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Climate change. Pandemics. Peak oil.These days, many of us have grimly accepted the fact that the human species is hurtling towards oblivion – if not in our lifetime, in that of our children or…
What’s funnier (and sexier) than Fifty Shades of Grey? Long before E.L. James turned her Twilight fantasies into a cash cow, there was Erotic Fan Fiction – a crowd favourite and unstoppable cultural …
Presented by the Melbourne International Comedy FestivalWebsites, blogs, social media, YouTube, iTunes, live streaming and podcasts…The worldwide web has put a worldwide audience directly into the…
What’s funnier (and sexier) than 50 Shades of Grey? Long before E.L. James turned her Twilight fantasies into a cash cow, there was Erotic Fan Fiction – a crowd favourite and unstoppable cultural…
Pregnancy is natural, healthy and fun, right? Sure it is, if you’re lucky. But instead of a natural glow and orgasmic birth, Monica Dux experienced pregnancy as a medium-level catastrophe. In Things…
Edward St Aubyn’s novels are like black diamonds: dark, glittering jewels.His dark-witted books about the misdeeds of the privileged upper classes have been compared to Evelyn Waugh and Oscar Wilde. …
You are funny. We are funny. Everyone is funny. Some celebrate the use of humour; others merely come across it. Some are completely unaware of it. But all of us can develop it if we choose.Writer…
A co-presentation with Melbourne Conversations.You are funny. We are funny. Everyone is funny. Some celebrate the use of humour; others merely come across it. Some are completely unaware of it. But a…
We bring you our favourite findings from around the internet this week.Lizzie Bennett: Looking good at 200 years oldIt was the two-hundredth birthday of Pride and Prejudice this week – and the New…
We bring you our favourite findings from around the internet this week.Men’s magazine culture and the worst celebrity profile everThe internet has been aflame this week over what’s been described as …
David Sedaris has long been opposed to seeing his work adapted for the screen. He told the New York Times that a decade ago, he began work on a movie adaptation of his essay collection Me Talk…
Comic literary novelist Gary Shteyngart is almost as well known for his prolific blurbing of his fellow authors' work as he is for his critically acclaimed books, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love…
When we think twenty-first-century Christmas, we also think shopping. And if you think Christmas shopping is its own special squashy, noisy hell for you, just imagine (or remember) what it’s like…
We share five of our favourite links, videos and articles from around the internet this week.No, Actually: Debunking a Christmas film favouriteLove, Actually, Richard Curtis’s celebrity-packed…
It’s December – and the holiday season has kicked into full gear, tinsel decorations and all. Any day now, we’ll be hearing carols broadcast in the shopping centres. Holiday decorations are festive…
By Catherine DevenyCatherine Deveny decries helicopter parents, attachment parenting, yummy mummies, kids in cafes and trampolines with fences around them – in favour of 1970s-style ‘blimp…
It’s been a weird year for publishing, with bad news about plummeting advances, disappearing bookshops and dwindling sales everywhere you turn.But there’s been the occasional good news too. A couple …
We share five of our favourite links and articles from around the internet this week.Why your passwords don’t protect youWired senior writer Mat Horan was famously targeted by cyberhackers earlier…
Michael Leunig is an undisputed national treasure. His particular blend of whimsy and wit, provocation and pure magic, has been bewitching Melburnians since his first cartoon in 1965.He’ll be
We collect five of our favourite links and articles from around the internet this week.Carver’s OK Cupid profile, edited by Gordon LishWhat if Raymond Carver wanted to hook up, and turned to the…
Ben Elton is a writing all-rounder: he got his start creating cult television comedy classics like The Young Ones and Blackadder, then moved onto novels, movie screenplays and musicals.His…
Michael Palin was first famous as ‘the nice one’ in the Monty Python team (despite fraudulently selling John Cleese a dead parrot), then as an actor in films from Brazil to A Fish Called Wanda. He’s …
It’s the ultimate writing championship! Come see Australian authors go head-to-head in a fearsome battle of wits, words and waggery. Jeff Sparrow, Amy Espeseth, Shane Maloney and Wayne Macauley will …
We all know Jonathan Franzen is a twitcher. But did you know Tom Hanks likes to collect 1940s typewriters? Or that Johnny Depp likes to play with dolls?Sadly, Tom and the two Johnnies couldn’t join u…
