Empire Times 43.5

EMPIRE TIMES YOUR

STUDENT MAG

fifty

43.5

Dungeons & dragons | hail comic | beyonce | cheers flinders independence day

- Editorial -

So, this is it. My final issue.

Halfway through.

Thinking back over the past 11 issues, it’s amazing to think how much has happened. I’ve learned so much, been to so many places (thanks FUSA for the conference travel :D) and met so many amazing people, both here at Flinders and across the country through other student magazines. It’s all been such a whirlwind, it’s very difficult to walk away from. But walk I must. Student mags are meant to be a stepping stone, a training ground for bigger and better things in the real, postuniversity world. With any luck the skills I’ve learned here will take me somewhere with a real income (can you imagine?) doing more of what I love; spending hours tweaking page layouts and turning en dashes into em dashes.

I’m surprised at what challenges I’ve faced and knocked down across this year. It’s been fun, it’s been terrifying, and fuck, I’ve wanted to leave a couple of times.

I couldn’t have lasted as long as I did if it weren’t for an amazing support team.

Thanks Jess and Laura, for being my first team and showing me the ropes. And thanks Liam and Eleanor, for being amazing and impressive from day 1. Thank you to all the FUSA staff, for your humour and support. And finally thank you to Steph Walker, for always being there to answer my various questions day and night, and for being the best darn Media Officer an editor could hope for.

Of course I couldn’t forget to thank you, dear reader. Without you, a magazine is just a bunch of self-indulgent navel-gazing.

You give ET purpose. It never fails to delight me to see people picking up my baby on campus and having a browse. I hope you’ve enjoyed my contribution to your lives as much as I have.

To quote my favourite show, “Take a good look, cos this is the last time” Simone

I write this editorial in the midst of attempting to get my assignment crisis back under control. Added to the mix is that Simone, our most experienced editor, is leaving us. We knew it was going to happen but nonetheless, staring into the next half a year without yet having a confirmed editor is fucking scary.

Of course, by the time you’re reading this, the new editor will be appointed, and we’ll all know it’s [INSERT NAME].

I’ve got to thank Simone for talking me out of leaving previously. It’s an exciting job and one I’ve loved and hated.

Another five issues to go and despite my now firm grounding in issues 1-5, I just know Empire Times will find new ways to surprise me.

It’s been the most intense learning experience ever and just about as anxiety-inducing as anything I could possibly imagine. It’s also done wonders for my coffee addiction as anyone who has seen the coffee tower will agree. I thought I relied heavily on coffee before this mag. Now it’s just ridiculous.

I thought I’d keep with the traditions I seem to have developed with my editorial photos.

As such, here is Merry, after Pippin in issue 3, and Ace in issue 1.

So, anyway, from the past, I hope the future is less stressful for all, with the assignments and exams behind us all... until the next semester, when we started it all over again.

Liam

We’re halfway through the university year, and we’re halfway through the Empire Times year too; 5 issues down, 5 to go.

That’s just scary. Time is going way too quickly. I was due to finish my Undergraduate studies this year, but since I became an editor of ET, I took this year’s study part time — so, I have bought myself another year effectively. After I finish my degree next year, I’m hoping to do Honours...basically, I just don’t want to leave Flinders, and can you blame me??

Flinders is the bomb diggity. It’s my home away from home; everybody says they “live” at Flinders because of all the time they spend here studying or at class, but I actually live on campus at the Flinders Living Deirdre Jordan Village, so the ‘home away from home’ bit is not just an expression for me.

What’s not to love about Flinders? It’s inclusive and offers support to students who need it (see page 7); it has a proud and radical history (see pages 9 and 16); its students are amazingly talented and taking on awesome projects (see pages 20, 23, 28); and these students are creative, dedicated, and curious (see every article and piece of art in this beautiful issue) — Flinders gives these students these opportunities.

Flinders gives students like Simone, Liam and I chances to do what we love and develop experience in the magazine world; and what a journey it has been so far. Like I said in my editorial in Issue 1 all those months ago, it has ‘sometimes been stressful, but always fun’.

Thank you for everything Flinders, and Happy 50th Birthday, you old bag.

Eleanor

TOP PICKS FOR THIS ISSUE

TOP PICKS FOR THIS ISSUE

TOP PICKS FOR THIS ISSUE

p. 12 p. 19 p. 20 p. 46

p. 20 p. 19 p. 10 p. 16

p. 26 p. 15 p. 20 p. 34

Aging Feminism Ask JT Alumni: Sarah Gates, Author Cheers

Alumni: Sarah Gates, Author Ask JT Same Shit. Different Century Women’s Studies 30th Anniversary

Pocketchange Pantry Letter to my 50 year old self (Almost) Alumni: Sarah Gates, Author Poetry: Virgin Whore Dichotomy

1

OH HELLO there.

Vol 43 Issue 5 EDITORS

Simone Corletto Liam McNally Eleanor Danenberg

SUB-EDITORS Anupol Bordoloi Kayla Gaskell Brenton Griffin Jess Miller Patrick O’Loughlin Marithe Solis

COLUMNISTS

Aden Beaver Rhianna Carr Kevin Clark Jordon T. Early Richard Falkner Brenton Griffin Kelly Guthberlet Emma Hough Hobbs Jess Miller Karen Smart Elle Void Amber, the Devil’s Advocate

FIFTY

Empire Times is the student publication of Flinders University. All work within remains the property of the producers and may not be reproduced without their consent. Empire Times reserves the right to republish in any format.

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.

‘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.’

WITH THANKS TO

ILLUSTRATORS

Thank you to our fellow editor, Simone Corletto, who is finishing up after a mighty achievement of 1 year as editor, with 11 beautiful issues under her belt - this one being her last.

CONTRIBUTORS

Thank you for being a wonderful friend and coeditor, for all of your help and wisdom, for all of the laughs and for all of the Star Wars quotes dispersed throughout random conversations. We’ll miss seeing you every day in the office.

Sheydin Dew Benjamin Hall Emma Hough Hobbs Melanie Pal

Jason Byrne Sean Cullen-McAskill Eleanor Danenberg Ira Herbold Jessica Horton Grace Hill J.R Koop Liam McNally Caleb Pattinson Sarah Polanco Lauren Reid Lidya Christin Sinaga Amanda Sloan Ashley Sutherland Liam Thine Leeza Von Alphen Nardy Zanos-Jardine

FRONT COVER

Emma Hough Hobbs

Good luck with the next chapter of your life, and May the Force be with you.

Love, Eleanor & Liam.

Contact us: empire.times@flinders.edu.au www.empiretimes.com.au @empiretimesmag @empiretimesmag

INNER FRONT COVER

Anonymous Flinders student and artist

INNER BACK COVER

/empiretimesmag Empire Times Contributors

BACK COVER

Advertising: stephanie.walker@flinders.edu.au

Emma Hough Hobbs

Melanie Pal

contents.

INTRO 1

EDITORIAL Words from the Editors

5

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS Send us love letters / hate mail

COLUMNS 6 PATTO’S PERSPECTIVE Conversations with Caleb: a message from your SC President 7 SC INTERVIEW Social Activities Officer & Queer Officer 10 POLITICS Same Shit, Different Century: Australia 50 Years Ago 12 DEVIL’S ADVOCATE Aging Feminism 14 INTO THE GENDER VOID Stress Time!

18 TECHNOLOGICA Innovation Nation 19 ASK JT Advice that you should NOT take 32 GET SMART The Nifty Fifty Films to watch in your Uni break 40 WHAT THE FUC Flinders Falcons - Hockey team

FEATURES 8

9

POLITICAL PLAYGROUND How should the new Government reduce the Budget Deficit?

FLINDERS INDEPENDENCE DAY Flinders vs. Adelaide: This time it’s personal

15 A LETTER TO MY 50 YEAR OLD SELF Will Lauren finally have her shit together?

16 WOMEN’S STUDIES 30th ANNIVERSARY Women’s Studies Past and Present at Flinders Uni: Interview 20 EMPIRE TIMES ALUMNI INTERVIEW Sarah Gates, Author 23

FLINDERS TALENT Screen & Media ‘Persona’ Student Exhibition: Interview

26 POCKETCHANGE PANTRY Veggie Loaded Fries 28 FLINDERS TALENT Hail Comic: Interview 30

TURNING THE BIG 5-0 What else is turning 50 this year?

POETRY 34 Virgin Whore Dichotomy 35 Creatively Grounded Flight 36 Forest’s Cacophony 36 To The Moon 36 The Conquerors 37 April #2 37 We Are Humans Without Rights

CULTURE CORNER 42 READERS’ DI-JESS(T) Woman on the Edge of Time 43 LEVEL UP Roll For History 44 FILM REVIEW Wide Open Sky 45 ANIME REVIEW 50 Anime Extravaganza 46 10 TV SHOWS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Cheers 48 MUSIC REVIEW Drake – Beyoncé – James Blake

FUN STUFF 38 CROSSWORD Win free movie tickets!

39

COLOURING PAGE Embrace your inner child

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Flinders University, a golden duck.

Artwork: Sheydin Dew

33

JU ly Monday

Tuesday

wednesday

thursday

Mid-Year Break

4 Mid-Year Break

‘Flinders Evangelical Students’ mid-year conference with Magill and Mawson Lakes Evangelical students.

1

5

‘Flinders Evangelical Students’ mid-year conference with Magill and Mawson Lakes Evangelical students.

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11

friday

6

‘Flinders Evangelical Students’ mid-year conference with Magill and Mawson Lakes Evangelical students.

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‘Flinders Evangelical Students’ mid-year conference with Magill and Mawson Lakes Evangelical students.

saturday 2

ELECTION DAY! (Go and get your democracy sausage)

sunday 3

10

8

9

16

17

23

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‘Flinders Evangelical Students’ mid-year conference with Magill and Mawson Lakes Evangelical students.

13

14

15

20

21

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1907: The first telephone call in Australia was made - between Sydney and Melbourne.

Mid-Year Break

18

Semester 2 Week 1

25

Week 2

19

1848: Women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls begins women’s rights movement in USA.

26

1969: Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon.

27 FLICS - ‘Deadpool’ @Humanities Nth2 5pm

Flinders Medical Students’ Society, (FMSS) - Wright Evan’s Medicine Ball

28

‘S.A Leadership Development Seminar’ event with the Flinders & Adelaide Uni Med societies.

29

30

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The Empire Times The only student mag to make the Kessel run in twelve parsecs.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Dear Editors, Please stop rubbing in how much better Flinders uni is than Adelaide.

An Adelaide Uni Student

Can you recommend a topic for me to do that will satisfy my warped meninist agenda?

19 yo. male Law student What’s the deal with people hating on the hub? It’s pretty.

When are you going to settle on a consistent use of font? There’s too many and it hurts my eyes.

Arial, 12 Why has/did no one kick up a fuss about the ‘show us your assets’ Business pub crawl t-shirt?

Anon

I need more recipes.

I need to know how to make the perfect smoked salmon.

Thanks.

Malcolm T.

Anon

We need it.

Nonplussed Arts Student (We do exist!)

Disillusioned

Cute brunette with the orange jumpsuit and weird arm gadget.

I saw you jump into some sort of portal outside Subway. We exchanged glances momentarily.

I’d love to get to know you better.

M: 05144 898 273 Quack quack, quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack.

Humans suck.

M: 0392 857 395 This joke has been going on for far too long why did I decide this was a good idea?

M: 0492 981 7182 You were wearing a red fez and a snazzy woollen suit, getting into a blue police box. Give me

Somebody

Get off valuable government land so we can sell it for private development because...economy!

Can I vote for Selina Meyer this election? Or at least Julia LouisDreyfus? Please?!?

CONNECTIONS

How are you? You’re doing okay?

Everything alright? Thanks for the sliders and other miscellaneous free food. Eating dinner is always nice. So, cheers ET. Also props for the magazine.

All the best,

Sim1 is a big nerd.

Riana

CLASSIFIEDS WANTED Psychology 1A textbook.

Annotated preferred.

Willing to pay $50-75, but not much more because I moonlight as a box sorter and I have limited career options.

WANTED The last 6 months Seriously, where did they go? How is it already almost July?

Did I trip on the Social Science South stairs and fall into a coma?

I have exams next week and don’t even remember enrolling in half these courses. $150 for anyone with a time machine who can take me back WANTED My housemate is such a pig. I need to move out ASAP. Looking for any other female-identifying students willing to share-house off campus.

FOR SALE 2007 Volkswagon Beetle Blue.

Only 90,000 kms.

I just need the cash for rent.

Slight scratch on rear bumper from that time some jerk hit me in Siberia. $3000 or best offer.

FOR SALE Blonde, 4th year, M, nursing student.

My BF keeps talking about making a “commitment” and honestly I just don’t need that sort of drama right now.

Free to good home.

WANTED The will to finish the semester.

I’ve only got 1 essay left but it’s 5k words and honestly I’m just so done. Why did I ever decide to do Accounting?

TUR

Once ag incomp head as Turnbu having cafe, La Cash w shock. I two for discusti recall o back w the form a pig ba concert Turnbu disgrac David C Thatche Putin, a Trump, children tour of Many s Turnbu to have day bef For an o have so him yet of cash with aro Prince J cartoon

WH

Ipsum D really a guage i coders mers us asked S in this E exclusiv 5

- President’s Report -

FUSA Student President Patto’s Perspective

Caleb Pattinson Flinders was founded in 1966 with a social justice agenda, differentiating itself from the Sandstone University (aka UofA) in the city. A second university put Adelaide on the map in many ways – we became known as an education state. A lot has changed in 50 years in the political and social environment of Australia and society’s perception of higher education in the modern world is often dismissive, considering it wasteful.

Closer to home, we have seen 2016 as a year of remarkable transformation of the campus, both physically and systematically.

The University has launched many projects targeting staff jobs, quality of education, and the esteemed new Strategic Plan. I am fortunate enough to be given a voice on many of these projects, but at times I find a student perspective can fall on deaf ears. It is essential we channel student voices into these processes; student opinions, thoughts, and ideas should be a part of the projects that are seemingly going unnoticed through 2016.

50 years has seen the university sector shift from operating for the common good, vital to economic growth and as such receiving adequate Federal Government funding, to 2016 where it is seen as a commodity that should be deregulated and privatised. This is reflective of a shift in how we as society value our education system. In recent times we have seen vicious attacks on the education sector, including deregulation of fees and privatisation of the HECs system proposed in the 2016 budget, and students have fought back. On a national scale, we have seen thousands of students march to protest against $100,000 degrees. Higher education is essential as a nation moving forward, something to keep in mind as we approach an election. This represents a shift back to students standing up for their beliefs and rights. This is the student body channelling their passion to fight for what universities represented all those years ago.

Previous columns of mine have touched on historical student protests at Flinders. This is something we should all keep in the back on our minds as the university administration continue to manoeuvre the politics to change the structure and support of our degrees. More funding to the higher education sector, fossil fuel divestment, and restructuring of the academic staff force – these are just some of the mountains we need to fight against for a better university. A grassroots approach where students are informed and engaged around these issues is the only way to achieve quantifiable wins.

Flinders has come a long way in 50 years and the next 50 will be very interesting. As education is digitised further, how important will a campus university be? We know that face-to-face learning is remarkably more beneficial than online, but despite this we see universities seeking to remove on-campus contact to maximise their revenue with flipped classroom models that have no embedded thought in them. Make no mistake – this is no academic or staff members’ fault, this is the direction of the administration to teach more content and more students, with less resources and staffing. Online learning can have practical uses, but it needs to be meticulously planned out and resourceheavily.

The next 50 years will arguably define Flinders more than the first 50, as we move to make our mark in an increasingly globalised world.

I am open for all students to contact me: E: student.president@flinders.edu.au P: 8201 3621 F: www.facebook.com/PresidentPattinson

- Student Council Interviews -

Social Activities Officer Why did you run for your position on Student Council?

As cliché as this sounds, I ran for my position because I want to make student life as enjoyable as possible. The past year at uni has been very stressful and overwhelming and I personally have experienced a lot of anxiety and depression.

This is why I am a firm believer of a balanced life with both study/work and fun.

What do you want to achieve this year with your position on Student Council?

In my position as Social Activities Officer, I am excited to be creating different events that all students will enjoy.

There is a diverse student body; students of different ages with different life circumstances, and I love seeing that they enjoy the events we organise! It’s honestly such an amazing feeling when you see students having fun after long stressful periods in their lives.

Tell us what you’re organising or contributing to right now, in the capacity of your position?

At the moment I have a few projects that are in the works. In April, we had the first FUSA pub crawl for 2016, ‘Celebrating 50 Years of Avoiding Achievement’, which was AMAZING!

