PUBLISHED BY THE CURTIN STUDENT GUILD
FREE!
ISSUE #5 - 2012
IN THIS ISSUE:
RENAISSANCE Including:
Roller Derby The Revival of Prohibition Falling in Reverse
Bullshit 90’s Nostalgia or,
how my generation squandered all hope it ever had of having respect for itself in the future:
Get involved with your Student Guild Nominations are now open for the Annual Student Guild Elections. For more information and to find out the positions available, go to www.guild.curtin.edu.au or email generalsec@guild.curtin.edu.au
Candidate info sessions will be held at the Guild, 22nd & 29th August at 12pm. Meet at Guild Reception
Nominations close 7th September at 12pm. authorized by Natasha Freeman - Returning Officer
ISSUE #5 2012 CONTACTS
Editorial - 9266 2806 Advertising - 9266 3087 Email - grok@guild.curtin.edu.au EDITOR - Hayley Davis LAYOUT - Rozanna Johnson COVER - Chloe Sellars Grok exists for entertainment purposes only. The views expressed therein are not necessarily that of the Curtin Student Guild. CONTRIBUTORS Grok would not exist were it not for the generous donation of time and effort from it’s contributors, to whom we are eternally grateful. (in no particular order) Maya-Rose Chauhaun Rachel McCann Scott Donaldson Emil Cholich Chayla Taylor Melissa McGrath Joseph Wong Anthony Pyle Stacey Malacari David Scaife Caitlin Goddard Chelsea Banner Connor White Steph Lane
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TINKERTOWN The new black comedy from the team behind the Fringe World smash Sleepyhead, winner of the 2012 Di Cranston Award and shortlisted for the 2010 Griffin Award. Showing at The Blue Room Theatre in September, Tinkertown stars Curtin University student Tessa Carmody alongside lecturer and theatre director Philip Miolin. A heartwarming tale of murder, car chases, alcoholism, bad parenting and yaks, Tinkertown explores an ex-con (Moilin) kidnapping his daughter (Carmody) and trying, and repeatedly failing, to endear himself to her over the course of the pairs travels. Preview 25 September Members’ Night 26 September Season 27 September-13 Octover 7pm @ The Blue Room Theatre 53 James Street, Perth Cultural Centre Northbridge Tickets: Preview $15, Full $25/Concession $20 Blue Room Theatre Members $20/$15 Bookings www.blueroom.org.au//08 9227 7005
Spinifex: People of the Sun and Shadow John Curtin Gallery: 24 August – 12 October 2012
The John Curtin Gallery is proud to present Spinifex: People of the Sun and Shadow to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Spinifex Arts Project. The Spinifex People, of the Great Victoria Desert, gained national recognition for their pioneering Native Title claim over their ancestral lands, from which they were removed during the controversial British nuclear testing program of the 1950s. Some of the most remote country in Australia, dotted with sacred sites and criss-crossed by dreaming trails, the country is a profound repository of the traditional Spinifex law (Tjukurrpa). The Spinifex People continue to live on their land and fulfil their cultural and spiritual obligations to the law, to each other and to their country. The exhibition will begin with the early history of the Spinifex People, their initial contact with white people, the events around the nuclear testing at Maralinga and the enforced move away from their country, and the move back in the early 1980s, concluding with the Native Title claim in 1998-99. The second part of the exhibition is a survey of recent painting by the Spinifex People, focusing on artists who were involved in the Native Title period paintings, and younger artists who have started painting more recently and in whose work some new directions can be seen.
- Kurt Anderson There’s a strange little thing I’ve come to appreciate lately. I can’t even put my finger on why, but it appeals to me. Makes me smile. It’s that little, popping sound you hear when placing a needle on a turning record. It is the same way I appreciate the experience of reading a newspaper (except The Australian, the size of which shits me to tears) or the affection for really old, beautifully bound books. Truth be told this appreciation has only developed since it became hip to listen to records again. I’m sure many would have known the value of their quality of sound and continued to use them when iPods and flash, wall mounted sound systems became the rage. There are a bunch of things from past eras that are becoming popular again. Quilting, comic books (in the guise of ‘graphic novels’), peace signs, corsets, swing dancing. Interestingly many of these fashion and cultural styles are from a range of different eras, but all cropping up at once and some even being combined. So what is prompting these returns to activities and attitudes of times past? Why this nostalgia? Our grandparents must be asking “What the bajeeesus is going on?” or “Finally! The dickheads are realising what fashionable mofos we really are.” Kurt Anderson commented on this phenomenon in the January issue of Vanity Fair. He outlined the perplexity that was our stagnation in design - looking to the past instead of creating anything really new. Pop icons, architecture and fashion between the nineties and the noughties has either not changed at all or is harking back to anything from Elizabethan styles to braless swinging sixties. Anderson puts it down, in large part, to “An unconscious, collective reaction to all the profound nonstop newness we’re experiencing on the tech and geopolitical and economic fronts. People have a limited capacity to embrace flux and strangeness and dissatisfaction, and right now we’re maxed out.” These are the questions we ask in this Issue: Renaissance. And it’s not all bleak. Not at all! Rather there’s alot to be curious about and to celebrate about our present times. Ovid once said: “Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.” Rather than seeing us as stuck in the past, if we take a different view we could see this as some sort of modern day renaissance (on acid). See renaissance does not just refer to the period between the 15th and 18th centuries when there was a revival in humanism and art for it’s own sake. This was also a time when Leonardo da Vinci was da man ‘coz he was boss at anything he put his mind to from literature and engineering to philosophy. Da Vinci is now coined as the typical ‘Renaissance Man’, a master in many things. Like the gangsta who appreciates classical music. The word itself comes from the Latin nascentia,from nasci meaning ‘be born’. Perhaps then we can take renaissance to refer to any revival and flourishing of ideas and trends from past eras. We think this is what we’re seeing at the present time. A fascination with the current phenomenon is what has inspired this issue - this awesome resurgence and eclectic combining of anything from any time, with no need to justify it except by the fact that makes sense to or expresses you. Let us know what you think by emailing grok@guild.curtin. edu.au. Enjoy! E.d. aka Hayley Davis.
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COMMUNITY NOTICES
3 Editorial 5 your guild: PRESIDENT 6 your guild:
VPs 7
8
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FACULTY REPS
your guild:
IN AND AROUND THE GUILD
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2012 Guild Elections
Wardens: Roller Derby
Boredom Busted
STUDENT ASSIST: Be Assertive
Falling In Reverse
The Revival of Prohibition
14 feature: 16 feature: 18 advice:
20 feature:
22 feature:
24 CALENDAR 26 feature:
The Great Ink Debate
The Fonz Lesbian
28 feature:
30 feature:
The Facebook Renaissance
32 feature:
Metamodernism 36 feature:
Leonardo’s Tools
Bullshit 90’s Nostalgia
37 feature:
38 fashion:
The Decade Revival 40 feature: Into the Wild 42 feature:
An Image of the Future
45 reviews:
Music
46 reviews:
Music & Books 47 reviews:
Games 48 advice:
Ask Someone Better 3 - editorial
“I feel as if the whole culture is stoned, listening to an LP that’s been skipping for decades, playing the same groove over and over. Nobody has the wit or gumption to stand up and lift the stylus.”
ncbc_grok_fixed.pdf 1 8/22/2012 3:57:16 PM
WA Semi Finals
Heat 1 Sunday Sept 2 Heat 2 Monday Sept 3 Heat 3 Tuesday Sept 4
FINAL Friday Sept 14
Maybe it’s time to stop playing nice...
If you’re a Facebook follower of the Guild (if not, get on it!) you would have seen the posts relating to PAYG Parking and how the University wants to jack up the prices of a system they failed to implement this year, well, in 2011… “I make no apology for putting up the prices of Parking” said the man in charge of setting and recommending to the VC the price structure of parking at the Bentley campus. To which I think, “I make no apology for being a pain in your ass”. Sometimes it is hard being a Student Rep, but it is comments like this that make the fight and the struggle the fuel that keeps you going. I’m tired of pandering to the University, I’m tired of playing nice, I’m sick and tired of pretending I’m their partner in creating the University experience when all the evidence points towards them making it increasingly difficult.
Maybe it’s time to stop playing nice, and say, “well I don’t like you. I’m going to drop you quicker than I dropped my ex-boyfriend.” Now, there are some gems in the University who stand up for students, who get where we are coming from, that fight for us when we need it. But they are scared of rocking the boat too – scared of saying something for fear it will be used against them later. What kind of an environment is that? I mean really? You can’t talk to your employer open and honestly because you might get a slap on the wrist? Maybe we would all get somewhere a little faster if people started being honest. Because, Curtin University... that is how grown-ups act. One last word – Guild Elections are happening and nominations are open – It’s time to stop complaining and do something. Nominate yourself ok? Your fired up and pissed off President Ali K xox
Humanities Faculty Rep
Guild Executive Guild President
Ali Kirke p: (08) 9266 2934 e: president@
Education Vice President Jess McLeod p: (08) 9266 2920 e: educationvp@
Activities Vice President Dave Farr p: (08) 9266 4578 e: activitiesvp@
General Secretary Joe Quick p: (08) 9266 2918 e: generalsecretary@
Faculty Reps Business Faculty Rep Noelle de Marigny p: (08) 9266 2764 e: business@
Health Sciences Faculty Rep Keturah Mudhan p: (08) 9266 3392 e: health@
Michael Ball p: (08) 9266 2764 e: humanities@
Science & Engineering Faculty Rep Maz Rahman p: (08) 9266 3392 e: science@
Guild Departments CUPSA Chamonix Terblanche p: (08) 9266 4465 e: cupsacouncil@
Indigenous Department p: (08) 9266 3150 e: indigenous@
International Students Committee Amir Nouranioskoui p: (08) 9266 2910 e: isc@
Queer Department p: (08) 9266 3385 e: sexuality@
Women’s Department p: (08) 9266 3386 e: women@
Ali Kirke Curtin Student Guild President 2012
Other Contacts
University Contacts
Student Assist Officers
Graduations
p: (08) 9266 2900 e: reception@
p:
Grok Magazine
p:
p: (08) 9266 2900 e: grok@
Housing
Guild Clubs p: (08) 9266 2908 e: clubs@
(08) 9266 7115
Health Centre (08) 9266 7345
p: (08) 9266 4430 International Office p: (08) 9266 7331
Parking
Guild Recreation
p:
p: (08) 9266 2900 e: rec@
Physiotherapy Clinic
Guild Tavern
Security
p: (08) 9266 2904 e: tavmanager@ All Guild email suffixes are: @guild.curtin.edu.au
Guild Reception Building 106F Open: Mon-Fri 8:30am-5pm p: (08) 9266 2900 1800 063 865 (free call) e: reception@guild.curtin.edu.au w: www.guild.curtin.edu.au
p: p:
(08) 9266 7116 (08) 9266 1210 (08) 9266 4444
Dial 5 from any campus phone (24h)
Student Central – Bld 101 p:
(08) 9266 3399
Student Fees p:
(08) 9266 3500
Switchboard p:
(08) 9266 9266
T.L Robertson Library p:
(08) 9266 7166
Uni Counselling p:
(08) 9266 7850
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The old chestnut (aka PAYG Parking) has come into play against the Guild’s struggle in securing better deal when students come to University.
Activities Vice President DAVE FARR
Hey everybody!
Wow what a success Zombie Crawl was! Thanks to everyone who came out and made it a night to remember. If you haven’t seen the video floating around on YouTube and the Zombie Crawl page then check it out! A special thanks to all of the makeup artists who came on board and made it such a blood curdling experience.
Pasar Malam
A new look and a new location! Pasar Malam is moving to Sir Charles Court Promenade. Make sure you come down and try some of the amazing food that will be on offer from a wide range of cultures. This all ages event is open to the community and is easily the biggest event the Guild does at Curtin University. So bring your friends and family and join in the feast!
End of Semester Bash
Events at the Tav just keep getting bigger. After the excitement of Mid Semester Bash you can expect another hectic night of mayhem at End of Semester Bash. so mark down October 12th in your Guild Diaries and get ready to celebrate the end of uni Curtin style!
Education Vice President JESS MCLEOD
Hi everyone, Here is an update on just a few of the things I have been spending my time on:
Furthermore, it will mean that activists will have more time for things like promoting the campaign!
Parking at Curtin – a constant source of frustration!
Improving campus culture
Despite the fact that Curtin University failed to implement their immensely unpopular Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) parking system in 2012, they are moving to increase the cost for 2013. The reason given for the 2013 increase is nonsense – it is claimed that it will lower traffic congestion, which it won’t. A 30 cent increase will not encourage students to come to uni before 7:30am if they don’t have to! The Guild is absolutely opposed to the increase, because it confirms a deep concern: the introduction of PAYG means that students now face the slippery slope of regular price hikes. The cost will continue to rise, and will continue to add to the financial difficulty of obtaining an education. Are the prices going to keep increasing until students are paying the equivalent of city or hospital car parks?
Marriage equality and free speech By the time this edition of GROK is distributed the August 11 Equal Love rally will have happened. However, I think it is worth mentioning. The Guild has played an important role in supporting this campaign, which is about fighting for equality and against discrimination based on sexuality and gender. This rally is important for another reason – free speech. It is a serious infringement on free speech that Perth City Council enforces local laws that mean permits must be sought for any group that wishes to assemble, collect signatures or even hold a placard in a public place. Furthermore, the Council then charges hundreds of dollars in application and venue fees for the privilege.