This week’s selection of articles and links from around the internet is animal-themed. Just because!How a Hitchcock heroine lived, filmed and slept with lionsA recent New York Times Q&A with Tippi…
During this week’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney answered an audience question about creating opportunities for women in an unfortunate way.‘We took a concerted effort to go out and find women…
We share some of our favourite links and articles found on the internet this week.Mitt Romney versus Big Bird versus ObamaThe US presidential campaign has taken another bizarre pop culture twist in t…
We bring you our favourite links and articles we’ve found around the internet this week.Mad spoof of Apple mapsApple maps has to be the most embarrassing product launch in Apple history (and a…
Sex, sex, sex … and celebrity. Not all storytelling is about boarding schools, bloodsuckers and bow-slinging lady killers. In this adults-only night of fantastical tales, anything goes.Four writers s…
It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Lego being sold in Australia – and to celebrate, Lego has commissioned British photographer Mike Stimpson to put together scenes of ten great Australian moments, in L…
We all know Jonathan Franzen is a twitcher. But did you know Tom Hanks likes to collect 1940s typewriters? Or that Johnny Depp likes to play with dolls?Sadly, Tom and the two Johnnies couldn’t join u…
In this instalment of Sam Pang’s series – focussing on the odd obsessions and unlikely fascinations of familiar faces – broadcaster Jess McGuire spills the beans about her love for British reality…
Hey Girl, it’s Paul RyanIn the tradition of the Ryan Gosling ‘Hey Girl’ meme, lovestruck conservative ladies have started a tribute Tumblr dedicated to blue-eyed Catholic boy Paul Ryan, aka the…
This month, our AMERICA series features a whole host of great events focusing on the US, just as the world watches the ailing superpower as it heads into a presidential election. This week, we…
By Catherine Deveny The public/private schooling debate hit the news again last week, sparking debate over government funding of those schools – and how the Australian government will respond to the…
In this week’s Friday High Five, we celebrate what would have been Dickens' 200th year with a look at five pieces from around the web that look at Dickens' legacy, or use it as a springboard for…
Most people know that children’s author Dr Seuss used a pseudonym: his real name was Theodor Geisel. But did you know that his day job was in advertising?In this week’s Friday High Five, we share
We all know Jonathan Franzen is a twitcher. But did you know Tom Hanks likes to collect 1940s typewriters? Or that Johnny Depp likes to play with dolls?Sadly, Tom and the two Johnnies couldn’t join u…
Always diverse, occasionally devilish, the one thing you can always expect from Unexpected Passions is an evening of laid-back laughs, with wizard of wit Sam Pang at helm. Who’s next?Well… it’s…
Catherine Deveny explains why 50 Shades of Grey is one of the worst books she’s ever read, with terrible writing and sexual politics alike – but she’s still really glad that people are reading…
The Wire: As Told in Lego AnimationJust when you thought you’d seen and read everything you could possibly handle about The Wire (aka The Best TV Show Ever Made), here comes something you need to…
Sex, sex, sex… and celebrity. Not all storytelling is about boarding schools, bloodsuckers and bow-slinging lady killers. In this adults-only night of fantastical tales, anything goes. Four writers s…
The Wheeler Centre’s Shannon Hick confesses her unexpected passion for the daytime soap Days of Our Lives – and how she once shaped her uni schedule around it, so as not to miss the antics of Devil…
What do literary ladies (and men?) love more than their books? Their cats. At least, that’s the stereotype. And it’s kind of backed up by the frequency with which LOLcats seem to pop up on literary…
Comedian Lawrence Leung shares his dirty little writing secret – his habit of filing away life moments for use in his work, even while he’s living them.I was trying to write – or to put it another…
We all know Jonathan Franzen is a twitcher. But did you know Tom Hanks likes to collect 1940s typewriters? Or that Johnny Depp likes to play with dolls?Sadly, Tom and the two Johnnies couldn’t join u…
In Unexpected Passions, host Sam Pang invites familiar faces to share their less familiar obsessions. This time around, Dave Graney drops by to tell us about his passion for explorer Sir Richard…
In his spare time, Pixar story artist Josh Cooley likes to sketch wildly inappropriate cartoon images of classic movie scenes, in the style of the iconic Golden Book children’s series.After two…
We share our favourite internet reads and discoveries over the past weekWhy French Bookshops Don’t Get AxedThe New York Times has reported that the French are doing things differently (as is their…
