Tag Archives: Sydney Morning Herald

Say, have you missed my View from the Street column? Then MISS IT NO MORE!

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Dear the Internet,

As you’ve probably noticed with the imminent release of The Long and Winding Way To The Top: 50 (Or So) Songs That Made Australia – which is on shelves in mere weeks! – I’ve been writing a lot more about music of late – and also, somewhat gratifyingly, science (or more accurately SCIENCE!).

However, there’s still a part of my heart which is forever obsessed with Australian politics and after attempts to keep my snarky, lefty View from the Street column as part of the regular column-mix at Fairfax failed during their rationalisations earlier this year, I figured it was the end of it.

Except that I kept getting emails and Facebook messages from readers asking what was going on, which made me think that maybe I wasn’t the only person who missed it. And then when I idly suggested that I start doing columns again as a subscriber-thing on Patreon the response was overwhelmingly positive.

And it’ll only cost THIS MANY MONEYS!

So: last Friday I launched my new twice-a-week politics column, for which folks can subscribe for $3 a month, and the first one went up on Monday. And oh, it felt SO GOOD TO BE WRITING IT AGAIN.

So if you were a fan of V from the S, or the 10 Things column in the Vine that preceded it approximately a million years ago, then you can get it straight to your inbox or browser window simply by joining up here.

I’ve no idea whether this is the brave new crowdfunded future of journalism or a deluded ego trip as barking as a conspiracy theorist YouTube channel, but heck: it’s an excuse to look at the many, many, many wildly silly things happening in politics at the moment.

The posts will be publicly available after a week at the Patreon page, so if you’re reading this in at least six days time you should be able to see what happened back… um, now?

So if you’ve missed my snark, or just think that maybe politics could stand to be a bit kinder and smarter than the current cavalcade of up-fuckery, then come join the new thing. There’s some very nice people there.

Yours ever,

APS

 

 

 

The first week of the new column, and other things

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Let’s have a little look-see at the way the week’s panned out.

Morning, the Internet.

I may work from home these days, but at least I'm maintaining the stringent strata-based filing system that has historically made my desks so easily identifiable.

Former officemates will be relieved to note that I’m maintaining the stringent strata-based filing system that has historically made my desks so easily identifiable. Also, that Eagulls CD is really good.

Well, it’s been a week of the column at the Sydney Morning Herald’s site (and the affiliated national mastheads, about which I’m terribly excited). It’s a heck of a feeling to be writing for the SMH – and gotta say, it’s been very, very, VERY nice not having to get up at 5am to do so.

If you’ve missed said columns thus far, they went a little bit like this:

Sunday 21: Yeah, racist attacks may not be the best anti-terror strategy

Monday 22: John Howard was right, says John Howard

Tuesday 23: Will Palmer United become Palmer Untied?

Wednesday 24: Scott Morrison’s Holiday in Cambodia

Thursday 25: ASIO to hide your freedom so the baddies can’t get it

…and all my stuff is gathered here.

Also, it was very sad to hear that the King’s Tribune has ceased publishing: another source of independent journalism vanished. The last thing I wrote for them was my review of treasurer Joe Hockey’s biography Not Your Average Joe. Spoiler: it was not positive.

There’s quite a few SMH pieces out there, but also I had a chat with Jimmy Barnes for the Guardian, and reviewed the excellent new Sounds Like Sunset album for Mess+Noise.

In other news, there’s a fair whack of my stuff in the next issue of Time Out Sydney, including a feature about the surprising rise of country music in the city, and this week I’ve been pumping out stories for Voyeur and Australian Guitar that will be printed in the coming months and make it look like I’m sort of writin’ machine.

Next week will have the launch of my new column at TheVine, entitled Here’s The Thing, which will be like my longer 10 Things entries where I’d get completely sidetracked and go deep into the history of an issue. I’ll no doubt be making a song and dance about it on Twitter and stuff, so feel free to follow me if you don’t already.

Speaking of which: I won’t bother you too often because I treat Twitter less like a communication medium and more like a bus window out of which I occasionally yell. So if you’re planning on having a Twitter war with me, apologies in advance: I generally don’t bother. It’s a great medium for insults but terrible for proper discussions, so maybe screed it up on my Facebook instead.

And now, back to the word mines. See you at the SMH on Sunday evening, friends.

Yours ever,

APS