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Author: Brian Matthews

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The pulsating cut and thrust of international Scrabble

    • Brian Matthews
    • 27 February 2007
    1 Comment

    What with the Ashes being a let down, the One Day Internationals more interminable than ever and Federer just too bloody good, serious students of TV sport might instead turn their attention to the National Scrabble Masters Tournament.

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  • RELIGION

    A wide Brown land shaking off its collective memory

    • Brian Matthews
    • 23 December 2006

    In a country which periodically agonises its way through debates about its history and frets regularly about the quality of history teaching, it is remarkable how resistant we are to embedding notes and pointers on our past in the urban and rural landscapes.

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  • RELIGION

    A man of Middle Eastern appearance who dreams of peace

    • Brian Matthews
    • 13 November 2006
    2 Comments

    2:41 am. There was an luminescence in the room. I made one of those random, unaccountable mental connections that such occasions often evoke.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    ANZAC tradition now beyond satire

    • Brian Matthews
    • 30 October 2006
    1 Comment

    In an age of continuous and ambiguously justified war, the ANZAC commemoration has become highly politicised, infiltrated by party politics and populist bravura.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    No place for Colin Thiele in memorial ratings

    • Brian Matthews
    • 18 September 2006
    4 Comments

    It was hard to notice the recent death of Colin Thiele, arguably Australia's greatest children's writer. In a philistine nation under philistine leadership, Thiele’s quiet cultured tone and its sad silencing could not compete for proper, courteous and deserved recognition with the phony vernacular outpouring that is supposed to be our true voice.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Four butchers and a writer

    • Brian Matthews
    • 21 August 2006
    1 Comment

    "With collar up round my ears against the nip of the morning, I enter by the side door. It is a historic moment. I am the first writer-in-residence at a butchers shop."  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Mid-East crisis triggers 1974 memory

    • Brian Matthews
    • 24 July 2006

    While musing on current events in Lebanon, Brian Matthews' globe of memory begins to spin back to a time and place perhaps not so different to today.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A sea of opportunity

    • Brian Matthews
    • 09 July 2006

    A week in which Mark Latham becomes the Leader of the Opposition and begins talking about ‘rungs of opportunity’.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Trammelled

    • Brian Matthews
    • 07 July 2006

    ‘Lookin’ forward to your cup of coffee, Ed?’ ‘No money, Harry.’ ‘Don’t need any, mate.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Year of the scapegoat

    • Brian Matthews
    • 06 July 2006

    ‘Pavillon now OPEN. Surving FOOD and DRIN’. This sign, propped up outside Spencer Street Station, was attracting a lot of passing attention the other morning.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Dire diary

    • Brian Matthews
    • 04 July 2006

    By and large I disapprove of diaries or, to be more precise, I disapprove of the effort required to keep diaries.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Little voice

    • Brian Matthews
    • 01 July 2006

    Little voice

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