This is a new post on the site where The Broad brings you a quick and dirty round-up of a bunch of things you might like to sample. With the weekend almost upon us, there’s lots to enjoy from art to film and TV.
Seeing & Doing
The Banksy exhibition is on in Sydney and features 80 artworks from the acclaimed artist, running until the end of October. The Broad saw the Banksy exhibition at the Lazinc gallery in London last year and enjoyed the collection of protest art including the famous shredding artwork, pre-shred.
The Sydney Fringe Festival is on until the end of September with events all over the city. There’s music, performance, stage shows and plenty more. The Queer Screen Film Festival is on until 22nd September with a host of engaging films.
Reading
The beauty of the internet is you can enjoy peripatetic wanderings. You can always trip over something to read. In the interests of self-preservation, I have to note the downside of however, which is people split between thousands of sites and not paying for content. The content that keeps people like me in a day job. But I’m guilty of this too.
As a fan of Breaking Bad, I came across this about the upcoming film. Intrigued to see where it takes the story, and the characters, considering quite a few will be MIA after being killed off at the end of the series. With this space.
If you’re in need of a new read, here are a couple books, obviously each with a different take on the world. If you’re looking for a female-oriented story that’s easy to read, I’d suggest City of Girls, the new novel by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s a lively story about Vivian Morris and her showgirl friends in 1940s New York. Spoiler alert: they have a lot of sex. On ya, girls.
Edward Snowden’s memoir Permanent Record was published this week and in it he explains why he exposed mass surveillance and his lost love for the internet. As book launches go, this has made quite an impact. The US DOJ is suing Snowden for what it says is revealing intelligence secret in his book. Another life sentence anyone?
Seriously, Snowden is fighting on behalf of all of us who belief in privacy and some shred of anonymity on the web. The Broad came across this article from Wired on the book. I’ll be taking it offline for some hours this weekend because I’m fascinated by his story and keen to delve into this one.
Watching
The Looming Tower is a thrilling drama that retells the story of the events leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the growing threat of Al-Qaeda and how the rivalry between the FBI and the CIA hampered the efforts to stop Bin Laden. The series is based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright. Compelling viewing.
The Split is a six-part English series about a leading female divorce lawyer who unexpectedly faces divorce herself and the fallout for her and the other lawyers in the practice. A second series is on its way.
Listening
The ears are full of new tunes with week. On my virtual mixtape is the new album from The Pixies Beneath The Eyrie. It’s the third album since the band’s reunion and the music is still dark and engaging.
Mermiaden is a Kiwi band that played recently in Australia at Bigsound festival. Sweet, catchy tunes the Broad has been enjoying.
Noteworthy
Women between the covers
In a good news story for a change, the Stella Count has found gender parity in book reviewing is the norm among the 12 Australian publications it counted. What does that mean? Women authors are almost equally represented in the review pages and female reviewers are almost at parity. The Stella Count is produced by the Stella Prize, a major literary prize for Australian Women’s writing.
‘I have a dream’ for action on climate change
Climate activist Greta Thurnberg delivered a powerful speech urging action on climate change by the adults in the room and the corridors of power.
What A Classic
On the internet, yesterday is ancient history. To avoid the forgetting, The Broad is pulling some classics out of the archives for us to revisit or discover for the first time.
Big Science is the 1982 debut album from Laurie Anderson. The musician is stylish with cool sunnies and an even cooler white suit on the cover and sharp electro tunes inside. A true classic.
With The Testaments the latest book by Margaret Atwood just out, it’s time to re-read The Handmaid’s Tale. The dark, gripping TV series starring Elizabeth Moss has been thrilling and disturbing us for the last few years and if you haven’t read the book, it’s a must.
The Broad’s Spotify playlist
If you’ve read this far, you get a Broad award in the form of a Spotify playlist with a few tunes inspired by this week’s post. Au revior…
