Empire Times 41.8

EMPIRE TIMES STUDENT MAG. ISSUE 8. VOL 41.

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Nominations for FUSA Student Council, NUS and Empire Times

Nominations open: September 9 Nominations close: September 22 Election Dates: October 7-10 Visit FUSA.EDU.AU/elections to Nominate

EDITORIAL

YOU ARE ALL MY SUNSHINES! Spring has sprung, the birds are singing their beautiful songs, shoes thrown away to feel the warm grass between our little toes with a nice chilled coca cola to end the day! OH and can’t forget DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BABY! Best time of the year......

What a fantabulous issue have you all produced. As you read this issue in the sunshine, take a moment to appreciate” Labels are for Soup Cans and Sexuality”, Robins Williams” and the “Poetry and Prose” section to become all bubbly and inspired. You won’t regreat guys, go right now, stop reading this, GO! But just before you leave, if I could become any planet it would be Neptune, my favourite Robin Williams film is “Dead Poet’s Society” and my seedy sunday celebrity I’d wake up to is Jennifer Lawrence and Rachel Bilson, oh can’t foget Adam Brody!

For understanding, check out the VOX POP! (Who doesn’t want to answer such questions!) .

Here are some wise words to get you through those mid-semester blues Darling don’t you understand that every time we wave our hands we’re cool We’re fucking amazing -Ball Park Music Jade XD

Spring is here, spring is here!

Life is skittles and life is beer!

Heyup guys and gals, I imagine by now pretty much everyone has done the Ice Bucket Challenge- well done to those who drenched themselves in freezing water in the middle of winter in the name of charity! Tom Hiddleston certainly did us all a favour by wearing a lovely white shirt when he drenched himself– raaawwooorr!

Where did all the year go? It seems only yesterday we were getting our first assignments in and now the year is preparing to draw to a close. Do the years just get faster as you get older?

God I hope not.

As for me, I’m having a fun time trying to organize a trip to Florida with my bestie between all the homework and work juggling. This will be my first trip overseas without the aid of parents, so naturally I’m stoked. Since one of my destinations will be Disney World, naturally I want everything to go perfect and am slowly building up a weird ass coloured coded folder of stuff that needs to be organized. Organization at school? Not great. Organisation for Disney? Top freaking notch.

Enjoy the sun, fellow Flinderites, for the end of the semester is nigh.

Bethany

Salutations readers and contributors!

There are only so many times I can write an editorial without getting repetitive because, let’s face it, I don’t really have a life. I lied in earlier issues, pretended that I did in fact do terrific things with my spare time. Truth is, my spare time is spent sleeping and listening to Bright Eyes and The Doors. The highlights for me in the past month have been finding leftovers in the fridge and having a goat ride my back at uni (they have a petting zoo here sometimes!). Oh, and one other truly wicked thing that did happen to me (and it has to do with this issue that you’re having a peek at now) - see the artwork on this page?

It’s done by a duo called kozyndan.

They are my favourite artists and I got the opportunity to interview them.

Kozy and Dan were so very lovely and genuine to talk to. They are talented to the extent that it hurts so I’m excited to share their artwork with you because it’s just remarkable.

Spring is finally here and with it brings the blooming of flowers, the radiating sunshine, tanned bods, new love, chilled apple cider, beach runs, sunburn, bee stings, pollen, sweaty everything, chaffing, new and scary looking moles, hayfever...ok so I don’t actually like Spring so much it seems. But hey! At least we can all bask in the fact that it’s now warm enough to go outside.

All the best beauties, Jess

‘Bunny Blossoms’ by kozyndan - check out their interview on p.24

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OH HELLO there.

EDITORS: Jade Kelly, Bethany Lawrence & Jess Nicole.

empire.times@flinders.edu.au fb.com/empiretimesmag

Empire Times would like to acknowledge the Kaurna people who are the traditional custodians of the land Flinders University is situated on. We would also like to pay our respects to the elders past and present of the Kaurna nation and extend that respect to other Aboriginal peoples.

EMPIRE TIMES magazine is a publication of The Flinders University Student Association.

For advertising information: stephanie.walker@ flinders.edu.au

THANK YOU to Grace Hill, Charles Chuang Chiam, Ira Herbold,

Shaun Gill, Emma Sachsse, Ruby-Rose Niemann, Tim Walter, Roxy Henshaw, Eleanor Danenberg, Georgia Brass, Simone Corletto, Matthew Erdely, Kayla Gaskell, Allan Roberts, Jack McEntee, Stef Rozitis, Jo Schofield the sub-editors J.J Nestor (Features & Poetry/Prose), Shaun Hobby (Film & Crossword), the columnists Laura Telford (Politics), Kaisha Wyld (Feminism), Rohan Neagle (Science) the illustratorS Rosemary Ellison (back cover), Rafal Banasiak and the cover artist Hannah Everett for their kickass work!

The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or FUSA. All work within remains the property of the producers and may not be reproduced without their consent.

Correction: We would like to apologise to Eleanor Danenberg for mispelling her name in Issue 7. We regret this error.

Index

Page

Contributor Spotlight

4

Politics

7

Mistress M

8

Robin Williams

10-11

On Cops

12

Young and Well Towns

13

Labels are for Soup Cans...and Sexuality

15

The Science of Gut Bacteria

16-17

Gardening: a kind of magic

21

VOX POP

22-23

Artist Interview: kozyndan

23-28

Film Poetry/Prose

29 32-33

Fiction

34

Anime

40-41

Band Interview: Kingswood

46-47

Crossword

48

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CO N T R I B U TO R SPOTLIGHT

Rohan Neagle Tell us about yourself?

I’m currently a level 22 Neutral-Good Human who kinda just stumbled into my Bachelor of Arts degree not really knowing the wider implications of my decisions. I started off majoring in drama because a lady I fancied told me I was good at it. I changed majors later, realising that the concept of Gangsta Medea did not go wellreceived. In the meantime I discovered my new loves: Media and Sociology. So, I’m doing a double major in those. For those who wonder what they’ll learn from that – Spoiler alert: we have no free will, and yes, TV does suck. I play Role Playing Games, gleefully watch awful movies, and when I’m not wasting my potential as a human being playing video games, I like to write. I’m trying for comic books, but it’s hard to find appropriate artists! I’m also part of Subatomic, a science-based radio show on Radio Adelaide.

You write ‘The Science of…..’ column for Empire Times – why are you interested in the quirky side of science?

When I was really young I believed magic existed and that if I prayed to God he would grant me the power to alter reality. After years of feeling bitter and resentful about my lack of godhood (as well as a dream about catching a wizard spying on my parents eating dinner, he refused to lend me his magic wand so I woke up crying) I turned to science. Also, it’s all really cool and clever! I’m absolutely in awe by what humans can achieve, and the quirky stuff tends to stick out more often than not. It’s also much more fun to write and read about!

Worst Flinders moment?

I desperately needed to use a toilet and when I entered one there

were all these dead crickets on the floor and I was a little bit freaked out. It’s like as if Imhotep from The Mummy did his open-mouth locust scream while passing a 5000-year-old stone.

If you could choose one video game to live in which one would it be and why?

Anything with quicksaves – that’s pretty much guaranteed immortality if I play my cards right. But specifically, I might need to go for a Bethesda game like Skyrim – not because of the adventure, magic, wonder and intrigue, but because of the potential glitches that can happen. How would actual folk react to wall clipping, or being unable to reach someone slightly high on a ledge, or when, instead of walking, they float across the ground and eventually ascend into the sky never to be seen again? Then again, I’m sure anyone with a libido would just settle for a pornographic dating sim. Yeah, why not. Let’s go with one of those.

What are two words that should never be used in the same sentence?

‘Testicle’ and ‘Mash’.

Most people don’t know that I… I don’t like Star Wars. Not because it is bad, but because I’m sick to death Sith to Darth of all this cultural reverence bullshit for it.

Holy crap it’s not that good. It’s this huge terrifying conformist pop culture and, apparently, if you don’t like it something is wrong with you. I don’t want to see any more R2D2 goddamn merchandise on my Facebook wall.

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Issue 7

Dear editors, What the hell is happening with the student hub?

Where are we going, what does it look like, how much is it costing....please, someone, give us some information!

Love, Anonymous

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THE ANIMALS ON TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Prez Dispenser

Hey all, As I’m writing this, the ceasefire in Gaza has collapsed. Over 2,000 Palestinians have been murdered, including nearly 500 children. By the time this issue of ET is released, the numbers will no doubt be higher. I am happy to report that the Student Council has taken a stand, passing a motion I co-drafted to support Palestine, oppose Israel’s racist agenda of ethnic cleansing, and to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. I want to make it clear in this column - it is the role of a student association to take positions on broader social justice issues as well as explicitly student issues, and that what is happening to the Palestinians is a genocide, and must be opposed.

On a happier note, Slime Minister Abbott was once again greeted by protesting students when he visited a campus this time Adelaide University. The day before his visit saw a fantastic rally on the steps of Parliament House as part of the NUS education campaign. In response to the fabulous student protests which have defined the campaign all year, Adelaide university erected a large fence between the student body and Prime Sinister Abbott, and called in mounted police who viciously assaulted students without warning. Aside from the violence from the police, the rally was great.

It was loud, vibrant, and angry, with students, LGBTI activists, refugee campaigners, welfare advocates, and supporters of Palestine, all coming along to voice their passionate anger at Abbott and his cronies.

The student campaign this year has shown us the way forward for student unions. They need to be fighting, militant bodies. That’s what has won the campaign this much support so far, and if we’re to win we need to keep fighting.

Compromises and deals with anti-Chinese racists like Palmer, slashers of education like Labor, or staff-cutting university administrators will not save education. Students will.

- Grace Hill

“A Slow News Day” Words By Laura Telford As a self confessed political junkie, who has already succeeded in one of her life goals, to be able to quote The West Wing and pretty much any speech given by Annabel Crabb off the top of my head, I shudder at the thought of the Federal Parliaments Winter Break. I mean if our ever-loved pollies aren’t making and debating bills in Canberra, what am I going to fill my days doing? Interacting with other humans? Making small talk in the corridors? I almost feel lost without knowing, come 1.30 in the afternoon I can turn on question time and get my daily dose of humour, politics and new story ideas all in one go. The other downfall of the mid-winter break is that it means our pollies have nothing to do, and when people have nothing to do, most turn loopy. Crazy loopy. Insane loopy.

Loopy loopy.

And so many have just scratched my head and laughed at the events that unfolded during the break as even though the population of Canberra reduced by half, nothing is ever quiet on the eastern front!

Not to make light of the situation but this dialogue from The West Wing seems scarily on par with what happened…

CJ (Press Secretary): We have nothing to announce today. No policy, no summit meetings, not even a warm front meeting up with a cold front. We’ve been over this. We need a hard news announcement each and every day, or the press runs amuck.

JOSH (Deputy Chief of Staff): This is Toby’s job. What am I, the White House complaint center?

CJ: You run the policy shop.

Besides, Toby’s avoiding me.

JOSH: Maybe no news is good news.

CJ: No news is very, very bad news.

If we’re not running offense, we’re running defence. And if we’re playing defence, then ... there’s some clever sports analogy that explains what happens then.

JOSH: We’re screwed.

And this pretty much sums up the federal government. In this day and age of a 24 hour news cycle, we are constantly looking for updates and new information and when nothing much is going on, all hell tends to break loose. The smallest most insignificant remark can be magnified tenfold, changed, edited and manipulated and all of a sudden a Big Brother style fight has erupted before our very eyes. The argument is then played over and over, and before long every single person in the country knows what was said, by whom and where. And the examples are endless…

Joe Hockey’s comment that the “poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases” was made epic, as was Bill Shortens reply, that “Joe Hockey wants people to live in cars not drive them!” Clive Palmers comments about the Chinese were spectacular and a GIF of Penny Wong’s face was played repeatedly, for days. Not to be disappointed by the big man himself, Prime Minister Tony be-myfriend-coz-i-am-awesome Abbott launched a book and gave away the ending all while trying to act super cool and nonchalant about the whole deal.

