issue four – raise your glass –
Raise Your Glass Cover Image: Rose Wallace McEwen
50%, o t p u e v a s d n Buy a even! k a e r b o t ll e s Re
then
Contents 03 04
Editorial Meet the Editors
07 09 12 14 16
LGBTQI Rights are About More than Same-Sex Marriage Raise A Glass For Any Occasion Piracy Whack a Mole All The Sad Young Men Pretty Odd
19 22 24 26 28 30
The Standard Double Standard: Facebook Privacy Policies 25 Years of Hip Hop Interview: Xavier Rudd Animal Welfare: The New Social Justice Movement 21ndering TPP? Is That An Internet Acronym?
33 34 35 38 40 42 43 44
Op-Shop Chic Pride Colada Misguided Pride The Real Houselives of Student Housing Postcards from the Orient Pink White Chocolate Chip Cookies Chocolate Chia Pudding An Ode to My First Love
48 51 52 54 56 58
The War What Kind of Moon Stays Here? An Ode to Martin Vertigo Serial Part 4: Oh Ovid Art Showcase Photography Showcase
Vertigo is published by the UTS STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION Email us at advertising@utsvertigo.com for advertising enquiries Cover Image Rose Wallace McEwen
I S S U E
F O U R
Editors Sambavi Seermaran Rachael Versace Katie Kendall Christopher Quyen James Wilson Cameron Hart June Murtagh Allison Bermingham Gabrielle Rawlings Creative Directors Ting He Rose Wallace McEwen Designers Joy Li Angela Tam Brian Nguyen Collette Duong Cassie Ciccarelli Matthew Harrington Contributors Alex Blair Allison Bermingham Ash Riley Briana Sculley Cameron Hart Clare Aston Daniel Comensoli Declan Bowring Hadley Richardson Jessie Attwood Joe Bourke Kate Gogolewski Marcus Khoudair Millie Sykes Rachael Versace Rachel Machkevitch Sambavi Seermaran Sophia Rose O’Rourke Theresa Board Vanessa Papastavros Vivian Darkbloom Design Contributors Maddie Lumley Karman Hong Gemma Stoner Alessandra Higgins Jack Sinclair
Editorial For this issue, we’ve asked ourselves – what is success? The fact remains that everyone here is a little surprised we have survived more than six months into the year as editors, and Vertigo has yet to crash and burn. On top of that, I have somehow managed to maintain my social, academic, and working life whilst continuing to edit this publication. The true reason behind our collective success is one we may never know.
Copyright and Acknowledgement of Country
Vertigo and its entire contents are protected by copyright. Vertigo will retain reprint rights; contributors retain all other rights for resale and republication. No material may be
But perhaps the greatest question we have asked ourselves is why do we raise glasses when making a toast? Why is it called a toast when there is no bread involved? A preliminary Google search reveals that this idea somehow formed during the 17th Century, when fruit or spiced bread (aka the toast)
produced without the prior written consent of the copyright holders. Vertigo would like to show its respect and acknowledge the Tradition Custodians of the Land, the Gadigal and Gurring-gai people of
from there it’s become pretty commonplace, like daily showers, shaking hands, or driving on the left side of the road. Still, we’ll miss and reminisce the good ol’ days of impromptu sword duels and plagues that decimated half of the population overnight.
the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands the university now stands. More than 500 Indigenous Nations shared this land for over 40, 000 years before invasion. We express our solidarity and ocntinued commitment to
In the same vein, this issue is called ‘raise your glass’ to commemorate our continued success and all that we’ve achieved in these past six months, and it contains plenty of articles that you’re sure to love. We have articles on the newest adversities faced by members of the LGBTQIA after the introduction of same-sex marriage, the latest music over the past 25 years, an article that piece on exactly why we, as Australians, still celebrate the 21st birthday. So let’s toast to Vertigo, and to you, dearest readers, without whom none of this would be possible. Until next time, Allison and the Vertitoasts
th an k y ous
f u c k yo u s
Bourbon Car Brakes Tim Tams Security Guards Hot Doctors Free International Shipping Captain Jack Sparrow Bunny Cuddles
Indicators Overnighters Poles Hangovers Dry Skin High Heels Sticky Keys Dog Poo
working with Indigenous peoples, in Australia and around the world, in their ongoing struggle for land rights, self-determination, sovereignty, and the recognition and compensation for past injuries
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Meet the editors
found out I chose to do law instead of medicine, they had an apoplectic up a cynical bitter drunkard, like most lawyers. They were half right; I’m not yet a drunkard. I’m hoping for their congratulation that I survived law school.
It has been brought to my attention that writing bios about my orgasmic prowess and collection of phallic memorabilia does not feign well with particular family members. So, in lieu of this revelation, I’ve opted for a more respectable bio, and have instead chosen to seek congratulations for the $2000 vet bill that I forked out recently for my beloved pet bunny. $2000 is no small feat for a student who sells scented soaps for a living. You’re welcome, Nala.
Katie Kendall
congratulate my attending university in
Rachael Versace
Sambavi Seermaran university degree after 5 years at
I should be congratulated for the patience with which I deal with unwanted male attention, especially from total strangers. We’ve all had them. Street corner creepers, solitary lunch interrupters, unwanted train journey escorts, who will always leave you angry, frightened and sad but not before they insist you put your number on their receipt/coffee cup/ telephone “if you feelin his vibe”. Let’s applaud that I’ve not yet snapped and compromised a man’s testicles. Not yet at least.
Cameron Hart
James Wilson
Christopher Quyen I once rescued a kid from drowning. He was just out in the ocean bobbing up and underwater. Instinct kicked in so I swam over and pulled him back to the shallow part of the water. When he was safe he said to me, “my parents said I shouldn’t talk to strangers,” and
Drugs are pretty cool. I don’t think my usage of them has been congratulated nearly enough. This year I’ve lost over 10kgs that haven’t shifted for years. Crystal Meth helped me get there long after dysentery had failed! And marijuana helps me in essays in a way
I don’t think anyone truly appreciates me for drinking as much wine as I do. I’m single-handedly supporting Australia’s wine industry, preventing the youths from underage drinking, and inspiring others to achieve their daily fruit intake. I’m what some of
then he swam away.
no 36 cups of coffee can. Thanks Pot.
you may call a hero, and nobody has thanked me for it. So raise your glass to me, dearest readers, your friendly neighbourhood sommelier, for drinking all the cheap wine so you don’t have to.
GHB! Awesome! If you have a problem with drugs call
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Things People Should’ve Congratulated You For...
I think I’m in a similar boat with a lot of people and feel in some instances I should be congratulated for my ability to remain calm when surrounded by idiots. This isn’t aimed at any one individual but the multitude of individuals who are rude, ignorant or blatantly disrespectful. Just once I want someone to come up to me and say, “You know what Allison? I’m proud you didn’t smack that person across the face, because I would have.”
telling a really witty puns (bonus points if I’m not the only one laughing). I told a great one the other day in a Krispie Kreme shop when the guy asked I wanted a receipt and I replied ‘I
I believe I should be sent a personal letter of thanks from my network providers. I assume that through all my excess payments I deliver, after going over my phone data, and using up my home internet allowance, I probably personally fund all their Christmas bonuses. Though my addiction to social media, binge watching and online video streaming hurts my wallet, I believe congratulations are in order for the monthly amount I successfully increase each month. You’re welcome Optus.
Ting He
Rose McEwen I feel a disproportional sense of pride
Gabrielle Rawlings
one, being so absorbed in Harry Potter that I morphed into a Hermione Granger-esque goody two shoes. Two, knowing how to work the system – in the presence of a uniform-conscious teacher? Do that top button up. Forgot your homework? Talk your way around it. Easy when you know how!
but didn’t
Allison Bermingham
June Murtagh In my entire high school experience, I never got a detention. Not once. That is something I think seriously deserves some congratulating. All it
meet the creative directors
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Honestly nothing comes to mind because I feel like whenever I do something congrats-worthy my ego goes overboard and I just start congratulating myself. Like “DANG TING GOOD ONE, GOOooooood one, NICE, LOooove it 10/10 amazing ON FIREEEE”. I’m very humble.
