The Curious Case of the Melbourne Storm

The Curious Case of the Melbourne Storm

Well what do you know, it turns out that the Melbourne Storm are human after all. By the looks of the recent media frenzy after two consecutive losses and a draw, you’d think they had never seen Storm lose a game of footy in their lives. It’s rather amusing to...
Through the Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass

Is the Now ready for the Future?   Google’s futuristic piece of eyewear allows users to record, connect, and share their experiences with the world straight from the users point of view. With the recent release of the Explorer Edition of Google Glass that shipped in April, we’ve taken one...
Player Welfare - What's the Answer?

Player Welfare – What’s the Answer?

2013 has already given the rugby league world a lot to mull over. It is a year that, despite whatever outcome on Grand Final day in October, will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. There has been a lot of sadness. Too much. And we can only hope that...
Aussie Rules

Aussie Rules

  When WikiLeaks uncovers a sex tape of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, a general election is called. Under the slogan ‘Doing it for the Team!’ the AFL launches a political party, wins every seat in Victoria and breaks off from Australia to form an independent republic. What happens when...
Fall Out Boy, Save Rock and Roll

Fall Out Boy, Save Rock and Roll

Fall Out Boy dropped their new album Save Rock and Roll in the middle of last month and it proves to be an incredible release in one way or another. As someone who has recently recovered from a two-year binge on indie pop and electronica, the whole alt rock/punk rock/pop...
The Truth Behind “Healthy” Smoothies

The Truth Behind “Healthy” Smoothies

Is swapping a McDonald’s soft serve cone for a Boost fruit smoothie worth your while? Not exactly. As society is becoming more and more weight conscious, more fad diets are appearing in the media, and people are starting to opt out of dessert and give in to new health food...
Punk Ball

Punk Ball

The theme for this years Met Ball was Punk: Chaos to Couture. While we bet that some celebs couldn’t wait to dress in punk get up *cough cough* Miley Cyrus, others took a more chaos approach, and unfortunately we don’t think it was a conscious decision. Here are our five best and worst dressed...
It's not all Tubing in Laos

It’s not all Tubing in Laos

                               When planning my trip to Laos I was asked ‘what’s the attraction there? Just going to go tubing?’ Nearly everyone I spoke with assumed that a visit to Laos simply equalled tubing; the backpacker pastime...
Protect Our Game, Not Individuals

Protect Our Game, Not Individuals

“Rugby league is built on mateship and a determination not to let your teammates down.” The words of Darren Lockyer, a likely future rugby league Immortal, on why NRL players were unlikely to ‘dob in’ a fellow player to ASADA. This statement as a standalone quote without the context of...
The Colour...

The Colour…

At its lightest it’s is the colour of packing for your first trip away on your own. A once empty suitcase slowly filling with your favourite hat and the travel books that you intended to read but ended up just looking at the pictures. At its darkest it’s the colour...
The Quest for Redemption

The Quest for Redemption

The Australian National Swimming Championships took place last week in Adelaide to suitably less fanfare than they experienced last year. In part, this was caused by the fact that 2013 is not an Olympic year, and our national love of swimming subsides when we don’t have the United Kingdom to...
Why do we care so much about the Coat Hangers?

Why do we care so much about the Coat Hangers?

Don’t worry about the design, the print, the silhouette, the spectacle. No, it’s all about the coat hanger. Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) has wrapped for another year and guess what, the critics are still complaining about those skinny models that strut the catwalk. Déjà vu anyone? It’s time...

Lame Impala – Stuck in a chair @ Tame Impala

On what the group has termed their “Stadium Tour,” Tame Impala kicked off their national tour at Festival Hall after conquering the international stage at Coachella. Midnight Juggernauts kicked the night off in a weird twist of fate – Middi J’s undoubtedly being the bigger name in Australia not three years ago. I couldn’t hear myself think. The bass was at least ten decibels above the rest of the sounds and the solarium-worthy lights made me sweat. Everyone seated in the arena set-up Festival Hall basically paid $50 to stare at a giant, distracting visualizer set to the soundtrack of Tame Impala… yet I don’t think anyone was complaining. This was Tame Impala in the most energetic show since  I saw Architecture in Helsinki in an old water tank – very drunk. The set list included everything you wanted from Lonerism and of course the song that started it all, “Half...
Playing for Points Overseas

