home cooked theory

What would Dawson think?

Tom Cruise has a new girlfriend: Katie Holmes! My dreams aren’t dashed after all. Twenty-six year old brunettes can snare millionares!

Call for submissions

While I appreciate the help with making sense of Gary Wickham’s article in the previous post, I think that maybe my request was taken a little literally… i.e. I wasn’t asking for a recap of the last 50+ years of political theory in order to understand it (I think I managed that bit). I was [...]

Morality in Cultural Studies

Last year I wrote a review of a cultural studies conference in the US (archived

Courier-Mail genius

Bono’s biographer interviews her subject: ‘Don’t you ever feel like the world is just shit and nothing can be done about it?’

Disappointment

I can’t believe it, another idyllic image comes crashing down! Robert Doisneau’s famous ‘Kiss At City Hall’ was staged. And the couple only lasted a couple of months. Sigh.
Apparently this is old news. The photographer cleared the record in 1992 with these interesting words: “I would have never dared to photograph people like that. [...]

May MACS

The Normanby
If you aren’t on my mailing list and you’re a Brisvegan media/cultural studies person, come along to the Monthly Media and Cultural Studies drinks session, Friday May 6. This month it’s at The Normanby Hotel, 1 Musgrave Rd, Red Hill. From 4.30pm, AKA beer o’clock (but only on Fridays).

Empire building

Last Friday afternoon I went to a talk by Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology at UTS. It was called ‘This Mongrel Breed: Cultural Diversity and the Australian Empire Project’, and it summarised a book project he’s working on (more details here) that describes the specific nature of Australian Empire. He argues that Australia is best [...]

Inaccessible histories: Searching for Brisbane’s structure of feeling

In comments here and in a great post on his own blog, Andrew mentions the death of former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, a controversial politician if ever there was one, but a figure I haven’t much knowledge of first hand. Here’s an interesting take on the history I missed out on, and there [...]

McDonald’s and nationalism

If you’re watching commercial television in Australia over the next 36 hours, keep an eye out for the McDonald’s ANZAC Day ad. I’ve heard it run at least twice this morning during my (even more football mad than me) neighbour’s Sunday morning sports show. It’s a fascinating example of how multinationals articulate with particular national [...]

Bargains

The UQ Alumni Book Fair started today. I bought 23 books for $44! And that was me being very disciplined. Most exciting finds: The History of Sexuality Vol III (The Care of the Self) for $2, The Second Sex for $1, and the first ever issue of Continuum for $3. I also found William [...]

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