e-waste

Kate says: “This is the stuff that’s never even come out of the box since I bought my laptop, and this is what the laptop replaced; it hasn’t been turned on since. What does one need with 5 different AC adaptors?”

Ordinary Australians? Reading Underbelly

This is a slightly edited version of the Underbelly paper I gave in Melbourne last week. Comments are especially welcome before we submit it for publication. Ordinary Australians? Aspiration, commodity fetishism and masculinity in Underbelly by Melissa Gregg and Jason Wilson Introduction During the April 23rd screening of the Nine network drama Underbelly, Brisbane viewers [...]

Learning from Underbelly

In a couple of weeks the Television and the National conference is on at ACMI in Melbourne. I’m giving two papers. The first is the Work on TV paper I’ve mentioned here previously, and which I’ll post about separately as I add some more touches. I now have to mention Tina Fey’s Palin persona as [...]

Twitter whores and Facebook flakes

I wish I’d seen this before my “Always On” talk. Would have helped in question time. Part Two is also pretty funny. I got this from a comment on Mark Deuze‘s Facebook page – it was offered by one of his friends as an initiation present. Mark’s blogpost this week makes me realise I’m not [...]

Work on TV

This time next week I’ll be in Melbourne speaking at Monash University’s Film and Television series, Under Construction. Loyal Home Cooked Theory reader and brilliant film scholar Adrian Martin has generously invited me to share some of the thinking behind one of my current projects, “Work on TV.” This will be an early version of [...]

A screen without a mouse: On TV bashing

**This post is also a response to the Passion Quilt Meme. I tag Supervalent Thought, Purse Lip Square Jaw, Unemployed at Last!, and tactical.** Some people will have seen that one of UQ’s most respected television scholars made the editorial of Brisbane’s Courier Mail on Friday, after giving an address to The Sopranos conference at [...]

Cultural studies then

Looking through my trash folder I just found an email that links to video of the keynotes from last year’s Cultural Studies Now conference at the University of East London. Among others, you’ll find Kuan-Hsing Chen, Dick Hebdige, Ien Ang, Doreen Massey, Judith Halberstam, Rosi Braidotti, and of course, that significant moment featuring Stuart Hall. [...]

Manifesto caution

On Saturday night some friends and I went to see Ang Lee’s latest film, Lust Caution. At the time, it felt long, exhausting and tragic — especially given I was already tired from the night before and dissecting the week that spawned not one but two quasi-manifestos from lady bloggers. Was there something in the [...]

No one told you

Whether it’s a sign of the writers’ strike biting or just the serendipity of summer programming, for the past month or two Channel 10 has been screening Friends re-runs at 7pm. This is right about the time that William orders me out of the kitchen, I won’t let myself on the laptop anymore and I’m [...]