BMA Magazine July/August

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[CONTENTS]

[Canberra’s

Guide]

Entertainment

# 5 0 7 -J u l y / A u g

Sponsored by Sour Squirms diabetes? You will be!

Mail: 36/97 Eastern Valley Way Belconnen, ACT 2617 Publisher Radar Media Pty Ltd

SAFIA

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General Manager Allan Sko T: (02) 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Allan Sko E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Graphic Designer/Cover Design Juliette Dudley Film Editor Cam Williams Featured Gigs Editor John Harvey

GAMMA.CON

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QUESTIONING COUNTRY TRAP

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NEW STORY BY ANNA FRANCESCHINI

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LOLCOL WITH TASH YORK

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Entertainment Guide Editor Ruth O’Brien Social Media Manager Allan Sko Columnists Ruth O’Brien, Josh Nixon, Peter O’Rourke, Allan Sko Contributors Anna Franceschini, Tash York, Jessica Conway, Vince Leigh, Cara Lennon, John Harvey, Josh Nixon, Andrew Myers, Cody Atkinson, Allan Sko NEXT ISSUE #508 OUT Thursday 22 August EDITORIAL DEADLINE Friday 9 August ADVERTISING DEADLINE Wednesday 14 August ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA Magazine is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.

METAMORPHOSIS

ES 199 T 2 PAGE 10

LITERATURE IN REVIEW ALBUM REVIEWS FILM REVIEWS GIGS REVIEWS ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

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LIGHTBULB IMPROV

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BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR

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A stutter. It’s a neat word, sure, but one seemingly crafted to cause the sufferer of such the hassle of stammering their way through the very thing that they have.

FROM THE BOSSMAN

BY ALLAN SKO [ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]

As an Editor/Publisher of some 20 years, I have seen and crafted a fair whack of words.

Important and meaningful as they no doubt are, as alluded to in last issue’s column, words are essentially just sounds; a combination of letters that form an utterance that represent an object, person, feeling, or for those trying to conquer their fears, a normalising name for that spider in the corner of the room that simply won’t stop looking at you.

‘Banana’, for example. A frankly ridiculous sound taken out of context (say it five times quickly if you don’t believe me), but splutter those silly syllables at a supermarket and the surly service person knows what you’re after.

As such, when it comes to the creation of words, any combination of sounds will do. Literally anything. In the formation of words, you can bung together a ‘ba’ here and a ‘nana’ there and, repeated often enough (but not too often to avoid headaches and general accusations of madness), will be adopted as ‘the name for that thing’.

And there’s another one. ‘Stammer’ sure as shitzu ain’t much better. If I had it my way back in the day, I would have changed the machine gun procession of Ts and Ms in ‘stutter’ and ‘stammer’ respectively, to a simple ‘Urgh!’ grunt noise, perhaps allowing a small release of felt annoyance in the process.

And to finish, we have onomatopoeia (fun fact: this was originally going to be the title for the song Hakuna Matata in The Lion King) Onomatopoeia is one of the smartarse words you first learn when thumbing through high school poetry class, a word which means - all together now, class - ”the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named”. Like cuckoo. Or sizzle.

Or fart (maybe not for you, but I am in possession of a very sophicated derrière).

It’s a cracker of a word, whose very use is assured to falsify your IQ by at least 12 point by simply using it. But onomatopoeia to mean a sound associated with its name?

Does Onomatopoeia make an ‘onomatopoeia’ sound? Damn it, now I’ve written it too much that it just looks weird.

And I look mad.

In summary, I have another useful word to describe the folk who created these words.

Bastards.

So, for all the loquaish nature and stuffy verbosity of those overseeing the creation of words back in the day, it is undeniable that they were also in possession of a certain wicked humour.

For example, the word ‘lisp’.

Of all the potential words in the English language - indeed, for all of the possible letters to be used to construct such a word - some conniving git decided it would be hilarious to include an ‘s’ at a key part of the word; a letter that ensures any sufferer of such a pronunciation malady is forced to demonstrate that they do, in fact, have a lisssp.

It’s fiendishly efficient, if not more than a tad cruel.

Speaking of pronunciation (pun expertly intended) that’s another one. ‘Pronounce’.

Nothing wrong with that one, you may retort. Well no, until you start playing with the damn thing.

A proud ‘ow’ sound allows ‘pronounce’ to be, well, pronounced the way it is.

But add an ‘tion’ to form ‘pronunciation’ and the word makes like a reformed woman of the night and becomes a ‘nun’.

When stirring the cauldron of creation, it seems the ‘eye of newt’ thrown in was a need for pronunciation to be set up to be mispronounced. No wonder the rest of the world hate us.

Not content to leave the speech afflicted alone, our devilish dons of derivation swoop in once again to lambaste and vilify those unfortunate enough to have an impediment.

To whit, the selection of the word used to represent the state in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables or words.

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[HOT TIX]

Kopasetic / ‘Rhapsody’ EP Launch / Fri, 2 Aug / Smith’s Alternative Canberra band Kopasetic launch their debut EP, Rhapsody Blues. Features a unique dialect of roots music influenced by folk, reggae, ska, and fingerstyle guitar, each track tells a story about powerlessness and politics in the information age, with lyrics that enliven themes of modern oligarchy, environmentalism, and social justice. Joining Kopasetic is the acoustic indie rock band Bobby James, bringing soothing catchy melodies and driving worldly rhythms. 6:30pm for 7pm / $15/$10, smithsalternative.com/events/kopasetic-60237

Gypsy Dub vs Latin Reggae / Fri, 9 Aug / Polish White Eagle Club Gypsy dub and Latin reggae fight for your dance-floor soul, via five-piece gypsy-dub-jazz band Midnight Tea Party (MTP) and local Latin-reggae legends Los Chavos, supported by 3ob. MTP blend the hypnotic melodies of the balkans with dub, jazz, and rock: subsonic bass mixed with balkan-inspired horn lines.Los Chavos couples energy with the complex, and a variety of Afro– Latin rhythms such as cumbia, dub/reggae, and merengue. 3ob’s DJ set will feature special guests on vocals and live instruments.

8–11:30pm / $20/$25 via bit.ly/Gypsy-Dub-Latin.

Cajun Percussion Workshop/ With Rodrigo / 12 Aug - 4 Oct / Ainslie Arts Centre Master percussionist and Cajon Maker Rodrigo Percussion will be running an 8-week Cajon-percussion workshop in Canberra, with a final concert at a city-based live-music venue in October.

Classes will be open to beginners and intermediate players, for both adults and children (10yrs +). Rodrigo Percussion will need to gauge interest, skill level, and class-time preferences.

6:30–8:30 pm weekdays (with potential for weekend classes) / $200 (full 8 weeks) / $35 per class (drop-in sessions). Info/ Sign up via bit.ly/CBR_Cajon PAGE 12

UPCOMING EVENTS

QL2 Dance / Filling The Space Thu-Sat 8-10 Aug / Canberra Theatre Centre In Filling The Space, the Quantum Leap Ensemble (QL2) explores the dynamic relationship of body and architecture. It breaks open the frames and borders that guide our movement in and out of space(s) and playfully manipulates our emotional relationship to them. The theatre stage becomes a world of potential, of space filling and emptying, of new cosmic dances.

7pm (+ 10 Aug, 2pm) / $35/$28/$23/$15 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Sydney Comedy Festival / Top comics in action / Sat, 10 Aug / Canberra Theatre Centre The seventh Showcase will feature some of the Festival’s hottest acts live on stage for two hours of hard-hitting laughter. Boasting a line-up of veteran favourites, international stars, and fresh emerging talents, this jampacked night of pure entertainment will feature Al Del Bene, Rebecca De Unamuno, Mike Goldstein, Julia Wilson, John Cruckshank, and Oliver Twist. 8pm / $40 + $5.95 bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/sydney-comedyfestival-showcase

Headz Are Rolling Presents: Tamen / Sat, 17 Aug / Sideway A true international man, the Irish-born, once Barcelona-based now Melbourned-moved Tamen has been energising sets across the world, sharing the stage with the likes of Aphrodite, Ed Solo, Hype, and Marcus Intalex. He’s repping Subtle Audio Recordings, which co-released an album with Aphex Twin’s Rephlex with DJ support from Bailey (Metalheadz), Thom Yorke, Mary Anne Hobbs, and Aphex himself. As a producer, Tamen’s collab with Ricky Force, Plastic Mentality, quickly sold out on London’s Repertoire label. Consider the noise brought 10pm 4am, $15-$20 from ticketfairy.com @bmamag

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Local Canberra band Kopasetic are set to launch their debut EP Rhapsody Blues at Smith’s Alternative on Friday, 2 August.

Recorded at Amberly Studios overlooking Namadgi’s mountains and the Bullen Range, the EP features a unique dialect of roots music influenced by folk, reggae, ska, and finger-style guitar.

LOCALITY

[THE WORD ON LOCAL MUSIC] WITH RUTH O’BRIEN SEND YOUR GIGS AND INFO TO: [RUTHMVOBRIEN@GMAIL.COM]

Hello and welcome to the Locality column for July and August!

Shiteloads to get through so let’s jump straight in.

Beloved musician and all-round artistic maverick, Endrey, has just dropped his latest track, Lusitania. Featuring local rapper, Kojo Ansah aka Citizen Kay, the song is a reflection on the myths that dominate our lives. You can listen to Endrey’s catchy, electro-pop track on Spotify.

Supporting Kopasetic on the night will be local indie rock band, Bobby James. Citing influences such as Andrew Bird, Death Cab for Cutie and Hozier, Bobby James delivers captivating performances with soothing catchy melodies and driving worldly rhythms. Doors open at 7pm and tix can be purchased online at smithsalternative.com/events/kopasetic-60237 or at the door for $10/$15.

Canberra favourites, Pleased To Jive You, will be launching a new album at Live at The Polo on Friday, 16 August at 8pm.

Whitman’s Peak is Jive’s self-produced concept album, a 12-track opus, three years in the making, which tells the story of the fictional town of Fevernall, NSW and the people who attempt to tame the infamous local mountain and its dangerous terrain.

It’s a dreamy, jazz-filled funk rock album with acoustic campfire singalongs and psychedelia. Supported by a bunch of local acts, this is sure to be a great night out. Tickets are $10/$15 at trybooking.com or at the door.

The National Live Music Awards (NMLAs) are now open for nominations! If any of these artists, or others I haven’t mentioned here, have caught your attention over the last year and you feel their talent is deserving of some public recognition, head over to nlmas.com.au to nominate them for this year’s awards!

Nominations can also be submitted for your favourite event, venue, or music photographer. Nominations close on Thursday, 15 August.

Citizen Kay - he’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere in 2019. Just the way we like it Staying on the trend of the aforementioned, incredibly talented and, it would seem, incredibly busy Citizen Kay, the hip-hop artist, producer, and rapper will be headlining the inaugural Canberra music bash, Sweet Dreams Festival. Joining the line-up will be a host of other local and interstate talent including Kirrah Amosa, Kirklandd and Thandi Phoenix. The event will be held at the Truffle Farm on Mt Majura Road. Tickets are available via the website now (sweetdreamsfestival.com.au) and the festival itself will be on Saturday, 21st September.

Groovy Daughter has just released a new track on iTunes and Spotify. Reboot is a beautifully haunting song that, as described by the artist, “is a plea, from the deepest parts of our brain. It describes the desperation of trying to function in society when you’re plagued with mental illness.” I very much admire the candour and honesty of this young artist and look forward to hearing more of her work. Be sure to catch her live too; such a great performer!

A couple of other releases to plug. Local rising-stars Teen Jesus and The Jean Teasers have recently put out a new track called See You In A Bit (I Still Care). The song follows the same gritty-grunge style as their last release and reflects on love-hate relationships.

