The Age sacked Catherine Deveny yesterday for her ‘tasteless’ tweets at the Logies. This is not longer after there was some complaint about her Anzac day tweets. Yes, her tweets are tasteless. They are also under her own name and people can choose to follow her or not. The Age have enjoyed her aggressive, provocative, and sometimes extremely irritating, style for some years but of course once she made a sexual crack about a child, well the sky fell in. That’s pretty well a burnable offense these days. I agree with Crikey on this. ‘Extreme, because off-colour or not, her… [Read more]
Typo
In the Weekly Book News this week was the following announcement: PENGUIN CONFIRMS COOKBOOK PULPED ‘Penguin pulped 7000 copies of the Pasta Bible (ISBN 9780143011071) earlier this month due to a typo that could be considered offensive. New stock will be available from mid-May. Bateman said this ‘was a proofreading error, and we’ll be making every effort to ensure this doesn’t happen again’.’ Stock has not been recalled – so presumably bookstores still have stock of the book with the typo in it. We know someone who knows someone who knows an anonymous someone that tells us that the pulped… [Read more]
Shadow of a Game: Locating Soccer in Australian Cultural Life
Despite its worldwide popularity, soccer in Australia has long struggled to gain a proper foothold. Shunted to one side as a ‘foreign’ sport, the beautiful game has languished on the sidelines while the AFL and Rugby leagues rose to prominence. Yet, as Ian Syson discovers in the December issue of Meanjin, soccer has its own proud and almost forgotten history, from as early as the late 19th century to the migrant booms of the fifties and sixties. The full essay is now available on our editions page, and a brief extract is below. This is an argument about legitimacy. Soccer—my… [Read more]
Literary Blockbusters and the Zeitgeist
I’m fascinated by literary blockbusters, books that sell in the millions worldwide and create their own language and cultures, like Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code and Twilight. These books owe their success to more than just their easy reading and vividly imagined stories. They tap into something deep within their readers; they express the zeitgeist, the collective unconscious, they are signs of the times. So what can the two literary blockbusters of the noughties The Da Vinci Code and the Twilight saga tell us about our times, at the end of a decade that closes with the… [Read more]
Super Fun Happy: Jessica Au Japanese Barcodes
Here’s something rather sugoi in terms of graphic design – Japanese firm d-barcode and its American counterpart Barcode Revolution, have taken the humble icon and made it a cheeky, quirky, clever form of illustration all on its own. Have a look at more at Cool Hunting and The Dieline. Comments by phill 02 Dec 09 at 17:12 I can imagine all those folk that have barcode tattoos looking at these in dismay. Fantastic! … by phill 02 Dec 09 at 17:13 Oh, and for more barcode-related art, check out Scott Blake: http://www.barcodeart.com/ … by Scott Blake 10 Dec 09… [Read more]
Creative writing courses vs writers’ groups
The other day, I was having a chat with the lovely Bel Monypenny, editor of Voiceworks, on the topic of workshopping and learning how to write. I remember enthusing widely about my writers’ group (which I suddenly realise I’ve been a part of for almost a year and a half now), yet being somewhat divided on the subject of creative writing courses. It wasn’t until later that I got to really thinking about why – given that both focus mainly on workshopping and outside feedback. Also, given that creative writing subjects have extra trimmings (lectures, reading lists, structured tutes etc.),… [Read more]
Does Anyone Remember The Quinkins?
The other day I was pleasantly wasting time on Skylark and Son, when I came across this mention of The Quinkins, a wonderful children’s picture book written by Percy Trezise and illustrated by Dick Roughsey. This book made a huge impression on me as a child, but until recently I’d clean forgotten all it. Immediately though, this extract brought back some pretty vivid memories sitting on the library floor, reading about the fat, squat Imjim luring away young children, only to be thwarted by the long, graceful Timara: From the beginning, the Yalanji tribe belonged to the beautiful country of… [Read more]
What books should I buy a 9-year-old girl?
If you don’t have kids, or even if you do, figuring out what to buy them between about six and twelve years of age is tough because they all read so differently. I put a bit of work into getting a list of books for my niece’s birthday next week (with particular help from Alien Onion) and thought that good work shouldn’t go to waste. As a bit of background, I let people know that Pia was a pretty advanced reader who’d made it through most of Harry Potter. Here it is: Cicada Summer by Kate Constable The Graveyard Book… [Read more]
E-Reader Roundup: From Apples to iLiads
E-readers are being bandied about left, right and centre, and indeed there always seems to be one that will be better/faster/prettier/smaller/smarter just around the corner. As far as I can tell, e-readers haven’t really taken off in Australia beyond the novelty factor (in all my commuting, I’ve only ever seen one used on the train, and even then it could have just been a very big palm pilot). But all that may change, particularly with the Apple Tablet looming. Jonathan Strahan also makes an interesting point that the arrival of e-books does not necessarily mean the death of the paperback…. [Read more]
My Beautiful Libraries
What good bookbuff doesn’t love a library? And I mean heart and soul want-to-roll-around-in-the-dust-and-must-from-the-shelves type of love. Here are a few shots of some absolutely beautiful beehived bibliotheques from Curious Expeditions. Our own State Library of Victoria makes the cut, and I also love the dramatic red banisters in the Handelingenkamer, and the rattling-bones gothic feel of the Chained Library in Hereford, where rare books were once kept linked to the shelves to prevent stealing. JA Comments by Chris 25 Jun 09 at 7:55 I like this one in Porto: http://erraticmusings.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c003a53ef0105362e6384970b-400wi Google image search ‘livraria lello’ for more … by… [Read more]