Empire Times 44.2

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MUSLIM FEMINIST BOXER, GENDER NEUTRALITY, NATURAL BORN KILLERS//

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The Team EDITORS Eleanor Danenberg, Lisandra Linde, Liam McNally SUB-EDITORS Elise Christopher, Ainsley Ewart, Kayla Gaskell, Brenton Griffin, Jack Harrison, Cameron Lowe, Patrick O’Loughlin, Karen Smart, Marithe Solis, Sundus Raza, Leeza Von Alpen COLUMNISTS Amber Anon, Aden Beaver & Tom Goldblatt, Ashley Curtis, Brenton Griffin, Emma Hough Hobbs, Patrick O’Loughlin ILLUSTRATIONS Rhianna Carr Sheydin Dew Emma Hough Hobbs

Genevieve Danenberg, Marina Deller-Evans, Ainsley Ewart, Michael Gamboli, Kayla Gaskell, Ceri Glenie, Nikita Mickan, Khyle Milne, Christopher Norman, Sam Sharplin ADVERTISING/MEDIA Steph Walker stephanie.walker@flinders.edu.au Enquiries Level 1, Student Hub, Flinders University (FUSA) 1 Registry Road Bedford Park, 5042 About the cover art: Cover artist Twisha Pujara was inspired by the natural elements. ‘The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes’.

With thanks to: All new and not-so-new students who came up to our O’Week stall and said hi and gave us feedback about Issue 1. You guys are the real MVPs! Empire Times would like to acknowledge the Kaurna people who are the traditional custodians of the land Flinders University is situated on, and that this land was never ceded, but stolen. We would like to pay our respects to the elders of the Kaurna nation and extend that respect to other Aboriginal peoples, past, present, and future.

Empire Times is a publication of Flinders University Student Association (FUSA). Empire Times is printed by Flinders Press.

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editors, Flinders University, or Flinders University Student Association. Reasonable care is taken to ensure that Empire Times articles and other information are up-to-date and as accurate as possible, as of the time of publication, but no responsibility can be taken by Empire Times Magazine for any errors or omissions contained herein.

CONTRIBUTORS Rhianna Carr, Elise Christopher, Ashley Curtis, Eleanor Danenberg,

work with us!

WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, ILLUSTRATORS & MAKERS OF PRETTY INTERESTING THINGS! Empire Times is a student publication that prints 10 times over the academic year. It is made by students, for students and provides a unique oppotunity for students to be published, to talk about what's important to them and to be read by those in their community.

Empire Times relies entirely on contributions from the readers to make up its content. Each selected piece goes through a collaborative editing process. We're very friendly, email empire.times@flinders.edu.au to find out everything you need to know about being part of the team.

On Campus What’s going on?

Apr i l FUSA’s always thinking of you, and they want to aid your welfare with free breakfasts every week!

FREE Welfare Br unches

3rd April/ Sturt 6th April/ Anchor Court 7th April/ Plaza 12th April/ Education 13th April/ Registry 14th April/ Tonsley 17th April/ Medical Centre 19th April/ Sturt 20th April/ Plaza 24th April/ Tonsley 26th April/ Registry 28th April/ Anchor Court

March Apr i l

FLICS Movie Screenings: See Facebook page for locations and further details.

FL ICS ( Fl inde rs Unive rs it y Cine phi l e S o cie t y )

22nd March/ Blade Runner 29th March/ OSS-117: Cairo Nest of Spies

Apr i l

Apr i l 24

FUSA R el ax D ays. Thanks

Empire Times Issue 4 (Order) contributor deadline. Email submissions to empire. times@flinders.edu.au Opinion pieces, artwork, fiction, poetry, recipes, music, whatever your heart desires!

to your student association, you can pick up some great freebies like food, haircuts, and masssages. RELAX!

C ont r ibutor D e ad line

5th April Sturt Library / 2 week Mid Semester Break / 26th April Plaza

Apr i l 7 Speakeasy (Creative Readings club) event: 7th April, Multimedia room, Hub (ground floor)

Sp e a ke asy R e ading

5th April/ Beyond the Mat 26th April/ Planes, Trains, and Autombiles

No registration necessary to go and listen, but if you want to bring a reading of your own, contact ‘Speakeasy Flinders’ on Facebook.

March 2 1 Apr i l 9 FESA (Flinders Education Student Association) AGM and First Year Event: The Tav, March 21st Pub Crawl: April 9th

FESA Events

Editorial

I have a secret to tell you. I always leave my editorials until the last minute. I left them until the last minute last year, and new year NOT new me, as I’m still doing it this year. Today is the day we are printing the final draft of this issue, and true to form, I’m frantically tapping away at my keyboard, still not sure what I will write or what this editorial will become. I also leave homework to the last minute too… I guess chronic procrastination is a big part of my identity?

Our identities are shaped by lots of things, predominantly by our biology and environments, most people would argue.

In this issue, you’ll read about different things that impact on our identities, such as: gender, sexuality, culture, religion, our political beliefs, our hobbies, sports, jobs, role models, our families, our favourite book, and so much more. All of these factors come together in the melting pots of our minds and souls, and make us who we are.

Fortunately, I feel like my identity has been very positively shaped by my parents; independence and a little bit of silliness from my Mum, and my stellar taste in film and music from my Dad; and compassion and a love of snacks from both of them.

I should also credit Clementine Ford, Catherine Deveny, and Jessica Valenti (as well as my parents) for instilling in me a knowledge and passion for feminism, which is without a doubt a huge part of who I am.

I hope this issue will make you think about your own identity, what’s really important to you, and what makes you you. I hope this issue helps to show how different and unique identities can be from person to person, and how this is a good thing.

Diverse communities are strong and fierce and awesome. Be good to each other, and enjoy ET issue 2!

Love, Eleanor

Some aspects of our identities we are born with; others we develop over time through our actions, our experiences, our interactions with others.

Within this vast realm of possible identities, there is no end to the diversity of expression, experience and being that we encounter in our day to day lives. In this issue we received submissions from a variety of very different people with very different definitions and expressions of identity. The beauty of this diversity is one of the things that makes my experience as editor so fulfilling. Being one of the curators of a space in which people can express the complexities of the self and of others is both fascinating and humbling.

We are all so incredibly unique in our identities, yet also so much alike. Only one thing is a concrete truth: each different expression and identity is valid. Each human being has a right to individuality, to defining themselves rather than existing within the parameters of definitions set out by systems of government, by law or by social norms of the time. I think this line of thought is important for us, as Flinders University students. We are faced with a rapidly changing world. A world in which rights are won and lost every day. A world in which ideals and social/legal/political codes seek to force people to be a certain way, or risk losing access to the most fundamental human rights of safety, shelter and self.

In the grand scheme of things, we are all human, but be mindful of the fact that there is no ‘one’ way to be a human. It is because of identity, and the variety of identities available to us, that we are even human at all.

Oh, and I’ve been reading Murakami lately - can you tell?

Vi snakkes, Lisandra

There are all sorts of ways we define our identity. It can be sex, gender, sexuality, class, creed, race, belief, politics, health, or a whole variety of other things. Personally, I find a key part of my identity that I value lies in writing and reading.

The disappointing thing is that in recent years I’ve just been re-reading tried and tested novels and what I’m set for class.

This year, I decided to set myself the goal of reading fifty books. It started with some Murakami – which is surely a mixed sign.

Along the way, I got to The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I wasn’t sure what to expect, I knew only that it seemed to be something I ought to read. I bring this up as if it’s not too much to say a book feels like a revelation, this is certainly the one. I found it an empowering book that offered an insight into the mind of one of the finest writers of the modern age.

It reminded me why I had set out to read so many books this year – to better define myself by stretching my reading horizons.

On the other hand, reading Gravity’s Rainbow was also a defining experience. Just not in such a pleasant way. It was defining more in the way being hit in the throat by bottle-brandishing lunatic in a singlet is defining. I did not enjoy it.

Books may not be the thing that offers you an insight to your identity but finding the niche that suits and exploring it is a very rewarding experience.

Catch you, Liam

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Vox Pop: Voice of the People

Fringe Interview: Flinders graduate, Fiona Smith

Poetry: The Clown

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Student Council

Centrelink, cats, Racial Discrimination, and pigs

6 Things: Role Models & Heroes

Politicalised Sexual Identities and Resistance

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Gender Neutral Pronouns

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Empire Times Quiz

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Identity Politics

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O’Fiesta Recap

Board Game Baptism

Advice: Ask Milton

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Exploring Identity

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H20 (and why you should be having more of it)

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Living in a Blended Family

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What to do in Adelaide...

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Interview: Muslim feminist boxer, Anamta Afzal

Fiction: You

Poetry: I Stand Alone

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5 Star Film Recommendation: Natural Born Killers

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Book Review: How to Set a Fire and Why

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Book Review: Bad Feminist

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Anime Review: Occultic;Nine

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Vox Pop

Voice of t he p e ople (on c ampus) Main Campus

Tom

Monique

Isaac

Pr imar y E duc at ion

S e cond ar y E duc at ion & Ar ts

E duc at ion & S cience

Q1. Guilty, guilty, guilty

Q1. Laidback, independent, funny

Q1. Carefree, happy, pun-tastic

Q2. Better Homes and Gardens

Q2. I don’t watch much television

Q4. A tie between the Lego Star Wars X-Wing Instruction Manual and The Bible

Q3. Alec Baldwin

Q3. Bernie Sanders

Q4. Dear Everybody (Michael Kimball)

Q5. Scrambled eggs

Q5. Fried Chicken

Q4. The Day My Bum Went Psycho (Andy Griffiths)

Q2. Judge Judy Q3. Judge Judy

Q5. Chilli Con Carne

Q1. Describe your IDENTITY in 3 words? Q2. What’s your favourite reality televisions show? Q3. Who would make a better President than Donald Trump? Q4. What’s the best book you’ve read in your life? Q5. What’s a recipe you rock the shit out of?

Katie

Jordan

Carly

He a lt h S ciences

Biome dic a l Eng ine er ing

Anima l B ehav iour & Psycholog y

Q1. Very easy going

Q1. Bubbly, fun, social

Q2. House Hunters

Q2. Silicon Valley

Q3. Amber D.A

Q3. Michelle Obama

Q4. Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)

Q4. Tomorrow When The War Began (John Marsden)

Q5. Potato & pumpkin pizza

Q5. Pavlova

Q1. Sporty, animals, nature Q2. Geordie Shore (don’t judge) Q3. Michelle Obama Q4. Are We There Yet? (Alison Lester) Q5. Dinosaur pasta with mince and tomato sauce

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Straight White Men: Why Cats should have their Centrelink benefits cut Tom G oldbl att

Cats are the fucking worst. They lie in bed all day, leave when they want, demand food, shit in a box and, worst of all, steal your hard-won pokies money for vet bills.

It is said the greatest trick ever pulled was the devil convincing us he wasn’t real. I beg to differ. It was cats convincing the Facebook obsessed generation that they love you, when they don’t. We are abused partners with an “I can’t leave them, I love them!” mentality, only to have this love thrown in our faces like a mug of burning coffee.

Cats are the very definition of freeloading bastards. What do they do for the community? Look cute?

