Culture

Polemical titbits against creationism

River out of Eden:A Darwinian View of LifeBy Richard DawkinsWeidenfeld & NicholsonScience Masters Series1995, $19.95Reviewed by Dot Tumney This river is a river of DNA flowing through time. Genetic information flows through living things in the

Laughing with Australian Samizdat

I enjoyed this book, but I won't tell you to rush out and buy it. If you tried to do so, you wouldn't succeed. In the '70s and '80s, dissident writers in the Soviet Union invented samizdat — "self publishing" — the distribution of manuscripts by

Magic Realism Hollywood-style

A Walk in the CloudsStarring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Anthony Quinn and Giancarlo GianniniDirected by Alfonso ArauReviewed by Barry Healy Magic Realism, the heady mix of gritty emotion and surreal dreaminess, has started to seep out of

Going separate ways

The SeparationDirected by Christian VincentScreening at Cinema Como in South YarraOpens in Sydney on November 16 at Verona Cinemas, PaddingtonReviewed by Margaret Allan. The Separation is a very good French film about the deteriorating relationship

A skilful defence (7K)

Trotsky as AlternativeBy Ernest MandelVerso, 1995, 186 pp., $44.95 (pb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon Leon Trotsky has defied the efforts of enemies and friends alike to wilfully or inadvertently blacken the political heritage of one of the twentieth

On the box

Programs of interest on Sydney Community TV (UHF 31) — Perleeka, indigenous Australians' program, nightly, 7pm. Art Experimenta, Mondays, 8pm and 11.30pm, and Tuesdays, 3am and 6.30am. Bent TV, Gay and lesbian program, Thursdays, 10.30pm and

Nostradamus' Media Watch

Based on highly reliable international contacts, leaked documents and horoscopes from several TV magazines, Nostradamus' Media Watch presents a highly accurate forecast of political events across the globe. Bosnian war crime trials begin Before the

2nd look

At the Barricades (1981) Radical Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett's autobiography covers the high spots of politics from the 1930s to the end of the 1970s. A reporter during World War II, Burchett was the first western journalist to report on

Not a feminist text

Women in the Age of Economic TransformationEdited by Nahid Aslanbeigui, Steven Pressman & Gale SummerfieldRoutledge, 1994, 232 pp.Reviewed by Carla Gorton Does privatisation marginalise women? How are women affected by the development process? Are

Flawless rhythms but lacking soul

Arturo Sandoval and the Latin TrainArturo SandovalGRP through MCAReviewed by Norm Dixon Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is one of Latin jazz's high profile artists. Sadly, this status has as much to do with his decision to flee to the US from his native

On the box

On the box Programs of interest on Sydney Community TV (UHF 31) — Perleeka, indigenous Australians' program, nightly, 7pm. Art Experimenta, Mondays, 8pm and 11.30pm, and Tuesdays, 3am and 6.30am. Bent TV, gay and lesbian program, Thursdays, 10.30pm

Life of Riley

You spend all your youthful years trying to get ahead. Isn't that right? You learn early that to get ahead you need to jockey for a position. Once there you should be set for life. But despite your immense talent and aptitude (at least Mum always