Sputnik Sweetheart will be releasing their new track, Us Girls, on 1 August. The song throws gender inequality into the spotlight in a passionate, frustrated, and anthemic fashion.

Both these releases are available on all major streaming platforms.

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Until we get sound, we make noise - musicact.com.au Lastly, MusicACT has been working hard to advocate for the continuation of live music in Canberra, as venues constantly battle noise complaints and restrictions as the city centre grows.

Let Music Live - Jam Against A Silent City, happened on 21st June in Garema Place, and was a demonstration by Canberra bands (including SAFIA and Citizen Kay - see, such a busy man!) to let our local pollies and developers know that Canberrans want live performance in the city to remain strong.

With a turnout of over 1500, it’s clear that support for a reached agreement around live music and future development for the protection of Canberra’s music scene is fervent. And as we can see, the music scene in this city is alive and well so let’s keep it that way.

For more info on this important issue, and to see what MusicACT want to see changed, view their Cool Little Capital Action Plan at musicact.com.au/blog/2018/11/29/cool-little-capital

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BMA ARTIST PROFILE

LEONARD WEISS

Conductor Leonard “Lenny” Weiss is a hero of Canberra and a champion of sound. Before he toddles off to home-of-The Wire, Baltimore, for a Masters degree, he has two concerts and a cracking career to discuss.

Describe your sound As a conductor, I shape the sound of the musicians. Most of my communication is non-verbal – or at least it should be in the concert! But in rehearsals I get to break down musical ideas, shape the phrasing of the music being played by wonderful musicians around me, and support them to give their best.

When the conductor can step back and let the musicians really shine, that’s where the magic happens.

Who/What are your influences, musical or otherwise?

I’m continually inspired by Benjamin Northey and Simone Young, who I’ve seen rehearsing in Melbourne; Nicholas Carter in Adelaide; and Alondra de la Parra who I get to visit again in Queensland in August.

Equally, conducting teachers and mentors Johannes Fritzsch (in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s 2018 and 2019 Australian Conducting Academy) and the late Richard Gill AO have been inspirational in pursuing this career path, and pivotal in directing my technical developments. I grew up listening to recordings by Leonard Bernstein, so to study with one of his foremost students Marin Alsop (one of the leading conductors world-wide in her own right) will be a life-changing opportunity.

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had?

The first act of Eric Idle’s Not The Messiah concludes with You’re the One where the entire cast, choir, and orchestra join in to name Brian as the messiah. When I conducted this in 2018 with the National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society, there was an incredible moment of stunned silence when the bagpipes entered, before a full Llewellyn Hall erupted in cheering. For all of the emotionally charged musical moments I’ve had on stage, and the world-class soloists I’ve been lucky to work with, that memory still makes me smile every time.

Tell us about one of your proudest moments?

I tend to have the most fun when all of the hard work behind the scenes pays off. Generally speaking, the more people are involved in a performance, the more logistical planning is needed.

I recently concluded my time with the Canberra Youth Orchestra conducting Carmina Burana, which was the perfect conclusion to four wonderful years together. Seeing every musician truly shine and give their all for the whole concert was very special – especially knowing that for many of the CYO musicians, their time in the orchestra has been a large part of their musical development over the past few years. I’m proud to reflect on my musical influence in Canberra and see the careers take off for these passionate and talented musicians. facebook.com/bmamagazine

What are your plans for the future?

I’m about to commence a Masters in Conducting at Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore USA, studying with world-famous conductor maestro Marin Alsop. From there, even more conducting!

What makes you laugh?

Everything… My family and girlfriend are quite funny, sometimes even deliberately! Usually there are a few moments in rehearsals where we can all have a laugh, or even in day-to-day work where I’m lucky to have hilarious (and hard-working) colleagues at Canberra Grammar School. These little moments of joy make everything worthwhile.

What pisses you off?

Coming up against a brick wall in the planning phase. There are very few problems which are completely unsolvable, and often challenging discussions lead to new and ultimately better, or more viable, ideas.

Certainly the committees around me and the Llewellyn Hall venues team have tackled conversations and changes with professionalism and outstanding success.

What about the Canberra/music scene in general would you change?

I believe I’ve been a part of quietly shaping the things I would like to see changed for a while. From the musical goals of different ensembles to establishing stronger links between young/amateur musicians, through to the ANU School of Music, through to the community, and both semi-professional (Canberra Sinfonia) and professional scenes.

There are perhaps a few things which may never change in a relatively small city – it would be amazing to have a full-time symphony orchestra, for example (I marvel at what the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra achieves in concerts and community outreach, serving a similar population size) – but we’re lucky to be surrounded by exceptional musicians at every level in Canberra.

What would you like to plug?

I encourage everyone to hear the outstanding concerts presented by organisations in the community. I’m looking forward to two more concerts in Canberra – 3pm, Saturday, 27 July at Wesley Uniting Church with the Canberra Sinfonia, and 7:30pm, Saturday, 3 August at Llewellyn Hall with the National Capital Orchestra.

Also a shout out to the hard-working musicians who invest countless hours into pursuing their passion, and the behind-the-scenes teams who make it all possible.

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SAFIA’s Ben Woolner talks to BMA’s Jessica Conway about psychedelics and introspection, growing older and change, and the new ‘Story’s Start or End’ album and tour “No, I never thought I’d be a public servant!” SAFIA front man Ben Woolner exclaimed.

“I was always working out what I could do to not do that. I struggle with routine; I need to be doing different things in different places all the time”.

Well, I guess it’s a good thing life has panned out rather well for the Canberran.

He’s about to embark on another national tour with his two band mates (Harry Sayers and Michael Bell) following the release of their highly anticipated second album, Story’s Start or End (out 9 August, mark it in your calendars folks!)

The much-anticipated album has been two years in the making, borne out of reflection and the maturity that comes with ageing.

“This album came about in our mid-to-late ’20s when you start asking yourself what’s important to you and start having some bigger existential questions about life as a whole,” he explained.

“I think this album really covers that whole journey from the arrogance, complacency, and ego of youth into that more accepting stage of change and growing older.”

Following their ascent to Australian music stardom with their first album, SAFIA took their time with writing and producing Story’s Start or End, with Ben embarking on a soul-searching journey of meditation – and the occasional dash of DMT. “I think that’s why this album is all about that inner dialogue and letting go of unconscious habits, behaviours, thoughts and processes,” Ben said of his recent dalliance with the spiritual side of things.

“I spent a lot of the record writing alone, so the battle of two halves – with my subconscious habits and what I wanted them to be – comes through in the music. The first half of the album is about this conflict, which then moves towards acceptance and change as the tracks become less introspective.”

While Ben freely admits to dipping his toe into the pool of psychedelics, he confesses he’s taking it slow.

“I’m no where near up to Ayahuasca! I’d have to work up to that. Apparently, it’s like stripping all parts of yourself back to the core.

“But psychedelics definitely have played a role in this record. I’m a big advocate for them, but always in the right setting with the right intent.”

The tour kicks off at the UC Refectory in late August, a fitting start given the group’s long history with the capital.

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The three SAFIA members, Ben, Harry (guitar/keyboard) and Michael (drums) all grew up in Canberra, meeting at Radford College.

“We connected over our shared love of music, Guns n Roses really. We were all learning guitar and wanted to be Slash,” Ben laughed.

“Sometimes there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for what we wanted to do,” he said of the private school environment.

“We were very outside of the system and being a private school, it was very focused on classical and jazz. They were the two choices and there wasn’t much room for modern music or rock bands.”

They (obviously) persisted and followed their musical hearts into the world of digital sounds. They started kicking around the Canberra club scene circa 2010, but back then their brand of live and electronic beats and vocals was a fairly new thing.

Yet surprisingly, Canberra was actually the best place to be.

“One of the first support gigs we had was with The Presets when they came to Canberra, and then it was Disclosure and Rudimental. They were all playing at the local spots and we were able to watch, ask them questions and learn heaps really early on.

“We wouldn’t have had that opportunity and experience in a bigger city because there’d be so many other bands that’d get the spot before we did.”

And it has been a bloody stellar run of successes since those early days.

2013 was a big year for the young lads, with breakout track Listen to Soul, Listen to Blues putting them on Australia’s auditory map.

We, as a society, have a problem with ableism.

‘Oh no’, you all cry! ‘Not another -ism’.

Just deal with it, because it’s true.

The majority of us are clueless as to what disability or chronic illness actually means in a daily, practical sense. As a result, one of threeA things tend toyears happen: few short later came debut album Internal with

Make Them Wheels Roll Embracing Me tearing up - We simply avoid people with an and obvious physical impediment, the charts ahead of a sold out national tour.

They have panicked as to what to do or say or how to say it,

accumulated over 140 million streams, not including their

- We talk to adults likewith they’re six-year-olds the collaborations Peking Duk andcoupled Alisonwith Wonderland. hearing of a 90-year old, or

Not bad, huh?

- We tell people all the ways they can get better if they just try hard Despite all of this, with the nation at their feet, three enough.

Mind over matter and all that.

‘Just tell yourself youallhave SAFIAns remain true Canberra energy and chronic fatigue will go away!’locals - Ben living in Dickson,

Harry in Hall, and Michael at the back of Belconnen.

This is bullshit. And it needs to change.

“Canberra has such a supportive and incredibly strong music

Hanna Cormick readily agrees with this sentiment, noting before scene, ” Ben enthused. she became chronically ill that she herself didn’t even believe in “And from a creative aspect, Canberra writes some of the chronic illness.

most interesting stuff. There is a lack of pretence, being

“I thought you could through anything withand enough will. Myindustry, removed frompush Sydney or Melbourne big music ingrained ableism was shocking, and something I have struggled and being a little more isolated fosters people to just be to unravel and unpick over of these youngthings theatremaker themselves.

Some theyears, most” the bizarre I’ve heard are told me. from Canberra bands. And I love it.”

You see, life changed radically several years She was with AndHanna’s you’ll love it too when SAFIA hit the UCago.

Refectory an able-bodied actress, dancer, circus artist, their ‘Stories Start or End’ tour withcabaret specialperformer guests Boo and theatremaker in Australia, and Asia24 forAugust. some 20Tix years.

Seeka & Eilish Gilligan Europe on Saturday, are

$56.10 and. are available from the venue.

She was ‘normal’ Until she wasn’t.

explained.

Starting & Ending Quick Qs

Northside or southside?

The downside is this leadsNort h with rare disease, to those like her, being overlooked.

Public transport, or own your own car?

I shou use public transport more, but “Those with rare disease refer toldthem selveusly s as Zebra Canberra is obvio But– although a car s. city my illnesses are really comp licate with and prese thed,tram nt in stran that could andto go. be thegeway extreme ways, even for a Zebra.

ANU or UC? ANU “So, the Zebracorn is part zebra , part unicorn: rarer than rare, isolated, believed by manyLake Ginn not to inder exist, butradespi or Lake te every Burlthing, ey Griffin?

Burley Griffin still fabulo Wrapup us”.

Belconnen or Civic?

As Hanna became increasingly Civic disabled, a friend helped establish the habit of writing just two sentences every day about how Favourite Canberra attraction? she was feeling.

National Gallery “I’ve kept to that practice these Shouldlast four cycli yearsmore st have , docum , lessenting , inl or equa microform, the changes that road right s to red. have carsI in occur Canb erra? may have been living I think inside the same room, stuck in thethey samecould bed, have for more that; every time, one just really needs to get all but you can start to see the way that time passesalong differ. ently.

