Innholdsfortegnelse for November-December 2016 i frankie Magazine

In the years before I came out as a ‘legit and real’ lesbian, people would occasionally yell the word “DYKE” as they drove past me in cars. I pretended to find it offensive, but secretly I liked it. I didn’t quite know whether or not I was gay, but I enjoyed the feeling of being recognisably queer. For reasons I don’t understand, I haven’t been called a dyke since the day I came out. Maybe it’s a sign that Australia is slightly less bigoted, but I have this sneaking suspicion that, actually, it’s me. In a classic lesbian relationship, featuring a cat and multiple copies of The Second Sex, I’ve dropped my guard and let go of all the raging indicators that told people I was gay. I know that…

When I was 17, I did work experience at my local newspaper. I was in year 12, it was my holidays; I really should have been out there losing my virginity or at least licking someone’s face. But instead, I wrote articles about local politics and tagged along with journalists (my heroes) when they went out on the road to do interviews. There was journalist Jeremy – a ‘cool dude’ with floppy hair. He’d turn up to interviews with no questions prepared. When I asked him how he managed it, he’d roll his head back, working out some of the cricks in his neck, and say, “I know what I’m doing.” (I’ve channelled Jeremy a few times since, when I’ve been short on research time; he’s the closest thing I…

When I was about eight years old, my family used to joke that I was going to become prime minister, which was funny, because I was an introverted nerd. But looking back on it, I think standing for mayor of Auckland was the culmination of everything that’s happened in my life so far. In year 11 I had a particular teacher who didn’t like me. That was the catalyst for feeling that high school wasn’t for me, and I set myself a goal to get out as quickly as possible. I did a lot of research and found there was something called ‘discretionary entrance’ to university, so I decided I was going to get that. It was quite full on; I had to sign dropout forms from school and I…

Julia Jacklin needs space. Space to think and space to write. So it’s fortunate, then, that she has a Sydney sharehouse garage all to herself. “It’s very cold and very hot,” she says. “But it’s been great, because it’s really cheap. And it gives me privacy, which isn’t that common in shared living situations.” Although she’s grateful for her housemates (all five are musicians; one is her drummer), it’s while cooped up alone in her garage-cum-bedroom that she tends to write her songs. In fact, it’s where she wrote the majority of her debut album, Don’t Let The Kids Win. “I wrote the songs over a two-year period,” she explains. “I was finishing uni, studying social work, and feeling very conflicted about what I wanted to do. And I’d just…

Are you sitting down, frankie folk? If you subscribe or resubscribe to frankie today, you’ll go in the draw to win a 15-day Essential India trip for two (including flights and valued at over $5000), courtesy of the generous bunch at G Adventures. You and a pal will float down the River Ganges, witness the symmetry of the Taj Mahal, go off the beaten path exploring quaint temples in rural villages, and generally have a friggin’ whale of a time. Oh boy. gadventures.com.au subscriptions include free postage* AUSTRALIA 1 YEAR (6 issues) $59.70 *Price and free postage is for Australian subscribers only. For international subscription prices, please visit frankie.com.au/subscribe. Your frankie subscription will commence with #75 and will be sent out on/around 21/11/16. Australian and New Zealand residents will automatically…

SAYA SKINCARE IN A SENTENCE: We create purely plant-based skincare products on the sunny shores of Noosa // WHAT WE SELL: A range of certified organic face and body products, including cleansers, moisturisers, oils, serums, scrubs, masks and more // PRICE POINT: From $37 to $49 // WHAT MAKES THE SHOP SPECIAL: Through our unique and advanced formulas, we harness the power of Australian native botanicals to achieve results you might only expect from synthetic ingredients. We also respect our beautiful environment and stand firmly against animal testing // FIND US: Online at www.sayaskin.com RENÉE WATERS IN A SENTENCE: A porcelain and fine metal jewellery label based in Melbourne // WHAT WE SELL: Handmade pieces for men and women to wear and enjoy as works of art. Our range includes…

Fuck you, dead plant. I was nice to you and you died on me, so I’m unreasonably angry. Was it something I said? Was the water too wet? Was the sun too bright, or the shade too black? I rescued you from Bunnings and helped you grow big and strong, so you’ve got some explaining to do – fuck you. (Please don’t say anything at all. I know it was me. In my rush to leave for a weekend away, I gave you an extra drink of water before closing the door. I flooded your foundations and rotted your roots. I turned your walls into puddles and solid earth into mud. You didn’t do anything at all, but droop and drown while I was away and you were alone. It’s…

AVOID THE EYES Eye contact is the enemy of crappy conversations. It says to the speaker, “I’m with you and listening.” Every second spent staring into the other person’s eyes will guarantee you another minute of small talk, so if you’re after an escape route, look anywhere but the eyes. This is particularly important if your conversation partner is talking about their feelings. “There’s just something about X that makes me feel so affected, you know?” If you don’t know and you don’t want to know: stare at the nose. FEIGN IGNORANCE You’re in a pub, just trying to drink a beer, and the dude sitting next to you won’t stop listing “sweet as” bands you should totally get into. You’ve been into those bands since you were 15, but…

