Culture

  • The new Mrs Parker

    If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?By Cynthia HeimelPicador, 181 pp., $14.95 (pb)Reviewed by Dave Riley It's true that the US of A isn't short of columnists. Name your preference, and there is sure to be some self-righteous wag claiming a few column

  • Alert No. 543 &&

    From: The Office for Open Communication Circulation: All Coalition Politicians, State and Federal Subject: Stamping out Political Correctness When the Howard government came to power, it was obvious to all and sundry that a tide of political

  • Srebrenica

    A short story by Craig Cormick "Shit! Shit! Shit!" I'd tried to videotape Star Trek last night for my weekly fix of fantasy, and I'd accidentally taped some documentary off SBS. I was running it back and forward with the remote control, hoping that

  • Storytelling revival in Hobart

    HOBART — Over the past year, Mecca Performance Cafe has become one of the most popular venues for alternative political and cultural performance, as well as alternative political scene and discussion. Political groups such as the

  • 3CR: community radio going strong

    MELBOURNE — Australia's first and only Melbourne-wide community broadcaster celebrates 20 years of broadcasting this year. Station manager Bruce Francis says, "From an idea of a small group of activists in 1974 to Australia's premier community

  • Poem: Cook's Dream

    "... [they] set no value on anything we gave them. nor would they ever part with any thing of their own for any one article we could offer them ..." For him the sea was another sky And the sky another sea Deep as wishing wells and both As

  • Spotting the next hit

    TrainspottingDirected by Danny Boyle Starring Ewan McGregor, Ewan Bremner, Johnny Lee MillerReviewed by Natalie Woodlock If you're looking for a happy ending, or for a moralising don't-do-drugs-they're-bad-for-you film, you shouldn't see

  • Looking deeply into the mirror

    MrayaAbdel Ali SlimaniReal World through FestivalReviewed by Jenny Long This album is an interesting introduction to the current evolution of Algerian "pop"-rai — the 1980 and '90s version of the bawdy, working-class rai originating from the

  • Beneath politics

    Global IssuesBy John SeitzBlackwell Publishers, 1995. 257 pp., $39.95Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald On first glance, this book looks like an interesting and environmentally conscious study of the major social and ecological issues confronting the world

  • The militant and the mystic

    Fire MusicArchie SheppImpulse through GRP/MCATauhidPharoah SandersImpulse through GRP/MCAKarmaImpulse through GRP/MCAReviewed by Norm Dixon John Coltrane's music evolved as black America moved from the optimism sparked by the gains of the mass civil

  • A tribute to Irish folk traditions

    The Ultimate Irish Folk CollectionDouble CD distributed through RTEReviewed by Ian Jamieson For those who enjoy Irish ballads at sessions in pubs, amongst Irish nationalist gatherings or just simply for the great Irish tradition of song, this double

  • One side of Raymond Williams

    Raymond WilliamsBy Fred InglisRoutledge, 1995. 333 pp., $44.95 (hb)Reviewed by Phil Shannon As Cambridge professor of drama as well as political activist, Raymond Williams, who died in 1988, truly earned the respect that most of the left have for