Pelican Edition 3, Volume 86 by UWA Student Guild

Student Car Loans % p.a. % p.a.

7.49 7.84 Variable Rate

Comparison Rate

Ask Unicredit today! t: 9389 1011 e: loans@unicredit.com.au

No Establishment Fee

Limited time only. Apply today!

...own your future

We’re committed to giving members more - ask about our competitive home loans.

*All loan applications are subject to Unicredit’s normal lending criteria. Terms and Conditions, Fees and Government charges apply. Loans start from $1,000. Car loan rate shown is effective 18/2/15 is variable and subject to change. Comparison rate is based on a loan of $30,000 over 5 years. The University Credit Society Ltd. ABN 90 087 651 901 AFSL/Australian Credit Licence No. 244168 1503

LOOKING TO SAVE ON TEXTBOOKS FOR THIS SEMESTER? WANTING TO SELL YOUR OLD ONES?

WWW.GUILDTEXCHANGE.COM

EDITORS’ NOTE S

FROM THE EDITORS

FROM THE PRESIDENT This edition of Pelican could not have come at a better time. Between late night trains and the recent movement to stop Bjorn Lømborg from setting up shop in the UWA Business School, it seems like protest is actually becoming somewhat normalised on campus. This has not always been the case. Having helped run the Education Action Network for the past two years, trying to get students outside of my friendship group and Socialist Alternative to engage with an education rally used to be a real battle. Now, I’m pleased to see people that I’ve never seen before getting on buses going to rallies. I don’t know if this is a sign that I am getting old and should probably graduate or that there are actually new people getting involved, but either way, protest is coming back and I think that’s a good thing. It’s a pleasant alternative to the idea that people just don’t care about anything. The hot topic of protest and politics in the Guild always seems to be political party involvement. My stance has always been that the Guild needs to be able to be political, but should never be politicized. I think it is important to take stances on issues that effect students, and that students care about, because not doing this fails to give students a voice. I’ve never been a member of a political party, but I don’t hold that against others as a blanket rule – you will naturally have Guild Councilors and Office Bearers who are interested in political issues. I take issue with people voting based on personal political membership or taking an external party agenda to their role – politicizing the Guild. So, here’s to people not making people feel like shit for caring about something and wanting to protest, and to waving goodbye to Bjørn Lomborg and Abbott’s Australian Consensus Centre as soon as humanly possible. Solidarity forever, Lizzy

This issue of Pelican wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. As someone who admittedly often likes to pretend she attends a progressive North American women’s only liberal arts college in the 1960s, I tend to think that students are filled with passion about the issues that surround them, that we are devoid of apathy, that we wish to enact change and care deeply.Yet it was difficult to get people to engage with Pelican’s protest issue. At times it became a little too obvious that many students are more interested in buying shoes from ASOS than they are in questioning the actions of decision makers. It can be easy to lose faith in UWA.The other day my lecturer for a unit about contemporary Aboriginal art told our class of 15 students that the course would be cancelled next year due to low enrolment. The hour before in my lecture about Parisian art in the 1800s we were told that an additional tutorial would be added to the timetable because too many students had enrolled in literally the most cliche art history class available. What the fuck is wrong with this university? Despite occasional moments of despair, I’m not actually convinced that students have stopped caring. That’s a cop out, and the work in the magazine you are holding is testament to that. More than anything, I think we are overwhelmed. It is difficult to know where to start when you are drowning in the milieu of one of the most troubling governments this country has ever had. I think that a sense of hopelessness is often mistaken for apathy. We have stopped believing that we can change anything, because decisions seem so far out of our control. While Colin Barnett increasingly brings to mind a senile King Lear, and the actual Federal government becomes indistinguishable from a satirical article about the Federal government, it really is difficult to know what to do.

About ten days ago, I decided to become a vegetarian. It happened very naturally for me – as in, it happened at a kebab shop. Meat is an unaffordable luxury on my measly student editor budget anyway, and two out of three of my current housemates are already fully sanctioned tree-hugging vegos. Plus, I regularly refer to myself as an ecofeminist, and I own a tree of life necklace. If I know how to pour my own scented soy wax candle, I should probably not eat meat. That’s only fair. I was completely mortified by the response of my friends and family. Some scoffed, others laughed, one yelled ‘but I bought a three kilo leg of lamb for Easter Sunday!’ (sorry mum). I know that the shock, and in some cases, horror, comes partly because I love food. But working on Pelican’s protest issue at the same time as I decided to shirk eating animals made something else clear. It felt like the people around me couldn’t fathom that I had been thinking (critically) about my own consumption habits, and wanted to start my own personal protest. I know we’re all just so post-ironic meh-generation millennial space bots, but surely TIME wasn’t right about us? When was the last time TIME was right about anything? I suspect it’s far more likely that we just don’t know how much trouble we can stir. I extend my heartfelt thanks and admiration to all our gorgeous Pelican contributors who chose to write themselves into the conversation. Give ‘em hell. Lucy

Whether your cause is a late night train service or the end of systematic cultural genocide, please believe. We are so much more powerful than we think we are. Thanks to everyone who contributed this time around. Kat

Contributors PELICAN IS UWA’S STUDENT MAGAZINE, SINCE 1929

Editors Lucy Ballantyne Kat Gillespie Subeditors Melissa Scott Section Editors Politics Brad Griffin Film James Munt Music Hugh Manning Literature Kate Prendergast Arts Emily Purvis Lifestyle Morgan Goodman Contributors Nick Ballantyne* Patrick Bendall* Rahana Bell* Jessica CockerillHayden Dalziel*Elysia GelavisChloe Durand* Dea EffendiTristan Fidler*Maisie Glen* Matt Green* Alex Griffin* Brayden KeizerRichard Moore* Nick Morlet*Georgia Oman* Catherina PaganiThomas Rossiter* Laurent Shervington* Tamara SindhunakornEd Smith* Mark Smith* Ruth Thomas* Sophia van Gent* Laura WellsDaniel Werndly* Mitch Winstanley*

Cover Art Hayden Dalziel Cover Calligraphy Jessica Cockerill Design Kate Hoolahan Advertising Chelsea Hayes The University of Western Australia acknowledges that its campus is situated on Noongar land, and that Noongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land, and continue to practise their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge. The views expressed within are not the opinions of the UWA Student Guild or Pelican editorial staff, but of the individual writers and artists. Getting involved with Pelican is easy! Perhaps too easy. Like us on Facebook, email us at pelican@ guild.uwa.edu.au, or drop by the office (it’s right next to The Ref!)

*Words -Art

offer applies to large pizzas only

‘“Austudy loans? No bloody way!” UWA students protest at Kim Beazley’s office in Vic Park, 1991

FEATURE

IS S U E 3 : PROTE ST REGUL ARS FRESHER DAN SCIENCE MAN . . ................................... 8 CHOITUS WITH CHLOE.............................................. 8 CALENDAR .. ................................................................ 21 MATILDA BAY MUSINGS WITH TRISTAN FIDLER . . ...... 35 RETRO PELI................................................................. 46

FE ATURE S ICEL ANDIC BL ACK MAGIC . . ....................................... 9 GUILD POLITICS........................................................ 10 BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE CAMPUS LEFT.. ............. 11 SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE.......................................... 12 KNOW YOUR PROTESTER. . ......................................... 13 MEET PAUL JOHNSON................................................ 14 WA PROTEST L AWS..................................................... 16 THE LOMBØRG CONSENSUS...................................... 18 TONY ABBOT T ’S VENERABLE INSTITUTIONS . . .......... 19 SPOT AN UNDERCOVER COP..................................... 20

SE CTIONS POLITICS. . .................................................................. 24 FILM........................................................................... 28 MUSIC .. ....................................................................... 31 LITERATURE. . ............................................................. 35 ARTS........................................................................... 39 LIFEST YLE.................................................................. 42

SOCIAL PAGES Send tips to pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au

Letters to the Editor

M300 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA, 6100 Email pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au Facebook /pelicanmagazine Twitter @pelicanmagazine Instagram @pelicanmagazine

Via email With the arrival on campus of Prof Bjorn Lomborg to add to the intellectual life of the university, I hope that students will respond by adding to the richness of their intellectual experience at your wonderful university. Firstly, a name change would be most appropriate, and my suggestion of Uni of Wacky Alternatives is just to kick start some creative juices. Secondly, I would hope there is a blossoming of new student societies to match the intellectual rigor inspired by the Australian Consensus Centre. I would suggest a revival of The Flat Earth Society would be an attractive starter, followed by The Ptolemaic Society, and societies promoting Eugenics, Phrenology and Phlogiston. The Intelligent Design Movement may even be able to provide funds, like Christopher Pyne, to promote their ideas. There are many other possibilities which would enhance student’s capacity for critical thinking.

Via email The Pelican mailing list has 1 request(s) waiting for your consideration. This notice of pending requests, if any, will be sent out daily. Pending requests: From: hello@goop.com on Tue Jan 27 15:11:21 2015 Subject: Confirm your goop subscription Please attend to this at your earliest convenience. Via Facebook Loved the last issue. I saw myself reflected in your prose. It only happens with Pelican, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. R. Ferguson, Melbourne

Bill Johnstone, New South Wales

Club Spotlight UWA FILM SOCIETY UWA Film Society provides really, really ridiculously good watching. Since 1863, we’ve been screening a diverse range of films to students in the evenings with a program traversing genres, decades and (occasionally) taste. We don’t have a membership policy, we will accept donations, but we need to emphasise: the whole thing is FREE. What this means is that this semester on Mondays and Thursdays you can swing by the Social Science Lecture Theatre at 7pm and treat yourself (and your buddies/lovers) to classics like Singin’ in the Rain, American indies like Safe, whacked-up westerns like El Topo and phenomenal modern home-growns like Samson and Delilah. All of which are given— for your insight and interest—a brief little nugget of an opener by either a UWAFS gang-member or special guest speaker. Visit our Facebook page for a viddy at our upcoming event screenings. You’re bound to find something there for you. Need to do the time warp again? Lubitsch anyone? Nic Cage? Spall so hard. Oh daddy. Go on. Give your eyeballs some lovin’. Wong Kar-Wai not.

UWA FACT If someone says the word ‘Baudrillard’, St George’s residents are required to drop their pants

THE FRESHER DIARY · PART THREE In which we ask an anonymous UWA fresher to diarise their experience as a shit-scared first year.

or something, but the bus drove up to PARLIAMENT HOUSE. I KNOW. I was like, why. I haven’t been up there since Dad had to address the media and tbh it kind of brought up some stuff for me. Bryony, haha she’s so fuckin crazy, she was already off yelling and rubbing up against people. Love her. I felt really bummed, diary.

Sup bitches!! Thank god it’s study break, I’m so behind. I need to watch like, twelve anth lectures - just gonna smash ‘em out in triple time. Need to be done by Wednesday cos the squad’s going DOUTH! Yeow!!! #squad #whenthewholesquadonpoint I was chilling on Oak Lawn the other day with Bryony, EMAS was pumping out these sick beats and like, it didn’t even matter that it was midday on a Tuesday, it was pumping. Idek what was going on but this party bus rocked up in the carpark and it was like, yeah, it’s on. Bryony is such a loose unit so we were like, yeah, and just got right on the bus. Omg, diary, it was NOT good. People were wearing these club shirts I didn’t recognise, and they kept saying ‘dereg is cooked’???? Is that a chemistry thing? Whatevs. Anyway, you won’t believe it diary, we thought we’d start at like, Carnegie’s,

I bumped into the Shenton boy. He was being so full on, he had a massive sign and was screaming. I didn’t get it, diary, like, why was he so angry? He asked me what was up and I was like, being up here is really emotional for me, I find it really hard. He made full on home school eye contact and was like ‘I totally get it, fee deregulation really affects me too’, and he put his arm around me. Omg diary, I was so glad Bryony was too busy spitting on something to see, how embarrassing, but it was soooo nice. Could that be a thing? I gotta run, Bryony’s picking up some pingaz for the trip and I said I’d meet her in Claremont after. See you when we get back!! Love ya bitch!!! G xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

d. This is increase productivity tenfol and ergonomic desk chairs ikea”. ee “fr ing - or as I like to call it, about the old guild build ild building, tucked away in the old gu The old Pelican office was every so often to excuse to trek back there student editor the aid ke rp ma de un we d so an gry on that an By Kat Gillespie, e by. Oh, the things I did reminisce about times gon s on a fair amount of g the old guild wing bring of the guild itin nce Vis ora y. ign con d sse bal ble in live all of their furniture, If you are lucky enough to e instead of transporting lise that over aus rea bec t no vu, t à gh déj mi you , ies coffee supplies, and their day-to-day activit ipment, stationery, tea and resentatives have equ rep l t ica den hn stu tec le mb hu r m the old guild wing the past couple of years you ters above nters, photocopiers et al fro uar pri dq s, ter hea pu ey ng com gru al ion dit sen to buy new stuff. transitioned from their tra corporate e, the guild have simply cho llar on do n new llio the mi , to art the of te essentially left almost the Ref courtyard to a sta ive, brand new stuff. They ens exp of aps He . tre old wooden cen al ’re in need of a beautiful paradise below the medic everything behind. So if you a comfy or , in there) bably won’t about thirty lying around pro are you ere t (th tha k is des lise ing rea t tch no ma t a set of The reason that you migh and apparently office chair, or a bookshelf, or a kettle, or te ple com its e nitor, or du mo g, ter win or a compu have been to the new guild e to find the a whiteboard, or a printer, nag or ma ns, do hio t part? cus you If bes e ity. Th bil a. it free ike deliberate lack of approacha ly sterile interior a USB, or any kind of stationery, just vis ing ear nd paid n-e y no ead its alr er ’ve cov ually, you new guild, you’ll get to dis that moonlights You don’t need to feel guilty. Because act firm ng nti ou acc an by design, apparently inspired e! But this for everything. iting room. Student cultur ces as a hospital emergency wa offi wl bo fish se ild. I’m sure that tho rant isn’t about the new gu

Ca m p u s R a n t

BLIND ITEMS Which avian campus magazine turned green-eyed at the sight of a surprisingly excellent edition of PROSH? You’re still my favourite campus publication, you bigbilled bird Which student union’s 2014 budget claims that a decrease of $20 000 for their campus magazine will be accounted for by ‘gradually scaling down’ physical production for online publication? Sorry, but we’re not going anywhere

Member of which faculty society committee is known to feast on human flesh? Editor of which student magazine is beginning to regret suggesting a blind items section after causing mild offence among her peers? The Vice-Chancellor might be at the Uni Club in five minutes

UWA FACT If you date the guild president, you get diplomatic immunity in at least three countries

Art by Megan Ansell

FEATURE

dan: r e h s fre man e c n e i c s

Cancer Clean-Up Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been directly responsible for saving the lives of millions of cancer sufferers around the world, but they do have drawbacks. They target rapidly dividing cells, so along with cancer, the good stuff like blood and gametic cells can be hurt as well. Chemo and radiotherapy also leave the body with a high toxicity, which left unchecked is as fatal as the cancer itself. A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis has just published in Science that they’ve had success with a novel cancer treatment. Instead of using chemicals to inhibit cancer growth, an immune response against the cancer is elicited, taking body toxicity out of the equation. This treatment is specifically designed based on the type of cancer and the genome of the patient, so although it will be expensive, it has the potential to be extremely effective at combating cancer progression. Old English Breakfast Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA is an antibiotic resistant skin infection that plagues healthcare institutions around the world. The most reliable treatment being Vancomycin, which is around 90% effective. Recently, Freya Harrison of the University of Nottingham tested an Anglo-Saxon remedy for MRSA styes as a possible mitigant of the infection. The recipe from Bald’s Leechbook includes, leek, garlic, wine and bull which is to stand for nine days in a brass container. Remarkably, not only is the solution self-sterilising but it treated MRSA with as much efficacy as its modern counterpart. The treatment works on the modern MRSA because the bacteria in both ailments are related to one another, with the main difference between them the antibiotic resistance. Planet Palette A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have begun compiling a colour scheme for what a planet with living organisms on it might look like. By collecting organisms from all around the world and from different environments, harsh and mild, and then taking both optical and infra-red images of the spectra reflected by them, they hope to compile a database that can be used to identify whether an exoplanet has life on it, and what kind of life it has. This is extremely useful in identifying Earth-like planets but also has the potential to throw out some false positives. If a spectra is recorded from a planet that closely matches that of a photosynthetic organism, you might assume that they are abundant and that that planet has a breathable oxygen atmosphere. Right up until you touch down on the surface and discover it was a related molecule and you’re bathing in the super-hot, super-dense Venusian atmosphere.

