Mud-caked and defeated / we rove over a country choked / into submission.
It is no exaggeration to say that The University of Melbourne is one of the largest breeding grounds for leftist thought in the country. For those of us who have been on campus–walked past the columns plastered with protest posters, been a part of tutorial discussions (particularly within the Arts faculty), socialised with fellow students–this statement needs even less justification. Yet, UniMelb’s most far-left political group, Socialist Alternative (SocAlt), seems to be its most hated.
January air is amniotic. / February will come like a birth or excision.
While everyone was in Europe, I was in council.
to wring a dry cloth / on cracked soil / under the ablaze sun.
Tityrus, you recline beneath a screen / of spreading beech and dwell upon the woodland / muse with slender reed
The watermelon dwarfs the little fridge it’s displayed on, green rind overtaking white plastic.
The media have adopted a wait-and-see approach towards the new Labor government, particularly concerning the climate.
Director M. Night Shyamalan has become something of a joke among film fans. Following the smash success of The Sixth Sense in 1999, he briefly became Hollywood’s golden boy, gracing the cover of Newsweek magazine in 2002 along with the moniker “The Next Spielberg”. Yet, he fell just as quickly, releasing a series of commercial and critical flops that destroyed the goodwill he had accumulated with his first three major features.
Round white headlights. An even rounder exterior. Metallic blue doors and black rubber tires. Scratched but intact side lamps. Worn fabric seats, peeling at the sides to expose yellow foam. Seven-year-old Chathu stared at the unfamiliar object, a tiny blue second-hand Nissan Micra with headlamps and grills that gave it the curious face of a two-year old child. “It’s our new car,” her father said proudly, the beams of the sun glinting off his bald head mirrored in the smile he gave her.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Melbourne’s CBD on Saturday, protesting in solidarity against the overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling by the US Supreme Court.
Ben's back: electric boogaloo.
Are these women just manifestations of white feminism who were brought forward on the premise of climate change and transparency?
Six, possibly one of the most important musicals of our generation, has finally arrived in Melbourne, after originally being set to reign over the Comedy Theatre’s stage two years ago, before delays due to COVID-19. Six is the brainchild of students Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who created the glitzy pop musical across 10 non-consecutive days in the hopes of providing a platform for the musical talents of their female friends, and to rewrite how women are being portrayed in theatre.
it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that ignited creative expression. the movement began further blurring the answer
Burnley goes ham with motions.
We sent two Farrago writers to an improv show. They gave us different reviews.
Just a song into the concert, she tunes her guitar and within moments, a string breaks.
POV: you're realising why you should have made that list of preferences.
So, first question—why do we have preferential voting, and why does it matter?
It’s the final countdown… these are the last bunch of parties you might see on your ballots—depending on what state/electorate you’re from!
Side note: I’d like everybody to know that we have a James Bond running for the Senate in Victoria.
It has come to my attention that even in a country with preferential voting, ideology and voting preferences don’t always align as one (me) might assume.
Victorian Socialists candidate Jerome Small is up for Calwell this coming Federal Election. He spoke to Farrago about climate policy, labour rights, and the challenges for Victorian Socialists in the upcoming election.
Here is a brief summary of where six former Australian Prime Ministers stand in the 2022 federal election.
What do the parties and candidates say about healthcare in Australia?
What do the parties and candidates say about the Uluru statement or other policies to support Indigenous Australians?
Australians, all / I do not believe that the colour of one’s skin determines whether you are disadvantaged. / Let us rejoice / It wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels, either.
How are each of the parties doing on gender representation? And what are their records and key policies on gender equality and women's safety?
What do the parties and candidates say about national security issues?
Poor Selina, she had to watch the whole debate.
Allegra gives us her opinions again!
With the rising housing market, renting, or buying a house has been increasingly unaffordable or precarious for many Australians.
Fighting? In your Students' Council? It's more likely than you think.
What do the parties and candidates have to say about education or supporting students?
There’s an element of excitement to a candidate not tied to a party line. I quite like the idea of voting Independent. It is empowering.
This week we are looking at Environment and Climate Change.
They keep words from children, so I had no name for what I was until puberty had finished with me. This language is narrow, and strains under even a little stretch. We confuse the plural pronoun, confuse it more when we apply it to flesh. For my part, I have a body that doesn’t announce itself: one of those faces that carried adolescence into the third decade, and hair long for a boy but short for a girl. If I were to pass a pair of strangers, I could be Man to one, and Woman to the other.
The discourse accusing this so-called ‘student aesthetic’ of fetishising poorness has surfaced within the past year on social media (especially TikTok) and in conversations between students on and off-campus.
Along with the atrocities of the Second World War came a total distrust of how we as humanity can communicate with each other. In that vein, Operation Mincemeat opens with the idea that there is a ‘seen’ war and a ‘hidden’ war. This duality between seen and unseen, between trust and distrust, and ultimately between hero and villain, is perhaps what this biographical war drama truly aims to showcase – and it achieves this to varying degrees of success.
You don’t have to be a “nerd” to enjoy good ol’ role-play
Emily Carr presents a one-woman tour-de-force, a beautifully blunt exorcism of unrealistic expectations as captivatingly honest as it is tumultuously hilarious. Nominated in 2018 for Best Comedy at the Melbourne Fringe Festival for her work QUEENZ and performing regularly with the Mystery Radio Theatre Company, this is her debut solo show. And what a show it is – Emily Carr presents Beige Bitch with such infectious energy and charisma, taking her audience on a journey through carefully crafted s
Should our mistakes define us? The dogmatic dominion of ‘cancel culture’, perpetuated by its re-tweeting apostles, has spread from social media fodder to become ubiquitous in real-life relationships. In Brendan Black and Martin Chewell’s play Empathy Training, shown at the La Mama theatre as a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, this contemporary philosophy of ‘cancelling’ is pulled apart and prodded in comically genius and thought-provoking ways.
Audrey Diwan’s Happening is a simple film. Set in 1960s Paris, the story focuses on heroine Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei), who leads a seemingly unremarkable life as a 20-year-old student trying to pass her entrance exams for university. The costumes, setting, and actors themselves are unglamorous, almost plain. When one thinks of it, it’s almost strange that Diwan’s no-frills approach is directed toward the magnanimous subject of abortion. This, however, may be the point.
The conversation continued like a river, energetically rolling on before slamming into rocks and getting redirected.
Kasey lifted the bottom of her mask just enough to slip a popcorn kernel onto her tongue for Winona to nibble on.
It was the third consecutive night of video calling when I decided I’d had enough.
The nightclub on Collins Street had no official cloakroom, and the alcohol-saturated crowds began shedding their jackets: dancing with silk over their arm, a sleeve dangling by their knee.
Come 21 May, every eligible Australian will go to the polling booths and cast their vote in the Federal Election. However, you must be enrolled to vote.
Written and directed by Isabel Coixet, It Snows In Benidorm is as unreasonably beautiful in its imperfections as it is refreshing in its film elements, despite the dull and reclined protagonist we are introduced to. This is an exhilarating masterpiece, from the quirky and mysterious characters that populate its woefully dreamy world to the ever-transient scenes at the beach to the unique sectioning of the film into ten types of weather.
Young Aussies are being significantly under-screened for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), with sexual health assistant app “Geni” reporting that 28 per cent are skipping out on essential sexual health checks.
As of today, Farrago Magazine, Australia’s oldest student publication, will cease operations under the current four editors.
We knew of this crisis in the ‘70s, and these strikes began in 2018. A whole pandemic has occurred, a generation of strikers have graduated, and we still haven’t had meaningful climate action, let alone justice.
They don’t look anything alike. They’re simply two cats, existing separately but parallel in my mind.
car crash simulation straight out of heaven / and you, in the driver’s seat (Jesus take the wheel!)
“A ring is a promise,” Evangeline’s mother told her as she sat upon her knee.
Sweetness wasn’t alone / When it flew out your window, / For some dusty sorrow hung soon after.
I’ve been drowned / By my own brother. Tonight / He comes from a sailor’s grave / With a makeshift lantern.
Earthworms / don’t have eyes, but they have light— / sensitive receptors in their skin. Especially their front end.
The invitation comes as a surprise; somehow it always does.
I know, I know. We’re literally a whole year and an ocean away from the Trump administration. Really, this is something I had forgotten about—at least—until I realised that I stopped having to manoeuvre family interactions around it. Thinking back on it, it was a bizarre experience seeing as how before 2019, anything resembling “politics talk” from my grandmother was unthinkable.
For those of you who have been keeping up with the University’s updates, you may be aware of the upcoming Student Precinct that is currently reaching its final stages of construction.
A live music event that promises to be entirely accessible and inclusive for people living with a disability is attempting to change the music landscape for attendees and artists alike.
What the fuck is Test cricket and why is it so complicated?
With the prospective return to on-campus life in 2021, students have called for more variety and non-academic elements in the Student Life programs to better support first-year undergraduates.
Australia’s largest philanthropic donor to medical research Snow Medical has suspended the University of Melbourne from their Snow Fellowship program.
On 9 November 2019, Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times dead by police officer Zachary Rolfe. He was only nineteen.
Union House’s George Paton Gallery (GPG) is currently home—in the truest sense of the word—to curator Steph Markerink’s exhibition Domesticated.
Soft, dark and haunting. Kiwi artist Julius Black is back on the alt-pop scene with his latest EP, “Together We Go Down In The Dark”, an episodic visage of one’s descent into a toxic love-induced madness.
Students at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) are calling on the University of Melbourne to “commit to stronger policies and actions when it comes to sexual assault”, after the University ignored multiple reports which detailed alleged sexual and racial harassment by a male student as far back as 2019.
Marvel has released another action-packed, complex and thrilling film, and with it, we have been given another piece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) puzzle.
The first instalment of the Fantasy and Science Fiction Appreciation Society (FASFAS)'s review column, 'Eternals'
On its surface, Greg Lobanov’s Chicory: A Colourful Tale is the poster child for escapist video games. Chicory is a colouring book turned video game, complete with Zelda-inspired puzzles, Metroidvania elements, and fun side-quests… all of which combine to create a disarmingly devastating commentary on what we are taught to want, as opposed to what what we actually need.
The first instalment in Aries' column, 'Unwriting the hero's journey in Chicory: A Colourful Tale'
8351 kilometres and two planes later. A sudden loss of heat and humidity. Hands nervously twisting together. Breathing hitched and shallow. Six-year-old Chathu looked out at her new classmates, her eyes slightly shielded by a heavy black curtain fringe. A sea of children stared at her; seated together, their heads looked like a patch quilt; every shade of brown, red and yellow.
The first instalment of Chathuni Gunatilake's column, 'A Whole New World'
The old percolator makes about a mug and a half.
Performing with Busted Chops is like drinking a shot of fireball and eating a pineapple.
In Drama School, the question of what it means to be a good actor ultimately becomes an inquiry into what it means to live a fulfilling life.
Gone are the days where rock bands were such an IP in and of themselves that they warranted their own movie. That is precisely why Foo Fighters' Studio 666 stands out as an unburdened and creatively absurd project amidst the current rising sea of mass formulaic media.
Despite being the national sport of Japan, sumo remains relatively unknown to the western world. Director Eiji Sakata seems to have taken this lack of familiarity as a challenge, with Sumodo - The Successors of the Samurai offering an intricate introduction to sumo through its history and place within modern Japanese culture.
A trio of cinema-loving schoolgirls that we know only by their quirky codenames—Barefoot, Kickboard and Blue Hawaii—cobble together a ragtag production crew to create a samurai film. Only, they find out mid-production that one of their crew members is a time traveller from a dystopian future where their beloved films are banned, no less. A premise like this demands heart, spunk, and energy by the truckload, and luckily, It’s A Summer Film! delivers without fault.
Care about the environment but don't know what to do? Don't worry, 2022 UMSU Environment OBs Chelsea Daniel and Zach Matthews are coming to the rescue.
Giddy Up! Yeehaw! Second council! Already losing my brain!
On 13 February 2020, Nico Lim posted on his Instagram account @_flashpoetry, for the first time. This post signalled the beginning of a new project; an attempt to break down his hesitancy to share his creative work. This demolition of his caution hardened barriers manifests itself in The Silent World That Won’t Stop Talking, Nico’s debut poetry collection.
UniLodge will be facing a class-action lawsuit initiated late last year by multiple residential advisors (RAs) working with Adero Law. The lawsuit accuses UniLodge and partnered universities, including the University of Canberra and the University of Sydney, of wage theft and exploitation.
Acclaimed German photojournalist David Klammer’s new film is taking the documentary world by storm. Awarded best documentary at the Snowdance Independent Film Festival, Barrikade was also selected to be screened at the Kassel Dokfest, SUNCINE Film Festival, and Portland EcoFest, to name just a few. Released in 2021, Barrikade depicts the lives of German climate activists who built and occupied treehouses in the Dannenrod Forest to protest its clearing for the construction of a new motorway.
All eyes are glued to Parvyn as the gleaming stage lights make a disco ball of her gold sequined choli, and she welcomes us to the unveiling of Sa, an album about love and family, betrayal and anxiety, written during the pandemic.
GSA General Secretary Lily Day writes a response to an opinion written about the GSA's proposed structural changes.
Have you ever encountered an anti-vaxxer? Perhaps a family member, a friend or even online? Encounters with an anti-vaxxer, whether it is in person or online, tend to leave people frustrated, however, exploring the psychology behind the anti-vaxxer mentality may be the key in learning what you can do to influence vaccine-hesitant people.
Raj Patel’s new documentary gets its title from an Aesop’s fable. In the fable, a fiddle-playing grasshopper approaches some ants asking them to lend him some food. The ants ask why he has no food of his own, to which he replies that he’s been too busy playing the fiddle to grow and stockpile crops. The ants, rather dispassionately, are disgusted by the grasshopper’s laziness, and leave him to starve. This theme of abandonment is the launchpad for Patel’s documentary.
For the first time last week, I yearned for immortality. I stared at the unread books on my shelves, the pages collecting dust; I thought about the seas I’d never cross, the countries I’d never visit; I mourned the conversations I’d never have, the things I’d never learn.
The curtain of Willy Hudson’s Bottom rises and falls with Beyoncé. As theatregoers take their seats, “Love on Top” plays on a loop, affirming protagonist Willy’s devotion to his pop idol— as if the monstrous cut-out mood-boards weren’t enough. Running just shy of an hour, Bottom explores the various illusions and expectations inherent to that all-too-important third date. After all, he hasn’t yet been asked that dreadfully reductive, crushingly inevitable question: “Top or bottom?”
Gavin Roach’s one-man show, Run, is an endearing, unique and impressive piece of theatre that bravely lays itself out completely bare to its audience. It can’t hide, and it doesn’t try to.
On 5 February, a blog post appeared on the website of the Graduate Student Association (GSA) announcing major plans to reshape its structure and amend its constitution. Obscured by a number of seemingly innocuous changes is a proposed transformation that would impose serious limits on student activism, and should be of concern to all graduate students.
Written by Michael Ross and directed by Gavin Roach, the Australian premiere of The Shy Manifesto opened in Melbourne as part of Midsumma Festival. British playwright Michael Ross has enjoyed a string of accolades in the UK, including being shortlisted for the 2014 Off West End Adopt a Playwright Award.
The recipe for loving my parents is complex. It is the product of countless mental notes from years of trial and error and several mishaps. The golden step to avoid getting scalded, you ask? Greasing your pan with several layers of patience.
The UniMelb Italian Stallion is writing for Farrago. Welcome to 2022.
Who didn’t love the Science Works Planetarium as a kid? The universe in high-definition above our pig-tailed and bowl cut heads; the hush that fell over the domed room as they lowered the lights; the dancing red pointer they used to describe stories in the stars.
