First Person

A Lifetime of Beginning with the Facts

Don Aitkin
29th October 2016

There was political correctness when I was young. We stood in the cinema when the King’s image appeared, for example, and I have watched the shape and character of PC change over time. I didn’t much like it when I was young, and like it no more today

The Willingness to Be Hated

Joe Dolce
2nd October 2016

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The capacity to see the bigger picture is a prerequisite amongst those seeking elective office. The paradox lies in the fact that to be elected also requires that you persuade the majority of average people vote for you -- people who may not be capable of seeing the big picture at all

Monomaths, Polymaths and Genius

Joe Dolce
27th August 2016

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As I’ve grown older, and as my own artistic skills have developed in various directions, I now see that I have often made the mistake of looking for validation from people who were not able to give it. The monomath sees only his own reflection

The Luck of the Australians

Anthony Daniels
13th August 2016

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More and more people will discover the Aborigine in themselves in the hope of something-for-nothing, even if in the end their only reward is the moral satisfaction of having been among the oppressed. Such is the lure of privilege that it turns minus into plus

In Australian Country Gardens

Laurie Hergenhan
1st June 2016

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Percy Grainger loathed the popularity of his arrangement of the traditional air “In an English Country Garden” because it overshadowed his other works: “A typical English garden is most likely to be a vegetable garden rather than being used to grow flowers,” he complained, “so you can think of turnips as I play it.” In […]

Short Takes XX

Alan Gould
1st May 2016

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22/11/09 Full presence Today, Anne’s friend Jan came into the gallery where my love works on weekends. As they chatted, Jan asked, “Do you happen to recall that song, ‘I know where I’m going / I know who’s going with me …’? It’s from a film.” Then, in that acoustical gallery, Jan began to sing […]

Five Essays

Igor Pomerantsev
1st April 2016

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Cross My Heart In August 2015 I was in Kharkiv making a film with some Ukrainian colleagues about army psychologists and their patients. We had tracked down the psychologists and found three patients—a wounded fighter, a former prisoner of war and a woman refugee from the Donbass—who were willing to talk on camera. All we […]

Brezhnev: My Part in His Downfall

Tony Thomas
7th January 2016

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I once found myself being courted by an oily Soviet diplomat, who somewhat ineptly pursued what he mistakenly hoped would be a valuable intelligence source by plying my children with storybooks featuring anatomically correct puppy dogs. No need for me to worry, ASIO was on the case

Short Takes XIX

Alan Gould
1st January 2016

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21/11/13 When launch day draws near Praise the Solidarity of the Poets! Our slim vols follow each other into the waters, duly launched from their skids like so many jollyboats. And inescapably a part of my poetry vocation has been to support this observance of poetry in our midst. So I go along, drink my […]

What If?

Nana Ollerenshaw
1st December 2015

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It was an ordinary day. A group of them were swimming one kilometre from Teabag Bay north to the Mooloolaba Surf Club. As they always did, several times a week. She freestyled head down, enjoying the vast pattern of terraced sand below, like a miniature desert. They swam under a blue and yellow sky. Her […]