Playing for Points Overseas

This year, for the AFL, the significance of ANZAC Day was not contained to the events at the MCG. Instead, it extended across the ditch to Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, where St. Kilda and Sydney played the first ever match for premiership points outside Australia. Playing beyond Australia’s borders has long...
More Beautiful Than You Think

More Beautiful Than You Think

Not long after my last post about the disturbing thinspiration trend, I began to wonder if any media outlets were doing the opposite – encouraging people to embrace and appreciate their natural bodies and beauty, rather than destroy themselves with extreme strategies to lose weight. I was pleasantly surprised. The...
MBFWA, farewell until next year

MBFWA, farewell until next year

Encapsulating the true Australian aesthetic last week, Sydney welcomed the spectacle of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA). With that flocked a media circus of bloggers, editors and photographers alike. The Carriageworks location provided an optimal, raw backdrop, central to the presentation of Australia’s finest collections. The stakes were high...
No Easy Way Out

No Easy Way Out

How many of us feel inadequate whenever we glance at the magazine section? There are so many beautiful, perfect looking faces and bodies staring back at us, making the New Year’s resolutions we set for ourselves seem like a distant memory. Getting in shape and having a “beach-ready” body takes...
Kurt Vile in a Sunday daze

Kurt Vile in a Sunday daze

The autumn chills are finally here and who else would you rather cuddle up too (metaphorically of-course..) than with the beautiful, wailing voice of Kurt Vile? Originally the War on Drugs frontman, Vile began his solo career in 2008 with the release of ‘Constant Hitmaker.’ Since then, Vile has released...
The Week That Was

The Week That Was

We all need to take a deep breath. The cliché ‘it’s been a big week’ is banded about all too frequently, but there is no other way to describe the AFL’s past week. It began with Melbourne, who after suffering their worst defeat at the MCG were feeling the pressure...
Inspiration or Destruction?

Inspiration or Destruction?

Thinspiration. It’s not a word. The squiggly red line on Microsoft Word appears when I type it. It wants to change it to inspiration. But it’s not inspiration. Thinspiration. There must be a typo, right? Wrong. According to a niche of young people, thinspiration is a new way of life....
Chop Squad to the Max

Chop Squad to the Max

  Max Dowling at the Brunswick Hotel  I can see Max Dowling approach me, fresh off the tram from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), with his case over his shoulder and music folders poking out his bag. Playing in two bands, and studying saxophone at the VCA, the...
Iggy Azalea - Australia's latest forgotten music export

Iggy Azalea – Australia’s latest forgotten music export

“Walk a mile in these Louis Vuitton’s, but they don’t where these shoes where I’m from” Iggy Azalea is the 22 year old from Mullumbimby who is best known for her “white-gurl” raps and that polarizing bum. But is she just another young Australian to be forgotten as nothing more...
Getting politically interested- A student's guide

Getting politically interested- A student’s guide

So you’re interested in politics. Maybe you’re living up to your new year’s resolution to drink less eggnog and be more aware of the world and all that jazz. Possibly the looming federal election has you bothered and you’re trying to figure out who to vote for, or perhaps you’re...
Plain packaging three months on

Plain packaging three months on

Smoking restrictions have reached a new high with the recent introduction of plain packaging by the Australian Government.   As late as the 1960s, cigarettes in Australia were openly advertised and glorified by the media as cool and trendy: “What could be more refreshing?” asked a smooth voice in a...
A 21st Century Workout

A 21st Century Workout

Earlier this week, I got on a treadmill, planning to enter the speed I wanted, start running, and be left alone. Instead, I was prompted by several questions regarding my weight, fitness goals, and whether or not I wanted to connect my phone. I looked to my left and to...
Creature of the Past

Creature of the Past

Matt Salisbury, 19, reflects on his role in the Sleepy Dreamers and their accelerating fame with the release of their new EP ‘Creatures’. We like to think our EP is an appropriately timed collection of over two years of thoughts and fun and everything musical. We played with the idea of...
Save Community Radio

Save Community Radio

Community radio is at serious risk of being left behind the times as the radio world switches to digital signals in the coming years. Community radio stations run on a non-for profit basis and often just barely scrape enough funds together to maintain broadcasting on the analogue signals. Fundraising for...
Tune In - New Music

Tune In – New Music

2013 will be a terrible year for my bank account. So many albums nearing release this year, and all the tours that will no doubt follow, I wish money grew on trees! Here’s a few albums set to drop in the coming months.. Phoenix- Bankruptcy (April 22) 2010 was one...
Do you hear the people sing; from page, to stage to screen

Do you hear the people sing; from page, to stage to screen

Les Misérables the movie is an adaptation of a musical that was originally an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novels. But what do we get from this Oscar-baiting production? Aside from Wolverine’s new career in French period dramas, we are treated to a smorgasbord of special effects, breath-taking crowd scenes, and...
Veggie-Might?

