tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55625824584229001492024-03-13T10:51:09.211+10:00Anna Angel Journalism and WritingBrisbane writer banging on about stuff sometimes.Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-44010007327277661872016-01-08T22:18:00.001+10:002016-01-08T22:18:19.837+10:00Pen names and winningsSince starting teaching, which I love, I've been writing under a pseudonym to avoid having to censor myself. This is the same reason I didn't want to work for a big, commercial news outlet. I wanted to write what I really thought. I've been doing just that with my new moniker, and it's been truly liberating. Sending off work without fear of personal rejection has been an added bonus. It's seen me take risks that, in terms of getting new pieces published, has really paid off.<br />
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In the past two years, I have written only once under my own name. I entered the Avid Reader (my favourite Brisbane bookshop) Minuscule Flash Fiction competition mid-last-year and had two stories shortlisted. One won, which I was quite chuffed about, and several keyboard warriors were less than happy to hear. (This kind of needless and baseless drama is also well worth avoiding. Despite writing on some controversial topics, I've happily skipped this with my writerly invisibility cloak.) So, here it is. And here's to anonymity.<br />
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<br />Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-20353255595799796422013-02-12T13:16:00.001+10:002013-02-12T13:17:32.295+10:00On HiatusI am currently taking a break from writing to focus on my studies in education. I hope to be back into the swing of things next year, but until then, there won't be many updates around here. I believe there is some truth to the cliche of 'writing what you know'. When you study journalism or writing, you learn how to write but you don't really <i>know</i> anything else. I don't feel I can write with much confidence as a thinly-spread jack-of-all-trades. I hope to be continuously learning so I can not only write with confidence, but have something of value to say at the same time. Education has always appealed to me, and I'm excited to be taking on the challenges it will bring. Here's to broadening horizons.<br />
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Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-32394792091370747592012-10-06T12:12:00.002+10:002012-10-06T12:14:36.670+10:00Articles: Living Vegan and Viva La Vegan!So I wrote an article on compassionate travel for the last Living Vegan magazine, outlining how to be a tourist without exploiting our furry friends. I don't have a scan just yet, but you can pick up the magazine <a href="http://www.livingvegan.com.au/">here.</a> I will have an op-ed in the forthcoming issue, too.<br />
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I have also begun writing on animal and environmental issues for <i>Viva La Vegan! </i>So far I have looked at <a href="http://vivalavegan.net/community/articles/369-oceans-in-crisis-the-myth-of-sustainable-fishing.html">super-trawlers and the fishing industry</a>, why animal activists hate your pets (hint: <a href="http://vivalavegan.net/community/articles/391-companion-animal-overpopulation-crises-a-handy-how-to-guide.html">they don't</a>), and how animal cruelty <a href="http://vivalavegan.net/community/articles/396-how-animal-cruelty-became-retro.html">went retro</a>. Fun times are being had by all!<br />
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I haven't had as much time for freelancing as I would like, and have had to turn down a few great opportunities for personal reasons. With fingers crossed, I am getting back into the swing of things now, and have a few tricks up my sleeve, yet.Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-78409880833822206382012-10-06T11:58:00.001+10:002012-10-06T12:14:58.646+10:00Update: Run, Rabbit Issue TwoWhoops! I have neglected to update on a number of fronts. Most importantly, the second issue of Run, Rabbit Magazine came out in July! I was so impressed with the quality of submissions and am so happy with how it turned out. The third issue, which was originally scheduled for December, is perhaps going to take the form of an annual, unfortunately.<br />
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<div><object style="width:550px;height:194px" ><param name="movie" value="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf?mode=mini&embedBackground=%23ffffff&backgroundColor=%23222222&documentId=120703095348-ae2aa9c23bf64bafb6baf3fc3fdbb98a" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="menu" value="false"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" wmode="transparent" style="width:550px;height:194px" flashvars="mode=mini&embedBackground=%23ffffff&backgroundColor=%23222222&documentId=120703095348-ae2aa9c23bf64bafb6baf3fc3fdbb98a" /></object><div style="width:550px;text-align:left;"><a href="http://issuu.com/runrabbitmagazine/docs/issuetwo?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222" target="_blank">Open publication</a> - Free <a href="http://issuu.com" target="_blank">publishing</a> - <a href="http://issuu.com/search?q=art" target="_blank">More art</a></div></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-64575292288404321952012-06-26T12:46:00.003+10:002012-06-26T12:48:41.714+10:00Interview: Ben Ely for Rave Magazine<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Lovely guy, great concept and style, lovely venue. This should be a quality exhibit, me thinks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="line-height: 115%;">Regurgitator’s
Ben Ely </span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">tells <b>Anna
Angel</b> making art gives his ears a break, but just might drive him bonkers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Most of us start the day with coffee or a shower to
perk us up before work. Musician and artist Ben Ely finds himself in the
freezing art studio out the back of his Melbourne home before he’s even fully
lucid. Ely, best known for his musical projects like Pangaea and Brisbane-born
alt-rock mainstay Regurgitator, says that’s when he does his best work. It’s
not hard to imagine his paintings as inspired by a dream state, given the
bizarre touches he lends even to his bands’ cover art. For his latest
exhibition at Fortitude Valley’s Lust for Life, Ely says he’s been painting a
life-long obsession: games </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">– both of the computer </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">and board variety.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">“The first time I ever saw a Space Invaders machine
was in a caravan park in Yamba, and it blew me away that you could move the
joystick and the little alien and spaceship would move,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">While there's an identifiable sense of ‘80s nostalgia in the
pick of video games inspiring Ely’s new collection (he likes the simplicity of
their design and soundtracks) his taste in board games ranges from wacky
18<sup>th</sup> century creations to strategy classic Risk. That being said, Ely's inspiration to create his
own playable art has spurred by more than just Pacman and dice.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> “I had a
break up last year, and ‘Game Over!’ is kind of the idea of that as well, how
people play games in love and life,” he says. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">The only parallel Ely draws between his art and
music is a bent toward nostalgia in both, but he says if his paintings were
songs they’d be pretty catchy. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> “My art’s
pretty low brow; it’s quick and immediate and that’s how I like it,” he says.
“Kind of like a pop song you know; short and cheap.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">After spending many hours alone in his studio
preparing for the show, Ely says he’s beginning to understand how artists are
driven mad. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">“When our band would be touring all the time I’d
say, ‘When I’m older I just want to be alone and paint’, and now that I’m older
and I’m alone and painting all the time I’m kind of going, ‘I can’t wait to
tour’ because I’d like to actually see somebody and have some sort of social
interaction,” he says. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">He admits the solitary life isn’t all bad.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">“It gives my ears a rest to paint,” Ely says, “I
love being creative without a lot of noise and beer”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Ely will be exhibiting alongside friend and tattoo
artist, Brian Graydon. The pair met in primary school, where Graydon nipped
future musical atrocities in the bud. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">“I was listening to this awful music and he had a
lot better taste than I did and introduced me to bands like Devo and Bad
Brains; just really interesting music,” Ely says. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">They worked together on t-shirts, posters and comics
before their separate careers took over.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">“Brian has always been a big part of my creative
life, and it’s really nice that we can work together again even though we
haven’t done that for about twenty years or so,” Ely says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Ben
Ely’s ‘Game Over!’ and Brian Graydon’s ‘Hateful But Shy’ exhibit at Lust for
Life, Fortitude Valley from Thursday July 5 to July 29.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
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<br /></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-67507386537587017782012-06-19T12:26:00.000+10:002012-06-19T12:26:39.867+10:00Interview: Cirque Du Soleil's Ovo for Rave Magazine<span style="font-family: inherit;">Roll up, roll up! Cirque are coming back to town. For <a href="http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/33570/192/">Rave Magazine</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA6MsDMl-1NdeMgf_QKhx4XKnQ_oQwIUlpZmnSmKbi22T1yNrAqL3Jsr7-sGKxVOKIoKRQoLiHi1h3Baz5ImlL9g4oPTMNjJtu-SaAhKtLvlKcLP5X_S1POEDr2IQG_cxLpokbv1NugmM/s1600/ovo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA6MsDMl-1NdeMgf_QKhx4XKnQ_oQwIUlpZmnSmKbi22T1yNrAqL3Jsr7-sGKxVOKIoKRQoLiHi1h3Baz5ImlL9g4oPTMNjJtu-SaAhKtLvlKcLP5X_S1POEDr2IQG_cxLpokbv1NugmM/s320/ovo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Ovo, the newest </span><b style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Cirque
Du Soleil</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> spectacular to fly into Brisbane, is a light-hearted love story
swarming with energy. Artistic director </span><b style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Marjon
Van Grunsven</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> tells </span><b style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Anna Angel </b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">it’s
a bug’s life for the cast and crew.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sun rises, and an ecosystem of insects begins to
stir. Into their midst enters a stranger carrying a large and mysterious egg.
So begins this unique production from Montreal’s celebrated Cirque Du Soleil.
