Category Archives: Uncategorized
Time and the tripod
Bore-pulling camps must dream of beeps. On the Barkly Tablelands, on the grasslands, there are two sources of water, one from above, one from below. Water is everything. The more water, the more cattle. The rain came, and the Rankin … Continue reading
Make up
I saw a new self through a glass, brightly lit by naked bulbs, during the make-up workshop at the National Theatre. Be (true to) yourself, people say, and it’s good advice, with reservations. You have to accept that yourself might … Continue reading
Form, freedom and the thermal to heaven
Life doesn’t happen in stories. Or maybe it does. We take a bunch of fleeting images and half-remembered sensations and form them into stories to make sense of them, or perhaps events follow natural trajectories, and our genres and forms … Continue reading
On coming to
Writers like details. So much can be evoked by, say, the glow of a gidgee ember-pile at dawn. The smell of an approaching squall. The calloused hands of Tom Joad, orĀ the masterful passage describing the journey of a turtle … Continue reading
Contemplation and Contempt
The grille made it okay at the Great Southern Hotel. The office was shut off from the guests or potential guests, so I felt safe enough. At the place next door they had no such grille, and the reception desk … Continue reading
Bigfoot
I know what it’s like to die instantaneously. The first time I was knocked clean out was when I slipped in a large storm-water drain in Weston, in Canberra, when it was mostly houseless infrastructure. I was utterly unaware of … Continue reading
Cowboys, Ringers and Jackeroos
The figure of John Wayne, cowboy, drawled through the culture for half a century so, of course, I was often him. Mostly, though, I wanted to be Shane. When I met Simon Stanhope, I thought he was Shane, with a … Continue reading
The Continuations
Continuations come from chess, and might also be called possible futures. I’m sure I heard about them once from a book about a chess prodigy who loses her way. Not much of a book, not bad, but a few bits … Continue reading