Andy Hazel

Fewer than five students a year graduate from honours programs in Chinese studies with language skills. We can barely talk to our neighbours, let alone understand them. @louisalim.bsky.social sharing her remarkable Boyer Lecture in @themonthly.com.au. Louisa is the first ever Asian Boyer lecturer.

By almost any measure, Laika’s Wildwood is one of the most spectacular films of its type. It took six years, 142,000 printed faces and 715 miles of brass wire to make. Its creators tell @thecurbau.bsky.social why it could only have come from Portland...

MINOTAUR successfully blends an engrossing Hitchcockian thriller with a sobering commentary on the corrupt systems that use chaos as a means of control. Zvyagintsev has a cold, calculating perspective that’s riveting to watch unfold. An unsettling tale that’s expertly crafted.

So Lula not only won, he basically doubled his margin of victory from 2022. I'm guessing he won thanks to voters who didn't love him, but were terrified to see Flavio given near-dictatorial power. It's going to be a messy next chapter for Brazil, but at least it'll be a fight, not a curb-stomping.

erm that’s a fact not a warning

The Save the Children fundraiser tribute to Helen Haines has raised over $750,000!

Home Affairs gave a $4.3 BILLION air services contract to a company with no Australian air operators certificate or employees – or the required aircraft – and which was registered to a front company: a real estate agent.

Andy went all the way to wildwood-land to talk to good people. Give this a read. It's wonderful.

Wildwood is one of the most spectacular films I've ever seen. Stop motion on a scale no one has previously attempted. It's in cinemas this week and deserves the biggest screen you can find. Here is my chat with some of the people who made it for @thecurbau.bsky.social...

In one sense, The Last Best Place on the Internet is an elegy for a period that is passing from view. Richard Cooke’s slightly tautologous subtitle – what histories are there but human ones? – is a wry acknowledgement that we are moving into new territory. trib.al/qY98S1q

Richard Cooke’s brilliant new book is the lead review in the @nytimes.com book section today.

Game changer. This will become the norm in a shorter amount of time than people may think.

House prices are falling across every capital city for the first time in 15 years and the second time on record, according to figures from Domain’s September Quarter 2026 House Price report. Seems like a policy is working.

It's like wearing those glasses with no frames. Odds of seeing something that makes you pop your peepers is markedly increased.

"It will make you think about history, art, impermanence, and immortality. And it’s scientific proof that people really did dress better back then." www.rogerebert.com/reviews/once...

It's like wearing those glasses with no frames. Odds of seeing something that makes you pop your peepers is markedly increased.

"News Corp’s entire business model has for decades been dedicated to telling its ageing consumers whom to hate and why, with a regular target being community independents who oppose Liberals." Bernard Keane www.crikey.com.au/2026/10/20/h...

One of the country's best live bands, Mark of Cain, gets a write up from Tyler Jenke in @themusiccomau.bsky.social ahead of a tour for the 25th Anniversary reissue of their still extremely powerful album This Is This:

An under-rated part of the JSJ story is how he ended up in parliament. He didn't win a contested party preselection for a winnable seat - he was the #3 on the WA Greens Senate ticket in 2016 behind Ludlam and Siewert. No Green has ever come close to being elected from #3 (or #2 in a half-Senate)

Jean Peters (1926-2000) was born 100 years ago today. Her performance in Samuel Fuller’s PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET is one of my favorites in #FilmNoir — and it was just one of the four Noirs she made in 1953! #FilmSky

Some of the year’s most exciting movie releases are still on the way, @shirklesxp.bsky.social writes. She highlights 14 of the best films debuting in the coming months:

🚨 ABC has announced 'SHAKEDOWN', their four-part Robodebt drama series based on @squigglyrick.bsky.social's book 'Mean Streak', will premiere November 22. Starring Kate Box, Justine Clarke and Mandy McElhinney:

This will be in air for 9 years and will be watched by 80 million Americans a season

the Open Australia Foundation (makers of Right to Know, They Vote For You, Planning Alerts etc) say they'll need to close unless they can secure more funding. hard to think of a group that have done more for political transparency in Australia tbh. donate.oaf.org.au

Nauru Airlines update: Since I published, yet another craft has been grounded, and their schedules are in chaos bc only one plane is trying to cover all commercial routes. Airline is selling tickets it can't fulfil; people stranded all over. Here is the same flight leaving twice, an hour apart.

@tonymartin.bsky.social, they did it. Do you think Jason will be playing a hit man who comes out of retirement for one last job?

It's almost a joke at this point, but the entire story of Mamdani's mayorship really has been "it turns out we can just turn off the orphan grinding machine, the switch was right there the whole time."

The viral footage had the wearer of the glasses describe the 'discrimination' he faces as people ran away from him at his local park. chaser.com.au/general-news...

I feel like there is a sorting order here: Dolly > divorced female billionaires > ordinary female billionaires > "good" billionaires > average billionaire > shitlord billionaire

New: I pulled the Character ai bankruptcy documents. They show: - They were spending $14 million/month on compute alone at a time their revenue was around ~$1 million/month - Currently losing $9 million a month - They admitted they enshittified & that it didnt work www.404media.co/character-ai...

that’s right

More of this

"It’s the synth melody lines, the layers of nostalgia in it; my emotional reactions to different reverbs, the atmospheres and emotions that you can create with different combinations of space, melodies and beats." Tara Clerkin on #AphexTwin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 buff.ly/lR5Q5nV

"We need a much bigger and a much simpler plan to tackle the gas industry and deliver for Australians – and that would be a 25% tax on gas exports. It’s hugely popular, the community wants it." Factcheck: True.

Can recommend.

Some of the year’s most exciting movie releases are still on the way, @shirklesxp.bsky.social writes. She highlights 14 of the best films debuting in the coming months:

Remember how I went wild with rage at this? My friend who had to do the AI interview for this place has now written about it for the Graun

Under Labor's new migration rhetoric, migrants are no longer victims of a mismanaged system but overstaying culprits, argues former Home Affairs assistant director Fergus Peace. www.crikey.com.au/2026/10/13/t...

Interesting poll that sees Iraq viewed as more popular than the US.

"The good news is that we already have the tools to fix this, in breeding, soil health, markets and policy. What's been missing is the recognition that this problem is worth measuring and solving at its source."

Hey guess what everybody? We’re doing a climate cartoon award again and we’re naming it in our dear, late friend Jon Kudelka’s honour!

"Recognise that your work matters, and you’re not powerless. A lot of writers in particular start out with the impression that being published is a gift. It’s not – it’s your work, and you deserve to be paid for it." Great interview with film critic David Heslin at @withmeaa.bsky.social:

"Recognise that your work matters, and you’re not powerless. A lot of writers in particular start out with the impression that being published is a gift. It’s not – it’s your work, and you deserve to be paid for it." Great interview with film critic David Heslin at @withmeaa.bsky.social:

Thinking Allowed, Open Country, You and Yours, Free Thinking, and The Artificial Human are all being axed. It would be interesting to know what percentage of the £500m cuts sought by the BBC will be saved by cherished and valuable little radio shows being cancelled by executives on huge salaries.