Review: BIGSOUND Live Part 1 for Mood of Monk

Read the original coverage here. I also shot and live tweeted the event; it was an awful lot of fun. 

“Is this the end or is it just beginning,” they sang and it felt right.

As Inland Sea wrapped up their opening spot at BIGSOUND’s live showcase in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, it signalled the start of something big – for the night and for the talented young acts that would fill it.BIGSOUND is an industry conference that exists to talk about music and the people that make it. For those throwing themselves into the conversation, it’s a long and fulfilling three days. For two of those days, when the sun goes down, Australia and New Zealand’s up-and-comers emerge for show and tell.It’s a variety show for industry types, a block party across Brisbane’s entertainment precinct, and a heartening display of genuine talent. I know every crumb in every corner of The Valley, but I’ve rarely seen it as full of energy as it was last night. There are weekends where the streets groan under the sheer weight of people, where the music is oppressively loud and sweat hangs heavy in the air. What BIGSOUND brought was a true celebration of things to come, and a crowd united in a love of music.

Run, Rabbit

I've been a little quiet on the freelancing front and this is why: I've been working on a little magazine called Run, Rabbit that will be launching online in December. I'm getting so excited at the quality and range of pitches coming through from talented folk not just from Brisbane, but from around the country and the world. It will be quite a bit of work to get going, but it never feels like it when your heart is behind a project.

Run, Rabbit will cross culture with compassion, craft and creativity with community. I haven't been able to find anything quite like what I want to achieve: something that speaks to my playful side, but also makes me think, engaging me in issues larger than myself without compromising on intelligence or patronising me. Something that doesn't then try to sell me something or tell me how to do my hair this month. So, I decided to make it myself. No products, no fashion, no beauty, no god damn celebrities, no hipster-snobbery or intellectual elitism. Just ordinary people with extraordinary ideas or talent, thought-provoking pieces sharing space with the silly and the mundane. Writers who share their beliefs, thoughts and experiences without trying so damn hard to seem irreverent. This is what I want to read, and I don't think I'm the only one.

To follow Run, Rabbit's progress, visit www.runrabbitmagazine.tumblr.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Feature: 'Parks to put the roses in your cheeks' for The Courier Mail

16 September 2011

Vital escapes in busy cities, our world-class green spaces give us plenty of fresh reasons to play and relax, writes Anna Angel.

A BREATH of fresh air does a world of good, so get a few lungsful tomorrow, on World Parks Day.

Whether you fancy a cheap and adventurous camping weekend in a national park, a romantic picnic on the foredunes, or a family barbecue in a city park, the choice across Queensland is limitless.

David Clarke, CEO of Australia and New Zealand's leading parks organisation, Parks Forum, says healthy parks lead to healthy communities.

``Not only do they contribute to physical health, but also to mental health: exposure to the natural world is therapeutic,'' he says.

Queensland University of Technology community space expert Dr Gillian Lawson says councils recognise the importance of harnessing our natural blessings. ``We've got a strong tradition of sporting groups using parks, but not of a diverse range of physical activities that are much more widely accessible than a cricket match,'' Dr Lawson says.

But she praised Brisbane and Gold Coast councils for providing locals with fresh reasons pull out the picnic hampers.

One example is Brisbane City Council's LIVE arts program, which will see parks across the city play host to a mix of free music events throughout September.

Another is the city's Active Parks series with free and low-cost activities in more than 50 of the city's parks. The program varies throughout the week and comes alive on weekends.

Updates and inspirations: looking back on FPS 2010

Before the new web team wipes everything we worked on last year, I thought I'd share some images and text from the 2010 Frock Paper Scissors site. It might not seem so important, but it's crazy to think every design element, every image and every word was dreamed up, coded, edited and fussed over by myself and the entire web team. It takes more work, and is much more satisfying when the final product comes together, than I ever realised. I only wish I could have continued with the site after the mammoth task of redesign.

Updates and inspirations: The Isthmus, moving on, and so on and so forth

This semester (my last!) I am working within a team on an intelligent online pop culture journal called The Isthmus. I've put my hand up to be editor, so I'll be work-shopping ideas, producing general content and subbing as well as contributing. I'm so grateful for another chance to work with talented, interesting people on a project close to my heart while I remain a student.

The FPS site is about to be taken over, and it will be interesting to see where they take it this year. I don't want to get too misty-eyed about it - it's on to the next one for me - but I'll be posting up some screen grabs of the pages and designs so there's a record of the work we did last year. I'm also eagerly awaiting some exciting bylines upcoming this September. I have written again for the next issue of Voiceworks, and have put together a feature on one of my pet loves - traditional tattooing - for the second issue of Vintage Affair zine. All in all it September is always a great time of year, especially if you live where I do. The weather is nice, Brisbane Festival and Big Sound (which I should be reporting on) are both upcoming and I just got my business cards in the mail, making me, for all intents and purposes, an actual human being. Hooray!

Feature: 'The people and stories behind Greazefest' for Seam Magazine

A write-up I wrote on the culture behind events like Greazefest and the people who live (and love) it. View the original here at Seam Magazine's shiny new website.

“You’ve got to lean over the car like this,” a well-dressed woman in her sixties calls out to me, before demonstrating a classic pin-up pose on a bright red 1950s hot rod. As I poorly attempt to mimic her moves, she yells quick-fix beauty tips at me. From the outside, Greazefest, which takes over Brisbane for one weekend each year, is a carnival of vintage cars, modern pin-ups and poodle skirts. As Seam Magazine discovered, it is more so a celebration of the people keeping the old school dream alive by living and breathing it year-round.