Because that’s a commodity we can export to China. Instead, they’re like the thirty year old sweaty guy who still lives with his parents; the guy who’ll always blurt out ‘yeah but I mean Hitler did have a point’ when talking politics.

Cat lovers themselves also need to be stopped. Cat lovers are worse than heroin junkies because at least junkies acknowledge their terrible addiction. At least if you adopt an orphan, as you would a cat, not only would the orphan love you for taking them out of the horrible orphanage, but you can also choose to put them to work in a coal mine or harvest their organs for considerable profit.

In conclusion, cats offer no tangible benefit to society, and government time would be better utilised sending debt collection notices to these leeches rather than other members of society.* *Tom was the previous owner of a cat whom he loved until it’s death. Aden is the loving father of three cats and probably qualifies for gold class in an asylum somewhere.

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Straight White Men: Why Livestock and Animals should be protected from Racial Discrimination Aden B e aver

Many Australians are familiar with Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, and most have formed a related opinion. Some say that the section is necessary because it prevents race related abuse. Others say it’s too broad and should be repealed, or that prosecuting the act of being offended limits free speech in a free society. I beg to differ, though. If anything, this section needs to be expanded to include not just humans, but animals as well.

If the progressive dissidents among us really cared about our fellow creatures, they should immediately push to include animals in this bill. Let’s face it, words hurt, and in 2017 being species-ist shouldn’t be tolerated. How many pigs have shed a tear after being called filthy mud-rollers? And how many humans refuse to eat pigs because they’re dirty beasts? How many times have dogs been called bitches? And how many dogs have felt threatened over the Facebook obsessed generation’s use of the word ‘doggo’? Did anybody even ask them? ** Once we finally break down these barriers between Man and Beast, the world will be a much better place. **Moral of the story is, should I feel offended on behalf of others? Probably not. It’s outside of my jurisdiction.

colu m n/ s ex u a l ity

Resistance in a political hellscape.

Navigating politicalised sexual identities.

Amb er Anon

It’s safe to say that sexual identities adapt as we learn what we’re into throughout our lives. It’s this accumulation of desires, attractions, turn offs, orientation and more which make sexual identities unique. Pair this identity with different cultures, social environments and their associated norms, and our identities become more diverse still! What’s so important about these associated norms is that they lay down the rules of what is considered “acceptable” within that society. What is considered acceptable within one society or culture can differ greatly in comparison to another, thus impacting an individual’s ability to publicly display their unique identity. These norms which implicitly (or sometimes very explicitly) moderate displays of identity change as salient events within that culture occur.

So where am I going with all this? Well, I figure cis-gendered people have enough visibility in society without another article reinforcing the normativity of hetero relationships (particularly in the wake of Valentines’ Day), so instead I’m focusing on the politicalised aspects of queer

sexual identities. The trouble is the sexual identity and lives of LGBT+ people can be drastically impacted by the changes of salient events, for better and for worse.

When these events are the direct action of politicians removing legislation supporting LGBT+ people. thus reducing the amount of support queer people receive, our wellbeing hangs in the balance. Political leaders not only make the rules which dictate the laws of a society, but they also act as role models.

In a time where all of these factors directly impact a person’s wellbeing, navigating ones’ sexual identity is almost seen as a luxury in contrast to many peoples’ fight for survival. If this is the case, then what importance does being “identifiable” as queer in a society which is discriminatory at best, and potentially lethal at worst? If our identity is the sum of our lived experiences and is an outward expression of ourselves, the recognition of our existence within a society is dependent on us being present within it. It’s understandable that with identification comes vulnerability, that being proudly “out” can sometimes

legitimately threaten queer people’s lives.

However, it’s important to remember that change within communities doesn’t randomly occur; and sometimes it won’t occur overnight; change does happen, but marginalised communities need everyone they can to give support.

Sometimes online media can be a helpful tool for communicating with likeminded people and those within our community, but it can also be very overwhelming to be constantly bombarded by your newsfeed informing you that the outer net is a veritable hellscape at the moment. So do yourself a favour and do an electronic detox every once in a while; go outside and join a protest; meet up with a local consciousness raising group; grab a friend and see a Fringe show supporting queer artists! Even if you’re not queer yourself, go out and educate yourself on how you can be a better ally. Societal change takes a lot of hard work and not everyone has boundless energy to constantly resist oppression, so do what you can to make that job a little bit easier for everyone.

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Identity Crisis

The World of Identity Politics Brenton Griffin

‘The rise of nationalist politicians... has seen the re-emergence of a clear “us versus them” ideology.

This has been particularly harmful in the last couple of months as President Trump has issued an Executive Order that bans the immigration of Muslims.’

Identity is a fascinating thing. Our own sense of identity motivates almost every conceivable thing that we do outside of survival. Sometimes, the most fundamental of superficies, such as clothing, diet, or type of phone we have, are enough for people to make judgements about our personality, and our identity. Often, we allow this to happen.

Due to our inherently flawed natures our identities can be exploited. Marketers and advertisers do this all the time. They force us to associate possessions with elements of our identity. This is an illogical and incorrect connection, yet our own vanity and narcissism means that it works.

Identity politics is no less fascinating.

Because of the increasing importance of politics in society, people have been divided along tribal, almost sectarian, lines. For example, within our own student politics, there is the Labor Left and Right. The Greens exist solely as Independents. Marxists make up the final genetic make-up of this political Frankenstein’s monster. Thus, the entire student body should, theoretically at least, be considered ‘left-wing.’ Yet, almost no one is on the same page. There is so much infighting and hostility that mutual goals are hard to be agreed upon, let alone achieved.

In this example, the identity of ‘the Left’ is not enough to unite.

Conversely, identity has divided the world.

The rise of nationalist politicians, such as Donald Trump, Pauline Hanson, and Theresa May, has seen the re-emergence of a clear ‘us versus them’ ideology. This has been particularly harmful in the last couple of months as President Trump has issued an Executive Order that bans the immigration of Muslims from a number of different countries. This order has been challenged by refugee agencies, concerned citizens, and legal judges, who have reversed the ban, much to the dismay of Trump and his key supporters.

‘Marketers and advertisers [exploit our identity] all the time. They force us to associate possessions with elements of our identity.‘ Due to the sectarian nature of identity politics, those with opposing ideas feel the desire to attack and discredit the identities of those they do not agree with. For example, the popularity of attacking the Christian identity of Trump supporters is strong amongst left-leaning atheists, agnostics, and liberal Christians. When Trump’s ban was temporarily enforced earlier this year, thousands of people began scrutinising the identity of his Christian supporters,

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Pictured: (Left) - Anti-Trump protest in action. (Right, Top) - The Pope. (Right, Bottom) - Donald Trump in conference during the 2016 US Presidential campaign.

rightly pointing out that according to their own scripture, Jesus was a Middle-Eastern immigrant. Even the Pope has gotten in on the action, claiming that one cannot call themselves a Christian whilst being antiimmigration. The leader of the Holy See has taken to twitter to quote the Bible in regards to this claim. In response, Christian Trump supporters have tweeted at the Pope with responses such as ‘Remember, Heaven has a Wall, a Gate, and Extreme Vetting’ and ‘Trump is God’s answer to the prayers of this world. Sorry you missed the novena.’

The Pope did not take this lying down, coming out shocking the world by admitting that it is better to be an atheist (a damnable sin in Catholic theology) than a hypocritical Christian. This is the world that we are living in. One where the Pope, the (if you believe it) inheritor of Christ’s kingdom on earth, attacking the Christian identity of American Trump supporters. It is truly a wonderful thing.

Yet, critics of Trump supporters are missing the real reason behind Trump’s meteoric rise. It is because many of his supporters have been somewhat stripped of their identity. Many of them are disgruntled at what they perceive as imbalances in policy and politics, where their privilege has been removed and given to someone else. As a result, they fear that they are now lesser. In

reality, the removal of their privilege is an attempt to create more equality, but that is difficult for these people to comprehend.

So, when Trump entered the game, promising to bring back identity to seemingly forgotten constituents, including a bizarre nationalism that has been mocked and disregarded of recent years, he has given these people a sense of self again.

And that is the real secret to his highly problematic success.

‘Even the Pope has gotten in on the action, claiming that one cannot call themselves a Christian whilst being antiimmigration. The leader of the Holy See has taken to Twitter in regards to this claim.’

Overall, identity politics is an immensely fascinating concept. As human beings, we need identity. We spend our whole lives forming, and reforming, our identity. And so, the importance of identity politics will continue to grow in this ever-fracturing world.

What a grim thought.

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ASK MILTON Genuine advice from your Flinders Duck Lord

Dear Milton, I really like this girl. How can I get her to notice me?

Sincerely, Shy Shane Hello Shane, Thank you for writing to me for advice. As you likely know, I am very popular with the ladies. Why wouldn’t I be? I am a duck, everyone loves ducks.

My advice to you is to fill all of your pockets with freshly baked bread. This will work best if the bread is fresh out of the oven.

I suggest wearing pants with as many pockets as is humanely possible. Fill every fillable bit of clothing with bread (make sure not to burn yourself though. Burnt flesh smells gross). Then enter the room/area where this lady friend of yours is and let her get a good whiff of your doughy, bakery-fresh aroma.

How could she resist? Everyone loves bread. If it fails the first time, maybe try gluten free bread. Though, in my opinion, if she prefers gluten free bread she is not for you. You like ducks, which means you like me. And I do not like gluten free bread. At least, not as much as regular bread.

Good luck!

Your pal, Milton Dearest Milton, How can I deal with the political people on campus? It’s hard to get to my classes with them all about.

Sincerely, A. Political Yo Political, First thing’s first. So that’s clearly not your name so I’m already suspecting you’re pretty shifty. Why politics people are swarming such a shady gent, I must say I don’t know.

That aside, though, my suggestion is tearing some bread up and chucking it at them. They’ll go wild. Everyone loves a good bit of bread. Particuarly when stolen out of the hands of a terrified human. They’ll all be far too busy on the bread to even notice you.

Of course, there’s also their politics to consider. As long as they’re not like that fucker Marie Antoinette with her ‘let them eat cake’ bullshit.

Alternatively just tell them you’re a mate of mine. They’ll back the fuck up then. Doesn’t matter if they’re Left or Right, they know they come second to the one true philosophy.

Sincerely, Lord Milton

Milton, Why is the world round?

From Anon.

Dear Anon, I am guessing from your question that science is not your forte, but perhaps philosophy is. Why is the world round? Well, I am not a scientist - I am a duck. But I will tell you what I think.

I believe that the world is in fact a large egg. I say this because the sun looks like yolk, and also because ducks all come from eggs (I assume humans do too, as they are almost as good as ducks). Is an egg round? I do not know. An egg is egg-shaped. So, to answer your question: the earth is not round at all. The world is an egg.

Remember to be good to the egg-world. If we pollute the atmosphere we may crack the shell and spill into the universe. And, much as I admire astronauts, I prefer to fly in the sky rather than in outer space.

Your fellow philosopher, Milton Yo Miltz, It’s only the start of the year and I think I’ve already fallen behind. All my good plans are shot! Help?!