Veggie-Might?

When we think of an athlete, we often picture a muscular individual at the pinnacle of physical fitness. It often takes a good nutritional balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to support the intense amount of training they do, but what about a diet that is free of meat? Is...
Future Music Festival Melbourne

Future Music Festival Melbourne

Perri Ashton braved a sweaty, foamy and sunscreen covered Future Music Festival last weekend, the temperature topped 35 and Azelia Banks obviously found it too hot to handle in her crop top. Future was always set to be a bumper day from the get go. With the weather reaching a staggering 35...
Fitness: Where do we Cross the Line?

Fitness: Where do we Cross the Line?

“It can kill you. I’ve always been completely honest about that.” Greg Glassman, founder of the fitness fad, CrossFit, admits to the risks involved when committing to this new routine. The increasingly popular workout class pushes everyone to his or her limit. Glassman defines the workout as an intense, competitive...
Out with Austerity, In with Socialism and Coalitions.

Out with Austerity, In with Socialism and Coalitions.

It is clear that change is sweeping through Europe once again.   President Nicholas Sarkozy has become the 11th European leader to succumb to defeat since the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.   With a winning margin of 52 per cent, Francoise Hollande became the president elect....
Superman: The Question of Nationality

Superman: The Question of Nationality

“I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my US citizenship…I’m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of US policy.” Superman, in the comic-book world, is now a stateless person.  According to a recently released UN report, there are 12...
Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia Wrap Up

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia Wrap Up

And so comes to a close, the most anticipated week of the Australian Fashion calendar. Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) is an internationally acclaimed fashion event, showcasing the latest collections from Australian and international designers. Sydney played host to the playground of designers, models and fashion personalities who flew...
There’s No Stopping This Naysayer

There’s No Stopping This Naysayer

Since its debut at Roxanne Parlour last August, NGTV (Naysayer and Gilsun’s audiovisual DJ project) has challenged the boundaries of live nightclub and music festival entertainment. Showcasing a boldly diverse selection of electronic music remixed with film dialogue and synced with mesmerizing pop cultural video footage, Naysayer and Gilsun’s live...
Pinterest: the new juggernaut of social media

Pinterest: the new juggernaut of social media

A drop of Twitter A hint of Facebook A dash of Tumblr Mix them all together and voila…Pinterest! Pinterest is the brainchild of Internet entrepreneur Ben Silbermann and is one of the fastest growing social media sites the world has ever seen. Launched in March 2010, Pinterest has seen its monthly visitors grow over 866 per...
Some Assembly Required

Some Assembly Required

After years of anticipation, cult favourite writer-director Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) fuses several superhero franchises into a single, epic blockbuster. Gods, monsters and soldiers unite: Earth’s mightiest heroes come together at last when an unexpected enemy threatens their world.     The Avengers is the perfect realisation of the comic...
How To: Eyeliner

How To: Eyeliner

Whether you’re interested in creating gorgeous glamour eyes or prefer a more understated and natural look, eyeliner is the key to making the eyes stand out. Helping to define your eyes, as well as transforming their shape, eyeliner can elongate, narrow and even create the big, wide eyed lash look à...
Role Reversal

Role Reversal

If I asked my grandmother what my name is, she wouldn’t know… She couldn’t say how many children she had, where she used to work, or how old she is. She couldn’t even tell you what she did yesterday, yet I have known her all my life. When I was...
There's no President like a Russian President.

There’s no President like a Russian President.

No one can campaign like Vladimir Putin can. And get away with it too.   The Russian President-Elect has outdone himself, this time with a new ‘do it for love’ campaign ad. The advertisement, clearly aimed at first time voters depicts a virgin girl considering engaging in sexual activity for...
Campbell Newman Takes A Pineapple

Campbell Newman Takes A Pineapple

    In the National Year of Reading, Queensland’s new premier, Campbell Newman has decided to scrap the state’s literary awards. A curious manoeuvre for a state still struggling to shrug off the deep-north, block-headed stereo-type attributed to it four decades back. Newman’s rationale? To bolster frontline services, improve the...
Daniel Kitson Is..

