The Big Issue Australia #566 – Get Happy

WHITNEY HOUSTON | ADAM HILLS | THE PRESETS

$7 No 566 13 – 26 Jul 2018 HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES $3.50 of the cover price goes to your vendor

NATIONAL OFFICE Chief Executive Officer Steven Persson Chief Operating Officer Sally Hines Editor Amy Hetherington Chief Financial Officer Jon Whitehead National Marketing and Partnerships Manager Louise Gray National Operations Manager Jeremy Urquhart

The Big Issue is Australia’s leading social enterprise. We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation that develops solutions to help homeless, disadvantaged and marginalised people positively change their lives.

The Big Issue magazine is published fortnightly and sold on the streets by vendors who purchase copies for $3.50 and sell them for $7, keeping the difference. Subscriptions are also available and provide employment for disadvantaged women as dispatch assistants.

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CONTACT US Tel (03) 9663 4533 Fax (03) 9639 4076 GPO Box 4911 Melbourne VIC 3001 hello@bigissue.org.au thebigissue.org.au WANT TO BECOME A VENDOR? If you’d like to become a vendor contact the vendor support team in your state.

ACT – (02) 6234 6814 Supported by Woden Community Service NSW – (02) 8332 7200 Chris Campbell NSW + ACT Operations Manager Qld – (07) 3221 3513 Susie Longman Qld Operations Manager SA – (08) 8359 3450 Matthew Stedman SA + NT Operations Manager Vic – (03) 9602 7600 Gemma Pidutti Vic + Tas Operations Manager WA – (08) 9225 7792 Andrew Joske WA Operations Manager

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The Big Issue is a proud member of the INSP, which incorporates 122 street publications like The Big Issue in 41 countries.

CONTENTS

566

Cover Story 14 THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Is hunting for happiness making us miserable? We take a deep dive into the world of wellbeing.

Features 20 LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

Adam Hills talks about how food poisoning almost ruined his career – but is otherwise cheery.

22 FIRE & ICE

THE BIG PICTURE Celebrating the Shetland Islands in an unconventional way.

27 PLANTING HOPE

LIVING HOMELESS A man finds refuge from the world in a forest.

28 WE WILL ALWAYS LOVE HER

The director of the new Whitney Houston biopic searches for the humanity behind the headlines.

32 PRESETS: POLITICAL PARTY

The Presets talk about making a party out of protest.

34 NOWHERE TO HIDE

An author comes from out of nowhere, with his book about two places.

Regulars 04 ED’S LETTER,

YOUR SAY 05 MEET YOUR VENDOR 07 STREETSHEET 08 HEARSAY 11 MY WORD 12 RICKY 13 FIONA

36 FILM 37 SMALL SCREENS 38 MUSIC 39 BOOKS 40 TASTES LIKE HOME 43 PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT 44 PUZZLES 46 CLICK

GETTING FIERY AS PART OF THE UP HELLY AA VIKING FESTIVAL IN LERWICK ON THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. (P22) PHOTO BY JANE BARLOW/PA WIRE

ED’S LETTER

YOUR SAY

OH, HAPPY DAY

REMARKABLE DREW

AS I TYPE this, my heart is singing. I had

another editorial written about Grant Denyer and gameshows, but instead I’m tapping away on my mobile in the middle of the night. There’s a fouryear-old chirping in my ear. Both of us are too excited to sleep. I’ve made a midnight dash around the corner to my sister’s house; her waters have broken.

Baby number two is on the way, and I’m the emergency babysitter for her son, who is unaware of the chaos, comradery and love of a younger sibling about to explode into his life.

Dawn is creaking awake, and I’m eating porridge with pint-sized Batman.

We explain he has a baby brother. He seems more impressed by his Kinder Surprise. A photo of the newborn arrives on my phone; he’s all tiny and perfect in one of those striped blankets we all seem to start life wrapped in.

Welcome to the world little one.

There is nothing like new life to remind us of our capacity for joy, that overwhelming feeling that manifests in smiles and tears and silly dancing.

This elusive state of happiness is one we want to capture. It’s one we wish for all children, we want them to have a lifetime full of it. But what exactly is happiness?

In this edition Deputy Editor Katherine Smyrk explores just that: our pursuit of happiness, from Aristotle to Oprah. She takes the billion-dollar happiness industry for a test-drive to discover what a happy life looks like individually and collectively; and how it can be achieved. Of course, happiness is subjective. My happiness will no doubt differ from yours. But it reminded me of a friend’s Facebook post, of advice from her late mum: find three things that make you happy in life and do them often. Even if that means watching bad gameshows or hanging out with your ever-growing family.

Amy Hetherington, Editor

After only a few paragraphs into ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ [Ed#563] I am vowing Two years ago, I was working near to buy nothing in plastic ever again Central Station, and used to LETTER unless it can be reused multiple pass the same vendor each day.

OF THE FORTNIGHT times and repurposed. We need I bought the magazine, had a a ban! Or funding into recycling chat and continued to do so plants here! Shocking. And not hard each week for about six months. to give up! Fresh is best Through this I heard Drew’s remarkable story. He has such a great Chrissy Ryan via Facebook lively spirit and we always had interesting things to chat about. He told me about Fantastic edition! Buy The Big Issue spiralling into homelessness and how he and give dedicated, hardworking TBI dragged himself out of it through The Big vendors a hand up, not a hand out (also Issue. My favourite thing about Drew is it’s currently glacial on some pitches in that he knows the BEST coffee spots in southern states; a hot coffee, chocolate Sydney. I discovered some great coffee or just a smile can make a vendor’s day). through chatting to him. I left Sydney for Fiona Corcoran via LinkedIn two years and returned recently to find Drew is still smiling outside Central and I am a long-time supporter. We were at selling The Big Issue and we had a good Fremantle Markets food court, where catch up. He still knows the best coffee I caught a glimpse of the familiar red spots. Drew told me how the electricity in and white sign. In unison my sons said, his boarding house has since gone up and “Mum it’s The Big Issue.” My son Trent that times keep getting tougher surviving caught the vendor’s attention while I in Sydney. Go support Drew if you can, found the $7 for a copy of the magazine. and have a chat – he is the best!

I looked up to see him insisting that Jordan Thurling, Sydney, NSW the vendor share his plate of sushi. She hesitantly took a piece, smiled and As winner of this thanked him, twice. I am so proud that edition’s Letter my sons have empathy and demonstrate of the Fortnight, it in these ways. I would like to share Jordan wins a this with you – keep up the great work. copy of Adam Hills’ Jean Westerhout, Canning Vale, memoir, Best Foot Forward.

WA Read his interview p20.

I enjoyed reading the World Cup edition [Ed#564], but was thoroughly engrossed in the Ethiopian recipe from Tinsae Elsdon. Could we see more multicultural recipes and articles on food philanthropists featured in The Big Issue?

Sonja Bajic, Henley Beach, SA Ed – Great minds! We will be bringing you recipes from chefs, cooks and foodies from all over Australia and around the world in our new ‘Tastes Like Home’ series each edition.

See p40.

WHITNEY HOUSTON | ADAM HILLS | THE PRESETS

$7 No 566 13 – 26 Jul 2018 HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES $3.50 of the cover price goes to your vendor

COVER #566 GET HAPPY ILLUSTRATION BY GEORGIA PERRY/ THE JACKY WINTER GROUP

THE BIG ISSUE USES MACQUARIE DICTIONARY AS OUR REFERENCE. MACQUARIEDICTIONARY.COM.AU

» ‘Your Say’ submissions must be 100 words or less, contain the writer’s full name and home address, and may be edited for clarity or space.

MEET YOUR VENDOR RON K SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT NAB, PIRIE ST, AND BUPA DENTAL, GRENFELL ST, IN ADELAIDE.

“I LIKE THE ROUTINE OF IT, BUSY MORNINGS AND THE LUNCHTIME RUSH.”

I’VE BEEN LEGALLY blind since 2002 so I can’t really read The Big Issue. But I go to the breakfast meeting at the beginning of each edition where the boss tells us all about it, so I know what to tell the customers.

I signed up in October last year. A friend who worked at The Big Issue told me to give it a go. We used to work together as charity collectors for Disability Sports SA. I did it for 17 years, but the charity closed down. I would have liked to work in sales and have a better income, but it was very hard to find a good job with little education and poor literacy. I had a lot of experience, but not a lot of confidence.

I started working when I was about 10. I was on a dairy farm. It was a family business, everyone had to put in. We lived in Scone, NSW. I did schooling by air, when I attended that is! I had many absences, I had too much work. There were seven of us, I was in the middle.

At 18 I started at a battery factory in Footscray, Melbourne. I liked it there. I was promoted after a couple of years and became a sales rep.

But the factory closed up, and they made a lot of people redundant.

This job can be challenging. You get a lot of different people; sometimes you get abused, but it doesn’t happen very often. You just learn to deal with it, be patient, don’t give up. You need to stay positive, I try to have a bit of fun with it, make jokes, listen to my radio, sing. One customer even gave me a tip to put towards singing lessons!

I like the routine of it, busy mornings and the lunchtime rush. A lot of people stop and chat. I have four regulars who buy every single edition. I’m not getting rich, but I’m trying to put a little bit away to go on holidays for a week or so. Last year we went to Victor Harbor. This year we are hoping to go to Mannum or Wallaroo with the granddaughter.

I’m married and have two kids. I live in a Housing Trust house. My kids are grown up now and have their own lives, their own families. I’ve got a grandson and granddaughter.

I enjoy spending time with them. My granddaughter comes and stays with us. I take her to the local park and to the pictures. Sometimes we go shopping together. My grandson is still a baby, only two years old.

Recently I also started going to TAFE. I joined an adult literacy program where, with the help of a magnifier, I learn about maths, English and computers. It’s good fun! I’m glad staff at The Big Issue encouraged me to do it. I thought I was too old, but they told me it’s never too late. The money I make selling the mag helps me pay for it. I will keep selling The Big Issue till you get sick of me!

interview by Alicja Clisby photo by Nat Rogers

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

5

STREETSHEET Stories, poems and pictures by Big Issue vendors and friends KING OF THE HILL

I took part in City2Surf and I am really proud I was able to finish the 14km (including “The Hill”!) in two hours and 47 minutes in my first go. I am so grateful The Big Issue gave me the opportunity. Last year I finished in two hours and 17 minutes. My aim is to break two hours this year!

James sells The Big Issue in Glebe, Sydney.

I have done every City2Surf that The Big Issue Sydney has been involved with.

Apart from the money that gets raised, the comradery between the team is awesome. Yes, everyone is sore for the next couple of days, but it’s worth it. I’ve made many new friends and it’s just an awesome fun day. See you on 12 August.

Marcus sells The Big Issue in Concord and Five Dock, Sydney.

You can show your support of The Big Issue City2Surf team, and sponsor them via city2surf2018.everydayhero.com/au/team-big-issue.

HAVING A BALL

I’m a passionate billiards player, and this month I competed in the Queensland eight-ball championships.

I felt confident on the day and made it as far as the quarter finals. I was really happy with how I played, it was a good result! I want to say a big thanks to my team who all supported each other and played well together.

Dom sells The Big Issue cnr Queen and Edward Sts, Brisbane.

A NEW DAWN

Looking around, after waking up, not knowing what the day is going to bring, but first thing is coffee and shower. Then under the blanket of dark I walk to the bus stop across the major intersection, fearing that today is going to be the day, but I continue on. Some days work out, and some days don’t, but what happens will happen. But being in Adelaide is different than being anywhere else.

I don’t fear walking down the street day or night or giving someone a smile.

The day is then done, and I go back to my hiding spot for the night, ready for a new day.

Cindy C sells The Big Issue cnr King William and Currie Sts, and Goodwood, Adelaide.

MAN ABOUT TOWN

I’ve been selling The Big Issue for almost two years. I’m doing it because it gives me something to do. I get bored at home. I change my pitch all the time. I get a bit bored and anxious if I don’t sell. But I like it here, I have friends here and I make a bit of money too. I like being in town. I’ve got a disability and I’ve got a pension but I like to work. I have a speech problem, so often people can’t understand me.

It’s a bit frustrating. I was born like this, can’t help it. Please be patient, and stop by.

Michael S sells The Big Issue at Hungry Jack’s on Rundle St, Hindley St and Cibo Espresso, Adelaide.

CEASE FIRE

When I was studying to write a poem, forever lost in Google, I discovered that on 29 March 2018, there were so many countries affected by war that it’s easier to name the ones who are not: Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Mauritius, Panama, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vietnam are free from conflict. These countries should be proud and explain peace to

the rest of the moronic governments all over the world. Whether those countries be a republic, a kingdom, a democracy, an empire or just power freaks in a suit, let’s bring our soldiers home. We need to stop mass producing weapons and bring in more gun laws. May they spread like wildflowers in the fields in the spring time where the muddy boots once were. We need to save our planet’s future. The planet, the people and the animals must come first; stop the blood being spilled for all the past mistakes. We still have not learned.

