Blogging: Is It Hurting Print Media?

Apologies if anyone found errors accessing the site from about 3am this morning (7 hours ago.) The domain expired and I didn’t know because I’d changed email addresses since registering the domain. All is well now and benjaminsolah.com will be in the hands of, surprise surprise, Benjamin Solah for another two years at least.

There’s been lots of grumbling from the fat cats at the head of old media companies lately, mainly about how they can’t make money because people can read the news for free on the net now. They want to make us pay but can’t quite work out how it’s going to work.

Of course they blame bloggers and try to discredit us. The latest was News Ltd’s Chief Executive, John Hartigan’s speech at the National Press Club yesterday where The Age reported he said:

“In return for their free content, we pretty much get what we’ve paid for – something of such limited intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance.”

Mass ignorance? He’s basically saying ordinary people are stupid. Do you need to be someone vetted by high society before you’re allowed to distribute an opinion to a wider audience?

Whilst I think he and many bloggers overstate the reach blogging is having, I think bloggers eating into the readership of the corporate media is a welcome thing. Hartigan tries to shape his opinions around the quality of blogging, how they can’t get as much official information as journalist – which is true to a degree – but Hartigan’s real motives are twofold, profit and control of information in the hands of those with economic power.

The whole basis for the ‘unviability’ of the old model of media is that they can’t make enough money out of it. Their primary concern, and the whole basis for the survival, is whether or not what they do can turn a profit. The rise of the Internet meant that less and less people were paying for newspapers when they could get it online for free. Trying to make people pay for news online seems like a failed mission before it’s even begun.

Old media has lost ground to any random person on the Internet starting up a blog and saying what they think. Opinion is no longer monopolised by columns vetted by someone in a high position at Fairfax Media or News Ltd. Any loss seems to scare them it seems because I don’t think blogging has had that much of an impact as blogging still is subject to laws of capitalist economics, where those with more money tend to get more exposure.

Music Review: Sound Awake – Karnivool

Karnivool’s second album, Sound Awake has the same distinct Karnivool sound whilst also being a marked progression. Sound Awake is a complex and multi-layered album that really needs to be listened to a few times to really appreciate it in its entirety.

And it seems every time I listen to Sound Awake, I gain something new from it, or just love it on a whole new level. It’s one of the reasons it’s taken me longer than usual to write this review. Each listen offers something new and makes me feel unable to understand it totally. I know the next listen will offer me something else.

The first listen is even a little disorientating. A lot of it sounds so different to Karnivool’s first album Themata, and unconventional to the genre. There’s lots of building up to big finishes, it’s epic even if the build up feel like they don’t eventuate to anything all of the time.

Almost all of the tracks are favourites for me, but at the moment ‘New Day’ is good in the conventional Karnivool way and ‘Deadman’ has been the stand out track of the album since the first listen. It’s such an epic and intense track. It very much encapsulates the whole album, alongside with the other epic track, ‘Change.’

This follow up lived up to high expectations from fans, maintaining the sound that attracted people originally whilst also providing something new and developed that wasn’t just a repeat of their previous album. Sound Awake is one of those albums you’ll have to play over and over.

Rating:

Technorati Tags: Karnivool, Sound Awake, music, review, album

Fighting Homophobia: Nothing Less Than Full Marriage Rights

With a chairman like former Victorian Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett, it should come as no surprise that the depression charity, beyondblue, have totally capitulated to homophobia and have neglected gay and lesbian youth in Australia.

The Age reported on Sunday that beyondblue “has knocked back repeated funding requests to support depressed young people struggling with their sexuality.”

This is a complete outrage considering the suicide rate for gay and lesbian youth is far higher than the suicide rate for their straight peers. Homophobia is a daily and lived experience for these youths, often harassed verbally and physically at school, work, out on the street and even from unsupportive parents. Given this environment, it’s no wonder so many gay youths find it so hard to come out and often kill themselves because of it.

With so many countries passing gay marriage laws, Kevin Rudd is a disgrace for refusing to pass gay marriage laws. Former Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard, was hounded as an outright homophobe for passing a law explicitly banning gay marriage and so Rudd shouldn’t be let off for continuing the law and failing to repeal it.

Without gay marriage laws and full equality for gays and lesbians, the government is responsible for creating a homophobic atmosphere. Gay relationships are still not considered equal; they’re less valid in law so the people in these relationships are basically deemed second class citizens in society.

