Feature: ''It's not the end of the world' for The Isthmus

Here's an apocalypse-themed fun piece I wrote for The Isthmus. What role do you play in end-times?

You can read it online here.

It's not the end of the world

By Anna Angel

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.

Some say the world will end in fire;

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Robert Frost – ‘Fire and Ice’

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.

Run, Rabbit Issue 1

This is what we made.
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?
Read all about it at www.runrabbitmagazine.com.
If you think you, or someone you know, might be interested in contributing to the next issue, here's what we're looking for:

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."

Feature: 'Paper cut' for Biscuit Magazine

I wrote an article on how the digital era will change book design for the better for Brisbane e-zine Biscuit's Issue 5. Click to expand.

Read online here.

Feature: 'Travel Writing' for Frock Paper Scissors

Written for Frock Paper Scissors. I do love Bookcrossing! Read the original article here.

I left Jonathan Safran Foer at the Balmoral Cineplex, his orange spine camouflaged against the taxi service phone. The next morning he was gone, and I haven’t heard from him since. The pursuit of Doctor Who brought me to Albion train station in the early hours of the morning, and I almost lost hope when Stephen King wasn’t waiting at a sodden park bench. That was, until a friend unwittingly sat next to Thomas Hardy on the Caboolture line, and introduced him to me.

Review: 'Love at First Bite' for Tom Magazine.

For Tom Magazine. This is possible the most tentatively-linked Twilight merch available.

Title: Love at First Bite  -  The Unoffical Twilight Cookbook

By: Gina Myers

Publisher: iUniverse

Reviewed by: Anna Angel
Like oversized boom boxes and most hipster fashion, Love at First Bite: The Unofficial Twilight Cookbook straddles the line between ironic statement and practical use. I can’t speculate whether the Twilight merchandise industry (I think they’ve formed their own union) based on Stephanie Meyer’s saga, is too oversaturated for this cookbook to appeal to its target market. It is, however, quite amusing in a ‘coffee table collection of Lolcat pictures’, kind of way. Author Gina Meyers attempts to take the reader through a culinary exploration of every food ever mentioned in the series, plus some basic recipes renamed to sound vampiric.

A disappointing omission is the food choice of the Cullen family, which would have helped determine that this is indeed meant as a smart satire on the ridiculous list of unofficial Twilight goodies available. After the dismal failure of the new Vampires Suck movie in the US, maybe this is what we’ve all been craving? At the back of the cookbook, a list of cast members for all three Twilight movies and a guide to having your own Twilight party are included. Are they merely fighting for the bucks of Aunt Glenda who knows nothing about her preteen nieces except that they heart Taylor Lautner, thus gifting them the one related thing they won’t already have? What of the large list of cocktails, with names like ‘Bella Loves Edward Punch’, the highly alcoholic, ‘Never Die’, and ‘Charlie Swan Sergeant Drink’?

Features: various for Cream Magazine

I recently spent two weeks in the Cream office in Sydney, and here is the result! All published in issue 48.

EDITORIALS

























FEATURES AND FEATURETTES


(Click to enlarge.)

Review: 'Ocean Pearl' by J.C. Burke

Ocean Pearl by J.C. Burke

Reviewed By Anna Angel

J.C. Burke’s Starfish Sisters are back; or are they? The highly anticipated sequel to Starfish Sisters, which revolves around a group of teenage pro-surfers - Ocean Pearl - sees their friendships all but torn apart by secrets and lies. This book is bursting with teenage angst, but the well-developed characters give it a pervading sense of reality; readers will get tangled in J.C. Burke’s juicy teen drama, but with two feet planted firmly on the ground.

You don’t have to be a fan of surfing to appreciate these novels; you just need to have been a teenage girl, a friend, a daughter. Ocean Pearl revolves around the relationships these girls have, their lives, and their secrets; they just happen to be kick-ass surfers. The Starfish Sisters are: Micki, a passionate surfer whose desperate home situation leaves her with plenty to hide, Georgie, who’s straining under the weight of all her friend’s secrets, not to mention some of her own, Kia, who needs the Starfish Sisters to stay together, and Ace’s, whose self-absorption could see her lose her best friend, her boyfriend and her sponsorship, all at the same time.

Five months after the Starfish Sisters first drew readers in, the girls are again at training camp, vying for a spot on the Australian female junior surfing team. Unlike when they first met, the bonds of their ‘sisterhood’ are struggling under a whole pile of lies, backstabbing, and betrayals. They’ve made a pact to stick together, and to tell each other everything, but how long can that last? Ace betrays Micki, Georgie betrays Ace, Kia betrays them all, back and forth, until the plotline is sufficiently twisted, and resembles a real life group of friends. While these books are aimed at a female, teenage audience, they’re not all boyfriends, BFFs, periods, and pashes. Along with their fair share of the former, they feature heavy topics such as self-harm, drug addiction, body image, and self esteem. This is no Saddle Club, no matter how cute the name ‘Starfish Sisters’ may be.

