My Evening Standard Blog- Sydney v. Dubai - more similar than meets the eyeI'm typing this on a dusty, wobbling morning in Dubai, on my way from Sydney to NYC where I'll be working on assignment for the Daily Mail for a while. As the plane pushed through a hazier sky than any I remember (is desert dust any different to ash clouds?), I had a familiar feeling, first compounded when I landed in India years ago: any fool can […]
- An unlikely pair: Sydney Film Festival and small barsThanks to an unfortunately sprained ankle, I had the good fortune to fall in line for a free ticket to a sold-out Sydney Film Festival viewing on Tuesday night. The movie, which I'd never heard of, was Even the Rain, or, in its native Spanish, Tambien La Lluvia. It was a pleasure to watch - absolutely entertaining, raw, brilliant and visceral. The beaut […]
- From Tax to TEDx - Sydney's week that wasThere's a helluva brouhaha over here at the moment, centred around Cate Blanchett's cameo role in a recent ad that encourages Aussies to support Julia Gillard's oh-so-controversial Carbon Tax. Not only has poor old Cate waded into a (too) highly politicised slinging match, but she has walked into another great Aussie stickler: the tall poppy/c […]
- Gill v Bourdain at the Sydney Writers' FestivalNow, I'm not one for fisticuffs but when I see something advertised as "Food Fighters", I want to see a fight. Of sorts. So you will understand my disappointment when, last week, this lacklustre Sydney Writers' Festival chaired session puttered to a weak little close, the previously buoyed punters around me affecting a collective shrug in […]
- Sydney v. Dubai - more similar than meets the eye
If I was on the Bondi Tourist Board // 26 April 2012
Just found this gushing ditty, which I recall was written as part of a job application for a travel mag. I think they asked for a piece about ‘my favourite place.’ Rewind to 5th grade. Hey-ho, they didn’t get back to me. // It’s not quiet, it’s not remote, it’s not untouched. It’s not even … Read more
Why Kony 2012 and Kim Kardashian’s arse can bugger off come Anzac Day // 24 April 2012
The Last Post makes every hair on my neck sit up to attention, ushers in tears and delivers a salutary blow to me each and every time I hear its sombre call. I know that’s hardly news – I am one of many, many thousands whose grandfather fought in the Second World War, who has … Read more
A land of opportunity by any other name // 20 April 2012
There’s nothing like a long break – nine months working in NYC this time – to put things into perspective. As ever, there are things that have changed about Sydney and others that have stood still. It is only human, after all. The lifestyle, the yawning harbour, the beaches with their wide grins of white … Read more
Australia, it’s good to be back // 16 April 2012
Australia, it’s good to be back. It’s good to be in spitting distance of the beach, a run along its pristine arc a knee-jerkingly stunning way to start the morning. A single look at Bondi beach enough, each and every day, to make me congratulate my wise judgement. It’s good to be surrounded by beautiful … Read more
The Underwater Project – the book’s out // 10 April 2012
Mark Tipple’s name is no stranger to these pages. The Sydney-based photographer has mastered – if that term can be so brazenly applied to art – underwater pictures, and his beautiful images have deservedly graced far wider-reaching publications than these. Savvy to the end, the young Adelaide-born snapper is now selling collections of his Underwater … Read more
Beauty map, part 1 // 4 April 2012
The plastic surgeon who gives his 16-year-old daughter and her friends boob jobs, Botox and lip fillers. The New Jersey parents who spent $45,000 on their son’s first birthday. The woman who lost 500lbs. The 45-year-old who claims that every time she has plastic surgery, she gets a promotion at her Wall Street job. The … Read more
These hands // 26 March 2012
I’m en route from Manhattan to Bondi via Zermatt, Melksham and Dubai. As ever, I’m taking commissions, writing features and working on ditties and projects along the way. // My hands look old today. My wicks are curled and that scar from a freezing November astroturf collision is brighter pink than usual. The skin is … Read more
Deli on West Broadway // 01 December 2011
The Puerto Ricans behind the hot foods counter don’t talk to the sushi guy to their right. He silently tends to his sweet bundles, shining black skins and powdery dollops of mint green, not looking left. But the Puerto Ricans talk to each other. In muffled, joking Spanish, they throw home-town comments away from the … Read more
Bowery and Houston // 20 October 2011
They’re squirting that chemical cinnamon smell into Wholefoods’ fruits and vegetables section again Apples, persimmons and celery, doused in fake Autumn Is it possible to die of loneliness? Orange and black and orange everywhere – and the leaves haven’t turned yet and T-shirts are still about and you can risk no jacket If you want … Read more
