Have been reading both of these in a fairly disconnected way, at intervals, over recent weeks. Cosmopolis is all over the place - appropriate, one might say, given its theme - and I didn't find it very satisfying. I was hoping for an interesting kaleidoscopic set of perspectives on ideas of 'city' and place, but the pieces tended to be either: (a) quite specific and concrete; (b) unconvincing in the lines they draw between the specific and the general; (c) only tangentially connected to the notional theme of 'cities'; or (d) more than one of the above.
All Yesterday's Parties is focused on Australian rock 'n' roll, and a lot of the pieces are penned by music industry types, giving it a rather different flavour from the usual Meanjin style. As far as the canon-identification goes, Johnny O'Keefe, the Saints, the Go-Betweens and the Triffids are the major figures to emerge from these pieces taken as a whole; more generally, though, the pages of the issue are peopled by lots of familiar figures, making it fun to read. Not particularly deep, but you know, whatever. Liked the way that Brian McFarlane, apparently a seasoned film critic, obviously completely lost his head over Walk The Line, too.