Science Works isn’t quite so popular among senior high school students.
The National Union of Students (NUS) have condemned the Coalition Government’s new research funding project which will see a $1.6 billion increase in university funding for “projects with high potential commercialisations” in fields that are deemed high priority by the Government.
The Melbourne Law School (MLS) has permanently removed the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) as an entry requirement for all Juris Doctor (JD) applicants from 2022 and beyond
Formed in 2017, Aussie duo Dekleyn are no strangers to the music industry. Having amassed over 5 million streams on Spotify over the last 3 years, the two have made a name for themselves in the realm of memorable, irresistibly catchy and skilful songs. Inspired by the beat from their 2021 single ‘Over Again’, ‘Save My Name’ is a heartfelt song that delivers a sincere yet uplifting emotional narrative through the duo’s reliable roots in electronic pop.
“Hating someone feels disturbingly like falling in love with them,”
Bookending the opening monologue, this quote astutely summarises the narrative of the screen adaptation of Sally Thorne’s bestselling novel, The Hating Game. The film follows Lucy, played by Lucy Hale, and Josh, played by Austin Stowell, as they toe the oh-so-narrow line between love and hate, falling predictably in the former.
Last year Cruella made a reappearance on screens in a live-action origin story of the fur-fashioned fiend. The film captures the transformation of the villainess—a brash, quirky but sagacious maverick, and the humble but twisted beginnings which induce her maniacal traits.
Every so often, an artist comes around with an almost supernatural ability to capture the mutability of adolescence in their work. will hyde does exactly this, weaving a powerful, emotional story of youth throughout his sophomore EP ‘nothing ever changes’. The EP combines singles released previously as ‘chapters' with new unheard tracks, narrating a journey of growth and acceptance that serves as a testament to will hyde’s growth and maturity as an artist.
Aeva and Allie caught up with three former Farrago contributors to look at their lives after student media.
COVID-19 has attempted to stop the arts industry at every turn but queer comedy coven, The Titwitchez, have no fucks to give. In their latest production Hagademia, they have to face much more with a looming deadline and sexy hauntings.
Farrago reporter Patrick Sexton sat down with Western Bulldogs player Ellyse Gamble to talk about how she managed the commitments of full-time study and footy, as well as what the future looks like for AFLW players studying at a tertiary level as the League looks to expand.
After 21 months, international students can finally return to Australia.
What is NatCon? Jo doesn't know but Max does!
The federal government has announced a new scheme which will wipe the university debts of nurses and doctors who work in rural, regional, and remote areas.
University of Melbourne staff and students rallied outside Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell’s Parkville mansion yesterday in opposition to the University’s growing casualisation of teaching staff.
In a sequel nobody asked for, the Student Learning Entitlement will return in 2022. This will limit how long you can study in Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) before you either pay the full, exorbitant fees or pray for a FEE-HELP loan.
Students gathered on South Lawn yesterday to protest the opening gala of the Liberal-backed think-tank Robert Menzies Institute (RMI).
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
The grand opening of the Robert Menzies Institute will come to Parkville campus this November 18 in the form of a conference and gala dinner on campus. The Menzies Institute is a Liberal Party think-tank masquerading as a Prime Ministerial library being set up in the Old Quad by the Menzies Research Centre (MRC) and the University of Melbourne. The Institute will shape campus life...
Live a few lifetimes here and there, have a go at reviving Frankenstein’s monster myself and enjoy a spot of soothing peppermint tea together.
The sun brines in a sticky chicken broth / watching one to eight float in her belly
It's suburban living, the sparks from the blistering street lights competing with nettled crickets
As far as rich, highly vaccinated countries are concerned, Omicron is a relic of yesteryear. With pandemic restrictions fading as cases continue to plummet, for what feels like the hundredth time in the last two years, a select few dare to dream of returning to an almost-forgotten state of interconnectivity "post-Covid." However, the catastrophic moral failures of the pandemic should not slip our collective memory anytime soon.
She bends slow, steady, tense my emotions. She could always read the inevitability of my future.
o will my heart ripple as i float in the night, on the wind like everything is u n I
If you are under 25, Chisholm is probably identifiable to you by Zero Mode in the suburb of Box Hill and Glenny Kebabs in Glen Waverley—other than these two joints, there’s really not much else happening there.
To fully realise gender equality, the AFL, local footy leagues and fans must reflect on their contributions to the unsafe culture experienced by report participants.
The sporting field is home to many of Australian politicians’ greatest gaffes. Yet they keep coming back—why?
It’s always a good sign when one party announces their cultural policy five days before the election and the other party doesn’t have a cultural policy at all.
Ultimately, until the toxic politics of homeownership are tackled in direct and unabashed fashion, there can be no expectation that this housing crisis will be resolved.
What do the parties and candidates say about improving democracy and trust in politics?
Social media is brimming with cultural commentary, political movements and aesthetic infographics. The belief is that if you are not up to date, then you don’t care. It is purported that if you are not informed, then you are part of the problem. I want to challenge this misconception. The expectation imposed on us today is that we should all be arriving at some final destination of intellectual enlightenment. This is, of course, a fictional destination. Today, I will provide you with a defence.
To understand the effect TikTok is having on the way pop music is being written, it is worth looking at what a TikTok hit actually is—a more complicated proposition than it might appear. A song that becomes a hit on TikTok often finds subsequent chart success; if the artist is a relative unknown, major label interest is often quick to follow. But all this is happening after the fact of its initial virality—and it isn’t the artist that goes viral, nor even the song itself.
Why more and more voters are leaning Independent.
This is the first in a series of summaries of all 38 registered political parties. First up are the 11 parties that currently make up both houses of parliament.
The black and papaya liveries of the McLaren racing team showcased the sport’s first Indigenous sponsor, DeadlyScience.
As the 2022 election draws closer, so too does the contest between the two candidates, in what Frydenberg has admitted will be the "fight of [his] political life".
Do people outside UMSU read these?
It’s opening night. Ten minutes before the show, Andrew Locascio pokes his head through the ruby-velvet curtain. With a cheeky grin to his awaiting audience, he says, “don’t worry guys, the show’s purely rhetorical”. Assured that this wasn’t one of those awkward audience participation situations, the atmosphere felt tangibly at ease. Before even beginning his show, Locascio had managed to dispel discomfort - and he maintained this throughout the evening.
Union House Theatre (UHT) returns to campus this week with Stef Smith’s Nora: A Doll’s House, a radical retelling of Henrik Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House, and a crucial and relevant tale about women’s rights throughout the last century.
Mac truly knows how to craft a great set and create a beautifully intimate, yet energetic atmosphere. If you have an interest in Australian folk rock, I’d highly recommend checking out his music.
When people find out that I write, their inevitable first question is: “What do you write?”
we’re in another stage / we have to live with this / this virus / it’s a test / someone's always going to pay for it
My best cursive sits on a headstone / We wear name tags to bed / As if the death-nurse does not know us
I am calling it: this is the best feel-good film that I have had the pleasure of watching for as long as I can remember.
Olivia Ryan's review of 'The Duke' at Cinema Nova
I walk... a very lonely road...
To dorks like me, the federal budget is like Christmas come early. We all sit around the fireplace and wait for Santa (Josh Frydenberg) to deliver us a ton of goodies.
You are an observer / of calloused hands on brass strings / Crimson plastic, nostrils pierced in backyards
Here I’m going to show you some simple tricks of the trade to summoning a demon to the mortal realm.
now i have moved out for good. / farewell fairy bread, farewell forehead / kisses, farewell mum’s wedding rings
Within fiction, the portrayal of autistic characters most often adheres to that of the ‘autistic genius’. While it is a fraught activity to pathologise and diagnose fictional characters, there's value in comparing these famous representations of neurodivergence in fiction by doing just that.
The first instalment in Ishan Morris-Gray's Column, 'Reflections on the “Autistic Genius”'
The George Paton Gallery returns this 2022 with upcoming student exhibition Domesticated,.
Her Love Boils Bathwater (2016) is a charming Japanese drama by Ryota Nakano. It is a film about the benevolent power of family, womanhood, and most importantly, motherhood. Equal parts comedy and tragedy, it’s the kind of film that will lift your spirits, only to break your heart, only to lift your spirits once again.
We see so much trans pain and suffering, but I promise you: trans joy exists, and it is there, and it is beautiful
To nobody’s surprise, #Shein(doesn’t)Care.
Capitalising on the global push towards sustainability, numerous fast fashion brands have launched marketing campaigns or undertaken attempts to rebrand themselves as eco-warriors. Claiming to be sustainable is a double-edged sword that mega-brands are (un)successfully trying to wield in their favour.
Co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car is a cinematic reconstruction of Haruki Murakami’s original short story of the same title. Hamaguchi is an artisan with ennui, wielding suspended moments of tension effortlessly to dramatic effect. Building on Murakami’s template, he has created a story about the innate human tendency to mindlessly move forward, a secret and often hidden desire to continue living despite feeling like we don’t deserve to.
The UMSU Queer Department has announced that they will no longer attend the Midsumma Festival Pride March.
Giddy Up! Yeehaw! First Council of the new year!
Applications to join the Student Representative Network (SRN) are currently open until 31 January.
Farrago reporter Aeva Milos sits down with local musician Stella Farnan.
After a devastating electrical fire in 2018, the theatre community banded together to rebuild La Mama.
In a statement released today, Justin Baré has resigned from his position as CEO of the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) and will be leaving at the end of this year.
Drawing from the tradition of art not as institution but as record, as history, Currie’s debut exhibit UN-SPORTS-MAN-LIKE revels in the body, in dance, and performance, as well as sport and manual labour.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
In late 2021, the Media Department ran the 'Creative with COVID' competition, which encouraged students to continue creating in spite of everything going on in the world around them. There were four categories in the competition—art, photography, audio/music and video—with prizes awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each. All winning works are available on our website for you to enjoy.
As sleek Facebook frames are slowly being removed from the profile pictures of university students in their early twenties, and social media feeds are returning to normal from constant ‘vote for me’ content, we can celebrate that another season of student elections has ended.
cw: mentions of sexual assault and harassment, institutional neglect
From 6 September to 3 October, Universities Australia—the country’s peak corporate body of higher education—ran the National Student Safety Survey (NSSS). Conducted by Dr. Anastasia Powell (RMIT), and the Social Research Centre, the survey is aimed at “encouraging students to share about their experiences of sexual harassment, sexual assault or unwanted sexual behaviour.”
A petition conducted by the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) Education Department recently called for the extension of Weighted Average Mark (WAM) adjustments for Semester One 2021. However, over 20,000 signatures failed to convince the University to review the importance of the compassionate policy to both domestic and international students.
Despite the University’s push to make learning accessible, through programs such as SEDS and Access Melbourne, there have yet to be endorsements from students that these programs are appropriate. Instead, students feel silenced and powerless in an institution that should be prioritising its student body and ensuring an equal and inclusive environment.
Yet another COVID semester has gone by. However, this time we sat at an awkward halfway point between online and in-person courses and activities—a strange place between skepticism and hope for the end of the pandemic.
However, the roll-out of Okta Verify has been problematic. Failure to install the extra application prevents us from logging into Canvas to submit an assignment on the due date, along with stopping us from attending Zoom lessons on time.
Mostafa “Moz” Azimitabar, a Kurdish refugee from Iraq, sought asylum in Australia in 2013. Moz was initially transferred to Papua New Guinea, where he was held for six years.
Moz was then brought to Australia for medical help under the Medevac Bill. Upon arrival, he was first held in the Mantra Hotel, before being transferred to the Park Hotel, which lies approximately just 100m from the University’s Parkville campus. He was finally released in January 2021, after 2,737 days...
COVID-19 has periodically forced both official University events and various student organisations’ events online, bringing unique challenges to event organisers and educators. Despite efforts to maintain normalcy, these changes have undoubtedly changed how students interact with each other, for better or for worse.
Aptly titled 'all the kids are depressed', Jeremy Zucker’s not-so-cheery 2018 hit seems to read our minds. The sentiments he sings about are ones that we all, as a generation, like to joke about, laugh about and, clearly, listen to music about, if my 2020 Spotify Wrapped was anything to go by.
One of my fondest childhood memories is going to my local video store each school holidays to borrow videos, and then DVDs as technology advanced. Of course, the ‘local’ in ‘local video store’ changed every few years as the stores I treasured gradually closed. They were replaced with either supermarkets and gift stores or were simply left boxed up, only leaving a handful of operating video stores around Melbourne.
Faced with the prospect of yet another semester abroad, overseas international students face immense challenges and uncertainty.
content warning: mental health
1. The window outside my office opens into the branches of a big, strong tree. It’s autumn: the season of me staring outside the window and getting lost in its ochre. Sunlight filters through the leaves and falls onto my hand. Ugh, I want to be loved like that - like warmth and fall and softly filtered sunlight on brown skin.
The Long, Long Afternoon by Inga Vesper is both a razor-sharp crime novel and an incisive portrait of race and gender in late 1950s American suburbia. Sunnylakes is an upper-class district on the outskirts of San Francisco, and visions of the town in heady summer suburbs envelop the reader–two-story houses with green lawns and white picket fences, white husbands with white-collar jobs and white housewives. In an environment where appearances are everything, the sudden disappearance of a housewif
This column has thus far spun around the soft idea of joy. Joy in a coffee cup, joy in a surfboard, joy in the little
things. Joy in stability, good food and the people we love.
The polaroids are under my bed. They’re safe inside a shoe box I don’t remember buying. They lie awake with me. I wish I could fast forward through this part.
My room: dark with the curtains half-pulled, the window cracked open just enough for the echoes of the city and engines roaring from a distance to reach my ears. Now that I live alone, it helps me sleep. The noise is like a song playing in the background.
What is it with Gwyneth Paltrow and vaginas? From a candle that smells like her vagina, to vaginal jade eggs and vaginal steaming, she brings up taboo topics and masquerades as a lifestyle expert just for recommending eccentric products. While Paltrow is an actress and an entrepreneur, she’s definitely not a doctor or scientist. She raves about products for her own profit, similar to other wellness companies that prioritise sales over the health of their customers.
Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (2017) waxes poetic about the 1960s, sporting an aesthetic that pays tribute to the iconic low-budget horror films of the period. The aspect ratio is altered, the lens is rose-coloured and overwhelmingly pastel, and the voice of our female lead Elaine drips with honey like an incantation, in the style of the quintessential Hollywood actresses of her time.
Working in The Supermarket will dispel the myth that an hour contains 60 minutes. Like a casino, it is full of space, empty of time; no clocks, no sunlight, no centre. As a customer entering The Supermarket, you are to walk a predetermined path through the produce, deli, bakery, and meat departments before the dairy and grocery sections open into two alternate paths. The paths ultimately fold back into each other, producing a fake labyrinth that would even make Borges a little proud. But I don’t
Released in 1996, The Craft came out at a pivotal time for the representation of teenage girls in Western media. Unfortunately, it’s not the kickass feminist film our rose-coloured nostalgia says it is.
Pelligrini’s is an institution because it has been there for so long, unwavering amidst constant change. It is a time capsule to the past. The wood plank menu is the same one which appears in photos from the 1960s. Waiters have divided up tiramisus with sharp lines in this century, and the last.[...]
Will Hollywood blockbuster-type films continue to use Netflix as their outlet, or will they return to their rightful spot on the big screen?
I didn’t plan to be reading a classic by Virginia Woolf and a biography of Alexander Hamilton at the same time.