Ocean Pearl continues to use the joint narration of the four very different main characters to highlight their individual problems, and reveal the intricate ways in which their reflected personalities hide their true feelings. The strength of the Starfish Sisters series lies in this style of narration, as the reader is allowed understanding of each character’s true selves, and therefore no character is left as a sidekick, or a two-dimensional prototype character. Despite this being the second book in the series, and by the look of things, certainly not the last, it stands well on its own. If you’re not familiar with the Starfish Sisters yet, now is the time to get reading. This compelling sequel will leave you guessing how J.C. Burke will weave the loose-ends left over by Ocean Pearl for the next instalment.

Review: 'When Giants Walked the Earth' by Mick Wall for Tom Magazine

For http://www.tommagazine.com.au/.

Title: When Giants Walked the Earth: a Biography of Led Zeppelin
Author: Mick Wall
Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Reviewed by Anna Angel

Forget sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Mick Wall presents groupies in handcuffs, heroin addiction, and Led Zeppelin. When Giants Walked the Earth is an unrestrained look at the spectacular rise and eventual fall of arguably the world’s biggest rock band, Led Zeppelin. This is not just another half-arsed attempt at a biography by someone who knows little more than what a Wikipedia stub would reveal. Wall, a renowned music journalist who has been a confidant to members of the band for many years, presents the story as it is - no fluff, no favouritism. Comments from guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones, as well as other major figures, pepper the biography. Interestingly, Wall has used fictional ‘flashbacks’ to significant moments in the band member’s lives to introduce each chapter.

Wall follows the band from its formation in a dingy room in London’s Chinatown, where, as Jimmy Page put it, "It was like a thunderbolt, a lightning flash-boosh!" Led Zeppelin was born. The musical and personal lives of the group - often intertwining - are charted, noting everything from Page’s obsession with the occult, and the ‘jinx’ that many believed to be on the band, to the punches and TV sets thrown by John Bonham.

Their rise to fame saw them becoming ‘rock gods’ in a sense, untouchable, worshipped, and powerful. With this came a life of excess; excess drugs, booze, women, and partying. The tragic accidents, deaths, and drug addictions that plagued Led Zeppelin powered their premature demise and disbanding. When Giants Walked the Earth comments that even without such personal troubles, Led Zeppelin’s career was already heading downhill, in what was then a rapidly changing musical landscape.

The story of Led Zeppelin is funny, tragic, musically significant, and in no way dull. Wall has compiled a definitive and comprehensive account of the quintessential rock outfit, their music, the member’s lives, their reputation, and their legacy.

Review: 'He's Just Not That Into You' for Tom Magazine

From http://www.tommagazine.com.au/

Title: He’s Just Not That Into You - The No-Excuses Truth To Understanding Guys
Author: Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reviewed by Anna Angel

It was an episode of Sex and the City, which was then elaborated into a book, and recently made into a fuzzy chick-flick. It was an international phenomenon - hell, it was on Oprah. So, what’s the big deal about the phrase, "He’s just not that into you"? Mainly it’s that nobody would have ever said that to a woman before, for fear of having their eyes carved out with a nailfile. What you did say was, "You’re so hot! Of course he likes you, he’s probably just busy, /he’s just gotten out a relationship/he’s lying dead in a gutter so he wasn’t able to call." Why? Because it makes you feel better. It gives you hope. Greg Behrendt wants to take this hope and crush it into tiny little pieces. It all sounds rather gloomy, but it actually makes a lot of sense.

He’s Just Not That Into You, by a writer and a consultant of Sex and the City, hilariously outlines the common excuses women use to hold onto relationships that simply aren’t going anywhere. Most female readers will recognise an excuse they’ve told themselves, or told one of their friends, throughout the book. The authors don’t so much want to break the hearts of women everywhere, but to help them "set yourself free to find the guy who is really into you, and would love to show you how much." They really hammer the message home, with handy chapter titles like, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You If He’s Breaking Up With You’, and ‘He’s Just Not That Into You If He’s Married (and Other Insane Variations of Being Unavailable)’.

Behrendt and Tuccillo say a guy is just not that into you if he’s not asking you out. For them, this means a girl should never ask a guy out (because if a guy wanted to ask you out, he would). They also don’t believe in grey areas - you’d be better off single than in an unsatisfying relationship. For a hopeless romantic this can seem a little depressing and jaded. If you’re not the rose-carrying, valentine’s-card-writing kind, you may just shrug your shoulders and say "duh!" Ultimately, though, there are some good lessons in here for every single woman.

It can seem a little silly and repetitive at times, with colouring-in exercises and fake reader scenarios throughout, all illustrating the same six words. However, most readers will at least come away with a sense of liberation, thinking "Hell yes, I deserve a fantastic relationship!" Whether or not this book can really help you get one is debatable, but it’s a sure esteem booster, and a welcome reminder that no woman should put up with crap for the sake of being in a relationship. Just try not to take it too seriously. No matter what Oprah says, this is a dating guide, not the bible.