Peter Hannemann’s Blog called ‘Weekend’

Peter published this blog in August 2015!

I am now contemplating to self-publish a book with some of my blogs and some of Peter’s blogs in it. Maybe I can for instance include this Weekend Blog from 2015. Anyhow, the following is a copy of Peter’s blog and the responses to it. Maybe you’ll find it interesting that Gerard Oosterman made a few comments to that blog nearly ten years ago. Peter turned 80 in May of that year, and Gerard turned 75 in August of 2015.

Here is the copy of Peter’s blog:

Last evening this message from my daughter Caroline came up on my FB site:

“Work for the day and the week done. Social media for the day done. Time for some dinner and a glass of red to start a rejuvenating weekend. Have a good one everyone”

What did the message say? That she was happy with her achievements of the week? It almost sounded like the Bible and that the Lord was happy when he “saw it was good” and now it was time for the Sabbath. She hoped to rejuvenate when she would face the tasks in the next week.

That is how it should be, work and rest in the right proportions.

As an aged pensioner, I do a lot of rejuvenating already and I can tell you, it is not easy. I’m using a lot of energy just doing the rejuvenating. But actually, I’m not rejuvenating art all. I’m aging whatever I do.

When I was a youngster and just starting out with my working life I too looked forward to the weekends. It was time to meet up with friends and chasing girls. On Sundays, we dressed up in our finest.

A trench coat was compulsory on a rainy day. Three friends at a local festival (I’m the one on the right)

)

Cinema was the big thing and they just invented CinemaScope. The big picture really hit us when the curtain opened. The first film of this type I saw was “The Robe” with Victor Mature. In those days, I loved historical films. Even if they were not entirely true depictions of the events, they nevertheless fired our imagination.

Now, Sundays are like any other day we try to rejuvenate. There is one exception, I refuse to go shopping on a Sunday! Still, we have to adjust some of our activities to the work life of others.

In two weeks’, time, we will take the (slow) train to Melbourne. There is no fast train as our governments don’t like working for the future and the joke is, that they call the train, “Interstate Express”.

Next Saturday we will go to the theatre in Sydney. We will see “The Bleeding Tree” by Angus Cirini. I will write a blog about it, but here is one sentence Angus Cirini says, “The primary role of government is not to manage the economy it is to allow for a healthy society to flourish.” Well, I think governments have forgotten this lesson or they just ignore it.

Here is what the Griffin Theatre writes about the play:

“In a dirt-dry town in rural Australia, a shot shatters the still night. A mother and her daughters have just welcomed home the man of the house – with a crack in the shins and a bullet in the neck. The only issue now is disposing of the body.

Triggered into thrilling motion by an act of revenge, The Bleeding Tree is rude, rhythmical and irreverently funny. Imagine a murder ballad blown up for the stage, set against a deceptively deadly Aussie backdrop, with three fierce females fighting back.”

We have our next two weekends covered and they are “footy-free”.

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Pauly the Car19/05/2015In “Diary”

Nine Days From Now30/08/2012In “Diary”

The Long Weekend26/09/2013In “Fiction”This entry was posted in Diary and tagged Cinema in the fifties, Melbourne, The Griffin, Theatre, Weekends by berlioz1935. Bookmark the permalink.

9 thoughts on “Weekend”

Robert M. Weiss on 03/08/2015 at 07:05 said:Life goes by too fast!Reply ↓
- berlioz1935on 03/08/2015 at 07:18 said:Indeed, it does. Thank you for commenting, Robert.The perception now is, that we are on a roller coaster. The speed is increasing at an alarming rate.I can remember when the next weekend was miles away. A whole week was a vast timespan. Now, Sundays come seemingly at daily intervals.Reply ↓
gerard oosterman on 04/08/2015 at 20:35 said:The Robe was also one of my first cinemascope adventures, after that Quo Vadis, The King and I and lots more. I never had a trench coat but do remember wearing ties and casual coats. I have always liked week-days more than Sundays, although I did look forward to the Saturday.
I must also admit I have never been to a footy show either, but have been to an Easter show when it was still on at Randwick.
We saw Chekov’s Seagull many years ago, and also a one man play were the actor was laying on a bed for the entire show. I have forgotten the name of it. The actor was brilliant..Reply ↓
berlioz1935 on 04/08/2015 at 22:53 said:You might be interested to know, that they started to film “The Seagull” this year in New York.Let’s see what the Americans make of it.The man on the bed, was it Kafka’s, ” The Metamorphosis”?Reply ↓
- gerard oostermanon 05/08/2015 at 16:18 said:No, it wasn’t Kafka. At the time the play was very well received and it was just one male actor during the entire show. It might have been during the eighties.Reply ↓
- Gerard Oosterman on 05/08/2015 at 18:30 said: After a lot of thinking and doing some research, I finally cracked it Peter. It was a play named; The elocution of Benjamin Franklin’ with Gordon Chater.
  He might better be remembered by “the Mavis Bramston show”.Reply ↓
  - berlioz1935on 06/08/2015 at 06:51 said: Gordon Chater was a great actor. The Mavis Bramston show was the best Channel 7 ever did. They should revive it. As an antidote to the stupidity of the Abbott government.

