Day Spas and cups of chino...

There was always something lacking at this university of ours. Actually quite a few things lacking. I always found myself asking, "Why aren't there more manicures and seaweed wraps in my education? Why do we have so many lectures and so few aromatherapy massages? When will they turn the second-hand bookshop into a day spa?"

I ask these questions no longer. All is as it should be. The university has seen the light and has finally replaced the second-hand bookshop with the day spa I'd always felt was so necessary. I only wonder if the ex-bookshop is big enough. I'm not sure if a whole spa would actually fit inside the space, but I feel that if the day spa receives the clientèle it deserves it could always move into the library. There are some seriously spacious rooms in the library, possibly even room for tanning beds.

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Climate change is one the verge of destroying Australia's Hops Crops. So let's er.. Have a beer while we still can! Join us at the Bar on the Hill to protest climate change and have some fun along the way.

Opus edition #4 - Natural/Artificial will be launched at the gig.

Save the ales is an Enviro Collective fundraiser.

Must be viewed as pdf attachment

I wonder if the people from Maxis (the developers of the game the sims) had any idea of the concepts that and complications and ideas their little game represents, for those of you who have never played THE SIMS, its basically a game where you totally control a miniature digital human being (or beings) from above in their own little neighborhood and own little house, the SIMS have status bars that represent ‘hunger’ ‘entertainment’ ‘bladder’ ’relationships’ the goal being keeping a kind of homeostasis of social’ psychological and physical problems, they earn money, buy household items, and have relationships, these things effect their status bars in different ways, they read, and watch television, use the computer and internet, turn lights on and off and basically carry out many human like deeds, its like a giant interactive dolls house.

It’s a sad fact that the first time I played the SIMS I decided to build a house with no windows toilets, or doors, and then introduced things into the environment, to see how each item affected my sim, then eventually after months of deprivation and experiment, I starved my lab rat sim and put him out of his misery.

About Face

The gravel crunched under the wheels as we approached the small encampment. I was not prepared for what awaited me. Our car pulled up beside a group of dark skinned people congregated beneath a tree seeking refuge from the noonday sun. At first glance my conceived ideas of normality were stripped away. Their outward appearance was confronting. With disturbing speed my mind placed them in a distinct social category as a result of their bleeding wounds, rags, and smells. They were sitting in a semi circle of weathered and broken chairs in front of their dwelling which was no more than an over crowded tin shed. Just as I was trying to comprehend what was before me an old lady pleaded "Reverend, them skinheads came again last night and bullied us." Compassionately he replied "That’s no good sister." In my ignorance I asked "did you call the police?" only to here the surprised reply: "Police?… Them don't come here except when they wanna take us away"

No, I’m bisexual, you’re confused

Pride day speech on bisexuality

I thought I would start with a saying that I find myself often saying: “No I’m bisexual you’re confused”. To me this encapsulates a lot off the ideas, beliefs and attitudes that are in circulation about bisexuality. There is a general misunderstanding in the queer and general communities, about the legitimacy of bisexuality as a valid sexuality. I have heard it all before “Just decide”, “ You are a fence sitter”, “Bisexuals don’t exist” and they will sleep with everyone they meet. These ideas about bisexuality negate the legitimacy of bisexuality and perpetuate a negative ideas about what bisexuality is. What is bisexuality you ask?? Well I personally think bisexuality is a sexuality that involves attraction to any gender. It is not only about sex, it is a way of life. It influences the friends you have, the lovers you choose and the communities you choose to belong to. Bisexuality is about seeing the potentiality of a lover regardless of their gender. Bisexuals don’t fit nicely into categories, we are women focused, men focused or into the fetish community or polyamory or abstinence. I would like to say that you don’t have to be fucking the myriad of genders to be bisexual. I was seeing a man who said “are you straight now?!!” and I suppose you can guess I wasn’t with him for very long. I am now in a monogamous relationship with a woman but I still identify as bisexual. This leads me onto the issue of biphobia, Haven’t heard of it, well I have experienced it. It is a form of oppression that bisexuals face. It is unique in the fact that it can come from the heterosexual community and the queer community. It puts bisexuals in a place where they don’t fit into either community and this can lead to feeling of exclusion and isolation. Bisexuals not only have to come out to the heterosexual community they have to come out to the queer community as well. If you don’t come out to the queer community you are considered to be gay or lesbian, same goes for the hetero community. Reactions from people when you come out as bi can vary from great to down right ignorant. I have been told that I don’t exist, I have been asked to join in a threesome because I had disclosed that I was bi. At a conference called queer collaborations I was once referred as an “indecisive bitch”. This is not acceptable. Bisexuals are organising but they are still facing many barriers. When I was seeing Iota at the G he was talking about the queer community and only referring to lesbians and gays, when I shouted out “and bisexuals”. And he said “Oh, we can’t forget them they don’t let us”!! (refuse to support him now even took his cd out of the stereo!) This example proves that there is animosity evident in the queer community and I am here to tell Iota and everyone that, NO, we won’t let people forget us. Silence leads to oppression, oppression leads to depression, anxiety and at worst suicide. Bi pride is breaking the silence, it is about having pride in your sexuality and challenging biphobia wherever it rears its ugly head. It is about being out, loud and proud and not putting up with ignorance and hate. I encourage all bisexuals to get organised, come to queer collective and have your voices heard and I will finish with how I started: No I’m bisexual, you’re confused.

