scraping through

I managed to scrape through the remainder of the international students' essays yesterday, barring about three (and of course the late ones, who I have no strict obligations to - all bets are off as far as prompt return of essays is concerned when they're late, for whatever reason). This just means I have to start on the first year students' essays, though it looks like there's going to be a strike on Wednesday which will mean I won't be in a position to hand most of them back that day anyway. Also, I went for a reasonably long walk with Charlie and Millie which involved the loop up through the grasslands beneath the electricity pylons and around the Broadmeadows Community Park. At the creek there last time I saw strange guys in the bushes (a beat? drugs? fishing? dada theatre??) yesterday - adding to a Van Gogh moment I was already having as the setting sun made concentric circles in the long grass and thistles - an elderly woman was harvesting a large leafy plant from the creekside. Inbetween these two VGMs I had an Edward Hopper moment due largely to the strange perspective of the houses of Meadow Heights up there on the drastically steep grassy bank.

We watched the last two thirds of the second new Dr Who last night. I don't have a clue why this intrigues me so. There's no sense in it. It's not that great. It's not really edgy or anything. I just can't help enjoying it. Obviously I was programmed at some point. We also watched about a third probably of a Wesley Snipes film from 1997 some kind of whitehouse conspiracy murder mystery - you have to wonder why anyone would give a shit. I am turning into Dexter from The Children's Bach, kind of a deliberate erasure of understanding of American culture. As soon as I realised the title of the film - Murder at 1600 I think it was - referred to the street address of the Whitehouse, I wished I hadn't figured that out, because I am being too receptive to cultural imperialism.

On Saturday we watched a review copy of the DVD of The Naked Bunyip, the 1970 sexploration documentary which played to packed houses in St Kilda when it was released but which the mainstream cinema chains wouldn't touch. It's actually a pretty decent film, some of it is even still relevant in a funny way. Speaking of in a funny way, I also watched Let Loose Live last night, and found it pretty lacking. One or two good things: I do like the wide shots at the end of each sketch at which the actors break out of character and the whole 'liveness' of it is revealed. There were some actor/comedians I hadn't seen before (or didn't recognise) who were pretty good. I can imagine the woman who played the annoying girl in the waiting room will probably go far.

So, all in all it was a bulk boring weekend of TV and essays. This is the one time TV is really important, because you're always looking for a palate cleanser when the essays start to blend into one another.