And through the writing, I starte Lastly,d with regarhow d to stran cyclists, to notice canlife ge my there be too much lycra? had become, and that the shift in the way I was able to interact . Yes. Definitely… with the world meant I wasYeah ableINIT to perce DEF ELY.ive it in a new light; the political structures and injustice I was suddenly prey to, the way humans treat each other, our relationships with our own bodies, and our relationships with vulnerability and mortality.”

Hanna is usually a very private person, but over the course of her extreme illness, she found she wanted to creat e and share this autobiographical work. As you’d imagine, there are some pretty heavy themes at play; desperation, desolation, despair, and grief for the life you’ve now lost.

Today, Hanna largely lives in a sealed room. The world outside literally deadly.

Her allergies are vast and have even included water and mobile phone batteries. She has experienced ceaseless pain, unimaginable fatigue, and unstoppable bleeding.

This myriad conditions are formed by a rare perfect storm of sorts, or what Hanna calls ‘the trifecta’.

“The trifecta sees three rare genetic conditions (hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) that, in a certain subset of patients, frequently occur together and make each other worse,” she explained.

“I deal with a lot of organ complications caused by these disorders and some other rarer co-morbid autoimmune diseases. It affects every bone, organ and cell in my body, causing physical impairment, debilitating fatigue, and has a profound effect on my immune system, which means that I have to live inside a sealed saferoom and cannot be around most people. I’ve been living, almost exclusively, in the same room for the last four years”.

This tectonic shift in her health is what ultimately gave birth to The Street Theatre’s upcoming play, Zebracorn.

An odd name yes, but also no.

“Doctors are taught ‘when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras’, to prevent overdiagnosis of rare conditions when it is statistically more likely to be a common condition,” Hanna facebook.com/bmamagazine

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WITH ANDREW MYERS It is almost that time of year when Canberra’s biggest pop culture festival comes to town – GAMMA.CON! I spoke to the current convenor of GAMMA. CON, Isabella Hurst, about the upcoming event featuring all things “nerdy” and what this year will include: Jesse Cox and Alex Faciane (of YouTube’s Scary Game Squad fame), acclaimed voice actor Paul St Peter (Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Kingdom Hearts and Bleach), panels about cosplaying with four cosplay professionals including Danielle Debs and Hench Wench, exhibitions, competitions, local and interstate vendors and businesses (Impact Comics, Warhammer, The Games Capital, Revolution CD), amateur artists, a vast array of video games to play from various generations, tournaments, performances, workshops, tabletop strategy games, workshops for kids and much, much more!

The floor of EPIC will be lined with local businesses and artists - some you may recognise and others that will introduce you (and your wallet) to new customer experiences.

“GAMMA.CON give businesses an opportunity to reach new customers; introduce people to new comics or games.

They come as fans of one thing and find

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more things they love”, said Hurst.

Last year’s event clocked in a whopping 6200 attendees - not a bad achievement that originally began with four university students seven years ago.

GAMMA.CON is currently the only pop culture event that holds an 18+ evening program at its venue making this two day event a unique occasion for all.

What makes this event so successful is the die-hard loyalty Canberreans have for all things pop culture, as outside of this when else can people see multitudes of people dressed as Harley Quinn or Master Chief, or gawk at entire walls decked out with Funk Pop Vinyl figurines?

So break out your wrist-brace for all those video games, dust off your Jon Snow faux-fur coat, polish your Styrofoam He-Man sword, zip up your movie-quality Chewbacca jumpsuit and treat yourself to the phenomenon that is GAMMA.CON!

Hurst knows just too well how important these festivals are for destinations other than the usual tour trek of Sydney and Melbourne as GAMMA.CON even visits NSW’s Wagga Wagga.

GAMMA.CON, Exhibition Park (EPIC), 3rd-4th August, $25-$160, venue opens at 10am – 5pm

“(This) highlights how diverse and interesting Canberra is. We’re not just one thing - a ‘bush capital’ or a ‘city of public servants’ or whatever - we’re a big community of many weird and wonderful interests and GAMMA.CON taps into that,” she explained.

Gamma@Night is everything nerdy and naughty that your heart could desire, being aimed at mature aged patrons who enjoy entertainment like films, competitions, video games, drag shows, erotic fan-fiction readings, Star Wars themed burlesque and responsible service of alcohol provided by Reload Bar and Games.

Organiser Isabella Hurst ready to throw down the info

@bmamag

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DANCE THE DROP [THE WORD ON DANCE MUSIC] WITH PETER “KAZUKI” O’ROURKE [CONTACT@KAZUKI.COM.AU]

Trends. It’s something that affects all genres of music, especially when it comes to what you’ll hear on the dancefloor in the club.

You can trace the rise and fall (and rise again) of many DJs on the back of what the hot sound is.

The tricky thing is to be at the forefront of the wave, so you’re the one defining the trend, not hoping to catch up.

That aside, it’s interesting to see where we are in the 4x4 beatsto-the-floor space right now. For a while there, we had the deep/ tech house stuff dominating the mainroom, only for tech-house to get a bad rep with lazy copy-cat records.

From there, techno started to become the flavour of the month - of course for a lot of commentators, what was being promoted as ‘techno’ is really just tech-house, or progressive house (confusingly called ‘melodic house and techno’ on Beatport as progressive also gained a stigma of overproduced cheesy anthems...) and not techno at all.

And there’s a new theme on their Saturday nights, with Anthems, playing some of the biggest tunes of house, electro, trap and hopefully a few trance classics.

For special gigs, definitely give FEEL a look in, with Tigerlily on 2 August, and Blanke on 23 August.

Here’s an interesting one - Alex Dyson (of triple j fame - yes that’s in lowercase) will be at Mr Wolf on Friday, 26 July. Wonder what he’ll be spinning? Wear a legionnaires hat, apparently.

Later in the month my crew Department of Late Nights will be at the Wolf on 9 August - B-tham’s up from Melbourne on headline duties, along with Dratec to close, while I’ll be back-to-back with Fourthstate. Heaps of techno guaranteed!

Now proper techno itself is becoming popular again - or at least the faster stuff is. But then a lot of that sounds like older trance records; case in point with DJs like Nina Kravis mixing in actual trance into their high energy sets.

Ultimately, all this confusion about what is and isn’t a particular style of music has actually created a really interesting point for music right now. In the last 18 months, DJs have been taking risks again. They aren’t afraid to mix with different tempos, different sub-genres, throwing in oldskool tunes, or playing multiple styles in a set, but in a way that seems to have a natural flow.

In some sense, it’s becoming closer to what dance music used to be back in the early ‘90s when genres weren’t so set in stone.

I reckon we’re at a great point with music, and there’s something exciting coming out every week. For a DJ and clubber, that’s an awesome spot to be in.

The first Saturday of this issue, 27 July, is a big one for Canberra House Social, with Harvey Sutherland playing a headline set for a party at UC, plus support from Loure, LEMN & MIA. Tickets are selling fast, only a few days to go!

Thursdays at Fiction have taken a different turn, with a weekly dose of heavy beats with their Techno Thursdays - pretty cool to see something like this, so let’s hope it sticks around!

Brittany De Marco teaching the 1s and 2s to the LGBTQI+ community This is pretty cool as well - Mr Wolf is running a series of DJ workshops on a Saturday afternoon for women, trans, and non binary folk. And you’ll be in safe hands with the amazing Brittany De Marco who is a wicked DJ, and all-round awesome human being.

Check out their Facebook page for details.

Balthazar has your house music sorted for 10 August with the wonderfully titled Sorry Mum, I’m going out and I may be some time, hosted by Mista Nige with some local selectas - bring your dancing shoes and give it a looksee.

As always, Sideway have plenty of gigs on pretty much every night, so you’ll definitely find something you’ll dig - but here are a few dance selections. Queer party Throb has a sweet line-up on 27 July with Melbourne’s Whiskey Houston who’ll bring a record bag full of soulful techno and house, plus local spinner sardines, and live drag performances from MadB + Ty Zahn.

On 15 August be sure to wear your best ‘doomsday cocktail’ outfit for the Mutant Mayhem fundraiser party by the Australian Student Environment Network and Beyond Uranium - it’s a great cause with even greater DJs, so check it out!

A Techno Thursdays night? Mmmm... Dat’s nice!

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And finally, Headz are Rolling have a ripper of a night planned on 17 August with Tamen from Ireland for some jungle and breakbeat influenced DnB, plus some awesome local support including Tidy, Karuna, Boomtze, with Ragz 2 Riches making their Headz debut at the club too.

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METALISE

[THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON

Witchskull - They average one regular beard each Melbourne in preparation for a summer-ish time frame to record their 3rd album. I’m sure you won’t need much encouragement to head along to that one!

Halfway through 2019 and Henry Fiat’s Open Sore still warms the cockles of Josh’s black heart 2019 is half way down so I took pause to see what has tickled my date this year for the harvest, and it seems I’ve pretty much reviewed most of the good stuff.

The Henry Fiat’s Open Sore record is probably still my favourite of the year so far, but I have really enjoyed the new Slomatics album Canyons in between everything I reviewed this issue [page 34 onward for that, dear reader - Bossman Al].

Cerebral Rot are playing proper sloppy death metal the way I like it, and I’ve only heard a couple of tracks from the forthcoming Odious Descent Into Decay but I’m on board already.

Nepenthes from Japan and their 2017 album CONFUSION was recommended to me by some band mates who caught them live in Tokyo recently, and it’s some first rate fun sludge I would bestow a thumbs up to.

Marcus Skull has his local debut on 30 August at the Transit Bar of his new band Hekate. Holy Serpent are coming to town as a part of a large upcoming series of shows and new album, and will be joined by glowering Sydney doom trio Potion & Hekate for the show. Absolute must see.

The USA’s Devildriver will be at The Basement on the 23rd of August with All That Remains. Been quite a few years in between drinks for an Aussie visit so be sure to get a ticket from Destroy All Lines for that one.

Sending out an all-the-best to Lachlan Watt of triple j’s The Racket who publicly announced his brain cancer battle. He has been dealing with issues since a seizure and a fall earlier in the year revealed a growth on his brain which was removed successfully. Now he is facing the chemo part and that fucking sucks. All the best.

Earth Rot are heading over from WA for a Friday, 13 September show at the Transit Bar with Claret Ash, Ploughshare and Wretch so blast into spring with that one.

Elder put out The Gold & Silver Sessions which I really need to spend some more time with, but the first listen made me think of a delay pedal demonstration reel. Some further spins required for the time being.

Baroness came back with Gold & Grey but it left me a bit cold.

However, the fantastically named Clouds Taste Satanic album Evil Eye delivered a good instrumental doom time.

The return of Scott Reagers to Saint Vitus for their self-titled return has nearly broken my iTunes trying to deal with the original self titled.

For a time I was getting into Green Lung album Woodland Rites until a good friend of mine called them the Greta Van Fleet of doom. I haven’t been able to look at the album cover since. But there’s some great guitar work on there if that is your jam.

Onto touring news, and Melbourne progressive heavy rockers Circles are touring the country this winter, and Canberra lands a show on the 26th of July with Escape Syndrome and Ebonivory.

Tickets through Oztix.

The irrepressible Witchskull - fresh from a very successful tour of New Zealand, Sydney, and Melbourne supporting Beastwars on their IV album launch tour - have announced a local show on the 3rd August at Transit Bar with Sydney bands Sworn Sober and The Veil. The fellas have been working hard on the follow up to last year’s Coven’s Will and have been doing some demoing down in PAGE 22

I Exist will soon not exist. For awhile, at least...

