About five years ago, I KonMaried my underwear drawer and now all my knickers now maintain vertical integrity. And yes, I experience joy every time I open my drawer. Continue reading Review of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix: self transformation you can’t see
This cute chenille hanky arrived from Japan today, thanks Yoko! The Japanese just have a different attitude to hankies than in the west… Continue reading Chenille! It’s back, actually, it never went away in Japan
I think Sex in Japan: Dying for Company is a compassionate and insightful look at today’s Japan. What I like most in this story is the reporting. Rather than talking to media savvy academics or commentators, The Feed team engage with ‘ordinary’ young Japanese. Continue reading Review of SBS The Feed’s Sex in Japan: a new look at a disturbingly old problem
All our stories belong to all Australians. All our stories should have equal value. That’s why these three plays by South Asian diaspora playwrights Sonal Moore, Kevin Bathman and Roanna Gonsalves are so precious, and resonated with me. Continue reading Review of Drama-Sutra by Nautanki Theatre: Indian and Chindian stories
GLOW is fabulous entertainment with crisp, witty dialogue and unexpectedly affecting poignant moments, like the emotionally intimate scenes between sleazy director Sam and the protagonist Ruth. Yet GLOW avoids being too earnestly up its own arse by being fun and just downright silly most of the time. Continue reading Review of GLOW Season 1 on Netflix: storytelling in the Trump era
Unlike many of my esteemed radio producer colleagues, I really liked the 6 part podcast series Missing Richard Simmons by Dan Taberski. Continue reading Review of Podcast Missing Richard Simmons: it’s no S-Town
Because all good narratives, no matter how black in theme or tone, are essentially about illuminating the human condition. And the blacker the story, the more it illuminates. Continue reading Netflixtherapy: or how the power of narrative saved me from depression
Author Roger Pulvers is a polymath with a formidable list of achievements that after perusing, usually require a lie down with a cold cloth on my forehead. He is the kind of person we might refer to as ‘atama ga agaranai’, a person whose achievements are so humbling that you are compelled to bow down to them. Continue reading Review of Star Sand by Roger Pulvers: simple, short, sweet, a little too starry
Of the gazillion podcasts that now jostle for our audio attention, PocketDocs is one of the most professionally produced, always surprising, artistically sound shows in the English language. Given time, its back catalogue will become a listening room treasure trove, like a bottomless fridge of audio morsels. Continue reading The end of PocketDocs: a loss to all ears
After watching three seasons of Transparent, I find myself envying the Jews. The transgressions of the self absorbed, upper middle class Californian-Jewish Pfefferman clan makes my own dysfunctional family seem so excruciatingly banal that I’m wishing I could wallow in all that Jewish trauma. Which is perverse of course, and that to me is the attraction of Transparent. Continue reading Review of Transparent Season 3: transcendent transgressions
