Last night I broke my fast – for Father’s Day. It brought the family – or part of the family – to the dinner table.
The thing about fasting, it shatters the socialisation of the family. Dinner, in particular, is a time when we all sit down to talk, share what’s happened during the day, share what’s on our minds, we chat and laugh and listen. And we learn. I learn a huge amount listening to Jennifer and Henry, my eldest son, while we eat.
When I fast, that doesn’t happen.
There’s no chatting in the kitchen while the meal’s being prepared. There’s no expression of love in the making and serving of the food – because there’s no food. In times past when I’ve done longer fasts, what’s invariably brought them to an end is this lack of socialisation – it’s not starvation – well, yes it is – it’s starvation of family time together over a meal.
I had retasu ni tsutsumareta – a Japanese version of San Choi Bau. A very light meal, but it brought us all together.
So I broke my fast a day early, for the sake of family. I hope I didn’t disappoint any of you. Here are the stats:
So in 5 days I dropped nearly 5kg. I also lowered my blood pressure. More importantly, I took back control of my mind. And I feel cleansed – All up, it was well worthwhile, even if I did fall short a day!
I stared at the egg. I stared at the egg a long time. It was a boiled egg. It threatened me, that egg. It threaded to derail my fast.
All I had to do was crack open its smug shiny shell, peel the shell off and – yummy.
But I resisted. I walked away. The integrity of my fast remained intact.
It’s interesting, the games your mind plays when you fast. Anyone who does an extended fast – and I call anything more than two days an extended fast – knows that the temptation to break the fast comes not through hunger, as such. It comes through desire.
Desire is different to hunger. Hunger is a physical primitive function. Designed to keep you, and the species, alive. Desire is illusory. Desire is sly imagination. Desire is a femme fatale.
I didn’t hunger for that egg. I desired it. It was my femme fatale. But I walked away.
Today is Father’s Day here in Australia. My wife and eldest son want to take me to lunch, or cook me a Father’s Day dinner.
Should I break my six day fast to take them up on their kindness? I’ll let you know what I decide!
Maybe because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Holding your resolve to fast is harder when you’ve had insufficient sleep.
.But I toughed it through.
I distracted myself yesterday by going out to EB Games and trading in my Switch for a Switch 2. Larger screen, better resolution and frame rate. What prompted this was a piece in the Washington Post declaring Hollow Knight a masterpiece. I learned that the follow up game – Silksong – had just been released, enhanced for the Switch 2.
Just by the by, Hollow Knight was made by an Australian mob called Team Cherry. They’re Adelaide based. Hollow Knight has sold more than 15 million copies since its release 8 years ago, making it one of the most successful independent video games of all time.
As I grow older I find it’s crucially important that I constantly work to reverse engineer my age. To become younger. And by that, I mean to think younger.
Video games are a great way of doing this. They’re an extraordinary form of storytelling – both visual and aural. Zelda – Breath of the Wild opened up another part of my brain. As did Journey, which I found to be as spiritual an experience as I’ve ever had. Seriously.
I love the puzzle games. Figuring out Limbo and Inside for me has been very challenging. Man o man do they test your cognitive abilities. Best way to keep dementia at bay, me thinks.
Of all those that play video games, only 6-7% are 65 years and older. I believe if more older people played video games, there would be less dementia. And less depression.
Also for me with Parknson’s, playing video games tests my dexterity. Subtle finger movements. That’s one reason I got the Switch 2 – the buttons and joysticks were larger. Makes it a bit easier.
Anyway – that’s how I distracted myself from a gnawing hunger yesterday.
My Stats: Weight: 82.7kg BP: 129/75 Resting Pulse: 55 bpm
As I expected, my weight loss levelled off a bit, otherwise everything else was pretty much the same. Now, excuse me while I go play Silksong…
On day 2 I jettisoned hunger. In previous fasts it took longer. This time it was just one day of strong hunger pangs.
Maybe because I’m relatively sedentary at the moment, writing my new novel. I did have a vigorous half hour session on my indoor stationary bike. Then another half hour of weights and exercises. Sitting down as much as I am at the moment, I need to find time each day to shake myself out a bit.
Interestingly, my stats are coming back into line:
My Stats: Weight: 83.4kg BP: 129/70 Resting Pulse: 53 bpm
So in 2 days I’ve dropped 3.3 kgs. I know this will level out somewhat over the next four days – that this initial weight loss is largely water – but even so I feel much lighter and I have more energy than I did before I started this fast.