Daniel Kitson Is..

Hairless. That’s my first impression. The once bearded and bushy-haired comic is clean-shaven and bald. The spotlight refracts beams off the top of his head. The Arts Centre venue is nearly full and it becomes apparent by the whispers and gasps of surprise that this pinked pate is a new...
My Heart Will Go On..

My Heart Will Go On..

Almost 100 years after the sinking of Titanic, this marvellous ship is still captivating audiences around the world. With the re-release in 3D, the classic film is still jaw-dropping, with imagery that eludes its age.  The conversion from the original takes the audience to a whole new level, leaving its effects...
Kickstarter: the future of e-commerce?

Kickstarter: the future of e-commerce?

Supply and demand: it’s a concept that is fairly easy to grasp, despite the tedious economic system that it descends from. If something exists, and people want it bad enough, then it becomes a commodity of financial worth. There is a problem though. In America, the automobile industry is being...
Culinary Crusade: Noodle Kingdom

Culinary Crusade: Noodle Kingdom

A trip to Noodle Kingdom is like playing a gastronomic game of Russian roulette. The players risk the threat of lost orders and inattentive staff for magnificently fresh dumplings and noodles. The stakes may be high, but it is so worth it. Like many gamblers, I reminisce about the poor service as a part...
Be First, Be Smarter, Or Cheat

Be First, Be Smarter, Or Cheat

Margin Call could not be released at a better time. Zuccotti Park protests of 2011 and the recent release of Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith’s New York Times op. ed. have ensured that attention is once again back on Wall Street.     Everything the public thought about investment banks...
Quebec Student Strikes: Exchange Students Caught In The Middle

Quebec Student Strikes: Exchange Students Caught In The Middle

Many students take the opportunity to go on exchange to kill two birds with one stone – travel and get credited for a semester or year of university. By this logic, if your chosen institution was affected by widespread strikes, midway through your exchange, you would find yourself in an...
Adventuring Abroad

Adventuring Abroad

Have you ever eaten a guinea pig? Been proposed to by a stranger? Slept in a desert under the stars? Been stung 17 times by wasps in a jungle? Isabelle Jameison answers ‘yes’ to all of these. While she highly recommends global travel,  Isabelle warns that a balanced mix of spontaneity...
Baring it all for Art

Baring it all for Art

Talk to Sofia D’Ana about what she does for long enough, and curiosity will eventually get the better of you. “How nude are we talking?” It’s a question Sofia has heard often and greets with delighted laughter. “People don’t realise it exists,” she says. “They’re shocked, like, ‘I can’t believe you do...
Greetings From The Gold Coast

Greetings From The Gold Coast

Not long back, you could prop in the Rainbow Bay Ale House and enjoy a good smoke with each cold beer. You could amble in after touch-down, or load-up prior to departure, confident in the knowledge that your petty vices would be genially accommodated. Positioned mid-way between the north and south...
Farmers fighting for the environment

Farmers fighting for the environment

There is a common misconception is that modern farmers are producing the carbon dioxide that is emitted from their farms – key word being ‘producing’. Well for those of you who have been deceived, here is a quick natural science lesson: within the soil of the earth is roughly 2000...
Culinary Crusade: Attica

Culinary Crusade: Attica

When I mentioned to a friend that my partner and I were going to Attica, he immediately asked what we were celebrating… It was too far between our birthdays to use that as excuse, so I came to the realisation that there really was no occasion. This discovery prompted a brief existential...
On My Dirty Little Love Affair with The Black Keys

On My Dirty Little Love Affair with The Black Keys

My inner hipster is screaming out as I am now forced to share them with the world - The band reeled me in, gave me an open-mouth kiss laced with a thunderous shot of infectious, and courageous blues-rock. They then left me to spasm in an almost sensual delight…  ...
Conquering screens: The golden age of television

Conquering screens: The golden age of television

What did you watch last night? Where did you watch it? Chances are it was in the comfort of your home, on your couch or in your bed – and, increasingly, on your computer.  As the quality of shows broadcast free-to-air continues to grow, more and more viewers are turning...
Space danger

Space danger

THE voracious impulse to explore has been a hallmark of mankind ever since the dawn of the human species. There is certainly no exception to this pioneering spirit when it comes to putting men and women in space. However, recent findings published in the journal Radiology suggest that the future...
Turn off Facebook for 9 hours, and you could miss the start of a social revolution