2006 is ingrained in my memory as a time of wanting to transition away from early childhood media. In my then- six-year-old mind, gone were the days of Hi-5, The Wiggles and The Hooley Dooleys; I was craving content that I saw as more mature and less condescending, even though I couldn’t possibly have articulated that at the time. It was in 2006 that I grew obsessively fascinated with Disney Channel; despite not having the holy grail that was Foxtel, I became a fanatical Saturday Disney viewer
content warning: sexual assault, rape, child groomingI always dream of the same house.
I remember all 21 houses I’ve lived in, but I only dream of this one.
I dream that I’m standing on the porch, watching a tsunami crash in.[...]
content warning: mental illness
It was past midnight, and I was packing for a school trip. The room looked like a tornado had hit. Clothes were strewn around the floor. Random toiletries were tossed carelessly about. Electronics sat in a tangled heap. And there, amidst all the chaos, was a small attempt at organisation—an abandoned, half-checked packing list.
my tinfoil torso will crumple, my paddle pop ribs, snapping, will pierce my limping heart then, if not dead, crippled, I will let out one last fluttery sigh from my cardiac-cavitied chest
She let the pen fall from her hand and closed the book, wanting the unfinished story out of sight. The book was filled with unfinished stories. Characters stuck without endings.
“La Gargouille was a great dragon who settled in Rouen. He ate livestock and farmers alike, and when he flew, his wings caused gusts of wind so strong all the crops were flattened. To shed his scaled hide, he rubbed his body against a mighty church. Stone crumbled and the spire collapsed. When he lay in the Seine to bathe, he blocked the flow of water as readily as any dam, and the river overflowed and flooded the city.”
Jerry: Has that happened to you, Flo? Have you opened a door or refocused your eyes to see the change in sunlight’s sort of... scratched the familiarity from something?
They drink coffee under ruined lime trees. There is a goat on the roof of the car. Three faces. One for me, one for you, one for everyone else. She’s got a couple joints loose, she said. His forehead folds like a concertina.
As far back as I can remember, my favourite birthday was wrapped in a family road trip from Melbourne to Brisbane. Slow hours of gleeful exhales filled Mum and Dad’s silver Holden Commodore as the sky morphed from Wonga Pigeon-grey to Kingfisher-gold.
It’s Mount Martha breeze, fresh cut grass
and salty seas.
Sprawling from the floorboards, the monochrome floorboards, sounds of a dead girl singing.
Money tastes like sweat dripping from the armpit of a vogue model. Rarely does one get the opportunity to savour such a distinct flavour[...]
For Helen, host of Radio Fodder’s What’s All This? and Master of Music student at the University of Melbourne, Victoria’s lockdowns saw her deep dive into books, videos and films on a quest to answer life’s big questions.
Cold against my cheek
they curl around my ears like vines
whispering sweetly
Some say love is complacent
a street lamp flickering
dark gutters, rainswept pavement
an old tree withering
My lover’s light is nascent
turning dark skies dazzling
the grass, a soft green crescent
the drizzle heralding spring
Do you remember those days, those long nights arm in arm?
They’d tied them behind us some slithering soaring in the cold moon chant, it was cold.
And tendrils would take us, remember? Curl sway to the back wall of a cave until the first
night you grabbed my arm,
as we pushed with our legs and flew and flew and flew and flew and flew.
i ride down my street and wind threatens
to throw itself through me but i fight it
unlike autumn’s husked leaves,
which scutter under parked cars like scared cats.
Same questions over and over.
i go be a broken record for the system.
i was a broken record before, anyways.
Repeating the word “yes” Repeating the words “i love you” Repeating the word “sorry”
Supper wore a shawl of stars
mother, a stole with yellow pansies
The posture was superb
words gleamed with rightness
butterknives shone in their dishes like a well-loved swimming hole
22 December —Three o’clock, maybe, saw Henry today. Friend (?) from highschool. Thought: am so lonely, should try hang out w/ someone, assuage loneliness. Did not work—just spent day observing someone else’s loneliness, remained lonely myself.
On Wednesday, we stayed indoors all day pretending we weren’t there. Shadows ran long down the curtained hallways, and we, goldfish yearning for a shaft of sunlight, climbed, twisted, contorted under windowpanes.
The magnifying lens made his muddy eyes bulbous, beetle-like and curious. He was enraptured by the watch, glued to the metal with a practised eye, while his gnarled, liver-spotted hands were gentle with the tarnished brass.
We’re in—but also completely sober. And no matter how many suspiciously sticky shot glasses of tequila you throw back, an uninebriated first impression of Club Retro is something you never really shake.
He perks up a little as he unzips the container. It will keep him distracted as we drive past the raspberry farm—not that he needs distracting. He’s such a compliant child. So easy to love.
It was a portent, perhaps, that she glimpsed through the window. The rain cast a muted grey pallor on the darkness, making the figure appear little more than an indistinct black shadow. Only his face gleamed white as he looked up at her.
Among Radio Fodder’s incredible 2021 line-up is the Gen Z-focused, Fitzpatrick award-nominated show OK Zoomer!. Created by long-time friends Joanna (Jo) Guelas and Jordan Bassilious, the vision for the show arose from their realisation that Gen Z lacked representation in the media.
In a big city of unmatched rivalry
I was picked from a sea of threads
My intricate weaves were pure ivory
I fitted perfectly to her frayed Keds
The summer was hot
You stewed strawberries I grew
small wild mountaineers
carefully skimmed scum from the top
mixed with good cream, sugar and salt
and left to freeze overnight
Crags of rock crumble like
cracked toffee under the sun.
Crops fester under peat and withered soil until there’s nothing left
but dried clumps of dirt.
Uncle Ditch’s whole mad enterprise started with one dead cockatoo which he found out on the nature strip one bin night. The thing was snowy and perfect. Not a single feather out of place, wrinkly lids half-closed over beady eyes, beak ajar. Like it was stuck in the moment of going to sleep, Ditch said.
my under-belly orchid
grows in greenhouse warmth— dirt-grubbing fingers
explore soil’s dampness
vanilla softens my lips. muscles curl around the handle, resist the weight, heat, then roll into a touchdown, tea drops spattering the wall of mugs.
content warning: ableism, references to suicide
Until recently, my wardrobe was filled with dozens of different faces. Every single day, I would choose one carefully; some were so ostentatious that nobody dared draw near me, others so dull I slipped through crowds unnoticed.
Red deerskinned vellum filled with cream and soft grey eyes—Minerva and her owl.
Sweet and gentle moon, turn your face to me, and gift me shining silver.
tear
my bond
stepping
in line
tear
my pass
boarding in ten
nine
eight
seven
six months
away
You feel your breath quicken and the fear leave your body as your skin tingles. There’s nowhere to go now, no words coming out of your mouth. The heat spreads over your chest like a sweltering rash.
the stranger stands guard, whistling a sea shanty. a stray blowfly perches at the centre of his nose,
spreading chimes like cracked glass.
Run the knife along the bone to release the
Wild-caught
Soft peaks
As thinly as possible
The federal government, led by the Liberal Party, is bludgeoning universities. Since the onset of the pandemic, they have excluded thousands of university workers from JobKeeper, ramped up fees for select undergraduate courses while slashing funding for tertiary education, and, in the latest federal budget, abandoned universities. They have left staff and students out to […]
Students of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) are planning to lodge a formal complaint to the Victorian Ombudsman about the University of Melbourne’s alleged failure to provide the quality of education promised to them. Students have turned to the Ombudsman for help with their fee relief campaign as they believe they have been […]
It’s 2008: the era of galaxy-print leggings and Club Penguin. The radio incessantly plays Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl’ and ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay. Lounging on your bed after school, you flip through the glossy pages of Seventeen magazine, fanatically poring over the pale, golden-eyed Robert Pattinson and the bashful Kristen Stewart. Adapted […]
(content warning: transphobia) A petition has been launched by the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) Queer Political Action Collective calling for the review of the second year Winter Philosophy subject Feminism, over concerns that the subject includes transphobic rhetoric. The petition outlines concerns over the subject’s content, as well as the conduct of teaching […]
“Why are we paying so much to attend Zoom University?” Ah, the common line we hear these days. COVID-19 has definitely changed university life drastically, particularly for international students stuck overseas. Many feel that the quality of education has been severely compromised, especially with the lack of face-to-face interaction. Having to pay hefty tuition fees […]
The University of Melbourne posted a surplus of $8 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, having cut more than 750 jobs and dozens of University subjects, alongside $360 million in spending. Cost-cutting policies, however, have come at the expense of the student experience and well-being of University staff. University Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell said that the small […]
While you’ve been smashing back-to-back coffees, or spending an ungodly amount of time in the Baillieu this semester, a LOT has been happening at the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU). But, don’t fret! Farrago is here to catch you up on everything you’ve missed… 1. General Secretary Resigns UMSU’s General Secretary resigned in late-April, […]
No Document is a non-fiction essay by Anwen Crawford about power in the face of human suffering. Through her own experiences of losing a close friend, interwoven with political disseminations, Anwen Crawford attempts to unravel her pain and explore loss in the form of artworks, film and protest. From the first page, Crawford shocks and […]
content warning: mentions of sexual violence, no specific detail Last year got me thinking a lot about the public sphere of the University. When we went into the first lockdown, I was the Disabilities Officer at the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU). In the last week before we all studied from home, I focused […]
Picture this, you’re in Year 6. You’re at the top of the primary school food chain. You’re trying your best to rock that polyester-cotton primary colour and brown uniform for your final year until you hit… duh duh duhhhh… teenagerhood. No Hat No Play! The Cabaret was all nostalgia, bringing together all the types of […]
On 11 May 2021, the federal government released its 2021–2022 budget. The previous year has been tumultuous, and this budget reflects that—the Liberal party has essentially been forced by circumstance to abandon their small-government ideology with big-spending measures, paving the way to national debt of up to $1 trillion. Some media commentators have called this […]
On 21 May, students across the country will go on strike to demand action on climate change. Organised by the School Strike 4 Climate, the rally calls for the Morrison government #FundOurFutureNotGas. Its demands include: Resource of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions that guarantee land rights and care for country Fund the creation of […]
Science comedian Alanta Colley’s “On the Origin of Faeces” is a joyous reflection on her relationship with poo, a wonderful evening of refreshing but somehow never crass comedy. A handbell signalled the start of the show as we took our seats in the cosy theatre of Melbourne’s famous Butterfly Club. As this was my first […]
Publisher: Black Inc (an imprint of Schwartz Book Pty Ltd) Year: 2021 Page number: 251 content warning: death, mental illness “Recovering from depression was like trying to unlearn a second language.” I have always been particularly reluctant to read memoirs on trauma, mindful they could blend into each other and run the risk of being […]
Year: 2021 Publisher: Bloomsbury Price: $29.99 As described by the acclaimed historical fiction writer Daisy Goodwin, the 500-page mammoth of a book Tsarina “makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme,” as it follows the thrilling tale of Catherine the First of Russia. Full disclosure, I haven’t read Game of Thrones, but I […]
Publisher: Allen & Unwin (first published by William Heinemann Australia 1991) Year: 2021 Page number: 340 How does one navigate the mess of psychosocial issues from unresolved childhood trauma and ghosts of past relationships? With the recent milestone of acquiring my first boyfriend (weird flex but ok), a zealous determination to become ~*The Best Girlfriend […]
“Níðhöggr lived beneath the great tree Yggdrasil. He gnawed on its roots, growing bigger each day. The roots were so tangled that they twisted around his body; the more he ate, the bigger he became; the bigger he became, the more the roots curled around him, trapping him where he lay. And from where he […]
As financial supplements introduced by the government during COVID-19 are set to end on 28 March, there is rising discussion over the potentially adverse impacts that this may have on tertiary students across Australia. Whilst some students have been able to access such financial support, others have been excluded from receiving government welfare payments throughout […]
This year, when students at the University of Melbourne attempt to log into the University’s Wi-Fi, many may need to repeatedly reconnect to the network. This is because several changes have been made to the terms of use for UniWireless in light of COVID-19. According to the University’s website, “provisions” will be made for the […]
I measure my worth in the number of meetings I attend, in the number of responses I get in my 9am sociology class, and in how many people have liked my latest Instagram poem. When I feel my back start to crack, I tell myself —“one more reading and you can rest”, and then one […]
In the backseat of my family’s old sedan, the air was warm in spite of the blasting air conditioning. I leaned against the window, scanning the houses we passed by. The weekend was so close that I could’ve grasped it between my fingers. At eight years old, a lot of things looked brand new. At […]
content warning: Discussions of racism and colonialism, mentions of police violence. Halfway through my final year of high school, I made an executive decision: from then on, I would exclusively read books written by people of colour. I also announced this decision to anybody who would listen. Many implied that I was being “extreme”. In […]
In April 2010, I opened a Goodreads account. On January 24 2021, I deleted it. Like many readers, I used Goodreads to track the past, present, and future of my reading. I also created custom shelves to ensure books written by authors from diverse backgrounds did not disappear into the abyss that was my “to […]
The transitional and temporary nature of the art world Neoliberal capitalistic institutions of contemporary art and higher education express conflict between the “national” and “transnational” as well as what is “temporary” and “permanent”. From special exhibitions to performances, any form of ephemeral art makes its “temporary” nature more precious and distinguished. Along with globalisation, an […]
Sophie Gerhard always thought that she would be an artist. But six months into a Fine Arts degree, she realised that it wasn’t for her. “I didn’t like the criticism,” she told me. “I probably just wasn’t very good.” So, she left her degree to study Art History at the University of Leeds. Here, she […]
“Wow, there are so many interesting clubs this semester! Which one do I choose?” Decisions, decisions! Well, we would say to choose all of them, but sadly that’s impossible. Or is it? Nope, sorry, it definitely is. Well, not to worry, Farrago’s got you covered! Here’s a quick guide to some of the best clubs […]
The federal government and the University of Melbourne have given little hope to international students stuck overseas despite a successful online campaign calling for action. On March 3, #justiceon5march was trending on Twitter in India and Pakistan, two major international student markets for Australia. The hashtag storm was started by Voice of International Students Australia […]
The Greek Independence Day, which falls on the 25th of March 2021, marks the 200th anniversary of the Greek revolution. Greece was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish occupation for 400 years, and in March 1821, began their revolt. This War of Independence established Greece as an independent state. An underground secret […]
As semester one 2021 began, campus grounds awoke from almost a year of dormancy, filling up again with sights, sounds and students. Social media timelines flooded with summery snapshots of students on South Lawn, or hugging the University’s teddy bear mascot. Some official University accounts even started pushing the #RediscoverUnimelb hashtag, urging students to […]
There is a truism, first circulated in public space by artist Jenny Holzer in 1977, “abuse of power comes as no surprise”. This is the exact reason that the University of Melbourne has an independent student advocacy service—to provide students with a source of procedural fairness when they face the inequalities that often plague this […]
The world is garbage. Let’s talk about video games. Specifically, one video game that has invaded my life and my brain, consuming every waking moment of conscious thought since it was released on Nintendo Switch in September 2020. I’m talking about Hades, Supergiant Games’ latest release and the new love of my life (until the […]
On the way to Carlton’s magnificent and massive Trades Hall, I decided to follow Google Maps. A dumb move considering it’s on the corner of Lygon and Victoria and therefore not difficult to find for someone who’s lived close to the city for nearly three years now. But somehow I do get lost trying to […]
Students and staff gathered outside the Raymond Priestley Building on 25 March to demand an end to the University’s recent staff and course cuts, and call for an improved, more equitable and accessible education. The rally was organised by University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) Education Public Officers Hannah Krasovec and Tejas Gandhi, in collaboration […]