Ovo might be the 25<sup>th</sup> production from these masters of contemporary
circus, but Brazilian dancer and choreographer Deborah Colker is their first
female creator and director. Her production, which opened in 2009, is one of
only a few Cirque show to maintain an overarching narrative.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> “It’s very
sweet and simple to follow for young children, but also for older people and
middle-aged people, and it’s just so pleasant and happy,” Ovo’s artistic director
Marjon Van Grunsven says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The family-friendly story, which sees a ladybug fall
in love with a fly, is secondary to the main inspiration for the piece:
movement. From the pulsating rhythmic music, to the flexible, adjustable
costumes, every aspect of the show celebrates the distinctive and fascinating motion
of the insect world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ovo has all the breath taking acts you might expect,
but each adopts a creepy-crawly persona that befits their style of movement. Foot
jugglers become hard-working ants, a team of scarabs perform a Russian swing
act, an aerial duo transform into graceful butterflies, crickets leap and bound
off an eight-metre vertical wall, and a spider dangles dangerously from a
slackwire web.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Under Van Grunsven’s guidance, the performers shed
their human mannerisms entirely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The way [Deborah Colker] works is very much the way
I work as well, which is to inspire each and every individual on that stage to
dive into the role of their particular insect,” she says. “Let’s take a
cricket; we wanted them to study the movement of the cricket by watching films
and photos, and going out in nature and watching them for real.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the show’s 54 performers, only three have
previous theatre experience. Van Grunsven explains that part of her job was to
help them evolve from acrobats, performers or even Olympians, to artists. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It is a constant challenge because we expect the
artist to continue to develop their characters. We want them to find new
things, we want them to keep researching, and we want them to be aware that if
they go out of that role of the insect, they immediately become a human being
and the magic is lost.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Life for the creative team under the trademark blue
and yellow Big Top is just as varied and colourful as the insect ecosystem they
replicate. Van Grunsven works an average 65 hour week chiselling the show down
to perfection, constantly tweaking small details, and keeping it fresh for new
audiences. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“As we say in Holland – and I’m Dutch – we keep
putting the dots on the ‘I’, because it needs to be perfect every day,” she
says, exhibiting the dynamism the ex-dancer and choreographer seems to apply to every
aspect of her life and work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What I try to do is to remind people of the blessed
life they live, being able to entertain 2,600 people every day, and to keep
tickling their passion.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Admittedly, when you’re in the circus business,
spirits are naturally high. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We have such a wonderful cast – they all really
want to be here, they all really love what they do, so it’s really not that
difficult to keep them on their toes,” Van Grunsven says. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Ovo, which</span> <span style="line-height: 115%;">hit its 1,000<sup>th</sup>
performance in January this year, features a thrilling 14-metre flying trapeze act,
making it the highest Cirque has ever presented. Even that is constantly being
challenged and developed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We’re so excited to have it,” Van Grunsven says,
“we’re always asking how we can make it bigger; what else is possible.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Traditional circuses always saw the crowds roll up,
but Cirque’s creative, artistic twist has truly redefined what the classic form
of entertainment means today. Van Grunsven explains she was a fan of the ‘Circus
of the Sun’ long before she joined their ranks. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s a mixture of so many different types of art,
and it’s all fused together in such a brilliant way that you just don’t realise
that they all work together in a very
cohesive and smooth manner,” she says. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It caresses your heart and soul when you sit inside
that Big Top and you can feel the excitement, the concentration and focus of
the artists and technicians; you’re inside this big bubble and you become a
part of it all.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> When the 170-strong
Cirque extended family heads to Brisbane next month, we might never look at an
ant’s nest the same way again. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ovo runs from July
14 to September 2 at Northshore Hamilton. Tickets from
www.premier.ticketek.com.au.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<br />Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-85503274132104649252012-06-11T13:11:00.002+10:002012-06-11T13:19:10.409+10:00Article: Anchored in Tradition for Vintage Affair<span style="font-family: inherit;">I wrote a piece on the resurgence of traditional American style tattooing in Australia for the second issue of Vintage Affair magazine last year, and it has now been <a href="http://issuu.com/vintageaffair/docs/vintageaffair2012">released</a>!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdNN3Xu9D8XNCHQnhOyJgc2otscJ13L7PRAuPktvgKLww04F-Eff8wF3veJ5Tj5EzyGmwa-88IZG116qo4pukVJMVM20rt-RixelrWQtkMI9BI2Ke29tzuczO3mqIi1iLvH2n5Qhl9zI/s1600/blogggg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdNN3Xu9D8XNCHQnhOyJgc2otscJ13L7PRAuPktvgKLww04F-Eff8wF3veJ5Tj5EzyGmwa-88IZG116qo4pukVJMVM20rt-RixelrWQtkMI9BI2Ke29tzuczO3mqIi1iLvH2n5Qhl9zI/s320/blogggg.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Step right up and see the incredible tattooed lady! Held
captive and tattooed every day for a year, she lives to tell her amazing tale! </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nineteenth century crowds flocked to circus ‘freak shows’ to
marvel at the tattooed performers, who often invented fantastical tales to accompany
their head-to-toe ink. By the turn of the twentieth century, the ancient
practice had already become – in Western cultures and especially across the USA
– a rite of passage for servicemen, sailors, jailbirds and circus folk. The
style and iconography developed by artists of the era formed the backbone of
the emergent tattoo culture up until the 1970s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some blame Janis Joplin for inspiring a rebellious
generation to go under the gun and seek out designs that spoke to them, not their
grandfathers. Forty years on, Kat Von D and her merry crew of reality spin-offs
are credited with inciting a new wave of tattoo aficionados. This time around,
our society’s infatuation with bygone eras and simpler times has ensured the
old guard of tattooing got its own back.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Traditional American designs were a staple of the Australian
tattoo culture when pioneer artists like Melbourne’s John ‘Johnny Dollar’ Entwistle
opened up shop, before eventually giving way to Japanese, tribal and contemporary
styles. Nowadays, traditional and neo-traditional designs are so highly sought
after many artists consider it a fad. The
designs are characterised by thick lines, bold colours and the classic
iconography that once graced the walls of tattoo parlours everywhere. While
there is a large interest in vintage flash today, these images held a different
significance for the original wearers. Sailors earned a bluebird on the chest
after 5,000 miles at sea, with the ever-popular mirrored bluebirds reserved for
those who had doubled that. A pin-up girl design could keep you company when deployed
at war, a flag or memorial would remind you of home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Traditional artist Wade Larkin, who has been tattooing for
seven years at Brisbane’s Wild at Heart, believes the cultural relevance of
these motifs is transferable, with each individual applying their own
interpretation and meaning.“You get people choosing the classic ‘homeward bound’
tattoos, and I guess for them it still really means the same thing,” Larkin
says. “But you can do anything as a traditional-looking tattoo; I’ve even done Playstation
controllers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The vintage-lover’s lament ‘they don’t make ‘em like they
used to’ doesn’t just apply to the quality of fashion, home wears and cars. For
many artists, a return to the style of golden era tattoos means work that will
look as good in thirty or forty years’ time as it does freshly inked. “They’re
timeless, classic and they never go out of style,” Larkin says. “You see all the
tattoos from the ‘80s, with fine lines and detail, and they’re not looking too
good now, whereas someone who got a classic panther design, you can still tell
it’s a panther.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Danny Young of Melbourne’s Tattoo Magic agrees, saying an
interest in old-school tattoos was what initially drew him to the practice. “I
try and do a bit of everything, but everything I do I keep in that simple way;
I keep it bold and clean,” Young says, adding, “I think they age better”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Having tattooed for seven years in the traditional style,
Young sees it as one of the many trends the industry has embraced over the
years, but one with staying-power and artistic merit. “Maybe people romanticise
them a bit, but it’s good to go back to the classic ones and back to basics,
because it got a bit out of hand for a while there,” he says. “Things just get
so overdone, even in music – it’s good to go back to simple rock ‘n’ roll.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Young and Larkin are examples of how firmly the movement is
tied to vintage and Rockabilly culture. Larkin, who has played in Rockabilly
bands, takes an interest in vintage hot rods. Young’s nostalgia for simpler
times extends to everything from music to graffiti styles. Rockabilly and custom culture festivals like
Brisbane’s annual Greazefest, almost invariably feature some of the nation’s
most sought after traditional artists. Greazefest’s tattoo-inclusive art show
is sponsored by local parlour True Love Tattoo, which opened in 2005 with the ethos
of ‘keeping the oldschool dream alive’. For some the style allows an outward
expression of their vintage tastes, for others an opportunity to pay homage to
pioneering artists like Sailor Jerry and Ed Hardy and to share in a piece of
history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s fascinating how much tattooing has progressed over the
decades, in quality, style and popularity, but some things never change. Larkin
will tattoo a Sailor Jerry design exactly as it appears – mistakes and all, but
says the digital age has made it just as easy for copycats to reproduce custom artwork.