Please don’t wear a disguise: Chloe’s guide to buying sex toys If you’ve ever wandered the streets of Northbridge after eleven on a weeknight, you’ll know that there are less than five things open at any given time. The Moon, U&I cafe (underrated, go there), and two side-by-side adult stores. I have a personal fondness for adult stores. They’re like a naughty Toys R Us where children are banned. What’s not to love? However, there is a certain bashfulness about buying sex toys, so Aunty Chloe’s here to give you a few helpful hints that will have you buzzing along. 1. Ditch the disguise: As long as you’re of age, it’s perfectly legal and acceptable to be buying sex toys. Most shops have displays blocking the view from outside, so no one but you and the cashier has to know what it is in that anonymous paper bag. And they won’t tell anyone. Probably. 2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Maybe you don’t know where the lube or the Wartenberg wheel are. Stress not, that’s what retail assistants are for! Ask how you would in any other shop environment. Confidently, respectfully. “Hey, I’m just wondering where the ___ is?” works the same for butt plugs as it does for coriander or tweezers. 3. It’s okay to laugh: Let’s face it, anyone who’s been into Adultshop has laughed at “The Fist”, because it’s hilarious. Sex and sex-adjacent issues don’t have to be taken seriously all the time. Let out that giggle, child. However, be mindful to avoid shaming undertones; that item does float someone’s boat. And they probably think that tiny bullet vibrator you’re holding is laughable too. 4. Don’t hit on the cashier: Look, I get it, you really like the view of them unboxing the phthalate-free dongs. While this is a retail job, they probably have to deal with a larger proportion of creeps than your average IGA cashier. Think before you use that pickup line that you were so sure was funny on this stranger. Does your wordplay with the phrase “everything butt” set you apart from your garden variety sleaze? Probably not. 5. Things are usually cheaper online: Fuck this two speed economy. If you’ve decided on an item but your bank account is screaming for mercy, search discreetly with your smartphone as you sidle out and avoid eye contact with the cashier. It’s fine, they don’t work on commission anyway.

UWA FACT UWA has an official uniform, but no one knows if it’s white and gold or black and blue

FEATURE

PROTESTING WITH ICELANDIC BLACK MAGIC Words and Art by Hayden Dalziel

So you want to make your local Liberal MP’s life just that little bit harder. Don’t we all? Firebombing their office or throwing caltrops on their driveway comes with significant risks, but luckily there is a way to avoid getting your hands dirty. Welcome, friends, to the wonderful world of using Icelandic black magic to annoy Colin Barnett. We’ll start by waking the souls of the dead. For your basic resurrection you’ll need to carve the following symbol onto oak wood, and then anoint the wood with blood from your right big toe and the thumb of your left hand.

Lay the stave on the grave of your choosing (make sure they weren’t a coalition voter in life). Walk three times clockwise and three times anticlockwise around the church or graveyard. At this point, three spurts of earth should erupt from the grave and the head of the apparition will rise from the ground. It is imperative that you grab hold of the neck and maintain your grip until the revenant asks you to release it. If you fail to do this, the apparition will wander aimlessly, and possibly grow angry. What you command your horde of the dead to do is up to you, but Pelican recommends using them to unfold Scott Morrison’s socks and make his pictures crooked, hoping that one day he will finally break. To banish the spirits of the dead, return to the cemetery in which you found them, take three steps over the grave and combine sulphur with equal parts of consecrated wine and vinegar. Burn the sulphur in three chunks, and use the remaining ash and dust to massage the soles of your feet and the palms of your hands. Doing so should ensure that this plan doesn’t backfire, rendering your socks unfoldable for the rest of your life.

UWA FACT All chairs in the arts faculty are just chairs thrown away by other faculties

FEATURE

Beginner’s G

s on C ic it l o P t f e L uide to with Mark Smith

ght ALP stood le elites that thou -ru -to rn Bo : FT in every LABOR LE e hacks and spies av H . rty Pa l ra be for Another Li ASIO conspiracy campus. Possible on ty cie So d an b Clu UWA frat house nited Voice was a U t gh ou Th T: IS UNION and joined h their sad-faced g students throug in ct tra At S: EN shing they GRE d all their time wi en Sp . BO d an ies personalit were at Curtin hard-working, ATIVE: Serious, RN TE AL ST LI IA SOC r society. to creating a bette d te ca di de s nt de education sincere stu gees, first nations, fu re t ou ab s es en at not Raising awar eir time frustrated th d en Sp s. ht rig cuts and worker ) ing class (see irony being seen as work e you saw hen was the last tim W E: C AN LI AL SOCIALIST y? a Green Left Weekl COMMUNISTS

ampus

: This isn’t Murdo

97 campus was in 19 Last trot seen on . ct tin n Ex : ru e TS th O on TR rently ation ran out. Cur uc ed e fre n eir re th ild when all the ch child support for g in as ch O AT e from th sher camps they fathered on fre ’t d anti-social. Won irty, belligerent an D : TS , IS H ist C sc fa AR a AN t is r: believe assessmen te es m se st fir st m pa make it ion syste to used by the educat ol to al ch ar tri pa capitalist, t tools of the state make you complian SOCIALISTS: Yo

ung Liberals

grade your mark union. Will down NTEU: Lecturers’ socialist language. n’t use the correct do u yo if % 10 by nt a job in the cause you don’t wa be u yo on wn do Look government ild s drunk so they bu to getting engineer d te ica ed D : EC U wn things that fall do enging left end their time scav sp o wh ies pp hi y Pelican: Dirt pus functions overs from on-cam

UWA FACT The arts union’s t-shirts were made by the president’s mum

PROTEST AT THE DISCO

FEATURE

Words by Georgia Oman

The Eurovision Song Contest is like a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a feather boa, and doused in sequins, just for good measure. It swings into our lives every May like a Balkan Miley Cyrus on a mirror-plated wrecking ball of kitsch, bringing with it a chaotic confection of everything that is good in this world – cheesy lyrics, euro-pop beats, synchronised dancing, questionable costume changes, heavily accented English, and all the perils of live television. It’s a delirious festival of camp you can lose yourself in for the evening, taking a shot every time someone belts out a key change until you’re loudly abusing the spokesperson from Belarus for only giving two points to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, when you know that saxophone solo deserved more. The idea of a televised song contest emerged in 1956 from the rubble of the Second World War in the hope of uniting a battered and fragmented continent through the healing power of music. It has failed spectacularly in this endeavour. Assembling a host of representatives from across Europe once a year to compete in a publicly-voted contest in which there can only be one winner seems a little bit like the plot of the Hunger Games even before you throw in the turbulent backdrop of twentieth-century European politics. The official rules of Eurovision explicitly state that ‘no lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted’, but rules are made to be broken, and if you’re already throwing the laws of good taste to the wind, you might as well keep going. From the harmless bloc voting that Britain continues to blame for its dismal showing in recent years (rather than the fact they sent Engelbert Humperdinck and Bonnie Tyler in successive years), to more explicit political statements, nations have been using the greatest disco on earth as a platform for protest and demonstration for decades.

Everyday Protest with Sophia van Gent 1) Buy fairtrade Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers. Companies must pay sustainable prices that must never fall below the market price to farmers and workers. Yeah, you pay a little bit more but that little bit more will make sure that the farmers that get paid will not be discriminated by conventional trade. That little bit more is about supporting the development of farmers and working communities. What products can you buy fairtrade? Chocolate and coffee, for starters. Did you know that all coffee from guild cafés is fairtrade? Winning!. There is a whole list of fairtrade products that you can buy in Australia at search.fairtrade.com.au/brands.

In the early years of the competition, Eurovision’s ‘no politics’ rule was tested by the fact that two of its competing states were fascist dictatorships.An intrepid demonstrator stormed the stage at the 1964 competition with a banner reading ‘Boycott Franco & Salazar’, obviously denouncing the authoritarian regimes of James Franco in Spain and Salazar Slytherin in Portugal. Clearly he didn’t do his job properly, because both regimes were still in power when the 1974 contest rolled around a decade later. That year was notable for a few reasons; Olivia Newton John represented the UK in full pre-makeover Sandy from Grease mode, and Sweden made its contribution to humanity by gifting us ABBA. When played on the radio back home, though, the Portuguese entry – while it may have lost out to ‘Waterloo’ – was used as a signal to begin preparing for the military coup that would begin the Carnation Revolution and go on to topple the Estado Novo regime. Eurovision has brought down dictatorships and spread democracy; Australian Idol gave us Mark Holden and ‘TOUCHDOWN!’ The Eurovision performers of the 1970s weren’t going to be left out of the action. Greece boycotted the 1975 contest, in which Turkey were performing for the first time, in protest of their invasion of Cyprus the year before. Nobody can resist the lure of Eurovision for long, though, and they returned the following year - and those reading between the lines of their 1976 entry may have noticed a subtle reference to the Cypriot conflict in jaunty lyrics like ‘homes burnt down by napalm bombs’ and ‘crosses, wooden crosses... rotting in silence.’1978 also saw some tense political relations spill over into the Eurovision arena, when Israel won for the first time with the excellently named group ‘Izhar Cohen & the Alphabeta’. When it became clear that the voting was heading in Israel’s direction, Jordan’s government cut the broadcast and falsely announced that runner-up Belgium had won. Russia hosted the competition in 2009, and tensions were understandably high. Georgia, having fought a short war with its former motherland just nine months before, was particularly on edge. It’s perhaps understandable that the contest organisers thought the Georgian entry for that year, ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In’, contravened the no politics rule. Georgia pleaded ignorance, but they were disqualified anyway. Russian gay rights activists also used the 2009 contest to protest against the regime. The authorities responded to these outrageous accusations by violently breaking up their Pride parade and arresting the demonstrators. Just last year, following the crisis on the Crimean peninsula, the audience audibly booed the Russian act – a pair of blond twins whose hair was braided together and whose performance included the use of a seesaw. Whether or not there were wider geo-political motivations behind he booing remains open to interpretation. More than just a singing contest, Eurovision teaches us the necessity of freedom of expression. And I choose to exercise that right in demanding full transparency into the selection process that chose Guy Sebastian to represent Australia this year. I want names, people.

UWA UWA FACT FACT FACT If you If you whisper whisper youryour GPA GPA intointo a vending a vending machine, machine, youyou get get a free a free cokecoke

KNOW YOUR PROTESTERS with Jessica Cockerill

TRADE UNIONIST

LEFT-WING STUDENT POLITICS HACK

union branded trucker cap

hipster glasses

winny blues

shitty handmade sign

singlet stained with engine grease or choc chill

ASOS corduroys

hi-vis

ill-fitting shirt denotes political affiliation

instagramming protest selfies

hard yakka workwear steel cap blundstones

“NO CUTS, NO FEES, NO CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES”

“I’LL BE AT THE PUB LATER, MATE!”

FRUSTRATED ANARCHIST aggressive haircut balaclava hardcore band affiliation maximum logos = maximum subversion satchel containing noam chomsky text and spray cans

ECO WARRIOR

flowers for rifle barrels too much hair tie-die sea shepard paraphenalia fair-trade sarong henna

HACKTIVIST

anonymous mask gaming headset black clothing really daggy jeans with sneakers *probably not @ the protest IRL

sandals (or no shoes at all)

ripped shit >11 eyelets

“THAT’S POLICE BRUTALITY, MAN”

“NO FRACKING WAY!”

UWA FACT Mock UN is real UN

“WE ARE LEGION”

SAVE AUSTRALIA’S MOST VENERABLE INSTITUTIONS Words by special guest writer Tony Abbott You may not yet know it, reader, but we are under attack. From whom? By what? And how? These seemingly pertinent questions lapse into irrelevancy when we consider two points: a) that the proud national culture of Team Australia is under threat and b) that we must act now to save our most venerable institutions before it is too late. Without wasting further time, I present to you in list form the last vestiges of our Proud Nation, so that we as a country can band together to save them from the various shadowy forces that pervade. There are some lifestyle choices that are legitimate, and these are they. HANDKERCHIEFS Once, you saw handkerchiefs everywhere. I couldn’t kick a footy without being interrupted by the elegant flight of a rogue handkerchief in the wind. Oh, was there a more lovely sight than a crispy, yellowed hanky emerging from the pocket of the stranger next to you on the bus? Think of the varieties of handkerchiefs you used to see – handkerchiefs with old-fashioned floral embroidered designs, handkerchiefs with the appropriate days of the week sewn on them, handkerchiefs edged with lace. Such fun. Nowadays, a public handkerchief sighting is rarer than a Tasmanian Eucalypt. A national disgrace. MILO What do you think of when you think Australia? Fear and uncertainty, prejudice, youth unemployment, growing income inequality? No! You think of Nestlé Milo, the nation’s favourite malted chocolate drink. The recommended Milo serving is one to two teaspoons per glass of milk, but I tend to go with three or four myself. Naughty! It would be a crime for future generations to miss out on the crunchy, not-quite-good-enough-to-taste-likereal-chocolate flavour experience that is Milo. Yet it is a national treasure sadly taken for granted. Don’t let Milo go the same way as the beloved Peters Drumstick, or the Yowie. Don’t let them take our culture.

useful nation. And what other kind of nation can there really, rightfully, be? SUNDIALS Our great southern land is known to be very sunny. I think you will agree that sunlight is basically everywhere! Some might go far as to say that it is our greatest untapped resource. Well, I’d agree with them. It is time that we finally harnessed solar energy and used it to its full potential – by bringing back the sundial. Once, sundials were on proud display in every garden or park. Nowadays we have sacrificed the quaint inefficiency of the sundial for wristwatches, clocks and mobile phones. Have we no regard for history? It is time, Australia – time to look backwards in order to move forward. WOLF WHISTLING This used to be a nation where a man could express his approval of a passing broad’s good looks in the universal and musical language of the wolf whistle, without fear of being called out for it. You used to hear the whistle everywhere, whimsically echoing down any given neighbourhood street irrespective of the hour or the wishes of the unsuspecting woman it was directed towards. Look - the wolf whistle is one of the solid foundations upon which this country was built, and without it we stand on the shaky ground of equality and respect. A nation where even the humble wolf whistle is frowned upon is hardly the nation that Sir Edmund Barton envisaged. Indeed, there is nothing in this country’s history to indicate that we are a people who value the basic rights of subjugated groups. It is time for us to remember who we truly are: a proud nation of whistlers.

Everyday Protest with Sophia van Gent

SCHOOL BULLIES STEALING YOUR LUNCH MONEY When I was a wee tot I would spend hours and hours crying in the school toilet because callous school bullies had taken my money. It was character building, and now I wouldn’t take those experiences back even if I could. As a result of those early schooling years and the extensive counseling sessions that followed them, I am now fiercely protective of my income, and those who try and take it from me. Nowadays you see all kinds of namby pamby policies and action groups trying to wrap Our Nation’s Children in the cotton wool of liberal idiocy. I say let the bullies run free, and restore a proud Aussie tradition.

2) Grow a veggie patch While we are talking about minimising your carbon footprint, why not grow a veggie patch? Not only will you save money and the planet, but according to the British Telegraph, growing a veggie patch “satisfies our epicurean appetites”... ah, okay. Regardless, growing a veggie patch will make you feel good (You managed to not kill a plant! And now it bears you yummy nutrients to be put in your tummy! For a person that does not have a natural green thumb, this is definitely a good feeling).

GOOD OL’ PLASTIC BAGS What CAN’T you use a plastic bag for? I use them to store everything, even my insecurities. You just can’t beat a thin crinkly plastic bag for strength and durability – we’ve been keeping our family Christmas decorations in the same plastic bag for over ten years! Plastic shopping bags come in so many shapes, sizes and colours – I think Myer does a nice classic one, with the white writing on a black background. Some naysayers may doubt me, but I say that a nation built on plastic bags is a convenient and

BONUS TIP - consider composting. You will decrease the amount of food scraps being thrown unnecessarily into landfill, and once the composting process gets going, you will end up with some nice, nutritious soil to cover your garden with.

If you don’t have much know how, there are tons of online resources on gardening, and especially maintaining veggie patches. Check out www.gardenate.com - it tells you which months you should plant certain seedlings according to your climate zone.

