Issue - University of Sydney Union

Issue 03, 2014 / FREE
SEX ED GETS SCREWED / PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE / DISCRIMINATING NATION / BROKEN RUBBERS / ADOPTION POLICY
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Issue 03
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
3
Editors
Eden Caceda
Katie Davern
Sophie Gallagher
Melanie Kembrey
Rob North
Sean O’Grady
F E ATUR E S
LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX BABY
RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSH DOOF
A RACIST AUSTRALIA? 18
A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW 27
ADOPTING CHANGE 32
REPORTERS
10
13
Barbara Taylor
Erin Rooney
Hannah Edensor
Kirsty Timsans
Sean May
Shannen Potter
Contributors
Amanda Choularton, Brooke Ackland,
Claire Paterson, Elizabeth Huang,
Emily Shen, Genevieve Canh,
Harvey Blissfell, James Hennessy,
Katie Stow, Leonidas Kontaxis,
Lucy Lester, Max Hall, Nerine Corbett,
Rebecca Karpin, Sophie Anaïs BarbeauScurla, Whitney Duan
Publications Manager
Louisa Stylian
Design manager
Jeanette Kho
R E GULARS
What’s On 04
Editorial & Board 06
Letters 07
Opinion 09
Interview 17
Taste 22
Go 23
Move 24
Learn 25
The Time I Tried 31
Campus Fashion 35
Vox & Classic Countdown 36
Cow & Horns 37
Arts 39
Reviews 40
Experience 41
Club Confidential 42
Shutter Up 44
Comics 45
Ask Isabella 46
/bullmag
/USUbullmag
Design
Simon Macias
Peta Harris
CONTACT
[email protected]
facebook.com/bullmag
@usubullmag
usu.edu.au/bullmag
The views expressed in this publication
are not necessarily the views of the USU.
The information contained within this
edition of Bull was correct at the time
of printing.
This publication is brought to you by
the University of Sydney Union.
Issue 03, 2014
Write for us!
Whether you’re a budding
student journalist or have
a random idea that could be
a great story, email us and
you could get published here.
[email protected]
4
bull usu.edu.au
WHAT'S ON
WHAT'S ON
For the FULL CALENDAR OF EVENTS – head to USU.EDU. AU AND CLICK THE CALENDAR.
Clubs & Socs – remember to submit your events on the website!
MON
wk 8 (APRIL/MAY)
28
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
29
30
01
02
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Eastern Avenue, 11AM–3pm
DJ COMP-HEAT 1
MANNING Bar, 12.30pm
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Eastern Avenue, 11AM–3pm
FUNCH+DJ COMP-HEAT 2
Eastern Avenue, 1pm
DJ COMP-HEAT 3
Hermann’s Bar, 5.30pm
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Eastern Avenue, 11AM–3pm
DJ COMP FINAL
Hermann’s Bar, 5.30pm
TGIF (TELL GRADS IT’S FRIDAY)
DRINKS
Hermann’s Bar, 5pm
FRIDAY 9 MAY, 7.30PM
HERMANN’S BAR
PRESENTS
05
06
07
08
09
wk 9 (MAY)
QUEER AFTERNOON TEA & MOVIE
Verge Gallery, 3pm
FUNCH
Eastern Avenue, 12-2pm
DRAGTACULAR
Hermann’s Bar, 7pm
PRESENTS
13
wk 10 (MAY)
12
14
15
FUNCH
Eastern Avenue, 12pm
MARKETS
Eastern Avenue,
INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST
HOMOPHOBIA & TRANSPHOBIA
Eastern Avenue, 12-2pm
20
21
USU ELECTION DAY
USU ELECTION DAY
Free drink for
ACCESS Members
Multiple performances
and DJs throughout
the night!
Dragtacular
PRESENTS
19
16
22
MSS252
/USUAccess
@USUAccess
23
@USUAccess
WEDNESDAY
/USUonline
wk 11 (MAY)
7 MAY, 3PM
VERGE GALLERY
This event is provided autonomously for individuals
who do not identify as cisgender males
/USUAccess
wk 12 (MAY)
26
@USUAccess
@USUAccess
/USUonline
usu.edu.au
27
28
29
30
RECONCILIATION WEEK
RECONCILIATION WEEK
RECONCILIATION WEEK
RECONCILIATION WEEK
usu.edu.au
Issue 03
what's on
every week
2014
monday – friday
SCREENING
PARTY
MONDAY
Presented by the Clubs & Societies Office
with the support of USU student clubs
SOLO SESSIONS
1-2pm, Manning Bar
THURSDAY
$3.50 HAPPY HOUR
THEATRESPORTS®
4-6pm, Manning Bar
and Hermann’s Bar
1-2pm, Manning BarBar
Bingo
4-6pm, International
Student Lounge
POOL COMPETITION
5-6pm, Manning Bar
$3.50 HAPPY HOUR
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
4-6pm, Manning Bar
and Hermann’s Bar
12-5pm, Manning Bar
Debating Regionals
AUSTRALIAN
DISCUSSION GROUP
Beat The System – Local
Bands and DJs
TRIVIA
Tuesday TV
5.15pm, Woolley N395
5pm, Hermann’s Bar
3-4pm, Level 4
Wentworth Building
5-6pm, Manning Bar
$3.50 HAPPY HOUR
4-6pm, Manning Bar
and Hermann’s Bar
DJs
2 for 1 schnitty
$3.50 HAPPY HOUR
6-8pm,
Manning Bar
4-6pm, Manning Bar
and Hermann’s Bar
FRIDAY
$3.50 HAPPY HOUR
4-6pm, Manning Bar
and Hermann’s Bar
Get Up! Stand Up!
5-6pm, Manning Bar
4-7pm, Hermann’s Bar
MUST SEE
Eurovision Screening
DOORSParty
OPEN AT 6.30PM
SUNDAY
11TH MAY
SCREENING FROM 7.30PM
- Prizes for best dressed
Sunday 11 May 2014, 6.30pm- Flag making & face
painting workshop
(screening
starts from
7.30pm)
MANNING
BAR
- Karaoke Room
for ACCESS
Entry includes food and drink vouchers
Manning Bar //FREE
18+
$5 for Non-ACCESS
to first 200 ACCESS members
Once again, the USU’s Clubs & Societies Office will
be hosting the annual Eurovision Screening Party!
This year it’s going to be bigger and better than
ever, with activities and competitions accompanying
Eurovision’s extravagant singing and dancing.
If you’re a Eurovision enthusiast this is definitely
the place to be. Or if you just want to see what all
the fuss is about, come by, grab a drink, and join
in on the fun.
/USUAccess
@USUAccess
@USUAccess
/USUonline
usu.edu.au
ACCESS: Free / Non-ACCESS: $5 at the door
Complimentary drink vouchers to the first
200 ACCESS members
COMING UP
Salmonella Dub
Sound System
2
MAY
3
MAY
Eurovision
Septicflesh + Fleshgod
Apocalypse
manningbar.com
/Manningbarsydney
Theatresports® – Old vs New
30
MAY
RUSSIAN CIRCLES (USA)
11
MAY
17
MAY
29
MAY
1
JUN
6
JUN
@Manningbar
RAW Awards
Rock n Roll &
Alternative Market
PROPAGANDHI
#manningbar
5
6
bull usu.edu.au
EDITORIAL
FROM THE EDITORS
EDEN, KATIE, SOPHIE, MELANIE, ROB, SEAN
While we were producing this latest edition
of BULL, cramped around a small table at the
Forest Lodge Hotel, we realised a universal
truth: sex sells.
We figured it was better late than never
to address this well-known fact, and decided
to emblazon our cover with the most sex
related thing we could find. Unfortunately
BOARD Q&A:
HANNAH MORRIS
USU PRESIDENT
B: According to released information, you failed
to consult the Board in a recommendation to
reappoint Senate-appointed Board Directors
whose terms expired in December 2013.Why
did you feel you didn’t need the input of other
Board Directors when making this decision?
Ryan Gosling was unavailable for a photoshoot,
but our Google image search for ‘sex’ yielded
some rather fantastic imagery.
Look, if you haven’t worked it out by
now, we’re a little bit obsessed with sex.
After all, bulls are amongst the horniest
of creatures.
But we’re also obsessed with giving
a voice to student writers. We write, edit,
and spend long nights reading the works
of a talented bunch of sleep-deprived
students who often actively avoid their
assignments to deliver quality content that
stymies the boredom of your train trip.
Providing your much needed
supplementary dose of sexual content,
in this edition Lucy Lester tells us why we
need a male version of the contraceptive pill,
while Shannon Potter addresses the shortfalls
associated with a high school teacher giving
you the birds and the bees talk.
If all that sounds a little too salaciously
serious then discover what happened when
one of our writers got down and dutty at
a Jamaican Dancehall class (spoiler alert:
a rigorous Beyoncè-style workout, that’s
what!). Or you can flick through to discover
what we think of the latest dieting fad
designed to keep you slim and seductive.
Meanwhile Katie Davern gives voice to
those suffering at the hands of casual racism,
and Rob North outlines the problems with
adoption across borders.
In our minds student media is vibrant,
contentious and discriminates against no
potential subject of inquiry. Just as our work
as editors is never fully completed as we
move from edition to edition, neither is this
project. We enjoy contributing, in some small
way, to this body of work. We hope you enjoy
reading it.
BULL x
regulations or procedures that surround the
reappointment or recommendation of potential
Directors to the Senate. Historically the
process of reappointment has been conducted
automatically by the Senate prior to the expiry
of the Senate-appointed Director's terms,
and this is the first time in recent memory
the Senate has allowed the appointments
to lapse. In light of this procedural error
and the lack of regulations surrounding
the process as a whole, the Board will be
conducting a comprehensive governance
review in this area.
was widely discussed. What is your
personal opinion?
B: Do you feel there must be more guidelines
for the use of executive power?
HM: I feel that in this situation, the lack of
clarity and communication surrounding
everything to do with the mechanism
of recommendation, appointment, and
reappointment of Senate appointed directors
became apparent from both the University and
the Union’s perspective, and it is something
we are working on together to rectify.
HM: It is important to remember that the
process of appointing Senate-appointed
Directors lies entirely within the remit of
the Senate. The USU has no formal
B: At the recent USU Members Transparency
Forum, the issue of staff members being
referred to in tweets during Board meetings
HM: I believe that to regulate the use of
social media at Board meetings is a matter
for the Board to determine, and hopefully
an outcome will be reached from the
findings of the Transparency Review.
B: With the upcoming Union Board elections,
what advice do you have for the candidates?
HM: 1) Speak to as many people as possible
for advice, guidance and information in
the lead up to your campaign. Current and
former Board Directors, staff and even your
friends are all useful sources of perspective
and support.
2) Make sure you take the time to get to know
the USU well as an organisation, as we are
very unique in many respects, and be clear
on your vision for what you would like the
USU to look like moving forward.
3) Use your campaign as an opportunity
to be creative, express yourself and meet
new people. Campaigns can be a lot of
fun and don’t forget to enjoy yourself in
the process :)
Issue 03 7
LETTERS & PICK OF THE MONTH
LETTERS
PURRFECT
WAITING
Dear BULL,
Dear BULL,
Rob North’s article on cat cafés has stirred
something within me. Cats are truly my
favourite thing in the world, and the idea
of having my morning coffee with a side of
some kitty loving sounds like a dream. Just
a quiet meow as I bite into my slice of toast
would be enough to make my day. I’m truly
shocked that Sydney hasn’t jumped on this
furry bandwagon. Newtown would be all
the better with an alleyway cat cafe. Even
Sydney Uni would be improved by one –
I’m thinking a quiet corner of Manning
converted to this dream dwelling would be
amazing! As was noted in the article, I’m
glad other Australians feel the same way,
but Sydney definitely needs this. If no one
else will, I will. Thanks for bringing this
important issue to our attention.
I am still waiting for ALL of last year’s
campaign promises. Robby Magyar,
where’s my froyo?! Tim Matthews,
where’s Taichi? Kade Denton, where’s my
free food-hunting app? Bebe D’Souza,
where’s my cheap grub? Tara Wannaguyinacar,
where’s my cinema? Eve Radunz, where’s
my free ACCESS?
~ Anonymous
LIBERAL VS. LABOR DEBATE
Dear BULL,
On Monday 31 March, Hermann’s
hosted a debate between the Liberal
and Labor societies on the topic of
Affirmative Action for women. Whilst
things were bound to get heated over such
a contentious issue, the amount of vitriol
that was spewed towards the Libs was
abhorrent. Three brave debaters plucked
up the courage to front a mostly left wing
room only to be yelled off the stage. There
is nothing wrong with being passionate
about ones beliefs but when you disallow
someone from engaging an audience
through raucous screaming, you can taint
the credibility of your cause. You go to a
debate to be persuaded, to listen carefully
and swish new ideas and points of view
around in your head. You do not go there
to purport your beliefs through sardonic
taunts from the safety of a crowd. I hope
we see more debates between passionate
people in the future but, maybe next time,
with a little more respect.
