An article about the art collectors group I’m involved in was published in the Australian Financial Review, 21-22 May 2005. Group member, Janne was commissioned to write this story in response to the growing market for, and interest in, video art in Australia. It ran in the Perspective section of the Weekend AFR. THE RISE OF VIDEO ART, by Janne Ryan “Video art has become a given in contemporary visual art,” announces Juliana Engberg, artistic…
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m half-watching “The Simpsons” on Foxtel. It’s the episode where it’s revealed Principal Skinner isn’t really a war hero after all. I really love this show and in the last few days I’ve also seen one of my all time favourites, the one where Mrs Crabopple and Principal Skinner fall in love. It’s the one where Mrs Crabopple utters the classic line about her nights at home, “It’s just salad for…
In stark contrast to most of the reviews on this website, this one deals with a reggae-flavoured hip hop band from Melbourne called Combat Wombat, featuring DJ Wasabi aka Tom Jones. No, it’s not the boring aged Welsh singer, it’s Tom Jones, formerly of Matong, Wagga Wagga, Newcastle and now Melbourne, son of my friend Kate. When he was 7 Tom showed me how to use a computer… Tom is now a famous pop star…
It’s Tuesday night and I’m half watching ABC-TV‘s coverage of the Federal Budget. I notice the commercial networks are all but ignoring the budget this year, thereby confirming my observation that Channel 9 only makes a claim to be “the national network” on an irregular basis. Anyway, I’m only half-watching it so I don’t exactly know what’s been announced. I guess I’ll have to watch Lateline later tonight to make sense of all this. Anyway……
Earlier this week I was listening to “Late Night Live” on Radio National on which Phillip Adams spoke with Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire, the UN official on which one of the characters, the one played by Nick Nole in “Hotel Rwanda” was based. He was very dismissive of the film arguing its only benefit was in keeping the story of the massacre alive. In particular, he was dismissive of the central role played in the film…
It’s Sunday afternoon and it’s another glorious day in Sydney. In fact it’s been glorious all week. Winter is really holding out this year. It’s the first of May and I’m sitting here in just shorts. And this time last year, I can remember being in Melbourne and almost being frozen to death. It was even nice for Anzac Day this week and, as usual, I worked. But after work I caught up for lunch…