kidattypewriter

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

The Age Melbourne Festivals

Okay, in the past few months in Melbourne we've seen The Melbourne Comedy Festival (sponsored by The Age, featuring comics who have written for The Age and been reviewed by The Age), The Age Melbourne Film Festival (featuring filmmakers which have been interviewed by The Age, and films which have been previewed by The Age before screening and reviewed by The Age after screening), and The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival (featuring writers who have mostly written for The Age speaking to people who read The Age, books that have been reviewed by The Age or excerpted by The Age, and readers who have mostly written in to The Age). Not to mention the upcoming Melbourne Fringe Festival (sponsored by The Age).
Oh, and incidentally, the festivals all feature programs which have been printed by The Age.

Does anyone see a connection here?

I think that things would be much more convenient if we just agreed to cut out the middleman, and instead of having an Age Comedy Festival, Film Festival, Writers Festival and Fringe Festiva, we just had an all-year-round Age festival. God knows it wouldn't make much difference to most of the people who go to these things.

7 comments:

Don Quixote said...

Just rest assured that if there is ever a Melbourne AFL festival the Sun will have first right of refusal...

TimT said...

Yeah, you're probably right. The Hun's definitely my favourite paper. It's not really the politics, it's just better writing.

Don Quixote said...

If by "better" you mean that the demented squawking of the undead somehow appeals to you, then we are in perfect agreement.

TimT said...

No, I mean the Hun is better written. The headlines are better and more eye-catching, the sentences are snappy, the puns are more frequent, the set-out is more attractive, they have a better balance of pictures and news and 'general interest' stories.

And the Hun is genuinely a paper of the people; you get the sense with 'The Age' that it's written for an audience that like to think of themselves as 'special'; that's why they have the Melbourne-centric focus and continually play on this idea of being 'exclusive' in their advertising.

Don Quixote said...

That's a hefty argument that you're making there - the same logic could lead you to claiming that the MX is the paper of the people and that the Sun is exclusive. I generally find the Sun to be dribble (would you like some Bolt with your broth?); however their sports reportage far surpasses that of the Age.

I received your poetry by the way. I read a page each morning with breakfast. It provides quite the chuckle. My favorite thus far is 'Happiness'; it is a true avarian nightmare of Hitchcockian dimensions.

TimT said...

MX has started to give me the shits. An interesting test is the 'crossword' test - try and do the crossword in each paper. In the Hun and MX, they're both fairly simple (I think the same compilers do them) but in The Age, they're tough. Yeah, I can't do them. But Tony T can, because he's smart.

Glad to know you got the poems. That 'Happiness' poem came originally, would you believe, from a comment on a blog(!) Maybe I spend too much time on these damn things.

TimT said...

Oh, and re: the opinionistas, I don't read the Bolta, but I don't really know if his particular brand of rantings are any better or worse than the know-it-alls that populate the pages of the Age. But have you read 'Angry of Berwick' on Saturdays? Maybe it's just me, but I'm really enjoying his columns - v. well written.

Email: timhtrain - at - yahoo.com.au

eXTReMe Tracker

Blog Archive