~ Jack Cook (BIGS II)
I’m hurt guys. I’m never campaigning for
the USU again.
~ Name withheld
HOT POTATOE
Dear Editor,
Pope Francis is dead right. In churches and
in political parties, this is the hot potato era
as only hot potatoes are consumed!
Church consumers and political
party consumers are only obsessed
with hot potatoes. Churches and political
parties have become intellectual fast food
restaurants where only the hot potatoes
are consumed, dissected, analysed,
and spoken about.
Churches and political parties are far
too focused on hot potato issues and their
recipe solutions rather than on the true
substances of their main games.
Hot potatoes are not the only sources
of soul food for churches! Hot potatoes
are not the only sources of mind food for
political parties!
There are other nourishing intellectual
fast foods to consume at churches, political
parties and other intellectual fast food
restaurants.
Thanks,
~ Jane Wallace
BULL wants to hear from you
Tell us about the stories you
shared with your friends or those
you placed on the bottom of your
budgie cage. Or just write and let
us know you’re lonely.
Email [email protected]
#Selfie
The 80s had gloves, the 90s TLC and
the Noughties NeoPets, but the word
of our generation is without doubt
the 2013 Word of the Year. ‘Selfie’,
according to the Oxford English
Dictionary, is a photograph that one
has taken of oneself, typically with
a Smartphone, and uploaded to a social
media website.
We knew selfies were a legit thing
when our parents started referring to
them. But, the reality is that the first selfie
was taken in 1839 when Robert Cornelius
snapped a photo of himself and walked
behind the camera because of the slow
process it took to take. This means selfies
are actually, like, so 1800s.
Formerly called luvos (when we
used to upload them to our MySpaces),
selfies are much better nowadays in
comparison to the amateurish, flash
blinded self-portraits we all took in our
bathroom mirrors.
And now selfies are bigger than
ever. With the Sochi Winter Olympics
(#selfieolympics) and Ellen DeGeneres
(#oscarselfie), EVERYONE is now aware
of the wonders of #selfies. Thanks to
The Chainsmokers we can even say
“but first let me take a selfie” before
anything now.
While we won’t be seen among the
90 million #selfie posts on Instagram,
we at BULL are proud of our nation for
being credited for originating the word.
Amazing, Australia!
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Issue 03
OPINION
OPINION
SETTING FORTH
ALONE
Nerine Corbett
You can imagine it
clearly: you’re all
travelling together,
the sun is beaming down, everyone is
smiling – it’s glorious! There may be hard
times but you’ll pull through. Never mind
homesickness, you have your friends with
you! You’ll make so many memories, and tell
these stories for years. What could be better?
This is the fantasy of travelling with
friends. The dream. But that’s all it is, just a
fantasy. What could be better than travelling
with your friends? Well, travelling alone.
Photographed
and Disengaged
WHITNEY DUAN
I’m definitely
a latecomer to
Smartphone
photography. After many years in the
bitter conservative camp of devalued
camera photographers, I’ve reluctantly
crossed the great divide, now sporting an
iPhone with an Instagram account. But six
months on, and 1265 iPhone photos later,
I find myself profoundly estranged from
my own photographs, despite photography
being more prevalent in my day-to-day life
than ever before.
I am without doubt pro-progress;
the rationale behind detesting iPhoneography
lies in how its artless instant editing functions
and narcissistic exploits (see: #selfie)
undermine photography as a skilled art form.
Yet, this new age photographic process is
fundamentally very democratic – no longer
do we have to fork out hefty four or five digit
sums for a quality camera and accessories;
When you travel with your friends, you need
to accommodate the wants of everyone.
Planning is a nightmare of disagreements
and, once you’re away, sacrifices need to be
made to keep everyone happy. When you are
away spending big amounts of money (that
probably took huge amounts of time to earn)
you don’t want to be giving up your dreams
for others.
If your idea of a holiday was laying
beach side on the Côte d’Azur, why are you
trekking in Nepal? If you wanted to skydive
Fox Glacier, why are you shopping on the
Avenue des Champs-Elysees? Priorities are
always going to be different in a group and
the best way to have the trip of your dreams
is to take your own trip.
nor do we require technical knowledge
about its functions, or training to handle
suspicious chemicals in a darkroom;
we are no longer limited to the precious
24 exposures in a film roll. iPhoneography
has become the universal, democratised
form of artistic expression for everyone
from acclaimed fashion photographer
Nick Knight, to the world’s leaders,
to #selfieaddicts.
Ironically, despite the endless influx
of photos on social media, iPhoneography
is disengaging us from the very experiences
we attempt to immortalise in pixels. The greed
and glut of photos comes not from a genuine
wish to capture a moment in time, but a
compulsion to prove that we saw Beyoncé
in concert or had mouth-watering
bruschetta for lunch. The camera has
become a mere documenting device
that we use to mindlessly take, no longer
make, photographs – there are so many
experiences documented, but hardly any
that are experienced anymore. And sadly
this dichotomy is hardly new to us. Modern
life revels in this phenomenon. We are
spoilt for choice yet we find it difficult to
I know setting out alone can seem terrifying.
Will you make friends? Who will have your
back if things go wrong? These were my
biggest fears before setting out alone, but
they proved unfounded. Travelling alone
is a real chance to escape, to test yourself
and get in touch with another place. When
you travel by yourself you’re forced to take
chances, go out on a limb, talk to someone
new and work it out for yourself. Rather
than learning how much you and your friend
disagree, learn about yourself and the world.
We are so used to compromising and
working together that it seems selfish to
say “screw everyone, this is what I want”,
but trust me, you’ll have a better time if you
leave your friends behind.
The greed and
glut of photos come
not from a genuine
wish to capture a
moment in time
make decisions. We live in one of the most
privileged countries but we’re unhappy.
We have so much to do, yet we feel an
overwhelming sense of boredom.
The democratisation of photography
is only another sub-plot in the timeline of
the century’s progresses, and all progress
has its casualties. While I still occasionally
take out my iPhone to snap my coffee,
nothing can compare to the moments
carefully captured behind my old Nikon.
9
10 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
LET’S
TALK
ABOUT
SEX
BABY
Issue 03 11
FEATURE
Shannen Potter reports on the failures of sexual education in schools.
“Once in my high school sex ed class,
the teacher told us about a girl who got
‘so drunk’ that she didn’t know what she was
doing and had sex with two boys in full view
of the rest of the party. At the time we were all
just disgusted, but when I think back on it I feel
like that was not a great thing to say to a bunch
of 15 year olds who were starting to have sex.”
Heather*, a third year Arts student,
divulges this story to me with a confidential,
almost indulgent, air. Obviously, Heather’s story
of a health teacher using probable sexual assault
to dissuade girls from drinking is meant to
shock me. But, after delving into the world
of high school sexual education, I have heard
many variations of the ‘I can’t believe they
said that’ tale.
In NSW, the Personal Development,
Health and Physical Education (PDHPE)
syllabus is remarkably scant when it comes to
prescriptions about sexual education. While it
mandates that students should learn about sexual
health, reproductive health and relationships,
there is little mention of what this should entail.
For example, contraception and consent are
listed as ‘issues’ relevant to sexuality, and samesex attraction is only addressed as an ‘alternative
family structure’.
Ultimately, this gives sexual education
teachers almost free reign over the content that
is taught to their classes. A 2011 survey by the
Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and
Society (ARCSHS) revealed that less than half
of Australian teachers taught that sex should
or could be pleasurable, and that 68 per cent
of teachers advocated for abstinence until
marriage. Meanwhile, a survey funded by the
Department of Health and Aging claims that
most students in Years 10 to 12 are already
sexually active to some degree.
Over half of the teachers surveyed also
reported that they avoided specific sexuality
related topics as they believed they were not
provided for in the curriculum. However all of
the subjects presented by the survey were taught
by at least some teachers. Further, sexual health
education greatly varies between religious
schools of different faiths and denominations.
This points to an inconsistency across sexual
education; students are subject to vastly different
instruction, largely dependent on the teacher’s
view on sexuality.
Heather saw this reflected in her own experiences throughout the Internet only serve to increase
of sexual education. “One thing has always stuck
the lack of education surrounding sexual health.
with me; we were going through what things are
University students in particular understand that
‘clean’ or ‘okay’ to go into your vagina. Tampons
this is an education issue that must be addressed.
and penises were accepted but when someone
Increasingly, opportunities for students to
said, ‘your fingers?’ they were told ‘no, your
radically relearn sexual education in a university
fingers are probably dirty.’ Why would your
setting have appeared. Indeed, this year at
fingers be dirtier than a penis? It’s just dubious
the University of Sydney, multiple events are
to me. It was obviously just what the teacher
being held which cater to groups who may feel
personally thought.”
alienated by the practices of traditional sexuality
Andrew*, a queer first year Law student,
education, specifically women and LGBTQIA
describes the sexuality education he received
students. As part of USU’s Health & Wellbeing
at school as, “well-intentioned but grossly
Week, SHADES hosted an autonomous oral sex
inadequate.” He says that, as a gay man, most
safety workshop which facilitated peer education
of what he learned was irrelevant to him.
amongst queer and questioning students. The
“Whether it was the teacher’s intention or not,
Wom*n’s Collective has undertaken a ‘postering’
homosexuality was always discussed in terms
campaign for sexual assault awareness and
of risky, unhealthy and abnormal behaviour.
hosted a panel discussion about the Royal Prince
Sex was defined in such narrow terms. It was
Alfred Hospital Sexual Assault Service.
always about the penis penetrating the vagina
Julia Readett, one of the 2014 Wom*n’s
and nothing else.”
Officers, said, “We believe that it’s important
While both Heather and Andrew raised
to include everyone in these activities because
number of issues with the way they were taught
they affect everyone and in different ways.”
about sex and sexuality at school, both asserted
She indicated that the collective would be
that the classroom is not the best environment
holding a consent workshop during this semester.
for young people to learn about consent, sexual
Additionally, a university-wide Sex and Consent
health, diversity or body positivity. Instead,
Day will be held on the 4 September, with
Andrew believes that “you are the only person
support from the Wom*n’s Collective and
who you can trust with your sex education.”
student organisations.
This contrasts with the point of view of teachers
Student activism regarding sexual education
in the ARCSHS survey, who believed that school
may help bridge the gap between school, the
was an extremely important place in delivering
media and the current sexual lives of young
education about sexuality.
people.
Heather hopes programs like Sex and
The acknowledgement by students that
Consent Day can inform students of the realities
sexuality education is lacking has resulted in
of sex saying, “I feel like I read a lot online about
a turn towards self-education. Here, the vastness
consent, slut-shaming, stuff like that but that
of the Internet has proven to be a valuable
it’s really important to actually talk about it as
resource for issues related to sexuality, or, as one
friend remarked to me, “I just use Google and like, a community. I’m really hoping we can have an
critical thought when I need to know something.” opportunity to do that at uni.”
Yet it still remains that re-education would
But this is problematic as it can perpetuate
not be necessary if the school curriculum
falsities around sex. For example, some
addressed the broad and varied elements of
heterosexual porn establishes illusions of
sexual health in the first place. As long as schools
female sexuality, misleadingly educating males
and the syllabus continue to place little attention
on how women act and react during intercourse.
This too can be true of homosexual pornography. towards this issue, education will continue to
be misleading and lacking. Creating a detailed
For example, Andrew says that while gay porn
but broad curriculum, in which teachers do not
helped him to reaffirm his sexual identity it
simply deliver their own opinions and knowledge,
“obviously didn’t show real sex. Safe sex was
will begin to establish the legitimacy and need
rarely shown and porn made me feel negatively
for accurate sexuality education.
about my body.” The unrealistic perceptions
* Names have been changed.
of sexual acts that are seen in some porn and
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20th May
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OPS154
Issue 03 13
FEATURE
Sean May explored alternate
dimensions when he spent a
wild and wet weekend at a
bush doof held in an isolated
forest outside of Sydney.
I was wet and on edge by the time I arrived
at the bush doof. The rain from the previous
night had finally cleared, and the morning
sun cut through the fog making the sky pink.
I was in a quiet stretch of forest about
150km south-west of Goulburn. As I arrived
at the entrance to the Regrowth Festival,
I could see that the campground was well
and truly awake – an odd sight at 7am.
I drove in slow, guided by the muffled
sound of music off in the distance pulsating
at a tempo of 160bpm.
What is a bush doof anyway? The term
briefly made headlines last year when the
Macquarie Dictionary included it in their
latest edition. A bush doof was defined
as ‘an outdoor dance party usually held
in a remote location’. This is partly right,
yet the ambiguity of the definition opens
up room for doofs to be misconstrued.
It’s not uncommon for the media to report
large gatherings of bored, drunken suburban
teenagers as bush doofs, often giving them
a bad rap.
In reality, ‘bush doof ’ is colloquial for
a psychedelic trance party. Psytrance has
its roots in Goa, India, which has been
a hippie enclave since the 1960s, and draws
on psychedelic rock, oriental tribal music
and electronic dance music. Bush doofs
take you into a world where technology
and spirituality meet on the dance floor;
where, with the aid of psychedelic drugs,
participants report mystical experiences.
