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‘Culture’ Category

  1. Oh, Dylan Moran, you get me every time.

    April 28, 2010 by Tash Keuneman

    If you don’t own Black Books, or even watched it, you haven’t lived.

    If you’re in the mood for a more of a giggle, youtube Stephen K Amos.

    Category Culture | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. The first film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland

    March 8, 2010 by Tash Keuneman

    Made 37 years after the book was written, this was the first film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Marvel at the special effects of 1903.

    It’s really cool that the British Film Institute put this on YouTube. Otherwise it would just  gather dust in their archives. Well done, I tip my hat off to you BFI.

    Funnily enough, Cecil Hepworth, one of the directors of the 1903 film, cast his wife as the Red Queen. Just like Tim Burton did for Helena Bonham-Carter in the most recent Alice in Wonderland.

    I saw it over the weekend. It was AMAZING! To be completely honest, Burton doesn’t have to do much to amaze me but this film was so magical and colourful, my mouth was agape for much of it.

    Oh, and about the video above, the scene at 4:05 mins scares the bejesus out of me. Still does. I’ll probably have nightmares tonight.

    Category Culture | Tags: | 3 Comments

  3. American deadline

    March 5, 2010 by Tash Keuneman

    I’m leaving the States in June for a three month stint through South America and Europe, finally settling back in Sydney.  Isn’t it amusing how when you have a deadline, suddenly a thousand things pop into your head?

    © White Castle

    Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been writing a list of things I want to do in this land of opportunities. And since I, like everyone else alive, likes the feeling of accomplishment, I included some of the things I’ve already done.

    Most of them involve food, and 80% of food cravings come from the Simpsons or other American films, but hey, don’t pass judgement on my needs.

    If you tasted American bacon, you would go ape shit for the crazy food combos too.

    So with pompous glory, I present to you, my list of American things to do before I leave the country. Stuff I’ve done is in orange.

    • Shoot a gun at something that is not alive.
    • Make red beans and rice from scratch.
    • Watch Alice in Wonderland. That’s not really America related but important nevertheless.
    • Check out all the photog stuff at B&H in New York.
    • Finish the largest Big Gulp known to man in one day. Be walking distance to a loo.
    • Do a keg stand and drink beer from a red plastic cup.
    • See the Grand Canyon.
    • Visit every Smithsonian museum in D.C.
    • See Obama, at least from afar.
    • Buy lots of Halloween shit to take back home.
    • Have the best cup cake in the world.
    • Learn conversational Spanish.
    • Play a game at Chuck E. Cheese.
    • Eat at In-n-Out.
    • Have a true blue American chopped salad.
    • Go to a Unity Woods yoga workshop.
    • Eat a peep.
    • See Ballet at the Kennedy Center.
    • Have a New York style pizza slice (that is hopefully bigger than my face).
    • Go to a basketball game.
    • Go to an ice hockey game.
    • Eat at White Castle.
    • Send a postcard to PostSecret.
    • Go to New Orleans.
    • Spend at least another day in New Orleans.
    • Eat at Taco Bell.
    • Have a cocktail named after an American president that I don’t know.
    • Visit the theater where Lincoln was assassinated.
    • Hike through Great Falls park.
    • Go to a goth club.
    • Have dinner at one of those places where they dress up as knights, serve medieval food, talk funny and then fight each other, to the death, all for my amusement.

    Category Culture | Tags: | 4 Comments

  4. Ask me anything

    January 28, 2010 by Tash Keuneman

    So I joined Formspring. I’ve had a couple of friends do it and it looks like fun. Should be interesting, but only if you choose to participate. Ask me anything: http://www.formspring.me/tashj Let’s have some shits and giggles!

    Category Culture | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Look after your art

    January 25, 2010 by Tash Keuneman

    © www.oldpictures.com (I kid you not)

    © www.oldpictures.com (I kid you not)

    I’ve been going to a lot of museums this past couple of months and I’ve noticed that some* photographs made around 200 years ago aren’t necessarily good per se. They just withstood the test of time and are now being shown around the world.

    The images that we consider landmarks in our history shape our consciousness because they weren’t destroyed or lost and were eventually recognised for what they’re worth. So take note. Back up your shit. Make double copies. Whatever you put your soul into, make sure there isn’t only one copy in the world. Give a carbon copy to your Mum in case there’s a fire in your house. Do whatever you can. The next three generations down the track might love you for it, even if the only one seeing your art right now is you.

