The Thousands

Thursday July 22

Hi there. It has just gone lunch time. We hope you had a nice one. What did you have? A sandwich? Nasty left overs? Maybe some sushi? Perhaps a Jewish man? Oh no, you weren't supposed to eat that, you were supposed to read it. Oh geez!

We all need coffee, but maybe hold the jazz. We'd prefer something a little louder, involving some friends. If you're lunching al fresco, you might need a heater. And if you're gonna crash and burn, probably best you did it on a full stomach. Anyway, we hope you had a nice lunch.

Issue 036 - lunch

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

What:
Fuck Yeah, Jewish Men

Where:
Online Here

When:
A new Jew almost daily

How much:
Free

My love affair with David Wain began a few years back, upon renting The Ten. I figured a film where Winona Ryder has it off with a dummy was just bound to be all kinds of incredible. Since then, I've devoured everything this man has produced.

It was in being such a devotee, that I found this gem of a site. It's a celebration of great dudes; great, talented dudes; great, talented, Jewish dudes.

As well as smokin' hot Jew musicians and actors, there's plenty of comedians on FYJM: the sharp, droll, and downright ridiculous. In the past decade especially, these guys have commanded a considerable following (see Judd Apatow and his troupe of Jewish playmates) and if this site wants to put a sunny spin on diversity and applaud the talent it generates, I'm all for it. Really, I'm all for anything Mr Wain.

(p.s. guys, we didn't forget about you).

By Katie Polson

What:
Friends

Who:
Friends

Get it:
Here or at a gig

They're gonna make a lot of friends with tunes this good. Ben Quici and co. have made a fine addition to the local rock canon with their eponymous debut, near-forty minutes of pummelling drums and distorted guitars evoking Shellac and Tweez-era Slint. The comparison is a deliberate one not made lightly - the 10 songs on show here grab a hold of your brain and pound it into a soft(er) mush.

The band also has a pretty darn good idea of what makes effective punk. The songs are not buzzsaw fast, preferring instead to portray their menace with the occasional bait and switch - witness the breakdown in Gang of 49 or the ominous Keys to the City. Friends understand that punk energy is more effective when it is preceded or followed by a depressurisation - some relative breathing space, before ramping it up again.

Friends also understand that every album is made better by the inclusion of an inspired re-imagining' of Jay-Z's 99 Problems:

"I got 99 Problems / and, a horse ain't one
I'm gonna ride by your house tonight / with a BB gun"

Poetry.

By Mateo Szlapek-Sewillo

What:
Meg Cowell & Racquel Austin-Abdullah
 
Where:
the reading room, 153 Hindley St Adelaide
 
When:
Opens Thurs July 22, 6pm
 
Contact:
readingroom.adelaide@gmail.com

Image:
Meg Cowell

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You've probably heard about the reading room, or at least heard of the initiative that has allowed it to happen - Renew Adelaide. the reading room is a library, and a place to hang out and play scrabble, and there are regular movie screenings, and on top of all that, the reading room is a gallery too. It's not always easy to show art in a space that is used for a variety of creative and/or hair-brained schemes. But multipurpose spaces allow undergraduate art students, amateur creatives and anyone with a little bit of initiative to cut their teeth in the art world.
 
There is no better situation in which to learn how to hang work than surrounded by bookshelves, fairy lights, zines and debris - otherwise known as the paraphernalia of interdisciplinary art. I should know - last year I ran a gallery in the old shoebox Format zine store which was actually just a spare room in the Merge Magazine offices. Despite the obvious clutter, it was a great way for people with more ambition than qualifications to get a track record.
 
That's not to say Meg Cowell and Racquel Austin-Abdullah are amateurs. To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about them. They could both be geniuses in the making. When you find a chunk of gold in the dirty streets that house emerging' artists you remember that good art doesn't just look good in a white cube. If it's clever enough, good art looks good in an empty shopfront-come-library-come-cinema-come-gallery.

By Chloe Langford

What:
Print Liberation

Where:
Based in Philadelphia, buy online here

How much:
From US $15 per t-shirt

Related links:
Video: embarrassment in Print Liberation shirt

When looking over Five Thousand's Google analytics a few shocking things stand out. Firstly, all of you freaks can't stop clicking on the keyboard cat link from 10 issues ago. Really, get over it. More importantly though, everyone in the world clicked on our 2009 link to Print Liberation- a tiny little Philadelphia based duo who's designs are pure genius. You don't have to just take our word for it, because their previous client roster speaks volumes: Nike Basketball, Ikea, Urban Outfitters, Move On and more.

