A trip to Ikea is always exciting, even more so in the case of my brand spanking new desk (which, by the way, only cost me $39) at which I hope many exciting new ideas will be born.

I’ve never really had a desk you see. Having been blessed with an impossibly small room (made all the more small by the 21 years of stuff I have accumulated, despite my not-so-ruthless culling), I’ve never made the effort to clear the space for a proper work desk. Thus, for the past 10 or so years, I’ve done my work on my bed. Watching DVDs. Yes, even during VCE.

I’ve since come to realise that serious essays require a serious workspace. That, and my uni stuff needed a designated ‘home’ at long last, rather than the floor.

So, here’s to all the brilliant writings which will hopefully be inspired by my new, grown up desk which finally gives me a chance to use my one-year-old-barely-been-turned-on-due-to-lack-of-desk desk lamp.

And you know what they say – change is as good as a holiday.

Bookmark It

I am writing on behalf of many young women who do not relish any opportunity to shoot down members of their own gender, the young women who believe that you can be a feminist and still wear girlish clothing, those whose mothers rammed the teachings of Gloria Steinem down their throats and those whom believe your comments regarding the David Jones Sexual Harrassment case are of a completely different era. I am writing to inform you that I will never be purchasing anything bearing your Label again.

Image via SMH

Throughout this whole debacle, it has proven once more how little progress women have made in their pursuit for equality. It has also demonstrated profoundly how women are the first to drag down other women. Your comments, however flippant you intended them to be, send the message to women suffering from sexual harassment that they should be grateful for such attention from men at all. That it is a privilege to be harassed and threatened by a handsome, wealthy and powerful man. That we should take such attention, if it occurs, willingly and not draw attention to ourselves. I cannot adequately express how poisoning such thoughts can be.

Young women, my peers, are reluctant enough as it is to even admit that they care about women’s rights without the harsh and confusing comments of our elders who think otherwise thrown into the mix. Fewer and fewer girls will call themselves, openly, a feminist. Even fewer will support women who find themselves in situations such as Kristy Fraser-Kirk as this backlash has indicated. These are depressing realities of which I’d hoped someone older and wiser than myself would be concerned about. As a successful businesswoman yourself, I find it difficult to swallow that you couldn’t control your thoughts and also that you don’t comprehend the shocking conditions faced by women in the workplace.

Throughout your apology on Fox FM, I still failed to sense any true remorse on your behalf. I understand that you do not hold any unkind feelings towards Mr. McInnes and that, of course, is your prerogative. If you like the man, you are entitled to say so. No one asked you to defend the claims of Ms. Fraser-Kirk, no one has forced you to believe her. Under no circumstances, however, should you believe that your own personal feelings allow you to disrespect the claims made by others in such a public forum.  Especially other women and especially when it comes to something as serious as sexual harassment.

As someone who has, in the past, admired your products, I refuse to give you any more support. The basis of your clothing’s appeal is that is seems like that from another era, I never knew that the backwards belief systems were part of the old-fashioned package.

I am utterly disgusted.

Bookmark It

…catching up with old friends (both human and figurative)

…singing/cranking really loudly in my car/humming like mad songs from Jersey Boys which my mumma generously took me to see last Wednesday.

…answering phones with my ‘professional voice’.

…having frequent arguments with Excel spreadsheets which struggle to handle text the way I need them too.

So far, not bad.

How bout you?

Bookmark It

As heart-stoppingly sexy as Bon Jovi at 47…

As innocent, sweet and pure as Prince and Paris Jackson…

As expectation exceeding as Jennifer Hudson…

And as beautiful, talented and bad ass as Beyonce…

…amongst other things, of course.

All images via Grammy.com – Michael Caulfield / WireImage.com

Bookmark It

Dujour Magazine, which I mourned so desperately not long ago, is BACK! And, I’m sure, better than ever.

In more exciting news, Rough Review will be featuring THE exclusive interview with editor, Letitia Burrell, where she will be answering all those tricky questions plaguing the minds of confused readers – where did you go? Where’s my subscription? Are you back for good?

So, if YOU have a question to pose to Dujour, however curly it may be, now is your chance.

Post your questions for Dujour in the comment section below with your name and other info (twitter, website, etc).

Please try to keep them clean =)

Bookmark It

Apple announced today their brand new invention, the  iPad. The device is sort of a Kindle meets iPod meets Laptop…

For someone who has all three above, I’m decidedly unimpressed and perplexed at the amount of Twitter buzz that I’ve witnessed today. For some unknown reason, today is a day where people seem most concerned about the decline of print media.

What was that sorry? Oh print media dies TODAY! *slaps forehead*, silly me, I forgot!

Let’s all rush out and get our iPad’s quicksmart.

