Culture

  • Punk rock's Silver Jubilee

    The Sex Pistols re-released their anti-monarchist anthem “God Save the Queen” at the end of May, 25 years after the national uproar the record received on its original release back in 1977. It was again timed to clash with

  • Small world, big screen

    SYDNEY — Once again, the screens of the State Theatre and Dendy Opera Quays have come alive with a feast of cinema from across the globe. The 49th Sydney Film Festival continues until June 21, with the theme "Small world, big screen". A number of

  • Inessa Armand:

    Inessa, Lenin's Mistress By Michael Pearson Duckworth, 2001 257 pages, $65.95 (hb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON When Inessa Armand met Vladimir Lenin in a Paris caf‚ in 1909, so began one of the most speculated about love affairs on the

  • Good riddance to Ally McBeal

    Maybe there is a god. Five years ago, the Fox network introduced Ally McBeal — a show focused on the wacky antics of the self-absorbed Harvard law graduate and her coworkers at a high-powered Boston law firm. TV audiences

  • A spin on political correctness

    REVIEW BY IGGY KIM Spinning Into ButterWritten by Rebecca GilmanDirected by Adam CookEnsemble Theatre, SydneyMay 17-June 29 US playwright Rebecca Gilman's feted work, Spinning Into Butter, is an unabashed self-examination of racial prejudice in

  • Two stories of a nation's struggle for freedom

    REVIEW BY JON LAND This is a two-part series looking at how two different individuals begin new lives in East Timor following the August 31, 1999 referendum on independence. Rosa's Story, which screened on May 23, is a particularly moving account

  • Imperialism and Islam

    REVIEW BY LISA MACDONALD In the prologue to his new book, Tariq Ali writes: "Tragedies are always discussed as if they took place in a void, but actually each tragedy is conditioned by its setting, local and global. The events of 11

  • Nobody's Somebody's

    BY SUE CAMPBELL-ROBERTS SYDNEY &#151 How do 17 emerging artists respond to the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers? With an exhibition of powerful new art works focussing on the individual and collective meaning of journey,

  • Targets, London 1850

    The dullest of records were old Factory Reports bound, called “Blue Books”. List of figures, translations of workers' lives tossed about in debate and later boredom. Members of Parliament used these for target practice (the force of

  • Zinn's powerful voice against war

    REVIEW BY ELIZABETH TERZAKI Since September 11, the media has dedicated itself to dishonesty and spinelessness in its support of George Bush's “war on terrorism”. Need some air? Then pick up a copy of Terrorism and War, a collection

  • Think of Silver

    Expensive spoons, some wereborn with; also the worditself sliding as smoothly off the tongue.Then all the substitutes cheap but preciousreflected in eyeshine at Xmas toys, tinselsparklers, stars. But hard glitter of mint-new silver dollarswere