On Dit - 77.7 - Metropolis Edition

On Dit Adelaide Uni Student Magazine 77.7

metropolis n o i t i d e

1

contact us at On Dit :

contents

Phone: (08) 8303 5404 Email: ondit@adelaide.edu.au Editors: Steph Walker & Vincent Coleman

2-3 4 5 6-7 8-12 13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20-25 26-27 28-29 30-31 32-33 34-38 39 40 41 42-43 44 45 46-47 48-49 50

On Dit: proudly sponsored by the Adelaide University Union folk.

Advertising: Lara Mieszkuc Phone: (08) 8303 6951 Email: lara.mieszkuc@adelaide.edu.au

editorial AUU Watch State of the Union Current Affairs Film Urban Explorers ‘Zines!

Arts & Culture Social Fumbling Music Short Stories Poetry Literature Science Fasion Modern Curiosities Ditlicious Censorship Local Issues Nightlife Sport Devil’s Advocate Vox Pop International Students

thank you: Will, you distro’d 1,280 copies of Enviro editon, shame on the rest of you!

Kim at the AUU reception Sam Deere - welcome to the team!

Nat, we hope to make you a jingle so that you’ll come home soon.

On Dit party-goers.

Spektor (Regina, not Phil) Suzie, for coming through with the goods in 48hrs Ashleigh, for down to the wire Vox Popping 2

Cover art by Mojo Design On Dit is the sexy publication of the Adelaide University Union. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editors, The University of Adelaide, or the Adelaide University Union. On DIt will get naked for money.

with Steph & Vincent

the editors’ editorial Stephenopolis

Metropolis, hey? we sort of live in one.

Maybe it’s not densly populated, but we’re doing ok. Hopefully this edition gives you an idea of how Adelaide and other cities work as a metropolis. As for me, I’m about to go to Victor Harbor after all this citycentric information has filtered into the paper.

To be fair, the Victor Cottage will be densly populated and will be inhabited, if i’m not mistaken, entirely by students from all the universities of Adelaide (that’s right, all of them). It is our nineth trip up and tradition is still intact; - My hair will be dyed and cut - Someone will sing Michael Jackson too much (I’m looking at you Ben Adams) - I’m going to get an epic (fake) Tattoo (thanks maz) - You know you’re having fun when there’s a bear, bleeding, on the label of your booze.

Big City Lights I’ve lived in Adelaide all my life. In fact, I’ve only ever travelled to 2 other cities: Melbourne and Canberra. Both of them with my family, and several times again to Melbourne on roadtripping escapades.

While my experience in the big smoke is somewhat limited, I still find cities appealing in a way that the rest of the world doesn’t compare.

I’ve seen snowy mountains and lush rainforests, sandy beaches and thunderous waterfalls, and quite frankly (my dear) I don’t give a damn. I like being able to get chinese food and vodka at 3am. I like bright lights and loud music and the chaotic beeping and clanging of cars and trams.

- I got “I Put a Spell On You” song from the film Focus Pocus and many songs from the cinematic great that was “Sister Act” and “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” - I will be smoking so much sheesha that my lungs will be flavoured for weeks.

What fun! And yet, like any city, that social community equates to (not unlike the breakfast club) two writers, a musician, a linguist, two teachers, an ecconomist, a potential doctor, a lawyer of science or a scientist of law...some sort of math learning latin speaking career, I figure some sort of Alias-like job for Becky (or unemployment) and whatever Larissa studies. There will be a total disregard for privacy and the little sign on bottles and cigarettes that show health warnings.

When people ask me where I’d like to travel I can only think of New York, London, Tokyo, Toronto, hell, Sydney the big cities in nice, civilized places. No peruvian hiking or mongolia tak-riding for me thankyouverymuch.

Adelaide’s not so bad though y’know. I like being able to get from one side to another in 45 minutes, on foot. I like bumping into a dozen people I know on a trip to get coffee and biscuits for the office. I like that I can commute to work/uni in under 20 minutes from my suburban house, every 15 minutes of every day. I like the Rundle Lantern, even if it is a bit like a d-grade Blade Runner prop.

Then again, I used to live in Flagstaff Hill, which is practically in Peru anyway.

A Farewell to Clare...

This edition of On Dit see’s Editor Clare Buckley leaving our ranks to pursure other avenues of study.

Clare has been a passionate and driven Editor and we wish her all the best in her latent endeavours.

Last we heard she was in Kakadu and then in Sydney before returning to our fine city of A-Town. Talk about jetsetting lifestyle!

Au Revoir, Ms Buckley, - Steph and Vinny

3

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / // / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / // / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / ////////

AUU WATCH/////////

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / // / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /////////////////

keep up to date - get the goss on the adelaide uni union

Student “Representation”

by Hannah Mattner

Since your last beloved installment of On Dit, there have been two very busy meetings, so unfortunately, not much detail is on offer.

In May, NUS President Dave Barrow visited the Board to highlight the work NUS has done to promote student issues, and to congratulate the SRC on their outstanding activism about student welfare. Adelaide gained particular praise for having such newsworthy stories and stunts.

The other major event was the discussion of Constitutional Reform.

It was revealed that one Board member was considering running a campaign against the reforms, an idea that appalled most of Board, considering the work that had been invested into the process. After much heated discussion, it was suggested that Board split the controversial questions off to be voted on as a separate question.

This sparked concerns that it could lead to a ‘spotty’ constitution, or to confusion that would stymie the referendum altogether.

Lavinia (AUU president, for all you irregulars) sought and obtained Board’s approval for a Constitutional Forum, which was run in swot vac, and had a turn out of a measly 5 people. The forum seemed to consist mostly of students voicing frustration that they had not been consulted about the reform progress. However,

4

it also gave rise to recommendations that Lavinia took to Board: namely that they split the controversial sections of the constitution off as separate questions in the referendum, as discussed in the meeting. It was suggested that this would reduce the chances of a campaign against the other, necessary changes to the constitution.

This recommendation was brought through to the June meeting, and the three big controversial issues of the new constitution – whether Board can expel directors for misconduct; the removal of by-elections (having the first runner-up receiving the position instead) and the size of Board (16 v. 18) – were removed to make up a second question in the referendum. For more constitutional reform coverage, see www.adelaidestudentpolitics. blogspot.com; we don’t have a word limit there.

The reforms were relegated in the July meeting in the face of a bigger question: whether or not to sell Unibooks. (Unibooks, a non for profit organisation, was offering $750,000 over 3 years to the Board, in exchange for giving ownership to a group made up equally of the 3 S.A. universities). The Board was split into two fairly predictable camps on the question. On one side fell IndyGo and Activate, who argued that selling Unibooks would endanger the student discounts and services

it provides, deprive the Union of its last bargaining chip with the Uni and potentially lead to the uni’s running it for profit. In contrast, Pulse, the Liberals and the Clubbers argued that it would make Unibooks safer from Union interference in the long run, would increase the Board’s financial security and would potentially lead to greater discounts by freeing the company up to make capital investments. The Board voted to keep Unibooks as a Union asset, but to look into policy that would protect it from Union interference. The names of those who voted each way are in the June minutes for all who intend to vote knowledgeably.

In other news, Daniel Bills was condemned (no, that’s not me being dramatic; that was the word that was used) by Board for not attending Executive Committee meetings often enough. He appeared unconcerned, and didn’t use his right of reply.

not ‘the board’

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / // / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / //////

n o i n u e h t f o state ////////////////

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /////////////// Lavinia Emmett-Grey el’presidentae

It may be a long way away, but if you’re thinking about what to do over the Summer, Orientation applications will be opening very shortly. We’re looking for Directors of Orientation Camp, Orientation Ball and Orientation Week.

If you’d like experience in organising events and fancy the thought of first years thinking you’re some kind of god, then keep an eye out for more details, either in your AUU Members email or posters around campus, on how to apply.

Welcome back – It feels like a hundred years ago that students were basking in the sunshine and enjoying the madness that is Orientation Week in Semester 1. While we can’t bring you sunshine, the Clubs Association can offer you ClubsFest! Running from Tuesday 28th to Thursday 30th of July and located down in the Cloisters (outside near the Mayo Café), it’s your chance to check out some of the 93 Clubs on offer For those of you who are interested at Adelaide Uni, as well as ”We’re in what the AUU Board has been free BBQs, a chill out tent up to, a new draft of the AUU looking for with Wii and fooseball, Constitution should be ready Directors of Red Bull sampling and to go to Referendum by the Orientation Camp, time this column is printed. prizes to be won each day. On Tuesday night The last time the AUU Orientation Ball there’s a Quiz Night, Constitution was changed and Orientation on Wednesday there’s was 10 years ago and a Week” the Clubs Cup with Sumo lot has happened to student Wrestling competitions and organisations in that time. One of the Thursday there’s a party in the biggest changes has been the impact Unibar. of Voluntary Student Unionism, which changed the entire legal framework In Week 2, head up to the UniBar one that the AUU operates in. Student the 4th, 5th and 6th of August to check representatives get a lot of criticism, but out the heats for the National Campus I think the board is to be commended Band Comp. If you want to see some of on putting aside personal differences the best up-and-coming live music acts and working together to reach a draft in Adelaide, this is the place to be in the of a document that everyone agrees lead up to the Adelaide Uni final on the on. The board also hosted a Student 21st of August.

Consultation on the AUU Constitution in June to allow for greater student input.

For those of you who saw some of our PROSH activities last term, including the The AUU is also in the process of hoisting of the Jolly Roger on Bonython devising its 3 year Strategic Plan for Hall and a masked ball at The Duke, just the AUU. Thank you to the 1200 thought I’d let you all know that it wasn’t students who took the time to respond all fun and games – the AUU succeeded to our survey about the AUU and its in raising $1500 for the Starlight operations. The AUU Board will provide Foundation. Thanks to all the students an official response to your thoughts and who helped out or donated! comments soon. We think it’s important to constantly review how we operate It’s also that time of year that I dread…. and find ways to better deliver services, Tax time. If you’re like me and you put events and representation to students. your group certificates and receipts in an ice cream container and just pray that it turns into a tax return, you might want to try the AUU’s FREE Tax Service this year! Bookings open in the first week F i n a l l y, of August – contact AUU Reception on over the holidays there’s been a lot in 8303 5401 for more details. the news about international students and their experience.

In Melbourne there have been large protests by Indian students in response to racially motivated attacks. As you may have seen in the Advertiser, there were racist fliers distributed around campus against international students.

As AUU President, I condemn all forms of racism and attacks on international students. International students are paying sometimes more than twice what domestic students pay for the same course and the vast majority are paying upfront for their study. Essentially, without international students, most universities in Australia would not be financially sustainable. A lot of the new students in Semester 2 are international students. Take the time to talk to an international student in your class.

Imagine for a moment that you’ve made the courageous decision to study far away from home and how hard it must be to do that without the support of your family and friends. Imagine arriving in an unfamiliar country and having to find accommodation and a job, as well as starting at university. Many international students have the dilemma of facing all these challenges with the addition of an entirely different language. So let’s make these students welcome and you’ll find that in the exchange of cultures, there’s much to be learned on both sides.

As always, if you’d like to get in touch with me, maybe with alternative tax receipt storage ideas, or strategic ways of winning the Sumo competition, feel free to email me – lavinia.emmett-grey@ adelaide.edu.au.

5

6

7

Film with Nav and Anders , Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film

Disgrace (M) South Africa’s Apartheid and its aftermath remain popular subjects in Australia’s literary mainstream today, widely accessible through the works of Bryce Courtenay and J.M. Coetzee. The latter, an Adelaide resident since 2002, now has his Booker Prize-winning novel Disgrace translated to the screen, an intriguing film from director Steve Jacobs which deals with animal cruelty, family relations and racial tension.

★ ★ ★ 1/2

The Australian-South African coproduction sees the team responsible for La Spagnola (Jacobs and screenwriter Anna Maria Monticelli) behind the story of David Lurie (John Malkovich). His shift from Cape Town University professor to rural Western Cape is unavoidable after the fallout of his affair with a black student, but as he spends more time with daughter Lucy (Jessica Haines) in the country his uncertainty about life is highlighted. That uncertainty includes the nature of helper Petrus (Eriq Ebouaney), hints of racial tension rising as David mistrusts him.

Disgrace sets itself up as more of a character piece as life on the Western Cape becomes settled, revealing to David just how opposite his was in the city. The encounter that shakes David and Lucy to the core shatters their confidence. This is where Jessica Haines shines as Lucy, a woman who already had unfinished business, but with more heaped upon her, is incapable of dealing with the consequences rationally. John Malkovich is strong as David, with a hint of eeriness

Ice Age:

Dawn of the Dinosaurs

The slogan accompanying the Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs poster wittily promises you’ll “Laugh your ice off”. Whilst the kids in the audience might shed some icicles, this 3D threequel contains too few laughs and too many clichés to defrost anyone else. The story sees Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) get taken captive by a T-Rex, causing Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano), his pregnant partner Ellie (Queen Latifah) and the rest of their oddball herd to set out to retrieve their friend.

Maybe my middling experience owes to not seeing Ice Age 3 in 3D. The film is noticeably tailored for the third dimension as there’s a great deal more action and a great deal less witty banter, especially the type geared towards adults. As a result, the herd spends much the film outrunning vicious dinosaurs, balancing atop of shaky rock

around him as always, learning about himself through everyone he meets, but also relearning the fatherly instinct long unused.

Jacobs handles Disgrace well visually, making use of the South African landscape beautifully with Steve Arnold’s cinematography, but the story is at times disparate in pace as the major moments work hard to sustain the plot in between.

However, the film is strengthened by its metaphoric undertone as we learn more about David in a postApartheid world - during his time as a professor, he reveals himself to students through his teachings of romantic poetry, while both racial preferences and tension are reflected in his meetings with student Melanie and Petrus. David’s life is uncertain from start to finish, but it’s a reflection of modern life and its consequences.

Katina Vangopoulos

(G)

platforms and dwindling on the edge of a flowing lava-fall. I do hope each of these scenarios seemed fresh and engaging in 3D, because they certainly didn’t in 2D. The problem I have with the extra dimension is that it’s allowing animators to mask lazy storytelling with eye-popping effects.

Instead of engaging audiences with an original concept, Ice Age 3 simply takes a pedestrian one and applies it with a glossy new coat.

★★ ½

Mind you, not all enjoyment is reserved for the third dimension. Ice Age’s trump card has always been that brilliantly animated squirrel Scrat, whose quest to obtain his beloved acorn is worth the narrative disruption. Within the main story arch, the only character nearly as enjoyable as Scrat is newcomer Buck, an enthusiastic weasel well characterised by Simon Pegg’s energetic vocal performance. By contrast, the returning cast sound bored stiff; Ramano’s dry wit as Manny only seems to work when it’s paired with Sid’s dim-witted prattle, which is problematic considering he is elsewhere for most of the film.

Latifah and Leary as Ellie and Diego have little comedic input, unfairly leaving it up to Scrat and the slapstick tomfoolery of twins Crash and Eddie to keep this primitive comedy from going extinct.

Anders Wotzke

Film8with Nav and Anders , Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and

d Anders and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and A

the fox and the child (G) After enduring the icy arctic climate to bring us March of the Penguins, French director Luc Jacquet decides to warm up the screen with the unlikely friendship of two fiery redheads; one an inquisitive fox, the other a cute freckled girl by the name of L’enfant (Bertille Noël-Bruneau). The inclusion of the latter sees this would-be animal documentary turn into something of a children’s fairytale. But in its hybrid state, The Fox and the Child falls shy of being either a captivating tale for kids or an enlightening documentary for adults.

Without much in the way of dialogue, Jacquet hires the maternal voice of Kate Winslet to narrate as L’enfant. Spoken like a bedtime story, she recounts the day she first encountered the fox on her way home from school. L’enfant starts to obsess over the fox during the coming months, patiently waiting each day for it to re-emerge in the hope of eventually taming it.

Jacquet greatly tests the patience of the audience by spending far too long building up the trust between L’enfant and the fox, drawing undue attention to the onedimensional nature of the narrative. It’s a shame considering their relationship is initially well constructed, with clever backto-back edits making it seem as though the two are genuinely observing each other. But what starts off convincingly quickly turns fanciful once the two grow closer, ultimately undermining the film’s credibility as a documentary.

★★★

For this reason, the film is at its most engaging when the human element to the story is cast aside. Eric Dumage and Gérard Simon’s superb cinematography follows the fox as it battles the harsh winter, making every use of the luscious French forest backdrop to beautifully frame their shots. Yet without the Attenborough-styled voiceover reasoning the fox’s behaviour to the audience, little is to be learned about the true nature of the animal. What we’re given instead is a rudimentary lesson about possession, where L’enfant foolishly attempts to put a leash on “her” fox. It’s the underlying message of ‘what’s wild should stay wild’ that Jacquet himself should consider next time he attempts to tame such vivid wildlife footage within an unsubstantial humanistic narrative.

Anders Wotzke

Lucky Country (M) Whilst romanticised films about the Australian bush exist aplenty, there are few that portray the threat and direness associated with living a historically ‘bush’ way of life. There are also few films which question the fortune of those who decided to resettle in Australia. However this is what Lucky Country, the new Australian thriller by director Kriv Stenders (Boxing Day), encompasses.

This film lives up to its thriller status with edgy characters and grisly moments. Set in 1902, it follows the lives of Nat (Aden Young), a landowner struggling to keep hold of the entirety of his property, his bright-eyed 12-year-old Tom (Toby Wallace) and grim teenage daughter Sarah (Hanna Mangan Lawrence). The family live in an isolated region in the Australian bush, their residence a small cabin

enclosed in a dense landscape of flora and fauna. It is this landscape, conveyed as a malevolent omnipresent force that constantly watches those within, which is the backdrop to Stenders tense creation.

