Culture
Previews, reviews and interviews
When Avatars Die Elizabeth Tan’s Rubik
At its core, this book shares the whacky paranoia of Pynchon novels, with a flair for Murakami-esque surrealism, and a humour and sensibility that is refreshingly Aussie millennial.
Sweet Country Our silent, violent history
Tense and beautiful, Sweet Country is utterly gripping from the first scene, an extreme close-up of white sugar being stirred into black tea and boiling in a billy, while racist violence occurs off screen, heard but not seen.
Phantom Thread The everyday sadism of marriage
It’s commonplace to observe that the opposite of love is not hatred, but indifference. Love and hatred exist on a spectrum ... traversed at the speed it takes to watch one’s partner laugh too long at their own joke, or eat a messy breakfast.
War! What’s It Good For?! Ross Kemp: Extreme Tales Live On Stage
“I remember thinking, ‘What have I got? I’ve got a Porsche and a swimming pool, no kids, no relationship with any women. What the f___ am I leaving behind?’”
Swept Away An interview with Jamie xx about music for changing times
"Love drives everything, for me. Even it’s just having some nostalgic, rose-tinted idea of it. It helps me get to a certain place when making music."
Blanks’ Generation Kirin J Callinan’s loss of face at Laneway Festival
A group of retired music business executives and representatives of Triple J and 2CH have banded together to form a new organisation, Mute Offensive Records. Its role will be to “regulate unsafe musical practices” across the country.
The Post Democracy can die in the dark
Steven Spielberg’s film summons up an era when journalism was still ‘the first rough draft of history’.
The Ghost in You An interview with HTRK’s Jonnine Standish
Virtual reality, digital narcissism and dead friends: musician Jonnine Standish is riding a new kind of ghost train into town.
Second Guessing Yourself Jack Colwell’s search for a better identity
“I try to be a good person but I also know there’s a darkness and a poison inside me. It’s hard to separate all these things.”
A Twenty-First Century Christmas Carol Reinventing Santa for New York
In ‘Toyz on Demand’... Santa has a unique business, based on giving the toys away and monetizing his celebrity through paid appearances.
Excerpts from a cricketer’s autobiography, ‘My Autobiography’
“I’ve played with some of the best cricketers and greatest blokes you’d wish to meet.”
Slow-Burner An interview with photographer Jeremy Blincoe
Jeremy Blincoe recently won Campbelltown’s Fisher’s Ghost photography prize: “My ideas evolve as I work, so it’s a process for me… to grow what I know.”