UWA FACT Since 1971, a biology student has lived in the top of the clock tower. He refuses to come down

FEATURE

Just who is our Vice-Chancellor, exactly? Words by Josh Chiat

“I’m not sure that anyone would ever say administration is the endgame. No one wants to end their days sitting in meetings.” UWA’s Vice-Chancellor Paul Johnson has decided to return to the classroom, albeit temporarily. He tutors, of course, in the senate room. It’s a contradiction of post-modern antiquity: the outside is the dank 1930s wood and sandstone facade of the original Winthrop Hall, but it opens to an ikea catalogue version of King Arthur’s round table, surrounded by portraits of our former Chancellors. As Johnson says, these are “a collection of old, mostly dead white men”. His class, a short course for history honours students in British economic history, starts off as a tutorial that turns into a lecture. A lecture that highlights Johnson’s opinions on students and protest. “It seems like students these days are not as focused or active on issues outside themselves, like they were in my student days”, he says. At precisely the same time, over a hundred students are on the steps of Parliament House protesting university deregulation bills. Dave, a middle-aged Scottish anarchist who owns an awesome FC St. Pauli fan club t-shirt, calls the VC out, highlighting some of the radical movements taking place in British universities at the moment. The VC responds with the equivocal shrug that seems to be one of his trademarks; a John Cena-esque “some of y’all agree with me, some of y’all don’t” approach that serves to diffuse the heat of debate. Leaving a cast of twenty bemused students behind and skipping off with his personal assistant to more pressing engagements, Johnson’s tangent was probably the main thing we all took out of the class. Why was this old white man suddenly so nostalgic for a student identity long past? After every academic and student I repeated this to had the same confused reaction, I decided I had to interview him. Luckily, he agreed. We met at the University Club, the Bifröst between UWA’s lower realm of undergraduates and upper realm of ‘scholars’. Behind its gates lie respectability, smooth jazz and marginally better coffee. All VCs were undergraduates once. “When I was a student there were a number of issues that 14

mobilised student movement in Britain. One was the AntiApartheid movement... there was a boycott of one of the major banks because of its investments... in South Africa and I’ve been hardwired to avoid that bank ever since...” To him the Anti-Apartheid movement seems to be the benchmark against which effective and just student activism can be measured, based on principles of “basic humanity” that could be extended to protesting other oppressive regimes in the world today. Oppressive regimes? “There are elements of the intervention in Northern Australia which seem to me to be racist, because the intervention has been to some extent based not on where [Indigenous people] live but on their race. So I think it was to some extent a racist intervention. Indeed I see a lot of racism in Australia. To some extents it is a great country... but we shouldn’t happily draw a veil over the bits of this country … which are reprehensible, and certainly the overt and implicit racism in this country is something to be shameful of.” So why does he think students aren’t as active now? He insists that it’s not up to him to tell students “how to spend their time.” As he says, “the world has moved on” and “conditions have changed”. While students have been in the forefront of most revolutionary movements in recent years, particularly (as he notes) during 2011’s Arab Spring, in Australia he doesn’t think “students are as active... do we have very big and fundamental issues? I don’t think we do.” “There may be issues that affect students, like Centrelink benefits and fee deregulation, but those are self-serving. In terms of global issues? The one area [is the] the environment... but I don’t see the environment as being the unifying subject of students as perhaps, Anti-Apartheid was... I think that is in part because it requires a much greater imaginative leap... It is less obvious that doing something today would have an impact...” Here he hit on two points that required attention, university deregulation and divestment from fossil fuels, a movement which hasn’t yet taken hold here but achieved significant success at ANU last year. “It’s the massification of higher education that has led to the change in funding model, but it’s also choice. Scandinavian countries continue to charge nothing or next to nothing for a university education... I think the thing that has shifted the opinion of 38 of the 39 Vice-Chancellors is that while funding has grown, the number of students has grown faster, which is

UWA FACT Every year Broadway drifts a little bit further away due to fracking

FEATURE

why we have a student to staff ratio of around 20 to 1 today. The only plausible way of changing this trend...is by charging more for tuition. Either you have an increase in the student-staff ratio and we’re already in the upper end of the OECD...Governments Labor and Liberal have consistently shown they are unprepared to increase taxation to pay for it. Neither party at the last election would have an honest and frank debate on taxation.” He continues to stick to the 38 of 39 figure. “If we had 97% of farmers saying something is a good thing [and] that good thing is rejected by the senate, people would be saying ‘we have a mad senate, how dare they reject the opinion of 97% of farmers, what would they know?’, well that is exactly what is happening with higher education.” Well, sure, but aren’t they just a fraction of the stakeholders in higher education? While Mr Johnson says he doesn’t dismiss the opinions of non-administrators lobbying to federal parliament, the Vice-Chancellors are still the most privileged and knowledgeable voices, and those that he believes deserve the most weighting. He claims to remain unconvinced with the arguments forwarded by the National Union of Students, Labor Party and National Tertiary Education Union on the access and debt effects of pursuing deregulation. To his mind every group “will argue for their own interest” (though from the teacher’s perspective surely deregulation would be in their interests should it actually result in commercial growth for their institution). “The access argument I think is often unclear...given no student pays anything (up front) for their education, I think the question is what is the impact of a larger student debt? I think this is unclear.” He disagrees with elements of the Coalition’s proposal, in particular the attempt to place a real rate of interest on the student loan as well as the decision to retain the three-tiered contribution system (that privileges some degrees over others in terms of receiving government subsidisation). Regardless, he thinks the package is largely dead. Did protest have any role in this? “I don’t think protest…has engaged a significant constituency outside of the higher education sector. So probably much more effective has been some of the media coverage. I think probably Senator Kim Carr talking about $100 000 degrees has been far more effective than any student or staff protest.” Moving on to divestment, he staunchly maintains that it would not be within the University’s best interest: “I think [divestment]

is not intellectually coherent. At UWA we have an intellectually coherent approach to tobacco. We don’t invest in tobacco companies, we don’t accept funding from tobacco companies to undertake research and we don’t allow the smoking of tobacco on campus.” Fossil fuels, he claims, are different. “We use fossil fuels... most people travel to the university using oil that they put in their cars... it was actually research conducted here that opened up the North-West shelf.” While he doesn’t at all believe that climate change is a myth, he thinks that a shift from coal to gas in the next ten years is the main step required for challenging global warming*. He sees divestment as “intellectually vacuous” due to the university, and particularly its economics and engineering departments, being closely funded and aided by Australia’s fossil fuel legacy. To divest, he says, “would not be consistent with the values of the university.” That is where I’ll leave him. I find that final statement so depressing. “The values of the university” - are they still those decided upon by our founders? Do they not fluidly change over time as groups of alumni, staff, students and the external community negotiate them? Johnson’s sentiment depicts the university as a servant of the industries that much of its research critiques and enrages. Is there some arbitrary distinction between university research funded through these sources, and that funded or not intended to be used by them? Does that make research here that doesn’t service those interests disingenuous? Is it not also intellectually vacuous for a university that produces research in climate sciences to refuse divestment of fossil fuels as intellectually vacuous? Does this mean the university has a stake in and measure of control over the work produced by those who would be independent scholars? From his beginnings as a burgeoning idealist, to his days as an erudite if aloof administrator, Johnson seems to always stress the interaction between the structure surrounding him and his own choices. Between these poles lie many unanswered questions. In the distance I can hear a crowd chanting “Let’s go VC/VC Sucks”, unceasing, forever. *Echoing this viewpoint, in the days subsequent to this interview UWA announced that it would be accepting $4 million in federal funding for controversial “sceptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre, to be based at the Business School. The decision has been met with outrage by many students.

UWA FACT 4 Bean Mix covers all the food groups

FEATURE WA PROBLEMS: PEOPLE ILLEGALLY OBSTRUCTING YOU FROM BUYING A LONG MAC

Criminalising Peaceful Protest in WA What Colin’s latest innovation means for you

A new anti-protest bill currently being debated in the Western Australian Legislative Council is starting to create a bit of a furore, due largely to its vague language and the reasons for its introduction. The Criminal Code Amendment (Prevention of Lawful Activity) Bill 2015 will make it an offence to “make, adapt or knowingly possess a thing for the purpose of using it, or enabling it to be used, in the commission of… the physical prevention of lawful activity.” That’s right, “things” are being made illegal! Furthermore, if passed, the bill will outlaw “physically preventing a lawful activity”, with no definition of what this “lawful activity” might be, or how one might “physically prevent” it. In the explanatory memorandum, specific reference is made to thumb-locks, arm-locks, and chain-locks, which are the articles the government claims it is targeting with this amendment. But if the government wants to target these articles, why not state so in the bill? As it stands, the amendment proposes that “A person must not, with the intention of preventing a lawful activity that is being, or is about to be, carried on by another person, physically prevent that activity… through the creation of a physical barrier, physical force, or the threat of physical force”. Hugh de Krester of the Human Rights Law Centre has noted that depending on how the law is interpreted by courts, gatherings of people could be criminalised, as could picket lines, simply because the mere presence of human bodies may create a physical barrier. The language in this proposed bill is so vague it could basically serve to criminalise all physical barriers that might impede “lawful activity”.

There is a serious side to the vague language of this amendment, especially when it comes to the ways it could be used by the government to enforce the interests of big business over those of ordinary citizens. For example, in recent months, staunch opposition to coal seam gas exploration and hydraulic gas fracturing (fracking) has led to the Lock The Gate movement in Queensland, in which farmers are locking their gates and denying access to gas exploration companies. Under the proposed bill, it would become a criminal offence to deny this access. Farmers who didn’t want drilling rigs on their property could be imprisoned or fined $12,000. The government says that this is not what this bill will do, however there is absolutely nothing in the wording of the bill to rule this out. WA Labor’s Hon Darren West suggested in parliament that if the government wants to stop people locking themselves to machinery, they could introduce a “stop chaining yourself to pieces of machinery bill”, or tailor the existing move-on notice provisions to deal with protesters who can’t move on because of their own actions. This would definitely be more palatable, however it doesn’t really address the fundamental problem of why people are driven to this form of protest in the first place. People protest because they are passionate about something, and feel compelled to have their voices heard in situations where they would otherwise be ignored. The government’s response has been to attempt to silence those voices. By continuously amending laws to fight the “evolving tactics” of protesters, they are simply driving protesters to more and more desperate methods.

UWA FACT The UEC President loves ASMR videos

FEATURE

Words by Ed Smith Art by Elysia Gelavis

The suffragette movement in the late-nineteenth and earlytwentieth century won women the right to vote, however it was a hard-fought battle in which many activists were beaten, imprisoned, and killed. Women were arrested for obstruction when unfurling banners in parliament, chained themselves to the railings of the prime minister’s residence, were imprisoned, and driven to hunger strikes. They suffered to have their voices heard, in an age when their politicians did not represent them, and they did not even have the power to elect ones who might. It seems even more appropriate to mention this struggle, given that in this country at the moment, our Minister for Women is a man whose self-proclaimed greatest achievement in that role has been “scrapping the carbon tax”, given his belief that the “housewives of Australia” will be utterly thrilled that the cost of ironing has decreased. But I digress. The important point here is that protest has been an indispensable method for effecting positive change for hundreds of years, and by criminalising peaceful protest the government is showing its utter contempt for the citizens of this state. When given the example of the suffragette movement in parliament, the Attorney General stated simply: “But they were considered criminals back then.” Yes, they were. They were criminals for daring to voice their opinions in the only way that was left available to them. And this Michael Mischin would see them be considered criminals again.

This bill is supposedly to prevent the “increasingly dangerous behaviour of some protesters”, but really what it does is criminalise anyone the government wants to criminalise. There is no provision to exclude picket-lines, sit-ins, or any other forms of peaceful protest. It makes it an offence to “physically prevent lawful activity” or to possess a “thing” with the intention of “physically preventing a lawful activity”. Of course, due to this vague language, the bill can be used for valiant means as well, such as getting rid of all those annoying people who stand in doorways, or take up all the room on escalators. If they are creating a barrier that physically prevents you from carrying out lawful activity, then kindly inform them that they are liable for a $12,000 fine unless they get out of the way. If they turn around and say “oi nah fuck off ”, let them know if the offence is committed in circumstances of aggravation, the penalty is imprisonment for 24 months and a fine of $24,000. I’m sure that will go swimmingly. Or say your brother/sister/roommate is taking too long in the bathroom, and has the sheer audacity to lock the door, thus prevent you from brushing your teeth before uni, feel justified in calling the police and informing them of this dreadful physical barrier. I expect they’ll be there with angle-grinders and sledge-hammers before you can say “This isn’t a valuable use of police resources”.

UWA FACT You should write for Pelican!

FEATURE

THE LOMBORG CONSENSUS Pelican speaks to the charismatic Copenhagener about his new role at UWA Interview by Kat Gillespie

The announcement that UWA will use a $4 million federal grant to build an ‘Australian Consensus Centre’ has been met with dismay by students and faculty members. The Centre is based upon Danish economist Bjørn Lomborg’s ‘consensus methodology’ of cost benefit analysis, which makes economic proposals to address global issues. Lomborg is best known as a controversial climate contrarian, who has claimed that climate change is not among the world’s immediate social or economic priorities. UWA has however been quick to assert that the Centre is not focused on climate debate. With the #stoplomborg movement gathering widespread support, it seemed crucial to hear from the man himself. Mr Lomborg was eager to talk to us, and generous with his time. You’ve stated that your Consensus Centre isn’t about science, so much as economics. What does that mean? Well, of course it’s based on science. When we talk about how many people die from malaria, that’s based on medical knowledge... But the crucial bit that we bring to the conversation is the economics aspect. So it’s about saying how much can you avoid, for instance, malaria for $1000. How much good can you do if you focus on spending say, $1000 on getting better education. Or the many other things that you can focus on. That’s what you call ‘consensus methodology’. Yeah, so what we do is we work with some of the world’s top economists… to look across all these different areas, to get state of the art economics into the conversation about where should we spend money to do the most good. So this is not a question of saying is malaria happening or is global warming happening or is education a good thing, all of those things are true, it’s a question of saying how effective can we be with different issues. It’s about prioritizing funding. Exactly. So in terms of prioritizing funds, you would have it that governments stop the funding of say, renewable energy subsidies, such as those for solar panels. Could you explain this position? There are some things that sound really good, but turn out to be fairly poor investments. So, for instance, when you look at the target of trying to double renewable energy in the world, it sounds really good, and of course it has real benefits... The problem is that renewables are still fairly expensive. So there’s both a cost and a benefit. We estimate the total, and again these are some of the world’s top economists, estimate the total cost of increasing, doubling renewable energy would cost about $500 billion (USD) a year… so the benefit would be about 80c back in the dollar. So 18

you would do some good, but not as much good as you could do elsewhere. That’s what we’re pointing out - this is not one of the best targets to engage in. Surely the more solar panels we build the cheaper they’ll become, as more manufacturers compete to create cheaper innovations. There’s a lot of people who obviously have a financial interest, but also an emotional interest in hoping that that will be the case. But if you look at the International Energy Agency (IEA), they estimate that by 2040...we will still be spending more money every year on subsidies on solar panels. Is this an economically smart way to help the world? A recent study by the Australian National University says Australia could source 100% of its power from renewable resources by 2050 without negative economic repercussions. Aren’t there positive economic benefits to tackling climate change head-on? There’s no doubt that there are benefits...there are both benefits and costs to any policy. I know that this study coming out of that university was actually co-sponsored with World Wildlife Fund, right? That’s the one that just came out. That’s right. I mean, I think I would probably prefer to believe the world’s biggest energy organization [the IEA]. Certainly if you ask any mainstream economist, there are definitely economic studies out there that prove that this is incredibly efficient and we should definitely do it. But again, we have been hearing that story...I could go back and show you quotes from the ‘70s that say solar panels are going to be economically efficient in ten years. But the serious models, and the IEA, and certainly most of the climate economic models show there is a significant cost to having these solar panels... the IEA are telling us that solar power is going to be very expensive in 2040. What I’m trying to point out is that this is a Centre that is going to look at all the world’s big issues. And mostly those are not about climate. If you ask most people around the world what they think are the most important issues what they actually say is that it’s about food, it’s about jobs, it’s about uncorrupt governments. So not about climate at all? It doesn’t mean climate is not a problem. We can also think about how we deal with climate. But I think it is a little unfortunate that we are so focused on climate that we have a hard time seeing facts, for example that the world’s most important environmental problem isn’t global warming, it’s indoor air pollution. 4.3 million

UWA FACT Phone running low on battery? The electric car charger in the Reid student carpark has an adaptable cable

As you’ve just said the Australian government aren’t particularly enthusiastic about foreign aid, this is something they’ve actually de-funded in recent times… what’s your opinion on that? Well, I don’t vote in Australia…[but] I would like governments in general to spend more rather than less on development. And we should be spending money the most effective way. You suggest one way to spend money effectively is to provide those living in poverty with reliable, low cost fossil fuels. Recently the Australian government has been trying to block international efforts to end subsidies for coal development in the Asia Pacific region. Is it coincidence that your position and their policy align completely? When Obama last year invited African leaders to Washington, they said “we need more power.” And most of that power is going to be fossil fuels. And we can either ignore that... or we can start focusing on how do we make sure in the long run that they will be using green energy. And that’s about investment in green energy and development. We need to get to a point where renewables are competitive with fossil fuels.

people die every year from indoor air pollution mainly because they are so poor that they have to cook with bad fuels….yes, global warming is one of the things we should talk about, but we need to make sure we talk about the stuff that actually matters to most people. A lot of UWA students are very concerned about global warming. You are of course going to be based at UWA. Can I just say that we know that [UWA students] are not representative of what most people think about global warming… most people in the world worry about other things. I’m absolutely sure that a lot of people at UWA are very worried about global warming and I think that’s good...But [the biggest global problem] is by no means global warming, it is indoor air pollution. That’s what most people in the world are worried about. Other than the fact that we are building you a 4 million dollar Consensus Centre, what is it that you like about UWA? First of all, it’s a beautiful campus, and there are a lot of smart people there...There’s also a sense of connectedness to the whole region. I was in Indonesia just three weeks ago. It gave the understanding of being in a region where not everybody is as privileged as Australia. There’s that responsibility that we do good not just for Australians but for the world. Do you have a relationship with the Australian government and the Federal cabinet? No...I speak with a lot of people. I’ve probably met with as many opposition people in Canberra as I have with ministers. I’m trying to make sure that this is not a conversation about either right wing or left wing or whatever wing. This is a question about what are and aren’t smart policies...how to use Australia’s development aid better, do more good. Australia gives 5 billion dollars annually, personally I think that they should be giving more, but I’m not the President of Australia so that’s not up to me. America gives about 140 billion American dollars per year, imagine if we could get everyone to donate this kind of money and do so more effectively.