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Raise a Glass for any Occasion Piracy Whack-a-mole All the Sad Young Men The Gender Games The Standard Double Standard 25 Years of Hip Hop Xavier Rudd Interview The New Social Justice Movement 21ndering TPP? Is that an Internet Acronym?
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LGBTQI rights are about more than same-sex marriage Jessie Attwood
If you haven’t already gathered by the rainbow haze of the Facebook
On Friday the 26th June 2015, the
young people particularly vulnerable
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initiative to draw world attention
wrong way to live, whether you were
to feel like being that kid that never
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Raise A Glass For Any Occasion Vanessa Papastavros
There really does appear to be a perfect drink for every occasion, and this is no accident. Alcohol has been central in times of celebration, mourning and devotion throughout all cultures in history. By pairing up drinks that best encapsulate life’s universal emotions and milestones, we
The Drink: Champagne Raise Your Glass: In Celebration Event: New Year’s Eve
Champagne has become a ubiquitous presence at all drink of them all. What better way to count down to midnight than waiting for the suspenseful pop of the cork? Cracking open that bottle of Moët on New Year’s Eve (or let’s be more realistic, a $5 bottle of sparkling Moscato from Aldi) seems like the perfect way to celebrate a day that only comes around once every year.
are prettier and funnier when their sober judgment eludes them). After the French Revolution, champagne was adopted by the masses for secular and religious rituals as a way to rejoice. It’s probably the most wasted alcoholic beverage on the market. Often, bubbly isn’t consumed, but rather is used to christen a ship by smashing the bottle against the
The Backstory: You could put the drink’s popularity
to the royal courts of Europe prior to 1789. Much like us, royalty loved the novelty of sparkling wine. It was rumored to have positive effects on women’s beauty and man’s wit (although most drunks tend to think people
We recommend you just drink it.
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The Drink: Red Wine Raise Your Glass: To Savour Event: Valentine’s Day
According to the British, red wine is only second to chocolate in the top 10 most romantic things to consume on Valentine’s Day. This could largely be related to the drink’s symbolic colour of passion, or the red reoccurring in Valentine’s Day decorations. Nonetheless, red wine is best savored over a good meal, making it ideal for a romantic wine-and-dine date. What’s even better, it’s perfectly acceptable—even classy— to pour oneself a glass of wine while alone at home, making V-Day more bearable for the single gals and guys who choose to stay in. Either way, bottom’s up!
The Backstory: Wine and religion have been timeless companions. Just ask the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who believed wine was a gift from the gods. The cult of wine has also persisted in both was turning water to wine at the wedding of Cana. Wine brings merrymakers together to party and worship. It’s no surprise that a drink associated with revelry, reverence and adoration has become the patron beverage for all things romance and passion.
The Drink: Beer Raise Your Glass: To Enjoy Event: A Sport Game
In the Australian culture, beer and sport go hand in hand. A cold beer can be enjoyed on any hot summer’s afternoon, but there is something a little bit magical about sipping on a cold corona while enjoying a game of tennis/footy/soccer/cricket. It can be enjoyed at the stadium or at the sports bar, in a safe plastic cup or a cool glass schooner. The Backstory: The three locations often connected with Australian culture are the pub, the beach and the football ground. Having inherited the iconic imagery of a beer at the pub from the British, the starchy golden brew remains central to the Australian psyche. Our choice of beer brand is a symbol of group membership, much like our membership to a sporting team, and it is only acceptable to drink large quantities of beer when socialising, not when we’re on our own. For this reason, sports and pubs became the ideal social setting for a beer with your mates, providing an arena that
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The Drink: Long Island Iced Tea Raise Your Glass: To Get Smashed Event: Bachelorette Party
It is a lethal cocktail of tequila, rum, whiskey, vodka,
drink including Triple Sec, in 1972 while he worked at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, in New York.
a Bachelorette Party. Looking relatively innocent for a
The cocktail doesn’t contain iced tea, yet does have a trace of the taste. This is because the juniper in the gin reacts with the molasses in the rum, which in turn combines with the agave in the tequila. The resulting flavor is made up of a chemical compound that, when
perfect for bridesmaids hoping to appear lady-like while consuming the equivalent of their body weight in alcohol. The Backstory:
found in tealeaves grown in Sri Lanka.
The Drink: Brandy Raise Your Glass: In Rememberance Event: A Funeral Wake
pappou passed away. I was given a glass of brandy to toast his memory, took the drink down in one gulp and coughed my burning lungs out in my yiayia’s kitchen. Brandy is the best drink for drowning grief. It’s sombre It makes the process of toasting a loved one’s memory a little bit easier. The Backstory: Essentially, when we raise our glass in remembrance and mourning, we are doing something our ancestors have done for centuries. A Libation was the ritual pouring of a drink as an offering in memory of those who have died. The ritual was common in ancient Egypt, Greece, Israel and China, and persists across the globe in modern times. Alcohol is an important aspect of the grieving process to remember the dead, but also an important aspect of uniting the living that remain behind.
The Drink: Water Raise Your Glass: In Recovery Event: The Morning-After Hangover
I feel compelled to remind you to drink responsibly, because it’s pretty hard to appreciate the human in hospital. Artwork: Angela Tam
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sad young men
Hadley Richardson
Chances are that if you partook in the senior years of high school, you encountered Scott, or Ernest, or Pablo, and you became accustomed with their great works. Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Picasso: all names of men who transformed their lives into art, and their wives into objects.
of the novel came out, when the whole world went gaga for Gatsby. Every 18th or 21st was Gatsby themed and the 20s lifestyle (champagne and debauchery) seemed to be making a roaring come back. It’s no surprise people are drawn into the myth of the surface, it’s a thing of dreams. The American Dream, that is,
For those who have not encountered the concept in all its idealistic, prejudiced glory, the American Dream is the notion war, anyone could be anything if they worked hard enough. What it represents, in truth, is the way in which wealth, misogyny, and whiteness excuse themselves as two of the greatest oppressors of dreaming. That all the sad young men, as F. Scott Fitzgerald called them, objectify, capitalise and abuse their way into being the stuff of legends. Jay Gatsby is one of the most romanticised characters of all time. Lost and foolish, he is driven to greatness by his deep desire to
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at the end of the novel (spoiler alert), no-one attends his funeral. There is little to be said for the depth of life achieved
the way he portrays women. The skill of who have an exceptional capacity to his quiet undermining of women is shown make something pitiful of their own privilege.
attention of others.
Gatsby is ready to tell you how much they hate Daisy.
So what is the reason for why I love it now, when I am aware hope is helped rather decently by wealth and privilege? Because you can learn so much from the people forgotten in these works of literature. Fitzgerald is a misogynist, and an overall deeply judgemental man. The truths of his abuse of his wife, and his theft of her personality and intellectual property for his stories have long emerged and gone unnoticed by those who celebrate his
What you can acknowledge about The Great Gatsby though, is its self punishing. You can sense Fitzgerald’s Daisy is emotionally manipulated by two distain for wealth and for ignorance, obsessive, powerful men, who she relies but also the knowledge that he does not intend to abandon these privileges. It status. However, we are skewed by the shows the deeply oppressive capacity of narrator, Nick, to perceive her as vain, self-absorbed, and reckless. Daisy knows the American Dream. People like Gatsby that being a woman in her time means a and Fitzgerald – white, privileged, sad life plagued by patriarchy and devoid of young men, can achieve what they autonomy, to the point when she wishes desire if they ignore the will, rights nothing more than that her daughter be and lives of those who they consider ignorant to how cruel the world truly is. beneath them. Perhaps if Fitzgerald were a woman, he would have wished to be a beautiful fool This rhetoric allowed them to convince themselves they were successful based as well. on some admirable personal effort that Even after my deep feminist awakenings, others could not sustain. It is dangerous the novel holds purpose to me. It reminds in many ways to look to the literary canon for idols, especially those great me not be idealistic to the point of artists who were men. There is a reason ignorance – a fact I often forget – and you know very little about the women that the older I grow, the reality of who were their muses. this world will only tumble me further
Fitzgerald’s misogyny more clearly than
from my dreams. It reminds me that historically, we enshrine male artists
That being said, The Great Gatsby is my favourite novel. When I was younger, I was delighted by the concept of the American dream. I liked the idea that hope is all it takes to achieve something, an idea old self, while I wore a private school uniform and sat comfortably in my ninth
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GENDER GAMES Brianna Scully
Last year I received a message on Facebook from someone asking me what my bra size was. It wasn’t a creepy dude trying to hit on me though; it was actually someone wanting to employ me. The woman messaged me asking if I wanted to be a ‘promo girl’ for the Bathurst 1000 – all I had to do was dress up for a sponsor and take photos with motorsport fans at the event. The pay was great, and all travel and accommodation expenses were paid for. However, I couldn’t bring myself to say yes. I closed the conversation and never replied.