It is almost as if all the red cordial and lollies Down Under were mass sent to those who we put in charge, and consumed on an industrial level, as planes were leaving our nations capital on July 17.

That is not to say that our pollies didn’t conduct important duties while away from the capital, in light of the MH17 disaster the PM and Foreign Minister flew to Europe pledging Australia’s full support in the weeks and months following the incident, which many are calling international terrorism and condemnation of Russia supporting the rebels. Obviously the Government received a bump in the polls due to this and given the unfortunate circumstances have chosen to focus on border protection and nationalistic goals in the foreseeable future when it comes to policy announcements, which will continue when parliament resumes and for the most part of the rest of the political year.

Finally the issue that has divided the nation, the federal budget or the feral budget depending on who you are speaking to, is still being hotly contested. It seems like a number of measures aimed at reducing the debt are controversial as ever and protests (particularly at a student and young person/ left leaning level) are continuing. With the MYEFO (Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook – a document which looks at how the budget estimates are going) due out in a matter of weeks it will be interesting to see if the Government use that as a way of enforcing the need for their “pain for a purpose” budget.

Okay, so maybe stuff has been happening over the winter break, but it sure is boring only listening to one round of new news each day, and as someone who can speak with a mouth full of marbles I for one am glad I will have new things to discuss, when parliament resumes…

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MISTRESS M

Sex Parties

So you want to go to a sex party? Well thanks to the internet, it has never been easier.

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Blue Stockings Week and the New ~Women’s Collective ~ Blue Stockings Week is an initiative of the Women’s Action Committee of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), and this year it was from August 11th15th. Blue Stockings Week celebrates women in higher education, and the name was given to the first generation of University Women in the 19th century. The term ‘blue stockings’ was originally used a derogatory dismissal of these women’s achievements, but they turned it around and proudly wore the term like a badge of honour of their persistence and passion for education. When Blue Stockings week rolls around each year, it means that university campuses all around Australia are taking part in events of recognition and celebration, and these events are getting bigger and better each year.

One of the national activities for Blue Stockings week 2014 was a photo project, encouraging women to take pictures of themselves and to write a caption about their connection to the university, as part of a wider project, symbolising that “we are the women of the university; past, present, and future”. The results of this project at the FUSA-ran Blue Stockings event were nothing less than inspiring and heart-warming. Flinders women proudly held up their personal message for their photos, with captions such as “Flinders women support fellow Flinders women”, “Cut our hair, not our university funding”, and my personal favourite; “ I support Women in Higher Education; not the ‘Minister for Women’ “. Not only did we get many Flinders women participating in this

project, but also many Flinders men, proud to voice their support for the women they stand alongside at University.

The FUSA Blue Stockings event was a free morning tea, with freshly cooked pancakes up for grabs, as well as muffins, fruit, muesli bars, and drinks. Besides the Polaroid project, there was a banner opposing the education cuts for all to sign, and those of us who helped out at the morning tea advertised that week’s NTEU event, a free lunch and seminar by Khadija Gbla, regarding racism and violence in education.

It was a week when Flinders women came together and showed that they are a force to be reckoned with, and I was so proud to be a part of it.

We also spread the word and signed people up to the new FUSA Women’s Collective, being organised by the FUSA Women’s Officer, Ella Keegan-Treloar, who gave ET the inside scoop…

ET: Ella, what’s involved in being the FUSA Women’s Officer?

EKT: The Women’s Officer acts as an advocate on behalf of women students. It is my responsibility to ensure that women students are referred to the relevant services in relation to personal and academic matters, act as a spokesperson of women students, liaise and network with other women’s organisations and bodies both on-campus and outside of Flinders University, run campaigns and events surrounding issues of importance to

women students, and chair the Women’s Collective.

ET: And what got you interested in such a role?

EKT: From the age of eight I watched my mother attempting to balance study and raising children as a sole parent – all with the added pressures of living below the poverty line and suffering from a mental illness. I also experienced issues stemming from the pressures society imposes on women and as a result I really want to help other women experiencing similar hardships – both in my role as Women’s Officer and career after university.

ET: Lastly, tell us about your vision and plans for the new Women’s Collective.

EKT: My vision for the Women’s Collective is for it to primarily be a space to give women students a voice, where issues faced by women students on campus can be raised and discussed. I plan for it to be a place where interested students can find out and get involved in events and campaigns, connect with like-minded students, and undertake projects to help disadvantaged women.

Words By Eleanor Danenberg For further information or enquiries, contact Ella on: womens.officer@flinders.edu.au

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Robin Williams I would like to begin by saying how utterly devastated I was when I heard Robin Williams had died. My Mum rushed outside to tell me as I was leaving for Uni, so I immediately tuned into the news to hear he had committed suicide, devastating me even more. All day I was speechless, emotionally overwhelmed with a heavy heart, hardly concentrating on my work and rather flicking through the reel of his films stored inside my head, remembering how he would reduce me to tears of both laughter and sadness.

The day of his death was no exception to this.

People wonder how others get so worked up over the death of a person they didn’t know, but really, while we didn’t know Robin Williams in light of his death, EVERYONE knew Robin Williams - he was one of the most loved figures across the globe. This was due to his comedic and compassionate qualities that resonated in every role he played, teaching many life lessons through each beloved character. As children he taught us to believe in our dreams in Aladdin, to have a sense of adventure in Jumanji, to never let our inner child die in Hook, to be proud of everything we create in Flubber, to pick ourselves up and keep going when we fall apart in Robots, to sing the song we carry inside our soul in Happy Feet, that “anything’s possible; if it can be dreamed it can be done” in Night At The Museum, and to value family vacations in RV. As adults, Robin taught us to make sure you protect your privacy in One Hour Photo, to not let anyone exploit your talent in August Rush, to inspire and entertain those who need it most in Good Morning Vietnam, that family is worth everything in Mrs Doubtfire, that “we get to choose who we let into our weird little worlds” in Good Will Hunting, that laughter is the best medicine in Patch Adams, that being human means to love and lose and live and die in Bicentennial Man, that we should never be afraid to live life to the fullest in Jack and to contribute a verse, to find our voice, to see the world from a different view in Dead Poets Society. Now, even in his death and the means by which it came about, Robin continues to teach us all a lesson beyond the grave, putting a very stigmatised and serious social issue back in the spotlight.

alone, but with a smile on their face.

3. We need to dare to look beyond that mask and ask people we believe are at risk whether they are okay - offer them help.

4. We need to reach out and understand those who are tormented and troubled by the demons of mental illness, rather than push them and their condition aside as a “phase” or sweep it under the rug altogether.

5. EVERY DAY people of differing race, class and gender face this battle, and sometimes if not assisted, they lose the battle.

6. As a community we NEED to unite and fight; we need to show sufferers that there is no shame in their condition and that support can be found EVERYWHERE. But most importantly, Robin Williams teaches the unfortunate souls that battle mental illness, including the likes of me: WE ARE NOT ALONE. People go through the same troubles as us every day.

People would be devastated by our loss should we lose our own battle. People want to help and as sufferers and allies, we should be joining forces and empowering and assisting one another as best we can - fighting our battles together and winning the war.

Robin Williams was not just a comedian or an actor…he was a teacher. The wisdom he imparted upon us all has and will continue to inspire and impact our lives. In this, everyone who knew and loved Robin should take comfort in the knowledge that his passing has not been in vain, but will act as a final lesson that everyone will learn from – that it is time we seized the day, stood together in strength and stop letting suicide steal away the most special of souls.

Thank you for everything Mr Williams - O Captain, My Captain.

We hope you are resting, finally, at peace.

Words By Georgia Brass

Robin’s death has highlighted the issues of mental health as taboo throughout society. Resultant from his death, Robin has taught us:

If you too are battling mental illness and need help, please contact your GP or one of the following organisations:

1. Each of us have our own story which we carry around inside our hearts, minds and souls that no one else will ever truly know, and so we need to be kind to one another.

2. Those whom seem the happiest and spread the most joy are often the saddest, a cliché that many people choose to ignore.

People fall for it, then the sufferer has to carry the burden not only

beyondblue – www.beyondblue.com.au Lifeline – www.lifeline.org.au Reach Out – www.reachout.com headspace – www.headspace.org.au

11

on cops Words and Opinions By Ira Herbold

On the 21st of August, Tony Abbott visited the University of Adelaide to deliver the 2014 Sir John Downer oration.

As has (wonderfully) become standard whenever Liberal politicians visit university campuses these days, a substantial crowd of angry student protesters assembled outside the venue.

Temporary fences had been erected around the Braggs building where Abbott’s lecture was taking place. The fence was guarded by a few dozen police who ushered in the lecture’s attendees. At one point during the rally, a number of protesters circled around the building towards Frome Road, found an unattended section of fence, and pushed it down. In the narrow road between the Molecular Life Sciences and Mawson Buildings, we were stopped by more police, who formed a human barrier in place of the destroyed fence.

After a short time, a number of mounted police dressed head to toe in riot gear arrived behind us and proceeded to ride through the crowd of a hundred or so protesters.

Presumably, this was an effort to get us to disperse. Just a tip, SAPOL: shouting “Move!” from behind your riot helmet’s visor doesn’t do much good when the people you’re shouting at are trapped between two buildings and two lines of police with nowhere to move to.

At least two protesters were knocked down by the horses and trampled. According to media reports, one young woman required medical attention and had to be taken away in an ambulance. While I was trying to get out of the way, I was knocked aside by one of the horses and hit in the head by a news boom light, sustaining a gash on my forehead.

One of the things I always notice in the aftermath of a police clash with protesters is how quickly people will leap to the defence of the police. They’ll argue that the protesters must have done something to warrant their treatment, that the police are only exercising their best judgement and deserve the benefit of the doubt. It seems to me that there are some fundamental misconceptions operating here as to what the police force is, why it exists, and what its role is.

Police forces like to pretend that their job is to protect the citizenry—cops are your friends, kids. But while slogans like “to protect and to serve” might have a certain rhetorical appeal, when it comes to articulating the

function of the police, they’re just plain wrong. To put it bluntly, the police force exists to protect and enforce the interests of the state through coercion, intimidation, and violence. I’m genuinely not trying to be controversial with that statement. It seems to me to be a straightforward descriptive claim about the role of the police in our society.

Certainly, there are times when the interests of the state line up with the interests of the citizenry. But when they don’t, when they diverge, the police as an institution are inevitably on the side of the state. This is not to say that there aren’t individuals within the police force who might privately disagree with the state or the actions of the police, but there is an institutional mandate to protect the interests of the state—if necessary, against the interests of the people. Why, after all, would a state fund and maintain a police force if it was going to consistently act against the state’s interests? And the modern representative state does not represent the interests of all. It exists to enforce a rule of law that benefits some and deceives and exploits everyone else— the vast majority of humanity. When those who aren’t represented raise their voices in protest, it shows its true colours very quickly.

When I think about or discuss the role of the police and the state with people, I am often reminded of an old quote I’m fond of, from Marx’s pamphlet about the 1871 Paris Commune, The Civil War in France: “The civilization and justice of bourgeois order comes out in its lurid light whenever the slaves and drudges of that order rise against their masters. Then this civilization and justice stand forth as undisguised savagery and lawless revenge.”

You said it, Karl.

Young and Well Towns Addressing Mental Health and Wellbeing In Rural Settings

Imagine living in a rural Australian township. Actually, you’re not actually in the township – you live an hour away on the family farm. You travel an hour on a dusty road to the area school five days a week, where a grand total of 100 students attend, from ages five to eighteen. There’s a small grocery store a street down from the school, and on your way from school to the grocery store everyone acknowledges you by name, and the old couple who live a couple of streets over ask you how the price of wool is and if your father will ever get around to replacing his beat up old ute.

The nearest supermarket is two hours away, and when you travel in with mum to get the shopping done, it’s two or three trolleys full and it’ll last you a fortnight. There is a hospital in the local township, but there are no permanent doctors: they come in, do their rural experience, and then head for the hills when their time is up. What’s worse is that the doctor lives the next town over, an hour away, and isn’t really on call, regardless of what the pamphlet says. It would be easier and faster to drive any emergencies to the next hospital, which only takes you around an hour and a half to get to if the cops don’t catch you for speeding first.

