Category Archives: Art, music, letters

Lying Cow by Vincent van Goh (1882)

Posted in Art, music, letters | 2 Comments

Boulevard of Token Reams

What connects Barry Humphries, a little-known deco artist, AI, yours truly and the future of scholarship? My computer cache, in a way, because I’ve watched or read so many clips and pieces of Humphries talking about culture since he died … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, History, Innovation and technology | 6 Comments

Hop, Scipio and Jump

ONE of the worst crimes of the historical kind committed by neo-cons over the past 18 months has been to dumb down Winston Churchill to a Hallmark audio card with a cigar-toting bulldog draped in a Ukrainian flag on the … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, History, Politics | 12 Comments

Women as Lego, “built of parts that can be reassembled at will”

Nathanael Blake has written a must-read review of Mary Harrington’s Feminism Against Progress.

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture, Ethics and morality | 7 Comments

Humility

Posted in Art, music, letters, Religion and faith | 26 Comments

There was the age of Chaplin and then the age of Humphries

Vale Barry Humphries. I’ve known you since 1956 and we did lots of things together – including three significant films – parting company because of politics. But I still regard you as the cleverest person I’ve ever known.” – Friend … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture | 27 Comments

Autarchy of the Maudlin and The Magical Abo

IT seems the older, richer and more privileged he becomes, the more Stan Grant likes to brandish his affliction. And despite decorating his weekend columns for the ABC with mostly European desk calendar quotations, the Q+A host may now be … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture, Religion and faith | 22 Comments

Vehicular encyclopaedia David Burge is fed up with angry cars

He says the two best looking motors ever made “look like happy fish, not crazed axe murderers.”

Posted in Art, music, letters, Innovation and technology | 22 Comments

Cinderella Castle is now as child-friendly as Playboy Mansion

Rod Dreher revives an old Spy magazine classic to explain Disney’s attitude to normal people:

Posted in Art, music, letters, Left-wing extremism | 4 Comments

I Did But See Him Farsing By…

Dear Sir/Madam, I wish to make application: Australia’s first official poet laureate to be appointed. There’s a man of letters named Albo, Who waves off what’s hard with a “hell-no.” When he aped a forte once Ming’s The question was … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture | 25 Comments

Would we even know how?

MAKE ARCHITECTURE ART AGAIN. Patience: Duomo di Firenze – designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1294 and consecrated in 1436

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture | 6 Comments

What sort of man accompanies his fiancée to a tiara fitting?

She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on.” – Harold Markle

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture, Whatever | 5 Comments

History or Harrying?

Benedict XVI is dead. His right-hand man is about to come out swinging. (Thanks to Buccaneer).

Posted in Art, music, letters, History, Religion and faith | 5 Comments

Breakfast Is Served

He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, War and peace | 30 Comments

Not Recommended For Children

THE historical reasons are flimsy but St Mary of the Cross (Mackillop) is patroness of the Brisbane archdiocese. And this is how she’s honoured in St Stephen’s Chapel in the city’s cathedral precinct. Conventional post-conciliar neo-iconoclasm, the work is already … Continue reading

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture, Religion and faith | 7 Comments

Judith Durham

More than Melba and cuter than Kylie, her song is as Aussie as a maggie’s in the morning. Vale.

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture | 30 Comments

Bin Laden

■ Lisa Wilkinson’s tell-all memoir hits the Kmart bargain bins with prices drastically slashed. ■ Doctor Dud: Jill Biden Biography Sells Just 250 Copies in First Week.

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture | 13 Comments

How good are doggos?

Simpatico: Working dog whistling demonstration stuns crowd at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show.

Posted in Art, music, letters, Culture | 2 Comments