The Thousands

Thursday December 17

Bah! Humbug! Do you get the Christmas blues? Does it all become a bit of a drag? FiveThousand knows just how you feel and completely understands. But, you see, you are missing the key to dodging the stressed out Christmas. How about pretending it's not even happening and just have a good time? You can still spread some love and give some gifts, just don't say the C word.

There's tonnes going on that doesn't sound like pageant, tinsel, or santa. If you're still freaking out, just drink some potion and escape. Let's celebrate a birthday, or check out some live art! Or if you are in the spirit of things, good books make great gifts. 

Issue 007 - "Bah! Humbug? What humbug?"

On the site now (It's updated every day!):
READ: Fashematical
HEAR: John Steel Singers interview
EATDRINK: Alcoholic Christmas Cake

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Cover photo by Kat Botten. If you would like to submit a cover shot email daniel@rightanglestudio.com.au

What:
The Internetwork

Where:
Online here

Related links:
The Internetwork on Twitter

When:
25 hours a day!

It's true, producing a city guide has a lot of perks. Complimentary tickets, free CDs, drugs, R.S.I., drugs for R.S.I.. But undeniably the best perk of the job is the amazing people we get to meet. People who don't view the world in terms of ‘life' or ‘work' but simply continue to create because they love what they do.

The Internetwork, produced by Right Angle and the newest online addition to The Thousands stable, asks the people who inspire us to report on what inspires them. Artist and designer Jonathan Zawada, curator and publisher Joseph Allen Shea, fashion-based creative practice ffiXXed, photographers Lyn & Tony, Jacky Winter Group founder Jeremy Wortsman, Wooooo magazine editor Jason Crombie, Utopian Slumps gallerist Melissa Loughnan, artist and publisher Thomas Jeppe and film director Kris Moyes make up the first 12 contributors with another 12 due to be added over the coming months.

With daily updates, The Internetwork will evolve as an online resource for the creatively minded, while a series of special events will also support good ideas generated by the online network.

By Chris Barton

What:
Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack

Who:
Karen O and the Kids

On:
DGC / Interscope

Myspace:
www.myspace.com/wherethewildthingsare

In the immortal words of Darren Hayes of 90s Savage Garden fame on his Facebook page, "Where The Wild Things Are was very special. Lovely cinematic snapshot of childhood. Deceptively simple but emotionally complex". Anyway, how about that soundtrack? Pretty cool huh? Once again, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O wows us with unique and heart warming tracks which almost steal the show from the film itself.

The 14 songs are aptly named after each major scene, following Max's journey from inside the ‘Igloo,' to ‘Sailing Home'. The single ‘All Is Love', which features prominently throughout the film, encapsulates director Spike Jonze's and ultimately writer Maurice Sendak's vision of the tale of love and friendship which captured our hearts as children.

An album favourite is ‘Heads Up', an uplifting song that highlights the tentative friendship between Max and the Wild Things. The untrained choir, The Kids, which accompany Karen, really bring to life Max's character and ensure the film is about the young one in all of us.

By Jenna Hawkins

What:
Mary Martin Bookshop

Where:
134a The Parade, Norwood, and 249 Rundle St, City

When:
Norwood Store, Sun-Wed 8am-6pm, Thu-Sat 8am-8pm
Rundle Store, 10am-Late, 7 days

Contact:
www.marymartin.com.au

View map

Until recently, I didn't realise that Mary Martin was an actual person; I just assumed it was a nice business name devised by booksellers with a love of alliteration. In fact, Mary Martin was a woman, writer and artist who pioneered independent bookselling in Adelaide and the shop bearing her name now has an additional location on Norwood Parade.

MM's Norwood digs make the Rundle store seem relatively paltry - not least because the new shop is set within the House of God. That's right, MM's now got a church for her books.

Such impressive architecture has been filled with MM's carefully selected tomes covering fiction, art, design, philosophy and more. Thankfully, the church has also been deconsecrated, so you won't feel sacrilegious when dropping crumbs, spilling coffee from the adjoining café, or uttering the occasional blaspheme. 

By Emily Tichy

What:
coolMART

Where:
Dragonfly, Victoria Square, City

When:
Sun Dec 20, 4pm

How much:
Free

Contact:
matt@befriendly.net

View map

Once a month, all the suits clear out of Dragonfly and make room for coolMART. Now, I'm not saying Dragonfly isn't cool, but sometimes when I pop my head in the door on a Friday night and see all the young professionals nibbling on edamame I feel a bit ashamed of my threadbare student garb.

coolMART is the one time of month I'm guaranteed my turn at ordering Japanese bar snacks and fruity cocktails at the very lovely Dragonfly. coolMART is the one time of month when Adelaide's top-shelf illustrator-artists get together and throw about a bit of the old paint ‘n Pantones while the DJ cranks sweet tunes.