This is an extreme example of the life of a rural youth: realistically, Murray Bridge, Renmark, and Mt Gambier are all classified as rural centres. In a recent study it was found that approximately 16% of young people in rural areas don’t think that life is worth living, and an additional 14% think they’d be better off dead*.

social networks regularly, yet only 4.2% use online or email counselling – which is great if the young person is getting support elsewhere. Access is the biggest barrier to rural young people using mental health and wellbeing services. A young person can’t just schedule in an appointment with their local GP or mental health clinic, either because they don’t exist or the resources aren’t available to supplement what is there. The Young and Well Towns project is exploring ways to make mental health services relevant and engaging to rural and remote young people – directly addressing access issues. The project will also be evaluating the Online Wellbeing Centre (still in development) and evaluate its impact on mental health and wellbeing through a trial.

Research is being done into why the above percentages are higher for rural young people compared to their metropolitan cousins, yet it is just as important to directly address the issues sooner rather than later. We’re looking at ways to engage young people with mental health using online apps and games that they would have constant access to via their phones in the hopes that the above percentages will decrease, and we will have a healthier, better generation to look forward to.

If you want to be involved in the Young and Well Towns project, please email you name, age, and contact details to: youngandwell@flinders.edu.au

That’s almost a third of all young people in rural areas who aren’t living their lives to the full and don’t have the support they need when things get tough, don’t know how to get support, or don’t know that they need support. This is where the Young and Well Towns project comes in.

The Young and Well Towns project is supported by the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, Flinders University, Country Health SA, beyondblue and Movember.

Access to mental health services is particularly difficult for rural young people. Even though Headspace and online Lifeline chat are being used, it is suggested that they are not used to their full potential in rural and remote areas. 92% of young people access

______________________________________________

Words By Kaisha Wyld *Burns, J.M., Davenport, T.A., Christiansen, H., Luscombe, G.M., Mendoza, J.A., Bresan, A., Blanchard, M.E., & Hickie, I.B., 2013. Game On: Exploring the Impact of Technologies on Young Men’s Mental Health and Wellbeing. Accessed from www.youngandwellcrc.org.au

13

Labels Are For Soup Cans… and Sexuality When I was younger, I went through a phase of general moodiness. I listened to My Chemical Romance. I wore more black than the night sky. I even owned a studded leather choker which my mother affectionately called my ‘b*tch collar’.

Apparently, she didn’t get the moodiness memo. Along with my behaviour and dress standards, I gained the label of Emo, and occasionally Goth, from my peers at school.

I was vehemently against any labels. I took the lead from many images on the internet that proclaimed labels were for soup cans and not for people. Bright colours hurt my eyes, so come to the dark side – we have cookies. In the heyday of MSN messenger, there was an abundance of generic display pictures that helped adolescents the world over rationalise their behaviour, their attitudes, and their chosen moody outlets.

I have since grown out of that outwardly Emo phase. I still wear some black, and am periodically moody if someone chooses to rub their stupidity in my face. For example, when someone states that a gay identifying adolescent will ‘grow out of’ their phase of deviant sexuality.

Sigh.

In a previous article, I spoke about gender and sexuality fluidity, and I don’t wish to discuss this again. Instead, I would like to talk about sexuality, and specifically, how it is labelled and conceptualised in modern society.

The longest and most inclusive acronym for the Queer Movement I have come across is LGBTIQQOA. Fortunately, for comprehension and ease of use, this is usually abbreviated to LBGT or simply the Queer Movement. However, I will spell out each of the items of the acronym: Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex Queer Questioning Other Asexual. ‘tis a bit of a mouthful, but there are many other labels of human sexuality. These include, and are not limited to, pansexual, omnisexual, heterosexual, polysexual, or no label at all.

Sexuality is generally defined by the genders of the people a person is attracted to. For a simple example, a man attracted to a woman would be heterosexual. A man attracted to a man would be gay. If both of these scenarios were for the same man, he would be bisexual. But what is the use of these labels of sexuality? Are they really necessary, especially when you consider that some people still cannot find their own identity between all of these available labels?

It is a part of human nature to label people.

It makes everything easier to conceptualise when you know someone’s story from their identity, or label. Many people become uneasy when a person doesn’t have a readily available and understood label for an aspect of their selves, or when parts of their identity don’t follow ‘logically’ from other aspects of their identity or label.

Perhaps the concept of sexuality is merely political. A way to control and oppress

masses of people through identities which are out of their control. Marriage and adoption rights are current examples of this. Yet all of these labels for sexuality rest on one thing: the concept of gender identities. I hate to break it to anyone who thinks otherwise, but there is more than the current binary system of gender. This binary system is a by-product of the belief that the sex you are born with, as determined by a combination of your anatomy and chromosomes, forms your identity which you live with for the rest of your life. If you are born with a vagina, you are therefore female and will act in accordance with feminine ideals; be attracted to men, wear dresses, love shopping, and never ever dream of ambition. I would hope that you realise, dear reader, that it isn’t as simple as this, and that your anatomy does not determine your destiny.

Sexuality is a social construct, based on the false binary gender/sex system. It helps us to make sense of the world by labelling the people around us by their sexual behaviours and desires. And when you really think about it, labelling people by what comes naturally to them is about as silly as saying the chick in the black shirt is an emo.

Words By Kaisha Wyld

Rise of the Vocaloids Scandals. Idiocy. Two among many things that make us facepalm at celebrities. Sure, we like their songs and performances, but just because they are good at entertaining us, it does not excuse their actions that lack common sense. But what if you can have idols without the questionable behaviours? What if, you can easily â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;hireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; these idolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; talents for yourselves, without paying outrageous DPRXQW RI PRQH\" ,I VR JHW \RXU FUHDWLYH MXLFHV Ä&#x2021;RZLQJ ZULWH those songs and polish your computer skills â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Vocaloids have arrived (for a long time actually), bringing with them the future of musical sounds and voices.

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15

The science of All around you, on you, in you, about you, there’s a crazydiverse amount of bacteria. This is commonly referred to as the Human Microbiome or just ‘gut bacteria’. There’s about 100 trillion of these squirmy little love-bugs that live a happy symbiotic existence with your body. Heck, they outnumber your human cells 100:1 and you should be screaming about this right now. And not just because you’re not you (technically you’re a collection of nonsentient nightmares with a bit of people thrown in) but because they’re a completely understudied, recent field that science has overlooked for way too long. But hey, let’s learn what we can!

There’s an active culture of various bacteria all residing in your digestive system that helps break down food because you didn’t chew 30 times like your grandma told you. It also produces certain vitamins, keeps your immune system on its toes by training your immune cells for bloody guerrilla warfare, and keeps harmful bacteria on the down-low by doing some of the work themselves.

They’re a swiss-army knife of body maintenance and you haven’t thanked them in one day of your life, have you?

Through the vagus nerve connecting the brain to the gut, bacteria can influence behaviour in mice. Anxious, ‘fraidy-cat mice that are injected with the same kinds of gut bacteria as braver mice ended up acting much more bold – but didn’t respond in the same way when the experiment was repeated with the vagus nerve severed. Before we appreciate this whole new factor for your next existential crisis I should also mention there’s also reason to believe that we eat food based upon what our gut bacteria wants, and not what we want. When you have a craving for a burger, it’s not just your single-minded consideration, it’s billions, if not trillions, of single-celled souls whining “I want it nowww” while biologically hacking your body into obeying.

f gut bacteria A lot of theories suggest that we inherit our initial digestive microbes from our mothers, but their diversity depends on our diets as well. Gut microbes change up in as short as a day in response to extreme diets – from the vegetarian “I’m eatin’ right, ma” bonanza to the meat “I should regret this but I don’t” banquet.

The bacteria in the guts also changed gene expression and the way it digested certain short-chain fatty acids after a few days of these diets. You know how nuts that is? It’s like eating Mi Goreng for a week and having your hair colour change in response (but that’d certainly save on hair dye). There is so much overlooked about the wrigglies in your human microbiome that a lot of scientists believe that we’re causing ourselves undue harm.

By being obsessed with being clean, trapping ourselves into certain diets, and taking certain kinds of anti-biotics, we may be ruining our bacteria and thus our health. Heck, science has uncovered that obesity, diabetes and inflammatory bowel diseases are correlated with weak diversity of bacteria in the human gut.

Words by Rohan Neagle Artwork by Rafal Banasiak

Now, it finally came to the point where scientists asked “Hey, what if there’s a difference in gut bacteria between the sexes?” Well, after some experiments, it seems as if, when male and female humans eat the same diet, they produce different types of gut bacteria! This is not only an odd discovery, but also a problem for researchers. The difference in male and female mice were minimal, so, science made an ass out of you and me. We now know that diets affect both human sexes differently, and this can help in identifying certain nutritional therapies that work for certain kinds of people. It’s postulated that types of hormones may affect the lifecycle and types of gut flora produced, so, don’t let the patriarchy stop you. Be a strong, independent human who don’t need no significant other – although, you may need to depend upon the 100+ trillion bacteria that make up the vast majority of you.

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19

STUDENT COUNCIL

FUSA Student Council is the students’ voice to the university representing students rights and interests. Student Council elections are being held on campus between the 7th and 10th of October 2014. It’s important that everyone has their say and votes so Student Council is representative of everyone on campus.

The transition from high school to uni is hard. Studying is hard.

Working and studying is harder. Studying and raising your family is even harder. Studying, working and raising your family is OMG I don’t even want to think about it! FUSA and Student Council is here to make it that little bit easier.

Last year when students, sick of chips and gravy, approached the President he took your concerns to the university and Student Council produced food trucks! Ta Daa! There’s no reason we can’t do the same for any concern you might bring to us.

The General Secretary and Clubs and Events Officer have been working hard all year to make Flinders more Club friendly and bring more culture to campus. Check out the list of current affiliated Clubs here: http://fusa.edu.au/clubs/find-a-club/ Thanks to the Welfare Officer and the fantastic team at FUSA who every Thursday give students a free breakfast. Every Tuesday FUSA says relax because studying is hard so have some goats, a free haircut and massage.

The Social Activities Officer has organised parties, pub-crawls and don’t forget the FUSA-Winter-Wonderland-ball October 17!

Student Council runs campaigns to raise awareness with Bluestockings Week; celebrating and supporting women in higher education, Sustainafair; because Flinders can and should have a more conscientious environment policy, the multicultural festival; showing off our multi-culturealness at Flinders, IDAHOT Day; that is the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia Day, and NAIDOC week; National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, to name a few.

All year we’ve been vocal on politically loaded issues like the cuts to higher education. We want more spending on education not less!

However, FUSA is and ought to remain non-partisan. Everyone should feel comfortable to approach FUSA and Student Council with any issue they have. Our primary objective is to make student life easier. Don’t like the way we’re running something? Tell us! Pop in to the office for a chat or join one of our sub-committees. Each Office Bearer has at least one sub-committee to ensure all students from all walks of life can have a say in the running of FUSA and the university. It’s a great way to get involved if you don’t have the time or inclination to run for council. For more information check out the FUSA website.

If anyone reading this article has ever thought about trying to make Flinders’ Students lives a little easier I urge you to get involved.

Raise issues at the election that are of keen interest to you and your peers. Your voice matters but we can’t hear you if you don’t speak up! If you don’t have the time to run for a position then there are still lots of ways for you to get involved.

Ensure you vote for the candidate who best reflects your hopes, dreams, ideals and food and coffee on campus! I know it can be annoying walking around campus during elections, being constantly asked to vote, but do yourself a favour - vote! It’s in your best interest to have a representative Student Council and we know if you haven’t. We sense it!

Words By Roxy Henshaw

Gardening: A Kind of Magic Plants are pretty amazing when you think about it. They start off as tiny little seeds and can end up huge leafy things taking over your entire garden. I’ve studied my fair share of botany (that is to say, a half a semester’s worth in first year Biology) but even knowing that flowers are practically plant genitals and spores fertilise ovum to form seeds, watching something grow from such humble beginnings is still rather amazing.

