Showing all posts in the links category
Announcing the winner of the 2023 Lyttle Lytton Contest
24 July 2023
Last month the winners of the Lyttle Lytton Contest were announced. The Lyttle Lytton is a literary prize, but not of the usual variety. Instead of celebrating the good or excellent, Lyttle Lytton honours the worst of the worst. In this case bad, or terrible, would-be opening sentences from novels that will likewise turn out to be awful. The lines are not taken from actual published works though, instead they are devised by contest participants vying to write the best bad sentence they can think of.
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humour, literary awards, literature, writing
Short interviews with the 2023 Miles Franklin shortlisted authors
17 July 2023
The winner of the 2023 Miles Franklin literary award will be announced in just over a week, on Tuesday 25 July 2023. Ahead of the presentation, The Bookshelf and Book Show have recorded interviews with all six shortlisted Australian authors. View the shortlist here.
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Australian literature, books, literary awards, Miles Franklin, podcasts
Films that influenced Barbie, the movie by Greta Gerwig
17 July 2023
American filmmaker Greta Gerwig shares thirty-three films influencing her new feature, Barbie, and a varied collection it is. Titles include Saturday Night Fever, Playtime, The Truman Show, The Philadelphia Story, Heaven Can Wait, Gold Diggers of 1935, and (of course) 2001: A Space Odyssey.
There’s quite a few films here that I haven’t seen. It seems to me if you’re looking for some film watching inspiration, Gerwig’s list makes for a great starting point.
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2001: A Space Odyssey, film, Greta Gerwig
What to do when no one likes the quirky links that you curate
11 July 2023
Well this wasn’t part of the plan. Imagine you’ve set yourself up as the editor of a (possibly informal) email newsletter featuring (what you consider to be) interesting, funny, and quirky links.
Except no one you send the newsletter to (possibly whether they wish to receive it or not) seems to find anything you’ve compiled to be the least bit amusing. Welcome to the world of online (sort of) publishing. The only consolation (maybe) is no one can unsubscribe.
But stick with it I say, you never know when you might strike a chord with someone one day.
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humour, publishing, self publishing
The AIGA best book and cover designs of 2022 unveiled
8 July 2023
The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) has announced the winners of the 2022 50 Books | 50 Covers competition. Almost five-hundred covers, from twenty-seven countries, were submitted for consideration in the annual contest, which commenced one hundred years ago, in 1923. The fifty winning entries can be seen here.
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WHAM! The story of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, by Chris Smith
8 July 2023
There’s an old saying in the place where I reside: if you remember Wham! you were in the eighties.
Wham! as in the out of control mega-successful British pop duo of the late George Michael, and Andrew Ridgeley. A new documentary of the same name, directed by American filmmaker Chris Smith, and produced by Netflix, recounts Michael and Ridgeley’s days in Wham! through archival interviews and footage, and previously unheard audio interviews. See the trailer here.
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Chris Smith, documentary, film, history
Barbie film banned in Vietnam over Nine-dash line map scene
7 July 2023
American actor and filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s new film Barbie, has been banned by Vietnam’s Department of Cinema, on account of a scene depicting a map of the South China Sea. The map in question features the “nine-dash line“, which represents a territorial claim over the waters by China, a claim Vietnam, and indeed an international court, have dismissed.
But Barbie isn’t alone in being banned in Vietnam. Pine Gap, a TV mini-series made in Australia in 2018, was likewise not broadcast for the same reason.
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current affairs, film, Greta Gerwig
The Tiny Awards, celebrating a small, playful, heartfelt web
7 July 2023
Voting is open in the inaugural Tiny Awards, which honour websites that embody “the idea of a small, playful and heartfelt web.” Nominees include the html.review, which I wrote about in April 2022, and ooh.directory, a blog directory, where disassociated is listed. Voting closes on Thursday 20 July 2023, with the winner being announced the next day.
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blogs, design, IndieWeb, technology
Monday 3 July 2023, hottest recorded day in the world
7 July 2023
Temperatures on Monday reached an average of 17.01 Celsius, up from the previous high of 16.92 Celsius, recorded in August 2016. This as parts of the United States, China, and Africa, have sweltered through oppressive heatwaves in recent weeks.
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Mona Awad, Paul Tremblay claim ChatGPT learned from their books without permission
7 July 2023
Canadian novelist Mona Awad, and American author Paul Tremblay, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, alleging breach of copyright. Both writers believe their works were used to assist “train” the artificial intelligence chatbot, after discovering ChatGPT is capable of crafting intricately detailed summaries of their books.
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artificial intelligence, books, Mona Awad, Paul Tremblay, technology