While the screen-printed tee is usually a low point in anyone's wardrobe, Print Liberation's creations are helping to change that. They're creative, relevant and don't require you to sell your body to afford them - a definite rarity in this fashion subset. Beyond the shirts, there's accessories, custom orders and totes screened with the most popular designs as well as a book they wrote as a screen-printing primer. Just be warned, don't take a sudden international shopping trip to Philly anytime soon, because the internet is the only place to get them.

By Patrick Collins

What:
Greenberg

Where:
In cinemas from July 22

Watch the trailer:
Here

Win:
Thanks to Universal, we have 10 dbls to give away! To enter, email win@fivethousand.com.au with the subject 'I should be with a divorced 38-year-old who has teenage sons and low expectations about life'

I have a soft spot for Noah Baumbach as he directed one of my favourite '90s-era films Kicking and Screaming all about brilliantly articulate (read quotable) downwardly mobile 20-somethings. Greenberg, Baumbach's latest is almost like Kicking and Screaming for 40-somethings: a rom-com that's acerbic, funny and endlessly quotable.

Roger Greenberg (played brilliantly by Ben Stiller) is a 40-something carpenter (former 20-something musician) who, after a mini mental breakdown, returns to his home town of LA via 15 years in NYC to house sit for his more stable and successful brother. He reconnects with the people he left behind and half-heartedly woos his brother's PA Florence, played with awkward charm by Greta Gerwig (she of mumblecore fame).

Greenberg is one of those guys whose life-just-didn't turn out how he planned. Instead of coming to terms with this, he obsesses about his almost-made-it past and the fledgling romance that he is simultaneously trying to destroy. All this to avoid coming to terms with being old(er) and not having it all (aka career, spouse and spawn). Greenberg doesn't spell death to rom-coms but it does show that they can have a darker (or more realistic) side too.

By Samantha Chater

What:
DIY outdoor heater

Where:
Your backyard, your entertaining area, your patio

How much:
50 gallon drum/planter free if you look hard enough, $10 firewood

As a non-smoker in a group of durrie-loving friends, I often find myself huddled in a shivering anxious ball, having been forced to leave the warmth and comfort of indoors for other peoples' bad habits. Just one cigarette' always ends up being sixteen cigarettes. During a late night gathering at a pal's recently I cracked the shits and took matters in to my own hands, channelling MacGyver and crafting a DIY outdoor heater.

As a receptacle, you can't beat a 50 gallon drum, but any clay-based box will do - something that holds heat and won't combust. Abandoned industrial sites are also goldmines. Fill receptacle with small sticks (kindling if you're fancy), scrunched up balls of your favourite local trashy newspaper, and top with all those dried leaves you hid under the outdoor setting before the last rent inspection.

Light the newspaper and sweet relief is close. Continue topping up your now cranking fire to keep it alive: wooden chairs you picked up at verge collection, old textbooks, discarded cardboard wine casks. Roast marshmallows. Be warm. Soon, your desire to return indoors will go up in smoke.

By David Geoffrey Hall

What:
Caf Komodo

Where:
118 Prospect Rd, Prospect

When:
Mon - Thurs 8.30am to 4.30pm, Fri 8.30am to 12am (live jazz lounge after 5pm), Sat 9am to 4.30pm, Sun 9am to 8pm

Contact:
8344 7448, www.cafekomodo.com.au/

View map

If I had the energy, the cash or, the wherewithal, my house would ideally look like Caf Komodo. It's one of the factors that hits at the crux of Komodo's charm; it feels just like home. The current management who took over last year deserve full compliments, because despite this local haunt being hidden down a garden alley, featuring vinyl stuck to the walls, and decorated with morbidly retro furniture it still has the magnetism to remain remarkably unpretentious.

It's to no detriment that the food also happens to be gorgeous, catering for everyone from the bloodthirsty to the herbivores, and also offering gluten-free options. With a range of fresh juices and smoothies, and also licensed and available for private functions there's more happening than the meager entrance from Prospect Road would elude to. But it's so much bigger than that, Komodo is propelling the wholesome initiative of bringing live music back to the burbs, with an assortment of jazz acts every Friday night. So what's the other factor of Komodo's charm? Well, really, this place feels more like a community service than a caf.