Despite my reservations, many young women are more than willing to become grid girls or cheerleaders in the Australian sporting industry, and I have no problem with that at all. Just because it is something I don’t feel comfortable doing doesn’t make it wrong. Many of these women do it for the money, however there are a number of women who just love the sport. But why is the easiest way for a woman to be involved in a highly televised sport still through her physical appearance?
I must admit, as a poor uni student, turning down a large sum of money was a little heartbreaking. I was desperate for the money, but I couldn’t do it. There was no way I could slip
On a global scale, this seems to be slowly changing. It was recently announced that 12 women’s national teams are going to be included in the 2016 installment of the popular video game FIFA. David Rutter, vice president and general manager of EA Sports FIFA, told ABC news, “I think that for me what this shows is not only is the game making progress, but in the bigger picture, women are covering ground and they are making strides in terms of equality.”
to be my grandfather. I couldn’t bring myself to literally sell my body for male enjoyment (plus, I don’t think my bra size would have made the cut). Natalie Sinclair, a law student and cheerleader, has loved NRL since she was a little girl. This, along with her love for dancing, inspired her to join the cheerleading squad for the Penrith Panthers. “[I] wanted to be a part of [the sport] in any way possible . . . obviously the most prominent role for a female is to be a cheerleader,” she said.
This shift towards equality is also starting to occur in motorsports. In May this year at the Monaco F1 Grand Prix, ‘grid girls’ were replaced with ‘grid guys.’ This move was made after complaints that the use of grid girls was damaging the reputation of the F1 as a family sport. There
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was one slight difference though: Instead of parading around the event topless or in skin-tight clothing, these men wore polo shirts and jeans. As well as cheerleading, Natalie Sinclair is also occasionally a grid girl at motorsport events, taking photos with sports fans and advertising brands. “It was never a goal of mine to be a grid girl,” she said. “I’ve never had a huge interest in motorsport but basically agreed to do so for the money.” On the recent change in Monaco, Natalie believes it is unnecessary. “None of the girls are forced to be grid girls, it is all voluntary and we are never required to do anything degrading,” she said. “Because of this, I don’t feel it is necessary to bring in grid guys as they probably don’t add to the spectacle of the whole event as much as grid girls in nice costumes would.” Although it seems other countries are slowly aiming for gender equality in sport, Australia has a long way to go. In 2012, the Daily Telegraph named Black Caviar as sportswoman of the year. Black Caviar is a horse. Apparently we can’t even acknowledge an actual human woman for her athletic achievements. I’m sure Black Caviar was thrilled.
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cricketers were recently given a 36 per cent pay rise, meaning players could earn up to $85,000 a year. Although this sounds like an achievement, it’s more of a baby step. Or maybe even a crawl. According to Mamamia, the lowest a male cricketer contracted with Cricket Australia will earn in a year is $260,000, and many male cricketers are earning several million a year. In saying all of this, it’s easy to judge the treatment of women in sport from the sidelines (pun very much intended). In a lot of cases, it seems as if cheerleaders and grid girls enjoy what they do, and see their role in the game as an essential part of a tradition. Natalie Sinclair believes cheerleaders are most well-received by NRL fans; not just by men, but women and children too. representative role for our club; even a role model,” she said. “I know my club girls go to university, trying to push that we aren’t just promo girls there for the purpose of looking pretty.”
However, the problem isn’t having grid girls and cheerleaders; it’s the fact that this is the easiest, and perhaps the only way young women can participate in the Even things that we celebrate as gender sporting industry. Introducing ‘grid guys’ is a start, but how about we start letting accomplishments in the industry don’t really have much merit. Australian female women take the wheel?
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Facebook Pri Kate Gogolewski
The world has its good and bad, and then it’s got Facebook. Facebook: the well-known social media website that started in 2003 as a project by Mark Zuckerberg and his American university students. A place to connect with your friends, show them what you’ve been up to and keep in contact with people you know from all over the world. It sounds all warm and fuzzy. Facebook is indeed a wonderful, powerful tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. What happens if you don’t want Harry to share that photo of you and Ron getting drunk at Neville’s birthday? What do you do when you see Mickey has posted nasty messages to Rose’s wall (again) because she broke up with him? Where do all the grey areas of freedom of speech, privacy and online safety come into play with Facebook? That’s apparently what privacy policies are for.
This, however, is where the ‘loopholes’ come into play. About a week ago, there was an issue where well-known feminist writer Clementine Ford was banned from Facebook for thirty days for allegedly breaching its Community Standards Privacy Policy. Ford had posted a photo of herself in solidarity with several South Australian (and more recently Queensland) women who had private photos hacked and posted on a ‘Revenge Porn’ site in the U.S. The morning show Sunrise on Channel 7 had commented - learn not to share nude photos privately with partners that they trust with the expectation it will not get stolen and distributed as revenge. Ford’s objection was loud and accordance with Facebook Community Standards - no nip in her chest. Unfortunately, however, this objection was somehow taken as an offer to send nudes to members of the greater male community. It was when Ford posted screenshots [which are no longer on her page] of just some of the messages she received from guys who obviously did not read her long, angry (and
So, what are Facebook’s privacy policies exactly? Basically, it’s a long and complicated set of rules, regulations and, of course, loopholes. After twenty minutes of searching through data policy, the ‘Community Standards’ page appears, neatly organised into the average things you’d
her for violating their Community Standards. It seems, however, that attempting to solicit naked images from someone who is not personally known to you, and is
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Double Standard:
vacy Policies not in the business of supplying them to random people, does not violate Community Standards, but posting a
So, Facebook’s Policy is so grey that it can ban the woman who names and shames her harassers, but fail to ban the actual harassers… Right. Even more concerning, however, are comments like the following:
language to identify serious threats of harm to public and That looks like threatening language. Facebook ‘removes’ content that ‘degrades or shames’ its users. Pretty sure ‘slut-shaming’ is a thing.
It appears to be all hate speech with no shred of credible argument or dialogue /discussion of beliefs and reasoning. The key word in Facebook’s Community Standards Privacy Policy it seems, is ‘credible’, and this could explain why such hate speech (because that is what it obviously is) was not immediately removed once reported.
wage a shehad on men. Just make sure you blow yourself
feminist slut to have ever walked the earth. Please sit on a
The loopholes in Facebook’s Privacy Policy must be large for such horrifying hate speech to slip through - for people to be banned for naming and shaming their harassers in an effort to make it stop. Badly done, Facebook, badly done.
And this is where Facebook’s Community Standards Policy Please sit on a butchers knife so that you may never be able to reproduce Facebook reviewed the comment for ‘hate speech’ and
No means no. It’s as simple as that. Have the common decency not to spew vile hate speech at people simply because you don’t agree with them. Have even a shred of respect and don’t attempt to harass nude pictures out of someone you do not even know.