So it was encouraging to hear The Herald Sun report that Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young introduced a private member’s bill into parliament to remove all discrimination based on sexuality and gender from the Marriage Act.

The Greens have tabled a petition with 30,000 signatures in support gay marriage. It’s clear that the majority of Australians support same-sex marriage. Rudd can’t say “Australia isn’t ready for it” because the general public isn’t homophobic, the real homophobes are in our Parliament.

Same-sex marriage laws, whilst not eliminating homophobia altogether, would be a significant step forward for gay and lesbian equality.

Rallies will be held all around Australia on the 1st of August – the 5th Anniversary of Howard passing his ban on same-sex marriage. Anyone, gay or straight, who is in support of gay marriage should attend and encourage others to come as well. For more information visit http://equallove.info/

I’ll be adding a banner to the top of my blog until August 1.

Technorati Tags: gay marriage, equal love, homophobia, beyondblue

Trust Me

‘Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie.’

This meme has been floating around the Blogosphere the past week and L.R. Bonehill was kind enough to tag me.

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world?

I led a worker’s revolution in Azerbaijan in 1996, like a real one that wasn’t Stalinist. And then wrote a book about it. And then the BBC loved me by filming a special about the great Aussie horror writer who liberated the people of Azerbaijan.

Envy: What do your co-workers wish they had which is yours?

My determined work ethic.

Gluttony: What did you eat last night?

2 kilograms of Roasted Kangaroo (nothing like meat from your nation’s Coat of Arms) topped with a litre of gravy.

Lust: What really lights your fire?

I’m turned on by rioters, glistening with sweat from the burning police cars all around them.

Anger: What is the last thing that really pissed you off?

Bludgers at work. Can’t they be grateful they have a job? Their boss does so much for them.

Greed: Name something you keep from others.

The millions of dollars in royalties I’m still collecting for Revolts: My Worker’s Revolution in Azerbaijan.

Sloth: What’s the laziest thing you’ve ever done?

I actually slept in during the insurrection of the parliament of Azerbaijan, so got a ghost writer to write that part.

I’ve cruelly kindly passed this on and tagged Isaac, Terrie, Karen, Ash, Neil, Kath and Carol. Have fun guys!

Technorati Tags: meme

Thoughts On Publishing: Emerging Writers v Emerging Bands

Last week I was complaining on Facebook about my life-sentence that is full-time work and how I’d love to get out of it. It prompted a discussion about my writing career where a friend, who’s in a band that just released their debut album via an Indie Music label, asked “Is there something like the equivalent of an Indie Music label for publishing?”

It’s gotten me thinking about comparing emerging writers and their paths to publication and emerging bands. Is it easier for emerging bands to gain exposure as opposed to emerging writers?

If you’re an emerging band, you can get yourself a gig at a small pub or bar in Melbourne and your friends can come along and support you. Though, I’m not sure how easy or hard this is to achieve.

But I suppose the equivalent would be to have your short story published in an ezine or print magazine, just for exposure, and having your friends read it. The main envy I have with getting your friends to check out your gig is that it seems like a much more physical show of support.

It would be slightly weird if you watched each and every friend or family member read your short story.

Or is the problem just that the avenues for writers are less advertised? Do we have to hunt for them through things like the Emerging Writers’ Festival? Is the emerging music scene just more mainstream? It’s easier to accidentally discover a band playing at a pub than it is to find a small zine with an emerging writer’s fiction.

I’m curious to hear other people’s thoughts on gaining your first glimpses of exposure for a writer, as compared to a band or musical act.

And I plan to extend this into other posts, with thoughts on self-publishing, online markets and small press.

Technorati Tags: writing, publishing, self-publishing, Indie Publishing, Indie Music, Emerging Writers, publishing

Gig Review: Karnivool @ The Forum

Karnivool played their second Melbourne show at The Forum last night. It was an awesome show full of theatrics and intensity.

The elaborate gothic style architecture suited Karnivool’s style and I absolutely loved the venue.

The support band, Sugar Army were good too. I’d seen them support Gyroscope last year and they were heavier this time around – perhaps influenced by the band they were touring with.

But Karnivool were simply amazing. The crowd surge that nearly squashed me against the barrier at the front, a testament to their popularity. Their set opened with a speech by what looked like some old American President on this LCD screen split up into columns. The video distorted and cut out as Karnivool took to the stage.

