Review: A Bend In The Road
Male boredom assumes many forms. The simple act of throwing rocks at a tin can. Boy racing a white Toyota Supra up and down the Banks Peninsula. Homophobic abuse. This is the life facing Josh and...
Category: Asia
Doing it for Themselves: Connecting Girls on International Women’s Day
8 March! Don’t we love 8 March? It is that wonderful day during the course of which we internationally celebrate women! Women are pretty great. I know because I am one of them. Women are, however,...
Islamophobia in China: Violence Breaks Out in Xinjiang
Western China is far from the happiest place in which to be Muslim right now. At the end of December, police killed seven people in Xinjiang, an area traditionally dominated by the Uighur Muslim...
Review: Outrage
Kitano Takeshi is back, movie lovers, and you better cover up that little pinky because he’s liable to chop it the f*ck right off. That’s right, he’s dusted down the black Mercedes and the...
Democratic Reform in Burma?
Burma, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, is in a whole jar of pickles right about now. The brand new civilian government is trying to set up a semblance of democratic reform, but human...
Review: Jane Gallop – The Deaths of the Author
Jane Gallop, The Deaths of the Author: Reading and Writing in Time, Duke UP, 2011. “The death of the author” has long been a theme in literary theory. First posed by the French intellectual...
Review: The Red Market by Scott Carney
It sounds like the stuff of nightmarish urban legends: in rural India, men desperate for money or a meal are promised both, then held captive in “blood farms” where their blood is siphoned...
Review: Sawako Decides
Small town girl Sawako is constipated both literally and metaphorically. Her dream life in Tokyo has ground to a halt. Her get up and go has got up and gone. She’s on her 5th job and her 5th...
Review: Junior Boys – It’s All True
Junior Boys, It’s All True (Domino Records 2011) In a field where careers can last as long as a remix and whole genres are ephemeral, Canadian electropop group Junior Boys have had a surprisingly...
Why I Sing My Blues: Women and Hindi Soaps
Deciphering the universe of Hindi soaps demands an astute eye for the texture of relationships within joint families. A few clarifications, hence, for folk unfamiliar with the nuances of an Indian...