The Battle For Zorgon

I just had to post this. I found this on the desktop of my Imac, a piece my 10-year old son Dani had been working on all weekend. He never used to be so interested and engrossed in writing before this, but of late, I noticed he was starting to enjoy exploring the use of interesting adjectives in his English work; I'm hoping it might have to do with a new Creative English class I have started him at about a month ago. He's been so involved in his story that he can't wait to come home each day to continue working on it, which is so unlike him - Dani usually needs constant nudging and reminders to get on with homework.

Who knows, somewhere inside him, there might be the trappings of a film-maker or scriptwriter, who knows. And the Malay proverb of gravy spilling on rice will prove true again.

Anyway, here's Dani's story on The Battle For Zorgon, enjoy...


The Battle For Zorgon


“We’ve made it boys.” Captain Sam pronounced with joy and delight as his massive dart shaped space ship with 3 laser turrets and a cockpit, landed on their blue healthy planet with heaps of fresh air looking much like earth, that planet was called Galactor. The space ship was returning from a mission to assassinate their arch enemy called Loki in his red hot scorching planet with no fresh air whatsoever, for his planet is filled with ash and factories that send out nasty smelling fumes. That dark stinky planet was called Zorgon, Loki’s home planet.

When the space ship arrived, they stepped out to announce their mission success and smell the fresh air of their beautiful planet Galactor. When the crew stepped out, a Galactorian soldier carelessly mistook the ship for a spy plane and shot the poor innocent red haired engineer called Mojo. Blood splattered flying everywhere and poor Mojo flew at 80 mph back and dislocated his ribcage. The General of the Army gave them orders to aim their ray and beam blasters to the ground for he recognized the captain of the ship Sam and gave clearance for the crew members to step out of the aircraft and show their face. ‘We have won the war and succesfully completed the mission by assassinating Loki.” The crowd cheered for them in the happiest way as possible.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!” Cried Mojo as he was taken to the planets hospital as quick as possible. A few hours after that he woke up and had not even a scratch on his skinny, boney, fleshless body for the technology they used could fix any injury other than death, for the nurse explained.
“It can bring life but I suggest not to for there’s no point of living when you don’t feel alive.”

His captain Sam came to visit him.
“Are you feeling better Mojo?” He asked Mojo curiously.
“Not a single bruise on me sir” Mojo replied happily. He then explained that the man they killed was a fake in disguise to look like Loki.
“I know that you’re upset about the confusion but that’s the truth and the truth never lies, so if you like it or not you’re getting on that ship NOW!!!” The captain shouted with a completely different tone of voice.

The ship was setting off now. They all got their tools and weapons ready, the engineer took his tool box, the doctor brought his medical kit, the soldiers getting their positions on the look out, and finally the pilot turning his thrusters on to launch off.
“Good luck out there boys” the captain screamed and shouted with all the breath in his lungs attempting to get over the sound of the ship take off the planet.

“GO GO GO!!!” The captain shouted as only 8 special force troopers leap off the aircraft with their camouflage parachutes, gas masks and armor ready to take down anything in their way.
“Over there!” Shouts a trooper as he spots an armed enemy base. Silently and swiftly the troops managed to pursue the base and in less than 3 seconds the base was annihilated completely before you could set even a tiny glimpse on them.

While the troopers stalled others, the ship kept searching for Loki on his massive planet Zorgon.
“Sir I think we’ve found him.” The ships tracker told him.
“Where is he?” The Captain asked him hoping for an easy simple location as an answer.
“On the most terrible place on his planet, Penetrate Paradise City.” The locator told him as the captain took a deep sigh of depression as he got the opposite of what he wanted. They took out their special planet hopping G.P.S. tracking device to help them with their search for Loki.

They flew past the worst and most dangerous place on Zorgon and spotted slaves being tortured and forced to do work for the Zorganian people, “shouldn’t we help them sir?” Asked the kind-hearted engineer. “If we make it out of here then I promise we will, is that ok?” Answered Sam. “yes that would mean a lot to me sir, thank you.” He replied.
“There he is!” a soldier tells the pilot excitedly as he spots Loki in his training area expecting them just waiting for their 1st attempt.

