#Australia 2021

[robotbodies]

just realised tumblr has never seen the artefact

[coffeenuts]

[unplaces]

Greenwood Ln, Subiaco (Perth).

[mapsontheweb]

Distribution of population of Australia as recorded in the 2021 census.

by HeatherCh100

[girderednerve]

success, everybody, i thought about something other than vampires for like a twenty minute stretch. the something was: electric arc furnaces

about 7% of us coal consumption is metallurgical coal, which is used (after being coked) as fuel for blast furnaces. blast furnaces smelt ore and scrap metal, usually to make steel. most coal in the united states is used for the power grid & must be replaced with renewable sources, but it's a little more straightforward to see how that swap needs to go; we need better batteries & genuine investment, there are questions about where & how those renewable sources should be generated, & i do think that our power consumption needs to fall. it's less obvious how we might replace metallurgical coal, though, because we still need steel. electric arc furnaces are efficient, cheaper, smaller, and more capable of running variable loads than blast furnaces, but almost all of them are for the scrap metal -> steel process, they're not for iron ore -> iron -> steel. but we are getting better at making them! so i read through part of a DoE powerpoint & glowered at links to mckinsey reports about it. i don't know anything really about metals mining, mostly i've just read about coal & all of that from a labor safety perspective, but i'm very curious about the, like. engineering problems (and also still labor safety & environmental problems) presented by trying to genuinely transition away from coal, which we absolutely must do, like guys even UMWA is out here like 'we gotta stop pulling this shit out of the ground' [official position of union president cecil roberts is that coal miners & their communities need a robust 'just transition' away from coal, although some of that is just noticing the way the wind is blowing]

[winglingtings]

Laura 2021

[nando161mando]

"It's okay to not be okay" (EN: English)

[biropen]

This is my Roman Empire

[canberramaidan]

Summer sunrise in Canberra, Australia.

February 2021

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: A young outcast in a conservative town dreams of moving to the city to become a famous drag queen, but his plans are derailed when he is kidnapped by a vampire.

[trigonsdottir]

Sisi Stringer for Vogue Australia

[rafole]

novak crying compilation when

Novak isnt a real crier like Federer. he hides his face in towels and curls up on the ground or tries to cough it off

[paulagnewart]

Trans40mers Pt. 1/12: Of Movies, Muppets and Madman Mayhem!

The grand space year of 2024 may have closed, but the 40th anniversary celebrations for The Transformers are far from being all over.

Not every country got the series at once. These rollouts took time, particularly during decades past. Regions including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and parts of Europe had to wait until 1985 before the Autobots and Decepticons brought their conflict to local shores. A delay definitely worth the wait for budding fans and shareholders alike.

Keeping in line with the above nations, Australia has consistently kept Transformers on toy shelves since the beginning. No US-style gap years, for there was always something to see, read or buy out there. It's a testament to the brand's longevity and fandom's enduring passion. As the Transformers Universe trailer attested, "They were always real to me".

As seen elsewhere, rather than belt out another year's worth of rodent-based ramblings, this account instead will highlight a slathering of fascinating yet ultimately useless knowledge from Transformers history in Australia. But unlike elsewhere sharing them bang on their respective dates, this account's waiting until month's end for a single, easy to read post.

There's one from each and every year; some glad, some sad, some outright bonkers including (and far from limited to) Mark Wahlberg's Sydney press tour, Otter Press' Dreamwave reprints, that time comedian Tony Martin crushed an Optimus toy on prime time TV, various VHS and DVD releases, newspaper clippings condemning the series, Happy Meal promotions, that time Beast Wars Airazor and Razorclaw toys topped Christmas sales, exclusive toys, and many more.

Best of all? They're free. Yes, free. No social media influenza mentality begging for dollarydoos at each opportunity to read fan wikis aloud here. The title is hardly the most imaginative or inspiring wordplay, but certainly beats the sad, self-aggrandising trend where anyone with half an ego and aspiration for digital fame make a hashtag using their own name.

11th January 2008: Promoting their new release of The Transformers: The Headmasters on DVD, Madman Entertainment choose three winners in its 'Design a Transformer' contest. Among the entrants was late comic book artist Lindsay Walker, with her fan character Ultra Fairmont.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Kicking off this robotic retrospective is a trip back to early 2008. Michael Bay's first live-action film had been an unprecedented success, and companies looked for a slice of that sweet energon pie.

Retro toys were back in, and it's hard to believe there was a time when Madman were the only game in town for 'classic' Transformers merchandise. Having a keen eye for fans since the early 2000's, they produced a swath of licensed G1 and Beast Wars DVD's and apparel. When time came for catering to Japanese audiences, they went all-in, announcing this contest.

Dozens of fans hoping to be the next Alex Kubalsky picked up their artistic tools, logged into their Madman accounts and submitted venerable masterpieces. Of the 46 entries, all-new characters were order of the day, though a few redesigns of old favourites managed to slip through.

So which lucky fans walked away with the top prizes? In first place stood Channandeller and their time-freezing Decepticon saboteur, Time-Ex. Second place went to davetec, who uncovered a long-lost photograph from 1903 featuring the autonomous horseless carriage, Albion. Rounding out third was Norcinu with their evil, mind-controlling Adminbot representative, Comcall. An outstanding trio of well-deserved winners.

