I can only imagine that the broader population of Sydney, albeit Australia would have sat in front of their TVs watching these challenging images and said to themselves "I could never do that".  Or, "I wish I had the confidence to do something like that".  I know how those people would have felt, because until two days before the work took place I was one of those people. 

Kara Jensen-Mackinnon HPD's Arts Editor gives us an intimate look into an extraordinary event.  . . read more

An entity, not yet come to His fruition, was displeased at the general lack of anything.

In fact, He was displeased at the entire lack of everything.

And so, at this very moment of cosmic displeasure, the Lord of Meats did createth Himself through means forever unknown to man.  . . read more

For me, no more.

In my oh so desirable house in Newtown the little fuckers have taken up residence in one bedroom (coming in with wooden slats found on the side of the road) and they're refusing to budge.

Other people I've talked to have been through similar battles to little avail and have had to go to desperate measures like boiling their clothes, and spraying mortein everytime they go to sleep.

Still they survive and still they spread, causing me, like most East-Londoners a hundred years ago to turn to God and pray that I can sleep tight and not let the bed bugs bite. . . read more

In the world's colder climes you can understand why we might not want to put pen to paper, pick to guitar strings or paintbrush to canvas when the world around us is so inviting.

Must admit, it doesn't leave much time or comfort for self-reflection.

So it makes you wonder whether heart-wrenching, mind-expanding, and life changing works can be made in landscapes that grab you and demand you come out and enjoy their beauty.

I ask you, you of the creative cold dank Northern Hemisphere, are the artistic journeys inside yourself worth it when you can't bare to go outside?

  . . read more

The films by Tropfest standards didn't really compare to previous years but there were a few highlights including the winner 'Shock', which poked fun at the lives of early morning radio presenters and the much maligned Kyle Sandilands.

The beauty of the event though isn't really in the films but in the atmosphere- thousands of film loving Sydneysiders coming together to enjoy the outdoors, each other's company and art.

Last night Sydney also held the colours and extravagence of Chinese New Year and the beginning of Mardi Gras week with a fair in Victoria Park.

Really makes you feel hope that under the layers of the luddites and the philistines that keep the Daily Telegraph, Alan Jones and the UFC in business that there exists an enormous culturally interested and thoughtful community . . read more

Surely you should be scared. 

Surely if you aren't angry you probably aren't paying enough attention to the world around you and your ignorance of other's suffering probably means you're collapsing into the impotent self-centredness that typifies most older people.

Be afraid because stress, anxiety, passion and fear of failure created this world and only that energy will solve its problems. . . read more

On one hand people say this is the generation that cares; the one that understands climate change, animal rights, racial and gender tolerance.

On the other hand, people say we're wrapped up in technology, the now and that we don't understand that the hard-graft leads to hard-earned rewards.

I've never really decided which one we were until I heard Mark Corrigan (David Mitchell) from the Peep Show destroy our pretences in one fell swoop. 

He responded to a friend asking him if he was evil by saying:

'The absolute worst thing anyone could say about you is that you were a selfish moral blank whose lazy cynicism and ironic take on the world encapsulates everything wrong with a generation'

Can't really argue with that and as long as apathy remains society's most potent poison the road to our future tragedies will be paved with our indifference.   . . read more

Opinion polls on the issue of public transport in NSW show that people are in favour of "removing the politics" as a means of stimulating actual manifest change and progression in a political system characterised by an ever more rigorous system of criticism and evaluation.

But what would it mean to remove the politics from such significant global and local projects, and to what extent would it be possible?

By Robert Sherwin  . . read more

While a tragedy like a young person's death is of course, as it sounds, tragic; it's strange that when the young person that was driving drunk/unlicensed/too fast kills all his friends, and then dies himself that his sins seem forgiven.

How many times have you heard:

"[Insert Name] was a top bloke, man we all loved him, I can't believed this happened, he was always so sensible. This is so unlike him."

If the guy had lived, maybe sympathy wouldn't be as forthcoming as gaol time.

And maybe more anger should be directed at people who see those weeping teens, and not think that when they drive they're driving a loaded gun- pointed at themselves and everybody around them.  . . read more