I Exist drummer Simon Murphy is heading overseas for a couple of years to help spread his musical talent over the world just that bit more. There is the last show for the band for the foreseeable future on 15 September at the Transit Bar. Batushka played an unforgettable show at Dark Mofo last year with Portal and Blasphemy. They’re coming to Canberra on the 1st of November thanks to Destroy All Lines. More deets closer to the date!

And finally, Fleshgod Apocalypse have announced a national tour for Oct/Nov with the Canberra date landing at The Basement on the 4th of November. Eventbrite is where to get them early bird tickets for the Roman symphonic death metal horde. @bmamag

?

Questioning

OK, let’s break this down…

LET’S GO. So this is country music?

Absolutely. Good ol’ boy areas.

But it’s also trap?

HOTLANTA fusion. 808 hi-hats, deep kicks, crisp snares, but most of all with rhymes over the top.

Hotlanta?

Well, Atlanta… Dirty South, that type of thing. And, to be honest, no-one from Atlanta calls it it Hotlanta. Most use Atlanta. As they should.

Right. So what does country music and trap have to do with each other?

Well, just like peanut butter and jelly, they are finally together BUT IN MUSICAL FORM. No longer do we have to think, “What do I listen to; some Hank Williams or some Rick Ross?”

WE CAN DO BOTH. Man, society progresses so fast...

I know, right?

But country rap has been around for a while?

But you’d notice that a lot of it – not all of it – is done by average white dudes. Bro-country music is, and I know this is said about a lot of things, but it is the absolute worst.

The absolute worst?

THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD. THE WORST. So usually when these things come about, there’s some type of controversy or reason this column looks at them.

Country Trap with Cody Atkinson

So what’s the deal with country trap?

Well, it might be the most popular genre in the world right now, thanks to one kid, and some parts of the country music establishment DON’T LIKE IT AT ALL NO SIREE BOB. OK, back up. Most popular genre?

Well, microgenre or subgenre.

Don’t go after me for specificity.

But Old Town Road is absolutely everywhere.

Old Town Road? I am guessing from the use of italics it’s the name of a song?

It is a song, and by far the most popular song in the world right now. In fact, the second most popular song in the world might be another VERSION of the same damn song.

Most popular?

Well, and I swear I am not exaggerating here, but Old Town Road has been on top of pretty much every music chart in the world for eleventy billion weeks.

You know how long eleventy billion weeks is? IT’S A LONG DAMN TIME. And all your favourite peripheral music celebrities are getting involved – old country dude Billy Ray Cyrus, celebrity DJ and music tourist Diplo, super-sexualised rapper Cupcakke – everyone is trying to grab a piece.

So who did the track in the first place?

Lil Nas X, a previous “relatively” unknown soundcloud rapper from the ATL suburbs. With a bought beat from a Dutch producer that utilised a Nine Inch Nails instrumental, Lil Nas X rapped about horses, roads – you know, country stuff – over the top.

Wait, you mean Trent Reznor is at the ground floor of the country trap revolution?

Look, I think he is a pioneer of the country trap subgenre now. It would be remiss if any biography of NIN/Reznor didn’t include his work in country trap extremely prominently – in line with his work with popularising industrial music.

Anyway, back to Old Town Road…

Yeah. The song was popularised largely through the emergence of TikTok (that’s a call back to last issue), enough that it started to break through to mainstream radio play. That’s when an inadvertent decision from music gatekeepers pushed the popularity of the tune to the next level.

What was that?

Well, the people behind the Billboard charts – the US version of the ARIA charts – made the call that the song about riding horses down the old town road with a cowboy hat (from Gucci) is not a country song.

Come on.

Billboard told Rolling Stone that while the song, “incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.” It is worth noting that Old Town Road is a fair way from Dolly Parton (who, to my knowledge, has never used production from Trent Reznor). It is also worth noting that Lil Nas X is something relatively uncommon in country music: a young African American man, which is a little different from most previously popular country rap.

Is race a big issue in country music?

In Australia, the answer is probably no. There’s a long and fine history of popular and widely embraced country music from indigenous musicians – from Jimmy Little to Troy CasserDaly and a host of others.

But in the US, progress is much slower, and the linking of the genre and culture to imagery of the Confederacy is a pretty big sign that acceptance hasn’t decisively happened. In recent years there has been some success from African American country musicians, but it seems everything hasn’t been exactly seamless.

So what happened to Old Town Road next?

Well, in wake of the declassification of the song, Billy Ray Cyrus decided to jump in. I am imagining he stood up and shouted “THIS IS A JOB FOR BILLY RAY CYRUS!” when he found out, and I don’t care to find out to the contrary. Anyway, after Lil Nas X tweeted that he’d like Cyrus on the song, Billy Ray did a verse, making it his most recent single since Achy Breaky Heart 25, two years ago.

Still milking that sucker then…

It’s the Billy Ray Cyrus version that is the most recognisable.

And, while Old Town Road isn’t a great song or anything, at least it is a whole lot better than Achy Breaky Heart. And at least it didn’t popularise line dancing.

So I guess this is his legacy now – featuring on a remix of a country trap song with a beat taken from Nine Inch Nails.

Boy, isn’t that a sentence about music in 2019.

The only predictable path for popular culture TBH.

Yeah. facebook.com/bmamagazine

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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

Exhibitionist Arts in the ACT

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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

[A New Life Story by Anna Franceschini]

THE CAFÉ

BY ANNA FRANCESCHINI Standing in line for a coffee is, in itself, the single most gratifying task in the world. Not only for the anticipation of holding a cup of the stuff in your hands, but for the performance of café patrons, old timers, and new visitors.

always, at the sight of an intruder. He never attacked, of course, but just stood there waiting to see what will happen. He usually stood the furthest away from the flock, staring into you with his little black eyes.

They stand by windows or sit on striped benches, faded by the line of morning sun that has shone through since the grand opening years before. By the window up the front is a bar where many people can sit and watch the streets. I have found that I can get a better view of this bar from the back of the coffee line.

I can’t say that all cockatoos act like this, but this one did so every day. All day, his one job, he’d puff his white chest up into a ball and march around while others ate, and I suppose he’d continue doing that into eternity. Protecting and ordering and caring.

Sometimes no one will sit there, often many, but on occasion just one man holding a cigarette he never lights, wearing glasses he never seems to pull down from his peppered hair. He orders tea with two sugars. I know this because on his arrival, he’ll sit down at the window, and a small and freckled waiter will bring out his order on a wooden tray.

“Here it is,” he’ll say. “Tea and two sugars.”

And the man will nod, never raising his head from the cold cigarette in his hands.

I often wonder if it’s the same cigarette each time. If it once belonged to his widow and that is all she left behind; one cigarette and the memory of her long fingers around it. Maybe this is where they used to come? Sitting and smoking, watching an elderly couple cross the street, wondering if that would be them one day.

A young woman usually visits when I’m in the middle of the line, and walks hen-like to the table adjacent to me, picking up a copy of the Telegraph on her way. She’ll smooth the paper out on top of the soft brown oak, creasing the pages, flicking through the world news. Every now again an article will catch her eye: HOUSE FIRE …

LANDSLIDE VICTORY … …CLAIMS 50,000 She sometimes stops for a while on an image of an old man, white hair pocking up from his head like the crest of a cockatoo. I stare at this image, when given the chance.

I remembered once seeing the cockatoos at the park near my house; one would raise its crest, facebook.com/bmamagazine

I never questioned whether or not he ate at all, I suppose. Much like the crested man in the young woman’s paper, he’d have eaten already before the flock awoke.

This young woman usually sits for a while after she is done with the paper, sipping pulp from a glass of orange juice and watching a small line of dust - caught in a meagre battle with the morning breeze - move along the wainscoting by her feet. Next to her sit a row of potted plants, which the owner of the café has bristled over for weeks, wondering if they should be kept indoors or outdoors.

“This sort here, with the split in the leaves,” I’d hear him say. “They should be inside, no?”

“I think the nursery had them marked as outdoor,” someone would squeak back.

The owner would shuffle his glasses along his nose.

“No, no, no. I’ve seen these plants before.”

He would then dance his arm over the top of them in triumph.

“In hospital I saw them. They looked just like these here and they were indoor too.”

“If you think so …” “… Well what do you think?”

“I think they’re outdoor plants.”

These conversations, if you could call them that, went on for days at a time. He usually questioned the plants position on most days I had attended the café, as if putting on a special show knowing that I would take amusement from it. Today, however, there had been no conversation, no round-a-bout questioning or PAGE 25

shuffling of glasses, and I had to wonder if the owner knew I had entered his shop.

“I had!” I wanted to yell out.

But the owner hadn’t shown his face that morning.

Today there is nothing to interest me as I work my way up the line. Soon my shoes have hit the counter, and when I look up I see a cashier I’ve never seen before. It’s strange to see a new face around here, but I suppose it’s only natural for this part of town.

The strangeness seems to lift the atmosphere of the place somehow. I feel the Earth shift

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suddenly and, deciding to order something different, I walk away from that café with a sense of overwhelming freshness.

As I walk outside, I pass the old man at his window and give him a smile. He raises his cigarette and gives a very knowing one back.

Anna Franceschini is 23 and currently studying a Masters of Digital Humanities and Public Culture.

She works both in the education sector, and as a scribe for meetings.

To read more of her writing, visit: https://annafrancan.wixsite.com/website

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A Line-up of Literary Delights - Canberra Writers Festival

From humble beginnings in 2016, the Canberra Writers Festival has grown to be one of the most anticipated events on the Canberra calendar—and this year boasts a stellar line-up of 160 local, national and international authors.

Held across five days (21-25 August), the festival’s theme for 2019, Power Politics Passion, goes beyond what Canberra audiences might expect, with Festival Director Paul Donohoe saying it encompasses patriotism, plastic, mathematics, murder, meat, the bush, the brain, the media and the environment, history, romance, a generous dose of politics, and more.

“Canberra is in for a treat with a stunning mix of writers, journalists, intellectuals and raconteurs debating the complex issues of the day,” Paul says. “The program incorporates nearly 80 discrete events on issues as diverse as the future of the Catholic church, media power, and the decline in trust in our established institutions.”

The festival kicks off at the National Museum of Australia with Australia’s favourite foodie, chef, educator, best-selling author and culinary icon, Stephanie Alexander. Stephanie will delve into Australians’ love of food and her Kitchen Garden Foundation, while guests feast from her specially prepared menu.

Leading an all-star cast is British writer, journalist, broadcaster and New York Times best-selling author Simon Winchester, with the ABC’s Conversations presenter Richard Fidler, on a lifetime of exploration, big ideas, and the forces that have transported society and the world.

A guaranteed sell-out is a new signature event on Saturday evening, Lightbulb Moment, with an all-star cast—John Birmingham, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, William McInnes, Hung Le, Nicola Moriarty, Meg Keneally, and Mikey Robins. Each has seven minutes to share the watershed moment that changed their lives forever.

At the National Press Club, a ‘live’ episode of the ABC’s muchloved Insiders will be hosted by Fran Kelly, with a panel of political pundits raking over the aftermath of the ‘miracle’ federal election.

In Fragile Inheritance, former Green’s leader Bob Brown and Peter Valentine will discuss Peter’s stunning new book, World Heritage Sites of Australia, a celebration of the exceptional contribution that Australian sites make to humanity’s collective legacy.

Mikey Robbins, Chris Ryan, and Tom Gibson

Not to be missed is Kurdish–Iranian journalist and refugee, detained on Manus Island since 2013, Behrouz Boochani. Winner of the 2019 Premier’s Awards in NSW and Victoria, for his powerful memoir No Friend But Yhe Mountains, Behrouz will speak live from Manus.

Has the Luck Run Out will feature four of Australia’s most thoughtful commentators – Laura Tingle, Katharine Murphy, David Fagan, and George Megalogenis – on how the lucky country can overcome its pervasive sense of gloom.

