The Thousands

Oh you! Take those hands of yours off that face of yours and looky here. Yeah! We made an issue. Photocopied it with a rank Xerox. Edited it over some delicious Uyghur food. LN-CC'd all over the place. All in time to see Kate Gagliardi's show at Magazine before we all head off to look at dead plants.

Cover photo by Jared Brown. Snap-happy? Send yours to daniel@rightanglestudio.com.au.

Murakami has become serious. By serious, I mean he’s stopped tampering with sensitivities and started tampering with the ‘mature’ stuff of late night docos – cults, conspiracies and ethics. 1Q84 (yes, that Q there stands for kyu, ‘nine’ in Japanese), his latest three part novel, is one hefty tome. Though at first 1Q84 is hard to knuckle into, the rewards are plentiful. Set in 1984, the book looks back at that time piecing together fragments of history that collapse into the parallel universes imagined by Orwell.

One of the main protagonists (whose stories alternate throughout the book) is a tough heroine figure named Aomame, a martial arts teacher hired by a dowager to kill abusive husbands with an acupuncture needle who, you’ll be happy to know, finds Abba tacky. Oh, and she’s caught in an alternate universe. Then there’s Tengo, a maths teacher who is ghost-writing dyslexic 17 year-old Fuki-Eri’s book Air Chrysalis, which eventually hatches together the parallel worlds of the two main characters.

Littered with references to all kinds of factual events that get Murakami’d, these facts end up linking back to both narratives which almost does your head in, but the omnipresence of Murakami’s archetypal magic realism makes this whole parallel universe theory just that little more plausible and the book hell enjoyable. It features his typical motifs of cats, skepticism of dogma, ear fetishes, music, savants and sex. The moral – never to give up on imagination.

Guess what? Kleenex and Palmolive are not only fine examples of a well-stocked toiletries bag, they’re also the adopted identities of an iconic punk past. And, as part of that proud DIY tradition – of taking a brand name and running with it till you get sued - Rank/Xerox are named after the song, named after the company, by the band, named after the adhesive bandage, Hans-A-Plast.

With all this sniggering irony going on it’s a wonder the San Francisco based three-piece, featuring Perth emigrant and tireless workaholic Dave West, can get anything done - but do it they do and their first self-titled long-player is a damn fine listen. Non-downloadable and largely off the grid, this belligerent assault of strident post-hardcore tears across a generally menacing mood and largely abstract lyrics. Harking back to a yesteryear where it was okay to have feelings, while remaining firmly grounded in the ‘now’, Rank/Xerox is an instance of self-promotion as moot where brilliance abounds.

Who doesn’t love a bit of mystery mixed in with their everyday retail experience? Like when you walk past an empty store and they have signs up promising a ‘funky new shopping experience' and there's a glimmer of hope that it’s going to be something amazing like a Leftorium, even though deep down you know they're just bunging in another Priceline.

When I first stumbled upon the intimidatingly cool LN-CC online store, I was initially struck by the aforementioned mystery (in this case, re. the store's puzzling name), but my curiosity quickly diminished when I got distracted by the all of the divine things it has to offer. From mens and womens clothing, to art and fashion books, music and audio equipment, Fleet Ilya harnesses to ‘extreme’ toothbrushes, LN-CC is a mecca of covetable goods.

Initially, LN-CC began as a concept store in London looking to cater to not just a customer, but a willing participant in what was proposed to be both a  world class retail space and conceptual environment. Apart from stocking discerning products ranging from Australia’s very own P.A.M to European luxury mega-brands like Balenciaga, the store aims to offer a platform for you to ‘experience and engage with... to take whatever you want, be it product, information or knowledge.’ So yeah, no pressure if you can’t afford the four figure Comme Des Garcons Homme Plus silk blazer babe, just take it all in! Oh, by the way, LN-CC stands for Late Night Chameleon Cafe...? The mystery continues.

Moneyball has all the sports-movie ingredients: an underdog team; a manager haunted by past failures; talented but overlooked players; an amazing true-story comeback. Yet despite all this, Moneyball is not conventionally triumphalist. It’s a rather melancholy clash between human convictions and cold computer analysis.