When I'm not drunk on the power of ordering fancy nibbles at Dragonfly, I've observed the coolMART reputation for quality live art in action. coolMART features the glitter-arty of Adelaide. When you combine the likes of Gary Seaman, The Tree House lads and the Paperhorse crew, what else can you expect? The formula is.. cool music + cool art = coolMART. Makes sense to me.

By Chloe Langford

What:
Nowhere Boy

Where:
In cinemas from December 26

Watch Trailer:
Here

Win:
Thanks to Icon, we have 5 dbls! To enter, email win@fivethousand.com.au with the subject line ‘Making all his nowhere ploys for nobody'

Sam Taylor-Wood's photographic and video work tackles sex, vulnerability and pseudo-religious catharsis - you may know her portrait of David Beckham sleeping - so it's fitting that her first feature film follows one of music's biggest icons, John Lennon. Nowhere Boy depicts John (Aaron Johnson) as a lost, angry teenager ricocheting between his stern guardian, Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott-Thomas), his feckless mum Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) who'd given him up when he was small, and his newfound love: rock'n'roll.

The production design is lushly symbolic - womb-like ruby-reds at Julia's house, cool, crisp blues at Mimi's, verdant Liverpool parks and velvety dark theatres. Music forges emotional connections: the grave, pencil-necked Paul (Thomas Sangster) jousts and bonds with John over guitar riffs, and in an uncomfortably erotic scene, mother and son listen to ‘I Put A Spell On You'.

While John isn't often a sympathetic figure - he's often a cruel dickhead - the camera constantly caresses Johnson's pretty face (he's much more conventionally good-looking than the real Lennon). If anything, Nowhere Boy is a little too reverential. Taylor-Wood wants to capture a budding genius beginning to flower, and all the shit around him is just treated as fertiliser.

By Mel Campbell

What:
Butt Magazine 2010 calendar

Where:
American Apparel 211/215 Rundle St, City and online

How much:
$34 (plus postage if online)

Plenty of guys and girls like the pole and the hole when it comes to sexy times. I'm pretty much the same, except as a confirmed ‘mo I prefer them both belonging to a hot piece of the male persuasion.

So when Santa breaks into my house Law and Order: SVU-style while I'm all tucked up in bed this Christmas eve, I'm hoping that he has a copy of Butt Magazine's 2010 calendar stuffed in his bulging sack.

Filled to the brim with hot, steaming men who don't look like they regularly stumble out of the Hampshire at 6am on a Sunday morning, the diary of dude-lovin' dreamboats gives you something pretty to look at while you mark down the day of Aunt Joyce's inevitably painful birthday bash or the court date for your most recent DUI conviction.

Naughty and nice!

By Luke Malone

What:
The Metropolitan Hotel

Where:
46 Grote St, City

Contact:
8231 5471

Related Event:
Thu Dec 24, 9pm. 'A Very Metro Xmas' with Bitch Prefect, Swimsuit, and Tiger Et Ghost

View map

The Metro is where you go when you're done with indie DJ "nights". You know the ones I mean. They have sinister brand names like "Clap" and "Pump", pointless cover charges, covertly racist DJs, dodgy "drink specials", and various measures of sexual frustration, glycerin vapor and Franz Ferdinand.

If the Metro ever has any of the above it's usually because a fixie of hipsters has taken a wrong turn, or the usually tasteful DK has booked one of those rubbish bands that sound too much like The Rapture.

This isn't to say that the place, for all its pokie machines and plasma screens, isn't cool. Far from it. Bands like Batrider, Hit The Jackpot and Bitch Prefect are current staples, and the DJs aren't inclined to subject the likes of Beyonce and Television to thinly veiled apartheid.

Other excellent points:

- The pokies apparently make more than enough to subsidise DK's live music indulgences.
- You can watch sports, drink gin and discuss Kafka. Who says only bogans are allowed to watch sports?
- FREE instant coffee.
- Stone's throw from La Boheme (for those who have pretensions of class) and La Sing (for those who don't).

By Stan Mahoney

What:
A tiny shop

Where:
Rundle St / In your head

When:
Now

How much:
Free

View map

Once I read this trippy book about a girl named Alice. From memory, she fell down a rabbit hole and found herself in a bit of a predicament. A tiny door was before her, but she was far too big to fit through it. What to do, what to do? How about drink a bottle of potion that just happened to be lying around?