Greazefest, now in its twelfth year, may be one of longest running and largest rockabilly and kustom kulture festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, but it’s by no means the only. Devotees from all corners have a calendar of events to roll up to, from Coffs Harbour’s annual Wintersun festival, Victoria’s Bright Rockabilly Ink and Oil and New Zealand’s largest nostalgia festival, Beach Hop. Come Monday morning, when the last car has left in a trail of smoke and the sun set on the festivities, Australia’s most dedicated revivalists don’t simply re-join the 21st century and return to the office.

Feature: 'Always room for write stuff' for The Courier Mail

Always room for write stuff
Anna Angel

Weekend writers' groups and workshops are ideal for being exposed to new ideas and networks, writes Anna Angel

ARE you a closet scribbler or a weekend pen-wielder? They say writing is a solitary profession, but don't quit your day job and retreat to the mountains just yet.

Whether or not you've put pen to paper in years or fancy yourself the next Agatha Christie, Nick Earls or J. K. Rowling, there's a workshop or writers' support group for you.

If there isn't, then start one yourself, says Nancy Cox-Milliner, who formed Writers of Seville more than 10 years ago.

``There was a real need for groups running on the weekend,'' she says. ``People who work during the week don't want to meet at night because that's their writing time.''

Now several writers' groups meet across Queensland at weekends. Most are open to all writers, while some cater to those who dabble in genres such as crime, romance or poetry.

Brisbane fantasy writer Marianne de Pierres co-formed Vision Writers more than 15 years ago. Open to writers of fantasy, sci-fi and speculative fiction, de Pierres says the group's ranks constantly replenish.

``People find it so exhilarating to know there are other people out there interested in the same thing they are,'' she says.

For Sarah Gory of Queensland Writers' Centre, a group's main benefit is fostering a sense of community and support.

Column: 'Have your say' for The Courier Mail's Village Green

I wrote this earlier in the year, but it's funny, it seems all the more fitting that it was published now.

Anna Angel, Clayfield


AMONG the few early childhood memories I can recall is a family trip to Melbourne. As a kid from Nambour, the number of people shoving their way through the city centre floored me. On every intersection there were figures standing among the commotion, calling out. Mum seemed to be the only one who stopped. When I asked why nobody else saw them, she said it was because a lot of people aren't very nice. That's certainly turned out to be true. I just wish I didn't turn out to be one of them.

We're all guilty of compassion fatigue. This year especially, SES volunteers would have it something chronic, and a devastating sequence of natural disasters has stretched most of our donation budgets. We've all crossed the road to avoid someone wielding a clipboard, lest it's another damn charity. One thing we're supposed to be very good at as adults is being practical. We don't give away all our time or possessions and we no longer don a cape and try to fly (not often, anyway). But if you asked the five-year-old version of yourself whether they like who you've become, you're probably not going to like the answer.

Even if you're a pretty decent sort, we as ``grown-ups'' are boring, we make compromises and we can be awfully mean. I barely qualify as an adult in most cultures and I've already upset mini-me. I stared blankly past a homeless woman who asked politely for some change last week, because it was easier than meeting her eye. A handful of Hollywood movies centre on the premise of rediscovering your younger self but not many make for bearable viewing. It is interesting, though, to consider how differently we'd react at a crossroad if mature concerns such as money and duty didn't drive us. If you think your life would be much the same, congratulations.

In a year that's been as disaster-ridden as this one, there has never been a better time to step back and view the world through eyes that haven't yet learnt not to see. We can't regress to a naive mindset and damn the consequences, even if we want to. But we can promise our younger selves to do small things daily to please them, or to consider them in life's big decisions. And when the time comes for me to have kids of my own, I hope they'll forgive me for being such a bloody grown-up.

Column: 'The Chivalry Code - he says she says' for Biscuit Magazine

For the August issue of Biscuit Magazine, which you can read the lovely pages of here. This will be a regular feature that should be a lot of fun!

 

 

Chivalry committed suicide in an existential crisis a few years before the turn of the century. He couldn’t stop thinking back to the days he was respected among men and valued by women, wondering what his place was in this brave new world. He is survived by generations of men, unsure of how to navigate the courting phase of a relationship without him as a guide. 

Interview: Dane Beesley for Tom Magazine

Read online here.

Splitting The Seconds.

Dane Beesley, the fly on the wall of Brisbane’s music scene, takes a break from preparing for the launch of his first photographic book - a scrapbook of the last decade in music - to chat to Anna Angel. It’s shaping up to be quite a party, with some of the rockers who feature in Beesley’s work heading along to help him celebrate and drink the booze. And why wouldn’t they? ‘Splitting the Seconds: a Photographer’s Journal’ catalogues not just Beesley’s own work, but the evolution of Brisbane’s culture as captured through his lens.

"It’s always been my dream to have a book, even when I was in college," Beesley says.

"I started in the film days keeping track of the exposures, writing notes to go with the photos, and just kept it going."

Scribbled notes and micro interviews on bar coasters compliment a retrospective of Beesley’s shots from the past decade, including the likes of Grinderman, The Lemonheads, Beyonce and Metallica.

"It’s pretty personal, but it’s also a really good time for Brisbane - there’s a lot of bands that I’ve worked with like The Grates, Powderfinger, and more recently Hungry Kids of Hungary, that it’s been great watching grow into international acts."

Having shot for street press and magazines like Rolling Stone, Beesley has become a part of the landscape, and now counts a handful of the artists he has worked with as close friends.

"I’m lucky to have made some really great friends but it’s hard having to charge for my jobs when it’s a friend’s band," he says. "It usually just ends up that they’ll buy me a carton of beer."