Category Archives: What’s new

‘You can’t take the experiences out of your head / You can’t take the damages out of your heart’: Ben Quilty’s After Afghanistan – and Homer, Virgil and Nadeem Aslam

Posted on 15/04/2013 by

Last Saturday I went to see Ben Quilty’s exhibition ‘After Afghanistan‘ at the National Art School in Sydney, commissioned by the Australian War Memorial. I hadn’t seen Quilty’s paintings in the flesh before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I … Continue reading →

Posted in What's new | 3 Comments

‘NB The prince – Christ’: The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – and the Sydney Writers’ Festival 2013

Posted on 12/04/2013 by

Last night on Sydney Harbour the new artistic director of the Sydney Writers’ Festival Jemma Birrell launched the 2013 festival program – ‘A criminal mind, Molly Ringwald & a seduction artist walk into a … Have we got a story … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, What's new | 11 Comments

‘We are all corals now: A meditation on art, science and hope in an age of global warming’ – Margaret Wertheim’s Templeton Lecture, Part II

Posted on 06/04/2013 by

Now for Part II of Margaret Wertheim’s Templeton Lecture, ‘We are all corals now‘, given at the University of Sydney on Monday 18 March. After talking broadly about her coral reef crochet project (including an exposition of the hyperbolic geometry … Continue reading →

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‘Everything has been created by sea mucus for love arises from the foam’: Margaret Wertheim gives the 23rd Templeton Lecture ‘We are all corals now’, Part I

Posted on 02/04/2013 by

How apt (or NOT) that I should have planned to blog about Margaret Wertheim’s intriguing, inspiring, provocative 2013 Templeton Lecture We are all corals now: A meditation on art, science and hope in an age of global warming just moments after … Continue reading →

Posted in What's new | 5 Comments

And now for a totally different sort of (Easter) Eigg – Alastair McIntosh’s Soil and Soul: People versus corporate power

Posted on 29/03/2013 by

I’ve been desperate to write about this book ever since I started reading it many weeks ago – but how to write about a book as rich and multilayered, as unique, as Alastair McIntosh‘s Soil and Soul: People versus corporate … Continue reading →

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What has nature ever done for us? by Tony Juniper: Most important book for the future of our planet I’ve read

Posted on 18/03/2013 by

So, I’m making a big call here. I was planning to blog about two important books today, Tony Juniper’s What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? How money really does grow on trees, just published, and Alistair McIntosh’s Soul and … Continue reading →

Posted in What's new | 14 Comments

Music on my mind: Fredric Jameson, Wagner’s Ring cycle and affect

Posted on 07/03/2013 by

I have music on my mind, again. Nick Cave (courtesy of his concert at the Opera House last week and one at the Enmore Theatre this weekend), Puccini (La Boheme), Schubert (Anna Goldsworthy’s excellent essay on pianist and Schubert interpreter … Continue reading →

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Girls of Australia: stand up and count! with Margaret Wertheim, Clio Cresswell and Robyn Arianrhod

Posted on 26/02/2013 by

Hot on the heels of an email exchange I had today about the power of numbers and metrics in our 21st century global society (which I’ll be talking about on Wednesday 27 March 2013 at the University of Tasmania), comes … Continue reading →

Posted in What's new | 11 Comments

Writing La Boheme: ‘Sono un poeta. Che cosa faccio? Scrivo. E come vivo? Vivo!’

Posted on 20/02/2013 by

Last week I saw Puccini’s La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House. The Gale Edwards production set in 1920s-30s Berlin was so exciting, so energetic, the music’s still swirling round my head, especially Rodolfo’s aria ‘Che gelida manina‘, which I … Continue reading →

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My love is like a … quiet desk in Fisher Library

Posted on 14/02/2013 by

I’ve been in a frenzy of work for the last few weeks – and despite plans to blog here about various things, including my latest reading and the announcement of Christos Tsiolkas’s forthcoming novel Barracuda, I’ve been too busy elsewhere. … Continue reading →

Posted in What's new | 7 Comments