Dear frankie, I could really relate to Mia Timpano’s article “Boy Smells”. When my boyfriend leaves my house at midnight to go back to his, the trade-off is the shirt on his back. He reluctantly hands it over and drives home naked from the waist up. I sleep blissfully with his shirt draped over my pillow, close to my nostrils. If I won’t see him for a week or he’s off on a work trip, I take an item of clothing he’s worn for at least 10 hours. Once his scent disappears, I go searching for another. Mia, you’re not alone. Amanda xo Bonny wee frankie, After being across the ocean for almost eight months, you have no idea how exciting it was to flip through issue 73 and see…

It’s practically impossible to live on Planet Earth without accumulating some spectacularly trashy merchandise: think gaudy fluorescent stubby holders, tacky keyrings emblazoned with even tackier slogans, and – for those of us who survived the ’90s, at least – a heap of chunky mouse pads bearing some second-rate business’s pixellated logo. Yep, it’s fair to say that merch hasn’t exactly excelled on the style front in the past, which is why Melbourne lasses Kate Scott, Hannah Chipkin and Pippa Joseph launched Merchgirls – a creative collaboration making promotional products you’ll actually want to keep. “You buy merchandise to try and keep a memory or touch on something you really enjoyed doing,” Pippa says. “Why not make that cool; something you want to wear the minute you buy it?” The trio…

I did an honours degree on the Little penguin – the smallest species of penguin that exists. There’s a colony at the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, and I did my research down there. It hadn’t been studied in over 20 years, so I worked out their population size and breeding success, and that’s when I really fell in love with penguins. They’re a bird, but they’re so different to any other bird. They spend the majority of their time at sea, and only really come to the land to breed and moult. And they fly under water – they use their wings under water the way other birds use their wings to propel themselves through the air. I always thought that was amazing. Marine biology is all…

WASH ‘N’ WEAR It turns out there’s more to washing your wearables than simply divvying up the lights and darks. Think twice before discarding your denim to the dirty clothes basket – an airing and some spot cleaning will usually do the job. Your clothes will last much longer this way, and you’re also saving over 55 litres of water per wash. But don’t get too carried away on the eco-warrior thing – cramming three weeks of dirty clothes into one load will crowd the machine and turn your threads from fresh to frayed. Flip all fade-able items inside out and add a pinch of salt to your machine before starting a cycle. Be sure to wash woollens and delicate stuff by hand, too, adding a touch of fabric softener…

Many people in my life can’t bring themselves to use public toilets, either due to hygiene reasons or because the idea of being in a confined space where people are privy to the symphony of their bowels is their personal idea of hell. So they’ll either hold it until they get home and explode, or they’ll literally suck it back up. This isn’t an option for me. As someone with a rapid metabolism, anxiety and a genetic predisposition for gut trouble (some years ago, when visiting family in Hong Kong, I asked my cousin what he carried in his locket, to which he merrily replied, “Diarrhoea pills, of course!”), I’m not particularly skilled when it comes to toilet training. So nothing gives me a greater sense of security than sourcing…

 I have a wide range of collections, including coloured glassware, cookie jars, tins, lady-head vases, wall-mounted flying birds and money boxes, but my favourite would have to be my Christmas decorations. I’ve been collecting them for about 15 years, and although I’ve never actually counted how many I own, there would have to be more than 1000. Christmas is my favourite time of the year. Instead of setting up a single tree, I now set up the entire collection, which can take about a week. I usually start in November and leave it on display until mid-February. The arrangement changes as the collection grows – I keep adding things throughout the year, so I always want to display the newer bits in the best way. Last year I added some…

So, who are you? By day I’m a photo stylist – I make, source and style props for photoshoots, and occasionally art direct. When I’m not styling, I can be found creating images for my personal Instagram feed. What’s the idea behind your Faces series? I like to think of my images as doodles in a sketchbook. It started with a googly eye obsession – I bought a pack from a craft shop and stuck eyes on just about everything in the house. I then decided to take things a step further and give them more character and detail. What materials do you use to make the little features? I’m a big fan of Play-Doh – it’s amazing to use and smells nice, too. I did experiment with using plasticine,…

When I told a friend I was writing about the self-destruction we unleash when we compare ourselves to others, he laughed so much he got asthma. Well, he was already asthmatic – I didn’t alter the inside of his lungs – but he had an attack. I gave him my Ventolin, but it was empty. He dug his out of his bag – it was brand new. I wondered why I’m always so shit at things like buying new Ventolin, and why he’s so good at it. How come he’s capable of looking after himself, of buying the basic essentials for survival, while I’m not? I knew what I was doing, but I couldn’t help it – I compare myself. No matter when or where, or how close the person…

