Newsletter
Newsletter 400
Monday, August 2nd, 2021 Newsletter,What is there to write about this week but the lockdown? And what has changed since my last rant on this subject? Only the duration of imprisonment. I’m not ready to join the idiots marching in the streets, punching police horses and demanding their “freedom” (freedom to infect other people with a deadly virus), but […]
Newsletter 399
Monday, July 19th, 2021 Newsletter,This has been one of those weeks I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I’m writing this delayed newsletter from the country, where I’ve had to return on grave and unhappy family matters. I won’t go into details but as you can imagine, travelling anywhere at present is an ordeal. Until now I’ve avoided any requirement for […]
Newsletter 398
Monday, July 12th, 2021 Newsletter,If asked to name a truly satisfying experience in a frustrating year, it’s hard to beat Julia Banks’s evisceration of Scummo on 7.30 this week. Like the corporate lawyer she is, Ms. Banks had prepared carefully for her interview with Laura Tingle. Where Christina Holgate confronted her accusers wearing white – symbolic of innocence and […]
Newsletter 397
Monday, July 5th, 2021 Newsletter,Hello, welcome to this Lockdown Special newsletter. With most specials you get more, but with this one you get a whole lot less. I’m not buried away in Sydney but still in the country on family matters. I know that as soon as I return home I’ll be sequestered away for at least a fortnight, […]
Newsletter 396
Monday, June 28th, 2021 Newsletter,This week I was forced to reflect on a great banal truth of human nature: we rarely have strong feelings about a subject that doesn’t impact directly on our own lives. This is one of the reasons it’s been so difficult to sell the message about climate change which remains an entirely abstract proposition to […]
Newsletter 395
Monday, June 21st, 2021 Newsletter,Never a week goes by without some reminder of the black hole into which the ABC has consigned the arts. I was pleased to see an article by Debi Enker on the Herald website that tracked back over the history of the ABC’s TV arts coverage and noted the weird obsession with sticking comedians into […]
Newsletter 394
Monday, June 14th, 2021 Newsletter,I hope you’re keen on the Archibald Prize. This week I’m posting an Archibald review and two more Archibald-related pieces as blogs: an ‘Archibald of Archibalds’ historical article, and a review of the 2021 Salon des Refusés. There’s still one more to go: a review of the Art Gallery of NSW’s own historical survey, Archie […]
Newsletter 393
Monday, June 7th, 2021 Newsletter,No apologies this week for the late posting of the newsletter. I’ve just finished my fourth Archibald Prize-related piece in a sequence that still has a way to run. As the last three articles had to be written in three days, while the Prize was announced, updating this site had to take second place to […]
Newsletter
Monday, May 31st, 2021 Newsletter,If there was ever an elephant in the room it’s the ABC’s new TV arts program, Art Works. Having watched the program on iview, and feeling completely astonished by its unique blend of intellectual vacuity and political correctness, I was interested to see what kind of responses it’s gathered in the media so far. The […]
Newsletter 391
Monday, May 24th, 2021 Newsletter,This week I finally got the jab. I would’ve been happy to get it months ago but it took a while to secure an appointment. A lot of people seem to believe the Astra Zeneca vaccine is going to kill them on the spot but I barely noticed the injection and suffered no side effects […]