By Nick Peters

What:
Driving with an L-plater

Where:
On the road (mostly)

When:
Anytime you feel ready to die

How much:
Your time and your patience

You know what's fun? Putting your life in the hands of a 29-year old driver with very limited experience on the road. If you're going to die, you might as well do it while screaming blue murder and taking seven friendly strangers with you, right?

No actually, WRONG. How about you get your licence when you're seventeen, like the rest of us, you L-plating gallah? How about learning to turn your head without turning the car? How about indicating? How about LET ME DRIVE MY OWN CAR I'M NOT YOUR MUM. How about that?

Sorry, sorry. That was harsh. I'll just take a few valiums and start again... OK, you're doing well. Good work. That's it. Look at you - braking smoothly and all! Now we're going to need to change lanes. Change lanes now. How about now? Change. Your. Lane. NOW, NOW, NOW! CHANGE LANES NOW! JESUS FUCK I'M GOING TO SMASH YOU IN THE FACE. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!

See? Fun.

By Alice Fenton

What:
Anonymocracywith Scissor Lock and Jason Sweeney

Where:
Sound Level @ HeadQuarters Studio, 15 Kingston Ave, Richmond

When:
Thurs Jul 22, 8pm-10pm

How much:
$10

What kind of democracy is this? In Andrew Tuttle aka. Anonymeye's world, it's sliding towards an Anonymocracy - you know those one's that exist within the circles of wikileaks conspirators and l33t haxors? OK, he's not an extreme hacker, but he's a goddamn wizard when he's got the guitar and laptop close by. Catch his killer country loop extravaganza as he launches his new album with Scissor Lock of Sydney and Jason Sweeney of our town at HeadQuarters Studio. -SW

What:
The Movie. The DVD. A Gig.

Where:
The Metropolitan Hotel, 46 Grote St, City

When:
Fri July 23, 7.30pm

How Much:
Free entry, $10 for the DVD

We may never understand Nigel Koop, but writer/director Stephen Banham sure does, at least enough for the two of them to collaborate on a thinly-fictionalised movie about Adelaide's small-town slacker scene. Banham himself isn't exactly a paragon of sanity - he gets his dick out at the start of the movie, apparently for no reason at all. Point is, you really ought to see Adelaide. Watching it sort of makes you feel like you live in a more romantic town, like Montreal, or a rain-soaked post-industrial Glaswegian slum. Also you probably know everyone in it. - SM

What:
Christmas in July Market

Where:
Format, 15 Peel St, City

When:
Sat July 24, 1pm-6pm

How Much:
Free

Inspired by the freezing temperatures, our habitual winter hibernation, and a bank balance that is dwindling ever so quickly - but mostly inspired by those Xmas In July Le Cornu ads - FORMAT have done it again. Eggnog, carols, Ben Revi, craft, art, clothes, and baked goods. So much stuff! All in the name of keeping FORMAT alive until the real Christmas. They do good things kids, so go along and raise some funds. - DG

Before reading this new behind-the-scenes expose of Melbourne street art, I was under the embarrassing pretence that the term was coined by gangland youths - a lousy defense employed after being caught vandalising vending machines at Broadmeadows train station.

I had been duped by my own stupidity. There is so much to like about Street/Studio - its lack of pretension, its ability to engage and entertain both first dabblers and veteran fans of the art form, the inclusion of candid conversations with 10 of Melbourne's most prolific street artists including Niels Oeltjen, Miso, Everfresh, Tai Snaith and Ghostpatrol.

These guys have survived the transition from the street to the studio and the gallery scene, with their inspiration and credibility intact. This should prove inspiring for our own Adelaide scene.

You can get a signed copy of Street/Studio this Friday July 23, 6pm at the launch (Mary Martin Bookshop, Rundle St, City) and you could also WIN a copy right here. To enter just answer the following question

This week's question:

What did the street artist say when caught in the act?

a) Oh man, I'd much prefer a gallery space

b) Just keep sprayin'

c) Run, mother%$cker, run!

d) C'est la vie

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. Sign up here