Tolerance is the key. Please let our children be free. We are all one people.

Don’t you see we all have hearts to be broken, we all bleed red blood and we all have a soul? Please get out of your office all you men in suits that say it’s justified, and go out on the battlefield and talk to men who have lost limbs and tell me it’s justified!

Lynn participates in the Community Street Soccer Program in Newcastle, NSW.

» All vendor contributors to Streetsheet are paid for their work.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

7

HEARSAY WRITER RICHARD CASTLES

» CARTOONIST ANDREW WELDON

G’DAY HOT CHICK. Senator David Leyonhjelm, showing his command of the groovy language, to fellow Senator Jane Hume, who habitually responds with “G’day handsome.”

– The Age

EAR2GROUND “Breaking up is just like falling off a bicycle.

It really hurts.”

A young man overheard in the gym by Glen of Mt Waverley, Vic.

8

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

“I was recently asked by someone what they should do when they come across a homeless person.

My response to this question is quite simple. Maybe you cannot make a difference to that person’s circumstance, but you can make a difference to how you see them.

Many are hurting with the shame and stigma of being homeless.

Don’t pretend they don’t exist: they are people too.”

Social science lecturer Dr Gregory P Smith, on the simplest thing you can do to help a homeless person. Smith should know; his book Out of the Forest gives an account of his 25 years of homelessness, including a decade living as a hermit in the rainforests of northern New South Wales. (See more from Dr Smith on p27.)

– The Guardian (UK) “I have broken more Elton John records, he seems to have a lot of records. And I, by the way, I don’t have a musical instrument. I don’t have a guitar or an organ. No organ. Elton has an organ... So we break all of these records. Really we do it without like, the musical instruments. This is the only

musical: the mouth. And hopefully the brain attached to the mouth.”

US President Donald Trump on his ability to draw bigger crowds than Elton John. Rumours that he sings a song called ‘Tiny Hands Sir’ are unfounded.

– New Republic (US) “With a book that’s going to be sold into schools you get a list of things that are unacceptable – no witches, no demons, no alcohol, no death, no religion. It really does cut down what you can write about.”

Children’s author Geraldine McCaughrean (Peter Pan in Scarlet; Where the World Ends) on the publishing industry sanitising what can be written for kids.

– The Sydney Morning Herald “I think perhaps we should stop teaching art. I think we shouldn’t be teaching kids how to do it.

I don’t think you can do art at school. You do art at home…

People get an idea of what is the right and the wrong way to do it.”

Feminist writer and academic Germaine Greer, speaking at the South Bank Sky Arts awards in Britain.

– Independent (Ireland)

PHOTO BY GETTY

“The spirit there was very decentralised. The individual was incredibly empowered. It was all based on there being no central authority that you had to go to to ask permission. That feeling of individual control, that empowerment, is something we’ve lost.”

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. He never profited off his invention – and is now working on ways to re-decentralise the web.

– Vanity Fair (US)

“If you don’t see that this child is being exploited then ideology has possessed you to the core.

In what moral universe is it acceptable to encourage a 10-yearold boy to dress like an adult male mimicking a sexualized adult female, use that as a ticket to fame and then claim it as virtue?”

Outspoken psychologist and culture critic Jordan Peterson on 10-yearold drag queen Desmond Napoles, celebrated at the New York Gay Pride festival last month.

– Twitter “There’s a kernel of truth to it, in that I once was a very angry person. I still get very frustrated by simple-minded thinking. I can go off on a tear when I’m in the presence of something that seems stupid, things that haven’t been

thought through, herd thinking.

These things make me angry, but in my day-to-day life, I just am not angry.”

Writer Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections; Freedom) on not being angry, despite his reputation.

– New York Times Magazine (US) “It’s one of those things that should have happened with hiphop a long time ago. It took a long time for people to embrace us – people outside of our community, our culture – to see this not just as vocal lyrics, but to see that this is really pain, this is really hurt, this is really true stories of our lives on wax.”

Hip-hop star Kendrick Lamar on what it meant for him to win a Pulitzer Prize.

– Vanity Fair (US)

“I remember when I was seven, making crucial decisions about the kind of person I was going to be... I’ve never been as intelligent as I was at seven. I have never been as thoughtful or as introspective.”

Novelist Anne Tyler, 75, whose 22nd novel Clock Dance is about to hit the shelves.

– The New York Times (US) “Al-Shabab bans single-use plastic bags in the areas it controls, which…pose a serious threat to the wellbeing of humans and animals alike.”

A statement purporting to be from the Islamist al-Shabab terrorist group, which controls parts of Somalia. No clarification yet on how drastic the punishments will be for offenders.

– Twitter

» Frequently overhear tantalising tidbits? Don’t waste them on your friends – share them with the world at submissions@bigissue.org.au

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

9

MY WORD

AIN’T LOVE GRANDAD Ashleigh Hardcastle learns you should never let the sun set on family.

IT’S LATE MORNING by the time I settle on

PHOTO BY iSTOCK

the wonky chair in front of my computer, resigned to finally making a start on my essay. Even the cold piece of toast sitting on the desk holds more appeal, but I know it must be done. With a sigh, I begin.

I’ve been working for less than 10 minutes when my phone rings, the vibrations barely penetrating my armour of concentration.

“Hi Dad.” “Hi sweetheart. I’ve got a bit of bad news.”

Suddenly the toast isn’t sitting too well. I know what’s coming, but don’t want it confirmed.

“Grandad’s no longer with us.” He sounds calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that conveys a total lack of calm.

Pressure builds behind my nose as he continues, outlining the details. I try to listen, but only fragments register. We say goodbye and I find myself pacing, foreign sounds fighting their way out of my trembling body. This is a new kind of sadness, one that is pointy and sharp.

It feels as if it will never end.

INSIDE NANNA’S HOUSE, voices are subdued and monotone as they plan out the ceremony; my first funeral. I am asked to fill in forms because I have the neatest handwriting, a notion that is undermined by the trembling of my fingers as I attempt to answer questions for which I don’t have the answers.

Where were he and Nanna married?

How did they meet? What was his main occupation? All things I never thought

to ask or didn’t bother to remember.

The guilt sears through me each time my voice snaps the silence to request details I should already know.

Between bouts of muted tears, Nanna talks. Mostly, she speaks of how much she loved him.

“We’d been taught to never let the sun set on your wrath,” she says, eyes glistening. “And we never did, not once. No matter what happened, we always ended each day with a kiss and ‘I love you’.”

This comes as a surprise. They always seemed so separate; I’d suspected them of staying together only out of an old-fashioned belief about the sanctity of marriage. I realise how little I know about this woman, how little I’ve bothered to hear. I vow to listen harder before she, too, is lost.

The funeral director asks about the coffin.

“He always said he’d be buried in a cardboard box, if he could be,” Nanna jokes, with a sad smile. On hearing that the funeral home does in fact make cardboard coffins, there is a moment when she looks almost serene. “Oh yes,” she breathes, “he would have liked that.

He was a very simple man, was Geoff.”

THE FUNERAL ARRIVES too quickly. We practically have to carry Nanna into the room. Stooped over, all her weight on her walking stick, I am sure she is about to break. She sees the coffin and moves away from us, shuffling desperately towards the cardboard box.

I notice the crowd forming and my chest throbs. Who would have thought he was so loved? He was always just sort of…there. Just sitting in his chair, mostly silent. It was Nanna who had the overwhelming presence.

‘The Last Post’ plays, interrupted by a staccato of grief. The celebrant says nice things about Grandad, portraying him as a hero. It begins to feel fabricated; as if she’s talking about a stranger to us all. But then she jokes about how, in the army, he learned to never volunteer, and stuck hard to that for the rest of his life. We chuckle sadly. This is the Geoff we knew.

LIFE RETURNS TO normal and my

promise to spend more quality time with Nanna is forgotten in the flurry of university and a new job. It is only as I lay in bed after a petty argument, the distance between myself and my girlfriend feeling much greater than mere centimetres of physical space, that Nanna’s words come back to me.

“Never let the sun set on your wrath.”

The sun set hours ago, its glowing haze barely registered in my irritable state, but, for perhaps the first time in my life, I heed my grandparents’ advice.

Setting my frustration aside, I kiss my girlfriend gently on the cheek and whisper love in her ear.

» Ashleigh Hardcastle is a Perth-based writer. She is working on her first novel for young adults, supported by a fellowship through the KSP Writers’ Centre.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

11

RICKY LET US PAY homage to the people who walk into our lives for a short time, make an impact, and then walk out again. People whose orbit crosses yours so briefly you might go years without thinking about them. Then suddenly they flash back into your brain like a comet.

Comic artist Toby Morris wrote an illustrated book about these people, called 200 People I Used to Know. I was one of those people. I think in a way the book was a tribute to the smattering of happy youthful memories we all have. Like the people, the memories are often hazy, incomplete, dream-like.

For some reason I thought about Scott today. I think his name was Scott. It might have been Shaun, but I’m pretty sure it was Scott. I was about 17, Scott a year or two older. He bobbed up in my life as the brief boyfriend of the drummer in my band – a girl named Kirsty. Where she found him I don’t know.

For some reason Scott bonded himself to me. It seemed he was rarely with Kirsty. He never shut up. He would blag and brag and tell fanciful stories and hatch outrageous schemes.

We went tenpin bowling once and he didn’t shut up, even when bowling. He didn’t even look where he was bowling, he just strolled up and hurled the ball and kept yapping, torn tracksuit pants dragging on the lane. Kirsty thought he was dead sexy.

Scott quickly made himself at home in my life, slept on my floor, ate with my family, chatted with my mum, then moved in with my uncle. He turned his house into some sort of gambling den. This was all within about a week of meeting him. He was brash and confident and impulsive and a charmer.

Above all, Scott was a bullshitter.

A natural and gifted con artist, he was really little more than a bum, but a personable bum.

If Scott got a notion to do something, that was it. You’d get dragged along.

12

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

“Scott told her all about his recent trip to the mountains and peaks he had climbed. She thought he was great. I listened and shook my head. Every word was lies.”

One day he decided we had to strip and sandpaper my favourite guitar, then spray-paint it bright blue. So we did.

The whole project was done before I could even protest.

Another time he took me to his house, possibly to prove he had one. It was way out in the badland suburbs, even worse than the suburb where I lived. At the mall we ran into some people who demanded he give them money he owed. He made some excuse and we went back to his house – a cold, unfurnished hovel – but they soon came knocking at the door. He told me to hide in his bedroom. I listened at the door to the banter, then came out when I felt it was safe.

They didn’t get any money off Scott, but they gave a darn good lecture on being a bullshitter and how they knew he was a bullshitter and the whole damn world knew he was a bullshitter and in the end the bullshitters would lose. They left, and Scott and I went and bought a six pack of beer and a packet of cigarettes and came back and bolted the door behind us.

The next day we hitchhiked away from Scott’s place. Best not to hang there, he said. We got a ride from a friendly woman who told us she had just been mountaineering. Scott told her all about his recent trip to the mountains and peaks he had climbed.

She thought he was great. I listened and shook my head. Every word was lies.

That’s my last memory of Scott. I don’t even remember where the car dropped us off that day. He disappeared from my life as quickly as he arrived. All that’s left of Scott today is the occasional flashback when I walk the dog – and in the corner of my back room, my favourite guitar, still the brightest blue you’ve ever seen.

» Ricky French (@frenchricky) is a writer, musician and one-time tenpin bowler.

PHOTOS BY JAMES BRAUND

Comet Scott

FIONA

Get the Party Started Already A FRIEND OF mine, male, not the best socialiser on the block, just had a party freakout moment. Four days out from his 40th birthday, Trevor (obviously not his real name, he’s suffered enough) created a Facebook event and announced he was having a barbeque. Good on him for biting the bullet, but he’d played chicken with his birthday and lost. Four days’ notice for a birthday with a zero on the end is taking the piss, and he’d set himself up to fail as surely as if he’d put a cream silk frock through a washing machine’s hot cycle with a load of blacks and a tissue.

Most peeps would be hard-pressed to accommodate a cup of tea and a sponge finger with Robert Downey Jr on four days’ notice. Trevor, you nutbag, I love you, but no-one’s coming to your party for two very good reasons: one, people be genuinely doing things that were locked down back in February 2016; and two, your soiree is emitting the odour of “disaster” from as far away as Kuta.

