NGV International / "Bearing witness: Contemporary Asian art from the NGV Collection"

Some new acquisitions in the permanent collection that struck a chord:

Kay Sage - Other answers, 1945. The eye is drawn to the flapping sheet and the mood as a whole is dream-like, oddly posed against the geometry of structures and shadows. Shades of Tanguy, Dali, de Chirico.

Two Rineke Dijkstra pieces of teenagers on beaches - Castricum aan Zee, the Netherlands, May 28, 1992 and Kolobrzeg, Poland, July 27, 1992. She's a remarkable photographer.

Richard Estes - Ticket window, 1969. The first time I've come across Estes I'm pretty sure, and the gleaming, shadowy realism of this one's a stunner. While I'm making comparisons - Edward Hopper anyone?

Bearing witness: Contemporary Asian art from the NGV Collection

A small show and a neat one. Prilla Tania's Hello and goodbye (2007) was my favourite - six photographs in series, two rows of three with horizons aligned; all but one (I think) with the artist herself along with a mat, a side table, a cup, an Indonesian artist in dialogue with a distinctively Australian landscape. Also good: Yee I-Lann's Anak Negeri (2007), exploring the displacement of Indigenous Malaysians in a staged photo that reveals more oddities the closer one looks, and evades any simple mood or emotional texture.

"Poetry goes no further than language: A historical moment of art becoming art again" (Buxton Contemporary)

Spotlighting the work of a small collective of Chinese artists in the 1980s-90s who called themselves 'New Measurement Group' and aspired to create art that eliminated 'anti-rationalist' elements - spiritual, directly emotional and in any sense subjective - this exhibition reminded me how deep it's possible to go with art, philosophy and the intersection of the two; the work itself didn't move me at all, and probably neither was it meant to. Interspersed were the relative sweetness of Darcey Bella Arnold's responses, including her orange peels, and finally "A Pipe is not a Poem" - which resonated interestingly with several of the individual artists' works (when not working as part of the collective) holding strong surrealist elements.

"Are you lonely tonight? I'm so lonesome I could cry." (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art)

Or, in the words of the Akan (West African - Ghanaian) saying, 'to human is difficult'. Loneliness is a rich topic and the artists come at it from a range of perspectives - most of which felt unsurprising if I'm honest, though I enjoyed many of the pieces. Top of the pops was Kayla Mattes' "Lonely Planet" (2025-2027), a 7-metre tapestry layering the history and present day of the personal-consumer digital world. Also, the two-channel video - "Beyond the Shadows: Gideon Appah Poetic Vision" (Gideon Appah, 2025) - that cites that saying, along with much other philosophy, as human figures - stand on the beach and surf.

Helen Oyeyemi - What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

When I read - and enjoyed - Parasol Against the Axe, the word that most came to mind was 'puzzling' and that's again true of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, a collection of stories linked by themes and motifs (keys recur) and, for reasons that aren't clear, characters ... although those glimpsed recurrences of characters, seen from different perspectives and at different points in their lives across different stories, add to the sense that the whole is something that has at least an orientation towards meaning. 

I had to take my time with these stories; mostly, I didn't feel they gave up their meanings easily or (in the case of the one about puppets, "Is Your Blood As Red As This?"), at all. Still, they're compelling. "Presence" stands out; strangely, for a story about two psychologists who come across a method of encountering their hypothetical, unborn child through a series of ghostly visitations, it feels the most naturalistic of the lot. So does " 'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea". 

Curious, but not for curiosity's sake; crisp writing, a slantwise view on the world. A lot to like, though I'm not sure I'll return to these in the way that I have done to, say, Kelly Link (with whom she's definitely in the same ballpark, vibes-wise).

"Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir" (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney)

This was an impressive and engaging exhibition - political through and through, expressed in lots of ways, through the reclamation and reuse of 'Aboriginalia' and otherwise. I was drawn to the 'Blak Velvet' pieces and the stunning large-format riffs on Margaret Preston - both immediately impactful while also multi-layered and nuanced.

