the photo issue The Stylist’s Handbook + DIY Photo Booth + Pizza Party + Things That Go Boom + Abbey Lee + Amy Schumer
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pizza in the wild
Lurking in bushes, dunking, spinning, filling in for a saddle. Keep one eye open, pizzas are taking over. PHOTOS JONPAUL DOUGLASS
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LIGHT UP THE SKY Turns out we all like bright, shiny things and if they explode and go boom, even better. WORDS JANA ROOSE & ANNIE SEBEL
Andrew Waits Fireworks are like dancing with the devil; they’re charming, exciting, with an element of danger. One minute it’s all pretty colours, the next it’s explosions a little too close to body parts and you didn’t want that hand, did you? American photographer Andrew Waits has been swinging with Satan since he was a kid and first visited ‘Boom City’ – the area where his family purchased fireworks, and now the name of this photographic series. “Each year, a large swath of land located on the Tulalip Reservation, 30 minutes north of Seattle, is transformed into a makeshift city of over 130 firework stands,” says Waits. “The idea for this project came from a general fascination of fireworks and the industry itself. I grew up visiting Boom City as a kid and up until last year, hadn’t been for a decade. I was blown away by how much it had grown and the vibrant, elaborate marketing that each stand employed to attract customers and the social aspects surrounding the sale of fireworks by Native Americans to celebrate the independence of the United States seemed bizarre on many levels.” Dissecting fireworks didn’t make them loose their mystique to Waits, instead it had the opposite affect. “I think I’m even more enamoured with them than ever. I did a lot of research into how different cultures manufacture fireworks and the labour and art involved in the process. They became even more beautiful to me.” Next Waits is working on “continuing to photograph the human element of Boom City, documenting the lives of the individuals behind the retail side of the business.” While Waits still isn’t comfortable in front of the camera – “I’m not one to take many selfies” – he is happy to share the most important professional lesson he’s learned. “To remember why you love photography and why you were interested in it in the first place and then pursue the projects that truly keep you excited about it.”
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See more at andrewwaits.com.
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THE HUXTABURGER BOOK
King of the buns, ruler of the grill and founder of Huxtaburger, Daniel Wilson shares some of his burger-making secrets from his latest book. WORDS DANIEL WILSON PHOTOS CHRIS MIDDLETON
1 heaped tsp sea salt
WAGYU CHEESEBURGER DELUXE
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Makes 4
400g minced wagyu beef 4 slices cheddar 4 soft burger buns, cut in half melted clarified butter, for brushing tomato ketchup 20 pickle slices spicy mustard 4 large tomato slices 4 iceberg lettuce leaves, washed, dried and torn mayo
Dante, Jeff and I opened Huxtable in 2010, in Melbourne’s Fitzroy. The restaurant name came from combining part of the surname of Aldous Huxley (as our venture was a Brave New World) and table. We liked the ring of Huxtable, and also loved The Cosby Show. People immediately thought we named our restaurant after the family in The Cosby Show, so when we decided to open a burger shop we thought it’d be fun to name the burgers after the Cosby family. As we decided to keep our burger range very small, focusing on wagyu beef, we still haven’t run out of names! Here is our standard burger, from which all the others derive. It is basically what would be called a ‘cheeseburger deluxe’ in the United States. Mix the salt and pepper through the beef. Weigh out the mixture into four 100g portions and flatten them to about 1cm thick. Lay the patties on a sheet of baking paper. Heat a flat grill plate, or a large non-stick frying pan, to a medium heat. Cook the patties for about four minutes on the first side, then turn them over and place a slice of cheese on each patty. Cook for a further four minutes, or until cooked through. Brush the insides of the buns with clarified butter and toast lightly on the grill, then build your burgers.
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Build from the bottom, in this order: Bun bottom ketchup pickles cheese-topped patty mustard tomato lettuce bun top, spread with mayo.
