Front Page Archive

The wonderful time machine that is the modern period ensemble is one of the true delights of music today. When that ensemble has as much fun as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the delight is doubled. Under the direction (and buoyant spirit) of …

From sunrise to sunset, St Tropez bustles with life of the most extravagant kind. This once quiet fisherman’s hamlet on the French Riveria is now overwhelmed by a plethora of fast cars, super yachts, holiday villas, and high fashion labels. The alluring …

Salome, an opera in one act, was written by Richard Strauss who based it on Oscar Wilde’s atypical and rarely performed play of the same name. Wilde wrote the play in French although it was translated into German for the opera adaptation. …

People seem amazed when I tell them that I saw Led Zeppelin at the Sydney Showground in 1972, when the four rock deities descended from the sky to perform for us and then returned to Asgard (or maybe London). Could it ever …

“Don’t quibble, Sibyl,” quips Toby Schmitz as Elyot in Private Lives. Sibyl, Elyot’s new bride, has good reason to complain. Her husband is a rakish cad, with his eyes on another woman: his ex-wife Amanda in fact. Ralph Myers brings Private Lives …

The Helping Hands Cooking School operates out of the Klong Toey slum in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. It is run by Kung Poo, a remarkable woman who started her working life as a street vendor in the slum, cooking Pad Thais …

I was sitting on the couch with some real friends ready for our weekly dose of Friends on TV when the phone rang. I answered. After a long pause, a voice whispered: “Leave him alone, leave him alooone.” The voice was soft …

My driver’s licence was suspended last November 2011 and my property seized in September 2012, all because I refused to pay into the Victims Compensation Levy for the Australian crime of riding a bicycle without a helmet. Two weeks ago, after a …

I’m sitting in an exquisite organic restaurant. My stomach is tactfully empty in preparation for a feast of 14 delicate courses. I sip my water impatiently, participating in distracted chit-chat with my beau as we await the arrival of our first plate. …

Alan Jones has done it again. In his very own Mitt Romney moment, the vitriolic shock jock was caught on tape telling a private function that Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s father “died of shame”. Twitter is abuzz with outrage at a story …