That looks like harassment.
And Facebook, Facebook needs to review the part of its policy that handles reports of bullying, harassment and hate speech. Period.
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America went nuts when Obama used the ‘n-word’ recently. He was praised by some, but also heavily criticised, with Deneen Borelli, a chief presenter for Fox News, saying he had “really dragged in the gutter-speak president of rap, of street”. Of course, these conservative broadcasters were conveniently forgetting the origins of the n-word, and why it has now been taken back by African American people. The reason why I bring this up is to use this word as a metonym for hip-hop’s many, often forgotten, facets. Some talk about how terrible the degradation of women and celebration of materialistic culture is, and others talk about its beautiful spoken word, or even just is its dynamic nature; how some rappers are wack and others are good, or some beats are hard and others are smooth. 25 years ago, hip-hop was changing. Smooth, boom bap groups like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were spotlight, and the culture was becoming more dynamic. Tribe were bringing in a kind of laid-back coolness that was new to the scene at that time. Their videos were colourful, their beats were melodious and their lyrics were part of a new wave, different to anything the scene had seen before. The difference between what ATCQ was
before writing his own album, Yeezy produced pretty much the whole of Common’s Be and a whole bunch of stuff for Jay Z. On the other end of the hip-hop spectrum, Eminem released Encore – an album many believe to be the last were doing two completely different things, but were two acts at the forefront of mid-2000s hip-hop. Another part of the genre that many people (including a younger me) don’t realise is the genius of some of the production. Not all hip-hop is club bangers, though some could argue that even that is clever. Advancements in technology in the last 25 years have meant this period has seen the best producers and the best beats of hip-
production.
article, so here are seven essential tracks, and why you should give them a listen. A Tribe Called Quest – Bonita Applebum:
by comparing two of their lines. choreographed and cool. ATCQ – Can I Kick It?: Afrocentric living is a big shrug N.W.A – Fuck Tha Police: Fuck that shit, cause I ain’t the one For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun
Of course, Tribe wasn’t restricted to simply making funhating the police. Both groups were extremely versatile, and although their styles were completely different, both brought something distinctly hip-hop. In my books, groups of the early nineties, paving the way for crews
Fast forward out of the nineties to 11 years ago, 2004. and it set hip-hop in a new direction, ushering in a fresh new wave of rappers. It’s important to remember that
N.W.A – Express Yourself: Listen and watch for another side to the most famous
J Dilla – Life: This is just an instrumental made up of a short loop but I could listen to this for hours. Dilla sums up the genius of hip-hop production. Kanye West – Jesus Walks: This track was game changing in the mid-2000s. Drake – 0-100: Drake was missing from this article (as were a bunch of greats), but he is one of the most important people in hip-hop at the moment. Kendrick Lamar – Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst: I don’t even know how to explain this song. Kendrick Lamar is my favourite rapper (although missing from the article). It goes for 12 minutes and will seriously make you rethink hip-hop if you listen hard enough. Horrorshow – All Summer Long: Another thing left out of the article was Aussie hip-hop. It’s alive and well. Suss this.
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Xavier Rudd:
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Q: Since this is a bright and early interview, I thought I’d start by asking what motivates you to get out of bed every morning?
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Q: You released a new album this year titled Nanna. How would you describe the album musically and conceptually? X: Everyone is from a different culture in the band, so
hear breaking in the distance. Q: I did a bit of research on you, and from what I read, you’re quite the social activist. How is this resonated through your music? What issues are you most passionate about? X: My music is written from a place of appreciation for I was always in the bush and on the beach with my dog. I grew up in Ironbark Basin in the south, so I was always in the scrub, and a lot of the music I’ve written today still environmental groups have been drawn to my music over the years because of what it speaks about. I’ve aligned with a lot of environmental groups and become aware of a lot of stuff that’s going on around the globe as I’ve been touring
everyone’s culture. It’s sort of like its own mix-mash of reggae, but it’s not like Jamaican reggae or African reggae, it has its own sound. It’s quite a strong movement, a message of one people standing together to really respect and love the essence of all that is, and working together to create peace amongst different races. Q: The theme for this issue is ‘Raise Your Glass’. What do you believe to be your greatest achievement? The thing you have celebrated most in your life? X: My health, and the health of the people I love. My children, and all of the people close to me. The health of my tribe. Xavier Rudd & the United Nation’s new album, Nanna, is out now at your closest music retailer. They will be touring Australia wide throughout August, September and October following their appearance at Splendour in the Grass.
Shepherd and everything they are doing in the Southern Oceans. At the moment I’m really wanting to get involved with the coral reef up in Cairns that’s under so much threat: protest in the north-west against gas (conglomerates), and that was very successful. Q: I watched recordings of your live performances, and I saw that you’re a multi-instrumentalist. As a one-man band, what type of energy do you bring to your live
X: No - I mean, that’s a whole different beast. I just make sound, you know? I guess it’s very personal, always with my head down, busy. It’s about being minimal with what I’m doing. Q: I’ve noticed there’s a lot of earthly imagery in your produce? X: I feel like a lot of the time it is the music. There’s a common misconception with human beings that we are on this earth, when really, we are of this earth. We are inextricably connected to this earth, and our song is like I feel like (music) is the earth, it’s the same as the roots of a tree. It’s the spirit coming through, and a lot of that stuff is unexplainable. It’s not for our minds, it’s just a part of our being that we can’t really analyse or explain.
Artwork: Joy Li
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Animal Welfare
Vertigo
The New Social Justice Movement
Sambavi Seermaran I can usually count on one of two reactions from people reaction is from people who love animals and enthusiastically want to talk about it. The second reaction is from people whose eyes glaze over with disinterest as soon as I mention it. People who have this reaction often ask me why animal welfare is something I care about. After all, don’t we have more important concerns in the world right now than the state of battery hens, or greyhound racing, or the treatment of cattle in Vietnam? I mean, humans are dealing with problems like ISIS, asylum seekers, world hunger, homelessness – get to animals? It’s a fair question, and one I’m asked a lot. The answer to this question lies in examining the relationship between humans and animals, and essentially asking ourselves – are humans more important than animals? Are animals our property, or are they our equals, or somewhere in between? The animal welfare movement attempts to address some of these profound questions. It is profound because animal welfare often touches on the qualities of what it means
to be human. As science, genetics, anthropology, and our understanding of the world advance, more research has uncovered how small the gap is between animal and human sentience. As humans, we have always prided ourselves on being able to think and articulate our feelings; to build empires and to imagine the future. We’ve been taught to believe that humans are the apex animal; the unique and dominant creature who can lord over the other creatures on this earth.
between humans and animals. It is an intuitive understanding by us that animals can’t speak, they can’t express their emotions, and they have physical characteristics that are very different to ours. Essentially, animals are other; they are alien; they are different. This belief has its roots in our individual psychology and our societal culture. It is a natural part of our cognitive understanding to categorise our world; and a part of this process is to categorise animals as nothumans, as not the same as us. This unconscious cognitive process allows us to accept and distance ourselves when we see animals being killed, tortured, or cruelly treated.
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I think almost all people would feel outraged and sickened if they saw human beings hit with steel rods, shoved in tiny cages, electrocuted, and gouged in the eye. Yet this is exactly what happens everyday to millions of animals in our slaughterhouses, laboratories and farms. There is some outrage of course, but in general life goes on for the rest of society. We are able to say to ourselves that animals do not matter as much as humans. We recognise that our pets and cute animals like dolphins and elephants need protection and affection. We are outraged when dogs are kept in tiny cages and cruelly killed at festival in China. But we feel uncomfortable in acknowledging that the same sentience and feelings exist in the cows and chickens that we eat. This cognitive dissonance is remarkable but sadly a part of what makes life bearable for us. A lot of the time when I discuss animal welfare, I hear from people that they love animals and obviously it’s wrong to treat them cruelly. One of the real reasons I suspect many people who love animals aren’t into the animal welfare movement is because, simply, it is too much effort. Our reliance on animals is huge; almost everything we consume
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from meat, to shoes, to bags, to medicines, to makeup, has a background in animal testing or in animal products. To stand up for animals is an exhausting and often sad and dispiriting venture. Also, for many people, out of sight is out of mind. It does take a degree of empathy and imagination to feel the pain and torture of something that is not in your immediate sight or environment. But the animal welfare movement is broad and encompasses many different things; it does not require people to give up meat and become a vegan. Even doing the smallest things like checking where your meat comes from or making an effort not to buy caged eggs goes towards helping an animal down the line. As science and technology advance our knowledge of other creatures, the animal welfare movement will no longer be a niche interest. The huge philosophical wall that separates animals from humans will come crumbling down, and the Auschwitz that is every factory farmed animal’s waking reality will be no more.
