Further Nerding

In case you were wondering how I’d just happened to stumble upon all them Matrix locations in Sydney (for the Nerd Quiz), don’t be an idiot: I sought their addresses out beforehand on the Internet. I’d do the same for Ghostbusters locations if I ever found myself in New York.

Those spots were all from the first movie, and I didn’t visit any from the second or third Matrixes because those films were shot mostly in studios, with only the odd, passing location moment. Or so I thought.

In one of our first days in Sydney, after taking in the Opera House we went a-wanderin’ and found ourselves in the Botanical Gardens (recall the shots of trees from way back when). And right at the end of the gardens there’s a pleasant little park that seemed familiar to me somehow.

I wasn’t positive at the time, but I was pretty sure this park was the location of the very last scene of the series. Not sure enough to include it in the quiz, but sure enough to go to each bench and check the little dedication plaque — the bench featured in the movie was dedicated to a Mr. Thomas Anderson. I couldn’t find the plaque, but the movie came out in 2003, so it’s not like the bench had to still be there.

And why did it take until now to put this up? Because I forgot to check the DVD when I got back home. But I just watched it, and yes, I can indeed confirm, it’s the same park. As for the specific bench, I think it may actually have been there, it may have been that one bench I didn’t check. I suspect as much because the bench I didn’t check, the one with that never-moving couple on it, was positioned by the same tree as the bench from the film (though a bit closer), and, even more damning, none of the benches from my photos match the Matrix bench in design — except for the one I didn’t look at (I think; it’s not a great photo).

Exhibit A: The common bench

Exhibit B: The unknowable bench

So there you have it, a fortuitous happenstance, and one that I and only I care about to even the slightest degree. And yet I choose to share.

We conclude with a comparison:

From the movie:

From my top-quality Dixcom camera:

And combined, thanks to the voodoo magic of Microsoft Paint:

Be cast off, ye doubters.

The Flood Continues!

Did I fail to mention the cliffside path in back in Forster? Seems I did. Well, it was very nice. First vid’s set at the very start of the path, the next is about halfway through:

A pleasant little waterfall hidden in the forests of the Blue Mountains:

A glimpse inside one of the Jenolan Caves, featuring narration by our intrepid guide. Note that wacky accent!

A pack of bloodthirsty beasts circles its prey:

Queensland is Goin’ to Hell

I don’t have much of an excuse. I certainly could’ve finished this off by now, I just haven’t. Coulda put up all the pics as well. Didn’t. And that’s all I’ve got to say on that.

On to this: The Bible’s a pretty big book, bigger still when you consider how flimsy they always make those pages. Seriously, publishers really think this book doesn’t deserve the paper quality of even John Grisham’s latest? John Grisham’s latest in paperback? I’m certain that’s a smiteable offence.

But my point is, I’ve been under no illusion that I’d get it finished over the course of one busy month in Australia. After about our fourth stop, I knew more than ever I wouldn’t get very deep into it at all, unless I could read it while on the train, and that would require buying one, and well, that just ain’t gonna happen. So I settled with the humble goal of getting through Genesis.

Problem: once we left New South Wales, the hotel Bible well dried up. I don’t know if it’s because Queensland is a largely illiterate state, or because Gideons can’t survive in hot, equatorial climates, or what. But I do know that when the rapture finally does happen, the citizens of Austraila’s vast northeast are gettin’ Left Behind. Nary a good book to be found anywhere we stayed.

Thank God (I assume) that we were heading back down to good, pious Sydney for our last couple of nights. Our final hotel housed for me just what the (Christian Scientist) doctor ordered, right there in my nightstand drawer.

My final thoughts on the origins of the universe and all of humanity? Pretty anticlimactic, though I will say I liked the usage of “spake” as the past tense for “speak.” I’m gonna start using that one myself. Otherwise, what you get from the last handful of Genesis is soap opera stories of long-thought-dead-sons-now-kings reuniting with their 110 year-old fathers, all very Sally Jessy Raphael. But that’s an off-season episode of Sally; let us not forget the tale of Lot and his daughters, way back in the sweeps of Chapter 19 (31-36):

And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:

Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.

And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

Ugh. And that’s all I’ve got to say on that.