Flaneur culture emerged during the nascent era of industrialism to denote citizens who could walk the city with a sense of leisure—a recurring, if unintentional trope in Tsai Ming-Liang’s 2003 film Goodbye, Dragon Inn. Cinemas are fragile and delicate spaces, as highlighted throughout Tsai’s film, which portrays a single-theatre cinema in Taipei before its imminent […]
content warning: sexual harassment and sexual assault, in no explicit detail Despite wet and windy conditions, protesters gathered outside MacFarland Court this afternoon to call for the University to publicly condemn Professor Alan Lopez. Earlier this month, an article published by The Age revealed that the University had allowed Professor Lopez to retain his roles […]
And on a hot, 33-degree day She sat in her room And wrote half a play. It wasn’t very good But it wasn’t very bad Yet she knew in her heart that really she had let herself down, left it too last minute. There were barely any scenes or characters in it. “But it’s experimental! […]
The Fundamental Right to the Internet Cw: mentions of refugees in detention and police violence. Towards the end of a catastrophic 2020 and start of 2021, I’ve built some beautiful and unexpected friendships. If you stop by Lincoln Square at 6 pm on weekdays, you will see a fairly large group of people (including me) […]
cw: ableism There’s nothing quite like discovering Roald Dahl’s world as a child—it’s full of wonder, imagination and the perfect dose of dark comedy. The Witches marks the latest adaptation of a Dahl classic. (We won’t discuss Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we pretend that doesn’t exist.) The Witches (and Matilda) have always […]
It was a beautiful Melbourne evening (read: raining and cold), when a friend and I, armed with a picnic blanket and my slightly broken umbrella, squelched along the grass to the always iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Walking amongst the little metal scaffolds, we looked for our seats but were unable to find them. We […]
[content warning: violence] Students rallied in front of the State Library last Sunday in support of ongoing protests in Myanmar against the country’s recent military coup. Speakers at the rally included students, as well as Peter Khalil MP and Christopher Lamb, who is president of the Australian Myanmar Institute. The event was organised by […]
PART ONE Back to the Future is the most enjoyably predictable and watchable movie I’ve seen in a while. Reviewer Adam Smith put it perfectly all the way back at the film’s release in 1985, writing in The Empire: “to put it bluntly; if you don’t like Back to the Future, it’s difficult to believe […]
The most baffling thing about Cinematica: Love was its title. Ostensibly setting out to “explore the notion of love in all its glorious forms”, the suite of four short films opened with a hallucinatory collage of dismembered statues, swallowed up in pools of inky black, shortly followed by stills of a gynaecological endoscopy. The event […]
I watched Minari with a Korean friend, a first-generation immigrant like myself, and when we left the cinema, we agreed upon two things: We would love for our parents to watch this movie. (Next to us, so we can closely discern their reactions). We would completely understand if they turned it off at the thirty-minute […]
content warning: internalised homophobia, d slur mention “Perhaps one day she’d get used to the way it made her feel: dislocated and dazed, never quite certain if the other half of her would stay offstage as directed. But tonight she felt as if she were constantly on the edge of saying or doing something wrong, […]
(content warning: violence) A viral video showing two international students assaulted in Adelaide has sparked a greater need for a conversation on wage theft. The women were allegedly attacked after confronting their employer about being underpaid. The video depicted an argument between a woman and a man before another man stepped into […]
As I worked on my Engineering degree, I didn’t normally make time to play games. I mean, why bother anyway? I’d grown so cynical after some disappointing games in 2020, and wondered if maybe I’d finally “outgrown” video games. They were fun for a while, but after 2 years of university, I had to prioritise […]
Just two days before Melbourne’s snap five-day lockdown, I had the privilege of attending a live play at La Mama Theatre in the heart of Abbotsford. Noel Fidge’s The Gang of Five is a two-act musical and is delivered with great energy by the five members of the cast. Set in a wealthy suburb of […]
“Now why don’t you ever get rid of the two gates?” “Because that’s the way it is. That’s the way it was, and that’s the way it will be”. For a Hibernophile, John Shanley’s Wild Mountain Thyme (2020) played expertly into my dreams of the sincerity and lived myth of the Irish people. Gorgeous shots […]
when we love, we will be like sugar gliders. sucking eucalyptus sap and honeydew, as though they were the only two things in the world close to our love. you will kiss my pink nose and tell me how soft this feeling is, how you would look for it everywhere between bottlebrush and banksia. when […]
Gwendoline Smith: The Book of Angst Allen & Unwin, 2021 ISBN: 9781988547695, $22.99, 312pp content warning: discussions of mental illness When faced with this book (subtitled “Understand & Manage Anxiety”), I braced myself to read a drawn-out version of those pamphlets in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. I don’t have a diagnosed […]
La Mama is back, baby! The opening night of Jofus and the Whale was the first return to theatre after a long line of bad luck for La Mama Theatre in Carlton, first burning down in November 2019 and—of course—being closed for the lockdown. The evening started with a lot of excited hustle and bustle, […]
little moth, you can’t escape this night and my explanation of what this was or is would puzzle you even more, because I don’t know for sure what this is or was for you, but I can tell you what I saw: I had brushed my teeth and put some night cream on I […]
The light that drowned Icarus, when his freedom he found, was the sweetest ignorance that sent him to ground I was the quiet water the dark and silent receiver I was the waves on fire when his body was found Damp wax and melted feathers Gold like a sun half-downed Heat-struck he bore […]
content warning: pain, illness more food, more oranges, lemons, more of the fruit with seeds with their sly murmurs of renewal renew me with this bed renew me with these blankets, these words, these little styrofoam cups with their little liquids. pain the offer pain that writhes in its […]
content warning: racism The Not-so-distant Colonial Past and “Post-racism” In recent years, the idea of “post-racism” has become increasingly popular, with people often stating that “racism no longer exists”, particularly in Western countries, including Australia. I have personally experienced this. One experience I had was when I was in a college tutorial telling my peers […]
content warning: death Standing by her bed Hands clammy, clutching at my dress. Searching for him In the folds of fabric A noise escapes my mouth, an involuntary laugh “I’m going to make rice” I announce. To no one in particular Down the hall Into the kitchen The bag of rice is heavy […]
The sun, first blinding, gets gentler with time, as running slows to walking, then to sitting, and to talking. After it sets, softly, we keep our legs crossed tight— tucked in like a bedsheet— and welcoming the night. Matchstick benches dress our set with garden-gravel rocks: the park that surrounds us is carried in […]
It’s been a while since many of us have been on campus. For some of you, you’ve only caught a glimpse or two of university life. Farrago thought a small guide to returning to campus could be useful (there are some things you pick up after six years of tertiary education!) A Cold One Queensberry […]
Even pinned to the altar, my sacrificial dagger clutched over your chest, you are fearless—after all, one of us was always destined to die. From girlhood, we let the priests dress us in a pantomime of our future; blood-red robes and bone-white face paint.
“TV’s ‘real’ agenda is to be ‘liked,’ because if you like what you’re seeing, you’ll stay tuned. TV is completely unabashed about this; it’s its sole raison.” The American author and cultural critic David Foster Wallace uttered these words in the early ’90s. Wallace was a staunch critic of the materialism of Western culture. He […]
content warning: colonialism, racism, civil war Looking beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the year 2020 may well be known as the year of the monument. In previous years, there had been little international debate surrounding the continued presence of colonial monuments—a representation of a bygone and problematic history. Indeed, in 1927, writer Robert Musil famously proclaimed […]
The unveiling of 18th century writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft’s statue in north London should have been a moment of triumph after years of campaigning by Mary on the Green, a movement dedicated to celebrating Wollstonecraft’s work. However, the statue by controversial artist Maggi Hambling presented the same tired depictions and themes that have plagued […]
“What, announce a policy without a slogan? Are you mad?”- overheard from Scott Morrison’s office, presumably. There’s a problem with slogans in politics: when political slogans age into accepted wisdom and the taint of ideology is forgotten, political partialities can be passed off as facts of nature. Of course, arguments are much easier when your […]
content warning: sexism, graphic violence and gore. Spoilers for Jennifer’s Body. Horror has always been a tool to explore girlhood and female virtue. But what Jennifer’s Body (2009) does differently—and so well—is show a teenage girl in her ultimate form: brutal, cringey, flawed, and most importantly, still a child. The script narrates the story of […]
Ever since my brother, my sister and I were small, my dad had a vision for us to become surfers. He had a shimmering dream of his three kids gliding down the face of waves out at sea, perfectly executing 360 degree turns with the grace and power of Kelly Slater. He has tried hard […]
Ten years ago, when I was a little pre-teen, writing was easy. Words flew on paper with the grace of a sailor navigating the ocean by the North Star. I wrote stories about princesses and their knights, blog pieces advocating for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in India and articles about the forgotten mysteries […]
It’s common knowledge that spending time around dogs has long-term effects on raising serotonin and dopamine levels. This is why, when catching myself slipping into a relentless cycle of unhealthy coping mechanisms during the fourth month of lockdown, I decided to better use my one hour of state-mandated outdoor time to trudge over to Edinburgh […]
Knives Out (2019) is a modern take on the wonderfully witty whodunnit featuring a star-studded cast and more clues and red herrings than you could shake a stick at (or in this case, a knife). Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Looper) manages to keep viewers so focused on what the left hand is […]
As the sun set behind the trees at The Royal Botanic Gardens, the proverbial curtains opened on The Australian Shakespeare Company’s latest production, Macbeth. The production is part of their Shakespeare Under the Stars series, which currently also features A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Helmed by director Glenn Elston OAM and Nathaniel Dean in the titular […]
As a friend and I wandered along the periphery of the Royal Botanical Gardens towards the entrance to Moonlight Cinema, we nodded knowingly at the crowd, clad in fuchsia dressing gowns and clasping bottles of pinot noir. The name “Channing Tatum” echoed through the ascending crowd like an omen. Debauched giggles rustled through the twilit […]
On the silver screen, Jane Harper’s 2016 best-selling debut novel The Dry translates into an Aussiewood thriller with a Picnic at Hanging Rock brand of outback malaise. Australian federal police agent Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) reluctantly returns to his hometown of Kiewarra for three funerals: that of his childhood best friend, his wife, and their […]
Alexa Shoen: #ENTRYLEVELBOSS Scribe Publications, 2021 ISBN: 9781925849424, $24.99, 256pp This particular book comes to me at a really interesting time in my career track, namely that I don’t have one. Given that I’m slated to graduate mid-year, this complete lack of long-term gainful employment has been the cause of mild concern for my […]
I really wanted to love this film. Wild Things tells the stories of several environmental campaigns happening in so-called Australia right now, as well as providing some overview of the history of environmental activism across the country. The film follows several campaigners for a year or so, tracking their actions and interviewing them about their […]
how to be a good girl is a miscellany. Never just quite poetry, never entirely essay. It’s a beautiful thing. “My go-to for invoking the brilliant trans-eye view of the agonies and pleasures of heterosexuality.” – Torrey Peters on how to be a good girl. Though no one seems to know exactly what it is. […]
Content warning: racism, First Nations deaths in custody. Thousands of protestors gathered in Naarm (Melbourne) on Tuesday to call for a Treaty and to abolish so-called ‘Australia Day’. The rally was mirrored in other capital cities, with tens of thousands showing up in Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide and Hobart, as well as dozens of […]
Firsts are always memorable. In 1999, Gil Junger, Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith brought us a rare gem in the teen rom-com corner of Hollywood, the first modern cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, set in a high school of all places. 10 Things I Hate About You, now a cult classic, features […]
After multiple years in offshore and local detention, an additional 20 refugees detained in Park Hotel on Swanston Street were released on bridging visas on 21 January, according to the ABC. They join the 45 refugees and asylum seekers who were released the day prior from both Park Hotel and the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation […]
Jennifer Ackerman: The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think Scribe Publications, 2020 ISBN (13):9781925713763, pp. 368, $35.00 As an amateur birder who dislikes reading highly technical books about birds, The Bird Way seemed like an entertaining way to learn more about the birds I see every day […]
Laura Jean McKay: The Animals in That Country Scribe Publications, 2020. ISBN, 9781925849530, $29.99, pp. 288. “Dingoes wear their fur like feelings: all sleek and shiny when they’re relaxed, a thick bank of heckle when they get wound up. Sue is wound up” (7). Laura Jean McKay’s The Animals in That Country is […]
Garth Nix’s The Left-Handed Booksellers of London follows art student Susan Arkshaw on a quest to London to search for a man she’s never met: her father. Before she can unearth any answers about her paternal ancestry though, a prick of a silver hatpin turns her first suspect into dust.
After two years of unionised campaigning, the University of Melbourne has agreed to reimburse underpaid staff before Christmas. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has claimed responsibility for this win, estimating that the University will need $6 million to repay staff. However, with more than 2000 staff members affected, the union has also stated that […]
In the words of Nat’s What I Reckon, Australia’s latest and most surprising celebrity chef, there’s something about cooking and sharing a feast with friends that makes you feel like a “f*cking champion”.
Students studying during the COVID-19 pandemic have been drawn into a false sense of security by the University’s revised Weighted Average Mark (WAM) calculation system. Introduced earlier this year, the system acknowledges that students may be academically disadvantaged during the pandemic, but still makes them bear individual subject scores on their transcript. The current WAM […]
Union House is arguably the beating heart of campus. And while many of its spaces are well-known, there is one quiet spot nestled by the first-floor elevators that is home to an unexpected and impressive history. ‘The Food Co-op,’ a sign reads. ‘Since 1976. Under no management.’ A co-operative is defined as a ‘democratic organization […]
There’s no denying that this academic year has been unlike any that University of Melbourne students have faced before. With the end of the year approaching, Farrago is rounding up how the year has impacted students and what lies ahead in 2021. The most notable change for students this year was a rapid transition to […]
After a successful online campaign, Community for UMSU has won a majority of the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) offices for 2021. Winning every office except for President and Education Public Affairs, the ticket appears to have survived a difficult postal election. Stand Up!, a long-standing ticket that dominated office bearer positions this year, […]
Samantha C. Ross’ Sunshine: The diary of a lap dancer follows the titular stripper as she flits from Gentleman’s Clubs around Australia and beyond with a sharp wit, affinity for alcohol and delightful pettiness.
In 1994, Jay Farrar left the alt-country band Uncle Tupelo. Its remaining members, led by their frontman Jeff Tweedy, formed Wilco. In the early 2000s, during Wilco’s critical renaissance, it seemed pretty likely that Jeff Tweedy would die.
Welcome to Canon in She, a column that celebrates the beautiful music of composers who identify as women. In this edition, we have a violist who wrote for a variety of instruments, a resourceful African American pianist who wrote a Christmas cantata, and an Australian pianist who writes lyrical and quirky music for various instruments.
Content Warning: Sexual Assault and Harassment. In conversation with Women’s Officers, Aria Sunga and Naomi Smith, and Sexual Harm and Response Coordinator, Patrick Tidmarsh on sexual assault and harassment on campus. In 2020, University of Melbourne Student Union Women’s Office Bearers, Aria Sunga and Naomi Smith continued their campaign against sexual harassment on campus. They […]
A Delicate Fire is an operatic movie filmed under COVID-safe conditions by Pinchgut Opera, using the music of 17th century Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi. It is an exploration of romantic love, using Strozzi’s music as inspiration.
Spree’s central thesis is that we are all desperate to be seen. Whether by our parents, friends or random strangers on the internet, we want the validation and acknowledgment of others. This incredibly human trait pivots towards the horrific in Spree, a splattery thriller for the digital age, directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko and executive-produced by Drake.
When my mum went to university, it was free. The golden years, from when Gough Whitlam abolished university fees in 1974, to her second year, were a time when anyone and everyone with interest could get their education. This was also when most politicians pushing through the funding cuts went to university.
