Newspapers are dying apparently. There is various analysis and commentary floating around on the webs to suggest so: Wall Street Journal about to go bankrupt, Chicago Tribune times, etc. The fear from this, to summarise from what I've read elsewhere, is that it will mean the death of quality in depth journalism. The traditional business model provided the resources, through classifieds, advertising, entertainment info, etc to fund the expensive but socially necessary investigative journalism. Of course, the content that supplied the income had little relationship to the important political, social and cultural content of papers, which was in a sense free. We've only tweaked to this since new technology has broken apart that model, striping out the revenue sources and providing them cheaper and better through other means (ie eBay, Craigslist, online personals, entertainment directories, etc). So who pays for the good journalism now? Only governments and corporations have the mon...
The Garden of Unearthly Delights pre-empted the Fringe this evening, opening with fireworks, fairy-lights and volumes of people in various states of attractiveness. Amongst all this was a fascinating display, a highly engaging activity, damn it, a piece of art - it was the Silent Disco. When you first stumble upon it, there is a brief moment of confusion. Fenced off from the rest of the crowd is a dance floor full of people gyrating in sync, in silence. Then you notice they are all wearing headphones, all tuned in to the same syncopating frequency. Amusing, surreal, endearing and enticing, its mesmerising to watch. It's not a sensation of deafness, for there are plenty of sounds - the milling crowd, the shuffling, the odd lyric from the mouths of the dancers. Rather there is a strange sense of incapacitation, like some sense you forget you had is no longer working. The primal 'group-think' part of your brain feels drunk and bewildered. Then you fork over your $5 (plus $10 d...
I've been quite busy recently, what with my trip to Melbourne the weekend before last and the Mobile Enterprise course I was doing through work last weekend. On top of that I've been going to see a few different things, and so hence this round-up of reviews. It's not because my opinion matters, or for posterity, but rather to make me feel like the last few weeks have been productive in some way. I shall start from most recent and work backwards until I reach a point of boredom. Don't worry it wont take long. Chalkies - Holden Street Theatres This locally produced comedy/musical/play by Matt Byrne is about teachers, students and school amalgamations.It runs for nearly two and half hours, though on the plastic, ex-classroom seats in HST, my ass thought it was closer to five hours. Four actors play over 30 characters between them, some of the well, some of them not so well. While there was plenty of amusement in Chalkies, that shouldn't have been too difficult given th...
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