Culture

"Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... fuck with us.” The board members of HMV Group might be now wishing they hadn’t stocked so many Fight Club DVDs now. The massive UK entertainment retailer -- specializing in music, film, video games and other entertainment -- rang in the new year by running aground, with its British stores going into administration and its Irish locations shuttering entirely on January 15th.

Whackademia: An Insider’s Account of the Troubled University Richard Hil NewSouth Publishing, 2012 239 pages, $34.99 (pb) Universities were better in the olden days, says Dr Richard Hil in Whackademia. As an Essex University student in the 1970s, Hil joined the British Socialist Workers Party (which expanded his political horizons) and the Campaign for Real Ale (which expanded his waistline), while his lecturers stimulated his intellectual growth.

That Richard Hinds needs a few lessons in sports journalism.

“Such has been the atmosphere created by the Western Sydney Wanderers' fans, usually dispassionate critics have left Parramatta Stadium raving the experience makes the Camp Nou [in Barcelona] seem like a winter night at the Wentworth Park dogs,” Richard Hinds, the chief sports columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, had the sheer gall to write on February 18.

A selection of this week's celebrity news... Mug Shot of the Day: WCBS Anchor Rob Morrison Flashes Bloody Face After Domestic Violence Arrest http://eonli.ne/12KEkeB Mindy McCready: Why the Late Singer Shot Her Dog http://eonli.ne/12KBhTy Pamela Anderson Selling Malibu Home for $7.75 Million—Take a Look Inside! http://eonli.ne/12Kyiuh Justin Bieber Murder Plot Details Emerge: Inmate Wanted Singer Castrated With Hedge Clippers and Suffocated http://eonli.ne/WOevF7

British Muslim rapper Sam Khan was the CEO of his own company, a clothing range, website and a record label called Be Somebody. Three years on, he has launched The B Somebody Project to raise funds for orphans in Gaza. The project follows in the fundraising footsteps of previous music he has done for Pakistani flood victims. Green Left's Mat Ward spoke to him.

According to a report by Europol, hundreds of football matches across Europe have been fixed by betting syndicates, which must surely leave all genuine supporters of the game delighted. Because this is so much fairer than the current method of fixing matches, in which three clubs owned by trillionaires buy all the top players, making it impossible for anyone else to finish even close to them. Bribing a referee and a goalkeeper is much more democratic, as it can be done for a few grand, a fraction of the sum Manchester City spent on buying the Premier League.

Searching for Sugarman Directed by Malik Bendjelloul Starring Rodriguez, Malik Bendjelloul Music by Rodriguez Now showing at selected cinemas Director Mike Malik Bendjelloul’s film Searching for Sugarman, which has been nominated for best documentary film at this year’s Oscars and the British Film and Television Awards, traces the efforts of two South African fans to find out what happened to the mysterious Mexican-American folksinger known as Rodriguez.

"Every time you see in the media someone's been killed by police it always just happens to be an Aboriginal," says radical rapper Provocalz. It's 9.30 on a Saturday morning and the south-west Sydney spitter is telling Green Left why he made his hard-hitting horrorcore track, "Cop Shot".

A selection of this week's celebrity news... Vivienne Jolie-Pitt's Salary Revealed: Angelina Jolie's Daughter Earns $3,000 a Week for Maleficent http://eonli.ne/V48fvL Zero Dark Thirty: Osama bin Laden Shooter Says Jessica Chastain's Performance Was "Awesome" http://eonli.ne/XGhSgJ Kate Upton, Katherine Webb, Fellow Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models Do Late Show Top 10 http://eonli.ne/V1tGxv Alyssa Milano's Dog Diesel Dies of Cancer: "Rest in Peace," Actress Tweets http://eonli.ne/V0vLd9

It appears that the movement for a cultural boycott of Israel can claim another victory. On January 5 guitarist Stanley Jordan announced he will not be performing at the winter installment of Israel’s Red Sea Jazz Festival. In a brief statement on his Facebook page, Jordan stated: “My performance at the Red Sea Jazz Festival has been cancelled. I apologize for any inconvenience to anyone.” Jordan, an acclaimed an innovative guitarist, had been billed as a headliner at the festival.

Greenwash: Big Brands & Carbon Scams Guy Pearse Black Inc., 2012 264 pages, $29.99 (pb) The response of big business to global warming, their propaganda would have us believe, is to ride to the rescue by reducing their carbon emissions. As Guy Pearse shows in Greenwash, however, this is just a marketing ploy to attract the dollars of environmentally concerned customers.

Fasayi'il, in the Jordan Valley, 8pm on a Friday evening; a desert community bathed in the glow of the moon, with barely an artificial light visible for miles. In the centre of the village a single tent shines, accompanied by a soundtrack of music, singing and laughter. Inside, four black-clad Palestinian actors mime interpretations of stories shared by locals.