The music is key here. The repetitive rhythms
and melodies are said to propel partygoers
into altered states of consciousness,
mirroring ancient shamanic rituals.
As she offered me a rum and coke,
Mars* told me that “doofs are a place to
bring like-minded people together.” Atom*
and Mars, a couple from Sydney’s south west
14 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
“Psytrance parties
are places where people
can be completely accepted
as themselves – they don't have
to wear a mask. The dancing is
just a pure expression of
your inner energy.”
who met each other at a doof about two
years ago, were my campground neighbours.
We sat in a circle in front of their tent
and they shared their stash of booze and
cigarettes with me. It was just after two in
the afternoon and the sun was hot and high
in the sky. “I think the party is going to get
better after all that drizzle over the last
few days,” Mars said.
Atom was one of the first people I met
at the bush doof. When I arrived in the
morning, I was still soaking wet from being
exposed to the elements. Atom had offered
me a much-needed cup of hot tea, while
several other people lent me clothing.
The bag I had strapped to the back of my
bike had been soaked through, leaving
everything inside of it wet. “Being in a
positive state and doing positive things
for other people will help develop more of
a culture and a basis for positive interaction,”
Atom told me. “It’s far better than getting
drunk at a bunch of random nightclubs
with different people who are out for instant
gratification.”
Atom wasn’t wrong; people were
generous at the bush doof. When I arrived
in the morning, I was $100 short for the
entrance fee. I told the security guard
at the gate that I had friends inside who
would spot me the extra cash and after
a little convincing he let me in. However,
he took my driver’s license as collateral
to be returned when I came back with
the money. I was in a moral predicament.
While I could have easily found a way to
get money it was equally easy, if not easier,
to forget about my licence. I could have
renewed my licence for a fraction of the
ticket price. While I contemplated my
next move inside, Atom politely suggested
that I should be honest. His plan seemed
reasonable. I was to offer packing down the
festival the day after the event had finished
for a free ticket. But just as I had decided
to follow Atom’s plan, an older man,
with long greying hair approached me.
“You’re the guy without the money eh,”
he said, as he handed over my licence.
“Some guy came in with a plus one
ticket with no plus one, and wanted the
next person to get in for free,” he said.
“You’re the lucky one.”
Regrowth Festival had three music stages
sprawled out on the property, with about
a dozen stalls peppered in between. The stalls
sold everything from clothes to handmade
trinkets, homemade homeopathic remedies
and chai. Food options were vegan friendly
and there was even an organic coffee hut.
Besides a stellar line-up of international and
local musical acts, the bush doof offered
an array of activities. There were yoga and
healing classes during the day and there
were light and fire performances at night.
But the ethos behind Regrowth was an
environmentally conscious one, and one
of the main attractions of the festival was
to volunteer for revegetation work in a
degraded area of bushland.
I was seated under a tree waiting for a ute
to pick me up so I could go and plant trees.
I had seen the truck earlier in the day, zooming
back and forth along the main dirt road of
the camping section, with people sitting in
the utility tray with shovels in hand. It was
getting late in the afternoon and as I waited
for the ute only four others were with me.
It seemed that people preferred to plant
trees earlier in the day and party at night.
A mother and her young child were sitting
next to me under the tree, also waiting for
the ute. The child frolicked on the dirt road,
Issue 03 15
FEATURE
“It’s far better
than getting drunk
at a bunch of random
nightclubs with different
people who are out for
instant gratification.”
waving her arms to the music. “We’ve been
to a few events with her,” the mother said
while watching her child dance. “She really
loves it during the day. She loves the colours
and the music.”
This wasn’t an anomaly either. There were
many young families there and it wasn’t
unusual to see a child dancing with the others
at the main stage, their heads bobbing under
the weight of big noise protection earmuffs.
The festival even had a ‘kids’ space’ which
ran workshops and activities for children.
After a little while, the truck finally
arrived. A skinny guy wearing a baseball cap
and a wiry goatee stepped out of the truck.
“Sorry guys, there are no more trees to plant,”
he said. “All finished. One day ahead of
schedule.” Two thousand five hundred trees
were planted that weekend between the 1300
people that attended the festival. The other
would-be tree planters exchanged words of
disappointment before dispersing. The sun
was setting so I headed to the main stage.
Psytrance parties follow a particular
pattern in which the music progressively
gets faster and darker as the day turns
into night, reaching an apex at sunrise.
By the look of the dance floor, the party
had begun to take a sinister turn. The main
stage area was dimly lit with hues of purple,
green and blue, which stood out sharply
against the backdrop of night. This had an
eerie effect on me, which was heightened
by the two giant white faces that flanked
the stage, which morphed as shifting shapes
and colour were projected onto them. I sat
next to Max and Serena on the edge of the
dance floor, watching the partygoers as
they stomped the earth with their feet.
“One thing I want to say about the
dancing: it’s really essential to the whole
experience,” Max said. “Psytrance parties
are places where people can be completely
accepted as themselves, they don’t have
to wear a mask. The dancing is just a
pure expression of your inner energy.”
People shuffled on the dance floor at
about an arm reach away from each other.
There wasn’t anything sexual about the
dance, and people seemed to rather dance
alone within their own personal space than
with each other.
“We meet in the fifth dimension, and in
that dimension we are one,” Serena said.
“When you first start out you need a ticket,
something to boost you into the fifth dimension,”
she said of the role of psychoactive substances
at doofs. “But I’m trying to get there by
myself now, through the music and dancing
and breathing.” The night faded under the
stern stare of the two white faces on either
side of the stage, as the gyrating projections
grew darker and more twisted.
I woke up feeling like I’d slept for
30 seconds. It was Monday morning and
the inside of my tent was hot. Like a rat
trapped in some nightmarish lab experiment,
I knew I had to get out. I was wrecked.
Having slept six hours at the most, my senses
were both numbed and heightened. As I lay
on the ground I could hear the distant thump
of dark psytrance beating through the trees.
The campground was near deserted.
I spotted a guy with a metallic cream whipper
in his hands. “The main stage is heating up,”
he said as he loaded a nitrous oxide cartridge
into the dispenser, which made a quiet
hissing sound. He inhaled and dazed off
into the distance. I left quietly as others
continued to explore the realm of alternate
dimensions.
*Names have been changed.
2014
SCREENING
PARTY
Presented by the Clubs & Societies Office
with the support of USU student clubs
SUNDAY
DOORS OPEN AT 6.30PM
SCREENING FROM 7.30PM
MANNING BAR
- Karaoke Room
11TH MAY
FREE for ACCESS
$5 for Non-ACCESS
/USUAccess
- Prizes for best dressed
- Flag making & face
painting workshop
Entry includes food and drink vouchers
to first 200 ACCESS members
@USUAccess
@USUAccess
/USUonline
usu.edu.au
Issue 03 17
INTERVIEW
Interview
ANDREW HANSEN
Very few comedians have been as successful
as Andrew Hansen of The Chaser in so
many forms of media. An alumnus of the
University of Sydney’s Arts Faculty, Hansen
initially rose to prominence as part of the
controversial comedy group’s first television
series CNNNN in 2002. Now, Hansen has
teamed up with fellow Chaser Chris Taylor
and is back in front of a live audience for
One Man Show. Eden Caceda sits down for
a chat with the cheeky comedian.
You came to the University of Sydney over
20 years ago.What was your degree like?
I took a rather long time to do a degree in
Australian Literature. It meant you studied
normal literature with a few Australian
novels thrown in. It was great. I had a really
great time there.
What clubs and societies were you a part of?
I did quite a few shows with SUDS and I
did a couple of the faculty revues. I did
the Arts Revue a few times, which were
some of my earlier attempts in sketch
comedy. And it was a brilliant opportunity
because people who wanted to get up and
do a sketch could do it. It was a good vehicle
for people who wanted to get into that kind
of stuff.
So you were always interested in comedy
and acting?
It’s never been my number one dream to
be a comic or anything like that, I kind of
fell into it by accident, at the risk of
sounding clichéd. Nobody has a regular
past – anyone who ends up doing comedy
or writer-performer stuff never really have
a normal story; it’s usually just a series of
accidents and mishaps. So even to this day
I’m not entirely sure if I’m meant to be
doing it or not. I enjoyed doing comedy
at uni. It’s slightly different because you’re
fairly protected, your audience is quite small,
they’re other students so you don’t get the
level of hatred and outrage that you get from
the general public, which is good because
if you got that straight away nobody would
continue doing it.
The Chaser started in 1999.What was that like?
The Chaser newspaper started back then,
which means we’ve been together 15 years.
I wasn’t that heavily involved back then but
I suppose I grew into it in 2002. People think
that every time we do a project, whether it’s
a TV show or a stage show or whatever, and
it ends, people think we stop. We have this on
and off lifestyle.
What makes you keep coming back to this group
of people?
It’s poverty and the need to make an income.
We’ve found a bunch of people out there
who like us and our stuff so it makes sense
to keep making stuff as long as we enjoy
working together. We don’t always have
the same taste as each other and not every
project is all of us. We have done some small
solo projects. But you’re right, we keep
coming back to this core group. It’s fun and
it’s a mixture of pleasure and pain in this job.
It’s difficult and stressful but it’s much better
than having a normal job. I’ve tried having
normal jobs but I don’t like them that much.
I don’t really recommend them to anyone.
The Chasers War on Everything was your biggest
project.Why do you think it was so popular?
Yes, it was surprisingly successful. I always
thought our stuff wasn’t mainstream and
nothing like an American sitcom or relatable
stand-up comedy. It was just a bit weird
and odd making that show when we had
really high ratings that were reserved for
mainstream shows that had broad appeal to
the masses. We had normal people watching
this experimental show that has poor taste
and was dark. As a result of that, there was
always a proportion of the audience who was
always bemused and disgusted. When it came
to The Hamster Wheel, we had an audience
who liked our stuff and were comfortable
with us.
What inspired One Man Show with fellow
Chaser Chris Taylor?
Chris and I have wanted to do a two-handed
sketch show for two years and we finally
had the time to do it because we had a nice
block of time. It’s a fun show. It’s absurd
and there are a lot of characters, putting on
wigs and funny moustaches. It’s very similar
to Rowan Atkinson’s old comedy shows.
It’s letting Chris and I indulge ourselves
with our comedy instead of the satirical
and contemporary comedy that we screened
on TV. There’s a bit of it in the show, but it’s
essentially an old song revue of sketches
and songs and it’s been working well.
Will there be any more Chaser?
There will be! There’s a new Chaser TV show
coming up later in the year. We’re trying to
nut out a new format. I wish I could tell you
more but I’m afraid I can’t because we haven’t
figured it out yet. It will be a comedy show,
though, I can tell you that.
18 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
A
racist
australia
?
Issue 03 19
FEATURE
KATIE DAVERN INVESTIGATES AUSTRALIA’S RACIST TENDENCIES.
Maybe you noticed it between the lines of news stories on
asylum seekers. You might have noticed it during a late-night
conversation with a friend at that party on Saturday. You most
definitely would have noticed it at least once on your Facebook
newsfeed. In spite of Australia’s reputation as a multicultural
society, racism is still a serious issue and one that needs
constant attention.
Ours is a nation that has seen extensive changes to
population demographics and even greater variation to
attitudes towards those demographics within the last
100 years or so. In the 12 months up to September 2013
alone, Australia’s population grew by 240,000 people
due to immigration. This relatively large migrant intake
today is at odds with the White Australia policy,
rooted in the Immigration Act 1901 (Cth),
which was more than warmly received
by the Australian public at the time.
Prime Minister William Morris Hughes
in 1919 called it “the greatest thing
we have achieved.”
For racism to be so openly
condoned is a strange concept
for the modern day Australian.
Though, just because we can all
wonder in bamboozled disgust at
how it took 25 years for the White
Australia policy to be completely
eradicated, it doesn’t automatically
follow that Australian society is a
beacon of cultural tolerance.
Those conversations that start
with “I’m not a racist, but...”, the fact
that recent surveys show 41.3 per cent
of recent immigrants report discrimination
based on ethnicity or religion compared to the
national average of 16.2 per cent, and even the
substantial gap in health, education and employment
prospects between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
and the non-indigenous population – these are facts which
point the finger at racism as systemic and institutionalised.
This is racism that is embedded in our government policies,
our social interactions, and everything in between.
‘Casual racism’ is a phrase that bubbles to the surface
of public concern every so often and describes the seemingly
harmless racial commentary that most often occurs in a
social setting. Calling someone of Aboriginal descent an ape,
for example, is something that constitutes racism. It’s also
something that Australian of the Year, Co-Founder of the
Goodes and O’Loughlin (GO) Foundation and AFL player,
Adam Goodes, knows only too well.
Goodes explained that it wasn’t until he had access to the
resources necessary to fully understand and connect with his
own Aboriginality that he could fully appreciate the extent of
racism directed at him and Indigenous peoples. “For me,
standing up to racism is something I’ve been able to do
comfortably in the last ten years, but it’s something that
I haven’t always been able to have the courage to do...
