Breaking Waves: Homesick for Bondi
Adam Gibson reflects on memory, belonging and a suburb becoming unfamiliar even as he remains within it.
Stumbling Across Stones in Berlin Terror and Art: Unlikely Companions
I appeared to be standing in the midst of a mass grave. The endless rows of cold, grey, concrete steles resemble a procession of coffins...
Pretty Vacant A letter from New York
Are luxury stores the victims of success? Our most fashionable neighbourhoods appear like they’ve been looted: a third of the stores in the heart of the city are empty! This retail rot is a new form of urban blight.
Suggested
Nick Cave Premonitions of Love
“The impulse was to hide. But it turns out that being forced to grieve openly basically saved us.”
In the Zone Sam Doctor’s images from Fukushima
“It’s like when parents have a missing child and they keep the bedroom in the same way.”
You Should Be Dancing A Letter from New York
The ‘city that never sleeps’ is getting a taste of freedom again with the repeal of the Cabaret Law.
Features
5 Stars for Dominick
A motel review, an old cat and a meeting with a beloved friend in a fading town in upstate New York.
The Cost of Entry: What it takes to belong now
They still live in the city, work in it, travel through it, and remain visible in it. But they are saying no more often now: no to the extra drink, no to the second stop, no to crossing town on instinct, no to the kind of evening that only works if you do not think...
Cigarettes & Turpentine An Ode to My Artist-Mother
She smoked Marlboro Reds and drove old cars that always broke down… She wore red lipstick religiously. She was never on time to pick me up.
Something Better The old masters give Beck’s sound a new shine
“Great music can create some great perspective shift. Like a sudden stunning view. Or a moment out with friends when you’re all laughing. Where life opens up and everything is bigger and brighter.”
Culture
Dancing with the Stones
You Am I main man Tim Rogers on meeting Mick Jagger, mobile dentists and flamboyant trousers. Blame it on the Stones.
When It Is All Just About Okay John Cheever and his flower of confusion
Maybe there is the warm, uncomplicated glow that comes over us when, after so much time and so much hurt, things are finally just about okay.
Theatre of War Focus on Stephen Dupont
Award-winning conflict photographer Stephen Dupont has devised an impressive new theatrical experience entitled Don’t Look Away.
Radio Free Alice Darlinghurst
Located in a small cluster of shops on Darlinghurst Road, between the Jewish Museum and the Darlo Bar, 'Alice' is the mother lode for indie kids.
Food
Boon Cafe Instant karma in the city
“We were the weird kids. Everyone wanted to see what we were having for lunch, so they could tease us for the rest of lunchtime."
Bilson at Table My Favourite Duck
"I often view with evil intent families of ducks walking towards the ponds in Centennial Park."
Getting Southerly Busted At North Bondi RSL
The image of Bondi is one of glitz and glamour… But the salt-blasted reality is somewhat different; the old weathered remnants of what was known locally as Scum Valley still often win out.
Bilson at Table The Death of Paul Bocuse
Once Bocuse perfected a dish it remained unchanged on his menu:“If a dish was worthy of three Michelin stars in 1963 it should be worthy of the same accolade in 1993!"