House of the Dragon season 3

For me it's only been in this third season that House of the Dragon has properly begun to catch my imagination - the stakes now well-enough established and the characters well-enough defined and with enough depth behind them that I feel some proper investment, especially those who've been there from the start. It helps that the war proper between the Blacks and the Greens has arrived too; Ormund is a great antagonist and Gwayne turns out to be one of the few straightforwardly likeable characters. Matt Smith continues to be excellent as Daemon - eminently 'believable' as a fantasy character - and it works that we continue to see a lot of the events effectively from Rhaenyra's perspective (even when she's not present, and even as her trajectory darkens).

(seasons 1 & 2)

Death on the Nile

The Kenneth Branagh one. Much like my recollection of Murder on the Orient Express - which doesn't seem to have made it on to extemporanea, perhaps I only watched part of it - it is full of stars, glossily shot but too artificial-looking, and somehow not as fun as it seems it should be. 

The Odyssey

Of course it's an Event - Christopher Nolan does the Odyssey. And as far as monumentality goes, it delivers. There's a density to it, bathed in shadowy blues and greys, with a thudding soundscape throughout; also I'm not sure of this but for a film that's so epic, I suspect it spends a lot of its time in moderate close-up and middle-range rather than sweeping views from a distance. 

As spectacle, The Odyssey works - it's immaculately put together. I suspect it's lacking in truly indelible images - at least none that are with me right now, a day on - but several scenes have a charge to them that I think will linger, the visit to Hades foremost among them, and in a different way the repeated blocking in dining hall. And while the voyage itself is maybe a touch too episodic-feeling - despite the dipping through different timeframes and the framing device of Odysseus gradually recalling his own story on Calypso's island - each of the crew's encounters is exciting in its own right. 

It takes the overt narrative theme of homecoming and links it to the breaching of Troy's home through the trick (the horse) that Odysseus reveals late, in what lands as an unlocking revelation, he fears undermined caused a rupture in the order of things (turning them into the feared 'people from the sea'), and the suggestion that the length of time it takes him to return home might reflect his own guilt about this, while also implicitly drawing attention - and they're filmed to suggest this reading too - to the way that the crew's successive landings are themselves invasions of others' homes. Ultimately its anchor is more psychological than thematic or mythic - for better or for worse.

The casting's good (as expected with Nolan directing) and performances range from good to good-enough - Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson in the first category, Matt Damon and Tom Holland in the second. There's a fair bit of charisma among the rest of the cast and the smaller players all make an impression (Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, Elliot Page as Sinon, Samantha Morton as Circe, John Leguizamo as Eumaeus, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Zendaya as Athena), though some don't have that much material to work with. 

All up, this Odyssey is very good even if lacking in the thrill of genuine greatness. And I wonder if it will grow with time.

Margo Price - Days of Unrest

"Can't Stand Still" is the stand out amongst these protest-themed songs but not by a big margin - Days of Unrest is an even, accomplished record, nothing extraordinary but unfussy and good.

Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles

Some stories are so familiar and so woven into the other stories we know and tell that it's basically impossible to encounter them afresh or in a truly new light. Achilles and Patroclus as lovers isn't new, much less the Trojan War and its backdrop and principals, and telling it from Patroclus's perspective feels of a piece rather than genuinely illuminating - reading The Song of Achilles, I didn't feel the spark of anything piercing or unexpected. But it's graceful, well-crafted, clear - the characters, actions and choices feel real, the events and world in which they take place are persuasive and don't feel anachronistic. And so by bringing these so-familiar stories to life, again - that's worthwhile.

Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

Another high quality rush from Rodrigo, who seems to be right in tune with the mainstream zeitgeist. Lots of influences, lots of individual vibe and convincingly authentic personality.

