Picking up the baton from my last post….
The Wiredancer’s Waltz (Sven Swenson) pitches a pregnant Judi beside her laconic fella Frank, the two keeping vigil over a dead codger until help arrives. The set-up is delicious: death and birth at close quarters. And the finale has powerful life-affirming charm. Yet along the way the lack [...]
Two days, six plays – and no cooked breakfast after 11AM.
That’s how the National Play Festival went down in Brisbane last week, a tumult of Australian theatre-in-progress, and the most compelling reason for deep-veined thrombosis known to any culture vulture.
All up, eight scripts were on show – the winners among last year’s callout issued by [...]
Neck-deep in crossword research at the minute, gleaning for a forthcoming magazine story about the mystic origins of the cryptic.
One book I came across is ‘A-Z Of Crosswords’ by Jonathan Crowther, alias Azed in The Observer. Much like a chatty Who’s Who, the volume lets us meet Dumpynose, Schadenfreude, Bunthorne, Shed and 50 other crossword [...]
Just survived a night of torrid quibbling with six grown men this week. Those at table included Mr Mauve, Mr Charcoal and Mr Firetruck-Red, all members of a secret society known as Reclaim The Pants: an all-male chapter dedicated to blokey stuff, such as our torrid quibbling.
The focus of debate was probability. Which event is [...]
Sleepers Almanac No 4 is not your typical airport genre. But then again, it’s a damn fine collection to sneak onto your next red-eye flight, or even the 86 tram to Bundoora. And I’m not saying that because my kelpie cross called Abo is sitting (kinda obediently) amid its pages.
Jammed with two dozen stories, from [...]
A book of CHINGLISH came across my desk this week – Chinese signs and dishes fumbled in translation. Prime spotter and editor is Oliver Lutz Radtke, his team of snappers gathering such gems as Keep Your Legs, (appearing on an escalator) and Man and Wife Lung Slice (an eerie menu).
Here’s another small Chinglish chunk to [...]