Artwork: Karman Hong
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21ndering Cameron Hart
The number 21 might make you think of many things; scandium, the teenagers to solve crime. But realistically, chances are you’re thinking about/waiting on/already had/have attended a 21st birthday. First and foremost, happy birthday to you; the survival to adulthood is a pretty great thing, and it should be celebrated. But in a country where adulthood (including voting and getting married/draaank) is legal three years prior, is a secondary and more extravagant version of your th
Well, that’s a yes and no question, depending on your culture. Across the world, the age of majority is agreed to be the birthday upon which an individual is afforded the liberties of adulthood (presumably having ‘matured’), such as the ability to vote in governmental elections and to purchase, possess, and consume alcohol. In Australia,
South Korea (age 19), Iceland (age 20), Japan (also age 20),
On the topic of culture, Australia’s economic, political,
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world, nor is the shared traditions of these two Englishbut they also happen to share the tradition of getting wasted when somebody turns 21. Now I’ve been known to drink free vodka sunrises with the best of them when a mate have I thought about where this strange custom came from.
Amendment of their Constitution (governing the manufacture and transportation of alcoholic beverages) brought about what we now know as the Prohibition; a time when popular hobbies included dancing in speakeasies and distilling moonshine in your basement. This was because the government and activists alike believed that a total ban of alcohol would reduce previously-unaddressed social problems such as domestic violence, mental illness, crime th
As a side effect of this, they were allowed to drink earlier, too. Yet when it quickly became apparent that vehicular and alcohol-related fatalities and violence took a turn for
as the National Drinking Age Act, which (despite minor variations between states) set the bar at 21, literally. Then through heavy immigration between us and them, the celebration of two coming-of-age anniversaries was integrated into what is our Australian culture at present. As humans are the only creatures known to celebrate the passage of time, it seems reasonable that we’re a little sentimental, and for this reason, the majority of Australians view the 21st birthday as symbolising the time when a young th is like st growing baby teeth, and your 21 is when you start biting off more than you can chew. Amendment was replaced by the 21 culture (#themoreyouknow). This also means that, tragically, many of our American colleagues will never experience what it’s like to be a 1st year tertiary student and hungover at your 9am classes or head on down to the uni bar (because they don’t have them) to gather and curse their ancestors for inventing statistics. th
Amendment had quite the opposite effect. In fact, the contraband status of alcohol only increased its allure and value. An illicit industry structured around organised crime and bootlegging began to occur. The ineffectiveness and economic cost of such legalisation became particularly apparent during the Great Depression, th and through the 21st Amendment was repealed and alcohol was (blessedly) legal
repealed a constitutional law in its entirety. The repealing of the law required the establishment of a legal drinking age, which was determined to be 21. But the story doesn’t end there, because you might be thinking “but why don’t they just lower the age now? If laws can be changed, why not change this one?” Well, you’re American government had the brilliant idea of introducing the 26th Amendment (which prevents discrimination against age when voting) to allow young men to be able to vote at the nation’s war efforts earlier than previously permitted.
st
was my introduction to the wonderful world of getting wasted (passion pop, i am lookin @ u), then my 21st will have the second cheapest house wine.”) And being an almost-20 (and thus, an almost-half-40) I’ve come to accept th
how far you’ve come and how far you have to go is always a welcome opportunity, regardless of where the tradition st
birthday is a public holiday, and the Japanese festival of Seijin no hi every January commemorates the passage of children into adults, which are both examples of the in Australia, we just get a little bit fancy and a whole lot of messy. Cheers to that.
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TPP? Is That An Internet Acronym? Alex Blair
TPP. Does the term ring a bell? If it doesn’t, you’re in for some scary news. In recent weeks, news and social media websites have been rife with instances of social activism such as the hashtag #lovewins, following the legalisation of gay marriage in the US and pushes for tightened gun laws in the wake of yet another American mass shooting. However, what was left drastically under-represented in the media was the fast-tracking of the Trans Pacific Partnership. ‘Wtf is the Trans Pacific Partnership?’ you might ask. That’s exactly the point; very few people actually know what the TPP is, let alone its repercussions. Under the TPP, roughly 40% of the world’s economy will be subject to drastic changes. The TPP is designed to give legal power to multi-national corporations, which will effectively give them the right to sue countries if their interests aren’t being met. What does this all mean? The TPP is a blatant attack against the sovereignty of countries and the integrity of laws put in
in Australia, most notably when tobacco giant Philip Morris attempted to acquire money for damages from the federal government, claiming that our plain-packaging laws were tax dollars will be used to bail out unethical corporations that thrive off selling products that are harmful and addictive. It doesn’t stop there; the introduction of the TPP will also have grave consequences to the environment by cutting back on globWal regulations such as food safety and for an extra buck. For example, with the TPP in place, if a country passes a law to reduce pollution (Carbon Tax anyone?) any corporation affected by that law can take the government to a tribunal to seize compensation reimbursement for ‘future business losses.’ As such, current efforts for corporations to maintain low-impact environmental business models could soon be a thing of the past.
and services. Not convinced? An example of past efforts of corporations attempting to sue governments can be found
Artwork: Alya Higgins
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Additionally, prices of prescription medicines are also likely to soar under the TPP, with the introduction of long-term patents on medicines and medical procedures. The result will be a higher demand for medicines that were previously made cheaper under universal healthcare systems such as Medicare. Internet privacy will also take a massive hit if Hollywood studios choose to utilise the TPP and crack down on the ‘epidemic’ that is online piracy. The recent changes in Australian legislation that allow copyright holders to have access to internet search history and block users is just the online.
positive effects on trade markets which allow previously disconnected countries to trade freely. Under the TPP, Australia will gain trade partners such as Canada, Peru and Mexico, which the current government believes will be strong economic allies. However, these views are fairly short-sighted, and are overshadowed by the loss of individual liberties the TPP will bring for the general population.
Critics who have broken down the TPP commonly come to the agreement that the interests behind this trade deal are purely corporate and reject the welfare of consumers and communities. The fact that the TPP remains so under-reported by
from the general public. Wikileaks has revealed a number of documents on the TPP which have led to the creation of activist groups; however, the job is only half done. Nothing short of a massive public outcry will stop the TPP in its tracks in this late stage of development, with estimations that it will be passed and in full effect by late 2015. What we can learn from the past month of rainbow-clad media is that political decisions that actually affect the public are not wholly transparent and communicated through common news sources. You know the facts. Now stop the TPP.
Alternate image caption or quote on top of images could look like this maybe?