To be seen as a leader in doing that now is something I’m very
humbled by, because it wasn’t always like that,” said Goodes.
In everyday conversations, it is too easy for racism to be
trivialised and disguised as humour. “Jokes about these types
of things, people think that it’s funny. You ask people that
they’re making the joke about and it hurts... I think the biggest
effect on me was obviously being pointed out as different from
everybody else,” Goodes explained.
Racism is the societal ugliness that we try to hide, yet it
is even further perpetuated in online interactions. Not unlike
the concept of casual racism in a physical setting,
humour allows online hate to flourish.
Elimihate is an online magazine run
by Sydney University students Jessica
Glanz, Mary Todd and Claire Paterson
that has recently been incorporated
by the Online Hate Prevention
Institute (OHPI).
“I think one of the main
reasons that it is being allowed
to continue is because people
think it’s funny; it gets shared,
it spreads,” said Glanz. Starting as
a university assignment, Elimihate’s
aim was to raise awareness of
the specifically anti-Semitic
content that is allowed to exist
on Facebook. Now that Elimihate
has been incorporated by OHPI,
their focus has shifted to hate speech
of all kinds, including that directed towards
Aboriginal Australians.
“I was absolutely mind blown by how many of these
fan pages exist... I mean because I’ve seen really anti-Semitic
content, a random post here or there, but when you actively
start searching on Facebook for hate sites, it’s just too easy to
stumble upon,” said Glanz.
The racial vilification experienced by individuals such as
Adam Goodes as well as the hatred featured online are only
parts of the racism puzzle. Racial discrimination is, more
often than not, far more institutionalised and normalised in
Australian society.
Annette Van Gent, the Employment and Discrimination
Solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, deals with clients who have
been victims of racial discrimination. She says that people
experience racial discrimination when they try to access public
facilities, public places, and goods and services, and where the
party guilty of discrimination is a much larger respondent and
rarely an individual.
This is racism
that is embedded in
our government policies,
our social interactions,
and everything
in between.
20 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
“What we’re dealing
with is an ongoing challenge
that all societies face... it’s not
something that you ever solve,
but on the other hand it would be
a mistake if you stopped trying
to solve it.”
Image courtesy of smh.com.au
The effects of racial discrimination are just as disheartening
as they are for those who are racially vilified. “I think it causes
a lot of emotional turmoil for the client who’s experienced it.
It causes them to obviously feel a lot of anger around what’s
occurred but I think also sometimes feelings of sadness and
depression, feelings of not being able to fully participate in
their community and a sense of isolation coming from that,”
Van Gent said.
It is truly perplexing then, that despite Australia’s
clear demographic shift from the days of the White Australia
policy, despite Australia being a nation that prides itself on
multiculturalism and whose growth as a nation is built on
immigration, racism is still so prevalent.
Goodes struggled to identify why racism is such an issue in
Australia. “I dunno if I have the right answer to why it happens,
I just know that it does. I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it, and nowadays
I try to put a stop to it if I do see it, or hear it, or feel it myself...
I do think we have a real casualness to racism in Australia.”
It’s a difficult phenomenon to pinpoint, but some researchers
have more clues about the issue. Professor Andrew Markus,
through the Scanlon Foundation and Federal Government’s
Mapping Social Cohesion Surveys, has been observing the
changes in Australian attitudes towards immigrants and asylum
seekers since 2007.
One of the strongest findings of the 2013 survey conducted
in 2013 was that a factor that had once been considered the
most desirable feature of Australia – that Australians are
friendly, caring and hospitable – was marked as a positive
feature by only three per cent of recent migrants. In fact,
racism and discrimination against immigrants was one of
the least-liked features of Australian life. Markus said,
“When we first started doing the surveys in 2007, levels of
reported discrimination were lower than we’re finding in the
most recent surveys, so it’s an issue,” but ceded, “It’s an issue
I think in all societies. It’s not distinctive to Australia.”
“And the general view, and I think it’s a reasonable view,
is that Australia is one of the, if not the most, successful
multicultural society,” he continued. “When we’re talking
discrimination and we’re talking about racism, I think what
we’re doing is we’re talking about the actions of a minority,
not a majority of the population.” In the reports that Markus
has compiled, he has come to the conclusion that only about
10 per cent of the Australian population is “seriously intolerant”.
It was also concluded that in 2013, 42 per cent of those
surveyed believe that current intakes of immigration were
too high. As Markus explained, multiculturalism is harder
than it looks, for both the host country and the new settlers.
“It is always a very difficult experience for people to have
to leave the country in which they grew up and resettle
themselves in another place. It’s never easy.”
But how do you solve the problem when politicians are
advocating changes to key legislation that will limit a person’s
capacity to seek justice for a racially vilifying act?
Last month, Attorney General Senator George Brandis
proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)
which will significantly alter Section 18, a section that contains
a legislative remedy for those who have been racially vilified,
other than more costly resolutions such as defamation.
Community consultation on the changes is soon to close
and the amendments have been the subject of much debate.
Issue 03 21
FEATURE
Image courtesy of theguardian.com
On one hand, Brandis and his supporters have said they
are fighting for the right to speak freely. If one moment
in the whole debate were ever to be named the match that lit
the fire, it would be Brandis’ words: “People do have a right
to be bigots, you know.” Many people such as Penny Wong,
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, and Gillian Triggs,
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission,
have objected to the changes. Those against the new provisions
have said that eliminating the grounds of insult, offence and
intimidation and adding a broader exemption clause would
prevent access to justice. Van Gent agreed and said, “I guess
from our perspective [at Redfern Legal Centre] it is a little
bit unfortunate because it means that a person has essentially
lost that avenue to be able to make a complaint about vilifying
behaviour that might be affecting them.”
Some commentators have noted that what will be missed
most is the symbolism of the original wording of Section 18C
that gave a clear message that racism would not be tolerated.
Dr Tim Soutphommasane, the Race Discrimination Commissioner
at the Australian Human Rights Commission, addressed the
issue in his Australia Asia Education Engagement Symposium
in Melbourne in early April. He said, “What some of those
calling for more free speech do not recognise is that racial
vilification can often harm free speech, by silencing those on
which it is targeted.”
So, how do you solve a problem so unfortunately ingrained
in our everyday lives?
Wording of legislation aside, racism speaks to entrenched
social attitudes towards different races and groups. “It’s going
to take widespread changes in attitudes amongst us as
a community to really address this issue,” Van Gent said
According to Goodes, discussion and understanding
is key. “I think we need to keep talking about it, we need
to keep understanding that we are all different, we all
come from different places, we have different religions,
different sexualities even, we’re different in gender and
we should never discriminate against each other because
of any of those differences.”
In the online form that racism often takes, Glanz also
agrees education is paramount. “It’s about teaching people,
particularly on the internet, that sharing a post no longer
just affects your immediate circle. Things on the internet
have a much larger, broader impact than people realise;
it all starts with education.”
Markus emphasised that it is the social programs
that are put in place in communities where there is a high
proportion of immigrants that truly makes a difference.
“Local initiatives such as ‘Welcome to Australia’, people
volunteering and making that effort to be accommodating
and welcoming – that’s significant,” Markus explained.
“What we’re dealing with is an ongoing challenge that
all societies face... it’s not something that you ever solve,
but on the other hand it would be a mistake if you stopped
trying to solve it.”
Whatever the cause, it’s clear that racism is real; it is
a living, breathing aspect of Australian society and is
something that needs to be addressed on a government
level, but also in our interpersonal relations. Everyone is
capable of standing up to racism.
22 bull usu.edu.au
TASTE
TASTE
COMMUNAL DINING
Image courtesy of paupersguide.wordpress.com
Broadening your palate for
food and friendship
Sophie-Anaïs Barbeau-Scurla
If you’re sick of having dinner with
people you know, there’s a simple solution:
share a meal and conversation with strangers.
The communal dining concept has been
around for a while, and with the local
Sydney scene booming there’s no better
time to check out this delightful trend.
The idea is simple: you head along
to a restaurant and sit at a massive table
with a bunch of people you’ve never met,
enjoy a delicious meal together and perhaps
make a few new friends. “No way! We like
the same food, we have so many similar
interests, let’s be mates,” will (hopefully)
be the words on your lips all night.
The magic starts when you order your
food. Let’s say you ask for the fish fillet,
you’re bound to find someone else with
a love of modern hip-hop ready to tell you
“it’s provocative, it gets the people going.”
Failing that, someone might simply choose
to have what you’re having, opening up
the chance to explore a shared taste for a
certain cheesy late 80s Meg Ryan rom-com.
And there you have it: BOOM, instant
friends (IT’S NOT AWKWARD AT ALL,
I PROMISE)!
Now that I’ve definitely convinced you
that you want to experience communal
dining for yourself, I’m sure you’re asking:
“But where do I go?”
Relax, I’ve done the research for you.
Table for 20 is the main place to
check out. It’s open for dinner from 8pm
Wednesday through Saturday, however
a minimum two-person reservation is
required, so grab a friend and head along
to experience the unique private dinner
party vibe. Triple threat Michael Fantuz
plays chef, host and owner, treating diners
to a three course set menu of Italian cuisine.
Feel free to BYO, with no corkage, and
enjoy the live music every night. Plus, you’ll
be contributing to Hope Street Charities’
community projects.
If that sounds too pretentious for your
liking (damn you’re picky), The Farmhouse
in Kings Cross is an effortlessly cool
restaurant serving food inspired by the
simplicity of country living. They’re flexible
enough to cater for vegetarians and will
happily whip up a non-meat delicacy if given
notice. The Farmhouse is open for dinner
Wednesday to Saturday with two sittings at
6.30pm and 8.30pm, and for those looking
for a Sunday arvo feed, lunch is available
at 2pm and dinner at 6.30pm. Check it out
next time before you head off clubbing.
But if rocking up to a venue and going
on what is essentially a blind group date
sounds a little too adventurous for you,
how about social dining? While it is in
many ways similar to communal dining,
social dining utilises the power of social
media and the interwebs, allowing you
to meet your new friends online first.
You can browse their profiles and determine
whether they are worthy of dining with you.
This is great because you can join specific
food oriented groups, like the Mexican
food enthusiasts dedicated to trying out every
Mexican joint in Sydney (I’ll see you there).
Many social diners are also serial diners, where
groups dine at restaurants in sequential order,
be it by suburb, alphabetically etc.
So whether you’re lonely, tired of your
old mates or looking to shake up the dating
game, rest assured there are gastronomic
adventures awaiting you beyond the local
sushi train.
COMMUNAL DINING RESTAURANTS
in Sydney to try:
1. Table for 20
182 Campbell Street, Surry Hills 2010
2. The Farmhouse
4/40 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross 2011
3. Bills
433 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst 2010
4. Lentil As Anything
Opening soon on King Street,
Newtown 2042
Issue 03 23
GO
GO
Patagonia
ICE CAPS IN SOUTH AMERICA
EDEN CACEDA
Few people would associate South America
with anything but images of llamas, Incan
ruins and Shakira, but should any traveller
venture far below the capitals Buenos Aires
and Santiago, they would discover sights
easily confused for the South Pole. This
is Patagonia.
Located on the southern end of South
America, Patagonia is the region that is
shared by Argentina and Chile. Isolated
and mountainous, the cold area is host to
47 gigantic glaciers that can be seen from
both the Chilean and Argentine borders,
resides between mountains and encroaches
onto water. Los Glaciares National Park
in Patagonia is the only destination to see
these unforgettable sights and experience
a relatively unknown tourist secret.
A five-hour plane trip from Buenos
Aires, El Calafate is the remote town that
is the tourist hub for the few travellers
who visit Los Glaciares National Park.
The quaint town is a kaleidoscope of
different cultures. Boasting a number
of different cuisines and small markets,
staying in the tiny municipality is like
staying in a town forgotten by the world.
The seven million kilometre square
Los Glaciares National Park is the second
largest national park in the world and an
engrossing forest landscape that takes your
breath away. Just under two hours from
El Calafate, the National Park houses
the largest ice cap outside of Antarctica
and Greenland. The dense woodlands
combined with the freezing air could make
any person believe they are in the forests
of Alaska, on the verge of witnessing huge
displays of ice. However, unlike Alaska,
the colossal glaciers that lie outside the
woods are a mystifying spectacle.
Confronting the monster that is
the Perito Moreno glacier is completely
bewildering. The blue mass looks like rocky
land and encroaches beyond the water
separating the mountains and the viewpoints.
Going over 250km back into the Andes and
spanning 30km in length, the glacier is truly
a wall of ice. With the walking circuit allowing
visitors to view the face of the glacier, it is
almost impossible to comprehend that this
landmass is entirely made of ice. Though
of detriment to the environment, every time
a large piece of ice collapses as the glacier
advances, all spectators cheer.
I was lucky enough to board a boat
along the central lake of the National Park,
allowing me to see most of the other glaciers
Patagonia holds. Monstrous and striking,
each glacier is different and their sheer
size is terrifying.
