March 2008
188 posts
Gawker commenter tracyflick on Sex & The City
I’ve been enjoying the wisdom of Gawker commenter tracyflick. A particular favourite: SATC had a tragic affect on single women in Manhattan who only focused on the surface aspects of the show and didn’t look deeper. Samantha was a lonely, terrified woman too scared to be vulnerable and chose sex over love because she was afraid to get hurt. Charlotte was the girl who got caught up in...
Simply Not the Best →
I loved this article by Ben Eltham, on the 2020 summit, published on newmatilda.com today. I had applied via email, like most people of the 8000 candidates who weren’t lucky enough to be issued an on-the-spot invitation on national television by Kevin Rudd. I wanted to attend the “creative Australia” group, of course, not just because I believe I have much to offer in terms of...
Muxtape & the Ridiculous Speed of Internet Culture... →
somethingchanged: jakoblodwick: “Just a few days after the thing comes to light, it already has stereotypes associated with it; it’s already somehow a parody of itself. That’s insane. We’re talking about less than a week here and it’s already stale enough to make fun of!” Early adopters are automatically ironic and meta. But 70% of early Muxtapers will keep doing it for 3 months, and 30% will...
I can't put my finger on it, but there's something... →
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
– Albert Einstein (via suzannexie) (via jakoblodwick)
get ready...
Summer Heights High has been picked up by HBO. This show makes me proud to be Australian. I would try to reference some of the jokes here, but that would be doing Chris Lilley a disservice. lfarm: Already a sensation in Australia, Summer Heights High is a look at high-school life, focusing on three characters: Mr. G, a self-important, high-strung drama teacher; Ja’mie, a haughty,...
“People should learn to make irrigation exciting.”
– me, trying to understand the Murray-Darling deal
Hillary supporters officially more petulant than... →
Twenty-eight percent of current Hillary Clinton supporters say they would vote for John McCain over Barack Obama in the general election. Nineteen percent of Obama supporters would vote for McCain over Clinton.
“I’m selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of...”
– Marilyn Monroe (via constance & mollycaitlin & sarahcroberts) (via butterflyeffect) (via gauntlet)
3 tags
Who is 4inchheelsonly? →
Is the question the Daily Telegraph is asking (thanks to Girl With A Satchel for keeping me up to date on these things while I was on the other side of the world):
IT’S Sydney publishing’s answer to The Devil Wears Prada - a poison pen, writing an anonymous blog, has the local fashion scene, and the ACP executives it’s targeting with nasty nicknames, buzzing.
A witch-hunt is...
“I remember in the 80s when cellphones first started to pop. I remember how, if...”
– Dork Talk: Douglas Coupland (via thatguyben) (via soupsoup)
Some broccoli for you →
Preparing the above article this morning made me think about the enormous amount of bullshit we think about and mentally consume in our daily lives. Not just the obvious “Look At My Leer Jet and Designer Clothes” posts on Tumblr, but even our collective obsession with, say, the US Presidential primaries. The latter matters, of course — part of the reason we care about it is because they’ll play...
What a pleasant way to begin the work day!
When the world renowned climate scientist, James Lovelock, declares that catastrophe is inevitable and the world’s population will be reduced by 80 per cent by the end of this century, it is probably time to think about either heeding his advice and partying hard, or spending what time there is left trying to achieve a different outcome. The story (not by me) is good, though. Will be online...
101 Things I Love About Sydney →
The talented Dylan Behan writes: There’s been a lot of Sydney-bashing going on in the mainstream media lately, so in the defence of this wonderful-ish city I’ve launched a sarcastic new daily-ish blog, 101 Things I Love About Sydney. It’s the new Stuff White People Like (except completely different). You heard it here first.
Why gorgeous girls are happier with plain guys →
I love the implication that a desirable woman is a beautiful woman, whilst a desirable man is one who is intelligent and possessing a good personality (bonus points if he’s rich). /sarcasm
How I Met Your Mother (I Gave Her A MacBook Air) →
Gawker: Oh noes! If you read Page Six magazine in Sunday’s Post, you would have found it impossible to ignore the item warning us about the possible upcoming reality show… starring Star magazine talking head Julia Allison, her best friend, handbag designer Mary Rambin, plus their other friend, former hedgefunder/current techblogger and “heiress to the Sun Microsystems...
“I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two...”
– Oh, for fuck’s sake, Bill Clinton (back in Australia, and back to swearing, I see). It’s quotes like these that turn people against voting for your wife, not towards it.
Am well and truly back home. That is all.
Except for one thing: I somehow managed to score an entire row to myself on the plane back to Sydney (that’s right - my wish came true). A pleasant surprise if there ever was one.
“Sociologists have begun to question the effect of all this exhibitionism on...”
– Today’s Well-Documented Teens | Newsweek Culture To add to the to-read list.
Observation:
soupsoup: cbeth:Gawker has become nothing more than a conglomeration of stuff that was on tumblr two weeks ago. I’ve noticed too. I haven’t, but that might be because I find keeping up with Gawker an hour-a-day commitment, and thus don’t read much on it that wasn’t linked through Tumblr.
“I always feel this pressure of being a strong and independent icon of womanhood...”
– julie delpy as celine in before sunrise (via butterflyeffect)
LOLZ
jessicalouise:Children watch television incessantly, but there is only one confirmed Australian instance of a child reading Hansard, and that was Kevin Rudd himself in 1960s Nambour, which might explain why the strongest swear word he can think of is “flaming”. Annabel Crabb talking about the lack of foul language in Parliament and the copious amount of swearing on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares...
“Cell phones, iPods, wireless computers will change people in ways we don’t...”
– Sarah Ruhl, author of Dead Man’s Cell Phone
“On the Internet, we’re all famous to fifteen people. Inevitably, you’ll date at...”
– The session I’m leading at Sex 2.0 (April 12th) is “Sex Styles of the Internet Famous”. I wrote this description some time last Fall, now more apt (but just as self-deprecating) as ever. (via melissa) How much would I like to attend this panel? Psst, post a transcript online, Melissa!
I regret my sexual history →
jessicalouise:It also makes me sick thinking about how the media and pop culture lied to me, making out that all boys were sex-crazed and obsessed with getting a root when in reality most of them werent. Most were very respectful and moral and even very scared by the idea of sex and girls. So true. The rest of Jessica’s post is interesting, too.
Reason #2 to move to New York
anthonydever: On top of being there to meet rad tumblr peeps it really seem like New York is full of cool smoking hot girls who are looking for guys. One of my friends always tells me the female:male ratio in New York is 7:1, in an attempt to stop me from moving there. That can’t be right, though? I mean, it certainly doesn’t look that way when I walk down the street.
The Whitney, on the other hand, was amazing. →
Sometimes it pays to take heed of reviews
Tonight I went to see November, because I’m a sucker for political satire. And, well, like the reviews suggested, it was pretty mediocre. I think it was the acting that got to me more than the script itself: Nathan Lane’s style was (is?) clownish, a bit like Sarah Jessica Parker’s portrayal of Carrie Bradshaw. A more understated actor could perhaps have done a better job. I also...
Oh, that's such a great picture of you! →
But then: the inevitable reaction. “Oh, that is such a good picture of you!” Really? … This is troubling on many levels… It is either that, or some people actually think, “Wow! That’s such a great picture of you!” is a compliment. Well, it isn’t. - Moe, on Jezebel today I agree with this entirely. I think it’s a far lesser insult to...
“Yes, I want to take full responsibility for destroying The Atlantic,...”
– David Samuels, author of the latest Atlantic cover story The Britney Show (via jessicagoldharalson) 