Zeitgeisters, At my work-place, Media Dell’Arte, we like to make lists and rate things. This isn’t our actual job. The sort of work we do attracts people with say, an above average interest in popular culture. My co-worker, Big Red, takes this notion a little further, she is particularly fond of starting the morning by rating her day out of 10. Sometimes others in the immediate vicinity will also give their “Out of 10”. I think this is a civilised notion and providing you and your co-workers play the game accurately, (no pretending to be a 6 when you’re really a 4), then it can be a handy guide to know who needs to be treated with kid gloves. About seven weeks ago, I went to see a 9.30pm session of the New Zealand film BLACK SHEEP at the Millenium in Fremantle. I usually like to suss out the trailers before the feature starts, even though these days they do that sneaky thing of interspersing crappy commercials with the coming attractions. I was so early the slide ads hadn’t started. S...

The charismatic Trump proving that money and power have nothing whatever to do with his popularity. (Kidding!) Hi Zeitgeisters, XMS TXTNG It’s Christmas here in our part of the Southern Hemisphere. For the first time, rather than Christmas cards, I have received a number of Yuletide SMSs on the telephone. I’d rather have a Merry Acknowledgement than not have one – and a tree doesn’t have to die when you text message – but it’ll take some adjusting to. SHUT-IN For various reasons that I don’t want to go into here, I’ve spent a lot of time glued to the small screen in the last three days. I’ve seen a whole bunch of old movies on disc in that time – everything from TWO TICKETS TO BROADWAY (1951) to LOCAL HERO (1983). Mainly, I was avoiding Christmas television, however in between DVD changes I did catch this gem during a Carols-By-Candlelight- type of show from Channel 10's Sandra Sully, “You know, famous writer Aldous Huxley once said : After silence, the closest thing...