Glacier trekking is probably the most
exciting part of the entire adventure but
not for the physically unfit. Strapping
on ice grips, everybody has a chance to
climb Perito Moreno and experience the
glacier from the top. Nicknamed ‘minitrekking’, the hour and a half walk allows
you to look inside crevasses and run your
hands through running water on the glacier.
Thankfully, after some strenuous exercise,
the supervising hiker breaks some ice from
the glacier and serves it to us with whiskey.
South America isn’t often considered
when wanting to see gargantuan glaciers
usually reserved for Antarctica and Greenland,
but what is promised goes above and beyond
the imagination. I recommend a visit to this
secret and unforgettable location before other
people find out about it.
To Do’s in Chile and Argentina:
1. Buenos Aires: Visit La Casa Rosada
(The Pink House) where Eva Peron once
spoke to the Argentine people. Known
for its European-style architecture,
there’s a reason they call it “the Paris
of South America”.
2. Lookout from Cerro San Cristobal
Bike or hike to the top of the cerro (hill)
for a full view of Santiago, Chile. From
here you can see the entire city and even
see the Andes in the background.
3. Do La Boca: The neighbourhood
of the Argentine capital is home to
renowned football club Boca Juniors.
The district has colourful houses and
pedestrian streets as well as tango clubs
and Italian taverns. Absolute must visit.
4. The Plaza De Armas
Considered the “heart and soul” of
Santiago, this is the centerpiece of the
entire layout of Santiago. Designed in
1541, you can get to all the historical
buildings from here.
24 bull usu.edu.au
MOVE
section heading
MOVE
JAMAICAN DANCEHALL
Image courtesy of clintonlindsay.com
GET LOW AND GET FUNKY
CLAIRE PATERSON
It’s the first time I’ve been told to
“bring my booty”, an asset I certainly
have but am not entirely sure how to use.
The venue is Dance Central in Surry Hills
where a Jamaican Dancehall class is held
and I am required to throw said booty.
Having no formal booty-shaking training
(read: anything non-alcohol fueled),
let’s just say I’m experiencing mild
performance anxiety.
Dancehall was born out of Jamaican
ghetto youth culture in the 1970s and has
evolved into a dance scene of feverish reggae,
bumps, grinds, twerks and something called
the ‘willy bounce’. As I wait to start the class,
I catch a glimpse of the robotic glide of a
front-rower in the hip-hop ‘beginners’.
I coach myself through a body roll in my
head and I can’t help but compare myself
to a fish in its last spasms of life. Damn my
parents for idly letting me quit the overlysequined world of primary school dance!
Entering the class is teacher Lisa Baker,
one of Dance Central’s directors, who
promptly asks the dreaded question:
“So who’s never done this before?” To my
delight there are four other people looking
slightly on edge. In the end, surprisingly,
the class is neither impossible to follow or
too akin to the hyper aggressive ‘booty style’
I’d seen on YouTube. And boy do you sweat!
Eventually I shed my self-consciousness
and got into the groove, only to have the
illusion shattered when I overenthusiastically
performed an elaborate pony tail flick/sassy
head dip, sending my glasses across the
room. Note to self: invest in contacts.
Dancehall in Sydney has only, in the
past couple of years, edged into more of
a mainstream dance scene. Lisa and her
colleagues at Dance Central held what was
probably Sydney’s first Dancehall class
almost eight years ago with Lisa and fellow
teacher Shar Mitchell the only attendees
for several months.
“The Dancehall scene in Sydney grew
very slowly. It’s only been over the last two
years that other dance schools have decided
that it’s cool... Hip hop will always be the
main type of street style, but Dancehall is
for people who want something different,”
Lisa explains.
It was interesting to note that whilst in
Jamaica Dancehall is enjoyed by both men
and women, the choreography that I tried
to replicate with much Beyoncé-inspired
gusto was mostly (ahem) very anatomically
geared towards women.
Call it the ‘Beyoncé effect’ – there’s
a definite Dancehall influence in the
choreography of Beyoncé’s “Run the World
(Girls)” music video and her famed 2013
Super bowl bonanza – but Dancehall’s
local popularity does seem to be linked
to the fact that it’s an overtly feminine
form of street style dance.
As for me, I found it quite useful to
imagine I had a lot more ‘junk in the trunk’
(Fergie, 2009) to get my body to move
in ways it’s certainly not accustomed to,
considering the unfortunate grind and/or
fist-pump action commonly seen on the
average Australian dance floor.
If you find yourself yearning to fulfill
the desire to ‘get low’, I do highly
recommend you get you and your booty
along to a Dancehall class. I’ll probably be
there, refining my twerking. I’m sorry if I hit
you with my glasses.
Issue 03
07 25
section heading
LEARN
LEARN
THE PROTEST-DOWNLOAD
A Pirate’s Treatise
MAX HALL
The fantasy of a perfect viewing experience
is simple: search for a title, click play and your
work is done. Efforts to make this scenario
a reality have taken front and centre in the world
of television and movies, where legitimate
sources of content must compete with the
allure of freely available pirated material.
Leading the charge is American-based
on-demand streaming service Netflix whose
44 million subscribers prove that people
are willing to pay for content delivered
conveniently. A small monthly fee grants
users immediate access to thousands of
movies and television series wherever they
are on almost any device.
Netflix and similar services recognise that
they will never compete with piracy for price;
it’s important that artists are paid fairly for
their work and studios have a profit incentive
to produce shows. Instead, an emphasis on
packaging quality video in an attractive way
with extras, such as custom movie suggestions,
is used to deter customers from the riskier and
more complicated process of downloading
illegal material.
This approach appears to be working.
When asked about the relationship between
piracy and legitimate streaming services,
Ted Sarandos, head of content for Netflix,
claimed that “BitTorrent traffic drops as the
Netflix traffic grows.” Last year in Australia,
sales of legal digital content through iTunes
and other services grew to $143.67 million.
Piracy groups have struck back at
aesthetically pleasing paid services with the
recent release of a free application called
Popcorn Time. It aims to reduce the complexity
of accessing torrents by providing an attractive
interface simple enough for a three year old
to use. There’s no need to navigate The Pirate
Bay for potentially dodgy links and nervously
virus scan the How I Met Your Mother finale.
Instead, you choose from a list of popular
movies largely still in cinemas, or search for
an older title which simply loads and plays.
We deserve this sort of experience
legally, yet prohibitive licensing and inertia
in an industry that yearns for the ticket sales
and advertising revenues of the past has
prevented the streaming innovators such as
Netflix from expanding quickly to Australia.
It is only when companies see enough
profit falling through their grasp that they
will change to meet the needs of audiences
they take for granted. For this reason, when
you find yourself craving old episodes of
Fawlty Towers, or obsessively waiting for new
Game of Thrones, you should pirate your video.
But the mere protest-download is not
enough. There are two kinds of people in
the world of online piracy – ‘seeders’ and
‘leeches’. For the uninitiated, ‘seeding’ is
the term for sharing material from your
computer as part of a peer-to-peer network
so that others, the ‘leeches’, can download it.
The more people seed content, the faster it
can be downloaded and the harder it is for
a file to be taken down.
When Winston Churchill addressed an
empty parliament as the Blitzkrieg came to
an end in 1940, it is unlikely that he intended
to articulate the state of the modern internet
by saying “never has so much been owed by
*LEGALLY* DOWNLOAD THESE:
1. DARK DAYS Conceived by an amateur
filmmaker, this documentary explores
the life of the homeless living in the
abandoned subway tunnels of New
York City. The homeless were enlisted
as a filmcrew, constructing makeshift
lighting and audio rigs.
2. Drop Dead Gorgeous: This mockumentary
perfectly satirises horror movies and
beauty pageants. Simultaneously.
3. Dazed and Confused: Best teen
movie ever.
4. Radiohead's Discography: Killer tracks,
and they are happy for you to listen to
their music for free anyway.
5. GAME OF THRONES: Dragons.
so many to so few.” We rely on the efforts of
a few individuals to maintain the sprawling
array of digital wares that are shared by all.
If the fight for accessible, quality content at
a reasonable price relies on forcing the film
studios and media conglomerates to provide
an alternative to the ease of piracy, then it
is the moral responsibility of each person to
share as much as they watch.
Now, we do understand; life is hard
and seeding might be too much of a burden
when your parents refuse to upgrade their
shitty internet, or worse you have to pay for
it yourself. While we would never suggest
that the uploading of content on university
internet during a lecture is a fantastic idea,
the moral duty one has to seed cannot be
ignored in the fight for that episode of TV.
NOW
OPEN
C L O T H I N G & A P PA R E L
C O U R S E C O L L AT E R A L
ACADEMIC DRESS
MEMORABILIA & GIFTS
HOLME
BUILDING
Issue 03 27
FEATURE
A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW
LUCY LESTER GIVES YOU THE TALK.
28 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
Sarah* didn’t immediately realise what had happened.
She thought it was on the floor in the dark; that it had grown
legs and walked away, unnoticed. It took her and Jack* a while
to realise it had vanished. One thing was certain. It was no
longer on the penis – the sex felt too good for that to be the
case. Sooner or later, she had to speak up.
They scrambled around on the floor looking for the lost
love glove. But it appeared their search was in vain. That was,
at least, until Sarah finally decided to accept an alternate state
of affairs the following morning. After quickly consulting
Yahoo Answers, she squatted, slid two fingers inside herself,
and felt around. It was painful, but eventually her probe
found its mark and she managed to pull the long slippery
remnants of a condom from her vagina. She stared at it for
a moment in horror. Sex and romance suddenly seemed
entirely irreconcilable.
Contraception is a slimy area where things can be hard
to grasp. Committing to oral contraception requires mental
discipline – missing the pill by more than a couple of hours
may lead to disastrous outcomes. Forgetting can be easy.
An engaging conversation, an early night, the confusion of
travel or the simplest of distractions can lead to forgetfulness.
There’s a tiny capsule between you and miniature you.
Most people view birth control pills as necessary burdens
to have decent safe sex. However, it’s only women who have
to think about oral contraceptives. Men whip out a condom
(sometimes) when the right moment strikes; women are
preparing for that moment every day at the same time, rain,
hail or shine.
It’s time for a decent male contraceptive. There are
however disparate market forces at play, and confusion about
what impact such a pill would have on sexual interaction and
gender politics.
While there are creative options for men seeking reversible
contraception, research and development in this area are
yet to bear fruit. Current options include heating one’s
testicles directly before sex, an injection into the head of the
penis, or popping a pill that stops sperm production but has
‘serious side effects’ when given to rats. If digesting millions
of hemp seeds is your thing, you’re in luck; that could also
decrease your sperm count. If you’re looking for something
adventurous, painful and permanent, you can also have your
urethra surgically blocked.
Comparatively, the number and variety of viable, massdistributed alternatives for women highlights how few options
men have when seeking to control their virility. Women can
use the pill, the mini pill, femidoms, twelve week hormonal
injections, intrauterine devices, vaginal rings and the injected
rod. The latter, is particularly worthy of note; it is close to
100 per cent effective, lasts three years and can be inserted
with local anaesthetic.
Conversely, men have little control over the likelihood
of pregnancy, bar the use of a condom. Condoms as many
of us, including Ross from Friends, know, fail at an alarmingly
high rate. And so the responsibility of avoiding unwanted
pregnancy falls to the woman; women suffer the brunt of the
prevention and the brunt of the consequences.
The lack of social impetus for research and development
of easy, painless, economical male contraception doesn’t
make logical sense. Although women suffer various physical,
social, psychological and financial consequences as a result
of accidental pregnancy, men will also bear significant
legal responsibility if the pregnancy is carried to term.
Child support requires a contribution of 18 per cent of the
father’s income. Perhaps this doesn’t faze an unemployed
19 year old – as my brother once told my father when getting
‘the talk’, “18 per cent of nothing is nothing”. This 18 per cent
must be contributed until such time as the child turns 18.
By the time the man is 37, it is likely he will be contributing
more than 18 per cent of nothing.
Issue 03 29
FEATURE
It was painful,
but eventually her
probe found its mark and
she managed to pull the
long slippery remnants
of a condom from
her vagina.
Financial incentive alone is a strong motivation for men
to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Unfortunately, a study
conducted by researchers at Angila Ruskin University in 2011
found that when asked how they would feel if their partner
was in control of contraception, for example, as the sole
user of a daily pill, “42 per cent of respondents expressed
concerns that men would forget to take a male pill.”
There is a lack of research and development for
a number of reasons. The first is scientific difficulty.
According to andrologist Dr Steven Fleming, the main
problem is designing a pill that targets the localised sites of
sperm production, without depriving the rest of the body
of much-needed testosterone, which would affect muscle,
bone and skin. However, scientific roadblocks are slowly
being overcome. Fleming said that, once a certain type
of purinoceptor hormone blocker is developed, a viable
alternative could cause a “seismic” shift in the balance of
contraceptive responsibility between the sexes.
This shift in responsibility brings us to a more insidious
roadblock. Because contraception is considered a female
responsibility, not only does the market appear full, but a
male oral contraceptive would be considered emasculating.
