Losing their religion
Scriabin once suggested that the audiences for his music should be segregated according to their degree of personal enlightenment, with…
Muslim immigration
The outrage over the on-air comments of Channel Nine’s Sonia Kruger, in which she called for an end to Muslim…
First impressions
The last boat I saw in the galleries on the Mound was a canoe that the Scottish painter Jock McFadyen…
Australian diary
Boarding QF1 three days after the federal election with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s shredded Liberals still pondering his bizarre election…
All in the mind
Mark Morris, the most musically communicative and naturally lyrical of choreographers of the past 30 years (and an absentee from…
Brexit notes
On Friday night a week before election day, we are all complacent about #Auspol and fascinated by #brexit. Everyone but…
On full beam
What’s the best first opera for a sceptical adult first timer? It’s a favourite topic among opera buffs, and once…
Power failure
Fracking is a British tradition. Since 1969 more than 200 sites have used hydraulic fracturing ‘without environmental catastrophes’ according to…
Archibald portraits
‘A portrait is a painting with something wrong about the mouth’ is a quotation attributed to John Singer Sargent, painter…
Dahl by Spielberg
Nobody who witnessed it can have forgotten Mark Rylance summoning giants to his aid in Jerusalem. As Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron,…
Consider this…
Going to the dogs Too many politicians are saying to low income and informally educated Australians, ‘why don’t you just…
Courageous Kemp
Before I set about reviewing Ross Kemp: The Fight Against Isis (Sky 1), I thought I’d have a glance to…
Russia’s dumping ground
Almost as soon as Siberia was first colonised by Cossack conquistadors in the 17th century, it became a place of…
The naked dinner
Bunyadi caters to folk for whom public nudity is somehow thrilling; I am here because A begged to go and…
Kruger is right – Muslim immigration should be carefully considered
Australia is a free, tolerant and open democracy where we respect all points of view even if we don’t agree…
Russian winter is coming: the new war on faith
News of the Russian Olympic drug scandal has reached the ears of the media and is being rightly exposed, but…
The gardens of Ninfa
I’ve just been given a personal tour of Ninfa by Monty Don. True, I had to share the thinking woman’s…
Karjakin’s complaint
Sergey Karjakin, the challenger for Magnus Carlsen’s world title later this year, has announced in Bilbao, where he is contesting…
No. 418
White to play. This position is from Najer-Buhmann, Dortmund 2016. How did White make the most of his g7-pawn? Answers…
Lookist
In Competition No. 2957 you were invited to submit a poem with a title that is a twist on that…
Dear Mary
Q. Since my husband began to appear in the Rich List he has become much more popular with ‘artists’ in…
The naked dinner
Bunyadi caters to folk for whom public nudity is somehow thrilling; I am here because A begged to go and…
Theresa’s first mistake
This week’s lead article, as read by Lara Prendergast Helga Hunter met her husband Michael when he was a Scots…
High life
From my bedroom window I can see a little girl with blonde pigtails riding her bicycle round and round for…