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In defiance of this, and as a part of the broader campaign for free speech in Perth, Equal Love WA has refused to apply for a permit or pay any fees this time around. Equal Love groups in other cities do not have to pay fees, nor do they have go through the process of lengthy permit applications. Asserting the right to assembly in a public place will save Equal Love thousands of dollars and mean that the donations that are collected at each rally can go towards the campaign instead of the City of Perth.
It has been reported to me that many clubs would like to extend their reach on campus, but are limited by the lack of postering space. So I am currently involved in trying to improve the situation by ensuring more poster space and information stands are available in guild cafes, the guild precinct, equity space and reception. We also hope to establish a guild clubs portal through oasis, so that information about upcoming events is readily available online. Keep your eye out for more ways to promote your club around campus!
Refugee Rights Firstly, I want to express my support for a number of Curtin University academics who were recently involved in circulating an open letter that is critical of government policy around refugees. This open letter received national media coverage. If you want to be involved in opposing racist government policy and welcoming refugees you can join the convergence at the newly built Yongah Hill Detention Centre in Northam. Buses for this one day protest trip depart Sunday August 26 at 10am from East Perth terminal. You can find more information online at www.rran.org Through this protest refugee supporters will: Publicly oppose the indefinite mandatory detention, without charge or trial, of those who seek a life free from torture, war or persecution Cohere support for refugees Oppose the dominant myths that boat arrivals are “illegals” or “queue-jumpers”, etc. Send a message of support to the refugees inside. We plan to release balloons, fly kites and display a large banner to show that we want to welcome refugees I hope to see you there! Send me an email if you have any issues around students’ rights or social justice. Jess McLeod
Science and Engineering
Business
Humanities
Health Sciences
NOELLE DE MAGRIGNY
MICHAEL BALL
KETURAH MUDHAN
MAZ RAHMAN
Hey Guys, me again.
Hey All, I hope you had a great time at the Humanities Faculty Event the Guild ran here a few weeks back. It might’ve just been a BBQ and some info for you guys but it was a bit of a step forward for us. We’ve struggled in the last few years to break into the ‘bottom’ of campus, so getting some feedback was really helpful as to how we can have more of a presence in Humanities was awesome. If you have any ideas that you haven’t told the Guild yet, please let us know. Email humanities@guild.curtin.edu.au And also, if anyone is interested in starting a Humanities based club, or wants some info for starting one next year, please get in touch, it’s a great way to meet new people!
Hope ya’ll had a ball at Zombie Crawl! Which faculty do you think would have the best chance of survival in a Zombie apocalypse? Pretty sure it’d be Health Science…the Biomeds would preempt the symptoms and come up with a cure, the therapists can rehabilitate the infected, and the psychs can help treat post-zombie-traumatic-stressdisorder. We got this yo!
Lucky for me, or unlucky for you, I don’t seem to be alone, there seems to be a few of you out there who are having some issues with the university. From the uni offering an engineering course that hasn’t really met student’s expectation or prepared them enough to gain vacation work or jobs, to unsympathetic lecturers. I’m getting MOST of your concerns, handy hint guys, if you want to get in contact with me, you’ll be more successful emailing me instead of sending a random message through facebook, apparently legit messages still get sent to the ‘other’ tab I always thought was for group/pages spam. I’ll be taking my semesterly trip to Kalgoorlie in the coming weeks to touch base with all the peeps out there, so there’s your heads up. No doubt it’ll be as interesting as the past trips. As always, I’m itching for your emails, after being in student politics for so many years, I seem to have developed a weird euphoric-like reaction when I discover some new dodgy story about the uni. I know, I need a life. Thus is the curse of the student engineer, add the Guild and I may as well apply for a role on Big Bang Theory.
Well, what can I say? The Guild has really kick started this semester with one of the biggest events the year, Zombie Crawl! For those lucky ones that were able to attend the crawl I would love to hear what you thought of the event, as I was unable to attend Now unfortunately we are down to the part of semester where we should probably focus on assignments and tests. For the most part you will go through the motions of another semester ans come out ok, but if things get tough make sure you check out Student Assist. They can help you out with anything ranging from personal to academic issues. Wishing all of you luck with your up coming studies and when you need a little break make sure you check out mid-semester bash on the 7th of September, or hit up Tav Wicked Wednesdays. Remember, you can always contact me at: business@guild.curtin.edu.au. Hope to see you around campus, Noelle
Plagiarism seems to have dropped off a bit so good work on not plagiarising (or not getting caught, but I’m sure you’re all good). To be honest there haven’t been that many crazy issues going around. It’s still sadly obvious that the university has very little respect for Humanities as a faculty, with the limited budgets it allows forcing units to be shut down and leaving both staff and students dissatisfied. If however, you are happy with any tutors or lecturers please fill in an excellence in teaching awards form (found in the architecture building or online), and help the Guild reward great staff members I’ll leave you with this witty joke from the interwebs, as I sit back and wish I was more creative. ‘What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back? A stick’ My Apologies, Balls Out xx
Anyways, do make sure you’re keeping the Student Assist team up here nice and busy by dropping by with your academic issues. Drop into Guild and have a chat to them about any issues you may be having regarding assessments, grades or if you’ve found yourself in a misconduct or academic status problem. These guys are pretty awesome; they’ll do all the hard work for you and make sure that you are getting the best outcome possible for your situation, and best of all, it’s free! Congratulations to the organisers of the very first Curtin Health Ball ever! You should all be very proud of this amazing achievement, and I’m sure that future students will uphold this endeavour for many years to come! Also, thank you to everybody who attended, you all helped make it a very special night. Please keep the emails coming my way, whether it’s about clubs, events or the common first year… whatever gets your waters running really. Each email is like a hug, so really you can never send me too many. Hit me up at health@guild. curtin.edu.au,drop into my office at 106f, or catch me at the Tav on Wednesday nights cooking up a storm in the sausage corner. Love you xoxo
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Sooo, everyone’s enjoying their semester right? Assignments going well? On top of study? Or maybe you’re like me, and panic hasn’t really set in yet, but you still know you’re a little screwed.
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CURTIN STUDENT GUILD
ELECTION NOTICE
In accordance with regulation E0501 of the Curtin Student Guild Regulations
2012 Annual Guild and NUS Elections
Nominations are invited from interested and eligible person for the following positions in the 2012 Annual Guild and NUS elections:
International Student Committee Convenor Curtin University Postgraduate Student Association (CUPSA) President Queer Officer (2) Women’s Officer (2) Mature Age Student Representative (2) Indigenous Officer (2) Guild Councillors (9) National Union of Students Delegates (7) Nomination forms will be accepted from 8.30 am on Friday 17 August 2012. Nomination forms, group registration forms and voting ticket forms are available during business hours from the Curtin Student Guild Office at the following location: Building 106F, Curtin University, Kent Street, BENTLEY or online at www.guild.curtin.edu.au.
Guild President Education Vice President Activities Vice President General Secretary Business Faculty Representative Science and Engineering Faculty Representative Health Science Faculty Representative Humanities Faculty Representative
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA Candidates shall be Financial Guild members at least seven (7) days prior to the opening of nominations and not otherwise disqualified. A nomination form shall be signed by a witness who shall sight the nominee’s Curtin student identification card; this witness must be a member of Guild Administrative staff, the Returning Officer or a Justice of the Peace. On satellite Campuses University staff members on that campus act as acceptable witnesses in the absence of Guild Administrative staff, the Returning Officer or a Justice of the Peace. Guild Administrative Staff may not sign nominations forms if they are enrolled Curtin Students. Electors shall be students enrolled in an award course at Curtin University of Technology as at close of rolls and not otherwise disqualified. LODGEMENT OF NOMINATONS Nominations, completed in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Guild, must be lodged in a sealed envelope with the Returning Officer in person, or by placing into the nomination box located in the Curtin Student Guild Office or posted to the Curtin Student Guild at the above address, to be received no later than the close of nominations, 12.00 noon, Friday 7 September 2012. Prospective candidates wishing to nominate outside Curtin Student Guild business hours, must first contact the Returning Officer to arrange a suitable time to lodge a nomination or other prescribed form. No nomination will be accepted no later than 12.00 noon, Friday 7 September 2012. You may include a policy statement of up to 500 words on a CD or DVD in Rich Text Format. You may also include a recent passport size head and shoulders photograph. The photograph must have the nominee’s name, student number and signature on the rear of the photograph. A digital photograph on a CD or DVD labelled with the nominee’s name, student number and signature will be accepted. A nomination deposit of $10 per candidate is required, payable in cash and must accompany the nomination(s) form(s). No nomination deposit is payable for NUS nominations. A refund of the deposit will be made to all candidates elected. LODGEMENT OF GROUP REGISTRATION FORMS Group Registration forms shall be lodged with the Returning Officer in person or by placing into the nomination box located in the Curtin Student Guild Office to be received no later than the close of Group Registration, 12.00 noon, Monday 10 September 2012. DRAW FOR BALLOT PAPER POSITIONS AND ALLOCATION OF COLOURS The draw for ballot paper positions and allocation of colours will take place at 8.30 am, Tuesday 11 September 2012 at Guild Reception. VOTING PREFERENCE FORMS Completed Voting Preference forms shall be lodged with the Returning Officer in person or by placing into the nomination box located in the Curtin Student Guild Office to be received no later than the close of Voting Preference forms at 12.00 noon, Wednesday 12 September 2012. POLLING Polling will take place online for all enrolled students between 10.00 am Tuesday 25 September 2012 to 4.00pm Thursday 27 September 2012. All students will receive an email to their student account with an access key to the electronic ballot. Students may also vote at Building 106F from 10.00 am and 4.00 pm on Tuesday 25 September 2012, Wednesday 26 September 2012 between 10.00 am and 4.00 pm and on Thursday 27 September 2012 between 10.00 am and 4.00 pm. POSTAL VOTE APPLICATIONS Postal vote applications may be made to the Curtin Student Guild Office on the form available from the office and published in GROK. Postal Vote Application forms can also be downloaded from the Guild web page. A completed, signed and witnessed application form must be received by the Returning Officer no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 20 September 2012. Natasha Freeman RETURNING OFFICER Mobile: 0421 451 117
NOMINATION BY CANDIDATE FOR 2012 CURTIN STUDENT GUILD ELECTION In accordance with regulation E0503 of the Curtin Student Guild Regulations
POSITION Candidate Details Surname Given names Student number Name on ballot paper Residential address
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I have provided a photo of myself (a recent passport size head and shoulders photo – I have written my name and student number on the back and signed it). A digital passport size head and shoulders photograph on a CD or DVD labelled with nominee’s name, student number and signature would be accepted. No, I don’t want to include a photo
I am qualified to hold office in accordance with the rules of the Guild and agree to be bound by the Guild regulations. I consent to the nomination and also consent to act in the position nominated for, if I am elected. Signature of candidate
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In accordance with the Curtin Student Guild Regulations Division 2 - Elections, the witness must sight the nominee’s Curtin student identification card; the witness must be a member of Guild Administrative staff, the Returning Officer or a Justice of the Peace. On satellite campuses University staff members on that campus act as acceptable witnesses in the absence of Guild administrative staff, the Returning Officer or a Justice of the Peace. Guild Administrative Staff may not sign nomination forms if they are enrolled Curtin Students. If you do not plan to register as part of a group you may wish to indicate a colour preference (to be selected from the list provided by the Returning Officer in the Election Handbook 2012) 1st Preference _______________ 2nd Preference ________________ 3rd Preference _______________ Completed nominations, including a $10 nomination deposit (cash only), must be lodged in a sealed envelope with the Returning Officer in person, by placing into the nomination box located in the Curtin Student Guild Office or posted to the Curtin Student Guild, Building 106, Curtin University of Technology, Kent Street, BENTLEY and received no later than the close of nominations at 12.00 noon on Friday 7 September 2012. You may include a policy statement of up to 500 words in rich text format on a CD or DVD (labelled with your name, student number and signature). Natasha Freeman RETURNING OFFICER Mobile: 0421 451 117 Note: Candidates cannot withdraw their nominations after the close of nominations.
GROUP REGISTRATION FORM 2012 Curtin Student Guild Annual General Election In accordance with regulation E0601 of the Curtin Student Guild Regulations NOTE: Only candidates who have nominated for Guild Councillor or NUS positions respectively. To the Returning Officer: We (Print names)
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authorise application for the following group name ____________________________________________________________________________ (no more than 7 words or 35 characters)
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authorise ____________________________________________________ (name) of __________________________________________________________ (address) Contact phone number (s) ______________________________________ to be the primary group agent
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authorise ____________________________________________________ (name) of __________________________________________________________ (address) to be secondary group agent
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make a claim to reserve the following colour, selected from the list provided by the Returning Officer, for campaign material (please refer to the Election Handbook 2012) 1st Preference ____________ 2nd Preference ____________ 3rd Preference ____________ and agree that once a colour has been allocated by the Returning Officer it cannot be changed (Continued overleaf)
Signatures of Candidates (Signatures must correspond to, and be in the same order as, names on the previous page) 1.
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This form must be lodged with the Returning Officer NO LATER than 12.00 noon on Monday 10 September 2012.