Sarah Polanco Find on Facebook: FUSA Social Activities Collective

In the month of May we organised a FUSA Film Festival showing Disney movies in different areas of different campuses. I am also working on organising a band night (yay!), and the next FUSA pub crawl for semester 2.

So, super exciting times ahead!

Queer Officer Why did you run for your position on Student Council?

I ran for the position because standing up for LGBTQIA rights is very important to me. I’ve been at Flinders for a year and a half now and during my first year, I was really disappointed in the lack of Queer Society related events. So, I ran for the Queer Officer position in hope to build upon and improve the Queer Society.

What do you want to achieve this year with your position on Student Council?

As said above, my main goal is to create a recognised queer society on campus. I’ll aim to achieve this through running events in the Queer Space, located near FUSA in the Hub, and other events for queer students around campus. On the 17th of May I ran my largest event so far; it was for IDAHOT 2016 which is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. There were free cupcakes and a free BBQ, along with a live musical performance and a speech about the Safe Schools Coalition. I believe this was an informative day for most students, and other students that use the Queer Space were able to shed light on why this event was important to us.

Tell us what you’re organising or contributing to right now, in the capacity of your position?

At the moment I am working on making the Queer Space a safe place and making the room itself more community friendly. I will be putting some monthly events in place that will easily run themselves and be a great way for queer students to get to know one another.

Nardy Zanos-Jardine Find on Facebook: FUSA Queer Collective,

Flinders University Queer Society

7

POLitical PLAYGROUND What should a government elected this July do to reduce the budget deficit?

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE The hype about balancing the budget is just the latest way the Liberals have found to justify cuts for the poor and handouts for the rich. That the ALP are buying into this nonsense rhetoric is par for their pathetic course.

That said, if there was any genuine concern about reducing the budget deficit, there are some easy savings which could be made.

We could save literally hundreds of millions of dollars by cancelling Australia’s military interventions in Afghanistan and Syria.

We could cave upwards of $700 million in scrapping the increases in money allocated for domestic spying operations. Reclaim the $883 million the tax office paid Murdoch in 2013 (Murdoch doesn’t pay the ATO, the ATO pays Murdoch). Make the top 200 richest companies actually pay a tax rate of 30%—$8.4 billion right there. Cancel the over $1 billion in subsidies for elite private schools. Save another billion by cracking down on corporate tax avoidance. Scrap the liberals plans for extra tax cuts to the rich in this latest budget. Scrap Operation Resolute – that way we could spend the $20 million allocated to abusing refugees and stealing resources from small nations on something halfway useful. Also let’s not allocate an extra $700 million in this latest budget to bombing the countries these refugees are fleeing from, and while we’re at it, let’s not spend $50 billion on submarines.

Submarines for what purpose? To defend against who?

The Greens It’s not just whether the budget is in deficit or surplus that matters, it’s the sustainability and justification for the budget position. With the mining investment boom years receding, it’s time to transition to the new, clean economy, to generate sustainable jobs and income for the future.

Instead of having public money tied up in unproductive areas, like unfair tax breaks or inflating the real estate market, money should be put to work funding infrastructure and productive capital such as public transport, renewable energy and getting freight on to rail. The Greens want to see growth targets for key sectors of the new economy, including advanced manufacturing, education and services, tourism, agriculture, and clean energy, such as our target for 90% renewable energy by 2030. As a guiding principle, as we undergo economic transition, any deficits should be kept to around 3% GDP. Governments must recognise that it’s not enough to focus on growing GDP alone; it’s an inadequate measure of prosperity, which ignores many of the things that matter, like how healthy and happy people are, whether we’re creating sustainable jobs and whether we’ve got climate change under control. The Greens aim to decouple growth from pollution and resource use, and continue to push for a better way of measuring the country’s wellbeing rather than a narrow focus on GDP.

The Greens would see revenue raised to around 26% of GDP, the same as under John Howard, so that we can grow the new The whinging from the LNP and the wealthy economy and make sure that everyone has about debt is hollow. What they mean is this: access to quality health, education, and public ‘we want to use debt as a rationale to steal services. We can do this through reforming money from workers, make it into a big pile, unfair tax breaks that harm the environment, and roll around in it like the pigs we are.’ such as the diesel fuel rebate for miners, or those which increase inequality, such as Grace Hill superannuation tax concessions, capital gains tax concessions, and negative gearing for new properties. At the same time, The Greens oppose the new taxes suggested by the Turnbull government that increase inequality, like lifting the GST, and instead support new taxes on environmental harms, such as carbon pollution, and new taxes that tackle inequality, like a new marginal tax rate for millionaires.

THE LIBERALS and LABOR LEFT did not submit.

Regardless of who forms government after July 2, now is the time to change our budget position by taking advantage of this historic opportunity and make the investments that will make us a renewable energy superpower through the construction of clean, productive infrastructure.

Sean Cullen-McAsskill

LABOR RIGHT Under a Labor Government, Australia survived the GFC of 2008 and stood strong as the only developed nation to maintain its’ AAA credit rating, managing to ride out the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. Stimulus packages were used to promote consumer spending, but that also meant that the budget took a big hit. Like a mortgage, public spending can be managed if done responsibly and counteracted through targeted budget saving measures.

Firstly, Negative Gearing should be reined in and returned to its’ original purpose. It is currently abused by the big end of town and costs the economy inordinate amounts rather than encouraging real investment in the property market. Allowing a few Australians to hoard property and write their tax off to almost zero will only continue to create a growing leak in the economy.

Collecting fair amounts of tax from MultiNationals is also a key part of what must be done to repair the budget. Currently some of Australia’s most profitable corporations hide their tax away in order to not pay their fair share of tax. This cannot be allowed to continue and any responsible government should take steps to fixing it.

In the short term, continuing the deficit levy will allow any government the chance to repair the budget without slashing vital social services. This is not a long-term solution but will allow for considerable repair to be done to the budget while the government investigates alternative budget savings.

Repairing the budget isn’t just about raising taxes. Whoever the next government is, they must invest in education programs aimed at getting lower income earners in a position to earn a higher wage and promote spending.

Social mobility is an important aspect of Australian society and it can contribute to repairing the budget.

Whatever outcome July 2nd brings, the budget can be repaired through responsible tax and savings aimed at making our economy more sustainable and resilient for the 21st Century.

Jason Byrne

INDEPENDENCE DAY A LOST FLINDERS TRADITION

Top: Flinders University, 1966 Bottom: University of Adelaide, 1930 Independence Day is a lost tradition of Flinders University. First celebrated in 1967 to mark the University’s first anniversary of independence from Adelaide University, it was characterised by pranks and other less ‘academic’ activities.

The unveiling of the less than official ‘Sir Lavatory Bonython’ fountain in the old plaza marked the first Independence Day. The tradition continued for quite some time and developed into a major part of the campus culture of the university.

It was not long after this that a ‘racy, argumentative, politically radical, often crude and obscene’ magazine called Empire Times was established and complimented this culture.

storied history for the campus’s culture. Veterans of the events of the many Independence Days throughout the duration of Flinders’ existence can regale you with tales of Sir Lavatory Bonython, of launching an assault on the University of Adelaide campus and declaring it ‘Flinders North Campus’, or of many of the other events staged at various points throughout the existence of Independence Day as a university tradition. Some of the events staged during this time were arguably a little too far, and almost certainly would be less acceptable and more harshly punished these days. However, if nothing else, Independence Day remains a fond memory to those who experienced it, and a cultural curiosity to be sought out for those who did not. It is this kind of tradition that furnishes a university (or any institution) with a long-standing culture.

Held on July 1st, Independence Day falls conveniently close to its far more famous and established namesake of the United States’ own event. Of course, Flinders has historically blown the US out of the water with fun and peculiar ways being found to celebrate our own independence that have gone so far as to stage an invasion of Adelaide University led by water gun-wielding Flinders students. Having never staged a return invasion of the United Kingdom, it’s clear the US really doesn’t have its heart in the game and can’t compete with the ingenuity and daring style of Flinders students’ commitment. Until Barack Obama storms the Houses of Parliament in London, water-pistol in hand, Flinders will remain the victor in this line-up.

With the 50th anniversary Independence Day in the immediate future, it’s something of a loss of culture to not have another lined up. That is not to say that the culture of Flinders students rejoicing in making striking declarations of their independence is gone.

Earlier this year, a ‘meme war’ developed between the members of both ‘Overheard at University of Adelaide’, and ‘Overheard at Flinders University’ (later ‘Overheard at Flinder’ – don’t ask). The tradition of the Flinders Independence Day may well have passed but still that same culture remains and continues to produce that same friendly(ish) rivalry.

This Flinders-brand version of ‘muck-up day’ provided a number of interesting memories for those involved and helped to establish a

When he’s fifty years old, Liam would like to have dogs, cats, and published novels.

AUTHOR Liam McNally, 23, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

9

Same Shit, Different Century - Politics -

Australia 50 Years Ago

It’s painstakingly evident that we are dealing with the same stuff we’ve been dealing with for a long time: it’s time to be better, people.

Isn’t it funny how we like to imagine ourselves as better to the generations that preceded us in terms of political and social development? We have this snobiness and arrogance when examining those of the past. We wonder how and why they did so many of the things they did. We look at society now and thank all that is good and holy that we are not like them, that we have evolved.

Unfortunately, however, this superiority complex is severely misplaced. Sure, we usually do a few things better than those living decades ago, but it takes human beings a long time to actually figure our shit out. As such, the political landscape of Australia in 1966 was starkly, and almost dishearteningly, similar to right now. On the other hand, there were major historically and politically significant events that took place in the year this university came into existence.

For one, Victoria finally abolished the 6 o’clock closing time for hotels and pubs. This law had been implemented as a necessary wartime policy, but had carried on, despite major opposition.

The defeat of this law was a major win, and eventually led to the decimating of the infamous ‘Six O’Clock Swill.’ Basically, this was the term for when men would go straight from work to the pub, drink as much as they possibly could in an hour, and then go home.

What resulted was a pandemic of drink-driving accidents, acts of domestic violence, and cases of alcoholism. The crusade to end the six o’clock closing time was predominantly led by the women who had endured these horrors. Unsurprisingly, they would rather

their husbands’ stay at the pub until they were passed out from inebriation, rather than come home and put themselves and their children in danger. What a swell system the government had in place. And it only took twenty years of campaigning to get rid of.

Furthermore, the famous Wave Hill Walk-Off occurred. Paul Kelly sings about it much better than I could ever write it, but two hundred Gurindji workers in the Northern Territory literally up and left the Wave Hill State in which they were working and refused to return until their demands were met. The basis of this strike were the living conditions in which the Gurindji stockman were subject to. They were forced to live in tin huts, had no electricity, running water, or floors. They were horrifically underpaid, even under the racist laws that put a cap on the wages Aboriginal workers could earn. Of the meagre wage they did receive, most of it was handled and controlled by the Vestey Company. This is in comparison to the white stockman who were paid handsomely and had houses supplied by the company, complete with servants and luscious gardens. Gardens. In the middle of the fucking desert.

Soon after the workers left, the whole cattle station ground to a halt. The Northern Territory Government attempted to obstruct food and supplies reaching these people, hoping to starve the strikers out. They still didn’t budge. In desperation, the managers of the station promised a 125% wage increase, as well as offers to build houses for any who came back to work. Their response?

That they wanted the same wage and privileges as the white workers, as well as to have their illegally acquired land returned to them. When this didn’t happen, the workers refused to return.

This act of defiance, which began as a strike against horrid working conditions, transformed into a Land Rights Movement that had massive ramifications in the coming years. Although the strike lasted for over eight years, part of the land owned by the Vesteys was handed back to the Gurindji people. This was a

- Politics -

landmark event, and helped set the public sentiment for the 1967 Referendum.

Also in 1966, the leader of the Labour Party, Arthur Calwell, was nearly assassinated by the 19 year-old Peter Kocan. Kocan, who was inspired by the shootings of John F. Kennedy, Hendrik Verwoerd, and Malcolm X, claimed that he did not want to live and die ‘a nobody’ and so decided to assassinate a politician - as you do when trying to reach stardom. The same man is now an awardwinning poet and author, after discovering literature in prison.

Because why not?

Another incident that ruffled feathers of the time was the forced induction into the army of Australia’s first ‘conscientious objector’ to the Vietnam War, a school teacher, William White. When White defied a notice to report to the Army, he was removed from his classroom and ordered to go to an army induction centre. He refused, remained in his home, and awaited the government to make the next move. After several days, police came and forcefully removed White from his home. The photo of him being forcefully removed from his home by three policemen became synonymous with the anti-conscription movement in Australia.

Thus was Flinders born into the politically tumultuous year of 1966.

And here we are, fifty years later, seemingly dealing with similar issues in politics and society.

Now, fifty years later, we are still struggling with so many of the same cultural, social and political struggles that existed in the past.

Domestic violence is finally being more thoroughly addressed, but it is still horrifically rampant throughout the nation. Some of the most current statistics state that 1 in 3 women experience physical violence, and 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence after the age of 15.

At this time, there is a great debate raging about the upcoming referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians as the first peoples of this country, as well as to remove the batshit crazy racist stuff in our constitution. This has generated much angst from many within

Aboriginal communities who fear that recognition is merely a distraction from the real issues, and that treaties would be a better, more appropriate response. As of right now, Australia is the only Commonwealth Nation in the world not to have a treaty with the nation’s original inhabitants. However, Victoria is the only state so far to have entered into negotiations about treaties. While progress may have been made, we’ve still got a lot of issues in regards to land rights and treatment of Aboriginal people.

Whilst we don’t have people attempting to kill our politicians right now (that we know of), that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t crossed people’s minds at some point recently, especially after some of the more ludicrous statements from our wonderfully awful political representatives. Our Minister of Immigration puzzlingly stated that refugees are simultaneously illiterate, yet cunning enough to steal our jobs, and our deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has famously made an enemy of Johnny Depp, who referred to Joyce as looking ‘somehow inbred with a tomato’.

Oh, how our politicians make us proud.

We still have conscientious objectors to some of the nation’s current policies, ranging from treatment of refugees, to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, to industrialised mining that is ruining the environment, to Mike Baird and his draconian-esque measures to ensure his power goes unchallenged. There are still people who fight against these injustices, often getting into trouble when they do so.

Overall, we still have a hell of a long way to go. Fingers crossed we’re done with this shit by the centenary celebrations.

AUTHOR Brenton Griffin, 22, Bachelor of Arts (History)

By the time Brenton is fifty, he wants to have proven that you can get a job with an Arts Degree.

11 10

- Devil’s Advocate -

Aging Feminism?

Is pop modern feminism ageist?

This year commemorates Flinders University’s 50th anniversary, as well as the Flinders Women’s Studies Department’s 30th birthday; Congratulations! However, while it may be important for universities and departments to weather through difficult times, I find it odd that biological aging is seen as tantamount to necrosis, rather than as an opportunity to refine oneself. To illustrate my point, recent discussions surrounding the current political climate have highlighted how negative gearing is widening a generational gap between Baby Boomers and Gen Y. A recurring trend I’ve noticed among articles penned by members of Gen Y is a propensity to personally blame all Baby Boomers for the current state of things. Arguably, maybe the authors are using this “all eggs in one basket” technique to illustrate their point.

However, it makes me wonder to what extent their dissatisfaction is tied to the situation; or whether it’s not just a pointed blame shifting in response to the pervasive views of younger generations by older generations? Keeping this perspective in mind, it’s not uncommon to see women outside of their 20’s (Baby Boomers and so on) to be “omitted” from modern feminist discussions.

While these omissions may be unintentional or covert, their impacts affect aging individuals who are navigating the new structural changes of modern feminism. This is not the only exclusion the aging feminist-inclined are facing. For many, feminism is the social giant that has challenged patriarchal systems of repression; to be “thrown out” of feminism is synonymous with being thrown into this patriarchal system.

- Devil’s Advocate -

“In my opinion, the overarching purpose of feminism should be inclusivity. It is an aspect of feminism which has too long kept us divided. How are we as feminists being inclusive when one of the largest components of our group is being actively disengaged with?”

Now for those of you who think you’ll be 20 forever, aging kind of creeps up on you (in the way that you are aging constantly, obviously). It’s not a sudden shift from being 15 one day, then 50 the next. Aging, just like everything, is a gradual progression.

However, it seems that this isn’t the way the “great and mighty Hollywood” sees it. Now, I’m sure many of you have seen the tropes in rom-coms where a woman will have an existential crisis every time she finds a new wrinkle in the mirror. Living with this assumption that aging is an illness is downright terrifying when you buy in to this ageist trope.