Here’s how I start my day – with a double espresso. Even when I fast. No sugar. No milk. Just two shots of pure espresso.
Usually by day 4 of a fast my body decides that it doesn’t need caffeine anymore, and I can’t bring myself to drink it. I shift across to either Green Tea or First Flush Darjeeling.
Day #1 of my fast wasn’t so bad. I felt hungry but not hugely so. I weighed myself this morning and in just one day I’ve lost 2.1kgs. This is largely water and in subsequent days this loss will come down to about 1kg per day, sometimes less.
The hardest thing about fasting for any period, whether it’s 1 day or 6 days or 14 days, which is the longest fast I’ve done, is to fully commit to it. If you waver in your commitment, even in the slightest, you won’t last the fast!
It’s a little bit like walking a Camino, or making a movie, or writing a book, or entering into a relationship. You have to approach it with full commitment.
My Stats: Weight: 84.6kg BP: 148/78 Resting Pulse: 65 bpm
My blood pressure is a bit high. I should be in the 125-129/ 68-75 range. My resting pulse is a bit high too – it should be under 60bpm. It’ll be interesting to see how these shift over the length of the fast.
I posted this morning that tomorrow I would start a six day fast.
Well, I got to 3pm after not having eaten anything all day, and I thought – why not start today?
So today has officially been my first day of fasting, after not having eaten since 6:30pm yesterday, Tuesday 2nd Sept.
I’ll check my stats later, but to let you know how I feel: I’m starting to feel hungry. I know the first day of a fast is always the hardest. Second day is tough too. Once I get to day three I’ve pretty much lost my hunger pangs altogether.
So what do I mean by a fast? It’s really simple. For the six days I will only drink water, or tea. No sugar, no milk, I’ll take some vitamin pills – that’s all.
This evening I came downstairs to the kitchen and Jennifer was cooking up some fruit compote for dessert tonight.
For those of waiting to see The Way, My Way, or for those who’ve already seen it and want to see it again – I have some good news.
The film is scheduled to be released on Video On Demand (VOD) this November, on various platforms (e.g. Amazon Prime and Apple TV) and in a number of countries around the world, including the US, the UK, Spain, and some of the larger Spanish speaking Latin America countries.
Please note the film will not to be on Netflix in the near term (and it may actually never be on Netflix), and so at this time, VOD is the only way to legitimately watch and enjoy the film.
Jennifer and I would like to thank you all for your patience in the lead up to the VOD release. Rest assured, we’ve tried our darnedest to make the film available in as many cinemas as possible around the world, but getting distribution for independent films like ours is getting harder and harder these days.
But at least there’ll be the option to see it in your home very soon, and that pleases us greatly.
And if you’re needing an excuse to upgrade your home entertainment system to wide screen Ultra 4K, home cinema surround sound, the VOD release is all the excuse you need!
I’ll come back to you once we’ve got an exact date for the release – but November it is!
There’s a movie I’m going to see this weekend – F1. I’ve been waiting for this movie for months. I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie in a cinema. And I make movies for a living!
Ask yourself – when did you last go to the movies? Then ask yourself – are you going to the movies as often as you did before COVID? I’d say the answer is – no. The attendance figures support this.
Attendance in 2024 Compared to 2019 (pre-COVID):
January: Down 33%
February: Down 17%
March: Down 14%
April: Down 38%
Overall Attendance: Approximately 68% of 2019 levels
Global Trend: Cinema ticket sales fell 8.8% worldwide from the previous year.
Attendance at the cinema has fallen by one third since COVID. That’s huge.
And anecdotally, walk into any multiplex and they’re often near empty. Go see a movie and unless it’s opening week of a blockbuster, you’re most probably one of only a handful of people in the cinema.
I’m a filmmaker. I’ve been making movies for forty years. I love movies. I used to go to the movies a minimum of two times a week. Often more. Sometimes I’d go see a movie and then when it was finished I’d go back out to the ticket stand and buy a ticket for another movie and watch that. Two movies back to back. Those days are gone. Now I’m lucky if I see two movies a month.
Why? Why aren’t I going to the movies anymore? Why aren’t a lot of people going to the movies anymore? Here’s my view on it:
There’s nothing I want to see –
When I look at what movies are playing on any given week, there’s hardly anything that excites me enough to drag me away from my big screen tv at home, with my sound bar and rear speakers, and my Netflix and Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime.