I went. Of course I did. I know the chill wind of no mates. Poor bastard. The cohort at Trevor’s 40th consisted of Trevor, his parents, his toddler, his cat, his housemate, his ex, his other cat, and one actual friend.

There was a cake the size of the Red Centre with a small corner cut out of it, enough surplus dip to fill a hot tub, and a scrubby and freezing backyard. The event radiated enough awkward male poignancy to fuel three reboots of Napoleon Dynamite.

But you can’t blame Trev for hedging his bets. He’s just Australian, and Aussies think it’s up yourself to celebrate anything personal. Anything that smacks of “I’m worth something”. This makes it challenging to organise a decent shindig in reasonable time. I once DJ’d a wedding where I had to counsel the couple that it was a) not “self-indulgent” to have

“There is no hour so lonely as the one that stretches between the stated time of your event, and the first guest arriving.”

speeches that referenced the word “love”, and b) not “drawing attention to themselves” to have a wedding dance. It’s your wedding, you’re probably going to have, tops, three of those, and if you want the first one to last it’s definitely worth pulling your finger out and showing some enthusiasm.

We’re not versed in exuberance. We’re versed in fear. Even those of us who like parties and are down with creating opportunities to be showered with adoration* find them stressful. There is no hour so lonely as the one that stretches between the stated time of your event, and the first guest arriving. The first guest, btw, is never happy about it. No-one wants to be first, everyone wants to turn up when the party’s already cooking, so do complex mental calculus to ensure they hit that sweet spot. Hence 30 people arriving in a wodge at 8.55pm for a party that started at 7pm. Meanwhile, the host’s had three panic attacks and is drunk standing next to what’s left of the cheese.

Why does anyone bother? There is nothing more dispiriting than creating an event, as all it triggers is an avalanche of “I can’t!

I’m in Tunisia that weekend”, “Sorry, my exhibition’s opening”, “I wish, but Simon’s shouting me a dinner to celebrate finishing my Masters!” Not only are people not coming, their lives are way better than yours. On the day, of course, everyone else cancels an hour out because “they’re tired”, “double-booked”, or “the babysitter has been arrested”.

Gah. It’s psychological torture. And yet my birthday is looming and I’m contemplating making it a thing. If you’re invited four days out, please come. Trevor and I will be next to the cheese. *Guilty. My 35th birthday party invitation featured a photo of me naked on a horse with the legend underneath “time gallops on”.

» Fiona Scott-Norman (@FScottNorman) is a writer, comedian and party trooper.

The

pursuit of Happiness 14

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Our quest for happiness has given rise to a multi-billion-dollar happiness industry.

But can it deliver on its big promises?

Katherine Smyrk goes for a test-drive.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY EIRIAN CHAPMAN

AVING ALWAYS BEEN a sucker for

multiple-choice surveys, I find myself doing happiness quizzes online. There are thousands of them, but the general format they follow is similar. You are provided with a series of statements, and you select where you sit along the spectrum from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.

The Oprah “Be Happy Index” Test includes declarations like: “I know who I am, and I like myself”; “I believe happiness is a way of travelling”; “I am good at letting go of past hurts and disappointments”. I think ruefully of that time in Grade Three I left my colouring at home and wasn’t allowed to enter the colouring-in competition. I could have won a Tamagotchi.

I get a score of 65. Oprah doesn’t say out of what. The advice accompanying my score tells me to “recognise how you might be limiting your own happiness”.

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire starts off with the cheery statement: “I don’t feel particularly pleased with the way I am.” Not all of it is doom and gloom, but there is a real corker in there, something that stops my quiz frenzy in its tracks: “Life is good.” I don’t know how to respond. There’s no grey area for me to hide in among those three words.

I find myself sitting with that question for a long time, thinking about Donald Trump, Syria, Eurydice Dixon, young men suiciding on Manus Island. Next I find myself thinking about sunflowers, the burgeoning belly of my pregnant sister, the smell of new books, the person on the tram who ran down Elizabeth Street to return my waylaid umbrella to me. I pick

something neutral and feel unsettled. In “I was chasing the happiness fairytale,” the end, I get a score of 3.63. The screen says Stark. “I spent my life thinking if tells me that anything between a 3 and a 4 I reached these end goals that we’re all means I am neither happy nor unhappy. told would bring us contentment, that I Helpfully, it adds: “Exercises designed to would have the complete life.” Instead she increase happiness have been tested in entered a bout of depression so cavernous scientific studies and have been shown to she had nearly five months off work. make people lastingly happier. Try some!”

With a bookshelf groaning under the If you think there are a lot of happiness weight of books promising a quick fix for quizzes out there, there are infinitely her woes, Stark realised that it wasn’t more blogs, books, tweets and Ted going to be enough.

Talks about how to get there. One could “I felt starved deep into my drown in the sheer number of saccharine bones. I had all the things 10-point guides. With beyondblue that formed that equation reporting that three million Australians and underneath will experience depression or anxiety it all I was in any one year, and a deluge of reports at the about that rate marching ever-upward, it’s no wonder there are a lot of people out there looking for answers. And there are many out there wanting to provide them.

Criticised by some as a cynical arm of Dr Sharp has a few pointers capitalism, the Happiness Industry for getting yourself in a position has become a sparkling behemoth promising big. Estimates show that to “thrive and flourish”. the industry is worth $13bn in the PHYSICAL HEALTH US alone.

“It’s hard to be happy if you’re sick and So, is there an answer out tired, so one of the most important things there – a tip, mantra, or kernel is to look after your body, do exercise, of wisdom that will provide eat well, get enough sleep.” the answer for everlasting

TIPS FOR HAPPINESS

happiness, if only we could just put our finger (or our credit card) on the right one?

Journalist and author Jill Stark has written a book about this very thing. Happy Never After explores how an obsession with happiness almost killed her. It all started going downhill in 2013, when her first book, High Sobriety, was published. She had achieved a long-held ambition, she was in a good relationship, she had a dream job as a feature writer for Fairfax, but she was miserable.

SOCIALISING

While this seems obvious, it’s something that often falls off when we get too busy.

MEANING AND PURPOSE

Find your passion in life, and find a way to get involved, even if it’s something small.

MINDFULNESS OR MEDITATION

Setting aside as little as five minutes a day to focus your attention on the present can help improve your mood.

GRATITUDE

“Find a way to spend a couple of minutes each and every day to think about what we have, rather than what we don’t have.”

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MonEy Can’t Buy You HaPpinesS

Despite the well-worn adage, studies are showing that money can buy happiness… to a point.

Research from Purdue University, based on more than 1.7 million people from 164 countries, has broken it down.

At very low levels – below and around the poverty line – money makes an enormous difference. Struggling to pay rent, or wondering whether you can put food on the table, increases stress, nervousness and hopelessness – big hindrances to happiness. There has also been a correlation found between increases in income helping reduce the incidence of serious mental illness.

So, more money = more happiness.

But that doesn’t go on forever. There is a sweet spot for money and happiness, and it’s lower than you might think: approximately US$75,000 a year (AUD$100,000). The study also showed that once individuals earn more than US$95,000, happiness can decrease.

This could be because of what has to be traded for that extra money, ie time away from family. Researchers also indicate it could be related to priorities shifting towards “keeping up appearances”.

The other part of the equation is that money can make you happy if you spend it in a certain way. Michael Norton, a professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of Happy Money says: “If you think money can’t buy happiness, it just means you’re not spending it right.”

Norton says spending money on material things won’t make you unhappy, but it doesn’t make you happier in any long-term, meaningful way. Spending money on experiences and in ways that give you more time to look after yourself or be with the people you love is shown to be beneficial. But spending money on other people is a guaranteed way to boost happiness. Norton says around the world, from Canada to Uganda, spending money on others works better and lasts longer. Like buying The Big Issue!

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THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

lowest point of my life. There’s nowhere to really go from there but internal, and really look at what it is that makes a meaningful life.”

Heeding the call of the Oxford questionnaire, I take a breath and dive into the instructions issued by the selfhelp world – keeping Stark’s warnings about false leads front of mind.

I craft a playlist of happy songs (check out The Big Issue Australia Spotify account) and dance around my lounge room like no-one is watching. After an ebullient rendition of ‘Oh Happy Day’ from Sister Act 2, I find myself sweaty and grinning goofily, but wonder how often I would need to flail around with abandon.

I then discover that, actually, listening to sad songs apparently helps, because it allows you to really feel the bad things, rather than pushing them down. I listen to ‘Sandcastles’ by Beyoncé on the train.

At the peak of the song I feel something inside me catch, and then release. Despite the embarrassment of crying on the train, I think I feel a little better.

A website reveals that “colour psychologists” believe the colour green symbolises happiness. I put on a green dress and buy a green smoothie from an overpriced juice shop. I get a green traffic light on my way into work and quietly note it down as a positive omen. People tell me my dress goes with my eyes, and I get a certain self-righteous satisfaction knowing that the kale in my smoothie is magically reversing every bad health decision I’ve ever made – but there’s no heady rush of euphoria here.

Some of this happiness chasing makes me feel a lot better. Some of it makes me feel better temporarily. Some of it makes me feel overwhelmed that I have to work so hard to get a smile on my face.

Stark believes the problem with the whole conversation is the idea of quickfix happiness that the industry often promises. One article I find is evidence for this proposition: it breaks its tips down into subheadings of one-minute, five-minute and 10-minute solutions.

Happiness has become a commodity people are determined to buy.

“There’s this entire industry that’s been built around us finding happiness,” she says. “But it’s not the default human condition to be happy all the time. And yet the expectation that we should be is what makes us miserable.”

But I persist, spurred on in my pursuit by the Aristotle quote: “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

I go to my regular The short answer is, yes and no. While rates of cafe and strike up a depression and anxiety are definitely increasing, there conversation with the is a strong theory that this is tied to a sharp increase in barista. Engaging in awareness and recognition. positive interactions Professor Allan Horwitz from Rutgers University and with strangers – Professor Jerome Wakefield from NYU have released a another handy tip book called The Loss of Sadness about this very thing. for happiness. We In a conversation with Scientific American they said: joke about the “Careful studies that use the same criterion for diagnosis frigid weather, I over time reveal no change in the prevalence of depression. compliment her nail What has changed is the growing number of people who seek polish and she tells treatment for this condition, the increase in prescriptions me she is going to for antidepressant medications, the number of articles the football on the about depression in the media and scientific literature, and weekend. I walk away the growing presence of depression as a phenomenon in with a hot coffee and popular culture. All of these changes lead to the perception a spring in my step. that the disorder itself has become more common.”

ARE WE MORE

DEPRESSED THAN EVER?

What Even Is happinesS? We’ve all felt happy before, but what is happening to your brain when you get there?

Well…a few things, actually.

ENDORPHINS The word itself

translates as “self-produced morphine”.

With a similar chemical structure to opiates, it helps mask pain or discomfort and can give you power and energy when it’s needed. It is commonly associated with the fight or flight response, physical exertion, sex, laughing – and eating chocolate.

Another website tells me that a candle can literally “burn away stress”, so I surround myself with tea candles in silver casings, fat candles scented like frangipani, long white candles wedged in the necks of wine bottles, then sit back waiting for the stress to disappear. My apartment does look twinkly and pretty, but when I have to leave I waste an anxious half-hour checking that all the flames are extinguished.

I download a meditation podcast and solemnly listen to it for 10 minutes every night before I go to bed. I visualise a place where I feel at ease. I visualise sunlight streaming into my body. I focus on my breathing. I focus on the noises around me. I relax every muscle in my body one by one until the swirling in my head is silenced. I feel calmer, find sleep easier.

A different website declares that, although trawling through the Instagram of the pretty girl from high school will make you feel like an insecure pimply 14-year-old again, comparing yourself with those worse off than you can make you feel better. This feels uncomfortably close to punching down so, rather than sitting resplendent on my throne of privilege while scoffing at others’ misery, I keep a gratitude journal. I write down three things I am grateful for every day.

After a particularly crappy day, I struggle to think of much. But I look up at the soft moon in the sky and smile. I write it

SEROTONIN Controls your overall mood and can be triggered when you feel significant or important.

A common treatment for depression is the use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) in antidepressants. There is debate over the efficacy of SSRIs, but they are thought to help maintain your serotonin levels.

Even remembering past moments of achievement can release serotonin, so gratitude and visualisation can help. The absorption of UV rays helps promote serotonin production, so go get some sunshine!

DOPAMINE Often called the “reward hormone”, this chemical spreads through your brain in anticipation of a reward, giving you the energy needed to achieve your goal. Then you get a bonus hit once you get there. It’s similar to that found through amphetamines.