Artist Surname @Instagram_name
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Op-shop Chic Pride Colada Cocktail Misguided Pride The Real HouseLives of Student Housing Postcards from the Orient Pink White Chocolate Chip Cookies Chocolate Chia Pudding An Ode to My First Love
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Op-Shop Chic Millie Sykes Image by Gemma Stoner
When it comes to style, it’s no secret that us Millennials are a nostalgic bunch. Take a brief look around your lecture theatre of late - whether it’s a pair of knackered converse sneakers, some loose-crotched dungarees or the increasingly popular tattoo choker - the hallmarks of historical trends seem to linger at every turn. So when did second-hand stop meaning sh*t and start to mean chic? If you’d asked my 12 year-old-self the answer probably would’ve been “never”. Op shops, I’d been told, were strictly reserved for penny-pinching old folk on the hunt for a shoddy bargain. But somewhere down the line it appears something has clicked. One Doc-Marten boot at a time, we’ve been returning to the musty scented racks of our local charity stores and giving new life to many of the
With a lifetime of memories already nestled inside their dusty pockets, vintage clothes set a point of difference in what can otherwise often feel like a rather mundane retail landscape. On a daily basis, we’re chomping through more marketing messages than a goat with free range over your bit much. Op-shops and Sunday morning market’s give us an out; a chance to explore our personal style away from
afford that jar of organic pesto and loaf of sourdough bread to accompany, your $20 splurge on a beaten-up bomber jacket feels a whole lot more satisfying. It’s about pushing back to simpler times, blending old and new to produce a look that celebrates creativity rather than logo-centric fashion symbols. We want to be unique, and quite frankly, we don’t need big brand labels to make us feel like we’ve achieved status. Like the stray puppy that followed you home from work one night, we’re swooping timeless vintage pieces up into our arms and proclaiming
We’re no longer gawping at glossy magazines for style inspiration, but traversing back through time on our image-sharing Tardis’, choosing which trends we dig and incorporating them into our everyday look like a human pick ‘n’ mix bag. It’s true what they say- fashion has a way of repeating itself and it seems to me we’re having a damn good time popping tags, getting retro and saving cash along the way.
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Pride Colada Theresa Board
became the 21st country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage nationwide. This momentous decision from one of the world’s most powerful countries started a wave of international support and triggered celebrations in every corner of internet.
pictures wasn’t enough of a support declaration for you, the ultimate statement drink.
so many you end up loosing your clothes on Oxford Street. time to catch up. #LoveWins
1.
2.Pour Midori into a glass. 3. like the opinions of ignorant chauvinists, it does not matter. It’s not alcoholic anyway. 4.
5. the country.
What you’ll need
60mls - Midori Melon liqueur 60mls - Bacardi Rum 30mls - Grenadine
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MISGUIDED
logos, everyone is embracing this symbol
the criteria where trans and nonbinary students were concerned left at “unknown”.
seem, our universities.
Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, examining how universities cater to their LGBTI students, has made it startlingly clear that the depth of support for these groups runs about as deep as a
The guide covered simple categories that related to the safety of LGBT students and staff, the opportunities, advice, and healthcare offered to them, and the overall institutional responses and policies on LGBTQ+ students. Of the fourteen categories, all represented groups (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex) in
Those criteria met were the simple categories of resources and ally networks. The more critical issues for queer students on campus - especially those who are trans or non binary identifying - including health care needs, career advice, and staff education programs, were clearly absent or “unable to be determined” in the guides review
There is something sinister in the unknown. The fate of those students who cannot be sure if they are being accounted for is likely not a positive one. There is also something sinister in for educating its staff on queer issues, and on the safety of queer students. Stigmatisation stems from a decision not to educate oneself, or those in institutions, on the lives of those in need of support. By not assisting in the health care needs of LGBTI students, who have higher rates of mental illness,homelessness, and poverty than the average, universities neglect a group in critical of transgender students, where there can be health concerns involved in transition (should an individual choose to undergo this) there is little support given by the university to the medical needs, mental and physical, of these students.
What the creation of autonomous spaces and ally networks represents to a minority is the pretence of support. The most convenient, simplistic, & band aid approach to LGBTI acceptance on campus communicates that LGBTI students are tolerated, rather than protected. Without staff, effectively trained and students ef fectively educated, the message is relayed that it is more important that LGBT students defend themselves in the face of bigotry when it comes - and I can promise you, it does - rather than being assured the university will adequately protect them. The most disappointing result of the
universities achieving more than seven of the fourteen criteria. The unique quality of these universities was the documented support provided specifically to transgender students who were transitioning. Similarly, their simple acknowledgement of non-binary students could be considered groundbreaking in comparison to other uni’s worse when you venture further into the results regarding campuses with
Instead of effective education programs & career and health focus for every LBGTI, spaces and ‘opportunities to network with allies’.
only for having an LGBTI society, but with no further support, consultation or mention of LGBTI students.
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The common denominator was support of Gay and Lesbian identifying students above all others, as if universities could slap on the pride badge for including the LG and muttering create safe environments only for the most consumable of minorities, the generic gay, does very little to protect the most vulnerable members of the wider queer community. If you are a generic gay, and I am one, especially if you are white and wealthy, which I am also, consider the fact that you have privilege within the queer community. Being an ally to a group is easy when a group is achieving recognition and when it is clear standing in opposition to them is standing on the wrong side of the popular discourse. I implore straight people, and fellow gay identifying people, to be wary of the rainbow washing of our universities. If you only pass the “LG� part of the inclusion test, you fail.
can be seen as inclusive, and have certainly warmed my heart in the past, but to neglect the ongoing reality of the erasure of the bi/pan sexual identities, and the omission of transgender and non binary individuals from the popular, and institutional, is misguided pride.
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UTS Student Legal Services UTS Student Legal Services
Free legal advice service for UTS students Free legal advice service for UTS students Opening times: Opening times:
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Tuesday
10am - 4pm 10am - 4pm 11am -- 4pm 8pm 10am
10am - 4pm Wednesday 11am - 8pm Thursday To make an appointment with a lawyer, email studentlegalservice@uts.edu.au,
To an appointment with a lawyer, call make 9514 2484 or visitstudentlegalservice@uts.edu.au, building CB01.03.15 email call 9514 2484 or visit building CB01.03.15
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Features
The Real HouseLives of Student Housing
Photo: Jack Sinclair
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Clare Aston
Whenever I tell someone I live on campus, I always get the same responses: One, they ask me how far away my home is that I can’t commute
inconsequential summer nights, where
magically appears, strangers are Two, they ask me about the layout: a six
I have a love/hate relationship with the of occasions, but living at housing isn’t a like living on campus? taking care of myself, nothing beats a PROS:
who is staring at the ceiling, listening to
the first time gives you an extreme
home makes you appreciate home so
Compromise: This one isn’t really a con, but it is something that you have
CONS Pure, absolute, terrifying confusion: met in my course, but sometimes whole
been able to come to compromises,
you can’t be sure if they actually have to call your mother, who still has an
evacuation, late night coffees, in the living room, procrastiCleaning,
The money: So much stuff you
there have been some great nights in
always, always, run out of everything
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To Sir/Madam, I would be pleased to accept this job offer. Unfortunately, I will be overseas from June 17th through to July 15th. I will endeavour to work as hard as I can prior to and after those dates. Thank you for your understanding. PS: I’ll bring a Thai bobblehead to decorate the reception area.
considering I only got up to walk around twice in nine hours. Thankfully, I had a window seat. I watched as we descended through the cotton wool clouds to see Bangkok below and I air, the main river through Bangkok looks like a snake, easing its way through tawny terrain. It almost seemed like those fancy quilts we saw at the Easter Show last year- mosaic rice paddies created a patchwork blanket, held together by the silver threads of Bangkok canals. I fell asleep at about nine,
All the best, PS: Found your departure package. I love it, thanks. I read it on the international trip and all... But I promise to keep in touch. Xxx
P O S T C A R D S F R OM T H E O R I E N T Regina Su
tour, (Klong means ‘river’). We picked up a gondola-like boat down Chao Praya Klong, powered by what seemed to be a car engine motor and sounded like a plane taking off. We turned into one of the back canals of Bangkok called Klong Bang Luang and were greeted immediately by a woman in a was unsuccessful in selling us knick-knacks). Apart from her, we hardly came across anyone- well, anyone foreign like us. It was a Friday, so it was totally deserted because most of the tourists crawl through the weekend. To be honest, I think we got a more authentic view of local life. Water access to Bangkok’s temples showed us glittering golden details in archways and shrines, and these lay in stark contrast to some of the homes we saw. Eroding stilts tilted homes into the
the murky water, and half-sunk boats converted into homes were adorned with climbing vines and draped in personal washing. We stopped to explore a strip of shops along the river. There was a 1950’s barber with Country classics crooning out of the cassette system, comfortable around us. I bought you a pashmina. It has blue elephants on it, I hope you like it. - Sending love, PS: Please don’t tell Mum, but I’m totally freaking out about this whole thing. New country, no language... Initially we only that’s a lot of trust in someone for a month... Keep in touch with Mum please?
