Innholdsfortegnelse for January/Februrary 2019 i frankie Magazine

specifically, that it was painted by a little artist named KEN BLOODY DONE. (Note: we can’t say for sure whether ‘Bloody’ is on his birth certificate, but it certainly seems fitting for an Australian icon.) Painted in 1991, the striking piece is called 'Butterfly dreams', and when we sat down to chat with Ken for this issue, he told us the sweet tale of how it came to be. “When I first went to Japan, I was very interested in Japanese art and poetry,” he explained. “There’s a wonderful little poem that says, ‘I would learn of their dream in flowers, but butterflies have no voice.’ It’s about the fact butterflies live for such a brief period of time. All they would understand is being in the beauty of flowers,…

Knock knock. Who’s there? An unknown caller. An unknown caller, who? An unknown caller who I’ve redirected to my voicemail because this is 2018 and who speaks on the phone these days? Knock knock, again. Who’s there, again? The same caller. The same caller, who? The same caller who just left a voicemail, except now they’re also texting and emailing and sending Facebook messages, just in case I didn’t happen to see they’d tried to call. Oh, I saw their missed call, all right. I saw their text message, and email, and Facebook message, too. My question is: Why stop there? Why not send a carrier pigeon or a dogsled team? If you’re so desperate to reach me, why not walk to my house? This kind of communication spam is…

Tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Kate Berry – I’m a Daylesford-based designer, photographer, ideas machine, mum of two, and lover of old motels and forgotten places. Why motels? There are so many layers to this. Firstly, let’s go shallow: they look cool. On a deeper level is the element of escape and being on the road – they’re a home away from home. Plus, they’re an amazing time capsule of the way we used to holiday. Did you grow up staying in these kinds of places? I did! My dad had a job photographing display homes when I was a kid, so we’d travel to Victorian towns like Shepparton and Traralgon, which were full of old motels. I loved that these towns weren’t the usual tourist…

What would you do if you were standing in a room filled with artificial fart spray? Yep, you’d probably want to leave – but you’d also become more likely to judge others harshly, thus becoming an arsehole yourself (appropriately enough). We know this thanks to psychologist David Pizarro, one of the many scientists around the world dedicated to understanding the emotion of disgust. (Fun fact: said scientists sometimes like to refer to themselves as ‘disgustologists’.) Of course, the folks who agreed to participate in Pizarro’s experiment weren’t told they’d be trapped in a fart chamber for the duration. Sure enough, though, they were – and, once inside, were asked to rate how they felt about various groups in society, such as the elderly. While the scent of human stink bombs…

FRANKLIN HART JR. IN 9 TO 5 //Taking a friendship from the office cubicle to the real world is usually a slow progression involving mutual bitch sessions and booze-induced oversharing, but in 9 to 5, it’s fast-tracked when co-workers Judy, Violet and Doralee kidnap their boss, Franklin Hart Jr. Granted, he’s a deserving candidate for such a crime, given his brazen sexual harassment, tendency to impulsively fire staff, and support of the gender pay gap. And you can bet he leaves his unwashed mug in the communal kitchen sink. Every. Single. Day. When the trio of dames decides they’ve finally had enough of his shit, they band together and force their boss to take some overdue long service leave. (Translation: they hold him captive in his Tudor-style mansion until they…

Hey Bonnie! Tell us a bit about your style of art. Hello! My illustration style has a minimal and graphic aesthetic that has been influenced by my experience in printmaking and graphic design. My subjects tend to focus on the female form, natural elements, symbolism and surreal ideas. How did you become a professional illustrator? After high school, I studied a diploma of illustration at TAFE, but when I finished I was still quite young and felt I needed more qualifications under my belt. This led me to study a diploma in graphic design. I realised I worked illustration into every brief I had, so it became obvious that was the path I needed to pursue. I took on internships, one of which eventually turned into a full-time gig as…

Spending Christmas alone, away from family and friends, can be either a liberating exercise in adult independence or a saddening, lonely day of critical self-reflection. Here are some tips to help you get your festive cheer on and avoid ending the day sobbing face-down in a plate of boozy pudding. TREAT YOURSELF There’s a lot of pain involved in being an adult: paying bills; working; the crushing realisation that you’re not special; and being too big to ride in a pram. There is, however, an upside, and it’s one we often forget: the power to eat and buy whatever the heck we want. We get so caught up in limiting ourselves to what we should consume that we forget those constraints are self-imposed. What better time to throw off your…