The arrival of three ex-soldiers, Henry (Pip Miller), Carver (Neil Pigot), and the deathly-ill Jimmy (Eamon Farren), initially bodes well for Nat and Tom, who see the men as a potential aid to the struggling household. But Sarah soon takes interest in young Jimmy, who is hiding gold from his travelling partners. When a psychologically and physically-deteriorating Nat discovers the secrets of the nascent relationship and the gold, he sets off a dark feud amongst the family and the men in which nobody is left intact.

Lucky Country may not be your traditional thriller, but it certainly manages to disturb, and not just through gore alone. Perhaps this is because we are so used to Australian settlers being depicted as heroic, hardworking and fortunate personalities;

★ ★ ★ 1/2 so observing them as greedy and depraved individuals goes against the grain. Nat’s severe pain over his wife’s death is well executed

by Aden Young, and his decline into psychosis is eerily similar to that seen in The Shining. Toby Wallace is outstanding as the innocent yet knowing Tom, and Sarah and Carver’s brittle encounters are superbly nuanced with strong sexual tension and fear. The dialogue is a little clunky, but this is redeemed by strong performances from the cast.

Megan Wright

9A d Anders and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and

When it comes to adapting a highly celebrated novel for the big screen, Australian director Steve Jacobs has the right attitude. “There’s no point in redesigning the wheel,” Jacobs says in regards to his faithful adaptation of J.M Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, which marks his first film since 2001’s AFI award winning comedy/drama La Spagnola.

It’s sound thinking, especially when the ‘wheel’ in question was awarded the 1999 Booker Prize and was penned by a Nobel Prize winning author.

AW: Having read Disgrace a few years back, the first thing I noticed was how faithful an adaptation it was.

What was the motivation for keeping the film so true to the novel?

Set in post-apartheid South Africa, Disgrace stars John Malkovich as a disgruntled Cape Town University professor David Lurie. After carelessly having an affair with one of his students and losing his job, David decides to take refuge on his daughter Lucy’s (Jessica Haines) farm on the Eastern Cape. But in the aftermath of a vicious attack on the farm, he is forced to come to terms with more than his ‘disgrace’ alone.

SJ: Well because it’s such a great book, I didn’t want to make a bad film of a great book! (Laughs) The book is great for a reason; so our journey was to always remain respectful of the book and to what we felt was the intentions of the novel. We wanted to do it not as a homage, because things have to be catered for the cinematic format, but we did want to keep faithful to something that we believed was, well, right. There’s no point in redesigning the wheel; it already works, so all we wanted to do was make it work cinematically.

During our interview, Jacobs spoke about the pressures of adapting a prized novel, the difficulties of filming in a foreign country and the issues he and producer/screenwriter Anna Monticelli had with financing for the film.

AW: Despite being an Australian production, most of it was filmed in South Africa. What was your reasoning for not opting for a more local location alternative?

ANDERS WOTZKE: What initially attracted you to the idea of adapting Disgrace into a film?

STEVE JACOBS: It was Anna’s [producer/screenwriter] idea at first. I read the book and loved the book, as she did. It’s a magnificent piece of literature, with wonderful characters and an unsentimental approach to difficult issues

10

and people. You’re automatically attracted to something which has that sort of excellence.

SJ: Well, there were really two reasons why we went to South Africa. Anna and I felt that we wanted to keep as much authenticity as possible in the film. We really went the hard yard for the film because, as filmmakers and artists, we’re putting integrity into the piece. So even though it was inconvenient and costly, we went [to South Africa] because we felt that it would help the final product. Although, the

Film Feature compromises that are necessary in filmmaking to actually go to South Africa was important to consider; we perhaps could have done it in South Australia, or somewhere like that. But we were assured that we would get a rebate of our expenditures in South Africa, but unfortunately the government changed their mind and didn’t give us the rebate! (Laughs)

context so many issues. These characters are drawn in fashion that is neither good nor bad; they are just human beings placed in these circumstances. Like all great pieces of literature, the book has a universal quality to it and that was why we wanted to make it. So really, anyone can interpret it in any way they like, and they should because that’s what great art is all about.

AW: What about the South African government; were they at all supportive given the film takes a critical look at the nation?

AW: David Lurie is a fascinating choice for a protagonist because, let’s be honest, he’s a bit of a bastard! Were you ever worried that audiences wouldn’t take to his character?

SJ: We tried for quite a few years to actually get funding from South Africa, but it was unsuccessful. If it did come, it came at the cost of losing creative control and we weren’t prepared to let other people take over. As artists, we wanted to make sure our work had the integrity we wanted it to have. It’s just unfortunate that there is not one dollar of South African money in the film, and when we didn’t get the rebate from [the Australian] government, that was a further disappointment.

AW: So how did you end up funding the film?

SJ: Screen Australia thought it deserved funding, because it was going to show off the abilities of many Australians behind the camera and a few in front of it. Fortunately for us, they believed it was an opportunity for Australians to make a film that was in demand around the world - a property that was sought after. So it really was one of those lucky coincidences that came into our laps where Screen Australia had the foresight and wisdom to back us.

AW: The film does deal with a lot of sensitive issues relating to post-apartheid South Africa. Do you feel as though this film specifically speaks about the situation there or can these themes be applied on a universal level?

SJ: It’s definitely universal. I mean, that’s why the book is done so well. I believe films like this could be done in areas that have been through long traumatic periods, like Palestine or Northern Ireland or the Balkans.

AW: Even Australia in regards to the Stolen Generation…

SJ: Yes, there are many aspects similar racism and dominance of authority. You know, anywhere where rivalries and histories have locked people into conflict that can’t be resolved. So when I read the book I didn’t solely think “oh, this is about South Africa”. I’m not qualified, nor would I ever presume to be, to make a statement about South Africa. The great thing about Coetzee’s novel is that it puts up in a believable

SJ: Our job was to make the David Lurie come alive from the book. Obviously, he worked in the book! Readers really identified with him, or maybe not with him but maybe his scenario. Whatever it was, they weren’t turned off by his character and didn’t put the book down. So our job was to actually reflect what was in the book. We felt that if we reflected that honestly, the audience would follow, as they did in the book, this flawed, human character. One who’s not all bad, but not all good.

AW: I don’t think any actor is more suited to the role of David Lurie than John Malkovich. Did he instantly spring to mind?

SJ: Basically, he did! He knew the book, he liked La Spagnola, and he liked the script. So I met him in Los Angeles and he then came onboard! I think John is wonderful in the role because he shows the complexity of David. People really are paradoxes; they don’t sort of wake up one morning and go all blue or all green or all pink! (laughs) AW: It took an extensive run of auditions before Jessica Haines was given the role of Lucy. What was it about her audition that landed her the role?

SJ: It was her honesty.

She portrayed the strengths of the character with complete conviction, that wasn’t fake. We needed the audience to really believe that this character existed -to do so many heroic, or foolish, acts. If we had someone that wasn’t true, or wasn’t a great actress, then the whole film would fall flat. So really, Lucy is the protagonist.

David Lurie just reacts; he doesn’t take control of the situation, she does. So the situations she’s put in and the decision she makes have to be done convincingly and Jessica understood that.

She understood why she stayed [after the attack]. She understood the nature of her connection with the land and the sacrifices that were necessary. That made her the best, by far, of all the actresses we auditioned.

11

m with Nav and Anders , Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav

Last Ride (MA)

★ ★ ★ 1/2

In Last Ride, Hugo Weaving won’t be seen dodging bullets in slow motion or transforming into a giant killer robot. Instead, he can be seen as the very flawed, very human excon Kev, on the run in the Australian outback with his ten year-old son Chook.

Steering clear of the melodrama that is usually served with the fugitive premise, director Glendyn Ivin ominous debut provides a deep character study of a jaded man not fit to be a father. Whilst the minimalistic plot could have benefited from a few more thrills, Last Ride still delivers on the promise Ivin exemplified in his short film Cracker Bag, which went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2003.

Loosely adapted the from Denise Young’s novel The Last Ride, Mac Gudgeon’s screenplay cleverly divulges the story through snippets of dialogue and flashbacks. Petty criminal Kev (Hugo Weaving) and his son Chook (Tom Russell) are on the run, seeking refuge in the unforgiving South Australian outback.

Pitted against the elements as well as each other, their troubled relationship is pushed to the limits as Kev’s frighteningly volatile nature sees him take a few too many parenting lessons from his own abusive father. As Chook expresses growing concern for the well-being

of a man named Max (John Brumpton), the consequence of Kev’s aggression becomes alarmingly apparent as their past starts to catch up with them.

Last Ride is a slow-burning story of love and survival that manages to engage even once the predictably plotted narrative loses steam. This greatly owes to Hugo Weaving’s faultless performance as Kev, whose violent temperament is brilliantly underpinned by a hint of genuine compassion. Showing promise of a bright future is newcomer Tom Russell as Chook, who more than capably plays across from the three time AFI award winning actor. In support, Anita Hegh brief stint as Kev’s former flame Maryanne deserves praise for memorably seeping in on what is otherwise a two man show.

Easily the film’s most illustrious character is the hauntingly beautiful scrubland of the Flinders Ranges. Captured in vivid widescreen

by Greig Fraser, Ivin uses the callous environment to echo Kev and Chook’s turbulent relationship and to progressively isolate them from society. Their seclusion is never more apparent than when they travel across the eerie plains of Lake Eyre, the world’s largest salt lake, where the limitless horizon perpetually projects the blue sky across the lake’s thin veil of water.

It’s all beautifully underpinned by Paul Charlier’s sparse, but affecting sound scape.

Yet the film’s technical achievements can only mask Last Ride’s narrative deficiencies for so long.

As much as there is to appreciate about the convincing character study Glendyn Ivin has crafted, his minimalist approach to filmmaking doesn’t suit the feature format as much as it did in his short form works. Whilst Last Ride will do well at finding an appreciative audience amongst arthouse crowds, there isn’t enough action or suspense amidst the deep character driven story to appease a mainstream audience. That’s hardly a criticism at all really.

12 Nav and Anders , Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav and Anders, Film with Nav m with

Urban explorers Between me and you I have a story to tell. This story is what we call a grey story, it’s not necessarily ILLEGAL, I’m not selling drugs to 15 year olds, but it’s not exactly LEGAL, I’m not having a tea party in the sunshine with my mother.

This is a story of explorers, a tale void of the 18th century heroes of colonial times, a story of the neglected explorer, The Urban Explorer.

and exploring details together. There are Clan’s based out of all the major cities of Australia.

Urban Explorers are the people who trudge our baron urban landscapes in search of the forgotten corners of our city. They crawl through drain pipes, climb down utility shafts and jump from building rooftops.

Urban Explorers take back the city, and in true Urban Explorer fashion our anonymous investigative journalist traipsed into the ‘Authorised Access Only’ voids of a certain abandoned Adelaide medical centre.

When once our colonial heroes had to risk the plagues of pirates and scurvy, our Urban Explorers have to risk the plagues of the police and overweight security guards.

Secretive as they come, the Cave Clan has as they say – a hesitant relationship with the media, and even after we asked for a guided insight into their workings we were met with stone silence.

there is definitely no abandoned hospital here!

The trick to urban exploring is ‘be prepared’, perhaps this is some nostalgic throwback to scout days or perhaps it’s the only way to truly succeed at urban exploring. Don’t be drunk on a Friday night with two of your mates, pull out a street directory, use your mobile phones as torches and speed off into the darkness of an abandoned building. You WILL get caught by the police

Located in the middle of one of the most sort-after suburban collectives of Adelaide sits the Julia Farr medical centre – a four story hospital which, in its graffitied and abandoned state plays host to a wide variety of urban trespassers. From explorers to graffiti artists to the homeless to drug dealers the Julia Farr centre is an epicenter of scrupulous and sub-society behaviour.

Abandoned hospital nostalgia pays way for a horror-movie set unrivalled by any big budget Hollywood artificial creation, short of walls being splattered with blood and homicidal maniacs chasing you down the hallways, any person would be excused for thinking they’re on the set of a horror film. one street away from the building and get your details taken down, our Urban Explorers found this out the hard way.

Do however plan ahead, ask people who have been exploring before and Google your uncharted territories.

More likely or not if you do Google Urban Explorers you’ll stumble across an exclusive group of explorers known as the (I wanted to say infamous, but I wont give them that much credit) Cave Clan. The Cave Clan is a nationally based collective of urban explorers who share information

While our expedition was cut short by the ever-looming threat of police intervention, the Julia Farr hospital is the playground of the Urban Explorer. With that in mind, it’s dangerous, creepy and downright illegal to venture into its voids.

Words by Will fisher Other illegal activities by Anonymous

13

ZINES zines ZINES Before personal blogs and fan sites on the internet came into prominence, there existed perzines and fanzines. These were and still are hard-copy paper booklets, mini-magazines, folded A4s of self published work by people called “zinesters”. There’s no secret handshake to enter this unique group: you make a zine - you’re then called a zinester. Per-zines and fanzines are the most popularly made zine – like blogs, the author shares stories about their life, or things they like with the reader.

Although, what strikes the zine uninitiated as perplexing is the fact you can write about anything.

As you can imagine, the history of zines in their current, [photo]copied form, dates back to the invention of the printing press when dissidents and marginalized citizens published their own opinions in leaflets and pamphlets. Nowadays, however, anyone can access the art form; topics covered are broad, including fan fiction, poetry, politics, art and design, personal journals,

14

a DIFFERENT FORMAT

social theory, single topic obsession, or sexual content far enough outside of the mainstream to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media.

Cheaper photocopying in the second half of last century made making zines a lot cheaper, and runs of 5000 or more copies of each title are common. Writers have used this black and white format for Sci-Fi in the 50s-60s, Punk in the 70s-80s, and the Riot Grrrl movement in the 90s. And in between, writers have practised – rather predictably – writing: writing in any genre, giving themselves deadlines, practising their craft.

Currently, the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) movement has adopted zines as an important forum for discussing galvanizing social issues such as globalization, environmentalism, media conglomeration, American imperialism and consumerism. Though, not all zines endorse any particular ideology.

Words by Sam Rodgers

These days, delicate handcrafted zines are becoming some of the most popular. With the advent of online text, having a boutique keepsake that you can pop into your bag on the bus or read before bed entices mainstream readers into the zine scene. Artists like illustrators and photographers collaborate with writers to produce visually impressive works of art.

Distribution of zines around the world happens predominantly through mail order. It has created a fairly tightknit community; zinesters connect with each other through reading, and writing letters in response to each other’s work. Otherwise there are online distros, like the US-based Microcosm Publishing (www.microcosmpublishing.com), zine fairs (in Adelaide, the Format Festival puts one on every March), and independent music and book stores. Now a zine-specific shop, the second one in the world after Melbourne, operates in Adelaide.

For more information, check out the pagethe next page

The Format Zine Shop opened its doors June 7 by members of the Format arts collective. We did this parallel to the 2% & Format art show Big! that went off on June 3 at the Queen’s Theatre; perhaps you were one of the many hundreds who attended? We also ran workshops with some interstate guests, who are already deep in alternative text culture, called Big Words. We also had a lot of help from Carclew and the boys from Merge magazine.

Like I said, artists – illustrators, photographers, etc – also use zines for getting their work out in hard copy. In fact, collaborations between writers and artists start in the zine world. That’s why Format will start art exhibitions, zine launches, and small performances in the space in the next month.

Keep an eye out for the new and improved Format website: w w w. f o r m a t . net.au for all you need to know. If this isn’t enticing enough, then you’ll just have to drop by the shop. It’s at 23 Peel St (between Currie and Hindley sts) in the city (look for the German consulate shield). We’re open 3pm-6pm Monday – Friday. If you have stock to give to us, email me at samwise27@gmail. com for more details.

“Maga ’zine – there you go, that’s how you pronounce it.

It doesn’t rhyme with brine.”

Hopefully by now you’ve got a handle on what zines are. [Maga ’zine – there you go, that’s how you pronounce it. It doesn’t rhyme with brine.] There is a small group of people in Adelaide who have been making zines for many years, and in Melbourne there already exists a zine shop called Sticky.

In Wollongong and Newcastle there are large zine fairs, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney now has the largest zine fair in this part of the world. It was at this fair that I, personally, bought a whole lot of stock for the Adelaide shop. We also have titles from the United States and the UK, and zinesters from all over Australia have been sending me stock for the past month or so. We now have 150+ titles in store.

On behalf of the Format Collective,S a m Rodgers.

So why does anywhere need a zine shop? I’m glad you asked. Most of the arts have their DIY outlet. Music has indie bands, art has art shows (though artists utilise the zine format as well), there’s amateur theatre groups, and filmmakers now have YouTube. For writers, it is a little harder getting published and to have their work ‘out there’.

Zine making is DIY publishing. Zines can be about anything and the more people that get involved, the wider the range of subject matter to read. For the writer, zines give an impetus to write. It’s a testing ground for the audience you might have. It’s also a good way for the writer to get firsthand experience of what it’s like to sacrifice babies to the reading public. This can help shape their work in the future. Personally, I’ve learnt a lot from making zines – and I’m still learning.

15

Arts and Culture ...with Nat Sam Deere This edition of On Dit sees our Nat (aka Phat Natty) leaving radio career with ABC Radio and hope that her smashing new far from upmarket hair salons

lovely Cults subbie the wonderful behind the big smoke to pursue her in Renmark! We wish her the best haircut will stand her in good stead, as she will be.

