Catsidhe

Over the past week-and-a-bit, the Australian Centre for Moving Images (ACMI) has been hosting a cyberpunk film festival and I have been fortunate enough to meander across the Yarra a few times to have a taste of these events. Of course, it makes a lot of sense that I should attend; as a self-identified cyberpunk from the 1980s in a dilapitdated duplex with multiple battered copies of Mirrorshades in circulation and our 1970s AlphaMicro AM-100 network along with our gothic rock band in residence, "The Accelerated Men". All such heady days from my well-spent youth, and it set a trajectory to who I am now and, I suppose the "Cyberpunk 2020: Year of the Stainless Steel Rat" conference that I hosted a few years back provided was both celebration and reminiscence. That was quite a day.

Anyway, the first film I watched was with Fiona C., was "Tetsuo: The Iron Man", a thoroughly arthouse production which is correctly described as being similar to the works of Lynch and Cronenberg where a metal fetishist gains their horrific wish and begins to transform into a metallic cyborg in all the wrong ways. Following this, Nitul D., and I caught up for a superb double, "Blade Runner" and "Blade Runner 2049". Those who know me at all know that I consider "Blade Runner" to be my favourite film for its prescience, the story, the characters and their development, and that "Blade Runner 2049" is a truly impressive sequel with a deeply satisfying story and presentation - all of which I have mentioned in the past when I reviewed the film on the LJ Cyberpunk group. Finally, on Monday eve, Liza D., and I ventured to see "Strange Days", which includes all I dislike about Los Angeles culture mixed with influences from David Cronenberg's "Videodrome" and the Rodney King LA riots of 1992 - but who remembers that, anyway? In addition, I managed to get to see the ACMI exhibition, "The Future and Other Fictions", which included various near future movie props (the models from Blade Runner 2049 and Bjork's dress from "The Gate" particularly caught my attention.

I am also going to take this opportunity to spend a few words on an old friend, Sean Doyle. Late last year, I had three friends shuffle off the mortal coil: a neighbour, a dear friend, and my mentor. Somehow, I missed at the time that Sean, who had worked at ACMI for many years, had also died, apparently whilst at his favourite holiday destination on Gabo Island. Sean and I were very good friends during the late 1990s when we did a fair bit of gaming together, along with our interests in left-of-centre politics and Melbourne's history. He was also quite the happy camper, an aficionado of folk music, and loved engaging in the fine arts. I hadn't seen much of him from that period onwards, however, for no particular reason, and whilst I had every intention to go, I missed the "celebration of his life" as I had a different household matter that demanded my attention. I am pleased that the celebration is available on YouTube . Valedictions, Sean. I loved your company, your sharp mind, your sense of the absurd, and your aesthetic sense.