American Myths: In the Valley of Elah, National Treasure 2 – Book of Secrets

May 31, 2008

Movie review: In the Valley of Elah, National Treasure 2 – Book of Secrets

Video stores make me prickly. Whenever I enter one I feel like I’m wearing a sign that says; “LOSER: he doesn’t have anything better to do with his life than watch television.” Gawking at box covers with other plebs just adds to the overbearing sentiment of mindless consumer subservience. And later, to add insult to injury and complete the victimisation process, you have to RETURN the goddamn thing. Read the rest of this entry »


Art Menagerie: The Horn Collection

May 23, 2008

Hans Arkeveld, I think

The Horn Collection, Bunbury Regional Art Galleries

Bunbury and art. Strange bedfellows perhaps, but Perthetic art snobs could do worse than take the trip south to view a sampling of the Horn Collection now showing at Bunbury Regional Art Galleries (until June 15th). Read the rest of this entry »


Get Real

May 17, 2008

Garry Pumfrey

What a funny old fellow is Pumfrey,
He paints all manner of shite,
He likes his Belgian linen,
And Kwinana’s his favourite place,
Which is hardly so very surprising,
He’s a really obsessed detailist,
What a painterly fellow is Pumfrey,
Pumfrey the factory loving realist!

Terraform II, Turner Galleries

Garry Pumfrey’s new exhibition of photorealistic works, Terraform II (Turner Galleries, until 14 June), delivers a deliciously tart rejoinder to the mindless boomtown rhetoric that Western Australians are currently immersing themselves in. Read the rest of this entry »


The Thoroughly Modern Circus

May 5, 2008

Roll Up, roll up...

The kids dug it

“If it was not for the circus coming to town most people and children would not know what the animals looked like and all you animal do-gooders out there thanks a lot now a circus is not the same without animals as you all know when you were all kids I bet you could not wait for the circus to come to town.”
Post by Kenneth to animalactivism.org

“A whole seven incidences of animal cruelty in 11 years is surely a very small percentage. I think, what with the Tower of London’s history, for example, is that you folks must have more important moral work to do than worry about circus animals. And I think you should get about doing it. Mind your own business, surely that will keep you busy enough.”
Post by Anonymous to animalactivism.org

Quite. But with animal acts in circuses having effectively been abolished, what is there to fill the gawking vacuum left by the disappearance of the mangy lions and deranged elephants? Read the rest of this entry »


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