Crash, clash and boom was the noise of the soldiers kicking open the metal protective door as it opens bit by bit. They went through the door and surrounded Loki.
“You do know that there was an open button for the door right?” he asked the soldiers as they get furious at each other. When Loki stood up, Mojo and him looked at each other curiously just like he did when they assassinated the fake Loki almost like they knew each other long long ago.

He remembered all of a sudden they were playing one day and they were calling each other something he thought was an imagination. He called him brother…
“Remember when we swore that we would the best brothers in the world, well that all changed completely when mom deserted us, you stayed with dad ever since however I on the other hand didn’t, I ran away and lived with a man in the army who adopted me. Ever since he adopted me he taught me how to handle a weapon properly and professionally.”

“Well I guess that there’s only one thing to do, I challenge you to a battle brother!!!” Loki exclaimed as the two brothers chose their weapon.
“Let the battle begin brother.” Loki says to Mojo as he draws his laser saber.
“You asked for it so now your gonna deliver it to you bro.” Mojo replies with fury racing through his mind as he aims his mantle ray rifle directly at his head.

“3…………….2……………….1……………. LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!!!!!!” Shouts one of Lokis workers in order to start the fight. The battle was epic and one of the greatest batle known to man kind. When Mojo shot at Loki he just defended himself every time he was shot. Then what Loki was surprised at, Mojo the man with no experience what so ever shot him on his collarbone. “You’ve gotten much better at fighting brother. But I’ll be sure to send your ashes back to Galactor.” Loki explained to Mojo as he held his injured collarbone and cut the room free off the planet into space about to crash into Galactor. Mojo couldn’t do any thing to stop it.
“Warning… warning... room will have impact with Galactor in: 10………9…….8…………..7…………..6…………….5…………………4………………..3…………………2……………1………”

The room had been destroyed along with the corpses of the two brothers Mojo and Loki. By Dani Effendi.








(for some reason I couldn't extract the visuals, sorry)

Dart shaped spaceship.
















Zorgon

Images taken from:

www.martysartandmodels.com/ images/star_dart22.jpg

and from:

centroufologicotaranto.files.wordpress.com/ 20...

True fact!
Did you know that that red planet is actually called Epsilon Eridani? Well incase you diddn’t, it’s true. Cool right?

Thank you for listening.




I'm adding on something exciting to this piece - a "cover" design, by another talented boy we know named Nicolas Ayoub Jr, inspired by Dani's story!




Tj

a day in the life of tiara, 42 degrees down undah...

been so long, so much has happened in the past few weeks, don't know where to start..

since my last entry, i've gone back to the old habit of being Tiara again, filling every waking moment of the day with an activity or another. all the solitude and tranquility has settled, and suddenly i'm finding myself thinking, gosh i haven't much time left here, i wanna do things! i still want to get going on that writing project, want to paint, must see the west coast of tassie, have to get going with my vocal lessons, so much to do and so little time!


the writing has been my biggest block so far, as i couldn't seem to actually get going!
Danielle Wood at the Uni got me to read a book which i think been the most insightful thing i've read throughout my career as a producer and actor, a book called "the writer's journey" - up til then, i didn't realize that there was a structure, method, recipe to successful
storytelling. we talked about this writing project of mine, and i promised to devour the book as quickly as i could so we could met and talk about it further.
Danielle Wood, author of Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales For Girls

a few days after that, i walked in to the Tasmanian writer's center and met Chris Gallagher, an amazing woman who runs this place that provides all the help and support to get writers off the ground and started. i watched her run about the place sorting me out with books and reading material, information on writing and poetry workshops, book readings etc, and wondered why is it we don't have people like this back at home, who LOVE what they do, and are happy to support and help in any way. this is after all the job they chose to do, so why not enjoy it, and look at it as a way you can enrich or even just touch other people's lives. i imagine that if we had enough people who looked at their jobs as an opportunity and a way of being blessed to be in a position to help, our film and arts industry would be a million miles away from what is is right now.