Mega brains, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and Eddie Woo, will go headto-head to answer curly science and maths questions from host Robyn Williams and the audience.

The festival will also showcase Canberra’s finest and most creative writers. Literary gems, Nigel Featherstone, Patrick Mullins, Kathryn Hind and Karen Viggers, will share their creative process.

“It’s lovely to be involved in this year’s Canberra Writers Festival,” Nigel Featherstone, author of the recent Bodies of Men says. “I’ve spent the majority of my writing life in this region, so the support of the ‘home crowd’ is always hugely appreciated. No doubt there’ll be plenty of discussion, and, like most authors, it will be wonderful to meet a reader or two.”

In Capital Culture, Paul Daley, Andrew Leigh, Marion Halligan, Tracy Hawkins, Marg Wade, and Nicole Overall will examine what makes Canberra such a fascinating city and go beyond politics and power, to ghosts, murder and mayhem.

And returning on Sunday evening is the ever-popular Girls Night In – the Full Catastrophe. It will be a stylish and hysterical wrap to the festival, bringing together Rebecca Huntley, Sarah MacDonald, Chris Ryan, Emma Alberici, and Virginia Duigan, in mass therapy under the healing hand of Jane Caro, with no subject off-limits.

“I watched the sold out Girls’ Night In last year,” Chris Ryan says.

“Seeing all those smart, funny women being so relaxed and hilarious talking about everything from sex and relationships to kids and ageing parents was just so inspiring. It felt like we all have the same problems, we just live in different houses.

“I’m excited to be on stage with a bunch of clever women for this year’s Girls’ Night In. I think we bring our own catastrophic stories that, if we didn’t laugh, we’d have cried about. I have a particularly embarrassing one from my life I’m still not sure I have the guts to tell. So I can’t wait to hear what everyone else brings to the table.”

The Canberra Writers Festival is a must for any lover of books, writing and reading. It runs from Wed 21 to Sun 25 August at various venues. Tix from canberrawritersfestival.com.au

facebook.com/bmamagazine From top left: Meg Keneally, Penelope Hanley, Prof Sally Wheeler OBE, Nigel Featherstone, David Marr, and Sally Rugg

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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT Oh, and it also had a huge dent in the roof from when I would host pre-drinks parties on my car because I didn’t wanna pay for a cab, or ride the night bus in for a night out. Yes, that’s right - a bunch of people would just sit on the roof of my car in the carpark near the city to drink Passion Pop to “save money”.

Man, living in QLD was just the best.

ANYWAY... I digress.

So, I would be running late for work/uni/life and I would park my car literally anywhere it would fit. On kerbs, in tiny patches of grass, in the space of a dumpster bin whilst it was being emptied … You know. Regular places. My car was small so it could fit ANYWHERE! THINK OF ALL THE MONEY YOU’LL SAVE With Tash York Growing up in Brisbane, I had a constant need to drive everywhere.

Apparently, public transport didn’t work in Brisbane according to my early 20s brain at the time, despite Brisbane having one of the best bus freeway systems in the country.

I drove to uni, drove to work, and even drove to the Coles 300m from my house. I couldn’t possibly carry my goon bag and frozen chicken nuggets all the way down the road.

As someone who has always been pretty bad at time management, it also meant that I could leave for things with only 20 minutes to spare. Basically, because if you ask anyone in Brisbane, EVERYTHING is 20 minutes away from your house (unless you’re going to the Gold Coast, then it’s 45 minutes away. NEWSFLASH it’s not - it’s at least an hour++).

As a result of this, I was late to pretty much everything.

This meant that I would just park whereever the fuck I liked.

I drove a small white Daihatsu Charade which was completely kitted out with the QLD grade 12” subwoofer, personalised number plate (it said 74SHZ…. That was meant to say TASHZ… just squint harder, you’ll get it), blue neon lights under the dash, and a metallic blue “Momo” racing steering wheel which I fitted myself…

I also refused to ever pay for parking. As a result, on average, between 2006 when I got my licence and 2013 when I moved to Melbourne, I got about 1 to 3 parking fines a week.

This sounds terrible.

I know.

It was!

BUT, I had a method to my madness... Because I just moved to Victoria - they were never going to get me! MWHAHAHA! They did.

So, when I moved to Melbourne, I even bought a new car with VIC plates (no one could stop me). However, I then started accruing a nice little parking fine debt in Melbourne too, and inevitably both eventually caught up with me.

Over the past 13 years of driving I have acquired around $24,000 in parking fines. Enough to pay for a house deposit… in Dubbo.

But I worked it out. You see, if I had paid for parking all those years, parking 3 to 4 times a week paying $10 to $15 a go...

Well I would have paid around $29,575 in parking fees.

So really, I’ve saved money.

I’m much better off!!

Oh, and I have the convenience of paying it off in $40 a fortnight installments until the 27th April, 2048.

Perfect.

Can’t adult today? Catch Tash York in her critically acclaimed award-winning musical comedy “Adulting” for one night only on 16th August at the Civic Pub. Tix : https://www.trybooking. com/BDANB.

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PAGE 29

For Fook’s Sake!

The many legs of Metamorphosis

By Allan Sko “I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”

We’ve all been there, amarite?

This August, Director Adam Broinowski and Designer Imogen Keen will be bringing to life Franz Kafta’s seminal novel Metamorphosis; a tome with one of the greatest opening lines in literary history: “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”

As we are to discover, this metamorphosis is not merely literal, as both Gregor and his family are thrown into turmoil. So compelling is this narrative than the mighty Steven Berkoff took on the weighty task of adaptation, and it is his initial version Brionowski, Keen, and an ensemble cast will doing.

On the precipice of installing the new stage at The Street Theatre, two of the cast – Dylan Van Den Berg, who plays Gregor, and Stefanie Lekkas, who plays sister Greta – were good enough to take time out for a chat about this mighty endeavour.

And mighty it may be, but what in particular piqued interest?

“The idea of a physical theatre ensemble piece really drew me in,” Stefanie says. “It’s so great to be in a team and be supported on stage. It’s a wonderful kind of show to do. And to do a classic [like Metamorphosis] is a bonus! I feel like I’m name dropping when talking about this; Berkoff’s take on Kafta!”

“Berkoff adapted a number of Kafta’s works, so he’s really carved out a niche for himself there,” Dylan says. “I was also really drawn to the ensemble nature of the work, but I’m in the very fortunate position to play Gregor – the giant insect – and that’s certainly something I haven’t played before! I was really intrigued by how that will manifest on stage physically, and

also how that affects the audience. So I’m really excited to mess around with that.”

With such a unique role, I wondered if Dylan in particular had been somewhat… method in his approach.

“I haven’t been rolling around in dirt or dung!” Dylan exclaims.

“Not now that he’s got the role,” Stefanie interjects.

“I don’t think I’ve approached it in a conscious insect-y way,” Dylan continues, in a serious tone of voice that belies the subject matter. “But certainly thinking about playing an insect, asking ‘what’s Kafta slash Berkoff trying to say here?’, and how Gregor’s humanity is still somehow deep within him but he’s unable to express it. So trying to get my brain around that concept to start with.

“It is quite a physical piece,” Dylan continues. “It’s one of the things that I’m excited about, but it’s also a huge challenge for me. I’m not a physical performer in the sense that the wonderful Chris is (co-star Christopher Samuel Carroll, recently seen in Hanna Cormick’s First Seen of Zebracorn at The Street Theatre).

I’ve seen him in things before and it’s a bit daunting!

“But there are a lot of opportunities in the script for physical manifestation and interpretation of lives and relationships, and Gregor in particular. In various productions, he’s climbing across and up the place. We haven’t been introduced to the set yet, but I’m sure by the end there will be some… “…acrobatics,” Stefanie playfully suggests.

“I can certainly save on a gym membership!” Dylan says.

Stefanie, with a more human role, was able to tap into a more traditional preparation, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure.

Dylan Van Den Berg, plays Gregor, and Stefanie Lekkas, PAGE 30

who plays sister Greta. Photo by Canberra Streets

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“Greta’s an interesting one because she starts on her brother’s side, very much so,” Stefanie explains. “And I’m not here for spoilers, but let’s say that changes. The title of the piece, Metamorphosis, lets you know that it’s more than just a guy turning into an insect. The metamorphosis occurs to all the characters. And Greta goes in the opposite direction of her brothers, and the tension that we see in that is quite terrific.

For inspiration we’re looking at things like tension graphs; so like where I sit to where Gregor sits…”

Whoa now… Tension graphs? I studied A-Level Drama in England, but seemingly we didn’t pay the school enough (or, indeed, anything) to learn about tension graphs.

“Yeah, there were a lot of things like that along the way. Have you heard of Fook? I’m not swearing at you!” Stefanie laughs.

“It’s a dramaturgical tool that a director would use more than an actor. She talks about the world; the look of the world, the taste of the world, the feel of the world, the colours of the world. The density of the air; all that kind of thing. And it helps you to set a scene, whether real or imagined, and it’s not necessarily making stuff up; it’s looking at the script and saying ‘what do we know as facts?’ What is Berkoff telling us?’ And in some ways, ‘how does that make us feel?’

“There are many different approaches you can take as a performer,” Stefanie continues. “Of course you’ve gotta learn ya lines! Then there’s embodying the character, and thinking what are similarities between me as a person and Greta as a person.

“And the interplay is really interesting as a performer because you need, in my opinion, to bring something of yourself into the character in order for it to have truth,” Stefanie continues.

“If you can tell that someone’s acting, it’s boring to watch. So finding the truth of the piece often means finding what’s true to you. But also you can’t always play yourself, otherwise you’d end up with a personality disorder! With this, there’s so much in it that if you don’t wash the character off at the end of the day I think it might be a bit much!”

Like many folk my age, Metamorphosis was part of the syllabus at school (albeit in England) and I recall the book being largely insular, hearing Gregor’s thoughts in essentially a trapped-in syndrome scenario. This premise doesn’t exactly scream, “Stage adaptation!”

“We see a lot more of the family’s reactions in Berkoff’s adaptation than you do in the novel, which is more Gregor’s reflections on the situation,” Dylan explains. “And that struggle is reflected in the way the family relates to each other. We get a real sense of Gregor not so much through him, but through the versions of him that his family come to know. And we ultimately learn that what they value him for is not… Lovely. He’s there as a breadwinner and they’re very disappointed when he can’t go to work.”

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So will this be a faithful interpretation of Berkoff, or can we expect an adaptation of an adaptation?

“That is a great question!” Stefanie trills. “Probably more for [Director] Adam than for us.”

“What I’ve gleaned from our communications with [Adam],” Dylan says, “is that he’s very interested in the framework – the scaffolding – that Berkoff has provided. There’s so many opportunities there to embellish and put a spin on it. So I think there will be a few surprises; but I can’t tell you what those are!”

“And Berkoff has written it in such a way to allow for such physicality,” Stefanie adds. “You get some plays where you need the director to do that, to take the play apart and to reinterpret things. But the way it has been written (by Berkoff), it lends itself to that anyway. The whole idea of it and the insect; that can be made by all of our bodies, for example.”

Another aspect that Dylan can bring to his performance is how his work as a prolific, and successful, writer informs his acting, and vice-versa.

“I love it!” Dylan enthuses on writing. “They inform each other in so many ways. When I’m an actor I try and act for the writer, and when I’m a writer I try and write for the actor. I learn so much about the structure of work when I’m in it; it’s clearer when I can see it from the inside versus when I’m at home in my garret scribbling away. I can think – Is this going to be dreadful for an actor to stand up and read? Would I want to read this? And if the answer is no, I scrub it out and start again! That’s a great thing about an ensemble, and thinking of others.”