From Panicking Percival.

Alright, Percy. First of all, ‘Miltz’? You even had to make it a ‘z’. I hardly think we’re on such informal footing.

Nonetheless, I’m content to answering your over-familiar and informal question.

Plans just get in the way. If you’re going through life in any way other than a caffeine-fuelled mania I don’t know what your magic is, I just know you’re lucky this isn’t Salem in the 1690s. I have mixed memories about my time there. But that’s neither here nor there. Back to your question: embrace the chaos. Or the chaos will embrace you. Of course your plans are shot - plans are for shooting.

But ducks aren’t.

Milton out

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fe atu re / nutr iti on

Why you should be drinking more water Ash le y Cur t is It’s great for your skin.

Water helps to keep your skin looking nice and allows your face to have a healthy glow.

Great for preventing and treating headaches.

Dehydration tends to trigger headaches and it is proven that water can help overcome this.

Hydration has a major effect on energy levels.

We all like to have at least one coffee a day, maybe more as it contains caffeine which is known to increase our energy levels, but did you know that drinking water frequently can also increase our energy levels?

Help to maximize physical performance.

Water is very important for your muscles to not only perform at their best, but also to recuperate after exercise. Staying hydrated can help us perform at our absolute best and prevents us from feeling fatigued and feeling like exercising is difficult Weight Loss.

That’s right guys! Drinking plenty of water can help to boost your metabolism rate and can increase your daily energy expenditure by 96 calories. Drinking water half an hour before meals can also

make you feel more full, allowing you to eat less and maintain meal portion control Sleep.

Having restless nights? Can’t seem to sleep for a full 8 hours? If this sounds familiar, then the answer is Water. Water can help you sleep well at night and can allow you to feel less stressed, because who doesn’t over think things before they go to sleep?

Water helps prevent HANGOVERS. Yes, you heard me. Drinking the right amount of water can help prevent a hangover, after a long night of drinking. It is recommended that you drink a glass of water in between drinks and one glass of water before you go to sleep, and voila there you have it, a way to help avoid nasty hangovers!

We should be drinking at least two litres of water every day to stay hydrated, according to nutritionist Danette May. How much water do you drink a day?

Also, a handy hydration tip: When you are dehydrated, drinking room temperature water rather than cold water will help you hydrate quicker?

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c olu m n / w hat to d o i n Ad el ai d e

What to do in Adelaide when you’re feeling fancy Ash le y Cur t is

Ever wanted to dress up really nicely on a Saturday during the day for no apparent reason, and feel like royalty? Well, the Morphettville Racecourse gives you a great excuse to dress up in your finest suit, or a dress that has been waiting for just the right occasion, and what woman doesn’t like wearing a fascinator every now and again? Going to the races is a great chance to get a group of your closest friends together and just have a day of relaxing and getting front row seats to all of the action. Wander around the course in your finest outfit, and see all eyes on you. The great thing about this place is that it is a friendly and entertaining environment, and who knows, you could win quite a bit of money and gain entry into the ‘Winners Lounge’, where you get unlimited alcohol and nibbles for thirty minutes!

This racecourse happens to also be the largest in South Australia, and is home to the South Australian Jockey Club. It has 22 function rooms and races are held every Saturday, that’s right, every Saturday there are horse races on, and not just 1 race but about 6 or 7. There is a small entry fee, but it is definitely worth checking this place out.

This race course also hosts ‘Adelaide Cup’, ‘Irish Race Day’ and ‘Melbourne Cup’ which are very popular races and can each have an estimate of up to 15,000 people in attendance. There are function packages for these particular race days, so you can enjoy a delicious and appetising three course meal, unlimited drinks and be waited on the entire day. Just book for a table of 10 and you are all good to go. If you can’t get that many people then just book for as many as you please and you will be paired up with other people to make up a table of 10, which can be a great way to meet new people to enjoy the day with. I went with a group of 6 on Adelaide Cup Day, and we were paired up with two older couples whom were extremely lovely and knowledgeable; and my friend who was there that day is now working for one of the couples’ business, how insane is that? So not only did we make new friends, we also got to network and learn a lot of things about growing up and truly living life.

So what do you say? Take a chance and go have a memorable day, I can guarantee you will come out a winner!

Photo: TourSA Website

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Anamta Afzal: Muslim feminist boxer, Flinders University student, and total badass.

Tell us about your journey here at Flinders University?

I’m currently studying a Bachelor of Behavioural Science and doing a major in Women’s Studies. Around my second year, I came across the Women’s Collective from one of my Women’s Studies topics. The Women’s Collective is where I had the honour of meeting amazing women and some very close friends. I deferred from University in 2016 because I wanted to focus on my boxing training and work. At the time I was training 3-4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I also just needed to give my brain a much needed break.

Have you experienced any sexist double standards regarding your passion for boxing?

Oh hell yes. Every day. I am blessed that I found a badass female boxer to be my trainer and she gave me the confidence to realise that I could beat the hell out of a guy. I always hear men making smart ass comments about women in boxing and how it isn’t real or hard. Everyone thinks because men are bigger that they punch harder - that’s bull.

Flinders is definitely an amazing university.

When I was fresh out of high school I actually looked into journalism at UniSA in Magil; however I found a passion in psychology and that led me to change universities, which turned out to be the greatest decision ever.

People are always asking me why I would ever consider wanting to fight. They don’t treat me the same as the male fighters.

Apparently there must be something wrong with a woman that wants to strap some gloves on and exchange punches. Even my trainer still deals with double standards; she has more wins and more experience than all of the trainers she works with, but they still question her.

What inspired you to start amateur boxing and what has that experience been like?

What led you to feminism, and do you have any particular feminist inspirations?

I’ve always loved the sport. I watched it growing up and used to idolsze fighters like Muhammad Ali. I would do fitness boxing classes at my regular gym but then thought about going to a boxing club to learn proper technique. It was there I met my boxing trainer (a fighter turned trainer), and she took me on and ignited in me a passion for fighting. Before I knew it, I was training to fight.

I can’t pinpoint a moment when I became a feminist - I’ve always been one. I have definitely become a better feminist in the last 7 years of my life but I have always had a problem with the way women are seen, treated and socially picked apart.

The experience of training has been incredible. I love it, I can’t get enough. The training isn’t easy and the diet is never fun but at the end of the day I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Basically to be a fighter you need to train minimum 5 days a week. The training involves everything from running to lifting weights to sparring.

You put your body through some stress and bruises but it’s worth it.

Every bad ass woman is a feminist heroine of mine. From my friend who is one of the editors of this magazine, my teachers, my boxing trainer, and any little girl that doesn’t let the world put her in a box.

Some might say that Muslim women can’t be feminists as Islam is anti-women, as Jacqui Lambie recently stated. What is your response to that?

I could write a million things that are wrong with that woman. How lost she is, and how she has no idea about my religion, culture,

family or morals. A woman like Jacqui and all her words and actions come from a place of fear, irrational fear. It is defensive and accusatory. Sadly, in her heart, she believes she is helping women. I hope one day she opens her eyes and sees that the world is not as black and white as she thinks it is.

So sitting here and attacking her personally will not do any good. She is a privileged person in a first world country, she needs to educate herself, she needs to travel, open her mind and stop getting swayed by media propaganda.

All I can do is speak for myself. I am a woman of colour and a Muslim woman. I support the rights of every woman in the world. I support women’s rights to wear as little or as much as they would like. I am pro-choice. I believe that every human should be equal. I believe that legal rights should be equal for every single person.

Jacqui Lambie should take a seat and try to listen to the words of a Muslim woman, instead of talking over and silencing their voices.

What advice would you give to other amateur boxers or others starting a big physical transformation or journey for sport?

I would give them this advice: Your mental transformation and strength needs to be bigger than your physical one. Training is nothing. Diet is nothing. Having to wake up every day and make yourself believe that you can do this, that you can get in that ring or run that marathon – that is the biggest part of sport. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Interview by Eleanor Danenberg

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Meet Fiona Smith; She’s a Flinders University graduate who now has her own cabaret show. She recently performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival with her show, Fafi D’Alour & The Delinquents.

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Tell us about your time at Flinders University.

It was a few years ago now, I studied a Bachelor of Tourism and a Diploma of Spanish. I had a massive passion for Spanish, I did an exchange in High School, and I think the language is beautiful. I was planning on working in the Event Management world as I love organising, and I feel like t’s an industry I could still jump back into now.

But I guess, the performing and dance world took over for me. I don’t know why I never studied performing at University, I think because I’d been doing dance lessons and dance teaching externally.

So how long have you been dancing for?

I started when I was four in England, as I’m from the UK. I started with Ballet, Jazz, and Tap. Then I moved to Australia when I was 13, and went to Golden Grove High School, and did Performing Arts there, while also learning dance outside of school at a dance company, and I also studied to become a dance teacher there. Golden Grove were great, they encouraged my dancing and got me my first few dance jobs. Since I was 4, I’ve probably only taken 2 weeks off of dance, it’s like walking for me. I definitely would be a crazier me if I didn’t have the release of dance. The dancing world can be brutal though. When I started ballet they told me straight away I was too tall and my bone structure was too big; it doesn’t mean I don’t love ballet and don’t love teaching it though. A lot of people assume I’m from an artistic or musical family, but my parents have no rhythm at all! Dance is just something that stuck for me; I feel an intense and deep connection for it.

When did you become particularly interested in the style of cabaret?

Good question! That was probably my last year of high school, we did a Moulin Rouge routine at school, and I was just like ‘Yes, this is my thing!’; we’d done ballet, contemporary, and tap and I love them all, but cabaret is where I want to be. For me, I found that in Adelaide Cabaret there were really great singers, or there was burlesque,

but there wasn’t much intense dancing.

Across the world however, a different story; Chicago is one of my favorite musicals, I saw that in Broadway and fell in love. But there really wasn’t much happening in Adelaide, so I thought, ‘You know what? I’m just going to make it myself! Why not? Let’s make a cabaret.’

Tell us about the process of starting up your Cabaret show?

I did my first show last Fringe Festival.

I originally was humble about it and wanted to keep the show small, just using the dancers I knew; however, creatively working with friends didn’t really work, a few dropped off and left me in the lurch.

But I thought, I want to do this show professionally and properly, so I put the message out on different Facebook pages and media avenues, and then auditioned heaps of girls. The girls from last year’s show have stayed on with me again this year, and I re-audtioned for a singer. I auditioned about 20 or 30 singers; I was waiting for a connection, for a voice that gives me goosebumps. So I searched and waited and now I have a beautiful singer!

How have your Fringe experiences been in terms of working with the organisers, the audiences, and so on?

I would say it’s been a positive experience.

Now that I’ve done both Adelaide and Perth Fringe, I know how different they are. Adelaide Fringe is so well organised, they’re so supportive; they even suggested venues that would work for the style of show I wanted to do. And this year they’ve given me opportunities such as performing on the Rundle Mall stage, they’ve asked me to teach a dance workshop on the Rundle Mall stage.

I love that they appreciate their artists and genuinely remember them too. There are not many people or places in this industry where people will remember your name, let alone remember your show.

