Songlines, dreaming tracks and Aboriginal mapping

Songlines, or dreaming tracks, mark the routes followed by localised “creator-beings” in indigenous Australian culture. These paths are recorded in traditional song cycles, stories, dance, and art, and are often the basis of ceremonies connecting native people to their land.

The Red Poppy Awards

Matt Nable’s “Transfusion”, starring Sam Worthington, has won the coveted Red Poppy Award for Best Film at Sydney’s Veterans Film Festival.

The King of horror fiction

Despite being run over by a van in 1999, ‘retiring’ in 2002 and rarely nailing a good ending, Stephen King remains the world’s biggest selling horror writer, with over 65 novels under his belt.

Who goes where?

The BBC has sold the global streaming rights for new Doctor Who episodes to Disney +, ending sixty years of free to air access on Australia’s ABC.

Not just a song and dance man

Bob Dylan once called himself just a ‘song and dance man’, but he’s much more than that. Perhaps the greatest modern song-writer, he has just released a book on the ‘philosophy of modern song’, but his creative process harks back to ancient traditions of writing poetry.

Veterans film festival comes to Sydney

The 7th Veterans Film Festival will be held in Sydney for the first-time next month, showcasing over 20 new and retrospective films, hosting the prestigious Red Poppy Awards and offering an eclectic program of art, master classes and script readings.

A fine romance

Romance novels seldom garner much critical interest but it remains one of the most popular genres of fiction, boasting sales which dwarf those of literary fiction.

Sad girl chic

Ottessa Moshfegh is to literature what Billie Eilish is to music, and both are laughing all the way to the bank.

Understanding the Mandela effect

The Mandela effect – the curious phenomenon of people sharing similar false memories about certain cultural icons – offers insight into how falsehoods originate and persist in a wider range of social and political situations.

Socrates the great

Although he never wrote a word on paper, the Oracle of Delphi declared Socrates the wisest of all human beings and his life and death has shaped the history of Western thought.

The uses and abuses of religion

Although the basic premise of religions is the same, throughout history politicians and military leaders have blatantly used it to gain control.

No worries

Described in Jonathan King’s Waltzing Materialism as the “national motto” of Australia, this complex little phrase “no worries” even has its own Wiki entry.