April, 2010

. I.M. Peter Porter 1929 – 2010 . I was flicking through Porter’s Afterburner (2004), his penultimate collection of poetry, and on the back page I came across this sketch above – he had read from the book at the State Library. (He had aged since I last drew him in 1990, blockier somehow, and [...]

Last night in the drizzle darkness, Ramona Koval and the crew from Radio National trundled into the Wheeler Centre at Melbourne’s State Library. They came to record an audience session for tomorrow’s Book Show (April 30). Part of the series ‘Reading on Vocation,’ this one interrogated the lawyers. On the panel was Robert Richter QC, [...]

. I.M. Peter Porter 1929 – 2010 . Poetry is the art of constructing a trap of words – when tripped by its prey, a curious human, it triggers a rush of thought and feeling. Peter Porter was a master trapmaker. It was as a witless youth in the ’80s that I stumbled upon one [...]

Our Germs, Germaine Greer, National Living Expat Treasure and our greatest culture critic*, has decided to join in the Wynne prize fracas (see here) in an article for the Guardian titled: “So an artist found a work on the web, copied it and won an award. Why the fuss?” (*Just last month she won that [...]

I beg Ma’am’s pardon, quite forgot you were turning eighty-four yesterday. Hope the party was good. Regrets apologies sorry. Your obedient servant and loyal subject, etc. She has said: “I have to be seen to be believed.” I myself: “I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast.” “It’s all to do with the training: [...]

A list for John Gum leaves sickling to the ground, dry as piles of paper. The clock at Greenwich strikes. The mobile phone is chirruping. A picture file is opening. Silver aircraft – the stillness inside a journey. Between the covers, black swans on the wing. A long Guinness. Whites on the green. Numbers glowing, [...]

. Maybe it’s schadenfreude but it’s better fun following other Angophone elections. One is spared a more personal embarrassment and dismay. The British campaign is a blast – of the 646 seats an extraordinary 144 MPs are retiring, rendered untouchable by the MPs’ expenses pandemic. Make way, make way! Pestilence and disease! The government is [...]

We were down the coast – and the backyard of our friends’ house was hosting a weekend party of birds: comic cockatoos with sulphur crests, a pair of stern kookaburras and a pair of red parrots, curious at the fuss. It’s a challenge to sketch such fugitive subjects but the point is to observe – [...]

This post was going to be titled “The Hatefulness of Politicians (and the struggle against daily doom)” but that sounds all wrong, doesn’t it? Plus, it includes that P word. I wanted to talk about lying awake at 3 am, the optimism of Tim Flannery and Peter Singer and the saving grace of dogs. There [...]