Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Ben O'Shea

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Footy's b@ck with new followers

The AFL returns this week and the naff conventions of the NAB Cup aren't the only thing purists will have a hard time swallowing.This year we'll see more and more footy players take to micro-blogging site Twitter, bringing us 140-character insights into...
Fri, February 17, 2012, 1:26 pm WST
Justify my love

Up until Monday, this was going to be a column about how cynically orchestrated Madonna's comeback has been - she released a new music video, packed with muscle men in American football uniforms, just days before a high-profile performance at the Super...
Fri, February 10, 2012, 11:10 am WST
Star Wars' Jar Jar-ing role

When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released in early 1999, it was a momentous occasion for nerds everywhere.Seeing that luminous, green Lucasfilm logo in the opening credits was spine-tingling.However, the sky-high expectations were...
Thu, February 2, 2012, 10:04 am WST
White wash

Another Australia Day is upon us and, as always, it brings no shortage of easy targets for people who write opinion columns. You've got those car-mounted flags, for starters, how annoying are those? Or what about the perennial issue of celebrating a...
Thu, January 26, 2012, 11:09 am WST
Fat chance

Love is one of those inalienable human rights; at least that's the premise at the heart of Network Ten's big ratings hope for this year, The Biggest Loser: Singles. Hard to come to any other conclusion after watching the promo and hearing Regina Spektor...
Thu, January 19, 2012, 12:12 pm WST
Resisting change

Everybody has their guilty pleasures. For some people it's junk food, for others it might be an addiction to rom-coms; things you know are no good for you but you keep doing anyway.Most of these guilty pleasures are relatively harmless and the odd...
Thu, January 12, 2012, 12:13 pm WST
The final countdown

December 21 this year could turn out to be a day like any other or maybe, just maybe, it could be the end of the world as we know it.For those who came in late, this particular end date owes its origins to the Olmec/Mayan long count calendar; I'm not...
Thu, January 5, 2012, 1:19 pm WST
Re-gifting rules

In Dante's Inferno, hell is divided into levels corresponding to particular sins, with each offering a unique punishment for the sinner.The ninth circle of hell is for those guilty of treachery and the ones who betray a family member, for example, are...
Thu, December 22, 2011, 10:22 am WST
Tasty cheese

As difficult as it is to believe, there's a job even harder than selecting decent batsmen to make up the top order of our Test team.Picking the best songs of a given year is a task that strikes fear into the most battle-hardened music journalist - it...
Thu, December 15, 2011, 12:27 pm WST
Turning pro

While we've enjoyed channelling the infamously luxe pimp aesthetic for our gift guide, it is important to remember that the wealth of such characters comes at the expense of a group of people oft forgot during the festive season - prostitutes.No one...
Thu, December 8, 2011, 6:32 pm WST
Bye bye, Bali

Bali is so over, let's face it. The allure of this tropical paradise survived the bombings of 2002 and 2005 partly due to the resilience and grace of the Balinese but mostly because it's a damn cheap getaway.Its tourist appeal even endured Schapelle...
Thu, December 1, 2011, 1:47 pm WST
Hiring and firing

The last season of the American Celebrity Apprentice was outstanding; we saw Meat Loaf cry for a painted turtle, peered deep into the twisted mind of Gary Busey and learnt that, though you can take the real housewife out of Atlanta, you can't take...
Thu, November 3, 2011, 1:13 pm WST
By appointment to the Queen

Royal subjects,We cordially invite you to a barbecue in our name on the Perth foreshore on Saturday so you can pay tribute to the glory of the Commonwealth, long may we reign over it.Indeed, we have been reigning over you antipodeans for nigh on 60...
Thu, October 27, 2011, 12:19 pm WST
Bunny Boiling

An article in The Weekend West last weekend raised the hot-button issue of the sexualisation of young girls.Sabrina Del Borrello's yarn revealed jewellery store Diva had placed Playboy-branded products within 2m of stick-on earrings and plastic bangles...
Thu, October 20, 2011, 12:10 pm WST
Horsing Around

French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote that hell is other people but I'm betting Sartre never experienced that awful time of year when the footy is finished and the cricket yet to begin.That, my friends, is what hell is.During this...
Thu, October 13, 2011, 4:39 pm WST
Ruddy minded

There has been a lot of buzz about comebacks this week and I'm not talking about the news the Vengaboys are getting the band back together - although that is pretty special too.Recent polls are lending weight to the idea that former prime minister Kevin...
Thu, September 15, 2011, 1:57 pm WST
Seekers keepers

There have been many twists and turns in the embarrassing saga that has been this country's approach to asylum seekers but this latest impasse is particularly frustrating.On one side you've got Julia Gillard's minority Government, struggling to keep its...
Thu, September 8, 2011, 11:58 am WST
The new reality TV

While cinema retains the prestige of its golden years despite the release of Final Destination 5, the ubiquity of television will always consign it to the lower rungs of the pop culture hierarchy.That's because TV is mostly crap.Sure, there are...
Thu, September 1, 2011, 12:03 pm WST
Bellyflop

Last Sunday might have been Channel 9's biggest night of the year, with blockbuster ratings for The Block finale and the movie-length premiere of the much-hyped Underbelly: Razor, but I was left underwhelmed....
Thu, August 25, 2011, 1:26 pm WST
Indigenous funding: epic fail

When the Seven Network broke the story about wasteful indigenous spending on Sunday night people around the country were quick to react.The right-wingers began to peddle the notion that Labor has always been a soft touch for those with their hands out...
Thu, August 11, 2011, 12:40 pm WST