“I’m going to contradict myself by interrupting to say this,” Stefanie says. “That’s the benefit of an ensemble piece; you can’t be a diva. A diva can’t feature in an ensemble performance.

There are no stars. And that’s a really nice thing about theatre.

Although it’s fun to be a star, that competitive side isn’t as nice.

And as someone who was never coordinated enough to play sports (recognised laughter on both sides ensues at this point), theatre as an ensemble is where I get that team spirit. Which is pretty cool.

Decades on, Metamorphosis remains a powerful and important piece; one that both the lovely Dylan and Stefanie are excited to show, finishing the chat by stating its potency.

“It’s exciting that a classic like this is suddenly more accessible,” Dylan says. “I remember it being on the syllabus at school. Imagine being able to actually go and see it, and have that exposure to it. It’s a great piece of literature.”

“Yeah,” Stefanie finishes with. “A friend of mine has only seen it in the West End, so to see it in Canberra is fantastic.”

Indeed it will be. Metamorphosis runs at The Street Theatre from 16 – 31 August. Tickets range from $35-45 from http:// www.thestreet.org.au/shows/metamorphosis-adapted-stevenberkoff

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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT

LITERATURE IN REVIEW WITH CARA LENNON Cari Mora Thomas Harris [William Heinemann; 2019] Cari Mora. It’s not The Silence of the Lambs. I’m gonna rip that band-aid off right now.

Granted no author should have to re-write the same book over and over. Musicians and directors get to experiment.

We forgave Kanye for 808s and Heartbreak and Muse for The 2nd Law. M. Night Shyamalan is still in work, Lady in the Water notwithstanding.

But in this case, comparison is invited by Harris’s return to a formula. In the red corner we have Cari Mora, a tough, capable female protagonist. In the blue corner we have Hans-Peter, a psychopath with twisted tastes. Ding ding ding. Let’s RUUMMMBLE. Fuck, I wanted to like this. I would have been droolingly happy with even a B+ redo of Starling vs Hannibal. I’d also have gone along for the ride if it’d been something altogether different. Instead, Cari Mora tries to have it both ways and fails at everything. Suspense, character development, plot. Where to even start?

After planting Cari and Hans-Peter across the ring from each other, Cari is immediately sidelined for an ensemble cast of dudes. Okay, fine. Everyone’s running around trying to find Pablo Escobar’s lost gold. It could be Hitler’s lost testicle or Shia LaBeouf’s last marble for all the difference it makes to the plot but whatever—there’s a shiny toy in play and everyone wants it. Who cares who at this point, as long as we get some action— except the narrative keeps swinging back to Cari hanging around doing sweet FA. Reams of paper are given over to her origin story and alleged skills, and when we’re not being explicitly told about every guy that stands within in shot of her wanting to bang her, we’re being beat over the head with how tactically brilliant she’s meant to be. ‘Show don’t tell’ isn’t the only way to write, but damn it would have helped here.

Meanwhile, I’m completely uninvested in the characters doing all the actual work because they get about five seconds of collective backstory and speak in the same generic, interchangeable voice.

But that’s okay, here’s Cari again. Did we mention she’s tough and tactical? Here she is—sitting in a truck. Now she’s looking at a house and talking about mangos. See that guy that walked past? He totally wants to bang her.

Ultimately there’s very few sins a thriller can’t get away with as long as it’s exciting. It doesn’t need good characters or good writing; it can be a mannequin of Tom Hanks being dragged through a tunnel of plot holes by a drunken key grip on a ride-on mower—if it’s suspenseful.

And here is the crux of Cari Mora’s issue: it’s boring.

Sorry guys, I’m as bummed as you are.

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PAGE 33

[ALBUM REVIEWS]

ALBUM IN

FOCUS

Hyde described that a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma as almost a strange relief in that he at least knew the feelings of ill health had a source.

Matt took to the fight with the support of his family and 10-yearold daughter.

BEASTWARS IV [DESTROYER RECORDS] At time of writing, this album is the current number 1 in Beastwars’ native New Zealand.

It won’t last at the position, but the statement has been made, and what a great statement - what a moment of triumph - for the circumstances surrounding this remarkable piece of art from the Kiwi riff lords.

The band were basically defunct.

Relationships frayed. Songwriter Nathan Hickeywas living in England with an assumption that the band was over. Singer Matt Hyde had presented himself to hospital on several occasions knowing in himself that something was wrong following bouts of flu that had stopped him in his tracks for three weeks, along with feelings of ill health in general.

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Upon finding out about his diagnosis, the band rallied behind him and, for the first time since 2016, after thinking the band was done, suddenly there was a new album on the horizon.

Working through the vocals on the record off the back of either chemotherapy or shortly after completing it, brings a depth of emotion and desperation that is quite incredible.

Personally, the band have always been a more ferocious presence onstage than on wax. Hyde is a consummate front man, and the songs are on the surface quite simple. Seeing them in the early half of this decade slapped my face into recognising their power.

On IV, knowing the story behind its creation only furthers the impact. As a record it stands on its own without the above lending it a more sympathetic ear, intentionally or not. Hearing Storms of Mars and Hyde exalt ‘LET ME LIVE’ is a remarkable vocal performance in and of itself.

thought to be a practice take – until engineer James Goldsmith realised what was being delivered by a man who still had the poisonous cocktail of chemo drugs in his system – is nothing short of stunning. “LET ME SEE MY CHILD GROW,” carrying the gravitational pull of a planet in this one-take wonder.

The rest of the eight songs on offer may not quite capture the raw power of this moment, but they’re not far off.

Sludgy, tectonic forces sit behind the riffs, and perhaps none are better than the ones around 3:50 into Omens off the back of the bridge. Just killer.

Australia had a fleeting visit in the past weeks from the band.

I hope we get another chance to witness them later this year because this is quality work delivered from the depths of darkness into the light of triumph.

Fuck cancer, hail Beastwars.

JOSH NIXON

When you find out it was delivered initially as what was

@bmamag

DICKIE BIRDS DICKIE BIRDS [BEAT ON THE BRAT RECORDS] [

HONEY 2 HONEY A TASTE OF... [CHAPTER RECORDS]

]

Local bands with a pedigree as long as the Dickie Birds that could take up more room than the review of the album, are rare.

Suffice to say you have some seasoned operators at the helm of this slab of punk oz rock that somehow simultaneously (Simontaneously?) evokes 1977 London, ’90s California, and Aussie pub rock from Radio Birdman forward.

[

]

If you’ve potted around the Canberra music scene in the last half-decade or so, there’s a fair chance you’ve come across Rory Stenning – whether as Raus, part of Honey 2 Honey (nee Honey) or even behind the counter at The Polo.

He’s a bit of a fixture, and if the rest of the output that Honey 2 Honey put out is as good as A Taste Of…, they will be too.

Simon Murphy (guitar and vocals), Sam Provost (bass and vocals) and Julian Ingall (drums) have put together 12 songs in 28 minutes that can barely contain itself.

Honey 2 Honey started out as Honey a few years back, a sortof dance-punk duo with Stenning and Luke Keanan-Brown, and managed to put out a two-track single a few years back.

The production is crisp and clear thanks to Goatsound’s Jason PC keeping the essence of the three-piece pure, and the songs are better for it.

However, Honey sort of faded into the dark after a few runs of shows, and it was a couple of years before Honey 2 Honey reemerged as a dub-tinged, sort of pop/r&b/electronica quartet/ trio. It is almost unrecognisable from their early work; save Stenning’s baritone voice.

Guitars are loud and aggressive, but not heavily distorted; more a tone akin to a punker version of AC/DC. It almost strays to garagey territory, but frankly they play a bit too well and construct their songs a bit too cleverly to wear that label. The spirit is primitive but the delivery is finely honed, and it’s a good blend.

As a punk oz rock record, that means the accents are Australian without delving into Poison City Records territory, and they’re not really rallying against society but rather documenting life in it with their tongues securely planted in their cheeks, celebrating the mundane and making it sound like a bit of a party. Mad As a Cut Snake a good example.

So to quote Shane Slats of King Parrot, the album kicks off and Dickie Birds aren’t here to fuck spiders.

No Control make me want to use words like “unhinged” and “raucous”; Devotee gives me a more American ’90s punk vibe with its signature riff; Not Around is almost too hilarious not to laugh out loud at with its exploration of relationship cryonics.

High Hopes might be my favourite, with a chorus one can only describe as “rousing”.

The album barely puts a foot wrong, with the only thing that was kinda weird being the Interlude at track nine which would have comfortably fit with the rest on offer here with some lyrics. But this is not a slight.

The EP is pretty beefy – with four tracks clocking around the 25-minute mark.

One of the tracks, Colony Music, is a rework of an early Honey tune that once frenetically sped along and now saunters over a world of space. Like the rest of the record, the lyrics are simple and sloganistic, with phrases repeated until they sink in.

It works.

The opener, Tone Of Voice, is the most immediately catchy, building and developing as it progresses, shifting and moving at speed.

It nearly sets a false pace for the remaining tracks, but the slower, synth bass driven Under The Hammer and the washy, clicky 4 progressively slows things down.

Yes, there’s only four songs here, but there’s no real filler, and the flow is good.

A Taste Of…isn’t just good – it’s maybe the best electronic record from Canberra for a few years; maybe since Desire from California Girls. It’s a real statement, and something pretty different yet extremely listenable.

CODY ATKINSON

Bangers like Falling Behind, Give It Up and the closer Make It Stick keep the momentum up, there’s nothing not to like about this.

If you’re a fan of punk rock, proper ’70s oz rock, or only fuck with punk from playing Tony Hawk 2 as a kid, you are going to have a great time with the Dickie Birds. JOSH NIXON facebook.com/bmamagazine

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[ALBUM REVIEWS]

ALBUM IN

FOCUS

TORCHE ADMISSION [RELAPSE RECORDS] [

]

In the four years since Torche released their Restarter, the Florida quartet and its founding member Steve Brooks have been uncharacteristically quiet.

Restarter came out on the heels of Brooks’ sublime return to his first major band Floor and their rip snorting Oblation album. That record was way up on my best of 2014 and featured a lot of the curious blend of Brooks’ herbs and spices that has earmarked both bands’ careers.

That blend is curious in that Brooks has openly rejected the “heavy metal” label, despite the band’s second album Meanderthal topping vaunted modern metal magazine Decibel’s 2008 40 Most Extreme album poll.

For the uninitiated, Brooks handles guitar and vocal duties. I can’t say that I can think of a vocal where he has shouted or delivered his lyrics in anything approaching an aggressive tone. The band have always had a central core of songs built around strong melodic ideas and, til this

PAGE 36

point, you’d question any metal factor whatsoever.

So, if you are new to Torche, let me lay the foundation by suggesting your first dalliance is to chuck on the first song from their first eponymous album, Charge of the Brown Recluse. I mean, perfectly titled song. It’s top 5 brownest note on a non-drone doom song ever.

It also demonstrates from the get go Brooks’ talent for marrying absolutely crushing heavy riffs and guitar tones with soaring melody.

That record was released in 2005 and 14 years later I’m pleased to say that Brooks, joined by Jonathan Nunez, Eric Hernandez, and fellow founding member drummer Rick Smith, have done nothing but distil and perfect the crushing heavy-withmelody recipe into a sound that is signature to the band.

Admission was leaked out painfully slowly over months to build anticipation.

Their second release on the Relapse label has been masterfully engineered and produced by guitarist Jonathan Nunez at Cabana East Studios in Miami.

Nunez is not your average audiophile that decided to track his own album; he also has a range of amps and pedals under the Nunez Amplification banner well worth checking out.