“It seems that someone will post something online and a suddenly there’ll be three
more of them exactly the same,” he says. “But that’s what traditional artists
did too; tattooists have just copied and copied each other over the years.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s to another century of quality body art.</span><o:p></o:p></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-68307697927929887172012-06-08T14:28:00.001+10:002012-06-08T14:28:33.970+10:00Review: Snakeface - Oberon for Rave Magazine<br />
<b>SNAKEFACE – Oberon</b><br />
<b>(Arrest Records)</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
Ensemble cast star in thriller shot in the Blue Mountains<br />
<br />
Snakeface is comprised of members from indie bands Jonathan Boulet and Parades, but that doesn’t mean their sound will necessarily please fans of the aforementioned. Oberon, their second album, is grounded in hardcore and punk, but there’s a mess of influences rearing their heads. It’s self-described as ‘weird and evil shit’, which makes me think I’m not supposed to find this half-hour affair as enjoyable as I do. Sorry. Oberon pits short, gritty, politically charged stretches against interludes of composure to foster an effective (and rare) sense of balance. Lyrics like “occupy and rebel” and “stop pretending this doesn’t exist” are given a savage delivery that sidesteps the regular trap of affected rage for something with actual guts. Oberon was named for the Blue Mountains spot where it was recorded; I like to think of the superbly ineffable final track, Singularity, twanging across the mountaintops and waking far-flung neighbours from their naps.<br />
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ANNA ANGEL<br />Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-66825074696489926662012-06-06T20:53:00.000+10:002012-06-11T13:17:31.865+10:00Interview: Daniel Weetman for Rave MagazineAhh, The Black Seeds. So enjoyable - and such nice lads. Read online <a href="http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/33305/211/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>DANIEL WEETMAN</b> of <b>THE BLACK SEEDS</b> tells <b>ANNA ANGEL</b> that listening to their records doesn’t do them justice.<br />
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New Zealand reggae mainstays The Black Seeds know where their strengths lie.<br />
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Even before dropping their fifth studio album Dust And Dirt in April, they’d packed up and shipped out on the mammoth world tour that will soon bring them to Brisbane. If over 140 shows in four months followed by a packed summer festival season seems like a lot, it is. But there’s little chance the boys will be burnt out by the time they touch down on our shores, according to vocalist and percussionist Daniel Weetman.<br />
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“As long as you’re not overindulging too much in things that can make you a little more tired than usual,” Weetman says with a small laugh, “I think you can handle it.”<br />
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They could probably get away with a few benders, but the eight-piece know the value of their reputation for consistently high-energy and immersive sets.<br />
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“There’s a lot of people still in New Zealand that haven’t heard The Black Seeds, and even people that work for radio stations and media, but I can tell you that if these people came to a show they’d be more impressed by the band, because live, it’s something else,” Weetman says. “The album isn’t the full picture, and we know that. I don’t think we can just go out there and play the sounds; we’re a band that really wants to get people dancing.”<br />
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After more than a decade together, these Wellington exports have built a strong following across Europe and North America, as well as closer to home. Perhaps it’s because their mix of reggae, dub, and funk crosses language barriers easily, or it could be that there’s nobody that really quite compares. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.<br />
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“We’ve always seen the potential of The Black Seeds overseas, because there is really no other band that actually does what we do,” Weetman says. “We try to bring a new twist – our own interpretation of maybe a modern reggae, or a modern punk-reggae sound. It’s very cool that you have someone in France that just loves the band as much as any old school Kiwi fan.”<br />
<br />
Their latest offering, Dust And Dirt, was created free of money and time pressures at the band’s own rehearsal and recording space in Wellington. The result of hours of musical exploration and jam sessions, the record is lighter and wonderfully unstructured. Still, the live set was always on their mind.<br />
<br />
“We’ve thought about some of these songs in the live context and really tried to work them with that live idea in mind, other songs were just spontaneous jams that felt good and sounded good,” Weetman says. “Some good things have come out of that, and we have an album that’s a good progression on what we’ve done before.”<br />
<br />
Weetman says earnestly that this is probably their best work yet. I’m inclined to agree, though you’ll have to catch them at The Hi-Fi to truly get the full effect.Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-40296350476633183002012-06-04T16:29:00.001+10:002012-06-11T13:15:56.377+10:00Why I'm still watching Glee, or Review: Glee Graduation Album for Rave Magazine<br />
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Published in the latest Rave. My love for <i>Glee</i> is now public for the first time since they totally and utterly jumped the shark. </div>
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<em style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Goodbye McKinley High; Auto-Tune forever</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">When my entire grade willingly formed a ‘circle hug’
to Green Day’s Good Riddance for three inexplicable minutes at the end of our
year 12 formal, we didn’t know the shame would bind us forever. If <i>Glee</i> had existed when we left school, their
cloying cover would almost certainly have been our first choice. You don’t need
Vitamin C’s Graduation at the drama class farewell party when you can sob as
Chris Colfer performs vocal gymnastics to the tune of Madonna’s I’ll Remember. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Don’t think of this as set of overproduced reprisals
of some of the most sentimental ‘life change’ tracks of all time, even though
that’s essentially what it is. See it as a wonderfully terrible gift. Give it
to the next youth at the bus stop whose faraway eyes suggest they’re in want of
a dream. Give it to yourself and laugh scornfully at populist culture until
suddenly you’re crying because everything was easy when you were seventeen; for
God’s sake get your life together. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">If you’re still following the shenanigans of Mr
Schue and his merry band of fit-togethers – and yes I am, guilt free – you can
catch these tracks as they’re tentatively linked into the plot line. A handful of
the numbers will come to light in the season finale, but it only takes an
amateur sleuth to pick up the musical cues. School’s Out, but It’s Not the End
because these kids will be Forever Young. Bless their eager hearts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">**</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ANNA ANGEL</span></span></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-23258704190886563602012-05-25T18:55:00.000+10:002012-05-25T18:55:22.645+10:00Review: Sigur Ros - Valtari for Rave Magazine<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 14px;">Read it online <a href="http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/33092/180/">here</a>, or in the latest issue. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 14px;">Somewhere between lapping up Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson’s triumphant solo efforts and replaying 2008’s Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust on desperate nights, I had begun to believe we’d heard the last from this Icelandic dream quartet. Yes, their sixth studio release was very nearly abandoned, but Valtari – which translates to ‘steamroller’ – is finally tangible. The bulk of the record stems from pre-recorded material; orphaned musical tangents and tracks that outgrew the projects that birthed them. Wherever they were once hiding, these eight tracks together form a striking and cohesive work. Valtari is certainly more minimal than we’ve heard Sigur Rós before. You could almost put it in the ‘ambient’ box, given the floating soundscapes and chilling stillness of Varðeldur and the title track, amongst others. Yet Valtari doesn’t feel lacking for its subtlety. Each layer is given due time to resonate, acting in harmony with Birgisson’s falsetto instead of pushing against it. There are the characteristic breakdowns and flashes of joyous frenzy, but they, too, feel more refined. Google-translating the titles and lyrics of any Sigur Rós track is risky, given their penchant for mixing their invented ‘Hopelandic’ with Icelandic. On the mercifully easy-to-translate finale Fjögur Piano (yep, ‘Four Piano’), the notes hang in the air by a single thread, before weaving into a fittingly haunting end. This steamroller doesn’t hit all at once. It moves gently, sweeping you up inch by inch before knocking the wind out of you.</span></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-77613488731760088912012-05-20T21:17:00.001+10:002012-05-20T21:18:12.371+10:00Article: 'Sailing for Trash' for Run Rabbit Magazine<br />
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The second issue of Run, Rabbit magazine is coming together a treat. Here's a post I wrote for the blog since I can't reveal any of the main event yet. I am thrilled by the talent of all the contributors on board for this one, and I can't wait to share it with the world.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I come from a thrifty family. Our motto was always ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ – it may as well have been inscribed on our family crest. Growing up, Saturday morning meant trawling the Weekend Shopper for garage sale listings within an hour’s distance from our house. We’d each take a few dollars and high hopes of what we might uncover in a stranger’s carport.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was eight or nine, I found toys others had outgrown for only fifty cents. They were always cherished more because I felt I’d rescued them from a mess of unwanted junk. Later, as a self-conscious teen, I’d be scared to get out of the car in case I saw someone I knew from school. I was quickly lured out with the promise of cheap vintage finds my mother’s hawk eye often spotted. Some weekends were more lucrative than others, but it didn’t matter if we came home empty handed. It was the nature of the hunt.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, some five years since I last garage sailed with my family, the seas seem to have dried up. Driving through the Brisbane suburbs neighbouring my own, there’s a distinct lack of tatty cardboard signs advertising ‘MEGA BARGAINS’ and sausage sizzles. Is it because we can now list any unwanted bits and bobs on Gumtree or eBay without much hassle? Are we less inclined to invite strangers into our personal space – even if it’s just the front lawn or garage?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For her part, my mum is clinging to her pricing guns. We weren’t just prolific garage sailors in the buying sense; we’ve hosted our fair share, too. After each of them, we’d collapse on the living room floor and swear them off for life. As we hauled our left over goods to the local Salvos, we’d curse the insensitive bastards who inevitably showed up at five in the morning demanding to be let in. There would also be amazing stories to share.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My mum’s last garage sale was just over a week ago. She met far-flung neighbours with hushed tales of the Man Who Once Lived at This House and his various exploits. Apparently, the place is most definitely a candidate for an exorcism. They shook hands with the owner of the local corner store and joked about the crafty person who took the entire giveaway box in one fell swoop.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It might be easier to hock your sofa online and pretend your neighbours don’t exist, but it’s nowhere near as satisfying as helping carry it to the van of lady who tells you she’s been looking for “just that colour” to match her decor.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you’re a collector of anything from vintage gloves to Dr Who memorabilia, you know how readily you can source your fix with nothing but an internet connection and a credit card. But finding something unique – something you simply must have – while the previous owner regales you with the story of how it came to be here, in this garage, on this plastic chair, marked as five dollars? No online buying experience comes close to that. Even op shopping doesn’t have provide the same connection on a community level as this form of impromptu micro-enterprise.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just as I was lamenting the loss of this bargain hunting tradition, in rides a knight in slightly battered, but good working condition armour. Garage Sale Trail is a nationwide initiative connecting garage sailors and buyers that’s focused on sustainability and community. The trail takes place on May 5, with home sales and community fundraising markets across the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Check out the listings for your area at</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="http://www.garagesaletrail.com.au/" style="color: #030303; font-family: inherit;" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.garagesaletrail.com.au/" style="color: #030303; font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">www.garagesaletrail.com.au</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. If you see me at a sale counting my silver coins this weekend, please forgive any scratches or evil eyes I might give you over cheap Tupperware. Old bargain hunting habits die hard.</span></div>