Turn off Facebook for 9 hours, and you could miss the start of a social revolution

Somewhere in the United States is an adorable little boy named Gavin. This small child, bright eyed and innocent, has become the face of an attempt at a more peaceful planet. Invisible Children, Inc., is a non-profit organisation that began when three self-professed “storytellers” travelled to Africa in 2003 in...
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GLHF

GLHF

The A-league’s best player makes a quick exit, but are our young players going to Europe in wrong ways? New Zealander Marco Rojas has had a stellar season, scoring 15 goals in 27 appearances, and was highly instrumental in Melbourne Victory’s top 4 finish. He has scooped up nearly every major award: the Johnny Warren...
Audrey Tautou is no Amelie in disappointing film adaptation of Therese Desqueyroux

Audrey Tautou is no Amelie in disappointing film adaptation of Therese Desqueyroux

Claude Miller’s adaptation of François Mauriac’s acclaimed novel, ‘Therese Desqueyroux’ had the potential to be great, but the lack of  character development make for a disappointing  film. Claude miller’s posthumous film (he died in April 2012, before the films release) is based on Francois Mauriac’s best selling 1926 novel of the same name. A French...
The beautiful game is run by dirty men

The beautiful game is run by dirty men

Soccer is the most played sport in the world, played and watched by billions of people. Soccer’s administrations claim to be representative of this enormous following, yet the leaders of soccer’s major bodies are men of questionable integrity. Corruption and controversy remains rife within their ranks, and the bureaucracy spends more time squabbling than making...
How do you solve a problem like Tomic?

How do you solve a problem like Tomic?

The life of Bernard Tomic reads more like a soap opera than a fledgling tennis career. There have been model girlfriends, impounded orange BMWs, on and off court tantrums and now head-butting. The news that Tomic’s father and coach, John, had head-butted his hit-up partner, Thomas Drouet, wasn’t met with shock but rather a sense...
The F Word

The F Word

We all know about it. We all fear it. We avoid it as much as we possibly can. Yet once in awhile, we let our guard down and it gets a chance to strike. It exists in many forms; whether it is hidden in the shadows or in plain sight, we can feel its presence...

Is Soccer really the world game?

Racism continues to be a major problem in soccer in Australia. When the rest of our society has moved on, why does it still lag behind? Last year there was a major brawl in a suburban soccer match at Tullamarine involving a Sudanese team, the Sunshine Heights Western Tigers, and around 100 home supporters. Several...
Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

“No, but maybe if we can make a decision soon we will be there by 2050. Although I’m not sure if we will be going by road, or train, or maybe by plane if that new connecting railway goes ahead.”   When it comes to the future of our transport system, this is one of...
Okinawa, Japan

Okinawa, Japan

A sundered and worn knuckle comes crashing into a wooden step with the force of a sledgehammer. This process repeats itself not once, not twice, but throughout the entire duration of our ascent up the stairs leading to the Karate Museum. Master Dr. Hokama Tetsuhiro’s knuckles are boulders, battered and tortured dead after years of...
The Hardest Breakup

The Hardest Breakup

I thought what we had was special! There’s just no loyalty. I made you what you are – you can’t just leave me! Well, you’ll never be as happy there as you were here. Good riddance. Despite what you may be thinking, no, these are not the words of a crazy ex-girlfriend. These are the...
Dressing Like a Gentleman

Dressing Like a Gentleman

Liz Lemon: Why are you wearing a tuxedo? Jack Donaghy: It’s after six. What am I, a farmer? – 30 Rock. Judging a book by its cover is not desirable, but it’s initially the only evidence we have. When meeting people, we inevitably make assumptions and judgements purely based on how they look. While an...
Another One Bites the Dust

Another One Bites the Dust

June 28, 1997. On this day, one of the most anticipated rematches of the decade was scheduled. Holyfield vs Tyson II: The Sound and the Fury. It sounded absolutely riveting. Mike Tyson, angry and embarrassed after losing his World Boxing Association (WBA) title to a seemingly “washed up” Evander Holyfield the year before, was out...
Made in Melbourne

Made in Melbourne

Ask Mahe Fonua where he’s from, and he’ll say “Springvale”. Where he was born? “East Melbourne.” The young gun is of Tongan heritage, but is Victorian through and through. As the first ever Victorian to represent Melbourne Storm in the NRL, his debut at just 19 years old was highly anticipated by the rugby league...