anyway, now i have "the writer's journey", and Robert Mckee's "Story" and a book on writing an autobiography to try and devour over the remaining month of my stay. great.

what i've found to be so enriching and fulfilling about this place has been that even though it's a small city with a very moderate pulse in the way of arts activities and hype,
it's been rich in a different sense, an inspiring, from-within sense, if that means anything to you.
i have been fortunate enough to be here whilst the Tasmanian Living Writers week was going on, and this was a hive of activity from workshops where writers talk about their writing journeys, the royal botanical gardens had a delightful event called "poet-tree" where they featured poetry by tasmania's young up-and-coming poets, cleverly placed in between trees and plants at the gardens, and people would take a wander around and read and admire the beautiful flowers in the first days of spring, and just lie on the grass and think about the words and just dream. no rush, no hurry, take your own sweet time and dream. i enjoyed walking around the book fairs especially the one at the atrium of the gorgeous henry jones art hotel
next door to our apartment, meeting with the local writing community, soaking up the buzz and just BEING.

i guess this feeling of an opportunity to live so carefree and more importantly, completely incognito, is a luxury most of you reading this can't make out why it's such a big deal, but coming from a life of being watched, looked at, recognized, photographed (with and without consent) studied, sometimes judged every day, this really is a liberating change. and i'm soaking up every bit of that sunshine whilst i can, for i know my life will change again come mid november when i finally go back to my old life again. not that i have any complaints about
my "old" life, i have much more to be thankful for and have achieved much more than i set out to or dreamed of doing.

back to tassie's wonderful and inspiring arts scene. the most interesting part of the city for me is no longer the cbd or the shopping district, or north hobart which is considered the "cosmopolitan" part of the city, but where i find my nirvana is salamanca place which is famous for its regular saturday 'salamanca market' - a whole street of beautiful 19th century sandstone buildings which used to be warehouses. you can do your own reading on salamanca place here:
http://www.salamanca.com.au/guide/index.htm. a lot of my free time in hobart is spent in this vicinity-i shop for groceries here at the salamanca fresh fruit market (and i haven't gone grocery shopping for a good many years of my life, this is a nice new feeling..), there is a square here called salamanca square that houses my favorite bookshop, the hobart bookshop, and a great bakery that's maybe the only place to get any kind of food at 2am(not that i do that anymore, but its nice to know if i get locked out of the house for whatever reason, i will not go hungry!). there are some lovely lanes you can walk through to wander through shops and companies that are art-related in some way or another-art galleries, a film company, and the peacock theatre.

this is digressing a little but i'm having a think about how the arts scene here
is so vibrant and alive because of the way it is supported by a whole bunch of people at the department of heritage and arts here, who are themselves keen and passionate about the arts and interested in playing a role in facilitating access to the arts and opportunities in the arts. you walk into this government-run department, and the last thing you see are tired faces of people who don't really want this job or are thinking everyday about why they are sitting in that chair in the first place. i see people who walk with a bounce in their
step, which tell me immediately that this person is working with a purpose and is there because he fels his job can make a difference to someone's life or career at least. i don't think i have seen very many people walking around in suits, hardly any at all actually, come to think of it. and i like that, because if you were an artist who's come to talk to someone you want to feel welcome and that there is a feeling of openness and wanting to support and certainly not to patronize or belittle anyone. their websites for a start are warm and inviting, and show the department and certainly the ministry and the government's support for the arts community here, and you can check this out at your leisure:http://www.salamanca.com.au/guide/index.htm

well back to salamanca. i spend a fair few sunny spring afternoons wandering along the little lanes, wondering about the history and what tales the stones in the ground might tell if i sat around long enough. there are two interesting lanes i have wandered along, kelly's steps
which leads to a flight of steps, built in 1839 by the adventurer James Kelly to connect Salamanca Place with Battery Point. another favorite lane of mine is wooby's lane, named after a Mr. John Wooby, (a convicted housebreaker who was sentenced to 14 years transportation and arrived in Hobart in 1837) who owned a goodies stall located near the end of the lane in the 1870s. He was married to another convict, Ann McNally, who had been convicted of stealing potatoes and sentenced to 7years.

