Category Archive: LIFE
Raw
A film by Lumin Sports, produced by Henry Jones, shot by Henry Jones and Jack Shephard (November 2023) The Great and the Good (plus your correspondent) gathered at Glenelg Football Club on 8 November to view an advance screening of this short, brilliantly produced, and exhilarating view of the 2023 finals campaign, viewed from within the inner sanctum. Lumin ( https://luminsports.com/ ) is an expert qualitative data company, specialising in enhancing sporting analysis and performance. It’s flagship visualisation platform, “Arc, was launched in early 2019 as a way for technical and non-technical decision-makers in professional sporting teams to interpret complex athlete…
Continue Reading →The Old City
By Margot Jakobsen Moments of teenage conflict with Dad, explode into my adult mind. “You treat me like the enemy!”, he says. “You are!” Then softening, “Dad, you’re damaged by the war.” “What!? Are you a psychiatrist, now?” “You don’t win by yelling the loudest!” “You don’t respect me.” “You have to deserve respect!” No surrender. I left Adelaide for Sydney, and that was hard for him to forgive. Now my father, the school librarian, is in a beige, plastic casket in the wall to ceiling shelves that I made some time ago out of cypress floorboards. I enclosed some…
Continue Reading →Voicing Doubts
As October 14, Referendum Day, beckons, Australians are asked whether to say “Yes” or “No” to the insertion of a new Chapter (IX) with a single section, s.129, into the Commonwealth Constitution. The key Chapters in the existing Constitution set out the main sources of power, and how that power is balanced, between the Federal Parliament (Chapter I), the Executive Government (Chapter II), the Judicature (Chapter III) and the States that complete our federal system (Chapter V). In Australia’s Federal system, the States have exclusive legislative power over their territories, but the Federal Government can override this by having the…
Continue Reading →A Double for Me
Sunday 24 September 2023: Glenelg v Sturt Grand Final(s) The Big Day dawned, and it was warm, a little like 50 years before. A Glenelg v Sturt double-header, with both challenging for a Premiership at Reserves and League level. The Reserves Grand Final was a tight tussle all day, with over 10 lead changes. It took until half way through the last quarter for the Bays to grab the game by the throat, winning 11.10 (76) to 10.6 (66). Vindication for a dominant season, with a number of players unlucky to miss selection for the main event. The Main Affair…
Continue Reading →Black Mischief
Reflections on the Rainbow Nation, South Africa ‘You know,’ he added reflectively, ‘we’ve got a much easier job now than we should have had fifty years ago. If we’d had to modernize a country then it would have meant constitutional monarchy, bi-cameral legislature, proportional representation, women’s suffrage, independent judicature, freedom of the Press, referendums . . .’ ‘What is all that?’ asked the Emperor. ‘Just a few ideas that have ceased to be modern.’ (Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief, (1932), p. 128). South Africa’s once diamondiferous soil was always leavened with blood, running down the anthill to the lowest point of Kimberley’s…
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