Hopping into the arts and culture hotseat is Sam Deere, author of Professional Confessional and other assorted artsy bits. Welcome Sam, we look forward to seeing you around the office.

In w

ith

th t wi

Ou

...

new

ld eo

th

Viz

Guide->

16

the

!

When

What

Where

Cost

7th -23rd August

SALA Festival (South Australian Living Arts Festival)

Various Locations across the city

Free Admission to all Venues

26th June – 6th September

Making NatureMasters of Eurpean Landscape Art

Art Gallery SA 10am – 5pm Daily

Free

1st January – 31st December

To Be A Child Exhibition

Mortlock Wing, State Library

Free

12th June – 2nd August

Art and Heart

Tandanya, 253 Grenfell Street

Free

12th June - 2nd August

Our Country, River Country

Tandanya, 253 Grenfell Street

Free

26th June – 6th September

Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art (Exhibition)

Art Gallery SA

Adult : $10 Concession: $8 Students: $6

23rd September – 3rd August

Nyuntu Ngali: You We Two (Play)

Adelaide Festival Theatre

$25 per person $20 Groups Bookings (6+)

“To me this is an important day because Aboriginal people in Australia have struggled for rights and recognition of their culture and traditions to a greater degree than many other countries.”

– Alison Denee.

by Natalie Oliveri NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

During NAIDOC Week, celebrations take place to honour the history, culture and achievement of Australia’s Indigenous people. It began after the 1967 referendum when Aboriginal people gained the right to be counted in the census.

and the award ceremony takes place.

Each year, over the first week of July a host city is selected and it is the place where the National NAIDOC Awards Ceremony and Ball is held.

The awards were created to recognise the exceptional work and effort that Indigenous people do and put into specific fields or to better the lives of Indigenous communities and raise awareness about Indigenous issues. NAIDOC week is extremely important to the Indigenous people of Australia as well as many Australians.

Although the focus city holds majority of the attention throughout the week, local activities and celebrations are held by communities, local agencies, schools, government agencies and workplaces so that any Australians are free to be involved.

At The Heights School, like many other South Australian Schools, NAIDOC week falls on the last week of term or in the school holidays so the recognition of Aboriginal culture and learning takes place during Reconciliation Week. At the end of every NAIDOC week, a ball is held

The awards cover different categories, including apprentices, artists, Elders, sportspeople, youths, and scholars. A Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an individual that continuously contributes to the Indigenous people and causes.

Aboriginal culture and it is a time for all Australians to come together and show their appreciation for the contribution Indigenous people make to our society.

It is the time to show how proud of our Indigenous cultures we are and how much they are valued within our community.

Junior Schoo Leader for The Heights, Alison Denee, commented on the importance of NAIDOC. “To me this is an important day because Aboriginal people in Australia have struggled for rights and recognition of their culture and traditions to a greater degree than many other countries.”

NAIDOC

week

is

about

celebrating

17

Social Fumblings; Tale* of ‘the Century’

by Vincent Coleman

I have a love/hate relationship with drinking games. As a booze-hound and competitive male I love the noise, the chaos, the yelling, the cut-and-thrust of competitive drinking. On the other hand, drinking games so often spell the night going rather pear-shaped and vomit-filled.

Rimmers’ aka pennies is fun, so long as everyone involved had the dexterity to bounce coins off a table and into a cup using their mouth. Amongst strangers this game usually ends up awkward and sober. King’s Cup is a favourite of almost everyone I know, the loser having to drink a pint of 4 different bevvies, often ranging from Midori to stout. I once blacked out after 3 rounds of this only to wake up at 6am in a mysterious house on the outskirts of town.

This cautionary tale, however, is about the most devastating drinking game I have ever played – Century.

This game came about at a house party of good friend Gibbons Orlando.

Located in the delightful hills of Hahndorf, his lovely family abode became the site for a degree of drunkery we had not seen in some time. With the night ambling on a few people and myself thought that we should kick the night up a notch with this game we’d heard about. It is the kind of thing which sounds easy enough, yet has a reputation of writing people off horrendously.

The rules to Century are simple; everyone sits around a table with a shot glass and approximately 8 beers/ciders/5% alcoholic beverages. Every minute for 100 minutes, everyone drinks a 30mL shot of your chosen poison. This doesn’t sound all that hard, but you end up ingesting 12 standard drinks in just over an hour and a half. In addition to this, you can opt for a single shot of spirits at 50 and a double at 100. If you can stomach that it’s fun to play with macho jocks that are already half-cut and other alpha-male types.

Once we’d rounded up a dozen shot glasses and everyone in the backyard we started off, everyone already falling into a false sense of security at how easy it seemed. Pretty soon it became difficult to keep track of what number we were up to, so a sober score-counter was roped in and cries of “3, 2, 1, DRINK!” began to echo through the air of that quaint Germanic town.

Cut to 60-something and half the players are out, feeling more than a little queasy. One of our friends, lets call him ‘Alda’,

18

has already vomited in the garden.

He demands to be re-entered into the game but is refused by the drunker and more competitive of the prospective centurions.

87 shots of Cider (a mistake I shall not make again) and I suddenly appear to be alone at the drinking. I am about to declare myself the unchallenged centurion of the night and mighty conqueror of maledom, when the unsuspecting figure of jazz pianist Harro pipes up. Like Mitchell Goosen and Jack from 1990s rollerblading film Airborne, we decide to finish this race together, as equals. Alda once again asks to re-enter and is promptly told to fuck-off again.

99 shots down and people can’t believe we’re still alive. We clamber on the table and both down a double shot of Gordon’s Dry London Gin. I feel a little ill, but surprisingly okay. We are filmed and expectorate loud cockney gibberish into the camera, later to appear on Facebook. Right about here I black out.

As I come to I am lying on the cold, hard surface of tarmac, a car park to be precise. My head hurts and I cannot get up. I hear some muttering in the distance and after a minute or to, manage to get to my feel and walk shakily to a nearby table. Apparently my housemate Mr Metaphor and I were play-fighting when he pushed me and I fell headfirst into the street, hard.

*All names have been altered to protect their identities.

He then proceeded to run off in fear, presuming my now limp body dead.

Everyone has seen this happen at a party; the first 5 seconds is funny, at 10 seconds people are getting concerned, 15 seconds and we’re heading into ‘does anyone know how to get rid of a body?’ territory. I decide I need a cigarette and a beer to get over my recent near-death experience/ concussion and it all goes a little hazy again.

I come to in the living room and there are decidedly fewer people left at the party, although some are new faces just arrived. Harro’s normally virtuosic Jazz piano skills have turned into limp fists pounding out ‘krrlonk!’ and he retires to a discrete spot to pass out. Some miscellaneous music with a 4/4 beat comes on and I decide to bust out my sweet new swing dancing moves on my ex-girlfriend. The poor girl is hurled and snapped back and forth around the room, glazed fear in her eyes, while I am wondering why more of the girls at the party haven’t thrown themselves at me yet. I let her go and she spins into someone and I fall myself into a table, hitting my head on the edge with a dull thud.

I black out again and come to walked down the wooden staircase, which I proceed to slip on in my ill-advised cowboy boots and fall down 1/3 of the flight of stairs. I am now very, very sore.

Unfazed, we proceed outside do drink Gin from the bottle with the remaining conscious partygoers. Harro, now dubbed Parro-Harro, stumbles out and tries to go to the toilet in a pot-plant. Gibbons saves his parent’s herbs and forces Parro-Harro to the lawn where he relieves himself facing everyone, completely unawares of his exposure.

Black out… and you’re back in the room.

Alda has passed out in plain sight on the couch. Permanent textas and toilet paper are quickly sourced. A mountain is quickly erected. Alda wakes up to see Gibbons’ smiling face telling him it’s all-okay and to go back to sleep. Sick-pack containers are added and I decide to go that extra mile and pour crushed up potato chips into his pockets. His face may have been ‘mooned’ by myself, and housemate Kirk Special. Pictures here may also have been posted of Facebook.

I wake up feeling the worst I have ever felt in my life. A pounding cider-and-gin hangover makes me feel like my brain is being squeezed out of my brain. I also have no memory of anything apart from playing centurion and being knocked out in a car park, and I realize that everyone in the kitchen below is talking about me. Alda is rather unhappy with me and wants to beat me up. Next time.

Kirk offers to wake me up for him, then simply to show him where I am sleeping.

I walk down the stairs to be regaled and laughed at all at once, slowly piecing together my fractured memories. I am informed of Alda’s desire to “kick my ass” and in my confusion agree. Alda decides discretion is the better part of valour and waits in the car for his ride home.

The day ahead is bright and sunny. I get annoyed at everyone taking the whole morning finding a Vegan café in Hahndorf and go to find some Eggs Benedict before falling asleep in a park.

My body is a collage of bruises and cuts and I smell like an ashtray.

From my pocket I rummage out a crumpled piece of note-paper with dozens of marks on it, the penmanship slowly but surely descending into scrawl.

I count the marks.

There are 100.

I am a centurion.

19

Urban Sound Environments

by J. Swanborough

While the Sonic City project develops

a novel approach to interaction with our urban environment, the concept of developing aural awareness for our urban environment also has far more practical applications.

Music

is, amongst other things, a communication with ones surroundings.

We often forget the integral part hearing plays in the way we perceive the world.

Since the rapid industrialisation of the early 20th century, the ways in which we communicate with our environment have changed dramatically. The bustling metropolis has brought about the innovation of many unique and interesting musical ideas.

In 1930s Weimar Germany, the cabaret

format was envisaged as a response to the fragmented, high-paced metropolitan society. 1948 saw the innovation of Musique concrète, an exploration of non-traditional musical sounds, employing magnetic tape, transistors, and vacuum tubes and pushing the parameters of what could be defined as music. In the 1960s, R. Murray Schafer came up with the concept of Acoustic Ecology, the idea that we try to hear the acoustic environment around us as a musical composition, and that we own responsibility for its composition.

His theory was put to use by avant-garde composers such as John Cage, and is the basis for an interesting experiment in urban acoustic ecology.

Schafer’s ideas helped to express the idea that the sound of a locality can express a community’s identity, and that settlements can be recognised and characterised by their soundscapes.

Unfortunately, post industrial soundscapes have been largely homogenised by the anonymous noise of the contemporary city and its traffic.

In the past ten years, however, several projects have been developed with the goal of creating a musical interface with the urban environment.

20

One such project is Sonic City, an immersive sound device which responds both to body responses and environmental factors to create a soundscape based on the city itself as an interface, and direct physical engagement with the city as interaction.

By measuring factors such as heart rate, arm motion, speed, direction, incline, proximity to objects, light level, noise level, pollution, temperature, electromagnetic activity, and enclosure, Sonic City attempts to create a sound design consistent with how people already perceive and experience the environment of the city.

The device, which currently still in prototype phase looks somewhat like a straightjacket with the arms loose, uses real-time audio processing of urban sounds as a basis for the sound design. Working with sound artists Daniel Skoglund, the design is influenced by soundscape composition and glitch. Without getting overly into the technical side of the design, the input parameters are abstracted by the impact they have on the output, breaking them down into the elements which will affect the compositional structure, and the elements that determine the quality of each soundtimbre, envelope etc.

The project is an attempt to build a dialogue not only on how we see the city as a setting for musical inspiration, but also as the means of musical creation itself. As the sounds created by the device are initiated by both user response and environmental conditions, the way in which our perception and mobility are affected by our surroundings are made apparent in the constructed soundscape.

In designing public spaces, the way in which sound interacts had not been thought about until recently. Last year, the Royal Institute of British Architecture and the Institute of Acoustics held a joint meeting to discuss the importance of sound in architecture. The meetings emphasised the importance of making the aural experience of architecture harmonious with the visual design.

Sound, in architectural context, is able to add colour and drama to a space, provide navigational cues and define the built space. When the aural architecture of a space is badly designed, the inhabitants experience themselves as being socially isolated, or conversely, sonic leakage can occur and allow unwanted invasion of privacy. You only have to go to a noisy restaurant to understand the consequences of inappropriate acoustics.

The

importance of aural architecture has only been taken into account recently due to the fact that the aural architecture of a space cannot be experienced without the events and people who inhabit the space, sound instantly disappears and there is no good means of recording the aural experience of a space even now. We now have a much better understanding of how aural spatiality inflicts invisible boundaries in space, however, and that people are most comfortable when the acoustic arena matches the appropriate social distance. The vocabulary used to describe sound is still weakly developed, but with the discussion now open, architects are implementing R. Murray Schafer’s ideas about acoustic ecology into design consideration.

Using Schafer’s example and paying attention to our sound environments is a good way to heighten your perception and appreciate the nuances of the everyday world around you. Even if you have no interest in becoming the next great sonic architect, you might at least lessen your chances of being hit by a car.

of music: rather, it merely refers to those productions which were/are performed at one of the many theatres “on Broadway.”

Paris, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Tokyo and New York: creative centres of the modern Western world. To many, the label ‘artist’ evokes the stereotype of a hermit, working in solitude to create alternative realities that serve to overpower his disappointment of the world. However, while this may be true of some artists and their creative motivations, other artists are besotted by the ‘real world,’ infatuated to the point where they can recognise beauty in most ‘every day’ things.

Throughout history, metropolises have been a vital source of creative inspiration and sensory stimulation – the excitement of discovering something new every time you walk out your door - is one highlight of living in a city. Also, creative minds attract, and creativity inspires creativity: an environment which nurtures many creative individuals sets new standards and inspires new ideas. This article explores some of the ‘creative spaces’ in one of the most vital artistic metropolises ever known: New York.

The Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts is a collection of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighbourhood, Upper West Side Manhattan.

The Lincoln Centre houses some of the major arts organisations in New York: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre; Film Society of Lincoln Centre; Jazz at Lincoln Centre; Juilliard School; Lincoln Centre Theatre; Metropolitan Opera; New York City Ballet; New York City Opera; New York Philharmonic; New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; School of American Ballet.

The Juilliard School (I actually started having heart palpitations while writing this part!!) is one the world’s leading performing arts conservatories, an institution boasting Drama, Dance and Music Faculties. Juilliard was founded as Music School in 1905 and as such, the Music faculty is the largest of the three divisions.

Current music faculty members include: Samuel Adler (composer/writer. Best known as the author of a book on orchestration); John Corigliano (composer, whose score for the film The Red Violin won him an Academy Award. In 2001, his Symphony No. 2 won the Pulitzer Prize for music); Itzhak Perlman (Israeli violinist. Has collaborated extensively with film composer John Williams and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and has appeared with every major orchestra).

Notable graduates include Tito Puente, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Chick Corea, Renée Flemming, Nigel Kennedy, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Nina Simone, Walter Taieb, Eric Whitacre and John Williams.

Broadway, of course, is one of the major musical creative centres in Western musical history. Broadway (an inventive title derived from the obvious fact that it is indeed a “wide street”) runs the full length of Manhattan and just over the border into The Bronx, however, the most famous section lies between 42nd and 53rd Streets – The Theatre District. Also known as the Great White Way, The Theatre District in located in Midtown Manhattan and features around 40 theatres. Contrary to popular belief, the term “Broadway” does not actually denote any specific style

Carnegie Hall is commonly known as the finest classical music performance venue in the United States. The hall opened in 1891 and houses three stages – The Isaac Stern Auditorium/Ronald O. Perelman Stage (seats 2, 804), the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall (seats 268) and the Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall (seats 599).

In April 2009 the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra whose members were chosen from auditions uploaded onto YouTube, gave its first performance at Carnegie Hall. The hall has also been the venue for a numerous world premieres including: * Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (1893); * Richard Strauss’ ‘Sinfonia Domestica’ conducted by the composer (1904); * Gershwin’s ‘Concerto in F’ with the composer on piano (1925); * Rachmaninoff’s ‘Variations on a Theme of Corelli’ performed by the composer (1931).

Notable conductors who have performed at the Hall include Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski.

The Hotel Chelsea is famous – and infamous – as a hub for artistic creativity and is located on West 23rd Street in the Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City. At the time when the Hotel was first built (1883), it was located in the heart of the Theatre District and was the tallest building in New York. Originally, the Hotel accommodated both overnight and long-term residents. During its history, the Hotel has been home to numerous talented and influential creatives including writers and philosophers, actors and film directors, visual artists, fashion designers and musicians.

The long list of musicians who have stayed at the Chelsea (either long- or short-term) include: Virgil Thomson, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, The Ramones, Édith Piaf, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen. More recently, the Chelsea has hosted musicians including Rufus Wainwright, Madonna and Anthony Kiedis.

The Hotel Chelsea was also the place where Sid Vicious - Sex Pistols’ bassist – “may have” stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, in 1978. Due to the Hotel’s creative tenants, the Chelsea is a frequent subject in popular culture.

One such notable music example is Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel #2” recounts his relationship with Janis Joplin, which, evidently, began at the Chelsea Hotel.

21

The author is not convinced a band has to be Serious to be good – but it does so happen that most of the bands he enjoys are Serious.

So he never really knew what to think of the Horrors. This is a band that clearly values its product as a whole; image is, to Faris Badwan and the other lads clad as Vlad, important. It’s a good thing then that with Primary Colours, they’ve made an album befitting the huge amounts of effort the Horrors go to every morning to get themselves ready for the day.

The Horrors – Primary Colours “The Horrors… aren’t they those English guys who all dress in black skinny-legged jeans and have ridiculous hair?”

“Yeah. They look like spiders.”

“And they released an album called Strange House or something?”

“Yeah.”