Back when this article was being written, a friend suggested I watch Amy Schumer’s ‘Last F#ckable Day’ sketch, as it may be relevant to what I was planning to write about. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a very witty sketch where Schumer stumbles across a soirée of “aging” actresses in the woods who’re celebrating their colleague’s “last f#ckable day”. The actresses go on to explain to Schumer that in Hollywood, when an actress reaches a certain age they’re no longer seen as sexually attractive, as such their entire acting career shifts; this is by no means a new discovery. This theme was also explored 20 years ago in the film, The First Wives Club; Goldie Hawn is an aging actress and tells her friends, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, ‘There are only three ages for women in Hollywood; babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy’. Schumer’s whole sketch is very tongue in check, and a little crass at moments, but I won’t hold that against it. For those who haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it, as I feel it raises a really important issue - it’s also good for a laugh.

For those of you who may not have noticed, there is a very strong emphasis on sexual consumption within western society (I’ve touched on this in my last article, about Kim Kardashian’s nude selfies on social media and the male gaze in pop culture). It’s in our media, our actions; it’s even within the core of sanctioned archetypal expressions of femininity within this culture.

Youthfulness is strongly tied to this epitome of femininity, creating the goal of exuding an infantile sexuality (see 90% of makeup, perfume and clothing adverts). Expressing this form of femininity puts you in high regard within this male dominated patriarchal social system; this pervasive feminine archetype allows those who conform to gain greater rewards than those who do not.

As such, those who do not conform are often ridiculed, socially isolated and are generally treated as lesser individuals. If you can see where I’m going with this, when you “hit a certain point”, aging women are seen as less useful within this system. As such, there is an increasing aging generation (who are full of experience, mind you) who are being excluded from both feminism and the patriarchal systems they may have once been a part of.

Engaging with aging populations within society is an important step which should be considered when newer generations take action in the future. Aging populations have key insight into theoretical ideas created within their generation; as such they can provide assistance in shaping future theoretical exploration.

There are opportunities to revisit their pasts; opportunities to receive oral history reports, shaping our understanding of

historical events, and not just relying on reports from the media (again, particular types of information may have been omitted).

These first-hand memories provide a person-centred focus to these historical events, which can reshape the national history we remember today and in the future. Not only does this benefit those who will use the information to implement change, it also assists the members of the aging generation.

Recent studies have been investigating what impact sexualised images in the media have on rural Australian women; findings show these sexualised images increased the sadness, isolation, envy, desensitisation, and marginalisation felt by participants.

These are only the emotional impacts. Psychologically speaking, a decreased sense of self can further damage people by contributing to depression and anxiety, which can lead to numbness and social isolation, which in turn impacts the individual’s desire to socially interact and (potentially) care for themselves. Now, that may seem like a pretty decent stretch regarding the long term effects that depression can have on people, however combine that with social isolation (either due to having a small support network or exclusion from a sexual/ youthful archetypal image of woman/femininity) and you’re probably not too far from the truth of it.

In my opinion, the overarching purpose of feminism should be inclusivity. It is an aspect of feminism which has too long kept us divided. How are we as feminists being inclusive when one of the largest components of our group is being actively disengaged with? Statistically speaking, aging women are living significantly longer than men; this is showing an increasing aged female population, whose resourcefulness is often overlooked.

Intersectionality and a critical mind towards these pervasive social ideals of femininity and usefulness are important to consider when making active change for our future. So why don’t we celebrate all individuals the way we celebrate universities aging?

When was the last time you saw a feminist Tumblr post penned by someone over the age of say, 40? Someone who didn’t have either bleached blond or brightly coloured hair (or some part of their head shaved) with that youthful power-glow; or someone who has wrinkles and a tired expression from chasing three kids around all day?

I for one haven’t seen much inclusivity of people who don’t fit a certain feminist-chic in modern socially-generated feminist discourse. In university halls and lecture theatres, to be sure - but what about out in the “real world”? I can’t help but feel that a movement dedicated to inclusivity and the deconstruction of the importance of the “visually pleasing” has some issues with sharing the spotlight with individuals whose opinions and perspectives may be equally valid and insightful unless they conform to a different “acceptable visibility”.

AUTHOR Amber, 23, Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences (Psychology)

By the age of fifty Amber would like to be living in Northern NSW with 3 Iguanas, 2 Rottweilers and a booming succulent garden.

13

INTO

THE

GENDER

VOID -Stress TIME!-

It’s coming up to the middle of the year, and as of writing we’re headed into the final weeks of the semester. And like many other people, I’m beginning to stress out. I’ve got several subjects that have essays and reports due, I’ve got an exam I have to prepare for, and I’ve got a practical assignment I need to brush my skills up for. University is hard and for those of you struggling, you’re doing great.

Having lectures recorded and available online is one of my biggest lifesavers. Attending in person gives you a lot of benefits, but it might just be that you can’t make it out of your house sometimes, or even out of bed on a bad day. I take notes the same way I would if I had attended the lecture in person, though I can’t pause a live lecture (maybe you’ve got magic time powers and can do it yourself though!) Lectures should contain all the most important information you’re going to need for that unit, so they’re the best place to return to when you want to study up for your assignments. Detailed notes are some of the most invaluable preparations for a major essay or exam revision.

Maybe you’re struggling to meet submission dates. Most tutors and lecturers will be accommodating if you email in advance asking for a few days to finish after the deadline (remember they are people too and you’re probably not the only person wanting an extension).

Ask for reasonable time frames and try to stick to them, and keep in contact with whoever will be marking, renegotiate extensions if you need. If you’re got an access plan (like me!) remember to tell the person from whom you want an extension.

On the note of access plans, I think it’s important to explain what they are. An access plan is something you have worked out with the disability co-ordinator to give you reasonable opportunities to get your assignments in. I’ve had one almost since starting uni and it’s been invaluable in allowing me to work on assignments without getting overly stressed about deadlines I might not otherwise make.

It’s extremely important to do your best to keep up with work throughout the semester. I can’t say that I’m not guilty of falling behind on stuff. I usually need to use the mid-semester break to catch up. Lectures are great for most of the information you’ll need to graduate, but readings are assigned for a reason. There is much more information for every single degree available than lecturers can fit into a weekly lecture, and keeping up with the readings makes understanding the lectures easier. If you’re up for it, remember the optional readings as well, they’re usually not critical to passing, but if they weren’t helpful then they probably wouldn’t be included.

Exams are understandably the most stressful part of studying for a lot of people. A time limited assessment of the knowledge you’ve learnt over the semester, without the help of instant feedback. Last semester I had to write a dozen short essays about things that I was supposed to have covered over the last semester and I could only recognise half. I wrote what I thought everything was and ended up being right about most of it, but I didn’t know I’d been mostly right until weeks afterwards and I was pretty worried about what I’d written, right up until finding out my grade.

AUTHOR Elle Void, 24, Bachelor of Social Work

Before Elle turns fifty, she wants to turn forty-nine.

Everyone attends university for different reasons, and everyone who attends university has different experiences. If you’re coming back to university in semester 2 I hope you’re coping with your workload and I hope you’re going to try to keep up to date with your lectures and readings. If you’ve chosen not to continue with university in semester 2 I hope you’re doing okay and I hope you’re looking forward to the things other than uni you’re going to do. If you’re not returning in semester 2 because you’ve graduated I hate you and I can’t wait to be you but I hope you’re looking forward to your future.

ALettertoMy50-Year-OldSelf

Surely by the time she hits her half-century, Lauren will have it together?

Dear 50-year-old me, Hey there, ol’ pal. How are things in 2044? What are you up to right now?

You know, when your parents and grandparents turned 50, they started thinking about their retirement and planning out how they were going to ease out of the workplace over the next decade or so. But the way things are looking here in 2016, chances are you’ll be more likely to be going back to do some more study to prepare for another career change than thinking about retiring. Because nothing says social progress like working until you die.

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That is unless, of course, all those pieces of cake I’ve been eating and all the exercise I haven’t been doing miraculously go on to make you a really fit 50 year-old who wants to keep working until she carks it. I’m not sorry about the cake, by the way. It’s taken me a long time to not be scared to eat things that Lorna Jane and ‘I Quit Sugar’ Queen Sarah Wilson would turn their noses up at, so I’m going to keep it up – but not enough for you to get diabetes, because you’ve got to keep working.

Speaking of health, have you finally sorted out your eczema, babe? That one’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it? I’m working on it, or trying to at least. Some of the blogs reckon it’s brought on by too much dairy/gluten/ sugar/food with taste, but my doctor just reckons I’m stuck with it forever.

Are there still lifestyle zealots around the place, by the way? What are they spruiking in 2044? Are you all out doing DIY blood transfusions to ‘cleanse yourself’, or has common sense finally prevailed? God, I hope no one is buying into that crap anymore. Please tell me you’re not buying into it and are just going to a decent GP and a really good gynaecologist instead.

I suppose I’m also wondering whether you’ve managed to sort yourself out on the love front, too. Sorry I’m taking my time at the moment, but I’m working on the theory that knowing myself really well and becoming a capable, interesting human being will make me a better and more appealing partner. That’s what all my smug couple friends say to me in their soft, patronising voices anyway. If you haven’t found anyone to settle with, I won’t be pissed off. I’ll probably be a little disappointed, but I understand. I hope you’ve had a hoot filling up your life with interesting adventures in the meantime and not sitting there sooking. I can be a bit of a sook.

At the moment I’m sooking a bit about my job prospects. I love the arts and publishing and all these fields that are apparently dead or, at the very least on life support. Have you gone into teaching yet? Or is that what you’re retraining for at the moment? With two teacher parents it’s bound to happen at some point. Or maybe that movie that the psychic told you you were meant to write took off and you’re living off the royalties from when they play it as the lunchtime movie on Channel Seven or each time someone streams it on Netflix. Probably less likely, granted, but the psychic lady was pretty convincing. She had a lot of faith in you.

Have you found some faith in yourself? I haven’t quite got that sorted yet. I don’t have faith in myself, but I do have faith in you. And I’m doing (almost) everything I can to get you there.

Happy half-tonne, darl. Thinking of you.

Love, me x

AUTHOR Lauren Reid, 21, Arts High Achievers (Drama and History)

By the time she’s fifty, Lauren would just like to be living a full but quiet life, probably in the suburbs with a fluffy poodle

1515

- Features -

Celebrating 30 years of Women’s Studies at Flinders

It is the year of celebration here at Flinders, with our lovely new Hub opening, and the 50th anniversary of the university, of course. While 2016 marks the grand jubilee of Flinders University, it is also the 30th anniversary of one of the university’s most subversive and brave areas; Women’s Studies.

Women’s Studies was introduced as an independent and autonomous department in the faculty of Social Sciences in 1986, and teaching began the next year.

Women’s Studies at Flinders began as volunteer-run, community based classes and discussions between Flinders students and non-students. Then, it progressed to a small unit offered as part of Philosophy. Both lack of funding and ideological differences took their toll in the early 80s; the full time Women’s Studies tutor position was lost, teaching was done by hourly, low-paid casual tutors who also put in hours of unpaid labor, and volunteer lecturers from other departments as well as from Adelaide Uni. It wasn’t looking good for Women’s Studies at Flinders.

The threat to withdraw the Women’s Studies classes lead to the famous ‘Wearing of the Brown Paper Bags’ protest, a day on campus where women wore brown paper bags over their heads to signify their invisibility as people, their lack of voice and input, and an absence of gender analysis across the University curriculum. There was also a public demonstration on Parliament steps and a petition delivered to University Council with over 1000 signatures.

Once Women’s Studies became a department, staff and students could present feminist perspectives on a range of matters in which the university needed to develop policies, such as equal employment opportunities, sexual harassment, non-sexist language, and research mentoring for women.

By 1990, this new department had set up the development of Women’s Studies topics for Undergraduate study, Honours, Postgraduate studies, a commitment to Foundation Studies, a coursework Masters degree, and a Postgraduate research program.

the university, this was still not the smoothest of starts; the university’s Academic Committee refused to provide an establishment grant, which was usually standard practice for a new program. Without this grant, new journals for the library could not be purchased. Fortunately, a generous donation from the budget of the Head of the School, Elaine Martin, changed this.

For the first few years, Women’s Studies staff member, Secretary Mrs Pat Huxtable shared an office with Economics staff, as was kindly offered by the Professor of Economic History, Jonathon Pincus. The sign on their shared office door was originally ‘Economic History and Women’s Studies’ but occasionally it was changed due to strangers’ pranks – once to ‘Domestic Economics’ and another time, to ‘Household Management’. This indicated hostility, and resistance to women and Women’s Studies becoming integral and academic parts of the University.

However, the fight was worth it; Flinders University students made it clear that they wanted, and needed, a Women’s Studies department - and they still do.

To say that Women’s Studies has a radical, dynamic, and proud history would be an understatement. To celebrate this milestone birthday, I interviewed two important figures in Flinders Women’s Studies today, to chat about their experiences, and the future of Women’s Studies here at Flinders University.

Tova Rozengarten, PhD Candidate.

Tova is in her second year of a PhD in Women’s Studies, following on from doing Honours in Women’s Studies as part of a Bachelor of Arts. Her Honours was in feminist disability studies, sex work and disability, and now she is focusing on the intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality in film.

Women’s Studies built a proud and inclusive history; in 1989, the first 2 students to graduate in Women’s Studies Honours were Jackie Huggins, an Aboriginal woman of the Bidjara and BirriGubba Juru people, and Audrey Nicholson, a migrant, working class, mature-age student, and mother.

I started with a seemingly easy question; I asked Tova what Women’s Studies means to her. She replied, ‘For me, Women’s Studies is a highly political subject that looks at tackling issues of privilege that’s surrounding specific groups having power because they’ve got a particular type of body; they’ve got power because they’re male, or they’ve got power because they’re able-bodied, or power because they’re white, and looking at how those sorts of bodily things gives them such special privilege automatically. And because of that, other groups who don’t fit in to those particular body types are disadvantaged and marginalised.’

While making progress and breaking down boundaries across

‘For me, Women’s Studies is about looking at how power works,

- Features -

and how it is that these particular systems come in place, and how we can disrupt them and subvert them…it is about fighting power, making these systems more obvious to us all.’

‘For quite a long time, feminism has overlooked disabilities.’ Tova tells me, but it’s looking up; the tide is turning for Women’s Studies at Flinders Uni. When Tova first came to University, she studied Rehabilitation and Disability at Sturt campus, as a pathway from Tafe. ‘The only way you could study disability at university was very much in a very rehabilitation context, so a medical approach, and I’ve always felt more strongly about the social model of disability, which sees how social systems produce disability, disablement; more fundamentally I’m interested in how attitudes are shaped. There really wasn’t anywhere to study that, and there still isn’t; feminist disability studies is still fairly new, and more popular in the United States. There isn’t really somewhere specific to study what I want to study here at Flinders…this is the thing about Women’s Studies, it lets you make those sorts of spaces, because it’s interested in identity politics and it’s interested in those kinds of privilege ideals (of which bodies have privilege and why) - it was the perfect place.’

‘I feel really positive, because they do let you be the change you want to see in the world; Women’s Studies here at Flinders gives you that opportunity, if you want to work hard towards it, they’re not going to close the door on you.’

Tova was asked to do a guest lecture for the first year, introductory Women’s Studies topic, ‘Sex, Gender and Identities in Australia’ about disability, introducing these budding Women’s Studies students to this very significant aspect of intersectional feminism. As a disabled woman, Tova knows how important this type of education and cooperation is among disabled and ablebodied women. ‘A lot of women with disabilities are busy fighting for some very basic, fundamental, living conditions, like the ability to get someone to come and help you get showered and dressed in the morning, they’re fighting for that, and they’re fighting for employment. By the time it comes around to fighting about issues surrounding gender and sexuality, how much energy does a person have left? So the thing is, we need able-bodied women to stand up and say something too, we need them backing the fight.’

At the Women’s Studies 30th Birthday celebrations at Flinders Victoria Square, Tova was asked to make a speech, where she opened up about the inclusive, supportive nature the Women’s Studies department, and what it has done for her; ‘I’ve found a place to belong; a space where the staff and the students have made me feel like I matter. It gives me a home. It’s changed my life. I’ve been in other learning spaces in my life where I certainly haven’t had that feeling. There are still places here at Flinders where someone with my particular identity [as a queer, disabled woman] doesn’t feel a belonging.’