Audiences are very different from state to state. In Perth we didn’t need to do much

promotion as people booked tickets in advance, but in Adelaide… I know they’ll come through on the day, but God they’re so stressful with leaving buying their tickets at the very last minute. I’ve spoken to other Fringe producers and they all say the same thing, that Adelaide audiences are leaving ticket buying to the last minute.

Shows at Gluttony or The Garden are lucky as people are always wandering around, and some just come for dinner and then end up seeing a show spontaneously; but my show is at Nexus Arts, it’s West End, so it’s a bit out of the way, there’s not so much random foot traffic.

Everyone always asks me ‘Are you worried about the show?’, and I think, the show’s going to be fine. I know we can nail the show as a team. I’m more worried about getting bums on seats. I’m not worried about the art itself, I’m worried about people coming and if they’re going to be present and enjoying it, and being in the right atmosphere.

How long does it take you and your performers to get ready for a show?

Yeah, a fair while! Usually we’ll curl our hair, set it, pin it, then a full face of make up, glitter, the works. So I usually allow a minimum of 2 hours for just hair and make up. That’s not even including time for prepping, like printing, and making sure costumes and props are there and ready to go. I hate risking something not being ready on time, so I always leave more time just to be safe, usually closer to 3 hours. I can usually do make up pretty quickly but this make up has to be just right, and the make up has to be intense enough to stay on, as we sweat so much on stage.

Do you make the costumes for your show?

Yeah, I make some of them. It really depends on what style I want for the show. Some I buy from really random places, often in the US because they have really blinged out costumes. Sometimes I’ll customise things, like I’ll buy high waisted undies and >>

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sew Swarovski crystals on them for 10 hours. Some costumes are sewn lingerie or blinged leotards, but it all depends on how much time I have. I’ll buy packs of 20,000 Swarovski crystals at a time; I’ll watch 3 movies in a row and be sewing and crystaling costumes the whole time. It’s fun though, this is the most relaxing part of the show preparation really. Some costumes can be really expensive but I try to reuse mine. I don’t have the budget of a Dita Von Teese Cabaret show but maybe one day!

Is that your dream, to have a big cabaret show and be like Dita Von Teese?

I guess so! I love the dance world. I love Burlesque and Dita’s Burlesque style, but mine is very different. I do my Burlesque in pointe shoes, and I use an aerial hoop; I try to get away from that standard “Look at me taking my sexy gloves off, look at my tassels” style, I want to be creative with it. I want more. I’m always someone that wants more.

I would like to get into big productions; full dance shows, not just Burlesque shows or shows of just one dance style. I’d like to get into a Moulin Rouge style show; I want singers, I want acrobats, I want a big costume budget, I want to collaborate and bring people together, I want thousands of people involved! Maybe one day though.

Is your show your full time job for the rest of the year?

Oh, I wish! I own a dance school called Fiona Smith Dance Creatives. I teach dance there 5 nights a week. I love teaching people and being surrounded by creative, passionate people. I also work as a bartender just a couple nights a week.

A lot of people think I live a glamorous lifestyle; not at all! I live off 2 minute

noodles and barely pay rent, but it looks glamorous! I used to work at a winery, I’ve done lots of random jobs that fund my shows. Ideally I’d love to one day be a Producer, where people come to me and say “this is my vision, can you create it?”.

I’m slowly getting there; I’ve been asked to choreograph pieces for other Fringe shows, and I’ve also choreographed music videos.

I’m a little bit everywhere, I guess.

I still work just as much during my Fringe Shows too; my dance school is still running, and I’m currently the only teacher! I take my show nights off my bar job, but I make up for it another night of the week. Otherwise, rent doesn’t get paid. I wish I could get to a point where I could take time off so I could solely focus on my Fringe show; the admin, the media, the marketing, the PR, graphic design, as I do all of that myself. It’s intense but I love it. I’m someone who needs to be very busy.

What advice would you give to others who are thinking of starting up something creative and big like a Fringe show?

I reckon, just do it! It really doesn’t matter how much money you have, you really just need to hustle. It’s a hard industry, everyone’s super talented and fighting for the same goal; but it doesn’t mean that you don’t have something unique that people will love. If you change the opinion or emotion of someone in the audience, then you’ve won. And a lot of people worry they don’t have enough money to start something like this, but there’s always people that can help. You can exchange favours; like giving free tickets to the people who do your printing or something like that.

You just really need to hustle. Don’t be afraid to ask people to help you. In this industry you’ve got to think out of the box for ways that can help or you, don’t be afraid to reach out. I emailed The Advertiser about coming to my show and I tried to convey that it would be worth their time; I

didn’t imagine they would say yes but they did! There’s a lot of confidence involved.

You have to work with people who reflect that confidence back to you too.

Get the little things right. Even if you’re working with friends, get a contract. I even have a contract with myself! Do a budget for yourself, otherwise you’ll get stressed and lose track of money. Don’t be afraid to talk to other artists and ask them for advice.

I wouldn’t have known about budgeting and where to get costumes unless I had asked other performers.

It’s a very terrifying thing to start, but once you do you won’t go back. It’s such a rewarding experience for people to come up to you after your show and say, “This is one the best shows I’ve ever seen”. That’s what I do it for, you can’t beat that.

Fiona’s Fringe show has featured at Perth Adelaide Fringe Festivals, and she’s also performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in June, and Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane Fringe Festivals later this year.

Facebook: Fafi D’Alour & The Delinquents Pictures: Previous page: Fiona Smith, aka, Fafi D’Alour Top: Fafi D’Alour & The Delinquents Bottom Left: Fiona and Dita Von Teese Bottom Right: Fiona performing at the 2017 Adelaide Fringe Festival Photos from Fafi D’Alour & The Delinquents Facebook Page.

This interview has been edited and condensed from a transcript.

Interview by Eleanor Danenberg.

Six Things: My Hero

Pau l Kel ly

Fran k lin D. R o os e velt

R osie Waterl and

Genevieve Danenberg

Christopher Norman

Marina Dellar-Evans

Growing up, one of my favourite artists of all time was Paul Kelly. I can never forget the absolute classics that will forever be imprinted in my mind, with my favourites being Deeper Water; They Thought I Was Asleep; How To Make Gravy; Give in To My Love; From Little Things Big Things Grow; Winter Coat; To Her Door; Dumb Things; Look So Fine, Feel So Low; Before Too Long; Leaps And Bounds... and the list goes on!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was the longest serving President of the United States. He served four terms from 1933, in the depths of the great depression, until he died in 1945 just months before the end of the Second World War. FDR became paralysed from the waist down in his younger days due to polio but during his political career he made sure that he was never seen in a wheelchair and tried to make sure paralysis never got in the way of his ability to be President.

Whether writing about family breakdown, tweeting about reality TV or discussing the time she soiled herself while drunk – Rosie Waterland is the kind of fearless I’d like to be. Gaining internet fame through recounts of TV show The Bachelor, Waterland has since published several articles and a book. After stumbling across her blogging, I clamoured to read the often awkward but always witty woman’s autobiography, The Anti Cool Girl.

One of my favourite live music moments was when Paul Kelly came to the Perry Sandhills near Mildura and played into the night, with the stars glistening above, and the massive sand dunes around, like Tatooine.

It’s no wonder that Paul Kelly was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in ’97, and has inspired many other amazing Australian artists, spanning generations. His music is timeless, pushes boundaries and has covered many genres including bluegrass, folk, rock, country and even dub reggae.

Paul Kelly holds a mirror up to society, highlighting the good with the band, capturing the beauty and blemishes of Australian culture and society.

The main reason FDR is my role model is due to the actions he took to benefit the poor and working class people in America.

His key legislation, the ‘New Deal’, still considered by some to be a failure, ended up leading to wage growth, higher employment, and significant economic growth. FDR did more for regular every day working people than just about any other US president in history and that is why he is my role model…

Plus, he won World War II.

The Anti Cool Girl details family struggles with addiction and abuse, journeys through mental health, identity and relationships.

Waterland also uses social media to discuss personal issues such as losing a friend to suicide and reconnecting with family members. The raw approach in Waterland’s writing has inspired me to write more heartfelt pieces of my own, and the humour she injects into otherwise awful subjects is admirable. A woman who isn’t afraid to detail the intimate and un-glamorous side of growing up is my kinda woman.

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Emma Wats on

Sy lv i a Pl at h

Anp anman

Elise Christopher

L. L

Milton Mallard

For most actors, acting and working with maybe a few charities is all the work they do. This is why Emma Watson is my celebrity role model.

Having lived with severe depression and anxiety from a young age, I fond myself deeply drawn to Sylvia Plath’s writing when I started university.

Who can I choose but the one, the only, the magnificent Anpanman?

As well as her great acting, she has graduated from Brown University with a degree in English Literature, and she’s an Ambassador for United Nations. Her efforts to make gender equality more of a prominent theme in today’s society is changing so much, not just for me, but for so many young women who look up to her as a role model.

Her novel - The Bell Jar (which was a semiautobiographical account of a young woman’s struggle with depression) - had a profound effect upon me. Here, finally, was a writer who portrayed mental illness in a manner with which I could relate.

She is also an advocate for the United Nations Women’s Campaign, HeForShe, which encourages men to support women in the fight for gender equality.

Watson is also involved in work that promotes fair trade organisations and works to improve the education of young girls in rural Africa.

Her hopes, her fears, her struggles - all of these hit close to home. Sylvia Plath was an incredibly talented young woman who met an unfortunate end. Just think how much more she could have given to the world of literature if she had lived a longer life. Even her diaries had a unique and powerful voice that was both poetic and harrowingly real.

Jesus certain managed to stake something of a claim with his bread/body imagery but when I found out it was all just imagery and philosophical language, I was pretty disappointed. That’s the last time I trust an itinerant revolutionary.

But Anpanman? A man actually made of bread, all philosophical imagery aside? Utter perfection. There’s a man who’ll actually give you his face for a nibble if your tummy’s giving you the old rumbles.

Of course, the Magic Pudding has to get a look in. You have to respect a selfreplenishing sentient dessert but ultimately the honour must go Anpanman. You go, girl.

Guy. I’m not sure. It’s bread.

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Singular ‘They’ ‘Gender-inclusive language is about more than he/she; our society is slowly expanding to include those outside the binary gender system, and our language needs to evolve as well’ C er i Glenie

With increasing acceptance of the queer community, it’s becoming easier for queer people of all ages to ‘come out’. This means there are more openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming people. There are not more of these people; just more people feeling safe and comfortable enough to actually be themselves. It also means that as the queer community is becoming more layered and inclusive, we are forming new vocabulary to address each other and ourselves – and for people outside of the queer community to address us, too. It’s just as important for cisgender (people who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth) and straight people to use and understand these terms as it is that they are spread and shared within the queer community. And it’s incredibly important that cis straight people actually listen when queer people ask them to change their behaviour; the ultimate goal is that we be inclusive, and language is a huge player in this. One of the biggest problems I’ve personally faced is explaining non-binary identity and language to people who haven’t encountered it before. So I thought I’d go through a quick breakdown of what gender means in the context of gendered pronouns, specifically gender-neutral pronouns and how to use them grammatically.

