Absolute cutie.
No Award reviews: The Wells & Wong Mysteries by Robin Stevens
Liz made Steph read “Wells and Wong,” a series of books featuring young lady detectives in an English boarding school.
Liz:
Technically, what I said was, “These books exist, the heroine is Chinese, I think they’re quite good, you might like them.” I wasn’t exactly standing over Stephanie with a pile of books and a gun.
Deepdean School for Girls, 1934. When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t, really.)
Steph:
I was skeptical, but I’ve been won over. Mostly? Mostly.
Continue reading “No Award reviews: The Wells & Wong Mysteries by Robin Stevens”
Couture: convention and conflict
After visiting the Chinese Museum on Saturday, I made my way down to the State Library to attend a free lecture, Couture: convention and conflict. The blurb:
Enjoy a journey of fashion transformation, from the Edwardian hobble skirt to the freedom of the flapper.
Dramatic social upheavals in the first decades of the 20th century brought radical shifts in the way we lived, worked and dressed. Join a fascinating discussion with fashion and history experts to discover how the suffragette movement, World War I and the increased use of bicycles, automobiles and electricity all influenced and dramatically changed fashion.
100% relevant to my interests! How could I not put my name down?
Quokkas, I was disappointed.
Museum shops of the world: the Chinese Museum
The Chinese Museum is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. Located beside Her Majesty’s Theatre, in a building which used to hold overflow from the theatre’s wardrobe, it contains four floors of Chinese-Australian history, from the gold rush to the end of the White Australia Policy.
I visited the Museum itself a few months back, but I didn’t have a chance to look closely at the shop that day. Finally, I’ve had a chance to rectify that serious omission.
(Steph interjects: WITHOUT ME, I CANNOT BELIEVE IT)
Continue reading “Museum shops of the world: the Chinese Museum”
Sunday arvo Oz music jam
A new thing here at No Award: we’re taking it in turns to share some top Australian music on a Sunday afternoon.
(My contributions will be mostly hip hop by women, because back when Iggy Azalea was relevant, I started putting together a post about great women rappers of Australia. That was a few years ago, and I’ve gone from only having a few names in mind, to having too much music to choose from.)
everybody’s doing a brand new linkspam
When is a TV Show Too Gay?: Representation and universality in Looking and Please Like Me — Or, is Australia lagging in terms of queer representation on television?
Zen Cho on PoC/Queer/Marginalised People in Western SFF Fandom
The Geek’s Guide to Disability
A book review: I’m Not Racist, But…Forty Years of the Racial Discrimination Act
Monash Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing
A bunch of responses to some bigoted, racebaiting journalistic fail this week, with content warnings for graphic false rape allegations:
A tissue of lies: Paul Sheehan and “Louise”
Finally, The Islamophobic Race-Baiting Of Fairfax And Paul Sheehan Blows Up In Their Face [Editorial note — that’s race-baiting by Fairfax and Sheehan, not of them. Remember that time New Matilda could be relied on for its consistent quality? Yeah, that was a good five minutes.]
SMH columnist: I should not have written Middle Eastern rape column without fact checks
Paul Sheehan’s unchecked allegations ‘a catastrophe for sexual assault victims’
…if the alleged attacker isn’t white, all of a sudden previously silent men become militant feminists. It’s curious, then, that these men only use this newfound feminism as a cudgel against feminists.
Uber To Deliver Snakes To Your Office Whether You Order Them Or Not
“It’s all about disrupting the typical office space. It’s about disrupting the market. We’re shaking up the infospace with a box of cobras and rattlesnakes. They represent the dynamic shift that we’re bringing to the workplace. They represent the daring challenge we’re introducing to the modern world. Also, they’re very much a literal box of snakes.”
Torres Strait Islander flag repeatedly stolen from park in Heidelberg West because people thought it looked Arabic, which is terrifying on two levels
Footscray: melting pot turned hipster hotspot — a photo-essay about diversity and gentrification. #innerwestlief
Important Fatberg update, Newcastle edition
Con or Bust: Brisbane edition
Con or Bust is an American fan fund created to assist People of Colour to attend SFF conventions. It’s an excellent project funded entirely through donations and an annual online auction, and we at No Award are very excited that it has come to Australia.
Contact, the 2016 NatCon (this year in Brisbane), has donated two memberships, and there is up to $550 of assistance available for accommodation.
The catch: if you need assistance beyond membership and accommodation — ie, airfare — the deadline for applying is before 11:59 pm, Thursday 25 February, US Eastern Standard Time. (Yes, my fellow lolstralians, that is working out in our favour, thank you, time zones.)
Go forth, lolstralians of a non-white persuasion, and apply!!
[Con or Bust logo was designed and created by an anonymous artist.]
Stephanie says: Liz will be attending NatCon as the NAFF delegate, so you should definitely find her and yell with her.
taking up room in con spaces
Today we’re talking about cons, whiteness, racism in fandom, and that time a white American splained at Steph about colonialism in South East Asia, a place she is actually from.
Contains lots of swears because it’s that kind of topic and day.
Blackface in Australia
In a stunning break with brand, we’re starting with a blockquote from somewhere else:
Sadly, the glorious run came to an end in somewhat dramatic fashion this weekend after Opals star Alice Kunek posted an image of herself in blackface, apparently “in support of” rapper Kanye West. No word from Mr West on how he feels about that ‘support’, but we’ll hazard a guess that an African-American musician would not be overly into the idea of reappropriating the aesthetic of a famously racist musical form.
After Kunek was called out by teammate Elizabeth Cambage, a furious reaction ensued. (Against Cambage.)
Quokkas, let’s talk about blackface, again.
birds of australia: the drongo
Resident ornithologists Michael and Hayley have been unable to articulate words about the drongo that aren’t Alf Stewart quotes.
no-award.net 