Step 1: Pick your plants.

In my childhood I always had a cursory interest gardening, but all my attempts inevitably failed as my short attention span got the better of me. Around this time last year, I was passing the gardening section of my local Woolworths and decided to try again. I picked out seed packets of basil, chives and cherry tomatoes, as well as some nifty seed trays.

Step 2: Buy/steal/otherwise procure soil.

I managed to pick up a big ol’ bag of soil for like $2. Better stuff costs a little more. Usually soil specified as seed starter works best, because it’s been formulated with all the right nutrients that regular ground soil might not have, depending on where you live.

Step 3: Read the packet.

I can’t emphasise this enough. It took me several goes to get my basil to work, because I wasn’t giving it enough light. Check to see how much your plants require. If your plant doesn’t come in packets, ask the internet. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) at just how many gardening forums, communities and info sites there are out there.

Step 4: Plant!

This is the fun part. Pour in and pack down soil in your pots or seed trays and lightly spray the soil to dampen. It’s probably best to use a finger to dig a little hole for the seed, unless you’ve got something like an avocado stone. Sprinkle in about 4-6 seeds into each hole.

Most of them probably won’t germinate, so the more you have, the more successful plants you’ll probably get. Take care of what the packet recommends, and try not to bury the seeds too deep. (That’s what she said…sorry, that was terrible).

Step 5: Water Once you place your new babies in the ideal sun-exposure area, the next main step is simply to remember to water it. You’ll want to water at least once a day, perhaps twice during summer if the soil dries out too much. But don’t over-water your seeds. That can cause them to go mouldy and die. I know, it’s an annoying balance.

It’s easiest to remember if you add it into your daily routine, such as before breakfast.

Step 6: Wait This is the worst and also best. The time between planting and waiting for something to happen can feel like it drags on forever, depending on what you’ve planted, but there’s nothing you can do to speed up the process. On that magical day where you do see some tiny green sprouts, be sure to document it. Just like childbirth, these are moments you will soon forget as the plant grows and grows and totally takes over your garden.

Step 7: Harvest Finally your project has literally come to fruition! Be sure to check guides to make sure it really is ripe for the picking before severing the ties. Now you can enjoy the fruits (or vegetables) of your labour.

Well done, you grew something and it lived long enough to breed!

You’re a god now. This is exactly what parenting feels like. Be sure to take those final Instagram pics of your produce and boast to all your friends of your new gardening prowess.

Words by Simone Corletto Artwork by Rosemary Ellison

21

VO Q.

1.if you could be any planet, which one would you be and why? 2. Favourite Robin Williams Film? 3. Flinders University becomes overthrown by some killer robots, what do you do? 4. what is your study song? 5. it is nearing the end of the year, how do you stay â&#x20AC;&#x153;motivatedâ&#x20AC;? to get through the second semester? 6. you wake up on a seedy sunday morning, which celbrity do you wake up next to?

1. Earth, because then I would have a chnace of surviving ..... oxygen is crucial.

1. Pluto, because little is known about it.

2. No favourite.

3. Find a weapon and fight.

4. Superfast Jellyfish, Gorillaz.

5. Find a balance between getting outside in the sun and study time.

2. Good Will Hunting.

1. Mars, because I like the chocolate.

3. Relax and enjoy the show.

2. Jumanji

3. Get my partner to build.

4. California Girls, Katy Perry.

4. Anything by A Day To Remember.

5. Thinking about those long summer days ahead.

5. Induldge in my vices.

6. Scarlett Johansson, Hayden Panettiere and Jennifer Connelly.

6. Paul Wasteling.

6. Jeremy Mckinnon.

caleb

Jessica

Hugh

1. Earth, because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s close to home.

2. Dead Poets Society, really good quotes.

3. Buy a flight to the UK and find a castle to live in.

4. Saturday Night, Sam Cook.

5. Drink lots of coffee.

2. Flubber - I remember being fascinated by how they animated the green thing, when I fist found out about special effects.

3. Herd them into the lake.

Surely that would finish them off.

pop

X O 1. Saturn - I like to collect rings.

1. Uranus.

2. Good Will Hunting.

4. Lux Aterna, Clint Marshall.

3. Become a programmer.

5. I stop doing readings.

4.Van Halen.

5. Smoke drugs.

6.Chris Hemsworth.

6. Andriana Grande

6. -

james

sarah

tobias

23

ARTIST INTERVIEW:

kozyndan

kozyndan is a pseudonym for the LA residents Kozue and Dan Kitchens, husband-and-wife artists who are best known for their collaborative work most often inspired by the ocean, the animal kingdom, ecology, and humanity. kozyndan create trippy, whimsical and stimulating pieces and have done work for Puma, Nike, Electronic Arts, the Discover Channel as well as bands such as Weezer and The Postal Service. Jess Nicole had a chat to the two about censorship, working as a couple, the use of humour in art and their thoughts on humanity.

How did kozyndan come about?

Kozy: While at Cal State Fullerton, we had already been dating and living together for a while, but Dan and I had never collaborated on art. I was working on a project for a class, doing a long panoramic drawing of the inside of our apartment. Dan liked it so much he decided to scan it in to the computer and color it in digitally, just for fun. I was liking it and jumped in to help him finish it and we really liked the result. It was a fun thing. We didn’t think so deeply about it at the time, but we did decide to make another one. We have been collaborating together ever since.

What mediums do you use? Do you have a favourite?

Dan: Pen and ink, pencil, watercolor, color pencil, acrylic, silk screen, Photoshop, clay, etc etc. I think I just like sketching with leafless pencils. The rest I do because I have to.

Kozy: I really like my .03 mechanical pencil, and acrylic gouache paints by Holbein. Most of the paintings we make are made with that paint.

From where does your inspiration for your projects stem?

Dan: From our life and experiences and learning. If you are not overflowing with ideas you are not really an artist I don’t think.

Inspiration should never be a problem. If so you need to get out of the house more - find a hobby, take a walk in the woods. The

world is a wondrous place. So much inspiration out there. For us, a lot of it comes from the ocean and animals, music, ecology, and places we travel to.

Do you change each other’s work if you dislike it?

Kozy: Oh yeah - we go back and forth at times. I change Dan’s stuff all the time! That’s mostly because most of our work is done in my style - if he has drawn something, I usually redraw it and then I can add whatever I think makes sense.

Dan: Then the sparks fly and we hash it out - that is part of our process. We usually come to a consensus, or whoever feels MOST strongly (or gets the most angry over it - hah!) has their way. We generally keep our egos in check when it comes to these things. This is the key for us to have such a long lasting creative partnership.

Can you describe the emotions and thoughts associated with ‘A Happy Day On A Dying Sea’?

Dan: We were developing a very specific exhibition at the time about endangered animal species, with this theme of the rainbow running through it. The rainbow was a symbol that for us represented humanity being so out of tune with nature, out of tune with the universe, that we could not understand the signals the inverse was trying to send us about how we are just doing shit all wrong. The piece features California sea otters, a species that was hunted nearly to extinction by the early 1800’s, which has caused a chain reaction in the coastal ecosystem that has altered the coastline dramatically (not for the better). It’s a pretty common scenario - we do this kind of thing all over the world. Despite what we do, the animals maintain this sort of sweetness, a purity, a harmony with their environment - its something that we should pay more attention to and learn from. The image is intentionally very sweet, but for us a didactic one, ultimately.

25

Dan: We are not pro-human, to say the least. Humanity has so much potential, but it’s hampered by the tragic flaws of greed and selfishness. In the end we also choose the path that is short sighted and destructive, we used our ability to develop technology to suck the world dry of resources and push all other species to extinction.

Has there ever been a time where you have created something and thought it was terrible?

Dan: Most everything I do I feel that way about it. My own worst critic.

Kozy: I am not like Dan in this respect. I think I make pretty decent stuff.

Dan: You do! I do not. Haha.

Many people have gotten tattoos of your work on their body how do you feel about this?

‘Campbell’s Shark Fin Soup’ clearly represents your distain surrounding shark finning - what kind of responses have you received based on this piece?

Dan: Yeah obviously ecology is a big issue in our world, as scuba divers particularly we are concerned about sharks. I think though, honestly, people for the most part don’t really care. Sharks aren’t cute, pure and simple. So people don’t care. One person at least cared enough to BUY the artwork I guess, but we didn’t get much reaction to it, honestly.

How do you feel about humanity?

Dan: The cancer of the Earth.

Kozy: We just need about 4 billion less humans, and things would be manageable.

Dan: I think we both feel a bit weird about it. I guess since we tend to think of our own art as “stupid”, we don’t take our work so seriously you know, and the permanence of a tattoo seems “serious” to us. I always think people will end up regretting having gotten our work tattooed on them a few years down the road and feel bad. This has more to do with our own insecurities though. At the same time it’s really flattering that people like our work enough to do this, and we always grant permission if they ask us and just ask them to send us a photo of the completed tattoo. I only wish they’d get art of ours that we really like and think would make a great tattoo inked on them. I usually don’t get the choices of kozyndan artworks that people get inked on them! Not the choices I would make. Haha.

Kozy: You can see we are conflicted about this.

Dan: Obviously. It’s flattering though, honestly. We have great fans and it’s pretty cool when they have gotten a great tattoo artist to interpret our work on their skin. Some of the tats are amazing.

How does creating artwork for musicians differ from creating artwork for advertising clients?

Kozy: I think we are more in sync with musicians, as fellow artists, than we are with corporations. Musicians give us freedom, and there is less censoring and editing usually, so the work ends up more pure.

Dan: Those works end up looking more like one of our artworks, and less like some generic illustration, which can tend to happen with advertising clients. When you have to filter your work through ad agency creative, a marketing team, and their client etc., almost invariably a lot is lost. This happens far less with music stuff.

Have you ever had trouble with censorship?

Dan: All the time!! Haha. We almost always, in our own work, want to convey a sense of humans moving back towards a primitive state in which they are more in harmony with nature. Usually, visually this is conveyed by making them naked, shameless. Unfortunately there is a lot of shame in “civilised” society. So we have run up against that stuff. For sure. In the fine art setting it’s not a big deal, except for promoting the work - social media often frowns on nipples, which is just beyond me. I dunno - we are not as repressed as the mainstream culture I guess, so that kind of thing can happen.

Kozy: When we work with commercial clients though, we pretty much know what will happen if we try to push boundaries – it’s a waste of time because we know most clients are afraid of getting flack for anything offensive to ANYONE. It’s kind of sad, but it just saves us time if we censor ourselves for illustration projects. In our own artwork though, we don’t really worry about offending people.

How do the senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling) effect kozyndan’s artwork?

Kozy: Interesting! I guess, obviously for me - my eyes and ears are united in their love of trippy-ness. Music is a big part of creation for me. I am always playing music in the studio. The audio journey often guides and influences my hand.

Dan: In a literal sense our work is filtering our experiences in life.

So what we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel, or at least the memory of those experiences, are in some form illustrated to become the basis of a lot of our artwork.

Your works often depict a love of nature and the sea - what makes these things special to you?

Dan: I always think that nature is perfect. The systems it has devised over millions and billions of years of experimentation and evolution are far more efficient and beautiful than anything we create as humans. Everything we make is just a wasteful destructive pale copy of some perfect system nature already

created. As artists we are often striving to make the least flawed copy of something that exists in the universe - be it an animal painting, or a visual explanation of a mathematical truth. Nature IS special. People act as if nature is some “other”, something separate from us, and we disconnect from it and waste our time with all this industry that serves no purpose in the end except to make people more unhealthy, more dangerous to one another and to the rest of the species we share the planet with, more bored, less alive.

We’d rather seek magic. That isn’t found in the concrete jungles of human cities. So we tend to draw our inspiration from the natural world.

In some of your works the subject matter is serious and yet it is treated in a playful way - why is this?