We're not sure if this tiny door on the front of Naked on Rundle Street is just an excuse to drink any unidentified 'potions' that may or may not be in the vicinity, but one thing is certain, how incredible would it be if the door could actually open? (We've tried, to no avail. You're welcome to give it a whirl yourself).

A Tiny Shop, full of tiny things! A place to escape packed department stores and grumpy sales assistants and all the stress of Christmas! Hurrah! Of course there would be the risk of the tiny people attacking you, Gulliver's Travels-style, but hey - if there really was some way to get in, it's a risk we'd be willing to take.

By Stephanie Lyall

What:
Castanets w/ Tigersaw & Alps

Where:
The Exeter, Rundle St, City

When:
Fri Dec 18, 9pm.

How much:
Free

Portland, Oregon. Famous for, rain, roses, microbrews, and being 'green' but let's not forget it's the city du jour for independent artists. The Mint Chicks gave up so so much - New Zealand to be precise - to live there. It's home to Isaac Brock, and ol' Malkmus calls this drizzly city home. It's also home to Castanets, aka Raymond Raposa, who's bringing the weirdo folk of Texas Rose, the Thaw, and the Beasts to the Exeter this Friday with Tigersaw & Alps.

What:
Three D 30th Birthday

Where:
Various locations, check www.threedradio.com 

When:
All Weekend!
Fri Dec 18 - Mon Dec 21

Community radio gives us so much. While other stations cash in on an artist once they are famous, Three D doesn't discriminate - they play everything. Big and small, they help grow local music from the roots up. All in the passage of a few hours, we get the on-air stylings of Doo-wop with Carmen's thick Euro accent, hip hop, experimental, indie, punk, and The Prison Show requests from the hard luck. Now that's good radio. Three D is celebrating 30 years with a bunch of shows all over town too numerous to list here so check the site.

What:
5000 Gallery presents NYE the way you've always wanted it

Where:
5000 Gallery, 34 Waymouth St, City

When:
Thu Dec 31, 5pm

How much:
Free

What an anti-climax! I'm so glad I fought through the crowds for this public event. Fireworks? Better on television. It's a little early we know but this is our last issue until 2010 so here's a nice New Year's tip. NYE is best celebrated small scale with good times and good folks. 5000 Gallery is putting on a little something, new bar, great beats and thankfully, a chilled out atmosphere. Live art from Toy Soldiers and Fredrock too!

Still an outsider to the world of zines? Still don't know about local heroes Format? Sure, they can be a little hard to find but a little birdy tells us they'll have a new shiny shop front soon. But that's no excuse to not get there NOW. Remember, espionage on those pesky Germans.

In the mean time, The Zine Yearbook #9 was put together just for you! Showcasing excerpts from zines from the US and Canada, this is just one of the many self-published books the Format Zine Shop stocks. Not only does Format have zines from around Australia, but thanks to Microcosm they have a wide range from overseas too. With BIG thanks to Format and Microcosm, we have a yearbook to give away. To enter, just answer the following question.

This week's question:

Zines are for...?

a) Wiping your bum.

b) Blowing your nose.

c) Polishing your hot rod. Ew.

d) NONE of the above. Loving, savouring and appreciating.

To be in the running, send your answer AND postal address to win@fivethousand.com.au, winners will be notified by email. Subscriber only entry. Not a subscriber? Noes! It's free you Polski ogorkis. Sign up here. 

FiveThousand is a weekly snapshot of Adelaide's subculture, fired by email into the loving arms of people who realise that the best things in life are often hard to find. It is compiled by an amorphous gaggle of writers, stylists, designers and photographers who all like huddling under that big umbrella we call creativity. Without editorial independence FiveThousand has nothing. All editorial you read is featured because it's worth it - not because it's paid for.

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GROUP PUBLISHER
Barrie Barton
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barrie@rightanglestudio.com.au

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Penny McVey
pennymcvey@rightanglestudio.com.au

MARKETING DIRECTOR
Matt Langler
matt@rightanglestudio.com.au

SENIOR EDITOR
Nadia Saccardo
nadia@rightanglestudio.com.au

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Daniel Gladys
daniel@rightanglestudio.com.au

STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
Hugh Langlands-Bell

SENIOR CONTRIBUTORS
Penny Modra
Rachel Surgeoner
Lisa Lerkenfeldt
Danielle Marsland
Chloe Langford
Nadia Saccardo
Stan Mahoney
Jenna Hawkins
Mel Campbell
Stephanie Lyall
Emily Tichy