It was a happy day when Roberta Nelson chucked in her science degree to study naturopathy at Endeavour College of Natural Health. It gave her the chance to learn in a safe, calming space; get to know like-minded folks in the natural health world; and launch straight into her own private practice. She’s also become a bit of an expert on how to make healthy food easy – and cheap. FOCUS ON WHOLEFOODS Roberta’s rule of thumb for anyone trying to navigate the food world is “just go with wholefoods”. That’s the stuff that comes from the ground or grows on trees. “It doesn’t need to be fancy vegetables,” she says. “It can be potatoes, pumpkin – whatever you like.” Mix it up with some tinned beans and legumes, like…

DRESSY BESSY We’re of the belief that vintage never goes out of fashion. Made from rayon, linen and cotton, our fabulously fun pieces combine ’70s prints with modern shapes, and are both breezy and oh-so comfortable to wear. dressybessy.com.au INDI TRIBE COLLECTIVE Ever found yourself on a beach picnic with a mouthful of sand? We made a portable wooden folding table to keep your spread elevated – it even has special cut-outs for a bottle and glasses. You’ll never spill your wine again. inditribecollective.com.au KATRINA BARNDEN JEWELLERY Jewellery is all about personalisation, which is why I make pieces that can be worn multiple ways. Many of my brass and sterling silver items are reversible; earrings can be turned into a necklace, and bangles can be stacked to your liking. katrinabarndenjewellery.com…

What tactics do you use to crank up the energy at your shows? We fuck up every single show. I always jump into the crowd and do a solo, and nine times out of 10 my lead will come out. I’ll keep soloing, even though no noise is happening, and say, “Well, I fucked that up – let’s keep going.” We’re making mistakes and it’s fine; we’re having heaps of fun. So you don’t get nervous? We try and immediately quell any nerves by going, “We’re four weirdos having a good time – hope you are, too. Let’s all be weird.” What’s the wildest your crowd has ever gotten? We had an EP launch recently where people were climbing the walls. For our last song, we did “Karl Stefanovic at…

You know who’s the worst? Morning people. Morning people are the worst. They think they’re the best, but they’re the worst. I’m sorry if you yourself are a morning person, but you’re the worst. You may be perfectly delightful and knit sweaters for cold penguins, but you’re still the worst. I’m a night person. I think clearer at night, I write better at night and I get more shit done at night. I also prefer to exercise at night, but tell that to a morning person and he, she or they will time-shame you for at least 10 minutes. (Because, remember, they’re the worst.) Why are morning people the pits, you ask? Great question! It’s mostly because of their smugness. Oh, the smugness. You know what I’m talking about –…

My dearest darling frankie, Thank you for being just as wonderful, if not more than I remember. I was a long-time subscriber, but I’ve been travelling and working overseas for a few years. I keep up with the emails and Instagram, but it just isn’t the same as the physical feel and smell of you. On my annual visit home this month, my sister – bless her cotton socks – brought me her year’s subscription to spend hours perusing. Thank you for bringing me inspiration and the comfort of an old friend. All my love, Lou x Thank you, Michelle Law, for shining a light on being a proud cheapskate. “In a Tight Spot” is the first article where I’ve had people call, message, and send me a carrier pigeon…

I should really hate flying. Heights have always terrified me; I strongly dislike strangers invading my personal space; and enclosed places have never been my thing (a friend once woke up during a camping trip to the sound of me punching the side of my tent, shouting, “LEMME OUT! LEMME OUT!”). But every time I travel, I find myself looking forward to the plane trip as much as the actual holiday. I seem to love most things about jetting around in an airborne metal tube that others hate: the squashed seats (cosy!); the pre-packaged food (tiny cheese and biscuits, yay!); the lengthy wait times (an opportunity to pop on a podcast and engage in some weird public hamstring stretches that nobody will judge me for!). People are prone to earnestly…

I was working in Melbourne doing pool and spa leak detection – plumbing kind of stuff – but had a kid and decided it was time to move back to my hometown in the country. The town is pretty small, and I couldn’t transfer what I was doing into the country lifestyle very easily. But my parents used to own the post office, so being a postman was something I could do full-time. Typically, I start around 7am, sorting the mail and parcels and that sort of stuff. On a Monday, it’s a lot busier, because you get two to three days’ worth of mail in one hit. (And even more when there’s a public holiday.) Once it’s all sorted – hopefully by about 10am – delivery starts. Depending on…

