Welcome to GR Online, a series of short-form articles that take aim at the moving target of contemporary culture as it’s whisked along the guide rails of innovations in digital media, globalisation and late-stage capitalism.
Big time unna?
Our 1985 season did not start well. We lost every game until about halfway through the season. This was not to say we did not have a good side, we did. It was just that the other three teams were better. As a means to try and spark a winning streak, Quiny got us all together one night at training. As we huddled together he promised us an eighteen-gallon keg (of Swan) if we won the premiership. We all started hollering like bastards, but deep in our hearts we knew that the contents of that keg were never going to pass our lips.
Like a tourist with benefits
I HAVE A friend who says she weeps every time the plane descends over her hometown of Johannesburg. She...
Creative Darwinism
This is my city and I’m never gonna leave it. Channel 7 News ad WRITING ABOUT MY experience of making music...
Monsters
We’re not just afraid of predators, we’re transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly...
Calcutta
I’M PERCHED ON the western edge of Australia, looking out on the buoyant and impressive Indian Ocean. The vista,...
Might be rainbows
ON THE SOUTH-WEST boundary of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, in the centre of Australia, an unmarked red-dirt track turns left off the Lasseter Highway. For the few kilometres still within park lines it’s known as Docker River Road. Beyond that point it becomes Tjukaruru Road, leading to Western Australia through Aboriginal freehold land. In 2006, as a member of the park staff, I occasionally had to go down Docker River Road for work. From the park boundary I would stare into the seemingly untouched red landscape, both delighting and recoiling at the expanse of land ahead. I had never ventured any further.
Downstairs in Ethiopia
‘AND HOW DOES that feel – to be hungry?’The girl, Abrinet, looks at me, smiles, then looks down. She...
Cross cultural keys to meaning
SOME YEARS BEFORE her death at the age of eighty-eight, Aphrodite, my Greek mother-in-law, gave up walking. There was...
My life with Bob Dylan
STANZA 1 I’D HEARD OF Bob Dylan long before I met him.At the time, in the early ’60s, I was...
The clear days
I am not pitying myself, because I chose it. Evidently this is the way it has to be. I am...
My ten Cadillacs
WHEN I WAS nine, I won ten Cadillacs from my father in a bet. The deal was that I'd...
Not for me
I HAD SEEN the flyers around. 'Come and try theatre, learn writing and performance skills in a supportive environment.' Stupid. Embarrassing. A...
