Tomorrow when the war began

Prepare to geek out, TWTWB fans!

Yes, here's all the info you'll need on the Tomorrow, When The War Began films.

Here's the cast and crew page. I've got to say, Ellie does look rather pretty.

It's written by Stuart Beattie, who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (aka the good Pirates movie that made pirates awesome again before Bruckheimer screwed up the sequels)

According to the site they're going to make five movies from the seven books. Fair enough too, as a couple of the books were non-stop action showpieces that probably wouldn't be worth a movie each, but would make great start and ending sequences.

Stuart Beattie also wrote Collateral, which was a really good movie. It helped that Tom Cruise was the baddie.

Anyway, some info on the books:

The Tomorrow series, while best known in Australia, has also found success in other countries. In Sweden, the first title – Tomorrow, When the War Began – was selected as the world’s most likely book to inspire young people to read, prompting 100,000 free copies to be released for distribution among Swedish young people. The Third Day, the Frost, won the Buxtehude Bulle, a German award, regarded as one of the world’s most coveted prizes for young peoples’ books.


The books are not as well known in North America as they are in Europe, as only the first three books were available in paperback from US publisher Dell. However, in June 2006, major publisher Scholastic announced it had acquired the rights to both the original series and the later Ellie Chronicles. It has since reissued all seven titles from the original series as well as the first two books in the Ellie Chronicles series.

Marsden’s manager, Jill Grinberg, is now reselling the publishing rights in countries where the rights have reverted as well as attempting to sell them into new markets. She has stated that the rights have been sold in Japan to a publisher for a "six-figure deal".

Tomorrow, When The War Began and its subsequent sequels are one of the most popular and critically acclaimed series of novels aimed at young readers in Australian literature history. It has sold between 2 and 3 million copies in Australia alone and has been translated into five languages, one of them being Swedish, where the series has sold over 115,000 copies.

And here's a gallery of various book covers from around the world.
I've got to say, these were some awesome books to enjoy back in my teenage years. Ellie and her friends seemed real, and they seemed to behave like you thought you might if put in that situation.
 
I don't know how they're going to get away with not identifying the enemy. In the books they were Asian, from a more populous country to our North. The inference was that they were Indonesian, but that was not explicitly stated. They may make up a country, just to avoid offending anyone in particular.
 
So apparently the film is in post-production and due out in 2010. Let's hope it's freaking awesome.

Abbott A Boy

Had a bit of a think about the Liberal leadership. Found out some interesting things. Here are some points.

Tony Abbott is a pretty good choice as leader.
- He's battle hardened. He was always on Lateline, Q&A, Sunday, AM, Insiders etc etc when the Libs were in Government, being asked the tough and curly questions. He knows how to defend and he definitely knows how to attack.
- He's smart. Whatever anyone thinks of his personal morals/opinions, they cannot deny his intelligence.
- He's a fighter. Literally. He was a boxer at Oxford.
- He strongly, strongly believes in the values of the Liberal Party. This is an asset. Because to unite a party, they have to believe you have an idea of where you want to go. Malcom Turnbull didn't believe strongly enough. And the rank and file didn't believe in him.
- He's shown himself to be tactically superior to Turnbull already. Once by showing up as a surprise candidate for the leadership and winning, and secondly by attacking the Emissions Trading Scheme as a huge tax and seeing the poll bounce because of that.

That said, he probably won't win the next election.
- Kevin Rudd isn't doing badly at all, and there is a long time (politically speaking) before the election. Australian elections are weighted in the incumbent's favour.
- I don't think Australia is ready to bring the Liberals back without some more generational change in the upper echelons.
- Rudd is a bureacrat but he's not stupid. He will find a way to 'tackle' climate change that doesn't involve a poorly-understood ETS.

Still, Abbott felt he had to do something.
- The Liberal Party is the one he loved, has grown up in, and been a huge part of. It was in the hands of a man who seemed to be betraying the very ideals the Liberal Party was founded on - namely, small government and low taxes. Regardless of whether Abbott wanted to be leader, whether he thought he could win the next election, it was a matter of principle for him that Turnbull not be leader. He was taking the Party away from its core beliefs.
- The decision has been justified, with two by-election wins in Brendan Nelson and Peter Costello's old seats, and a bounce in the polls following his decision to reject the ETS.

The ETS was Turnbull's idea
- Malcolm Turnbull was Environment Minister under John Howard, and his department developed the ETS model. Turnbull, a trader by profession, loved the idea of a carbon trading market.
- The idea is poorly understood outside Turnbull's office.
- Given that, it's no wonder he was going to vote for it as Liberal leader. It was his policy!

John Howard should shoulder some blame for the mess in the Liberal Party
- Even though he will go down as one of the Australia's more influential Prime Ministers Howard screwed up the Liberal succession plan. There was none.
- Perhaps he believed Costello would step up once he left. Perhaps he truly believed he would beat Rudd (not as unlikely at the time as it seems now). Perhaps he wanted the party to fall apart with him as some kind of monument to his greatness (ie, he was the only one holding it together).
- Regardless, Howard should have groomed a real successor and his failure to do that has given the party three leaders since the 2007 election.

A combination of climate change polices would be better than one over-reaching one
- We need encouragement for renewable energy, encouragement for decreasing reliance on coal, and some level of punishment for failing to meet targets. But as I've argued before quite a few times, positive policies are better than negative policies. They require more creativity, but the benefits are huge.