But you’re not doing that research or development yourself, and the government isn’t paying for that kind of research to be done. I’m not vaccinating people, I’m not getting them treatment for malaria either. We’re a small centre. We are making the argument for where you should be spending public money...this is about making the academic argument – where can we do the most good? It seems too coincidental that you and the Abbott government are interested in the same policy areas. Did the idea for the Australian Consensus Centre come straight from Tony Abbott’s office, or did you suggest it to the government? My job as director of Copenhagen Consensus is to fundraise. Almost anyone I meet, I say, why don’t we do something? And I suggested this to UWA, I suggested it to many universities, I suggested it to politicians... and so that’s where the original idea came from. We have an enormous amount of impact across all areas not just in Australia but everywhere. And that’s why this is such an interesting academic outfit that so many of the world’s top academics want to work in. But not many people did want to work with you. It seems like UWA is the last refuge for the Consensus Centre. You’ve floundered for two years now, you left Copenhagen in 2012, and it seems like now you’ve finally located a government in a wealthy nation who are willing to support you. I’m just really interested to know – you’re clearly a progressive academic, you’re clearly interested in planning for the future in a smart way – are you comfortable being part of a conservative government’s ideological agenda? Look. I’m interested in being able to do the research that we can do at UWA. We can get the funding, which is what UWA and the Commonwealth was able to get, and that’s great. I really strongly object to the idea that this should be the last refuge. I’m invited to a lot of places. I’m at Harvard now, I was invited to their annual ministerial forum where they invite 15 finance ministers from Africa, I’ve given a lecture here. This is not a question of saying ‘a last refuge’. This really is a great opportunity both for the world, hopefully for UWA, to bring that conversation to Perth. Well I look forward to seeing you around UWA. Thank you so much for speaking to Pelican. Thank you!

UWA FACT BNOC stands for ‘But No One Cares’

FEATURE

Words and Art by Hayden Dalziel

UWA FACT The Rossiter brothers are the hottest siblings on campus

Art by Catherina Pagani

Motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to call!

Trimester 2 classes commence

Welfare Week begins

National Sorry Day

First semester classes end! End of Semester Show! Thank God! Last day to withdraw from semester one units (unit shows on formal academic record with grade of FN)

POLITIC S

Terror Australis by Jessica Cockerill 22

POLITIC S

UWA FACT For several years, UWA arts department professors have been carrying out a secret study to discover whether students with top knots really do achieve more academically

POLITIC S

What Heirisson Island Means in 2015 Words by Brad Griffin Art by Brayden Keizer

This is your land, but now you must leave. You are being told by a stranger who is gladly ignorant of your culture and history that you must leave. Worse still, it’s all about the money. Last year, after the Commonwealth cut funding for remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia (Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs, indeed), Colin Barnett announced the closure of between 100 and 150 of the 275 remote Aboriginal communities in our state. That’s okay, though, because the State Government have thought this through and have provided adequate housing and services down here in the capital to support those displaced until they can get on their feet.

deal that would force the relinquishing of Noongar claims to the South West. The white leadership reacted in a predictable manner. The protest was viewed as being improper, and unfair for other people who wanted to use the recreational area. This year, the Heirisson tent embassy has been erected again, and has acted as a sort of refugee camp for those displaced from up north. Many in the camp express anger and incredulity at the actions of the government. And honestly, if you can’t understand why then you’re missing something. It was only a few decades ago that the government programme that created Stolen Generations was discontinued. This is an issue of ongoing intergenerational trust; once again, we have a government of white men dictating black lives.

The justification for remote community closures ranges between politicians. There’s ignorance (hi Tony Abbott!) and silence (hi Colin Barnett!), and then there are often-fictitious claims of community dysfunction. Police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan has backed the community Right? closures on the basis of sexual assault Ah, not so much. Not only are Aboriginal and abuse claims - if you’re at all familiar with the history of Indigenous affairs in communities being forced off their land, they are being given little to no help once this country, you’ll understand that this they have left. Once again, Australia proves is the oldest excuse in the book. It’s the just how much a champion of the rights of kind of justification that obscures the real ideological and economic agenda minorities and traditional owners it is. A ‘fair go’ for all – as long as you’re white and of state and federal governments when it comes to Indigenous communities. live in the city. Furthermore, if abuse is really an issue in remote communities, then surely we In 2012 a tent embassy was set up on should be investing more in them, rather Heirisson Island in order to protest a

than annihilating them - perhaps by funding women’s crisis centres, education programmes, and other basic services. It should be noted however that cultural heritage leaders have emphasised time and time again to politicians that their remote communities are dry, free of violence, and committed to raising safe families. In addition to the immense human cost of closing these communities, there is also an environmental one. Many Western Desert communities, such as those of the Bardi Jawi lands, serve as hubs for hundreds of Aboriginal rangers who are trained to take care of the local environment. Australia’s outback has amazing biodiversity, and Indigenous rangers have taken significant interest in preserving species like the Gouldian Finch. In the Pilbara, around 350 of the Martu people are employed as rangers. With the retreat of these highly trained experts, it is likely that bio-diverse regions like the Dampier Peninsula will be left vulnerable to introduced species. The state and federal government attacks on WA’s remote communities are unacceptable, and are creating internally displaced refugees. Bashar Al-Assad has done the same thing in Syria. In 2015, are we still a nation that deliberately uproots its own people to save money, one that masquerades its latent racism with ludicrous claims about ‘lifestyle choices’? A tightening of belts is no excuse for cultural genocide.

CURTIN FACT Actually not that bad. Walking distance from a Nando’s

Pelican presents a selection of notable Australian student protest chants ers

test o r p n tio

e Na n O i t n 990s a

o go n’s got t away o s n a H ts go uline o Ho Pa right-wing bigo welcome here H , y e H , not ay Hey t, anti-g er, Liberals are elcome here is c a r , t Sexis ti-que not w to go exist, an lear, racists are on’s got s s , n t a is c H a y R h it c , that’s w ud, say Say it lo s yes, racists no Australia ht ite Land rig failure, no wh ’s a Hanson

Hi my name is Kevin and I’m married to Therese She put her staff on workchoices and now they work for free It’s shit like this that makes me richest man in the ALP But I still call myself left

Young Liberals at the National Union of Students Conference, 2006 My mother drives a porsche and my daddy drives a merc My wallets full of money coz I’ve never had to work I know of every rort and every lurk and every perk But I still call myself left Refrain My parents social class is ruling I’ve had the best of private schooling I don’t know who I think I’m fooling But I still call myself left I’m in the student union ‘cause it adds to my CV I don’t like VSU because I hate democracy I harvest marijuana and I chain myself to trees But I still call myself left Refrain

Student s storm the Q & A set, May 2014

For many years I’ve studied at the university But I’m still no fucking closer to getting my degree That’s okay because my daddy owns BHP But I still call myself left Glory Glory Liberal Students Glory Glory Liberal Students Glory Glory Liberal Students Coz VSU is law/in

(Tony Jo nes, pertu rbed: “Y no favou ou guys rs”) are

really do ing your selves Chris P yne, com e off it, Chris P Edu yne No cuts , Fuck you, we cation is Not-f , no fees or-Profi deserve t ,n a Cuts, Jo b Losses o corporate un future too iversitie , Money out, we s for kn When t ow what you’re the Bosses, Ch hey say ris Pyne a ll about cu get Fightba cks (rep tbacks, we say fi eat) ghtback The wor s, Cutba kers unit cks, ed, we’l l never b e defeat ed

lass working c e m ll a c n u ca ary glass osman, yo in M d r m o o t o fr n e , mugs I’m Maxin cking farce from latte fu y t a n n n ia o g d a r ing’s I sip cha programm c li b u p l Impartia left call myself l il t s I t u B

UWA FACT Everyone in your tute knows you wore that outfit last week

POLITIC S

Words by Nick Ballantyne Art by Kat Gillespie

I don’t remember the last time I walked through this university without being stopped by someone with an agenda. Protests, paintball, whatever the hell is the new thing to care about for some reason - someone gets in my way, and makes my day just that little bit worse. So here I am, walking down the main boulevard, when I see the impending signs of inconvenience from a hundred metres away. The Socialist Alternative banners, cleverly strewn beneath the Reid bridge to catch as many walkers as possible. Oh, they are cunning, planting themselves so strategically, so elegantly, beneath that banner-hanging bridge we all take for granted. I soften my pace, pull out my phone and pretend I am yet to see what’s on offer this time, but it’s too late. Beardface has caught my gaze, albeit for a nanosecond, and now his directive is to get me involved. My heart compresses at the thought of having to play along with his trivialities, pretending he’s interested in what I’m doing, trying to make me feel like he could be a friend. The moment he greets me is the moment I know I’ve lost. I remove my headphones, trying to acknowledge him as a human, only to hear that familiar offer again: “Protest higher education fees?” A piece of me wants to join this ostracised renegade on a journey of glorious economic reform and restructuring, but, really, I just wanna kick him in the nuts. I’m just trying to walk from A to B, an activity I’d rather have bionic limbs do for me. In lieu of automated transport, I have to exert effort, and impeding my progress isn’t going to put you in my good books. I don’t want to ignore you, but if I engage in your pointless conversation, no matter how you spin it, I lose. Do I want to protest higher education fees? I wouldn’t mind if I paid less (or nothing) to learn stuff in a formalised setting, but a Marxist revolution is something I’m just not willing to commit to right now. “Don’t you care about people with lower income struggling to-” Hey man, don’t twist my words here. Just because I don’t want to go to a protest doesn’t mean I don’t think paying for education is bullshit, so don’t make me out to be the bad guy. I don’t want to protest, but I don’t want to be vilified for not protesting either. It’s a catch 22 so inconvenient that Putin would grin maniacally at its perfection, but it’s just the tip of the guilt iceberg in the ocean of my thought patterns. Once I’ve said no to that thing you so endearingly put forth to me, I have to suffer through 26

rejecting you. I have to watch as your eyes go from shimmering to shattering. I have to deal with that shift of tone in your voice, the one your mum used to reprimand you as a kid so she wouldn’t make a scene, but you’d know you were in deep, deep shit. Then there’s the second guessing. “Oh, why didn’t I just say yes?” “Am I really so apathetic and heartless to reject protesting something I believe in so strongly?” “Is this impinging on my liberty?” What the hell, dude? I don’t need this shit while I’m freaking out over why the Hall voltage follows a logarithmic trend with increased magnetic field density but linearly changes with current. Now I have to start questioning my own integrity because you wanted me to join a protest I was ambivalent about? I get it though, I really do. Uni students tend to be pretty easy going and avoid conflict where they can. If we get stopped, we’re not going to punch that person in the face, we’ll try and gently let them down. We might compromise or give in to avoid breaking this guy’s feelings, but it’s a useful tactic nonetheless. The thing that really gets me is the question of why Socialist Alternative are doing this. The charities and paintball companies are trying to get you to cough up some cash, but what’s the Socialist Alternative’s game? Raise more awareness that capitalism isn’t the best economic system we could have? Well, no shit guys, pretty sure we’ve established that, but why don’t you start trying enact what your name’s all about for a change? Stop protesting corollaries of the system and start targeting the root. Hell, we haven’t even gotten into the guild elections yet, and I’m already riled up over getting stopped. It just feels like no matter what I do, there’s no way that this practice is ever going away. We’re easy targets, us uni students, so young and bipedal, we’re like walking people. Still, until you offer me something I think justifies stopping me, I’ll keep shooting you down and feeling the guilt of crushing your hopes. At least that way I don’t feel guilty about not staying true to myself. I’m also not late to my lectures, which is important too… I guess.

UWA FACT The gymnasium hosts a secret Foucault reading group every second Tuesday

ur MP o Y o t e it r W o t t n a W u So Yo Words by Matt Green lly wolfing down a vegetable, news of the day is the PM maniaca or maj the en Wh tics. poli with engaged ly. Politicians often seem like an It’s pretty hard to feel genuinely it’s a struggle to take things serious ers, zing uote unq ing. You te quo rk ema ’s trad bewildering to the deeply concern or worse yet, one of Bill Shorten and actions can range from the ives mot r thei e whil s, pleb us altogether different species from king. begin to wonder what they’re thin to our local MP. We were both e convinced me to write a letter min of dy bud a its day r othe The ut this? a little old-fashioned, but it has But what can you actually do abo answers. Sure, sending a letter is ted wan and and ] at TED ed look DAC [RE and on held ce l thing. It has to be fed up about the government stan online petition, a letter is a physica an re it. it igno say I can dare they or re il befo ema it an sent it – they have to read ing advantages. Unlike a tweet or hav for you k bloc or te’ on ‘dele time They can’t simply hit ame backbencher with considered by another person. nces are your local MP is a no-n cha , Plus . ents stitu con d ente res her dem Doomed is the Minister who igno the attention. for eful grat be ’ll they – their hands tips Keeping that in mind, here a few

on how to write to your MP.

Get the ir title right Commun icating wit h politicia niceties n

and antiq s uated form is a minefield of e addressin m g your lett alities. Fo r instance pty e r, you mu after the , when st include Member’ s nam the d might hold . On the p e, along with whate esignation ‘MP’ lus side, th ver portfo lios they is will app vanity an e a l to their d soften in herent them up.

LITE O P y E mentar nd B r parlia issue a call you

can’t om the tract fr al list. If you’re be, you e y d a m ly n it s in lo pting a g so wil t of crim ect. As tem nt. Doin on some sor u sp c e r a s e t e laced ntativ t beg p e c s u e e o r p y s p e t e r .R ge r words elihood in all lik angry, use you

ct Be succin

get, dubious ers, the Bud ek se m lu sy about a page issue (a and keep it to Stick to one s) on ti They ic d re ones p lking about. Game of Thr MPs we’re ta e ar e es . th ng l, er al critical thinki in length. Aft capacity for have limited

Know your shit Read up on the issue you care about, and work it into your letter. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to show them you’re no mug. Stats, figures, quotes – whatever helps express your concerns coherently.

HAVE PATIENCE

oming. ir reply will be forthc is worth their salt, the ive tat en es pr re ur v.au. tience. If yo found at www.aph.go And finally, have pa rrect titles) can be co the ing us to ide with a gu presentative (along ur parliamentary re yo ng cti nta co t ou Information ab

Everyday Protest with Sophia van Gent

3) Minimise your carbon footprint Buy a keep cup, and take it with you when you go and buy a takeaway hot drink. Not only are there some snazzy keep cups around (my preferred one is the glass and cork keep cup combo), but some coffee shops (including our own Guild cafés) will give you a discount if you use a keep cup. Yep, hello cheap(er) coffees. Bring your own calico bags with you when you go shopping. Shop locally; buy your fruit and veggies seasonally. Non-seasonal fruit and vegetables are usually flown in from overseas, incurring a large carbon footprint. Bonus tip - use the potato/mushroom paper bags to put your fruit and veggies in instead of plastic bags. Carpool with your friends/family/other known human beings to your place of study and/or work. Take public transport where you can. If you are averse to Transperth, use a bike or walk to get places. Take a leaf out of the Jack Johnson song “The Three R’s” and reduce, reuse, recycle. UWA FACT Parking permits can be purchased in exchange for your soul

27 27 27

FILM REVIEWS then unceremoniously dumped his universally unpopular successor. Now, Raf Simons, a relative unknown, has been appointed the new creative director. It’s with this mess that Dior and I begins.

