This is the first biography of the extraordinary Arthur Russell, the enigmatic New York composer who ate music genres for breakfast, knew everyone who was anyone, and died sadly early.

Ten Best Picture nominees isn’t nearly enough for some years (1962, 1973, 1995 and 2009 particularly). Yet this year’s bloated collection of Oscar nods hasn’t been received well, or even been properly explained.

We pity the fool who doesn’t dance to the Opulent DJs this Sunday night at Golden Plains. But what does Opulent do, and who’s in their crack commando DJ unit?

The Enthusiast in your earholes! Here’s the first of nine summer radio hours, in podcast form. Bad fictional sex, taekwondo matriarchs, an interview with street art hero Blek Le Rat, and more jibber-jabber.

In this occasional column, The Enthusiast investigates cultural phenomena that valiantly resist being a source of ironic pastiche. First up: jazz-fusion vocal quartet, The Manhattan Transfer.

Does turning soap into a villain work for Palmolive’s range of shower gels and milks? Or does appealing to paranoia just not wash with this target audience?

Trust those pesky subeditors to foil Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s plans by revealing his long-insulated secret identity: he is Battman!

Looking for the definitive Michael Jackson story? This isn’t it. But Simon Crump’s maelstrom of literary forms captures a strange kind of truth about celebrity culture.

The Vatican’s newspaper has published God’s definitive Best Rock Albums Ever. The list includes freaks, heathens, drug-addicts, criminals, a witch, and a dude who named his band after a strap-on dildo.