Halloween Halloween is big business and the festivities – which used to begin on Black Friday have morphed into a lengthy festival beginning well before October 31. It’s quite lucrative for those producing plastic pumpkins, synthetic spider webs and all manner of ‘spooky’ Halloween goods. It’s been estimated at least five million Australians … [Read more…]
Do Ghosts Exist? I was very much of a fan of the idea that ghosts were real because that suggested there was hope … I think there is a very good reason we haven’t put ghosts on the same pile of redundant superstitions as unicorns and elves … They are the buffer … [Read more…]
The Frida Khalo Effect Frida Kahlo – named Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón – took up painting in 1925 after a near fatal bus accident. She was only 17 when an electric streetcar, also known as a trolley, rammed the bus she was travelling in. Khalo was left with severe damage … [Read more…]
Hold Your Fire Seek the company of people who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, will always try it on. Billy Connolly – actor, comedian & writer. We live in an era where it is astonishingly easy for pretty much anyone to be ‘cancelled’. Meantime many … [Read more…]
Babylon Babylon is a test of whether or not a film can be the sum of its gorgeous pieces. A great score, a talented ensemble, and expert cinematography—all are undeniable here. And yet there are narrative elements of Babylon that feel hollow from the very beginning … Brian Tallerico Babylon clocks in at … [Read more…]
Botticelli’s Venus Goddess on the mountain top Burning like a silver flame The summit of beauty and love And Venus was her name … Venus by Robbie van Leeuwen, Shocking Blue rock band. On a recent visit to the National Gallery of Victoria I glimpsed Jeff Koon’s stainless steel version of Venus. And … [Read more…]
Colette ‘People who are perfectly sane and happy don’t make good literature, alas.’ Colette 1873-1954 Every so often I sneak back to classic literature for a brain clean. It’s wonderful to go back and savour books I really love. This time around I’m on a Colette reading jag. Colette was born … [Read more…]
Italian Style Italian film directors produce diverse and wonderful films. Paolo Sorrentino is one of my favourite directors. Sometimes I watch the exuberant party scene from La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) when I’m feeling a bit sad and need to recalibrate. Fellini’s, La Dolce Vita is a magnificent film. Released in 1960, set in … [Read more…]
The Perils of Modern Life I believe in censorship! If a picture of mine didn’t get an X-rating, I’d be insulted. Don’t forget dear, I invented censorship. Mae West – actress, Hollywood legend and author of Sex (1926). We live in strange times. 2022 has been marred by extreme climate … [Read more…]
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ‘I overheard Dorothy tell Major Falcon that she liked to become intoxicated once in a dirty while.’ Lorelei Lee from Anita Loos novella, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. One of my favourite books is a hardcover 1926, tenth edition of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. So popular was Anita Loos’ novella that … [Read more…]
On being Cary Grant ‘Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.’ quote from Cary Grant who began life as Archie Leach. I’ve been watching To Catch a Thief again. It’s my favourite Cary Grant film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The European locations are to die … [Read more…]
Ritual Madness The Ancient Greeks were enthralled by opposing forces and heavily invested in two of their gods, Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo was the god of reason and wisdom – devoted to logical thinking, patience and duty. Dionysus was significantly more adventurous and dealt in the realms of imagination, play and chaos. Dionysus – … [Read more…]
The Insanity of Love ‘Marriage is the tomb of love.’ Giacomo Casanova Some time ago I went to hear Alain de Botton – philosopher and author speaking about modern relationships and love in Melbourne’s gloomy town hall. I’m not sure our drafty town hall is conducive to love. The couple in … [Read more…]
Venus in Steel He has the slimy assurance, the gross patter about transcendence through art, of a blow-dried Baptist selling swamp acres in Florida. And the result is that you can’t imagine America’s singularly depraved culture without him. Robert Hughes on Jeff Koons. Jeff Koons has always been a divisive … [Read more…]
The Problem With Henry ‘I swear again, I would not be a queen For all the world.’ Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth. King Henry VIII has been receiving bad press for centuries. Shakespeare, along with later writers and playwrights, got in … [Read more…]
Shakespeare’s Lascivious Lutes ‘Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front; And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.’ Richard III by William Shakespeare. I went to a girl’s high school in … [Read more…]
To Proust or not to Proust ‘One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory’. Rita Mae Brown Memories get a bad wrap from quite a lot of folk, including Rita Mae Brown. Yet so many song lyrics dwell on memories. Love songs frequently combine memories with intense regret, and in turn … [Read more…]
The Amorous Goldfish The first theatre play that I wrote, involved a character named Alphonse. I’d been fortunate in that I’d been offered a mentorship with a professional director. The Australia Council for the Arts also offered me a rehearsed reading in a city theatre with the director, professional actors and an audience. It was … [Read more…]
Is Big Better? Recently I visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales, to loiter in the 19th Century European collection. There are many luscious paintings – including some massive heroic oil paintings – and a few sculptures of the era. Sitting plum in the middle of these works was a massive, glittering, stainless steel … [Read more…]
The Man in the Moon Half a century ago Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin walked on the moon. On July 20 2019 their moon landing of July 1969 will be celebrated worldwide. Given that there’s no atmosphere on the moon, it’s possible that Armstrong and Aldrin’s footsteps may still visible on the moon’s … [Read more…]
Peel Me a Grape Hollywood legend Mae West liked her men distinctly masculine. Her taste veered towards wrestlers, boxers, prize fighters, gangsters and musclemen. At 61 she took up with Mr California, Paul Novak, who was thirty years younger. He was one of the musclemen in her stage show at the time and he remained … [Read more…]
On Being Fabulous Two nights ago I attended Madison Moore’s performative presentation at the National Art Gallery, Melbourne. Madison began his lecture dressed casually in gym gear but while talking about his influences growing up and how it felt to be marginalised, he slowly began a transformation. Madison began by cutting and … [Read more…]
Mirka Mora 1928-2018 ‘Every time you show your work, you really show your soul.’ Mirka I never met Mirka Mora, but she became one of my most favourite people. I only know Mirka through her paintings and her wonderful autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous; My Life. Whenever I stop to look at Mirka’s murals – they … [Read more…]
Lord Gerald Berners was a talented musician and painter. He also wrote for the stage and his impressionistic paintings continue to sell well today (that’s Gerald in the photograph above). He converted Faringdon House, in Oxfordshire England, into a luxurious country mansion that soon had England’s fashion set vying for a weekend invitation. Exquisite … [Read more…]
I made a discovery the other day – new born babies don’t enjoy going to the movies. I’d dropped by my local cinema to catch Kenneth Branagh’s, Murder on the Orient Express and didn’t realize that I was attending a ‘Babes in Arms’ movie session. It finally dawned on me – when I stumbled … [Read more…]