<br />Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-15025092725095498142012-04-17T16:13:00.001+10:002012-06-11T13:18:30.050+10:00Review: Wes Willenbring 'Weapons Reference Manual' for Rave MagazineView online <a href="http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/32493/181/">here.</a><br />
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Thankfully, San Franciscan ambient musician Wes Willenbring doesn’t
produce the kind of limply ethereal sounds you once meditated to that time you
were trying to be more spiritual. On this, his third release, Willenbring
wrests his raw guitar work together with distorting effects and chilling piano
to create a record that’s more 'layered aural dreamscape' than 'soundtrack to Ikea
catalogue'. Tracks like People Disappear Everyday wax and wane, with deeply immersive
silences and striking instrumental work that jolts you back to consciousness. Short,
achingly melancholic numbers pepper the highlight tracks. Most are just long
enough to lose yourself in but Quaaludes presents fifteen minutes of humming
guitar, melting uneasily into a hypnotic composition of warped effects. These
soundscapes are tightly constructed but fluid enough that Weapons Reference Manual feels like a choose-your-own-adventure record; there’s undeniable
emotion behind the dramatic scores and haunting static interludes, but what it
evokes is up to you.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-66291630252125020532012-03-22T16:35:00.000+10:002012-03-22T18:52:23.219+10:00Review: The Mars Volta 'Noctourniquet' for Rave Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This just in. That is, in Rave Magazine <a href="http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/32004/180/">issue 1033</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Navigating The Mars Volta’s variety of prog-rock has
never been simple; their breadcrumb trail of soundscapes and cryptic lyrics
inevitably strays off course. The question is whether to go along for the ride on
this, their sixth studio release. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Noctourniquet is a blazing riposte from a band often
accused of self-indulgence, and of having reached their peak. These 13 tracks
present some of the most accessible in the band’s catalogue, yet their many layers
and melodic tangents may be still too dizzying for many of their critics. Coming
in at just over an hour, this is a tighter and less frantic mind trip than
long-time listeners will be used to. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s sprawling banshee vocals command
both structured rock numbers like Aegis, and dreamier moments such as Empty
Vessels Make the Loudest Sound. Never one to be outshone, guitarist Omar Rodriguez
Lopez owns the rhythmic waves of lead single, The Malkin Jewel and the fire-slinging
Molochwalker. Ambient nods to ‘70s prog-rock (In Absentia) and synth-heavy
numbers (Whip Hand) melt into softly quivering lullabies (Trinkets Pale of
Moon). Overall, you get the sense this record is their unique interpretation of
the expression ‘less is more’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Standing slightly askew beside neatly packaged, made-for-iTunes
anthems, TMV have made another puzzle worth taking the time to piece together. If
Rodriguez Lopez et al. lost you years ago, this record may not be different enough
to win you back. For the unacquainted, ambivalent and fans alike, Noctourniquet
begs to be heard – hallucinogens not necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Four stars. </span></div>
</div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-44055113497795851652012-03-15T17:06:00.000+10:002012-03-15T17:14:14.346+10:00Feature: 'Ethical Ink' for Living Vegan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've got a featuring outline how to get a tattoo done sans animal products in the latest issue of Living Vegan Magazine. I was also charged with the task of testing and comparing chocolate biscuits. It was very onerous, as I'm sure you can imagine.<br />
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I haven't got my hands on a copy yet, but I'll put some scans up soon.Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-37283770906341205592012-02-09T23:26:00.000+10:002012-02-09T23:26:57.123+10:00Interview: Ashleigh Auckland for Mood of Monk<span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently I chatted to Brisbane songstress Ashleigh Auckland for Mood of Monk. Read online <a href="http://www.moodofmonk.com/2012/01/the-wanderlust-of-ashleigh-auckland/">here</a> or below.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Wanderlust of Ashleigh Auckland</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Wanderlust tugs at the restless mind, dragging us into the unknown. I feel the pull, too, so I relate when Brisbane songstress Ashleigh Auckland tells me she’s constantly on the move. Instead of the postcards and Facebook albums titled ‘Adventures’ most of us send back, Auckland internalises the world around her and weaves it into unaffected indie-pop.</span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">The soon-to-be released </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Vagabond</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"> evolved with and apart from its creator, taking on a life and direction of its own, as creative works are sometimes want to do. Auckland says </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Vagabond</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"> isn’t the record she originally set out to produce, but in its fluid state, it became exactly what she </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">wanted</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #48423f; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"> to release for her debut. The record is still raw and acoustic in nature, but it has taken on an unexpectedly darker tone. The title track is one hauntingly emotive example.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“It just captures every bit of emotion I was feeling at the time. That song is about someone quite close to me who has dealt with a lot of personal battles. The word ‘vagabond’ basically means someone who comes and goes, and it can be a positive word and it can be negative, too. It’s basically about those personal demons coming and going.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Writing about the people around you can be difficult to pull off without sounding as if you’ve written a ‘relationship album’. Auckland says while many of her tracks may sound like odes to lovers lost and found, their inspiration is much more varied.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I draw influence from life experience; I travel quite a bit. I moved out of home when I was quite young, travelled around, and I basically haven’t stopped since. Most of the songs are observations of people around me and what I see them going through.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Auckland will be continuing her travels this year – she’s planned a move to London after the release of her record.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I moved out there in 2008 with the expectation to live there indefinitely, then the recession hit and it didn’t really work out. It was really disappointing coming back, so I don’t want to put expectations on it, I just want to see what happens. I’ve been writing for some DJs in Belgium and I’ve just got a manager there doing some scouting for me, so it might be that I spend more time in Belgium and Germany. Who knows?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When you’re away from home it’s often the most insignificant things you miss, the smells and noises of your natural habitat. For Auckland, it’s Brisbane’s simplicity and Australia’s cleanliness and quietude that bring her back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I spent a lot of time in regional areas as a kid, and so the thing I miss the most when I’m travelling is animal sounds – it seems a bit weird but I miss birds tweeting.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I wonder aloud whether it’s difficult to get noticed as an artist in a country where we often put our prized exports on a pedestal, unless other countries notice you, too. Auckland both agrees and disagrees. She says while Brisbane was the perfect place to her plant her musical roots, there is still a perception that international acclaim makes an artist more worthy.</span></div>
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<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Unsurprisingly, Auckland, who plays piano and guitar, counts a number of female singer-songwriters among her favourite artists, citing Adele and fellow Brisbane lass Emma Louise.</span>“I haven’t ever heard anybody in the Brisbane music community speak a bad word about anyone. It’s a really great environment to get started. I don’t know that if I had started out in Sydney or Melbourne I’d be doing what I’m doing now … A lot of people have a mentality that overseas artists are more successful because that’s what you see on T.V and hear on the radio, at least in mainstream music anyway. I think in the indie music scene the mentality is starting to shift a little, but I think that’s why people do go overseas. Also there are more opportunities for artists.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />Auckland herself works autonomously and organically when writing her music, creating an acoustic canvas before inviting outside creative direction. She says she feels a greater creative licence writing for other artists than under her own name.</span>“The first singer-songwriter that really struck a chord with me was Imogen Heap. She’d post these videos of her creating a sound – just the strangest sounds created in lots of different ways – that you’d hear end up in the album. It’s just organic and original music.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“With my own songs, I tend to take them really personally, but when I’m writing for someone else there’s almost this complete freedom.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For now, it’s all about wearing her heart on her sleeve and sharing <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vagabond</em> with the world. The title track, ‘Middle of Nowhere’ and ‘Running’ are all rating well on Triple J Unearthed’s pop charts – a good sign for this up-and-coming artist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“When I first got my tracks up there, it was mostly friends voting for me which obviously gave me a bit of momentum, but now it’s such a great feeling knowing people you don’t know are listening to your music and taking something from it in some way.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She muses: “That’s why you do it, to share your music with people”, and I can’t help but nod in agreement even though I know she can’t see me from the other end of the phone line. Yes, that’s why we all create whatever it is we create. Why we keep doing it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I ask where she wants to be in five years’ time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I just want to be writing music I love and still performing every night. I’ve never wanted fame out of this; I’d just want a fan base that really enjoys my music.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With a voice like that, there’s little question we’ll be hearing more of Ashleigh Auckland in the near future, never mind in the next five years.</span></div>