I ask Tova about the future, the next 30 years of Women’s Studies at Flinders, and what she would like to see happen. She replies, ‘Bring in feminist disability studies, open it up to a broader range of body politics that we’re capable of doing. Let’s not wait another 30 years, let’s do it now. Let’s look back in 10 years and realise we’re pioneers, let’s be cutting edge. If I could have my dream, it would be to teach feminist disability studies right here at Flinders.’

Feminist disability studies would be a fantastic and important addition to the Women’s Studies curriculum, and if it could be run by disabled women telling their own stories from their experiences, that would be even better. Tova tells me, ‘Something that able-bodied people do, they tend to think that having a disability is something really tragic, and that it’s something to be pitied. It’s not! In and of itself, it’s just another body type. But

what is tragic is ableism, and having to live with other people’s attitudes. When people ask me if I suffer from my impairment - “No, not so much, sometimes it’s painful, but on the whole, I suffer from other people’s attitudes.” I can’t stand it. They do it all the time, people say to me “Oh, you’re doing a PhD and you have a disability? Aren’t you amazing!” Somehow I’m special because I manage to get up, get dressed, and go to work? It’s demoralising and patronising.’

Dr Heather Brook, Senior Lecturer & Academic.

Dr Heather Brook is one of the Senior Lecturers and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Women’s Studies department.

She studied her Undergraduate at Adelaide Uni in Politics and Anthropology, and then a PhD in Politics (in political and social theory) at the ANU in Canberra.

Heather has been working at Flinders since 2000, so she knows why Women’s Studies is important as a topic today; ‘Because even though there are places in the university that do take feminist approaches or do consider gender, it’s not foregrounded, it’s not central, it’s not the core business of the discipline, as it is for us. It has so many important effects – not least of which, that Women’s Studies has in the world, been so influential.

The contribution that Women’s Studies has made to social theory more broadly is enormous, we need to maintain that. It’s important because people too readily assume that because some things have changed historically, that everything’s okay now. We need to keep challenging that.’

‘Feminism and the women’s movement in general has served a very small number of women quite well, and that is taken as much more of a widespread victory than it is. Nearly all of the structural problems that feminists identified in the 70s are still there, sadly, not that they’re not changing.’

Heather is very optimistic about the future of Women’s Studies and feminism, and so am I; ‘There is definitely a feminist resurgence going on. It is exciting. It’s a resurgence that’s got a whole different mindset to 10 or 20 years ago. It gives me hope.’

Here’s to Women’s Studies at Flinders Uni – may your next 30 years be even bolder and more badass than the last 30 (if that’s even possible). Here’s to being curious, inquisitive, and intersectional. Here’s to breaking down more barriers. Here’s to studying Women’s Studies with pride, and being a part of history.

Here’s to fighting for what is right, and fighting to have more and more women’s voices heard, women of different bodies, cultures, and religions.

Here’s to the future.

Blow out the birthday candles, Women’s Studies, and enjoy that slice of chocolate mudcake; you’ve earned it.

AUTHOR Eleanor Danenberg, 21, Bachelor of Arts High Achievers (Women’s Studies and Creative Writing)

By the time Eleanor is fifty, she’d like to have had a book of hers made into a television show or film (à la Lena Dunham), a couple of rescue dogs, and a huge, luxury bathtub.

Source: Twenty Years: Women’s Studies at Flinders, 1986-2006. Authors: Susan Sheridan and Shirley Dally.

Lythrum Press, Adelaide.

17

Technologica

Innovation Nation 50 years ago, the world was in the middle of the space race. In 1966, the Venera 3 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, Gemini 8 performed the first successful space docking, and Luna 10 became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon. Science spending can often be a contentious issue, particularly in an election year, with different parties offering differing boosts and funding redirections. I will not be going into those specifics. As you would have read, some ET articles have been covering this topic in the lead up to the election. Instead, I will be suggesting why we should all be excited about spending money on technological and scientific advancement. It began with the space race and the benefits that it has brought us across the last 50 years.

G. Scott Hubbard, in an interview for Freakonomics, stated that each dollar spent on the space program yields close to $8 in economic benefit. His numbers come from a Midwestern Research Institute (MRI) study that found that the NASA R&D expenditure between 1959 and 1969 yielded more than a sevenfold increase in economic stimulus by 1987. The US got, for less than half the cost of a new submarine fleet, $181 billion back into their economy, as well as the positive benefits it had on other countries they worked with. There are widely varying figures on the number of engineers and scientists who were inspired by the space race, but all sources agree that it was a lot.

Beyond the economic benefits gained, space research has led to the development of many technologies now considered everyday. The range of technologies either directly developed for the space program, or enhanced by the space program, is wide: from the development of cordless power tools, wireless and satellite communications, and advanced medical techniques.

On a smaller scale, cities can make use of technological and scientific investment to fuel struggling economies. Across the last half century, many cities have faced the end of manufacturing with differing success. Adelaide is currently struggling to find a definite direction for the future, relying on continual Government investment to delay the almost inevitable end of manufacturing in the state; their latest investment being $50 billion to create approximately 2000 SA jobs across the next few decades. In the 1980s Pittsburgh faced a similar challenge, with significant hits to the US steel industry causing massive unemployment. The city was faced with a largely undereducated workforce, with expertise in a narrow area of industrial employment, and no chance to extend their wealth. In 2014, The Economist branded Pittsburgh, a city once renowned for pollution and steel, ‘America’s Most Liveable City’. Different sources give slightly

different explanations, but the common ground is always the technology industry, particularly biotechnology, combined with a growing cultural investment. The last point is also important, — I am not suggesting an investment in science to the detriment of the arts. It takes time, and it takes a politician to stand up and make long-term investments, but it pays off. As of May 2016, Pittsburgh’s unemployment is significantly below the US national average.

Closer to home, Australia has had a long success in scientific research through their investment in CSIRO and various other bodies. It was Australia that brought the world clear broadcasts of the moon walk. It was Australian scientists who made the critical leaps in developing WiFi. Medical discoveries such as the real cause of stomach ulcers and the development of the cervical cancer vaccine were Australian innovations. The recent experimental evidence of gravity waves was only possible due to high precision mirrors developed by the CSIRO. The Australian Synchrotron, dangerously underfunded, provides a world class research facility for a range of fundamental research, as well more industry intensive research such as better minerals processing and more nutritious grain supplies. Just a few years ago, less than 4 years after it had come online, it was in danger of losing most of its funding, due to ‘necessary cuts’. If it closes, what new discoveries are we missing out on? On a related note, without a competitive communications infrastructure, how can we expect to make the best use of these new innovations as they are developed?

Australia is in need of a long term economic plan. Countries like the US, Germany, and Israel have achieved economic turnaround by investing in scientific innovation. You cannot increase innovation while cutting science jobs.

Industrial applications need to be built on a foundation of primary research. Underlying all of this is the need for a highly educated population—an individual who struggles with fundamental maths is unlikely to pursue a career in physics or engineering. Someone who never had a good biology class is unlikely to consider it as an employment option, nor appreciate why ecological diversity is so important to the sustainability of agriculture and tourism industries. Australia needs all of these and more to grow to our full potential, and we need a party (or parties) to champion them. However, without public pressure, this will not be a seriously debated election issue, which is only to our detriment.

AUTHOR Kevin Clark, 21, Bachelor of Engineering (Software)

Kevin says ‘I hope to have paid off my HECS by the time I turn 50’

T J k s A Love-life got you down? Got a problem that no amount of therapy or booze will fix? Fear no more for JT is here to answer all your burning questions.

Yo JT, I came to uni hoping for a real college experience, but so far my time here at Flinders has been super disappointing. Where are all the parties? Where are all the hot babes in bikinis? Where are all the frat houses for me to rush and enter a bond of brotherhood that will last for life? How am I supposed to enjoy the best years of my life if all there ever is to do is go to class and study??

- G-dawg

What’s with all those red-shirted people who occupy the Plaza trying to sell their expensive newspaper? I can barely get past without one of them demanding to know if I’m racist. Why can’t I get my coffee without the interrogation?

- FirstyforKnowledge(andcoffee)

Well G-Dawg, I’m assuming your fantasies about college life have blossomed from such high-calibre comedy films such as ‘American Pie’ and I hate to stick my fingers through your crust of optimism but unfortunately, the flavour of a “real college experience” is vanilla. Not apple.

I can’t deny that I’ve taken significantly inconvenient detours to avoid the awkward passing by. I can’t deny that I’ve placed headphones over my ears so I could pretend not to hear them. I can’t deny that I’ve also felt the guilt that by not purchasing their progressive newspaper, I’m a racist homophobe by default even though, one of those would be quite ironic and the other, counterproductive to my dating life.

But I can help you find some substitutes that might assist in you attaining this goal. Instead of frat houses, try the corners of various study areas. There is a gymnasium of boisterous men who are keen to accept more testosterone-y, musky men into their ‘no homo’ comradeships. Hot babes in bikinis? You’d be pressed to find a woman wearing a bikini in this Antarctic, nipple-summoning weather so perhaps try to change your perceptions and read some Eskimo erotica. I’m sure those thick, fur-lined hoodies will have you sledding to the nearest igloo in no time. Parties? Sometimes the final tutorial for certain classes is a party. There’s usually lots of laughing and uh, finger foods as I’m sure someone who’s a fan of ‘American Pie’ would appreciate.

Look, if you want to have the best years of your life, it’s entirely up to you to shape them. And if uni doesn’t work out, you could always become a baker. You might bring a new meaning to Eskimo pie.

Help!

Those beady-eyed monsters are following me everywhere I go, with their gross webbed-feet and filthy feathers. So far I’ve managed to avoid an ambush, but being forced to walk around the lake every day, it’s only a matter of time. How can I escape their evil clutches?

- Ornithophobia Your first few sentences really frightened me. I actually thought representatives from SACE were on campus.

The first thing is that ducks to our campus are like whales to the ocean: we are on their territory. 50 years ago, the Flinders committee actually participated in the now-infamous Bread Negotiations to establish a peace treaty between humans and ducks.

Some ducks weren’t happy at the prospect of becoming subservient to the human race which caused a political schism and basically – Seriously no. There is no need for historical context here. The ducks are the most revered group of beings on campus. It is well known that tutors will make sure a starving duck is full of bread before marking an assignment (though they’re legally obligated, check Clause 54, lines 7 – 10 of the Bread Negotiations Declaration) and we must accept their presence like – hypothetically speaking – one must accept their final grade of a credit when they tried their very best and did so much goddamn research.

Also – don’t tell the ducks this because this goes against Clause 3, lines 18 – 56, - I recommend tasting the object of your fear when it’s deep-fried and covered in plum sauce.

Those red-shirted people are actually just as iconic and omnipresent as the ducks.

The truth is, they tend to be quite demonised by everyone – not that they’ve necessarily taken measures to prove people wrong on that point. But ultimately – unless it’s around student election times – they are quite amicable, though passionate, individuals who will accept a ‘no thanks’ without further pressure. Sure, I can’t help thinking about George Orwell’s 1984 whenever I see them – or the crappy essay I wrote on it in second year by extension – but unlike that novel, I think the red shirts are less dense.

But if worse comes to worst, I’ve actually read on the Overheard at Flinders Facebook page that attempting to hug them makes them recoil back. Just in case you needed an emergency response.

JT, I want my name back.

- The REAL JT Oh “JT”, I know exactly who you are and I know exactly who deserves the title more.

Hint: It’s me.

I’ve watched you evolve from uncooked Mi Goreng hair to the buzzcut of a Hitler Youth who happens to have a knack for R&B/pop tunes. I saw you sloppily neglect your music career to pursue “acting” which had all the substance of a cameo on Saturday Night Live.

It’s ironic that your debut album was called ‘Justified’ when it really wasn’t. For someone who inherently claimed to see clearly by naming his dual albums ‘The 20/20 Experience’, there wasn’t much vision. I could go on but I can already see you’re crying a river. I would expect sensitivity from someone who stomps their feet through disco balls yet I also think you might be masochistic for starring in a sciencefiction film alongside Amanda Seyfried. To quote a source you may be familiar with: “Bye Bye Bye.” But honestly, I am such a huge fan. I have all of your albums and think they are timeless but proof that white people can do R&B music.

As for your new song however, you are right. I couldn’t stop the feeling. That it’s a generic waste of time but thank you for using yours to send me a question. I hope the rest of your album doesn’t sound like lesser Calvin Harris music which technically doesn’t exist.

Amen.

1919

Send all your desperate wonderings to empire.times@flinders.edu.au!

EMPIRE TIMES ALUMNI INTERVIEW

SARAH GATES Empire Times sat down with former ET editor Sarah Gates to talk about her forthcoming debut novel Love Elimination. Love Elimination (published by Harlequin MIRA) is about Anna Hobbs, a reluctant fill-in for the titular reality dating show.

What did you learn from your time as an editor of Empire Times in 2013, the first year it was “back”? [After Voluntary Student Unionism was introduced, Empire Times disappeared from campus from 2006-2012 due to lack of funding] I learnt a lot from editing ET. I learnt how to structure an article. I learnt what was a good article and what wasn’t. All that nitty-gritty stuff about writing and what makes an article stand out from all the rest, so it was a really practical learning experience. I think from the publishing side, I learnt about deadlines. I became really good at doing lots of things at once – juggling tasks and meeting deadlines, and working really hard and getting a good work ethic.

I think that’s what I took away from it most. [In regards to] the publishing industry, probably not as much, I think I probably got that information from the SA Writers Centre. [I was] volunteering there and working there, which I was doing at the same time as ET. Everything really complimented each other and worked really well towards what I’m doing now.

Did you find the subjects/course work, or the other things you took on at Flinders were more beneficial?

I got a lot more out of ET than I did anything else at university.

While I’m glad I enrolled in Creative Writing at uni, I haven’t really learnt from it like I learnt from the SA Writers Centre workshops and doing ET. SA Writers Centre is where I got all of my industry knowledge from which isn’t really taught by university, and ET was a really good practical [example] of how to write well. University is more of an academic look at writing which I feel hasn’t helped me as much in publishing a book and becoming a writer outside of the university environment.

How long did it take to write Love Elimination, and how much did you find it differed from other writing processes?

It was very different because it’s a really long project and I think the whole way that you write changes when it’s that length. I varied in using different techniques, and writing different amounts at different times. I couldn’t say I wrote 500 words a day until it was done. It didn’t really work like that, especially as I was working two jobs and studying at the same time. Everything was

quite flexible. I wrote the first three chapters about three or four times from January until March until I figured out what the story was. Then I felt like I could move on and I wrote the book until I finished it in June at about 80,000 words. I then took a month off for exams and then I went back and edited for either two or three months. I pitched in July and in August. July was at the Adelaide Pitch Conference, and August was at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference. I sent it in at the end of September – actually the 30th of September. That was a really quick process. It was much faster than I thought was even possible because when I originally had sent an application in to Carclew* and outlined what I was going to do, I didn’t actually factor in editing, or exams, or real life. I had to speed it up a little bit. There were a few sections there when I would write 2000 words in a day for a little bit less than a month and that was really good but other times I’d just be doing a little bit here and there.

What do you feel led you most towards writing as something you were passionate about and wanted to do?

It was actually my Law degree. I was originally going to do Law and International Studies and just before SATAC closed, my mum said ‘You’re an idiot. What are you doing? You love writing, and you love acting. Why are you studying International Studies and Law?’ I turned it over to a double degree of Law, to have my sensible career, and an arts degree, with Creative Writing and Drama. In that first year of university I found Law really difficult and I was really unhappy and stressed because I was a perfectionist and I was not getting HDs. At the end of that year, I was a basket of nerves and I wasn’t coping very well. I felt that a creative outlet would be a really good way of taking away that pressure a bit.

Because acting is something that relies on other people, writing was the easiest thing to turn to, so I started doing a lot of writing.

I started a writers’ group at uni. I applied for Empire Times, and got that. I applied to write for Buzzcuts, and got that. I applied to volunteer at the SA Writers Centre and got that. I started doing a lot of writing things in the next year – mostly Empire Times and it kind of snowballed from there.

How did you find being a perfectionist paired with writing?

Yeah, I had to learn to let it go for my book because you can’t write a book in eight months as I intended to do and be a perfectionist. If I wrote a scene and it was mostly dialogue, I’d just write the dialogue and say ‘I’ll just add everything else later’. I used a lot of clichés in

that first draft. If they were nervous, it’d be ‘their hands are shaking’, and it’d just be ‘hands shaking’ the whole way through and I had to ‘CNTRL+F’ and go and find all those in the editing stage and find more original ways to say things but it was a really good way to get it out, in letting go of all that pressure. It’s good lesson, I think, for perfectionists, to be able to step aside from that.

