A digest of the best of the blogosphere published each weekday and compiled by Ken Parish, gilmae, Gummo Trotsky, Amanda Rose, Tim Sterne, Stephen Hill and Saint.
Politics
Australian
Pavlov’s Cat demanded a photo of Nicholas, Ken and James in swimwear to balance the ledger after yesterday’s unforgivably sexist feature photo. Sadly (or not) we couldn’t arrange it in the time available, so this is the next best thing. Or maybe you’d prefer the compilation by Saint accompanying the “issues analysis” section over the fold (though note there’s another image there which is distinctly non-worksafe) |
Andrew Leigh is re-blogging some of the ideas from his earlier book, Imagining Australia.
The Currency Lad dissects John Quiggin’s piece at Crooked Timber on Sadr’s peace offer, Andrew Bolt’s elevated position in the social hierarchy, and the rules of engagement with China:
… whether or not politicians and all those impressed with China’s new Las Vegas veneer like it or not, a movement more potent than the Olympics has arisen in the world – only partially encouraged by cuddly notions about the Dalai Lama – and it is adjudging liberty more valuable than money and holistic progress more crucial than economic growth. And it may achieve more than a dragline’s worth of engagement.
Gary Sauer-Thompson discusses Rudd’s diplomatic style.
This video of embattled Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson may not be quite as excruciatingly funny (if unintentionally) as his predecessor Alexander Downer’s legendary “things that batter” performance, but it may well ultimately prove just as fatal to his leadership.
International
At openDemocracy, Wenran Jiang gives a Chinese view of the Tibet situation, while Richard Marcus at Blogcritics argues that “1rotesting for a free Tibet has done China a huge favour by diverting attention away from the real problems that exist in that country”.
Jenny Pearce asks: who are the enemies of peace and democracy in Colombia?
Blonde Canadian discusses at a Pulitzer Prize winner.
dr. faustus attempts to work through what he thinks about boycotting the Beijing Olympics. Kim would like to know what the Olympic spirit is, exactly ((To me, it’s three weeks of evenings in front of the telly, wincing at the stupid remarks from Seven’s commentary team. ~GT))?
Roger Migently explores the strange, scary, illiberal mind of an American christian politician.
Warning – non-worksafe image over the fold.
|
|
|
|
|
Issues analysis
 |
Bridgit Gread denounces the denouncers of the industrial alliance between sharks and teachers.
Mark ‘Oz Conservative’ Richardson begins a series on a sympathetic biography of Communist novelist and activist Jean Devanny. In his first instalment, he notes the contradictions and inconsistencies in Devanny’s attitudes about gender.
Andrew Norton notes the preliminary results of research on whether paid work by students affects their “university experience”.
Kim tracks the rise of the blingocrats.
Arts
Andrew at Art Life brings us arguably one of the great visual arts posts of all time, an illustrated interview with artist Cash Brown in relation to her exhibition of paintings inspired by Gustav Courbet’s infamous 1866 work Origin Of The World.
The tortures of choreography ‘grab, bite drop’ at Supernaut and mind teasing detail and ‘calm excitement’ playwriting at Mink Tails.
Alison Croggon considers the whys and wherefores of the Spamalot flop in Melbourne and gives one sniffy commenter a good ‘what foring’ at the Guardian blog.
Meanwhile, Richard Watts reviews Melbourne’s newest megamusical monstrosity, a revival of Guys and Dolls:
The show itself has dated badly, with great slabs of dialogue interspersed by only a handful of forgettable songs. The casting is dire – stuffed with Names designed to draw in the tv-loving public (Lisa McCune! That guy from Kenny!) but who can’t actually sing or dance – a bit of an oversight in a Broadway musical, I would have thought.
Cash Brown, Study For Durer’s Pubic Hare, 2008.
|
Chris Boyd entertainingly reviews his own non-attendance at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Dean at the Happy Antipodean reviews Tinling Choong’s Firewife, suggesting it “combines Beckett’s insatiable ‘I’ with a rollicking magical-realism.”
Jeff Deck of the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) continues his quest to eradicate spelling and punctuation errors from the signs of American businesses. (It seems some smart alecks actually know w’here to put apostrophe’s in the correct spot!!! How embarassment)
Scott McLemee offers readers some Youtube footage of a Lionel Trilling interview with Vladimir Nabokov, discussing the Russian writer’s controversial masterpiece Lolita.