By far the most commonly used and recognised gender-neutral pronoun is ‘they’. But wait – isn’t that for more than one person?

Well, yes, and grammatically it is almost always treated as a plural, but singular ‘they’ has existed and been used practically as long as the word has existed; going as far back as the 1400s, there are written records of ‘they’ being used to refer to one person as well as a group of people. It is completely acceptable and normal to refer to an individual as ‘they’, whether it be because the individual’s gender is unknown, or because they’ve explicitly asked to be referred to as such. And why would they request this? I’m so glad you asked!

It’s more common than western culture realises to identify as neither male nor female, as both, as mixture of both and others, or one some days and another on other days. These identities that don’t conform to the male-female dichotomy fall under the umbrella term ‘non-binary’, literally meaning not conforming to the western construction of a binary gender system. There is extensive documentation of other cultures having different ideas of gender, based on different physical, emotional, and mental personal characteristics. The simple fact is, (incoming casual feminism), gender is a construct. And it’s one that needs reworking to keep up with social and political changes; not just in regards to how we expect women and men to behave, but also to adjust to nonbinary people.

So, how exactly are we meant to use singular they? It can confuse a lot of people, especially since in this culture we are socialised to believe it is exclusively used to refer to groups. But really, it’s very easy, and you already know the grammar rules related to ‘they’; you just need to apply them to an individual. For example, let’s say you have a friend who’s running late, and you’re explaining to someone why this friend is late: ‘they’ll be here soon, they just forgot to feed their cat this morning, so they’re doing that now.’ (this may or may not be a real example from my life. Sorry, Asparagus) This sentence makes grammatical sense, reads easily, and is referring to a single person. I’m not going to lie; it takes adjusting to. We are socialised to see the gender binary everywhere, and apply it to everything, and unlearning that takes time. But if my own mother, who is just learning this now at sixty, can work it all out, then I have faith that anyone can, with a little effort and patience.

To make this all a little clearer, I’ve drawn up a handy-dandy list which shows how singular ‘they’ works in comparison to ‘he’ and ‘she’: Pronoun: They/Them/Theirs (as opposed to He/Him/His and She/Her/Hers) Subjective: They Stand Objective: I hug Them Possessive: Their Phone Rings Reflexive: They feed themself As you can see, the only grammatical difference between ‘they’ plural and ‘they’ singular is the reflexive form of the pronoun, changing from the plural form ‘themselves’ to the singular ‘themself’. While this takes adjusting to, I certainly wouldn’t call it confusing; the grammar is all the same as you’ve already been taught.

With that short grammar lesson over, I want to encourage everyone to start using and normalising singular ‘they’ – whenever you don’t know the gender of someone (even if you think you do; physical appearance does not dictate a person’s gender), and most certainly whenever someone tells you that those are their pronouns, just as you would respect people with he/his or she/her pronouns.

For more information on pronouns, and to practice different types of pronouns, check out minus18’s pronoun app at: minus18.org.au/pronouns-app/

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A Quick Recap: O’Fiesta 2017 Words by Liam McNally

The Empire Times editors and the local Lord of Ducks went along to O’Week and offer a report back on the Flinders night of nights, the party of parties, the 2017 O’Fiesta!

Last issue we profiled the making of O’Week 2017. Now it has been and gone in a fiveday extravaganza of mechanic bulls, club stalls, sunglasses, and games. So now we turn our six-times-over-shaded gaze upon the final celebration that was O’Fiesta. The headline act of last year’s O’Fiesta was the Rubens, who were fresh off their Hottest 100 victory. This year’s headline act was Ball Park Music (a personal favourite of certain student magazine editors).

The support acts built the evening up as it went on, each one offering a different style to ensure as many tastes as possible were catered for.

The show kicked off with the sun still some way from setting, as the Vandelays took the stage, their lead singer dressed in progressively fewer items of clothing. Of course, we’re not complaining. Shirtless musicians are always welcome where we’re concerned. The breaks between sets offered the huge crowd the opportunity to collect their drinks tickets from one bar and then head along over to the other to exchange the tickets for their drinks.

Second up came Robbie Miller who offered a more chilled-out and relaxed attitude after the spontaneous strip-show of the last set. The change in tone from the Vandelays to Robbie Miller was a major one but spaced by a break long enough to clear the audience’s expectations sufficiently to enjoy the different styles.

The music of Alex Lahey, who had recently come from a round of shows played in the United Kingdom, hit a little too close to

home with lyrics like ‘went to a b-grade university and got myself an arts degree’.

We didn’t come to this gig to be insulted, Alex.

Another change in style came with the arrival of Tkay Maidza, to an enormously positive reaction from the audience. The roar of the crowd would have had anyone assume she was the headline act. Her music was intense and powerful, backed up by her stage presence which was one of action and energy.

The crowds at the show appeared to increase steadily up to Tkay Maidza’s set at which point, the massive crowd peaked.

Packed into the plaza-turned-moshpit, the crowd grew and stretched out into the Hub and through to Registry Road.

Ball Park Music finally took to the stage late in the night to offer a thunderous conclusion to the busy week.

The evening was even attended by local Flinders celebrity and Duck Lord, Milton.

Sadly, he may have bought up a few too many of those drinks tokens and couldn’t recall much of the night. Stay classy, Milton.

This, the climax of the O’Week festival atmosphere was surely a busy and testing time for the staff who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bring it together but come the night, the results were a great success. Now it’s just a matter of backing it up for next year and providing an equal or a better to this year’s offerings.

fe atu re / i d entity

An Exploration of Identity in Under 700 Words Our identity is generally taken to be who we see ourselves to be and to a certain extent how others see us. This is an exploration of the author’s identity NIKITA MICKAN

I am twenty years old. Beginning my third year at Flinders University (obviously – otherwise would I be writing this?

Probably not) studying a Bachelor of Education (Middle and Secondary Schooling)/Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in Legal Studies and English.

Try saying that sentence when you’ve had a little too much to drink – trust me it doesn’t work. I took the topic ENGL2141: Life Writing last year and wrote a piece about the little moments in life that we usually forget. However, when I finally got around to reading the feedback from my tutor, I realised that I didn’t really write about me. I wrote about the events/people that matter to me (and my cat) so here’s my attempt to show how I see myself and how that may or may not contradict how others see me.

So here’s the first thing you need to know about me: I ramble. I don’t always make sense but I get to the point eventually. I am perfectly okay to go out and do stuff by myself but I prefer to sit at home, reading. I quite like pub crawls (cheap drinks anyone?) but hate going out every weekend. I’m stubborn and I can be a little bit of a bitch at times. I didn’t graduate high school with dux or merits but my teachers nominated me for the Caltex All-Rounder Award.

I needed (and got) 6 bonus points to attend Flinders University. I look forward to the end of summer because I hate the heat and because then I can live in jeans and boots all day, without looking weird.

My level of tolerance for citrus fruits is lemon and lime. I cannot stand soft drink

unless it is raspberry or lemon flavoured, mixed with vodka. I keep a lot on my chest, pretending not to be affected by things that occur in my life. I hate it when people don’t respond in a timely fashion.

I’m single, by choice because I dislike the idea of online dating such as Tinder, and I don’t go out often enough to meet anyone of the opposite sex.

Most would see these as random facts but to me they are the bits that make up who I see myself as.

This is what others see me as, their perceptions of me: My family see me as the first to go to university – and slightly insane to choose the one furthest from where I live (Modbury Heights, just in case anyone was wondering). I am the patient granddaughter, stubborn and busy daughter, annoying older sister. I am the friend who is always there for them and the one who probably ruined a sixyear friendship when I broke up with my ex-boyfriend. I am the one who fellow students would either want to be in a group with or would not (no grey area here folks!) because I refuse to carry all the work in a group project and just want to get the damn thing done. People at the gym see me as the one who is quiet, keeps to herself and gets pissed off at cardio pretty quickly. I’m the hard worker – and the one who is the first to say ‘I’ll do it!’ at work (I make retail my bitch). I’m the one who won’t take any crap from anyone – everyone will agree with that.

These are all perceptions of me. I joke with family and friends, complain about deadlines to class mates and complain to co-workers about Christmas in September. I put on a different ‘me’ to everyone – but does that make it any less who I am?

I guess what I am trying to say (told you, I ramble) is that it’s not just our view of ourselves that make us who we are.

Others play a part as well and at the end of the day our identity is not for others to define for us. You are who you choose to be. I am who I choose to be: a stubborn, patient, annoying Education student – who would really like for summer to piss off.

And yes, this is under 700 words… Just.

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Being the Older-Younger Sister Ainsley Ewart

My family, like all families, is complicated. Unlike other families, the main complication revolves around explaining to people how we all fit together.

We spend large amounts of time explaining this to acquaintances, and so now I would like to publish it for later usage.

For many years, peers have been confused about many things, most of which is how my siblings are THAT MUCH OLDER than me, and the questions that stem from that.

So, I have decided to start at the beginning.

But firstly, the players: My Dad, 60. Oldest of four siblings. Ex-army, now works for a company that works for the army. The biggest kid you’ve ever met. Also known as Grandpa.

My Brother, 36. He and my Older Sister moved around a lot as a kid due to my dad and later their step-dad being in the army. Joined the army himself at 18, and has been stationed between Darwin and Brisbane ever since. Has children.

Divorced. I have never lived in the same house as him.

My Older Sister, 33. At 18, she moved in with us to go to the wonderful institution that is Flinders University. A Drama and English teacher that can’t spell. Married. Has children.

Coined the phrase “OlderYounger Sister”.

My Mum, 50. She was born in Singapore while her father was stationed there in the Navy, and thus not a mail-order bride despite what the electoral office once thought. A tailor by trade, she is also a skilled dressmaker and born worrier.

on another date with him.

Eventually, she met his kids who decided to introduce themselves by dunking their chicken nuggets into their strawberry milkshakes (I, for the record, do not endorse this, and have never tried it).

Me, 20. A uni student who is writing this damn article.

No children, despite what some of my younger sister’s school peers thought when she announced her sister was pregnant.

They were married in early 1993, and shortly after moved back to my Dad’s hometown of Newcastle. In 1996, four days before my Dad’s 40th Birthday, I was born. Shortly after we moved to Toowoomba. In 1999, we arrived in Adelaide, where my Younger Sister was born in March.

Younger Sister, 17. Finished high school last year. Wants to be a musician. No children.

My Dad is 60. That sentence alone sends people into shock.

How can a 20-year-old have a father 40 years her senior?

When he was my age, he was newly married to his first wife and living in his first married quarters in the army. In 1980, their first child, my Brother, was born. My Dad was 23, nearly 24. In 1984, my Older Sister followed. By the end of the 1980s, the marriage had ended in divorce.

In 1991, my Dad met my Mum while stationed in Canberra.

She eventually agreed to go out with him to a formal dinner.

At the end of this dinner, Dad finally mentioned that he had two children, and even better, that his ex-wife was sitting opposite them the whole evening.

After ignoring him for two months, she agreed to go

For this weird structure, I have endured being ostracised by schoolmates (they really don’t react well when you’re an aunt at five, I’ll tell you that), had teachers deny that my grandfather was in World War II, because everyone else’s grandfathers were in Vietnam so clearly mine was too, and I’ve been unintentionally patronised by my older sister’s friends who when I was fourteen treated me like I was five.