Dan: Humour is such a good way to get people to listen. Humour

27

can be sharp like a knife and cut. I think humour is often not taken seriously as a means to enlighten, and yet a lot of the harshest criticism of greed and injustice has historically come from humour - from cartoonists, and satirists and comedians, and so on. Those people are the ones who get people to listen. Take the US, where we live, the only people who call the businessmen and politicians out on their shit, the only people explaining to the masses what systems the rich and powerful have put into place to imprison the poor and wring every last bit of money from them and point out how the media is in collusion with all this are people like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver. With humour they can cut deep and make people understand - they are one of the only counterbalances to the force of greed. I don’t think that in our work we think so much about HOW we employ humour to make a point though. It’s just our natural way. We both have a dry sense of humour, low opinions of humanity, and make art with the sensibility of illustrators - so we literally illustrate the gallows humour we express to one another about these topics.

Kozy: We always assume people won’t even get it, but I guess some people do?

What’s some advice you can give to aspiring artists?

Dan: Errr…I always tell aspiring artists NOT to become artists. At least if you love making art - let it be pure, unencumbered and adulterated by concerns of commerce. Once you have to SELL to make a living, once you are scrambling to make your art earn you money - promoting constantly, trying to deal with clients or gallery owners or curators and the politics that is involved with all that, it’s much harder to create your art without all that other crap creeping in, without drawing something and thinking “Will this sell??” It becomes harder not to self-censor once you are trying to make a living from it. If you do choose to become an artist as a profession, then you have to prepare methods that work for your own personality to shield your creative process from all that external nonsense.

Kozy: Also - draw draw draw paint paint paint. And make some time to go out and see and experience LIFE. I find the art of people who are so dedicated to making art, so into drawing constantly every day, to often be lacking in something. It can be technically beautiful, but its missing heart.

Dan: Artists are supposed to be on the vanguard of thought - go out and experience weird shit. Be fearless in expressing ideas that aren’t popular yet, and definitely live your life according to what makes sense to you, rather than by the rules set forth by society.

This doesn’t seem to have much to do with making images, but it really does. It’s where the power of an artist lies, not in their style or the tools they use, but in the way they live their life.

What is the process for making your panoramics?

Kozy: When we travel we always try to remember to take series of images of places that look visually complex, usually when stuck in cities. Later on Dan prints them all out and I lay them out and get out a long piece of paper usually a bit over a meter long and 20 cm tall, and I just start drawing from left to right. I get lost in the detail and just try to draw every bit I can. While I work on that Dan and I will be talking about that place and our experiences there and also whatever else happens to be on our mind at the moment we are drawing. Dan begins sketching character and narrative ideas and we decide that way what kinds of fictional elements we will work into the panoramic. I trace his drawings, and usually make more of my own and he scans all the lifework into the computer

and cleans up the drawings and composites the characters into the background. We put the file on two computers and just begin filling it in with the paint brush tool - painting until everything is filled on one of the files and then we combine them together and make some final adjustments.

What are the best and worst things about creating art as a couple?

Dan: Haha - that is a loaded question. Well I am not sure how many artists could pull off staying with and working with their spouse for as long as we have. Everything is so tied together. Personal life bleeds into the studio process and creative differences affect your home life. You can never “leave it at the office”, as it were. I think our personality types are natural adept at this just by chance. We both happen to be easy going enough, happen to be just good enough at containing our ego to make it work. We don›t get as worked up as before even about losing a battle over a creative direction for an artwork, but it sometimes still happens.

Kozy: It’s really great to be accomplishing all this stuff together.

We both feel like we couldn’t have gotten where we have without the other and that helps keep our love strong, and when we fail the blame is shared so we don’t have to be so hard on ourselves or the other person. At the same time, we hardly get a break from one another. We are together 24/7 since we have the same hobbies and work together and play together and work out together and trade together. We really have to force ourselves apart sometimes - force ourselves to go out separately with people, force ourselves to trade separately sometimes so that we can actually miss each other. It’s a good and bad thing, but overall its way more good than bad.

Dan: We’ll keep doing it unless the ratio shifts the other way I suppose! s Visit kozyndan’s website: kozyndan.com Image: 1 - ‘Desert Dreamer Dos’ 2014, acrylic on paper

2 - ‘An Ode To California’ (detail 1)

3 - ‘Campbell’s Shark Fin Soup’ 2012 soup can, resin,

sculpey, acrylic, wood

4 - ‘Rising Tide’ 2011, acrylic on board

5 - ‘Domo Arigato Mr. Nakamura’ 2002 pencil, digital

6 - ‘kin-san’s dream’ 2004 pencil, digital

Film Review Words by Shaun Hobby

Did you know that we only use, on average, ten percent of our brain’s full capacity?

Your first reaction is likely to be something along the lines of ‘Of course, everyone knows that! We learned it under the cap of a fruit juice bottle.’ It’s a bit of a pity that there’s not a shred of truth to it. I mean, it could be true if all of the parts of your brain did exactly the same thing. Let’s call it ‘brain stuff’ for the sake of argument.

Now, assume that 90% of your brain is lying dormant, waiting to be kicked into a higher gear of brain stuff. That would basically make you a giant bundle of untapped potential, if only it could be unlocked and harnessed.

Luc Besson admits to knowing this prior to writing the film, but chose to press forward with the project because, apparently, it sounded like a fun idea. I suppose it is a fun idea, if not a very scientifically accurate one.

It also provides a good backdrop for the creation of a compelling female action hero.

This, if nothing else, makes a nice change of pace. Lucy (Scarlet Johansson) is a flawed character who gets mixed up in a situation that is far above her pay-grade. She falls victim to something that she later uses in her quest to gain redress of her grievances.

She is in charge, in every sense of the word.

Our titular hero, under protest, agrees to transport some very shady-looking drugs for some even shadier-looking Chinese gangsters. Now, in order for us to have a story, we’re going to need a complication.

Long story short, the bag splits and Lucy ends up getting a heroic dose of wickedsmart drugs. Now, these aren’t your run of the mill “smart drugs”. This isn’t like popping a Provigil or handful of Alphabrain before an exam. (Note: I’m not sure how this would go over with the University administration; so don’t take it as a recommendation) Pretty much immediately, Lucy begins to exhibit some startling leaps in her mental capacity.

Sadly, this is where the film’s attempt to make some sort of sense takes a sharp left turn to the outskirts of crazy town.

All of a sudden, Lucy begins to know stuff.

She starts to know the kind of stuff that she wouldn’t possibly have been able to know without something in the way of instruction. However, her turbocharged brain now allows her to bypass the parts of life where we learn stuff by either practicing

or studying them. She becomes an expert marksman in about ten seconds flat without ever having fired a round on-screen. She picks up objects and immediately deduces their function before putting them to deadly use. She gains an understanding of medical procedures that people who perform them get from, like, reading books and stuff.

Things don’t slow down for our steroidal autodidact. In fact, they begin to speed up at a galloping pace; and this is where the movie really starts to go hell for leather towards the border of The People’s Republic of Lunatopia.

It would appear, in the mind of Luc Besson, that one good pseudoscientific turn deserves another. Things start to get seriously wacky at this point. Lucy starts to manifest telekinetic powers, matter manipulation abilities and eventually the ability to spontaneously time-travel. Now, this makes for some visually stunning action scenes, I can’t deny that one bit. What it does, however, serve to do in the mind of

your humble reviewer is to expose one of the fatal flaws in the writing of a film such as this.

As a writer, you need to be able to inhabit the minds of your characters, so that you can convincingly communicate their actions and desires to your audience. What happens, then, when the central character in your story is vastly more intelligent than everyone else in the story? My guess is you’re going to end up with a character that is supposed to be really smart, but in reality is going to resemble the author’s projected vision of what a really smart person would be like. What I’m getting at is that Lucy’s character arc puts her on a path where she will eventually become too smart to be able to be written credibly. Sadly, for this solid attempt at a spin on this particular pocket of the action-science fiction genre, this is a flaw that only an infinite amount of smarts could fix. The only person smart enough to write Lucy is Lucy, and she’s imaginary.

29

BOOK REVIEW

DOVES Nathan Erdely

Reviewer: Shaun Hobby Doves is a passable first draft. It possesses the elements of a story that could, with the right shepherding, one day become a good story. In his first novel, Nathan Erdely tells a story of celebrity worship and declining mental health. His protagonist, Brian Green has a complex-yet-unrequited relationship with a celebrity couple that pulls him to the brink of madness. I say that the work is a passable first draft because a variety of technical and artistic miscalculations diminish its readiness for publishing.

The bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only true character, Green, is an unsympathetic collection of biographical data that would be more at home on the back of a trading card than in a novel. In fact, virtually all of the events of the work consist of a series of staccato sentences that feel like they follow a similar repeating pattern: On excruciatingly-precise-yet-completelyunnecessary-and-fundamentallydislocated-from-the-core-narrativedate, an event happened in the life of a person who may-or-may-not be physically present in the story. That thing was either a great triumph for one of the EmeraldFischerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s or a moment of terrible tragedy/

self-sabotage/unfortunate happenstance for Brian Green. The glorious things are transcendentally resplendent and internationally applauded while the tragedies that form the core of the plot are brushed aside in the following sentence.

But everything was okay because Green was able to go back to endlessly stargazing at the objects of his obsession.

Detail is not the problem. The events in an extended work are supposed to be detailed, because it is that attention to detail, especially sensory detail, that pulls the reader into the texture of the story. It is the feeling that the author is enveloping you in the physical environment of the world that gives the story its resonance.

It is the chill breeze, whistling through the trees while the character trudges through the thawing sludge of an earlymorning frost. It is the breath condensing in the air in front of them so thickly that it puts a thin film of fog on the lenses of their spectacles as it hangs in the air like a freezing marshmallow maelstrom.

It is the subtle change in wind direction that defeats the turned up collar of their chocolate-brown tweed overcoat and makes them wish theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d packed the scarf they briefly considered packing before

leaving the their first floor apartment in the best street of the worst part of town.

It is the growing spot on the mirror where they give themselves the once-over every morning. It is the filament backing of the mirror that has been slowly separating from the glass for many years that really should be repaired one of these days, when there is more money around and the decaying plaster behind the bathroom tiles has been replaced.

If a story is a detailed snapshot of a period in the lives of its characters, then Doves definitely succeeds in that regard. The problem with Doves, in its current form, is that the photograph fails to contain the most pertinent and interesting elements of an underlying narrative that is not completely without promise. The story feels rushed, particularly in the sense that it lacks a satisfactory ending. Not stillborn, Doves is merely a premature birth spat out into the world as an object lesson in learning to walk before trying to run. Also, it serves to remind us of the value of frank, fearless editorial feedback. Everyone thinks that they are their own harshest critics. Everyone is wrong.

Reviewer: Matthew Erdely

As a first published novel, Doves was an interesting experience. At the end of the novel I felt like I had taken a snapshot in time of the protaganist’s life since I read the story in a short space of time. However, the story itself covers a significant period of time in the life of the narrator. I wasn’t sure how to process the experience I had gone through as I held elements of doubt as to what was actually happening. Suffice to say I won’t go into any major spoilers, I will say though that throughout my time spent with this novel, that it did a great job keeping me intrigued - I always felt that there was a major twist just around the corner. I always felt throughout the story that there was something more than what was happening at the time, like all I had to work with was a few pieces of a complicated jigsaw puzzle. What is the greater picture? I would think to myself.

The story focuses on the protagonist/ narrator Brian and his obsession with a

celebrity couple. Themes included but were not limited to, celebrity worship, mental health, and obsession, all of which came across in a very relatable way. I could identify with wanting something so bad that all other aspects of your life fall by the wayside. I felt empathy for Brian despite some of what he went through being hard to stomach and perhaps a little too…real. Doves was uncompromising, unapologetic and certainly didn’t pull any punches when it came to the mental fragility of the narrator. Celebrity worship and/or obsession is just one sickness amongst many that people suffer from and we should not hide from it, nor pretend that it doesn’t exist. I think that Doves provides a good insight into such themes and messages.

and analogies - such basic tools used well to enhance the story and more richly colour our imagination. The use of an ‘unreliable’ narrator, the inconsistencies throughout the story, and the constant toing and fro-ing, I believe was intentional and seemed to crystallise, in my mind, Brian’s fragile state. As for the pay-off, the ‘twist’ that always felt just around the corner, I’m unsure about it. I’m not convinced it matched what I expected, if it fit the story or what it was trying to tell me. However, I am still thinking about it and I believe that when something is thought provoking, words like ‘good’ and/ or ‘bad’ lose relevance.