Collaboration in the virtual world.

There are two things that always make me feel good to be a Human. The first is seeing an ambulance flying down a city street at seventy kilometers an hour in a sixty zone, and watching every car pull in to the left lane to let it past, to possibly save the life of another person, a stranger. It gives me the feeling that, hey, maybe we homo sapiens aren't all completely selfish arseholes, and, yeah, maybe this society could work. Perhaps if everyone though the same way about life in general, and our global society and eco system, as they do about ambulances, perhaps then we could really have a golden age on our hands. Then again, some of those drivers are probably just trying not to get fines for obstructing an ambulance.

Save the Ales!!!

Prepare for apocalypse!! There will soon be no more beer on campus. WHAT???????

HOW?????? You see, hops the flowers used to make beer bitter, are threatened by global warming. The majority of hops produced in the Australia are grown in Tasmania and Victoria, where drier climate chaos summers would be disastrous for a plant that requires large amounts of water. Climate change could also lead to a population boom of aphids and Japanese beetles, which prey upon hops.

STOLEN

Marjorie Woodrow’s voice has the soft, thin velvety quality that most 79 year-old women’s voices have. It reminds a person of date scones and worn cushions, old vinyl furniture and hand embroidered doilies.

Free Musak – Carl Dixon

Amidst all this hootenanny about politics and ‘free’ mobile phone plans it is time to reflect on the issues of freedom, and indeed slavery, and how they have impacted upon the most wacky world of popular music.

Electrocution - A Sure-fire Cause of Death

So I was watching Brainiac the other night, when I discovered myself talking to my telly. Or to be more accurate, blasting it with fiery invective. This is not typical behaviour. I generally reserve these outbursts for when nasty little toadies like Howard or Nelson rear their ugly heads and attempt to convince us that when they bugger us up the arse until we’re bleeding in the name of the economy, they really have our best interests at heart (yes, I know they can’t hear me. But it beats bottling it up, cramming my soul-destroying rage into the dark and dingy corners of my mind until it can be repressed no longer and I snap, and as the red mist clouds my vision I know the only way to sate the thirst for blood that howls from every fibre of my being is to go out and stab a conservative in the eyeball over and over and over again with a decorative letter opener. Shouting at an inanimate object may be unhealthy, but it’s healthier (not as much fun, though) than the alternative.)

Just Jeans?

A personal account of the Indian textile industry – Jarra Hicks

On a bus in central India:

I can't breathe. I'm so glad its dark; I would hate to see the colour of the horizon. Even now, in the 7:30 darkness, I can make out the rotten plumes of black smoke that come to attack my lungs. Above the racket of rickshaw horns and rickety buses an eerie noise gets louder. I've never heard anything like it before – constant mechanised clanking. Its hypnotic in a sickening way.

Long Bridge to Freedom

By Megan Clement.

A young, skilled, physically healthy man is released from four years in detention, only to be kept monitored day and night. He is now dependent upon charity. He eats, sleeps, has little else to fill his days, and no certainty that there will ever be more to his life than the limbo in which he finds himself. The reason? He escaped from Iran, one of the most oppressive theocratic regimes in the world, because he wanted to become a Christian. And he landed in the lucky country, where they locked him up and then released him on a bridging visa.

A Starky filled night

When I ring Nick Neal, bassist of Sydney pop-rock band Starky, the line goes silent for a moment which prompts me to ask whether I had dropped in by surprise.

“So you haven’t had a chance to write down your answers?” I laugh and then he laughs – breaking the ice, so to speak.