OXY TOCIN Sometimes called the “cuddle neurochemical”. Closeness with other people – skin-to-skin contact as well as meaningful interaction – triggers this reaction, helping establish strong bonds. Oxytocin is also released during orgasm, childbirth and breastfeeding.

down. I think of a thoughtful text message my friend sent me. I write it down. I think of sitting in a pool of winter sun on my lunch break and how it made my whole body feel warm. I write it down.

When I speak to Dr Tim Sharp, he calmly reasserts Stark’s idea that it’s not natural to be happy all the time. For someone whose nickname is Dr Happy, I find this somewhat surprising. Dr Sharp is a “positive psychologist” who started the Happiness Institute, of which he is now the CHO, or Chief Happiness Officer. But he’s realistic about what that means.

seem to be the key to it all – I remember something a therapist once said to me, “You have to let go of this idea that you should be happy all the time.” When she first said it to me, I felt winded. What’s the point of trying so hard if I’m not going to be happy? But I’m starting to see the shape of the idea through the fog. Looking deeper into Aristotle’s philosophy, I realise that although he said happiness is of the utmost importance, he believed that it was less about an emotion, and more about a long-term pattern of action.

Dr Sharp believes part of the problem

“There's this entire industry that's been built around us finding happiness...but it's not the default human condition to be happy all the time.”

– Jill Stark “I’m not happy all the time, no-one should expect to be happy all the time.

That’s impossible, there’s no such thing,” he says, with a firm but gentle voice that reminds me of the decades he spent as a clinical psychologist. “Part of what we need to really live a good life is a form of acceptance, it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to be tired or worn out, or have a day when we feel blue. And I think the more we can accept that and be realistic about that, the better for everyone.”

While running around the park – chasing those magical endorphins that

is the way we view happiness. It’s not as simple as always smiling all the time; he says positive psychology is more about the concept of “thriving and flourishing”.

“That does involve positive emotions, but it also involves a lot more. It involves living a life that’s meaningful and purposeful, it involves being physically healthy, it involves having hope and optimism for the future, it very much involves other people, it’s about our relationships and about our connectedness and our community. So the combination of those broader factors THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

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is what really goes towards living a great life,” he explains.

In 2013, a Stanford university study similarly found that solely pursuing happiness is not enough to give someone meaning in their life. The report said: “Happiness without meaning characterises a relatively shallow, selfabsorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desires are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided.”

It would be easy to assume that Dr Sharp and Jill Stark would be in opposition; a Chief Happiness Officer up against the author writing about

how the happiness industry made her depressed. But their goal is a similar one: finding a way to live your best life, however that looks. One of the things they wholeheartedly agree on is the importance of gratitude.

Dr Sharp explains that positive psychology is not about belligerently forcing yourself to plaster on a smile; it’s about changing the focus.

“For so long we’ve asked what’s wrong with people; why don’t we try to ask what’s right with people?”

Stark says a daily gratitude journal, like the one I’ve been labouring through, really helped her.

“For so long we've asked what's wrong with people; why don't we try to ask what's right with people?”

– Dr Happy

HAPPY PLACES

Once again, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland are in the top positions of the UN’s World Happiness Report. The variables measured are: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity – with special attention being paid to the happiness of immigrants. And, when it comes to equality and looking after each other, these countries are truly world leaders.

NORWAY In the happiness metrics, Norway comes out on top

for healthy life expectancy, fuelled by a combination of high expenditure by the state on health, plus preventative measures encouraged by social campaigns.

COURTESY OF THE BIG ISSUE UK @BIGISSUEUK

ICEL AND Iceland’s high GDP per capita – and more importantly the relative equal distribution of this wealth – keeps Iceland ranked in the top four. Iceland has consistently had the lowest levels of income inequality in Europe and, within four years, any company employing more than 25 people that has not been independently certified as having no gender pay gap will receive daily fines.

FINL AND In the Finnish political model, wealth equality is high, unemployment is low, and welfare comprehensive and wellfunded. Children don’t start school until age seven – when a comprehensive state education kicks in. Finland is renowned as a gender equality pioneer – in official committees the proportion of male or female representatives cannot be below 40 per cent.

DENMARK It’s not just dark TV murder mysteries; the Danes are

also world beaters when it comes to generosity – in time, money and assistance. “What works in the Nordic countries is a sense of community and understanding in the common good,” according to Meik Wiking, director of Denmark’s Happiness Research Institute.

“Sometimes that’s a real challenge when you’ve had a shit of a day, but it really forces you to find the things that you would otherwise miss,” she says.

“Gratitude is in finding something to be hopeful about, even in the midst of your misery. Not trying to push that suffering away, but to really reach the edges of it and find something. And there is always something, and it’s amazing.”

I think about what Dr Sharp said when I asked what tips he would give someone beginning their journey to becoming happier.

“What you’ve got to do is find things not just to do today or tomorrow, but it’s got to become a part of your life,” he says.

“The metaphor I often use is, if you want to get fit or healthy you can’t just go to the gym once or eat one salad and expect your body to magically change. It needs to become a lifestyle.”

Stark echoes this: “I think it’s a trap to think there’s a quick fix, or that we even need to be fixed in the first place.” She admits it can be difficult to sit with this feeling. “It’s really hard. Everywhere you look you’re taught the opposite, whether it’s through Hollywood romance, or through renovation shows; the whole idea we live with in Western society is based on the end point rather than the journey.

For me it’s a daily practice that I have to keep remembering.”

I’m not going to get into a habit of dancing around my living room to force a smile (although it might happen spontaneously). Nor am I going to make a regular practice of crying on the train (that too). I decide that the mindfulness practice and the gratitude journal, though, I will keep. I will certainly not be doing any more online quizzes.

“Life is good.” The sticky statement from the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire still hovers in my brain, a grey spot in my periphery. But instead of settling on one of the provided options, I decide to invent my own answer: Both agree and disagree.

And that’s okay.

» Katherine Smyrk (@KSmyrk) is the Deputy Editor of The Big Issue.

» Happy Never After by Jill Stark is out on 30 July. Read more about the Happiness Institute at drhappy.com.au.

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LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF » ADAM HILLS

s r e t t a M g hin g Lau Adam Hills on blowing his chances in Hollywood, dad dates with Russell Brand and making people laugh.

I HAD A really happy childhood in the suburbs of Sydney. And if I’m honest, I think the whole of the rest of my life has been an attempt to recreate that. I was happy as a kid and I just want to stay happy. But by the age of 16 doubts were starting to creep in.

I went to an all boys’ school, and I think there’s something just not right about separating boys and girls at school.

Lots of us struggled to deal with women for the rest of our lives. They were a foreign concept to us. I started to worry about, would a girl ever like me, what would she think of this or that? I began to take those first stumbles into dating and proved pretty terrible at it. Looking back, I realise I was ridiculously shy.

If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself to talk to the girl on the bus. Just back yourself, say anything! I used to see this girl every day. I’d look at her and she’d look at me. This went on for months, then finally there came the day that the only empty seat was the one next to her. So I took it. And for the whole journey I didn’t say a word. I just

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couldn’t. I didn’t know how to start a conversation. Now I think, oh dude, just say hi, just ask a dumb question, anything. A while later one of my mates asked me if I liked her and I was too embarrassed to admit it. Now I think, maybe he knew her! Maybe he was asking on her behalf! Oh my god. Years later she came to see my gig and I spoke to her afterwards.

She remembered me. But I still didn’t get her number. Why didn’t I get her number? What were you thinking Adam? Absolutely clueless.

I got nervous around people a lot. I suppose comedy was my way of dealing with that. It’s the one place I can go where I look like I’m in control and enjoying my life. I’m the funny guy who always has the witty comeback. But in real life, I’m still nervous with people. I panic. The right thing doesn’t come out.

Even when I was a teenager, I could quote whole comedy routines word for word. Some of my mates even had me on call – they would call me over in the playground to come and do a comedy routine. I’d do them with impersonations, whether that was Billy Connolly or Bill Cosby. I also tried to write a comic strip. My dad was a huge comedy fan and we watched a lot of comedy together, from Bugs Bunny when I was younger, to Benny Hill or M*A*S*H when I got older. We’d sit for hours and just laugh together. Then when I was 18 I went to see my first live comedy gig and it was open mic night.

And I realised anyone could have a crack. As soon as I saw that I thought, oh, that’s what I want to do.

I didn’t have any long-term ambition regarding a career. As soon as I got my first professional show I

thought, right, that’s it. I’ve made it. I’ve done what I wanted to do. Everything else since then has just been a bonus.

The only career advice I’d give to my younger self is, don’t go to that Argentinian restaurant in LA in 2003. And then you won’t get food poisoning and miss all the meetings with TV producers the next day. That’s the only regret I have. I’d been contacted by a massive casting director at NBC who’d been following my career in Edinburgh. He cast the sitcom Friends. He set up all these meetings with Jay Leno’s producer and the NBC guys and Jerry Lewis’ manager. But I was so sick I couldn’t go to any of the meetings, then I had to fly back the day after. LA is all about striking while the iron’s hot and I totally didn’t do it.

If I could go back and have one last conversation with someone, I think it would be my grandmother. She died in 2001.

My Nana Hills. We named our first daughter after her. She always used to say, always look behind you.

And she meant, never forget your family, or your old friends, the real people. I’d like to tell her I named my daughter after her. And that I’m still looking behind me.

I’d love to tell my teenage self, you won’t believe how much you enjoy having kids. The best day for me is one where I just hang out with my two daughters. I always knew that I liked kids and I’m very family-oriented. I grew up in a very happy family who did a lot of stuff together. I was talking

PHOTO BY RICH HARDCASTLE. STORY COURTESY OF THE BIG ISSUE UK @BIGISSUE

“If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself to talk to the girl on the bus.”

WITH AL AN BROUGH AND MYF WARHURST ON SPICKS AND SPECKS .

about this with Russell Brand recently – he’s just become a dad. We’ve had some dad dates in fact. He put it beautifully. He said, some people say when they become a dad, I never knew I had this much love in me. But I always knew I had this much love in me, I just didn’t know what to do with it until I became a dad.

There was a time at school when I was very conscious of my prosthetic leg. It only went to the knee, so in summer I used to wear long socks to cover up the join. Then I realised the only kids who wore long socks were the nerds who got beaten up.

So I was being mocked not for having a prosthetic foot but for pulling my socks up. And when I pulled my socks down, no-one really noticed my leg. No-one picked on me for that. The bullies at my school weren’t disablist. I think the younger me would be surprised how much I’ve embraced my foot, as it were.

If I could go back and re-live any time in my life, it would be the moment I found out we were having another child. My wife came out of the bedroom holding up a pregnancy test. That moment was probably the happiest I’ve ever been. I felt a wave of contentment. Because then we were a family. I grew up with a brother and for me, growing up with a sibling or multiple siblings, that’s what life is all about. interview by Jane Graham (@Janeannie) » Adam Hills’ memoir Best Foot Forward (Hachette Australia) is out on 31 July.

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THE BIG PICTURE » PHOTOS BY JANE BARLOW & DANNY LAWSON

fIRE � ICE Blokes, beards and a bonfire – welcome to the Shetland Islands’ annual Viking festival.

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THE SHETLAND ISLANDS are pretty much a beautiful bunch of frozen rocks north of Scotland, so you can understand why a massive bonfire forms the centrepiece of their social calendar at their mid-winter fire festival.

Up Helly Aa – not something often said in polite company south of the 60th parallel – is a spectacular celebration of the Shetlands’ Viking heritage and Norse tradition that the locals of Lerwick (the islands’ only real town) work toward all year round. More reminiscent of a few early Hägar the Horrible strips than that Vikings TV show I can’t recall the name of (Vikings? Sexy Vikings? Horny Men?), it grew, in part, out of the old local tradition of tar barrelling, which involved squads of drunken young men dragging barrels of burning tar around town and “making mischief”. For some reason this insanely dangerous activity was banned and replaced with a torch procession in the late 19th century.

If you’ve played a bit of Skyrim you might recognise the title given to the Head of the Festival, a position that takes 16 years of committee service to earn – the Jarl.

As boss Viking for the 24-hour Up Helly Aa festivities, the Guizer Jarl ofXXX Lerwick takes cosplay to a new level, donning armour and weaponry that would make the average live-action role-player weep with envy.

While almost 1000 costumed men form ranks in the darkened streets of Lerwick on the evening of the last Tuesday in January, only the lead group get to wear proper Viking togs. These lucky few are the Jarl Squad, and they certainly have Goals.

(It bears emphasising that, much like commenting on articles in The Australian, the official Lerwick procession itself is a dudes-only affair. I can only assume that in ancient Viking society there were no women; new Vikings were presumably hatched from eggs, not unlike a Kinder Surprise.)