My highlights are some of the peppiest: "drop dead" with its delightful refrain kick-off "one night I was bored in bed and stalked you on the internet", "stupid song" (an irresistible build up-er), "maggots for brains" (I'm not especially a fan of the poppier side of new wave but in Rodrigo's hands it bursts). "u + me = <3" (just a good time, and what a chorus) ... all four are stand outs by any measure. And after hearing the Cure vibes on last album Guts, it's fun that this one features not only a song called "the cure", and a lyrical reference to "Just Like Heaven", but also an actual duet with Robert Smith.

Civil War

Civil War's got a bracing toughness, and for me strikes the right balance between a clear message about the dangers of right wing politics and polarisation and a nuanced depiction (more of a sketch) of the social context that could enable disaster to follow. The choice to centre journalists covering the war is canny and opens up space I haven't seen explored before - thematically, and action-wise. Kirsten Dunst is great - an actor who I feel I've grown up with, and this role gives her plenty to sink her teeth into.

Sinners

Confident, muscular movie-making from the get-go - larger than life in all the right ways, and deft in how it combines its different elements. 

Honey Don't!

As enjoyable as it was to watch 90 minutes of Margaret Qualley striding around Bakersfield (aka a certain vein of Americana central) in detective mode, there isn't really a point or substance to Honey Don't - not even in the intersection of Coen-ish style and tone.

Laura Stevenson - Late Great

Turns out she's still going, and still good in many of the same ways as 10+ years ago with that one-two of Wheel and Cocksure. Tunes, feelings, electric guitar anthems.

R F Kuang - The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic & The Burning God

As epic fantasy trilogies go, the historically inspired Chinese setting is something a bit different. I enjoyed the series, but found it a bit too on the surface (putting aside how young Kuang was when writing them, which is exceedingly impressive).

Steven Erikson - No Life Forsaken

The shadow of the original books couldn't be larger, but as a more modest instalment this isn't bad. Follow-up to The God Is Not Willing.

Game Night

Yes, fun, also basically forgettable. (last time)

The Gentlemen

All the swagger doesn't do it for me but I can't deny there's something a bit fun - if base - about this and its absurdity. Especially Colin Farrell. I've skipped most Guy Ritchie films and this hasn't made me rethink.

Courtney Barnett - Creature of Habit

There's a brighter sound to some of these songs, and some of those brighter sounding ones are some of my favourites - like "Mantis", "Sugar Plum" and "Same". All round as likeable as usual for Courtney Barnett.

Rebel Moon Directors' Cuts

Too excessively EPIC and generic and lacking in lightness of any kind to take seriously, yet still somewhat absorbing through sheer spectacle and commitment to the bit.

Hoppers

I wanted a stronger, less muddled message but that might be an unfair ask. Other than that, Hoppers has heart and zip, and some welcome weight.

(w/ L)

Sashi Perera: Fruit Tree (ACMI, Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Likeable, professional, authentic, relatable.

Ballerina

I wasn't too fussy a watcher of this one - 'from the world of John Wick'. And so it hit the mark - Ana De Armas convincing, the world-building and action readily referable to (and reliant on) the source series, the underplayed note of humour as the seemingly sleepy Austrian village swings into full assault when Eve arrives welcome.

"2025 EOY MIX" from David

New and enjoyable: "New York, Let's Do Nothing" - King Hannah (Cassandra Jenkins-esque), "Time Waited" - My Morning Jacket (they're still going, still similar sounding), "we never dated" - sombr (young person music but still), "Secrets" - Beak> (serious fun), "Thorns" - Wolf Alice (I think the generic name's always thrown me; I seem to like them whenever I hear them).

Also Geese, Perfume Genius, the Beths and others, and Matt Berninger's upper register cover of "Heaven".

George Saunders - Vigil

Even the best can't get it right every time - for me Vigil is a miss, the style and the sentimentality too much to the fore, without the profundity and acuteness that's normally his.

