AUTHOR: Kevin Kelly DATE: 11:10 AM ----- BODY: All the news that's fit to print...when there is news, that is.

DATELINE: Wednesday, January 14th, and you are there!

LOCATION: Sydney, Australia. Specifically, St. Paul's College at the University of Sydney. Classroom 12.

THE TIME: Now.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a good one. It's still somewhat hard to believe that it's the year 2004. Where is my hovercar and my robotic assistant? Dang science fiction writers have ruined it for everyone! I thought we'd be living underwater, or on the Moon by now. I guess I'll have to settle for an apartment with a washing machine. The folks in the 1800's would think it was pretty impressive. Heck I think they'd be impressed by the flush toilet and the light switches.

I haven't updated this thing in such a long time, that I'm wondering where to begin. Christmas and New Years was spent traveling all around, spending time on the beach (I'm browner than an Aborigine now), and just doing touristy stuff.

However, the big news is that I met a girl! Yes, a local Australian girl...or a "shelia" as they call them here. Her name is Kirsty, and she's really great. I know, I know, I have to leave eventually, but we'll see where things go! We've been spending a lot of time together, and we haven't gotten sick of each other yet. I suppose it says more that she hasn't gotten sick of me yet!



Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm a tourist here, and that this isn't my new home. I may not sound Australian, but at least now I'm using all the right words. Here are some new words for you:

esky = ice chest
doona = blanket, comforter
squizz = to have a look at "Let me have a squizz at that paper."
the shits = mad at someone or something. "Boy, Julie really gave me the shits last night." Which would mean something totally altogether to us.
brollies = umbrellas

It's a weird country, I tell ya.

I spent Christmas Day on the beach at Bondi, which was quite weird since I'm used to it being (fairly) cold! The beach was packed at 9am when I got there, and when I left around 1pm you had to step over people to leave, it was insane! There were people from all over the world there, it was a lot of fun. And Beach Santa made a brief appearance.



Around one o'clock I left the beach and went to the house of one of our make-up people. Her name is Nugget (yes, her real name) and she cooked a huge spread! I was so full of food that I felt like that Violet Beauregard girl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While trying to stay out of a food induced coma, I noticed a MASSIVE spider on their wall. I thought it was fake, but it was very real. These spiders are called huntsmen, and are pretty common through Australia. They aren't venomous, but they are HUGE! I thought I would find Frodo tied up in a web underneath this sucker:



Not long after Christmas, I went out to Camden, which is in the country here, to a old ranch/farm. Kirsty's friend Georgina and her husband Adrian live in a house ranch house that was built in the 1800s. We spent a couple of days out there with a lot of their friends, eating and swimming, it was beautiful and a lot of fun. Here is the gang at dinner our last night.





Adrian is the big bald guy at the other end of the table. This guy is massive! He could probably eat me for breakfast. This I know for a fact since I witnessed him eat the most of a not-so-small pig.

On New Year's Eve we went to Observatory Hill with a picnic, and ended up having a perfect spot to view the fireworks. People start finding spots at 6am in the morning that day, so I think we're lucky that we managed to find such a good spot at 8pm! The picnic was delicious and the fireworks were the most amazing that I've seen.

Here's the crowd mid-day at the Opera House:



This is the spot we watched the fireworks from. They shoot them off over the bridge, and they have a cascade of sparks shooting down underneath the bridge like a waterfall:



Zoomed in a bit on the bridge from our spot:



Now, here's a link to the grand finale of the fireworks that I shot from my camera. It's big! About 14.8 megabytes, so ye have been warned. Fireworks!

After a bit more traveling, lots of beaching, and several meals, it was back to work day on the 5th. While waiting on Brian that morning at 5am I saw a weird little mystery animal lurking around the bushes. Apparently it turns out it was a possum! Now, the possums in Australia are very cute (they don't seem to have squirrels here), not like our rat-like possums back home. The red eyes are from my camera, but this little sucker was cute. He would come right up to my hand. Thankfully he didn't jump onto my neck and start biting me, a la Will Ferrell and the raccoon from "Elf".



