Mystical Mushrooms pine mushrooms live a thousand years in one autumn Den Sutejo 1633-1698 (translated by Makoto Ueda) Wild mushrooms have been getting bad press recently. A murder trial in the Australian country town Morewell has just commenced, but it all began back in 2023. Erin Patterson – known on social media as ‘the … [Read more…]
The Rise & Rise of Chatbots ‘… users are now having genuine problems parsing reality. Peruse AI chat forums and you’ll see women asking one another if they should tell their husband that they’re having an affair with their chatbot.’ Tim Elliott, AGE newspaper article In Bot we trust One of my … [Read more…]
Wild and Wicked Famous women are frequently sensationalized to provide historical fodder for films, plays, operas and books. Facts are wilfully ignored because wickedness, orgies, incest, violence, psychological abuse and criminal activity will always find an audience. Cleopatra was frequently represented as an objectified woman. Everyone from Cicero to Shakespeare used her to … [Read more…]
Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams Robin Leach – host of the 80’s television series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous – provided humorous descriptions of yachts, mansions and private jets on his show. He signed off wishing his viewers, champagne wishes and caviar dreams. When I was a child, my mother used to … [Read more…]
The Perils of Romance 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 front of us were engaging in covert hostilities. De Botton is … [Read more…]
Spring is sprung Spring is sprung, the grass is riz I wonder where the birdies is. They say the birdies on the wing, but that’s absurd. I always thought the wing was on the bird. attributed to Anonymous/Ogden Nash/ obscure 19th Century poets. This year Spring on the island has been preceded … [Read more…]
Do soulmates even exist? ‘Love activates the same brain areas as cocaine … being intensely in romantic love takes so much attention, it can be hard to keep your life going, let alone have other relationships.’ Professor Arthur Aron Many folk secretly hope that hiding in the wings is … [Read more…]
Detouring with Tim Rogers ‘When I decided to embark on writing, I got my seersucker suit dry-cleaned and bought a case of gin. And I thought, ‘OK – I’ve been given a job. But my first question is: what do I wear?’ I was a Tennessee Williams wannabe – crate of gin … [Read more…]
My old neighbourhood It’s always great sneaking back to my old neighbourhood. Fitzroy has become increasingly gentrified – old houses have been tizzied up and sold for exceedingly high prices. Subsequently most of the artists, writers, junkies, musicians, booze hounds, poets and reprobates I once knew have moved on. Some of them moved to … [Read more…]
Iris Apfel ‘I’m not pretty and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. I have something much better, I have style.’ Iris Apfel 1921-1924 Iris Apfel, interior designer, model and fashionista has died at the age of 102. Her life was lived magnificently. Iris and her husband Carl Apfel owned … [Read more…]
Are we amused? ‘I guess when I think about it, one of the things I like to dramatize, and what is sometimes funny, is someone coming unglued. I don’t consider myself someone who is making the argument that I support these choices. I just think it can be funny Wes Anderson … [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…]
Caught in the Act The great thing about Courtney Act is that she’s not a “dumb blonde”, even if she chooses to act like it sometimes. Beneath Courtney’s wig, Jenek’s brain is working, taking an almost scholarly approach to issues of gender, sexuality, and society that would make him the talk of Britain and … [Read more…]
The Cake and I Once upon a time – before the outsourcing of dogs and children’s parties – mothers and caregivers made birthday cakes themselves. But sometimes a shop bought ice-cream cake was required. Usually for girls this involved a legless doll about the size of a Barbie doll, embedded in a sturdy … [Read more…]
The Perils of Pickup Trucks Somewhere tucked away in my family tree is a property developer. I’ll call him Geoff. He appeared for a few months and then disappeared. However for many years he continued to visit my mother, bearing huge boxes of chocolates and seasonal fresh flowers. Geoff invited me to lunch … [Read more…]
Autumn in the City It’s been a particularly lovely Melbourne autumn this year but now the days are getting shorter as we head into winter. Taking the city bound tram and heading off very early to work on golden autumn mornings has been quite enjoyable for the first half of the trip. But … [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…]
Easter in a Bottle Using the simplest of recipes, we have taken Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and locally produced dried Flame Seedless grapes and steeped them in our Original Gin Elixir to create Easter in a bottle. With citrus notes being the strong but subtle foundations of this Gin, they have lifted the spices … [Read more…]
Venus in a Fur Bikini ‘My name is Raquel Welch. I am here for visual effects, and I have two of them.’ Raquel Welch came to fame after starring in One Million Years B.C. in 1966. She only had three lines in the film but her fur bikini – made from deer skin … [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…]
All I want for Christmas … ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds; … [Read more…]
Breakfast at Tiffany’s All his prayers in the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how, could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved. Other Voices by Truman Capote. … [Read more…]
Hotel Ghosts For the last few days I’ve been doing a road trip around South Tasmania, while staying in a lovely hotel in Hobart’s wharf area. The area is rumoured to be fantastically ghost ridden. About 150 years ago the area around the wharf was known as Wapping. Folk who lived here worked in the … [Read more…]
Marriage is the tomb of love ‘The company … was far more likely to give pleasure than one made up of persons of quality, where gaiety freezes in the chill of etiquette.’ Casanova describing an evening spent with a group of actors. Having just finished editing my fiction manuscript I’m taking some time … [Read more…]
Freud’s Cigar ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.’ Dr Sigmund Freud 1856 -1939. Freud was a heavy cigar smoker and supposedly said, ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’. Many of his theories relate to uncontrolled libido and wild sexual impulses. Accordingly, his statement probably means a phallic-shaped object such as a cigar, doesn’t … [Read more…]