How’s everyt hing back in Sydney?? Man it here, it’s th , you’d totally e ultimate su love mmer holiday all the time, . In fact it’s so we wake up hot late, lunch, then hang ou take a nap, di t in the cool nn er , ing night air. Bangkok nigh Haven’t done tlife, but ho m uc h nestly, the pa have been cu st couple of rled up on th nights e couch wit h an order of Thai Oh, well, the night before last we met of Andrew ’s up with a co mates and to uple ok the elevat or to a doub le Living it up w ith panoram ic views of a tw a pulsing city inkly skyline . - Missing yo and u like crazy, PS:
I conversationa l my way arou words and I can successf nd the city. I’m ully doing okay. Le navigate transport and t’s go togeth er next time?
Haikus to: Sally. Pad pak bung fai daeng Mii farang yuek yuek. Translation: d with red chili [Fried morning glory sala s.] Too many foreign tourist ding here. The two kilograms since lan PS: I have gained like to leave. t wan er nev I at. gre food is so
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Pink White Chocolate Chip Cookies Bermingham
1. Preheat oven to about 220°C. 2.
3.
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5.
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7.
8. 9.
What you’ll need
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Chocolate Chia Pudding Bermingham
What you’ll need
Water
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Vivian Darkbloom
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The War What Kind of Moon Stays Here? Poems for Martin Harrison Oh Ovid - Vertigo Serial #4 Art Showcase Photography Showcase
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The War Marcus Khoudair The bus hurtles like a comet through the cosmos of suburbs, tailed by people whose trips are much shorter than mine and yet who still are too cheap to pay for a taxi home. I watch them go. The slow emptying of the bus medicates the deep throbbing of my head, satiating my great appetite for numbness – I watch them. Once the vehicle stops, I watch them pop forth from the silvery foil of the nightrider’s stark light. Their white tablet bodies dissolve into the dark liquid of the early hours. They walk home in a stumbling stir and on the surface of this weakening solution window. Like a vision I see the torpid haze of my eyes, and my nose, and my scarcely opened mouth into which their bodies are disappearing. I swallow all who are like me. I cannibalise my generation.
the shape of something unfamiliar. Something alien. While it looks no different, it feels new. I know that it is new. I know that it can be. The doctor told me to not mix antibiotics and alcohol, but here I am. I smell both on my breath in equal portions. Well, not in equal portions at all. My head languishes at the ratio and my eyes are put to sleep by the usual post mortem of the night’s passing. My resurrection is only hours away. I eagerly await rising from my bed, showering, going downstairs, eating something. Eating is not cheating the morning after. The bus approaches my stop. The closer I get, the closer I bodies against bodies with the heavy sludge of Sydney’s late February humidity gluing us to each other. The line slugs ahead, through the doors. Inside, the stamp on my wrist melts under the heat of shoving limbs. It becomes a ball of
pass outside, like the mirroring of the night sky on a rainwet salt plain. And I am there, ravenous, alone; my face them on the screen, and smile at everyone around me. We it just feels as though my face is not my own. It has assumed
of our body we can move is our arm, tensed over our head –
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How can I explain myself to her? What could I possibly say to justify my innermost millions just for the one who survives, just for the one to mean something I want to mean something. I want to be the one who really means something. Something unfamiliar, something alien, and new I want it, so badly
photo by Maddie Lumley
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There is change in my pocket. I draw out a coin and, out of boredom, discreetly scratch at the bus window’s edge. Marks are left where the coin scrapes against the glass. A light and a single beep signal my stop. I thank the driver and step out into the warm, wet air. I walk, still thinking. We have had a fucking good night, but now I am tired. In ten minutes
A tomato seed sits like a pimple on her lower lip, and as she eats more, there is a quiver in her chin. It rattles with a great rumble, like the ache in my head. I feel it. I feel it trembling. I feel it shake me from my seat and lift me onto the table where, like the tomato, like the cheese, I am cut, and into the open gash is sprinkled salt.
I proceed between the two cars in our garage, into the house.
I know why it is that my grandmother cannot sleep. I know why it is that she does me the courtesy of not explaining. That in itself is the explanation. And I know why both she and I are luxuriating in the lavish silence that ensues, for her smile alone is enough to enrich me, and reassure me, and extinguish all the inadequacies that came to me the moment I left the group tonight. One minute I was with them. I mean, I was truly with them. The next I had gone my own way and it was like we had never been together at all. And now, here, for reasons not entirely apparent to me, I so desperately want to tell my grandmother. Not because I am drunk or because she happens to be awake, but because I know why it is that she cannot sleep. For she one day had been in a place, and on the next day had left it. She too had blinked and missed the moment of irrevocable change. She had, once. I can see it in her face. I can see it carved into her skin like my coin on the bus window. But no, into her head the mark sinks deeper, and so into the air its noise rises higher. I hear the detonation of bombs. I hear the thrum and drone of planes, and the crush of tyres over dirt and pebbles, and the howl and the screaming, and the caress of whispers in my ear. I hear it all and wonder if she too, had heard it.
The kitchen light is on. I creep up the stairs, and through the bannisters I see my grandmother leaning over the sink, holding a glass of cloudy water. The back of her neck glistens, and in her other arm is a damp serviette. On emerging from between the lips of the rind. There is also a bottle of Krupnik. She drinks it straight, without ice. Even on nights like tonight, she likes it warm. She is the only person in my family who drinks that stuff. On the table there is a thin slice of black bread, on a plate. Beside it is a cut tomato, an opened container of salt, a pepper shaker, a packet of Tasty Cheese and a taped log of paper in which is wrapped a kielbasa. There is one last thing knife and some crumbs in the sink. My grandmother turns around. Her face is as misty and the bus. Wires of grey twist through fraying ropes of brown, around yellow cylinders – her hair is in rollers, and the circular effect produces a plastic halo around her head. Halos of another kind ring her otherwise alert eyes. The skin beneath is plump but slightly loose. It bunches about the sides of her mouth and falls in coarse ridges down her neck, where it smooths and vanishes under her satin night robe, a faint moss green colour. The colour of her eyes. We greet each other and sit at the table. ‘I cannot sleep,’ she tells me, in Polish.
For Babcia has never told me a thing of being twenty years of age, and I can only imagine what it was that she had heard, and, always, always on these nights I do. I sit on that bus and my ears ring as I feel myself transported from my home, from my life, into the opulence of danger. I sit on that bus hoping for something to go wrong. I pray for the things that are out of my control, to control me as they had once controlled her.
‘I can,’ I reply, in English. ‘I just don’t.’ ‘How was your night tonight?’
beside her. She looks at me, and I start to cry. I cannot help it. I do not want to help it. She takes my head in her arms. ‘What is wrong? What is it?’ she asks, she, who had nothing.
‘Good.’ I nod. ‘Yeah, it was… it was good, Babcia.’ We look at each other for a moment. She looks away, down, at the table. I glance at my phone, and rest it on my lap. My head lowered, my eyes upturned; I watch my grandmother.
‘You drink too much tonight? You didn’t have a good night? What is the matter with you?’ How can I explain myself to her? What could I possibly say to
I see the tablet drop into her hand. She gulps it, and the
just for the one who survives, just for the one to mean
water, and then eats. She insists that I eat too. When I politely decline she stops, and will not eat another mouthful until I share it with her. So I do. She asks the time, for the clock is on the wall behind her and she cannot move her neck very much. Again I look at my phone. Three in the morning. At that she scoffs, presumably at the fact that we are sitting here eating what she ordinarily eats for lunch.
something – I want to mean something. I want to be the one who really means something. Something unfamiliar, something alien, and new – I want it, so badly. I, with everything, greedily scrounge for the abundance of nothing.