Natasha Freeman RETURNING OFFICER Mobile: 0421 451 117
VOTING PREFERENCE FORM 2012 Curtin Student Guild Annual General Election In accordance with regulation E0701 of the Curtin Student Guild Regulations Division 2 Elections
Election of Guild Councillors
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NUS Delegates
Group Name ___________________________________________________________________________________ Order of names to be placed on the voting preference list 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
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/ 2012 Date
NOTE TO CANDIDATES Fill out the section clearly so that preferences can be accurately distributed. All candidates in the group must be listed in the same order as they appear on the Group Registration Form and will appear on the ballot paper starting from position one. Thereafter any number of candidates not in the Group may be listed in any order. A Voting Preference Form must indicate by consecutive numbers commencing with the number 1, the preferences for all the candidates in its Group in the precise order on the ballot paper. A Voting Preference Form that fails to comply with the precise numbering shall be rejected (regulation EO701 (3). A Voting Preference Form may indicate further preferences for all or some of the candidates not in the group. Completed forms must be lodged with the Returning Officer by 12.00 noon on Wednesday 12 September 2012
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If you do a thought association exercise with the words ‘Roller Derby’ you might pick up on ideas like “ferocious tattooed lady’s club” or “hostile sex goddesses on roller skates”. Such is the reputation of the sport,
particularly since it has been popularised by the 2009 Drew Barrymore film Whip It. It began a revival in the early noughties and since then has become extremely popular with girls and women looking for an alternative to the placidity of netball and other non-contact sports. Is wanting full-contact, push and shove play unladylike? Through using their bodies in a way contrary to traditional female non-contact sports, do roller derby girls promote some kind of feminist ideology? I speak to Wrayth (that’s her roller derby name, she doesn’t divulge her given name), a fine boned derby girl studying in the field of allied health who says that the sport has changed her life. She used to be timid and lack self confidence but when she was going through a ‘just-say-yes’ period in her life she found out about roller derby and wham! bam! kapow! as she started to train and get involved in the roller derby community, she was transformed into a punchier, more assertive version of herself. One way of looking at the sport is that it’s a symbol of liberation for a womankind usually bound to rules and etiquette defining how they can and can’t use their bodies. Up until the early 20th century in the west it was believed that women should not exert their bodies physically in any way for medical reasons. Heaven forbid a lass should work up a sweat and have her whole reproductive system be ruined as a result! Roller skating was done by women up until the 1930s, when it became more of a craze, however it was to be only done recreationally and in a controlled way. In the 30s and 40s, as societal ideas changed about women’s bodies and their health, more professional female skaters started to emerge. After a revival of Roller Derby in the 70s, the sport has now reemerged as a hobby for some and a preoccupation for others. Some say that the reason for its popularity is because it allows women to experience their bodies in a different way. In other word’s, they acquire a new knowledge of their body.
players and this means more than just a once or twice a week commitment for most Derby girls. There’s administration, fundraising and all kinds of other commitments too, and for many it becomes a way of life. “You wouldn’t meet a girl who would compartmentalise Roller Derby, saying ‘That’s just what I do on the weekend’”, says Wrayth who declares that she has equal love for the sporting aspect and the community aspect of Roller Derby. So what makes Roller Derby more attractive than just joining a girls AFL league? The reputation the sport and the image it projects to the rest of the world is one of rough play, tattooed skin, broken noses, and short skirts. Then of course there’s the Derby names that the girls choose for themselves (or that are sometimes chosen for them). They are usually plays on words, sometimes sexy, sometimes obnoxious. It’s this ‘alter-ego’ perk of the sport that is a major draw card for many prospective players. According to Declan Mountford who is writing a thesis on Roller Derby identity, only 70% of girls who start out in the game (fresh meat) are retained and this is because girls believe that they will be swanning around a track with piercings and a tat and don’t realise that “there is a lot more to Roller Derby than fishnets and picking out a tough name” to use a line from Whip It. However this identity aspect of the game makes it fun, and Roller Derby girls when together, only call each other by their Derby names and use a whole slang that is competely foreign to a non-Derbyist. About the tattoos and piercings Wrayth says: “you can experiment with by being as flamboyant as you want, but at the end of the day its about being true to who you are”. So, could Roller Derby could be a part of the Olympics one day? “As long as it’s not sterilised”, says one player. But as far as feminism goes, as much as you might want to analyse it from the outside, on the inside it’s a robust, competitive sport with girls committed to playing tough. In a world that is now more concerned with women’s rights than their ovaries, maybe it’s a good thing that girls are getting out there and using their bodies in a way that’s revolutionising women’s sport.
Some people within the sport who, although they may be self professed feminists, dismiss the feminist theories associated with Roller Derby. They say it’s like any other full contact sport, with rules and technicalities the same as in Rugby or AFL. However there’s something about watching a bunch of girls thwacking each other out of the way with their hips and shoulders (contrary to Whip It’s depiction, hitting and punching is not allowed) that makes you think of liberation and the tossing out of feminine inhibitions. Whether the girls who play associate themselves with any kind of ideology or not seems quite irrelevant when talking to them about the sport and the community that is built around it.
Photo: Eagle Eye Photography. Courtesy of Stuart Miller
15 - feature
Many girls experience a shift in themselves that prompts them to not only train and play in bouts, but also to get actively involved in the community. Many leagues around the world promote the idea that they are run for the players, by the
Boredom Busted
16 -- creative feature
A philosophical ramble from an undergraduate chemist.
17 - opinion
THE STUDENT ASSIST GUIDE TO BEING ASSERTIVE. What is Assertive Communication?
What is Passive Communication?
“It is a way of expressing your point of view in a way that is CLEAR and DIRECT, while still respecting other people’s points of view.”
“It is a style in which individuals have developed a pattern that avoids expressing opinions or feelings, protecting their rights, and identifying and meeting their needs”
Why is it helpful? • It helps to minimise conflict. • It helps to control anger. • It helps to better meet your needs. • It helps in creating positive relationships.
What is Aggressive Communication? “It is a style in which individuals express their feelings and opinions and advocate for their needs in a way that violates the rights of others.”
Why isn’t it Helpful? • It means that you do not speak up for yourself. • It means putting your needs last. • It means avoiding confrontation (when you know that you are right or that the situation is wrong). • It often involves speaking quietly or with a hesitant voice. • It sometimes involves body language in which you are looking at the floor instead of meeting the person’s eyes.
• It forces your needs and opinions onto others.
What is Passive-Aggressive Communication?
• It can often lead to bullying or pushing others around.
“It is a combination of styles. Passive-aggressiveness avoids direct confrontation (passive), but attempts to get even through manipulation (aggressive)”
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• It involves shouting or using physical aggression towards another person.
• State YOUR needs and wants clearly, appropriately, and respectfully. • Express YOUR feelings clearly, appropriately, and respectfully. • Use “I” statements. • Listen well without interrupting. • Feel in control of yourself. • Maintain good eye contact. • Speak in a calm and clear tone of voice. • Stand up for YOUR rights.
What sort of impact will this have on your life? • You will feel connected to others.
Why isn’t it Helpful?
• It leaves no room for COMPROMISE.
NOW LET’S WORK OUT HOW TO BE MORE ASSERTIVE...
• You will feel more in control of your life. • You will feel more able to address issues and problems as they arise.
• “We are equally entitled to express ourselves respectfully to one another.”
FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE;
• “I am confident about who I am.” • “I realise I have choices in my life and I consider my options.”
CURTIN COUNSELLING SERVICES Tel: +61 8 9266 7850 or 1800 651 878 (Freecall)
• “I speak clearly, honestly, and to the point.” • “I can’t control others but I can control myself.” • “I place a high priority on having my rights respected.” • “I am responsible for getting my needs met in a respectful manner.” • “I respect the rights of others.” Practice makes perfect and assertiveness is not something we are just born with, however once you have tried it a couple of times, it gets easier. Assertive communication will be useful when dealing with family members, lecturers and in your employment setting. Assertiveness allows us to take care of ourselves, and is fundamental for good mental health and healthy relationships.
CURTIN STUDENT GUILD - STUDENT ASSIST Reception 9266 2900 or 1800 063 865 for country callers Email: reception@guild.curtin.edu.au Adapted from ‘Assertive Communication’, Centre for Clinical Intervention
Student Assist is the welfare department of the Curtin Student Guild. Mandy, Simon and Juliana are there to support all students, postgrad and undergrad, with any personal, welfare or academic issues. Their services are free for all Curtin students and cover things like • Leave of Absence • Deferral from Study • Assessment Appeals • General Appeals • Appealing terminations • Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct • Withdrawing or Changing Courses • Career and resume help • Centrelink difficulties • Discrimination and harassment • Finances • Health and wellbeing issues • Time management help • Study skills advice • Tenancy advice • And more….
Student Assist is completely confidential and will help make your life at University that little bit easier. You can drop by Guild Reception (Building 106F) or you can make an appointment at a time that is convenient to you. Call Reception on 9266 2900 or email reception@guild.curtin.edu.au
19 - advice
The assertive communicator will say, believe, or behave in a way that says:
Falling in Reverse Chelsea Banner
It’s strange to live in 2012.
Back in my childhood I envisioned me as a uni student strutting around in some fashion-forward outfit, most likely including aluminium foil as part of the ensemble. And yet, instead of progressing forward as we are doing with technology, our culture is suddenly being thrown back into older times. I blame hipsters mostly. This year old, chunky grandma jumpers are the hip new trend elbow patches, holes in the thumb areas, a preference for various shades of tan. Officially, if you aren’t sporting a knitted, shoulderpadded jumper you no longer have a reason to live. Back with the jumpers are some social trendsinstead of going out to meet friends and getting so drunk you’re not sure if you hooked up with four guys or the same guy four times, everyone is now checking in on Facebook at tea houses and cafes. Suddenly, drinking tea has become a must-have and Instagram is now plagued with pictures of dainty tea cups (with or without milky tea held within). I guess the trend is more of an intertwining; using current methods of communication to communicate what old people things you are doing. The sad thing for you is that my grandpa probably kicks it crazier than you do on a friday night, and unarguably better dressed (and probably sweeter smelling, you under-deodorised moron). Part of this whole thing is that people are now becoming more well-read. Where I was mocked for reading To Kill A Mockingbird in Year 7, people are now whipping out their classic books in public and being complimented or engaged in conversation. Instead of hearing someone say “Moby Dick? Hahaha why are you reading a story about a penis?” the response is closer to a “Moby Dick? Nice! He was a cool whale.”
20 - feature
Apps like Instagram encourage this whole
blast-from-the-past trend. Not only do users mainly post books they are reading, typewriters they’ve bought or tea they’ve recently enjoyed but they post these using vintage photo effects, often opting for sepia or a faded colour. Not going to lie, this next part of the current trend has the effect of making me involuntarily shudder and feel nauseous. It’s the moustaches. Moustaches were out for a long time yet now they’ve decided to make their reappearance right when we didn’t need them. Guys are now actively trying to grow their facial hair just as our respective old folks do. The problem is, as evolution has developed it seems that facial hair is no longer required. Or I am making false theories based on the disgusting 10-haired sparse moustaches I am seeing all over campus, the shops and even in my own home (damn you, brother. Damn you!). If you are reading this and know someone with a moustache or suffer from one yourself, do society a favour and GET RID OF IT. When I try to engage in conversation with someone and bring up television, instead of discussing Glee (which, to be honest, I am thankful for) my friends and acquaintances are now spewing quotes from shows such as That 70s Show, F.R.I.E.N.D.S and at one stage, even Gilligan’s Island. The media has latched on to this love for old tv and now many channels show reruns of everything from That 70s Show to Happy Days and The Love Boat. As I roam the streets in my licence-less state, I am now noticing a much larger number of vintage cars. They drive past each other and I am almost certain that at one time I heard a P-plater shout “Tally ho!” to another in their old style automobiles. When I overhear sections of conversation, instead of hearing about how that slut hooked up with that amazing guy who is clearly out of her league, I hear boasting about what an
amazing nap was had the day before, or how they’re going to a vintage fair on the weekend and can’t wait to get their hands on some crocheted underwear. As a result of all of this, nowadays when I catch the bus I have to do a double-take. This may be as a result of my short-sightedness and unwillingness to wear glasses in public, but I often mistake people in their late teens and early twenties for the elderly. In psych terms I believe they call this cognitive dissonance. This is only heightened by the aforementioned strange, moth-ball, mouldy odour many such hipsters have been emitting. No amount of washing can rid the smell of dead people clothes bought from an op-shop. To an extent, I can understand the trend. Granny jumpers are comfy as hell, naps are the light of my life and my life goal is to move around only by electric wheelchair but it’s the hype of it that concerns me. No one is necessarily jumping up to say “HELL YEAH LET’S OLDIFY OURSELVES!!” but the majority are subscribing to older habits. It’s gotten to the point where an 80 year old could shop happily without question in mainstream teenage stores like Cotton On or Ally. The social structure is being messed with. I miss the days where, without question, I would be glared at by the elderly for simply being my age. My sources of amusement are dwindling as I am now accepted by the elderly because people my age are now wearing their clothes and learning to knit and drinking tea. I long for the days where I didn’t stand up foolishly to give up my seat for someone my age thinking they were on their death bed (or, if I’m honest, fearing their dentures may fall out at me at any moment). I must go now, my game of bowls is about to start. Pip pip, cheerio.
21 - feature
The revival of
prohibition. By Anthony Pyle
It seems that in today's society we are obsessed with controlling what other people do. That we now live within a bubble of what is legal and what is not. Now my personal ethos towards such things is that maybe everything should be legal, as long as you aren't hurting others through your direct actions. Now I can imagine people screaming about drug addicts who destroy their family emotionally or financially, but I could also replace the word 'drug' with 'alcohol', and it's the same situation, except alcohol isn't illegal. Unintentional destruction can come from a lot of things, legal and illegal, and this just shows that the government isn't exactly looking out for us in all ways, they still like to keep tobacco and alcohol on sale because they are highly taxed. The issues that surround illegal substances isn't even a simple debate, that while I don't believe people should be methed up to the eyeballs, I also have no problem with people who smoke weed. Both these acts can lead to a criminal record or incarceration though, and recently even the head of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) in America wouldn't clarify if marijuana was less harmful than harder drugs such as meth amphetamines. The answer is simple in most people's minds, but those who are in a place to represent us simply avoid the issue or take an unrealistic approach to discussing the issues. The discussion on drugs even became so convoluted that 'legal highs' like Kronic became popular alternatives to weed and up until very recently were legal in most places in the world. This seems like a perfect example of people not wanting to break the law, yet still wanting to enjoy themselves. It's not so much an act of rebellion as it is an act of liberation.