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side by side
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Alpine has got it all: a killer sound, a healthy dose of stage glam, and two best-friend frontwomen who are thick as thieves. WORDS JANA ROOSE
Watching the girls from Alpine make each other laugh is the absolute best. Not because they’re so sweet, not because it’s a testament to enduring friendship, but purely because Phoebe has a snort laugh. Vocalists Lou James and Phoebe Baker front the Melbourne-based band, with Christian O’Brien (guitar), Ryan Lamb (bass), Tim Royall (keyboard) and Phil Tucker (percussion) creating the dreamy, offbeat instrumentals that underpin their harmonies. Their sound would once have lured pirate ships onto the rocks; deceptively beautiful but belying danger, they’re as hypnotic as sirens. It’s some pretty complicated pop music. Three years after their debut album A is for Alpine, the group has released its beautiful second album Yuck and will be bringing it to the stage at Splendour in the Grass this July. Do you remember your first impression of each other? Lou: We were in year nine and we were at boarding school. Phoebe had just been living in Vanuatu for three years, so I’d met this girl and she had really long blonde hair, almost like a mermaid, and she just kept talking about “the island” and this tropical lifestyle and she was quite free-spirited and I was like, this chick is crazy. I really didn’t know how to understand her. And I think as the years have gone on, her crazy free spirit has started to merge into mine. I used to be a bit uptight, I still am a little bit; in terms of looking at things with more of an open mind, that’s definitely been one of the greatest advantages of meeting Phoebe and having her as a friend. Phoebe: Nawwww. I think we just had our Oprah moment. Lou: But it’s true, it’s hard to have such a strong friendship for so long, and we’ve had that. Phoebe: Technically, we shouldn’t really be friends anymore. We’ve spent so much time together. When did music first come into it? Lou: In year ten we started going to these activities after school where you could watch old rock ‘n’ roll music DVDs and we watched a live Led Zeppelin or a live Doors and we both were just like, “Oh my god, what is this?” Why did you call this album Yuck? Lou: Yuck comes from the ‘Foolish’ lyric, and I think it really sums up the concept of most of the songs. It’s just that initial reaction you have to a situation or a feeling where, now when I talk to friends, I keep hearing people say ‘yuck’ and I don’t think people realise that yuck is said quite
a lot, it’s that reaction you have because you never want it or the thing to happen ever again. Phoebe: It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek and it kind of takes the piss out of us as well. You know, if someone doesn’t like the album… yuck. It’s just fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. We heard you two are both studying post-graduate degrees... Lou: I think we’re just trying to keep options open. Being able to do music is my number one and that’s for Phoebe as well. Phoebe: It’s just so fragile, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You want it so much but it’s hard to put your whole heart into it because it’s really scary that it might just go away. We want to be doing this when we’re 60. Lou: When I was 12 years old I wrote a letter to myself, a time capsule letter, and put it in a brick wall at my friend’s house, because there was a brick that had come out, and I was like, ‘Dear reader, by the time you read this I will be a singer or someone famous.’ Phoebe: ‘You will know my name.’ Lou: Then my friend, because their house was getting painted, was like, “Oh my god I’ve just found this”, and took a photo and sent it to me, and it was actually the night we were about to play a show at the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney. It came true! What’s been your best or worst festival moment? Phoebe: We went to one called Secret Garden Party in England, and it was like the benchmark – I don’t know what was going on with that festival, but it was so magical. It was set around a lake and people were rowing. I met Noel Fielding there. I was wearing a rubbish bag because it was raining and I was so nervous and probably really drunk and tired and I just went up and just said his full name. I didn’t say ‘hi’ I just said, “Noel Fielding”. And stood there. And he was like “hi”. Lou: I was standing far away and just watching, like, ‘trainwreck!’ You guys are BFFs, want to do a compliment shout out to each other? Phoebe: I wouldn’t want to be alive if Lou wasn’t there. Oh that’s really morbid. Lou: I think Phoebe just always teaches me to be free and wild and be accepting of your fragilities. Phoebe: And Lou teaches me to be anal and restrictive. [snort] Alpine is playing Splendour in the Grass and sideshows in July.
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Cream on Crown vintage T-shirt, $32. Zara scarf, $59.95.
Golden PHOTOS SASKIA WILSON FASHION NICKI COLBRAN
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house of love
Step inside and take it all in. Still going? We'll forgive you; there's a lot to admire in Kit Scholley and Odie Bettison's home. PHOTOS NATALIE MCCOMAS
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WIZARD MOUNTAIN Me, my husband Odie, and our one-and-a-half-year-old son Artie Cosmo live in a massive shed that my husband and I built three years ago in the middle of a paddock, located in the Byron Bay hinterland. It’s quite an open space but we have made it feel very homely. Odie is a carpenter so I owe all credit to him for our beautiful home, Wizard Mountain. I am a freelance stylist and I also own Alida Buffalo vintage and together with my mum we own Alida and Miller interior and event styling. LOCATION LOVE Where do I begin! We can't get enough of it. We used to live on Oxford Street, just off Taylor Square, in Sydney in the hustle and bustle so we never take for granted the peace and quiet of our home and the surrounding area, it’s a pretty special place. We feel so lucky every day to sit on our verandah and look out onto the rolling hills. Most of all we love raising our son on a farm. SOUNDTRACK OF THE HOUSE We only have a record player and Odie is usually in charge of that. We love playing Elvis, Black Sabbath, Black Mountain and Otis Redding although if I do get a turn to be in charge of the music I can guarantee that Nelly ‘Hot in Herre’ would be playing! We relish the fact that we have no neighbours. COLLECTORS Our friends call us organised hoarders. We collect records, I collect creepy vintage baby heads and scary masks, but you could say that everything in our house has been collected over the years to make up the content of our crazy home.
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