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</div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-5711940086363074812012-01-11T21:34:00.002+10:002012-04-13T19:09:35.437+10:00Feature: ''It's not the end of the world' for The Isthmus<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's an apocalypse-themed fun piece I wrote for The Isthmus. What role do you play in end-times?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You can read it online <a href="http://www.theisthmus.com.au/2011/10/not_the_end/">here</a>.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's not the end of the world</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By Anna Angel</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m a big a Robert Frost fan as they come (at least, in any country where his poetry isn’t included in the national curriculum). I have his words tattooed on me, and I think he would have been a damn clever sort. But even I can admit his take on the apocalypse may have been a bit narrow.<span id="more-88" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some say the world will end in fire;</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some say in ice.</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From what I’ve tasted of desire</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I hold with those who favour fire.</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But if it had to perish twice,</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think I know enough of hate</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To say that for destruction ice</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Is also great</span></em></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And would suffice.</span></em></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Robert Frost – ‘Fire and Ice’</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sure, there’s those who point the finger at fire, and ice hasn’t gotten off scot-free. But what about alien invasion, nuclear annihilation, the Rapture, Mayan prediction or freak cosmic accident? Luckily for the pessimistic and end-day curious amongst us, pop culture has picked up where Frost left off. In fact, we’ve become a little obsessed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With the threat of global warming playing on our conscience and an ancient calendar apparently predicting our doom at the end of 2012, it’s no wonder we’re getting a little panicked. It seems every other week brings forth another Armageddon according to one <a href="http://www.familyradio.com/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">religious extremist</a> or another. Truthfully, our planet has been plagued by a devastating number of natural disasters from earthquakes to floods, famine and war in the past year. Perhaps it’s morbid to turn to dystopian fiction for a bleak view of what else is in store, but we can rest assured we’re not the only ones who did it. While we may disagree on whether or not the bible is a work of fiction, The Apocalypse is nevertheless the final book of the New Testament. From there on in, it became a popular, albeit morbid guessing game: how and when will it happen?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s in our nature to wonder at the fate of humanity, to speculate and to fear. Any film or novel that can manipulate emotion is sure to draw an audience, so playing on our greatest anxieties must make for a sure-fire success. Watching the world as we know it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXt1PKfRl9s&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">collapse like a deflatable toy</a> in CGI is a bit like watching a really large and all-consuming car crash. You can’t look away even though you know you won’t like what you’re about to see. You can’t even stop yourself from buying a ticket to see it. It’s in your nature. And because filmmakers realise there can’t be doom and gloom without release, you know some key characters will survive through sheer brains and valour. You’ll leave the cinema with a hint of hope for the new world order and a fresh appreciation of the partially-intact world you find yourself in. We know all this because we’ve made this film over and over again. For a comprehensive list, visit <a href="http://www.apocalypticmovies.com/movie-index/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Apocalyptic Movies</a>, or for a best-of shortlist head to<a href="http://listverse.com/2010/04/05/top-10-ultimate-post-apocalypse-movies/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Listverse</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Amongst the plastic relics of our society – following our eventual demise – will surely be an apocalypse movie. I’d prefer we leave <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr Strangelove</a> as a more abstract example, but <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2012</a> or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am Legend</a> will have to do. What these films succeed in – and there’s an awful lot they don’t, for example, the originality factor – is boiling down human nature into concise reinforcements of what we have always been told. It almost doesn’t matter what the premise is, though there have been some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpO4gvW6D3Q" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shockers</a>. It’s more important how watching everything you never realised you cared about slipping away makes you feel. It’s about how grand it is that a mere human, someone so unlikely, so much like you (yes, you!) could hold the key to humankind’s survival. It’s about never making<a href="http://www.apocalypticmovies.com/movie-index/terminator-salvation.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">technology</a> that can think for itself, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdEfwRdJpF0" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">obeying the bible</a>, not starting <a href="http://www.apocalypticmovies.com/movie-index/nuclear.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">nuclear warfare</a> and making peace with our <a href="http://www.apocalypticmovies.com/movie-index/aliens.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">intergalactic neighbours</a>. The important life lessons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As much as tracking the history of apocalyptic themes can give an insight into the fears and media panics of a society (living under the threat of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNcrDQO4FkY" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">nuclear war</a> or <a href="http://www.apocalypticmovies.com/movie-index/the-day-after-tomorrow.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">global warming</a>, for example), they also provide a perfect platform for introspection. When society is stripped away, man must rely on his primal instincts – he must fight, protect and adapt. And it would seem your moral character and good looks just as crucial to survival in a post-apocalyptic world. After all, decades of disaster movies have utilised a set of character archetypes everyone must conform to when confronting the demise of humanity. Whether you’re facing zombies, aliens, vampires, man-made destruction or an asteroid, you’d better fall in line.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is your ultimate end-of-the-world social profile. You can tell the bad guys just by looking at them, what your role in this great big mess is, and who to turn to for help.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b18ecF6Tz1A&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">The Trooper</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A cop, agent or other authority figure pre-Apocalypse. Troopers will attempt to maintain order and carry out their duties to humanity, all while wishing they could spend their last moments with their family. These are good people who don’t understand what they’re dealing with, and ultimately aren’t able to do a whole lot of good. You’ve got to love them for trying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: In uniform, herding innocents to safety or grappling with evil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eunaclr-WgU" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">The Unlikely Hero</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unlike The Trooper, The Unlikely Hero has no formal training. He is a regular Joe with classic good looks and a heart of gold. He fights because it’s the right thing to do. He might possess some special ability ensuring his survival – immunity to the virus wiping out every other living being or clues to stopping the great evil – or he might get by with his moral compass and sense of justice alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: Male, attractive, generally looks worried or preoccupied but has a winning smile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qMzvdjKIHU" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">The Martyr</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Is very likable and trustworthy but is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Will be injured, bitten and in danger of turning evil, or otherwise incapacitated. Knowing they’re just going to slow everyone down or put them in danger they ask to be left behind. Reluctantly, they are. Perhaps attained these injuries when trying to save someone else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: Bite marks, broken or dismembered limbs. Has little to no chance of survival.</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Rat</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking after himself above all else, The Rat always squirms his way out of trouble. He will betray his loved ones in their time of need and run away from a fight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: Has shifty eyes and will usually be the first one to suggest leaving The Martyr behind.</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Breakdown</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This one is just not strong enough to hack it. Whether insanity turns them evil or just leaves them cowering in a corner, rocking back and forth, they’re not much help to anyone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: shaking, screaming, crying. Trusts no one.</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Survivalist</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Has stored food and water in an underground bunker in preparation and seems perfectly unsurprised at current doomsday events. Possibly a religious extremist wielding signs and quoting scripture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: May tell you we all had it coming. Will be last seen ducking underground or calling on sinners to repent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pofJmEGR8gc&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">The Love Interest</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Doesn’t offer much besides motivation for The Unlikely Hero. He has a crush on her and isn’t about to let her die before he can make a sweeping declaration. Who would help him repopulate the Earth, then?<strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: Pretty girl in sensible clothing, seen travelling with our hero.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://youtu.be/AsuNKayPYAQ?t=7m17s" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">The Opportunist</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Someone has to loot, rob and make a profit from all this suffering. May sell survival kits or run black market trades in weapons or food.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: The one stealing TV sets even though there’s no electricity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG2aJyIFrA" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold;">The Fodder</strong></a><strong style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As hard as it is to hear, an awful lot of people have to die without getting so much as a naming role. If you’re a normal guy without outstanding looks who doesn’t meet any of the above criteria, this is probably you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How to spot: looks perfectly average.</span></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-27748802937035538372012-01-11T21:14:00.001+10:002012-03-22T16:37:17.395+10:00Feature: 'The Golden Era (terms and conditions apply)' for The Isthmus<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's another piece I wrote in August for The Isthmus, discussing our cultural obsession with 'retro' in light of our <i>actual</i> past. I really enjoyed exploring the issues surrounding this one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You can read it online <a href="http://www.theisthmus.com.au/2011/10/thegoldenera/">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Golden Era (terms and conditions apply)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By Anna Angel</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHdaRuqB9dh-uZ5YtQNLzEP3b60ecFguJdQM2XG3gictFOq2Vzv6QhU9lm9EG_R8kXNkdiR9IvitISe46WZVsQTNgkict8llMXpLH2Mg9F01NETVJeQyrD1T2pAFam4eF_Q57_8d3U9w/s1600/Spanking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHdaRuqB9dh-uZ5YtQNLzEP3b60ecFguJdQM2XG3gictFOq2Vzv6QhU9lm9EG_R8kXNkdiR9IvitISe46WZVsQTNgkict8llMXpLH2Mg9F01NETVJeQyrD1T2pAFam4eF_Q57_8d3U9w/s320/Spanking.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">“You were definitely born in the wrong decade,” a friend says as if it is fact. Sure, I wear vintage clothing, collect retro oddities and have been seen at gigs doing the twist. But I couldn’t agree with rockabilly queen Imelda May when she told </span><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/imelda-may-the-1950s-were-better-in-every-way-dont-you-think-2351907.html" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">British press</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> “the ‘50s were better in every way”. I’m grateful not to have grown up in Australia in the first half of the 20</span><sup style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: justify;">th</sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> century.