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Video game prohibition is another pet peeve of mine. That the Australian government believes that censoring and banning video games is an appropriate way to deal with entertainment made overseas that is considered acceptable by other western societies. That even with the incoming 18+ rating that will soon be in place, games that have already been banned will remain banned. That Australia completely ignores an industry for adult gamers, but also personal freedoms. Personally if I wanted any of the games that were banned, they are easy enough to import, but with that comes risk and a possibility of a $110,000 fine. Clearly it's a snub against civilised society
when we consider people who want to play a game as criminals. Although by pushing illegal game purchase underground or overseas, I suppose you do create something very similar to the drugs trade. Except its illegality is such a joke that if you ever heard of someone being put in prison for trafficking video games, you'd hardly believe it. This year we even had SOPA and PIPA, both laws that would try to completely dissolve what the internet is. While the main purpose of these acts were to harm piracy, they were too broad and risked almost all of the internet infringing SOPA or PIPA and having websites shut down without any form of legal process. Fortunately both these acts failed, but I can imagine there will be reversions and it will come back again at some point. Even the UK recently ordered all Internet Service Providers to block The Pirate Bay from the internet within Britain, which worked out rather poorly in their favour. The website was circum navigated by proxies a million times over and if anything it just taught people who wanted to pirate movies a more sneaky way of getting around barricades that had been put in place by their government. If you want to ban something, or control something, don't make it possible for your people to educate themselves in a way that would allow them to be more dangerous to your purpose than before. If anything can be said about the 21st century, it's that we aren't that keen on being told what we can and can't do. If anything banning and controlling things with such an iron fist risks damaging what our society is. That I imagine people who would have been considered normal law abiding citizens twenty years ago could now be classified as criminals. These blockades against our personal freedoms also limit our creativity. It wasn't long ago that books and movies were banned for obscenity, and now some of those same books and movie are considered classics by the world. It's all a matter of perspective. If the past shows us anything, it's that the prohibitions on alcohol that took place in the early 20th century didn't work. That at one point people who had alcohol were prosecuted the same way we would prosecute drug users, illegal game importers and digital pirates, and now we have liquor stores all over the place. I don't know if we are moving towards a society that lets people live the way they want without restriction, but I'd like to see what that world is like, even if it doesn't work out.
23 - feature
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
03 State National Campus Bands Comp Semi Final #2
04 State National Campus Bands Comp Semi Final #3
05 Wild West Night @ the TAV
06
10
11
12 Jonah Matranga @ Amplifier.
13
17 ISC Multicultural Week @ Curtin 18
19
20 Mystery Jets @
24
26
27 Tim Rogers @ P
24 - Calendar
27
28
25
29
30
Metropolis Freo
PICA Bar
31
Saturday
01 Scitech After Dark
Sunday
07
08 The Ignite Ball
09
14 National Campus Bands Comp State Final
15
16
21 PASAR MALAM @ Sir Charles Court Promenade
22 Xavier Rudd @ Fly By Night
23 Singapore Grand Prix
28 Tav n’ Bass @ the TAV
29 Shihad @ Metro City
30
02 State National Campus Bands Comp Semi Final #1
25 - calendar music
Friday
26 - feature
Could you tell us a little about some of your tattoos? If they have a story behind them/what they mean. I have a sleeve which covers my left arm and shoulder, and a large piece on my right leg covered the length of my thigh. My sleeve is drenched in meaning; I have a rose for each member of my family, one for each of my parents and then one for each of the 5 children in my family. Each family member chose the colour of the rose and I specifically found photos of different breeds of roses to suit the different personalities e.g. my rose a green tea rose that curls in on itself in the centre, representing my introverted nature, where as the pink rose for my sister has petals unfolding and coming out everyone to represent her extroverted personality. In a way my sleeve is a big family rose bush I guess. The roses are surrounded by gorgeous filigree which varies from thick and leafy to smaller and vine-like; this comes from my love of all things swirly. My leg was a piece I chose to have done as I had gone through a really tough part of my life and came out of it a better person; the tattoo is a girl with antlers holding a thorny vine in a huge filigree frame. She’s a little bit wild but looks vulnerable and beautiful to me and reminds me of what I’ve been through. Later this year I’m planning to get what I call a ‘sock’ so from ankle to knee tattooed. Normal people call that a leg sleeve.
Do you favour a particular artistic style or artist? I love things to look realistic, but generally just anything that appeals to me really. My tattoos are feminine, I think thats the best way to describe them. My tattooist is Kat Abdy, and shes my only tattooist. She knows what I like, how I like it and where to put it. She gets my undying love of filigree and why I can’t get enough of it and want it to cover my entire body with hypnotic swirly stuff. Her drawings are feminine and suit me, so I don’t plan to go to anyone else. She’s a great friend of mine and you can find her at Cherry Bomb in North Perth. I get a lot of my tattoos ideas from architecture, paintings, books and by now I’m sure she’s sick of me showing them to her. I have always felt like a total anachronism in this time, I’m so interested in history and the beautiful of ages gone by than I find it hard sometimes to care about the now. I feel like tattoos help me express that love of the past, and are a way for me to record my memories on my body. It also helps me feel connected to the history I love so much, because I can put the beautiful detail of the time on to me forever.
What was your first tattoo and what made you get it/why did you want to? My first tattoo was my entire left forearm which started my sleeve. I had thought about it for so long and had wanted it so badly and I’ve never regretted my choice, not even for a second. I had a horrible time in high school, like so many other people, and mutilated myself. Everytime I looked at my arm I just kept remembering the pain and the person I didn’t want to be. I kept seeing ugliness and I wanted to see something beautiful, and this feeling consumed me. The tattoo was a way for me to express who I truly was, and feel good about myself for the first time in a long time. My tattoos are so personal, I can’t even explain it... people are always asking me to show them and I turn them down because I didn’t get them for other people. I got them for me. If I want to show I will, but thats not their purpose for me. I know some people love to show their tattoos, its art and they are proud, and I’m proud of those people and the way they are changing the way people see us and I’m so proud of mine. I just chose to express it differently.
What kinds of reactions do you get to your tattoos (I know there must be a multitude of them)? I would say the response is overwhelmingly positive, I’ve only been treated badly on one or 2 occasions in 3 years. I work with a girl with more tattoos than me that are a different style and she gets more comments than I do, which is a relief most of the time as I have less patience for people gawking. We both work in retail, so customers see what we look like and we tell them how to dress and what suits their body shapes and help them into their garments, like normal sales girls. There is nothing different, except the occasional compliment such as I love your tattoos! We are the tattooed ladies of Carousel and represent an alternative culture to most of our clients, but they love us for it. I think the thing that I personally find the most frustrating is that people want to touch tattoos and I hate random people pawing at my arm. I never considered that as a prospect of having the tattoos, but people off the street will run up and rub my arm. Its like they forget its a apart of my body and you are in fact rubbing my skin and it is WEIRD. I think I know how pregnant women feel when people are trying to rub their bellies, its the
same sort of thing because people think they are rubbing the baby not the mother and then don’t realise how down right uncomfortable it is to have a stranger do that! I get a lot of older women talking to me about my tattoos. More than once I’ve had ladies say to me they never knew that tattoos could be so beautiful and then I’ve had others say to me ‘what will you do when your skin is like mine or my age?’ and they show me how their skin hangs and wrinkles over their arm and I ask them if they are happy with their skin and most think for a moment, looking at me suspiciously and say No and then walk away from me. None of us like our skin when we are old, so why should it matter if mine’s blue-green instead of yellow? We’re all going to be old and wrinkled one day anyway, so I fail to see the benefit of having normal skin when that is the fate for us all. I get a lot of men saying things like “Nice tatts, I like that on a woman” Some mean it as a compliment, others mean it as an insult, others don’t know what they mean.
Do you think tattoos on women are becoming less taboo/ more accepted socially? I think it is definitely less taboo and something more accepted. People just notice tattoos, they catch your eye without even thinking, and before you know it you’re looking at them, you say something and you start chatting. You find out they are a normal person, or ask them if tattoos hurt (I get that one A LOT) or if they have meaning and you go on with your day. Most people won’t talk about it over the dinner table, because its just not a big deal anymore. I’ve been turned down one job for my tattoos, and their reasoning was that customers would not respect me and find me intimidating. When I pointed out the man with the tribal sleeve who worked there who looked to be on steroids and asked how I could be more intimidating than him, they said it was a different matter. I’ve got nothing against the guy who worked there, different strokes for different folks; he likes tribal, I’m not a big fan and its no big deal. He didn’t get turned down for being a woman with tattoos because we now have this idea in our heads that men with tattoos are these gentile thugs who pose for photos with new born babies and are great guys like David Beckman and have hot girlfriends and how can we turn him away from a job? I could have pursued it as discrimination but would that change peoples minds about tattoos? No. The best way to change peoples minds is to show them that you are a normal, lovely person and having tattoos doesn’t mean you’re rough, uncouth and can’t be civilised. So I didn’t get angry, I nodded and politely left. Two years later they offered me the job, and I turned them down because I was on to bigger and better things. I’m lucky enough to be able to work somewhere and with such great people who don’t care what colour my hair is or how many tattoos or piercings I’ve got. What they want to know is how good is my customer service and it’s awesome. I have to break down twice the barriers most sales girls do, because some people will find me intimidating and I have to prove to them I am nice and having tattoos means I don’t bite. It just means I’m decorated and I’m happy to help them with whatever they are looking for. Other customers will come to us because of our tattoos because they love that we are different. Customers always tell me that they aren’t brave enough to get a big tattoo like mine, but I don’t think its about bravery. I know its about knowing whats right for yourself.I know so many people have to cover up who they really are a work, and I’m so fortunate to not have to do that. I can wear a long sleeved top on the days I feel like covering my sleeve, but at least I have to choice to not have to do that and that is something I treasure and don’t take for granted. Things are changing, but they won’t change overnight.
There seems to be this interesting combination at the moment of things like pin up art and fashion but with women with tattoos (a slight twist on traditional pin up), what are your thoughts on this trend? Tattoos have always been strongly connected with the armed forces, especially naval soldiers in WWII and the people who are enthusiastic about this era of the 1940s and 50s have adapted that connection and made it their own. The past several years have seen a big revisit to retro - just look at kitchen appliances, advertising, movies etc So much of it is throw backs. Fashion follows what came before it and reinvents it into something new. WWII was the golden age of the pin up girl and that vintage style appeals to us again now, except we are adding our own modern flavour and alternative culture into this mix. Tattoos have a timeless retro appeal and naturally fall in with this pin up style. A movement in tattooing is ‘Traditional’ ( or Old School or New School, whichever you want to call it ) which emulates the tattoos these armed forces would have had and has transformed that into a drawing style and a culture. Tattoos have always been and will always be more than ink of skin and this is a part of it. This combination of pin up and tattooing is a big part of tattoo culture.
27 - feature
Hayley Davis interviews Chayla Taylor. Chayla owns her own photography business in Perth.
28 - featuree
Stacey Malacari
The Fonz lesbian is an alarmingly common type of lesbian who think that they are the reincarnation of the Fonz. They dress like the Fonz, they hit on women as though they are the Fonz and they greet each other with the Fonz’s catchphrase of “Eyyyyyyy!” Note: if you don’t know who the Fonz is, just close the lid on your underground bunker and never come out again. Now, you’re probably thinking “Fonz lesbians sound awesome!”, but you would be horribly, horribly mistaken. To quote my friend who is likely to become a morbidly obese, crazy cat lady in the future, “I loathe lesbians who dress like the Fonz” (then she shuddered and crossed her legs especially tight). Fonz lesbians will generally wear white t-shirts with a packet of cigarettes tucked somewhere in the folds of it (Fonz lesbians have adapted to the changing styles of tee’s and can now hide a pack of smokes pretty much anywhere). They also wearleather jackets, always. For those of you who know me personally, you will be thinking “Hey, Stacey wears leather jackets all the time...” so I’d like to clarify that I also wear glasses and the minute I put those on I go from the Fonz to Liz Lemon. Oversized aviator sunglasses are common, especially at night time. Be wary of any girl seen wearing sunglasses after sunset, because she is likely a Fonz lesbian trying
to hide her perving eyes from unsuspecting prey. Fonz lesbians generally lurk at the train station or hang out of taxi windows hooting at pedestrians. They pretend to ride motorbikes, but very few actually do because the helmet would ruin their hair. Speaking of hair, you can spot a Fonz lesbian not only from her clothing, but also her haircut. Faux-hawks are common (another crafty modern adaption from those shifty Fonz lesbians), as are weird slicked down, rolled over fiascos generally only seen on poledancers and hipster boys. If you find yourself in the vicinity of a Fonz lesbian, never touch her hair. You will inevitably become covered in a range of hair products (and she’ll probably punch you for it too, no matter how pretty you are). If you are a hairdresser, I would recommend palming your Fonz lesbian clients off onto the junior, going home sick that day or quitting being a hairdresser, because trying to please these menaces will soon have you pulling out your own hair. The mating ritual of the Fonz lesbian is very similar to the actual Fonz: they will hit on anything and everything, anywhere, any time. For example, I was once hit on by a Fonz lesbian at a petrol station in the industrial area of Rockingham while suffering a raging hangover that left me bleary eyed, ashen faced and with hair stuck to my forehead by sweat. I’m pretty sure I was also wearing track pants with thongs (I can’t really remember, but that’s generally how I dress when hung-over and trying to refuel my car). Her pick up line was “Howsitgoinggggg?” Exactly like that, with the words all running together and with the ending extended. And then she winked. I know this sounds like she was being ironic and having a laugh at my expense, but trust
me, she wasn’t. I was there, I LIVED through it. Besides, Fonz lesbians aren’t known for their sense of humour: just their relentless pursuit of women. If you frequent The Court (and are a female of any sort), you will probably have been hit on by a Fonz lesbian before. They are the ones who will buy you a cheap drink, then grab your arse while simultaneously high-fiving one of their Fonz lesbian friends. Did I mention they travel in packs? Unlike the original Fonz, Fonz lesbians gain power by being around other Fonz lesbians and just soaking up Fonz lesbian vibes 24/7. I’ve never gone home with a Fonz lesbian (and someone please have me committed if I ever do), so I can only guess what goes on behind their bedroom door, but I assume it involves a lot of lubricant and self-promotion. I’m telling you all this, because I’ve decided it’s high-time we send out an Amber Alert for these predators of the night. This madness needs to end! If you see a Fonz lesbian, run quickly in the other direction. Or throw tiny bits of paper into the back of her hair and ruin all her Fonz-cred. Whatever you do, never accept a drink from them or put your arse within groping distance. If you do decide to accept a drink from them, demand it be a good one. If it’s not a good one, don’t try and be clever and throw it on her, because that will only make her keener (the Fonz lesbian mind works in some mysterious and messed up ways). If you are a Fonz lesbian reading this: YOU ARE NOT THE FONZ. If you still think you are the Fonz after I just yelled at you, please go water-ski over some sharks and/or ride your pretend motorbike really fast along a windy country road. Happy days.
