Recent Posts
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 […]
Khe Sanh: Winning a Battle, Losing a War
Pouring sweat in Da Nang, Vietnam. Standing in a four-storey war museum loaded with historic photos, old machine-guns, tanks and fighter jets but no air-con. And not a single fan working. No other tourists here today. Obviously smarter than me. Two bored female soldiers are guarding the entrance and exit on the ground floor. This […]
“A Day at the Park”
A Day at the Park, written by Lucas Di Quinzio, is a picture book for grown-up kids. The ebook edition is FREE to download for a LIMITED TIME. You may even want to view a special reading of it on YouTube. See the links at the end of this blog. If you are easily offended, […]
AC/DC Lane – Another Hidden Melbourne Gem
The key members of AC/DC didn’t come from Melbourne, but they made this city the band’s launch pad to the world. Melbourne was the home of Countdown, the top-rating national TV music show of the mid to late 1970s. At the same time, the city’s pub circuit for rock bands was booming. Bands like AC/DC […]
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