Thinking pop culture
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Much has been made of Lance Armstrong falling short of an Oprah mea culpa. While he may have admitted to the imbibing, he didn’t say sorry, didn’t express remorse. Certainly didn’t do the expected Marion…
Last week on Lifetime - a cable channel in the US - a reality TV show called Double Divas premiered. The trailer gives a useful overview: a couple of best friends fit amply bosomed women for new bras…
Writers, feminists, academics, social commentators. Each stir up varying degrees of loathing, mockery and complete and utter frustration in me. The irony and hypocrisy does not evade me. Depending on the…
Some trips get ruined by natural disasters, acts of terrorism, Tiger Airlines. For me, my first solo trip was ruined by Nickleback. Back in 2002 I visited The Continent. And wherever I went during that…
In one of the last scenes of The Master, cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) sings On a Slow Boat to China. The romantic connotations aside, the ordeal of so long a journey perfectly encapsulated…
I’m a stickler for immersing myself in local literature while in foreign lands. It goes without saying therefore, that while in London recently I soon sourced a copy of the Daily Mail. Buttressed by stories…
There’s a hilarious scene in Joe Meno’s novel Hairstyles of the Damned (2004) where the teenaged protagonist, Brian, tried to seduce a Catholic schoolgirl by playing REO Speedwagon. Hilarious just as much…
Among the many fascinating points made in Will Schwalbe’s The End of Your Life Book Club, was the tendency for readers to link together the books they read in a similar period. To identify parallel themes…
Whenever I use the term “literati”, I’m being facetious and describing a Melbourne writer’s culture that I find peculiar at best and laughably pretentious at worst. When I came across The End of Your Life…
Some of my best friends are dairy farmers. Okay, one is. Then there was that dodgy romp with a milker at her wedding. Country air brings out the worst in me. Anyhow. My friend, the dairy farmer, rang me…