little grated nutmeg

Method: 

Preheat an oven to 160 C (320 F). Dice the bacon and fry gently. Add the minced garlic towards the end, taking care not to burn it. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Whisk the eggs until frothy, grate in nutmeg, mix in the milk (or cream) and flour.

Using a fork or mixing spoon, gradually add the chopped vegetables and grated cheeses. Stir through the cooled cooked bacon, making sure everything is well incorporated and coated in the egg mixture.

Pour into a greased 20 cm (8 inch) souffle dish and bake for 45-55 minutes. This makes a soft-set quiche, but if you want it firmer, I recommend covering with foil and baking a further 10 minutes.

Serve alone as a light lunch or with a salad for dinner.

Let me know if you try this and what you used in your mix – I love your feedback!

Take care and I’ll see you tomorrow ❤

Wonder Woman – Day 10 NaBloPoMo 2017

10 Nov 2017 1 Comment

by Debra Manskey in Movie Review, Writing Tags: , , , ,

Wonder Woman (2017). Directed by Patty Jenkins.

Finally, the elephant in the blockbuster, comic book movie room got a mention – that is to say, a female super hero at long last got her own dedicated feature film. Those of you who are regular readers will immediately understand this is a big thing for me and many other comic book movie fans. And let’s face it, after yesterday, female representation has been on my mind quite a lot!

The fact that it came via DC and not from the Marvel Cinematic Universe was something of a surprise initially – I was hopeful that Marvel would’ve got the memo and given Scarlett Johansson her richly deserved Black Widow stand-alone film. Sadly, I think it’s very unlikely that will ever happen now, but I was heartened to see last week that Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok) has pitched an all-women Marvel ensemble film to MCU production chief, Kevin Feige. And there’s Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larsen to look forward to in 2019.

But back to Diana Prince. Although this iteration of Wonder Woman was first introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, (and was possibly the best thing about the movie) this is entirely her film, and origin story. Unlike most DC material, the lighting and colour palette are much brighter and in the first act on Themyscira (Paradise Island in the comics), even downright colourful! The war scenes are a decently downbeat colour contrast and even London looks less drab that one would normally expect (apologies to UK friends – but I’m sure you know what I mean!)

The first act is really great fun, the Amazons are fabulous with Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright excellent as Hippolyta and Antiope. In fact, I’d love to see a movie about them – that would be excellent!

And I have to say, Gal Gidot is a joy. She is beautiful, athletic and admirably portrays that mix of strength and self-assurance against innocence and wonder, not an easy thing to balance. She carries the film and does it (where the script allows her) very well indeed. I know it’s expected to have a love interest in these kinds of mainstream films, but it disappoints me that she had to fall for the first man she sets eyes on. Chris Pine is suitably handsome, bland and heroic as Steve Trevor, but thankfully doesn’t overplay his role and is a good foil for Gidot’s Diana. To me, this immediately points to good direction from Patty Jenkins. The supporting cast are solid but the standout is the wonderful Lucy Davis, who steals every scene she’s in as Steve Trevor’s assistant, Etta Candy.

For the most part, the fight scenes are reasonable and quite well choreographed but there are some very obvious CGI clunkers that took me out of the moment and reminded me that this is after all, a DC film.

The final act however, and the “boss fight” descend into an overlong and almost turgid mess. I think this is something that has become an all too common feature of nearly all blockbuster comic book films in recent years, but I’m hopeful that the producers will get the message sooner rather than later and tighten up their endings. Coupled with this, the lighting and colour all ebbed away into the usual DC trademark dark blue grey tones. I don’t know who told them that these film tones signify “cool” and “edgy” but they’ve certainly been sold a lemon on that one!

Overall, I was really impressed with the first two thirds of this film and Patty Jenkins is a director I’ll be watching now with interest. It’s just sad that the ending fell pretty flat after such a solid build up. This is a good popcorn flick and while it isn’t world changing, it’s certainly a step in a more equitable direction. More please!

Breaking the Mirror – Challenging the Male Gaze – Day 9 NaBloPoMo 2017

09 Nov 2017 5 Comments

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Business, Inspiration, Music, Performance Tags: , , , , , ,

I had to turn down a gig recently and not because I was sick or too busy – but because of how the show was being promoted. I objected to the poster.

This isn’t something I would normally write a blog about but it really rankled with me and got me thinking about my politics and having the strength of my convictions. I want to be clear I’m not going to reproduce the image here out of desire to preserve the anonymity of the venue in question and also because I don’t want to look at it again or subject any of my friends to it!