Don’t believe me? Here’s some evidence from the past couple of days:

8 Reasons Women Should Be Excited for Apple’s ‘iPad’ @ Jezebel.com

In less than one week, Apple is expected to unveil some thingamajig that will be like a Kindle from heaven and supposedly save print media. What this new gadget might be called is where people might have an issue.

Recent evidence suggests that this divine new product will be called the iPad. Obviously, this presents some immediately troubling connotations — as opposed to a word like “notepad,” a single letter “i” doesn’t give us enough emotional distance from the “pad” part of the package.

New York Times Ready to Charge Online Readers by Gabriel Sherman @ NYMag.com

New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. appears close to announcing that the paper will begin charging for access to its website, according to people familiar with internal deliberations. After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system

Salvation (for Newspapers) Is at Hand by Robert Wright @ NYTimes.com

Last week the debut of my online column for The New York Times (that is, this column) came on the same day that The Times announced its plan to start charging for content. Coincidence?

Sadly, yes. I’d love to think that The Times was parading my prose as an example of something worth paying for, but I fear not.

Well, if I’m not the key to this newspaper’s future, maybe I can at least throw in my two cents about that future. Here goes.

My first reaction to The Times’s announcement was: “Wouldn’t you know it? As soon as I show up they build a massive pay wall that will doom me to obscurity by dooming The Times’s current dominance of its content category.”

The iPad Is Like Holding The Future. But Only Because I Graduated From iPhone School by MG Siegler @ TechCrunch.

When the iPhone first launched in 2007 I was sure I wasn’t going to buy one. Then I played with one. 15 minutes later I was $600 poorer. It was arguably the best tech purchase I’ve ever made. After the Apple event today, I got a chance to play with the new iPad for quite a bit of time. My takeaway? The thing is beautiful and fast. Really fast. If you’ll excuse my hyperbole, it felt like I was holding the future. But is it a must-have? That’s a complicated question.

Bookmark It

As most Melburnians will now know, our former state Minister for Transport and Arts, Lynne Kosky, resigned this morning.

Well, yay!

My hatred has been well documented in VCE SACS, letters to editors and plastered across many different blogging platforms. I suppose this could explain the influx of texts I received today from my family and friends upon hearing the news – they all thought of me, lol.

Though I despised her various stupid remarks, poor management of Melbourne’s public transport and how she gave women in parliament a bad name, you do have the give the gal some respect for sticking around despite all the bullshit that’s been mercilessly flung her way. Clearly, she’s got some balls. Or she’s just more stupid than everyone thought.

However, I never did actually send my angry letter to her, nor did I ever get the chance to meet her in the flesh. I’ve come oh-so-very close twice before, one memorable time in August, 2008:

After over a year of not-so-silent hate, I was finally presented with an opportunity to meet my arch-nemesis in the flesh: Lynne Kosky.

My Dad’s building every so often houses art and there was to be a celebratory ‘do’ in honour of their latest acquisition of some Japanese Art.

Excited enough about receiving an invitiation to the unveiling, I never expected to hear that apparently, my enemy just HAPPENS to be, inaddition to a complete and utter incompetent failure at her job, an expert on Japanese art who had been invited to say a few words at said unveiling.

Oh, how the excitement consumed me – I squealed like a baby pig when my Dad told me.
My mother thought it would be wise, now that we had this information, that perhaps I did not attend the event. She feared it would simply be “too much excitement” for me.

My dad repeatedly asked why I was so excited, clearly not able to comprehend the depths of my hatred for this being.

Alas, I was determined, determined to meet my anti-idol and give her a piece of my mind.

But what was I going to say?? For almost two weeks, I attempted to think of something eloquent, un-moronic and tactful to say to the glorious Ms. Kosky. However, this was a lot easier in theory than it turned out to be in practice.

“You f***ing bitch, you fail”, seemed a little uncalled for at a relatively formal shindig with a bunch of the media and my Dad’s tenants.

I also ruled out writing every perceivable thing I hate about Melbourne’s Public Transport down in a letter and slipping it to her when I shake her hand as I thought I might come on as a little too intense.

I was faced with quite the conundrum.

So, still unable to think of the right thing to say, I decided to briefly attend the opening anyway. I finished uni and headed straight to the building, slightly nervous about meeting someone who has had such a hateful impact on my life.
As I pushed through the revolving doors, I scanned the foyer where a group of men and women in corporate attire had gathered, for a frumpy lady with a bad haircut. She didn’t appear to be there.

I found my parents and inquired as to where Lynne Kosky was.

It was then that I felt my heartbreak.

“Parliament was sitting today, she is unable to make it”

=(

Heartbroken, rejected and depressed, I got in my car and drove home, finally filled with inspiration. Sigh.