What makes you happy? Falling asleep with rain falling softly on the roof? Having a joyful dog race towards you, treating you like their best friend? Baking cookies, just to eat the dough? Curling up with a book and a homemade blanket? Candles? Tea? For me, it’s all these things. These are things which provide comfort, warmth and security. Cosiness.
In 2019, there were over 200 concert tours worldwide, from Charli XCX’s Charli Live Tour to Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep World Tour. Each of these tours represents dozens of crew members, trucks, buses, catering spreads and hotel rooms, across every continent, playing to millions of fans. The environmental impact of concert touring is huge.
Despite its rampant discussion, to this date diversity remains ill-defined. “People of colour” for one, is an umbrella term that groups individuals into potentially restrictive spaces while aggrandising their white counterparts even further. To generalise various ethnic groups into a single voice and pit them against whiteness is a problematic practice which diminishes their truth. […]
It wasn’t until recently that studies illustrated that cockatoos are typically left-footed. Digivol, an online volunteer platform, explains this success by pointing to researchers not out in the fields, peering up into gumtrees, but ‘citizen scientists’ working from home. Volunteers analysed site photos to assist the digitisation of archives, and in the process identified which foot these Australian birds were using. Thus, the surprising discovery!
Retired athletes are susceptible to psychological distress after stopping sports. If we spoke more openly about what happens after people quit, the experience wouldn’t be so isolating.
We all hear about the everyday struggles of the elite athlete. Marketing material, films and television shows glorify the act of “getting up after you fall” and “continuing on” no matter the cost.
urn on your phone, open Facebook and scroll through your feed. If it’s anything like mine, it should be awash with COVID-19 statistics, the US election, and friends asking how 2020 could get any worse. Switch over to The Age and it’s the same.
Pre-COVID-19-lockdown-reality, I meant to go see Billy Elliot the Musical, based on the 2005 film of the same name. Not-so-surprisingly, I didn’t end up going. Instead I read about it, watched the movie, I even signed up for free at-home ballet lessons – this one wasn’t really followed through – and I got to reflect on the subtleties of the plot and the songs in the musical’s soundtrack.
These recipes are paraphrased from 17th-century Dutch chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont. Luckily, he is remembered for discovering gases such as carbon dioxide, not for conjuring mice and scorpions.
Bethany You may notice I am holding a printer in the photo below. Not an advertisement for Canon but a poke at the UMSU for being silly sausages. They have spent more time harassing Farrago than representing the students they have made so many promises to. I had to stand up in council and call […]
I’m told that love is big, unconditional romantic gestures. It’s holding a stereo blasting “our” song outside your bedroom window. It’s flash mobs in Grand Central Station. It’s getting off a flight to Paris just before take-off. It’s singing “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” in the bleachers in front of the whole school.
Even before it happens, mourn it. Memorise what his fingers feel like when they scratch your head every time you hug him. Slowly feed your grandmother some fruit, and when she has trouble swallowing, know that this is the last time she smiles at you.
Non-passengers cannot go into airports in Bangladesh. My granny’s lined face—a mask of sagacity—was a novelty, simmering with anxiety and inexperience in the flat white light. Lips pursed like the aviation industry was one big blunder. She disapproved. People die in the place they were born. Most of all, we want consistency in a person.
This recipe is quick and easy to make if you need a last-minute dessert! I first learnt how to make this recipe on a cold winter’s day. The fire was going, and I had just experienced the worst week of my life… I’m only joking, I’m not going to venture on some longwinded personal story that’s in no way related to the recipe (looking at you, bloggers). But in all seriousness, this apple crumble is the perfect way to counteract the lockdown blues we’ve all unfortunately come to know so wel
If you have Netflix, which I assume the majority of you do because what else is there to do during a lockdown and pandemic, you’ve probably seen an ad or the trailer for the new Joe Mantello & Ryan Murphy film “The Boys in the Band”. This modernised adaptation tells the story of a group of homosexual men in the 1960s and how a birthday party in a small New York apartment can become the epicentre of self truths and confessions of old loves. It becomes the intersection of the diverse narra
During iso, I’ve bounced aimlessly through Wikipedia long enough to land on an article titled the ‘List of Discredited Substances.’ It includes the Philosopher’s Stone, a universal solvent, and even a unicorn’s horn. With each entry, is an explanation of how the substance was discredited, usually through various experiments (We apparently know unicorn horns don’t […]
The art upon gallery walls speak of deep histories, people immortalised in paint, lingering in their own mythologies. My feet always take me to the eighteenth-century European section, desiring to stand before illustrious portraiture of affluent women in creamy gowns, or poised families before pastoral landscapes, their homestead grandiose in the distance—beautiful, amorous, unified.
At first, I didn’t like them. You weren’t supposed to. Boys pantsed you in the playground. They licked the sap from trees thinking it was honey. Boys were pests. When I read about an up-and-coming boyband in the rainbow-glazed entertainment pages of Total Girl magazine, I decided to bring the matter before the jury the next day at school. The response was negative.
moonlight bleaching bones in the trees carving sigils into thighs ice dripping from the s p a c e […]
don’t think any of us can say that we aren’t aware of the trend that is the “remake”. We have Rebecca on Netflix, The Boys in the Band from my previous piece, the fan favourite Disney’s Mulan retold, and a new version of the Little Mermaid is in the works. I’m not going to say that the movie industry is running out of ideas, because new ideas, plots and films are constantly being released; personally, I just feel less excited.
The girl I love thinks belonging looks like blank walls re-envisioned. Bedrooms of low-sheen warm white have become her cross-cultural companion, a familiar stalker and a friendly face, the constant same hue amongst the apartments in her growing inventory. Several taped photographs offer small windows to past lives of different values: friendships with those she hasn’t seen in two years, a family portrait from graduation, and a Caravaggio reprint of Bacchus—these images are staples on her pla
Amidst this year’s seemingly endless cycle of bad news, there are moments when quite simply, it all gets a bit much. The need for pure, unadulterated comfort strikes, and it’s moments like these when I slip into my pyjamas, pull up the covers, and type into Netflix the very key to instant, delicious escapism…
You thought this day was going to mark the beginning of your journey into self-sufficiency. Whether you memorised every road rule or forged your entire logbook, no amount of driving lessons could have prepared you for the emotional rollercoaster that is failing a driving test.
With over 50 writers festivals in Victoria alone, it can seem an overwhelming prospect to choose which ones to invest time in. For people outside of the industry, it can also sometimes feel intimidating to attend such events in the first place. Last year, I went to the opening night of the Melbourne Writers Festival with a couple of friends.
Who says that not doing readings for class is a bad thing? It’s an action (or inaction I guess) that’s given me my main coping mechanism for the year’s turmoil, so I’m inclined to think that maybe skipping readings is, in fact, a healthy choice.
When I was 15, I wrote 11,000 words of Merlin fanfiction. To this day, it is the most successful thing I’ve ever written – I still get emails every time someone reads it and clicks the fanfic equivalent of the ‘like’ button. I was a virgin, I didn’t know how sex works, but apparently, I’d read enough smut to be able to write it convincingly.
Okay, I don’t want to be a party grinch, but will you not agree with me on this: I think parties are repetitive. Someone calls for a party, we all plan, we go to a place, we eat a few snacks, drink a few somethings, laugh and talk for an hour then come back home — a standard party (of course, there are variations). I believe that if something is repetitive, we should make an effort to make sure it’s better.
Proactive is when you actively make sure that things don’t go wrong, reactive is when you react when things are going wrong. Here is an example so we are on the same page —say you keep up to date with lectures every day and develop your assignment every week — you are being proactive. Say […]
ecently, while moving in with my parents to a faraway suburb, I realized that I’d bought waaay too many books during my time alone at university. The point was: I needed a bookshelf. So, I went to Target— saw an 8-cube storage unit— 39 dollars only— great reviews online— sweet!
Dear reader, I hope that I do not bore you. If my life were a colour it would be a bleak salmon pink. If it were a sound it would be an alpha wave. But not those alpha waves that aid concentration when you’re trying to cram 170 hours of study into one night; I’m […]
They say that 0.01 centimetres is the urban space of possibilities: the distance between people (connections, separation) in the bustling city. It’s easy to get lost inside a crowd (or to lose yourself). Claim the rhythms of heartache and caffeinated loneliness and suddenly you’re not special or strange. You’re (the same as) everybody else just […]
He leans back on wooden chair crimson with murmuring firelight reddening thins of cabbaged ears bright cheeks porous to the cave-like warmth, still bellows exhume tonically: two Omeprazole nightly Old eyes faded blue as connect-the-dot veins meandering rice-paper arms he blinks and stories rise: twelve years and strapped car-wise on a Saturday guffawing glassed father […]
into cracks spineless time slips fluid jellyfish – caught, only in your feathers’ wide net slung to trap the squirming future. you lend time your skeleton, old catskin croaker pussy willow bud.
I have not fallen from the spine of my mother Because she always grasps me tight to her back Nor did I slip from her arm When she threw me into the sky of freedom To embrace the whispering wind Because her hand is a swimming pool Where I embrace the warm waters of […]
After Katie Hale Our dove has flown for sixty years But she still hasn’t moved a mile Not to talk of reaching her shore In the armpit of our dwelling (We hide our hairy shame) When peace visited our faces We served him poisoned food It is left for a mother To let […]
Letter to the Editors The Students’ Council of the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) is broken. It no longer serves students and instead addresses the personal grievances of a small group of people who zealously attempt to enact their personal ideologies. I have been the 2020 Education (Academic Affairs) Officer of UMSU in 2020, […]
Tutors are asked to mark 1,000 words per half hour – could you do it? First year Arts student Sam Warner did not expect to spend most of 2020 talking to his tutors from his bedroom. He says the transition to online learning has been difficult but he can also see the strain it has […]
With our lives consumed by COVID-19 this year, it has been almost impossible to keep up with every development in Australian politics. As we emerge from the second wave of the virus in Victoria, it is important to look back at the Federal Government’s policies and recognise they have made life harder for students and […]
Craig Silvey: Honeybee Allen & Unwin, 2020 ISBN, 9781760877224, $32.99, pp. 432 Within minutes of starting this book, I realised this was not the Craig Silvey I remembered from Jasper Jones. While some of the themes overlap—innocence, identity, confusion—this book isn’t quite like Jasper. Yet in some ways, Honeybee will be defined by its predecessor, a […]
Welcome to Canon in She, a column about women composers being amazing. In this edition, we have a medieval nun who told the church to stop being so damn corrupt, a concert pianist who had eight children while practically inventing the modern piano recital, and a collaborative music-maker fusing ancient and modern musical techniques.
A small cloaked figure hurried across the barren earth as the last of the sun’s light leaked from the sky. The only thing between him and the horizon was a lonely little house, nestled in the shadow of the last starving tree. The tips of its leafless branches split and splintered like a hundred bony […]
?? ??? ??? ????? ?????? No land on this earth carries me ??????? ????? So my speech carries me Mahmoud Darwish I do not speak of olive trees and the smell of gunpowder. My exile is one of peace, the crash of the Arabian sea. The crescendo of the adhan, the […]
People associate cities with alienation. Consumerism. The soul-sucking nine-to-five grind. Cold capitalist sterility and chaotic excess, side by side. Tall towers devoid of character, obscuring the sky with glass and steel. Crowds so suffocatingly thick you lose your sense of self. Glaring lights, loud noises you can’t drown out. Light pollution, sound pollution, air pollution. […]
Midnight, and you begin your walk home. In the abandoned suburban streets, you imagine you are the sole survivor of an apocalypse. Though once afraid of the dark, necessity has forced you to grow up quickly and now the night is your friend. Traffic lights flicker, continuing their rounds. Their metallic hearts beat alongside yours. […]
A sea monster lurks beneath dirty waves. It rises when I stare at the water for too long. Its body sends a veil of salty spray to the ocean floor and its mouth forms a great black pit when it screams. I imagine myself swimming, floating sinking inside of it, unnoticed. I try to transform […]
That sweet lullaby, My first single, my first album, my first concert Emanating from my mother’s chest to the drums of my ear held against her breast A little head floating up and down with her every breath after breath Amidst the weary grating of her aching bones, Against a larynx of desperation, And a […]
One after another. Her tears bubbled up and slid down her cheeks with each hiccup that escaped. Her tiny frame trembled with each breath taken. Breezes blew all around her; not with encouragement but a reminder—the hollows of her near-past howled. Like the numbered pattern of a clock, bodies systematically lay around her and the […]
right atrium how strange it is. how fragile, wobbling watery yolk in my palm ribs bending between my fingers like pipe cleaners scattering blood onto a sanitized tray right ventricle how strange to imagine its first stirrings, moth wings wedged between slumped lungs, foetal halfthoughts that never grasped the taste of oxygen left atrium […]
They sat in the end booth of the diner, the one furthest from the door. He still wore his hat and her, her coat. “It’s just awful isn’t it? What happened to Howard.” She looked out the window at the darkened street outside. “It always is, when someone is murdered.” The waitress came over and […]
sun-sweet green flesh rimming a pink rockpool rosy anemones swirl in glistening sea gardens a coral paradise afloat with life: Juno’s summer lagoon splashing kids lick pink syrup fingers – the fig tree watches silently. guardian of green worlds on heaped branches high; dusk rustles quiet leaves.