But I wouldn’t change it. I have a close relationship with my parents, my Mum in particular, because I followed the example she and my Older Sister provided. I have a great relationship with my incredibly bright and entertaining fouryear old niece. My older sister even assisted my uni entrance by editing my portfolio.

How confusing is that? Not at all to me.

c re at ive / f i c ti on

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cre at ive / f i c ti on

Living with the You. Dead

BY CERI GLENIE

BY MARK TRIMBOLI [TRIGGER WARNING: SELF HARM] [TRIGGER WARNING: DRUG USE, SELF HARM]

It’s a brisk autumn morning when you’re born. Your mother planted the ranunculi at the wrong time; they’re supposed to be a spring Sid lay but on his thinking. dyedsunshine. the silence flower, theybed, bloom now inThe thedarkness chilly March Your amaranthine. longyears as heold, didn’t move, vegemite anything was possible.on brother Oliver,Astwo is eating and cheese He could anything, anyone: as long as he move. Mum His toast whilebefamily members bustle about, Daddidn’t massaging thoughts off the walls in anisempty shell. while shebounced groans through what like she echoes later boasts her shortest Martin,yet however, was busy in theyou next nervous, labour – in only thirty minutes areroom. born. With Dancing around furtive movements his brush arcs of colour, feeble stains the lounge happily, Aunt Galestroked sings, ‘It’s a girl!

It’s a girl!’ of self intent. During the long nights Martin would sometimes pause, brush poised, ear cocked, listening for sound from the next * room. But Sid lay silent, thinking, only waiting for the dawn.

You’re four years old, and Mum’s belly stretches yet again with The brothers much;You a flat, a kitchen, the one toilet –a your younger shared sister-to-be. lie on your parents’ bed, cuddling passion forOllie painting. worked day.songs His images Mum and whileSid Dad playsduring gentlethe guitar to thehung baby. on nails around theyou room, or in to a jumble rectangled canvases In between songs, explain Mum aofdream you had, where against the His artanlay undiscovered, unrevealed, you grew upwalls. and became amazing, funny musician, just hidden like Dad. awaytell in her a room of how striped used ‘picks’ andsame a dusty, You about tall floorboards, you were, how you had the style forgotten sunlight.

Martin was but driven, and the same scratchy beard as less him.gifted She laughs at thatconsumed and tries to by the desire to match hisand brother’s skill, his he painted explain that Dad is a man you’ll grow up talent. to be aSo woman.

This is all night andyou then peddled his dreams déclassé by day,– hawking the last time bring up these to work your mother or indeed, fusty prints the run of lesser galleries, hoping somewhere, anyone – fordown fourteen years. somehow, to find a benefactor or kindly patron. But all he got was chaffy praise and a cheque that never came. And he knew that the * funds that kept them, the money from their parent’s estate, was all butyear spentthree and gone.

Your teacher uses a well-worn tactic to diversify

classroom friendships – she calls for the group to sit in a circle, They met at breakfast; dawn coldafingers ofas light girl-boy-girl-boy, like it’sa lutescent that simple.

Yousent frown little bit you to tourney ribbons of cigarette smokefar andaway burning, white sit betweenhazy two boys, knowing somewhere in your mind ash. this isn’t right, but not knowing how to explain it yet. All you that know is it took a lot of begging to get your parents to cut your hair ‘Whenand I look you, pay I see a world trapped under the slide of a short, that at they’ll you five dollars to wear dresses for family microscope.’ photos.

You’re saving up for the new Gameboy.

‘Huh – what do you mean?’ Sid * didn’t bother to look up. He pulled at the thin, rubber strop, tightening; the vein stood out like a crooked railway line on a map.

Years five blue and six are at a small country school when Mum gets a job as Principal there. Coming from the city, you find it bizarre that ‘I mean things move, the way happen – likeNone we’reof there arethey justway over twenty students in things the entire school. bloody microbes or something; amoebas littlethey squirmy the other kids seem to like you and Ollie. –After start things, bullying swimming ‘round in ina the Petri dish,atblindly only you both for playing library recess splashing – you andabout, Ollie devised that next...’ awaiting funny for little quiz game using the Horrible Histories books – you decide maybe they aren’t worth being friends with anyway.

At this, Sid looked up; he flashed black eyes like holes in the sky.

. . a. passion; you love sports. You You join a netball team, discover later join tennis, and then cricket – there isn’t a girls’ team, so you

join the boys with Ollie, which earns you extra nicknames at school. You punch a kid in the face when he calls you ‘girlboy’ (How unoriginal, you think), you sent to Mum’s – the As usual, the function was which a bore.gets Martin scanned the faces, Principal’s office a grin an spreading across your cheeks. searching for–his lover.with He wanted escape. The bright lights beat Mumthe doesn’t you and at the time, but she’s just a tiny bit proud; upon millingtell crowd threw garish, harpie-like shadows that she didn’t like kidAwkward either. You get a draped detention at school, danced upon thethat walls. figures in Lycra gownsand of barely punished at home: one extraskeletal load of dishes andbehind that’s that. tangerine and puce stood chatting, flamingos the looking glass. Bangles of copper and gold adorned a bevy of hired hostesses as they parried trays of* cocktails and nibbles imported from France. The winning art filled a feature panel. In pride of You’re in your first–year at high school your friend, place hung Forever Martin’s piece.

He when had won first prize,flipping again. idly through a Girlfriend magazine, comments, ‘Lesbians are kinda gross.’

You laugh and agree, you out…

‘There you are, Michaelangelo.

Let’ssaying go – Ithey wantcreep to leave.’

At the sound of Martin’s voice, Michael turned, let go of the arm to say andspilled having been ofShe thehas mansomething he was talking to, about and in everything, mock surprise half his friendless for front so long, you listen.

You take it on. You just want to drink over the of Martin’s tuxedo. be liked. Self-hatred, not yet recognised, bubbles and spits in the pits of your brain as she piles sticky, tar-like anger and sadness His art lay undiscovered, unrevealed, endlessly into it.

“

”

hidden away in a room of striped Towards the end of the year, you have a falling out. She’s floorboards, ‘picks’ andyouacutdusty, convinced that you used like her; ‘You dress weird, your hair short, you listen to strange music...it doesn’t take a genius to forgotten sunlight. work out you’re a lemon.’ She’d quite taken to using that word for lesbians. She doesn’t talk to you after that. You cry, you’re not ‘You’re drunk – again!’ Martin turned on his heel. He angrily even gay, you try to tell her, but she’s convinced herself and she brushed a lemon slice from his jacket’s lapel and strode off; exit won’t reply to your messages. stage left. Michael performed a clumsy glissade in attempt to catch him up, but the move was a disaster. * He tripped on the corner of a rug and fell to the floor amongst the stares and smirks and upraised eyebrows of the gathered, fancy It’s in year ten that you finally become friends with someone you guests. trust. A new kid at school, a tall, skinny, long-haired boy who always wears long sleeves and avoids talking almost as much as ‘There was a forty-pound monkey on my back,’ sighed Frank you do. You sit next to him in maths one day and suddenly you Sinatra from the screen. Martin’s favourite movie, The Man with have a friend again. Tyler listens to the same music, watches the the Golden Arm, was the background soundtrack as the two aged same movies, reads the same books as you. You spend so much paramours argued, spat invectives, and refused to look each time together people spread a rumour that you’re dating; you other in the eye. The scene played out in Martin’s penthouse scoff when you hear that. suite. The décor, quasi-minimalist with flourishes of bronze and chrome to impregnate the muted lavender and industrial viridian.

It’s a quiet evening in your bedroom when Tyler says quite The furnishings: angular and sparse. They strode about, drinks in suddenly, ‘What do you think? Of like, gay people?’ hand, sloshing; sloshed, both filled with a burning desire to be heard above the din of guilt that filled their ears.

‘Oh.’ You’re surprised by the question. ‘You know, they’re just people, I don’t see the problem. Why?’

ART

BY SHEYDIN DEW

‘No reason!’

It’s months before Tyler brings it up again; ‘I don’t think I’m straight.’

‘No way,’ you laugh. You’d worked it out months ago, the first time it came up.

Later that night someone eggs your car. You lose Facebook friends. You get a threatening message from an unknown number. You have to report it to the police and when they ask why this might have happened, you aren’t sure you want to tell the tall fifty-year-old policeman the reason. *

It clicks, and your heart runs at double speed. A kiss from a secret girl, and you promise each other no one will find out.

It’s your first year at university when you meet her. The first person to ask your pronouns; the first person to call you they, instead of her, the first person that doesn’t make you feel like peeling your skin away from your body when you spend too much time with her. The first time in a long time that you have felt ready to talk about your dreams. The first person to listen and understand. The first person to drive to your house at midnight because you can’t stand the shape of your body. She saves your life more than once in the first six months you know her.

*

*

Tyler’s family moves later that year. You aren’t sure whether you’ll see her again.

Being away from the country school, the anger, the hatred; being with people who know you’re real and who care, finding a place where you matter; you finally become the person you knew you were in your four-year-old dreams.

‘No, like…I like girls – ’ ‘So you’re bisexual?’

‘Well, no, see I…’ a sigh. Tyler looks up at you, directly into your eyes and pulls long blonde hair away from red cheeks.

You’re sixteen when you first do the stupidest thing you know how to do.

Ten thin red lines, criss-crossing down your right thigh. Shaking hands, tears pooling in the corners of your eyes but refusing to actually cry, wishing you could pull your brain out of your head.

Blood runs pink as the shower washes it away.

You buy your own bandages so Mum and Dad don’t notice how often you use them. It’ll be years before you can wear shorts again. * In your final year at high school, you aren’t allowed to go to your own formal. You’re told that you need to wear a dress, come with a boy, all these things that make your stomach groan uneasily and your eyes well up with angry tears. It’s a turning point in how you decide present yourself. You Google ‘how to make a chest binder’, and get to work, sneaking sewing supplies from your Mum’s room.

You go to the formal as a guest, since the school board can’t actually stop you from attending. Smart, dapper suit fitted better than the other boys’ rentals, two girls, one on either arm, laughing with you about some joke you’ve forgotten. You dance and laugh and sneak vodka in from the pub across the road from the town hall.

You cry the first time you put on a real, actual binder and see your thin, androgynous frame in the mirror. You cry when you realise how much you love your friends. You laugh with her at two in the morning watching old Simpsons episodes. You smile when, in the library one day, you hear someone say quietly to their friend, ‘Is that a boy or a girl?’. You feel brave enough to grow your hair out for the first time in ten years. You don’t know what’s coming next, but you know that at only twenty years old, you’ve already faced the worst years of your life.

cre at ive / p o e tr y

Oblivion:

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I STAND ALONE

There must be a world, Of blue pacifics and white roses, Of dove’s wings soaring Into endless sky, Where your soul waits, And your energy flows, Into this world of Ram’s horns, And pink ribbons, Of pen to paper, And endless dreaming, Dancing on the edge Of life, But of death, Like water vapour, To clouds, To rain.

