Find My "Fantasy".....

For anyone who has ever watched "Find My Family" (and unless you have been through the process your self or have had someone bang on about it to you), you could be excused for thinking that the adoption search process is always successful and always ends happily.

But they omit some very serious alternative outcomes and brush over the arduous, painful and very personal search process.  A process that involves a seemingly endless paper trail of forms, certificates, electoral rolls, telephone books, musty libraries and world class bureaucracy

They skip over the emotional rollercoaster ride of the search - hope, fear, anxiety, excitement, nervousness, etc

And they simply ignore the  real results for many searchers - rejection, disappointment, dead ends, anger, and of course (for me at least) death.  

They'd have you believe that all you do is call Channel 7 and then one interview, a video message later, you will be in the arms of your long lost biological relation. 

A better critique is included in this great newsletter from the Post Adoption Resource Centre (PARC).  There is an editorial and a great article condemning  the program as well as a very harrowing tale of one woman's search.

Despite my criticism, I find it compulsive viewing. The artificial tension and the use of 10 minutes of real story stretched to fill the timeslot are put to one side and  I howl at the happy reunions.  On a good night I cry because I see what it might have been like while on others I cry because I see what I will never be able to experience.

Zeitgeist Volume 8 - Just Released (last June.....2008!)

Also known as Songs for Ziva, this series is now in it's eighth year.

The 07/08 year was particularly good:

1. From Little Things Big Things Grow - Various
   
2. The Saints Are Coming - U2 and Green Day
   
3. Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead
   
4. Same Jeans - The View
   
5. Flathead   - The Fratellis from the album Costello Music
   
6. Just A Song About Ping Pong  - Operator Please
   
7. This Heart Attack Faker - Be The Twilight
   
8. Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors  - Editors
   
9. hang me out to dry  - cold war kids
   
10. On Call Kings of Leon   - Because of the Times
    
11. No Longer There  - The Cat Empire
    
12. Let's Dance To Joy Division  - The Wombats
    
13. Transmission   - Joy Division
    
14. Hearts On Fire  - Cut Copy
    
15. Doing It Right - The Go! Team
    
16. Paper Planes  - MIA
    
17. Foundations  - Kate Nash
    
18. Back In Your Head  - Tegan & Sara
    
19. 1234  - Feist
    
20. Love Me Like The World Is Ending  - Ben Lee
    
21.  Down the line  - Jose Gonzalez
    
22. Rootless Tree  - Damien Rice
    
23. Is There a Ghost  - Band of Horses
    
24. God Only Knows  - The Beach Boys
    
25. Hljómalind  - Sigur Rós
    

Top Shelf Induction

It's official, the latest inductee into My Top Shelf is......................

The Frames - One for The Birds

An oldie (well, 2001) with a superb blend of musical styles with awesome vocals. So many tracks have that building tension thing that I love.

Irony?

I never really know what irony which is ironic in itself (or maybe just odd) cos I'm always complaining about people who use the word all the time to describe something else.

But I think this actually may be irony:

I was brushing Hamish's teeth the other night. As usual he was refusing. As usual a wrestle ensued. As usual i was explaining that teeth brushing is important if you want clean healthy teeth.

As I'm struggling to hold him I had the handle of his toothbrush in my mouth. He then bucked violently, his head hit the brush and it chipped one of my teeth.

"Slights" by Kaaron Warren (to be launched on 26 June!)

This is the first of Kaaron's "three book deal" signed when joining the HarperCollins stable.

"Stephanie is a killer. After an accident in which her mother dies, she has a near-death experience, and finds herself in a room full of people - everyone she’s ever pissed off. They clutch at her, scratch and tear at her. But she finds herself drawn back to this place, again and again, determined to unlock its secrets. Which means she has to die, again and again.
And she starts to wonder whether other people see the same room… when they die.
Slights is a deeply intense, disturbing read. Death is not the end, but this is not comforting, heartwarming or safe. The misery memoir craze of the last few years has overshadowed horror fiction’s impact with (allegedly) real-life experiences. Now it’s time for horror and fantasy fiction to fight back."

“I’ve never seen anyone capture sordid human nature so clearly.I was completely drawn in, totally immersed.I felt ill much of the time.”– Russell Kirkpatrick, on Slights

Yet to find out where or when it will be available in Australia but start asking your local bookshop for copies - http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/kaaronwarren/slights/

Kaaron's Bio at her new publishing house

Monster Trucks

The Monster Trucks "performed" in Newcastle on Saturday nite (Wrestling, Monster Trucks and not one but two circuses and all within a year - who says this town has no kulcha).

In the lead up to the great event, there were Monster Trucks on display at major intersections etc. On Friday they collecting the MT's to prepare for the show. At one location the traffic was stopped by men in the (ubiquitous) iridescent polo shirts (the symbol of authority and hard work all in the one piece of clothing). There was a small queue forming (or a traffic jam by local standards) and it was all too much for one guy who mounted the curb and started driving around all the cars. This Mad Motorist then hit the MT (or more correctly the MT hit him but that doesn't sound as good). One of the workers said that the MM was lucky it wasn't one of the other (bigger) MT's which would have completely destroyed the car and the MM inside.

The police duly attended and because the MT was not registered it had no right to be on the road and the MT driver was charged. MM got off Scot-free!

Observations -

1 - It's a Monster Truck, why does it need traffic control anyway. It could just drive over any car that got in it's way.

2 - Me thinks MM is one of those guys with a chip on his shoulder. The type who'd be at the pub and see a famous boxer and say something "You think you're such a good fighter? Fight this!" The Boxer effortlessly duck under a wild air swing. dodge a slow punch, then calmly and politely give the guy a small quick clean jab - flush on the noise and knock him out.

Six Degrees of Separation

Towards the end of the movie (not the theory that involves Kevin Bacon), Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing acknowledge that there are two types of folk: those who enjoy the experience and those who like the anecdote. So while she was very involved and rewarded in what was taking palce he was somewhat removed working out how to best tell the story afterwards.

I'm definitely of the latter variety.

What about you?