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Last Saturday night my friends and I were having our usual drunken discussion about which horrifying stereotype we’ll become when we are lonely old spinster women, when the topic of Fonz lesbians was brought up.
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about it being a time when lots of good shit happened. So if you ran to Wikipedia when you first saw the cover of this issue and now think it’s about ideas being ‘reborn’, I’d like to clarify some things for you: by a Facebook Renaissance I don’t mean the rebirth of Facebook. Christopher Columbus didn’t sail up to the shores of America and update his status with “Just discovered some more land, gonna go claim it for Spain YOLO. Also, Roger’s got scurvy because he didn’t eat his limes LOL”, only to have Roger get mad at Columbus for revealing his health issues to both the Old and New Worlds and have Facebook shut down. As far as I know (though I didn’t research this very thoroughly), Facebook has only been around since Mark Zuckerberg and Co. got their nerd on in 2004. What I actually mean by the Facebook Renaissance is that the existence of Facebook has caused our technology obsessed generation to act like Renaissance thinkers all over again. Confused? So am I, but let me attempt to explain this mindmelting train of thought to you.
*Warning, reading this article may make you wonder if all of your Facebook friends are actually geniuses not just idiotic, inspirational-picture posting imbeciles. Users of Facebook aren’t full-throttle Renaissance masters. We mostly engage in the practise of humanism and go gung-ho in the self-awareness field. Basically (and yes, this is a very basic summary), the Renaissance thinkers of the 14-16th century were all about trying to be perfect humans. They believed that the power of the human mind was our greatest attribute and thanks to the printing press, liked to tell everybody about it and make sure everyone understood how awesome they were. To do all this human-mind worshipping and learning how to be ideal humans, they looked at ancient texts (mostly Greek and Roman) and reinterpreted their messages to advance society. (Imagine if I tried to explain this is in non-basic terms. We’d all be curled up in the foetal position crying by now… unless we were Fine Arts students). So how, you are surely wondering by now, does posting your day to day thoughts and adventures on Facebook make you just like the Renaissance chaps? The answer to that is: IN EVERY WAY. Ever posted a status, received no ‘likes’ on it and so deleted it? I have (embarrassingly, more than once). That’s Renaissance 101 right there. We think something we believe is amazingly relevant to society/life, tell people about it, then if society (who in this case comprises of our Facebook friends) rejects our idea, we feel our thoughts are invalid and not worthy of the human race, so we delete it. This method is a lot easier than in the days of printing, where I imagine it was near impossible to get your unworthy thoughts back into the safety of your brain. On the other hand, ever posted a status that got a record number of likes? How chuffed were you then!? That’s humanmind power, baby. It’s also evidence of a peer-review system of empirical research. Basically, we observe the world, make a
conclusion based on our observations and then get our cyber chums to support/completely rip to shreds our conclusions. And can you guess who pioneered this way of studying the world around us? That’s right: those fine, moustached, Renaissance men. Ever made, posted or liked a status, comment or meme based on a public figure (be it a politician, television character, celebrity etc.)? Yep, this is part of the modern Renaissance too. Facebook users who engage in this seemingly insignificant practice are actually copying the idea of examining previous ideas and reworking them for use in modern society. Only instead of using ancient Greek texts to advance scientific thinking, we’re examining television shows and using them to make ourselves appear witty and hilarious (which is an example of an ‘ideal human attribute’, especially in modern Australian society). And don’t even get me started on that ridiculous phenomenon of reading a book JUST so you can review* it on Facebook . Especially literary classics. Currently flooding my news feed are people reviewing* Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. I have had a few laughs over the Fifty Shades of Grey debacle though. *Review: to say something stupid like ‘OMG page 3, CrAzY!!! :P’ – kill me. Ever posted a status about your view on some current issue (marriage equality, illegal immigrants, the war in Iraq, who’s going to get voted off ‘The Voice’)? No matter what side we’re actually on in these hard-hitting debates, we’re still using the modern day printing-press to try and convince the rest of society that our thoughts are valid and we are living a life that should be copied. If we didn’t care what our friends thought about our opinions, we wouldn’t post them on a public forum. So, we’re all just frightened little Renaissance kids, trying to make sure we’re not the black-sheep of society. Every single thing any of us posts of Facebook can be seen to be a version of the original Renaissance movements of thinking about ourselves constantly and wanting ourselves to be wellrounded members of society. Some of us try to do this by badgering our friends to think the same things as us. Some of us defriend people who think differently to us. Some of us just steal funny pictures from our friends, wait three days, then post said photo on our own walls in hope of inspiring many LOL’s and feeling justified in being alive. I do all three. If you’re still not convinced that Facebook is a 21st century tool for inspiring Renaissance thinking, consider this: ever met somebody who didn’t have Facebook? How outraged were you then!? We get these crazy looks of disgust on our faces when we meet such people. If you’re under 30 and don’t have Facebook, you’re pretty much considered a leper, a member of the fringe society who should be shunned and never looked directly in the eye. Yes, it’s insane and it’s also kind of sad that we have turned the idea of learning for the greater good into a messed up practice in social-Darwinism, manipulating each other and ourselves in order to fit into this ‘ideal’ human we have somehow decided on (based purely on episodes of ‘Friends’, from what I can gather), but we did it and I don’t think there’s any going back now. The only question left to ponder is: is that girl you went to highschool with giving you a minute by minute update on the inane things her baby is doing because she’s just a twat, or is she really making a very clever ploy to get you to feel guilty about not reproducing, subliminally encouraging you to be her version of the perfect human by going out and starting a family too? Mind melted.
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‘Renaissance’ is one of those wanky words Fine Arts students generally banter about to feel superior to the rest of us who have no fucking clue what it really means, other than having a vague idea
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Melissa McGrath
We must liberate ourselves from the inertia resulting from a century of modernist ideological naivety and the cynical insincerity of its antonymous bastard child. Movement shall henceforth be enabled by way of an oscillation between positions, with diametrically opposed ideas operating like the pulsating polarities of some colossal electric machine, propelling the world into action.” -Metamodernist Manifesto, Luke Turner
POSTMODERNISM IS DEAD. Sorry to all of you who only just got your head around the irony, multimedia bonanzas, and pragmatic thought that has dominated many decades. Or those of whom it completely passed by, but the bitch is gone. OK, so I’ll try and keep the art student hyperbole to a minimum, but that’s not a promise. For a while now, there has been change in the air, a subtle shift in emphasis, a small reaction to change, a manoeuvre of perspective. As our world has become smaller and smaller and globalisation left once regionally separate lifestyles increasingly interconnected and interdependent. In the face of globalscale issues (ya know, all that nuclear holocaust, global warming and financial meltdown shizz), our collective psyche has surprisingly not been crushed by the numerous impending dooms we seem to face every 5 or so years. Instead a softly spoken, optimism seems to have replaced the sarcastic, everything is nothing is everything, teen angst attitude of our postmodern predecessors. Accepting our faults, and yet still seeking the perfect, utopian solution. Exploring the idea of finding a balance or movement between two supposedly opposing poles can be just as viable as one pure utopian ideal. From under the cloud of futility peers a strong, bright sense of hope. We are seeing the dawning of a new age, in which the old might just be all we have to play with.
The theory of post-postmodernism (say that five times fast), or metamodernism was developed by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker through research into new aesthetic and theoretical avenues being explored by contemporary artists. These artworks could no longer be explained within the postmodern realm of understanding. ‘Meta’ in this case does not refer to the idea of beyond, or an overarching understanding, instead seeking a different root of the word encompassing the oscillation between two seemingly opposing ideas or positions, a metataxis. On one hand you can be strongly against child labour and strongly in support of fair work conditions, but also own an iPhone which we all know is produced in a less that ideal labour market. It doesn’t mean we stop striving for something better, but we have to accept where we are now, and make the best of it. It is an acceptance of variety, within one being, object, or group. That we are all full of contradictions and flaws, but isn’t that what makes us all so brilliantly human? A rolling stone gathers no moss, and as our amazing university loves to preach, innovation and creativity come from the navigation of difference and variety, so aren’t the things that divide us, maybe the most powerful aspects of ourselves. Vermeulen and van de Akker, now the editors of the philosophical webzine ‘Notes on Metamodernism’ collecting together writings, reviews and editorials around this new ideology, recognise one thing particularly unique about the development of metamodernist perspectives. It does not rely on the complete trashing of the avenues of thought played out by the previous generations. Instead a re-hashing is taking place. Integration and redirection of the pastiche and deconstruction, to this new way of thinking as well as a renaissance of ideologies from even further back than our grandparents. If there is nothing new left under the sun, we sure as hell must be free to pick and choose the bits we like all the way back to the stone ages to piece together the best of the best. One of my favourite examples of the metamodern philosophy is the work of filmmaker and general awesome dude, Wes Anderson (the guy wears cord suits, I mean c’mon). His films always explore the inner workings of broken families, relationships that are off kilter, connections that have dropped out. There is a loss of face, trust, faith, wealth - but not a loss of love. While
every trope of filmic convention is played out on screen, every cliché ticked off the to do list, the most overwhelming emotion to emerge from his films is earnestness. His characters may try a million times to ‘get it right’, and fail every time, but they still try, they still believe. Watch his films for a ‘things organised neatly’ hit of retro stylings, saccharine folk and early British rock music and the uplifting feeling that everything is OK in the world, because you are meant to be flawed. Another example being the fabulous ‘The World is Everything That is the Case’ exhibition which just closed at the John Curtin Gallery on your campus. Exploring the humble suitcase as a metaphor for travel, migration, experience of culture, interconnectedness, and humanity. The World is Everything, saw faces displayed on plasma screens responding to your own facial expressions, mesmerising audio-visual projections of islamicinspired kaleidoscopic patterns based upon emotions, and interactive programs whereby you could create the landscape of a theoretical globe by playing with a suitcase full of sand. These artworks, far from being cold, calculating and critical, celebrate the personal, differences, of each individual. With a sense of wonder, tenderness, and hope. In the face of horrible events, and seemingly unassailable challenges, the metamodern societies of today are showing their romantic side. Romanticism is all about attempting to turn the finite into the infinite. Remember asking your significant other out for the first time? Trying to convert a humble human interaction into something far far more meaningful? All those kitschy heart shaped chocolates and roses are trying to symbolise, this striving for the ultimate, knowing that the utopia can never truly be realised. This idea applies to far less sexy pursuits up and down a society’s to do list. We alternate between trying and failing, with the drive to continue to work at things. Moving between enthusiasm and irony, earnestness and critique. Metamodernism is driven by desire, as opposed to postmodern irony so strongly tied to apathy. Out of loss and despair across the spectrum of human experience, has come a renaissance of hope. Or, when that is a little too optimistic, at least a willingness to try.
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“We recognise oscillation to be the natural order of the world.
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leonardo da vinci, the lord of war
The Scythe Chariot.
The Tank.
Castle Wall Defences.
Vasari, one of Leonardo’s pupils, described Leonardo as having infinite grace. This is obviously a misunderstanding. In his journals, Leornardo had produced a Scythe Chariot which was essentially a system of blades built around a horse and its rider. As the horse ran, wheels that were in contact with the ground spun the cogs which propelled the blades. Think of an egg beater, only made of blades and powered by horses. The blades were specifically designed to decapitate soldiers on the battlefield, leaving holes in a defence that could be exploited by infantry.