Since we've been back we've been shooting on location at several different places around Sydney. Today is our last day on location, we'll finish up here at Sydney University and then head back to our home studios. Last week we shot at Middle Head, a former military installation in WWII consisting of several large mounted guns that would fire at enemy ships entering the harbor. The guns are gone now, but the fortifications, tunnels, and bunkers are all still there and they look fantastic. It's a national park now, and has one of the most spectacular views opening of the harbor, and the open sea beyond.

Here's the harbor view from the tip of Middle Head:



These are some of the fortifications. This is a popular filming location since it looks so different:





I did some exploring of the tunnels lately, and underneath one, in the near-total darkness I found this scrawled on one of the walls. Who knows what it means:



Now I haven't really said what I'm working on here, since I'm not able to just yet. However, some of you may guess from some of the next few pictures in this post. Just keep it on the down low!

And look, it's a rare picture of me, in my own journal. I'm with Martin Baker, one of the producers who has been with our company since The Muppet Show. Now, looking at this picture, you can see how smart you become over the years. He has sunglasses, I don't. And now, I'm blind.



Over the weekend I managed to pack in tons of sleep, more beach time, a bit of shopping, a couple of meals, and time with friends. We went for Yum Cha in Chinatown on Sunday morning. Yum Cha is a bit like dim sum, but you have it at breakfast/brunch and they bring tons of food on little trays by your table, and you pick out what you want. It was so freaking good. My best friend out here, a guy named Tam, invited us to come and we met up with his crew. In this picture, Tam (on the left) is scrutinized by his brother Reese. Perhaps he didn't like what he was eating, which turned out to be prawn balls:



Tam is a great guy. He's the storyboard artist on our film, and he also sings and plays keyboards in a band he formed called Tracky Dax (track daks are sweatsuit pants in Oz...so there you go, more new words).

This week we've been out at Clarke's Pointe, an old military dock in Woolwich, which is located in western Sydney. It was decommissioned by the Army in 1997, and is now part of the Harbor Trust, a group that preserves historical locations around the city.

Wednesday we were out at Sydney University which is just truly spectacular. We filmed inside a small common room, which is supposed to look like the office of a famous physicist. Here is a picture of the desk, as well as the chalkboard. We brought all of these set dressings in and set them up. Sometimes the art department works little jokes in, as you can see in the close ups of the chalkboard:






The University was built in the early 1800s, if I'm remembering this right. Now don't get me wrong, I love the University of Texas, but this place just felt so...English, and it was very inspiring. I wanted to be back in school, hurrying across campus to get to another class. I half expected to run into Harry Potter and his gang, coming back from Hagrid's Hut:






This was on one of the staircases at the University...what the heck is it??


I also went for a walk during a break and found a cool little coffeehouse called "Badde Manors". Here's the sign for the bathroom:



The hours are still very long. I get up at 4:30am, pick up my boss (the director) at 5:15am (he's about a block from me) and then we usually get back around 8 or 8:30pm, which equals one dang long day. One advantage is that I never have a problem getting to sleep! The disadvantage is that there isn't nearly enough of it to go around. On the weekends I usually pack in as much touristy stuff, beach time, and sleeping that I can.

This weekend I'm going to go see a theatrical version of "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" here, which is supposed to have amazing puppetry in it. I'll also have to stop by this store that I've become addicted to. They sell the most amazing bags and cases. And they have a great website as well. Crumpler! Check it out. There's a bbq this weekend, and breakfast with one of the actors (the guy in the brolly shot). I've also found a terrific beach about 15 minutes from my apartment, so I'll spend some time there checking my eyelids for pinholes, and listening intently to the sounds of the sea to see if I can decipher what the waves have been trying to say all these years.

Hope everyone has had a great start to this year, and I wish you a fantastic 2004!
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