We’ve toured the web and found some of the world’s worst book covers, for your amusement. Some are the victims of bad design, some of unfortunate titles, and others were just plain bad (or weird…
We take a look at five features from around the internet that caught our eye this week. Enjoy!John Bryson on Azaria ChamberlainThis week, a Northern Territory coroner has found that a dingo was…
We take a look at our five favourite links from around the internet this week.Keep the night-light on: Terrifying French picture booksSome believe we should tread cautiously with our children’s…
We all know Jonathan Franzen is a twitcher. But did you know Tom Hanks likes to collect 1940s typewriters? Or that Johnny Depp likes to play with dolls?Sadly, Tom and the two Johnnies couldn’t join u…
When serious authors wear silly outfitsLooking for an end-of-week giggle? Flavorwire has published a selection of photos of writers looking silly. There’s Susan Sontag sitting at her typewriter in a …
The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides’ third novel, opens with a look at the bookshelves of his heroine, English literature major Madeleine. It’s stacked with nineteenth-century romantic novels…
Kathy Lette pioneered smart, funny fiction with a frivolous edge (and a feminist flavour). Her heroines find themselves in sticky situations that range from the outrageous to the outrageously…
Kathy Lette pioneered smart, funny fiction with a frivolous edge (and a feminist flavour). In 2012’s The Boy Who Fell to Earth, Lette’s character Lucy has more to manage than most: she’s trying to…
In another Friday High Five themed edition, we share five bookish videos from around the web that made us giggle, including looks at the art of pencil sharpening and the smell of old books, a…
My Monday morning amusement was an article at The Awl, asking various writers and editors to share books they read as teenagers or twentysomethings that now make them cringe. Revelations included…
We share five of our favourite links to news, reviews or articles that we’ve discovered on the web over the past week.Fifty shades of spanking and Katie RoipheIt’s a bit weird to think that one of…
This week’s Friday High Five is shameless click-bait, as we share five of our favourite internet stories, links and images of everyone’s favourite heart-throb, Ryan Gosling. Why? Because it makes us…
Toni Jordan is one of Australia’s most loved comic writers, with her sharply funny novels Addition (longlisted for the Miles Franklin) and Fall Girl.Toni’s essay about humour in Australian fiction,
The Hunger Games is the film – and the book series – of the moment.Everyone’s talking about it, from comparing how the screen version measures up to the beloved books (verdict: pretty well), to
In the second instalment of Unexpected Passions, Sam Pang persuades Noni Hazlehurst and David Bridie to join him in revealing their unheralded pastimes. Bridie discusses his love of suburban…
We share five of our favourite links to news, reviews or articles that we’ve discovered over the past week.Naomi Wolf versus Katy PerryFile this under ‘strange but (maybe) true’. Feminist writer…
Join Michael Shmith, Age Senior Writer and Opera Critic, for hi-jinks and hilarity, as he runs through his A-Z hitlist of terrible words and phrases he never again wishes to see in print or hear in n…
Sam Pang’s Unexpected Passions events series is proving hugely fun so far. Last month, Kate Langbroek shared her passion for op-shops while Adam Zwar talked cats. This Friday, we’ll hear from Noni…
Murakami pieFans and sceptics alike will enjoy this chuckle-worthy breakdown of a typical Murakami novel. there’s cats, classical music, bizarre dream sequences and jazz. It’s all there; the only…
We share five of our favourite links to news, reviews or articles that we’ve discovered over the past week.Cooking with Poo and the Great Singapore Penis PanicThe whimsical Diagram Prize for Oddest B…
We share five of our favourite links to news, reviews or articles that we’ve discovered over the past week.Feast of Thrones: Eyeballs, pigs’ heads and dragon eggsFans of Game of Thrones, the series b…
Is nothing sacred? It’s a subject that continues to torture the stylish brows of French literary types following the bombing of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week. Last week’s edition &ndash…
Join Nick Coyle (Pig Island, Me Pregnant!), Justin Heazlewood (aka the Bedroom Philosopher) and host Virginia Gay as our guests read excerpts from their own personal archives of angst and ecstasy –
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cMark Twain Controversywww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire…
The Paris Review, Winter 2010 from The Paris Review on Vimeo.