    After enough time has passed, your photograph stops being an image of a woman in a red dress (shameless Matrix reference) and starts becoming a representation of your era. You’re instantly capturing how you view this world in this time, it’s hard to take such a big step back from everyday situations when you’re in it, but 2, 20 or 200 years on, it’s damn well fascinating.

    I have a Western Digital drive that has two drives and Time Machine set up. What do you use to protect what you love to do?

    *I say some in italics to prevent tomatoes being thrown at computer screens and general booing as you read this on your couch.

    Category Culture | Tags: | 1 Comment

  6. Male pseudonyms and women in jobs

    December 21, 2009 by Tash Keuneman

    Cupcakes and Mace linked to a blogger that used a male pseudonym and instantly saw a rise in the job offers and a pay increase.

    To be honest, I don’t know how that makes me feel. Men still do earn a little bit more for doing the same jobs but to see such a spot on example of this prejudice in action is a lot harder to ignore that a statistic.

    I just finished reading Malcom Gladwell’s book, Blink, which goes in-depth about the judgements humans make in the first impression. One study he talked about had symphony judges choose musicians through their music alone – with a wall set up between the musician and the critic. Women were suddenly getting offered positions in the symphony playing instruments that were considered manly, big cumbersome, low sounding things.

    Gladwell suggested that in order for everyone to have a fair go at a job, we should remove gender, race and any other personal factor out of the applicant choosing process, leaving the bare bones of accomplishments to pick the best person for the job.

    Here, here.

    It turns out that by choosing a male name: James Chartrand, the pseudonym the female blogger used, she removed the inevitable questions that come with gender. A relationship, kids and family responsibilities seem to be a weight on only the female workers backs. Which, I believe, with all of me, is bullshit.

    I don’t know how we can over-correct this. Fact of the matter is, it takes nine months of incubation for a woman to pop out a child. And sadly, most mothers do the hard legwork of raising the chubby balls of flesh while it’s acceptable for a male partner to go about as business per usual.

    I know the Aussie government, and maybe the Brits as well are looking at extending male partner’s maternity leave to that of the woman involved in the child-making business. Which is great.

    Feminism hasn’t even been around for a century. I don’t know how long it will take for equal opportunity to sink into our brains. It will be a slow, evolutionary process. At least, that’s what I keep on telling to myself when I see a reclining semi-nude woman selling toothpaste or beard shavers.

    Will we have to use male pseudonyms until our collective human brain has been rewired? I’ll tell you one thing, our anonymous female blogger certainly made more impact by going out and being successful when she was believed to be male. Imagine if she had just written up a scathing blog post claiming prejudice because she was a single mother of two and wasn’t getting paid enough for her skill set. We’d blame it on the economy and think nothing of it.

    What do you think?

    Category Culture | Tags: | 3 Comments

  7. Happy Halloween!

    October 30, 2009 by Tash Keuneman

    This is my favourite time of the year. I have pumpkin carving tonight then a masquerade ball on actual Halloween. I’m wearing my spider stitching socks to work today, cause that’s how I roll, and I can guarantee you that tomorrow I’m going to be buying all the black and orange clothes I can get my hands on to last me the rest of the year.

    Here’s an awesome video series recorded in an Ikea store, without any of the staff knowing. It’s called Ikea Heights and has six episodes so far. It’s fun shit like this that makes me proud to live in this day and age.

    Ikea Heights – Episode 6 from DaveAOK on Vimeo.

    Category Culture | Tags: | 2 Comments

  8. Smile like you (want to) mean it

    October 4, 2009 by Tash Keuneman

    According to a not so recent article, the amount of times you smile and the intensity of your smile can make the difference between a lasting relationship and a divorce. I think this can be applied to all sorts of situations. I deliberately smile at frowning people when I’m feeling depleted on the trip home and it picks up my mood.

    I try to laugh off everything when I’m getting stressed. Except on my annual cleaning spree. Such as today. Then I don’t laugh, I dust, wipe and don’t you damn get in my way or I will plough you over. Yeah, I’m tired. But it’s over and I’m back to smiling.

    So hello world! Tash is back after the last six bleach-scented hours.

    Category Culture | Tags: | 1 Comment

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