Leornado commented that he would build a weapon that would render the war-elephant obsolete. He went on to say that the objective of the vehicle was to transport men and carbineers into dense enemy formations. The tank would then disperse or destroy the fighting strength of the enemy with a ring of canons that protruded from its hull. Leonardo decided that the weapon was so dangerous; he drew all its vehicle mechanisms backwards as a security measure, should the designs fall into the wrong hands. The entire vehicle was to be propelled by a system of cranks that would be operated by the drivers in the tank.
During a siege, the enemy had numerous tactics to employ against the defenders in a castle. One of them was to use an escalade. Escalades simply meant that the besiegers would set up siege ladders, and send troops over the castle walls until some made it to the castle’s gate. The defenders would then have to push away the ladders or snipe the enemy who were climbing the ladders. The defenders could be overwhelmed if there were too many ladders and a consistent amount of reinforcements for the attackers.
It’s worth noting that the Persians had also thought of a similar weapon. It was a chariot that had large scythes stuck on the axels of wheels, and the bottom of the chariot itself. When Alexander the Great encountered those in battle, he ordered his men into a U-shaped formation before the chariot hit. The chariot would then be trapped by the bodies of dead soldiers, and its driver would be killed by the surviving Macedonians.
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Leonardo da Vinci did not just paint murals on walls. The genius of the world applied himself to the tools of war as well. However, the designs of his weapons were so far ahead of their time, the technology didn’t exist to make them possible, so many designs were abandoned. It’s a good thing as well, otherwise we’d all be speaking Italian. Here are five of Leonardo’s weapons.
Its modern day counterpart had its start in world war 1. The British military transported the first armoured, tracked vehicles in large crates marked only as ‘tanks’. They were then first used in the Battle of Somme. In its debut, a tank was reported as having smashed through trenches, and driven down a main road while destroying the village’s defenders with its guns. Now, they are an integral part of any modern army.
Leonardo designed a portion of a defensive wall that would push an entire row of ladders off the wall. This was done by soldiers tugging on a beam attached to an axel. It no longer mattered how many ladders there were, a single action would send enemy ladders plunging to the ground. The designers of Helm’s Deep should have taken some lessons in Leonardo’s fortress design.
Bullshit 90’s
Nostalgia;
or, how my generation squandered all hope it ever had of having respect for itself in the future: Michael MacKenzie
Symptoms include, being fucking moronic half of the time, and being fucking moronic the other half of the time. This often manifests itself through “bullshit 90’s nostalgia”; which is where every single day, in some shitty conversation catalysed by some shitty library coffee, somebody will turn to me and say, “man, do you remember how good Pokemon was?” Yeah, I do fucking remember, because it was about three nanoseconds ago that we were thirteen years old and watching it. I also remember what I had for breakfast this morning, and which celebrity sextape I whacked off to last night, but that doesn’t make me special. There doesn’t appear to be any transitory period between experiencing something, and thinking back longingly about experiencing it. Here’s why I get annoyed: I enjoyed the shit out of Pokemon. Probably more than most people did. I watched the tv show, played the games (on Gameboy Colour, not Nintendo DS), wore Pikachu t-shirts, collected the cards, got given not one but two Pokemon movie soundtracks for my birthday, AND had my lunch money stolen. I had 150 of the original 151 Pokemon (nobody would give me a fucking Nidoking), and had a level 100 Pikachu that could absolutely fuck you over with its eyes closed. I spent years trading Kadabras and Gravellers and the like with my little brother and step-dad, just to evolve them into Alakazams and Golems. Pokemon essentially WAS my childhood. So yeah, when some dude with a shitty Morrissey coiffe and beige chinos tells me how much they “love the classics… Like… Remember… Like…
Pokemon Diamond… Or… Like… Y’know?”, I get a little pissed off. I hold the same high regard for assholes who call themselves Star Wars fans, but enjoy Star Wars the incorrect way. The new Star Wars trilogy (which before writing this article did not exist to me, and will continue its endless course through nonexistence as soon as I am finished writing it), is one of the few subjective things that I can say with confidence is objectively bad. How can it be objectively bad, you ask? In the same way a gaping knife wound is objectively bad. First and foremost, it’s unquestionably painful; but also, its hideous, tasteless, and it will leave permanent scars on the children subjected to it. Some people, however, consider the new trilogy to be canon. The fact is, George Lucas took a giant shit on childhoods all across the world by making these three new films, so when people quirkily call themselves Star Wars fans, and then discuss the genital-wart-abortion of a character, Jar Jar Binks, as if he matters, they’re literally more agonising than getting a papercut on my erect cock. Why would I be handling paper and an erection at the same time, you ask? Because while jacking off at a friends house I discovered Vengaboys tickets on the printer, and thought the only right thing to do would be to use them to wipe away my semen. (I then respectfully put them back where they were found, much to the horror of my friend’s little sister. Nevertheless...
Fuck the Vengaboys, and fuck the Vengabus.
The Vengaboys were a load of pigeon shit in the 90’s, and the only difference now is that they’ve dried out and left stains. But still, they managed to sell out Metros Freo (a shitty place where shitty people come to fuck each other and accidentally procreate, causing the existence of more shitty people who, in a minimum of eighteen years, will also go to Metros Freo to repeat the cycle). I can guarantee that out of the few hundred people that went to see the Vengaboys, none of them enjoyed it unironically. And that’s where the problem is. Twenty-somethings like to “enjoy” things, but only ironically. It’s why eighteen year old pseudo-hipsters wear mass produced Che Guevara t-shirts and white people rap. Irony is something almost nobody understands, but everybody laughs at. It’s when the owner of the Segway company accidentaly falls to his death by driving off a cliff on a brand new allterrain Segway, or when a heavily anti-Semitic Hungarian leader discovers that he’s actually Jewish by descent (both of which actually happened). You can do anything you want and still look cool, as long as you can be convincingly ironic. But when everything you do is ironic, are you still being ironic, or are you just a dull asshole without any individuality? At some point between 2005 and 2010, an entire generation of people forgot how to enjoy things properly, and began to pretend they enjoy the dumb shit that everybody else pretends to enjoy, double-wrapping their tiny cocks in a thin veneer of “irony”. Fuck you; this is why your dad thinks you’re a disappointment and your mum keeps asking when you’re going to move out.
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There’s this disorder that almost all Generation Y twenty-somethings suffer from, commonly known as, “being fucking moronic”.
If we look back at the last 100 years of fashion, we can fairly easily identify each decade by it’s trends. The roaring twenties,
swinging fifties, retro sixties and hippy seventies. While our fashion timeline helps us associate specific styles to each era, what we probably don’t realise is how often fashion repeats itself. It’s true, what was once old is new again in fashion. But what makes for a savvy and successful trend revival?
“It’s always about timing” said Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue. “If it’s too soon, no one understands. If it’s too late, everyone’s forgotten.” Designers reinvigorate, rejuvenate and reinterpret old trends, every year and consumers decide whether or not the re-interpretation is cool or off the mark. Better said by Heidi Klum on Project Runway: “One minute your in and the next you’re out.” So let us consider some fashion revivals.
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Christian Dior was spot on when he designed the “New Look” in 1947. It was during the post war period and Chanel’s menswear for women look had dominated the fashion scene. Dior’s campaign featured figure hugging styles, cinched waists and layered textiles, highlighted an hour glass figure, a silhouette that hadn’t been popular since the beginning of the 19th Century. Interestingly, Dior promoted ankle length hemlines (fabric shortages and cost cutting during the 30’s-40’s war period, made shorter length dresses popular), which according to my Nanna was a not hit with the gentlemen! Dior’s “New Look” gave women an alternative direction in fashion. It was perfect timing. The rebirth of the hour-glass had begun and it would continue well into the 60s. Luckily Dior left behind the rib, crunching corsets of the 1900’s that gave women a monoboob. There is nothing worse than a monobrow, unless of course, it is a monoboob. Another example of a trend re-emergence was the shoulder pad. By origin this creature was born into women’s fashion in the 1930’s, by Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. It made numerous comebacks throughout the 40’s – 60’s, but nothing as breathtakingly beautiful and probably for most Baby Boomers, regrettable, as during the 80’s. Eighties pads were not hugely, disproportionate. Their placement
on bold coloured power suits made the female frame a force to be reckoned with, during a time when women climbed the male dominated workforce ladder along side Margaret Thatcher. It was presumed that such a fashion monstrosity would never again see that light day, my own mother casting away her ‘power suit’ for fear of shame. But before Good Sammy’s could clear their floor space, fashion house Balmain made them utterly desirable again in 2009. Celebrities such as Rhianna, Beyonce and Victoria Beckham were photographed wearing the sculpted, pointy shoulders of Balmain’s military jacket and soon the trend filtered down into mainstream outlets. Remember when wearing fluoro was considered the most heinous of all crimes, along side socks with sandals? It seems fluoro (now disguised by a name change to ‘neon’) has become made a mighty comeback as this summers colour wheel styling and accessorises and Gorman’s upcoming S/S collection feature bright, patterned socks with chunky sandals. On the runway this season we have already seen a mirage of decades gone by: Gucci’s flapper vs. gothic glamour, Louis Vuitton’s ultra feminine, sugar dusted dolls of the 60s and Prada’s hotrod, rockabilly influence from the 50s. Over the past 10 years we have seen cult classics featured throughout this century re-emerge into the contemporary wardrobe, but not in the same way out-dated way, newly revised, revamped and restored. So what makes us froth at the mouth for old school revivals? Are we feeling nostalgic for the past or are designers just trying everything possible to out do each other? Coco Chanel famously said, “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky; in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening” and rightly so. Fashion is more than just clothing. It is a marker of time, culture, place and people, by being a physical representation of the world in its context at the time. With this in mind I look down at my Ugg boots, skinny legged trackies and oversized, knitted jumper from my Nanna and consider what on earth will future generations think about me? Let us consider our context. Technology, social media and a growing online culture has had a huge impact on the fashion
world. Designers, models and stylists can tweet the masses, magazines can post photos and videos from shows instantly, bloggers replicate high-end styles on a budget (check out sydneyfashionblogger. blogspot) and online shopping brings us one click away from international designs. Fashion has never before been so accessible. This accessibility has given the power to the people. The exclusive nature of high-end fashion is gone – no longer do we have to wait for the next issue of Vogue to tell us what is trending. Anyone can be informed and set new trends, not just powerhouse designers. Youth sub-cultures also bring along a fashion identity. From Emo’s to Harujuku girls, Chavs to Moshers, British New Rave, Phychobilly, Metro, Indie, Goth, Rockabilly, Preppy, Sk8r-Boi and Guido. In this big world, we all need to belong and having a personalised identity through fashion allows you to expression your individuality. Another factor is our concern with the environment. This has changed production methods and materials designers use and an interest in recycling and renewing material. Also let’s not forgot that the economy is in the dog-house and retail has gone up shit-creek, which means people aren’t spending their money on new clothes. So why are we still so fashion savvy and suave? When we consider all these social and cultural factors together - using technology to our advantage, a desire to express our individuality and our interest in recycling and saving money, we can see why vintage and retro revivals are flooding the market. Instead of buying new, expensive clothes, we research what is trending, dig through Op-shops, our parents, heck even grandparents wardrobes and find those forgotten gems and mix-match them with modern ideas and styling. This period on the fashion timeline, will be known as the decade revival and we will be praised for our resourcefulness, vast individuality and probably later condemned for our poor taste! Who knows in another 100 years time we could all be made to wear electronic jumpsuits. Perhaps some brave soles will cause a Renaissance style awakening and people will again seek to express themselves through clothing. One thing is for sure the dynamic nature of fashion won’t fade as long as society continues to grow and change along side old father time.
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INTO THE WILD David Scaife
Do you take it I would astonish? Does the daylight astonish? Does the early restart twittering through the woods? Do I astonish more than they? Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
Song of Ourselves There’s a grinding rasp; the sick clattering of a gunged up lung. It’s an engine trying to restart itself. Or trying to shut itself off. Here, in the middle of nowhere. I imagine that he is Cheynes-Stoking; that each awful suck of air followed by minutes that are silent and, so, more awful. I imagine that he hangs on for hours; that the silences between each rasp get longer. I imagine that he is not alone; but, only because he cannot realise it. We cannot know exactly when Christopher McCandless died. He died alone of starvation within the wilds of Denali National Park, Alaska. At 24 years old, he hadn’t spoken to his family in years. We know, however, that this August marks roughly 20 years since his death. Of all the heroic moments we have been told of, I imagine McCandless at this one. His life amounted to much more than the desperate sucking of air he was reduced to at the end. I choose to imagine this reduction because there is an existential truth wrapped up in it: that no matter how hard we try to break free, we will all be reduced to this. All we can do is be free in the time that we have. I imagine McCandless’ plight because it disturbs the calm at the centre of me. It both terrifies me and speaks to my heart. McCandless lived a heroic life, a life I can admire – hiking the western Pacific wilderness, kayaking the Colorado, farming the Dakotas, slipping into Denali. An outstanding graduate of Emory College, ruggedly immortalised in Sean Penn’s movie ‘Into the Wild’ - McCandless sought serenity away from the materialism and grind of modern life. I am equal parts rattled and intrigued by the ignominious death of a man who dreamt so vividly and strode so powerfully.
Singing along I’m at the same awkward, transitional point of my life as McCandless was: near-finished degree; decent, but uncertain, job prospects; the threat of a mortgage and/or further study on the horizon. I can probably live the Aussie dream with employment in a fairly secure industry, onepoint-something kids and a nice house in the ‘burbs.