Road Music by Vanessa Lee I catch her in the corner of my eye, cycling by my side with rain-damp curls and arms outstretched like wings. We were eleven, almost twelve, and shouting the words to some old song. There is a road named after a flower at the end of our street. Our mothers […]
Have you ever seen Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End? During the pirate council, there’s an older Chinese lady who dominates the room with her piercing gaze. Well, in this case, she isn’t just the token PoC woman added in as an afterthought – in actual fact, she’s a cardholding badass character based off […]
He lives in a small, round, earthen cottage deep in the quiet parts of the world. Each day mint is picked for tea at sunrise and he waits for his bread to leaven for a late breakfast. At noon he hikes to the top of Pullberry Hill and takes in the ridges and the autumn […]
Botanic Gardens, 18:56 The office windows turn dark one by one like broken pixels. Small cars carry the light out to the suburbs. There are eleven hours and twenty-two minutes to sunrise. The evening’s last joggers pass, women clutching phones like weapons. Big W, 21:57 The boy announces the store will be closing in […]
Driftwood ribs turn over in her sleep The ship keens under the weight of evening creaking gently about the sand in her stomach Her bones so bare not even the gulls have nested in her slowly disintegrating body As my toes sink into the shell-grit by the water a wave unearths timbers that must belong […]
Female Bonobo “Let’s make love, not war.” Hey lover, listen, I bet you’ve got a lot of stress. When your body’s filled with negativity it can make you lash out. But check this, we figured out a way to stop all the hate, conflict and wars. Sex solves a lot of problems, man. Most, actually. […]
my hair is a weapon, is a shield, is a badge, is a chart of all the things I call myself I’m a feminist, so I’ll leave the house with overgrown legs I am a dyke, short sides and back, because a barber costs less, but so does denial I am desirable, strawberry blond […]
for Olive Morgan says, happy birthing of the meat. Time isn’t real, Billie adds, but your body trusts it – still – like a loser. I mutter something like, yeah Discord is shit, the world is a fuck and you’re older and dad to a shifty cat I want to bury my face in. Ulysses […]
With Melbourne’s concert halls and theatres closed indefinitely to audiences, the arts sector continues to face challenges shifting online during the COVID-19 pandemic. On 13 March, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a ban on gatherings of up to 500 people. Just hours after Morrison’s announcement, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) announced that it “will […]
As the University of Melbourne continues to remain online for semester two, STEM students worry that their studies are at a disadvantage after their experience in online labs and practicals during semester one. While specific arrangements for practical classes vary across subjects and faculties, many units within the Faculty of Science have transitioned their in-person […]
“There’s no gallery on the Parkville campus!” This was me in 2017. Unfortunately, I hear my sentiments echoed across the campus. There is, in fact, a gallery on campus – a rather important gallery. The George Paton Gallery (GPG) Founded in 1971 as the Ewing and George Paton Gallery, GPG is located on level 2 of […]
University of Melbourne exchange students found their plans thrown into jeopardy as Australia first enforced bans towards interstate and overseas travellers. When Victoria first went into lockdown in March, many students—local and international—struggled to receive sound advice on how the rest of their semester would unfold. The response from the University of Melbourne to coronavirus […]
So, mother, go back to your quarters. Tend to your own tasks…as for giving orders, men will see to that, but I, most of all: hold the reins of power in this house. – Homer, The Odyssey – Reluctantly, waiting to quit her cubicle there… her taut sex still burning, inflamed with lust, Then she’d […]
Reader, did campus ever really exist? Or was it some very expensive collective hallucination we all had? After all, it’s been months (weeks? decades? time is bizarre this year) since I set foot in the place, and my memories of it are becoming ever-hazier. Kidding aside, I do miss campus. Not its flashier, brashier aspects […]
You’ve found yourself here again. 2am, seated at a cluttered table, lost in your thoughts. A few years shy of 25, you think you’ve lived enough years to feel wiser than you do. Instead, you’re sitting here with more questions than answers, unable to shake off an overwhelming sense of unease and dread about the […]
Stuart Rintoul: LOWITJA Allen & Unwin, 2020. ISBN, 9781760875602, $45, pp. 392. Powerful words for a powerful woman. The authorised biography of Lowitja O’Donoghue explores the price she paid as a self empowered woman in a country that was not yet ready for her strength. I have to admit that before reading this book I was […]
The cost of Law, Commerce and Humanities degrees is set to increase by up to 113 per cent after the Coalition struck a deal with the Centre Alliance party, which passed the Job-Ready Graduates package through the Senate on Thursday 8 October. The bill is aimed at reducing fees for courses that align with the […]
Malgorzata Szejnert: Ellis Island Scribe Publications, 2020 ISBN, 9781950354054, pp. 400, $49.99 To be honest, I didn’t go into Malgorzata Szejnert’s Ellis Island: A People’s History with the highest of expectations. Its title implied a generic (if slightly dull) history of America’s busiest immigration inspection station, through which over 12 million immigrants passed into New […]
You would think that our public spaces being almost empty during a pandemic would make them free of harassment. Yet, throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen people from all walks of life experience harassment—from school children to fellow students at the University, people experiencing homelessness to Melbourne city councillors. Harassment is pervasive; however, not everyone is […]
The Mean Girls movie taught us that “on Wednesdays we wear pink” and taught me that I related the most to that girl who cried and wanted to bake a cake made of “smiles and rainbows” because I too have a lot of feelings.
Bethany Cherry The world has become overwhelming. Our lives have become numbers, names have become movements, and reminders of how ‘well’ everyone else is handling this pandemic are being projected all over the walls like trophies. I want an honest conversation about how unhealthy this is. The inclination of the human is to connect, something […]
Snyder shines the light primarily on the American justice system as she breaks her book down into three sections “The End”, “The Beginning” and “The Middle”, which explore how we come to know about domestic abuse and how it can be born.
Comfy in my pyjamas and sitting in my bedroom I decided to take myself to the theatre buuut being 2020 this meant clicking a Zoom link, hoping for some semblance of the ritual of theatre-going that I know and love. The Travelling Sisters (Lucy Fox, Laura Trenerry and Ell Sachs), an award-winning physical comedy troupe […]
Bitten By Production’s 2020 theatrical season was one of the many creative casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not to be stymied by the lockdown performance drought, the company has produced a 14-episode miniseries instead, bringing together a team of emerging writers to create a compelling story from isolation. The episodes are punchy and short, telling […]
Are you voting in the 2020 UMSU Elections? UMSU Election week is from the 7-11 September 2020. Here you can find links to your candidates and their statements below in alphabetical order by position. If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate in reaching out to the Deputy Returning Officer, Stephen Luntz. Other relevant information […]
I’ve always lived in the eastern suburbs. Where I live, there’s these hills with TV towers on them that loom over suburbia. No matter where you are, you can see them from almost every point. And they have this permanent electric thrumming sound—an unrelenting suburban melody. The persistence of the hills, with their watchful eyes […]
The Fifth Dimension by Felicity Lacey We walked through the doors of the campus café and into the fifth dimension, where it suddenly became like looking at life through a bubble blown into sunlight. The average world distorted into rainbow hues that oozed and eased into gentle curves. I remember laughing as we sank into […]
Looming antiquities when the past had teeth and bottletops, hammocked days toes intertwined, hand on tit, This was love. and dripping manhood, too hot to catch The doorknob was slippery with what, i don’t know and then, furious as an unkept promise tethered to its pursuer purpose unknown like the finger tattoo the lip tattoo […]
suppose I set my alarm so I wake graceful, without a start, open my eyes to a squared sky, where the world is only birds and clouds suppose birds are not birds but feathered clouds drifting in and out of not clouds but faded cloth suppose birds are words but words are not birds –– […]
What is this fruit that smells of plastic? Surely, there is an apple in this vast expanse bordered with white illumination. Look! There! That reddish sheen is unmistakable. So focused is my vision, framed on you. Your yellow […]
Dusk nights upon dreary bushfires. I wait holding a crystal glass, filled two thirds the colour of the sky. Your charcoal fingers knock on the door, leaving ash on oak. Avant-garde Miscreant is how you signed your works. My house is now a gilded frame. The floor of sketches, the walls of colour theory, the […]
Ama, Amie, Amour – everyone called you along those lines. Ama, Amie, Amour defined you, roped you like a confused braid. Little storyteller, little dancer, the girl with purple ballet shoes wrapped in silk. See my eyes? My favourite tale. You told it after you cried. After my father said everyone talked about you and […]
Sitting in a waste-paper basket drifting off into oblivion waiting for the rest of the world to follow. The earth is an acrylic treat, an impressionist spattering of quiet vermillion, lilac grey, oak brown. Our balloon leaves a mark in the sky. It’s a shadow, an omen telling ground dwellers to leave, to fly. We […]
danger wore a bolt purple dress he reads poems as bedtime stories to the children kneeled at his feet in bewildered woods widowed where he could have been jesus he borrows tongues like promises like weapons so to dance in dapples he doesn’t let me in i had seen him before in somebody else’s arms […]
Daniel M. Lavery: Something That May Shock and Discredit You Scribe Publications, 2020. ISBN, 9781922310040, pp. 256, $29.99 Something That May Shock and Discredit You is a work that is incredibly comforting for a trans reader. It is, at its heart, a sincere exercise in reckoning with what ‘trans’ is, for a trans person, […]
UMSU Annual Elections The University of Melbourne Student Union Elections will be held from 7th-11th September to elect student representatives for 2021. The UMSU constitution requires elections to be held on paper, not online. Consequently, voting will be held through a combination of in person (if possible) and postal voting. Voting for University Council Student […]
CONTENT WARNING: racism, white supremacy, police brutality, First Nations deaths in custody and other references to cultural genocide that have in particular impacted First Nations People of Australia. This article includes references to deceased First Nations People. When Jessie Ferrari, the Indigenous Representative on Students’ Council, alongside councillor Thonya Deverall and the University of Melbourne […]
A content list is a collection of prompts, ideas that the editors collect to direct the theme and content of the magazine. The Farrago content list is a way to begin, to be inspired, and is by no means an exhaustive list of content—you can pitch your own ideas or send in cold submissions. We […]
According to international students from the University of Melbourne, the COVID-19 crisis, in particular its effects on their academics and financial situations, has had a detrimental impact on their mental health.
On June 17, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) Indigenous Department and and the other UMSU student representative departments released a joint statement condemning Rio Tinto’s destruction of a sacred site in the Western Pilbara, referring to the mining company’s decision as “an act of cultural genocide”.
The University of Melbourne has adjusted its accommodation of veterinary students following pushback after its announcement that students would be evicted from Kendall Hall because of COVID-19 restrictions. In a May 26 meeting between the Melbourne Veterinary School and veterinary students, it was revealed that fourth-year students with accommodation at Werribee Campus had five business […]
This news opinion piece mentions Indigenous deaths in custody, suicide, child abuse, racial genocide, and police violence. Cultural warning for references to deceased persons. Featured photo by Finley Tobin. The size of the crowd meeting the urgency of the moment, tens of thousands of Victorians attended the Black Lives Matter rally in Naarm (Melbourne) on […]
Students at the University of Melbourne have come together to campaign for the reduction and compensation of their tuition fees following the switch to online classes. Gathering on platforms like Facebook, over 3,500 students have in the last two months joined groups such as UNIMELB-Fee Reduction-Online Teaching-COVID 19, where they are sharing experiences and grievances around a widely perceived deterioration in teaching quality.
No student results from 2020 will be recognised by the University of Melbourne for applications to the doctorate degrees in medicine, dentistry, optometry and physiotherapy in 2021.
Casual staff at the University of Melbourne are facing significant financial insecurity amidst of COVID-19 pandemic, as measures implemented by university management and the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to save jobs places them in a greater state of precarity. Early in May, the NTEU proceeded with the release of the National Jobs Protection Framework […]
Hundreds of international students were spotted queueing around the Melbourne Town Hall building since Thursday, 30 May to redeem cash vouchers given by the Melbourne City Council through its ‘Our Shout’ program. Students were required to provide proof of identity and redeem their vouchers in person to avoid fraud.
The University of Melbourne’s National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Climate Justice Network has published an open letter to Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell demanding job security for energy and climate scientists as the economic toll of COVID-19 mounts in the tertiary education sector.
Over 1,300 people have signed an online petition demanding the University of Melbourne to remove a controversial Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) recruitment listing from the Career Online Job Board, calling the University’s decision to keep the advertisement as “endors[ing] terrorism”.
The University of Melbourne will not participate in the National Jobs Protection Framework as proposed by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), describing it as a “complex, bureaucratic mechanism” in an email to staff on Friday.
University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU)-affiliated clubs were selected for funding from the defence company Boeing, potentially breaching the Union’s own constitution, sponsorship policy, and official public stance. In 2019, Boeing — ranked the second-highest grossing global weapons manufacturer for the last three years — committed to partnership funding for both the University’s School of […]
The new decade has seen the University adopt a new timetabling system, with MyTimetable’s preferential class allocations replacing my.unimelb. This change has been polarising. A statement released online by the University indicates that the system is designed to confer an “equitable opportunity” for all students to receive their “preferred class timetable”. “By following a preference-based […]
There persists a misunderstanding between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’, which often has a negative impact when shaping and representing gender roles within society. The Oxford Dictionary refers to ‘sex’ as the biological characteristics that define a person based on their reproductive functions. It refers to ‘gender’ more fluidly – with broader reference to social and cultural […]
CW: eugenics and racism. On 13 February, University of Melbourne Student Union’s (UMSU) Students’ Council passed a motion titled “Stop celebrating eugenics!”. The motion requested the University to rename buildings named after eugenicists and acknowledge their racism. The motion “[reaffirmed UMSU’s] stance against racism” and “called upon the University to make some formal acknowledgement of […]
CW: mental illness, psychological and physical trauma. In challenging and uncertain times, art is a creative medium for staying on top of mental health and coming to terms with isolation and identity. This connection between art and mental health is the focus of From Heart + Mind, an exhibition which showed at the Dax Centre […]
by Vanessa Lee January, February pressed their lips to my neck, leaving sunburn and blisters behind. They apologised, of course, and laid our heads in their laps. We dreamt like it was January 1st of summers past, fireworks dancing in our eyes. When the rain came, I danced alone on the baked earth of my […]
Male Giraffe “Kinkshamers need not respond.” Hello, fellow equal! I think there’s one thing we should get out of the way and I hope this won’t offend you. You see, I’m a big user of the “C” word: consent. We all like to get a little freaky sometimes. But I want to make sure you’re […]
Up next we have the lovely walking encyclopedia, Hypatia of Alexandria. The daughter of a well-respected academic, Hypatia was an Ancient Greek-Egyptian astronomer, mathematician and philosopher who was born around 350 CE (Common Era). She was raised outside the constricting gender roles within Egyptian-Greek society by her forward thinking Papa and thrived as a professor […]
On the moon’s longest night, during the feast of Lune Harbour, cupped mead and slight comments danced courtly between Queen Sabbas IX and her duchesses and ladies. Jesters, firebreathers, novel conjurers and their travel-worn familiars paid tribute. Drunken commonfolk with crumpled invitations bawled their gratitude. Flourishing, grovelling, performing, and staying silently prayerful in the presence […]
I am going now, into the soft swooning night. Sleep well, sweetheart, I will be back soon. I need to talk to the night, that sweltering air enveloping us all, carrying us precariously to dawn. I need to talk to something that is not you. After an evening such as the one we’ve passed, there […]
“Guard, Gran.” “Yes, I know! Such a charming guide!” “No, Gran, he’s a guard… a guard.” “…He’s going to get a big tip from me! And that accent! O there’s nothing more magical than an Irishman’s tongue!” she winks as a flush accelerates across my face. “Shall I ask if he’s single?” “Gran!” Her imagination […]
Two boats cast their fishing nets, I am the mermaid caught in the middle, ??,??, they both compete. They reach for spears when they realise ??????????. And isn’t it better to kill, Than have a creature of two worlds? The waves offer me up treacherously, ???????, I’m sushi ready to be served, ???????. ??? scraped […]
CW: coercive relationships, implied dysphoria and implied transphobia Say we’re sat cross-legged, however many of us, arms twined watching Lizzie McGuire re-runs where she has her first kiss on our Switch, her heart broken when Ronnie says later–we all repeat– We need to talk, in different voices. You are impersonating Ronnie deliciously: the small fry […]
content warning: child abuse, death, kidnapping, abduction and violence. a pink Barbie book bag buried in a public park lipstick marks on a pimpled face denim pants and a scar on her knee picking peaches from a neighbour’s tree cherries on her left shoulder blade long ponytails in spring clowns in the rear window deep-set […]
Picture my mouth as a zipper, one that you open and close whenever you like. If I talk too much you slide that cold metal across my lips and force me to be silent if I talk too little you push words inside my wet cave of a mouth. I rip the zipper from my […]
Observe the objective world directly through the senses. Representations are undermined from glitches in the physiology of the brain. Sunset, various parts of Melbourne city. Loud crowds distract and fluorescent lights distract and Graceful infrastructure Blocks the view Of the sunset. Sunset, Open space. Man walks his dog Large
i. you only know you’re successful when you have rocks in your mouth when your mouth is where your chest was now tectonic-plated, clashing the right-brained and the left-handed so a new mountain was raised of a molehill mind— to brave teacup-storms with, to balance coffee on, you don’t open your mouth for fear […]
When the quarter moon sets, Something is perhaps known, or even a line descends revealed in the moonlight, between him and him, them and them, her and her yet, and yet it breaks, in some shape and form, it is lost a little just a little [&hell
I The moon in a tea cosy twinkles at half mast our bones and eyes a sprinkle of stardust on the canvas of time She dances from swell to swell swaying from the rigging A tinkling of the whales’ windchimes The blue water of dawn filled the room. II Lost ideas and blank […]
CW: death There’s nothing in that area, you warned me too late, after I alighted into a cartography of auto-workshops, flat stretches of old grass; the shadowy hull of Eunoia Junior College. Once humming with gasoline, the asphalt lies as if dead no pink flags rumbling in the distance, no trucks ferrying the din of […]
Durian, Much loved, yet maligned fruit Your spiky, intimidating appearance masks something hidden, enticingly forbidden, tempting us to indulge our lips inside your unknown landscape of custardy flesh And like a mole working its deception, you take everyone unawares when you are exposed Your musky, exotic aroma is mysterious Nefarious even So when your presence is […]
Bari is the Bengali word for one’s ancestral home; it is your desh, the place that always holds an important key to understanding who you are. For those uprooted – and often traumatised, as the people in this series of true stories often are – the idea of bari is a confusing one…
Despite long-running campaigns calling for a transition away from the fossil fuel industry, the University of Melbourne continues to foster ties with the world’s largest carbon emitters, including Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil.
