Vaida Brown
My name is Vaida Brown. I'm the owner of a small bistro in Newcastle city. I like two things more in my life travel and blogging. Newcastle is my born and brought up the place, so I am very familiar with the area and suburbs. There are many things to explore like Fort Scratchley, Swim in the Bogey Hole, wine tasting in the Hunter Valley and many more. If you want to know more about Newcastle city, then explore my profile.
Newcastleblog. If women ruled the world: Dior's Judy Chicago tribute is more than a gimmick. On Monday, Dior’s haute couture show took place within the mighty womb of a female deity, created by formidable American artist Judy Chicago.
Guests were seated within a custom version of an unrealised sculpture the influential feminist had first proposed in 1977 as Inflatable Mother Goddess. Chicago’s proposition “What If Women Ruled the World?” Set the tone for a fashion collection inspired by proto-feminist heroines dating back to prehistory. Embroidered banners, three-metres high, posed follow-on questions: “Would Buildings Resemble Wombs?” “Would God Be Female?” This is not the first time Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Dior, has looked to women artists for inspiration. The spring/summer 2018 couture show paid tribute to sexually upfront surrealist Leonor Fini. These spectacular collaborations are not gimmicks. Chiuri is to be congratulated. Is it weird for a feminist artist to work with a fashion brand? Ai Weiwei on his new life in Britain: 'People are at least polite. In Germany, they weren't'
‘When we filmed this,” says Ai Weiwei, “the elephants didn’t know what to do.
Once they were used for labour, and now they have lost their job.” The artist is talking about the groundbreaking documentary he has just made about unemployed logging elephants in Myanmar. You watch the film, shot with 360-degree virtual reality technology, through a special headset. Turn your head slowly and your view gradually changes. Turn your head 180 degrees and the picture changes completely. “When they lost their job,” he continues, “each elephant had a few people to take care of it, so those people also lost their job.” Rather than showing the suffering in the camp, Ai focuses on moments of joy: we see the wonder of children as the food trucks arrive, the generous portions of meat given out to celebrate Eid, the dazzling school built for the kids. The Chinese artist and activist understands loss, displacement and existential danger as well as anybody.
He slurps his tea and smiles. Where was this? Ai Weiwei on his new life in Britain: 'People are at least polite. In Germany, they weren't' M*A*S*H at 50: the Robert Altman comedy that revels in cruel misogyny. M*A*S*H is a rare example of a movie that has been eclipsed by its television adaptation.
The 1983 finale of the long-running sitcom about a medical unit near the front lines of the Korean war was the highest-rated single television episode in history, with 125m viewers tuning in. It’s understandable that Robert Altman’s 1970 film, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, lives in its shadow. The subversive anti-war comedy avoided sentimentality and teachable moments in favor of cruel pranks and a more hardened cynicism. Coming at the start of cinema’s most famous decade, it is a seminal film of New Hollywood, and it bears all the hallmarks of its era: a strong anti-establishment sentiment, the foregrounding of morally ambiguous protagonists, and, unfortunately, a deep and unexamined misogyny.
Rise of the 'bleakquel': your favourite heroes are back – and more miserable than ever. The last time we saw Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart’s venerable Starfleet captain, he was aboard a box-fresh Enterprise at the end of 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, ready to continue boldly going where no man has gone before.
Goody-two-shoes android Data was dead. William Riker, Picard’s ever-reliable No 1, had flown the roost to command a ship of his own. It was a bittersweet send-off for Picard: never mind that Nemesis wasn’t a great film, really only notable for a young Tom Hardy’s up-to-11 mugging as an evil Picard clone, its denouement succeeded in tying a graceful bow around the arc of Stewart’s character. In the imaginations of fans he lived out his days in happiness, whizzing amiably around the galaxy, or pottering about his vineyard getting gently sozzled. Scientists hate to say 'I told you so'. But Australia, you were warned. Those who say “I told you so” are rarely welcomed, yet I am going to say it here.
Australian scientists warned the country could face a climate change-driven bushfire crisis by 2020. It arrived on schedule. For several decades, the world’s scientific community has periodically assessed climate science, including the risks of a rapidly changing climate. Australian scientists have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to this global effort. I am an Earth System scientist, and for 30 years have studied how humans are changing the way our planet functions. Read more: Conservation scientists are grieving after the bushfires -- but we must not give up Scientists have, clearly and respectfully, warned about the risks to Australia of a rapidly heating climate - more extreme heat, changes to rainfall patterns, rising seas, increased coastal flooding and more dangerous bushfire conditions. The more we learn, the worse it gets How serious might future risks actually be?