Neko Case - Neon Grey Midnight Green

I don't know how she does it. We're a long way on from Blacklisted (2002) where I came in, never mind the ones that came before it. And there hasn't been a real dip since then, in quality or creativity. Fox Confessor ... (2006) was the real coming into greatness, Middle Cyclone (2009) and The Worse Things Get ... (2013) sustained - and then back in 2018, Hell-On her last till now, was equally stunning. 

It's been a long ride, and it's been a while since there was something new. And now in 2026 - Neon Grey Midnight Green came out just last year - she still sounds restless, searching, and she's still breaking new ground. There's the deliberate early roadblock of "Tomboy Gold" with its "walk sign is on to cross" chant, and on either side of that she's as assured and as willing to be circuitous as ever, with individual songs sweeping and cresting satisfyingly, sometimes melding into each other. There's a toughness to these songs and their delivery as there always has been with her, and at the same time a sort of golden flow.

Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow

Just Jason and his guitar, and the tunes are strong. These songwriting paths are well worn - as in, by Isbell himself - but continue to offer pleasure. There's something to be said for consistency when the quality remains this high.

Aimee Potwatka - The Parliament

Just a good read, another reminder of how it feels to read fiction for pleasure. The main storyline is exciting enough if somewhat predictable as their situation, trapped in the library by the mysterious mass of murderous owls, grows more desperate and Mad is dipped further and further into her childhood trauma, while the inset novel - The Silent Queen - proves more or less interesting in its own right (the way it renders its fantasy reminded me of the Mordant's Need books) as well as for how it reflects back into the main narrative.

Tomihiko Morimi - The Tatami Galaxy

A bit of a goof, but the voice is appealing - though the narrator, deliberately, often isn't - and so is the zip with which it moves through its various repeating hi-jinks.

"Women Photographers 1900-1975: A Legacy of Light" (NGV International)

Not seeking to be the type of comprehensive overview that I'd hoped for, the ambitions of this exhibition are hinted at in its framing around women in photography in the early twentieth century: "For many women, photography offered a means of income, a way to document daily life, and a powerful tool for communication and activism." That more grounded lens (ha ha) maybe explains why the photos on show here veer towards the documentary more than towards capital 'a' Art. Still much to enjoy however, Olive Cotton standing out as she always does.

Gertrude Kasebier - "The gargoyle", c 1900

Olive Cotton - "Girl with mirror", 1938

Ponch Hawkes - "No title (Helen at Falconer Street)", c 1975 - that being Helen Garner

Alison Krauss & Union Station - Arcadia

I'd more or less assumed any likely new music from Alison Krauss & Union Station would fall into an elevated easy listening vein, given their seeming direction of travel - much as I've liked so much of their music on the journey. So it was a pleasant surprise that Arcadia brings, if not anything truly new, at least a freshness and an energy - and a very subtle mystical hint in some of Krauss's numbers. A good one.

Geese - Getting Killed

Nice to know that a proper rock band can still give me that chill down the spine. Highlights all the way through - "Cobra", "Getting Killed", "Islands of Men", "Au Pays du Cocaine", "Taxes".

Perfume Genius - Glory

Classy, emotive and interesting but for me doesn't have the lightning-strike quality that the best of this type does.

Mona Awad - Bunny

This is the type of novel I'm always seeking out, in more than one way - as readable lit-fic with a distinctive voice, an edge and a willingness to depart from 'realism' and the literal, and as a sharp-toothed campus-outsider satire (Heathers is mentioned). When it came to Bunny, I was there for all of that, and for the directness and (seeming) lack of subtlety about the central, somewhat gory metaphors - and appreciated the way it pays off the early doubts that it creates about its narrator Samantha's mental state and reliability (and whether she's in fact a sympathetic character), in a way that also makes a virtue of the lack of explanation for just how the Bunnies are working the magic that creates their 'Drafts'. Let's say schizophrenia's in play, let's say Ava isn't real, let's say (maybe more speculatively but seems implied) that Bunny the text is Samantha's in-text thesis; in that case, where's the line between the real and what's not?

