Here is the News ... or is It?

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I thought it was quite synchy that the Theatre Royal would have a play on called Rupert: Never Let the Truth Get in the Way of a Good Story during the same month the Lindnt chocolate shop siege occurred.

The Theatre Royal is on King Street, which boomerangs and turns into Phillip Street, which crosses Martin Place.
There is also a "Rabbit Hole Bar" on the block the Lindt chocolate shop is on.

Russell Crowe's latest film The Water Diviner is produced by Channel 7 and "Fear of God" films.

Russell Crowe's Rabbitohs
2014 NRL champions

 

James Cromwell who plays Rupert in the play also played Prince Phillip in the movie, The Queen.

Elizabeth Street also runs up the opposite side of the block to Philip Street with the Lindt chocolate shop on Martin Street sandwiched in-between Elizabeth and Phillip Streets.

Philip as any Philip K Dick fan knows means Horse lover, or friend of horses.

 

And 2014 is the Chinese Year of the Horse.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick

The Lindt cafe is located at 53 Martin Place

"Above is the Colonial State Bank Centre which can be found at 

52 Martin Place. Agent Smith holds Morpheus captive here on 91 mins after their slowly choreographed fight 27 mins earlier."

 Sydney Filming Locations: The Matrix (1999)

 

 

Katy Perry's song "Dark Horse" was a big hit in 2014 and Katy appeared in the Channel 7 Sydney studios earlier in the year promoting her upcoming tour for November 2014.

 

Katy also played weather girl on the morning show which oddly enough forecasted storms for most major Australian cities. 

The Channel 7 studio where Katy read the weather is right across the road from the Lindt chocolate shop as the world would find out in December 2014.

David Williamson's Rupert

^^ And at the 15 second mark of the above clip Katy Perry can be seen on the front page of the newspaper with a caption saying,

"Katy Perry Fires Back at Critics".

The irony about the play at the Theatre Royal and the hostage siege in the Lindt Cafe was when I was listening to the radio at work every news update would tell us something different to the one that went before.

12 hostages, then 50, then 17.

One gunman, then maybe two, or three, then back to one.

It was hard to know what was really going on in the cafe, by what the news crews were telling us.

Whether it was the radio, TV stations or newspapers, they were just feeding us any old rumour, so long as you didn't turn off, or stop buying newspapers, because this was big business and top ratings for them.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, just keep flogging the story till it's dead.

 Melbourne Cup 2014: This is the ugly

 side of the race that stops a nation

The Year of the Horse has certainly been no "friend to horses" (Phillip?), either. 
"It was the moment that stopped Australia in its tracks, and 12 months on it’s happened again.
Admire Rakti’s death after Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup has again ignited the debate around cruelty and horse racing is still galloping ahead.
Twelve months ago, as celebrations took place and champagne flowed following Fiorente’s Melbourne Cup victory last year, many Australians were left horrified after French runner  
Verema was euthanised after snapping a bone in her leg.
Nothing could be done to save the champion mare, who lay on the ground with a shattered leg, about to be put to sleep."

Phillip Joel Hughes
(30 November 1988 – 27 November 2014)

"While batting during a Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 25 November 2014, Hughes was struck in the neck by a bouncer from New South Wales bowler Sean Abbott. 

Hughes was wearing a helmet, but the ball struck an unprotected area just below his left ear. 

He collapsed before receiving mouth to mouth resuscitation and was subsequently taken to St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, where he underwent surgery and was placed into an induced coma. 

Hughes' injury was a rare but described type of sport-related blunt cerebrovascular injury called a vertebral artery dissection which led to subarachnoid haemorrhage."

St. Vincent's Hospital?

In Russell Crowe's movie The Water Diviner there is a Lt-Col Hughes in charge of the mass grave-site at  Gallipoli.

Russ asking Lt-Col Hughes for permission to
look for his missing sons among the dead

In one scene in the movie Russ's character tries to kill some Greek soldiers with a cricket bat found in the trenches of Gallipoli.

And keep an eye out for a scene where the Turkish citizens are marching with a flag that looks very similar, if not the same as the one held up in the Lindt Cafe siege.

"The adventure takes us back to 1915, when the Allies campaigned to knock the Ottoman Empire out of World War I. 
British Commonwealth troops from Australia and New Zealand sent thousands of soldiers, known as the ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), to fight the Gallipoli Campaign and secure the Dardanelles in western Turkey. 

The ANZACs suffered 10,000 casualties. 

The Water Diviner is about a father in 1919 who has lost his sons in the ill-fated Campaign and goes to Turkey to retrieve the bodies." 

Olga Kurylenko Cast In Russell Crowe’s Directorial Debut ‘The Water Diviner’

The Year of the Horse comes around in 12 year cycles and interestingly enough, the 

Year of the Earth Horse ended on January 31, 1919, which would have been followed by the  Year of Sheep/Goat/Ram, which is the year on the Chinese zodiac that follows the horse, so 2015 will mostly be the Year of Sheep/Goat/Ram.

Lucky Colors for the Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram: 

green, red, purple; 

Avoid: golden, coffee

Avoid: golden, coffee?!

Anyway, whatever the "Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram" may bring in 2015, 2014; The Year of the Horse has certainly been a divine year for Russell Crowe.

Sometimes the truth also makes a good story.

Good luck in finding it though, as you journey down life's rabbit hole.

UPDATE: 1st January, 2015.

"Voice actress Christine Cavanaugh, who brought to life characters including Babe and Chuckie on Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats, has died aged 51.

Her sister, Deionn Masock, confirmed the actress had died on 22 December at her home in Utah.

In 1995, she gave her voice to the title character in the hit movie Babe, based on Dick King-Smith's 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, about a talking pig who wants to be a sheepdog.
Cavanaugh also provided the voice to kid genius Dexter in Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory for seven series from 1996." 
Christine Cavanaugh, voice of Babe and Rugrats' Chuckie, dies at 51

James Cromwell in Babe