So, flaming torches held aloft, the Jarl Squad drag their leader on a replica Viking longship through the streets of Lerwick toward the burning site, trailed by the myriad of lesser squads. Yes, hundreds of white guys marching with torches in celebration of their “culture” is often cause for concern, but I’m assured it’s all above board in this case.

In a nod to modern PC sensibilities, the Jarl is allowed to leave the ship before his squad hurl their torches into the hull, and the main event – burning the bejesus out of a perfectly good boat that took the community four blimmin’ months to build – begins.

But Up Helly Aa is far from over. After the pyromania, the guizer squads rotate around a dozen halls in the town, performing, dancing, feasting and guzzling at each in a sequence that stretches right through the night.

Viking heads will be sore in the morning, but recovery must be swift – before long it will be time to begin planning for next year.

GOOD OLD PYROMANIAC FUN IN SCOTLAND’S SHETLAND ISLANDS.

by Chris Kennett (@chriskennett) » For more details, visit uphellyaa.org.

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THE SHIP FLOATS, BUT WILL BE BURNT ANYWAY.

VIKING HERITAGE: TAKING IT TO THE STREETS.

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LERWICK, CITY OF LIGHT.

NEVER TOO YOUNG.

L

HOMEL

ES S

I

NG VI

Planting hope After a traumatic childhood, and a lifetime of disadvantage and discrimination, Gregory P Smith disappeared into the invisibility of homelessness. The author reveals how he found his way out of the shadows.

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHEL STREICH

THERE ARE FEW worse ways to be

woken up than with a kick in the face.

Maybe getting your ribs stomped on, or having a police baton rammed into your kidneys, or copping a jet of freezing water in your eyes. Those are all pretty ordinary, but I reckon a kick in the face wins hands down for shock, pain, fear and pure misery.

Most Australians would find such a rude awakening impossible to comprehend, but anyone who has ever been homeless knows that sleep time is when society’s most removed, reviled and hopelessly exposed people are the most vulnerable. The risks posed simply by nodding off are very, very real.

After a childhood that was blighted by physical and emotional violence, and teenage years spent in an orphanage and juvenile detention, my homeless journey took me up and down the eastern seaboard on an endless trek to nowhere.

This pitiful existence played out in the gutters of Sydney and Brisbane. I wandered all over NSW and Queensland, too; into the regional centres, the little towns and the lonely spaces in between.

But no matter where I curled up to sleep, safety was my number-one concern.

I was attacked numerous times over the years and even wound up in hospital courtesy of a beating by twisted types who get off on assaulting rough sleepers. And they don’t just give you one little kick in the face, either – they want to hurt you. I’ve come to with my face bashed in, my head wet with blood, burning, ripped-up lips and smashed fingers.

Other times it’s just the system that’s against you. One of the worst developments for homeless people

happened when local councils hit on the idea of watering public parks at night.

You can be sound asleep when suddenly a hidden sprinkler nozzle a metre from your head goes “click” and starts spraying jets of water up your nose.

Homeless life is an exhausting grind.

You’re always hungry for food and sometimes you’re hungrier for the milk of human kindness. Society generally reviles you.

Years can disappear in what seems like hours; time means nothing when you have no foothold in society. The usual calendar markers like Christmas, birthdays, holidays, footy grand finals, long weekends – none of these things exist when you’re homeless. Instead, the sun comes up and then the sun goes down. Days are just days that are either hot, cold, windy, warm, wet or dry. Night-time is the same, just with darkness and apprehension thrown in.

It wears you down.

One day, at the end of another aimless walk to a lonely corner of the map, I wandered into a rainforest in northern NSW. When it dawned on me that I liked it because there was no-one else there, I decided to stay for a while. After a while, I decided to stay forever.

I withdrew from society in that forest.

By living as a hermit, I thought I had solved one of my major problems – that of having to deal with human beings.

My survival required me to evolve somewhat – or perhaps “devolve” is more accurate. I slept out in the open and often in the pouring rain, and I grew accustomed to hunger, mania,

sickness and pain. For sustenance I ate (among other things) lizards, worms, bats and bugs. On infrequent forays into local towns I’d scavenge for food in garbage bins.

But after 10 years alone and sleeping on a bed of fern leaves, something strange and unexpected happened. On the brink of death I began to realise that my only things of value in life were human beings; my long-lost sisters, the daughter I hadn’t seen in so long.

I had almost resigned myself to the fact I would die in the mist and the dirt; just lie down, rot away and be done with this world. But it was the nagging thought of the people who’d be haunted forever by my disappearance that eventually convinced me to give society another chance.

When I entered the forest I felt I had triumphed by escaping from people.

How uncanny to think that it was people who brought me back out.

Today, 18 years after I walked back into the world, my life is bejewelled by strong, loving relationships with family, friends and colleagues.

I had hated people and society for so long that I lost sight of what truly makes us human. What makes me human: my treasured bonds with other people.

In many ways, to be homeless is to be friendless. I am living proof that both of these miserable conditions can be corrected, no matter how far off the map we wander.

» Dr Gregory P Smith will talk about his memoir, Out of the Forest, at Byron Writers Festival (3-5 August).

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PHOTO BY GETTY

WE WILL

The rise and fall of Whitney Houston provided endless fodder for tabloids, but a new documentary about the star shows what was going on behind the scenes in a way that hasn’t been seen before.

WHAT DOES IT say about our obsession with celebs that many of us are as versed in the highs of Whitney Houston’s pop bangers like ‘How Will I Know’ and ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ as we are in the sad details surrounding her death, six years ago, in a hotel bathtub, aged just 48?

It’s a question director Kevin Macdonald asks in Whitney, the second (and superior) of two documentaries about the singer’s life to come out in the past 12 months, shadowing Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal’s Whitney: Can I Be Me. “We’re all fascinated with tragedy,” says Macdonald, when I ask why it seems we’re not done with Whitney yet. “Going back to the ancient Greeks, seeing people who appear to have everything fall because of flaws spawns a horrible fascination for us.”

Whitney traces this arc of selfdestruction with compassion. It is the Oscar-winning director’s latest film to track a famous musician – the previous being the excellent Marley (2012) about the Jamaican superstar.

Macdonald again goes deep with his research, making rich use of archival footage to paint a layered portrait.

“I’m trying to see them as human beings,” he agrees. “I try to scrape away the accreted layers of celebrity bullshit, to get down to what’s the nature of them as a person.”

Here, the process of humanising the phenomenon that was Whitney Houston is achieved predominantly through talking-heads interviews with her family. Despite being the one authorised biography, Whitney contains astonishingly frank conversations – particularly with her brothers, Gary and Michael – that implicate the family in much of her troubles.

“They’re amazing, the brothers.

They really share everything – even their prejudices.” They speak candidly about her escalating drug use and their parents’ divorce. Gary also helped

Macdonald uncover that Houston was sexually abused as a child by her older cousin, the soul singer Dee Dee Warwick – a bombshell that made headlines following the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

“I think it felt like a therapy session for both of them. For so many years, they’d been protecting themselves and protecting their images needlessly…

Like Gary says in the film, ‘We have a lot of secrets in our family, and when you don’t reveal them they fester.’”

Some family members also discuss Houston’s not-so-secret relationship with Robyn Crawford – the one person notably missing from the film. Crawford was Houston’s best friend from the age of 16, becoming her creative director and, by most accounts, the great love of her life. Despite the family’s (clearly homophobic) disapproval, and Houston’s public denials that she was anything but heterosexual, the relationship continued long after her marriage in 1992 to the rapper Bobby Brown and the birth of their daughter Bobbi Kristina a year later.

At times, these enquiries can feel like the airing of dirty laundry. To the film’s credit, they sit alongside others more wide-reaching, such as the role of race. From her aspirational, middle-

class childhood in Newark through to her teenage years, when Houston was signed by industry titan Clive Davis, she was groomed for maximum success as a crossover artist. Her records sold in the millions, cracking lucrative markets that had formerly been closed to black artists. But this success was fractured.

“She had sort of become an honorary white person,” says Macdonald. “In the MTV world of the 80s, she was the girl next door; she was the black girlfriend your mum wouldn’t mind you bringing home, even if she was slightly racist.”

In response, community figures like Al Sharpton dubbed her “Whitey” Houston and urged boycotts of her music – a rejection that devastated Houston.

Curiously, this anxiety echoes Bob Marley’s, as depicted in Marley.

“At their core those two stories have a sense of people trying to find an identity. He was caught between the white world and the black world, and out of that friction he managed to synthesise something new for himself, which was the Rasta identity. But she was never able to do that. She was sort of crushed between the two.”

“America’s sweetheart” was never fully accepted by the mainstream white media either. “And then when things go

“I'm trying to see them as human beings... I try to scrape away the accreted layers of celebrity bullshit, to get down to what's the nature of them as a person.”

– Director Kevin Macdonald

MICHAEL HOUSTON

GARY HOUSTON

ROBYN CRAWFORD

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wrong,” says Macdonald, “it’s like, ‘See, you can take her out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of the girl.’”

That the media were excessively judgemental, particularly of her drug use, is shown in the film through a number of clips, including a Family Guy skit in which a ragged-looking Houston sings for a baggie of cocaine.

“They were also incredibly cruel,” Macdonald says. “They wanted to poke fun, to condemn her and her choices, and they were so vicious. To think that’s alright says something really bad about our culture.

“I don’t believe in message movies, but I do think one takeaway you can have from all this is that we have to take more responsibility,” he continues.

“This is a human being who is in pain, who is unhappy already, and you’re making them an awful lot unhappier.

You can’t just say anything and think, ‘Oh, she’s tough, she’s rich, she’ll get over it’. People are vulnerable.”

As far as that sensitivity is concerned, consider that in May, Kanye West paid US$85,000 for the rights to a photo of Houston’s bathroom chaotically littered with drug paraphernalia, which he crassly used as the cover artwork for Pusha T’s new album, DAYTONA. Not shying away from such bleak periods in her life, the film includes heartbreaking footage from a notorious 2010 concert in Brisbane, in which Houston’s damaged voice fails to hit the top notes of her 90s mega-hit ‘I Will Always Love You’.

“When she could sing really, really well, that was her outlet for all the confusion and lack of confidence and all these emotions that she must have felt from her childhood, and from her family. She had an outlet through her voice, that’s why the emotional content is so powerful. But when her voice starts to go, when she starts to use drugs, she has no outlet; she’s almost killing herself by killing her voice…

It’s almost unwatchable,” he sighs.

In contrast stands her performance of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ at the Super Bowl in 1991, which he describes as “the pinnacle of her achievement

“When she could sing really, really well, that was her outlet for all the confusion and lack of confidence and all these emotions that she must have felt from her childhood, and from her family...that's why the emotional content is so powerful.”

TOP LEFT WHITNEY, BOBBY AND DAUGHTER BOBBI KRISTINA, 1998 BOTTOM LEFT THE SUPER BOWL, 1991 BOTTOM RIGHT WITH KEVIN COSTNER IN THE BODYGUARD , 1992

as an artist”. Her rendition of the US national anthem, enhanced by the decision to shift the tempo from its traditional 3/4 tempo to 4/4, has become iconic.

“That was the other thing that made me want to do the film, actually. I read this article in The New Yorker [about the Super Bowl performance] and I thought, ‘This is so amazing!’ It makes you realise that not only did she have a massive social impact in America by changing the significance of this song, but also how much she was in control of her musical genius. She knew precisely what effects she could achieve, and how she could

alter the meaning of the spaces.”

He remains fascinated by the reactions people have to her voice.

“There’s something about its raw emotion that’s incredibly powerful.

It’s like the moment in Pulp Fiction where they fill a syringe with adrenaline and stab it into Uma Thurman’s heart and she goes gasp! It’s something so alive – you can’t resist that. I don’t know another singer quite able to do that the way she did at her peak.”

by Annabel Brady-Brown (@annnabelbb), Film Editor » Whitney is in cinemas on 26 July.

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Presets:

POLITICAL

pARTY They make dance music, but that doesn’t mean the Presets aren’t political too.

Nine drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, The Presets were busy. “If you believe in state-sanctioned murder, are against compassion and think you’re above making mistakes... please…unfollow us, delete all our music, and stop listening to us altogether,” read one of a string of fiery posts from the duo’s Facebook page, setting off a comments section shitstorm and earning them national news headlines. It was the type of unrepentant honesty many artists would shy away from.

Over their 15-year career – which has seen them scoop up ARIAs, go triple platinum and rise to become Australia’s most famous electronic duo – Kim Moyes and Julian Hamilton have proven many times over they’re not afraid to stick their necks out for what’s right.

The Bali Nine posts might have been their most unfiltered protest moment, but it wasn’t their first.

