Category Archives: Comment
Comment
Notes on a Fall From Grace
Growing up, Lance Armstrong only figured in my mind as a concept, a cultural icon who represented human triumph against all odds. I didn’t (and don’t) follow cycling, the Tour de France – or any sport for that matter – so I was surprised to find myself … Read more
Comment, Television
Facing the phenomenon: Bitchface/Smugface
Image Credit: kris atomic ‘A bitchface is a way to express your passive aggression,’ announced 16-year-old online wunderkind Tavi Gevinson to Jimmy Fallon. A recent guest on Fallon’s late night talk show to promote the release of ‘Rookie Year One’ – an exciting text appropriation of … Read more
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Fictional friends: ‘losing yourself’ in characters
If I’m being honest, a recent study concluding that ‘losing yourself’ in a fictional character can directly affect your behaviour is not news to me. Researchers at Ohio State University have defined the phenomenon as ‘experience-taking’. I have been experience-taking for years. As a lifelong bookworm, television … Read more
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Save the schmaltz: cooking and family
Babushka Babushka is my cooking blog, where I hang out with old people from around the world and write down what they do. It’s one part Jamie Oliver–style culinary piracy and one part reverse race baiting. My whole life I’ve made my living either from writing or … Read more
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Endeavour: part of the present, symbol of the past
With the rain coming in fits and bursts across the water, the delicate rigging of HMB Endeavour rose into a dark and brooding sky. The ship was illuminated by flickering light from the big screen in Melbourne’s Docklands, where the ANZAC Day AFL game was being broadcast … Read more
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Post from the past: the fifty-three-year old letter
Most days when you open your mailbox for the postal lucky dip, you expect to reveal an unfortunate bill or shiny takeaway menu, not a personalised letter. So when I read that 71-year-old Scott McMurry received a postcard 53-years (!) after his mother sent it from the … Read more
Comment
On dressing and being dressed
I would not be a true style blogger if I did not commence this post without some description of what I wore today. If I wasn’t awkward as all get out in front of a camera, I might even provide a photograph, as is customary in the … Read more
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Ethnic diversity on Australian television
When I wrote my piece on memory, migration and MasterChef for Issue Seven of Kill Your Darlings, I mentioned that Poh Ling Yeow (Adelaide-based visual artist and cook of Malaysian-Chinese origin) had become a role model of sorts. Not only was she the runner-up in the first … Read more
Comment, Television
Sick sad world: feminism and literature in Daria
Daria Morgendorffer, it’s time to stand up and be counted. Often topping lists compiled on the best examples of strong women in pop culture, cartoon hero Daria is strong, smart and sarcastic. She rejects the notion held by most of the women of Lawndale that a girl’s … Read more
Comment, Television
Sick sad world: feminism and literature in Daria
Daria Morgendorffer, it’s time to stand up and be counted. Often topping lists compiled on the best examples of strong women in pop culture, cartoon hero Daria is strong, smart and sarcastic. She rejects the notion held by most of the women of Lawndale that a girl’s … Read more