DIOR AND I Director: Frédéric Tcheng Starring: Raf Simons It’s April 2012 and the world of high fashion is in turmoil. The year prior, the Parisian fashion house Dior fired its creative director of 15 years after a drunken racist rant, and

Haute couture is a tradition of making clothes that is quite out of step with the pace of modern life - dresses are made by hand, taking upwards of 100 hours to construct, and costing over $500 000. Unlike Tcheng’s earlier film Valentino: the Last Emperor, that documented the end of a Couturier’s career, this film feels like it is bearing witness to the revival of an art form. It is a beautiful insight into a world that does what it does purely for the love of aesthetics. As Simons prepares his first haute couture collection and attempts to marry his own creative vision with Dior’s heritage, Tcheng quietly follows

single mother, attempting to raise troubled son Steve whose ADHD and Attachment Disorder were exacerbated by the death of his father. Both are volcanoes of emotion and affection, given remarkable performances especially by Dorval. Their clashing personalities are tempered by Kyla (another Dolan-regular Suzanne Clément), their neighbour, suffering a speech impediment from a nervous breakdown who is drawn by the same magnetism as the audience.

MOMMY Director: Xavier Dolan Starring: Anne Dorval, Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Suzanne Clément Director Xavier Dolan has been referred to as having a penchant for wearing his influences on his sleeves (and everywhere else for that matter); in his latest effort, Mommy, the 26-year old Canadian quebecois-language filmmaker does firmly away with that particular accusation. Diane (Anne Dorval) is an out of work 28

Much discussed is the film’s 1:1 perfect square ratio, a claustrophobic metaphor for their social and financial entrapments that also maintains focus on the cast’s volatile performances. Once things start looking up for the trio, the ratio changes as Steve literally forces it into widescreen, an act of bold naivety and sincerity that could easily have been contrived in someone else’s hands. As problems rise to the surface, it subtly reverts, paving the way for some of the films most devastating scenes as raw as its highs are heart-warming. The second widening comes during a stunning dream sequence in which the faces of a grown, mellowed Steve UWA FACT The bodies are buried in the Tropical Grove

the designer and his ateliers (teams of seamstresses) through the process, witnessing the collection’s conception in the first sketches, the constructions of the first toiles, the fittings, the revisions, and finally in the presentation on the runway. It’s a process that has nothing to do with fashion’s caricatures á la Zoolander or Miranda Priestly, and has everything to do with the creative process in all its unfiltered glory. What emerges is a breathtakingly beautiful collection of clothes that are a testament to the time, skill and dedication of the ateliers, and the unflinching vision of a designer and innovator - a success by any measure. 4/5 Ruth Thomas

and others come in and out of focus, celebrating milestones in his future before Di is mercilessly boxed back in and reminded of the fickleness of this optimistic future. D.P. André Turpin’s truly gorgeous cinematography is unmarred by the boxiness of the frame, and shines as brightly and is just as colourful as the performances. The pop soundtrack too bespeaks the vibrant melodrama of the film. When was the last time Dido, Celine Dion or Counting Crows were used in film to such captivating ends? Many of these elements scream irony or self-indulgence, and yet Mommy firmly rejects both tags; it instead reveals itself to be both a remarkable maturation since Dolan’s angst-ridden 2009 debut, overcoming the pretension and romanticism of his previous films, and inversely an unapologetic embrace of a refreshingly naïve, emotionally honest style of storytelling. 4.5/5 James Munt

FILM

Stiller, as they tackle a subject matter close to their hearts: filmmaking.

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG Director: Noah Baumbach Starring: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried Noah Baumbach is becoming something of a specialist in documenting the lives of people taking a holiday from their own lives. 2010’s Greenberg had Ben Stiller playing an apathetic 40-something; while in 2013’s Frances Ha Greta Gerwig struggled her way through New York as an unemployed professional dancer. His latest film, While We’re Young, reunites him with

Stiller plays Josh, a middle-aged documentary filmmaker who hasn’t released anything in a decade. Josh and producer wife Cornelia (Watts) are in a rut, both creatively and emotionally. All their friends have joined the ‘baby cult’, and their marriage is effectively on hold while Josh completes his passion project, — an interminably convoluted Marxist reading of American history with a six hour running time. Things perk up when Josh meets Jamie and Darby (Driver & Seyfried), an irreverent couple with the world at their feet. Opportunistic Jamie aspires to make docos like Josh, while Darby makes eccentrically flavoured ice creams. Sure enough, Josh and Cornelia see an opportunity to abandon their responsibilities and relive their youth, by throwing themselves into the carefree world of hipster nonsense. Comedy ensues. While We’re Young is Baumbach’s most commercially accessible film to date, and (on paper) ticks all the boxes. In reality it’s a little underwhelming. Although

the American classic movie Fargo is real and still buried in the Minnesota snow. Running away from her dead end job and dissatisfying life, she travels to America in search of it.

KUMIKO THE TREASURE HUNTER Director: Nathan Zellner Starring: Rinko Kikuchi, David Zellner Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, from David and Nathan Zellner, presents a darkly mesmerising, yet frequently humorous portrayal of dysfunction and obsession that blurs the line between reality and imagination. Kumiko is a lonely and disillusioned twenty-nine year old office lady in Japan, who becomes convinced that the suitcase of money buried in

The movie opens with quite a whimsical scene, where Kumiko finds a video cassette version of Fargo in a cave by the beach. Her red hoodie is a striking contrast to the grey surroundings, a technique that is used throughout the whole movie to represent her difference. As the movie progresses we witness her fundamental inability to connect to the people around her, sometimes humorous, at other times subtly distressing. Her rabbit, Bunzo, is both a comic foil and a representation of her lack of real friends, and her decision to leave him behind evokes one of the most emotional reactions from Kumiko in the whole movie. From the very first glimpse of her in her room we see the dysfunction that is an undercurrent to her experience, something that hints at a possible portrayal of mental illness and delusion. Kumiko is alone in two worlds, out of place in both. By choice or circumstance, she grinds against Japanese societal norms, represented by her mother, boss and

it’s always funny watching a fish out of water, a lot of the humour on show comes off a little stale. One sequence where Naomi Watts’s Cornelia takes up hip hop dancing is lifted directly from 30 Rock. In other instances, the humour doesn’t go far enough; there are numerous references to the vapidity of modern life (our culture’s obsession with our phones and social media, for one) that never feel fully explored. That said, the jokes hit and miss at a pretty even ratio, which is more than can be said for most comedies today. However, the movie’s real problems are its characterization and pacing. Baumbach sidelines two great actresses in Watts and Seyfried especially, whose character you almost completely forget about, as the film takes an unexpected left turn into the ethics of documentary making. There’s an inordinate amount of focus into the subplot surrounding Josh’s upcoming doco, which becomes a little ironic when several characters suggest he needs to cut it down. Maybe Baumbach should’ve listened to his own characters. 2.5/5 Matt Green co-workers, as profoundly conservative and patriarchal. Her mother’s phone calls, while well-meaning, are vicious in their perpetuation of those norms and only serve to alienate Kumiko further. The film makes fun of stereotypical American cultural insensitivity and materialism. In one of the film’s many hilarious moments, the slightly bumbling county cop who takes it on himself to help Kumiko brings her to a Chinese restaurant, assuming that the owners will be able to translate for him because they are also Asian. While it does present some dark and at times haunting scenes, this use of humour ensures that the movie does not get too heavy, while still being thought provoking. Rinko Kikuchi’s performance as Kumiko is compelling, with sparse use of emotional contrast to great effect. Kumiko the Treasure Hunter speaks of self-delusion and escapism as a powerful human experience, in a way that is both cinematically beautiful and touchingly memorable. 4/5 Rahana Bell

UWA FACT Get excited! All students are about to become at least 20% cuter when the winter campus fashions begin

FILM

POLITICS ON FILM Words by James Munt

This year has seen the release of two of the most valorised political films in recent years in Ava Duvernay’s Selma, disturbingly relevant in the America of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, an audacious tale of corruption and religion in 21st century Russia. Film has always been a political medium, looking back as far as Eisenstein’s silent films. Here are five other examples from recent years of cinema at its most political, powerful, and often very personal; films that are inextricably linked with the contemporary societal issues they seek to portray.

Made during Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s house arrest pending the results of his appeal against his 6-year prison sentence and 20-year ban on filmmaking, Panahi’s ‘non-film’ is an incredibly revealing visual essay about confinement. Recorded on mini digital camcorders and an iPhone, and smuggled from Tehran to Cannes in a birthday cake, everything from its name with its wry reference to Magritte, to its medium and even its very existence bespeaks a powerful act of protest. There’s something quite captivating about watching an auteur attempt to isolate their film from the normative world of cinema. At times it’s incredibly humbling, like when Panahi is brought to tears, acting out scenes from his script on his Persian rug, questioning, “If we can tell a film, then why make a film?” But other points and, in fact, the entire existence of the film are a testament to the liberating power of cinema.

The Interrupters (2011)

5 Broken Cameras (2012) A testament to the evocative power of the small and intimate, 5 Broken Cameras is shot over five years entirely in and around a small Palestinian village on the west bank by peasant, father and husband Emad Burnat (whose footage has appeared on Al Jazeera), and was edited by Israeli Guy Davidi. Initially given to record home videos for his family at the birth of his fourth son in 2005, Burnat’s camera soon becomes a way for the village to empower themselves against The Israeli Army’s simultaneous building of a barrier between Bil’lin and the Jewish settlers, and their continued burning and bulldozing of the village’s olive groves. Framed by each of his five cameras destroyed by the army, the documentary serves as a potent visual autobiography and document to the power of digital media in modern protest, influential in reclaiming land at the cost of significant injuries and even lives.

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) A chronological study of the Black Power Movement is facilitated by hours of often very intimate, witty and probing Swedish TV footage of the movement and its main figures edited together by Göran Hugo Olsson in much the same way the opening shot shows an American flag threading through an editing console. This significant Swedish involvement in both the editing and filming necessarily gives a distance to the subject. However, more authentic experience is illustrated by voiceover by Professors Robin Kelley, Kathleen Cleaver and the uniformly impressive Angela Y. Davis. Input from Erykah Badu and Questlove, and a soundtrack by The Roots make up an important gesture to the place that music has and has always had for black empowerment in America. At one point in an exchange that particularly lingers in the memory, Stokely Carmichael is asked whether he’s afraid to go to jail, to which he bluntly states, “I was born in jail”.

This is Not a Film (2011)

The site of another ungraceful Oscar snub sees Hoop Dreams director Steve James, returning to Chicago to record the work of CeaseFire, a group of so-called ‘Violence Interrupters’. These workers aim to intervene in street violence in Chicago. The three ‘interrupters’, including the charismatic Ameena Matthews, daughter of the infamous Jeff Fort, are not just former gang members but were high-ranking figures with local authority and knowledge, and an eye for rising hostility. At one point in a meeting someone memorably observes, “Man, we got over 500 years of prison time in this room. That’s a lot of wisdom!” There’s a startlingly poignant determination in their identification with the kids they’re trying to save as in the incredible scene where Eddie Bocanegra, a Latino member himself troubled by the murder he committed at 17, takes Lil Mikey, just out of jail, back to the barbershop he robbed. In a year when more Americans were killed in Chicago than Iraq or Afghanistan, this was as necessary a documentary in 2011 as it was enthralling to watch.

A Touch of Sin (2013) Jia Zhangke’s latest film infuses four stories of vengeance with conventions of Chinese wuxia martial arts films such as King Hu’s Dragon Gate Inn (1969) and A Touch of Zen (1971) that evoke the outlaws of those films and Chinese folklore. A miner played by Jiang Wu frustrated by the futility and pointlessness of protesting through official channels, even alludes to the tigerfighter Wu-Song by draping a tiger-design over his rifle when he takes recourse to the exploitation of the miners into his own hands. Inspired by real acts of violence in China unreported by official media since the 2008 Olympics, the film has an added power to those recognising them from Weibo, China’s equivalent to Twitter.

UWA FACT Tutors immediately assign HDs to students who bring Kikki K stationery to class

MUSIC

THE POPULARIST MANIFESTO (PARTY FOR YOUR RIGHT TO FIGHT) Words by Richard Moore Art by Lucy Ballantyne So you want to change the world. In the words of Joe Strummer, “You gotta give it all you got, or forget it,” and he’d know: their protest song, ‘Rock The Casbah’, became their highest charting single worldwide, and you know all the lyrics, don’t you? If the revolution can only come about with majority (as in the precious democracy, the commune and the anarchist ideal) then major media is the only way to create it. Yeah, the Slits gave power to women who didn’t subscribe to the norm in ‘Typical Girls’, but who got women chanting “Who run the world? Girls!” in clubs across the world? Beyoncé was top ten in Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Korea, and multi-platinum in Australia and Canada. There are four chief costs of the popularist protest, anchored in the very axes that make them effective. The first and most obvious is the suffocation of meaning – to write a popular song you have to exploit popular thought at the risk of excluding a wider audience. The concept behind your song must be accessible – and agreeable – to all. Forget ‘return the engines of capital to the workers’, forget ‘abortion is a right’, even forget ‘examine the over-representation of blackness in prison communities’ - the most radical message you’ll find here is ‘Where Is The Love?’, the Black Eyed Peas 2003 protest against… something? Similarly, Twisted Sister’s hyper-generalised protest song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ has been covered by dozens of punk bands in three different languages, including a version by the Veronicas used in an ad campaign for birth control pill Yaz. It’s the ultimate malleable teen protest song, one that lead singer Dee Snider proudly embraces: “Any time that the team is down by two, or somebody had a bad day at the office, they’re gonna stand up and sing We’re Not Gonna Take It.” You can declare and declaw more specifically too – like that one song about the Troubles you already know all the words to, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ by U2, a song deliberately cut back to a version so non-partisan that, played to a Belfast crowd of 3000, Bono states “about three walked out.” Your cause now barely exists, but the passion is wide-spread and real – or gruesomely appropriated by your enemies, the next risk you face: seeing your words used to support a cause you stand against. UK pop political rock band the Manic Street Preachers tried this with their UK #1 ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’, inspired by Welsh protesters involved in the Spanish Civil War but in practice only outcrying “fascists”

and whatever the intolerable “this” is, and were rewarded by inclusion on a British National Party website – essentially the fascists they deplored. The third cut of this approach is your cause being reduced to a catchy tune: did you know Prince’s ‘1999’ was about nuclear war and dystopia? If you don’t want to declaw your protest, piggyback the catchiest tune you can imagine and repurpose that instead. Take Bob Marley’s 1983 posthumous release ‘Buffalo Soldier’, a protest against anti-black racism in America that you know the lyrics to already. Or Nena’s ’99 Luftballons’, a hit fit for Eurovision describing the accidental triggering of nuclear war off the back of a military radar picking up childrens’ balloons, or Jay Z’s ’99 Problems’, a dialogue about anti-black racism experienced by the artist on a daily basis hung off a brilliant, catchy hook. Closer to home, Cold Chisel’s 1978 ‘Khe Sanh’, a song touted as a second Australian anthem, is an unflinching portrait of a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran framed by a famous riff. Your final kickback from the popularist is reduction – a popular protest song may mug your other songs, just as an otherwise mainstream artist suddenly producing a protest song looks fake and bizarre (see Macklemore’s ‘Same Love’ in 2012, a rare gem with its widespread popularity attributable to its accessibility and timeliness around Referendum 74, legalising same-sex marriage in Washington). Even Cypress Hill have taken their turn at the popularist protest with songs like ‘Riot Starter’. In fact, their massively popular track ‘Insane in the Brain’ samples James Brown’s ‘I’m Black and I’m Proud’, an unofficial anthem of the Black Power movement. The protest song that is accessible is the protest song that is effective: you’ll reach new ears and allies, even in the camps of your enemies. You can change the world at the cost of changing minds, become a figurehead at the cost of your reputation as an artist. Is it worth it? Yes. Yes. Yes.