“I think there’s some situations in people’s lives where they just have to roll with their conscience and speak up on things they feel strongly about,” Moyes explains to me down the phone from Adelaide, where he and Hamilton have just kicked off their Australian tour.

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PHOTO BY BEN SULLIVAN

IN THE DAYS before the execution of Bali

“There’s been situations where we’ve really felt like we wanted to be on the right side of history – for instance, with marriage equality or Australia Day. For us, there are just things that we care about a lot, and sometimes our emotions get the better of us.”

Those political convictions aren’t an overt theme on Hi Viz, the duo’s new album, but they do form part of its undercurrent. It’s their first new LP in six years and much closer in sound to Beams (2005) – the era-defining debut they once declared was about “drinking and fucking” – than anything they have released since. That was conscious. “We definitely wanted to get back to basics with this record,” Moyes says.

Their second album, Pacifica (2012), was a departure in sound (“the record we needed to make at the time”); with Hi Viz they were ready to make music for dancefloors again. “We were getting back to that idea of a good time, of hedonism, of letting yourself go. Of allowing yourself to get out of your head.”

One of the album’s standout

‘My People’, of course, was The Presets’ perfect dance Trojan horse – a swipe at Australia’s asylum seeker policy disguised as a festival anthem.

It achieved platinum sales and was inescapable when it was released in 2007, but many listeners never realised what the song was really about. You’d be forgiven for missing the lyrics about being “locked up” and shipped away over the thud of the bass.

“That song was inspired by us travelling the world, meeting up with people in Germany, Spain or Canada and having conversations about what the Howard government was doing to asylum seekers at that time. We were having these conversations for years leading up to when we wrote that song,” says Moyes.

The enduring relevance of the track 10 years on makes for a weird mix of emotions. “On the one hand it feels great to have a song with still so much potency. But on the other hand, it’s a terrible situation still,” he sighs.

“It doesn’t feel like there’s any solid solutions in sight.”

“There’s been situations where we’ve really felt like we wanted to be on the right side of history – for instance, with marriage equality, or Australia Day.” moments is ‘Downtown Shutdown’, a song that sounds suspiciously like a dig at Sydney’s lockout laws, an issue the duo have been vocal about.

“I don’t think it’s actually about the lockout laws, it’s more about what people can do if they get together and put their minds to something. I think Julian was particularly inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, people getting together and shutting a city down,” Moyes reveals. “‘Downtown Shutdown’ is a bit of a relative of ‘My People’ in that sense – it’s not a protest song, but I think someone described it as a protest party.”

So was it weird to watch audiences lose their mind to ‘My People’ at festivals, knowing how dark the subject matter was? “No, that’s never been weird,” he says. “For us, it’s always encapsulated that frustration and rage. Being able to put that frustration into music and watch people play it out physically – I mean, god, that’s what we live for. That’s the holy grail of a good time to us. That’s what we always loved about punk music growing up. It’s the spirit of what we’re trying to do.”

It’s even sweeter, though, when their audience want to fight the same battles as them. “We much prefer people who are switched on, who care about what’s going on and who aren’t just droning their way through life,” Moyes says. “We’ve always been those kinds of people.”

by Katie Cunningham (@katiecunning) » Hi Viz is out now.

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NOWHERE TOHIDE

A brand-new Australian author has captivated thousands with his tale of a young woman who doesn’t know where she belongs.

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IN THE SPACE of a year, Christian White has gone from a budding screenwriter to a novelist who’s sold the rights to his first book in 15 countries. If that sounds like some kind of fairytale, the fairy godmother would be the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, which White won in 2017 for his whip-smart thriller, The Nowhere Child. The Melbourne author had just nervously tried his hand at writing full-time when the award gave him not just a $15,000 windfall, but also overnight entry into

the publishing landscape. “As soon as the shortlist came out,” recalls White, “publishers were wanting to read the book. I really went from being nobody to someone who people thought they should take notice of.”

Winning that competitive award speaks to the striking quality of the book itself, which balances pageturning propulsion with nuanced character work. On just the third page, The Nowhere Child introduces its grabby hook: Melbourne teacher Kim Leamy is shown a photo of a

chain reaction that came before and after a toddler named Sammy Went vanished without a trace.

The idea for the novel had been gestating for a few years, but it only came together once White settled on that premise. It also allowed him to divide the tale between the Australia he knows so well and a specific subset of rural life in the American South that had long fascinated him: the world of Pentecostal snake handling, where preachers and worshippers incorporate venomous snakes with the idea that God will prevent them from being

PHOTO BY LUPCO VELJANOVSKI

“As soon as the shor tlist came out...

I really went from being nobody to someone who people thought they should take notice of.”

young child who was kidnapped from Kentucky 28 years earlier.

Then the bombshell: she might be the missing girl.

Just as Kim’s adult life is suddenly split in two, the novel alternates chapters between small-town Kentucky in 1990 and present-day Australia and America. While Kim’s shellshocked quest for the truth becomes complicated by manipulations both big and small, a wide cast of characters comes into focus. Alongside the reader, she gradually discovers the elaborate

bitten if they’re deserving.

“I always knew I wanted to do something in that world,” says White.

“I read an article years ago about a preacher who was bitten and died because he refused treatment. I started going through Reddit and YouTube – there are hundreds of videos of them worshipping, and it’s just such a weird, fascinating thing that the more I watched, the more I had to know.”

That unlikely obsession proves to be the heart of the novel, as Kim comes face-to-face with an American family who may or may not be hers, and whose ties to a local snake-handling church are hiding plenty of dark secrets. Kim grows suspicious of her Australian family, who might have been lying to her all these years, while unable to trust her new would-be siblings and parents. White drops us directly into this combustible mix as he closely explores the push and pull between competing families, countries, faiths and loves.

“I’ve only been to Kentucky once,” he admits, “but it’s such an interesting place. And

indeed America: so similar to us, but so different, especially nowadays. We have this very Hollywood idea of America that’s not quite true, and the South is even further removed from that. So I was very careful, and I did a lot of research. You want people to read it where it’s set and still have it ring true.”

Even more impressive than taking on a setting so far removed from his own life is the sheer diversity of characters that White handles with empathy and authenticity. African-American and gay men struggle with their treatment in the South circa 1990, and White is just as believable writing women and children. “I wanted them each to have an individual voice,” he says. “You only get the full sense of the story by going inside all of these characters’ heads.

You can show them in the 90s and show them now, and let the readers fill in the gaps in the middle.”

That rich tapestry of different perspectives might seem unusual for a first-time novelist, but White’s wellrounded experiences as a screenwriter certainly came in handy. So far he has penned a few short films, co-created the upcoming TV series Carnivores and cowritten the new feature film Relic.

“Pretty much everything I learned as a screenwriter I could bring over to the novel,” he says. “I wanted it to feel quite cinematic, so that helped. But you also have to be really economical in telling a story.” Beyond that, White often ends the book’s alternating chapters with a serial-style cliffhanger that makes the reader thirst for the next development.

“Every chapter ends on a revelation or quite a significant beat. That helps with pacing: I never wanted it to feel slow.”

Likewise, White isn’t dragging his feet now that he’s a full-time writer with an award on the shelf. Having scored a two-book deal for Australia and the States, he’s finishing the first draft for another standalone thriller. “My dream is just to be writing a novel a year,” he says, “and keep up that momentum.”

by Doug Wallen (@wallendoug) » The Nowhere Child is out now.

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FILM MARY SHELLEY PREPARE TO SWOON OVER STRANGE COLOURS.

ANNABEL BRADY-BROWN > Film Editor BAH TO ANYONE who says arthouse cinema is just

sad people staring at cows in fields! Film lovers across the country are journeying to Brisbane to catch some of the best contemporary flicks at the Queensland Film Festival (QFF).

While lacking the muscle of Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide’s annual fests, QFF is fast carving out a distinct space for itself thanks to its canny programming. Staggering 3D experiments like Blake Williams’ Prototype (2017) neighbour a (free!) retrospective of the immersive studies of Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel – two ethnographers-cum-documentary filmmakers who interrogate a famous Japanese cannibal (Caniba, 2017), investigate the bizarre night ramblings of a sleep-talking songwriter (Somniloquies, 2017), and strap GoPro cameras to fishermen’s bodies amid raging storms (Leviathan, 2012).

Further highlights include the splash and slash of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, a filmmaking couple who are flying in from Brussels to present a retrospective of their bold and fantastical cinema, before it travels to MIFF next month.

Also in attendance is local talent Alena Lodkina, whose mesmerising debut feature helps open QFF on 19 July. Strange Colours follows a young woman who travels to Lightning Ridge – a remote opal mining town in northern NSW, and a refuge for misfits and lost souls, including her estranged father. Thanks to its unsentimentally tender depiction of wounded outsiders, the film has been building buzz at festivals here and overseas. Be set to swoon when it releases nationally late 2018.

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Elle Fanning shines as Mary Shelley in the new film by director Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda, 2012) about the famous British writer – but little else does. Shelley’s life – including her unusual upbringing, her innate feminism and radicalism, her lost child, and the fact that she penned Frankenstein at age 18 – are all here on-screen, but feel like they might slip off at any moment, so little weight is given to any one theme. A portrait of the writer’s late teenage years, the film slips in and around her life as the partner of poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth with shades of Twilight-era Robert Pattinson) as they face societal scorn and the extremities of both wealth and poverty, leading up to the publication of her famous book (which so nearly wasn’t credited to her). Bel Powley as Shelley’s half-sister and Tom Sturridge as a heavily eye-linered Lord Byron add much needed energy and urgency, but unlike Shelley’s famous monster, this drama doesn’t have much life in it. KATE JINX

BACK TO BURGUNDY 

When his father falls terminally ill, Jean (Pio Marmaï) returns to the family vineyard after close to a decade away. He doesn’t expect to stay long, but his father’s death leaves the estate in a precarious position: his sister Juliette (Ana Girardot) has the wine-making skills but lacks confidence, while his brother Jérémie (François Civil) has married into a wealthy local family where vinification is pure business. As the seasons turn and the cycle begins again, Jean realises he still has a connection to his native Burgundy – but how will he reconcile that with his family half a world away in Australia? At times verging on documentary thanks to its extensive look at all aspects of wine-making (it was filmed over a full year: everything from pruning vines to squashing grapes is shown), French writer-director Cédric Klapisch celebrates the traditions while not shying from the hardships. The stakes aren’t high in this pleasant family drama; the pleasure comes from the depth its rich setting provides. ANTHONY MORRIS

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ANDRÉ 

“You can be aristocratic without having been born into an aristocratic family,” states André Leon Talley, the former Vogue editor-at-large and larger-than-life fashion industry titan. Kate Novack’s vibrant documentary begins by chronicling his humble beginnings, living with his grandmother in the segregated South, offering a fascinating glimpse into the style icon’s formative years.

His compelling narration propels the film onward through his rise to stardom, alongside testimonies from the who’s who of the fashion elite.

Though Talley is often funny and always candid, there’s a sneaking sense too of details being withheld – and it is only late in the film that the topic of racism is explicitly broached.

Still, Novack possesses a talent for knowing when it’s better to show rather than tell, letting Talley’s silent reaction to the election of Trump speak volumes. This is a film about finding dignity in differences, set against the backdrop of the dazzling world of fashion. FAITH EVERARD

SMALL SCREENS GET SHORTY

PAPERBARK

Barry Sonnenfeld’s adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s classic novel starred a Golden Globe-winning John Travolta during his post-Pulp Fiction renaissance, plus Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito and Rene Russo. In 1995, the story of a mob hitman making waves in Hollywood struck a chord and now, more than 20 years later, we have the television series. Starring Chris O’Dowd – trading his IT Crowd schtick for a gun-toting, movie-loving hitman hawking a blood-stained script around Tinsel Town – and Ray Romano as the world-weary producer who finds himself embroiled with the mob, Get Shorty is a pitchblack, shockingly violent comedy that channels Breaking Bad and Fargo. O’Dowd and Romano, with a talented ensemble, frequent this gritty world with zeal; the Irish comedian relishing the chance to play a bad guy. Their relationship effortlessly replicates the brilliance of Leonard’s central conceit. The ease with which the Hollywood system absorbs the criminal element is as alarming as Get Shorty is entertaining. Get watching. Streaming on Stan. DAVID MICHAEL BROWN

Australia’s natural landscapes have inspired a plethora of poems, films, songs and so on. Often, the descriptions of the country’s “harsh, rugged beauty” are imbued with colonial fears. Paperbark melds the aforesaid artistic forms – and jettisons any Picnic at Hanging Rock-type anxiety – to create an interactive picture-book set in lush Australian scrub. Its hero is a dozy wombat, guided by the player on a meandering journey through bushland, wetland and beyond. Along the way, wombat meets an array of native flora and fauna, making Paperbark a prime resource for budding botanists, zoologists and natural historians. Adults and children alike will reap the rewards of its simple story (over too soon!) and plain language, as narrated by Camp Cope’s Georgia Maq. The rich sound design and score is a whole world unto itself, while the dreamy watercolour aesthetic pays homage to Albert Namatjira.

