Movies about parents struggling to deal with a gravely ill child, who faces a real likelihood of dying, are not meant to be magical, or uplifting, or even comically adroit. But this movie by actor/director Valérie Donzelli (Juliette), and also starring Jérémie Elkaïm (Roméo Benaïm), with whom she has a child, is Continue Reading
Music review: “Magic Hour” by Scissor Sisters
A new Scissor Sisters album is always a cause for celebration. Throughout their career, which began with an idiosyncratic burst of wildly colourful dirty infectious pop when “Take Ya Mama” was unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 2004, they have defied many of the usual conventions of pop music. Three Continue Reading
New Bloc Party album coming your way!
Great news today! An email from the always musically adventurous indie rock outfit from England, Bloc Party, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Russell Lissack (lead guitar), Gordon Moakes (bass guitar, synths, backing vocals, glockenspiel), and Matt Tong (drums, backing vocals) lobbed its way into my inbox overnight declaring Continue Reading
Sydney Writers’ Festival 2012: “Can’t be that hard”
Taking its inspiration from Julie Gillard’s admonishment to journalists at the National Press Club last year: “Don’t write crap. Can’t be that hard.”, this event, chaired by the host of the ABC’s Insiders program, Barrie Cassidy, brought together a number of well respected media veterans to discuss the extent to which the media bears Continue Reading
Rip’d from the pages of my childhood: Moomin by Tove Jannson
The Moomin series of books and comics by Tove Jansson were major literary touchstones of my childhood and youth, and another sign that my fascination with all things Scandinavian began quite early. Along with Agaton Sax, created by Swedish author, Nils-Olof Franzen, these books about a delightful family of well-meaning, Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision – my top 10 picks
It says a great deal about the calibre of this year’s grand final songs that three of my favourite dance songs of the moment are all from the hallowed halls of Eurovision. Of course there are some who will counter, my boyfriend chief among them, that a whole raft of Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision: Review of semi final 2
Another big night in the giant light-covered dome that is the Crystal Hall in Baku. While the spectre of each country’s flag being realised as a series of coloured stripes on the impressive shell of the stadium had worn off a little, what hadn’t dimmed for one minute was the Continue Reading
Road to Eurovision: Review of semi final 1
What a magnificent eyeball-searing night. The stage was a brilliant mix of autumnal reds, oranges and yellows, bright enough to rip your retina to shreds if you stared at it too long, the hosts were ridiculously perky with an interactive patter written by the same person who scripts Oscars telecasts, Continue Reading
And douze-point goes to… Eurovision?
There is nothing perfect in this scratched and bruised world of ours. No one knew that better than the founders of Eurovision who, faced with a Europe divided as never before after the horrors of World War Two, decided that what the fractured continent needed was a bright shiny singing Continue Reading
Book review: The Planets by Dava Sobel
A former New York Times science reporter, Dava Sobel has become well known for her popular expositions on a range of scientific topics. She has a rare gift for taking complex issues and making them accessible to those without a physics or astronomy-friendly bone in their body. The Planets reflects Continue Reading