The proposed poster depicted a beautifully coiffured and made up young woman, wearing a bustier, stockings and heels, lying on a wooden floor. She has her head turned to one side, exposing her throat while smiling towards the camera, holding a black guitar across her body. For those of you who know me, it’s not really the kind of image that comes to mind from my music!!!

It was also an image redolent with all the properties of the classic “male gaze”. The gaze was a means by which academics (and practitioners) could examine and analyse visual culture, classically advertising, television and film. The seminal essay with respect to the male gaze remains (for me) Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, which was first published in 1975. And if you’re interested, you can read it here.

I tried to explain to the female proprietor that I thought it was an inappropriate image but sadly, she took it as a personal judgement and quickly became very defensive, blocking me on social media. That saddens me so much. It takes two to make a dialogue and I wasn’t attempting to personally attack her, merely point out that there are some people in the broader community who might find the image offensive. Here, I’m particularly thinking of the parents of young people I teach music to – is this the kind of industry they want their kids working in?

But ultimately, there’s two things that this woman didn’t take into account. Firstly, I don’t need her small show. After all these years of professional arts practice, I’m confident enough in my own self-worth to live without it. And ultimately, John Berger had her pegged way back in 1972 when he wrote,

“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.”

(Berger, John 1972, Ways of Seeing, p. 42)

As always, I appreciate your thoughts and comments on the matter. Is this something that matters to you in your arts practice? And, how do you deal with this kind of entrenched, normalised objectification?

Here’s a picture of my favourite native mint bush (Prostanthera rotundifolia) that flowered recently. It’s such a calming image ❤

Round leaved Mint Bush

Garden Update – Day 8 NaBloPoMo 2017

08 Nov 2017 2 Comments

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Chickens, Produce, Urban Farming, Vegetable Gardening Tags: , , , , ,

Yesterday, I wrote about teaching Food Gardening so I thought it was only right and proper to give you all a little update on my own urban farm.

While it’s undoubtedly spring and the soil is starting to warm, I suspect my patch is about two or three weeks behind where we were last year. Raspberries were setting fruit this time last year and I was getting ready to lift the main garlic crop for curing. At the moment, all the berries are only just flowering and the early garlic (my main crop) is nowhere near ready yet. Nevertheless, there’s bright spots – it looks like I’ll get my first Tayberries this summer ❤

Tayberry flower

Also, we’ve had a rough entry into spring, with very warm weather followed by snow and a few very cold nights in the past month. This didn’t seem to hurt my young apricot tree, which has quite a few fruit on this year. The plum an nectarine are loaded and I’m thrilled that my pollination plan with my 2nd year dwarf apple trees worked a treat. All four trees are looking incredibly healthy and all carrying fruit. I’ll be thinning it pretty drastically to encourage stronger trees and discourage biennial fruiting but I’m very, very happy to be finally looking at a few home grown apples at the end of summer.

Baby Royal Gala apples

Because of the up and down weather, I haven’t planted out this summer’s tomatoes yet, but I decided to grow them on a bit longer in folded paper pots. It’s a really good way to use up newspaper and come planting time (this weekend I hope), I can put the whole thing in the ground and avoid transplant shock.

Mama Mia tomatoes, waiting for the sunshine

As you can see above, I mark the plant name and the date they were potted up as I tend to lose plant tags. If anyone’s interested, I’ll write up some instructions on this great little paper recycling tip.

In the meantime, the zucchini’s are in the ground (most of them survived the cold) carrots are starting to size up, the late garlic that I’ll be lifting in the new year looks fabulous but a good deal of the early garlic that I normally dig up in November looks like it’s rotted in the ground. Incredibly distressing! Also, the Snow Peas were decimated by slugs this year but the potatoes are looking great.

Through it all, the chickens just keep on laying eggs! Considering most of my ladies are quite elderly (4 years and older) they really are quite remarkable and I’m struggling to keep up with them!

Madame Mephisto

So that’s all for today – I’m off to bed early tonight as I have to do my six monthly blood test tomorrow morning and I’m helping out with a fencing job afterwards. Sometime tomorrow I have to make bread, write a story draft for uni, do my prep for teaching work on Friday and maybe do some catch up with weekly work for uni. (I’m tired just thinking about it!)

Take care friends and see you soon ❤

Sunset from my backdoor

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