Paul McDonald writing for the Independent believes he’s found the world’s oldest joke and it’s a good indication of just how much humour dates.According to McDonald the oldest recorded joke came…
Looking for a bookish gift that’s not a book? Soho!, a literary board game could be the answer.The game revolves around collecting “6 pieces of rashly commissioned copy [that] need to be retrieved…
Writer, critic and comedian, Ben Pobjie Comedians are, as we all know, tortured. The only trait that better defines the comedian than being tortured is the habit of…
Shaun Micallef, Australia’s pre-eminent comic renaissance man, turns his genius to novel writing.Having conquered television, radio, theatre and film, Micallef smashes his mighty fist onto the…
Funny man Shaun Micallef has gone from that ‘bloke on Seachange’ to sketch comedian to nationally adored gameshow host. With his first book Preincarnate he adds novelist to his long CV and in this…
From Imperial Panda, who brought you Erotic Fan Fiction – the Wheeler Centre’s least family-friendly session to date – comes Fright Night.Toby Schmitz recounts the story of a wartime navigator’s…
Tony Martin probably has advice on buying gift books for pets The irrepressible and ingeniously pre-planned Tony Martin has posted his bookish stocking fillers as he beats …
Dr Samuel Johnson has been an active Twitterer for some time but recently he has published a new dictionary based on our modern world.Of course, it’s a fake but as an extract from the Quietus shows, …
Punctuation can tell you a lot about a person, but at Slate Nathan Heller has traced the rise and fall of film director Woody Allen all through his use of the humble comma. …
Click to see the full video When the author of Stuff White People Like came to the Wheeler Centre, it was a house packed with hipsters. Christian Lander…
At what exact moment ‘alternative’ and ‘yuppy’ became friends, nobody is quite sure. But the rise of the hipster is a well documented one – and not just in Tumblr photo blogs. Advocates celebrate t…
Michaela McGuire I have spent most of my life avoiding thinking about whether or not I am a feminist. My earliest ideas about my place in the world as a young lady were…
Why does Melbourne, the classiest city in Australia, have such a problem with street violence? Is it the licensing laws? Is it the parents? No and no. Is it the rise of house music at the expense of …
He has become one of Australia’s best-loved comedians appearing on TV programs including SeaChange, Pizza and Thank God You’re Here.He co-produced the film about street kids called The Finished…
Politicians say the dumbest things. Over at Slate they’ve compiled their favourite Palinisms, tweets, Facebook updates and other wit from former Vice Presidential hopeful, Sarah Palin.And she’s got p…
What if the whole idea of ‘the one’ is nonsense?With the aid of a whole lot of love (and a little bit of cake), Sue-Ann Post explains why honesty and jealousy shouldn’t be strange bedfellows.…
To coincide with the publication of Tony Wilson’s much anticipated second novel, Making News, join the two Tonys as they discuss celebrity culture, media, sport, comedy writing and much more.
To coincide with the publication of Tony Wilson’s much anticipated second novel, Making News, join the two Tonys as they discuss celebrity culture, media, sport, comedy writing and much more.
Over at his regularly hilarious and randomly thoughtful Scrivener’s Fancy, Tony Martin had some thoughts on the Hawke telemovie and the nature of impersonating the greats.Martin “found it impossible …
John Birmingham discusses his latest book After America, the empowerment of women as action heroines and how he came to be writing thrillers. He also touches topics as broad as the reaction to his w…
Comedian, novelist, playwright and all-round wild and crazy guy, Steve Martin has prefaced his upcoming tour by leaking his rider onto his own website. Who says Americans don’t do irony?Among…
Pregnancy is natural, healthy and fun. Yeah, right. When Melbourne writer and procreator Monica Dux got pregnant she failed to see what all the joy was meant to be about. Here, Monica grapples with h…
According to satirical newspaper the Onion, minotaurs are officially the new vampires.The article has a faux-publishing executive touting the ancient Greek monster as the next big thing in…
Tim Ferguson laments the conservatism of Generation X, the death of feminism and the wit of Sex And The City 2.
Author John Birmingham enjoys book tours with the exception of buffets and their bad health implications, according to his latest post on his deliciously named Gothic Cheeseburger blog.“Book tours…
Chris Flynn surveys history’s chivalrous canines: Lassie vs Nazis in Norway, Inspector Rex as a speedboat-piloting crimefighter – and his own family pup’s skill in dodging the authorities.
Regular browser Shane Maloney asks for a bit of shoosh as he talks about the value silence in our public places, how libraries were once carried on camel back in alphabetical order and how crucial…