</span><span id="more-71" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> Why? My childhood epilepsy – </span><a href="http://www.epilepsy.org.au/about-us/our-history" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">then widely misunderstood</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> – would probably have landed me in a psychiatric institution, such as </span><a href="http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/chims/placeDetail.html?siteId=15115" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">this one</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">, for </span><a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/mentalhealth_ctte/submissions/sub221.pdf" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">a lack of better treatment options</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">, as might my struggles with </span><a href="http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp113.25102006/02whole.pdf" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">anxiety and depression</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">. While that’s an uncomfortable thought, prospects would have been positively bleak if I had of been </span><a href="http://www.indigenousrights.net.au/subsection.asp?ssID=89" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Aboriginal</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">, </span><a href="http://www.illawarraqinfo.com/page17.htm" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">gay</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> or a </span><a href="http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">non-European migrant</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">. As morbidly hilarious as 1950s anti-gay </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqIIeGmhL2Q" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">propaganda</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> and relics of the societal </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU&feature=related" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">oppression</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> of </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ADfS8WQmw&feature=related" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">women</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"> may seem now, these were hardly ‘simpler’ times for many members of society. I set out to discover why we idealise elements of the past such as music, fashion and dinner table decorum and glaze over the glaring injustices.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Amongst a wealth of recent films and TV series reviving times gone by (not to mention screenings of classic shows and movies), this year’s film adaption of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Help</em></a>stands out. As the movie begun, I turned to my friend and whispered something about how beautiful their replica 1963 outfits were, and eventually, how I’d like to break into their costume department and steal them all. In as little as half an hour, I felt uneasy. The film’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/books/19masl.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">selective depiction</a> of racial tensions during the African-American Civil Rights Movement is as disquieting as it is indulgent of our desire for a neat and happy ending. Regardless of colour or social standing, the women (except for our subversive lead) are portrayed as mothers and wives first and snarky society ladies second, privy to the whims of their men. All of this left me uncomfortable with the vintage sweater on my back in a way the arse-slaps of <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mad Men</em> never have. When people say they wish they were <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-was-born-in-the-wrong-era/219290322337" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">born</a> into another era, surely this isn’t what they had in mind?</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nostalgia: it’s nothing new</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The term ‘<a href="http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Nostalgia" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">nostalgia</a>’, coined in the 17<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup> century, referred to a medical illness – a kind of melancholia akin to homesickness – though today it’s more often used to imply a general longing for the past. With the <a href="http://www.lifescript.com/Life/Timeout/Entertainment/Take_Me_Back_To_The_1950s.aspx?trans=1&du=1&gclid=CJTand739ZcCFQimggodbD3VEA&ef_id=1350:3:c_2e06d193f6aac96338ebfd42ba373a46_681376325:e8yKyNBkLAoAAAfR9HIAAAAM:20090104221327" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">boom in retro culture</a> has come a heightened interest in the history and cause of this particular form of sentimentalism in pop culture. Take for example this year’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Midnight in Paris</em></a>, which explores a disillusioned screenwriter’s late-night forays into his perceived golden era – 1920s Paris. There he discovers an overwhelming sentiment that the age of tasteful art and culture had already past, and he must confront the realities of his own nostalgia. There have been multiple attempts to understand the consequences and <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NostalgiaFilter" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">reasoning</a> behind our revival fixation, a great example is Simon Reynold’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Retromania-Pop-Cultures-Addiction-Past/dp/0865479941" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Retromania</em></a>. Reynold’s believes our popular culture is stagnating thanks to our apparent disinterest in the new and now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200605/nostalgia-sweet-remembrance" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">psychologists believe</a> nostalgia can be a healthy reflection of self, lifting solemn spirits and even creating a heightened sense of <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/death-love-sex-magic/200908/nostalgia-is-good-medicine" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">life purpose</a>. Other <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8491338.stm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">studies</a> show fixating on the past is simply a means of avoiding the anxieties of an undesirable present. While it’s clearly a stretch to suggest screenings of <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ferris Bueller’s Day Off</em> mean we, as a society, are in desperate need of a psychological pick-me-up, recent <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/death-love-sex-magic/200908/nostalgia-is-good-medicine" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">studies show</a> we most often turn to nostalgia when at our most lonely, vulnerable or depressed. Especially in a year as disaster-ridden as this one, it’s understandable that we’d want to relive a time where there was no nastiness in the world; just milkshake bars with dapper young boys and girls saying things like “neato”. What we need to remember is that it never existed.</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sweet reminiscence or bigotry?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Especially in the US, there’s been a <a href="http://m.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/what-old-white-conservatives-miss-about-america/243911/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">debate brewing</a> between those who say their nostalgia is rooted in old-school conservative values and those who call it racism. The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf sums it up nicely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“America is radically more socially liberal than it was in 1949. Its television programs are cruder and filled with violence. Its out-of-wedlock birthrate is skyrocketing … College orientation now includes free condoms. Whatever one thinks of all these changes, it seems to me that </em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jim Crow</em></a><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> and the Civil Rights Movement were major enough events that, based on them alone, America should be deemed better today, even in the eyes of folks who think other stuff has gone in the wrong direction.</em></span></div>
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<em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> But that doesn’t mean that older white people — or older black people — must stop being nostalgic about less racially enlightened times, or that their wistfulness is grounded in racism … or that it’s even possible for a human being to rationally evaluate the overall system of norms into which he was raised and then to judge which period was better.”</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Is it okay for a conservative to seek a return to the ideals of his childhood when those same principles marginalised anyone who wasn’t male, white, straight and able-bodied?</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The culture of revival</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Revival culture itself has nothing to do with conservative backwards thinking, and is often led by those born in the later parts of the 20<sup style="line-height: 0;">th</sup> century. Everyday people live and breathe vintage subcultures like <a href="http://kustomkultureaustralia.com/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">kustom kulture</a> and <a href="http://www.rockabilly.net/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">rockabilly</a>. Nostalgia festivals such as <a href="http://www.wintersun.org.au/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wintersun</a>, <a href="http://www.kurrikurrinostalgiafestival.com.au/index.php?page=100&SID" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kurri Kurri</a> and<a href="http://www.moonshinetraders.com.au/garterbelts/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Garterbelts and Gasoline</a> are held across the country in celebration of “the cars, music, fashion, art and culture inspired from the 1940s and 1950s”. It’s a widespread <a href="http://www.loti.com/fifties_history/The_1950s_A_Rare_Golden_Age_Indeed.htm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">belief</a> that these were more ‘innocent’ and prosperous times even by those who didn’t live through them. Young people write on the walls of Facebook groups dedicated to previous decades without a hint of irony that they long for the time “when men were men and women were ladies”. A woman writes, “I wish I were born sometime in the 1930s so I could have rocked the ‘50s and ‘60s,” another says she “hates this era with a passion”. Overwhelmingly, music <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-03-29-classic-rock-kids_x.htm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is cited</a> as the main <a href="http://www.facebook.com/iloveoldschoolmusic" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">reason</a> for wanting to return to a previous generation, but you can’t have protest songs and subversive cultures like rock & roll without something to rebel against.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Mighty Boosh thought <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7N02nSFaDA&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a> was the logical conclusion to our retro obsession, but wherever it takes us, nostalgia is likely to remain ingrained in our society. So, what can we learn from the phenomenon? It seems we often look to the past and label it ‘better’ as a means of expressing dissatisfaction with elements of modern life, from its fast pace, to a perceived loosening of morality or the quality of popular music. As difficult as it is to argue with that last point (see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDnEwACAoY&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a> or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkUKlY6S_1Q&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a>, and these two, which manage to mesh <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8uBCF-cWuY" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">retro</a> with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/GoodCharlotteVEVO?blend=8&ob=5" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">terrible</a>, and especially <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/JustinBieberVEVO?blend=2&ob=5#p/a/u/0/p5Jw-T4dVss" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a>), we need to spend more time reflecting on how far our society has come in many ways, and crucially, how far it still has to go. Put your hair in rollers and collect all the vintage tea towels you like, but we’re in no position to view social injustice as quaint and outdated. Not when the pay-gap between men and women <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/five-decades-of-fight-but-the-pay-gap-still-remains-20110831-1jlzf.