Has COVID-19 impacted you financially? There is plenty of financial support for students at the moment if you know where to look.
In its 22 January Students’ Council meeting, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) condemned the University of Melbourne for not fulfilling its duty of care to students and staff in the Summer Term, during which bushfires in East Gippsland led to hazardous levels of air quality.
With many countries going into lockdown and millions staying home, the coronavirus is definitely the biggest cockblock of 2020. Couples and single folks alike are wondering: “How the hell do I get freaky in a time like this?”.
The University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) has condemned the University’s actions following the revelation of a $700,000 payout to a former international PhD student and survivor of alleged sexual harassment and assault.
Current and former students at the University of Melbourne’s residential colleges have expressed frustration and concern about their administrations’ handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The campus should close for the safety of all students and staff. But, we ask that the university make the necessary accommodations that would be equitable for ALL students moving forward.
Animated films are an integral part of the movie industry, regularly topping the box office and working as a reflection of society. Almost everyone has a soft spot for animated movies, regardless of age. Being lost in a child’s world allows adult worries to disappear, if only for a moment.
Australians need to change the way we view buying a house. Since the Menzies era, owning your own home has been integral to the Australian dream. A right afforded to those who worked hard and paid their taxes. Good citizens.
Then it hits me: is this how my twenties are supposed to be? A cycle of day drinking before marching through the doors of the Royal Exhibition Building every exam season? I cannot drive. I cannot cook. I have never touched a water bill in my life. Surely this is not how my parents envisioned my adulthood when traversing seas for a better life.
I was 14 when Mum and Dad brought Billie home.
Every sexual experience that I have had has boiled down to one governing emotion: guilt.
100 words or less.
Theme: Summer
On March 16, the University announced lectures and tutorials with over 500 students were required to cease face-to-face teaching by the following day. Classes with over 25 students but fewer than 500 will need to be online-only by March 30.
The last few months in Australia have seen frustration and confusion towards the Australian Government and their response to bushfires among the residents of the country.
Four of Melbourne’s busiest rail lines were replaced by buses for the majority of January, as construction of the Metro Tunnel continued.
As donations towards the recovery effort for Australia’s unprecedented bushfire season nears $500 million dollars, the arts community has rallied around these fundraising efforts, with a wide range events, auctions and pledges organised around the country in the past months.
Students’ Council so far…
In the first Students’ Council meeting of the 2020 term, Students’ Council passed UMSU’s budget for this year.
Smash the amulet
that you are so sure
holds his eyes within it
The first child born to a god brought the moon back.
John woke up with a grenade in his hand.
That wasn’t the worst of it. His alarm said he was going to be late for work.
He tells you to meet him on level six of that car park tucked behind the shops. There must be nowhere else to park at this time of night. You don’t realise it’s the rooftop.
they run
losing memories like leaves
You are still there.
Frozen
A moth in the sink is
Not a broccoli
the sky’s sparkling with fractured light
the champagne has bubbled our heads
I’m seven
pushing my bike down the lane
the crunchy gravel sounds delicious
under the withered moon of catastrophe
a strain on the blueberry sky.
They reverberate their
pheromone calls
189 Elgin Street is a cafe which holds what I thought we had lost: good soup and a slow view. It is a museum of inefficient objects put to dance.
This concert was 50 years in the making, and my goodness did it exceed my highly-set expectations!
After performing in Melbourne multiple times throughout his long and successful career, Sir Elton John took his last bow on a Melbourne stage on Sunday 15th December. This 150th show of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour was performed at a packed Rod Laver Arena, full to the brim of fans who were eagerly awaiting the chance to see Elton perform one last time.
Farrago have a number of reporters working on pieces about COVID-19 (Coronavirus) that are still developing. Unfortunately, the nature of the pandemic has resulted in rapidly changing information from our sources, and the university itself. As a result we are setting up this Liveblog so we can provide information to you in a timely manner.
The Melbourne Law School has announced plans to make available recordings of all streams of compulsory subjects in response to growing concerns around COVID-19.
Despite being younger than his mentors, Akira Kasai is considered to be one of the most established figures of butoh, starting his own studio in Japan–before studying Eurythmy (expressive movement art) in Germany. Kasai’s wide range of influences is evident in Pollen Revolution, brought for the first time to the Melbourne stage by Dancehouse Theatre.
Billed as “the core of the Melbourne Orientation experience,” the Melbourne Commencement Ceremony was derailed on Tuesday afternoon by two protest actions, demanding both university action and student mobilisation. Both the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and Unimelb Students for Climate Justice staged separate protests at the Royal Exhibition Building, where the event was being […]
Welcome to Canon in She, a column all about women composers, their fascinating lives and brilliant music.
I’ve been an out-and-about queer for the last five years, but 2020 marked my first year marching with pride as I joined the Graduate Student Association contingent. Walking with the colour, fanfare, love and welcomed embrace that is synonymous with the Pride March, I was reminded of how important these events (and my attendance) are […]
St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, known affectionately as ‘Laneway’, made the move from the concrete jungle of Footscray’s Community Arts Centre to the luscious wonderland of Footscray Park in 2019. The name celebrates the event’s roots as a boutique inner-city festival born in the back alleys of Lonsdale Street, but the 2020 rendition of Laneway Melbourne was a far cry from its modest beginnings.
Menstrual cups, the lesser-known alternative to managing periods have recently come to the spotlight as climate crisis is becoming more evident, and public participation to the matter is resulting in positive and effective turns (ngl, we woke).
Beginning as a celebration of the studio’s 20th anniversary, the collection of creative works on display has grown with each new film released in the late 2010’s, culminating in a behind-the-scenes peak at 37 animated features. Unlike a theme-park or premiere event, where the emphasis is placed upon the visitor and their interactions with film characters, DreamWorks Animation: The Exhibition is very much a celebration of the filmmakers and creative processes behind each film.
I must say there is a strangely melancholic tinge when reading a book so heavily steeped in Australiana as you fly out of Australia. For a book like The Last Free Man, this culminates in the desire to stare out the window at the vastness of the Australian wilderness and for a brief moment be alone (blessedly, when one’s seat is in front of a small screaming child) as Jimmy Healy does in the opening story of the same name.
The Lighthouse takes inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe’s work to create a dark, filthy and perversely comedic chamber piece of hallucination and repression. A hyper-stylised aesthetic plunges viewers into the eerie, miserable atmosphere of a remote island in 1890s New England.
Chinese international students are distressed by the University of Melbourne’s refusal to delay term dates, despite Australia banning travel from China in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The announcement, which was also circulated via the Vice-Chancellor’s email on 3 February, indicated that no disruptions to the usual summer term and Semester One schedules would occur. […]
Edition Two 2020 submissions are now open! Check out our content list for groovy prompts and inspiration!
A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood arrives in the midst of yet another tepid Oscar season, squashed within a crowded line-up of adapted true stories, including the downfall of Roger Ailes (Bombshell [2020]), the denouement of Judy Garland’s career (Judy [2019]), and some cars going vroom vroom very fast (Ford v Ferrari [2019]).
Bombshell succeeds at a lot of things: incredible prosthetics and makeup, captivating audiences while evoking intense emotion, and using clever wordplay in the title of the film. The movie follows three blonde “bombshells” through the challenges and devastation of sexual harassment which ultimately ends in a different kind of bombshell.
Thousands of Melburnians gathered at the State Library on Friday to demand immediate climate action. Despite persistent rain, protestors filled the steps of the library and overflowed onto Swanston Street and La Trobe Street, before marching through the city. Around 30,000 people attended the march according to organisers Uni Students for Climate Justice. The student […]
At its core, it is a wildly CGI’d musical movie about cats begging to die, starring some of the most iconic people in entertainment (plus James Corden).
Little Women (2019) is a radical re-arranging of Alcott’s novel, a tapestry of moments rather than a chronological narrative.
Edition One 2020 Submissions are now open! Check out our content list for groovy ideas and inspiration!
French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop’s feature film debut, Atlantics, is a sensitively crafted, dream-like journey haunted by the desire for freedom.
On the third day of the National Conference (NatCon), former University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) President Molly Willmott was elected President of the National Union of Students (NUS). Following withdrawals, her election was unopposed. As a member of the National Labor Students (NLS), Willmott succeeded Desiree Cai, also from the University of Melbourne. These […]
The correct way to break a rambutan open is to use a knife. I call that the coward’s way. If you’re a lawless rebel like me, you bite into it whole, cringing at the sudden bitterness the break in the skin fills your mouth with, then use your teeth to rip the rest of it away.
In an age where we can barely last the year without
buying a new smartphone and throw ageing possessions before they have a chance to decay, it’s puzzling why we still refuse to throw away the remnants of the toxic colonial mindset.
While it is a privilege to be able to afford an education abroad, many unspoken costs like underpaid wages, homesickness, cultural shock, financial instability and underemployment came as a surprise. But as an international student, I’m not sure if these costs are worth the price our parents pay.
After my breakup with the Michael Clifford lookalike, I started seeing more people of colour. Not that Michael Clifford ruined white men for me, I just felt more comfortable around people like me.
Ballots will be cast this morning, determining the National Union of Students (NUS) leadership for 2020. Ahead of today’s vote, Farrago can confirm the results of many key positions that now stand unopposed following withdrawals from candidates. Votes are being cast until 1:30 pm by NUS delegates and proxies outside Studio Theatre in the building. […]
Earlier this year, a friend took me to a party hosted by Guy Rundle, the Melbourne writer, in his flat in South Yarra. People perched on the edge of couches and drank wine from coffee mugs as if it were a student party, even though most of the attendees were twice that age. Somehow the topic of Farrago came up, and I mentioned that I had co-edited the magazine in 1999. Guy introduced me to two other former editors who were there: Prue from 1988 and Sean from 1992.
Here are our live updates of #nusnatcon2019
Last semester, I graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Science. I am overall complimentary about the teaching I experienced, but one area my experience has been inconsistent, to say the least, is tutorials. This got me thinking: what is the best way to support students consolidating what they learn in lectures? I spoke to students, tutors and lecturers to see how they felt about tutorials. What I found was that many factors influence the (sometimes contradictory) opini
The Stalls For All report published by the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) Queer department has found a need to change bathroom facilities due to exclusionary tendencies towards trans, intersex and gender diverse staff and students.
The University defends the employment of these academics and their right to express their views. “The University must be a place for the exchange and challenge of knowledge and ideas, undertaken with a shared respect for competing points of view,” Vice Chancellor Duncan Maskell says.
But, should academic freedom of speech override the right of students and staff to feel safe on campus?
On one side sits the University of Melbourne and select members of its faculty. On the other,
The 2019 University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) annual elections are wrapped up, with long-standing ticket Stand Up! recording a landslide victory.
We acknowledge Farrago is created on land that always has and always will belong to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. This land is stolen and sovereignty was never ceded, and no acknowledgement is enough to give it back. We pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and to all Aboriginal and Torres […]
Rian Johnson’s modern murder mystery is the most fun you’ll have in a movie theatre this year, and it’s smart enough that its many pleasures come totally guilt-free.
Follow our updates for UMSU’s budget in 2020 here.
Fleabag was a like a surprisingly uncomfortable massage into knots I didn’t know I had. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one woman show kneaded into my internalised shame surrounding: my sexuality, my adolescent selfishness and the healthy mix of narcissism and crippling insecurity that’s etched into my 20-something soul. I left the cinema feeling looser and better for […]
Scott Z. Burns’ rigorous dramatisation of the real-life investigation into the CIA’s use of torture after 9/11 is as meticulous and uncompromising as its subject. What does it mean today to make a film so rigidly devoted to the truth? Multiple times during the 2-hour runtime of The Report, I found myself watching Adam Driver’s […]
One of the most highly anticipated films of the year, Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019) has cackled and danced into cinemas with a resounding BANG! This newest iteration of the clown menace has had a lot to live up to, with viewers wondering if Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal will join Heath Ledger’s The Dark Night (2008) performance […]
Refugee advocacy group RISE has renewed calls for the University of Melbourne to sever ties with detention centre security, after the group’s initial divestment campaign was undermined by misinformation.
The words resonate as they pass through Annalise’s sunken mind but like a shooting star; disappearing into the void as quickly as they came.
Your fungus / begins to / age inside / its new / porcelain cage.
when someone asks / what I want to be when I grow up / I respond / a dog.
Murder and general mayhem sound just like your good old-fashioned fairy tales, something left behind in the myths and legends that belong in forgotten derelict book-shelves. Beware sensationalism but the reality is that it’s all just life, kids.
Unwrapping the tinfoil, Oops, the intonation of a sentence / is overcooked; the content of a sentence is / meaningless.
100-words-or-less pieces about ghosts for Farrago 2019 Edition 7.
Seventeen activists were arrested on the second day of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) amid Victoria Police’s increasingly violent response to the IMARC blockade. Police also upped the ante, employing large amounts of pepper spray at least four times today. The effects of pepper spray are more severe than those of tear gas.
Today, it didn’t matter who you were—young or old, protester or observer—no one was exempt from the tyrannical-style of brutality displaced by Victoria Police.
At approximately 9:20am this morning (only half an hour after arriving), myself and another Farrago reporter were pepper sprayed by police. And before you ask; no, neither of us were involved in the protest.
The waters of the South Lawn moat flowed crimson on Wednesday 23 October as protestors gathered in opposition to the University’s involvement in the upcoming International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC).
The two of us still pretending to be butterflies, holed up in our terraced cocoon for weeks watching the fists of clouds paint the sky winter white.
My mother is in the kitchen, a tiny moving blur amongst maroon teak cabinets. Sunlight is pouring in and I am bent over my homework, scribbling away to glory, when I cough.
Murder and general mayhem sound just like your good old-fashioned fairy tales, something left behind in the myths and legends that belong in forgotten derelict book-shelves. Beware sensationalism but the reality is that it’s all just life, kids.
Chris Martin’s thin lips glisten under the stage lights as he succinctly delivers the monologue.
i would ask you things / and you would only look / upon me / and spit on me softly
The room could sense something different about this body. Different, but not unfamiliar. It could feel the body’s heartbeat echoing through the soles of their feet, casting shockwaves up the walls.
In Greek myth Thanatos, the god of death, was said to be as beautiful as Eros. Death could be like having a love arrow shot in you—but what do you focus on?
100-words-or-less pieces about unsolicited advice for Farrago 2019 Edition 6.
Sarah plays on the association of colours and words to write her poetry column for Farrago, using Taubman’s paint samples from Bunnings.
To many of us, the idea of languages tied to a country seems normal. People in England speak English, people in Japan speak Japanese, people in Croatia speak Croatian, and so on. Is this a hard and fast rule? Of course not, but to some extent it’s still considered the norm. But why does this perception exist when it’s not the case with the majority of languages?