in Wooby's lane is one of the most vibrant eating spots in Hobart, the Mezethes Greek restaurant. in a little alley just next to the greek restaurant though, i found who now is my first formal art teacher, Peter Barraclough. i'd been hoping to learn to paint whilst i'm here, because i know i would never make the time otherwise back home, and i looked up a list of Tassie's foremost artists, peter was the first person i looked up, and decided i'd drop in and offer myself as his apprentice! how about that. i think i quite surprised the old man, he wasn't quite sure what i was about at first i'm sure, but he was wonderful enough to take me under his wing, have me hang about his studio and watch him work, and has since taught me from scratch about watercolor and oil painting! this is what i do a couple of days a week, and i'm loving it! watching a master painter at work,and having him talk me through the whole process of why he does things a certain way, why he uses a certain brush or tool, watching him set up his work space from scratch and watch him tidy up and rearrange his tools for the next day, is art school 101 at its absolute preciousness, if you ask me. peter gets me to actually try out what we're learning about for the day by actually getting "down and dirty" - no, not in THAT sense, i mean LITERALLY DOWN AND DIRTY with paint on your hands, face and clothes, and having a real feel for the tools and really just HAVING A GO which i have enjoyed immensely. i can't believe sometimes that he wants me to go ahead and paint up a corner of something he started. peter tells me, just DO IT. if you think you've messed up, it's okay, FIX IT. and more importantly, what i've found so liberating about our lessons is, he reminds me time and time again, that there are guidelines and methods you need to know to start with, but once you've got your canvas in front of you, YOU'RE IN CHARGE, and YOU MAKE THE RULES. just like your acting, he says, the script may be written a certain way, but ultimately its YOU who makes it your own.

if i gave you an idea of what kind of a day i have had, you might get a picture of where all this new writing energy is gushing from. 10.30am - 1.30pm painting with peter barraclough. then i rushed off, half an hour late for an appointment with Ishtar Darvell, my osteopath (she's my body mechanic that will hopefully have me in top gear for rehearsals in december!), then i grabbed Effendi and dragged him along to meet Ahimsa at the Satyananda Yoga centre in St John's Avenue at 2.30. Ahimsa had given a creative writing retreat during Living Writers' Week using yoga and meditation as a way of getting creativity to flow, and this really intrigued me. I missed out on the retreat but was fortunate enough to meet Ahimsa at a yoga demonstration she gave at the Tulip Festival on the first day of Spring at the Royal Botanical Gardens, and i begged her to give me a one-on-one class. well, today it was a two-on-one class since i'd roped Effendi in. I think that session we had today, prompted by my earlier liberating experience of just going for it at my session with Peter, is what just opened the floodgates for me and thats why i'm gushing...all over the place, but i'm doing what all creative people need to do and just GOIN' WIT THE FLOW, BABEH!!!! We worked on yoga postures and visualizations and some meditation, and when our minds were clear, went straight into our own brainstorming using mind maps, and just writing whatever came to our minds at the time which was pretty amazing. i could see my hand writing non stop and so fast i could barely even think quickly enough. fantastic! Now my day didn't end there, that would have been too easy. this is Ahimsa with me in our session today.
I had one last appointment for the day, and this was to meet Danielle Woods at the University. I'm running 20 minutes late for her now, after trying to squeeze so much into this one day. But i was all fired up and my creative juices were so overflowing and we had a really good chat about my story idea and where i might take it, and how i can apply the principles of The Writer's Journey to my story etc etc. Now, i'm sitting at my study desk and i can't stop writing... i love it.

I'm thinking of how lucky i am to be here and have all this opportunities present themselves... and these people have no idea who i am from Adam, they were just happy to support my craving to learn. What a wonderful idea it's been to just up and go to Tassie, and to just immerse myself in the wonderment of being in a foreign place, to open up and allow myself to be affected by the culture and the life here.

You won't guess what the tagline for Hobart's City Council's campaign is - "The way life should be", indicating that living in Hobart is as good as it gets. And i for one can vouch for the truth i have found in that.