Sarah at Bioephemera calls for contributions to the April edition of Cabinet of Curiosities created by Tim at Walking the Berkshires. In the March edition was a call to ‘Strap on those brass goggles and gas up the zeppelin, honey.’ – (sounds a bit like that erstwhile lovegod George St Clair) and explore the strangeness of Steampunk.
“She had a bit of a paddle, because it was there.
But she didn’t leap, dig, swim, wag or cut loose.”
Boynton observes with a great finality and dog photos to prove that Flo, the blue heeler, does not love the ocean.
Amanda Rose revews a Kasey Chambers concert and previews her national tour.
Perry Middlemiss rounds up the MSM reviews of Helen Garner’s new novel The Spare Room.
Snark, strangeness and charm
Gummo Trotsky gets shirty with an eminent Australian. 2
Fairlane goes trolling the wingnuts:
I hate it when people toss around words like Persecuted, Oppressed, etc.
Being loaded into a cattle car, and getting shipped to Dachau is Persecution.
Being called a Hateful Dumb Ass, is not. Especially when you are a Hateful Dumb Ass.
Jack Lacton at Kerplunk mocks the Big Oil conspiracy theory of the Big Green. Tim Blair mocks the Bear Eats conspiracy theory of the Big Green. Should the Big Green also ask for their own cemetery space?
Robert Merkel has an unpleasant encounter with the urban hoon.
Now this idea is one that some enterprising ozblogger (Darlene?) should take onboard:
Real ale and champagne will be in full flow next week on Wednesday 16 April when bloggers Guido Fawkes, Tim Worstall and Samizdata’s Perry de Havilland give short speeches at an event on “Curbing the crap artists”. Guido will be speaking – from a blogger’s perspective – on “curbing the bad politicians”, Tim on “curbing the crap journalists” (Polly?), and Perry on “curbing the crap businesses”.
Sometimes I only breeze through the Arts section looking for keywords so I might have missed links, but did anyone blog about the Alfred Hrdlicka artworks indignation-fest this week?
Oh dear – some of our internal dissensions are showing through.
They would have been showing through a lot more if I’d left Saint’s item as it was, because I would have felt obliged to post a very blunt reply.
That hare would be funny with a veil and bombs.
I would not hit the one in the middle because he might hit me back and that would hurt.
No hassles Ken – just me being a “sardonically detached” smart-arse.
FTR, here’s Don Aitken on AGW in his own words.
And on the blokes – that bloke on the right would reach truly gargantuan proportions after 3 to 4 weeks of marriage. Guaranteed.
The artist could have used D
Wait! Are you sure it’s not a Playboy bunny?
Interesting topic there (although nobody would ever accuse me of being enterprising). Here’s the details of the forum for those too lazy to hit the link:
On Wednesday 16 April 2008 from 7.00pm, Larvatus Prodeo will be holding a forum about “Media Under Rudd” at the Prince Alfred Hotel, 191 Grattan Street Carlton. Speakers are Jane Nethercote from Crikey, Professor Chris Nash from Monash University and Matthew Ricketson from The Age.
Cheers
Darlene
PS – Tony T, I’ll be expecting to see you there with or without your veil and bombs.
Gilmae, I did a search for Alfred Hrdlicka stuff on The Australian Index but nothing came up.
There may be no i in team, please review your spelling.
There are plenty of US blog posts on it though. It’s time you launched into an arts post Gilmae.
I did the google blog search too, scanned the list, instantly declared this No Culture Wars Thursday and surfed merrily away.
There may be no w in wanker but I suspect there is.
I’ve done arts posts, Ken, but I have -11 readers. Besides, I freely admit I am more interested in why certain parties haven’t denounced sundry newspapers for not printing copies of the artworks in question and supporting freedom of expression.
LOL at Gummo’s repost :)
Repost? What repost?
Thanks for the link.
I’ll tell Chairman Mao you said hello.
Sorry, Darlene, no can do.
Although it’s tempting to drive by yelling at Robert Merkel in the street.
“Show us yer posts!”
#3 huh???
There you go gilmae. Better late than never.