You currently work at both FUSA and the SA Writers Centre, how do you balance these two jobs? Do you find they compliment each other? And how do they work with time commitment?

I’m the type of person who needs a lot of variety in my life. Again, that’s something I figured out after that first year in Law where I was unhappy, because I was doing the one thing. Once I figured that out, having the SA Writers Centre and FUSA was a really good balance for me because SA Writers Centre is a lot of writing and editing, website stuff, giving advice to people, and a bit of data entry as well. FUSA, on the other hand, is a lot of graphic design, and that sort of area. Both were very good environments but in different ways. I really loved the student, campus culture, and I was getting that from FUSA. I also really love the publishing industry and I was getting that from the Writers Centre. I only work one day a week in each. It’s the equivalent of a casual job that any other student would have.

What was the first the first thing you ever got published, and how was that experience?

I’m sure I got something published as a child but let’s not count that. I don’t remember it anyway. I think the first main thing was that in Year 11 The Messenger ran a competition for eight writers in the state to work on something called F-Mag which was a South Australian formal magazine. It was this beautiful glossy magazine and we got to go and have a few round-table meetings with all the other teenagers who were picked out, and some professionals from The Messenger. We got to go to a photoshoot and watch models have their photos taken and pitch ideas, and then write. I managed to write two solo articles for that and then collaborate on a third one. Then we got it published in this beautiful magazine that was discontinued after that one year but it was a fantastic experience working in a magazine. It was a really great experience.

How long had you wanted to be an author? Was it long-term or did it come about while you were doing law?

This is a hard one because I still feel like I don’t really want to be an author in that I don’t want to do it fulltime. I would like to have a balance of things with a lot of variety. I want to publish books but I also want to do a lot of other things. I guess I always wanted to get a book published and had this very vague goal that I wanted to get a book published before I graduated uni because I thought that would be a really good way to write, and have that safety net. I could work on it gradually over my five-and-a-halfyear degree. That obviously wasn’t going to happen because I was running out of time but I did apply for this grant and mentioned that goal in my [application]. It did end up happening that way.

I decided I was actually going to do it last year. Even then I reevaluated things. I can’t imagine not writing. I have so many ideas.

I just want to keep doing it.

How did you find the process of pitching, publishing, and editing with Love Elimination?

It was really interesting, and it was really exciting. I just loved all of it. It also happened really quickly for me. I mean, I’ve heard of people who have sent in their submission and then eleven months later, they hear back. A standard contract might state they’ll publish it within the next two years so it can take a really long time. I sent mine in on the last day of September and I received an email saying ‘Has it been sold yet?’ two weeks later.

Two weeks after that, I had a verbal offer and two weeks after that, I had a contract. It was extremely quick. I signed the contract at the end of November and the book’s coming out in July. So that is incredibly speedy. We did all of the editing in one month in February. We did about three drafts. Everything was really exciting. Even pitching. It was quite nerve-wracking but you get to bring in the summary, the buzzwords, and try to sell the book which is a really exciting thing once you’ve actually written because you know you’ve got something that you’re really proud of. Then to receive a contract, it’s the best feeling in the world.

Did lots of celebrating around that. Then we went straight to copy-editing for Love Elimination so we didn’t go through the structural edit which is more about changing the plot around, changing characters, and moving scenes. They thought it was pretty good how it was so we only did a few things like adding a scene and changing most of my character names because it turns out that about 11 out of 15 started with ‘A’. The cover, I think, was my favourite part because I got to see a couple of drafts and make some suggestions and finally get the whole thing up and release it and see what it was going to look like.

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over and made that editing process at lot quicker as well. I’ve met a lot of important people for my writing experience through the SA Writers Centre.

Would you say, then, that it’s matter of the opportunities for learning and also the networking that makes the Writers Centre so important?

I really love that aspect of it. I know a lot of people complain about networking but I love meeting different people and hearing about their expertise. I think you learn a lot from that, even [with] the publishing journey, learning how different people got published and knowing other people’s experiences can help you find your own path through that.

You’ve got the launch Dymocks Adelaide soon. Was that a smooth process of bringing that about?

Yeah, June 30th. It absolutely was [a smooth process]. I think again because I was at the Writers Centre and I was part of SARAA (SA Romance Authors Association) and I knew that a lot of romance authors had had their launches there. I got an email from one of them and sent Dymocks an email. I told them who I was and namedropped a couple of names and they were like ‘Yes, okay, which day’s good for you? Okay. We’ll provide all the drinks and nibbles and we’ll do RSVPs and we’ll print out posters and negotiate with your publishing team’. I didn’t have to do anything.

It was incredibly easy. They are so supportive of local authors and I knew that going in. They always have their little tags that say ‘local author’ and make sure their books are facing out. It’s quite small but it has a big impact. Dymocks Adelaide are doing great things there for the local industry.

Any advice for writers at uni?

How much input did you have in that?

A surprising amount. I had heard that authors didn’t get any input in their cover and I heard a lot of author complain about their covers. I got to submit a brief saying what I liked, what I didn’t like, and facts about the book. I received a draft of the cover. I don’t know what would have happened if I’d said I hated the concept completely but luckily I didn’t. I really liked it. I asked them to change a few things and they did that. It was a really collaborative process.

How much do you think working with SA Writers Centre helped you to be prepared for the process?

Infinitely. I credit them to all of my success thus far. I was a workshop assistant for a bit over a year before I started working there and I was doing workshops almost every week on every aspect of publishing and that gave me a crash-course on at least the basics. I got really well-rounded in my knowledge after that, in continuing to work there. Meeting authors, and meeting publishers, talking to people in the industry [was something] I learnt a lot [from]. It was also having people know me and vouch for me. Sarah Tooth, who’s the director of the SA Writers Centre, was a referee for my application to Carclew* and I think it was her glowing recommendation that got me over the line for that. She’s been my referee for so many things. [She’s] been just a brilliant backer for me. You need that support. It’s a great help. When I met the South Australian Romance Authors’ Association – they meet at the SA Writers Centre – I felt really included in that. I met my mentor through a networking event at the SA Writers Centre.

She has been absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t have written this book without her. She was there every step of the way helping me with [suggestions] so I didn’t get stuck, and could keep generating ideas. She gave me feedback on my whole book several times

Be very pro-active. All the things that I’ve loved doing and have led to this opportunity are things I’ve chased down. Things like volunteering, being part of the campus culture and writing as much as you can, are all really important. Look outside of the degree as well, is what I’d say to people studying Creative Writing at uni.

Love Elimination will be released on July 1, following a launch at Dymocks Adelaide.

South Australian Writers Centre - 187 Rundle Street, Adelaide. *Carclew, a youth arts organisation - 11 Jeffcott Street, North Adelaide

& Flinders University talent SCREEN media persona exhibition Why are you doing this exhibition, and what type of art are you showcasing?

We’re organising our exhibition, ‘Persona’, as a part of the Screen and Media topic ‘Researching Australian Screen and Media’ this exhibition will be held at the SALA, the South Australian Living Artists Festival. Because most of the people in our class are screen production students, meaning they’re studying to be filmmakers or to work in the film industry, we have a lot of talent that we can showcase! The art we’ll be showing will be moving image, which will make viewing it really dynamic and entertaining.

What themes or messages are present in your pieces?

The theme for our exhibition is ‘portraiture’. This theme is how we came up with the exhibition’s name, ‘Persona’. Throughout the semester, we’ve been studying the ways in which people communicate their identities on screen and through art, so while all the pieces have that same underlying theme, it’s safe to say we’ll probably see different styles and filmmaking methods in each piece. We also thought in the ‘selfie-age’, portraiture was a really interesting topic. What fuels our desire to document ourselves and our lives the way we do? People are inherently interested in portraits because of the stories they can portray or the personalities we can see in them. That’s why, we think, the theme of ‘portraiture’ is quite universal, and something that everybody can relate to and get something meaningful out of.

Have you learned anything new about art from undertaking this assignment?

From what we’ve learned so far, art is interesting because it’s so controversial. In many of the other topics or subjects you study at uni or school, there’s generally a right and a wrong answer, or at least a popular way of thinking. But with art, you’re free to hate it or love it. You can even hate it but still appreciate it.

That’s been an interesting thing to learn about from this task, as we can all disagree on a piece of art and all be right! As far as the organisation of the art show, we’ve learned that it’s certainly not a simple process. But, we can already tell that the SALA community is fantastic. We’ve had artists come to speak to us and have been helped so much already by the SALA organisers, it’s been a great learning experience to see how artists and organisers work together.

:Talk us through the process of this assignment and how you all

split up tasks.

As a class, we’ve all been split up into different groups that manage different tasks. We have the exhibition group, the launch group, the fundraising group, and so on. Because the festival doesn’t begin until August, we’re still in the process of organising everything. This is a non-semester topic, so we’ve been able to time our topic to suit the SALA opening and we have been working towards that deadline for the past couple of months.

We’ve been working to a timeline of tasks that need to be done, which includes organising where the exhibition and the launch of the exhibition will be, catering, advertising, copyrighting images, raising money for venue hire, getting the artworks together and much more! Our topic co-ordinator, Julia Erhart, has been keeping an eye on us and making sure we’re not overlooking anything.

Does this assignment have anything to do with what you guys want to do in future careers?

Definitely! Most of the people in our class want to work in the film industry, and many are filmmakers themselves. So, this assignment is really closely tied with what a lot of us will want to do in the future. It’s been good in this way, because we’ve been able to see how an exhibition is run and what’s involved in getting to be a part of a festival like SALA. As well as this, it’s been good to make contact with a lot of people in the industry, like artist Susan Bruce; these people have been really generous with their knowledge and time.

When and where is this exhibition on?

Our launch event will be at Tenth & Gibson on Friday 29th July, and it’ll be a great night out for everyone! After that, we’ll be having screenings at the Crown & Sceptre hotel on Sundays in August. And finally, we’re happy to say that ‘Persona’ will be screening from the 1st - 12th of August on the super screen in the Flinders Plaza! We’ll have plenty more information about all of these events closer to the date, but we do encourage everybody to make some time to come and see their fellow students’ work!

The more support we get from everyone at university, the more it’ll do for Flinders as a whole! Look out for our fundraisers, our advertising on the big screen in the plaza, and for invites to the launch party and the exhibition. We hope to see everybody there!

Persona team: Claire Whitley, Nathaniel Schilling, Amy Thompson, and Sam Twidale.

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x o v 1. The first episode of the West Wing.

1. Birthday!

2. Puppies.

3. Better food places / cheaper food.

4. Egypt.

5. Buy a mansion and book a holiday on the beach.

2. Fifty more weeks in this year!

3. Sleep pods.

4. Marching with Rev. King.

5. But airline tickets for everyone!

6. Probably living on the coast with an orchard.

2. 50x $50 notes please!

3. More parking, more options of degrees, more options for overseas travel.

4. On a farm, 5am wake up (no thanks!)

5. Put it towards a travel account! (probably buy a house in Italy) 6. Happily married, with 3 kids perhaps, house (with a swimming pool)

6. Retired, travelling the world.

Cassie Health science

1. Birthdays - always fun to celebrate a sucessful year! (hopefully sucessful!)

Jesse Phd

Kate Paramedics

Q.

1. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE ANNIVERSARY? 2. WHAT WOULD YOU WANT FIFTY OF? 3.

WHAT’S SOMETHING THAT FLINDERS UNIVERSITY NEEDS IN THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS? 4. IN A PAST LIFE, WHERE WERE YOU FIFTY YEARS AGO? 5. IF YOU HAD FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS FOR FIFTY MINUTES, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? 6. WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE IN FIFTY YEARS?

pops

1. Christmas.

1. Birthday.

2. Chicken Nuggets.

2. Holidays a year.

3. Sleep pods. Where you can pay a deposit and take a nap after you’ve been up all night studying.

4. Flying as a bird.

5. Start a charity.

6. Retired in country England.

Gertrude Psychology

1. Birthday.

2. Dollars.

3. Escalator.

4. At my own gig.

5. Make a giant bonfire.

6. Paint with my eyes closed.

Darren Digital Media

3. More food options spread out over campus.

4. Probably doing the same as I am now, traveling and laying on the beach every day.

5. Book and pay for as many holidays as possible.

6. Somewhere overseas on holiday.

Georgia Education

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Pocketchan - Cooking -

Veggie-Loaded Fries

Everyone loves fries, and loaded fries can turn a fried potato from side dish to a whole meal. But if you’re looking for a healthier alternative, why not try this recipe? A cheap, fun winter-warmer chock full of great veggies and flavour, that you can throw together from whatever you have lying around.

Meat, dairy and even gluten-free, this dish will suit just about anyone. And while vegan/vegetarianism isn’t for everybody, cutting down on meat is definitely a healthier choice. Thanks to dishes like this, going meat-free now and then doesn’t have to feel like a sacrifice.

Serves: 3 big meals, or 4 smaller meals Ingredients:

Method:

1 medium sweet potato

Step 1: Fries Sweet potato and potato chips: cut potatoes & sweet potatoes into 1cm strips. Coat with a sprinkle of dried herbs, cinnamon, chilli (optional) garlic powder, salt and pepper.* Drizzle enough oil to coat all the potatoes and put in the oven for around 30-40 minutes at 180C. After the potatoes are in the oven, wait for about 20 minutes before starting the next stage.

4 potatoes Dried herbs Cinnamon Chilli (optional) Garlic powder Salt & pepper Olive oil 1 avocado 1 red onion 2 tomatoes (or 1 tomato and 1 can of chopped tomatoes) 1 lemon or lime 200 g mushrooms Half a zucchini Packet of Taco mix (Old El Paso recommended)

*when editor Eleanor test-drove this delish recipe, she used just paprika, cinnamon, salt and pepper, and olive oil on the chips and found this a great variation. Also, she has tried this recipe with both unpeeled and peeled sweet potatoes and potatoes, and found not much difference in the taste and consistency of the chips.

Step 2: Guacamole (double the quantities if you love guacamole this was just enough for 1/2 big spoons per person) Mash avocado, stir in a quarter diced red onion, diced tomato, salt and pepper to taste, and 2tsp lime or lemon juice (add this at last possible moment)

ngePantry - Cooking -

Step 3: Taco beans Take the remainder of the diced onion and fry in a pan, add mushrooms, the diced zucchini, cubed tomato (or a can of tomatoes) and packet of taco seasoning mix.* Stir over medium to high heat until all vegetables soften.

Follow the Old El Paso packets instructions and mix the seasoning with 3/4 cup water when in pan with above listed vegetables.

By the time the beans and guacamole are finished, the chips should be ready too! Stack chips, then beans, then guacamole. For some extra crunch/goodness, you can also top with some baby spinach, rocket or sauerkraut.

And most importantly remember to enjoy!

Originally submitted by the Flinders University Vegetarian and Vegan Club (find them on Facebook) CHEFS / AUTHORS Aylja Freeborn, 19, Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Arts (Indonesian) Eleanor Danenberg, 21, Bachelor of Arts High Achievers (Women’s Studies and Creative Writing)

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- Features -

Flinders University talent

Hail Comic :

- Features -

Empire Times prides itself on being a platform for current students’ voices, issues, and projects; it is a student rag after all, by students, for students. Hail, a superhero comic project between Flinders alumni and current students, is a prime example of what talent and creativity our students have. We jumped at the chance to chat to Rosanna Lam, Tom Murton, and Mala Kerr, of the massive Hail team to discuss this exciting project.

Rosanna tells us, ‘basically, Hail is a superhero comic about a girl who crumbles into shards of glass as a symptom of anxiety attacks, and we follow her through a journey of self discovery as she overcomes her anxiety and turns her weakness into her superpower to fight crime’. Mental illness was an important topic for the Hail team to tackle, as anxiety hits close to home for many of the Hail team members.

Rosanna tells us that through the main character, Lena, shattering into glass, the team can visually communicate what anxiety feels like, and let readers with mental illnesses know that they are not alone.

Another important theme for the Hail team was to challenge gender stereotypes in the traditionally male-dominated comic book realm, by having a young female protagonist.

Rosanna told us that the Project Manager and Director, Miranda Richardson, ‘made the characters all different shapes and sizes to challenge idealistic proportions’. Ultimately in Hail, the characters’ personalities are much more important than their appearances, setting it apart from many standard Western superhero comics.

Specifically, Hail follows Lena as she attempts to build her self-confidence and navigate everyday life as a budding superhero. Her best friend, Ebony, is the ultimate sidekick; strong willed, logical, and as Mala told us, ‘she tells it like it is’. Then, there is Seth, who is Lena and Ebony’s co-worker and friend, but there is more to him than meets the eye; according to Tom, ‘who he truly is in the story is only just beginning to be revealed. He has a few secrets’. Are you as intrigued as we are?