A nice thing about not having been born 50 years ago, is that most people now agree that schoolyard bullying is bad. Back in the day, the attitude seemed to be that if you couldn’t handle never-ending torment from your peers, you were softer than a jumbo marshmallow and should probably be thanking the bullies for helping to harden you up. A group of classmates refer to you as “Stinker” and scream, “PEEEE-EWWW” in unison whenever you walk past? Good on them, you’ll never get ahead in this economy without a bit of social torture to develop your character! But even though we’ve all agreed there’s no causal relationship between atomic wedgies and greater personal resilience, most anti-bullying chatter doesn’t rise above the level of ‘don’t do it, kids’. And…

If you’ve been to a music festival in Australia this year, chances are you’ve come across Baker Boy. The hip hop artist is one of the most exciting live acts in the country right now, whipping crowds into a dancing frenzy with his addictive, inclusive anthems. He’s shared the stage with the likes of Dizzee Rascal and one of his childhood idols, 50 Cent. Not too shabby for a guy who started writing his own music just two years ago. The Baker Boy story starts in Yurruwi, Arnhem Land, where the rapper was born Danzel Baker and spent his idyllic childhood hunting, fishing and immersing himself in dance and music – an integral part of Indigenous culture. “Music is how we communicate with our ancestors and pay respects to Country,”…

One of the greatest disappointments of my adult life has been the re-emergence of facial acne. At 15, it was expected; at 19, accepted. At 29? It’s infuriating in a way I never anticipated hygiene could be. I’m a clean person. I shower daily – sometimes twice. I wash my hair, a lot. I change my sheets every Saturday morning. Growing up, I thought the combination of stabilising hormones and a rigid commitment to cleanliness would somehow shine out of my face, giving me the clear skin of an adult whose life is in order. Instead, I’m nearing 30 and admitting with disappointment that I can't just slap sunscreen on in the morning, wash my face with warm water at night, and enjoy the fruits of my minimal labour. No…

Hannah Georgalas was at her wits’ end. The South Londoner had a toddler son, her relationship had disintegrated, and she was struggling to pay the bills. She was lost, broke and grieving the loss of her old life when her landlord told her he was selling the cosy flat she’d made her new home. Feeling utterly defeated and wondering what to do next, she sat down to flip through a book of socialist feminist posters. Suddenly, the light dawned. “It had this poster with single mothers living in separate little flats, suffering in isolation with the monotony of housework and solo child-rearing,” Hannah remembers. “At the top it said, ‘ALONE WE ARE POWERLESS, TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG’, and I thought, ‘Too fucking right. If only.’ Then I realised I could…

When Zulfiye Tufa was a teenager, she’d often find herself in clothing stores for ‘mature women’. As a young Muslim woman looking for maxi skirts, the ‘mature’ section seemed like the only place she could find what she was after. “The thought is that the younger you are, the more beautiful you are, so you should expose and express that, not hide it,” she says. “That’s what mainstream fashion is usually about.” While ever-changing sartorial trends saw sleeves and hemlines yo-yoing over the years, Zulfiye’s struggle to find youthful, stylish clothing that also ticked the modesty box endured. She began blogging and sharing her outfit customisation ideas online as The Hijab Stylist, and in the process, discovered a community of Australian women who shared her fashion frustrations. So, in 2016,…

Nina Freeman never expected to end up writing video games. “I’ve always loved playing games and played a lot through school, but in undergrad college I was super-focused on poetry,” she says. However, the shift from studying literature to designing and writing games was not so much a leap from one to the other as a collision of the two. “I’ve always written personal stories, so I thought it would be the natural thing to work on in games,” she says. The result is a collection of deeply personal video games exploring sex, intimacy, and the sometimes emotional clusterfuck that is being a young woman. The catalyst for Nina’s gear change was a spell of post-college uncertainty. Having finished her studies, she started making friends with some New York developers,…

the social outfit You know that meme where Homer Simpson slowly backs into a bush? Donning The Social Outfit’s botanical print could well offer you the same leafy protection. Should you ever find yourself in an awkward situation, simply pop on a garden-inspired, silky piece of clothing, place yourself by a bed of flowers, and prepare for confused expressions as the folks around you wonder where you’ve gone. Other cool things about the range? The print was designed by young migrants and refugees in Sydney’s Liverpool area, and can be nabbed from thesocialoutfit.org the swish plates Nothing says, “I’m a grown-up human who knows how to do things like changing light bulbs and organising my tax,” quite like a fancypants dinner setting, and these four pieces of loveliness from Vera…

