Review: True Detective
The only charitable thing we can really say about True Detective’s second season is that it’s over, which is a mercy for all and sundry. In the long term, the question of whether the show will...
Category: Themes
Bernie Sanders’ Momentum Is Real
Economist Richard Wolff made an excellent animation of a lecture on the origins of “class” as a concept. He explains that, as an economic precept, capitalism lasted a whole lot longer in America...
The Emerging Authoritarian Bargain in Egypt
Arab and Middle Eastern dictatorships are infamous for their cruelty, repression and violence. But these aren't the only things responsible for the longevity of tyrants like the Assad's of Syria,...
Review: A Spool of Blue Thread (Man Booker Longlist #1)
Baltimore is a city that I have never visited, despite frequent trips to the US (from my Australian home) in the 1990s. Yet, of all the places in the US I have never been, it sits alongside New...
Review – Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
One of the most hotly-anticipated offerings on Netflix this month is Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, a prequel to 2001’s bizarre cult hit, Wet Hot American Summer. It joins an army of...
Left Squeamishness Isn’t Helping Protect Abortion Rights
With this weekend marking the fourth release of a creatively edited video designed to make it look like Planned Parenthood sells off foetuses wholesale only to cackle over the proceeds in the...
The Man Booker Longlist 2015
The longlist for the 2015 Man Booker Prize was announced Wednesday at midday London time. It’s a 13-book list with some interesting omissions, and possibly (although this is arguable) some emerging...
Transgender Reality? I Am Cait Premieres
On Sunday night, the US was treated to the first entry in the eight part docuseries I Am Cait, following Caitlyn Jenner’s first steps into the limelight post-transition. It’s perhaps not...
In the Wake of Iran Nuclear Deal, The Hawks Shore-Up Their Bases
In the early 1970's Ariel Sharon won on a political platform advocating a comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian issue. He reasoned that as a hawk he was the one to deliver peace since he could...
Review: A God in Ruins
Kate Atkinson’s long-awaited companion novel to her 2013 masterpiece, Life After Life, was released in May this year. The book has met with a strongly approving critical response, and a generally...