“They had some goth-garage-punk vibe going, didn’t they… but everyone I know thinks they’re a joke. A novelty band.”

“Nah, they’re for real. Their second album is really good. Didn’t know they had it in them. It’s all post-punk and shit. They’re a Serious Band now.”

Bob Dylan – Together Through Life

Ah, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan. Sorry to say, but this will be a very minor contribution to the gigantic body of work regarding popular music’s most wilfully contrary performer. If that’s enough to make you stop reading, then so be it, but this is not an attempt to psychoanalyse the wide-eyed young man who defined the folk genre and became a beacon of the civil rights struggle, or the sneering hipster who intellectualised rock & roll. This is Together Through Life, his 33rd (!) studio album.

They have thick skins. Strange House was not exactly met with critical derision, but there was a certain backlash to a band viewed as progenitors of a dumb scene who valued their look – which many thought of as stupid anyway – above their songs. So it looks as if the Horrors have taken the criticism in their stead. They toured their debut LP, and first entered the studio to work on their follow-up in late 2007. What is evident from the starkly different mood of this album is that they have matured and improved as songwriters and musicians immeasurably and have proven themselves capable of making an album deservedly being called one of the year’s best so far.

like vultures, the rhythm section keeps the whole ominous thing chugging along, the guitar is scratchy and dissonant, and Badwan sounds detached to the point of unconsciousness– like all good postpunk singers should. Check out ‘New Ice Age’ and ‘Scarlet Fields’, two choice cuts that work brilliantly as a one-two (or five-six). And the record works as a cohesive whole, which is something so many musicians simply neglect. Care has actually been taken with regards to the track sequencing. How refreshing!

The author won’t be the only person who is, frankly, very surprised that the Horrors had such a good album in them. Their personal ceiling is that much higher for it – truly, they have done a remarkable job of staving off the wolves and crafting a sophomore effort so different to their debut. Oh, and releasing ‘Sea within a Sea’, an 8-minute long track (the album’s last) with no refrain or chorus as the first single? Genius.

The songs. They’re really good. All ten of them. The keyboards add texture and circle

Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the result is the musical equivalent of old friends meeting for beer and poker. The sounds is relaxed and ramshackle, befitting an album that didn’t exist two months before its release and that, in the best possible way, sounds like a toss-off.

ic s s u w M ie ev y R b teo k a M ape llo l i Sz Sew

Together Through Life’s history is short and its genesis recent. Asked by a director to contribute a song to his new film, Dylan – who tends to win Oscars for his one-off songs – wrote ‘Life Is Hard’, a meditative cut that’s second up here, and from then on, the record ‘sort of took its own direction’.

That seems to be a theme here; a now 68 year-old Dylan alternates between lusty (the faux-rockabilly of ‘Jolene’ and ‘Shake Shake Mama’), mischievous (the rollicking ‘My Wife’s Home Town’) and contemplative (the aforementioned ‘Life Is Hard’, and album closer ‘It’s All Good’). Oh, sure, he sounds love sick on a couple as well, but mainly, the guy sounds like he’s having a ball. The current iteration of Dylan’s Never Ending Tour band is joined by David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Mike

22

Now let me explain. I’m not saying Dylan didn’t try to make a good record.

He tried, and in my opinion succeeded. It’s better than at least a dozen of his records. But when Dylan tried, and wasn’t wilfully releasing shit just to prove everyone wrong, the end result was popular music’s three most essential albums. Speaking of trilogies, Together Through Life sounds especially surprising put into the context of his recent work. His past three albums, dubbed a comeback trilogy of sorts, were the sort of lucid, literate, musically restrained albums Dylan has mastered. They were excellent in their own right, but ponderous and heavy when compared to the sloppy fun of Together Through Life.

His voice. It needs a mention. More articulate writers than me have gone some way to doing it justice; my favourite descriptor is ‘catarrhal death rattle’, courtesy of the Guardian. Dylan’s never, ever, been easy on the ears. It was nasal in his pomp, and now it is frayed and broken, sounding like exactly what it is – the pipes of a man whose been singing (and smoking)

for a good fifty years. But it works. In the absence of lyrics to carry the weight and make world leaders blush, Dylan’s singing voice carries with it a worn-out and highly emotive quality. It’s the main instrument of this record, and details forty-five minutes of rock’s enduring enigma cracking jokes and having fun. When asked what reception he thought Together Through Life would engender, Dylan shrugged and responded: ‘my fans will like it’. Yeah, he was right.

Number one on both sides of the Atlantic in its 1st week, this is 2009’s best-sounding victory lap.

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us They’re amazing. They’re terrifying. They came from Pennsylvania and go by aliases.

They play… um. They use vocoders, yeah?

And analogue electronic instruments. A lot. To play mutant experimental psychpop. Maybe it makes sense if you’re high.

They’re Black Moth Super Rainbow, and did I mention they’re amazing?

There exists a convoluted and suitably weird back-story to BMSR. Two of them – Tobacco and Power Pill Fist (right, that doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, or to you probably, but Tobacco is the frontman and PPF the bassist) started off as satanstompingcaterpillars, a band who no doubt released similarly strange records until they got all encouraged, changed their name, and added Father Hummingbird, Iffernaut, and The Seven Fields of Aphelion (the best pseudonym yet – so unwieldy!) to their ranks in 2003. They released Starting a People the next year, which was a mindfuck, Dandelion Gum in 2007, which was a brilliant mind-fuck, and now they’ve released Eating Us, a continuation of the sound that makes people think they’re living in the wrong decade (or Universe).

BMSR’s sound has evolved through their

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

I was, once upon time, reading a review of El Guincho’s 2008 release Alegranza! (a gem recommended for those who like Panda Bear’s style of sample-heavy pastiche pop) and the first paragraph said something that’s stayed with me: ‘On the one hand, it reminds you of so much other music you love, and on the other, it sounds little like any of them’. This seemed to me a summation of just why music is so cherished, its ability to contextualise some emotion or time of one’s life and act as a signpost, as well as being something new. I get something very similar with Veckatimest, the pristine third LP by Brooklyn-based (seems that’s the place to be) Grizzly Bear.

four albums. Easy listening it still is most definitely not, but they have toned down the esotericism a bit. Not much, though. Here, the orchestration, hardly the dourest around, is even more lush, and the drums and bass even more rhythmic and undulating (here they contribute more to the overall sound). The band has benefitted, I feel, from venturing into a modern recording studio and enlisting the help of Dave Fridmann (of Flaming Lips and MGMT fame) to produce. The sound is crisper, and the elements that have helped BMSR carve a wholly unique stake among modern bands have only been amplified.

It’s leaner as well. At an even dozen, Eating Us is so far the only BMSR record with less than sixteen tracks, and it sounds more vital (though perhaps less trippy) because of it. The standout tracks here are ‘Iron Lemonade’, ‘American Face Dust’, and ‘Born on a Day the Sun didn’t Rise’ (which is a prime candidate for the lead single and showcases the band’s quirks). And I could go on. There are criticisms, however. This is not music everyone will enjoy. It is unrelenting.

Vocoders are pretty annoying, especially after forty minutes. The only thing in the way of respite here, aside from the untitled final track, a restrained acoustic number, is when BMSR switch from a pulsating psych freak-out to a

slightly less pulsating psych freak-out.

Alright, I’m gonna gush a bit now. There’s been a lot written about Ed Droste and co ‘deconstructing’ or ‘dissecting’ modern folk music. This is… err, bullshit. They just do it better than the others. In fact, there is a distinct constructive element to Grizzly Bear’s music; songs often seem the products of deliberate layering and are built from the ground up. Whilst listening to this record, I was reminded of the debut LP by Battles, Atlas. Now, forgive me this unlikely comparison, but I see the similarities between Grizzly Bear and New York’s finest purveyors of chipmunk-voiced robot rock.

On record, they are both maximalists. Every imaginable space on Veckatimest is filled, just as it is on the stunning Atlas. It’s especially interesting on this album, as I can hear reconciliation between the flawless production and instrumental virtuosity (these guys can play; and sing) and the ‘lo-fi’ aesthetic they have been branded with.

for just escaping it all. Other highlights are ‘Cheerleader’, closer ‘Foreground’, ‘While You Wait For The Others’, and ‘Ready, Able’, which has this ethereal moment at 1:48 where it just… shimmers. Seriously, I know I’ve just recommended six of the album’s twelve tracks, but I could have gone further.

Of course, this sonic maximalism would be potentially unwelcome if it weren’t filled with possibly the most gorgeous sounds you’ll hear all year. ‘Southern Point’ and single ‘Two Weeks’ form the most potent opening salvo of any record for some time. The first lyrics on the album are ‘our haven/on the southern point/ is calling us’, and this ruminative reflection of one’s place in the world is continued by vocalist Droste on ‘Dory’, the record’s sparsest arrangement notable for its irresistible, fleeting vocal hook: ‘we’ll swim around like two dories/let loose in the bay’. Veckatimest is actually named after an uninhabited island in Massachusetts that affected the band to the degree they wrote an album about its potential

I wonder if this review will serve as an incentive or disincentive for people to find out about one of the world’s more compellingly weird bands. I do recommend them, honestly. This record is amazing and no-one can legitimately complain that they have heard this before. Because they haven’t.

Back to the production; it’s near perfect.

It’ll ensure Veckatimest a place in the collections of audiophiles, but doesn’t sacrifice clarity for atmosphere. I often struggle to hear the psychedelic element to Grizzly Bear’s music, but here there is a gentle haze that hangs over the music, aided and abetted by the times where the band members decide to harmonise (three tracks feature the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, presumably just because they can). It lends a familiar quality to the songs as mentioned before; in the best way possible, these songs sound recognisable, as if the melodies are universal.

Veckatimest is a dense, gorgeous puzzle that will reveal more with each listen, released by a band at the top of their powers and deserving of all acclaim. It’ll take its year-end acclaim quietly and without fuss, yet may just make the biggest impression.

23

MC Pressure Interview with J. Swanborough “It’s

artists, we’re currently looking at Three years after The Hard a fine line, hip signing an artist called Briggs Road saw unprecedented hop is collaborative from Victoria, he’s an up and success thrown upon coming Indigenous artist.”

Adelaide’s own hip-hop by nature...with Pharaoh, superstars, leading to a it gave us a chance to work Unlike other bands who’ve collaborative Restrung made it big, Adelaide version of the album with someone we really remains the home of the with the ASO, The Hilltop respect, but I think people band, and I wondered if Hoods have returned with can really overdo it... you anything would make them their new record State of leave. “Nah there’s not” ,he the Art. A furious challenge can dilute your music, tells me, “I think a lot of bands to the rapidly declining state and colour your go to the eastern seaboard of hip hop, State of the ART record.” to start their career. We’re in a has already topped the charts position now that there’s no need to, and been certified Gold. I caught it’s only a short plane ride and everything’s up with MC Pressure to see what has done over the net these days anyway. If we ever changed since we last heard from them. got a territory where our music started to gain momentum, then we would have to go over for “It’s pretty much the same approach we’re months at least to build up the ground level stuff, still taking into it”, says Pressure, “ Suffa is but beside that, there’s just no reason to leave.” handling production again, I think we’re fairly happy with our sound now, but we consciously One of the highlights of the album is “Classic went into this album with an intention to make Example”, featuring a guest collaboration with it heavier and more aggressive than anything legendary New York rapper Pharaoh Monch. “When we’ve done before, and I think we achieved we were asked who we wanted to collaborate with, that.” he was our first choice, both me and Suff’ grew up idolising him. He’s an artist who’s been at the Off the back of the Restrung experience, the front of lyricism in hip hop for almost the last 20 new record sees the band diversifying their years now, so for us he was both of our number sound. “The Restrung experience has taught one choice. We sent him off our cds and stuff, and us how to think outside the square a little bit he’d sort of heard of us, but hadn’t actually heard too”, says Pressure, “it’s made us realise that our music, and we didn’t hear from him for a year, we don’t have to use all sampled production and he finally got back to us and said he was keen and because of that we’ve used a lot more to do the track so we were like “Fuck yeah!”” session musicians on this album, we’ve got a string quartet in on 4 of the tracks, which were Beside Pharoah Monch’s appearance, productions and beats that we thought needed and a track featuring local crew some more, and we’ve got in the keyboardist Funkoars, the collaboration has and vocalist and bass player from Lowrider been kept to a minimum compared throughout the album to compliment the to previous Hilltops albums. With production that was already there.” an ever increasing emphasise on guest spots taking over the US Having already achieved so much, Pressure hip hop scene, Pressure question’s maintains that the group aren’t worried about the motivation of some artists. “It’s finding motivation to keep making music. a fine line, you know, hip hop is “It’s not a chore to remain relevant, when it collaborative by nature, in the case of becomes difficult then that’s probably the time Pharaoh, it gave us a chance to work to stop playing, we still have stuff to say, and it with someone who we really respect, just comes out.” but I think people can really overdo it, you can have too many guest spots, State of the Art begins the age of Golden Era and you can dilute your music, it can Records, the Hoods’ very own label, “Our start to take away from the sound contract with Obese Records had expired, and that’s you and it can colour your we wanted to call all the shots from a business record in a way that you don’t point of view. Creatively it’s not much of a have control of. I certainly, change, Obese treated us really well, but we when I buy an album buy wanted to be able to capitalise on overseas it for that artist, not for the markets, we’ve just brokered a deal with thousand collaborations on Universal to release our stuff in Canada and it. But there is certainly room parts of Europe, and we’re trying to get over to for a couple of dope guest spots, push the record on our own accord as well. We and for that reason we’ve tried to also have plans to sign some up and coming keep it to a minimum.”

24

Five years ago, the Hoods broke what soon became a burgeoning Australian hip hop scene, which Pressure asserts is still on the rise. “The Oz hip hop scene is going crazy, if anything its gotten bigger than it was a couple of years ago, there are so many acts out there getting played on national commercial radio, and television, street mags, and the music hasn’t been watered down, noone’s out there to make commercial gain, that’s why the scene is commanding such respect, I think we’re in a really good position as far as the culture’s concerned.”

Pressure shows similar optimism for the Adelaide scene; “Bands like Funkoars, Terra Firma and Lowrider are starting to fill big venues. There’s not quite the same feeling for up and coming bands, it’s still an underground scene, but they’re still getting love, artists like K21 who in the future are going to start getting those kinds of heads to shows. The best piece of advise I can give to upcoming acts is firstly, some acts need to take their time, you don’t want to go releasing material before you’re ready, first impressions last a long time, so you need to develop your sound before you try and put it out there. And on top of that, you’ve gotta make the music you want to make, just be yourselves, don’t go making music because you think it might get you airplay. People have gotta make the music they grow up loving, that they’re passionate about and I think that’s where the best music comes from.”

Pressure promises that those heading along to their upcoming shows will have some surprises in store.

“Last time we toured we had Lowrider with us, who are a soul/fusion/ funk band and we used them to create instrumentals, and we had a string quartet, so we had a 9 piece band with us onstage, so this time we’re getting back to basics, we’ve got a whole lineup for the show of shit we’re doing differently, that will be revealed at the show, but we’re not doing the same thing that we’ve done in the past.”

The Hilltop Hoods play a sold out show at Thebarton Theatre Saturday, August 1st. State of the Art is out now.

doing it solo

an interview with ben solo (and band)

Ben Solo is an Adelaide musician who has been composing and recording songs since 2003.

After a short stint on his own, Ben has recently started playing with a full band. Ben’s band (tentatively titled Ben Solo with Band) features musicians from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Bass player John is best known for his work in hardcore band Nazarite Vow, drummer Matt plays with instrumental act Monkey Puzzle Tree, while keyboardist Brenton comes from a jazz background and plays in his own group, the Brenton Foster Trio, each player contributing to the interesting divergences found in the band’s live sound. Ranging from deeply melodic balladry to visceral displays of all out jam rock, the group’s presence sets the stage alight even at this early point.

While this is not the first time Ben has worked with other musicians, first playing a few shows in 2006 with John and Brenton, who have known him since high school, as well as Ryan Manolakis (known for his work with Mr Wednesday, Like Leaves, Brothersister and Cookie Baker) on drums, this incarnation has allowed Ben the freedom he needs to fully embody his music and escape the unpleasant pigeonholing associated with being an acoustic artist. I spoke to him about the change in approach.

“I just sort of wanted to keep people’s opinion of me in check”, says Ben, “I don’t want to be slotted into this or that category. I didn’t really want to be playing folk shows, I don’t want to be stuck there at all, it smells bad. The electric guitar is a pretty important part of me, and noise and agitation is pretty important as well. But I have the two halves and I try to keep them pretty well

balanced so people can see both sides before they decide what I am.”

involved. “He’s no ego at all, if there was we’d punish him.” says John.

“ I felt like I needed to get a band together again for some of the songs that were too hard to pull off on my own. I had a few songs we were doing at rehearsals, in the first few rehearsals I wasn’t sure how to approach some of the songs I’d written so we worked through them as a group and worked them out. And they came out really well. The other songs I had before that were sort of worked out, they’re still developing and they’ve become something slightly different with the band.”

Ben’s ambition to keep things vital translates to the band’s live sound, “we try to keep it very organic, very natural” he says, “I really enjoy mistakes, I’ve always enjoyed listening to mistakes in recordings because it’s the part I find most interesting, it’s the part I listen out for.

It comes more from an opposition to something than just sort of an idea, I think it’s more a hatred for everything that’s so structured. It irritates me when you go to see bands 4, 5, 6 times and they play everything exactly the same, it pisses me off. I think it’s really important to make mistakes, I tell the guys I’d rather they make a mistake, and a pretty loud mistake rather than a half-arsed attempt at the same thing.”