This comic has been a labor of love, and a great testament to the dedication of these students, some of whom are balancing uni with a job, as well as Hail. The team began the comic at the start of 2015, and they meet monthly, but they have many deadlines that each person in the production line must meet. With a team of nine people, processes must be in place to ensure that duties are split up and balanced effectively. Rosanna elaborated; ‘in the first month, our scriptwriter, Miranda, writes an eight-page script, and she sorts out the panel layouts before handing them over to me to refine them. Then, we send them off to the background artists, who work on it over the second month, and then the pages go to me and I pencil the characters over the backgrounds, and add the colour palettes and send them off to the members who work on it over the third month, where they ink, colour and shade the pages. The glass effect is something that I do on my own, and that’s also during the third month.’

Hail, the complete comic graphic novel, is set to be released next year. Currently, the team is halfway through; they’re up to Issue Four, and the first volume is to be comprised of seven issues. They have been releasing a chapter every month on their website, where readers can get a taste and keep up to date with what’s happening in the world of Lena, Ebony, and the mysterious Seth.

The Hail team is planning on beginning a Kickstarter in a few months, so they have enough money to cover their costs and successfully print some of their already-completed issues. How can you keep up to date with Hail’s progress, and find out where to read or potentially soon purchase the comic? Well, we’re glad you asked…

Facebook: /HailOnlineComic Website: hailcomic.com

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- Features -

Turning the Big 5-0 Congratulations Flinders, you’ve reached a milestone birthday. See, it’s not so bad. Sure, you’ve had some work done over the years – a nip here and a tuck there, as well as a pretty major mid-life crisis facelift to honour this landmark occasion. No one’s judging you for that, though. You’ve had a long and illustrious life, and you’ve earned the right to wear your battle scars with dignity and pride. We have a lot in common, you and I (I’m referring to our age and the scarring, not the surgery!) In order to celebrate “50” with all the grandeur and pageantry it deserves, I want to share a small selection of other pretty amazing things that turn the big 5-0 in 2016. Flinders, you and I are in illustrious and distinguished company.

Australia Adopts Decimal Currency On February 14th 1966, one era ended and another began when Australia replaced British-style currency with decimal notes and coins. Banks were closed for four days prior to the changeover, and Prime Minister-of-the-time Harold Holt commented that ‘…we can have full confidence that Australia will readily adapt itself to its new currency and soon reap the many substantial benefits that we expect to flow from this more efficient money system.’ Yes, even back then, politicians were prone to the odd over-generalisation.

In direct contrast to this hyperbole, there were reports of small business owners who preferred to shut up shop and lose a few day’s profit, rather than face their fear of dealing with this new fandangled monetary system. Since that day, Australia’s currency has experienced a few more changes: one and two cent coins have gone bye-bye; one and two dollar notes have been replaced with shiny gold loose change, coining (no pun intended) the phrase “gold coin donation” at sausage sizzles and free-dress days throughout the land.

Most recently, there has been talk of also doing away with the five cent piece. I heard a young primary school lad on the radio last week, whose idea is to replace it with a nine cent piece. Most price tags usually have a .99c denomination, he theorised, so why not have a nine cent coin? Genius, I say!

Star Trek Goes to Air As if Trekkies need an excuse to get together and nerd out! 2016 marks 50 years since the airing of the first episode on NBC, initially marketed as a “Western in Outer Space”. Series creator Gene Roddenberry privately wanted each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story, and as a morality tale. In fact, he modelled each story line on the basis of Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Not even the craziest sci-fi author could have foreseen the staying power and phenomenal impact this series would have world-wide. Many of the conflicts and dilemmas faced by Captain Kirk, Dr Spock, Scotty and the whole gang are allegorical to real-life issues faced by contemporary society. Roddenberry once stated: ‘[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics, and intercontinental missiles…we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network.’ Roddenberry envisioned the show as a vehicle for promoting a progressive political agenda that reflected emerging counter cultures. He wanted Star Trek to demonstrate how we can learn lessons from the past, and gave the show an anti-war message that promoted the United Federation of Planets to be an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations. Many of Roddenberry’s original ideas were opposed by NBC, including the idea that the Enterprise have a racially-diverse crew. I’m sure Roddenberry would have been horrified when Star Trek was accused of manifesting racism and imperialism, with its depictions of the Starfleet and the Federation attempting to impose their values and customs on other planets. Hmm, now where have I seen that story premise before?

Oh yeah, last night on the 6 o’clock news.

Play School’s First Broadcast OK, I know it’s another TV show, but what Aussie kid didn’t grow up watching Play School? Sure, I know it may seem a tad trite in these days of Pixar animation and whizz bang special effects, but where else can a three-year-old learn how to make a whole city out of nothing but used toilet roll holders, empty milk containers and sticky tape? They must

- Features -

Flinders, you’re in good company!

be getting something right with the pre-school clique, because Play School celebrates its 50th this year on July 18th. It’s the longest-running children’s TV show in Australia, and the second longest-running in the world. Not only that, it’s estimated that 80% of children under the age of six watch it at least once a week. Plus, it won a Gold Logie and an Aria, and you can’t get much better than that! Who didn’t have a favourite toy – Big Ted or Little Ted, Humpty, Diddle the Cat, Jemima and Goosy Lucy, to name but a few of our special friends over the years? And let’s not forget about the presenters – I’m certain Aussie household names like Justine Clarke, Eddie Perfect, Noni Hazlehurst, and Jai Laga’aia would all consider it a badge of honour to have a presenting role on Play School written in their resumé. Personally, I’d like to see Samuel Johnston, recent star of Molly Meldrum biopic, Molly, get a gig. He could ride his unicycle, and there’s not a preschooler in the country who wouldn’t be instantly comforted by the king-of-the-voice-over’s dulcet tones. Play School has not been without controversy over the years. Who could forget the time they showed a clip with a voiceover by “Brenna”, a little girl being accompanied by her “two mums” to the amusement park. Federal ministers were in an uproar and good old Auntie ABC responded by stating that Play School had always strived to represent the diversity of all Australian children.

Ground-breaking stuff for 2004! And what about the 2013 episode when Alex Papps (who you may remember from Neighbours (or was it Home and Away?) made a strange contraption from a plastic bottle with a straw poking out of the side which he then filled with water? It looked suspiciously like a bong (or so I’m told) and the segment went viral a couple of years later. Oh, the things I’ve learned from watching children’s TV. JJ Abrams Comes into the World Jeffrey Jacob Abrams, director, producer, screenwriter and composer, was born of June 27th 1966. Not that I’m a huge fan but hey, the guy co-created Felicity, a series about a girl with amazing hair who follows a boy she has a huge crush on and runs away to college. I have included

him here as an homage to all of you reading this who are at Flinders for similar reasons. That’s serendipity for you – you’ve ended up studying at the best university in the country, even if your motives were somewhat questionable. JJ also had a hand in bringing Lost, Alias, and Fringe to our lounge rooms, as well as blockbusters like Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission Impossible III, Super 8, Cloverfield, Armageddon and Star Wars: The Force Awakens onto movie screens.

Other than his involvement in Felicity, personally I think the most exciting thing about JJ was the rumour he was writing and producing an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. This never saw the light of day, and in hindsight I think that’s a good thing. Now my image of Roland as an enigmatic, charismatic Viggo Mortensen lookalike can eternally remain intact.

What Flinders Students Were Listening to in 1966: - Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys - Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan - Aftermath by the Rolling Stones - Fresh Cream by Cream - A Quick One by The Who - The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel - Revolver by The Beatles - Tim Buckley by Tim Buckley (yes, that’s right – Jeff’s dad) So there you have it, Flinders. A list of quinquagenarians like you and I. Not sure what that means? Then Google it, and remember as you do so that the first cohort of students to grace these hallowed halls would never have had that luxury.

AUTHOR Amanda Sloan, 50, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) One thing that Amanda wanted to accomplish by the time she reached fifty was inner peace (she’s still working on it).

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- Get Smart -

The Nifty Fifty:

My Unapologetically Subjective List of 50 Great Films to Spend Your Break Watching Do you feel that? The end of the semester is nearly here! Walking out of your last exam, that final joyful FLO submission, the delightful notion of a few weeks without a deadline – these events demand a celebration. So, what to do?

You could spend two weeks binge-watching six seasons of Game of Thrones or falling down the Netflix rabbit hole. Or you could pick a film from the lists below. A snack pack of Arnott’s Shapes, if you will, instead of the whole box.

My completely subjective list of films is divided into five categories, comprising of some familiar titles you may want to revisit, and newer (or older!) ones you might not have seen. There are serious films which force you to use your brain, and comedies which actively encourage you not to. There’s the guilty pleasure of a chick flick and also plenty of brawny revenge films – perfect for the nights when neither of you want to give up your favourite.

Relax while you can. It’ll be semester two before you know it.

Movies to Make You Think: 1. The Life of David Gale (2003) – “Death is a gift.”

2. The Road (2009) – “You think I won’t kill you?

You’re wrong.”

3. Room (2015) – “It can’t really be Room if door’s open.”

4. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – “Every man has his breaking point.”

5. Seven Pounds (2008) – “It’s time.”

6. American History X (1998) – “Bad ass peckerwood with an attitude.”

7. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) – “The only way you can beat my crazy was by doing something crazy yourself.”

8. The Butterfly Effect (2004) – “You can’t play God, son.”

9. Life of Pi (2012) – “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?”

10. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – “This part of my life is called running.”

Revenge Films to Warm Your Heart: 1. Law Abiding Citizen (2009) – “Can’t fight fate.”

2. Man on Fire (2004) – “A bullet always tells the truth.”

3. Gladiator (2000) – “At my signal, unleash hell.”

4. Django Unchained (2012) – “The D is silent.”

5. Se7en (1995) – “What’s in the box?”

6. Inglourious Basterds (2009) – “We have all our rotten eggs in one basket.”

7. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) – “Where’s Bill?!”

8. Taken (2008) – “Now’s not the time for dick measuring, Stuart!”

9. Memento (2000) – “Somebody always pays.”

10. Braveheart (1995) – “I hope you’ve washed your arse this morning. It’s about to be kissed by a king.”

‘Romcom’ Is Not a Dirty Word

- Get Smart -

1. Pitch Perfect (2012) – “I can see your toner through those jeans!”

2. Bridesmaids (2011) – “It’s coming out of me like lava!”

3. Leap Year (2010) – “Put ‘em in(?) the wash; they’ll be grand.”

4. She’s Out of My League (2010) – “He could probably French kiss like a mother*cker.”

5. The Proposal (2009) – “If you touch my ass one more time I will cut your balls off in your sleep, okay?”

6. Sweet Home Alabama (2002) – “You can’t ride two horses with one ass, sugarbean.”

7. Knocked Up (2007) – “There are five different types of chairs in this hotel room.”

8. The Wedding Singer (1998) – “Not porno tongue.

Church tongue.”

9. About Time (2013) – “Never trust a blueberry.”

10. He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) – “You’re my exception.”

Attack of the Apocalyptic Contagious Zombie Aliens 1. World War Z (2013) – “Mother Nature is a serial killer.”

2. Contagion (2011) – “It’s a bad day to be a rhesus monkey.”

3. Knowing (2009) – “The numbers are a warning.”

4. Dawn of the Dead (2004) – “When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”

5. The Book of Eli (2010) – “It’s not a f*cking book!

It’s a weapon!”

Movies to Inspire Academic Brilliance for The Coming Semester…Maybe 1. Good Will Hunting (1997) – “How do you like them apples?”

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) – “We accept the love we think we deserve.”

6. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – “Do you want anything from the shop?”

7. District 9 (2009) – “Get your fokkin’ tentacle out of my face!”

8. Zombieland (2009) – “Where are you, you spongy, yellow, delicious bastards?”

9. War of the Worlds (2005) – “They’ve been planning this for a million years.”

10. Signs (2002) – “Everything has a weakness.”

3. Dead Poets Society (1989) – “Damn it Neil, the name is Nuwanda.”

4. The Theory of Everything (2014) – “I have a slight problem with the celestial dictatorship premise.”

5. With Honors (1994) – “Yes I’m a bum. But I’m a Harvard bum.”

6. Mona Lisa Smile (2003) – “Be careful, they can smell fear.”

7. Legally Blonde (2001) – “The rules of hair care are simple and finite.”

8. School Ties (1992) – “You used me for football. I’ll use you to get into Harvard.”

9. Liberal Arts (2012) – “No, a liberal arts education solves all your problems.”

10. A Beautiful Mind (2001) – “There’s no point in being nuts if you can’t have a little fun.”

AUTHOR Karen Smart, ‘On the flip side of 30’, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) By the time she turns fifty, Karen would like to graduate with a PhD.

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- Poetry -

virgin whore dichotomy virgin whore dichotomy

a key that can open many locks is called a master key but a lock opened by many keys is a shitty lock right? i mean i like innocent girls but i expect you to know everything drive me wild be my whore you should stand tall but don’t push out your chest too much that’s asking for attention

don’t talk too much to my friends you’re an attention seeker obnoxious irritating you’re so gorgeous you’re so hot i just wannawait how many other guys have seen you like this?

be chaste but desirable

naked vulnerable so inherently free

desirable but unattainable

let me just help you with that we’ll hide this part

you should want a career but childrearing homeliness nothing beats that feeling!

cover you up in a big old blanket

hey sweetheart hey love hey darling don’t be too assertive that’s bossy i mean i like strong women just not Gillard that woman is vile don’t wear heels tonight babe i need to be taller i need to feel bigger you’re so cute standing next to me i can reach down and pat your head

sexuality no more work and cook and clean and please and die have you heard that men pick women like their mothers? how funny is that sweetie? simply absurd there you go baby you’re all mine now assume your role just no more low-cut shirts alright? your body is mine wouldn’t want them to stare it’s because I love you okay?

Ashley Sutherland

- Poetry -

To The Moon I drained the seven seas for you, I searched my whole life, trying to find something that would make you happy, because I never could.

I prayed every night, to every God that wasn’t mine. I pleaded for them to fix me, to reshape me so I could fit in with your life, so you wouldn’t hate me for reasons I couldn’t fix.

I tore down castles that weren’t mine. I rebuilt thousands of palaces, millions of mansions so you had somewhere in which to hide our love. I lived in the shadows I built, so you didn’t have to be ashamed of me anymore. So you wouldn’t leave me for somebody you could love in the sunlight.

Jessica Horton

creatively grounded flight She flies with confidence, But only in a free world.

Wings tucked, with windows locked No chance of fresh air Fresh- like: abundant.

Like- air which is not: Rotten and off, not fitting its surroundings; stuck in its time - refusing to let go of its self-distressed self; constant stress, breeds less.

Wisdom wings made of errant adversity Windows blown through fortuitous discourse.

Baboon, Baboon - you think too soon.

Plenty of air to feed grey hair Fortuitous, like: She must dare- to claim her air Wise, like: Grey day- gay prey Account for prayer unless you wish to reside sub-optimally layered Hot and heavy containment.

Baboon, you goon! You’ve retired too soon and left behind a surplus of day for your single parent moon.

Errant unless committed Adverse unless true Repugnantly stagnant, suffocatingly restrictive; folded in on herself and her externalities.

Ululating melancholy turned raga, so She lies with the devil, Six times a week, to create something along the lines of: her new world.

Liam Thine

3535

- Poetry -

FOREST’S CACOPHONY Branches of ancient gnarled and twisted trees Dance to rowdy rhythms buoyant on the breeze For in this verdant sea of greenery Lives the lively forest’s cacophony An orchestra is here, barely hiding Listen closely—its notes keep on sliding: Clicking, hissing, whirring, thrumming Tweeting, shrilling, whistling, humming Hear that aviary of melody So alive in lethargic humidity Notice no intervals of quiet while birds clamour up in riot In the pleasant pheasant symphony And now the hush— No sound of stirring fairy wren, nor bottlebrush The lack of music; what such pain But then the song starts up again!

A cicada symphony ‘neath the canopy Bark buildings bustling with fauna activity Like the birds aflight, I feel free and light Dancing to the forest’s cacophony.

Leeza Von Alpen

THE CONQUERORS Many say that our history is sad, Full of conquerors, dictators, and men Who’d rule the world, thinking only of themselves and killing like a man who’s gone mad.

Have we really all become so depraved That we will invade just so we can say That we may help those struggling there one day?

Believe me, our youth are truly amazed.