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is widening</a>, when mortality rates and living standards are so much lower in <a href="http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/overviews/mortality" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Indigenous communities</a>, or when the LGBT community <a href="http://www.australianmarriageequality.com/wp/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">still don’t</a> have the same rights as other Australians. After all, good music and high grooming standards alone don’t make a society worth being born into.</span></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-9147848915038598562012-01-11T21:03:00.001+10:002012-01-11T21:14:54.535+10:00Feature: 'Fear and Carbon in Canberra' for The Isthmus<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my final semester of uni I worked on a collection of articles for a new intelligent pop culture journal called The Isthmus, a project headed by Stephen Harrington. I also acted as online editor, subbing and workshopping all articles before publication. It was a fantastic experience and the team was made up almost exclusively of fun, creative pop culture enthusiasts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've held off posting them until now because there's been a few kinks with the site meaning it never properly launched. I'm like a kid holding up finger painting: 'look, mummy, look what I did!' I just can't wait. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, here's a research/opinion piece I wrote in late July on the heated carbon tax debate - before it was passed. You can read it online <a href="http://www.theisthmus.com.au/2011/10/fear-and-carbon-in-canberra-a-savage-journey-into-the-heart-of-australian-politics/">here</a>. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fear and Loathing in Canberra: a savage journey into the heart of Australian politics</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By Anna Angel</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is nothing to fear but fear itself, except the pricing of carbon, that is. The debate over the proposed carbon tax has divided the nation like nothing since the introduction of the GST.<span id="more-50" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> Tony Abbott advised his party members to keep the argument ‘civil’ only moments before they called on a national rally in Canberra to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/keep-it-civil-urges-abbott-as-protesters-maintain-the-rage-20110816-1iwg4.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“maintain the rage”.</a> “We don’t want our country reduced to two warring camps,” he said. Sorry, Tony, but it might be a little late for that. Rhetoric and commentary from both sides of the war on carbon have been nothing less than hysterical since the pricing scheme was introduced in July. In this all-out screaming match, fear mongering is the favoured tack. We are presented with an apparently impossible choice: implement the tax and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn-fweWnJmA" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">our families will go hungry</a>,<ins cite="mailto:Dan" datetime="2011-09-12T17:41"></ins></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">fail to do so and eventually, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3277551.htm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">our families will go hungry</a>. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, heavy spin from politicians and media alike aims to ensure you’re not left sitting on it.</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He said, she said</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJhthHQe9ic" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">official announcement</a> of the ‘plan for a clean energy future’, it is “the most environmentally effective and cheapest way to cut pollution”. The tax is fixed at $23 per tonne for the first three years for the country’s 500 biggest polluters. Gillard assures that “because some business will put their prices up, there will be tax cuts, increased pensions and increased family payments”. On the Government’s dedicated <a href="http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/clean-energy-future/carbon-price/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">website</a> you can calculate just how big your cut of that welfare pie will be. There’s also this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQd_DlkdQ1w&feature=related" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">video</a>, explaining the process in painstaking detail, and treasury economic modelling showing a growth in national prosperity under carbon pricing. We’re told the average family, overall, will be 20 cents better off.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the other side of the spectrum, <a href="http://www.nocarbontax.com.au/what-is-the-cprs/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">alarmist anti-carbon groups</a> call it a “green ideological tax for social engineering under the guise of dangerous climate change”. The supposed ‘Robin Hood’ tax is “unnecessary, ineffective, and hugely damaging to Australian families and our industry”. The main group spearheading the national campaign provide a handy explanation of the scheme, including a list entitled <a href="http://www.nocarbontax.com.au/what-is-the-cprs/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Why the Carbon Tax is Wrong and Utterly Pointless</a> (a kind of rebuttal to Say Yes Australia’s <a href="http://www.sayyesaustralia.org.au/learn/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">7 Good Reasons to Say Yes to a Price on Carbon Pollution</a>?). Less shrill, but just as gloomy, is Tony Abbott’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn-fweWnJmA" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">definition</a>. “When Julia Gillard talks about a ‘clean energy future’ what she really means is higher electricity bills and fewer jobs with no environmental benefit,” he said. “The whole point of a carbon tax is to change the way everybody lives and works … in other words, if it doesn’t hurt you it doesn’t work.”</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dollars and no sense</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking at the figures put forward by various interested parties, you’d be forgiven for thinking the details of two separate taxes were being discussed. Perhaps it is more a matter of spinning the facts to suit your cause. Gillard Government <a href="http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">estimates</a> suggest emissions will be cut by 5 per cent from 2000 levels by 2020 – that’s down 23 per cent on projected emissions if we chose not to act at all. By 2050 that figure will be 80 per cent. Unofficial Opposition ‘data’ proposes it will do absolutely<a href="http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/LatestNews/PressReleases/tabid/86/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/8182/Julia-Gillards-unnecessary-and-costly-9-billion-tax-will-hit-families.aspx" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“nothing for the environment”</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">While the Australian public were busy worrying about worldwide economic instability, some terribly frightening figures were released suggesting at least <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/modelling-shows-hits-to-jobs-and-industry/story-fn59niix-1226107741179" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">31,000 jobs in NSW</a> would be lost as a result of industry closures by 2030, and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/states-face-call-to-axe-inefficient-climate-schemes/story-fn59niix-1226120781550" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">21,000 in QLD</a> by 2020. The story is also bleak in WA with a <a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-government-scaremongering-with-carbon-tax-report-20110821-1j4ij.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">state Treasury report</a> predicting over half of households would be worse off under the tax. In contradiction, Treasury modelling boasts a national increase of 1.6 million jobs and an increase of 16 per cent to the average income by 2020. Commentators have marked this as a <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccranns-column/carbon-dioxide-insanity-continues/story-e6frfig6-1226122415509" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">fall from grace</a>for the “once fundamentally important Treasury department … formerly a bastion of reason and sober advice”. No matter where you look, you’re bound to see a different number, a different projected outcome or a different set of opinions parading as fact.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In some cases, it’s been a matter of deliberate <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3230989.htm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">distortion</a>; what better way to hide the truth than in colourful graphs and seemingly transparent pie charts? Consider <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/files/2011/07/Untitled2.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a> graphic representation from News.com.au, highlighting rising living costs and contrasting them with the 20 cents tax benefits will be ‘worth’ to the average family. There are too many issues to discuss here, too many <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/staggering-cost-of-co2-permits-revealed/story-fn7j19iv-1226122430767" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">examples</a> of numbers thrown around based on <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/australia-will-send-57bn-a-year-overseas-by-2050-treasury-modelling-shows/story-e6frg9k6-1226118430293" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">assumptions</a> or misinterpretations. There’s the question of whether Australia should be one of the <a href="http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/why-we-need-to-act/what-others-are-doing/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">first countries to act</a>, or <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/treasurys-carbon-tax-modelling-based-on-improbable-assumptions/story-e6frgd0x-1226106953934" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the last</a>. For her part, Julia Gillard wants to be “on the right side of history”; unsurprisingly, Abbott disagrees. Then there’s the large number of carbon tax critics who still deny <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/tony-abbott-julia-gillard-dig-in-on-carbon-tax-package/story-e6frf7jo-1226092715231" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">man-made climate change exists</a>. It almost doesn’t matter what you believe; this legitimate argument gave way to petty name-calling and character assassination months ago.</span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> ‘Juliar’ and ‘The Minister for Scary Stories’</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gillard has been dubbed <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14554882" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Juliar’</a> for breaking her pre-election promise that there would be no carbon tax under her Government. Tanya Plibersek has been given the new portfolio of ‘<a href="http://saynocarbontaxaustralia.blogspot.com/2011/08/sydney-says-no-more-lies-tanya.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Minister for Scary Stories</a>’ after a stint on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3277551.htm" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Q&A</a> where she prophesised we are “looking at losing the Great Barrier Reef, losing Kakadu National Park, losing the ability to feed ourselves” if we don’t implement the tax. Panellist Brendan O’Neill was quick to call her out on her political fear mongering, just as Labor have on Tony Abbott’s prolonged <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdqklZ7-eu8" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">campaign of negativity</a>. The Green’s <a href="http://greensmps.org.au/pricepollution" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">view</a> that the policy will help alleviate climate change that is “making our world more dangerous, increasing prices of food and water and jeopardising our way of life” are often blatantly dismissed as <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/abbott-mocks-labor-over-ties-to-climate-extremists-20110317-1bz2i.