Tay Tay, Grease and the theory of relativity

It’s hard not to think about Einstein’s theory of relativity when your settling into the fourth hour of Oscar-bait movie Oppenheimer and chick-bait Cillian Murphy still hasn’t dropped the bomb, dated the nuclear physicist or recited the Bhagavad Gita about being Death and incinerating the planet, during sex with Emily Blunt. I’ve never tried any of these…

Artificial Intelligence our cultural future

AI is the future of the culture we are told, by software experts who couldn’t care less about culture unless it’s providing the narrative for a new online game. An ever-advancing technology that if you believe the IT talking heads replicates human intelligence and at a touch of a button can generate great art, music…

Australia’s problem Arts culture

The ideological closed shop that is Australia’s creative classes isn’t really a secret even if the artists themselves insist on how open-minded they are. It was on display yet again recently when Scott Morrison announced a $250 million arts funding package. New piece in Spectator Australia here…. For many arts commentators and creators the great…

When woke comes to town

It’s hard after 40 years and multiple hip replacements to still be the wokest rock band in the world excluding Midnight Oil, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Spice Girls and the lead singer of The Smiths. But where on the Woke-o-meter do U2 sit? In 2019, how does their music rate on our Rock ‘n’ Roll…

Flying on a jet plane

‘Like any writer waiting on the tarmac I was trying to think of ways to monetise my self-loathing. I had climbed into the steel tube of the airbus and buckled in for our return Japan trip; the one I paid for with the redundancy. I had disappeared. I was like a failed boy band or…

The great rock and roll list…

Our propensity for making lists. In Spectator Australia