Yes, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and his economics-grad assistant, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill as the real-life Paul DePodesta, who objected to being portrayed as a nerd and requested his name not be used) found success with an unlikely 2002 team drafted using in-game statistics. But what have they really ushered in? Richer teams using the Athletics’ methods against them? Even more ruthless ways to trade players and managers as commodities?

Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian’s deft screenplay eschews game-day spectacle to emphasise baseball’s human interactions. Torrents of unspoken meaning roar beneath Beane’s amiable patter with players, rival managers and colleagues (including a sullen, under-used Philip Seymour Hoffman as the A’s field manager). Pitt’s subtle, internally focused performance suggests some people’s actions can’t ever really be quantified. Meanwhile, Hill brings his usual diffident sweetness to Brand’s own discovery that his numbers-driven world is more idealistic than the baseball industry’s zero-sum game.

No this indeed is not a film. This is footage of a day in the life of an Iranian dissident awaiting trial. And so here is a review of 'a day in the life of Jafar Panahi.'

Panahi wakes. He wanders around his apartment. He watches. He rants. He tells a few jokes. He helps somebody take out the trash. All of this is as rigorously non-entertaining as you can imagine but of course This Is Not a Film, which makes this just the point.

In fact Panahi is a Cannes Film Festival winning director and the footage we’re watching is his f*#k you to the Iranian government for banning him from leaving the country or making films for twenty years. The footage you’re forced to meander through has been smuggled out of Iran and though it lacks much of a story line or plot, Iran’s new wave underground hero’s latest at least isn't missing a concept.

This Is Not a Film is a valid social critique which successfully draws attention to the issues facing artists in Iran even if it's about as enthralling as watching Andy Warhol's Sleep.

Fair warning: I am about to launch into a half-baked Grand Theory of Art. But it’s too late to run away now; I think you’ll find that all exits are locked. Alright, so it basically boils down to this: there are two types of art; 1) art that wants you to ruminate and ponder, and 2) art that makes immediate sense. Think tree in a glass of water versus one of those paintings Ed Harris did. Which form is ultimately the ‘best' use of art I will leave in the bain-marie of stimulating art-talk, but the point is, those general categories exist. Which is all a roundabout way of getting to the point that Kate Gagliardi’s work makes so much immediate sense it’s like a weekend with the Maharishi.

This is Kate’s second solo show at Magazine Gallery and it’s your classic Gagliardi affair – a bunch of gazing ladies done up in drips, splatters, slight brushstrokes – and, although her work can often be quite delicate, there’s also a natural flow and looseness inherent in the form that keeps it from slipping off the page. Also, my other crackpot art theory (this one’s probably more solid) is that shinier=better, and fortunately that’s covered too, in a series of intricately hand-cut rice paper designs, mounted slightly above sheets of shiny, shiny gold foil. It’s all real purdy.

If you followed the Adelaide Fashion Festival in 2011, you may have noticed a quirky, bright collection running for the Emerging Designer Award. It was Julie White’s new collection, 'Run Riot'. Julie herself is bright, quirky and one of kind. Her passion for creating beautiful articles of clothing is obvious, in both her everyday presence and her pieces.

Her new collection, 'Run Riot', is bold yet poised. Inspired by ‘urban tribalism’, the print that links each piece is clearly a deviation of a wilder place and all its elements - flora, fauna, tribal body decoration. And a wild collection this is: the bold colours will stand out in the crowd. My favourite is the Tangerine Tigre Bodysuit. Bright and fun, it is a perfect addition to a colour-starved wardrobe.

Julie says that her label is ‘for women who know what they're about and aren’t afraid of where they're going’, which could not be more true. 'Run Riot' is perfect for the woman who knows exactly how to express herself; the confidence to turn heads and not care, yet the grace to appreciate modern technique. The ladylike rebel.

Julie has just opened her new online store, so make sure you head there as soon as possible and purchase your statement piece for spring. Now let me at those Berry Pleat pants!

Next to the Promethean on Grote Street sits a small restaurant oozing plastic tablecloths and flourescent light. On the front window there are many pictures, most of which look pretty meaty and also pretty red and spicy. I have walked past this restaurant many a night on my way to the pub or the markets. (Usually the markets then the pub.) Last Saturday night we ventured in.