While each member of the group undeniably brings their own styles to the music, Ben remains the focal point of the song writing. “I write and record all the songs, so I play all the instruments most of the time, and then I bring it to the other guys and we learn it that way, cause otherwise it takes a long time to do it, and also without one idea or direction it gets a bit hard to avoid the same thing happening all the time, because everyone has their idea of how the song should be and its always changing. I found that hard in the past couple of bands I was in, they’d sort of change their mind all the time. And that’s ok to change your mind. Sometimes it’s good, but when its not it’s good to be able to steer it back to where you want it as selfish as it sounds.

When I write a song I know what sort of feel I want for it and I know how it feels to me so I try to get that across to the other guys and they work it out from there.”

As much as Ben is the creative centre of the group, his band mates assure me there is no ego

This attitude is also reflected in the way the band cycles through material; “As soon as anything becomes too likeable, we’ll change it so people don’t like it anymore.” John says. “I do get frustrated”, remarks Ben, “if too many people tell me they like a song I’ll sort of have to change it a bit or make it a little more abrasive or whatever. I don’t know why. I suppose I like people liking it, but I also like people disliking it, what I want is a reaction one way or another. I don’t want anyone in between. If you’re close to ok then nobody gives a shit. You can either be really really bad or really really good, and we’re not going to be really really good, so we should just be quite bad.”

John- “ Downright offensive!”

Ben- “Just ugly.”

John- “We aim to offend.”

- J. Swanborough

25

Do you like fishnets?

Words By Evie I’m going to buy him skittles. I’m going to buy the skittles and give them to him. And he’ll eat the red ones, ‘cause he dresses in red. Red and grey. What if I wore a red dress and gave him red skittles? I wouldn’t paint my lips red. That looks trashy. Adult stores and strip clubs trashy. Girls who wear fishnets paint their lips red.

He wouldn’t like fishnets. At least I don’t think he would. Should I know if he likes fishnets? Maybe I’ll ask him.

Then he would know that I didn’t know his stance on fishnets. What if he said yes? I would be left wishing I had painted my lips red. Catastrophe.

“Hi, I’m John. Nice to meet you.”

“Hi, I’m Evie. Do you like fishnets?”

Bed

Dancing with the Night

By Luka Dellavia

By Georgia Perry-Fisher

I wasn’t ready to get out of the cozy shelter I had made around me with several quilts. I felt like laying in bed forever and never getting up, trying to face the cold touch of an early winter morning. I began the slow and torturous exit from the euphoria of bed. One limb at a time was all I could manage. I wished I could hibernate. I stood.

The mirror reflected the warm bed, the bed that beckoned me to crawl back into it. I forced myself to refuse its invitation.

I began the routine. My bones ached as though I had been beaten; my eyes struggled to stay open.

I wished I could hibernate. I wish I were a bear.

The night above me, the dance floor below. I am alone. The crowd pulsates like a swarm of humming bees. Music breaks through the still night air, further exiting the people who dance with me, as one. Sweat slides down skin as the lead singer picks up the microphone and screams. People chant along with memorized choruses, each person feels like they are the only one who truly understands.

One second seems to last forever and an hour is gone in a minute. Bodies turn and twist together, somehow fitting comfortably into this single moment of life. I too am the chaos, and the beauty in the middle of this electrifying dance.

I let the music take me. The beat pounds from the speakers through my body and into the earth. No judgments, no boundaries. Just me. Am I following the music? Am I dancing with the night? I am in a crowd of thousands, yet I am alone.

26

giraffes are insincere.

the man gibbon takes the lady gibbon’s hand and holds it. you believe that he is doing this in an attempt to make a point of your loneliness. you go to the cafe. you assume that zoo snacks are akin to food at the show: fried and atop a stick. they are not. the cafe lady tells you that the brioches are lovely. you look at the brioches. in your head, you disagree with the lady. after much deliberation you select peanuts. you decide that peanuts will give you a greater affinity with the animals, especially the legume inclined animals. the lady at the counter has a moustache similar to the one you imagine jesus had during early pubescence: sparse, yet, glorious. you and your peanuts are outside the maned wolf enclosure. the wolf makes squinty eyes at you. returning the gesture, you squint until your vision becomes obscured. through

by vivienne milk. an intense squint, the wolf looks like steve buscemi. a child stands next to you. he too, makes eyes at the wolf. you want to tell the child to squint harder. you want to tell the child about the steve buscemi magic eye trick. you do not. instead you and your peanuts go and push your faces up against the glass of the gila monster enclosure. the peanut faces leave little oily smudges on the glass. as you are leaving, a keeper throws you a wink. you panic and retract your head, like a turtle, burying your face inside your jumper. at home you think about your social inadequacies. you decide that you would much prefer to sit in a linen cupboard, counting the dots on a golden delicious apple than socialize with other people.

From Rundle to Royal “The colours, the lights, the adoring look in spectators’ eyes when they see you. I’m going to own it, own it all. I have decided to throw away this boring bean-crunching life of mine and fulfill my passion: balloon animal art!”

By Milan Chester

movie stars! Yes I can see it now. It is an entire field waiting to be exploited. Balloon animal art will be my claim to fame.”

“You’re serious aren’t you?”

“Deadly!”

“Well, I get the kids then.”

“What?”

“I am going to be a balloon animal artist, darling.”

“You are crazy, you have a family to support and you are deciding to become a low income, low respected balloon animal ‘artist’?”

“Of course. Soon there shall be balloon animal artists on every corner, creating love, laughter and money. And I shall be at the top of it all! A-list events, cocktail parties, Gala Balls, dinners with 27

Poetry Section Uncle Karnos last grumble Inebriation

By Peach Howey-Lenixxh

By Jessica Capitanio

(Italian Sonnet)

Now listen here my boy: I may be gone real soon, but don’t forget what Uncle Karn

I used to think that love resembled wine.

The fruity pleasure, while I gladly sighed A sigh of such intoxicated pride, Gave to the sun an everlasting shine.

has taught you through the years.

And that doggone kid-generation ‘f yours: I know their yarns and what they see as model theory. I have come to understand that they, beside

Just like the grapes that bulge along the vine,

that terrace house of government, ally

I swelled from love, and flew the giddy glide

themselves not with a peasant’s outlook. “Ride

Of love-drunk birds, whose flight is far and wide.

that wave of even ground!” the kids still yell.

But since those days, I take the sober line.

But ah, the world’s but cactus yet, with pricks

Now, wine is toxic, poison, full of pain,

to spare, but spare it don’t. I hear propelled

And love the broken bottle, used to fight

discussions of equality; stoic

And stab. The open wound exudes an ooze

and suited women running down the White

Of crimson blood, which gushes from the vein.

House. Bah! Equality will be the day

A scarlet blend’s not always sweet delight:

when men like you and I will feel alright

There’s danger lurking in the lure of booze.

to wear high heels and skirts along the bay, roadway and at our women’s birthdays! Lies! it’s all but lies! I’ve learnt enough and so

This poem by Jessica, and many other poems in traditional metre by Adelaide Uni students, can be found in the onsite publication, Beyond Free (check the Barr Smith!)

will you. But look at me: I’m in disguise and off to die a bitter fool—ego aglow with the dull black of coal—sexless and with a wife that can’t cook water. “Cos! I’m not yet done with him my dear!” she’s feeling sexy, doesn’t mean she is.

Address her, go, and let her know that just because she’s feeling sexy, doesn’t mean she is.

28

With Subbie Peach Howey-Lenixxh

The Keeper

By Demetrius Kalatzis

Magnanimous Reflections

By Francis Titsdale

I entered to the gatehouse Seeking shelter from the storm There stood the keeper

Drowning.

Drowning in a sea of apathy.

The midday sky tears a hole.

Shackled to life, the crashing waves Burning that begets burning.

Ascending the tower of our descent, Built on the sands of ignorance; I am lost. Find me.

In all her might and glory Her eyes stared cold and empty And her hand, it reached for mine As I felt her touch I realised that she was holy In every way divine

She turned around slowly And lead me to the stairway We climbed up to her tower, Without a word she turned

Want to submit some poetry or find out what open mic spoken word gigs are happening around Adelaide? Just write to Peach at klimmy@hotmail.com.

And removed my soaking clothing.

As I lay beside her I sought counsel with her soul And in its wisdom It did not heed my call

Now the morning light has broken In through her window Leaving not a shard But disbanding the storm.

My call it was never answered And my timing was now gone I retrieved my sodden clothing And headed out to chase the dawn 29

this header has been expertly positioned to inform you that this is the literature section

Words with Pictures Alicia Moraw asks: Why Read a Book when you can Read a Magazine?

I was talking to some people the other night in a random sequence of events and the subject of magazines came up.

I realised that night that I have never done any reviews or features on the

1. BlackBook – ‘BlackBook is the insider’s guide to where style and substance intersect in popular culture today. BlackBook provides sophisticated, relevant, and visually stunning takes on restaurants, nightlife, travel, fashion, Hollywood, entertainment, and the arts.’ http:// www.blackbookmag.com/

importance magazines play. While the recession has hit many of these magazines hard, with several closing their doors recently, there are many that are still thriving. As this is the case until the end of the year, I will endeavour to bring some of the more edgy and interesting magazines to your attention. However in this issue to familiarise you with this genre of reading I will list my top ten must read magazines (in no particular order).

I stress I am talking about the British version here as I have no time for the US version. While the US GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) came first in 1957, it kind of sucks. There are no articles about sex and the focus is more on men’s fashion. The general articles about current events also suck in the US version. They also do

I know, I know, this sounds like every other magazine that has interviews with pop culture icons, but it is for the thirty somethings who want to know about what’s going on. The articles are sophisticatedly shallow and let you relax while not feeling guilty about reading lighter subject matter as the format looks more impressive than the subject of articles.

2. Interview – Begun in 1969 by Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga, this magazine is dedicated to the idea of ‘celebrity’. It covers a range of subjects from art to film and television to music to fashion to pop culture. http://www.interviewmagazine. com/ This is the magazine which is more advertising than anything else but I find it really intriguing regardless. Celebs interviewing other celebs... need I say more? One of my favourite interviews is Sandy Bullock interviewing the Mr Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds.

3. British GQ – Associated with the trend of metrosexuality, the focus of this magazine is fashion, style, culture and current affairs for men. This is generally perceived as an upscale ‘lads mag’. http://www.gqmagazine.co.uk/

30

What I love about Nylon is the themed issues. I always look forward to the ‘Young Hollywood’ editions as they are filled with the up and coming actors of the coming year. This is a fun and bright magazine with things that are never too serious. It keeps you up-to-date with the latest trends, film, television and music.

5. Vanity Fair – Known for the Oscar parties and its influential editor in chief Graydon Carter.

It covers politics, culture and fashion.

It is popular for its Hollywood issue and the numerous photo shoots it commissions well known photographers to do. http://www. vanityfair.com/

not cover cars in the same detail that the UK version does.

Since Dylan Jones took over as editor in chief in 1999, GQ UK has taken on more of a political bent which is why I highly recommend that people read it. It covers issues which are interesting and relevant as well as bring issues into focus.

4. Nylon – This is a magazine which focuses fashion and pop culture. It covers a variety of topics. The magazine takes its name from the two major cities the magazine focuses on: New York and London. It also has a version of the magazine just for guys, called Nylon Guys. http://www.nylonmag.com/

This is the magazine that I purchase for long trips. It has everything that interests me, but it doesn’t weigh as much as a book.

The articles are always interesting and well researched as well as the beautiful, glossy pictures for when you just want to look at something pretty.

6. Rolling Stone – Devoted to music, politics and popular culture. According to editor and founder Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone “is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces.” http://www.rollingstone. com/ Rolling Stone is a great magazine for those of you who like music but also want to know what’s going on with current issues taking place at the moment.

continued

this header is here to inform you that this is (still) the literature section 7. Empire – Mainstream films and art house films are reviewed in this magazines with features on mainstream actors and feature films being the focus of articles. http://www. empireonline.com/ This is my go to magazine for when I want to know what’s coming out in the movies. I love the fact that there are features on the massive blockbuster movies that are coming up soon.

Empire is published originally in the UK, but it has an Australian version which lets you know when films are being released in Australia as soon as the date is available. It also features DVD reviews which are an important part of the film industry as many smaller films are straight to DVD. 8. The Monthly – Generally filled with essays rather than articles. This magazine covers politics, society and the arts. This is the magazine to read for up-to-date information on Australian issues. http://www.themonthly.com. au/ This magazine may not seem to fit into the rest of the magazines listed here, but it is worthy of this list. It features articles from Australia’s most interesting and acclaimed minds. They write about issues and problems which are facing Australian society. It gives you a comprehensive view on current topics. Just remember, sometimes, these are very much one sided points of view.

9. Mojo – This is a purely music orientated magazine. It caters to the classic rock music lover. http://www.mojo4music.com/ This is a fantastic and comprehensive magazine devoted to classic rock. While it does focus on older acts, such as The Beatles or Bob Dylan, it has also uncovered many up-and-coming musical acts. I must admit, I don’t read Mojo religiously, but I do love it because it has brought some of my favourite bands to my attention when I would never have heard of them otherwise.

10. Vogue – Fashion. Need I say more? This is the ultimate fashion magazine. The bible of many a fashionista. This is the fashion and lifestyle magazine of many a woman. www. vogue.com.au/ This is one of the most influential fashion magazines, which has helped launch many designers, models and actors. It is also one of the oldest fashion magazines to still be in circulation today. Vogue is one of my little pleasures. I feel I shouldn’t value it so highly because it values the superficial, such as clothes, skinny women, high society and wealth, but... it has beautiful clothes!

new releases Five new books which are due out in the next few months...

July Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant It’s 1570 and in Ferrara, Italy, the convent of Santa Caterina houses noble women who can’t find husbands. These women live in relative harmony until Serafina, a 16 year old is forced into the convent after entering into an illicit love affair. Serefina is resistant to this situation and rebels. However, slowly she develops an unlikely friendship with her mentor as she struggles to settle. Outside the walls of the convent though, major change is taking place: the Catholic Church is beginning its counter-reformation. Thus begins a dangerous and delicate time for the sisters of the Santa Caterina.

August A True History of The Hula Hoop by Judith Lanigan The debut novel of Judith Lanigan. This is a story of two women, born centuries apart.

Columbina is a female clown and is part of the Italian commedia dell’arte troup in the 16th Century. The troop is commissioned to perform for the French King. However as they make their way to France, they are attacked. They are rescued, but the Huguenots who rescue them have their own agenda, so the troop needs to make a daring escape plan to survive. Catherine on the other hand is a hula-hoop performing artist who makes her way on the international burlesque stage. Each year she tours the European festival circuit. But she is nearing the middle of her life and she is beginning to question the sacrifices that she has made to succeed in her career. Both of these women are struggling to make sense of their changing world. As each of their stories proceed, the two threads intertwine, as each woman travels through Europe to find the answers to their questions.

September Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt This is a book for fans of Janet Evanovich. Tara Sharp is an unemployed, twentysomething, ex-private school educated woman with a psychic gift or curse, depending on who they’re speaking to. She can read people’s auras. When she is recommended to go to Mr Hara’s Paralanguage School to train her gift, she passes with flying colours. When she graduates, she is given a job with a hot shot lawyer with ties to local crime bosses.

However, even though she knows it’s dangerous, she takes the job as she’s broke. Set in Perth, this is an action-packed novel which sees psychic situations coupled with local mob bosses who have ulterior motives.

The Thornwick Inheritance by Gareth P. Jones The Thornwaite twins are not like most children. They live in a huge and creepy mansion with several strange servants and they are heirs to a large fortune. However, the most peculiar thing about the twins is that they are determined to kill one another. While this determination has no foreseeable resolution, they are confronted with a common enemy.

This foe forces them to join forces reluctantly top combat this problem and their feud is halted... for the moment.

October Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan A new and foreign patient arrives in the hospital on the tropical island which is situated in the shadow of a volcano. The patient is an enigma. He doesn’t speak or move. However upon his arrival, strange things start to happen, with murders beginning. The lives of the patients and the island’s occupants are thrown into turmoil by these bizarre murders.

This is a novel about desire, inner demons and apocalypse.

31

e e c n i the of art sc

Science and art are like oil and water, right?

Actually, this isn’t always so; some famous artists use mathematical models as a foundation for their artistic work. Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings are one of the best examples; to laymen such as ourselves they may look like something our younger siblings whipped up in a sugar-fuelled frenzy, but due to their fractal patterns, these babies are worth a mint. Yup, there’s a cool application for all that geometry we had to learn in school!

Fractals are geometric shapes that can be divided into parts, with each part being an approximate smaller-scale version of the whole. This sounds complicated, but it’s not too hard to visualise.

Imagine an equilateral (equalsided) triangle; if you replaced every straight line with a line containing a triangle (looking somewhat like this --^--) and kept replacing every straight line you drew with the pointcontaining one, you’d eventually get an awesome snowflake-looking thing containing zillions of triangles. And your doodle even has an important sounding namethe Koch Snowflake.

Fractals are found everywhere.

They pop up naturally in heads of broccoli (an excuse to get

32

by Anna Ehmann

out of eating it? Repeat after me“Broccoli is art not food...”) and fronds of ferns. Fractal branching patterns will also form if you microwave a CD (finally, a use for my parent’s copies of ‘So Fresh’). *cue poor segue* So, a man I’m sure shared my hatred of pop compilation CDs is Jackson Pollock. He’s also probably better described as a dead American painter. Instead of painting in conventional ways (brushes, anyone?), he put canvas on the floor and dripped the paint on, straight out of the can.

