intellectualising Bali
episode one
Welcome to aridotcom. The world’s first newsletter to fuse current affairs with gratuitous yapping.
Thank you for subscribing all those moons ago, and apologies for the delay: I’ve been putting off launching this because I didn’t feel like it. But it’s time.
Looking forward I’m going to address the news, partly because it’s what I know [“journalist”] and partly because it’s important my subscribers are Aware [“I Care”].
But today I’m keeping it light. Have I forgotten how to write? Leave me a comment if you think so!
THIS WEEK
+ vogue Australia
+ “the media”
VOGUE AUSTRALIA
Over the weekend, Vogue Australia dropped their September issue cover. All that can be said has been said on Kim Russell’s Instagram story and in the post’s 40-odd comments — “Vogue Australia make a good cover challenge! Impossible”, “the cover is not brat at all”, and “Wtf is this”.
Exactly. It’s nonsensical. But it makes so much sense.
When I look at this cover I see Preston train station.
The recently constructed Preston Station fits a purpose. It is efficient, it is new and it is colourful. But it’s hideous. When I look at Preston Station I wonder how many billions of dollars, how many eminent architects, designers and artists were involved in its planning, and then I wonder how many levels up the chain of expertise the design consultation went through. All that to land on that?
When I see this cover I see Preston Station’s garish Reject Shop liquorice allsorts horror… I see the M1 upgrade just after the Westgate: charcoal grey, brat green, speed cameras and sadness… I see the Melbourne Star. Inhuman, uninspired, utilitarian. Ugly.
Like Preston Station, the September issue cover is an aberration on the landscape. It is informed by nothing of the culture in which it sits. It tells us nothing about its locale. All the cover illustrates is the glaring disconnect between Australian culture and how the media chooses to represent it.
There are countless photographers, stylists and designers for whom any opportunity with the year’s It-Girl, no less for the September issue of Australian Vogue, would have been life changing. Instead, Vogue Australia used Charli for her star power. They sucked her dry to sell copies and did nothing for her in return. No imagination, no concept, nothing. Sad!
cry what?
“u swan, he frog !” powerful.
“THE MEDIA”
Last week, upwards of 85 senior journalists took voluntary redundancies from the former Fairfax papers. Can you imagine, having exactly three commercial companies run the entire Australian media was a bad idea? Can you imagine???
Elsewhere, Seven West Media has defended their dancing “sexy Santas” just one week after allegations of poor behaviour, mistreatment of employees and a toxic workplace culture dropped in a Four Corners report.
When Fairfax – behind what were widely considered Australia’s last remaining mastheads with any integrity – was bought by Nine, everyone knew it was going to get weird. Now, journalists with decades of experience have opted for a payout and ditched The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review. The result? Please see this screenshot of The Age’s news app homepage over the weekend.
It was a Sunday, to give them grace. But my god…
When I worked at VICE Australia I’d always get the odd comment accusing me of working for Murdoch, which was hilarious because it’s like no… wrong evil billionaire corporation. Some of you have watched too much FriendlyJordies, and I say that with love. Regardless, would someone please calculate the difference in evil quotient between Nine and Murdoch for me? Do you think it is very stark?
I know many of my fellow anarchistic lefties have a proclivity for lamenting the “mainstream media” — you sound dangerously alike the SkyNews lot when you do — but the existence of journalism is good. It isn’t perfect, but it is crucial.
Things are very ugly in the media landscape, and fewer journalist jobs is bad, not just for the thousands of uni grads who still believe in a functioning media enough to pay thousands to study how to write and intern for free that flood into the industry every year – it’s bad for all. Also, have you ever read an AI article? Not good babe.
INTELLECTUALISING BALI
I know that everyone has been to Bali, but I promise you I had a better time.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Eat local food. Sorry to be on my Bourdain shit straight out the gate but out of the millions of white people in Bali I saw exactly one old dude getting Bakso from a cart. You could be eating the most delicious $2 meal of your life but you’re at a fucking Italian restaurant. You’re at a fucking Italian restaurant in 30 degree tropical island heat and you’re paying $30AUD for a Margherita pizza in a country with literally no cheese??? The last place in the world I’d want to eat Italian food is Bali. Stand up!
The AirBnbs we stayed in, Canggu and Uluwatu. Both were an absolute bitch to find and plagued by the sweet sounds of never ending construction but that’s just Bali. I highly recommend!
Second hand shopping… go to the frog market, pasar kodok. There are a bunch of consignment stores in Canngu but I was too busy spending all my money on one million massages.
We went to an international supermarket to see what they had and the horrors were mind-boggling… you can buy a $10 packet of Smiths chips for a taste of home, or you can stare, jaw on the floor, as a middle-aged Scandinavian lady fills her trolley with potatoes. Just potatoes. Like you can’t get them anywhere else. Pepito international market you will pay for your crimes!!!
PS: DAVID LACHAPELLE FOR NEW YORK MAGAZINE KNOWS EXACTLY HOW TO SPELL CONCEPT
That’s all. I’m done. Until next week? Or sooner. Real title and a schedule that I’ll consistently want to stick to coming soon.
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