Melbourne-based developers Paper House and friends have clearly poured their hearts and souls into Paperbark.

It’s an app, sure. It’s also a work of art.

Now available for iOS.

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THE SECOND 

A mansion in the middle of nowhere, dead snakes and a hardened farmer with a dark past: this bleak tale has everything for fans of Australian psychological thrillers.

The Second changes up the narrative by including an acclaimed but insecure author (Rachael Blake, of Lantana and Sleeping Beauty), and her publisher-cum-lover (Vince Colosimo). Taking a holiday to her dead novelist father’s mansion in rural Queensland, The Writer (as her character is called) hopes to clear her head. But an old childhood friend (Susie Porter) comes to visit – her presence igniting tension, threatening to unveil a sordid past that has been kept under wraps for decades. Sometimes The Second leans too heavily on cliché, but luckily there’s a stellar cast. A classic tale of sex, lies and betrayal, it unfolds through literary devices, psychological disorders, murder and a woman living in the shadow of her famous father. Look out for the twist at the end. Streams on Stan from 20 July. CHER TAN

AIMEE KNIGHT

AIMEE KNIGHT > Small Screens Editor WHEN IT COMES to art, does everyone’s hot take deserve a televised half-hour on our national broadcaster? The ABC believes so. Everyone’s a Critic is the latest critiquertainment offering from Aunty. Over nine episodes, a host of everyday Australians visit lauded galleries, taking in works by Del Kathryn Barton, Patricia Piccinini, Pablo Picasso and Brett Whiteley. It’s Gogglebox for the cognoscenti.

The show does pose vital questions about cultural literacy in Australia. In episode two, young Harry – previously a luxury car salesman – looks at the painting Untitled (Jupiter Well to Tjukula) by Western Desert artist Uta Uta Tjangala.

Harry responds, “I don’t like Aboriginal art. I’m not a big fan of brown.” Breathtaking stuff. Fortunately, a narrator cuts in to explain the value of this groundbreaking work and others that provoke equally emotional responses from the cast, who often default to comedic quips.

Everyone’s tastes, and unique lived experiences, colour their version of the world. As such, criticism is never truly objective (no matter what the old guard of pale, male, stale

DVD

BLU-RAY

STREAMING

TELEVISION

PAY TV

"CRITICS" MAJIDAH AND MALIKA, WHO ARE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

critics might insist). This show embraces the spectrum of Australian society. It’s an admirable, democratic gesture. It also demonstrates how important a robust knowledge of art history is when crafting an emotional, intellectual, contextual – in other words: critical – response to art. As the only ABC program currently offering such critical discourse, it’s not a disaster, but it’s no masterpiece.

PODCAST

APP

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MUSIC KIDS SEE GHOSTS KIDS SEE GHOSTS 

Most art follows comfortably predictable patterns, but every so often artists come along who shatter these standards, jolting the audience with a shot of adrenaline. Kanye West and Kid Cudi’s first collaborative project, Kids See Ghosts, sucks the listener into a hip-hop experiment that’s bizarre and satisfying. Both Cudi and West sound effervescent and uncharacteristically lucid on the record, with West spitting some of his best bars of the last three years. It’s uncanny how Cudi’s humming and West’s inimitable production are able to come together to create cohesive soundscapes reminiscent of western films. Thematically, it traverses the darkest corners of mental health. It’s a welcome departure from fan service; the rapping on the album is minimal and instead they both favour harmonising and humming. Kids See Ghosts is just a lesson in Kanye West and what he does best: push against the parameters of hip-hop until they’re about to give way and then push some more. KISH LAL

SARAH SMITH > Music Editor IN THIS WEEK’S feature Kim Moyes of The

Presets reflects on the 10-year anniversary of ‘My People’ – the duo’s #1 banger that criticised the brutality of Australia’s detention centres.

“On the one hand it feels great to have a song with still so much potency,” he tells Katie Cunningham. “But on the other hand, it’s a terrible situation still.” It’s a great reminder of the strength of protest through art and how much more of it we need right now.

‘My People’ wasn’t a one-off for the duo, either. In 2015 Moyes and bandmate Julian Hamilton used their public profile to condemn the execution of Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. It was a stance that caused some backlash among their fans, but The Presets stood their ground. It was refreshing to witness artists using their platform to challenge people – especially those that buy their records – in such a provocative way.

Last month the Trump administration was forced to act after photos of immigrant children – removed from their parents and housed in cages – emerged. The photos were met with almost blanket outrage in the US; musicians, artists and politicians came together to protest through any means. In Australia, where the refugee narrative has been so skewed it seems increasingly unlikely either of the major parties will ever re-humanise the conversation, it is going to take a lot of noise and more alternative voices like The Presets to force such change.

38

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

THE BEACH BOYS WITH THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA THE BEACH BOYS  The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra doesn’t so much reimagine these Beach Boys songs as supply faithful garnishing. And band visionary Brian Wilson has often devoted himself to orchestral flourishes, as heard on Pet Sounds (1966). That said, these new arrangements range from ho-hum to heartening. The orchestra often supplies dreamy new preludes – not unlike the one in the original ‘California Girls’ – yet wisely keeps the group’s singing as the centrepiece. Schmaltzier moments come with ‘Disney Girls’, which leans into the original’s 50s nostalgia, as well as the fauxCaribbean gloss of ‘Kokomo’. Other takes are too straight and streamlined, with any rock’n’roll edge buffed away. Things get more interesting when the arrangements cut loose, lending drama to ‘Sloop John B’ and mirroring the surf guitar of ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’. Most notably, ‘Here Today’ and ‘Good Vibrations’ peak with enthusiasm that makes up for the project’s blander moments. DOUG WALLEN

NIGHT TIME PEOPLE THE BAMBOOS 

Night Time People is the eighth album from Melbourne nine-piece The Bamboos. It’s got all their trademarks: big sound, vibrancy and class.

But in place of multiple artist cameos, bandleader Lance Ferguson has chosen Kylie Auldist as the album’s voice. While Auldist sings of deep pain, the tracks glisten and shine. It’s what soul music has always done; dress up sorrow and longing in brightness. It’s not just nostalgia, or sorrow for that matter. The title track is a celebration of those who thrive at night, revelling in fun and folly. “Night-time people, get ready to play/ Daytime people are walking away,” declares Auldist. In the closing track, MCs tell stories of resilience, creating three versions of ‘Broken’. German rapper Teesy, US producer J-Live and Australia’s Urthboy all lay down heartfelt tales.

Night Time People reveals what so many fans already know: The Bamboos are masters of modern funk and soul. IZZY TOLHURST VINYL

CD

DOWNLOAD

BOOKS THUY ON > Books Editor

Shaun Tan is a writer-illustrator whose work masterfully straddles the age divide. He’s won many awards for his widely translated books because his beautifully rendered pictures and deceptively simple text resonate with both the young and the not so young. His picture books (The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, Rules of Summer, The Rabbits) are a meld of real and surreal.

Tan’s latest offering is no exception. But readers beware, Cicada is quite dark, so perhaps not appropriate for the very little. The cover artwork offers a clue to the colour scheme throughout. On a slate-grey background with strewn paper on the ground stands the insect: bright green, though he himself is formally attired in a suit and tie. He’s been working as a data entry clerk in a dreary office for 17 years straight, without claiming a single sick day or making a single mistake. But when he asks for a pay rise, the HR department merely retorts that, as Cicada is not even human, he needs no resources. This story about bullying and discrimination continues afoot as poor Cicada is subjected to all sorts of bad behaviour from his human co-workers. Fortunately, there is a happy ending and Tan judiciously uses another vibrant colour – red – towards the end to signal Cicada’s path to freedom.

CALYPSO DAVID SEDARIS 

Calypso sees David Sedaris in fine mettle. To call him a comic seems to undersell the breadth of his ability. He skewers his own insecurities and daily habits (collecting rubbish while counting the steps towards an obsessive Fitbit quota) while also weaving his sister’s suicide into stories about buying a beach house (‘The Sea Section’) with the skill of a master storyteller. Calypso is just as darkly, sardonically amusing as Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), but with a much richer vein of reflection and a softening towards his parents and sisters. Sedaris is gleefully mirthful about middle age and the challenge he provides to long-time partner, Hugh. The culottes he feels duty-bound to wear onstage to show off his calf muscles are just one of the many relationship wrangling points. Observant and curious, he is always the first to showcase his own flaws and failings, immediately inviting a sense of companionship from readers. The short story format is ideal for those who want to trial a relationship with this author. CAT WOODS

THE OTHER WIFE MICHAEL ROBOTHAM 

Do any of us truly know our parents? Our partners? Our children? Familial secrets cut to the heart of The Other Wife, which sees Australian crimewriter Michael Robotham return to his much-loved Joe O’Loughlin series.

Still dealing with the emotional wallop of the previous book, clinical psychologist Joe is now embroiled in an investigation close to home when his father is hospitalised after a brutal attack in London. Along with his sidekick, ex-cop Vincent Ruiz, Joe must delve into his father’s double-life and reassess all that he believes. Robotham is at his best, weaving complex (perhaps, at times, convoluted) plots that unravel his brilliant-but-broken hero in his ninth – and reportedly final – outing. It’s a compelling page-turner that can be read as a standalone, but for newcomers to the series, it is well worth starting at the beginning to fully appreciate Robotham’s ability to create crime-writing with rich characterisation and heart – psychological thrillers that will still keep you awake long into the night. AMY HETHERINGTON PRINT

E-BOOK

ONE: VALUING THE SINGLE LIFE CLARE PAYNE 

Did you know that a quarter of all Australian households have just the one inhabitant? It’s a rising demographic shift, but there’s still endemic negative bias against this solo life, particularly for women – “People may joke about a single woman living alone with cats – the association is that both are thought to be difficult to please and aloof.” Clare Payne’s book was driven by a need for single people to have a greater public voice in business, government and the community. Informed by her own personal experiences and exploring the single phenomenon as a national and global perspective, One is a fascinating account of how shrinking households are a growing statistic and how this new socialeconomic phenomenon affects everyone.

Payne also argues cogently for the value of being single – and offers the salutary reminder that even if you are part of a happy couple, your binary unit is always at risk of breaking up, so you may as well learn more about the life you might live all by yourself.

THUY ON

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

39

“

Cooking for yourself gives you a sense of worth, and cooking for other people is one of life’s nicest gestures.

“

Simon Bryant’s

Masoor Dal Ingredients

1 cup (200g) split and hulled red lentils

⅓ cup (80ml) melted ghee or flavour-neutral oil

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 cloves garlic, skin on, lightly bashed; plus 2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

juice of 1 large lemon

½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds

coriander leaves, to garnish

2-3cm ginger, sliced into chunks; plus 1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 onion chopped

MAIN PHOTOS BY ALAN BENSON; PORTRAIT BY DAVID FINNEGAN

Method Place the lentils in a saucepan with 1 litre of cold water, add the whole garlic cloves and ginger chunks. Cook for about 25 minutes until soft and mushy.

Toss out the garlic and ginger and set the lentils aside.

Heat the ghee or oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and gently heat for a few seconds, stirring, until you can smell the cumin. Fold in the onion and fry for about 5 minutes until soft and lightly browned. Add the minced garlic and ginger and stir for 30 seconds. Add chili powder, ground coriander, turmeric and salt and fry for about 5 minutes.

Add lentils to the pan (you can also add more liquid to achieve the consistency you like) and leave to simmer for 5-6 minutes.

Turn off the heat, add lemon juice and salt and sprinkle with coriander leaves. If you like, you can also stir in extra ghee to really enrich the dal and fatten the flavour.

Serve with steamed rice, pilaf or roti canai.

salt flakes

1-2 tablespoons ghee (extra; optional)

1½ teaspoons chili powder 2½ teaspoons ground coriander

Simon says…

Home is a place to regroup no matter how mad or bad a day has been. Eating a bowl of dal seems to bring me back to earth, and that’s a pretty good return on investment for 30 minutes of work and a few dollars.

Melbourne was home during the late 80s and most of the 90s. Those old trams with the doors that never close, bitingly cold bay breezes tunneling up the city grid, rain and wet shoes made dal my fave go-to, but I could never really make it as good as I knew it could be.