His work on this record is stellar. The drums are massive. Check out track three, and one of my favourites, Slide – the kick drums are HUGE and the measured stop/start of the riffs in this song are a great example of all the sonic elements that compliment the aforementioned songwriting blend. The

bookended riff, subtle use of keyboards, and laid back Brooks vocal melody work so damn well.

One of the qualities about any album (and Admission is a good example of this) that I like to listen for is the order of the songs, and how they flow into one another to give the record an overall narrative construction. From Here and Submission kick the album off with a good upbeat energy before dynamically ebbing and flowing between tempos and using space – like in Slide – to allow the record to breathe a bit.

Reminder another example of this device.

The melodic hooks harken ’80s influences like the melody riff in the title track and single that almost remind me of when U2 didn’t universally offend the world putting an album on folks’ phones without asking.

A more subtle example might be the chorus and delay clean guitars that underpin the second half of What Was, evoking a cross between The Police and melodic hardcore influences. Great counter melody over the riff, too.

Efficiency is another feature here, with only a couple of songs barely grazing five minutes, the bulk sitting around three. It makes a record that has riffs like Infierno less of a chore than bands who do long songs for long songs’ sake.

Admission is a welcome return from a band that has a lot to offer the modern heavy music landscape. Song craft, hooks, production, and a vocal that could endear new fans of guitar music to something a bit heavier.

A contender. JOSH NIXON

@bmamag

SHOEB AHMAD QUIVER VERSIONS [PROVENANCE RECORDS] [

]

The capacity for experimental electronic music to reflect inner psychological landscapes is captivatingly brought to bear on this album, a reimagining of Shoeb Ahmad’s 2018 release quiver.

The droning disaffection running through the opening track lope sets the listener up for an enthralling musical experience, blending the elements of Shoeb’s discerning sensibilities with heightened tension and sobering energy.

Jasmine Guffond’s version of romance follows, with the adoption of repetition and spliced vocals, used to merge the real with the unidentifiable.

With washed air, we get a different kind of aural assault, though one that still relies on the cycles of looped backgrounds to make its point. Where Shoeb’s 2018 version of washed air contained some interesting moments of easy accessibility, this retake allows for that accessibility to be reached via the conduit of unwavering sound-based seduction.

A welcome change in pace ensues with the Hence Therefore version of pinpointed with its anchoring beat manipulated to create a pulsing counter rhythm to the brooding background vocals on offer.

The remixed silhouette offers a more stabilising set of perimeters, which seems to allow the vocal to float more effectively than it did in the original, counterpointing the languid reflections with soothing balance. mask-ed takes the collection to minimalistic territory utilising distorted drones and interweaving whistling oscillators to provide a sense of respite that segues fittingly into rinse, which takes us back into a lush forest of synth lines and low-end led rhythms, with Shoeb’s vocal near the end allowed the space to proclaim the necessary declaration: I won’t change who I am.

MP’s version of unwoven doesn’t obscure the vocal of the original but adds a varied set of competing rhythms that merge to provide what could be thought of as the electronic equivalent of world music, with Shoeb’s chants evoking a sense of strange intimacy.

SUNDECK EUREKA MOMENT [DINOSAUR CITY RECORDS] [

]

It’s not uncommon for an album, especially a debut album, to follow a long and convoluted path to release.

Skydeck’s first effort, Eureka Moment, started life as an instrumental album made on a borrowed synth over three years ago and ended up as… Well, something not that.

The effort of two former housemates and regulars of the Osbourne Again/Ocean Party/Ciggie Witch etc part of the Melbourne music scene, Mitch Clemens and Dom Kearton, Eureka Moment sort of juts out from different recent local records; sort of how its namesake does on the Melbourne skyline.

Like most of the bands circling that part of the Melbourne scene, the dynamic lyricism comes to the fore, and the stories told here are vivid.

But underneath, a blend of lo-fi pop, punk, post-punk and what could be called “other” battles throughout.

It takes a couple of listens to get all the way around the idiosyncratic product, but it works.

The record somehow balances shifting through style but also stays pretty consistent in quality. I’m not sure there’s a better song about sad old blokes betting at the front bar of a country tavern than the album opener Live Bait. The description of the fact that a “digital horse don’t show remorse” is familiar to anyone who has watched the near life-like recreations of fake racing that allows endless around the clock gambling action.

It’s far from the only highlight on the record either. Solid State probably provides the most memorable pop moment here, with as close to a big chorus as Skydeck gets, while the anti-Lush/Elon Musk soliloquy on Cryptic Bassline Project also sticks in the mind.

But to be honest, it’s all pretty solid.

Due to its style, it’s probably not going to grab everyone at first listen – if at all. But Eureka Moment has enough substance to have staying power, and reveals more and more with each spin.

CODY ATKINSON

The album’s closing track villagers sons reconfigures Shoeb’s first version with a hallucinatory slice of meditative ambience and perhaps rightly so, as it becomes a gesture of what is not said in the same way Shoeb’s 2018 album was so much about what is.

VINCE LEIGH

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[FILM REVIEWS]

THE WORD ON

FILMS with Cameron Williams DISNEY DÉJÀ VU

effects. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Dumbo had charm, and a good balance of people, and computer, power.

Each film felt grounded.

The Lion King is different because it challenges the notion of what’s ‘live-action’ because the photorealistic animation is all done on a computer. Sure, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 [

]

The comfortable routines of Jack Russell terrier Max (Patton Oswalt) and shaggy Newfoundland mix Duke (Eric Stonestreet) are changed forever when owner Katie marries and has a baby, Liam. Whilst Duke remains as cheerful and relaxed as ever, Max is apprehensive, having heard that life is never the same once a child enters the family.

It’s hard out there from time travellers right now. Stepping out of their DeLorean into 2019, they’d see on the local cinema sessions times: Aladdin, The Lion King and Toy Story. “Alright, back in the car,” they’d say, “we overshot our jump and landed in the 1990s!”

Come back! We need you to help us save the planet!

Disney’s trend of live-action ‘remakes’ and sequels makes it feel like time is folding in on itself in the quest for box office domination.

The current estimate puts Disney’s plan, combined with Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, on track to earn $9 billion by the end of the year. The breadth of this figure is crazy because Disney will only release ten films in 2019. Four of those films are remakes of their animated classics, including Maleficent 2: Mistress of Evil, sequel to Maleficent which itself is a live-action retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

We’re stuck in a time loop.

A bulk of the live-action remakes have brought the animated classics to life with a mixture of human performances and digital

PAGE 38

an all-star cast provides the voice work (hello: Beyonce) but director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) is essentially reanimating the classic shot-for-shot. It’s akin to when Gus van Sant remade Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in 1998. Favreau also made the live-action version of The Jungle Book, but it was clever enough to have a real boy play Mowgli (Neel Sethi), whose excellent performance was able to sell a menagerie of talking animals.

Even the requirement to state which films feature real humans shows we’ve become submerged in the digital abyss.

We’ve always been fascinated by seeing books and animation converted into live-action productions. Our imaginations are never quite enough, but the churn of Disney’s quest to convert their classics into realistic adaptations is starting to feel like bad déjà vu. We’ve been there, bought the t-shirt, and rode the theme park ride!

Disney is no longer innovating like it once did when Walt oversaw the place. They buy more than they create, and the company chooses to feast on what’s left of their legacy with remakes. The snake will eat its own tail. I guess a mouse has a tail, too.

With time, Max comes to love Liam and worry over his safety, a nervous state that ends up necessitating treatment. An opportunity arises for Max to find inner resources with which to face this new world when the family goes to stay on a farm and he meets tough Welsh sheepdog Rooster (Harrison Ford), who challenges him to be the best.

Meanwhile, Max has left his beloved toy, Busy Bee, for safe-keeping with his Pomeranian friend, Gidget (Jenny Slate). Soon lost in an apartment teeming with cats, Gidget must rescue her, enlisting the help of Chloe, an entirely uninterested and reluctant grey tabby (Lake Bell).

The third story, and the one that eventually sees all protagonists come together on a joint mission, is that of Hu, a white tiger cub who has fallen under the power of the cruel circus owner Sergei (Nick Kroll).

Daisy, a Shih Tzu (Tiffany Haddish), has found Hu frightened in a cage. She seeks the help of Snowball, a white rabbit who proclaims himself the superhero “Captain Snowball” (Kevin Hart) to rescue Hu. The initial rescue attempt meets with success, but ultimately the three are tracked down, leading to the re-imprisonment of Hu and the imprisonment of Daisy and Snowball, with a rescue beckoning.

With three intertwining storylines involved enough to maintain adult interest but not vex young minds, and with protagonists everyone can relate to, The Secret Life of Pets 2 represents the best of all ages entertainment. The script is written with panache by screenwriters with both maturity and insight into young minds; the lines are well articulated by the voice actors; and the characters are beautifully developed representatives of their species and breeds. The film not only captures the different quirks, it allows viewers to see into their minds and hearts.

Although principally an adventure story, it touches on themes that many children can relate to: the arrival of a new sibling who changes the child’s world and takes up parental attention; fears of the world beyond the home; and the overcoming of indifference and cruelty through courage, compassion, and co-operation.

Children and adults alike will love this film.

MICHELE E. HAWKINS @bmamag

TOY STORY 4 [

]

Toy Story 4 continues the adventures of toys Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Bo Peep (Annie Potts), and the others in the toy collection of Andy (Jack McGraw), nine years after the events of Toy Story 3. But it stands alone quite well.

Now aged about 16, Andy (John Morris) has of course outgrown his toys, which now belong to Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw). Bonnie, in her first day at preschool, creates a new toy, Forky; but, being based on a spork straight from the classroom garbage bin, Forky must continually be watched: identifying himself as “trash” rather than as a toy, he seeks garbage bins in which to live. When Forky blows out of the family camper van’s window, Woody immediately goes in search of him. But Forky’s rescue becomes increasingly dangerous.

Toy Story 4 raises many interesting personal challenges for its protagonists and its viewers. Woody, like Forky, eventually must question the beliefs that have underlain his own choices: beliefs such as his own indispensability to his new “kid”, Bonnie, and his continuing importance to his former “kid”, Andy.

Bo Peep clearly learns how simultaneously to cherish her newfound independence as a “lost” (unowned) toy and to rediscover and foster her romantic feelings.

A new character, Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), is forced to choose between superficial daredevilry and true courage.

And, surprisingly for a movie whose target audience is largely young children, Toy Story 4 visits, albeit gently, themes that many adults have no wish to think about, including organ harvesting and live organ donation. But the film tackles all of this with great subtlety, simply opening the underlying moral issues for the viewer to consider.

Sometimes a film comes along that surpasses all expectation. It may imagine more fully, explore the human condition more deeply, refine nonverbal communication to a higher art, or more artfully interweave all aspects of film than do its contemporaries. It may feature an original soundtrack unusually well suited to its purpose, create characters so loveable that you must know them better, or have them transcend internal or external obstacles with inspiring grace.

Toy Story 4 contains all of these surprises and more; it’s a heartfelt, surprisingly sophisticated movie that will stir your soul and awaken a degree of social and personal awareness. Take some kids along and see it; you’ll love it.

JOHN P. HARVEY facebook.com/bmamagazine

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BMA ARTIST PROFILE

LIGHTBULB IMPROV

Lightbulb Troupe 2016, photo credit Firedust Photography

In August, Lightbulb Improv celebrates its third birthday.

They’ve performed every month in those three years at Smiths Alternative, surviving the renovations and loving the new space.

They’ve played the Canberra Comedy Festival and Art Not Apart and you’ve probably seen them around town as individual performers in Canbeurovision, Short & Sweet Festival, or Strong Female Lead. On 1 August, they’ll serve up their usual heartfelt comedy, plus some free birthday cake!

