Anne

Helen Garner says State Library of Victoria turned into ‘party central’, with planned job cuts to ‘bring disgrace’ on Melbourne Acclaimed author ‘sick’ about 171-year-old institution’s proposed restructure as hundreds of writers sign open letter in protest

"Now they’re hacking away at the actual librarians? Shame on them. They bring disgrace on the name of our city.”

Save the State Library of Victoria An open letter

The open letter Garner signed, alongside winners of Bookers, Pulitzers, Nobel prizes, not least the hundreds of the other writers, scholars and researchers that feed the cultural fire of this city, can be seen in full here: saveslv.com

Twiggy by Richard Avedon (1967)

Non-Amazon Places to: BUY BOOKS. Support small business. Bookshop.org. Bookshop.org partners with local, independent book stores and shares a portion of the profit. Shop online while still supporting a small business! Thriftbooks.com. A sustainable way to buy physical books. Gently used and new books at great prices, shipped in greener packaging. Itch.io. And indie platform originally built for video games, Itch.io hosts self-published authors as well! This is a great place to find E-books. Direct from author. Look for your author's website for direct sales on their digital storefront or through creator platforms like Ko-fi or Patreon. Presented by: @sagetgreene.bsky.social www.sagetgreene.wixsite.com/home

Sick of giving Bezos money? 👎

Still want to buy books and support authors? 👍

Your local bookshop ✨ is a great place to start, but here are some more online resources to add to your routine 🛒

#BookSky #HolidayShopping

QCOSS 2025 Living Affordability Report: Only pensioners were found able to afford basic needs, with all other modelled households in weekly budget deficits between $17 and $277

1920s style black and white movie still of silent movie actress in heavy make-up, doing terrified side-eye.

Calling all Australian writers, musicians, film-makers & artists of every kind! Sign the new Open Letter about catastrophic crises at the State Library of Victoria, written by Gideon Haigh, Graeme Davison & Clare Wright. Text of letter & instructions on my Facebook page & Insta @reallykazcooke.

I hope it all ended well.

It can go that way sometimes.

On the 2nd day of Summer: I am wearing a hoodie with a hot wheat bag in the pocket.

Cabin worksite

Set a timer: no coffee till the job is done…

Cabin with wall removed

I’ve got bruises, and a coffee is brewing…

Poe…it’s perfect.

Hand made skateboard by

I finally earned the right to open my xmas gift from @sparkeymeh.bsky.social

Absolutely beautiful hand done pyrography by my brother over the seas. It will have a special place in the cabin. I just need to make the perfect mount for it now.

Accidentally steamed too much milk for my coffee, so everyone else gets surprise hot chocolates…

Just on YouTube alone I’ve listened to music for over 70,000 minutes😳😂😂Ian

The full bench ruled he knew he did not have consent. They took it from balance of probabilities to yes, you knew and you raped her.

It's not quite the end of the term, so you have a few more opportunities to bring your grades up. Where are my power sycophants?

Here’s a clip from Saturday night’s show at Sirromet Winery in Mount Cotton.

If you were there, post your photos and videos in the comments — we’d love to see them and share a few of our favourites.

See you in the Hunter Valley this weekend.

Your annual reminder that the most revealing difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is definitely in the words for December: Mí na Nollag (Month of Christmas) in Ireland, and An Dubhlachd (the Blackness) in Scotland. So once again may I wish you all a lovely Blackness.

Looks lovely Amelia.

My Gen Z work colleague and I are having a bit of cultural exchange. She told me about a show called Euphoria. I’d never heard of it. She said: it’s a bit drug heavy. I said: Drug heavy? Have you heard of Trainspotting?
No.
Google it. 😊

A photo of the nearly full moon near a light fixture.

Happy almost-full-moon day.

Why didn’t you just leave?

Because he made it seem impossible.

And the services who are supposed to help, just don’t - except in the most extreme cases or if you’re lucky enough to fit their strict criteria.

If it was that fucking easy, I’d have achieved it 9 years ago.

😡

I've heard of "driving while black".
"Fishing while brown" is a new one ...
#HegsethWarCrimes

Hope you keep feeling well Angie.

Considering 1066 And All That’s take on Magna Carta (“that no man might be fined to his utter ruin, except The Common People,” etc), I think they might have missed some of its more subtle points.

I know this is all very inside baseball and all that, but baby, this is just not how history programmes are made.

Obviously no they don't. But also, yeah sure if you have unlimited funds, I am actually happy to make a show that says all Empires suck and use unconscionable violence to enact their will. I am actually ready to say everyone sucks: the Romans, the Maya, Britain- fine. That wouldn't make them happy!

It is extremely difficult to make factual historical programs in general at the moment. (No one has budget, people only greenlight things with big names, everyone wants An Angel.) And these people want a show to contrast Britain, with the Inca, wign Sumeria, with the Ming, with the HRE???

From the point of view of being an Actual Historian I just find the idea of needing to be "proud" of history baffling. Identifying with the history of a nation, which is in and of itself a made up thing, is just weird. It is also something that usually corresponds with not studying history.