I learned to cook my first legit dal – a makhani, which is smoked black urad dal and kidney beans with cream – after pestering Chef Baba, the Indian curry chef I worked for in St Kilda, for his secrets.

This particular recipe is on my most-cooked list at home because all the ingredients are in my pantry essentials. It’s also cheap, filling and has tons of body, plus it’s a nutritionally sound vegetarian dish with proper protein, and can be tweaked to be vegan. It can be done in the time it takes to cook accompanying rice and is quicker than ordering an underwhelming takeaway. On that note, I honestly don’t think you can outsource taking care of yourself. Cooking for yourself gives you a sense of worth, and cooking for other people is one of life’s nicest gestures. I’m English, my people aren’t very good at all that touchy-feely talk so this is my way of saying you’re worth it.

I usually serve the dal with steamed brown basmati rice, but I nearly always double the recipe. The day after, I add mushrooms and spinach for variety and serve it alongside a fancy brown rice pilaf.

I have been in the lentil business for eight years. I believe in whole food and by nature dal is a split, hulled and polished lentil. We grow and sell single-origin current yearharvest pulses that are 100 per cent South Australian grown and processed – and that makes me proud to be South Australian.

» Simon Bryant will once again be heading the kitchen at The Big Issue’s annual Big Lunch at Adelaide Central Market on Sunday 29 July. Tickets available at thebigissue.org.au. » Vegetables, Grains & Other Good Stuff by Simon Bryant is out now.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

41

tREE OF

HELLO. HOW’S THE view from there? What can you see?

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

LIFe

A street? A room? An office? A carpark? The entire history of humanity? Probably not that last one. Usually, we just see what’s in front of us. Sometimes, we don’t even see that.

Have another look. Take in all the things you get to see thanks to the entire history of humanity.

PHOTO BY iSTOCK

LORIN

LOOK UP. PEOPLE forget to look up. Notice the sky. Notice the top parts of buildings you usually walk past the boring bottoms of. Notice roofing and old signage and bird life and a glowing top-floor window with someone playing a violin in it and guttering that needs to be attended to and telephone wires slicing up the clouds.

Watch how children move. Apparently, children only eat when they’re hungry. Adults eat for many reasons, most of them emotional. Because they’re tired, anxious, depressed, or standing next to a bowl of chips while talking to someone at a barbecue. With movement, it seems like the opposite. Adults almost always move with purpose: to get somewhere. To be fit. To keep warm. Kids move constantly, for no reason other than to experience the feeling of moving. They hang upside down. They stand on one leg or lean or balance or flip. Kids move in a way that pays the human body the compliment of deploying everything it has to offer.

Look for the strongest bit of nature you can see.

Enjoy how people communicate wordlessly. The “you right?” eyebrow raise. Or “you coming into the lift?” A thankyou smile. A “go ahead without me” hand gesture. There’s a kindness to these. A generosity that words can diminish.

Or when there’s a person standing behind a car backing into a carpark and the standing-behind-person does the “closer, closer, closer” hand signal once, twice, three times… and then the “woah!” hand, before nodding “you’re welcome” at a wave of thanks from the driver, and trotting across the road like a hero.

Or how sometimes there are things you can do to indicate accelerated emotional support. Like when someone lets you into traffic and they’re not in your line of vision but it was a big gesture on their part so you open the window and stick your arm out for an open-air “thanks” wave to the car behind you. Or when you’re at a concert or the theatre or a gig and there is one performer who just nailed it, who just spoke to

you, and you’re already clapping but then it’s their turn to be applauded and you do that thing where you clap in the air but you do it higher, like “this one’s for you”.

Notice the colours. Notice how many colours you can be looking at without registering them. Notice the ugly things with lovely colours and the lovely things that are boringly coloured.

Find your favourite source of light.

See if there’s anyone helping anyone else. Witnessing people helping other people is one of life’s great privileges.

The instinct to help is so strong, you can find it all through the entire history of humanity, even in the worst bits.

Especially in the worst bits.

Look at the people who are doing things while doing other things. Like tossing something and catching it while listening to someone speak, or making a line on the table with some stray sugar while talking on the phone. Like their conscious minds are occupied doing something else for a bit and the subconscious gets to have a bit of a play while nobody’s paying attention.

When you see a tiny plane in the sky, do you see a tiny plane or do you picture all the people on it? Sitting in the air above you. Some with colouring books. Some watching Goldie Hawn movies. Some of them completing a regular commute and others excited for their first real adventure. Just a few hundred people flying through your day on their way to, perhaps, the other side of the planet you’re standing on. All those thoughts, whizzing by, above you.

Locate the best climbing tree. If you were to go and climb a tree now, which would you pick? What would it feel like, to stand up there, bare feet grasping a high branch, leaves in your hair, scratches on your hands, and the kind of quiet you don’t get anywhere else except up a tree.

Great view from where you are. This has been a Public Service Announcement.

» Lorin Clarke (@lorinimus) is a Melbourne-based writer.

Her new radio serial, The Fitzroy Diaries, is on the ABC’s Radio National from 16 July, available on the ABC Listen app. You can also find it wherever you get your podcasts from 27 July.

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

43

PUZZLES

2017-18 - Puzzle 7

BY LINGO! MOLLYDOOKER You might think this slang word for a left-hander is an American import, but it’s a true blue Aussie expression, first recorded in Sidney Baker’s Popular Dictionary of Australian Slang in 1941. Dook, or duke, has been used for fists since the mid-19th century. This comes from the boxing slang to get the duke, meaning to be the winner (and have your fist raised in victory), related to the title Duke, which originally referred to a leader or general. The molly is likely a reference to a lower-class girl or woman, which flatters neither left-handed boxers nor women. Southpaw is definitely an American term, although it began its life in reference to baseballers, before also being used for boxing and other sports.

by Lauren Gawne (lingthusiasm.com)

2017-18 - Puzzle 6 SOLUTIONS #565

ADDER’S COIL

by Wylie Ideas wylieideas.com.au

HOW TO PLAY Place a number in each empty square to make a path through squares of the grid following the numbers 1 to 9 in order, repeated as many times as necessary.

After 9, start again with 1.

The path tracks through adjacent squares horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally, to form a continuous loop that does not cross itself, split or reach a dead-end at any point.

Solution next edition!

44

Alexander 11 Crossword 12 Specs 13 Mishear 15 Eden 18 Club 20 Nirvana 23 Odour 24 Rainstorm 26 On thin ice 27 Minsk 28 Dad 29 Gerrymander DOWN 1 Catacomb 2 Lacrosse 3 Idyls 4 Glamour 5 Overdue 6 Draws near 7 Addled 8 Morose 14 Enlarging 16 Marooned 17 Haymaker 19 Barrier 20 Naivety 21 No-good 22 Dotted 25 Samba

CONTRIBUTORS Film Editor Annabel Brady-Brown Small Screens Editor Aimee Knight Music Editor Sarah Smith Books Editor Thuy On Cartoonist Andrew Weldon

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

ENQUIRIES Advertising Jenny La Brooy on (03) 9663 4533 jlabrooy@bigissue.org.au Subscriptions (03) 9663 4533 subscribe@bigissue.org.au Editorial Tel (03) 9663 4522 editorial@bigissue.org.au The Big Issue, GPO Box 4911, Melbourne, VIC 3001 thebigissue.org.au © 2018 Big Issue In Australia Ltd

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

PUBLISHED BY Big Issue In Australia Ltd (ABN 61 071 598 439) 227 Collins St Melbourne VIC 3000

PRINTER PMP Limited 8 Priddle St Warwick Farm NSW 2170

CARTOON BY ANDREW WELDON

EDITORIAL Editor Amy Hetherington Deputy Editor Katherine Smyrk Contributing Editor Michael Epis Contributing Editor Anastasia Safioleas Editorial Coordinator Lorraine Pink Art Direction & Design Gozer (gozer.com.au)

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Collingwood 7 Aim 9 Tacky 10

CROSSWORD » by 1

Steve Knight

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11 12

13

14

16

15

17

18

19

20

21 23

22

24

25

26

CRYPTIC CLUES ACROSS

27

The answers for the cryptic and quick clues are the same.

1. Spooner (begrudging pitcher) steps to swing (9) 6. Rings politician hot for power (5) 9. Barely misses tobacco urges – nil damage!

(5,3,2,5) 10. Vacuous soundtrack in film (4) 11. Sticker shocks bordering on gratuitous (8) 14. Wild Thing beat is disco? (9) 15. Madonna omits Material Girl (5) 16. Movie bride that’s replaced by a painting (5) 18. Watch lumber production fluctuating (3-6) 20. Reefs occasionally protect forming green breakers? (8) 21. Shred contents of audiotape (4) 25. Monarch’s act is to reform part of robust constitution (4-4,7) 26. Negotiate sale clutching original pink slip (5) 27. Promise to include mashed peel in jams? (9)

DOWN

1. Briefs athletes (5) 2. Got into trouble sounding horn (7) 3. Need to renovate garden (4) 4. It’s dry – even so pack rain-hat (4) 5. Drink spirit, lager (not the French) and ale (6,4) 6. Western Force oddly kicked out, idle, can’t reform (10) 7. Not game to battle X-Men character (7) 8. Annoying idiot in band laughs first (9) 12. German camp reports force in cave building up?

(10) 13. They are in school uniform at last, wearing stylish jumpers (10) 14. Figuratively speaking, aware of miracle treatment (9) 17. Raises (discarding first) and calls (5,2) 19. Quarantine station initially involved in tea oil exploitation (7) 22. Hate to cut short Hobart broadcast (5) 23. Man perhaps seen in paisley (4) 24. Liquid stock is booming? (4)

QUICK CLUES ACROSS

1. Swing dance (9) 6. Power (5) 9. Just missing out on success (colloq) (5,3,2,5) 10. Outer layer (4) 11. Unnecessary (8) 14. Discotheque (9) 15. Girl’s name (5) 16. Large painting (5) 18. Oscillating (3-6) 20. People who break promises (8) 21. Small amount (4) 25. Strong gastronomic tolerance (4-4,7) 26. Failing (5) 27. Pyjamas (9)

DOWN

1. Athletes (colloq) (5) 2. Sounding horn (7) 3. Biblical garden (4) 4. Term to describe dry wine (4) 5. Soft drink (6,4) 6. Western (10) 7. Character from X-Men franchise (7) 8. Bothering (9) 12. Cave feature (10) 13. Places of learning (10) 14. Quantitative (9) 17. Contacts via telephone (5,2) 19. Segregate (7) 22. Detest (5) 23. Land surrounded by water (4) 24. Broth (4)

THEBIGISSUE.ORG.AU 13–26 JUL 2018

45

CLICK WORDS BY MICHAEL EPIS » PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY

President Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, 21 Dec 1970 ELVIS LOVED CHRISTMAS. In December

1970, he went on a spending spree, buying $20,000 worth of guns for friends. He bought two friends a house.

He bought another a Mercedes. He paid for two friends’ weddings, as he did for a policeman he’d met in Vegas – with a Cadillac for good measure.

He dropped $30,000 on jewellery gifts.

During this whirlwind he met an actor, who was also an undercover agent.

With a badge. Elvis loved badges.

Back in Memphis his father, Vernon, suggested Elvis was being a bit extravagant. Elvis responded by buying him a Mercedes.

Enough, thought Vernon, who talked to the Colonel, Elvis’ manager, and Priscilla, Elvis’ wife. Vernon and Priscilla then gave Elvis a good talking-

to. In a huff, Elvis walked out and got on a plane (not his own). He flew to Washington. On the plane he met two soldiers back from Vietnam. He gave them the $500 he had on him.

On the plane he wrote a note: “Dear Mr President… The Drug Culture, the Hippie Elements, the SDS, Black Panthers etc do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it the Establishment. I call it America and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can… I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal agent at Large.”

Elvis dropped the note at the White House gate at 6.30am. Within hours the call came: be here in 45 minutes.

The clothes Elvis was wearing – a purple velvet suit, a cape, a gold

pendant, a necklace, a huge gold belt buckle – were his everyday clothes. He had a present for President Nixon, too: a chrome-plated WWII Colt .45.

Elvis did his spiel, dissed the drug culture (and The Beatles, which bewildered Nixon) then made his plea.

“Can we get him a badge?” Nixon asked an aide. He got the badge.

As Priscilla later wrote, Elvis thought if he had the badge, he could get on any plane carrying his guns – and his drugs.

For the tragedy is, it was while serving his country, in the Army in Germany from 1958 to 1960, that Elvis became addicted to drugs – uppers and downers – that he took every day from then on, which in the end were the death of him.

NEXT EDITION OF THE BIG ISSUE ON SALE… 46 THE BIG ISSUE X MONTH – X MONTH 2017

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