40 - feature
I have many friends who are already singing that kind of
song, and I commend them. They are successful tradies, fledgling small business owners and proud parents. They are doing things that I haven’t had the strength, courage or skill to do. So, I guess that’s the song that I should jump into. Chorus and all. The only thing is, there is a nagging voice in my head, asking that same question again and again: ‘Yeah, well, that’s all very good, but what are you actually going to do with your life?’ And suddenly all this doubt sets in. We get one go at this thing we call ‘LIFE’, and I’m just not sure I want to wake up at 42 as a recently divorced, middling lawyer with kids who hate me. In fact, I’m sure that’s not what I want to do. Yet, that’s the path I’m on. I’ve juggled uni, a burgeoning political career and extra-curricular, CV-building activities for years now. I’m pretty good at it, but it gives me no pleasure. Let me say that again: it gives me no pleasure. I don’t mean that in a superficial way, either. I’m not complaining that my vocation doesn’t constantly reward me with dopamine-cemented hits of pleasure. I mean that my vocation, my life, doesn’t fulfil me. I don’t feel like my life is authentic; it’s like I’m involving myself in all the things that don’t really matter to me. So, what am I to do now that I’ve discovered that what I’m good at doesn’t match up with what makes me happy? What are we supposed to do when the song that everyone else is singing just doesn’t feel right? Be like McCandless, regardless of how things ended for him. Rip up the songbook, I propose.
Singing something different In all truthfulness, this reverie is lifted straight from notes I took when I was last hiking along the Bibbulmun Track. I wrote them on my sleeping pad at Schafer Campsite, which is the last stop before Northcliffe. Schafer is a real beauty. Set forward from the trees, it overlooks a privately owned dam that you can swim in if you can deal with the freezing water.
That is how it feels for me out here. I am caught in a world that is, while not untouched, at least seemingly at peace with itself. I can actually hear the silence and feel alone. It’s as close to a spiritual moment as I ever get. I sit in awe of a world that ticks along without me just fine. It’s a world that is beautiful, diverse and harmonious. The real fun, however, was getting to my destination. Hiking along the Bibblumun is peaceful and lonely. Those are marvellous feelings, but there are also brief moments in which the strangeness of those feelings can put you on edge. On my last hike, my jacket snagged on a post as I crossed a small, wooden bridge: for a panicked moment, I thought someone had grabbed me from behind. Inspired by my moment of anxiety, my hiking buddy was suddenly hearing voices behind every tree. After a rather embarrassing incident in which we rounded a corner and squealed when we came across a lone hiker taking his lunch break, we started to feel more at ease. I do this every time I come out here. It takes me a while to unwind and to leave my anxiety behind. That, in my mind, is only further proof of how much I need that unwinding. After a while, the trail turns into a blurred, green tunnel full of my own obnoxious noise. Or silence. It is as full or empty as I want it to be, and I find a solace where I often feel alone, but am never lonely. This is the type of renaissance that I find out here in the wild. It is the type of renaissance that I believe McCandless was looking for when he wandered up the Stampede Trail to Bus 142, made camp and, months later, made those rasping breaths and died. I think McCandless was searching for a place in which he could just be himself; where his contact with life could be raw and authentic, rather than structured and focused on CV-building. Dissatisfied with a life that he found unrewarding, McCandless ripped up the map in order to rip up the songbook.
Singing a better song That is the power of wilderness experiences. They put our drudgeries into perspective; they remind us of how privileged we are to just be. They are a bulwark against the egocentrism of our modern lives. Yet, when was the last time you got out into the wild? We have one of the best long-distance walking trails in the world at our front door, and yet I can go out hiking in perfect weather and run into only a handful of people over the course of three days. It’s a mystery to me. In fact, it’s something of a crime. There isn’t a lot of data on how Western Australians are interacting with wilderness, but the signs are somewhat promising. In 2007, the State Government’s Review of Nature Based Tourism found that there were roughly 400 operators licensed to undertake commercial activities in protected areas compared to around 50 in 1994. However, that figure probably speaks more to commercial growth in highly touristed areas like Ningaloo Reef and the Kimberley than it does to an increased interest in nature from locals. More usefully, the Department of Environment and Conservation’s (DEC) 2010-11 Annual Report shows a steady increase in visitation to DEC-managed estate: from 9.77 million visits in 2001-02 to 15.75 million in 2010-11. Again, however, it is impossible to tell exactly where the increases are occurring, and what activities are motivating people to get out into the wild. So, I’m not clear on what the situation is in Western Australia, but it looks like things might be improving. That is a good thing. We need to keep those numbers rising. The busy pace of our lives means that we could all do with more time for reflection. Now, the Bibbulmun is no wilderness. The trail is clearly marked, you are never far from civilisation and it is very well-maintained. In other words, don’t expect the type of wilderness epic that McCandless set out on. But, for the novice, those are really just more reasons to get out in the wild. You can get acres of your own space, away from the pressures that get you down, in touch with another world, and in relative safety. Have your own renaissance in the wild. It’s just too damned easy.
Photography: Rozanna Johnson
41 - feature
This morning, the dam is glassy; it’s stillness is overwhelming me, chiming through the quiet of the forest. Silence ringing through silence.
42 - feature
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Creator-Owned Comic Books
Now, as many of you will be aware, Watchmen was adapted from Alan Moore’s seminal twelveissue comic book series of the same name, whose collected edition was the only graphic novel to appear on TIME’s 2005 list of the greatest 100 novels of all time. As a big fan of comics in general, it’s pretty cool to see a comic brought to the same level as great works of literature like Infinite Jest and Catch-22. Alan Moore proposed the idea of Watchmen to DC in 1985, and it was promptly snapped up by the industry giant. However, Moore wasn’t interested in working for-hire, which was generally what creators would do after having their ideas picked up by a big publisher. Working for-hire meant that DC would own everything that Moore produced, so, in wanting to retain the rights to his idea, he and artist Dave Gibbons negotiated a very special kind of contract, which worked as follows: for as long as Watchmen was in print, DC would own the rights to the story and characters, and Moore and Gibbons would receive eight percent of the series’ earnings. When Watchmen went out of print, as most comics eventually do, ownership would revert to Moore and Gibbons, allowing them to reuse the characters or continue the story independently. It sounds like a great deal, but, unfortunately for Moore, the book never went out of print. So, in 1989, upon realising that the Watchmen train wasn’t ever going to stop, and that DC had free reign to exploit it for piles of cashola however and whenever they wanted (by, like, I don’t know, making a movie or something), he severed his ties with the company. Moore would later tell The New York Times that DC had “managed to successfully swindle me.” In 2009, the Watchmen film was released. In 2012, Before Watchmen, a collection of seven mini-series’ precluding the events of the original series, began. Moore heavily opposed both projects, and had no creative input on either, even though he had a contractual right to contribute. Now, one could really take either side here. Moore signed a pretty bad contract, and DC acted like a spoiled five-year-old who didn’t want to give up its favourite toy. But that’s not
the point, really. The point is that the Moore/DC fiasco showed potential creators how careful they needed to be when dealing with big publishers. In the late-eighties and early-nineties, Marvel and DC were pretty much the Galactic Empire of the comic book industry. For Marvel, the X-Men rose to huge critical and commercial success after the introduction of a bunch of spin-off “X-books” including New Mutants, X-Factor, and Wolverine, all of which participated in big crossover stories on a regular basis. DC were also rolling in it thanks to the success of Crisis on Infinite Earths (a continuity-simplifying godsend (The Flash dies, too)), Batman: Year One, and The Dark Knight Returns. Three of the most popular figures during this period were Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, and Todd McFarlane, all of which were Marvel properties – Lee on X-Men, Liefeld on New Mutants and X-Force and McFarlane on Spider-Man. Spurred on by issues concerning comic book rights ownership – including Moore/DC – together, in 1992, along with five other Marvel artists, they founded Image Comics, a company dedicated to publishing creator-owned books. Given that the Image artists were all fairly highprofile, Marvel’s stock price dipped, and the curious fans followed. Among the company’s first productions were Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.s., Marc Silvestri’s Witchblade, and perhaps the most recognisable, Todd Macfarlane’s Spawn. For a time, it was good. Spawn and WildC.A.T.s. managed to regularly challenge Marvel and DC in the sales charts, and by the beginning of 1993, Image held ten percent of the industry market share, which, for a while, put them ahead of DC. Not wishing to be undone, DC developed a new imprint called Vertigo, which would publish, among other things, creator-owned titles. If only Alan Moore had saved Watchmen for that. But it wasn’t to be. Marvel’s behemoth X-Men universe continued to dominate, and DC managed to return to prominence with The Death of Superman and Batman’s KnightSaga, and finally, in the mid-nineties, the comic book industry as a whole took a dive (Marvel went bankrupt, but would soon recover), and clashes between the Image partners led to a partial break-up of the company. And so, Marvel and DC remained on top. Image got back to its feet but could no longer contend with the big two, and was instead forced to duke it out with other smaller publishers such as Dark Horse (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy) and IDW (30 Days of Night, Doctor Who), in order to hang on to its meagre market share.
Then, in 2003, Robert Kirkman happened. Kirkman was the first artist to be brought into the Image Comics cabal as a partner since the company’s founding, and is the creator of the Image-published Invincible and – you may recognise this one – The Walking Dead. Although sales of his comics don’t rival The Amazing Spider-Man or Green Lantern, the recent resurgence of Image can certainly be attributed to his series’ popularity. In 2004, Image’s market share sat at just under four percent. At the end of last year, it was almost at five-and-a-half, which put the company in third place behind guess-who for the first time in nearly ten years. Image kept up the pace throughout the last decade, pumping out huge critical successes such as The Nightly News, Morning Glories, Fell, and Powers. Existing publishers started to put more focus on creator-owned stuff – IDW’s Locke & Key is great and you should read the crap out of it – and new publishers such as MonkeyBrain and Archaia sprung up. And in a move which echoed DC’s creation of Vertigo ten years previous, Marvel set up their own creator-owned imprint called Icon, which is specifically designed to (I shit you not) keep their own artists and writers from taking their own work to Image, etc. And it’s worked. Icon has published successful titles such as Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass and Matt Fraction’s Casanova, and managed to nick Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers from Image, meaning that those artists can remain at Marvel to work on superhero crap, such as the absolute train-wreck that is Avengers vs X-Men. Seriously, it doesn’t even make sense. Like, why would Cyclops whip out the eye-lasers on Captain America in the first issue? There’s hardly any build-up in the rushed dialogue, and it’s a twelve-part series, so whyBut I digress. So the question is, why now? What happened in the middle of the last decade to make creator-owned comics cool again? Mark Millar has a theory. In an interview with Comic Book Resources dot com a few weeks back, he said that the popularity of creator-owned stuff is cyclical – in the early nineties, fans followed Lee, Liefeld, McFarlane and co., whilst Marvel and DC had to cultivate new talent to keep up. Those new talents – like Bendis and Bryan Hitch – rose to stardom, and the Image guys were forgotten. Now, according to Millar, things are just repeating themselves. Breakout stars like Robert Kirkman have made creator-owned comics cool again, and we’re just on the bandwagon. For now.
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How great was the Watchmen film, right? The combination of noir-ish investigation, sexy visuals, and a naked, omnipotent blue guy really made for something special. It’s definitely in my top ten somewhere. Above Tron: Legacy (I’ll fight you), below The Big Lebowski. Probably.
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LANGUAGE
MANHOOD
CRAY BAIT
OVEREXPOSED
REVIEWED BY: ANTHONY PYLE
REVIEWED BY: ANTHONY PYLE
REVIEWED BY: ANTHONY PYLE
REVIEWED BY: STEPHANIE LANE
Muscles
London based band Zulu Winter formed in 2011 and have already released their debut album Language; and for a band so new, they definitely have their sound worked out. Their take on indie rock isn’t anything new, but sticking to the pre-existing building blocks isn’t always the death of talent. These guys really know how to produce music that doesn’t alienate an audience, with lyrics that actually create a well formed narrative, and matched with the musical skills of the band it is a pretty top notch album.
Melbourne based band Muscles have released their new album Manhood, following in the footsteps of their previous musical endeavours as they continue to pump out the electronic beats.
Each track flows into the next without breaking the feel of it being one long interchanging musical performance. I can just imagine that I’d be listening to this in my car and tapping the wheel as I drive, slowly teaching myself the lyrics and slowly getting them right as I listened to this album on repeat. If you like one of Zulu Winters songs, you’re going to like them all, and it’s only going to get easier to listen to them until they are your choice band for chilling out too. Final note, Zulu Winter you keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll keep listening.
It seems that the longer you listen to this album, the more derivative (of itself, mostly) it seems. It has a way of breaking down into the most basic construction of syllables, becoming completely devoid of meaning. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they had just removed all of the random filler in the middle of their songs. At least then they would have been left with a collection of normal, three minute tracks that may have fared better under scrutiny, but for some reason they decided to let ego and ambition take over and produce self indulgent, overly extended tracks at the expense of being even remotely interesting.
Now I’m going to go chuck this album in my car before I forget, and you should give it a listen too.
Now I have a few issues with the music in this album, but none as prominent as the issues I have with their lyrics. They’re just too simple, and contain much more repetition than any self-respecting song needs. It could also be down to the amount of “Whoa whoa’s” or any other of the inane noises that aren’t words used to pad their songs out to beyond six minutes.
I can’t say I overly enjoyed this album. It seemed to hold some promise in the beginning, however I found myself hating it as it progressed. It’s the sort of music I can imagine some people might like, but I’d never be able to understand why.