Give it a go and find meaning for yourself.

Doves was super consistent throughout with its attention to character, detail, style and suspense. From a literary perspective, I enjoyed the use of anecdotes, allusions

31

FICTION

The Stray Words by Jack McEntee There was a noise. I’m not sure what it was. There is not a hint of light, but I am awake and alert. I carefully stretch and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. I don’t want it to be obvious I’m awake yet. I catch movement off to my right but don’t hear a thing. They’re good. My fingers find their way to the handle of my machete. Another movement. I roll onto my side, feigning restless sleep to be in a better position to react.

She gets me first.

Two paws land on my face, claws only slightly unsheathed hinting at the pain they could cause.

‘Stupid cat’ I grunt, shoving her back with my free hand. I don’t let go of my weapon, just in case.

Standing up I stretch out fully. The short night has left me stiff. She is wrapping herself around my ankles now.

‘Okay, we’ll go’. I pull on a shirt and grab my bow. I slide the wooden board out of the way to look down out of the long destroyed window. It appears quiet outside. I hide my supply pack in a hole in the crumbling plaster wall and head down the fire escape. No light makes it in here, a windowless cement stairwell. I descend slowly. The steps are cool against my bare toes.

I come out into an alleyway that reeks of stale urine. The cat appears in front of me and we are off. There is not much light coming off the new moon, but it is enough to hunt by. She leads the way. I have learned to trust her instincts. Following the bobbing white tail tip of her otherwise invisible black form.

She stops. I reach for an arrow and notch it, scanning for signs of life. The night is still. Everything is still. The tiniest flutter of movement draws my eye and I let my arrow loose. I hear a short cry of pain. I can tell something is wrong. I run over, machete in hand and leap over the rusted car my quarry had tried to get behind. I almost land on it.

Teeth sink into my leg. They’re blunt. I kick off the would-be attacker and it cries again, curling into a ball. It’s a girl. I doubt she is more than 11 years old. A thin feral with fair hair she has chopped of herself in chunks.

‘Shit’ I sigh. The kid’s a Wildthing. A child left or lost out here in the overgrown urban wilderness. She is what I was.

My arrow has gone cleanly through her left thigh. There is no way for her to survive on her own injured like this.

‘I’m sorry.’

It’s all I can say as I reach for her uneven blonde scruff. Better to make it quick than let her starve to death or be eaten by wild animals. Before I have time to react a thin gash opens up along my forearm, a small flick-knife is in her hand. Small blue eyes glitter defiantly despite the absent light.

‘You’re gonna die anyway kid, just let it be’ I try to explain. I know it’s harsh, but that is what life is now. You fight or you die. I reach for her again.

The girl fights. I barely avoid another cut, across the chest this time. I stand back looking down on her. My chest feels tight, some long suppressed instinct trying to make me make a mistake. She climbs up to stand, leaning against the side of the car, never taking her eyes off me. ‘Okay’ I say, sheathing my blade. I guess it’s her choice. I don’t enjoy killing people, especially kids. If she wants to fight, let her fight.

I start to walk away, giving her plenty of space as not to tempt her into attacking again. She tries to take a step, but her leg won’t take the weight. She topples back to the ground and starts to cry. Big heaving sobs. Her face buried in her hands. Did I ever cry like that?

I groan. I’m not a monster, not really.

I look around at the nearby trees and pick a branch. It’s about as thin as the girl’s wrist and as long as her body. I sit opposite her, far enough away that she knows I’m not a threat and pull out my blade again. I start to shave the bark off.

She watches me.

The crying has stopped. She just looks at me curiously, face quivering.

I finish the staff; it’s rough but functional. It’ll be enough to let her walk. I still doubt she will live but at least I am giving her a chance.

I drop it a couple metres away.

‘This’ll help you walk. Find water and hide.

Good luck kid’ I try to smile but it feels foreign. She just keeps eyeing me warily. I leave.

The sky is starting to lighten. The night’s chill has already dissipated. It’s gong to be warm.

I start heading back to my backpack. The cat is nowhere to be seen.

I am sitting in the fire escape. The darkness is dancing around my small cooking fire. Two fat pigeons are roasting over the flames.

This tall, windowless cement stairwell offers a lot to a private man like me. The smoke gathers many stories above my head, no light escapes and it keeps the smell in. I decide to mark it on my map. The city is vast, so it is good to note advantageous spots like these.

I never settle though. Putting down roots is dangerous. Having friends, even more so. The closest I have is the cat and she is nowhere to be seen. Pity, she likes pigeon.

I just finish the first bird when I hear shuffling on the other side of the fire door. I douse the flames, grab my blade and press my ear against it to listen, uneven steps and heavy breathing. I ease the door open just enough to look into the old hostels entrance way and the breathing stops. There is definitely someone there, but I can’t see whoever it is. Broken bits of furniture liter the mouldy carpet but none are big enough to hide behind.

The cat winds through the open door way, I wasn’t expecting that. She had come from behind the door; she must have been waiting for me. Behind the door, they must be there too. Thanks cat.

I open the door slightly wider, my blade in front of me. The tip is visible to my visitor.

‘You should go stranger, before I have to use this.’ It is not a hollow threat. The breathing is back, heavy and shaky. They are definitely behind the door. I step through swinging my blade around to face them but it is knocked from my hands. The girl stands there shaking and pale. The staff I made her pointed waveringly at my chest. I rip it from her grasp.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I growl at her. She flinches but doesn’t cower. To be honest I am a little impressed; that was a decent blow to disarm me. She has some

3335

strength in her wiry frame. I point the staff at her.

‘Just go, do you understand?’ she shouldn’t be here; she will draw attention to me.

‘No’ her voice is choked off, possibly due to pain but more likely due to disuse.

‘What?’

‘No’ she says again, stronger this time ‘you are owing me’. She is using street slang, kids raising kids for two decades has had its toll on our language. They live, hunt and survive in packs. Any that live to adulthood are driven out.

‘I don’t owe you shit kid’ I snap the staff easily across my knee, throwing the pieces across the room ‘now get out!’ I don’t usually yell.

It attracts attention, but I had to make this girl understand. I noticed the still wet blood drooling down her leg; I probably shouldn’t have snapped her staff. It’s too late now.

I grab her by the scruff of the neck, my other hand ready to grab her wrist as she tries to

cut me. Not this time. I drag her screaming to the front entrance, her good leg kicking and her body twisting. I can’t let her go. I have to dump her and run before the noise attracts bandits or worse. As we reach the door she makes me stop.

‘She lead me, she did.’ Those words amongst the howls stunned me. As if she knew she was being spoken of the cat appeared in our way.

‘Bullshit’ I mutter, no one is convinced.

‘Is true! How else would’n I found you?’ she reasoned, stopping her twisting. I drop her to the ground.

‘Now why’d you do that?’ I address the cat. I had thought we had an understanding. The girl looks up at me strangely but I ignore her.

‘She’ll slow us down.’ The cat stares at me, blue eyes like the girls.

‘I can’t look after her. I’ll end up like my —’ they are both staring at me. I think my face is wet ‘You have nothing to offer me. You’ll get me killed.’

‘Tradsies, I’n look after you, you look’n out for me. You a goodun.’ she sounds serious, not pleading.

‘You wouldn’t know kid, I wont carry you’ ‘I’m not a kid’ ‘You’ll kill me’ my voice is tight.

‘I’n protect you’ she say, pulling herself up to stand on a piece of furniture ‘you’n protect me’ The cat leaps forward, followed by a loud bang, as the door slams open. A large fist knocks me to the ground and everything starts to vibrate. I can make out the large leather boot as it comes towards my mid section. The girl’s scream pierces the blackening edges of my vision. She is being dragged out the now open door. There are at least two of them and my machete is back by the fire escape. I start to crawl towards it; this incites another blow from my attacker.

He is at least twice my size. He is going to kill me.

The screaming stops, but that might just be me losing consciousness. Then I hear a

thud and the large shadow standing over me moves. Maybe they just want the girl. Damn them, I tried to warn her.

‘What the— fuck!’ a deep thunderous voice escalates in surprise.

I hear the girl cry out in pain again, then another thud. I try to get up. My ribs are broken. My fingers find their way around a piece of the broken staff. There is no chance I can run. I make it to me feet and bite my lip hard enough to make it bleed. It stops me from blacking out. I can see the girl curled up in a ball as the monstrous man towers over her. The other attacker is lying close by voicelessly drowning in a pool of his own blood, a deep cut across his throat.

I lunge at the last standing man swinging with what little strength I can muster at his knee. He grunts and spins around, glaring at me.

‘You’re gonna die slowly’ his smile is

sickening and broken ‘after you watch me fuck your bitch’. He swings out with an open palm, swatting me to the ground. My vision blurs again. Then he topples backwards, his head hitting the cracked pavement with a sickening thud. I watch, stunned, as the little girl crawls over to him, pulling her small knife from the back of his ankle. She crawl onto his gargantuan chest, looking even smaller on top of him. She slashes at his throat. Over and over again, blood and small bits of flesh littering the sidewalk. She looks back and smiles at me through her already swollen face.

‘You are owing me, I’n protect you’ Fuck.

‘Only til we’re healed, you understand?’

She nods ‘What’s you name?’ I ask.

‘Kat’ she grins. That is going to get confusing.

will have to move soon. Gangers don’t take kindly to their own being slaughtered. I rip my shirt into strips bandaging the worst of my ribs and her leg. The cat is nowhere to be seen.

‘Here, use this to walk’ I hand her my bow.

It’s long enough for her to be able to lean on.

I sling my pack over my shoulder and keep my machete in hand. We head out the back door to the alley just as I hear raised voices from the front.

I see the cat. She is sitting on a windowsill, the widow itself long shattered.

‘We’re gonna be okay’ I say lifting Kat through the window.

We are. s

‘John’ I offer.

We manage to pull ourselves back to the fire escape. The darkness is welcome, but we

35

FICTION

Incense I love the smell of incense.

The perfume of Ginger, Cumin and Coriander transports me to Port Louis, Mauritius. Spice merges with mental snapshots of women in bright caftans, cairns of strange fruit, and iridescent flashes of peacock feathers displayed en masse. The vitality dazes my six year old self as we run the gauntlet through crowded markets before entering the dim, cool building of the Seafarers’ Club.

I blink involuntarily for a minute before adjusting to this new realm; aged Raffles décor, furniture worn to a soft patina by countless backsides and resting elbows.

Men are baritone deep in politics and shipping business along a bar heavy and dark and highly polished by eons of international exchange. The scent is now mixed with black tobacco and musk, while double shots are briskly served.

Through the rear of the bar is a square tiled courtyard vibrant with potted kaffir limes and overgrown bougainvillea, a small swimming pool reflects a cerulean pocket of sky. In the centre of the pool is a marble fountain depicting two intertwined fish, they scatter diamonds in plural arcs. I float on my back, head tilted so that my ears are just below the glittering surface - into the silent kingdom of mermaids.

New Delhi, India greets my arrival with those same smells. But rather than nostalgia, I feel viscerally assaulted. The fragrance I adore is mixed with pandemonium; fluxes of buses with animated passengers overflowing from every orifice, hulking black vintage taxis marigolds strewn across dashboards, autos rabidly screaming in and out of view and the occasional in-traffic meanderings of a sacred cow. Bumper stickers state ‘HORN PLEASE’ and they all do. The madness is psychedelic and yet the city which has continuously built on top of itself in so many fractured layers is casually disinterested. I am overwhelmed as she engulfs me.

