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a concert backdrop that says over 30 universities destroyed in iran against black and white picture of rubble

backdrop that says last standing university in gaza against a black and white image of al-israa university

giant three screen stage backdrop showing footage of the bombing of a university in gaza

The Strokes played Coachella against a backdrop listing all the world leaders that had been assassinated by the CIA, a count of the number of universities bombed in Iran, and footage of the bombing of the last university in Gaza

I Played 'The Boys Are Back in Town' on a Bar Jukebox Until I Got Kicked Out The boys were back in town, but I was out of the bar, because they asked me to leave.

on the 50th anniversary of the release of The Boys Are Back in Town I'm morally obligated to share my favorite story of all time

Whomst among us hasn't inadvertently summoned a shadow version of ourselves etc etc

Car driving up Elizabeth Street blasting 'How Soon Is Now'. Yes brother!

If the hardcore band’s guitarist looks like this you’re about to die in that pit

“It’s a couple of things that work beautifully in concert. First: no music. Audiences are so sophisticated, but what they’re not accustomed to is not being told how to feel,” Wyle says. “You take all that out and it forces a level of engagement where you’re now looking for clues within the frame of the screen, which forces you to look up from your phone. And I think that is extremely engaging, especially to young viewers who aren’t accustomed to being asked to participate in a nonpassive way in the viewing experience.

“Second point, shooting it with almost exclusively 50-millimeter or 65-millimeter lenses, which is the most comparable to the human eye—and only shooting from the point of view of a human being that’s present in this space. There are no cameras on gurney wheels going in the hallway. There’s no cameras on the ceiling looking down from a God point of view. You are limited to the perspective of a participant. You can look away, but you can’t leave, and it becomes an endurance test for you to stay on your feet as long as we’re on our feet. Which [brings me to my] third point: real time. Real time has an aggregate sense of tension that you don’t get in any other form of storytelling. What happened before is happening now, and these two things are going to add up to the next thing. And if we throw more ingredients into this cooker and keep ratcheting it up, it’s going to pop.”

Wyle makes eye contact for his next point, delivering it with a Robby-esque matter-of-factness. “Fourth point: The election went the other way,” he says with a shrug. “We could have been a really good show with a lot of nice things to say in a perfectly normal Kamala Harris universe. And instead we became almost a beacon of hope and humanity in an alternative universe. But in the midst of that, fifth point—this is essentially competence porn. You’re watching really smart, dedicated people do what only they know how to do at a level that you don’t know how to do it, and you’re so fucking glad that they’re there doing it, and compartmentalizing their own stuff to put your broken pieces back together. You’re so reassured by knowing that there are people out there that laugh and joke and have the ability to lock in like that.”

this is fucking unreal stuff from Noah Wyle on the magic of The Pitt. www.gq.com/story/noah-w...

Many of the best revolutions began with mutinying sailors!

heated chivalry

EGE - I Love Stealing From Woolies (Official Video) YouTube video by Elektronik Girl Epic

this is an absolute ✨ cultural moment ✨

Buddy, you're on it right now

What actually is ‘civilisation’? The dark and loaded history behind Trump’s threat against Iran The concept of ‘civilisation’ emerged in the 18th century – and it has been cursed from the very start.

Erudite yet concise intro to a mode of discourse that, despite being ubiquitous in our society, is too often overlooked (partly bc it's often eclipsed by or conflated with discourses around race)

Countdown

If a trap producer worked with a New Orleans brass band to make a song for an animated segment of Sesame Street, it might sound like this

Great take!!

I should explain why I ask: we have an idea that, despite being a heavily urbanised country, Australian identity symbolically resides in rural places and spaces. But so many of the best Aussie movies of the last ~30 (50?) years have been set in cities and suburbs. Is our self-image evolving?

I do enjoy the deep Brisbanity of Bluey

Good point - I do agree re: the woman in red scene

Not sure I agree on that one - I don't think it would be recognisable as such unless you were a Sydneysider

I completely forgot The Fall Guy was (mostly) set in Sydney ! What a fun movie - the car chase shows off the city particularly well I think

Outrageous!

Oh Lauren, that is so so generous of you to say! Thank you so much :')

Thanks for all of these! Yes, Strictly Ballroom in particular did come to mind as a great Sydney flick

Hope you caught your name in the acknowledgements!

Thanks Kate!

And of course, the ultimate on-screen portrayal of Melbourne, Jackie Chan's Mr. Nice Guy (1997)

‘Do-it-yourself biological control’: the unauthorised introduction of blackberry rust to Australia In 1983, an unknown person smuggled blackberry rust (Phragmidium violaceum) into Australia – one of the nation’s most significant biosecurity breaches of the last half-century. Yet unlike most othe...

My latest article: 'We don’t know who did it. We don’t know their gender, their ethnicity or their political beliefs... What we do know is that in the summer of 1983–84, a fungus called Phragmidium violaceum was introduced to Australia – deliberately, secretly and illegally.' Call it 'plant noir'!

There are some great movies specifically about Melbourne's northern suburbs: The Castle, Death in Brunswick, arguably Dogs In Space

What are some Australian films that really make a city look good? I'm thinking, e.g., of Two Hands, which, despite all the King's Cross grime, is such a love letter to Sydney.

a weird belief that is held across basically all sectors of American life is that boy dollars and boy votes are better than girl dollars and girl votes and so if you have a lot of the latter you need to be constantly trying to exchange them for the former

I'm gonna be laughing about this quote from Lizzy Goodman's Meet Me In The Bathroom for days