Condoms are marketed in a way that appeals to traditional
machismo – with softcore imaging on the packaging; with
directives talking to the male about how ‘she’ will react to
the ribbed feeling, etc. Ironically, the macho ritual of
breaking the packet open with teeth can leave the rubber
ripped and useless.
For a long time, many women have assumed the
responsibility of buying condoms as a means of protecting
themselves. This has been helpful in situations where men
have had only one condom and needed more, the condom
is out of date or faulty; even rolling the condom the wrong
way down slightly and re-rolling it the other way can cause
pregnancy. Hence if women are not deterred by the hyper-
masculine marketing of condoms, men will likely pay for
the necessity, even if the product is seen as emasculating.
As any boy or girl buying condoms or lubricant for the first
time knows, necessity will always override embarrassment
in these matters.
Linda Przhedetsky, a gender studies alumni from
the University of Sydney, suggested a key distinction
between the condom and a male pill: the condom is visible,
and the way it works is basic and logical. A pill regulates
one’s entire body, and contains a greater element of the
unknown. Graduating to pill usage would thus be an alien
experience for men, but would presumably become more
comfortable over time.The impacts on gender politics
would therefore be marginal. Men who want a more reliable
contraceptive would be able to control a significant part
of their destinies. Even the women with difficulty trusting
their partners would still be able to take their own oral
contraceptive. Finally, women who experience negative
side effects on the pill or other kinds of hormone regulating
contraceptives would have another option other than just
‘risking it’.
Both quantity and diversity of options is required
to defeat an obvious and grave inequity. While condom
use will always be vital to avoiding the spread of STIs,
many partnerships would benefit from viable male
contraception. The more men and women realise this,
the more pharmaceutical actors will recognise the valuable
gap in the market. While the detriments of accidental
pregnancy affect women, men and children, so too
will the benefits of empowering both genders to avoid
the possibility.
*Names have been changed
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Issue 03 31
THE TIME I TRIED...
THE TIME I TRIED...
THE 5:2 DIET
Hannah Edensor FEELS THE PAIN OF
500 CALORIES
Someone once told me that dieting
is just eating food that makes you sad.
So why do we do it? That’s a damn good
question, and I still don’t quite have the
answer. For about a week, I struggled to
find it with what’s known as the 5:2 diet.
Essentially, the 5:2 diet involves eating
whatever you want for five days a week.
I could gorge myself on delicious cakes
and delectable chocolates, devour mouthwatering fish and chips from the corner
shop, and binge on creamy, saucy pasta
laden with fat. But alas, it wasn’t to last.
The trick of the 5:2 diet is, as the
name suggests, that two of the seven days
are explicitly limited to a mere 500 calories
per day. I thought I’d found the ultimate
shortcut to weight loss.
I hopped online and did a cursory
search for meals under 500 calories.
Expecting generous options such as
pumpkin risotto, or salad with tasty
dressing and feta cheese, I was sorely
disappointed.
Not only did I have limited choices,
but the choices were on par with eating
some grass from the backyard. Corn thins
with a sliver of tomato, white bean and
squash soup (hold the flavour), and corn
tacos with lettuce and apple slices.
Anyone might look at this and think,
“Hey that’s not so bad, it’s only for two
days a week”. These were my exact thoughts.
I could tolerate a day of starvation to
compensate for a few days of indulgence.
Day one started strong. I had a
single slice of multi-grain bread with
a smidge of avocado for breakfast,
one solitary role of brown rice
and cucumber sushi for lunch,
and a teeny tiny bowl of
tomato soup for dinner.
I was on the express
train to Thinsville.
Except that my
stomach was in hell.
I have never been
so hungry in my entire
life, and all I could think
about was sneaking out
for a late night burrito
smothered in glorious sour
cream, followed by a healthy
(excuse the irony) helping of fries.
But it didn’t matter, because the
following day I could do just that.
Things were going well, until
the second 500 calorie day arrived.
I remember it well. It was a Wednesday,
and I was wearing a loose fitting dress to
hide my hunger-induced bloating, or was
that from the binging the day before?
I’d had a child-sized bowl of cereal
with low fat milk, a few sticks of celery and
five almonds.
I was at breaking point when my aunt
invited me to a family dinner. I cringed,
explaining I was on the 5:2 diet and would
have to pass, but was persuaded to attend
and “just eat the chicken”.
I reluctantly accepted, but knew the
challenge that lay ahead. My aunt
is probably the most talented
cook I’ve ever encountered,
and her ‘family dinners’
are more like feasts for
the royal family.
I arrived at dinner,
my feet lagging down
the long hallway to
the dreaded scene.
The kitchen bench was
adorned with creamy potato
bake, pasta salad sprinkled
with bacon, and the final kick in
the gut – a flourless chocolate cake with
strawberries and cream.
It was all over. The willpower required
of me for a measly two days a week was
simply not strong enough to resist this feast.
I apologised to my waistline, hung my head
in shame, and picked up a fork. It was the
most wonderful meal I’ve ever eaten, and
brought me to the realisation that nothing
will ever be worth sacrificing food.
I could tolerate a
day of starvation to
compensate for a few
days of indulgence.
32 bull usu.edu.au
FEATURE
ADOPTING CHANGE
Issue 03 33
FEATURE
Rob North weighs up the pros and
cons of changes to Australia’s
intercountry adoption regulations.
Crowded around a small coffee table
in an unassuming living room, a group of
middle aged men and women are learning
to speak English. In truncated sentences
they relay the painful stories of giving
up their children. To my surprise they all
express a lifelong sense of regret.
These are the Dandelions, the original
parents of South Korean overseas adoptees,
learning English so that they may better
communicate with their long-lost, far-flung
biological children. Every week they meet
in Seoul to practice their English, support
each other, and discuss any developments
in South Korean adoption policy.
Adoption is obviously never easy but
I was surprised to hear just how much they
genuinely loved and longed for contact with
the children they had relinquished so long ago.
After a few hours the conversation
inevitably turns to Australia. They ask
me the usual questions: “Have you seen
a kangaroo?” and “Do you go surfing?”
But discussions soon turned away from our
golden soil, and the abounding nature’s gifts
of beauty rich and rare, first towards the
Stolen Generations, with whom they share
their sympathy and sorrow, and then towards
a more contemporary concern: intercountry
adoption policies.
Late last year Tony Abbott pledged
his support to would-be adoptive parents,
and put in place the first in a series of steps
to review and reform the current regulations
and policies surrounding both intercountry
and domestic adoption. Speaking at an
adoption awareness morning tea at Kirribilli
House late last year, the Prime Minister said
Australia would need to make intercountry
adoption easier.
“There are millions of children in
orphanages overseas who would love to have
parents and thousands of those, maybe even
tens of thousands of those, could come to
Australia,” he said.
“To be born in Australia is to win the
lottery of life and we would like to see
more people winning the lottery of life by
becoming Australians.”
Coming from a government with a harsh
line on asylum seekers, these statements
seemed incongruous, but I was not going to
look a gift horse in the mouth.
In early March the Australian Federal
Government followed through on the Prime
Minister’s pledge, making amendments
to the Family Law (Bilateral Arrangements
– Intercountry Adoption) Regulations. The
amended regulations automatically recognise
adoptions from Taiwan, South Korea and
Ethiopia (countries who have not yet ratified
the Hague Convention on Intercountry
Adoption, but with which Australia has
a bilateral adoption agreement) in domestic
courts. Prior to the changes, adoptive
parents could wait up to 12 months for
Australian courts to finalise the adoptions.
Adoption Awareness Ltd., the organisation
behind the annual National Adoption
Awareness Week held in November, founded
by Australian actor and humanitarian
Deborra-Lee Furness, welcomed the changes
and commended the Prime Minister’s
commitment to improving Australia’s
adoption laws.
“We are pleased to see fast action
from the government, and are committed
ourselves to ensuring any changes support
a truly ethical adoption system that focuses
on the interests of vulnerable children,” says
Adoption Awareness Chairman John O’Neill.
The Prime Minister also established
an interdepartmental committee to look at
how to simplify the process, and provide
recommendations ahead of the next Council
of Australian Governments (COAG)
meeting in early April, which sees the Prime
Minister, State Premiers, Territory Chief
Ministers and the President of the Australian
Local Government Association come
together to discuss policy reforms.
Mr O’Neill hopes the meeting will result
in the streamlining of the process and the
removal of unnecessary red tape.
“We know that there are millions of
children worldwide and around 18000 in
Australia who are in need of a family,” he says.
According to the Australian Institute
of Health and Welfare, the processing times
for intercountry adoptions is continuing to
rise, with families who adopted a child from
overseas waiting an average of five years for
their child. Mr O’Neill would like to see the
COAG meeting and future adoption policies
address this lengthy wait time.
“We would like to see those dotsconnected
more expediently, while maintaining
ethical practice.”
However Dr Patricia Fronek, Senior
Lecturer at the School of Human Services
and Social Work at Griffith University,
says that contrary to the belief that there
are countless children overseas waiting to be
rescued by well-meaning parents in Australia,
the number of children ethically and legally
available for adoption around the world is
on the decline. Further, she argues that the
intercountry adoption process should
remain focused on the best interests
of the child rather than catering to demand.
“Speed and numbers of adoption
are inappropriate outcome measures
for intercountry adoption…[creating]
opportunities for corruption and poor
practices,” she says. “It is a simplistic
approach to complex situations.”
“Adoptees want to speak for themselves
and the notion of feeling rescued or grateful
is not helpful; rather, it can be harmful.”
In her submission to the
interdepartmental committee on overseas
adoption, co-authored by Professor Denise
Cuthbert of RMIT University and Professor
Emerita Marian Quartly of Monash
University, Dr Fronek urged the Australian
government to exercise “extreme caution”
in undertaking reforms to intercountry
adoption: “any movement on the part
of the Australian government to reduce
safeguards for children by departing from
the highest levels of probity and childcentred, professional practice to parent
driven models represents potential and
unnecessary risks to children and Australian
families, and runs contrary to contemporary
knowledge in intercountry adoptions”.
Despite the popular image of
intercountry adoption as a humanitarian
endeavour with positive outcomes for
parents and children alike, promoted
by international celebrities such as
Madonna and Brangelina, Dr Fronek says
the government should be seeking and
supporting more substantial knowledge
stemming from rigorous research.
“At the moment the most influential
voices are the lobbyists with financial
backing who do not represent the majority
of the total community,” she says.
Dr Fronek also says that the outspoken
Deborra-Lee Furness, who has championed
intercountry and domestic adoption
alongside her high profile husband Hugh
Jackman, is an unusual choice to represent
parents as she adopted her children privately
and domestically in the United States.
“Her desire to help is commendable but
she has unfortunately adopted a personalised
and uncritical perspective representative
of the beliefs of a small section of a diverse
community,” she says.
And while Adoption Awareness and
Dr Fronek both agree that the Federal
Government should invest in more support
for parents and children post-adoption,
back in Seoul the Dandelions continue to
weep for their own children spread across
the world.
University of Sydney Union presents
THE 2014
SYDNEY UNI
Comedy. Music. Silliness. All the best bits of the Uni Revues
FRI 9 – SaT 10 MaY
7.30pM, EvEREST ThEaTRE
BOOK TICKETS NOW!
www.seymourcentre.com
For more information please contact:
The access Desk, Manning house
[email protected] | www.usu.edu.au
/USUAccess
@USUAccess
@USUAccess
/USUonline
Issue 03 35
CAMPUS FASHION
CAMPUS FASHION
STRIPES
Kaylla Theo // International & Global Studies II
Baby E // History I
Elisabeth Neale // Media & Communications II
Cardigan and top: Myer
JEANS: Vintage
BAG: Sportsgirl
Jewellery: Colette
ONESIE: Catriona Rowntree
BLUE AND WHITE TOP: Vintage
TOP: Just Jeans
CARDIGAN: Cotton On
JEANS: Valleygirl
BOOTS: Nine West
BAG: Cath Kidson
Why did you pick this outfit for uni?
It was pretty good, plus I was feeling like black
and white today. (Fashion Team: “Keeping it
monochrome, so chic!”)
Do you like the stripes trend?
Seeing as I own three stripey tops, I like to think
that I do!
How would you describe your style?
It’s very Autumn/Winter 2014, sort of onesie
inspired with an animal farm feel. I like the
whole stripe on stripe with clashing prints.
Who’s your ultimate style icon?
Blue Ivy.
And your girl crush?
Again, Blue Ivy all the way!
Style icon?
Anyone who lives for casual style. I dress according
to my mood so my icon varies day to day.
HOT: EYEBROWS
Madonna brought brows in in the 80s and with the
arrival of the billboard-dominating Cara Delevingne,
brows are most definitely back. So throw away the
tweezers, stay away from that wax and keep your
eyebrow game strong – the bush is here to stay.
How would you describe your style?
Very classic. I don’t like to be influenced too
heavily by fads.
Why did you go for stripes today?
I liked the pattern because it’s a bit different
and isn’t too bold. It’s good at brightening
up an outfit – I’d rather be overdressed than
underdressed.
Style icon?
Cate Blanchett. (Fashion Team: “Aussie girl all
the way!”)
