Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Author: Brian Matthews

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Woomf! Plunggg! Protons collide with doomsday fanaticism

    • Brian Matthews
    • 07 January 2009
    4 Comments

    The rumoured potential of the Large Hadron Collider to bring about the disintegration of the universe captured the public imagination. 'Hadron' is a word susceptible to misprinting of a kind that destroys the seriousness of any discussion. (September 2008)

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Scenes from a taxi

    • Brian Matthews
    • 17 December 2008
    1 Comment

    I don't support the view that cab drivers are sources of homespun wisdom and arcane knowledge. Australian cabbies are an amiable, diverse lot, not given to philosophy, though I encountered one spectacular exception.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Lawson long shot

    • Brian Matthews
    • 04 November 2008
    5 Comments

    It's 1996 and I'm saddling up to give the Sir Robert Menzies Lecture at London University. My topic is Henry Lawson and Manning Clark. 'Manfred who?' asks a baffled London colleague. The lecture's on Melbourne Cup Day. It could be an omen.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The battle for the economy class armrest

    • Brian Matthews
    • 15 October 2008
    10 Comments

    Recent events both aeronautical and financial have been enough to scare anyone off banks and aeroplanes forever. Global economic chaos is nothing compared with the trauma of being stuck next to a large person on a plane.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Woomf! Plunggg! Protons collide with doomsday fanaticism

    • Brian Matthews
    • 17 September 2008
    1 Comment

    The rumoured potential of the Large Hadron Collider to bring about the disintegration of the universe captured the public imagination. 'Hadron' is a word susceptible to misprinting of a kind that destroys the seriousness of any discussion.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Books survive the orgasm of closure

    • Brian Matthews
    • 20 August 2008
    3 Comments

    We've seen the 'end of history' and the 'death of God', yet the humble book lives on. While technology buffs embrace the e-book, printed books continue to exercise an atavistic attraction through their fusion of form and content.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Pub mural's lost legacy

    • Brian Matthews
    • 23 July 2008

    The Great Uraidla Pub Mural was the wonder and enigma of locals and tourists alike. The occasional knowledgeable blow-in would be flabbergasted and deeply impressed to find 'a Tom Gleghorn' on the wall.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Another victim of bureaucratic sludge

    • Brian Matthews
    • 18 June 2008
    1 Comment

    Things are Kafkaesque when you are caught in a labyrinth of unmanageable and inexplicable circumstances. I sprang to the phone and a pleasant, robotic female voice told me how valuable I was and that I was sixth in the queue.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gardening while Burma generals fiddle

    • Brian Matthews
    • 21 May 2008
    2 Comments

    The ordered natural world of the garden is a place where disturbing thoughts can be annihilated, but only temporarily. Half a world away, brutal generals are using natural disaster to repress the weak and powerless.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Tibet trauma not written in the stars

    • Brian Matthews
    • 17 April 2008

    'Geo-politically astute' astrologer Jessica Murray believes revelations about China's violations against Tibet were prompted by astrological activity. For all their glib outlandishness and pseudo-scientific jargon, contemporary astrologers still fascinate.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The truth behind our heat plague

    • Brian Matthews
    • 26 March 2008
    2 Comments

    Camus' plague was a metaphor for the Second World War German occupation of France. Our plague is no metaphor. It's the truth of the planet's advancing impatience with its reckless colonisers.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    End of innings for Nine's weird world of cricket

    • Brian Matthews
    • 13 February 2008
    1 Comment

    This week we heard that the Ten Network has snared the rights to the forthcoming Indian Premier League series from Channel Nine. For three decades, broadcast cricket has been synonymous with Nine, which has delivered many advances including 'stump cam'.

    READ MORE