"It is, when you consider it, a profoundly bleak view of romantic love. What are we to make of a supposed ingenue who grows up when she blinks at murder?" Me on the MTC adaptation of Rebecca www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...

Me on the Australian Ballet's joyous program of contemporary dance, Prism. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2025/10/04/t...

What a ride. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

"Gamergate never ended. It put on a tie and went to Washington."

A really great piece from @nickfeik.bsky.social.

If Melbourne University Publishing doesn’t want to keep publishing Meanjin, they should hand over the journal to someone worthy of the responsibility. Me in The Conversation theconversation.com/the-decision...

Why should accountants, human-resource managers & real-estate developers be interested in promoting Australian literature?

Well worth the read: a report on contemporary dance and censorship in Viktor Orbán's right wing Hungary, where independent artists are struggling to survive. A situation unsettlingly parallel with what is happening in Australia. tanz.dance/the-city-of-...

“In Della’s contradictions, Marillier portrays the internalisation of decades – nay, centuries – of brutal authoritarian power. Apartheid was, after all, only the culmination of a process that began with British and Dutch colonisation.” www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/thea...

So much I could say about the Robodebt Class Action re-settlement. But I am tired and in another time zone and will simply leave this here instead.

It is easy to dismiss this as a single publication ending, but it’s a wider _infrastructural_ loss - and as Louise Adler says, easy to close, very hard to rebuild. These decisions have disastrous long term consequences beyond a single slice of the cultural sector

I was Meanjin's Designer in the early 00s for years. Laid out and typeset every page and cover. Tiny budget but a great opportunity for young me and for those who came before and after. Even then Melbourne Uni was an existential threat. They'll save very little and lose a great deal through this.

The loss of Meanjin is devastating news for Australian writers and readers. Always meant so much to see my work there. Some of my best experiences of being edited. An entirely avoidable disaster.

This is shocking news. Literary magazines - and all the other small orgs now under pressure or closing or gone - are the bedrock of culture and their ongoing costs are barely a blip in any institutional budget. Melbourne University ought to be ashamed www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed. It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it. More thoughts (un-paywalled) here: www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...

This is a set of screenshots of an astonishing "conversation" between writer @guinz.bsky.social and #ChatGPT. "What ultimately transpired is the closest thing to a personal episode of Black Mirror this lifetime." ‪h/t @dranitaheiss.bsky.social #writing #AI /... open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...

Broken Forms by Franz Marc, 1914 #artbots #guggenheim https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137374

#FreePalestine BRI: 10-50K MEL: 100K SYD: ? ['tens of thousands'] CAN: 2K HOB: 'thousands' PER: 25K ADE: 15K plus numerous other towns & regional centres www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Absolutely epic crowd at the Melbourne march for Palestine

“I must admit: I write this piece while starving – too hungry to think clearly, too weak to sit upright for long. I do not feel ashamed because my starvation is deliberate.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

What they're saying is that AI isn't profitable without outright theft and because other countries are already stealing we should too

As many have said from the beginning of this culture war

Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker. Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path. Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.

Congrats Sydney, what a turnout ❤️

Ah no. A great creative light. The Black Rider and Woyzeck were two of the three greatest things I ever saw in theatre

So sad to hear Robert Wilson died. So many productions that changed theatre: CIVIL WarS, Hamletmachine, Einstein on the Beach… I saw a lot of his work, but have always regretted not seeing his collaborations with Heiner Mueller. Vale news.artnet.com/art-world/ro...

Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.

This is how I feel when I see polling about the under 16s ban in Australia. People don't realise they'll have to have their age checked too.

Open letter against the adoption of the Australian Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism’s Plan: Academics against racism overland.org.au/2025/07/open...

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER premiered on this day 70 years ago in Des Moines, Iowa, to negative reviews. As a result, it was the only film directed by Charles Laughton, truly unique in every way, and an utter masterpiece. A grim, poetic, fairy tale, slathered in beauty, suffused in American Gothic...

Ireland trialled a scheme where they provided 2000 artists with a guaranteed income of €1300 a month. It's been such a success that it's already been extended and there's a campaign to push it further. Here's the government report: assets.gov.ie/static/docum...

Once again willing Michael Powell's adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA into being.

Having covered coronial inquests, it is exceedingly rare that coroners will go this far and commit this to print.

There's no place for institutional finance in rental markets. It's a predatory extraction machine that robs the poor and middle. But one thing I'd add: we should stop calling these people "investors". They don't "invest". They buy up and milk existing assets. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality." - James Baldwin

Grenfell: Uncovered' is a gripping account not only of what happened on June 14 but also of the myriad institutional failures, incompetence, corporate greed and criminal neglect that made it almost an inevitability. http://satpa.pe/95W2we8

The report is creative.gov.au/venice-bienn... (I've skimmed it and it is an impressive document)

If it took 8 days to build a massive concentration camp in Florida then it means they could build and house the homeless at any point but choose not to

The right outcome but so many unanswered questions www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

“Pity the nation whose people are sheep, and whose shepherds mislead them. Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced, and whose bigots haunt the airwaves. Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to...acclaim the bully as hero” Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1958 #poetry

“At a time of mass species extinction, climate chaos, growing authoritarianism, economic inequity & war, the health of a culture may seem trivial. I persist in believing that it is far from trivial” @alisoncroggon.bsky.social excellent on the sorry story of Creative OZ meanjin.com.au/essays/coura...

“When push comes to shove, it has long been clear that the artist—and the art—will always be sacrificed for the organisation.” Such a clear-sighted reflection on the state of Creative Australia from @alisoncroggon.bsky.social meanjin.com.au/essays/coura...

Feminist filmmakers make great films & raise great leaders! TIL that Zohran Mamdani's mum is legendary filmmaker Mira Nair (MISSISSIPPI MASALA, MONSOON WEDDING, THE NAMESAKE).

Bleak and perceptive from Alison

A cogent examination of the current state of affairs in the arts

"Arts administrators find themselves straddling a polarised community of artists, patrons and audience members in an increasingly volatile political environment...Too often the response has been to cut artists loose in order to preserve the organisation..."

Me in @meanjin.bsky.social on the debacle that is Creative Australia. “If it can’t fight for all the meanings and freedoms of art, if it can’t defend what is precious in our cultural heritage and future, what is it for?” meanjin.com.au/essays/coura...

This is very, very good

Me in @meanjin.bsky.social on the debacle that is Creative Australia. “If it can’t fight for all the meanings and freedoms of art, if it can’t defend what is precious in our cultural heritage and future, what is it for?” meanjin.com.au/essays/coura...