We’ve seen cities destroyed and ruins razed, Entire nations slaughtered with a word.

So I ask you, when did the lines become blurred?

Why don’t we care when cultures are erased?

War. It is a word that sends chills down spines.

It wouldn’t exist in a world that’s mine.

J.R. Koop

- Poetry -

April #2 I trace the blue roadmaps of my veins to find their source.

I find only a knot beyond which I cannot follow the thread— a joining of seas, of restless tides which pull me this way or that, back towards myself.

Ira Herbold

We are Humans Without Rights I came to the world from the womb of a woman, it’s the same with you I came to the world without being able to choose where I was born, it’s the same with you I came to the world world without being able to choose when I was born, It’s the same with you I came to the world without being able to choose from whom I was born, It’s the same with you If it’s all the same with you, But, why I am now a human without rights

They said because our race is different They said because our religion is different They said because our skin colour is different

But we said because you don’t want us to be yours Yeah, we are humans without rights -a deep reflection for the Rohingya PeopleLidya Christin Sinaga

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- Fiction -

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

Across 1. A young girl is possessed by a demon – requiring priests to be called in (2 words) 5. Oliver Stone charts the life of one of America’s most controversial presidents – who ended his term in embarrassment. (1 word) 7. Bruce Willis is a taxi driver in the colour future. (3 words) 9. British sci-fi TV series marks 50th anniversary with cinema release (5 words) 15. Tom Hardy and Patrick Stewart are the same person. (3 words) 17. Jake Gyllenhaal has eight minutes to stop the train blowing up. (2 words) 18. Meryl Streep may not have the best singing voice (here, anyway) but she won’t let that stop her. (3 words) 19. The life and campaign of famed American gay rights activist who shares his name with the film (1 word) 20. Illusionists pull off bank heists (4 words) 21. American action hero stars in movie of his name. (2 words)

Clue: Numbers are written in letters.

Crossword clues by Liam McNally

Down 2. A thirteen year old girl skips a few years. (2 words) 3. Natalie Portman learns the profession. From the professional. (3 words) 4. Orcs and humans go to war in this video game adaptation.

6. Poe Dameron turns mutant god in the latest iteration of superhero franchise (1 word) 7. Two brothers save an orphanage with the power of song!

(3 words) 8. Will Smith plays a con artist who’s plans are complicated by the arrival of a woman from his past (1 word) 10. Adam Sandler plays a man afraid of commitment until he meets a special woman. (3 words) 11. A massive earthquake occurs in the famous fault-line that shares its name with this film. (2 words) 12. New adaptation of classic comedy proves some struggle more with the female, rather than spectral, cast (1 word) 13. Toby Stephens plays an environmentally-friendly megalomaniac building a solar-power death ray. (3 words) 14. Death row guards have their lives changed by one of their charges (3 words) 16. Ron Pearlman was summoned by Nazis. (1 word)

Uni stressing you out? Unleash your creativity and unwind...

Artwork: Benjamin Hall

39 39

WHATTHE

FLinders University Clubs

A retrospective of one of Flinders’ oldest clubs.

And so the club song would commence after every victory on our wind ravaged mud heap of a hockey pitch on the upper level of the Flinders playing fields. For we were the Flinders Double Blues and the Flangers (pronounced Flan-jers). We had a proud tradition to maintain – stretching back to the first year of Flinders University – to always play to the best of our ability, party to the best of our ability and have lots of fun in the process.

training sessions, even harder fought matches, frequent hard to resist parties. Then there were the nicknames. Nearly every player had a nickname imposed upon them – Squizzy, Strop, Super Turd, Big Dick, Young Dick, Farmer Mac, Johnboy, Hollow Legs, and Shitzoff. Throughout those early weeks whilst much attention was focussed on the season at hand, there was much discussion about the upcoming mid-semester break IV trip.

I joined Flinders Uni Hockey Club (FUHC) during O’Week in 1982.

I came across their stall in the sun-blasted concrete wasteland that was the old plaza. Two dudes sat behind a table with a felt banner held in place by two ancient looking hockey sticks. The banner was blue, with the letters FUHC at the top, a cartoon-like Matthew Flinders, in naval regalia complete with epaulets, holding a traditional pint of beer in one hand and trailing a hockey stick with the other. Beneath the figure was the club motto – Shitti et Derisium. ‘Nice Matthew Flinders,’ I blurted in my history-nerd way. The dreadlocked (first time I’d seen dreads by the way, I was a naïve nerd) dude chuckled, glanced at the chilled, diminutive tattooed gent next to him (yep, first time for tatts too - apart from my uncle who’d been in the navy), exhaled herbaciously (my olfactory system had not encountered that smell before) and said, ‘Man that’s not Matthew Flinders. That’s Matthew Flanger.’

I left their table about fifteen minutes later having placed my details on their contact sheet, receiving an invitation to training the next evening, a mini lecture from Dreadlocks and the hobbit re Flangism, social collectives, intervarsity carnivals, and hungis (a maori inspired feast); clutching a publication – part manifesto, part club newsletter called Our Magic Circle. I was also feeling strangely light headed – there was no name for passive smoking back in 1982.

And so it was that I found myself on the Overland Express to Melbourne, whiling away the tedium with shared alcohol and stories, learning drinking games and club songs. Apparently singing was a serious part of hockey intervarsity culture. When we disembarked at Spencer Street Station the contempt and disdain with which our liaison from hosts Melbourne University Hockey Club (MUHC) greeted us set the pattern for the week. FUHC was simply not up to snuff in the opinion of the well-healed MUHC. By tournament end, when we were called upon to sing a song, we responded not with a bawdy ballad or a mouldy oldie but a freshly penned, dignified work Shitzoff had created to the tune of a mournful Spanish Civil War ballad:

The first training session was an eye-opener and a lung-buster.

Bilbo and Greg the Red (Dreadlocks) had left me with the impression that FUHC was a laid back friendly club dedicated to socialising and socialism. The coach, Rodney ‘Strop’ Hoffman did not subscribe to either. A FUHC legend of the early 70s, Strop had just returned from several years up north high-faluting it in one of the big banks and moonlighting as an officer in the Army Reserve.

‘Ok you lot,’ he commanded as he started the training session, ‘warm up by running around Ring Road.’ Holy crap, obviously there was more to Flinders hockey than parties and weed!

As the weeks unfolded and the winter season commenced, I was inducted into the Flinders Hockey lifestyle – hard demanding

There’s a wank of a uni called Melbourne, It’s a place that we all know so well.

It was there that the IV was MUHCed up, And so many of our brave comrades fell.

At the end of that year, I learnt a defining fact about university clubs – people move on. Most of the key members of the social collective completed their degrees or left. Under pressure from the Sports Association (the FUSA of the time), who were owed two-year’s worth of affiliation fees, the club reverted to a traditional management structure. At the AGM, I was elected secretary, starting my ten years of continuous service on the management committee. As a still relatively naive 18-year-old, I learnt leadership skills very quickly, that would later serve me well in my employment. I mention this, dear reader, because it’s part of the give and take of getting involved in leading a club. The give is your time and sometimes your patience and serenity but the take is your development of life skills and fulfilment from working for an organisation and an interest you are passionate about.

The next couple of years were difficult and challenging but also exciting and rewarding. The club finances were a mess and to remain viable, we needed to rapidly grow the membership base.

We promoted the club to both students and non-students by

FOUNDED 1966

CONTACT secretary@flindershockey.org

PRESIDENT Nikki FAWCEtt

MASCOT Matthew Flangers Falcon highlighting the club’s culture of playing hard competitive hockey whilst being relaxed, friendly and fun loving off the field – to use a contemporary term, we were chill.

We grew, we played well but by 1985 we still owed the Sports Association a bucket load of money. Fed up with this situation we planned a series of fund raising events, including not one but two Tavern Shows, a wine bottling, and a quiz night. These events were so successful that we cleared all of the debts by year’s end.

We reached our peak size around this time, fielding two women’s and four men’s teams in the Winter premiership seasons and a raft of Summer hockey teams. We sent an unofficial men’s team to the 1985 IV in Sydney and official women’s and men’s teams to the 1986 IV hosted by Adelaide Uni. Another highlight of these years were the annual end of season pilgrimage to the Riverland for the Renmark Hockey Carnival over the Labour Day long weekend. We fielded a large number of teams and our camp was the largest and most vibrant part of the tent city that surrounded the Renmark Oval.

My last year of committee involvement was 1992 and I stopped playing at the end of the 1994 winter season. I didn’t officially retire as I intended to return at some stage. That is yet to happen and I haven’t seen many of my old comrades over the intervening years. However, the bonds we forged over that halcyon decade are so strong that when I do see a Flanger it is like we have never been apart. I had the wonderful experience recently, when passing the time of day with a regular customer I have known for years, of discovering that he played for FUHC when he was at Flinders in the 70s and we quickly established we were mutual acquaintances of the likes of Strop, Super Turd and Crazy George.

We swapped names and mutual funny tales and parted company with a much deeper bond than the superficial acquaintance we had maintained in the past. This to me is the lasting legacy of participating in a university club or society. Although your time studying at uni is relatively brief, the friendships you form with like-minded people are life-long – even if you are as crap as maintaining relationships as I am. Uni clubs are different to other clubs and being a member gives you a more rounded university experience.

Those were the games my friend, We thought they’d never end, We’d drink and play for ever and a day.

membership Approximately 80

ACTIVITIES Playing matches in hockey sa winter premiership competitions (4 teams), SUMMER HOCKEY, PUB CRAWL, CLUB NIGHTS, & occasional tournament participation

ACHIEVEMENTS PREMIERSHIPS: 1968, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, & 1993.

AUTHOR Richard Falkner, 52 not out, Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

By the time he was fifty, Richard wanted to be waving a fond farewell to Public Service employment. Mission accomplished!

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- Fiction Review

Readers’ Di-Jess(t) aaaaa

WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME MARGE PIERCY

Feminists, gender and sexual equality supporters, anyone completely fed up with one or more institution of oppression – look no further for your weekly read than Marge Piercy’s proclaimed classic Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). An exploration of time travel, utopia, patriarchy and what makes a revolution, this novel is fast becoming one of my favourites.

Piercy, if you haven’t come across her before, has a noble place in literary and cultural history as one of the famed feminist utopian writers of the 1970s, alongside such contemporaries as Dorothy Bryant and Joanna Russ. These writers employed the written word as a means of challenging patriarchal culture and fictionally expressing the visions of second-wave feminism. Whilst earlier feminists fought for legal rights such as property ownership and the vote, women of the 1960s and ‘70s intertwined the personal with the political, by seeking to broaden discussions about sexual, reproductive, and contraceptive rights.

This period was criticised by various scholars for ‘whitewashing’ feminism – in other words, for ignoring the voices of minorities such as lesbians, working-class women, and women of colour.

Woman on the Edge of Time is a powerful rebuttal to this claim, for its protagonist is at times all three.

Connie Ramos is a Mexican-American woman in her 30s, to whom the world has been cruel. Her daughter Angelina has been taken from her by social workers, both her marriages have ended in tragedy, and the reader meets her as she is being unjustly committed to the Rockover State Psychiatric Hospital. Connie is also struggling with recurring visits from a mysterious, beautiful being named Luciente, who claims to be from the year 2137 and transports them both there to prove it. There, Connie is introduced to the village of Mattapoisett – a village where the binaries of gender cease to exist, sexual and racial equality prevails, and the environment is prioritised over agricultural or industrial progress.

The novel oscillates between Connie’s attempts to both survive and escape from Rockover, and her time spent in Luciente’s future utopia, interacting with the residents of Mattapoisett and struggling to comprehend how her turbulent present has evolved into this. Gradually, she is made aware of another, dystopian possibility – an alternate future that may eventuate instead, and which may depend on Connie’s own actions.

Rockover State Psychiatric Hospital proves itself a worthy metaphoric landscape, for Connie’s social experience is a minefield of oppressive institutions. The most blatant of these institutions is the gender hierarchy; if Piercy’s aim in writing this novel was to infuriate her female readership, then she can certainly give herself

a pat on the back. The entire cast of women in Connie’s present are struggling with a male oppressor, whether it be a husband, a brother, a pimp, or the head doctor at Rockover.

Men own this world so loudly and righteously that Connie has fallen into considering her self-worth through these channels.

Having had her daughter taken from her and her womb removed, Connie is stripped of her potential for motherhood, and views herself as completely worthless without it. Being of the belief that women can do more than raise children, I was naturally enraged by Connie’s self-reduction. Piercy does, however, use this character to illustrate how within such a suffocating patriarchy, and without any counter-perspective, this degradation of women can develop and take hold universally.

The narrative is also rife with racism, which intersects effortlessly with sexism to victimise Connie further. Her memories of being patronised by white upper-class housewives, as well as ridiculed during primary school for ‘mispronouncing’ vowels, create a sense of bleak despair.

Thankfully, Connie is more than a victim. The marvellous thing about Piercy’s protagonist is that whilst she is the heroine, and her actions stem from noble ambition, Connie is not always perfect, and not always good. Her separation from her daughter Angelina, for instance, was justified in her alcoholism and abusive treatment.

There is a much darker, colder side to Connie that makes it impossible to completely trust her.

Furthermore, by throwing her into a mental institution Piercy forces even the reader against her; we begin to doubt the existence of Mattapoisett, and in turn Connie’s ability as a reliable narrator. If anything, this is a perfect display of how circumstances in Connie’s world have snowballed against her – and, in a cultural context, how oppressive institutions foster suspicion in the masses to create distance and silence minorities. And if we, the reader majority, no longer trust Connie, the minority, the institution of oppression wins.

It is terrifying how easy that can be. And it is tragic how many modern battles for political, sexual and racial equality we could finally begin to resolve, if we could just stop using our fear as a weapon and start recognising who truly makes us afraid. For its potency, emotional drive and incredible contemporary relevance, Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time fully deserves to be called a feminist classic. Everyone please go and read it immediately.

AUTHOR Jess Miller, 22, PhD (English and Creative Writing)

Jess says she would like to have caught up on her emails by the time she’s fifty.

- Gaming -

Level UP Let us cast our minds and imaginations back to the 60s, a time where video games had not yet reached mainstream popularity, and the most advanced game was Spacewar!, a low-resolution space combat game consisting of two spaceships engaged in a dogfight; at least it was multiplayer. These were dark times, before such nostalgic icons such as Tetris and Pac-Man had even been dreamed of; before the revolution of the internet brought us 13 year-olds screaming insults at each other through Halo and Call of Duty; before Farmville invaded our Facebook-focused lives, and before the simple little app Angry Birds inexplicably became a movie.

Roll for History

It was at Gen Con 1 in 1968 that Gary Gygax’s interest was piqued by a game of Siege of Bodenburg being played; it had miniatures, mass combat rules, and a big castle centrepiece on the board. Sound familiar? Gygax enquired about purchasing the figures the following year, wrote his own medieval war board game called Arsouf, and formed the Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW. His co-founders were names that have since become big in the tabletop gaming world: Jeff Perren, Rob Kuntz, and shortly thereafter, Dave Arneson.

Perren and Gygax worked together to develop the medieval miniature wargame, Chainmail, which was the first commercially available set But never fear, there were games 50 years ago (or so I am told): of rules for fantasy wargaming, pioneering concepts such as armour Monopoly had been invented, so people hated each other then just class, levels, spells, monsters, and magical potions. If that sounds as much as they do now; Battleship could be played on the primitive familiar to you, it’s because those factors are still used in Dungeons materials that were available at the time (and was not yet a terrible and Dragons today. In fact, the original Dungeons and Dragons game movie); and many other board games were played. Another genre referred heavily to Chainmail rules (and required players to own a was also beginning to emerge from scattered origins of historical copy of Chainmail) while still introducing an alternate ruleset, based military simulations…what we now know as tabletop gaming. It may around rolling 20-sided dice, which later became standard. have been in a somewhat different form but as it turns out, Flinders University isn’t the only thing from the 60s that we still spend a lot This original edition of Dungeons and Dragons eventually grew into of time engulfed in today. an advanced and basic ruleset, and with the release of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, these were merged back together with The birth of modern tabletop gaming happened quietly and Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, released in 2000. Since then there unassumingly in 1967, when a few members of the newly-formed have been 3.5, 4th, and 5th editions of the game. These games all International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) couldn’t make it to carry the same fantasy spirit and some of the characteristics of that their convention. Instead, they decided to have their own little original Chainmail game, which was created because of that first Gen informal gathering the same weekend at a friend’s house in Lake Con almost 50 years ago.