The studios keep churning out the same old stuff – franchise comic book movies and cheesy animation movies and sequels that ran their course several iterations ago. Where are the intelligent dramas? Where are the brilliant thrillers? Where are the heart-tugging laugh out loud romantic-comedies.
They’re on Netflix. Or Apple TV+ Or Binge / HBO.
Most times when I want to go see a movie, there’s nothing for me to see. Now yes, I’m an older demographic. But I loved Barbie. I loved Elvis. I loved the Dune movies. I loved the Avatar movies. Smart beautifully crafted movies that say something and that need to be seen in a cinema.
I’ll be there opening week for F1, The Movie – not that I expect it to say anything of great political or social relevance. But it will be a spectacle and will need to be experienced in a cinema. If the Coen Bros ever make a movie together again I’ll show up for that too. But basically, on any given week, there’s virtually nothing playing that would drag me off my couch and have me go out to a cinema.
The cinema experience is grubby and unwelcoming –
Where’s the box office? You know, that place where you go to buy your tickets.
There used to be a separate place where you used to buy your tickets, most times with a list of the movies playing and session times on a board at the back of the ticket stand. So if your first choice wasn’t available, because it was sold out or you’d missed the start of the movie, you could quickly scan the board and choose another movie. And chances are there would be another movie I’d like to see.
Now you buy your ticket at the concession stand. It stinks of popcorn – and you often have to wait behind a family that’s buying drinks and choctops and cartons of popcorn for several children.
It takes forever…
This is where the cinema experience starts. And it only gets worse.
The cinemas themselves are often filthy. Spilled popcorn on the floor, half drunk bottles left in beverage holders on the seats, lolly wrappers littered underfoot. Many cinemas now often don’t have the staff to clean up between sessions.
More often than not, the person who sold you your ticket, and your tub of popcorn, is the person who comes in when the movie’s finished and cleans up the cinema.
The seats themselves are often old and cracked and someone told me there was mould in the seats of one chain cinema he went to recently. The floors are often sticky from where someone has spilt a drink. The carpets are tired. The bathrooms… well, I just hope the person who sold me my popcorn washed his or her hands.
Then of course there’s the actual experience of watching the film.
People texting or checking their emails or messages within your line of sight of the screen. Their lit mobile phone screen drawing your eye away from the movie. People talking. Laughing during poignant scenes.
Then there’s the cinemas that keep the film’s volume level low because of complaints that it’s too loud. Then there’s the cinemas that keep the volume too loud because people have complained that it’s too low.
Endless ads before the feature starts. And in some cinemas in America you can have a full restaurant meal while you’re watching the movie. I don’t go to the movies to sit beside someone chomping into a hamburger and slurping down a Pepsi.
It’s no wonder so many of us choose to wait till the movie hits streaming so that we can watch it on our big screen tv at home. The floors aren’t quite so sticky
I’ll just wait till it hits Netflix –
It used to be that the “window” between when you saw a movie in the cinema and when you saw it on Netflix or some other streaming platform was months. Now in some instances it’s weeks. Sometimes during the promotion of the cinema release, if the movie has been largely financed by the streamer, it’s advertised as a Stan Original or an Apple TV+ film.
In other words, you know up front it’s going to turn up on that streamer, and probably quite quickly after the theatrical release. There’s got to be an absolutely compelling reason why you’d want to see it in the cinema rather than wait a couple of weeks to see it at home.
it’s so expensive going to the movies –
It’s damn expensive to go see a movie.
I just checked the prices to go see F1 – the movie at a midweek session, 6:00pm for a family of four – two adults, two children. This is at the Event George St Cinema, Sydney.
Factoring in ticket prices, 3 regular sized cartons of popcorn, two ChocTops and two Cokes, the prices are:
I don’t know about you but at a time when everyone is watching what they spend, that’s a big chunk of change. How many families can afford that regularly? For a special occasion, maybe- such as a kid’s birthday – or maybe a film that the kids are desperate to see – but $200+ for a family night out at the moves? That’s not a once a week thing, that’s for sure.
It’s an effort now to go see a movie –
It used to be that going to the movies was no big deal. It’s what you did, regularly. But COVID changed all that. COVID reset our behavioural patterning. And COVID also made a lot of us go out and buy big screen TVs with cinema home theatre sound systems.
The technology advancements in home entertainment systems, along wth the rise of the streamers, along with the reduced “windows” between a theatrical release and a platform release has created a perfect storm for the demise of the cinema going experience.