NOT: PRINT x3
Print on print on print. We’re all about the co-ords
and the matchy-matchy here, but save the triple
prints for Future Music Festival 2015. Where do you
even buy matching socks and snapbacks?
Your Fashion Team is
Katie Stow, Emily Shen
and Rebecca Karpin
36 bull usu.edu.au
CLASSIC COUNTDOWN & VOX POPS
CLASSIC
COUNTDOWN
VOX pops
BEST EUROVISION 2014 LYRICS
The happiest time of the year is almost here.
To celebrate the Grand Final of the Eurovision
Song Contest, we’ve picked out some of our
favourite lyrics.
5
4
ISRAEL (MEI FINEGOLD)
Don’t need to criticise
I’m not an animal in captivity
I’m skinning you out
No longer apart
We don’t beat from the same heart
SWITZERLAND (SEBALTER)
Like an evil satellite, twisting the truth
then leaving us alone
In this mad and moody world,
society without love
And I state my heart has been well trained,
I’m gonna be your candidate
I am the hunter, you are the prey, tonight I’m
gonna eat you up
3
POLAND (DONATAN & CLEO)
We are Slavic, we know how it is
We like to shake what mama in the
genes gave us
This is the hot blood, this is our Slavic call
We’re Slavic girls, we know how to use our
charming beauty
Now shake what your mama gave us!
2
1
LATVIA (aarzemnieki)
I melted the ice
Of the polar caps,
Found the raiders of the lost ark,
Solved a case for the genius from Baker Street,
Helped to clean the Central park
FRANCE (TWIN TWIN)
I lift some weights,
My body is a war machine,
I have everything you dream to have,
I may be all that is true but,
I want a moustache.
Maddie Houlbrook // ARTS II
Listening to: ‘Waterloo
Sunset’ by The Kinks
Reading: Tina Fey’s
Bossypants
Watching: How I Met
Your Mother.
Ryan O'Connor // Liberal Arts/
Science II
Listening to: ‘Runaround
Sue’ by Dion
Reading: Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets
Watching: House
Hannah Cox // Arts I
Listening to: ‘Mambo No. 5’
by Lou Bega
Reading: Hamlet
Watching: Would I Lie to You?
Issue 03 37
COW & HORNS
HAVE A COW
JAMES Hennessy dreams of living
in a world free of conversational
terrorism.
In the seminal Hindu text Bhagavad Gita,
the author writes: “To action alone hast thou
a right and never at all to its fruits; let not
the fruits of action be thy motive; neither let
there be in thee any attachment to inaction.”
More than 2000 years later, a person
I once considered a friend thought it
pertinent to tell a group of horrified onlookers
everything about a dream they had the night
before. The previous conversation, which
I believe was about whether French bulldogs
were intrinsically funnier than pugs, had
been ruined.
There is ruthlessness to the conversational
terrorist which I regard with both terror and
reluctant admiration. These are people
who are content to dispense with thousands
of years of social etiquette in order to
insert themselves obscenely into every
conversation. They can twist a conversation
about the films of Jason Statham into
a lengthy exposition on their whirlwind
tour of the Swiss Alps. Enjoying a friendly
conversation about the sociopolitical issues
of the day? Not anymore. Now it’s Leonie
viciously recounting the time David Jones
wouldn’t honour the warranty on a one-yearand-three-month-old DVD player. Bah.
I like to think there are unwritten
rules which underlie all social interactions.
For example, you will find that most people
have a very low tolerance for travel stories
that do not feature themselves. I have about
a five minute limit on breathless tales
of Contiki tour debauchery until I need
to excuse myself to go and slam down six
vodka shots. The conversational terrorist
cares not. They will force you against
a wall, between the snack table and the esky,
and let it all out. “Have you been to Prague?
You must. You simply must.”
The free speech fundamentalists might
disagree, but I think there should be laws.
Hard, codified laws. I dream of a day when
airborne drones monitor every conversation
on Earth. At the first mention of a cruise
in the Dardanelles or a complaint about
a long stint in a dentist’s waiting room,
jackbooted thugs will kick down their doors
and throw them in prison, possibly forever.
Alas. A man can dream.
Amanda Choularton argues that behind
every great Muppet is Kermit the Frog.
Miss Piggy is one big, bold and beautiful
pork chop, according to Kirsty Timsans.
Kermit the Frog, the quintessential symbol
of many childhoods and the protagonist of
most Muppet adventures, holds a special
place in the hearts of fans young and old.
The differences between the pig in question
and Kermit are plentiful and difficult to ignore.
Kermit’s rise to fame preceded Piggy’s by
decades, making his first appearance in 1955.
Piggy didn’t show up until the 70s. Kermit,
displaying his characteristic maturity and
independence, was the first of his 3265 siblings
to the family home in a Louisiana swamp.
Without Kermit’s courage, the showbiz
careers of his fellow Muppets may never have
taken off, particularly that of Miss Piggy who
would be no more than a farmyard swine!
Though Piggy did show her ability to tap dance,
if Kermit had not given her his fake moustache
in The Great Puppet Caper, Piggy would still be
in prison. Furthermore, Piggy’s character is in
question due to her seductive and manipulative
attempts to get her hooves on Kermit.
In The Muppets Take Manhattan Kermit was
unaware that his growing affection for the pig
would end in his unwitting marriage to her.
The only proof that his life has been a happy
one since the union comes from the mouth of the
pig herself. Kermit is courageous, has a natural
talent for showbiz and selflessly helped his fellow
Muppets into the limelight. Piggy is a liability,
a seductive enchantress who will always remain
far inferior to her beloved husband.
Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to my
adversary’s blatant defamation of the character
in question. The character is Miss Piggy and
a well-delivered “hi ya!” to your cranium would
not go astray to teach you some respect. I concur
that there are major differences between Kermit
and Miss Piggy but these just serve to reinforce
the superiority of the latter.
Yes, Kermit may have delved into the showbiz
world earlier than Miss Piggy, but it is a fallacy
to propose that Miss Piggy would not have been
a star without him. In fact, Miss Piggy elevated
the success of the Muppets into stratospheric
heights. The academic literature to date entitles
her as ‘fiercely fabulous’ and a ‘diva’ and that
would rival her contemporaries such as Beyoncè
and Jennifer Lopez. Consequently, she has
graced international magazine covers and is
often the muse for a startling number of uberfamous designers, no less than the likes of
Vivienne Westwood.
On the other hand, the process of natural
selection was lost on Kermit as he remains as
his name suggests – a simple frog. Miss Piggy
has imparted her wisdom on the world through
her national best seller, Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life.
My colleague’s assertions on her manipulative
nature are unfounded. Miss Piggy is ambitious,
the modern woman who is coveted, covets and
knows how to attain what she covets. Kermit,
however, is content with being green and blending
into the more mundane things of this world.
LOCKING
HORNS
Kermit the Frog
vs.
Miss Piggy
Cool design.
Vibrant lifestyle.
Iglu Chatswood
An exciting home base for
Sydney Uni students.
Now open.
Come and check
it out for yourself.
Amazing new accommodation,
custom-built for student living.
iglu.com.au
Issue 03 39
ARTS
ARTS
FRANZ FERDINAND
TAKE ME BACK
Leonidas Kontaxis
I think it’s a good thing that some of the
better bands from the mid-2000s have
woken up and begun to grace the airwaves
once again. Franz Ferdinand dropped
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action,
and the Arctic Monkeys released AM
in the spring of 2013. Neither album
really captured the magic of the postpunk revival, at its strongest before 2009,
when everything suddenly and inexplicably
went to shit. Though lacking some of the
old panache, both albums were a somewhat
welcome return to form and brought back
that edgy, sharp and decadent sound that
my contemporaries and I loved. I was sitting
down to beers with some of those mates
when someone remarked that, it now being
2014, it would be ten years since Franz
Ferdinand released their self-titled debut.
All of a sudden, we felt old.
Franz Ferdinand had a powerful effect
when it came out. Everything else on the
radio sounded incredibly banal by comparison;
the first time I heard ‘Take Me Out’ was
when Nova 96.9 played it after a ten minute
Ja Rule/Ashanti marathon, and it damn
near blew my mind. It was loud, fun,
edgy, clever, totally pretentious and utterly
different to everything on the radio in 2004.
That was Korn, Ben Lee and Good Charlotte,
not exactly an inspiring collection of artists
given the benefit of hindsight. Triple J played
a bit of Frenzal Rhomb and everybody who
was male and 14 or 15 was trying really hard
to enjoy Slayer. We were all bored shitless.
But when the time signature in ‘Take Me Out’
shifted, everybody sat up and paid attention.
Franz was the first real party music a lot
of teenagers got their hands on. That debut
album, and the band’s second offering,
You Could Have It So Much Better, were
played relentlessly at every party I went to
for five or six years. It was loud, fast and you
could dance to it. More importantly, it was
popular with the opposite sex. The guitars
were sharp and staccato, the tempo fast, and
there was now absolutely no reason to put
up with System of a Down while drinking
cask wine in a park.
As for its effect on the wider scene,
Franz Ferdinand was a trailblazer. It got
a lot of people into post-punk, and was
the catalyst for the next few years of great
music, especially that coming out of
the UK. Once people heard that album,
they went out with broadened minds,
looking for new things. It’s inconceivable
that bands like the Arctic Monkeys,
Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, The Fratellis
and Melbourne’s Cut Copy would’ve been
able to make it like they did without Franz
paving the way. When they were live, they
were a force to be reckoned with. I was there
when Franz Ferdinand played at the Enmore
in 2008; they were relentless. The show went
for three hours, Kapranos and McCarthy
barely broke eye contact with the audience,
they played a version of ‘40’ that went for
about ten minutes, and constructivist art was
blazed across the stage.
Things began to go sour after that,
Franz Ferdinand’s third album Tonight was
underwhelming, and the decline of the band
mirrored the decline of the wider post-punk
scene, which gradually slid into irrelevance.
Franz released nothing until Right Thoughts,
Right Words, Right Action, but that release,
almost a decade on from their debut, shows
that they’re still a band that has energy and
potential. There may still be time to build
on the glories of the mid-2000s. ’Til then,
go listen to Franz Ferdinand, an album that,
unlike the rest of us, hasn’t aged a day.
40 bull usu.edu.au
REVIEWS
REVIEWS
LISTEN: BUILT ON GLASS
CHET FAKER
Watch: ORPHAN BLACK – S2
JOHN FAWCETT & GRAEME MANSON
SEE: STICTLY BALLROOM
LYRIC THEATRE, THE STAR
Watch: VERONICA MARS
ROB THOMAS
There is big talk about the
“Australian sound” on the electronic
music scene; a sound exemplified
by key players like Flume, The Kite
String Tangle, RÜFÜS and Wave
Racer. And whilst Nick Murphy
(aka Chet Faker) is typically placed
under this same umbrella, it’s his
ability to innovate with this sound
that makes him a real Australian
gem, evident in his debut album
Built On Glass.
The first half of the record
is typical of Chet Faker’s past
work, with vocal-heavy tracks
and those funky, pulsing beats
he does so well. ‘Talk Is Cheap’
is certainly a standout track,
with wailing electronic sax that
brings to mind the style of
Canadian band Destroyer. ‘Melt’
features a husky vocal cameo from
Kilo Kish, perfectly complementing
Murphy’s own characteristic voice.
However, the second half
challenges expectations of the
album. Inviting the listener to
‘relax a little more’ and ‘drift
a little deeper’, Chet Faker begins
to expose atmospheric tones and
less linear, melodic vocal tracks.
Where ‘Lesson In Patience’ is
grating with never-ending vocal
loops, ‘1998’ strikes a good balance
between unconventional and catchy
using a danceable beat.
Granted, it’s a little
experimental, but Built On Glass
is a solid release that pushes the
boundaries of the Australian
electronic sound.
BBC America’s Orphan Black
has become an online sensation,
mostly due to the excellence of
the show’s leading lady Tatiana
Maslany. She plays street-smart
Sarah Manning who witnesses
a police detective’s death and,
while attempting identity fraud,
unravels the detective’s connection
to an illegal human cloning trial.
Orphan Black could be a onewoman show. Maslany portrays
seven unique clones with such ease.
From the tenacious soccer mom
Alison, to the kooky PhD student
Cosima – in every scene, Maslany
nails it.
The series has the potential
to become a TV classic among
critically acclaimed shows like
Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Show
creators John Fawcett and Graeme
Manson have created a series arc
that could be developed for many
seasons, but the episodes are never
lost in the multiple narratives.
Rather, every episode is infused
with humour and thrills that satisfy
the basic senses.
Orphan Black is a smart and
grungy thriller that questions the
ethics of genetic evolution. It’s sci-fi
with broad appeal and enough plot
twists to make you marathon the
whole series in a day. The second
season has just premiered and
promises more intrigue, more
clones and more Tatiana Maslany.
Baz Luhrmann’s first film Strictly
Ballroom comes to life in this
colossal stage adaptation with all
the same lines and songs Australia
has come to love.