Who are you and what do you do? I’m a lawyer, a full-time architecture student, as well as a model maker and miniaturist. Talk us through the Little Architecture project. I build tiny things, and use them to explore a particular style of architecture and design I want to understand better. I also write tutorials for my website so people can make tiny things of their own, and I’m in the process of creating a series of inexpensive terrace dollhouse kits. How did this project first begin? I’ve been in love with small things for as long as I can remember. For a long time that mainly involved collecting dollhouses, which developed into collecting miniature furniture to fill them. When I stopped working as a corporate lawyer and took up…

Ever since he can remember, Jason Rapke has been passionate about animal welfare. “I always thought there was an injustice in the world in the way we treat our animals,” he says. “They often suffer as a result of human-related activity, and we don’t think about the fact they have the ability to suffer just as much as we do. They feel pleasure and pain, too.” While wandering the streets of Melbourne, the now-vet and RSPCA Victoria board member couldn’t help but notice the number of homeless people doing their best to care for pets – and their struggle touched him. After making some enquiries with local charity groups, Jason discovered there was a gaping hole when it came to offering vet services for the homeless. So he set up…

CHANNEL THE TUMBLEWEED I moved to America from Russia when I was nine. America is definitely my homeland, but I almost feel like my nationality is ‘immigrant’. It’s American, but it’s also different. There are really horrible politicians who make you feel extra-different for being an immigrant, but they’re hypocrites, because they’re descendants of immigrants themselves. It’s a feeling that I think you never really shake, and I wouldn’t want to, because I’m very proud of it. I love that I get to have all these different roots in me. I have roots from Russia, from Ukraine, from Belarus, from Poland, from Germany. And the cool thing is, between all these roots and tumbleweed-ing around for my job, I really get to be a citizen of the world. EAT THE…

In the past year or so, Eileen Kramer has starred in two music videos, choreographed and acted in her own play, won $15,000 in crowdfunding – and turned 101. “I’ve lived on this earth for a long time,” she says. “People ask me, what is your secret? When you’re creating, you’re always doing something new. It’s the opposite of old.” With that motto under her belt, Eileen created a life so incredible it reads like a bohemian adventure saga. She danced for 20 years with Australia’s first modern dance company, the Bodenwieser Ballet, then took off travelling the world when it closed in 1959. She learned mask-making in India, painted in Pakistan, and gallivanted through Africa and Europe. She modelled for famed French Cubist artist André Lhote; once eavesdropped on…

THE KING OF KONG I didn’t know competitive Donkey Kong was a thing before I watched The King of Kong. Now that I’ve spent 80 minutes witnessing an epic battle between GOOD (Steve Wiebe, extremely nice man and unemployed dad) and EVIL (Billy Mitchell, Donkey Kong world record holder and hot sauce magnate), I know that competitive Donkey Kong is brutal, cruel and merciless. Never get between a maniac and his high score. HELVETICA Fonts. People have feelings about them (please whisper the words ‘Comic Sans’ to one of your designer buddies and see what happens). And look, if you’ve ever wanted to watch a bunch of typeface enthusiasts ponder the meaning of Helvetica – a font so ubiquitous that it’s basically invisible – then boom, bang, yes: Helvetica is…

ERIN KATHERINE COOKSON I create fine art prints and original paintings inspired by mountainous landscapes and meditative patterns. With a colourful and soothing feel, my work adds a dash of brightness to a room, without being overpowering.erinkatherinecookson.com ALISON JACKSON Handcrafted tableware and jewellery designed to be treasured and to last a lifetime. Driven by our love of traditional metalworking, we use a range of metals in our Canberra studio, including sterling silver, stainless steel and copper.alisonjackson.com.au HENRY LANE Our playful prints and homewares are packed full of personality that will make you think, “Why hasn’t this been done before?” Prints are posted flat so they reach you in one piece, and our cotton tea towels actually dry dishes and hands! henrylane.com.au HUNT HOMEWARES An online homewares store specialising in locally…

I recently completed my ninth work trip to the Zhongda Fabric Markets, located in the city of Guangzhou, in southern China. This market is one of the largest fabric and accessory wholesale markets in the country, and many of the items in your wardrobe would invariably have originated there. Each time I visit, I find myself stunned by the dizzying varieties of fabrics, trims, buttons and embellishments available, and equally intrigued by the people – often families – who run the stalls. The market is, without a doubt, the largest concentration of colour and texture I’ve ever seen. Fabrics burst from the walls; gems and threads in every shade imaginable spew out of bags and off shelves. Everything is meticulously organised to be easily located on request, guarded by shop…

Blink and you’ll miss them: two women sneaking onto trains and trams around Melbourne, dropping books onto seats for unsuspecting travellers to stumble across, before disappearing into the throng. It’s all in the name of Books on the Rail – an initiative dreamt up by copywriter Ali Berg and school teacher Michelle Kalus, on a mission to spread the joy of reading through public transport. The concept is simple: books are marked with stickers asking commuters to take, read and then return them to a public transport service, where they’ll fall into the hands of someone new. Each book also includes a nostalgic library card, so readers can share their personal reviews. “I was working with someone in London who started Books on the Underground, which is a similar concept,”…