On grief and being newly grandparent-less

Grief is weird. Thankfully I had very little exposure to it until my mid-20s, but it’s always managed to surprise. Its reality hits you at the most unexpected moments, like going to call the person, only to realise you’d need a very powerful phone to reach them, or hearing a song, or just hearing an …

Dancing in the dark

Tonight I went to a place where the dancing only starts when the disco ball disappears and the lights go out... THE year is 1998. Careless in the throes of youth, you dance around the lounge room as Saturday morning’s Rage plays the bubblegum pop hits that defined the decade as substantially as grunge. While …

Diagnosis Wanderlust

THE symptoms will strike without warning, finding their way into your day in vulnerable places like the office, the morning commute or even your empty house. All of a sudden you suffer a heaviness of the heart, concentration loss and a mild delirium that flings you to places visited and destinations for which only imagination …

Maths-metal and streaking: Hottest 100 vote lobbying’s shaky history

THIS month, many of my friends, relatives, complete strangers and I have been asked to make a very important decision; one that could change the course of history. There’s also a state election on. I speak, of course, of the decision whether or not to follow the social media push to force Taylor Swift's "Shake …

My kind of town, Chicago is… in summer

“YEAH, I could live here,” I thought as I strolled along the Lake Michigan shoreline. It was a sunny June morning and I was on a decent hike from my hostel through skyscraper-lined streets, parkland, beaches, and riverfront, soon to arrive at the Lincoln Park Zoo. America’s third-largest city was alive with a pulsing energy, …

I didn’t choose the evil bird collector life

THE collection started with a simple request: find me something tacky for less than $2 at a Paddington op shop. It was 2011 and I was so very, very sheltered when it came to the world of avian ornamentals. So when my friend returned back to college with what has since been dubbed “The Evil …

A very Australian response to an unusual crime

YESTERDAY was not the day “we changed forever”; the perpetrator of the hideous crime doesn’t deserve to affect the country in such a major way. Far from a day of change, yesterday was a day when the best and worst aspects of our national character were on show. For the most part, compassion, decency, community …

Road tripping through America: The Listicle

A COUPLE of weeks ago, I went on my first social road trip since returning from the United States. It wasn’t a long one – just a pleasant Sunday drive to Springbrook National Park and other parts of the Gold Coast hinterland – but the trip evoked the same feelings of adventure and freedom that …

Why are phone hacking victims and nude photo hacking victims treated so differently?

WHEN ‘journalists’ were caught hacking phones for stories, there was public outrage. When hackers stole the account details of 77 million PlayStation users, there was widespread anger at the perpetrators and serious questions for Sony about its security systems. When hackers stole sexually explicit images of female celebrities there was… victim-blaming. Three cases of hacking, …

South Dakota: the tourist trap state

IF COFFS Harbour ever pulls a Detroit and files for bankruptcy, the subsequent sell-off of The Big Banana would probably see the oversized piece of fruit snapped up by the state of South Dakota. Not because of any connection the Midwestern state may have with the tropical, allegedly evolution-debunking botanical berry, mind you; after all, …