I travel northwards; climbing higher through deep valleys. The precariously narrow ribbon of road is pinched out of huge frowning cliff faces; blind bends make my heart thump in fear. I reach a small village nestled by mountain forests and meadows. The snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas stretch into the distance. Rambling passed alpine cottages and women in thick stockinged feet I wander up hills lavishly claimed by wildflowers, where I sit and roll petite spliffs. The air is sticky with pollen and the pungent sweetness of hash; inhaling deeply I stretch out in the jewelled grass, my head slants beneath the petals. I lie captivated by rumpled lilac clouds sailing across the heavens. On top of a fallen log bleached the

colour of bone sits a fat Angora rabbit; gauzy white and ears drooping askew. Blasé about my presence - he levitates wordlessly.

Anchored off the Buccaneer Archipelago I drift in the tepid waters of the Timor Sea. It is easy to feel separated from the rest of the world; every bay is blissfully deserted.

As is my usual habit, I angle my head back and upwards. This time I am received by a bitter green sky; lusty storm clouds are a growing shade of self-destruct. I linger reluctantly in my spacious bath despite the aroma of impending rain. Looking back towards the empty shore brings me to a halt, I stand slowly - awestruck. Calmly painted above my secret cove is a rainbow, perfectly formed, its ripe colours tumble downwards as it makes love to the virgin beach. The oncoming squall gives me a low, guttural warning - ‘Move on.’

I now live in a suburban house with sketchy lawn and topiary roses, I often sit under an idle moon regarding these silvered blooms with contempt. Perhaps, I have wandered from home once too often . I light a stick of incense to keep the mosquito’s at bay. s

Words by Jo Schofield

I am a Pirate I am a pirate, sailing for over a decade on these digital seas.

Some have called me a thief Others, a murderer, a media industry left in ruin by me taking food from their over stuffed mouths.

Except I hadn’t.

I fought tooth and nail against an industry.

Fighting alongside computerised crewmates Taking what we need, What we want.

Swash buckling keyboard warriors Fighting battles unseen.

For every VHS you bought, I downloaded ten DVD’s.

Awash in media, Hard drive treasure chests Overflowing with precious gems to see.

Music came and went, like cheap copper coins minted by a hundred different rulers from a thousand different ports.

And yet They never lost value.

Each added something to this man you see before you.

POETRY/PROSE

There is a Monster Knocking Bang. Bang. Bang.

There is a monster knocking on our door.

He wants to be let in.

But he is a monster and we shouldn’t let him in.

He howls as he waits— he is impatient.

His mouth sprays our windows with spittle, his breath is so strong that it rattles them and rustles the trees in our garden.

Bang. Bang. BANG! He is looking for openings, but he won’t find any here.

We don’t want him to come in and make a mess of our home.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

We are pirates And we get what we want Usually for free

As he salivates, his saliva falls, a gentle pitter patter on a tin roof.

The sky grows dark in his shadow.

He is getting angry now, sparks fly from his ears and he grumbles loud enough to shake the earth.

We fear to see a monster that makes such a noise.

Words by Jack McEntee

Words by Kayla Gaskell

Look, I must implore you.

Judge not those who sail the unknown seas.

Fear not unjustified repercussions and media decrees.

We are not unkempt bloodthirsty thieves.

37

EDU101 If I were to ask you about your education what would you say?

I went to uni?

I finished year 10?

I went to college?

How many numbers have been assigned to you.

Student Number 738642 80% distinction.

Third in the class.

Did you pass?

An illusionary number line used to define you.

Statistical analysis of whether you are good enough.

Listen.

You are.

Education has more value than numbers You are not a score on a score sheet Or a cloned, branded and identified sheep.

You are you are you are you Defined by more lessons than we can count.

Numbers fail to express what it means to see a person undressed.

What will happen if you lose a lover Or kill one another?

We reach for uniformity, to get us all in a uniform Wearing this bland dress called norm.

If I were to tell you, you knew more than you knew Could you call me a teacher Or can we think of something new?

Words by Jack McEntee

‘THE PROFESSOR’ BY HANNAH EVERETT

39

Even When It Was Clean, It Wasn’t.

I’ve lived in 23 houses in 23 years They mostly meld together in my mind…

From different houses in different states I walk around a labyrinth of rooms With every step, I’m a different age I close my eyes and reality fades…

At least Lorna rd. was my own My first home away from home I love that house I hate that house My mistakes were mine alone Even when it was clean, it wasn’t…

The grit and dirt of all the lives, Lived within those walls remained On rooms with floors half laid No matter how hard we scrubbed…

Smoke hung in the air, carpets stained Hundreds of nights spent awake…

Come into my room with me…

I close my eyes and I can see The curtains made red light flood in…

Over posters, cement walls, My ash and sin covered floor Some days it felt like hell in there…

Other times it was just warm Bedside table was stacks of books On it sat illegal goods TV light flickered persistently The backdrop to a reflection changing constantly…

I treated that room even worse, than I treated myself Because even when I was clean, I wasn’t…

Those walls saw me at my best; Dancing and laughing, life was new Those walls saw me at my worst; Lovers leaving Friends passing through Passing away…

The ever-present absence, of family If those walls could talk, I’d burn that house to the ground And I knew that if I didn’t walk I would never be found Words by J.J Nestor

ZINE REVIEW

Tarot Magic $2 AUD from Sticky Contact: Bastian Fox Phelan bastian.fox.phelan@gmail.com September 2013

It’s all about: Tarot Magic is an enchanting albeit overly whimsical zine detailing Bastian Fox Phelan’s adventures with a deck of tarot cards created by The Collective Tarot from Portland, Oregon. Tarot is Bastian’s chosen means of fostering a strong and healthy dialogue with herself and a tool for inspiration, guidance and reflection in her life. Tarot Magic is the epitome of its opening description: “an unapologetic love letter to the deck of cards that helped me become my own best partner”.

While a skeptic at heart: I picked up this zine because I wanted to know how tarot could change a person’s life or whether in fact that person was deluded about their life changing due to tarot. Perhaps deluded is too harsh of a word, but this zine posits the question, at least for me: is believing in tarot gullible or open-minded and justified?

There are some issues: The zinemaker tends to flip-flop between acknowledging that tarot is a means of reflection and developing self-care, and viewing the tarot as an accurate and magical “mirror.”

While Bastian does not claim that the tarot predicts the future, in calling it a mirror, one must question whether the tarot reflects the truth merely because of ‘input = output’ - what you want to see and believe will be fed into the outcome and interpretation of the tarot itself. Bastian believes wholeheartedly in magic and says that the tarot cards are “the most crystalised version of what [she] needed to hear”, which to me demonstrates that tarot cards are not magic but are a reworked form of one’s current status, situation or thoughts. They are reiterations and confirmations of what the person already knows or wants to believe. However, I am

not here to argue about the legitimacy or accuracy of tarot cards but you can see how easy it is to get sidetracked and how one must question the zinemaker’s utter dedication to it.

It’s all magic: Tarot Magic incorporates a story of self-development foregrounded by the use and experience of tarot cards. While the overly optimistic view of the fantastical powers of tarot cards dominates this story, this is to be expected given it is a zine about the magic of tarot and not an autobiography.

“But how?”: As I read the zine I just kept thinking but how? But how can tarot cards be personified to the point of being capable of listening and answering? But how can they be a “bedside companion”? But how can anyone believe in them? I suppose I will never understand how the zinemaker can draw a direct correlation between tarot cards and “the truth”, which is unfortunate because I was hoping to be swayed by concrete proof. This is not to say that the zine did not solidify my belief that tarot cards can be used as means of processing thoughts - I really do - but I think that it is not the cards that draw conclusions or solutions, it is merely that they are an eclectic means of encouraging the reader to do so for themselves.

DIY tarot reading: For those that are into it, the zine briefly covers some guidelines on how to read tarot cards and describes the deck including major and minor arcana. While the zine is not a particularly enthralling read for those that don’t believe in magic, the zinemaker’s love of tarot makes you curious as to the reasons behind why someone could be influenced so heavily a deck of cards.

It’s a niche zine: I feel like Tarot Magic is a zine that would appeal to the journal keeping, superstitious, stargazing, indecisive, journey seeking, romantic, open-minded (or gullible?), optimistic types in this world. So, not for me, but maybe for you. s

Words by Jess Nicole

41

ANIME REVIEW

Mushi - Shi // Sword Art Online The art of Japanese Animation is vastly becoming more and more popular outside of the uniquely traditional but strangely modern, Land of the Rising Sun. Aside from the massively popular Shonen Jump shows such as Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, One Piece and Fairy Tale, there are hundreds of less popular but equally entertaining viewing experiences to be had. I’m going to be showcasing some of my favorite new and old shows that have been seriously underrated but make for some meaning and memorable watching.

The first series to be showcased is titled Mushi - Shi and was originally illustrated in manga comic style by artist Yuki Urushibara.

Japanese production company Artland Inc then adapted the show in 2006 into a small 26 episode Anime series, which was later re dubbed and distributed by Funimation American in what I must say is a good quality English voice cast.

Mushi – Shi is a unique show in every sense of the word - it follows a non-linear structure with the main character being the focal point as apposed to an over arcing story line driving the show. It tells the story of Ginko, a young ‘Mushi master’ living in feudal Japan who travels the land documenting and ‘assisting’ with strange outbreaks of Mushi related incidents. What may you ask are Mushi? Well, they are described in the show as the “purest form of life to ever exist”. Mushi (hence the name Mushi – Shi) take the form of strange ‘alien’ like creatures that slip between the category of plant, insect and animal life. They range in size, ability and the effect that they have on the environment around them.

There is little known about these strange creatures that are only viewable to a select few. Because of their mysterious origin and distinctly different traits little has been documented about these extraordinary beings and that is where Ginko comes into the story. He is known as a Mushi – Master, which defined, is a mixture of a doctor, a witchdoctor and a shaman all rolled into one. He has had first hand dealings with these strange creatures and seeks to help others learn and adapt to their peculiar behaviours.

The show highlights some complex themes such as nature and man’s impact on the environment; the world’s tendency to shun anything we don’t understand and the important roll one individual can play. The art style is breathing and original, favoring a watercolor style pallet with soft tones to draw the viewer into this mysterious environment. Although the story can sometimes seem slow, it flourishes with its deep meaningful life lessons and interesting outcomes.

If I had to pick a flaw, my only issue would be that aside from

Ginko, there is little to no background characters that stay prominent within the series. Secondly, the story overall seemed too short. Luckily Artland has just released the second season after years of hiatus and it promises to be even more gratifying than the first. Those who enjoy something slightly different from fighting ninjas and magical battles should find solace in truly unique charm that is Mushi - Shi. As one of my personal favorites I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Next up is something completely different from the calm and quite space that is Mushi – Shi. I introduce Sword Art Online, an action packed but emotionally involving sci fi tech geeks dream.

Originally printed as a light novel by Reki Kawahara and brought to life by production company A-1 Pictures in 2012, Sword Art Online tells the story of a new virtual reality video game released in the year 2022. Using a brain integrated software device called nervgear, players have the opportunity to experience the fantasy world of Aincrad allowing their wildest MMORPG dreams to come to life. Unfortunately, things become all too real when the creator of the game hacks into players nervgear effectively trapping them inside the virtual world. Only by clearing the 100 levels of monsters, quests and strenuous trials can players be free of this horrifying nightmare, but there is more to this

impossible mission that meets the eye. Die whilst in the game and your nervgear will end your life in reality.

Whilst this concept is not really new to the world of anime, Sword Art Online takes it to a new and exciting level with its unique blend of drama, comedy and down right over the top gameplay.

The show centers around the character Kirito who in reality is a small, sickly Japanese teenager addicted to gaming. Unlike his real world self in SAO, he is an outgoing and strong player who may very well have the ability to beat the game.