The leads are impressive but
somewhat forgettable. Thomas
Lacey is a strong dancer but his
voice isn’t incredibly strong. Phoebe
Panaretos is brilliant as nerdy but
passionate Fran with a remarkable
array of singing and dancing skills.
But the supporting characters are
the highlights with Heather Mitchell
excellent as Scott’s mother Shirley,
and Robert Grubb and Bob Baines
as the villainous Les and Bobby.
With Oscar winner Catherine
Martin responsible for costumes
and set design, the room explodes
with colour and makes the world
seem duller after leaving. The show
has plenty of sparkle and sequins
but lacks enough emotional depth
to satisfy a fan who’s after more
than just a jukebox musical.
Despite blending old favourites
‘Love Is In The Air’ and ‘Time After
Time’ with newly written songs
from Sia Furler and Eddie Perfect,
the show seems to suffer a musical
identity crisis.
Unlike most directors,
Luhrmann is in full control of this
glitzy adaptation which is why the
final product feels disappointing.
But even with the lack of dancing
in the aisles, there’s something
about Baz that will leave you
silently humming and convinced
you had a good time.
Wisecracking teen detective,
Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) is
back in Neptune solving crime and
kicking ass in her first appearance
since the TV show was abruptly
cancelled in 2007. Now a NYC
lawyer, Veronica returns to her
seedy hometown to help her exboyfriend and everyone’s favourite
obligatory psychotic jackass, Logan
Echolls (Jason Dohring), get out of
yet another jam.
Veronica Mars definitely has not
disappointed the Marshmallows
(long-term fans) who crowdfunded
the project in a record-breaking
Kickstarter campaign. While there
were times when the film felt like
fan service - scenes peppered
with Kickstarter backers as extras
and casual throwback references the pure charisma of creator Rob
Thomas’ writing is bound to charm
newcomers. Not to mention the
stained glassed window aesthetic
and conscious use of shadows that
is sure to make audiences feel pretty
damn noir.
In the movie, Veronica
compares her return to snooping
to a relapse in addiction – an apt
description of the film as a whole.
For old fans, it’s a nostalgic halfdose hit that leaves them wanting
more and for new audiences,
it’s the perfect primer into the
ultra-cool world of Veronica Mars.
Expect a franchise.
ERIN ROONEY
BROOKE ACKLAND
EDEN CACEDA
GENEVIEVE CANH
Issue 03 41
REVIEWS
EXPERIENCE
DR SKETCHY'S // The Arthouse Hotel
“Dr Sketchy’s is not a spectator sport!” the MC declared
to the jumble of people in the bar. “You have to draw, or drink,
or talk to someone who is drawing or drinking.” He gestured
to the clientele with the end of his cane, his free hand tucked
between the buttons of his pinstriped waistcoat. Later in
the night, he took off all three layers of his shirts and asked
everyone to draw his elaborate back tattoo. But, I’m getting
ahead of myself.
Originating in the United States, Dr Sketchy’s is now
a worldwide franchise of “Anti-Art” classes. The way
I described it to a friend of mine, in an attempt to convince
them to accompany me, was, “it’s basically a burlesque show
pretending to be a life-drawing class.” As the night wore on,
I realised that was pretty accurate. You can pay anywhere
from $20-$65 (depending on whether you want dinner, or a
sketchbook, or anything other than a place to plant your butt),
head to the Arthouse Hotel on Pitt Street, and spend two
hours watching, and presumably drawing, the best burlesque
performers in the country.
The Sketchy’s demographic was reassuringly inconsistent.
Older women, young professionals, pretentious fine art students;
people of all genders, colours and ages were spread into booths,
on stools, loveseats or ottomans. The models, who could also
be called dancers or performers, were dolled up. One wore
a corset, whilst the other wore barely anything at all.
Once the poses started, ranging from lengths of two minutes,
five minutes, 10 and 20, all with breaks in between, everyone
frantically scribbled on their surface of choice. One boy had
a homemade pad of brown butcher’s paper, while another girl
drew on her iPad.
There was never a moment of awkwardness, or a hint
of pressure. Some supremely untalented people flaunted their
finished products, while other potentially genius attendees
kept their work to themselves.
There’s a break halfway through, “for a drink, or a smoke,
or to escape quietly,” the MC tells us. There’s also a show,
where the model in barely anything bantered, danced, and
stripped down to a bejeweled thong and nipple tassels.
“Ah yes,” I thought, as the music played and the crowd
cheered, “very sophisticated art-type stuff.”
Barbara Taylor Call The Midwife Season 3: a heartwarming exploration
of strength and courage in the face of poverty. A definite
tearjerker.
Von Trier's Nymphomaniac is a subtly disturbing film,
taking audiences on a four-hour journey through
gratification, regret and solace.
An ingenious hybrid of a croissant and a donut, the warm
and glazed goodness of the Cronut from Paramount Coffee
Project is a must eat.
The Twitter feed of author @tao_lin is an odd concoction of
depressing inner monologue and drug-fuelled philosophy.
Strangely inspiring.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is another funny and
aesthetically beautiful film by Wes Anderson. Big budget
but not much heart.
Three Love Songs by Ricky Eat Acid is stirring and ambient.
Great for 3am bouts of doubt and realisation.
Battle of the Year is a horribly cliché, boring dance film
without much dancing at all. Josh Holloway is good.
Chris Brown is bad.
42 bull usu.edu.au
CLUB CONFIDENTIAL
CLUB CONFIDENTIAL
USU 90s Party
Manning Bar // 26 March 2014
Remember the 90s?
Those were the days when trashy fashion
reigned supreme; when cable TV was truly
a luxury; when MTV played actual music and
not just Jersey Shore reruns; and when someone
thought casting Michael Jordan in a starring
role alongside Bugs Bunny was a good move.
Side note: it definitely was, and we can’t wait
for the LeBron James sequel.
To celebrate these classic years and kick off
the semester, the University of Sydney Union
decided to jump into their DeLoreans and take
Manning Bar back to the era when connecting
to the Internet meant thirty odd seconds of
unpleasant beeping.
Rather than homelessness, unwashed hair
and flannel shirts were the sign of a fashionable,
if not troubled, hunk. Frosted tips were once
again associated with alphas and not with dudes
named Chad (sorry mate, you’re probably a top
bloke). The boob tube was a classy choice, and
outfits were best accessorised with scrunchies,
butterfly clips and mood rings.
For first years, the night was an all too
important opportunity to make new friends,
and spice up their uni experience. Older attendees
took a chance to stop, collaborate and listen on
the dance floor. Student politicians were also
well represented, crossing political lines to find
a little TLC.
While it might be hard to believe that these
years are now well behind us, the veneration of
our childhood years as a golden era being perhaps
the quickest reminder that we are well and truly
getting old. Let us rejoice that we can now slam
down an alcoholic beverage while enjoying the
best tunes of formative years – just the way
Chumbawamba intended.
So fresssssssssh
90s Nerd, 2014 Hipster
No Magic Schoolbus episode prepared
the children for the magic of the bubbler
Perfecting the girl group pose
Patrick,
so hot
right now
Rob North
Smells like drink spillage.
I’m just waiting for a mate
#SmokeFreeCampus #Cool #Yea
Issue 03 43
CLUB CONFIDENTIAL
PhotoSoc Disposable Camera
Pub Adventure
Hailing a taxi in the horizontal mode
Newtown // March 2014
Yep, that is Kevin in a dress
Tequila shot number four. Still quite the surprise
A small percentage
of the damage done
Such naivety
Very impressive creativity, y’know given the context
and all
Imagine waking up on a Sunday morning, rolling
over with that delightful combo of a splitting
hangover and extreme bodily inertia, all the while
battling the violent glare of a buzzing iPhone
as you hastily recollect the night before through
an assortment of trashy and all-too-revealing
Facebook photos. Now imagine fifty students
doing this, with well over 300 photos to peruse.
The PhotoSoc Disposable Camera Pub
Adventure, as with all modern photography
achievements, was classy as hell. Think tequila.
Think photos of tequila. Think photos of people
drinking tequila. Think of photographers who
have drunk too much tequila.
Like I said, classy.
Divided into groups of five, the club members
were given a disposable camera and a set of
challenges to complete throughout a Newtown
trek: murder on the dance floor; photobomb a
hipster couple; achieve photoception; recreate a
classic film noir; get ballin’ with the homies; show us
how not to be seen (which in hindsight is actually
quite easy); and find someone in need of a taxi!
Unsurprisingly, this last challenge was by
far the most commonly attempted and the most
ill-fated – after all, those who attempted this were
equally in serious need of a taxi.
Early in the night Newtown Thai II was a hub
for young photographers eager to see that shutter
click from 1 to 24 in as manic a way as possible.
An elongated stint at The Newtown Hotel followed–
there was regrettably stripping action; a few of
the execs may have got lost in a very tiny fridge;
and there were a lot–a lot–of terrible group selfies.
Marlborough was next on the list, and this is
where the night really come into its own in terms
of classiness. The amount of disturbing bathroom
shots and Long Island Iced Teas that were
consumed leave very little to the imagination.
The night culminated in a round of slow
drinks at the Bank Hotel (slow predominantly on
the motor-skills front), and dispersion eventually
ensued, in which we all accidentally reconvened
awkwardly for 1am pide about three doors down,
before the taxis were called in to end the lunacy.
Then the next morning struck. So many
regrets. So much confusion. And then the photos
were developed…
Suffice to say that there were many
memorable moments where judgment was gladly,
and very mutually, suspended. Indefinitely.
Harvey Blissfell
44 bull usu.edu.au
SHUTTER UP
SHUTTER UP
ALONE
PHOTOGRAPHER:
ELIZABETH HUNG
CANON EOS 550D
FOCAL LENGTH: 55mm
SHUTTER SPEED: 1/200
APERTURE: F/5.6
ISO: 800
snap!
Send us your unique, arty or just plain cool (as in, not another quad shot) campus snap to [email protected]
We’ll publish our fave each edition in full page glory. High-res, 300dpi jpegs only – portrait orientation.
Issue 03 45
FUN
COMICS
SEND YOURS TO US AT EDITORS @ bullmag.com.AU
by Barbara Taylor
46 bull usu.edu.au
ASK ISABELLA
ASK ISABELLA
Niece of Aunty Irene
Lover of Daddy Mack
Mother of three and to all those
who need advice
I am woman, hear me roar
PLEASE TAKE ME
Dear Costa,
Dear Isabella,
Firstly, you should know that I’ve always
imagined dipping my spoonbill into the
nest of your big, bushy beard. Secondly,
I personally try never to upset an ant.
The total weight of all the ants in the world
is the same as, if not larger, than the weight
of all humans. Take some time out from
your stag horn to think about that Costa.
I am a third year Media and Communications
student at the University of Sydney. I have a
strong work ethic, tenacity and a willingness
to learn. I am genuinely inspired by your
work and would love to complete work
experience with you. I look forward to hearing
from you soon. ~ Lucy
~ Bella xxx
Dear Lucy,
ENOUGH WITH THE GYM
You sound nice, so I’ll tell you what I tell
all my hatchlings. Nice girls don't get the
corner office. You need to have chutzpah to
do what I do. A little more bitch, a little less
buttercup. You won’t be able to do your
work experience with me, but I’m sure the
USU’s Marketing and Communications
department would be happy to have you.
Dear Isabella,
~ Bella xxx
All my friends talk about is the gym.
And when they’re not talking about the gym,
they’re talking about gym clothes, sprints or
the alfalfa-sprout salad they made for lunch.
I miss who they were before they started going
to the gym. Should I say something to them?
~ Milly
Dear Milly,
stag horn DILEMMA
Dear Isabella,
I have a beautiful stag horn in my garden but
a colony of ants is destroying it and it’s too big
for me to relocate. I’ve tried flushing the ants
out with water, but I can’t do this for more
than a few hours because I have to go to work.
I’m at a complete loss.
I lost my dear friend Nina to the treadmill
and sports bra. It’s terrible. I made myself
feel better by repeatedly baking her
chocolate cakes because for all their talk,
these kind of people just can’t say no. It’s
the reason they had to go to the gym in
the first place. For them, everything tastes
much better than skinny feels.
~ Bella xxx
~ Costa
WIN tickets to
afghanistan:
HIDDEN
TREASURES
now on at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales
Feared lost forever, this
priceless collection of Silk
Road treasures was hidden
by museum staff in Kabul,
safe from bombs, looters and
political instability. Seen by over
1.7 million people worldwide,
Hidden Treasures offers a rare
opportunity to discover the
fascinating ancient culture of
Afghanistan and honour the
bravery of those who risked
all to protect it.
Open now until 15 June 2014.
For details, visit:
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/
exhibitions/afghanistan
To enter, email your name
and contact details to
[email protected]
Email subject heading is
HIDDEN TREASURES.
Competition closes 16 May.
Your
optometrist
on
campus.
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Ray Ban, Prodesign, Ted Baker, Jono Hennessy...
CHRIS MACMAHON OPTOMETRIST
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Level 3 Wentworth Building University of Sydney. Phone 9552 3324
www.chrismacmahonoptometrist.com.au