In Pollock’s drip paintings, certain patterns are recurring different levels of magnification, the definition of a fractal.

Pollock’s fractal patterns grew more complex over his career. One of his last paintings, ‘Blue Poles’ (valued at US$30 million) had such detailed fractal patterns, Pollock was apparently aiming to test the limits of what the human eye would find aesthetically pleasing. Controversy surrounds the quality of Pollock’s work. Some critics believe it’s just a bunch of blobs, while others believe it is genius. Personally, I believe it is mathematics made more interesting than calculus. Which I guess, isn’t really that much of an achievement.

Visit http://jacksonpollock.org to make your own pieces of blobby goodness.

Your Head-Set to Change the World So, later this year something very fun is set to be released...

Words by Jake Parker

Fun, and slightly revolutionary (perhaps a contradiction in terms but bear with me, I’ll explain). What I’m talking about is a headset (marketed at about $300) which when worn can read the electrical signals of your neurons firing, translating it into a language your computer understands. With this little piece of equipment, conscious human-machine interaction, like the typing and clicking I’m doing right now will make way for one of sub-conscious and emotional response.

This will allow you to do with technology that which has previously been unthinkable. Yes. Pun intended.

abilities, either mental or physical. How might it be if, say, I had instantaneous access to giga or terra bites (for just a taste) of information? If I had, literally, a photographic (videographic?!?) memory? What if I could run advanced calculations in my head? Or imagine this - what if I could switch on the TV, turn down the air-conditioning, boil the kettle and then search the web, as a quadriplegic!

“

The Singularity describes a scenario in which an intelligent technology is created...that is capable of designing an even more intelligent version of itself and so on, theoretically, without limit.

I know what you’re thinking: “woah there, this all sounds a bit Sci-Fi, Jake”. But so did everything until it happened.

Forget the virtually-projected keyboards of your favourite Star-Something film/book/comic and instead imagine yourself taking immaculate notes whilst juggling. Perhaps not the best application, I don’t imagine your lecturers would be too happy, and you’d probably be asked to stop clowning around.

I’m excited (and not just because I enjoy juggling) but because this isn’t so much a new technology as a change in the way we interact with technology. I’m excited by the prospect of breaking down the user-software interface, of not only incorporating technology into our life but our self.

We already use technology to keep us alive or improve our standard of living. Here, prosthetic limbs and pacemakers come to mind. Rarely though do we use it to advance our

”

What I’m talking about is the coming of “the technological singularity”, a term first coined by scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge in an essay called “The coming technological singularity” [1993] (go figure). The Singularity describes a scenario in which an intelligent technology is created (or incorporated into existing intelligence), that is capable of designing an even more intelligent version of itself and so on, theoretically, without limit.

The current conscious movement toward a singularity event is being approached from a few directions, four of which are prevalent. The first direction is an artificial software approach in which a program is created that uses existing hardware to become self improving i.e. possesses the ability to evolve. The second is a biotechnological attempt to create a computer using organic materials (recently attempted using rat neurons). The third is a process combining the first two pathways, achieved by modeling computer function on the human brain. The final is the one I’m discussing here.

That is, breaking down the interface between humans and technology until it would be impossible to tell the difference between your arm and your PC (personal computer has a bit of a new meaning).

This technology is still in its infancy, yet there is a recognised market for a product that will be little more than trivial and far from practical. That market, and it’s release into that market, should mean a speedy development of this gadget from toy into a technology that might blur the very lines between human and something else. So you see, slightly revolutionising the world in the next year or so we might just see wheelchairs rolling without direction, gamers making use of their impotent fury and people thinking really hard about their computers.

Sooner or later, we’ll have the world at our fingertips.

33

by El Lopez Sex Kitten is a Brisbane-based company that designs and manufactures women’s clothing, accessories and lingerie in Australia.

They currently have two boutiques, one in Brisbane and the other on the Gold Coast, their beautiful clothing also available to buy online with plans to open up more boutiques in 2009. Simon Griffin, Manager of the brand, says: “We design unique woman’s fashion that does not necessarily follow trends. The majority of all clothing available for sale in Australia is manufactured in Asia, in fact 85% of all clothing is now manufactured off shore.

All of our designs, apart from our jeans, are designed and manufactured in Australia. We only manufacture a small quantity of each design to keep each style unique. We do our best to make each style as beautiful and feminine as possible with motifs, lace and rosettes used to highlight the various fabrics we use.”

Not only does Alana Smith (Director / Designer for Sex Kitten) design the clothing, she also designs the interior of the shops and oversees all photo shoots. Alana even designs and manufactures the lamps and displays found throughout the boutiques.

“We design styles in ‘stories’. A story usually consists of a skirt, pant, shirt, corset, cardigan, trench coat etc all in the same fabric and or with similar themes.” These ‘stories’ are given names like ‘Bonjour’ and ‘London Calling’ which highlights the sophisticated, boudoir feel of the clothing. The ‘stories’ also make matching clothing effortless if you’re looking for a whole outfit. The staff in each boutique are also trained as fashion consultants to give advice whenever you need it”.

Alana Smith (Director / Designer) Alana, the designer of all Sex Kitten designs grew up in Brisbane. Alana worked as the buyer and designer for Ice Clothing in Sydney before returning to Brisbane in 1998. On returning to Brisbane, Alana created the brand ‘Sex Kitten’ and wholesaled garments to shops in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Alana’s unique and beautiful designs became an instant success. This inspired Alana to open Sex Kitten Boutiques in Surfers Paradise, Brisbane and at Pacific Fair.

Simon Griffin (General / Marketing Manager) Simon worked in Marketing for the Coca-Cola Company for approximately 11 years in the UK, USA, Mexico and Denmark before working in Australia as Marketing Manager of Queensland and the Pacific Islands. In 2000 Simon invented and marketed a toy (‘Battle Conkers’) in the UK. ‘Battle Conkers’ became the biggest selling toy in Great Britain in 2000. Simon has worked with Alana since the creation of Sex Kitten in 1998.

34

Sex Kitten has a large number of customers who live overseas or interstate. To make sure that these customers can still shop for their beautiful clothing, Sex Kitten has a shopping-friendly website, where you can browse and buy their collections. They have two domain names; www.sexkitten.com.au and www.skittenaustralia.com as there are a large number of customers who live in countries like the United Arab Emirates, who are unable to visit websites that contain the word ‘Sex’. There are also some people who use Internet filters on their computers.

Photographs of each Sex Kitten design are taken and uploaded on a weekly basis. The company provides free freight to customers within Australia for anyone who purchases any product via the website or, if you prefer, over the telephone, while international orders receive discounted shipping. If you have any queries, they will usually respond within 8 hours of receiving emails. Orders are received in Sex Kitten branded bags with tissue paper and Sex Kitten branded ribbon -very fancy.

Sex Kitten only makes a small quantity of each design, so sign up for their online newsletter through their website to be the first to get exciting new designs!

Quiz: Which Story Are You? 1. Which of the following colour sets suits you best? a) green, cream, brown b) red, green, grey c) red, black, white

2. Do you prefer... a) tartan b) cute bows c) frills and lace 3. Is your style... a) vintage b) glamorous c) feminine

4. Which favourite outfit for a night out is... a) tailored suits b) sexy corsets and bustiers c) detailed cardys 5. Where would you rather live? a) the old streets of London b) the theatre of Chicago c) the cafés of Paris

Mostly A: London Calling. Sophisticated, sexy and clever. You know class when you see it, whether in an op-shop or up-market boutique. Your wardrobe is full of interesting finds and you like it that way.

Mostly B: Chicago. You’re glamorous and adventurous and you’re often complimented for it.

Mostly C: Bonjour. ‘Paris Chic’ best describes your style. You’re neat, feminine and stylish; always with the perfect outfit. *To see your style online, go to the Sex Kitten website!

35

Futuristic Nostalgia The effects of science fiction on fashion

by Susannah Bailey Most people seem to be under the impression that science fiction and fashion are two very different things, separated by the gapping chasm of nerd vs. trendy, begun in high school and never really leaving us. This common misconception comes from the assumption that they cannot have influence on each other, or even overlapping interests. Both deal with the idea of fulfilling wishes for the consumer, by creating a fantasy which they can both relate to and define themself by. Fashion does it by creating an image for the consumer to aspire to, as a form of self expression and self improvement. Science fiction does it by creating a world for the consumer to escape to, where they can experience the kind of reality they find preferable and more suiting to their own sensibilities.

These two approaches, while different in the way they are executed, accomplish a very similar goal, that of escapism and belonging. With this in mind it doesn’t seem so impossible to consider the ways they affect both us and each other.

The film Metropolis is considered to be one of the first true science fiction films, released in 1927 as a silent black and white movie. It features imagery which we can still see the influence of in all aspects of pop culture today. The segregation and paranoia present in the film reflects an unsettling prediction of our current global instability, the fine line between man and the machines that were just starting to become prolific when the film was released.

This has always been an aspect of sci-fi, to present a possible future and show that despite the technology, people still have to make the same hard decisions we do today. Whether it’s about going to war on a malignant alien race or another country, the moral ramifications and the feelings of guilt, loyalty and fear are still there. These feelings are hardwired into our brains, and the associations we make with them, whether silver jumpsuits or something more profound, won’t change. A line of comparison can be drawn between the Machine-Man of Metropolis in 1927, to the Doctor Who Cybermen of the 1960’s, to Thierry Mugler’s Fall 1995 collection. Is this because of direct inspiration on the part of the creators? Or have the concepts begun by films like Metropolis, continued and refined in works like Doctor Who and Star Trek, crossed over from pop culture into our collective unconscious of what the future is supposed to look like?

We could be forgiven for thinking that we are living in the future. Technology is evolving faster than ever before, the internet has shrunk the world and globalisation seems determined to make sure we’re all eating Mcdonalds and wearing American Apparel within the next ten years. There’s a t-shirt I found years ago, and it reads:

36

“They lied to us This was supposed to be the future Where is my jetpack, Where is my mobile companion, Where is my dinner in pill form, Where is my hydrogen fueled automobile, Where is my nuclear powered levitating house Where is my cure for this disease”

I think it shows how our preconceptions of The Future, begun in sci-fi films and novels, are influencing how we feel about the status of our world. We have some elements of The Future, like mobile technology, rockets to the moon and beyond, super computers, artificial intelligences and even space-age architecture, but there are still so many things we don’t have.

Our dissatisfaction with this, paired with things like global recession, environmental disasters and the threat of war or terrorism make us yearn for the future we see in movies, convinced that anything is better than this.

Our desire for this effects the development of technology, culture and consumer demand.

Fashion, one of the most direct ties between technology, pop culture and consumer demand, reflects this dissatisfaction by letting people feel like they want so badly, by fulfilling the conscious or subconscious image they have of it. Looking the part is the first step to having or belonging, and the modern consumer understands this fact intimately. We can buy or create any image or lifestyle we want if we have enough time, money and creativity, and this ‘future nostalgia’ is no exception.

From underground labels like ‘Plastik Wrap’, ‘Degenerotica’ and ‘Cyber Dog’ to high fashion brands like Hussein Chayalan, Maison Martin Margiela and Givenchy, this obsession with ‘the future’ is evident in the asymmetrical lines, the extremely synthetic fabrics and the metallic or plastic design elements. Silhouettes are becoming increasingly structured, coming closer and closer to the mechanised constructions we see in sci-fi, as you can see in the collections of Gareth Pugh for the last couple of seasons. Those that aren’t following the more cyber elements are instead looking to the minimalistic lines and muted colours also popular within the genre, typified by labels such as Yohji Yamamoto, Commes des Garcons and Rick Owens. While the colour palette for such things tends towards the monochromatic, with lots of black, white and various shades of grey and silver, when colour is used it tends to be extremely muted or vibrant to the point of fluorescence. This is in keeping with the general theme of machinery and technology that features heavily in most sci-fi. Computers are often quite bland in appearance and colouring, but some of the things that they can create are as bright and as beautiful as anything found in nature. These two aspects of technology and minimalism share common values and sensibilities, as well as design aspects, once you get past the initial impressions that they create, echoing the relationship between sci-fi and fashion.

The technology we use to create fashion has come a long way in the last century. The movement during the industrial revolution into mechanised textile and garment production has changed the way we experience fashion irrevocably. Mass production is available on a scale which the world has never seen before changes it even more.

Clothing, as a utility, was once the domain of the poor and disenfranchised masses. It was used to serve a purpose, that of modesty and protection from the elements. It was also used to help distinguish them from the rich, for whom they weren’t just clothes but fashion.

Fashion, as a luxury of the wealthy, was used to show social status, affiliations, money and influence. The clothing of the rich was hand sewn, made specifically for them.

With technology and globalisation, suddenly a nice dress didn’t have to take weeks to make, it could be made cheaply in another country or by a machine. Suddenly, fashion was affordable. Gradually fashion became what it is today, to the point where style and status symbols are in themselves as much of a utility as protection from the cold. Humans created machines, so that they’d create things that we want, and as a result our life experiences are much different from generations that didn’t have them. So that we can better understand the interaction of humans and machines in our past and present, sci-fi shows us how they are in the future in the hope we will learn by example. Whether a negative or positive role model is irrelevant, by presenting possibilities we are made to think about things we wouldn’t otherwise have thought about.

Our consumer society, based upon capitalism and a forward thinking desire for the new and innovative, is trying to look forward again. But because we’ve been imagining The Future for so long, we already have a very strong image of what we think it should look like, and because of this we are unconsciously making it in the image of the future created in sci-fi. This was explored in the film How William Shatner Changed The World, which looked at how the fictional technology and concepts used in the original tv series of Star Trek influenced how technology has been developed in the years since.

This cause and effect is visible too in fashion, where the Sixties Mod fashion trend was created as a kind of prediction of the future.

It was then used in the sci-fi films and tv of the time, to the point we are at today, where we are revisiting and recreating their style to help us create an aspect of The Future that they wanted to be a part of. This self-fulfilling prophecy is an example of the power of imagination and creativity, and the effect that popular culture and fashion have on our view of the world.

The Future is a very relative concept, and fashion an even more elusive thing. Our imagination will always get there before technology can catch up, and it likely to stay that way. A longing for The Future is as likely of success as a longing for the good old days, it will always be just out of reach. But through our capacity as creative beings who create the world around us into the image we want, and remake ourselves into who we want to be, we know at least we’ll be waiting in style.

37

Adelaide: Fashion CCapital of South Australia.

by Lara Francis Adelaide has never been and most surely will not be cited as a fashion capital of any sort, (unless pie floaters suddenly become a must have accessory).

Living here we are all aware of our back water status joked about by many a Victorian politician and idiotic tourist. Yet, with all of our attributes a true Adelaidean can admit this city lacks several key elements that supposedly maketh a metropolis such as an extensive public transport system, a reputable newspaper and a thriving fashion scene.

When you think of Adelaide fashion what generally comes to mind are moccasins and brands that were cool somewhere else two years ago. It doesn’t take a fashion genius to see that as a city we lag at least a season behind other Australian cities and twice that for fashion capitals overseas. With only the random fashion reports from our disreputable city paper to indulge us on events we are not privy; to the fashion outlook for Adelaide seems bleak.

According to our friends at Wikipedia, (the reference we all secretly use but don’t add to our reference list) there are four traditional fashion capitals: Paris,

London, Milan, and New York. In recent years, however, the importance of the fashion industry has grown in many other cities around the globe, such as Tokyo, which are sometimes included in the list. Other top fashion capitals include Hong Kong, Melbourne, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, and Sydney. But it doesn’t seem to matter how far down one delves into these fashion lists, Adelaide is nowhere to be found.

Who cares I hear you say. As superficial as the fashion industry may initially appear it can become a stable cash cow for economies across the globe. Let’s face it fashionista or no, we all wear some form of clothing and will no doubt continue to inadvertently support the industry throughout our lives.

Take the New York fashion week as an example. Within one wee the city bludges with the world’s best fashion buyers, clothing designers, magazine editors, attractive models, make-up artists, licensing executives and celebrity hair stylists together to make the fashion happen. This group of people gathers for one solitary reason: to conduct business and keep the wheels of New York’s commerce rolling. Millions of dollars of revenue will be generated by the work being viewed on the runways of 7th on Sixth every

Op Shop Review

By Lauren Lovett Most

Goodwill stores have replaced all their goodness with crap clothing that regular stores can’t sell. There is, however, one exception: Hindley St. Yes, the Hindley St store does often smell worse than a plastic bag full of wet towels. And yes, it too does stock many first hand unsellables but it is still a good’un.

These days the number of shops that actually grasp the concept of retro can be counted on the fingers of a fish.

Fortunately, the Hindley St store is that fish finger. The lovely women who work at this shop know their eras. You will not find some paisley patterned wank with a Valley Girl tag shoved in this shop’s retro section.

Other

38

secondhand stores, especially ones in the Adelaide metro area, have taken it upon themselves to exploit the weakness that many girls have for a un-mumu-ish retro dress by upping all their prices. Hindley St’s store thankfully still has a goodwilled head on its shoulders. At Hindley St, you can get yourself a neat little outfit for a smidgen more than the price you would pay for a coffee or for a weekly funeral plan installment.

Store: Goodwill Location: Hindley St.

year. With 66 different shows by designers such as Betsey Johnson, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera, Calvin Klein and Narcisco Rodriguez, along with numerous cutting-edge newcomers, Fashion Week can generate approximately $300 million for the city’s economy.