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">extremist</a>, meanwhile their supporters are labelled as leftist-greenies, at worst, <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/carbon-tax-is-socialism-by-deceit/story-e6freomx-1226092632850" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">socialist conspirators</a>. The angry mobs opposing the tax are made up of either <strong style="font-weight: bold;">‘</strong><a href="http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tonys-flawed-friendship-with-the-freaks-and-flat-earthers/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">freaks and flatearthers’</a> or tax-paying, hard-working <a href="http://www.2ca.com.au/local-news/1385-convoy-getting-ready-to-go-home" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">everyday Australians</a> depending on who you believe. Are their voices ‘of no consequence’ as Anthony Albanese <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/convoy-of-no-confidence-runs-short-on-revs-20110822-1j6sk.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">suggests</a>? No, but that doesn’t necessarily make them right.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Room for rational debate?</span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Peaceful assembly should be <a href="http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/You-journos-are-the-freaks-not-us-carbon-protestors/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">encouraged</a>, and democratic debate is nothing if not healthy. But only time will tell what the true outcomes of the carbon tax will be, and if this debate is going to progress, we need to use inside voices to speak our minds. As Annabelle Crabbe <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-23/crabb-carbon-tax-blame-game/2851078" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">points out</a>, it’s become possible to blame almost anything negative on the carbon tax. “Brisbane traffic is terrible. Why, with your toxic tax, are you making a bad situation worse?” It’s possible we will see a widespread return to rational political debate once the pricing scheme is introduced in July next year. It’s also possible our already shaky political landscape will only sink further into hysteria. Some, myself included, hope for the best while envisioning an anti-climactic future, reminiscent of the new millennium’s Y2K-free turn. As Sydney Morning Herald’s economics editor Ross Gittin <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/tax-will-be-neither-as-good-nor-as-bad-as-were-told-20110710-1h905.html#ixzz1WPECL49o" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">muses</a>, “psychology sheds as much light on these questions as does economics”. “The safest prediction is that the tax won’t be as bad as its critics fear,” he says, “nor as benign as its defenders claim”.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To get the facts to make up your own mind, I would recommend keeping tabs on ABC’s in-depth <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/climate-change/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">carbon pricing coverage</a>, which includes number crunching, analysis, background into international climate action and consideration of Opposition policy. The SBS offers significant <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1492651/factbox-carbon-taxes-around-the-world" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">analysis</a> of our place in the worldwide climate movement, The Drum offers a range of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2877298.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">opinion pieces</a> on the issue, as well as considering the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-12/the-great-carbon-tax-secret-who-are-the-misfortune/2790974" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">‘top 500 polluters’</a> that will actually pay the tax.</span></div>
</div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-42715921218702219942012-01-11T20:45:00.000+10:002012-01-11T21:15:28.406+10:00Run, Rabbit Issue 1This is what we made. <br />
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There's been a really positive response so far, and I'm so impressed with the contributions that came my way. What could be better than working with creative, inspiring people on an exciting and rewarding project? <br />
Read all about it at <a href="http://www.runrabbitmagazine.com/">www.runrabbitmagazine.com</a>. <br />
If you think you, or someone you know, might be interested in contributing to the next issue, here's what we're looking for:
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeV-Hs8ZgKgINNndB-wfVA6FeAGu7G1092dCJWFxN2rr-0e1Unlbh_PQoJURDXOQXwXM7Kkt9HLUksPvTEQoog7spBtcgYl3DCPGOKepeXLjzf747VrxEXbzAOPOuufhscFut8lRaieVE/s1600/398516_211873205567373_151324321622262_470355_514920902_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeV-Hs8ZgKgINNndB-wfVA6FeAGu7G1092dCJWFxN2rr-0e1Unlbh_PQoJURDXOQXwXM7Kkt9HLUksPvTEQoog7spBtcgYl3DCPGOKepeXLjzf747VrxEXbzAOPOuufhscFut8lRaieVE/s320/398516_211873205567373_151324321622262_470355_514920902_n.jpg" width="420" /></a></div>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-15701392629237579082011-12-22T00:58:00.001+10:002012-10-06T11:50:16.549+10:00Inspirations and updates: graduation and Run,RabbitI'm about a week away from putting out the first issue of Run, Rabbit (you can read more about the project <a href="http://www.annaeangel.com/2011/09/run-rabbit.html">here</a>, or at the website <a href="http://www.runrabbitmagazine.com/">www.runrabbitmagazine.com</a>). It's exciting, but I'm already bouncing with ideas for the second issue and impatient to get started!<br />
<br />
In other semi-related news, I now have a pretty piece of paper assuring me I made it through a Bachelor of Journalism with Distinction, which is lovely.<br />
<br />
Just for kicks, here's a token graduation photo.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0u-6cGf3PSw/TvqrzCOrXyI/AAAAAAAAAXY/n5etcWd5FCA/s1600/386677_10150455992489718_566184717_8253020_1037898767_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0u-6cGf3PSw/TvqrzCOrXyI/AAAAAAAAAXY/n5etcWd5FCA/s320/386677_10150455992489718_566184717_8253020_1037898767_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-20642674340854882602011-12-20T14:43:00.001+10:002012-04-19T21:34:22.486+10:00Feature: 'New Year's Peeve' for Biscuit Magazine Issue 15I really hate fireworks.<br />
<br />
Read the article online <a href="http://issuu.com/biscuitmagazine/docs/biscuit_december_january_final/14">here</a>. <br />
<br />
Let’s try a little experiment. I want you to picture a New Year’s Eve memory. Just go with the first that comes to mind. While we’re sharing, here’s mine. It was 2009, at one to midnight on the last day of December. At that moment, I stopped throwing up on a stranger’s porch and was swept up in the romantic New Year’s Eve kiss I’d been hoping for. Whether that anecdote is somewhat sweet or wholly revolting depends on your point of view. What’s a given is New Year’s Eve ending in disappointing laced with regret wrapped in vomit. You’ll have a better take-home memory of ringing in 2012 if you save yourself the jacked up taxi fares and fall asleep at 10:30pm watching re-runs of Jersey Shore. ‘But, Anna’, you say, ‘I’ve never thrown up on my own shoes’. Fine, fancy pants. Here’s a few perfectly valid reasons to boycott the celebrations.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b><br />
Fireworks</b><br />
Someone in your party has convinced you it’s<br />
crucial to arrive early to secure one of the<br />
‘good spots’. You’ve been perched on a picnic<br />
blanket for so long your bottom has gone<br />
numb by the time the crowds stream in.<br />
They stand on your blanket; they knock over<br />
your drink. They make tutting noises at you<br />
that say, “how selfish, taking up that much<br />
space, oh my” until you’re so uncomfortable<br />
you stand up. Right when the ‘big event’ is<br />
about to begin, a loving father takes his child<br />
onto his shoulders. The firework display<br />
begins and you crane your neck but all you can<br />
see is a faint glow emanating from behind this<br />
kid’s head. There are no ‘good spots’. Your<br />
only other viewing option is to rock up with<br />
fifteen minutes to spare, weave through<br />
sticky throngs of bodies, lose your friends<br />
and go hoarse from screaming down the<br />
phone. “Where? Where are you? Just text<br />
me. TEXT ME. I’m by the tree. TREE!” You<br />
find each other, tired and hungry, having missed<br />
the whole shebang.<br />
Do you want to bore adults and frighten<br />
animals and small children? Get some<br />
fireworks into your New Year’s plans.<br />
Alternatively, hold a lighter to your eye line,<br />
crack ice with your teeth and shout ‘boom’<br />
for fifteen minutes.<br />
<b><br />
Expectations</b><br />
Someone once declared the way you ring<br />
in the New Year dictates the nature of<br />
the twelve months ahead. Not only is that<br />
the stupidest suggestion, but it’s one that’s<br />
become extremely popular. Why do<br />
we preen and plan for this one night of<br />
debauchery above the other 364? It’s an<br />
inner desperation to prove we’ve either had<br />
an amazing, successful, positive-adjectiveladen<br />
year, or that we at least have one coming<br />
up. Add to that Hollywood’s insistence<br />
on counting down to midnight in every<br />
NYE scene, as glitter falls from the sky and<br />
everyone at the event neatly partners up for<br />
a smooch. You can’t top that. If you try, you’ll<br />
just get a shard of plastic confetti in your eye<br />
and the number of someone you’ll never call.<br />
<br />
<b>Money</b><br />
Many cultures celebrate the New Year by<br />
making blessings and wishes for good fortune,<br />
prosperity and health. There are offerings or<br />
ceremonies to promote abundance in the<br />
year ahead, prayers and salutations. Mexican<br />
tradition is to eat a grape for each of twelve<br />
chimes counting down to midnight, making<br />
a wish upon each one. Spanish superstition<br />
says it’s good luck to purchase a new pair of<br />
red undies to wear on the night, and in<br />
the Philippines you might throw coins and<br />
wear polka dots to attract wealth. Modern<br />
Australian tradition is to make a large monetary<br />
offering to the beverage Gods, and wish upon<br />
a taxi home. What we seem to forget is, by<br />
drinking away all our loose change, there's<br />
a 100 per cent chance we’ll be starting the<br />
year off poorer.<br />
<b><br />
Pyjamas</b><br />
You can’t wear these to any New Year’s<br />
celebration except the one on your couch.<br />
‘Nuff said.Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-47410846359179832822011-11-11T14:31:00.001+10:002011-11-11T14:35:04.822+10:00News: various for QUT News on 4EBHere's a link to various news packages I did for QUT News on 4EB 98.1 FM over the last week.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately they're missing their newsreader intros, but the general gist remains.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://soundcloud.com/annaeangel/sets/4eb-radio-packages">http://soundcloud.com/annaeangel/sets/4eb-radio-packages</a>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-82228804980807922122011-09-30T20:19:00.000+10:002011-09-30T20:19:41.268+10:00News: 'October's veggie challenge' for QUT News<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Friday 30 September 2011</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div style="display: block; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">October is shaping up to be the month to turn over a new leaf.</div><div style="display: block; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Australians are being challenged to go vegetarian from tomorrow, in time for International Vegetarian Week.</div><div style="display: block; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Anna Angel reports.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz4d1eJLHzPvIqCXafE_HGlTEKJezKw2YRFAZlBBhua6IN9-KQpS5iQnc8rkMpUw3DmYZo6Kp6PZ_Fe5rb3rQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">For the transcript and original story, see <a href="http://www.qutnews.com/2011/09/30/octobers-veggie-challenge/">here.</a></span>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562582458422900149.post-10658664160148576012011-09-30T20:11:00.002+10:002011-09-30T20:11:51.470+10:00News: 'Storms, strikes cause commuter chaos' for QUT News<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div class="post-byline" style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px;">Thursday 29 September 2011</div><div class="post-bodycopy clearfix" style="display: block; min-width: 0px;"><div style="display: block; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Thousands of airline passengers have faced long delays across eastern Australia because of major storms and industrial disputes.</div><div style="display: block; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Anyone planning to fly over the next few days is advised to check times before going to the airport.</div><div style="display: block; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Anna Angel reports.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz0_wN6RL8pTJsqkQxyT1u-hXm8tRNAuS-V9IycyEUQO80xMKS6NuSbjv-AbeQne1_4cepya-c-YBxukaB0AA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">For the transcript and original story, see <a href="http://www.qutnews.com/2011/09/29/storms-strikes-cause-commuter-chaos/">here</a>.</span>Ms. Thing.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04186563191785885677noreply@blogger.com0