Bill Viola is the “grand old guy” of video art. W H Chong attends the Melbourne Arts Festival and reviews some of Viola’s work including the striking Fire Woman, an enigmatic ten minute piece that depicts a black figure against a rolling wall of flame.
October, 2010
What Packer wants to do and why
James Packer’s main game remains, well, gaming, but his calculated play to wrestle control of Ten has some obvious intentions: namely to remake the network as a stand-alone entity, build relationships with Foxtel and cut back on investing in news, writes Terry McCrann.
Did Turnbull stay on because Howard urged him to?
Since 2007 John Howard has largely disappeared from the media spotlight, but revelations that he urged Malcolm Turnbull to reconsider his decision to retire in April provides further evidence that the former PM continues to play a significant role in Liberal party politics.
A befuddling graph from Bolt
An unusual graph published in Andrew Bolt’s Herald Sun column yesterday confused Jeremy Sear. It appears to be saying that the number of detainees during the Rudd government multiplied by about ten times - only it has no figures and no end date.
Diagnosing relations between pharma, journalism and doctors
Last month the CEO of Medicines Australia launched a stinging attack on pharmaceutical industry critics but recent developments tend to undermine his arguments. Melissa Sweet reports.
UK may buy as few as 12 F-35s
Big cuts to the UK’s military spending announced last night could see it purchase as few as 12 Joint Strike Fighters. This as well as an impending meeting between European leaders should lead to some deep thinking in Canberra, writes Ben Sandilands.
John Cain: Some are more equal than others
The political process may be fairer and equally represented these days, but money still plays a big part in politics and power, writes formers Victorian Premier John Cain.
Why Mark Webber shouldn’t be leading the F1 championship
Mark Webber is currently 14 points clear of Sebastian Vettel but, according to F1 Fanatic’s Keith Collantine, he really should be 59 points behind the German.
How a footy forum troll ended up in The Age
BigFooty’s Jamie Johnstone regales the story of a friend, who by trolling on football forum BigFooty, had his lie duplicated by the mainstream media. In the end it cost Jamie a slab of beer…
Murray Murmurings: What happens when two extremist ideologies meet
Irrigated agriculture systems, like electric grids and city road transport networks, are human engineering constructs, not gifts of nature. Therefore irrigation systems trigger by their existence a government’s duty of care to the human communities that they sustain, says Tony Kevin.
How not to get into Azerbaijan
Arriving at the Azerbaijan aiport, Richard Norman was informed: “from today we are not issuing visas on arrival to foreigners unless they have written authorisation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a letter of invitation.” It was the beginning of a Kafkaesque tale.
Wanted: Indonesian President with something to say
Indonesians all over the country have taken to the streets today on the one-year anniversary of Yudhoyono’s re-election, not for something the president has done, but for everything he hasn’t done, writes Angela Dewan.
Senate race snap shots: Alaska
Alaska is the sort of state that should be easy for the Republicans to win. Yet, for the second election in a row, internal drama in the Republican party threatens its hold on a Senate seat, writes Ben Raue.
Murray Murmurings: a reasonable and rational national discussion, please
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has been overwhelmed by numbers attending its ‘consultation’ sessions in towns across the Basin. While media reports have focused on them being “angry” and “burning copies of the plan”, the vast majority of the thousands that have turned up have been there to listen and to show their concern by numbers. […]
More Morgan Reactor testing of US mid-term ads
We have a new batch of US mid-term ads that have been run through the Roy Morgan Reactor audience response testing (using US citizens and with the technology deployed online) — giving some pretty interesting results, especially by party breakdown. Looking at the latest batch of ads, they’re all “Vote for me! Vote for me!” type stuff […]
Can we bank on business to take the environmental lead?
The Greenpeace campaign against ANZ raises an interesting question: Is there a responsibility on bankers to become society’s police when politicians fail to act? asks Climate Spectator’s Giles Parkinson.
An election fought on law and order … but nobody gives a damn
Voters in key inner-city Victorian seats up for grabs in next month’s state election couldn’t care less about law and order despite the crimewave apparently engulfing their backyards, research commissioned exclusively for Crikey has revealed.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s mid-terms: O’Donnell an embarrassment to the Tea Party, and its utter essence
Delaware, it turns out, is a paradoxical place. To the outside world, its distinct image is precisely nil. Within Delaware, it has a sense of identity so intense as to near-exclude discussion of anything else.
Packer gets back into the mogul business
James Packer will discover the game has changed since he left TV. But his bigger concern is to get back into the mogul business, write Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.
Let’s remember Packer isn’t very good at TV
James Packer is not and has never been a positive influence in TV. He has been sceptical about the future of FTA TV and print, enthusiastic about new media. He never wanted to stay in the old media, rejecting it for gambling.
Abbott delivered a more effective case on Afghanistan
This Parliamentary debate on Afghanistan will do nothing to change voters’ views — particularly when the Government can’t provide voters with a compelling case.
Slavery returns to Top End
Today, workers at the small townships of Kalkaringi and Dagaragu in the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory will be out on strike over their pay and conditions. As Bob Gosford reports, it’s a case of history repeating.