MUSIC REVIEWS Jenny Death (The Powers that B pt. 2) Death Grips (Third Worlds/Harvest) It’s hard to separate Jenny Death from the hype it’s been receiving for the last year. 2014 saw the release of Ni**as on the Moon, ostensibly the first half of the album The Powers that B, so what’s most striking at first is how different Jenny Death sounds to the downright pretty Bjork samples and complex electronic beats of Ni**as on the Moon. Instead Jenny Death greets you with shrieking synths, Zach Hill’s live drums and eclectic samples reminiscent of Exmillitary (think of the Jane’s Addiction sample from ‘Beware’). But to say that Death Grips are returning to an earlier sound would be a mistake, as half the album signals a new direction into somewhere between rap and rock. Jenny Death is the harshest, most overpowering Death Grips album to date, about one step away from the power-electronics of Whitehouse on some tracks, with other tracks sounding more like Zach Hill’s solo albums, albeit with better production and the usual Death Grips chaos. That said, it doesn’t break as much new ground as Ni**as on the Moon, instead it’s a well-polished amalgamation of all Death Grips albums thus far with some abrasive guitars added to keep it interesting. 8/10 Hayden Dalziel Heroes & Laments: Walmatjarri Stories Kankawa Nagarra (Desert Feet Records) Kankawa Nagarra is a Walmatjarri woman born and raised in the desert. She has accomplished and seen much in her rich life, and her new album Heroes & Laments: Walmatjarri Stories is a chance to see the world from her perspective. Stylistically the album is a sort of desert blues - old time delta blues with a decidedly north-west Australian slant. Instruments are fairly standard blues fair - guitar, drums, bass, lapsteel, piano, organ, strings. What makes these songs so great is the sensitivity and freedom the band has. Kankawa’s calling the changes when they feel right, and the band follows right along. This free-flowing take on the blues tradition goes right back to Lightning Hopkins and John Lee Hooker, but makes everything sound wonderfully fresh - it isn’t about counting bars or being ‘musically correct’, whatever that means. The stories in the songs are really a first-person account of living through history in the north-west: of pastoral colonisation, the Pintupi Nine, fracking in the Kimberley, dealing with alcohol abuse in communities and more. There are stories in Walmatjarri language of caring for Country, and mourning what colonisation has done to ancestral lands. Kankawa Nagarra’s voice is inspiring and full of hope, and it is one that this state needs to hear.

8/10 Maisie Glen

Strangers to Ourselves Modest Mouse (Epic) Its been eight long years since Modest Mouse released an album and arguably another three since they made anything worthwhile, but while the drought is over in a physical sense, Strangers to Ourselves is a mere shower in terms of quality. The album starts off with the plodding title track, which starts off much the same as it finishes, never really making its mark and fizzling out without causing much fuss at all. This summary is also quite true for many of the other tracks on Strangers to Ourselves such as ‘Be Brave’’ and ‘Shit in Your Cut’. These songs have the potential to be great Modest Mouse songs, but they falter when they would normally explode into a intense chorus or heart wrenching bridge. This record doesn’t completely miss the mark, containing some solid songs such as ‘Lampshades on Fire’ a catchy track that showcases Issac’s classic maniac singing. Other tracks like ‘Ansel’ and ‘Of Course We Know’ are decent, but pale in comparison to the band’s earlier material. In 2015 Modest Mouse have made a record which stands as their most forgettable and lifeless effort yet, and while judging a band by their earlier work can be an overly narrow viewpoint, it’s clear Modest Mouse really need to re-learn the cockroach. 5/10 Laurent Shervington Melbourne, Florida Dick Diver (Chapter) Great records don’t occupy your time; they transform how you see it. Though Melbourne, Florida is a step back from the frankly shitkicking political content of last year’s No Name Blues single and the magisterial emotional heights of 2013’s Calendar Days, it remains the work of a band pulling in four exciting directions at once, without the elastic ever quite snapping. As ever, where they land on the same page is feeling okay about feeling bad, or at least putting it on the to-do list. ‘Beat Me Up (Talk to a Counsellor)’ crunches together childhood abuse, Hollywood ambitions and frustrated desire into two goofy minutes, all while ripping wholesale the tune from ‘YMCA’, and ‘Tearing the Posters Down’ divorces then from now with as much gusto as it’s possible to muster on a Chapter release. ‘Bad things happen accurately!’ they holler in creaky, grinning unison, while ‘Competition’ employs a fuzzing Yo La Tengo loungescape to chalk up everyone’s inclinations to artistic Darwinism. No way out. Even getting hot and heavy on the sofa is no time or place to get comfortable -- ‘I was thinking about the ways to hell/and this carpet underneath/and this remote under me’. Everything here happens passively in the present, and actively in the past; this is a record about how the quotidian accretes, how it’s only through

looking back and accepting old times that we can become real in the present, and the serenity this process brings. On ‘Private Number’, Edwards sings about some else’s long-past trouble, and finishes by realising he’s alone in a dark house, reading old emails, with the only light coming from his laptop. He gets up and turns on the living room light. 8.5/10 Alex Griffin Beat the Champ The Mountain Goats (Merge Records) Beat the Champ sees the Mountain Goats return to the concept album format, featuring stories about the small-time wrestlers who shaped a young John Darnielle’s life. The new album deepens the band’s departure from their lo-fi roots, meaning a recurring brass section, piano solos and more reverb than we’re used to. Unfortunately, the moments that always made the Mountain Goats great, when Darnielle really loses himself in passion, seem fewer and farther in between. The album is mostly devoted to what I have come to think of as ‘Mountain Goats easy listening.’ Despite this, superb lyric quality ensures the album is unceasingly entertaining, characters and stories coming to life with every breath. Like the art of wrestling itself, The Mountain Goats have created a tightly controlled album. It feels free, grand and violent at times, but the listener can’t quite escape the feeling that they’re watching a show, a performance that, whilst enjoyable, seems awfully constructed. This album is more of an ‘All Eternals Deck’ than anything else, fans of the Lo-Fi aesthetic may be disappointed, but the rest of us are just happy to receive another parcel of Darnielle’s lyrical genius. 8.5/10 (Compared to music as a whole) 6/10 (Compared to the Mountain Goats discography) Thomas Rossiter I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album By Earl Sweatshirt Earl Sweatshirt (Tan Cressida/Columbia Records) After the success of his 2013 debut album Doris Earl Sweatshirt has returned with a brooding introspective record filled with swampy synths and submerged beats: I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album By Earl Sweatshirt. Despite his history as a member of ‘edgy’ hip-hop collective Odd Future, Sweatshirt’s album steers into a realm of its own. The album has the feel of being recorded in a dimly lit dive with a plumbing problem, with murky backing tracks providing a solid base from Sweatshirt’s laidback yet purposeful lyrics.

The ringing jazz chords of a vibrato synth-organ, and a simple drum beat, holds together the album opener ‘Huey’, the innocent sound of which pairs beautifully with Sweatshirt’s sincere delivery.. This track flows seamlessly into ‘Mantra’, one of the best songs on the album, which burns slowly through echoes of reverbed guitar loops and minimalist drums. From this point onwards the record delves deeper into Sweatshirt’s personal turmoil, a mood that is encapsulated by the album’s lead single ‘Grief ’: a soundscape of anger, anxiety and regret. Odd Future fans will most likely be disappointed by the lack of bravado on this record, but I Don’t Like Shit… thoughtfully utilises subtle changes in both tone and sound to sway the listener’s mood throughout. However, it did leave me wanting something more, many of the tracks have a very similar vibe and structure and with no real standouts. I Don’t Like Shit… is a solid album, but is not accessible for the casual listener and can only be best appreciated as a whole. 7/10 Mitch Winstanley Carrie and Lowell Sufjan Stevens (Asthmatic Kitty) The softly spoken Sufjan Stevens from Michigan marks a return to his indie folk routes in Carrie and Lowell. Accompanied by plucked acoustic melodies, now more acoustic than electric, Steven’s paced lyrics are deeper and sadder than ever. If you’re familiar with Age of Adz, this album can be seen as a progression but lacks some of Age’s electronic inventiveness. Instead, stripped of the effects the sparse melodies create something more haunting. The title is a reference to the death of his mother Carrie in 2012, who had left Stevens’ family when he was very young. Stevens has said that the album forms part of his grieving process. His mother had suffered from schizophrenia, depression and alcoholism, and Sufjan was raised by his stepfather Lowell. Recorded at his home studio in Brooklyn, Stevens’ dark lyrics compliment the optimistic guitar melodies and the effect is hauntingly sweet. In a few of the tracks, Steven’s breath can be heard, a raspy reminder of mortality. The music is disarmingly honest; this is like trying to review someone’s childhood photo album. While some of the tracks come across as overly serious or earnest, it’s all so personal, it’s hard to hold that as a criticism. This is background music for burying loved pets. 8/10 Patrick Bendall 33

MUSIC

MATILDA BAY MUSINGS #3: ‘State of the Heart’ by Mondo Rock (1980) with Tristan Fidler The appreciation of soft rock is about becoming comfortable with the music your parents liked. Though, for the median age reading this article, I’d presume it’s more about becoming comfortable with the music your grandparents liked. Certain songs my parents liked have an uneasy association. Something by The Eagles or Roxette makes me think of being seven years old, having a headache in the back seat of the family car, afternoon sunlight coming through the window, restless in my seatbelt. Ultimately, the feeling of having no control over anything, let alone the music that gets played in the family car. Sitting by Matilda Bay this afternoon, that feeling of having no control is replaced by a sensation of letting the world work its magic around you - a sensation that’s heightened by listening to the greatest hits of Mondo Rock. The 1980s-era New Wave band fronted by Ross Wilson, former frontman of Daddy Cool (yeah, the guys who sang ‘Eagle Rock’, the daggiest Oz Rock hit around). However, though Mondo Rock once gave me cultural cringe, recently I have grown to appreciate them and other rock dinosaurs like Mental As Anything, Australian Crawl, The Models, etc. All of that stuff that 94.5 Mix FM DJs will tell you is “classic rock… they don’t make ‘em like this anymore”.

At Matilda Bay right now, there are a group of black swans foraging around, two in particular picking at each other like a couple hashing things out. This is a popular destination for swans and for couples. Occasionally you’ll see a pair (people, not swans) sitting together, lying down, just feeling that state of the heart in their own way. Certain songs need the right context for their full power to be appreciated. ‘State of the Heart’ makes me think of sad times in love relationships, sure, but it is also blessed by an additional layer. It makes me think of friends, those who are all growing older, appreciating those hits that their parents celebrated back in the day, breaking into – as sun in another Mondo Rock hit – their ‘cool world.’

Laurent Shervington’s Pretty Perfect Playlist of Punk Picks for the Potential Public Protester 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)

Bad Brains- Banned In DC Cro-Mags- We Gotta Know Death Grips - I’ve Seen Footage Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union Rage Against the Machine - Know Your Enemy Minor Threat - I Don’t Wanna Hear it Black Flag- Rise Against Descendents - Myage Dead Kennedys- Government Flu Misfits- Hybrid Moments

(eds: where are the ladies? If anyone needs us, we’ll be in the Pelican office listening to Exile in Guyville)

PMAS JOIN PMAS, THE PUNK MUSIC APPRECIATION SOCIETY & THE NEW BIG CLUB ON CAMPUS. SPEAK TO JOE OR HUGH IN THE TAV FOR MEMBERSHIP INFO

UWA FACT A range of bespoke scented candles is available for purchase in the Blackstone Common Room

Art by Laura Wells

Having some distance from the classics can often help you see why they were classics to begin with. With Mondo Rock’s ‘State of the Heart’, it was a friend of mine, Greg, who helped me re-appreciate its slow, melancholic tempo. He even played it off his iPhone during dinner with friends (and if anything, its perfect accompaniment is digestion). My favourite lyric in the song is when Ross Wilson sings, “You work in town, I work at night/That gives us six until seven to work this out…” See, that’s what you want in heartache: effective time management. Six until seven, only an hour, got it? Always remember, whether you put it in your iCalendar, guild diary, or wall planner, to block out those emotional heart-to-hearts in the week ahead. Now that’s being organised.

LITERATURE

Vale Terry Pratchett Words by Morgan Goodman Art by Kat Gillespie Eight or nine years ago, I came across a worn copy of Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, in a small town library somewhere in WA. It slipped its way past the first few blockades of my early adolescent tastes by ostensibly being a story about time travel, and in that respect I was probably disappointed; it lacked the Doctor Whoish, Heinleinesque paradoxical hijinkery I had been looking for. Instead, what I got was a sort of essay on sensible humanism wrapped in fantasy tropes to make it go down easy. It was a character study of a misanthrope and the city he protected so doggedly, and it was, at times, very grim but very heartfelt. And, it was funny— funny in a way nothing I had read before had been. Night Watch was not the best introduction to the (bythatpoint) cosmically vast Discworld series, heavy with its established characters and continuing story threads; but I was captivated all the same. I finished it the same day and spent the next year ordering every scrap of Pratchett’s work I could find through local libraries — my favourites being the audiobooks read by Nigel Planer, which I listened to so often I could recite them, ridiculous accents included. Comparisons are always made between Sir Terry’s style and that of Douglas Adams, author of that other single greatest series on Earth, and superficially, they’re appropriate. Both were happy enough to ignore conventions of viewpoint and even relevance to the story if they thought it would be funny, and both were making fun of the strangely restrictive and apparently arbitrary mindsets of their fellow humans. Both also delighted in silly names— but in Pratchett’s work, the characters attached to those names were people, not just punchlines. The lessons delivered as part of some satirical comment on the real world

led to growth and change in his characters and his universe, and that gave them an emotional punch that Adams’ writing never fully had. Even in the silliest settings, like the Egypt-analogue Djelibeybi (which took me a few days to get as a teenager, sadly) or in stories that start as outright parodies of, say, Shakespeare, or of the sword and sandal fantasy of Robert E. Howard, by the end of the book there was always a legitimate sense of payoff. In a way, Pratchett was creating the world that he thought should exist by placing problems in his sandbox, and then approaching them with the cynical humanism that marked everything he wrote. This attitude to fiction is most obvious in the development of Ankh-Morpork. The city was first introduced in The Colour of Magic as a Dungeons and Dragons-style wretched hive of criminals and self-interested denizens, with a river so polluted you couldn’t drown in it, only suffocate. When we returned to the city in following novels, it wasn’t that the criminals had disappeared, the citizens had become a more civic-minded, or the river Ankh less polluted. This state was part of its fundamental nature and was fertile ground for a great deal of humour. Over the course of the entire Discworld series though, it underwent a number of social and industrial revolutions as Pratchett determined to skewer this or that aspect of modern life – tabloid journalism, or religious extremism. The cumulative effect was to create a fantasy icon that felt like a real city. Every time a new novel returned to Ankh-Morpork these elements had been incorporated into its black, rotten heart— and it was a better place for it. If Ankh-Morpork represented the world as Pratchett wanted to see it, then Samuel Vimes and Granny Weatherwax are the characters that epitomise the worldview that informed his writing. Both are deeply cynical, misanthropic and intolerant; both are deeply flawed and at times quite stupid, but both are also devoted to upholding a code of ethics and fighting injustice, with an almost Kantian desire to do Right, despite any personal misgivings. Pratchett was always keen to point out the fallibility of his heroes— whether parodically or seriously— and the most severe flaw anyone could suffer under his pen was to be stupid. More often than not, his villains were driven by their own wilful stupidity and desire to resist sensible reform. On the flip side, his heroes were defined more by their attitude and outlook than superpowers or destiny. Sure, more classical action-fantasy protagonists exist on the Disc, but they are regarded with the cautious derision that one might accord especially stupid narcissists and sociopaths. What Terry Pratchett fought against was every kind of exceptionalism in his writing— arguing that all anyone really needs to make the world that little bit better is a healthy amount of cynicism, some common sense, and a desire to do some good, somewhere. For that thoroughly sensible moral education, I am grateful to him, and will miss him a great deal.

