Blog Title: Benjamin Solah, Marxist horror writer

5 Years of Benjamin Solah’s Blog

On July 4, 2004 – 5 Years Ago, I sat down on my parent’s computer back in the South-West of Sydney to begin this blog where I said, “This will contain reviews on cds, movies, books, sites etc, plus my thoughs on politics and various issues.” The quality of the blogging varied, but I enjoyed finding read more..

[Fiction] Friday: Needing To Change

[Fiction] Friday Challenge for July 3rd, 2009: Where your character is committed to a drastic or extreme change Needing To Change His body was tense as he rushed into the clinic. Finally he was in and slammed the door, vowing in his head to not leave if he didn’t get what he wanted. His face was flushed and read more..

Blogging: Is It Hurting Print Media?

Apologies if anyone found errors accessing the site from about 3am this morning (7 hours ago.) The domain expired and I didn’t know because I’d changed email addresses since registering the domain. All is well now and benjaminsolah.com will be in the hands of, surprise surprise, Benjamin Solah for another two years at least. There’s been read more..

Music Review: Sound Awake – Karnivool

Karnivool’s second album, Sound Awake has the same distinct Karnivool sound whilst also being a marked progression. Sound Awake is a complex and multi-layered album that really needs to be listened to a few times to really appreciate it in its entirety. And it seems every time I listen to Sound Awake, I gain something new read more..

Fighting Homophobia: Nothing Less Than Full Marriage Rights

With a chairman like former Victorian Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett, it should come as no surprise that the depression charity, beyondblue, have totally capitulated to homophobia and have neglected gay and lesbian youth in Australia. The Age reported on Sunday that beyondblue “has knocked back repeated funding requests to support depressed young people struggling with their read more..

Trust Me

‘Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie.’ This meme has been read more..

Thoughts On Publishing: Emerging Writers v Emerging Bands

Last week I was complaining on Facebook about my life-sentence that is full-time work and how I’d love to get out of it. It prompted a discussion about my writing career where a friend, who’s in a band that just released their debut album via an Indie Music label, asked “Is there something like the read more..

Gig Review: Karnivool @ The Forum

Karnivool played their second Melbourne show at The Forum last night. It was an awesome show full of theatrics and intensity. The elaborate gothic style architecture suited Karnivool’s style and I absolutely loved the venue. The support band, Sugar Army were good too. I’d seen them support Gyroscope last year and they were heavier this time around read more..

Quote: Eugene V. Debs

I’m feeling a bit too sick to post today, but as I was working on the redesign of this blog I searched for some favourite writing-related and political quotes for the sidebars of the main pages. Of course, I had to add something from the American Socialist Eugene V. Debs. And below is one of read more..

Iran: Movement Going Beyond Mousavi?

It’s encouraging that the protests in Iran are continuing despite the continued repression from police and the Basij militia. Reports, videos and images are painting a disturbing picture of repression, where there’s been bloody and deadly scenes in Tehran. It’s worth noting that Al Jazeera reported today: Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated main opposition candidate in the read more..

Welcome to the new look BenjaminSolah.com

I’d like to welcome you my new design. It’s a concept I’ve had in my head for quite a while and I’m glad to have completed it. There’s still a few bugs and I plan to update the links page and my profile picture at a later date.

Absolute Write Blog Chain June 2009

I’m following on from Bettielee at Far Seeing Fairy Tales in the June edition of the Absolute Write Blog Chain. There’s no theme this month so we’re just meant to follow on from what others have said, and so far it’s been to do with Global Warming and the environment. Bettielee focused on her own personal read more..

Iran: Various Shit Positions On The Revolts

So amongst the kind of token support of the protesters in Iran, coming from people who would otherwise support bombing the shit out of the country, there a few people or groups that need to condemned for atrocious positions on Iran and the protests. It seems morals and such stuff gets in the way of making read more..

Iran: Where To From Here?

The events in Tehran – the inspiring and heartbreaking pictures, videos and accounts all over the web – have occupied my mind over the weekend. As I’m sure they have for a lot of people. With the media being restricted, it’s difficult to gain a sense of the direction of the movement and which forces are read more..

New Site Design Coming Soon!

I missed [Fiction] Friday this Friday as I’ve been busy and didn’t get around to it last night. Check out the other entries though at Write Anything. The good news is I’ve finally gotten into gear with the redesign of this site. It’s looking really good at the moment, with the main part, the header completed read more..

Protest Marks Second Anniversary Of Racist Northern Territory Intervention

A small protest gathered at Victoria’s State Library today to mark the second anniversary of the racist Northern Territory Intervention that saw the Racial Discrimination Act suspended making way for cops and troops to take control of the communities from Indigenous people. The crowd was inspired and entertained by Indigenous musicians and speakers, all hostile to read more..