An endless cycle Of energy transferred, Continuing on, Unending, Forever.

- B.M

R ichard Fa l k ner

I stand alone Looking across to the place The spot, that very spot I last saw you smile.

A winter so long Dark clouds descended They did not lift nor dissipate Until the coast was clear.

I stand alone Wondering if our paths will Ever again intersect Enabling us to greet, so tender.

A summer hot Harshly blasted and burnt Giving no relief nor comfort Until we accepted fate.

I stand alone.

cre at ive / p o e tr y

THE CLOWN B.M

There are tears behind the clown’s paint Covered by the rosy red cheeks And the artfully sculpted jovial smile Painted expertly on top of downward turned lips, His sobs becoming lost in the grand laughter.

An expertly executed routine Of hiding pain behind the paint Became a perfected habit.

Each day he put on the mask that smiled, That laughed, That boasted a happiness unreachable by most.

Then one day the paint had run out.

And the clown looked in the mirror At tear stained cheeks devoid of colour At the downward turned lips that only sobbed And he laughed.

The tears became the clown’s paint Stained on top of the rosy red cheeks, And the artfully sculpted jovial smile Became the downward turned lips he knew so well.

And his sobs became a reason for laughter.

stu d e nt c ou nc i l /pre side nt’s re p or t

Student Council President UH-OH! LOOKS LIKE WE DIDN’T RECIEVE ANYTHING FROM THE STUDENT PRESIDENT BEFORE THIS ISSUE WENT TO PRINT

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stu d e nt c ou nc i l /inte r v ie w

Student Council Queer Officer YOUR STUDENT COUNCIL IS MADE UP OF 19 POSITIONS, AND WE’LL INTRODUCE YOU TO ALL OF THE COUNCIL MEMBERS IN EMPIRE TIMES THROUGHOUT 2017/

What drew you to the position of Queer Officer?

Khyle Milne

Contact Khyle directly via email, queer.officer@flinders.edu.au or visit fusa.ed.au or call us on 8201 2371.

I could say so many things. However, I’m not one to bore people so I’ll give you the main reason. Over the past two years I’ve been studying at Flinders, I’ve noticed the negative ways the queer community as a whole is received; so, in turn I asked myself what could be done to rectify this issue. I wanted to be able to make a stand and create a community that is recognised and supported. I also wanted to create an atmosphere and environment where everyone is comfortable, a community with an open line of communication and a very inviting aura. I stumbled upon the FUSA Queer Officer position and knew it was exactly what I had been looking for.

What are you hoping to achieve this year as Queer Officer?

This is a hard question to answer, as there are so many things I wish I could do. My main goal for my term as Queer Officer is to establish a system within the Queer Collective that creates a more comfortable line of communication; a Collective in which people can be open and confident with themselves and their lives.

I want to find new and exciting ways to get everyone together and create a stable and united foundation for us all to stand on; something to be proud of and something to take pride in, something we as a community can build together and keep building for years to come.

I want to achieve a feeling of complete collectivism, a feeling of belonging and love.

I believe that beginning this year by slowly building up these foundations will show people that we stand by each other, we help each other and we care about each other.

Why is Queer Officer an important position for Flinders University?

Well, because it brings a view of collectivism.

It shows that who we are and who we chose to become is important. Not to say without the Queer Collective we wouldn’t be important, but it gives a sense of belonging to queer people. That is why I love having a place on Student Council. I now get to meet people, talk to them about their issues, and learn about the diverse community on campus. A Queer Officer and Queer Collective is really important for Flinders University because from this point on we can make some serious changes for ourselves.

Empire Times Quiz 1). Which novel by Mikhail Bulgakov featured the Devil coming to Soviet Moscow?

2). Which Time Lord criminal is the Doctor’s recurring enemy?

3). In which city is the game Fallout 4 set?

4). What is Sterling Archer’s code name?

5). What item do the protagonists of the Deltora Quest books collect gems to fix?

6). In what year did the Battle of Hastings occur?

7). To which literary movement did Oscar Wilde belong?

8). Name the viking who died from an infection caused by scratches from the teeth of a beheaded enemy.

9). Under what pseudonym was Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar originally released?

10). On what planet did Anakin Skywalker receive the injuries that necessitated his armour?

11). Who is the federal education minister?

12). What did US President Donald Trump recently name the media?

13). What is the German word for butterfly?

14). In what year was the first premiership season AFL game played at Adelaide Oval?

15). Prague is the capital of which country?

16). What film won the 1988 Oscar for Best Film?

17). How many novels make up A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett?

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18). Which song by The Beatles has a Japanese novel named after it?

19). In what country did brown cheese originate?

20). Why was Casey Affleck’s victory at the Oscars so controversial?

21). The Garden of Unearthly Delights is a feature of which festival?

22). What is the 73rd element on the periodic table?

23). How many days of the week begin with consonants?

24). Who painted the 1946 painting ‘The Wounded Deer’?

25). In what country did coffee originate?

26). Who is credited with the co-creation of Seinfeld with Jerry Seinfeld?

27). What shape was the legendary table in Arthurian legends?

28). What is the name of the Flinders University mascot?

29). Who is the most prolific Indigenous AFL player in history?

30). The first book of who’s autobiography is titled Moab is my Washpot?

ANSWERS: 1). The Master and Margarita. 2). The Master. 3). Boston.

4). Duchess. 5). The Belt of Deltora. 6). 1066. 7). Aestheticism.

8). Sigurd Eysteinsson. 9). Victoria Lucas. 10). Mustafar.

11). Simon Birmingham. 12). ‘The enemy of the people.’

13). Schmetterling. 14). 2011 (Between Melbourne and Port Adelaide). 15). Czech Republic. 16). The Last Emperor. 17). Thirteen.

18). Norwegian Wood. 19). Norway. 20). He is accused of alleged sexual abuse.

21). The Adelaide Fringe. 22). Tantalum. 23). All of them.

24). Frida Kahlo. 25). Yemen. 26). Larry David. 27). Round.

28). Trim. (bonus points for Milton because he should be).

29). Adam Goodes.

30). Stephen Fry.

colu m n/ b o ard g ames

Board Game Baptism Winning Together-Cooperative Board Games ‘When demonstrating your intellectual and strategic superiority through solitary victory isn’t as appealing as it should be, take the hands of your compatriots, put aside past grudges and focus on the greater objective: the victory of the team.’

Patrick O’Loughlin

Occasionally in board gaming, demonstrating your intellectual and strategic superiority through solitary victory isn’t as appealing as it should be.

Instead, a desire to take the hands of your compatriots and lead them to a mutual victory becomes increasingly attractive.

This is the beauty of the co-operative game.

A valuable opportunity presents itself for players to put aside past grudges and focus on the greater objective: the victory of the team. Basic mechanics of these games necessitate teamwork and joint decision making to assure a victory is shared between players. Although cooperation remains a basic principle, cooperative board games are greatly varied in how they use cooperative elements. As such, I’ll be touching on a few personal favourites to illustrate this magical diversity, and if any pique your interest, make sure to track them down on BoardGameGeek.com.

revealing an outbreak that very negatively affects players’ global clean up.

Pandemic is a benchmark for what a beginner’s cooperative game should be: simple to learn, engaging to play, whilst frequently presenting players with difficult, meaningful choices. The game requires players to represent government agencies (adopting the roles of scientists, medics and the like) to quell global viral outbreaks.

Players fly these humanitarians around the world map game board, applying actions and playing cards in critical cities, in order to contain horrible diseases (represented as cute, colourful translucent cubes). All the while, cards are drawn that guarantee these diseases spread, with the occasional card

Pandemic can be difficult, but most board games will invariably be difficult at points.

Dice will refuse to display numbers greater than two, or a drawn card will spell doom.

Such situations can be irritating, but they are solvable. In some games, however, these spates of bad luck will take the form of a regular turn. Poorly equipped players might have to combat ferocious bears with a sharp stick, and then suffer through a monsoon the next turn, or debt collectors may potentially beat the players’ characters to a pulp in dark alleys right after catching a disease. Some games are mean.

Despite Pandemic remaining a benchmark for cooperative games, I find it too simplistic and repetitive. Despite this indifference, I picked up the game Pandemic Legacy after its skyrocket to the number one ranked game on BoardGameGeek. And I am so very glad that I did. For me, Pandemic Legacy takes the format of Pandemic and gives me a reason to care about the game world. The same basic mechanics found in Pandemic are used, but it is the injection of narrative that makes this game shine. Opening up sealed compartments in the game box after certain requirements have been met or permanently altering the game board with stickers ensures that one month in the game’s year is never the same as the next.

And there is always the chance that the world can be lost for good.

These scenarios are typical to Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Isle and Eldritch Horror respectively, two prime examples of games that make players suffer (in the best possible way). Robinson Crusoe has players as characters shipwrecked on a desert island and forces them to promptly adapt. These stranded souls are made to explore, build shelter and hunt animals in order to survive, the scenario dictating whether players eventually stumble onto cursed temples, cannibals or underground cities.

Eldritch Horror resembles Pandemic on a very basic level, requiring players to move around a world map and deal with nasty outcomes, but it is a very different beast.

Being based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft ensures that narrative is baked into the game: piles of cards feature little snippets of story depending on where in the world you go exploring, these snippets eventually taking the form of a grim, greater story.

Players are tasked with defeating Ancient Ones, evil gods in Lovecrafts’s mythos, by engaging in encounters, solving mysteries and closing gates that act as conduits to other realms. Time restrictions will often see players rush to solve enough mysteries, only to have bad luck result in monsters jumping out of portals all over the world and your friends having a series of nasty infections. With difficulty comes complexity, and the dense rulebooks of Eldritch Horror and Robinson Crusoe reflect this. These might not be casual games you’d play with your family, but with the right group, they

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present many hours of tough (but always fun) otherworldly scenarios.

In some cooperative board games, the enemy isn’t as obvious as an Ancient One in Eldritch Horror. In these games, one lucky player is permitted to skirt the line between loving friend and total scumbag for a few of hours, wreaking havoc in whatever means available to them. These games use a betrayer mechanic, in which one of the players purposefully sets out to secretly sabotage the rest of the players. It is the duty of the honourable non-betrayer characters to balance weeding out the slimy betrayer and winning the game itself.

Battlestar Galactica and Dead of Winter are two prime examples of games where you can take joy in being mean to your friends in secret.

The Battlestar Galactica board game exemplifies the television show in that one or more of the players is secretly a Cylon, a cybernetic being physically indistinguishable to humans. It is therefore the goal of the Cylon players to destroy the battlecruiser Battlestar Galactica through subterfuge, while simultaneously accusing other players of being the traitor. It is also

possible for Cylons to reveal themselves, which allows for them to do even more horrible things to the poor humans.

Betrayers in Dead of Winter, rather than being evil cybernetic beings, are just terrible people with awful motives. Players leave the warmth and safety of a colony to simultaneously combat zombies and scrounge for useful materials. Each player has a personal objective that is kept secret from other players, and is necessary for a personal win, but it is always the goal of the betrayer to destroy the poor, helpless colony. Once found out, like Battlestar, wicked betrayers can be banished to wander the frozen wastes, battling zombies by themselves until they perish (yay!).