Tangritah Uyghur Shishkebab Restaurant is everything you could hope for in a family owned restaurant. On entering, we were shown to a table and left alone with some laminated menus, the kind found at most Grote and Gouger Street food houses. Not one of the eight of us had any idea of what to order or what we should be looking for as we could not work out what cuisine we were looking at, nor how to pronounce the name of any of the dishes, nor the name of the restaurant. I believe this helped us make a quick decision when it came time to order.

The highlight of the night was, besides eating what I can now safely say is delicious Chinese–Turkish, or Uyghur food, the trip to the bathroom. You get to walk through the kitchen while all the women in the family stare and smile and then into a room with many doors and no lights - kind of like a great smelling fun fair game. It took me a while to get out.

Tangritah Uyghur Shishkebab Restaurant is my new favourite eatery for summer 2011/12. Everything is right – the food, the price, the service, the décor, the atmosphere, and deceptively, even the vegetarian options. Try the milky stuff, ordered by the jug. You can't go wrong.

Unless you're a total nerd (Oh hi! Nice to meet you!), when was the last time you went to something like the Museum of Economic Botany? I know what you're thinking. Museum? Boring. Science? Too many definitive answers, not enough beauty, not enough room for 'feelings'. Give me art any day.

Well there's art here too. Our MEB - one of the last in the world - opened in 1881 at the height of British colonialism, and little seems to have changed. The grand, dimly lit space is transportive with its long lines of glass cabinets. But don't think that this museum is tired and dusty - if you've ever had even a fleeting interest in food, spices, tea, coffee, oils, medicines, stimulants, timbers, dyes, tans, fibres or cereals, it's hard not to be fascinated by the range of specimens. For example, who knew that you could craft lace from pineapple fibre? That holly is not just for Christmas, but can be used as inlays in musical instruments? That lavender is part of the mint family, and vanilla part of the orchid family? FASCINATING!

Plant samples, papier mache fruit models and examples of Indigenous crafts aside, the one thing you simply cannot miss is Fiona Hall's specially-commissioned Cabinet of Curiosities. All I can say is look inside the peep holes and just try not to be completely, utterly filled with wonder. Just you try.

Close your eyes but keep reading. I just listened to a Pink Dreams II track on the internet and it sounded like Kenny G walking a 1980s wind swept New York street, rubbish riding on the gusts of the breeze, and the subway shaking mah mahthufackun windows. Plus there were CATS EVERYWHERE. It was sexy as hell. They are playing a kind of psych show with Beige Abrasion and Dan V/Pat S from Like Leaves and I'm pretty sure they don't actually have a saxophone or sound that much like they do, or do they? Can you find out? Ta.

Oh Dick Diver, you're so great. You're the perfect antidote to all the moody post-rock, jangly surf-pop and cutesy folk that is floating around. Not to say that you're moodless, non-jangly and un-cute, however. In fact, your simple, sometimes sour, often amusing and ultimately honest songwriting makes you all the more attractive. 'New Start Again' is going to get a lot of play on lazy weekend arvos this summer, I feel. Can't wait. See you at Format this weekend with Melbourne's School of Radiant Living, a rejigged Fake Tan and Cesare (pronounced Che-Sar-Ray, y'all. I know, right?)

A good pair of undies should be clung to, both hand and butt. They are a rare beast and an important one, and Cheap Monday have just started making some. Bad undies bunch up, fall down or are just plain ugly. That's why most bad undies end up hidden - on purpose - at the base of a clothes horse. But Cheap Monday undies are undies you can take all the way to the top of the clothes horse. Where. The. Towels. Go.

Ladies, for you, Cheap Monday undies come in micro fibre (hello), mesh (helloooo) or lace (heyyyy) and are available in all kinds of cuts and all kinds of colours. In much the same fashion, the boys undies come in plenty of cuts (including long johns!) and colours. The boys stretch material undies have skulls on the waistband, making it possible for anyone to have skeletons in their closet. For a more subtle undie however, we think you should go for the plain ribbed ones.

To find these undies in the flesh, visit L.A.X. and online here. Or you can try and score a women's or men's undies pack by entering this here competition. Women, your pack has a lace racer back and lace mini hipster (worth $53). Men, your pack comes with three pairs of stretch trunks in white, black and real teal (worth $54).

To enter, answer the following question.