The Long Weekend

[tcpip]

It is a peculiarity of being a country founded with a majority Christian faith that our holidays (holy days) are of that faith. Contemporary scholarship acknowledges that whilst there is no physical evidence of the historical Jesus in all probability there was such a person, although what they taught or did is up to a lot of debate. There is passing mentions several decades after his death and the gospels are at least a hundred after the fact. Be that as it may, we do have Christianity, warts and all, and we do have our easter holidays, where we celebrate what is almost certainly myths regarding death and resurrection (Western Christian) aside fecundity and birth (Germanic pagan). Whilst as a secularist I would prefer if we just had an extra 10 holidays a year at whatever time we wanted as appropriate to our individual beliefs (or desire), the gothic side of me derives some pleasure from the fact that we have a ritualised death holiday.

The weekend also happens to be caseopaya's birthday, "not quite a fool" as I like to remind her. This year I took her for a holiday to Lake's Entrance, a relatively distant small seaside resort and fishing port, notable for being alongside the Ninety Mile Beach, and close to Buchan Caves, both of which we visited. The latter is located near the Snowy River, famous primarily for the poem by Banjo Paterson, and we took a trip alongside it through the national park. The poem is primarily set in Australian Capital Territory as rivers don't respect state borders, and I take some delight in the fact the eponymous River Man's pony that is part Timorese.

Lake's Entrance also has a comfortable cinema which is nestled among its squash courts. We took the opportunity to see Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, which has surreal cold war science fiction, an exotic romance, and rather impressive mise-en-scene throughout. Less impressive was Winchester, which we watched at the motel the night before which was fair in narrative, characters, and setting, yet didn't excel in any of the above. Next movie night I'm looking forward to at The Astor is a special screening of A Brief History of Time

Comments

[leecetheartist]

The man is from Snowy River, but the poem is set somewhere else from my reading of it.

[tcpip]

That is correct; the Man is indeed from Snowy River, (He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko's side), and it's believed to be set near what is now Burrinjuck Dam...

So quite a distance from where the river ends up!

[leecetheartist]

But not the Snowy River? That's the Murrumbidgee dammed there, yes? Is the Snowy a tributary? That was what was bothering me, anout what you said, you know?

If the Man from Snowy River was like from up the road just what the big deal would be, there should be dozens of blokes and sheilas like him around, maybe a bit less ready to rip up his horse, the rotten so and so.

[tcpip]

Yes, the Murrumbidgee is the dammed river. The Snowy River itself is around 300km south of where the poem is set.

[leecetheartist]

So it's not a case of someone in Perth saying, "Oh, it's the Man from Avon River!"

[tcpip]

Lol, not to the best of my knowledge :)