Yes, Adelaide does itself boast of a fashion week of sorts with regular high street fashion parades and Galas supporting new and emerging designers and prizes for the best-dressed cats in town. The Adelaide Cup also hosts fashion events of its own kind, although disorderly behaviour and excess champagne do tend dominate instead.

We do also have emerging fashion talent that unfortunately soon leave the ‘heaps good’ state for more eloquent cities in Australia and beyond.

Although, if you are to believe notorious local current affairs programs Adelaide is breeding a new generation of fashionistas some as young as eight.

This nightly program recently spent a good portion of its content promoting Adelaide’s fashion scene and it’s soon to be savoir - a fresh-faced boy who already designs his own range. Impressive yes, but it does concern me that this is all they could find to represent emerging artists on the Adelaide fashion scene.

One can only hope that the Adelaide fashion scene will grow with the city and other industries such as music and art. Who knows, maybe I was too quick to admonish our commercial fashion protégée- perhaps he will lead us to salvation, lord knows no one else is going to.

MODERN CURIOSITIES Glimpses into intriguing phenomena of the modern world.

words by Joel Parson

Do you remember the first M-rated film you saw at the This legendary sea serpent is said to have appeared to movies? I recall viewing 1998’s Godzilla. I thought that was sailors and bathers in the Hudson River. Sightings of the such a fine film. The American appropriation of a Japanese mysterious serpent-like creature were reported in the New classic starring Mathew Broderick was so excitingly full of York Times as far back as 1886 and 1899. animatronics, I implored my parents to buy me a piece of licensed merchandise the next day. With that bright green Another well-renown cryptid is said to reside in Lake Godzilla jumper now long relegated to the salvos bin, I Champlain, bordered by New York State. The Lake understand the deeper layers of significance comprising the Champlain monster has reportedly been sighted on landmark production that was 1998’s Godzilla. Apparently hundreds of occasions. “Champ” as it is locally known, was famously caught on camera the concept of a monster swimming

by Sandra Mansi in 1977. In an around freely in the Hudson taps into admittedly indistinct photograph, “There was a guy, an underwater a well-established mythology buried within the New Yorkian psyche. guy who controlled the sea. He one can make out a neck and back of a creature that appears to got killed by ten million pounds resemble the Loch Ness Monster. of sludge from New York and Unfortunately after the snapshot’s New York has a long tradition of release Mansi could locate neither New Jersey”... or did he? cyrptozoology (unbelievably this the negative of the photo, nor the word referring to the study of roll of film, nor the actual site where mysterious hidden creatures actually exists). In the city the photo was taken, nor her credibility. In 2005 video of Poughkeepsie New York, one will find footage allegedly capturing Champ swimming in the lake a recently restored town mural depicting was recorded, although this could just be a log bobbing the “Kipsy” monster. around in the water.

There is no scientific evidence substantiating the existence of Kipsy, and evidence regarding Champ is decidedly sketchy. While rare, lumbering creatures known as manatees on occasion travel along the Hudson as far as Manhattan.

Unlike Kipsy and co. the existence of these marine mammals is scientifically certified. In 2006 enthusiasts tracked a manatee that ventured down to New York city, and it is possible that manatees are frequently mistaken for creatures of more ponderous origin.

Despite the absence of definitive proof, believers and alleged witnesses alike hold an unwavering belief that these creatures exist. And in the wide eyes of a child watching the Hollywood adaptation they do – who is to question that?

39

s u o i c ditli

ditlicious

ditliciou s

with Lily Hirsch

R

ightio, welcome to the edition that is metropolis. I dunno about any of you, but I am beginning to experience a rather scary phenomenon amongst some of my friends. You see, a number of them keep on growing these lumps, which end up as bundles of screaming blankets.

The Death of a Coffee House;

By Christian Reynolds My favourite coffee house shut down a few weeks ago -another casualty of the global finical crisis that has been looming over us all for over a year now.

What does this have to do with the The coffee house I’m referring to is over 75 metropolis edition you may ask? Well, I did years old and is located on 53 Flinders Street, a bit of research into the cuisine it’s a warm cosy place filled with great of children in America and blends of tea and coffees; you could “tasty bring to you, especially those always find and table and a blend children’s party to suit the mood your were in, the harbouring bumps some err, tasty children’s party recipes recipes right out of staff were friendly and the specials right out of the metropolis that the metropolis that board ever changing. I used to pop is New York. in there most Saturdays before work is New York.” due to their amazing breakfasts.

These will ensure that even the most subdued children to develop It had become my home away from home temporary ADD. Enjoy if you dare. within walking distance from campus with free Wi-Fi; how could I ask of anything more.

Cabbage Centerpiece Yet a sign was put up indicating that the coffee house’s days were numbered. Thus it Ingredients shut down.

10 hot dogs 1 pack assorted coloured marshmallows 1/2 a head of a cabbage toothpicks 1/2 cup water 1 tbsp cooking oil Method Cook hot dogs and slice into the same size as the marshmallows. Skewer one hot dog piece and one marshmallow and stick into a head of cabbage. Repeat. This apparently makes a charming centerpiece.

Marshmallow Dip Ingredients: 1/2 cup cream cheese 1/2 cup strawberry yogurt 1/4 cup marshmallow crème Method: Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well, chill before serving.

40

Well it almost shut down. It was a close run thing, on the last day of its operation a new investor was found and life went on as we know it. We are all tightening our belts at the moment for pure monetary reasons let alone for fad diets, and when we don’t spend it makes it hard for the small businesses to earn. So let me implore you to go a buy a cup of coffee or tea, anything to warm up the economy and more importantly yourself.

Eating in the City,

By Christian Reynolds It is often discussed that Australia is gastronomically blessed due to the fact that we can eat whatever cuisine we want whenever we want it.

I find it oddly comforting that here in Adelaide there are little Chinese groceries stores selling identical products

(whether it be noodles, BBQ pork buns or even the same brand of tooth paste) as the Chinese, Korean or Malay groceries overseas. I find it a comfortable realisation that due to globalisation that I can travel anywhere in the world and still have access to the same flavours, products and brands, making me feel at home wherever I am eating and cooking (note by Lily: check out the Korean grocery store on Currie St for some awesome flavours of instant noodles).

Yet in the heart of the city there lurks a worrying problem, with all this new eating we have lost some of the cornerstones of “Adelaide” cooking.

The Pie Cart has gone (some say for the better), but more importantly there are no fish and chip shops in the Adelaide CBD. Oh the simple joy of eating fish and chips on the Torrens is now alas no more. The sensation of eating golden crispy chips with lightly battered fish wrapped in white paper and bought from a store that proudly sells its goods is a joy and a true experience. So if you know of anywhere that I have missed that may still sell fish and chips please let me know? christianjreyolds@yahoo.com

Mandatory Internet Censorship

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Govt

By now you’ve no doubt heard of the Rudd Government’s plans to introduce mandatory internet censorship in Australia. No? It’s true – the plan is to censor any material the Government considers “inappropriate”, at the Internet Service Provider level. But do you know why the Rudd Government want to waste $125 million dollars on this highly unpopular, illconceived, half-baked idea when the industry experts - and the Government’s own testing - all insist “it just won’t work”?

In late 2008, the idea that censorship was only being proposed to “protect the chilldren” heavily skewed discussion of the issue. If you look closely at the ALP’s 2007 election promise, the policy actually specifies that the intent was to censor “every Internet connected computer “used by a child” (not every Internet computer full stop as has been proposed since then).

Most of us assumed this election promise amounted to something similar to NetAlert, the software based filtering system the previous Liberal Government introduced. This was a voluntary program that concerned parents could download (for free) from the Federal Government, to assist them in censoring their own individual computer. How wrong we were!

While the Government is still clinging to the notion that every single Australian computer connected to the net should be censored, they seemed to have abandoned the argument that they are strictly “doing it for the kids” as of late. Consider the Minister for Telecommunications, Broadband and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy’s comments on the ABC’s Q & A program back in March when he unequivocally stated that the Government’s filter will do nothing to prevent child abuse or paedophilia. So it’s not about protecting the kids now?

We all know that it’s the fifteen year-old kids who are the ones who will be able to crack the Government’s Internet filter if it’s ever introduced. The money would be better spent educating parents about the issues and on more police work – the very same approach that is advocated by Holly Doel-Mackaway, a spokes person for Save the Children who happen to be the world’s leading child’s rights agency. But this common sense approach is not currently favoured by our Government.

There is more to the issue than just parents worrying about Little Johnny downloading nudey pictures though, no matter what people may want you to believe. The

words By Andrew Glancey Government’s ham-fisted proposal to censor the Internet (the last bastion of free speech left on the planet) has been universally condemned. The policy approach has been attacked by civil-libertarians, right-wing talk-backers, left-wing hippies, big business (the Telecommunications and Internet industries), law enforcement experts, even children’s rights advocacy groups. In fact, I am yet to speak to anyone who really wants this introduced!

The idea of imposing mandatory internet censorship, at the ISP-level, represents the biggest threat to freedom of speech this country has faced, to date. I mean, do we really want to align our Internet communications legislation with that of Burma, Saudi Arabia, China and Iran?

Just because it’s an exclusive club, doesn’t mean Australia has to join it.

There were nation-wide protests (in all Australian state capitals) last December, attended by thousands, which were then followed up by a national protest in Canberra, dubbed ‘March in March’. There was also considerable press coverage around this time, of particular note the ABC show Q&A with Tony Jones hosted Stephen Conroy on their panel. He faced a barrage of uncomfortable questions, did his best to dodge them (or to blame “the Russian mob”) and was repeatedly both stumped by, and laughed at, by the vocal studio audience.

It would’ve been hilarious if the stakes weren’t so high (ok, it was hilarious!).

Desires to impose State censorship over the Internet are devious and rooted in a desire to suppress information and you only need to look at the current situation in Iran to see that. After the disputed election results in Iran, it’s Government tried to block public access to social networking sites and blogs (as well as news sites) in an attempt to suppress dissent and prevent information about the sham election spreading. These are not the actions of a democratic Government, whether in Iran or Australia.

Some punters are betting on the Global Economic Clusterfuck to be our saving grace, with common sense eventually dictating that there are better things to blow $125 million on right now. But don’t bank on it.

Personally, I’m pointing a finger at the Russian mob and keeping at least one eye open for further developments.

41

Some On Dit readers might remember my interview article “The Ethics of Abortion” from Edition 4, as well as your now ex-fellow editor Clare Buckley’s so-called ‘retort’, “Abortions is not an ethical issue” in Edition 5. I wish to correct the record on issues arising from both these articles.

First, the first sentence of the article “The Ethics of Abortion” originally read “What are you? Pro-life or prochoice?” This was a rhetorical question included to point out the somewhat ironic, euphemistic labels rival sides of the abortion debate use. It wasn’t meant to be some kind of ‘loaded question’ or anything. The next sentence, omitted from the final text (due to understandable space reasons, I admit) made this point overtly, surely dispelling any doubt from the editor’s mind that I was somehow trying to subtly attack the ‘pro-choice’ camp.

Yet this, incredibly, seems to be how Clare understood my sentence. It was altered, without my permission, to “What are you? Anti-choice or pro-choice?” Now that is a loaded question if ever I saw one. A loaded question that I never wrote, and yet was attributed to me. It led to an acquaintance of mine assuming I had strong pro-life views.

I am disappointed the editor of such a fine publication as On Dit, with a history of open-mindedness and lack of censorship, should respond with such intolerance to a sentence that betrayed not even a rightist point of view, but simply a perspective that didn’t accept the ‘prochoice’ argument as unassailable dogma.

Apart from this unethical alteration, Clare also saw fit to surround my article with pro-choice slogans. While these were not overtly ascribed to me, many readers would naturally have assumed they were attributable to me. Apart from the frustration that my article had to be cut short to fit in these unsanctioned, and, dare I say, somewhat juvenile slogans, I am more importantly concerned by the closemindedness this action betrays.

These actions were apparently borne from Clare’s belief that my interviews were biased in favour of the pro-life (or is that anti-choice?) camp. Clare publicly labels my interviews “anti-choice” in her article in Edition #5. I reject this notion.

I admit I may have given Sandra Kanck a marginally more intensive grilling than Christopher Pearson, but this was because Sandra blankly refused to enter into the main topic of my interview, specified in the title, the ethics of abortion. Sandra denied that abortion was an ethical issue.

I therefore had to dig harder in order to try and understand

42

the foundations of her beliefs. I don’t think I attacked the foundations of Sandra’s beliefs any more or less than Christopher’s. I might also add that Sandra was somewhat more controversial in some of her opinions. For instance, at one stage in the interview (cut from the final edit, no doubt to make room for another pro-choice slogan), Sandra contemplated the idea that killing babies even once they were born might be ethical. I don’t think it makes me a wowser to regard this view as ‘extreme’ and to question Sandra further about it. Furthermore, numerous readers told me they could detect no bias in my interviews.

Patrick’s Article edition 77.4 Layed out by Clare Buckley While I welcome debate about the topic of abortion, (such as Clare provided in Edition #5) and certainly don’t expect those who think I was biased to remain silent, altering my article without permission and surrounding my article with partisan slogans do not count as reasoned debate. I would have thought the editors of a student publication, more than almost anyone, would recognise the importance of free speech.

In her Issue 5 ‘retort’, Clare repeats the mantra Sandra used in our interview that frustrated me so: “Abortion is not an ethical issue”. Sorry, but it is an ethical and philosophical issue. “When does a foetus become a human?” is a philosophical question that cannot be dismissed out of hand. Unless you deny the existence of humans generally, you must admit we do become human at some point. To

relating to abortion. Obviously, the woman has numerous emotional and personal considerations that would affect her answer. It would be akin to asking a prisoner on death row, or the victim of such a criminal, whether the death penalty was ethical. Obviously, you would value a detached philosopher’s argument above the involved parties. This doesn’t mean the woman should have no say in this decision. It just means Sandra Kanck’s doctrine of “it’s an individual woman’s choice, and that’s it” doesn’t make sense unless we first address the philosophical issue of when life begins. Using this comment to make me into some kind of male chauvinist betrays an aversion to tackling the complexities of the issue.

I believe there are many, many vagaries in the abortion debate. Yet one thing I am certain of is that everyone should address the underlying ethics that make this debate so controversial, and not insult our intelligence with dogmatic sloganeering.

Patrick McCabe.

Clare Buckley’s Article, edition 77.4 ask when this point occurs doesn’t mean you’re conceding abortion is wrong. Your answer to this question may very well support abortion. So I don’t understand why Clare and Sandra are so opposed to addressing this question.

Instead, they prefer to recite the dogma that it is “an individual women’s choice”. Again, this may well be the case. But you aren’t going to convince anyone by simply repeating this over and over. My article endeavoured to understand the underlying ethics behind different people’s views on abortion. Clare prefers to label this “McCabe’s obsession with the false concept that a foetus is a human life.” This kind of refusal to even engage in argument reminds me of evangelical Christian fundamentalists, a comparison I presume Clare would find unflattering.

Clare also refers to a comment I made in my interview with Sandra that “the woman involved, from a logical… point of view, is perhaps not the best person to make the choice because she’s emotionally involved in the decision.” Clare claims this comment shows I think “any woman ‘stupid’ enough to find herself with an unwanted pregnancy is a frivolous creature, too silly to make rational and sensible decisions.” Unfortunately Clare has quoted me out of context here. The “choice” I was referring to was not the choice of whether or not to abort a child, but the philosophical question of when the foetus becomes human. I was not arguing that others should decide whether a woman should have an abortion. I was simply pointing out that from a rational, cool-headed, logical viewpoint, a woman contemplating an abortion would not be the bestplaced person to determine the philosophical question

43

Money Talks

by Angus Chisolm The precise impact of the Global Financial Crisis on sport is a bit hard to quantify at this stage. Crowds for certain sports are down in this country despite being a relatively inexpensive place to enjoy fairly mainstream sporting events.

On the other hand, to give one example, the A-league has grown and maintained a fairly steady and impressive crowd size for a traditionally fringe sport up until its most recent fourth season. Although there were slight dips in crowd figures for 08-09, the league is now expanding as they enter their fifth season and attracting such electrifying players as Robbie Fowl... er, never mind.

Our wonderful, quaint, provincial sport, Australian Rules football, seems to be running scared to an extent. Over the past few years their marketing has taken something of a defensive approach as they needlessly try and reinforce the idea that the AFL is the country’s number one sport. It’s preaching to the converted, mostly, and it’s hard to see how they’re going to attract new fans – or customers if you like – in an industry where it’s very hard to do so.

44

It’s a debt that probably wasn’t helped by cringe-inducing marketing campaigns like ‘Join the Revolution!’ that they adopted last year. Because nothing says ‘sign up today’ like a bizarre pseudo-communist ad campaign. Even if it was tongue-in-cheek, the subtleties of it were probably a bit much for the average Port Adelaide fan to grasp.

Nevertheless, the debt is a real and present threat that the club seem to be genuinely struggling with.

It’s almost as if the word debt has two different meanings in Australia and England though. Compare and contrast: Manchester United have a staggering £699 million debt. England’s other top clubs are not far behind, and everything seems rosy for them. Every club in the Premier League carries debt, but unless they’re putting on very brave faces, they don’t seem to be struggling too much with the concept. For the big clubs, debt is seen as this big grey cloud on the horizon. Wilfully ignorant fans on the Internet use it as the foundation for idle taunts like ‘LOL Man U will do a Leeds 1 day u’ll see!’ (collapse and disappear into the lower leagues, that is – it would be fantastic but it seems unlikely).

