The Stump

Obama’s music to campaign by

It’s a major step in the campaign preparation: President Barack Obama has released the musical playlist from which the appropriate accompaniments for him striding to the microphone will be chosen. I hope to have an evaluation from our very own earworm music blog soon. The list: Different People (No Doubt) Got to Get You Into [...] Comments (0)

The Poll Bludger

By-elections: Port Adelaide, Ramsay, Niddrie

I’ve been a bit lax on the by-election coverage front lately, so here’s a post for discussion of the forthcoming events, including tomorrow’s two South Australian by-elections which will as always be covered live on Poll Bludger tomorrow evening. All three are for safe (or reasonably safe) Labor seats and none will be contested by [...] Comments (32)

Cinetology

The Grey movie review: early contender for best American film of the year

Nobody who has ever attended the funeral of a person killed by their own hand and seen the salty faces of loved ones, felt the whirlwind of confusion and despair from those left behind could completely accept the lyrics of Mike Altman, son of director Robert Altman, whose famous words opened M*A*S*H (1970) and were [...] Comments (2)

White Noise

Outland – A faltering step in the right direction

[Laugh Track blogger Matt Smith weighs in with his thoughts on the new ABC1 sitcom Outland] There’s nothing particularly subtle about Outland, a new series which premiered its first episode on ABC1. If I say that it’s about a group of gay, science fiction geeks, you can probably join the dots on what you’re going to [...] Comments (0)

Curtain Call

REVIEW: A Chorus Line | Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne

“A classic Broadway musical for a new generation,” goes the pitch. The Kids are certainly familiar with the tunes; Glee has bred familiarity (and perhaps contempt) of this show, like other dusty Broadway staples, with its covers of Sing! and show-stopping ballad What I Did For Love illegally downloaded to iPods everywhere. But they probably [...] Comments (0)

The Northern Myth

Vale Andrew McMillan, 1957 – 2012

Andrew was one of the Territory’s great eccentrics—but also one of its best contemporary writers,” said Mr Mackinolty. “He came to the Territory chasing music as a journalist, which led to the influential book Strict rules which covered the Warumpi Band/Midnight Oil tour of the Territory and never looked back as a writer. “He followed this with Death in Dili, Catalina Dreaming and An Intruders Guide to East Arnhemland—the latter led to his being awarded NT Writer of the Year in 2009. Comments (2)

Culture Mulcher

Paris: classique meals 1

Observations and not some haiku from the streets of Paris Classique, adjectif Sens 1, Qui fait autorité, qui est considéré comme un modèle. Anglais (auteur) classical author, (oeuvre) classic. 5.1 Steak-frites According to Anthony Bourdain: “It was onglet, and I was immediately struck by its ropy, not-too-tender but not-too-tough texture and its strong, almost kidneyish flavor.” [...] Comments (1)

Fully (sic)

‘Burqini’ Word of the Year? Frack that!

Aidan Wilson writes… I am a big fan of the Macquarie dictionary. I am especially grateful to it because recently, it backed me up by listing ‘youse’ as a legitimate word in Australian English and thus defended my scrabble play (although I almost lost friends as a result). But in February each year for the [...] Comments (3)

Pure Poison

Don’t let reality contradict your made-up pictures of Peter Slipper in a wig

Earlier in the week the News Ltd tabloids were convinced that Peter Slipper was going to bring back the ABSURDLY ARCHAIC WIG OMG LOOK AT THAT IDIOT. Sure, they had to resort to Photoshop on Monday, but they knew that as the week progressed they’d be able to rely on all manner of ludicrous shots [...] Comments (1)

First Blog on the Moon

First Dog’s First Ever Podcast Guided Tour Extravaganza!

Oh my goodness! Here is your handy spoken word guided tour of my exhibition The Universe According to First Dog on the Moon in the form of a Podcast! My first one ever! I am quite excited. If you download it on to your mp3 player, and then go and walk through the exhibition whilst listening [...] Comments (6)

Laugh Track

Podcast: A Talk with John Richards

John Richards talks to Matt Smith about his upcoming show Outland, a new comedy show coming to the ABC about a gay science fiction club. In this podcast, John enlightens us with the show’s six year development, and explains who has the bigger closet to come out of. Podcast: A Talk with John Richards. Outland [...] Comments (0)

earworm

Lana Del Rey: Born To Die | album review

Lana Del Rey: Born To Die [Universal] The critical backlash against Lana Del Rey began even before her debut album Born To Die arrived. Hipsters initially bewitched by the immediately beguiling Video Games felt betrayed when it became clear her puffy-lipped persona and – no! – even her name were invented. Much internet scorn was [...] Comments (1)

Letter from the Editor

Mexican drug cartels turn 2.0

Maria was found decapitated with a handwritten message linking her murder -- not to the coverage of the drug wars in her paper -- but to her postings on social networks. The cartels have moved online. Comments (0)

This Blog Harms

What do we mean by ‘sexist’ when we refer to the criticisms of Gillard?

The lack of agreement on the question of whether undue criticism of Gillard is sexist boils down to how we think about sexism. Is sexism something we view at an individual level or a wider social structural level? Is it still sexism, when gender discrimination occurs at a structural level? Before addressing this, I’d just [...] Comments (10)

Liticism

Guest Post — Swept Away

Guest Post by Andrew Stafford In a new post for the ‘Returns to’ series, Andrew Stafford isn’t crying a river for the loss of his children’s books. I LOST my children’s books in the Queensland floods. The story of how that happened is banal enough. They had not left my mother’s home since I left [...] Comments (0)

The Urbanist

RMIT’s Design Hub revisited: is green turning red?

It seems I was right to raise concerns about the green credentials of RMIT’s new Design Hub. Following publication of my article on Tuesday, Are all green buildings really that green?, RMIT amended the description of the building on its web site earlier today. In the earlier post, I queried two major claims the University [...] Comments (3)

Game On

IN PROFILE: Pachinko Pictures on advergames, fashion, and maturity

“Fashion, for such a mainstream thing, has this amazing ability to absorb from other disciplines.” “Games, I would say, is at the other end of the spectrum. It really struggles, I find, to look at contemporary animation, look at contemporary fashion, and draw from those other media in a way that’s going to excite consumers. [...] Comments (1)