Archive
Shane Jacobson’s TV Debut in 1994
This is Shane Jacobson’s 1994 TV debut, aged about 23. These excerpts are from an instructional video on rock’n’roll lighting for Ausmusic, a not-for-profit music industry company supported by the federal Labor government of the time. The community station Channel 31 in Melbourne regularly featured Ausmusic’s instructional videos, and Shane’s videos on lighting were his […]
Hey, Donald, Sir Les is Raring to Go!
When news broke about Donald Trump’s election, Sir Les Patterson was thrilled. This happy snap shows Sir Les when he heard the news while up the bush, extending his heartwarming love affair with Australia. Sir Les immediately pitched his services to Mr Trump, citing his long and distinguished career as an international cultural attaché for […]
The Three-Act Story Model: A Framework Not A Formula
Warning: this model will affect the way you read novels and watch movies because it makes story design more transparent. You may later find yourself watching a film with thoughts such as, “Oh yes, everything now looks great because the unlikely couple is finally kissing in the rain, which must mean we’ve reached the Act […]
The Hampton Festival of Killing and Other Thought Crimes
In 1997 screenwriter and author Tim Richards published a prescient and darkly humorous novel titled The Prince. Not to be confused with the book of the same name by political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli, published in 1532. The Prince by Tim Richards, published by Allen and Unwin, tells the futuristic story of the Hampton Festival of Killing, […]
Twitterpated: Spring or Sprung?
Were you “twitterpated” during spring? The Disney meaning of twitterpated is to fall head-over-heels in love, which – according to this scene from the (1942) Bambi movie – happens to almost everyone in springtime. However, Twitter has had a new meaning since 2006. So the word “twitterpated” needs to add an updated definition. Should this extra meaning […]
Winmar and Goodes: Their Gifts to the Game
Nicky Winmar’s stand against racism in 1993 led to the AFL publicly drawing the line at on-field racial abuse. Sadly, there was a loud minority of public protest at the time about the support the AFL gave Winmar. It was most obvious on talkback radio. The indignant logic of too many callers was simple-minded and […]
Is It a Dog-Eat-Barbie World?
In times past it was fairly easy to read omens and portents. Instructions for reading tea leaves could be found in plenty of glossies. Fortune-cookie forecasts were available to anyone with basic literacy. And no-one needed any sort of education to understand the more direct symbolism of horse heads in beds. But I puzzled over […]
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