UWA FACT The photograph on the cover of The Beatles’ Abbey Road LP was taken at the pedestrian crossing in the Reid carpark

LITERATURE

DECRYING THE BOOK SNOB Words by Kate Prendergast Art by Caitlin Frunks

The book snob is one of the most odious, small-minded peons anyone should have the misfortune of encountering. Vile, prickly and condescending, his only power— which he wields with fatuous liberality— is scorn. What, you haven’t read Dante’s Divine Comedy? Or Austen? You slither-brain. Go back to playing whack-a-mole with your thick mug you brother-of-a-nematode dunce. Deluding himself to be the righteous guardian at the sacred gates of literature, the book snob is, in fact, its enemy—and moreover its fool. In repulsing those who don’t tick enough boxes on The New York Times’ ‘50 Classics’ list, the book snob enlists to a smarmy-army of blockheads, who make intimidating a realm that should— in its ideal conception—be lively, open and diverse. With his unchecked arrogance and his coarseminded claims, he and his compatriots uglify literature into an elitist arena, where competitively insecure egos boast over War and Peace and arouse mean ecstasy in pointing out misplaced semicolons in comment threads. A collection of basic assumptions the book snob uses to navigate his world and, more significantly, judge his peers: 36

1. A book snob’s engagement with literature is superior to all others 2. Anyone who hasn’t taken the time to read at least one book of Dickens, David Foster Wallace or Calvino will never be at home in any of their circles, is at a tragic failure to comprehend the social world they obtusely inhabit, and have as much power of discernment as a pet rock that has unstuck one or both of its googly eyes 3. An individual’s intelligence, sense of humour and general human worth can be measured by what books they have (or more importantly, haven’t) read 4. Literature is the most sophisticated, demanding and cognitive-based cultural domain; that it captures and compels the best of man, and is in this way above visual art, above film, and certainly above the activity of energetically twiddling one’s thumbs so that dungareed Italiantypes can avoid imaginary bananas All of these assumptions are specious. Basically they’re all fucking rot. What has to be laid down, with emphasis, is that people read for a diverse range of reasons, all of which should be recognized as valid. These reasons hinge upon what material and philosophical substance

of life moves or interests an individual, the unique and particular angles of their curiosity, the formal styles that speak to them, and their emotional and psychological needs in that time of their life. Often it’s not the ‘what’ that matters anyway, but the ‘how’. In other words, how does the reader use a text to enrich his imagination, sympathies, knowledge or understanding of the world? So long as the reader is active, involved and gaining fruit from his reading experience, even if that fruit is pleasure (and pleasure is a word that should never be preceded by ‘merely’), so what if the book in question is Fifty Shades, a sports almanac, Bob Karr’s autobiography, a John Grisham courtroom thriller, Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men or R.L. Stine’s The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena? I fucking love The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena. Shaming others about their book choices and genre preferences does nothing to encourage the habit of reading. It’s a total turn-off. It conjures up feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, or prickly selfdefensiveness. And this can only detract and disrupt the magic of the art. The fall-out of all this is that book snobbery comes to be debilitating to

UWA FACT All EMAS UWA committee FACT PLC members is the were Claremont altos incampus their various school choirs

LITERATURE LITERATURE

all members of the reading community. Whilst far from framing myself as the discriminated-against party here, it’s even gotten to the point that I am at times extremely halting when and if I come to confess my love of literature. Because look, I do like reading books. I’m the Literature Editor of Pelican— it was kind of part of the selection criteria. I majored in English as part of my university degree, I’ve read Ulysses (it was required coursework, and to be honest I found it a little tortuous), and yeah, I did do the whole Wallace (re: Gromit) arm-wave of glee when I heard Ishiguro was releasing a new novel in March this year. Against all rationality, these admissions seem fraught with a mutual wariness. I feel compelled to take care my tone doesn’t bend towards a kind of brittle apologia, or that such ‘confessions’ are seen to piggyback the insinuation that I think I’m better than anyone else. Believe me, I don’t. I’m an idiot in many ways. So many ways. I just find it wearying and plain stupid the extent to which egos get entangled where books are concerned. And I condemn sites like Grammarly that not only perpetuate, but seem to glorify the book snob as exemplar of the literary consumer; publishing statements on their Facebook page to the tune of

‘good grammar is like personal hygiene. You can ignore it if you want. But don’t be surprised when people draw their conclusions’. 49 971 likes? What? It’s exactly this kind of solidarity in pretention that really gets my goat. I fail to understand why anyone should want to identify, let alone aspire to this kind of lofty snark. I do recognise the value of pride, and the moderating influence of irony. I also recognize that, sure, all cultural groups are— definitively, for the sake of internal cohesiveness— exclusionary. Identities are made real and given power as much by the staking of certain principles as by the negation of others. And it can’t be denied that really in-depth, invigorating and illuminating conversations on a specialized subject depend upon a basis of shared knowledge. But this is where the identities of geek and snob diverge. Whereas the geek is part of a community, ontologically motivated by the will to share and exchange knowledge amongst others of similar passions, the snob is someone who encloses himself around his own aloofness. He doesn’t seek to grow from his interactions with others— he conspires with himself to undermine and discredit.

I myself aspire to the geek. It’s a hardearned crown above a grin. It has a kind of sub-title of goofy, underlined with a sort of niche cool. Personally, I don’t think I’ve earned the title. I crawl through my reading list. I haven’t got to Hesse yet. Who’s Goethe again? When I went for an interview at Elizabeth’s Bookshops, I wild-guessed Leslie Charteris belonged to the erotic fiction genre in the pop quiz they sprung on me. He actually does adventure fiction. Obviously, I was not hired. Moral of the story: no one likes a snob. If you suspect yourself to be one, just take the time to get over yourself. It’s okay to stray from Goodreads’ top reviewed. It’s okay to enjoy mainstream recent releases. Show you’ve actually taken in something from all those books you’ve read. Life is too important to be lived snobbishly.

UWA FACT UWA The phrase FACT‘fee Thederegulation’ Reid libraryrefers burnttodown the price in 1833. increase It was of rebuilt jugs at again the Scotto in 1798 on Wednesdays

LITERATURE

BOOK REVIEWS Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba-Clarke I picked up Foreign Soil because it was on prominent display at Oxford St Books, an independent purveyor of carefully curated wordy things whose taste I trust implicitly. I didn’t look much past the cover, which is very pretty, and also notes that Beneba-Clarke won the 2013 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. As such, until I was about a quarter of the way through, I did not realise that this was a book of short stories – as opposed to the admittedly rather scattered and postmodern novel I had at first assumed it to be. I wish I could say it was the first time this has happened, but there was an incident in 2012 with a Nick Earls collection that still haunts me. Foreign Soil is a book of multiple voices, some admittedly more compelling than others. Many of the short (and they are pretty short) stories are narrated in the first person, and the common element between them is that their protagonists are, with some exceptions, members of subjugated or minority groups. Beneba-Clarke goes deep, adopting the slang and dialects of those she seeks to represent. We’re not talking Trainspotting, but I suppose that you should prepare yourself for a level of annoyance as your eyes adjust to the deliberate misspellings. It is nearly always worthwhile Beneba-Clarke apparently has a background in slam poetry, and in retrospect that makes a lot of sense. Her effortless mixing of language is something to behold, and I felt totally transported by her deliberate use of inflections to places as far as the Sudan and as near as Melbourne.

Dave Warner has always been focused on writing for, and about, the average Australian bloke. From his 1970s protopunk songs like Suburban Boy and Half Time At The Footy to his most recent crime novel, Before It Breaks, the least appealing characteristic of Warner’s work is a kind of inability to look past the problems and concerns of blokes like him. This does of course have its own charm but I found it quite hard to empathise with or invest in Before It Breaks protagonist, Detective Inspector Daniel Clement due to the mundanity of his middle-aged ‘wife’s left me/career’s washed up/ will I ever know my daughter properly’ issues. Deprived of his musical career’s youthful vigor and energy Warner’s narrow scope has become tiresome, and I found myself sighing every time another page of introspective musings arrived. For me the gold standard for Australian crime writing is Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore and this novel shares a number of common elements— but such a comparison only brings its flaws into stark relief. This novel is set in Broome but is quite flavorless in its use of this setting, and whilst—like The Broken Shore, —its set in a town with a significant Indigenous population, unlike Temple, Warner presents us with a fairly facile understanding of police dealings with Aboriginal people. To me, crime writers—and particularly crime writers in Western Australia— have a duty to write critically about the role of the police force in our communities, and I’d particularly expect this from an old punk like Warner.

It is really cool that a big name like Hachette is publishing stuff like this, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary Australian writing.

Plot-wise, this novel is fairly competent; but well-plotted crime novels are a dime a dozen. Warner is well-placed to write interesting fiction with a uniquely Western Australian character, but here he squanders this position and gives us a bland, artless and forgettable work.

Score: 4/5

Score: 4.5/10

Best bit: Feeling the tropical heat of a Jamaican banana plantation while sitting in an armchair in Maylands

Best Bit: A decently suspenseful climax feat. cyclone and car chase

Worst bit: Er, should say “short stories” on the cover Kat Gillespie is an English major, to the great distress of her parents

Before It Breaks Dave Warner

The First Bad Man Miranda July I love everything about you, Miranda July. I love your hair, I love your Facebook presence. I love your films, both the one that everyone liked and the one that was determined to be a lesser and more selfindulgent piece of work. I love your collared shirt jumper combinations, and I love your recent piece in Vogue about River Phoenix. I love your short stories. I love that you have an $800 designer handbag named after you, created by an independent Los Angeles fashion label. I love that you used to live next door to Solange Knowles, a fact I just discovered while reading through the archives of your Twitter feed. I love that you once dated Calvin Johnson. I love that I volunteered to do this review despite my clear inability to be in any way levelheaded when approaching your work. I love that I want to sing your praises without pause, and that journalistic integrity means much less to me than that. Most of all, I love that you finally wrote a novel. It was everything I expected of you, and more – from the wanton references to healing crystals to the idiosyncratic neurotic female protagonist to the so-called quirkiness that has earned you so much more derision than you deserve. Read this book. Score: 5/5 Best bit: David Bowie songs with healing powers Worst bit: Critics who dismiss women writers for being ‘weird’ Kat Gillespie hopes to one day achieve success as a performance artist

Worst Bit: an incredibly flavourless and forgettable lead Hugh Manning is going to go listen to Suburban Boy again

UWA FACT Stop! Your ISP can see your illegal downloads. Torrent at uni instead

ARTS

My Night at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Thriving Hub of Campus Arts and Culture Words by Kat Gillespie Art by Catherina Pagani

Fantasy We walk over to the gallery fashionably late. After hours of pounding the pavement in search of hot campus news stories, time has gotten away from us - and as is typical after a long day of student journalism, Lucy and I have hit the bottle of Whispers 2014 Shiraz a little too hard. Eagerly anticipating an unforgettable night of debauchery, I am rather excited to mingle and exchange witticisms with the university’s thriving young community of visual artists, writers and poets, who are known to converge at that much-lauded centre of progressive campus culture, the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. Adjusting our berets and stamping out our cigarettes, Lucy and I pause for a moment to enjoy the feeling of electricity in the summer night air. We have both skipped our fortnightly Communist branch meeting for this occasion, and are ready to get fucked up. Entering through the secret back entrance, we pass Tim Winton, ponytail glowing in the moonlight. He is whispering an angry “Don’t you know who I am?” at the stony-faced doorman. Flashing our press passes, we are ushered straight through and handed complimentary flutes of champagne. The lights are dimmed and the room is humming with raucous conversation and titters of laughter. I immediately make subtle eye contact with a handsome bespectacled poet from my creative writing tutorial. Chardonnay in hand, he is standing across the room from me and coolly regarding a piece from the Cruthers collection. I flash back to a sexually charged in-class debate last week, during which he angrily called me, among other things, a post-Freudian pop-feminist hack. I make a mental note to save him for later. Lucy and I calmly circulate, working the room while emanating mystery, cool, and art world knowledge. Over in a dark corner I think I spot Dorothy Hewett in heated conversation with Katharine Susannah Pritchard, her face is scrunched in concentration. Meanwhile, I hear the symptomatic clicking of a spontaneous spoken word poetry slam having broken out in the back room. To my left, an honours student has stripped naked and encased herself in a glass box, encouraging gallery-goers to observe her over a 24-hour period. I grab a handful of canapés and munch slowly, taking it all in. It is thrilling to be a part of this, to be here in this time and this place in this moment.

After making a no-doubt marked social impression, it is time for us to turn to the works on display. Ah yes, the art. Lucy moves away to inspect a conceptual sculpture, but it is a nearby painting that piques my interest. The catalogue describes the artist as a local WA up-and-comer, Bayswater’s answer to Richter. I am very moved by his use of colour and form, and find tears welling in my eyes as I stare further into the transcendental depths of a work that I have no doubt will set the pace for the next ten years of Eastern suburbs post-Expressionism. I find myself openly crying now, so great is the beauty before me. Truly, this piece changes everything. I feel a sympathetic hand on mine, and look up to see my handsome enemy from Creative Writing 2203. We silently gaze on in wonder. Reality We enter the gallery, quickly realise that there is no booze, and leave.

UWA FACT Roadworks have begun on Stirling Highway to create a designated lane for the BMW M Series

ARTS

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANKSY Words by Emily Purvis Art by Kat Gillespie

A few years ago, A Perth graffiti artist was aggrieved that one of his pieces, at an estimated value of $20 000, was unwittingly erased from a Perth wall by the local council. He was so upset that he contacted the local media to express his indignation publicly. I can remember scrolling through Facebook, and this hot news story showing up on my feed. I read along the article to the comments below, where impervious fuccbois were comparing the injustice to the defacement of Banksy’s own work over the past two decades. They attributed the action to a lack of respect for a now widely recognised cultural art-form, and drew on hypothetical scenarios of someone erasing the Mona Lisa, or some such thing. These comparisons were asinine at best. Graffiti art is characterised by and associated with an ephemerality that comes from illegally ‘defacing’ public property. It is public, it is (usually) political or protesting something and it is egalitarian in its conception. Anyone, anywhere, can say anything and a huge number of people will engage with it. That is the beauty of graffiti. Whilst not a new media, graffiti art or, more specifically, graffiti artists, have gained popularity in the last couple of decades, not as a platform for protest, but as a product in an evergrowing marketplace for consumption. In the mid to late 2000s, an English graffiti artist rose to prominence on the international circuit. Their work, predominantly political in nature and decidedly class-based has sold in private art spheres for upwards of $500 000 USD. The irony is obvious, and has been responded to by the artist ‘himself ’ (yep - Banksy) in 2004 by the declaration via his website that “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit”. During this period and in the time since, graffiti has gained ‘legitimacy’ in the art-world. Auctioneers sell off work from prominent artists, often in the form of dubious transactions, leaving the work itself in the public space it was created in for the buyer to remove. Commissioned work (‘street art’ instead

Everyday Protest with Sophia van Gent Keep yourself informed! There are so many online courses about extreme poverty, so sign up to learn more. If you prefer a book, then start with Jeffrey Sachs’ The End Of Poverty. If you just want to absorb information in 7 - 15 minute blocks, watch TED talks. Talk with friends. If a friend volunteers for other social justice organisations, ask them to teach a few things you didn’t know about their cause.

of ‘graffiti’) has sometimes been seen to side-step the legality issues that graffiti art has previously been challenged by. The works have therefore, in some cases, transformed from vandalism to commission. Or as a result of the purchasing of the art itself, the platform is (paradoxically) subject to increased vandalism in the arts removal. This changes the political nature of graffiti itself. And what about the artists who don’t participate in this global community of consumption? They become less able to respond directly to the work created for a protected public commission, or a concrete mural cut-out for a gallery. Public conversation between artists and issues is no longer possible. What was once by its very nature ephemeral becomes immortalised. Once you apply elitism to counterculture, it simply becomes culture. There’s nothing technically wrong with that, but once society ranks graffiti artists in a hierarchy, once their work is valorised and bought to display in a private collection or gallery, taken out of their context and public platform, it negates the concept of the art itself. Instead of being innately political, the work is commercialised. Instead of being in a public forum, the work is privatised. Instead of feeding the masses, the work itself becomes a facilitator for consumption. These public platforms are an open space for dialogue between people and artists who would normally not have any other public medium of expression. Opinion and protest, whether it be for the art itself or the thing it represents is strengthened by these interactions. They’re fortified within their own oscillating context, and they remain relevant to changing socio-political atmospheres through this ongoing visual discourse. For a local Perth council to accidentally erase a mural worth (at the artist’s estimate) upwards of $20 000, that artist becomes a part of this discourse in a different way. Perhaps instead of contacting the news, a more effective stage for his protest would have been to graff the local council building.

UWA FACT Having your wedding on campus is tacky

ARTS

Arts Reviews DINNER WA State Theatre Co. Directed by Kate Cherry Review by Emily Purvis I was fairly excited to see the Moira Buffini play, Dinner at the State Theatre, for what should be fairly obvious reasons. I was promised live lobsters, death and betrayal. A dinner party to die for. Now, I’m not saying that this performance didn’t deliver - just that it didn’t fully reach its own potential. I didn’t like it. But I didn’t like it for reasons isolated from the performance itself. The problem wasn’t so much with the cast and direction, as with Buffini’s entire script. The set design was fairly impressive, with wall-to-floor perspex window, dry-ice and a revolving ‘dinner’ platform that boasted a huge perspex dining set. And as always, Kate Cherry’s stage direction was effective. But the dialogue was so weak that I found myself laughing more at its (unintentional) awkwardness than anything else. It also seemed to be ironically over acted, but the comedic elements were too prescribed to be funny. The production did pick-up in the latter half of the show, the conflict adding much needed substance to the overall performance. However, though the twist at the play’s climax was relatively surprising, for me it did no more than create a tidy resolution for the plot’s inconsistencies in the first place.

