Recent Posts
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 […]
The Music of Bells
This is the swell the organisers would have liked for last Easter’s Bells Beach pro surfing competition. Pity it arrived on Wednesday 6 May. Yes, it’s grey. Yes, it’s cold. Yes, a large, shiny black seal did a spontaneous sideways leap out of the water in front of us. Why wouldn’t you? It’s mid-week and […]
Anzac Humour
An unwritten law in Australia and New Zealand is “Don’t make jokes about the Anzacs.” You can make jokes about almost anything except the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Particularly on the centenary of their ill-fated storming of Gallipoli in Turkey on 25 April 1915. Likewise, corporations are not allowed to exploit the Anzac “brand”. […]
Barracking Bad
What makes a reader barrack for the main character in a story? The answer in one word is empathy. Note: not sympathy, which is about feeling sorry for someone. But empathy, which is about feeling what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. A good story will make you feel empathy for the main […]
Lamb or Koala Salad for Australia Day?
Now that the alleged patriotic fervour of Australia Day on January 26 has settled down, perhaps we can have a sensible discussion about which foods are most appropriate for this annual celebration. For a decade the irrepressible Sam Kekovich has been doing his best with TV ads to sell the idea that lamb is the […]
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