Ty Burrell: Modern Family's daggy dad
Alice Jones Five years ago, Ty Burrell was ready to quit acting. He was 41 years old and had a solid couple of decades in the business behind him: a handful of Hollywood movies (Black Hawk Down,Dawn of the Dead, The Incredible Hulk), countless summers of Shakespeare, including a Macbeth on Broadway, enough television roles to fill an A4 page. Not bad, better than most, but no killer role to lift him from slogging around the audition circuit to walking the red carpet.
SBS
Erwin Blumenfeld: A life in pictures
Television producer Remy Blumenfeld explores the complex legacy of his talented grandfather.
A son's sorrows
Cameron Woodhead With her debut novel For Today I Am A Boy, Chinese-Canadian writer Kim Fu has attracted comparisons to Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex and to bestselling author Amy Tan. They're big, slightly facile claims, which this delicate queer bildungsroman at least partly justifies.
All joking aside
Owen Richardson The immigrant misadventures of earlier works are replaced by an ambition to reveal the pain behind an author's humour.
Wolf Creek 2 review: Australian psycho
Paul Byrnes A sequel holds up a mirror to society, and the reflection is disturbing.
Morning Phase review: Beck opts for quiet optimism
Craig Mathieson Beck Hansen, that perpetually impish youth who introduced hip-hop and garage funk to alternative rock, is 43 years old. A slacker prodigy who aged better than most other symbols of Generation X (still no Criterion DVD edition of Reality Bites), the singer-songwriter is almost at the age of parents who were baffled by their teens' dedication to his breakthrough single Loser two decades ago.
Madam Butterfly's modern flight of fancy
Elissa Blake Puccini's docile Japanese heroine is a Western delusion. With Opera on the Harbour's new production Madama Butterfly soars into the 21st century.
Dinner from the deep
Frank Camorra Head to your local fish market or co-op to find the freshest seafood supplies.
Fat chance: how to write a diet bestseller
RICHARD GLOVER It's diet book season and there's no reason why you too should not pen a New York Times bestseller. Just follow these simple instructions and your book will fit seamlessly into this booming and financially rewarding genre.
Fighting prejudice
Juliette Hughes 'All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet from off our necks …'' (Sarah Grimke, letter to the president of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, 1838).
Going for croak
Cheryl Maddocks Frog numbers are declining, but you can do your bit to help them survive.
Interview: Michael Proffitt
Tom Rachman The man at the helm of the Oxford English Dictionary says change is afoot.
Picket fence boundary
Michael McGirr A poignant portrait of a 1950s life marred by emotional isolation.
CD reviews
As good as they are - and 2002's Neon Golden is still one of the most satisfying albums on my shelves - some people think of the occasionally tone-neutral band, The Notwist, as being emotion-neutral. That's because of the crisp, almost clinical sounds they sometimes use; the occasional sense of disinterest in the lyrics and Markus Acher's voice; and the inevitable but still silly assumptions made from the fact they're Germans.
Oscars
Oscars: Some enchanted evening
GARRY MADDOX A turbocharged career is not the only benefit of winning an Academy Award.
Stone dead and dead funny
MICHAEL IDATO Among the season's reincarnations, two surprises stand out - one French, one pure ocker.
Take the pressure off
Paula Goodyer The shopping trolley is a good place to start reducing the dangers of sugar, salt and saturated fat.
The captivating lost world of the last prince of Lampedusa
Andrew Riemer The impoverished Sicilian grandee Giuseppe Tomasi, Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa, the last of his line, died a disappointed man in 1957. He was 60 years old. Publisher after publisher had rejected the novel, loosely based on the life of his great-grandfather Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi, that he had been working on in the last years of his life. They found it too old-fashioned, politically too conservative. Then, after Lampedusa's death, the left-leaning Milan publishing house Feltrinelli unexpectedly accepted the manuscript. The Leopard, published in 1958, achieved worldwide success. It was the basis for what is arguably Luchino Visconti's greatest film, released in 1963.
The Wind Rises review: Wings of desire
SANDRA HALL A shared love of aircraft underpins this meditation on Japanese history.
WWI leaders 'not up to job'
Paul Ham A new book concludes that all the powers of Europe played a hand in its destruction.
Fish recipes
Fancy things to do with fish
Frank Camorra Head to your local fish market or co-op to find the freshest seafood supplies.
Matt Damon: Actor, activist and uni dropout is putting family before film
Martyn Palmer Just recently, Matt Damon was cycling in the hills surrounding his new Hollywood home when he took a nasty tumble. Which is why he has a sling supporting his left arm when we meet in a plush Los Angeles hotel room.
Accomplished evocation of war and its emotional aftermath
Andrew Riemer Amid the gore and stench of the Western Front of World War I, young men - often no more than boys - dreamt of an idyllic England (where the church clock always seemed to stand at 10 to three) of the kind that Rupert Brooke famously conjured in The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, written on a visit to Germany in 1912, when the clouds of war were already thickening.
All the white stuff
Cheryl Maddocks From parsnips to potatoes, paler vegetables are packed with vitamins, and now is the time to plant them.
Amalgam of creative worlds
Candida Baker However much I enjoy a book, it's not often I need time out between chapters to recover from the rush of adrenalin, ideas, envy and excitement. That is the effect of the coolly titled Art/Fashion in the 21st Century.
Best in a crisis
John Keane Democracies are littered with confusion, burdened by elections and accused of ''muddling through'', yet are held up as the global ideal.
Books, dogs and gumption
Claire Scobie Her mastery of prose has won international acclaim. Now she sets out what makes her tick.
CD reviews
Last time she passed by here, Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, was making odd pop music - brass and ballads, noises and sweetness - with David Byrne.
Blue is the Warmest Colour review: French and frank
PAUL BYRNES An erotically charged tale rises above the controversy.
Frank Camorra's prawns with sweetcorn salsa and spiced eggplant salad
FRANK CAMORRA Browsing food stalls and chatting to the owners is a great way to find inspiration.
Healthy habits to keep in mind
Paula Goodyer The secret to a healthy brain could be in a wisely chosen diet.
Lessons from a master
Kathy Evans The music of J.S. Bach inspired a composition that blends old worlds with new.
Most pragmatic among idealists
Martin Flanagan John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, an account of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final and the part it played in averting a civil war in South Africa, is one of the great sports books.
Out of the rubble
STEPHANIE WOOD Many thought the treasures of Afghanistan were lost forever. They survived against the odds, thanks to the heroic efforts of a small band of museum staff.
Dallas Buyers Club review: Thin edge of the wedge
Sandra Hall Matthew McConaughey goes from Hollywood stud to Oscar nominee.
Valentine to an aunt fills abyss
Peter Craven Nicholas Shakespeare is one of those writers who can do anything. Write a novel in something like the Graham Greene tradition (The Dancer Upstairs), a great biography (Bruce Chatwin) or a superb piece of fiction, Inheritance, structured by the ideas of the essayist Montaigne. He has even written a great book about Tasmania.
Wisdom of the elders: a dog's lead
RICHARD GLOVER For 13 years, the garden hose has been my dog's favourite thing. There's a tiny squeak when I turn on the tap, a sound he can hear through multiple closed doors. He could hear it from suburbs away. His ears swivel and he comes running, insisting that intermediate doors be opened. He stands on his hind legs so he can see out the back window. "Oh, the hose," he pants. "The hose."
Healthy habits
What you need to know about brain food
Paula Goodyer The secret to a healthy brain could be in a wisely chosen diet.
Writers on the barricades
SUSAN WYNDHAM The issues that have prominent writers up in arms; the demand for pop-up bookshelves and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