Kevin Rudd really needs to stop following Obama around
- It's cringeworthy. Please Kevin. Please. Stop it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, they're both attending the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Kev planned to be there at the end when Obama was. Obama changed plans to be there for the opening. Kev announced he would be there for the opening too. THEN Obama changed back to his original plan, and will be there for the end of the conference. Yesterday, Kevin changed his plans and decided he will be there for the end of the conference after all.
- It hurts.

The next election is going to be fun
- Can't you just feel it? Abbott out there, throwing punches, two sides completely disagreeing on a major issue, Rudd doing his Rudd thing, Barnaby Joyce piping in with some jokes and hilarious comments on the side...
- Seriously, it's going to be fun. Probably more fun than the Tasmanian state election, but I won't talk about that, just in case.

Hope you all didn't mind a return to some politics for a post!

Unfortunately catchy

Songs I've had in my head at work this week:

- I Swear, by All For One. "And I swear, by the moon and the stars in the sky, I'll be there..." (best used by Ryan Reynolds in Just Friends)
- What About Me? by Shannon Noll. "It isn't fair, I've had enough, now I want my share." (Shaun Micallef put this into the bin, with good reason).
- Touch by Amerie. "Don't be afraid to touch, I know you think I'm a good girl. Don't you think a good girl wants to - be - touched?" (Definitely not the kind of song you want to be whistling at work - much more suited to a hot and heavy dance floor, I think).
- Sexy Bitch by Akon. "You're nothing like the girl I used to know..." (Another dodgy song, and more suited for dancing. I actually don't like it at all, but I can recognise its catchiness).
- Ignition Remix by R. Kelly. "It's the remix to Ignition, hip-hopping fresh out the kitchen, mama rolling that body got every man in here wishing." (So much fun to dance to! And there was that adorable video of some Asian dudes singing it in their house a while back)

Songs I'm glad I don't have in my head at work:

- Young Girl by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. "Young girl, get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line." (No one wants to be singing this at work. Inappropriate).
- Crank Dat by Soulja Boy "YOUUUU crank dat Soulja Boy! YOUUUU crank dat Soulja Boy!" (Very repetitive.)
- Ayo Technology by 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake. "Ayo, I'm tired of using technology, won't you sit down on top of me?" (Ummm, sorry JT, you are wonderful and all, but I think I'll sit somewhere else and you can look at your naughty pictures on your computer ok?)

Songs I wish I had in my head at work:
- 500 Miles by the Proclaimers. "And I would walk 500 miles, and I..." (would walk 500 more!)

Bad Boy for life

"We aint, going nowhere, we ain't... going nowhere. We can't be stopped now, cos we Bad Boy for life."

Yes, P. Diddy. Yes.

In linkage news:
- Somali pirate gangs have started their own stock exchange, in which you can invest in successful pirate missions. This is fantastic. I love this sort of crazy world news.
- A great article about how the AFL commission turned football into a financial powerhouse and the lessons rugby league can learn.
- Two homeless Hungarian brothers who live in a cave just inherited $7.2billion. Yes.
- Great article on Fiji and the oppressive government there.
- Now THIS is how to tear someone a new one in a book review.
- And I was going to link to yet another thing making fun of Twilight, but really, it's too easy, and I'm getting bored with it. Instead, get this awesome Team Edward tshirt (thanks Shaun).

And it was not your fault but mine

Artists I have discovered in the past year or so:
(Not personally - I didn't find them playing in a coffee shop and sign them to a lucrative contract. I just first heard them in the past year or so. So I hope that's clarified).

Death Cab For Cutie (Transatlanticism and I Will Follow You Into The Dark)
Holly Throsby (Now I Love Someone and Warm Jets)
Sia (Little Black Sandals)
Laura Marling (Ghosts and Night Terrors)
The Gossip (Heavy Cross)
Mumford and Sons (Little Lion Man and Awake My Soul)
Jessica Mauboy (Burn and Because)
Tegan and Sara (On Directing)
Girl Talk (Still Here and Here's The Thing, but really, the whole album because it's a mixtape)

Credit to Mak for most of them, Dooda for Mumford and Sons, and me for the poppy ones.

I've discovered other artists in the past year too - I really enjoy Lil Wayne and T.I. - but I've covered them in detail here before. And I'm still enjoying Jay-Z and Kanye. Looking forward to more from Lupe Fiasco, and thinking about trying Drake and Young Jeezy.

Anyway, have a listen to some and browse around their other songs on YouTube and see what you think.

Songs you can find on a map

Baker St by Gerry Rafferty

Copperhead Road by Steve Earle

All I Wanna Do (Santa Monica Boulevard) by Sheryl Crow

The Hard Road by Hilltop Hoods

The 59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin' Groovy) by Simon and Garfunkel

L-to-tha-inko

Some links for ya mind.

The 11 Most Ridiculous Concert Demands by Hip-Hop Artists.

11 Ways Ice Cube and I Differ On Assessing What Constitutes a Good Day. This won't make any sense unless you've heard It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube.



Belle de Jour breaks her silence. I remember reading her blog occasionally way back in the day, and I've seen a little bit of the Secret Diary Of A Call Girl tv show. Anyway, here is a post by a guy who figured it out and kept it secret.

And a good article about why boys leave things til the last minute. We're pragmatists. Hat tip Craig.