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What Kind of Moon Stays Here? Rachel Machkevitch
There’s a moon above me but it’s in my home. There’s a curve of nose and a pointed brow. It curls in like the pictures before, I like the marble and the slight of jaw. There are lashings in the sheet of white, And yet unlike those books I read, The moon won’t smile, it is dead. There seems a sadness on the curve, Contemplation, just as I. We stare, I stare, between it as I lie On these soft sheets, head turned to a side. The room is bright and full of thickness in the air, I feel of what we had just done in there. The moment’s passing now, a shame. It’s daytime after all, ‘what kind of moon stays here?’ I think It seems to balance on the brink of something that I had once thought, but that has passed It’s but a hope, a want, a might, I stare forgotten at the ceiling light.
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Showcase
Vertigo
Poems for Martin Harrison Sophia Rose O’Rourke
In loving memory of Martin Harrison, devoted teacher and poet.
Eco Poetics Consider, “That there is a convergence, Between immersive states of consciousness in poetry and everyday awareness, Of land, and weather, and space” Martin read from his lecture notes Consider, “Yourself as a kind of cartographer, Mapping inward and outward spaces of consciousness. Tracing out the landscape, You make sense”. Consider, “That it is this form, This Eco poetics – if you like to call it that, That helps us understand our path, That works through states of mind we cannot process, Drawing how our inward states of mind connect with outside events.” Consider this, “It’s a way of knowing, A way of remembering Things which otherwise May remain memories living in landscape That we think we have forgotten.”
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Landscape of Remembering It is too simplistic to think of rain like tears. It’s not the world crying. It’s a rhythm, a regulation of emotion, Waxing and Waning as it remembers and forgets. Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is ever just. Still. Do landscapes end formation at a point in time? They do. We can learn a lot from landscapes when we seek to accept life’s patterns. “The ideal piece of writing maps a space by going there, by crossing the territory and even by coming up against or counter them.
but as with the element of time, it arrives at a statistical at which point we can say that enough information is enough information. Enough for now.” -M
We should not ignore it. It’s in the landscape We walk in it and trace our path, we map it out. We leave it somewhere Where it can be remembered.
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Showcase
Oh Vertigo Serial 4 by Daniel Comensoli
Vertigo
Ovid
Ovid had never been a saviour before. On his home system he was from the journalist underclass, bred into a life of reportage to editors. He worked, bought the cheapest sustenance, stayed in on weeknights, and used his weekends to find a suitable mate. He had been unsuccessful on these weekends, and he had never been needed to save anyone from themselves.
The prolonged staring grew uncomfortable. Cognizant of divine presence, Scout pulled his tattered robe over him to cover a few frayed chest hairs that had wormed loose mid-conversation.
“I need to see my notes,” Ovid said.
“I do not see that. I will need time. I will need notes.”
“I will need to return to the surface.” “But you are this man! It is all here. Come Ovid, you are here for a reason.”
“Well, where are they?” Scout asked. “Up there.” He gestured to the surface. “They are on my note… My device.” “Then you will not need it. Technology is what ruined us. It is what we have cast aside down here.” Ovid looked at Scout looking at Ovid. They studied each other for some time – both conscious of the rarity of their ability to converse, and both aware of the strangeness of their situations. Scout was trying to convince an Ovid – a bio-engineered nobody – was being told that his menial existence was of real consequence.
Foremost in his mind was his characterisation as a man. Ovid could vaguely remember the human anatomy, and he was pretty sure that his lack of external sex organs might remove needed his Diginote because he felt a prove inappropriate. “Go then, take time. But the day is slipping above. Our nights belong to the top-dwellers.” Ovid left the prophecy chamber and passed back through the narrow corridor. The woman from before was waiting for him outside with a group of
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other humans, and they bowed their heads as he passed. Ovid returned the gesture. One of the weaker looking men in the back fainted. Uneasy, he left them to tend to their swooning comrade. The return to the surface ran like a dream. Lit torches in the walls scattered uneven light
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Swiping left, he collected all the information he could about the humans he was doomed to save. Little arrived of use. His suspicions were correct: he wasn’t like the men of this planet. Instead of lifting the weight from his shoulders, he was cast again into his underground misery.
across his path, and he turned the wrong way often. The carved tunnels were complex – each unique and varied in height and length. At the end of he often found the tunnels led to dwellings. More of the humans came out to see him, but they never spoke. Laughing children stopped at his approach, and everywhere his presence was met with solemnity. It all felt something like the night his friend Virgil found his mating partner had been breeding with someone else.
Worse than never having saved anyone, nothing much had ever been expected of him. He could report and breed and live, but his measure was always minute. No decisions had ever passed his way. No one had taken his opinions seriously. Ovid had never been designated anything like the heights of those above him, and the
The more he lost himself in the human maze, the more uncertain he became. He couldn’t save any of these people. He couldn’t save Virgil. His preordained relevance hadn’t brought him any happiness. Instead he stumbled around the cavern, falling deeper into despair and wretchedness, until Scout appeared near an opening.
The woman found him again as he was dropping the Diginote on a rock. Its screen shattered, and the advanced circuitry within emptied onto the dry earth.
“Here’s the exit, Ovid.” So he went up. The barren, lifeless mess of the surface was consolation to him. The dusty plain stretched on under the sinking sky, pulling in ascendant streaks of red and orange and laying them along the forlorn planet. Ovid walked and felt little again. Then felt better again. His Diginote sat quietly where it was left. Ovid returned to it as a friend.
showing in his historical importance burned deep in his core. He felt vague things that he hadn’t felt before.
“Just like our phones used to,” the woman said. She smiled up at him, and beckoned him to return with her. Ovid stayed still, suddenly realising the magnitude of his device drop. The last rays curled under the horizon. Way out to his right there was a howl. A shape spread there, contorted and broken into a number of shapes, moving at speed, all pounding at the cracked earth – innumerable and immeasurable, roaring into being in the grey split of the evening. The woman turned into his side. Ovid stood before the noise with someone to save.
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Features Showcase
Rose Wallace McEwen
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Features Issue 04
Vertigo
Second year design in visual communications
based illustrator and graphic designer. Her work plays with line and shapes through a mixture of ink and wet media. She was an artist in the Otherworlds published two small riso comics, which are stocked at the Rizzeria in Leichardt and at Sticky Institute in Melbourne. She is currently working on a range of textile designs with Steph & Gaia Homewares as well as preparing for
http://cargocollective.com/papergrl
instagram: @rosemcewen
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Showcase
Isabella Sanasi
This year I was one of 2 Aussie Vis Comm girls to set out to Austria on what became a unique and memorable global exchange. Not really knowing what awaited us in this small city called ‘Dornbirn’ that even many Austrians haven’t heard of, we discovered that our surroundings we’re amongst the most enchanting imaginable. I was also pretty lucky to be there with the most unique and quirky group of fellow exchange students amongst which there was a group who was always keen to walk countless hours up mountains in rain, snow or shine. A beautiful place, experienced with beautiful people.
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Hello fellow UTS students! We’re the 2015 Vertigo editorial team, and we’re looking for contributors for our magazine and newspaper.
and email it to submissions@utsvertigo.com.au
Vertigo is the student publication of the University of Technology, Sydney. And in 2015, we’re looking to keep Vertigo awesome by keeping the magazine you all know and love and by also introducing a regular newspaper for current affairs. Vertigo? What can I contribute? We want your help with investigative reporting, feature
4. What experience do you have?
sound or visual design. What does being a contributor entail? Being a contributor means getting to know us, expanding your skills, getting your name in print, and much more! Vertigo 2015 is all about ambition, and we want your help with anything and everything. We’re very excited to work with each and every one of you.
media.
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