Anecdotally, I’m fortunate enough to have season tickets for both Port Adelaide and Adelaide United, and it’s been interesting to just passively observe crowd trends between the two. I can’t speak for Crows games obviously, but to me there’s always seemed to be a distinct fan overlap between the two codes, despite the popular notion but fairly lazy stereotype of all Aussie Rules fans absolutely hating soccer.

It may be a case that some fans are making a choice between one or the other. Although I couldn’t say so with any certainty, here are a few words I would use to describe the crowds stemming from my own, obviously in-depth personal analysis. United: Young, multicultural and enthusiastic.

Port Adelaide: Sparse, frustrated and lacking atmosphere.

It doesn’t really help that sports journalists are typically assigned stories reporting on debts carried and they don’t fully understand it. Sports journalists aren’t usually hired for their expertise, they don’t really have to know anything beyond basic facts, so when they’re given relatively complex financial matters to deal with in their stories they don’t really know how to handle it. You wouldn’t get an arts critic to write about astronomy, would you?

What’s interesting, though, is comparing the financial struggles of Port Adelaide with a few of the other great sporting institutions of the world. Port Adelaide were recently given $1 million by the AFL to help alleviate their debt, which has reportedly peaked at $5.1 million.

That’s more like it. A story to stir debate amongst fans and lead sports journalists to offer broad, unqualifiable opinions in the form of irrefutable facts: Like this: Ronaldo might have cost almost twice as much as Zidane, but he’s half the footballer*.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid are flying in the face of all received wisdom of spending big in the late noughts by smashing the transfer record for a footballer not once but twice, buying Kaka from AC Milan for £56 million and Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for £80 million. The previous record was Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid from Juventus for about £46 million.

* Even taking into account Zidane’s unfortunate World Cup final incident, it’s entirely possible that Ronaldo has tried to headbutt opponents before, but his ridiculously oversized neck muscles may have prevented him from being able to get any direction on his attacks.

Nightlife With Ainsley Campbell fashion contributions from Kate Olsson The Cuckoo Club Find yourself standing round the same bar each weekend? Keen to change it up a little? These little urban treasures will have you looking back at your old haunt like a well worn pair of snap pants… glad you did it, but never again.

Limbo (enter via electric circus) 17- 19 Crippen Place (just off Hindley Street) Ainsley’s advice = Not sure if it was a competition between staff to see who could wear the most leather…but deck yourself out and you’re assured entry….

For the “who’s who” of Adelaide…Get past the elevator stare down from the door girl and dance the night away to some top rate DJ’s.

If you think you are hot, you will fit right in here.

Think pl(astic)eather, think b(ad)orange, think dance music, think too cool for you. One more think before we are through...I think management think uni students wish to pay the equivalent of 3 beers to get into their club….fifteen dollars when they are feeling generous.

137 Hindley St. Ainsley’s advice = Head here on a Friday This place revels on being different. If you are looking for commercial dance music “a la Dog and Duck”, then walk away from 137 Hindley Street. Cuckoo’s “Really Good” Fridays are a hit with the “I wear glasses with no lenses” crowd.

The Moodswinger DJ’s belt out some original mixes and even throw in some old vinyl to get the peeps off the wall speaking of walls, the vibrant red décor with delicate white drawings on the walls made me wish I brought my own chalk to contribute.

Good to see another bar apart from Mansions doing jugs of cocktails, you can pick one up here for $20, and the rest of the drinks are at average bar prices.

Kate saysBoys, dig in your grandpa’s closet and grab a cardie to match your black skinny jeans.

Girls, embrace the 90’s

Kate says – Girl’s, tousle your hair as if you’d just walked off a Parisian runway Boys, good looks are a must, however if looks really aren’t your thing, throw on a costume which just says ‘I’m in a band’ and it’s a sure thing.

The Lotus Lounge 268 Morphett Street Ainsley’s advice = Bring $$$

Squeeze yourself into this little bar on Morphett Street to be guaranteed of a good time.

The joint is popular with twenty something’s and business people letting their hair/briefcases down at the end of the week. It packs out on a Saturday so if you like your 10 centimetres of personal space check this one out on a Friday night.

They say good things take time, and in the Lotus’s case this rings true, so get yourself a good possie at the bar and have the bartender’s shake you up something special. The music is what you would expect from a Boho bar, a mix of jazz and acoustic with a few Afro beats to get people moving.

There is also an outdoor area complete with Balinese hut for those who wish to take their drink outdoors.

Kate Say’s Ladies, ditch your black court shoes in favour of your favourite stiletto, and throw on a fun piece of jewellery. Let your hair flow down effortlessly from that pony it’s been in all day.

Men, loosen the tie and unbutton that shirt a little, expose a bit of chest.

The ladies will love it.

45

Moneyopolis

by Greg Taylor, anti-consumer Sadly my article on how to make Adelaide the greatest city in the world has been rejected by the man. Yes, I had come up with four simple steps to creating a utopia in our fair metropolis, in what could have been the most important article of our time. Instead, I’ve been called upon to respond to my colleagues article on New York. Except, the article in question isn’t actually on New York. It’s on money.

Our Grand Lord and master, money. We all need and crave it, and we all trade our lives for it. So here is my article on Metropo…. on Money.

According to the corresponding article, money is responsible for everything good in the world. Certainly things that make our lives more convenient came about due to invention, which came about due to the potential demand that such an invention would create. And that demand equals money in the pocket of the inventor, hence why we are bombarded with new product after product after product, each one improved over the previous. Money even pays for laboratories that research medical ingenuity to make our lives longer.

But does the benefit of funding to make said research possible justify the fact that humans are enslaved to the acquisition of capital? Of course not.

Money is the way of life in which the human race finds itself, but that doesn’t make it right. Money isn’t responsible for everything good in the world. It isn’t responsible for the sun setting over the ocean, or precious art, or the shade of

46

a pine forest. It will however be responsible for the destruction of that pine forest. So on the contrary, money is responsible for most of the things that are terrible in the world.

Money, believe it or don’t, is responsible for global poverty. Because the global North is so reluctant to part with our precious money, we allow the South to continue to live in poverty, despite the best efforts of the most altruistic among us. Money is responsible for the most recent global war, as the US conned us all into helping them secure Middle-Eastern oil trade for the 21st century. Money is why we rape our planet of its natural resources, with the result of dangerously altering our climate.

If you’ve read my previous articles, you’re now no stranger to these theories.

A barter and trade economy does seem like the only viable alternative to a world based on money. Or is it? Perhaps the problem isn’t money, but the way in which we use it. The problem is the human addiction to money, to power, and to those things we call our possessions. And this addiction is brought about by a system that promotes said addiction. The system? Capitalism of course. While capitalism exists, we will all be addicted to what we can buy, and the wealth we can amass.

Let us take capitalism out of the equation for a moment. Let’s think radically. Imagine a world with one currency, where everyone was paid the exact same wage, whether tending sheep in Tanzania or running the Global Trade Organisation*. We’ve just solved the global poverty crisis, and there is no longer rich and poor. Of course, to make this a reality, we

*Global Trade Organisation – responsible for trade under the future Global Government

would need a global government. Think along the lines of the UN being the global leader, and the national governments being the regional actors for the UN. With effective and altruistic global leadership, and equal distribution of money, we’ve also just solved the majority of the worlds conflicts. While I would dearly love to elaborate on the intricacies of a global government, for this article I must keep my focus on money. The hardest component of all of this is to break the human addiction to money, but if becoming rich was no longer a factor of existence, the cycle of monetary slavery could surely be broken.

I’m no economist, and were an economist to read this they would most likely fall off of their chair. The sheer magnitude of the human race shifting to a non-capitalist system, let alone a global government, is mind-numbing. What currency would be used, and how would it be valued?

What are the implications for trade?

Would the state control production, and would competition become obsolete?

I’d love to answer these questions, but I only have 750 words. Dare I say stay tuned for my book? I’ll need the help of a crazed economist, who dares to flaunt the boundaries of modern economics!

What is important here is to consider that there is an alternative to capitalism, and one that can be of greater value than our present course of enslavement and destruction.

Greg Taylor

The Capital of Capitalism

by Tristan Adams, pro-consumer

New York, New York, the capital of capitalism, home of Wall Street and banking central of the planet, what a perfect chance to talk about the world’s greatest invention: money.

That is a big claim. Money doesn’t fight disease, keep out the elements, help people learn or power the world. It isn’t antibiotics, plastic, a printing press or electricity. Yet money is responsible for all these things, because its magic allowed them to be invented. Money’s development made the human race so much more productive that we finally had time to sit down and discover everything else, from antibiotics to DNA. In no way am I saying that people such as Crick and Watson (DNA) or Flemming and Florey (Penicillin) invented their things to get rich, because they weren’t evil capitalist bastards – not that capitalists are anymore evil than the next person.

They altruistically cared for knowledge and their fellow man, but they would not have been able to do it without the earlier invention of strong money.

Money isn’t just cash and credit; it is anything that fits the bill. According to Harris’ Monetary Theory, “Money is defined as any commodity that acts as a Medium of Exchange, a Unit of Account, and a Store of Value.” Therefore, I could use gold, sea shells, or even cows as money, as long as they are the intermediary commodity I use for exchange, the intermediary always has (1) Actually, there are some very complex barter systems in place in Western economies, but they only survive on the back of a strong monetary system and are usually used to deal with third world nations.

the same comparative value, and their value lasts over time. In fact, all of these things have been used as money at one time or another.

hard thing to do efficiently under a barter system, massively reducing services we could usually expect from a government.

Barter economies, the only realistic alternative to money, still exist, but only in the third world (1). That should be enough to convince you that money is better than barter, but short of visiting them, a world without money is hard to imagine. Most people would be out of a job, given that very few of us now actually do anything that is directly tradable and the rest would have a sudden decrease in quality of life as all their leisure time would go to finding somebody to barter with. Only, it would be so much worse. What would our lives be like without money?

Despite their current troubles, banks are the back bone of society. It is why Kevin Rudd did the right thing when he guaranteed them last year. Banks create money and supply debt, which is crucial for business investment and improvement - key to giving people jobs, paying for our education (HECS) and something as normalized as owning our own homes.

Only, banks wouldn’t exist without some form of money.

Starting at the beginning, as students we need three commodities, food, alcohol and textbooks. If you work in a barter economy your boss would have to pay you with one of three things, or a combination. Only, they won’t know what combination you want, nor is best, and finding out will decrease both yours and their productivity. Then, if you want something else, say a TV, or a car, or petrol, you will have to trade some of your earned commodities. But you’ll have to find somebody to trade with first, which will be hard because not many people want textbooks and food goes off and booze is just too precious. Of course there is escrow (2), but again, this is another layer of complexity that makes life harder than it has to be.

Barter economies rely on trade, but not all trades are possible and so people have to do more things for themselves.

This decreases specialization, which decreases productivity. Imagine a doctor trying to repair his own TV or grow his own food.

In short, barter economies can work, but the extra time and effort involved costs society so much that everything goes towards producing survival goods - food, water, warm clothes and hunting tools. There would be no time to learn chemistry, electronics, medicine, finer writing, or sit down in a lab and create antibiotics, or write a great novel to uplift the human spirit.

Money is God and New York is Heaven.

Governments and their spending are good; they supply education, healthcare, and roads among other things. This requires taxation, a

Tristan Adams

(2)* an account established by a broker, under the provisions of license law, for the purpose of holding funds on behalf of the broker’s principal or some other person until the consummation or termination of a transaction, or a trust account held in the borrower’s name to pay obligations such as property taxes and insurance premiums.

47

vox pop

a with Ashleigh Lustic

Get the goss on student life

side of uni hours inside and outw ith Vox P op, the voice of th e people!

e streets of I went out on th l to see how our quiet capitaudents rated Adelaide Uni st -paced city or Radelaide. Fast wn…how do slow country to de fares in all you think Adelai? that metropolis u’ve visited/ 1.Favourite city yo lived in/why?

Adelaide a 2.Would you call metropolis? art you’ve 3.Coolest urban found? vs Hindley Street 4.Rundle Street secret spot in 5.Do you have a ?

Adelaide? Whereost interesting 6.Where is the m sex and/or place you’ve hadn? thrown up in tow

satchi

1.Phoenix, Ariz weather nev ona, fantastic er home to Ariz a cloud in sight. It’s o college tow na state uni, cool n very prog ressive.

2.Ha..no.

3.Display by local artist K Kimpton in yra the 4.Rundle Str Adelaide Arcade ee Ex…I fuckin t for drinking at the g 5.The balco hate Hinely Street ny 6.Riding into on my house town on the after schoo l I was feelin bus g like I was going to ch uck into the fres …almost made it h air but trag ically the front of the bus wore it instead.

tim

my m for ingdo ..aw..

K d e ries ry Unit t memo sbury 1.Sali childhood rown coun g r warm it’s an ove le 2.No, Rund d on town coins glue sement of m up e u 3.The for the am to pick th n ia g t lg e in t e e mp or the B Str f le atte peop le Street, d r, it’s a 4.Run afé embe m e r t C ’ r Bee t can , I jus tairs…

5.I do . rary s b li t e h r sec Barr smit ich. h 6.The n guess w a c you

48

georgina 1.Milan for it’s busy on the go atmosphere 2.No, it’s too quiet and tranquil 3.Mural for Merge magazine off Rundle street 4.Definatley rundle Street 5.Felici Café to people watch 6.Neither!

mortin, cedric & jeremie Jeremie (from Noumea New Caledonia): 1.Sydney for the great atmosphere and skateboarding culture 2.Yes, (he’s been here a week… give him time) but in comparison to Noumea it is.

3.The malls balls 4.Rundle Street 5.Yet to be discovered kholm 6.…

Mortin from Stoc am tn Vie 1.Nha trung e size as m sa e th it’s s 2.Ye Stockholm s in the mall 3.The bronze pig r the pub fo t ee str 4.Rundle atmosphere elaide 5.So far it’s the Ad centre for the e m lco we nt de stu free coffee here three 6.“I’ve only been cheeky a th wi id days” (sa ..) ile sm

Cedric fro m 1.Rennes, Rennes F think Britta rance (it’s west, ny) 2.No, too sm 3.Like jere all for that mie and M ort rates the p igs and m in, he all balls 4.Rundle str 5.The TV eet room in th e RAH 6.…

helen 1.London, amazing city filled with people and history 2.No! it’s too small and other than in March nothing happens 3.Those toy cars on that wall off hindley 4.Rundle street- the Ex, Palace nova cinemas, mimco, Mary Martin Bookstore and..well..the generally sense of safety. If the small section of Hindley street that has jive and supermild was transplanted onto rundle, it’d be perfect.

5.Yes but if I told you it would be a secret!

6.I prefer to do those in the safety of my own home

49

9 Reasons to New York in 09 People have flocked to the island of Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs like kids to a candy store but when asked why, few New Yorkers can tell you what it was that convinced them to cut their ties and pack their bags for the big smoke. Perhaps the allure of making it big on Broadway or as a squalid greenback driven investment banker on Wall St… maybe it was the naked cowboy in Times Square that they saw on the postcards. Whatever it was, it persuaded them to move, find work, stay and allow New York to become the world’s greatest social experiment. There’ll never be one definitive reason for why New York has a magnetic force such that few can seem to resist it and for the most part this is because the city is constantly reinventing itself. Whilst difficult, I’ve made an attempt to loosely determine some of the reasons for the world’s love affair with the Big Apple. So here’s a few:

If you can make it New York you can make it anywhere

Unrivalled Anonymity

With a pace of life that’s faster and more taxing than any other city on earth and a cost of living that makes most middle class folk look homeless there’s no doubt that if you can make it in the big apple then you can make it in just about any other apple in the tree.

In New York you’re one in eight million. You can walk for miles around your own neighbourhood or go out for a night in the city and not see a single familiar soul. Many people would see this as a downer but for New Yorkers they wouldn’t have it any other way. I mean who wouldn’t love to wake up half naked on a curb after a night out and not have to face the guilt brought about by an embarrassed community?

There’s a Museum of Sex Sex in New York is a way of life. With more young singles than any other city in the Western Hemisphere New York thrives on its sexual energy. I mean what else do you think gets New Yorkers through their menial 9-5 day jobs? And as if Sex and the City wasn’t enough they’ve built a museum in Manhattan dedicated to it.

World’s greatest social experiment With eight million people from all across the world living in a space the size of a tuna can New York is unlike any other place on earth, a colossal social experiment that despite all odds seems to function day in day out like clockwork.

First class street eats When most people think street food they think stale hotdogs and bacteria. Well… think again.

New York has reinvented the concept of street food with authentic Greek, Lebanese and Italian eats being sold off the streets.

Yankees are still kicking doodle There’s something unique about New York’s love affair with the Yankees. It’s the team that just never stops producing the goods and with an annual salary cap that rivals most small countries GDP it’s not hard to see why.

50

Everyday is Saturday When it’s 1 AM on a Wednesday morning and you’re only just heading out to hit the town that’s when you know you’re truly in New York. This is a city that knows not the weekend because everyday can be Saturday. Most people believe that New Yorkers live to work but locals will be the first to tell you that they live to play.

Everyday is Saturday When it’s 1 AM on a Wednesday morning and you’re only just heading out to hit the town that’s when you know you’re truly in New York. This is a city that knows not the weekend because everyday can be Saturday. Most people believe that New Yorkers live to work but locals will be the first to tell you that they live to play.

Complimentary furniture In Manhattan the cost of moving furniture from apartment to apartment usually exceeds the cost of the furniture itself. So, what to do? Well, most New Yorkers just put it out on the street for grabs.

It’s like being in the world’s largest Ikea minus the Swedish meatballs.

51

52