Thinking through the structure and title for an essay I've been trying to write for two years or so in the small hours on leisure and its extraction from beautiful places - came up with "Tragedy of the Privates" and was briefly, blearily convinced I'd nailed it.
To invoke complexity as Israel rains death on the trapped, as children scream under the rubble beyond the reach of their rescuers is an obscenity on the level with those quadcopter drones that broadcast the cries of infants. It is a murderous lie. Complexity when the bombs stop.
Arundhati Roy's PEN speech is one we should already have heard from so many writers who've made personalities and money out of tepid activism for a set of values they'll briskly abandon at the first sign of career implications. Roy's speaking out only makes their silence louder.
This meeting could have been an email; this public artwork could have been a grove of beautiful trees.
Briefly blocked the entrance of the local supermarket with the pram this morning while I repacked shopping— an extremely Melbourne couple, obviously on holiday, had to pause, which made the dude in the couple say "Ugh." My son, without missing a beat, copied him exactly: "Ugh."
Let me hear both sides
2024's feral hogs "Washington state woman calls 911 after being hounded by 50 to 100 raccoons" apnews.com/article/wash...
A Washington state woman had to flee her property after 50 to 100 raccoons descended on it and were acting aggressively.
I like to tend and dote on a little bit of pop culture ignorance where I can, like a pot of basil on an apartment balcony. Sadly, and for all my tending and doting, today I learned who Caroline Calloway is.
My favourite of these was the LRB piece where the writer described Gordon on Sydney's North Shore like it was a true crime location. Gordon.
Neoliberalism doesn't get enough credit for the reinvention of service and service culture — to such an extent that we've re-internalised the forms of deference our grandparents fought so hard to banish from their workplaces and their hearts.
Bad photos of three of the best people in the world — Evelyn Araluen, Nasser Mashni, and Hasib Hourani at the Melbourne launch of Rock Flight last week. To be in a room with embodied Palestinian grief, love, and rage — humbling, moving, strengthening beyond measure.