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The Effect, Lucy Prebble takes on pharma capitalism and the folly of a pain-free life.

Off-Broadway • Mar 21, 2016

http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/the-effect_76408.html?cid=outbrain

So much of this play is about human resistance to uniformity and the scientific method itself: How can one person truly serve as a control for another when the two subjects have radically different backgrounds, attitudes, and chemical predispositions?

Our Weekend 13/14th June 2015

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to the BELVOIR Theatre in Sydney.

http://belvoir.com.au/school-performances/mother-courage-children/

“HSC Drama: Significant Plays of the 20th Century

Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children really needs no introduction to teachers.

Anna Fierling is a refugee. She has three children, a shop in a cart, and buckets of chutzpah. She buys and sells her way through a massive and pointless religious war – gulling, lying, charming, inveigling. Will those great capitalist qualities save her from the common fate?

Mother Courage and Her Children is a magnificent pageant of humanity in extremis. A 20th century colossus about a 17th century war is a vision of the 21st century – of globalisation, religion, violence, capitalism, love and pity.

Eamon Flack (Once in Royal David’s City) directs Robyn Nevin in a Michael Gow translation of this epic play.”

As far as I know, Bertolt Brecht asked the question who profits from war? And I would say his answer was that the well off always did profit from wars, but never any of the not so well off.

Today, Sunday, we met some friends for lunch at the OAK FLATS BOWLING AND RECREATION CLUB. We had a very good lunch there and later on coffee and cake.

There's ample parking at the club. — There’s ample parking at the club.

I guess this is for elderly people who drive around on scooters instead of cars.

A View of Lake Illawarra from a Park in Oak Flats.

We took advantage of the beautiful winter sunshine spending some time in this Park at Lake Illawarra.

Diary, Sunday 15th of Feb 2015

Yesterday we left our car in Waterfall. From there we caught the train to the city. We got off at Kings Cross Station. Coming out of the station we met Caroline. Peter took a photo as we were walking along Darlinghurst Road.

A bit further on we had a pizza lunch at the “mad” pizza place. The pizzas we ordered were delicious. I had a pumpkin pizza with plenty of rocket salad on the side. It was so much I could not eat it all. I had not brought my camera. I asked Peter to take a picture of the two pieces that I had left.

The following pictures are from today.

Monika and Mark did bring little Lucas and Baby Alex along today. They were on their way of taking the little ones back home to their parents who were happy that they could yesterday have a good night out for Valentine’s Day. We had not seen the great-grandsons since Christmas Eve. It was a very nice surprise for us seeing them today!

We have had a fairly busy week. On Wednesday and as well as yesterday we have been to Matinee performances in Sydney. On Wednesday it was a performance by New York’s SHEN YUN Performing Arts Company. They are the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. We very much enjoyed all this classical dancing. It is claimed that this kind of classical Chinese dancing has a long history, going back 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

And yesterday we saw a contemporary Asian Australian story on stage, called Through a Distant Lens. The story is built around old photographs of early Japanese settlers in for instance Broome. These stories go back more than one hundred years. The early Japanese settlers contributed much to the development of Australia’s north. Apart from narration there is naturalistic acting, soundscapes, film, live music and sound, song dance and photography. The old photographs were wonderful to look at on the large screen. They gave a feeling for this long ago life in the northern parts of Australia.

Peter took the above picture. This is the entrance to the theatre of the Griffin Theatre Company.