“The cunt is an orchid! NOT a profanity!” was particularly memorable. Highlight: The set design. I’d never seen so much perspex on one stage before, and it was magnificent. Lowlight: The genre. This was not revenge comedy. This was revenge discombobulated. 4/10

The performances were (for the most-part) commendable. Rebecca Davis (Sian), Stuart Halusz (Mike) and Alison van Reeken (Wynne) were particularly vivacious, while Tasma Walton (Paige) dominated the stage. Van Reeken’s delivery of the fabulous line

MARIKO MORI’S REBIRTH AGWA Review by Emily Purvis Luminescent. If I had to describe this exhibition in one word, that’s what it would be. Mariko Mori’s first solo exhibition in Perth, Rebirth follows the theme of humans in relation to nature, the landscape and the cosmos. Mori explores the interconnection of ancient Japanese architecture, and the influence of light. Presented in a variety of mediums, the exhibition is diverse, featuring sculpture forms, installation, drawing, photography, and digital media, all with a variety of effects. The most impressive element of this exhibition’s composition is found in Mori’s manipulation and utilisation of light throughout each individual piece. Whether the pieces were iridescent, glowing or made use of a colour spectrum, light was employed to illuminate, reflect or direct the viewer. I have to say, some aspects of Rebirth were more impressive than others, though that is the nature of any exhibition. Each piece

was elegant in its own right, and they each consolidated a focus on a central theme, however, the stone features seemed almost too alien in the context of the gallery. In some cases, where the installations would have benefited conceptually from interaction, the scale and space of the gallery disallowed movement between them. Reflecting an almost futuristic composition, I think this restrictiveness was used to demonstrate how the installations were intended to be viewed in their natural landscape. Captivating and very, very pretty, I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition. Highlight: All the pretty lights. Lowlight: Not being able to play in the stone circles. 7/10

UWA FACT Flowers picked from garden beds on campus incur a 15% surcharge

LIFE ST YLE

Finn Trismegistus: Adventure Time and Western Mysticism Words and Art by Nick Morlet

I watch Adventure Time, and I’m not ashamed to say it. Currently produced by Cartoon Network, from its premiere in 2010 this animated kids show has quickly drawn a cult internet following for its irreverent and often nonsensical take on the heroic-boy-magical-sidekick-swords-and-princesses genre replete in children’s animation. I can give many reasons why Adventure Time is the best show on TV: its ongoing exploration of Finn’s adolescent psyche; the simple beauty of its Miyazaki-esque visual style; the ever expanding backstory that rewards a long-time viewership of druggos and man-children (guess which one I am!). Most of all, it’s the sheer amount of cultural and literary references that are packed into any one episode that make it worthwhile as an investment of your precious fandom. In particular, the references to Western mysticism and the Gnostic canon allow Adventure Time to transcend the childish fantasyworld pastiche you would grok with only a shallow viewing. The evidence has been mounting for a few seasons now that series creator Pendleton Ward - himself quite the kooky character, just look up his self-made interview from a few years back and see for yourself - is committed to slipping some grown-ass references into the more childish elements of the show. Peppermint Butler is a prime example: servant to the candy-themed Princess Bubblegum, Pep But is the figure of a long-standing joke in the series, as this seemingly innocuous sentient breath mint has shown himself to be in command of some powerful and esoteric magic. His penchant for the supernatural was first introduced in the second season episode “Death In Bloom”, in which he helps the intrepid duo enter the Land of the Dead (in return for their living flesh, of course). This episode contains some rather meaty classical references as well as a Lovecraftian reference to boot. In the episode “The Suitor”, a throwaway scene shows Pep But summoning “Ogdoad, master of level eight shadow world”; the ritual features items and animals significant to the Book of Ezekiel while the name Ogdoad, meaning “eighth” or “eightfold” in Ancient Greek, refers both to the Gnostic concept of the supercelestial eighth sphere of heaven, and to a sect of

eight deities worshipped in Hermopolis, 3rd Millenium BC. Peppermint Butler’s heretical activities earn him a nemesis in the form of Peace Master (voiced by Rainn Wilson), a fanatical crusader against all forms of dark magic, whose conflict with “the dark one” feature in the aptly-titled episode “Nemesis”. Pep But utilises Sikh protective mantras and evokes the major arcana of tarot & the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in his defence, while Peace Master keeps items such as an ankh and a rubber chicken in his “charm sack”. To make another case study, the quite recent episode “The Mountain” reflects almost to a tee several Thelemic and Hermetic initiation rites. It opens with a view on the workings of Castle Lemongrab, now a bucolic city-state efficiently run by the nowreunified Lemongrab (There were two Lemongrabs for a while. They didn’t get along). Perturbed by the mural on his ceiling demonstrating some sort of warrior’s journey, Lemongrab sets out for the Mountain of Matthew. This is no regular mountain: in the next scene Jake alludes to the “bookoo-spookoo legends” that surround it, after they spy Lemongrease rolling up to the spot on his Lemoncamel. He enters and Finn pursues, while Jake is barred entry, as, according to the gatekeeper, he “has no beeswax with the Mountain of Matthew, while Finn’s beeswax is “way-cray”. What follows closely resembles various initiation rites and other rites of passage in Western mystic belief, specifically the Rite of the City of the Pyramids as in Thelema. Rejecting the worldly temptations of love, companionship and comfort, the initiate is led by their guardian spirit - for Lemongrab, his dear little Lemonsweets, a china doll; for Finn, a butterfly, which in previous episodes has been shown to be both a past life and his astral beast incarnate - into the Void, a liminal state between the mundane material world and the immaterial heavenly world. Here, after confronting whatever worldly baggage tether the initiate to their physical self, they shed their corporeal bodies and continue into the Void, “where only my pure essence can go.” Lemongrab, tasting the surface of his greater self, realises that he is grease, while Finn joyously runs with, then past, his greater self, significantly lacking his right arm which he regrows upon reaching for the light. And so our initiates have journeyed through the Void and thus

UWA FACT EMAS recently became a publicly traded company

LIFE ST YLE

have reached the City of the Pyramids, which is translated in Adventure Time as the chamber of the singular Matthew. Aleister Crowley, self-proclaimed prophet and founder of Thelema, described the bodies of the enlightened as made up of dust or stones, and this is how Matthew appears: a formless amalgam of white stones, suspended above an infernal pit. His name alludes to the Biblical books of Matthew and Revelation, which correlates with Matthew’s claim that he will “keep adding to himself until the second age of terror (the Second Coming of Christ) when I will … restore (judge) the world.” Lemongrab then considers merging with the collective consciousness of Matthew, and hence “know the ecstasy of my ego-death.” An integral concept in Eastern as well as Western Mysticism, egodeath refers to a total loss of subjective self-concept, permanent or transient*; aside from spiritualists it holds particular interest to Jungian psychoanalytics as well as in Joseph Campbell’s seminal research into the archetypal Hero’s Journey. From there, the episode gets a little weird: finding his omnipotence to be “unacceptable” Lemongrab kills Matthew by feeding him pieces of lemon candy (originally a giant Lemongrab called Lemonjon), thereby reverting Matthew back into a group of individuals, who don’t take too kindly to their lost nirvana, and so Lemongrease and Finn high-tail it out of there. To close off the episode, Lemongrab caulks up damage to the prophesying mural with a wad of chewed-up Lemonjons, uttering my favourite line of the episode, “Yo yo, it’s ‘grease.”

given here would be enough for even the most skeptical of readers to have a second thought the next time they see some fruity glyph or hear Peppermint Butler praise ‘Angra Mainyu’. I really could go on, and would were it not for the limitations of the paper medium, so please, come find me around campus so that, together, we might talk all kinds of shit about a children’s tv show. Peace. *this concept of ego-death is reflected in the proceeding (and at time of writing most recent) episode, “The Diary”: Jake’s son T.V, obsessing over the lost diary of the teenaged “BP”, experiences hallucinations in which he sees and interacts with the people that feature in the diary, such as her friends and boyfriend, as if he himself were BP. I feel that it is important to add that T.V is voiced by Dan Mintz who is also the voice of Tina from Bob’s Burgers which is another show you should totally watch. Though they don’t quote Nietzsche as often.

This is just one example. As I said before, if given a closer viewing you will find Adventure Time replete with unexpectedly intellectual references. Earlier in season six the episode “Little Brother” perfectly observes the aforementioned Hero’s Journey, ending in a moment of transcendent beauty; the two sphinxes of “Goliad” resemble other dualistic deities locked in permanent stalemate; Finn connects with alternate and past lives on a few occasions, especially in “The Vault” and “Puhoy”, not to mention the whole gender-swapped universe of Cake the Cat & Fionna the Human. The complex dream logic of “Memory Of A Memory”, “Is That You?” and “King Worm”, and the latter’s allusions to surrealist cinema a la Un Chien Andalou; destiny, premonition and the afterlife in “The New Frontier”, extra-temporality in “Bad Timing”, dialectic out-of-body experiences in “Astral Plane”. Princess Bubblegum’s relentless search for immortality and an eternal empire, as evidenced in the episodes “Goliad” and “Red Starved”. Rulers of the underworld ranging from the soul-sucking demon Hunson Abadeer to the cowboy shaman Death, the animist spacegod The Cosmic Owl to the entity of true annihilation, The Lich. “Evergreen”. Again, just, “Evergreen”. I hope the examples

UWA FACT A Ref kebab is really just a bulky wrap

LIFE ST YLE

GREEN VS. MEAN: PELICAN DOES TOP GEAR Words by Morgan Goodman Art by Tamara Sindhunakorn

I am not a car person. I want to make that clear before I get into this. I will not, throughout this article, be making use of that secret language spoken only by gleaming-eyed car enthusiasts. To me, ‘horsepower’ and similar do not directly translate to any physical or spiritual qualities possessed by a lump of metal being propelled through space via a series of tiny explosions. That being said, given the apparent collapse of Top Gear, there seems to be a vacancy for egotistical loudmouths in the field of automotive journalism and I’m ready to step up. Early in March I found myself on the field at the RAC Driving Centre for Electrikhana, the Australian Electric Vehicle Association’s showcase of what’s been going on in the friendlier side (environmentally, at least) of driving enthusiasm. It was a sight to behold: vehicles parked in a line, gleaming like all of the tomorrows promised in the seventies, achieved in the late eighties and then hidden in the back of the closet until about ten years ago. The resurgence in interest in electric cars has coincided with the arrival of a few almost excessively sleek and sporty options developed by companies like BMW and Elon Musk’s Tesla, both of which were well represented on the day. This is a bigger deal than it sounds, since distribution is still limited here. According to the proud Tesla S owner I spoke to, the three Tesla which were on display were the only three currently owned in WA. Interspersed with these gleaming behemoths and their frighteningly colossal price tags were representatives of the more approachable end of the market: the Nissan Leaf, the Holden Volt, Mitsubishi’s iMiEV and Outlander PHEV, and a host of home conversions and smaller projects, including UWA’s own Green Machine. Despite these, there’s little doubt that the electric car industry right now is trying to sell to holdouts of combustion engines. Often reviled for prizing sustainability over performance (read: speed) and aesthetics, the manufacturers of electric cars have been working hard to prove that a sports car with an electric engine is still, first and foremost, a sports car, something to be lusted after and proudly displayed on the lawn of a weekend. Part of developing this appeal is letting people experience the ride, which is one of the main reasons the early adopters were so keen to come along to the event. The line to ride along in the Teslas and BMWs didn’t let up all day and it was half an hour before I was buckling myself into the backseat of the slate grey Tesla S and introducing myself to the owner.

passenger seats. Most importantly, though, was the immediately noticeable lack of any sort of rumble as we pulled out onto the test track. It is an odd sensation, as though the car were floating a few centimetres from the surface of the road. The driver put his foot down as he explained the important details: the Tesla S does 0 to 60 in 5.4 seconds, I was told, which in a silent car feels a lot like heading into warp, and it can travel around 420km on a full charge, depending on the size of the battery pack. Basically, it goes like greased weasel shit on a hot day. But the spirit of competition is alive and well at the Driving Centre. As I was scribbling notes after my jaunt in the Tesla, I was approached by Tim Hughes, one of the instructors at Perth Supercars, who offered to show me the other side of driving – a few hot laps in a Ferrari 360 Modena. Up until that point, I couldn’t claim to have understood the appeal of supercars, but there is something incredibly seductive about the roar of the Ferrari as it accelerates. Unlike the Tesla, which glides above the road on a cloud of smug self-satisfaction, the Ferrari is animalistic and gives the impression of enjoying chewing up the track as much as the driver. It is just about as exhilarating as any Fast & Furious movie would have you believe. Even as electric vehicles are, without doubt, the transportation we will end up with, there is something to be said for the pleasure of going really fast in a car that’s really loud. Electrikhana was a demonstration of how far the automotive industry has come in trying to balance the desires of drivers with the need to soften the impact of driving. You can expect to pay over $100,000 plus import fees in order to get hold of a Tesla in Australia at the moment. Perth Supercars runs laps on weekends at the RAC Driving Centre for anyone who wants a spin in a Ferrari or a Lamborghini; $349 will get you 5 laps and they’ll throw another one on top for fun. For more information, email info@supercars.com.au.

Inside, the Tesla has enough lights and buttons to make Kirk feel insecure about his bridge. The central console is a screen larger than my laptop. The owner rattled off a list of mod-cons: Wi-Fi hotspots and door handles that hide flush to the body of the car and presumably some sort of drainage for all the drooling in the 44

UWA FACT A number of prominent Australian breakfast radio personalities matriculated from the UWA Law School

LIFE ST YLE

SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET Words by Lucy Ballantyne Art by Dea Effendi When I left home, and my disposable income became my notso-disposable income, the first thing I gave up was fashion. For someone who’d grown up on a diet of Country Road and had previously been prone to a heady rush of adrenaline on entering Claremont Quarter, it seemed like an impossible task. In reality, it was easy – clothes, it turned out, were not a temptation for me. Bar one unfortunate relapse involving some fabulous black hot pants (no regrets), I, with Sarah Wilson-esque success, quit fashion. At that time, I saw my financial situation as merely necessitating something I had always believed in. Buying new clothes was decadent, hedonistic, vain, and ultimately, wasteful. ‘The environment something something…’ I would declare, while I wanked off Bob Brown or some such, ‘sweatshops and children in Africa and all that.’ Sauntering around Reid Library in my old school socks and a Gorman jumper from a whole two seasons ago, covered in red wine stains and the stink of my own ego, I was never before more righteous. As you’ve likely already intimated, I was also, in fact, a massive idiot. It’s taken several years, but it’s become clear that the issue of getting dressed ethically is slightly more complex than I had

thought. Though it might not be news to some, when I looked back on my life, I realised that the moments when I felt the best, strongest, most powerful were the moments when I knew I looked great in what I was wearing. Further, it’s apparently ‘not normal’ to feel utter dread when you open your wardrobe door in the morning, wondering what fresh hell awaits today. For better or for worse (well, just for worse), clothes and self-esteem are inextricable. We end up towing an impossible line – surviving happily in Australia, and giving a shit when sweatshops collapse in Bangladesh. We go to op-shops and buy secondhand as much as we can, but the going’s not always good. We try to buy Australian made, but the expense is often too much. We remind ourselves that not buying something because it was made in a sweatshop is going to hurt the workers first, and then realise that sounds a little bit too close to a free pass to buy anything and everything guilt-free. You won’t shop at Valleygirl, because surely their ethical practices must be worse than TopShop’s, but that’s just creating your politics out of your aesthetics. Perhaps I’m just trying to assuage the guilt of a $200 purchase at Myer; perhaps I’m a bad person. Whatever. At least I look great.

UWA FACT It’s been proven that the word ‘Gorman’ elicits a pavlovian response from female UWA students

RETRO PELI In 1991, Pelican was advertising Triple J, publishing photo essays about goths, and proving that, well, some things never change.

FEATURE

Our postgraduate courses give you strong global connections.

worldwide The aren’t links best

clickable.

The connections you make at The University of Western Australia are as important as they are far-reaching. When you undertake a postgraduate degree here, you’ll be studying alongside other like-minded, passionate peers and making relevant industry connections all over the globe. It’s the perfect way to advance your career and puts you in the best possible position for your future. To ﬁnd out more visit studyat.uwa.edu.au/postgraduate CRICOS Provider Code 00126G BRAND UWAM0303