Unbecoming
“I really am getting bored in a way I think Brisbane either causes, or at least cannot resolve.”
Eric Michaels‘ AIDS Diary is - scarily - the only accurate representation of Brisbane I’ve come across in print, so it shouldn’t be surprising that I found it for $1 in the half price bin at the Maroochydore [...]
Queensland - The Smart State
When I got my first set of Queensland number plates I was given a choice for the little slogan that goes along the bottom: either ‘Queensland - The Sunshine State’ or the more recent ‘The Smart State’. Given that I’m an academic, I went for the latter, figuring that if I didn’t, who else would? [...]
Of homes and buckets
‘I don’t really have a pool of men, it’s more of a Jacuzzi, or even a bucket.’
Lately I’ve been soothing feelings with noise - drowning or amplifying, depending on the urgency. Now the days are oh so quiet. I’m taking in new kinds of pleasures. So is the city. It’s raining for the fourth night [...]
Vale 80s ideologue rock
Video Hits is giving me what I want this morning: a countdown to tonight’s ARIAs. The ARIAs are probably my favourite award ceremony. You get a bit more spirit than the film or TV ones, where the script, if it’s Australian, is usually about demonstrating the need for more money (the refrain that doesn’t seem [...]
Kracauer, cultural studies and the Left
Some of you have noticed that I recently had Joe Moran’s Reading the Everyday in my currently consuming. Can’t remember if I mentioned that I set his chapter on ‘Workspace: Office life and commuting’ for my students in New Media. It’s a lovely reading of The Office, for one thing, but it’s also a nice [...]
NB. Don’t leave
So where the bloody hell are you?
A few of my favourite things
POLITICS IN THE PUB
From Left to Right: Navigating the Political Spectrum in Contemporary Australia
As parties confront challenging contemporary problems, listen to opinions on the evolution of the political spectrum. Explore the ideological basis to current policies & consider whether the concepts of left & right are as clear as they used to be. Duration 2 [...]
On being an ordinary Australian, II
A working bibliography from the 10 year anniversary commentary. Please feel free to add (must contain reference to Howard’s ‘ordinariness’).
New Matilda: Howard The Ordinary, Bill Leak
The Bulletin: The House of Howard, Tony Wright
The Australian: No Suburban Solicitor, Mike Steketee
The Age: Howard: An ordinary bloke who feeds a nation’s prejudices, Hugh Mackay
The 7.30 Report: [...]
Promising signs
From the Higher Education section in today’s Australian:
FEDERAL Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop has expressed strong support for the Australian Research Council and the system of peer review it uses to distribute $540million in research funds each year. She has also signalled she will not pursue the same controversial practice as her [...]
Will this get you up?
GetUp says this is the ad the government doesn’t want you to see, and that you should send it to five friends today. Do they really think people don’t know that the government was having it both ways with Iraq? The point is that people don’t care - after 10 years, they expect their government [...]
« go back — keep looking »