Patty Griffin - Crown of Roses

A bit of an oblique one, and without any true stand-outs, but Griffin's voice is as strong and clear as ever - figuratively, though no longer vocally.

Joy Williams - Concerning the Future of Souls: 99 Stories of Azrael

It's metaphysical, and sideways even when it seems direct; the directness comes in at least three forms, namely direct appearances from Azrael (usually in conversation with the Devil, and these are the funnest), direct examples or discussions of the passage and prospects of souls after this life (and in this period of history), and those that are both.

(Ninety-Nine Stories of God)

Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein - The Mushroom Tapes

A woman killed some family members with poisonous mushrooms in a meal she cooked, somewhere in regional Victoria - to great public fascination. That's pretty much literally all I knew about the matter, having avoided nearly all the detail and discussion at the time. So for me this was a readable more-or-less introduction to the events and the surrounding public discussion, in three safe-feeling sets of hands, and probably about as much insight - at about the level of 'certainty' - as I wanted and would've trusted.

Julien Baker & Torres - Send a Prayer My Way

It's nice, nothing more. Not really meaning to damn by faint praise - there are some good songs here and the whole album's charismatic to listen to. But when I hold this up against the quality and power of Little Oblivions or the upper echelon of the indieish country-rock genre that this collab falls into, it's not at that level. I still like it though.

2025: "Don't be a stranger"

1. Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down - Margo Price
Hard Headed Woman (Lorna Vista, 2025)

2. Hungover in a Deer Stand - Dylan Marlowe
Mid-Twenties Crisis (Sony, 2024)

3. Wristwatch - MJ Lenderman
Manning Fireworks (Anti-, 2024)

4. Am I Okay? - Megan Moroney
Am I Okay? (Sony, 2024)

5. Ankles - Lucy Dacus
Forever is a Feeling (Geffen, 2025)

6. Afterlife - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar, 2025)

7. No One Knows Us - Brandi Carlile
Returning to Myself (Interscope, 2025)

8. Golden - HUNTR/X
KPop Demon Hunters OST (Republic, 2025)

9. Glum - Hayley Williams
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (Post Atlantic, 2025)

10. Euro-Country - CMAT
Euro-Country (CMATBABY, 2025)

I didn't listen to music very intently in 2025, so it's no surprise that existing favourites and familiar sounds are most of this, led by Sharon Van Etten and Brandi Carlile - garlanded by the late-arriving breath of fresh air that is CMAT. In general - country vibes, pop gloss, pretty melodies, drama and feels.

(spotify)

KPop Demon Hunters

The soundtrack was already thoroughly embedded and now I've finally actually watched the thing, I have the rest of the pieces to see why it's been such a phenomenon. We could do far worse in terms of product to take over the world's attention.

CMAT - Euro-Country

What a trio this album starts off with - the title track with its curling melodies, whoops and ululations, the almost (or maybe actually) OTT Celtic-country crooner "When A Good Man Cries", and the Kraut-rock-ish - and also "Common People"-ish - "The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station" whose motorwayish sound is appropriate given the lyrics. The whole thing's a joy - music as art in several senses, individual expression far from the least of those, and in a way that bridges.

Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

I don't know why so many acts remind me of Metric, specifically Metric circa Fantasies and Synthetica - how much is anything truly distinctive about them and how much them just coming along at the right time for me. But they come to mind again across the excellent Ego Death ... - as do Garbage, and plenty of other more contemporary pop acts. This album's a smorgasbord of styles, with a pretty consistent energy and attitude - although across 20 tracks the first half's a lot stronger than the second. It's high gloss and so it sounds like the hooks and tunes should be more immediate than they are, but many of the songs here are growers - even the big anthems - while being filled with fun details.