There’s no such thing as a bad dance move at a Confidence Man show – only the joyous freedom of throwing shapes whichever way you feel. Against the backdrop of pulsing electronic beats, the indie-disco outfit leads the crowd with their coordinated go-go moves, striking poses last seen at a year 6 dance concert. You wouldn’t know it from his onstage bravado, but frontman Sugar Bones never wanted to dance. “It’s just been thrust on me,” he says looking at Janet Planet, the band’s lead singer and self-confessed “opposite of a shy dancer”. “He definitely practises in his room, though!” she exclaims. “I’d love to be a fly on the wall watching him.” Hailing from Brisbane but now based in Melbourne, the two-year-old quartet enjoys the fun of staying a…

How did BAMBAM come to be? The label was born just over a year ago. I’d been working in communications and lost my job, but suddenly felt the need to communicate my own project to the world. BAMBAM is the result of mixing my great passions: fashion, design and communication. Describe the BAMBAM aesthetic in five words. Funny, colourful, nostalgic, millennial and sarcastic. Talk us through the concept behind this collection, ASAP. ASAP is a criticism of the dizzying speed with which we move today, and the hyperconnectivity that technological advancement has brought on. We are slaves to a movement that, at the same time, keeps us voluntarily hooked with the pull of social networks. How is technology represented in the range? Keeping faithful to our fresh and colourful aesthetic,…

Talk us through what ANEAU is all about. ANEAU is a celebration of connection to people, stories, fabrics and heritage. I try to uphold a sense of integrity in everything I do. It’s also about a slow design process – I spend a lot of time in development, perfecting things. Every detail is considered, from a colour, to the canvas and brass belts that wrap around the quilts, and the cotton pillowcases they’re sold in. Why quilts? I’ve worked in fashion for years, and making collection after collection can become quite relentless. You’re forever chasing yourself. I yearned to make something that would be long-lasting, a product to cherish, and could become a family heirloom. While living in New York a few years ago, I returned to Australia for an…

I ran away from home when I was 15. I didn’t want to go to school, and was really attracted to anything that seemed fun and dangerous. There was a group of older kids who would burgle shops and sell the stuff they stole, spending the money on drugs and partying, and I got in with them. That snowballed – I started getting in trouble with the police and putting a lot of pressure on my family. I was arrested and had to go to court, and I remember that being the moment when me and one of the other kids were like, “We have to get away.” We ran away together, and befriended a couple of the younger homeless people around. As a young teenager, that was really fun…

Flying halfway across the world to sit in a snow-covered, mountaintop barn with a revered guru teaching you how to hand-cut vinyl records sounds like something from a Wes Anderson film – but for Melbourne fellow Nathan Sawford, it’s the true story of how his business, Small Run Vinyl, began. “One day my friend got a record in the mail with a poem he’d written for a girlfriend,” Nathan says. “I was like, ‘How did you get just one record done? I didn’t even know that was possible.’ He told me he got it from a guy overseas, so I did some googling and contacted the man who sold the machine that made it. To buy one, I had to actually fly to Germany with cash.” Nathan’s partner Holly Canham,…

Hey Alex! Who are you and what do you do? I’m an artist who paints pictures, living in Los Angeles, California. Have you always been an arty type? I was an enormous fan of comic books as a child, and used to copy images out of them from a very early age. I always imagined that would be my career – being a comic book artist – then at art school I discovered other mediums and techniques. I would pretty much draw all the time if I was at home, though. When did you first start using found objects as a canvas? I started painting on antique photos – specifically cabinet cards – around eight or nine years ago. I’m not sure where the idea came from exactly, but I’d…

1. You thought flamingos had weird-arse knees that bent backwards, like a possessed child in a horror flick? Nope, guess again. The curvy birds actually get about on their tiptoes, making that fleshy joint you can see mid-leg their ankle. Their real knees are buried way up amongst their feathers. 2. It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose. Go on, give it a burl. You see, when you hum, air escapes through your shnoz, creating the buzzy sound we all hear. If your nostrils are sealed shut, no air can escape – and the same goes for noise. 3. During World War II, bacon was used to make explosives in the US. Housewives saved the excess fat from their fry-ups and donated it to the army – it was…