Culture

The Dark Knight Rises: Capitalism a love story (sorry Mike Moore)

Posted by on Jul 22, 2012 in Culture, Free Speech | 0 comments

The Dark Knight Rises: Capitalism a love story (sorry Mike Moore). How The Dark Knight Rises loves Capitalism and the fight against the cults of socialism and ecomentalism. If you haven’t yet seen The Dark Knight Rises, then beware; for as they say in the classics “spoiler alert”. The Uncommonwealth team are not usually comic book, sorry “Graphic Novel” fans, but I for one have come to love Batman. Not the super camp Adam West, nor the charming but cheesy world of Tim Burton and Michael Keaton. I am talking about Christian Bale’s tormented industrialist in Christopher Nolan’s latest incarnation. But how is Batman a symbol? Let’s consider the facts: Batman...

Read More

Top 12 Politicians of Film and Television

Posted by on Jan 23, 2012 in Culture, Public debate | 1 comment

In light of Governor Rick Perry’s recent decisions to drop out of the republican primaries we were saddened to think of the effect on at least one job. Josh Brolin is unlikely to be called upon to play President Rick Perry anytime soon. And with many current Australian politicians hard to tell apart from their core-flute cardboard cut-outs, we got to thinking here at the Uncommonwealth of Australia. Are there better options on the silver screen? We came up with our dozen favourite politicians of film and television. 12. David (Love Actually)Hugh Grant has fairly soft social policies – but his Pointer Sisters’ tribute dance gets our vote. As far as cinematic...

Read More

The Indian Elephant in the Room

Posted by on Dec 19, 2011 in Culture, Public debate, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Have ever wondered where the phrase “The elephant in the room” came from? The first popular record is actually in the classic Mark Twain short story “The stolen white elephant”. In this story an Indian elephant goes missing in New Jersey while en route to England as a gift for Queen Victoria. A massive search fails to find the elephant which is in plain sight all along – hence the elephant in the room becoming a metaphor for that which is unavoidably obvious, and yet is ignored by all. How apt that it should be an Indian Elephant? For some years now the Australia-Indian relationship has been decidedly parlous. When you consider that...

Read More

Which Would You Rather be Bitten By: a Vampire or a Zombie?

Posted by on Oct 31, 2011 in Culture | 0 comments

Which would you rather be bitten by: a vampire or a zombie?  I only ask because we are up to our necks in the undead (and the Occupy movement) these days and both fates seem preferable. Zombieland is triumphing (deservedly) at the box office. Not far into the past lurk the films I Am Legend, 28 Weeks Later and Dawn of the Dead. With Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the undead are colonising literary history. Charlie Higson’s new book The Enemy is about zombies. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has filled bookshops with vampires; HBO’s True Blood has done the same to television schedules. You can’t move for the undead blighters....

Read More

Range Rover Evoque Review

Posted by on Oct 2, 2011 in Culture | 0 comments

First of all – people may ask what on earth a car review has to do with Uncommonwealth. I could answer by creating some tenuous segue to aspirational motivators – but that would be crap. I saw it, I played with it and now people are asking me questions. Here are my thoughts: There are two ways of approaching the RANGE ROVER Evoque that will determine if it is right    for you or not: 1. If you are looking for a compact SUV then there may be better choices (consider the “1” offerings from Audi and BMW).  The RRE is a little light on for size (especially in the back seat which was designed for groceries not grannies). But… 2. If you are...

Read More