Culture

  • The Greens, economics and fairytales

    The Greens, economics and fairytales The GreensBy Bob Brown and Peter SingerThe Text Publishing Company, 1996. 198 pp., $14.95Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald This book by Green Senate candidates Bob Brown and Peter Singer is the first attempt to

  • Weipa: record of a strike

    Weipa: Where Australian unions drew their 'line in the sand' with CRABy Patrick GormanWeipa Industrial Site Committee through CFMEU Mining Division69pp., $5Reviewed by Jennifer Thompson This book by Paddy Gorman, editor of the CFMEU Mining Division's

  • Challenging the philosophy of Marxism

    The Poverty of Dialectical MaterialismBy Eric PetersonSummer Hill NSW: Red DoorReviewed by Rurik Davidson. Not all philosophers are wankers. There have been people who have been genuinely concerned with the big problems for a reason — to use

  • Sisterhood, satire and shock

    Figments of a MurderBy Gillian HanscombeSpinifex Press, 1995, 264 pp., $16.95 (pb)Reviewed by Kath Gelber Hanscombe has a delightful way of combining conventional narrative with lyrical prose, evident in earlier works including Sybil: The Glide of

  • Life of the well-known unknown

    Enough Blue SkyBy Mona BrandTawny Pit Press, 283 pp.Reviewed by Dave Riley Australia's New Theatre Movement was born in Sydney during the Great Depression and soon spread to other capitals. Instigated by members of the Communist Party, it was

  • Different ways of getting under the skin

    SkinSydney Theatre CompanyWharf 2, Sydney until March 16Reviewed by Lisa Macdonald Skin incorporates two very different, tenuously linked plays. The first, Somewhere in the Darkness, written by Ray Kelly, draws on the traditions of Aboriginal

  • Big gaps in Gulf War documentary

    Big gaps in Gulf War documentary The Gulf War: a television historyABC TV, Wednesday February 14 and 21, 8.30pmReviewed by Jennifer Thompson It's only five years since the 1990-91 Gulf war and yet it's faded from many people's memories.

  • Arguments against genetic engineering

    Colonising the Seed: Genetic Engineering and Techno-Industrial AgricultureBy Gyorgy ScrinisPublished by Friends of the Earth, 199540pp., $5Reviewed by Michael McNamara This compact publication presents a persuasive synthesis of the arguments against

  • Sonnet of Lion & Prey, Christians and Lions

    Sonnet of Lion & Prey, Christians and Lions "incredible boldness" this lion who roars to be a lion this trope in the jungle what interests it? nothing that would hide itself but the representation of the wound the will to bleed *** At 4 o'clock the

  • The Fringe is back

    By Philippa Stanford ADELAIDE — The 1996 Fringe Festival opens on February 23. Launched with a street party and parade, the festival runs until March 17. This year the festival has grown significantly with around 4400 performers participating at

  • Poem: Bread and circuses

    Give bread to the people I guess we can afford it. Well, we must admit we live in some sort of decent luxury. Of course, we deserve it, thanks to the superiority of our enterprising mind and our special standing in the order of things. But let our

  • Sierra Maestra returns to Australia

    By Roberto Jorquera Sierra Maestra, a nine-piece Latin dance orchestra, is again bringing the essence of Cuban dance music to Australia after its successful tour in 1995. Since its formation in 1978, Sierra Maestra has played throughout Europe,