We did see the story of Yasukichi Murakami – Through a Distant Lens

in the Griffin Theatre.

Last Monday we went to the movies while our car was being serviced. We saw in the HOYTS Cinemas in Warrawong “The Theory of everything”. Here is the synopsis to this movie from the HOYTS Cinema page:

“Little was expected from Stephen Hawking, a bright but shiftless student of cosmology, given just two years to live following the diagnosis of a fatal illness at 21 years of age. He became galvanized, however, by the love of fellow Cambridge student, Jane Wilde, and he went on to be called the successor to Einstein, as well as a husband and father to their three children. Over the course of their marriage as Stephen’s body collapsed and his academic renown soared, fault lines were exposed that tested the lineaments of their relationship and dramatically altered the course of both of their lives.”

http://www.hoyts.com.au/movies/2015/theory_of_everything.aspx

I thought this movie was well worth seeing. It was very interesting to see what sort of relationships Stephen Hawking had to other people and how he is managing this very debilitating sickness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (This is when the nerves that control the muscles are shutting down.) Eddie Redmayne played Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. I thought he played this part extremely well.

On Tuesday we were home. We had a very dear visitor on that day. We want to go to Sydney with Bronwyn to see a French movie during the French Film Festival next month.

On Thursday I felt sick all day. I think having to stay with very cold air-conditioning on Wednesday for long periods of time had an adverse effect on my system. I can never stand very cold wind or air-conditioning for more than an hour or two. I don’t know what I can do about this.

On Friday I still did not feel quite all right. I tried to take it easy. Luckily on Saturday I had overcome this flu-like sickness. It was a beautiful warm day. This helped a lot. The play lasted only for an hour. We were having lunch sitting outside in balmy summer weather. During the train ride to Waterfall I sat on the sunny side near the window, plus I was wrapped up warmly enough.

Caroline had giving us free tickets for the play on Valentine’s Day. Apart from lunch we also had a gelato treat at Messina’s and later an excellent cup of coffee in an outside cafe nearby. All in all we had a lovely day with Caroline, while Matthew had to work on that day.

UTA’s DIARY, SATURDAY 15th November 2014

It turned out several family members could come to visit us on Saturday. Caroline had baked a cheese-cake after having gone shopping with Matthew for the ingredients. The cake had just come out of the oven when Ryan and Ebony arrived with Lucas and Baby Alexander. A bit later also Monika and Mark came for afternoon coffee.

Caroline and Matthew had come with us to Dapto on Friday night. Saturday night they went back home to their place in Sydney. Caroline’s Graduation Ceremony had been on Thursday. Wednesday afternoon Peter and I had been arriving in Sydney where we went with Caroline and Matthew to a performance at the Griffin Theatre. We saw EMERALD CITY, a play by David Williamson. On Saturday morning Matthew went for some exams at Wollongong University. Matthew is going to keep working at IKU. And he is going to do some more post graduate studies next year, whereas Caroline stopped working at IKU and started now her full time work at the Griffin Theatre.

Peter and I enjoyed spending a few days in Sydney and being guests at Caroline’s graduation ceremony. Later on that Thursday some of Caroline’s and Matthew’s friends came over. We then celebrated with sparkling wine and snacks.

At the University of New South Wales on Thursday, 13th Nov 2014

Another Reblog that I like

http://noplaceforsheep.com/2012/01/30/riffing-in-the-lismore-pharmacy-a-story-by-maria-simms/#comments

If you are interested in well written conversations and in theatre, please go to the above link! I reckon the story you find there is a real treat! It was published one year ago. I only found it today and could not resist trying to reblog it.

Dr Maria Simms is a published novelist and short story writer who has worked as an academic for many years. Her crime novel, The Dead House, won the New Holland Genre Fiction Award. Maria has been a general editor; lecturer in creative and academic writing; head of a large university academic study centre; and director of university continuing education programs. In an earlier incarnation she worked in theatre and graphic design. Her interests include creative and academic writing, textual and cultural theory and Australian history with an emphasis on the place of women in the narrative of Australia. She loves a good yarn and hearing about the lives of people she meets.

Maria is the managing director of WordCraft Consulting, a company specialising in academic, business and creative writing. She can be contacted at: maria.simms@bigpond.com

Tag: Theatre