Arts, Culture & Entertainment News - March 23

Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey's gift to Christianity, A Short History of Christianity, is a must-read for those who are serious about understanding the historicity (love that word) of the faith as it has gone through the passage of 2,000 or so years, whether you are a believer or not. It's "the jigsaw as a whole", as he puts it. At more than 600 pages in length, this solid tome is worth its weight in gold. I have been schlepping my copy around for three months (unlike the reader who devoured it in one weekend), from New York to Sydney and back to Brisbane. For now, be entertained by the humble historian via ABC Big Ideas. In the recorded appearance at The Sydney Institute he gives a candid summation of his book. He's an immensely likeable chap.

"Just then received my copy of Marilynne Robinson's new book of essays, When I was a Child I Read Books... and all is well with the world," Tweeted the equally likeable chap Scott Stephens, editor of ABC Religion and Ethics, on Friday. The book is a collection of ten essays by the author. In her essay titled 'Night Thoughts of a Baffled Humanist' Robinson writes: "There is at present a dearth of humane imagination for the integrity and mystery of other lives." That's a sentiment Shannon Guy and most GWAS readers would agree with, I'm sure. On further exploration (i.e. Google), 'The Marilyn Robinson Appreciation Society' was unearthed, which showcases a list of many of the essays penned by the Pulitzer Prize winner that have been adapted into her new book's fold as well as largely positive reviews.

Getting into the World Poetry Day spirit on March 21, I penned a petulantly inhospitable and somewhat nonsensical poem for my office door ("Between 7 and 2, if you please, take leave of me to writing be..."). I also chanced upon a copy of I Remember, I Remember: One Hundred Poems on Childhood at the library. The blurb: "Here, in this beautifully illustrated anthology, is all the joy and innocence, fear and frustration of childhoods in one hundred poems." They include Hartley Coleridge's Childhood: "Oh what a wilderness were this sad world, If man were always man and never child; If Nature gave no time, so sweetly wild, When every thought is deftly crisped and curled...". Crisped and curled... delicious. Yes, he was the son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Gossling (aka Helen Croome) is releasing one new track, filmed live, from her EP Intentional Living each week until the EP release on April 20. "We decided to create our own space at Bake House Studios where we could film each track from the new EP live, giving fans a taste of what they can expect from not only the new release but also from the Intentional Living tour which will start days after the EP is released," says Croome. The space is adorned by yarn-bombing group Yarn Corner, while Croome will be styled by Solange Mardones of NIFFTY (Northcote Independent Fashion Festival) in a range of wears by Olga de Polga, Kings of Carnaby, Kuwaii and Obus. What a clever marketing idea. The first song for release is "Wild Love".

Sticking with new music, Katy Perry's "Part of Me" was released this week and I can't work out whether the military propaganda for girls is a good thing or bad. In much the same fashion as The Hunger Games, the clip posits Perry as a pseudo-army recruit sent into battle on the frontline; in contrast to The Hunger Games, her reason for joining the defence force is less about a dystopian reality positing youth against youth in a gross take on "reality" entertainment sponsored by a wealthy elite, and more a breakup with a boyfriend (with requisite hair-cutting scene), which creates an excellent opportunity for a makeover.

Einstein is now online. The complete archives of the physicist's thoughts-on-paper, including 14 notebooks filled with research notes, correspondence with his contemporaries, love letters and a postcard sent to his ailing mother have been digitized thanks to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a grant from the Polonsky Foundation who are furthering the online work already laid: 900 manuscripts have been available since 2003.

The Encyclopedia Britannica is now online, too. After 244 years in print, the brand has announced it will discontinue its paper run with its 2010 editions. It will still be available on the iPad and Kindle and via its online database ($69.95 AUD annually).

Country Style magazine is entering into 'Golden Times' with this autumnal issue with spectacularly radiant cover. Editor Victoria Carey pays tribute to Australian Children's Laureate Alison Lester and Pony shop owner Nicki Milton who rides her horse Harley after work ("lucky, lucky Nicky").

Girl With a Satchel