Geneva, Wisconsin. This gathering is now much larger and public, known as Gen Con, and their friend and co-member who let them Nowadays, tabletop gaming is increasingly taking the world by hang out in his living room that weekend was none other than storm. Between large, long-running companies like Wizards of the Gary Gygax - an American game designer and author who is widely Coast, Catalyst, Fantasy Flight, White Wolf, and Chaosium (respectively renowned for his co-creation of the role-playing game Dungeons and responsible for of Dungeons and Dragons, Shadowrun, Dark Heresy, Dragons.

World of Darkness, and Call of Cthulhu) churning out new versions of their games and the explosion of self-published and crowd-funded They incorporated the event the following year and Gen Con 1 took role-playing games cropping up, modern gamers are spoiled for place in 1968 (the informal gathering of the previous year is known both choice and access. But let us not forget their humble origins, as ‘Gen Con 0’). Fun fact: The name Gen Con derives not only from as Flinders University was being built and populated, so were the ‘Lake Geneva Wargames Convention’, but also from the Geneva beginnings of tabletop gaming.

Conventions themselves, as Gygax and company were largely concerned with rules regarding warfare. Gen Con continued to grow AUTHOR since then (but sadly had to leave Gygax’s house), into the largest Kelly Guthberlet, 21, Bachelor of Education (Middle and Secondary)/ tabletop-game convention in North America, and is still being held Bachelor of Science By the time Kelly is fifty, she would like to have a loving family, be working her to this day. dream job, and have her consciousness backed up to The Cloud.

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- Fiction -

Wide Open Sky REVIEW

Wide Open Sky is a feel-good documentary. At only 87 minutes, this movie is a bite-sized joy. It follows the story of the Moorambilla Voices Choir (ages 8-18) in outback Australia.

Michelle Leonard is the founder and director of the choir as she has a strong passion for teaching music to kids. Michelle travels to rural and remote communities in North West NSW annually – over 55 schools in 30 towns – in search of kids with singing talent, but it is namely their passion and determination that will earn them a place in the choir. The region she visits has the highest proportion of Indigenous children in the state and 40% of the population are designated as low income earners.

Wide Open Sky follows Michelle’s selection for Moorambilla Voices Choir members for 2014, to the kids travelling far from home to music camp in preparation for their end of year performance in Coonamble. Four kids who feature in the choir for 2014 noticeably stand out as talented and charismatic: Kyhnan and Mack, both from Lightning Ridge; Opal, from Grawin; and Taylah, from Brewarrina; these kids drive the story. Kyhnan and Taylah are both from Aboriginal families. Kyhnan has big plans for his future, including earning a scholarship to a boarding school in the city. Opal is shyer than the other three, but she has a hidden talent for music composition. Mack is unique compared to the other boys his age, as he quite obviously enjoys singing and dancing as he incorporates it into almost everything he does. Taylah has a very supportive large family, and they support her dream to become a country singer as long as she never forgets where she’s from.

There are many other interesting characters who feature in this documentary, such as: best buddies Ella and Katelyn, who always provide hilarious commentary on their 2014 choir experience; 19-year-old Alice, who composes music for the choir and is of

great inspiration to the children; camp manager Dot, a very unique campfire-singing character; and Nea, the music camp cake maker.

Wide Open Sky was the winner of the ‘Foxtel Movies Audience Award for Best Documentary’ at the Sydney Film Festival 2015, and was a finalist for the ‘Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary’ also at the Sydney Film Festival 2015.

As a feel-good documentary, Wide Open Sky did a very good job.

It generated a cheerful emotion throughout the cinema. It was fantastic to see the kids’ eccentricities blossom rather than wither.

Wide Open Sky demonstrated just how important opportunities such as the Moorambilla Voices Choir are to children, especially those in remote communities, to validate their uniqueness and talent.

Rating: aaaad

AUTHOR Rhianna Carr, 21, Bachelor of Media Arts

Rhianna says by the time she is fifty, she would like to have a 200 acre farm and 1,000 dogs.

ANIME REVIEW: 50 anime extravaganza 1/5 Shinji-Kuns

2/5 Shinji-Kuns

We’ve all been there with Naruto and Bleach. Heralded as a high school romance for the ages, but I just want the hours spent watching Toradora! back. Sword Art Online starts off weak, gets downright terrible. Tokyo Ghoul Root A is time fans could spend instead reading the manga. The last thing anyone should do is watch Karin Chibi Vampire.

Galaxy Angel is the embodiment of ‘I’m so random! Tacos!

XP’. Travel back in time to your high school years and Fruits Basket will just get you like Avril Lavigne did. This Ugly Yet Beautiful World is a train wreck from start to finish, enjoy the ride.

Ao no Exorcist could have been better if it followed the manga. Not sure if Anohana’s decent last episode was worth the build-up. The beginners guide to weeaboo lifestyle FKA Kuroshitsuji. A romance comedy from the early 2000s, sans the comedy, is School Rumble. Don’t watch Dangan Ronpa, instead play the game, its on Steam now (the game is 5/5). Guilty Crown is like a beautiful woman who will only betray you. If you like X-Men and terrible episodic plots you’ll like Charlotte. Episodic to a fault, can’t help feeling Kekai Sensen’s potential went to waste. K Project’s plot doesn’t deserve the beautiful animation it has. Especially true with the sequel K: Return of Kings (1/5). As an average, overstretched story equipped with the crazy cool styling to make it popular, Soul Eater was okay. Vampire Knight is best at being the worst. Azumanga Daioh is your problematic fav.

3/5 Shinji-Kuns Starting off strong with a well-exercised body swap plot Kokoro Connect is worth a shot. Midori Days is about a girl who becomes a hand of the guy she loves. Mekakucity Actors is the closest we will ever get to a vocaloid anime.

If you’re watching High School of the Dead for the plot, there’s not much... Sakamichi no Apollon is K-ON for jazz enthusiasts. Great line work is the best thing about Kuragehime. A long running adaption of an even better manga, honestly just read D. Gray-man instead. Shingeki no Kyojin is 2013’s delayed response to Deathnote—great animation though. Maybe it’s the highest rated of its franchise for a reason but Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is not perfect. Patterns and 2.5D go berserk in a dark reimagining of the magical girl genre in Madoka Magica.

It’s hard to find a flaw within Angel Beats’ bittersweet emotional drama. The only reason I haven’t finished Nichijou yet is because I don’t want to face a world without it. Kyoukai no Kanata: Kyoto animation does it again with the supernatural romances and it’s pretty cool.

Meanwhile, Musaigen no Phantom world was the worst Kyoto animation show possibly ever (1/5). Code Geass is every weeaboo’s Deathnote rebound. I don’t need to review Ouran High School Host Club, you’ve all seen it.

AUTHOR Emma Hough Hobbs, 18, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Digital Media) By the time she is fifty, Emma would like to ‘Animate a thing’.

4/5 Shinji-kuns Brilliant, empowering and enjoyable for everyone, just watch CardCaptor Sakura’s Japanese language cut. One Punch Man struggles to create plot but that’s not a bad thing. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and XXX Holic are the anime dream team; watch together at the same time on 10 screens. Slayers is everything you could want from a 90s fantasy sorcery epic, the 2008 reboot Slayers Revolution is everything you don’t want (2/5). Modern masterpiece Haruhi Suzumiya is soft science fiction’s affair with over-the-top school comedy, equally enjoyable and thought provoking. There is only one anime couple and they are the sweet duo from Chunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai.

Not as complete as the light novels but Durarara!! still hits the mark. Trash anime gets not so trash in Tokyo Ghoul.

Zankyou no terror is short, smart and visually stunning.

Baccano! scores the perfect 5/5, brilliant method to storytelling, incredibly original and entertaining.

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‘Where everybody knows your name.’

10 shows that changed television #5 Cheers was a long-standing institution of American comedy with an influence that has reached as far as the present day. The show initially debuted to disappointing audience numbers that would ordinarily have seen it fail to reach a second season. Despite the low viewership, the series was praised by critics as an intelligentlywritten comedy with a good cast. From these humble beginnings, Cheers would go on to chalk up eleven seasons, including a series finale that broke a number of records for its colossal viewership.

Two spin-offs came from the series in the form of the short-lived The Tortellis and the enormously successful Frasier.

It’s not only the success of the series that left its impression upon television, but also its content. On the surface, Cheers is a light comedy series about a well-meaning community situated around the eponymous bar. It sells itself partly on the good-natured cheer offered by the environment it portrays – an environment characterised by the phrase ‘where everybody knows your name’ that rings out almost as an invitation to viewers to feel a part of this fictional community. If you dig beneath this charming setting, you find a show that took plenty of risks and tackled subjects that even by today’s standards seem brave.

At the heart of the series you have Sam Malone, a retired baseball player, sexual compulsive, and former alcoholic. Sam’s alcoholism is never played for laughs and is always treated with a seriousness and respect. His struggles with the temptation to drink arise at various points throughout the series and are given a fair airing.

Other serious issues are presented throughout as mental illness is touched upon from time to time, and consistently given a more thorough hearing than many series of the last decade. Another example of the time and consideration taken in the series was

of the depiction of more diverse sexualities. The series was ahead of its time in representation of gay people more openly and with greater acceptance.

The series doesn’t just spearhead progressive social views but also utilises more modern styles well before their time. The 270-episode series managed to spin off both the 13-episode The Tortellis and the mammoth 264-episode Frasier. Both spin-off series featured appearances by major characters from their original show at different points. In addition to this, the series had crossovers with Wings and St. Elsewhere. No less than five Cheers characters made appearances in Wings. The Frasier character, Roz Doyle, was named after a producer of Wings who died of breast cancer. The interconnectivity of these shows produces a shared universe well before its time. Attempts have been made to create something as broadly successful as Cheers’s universe with notable examples being Doctor Who, Star Wars’ many spin-off TV series, and the array of interconnected Marvel-produced superhero series.

The great impact of the series can be seen in how often it is still referenced by modern television with series such as Family Guy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, Scrubs, and Friends. 30 Rock also produced a ‘Black Frasier’ sketch. The series has found itself referenced in numerous media, not just television series and movies, but also in video games. Fallout 4, set in Boston, the setting of the series, shows a bar with a similar layout called ‘Prost!’

– a rough German translation of ‘Cheers!’ The bar also features baseball gear in reference to Sam Malone, and a mailman uniform in reference to bar regular Cliff Clavin. Similarly, Dragon Age II features a tavern described as the place ‘everybody knows your name’.

The theme song, with its warm and comforting lyrics, has left a mark on American (and international Western) culture. The song almost breaks the fourth wall in reaching out to the audience with the offered invitation to be a part of tight-knit community.

It has been used in many other situations, including an episode of award-winning animated series Adventure Time. There it was coupled with the barren landscape of a post-apocalyptic world in a juxtaposition of the sense of belonging in the song, to the devastation of the setting. It serves to give an insight into the diminishing humanity of the character of the Ice King in a world that is a far cry from that of Cheers.

Several repeated aspects of the series have found their way into the broader cultural landscape such as the ‘Sam and Diane’ dynamic of two characters clearly in love but seemingly unable to reach an agreement (a very common and unoriginal dynamic but one that is often labelled with the names of these two characters). The common exchange between bar regular Norm Peterson and bar staff (in later series, almost always Woody Harrelson’s Woody) of the bar crowd calling out ‘Norm!’, Woody saying ‘How are you doing, Mr Peterson?’ and Norm replying with some drily sarcastic comment. This scenario had been played out so many times that it came to represent many aspects of the series – the witty and quick banter, the homely and welcoming atmosphere of a welcoming environment, and the tight-knit nature of the main characters.

The third series saw the first change in cast as the character of Ernie ‘Coach’ Pantusso was written out due to the death of actor Nicholas Colasanto. Coach’s position as Sam’s bar assistant was later taken by Woody Harrelson. In the final episode of the series, viewed by a colossal audience, Sam goes and straightens a picture of Geronimo (a Native American Chief) on the bar’s wall before leaving. The painting previously hung in Colasanto’s dressing room and was moved to the bar set in tribute to Colasanto following his death.

Page Left: Artwork by Sheydin Dew. Top (left to right): The real Cheers bar in Boston. Cheers in Family Guy. Cheers in The Simpsons.

Above: Prost! from the 2015 video game Fallout 4.

A number of actors got their first major break in Cheers and would go on to long and successful careers. Ted Danson moved on from playing Sam to appear in Bored to Death, CSI, and Becker, among other roles. Woody Harrelson has gone on to a role in the Hunger Games film series, True Detective, and an extensive list of other films and television series. Rhea Pearlman has maintained a long and successful career with appearances in an extensive list of television series and films. Kelsey Grammar’s successes in The Simpsons, Boss, the X-Men films and a massive host of other films and television productions has left him as perhaps the most successful of all Cheers alumni - not to mention the fact that he reprised his role of Dr. Frasier Crane in the previously mentioned spin-off, Frasier.

Cheers was so ahead of its time yet managed to write an enduring legacy into television that is still acknowledged to this day. Many of today’s comedy writers, particularly in the United States were viewers of Cheers in their formative years and have payed homage to the series in subtle and overt ways.

The series’ success has endured the years and seen it gain eighteenth place in TV Guide’s 2002 list of the best series of all time and 2013 saw the series ranked the eighth best written comedy ever made by the Writers’ Guild of America. The series earned a nomination for the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy award every season of its run and amassed a record-smashing 117 nominations for Emmy awards during its commanding run.

Cheers is still regarded even to this day as the show that took the temperature of American television in a changing time. It is both the measure of change in television and society, and in some cases, a fundamental part of that change.

AUTHOR Liam McNally, 23, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Creative Writing)

When he’s fifty years old, Liam would like to have dogs, cats, and published novels.

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- Music Review - - Music Review

The Music Column

Music: Drake – Beyoncé – James Blake AKA, “JT’s albums of the month destroyed” After doing shady deals to get albums that weren’t available on Spotify, I present 3 more reVIEWS. This column is dedicated to JT (Empire Times’ advice columnist, see p. 19): I hate your music choices.

I had much more enjoyment out of Eurovision than listening to all these albums.

aaaee

AAA

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Drake returns to the 6 and presents to us Views: clean-tuned pop shit. Where did the trap God that crafted such beats as “Energy” and “10 Bands” go? The bass and snares are here on tracks like “Faithful” and “Controlla”, but it’s just not the same. A few tracks show the different, possibly fun side of Drake, with the afro-beat “One Dance” and “Feel No Ways” standing out. Drake still pushes forth with his signature topics of relationships with women and life in Toronto, making them entertaining still and sometimes clever. As a regular devotee to the church of the Six God, I’m usually left with the ability to say either “It’s lit”, “It’s too lit”, and “Turn up, It’s so fuckin’ lit”. Sadly, the album is filled with a lot of excess, which drags down the quality of what would otherwise be an enjoyable Drake LP. But the big question for this issue is Beyoncé’s album, Lemonade. Is Beyoncé just jumping on the hype train that was created by D’Angelo and Kendrick’s latest albums? Partly, but topics of infidelity and black personality are much more prevalent on this record than race relations. Capitalising on infidelity drove the hype of the record, and ultimately sales reflected that, but more can be said on this topic later. Pop music is a great western conspiracy, it is standardised and made appealing to large audiences. This LP is clear and concise, and Queen B not only tries new things on the instrumentals with trap-infused electronic beats, but she cleverly pays homage to traditional ‘black music’ with the jazz and country blues influenced track “Daddy Lessons” and gospel-choir laden “Freedom” (Kendrick Lamar also saves this track with his bridge) — these tracks being the best of the record. I’m in no way a Beyoncé fan and will not take anything from the message of this album, especially from the closer, “Formation”, as this is undeniably a black power and female power album, and I’m neither black or female. However, one can’t deny the appeal of Beyoncé and fans will enjoy this record, hands down.

Lastly, James Blake’s new album, The Colour in Anything can be summed up in 3 words: Overgrown was better. Longer and drearier in places, but everything expected from Blake is there. His ability to craft controlled and voluminous electronic beats never falters and his vocoder is just as emotional as his voice. The album starts with the synth-laden “Radio Silence”, as Blake proclaims ‘I don’t know how you feel’, setting the emotional mood immediately. The distressing track “Put That Away and Talk to Me” and the gloomy “Love Me in Whatever Way” are highlights, the latter being a synth / piano ballad with electronic undertones. Worth picking up for fans of the subdued and quiet electronic genre.

aaaae

AUTHOR Aden Beaver, 19, Bachelor of Creative Arts (Digital Media)

Aden says, “By the time I’m fifty I’ll want to have ran through the 6 with my woes”

By Emma Hough Hobbs

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