Couple that with Peak TV, where you have some of the world’s greatest cinematic filmmakers, such as David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Mann, Jane Campion now turning to TV production making compelling dramas and thrillers, and you have even more reason to stay home, sit on your couch and reach for the remote.
A change in bevaourial patterning is hard to shift.
How to bring audiences back into the cinema –
Make movies that people want to see in the cinema – Give movies time to build word-of-mouth – keep them in the cinema longer. Make the cinema going experience more welcoming – Make it cheaper –
All of the above are easy for me to suggest, hard to implement. But if something isn’t done soon, cinema will go the way of circuses. There used to be small family-run circuses tour cities and towns regularly. They were generational – the circus families went back generations.
They’re now gone. Now we only have the big spectacle circuses. It’ll be the same thing with cinemas – they’ll exist only for the blockbusters.
There was a story in Variety last week stating that a large poll of exhibitors, cinema owners, believed that there’d be no more cinemas in 20 years. That’s pretty frightening for those of us who love going to the movies.
But habits have changed. Yes, sure there’ll be the occasional FI or new James Cameron epic which will spike the numbers for a while – but ask yourself this: what sort of movie would make you want to go see it in a cinema nowadays.
Cinema is the best way to see movies in their full sound and image glory. With the added benefit of sharing the experience with others. This is something precious and delicate and must be preserved at all costs.
As for me, I’ve already bought my tickets to F1. even though I know it’ll be coming to Apple TV+ soon, because it’s an Apple TV+ production. Even so, I want to see it on the largest screen possible, with the best sound possible. And that’s in a cinema!
After 4 months on the road traveling with our movie The Way, My Way, we’re finally back at home in Mudgee – and my goodness, it’s great to be sleeping in our own bed again.
It was an extraordinary trip –
8 weeks in the US and Canada doing Q&A screenings,
Three weeks in Germany supporting the film’s theatrical release.
A side trip to Hungary for a special screening in Budapest with our dear friends Balazs and Laszlo – both feature in the film.
Three weeks or so in England, Scotland and Wales.
Then back to Canada and Vancouver to attend the annual North American Gathering of Camino pilgrims with a special screening.
Then back to Europe and Malta to attend the European Assembly of Camino pilgrims, with screenings for the Spanish Ambassador, the Australian High Commissioner, and other dignitaries.
Then from Malta back to London then back home!
Overnight I slept for nine hours straight. I never sleep nine hours straight!
I have emails long overdue need replying to, finances to sort, social media needs attending to, plus I started writing a new novel while I was away and I have a deadline in two weeks to deliver the first 25k words to Penguin Random House. Then there’s the sequel to The Way, My Way that Jennifer and I are starting to ramp up – not to mention kick starting my exercise routine once again, getting my eating regime back on track, and so on and so forth!
I never want to travel again.
Until August, when I have to go back to California for more stem cell treatment for my Parkinson’s.
I tell you what though, I love Australia. I’m proud to be an Australian. We’re not without our faults and problems, as with any country – But I’d prefer to live here than anywhere else in the world. And in Mudgee in particular. With Jennifer.
We’ve been in the United Kingdom this past week or so – kicking our heels before we fly to Vancouver in a week to attend the annual Camino Pilgrim Gathering. The Way, My Way will screen there as part of the Gathering, and we have been invited as guests.
From Vancouver we fly to Malta, for a European equivalent. Again the film will screen there to an audience of European Camino leaders.
What have we been doing in the UK? Collecting our thoughts and preparing for the period ahead, which is going to be busy –
I have the Hope film to finish, and we’ll start to ramp up the sequel to The Way, My Way, called The Way, Her Way, which we intend to shoot on the Portuguese Camino early next year.
I’ll release more information abut The Way, Her Way in the next little while, but basically it’s a female perspective on the Camino. More women than men walk the Camino, yet there’s never been a movie produced centred around a woman.
Yesterday I bought a membership to the Royal National Trust. Jennifer and I each day have been visitingng National Trust gardens – and I figured it was cheaper to join rather than pay the entrance fees each time.
We’ve seen some glorious places.
The world is going through some tumultuous changes – and these changes are only going to become more tumultuous in the months and years ahead. My Journey films – on Intuition, Fear, Hope, Purpose, and Death will provide some guidance during these times.
And films of courage, inspiration, and empowerment will be sorely needed.
I have to figure out my place in this tectonically shifting universe – so that I can do all I can to help navigate these troubling times. Right now I’m inhaling tranquility and beauty.
PGS - The Way 
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