I shrouded myself in the scent of frosted berries. The autumn breeze drifted into my room as I dressed. It was Mother’s Day. However, as I wore my linen turtleneck and gold earrings, the day felt heavy on my shoulders. In many ways, it was ironic that it was Mother’s Day. My mother’s grief floods through the phone with each call this past year. That morning, she calls me and tells me how she slept next to my Aunty the previous night. She tells me about the groans of pain that were substituted
Melbourne’s underground music scene is a living organism I had always been aware of but was never cool or curious enough to dive into and experience. Then, two years ago, I was dragged unwittingly to a dub music event—known in the scene as a “dance”—expecting dubstep and to have a terrible time. Instead I was welcomed into a community dedicated to growing their scene, to making important strides in pursuit of social justice, and to throwing an awesome party.
Welcome to Living Well When You’re Unwell—a column that answers all your questions about navigating uni, life, relationships, and jobs with disability and chronic illness.
Whether you wake up an hour early to apply your ten-step Korean skincare routine and full-face beat, or roll out of bed and straight through the front door, the impact of the beauty industry plays on our self-perception and esteem feels undeniable.
Have you ever walked into the wrong lecture during week 1 of the semester? There’s something about the anxiety and the irreplaceable feeling of everyone’s eyes on
you that nothing else can quite replicate.
It was July 23rd. I waited at Melbourne Airport’s Rideshare pick-up zone for about 6 minutes before the black Honda HR-V arrived. The driver helped me with my luggage—as most drivers at the airport do. We got in the car and the questions began.
In your hurry to class you might have rushed past Australia’s only heritage-listed art collection. Tucked away in a quiet corner on the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus sits over 16,000 artworks, one of only three collections in the world of its kind. “Someone once said to me that The Dax Centre was Melbourne’s best kept secret,” said director Charmaine Smith.
Baillieu Library’s resident albino pigeon has become the source of a heated Facebook debate between students attempting to name the bird.
Over semester break, the Facebook page Pigeon at the Baillieu Library ran an online competition to determine its name.
On Friday 20 September, a contingent of University of Melbourne students and staff attended the Global Climate Strike, with the unprecedented endorsement of the University.
On Friday 13 September, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) and UMSU International signed an agreement to address UMSU International’s concerns about the constitutional changes passed during the Special General Meeting (SGM) on 17 September.
The Bride Test is a really pure novel. It explores the intricacies of family, immigration, mental health, grief and so much more.
World’s most militarized zone and India’s only Muslim majority region, Kashmir, was stripped of its special status under Article 370 by the Indian government last month. Amidst an indefinite lockdown, Kashmiris in Melbourne raise their voice against the decision. Dilpreet Kaur reports. ?????
In the early hours of 29 August, protestors gathered outside of CPB Contractors office building to criticise their involvement in the Western Highway Upgrade, which will cause the destruction of Djab Wurrung land and sacred trees.
We all have an inner monologue, that little persistent voice inside that narrates our every thought and feeling, but Julia Michaels has taken it to the next level, bringing her Inner Monologue Tour to Melbourne, for one night only.
Welcome to Farrago‘s liveblog of the University of Melbourne Student Union election results. We’ll be posting results for all positions live from the count room as they come in. Alain Nguyen and Stephanie Zhang will be giving you a live count and analysis of the initial wave of results as polls close. You can view […]
Follow Farrago’s coverage of the 2019 University of Melbourne Student Union here.
Well, well, well. It’s that time of year again: student election season. Unfortunately, it’s a time many of us dread. The university grounds become overrun with student politics hopefuls donning an array of coloured shirts and handing out flyers. They’ll be asking for your vote and trying to promote their policies on improving the student experience, and they may even chase you down on your way to class to chew your ear off.
Because of the cumulative effects of assimilation over many generations, Ainu’s uniqueness is in danger of being lost forever. There are only a handful of native speakers left—perhaps as few as fifteen—and all of them are elderly. While there is a much higher number of second-language speakers with varying degrees of fluency, without concerted efforts to protect it, Ainu’s chances of survival are, sadly, quite low.
Ever wonder how ancient humans passed all those cold nights in stony caves, or when we realised a little added buzz could go a long way? Well, welcome to the history lesson they’re still refusing to teach. From forgotten literary works to surprising archaeological discovers, it’s clear our ancestors were getting down with their bad selves long before Christian Grey. So, without further ado, let’s jump in our time machine and get ready for the ride of our lives. It’s time to learn about the D™
Pine. Verb. Erund or present participle: pining • Miss or long for. “She’s still pining for them” I’ve never pined for someone. I think pining for someone is a complete waste of time and energy. Oh, you’re hurt? Well, suck it up. It’s not the end of the world. It happens, you know? Break ups. […]
If you explained the premise of the movie 127 Hours to any ‘third culture kid’, almost all of us would be able to substitute ourselves in for the protagonist. Being stuck between a rock and a hard place is a sentiment we know all too well.
Welcome to Living Well When You’re Unwell, a column that answers all your questions about navigating uni, life, relationships, and jobs with disability and chronic illness.
The campus has been a ghost town the last couple of months while we were putting Edition 5 together. It’s our busiest time of year right now with lots of media-related projects on the go—so a little bit of peace and quiet was probably necessary—but we’re so excited to have people in and out of the office asking us for stuff again with the new semester commencing. If you find yourself in Union House, come and say hello sometime! The media space and office is on Level 4, and our door is always
On 13th May 2019, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) International elected a new committee which will lead the union from
August 2019 to July 2020. This year’s newly elected committee continues the trend of previous years’ of having dominance by students from South
East Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. To Farrago’s understanding, every member of the current committee is from Asia.
The University’s biennial student-run arts festival Mudfest will run August 21-28.
Collaged text, messages from friends.
After damning allegations that Red Riding Hood left her missing grandmother to fend for herself in the woods, she has now pronounced that her grandmother has been found dead at the edge of the woods.
Found poem from The Naughty Book for Girls by Candice Hill, which maintains a 1.83 star review on Goodreads.
It’s a passive act to survive entirely on spinach & food textures more usually chewed in the thick of an apocalyptic-type emergency.
Murukami sits in a sole green bog in an ashen wasteland, knees pinned to ground by rusting nails. His arms, detached, caress and cradle his head as an acid wind blows harshly.
I remember my mum’s friends gossiping (dark eyes darting, pink lips pursing around sour words) about another woman’s daughter who went to the USA, about how it ‘turned her gay’, “she shouldn’t bring it back here.”
You’re reading Hellboy in Hell—cornered in a pocket of the Brunswick library—the collected trade paperback of the original comics run. Hellboy is in Hell, because. He falls as a beating heart through the mouth of a petrified giant.
Drowning in the weight of becoming, nobody could have guessed the simple noise it left ringing in our ears.
100-words-or-less pieces about ghosts for Farrago 2019 Edition 6.
After long hours of studying, sleepless nights, endless assignments and exams, successes and failures, graduation day feels surreal. It seems like in the blink of an eye, your entire university life is over, and it’s time for the next chapter. Many students turn to university programs that aim to provide resources and guidance to job seekers. However, these systems are not without fault, and raise questions as to how useful they are in practice. This anxiety is always hidden behind the euphor
Melbourne Law School (MLS) student X* has accused the MLS of misusing its power through intimidation and silencing. This accusation arose after his attempts at raising concerns with the Associate Dean and submitting an open letter to the Law students newspaper De Minimis. The article criticised what he saw as the MLS’s failure to address structural issues Muslim students face in the legal community.
Returning to the Dark Phoenix Saga 13 years after X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is tasked with retelling the Jean Grey story in a manner that is sufficiently fresh and respectful to the series’ first attempt, all the while winning the approval of new and dedicated fans.
In this sense, Normal People isn’t a groundbreaking story. It’s a story about all of these things—life, love, change, and coexistence—about which story after story have already been written. It grounds these ideas in four turbulent years of late adolescence and early adulthood, imperfect and unforgettable all at the same time.
For a singer who is largely known by her one-off viral hits and saxophone-riffs-made-into-memes, Carly Rae Jepsen is remarkably serious about her craft.
Come From Away is an exploration of community and hope. Taking place in Gander, Newfoundland, the musical tells the true stories of 38 diverted planes on September 11 2001 and the days that followed. The Melbourne show’s 12 person cast delves into a series of characters – townsfolk and plane people – who share fears and hopes alike. The show will make you laugh and cry.
Sexual misconduct allegations have risen from eight in 2017 to 23 in 2018, according to documents released by the University of Melbourne.The documents, which include both responses to requests made within and outside the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), shed light on how the University has disciplined students accused of sexual assault and harassment.
My romantic life has always been one that is tumultuous. To my friends, it’s one heck of a reality tv show that is always on demand – ready to provide spicy content, tears and drama. A real life ‘The Bachelorette’ that they so happily tune in to weekly or have a one-sitting binge watch.
Last year, I had been accepted to study the Master of Social Policy at the University of Melbourne. It was something that I was encouraged to do by the Professor of my undergrad, the Bachelor of Youth Work at Victoria University, due to my academic achievement, passion for youth issues, and a commitment to social justice on a structural level. I felt ecstatic, even though I did see a bit of an irony., Three years of hard work only to be rewarded with a further laborious three years?
The University of Melbourne’s Creative Literature and Writing Society present The Remarkable Quests of Raddish and Quill, a collaborative column for Farrago.
I want to say that death is just a wound things grow around and that I Miss the way the world tasted back then, before life touched me like that, Cold Finger pressed to my Tongue; hurts like freezer-burn, tastes like freezer-burn.
“Do you have wine?” Rebuffed inquired in a raspy voice.“No,” replied Oost. “Why? Should I?”Rebuffed inclined her head. “I just assumed.”Oost was silent for a time, perplexed. Rebuffed filled the space: “You know. Since we’re here.”
100-words-or-less pieces about periods for Farrago 2019 Edition 4.
Murder and general mayhem sound just like your good old-fashioned fairy tales, something left behind in the myths and legends that belong in forgotten derelict book-shelves. Beware sensationalism but the reality is that it’s all just life, kids.
For over 130 years, UMSU has been the heart of student life at the University of Melbourne. The history of the Union is heavily entwined with activism, radical politics and power struggles. Delving into the archives offers a detailed reflection of the issues facing students throughout the decades. Even the soon-to-be demolished Union House has layers of history hidden in plain sight: from anti-conscription barricades and police raids, to refugees avoiding deportation in a back room.
Time to implement the plan! Dude, get the car, the maps, I know we’re starting out in suburbs but I swear to God we’ll make it to the mountains, we fucking have to.
It has become more or less axiomatic that if women want to achieve equality in our time, we must first strip ourselves bare—revealing our worst shames, heartaches and sins so that we may be seen as utterly human. To be a woman in public these days is—more often than not—to be in the business of confession.
The bath bomb had been a delight for about five minutes. The walls became soaked in the scents of pear and cinnamon as the bomb fizzled into a pool of green. With her classical playlist serenading her, Jesmintha enjoyed her muscles sighing and her thoughts slowing their buzzing wings. Then the twitching began.
The word ‘wilderness’ conjures images of towering trees, forest paths, bubbling brooks and open skies. There are no buildings, no signs of human habitation, and there is a stillness or silence punctuated only by the wind, birdsong or animals scampering over leaf litter. This form of wilderness is linked to a longing for a life that is more in touch with the natural world. At the same time, this wilderness, in its emphasis on pristine, untouched nature, excludes human beings. How can we exist
This stripped-back set allowed for an immensely intimate performance where nothing else mattered besides the otherworldly falsetto voice onstage, and the introspective artist it belonged to.
I’ve found that my anxiety lessens on bushwalks. Standing still, the cool breeze against my skin, able to hear birds, frogs, and the rustle of leaves in the wind. I am able to free myself of societal constraints, prejudice and discrimination.
Front-man Georgia Maq closed Camp Cope’s Falls Festival 2017 act demanding that 2018 be the year that minorities take to the forefront of the music scene. As I stood on the grass field, surrounded by hundreds of fans applauding this controversial statement—their song The Opener takes aim at the exclusionary nature of the industry with lines such as “yeah just get a female opener, that’ll fill the quota” and “it’s another straight cis man who knows more about this than me”—I found myself wonde
By 7pm, there was already a spate of eager concert-goers, lining the paint filled Hosier Lane.By 8pm, the mosh pit was filling up.
Sometimes Always Never is at its best when it stays true to its core. It is a simple narrative. One that is hardly resolved and has no beginning, middle and end in the larger scheme of things. But it is a wonderful character analysis. An amazing exploration of love, despair and hope.
Never did I think the question, “Ever had a dream?” and all the self-doubt and fear of rejection which comes with that question, would be so aptly summed up for me by a one-woman operatic show. Mari-Poša, mezzo-soprano, known simply on stage as Maria, delivers a soulful and vocally powerful performance in El Vito!, performed in Melbourne CBD’s quirky and cool Butterfly Club, accompanied by the heartfelt talents of pianist Julian Wade.
Scottish comic Fern Brady returns to Melbourne in 2019 for her second appearance at the MICF with her show Power and Chaos, following last year’s Suffer, Fools! and a successful year on the London circuit. Many Aussies would know Fern from her explosive Live at the Apollo set last year, where she came out as bisexual live on air and infuriated the notoriously homophobic Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. It probably didn’t help that she accused their leader of being a
I don’t really know where the title for Felicity Ward’s latest show comes from. Honestly I’m not sure if I missed something, but I’m pretty sure it’s just something she thought would be funny. That’s not to say it doesn’t make sense; it does. Felicity’s comedy is bold enough, loud enough, and has enough singing and crying that I wouldn’t be surprised if some audience members didn’t bust their own nuts laughing along the way.
I would say that H.M. Naqvi knows a lot of words. He, or at least his protagonist Abdullah, would prefer I call him verbose. Or maybe not even that. What about bombastic, magniloquent, fustian? If you had to look up any of those then you would know how I felt reading Naqvi’s second novel, The Selected Works of Abdullah the Cossack, a sprawling romp through Abdullah’s beloved city of Currachee, Pakistan. You would also realise that verbose and fustian don’t necessarily connote positive vibes.
Nestled in the regional town of Bendigo this weekend were thousands of festival goers, dressed to impress and with plenty of glitter in tow. Groovin the Moo was back in town on 4 May (yes, there were Jedis, Storm Troopers and Wookies in the crowd, for those wondering) for its 11th year at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds. In 2017, promoter Steve Haplin said that around 20,000 people attended. From a glance, it seems safe to say that the number of people was just as big, if not even bigger, thi
Signing up to review an unnamed sketch comedy show that your editors placed up for grabs in the Media Collective Facebook group is like a Tinder date. You get dressed up, agree to meet up at a bar couple hours after dark and hope that it would not end with you feeling violated in any way. I wish I could say that I walked out of Poopie Tum Tums with a sore stomach and a thirst for more, but alas, that was not the case. My housemate (whom I begrudgingly dragged to this 10pm show) and I both wal
If you’ve ever sat through a really long rant from a mate because their date flaked out on them or someone stole their lunch at the office, you would already have a sense of what People Suck: A Musical Airing of Grievances is about. It is an hour-long song cycle with an indisputable premise: all the ways people suck. With its catchy melodies and strong vocal performance, the cast takes you through jealous bridesmaids, anti-vaxxers, the different types of annoying people at your office and man
It was with much anticipation that I waited for one of the longest-running improv shows in the country to start. The Big HOO-HAA! usually occurs every Friday night at the Butterfly Club, but they were making a few exceptions for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The show has been crowned “the original and the best” improv comedy ensemble in Melbourne, and it is easy to see why. A couple minutes in and they’ve got the crowd howling with laughter.
Every year Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) produces an education show, which is presented in the intimate Lawler Theatre before going on a regional tour. These productions have often been some of my favourite produced by the company, as they can afford to take more risks in script, actor and staging choices than in main stage productions. The 2019 education performance is The Violent Outburst that Drew Me to You, a 70 minute play by the Australian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer. Directed by P