These games understandably aren’t for everyone, though. It’s often a fine balancing act, with the quality of the game often a reflection of how secretly malicious your friends can be. But being a betrayer and witnessing a full table of people glare questioningly at every other player but you is a beautiful thing to experience.

colu m n/ f i l m

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Five-Star Movie Recommendations Natural Born Killers (1994) Art and Words by Rhianna Carr

Mickey and Mallory Knox are natural born killers. Their fictional Bonnie and Clydeesque killing spree across America is chased by the media and romanticised by the public in the film Natural Born Killers. Their violence captures attention, and the media utilise these violent/feared people to gain their own mass exposure and fame. Mickey and Mallory’s violent escapades are shown through many different film styles/genres (in the form of news reports, sitcoms, etc.).

It feels as though the viewer is a participator in how the film is being watched; as the viewer metaphorically channel hops from programme to programme they find violence on every station, from children’s cartoons to the daily news.

One technique that remains constant is the ‘Dutch tilt’ (the tilting of the camera to produce a tilted shot), providing a sense of uneasiness.

Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) Knox begin their violent rampage in an American roadside diner. At every kill site, they leave one person alive to tell the tale of Mickey and Mallory Knox.

They both have a history of violence and were brought up with abusive parents. Mickey meets Mallory for the first time

as a delivery boy delivering to her family home. This scene is introduced as the ‘I Love Mallory’ show (a take on the I Love Lucy show). The threats of violence Mallory experiences from her father (Rodney Dangerfield) are depicted in the same ‘I Love Mallory’ segment, and canned laughter is heard at the end of every violent threat. Mickey takes Mallory away to live a life of bloodshed.

Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.), a character modelled off of Geraldo Rivera (a real-life American media presenter interviewing serial killers and other violent people), follows Mickey and Mallory’s trail and presents it to the viewers in the form of news reports throughout the film. Gale is a stereotypically spineless, attention-seeking media presenter always searching for ‘the next big thing,’ he also happens to have an Australian accent. Mickey and Mallory both find themselves in the state penitentiary, where Warden Dwight McClusky attempts to profit from the killers’ notoriety via Wayne Gale and his sit-down interview with Mickey inside the prison.

Natural Born Killers was shot as a combination of approximately 18 different formats, including: 35mm, 26mm, 8mm, video

tape and super 8; also, black and white and intense coloured lighting is used in various segments throughout the film. The different formats are employed for different reasons, to give the effect of a sitcom, news report, the inner violent emotions of a character, etc.

Natural Born Killers is also comprised of about 25003000 cuts. It is without a doubt a high-octane film. A film that is difficult to look away from for fear of missing something.

Quentin Tarantino (Oscarwinning director) wrote the story for Natural Born Killers.

Tarantino has since disowned the film saying ‘I hate that f*****g movie,’ and ‘If you like my stuff, don’t watch that movie.’ Quentin Tarantino is arguably one of the best directors of our time, and the way in which Oliver Stone directed Natural Born Killers is apparently not to his liking, but a lot can be learnt from the film whether it’s the many ways in which a story can be told or to provide new-take on the obscene nature of the media.

You will have to watch it and decide for yourself.

colu m n/ b o ok re v i e w

How to Set a Fire and Why

by Jesse Ball Kayla Gaskell

With a title sounding like a guidebook to arson, Ball’s most recent book has been one I’ve been eager to read.

Ball was a guest at Adelaide Writers Week last year and after listening to him talk — an engaging speaker with an enticing world view, who wasn’t necessarily PUSHING his books in the same way that others were — I decided I had to buy them all. A poet at heart, he knows the difference between writing for the hell of it and writing with painstaking deliberation.

How to Set a Fire and Why is the third book of his that I’ve read and the best. Being a poet his work uses poetic language to build up not just a beautiful world, but a beautiful page. While some people see literary writers as pretentious, I certainly admire writers who can make just looking at a page, not even reading it, an absolute joy.

The story follows Lucia, an orphan with very little to her name excepting her startling intelligence and a small zippo lighter that once belonged

to her father. She lives with her elderly aunt who is her perfect match, despite the age difference. After an incident involving a boy, a pencil, and her Dad’s zippo, Lucia is forced to change schools. It is at school one day that Lucia overhears some boys talking about the Sonar Club — sonar being an anagram of arson — and decides to investigate. She soon finds herself among arsonists —helping and debating what her own target will be in order to win a place in the exclusive club. In the meantime, she smokes, she drinks, and she steals. She comes off as a bad kid but despite it all, her aunt has impressed on her a strong moral code. Lucia knows where to draw her lines and believes if she’s not hurting anyone is she being all that bad?

If you’re a person who loves having all your questions answered, then you probably won’t like this book. Ball leaves the reader with many unanswered questions — including the big one: did she actually set the fire? For lovers of the written word however this is an engrossing read —I finished it in one sitting. Like

with A Cure for Suicide (2015) Ball makes excellent use of the page — he uses it as a tool for presenting words as visually appealing while telling Lucia’s story. There is nothing more perfect than seeing a page used well.

As Lucia embraces, loses, regains, and further shapes her identity the reader is led to question what is truly right or wrong. She lives in isolation and terror and her need to escape is almost palpable.

When her world is turned upside down what option does Lucia have left but to lash out at someone? If she makes use of her beloved zippo does it make her a terrible person? I’ll leave that one up to the reader to decide.

fe atu re / b o ok re v i e w

47

Bad Feminist

by Roxane Gay Sam Sharplin

“While there is need for feminism to be loud and unapologetic, anger often has an unhelpful, even damaging, effect on the good causes we fight for.”

In a series of essays Roxane Gay, an American-born woman of Haitian descent analyses gender and race in her personal stories and exploration of societal trends. Gay moves quickly between topics, creating a conversational tone in her succinct but thoughtful discussions, which touch on anything from literature genres to the downfall of sport stars, to music, to scrabble. Her chapter on competitive scrabble, with arch nemeses and all, made me want to play scrabble so bad, even though I am terrible at spelling and scrabble is my personal idea of torture.

Many of her essays dissect elements of identity such as gender, race, sexuality, and education. Gay explores the ways that these elements inform your possibilities and treatment in life, how they can tip the scales for or against you in unique ways. She delves into the harsh and horrible reality that parts of your identity make you invisible or sub-human in the eyes of others, and shares deeply personal stories, ranging from her childhood dream to be Miss America to the devastation of surviving sexual abuse. These personal stories sit alongside scathing reflections and examples of larger social trends.

In the section ‘Race and Entertainment’ Gay highlights the mere morsels of black representation in television and movies that are often shallow and riddled with cliques but, for which, the black population is still made to feel grateful. She cites Orange is the New Black as a show widely applauded for having multiple, varied black characters yet the show centres around a privileged white woman; she also recognises the ‘subversive’ OITNB female representation as bittersweet, as you’ll unfortunately only see such a racially diverse cast in a show set in a prison, where many women of colour are portrayed as criminals. Gay concludes, ‘It is bittersweet that something is better than nothing, even if the something we have is hardly anything at all’.

Gay also gives you a devastating reminder that as someone with a uterus, one of your most personal and life changing decisions is subject to legislative change and batted around like political fodder in, ‘The Alienable Rights of Women’.

In her closing chapters Gay identifies herself as a bad feminist, stating her fondness of pink and babies and ignorance

of cars are personal failings as a feminist. Instead she offers a deeply stereotypical idea of a feminist, ‘militant, perfect in their politics and person, manhating and humourless’ as a good feminist. It’s here after over 300 pages of standing confidently on her side that many readers will disagree. In my opinion, the feminists who take the distain and disrespect historically targeted at women and angle it toward men, they are the ones who should be widely regarded as the bad feminists. While there is need for feminism to be loud and unapologetic, anger often has an unhelpful, even damaging, effect on the good causes we fight for. Thankfully Gay acknowledges that this is a deeply stereotypical, and often outward, view of feminists but the fact she poses these women as ‘ideal’ feminists is concerning.

Overall, Bad Feminist provides a thoughtful and critical review on a variety of topics, encouraging all to think a little more deeply about ourselves and the way we experience and reflect on our lives.

colu m n / an i m e

Occultic;Nine Rating: 4.5/5 Shinji-kuns

Words and Art by Emma Hough Hobbs Clearly possessed by a strong passion for the supernatural thriller genre and avantgarde film making (for anime at least), Occultic;Nine summons up a bizarre and beautiful expedition to ‘the other side’.

Occultic;Nine completed its run at the end of 2016 with a dead set 12 episodes.

The show was animated by A-1 Pictures and is their second great thriller show of 2016; the first being Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi. Directed by Kyohei Ishiguro, this show skilfully combines record-breaking fast paced dialogue, a cheeky sense of humour, and demonically good animation with a modern day Japanese setting, my favourite.

Yuta Gamon is a high school shut-in who spends most of his time running an occult blog called “Kiri Kiri Basara”. One day he goes to NEET College to meet Professor Hashigami, an expert occult researcher, with the intention of interviewing him for his blog. However, upon arriving at his office Yuta instead discovers his scalped corpse. Yuta suddenly receives enigmatic instructions from his portable radio, demanding he ransack a mysterious golden key from the body. Since that night Yuta encounters an array of eccentric individuals each somehow connected to the death of the professor. Although the pacing at first is a challenge to keep up with, Occultic;Nine is imbued with just

the right amount of twists, turns and clues to navigate Yuta’s brush against the supernatural.

‘Perfection!’ Is the only word I can use to describe the animation for this show. Even the elements of the show I have personal disagreements with ( i.e. the ridiculous size of a certain characters’ boobs) are animated astoundingly well. The show displays incredibly creative and unique cinematography, which only emphasises the highly aesthetically pleasing character movements, expressions, and designs.

In addition, the various settings and interiors are decadent and overflowing with detail. In fact: the entire anime shows the viewer an amazing dedication to continuity and detail, all the while doing some crazy neat stuff with the line art and style of the show. Everything looks so different to your average black outlines + two toned colour glossy anime, it’s almost like Occultic;Nine has a fresh matte coating instead.

When it comes to ‘wow factors’, the element of this show that really stands out is the brilliant voice acting and line delivery. It’s showcased time and time again; I was filled with incredible delight at the witty dialogue of the show. Yuki Kaji as Yuta Gamon is a match made in heaven and even now I have the character’s voice vividly echoing in my mind. All of the

character’s personalities are perpetuated wonderfully by their voice actors and all the dialogue quirks they display. It reminds me of the quality I expect from the Monogatari series or Dangan Ronpa, which are some of the best when it comes to the characters’ voice designs.

Occultic;Nine is one of those shows where you are going to either love or hate. It takes a bit of work, but if you love anime as a medium and mystery thrillers this is one you cannot miss.

Anime Movie Recommendation XXX Holic: A Midsummer Night’s Dream A movie accompaniment to the 2006 TV anime XXX Holic, this film also works well as a stand-alone. XXX Holic: A Midsummer Night’s Dream sets up a mystery behind an eclectic gathering of collectors, then proceeds to turn into an unfaltering display of animation experimentation and art direction.

Rating: 4/5 Kaworu-kuns