My Philomena Spooky Syncy Sunday

I've been trying to get around to seeing the movies that are up for major awards at the 86th Academy Awards in March.
Philomena was one that I was luke-warm about seeing, but thought I had better hurry and catch a viewing before its cinema run comes to an end.

So I headed out to the Schonell twin cinema at the 
University of Queensland to catch the 3:45 pm session  
(the only one of the day).

The Schonell Theatre entrance.
Just remember to duck, or lose an eye;-)

That tree is almost a part of the building
 the way it is growing around it.

That stop sign should stop the Rush.
Hey, wasn't he in The King's Speech?

Aurora Consurgens 

(Horselover Memorial Edition)

Before I left to see this movie though a friend of mine posted a remark about the red cross on Katy Perry's chest in her performance at the 2014 Grammys early this year.

Poster display outside the cinema for In Bob We Trust.

Then I saw this movie was having its final screening today at the same cinema I was going to, but I had missed the boat, so to speak, because it was already playing by the time I found out it was on and this was the last screening.

When Father Bob had a show, Speaking in Tongues on SBS
I sent in a phrase to his church sign competition and got a mention.
It was a play on the words "presence" and "presents" in church at Christmas-time.

Graffiti under the theatre of past
plays staged at the theatre.

Philomena of course is about the true story of a young woman forced by the church in Ireland to give up her son for adoption.

Feeding the poor?

Walking back to my car after the movie I came across two magpies eating a hamburger bun in the gutter.

Then I hopped in the car and headed off to check out the recently opened bridge that brings buses, pedestrians and cyclists across the river and into the university's grounds.

Eleanor Schonell Bridge
(formerly called the Green Bridge)
during construction

 "Eleanor Schonell made an internationally recognised contribution to testing for dyslexia and was renowned for her generous and humane approach to life.

Her work with cerebral palsy children led to international recognition and she also contributed substantially to the education of children with intellectual disabilities.

During its conception and construction, the bridge was known as the "Green Bridge" because it was a sustainable transport initiative and since the naming many people have continued to call it the Green Bridge in preference to its official name."
Eleanor Schonell Bridge

 When I was walking up to the bridge from my car I stumbled across a strange statue.

St. Vladimir the Great

It kind of creep-ed me out, too.
"In Sweden, with the help from his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. 
By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from modern-day Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads. 
Originally a Slavic pagan, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988 and Christianized the Kievan Rus' ".

Modern statue of Vladimir in London 
with the inscription "Ruler of Ukraine"

The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir,
 by Viktor Vasnetsov (1890)

The statue is almost in a mini forest setting under this huge tree and a few others.
This statue must have gone under in the Brisbane River floods a few years back.
If it didn't, I would be very surprised.

St. Vlad is in that clump of trees to the right

Oddly enough, even though I crossed the bridge between the statue of St. Vlad and the Dutton Park side at dusk, I couldn't help thinking how dark the Brisbane River looked from the bridge.
The statue of St. Vlad is in that clump of trees to the right.
"Sakhalin", means "black" in Manchu and is the proper Manchu name of the Amur River (sahaliyan ula, literally means "Black River").
Among the indigenous people of Sakhalin are the Ainu on the southern half, the Oroks in the central region and the Nivkhs on the northern part. 
Despite a long history tied to Asian roots - Chinese and Japanese - in August 1945, according to Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. 
This Russian presence continues today."
When I got home that evening I saw the news about a Russian church shooting -

Church massacre ... 

Resurrection of Christ 

in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

James Bond: Everybody needs a hobby. 
Silva: So, what's yours? 
James Bond: Resurrection.

Then I read a blog post by Loren Coleman about a few weird coincidences -
Darkness At Sakhalin: Another Russian Mass Shooting

Darkness At Sakhalin:
Another Russian Mass Shooting

I forgot to mention all the crows in the trees overhead of the statue, but for the record, I don't find crows creepy like a lot of people do.
I quite like these intelligent birds.
Crows are also related to the magpies as a species, so I have read.

"On September 1, 1983, the Korean Air Flight 007, a South Korean civilian airliner, flew over Sakhalin and was shot down by the Soviet Union, just west of Sakhalin Island, near the smaller Moneron Island; the Soviet Union claimed it was a spy plane. 
All 269 passengers and crew died, including a U.S. Congressman, Larry McDonald."

 007 and Judy Dench?
M...ummm! 

"On 24 October 2009, 21-year-old University of Queensland student Whitney Heuvel urged his friends to use a cellular phone to film him jumping off the bridge. 
Intoxicated, he misjudged the rails and fell awkwardly, resulting in his death. "
Daredevil student plunges to his death 
"University of Queensland student Whitney Heuvel plunged to his death from the Eleanor Schonell Bridge, connecting the university campus to Dutton Park, at 1am on Saturday to the horror of his close friend and flat mate who filmed the fatal stunt on a mobile phone.
He was due to celebrate his 22nd birthday the next day.
Mr Heuvel's father, John, said his son lived and died an adrenaline junkie, having previously jumped from Brisbane's Victoria Bridge."

Del Rey and the 

11th of May Syncs

Del Rey's left hand is tattooed with the letter "M", referencing her grandmother, Madeleine, and the word "paradise".

