My week of Monday 26 July to Sunday 1 August 2021 was another week of lockdown, during which I produced a lovely podcast to kick off the new series, and submitted to the will of the grey butcherbird.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Loneliness of Alan Jones with Dan Ilic and not Ray Martin, recorded on Friday morning. This is the first episode of the Edict’s Late Winter Series 2021.
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Videos
- Butcherbird 001: Breakfast, being just over three minutes of a grey butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus) grabbing some breakfast at Bunjaree Cottages on Saturday morning. I’d have preferred it if the daft bird had stayed within frame. It has no idea how to do television. Still it’s an acceptable result from a random let’s-try-this effort. I’ll be shooting more and better ones in the coming weeks.
Media Appearances
- One of my endless #purpletrain photos was used to illustrate a story in Sydney Sentinel, Sydney lockdown extended by four weeks, NSW Govt launches 18-plus vaccination push.
Articles, Corporate Largesse
None. But you can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to get a compilation of new stories by email each Sunday morning, when there are some.
Recommendations
- Team China Aims to Conquer an Unfamiliar New Sport: Skateboarding. This was written before the Olympic Games, but it highlights an important difference in attitude. “You have to practice the tricks they tell you every day,†one competitor told Sixth Tone. “You’re not allowed to try anything else.â€
- A Day in the Life of Three Transgender Athletes: What it Takes to Be Elite. More fantastic journalism from Teen Vogue.
- Extroverted, self-centred men less likely to comply with Covid restrictions, study suggests, which says it all, really.
- John Birmingham spent some time in hospital recently, and wrote a damn fine essay about it: Lockdown, mortality and imaging artefacts.
- I’ve very much enjoyed the 7-part historical fantasy series Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015), currently on Prime Video and perhaps elsewhere too.
The Week Ahead
This will be week six of the current COVID-19 lockdown for Greater Sydney, and that lockdown will be continuing for at least another month.
I’ll have to write something for ZDNet to keep the revenue up, and I’ll record another podcast in The 9pm Late Winter Series 2021, but the schedule hasn’t been locked in yet. All is chaos.
Update 3 August 2021: On Friday I’m recording a chat about the anti-lockdown movement and related political forces with Ariel Bogle, journalist and disinformation researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. For a taste, listen to her on a recent 7am podcast. I’ll edit and post that episode on Saturday.
Further Ahead
Nothing new this week.
- Australia’s 2021 Census, 10 August 2021.
- Second COVID-19 vaccination and other health appointments, Sydney, 16 August 2021.
- APNIC 52 conference, online, 14–16 September 2021.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 15–17 November 2021 (TBC).
- linux.conf.au 2022, online, 14–16 January 2022 (TBC).
[Photo: Another photo of a grey butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus) having breakfast at Bunjaree Cottages. This is taken from the video shot on 31 July 2021.]