The columns of LCD screens played visualisations reminiscent of Sound Awake’s album art throughout the rest of the set. Front man, Ian Kenny was quirky and in his own world it seemed with his strange and organic movements. He had the audience fixed on him, especially in moments where he crouched on the ground almost singing at the floor.

They played songs from their new album, Sound Awake (review to come soon) which were complex and mesmerising, and they also played tracks from their debut album, Themata which seemed to excite the crowd the most, eliciting familiar memories of gigs past that I’d unfortunately never been to till tonight.

This morning, my head hurts a bit. I expect it was from the crowd surfer that landed on my head and neck about 3 or 4 songs in.

Technorati Tags: Karnivool, The Forum, music, gig, Melbourne, review

Quote: Eugene V. Debs

I’m feeling a bit too sick to post today, but as I was working on the redesign of this blog I searched for some favourite writing-related and political quotes for the sidebars of the main pages. Of course, I had to add something from the American Socialist Eugene V. Debs. And below is one of my favourites.

I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; and while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Look out for a post on the Karnivool gig tomorrow night at The Forum and I have a post brewing comparing Indie Music to Indie Publishing.

Technorati Tags: quotes, socialism, Debs

Iran: Movement Going Beyond Mousavi?

It’s encouraging that the protests in Iran are continuing despite the continued repression from police and the Basij militia. Reports, videos and images are painting a disturbing picture of repression, where there’s been bloody and deadly scenes in Tehran.

It’s worth noting that Al Jazeera reported today:

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated main opposition candidate in the presidential election, has distanced himself from the protest with his official website saying the proposed rally was an independent initiative and had not been organised by him.

This may indicate that the movement has gone beyond the limits of Mousavi’s reformist camp. Certainly there are more and more reports of strikes and calls for strikes, though it’s difficult to confirm if they’re true or not.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Tehran, revolts, Mousavi

Welcome to the new look BenjaminSolah.com

I’d like to welcome you my new design. It’s a concept I’ve had in my head for quite a while and I’m glad to have completed it.

There’s still a few bugs and I plan to update the links page and my profile picture at a later date.

Absolute Write Blog Chain June 2009

I’m following on from Bettielee at Far Seeing Fairy Tales in the June edition of the Absolute Write Blog Chain.

There’s no theme this month so we’re just meant to follow on from what others have said, and so far it’s been to do with Global Warming and the environment. Bettielee focused on her own personal consumption; as writers who consume a lot of paper, she tries to be conscious and use the waste paper at her work.

I work in an office too and certainly notice the company I work for consumes a phenomenal amount of paper and expect it’s the same for many offices in the Melbourne CBD where I work. I could never imagine my own personal paper use even coming close to the amount of paper my office uses, or even the amount of paper I’ve used individually in previous jobs.

Whilst I’m not opposed to people lowering their personal consumption, the main problem is clearly corporate consumption. In Australia, we’re prone to drought. All of the government’s obsession with people taking shorter showers seems trivial and petty given that the Roxby Downs Uranium mine uses something like 30 million litres of water per day.

It seems absurd, especially given Uranium is mostly used building weapons that could destroy the earth faster than Global Warming ever could. And that’s a scary thought. Much of the horror coming out around the Cold War was related to this fear of Nuclear annihilation and even some of today’s horror seems related to the fear of environmental destruction.

Whether writers consciously or unconsciously do so, their stories will inevitably relate to what’s happening to the world around them in some way. For horror writers, it’s the current fears people are feeling. With the onset of the Global Financial Crisis, workers around the world are petrified of losing their jobs, their homes and indeed their whole way of life due to some ‘god like’ force of the market.

The monster of now and the next couple of years is this omnipresent force of economics and as a political horror writer, I’d do well to relate to that fear and show my readers how my protagonists can overcome it.

And with that, I’ll hand it over to do Forbidden Snowflake from Delirious.

Update: The next poster was updated as the next in line dropped out.

