http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/matt-smith/ Matt Smith started his career in radio in 2000, after it became clear that his geography degree was much less interesting than he originally thought (which, to be truthful, was not very interesting at all). Since then he’s managed to freelance for many major radio stations between Newcastle and Melbourne, writing commercials, editing content, panel operating and providing silly voices on demand. He is also the author of several radio plays, including Pharaoh: Walking in Memphis, which won an award from the BBC World Service. He currently works at La Trobe University as their chief podcaster, and teaches in the Media Studies program. His amusing radio plays can be found at Nightlight Productions (http://www.nightlightradio.net) and you can follow Matt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nightlightguy en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-logie-award-should-be-a-valuable-prize/ Voting is now open for TV Week’s Logie Awards, have you got your vote in? No? That’s not surprising. I’m sure that most people in Australia would give the same answer. It’s strange that we place so much emphasis on these awards in Australia’s television industry. TV Week claims a weekly readership of 759,000, and their key demographic of teenage girls is hardly representative of the Australian population. There’s a reason that Kylie Minogue took out the Gold Logie in 1988 at 19. And yet until 2011, this key readership was charged with choosing what is classed as ‘the best’ that Australian television has to offer. The process has definitely improved by opening the voting up to everyone via the internet, and not just those that sent in magazine cuttings with their votes. But the fact that we’re making it a popularity contest open to the public is a flawed system. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-logie-award-should-be-a-valuable-prize/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-logie-award-should-be-a-valuable-prize/#item7593 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:46:34 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/New-rollout-of-knockout-is-a-sellout-and-a-copout/ Every now and then, you might come across a disaster of some kind and have the inexplicable urge to stare at it. It could be a train accident, or a natural disaster. On Sunday night, it was on Channel 10. More than a million Australians went through this feeling, powerless to stop it from unfolding. After resting for more than 20 years, It’s a Knockout is back on our screens - hopefully sufficient time for the nostalgia factor to kick in. It delivered a much needed ratings debut to Channel 10 to start the summer, but viewers watched in horror as their cherished childhood memories were harvested. For the most part it was simply that the concept hasn’t stood the test of time well, but for a remake it also did little to match the tone and atmosphere. It was the equivalent of buying something dodgy from China off eBay and calling it an iPad. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/New-rollout-of-knockout-is-a-sellout-and-a-copout/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/New-rollout-of-knockout-is-a-sellout-and-a-copout/#item7253 Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:35:29 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-dalai-lama-experience-only-5000-a-pop/ The Dalai Lama’s most recent tour of Australia is in full swing, and it’s taken a slightly strange direction this time around. While his 2007 tour treated the Dalai Lama as he should be treated - as a spiritual leader who deserves respect - that tour met with a financial loss, and now it’s all about bums on seats. Promotion, merchandise, and the media circuit. HHDL (as he’s known to his tweeps on Twitter) seems to be in it for the money, and he’s got the Collingwood AFL guernsey from Harry O’Brien to prove it. The effort to engage a broader audience has strangely tainted his message, and the most our media can manage is to treat the man like he’s a punchline. Considering he’s trying to promote a series of undersold public lectures, he’s got to take what he can get… but is this really the best that we can give him? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-dalai-lama-experience-only-5000-a-pop/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-dalai-lama-experience-only-5000-a-pop/#item6072 Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:55:51 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theyre-red-theyre-angry-theyre-birds/ That’s it. Pull back, aim, let go. Repeat a billion times. The game’s objective is to guide a bird with anger management issues, projectile style, into a structure in the aim of killing the pigs within. It mightn’t be much of a premise, but mobile game developers Rovio thought it sounded like a good idea. Myself and millions of fellow birdflingers around the world have been unproductive ever since it was released on the iPhone. Through careful use of trajectory, timing, and a slingshot, feathered vengeance can be mine. Every day, a possible 50 million people worldwide spend a collective 200 million minutes trying to rain down avian justice. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theyre-red-theyre-angry-theyre-birds/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theyre-red-theyre-angry-theyre-birds/#item5496 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:35:32 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-many-times-can-you-reinvent-the-wookiee/ I feel like I’ve been the subject of George Lucas’ booty calls for way too long now. I was too young to experience his creation, Star Wars, in all its glory. Born in 1980, my mother tells me she was pregnant with me when she went and saw The Empire Strikes Back in the cinemas. I like to think that it infused me with an appreciation of what the real Star Wars experience was like. Unfortunately, I’ll probably never know. Each time the films have been released, they’ve been altered ‘for the better’ in an endless amount of ways. Scenes have been rewritten, added, and edited. Dialogue has been altered. Special effects beefed up. Characters and actors replaced. Han shot first. Then Greedo shot first. Then they shot at the same time. No two releases of Star Wars have been the same. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-many-times-can-you-reinvent-the-wookiee/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-many-times-can-you-reinvent-the-wookiee/#item5334 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:00:22 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-longer-live-from-planet-earth/ Ben Elton’s Live From Planet Earth has been cancelled after three episodes. The regular broadcast was delayed by Channel 9 last night, in favour of an hour-length broadcast special news coverage on the Christchurch earthquake event in New Zealand. Without making light of the event, I’m sure Channel 9 didn’t struggle with the decision for very long – If Elizabeth Hurley was still shacking it up with Shane Warne, they would have delayed Ben Elton’s show in favour of an hour of live-crossing to that event as well. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-longer-live-from-planet-earth/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-longer-live-from-planet-earth/#item5219 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:00:53 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/he-says-at-least-i-can-use-an-allen-key/ Young Australians have often been labelled as lazy and lacking many crucial skills, leaving many older Australians to worry about the future of this country, left in the hands of those who lack the ability to look after themselves. A bunch of survey results released recently echo these fears, focusing on the loss of traditional knowledge in the younger generation. Simply put, women are not learning the skills that traditionally women once knew, and men are losing the manly abilities they once had. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/he-says-at-least-i-can-use-an-allen-key/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/he-says-at-least-i-can-use-an-allen-key/#item5020 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:40:35 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-dawning-of-the-age-of-ridiculius/ If you’ve ever woken up on the wrong side of bed and thought your stars weren’t in alignment, it turns out you were probably right. In a move that could have some people questioning every decision they’ve made, astrologers have announced that the star signs need to be adjusted to account for the passage of time. The 3000-year-old Zodiac system is horribly out of date, and the astrological calendar is in need of an update. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-dawning-of-the-age-of-ridiculius/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-dawning-of-the-age-of-ridiculius/#item4902 Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:55:20 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-fruitless-search-for-the-romance-in-modern-travel/ On the course of a trip home for Christmas from Melbourne to the Central Coast in NSW, I had ahead of me what many others can sympathise with, a long trip dragging an uncomfortable amount of luggage and a collection of presents from one state to another. On my journey I had a bus trip (to the airport) a plane trip (to Sydney) and a train trip (to the Central Coast), so like many I decided to grit my teeth and try and make the best of it. This is where the ‘slow movement travel’ philosophy comes to play. Much can be commended for the philosophy of slow movement in travel - the idea that part of the fun is in getting there, to take your time and enjoy the trip, rather than racing towards the destination. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-fruitless-search-for-the-romance-in-modern-travel/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-fruitless-search-for-the-romance-in-modern-travel/#item4791 Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:40:08 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/U2-isnt-exactly-practicing-what-it-preaches/ U2’s 360 degrees tour has touched down in Australia and is in full swing. Much like the main feature of the tour, stories have been coming from every direction on how extravagant the concert is. How the big scale, big vision, and big cost have lead to the biggest concert event ever. You have to admit, the numbers are pretty impressive. U2’s two year world tour has run up an $850,000 dollars daily running cost, and last year took $123 million as the highest grossing tour of 2009. ‘The claw’ stage that dominates the band as they play towers at an impressive height of 164 feet. It is so large that it took six 747 jets to get it to Australia. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Matt Smith) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/U2-isnt-exactly-practicing-what-it-preaches/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/U2-isnt-exactly-practicing-what-it-preaches/#item4609 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:45:47 +0000 Matt Smith | Author bios | The Punch