The show deals with various themes such as romance, losing a loved one, as well as the psychological impacts of being stuck in a ‘death game’. The overall story should appeal to most as it has a nice balance of action and fighting mixed with a few girly romances which I know we all love (including myself). It does however have a few downfalls that weigh slightly on my overall rating. Firstly, the show moves at a lightning fast pace, which although refreshing does miss crucial aspects of the manga and therefore takes away strong points from the story. The second half of the series takes the show in a completely different direction to the first which although is entertaining starts to fall apart in cheesy love triangles and down right pathetic fan service. Without speaking too soon, redemption may be at hand with the shows highly anticipated second season premiering earlier this month.

Sword Art Online is a great attempt at an entertaining sci-fi anime with its all around appealing aspects. It does a wonderful job of integrating fast passed action and an enthralling romance into a perfectly sized 25 episode series. As an avid gamer and anime fan I enjoyed this show a lot, but it’s lacking of certain aspects were certainly noticeable (in my opinion) I give SAO 4 out of 5 stars. s Words By Shaun Gill

43

Games Reviews Words by Stef Rozitis Hydro Lord My dad unwittingly bought this game for my sister because he said, “It’s all about gardening”. Yes dad, so it is! The aim of the game is to grow and sell marijuana as you travel around a board for 4 months of the year (my children theorise that you are too stoned to notice what happens in the other 8 months of the year). Slowly you collect your Centrelink (anyone spot the right wing discourse here?), fuck over your mates, leave your pregnant girlfriends, break into cars or whatever to scrape together your cash to buy bigger and bigger “set-ups” for bigger and bigger crops finally managing to grow a 250K crop and win the title “Hydro Lord”.

This is probably the most hilariously bad game I have ever played. Play-wise it gets dull fairly quickly but the first time you play you are outraged and amused by the events such as “Your entire savings gone at the local Casino; now go to Family Law Court” or “You sold your defected car to a druggie- COLLECT $1,500” (coincidentally, you get fined the same amount for swearing at the football). Or how’s this one? “Pay $500 fine for savagely attacking two women...” apparently not as serious a crime as swearing at the football!

Killer Bunnies: the Quest for the Magic Carrot I found the title misleading because the game is more about killing bunnies, than being killed by the bunnies (I think we are supposed to imagine the bunnies are killing each other but really we are killing them). The game consists of 5 different kinds of cards (we had 6 because we got a free booster deck) and they all need to be shuffled properly. Shuffling is time consuming with the big deck and the cards are ones that don’t shuffle easily but the game really doesn’t work with half-arsed shuffling. It takes quite a while to get your head around the process of play, but then is quite playable (and the rules are well set out to scaffold beginner players). Many of the cards are close to useless in a 2-player game and I wonder if having more players would make the game slower but we play it with 2 players and just don’t play the cards we don’t like.

You have to plan what cards you are going to play two turns ahead which can become frustrating when there is a sudden reversal of fortune, but that is where the game comes in. Many of the cards you can’t play unless you have at least one bunny, so if you can keep your opponent bunniless (by killing them or forcing them to kill their own) you are doing well. Any player that has managed to collect at least one “carrot” by the end of the game is in with a chance to win (in which the magic carrot is randomly chosen), which adds unpredictability.

The sorts of things that happen in the game can be as silly as magical leprechauns, alien invasions or, as I have been told in one of the expansions, drug addicted bunnies. The bunnies use weapons as varied as flamethrower, ebola virus and green gelatin with pineapple chunks to eliminate each other so this is not a game for people with a strong attachment to reality. Even though there are about 600 expansion sets available I haven’t seen any evidence that they add much dimension to the game, they simply add different weapons and happenings. I am not tempted to get any of them because the original set is already so varied and crazy that I think when we get sick of it we’ll want to give the game a rest in general for a while.

The game is full of inconsistencies, non-sequiturs, ambiguously worded cards, grammar so bad it feels like fingernails on the blackboard and is sort of like a more boring version of Monopoly in some ways (now with offensive stereotypes and classist discourse). All players are assumed to be male (yawn) and the whole game reads like something put together one afternoon by a bunch of semi-literate drunks.

One thing it won’t do is glamorise drug-taking or drug-dealing and no matter how boring or failed your actual life is, it will definitely look fantastic by comparison with the lifestyle portrayed in Hydro Lord.

I wouldn’t go out and buy this one. I will admit I have played it more than once - it does have a certain crap factor. Last time I won I made them call me “Hydro Lord” for a while (until they threatened to punch me). Take with a pinch of salt (and a carton of beer).

45

BAND INTERVIEW

KINGSWOOD

Hailing from Melbourne, the indie rockers Kingswood have begun their Australian tour to celebrate their latest release Microscopic Wars. Jess chats milkshakes, the indie rock genre and what it means to play a successful show with guitarist Alex Laska.

Who makes up Kingswood?

it’ and if not I will work something with the band and we all will

Myself, a man named Fergus Linacre, another gentleman named

investigate musically interesting ideas. Everyone puts their own

Jeremy Hunter (Mango), and another man named Justin Debrincat.

personality on the song. Other times Fergus and I will sit down and write together from start to finish but usually it needs to be

How did Kingswood come about?

amended, changed and manipulated by the band to give it our

Fergus and I played in a band in primary school and then Justin and

character and our imprint.

Fergus played in a band in high school so we’ve always known each other and been into music. Eventually we decided we should form

You’re playing twice in Adelaide during your Australia tour, is this

this band we called Kingswood.

because you’re very fond of Adelaide or is there another reason?

It just happened to be that way. We wanted to do a small run of

In the song ‘I Can Feel That You Don’t Love Me’, you take on the

club shows and then Pirie and Co came up on the list and it’s quite

vocals instead of Fergus - was there any particular reason for this?

a small intimate room and we thought this suits us really well.

I wrote it and I sang and demo’d it to everyone and they were like,

We’ve got one at the Uni Bar later on. Adelaide’s got some vibes.

you should sing it because it’s kind of the vibe. Fergus is definitely the guy you really get to do the wailing and the upper register stuff,

Melbourne, your hometown, is brimming with talented musicians

so really aggressively emotional stuff. And this is a little more sultry

- how did you manage to stay afloat and become tough

and belty - it just fitted the vibe more.

competition for other Melbourne indie rock bands?

Geez, I don’t know. I don’t even know if we are staying afloat. We

What is the song writing process for Kingswood?

don’t really pay much attention to anything else. I don’t think we

It’s pretty varied. I write probably 80-85% of the stuff. If I’ve got

care because otherwise it really starts to distort the creative process

a really strong idea of how I want the song to be then I go ‘this is

and the agenda for what you’re doing changes from innocence and

creativity to ‘we need to do this, this and sell this much’ and blah

vanilla because it’s a staple. It’s like when they go and judge the

blah. We’re like, other people can worry about that shit. So I guess

best pizzas around the world and you have to judge them on

the answer is, just try and make good stuff you like.

the Margherita. Vanilla is a staple - it’s milk, ice cream and the flavouring, depending on whether its malted or not. I have a list

What has been one of the greatest challenges as a band you’ve

on my phone of the best milk shakes around Australia. I’m that into

faced so far?

milkshakes. The best milkshake in Australia is actually in Darwin,

Making enough money to keep going. That’s it. That’s pretty much

you wouldn’t believe it.

the only challenge.

What made you to decide to record Microscopic Wars in Nashville, Do you have a pre-show routine?

Tennessee?

I usually stretch and warm up my legs and my back because they’re

Vance Pal - the producer and engineer. He’s a tape genius and

all really wrecked. I stretch my hamstrings and then I jump around

we wanted to do it on tape and vinyl.. Also, he’s a Grammy award

and get all the blood into my legs so that I can be on the balls of my

winner and when the opportunity arose and he was into the band

feet when I’m on stage…and like my core is all activated and that. I

and wanted to record us we were like ‘uh, yes!’ So we borrowed

jump around a fair bit.

heaps of money and worked fucking shit jobs to try and get some money to go there. And we did - it was great. But!! Milkshakes in

What makes a performance a success in your opinion?

Nashville are SHIT. Milkshakes in America are most generally shit.

I suppose you have to define success first and what you think that

They’re so much flavour and shit in them - they’re way too thick

is in a good show. You can have a really successful show and play

and thick in a sloppy way. Really bad.

like shit. If you define it musically, a successful show is playing really well and everything being really tight and all the harmonies

If you were to fanboy over anyone, who would it be?

and the performance and everything being great. But that can be

Ian Moss from Cold Chisel. I met him the other day and fanboy’d.

completely void of emotion and any sort of crowd interaction. And then the other extreme is that you do a really great, entertaining

What’s your favourite track off Microscopic Wars and why?

show and everyone thinks it’s great but you played like shit. So

It would have to be between ‘So Long’ and ‘Eye of the Storm’. I

I think a success is a joining of those two elements. The most

think ‘Eye of the Storm’ has a really interesting composition and

successful shows are when you do a mega performance with really

arrangement. I really love the ending - the second half is hypnotic.

great musician shit.

The tones, the way it is constructed and the way the guitar solo sounds…I’m really critical of my own sound and when we got the

Which bands or individual musicians inspire you, if any?

sound that is on that solo…that is the first time I think I’ve ever

No one inspires me. (Pauses) I’m just kidding. Oh, fucking hell!

been happy with a guitar solo my whole life.

Pretty much everything I hear or listen to inspires me in some way, shape, or form. It may not necessarily be in a positive way but

What does indie rock mean to you?

everything has an effect. There are people that inspire me…Mossy

I don’t even know what that means. I don’t understand genres. I do,

(Ian Moss), Queens of the Stone Age, Led Zeppelin, Creed, early

within reason, but I just don’t know what indie rock means. (Pauses)

Clapton. As far as lead playing, all the blues…that whole blues and

Okay, do you know what indie rock means? It means ‘independent

British blues generation, so like Buddy Guy, Freddy King, B.B. King,

rock band’ which is what we are. But I don’t even know if we

Albert King, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Rush.

subscribe to the aesthetic attachments that the word ‘indie’ now has. I don’t think we’re indie as far as our style is concerned at all. I

Can you name one of your guilty pleasures?

don’t even know what we are. I think we are just some weird rock

Motorbikes, cars, guitars, and whiskey…. and clothes. I really like

and roll band. s

cool clothes. Boots and shoes. Shopping in general. Milkshakes!

Jimmy is nodding [Kingswood’s guitar tech]. When we’re on tour, I have a milkshake pretty much every day. Always vanilla. Always

47

Complete the crossword and send a picture of your answers to stephanie.walker@ flinders.edu.au and WIN one of ten free double passes to Palace Nova!

Across

Down

2. You’d think a place with this many armoured car robbers would just go cashless… (2 Words) 6. A professional jinx finds his Achilles Heel (2 Words) 7. For every master, there is an apprentice, even in pool. (4 Words) 10. He should have just left that serpentine lady alone… (2 Words) 11. The ‘perfect’ robbery is not what it seems (2 Words) 12. Suspicion abounds in this colour-coded robbery gone wrong (2 Words) 15. Bank robbery and sexual reassignment mix on a hot summer day (3 Words) 20. Big score… Tiny cars… (3 Words) 21. Heist flick explores broader themes of war and the civil rights movement (2 Words) 23. The line to knock off Buddy is forming over there (2 Words) 24. Leads a team of thieves on a high-rise Christmas heist (2 Words)

1. Pai Gow becomes serious business for a crew of bike messengers (2 Words) 3. A trip into the desert after stolen Kuwaiti gold takes an unexpected turn (2 Words) 4. When you can’t finish the hit, they call… (3 Words) 5. The original pool shark classic still holds up (2 Words) 7. A corrupt sheriff convinces an ex-con to do “one last job” (2 Words) 8. The stakes are high in this famous first mission (2 Words) 9. Pity about this heist flick’s dreadful sequels (2 Words) 13. Goes under… water to catch a gang of bank robbers (2 Words) 14. The world’s deadliest assassins converge on a small English town (2 Words) 16. Bobby De Niro proves experience beats enthusiasm hands down (2 Words) 17. Biopic about a South African bank robber 18. Administrative drudgery abounds in this unlikely heist film (2 Words) 19. How much trouble with a shady Russian Malkovich is too much?

22. Every second word isn’t ‘fuck’, but it feels like it.

On the mall every Thursday 9.30am 49