Thanks, mate!

I heard the Aussies gave us some "gunboats" on account of the president's visit. I'm beginning to believe Australia is such a good country, the Australians are such kind folks. I still can't forget how they feted us during our centennial celebration in 1999. If I'm not mistaken, they treated us so much better than the Americans did. Here's my incomplete account of all that:

With my officemates, I watched this surreal/strange/exotic Australian outdoor performance, Mimi, described as “a magical evocation of the Kunwinjku Creation story,” which comprised of “stilt walking, virtuoso acrobatics, dance, light, fire, smoke, indigenous and contemporary music.” It was such an unforgettable performance, especially those parts where actors on impossibly high stilts pranced and caught the audience's collective breath.

At night, we watched "Bambuco," a large-scale performance event involving the construction of a 30-meter tall bamboo arch, built entirely of tied bamboo. It was held along Roxas Blvd. It was such a wonderful experience. The bridge-building supposedly symbolized friendship between RP and Australia.

I also was surprised to find a movie like Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom enjoyable. It was shown for free at the CCP. I also got to watch this Gen X movie, Love and Other Catastrophes, a day-in-the-life story chronicling, uhm, certain sexual relationships. At the THX in Makati, I also saw the excellent film Shine, which won for Australian actor Geoffrey Rush the year’s Oscar, beating perennial favorite Tom Cruise. To this day, my Tom Cruise-fanatic friend, Gorgeous, wouldn’t watch any movie starring Rush. Shine wonderfully essays the emotionally distressed life of master pianist David Helfgott.

I forgot which day of the following week it was that I watched with Herbs the unusual period film We of the Never Never. It is a saga about the odds a newly wedded white woman faces after she decides to settle with her husband in the harsh Australian outback (think un-navigable terrain full of termite mounds). Here, she meets with disapproval from all the men, together with the patent prejudices of white men against the aborigines, and their unrepentant chauvinism. It’s a dragging film, but you wouldn’t want to walk out on it. For one, I was surprised that there were Chinese immigrants hired as cooks in the island subcontinent at the time, that malaria was then mysterious and hence incurable, and shockingly, that the nomadic aborigines have willingly allowed themselves to be enslaved by the English immigrants (i.e., without putting up much resistance!). Major complaint: I didn’t get to see the kangaroos, koalas and wallabies.

Well, I'd have a bit of that a little bit later when Herbs and I visited the Australian Center: Joey is a film about the adventures of a baby kangaroo uprooted from his parents in the wild and his inevitable redemption in the hands of two kids. In this children’s movie, I got acquainted with the cute sounds a baby kangaroo makes. I also learned about the supposed existence of what seems like ‘kangaroo courts’, the monotrematic equivalent of cockpits where 'roos are matched to kill each other in a duel. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is an uproariously funny story of three drag queens who travel from territory to territory in a rickety pink bus in the hope of finding their way ‘home’. In this movie, I’ve finally discovered the singer of that beautiful melancholy song with that jaw-dropping lyric, “Never Been To Me.” Her name is Charlene, just Charlene. (Update: it's Duncan, Charlene Duncan.)This movie is notorious for having that scene with a Filipina (most likely a maid-to-order bride) uttering invectives that would never be allowed to go unedited at home.

I remember a dozen other events around town: World War II painting exhibits (I love the design of those first-generation warplanes.) The showing of Giliw Ko, a local '30s film (I forgot which director) that was restored by the Australian government. It was supposed to be among the first films ever made in the Philippines; it is, of course, a silent movie. I feel so sorry to miss that rare event.

(7.1999)