Below is the list of blogs participating in the Absolute Write Blog Chain 2009:

• Razib Ahmed: Hobby Economist
• Fokker Aeroplanbau: I’m Always Right, Far Right
• Bettielee: Far Seeing Fairy Tales
• Bsolah: Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer
• Forbidden Snowflake: Delirious
• Rosemerry: Beyond Tourism: Florida’s Yesteryear
• Dnic: Four-Lettered Words
• Lady Cat: Random Writerly Thoughts
• Truelyana: Expressive World
• Tika: Tika Newman
• Bill Ward: BillWardWriter.com
• dancingandflying: Made of Carbon

Technorati Tags: blogging, Absolute Write, global warming, horror, uranium, nuclear weapons, horror economic crisis

Iran: Various Shit Positions On The Revolts

So amongst the kind of token support of the protesters in Iran, coming from people who would otherwise support bombing the shit out of the country, there a few people or groups that need to condemned for atrocious positions on Iran and the protests.

• It seems morals and such stuff gets in the way of making a buck. Not for Nokia or Siemens though. The Wall Street Journal reports that they’re part of designing the software used to track Iranians’ mobile and internet use, which has become extremely useful in recent days to track down those taking part in the protests.

• The Miami Herald reports that the so-called ’socialist’ leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has pledged his support for Ahmadinejad. Of course, he’s not following any sort of principle or morals either, just keeping his alliances to benefit the Venezuelan state.

  Those socialist groups in Australia that think Venezuela is some how socialist need to think hard about this, considering Chavez also backed the Sri Lankan government in their slaughter of the Tamil minority.

• I have the luxury of watching CNN on Pay-TV at home and CNN has had virtually non-stop coverage of the Iranian crisis when I’ve been home. I was disgusted to hear that one of presenters analysed Iranians’ desire to put their life on the line as due to “the Shi’a belief in Martyrdom.”

  It’s incredibly racist and paternalistic to reduce everything people do in the Middle-East down to a dogmatic loyalty to religion. The contradiction of course is that the same presenters often put their complacency down to religion also. Maybe they should realise that revolt against your oppressors is something common to all oppressed peoples.

Anyone else seen shocking positions on the whole conflict?

Technorati Tags: Iran, Tehran, protests, West, Nokia, Chavez, CNN

Iran: Where To From Here?

The events in Tehran – the inspiring and heartbreaking pictures, videos and accounts all over the web – have occupied my mind over the weekend. As I’m sure they have for a lot of people.

With the media being restricted, it’s difficult to gain a sense of the direction of the movement and which forces are leading it, but curiously, I’ve latched onto this snippet in The Age this morning:

A witness said Mr Mousavi had called for a national strike if he was arrested. It was unprecedented defiance of Ayatollah Khamenei, who has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winner of the election and on Friday ordered an end to protests.

The information seems hard to verify and due to Mousavi’s position in the Iranian ruling class, it seems unlikely that he would call for such a fundamental challenge to the whole Islamic regime. But I get a sense from more direct quotes, that the movement has reached a point of no return given the likely consequences if they’re defeated.

A strike, a more working-class tactic, is sorely needed for the movement to go forward. No other media sources are reporting this piece of information, as far as I can see, but I really hope a general strike is around the corner.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Tehran, strike, Mousavi

New Site Design Coming Soon!

I missed [Fiction] Friday this Friday as I’ve been busy and didn’t get around to it last night. Check out the other entries though at Write Anything.

The good news is I’ve finally gotten into gear with the redesign of this site. It’s looking really good at the moment, with the main part, the header completed tonight.

The main work now is to tweak the CSS and sidebars for the blog, and to implement the design across the other pages outside of the blog. Playing with CSS is a frustrating yet enlightening experience, and I’m going to have to read up more on the coding language in order to get the design just right.

Keep checking back as the design should be released in a week or two.

Technorati Tags: WordPress, design, CSS

Protest Marks Second Anniversary Of Racist Northern Territory Intervention

A small protest gathered at Victoria’s State Library today to mark the second anniversary of the racist Northern Territory Intervention that saw the Racial Discrimination Act suspended making way for cops and troops to take control of the communities from Indigenous people.

The crowd was inspired and entertained by Indigenous musicians and speakers, all hostile to the Labor Party’s continuation of Howard’s Intervention as well as the traitor of Indigenous people, Noel Pearson.

Technorati Tags: Indigenous, Aboriginal, racism, Australia, Northern Territory

Iran: Supporting The Revolts Without Supporting The Leaders

As the revolts and protests in Iran continue, questions are being asked about where these movements will go, if they’ll win or whether it’ll end in another revolution. But it’s clear the movement will need to go beyond the leadership of Hussein Mousavi in order to achieve radical change.

