Top 10 Australia Culture On this week 29/11/2020 (COVID-19 EDITION)

Workin’ 9 to 5! It’s strange to think that was ever economically viable.

 

10) Totalitarianism’s Long Dark Shadow Over China

4th December

What: The Embassy of Canada and The National Endowment for Democracy invite you to the seventeenth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World. The lecture will address the topic, ‘Totalitarianism’s Long Dark Shadow Over China’.

Why: Your racist uncle is inevitably going to bring up China this Christmas. You might as well interject with some actual insight in between the drunken bigotry.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=e79d0210-30e6-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

9) Sir Peter Cosgrove in Conversation

30th November

What: NSW Public Libraries are proud to present General Sir Peter Cosgrove in conversation. ‘You Shouldn’t Have Joined…’ is the memoir of Cosgrove’s extraordinarily full and eventful life, covering some of his military life, whilst also allowing us an incredible insight into the role and world of Australia’s Governor General. Every step of his journey has been accompanied by his wife Lynne – who is very much part of his story. This event is presented in conversation with Richard Glover, author of Love, Clancy: A Dog’s Letters Home, a heartfelt and hilarious book for anyone who has tried to imagine what their dog was thinking.

Why: By all accounts, a fascinating man. We are of course only accounting for the people with a specific interest in retired Australian political relics.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=9e565a10-30e7-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

8) Monet: 46 New York Paintings

30th November

What: New York City is home to an impressive collection of paintings by Impressionist Claude Monet, including both well-known and lesser-known works. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds 41 Monet paintings, the Museum of Modern Art holds 5, and there are a few other throughout the city. This is the largest such collection outside of Europe. Join Robert Kelleman in exploring these New York City paintings of Claude Monet.

Why: If only all debilitating, degenerative problems made one an artistic legend, rather than making one throw up in bushes and almost capable of enduring Jimmy Fallon.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=d93e12a0-30e5-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

7) The Genius of Hemingway 

3rd December

What: Ernest Hemingway, one of the most towering presences in American literature, is published this season in the Library of America and explored in a forthcoming PBS documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick airing in Spring 2021. Join Novick, co-producer Sarah Botstein, and Robert W. Trogdon, editor of Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises and Other Writings 1918-1926, for a sneak preview of the film and a conversation about Hemingway’s literary genius, his complexity, and his controversial legacy.

Why: This one’s for all the people who didn’t hear enough about Hemingway from their university’s twat in the hat.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=42863db0-30e5-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

6) Love’s Labour’s Lost

5th December

What: Love’s Labour’s Lost  is one of Shakespeare’s early comedies. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as they attempt to swear off the company of women for three years in order to focus on study and fasting. Their subsequent infatuation with the visiting Princess of France and her ladies makes them forsworn. The play draws on themes of love and desire, reckoning and rationalisation, and reality versus fantasy. Experience it as performed in this unique livestreamed virtual play.

Why: One of the few perks of the COVID era. You don’t even have to sit through the first half of the play. You get credit from the Russians just for having the livestream in your internet history.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=2612d880-30e7-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

5) A Very Funches Christmas Show

6th December

What: Combustion Live is excited to welcome back comedian Ron Funches! Ron Funches (Bob’s Burgers, Adventure Time, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Conan) is bringing his ‘Very Funches Christmas Show’, a night of stand-up, music and merriment with Ron and his special guests/friends, to the whole world via YouTube Live.

Why: Truly the ‘this comedian won’t upstage me’ comedian of this era.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=99907f80-30e5-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

4) GATHER: A Free Virtual Screening and Discussion

30th November

What: GATHER is an intimate portrait of a growing movement amongst Indigenous Americans to reclaim their spiritual and cultural identities through obtaining sovereignty over their ancestral food systems, while struggling to heal from the historical trauma brought on by centuries of genocide. Watch the film and join the post-viewing discussion with Beth Draper and cast members Twila Cassadore (San Carlos Apache Tribe Elder, healer and wisdom keeper) and Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache Tribe Indigenous healing foods chef and founder of the Native American Culinary Association) to learn how COVID is directly impacting the food sovereignty movement and about local ways that First Nation Peoples are reclaiming their cultural heritage through food sovereignty.

Why: It’s vitally important, culturally sensitive and so specifically boring that by referencing it in any conversation, you’ll seem far more intelligent than any one of your colleagues at your next in-person gathering.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=2d86c370-30e6-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

3) Man of Change: August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

2nd December

What: The new film adaptation of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom stars the late Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis and is coming soon to Netflix. In it, tensions and temperatures rise at a Chicago music studio in 1927 when fiery, fearless “Mother of the Blues” singer Ma Rainey joins her band for a recording session. Listen to cast members Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, and Michael Potts as they explore Wilson’s work, their roles, and this upcoming release adapted for the screen by playwright, director, and actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson.

Why: It’s a relevant, interesting and artistically vibrant discussion, and you can fall asleep at any point because they can’t see you.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=5a05a4b0-30e7-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

2) Day With(out) Art 2020: TRANSMISSIONS 

1st December

What: Visual AIDS presents TRANSMISSIONS, a program of six new videos considering the impact of HIV and AIDS beyond the United States. The video program brings together artists working across the world: Jorge Bordello (Mexico), Gevi Dimitrakopoulou (Greece), Las Indetectables (Chile), Lucía Egaña Rojas (Chile/Spain), Charan Singh (India/UK), and George Stanley Nsamba (Uganda). The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the commissioned artists.

Why: Witness how contemporary new media art can make even the most emotionally powerful issue completely uninteresting.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=717386e0-30e6-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536

 

1) Dolly Parton & Friends: Pandora Live

5th December

What: Pandora has announced that Dolly Parton will be hosting a virtual version of its Pandora LIVE just in time for the holiday season. The festive special will also feature appearances from Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Brett Eldredge and Carly Pearce. Throughout the evening, each of the stars will perform a selection of beloved holiday songs, all accompanied by Parton’s longtime backing band, as well sit down for interviews to revisit their favourite memories of the country icon and dish on their own unique holiday traditions.

Why: Thought holiday music couldn’t get any more horribly grating? You’ve not yet heard it coming out of a 74 year old Dolly Parton.

https://on.com.au/search/search?parentId=03869dd0-30e5-11eb-96b7-b132cf2a7536