The Bible Bashers
The Bible Bashers consider themselves “The Drunken Gods of Mischief”, well perhaps they should have spent less time being mischievous and more time writing an EP which was longer than two songs. Honestly I’m lost for words at the waste of a CD and plastic cover. This sort of poor effort in the name of music production reminds me of those AOL discs that used to litter shopping centres before everyone had broadband. I suppose I should really be reviewing the minimal amount of music I’ve been offered though. The Bible Bashers are a Perth band and from what I can tell, write music about random unconnected Perth stuff. The Rosemount gets a mention in the song ‘Cray Bait’ and the Swan gets a mention in ‘Swan Dive’. While the musical elements to these two songs are alright, the lyrics just make me shake my head in disbelief. If a song about shooting single mums has become the new edgy side of music, I want no part in it. As far as an EP goes I figure there are too many songs about Perth, and if there’s one thing kids in Perth don’t want to be reminded about, its Perth.
However, if you have no pre-existing hang ups over Electronica, or just want to get a bit more Australian music in your audio diet, feel free to give these guys a go.
8/10
2/10
3/10
Maroon 5
I will volunteer to watch Adam Levine move like Jagger any day. ANY DAY I tell you! I just thought I should get that out of the way before I talk about the actual music from Maroon 5’s latest album Overexposed. The first thing I noticed about the album is how new and fresh the sound is. I didn’t think it was possible for Levine’s voice to get any sexier but apparently it is. Gone are the days of “she will be loved” now it’s more like “she will be lurrrrved (wink)”. I especially loved the first two tracks ‘One More Night’ and ‘Payphone’ though it should be noted that it’s impossible to sing in tune to ‘Payphone’ so try to refrain from singing this one in public (trust me). The one negative aspect of the album (though I’ll admit I’m really in love with it at this point) is that some of the songs feel somewhat repetitive. If you’re not interested in songs about love and lust, then maybe just sit this one out. In reality though, is it even possible to write a song that doesn’t at the least mention something about love or lust? “Try to tell you no but my body keeps on telling you yes. Try to tell you stop but your lipstick got me so out of breath. I be waking up in the morning probably hating myself. And I be waking up feeling satisfied but guilty as hell. “See what I mean? So much lust! But enough of that. I think it’s safe to say Maroon 5 just keep getting better. I’ve had this album playing in my car for at least two weeks and am still not sick of it. It has something for every mood. I challenge any ‘too cool for school’ hipsters (who cringe at the mere mention of the word ‘pop’) to forget about how mainstream Maroon 5 are just for a minute and give it a listen. 8/10
45 - reviews
Zulu Winter
LEX HIVES
CLOCKWORK ANGELS
REVIEWED BY: ANTHONY PYLE
REVIEWED BY: CONNOR WHITE
The Hives
Swedish garage punk rockers The Hives have always been a band that has relied much more on its charm than its musical aptitude. Their loud, brash and energetic attitude has carried them through the better part of a decade, however without reaching the heights of their first album.
Rush has arguably been pumping out the same material for about ten years now, and a revamp was in order. The five year interlude between the release of Snakes and Arrows and Clockwork Angels may have encouraged that, however any development isn’t immediately evident.
In part, it was probably due to the sheer repetitive nature of the entire career of The Hives, a sentiment this album is testament to. From start to finish, it is mostly the same old Hives experience that’s been going for years now: energetic, in-yourface, loud, occasionally catchy punk which is good for a quick listen, but is ultimately disposable. The Hives’ best songs have been the ones to rise above that last criteria, such as the everlasting ‘Tick Tick Boom’. To be frank, nothing on this album even comes close.
Rush are a Prog band, but they’ve always been the particular kind of Prog that is antithetical to the very name of the genre. Only when they either completely embrace Prog or completely go against it do they show their best on Clockwork Angels. The final track, ‘The Garden’, is probably their most innovative track in years, primarily driven by orchestra and piano. And it actually works. ‘Carnies’ is another good track, with a distinctly exotic style.
It comes down to a few simple flaws. Howlin’ Pete sings a lot more in his lower register on Lex Hives, and compared to his higher register, the voice is painfully dull. There also seem to be a lot of songs that mimic dirty ‘70s rock, or to be more precise, they mimic The Black Keys’ motif. But since The Hives have never been about the riffs, they don’t know how to utilise them properly. There are also two songs on here which sound distinctly like another one of their own songs, ‘No Pun Intended’, right down to the flow and structure. I know punk is a limited genre, but geez. When they’re at their catchiest (‘Go Right Ahead’, ‘Take Back The Toys’) and their fastest (‘These Spectacles Reveal The Nostalgics’), The Hives can be a passable distraction. But their time of creating truly great songs has seemingly passed them by. It was fun while it lasted though.
46 - reviews
Rush
5/10
The promo singles (which were released quite a while before the album) namely ‘Caravan’ and ‘Headlong Flight’ are energetic, catchy affairs that showcase Rush’s technical flair more than anything else, yet remain a great listening experience. Other tracks such as ‘The Anarchist’ and ‘Halo Effect’ are similar in structure but lack the flavour of the singles. In the past, Rush has had a 50/50 chance of making a good song, however age seems to be catching up with them at this point, and their lyricism and aptitude are suffering accordingly. Clockwork Angels is generally a weaker release than Snakes and Arrows for that reason alone.
BERTIE PLAYS THE BLUES
- A 44 SCOTLAND STREET NOVEL Alexander McCall Smith
REVIEWED BY: CAITLIN GODDARD Bertie Plays the Blues is a rather odd title for a book, but as it was written by Alexander McCall Smith, famous for his series The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, I was curious to read it. Though the novel wasn’t exactly what I was expecting in terms of plot and characters I want to stress here how beautifully written the story was, with well rounded characters, meticulously described settings and a plotline that flowed nicely. This particular book is a part of the 44 Scotland Street series, which as you can probably guess, is set in Edinburgh Scotland. Although not the first in the series, this wasn’t a disadvantage in terms of the plot or characters, as each is well described and I never felt like I had missed out on some important information from the story, as often happens with other novels. The only problem with this novel is that it is very character driven. I found this a problem as I prefer to read books with an intense action packed storyline and so I didn’t find this story to be the sort where I felt I had to keep reading because I just HAD to know what was going to happen next. As a sort of compromise I suppose, all the characters and each of the little stories they represent are very interesting. There are a number of main characters such as the young couple who have just had triplets, the artist and his fiancée, the lonely old café owner who tries Internet dating, the little boy who puts himself up for adoption to escape an overbearing mother… The list goes on.
So, whilst there are a few great moments on Clockwork Angels, the rest of the album is merely adequate at best, and not really worth the long wait.
Overall I enjoyed reading the book even though it wouldn’t be something I would choose for myself. Now that I know the characters and McCall Smith’s style of writing I would be interested in reading the rest of the series. If you’re looking for a sweet easy read with elements of occasional humour this is for you.
6/10
6/10
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Katawa Shoujo
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is something of a celebration of the franchise (even though it’s had Dissidia and, to a lesser extent, Ehrgeiz already). Long time FF composer Nobuo Uematsu has been heralded as one of the greatest composers in gaming, for very good reason, and while he has since moved on from the franchise, his legacy is still being praised to this day, and his music continues to be a staple element of the franchise.
Yeah, I’m late to the party on this. Shut up.
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy includes music from thirteen of the fourteen main titles (Final Fantasy XIV is not included). Generally, each game supplies one piece of field or map music, one song from a battle theme, usually either a boss theme or the regular theme, and an extravagant cutscene piece. Aside from unlocking extra songs through attaining Rhythmia (the game’s points/currency) or certain items, you can also download additional songs for $0.99 US.
The game came out, and people really enjoyed it.
PC REVIEWED BY: CONNOR WHITE A long time ago, the “fine” folks at a little place called 4chan got together and started production on a dating sim centered around picking up girls with different forms of physical disabilities. Everyone who was sane was initially very skeptical about the idea, given 4chan’s reputation, but then something happened.
The actual quality of the music is very subjective, especially in a game which celebrates a franchise known for musical diversity. Up until Final Fantasy X, a lot of the music is clearly bound by technical limitations in the instrumentation it uses. Nobuo Uematsu has always been great at going above and beyond said limitations, and I would personally say that he succeeds, but some might be put off by the fact that there are no rerecordings or remixes.
You take the role of Hisao, a Japanese high school student who suddenly suffers a heart attack and must spend the rest of his scholastic time at a special boarding school for students with disabilities. It’s here that you can essentially hook up with five different girls, initially distinguished by disability type but soon easily distinguished by personality and social traits. So yes, that’s the first big hurdle cleared: the disabilities do not wholly own or make the experience. In fact, as far as the representation of the disabled goes, once you get over the initial concept, it’s pretty well handled. Katawa Shoujo is shaped so as to make you pick your girlfriend based on their personality, just as it should. The only iffy part is that sometimes the main character will make accidental jokes regarding their disability, particularly around Lilly, the blind woman. But the game addresses this as well.
Interacting with this music is reminiscent of Ouendan/EBA. Within the three different styles of music (Field Music, Battle Music and Event Music), there are three different types of notes: one where you simply tap it, one where you hold it down (and in the Field Music stages, drag it) and one where you must swipe the stylus in a certain direction.
As for the gameplay, it’s fairly limited, belonging to the visual novel genre. Most of the time, you’ll simply be reading the story, occasionally making a choice that might influence the story’s progression. Even the imagery can be limited at times, and if you’re not into a lot of reading, this game might not appeal to you.
The fun in Series and Challenge mode comes from the small connection with the music being played, and as more notes are added in later difficulties, this connection increases. It’s definitely a great experience to revisit old (and new) music from one of the most beloved JRPG franchises ever, and with the gameplay itself carrying just a bit of the tapping experience from EBA, it’s a pretty good blend. At times, a little simplistic, but still very fun.
The story itself seems to vary based on the path you take. Emi’s path is a generic, but well told, teenage love story and Hanako’s path is probably the most emotional of the five available. But Rin’s path demands a lot of concentration, because the character of Rin is so weird and unconventional. It was also in her path that the choices felt the most arbitrary and led to the silliest Game Over sequences.
Of course, this is just talking about the first two modes. The third mode, Chaos Shrine, obtained after clearing every soundtrack in the series allows you to do random two song sets which consistently show possible items and bosses to find. The random-but-not-really element starts off well but gets grating by the fourth Dark Note, but the game tries to spice this up by really encouraging the RPG aspect. But the meld between these two genres does not seem to gel well, as the management side seemingly doesn’t require management at all unless you’re terribly, terribly ardent about collecting absolutely everything. The times you are interacting with the music without any of the extraneous bits and pieces are definitely fun, and seal the deal if you’re a long-time Final Fantasy fan or just want a rhythm game for the 3DS but don’t want to wait to see if a new EBA will come out. For others, the filler outweighs the content and isn’t worth full price.
6/10
Something else people may find controversial is the sex scenes. To be blunt...well, that’s precisely what the sex scenes are. If any of the more notorious parts of 4chan sneaked into this game, it was the fact that the game will precisely describe the act of sex in the text alongside the rather crude images. Or maybe I’m just a pansy. Otherwise, the writing is pretty strong, with a varied cast of characters. Some of the side characters, such as the paranoid roommate Kenji, pop up in the story too much and disrupt the flow, but the drama in the later parts of the story gets especially thick. I indeed almost cried once. Is this better than the previously reviewed To The Moon? I’d say they’re on the same level. To The Moon is better written, but Katawa Shoujo has better drama. And it’s free.
7/10
47 - reviews
3DS REVIEWED BY: CONNOR WHITE
Ask Someone Better
Emil Cholich
How’s your life going? Probably pretty poorly - I mean you’re reading a student magazine, your day has probably sucked, and you’re ugly. Look at you, it’s horrible you even exist. Don’t you wish you’d made better life choices? No, because the only life choices you’ve made yourself have been screw ups, so why not ask someone who’s better at life than you. Email me your life dilemmas, and I guarantee you a response of some nature, whether it’s a heart warming paragraph or three, or just a picture of a donkey doing some stuff to a goat. emilcholich@me.com
Dear Emil oh man so many ragheads and fucking nippers on the bus cutting up fuckin cats and dogs to make soup, should be paying me rent for my land, australias not australia anymore, only two fuckin aussies on this bus, hi aussie Inbred 15 year old Bus Patron, 19/7/2012 Dear Inbred 15 year old Bus Patron on the 100 I’m not Australian, So I guess that means my rent is due. Rent is when you get lemon juice poured into your asshole. You’ll have to take my word for it since rent is a completely (fuckin’) foreign and entirely conceptual thing to you since you never have and never will pay for rent.
48 - advice
I never really considered how lucky I am to be white and look relatively Australian, I can only imagine how much bullshit like this other people have to deal with. Thank you for yelling out “keep Australia beautiful and get the fuck out” as I had one foot off the bus. This meant I was able to look back and see that despite being 15 you’re still somehow still the owner of a neck-tattoo, (something written in cursive that I couldn’t make out, probably something about how great it is smelling like a toilet made out of methylated spirits and used urinal cakes).
I found so much irony in someone with a hideous neck tattoo insulting my stunning good looks that I’ve now become WAs biggest supplier of iron, sadly I now have to pay tax on it, so that you can get a good healthy Centrelink payment which will allow you to be continuing your existence as a non-contributing, zero, waste of space, sponge cunt. Circle of life and all that. Emil
Dear Emil I follow your Instagram account “photosofmeshitting”, I was wondering what inspired it and why you’ve stopped posting? Brown Admirer Dear BA I’m thinking of mentioning it in a Grok article so more people follow it. Emil
Big weekend. Pulled an all nighter. Can’t get into it. Whatever the deal is, nothing can kick-start your day like the full flavour and irresistible aroma of a SuperBarista Coffee by Braziliano. Available from Curtin Student Guild Catering outlets across campus.