SocialistWorker.org has an excellent opinion piece on the situation in Iran at the moment, which it says,

In the post-election crisis, the limitations of the reformers’ social base have been exposed. A struggle to oust Ahmadinejad would require far more militant mass action than anything yet seen. But it seems doubtful, to say the least, that Mousavi, who has spent the last three decades in the political hierarchy, would call for workers’ strikes or insurrections.

It is understandable that people around the world have pledged their support for the protesters in Iran fighting the clearly undemocratic regime.

Though, we need to be careful about siding with those who have also supported military intervention from the US in order to achieve democracy. These people aren’t genuine believers in democracy, just pro-War opportunists and I dare say it, mostly racist. They aren’t our allies.

But it also important to see that Mousavi, the leader the people are rallying behind, is no better than Ahmadinejad. He may have pledged to grant minor reforms, but his economic policies are neo-liberal and he advocates a more “friendly” relationship with the West.

He’s also been Prime Minister before until 1989 and was known by some for being more repressive than under the current Ahmadinejad regime. His victory would not see radical change come to Iran.

So it’s important to see that the revolts need to go beyond the control of Mousavi. It’s safe to say that a lot of people out on the streets aren’t hard-line Mousavi supporters and would use any excuse to come out against the regime, to break free of that repression. There is an enormous potential in these struggles but only time will tell what will come of it.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Tehran, revolts, protests, Mousavi, Ahmadinejad

Reading: Why I Prefer Shorter Novels

Thinking back to the books that have held my attention over the last year or so, and the ones that I’ve put on hold, I really agreed with the sentiments in a blog post at guardian.co.uk in which the blogger says,

I am saying that we are living in an era where novels of epic length are unlikely to be of interest to most readers. In part, it’s about the way that we live and read…

…I’m not just talking about the fact that people didn’t have Twitter to distract them, but…(a)side from the challenge of ignoring all the digital noise, even the most Luddite readers have finite lifetimes to devote to reading.

I preface what I say below with the acceptance that any reader can list numerous tomes and paperweights that are worth those months or years spent reading them. Stephen King’s It is one of my favourite novels and comes in at 1116 thin pages crammed full of text.

But I personally prefer shorter novels to longer ones.

I’m a slow reader, depending on the difficulty of the text and generally how well it’s written. Add to that the limited time I have for reading due to work, politics, fitting in time for writing and a social life, my reading time is a rare commodity that I must utilize in the most efficient way possible.

So when I’m browsing books at the bookstore, the really thick ones tend to turn me away. Why would I bother gambling that much time when I could read two or three in same time? These texts look daunting and it may be psychological or the way they’re written but I seem to read them a lot slower.

A lot of longer works, in my opinion, tend to go overboard with the detail; they spell everything out for the reader, kind of assuming the reader is dumb and can’t imagine things for themselves. The over describing in some of these novels tends to slow the story down.

I’d much prefer a novel that is faster paced and describes the story and the action rather than idle descriptions. Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is an excellent example of a real page turner, full of plenty of story and coming in at only 224 pages.

I’ll end by saying that preferring shorter novels over longer novels is not about laziness or any snobby notion of not appreciating ‘higher levels of literature.’ It’s about not wasting my time being bored to tears.

Sure, there are lots of great tomes but I feel like some stories are better told in fewer pages than drawing it out to look impressive.

I discovered the article discussed above through the wealth of resources provided by The Creative Penn, ranked 6th in The Top 50 Australian Writing Blogs.

Image by -Georg-

Economic Crisis: Workers Asked To Pay – Literally!

I was totally shocked and appalled when I read this in The Age this morning:

BA workers have now been given until June 24 to volunteer to work for free for a month, with the salary deductions expected to be spread over a period of several months if possible.

I think most workers’ immediate response would be, “Fuck Off.”

That’s unless you’re shit scared that refusing could cost you your job. When I said workers would be made to pay for a crisis they did not cause, I didn’t think they would pay this literally.

And the defence that all are making the sacrifice, including management, really doesn’t cut it with me. Executives and Management are paid fucking heaps more than workers (for doing jack-shit) and so would have savings to last them through the months of no pay with almost no dent to their luxurious lifestyles, whilst ordinary workers would find it hard to get by day to day.

Economic crises are always far harsher on working-class people so it’s a sick lie to say it’s even spread. British Airlines would run a lot more efficient if they sacked management. They’re paid too much and don’t do anything anyway. The planes would fly without them.