The contest was open to casual and professional fans alike, among the latter was rising star Bendigo artist Lindsay Walker. A fan since the Transformers began, Ms. Walker was by that point making a name for herself in the comic book industry. Illustrating both fan and licensed products, her artistic prowess covered the likes of King Kong, Voltron, Sheena, Street Fighter and Hack/Slash. She developed video games, worked art galleries, and proud advocate for the trans community.

After submitting Ultra Fairmont, Ms. Walker went on to fulfil her dream illustrating her beloved Ghost Who Walks for Moonstone Books, and later for the character's local publishers. A career which abruptly ended in tragedy come late September 2016.

17th January 2021: As Covid weaved its deadly web, Sydney's Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace lights the fandom's darkest hour with a screening of 1986's The Transformers: The Movie. Billed as a one night only experience, the event proved popular enough to run multiple times.

-=-=-=-=-=-

"A rare screening of the 1986 animated classic!" proclaimed those fine folks over at Hayden Orpheum; and true to their word, this fateful night had been a long time coming for local fans.

At a time when licensing issues cancelled an earlier Melbourne screening, to say nothing to rising daily Covid cases placing lives and livelihoods at risk, it looked like Aussies may never see the film score an official rerelease. But now they had, and with jubilation came trepidation. Plus jealousy from hardcore fans in other states who'd face mandatory 14 day quarantines.

Despite the brisk drive, the writer of these posts opted not to attend that first night for obvious reasons. But several hundred other fans did, and they had a grand time. Cheering, booing, even recreating the Junkion dance number. A much-needed escape into summer fantasy for many during a perilous period.

For those technical inclined, this edition of the movie was the US 'star cast credits' version, as opposed to the international 'Star Wars Scroll' variant which played at cinemas here back in 1986, & sourced from Madman Entertainment's Blu Ray released June 2009. Spite of being slightly zoomed in to fit the wider cinema screen, nor the option of a crisp physical 35mm print to load up and play, the video was nonetheless an impressive improvement over previous copies.

Unfortunately cracks began to appear when, rather than go with the old Mono track, they used its "enhanced" Dolby 5.1 edition. It made the dialogue pop, but many sound effects (notably when Optimus Prime transforms & takes down the Decepticons) were suppressed, while others replaced by new "improved" sounds. It only got worse from "Megatron must be stopped" right until the film's end, as the entire audio track was delayed by about half a second. Hardly noticeable with the dialogue, but the action suffered. Moments like the satisfying crunch of Prime's uppercut, or the duel between Hot Rod, Kup and the Sharkticons, were painfully out of sync.

27th January 1995: Agro's Cartoon Connection came to the rescue of parents hoping to peacefully sleep off yesterday's public holiday bender. Alongside new host Terasa Livingstone, Agro dedicated our morning to the last ever public TV repeat of The Transformers: The Movie.

-=-=-=-=-=-

What's the deal with The Transformers: The Movie and public holidays?

For years both were invaluably intertwined. A fascinating partnership enough for some imaginative fan to make quite the venn diagram; much like an unspoken yet underlying overlap between followers of both long-running Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics, and 2003 Teen Titans cartoon.

One month after the Commonwealth Film Censorship Board ordered Spike's expletive outburst be deleted, The Transformers: The Movie arrived in Australian cinemas on Boxing Day 1986. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a colouring contest through Easter 1987, where six lucky readers won a poster plus copy of said movie on VHS or Betamax. Any fans yearning for a nostalgic new year experience got exactly that on 1st January 1989; Channel Seven heeded their wishes and premiered it at 9am.

Despite one critical slamming of "a long advertisement for the fad toys of the 80's", that didn't stop Seven rolling out their cinematic outing again and again. It aired midday Tuesday 25th September 1990, kicking off the spring school holidays. Another repeat followed on Boxing Day 1991. Fans still collecting were treated to double runs in 1993; first at 11:30am on Mother's Day, followed by (surprise surprise) a 9am repeat on Boxing Day, this time one half of a shared feature with Machine Men: Battle of the Rock Lords.

Fast-forward to 1995. A year had passed since all states and territories agreed to mark 26th January a national public holiday. Fireworks were lit and alcohol guzzled, leading to many-a sore heads the following morning. For kids not tuning in to watch the last TV screening of DiC's The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog among the rotting husk of Tim Bailey's The Big Breakfast, once more Australia's favourite bathmat offered salvation. Kicking off at 6:30am where, following a mandatory repeat of Hanna-Barbera's The Ruff and Reddy Show, Agro and Terasa's Friday morning movie successfully ruined a nation's childhoods one final time.

[unplaces]

Spencer Rd, Thornlie (Perth), Western Australia.

[celluloidrainbow]

THE GREENHOUSE (2021) dir. Thomas Wilson-White Grieving the death of her mother Lillian, Beth Tweedy-Bell wakes one night to find a portal to the past in the forest surrounding her family home. Swept away by visions of her idyllic upbringing with her three siblings and two loving moms, Beth becomes mesmerized by the past, unable to see the dangers that lie ahead. (link in title)

[statementlou]

was looking for something else, found this picture instead, LOOK AT IT!!