Her right hand is tattooed with the phrase "trust no one".
She also has the phrase
"die young" tattooed on her right ring finger.

Angie and Brad have spent the last few months in Queensland, while Angelina has been directing her new movie at the Warner Brothers Studios on the Gold Coast.

This is the view of the bridge when walking to the Dutton Park side of the river.
It's very hard to see what's on the right-hand side of the bridge unless you make a special effort, and then I don't know how successful that would be.

This is the view that greets you as you cross the bridge on the pedestrian side.

But this is the view as you cross to the right-hand side (below).

The Dutton Park Cemetery

Graves everywhere, and you can walk right into the cemetery from the bridge.
Weird!

This is what greets you on the cemetery side of the bridge, which means no pedestrians, as it is only for cyclists.
I also found lots of "Bird of Paradise" growing on the cemetery side of the bridge.

Sweet Bird 

of Paradox

These trees on the cemetery side are filled with Rainbow Lorikeets as well. 
Although you may have to blow up the photo to see them.

The thing that really blew me away though was on Monday morning I see in the news that the river Thames in London is about to burst its banks, just like the Brisbane River did in 2013 and 2011.

Interactive before and after pictures

 from the Brisbane Floods

The Queen's land floods?

You can see by the red rings in the above 2013 flood photo that St. Vlad and the graves in the photos above went under.
As noted above there is a statue of St. Vlad on the banks of the Thames also that could go under.

Royal washout: Swans and geese take advantage
of the new lake that formed below Windsor Castle

Lapping at the Queen's doorstep: As floods hit Windsor, nearby villagers flee homes swamped by the swollen Thames

As it says in the Philomena poster right at the top of this post, director Stephen Frears also directed the movie The Queen.

I thought it was rather amusing that once the buses cross to the cemetery side of the river they have to travel underground.
I also noticed that before the bridge was here the only way to get across the river to Dutton Park was to pay the ferryman.

The Dutton Park ferry terminal, as seen from the bridge.

St. Philomena, 

Patroness and Protectress of the Living

Philomena Lee, the real-life woman
behind the hit movie Philomena

"Philomena Lee, the real-life woman behind the hit movie "Philomena," got an ending to her story today that even Hollywood could not write, a meeting with Pope Francis. 
Lee, 80, traveled to Rome at the invitation of the Vatican to meet the Pope, the head of the same Catholic Church that, six decades ago, forced her to give up her baby son for adoption by an American family because she was an unwed mother."
Weird! 
As one of the three writer's for the Philomena screenplay is named Jeff POPE.
 "Jeff Pope is a producer and writer, known for  
Philomena (2013),  
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2005) and
Dirty Filthy Love (2004)."

(L-R) Actor Steve Coogan, Philomena Lee, producer Gabrielle Tana and Jane Libberton attend the premiere of "Philomena" during AFI FEST 2013 presented by Audi at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 13, 2013, in Hollywood, California.

Notice the four rings above at the movie premier?

Oops! Only four rings:-)

Vladimir?
Putin?

Born 7 October 1952,
or as Americans write 10/07/52.

 Vladimir the Great? 

A scene from the Superputin comics

"Putin has cultivated a "he-man" and "superhero" image and is a pop cultural icon in Russia with many commercial products named after him.  He is currently ranked as the world's most powerful man according to Forbes."
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Vladimir with George W. Bush at a pier
along the Black Sea, in Sochi, 5 April 2008

So, what happened at the opening ceremony?

The Iceman Cometh

in March Sync

What I don't quite understand is why is there a statue of St. Vladimir and not one of St. Lucy, since the Queensland Uni is situated in the Brisbane suburb of St. Lucia?

St. Lucy at Saint Leonard
of Port Maurice Church 
in the North End of Boston

And Brisbane's Twilight Running Festival was blighted by a fierce storm last March, which took the life of a fun runner that was competing in the run in the Uni grounds at the time of the storm. 
I wrote a post on it last year - 
The Iceman Cometh in March Sync

Were These Posts a Premonition

of the Boston Bombings?

Oh, and the big tree near that statue of St.Vlad that I referred to earlier in this post is a Bunya Pine, if I'm not mistaken.

Bunya Pine?

So, looking to the cemetery side of the river from St. Vlad's point of view would be looking at a place beyond the pines, wouldn't it?-)

Moore Storm

 Syncs?

UPDATE: 15 Feb, 2014.

https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/ACTS/2013/13AC047.pdf

In last Wednesday's Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper I saw this story about VLAD anti-bikie laws.
While I knew there was a big stink about police and politicians passing laws to go after bikie gangs, I never knew the official name was VLAD.
 http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/hundreds-protest-queenslands-antibikie-laws-20140211-32g6g.html

"If you ride like lightning you're
 going to crash like thunder"?

Still from Imagine Dragons
I'm on top of the World video.

Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act 2013?
It wouldn't take much to picture VLAD riding a Harley D along the freeway in a bikie gang, would it?-)

As I said further up in the post The Shining as a live play has been staged at the theatre and is among the plays graffiti-ed under the cinema/theatre.
In the Imagine Dragons clip for I'm on Top of the World,

The Shining imagery is scattered throughout the clip, in fact the bikie rides along route 237, which is the famous numbered room in Kubrick's filmed version of Stephen King's novel.