What on earth is improv comedy?

It’s theatre without a script; making it up as we go. And it’s funny, so that makes it comedy. We have no idea what the jokes will be when we turn up. And often there isn’t a ‘punchline’ but rather people recognising the truth in the character on stage.

How would you describe your shows?

We liken our performances to receiving a warm hug from a friend who slaps a ‘kick me’ sign on your back; it’s a little bit silly but with a lot of heart.

What’s been your biggest compliment in the three years?

Probably the time a person came in half-way through our show and missed the opening spiel about it all being made up. She wanted to buy the script. Alas, we could not provide.

So why did Lightbulb start three years ago?

Before 2016, there was no dedicated improv troupe in Canberra that trained and performed regularly. An improviser, Merriden Varrall, moved to Canberra after being a member of the Beijing improv troupe for five years. She connected with local improvisers, Lou Maconachie and Amy Crawford, who got behind the idea of a trained troupe providing slick and fun shows for Canberra. Plus we like to be silly.

Why is there free cake at the 1 August show?

It would be rude to invite people to a birthday party and not provide cake.

How do you ‘train’ to improvise? Isn’t it all just made up?

It’s a common question that one…Yes, we definitely make it up every time. No-one would ask a jazz musician why they practise.

We train our skills to create theatre on the spot. We train every week to build characters quickly, find strong relationships between performers, and drive creative story lines.

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What’s the biggest myth about improv?

That the audience will be dragged onto the stage. We won’t, we promise. We may ask you to call out suggestions for scenes but you can remain safely in your seat. We train too hard to give up our stage time!

Of what are you proudest over the last three years?

We’ve succeeded in creating a strong bond between all our performers. Most of our troupe have been with us for three years so it’s like a second family. They all have your back onstage. It makes you fearless.

Is improv a cult?

Yes. And. (no, not really) We’re just performers that build trust and connection in our weekly training and enjoy the thrill of high-stakes performance. So maybe...

What have you got planned for Canberra?

Continue to train and play hard. Perform monthly at Smith’s Alternative. Continue to support local festivals like the Canberra Comedy Festival and Art Not Apart.

At the Canberra Unscripted festival in September we’ll collaborate with local playwrights - a blend between the known and unknown. It’ll be some great creative mixing.

We’ve started running a drop-in class for people to come and train like us. All with drama or improv backgrounds welcome.

Wednesday nights 7.00 - 9.00pm at Playing Field Studio.

Alright, I’m in. Tell me more...

Check out www.lightbulbimprov.com for information on the monthly shows at Smiths, the Canberra Unscripted Festival and other shows around Canberra. You can also find Lightbulb on facebook www.facebook.com/lightbulbimprov or follow on instagram @lightbulbimprov Current members of Lightbulb Improv: Amy Crawford, Angela Ford, Helen Way, Jeremy Strasser, Katherine Berry, Laura Griffin, Luke Atchison, Lou Maconachie, Michael Carter, Marli Haddeill and Rosanna Stevens.

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Blood on the Dance Floor: Raising HIV Awareness through Theatre In August, Tuggeranong Arts Centre will present Blood on the Dance Floor – a piece of autobiographical theatre based on the lived experience of artist Jacob Boehme.

A choreographer, dancer, and writer from the Narangga and Kaurna nations of South Australia, Boehme was diagnosed with HIV in 1998. In search of answers, he reached out to his ancestors. Through a powerful blend of theatre, image, text, and choreography, Boehme pays homage to their ceremonies whilst dissecting the politics of gay, Blak, and poz identities.

We asked Boehme some questions about the show, why it continues to resonate with audiences, and his ongoing work combining art and activism.

Blood on the Dance Floor debuted at Arts House Melbourne in 2016 before going on to Carriageworks for Sydney Festival in 2017 and has since toured both nationally and internationally. The show is described as, “an unapologetic, passionate and visceral narrative that traverses time, space and multiple characters”.

With the tour several years on, Boehme still believes the story is important to audiences today.

“After 30 years of dealing with the global epidemic of HIV, the experiences of stigma, discrimination, and silence around the HIV virus are just as present today, and are still being felt by people living with and affected by HIV/ AIDS,” Boehme says “By sharing my story, unapologetically, of being Blak, gay and poz, Blood on the Dance Floor is an opportunity to create a space for our mob to have a voice in the dialogue around HIV. A conversation at a table we have not been invited to in this country, which has so far been reserved for gay white men.

“Our mob have been dealing with HIV from the early days. Back in the ’80s, mostly silently and with shame,” Boehme continues.

“We’re now seeing a spike in detection rates here in the state of Victoria, particularly among Indigenous women and IV drug users in our community. Now, more than ever, we need to take our seat at that table, our silence broken and our voices heard.”

Not content with keeping the message local, Boehme recently toured the show to Canada and ran workshops with First Nation communities.

“Canadian First Nations communities, much like our communities here, have been dealing with HIV since the early onset of the virus,” Boehme says. “Canadian First Nations peoples make up 10% of HIV diagnoses in Canada, which is a staggering over-representation of a people who, according to national demographics, only make up 4.6% of the population. Most of the cases of people living with HIV in the Indigenous community are either women, intravenous drug users, or both.

“Canada also has a high population of youth living with HIV,” he continues. “A good proportion are born with the virus. Issues of stigma, discrimination, and a lack of appropriate resources to service Indigenous communities with cultural sensitivity is just as current, relevant and urgent there as it is here.”

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Photo: Dorine Blaise (2015)

Further to this, Boehme is also working with Tuggeranong Arts Centre and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community as part of a longer project called The Blood Library.

“With new statistics released by the Kirby Institute in July 2019 exposing our community as a higher risk group for HIV detection and diagnosis, the work I am undertaking with Tuggeranong and the ACT Indigenous community will be looking at how we can work together as a community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living with HIV, and with our families, friends and allies, raise more awareness and education around current and improved HIV treatments and prevention,” Boehme says.

“We need to mobilize as a community, using the lived experiences of our brothers and sisters who are living and thriving with HIV, to lead a new age of sexual health awareness that is self-determined and culturally appropriate.”

Finally, given Boehme’s practice as an artist, and that The Blood Library is being developed with the Arts Centre, what role will art play in developing and disseminating this messaging with the community? And what kind of artistic outcomes does he envisage from the project?

“Art has played a central role in public awareness and education around HIV from the early to mid-1980s,” Boehme says. “From the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) demonstrations in New York City, to the effective yet horrifying messaging of the Grim Reaper campaign here in Oz, to the art in education street and puppet theatre across Africa and India, art and creativity has been essential to sharing knowledge and building understanding.

“There are a variety of outcomes I would love to explore and develop with the ACT community. Storytelling and sharing our experiences can come in many forms: through dance and theatre performances, the design of a new poster campaign for youth, the publication of a photographic journal, the production of cultural objects and ceremony to honour our friends and families. These are but a few ideas to create a living collection of memory, histories, and stories to build The Blood Library.’

While The Blood Library is still in the early stages of development, audiences keen to experience Boehme’s work can catch Blood on the Dance Floor at Tuggeranong Arts Centre at 5pm & 8pm on Saturday 24th August. Tickets are $30, or $25 concession, and can be booked at www.trybooking.com/BDNGI PAGE 41

[GIG REVIEWS] breathed the disc for years. Percussionist John-Henry Paja made light work of the primal drumming on back-to-back hits like Iguana and Goddamn; so much so a cymbal toppled over in the raucous performance!

The rock ‘n roll heavy Beeping gave the crowd another musical upper-cut to get them to their feet for a boogie. A sing-along broke out for the bluesy hit Don’t Fuck Me Over from their self-titled EP. Novak’s smooth-as-velvet peanut butter vocals stirred something within us all in the crowd.

Polish Club, Approachable Members of Your Local Community, Dulcie @ UC Hub – Friday, 14 June Crude neon cartoon faces were duct taped across the amps and bass drum – indicating the frenzy that awaited us all – Meet me at the Iguana!

Opening act Dulcie greeted us few first punters with their bubbly Perth selves, diving into their lively pop rock. Their cover of Methyl Ethyl’s Ubu was well received, and their original tracks like Fall and Own Ground drew in more of a crowd as time went on.

Approachable Members of Your Local Community shuffled onto the cramped stage with their matching maroon Adidas tee’s and shorts, and dodgy facial hair choices. Only Friend brought the crowd together as they sang along to the lyrics: “You can be my only friend, I don’t want nobody else.” The funky bass and synth of One I Need was reminiscent of Tame Impala, Weezer or Fleetwood Mac. The popular Millennium Queen closed their set.

For having only two members, Polish Club sure make a hell of a lotta noise. Lead singer David Novak swung his black guitar and the duo burst into the impassioned single We Don’t Care, sending the crowd into a frenzy in rhythm to the track’s cowbell.

Their sophomore album Iguana was released just last week but the crowd were shouting back the lyrics as if they’ve lived and

The Black Keys-scented Beat Up delivered some funk. The pounding drum of greed anthem Gimme Money turned the crowd animalistic again. Novak’s brow was a cascade of sweat as he belted out the lyrics: “Take my soul, just gimme, gimme, gimme money!” If this gig was secretly a pyramid scheme, I think everyone in the room was sold.

Iguana’s moody ballad As Low As It Goes slowed down the set, but the moving chorus still kept all of us behind the barrier bellowing.

The short-fast number 2 Scared brought the tone back up to speed as everyone clapped along in time to the beat.

A short and sweet cover of MGMT’s hit song Electric Feel was a nice touch, with the duo cackling like school children at how well received it was.

2017’s Alright Already opening track Where U Been? amped things up to 11 with the punky guitar riff. We barely had time to breathe as they pushed right into the hit single Come Party.

Everybody, and I mean everybody, knew the lyrics to Iguana’s lead single Clarity as we all nodded, swayed, and then jumped into the punchy chorus. The touching single Divided closed the set, with a sneaky encore of the single My House.

Tonight was a night fuelled by denim jackets, sweat, and good old fashioned rock ‘n roll. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time at the Iguana.

ANDREW MYERS joked around and engaged the audience and welcomed everyone to sing along and to dance.

If you have any sense of humour at all, you can’t help but love a lot of Kiwis for their self-deprecation. The Modern Maori Quartet’s members are no exception: they make fun of each other, certainly, but each is also ready with a joke on himself. And in person, freed of their on-stage personas, they evidence commendable openness and generosity.

There was no flagging in energy as the quartet moved between songs and medleys, many of which will be familiar to most, and all very listenable.

The Modern Maori Quartet @ The Playhouse, Wednesday, 19 June From dramatically down-lit opening to closing encore, the Modern Maori Quartet exuded professionalism along with finely tuned singing and finely choreographed movements in keeping with its members’ origins.

Comprising four young men who seem serious about their Maori traditions and their place in Maori society, the Modern Maori Quartet sang traditional Maori songs (waiata), some originals, and many non-Maori pieces, often accompanying themselves on guitar, bass, and percussion, and did so with consummate style. And they PAGE 42

What’s especially impressive is the quartet’s steadfast tuning: only a couple of times was it out even by a smidgeon. And, with the exception of one song that sounded odd, its harmonies were less than predictable; often sumptuous; and unwaveringly well put together, with a harmonic flavour that’s the quartet’s own.

Possibly the show’s energy would have profited from less distance between the singers. The two metres or so between consecutive microphones precluded the immediacy that strong interaction requires and slightly compromised the quartet’s visual cohesiveness.

Regardless, the Modern Maori Quartet was fun, and well worth seeing in action.

JOHN P. HARVEY (review and pic)

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