Blogging politics, culture, sociology and life from Brisvegas
Well it’s been a fortnight so it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a 30th open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this week so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except Hope Waits. Well, actually, maybe you can’t condemn Tom Waits either.
Well it’s October so it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty seventh open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except Emma Peel.
Well it’s August so it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty third open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except feminism and feminists.
Continue reading ‘I won’t add my condemn to your condemn XXIII’
We featured some of Marcus Westbury’s commentary on cultural policy here at LP around the time of the 2020 summit. Here’s a guest post which originally appeared at his blog - it’s the text of a talk he gave to a forum on “Creative People” organised by the Department of Culture and The Arts in Perth as part of the process they’re undertaking of developing a policy framework for Western Australia.
One of my obsessions at the moment and the focus of the next series of Not Quite Art is our changing cultural geography. By that I mean how the cultures that we are exposed to, that influence and obsess us are circulating in the world.
Continue reading ‘Guest post by Marcus Westbury: Flotillas vs. flagships’
I’m not sure if it’s in the BBC’s charter, but the venerable public broadcaster is allegedly trying to reach out to people with disabilities, and to increase social awareness of disability issues. Through such charming initiatives as their online Paris Hilton like trash celeb persona - “Disability Bitch”:
“Hi, I’m Disability Bitch. I’m disabled and I love it. Everyone should be disabled. Everyone should be like me.
“I own an extensive collection of colour-coordinated wigs and an even more extensive collection of colour-coordinated mobility aids, all of which complement my natural beauty…
Whatevs, darl. But there’s more. She’s not an all purpose disability bitch, but part of a reality tv franchise. In pursuit of its social inclusion agenda, the BBC is running a reality tv show - “Britain’s Missing Top Model” - the premise of which is that chicks missing limbs or in chairs can also be teh hotness and get to be in glossy fashion mags. It’s “Stylish, sassy, chic … disabled?”… The idea, I guess, is supposed to be that disability is no barrier to objectification. Continue reading ‘Disability and body image and reality tv’
Well it’s July so it must be time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty second open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except short films from Auckland about monsters.
So sang Madonna.
If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be, it would be so nice
It’s school holiday time (which doesn’t - obviously - mean parent holiday time!)… I’m due to submit the first draft of my PhD thesis on Friday some time (possibly late-ish). The marking’s all done. The conference is over. But that wonderful thing called semester starts up again on the 21st. And I don’t have either the time or the money to take my preferred break - which was going to be an intertubes-less week in a cabin by a beach somewhere reading books, followed by a week of partay-ing in Sydney or Melbourne, followed by a week back in Brisneyland under the doonah. So give me some vicarious holiday goodness! Do we get enough holidays? What do we do when we take them? Are we ever away in a wired world?
So, it’s over half way through June and time again to condemn. Here’s a twenty first open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except vintage Blondie. The track is “Rip her to shreds” from their eponymous 1976 debut lp.
Continue reading ‘I won’t add my condemn to your condemn (21st condemnation edition!)’
As Andrew Leigh remarks, if you want to get a sense of how powerful an orator Barack Obama is, you need to watch the video of his victory speech, rather than just read the transcript. For purposes of comparison, I’ve included Hillary’s concession speech. It was belated, and that’s done her some damage (and I suspect it was more of a matter of a personal concession than the power plays we’ve heard discussed that led to its delay), but it’s significant that she included reference to the issues her campaign has been pushing as well as a rather dignified endorsement of her erstwhile rival. There’s another interesting comparison which I’ll discuss over the fold.
Continue reading ‘A tale of two campaigns in words and pictures’
So, it’s June and time again to condemn. Here’s a twentieth open condemnation thread. What’s getting up your goat this month so far? Which evil political, cultural, social, musical, religious and other phenomena need condemnation? (Or loud denunciation?)
You can condemn anything you like except Steampunk videos.
I’ve been critical in the past of the widespread trashing of Heather Mills-McCartney, while admitting that she’s probably her own worst enemy. A recent marketing survey found she was at the top of the list of the most hated celebs in the UK. Not surprising, probably. But what’s interesting is the top five loved celebs are all male and four of the top most hated celebs are female (Simon Cowell is on both lists). This raises the question Finlo Rohrer poses - why are the celebrities most often vilified disprortionately female? I think it’s a very interesting question. A range of answers are given in the article, including one which is not quite an answer but perhaps more of an observation - that a lot of this vilification is related to the policing of femininity (disposition, motherhood, personal appearance, weight, etc.) What do LP-ers think?
[Via Crikey]
[Via Sydney Arts Journo]
No comments on this post please - they can be made at this thread.
In other Henson news, Art World has pulped its forthcoming issue according to the Fin Review today, at a cost the magazine estimates at $100 000. The issue, written and laid out in April, was to have featured Henson on its cover and included the image that’s been the centre of the “debate”. And The Age has just one of many reports of cops visiting galleries and Henson photos coming off walls across Australia, despite no complaints having been made.
All the standard info is here and here. The country’s official website is here. But I’m still not finding anything that explains Azerbaijan’s entry in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest!
Continue reading ‘Everything you always wanted to know about Azerbaijan but were afraid to ask…’
Sadly, Dustin the Irish Turkey will not be taking the Eurovision Song Contest final stage tonight, after being eliminated in the semi-finals. But there’s still plenty to look forward to - awful Europop, truck-drivers key changes by the bucketload, hosts who can mangle an autocue in two languages, and some fairly bizarre pieces of surrealist theatre to accompany the inane tunes.
After making the sacrifice of sitting through both semi-finals, I can inform you that the only half-decent song amongst them this year is the French entry, “Divine”:
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