Technorati Tags: British Airways, economic crisis, recession, workers, unions

Iran: Inspiring Revolts And Western Hypocrisy

The protests and riots in Iran are inspiring at the moment. They seemed to erupt out of nowhere, people reaching a breaking point that the repression could not withhold. I’ve been following the BBC, blogs and Twitter for the latest updates.

From the BBC:

Hundreds of thousands rallied to support candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, but a group of them was fired on from a militia base they had surrounded.

Despite the censorship of the media and the Internet, Iranians seem to finding a way around it. TechCrunch reports that Twitter has even rescheduled maintenance to avoid interrupting the stream of Iranian Twitter users communicating what’s going on to each other, and outside of Iran.

Lenin’s Tomb has a good post on the issue in which he concludes by saying:

So, whatever the truth about the claims of a fix, these protests can do nothing but good. They may, in addition to getting rid of some particularly onerous forms of oppression, open up a space in which the left can operate more freely, and in which the labour movement can assert itself more forcefully.

Saeed Valadbaygi is blogging from Iran at Revolutionary Road… with pictures, videos and interviews with participants in the protests.

The breakouts firstly started in tehran and was on the same day that the votes were announced, however at the moment all the cities in iran, and i have to say in most of the cities in iran the situation might even be worse than tehran. people even have started to attack the military guards and they have taken control over some of the cities.it has been reported that in other cities, the military guards and the people.

One point I’d like to make, as someone who thinks that Iran is a repressive state that need to be overthrown from within and someone who stands firmly against military intervention, is that the comments from Western leaders are blatantly hypocritical.

Their mock concern for protesters is only about advancing support for an invasion that would see the opponents of Ahmadinejad slaughtered by the West rather than their own rulers.

And Western leaders have attacked protesters against their own institutions and fraudulent elections. And they’d do it again. The US of course is no stranger to rigging elections in their own country and even in other countries. The US has a shameful history of funding coups, rigging elections and propping up unpopular dictators to keep the most pro-US governments in power.

And the example of Britain, with the G20 protests and the death of Ian Tomlinson, shows that the West are not adverse to fatally suppressing protests.

We need to support the protests in Iran. But our leaders are not our allies in a fight for democracy.

Update: The BBC is reporting that seven protesters have been killed by security forces in an attempt by the regime in suppress opposition demonstrations.

Global Voices Online has a comprehensive report on the situation in Iran full of photos, videos and links.

Photo by Hamed Saber

Technorati Tags: Iran, Twitter, Tehran, protests, revolts, West, hypocricy

Theatre Review: Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters

PMD Production’s performance of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters was an entertaining performance with strong acting and some powerful scenes but I thought it lacked any depth or anything to make it resonate with me.

It was performed at Chapel Off Chapel in The Loft. It’s an intimate black box theatre and the set straddled between realism and minimalism, with the antique furniture but nothing much else. The white panel at the back made me feel that there was something more to the set, adding to the realism, but sadly it did not and I thought the panel wasn’t needed.

The play itself surrounds three sisters in a bourgeois house in an unnamed Russian town. They see themselves as more educated and refined than the rest of the town, determined to make something more of themselves. Two of them dream of moving to Moscow, with their brother who dreams of becoming a professor.

The play transitions through four years, as their lives change, but the dream of Moscow and doing something significant never arises. It’s a tragic, yet comic tale, about lost dreams.

I personally found it hard to sympathise with a lot of the characters’ problems. They seemed trivial as their lives were lived in luxury. But I could also relate to some of them. I thought the play was meant to say something more, through the mouthpiece of seemingly trivial comments.

I enjoyed the moments of energy that contrasted strongly with the relative slow pace and calmness of the play. These were moments where the characters seemed a lot more real, coming out of the public persona they seemed to put on for each other.

So although the play was entertaining, hinting at some themes, nothing resonated with me after I’d left the theatre.

Three Sisters plays until June 30

Rating:

Technorati Tags: Three Sisters, Chekhov, theatre, play, review

Climate Emergency Rally

Thousands marched from Melbourne’s State Library to the Treasury Gardens to demand more action on climate change with many environmental organisations opposing Rudd’s pathetic emissions targets and the scam that is the emissions trading scheme.

Technorati Tags: climate change, environment, protest, rally, Melbourne