What a wonderful day it is for the UK. I only hope that our miserable politicians will come around soon. However, I'm extremely proud of our country for putting a song about marriage equality to the number one chart position last week.

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I don't remember the last time a music video moved me to tears.

As part of the Sydney Writers' Festival, I went to see a panel discussion about whether marriage equality is a distraction from deeper, more complex issues that gay people face and whether it's absolutely necessary to legalise same sex marriage in Australia. Moderated by Annette Shun Wah, the speakers were: Dennis Altman, writer of political ( Read more... )

I just watched HBO's film biopic of Temple Grandin and it was totally inspiring. She's a sought after speaker and her work is highly cited in both humane animal slaughter and autism fields (she revolutionised understanding of both), and the film covers her life in the 60's and 70's where she struggled to get by everyday life in her teens because of ( Read more... )

I have just spent the last hour wandering around the corridors of the MoMA, Rijksmuseum, the National Gallery and the Gemäldegalerie. How is this possible when these galleries are located in different countries? It's all thanks to the genius of the Google Art Project, which is a collaboration with 17 world class galleries allowing internet users to ( Read more... )

Dean posted this video of a verbal smackdown between a news anchor and a crazy Baptist lady which I watched with amused incredulity, but I am now seething after seeing this:

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It shits me whenever a Christian says "Because the Bible said so." Sure, I can understand that there are some good teachings and I'll respect people's reverence of it but ( Read more... )

Last night, I went to see the Guy Fawkes fireworks and tagged along to a friend's workmate's pre-drinks party at his apartment. Well, if you could call that an apartment. It felt more like a luxury hotel decked out with vintage paintings and an impressive antique library with books with titles like "Lord Byron Letters". I felt so out of place - ( Read more... )

Little more than a generation ago in the United States and Australia the law did not protect black people and three generations ago women did not have the vote.

Today that discrimination, unfairness and inequality are unthinkable - just as the denial of gays' right to marriage will be a total puzzle to those less than a generation away from today. ( Read more... )

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Someone on my Facebook linked this awesome remix by Pogo, a Perth-based electronic musician. A few months back, I had downloaded some free tracks on Last.fm by the same guy and really liked them, except I had no idea that his songs were based on movies and popular culture. Like this one of Alice In Wonderland. The sampling is reminiscent of ( Read more... )

After watching Iron Man 2 last week, I became curious to hear Scarlett Johansson's music. I had heard her covers of Tom Waits a while back and disliked them, but her collaboration with Pete Yorn looked interesting, as they styled themselves after Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. The album is called Breakup and explores the theme of ( Read more... )

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Lucy got me the book for Christmas and I never got around to reading it but I thought watching the film might be good motivation to read it... well, that kind of backfired... I think I'm just not cut out for the intensity of crime fiction. I mean, my kind of crime fiction are the likes of the Sherlock Holmes and ( Read more... )