What I’m reading

Matt Nolan calls for a proper Green party, not a watermelon. Money quote:

We need a Green party that actually concentrates on environmental issues.

David Thompson muses on eco-feminism. Money quote he quotes from Feministing:

What if we say no to reproduction? Reproduction is the basis of the institutions of marriage and family, and those two provide the moorings to the structure of gender and sexual oppression... So it makes sense to say that if the world has to change, reproduction has to go. Of course there is an ecological responsibility to reduce the human population, or even end it.

Thompson adds:

Which makes one Guardian reader’s suggestion – “stop using cling film” – look somewhat unambitious.

The Australian reviews Unnerved: The New Zealand Project, a show of contemporary NZ art at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane. Money quote:

Oddly, the exhibition made me want to know more about art in NZ, but only because it can't all be as dreary as this. Perhaps someone who isn't a curator of contemporary art could put together a valuable survey of what is going on in NZ today, beyond the bounds of official art.

Rick Gekoski, an unexpected (at least to me) star of the recent Auckland Readers’ and Writers’ Festival, is interviewed too briefly in the Australian about e-books. Money quote:

There are already too many books. If half of them die, that's good.

An ad for bacon syrup, one of the most disgusting-sounding food products ever. Money quote:

Torani Bacon syrup adds savory bacon flavor to cocktails, lattes, sauces and more.

Mick Hartley reports on performance artist Marina Abramovic’s MOMA show The Artist is Present. Money quote:

Much of it involves people holding positions while staring at each other, or staring off into space. Many are naked, like the poor lady who was stuck there lying beneath a skeleton as though engaged in missionary-position coitus: not perhaps how she saw her career developing when she first took up with the art crowd.