Now, I feel a bit mean hating her now that she’s no longer the Public Transport Satan, determined to ruin my pursuit for a cheap and reliable way around Melbourne.

I suppose I could just forgive and forget? Or would it be better to skip proudly along Swanston Street singing ding dong the witch is dead?

Bookmark It

Image via dhammza

You may have sensed yesterday that I have a bit of skepticism when it comes to original end-of-year articles in our newspapers and magazines.

Far too often is it about the best bodies of the year, the worst and best dressed and the most memorable personalities- after a while, it gets all too repetitive and at times, a little too negative for my liking.

In light of this, I was pleasantly surprised by the Herald Sun TV Guide’s offering in the form of their 2010 TV Wish List in which four staff writers take a critical eye to all that was wrong, and oh-so-right with Australian television programming over the past year. It’s light-hearted, funny and looks to the future for positive television change.

However, the comments online in response to the article indicate the best part of the list – the discussion and debate surrounding today’s television. Agree, or disagree, at least the format is a welcome change from yet another piece about the most memorable moments of the year…

Kyle Sandilands, Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock – what’s on your TV wish list?

Colin Vickery, Siobhan Duck, Geoff Shearer and Jasmin Orr

Herald Sun, December 31, 2009
Each week, the Guide’s Your Say page lets you share your opinion on what you love or loathe on TV. As we enter a new year, we offer our TV wish list for 2010.

1 ONE EPISODE OF TWO AND A HALF MEN A WEEK

TEN episodes of this Charlie Sheen sitcom is nine too many. We’re willing to decree this by government legislation if necessary – for humanity’s sake.

2 NO MORE COOKING SHOWS

WE KNOW MasterChef Australia was a huge hit, but does that mean every network has to ram more cooking shows down our throats in 2010? My Kitchen Rules, Poh’s Kitchen and Come Dine With Me Australia are about to be added to a second series of MasterChef and even Junior MasterChef. Stop – we have indigestion.

Read the rest of the article here.

Bookmark It

*slams head against wall*

However, my protest this evening is not about the ubiquity of Tiger, but more the round-about arguments that keep getting thrown at me regarding the right to privacy of celebrities.

You want to be famous? Fine, if you’re good at what you do, you’ll be photographed. You’ll be followed. And your privacy will be invaded. Be good, wear pants at all time and you should escape unscathed.

My point (I do have one) is that I have a bone to pick with the media. Today on The View, the gals were talking about how the camera crew outside of Tiger’s house crossed a line when they filmed his mother-in-law being wheeled on a stretcher to hospital. It was a private moment, it was argued, that should not have been captured by outsiders. It is none of our business.

So what do they do? They show the footage again. Way to prove a point, ladies.

However, when I was planning this ‘rant’, my first reaction was to rise above the hypocritical masses and omit any images or videos regarding the situation.

It then dawned on me that this post will look boring and get no views. Hmm….

Never fear, I the selfless (ha) media student will let my ethics prevail and, in my subtle nod to celebrities everywhere wanting some common consideration when it comes to matters like hospitalisation, I will deal with the blow to my ego.

Why is it so hard to stop talking about things and actually start DOING  them?

Bookmark It

Upon my arrival home, I checked my inbox for important emails (there were none, of course) and then proceeded to sift through the list of daily newsletters. Today, The Australian Media section for the week comes out and the top story?

ABC to launch new kids digital channel ABc3

I suppose it’s the media gods way of telling me that I should get back to work. Hmph.

The article states that -

THE ABC will aim to capture the hearts and minds of young Australians with a broader-than-expected expansion of its childrens’ programming in December.

The new digital multichannel ABC3 will broadcast children’s television from 6am to 9pm daily from December 4 and its pre-school programming will play from 9am to 6pm each weekday and 6am-6pm on weekends as ‘ABC for Kids on 2′ on ABC2. And the main ABC1 will feature ABC3 content for four hours each day.

ABCTV director Kim Dalton said the moves responded to demand.

“It’s the television of the new century – accessible on many platforms, interactive and customisable. I’m confident it will become an important part of Australian kids’ lives,” he said.

ABC3 will also boost children’s content online with its own portal and new digital material.

- Michael Bodey in The Australian, Oct. 22 2009

I find the whole conundrum quite fascinating. The multi-channeling laws of yesteryear having been relaxed, free to air television viewers have all of a sudden been hand delivered big bright, new and super shiny extra digital channels. Is it, indeed, possible that fewer owners with more channels could provide Australians with the diversity they have been craving for all these years?

I’m not entirely sure I’m convinced. Perhaps I’ll have more of an educated idea tomorrow once I have finished my essay.

Bookmark It